Passionfruit Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake about a few weeks back when i saw some passionfruits at a local fruit store. It's not easy to get passionfruits here in my area and i thought i just grabbed a few first..still havent made up my mind what to make out of those passionfruits. So i checked the internet and finally decided to make a chesecake.
Sorry i didnt bookmark the site which i got this recipe from , i just copied into my notebook. The original recipe will make one 9" cheesecake, i halved the recipe and make into 2 mini cheesecakes.The cheeseckaes may look big in the photo but it's actually quite a small cake, about 4 " in diameter. Quite a rich cheesecake and with some passionfruit topping, it adds tangy to the flavour..i only took a very small slice each time. I made the topping the following day after covered it in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients: (make one 9" cake)
For base:
185gm plain biscuits or digestive biscuits
90gm melted butter

For cake:
500gm cream cheese
3 eggs, separated
1tsp grated lemon rind
pulp of 3 passionfruits
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1.Grease a 9" springform pan
2.Crush biscuits and combine with melted butter and press to the bottom of the pan.Chill till firm.
3.Beat cream cheese until soft, add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and stir in sifted flour, lemon rind , lemon juice and the passionfruit pulp.
4. Beat egg whites until hard and fold this into the cream cheese mixture. Pour carefully into the cake pan.
5.Bake in slow oven 150C for 40mins, turn off the heat and leave in the oven until cool.

For topping:
1/3cup water
1tbsp corn flour
55gm caster sugar
160gm passionfruit pulp

Method:
1.Combine cornflour and water in a small bowl. Add passionfruit and sugar.Transfer this to a small pan and place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens. Cool and pour over cheesecake.

Pan Fry Prawns with Oyster Sauce

this is really a simple yet delicious dish to cook and just four ingredients needed  that is oil , garlic, sugar and oyster sauce. Please note that the measurements written down there are only 'approximately' because I hardly measure when I cook chinese dish..just a pinch of this and that..

Ingredients:
10 medium sized prawns, cleaned and trimmed
3 tablespoons oil for pan frying
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Pan fry the prawns till cooked, notice that the shells will turn into orange red.
2. Leave the prawns aside at the wok or pan . You may want to scoop out some oil if it's too much. Saute garlics and add in the oyster sauce. Mix in the prawns and stir fry . Add in the sugar and stir for another minute. Dish up and serve.

Green tea with red bean swiss roll

When i want to bake something that can be done in a short time, i will think of swiss rolls , butter cake or chiffon cake. I bought this book recently, 孟老師的美味蛋糕啳 and there are so many beautiful looking photos of the swiss rolls. I was also inspired by the swiss roll that anncoo made 2 weeks ago on that polka dot swiss roll, have a look at her swiss roll here .I tried making a criss cross pattern but failed. As you can see from the photo of the swiss roll, most of the patterns came out the moment i rolled them up but i will try again sometime. Therefore you can only see the lining of the criss cross on the swiss rolls. As for the filling, i wanted to try the filling as stated in the book, referred as creme mousseline. To me, it tasted like custard cream but the chiffon was good. I'm not going to write down on how to go about doing the pattern cos the pattern didnt turn out  but whoever wanted to try this, can follow anncoo's posting on her swiss roll. By the way, i baked this in a small tray, 26cm x 26cm..makes 1 swiss roll

Ingredients for chiffon roll

egg yolks 56gm
caster sugar 14gm
vegetable oil 28gm
fresh milk 28gm
cake flour 56gm

egg whites 112gm
caster sugar 56gm

Method:
1.Add egg yolks and sugar together and mix well with a hand whisk. Add in fresh milk and oil and mix well.
2. Add in flour and stir well till incorporated. Leave aside.
3. Beat egg whites till foamy and add in sugar and keep beating with mixer till mixture is thick and stiff.
4.Fold into flour mixture and spread onto a lined baking pan and bake in a preheated oven upperfire190Cand lowerfire 160C for 12mins but i just baked mine at 150C for 12 mins or until springy cos my oven doesnt have upper and lower fire. Once baked, can remove the cake from the tin and after a few minutes, invert the cake and pull off lining paper.

For filling
unsalted butter 70gm, at room temperature
egg yolks 28gm
caster sugar 31gm
cake flour 14gm
fresh milk 140gm
green tea powder 1/2 tsp
cooked red bean 50gm

Method:
1. Add egg yolk and sugar together and stir to mix with a whisk. Add in cake flour and mix.
2.Then add in fresh milk and cook over low fire till mixture thickens like thick cream. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Beat the butter till creamy and add into the cooled cream mixture.Add in green powder and the red beans and mix altogether.
4. Spread the filling on to the cake and slowly roll the cake up.

Baked Mixed Nuts Mooncake

Today is the celebration of Mid Autumn Festival or just simply we call it Mooncake Festival. As I'm writing this, i could hear the children staying opposite my house playing fire crackers..that's what some children will do on this day, the smaller kids maybe playing with the "tanglung" or lantern and i remember my neighbour hosted a party in their house two years ago to celebrate this occasion. So today i'm going to post on the last batch of mooncakes that i'm making that is the mixed nuts baked mooncake. It's really convenient now that the bakery shops are selling the mixed nuts altogeter in one packet that you dont have to source individually for the ingredients.

Overall, i think these mooncakes taste good but i got a little disappointed that it doesnt look as great as i was expecting. It's not brown enough and one mistake that i did was i applied too much egg wash on the mooncakes surface which distorted the patterns on the surface..therefore the prints looked rather blur. So i shall remember this point the next time i make mooncakes..next year.


Ingredients for mooncake skin

corn oil 2oz
golden syrup 4.5oz
alkaline water 1/4 tablespoon
hong kong flour 7oz

1.Mix all the ingredients and keep 8-10hours
2.Measure out balls of 35gms each and keep aside.

For filling

Olive kernels 60gm, lightly roasted
melon seeds 60gm, lightly roasted

white sesame seeds 75gm, lightly roasted
walnuts 70gm, lightly roasted, chopped small

south almonds 70gm, lightly roasted, chopped small
orange biscuit (kat paeng) 2 pieces
candied winter melon 75gm, chopped small
rose wine 1/2 tablespoon
corn oil 1/8 cup
sugar 25gms
rose sugar 1 tablespoon
koh fun 60gm
water 5oz

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients of filling and squeeze to form into balls of 120gms each

2.Wrap filling into mooncake skin and press onto mooncake mould.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 5-8 mins
4.Remove and brush with egg wash (1 beaten egg) and bake for further 15mins
5. Cool a bit and brush with little egg wash again.

Ham and Cheese Bun

This is also my first time making this bread using a different method, using gelatinized dough by Alex Goh and most recipes in this book"Magic Bread" use this method in his bread making. When i first saw the recipe, i thought this was like the water roux method 汤種but no, it's slightly different. This technique requires to mix the bread and boiling water first till it becomes a dough and then fridge it overnight. So i guess this is the gelatinized dough that he is referring to. Then just mix with the rest of the ingredients the next day. I find that the results from this bread making is also very good, very soft and springy and remains very soft on the 2nd day. I would like to make another batch again soon to see how soft it can lasts. I tried googling on gelatinised dough but couldnt get much information , it's too scientific which i dont really understand. Compared to bread using the water roux method, i think this is very much easier to work with.. no sticky dough, no messy hands but i think the bread using water roux method is much lighter and fluffier. I made one batch using ham and cheese and after realising that i ididnt have enough ham, i just sprinkled the rest with cheese and sugar. One batch of the recipes makes around 16 buns.

Ingredient for Basic Sweet Bread Dough(gelatinized dough)
Ingredients A
100gm bread flour
70gm boiling water

Ingredients B
300gm bread flour
100gm plain flour
80gm sugar
6gm salt
20gm milk powder
9gm instant yeast

Ingredients C
175gm cold water
60gm cold eggs
60gm butter

Filling:
slices of ham
grated cheddar cheese

Method:
1.Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours.
2.Mix B until well blended. Add in the cold water and eggs and knead to form rough dough.Add in A and knead until well blended
3.Add in butter till form elastic dough.
4. Let it proof for 40 mins ( i let mine proof for almost 1.5hrs )
5.Divide the dough into 60gm each and mould it round. Let it rest for 10mins and flatten it. Place a slice of ham on top. Roll it up and fold into half .Cut the centre and open up. ( or any shape you want )
6. Place onto a greased pan and proof for 45mins. Place some grated cheese, mayonnaise and bake at 190C for 12-15mins.

Almond Topped Cake

This is quite like a pound cake covered in flaked almonds, nice to serve with coffee..
As usual, i only made half of this recipe and baked in a 6" cake pan.

Ingredients:
For Cake:
125gm butter, softened
200gm sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs
300gm all purpose flour
2tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
180ml milk

For Almond Toppings:
90gm butter, cubed
75gm sugar
100gm flaked almonds
3 tablespoons milk

Method:
1. Lightly grease a 9 inch pan. Preheat oven to 180C
2. For the cake, beat the butter,sugar and vanilla with a mixer at medium speed until pale and creamy. Add the eggs at one time, beating just blended after each agg. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour, baking powder and salt, alternating with the milk.Spoon the batter into prepared cake pan.
3.Bake for 40 mins. While the cake is baking, prepare the topping. Stir the butter, sugar and almonds in a medium saucepan over low heat until butter has melted. Keep stirring until sugar has dissolved.
4. After the cake has baked for 40mins, spread with topping, brush with the milk. Bake for 10-15mins more until topping is lightly browned.
5.Cool the cake in the pan for 10mins before removing from pan.

Note: When i was preparing the topping, i removed it from fire after the butter has melted and i didnt realise that the sugar has not melted yet..that's why from the photograph, you can still see bits of sugar in between the flaked almonds. i supposed the cake should be covered with sweet caramel almond topping ..so what i got instead was a crunchy sweet almond topping.

Kuih Lapis

Kuih Lapis or in english , they call it nine layer kueh ..it's made up of nine layers.. the traditional one usually comes in pink and white but now there are a varieties of colours, green and white and combination of a few colours. When i was small, i remember eating this kueh layer by layer..i will peel off each layer and eat and i think a lot of children during my time do that too. For the recipe, see below..

Ingredients ( from Nyonya Flavours )
180gm rice flour
150ml water
200 ml thick coconut milk
1/8tsp salt
some pink and orange red colouring

To make syrup:
180gm sugar
350ml water
2 pandan leaves

Method:
1. Combine the rice flour and water in a bowl and set aside to soak for 1 hour
2. Meanwhile make the syrup. Boil sugar, water and pandan leaves until sugar dissolves, leave to cool slightly, maybe for about 15mins
3. Add these syrup , thick coconut milk and salt into the soaked rice flour mixture and mix well. Sieve and divide the batter into two. Colour one portion pink.
4. Greased a 8" steaming round tin, pour 1/2 cup of the white batter on the heated tray to coat it evenly about 1/4cm thick. Stean for about 5 mins or until set.
5. Then pour another 1/2 cup of pink batter over the white batter, cover and steam for another 5 mins.
6. Repeat, alternating pink and white layers intil the last layer which is orange red.
7. Steam the last layer for about 15mins, opening the lid every 5 mins.

Test for doneness:
Generally , 3-5 mins is sufficient to set the layer. The layers may fail to bind if they have been steamed for too long. I used a spoon gently touching each layer to check whether if it has set and for each layer, i measured the quantity about 80ml for each layer ..just to have a more balanced looking layers. Cool completely before cutting.

Mango Mousse Cake

This is a cake made for a friend. It's a sponge cake layered with mango mousse filling. I find that this sponge cake recipe is really good as the sponge cake always turn out to be very soft. Though it can be a little more time needed to make a layered cake, it's really worth the effort especially if you re making it for someone's birthday or to your loved ones.

There wont be any photos of how the cake looks like inside because i'm not supposed to cut the cake. Usually i will use chokonnan mangoes as i find them really nice and cheap. The below recipe calls for 10inch cake tin, so it's quite a large cake. If you want to try making this cake for your family, you can make half of this recipe for the filling but not for the sponge cake. I dont think we can make half of the sponge cake recipe, i dont know how it will turn out. So normally if i want to bake a smaller cake, i will probably bake this in a 6" or 7" pan and then the extra batter just bake it in smaller cups..if you do not want to waste the batter. Also a reminder that fresh mangoes can also turn brown very fast, maybe in 2 days, so the mangoes that i used for decoration, I put some glaze on it so prevent it from turning brown so fast...otherwise we can brush it with a little bit of lemon juice. But either way, it will still turn brown. Otherwise, we can also use mango pie filling as topping for the decoration...or any other way you like.

 Sponge cake recipe:

 Ingredient A
 3 large eggs yolks
 1 1/2 oz sugar
 3 1/2 oz water
 1 oz corn oil
 4 oz superfine flour
 3/4 tsp soda bicarbonate

 Ingredient B
 3 large egg whites
 3/4 tsp cream of tartar
 1 1/2 oz sugar

Method:
1. Mix all of ingredient A till smooth. Set aside.
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar from ingredient B on high speed. After 2 mins, add sugar , continue beating till stiff
3. Pour the mixture of (1) into (2) and fold gently. Bake in a moderate oven for 45 mins or until cooked.
4. Overturn cake to cool.
5. After cool, slice cake into two separate layers

Mango mouse filling
3 1/2 oz full cream milk
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp gelatine
50gms white chocolate
5 oz non diary whipping cream
200gm mangoes, cut into cubes

Method:
1. Sprinkle gelatine over full cream milk, let it soak probably for 5 mins, then add egg yolk and double boil.
2. Keep stirring and continue double boil until gelatine dissolves
3. Turn off fire and add in the white chocolates
4. Let it cool.
5. After gelatine mixture is cool, whisk up the whipping cream till medium stiff . Slowly pour the gelatine mixture inti the cream , put in mangoes and stir to combine.
6. Pour the filling mixture onto one layer of the sponge cake, then top it up with another slice of sponge cake.Chill and let it set.
7.For finishing, we can cover the cake with fresh cream or any way you prefer.

Cinnamon Roll

I have seen quite of number of bloggers talking about making bread using the 65C Tangzhong method or the water roux method that you call that and received so many good reviews on that. I thought, hey, i must try this method since everybody says that it is so good . The cooking part of the flour and water is easy but the handling of the dough is tough, i must admit i have a difficult time handling the dough from the beginning to the end, it was sticky and i just find it messy myself doing that , from time to time i have to flour my palms and at the same time to avoid overflour my dough. But the result is ...yes! fantastic! Real super soft ..now i understand why this method is so welcomed by fellow bloggers..couldnt agree more.

I must thank Happy Home Baking for sharing this recipe in her blog. She is so detailed explaining the way you go about doing this. Click here for full recipe and explanation.

Award

First of all, i would like to say "thank you" to Kristy of My Little Space for giving out this award to me. I'm so honoured and I have to make sure that i'm reading it correctly when Kristy wrote to me about this. This is not at all been expected as i only started this blog probably less than a month and to be very honest, i'm rather dumb at writing a post, taking photos, enhancing my blog, etc. Kristy, that's very sweet of you that i'm in your list of recipients of this award and thank you.

But there are a few conditions to follow in order to receive the award. Firstly, you have to thank the person who gives this out to you..well even without this condition, i will definately thank the person. Secondly, from here, i got to pass it on to some other fellow bloggers. I know there are so many wonderful bloggers out there which i still havent discovered but i already have a few in mind and the last condition is to write 10 things about myself ..ooh, i feel like breaking this rule..but anyway i'm going to do this in just a moment.
So my list of bloggers who will be receiving this award are :

1) Grace of Kitchen Corner
2) Happy Home Baking
3) Happy Flour
4) Butter Yum
5) Lydia of My Kitchen
6) Barbara of Little Chumsy Blog
7) Swee San of The Sweet Spot

I would also like to share this award with Elin of Elinluv's Titbits Corner and Cheah of No Frills Recipes.
I didnt add them to my list as i know they have already received this award earlier. Do check out all of these great blogs!

To my recipients,
sorry that i do not know some of your names..i only know by the name of your blog and i think some of you might not even know me..it's just that i do frequent your blogs and i think your blogs are simply wonderful. Geat recipes, lovely photos, good writings. If you have read what i've wrote earlier, there are some rules to follow in order to receive this award. First, you have to thank the person who gives this out to you; second, pass this on to other bloggers and third, list 10 things about yourself. I wonder who invented this? Of course if you feel like breaking the rules, it's okay..you wont be penalised for that! All the best and happy blogging!

And finally, 10 things about myself....

1) cycled a lot during my schooldays
2) eat tofu like 2 or 3 times per week
3) fond of green earrings.
4) would like to get a pair of yellow women heels.
5) wish to get in touch with a long lost friend
6) find George Clooney very, very good looking.
7) loves to visit Italy someday.
8) think that the politicians in my country are making a lot of noise
9) longing for a massage now
10) hope for a sweet dream tonight...

Wholemeal Bread

This wholemeal bread is really nice and soft and when i have to slice the the bread, i had to do it very slowly because of its softness. I got the recipe from this book, "孟老师的100道麵包". I baked it in a pullman tin but it didnt make it to the top of the tin, therefore, it's not square. Probably I baked it before the dough actually reaches to almost 90% of the tin.Nevertheless, the bread was good.

Ingredients A
Wholemeal flour 120gm
Bread flour 85gm
Instant yeast 4gm ( 1 tsp )
Water 130gm

Ingredients B
Bread flour 85gm
Caster sugar 15gm
Salt 1tsp
Milk powder 10gm
Water 50gm

Unsalted butter 15gm

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients A until dough is formed . Cover and let proof for 90 mins
2. After proofing, mix this dough into ingredients B and knead until dough is smooth.
3.Add in unsalted butter and continue kneading or beating if using electric mixer until dough surface is smooth.
3. Cover and let 2nd proof for 60 mins.
4. After 2nd proof, divide dough into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Let rest for 15mins.
5. Take each ball and shape into rectangle 20cm X 10cm and then roll up like swiss roll. Put the dough into the baking tin and proof for another 50mins. Thre should be 3 separate doughs in the baking tin.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 30 mins.

Pandan Kuih

The 1st time i made this kuih was last year and i was attracted by the photo shown in the book, "Nyonya Kuih Passions" . The texture of this kuih is somehow different from the normal kuih that we eat like kuih talam or kuih lapis. The texture of this kuih is between a kuih and agar-agar (jelly) , not too sweet and best to be eaten chilled. Very refreshing. I only made half of the below recipe and steamed it in a 6"x6"x2" square tin.

Ingredients A
85gm green pea flour
600ml water ( add some pandan juice to make it up to 600ml)
1/4 tsp alkaline water
350 syrup

Ingredients B
50gm green pea flour
225ml water
170ml coconut milk
1/4tsp salt
150ml syrup

Syrup
300gm sugar
300ml water
4pieces pandan leaf

Method:
1. Cook the syrup first. Place sugar, water and pandan leaves until sugar dissolved. Remove the pandan leaves and divide the syrup into 2 portions, 350ml and 150ml each as part of Ingredients A and B respectively.
2. For Ingredients A, take half of the water to mix with green pea flour. While another half portion of water , mix with alkaline water.  Now mix all of ingredients A and strain. Add syrup and cook over low heat. Once it starts to boil, remove from heat. Set aside
3. Mix all of Ingredients B and strain. Cook over low heat and remove from heat once it starts to boil.
4. Place ingredients A and Ingredients B into a steaming tray, slightly stir to form marble shape.
5.Steam for 35mins and let cool. Keep chilled.

Note: I've made a bit of changes in the above recipe cos i find that the original one in the book is a bit confusing and it doesnt have the steaming part, i guess they just missed that. I dont think i could be wrong putting it that to steam.

Filled Strawberry Brioche

Pronounced as' bree-oshh', this is a kind of French bread. I havent actually eaten a brioche before and havent heard of it too..until i came across this in one of my baking books, "Cakes by Racheal Lane and Carla Bardi'. First glance at the picture, it looks like a kind of pie to me , probably of its shape. You see, some information i got from the net..the traditional brioche is baked in a deep, round fluted mould and is usually made by placing another small dough on top of the big dough. It is believed that it originated from Normandy but some argued that it could be Romania. Anyway, i wanted to bake it like the traditional shape and also the one shown in the book, so i purposely went and look for this mould. I think the lady in the shop doesnt know what mould i was talking about , then i showed her the picture, yeah i brought along my book..and she recommended me a jelly mould which looks quite similar and so i bought it. It took about a total of 2.5 hours to proof as it needs to go thru 3 times proofing. I was quite excited while waiting it to be baked cos i wanted to know how's the taste like. The result..buttery, airy and soft bread and a bit savoury which i like too. Still good the next day.

the 'brioche lookalike' mould, 17cm in diameter

Ingredients:

7gm instant yeast (original recipe: 2 (1/4oz or 7gm) packages active dry yeast or 1oz compressed fresh yeast)
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
225gm bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
60gm butter ( melted )

Method:

1. Grease the brioche mould or baking pan
2. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl.  Add water and rub in the butter. Knead until smooth dough is formed.
3. Cover with cloth and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour
4. Break off a small ball of dough. Set aside. Lightly knead the larger dough and transfer to the baking mould or pan, let it rise again until doubled in bulk , about 40 mins.
5. Place the smaller ball of dough on top of the larger dough , cover and let rise just above the top of the mould, about 40 mins.
6. Preheat oven at 200C and bake for 15-20 mins or until well risen or golden brown.

Note:
I only used 7gm instant yeast considering it was really a hot day when i was doing this..and 14gms to me seems a lot..but it did rise up well.
When I placed the smaller ball of dough on top of the larger dough ( step 5 ) , the larger dough sank a bit becos of the weight but that doesnt matter.
I didnt put the whole of the larger dough into that mould cos that's the much for the mould, i put about 2/3 of the large dough into that mould and the rest i just shape into balls.
For decoration purpose, i've cut the smaller dough out and filled up with whipped cream and strawberries and placed the smaller dough back on top of the strawberries.

Shanghai Mooncakes

Last week, i saw a posting by No Frills Recipe on Shanghai mooncakes. It looks so good that tempted me to make those mooncakes too. I made this over the weekend, the dough is very easy to work with and the result is just simply good, the buttery taste and the crunchiness of the pastry makes this mooncake so good and the pastry is not too hard and didnt turn soft even the next day. Thank you for sharing the recipe

For full recipe, click here

ooh, i cut this rather ugly!