Christmas Wreath Bread (圣诞花环面包）

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

It is my own wish to share one Christmas bread recipe per year for the reader and this year I have decided to share a wreath bread..

Actually, Christmas wreath bread is nothing difficult and I have lots of idea how it should be done. As long as the bread is shaped in a circle, it can be called a Christmas wreath bread.

I have amended the design along the way and I can’t exactly tell you the measurement of each part of the dough required. Well, for the leftover dough, I have used it to make it into buns shape ..For this bread, I have added mixed fruits to the bread but this is optional.

To be frank, as I am not a Christian, I do not know exactly what is a Christmas wreath.. Therefore, I assumed many non Christians may not know too. As per http://www.holidayinsights.com/xmas/wreaths.htm,

“Wreaths have been used as a decorative sign of Christmas for hundreds and hundreds of years. Christmas wreaths can adorn any part of your home, inside or out. In many homes, this symbol of growth and everlasting life can be found both inside and out. It is common to find a number of wreaths on doors, over the mantle, or hung in windows.The wreath has significant meaning for the season. It’s circular shape represents eternity, for it has no beginning and no end. From a Christian religious perspective, it represents an unending circle of life. The evergreen, most frequently used in making wreathes, symbolizes growth and everlasting life. Holly branches have thorns. When used in a wreath it represents the thorn on Jesus’ crown when he was crucified. Bright red holly berries symbolize Jesus’ blood that was shed for us.”

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepare one big size wreath bread

500 grams of bread flour
100 grams of sugar
5 grams of salt
11 grams (1 packet) of instant dry yeast
30 grams of butter
1 egg
220 grams of lukewarm water
150 grams of dried fruits soaked in orange juice or cherry wine overnight

STEPS OF PREPARATION

In a mixing bowl, mixed all the ingredients together. Use a spoon to slightly stir it until it form a sticky dough. Use the dough hook in the machine to beat the dough at medium to low speed (speed 2 in Kenwood Chef or Kitchen Aid) for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, change from medium to high speed (speed 4 kin Kenwood Chef or Kitchen Aid) for about 7 minutes until the dough is smooth and leaves the side of the mixing bowl. Add the drained soaked dried fruits and knead for another 1-2 minutes until all the fruits are incorporated to the bread dough.

Transfer the dough out to a lightly flour surface. Lightly knead for 1-2 minutes and let it proof until double in size. Cover the dough with a wet towel or clingy wrap. Proofing time will depends on the weather but it will take about more or less 30 minutes in Singapore weather.

Take some dough, use a rolling pin to roll it to about 1 cm thickness. Use a round cutter to cut the dough and place a piece the dough to the baking tray. Cut the second dough and place half way on top of the first dough. Perform the same for the others until a round circle is form . This part shall used up about at least 60% of the dough but that depends very much on the size of your round cutter and wreath diameter.

Take some dough and shape it into a small ball.

Stick the small dough balls at the side of the wreath. Use hand to pinch one side of the round flat dough and the small dough balls such that they are intact with each other. Let it proof until double in size.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius .

Once the second proofing is done, egg wash the bread (one egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water, stir until well mixed, sift and apply). and bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Timing will depend on the size and thickness of the wreath .

CONCLUSION

This is a soft bread and it taste like ordinary buns. Servings shall be pull apart style and served with butter and jam. I hope this post will benefit readers who are looking for Christmas bread recipe.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂 to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Matcha Cream Cheese Pineapple Rolls (绿茶奶酪凤梨卷）

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

I have my popular Golf balls pineapple tarts in this post Golf Ball Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥）- Part 2

I also have the open face traditional pineapple tarts in this post: Open Faced Pineapple Tarts (凤梨挞）

In this year, I have issued the Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes in this recipe: Taiwanese Pineapple Cake (台式凤梨酥）

But I am lacking another popular pineapple tarts recipe in the form of rolled dough or pineapple rolls.. So I thought this year I will share with readers this pineapple rolls to make my pineapple tarts recipes complete.

I am rather unhappy with my new kitchen gadget, the special rolling pin for this pineapple rolls. I did not research before I bought this cheap gadget in a bakery shop.. When I tried to use, I found that it is not as easy as what I thought. In fact, it is quite tough as the dough is pressed and difficult to roll.

Subsequently, I search in the internet and I found that there is another type of pump which will give a better shape for rolling. I would advise if you do not have any gadget and intend to buy, do buy those that come with a piston type.

In the previous year, many readers are asking me if I have any cream cheese pineapple tarts dough recipe, so i have decided to incorporate this cream cheese and added a green tea flavouring. The taste is delicious and texture is nice but personally, I would prefer the traditional golf balls type of pastry which you can refer to the post above.. But if you are looking for a change, you can always tried this..

I have a big Kenwood Chef mixer, and at time it becomes a burden for the preparation of a small quantity of dough or creaming with butter. Therefore, I have resorted to the use of a food processor in the preparation of dough. This is not a must, you can always use the traditional “rubbing method” or “creaming method” of creaming butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Feel free to use the method that are most suitable to your work flow.

If you need quick and easy pineapple jam recipes, you can refer to this post: Quick and Easy 30 minutes Homemade Pineapple Jam (30 分钟简易凤梨酱）

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 30-40 rolls depending on size

400 grams of ready made pineapple jam (divided into 40 pineapple jam rolls of about 10 grams each)
400 grams of cakes flour (10% or 25 grams can be substitute with corn flour or custard powder)
125 grams of cold butter
125 grams of cold cream cheese
30 grams of icing sugar
One egg (lightly beaten)
1 teaspoon of matcha green tea powder

Note that this dough can also be used for golf ball pineapple tarts and open face pineapple tarts

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Shape the pineapple jam into an oblong shape of your desired size. In this illustration , it is about 2 cm long with 1 cm diameter.

In a food processor, place the butter, cream cheese, flour , icing sugar and green tea powder, pause blend for 1 minute until the flour and butter and cream cheese combined and become crumble form. Add the beaten eggs, pause blend again until it forms a pliable dough. If it is too dry, you can add milk tablespoon by tablespoon. If it is too wet, you can add flour tablespoon by tablespoon . Do not over blend as it may yields gluten that make the dough chewy. Normal creaming method of beating butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy can be used too.

Transfer the dough out to the work surface, if it is too soft, chill in the fridge for 15-30 minutes or until it is easier to handle.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

Take some portion of the chilled dough, place on top of a baking paper, put another piece of baking paper on top, roll it to about 3-4 mm thickness. Take away the top covering baking paper, use the special rolling pin to roll it once for the pattern to appear. Take one dough and roughly measure the size the required. Cut into required size using either a knife or pizza rolling knife.

Carefully turn over the dough, put a pineapple jam on top on one part of the dough and it ensuring that all the jams are covered. Transfer the pineapple rolls to the baking tray, egg wash if preferred and baked in the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 12-15 minutes.

For egg washing, hand beaten 2 egg yolks and add 2 big tablespoons of water and 2 drops of oil. Sift before application.

CONCLUSION

i believed this must be one of my ugliest looking batches of pineapple tarts .. Though taste is good but I believed the look can be further improved. Do give it a try if you wanted a change this year.. It is still melt in the mouth with tint of green tea flavour in the dough. It does go well with the pineapple jam.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

Chocolate Crinkles Cookies (巧克力皱纹曲奇）

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

Members of Facebook Group is asking me for Christmas cookies recipe. I do have some recipes in the previous year and i thought I might also share some new recipes this year.

The recipe that i have chosen is chocolate crinkle cookies. Hmmm, I do not know when this cookie become popular and it seems that in the recent months, i have seen a few posts of this cookies.

The cookies look rather different from other cookies. It has a unique outlook resemble a mushroom . This was resulted from the dough expansion during cooking. As it expands, a unique design is created.

It is a dark chocolate cookies that are very chocolaty , soft and chewy in the inside and firm on the exterior. Personally, I think it is a rather presentable trendy gift to be given to friends..

Preparation is very easy. The rule of soft chewy cookies is not to over bake the cookies. If you prefer crispy cookies, you will need to extend the baking timing.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : About 25-30 cookies

50 grams of butter, at room temperature
200 grams of dark cooking chocolate
80 grams of white sugar
2 eggs
200 grams of self raising flour
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
100 grams of icing sugar (for dusting)

STEPS OF OPERATION

Microwave the cooking chocolate for 1 minute. Set aside for cooling. You can also melt the chocolate using ban marie method.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate follow by the eggs. Beat until well combined.

Sift in the flour and baking powder, use the machine lowest speed and stir until well combined. Chill the dough in the fridge until the dough is firm enough and does not stick to your hand .

Pre-heat the oven to 165 degree Celsius.

Take about 1/2 tablespoon of the dough, use hand to shape round and put it in the bowl of icing sugar. Roll it and let the dough coat as much icing sugar as possible. Transfer to the baking tray and leave adequate space for expansion. (at least 5-6 cm apart) Bake in the pre-heated oven of 165 degree Celsius for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly firm.

CONCLUSION

This cookie is addictive and definitely suitable for a chocolate lover. I have already cut the sugar by 20% in this recipe and I will not recommend any further reduction. I hope this will benefit those readers who are looking for some Christmas cookies. You can easily modified this recipe by adding some red colouring and become a red velvet crinkle cookie.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

Classic Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting (红萝卜蛋糕）

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

I have prepared this carrot cake twice using two different recipes..

The first recipe is from the net and it has the shape but i did not like the texture and I do not think my readers will like this type of dense texture.. It was very dense possibly because golden syrup was used and it took very long hours to bake and hence the crust is rather thick. Having said that, my family members still finished all possibly because of the delicious cream cheese frosting.

Two days later that is today, i have decided to design a recipe of my own based on my carrot muffin recipe. In my humble opinion, it tastes much better and is very suitable for the cake. The only thing that can be further be improve is the doom shape of the cake. That possibly is due to my smaller pan used and I have to cut off the doom to level it. The cake is fluffier and overall, it just suits my taste buds,

Therefore in this post, there are two sets of images but what I am sharing is my newer and better recipe. For traditional cake, I have opt to use traditional rugged style of decoration and I never believed that it must be decorated with carrots made from fondant icing or butter cream.. By the same logic, is it not a sponge cake needs to be decorated using eggs or chocolate cake must be decorated with pieces of chocolate? Well, it is up to reader to decide but I have used some chopped pecan nuts for the topping which in my humble opinion is elegant and goes well with the cake.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepare an 8” diameter cake

150 grams of melted butter or cooking cooking oil
150 grams of carrots (shredded)
150 grams of brown sugar
100 grams of self raising flour
100 grams of plain flour
100 grams of chopped walnuts or pecan nuts
50 grams of fresh milk
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of mixed spice or cinnamon powder (optional)
3 eggs

250 grams of cream cheese, at room temperature
50 grams of butter, at room temperature
250 grams of icing sugar
2 teaspoons of milk
1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Additional 1/2 cups of chopped pecan nuts or walnuts for decoration
Some additional mixed spices for decoration

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degree Celsius and lightly grease a 8” diameter round baking tin.

Shred the carrots until fine and blend the pecan/walnuts until coarsely. Set aside.

In the bowl with shredded carrots, add the milk and lightly beaten eggs. Stir until well mixed. Add the brown sugar , stir until well combined.

Sift in the dry ingredients (self raising flour, plain flour, cinnamon powder or mixed spices) into the wet ingredients bowl in three stages. Use a fork to swiftly and quickly fold it until well mixed. Transfer the batter to the lightly greased tin, level and bake in the pre-heat oven of 170 degree Celsius for about 45 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake completely before proceeding to the next step.

Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add softened butter, beat until well combined. Add icing sugar follow by the milk and lemon juice. Beat for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

Take out the cake and cut into two equal halves. If there is a doom on the cake, slice it off if preferred. Apply generously the cream cheese frosting on top and the side of the cake. Sprinkle some additional mixed spices and chopped pecans/walnuts before serving. If the frosting is too soft, chill in the fridge for 15 minutes before application.

CONCLUSION

This is a much simpler recipe that yields better taste and texture than the first recipe that I try. If you are looking for a carrot cake recipe, you may want to consider this simple recipe.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

Steamed Fruit Cake or Kek Kukus Buah (杂果蒸糕）

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

Being hailed from Sarawak, I have a chance to taste many Malay steamed cakes that are sinfully rich. These cake are delicious, slightly chewy and dense.

If you have a chance to taste these cakes, you will definitely opt for it if there is a choice between baked and steamed cakes. These cakes are usually sold at a very high premium.. The reasons are simple, they are using very rich expensive ingredients and these cake usually take a long hours to steam to get that texture and well incorporated taste.. How long is long? It can range from 1-2 hours to 3-4 hours of continuous steaming depending on the size of the cake.

That is also the reason partially deter me from trying many delicious Malay traditional cake recipes.. Mind you, 4 hours of steaming is not a joke.. It takes lots of supervision and gas bills. But for this fruit cake, I have purposely looked for a steamed cake recipe since I already have a lot of baked recipe. The first thing that came into my mind is the Malay version or Kek Kukus buah buahan or fruit cake.

Looking at the picture, one will be able to tell that the cake is very moist, almost crust less. It is dense and slightly chewy. It can be cut into very nice pieces and with a distinctive dark colour. These dark colour is specially made. Unlike western fruit cake that uses brown sugar or molasses to colour the fruit cake, the sugars are caramelized first to get the colour.

Since this is a Malay recipe, very logically there is no alcohol being used. If you want , you can soak your fruit with rum or cherry wine or add a few tablespoons of rum to the the cake batter. After it is baked, spray alcohol on the cake.

I must say this recipe is a keeper but the only thing that I am unsure is that it is not sweet to the my taste bud. I have reanalyse the recipe twice and I may have wrongly measure the sugar. Therefore, I will provide the original recipe and let reader try out. I especially loved the chewy texture and once you try this fruit cake, I am sure you will continue to prepare this.

As discussed above, this fruit cake need 4 hours of continuous steaming for a 8”-10” tray. I do not have the patience or the kitchen gadget for the steaming. I can’t find any kitchen utensil in my house that can house an 8”-10” square pan and I will need to buy again. So what I did is to steam in a 6 inches diameter round pan. All the remaining , I put in a rectangular baking tin or 4” x 4” x 8” and i steamed bake it. Overall, it took me about 2 hours to steam this much smaller cake. and 1 hour to steam bake the other cake. Can you differentiate by look? Not really but texture wise, you will be able to tell that steamed version is much better than steamed bake. Steamed is still better than steamed baked.

The round cake looked flatter and the rectangle cake seems to be fluffier. It is not true, it is my own mistake of the batter distribution. After first distribution, i found that my rectangle cake batter seems to be too little, I scoped some batter from the centre of the round tin and forget to to level it before steaming. However, for readers, you should not have this problem at all. Lastly I want to say thanks to the blogger who provided this recipe.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: masam manis: KEK BUAH KUKUS

Servings: Prepare an 8” x 8” cake

500 grams of mixed fruits
350 grams of plain flour
300 grams of white sugar
250 grams of butter
50 grams or ml of hot water
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of mixed spice or nutmeg powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Lightly grease the your preferred baking tray. If you are steaming, get hold a steamer with boiling water and if steamed bake, pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

In a pot, put the sugar and on to medium heat. Melt the sugar until it become sugar syrup and start to turn golden brown. Add the 50 grams of hot water and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Note:

The colour changes from transparent sugar syrup to golden syrup can be rather fast. So, always used medium to low heat. Too brownish or golden will make you cake bitter.

When you add the hot water, be careful as steams will rush out and some spilling may happen. So do it carefully at low heat.

The main purpose of this step is to get the colour, if you prefer lighter coloured fruit cake, you can add the water faster. If you prefer darker colour, add slightly later but make sure it did not become too dark and it will become bitter.

Melt the butter in the hot sugar syrup follow by adding the mixed fruit. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes before off the heat. Let it cool until body temperature before proceeding the next step.

When cooled, sift in the nutmeg powder, baking soda and plain flour, fold until it become a sticky mass. Add in the beaten eggs, stir until a smooth batter is formed.

Transfer the cake to your preferred greased or lined baking pan. Cover the baking tin with a piece of aluminium foil.

For baking, place a tray of water at the lower rack of the oven, bake in the oven for about 1 hour until the cake is set and a skewer test inserts at the centre of the cake comes out clean. Timing is for your reference and very much depends on the size and height of the cake. . At 45 minutes juncture, you can open the aluminium foil and do the skewer test.

For steaming, steam the cake at high heat for at least 2 hours and that depends on the size and height of the cake. For a 6 inches round baking tray, it took me about 2 hours. For an 8 inches baking tray, it is expected to be at least 3-4 hours. After 2 hour juncture, you can open the aluminium foil and do the skewer test. Watch out for the water level and you may need to refill the hot water. Set aside a kettle of hot boiling water for this purpose.

The cake will further develop its taste after resting 1-2 days.

Note:

If you want to incorporate alcohol to the cake, you can either add a small quantities of fruit based alcohol to the batter before steaming and subsequently SPRAY the alcohol to the cake when it is out of the steamer.

For keeping, it is recommended that once cooled completely, wrapped the cake tightly with an aluminium foil to prevent water loss, put in an air tight container in a freezer.

CONCLUSION

I am unsure how long the fruit cake can be kept but experience shows that alcohol cake and long steaming fruit cake can keep very well in the freezer possibly up to year if not contaminated. Passion pays off and if you have never try a steamed cake, you should give it a go.. Lastly, remember that over caramelized sugar will give you a bitter cake. On the other hand, the right colour caramelized sugar with give you a special aroma that other fruit cakes will not be able to provide you.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

Golden Fruit Cake (黄金杂果蛋糕）

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

While I was browsing my recipe book and this fruit cake really captured my attention.. I liked the golden colour combination for its ingredients.. To me it looks very sexy and beautiful and it will be very different from all the other type of fruit cake that I have tasted before..

As contrast to the normal fruit cake, this fruit cake uses castor sugar whereas other normal fruit cake mostly uses brown sugar. Only golden, yellowish and white colour ingredients is used. Therefore, normal ingredients such as currants , red and green cherries are omitted..

The preparation time is almost the same the traditional fruit cake and it is a good alternative as Christmas fruit cake.. It is a heavy cake and you can prepare now and keep until Christmas just like normal fruit cake. However, in this case, you will need to use alcohol for the cake.

If you looked at the picture, there are actually two sets. For one set, the cutting was done 4 hours after the baking. The cutting was very messy and the fruits drop from the cake… I am anxious when I saw this happened.. I posted in a Facebook Group and asked for advise. There is no definite advise given but somebody mentioned that her fruit cake always did not have any problem of cutting as she always deep freeze it until Christmas.

i told myself that may be deep freezing may help. I deep freeze for a night and the next morning when I cut, the fruit cake can be sliced beautifully. Honestly, I do not think there is anything wrong with the fruit cake. With such huge quantities of fruits and nuts, whoever cut it will definitely have such problems if the timing is incorrect.. What I am sharing is that if there is a tendency for the fruits to drop, do try my method of deep freezing. In fact, after deep freezing, I found that my cake are moister..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Page 88, Golden Fruit Cake “The Essential Baking Cook Book” published by Murdoch Books in 2000

Servings: Prepare a 8” x 8” Fruit cake

600 grams of mixed fruits (See note below)
100 grams of nuts (See note below)
250 grams of butter, softened
200 grams of castor sugar
200 grams of plain flour
50 grams of self raising flour
30 grams of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of grated orange rind
4 eggs
60 ml or grams of sweet sherry wine or orange juices

Notes

For the mixed fruits mixed, you can choose all the golden colour fruits such as citrus peel, raisins, glace pears, glace apricots, glace pineapples, glace orange etc.. For this illustration I have use 1/2 of raisins and 1/2 golden fruit peels. As for the nuts, you can use blanched almonds, melon seeds, macadamia or other nuts that is golden in colour and for this illustrations, i have used cashew nuts.

For Christmas fruit cake and if you are preparing it now, it is suggested that you use wine instead of orange juices as wine is a preservative and it will enhance the alcoholic aroma over time.

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius. Lightly greased the baking tin or line the baking tin with baking paper.

In a bowl, put the dried fruits and nuts, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and toss the fruit until it is evenly coated with flour.

Cream the butter, sugar and condensed milk until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one by one. Beat until well combined.

Sift in 1/3 of the flours, fold lightly, add 1/3 of the orange juice or cherry wine. Fold until well mixed. Perform the same for the remaining 2/3 of flours, orange juice or sherry wine. Add the flour coated nuts and dried fruits. Fold lightly and swiftly until well combined. Transfer to the lightly greased tin, level and bake in the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or when a skewer inserts into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake rest in the baking tin for 30 minutes before unmoulding for cooling in the rack. Once completely cooled, store in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer.

CONCLUSION

I love this stunning looking fruit cake. It is my own self set target that I will share with reader one fruit cake one year. Do give it a try and let me know if this fruit cake capture the eyes of your guest.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂 to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Pumpkin Pie (南瓜派)

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

Every time around October, I will see a lot of recipe on pumpkin by Western bloggers.. One of the most common recipe will be pumpkin pie.. I have never tried this pie before but it has always in my to-do list. I can imagine the taste of the pie.. It should be creamy and yummy..

When I was shopping in a supermarket a few days ago, I saw 3 kg pumpkin was sold at a very reasonable price. Unknowingly, I bought a big pumpkin home. I remembered that it was less than S$3 and i know it is very heavy, probably about 2 kgs ..Ha-ha.. Therefore I must churn out recipes using pumpkins.

First thing that come to my mind is this pumpkin pie.. It is time to try out a recipe and if successful, I shall share with the readers. I searched for recipes but most are Western recipes that uses ready made canned pumpkin puree. After digesting a few recipes, I have decided to design my own recipe to suit Asian taste..

Bingo, the pumpkin pie is so delicious and make me wonder why such delicious pie is not common in this part of the world. I posted this western dessert in 3 Chinese food groups – One each in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The response is overwhelming. The likes are escalating and members are requesting for recipes. That is also the reason why I rush out to issue the recipe today.

Preparation is not difficult at all.. I have simplify the version of using food processor. Don’t worry, if you do not have food processor, you can easily do it manually or using a stand mixer or use hand rubbing method.

As per Wikipedia,

“Pumpkin pie is a traditional sweet dessert, often eaten during the fall and early winter, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States and Canada. The pumpkin is a symbol of harvest time and featured also at Halloween. The pie consists of a pumpkin-based custard, ranging in colour from orange to brown, baked in a single pie shell, rarely with a top crust. The pie is generally flavoured with cinnamon, powdered ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Allspice is also commonly used, and can replace the clove and nutmeg as its flavour is similar to both combined. Cardamom and vanilla are also sometimes used as batter spices.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_pie)

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About two 6 inches diameter pies

Short crust pastry

160 grams of plain flour
100 grams of butter, chilled
2 teaspoons of castor sugar
1 egg yolk
3 teaspoon of milk

Fillings

500 grams of pumpkin flesh
80 grams of condensed milk
30 grams of castor sugar – optional
2 eggs + 1 egg white
1 teaspoon of mixed spice (cinnamon+nutmeg+ginger) – optional

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Put all the butter, sugar and plain flour in a food processor. Use pulse mode to blend until the flour become crumble. Add eggs and milk, blend for 1/2 minute until it forms a liable dough. Divide the dough into two portions. Put one dough on top of a piece of clingy wrap. Put another clingy wrap on top of the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry to about 2mm thick . Transfer the pastry to your baking dish, press down follow the shape of the dish. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. If you have baking beads, you can place on top of the pastry and take it out once the baking is done.. Set aside for cooling.

Note

If you do not have a food processor, you can rub the butter and sugar using finger tips, add eggs and milk, LIGHTLY knead until if forms a pliable dough.

Steam the pumpkin until soft.

Transfer the pumpkin to the blender. Add eggs, sugar, condensed milk and mixed spice. Blend until fine. Fill the baked pastry shell with the puree to about 95% full. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for about 25 –30 minutes or until the puree is set. Cooled completely before cutting and serve at room temperature.

CONCLUSION

I love this pie and my kids love them too. I hoped more readers in this region will try this recipe and let me know if it suits your taste buds. If you do not want to prepare the pastry, store bought pie cups can also be used.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015) here and you can follow me at

PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂 to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

No Bake Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookies (免烤酥脆玉米片曲奇）

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

All these while, i am blogging traditional cookies and never really blog a trendy cookie.. In order to diversify my cookies recipe, I have decided to blog this rather trendy cookies commonly served during Chinese New Year..

Most kids will like this cookie as it is prepared using corn flakes. As contrast to other melt in the mouth cookies, is a crispy cookies full of cereal flavour.

I am not new to this cookies as my nieces like to prepare this during Chinese New Year. Most of the recipes in the net need to bake this simple cookies for about 10 minutes and I have purposely chosen one recipe that is no-bake version. It was prepared using peanut butter instead of normal butter.. It is a real simple easy to remember recipe. Variations are many including the nuts and the type of breakfast cereals to be used. I have added some sunflower seeds to the cookies and I loved the crunchiness of both the nuts and the corn flakes.

For those who do not have oven at home, this is one cookie that you can try.. Trust me, not only kids love the cookies, even adults like my wife love it very much .. lol.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 24 cookies

45 –60 grams of corn flake
45 grams of peanut butter
45 grams of castor sugar
45 grams of honey or corn syrup
Some small paper cups

STEPS OF PREPARATION

In a non stick pan, melt the peanut butter, honey or syrup and castor sugar. Bring to boil under low heat. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes until all the sugar dissolved. Off the heat, add in the corn flakes, stir until well mixed. While it is hot, put a teaspoon of corn flakes on the paper cups. Let it rest in the room temperature until it hardens. Once hardened, store in a air tight container. (Note, if the cornflake is too big pieces, you can crush it into big pieces before using)

CONCLUSION

The family have finished the whole bottle of cookies within one day. It is easy to prepare and rather addictive. If you are concern about the sweetness, you can either use more corn flakes or reduce the castor sugar by 10%. Remember that you can always add in some nuts to the recipes, be it walnut, sunflower seeds, pine seeds, almond or others..

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

This recipe was included in Page 24 and Page 25 of the following E-book.

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Golf Ball Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥）- Part 2

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

I have decided to rewrite the procedure of this golf ball pineapple tarts as the first post : What A Golf Ball Have To Do With A Pineapple? Well, It Is The Famous South East Asian Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥） was too detailed and readers may be confused. Therefore, this post have summarized the procedures for easy reference. For more write up on pineapple tarts and detail explanation of the procedures and the vegetarian pineapple tarts, please refer to the above post.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 100-120 golf balls pineapple tarts

1 kg of pineapple jam. – please refer to post – Quick and Easy 30 minutes Homemade Pineapple Jam (30 分钟简易凤梨酱）
500 grams of plain flour
350 grams of salted butter (softened at room temperature)
50grams of icing sugar
4 egg yolks (note that in the picture there are some egg whites which is not supposed to be there)
4 tablespoons of icy cold water. You can have 3 tablespoons of water from the fridge and one ice cubes.
Pinches of salt
2 egg yolks (for egg washing)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Take some jam of about 10 grams and shape it round. Arrange it in a container to be stored in the freezer later. The jam may be sticky and if it is overly sticky, pat your hands with some water before the shaping. Once done, deep freeze for 1-2 hours or until you feel comfortable to handle. Do not worry if the dough is too too hard, it will start to turn soft in the subsequent step and start defrosting while you are shaping the others. if you are able to handle the soft jam, deep freezing step is optional..

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one by one and beat until well combined.

Sift in the flour in three phases and alternate with icy cold water until well mixed. Chill the dough in the fridge if it is too soft for you to handle. This step is optional if you are able to handle a soft dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Pinch a dough of about 10 grams each, shape round, lightly flatten it, put a pineapple jam ball on top of the dough, seal the edges and shape round again. Egg wash the pineapple tarts before baking in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes. If you prefer, you can have the second egg wash after 10 minutes of baking. It will help to repair cracks. Cracks will arises if the dough is too thin.

For egg washing, hand beaten 2 egg yolks and add 2 big tablespoons of water and 2 drops of oil. Sift before application.

CONCLUSION

Remember that this is the simplify recipe for the golf ball pineapple tarts recipe. Please refer to the original post for more elaborate explanation. – What A Golf Ball Have To Do With A Pineapple? Well, It Is The Famous South East Asian Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥） and if you need homemade pineapple jam, please refer to this post – Quick and Easy 30 minutes Homemade Pineapple Jam (30 分钟简易凤梨酱）. Lastly, if you need pure vegetarian pineapple tarts recipe, you can refer the same post also.

Cheers and have a nice day.

This recipe was included in Page 34 and Page 35 of the following E-book.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Your Stollen is stolen? Quick And Easy Yeast Free Stollen (德国圣诞面包 – 史多伦）

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

This is not a stolen bread but a bread name Stollen.. It is a German Christmas cake bread type of sweet bake and usually served during Christmas..

As per Wikipedia:

“Stollen is a fruit cake containing dried fruit and often marzipan and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when it is called Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen. Stollen is a bread-like fruit cake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus peel (Zitronat), raisins and almonds, and different spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs, vanilla, other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan may also be added to the dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar. The finished cake is sprinkled with icing sugar.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen)

I did not intend to have any more Christmas bakes this year but I broke my promise again… While cleaning my kitchen cabinet, I still have some mixed fruits left. As all will know, these mixed fruits are usually used for Christmas bakes, after Christmas, it is unlikely that it will be used for other bakes… I told myself that I must think of a way to get rid of this..

When I issued my Italian Panettone post, one reader was asking me if I have a recipe of stollen. I told her I don’t and I will include in my next year’s Christmas recipes lists. However, since I want to get rid of the mix fruits, I have decided to take a bold move and baked it this morning.

I have searched high and low for the recipes.. In fact, there are many recipes and most are using yeast leavened method. But when i read the 4th recipe, it immediately caught my attention.. It is yeast free and therefore, it should belong to a quick bread category. It is leavened by baking powder. Further digesting the recipes found that the recipe called for the use of ricotta cheese which I knew that it will definitely yields a moist quick bread. The reviews confirmed my understanding and it score a 4.5 stars out of a 5 stars rating. One reader reviewed:

“I have been baking this wonderful recipe since I first found it in 2009. I thought it was so good, I mailed a piece of the stollen along with the recipe to a family member, and since then, just about every one in my family uses this recipe. My family is German, and we always looked forward to our mother baking stollen during the holidays. Her recipe uses yeast and seemed too difficult for me. This recipe is easy and always delicious! It tastes fine as written, or you can vary the amount of candied fruit or nuts (chopped pecans instead of almonds) I like to eat mine with a little margarine spread on it…..yummy!” (Read more: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/simple-stollen#ixzz3MF1LDtCl)

Since this is a quick bread, preparation is extremely fast and easy.. When I baked but somehow I found that my stollen was slightly flat, I opened my oven and intended to make it slightly rounder! LOL…. Oh, that created 2 parallel cracks on the top of the stollen and become rather unsightly. Do not follow me doing this wrong move.. Since my stollen is not beautiful, I thought to shelf the idea of sharing the recipe. I cut two pieces and ate it as my breakfast (I don’t usually eat any of my bakes before photo taking. Ha-ha)…As the house is full of this nice aroma and the after taste linger in my mouth, I took the courage to post to Facebook and share with members..

For purpose of this illustration, I did not put in any alcohol, instead, I soaked my dried fruits in pineapple juice.. As I do not have any silvered almond at home, I have omitted it as well. I have changed rather substantially from the original recipe because of the cups conversion. If you want, you can refer to the original recipes measured using cups.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe Inspired/Adapted from: Simple Stollen Recipe | Taste of Home

Servings: Prepare one medium size stollen

300 grams of plain flour
200 grams of cream cheese (original recipe used ricotta cheese)
200 grams of mixed fruits (soaked either in rum, brandy or fruit juice)
100 grams of sugar
100 grams of butter
35 grams of silvered almonds (not in picture – I did not used)
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon peel (i have omitted)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 egg and 1 yolk

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degree Celsius and line a baking tray with a piece of baking paper.

Cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beat until well combined. Add the soaked mixed fruits and silvered almonds. Give it a quick stir until well mixed.

Sift in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Use a spatula or flat bladed knife to mix until it form a rough dough. Do not over mix as it will yield a chewy stollen and slight lumpy batter is acceptable. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead about 5 times. If it is too sticky, pat your hand with more flour. Roll dough into about 8 inches x 10 inches and fold one side to the other side leaving about 1 inch from the edge. Bake in the pre-heat oven of 170 degree Celsius for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown or a skewer inserted to the thickest part comes out clean. The timing of baking is for your reference, it will depend on how thick is the dough of stollen. Dust sparingly with icing sugar on top of the bread.

CONCLUSION

Pardon me for my ugly stollen but rest be assured that this quick and easy recipe that yields a moist and fragrant stollen. For me, It is definitely a keeper. For more Christmas recipes, you can refer to this compilation: Christmas 2014 Special Compilation (2014 圣诞节特别汇编）

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

GUAI SHU SHU

Guai Shu Shu is a "shu shu" that is "guai"….

Category Archives: Christmas 2013

Christmas Wreath Bread (圣诞花环面包）

Matcha Cream Cheese Pineapple Rolls (绿茶奶酪凤梨卷）

Chocolate Crinkles Cookies (巧克力皱纹曲奇）

Classic Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting (红萝卜蛋糕）

Steamed Fruit Cake or Kek Kukus Buah (杂果蒸糕）

Golden Fruit Cake (黄金杂果蛋糕）

Pumpkin Pie (南瓜派)

No Bake Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookies (免烤酥脆玉米片曲奇）

Golf Ball Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥）- Part 2

Your Stollen is stolen? Quick And Easy Yeast Free Stollen (德国圣诞面包 – 史多伦）

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