Saturday, September 29, 2012

Lemon Cocoa Marble Cake

Ingredients:
125g flour
125g softened butter
110g sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon lemon emulco
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
40ml lemon juice

Method:
1. Mix cocoa powder with 3 tbsp of warm water in a medium size bowl to form a paste.
2. Sift flour and baking powde and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar till pale and creamy.
4. Add eggs,one at a time. Well combined in each addition.
5. Add juice and lemon emulco.
6. Fold in flour in 3 batches,do not over mix.
7. Scoop 1/3 of the batter into the bowl of cocoa paste and mix well,do not over mix.
8. Scoop at lemon batter onto lined cake tin,followed by cocoa batter and repeat till all batter are used.
9. Lightly stir with chopstick to create swirls.
10. Shake the tin a little bit to even out the batter.
11. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 30 minutes or till cooked.
12. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before removing to cool on rack.

I've used loaf pan. Bit too short for 2 eggs recipe.

Original recipe: http://www.dequeenkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/orange-cocoa-marble-cake.html?m=1





Friday, September 28, 2012

September's Dinner

If you've been following my posts in FB, you will realized that I hardly cook 3 dishes meal for dinner in September..yes..cos my boy says he got no appetite and also we are trying to cut down on heavy dinner..so we opt for soup + noodles...at the beginning, i was not convinced as I told him I'll be hungry before bedtime..so we bough some biscuits to be on standby..now I'm used to it...^^

 








Traditional Mooncake again

Hahaha...tried mooncake again, the previous too flaky, this time I tried without egg wash.


Ingredients (A) for mooncake pastry
50gm plain flour
30gm golden syrup
15gm oil
1/4 tsp alkaline water

Ingredients (B) for mooncake filling
Chocolate Paste (bought from baking supply store)

Method:
1. Mix ingredients (A) till well combined. Set aside for 40 minutes.
2. While waiting for (A) to be done, divide chocolate paste into portion. Roll into balls.
3. Once (A) is done, divide equally.
4. Wrap filling into mooncake pastry. Roll into balls. Press into mooncake mould. Tap lightly to de-mould. Repeat until dough finishes.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 200'C for 10 mins. Remove and leave cool for about 15 minutes. Bake in oven again for 15 minutes till golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container. The pastry will become soft, called “回油” (literally means ”returns oily and soft’) and shiny in one or two days.

**NOTE:
1. No egg wash
2. Proportion: for small mooncake, i used 40gm filling, 20gm dough skin

Original : Keiko's recipe

Traditional Mooncake

Tried 2nd attempt on traditional mooncake.
This time round, I've tried Christine's recipe and I doubled them.
And I've tried piggy without filling..thanks darling Keiko!





Ingredients (A) for mooncake pastry
200gm plain flour
120gm golden syrup
60gm oil
1 tsp alkaline water

Ingredients (B) for mooncake filling
Red Bean Paste (bought from baking supply store)

Method:
1. Mix ingredients (A) till well combined. Set aside for 40 minutes.
2. While waiting for (A) to be done, divide red bean paste into portion. Roll into balls.
3. Once (A) is done, divide equally.
4. Wrap filling into mooncake pastry. Roll into balls. Press into mooncake mould. Tap lightly to de-mould. Repeat until dough finishes.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 200'C for 10 mins. Remove and leave cool for about 15 minutes. Brush the top with beaten egg. Bake in oven again for 15 minutes till golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container. The pastry will become soft, called “回油” (literally means ”returns oily and soft’) and shiny in one or two days.

**NOTE:
1. Egg brush must do thinly. This time, i brushed too much, ended with flaky ugly mooncake. Haha.
2. Proportion: for big mooncake, i used 100gm filling, 50gm dough skin
                      for small mooncake, i used 40gm filling, 20gm dough skin

Snowskin Mooncake

Tested premix snowskin mooncake earlier..it's easy...but abit sweet...so after asking few friends, i tried making them from scratch..thanks for all the advise from my fb gang especially Keiko...recipe adapted from her...


The following recipe makes bout 6 pieces of 63gm snowskin mooncake.
I've used 20:40 ratio, prefer thicker skin
20: skin
40: filling


Ingredients for skin:
- 32g Kou Fen (fried glutinous rice flour)
- 30g Icing Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Shortening (i used vege oil)
- 45g Cold Water (*For flavored skin, add essence or emulco to cold water / else replaced with cold fruit juice) I used peppermint and durian emulco
- Some Kou Fen for dusting
- filling in preferred flavour (used chocolate paste)

Method:
1. Sift kou fen and sugar into a mixing bowl. (*wear disposable gloves so tat dough won't stick on hand)
2. Rub shortening into 1.
3. Add cold water and mix well.
4. Knead into a smooth dough. Set aside for 15 mins.
5. While waiting, weigh filling bout 40g and rough into ball shape.
6. Divide dough into 6 portion equally and roll into ball shape.
7. Place dough in between plastic sheet and flatten into round disc.
8. Wrap the filling with the skin.
9. Dust the outer skin and press into mould.
10. Unmould and set aside. Continue with the rest of the dough and filling until finish.
11. Store in fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

Original recipe from: Keiko and Blessed Homemaker

Different Types of Flour

Understanding  Flour
  Wheat starch or tang meen fun, all the gluten has been removed. When mixed with water it produces a pastry dough. It is mainly used as a wrapping for dumplings such as ‘har kar’or ‘choy pau.’ It cannot be substituted with potato or other starches. It has different properties and will give food a different texture. It is essential that the proportion of wheat stach to water be well balanced when making the pastry for har kau

Potato flour or potato starch is flour ground from dried potatoes; it is carbohydrate based thickener with little protein, useful for people who have to avoid gluten flours. It is used primarily for making commercial potato bread in combination with plain or strong flour or as a thickener for soups, gravies and Chinese stir fly dishes. The high starch content in potato flour encourages rapid fermentation and quick rise in yeast doughs. As such as a starch or thickening it has greater power than cereal starch and smaller quantities are required. It also gives a more translucent finish to soups and sauces as compared with corn flour or tapioca flour
Sago is dried starch granules derived from the pitch of sago tree. Sago flour is very rich in starch and has the same thickening ability as tapioca flour. In fact sago and tapioca flour may be used interchangeably for making kuih, bread and cakes.

Rice flour (includes white rice flour and nuttier brown rice flour) Substitutes: cake flour (especially if the rice flour is intended to soften the texture of a baked good) OR barley flour (also delivers a softer texture to baked goods) OR pastry flour (also delivers a softer texture to baked goods) OR (for those allergic to wheat) spelt flour (makes baked goods heavier) OR potato flour OR millet flour



Difference between Bread Flour and all Purpose flour
Wheat flours contain a protein called gluten which, in the presence of water, forms an elastic network throughout the dough. This is the stuff that gives bread doughs their rubbery consistency. The whole point of kneading bread dough, in fact, is to organize the strands of gluten running through the dough into a strong, resilient, interconnected web. It is this web of protein that will entrap the bubbles of CO2 given off by the yeast as it ferments, enabling the dough to rise. Without the gluten, the CO2 would just bubble up to the surface and be lost.

But flour vary greatly in both the quantity and quality of the gluten they contain because different strains of wheat from different regions and different growing seasons have different gluten profiles. There are times when gluten is not your friend; in a cake batter, excess gluten will create a chewy, coarse-grained cake, and in pastry doughs it will produce a tough pie crust. But for bread you want lots of strong gluten to produce a well-risen and well-shaped loaf. This is why there are special flours for special purposes: cake flour, pastry flour, bread flour, etc.

All-purpose flour is typically a blend of "hard" and "soft" wheats which will perform pretty well in most roles. It usually contains 10-12% gluten. It can be used for bread, but will tend to produce a denser, flatter loaf. Some people will add 1T extra per cup of flour when using all-purpose for bread.

Bread flours have from 12-14 percent protein. They will feel decidedly more elastic while kneading, and will give full, rounded loaves. These flours are made from hard winter wheats from northern states.

Besides the quantity, the quality of the gluten will vary. Some glutens are better at forming the elastic network than others. You can judge this for yourself by making a "gluten ball" from different flours: make a stiff dough using just water and 1/4 c of flour. Knead it until it becomes quite elastic, then continue kneading it between your fingers under a stream of water. This will wash out the starch from the flour and after a few minutes of this you will have a ball of pure gluten. By playing with this ball, stretching and folding it, you will see that some are far more resistant to tearing than others. A good bread flour will enable you to pull the gluten into a thin membrane.
Varies Types of flour
Gluten free flours - As explained above gluten is what makes wheat-based bread dough so sticky and elastic. This helps the dough hold in the air bubbles created by the yeast so that it will rise and eventually bake into a fluffy, porous loaf. If you're gluten-intolerant, though, you'll need to use gluten-free flour, along with an arsenal of ingredients to make it behave like it has gluten.

SUPERLITE FLOUR
Just another name for Hong Kong flour made in Singapore and Malaysia. Superlite is a super soft flour. The Flour have been beached to give a very white texture.  It is best used for making Hong Kong type steamed buns (bao), Japanese castella cake, Malay sponge cake (kueh baulu) and others where a specially soft and light texture is required. This flour is also referred to as "Hong Kong Flour" by some users.

TOP FLOUR
Just another name of flour made in Singapore and Malaysia. Top Flour is an extra-fine quality flour to give exceptionally smooth and fine texture for your baking needs. It is especially ideal for baking very fine cakes; such as chiffon cakes, swiss rolls, crepes, cake doughnuts and butter cookies.

Cake flour is a finely milled flour made from soft wheat. It has very low gluten content, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher gluten content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Related to cake flour are masa harina (from maize), maida flour (from wheat or tapioca), and pure starches. Cake Flour is a superb quality, soft-as-silk flour. It has excellent tolerance to a high amount of butter and sugar, resulting in cakes of good volume. This flour is best used for baking sponge cakes and very rich cakes like pound cakes.
To Substitute cake flour made in Malaysia and Singapore - Mix ¾ cup gluten free flour plus ¼ cup plain flour  . Cake flour does not have Sugar or baking powder added .
Optima flour is a premixed cake mix flour made in Singapore for making sponge cake.
It contains  sugar and  baking powder  and other conditioner to give nice texture of cake.
To substitute Optima flour, just substitute any sponge cake mix of any brand available.

All-purpose or plain flour is a blended wheat flour with an intermediate gluten level, which is marketed as an acceptable compromise for most household baking needs. Plain Flour is an all-purpose flour, best used for making cakes, pancakes, pastries, batter and as a thickener. This flour is also ideal for Oriental specialities like Chinese dumpling (bao), Chinese dough fritters (yu tiao) and roti prata.

Bleached flour ( Hong Kong Flour or Water Lily flour)  is treated with flour bleaching agents to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and to give it more gluten-producing potential. Oxidizing agents are usually employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, or chlorine. A similar effect can be achieved by letting the flour slowly oxidize with oxygen in the air ("natural aging") for approximately 10 days; however, this process is more expensive due to the time required.

Bread flour
Bread Flour is a high-protein flour, ideal for making all varieties of bread, buns and other flour-based products.
Self-rising cornmeal To make your own: Combine one cup cornmeal, one cup flour, one tablespoon baking powder, one teaspoon salt, and 1/4 cup butter or other fat

Pastry flour or cookie flour or cracker flour has slightly higher gluten content than cake flour but lower than all-purpose flour. It is suitable for fine, light-textured pastries

Self-rising or self-raising flour is flour ("white" wheat flour or wholemeal) that is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. It was invented by Henry Jones. Typical ratios are the following:
a pinch to ½ teaspoon salt
Metric:
100 g flour
3 g baking powder
1 g or less salt
Self-Raising Flour is a premium quality flour blended with the right amount of leavening agents. It is best suited for baking cakes, hot cakes such as American pancakes and cookies. It is also excellent as a batter for frying chicken, fish, prawns and banana fritters.

Corn (maize) flour is popular in the Southern and Southwestern US and in Mexico. Coarse whole-grain corn flour is usually called corn meal. Corn meal that has been bleached with lye is called masa harina (see masa) and is used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexican cooking. Corn flour should never be confused with cornstarch, which is known as "cornflour" in British English

Tapioca flour, produced from the root of the cassava plant, is used to make breads, pancakes, tapioca pudding, a savoury porridge called fufu in Africa, and is used as a starch.

WHOLEMEAL FLOUR
Wholemeal Flour is a high-protein high-fibre flour specially milled for the health-conscious. Just mix equal quantities of Prima's Wholemeal and Bread Flour to make delicious and nutritious wholemeal bread, buns and cookies.

SEMOLINA FLOUR
Semolina is a granulated wheat flour. It is best for making sugee cake, semolina pudding, cookies and soup as well as baby weaning food.

Rice flour :

Glutinous rice flour or sticky rice flour, used in east and southeast Asian cuisines for making tangyuan etc.

Brown rice flour is of great importance in Southeast Asian cuisine. Also edible rice paper can be made from it. Most rice flour is made from white rice, thus is essentially a pure starch, but whole-grain brown rice flour is commercially available

Noodle flour is special blend of flour used for the making of Asian style noodles

Tang flour or wheat starch is a type of wheat flour used primarily in Chinese cooking for making the outer layer of dumplings and buns. It is also used in Vietnamese cuisine, where it is called bột lọc trong

Mung Bean Starch and water use to make bean thread, bean vermicelli, or slippery noodles


Ref: http://www.recipies.50webs.com/undestanding%20flour.htm

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Wanted to do japanese cheesecake after seeing my fb gang doing...asked one of the member to share recipe..so kind of her, did the recipe up for me and shorten her nap time...so excited...went home wanted to start baking and realized, i have only 2 eggs in the fridge...someone came to my rescue...my beloved fren shared her 2 eggs recipe to me...so i followed hers...thanks for the yummy recipe...

(A)
80g Cream Cheese

17.5g Butter
60g Milk ( i used milk powder + hot water)

(B)
20g Plain Flour

12.5g Corn Flour

(C)
2 Egg Yolks

(D)
2 Egg whites

55g sugar

Method:

  1. Place (A) into a mixing bowl and stir over double boiler(bowl over simmering pot of water) until well mixed.
  2. Remove from heat.
  3. Add (B) and mix well.
  4. Add (C) and mix well.
  5. Whisk egg (D) till almost stiff peak then add into the above and mix well.
  6. Pour batter into lined baking tin. (i used loaf tin, came out the cake quite short)
  7. Steam bake at 170°C for 40 mins. I placed a tray of water at the bottom layer and the tin on the layer above the tray of water. (Oven temp varies, so please monitor own oven)
  8. Remove from tin immediately when done. Do it gently to avoid breaking the cake. Cake is very fragile when it's hot.
Adapted from Keiko : http://www.dequeenkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/04/japanese-cotton-cheesecake.html

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Herbs Glossary

this post is mainly for own reference.
been boiling soup for the past 2 weeks...bee doesn't wanna eat rice, so we opt for soup with noodles...and this triggered me to look for more soup recipe with nutrition

Kei chi 枸杞 : natural supplement for improving eyesight, beneficial for the liver
red dates 红枣
Honey dates 蜜枣
Almond 南杏北杏
Huai Shan (淮山) : ability to enhance vigour, promote muscle growth and repair worn-out tissue, and alleviate bodily weakness after a long-term illness. counter diabetes, diarrhoea, kidney defects, coughing and dehydration
Black fungus 黑木耳
Snow fungus 白木耳
Solomon seal (Yuk chuk 玉竹) : nourishes YIN and the lungs

Dried lily bud 金針花 (jin zhen hua)
Chrysanthemum 菊花
Lily Bud (bai he) 百合 : soothes dryness in the lungs and stops cough

Friday, September 7, 2012

Pandan Cotton Cake

Ingredients (A)
- 3 yolks
- 1 whole egg (room temparature)
- 50gm oil
- 50gm cake flour (sifted)
- 1 tsp of pandan paste

Ingredients (B)
- 3 egg whites
- pinch of salt
- 50g castor sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven at 160-170'C
2. Mix yolk and whole egg together then mix in oil, then pandan paste
3. Sift in cake flour and mix well, then set aside
4. In a separate clean and dry bowl, beat whites with electric mixer till foamy, then add in salt
5. Add in sugar in 3 batches, mix well for each addition
6. Beat till stiff peak forms
7. Fold in 1/3 to yolk mixture, then fold to the whites (don't over fold)
8. Pour batter into cupcake mould and bake at 160-170'C as following timing.

Baking Time:
Loaf Pan - 35 - 40 mins
Cupcake - 20 - 25 mins

Thanks Genie Teo for the recipe.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Triple Choc Muffin

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins)
250gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
175gm caster sugar
150gm Choc chips + Strawberry Choc Chips

chocolate rice for sprinkle
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
2. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar, and chocolate chips into a large bowl and mix well.
3. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together with slow and gentle strokes. Stop stirring once the last traces of flour disappear. Do not overmix.
5. Scope the batter into muffin cases.
6. Sprinkle the chocolate rice on top

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are done

Ref:
http://smallsmallbaker.blogspot.com/2010/01/nigellas-chocolate-chocolate-chip.html?m=1
http://dequeenkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/double-chocolate-muffins.html

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Traditional Mooncake with Coffee Filling

Ingredients (A) for mooncake pastry
250gm plain flour
190gm golden syrup
50gm oil
1 tsp alkaline water**

Ingredients (B) for mooncake filling
coffee paste (bought from baking supply store)

Method:
1. Mix ingredients (A) till well combined. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. While waiting for (A) to be done, divide coffee paste into portion. Roll into balls.
3. Once (A) is done, divide equally.
4. Wrap filling into mooncake pastry. Roll into balls. Press into mooncake mould. Tap lightly to de-mould. Repeat until dough finishes.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 200'C for 10 mins. Remove and leave cool for about 15 minutes. Brush the top with beaten egg. Bake in oven again for 15 minutes till golden brown.


**my friend asked me, do you know why alkaline water is used in traditional mooncake?
i told her i don't know..recipe say use then i followed blindly..wakkakakaa
then she send this link to me to read up:
the alkaline water is to neutralize the acid in golden syrup. And it gives the browning effect to the mooncake pastry.

i'm grateful to have such a darling in my life, we knew each other through her blog and FB group and from sharing of knowledge in cooking and baking..we now become friends though we are quite far apart.
Really appreciate to have her as my friend! Thanks Keiko darling.

Recipe adapted from: Seashore Mooncake Sonata from Alan Ooi

Sunday, September 2, 2012

More baking tools

Oh no!! More things added on le!!! All ready to do mooncakes

Oreo Nutter Butter Chiffon Cupcakes

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolks
50ml oil
60ml milk
70gm cake flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
6 oreo biscuits (12 sides minus cream)

(B)
4 egg whites
60g sugar

Method:
1. Sift flour and set aside.
2. Whisk egg yolks and add in oil, milk and essence in (A) followed by flour till well mixed.
3. Beat egg whites till light and fluffy and add in sugar gradually,beat till stiff peaks formed.
4. Fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture into yolk mixture. Then slowly fold in the rest until well mixed.
5. Gently fold in crushed oreo biscuits.
6. Pour into chiffon tin/ cupcake liners.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20-25 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

Ref: http://www.dequeenkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/07/oreo-chiffon-cupcakes.html

Oreo chiffon

tested on 29 August 2012, 1 square chiffon and 2 chiffon cupcakes

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolks
50ml oil
60ml milk
70gm cake flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
6 oreo biscuits (12 sides minus cream)

(B)
4 egg whites
60g sugar

Method:
1. Sift flour and set aside.
2. Whisk egg yolks and add in oil, milk and essence in (A) followed by flour till well mixed.
3. Beat egg whites till light and fluffy and add in sugar gradually,beat till stiff peaks formed.
4. Fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture into yolk mixture. Then slowly fold in the rest until well mixed.
5. Gently fold in crushed oreo biscuits.
6. Pour into chiffon tin/ cupcake liners.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20-25 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

Ref: http://www.dequeenkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/07/oreo-chiffon-cupcakes.html

Cappuccino Bread with Pandan Cake

Bread Dough recipe from SPT - check out my previous post here ->> http://honeybee916food.blogspot.com/2012/08/spts-bread-dough.html

Cake Mixture

  • 2 eggs
  • 150gm sponge cake mix
  • 30gm water (i replace with milk)
  • 2.5gm pandan paste (i used 1.5tsp)
  • 60gm oil

Steps:

  1. Beat eggs till fluffy.
  2. Add in water and pandan paste.
  3. Pour in Sponge Cake mix.
  4. Finally, add in oil.


After the bread dough done with 2nd proofing, pour in the cake mixture. (I used bread loaf tin)
Bake at preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes.

Ref:
Bread Dough from Soh Pin Tee
Cake Mixture & Idea from DIY Home Bread recipe book by Khoo See Yew

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Marble Butter Cake with Buttercream

For Marble Cake
(A)
160 gm   Butter
160 gm   Margarine

(B)
5           Eggs
250 gm   Sugar

(C)
1 tsp      Vanilla Essence

(D)
280 gm   plain flour
1 tsp      baking powder

(E)
1/2 tsp   coffee emulco (original: chocolate paste)

1. Cream ingredients (A) until smooth and fluffy.
2. Whip ingredients (B) until light and thick. Add in ingredients (C), mix until evenly blended.
3. Add in ingredients (A), mix until well-combined. Add in ingredients (D), mix until well incorporated.
4. Divide the plain batter into 2 portion.
5. One portion to the lined baking tin, another portion to add in (E) and mix well.
6. Pour the coffee batter over plain batter and swirl it with skewer to make marble effect.
7. Bake at 175C for 50-60 mins, or until cooked.

*Note:
1. Insert a skewer onto the centre.If it comes out clean,it is done.
2. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before removing to cool on rack.
3. I left my cake overnight to make sure it's completely cool before decorating it with buttercream. (I baked at night, decorated in the next morning)

For Buttercream:
(A)
350 gm   Butter
150 gm   Cream Margarine

(B)
180 gm   Icing Sugar

Beat (A) until smooth.
Add in (B), cream till light and fluffy.
Fill up piping back and start decorating.

*Added colouring for different decoration.
For my case, i did almost black and yellow and brown.


Source:
Cake - Seashore Baking Code recipe book by Alex Goh
Buttercream - Master Chef Alex Goh's Cake Decorating Class