Hazelnut Chiffon Cake

This will be my 2nd and last submission to the Aspiring Bakers#1:Chiffon Cake(Nov 2010) hosted by Small Small Baker. It is a Hazelnut Chiffon Cake which i personally find this taste better than the sweet corn chiffon..at least here, no essence required and i'm still able to get the much flavour of the hazelnuts. I whipped up some cream with a little coffee emulco,just to dress up the cake...with some gumpaste flowers.. simply just for photography purpose. Like my previous Sweet Corn Chiffon Cake, i also got this from the same book, "chiffon cake is done" by Kevin Chai. Lots of ideas and some very strange too, i think! Here's the recipe:

  

 Egg Yolk Batter
2 egg yolks
2tbsp cooking oil
20ml milk
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
20gm caster sugar
30gm grounded hazelnut
10gm self raising flour

Egg white foam:
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40gm caster

Method:
1. To make egg yolk, combine egg yolks, oil, milk, lemon rind and sugar into a mixing bowl .Fold in sifted flour and grounded hazelnut until forms batter
2. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks, gradually add in sugar,beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
3. Gently fold beaten egg whites foam into egg yolk batter until blended.
4. Pour batter into ungreased small heart tube pan ( i used 16cm tube pan) and bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 20minutes or until cooked
5. Remove oven , invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Sweet Corn Chiffon Cake

I've been seeing so many chiffon cakes posting for the past 2 weeks, reason being for the submission for
Aspiring Bakers#1 event- Chiffon Cake hosted by small small baker. It's so inspiring looking at the varieties of the chiffon cakes; they have sweet potato, prickly pear, beetroot, dulce de leche and many many more. All these seems so interesting and i cant wait to see the final posting of all these compilations. So me being inspired by all of the aspiring bakers out there are joining in the fun too and what i got here is Sweet Corn Chiffon Cake, sourced from "chiffon cake is done - Kevin Chai". Texture of the cake is really soft , only thing is i find that the taste of sweet corn is not strong enough, i think that's also because i didnt put in the corn essence as in the recipe. I'll be submitting this post for this Aspiring Bakers #1:Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
Egg Yolk Batter
6 egg yolks
50gm caster sugar
60ml cooking oil
250gm canned sweet corn( cream type)
1/2 tsp corn essence
few drops yellow colouring(optional)
120gm plain flour
30gm santan powder

Egg white foam
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
100gm caster sugar

Method:
1. To Make egg yolk batter, combine egg yolks, sugar, oil, sweet corn puree, essence and coloring in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour and santan powder until forms batter.
2.To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peak forms.
3.Gently fold beaten egg white foam into egg yolk batter until blended
4.Pour batter into ungreased 9in ( 22cm) tube pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30-40 minutes or until cooked
5.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Italian Prawn Skewers

I made these just simply because i want to use the grill function on my little breadmaker machine that also comes with the grilling function. So i chose a hassle free, simple recipe from the book "400 appetizers and party recipes" and i'm just making my first one from this book. But i think i probably grilled them a bit longer than required, the prawns tend to be a little overcooked. The recipe can be adjusted accordingly to the amount of prawns you're cooking.

Ingredients
900 gm tiger prawns, cleaned and peeled
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 oz fine dry breadcrumbs
1 garlic clove, crushed
1tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and ground black pepper
lemon wedges to serve

Method:
1. Slit the prawns down their backs and remove the dark vein .Rinse in cold water and pat dry on kitchen paper.
2.Put the olive oil and vegetable oil in a large bowl and add the prawns, mixing them to coat evenly.
3.Add the breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Toss the prawn thoroughly, to give them an even coating of breadcrumbs. Cover and leave to marinate for 1 hour.
4.Thread the prawns onto the metal or wooden skewers, curling them slightly as you work, so that the tails are skewered neatly and securely in the middle.
5.Prepare the barbeque or preheat the grill ( broiler) .Cook the skewers for about 2 mins on each side, until the breadcrumbs are golden. Serve with lemon wedges.

Pumpkin Mantou

Bought a half pumpkin from the market after a bit of persuasion from the seller..and i thought maybe i could make some buns or mantou as i havent made these before out of pumpkin. So i checked thru some blogs and finally decided to make pumpkin mantou using a recipe from Wendy's blog. In her recipe, she actually put some pumpkin filling into the buns, i didnt do that, i just left it plain and yes, the buns turned out exceptionally well.. soft , fluffy and the hint of this pumpkin flavour , it's just wonderful even if it's plain.
Thank you to wendy for sharing this recipe. Initially i was a bit sceptical while waiting it to proof to double size cos it was a rainy day and it almost took me close to 2 hrs for doubling the size and i was thinking whether it would affect the texture of the buns but no..the result is just fantastic. Wendy has got pictures of kneading the dough so just go to her blog to get a more detailed way of doing it. The recipe is what i got direct from her post, but i changed the method of shaping cos i rolled up the dough and cut into pieces.
You may like it round..just shape it anyway you like.

love the colour too from the pumpkin

Ingredients ( inspired by wendy from Table for 2..or more )
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
1tsp instant dry yeast
150gm pau flour
1tsp double action baking powder
10gm butter

Method:
1.Combine sugar, pumpkin puree and yeast
2.Combine pau flour, double action baking powder and butter and mix to form crumbs.
3.Pour (1) into (2) and mix to form dough
4.Knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky
5.Let dough proof in a warm place until double in size. Cover it.
6. After proofing, punch down the dough and knead for 2 mins and roll out  into a rectangle.
7.Slowly roll like swiss rolls, trim off the edges and cut into equal pieces.
8.Cover and let buns proof for 2nd time for another 45 mins. Steam on high heat for 12 mins.

Sour and Spicy Crabs

From small till now, i always love eating crabs and my mum always cook this type of spicy crabs.
Cooking the crabs i think it's not too difficult , as these crabs have already got their own sweet distinguished flavour..even just by steaming it can already bring out the flavour in them. This sour and spicy crabs is just one way of cooking them and i remember when i was small, we usually dip the bread into the gravy and eat and in those days, restaurants that serve these dish will also provide you few slices of bread. But i do not like the cleaning part where we have to make sure it's really clean and each time , i will use a toothbrush to brush off the muds that are stick onto their bodies. Again, please do whatever necessary to suit your taste if you really want to try this.

Ingredients:
3 medium mud crabs, cleaned and cut into pieces
some garlic
3 tablespoons Kg Koh chilli garlic sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg , lightly beaten
1tbsp vinegar
water to cover
some cornstach solution (optional)

Method
1.Saute the garlic and put in the crabs on medium high fire. Mix and stir for 2 minutes.
2.Pour in the chilli garlic sauce and the ketchup and stir fry in the wok.
3.Sprinkle some water, add in the sugar and salt and keep stir frying. Pour in some water (depends on how much gravy you like but not too much) and cover it for 3 minutes, turn the fire lower.
4. Add in the beaten egg and stir to mix. If you want a thicker gravy, add some cornstarch solution and further cook for 1 minute. Dish up and serve.

Blueberry Tiramisu

Came across this recipe from the internet, from foodnetwork.com. I was attracted by the picture of the tiramisu but i noticed that it's actually a dessert, i would actually prefer something more like a cake so i made some changes here and there, made a sponge cake and sandwiched the tiramisu layer in between the cakes. Well, this is supposed to be called Lime and Blueberry Tiramisu but the flavour of the lime here is not significant at all, hence i just put this as blueberry tiramisu. The original recipe asked for lime concentrate.I dipped the sponge fingers in pure extracted lime juice but i must say that they have not been properly soaked..as for the tiramisu layer, to me it's good but i would prefer the mascarpone layer to be lighter and i was thinking if i have whisked some egg whites into mascarpone layer, would it turn out better? But the blueberries sure added points to this cake...something unusual from the classic tiramisu.

Ingredients and method for sponge cake ( for 9" square pan) can be found here

Ingredients for tiramisu layer
2 medium egg yolks
30gm sugar
250gm mascarpone cheese
80mls non diary whipping cream
50mls heavy cream

sponge fingers
blueberry pie filling

Method for preparing tiramisu layer
1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale
2.Add in the mascarpone cheese and just stir by hand to mix. Keep chilled .
3. Whisk the non diary whipping cream until slightly thick and add in the heavy cream and continue whisking
until soft med peaks.
4.Remove the mascarpone cheese mixture from the fridge and add the cream mixture(3) into the cheese mixture(2)

Method for assembling cake:
1. After sponge cake has cooled down, cut into 2 layers.
2. Dip the sponge fingers into lime concentrate or juice and arrange side by side on top of one layer of the sponge cake. Do this to fill up the whole cake.
3.Spread a layer of the blueberry pie filling on top of the sponge fingers layer and followed by the tiramisu layer
4.Cover with the 2nd piece of sponge layer and to finish the cake, top it up with another layer of blueberry filling. (Can also top this up just before serving.) trim the sides of the cake to look neat. Chill.

Steamed Malay Kuih or 馬來糕(Ma Lai Koh)

I'm sure many of us living on this part of the world knows what is this "malay cake' or we call this 馬來糕.
It is one popular delicacy served at dim sum resturants and sometimes we can also get it from local kueh stalls. I've tried doing one before from a y3k recipe with the honeycomb effect but failed ,it turned out so bad . I was so frustrated because that needed 2 rounds of long fermentation hours and yet it turned out to be so tough and didnt even bother to study the recipe again...  until i saw another recipe from 'famous cuisine- steamed cake@kuih muih'...so i thought to give it another try. Phew, it worked out this time but from another recipe. I would say that the taste of this kuih is very much alike to the one that we eat in dim sum restaurants, soft ..believe me but it's not as fluffy as those..just kept me wondering how they did to make it so fluffy..do you think they put in some kind of ovalette??


Ingredients A
100gm plain flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
150ml water
1/2 tbsp instant yeast

Ingredients B
6 eggs
200gm caster sugar
400gm plain flour
180gm butter/margarine, melted ( i used vegetable oil)
3tbsp dark soy sauce

Ingredients C:
11/2 tsp double action baking powder
3/4 soda bicarbonate

Syrup:
300gm brown sugar
150ml water

some melon seeds for topping

Method:
1.To make syrup, cook brown sugar with water until completely dissolved, remove from heat and leave to cool.
2.Mix all ingredients A, rest for 1-2 hours for fermentation, set aside.
3.Whisk eggs and sugar of the ingredients B until light and vreamy with mixer, add in plain flour, syrup, melted butter and dark soya sauce and mix well.
4.Add in ingredients C and ingredients A mixture (step 2), stir until becomes smooth batter.
5. Lay a piece of greaseproof paper in a steaming basket, pour in batter mixture, sprinkle with melon seeds for topping. Steam in a preheated steamer at high heat for 35-40mins or until cooked through. Remove.
( it took mine about an hour  to really cooked thru )

Braised Taro with Dried Shrimps

This is a dish that actually goes well with rice..i'm not too sure if chinese restaurants serve this at all and i always have the impression that this looks very much like a traditional dish..be it hakka, canton or hokkien. Simple ingredients, in fact no exact quantity..any quantity that you like, just be a little more generous with the dried shrimps.. needs a little time for braising and that's it. Some may like more gravy, so just add more water and braise for a little longer.

Ingredients:
Yam or Taro, mine was approx 600gms
generous amout of dried shrimps, soaked and cleaned
water for braising
a little salt and sugar
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Chopped spring onion

Method:
1.Unpeel the yam or taro and cut into approx. 1cm in thickness
2.Saute the garlic and then the dried shrimps until aromatic.
3.Put in the sliced yam and stir fry. Splash some water around the wok  to prevent dryness.
4.Keep stirring for another 5 minutes, splashing water occasionally, add a little salt and sugar for more taste.
5.Pour in water to cover almost 3/4 of the dish in the wok, cover and braise on low-medium fire until the yam becomes soft and gravy becomes thick, this may take about 20 mins.
6.When almost ready, just put in the chopped spring onions.

Hakka See Pan（ 喜粄）

I do not know what do these buns call in english but i remember Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover called this Ki Ka Ku..i think in Hokkien. I like eating this bun or kueh as some may refer as..soft and a little chewy but surprisingly this bun is not really widely sold at local kueh stalls. It usually comes in 2 flavours, one is plain that usually in pink colour and the other one is pandan flavour which comes in green colour. In fact i just found out that one of my uncle and aunt have not tried this before. So aunt may, here's the recipe that you wanted...simple ingredients and i think shouldnt be a problem getting it there. If you cant get the pandan leaves, just leave it although this actually gives the kueh more fragrant

Ingredients: ( adapted from Traditional Koh Kuih, Lap Mei & Cokies )
For starter:
70gm plain flour
1/2 tsp instant yeast
100ml water

Ingredients A
100gm caster sugar
125ml water
2 blades pandan leaves ( knotted )

Ingredients B
80gm plain flour
50gm glutinuous rice flour
1/2 tbsp cooking oil
Dash of red colouring

Method:
1. Place ingredients for started in a big mixing bowl, mix evenly and cover. Let it ferment for 1-2 hours.
2.Bring ingredient A to a boil. Remove pandan leaves and cool solution.
3.Sieve flour and glutinuous rice flour of ingredient B. Add into (1) which has left fermented and mix in oil.
4.Pour in the cooled sugar syrup from (2) , colouring and combine properly.Cover and ferment for 1-4 hours. ( i let mine ferment for almost 4 hours )
5.Spread into greased small plates.Cover and proof for 20-40mins and steam for 10mins.

Just Simple Plain Rolls

these are plain bread rolls that are extremely soft, taken form the book ' Magic Bread' by Alex Goh using
the gelatinized dough method. Results are excellent..i've used the same method to make my ham and cheese bun  in my posting earlier. ok, straight to the recipe..

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

Ingredients D
60gm butter

Method:
1.Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix well to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool and refrigerate for at least 12 hours
2.Mix B until well blended.Add in C and knead to form rough dough.Add in A and knead until well blended.
3.Add in D and knead to form elastic dough
4.Let it proof until double its size
5.Divide the dough into required weight and mould it round. Let rest for 10mins and ready to use. As i baked using an 8 " tin pan, i divide the dough into 60gms each and second proof about 45mins.
6. Bake t 190C for 12-15mins.