Homesick Buns? Yes, I am homesick of Sarawak Style Butter Buns..

 

UPDATED POST ON 11-10-2014

Craving for the buns that I can get hold in Singapore, and I have decided to prepare these buns to surprise my wife. We usually bought back from Sarawak if we visited our home town. There is no change in the recipe but I have decided to use the BASIC BREAD DOUGH RECIPE instead of the tangzhong dough recipe here.  Please refer here for the BASIC BREAD DOUGH RECIPE. I find that the basic dough is much faster without compromise quality of the buns.

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INTRODUCTION

This is a rather simple basic bun of which I am yet to trace the history. The uniqueness of this bun is its filling. The filling is made of butter, sugar and flour. Throughout my years overseas, I have yet to find buns that have this filling. The nearest that I have came across is butter milk buns where milk powder is used used instead of pure butter.

I came from Sarawak, Malaysia. Sarawak is located in the island of Borneo. Since young, I have been eating these buns for breakfasts and snacks.

I missed the buns. The fillings are aromatic. It is sweet and buttery in flavour. When I made the first batch 2 days ago, I posted my pictures in the Google plus certain baking communities and my Facebook timeline, I was surprised that there are a number of readers and my friends are requesting for the recipe. What shocked me is that most of them in Google plus communities have never seen or eaten the buns before. Apparently, they are either curious about the fillings based on my descriptions.

As for the first batch, I did not take any measurements, I have decided to do the second batch so as to share the recipe with the readers.

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SARAWAK STYLE BUTTER BUNS

Sarawak style butter buns shall not be confused with the butter soft buns that are mentioned in other recipe books. The so called butter buns in recipe books are mostly refer to buns with no filling. It shall also not to be confused with the Hong Kong cocktail buns where the fillings are shredded coconuts and butters. In addition, they are also different from the so called “butter buns” whereby a butter cube is wrapped by the dough and when baked, the butter melts into the bread. Since there are possibilities of misunderstanding, I shall call these special buns as “Sarawak Style Butter Buns”.

	Butter Buns – Normal buttery buns with no filling. (pic courtesy:  http://en.christinesrecipes.com)
	Hong Kong Cocktail Buns – Fillings are shredded coconut and butter http://cornercafe.wordpress.com
	Buttery Buns – Butter in the centre of the bun and melted when baked. This is also the type of buns commonly found in the famous Malaysian chain store called “Rotiboy” .http://thenewartofbaking.blogspot.sg
	Sarawak Style Butter Buns – Butter fillings. Found in Sarawak only.

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THE PROCESS OF MAKING SARAWAK STYLE BUTTER BUNS

This illustration will use the Tangzhong method of bread making and it involved 5 stages in the following orders:

Part 1 – Making the Tanzhong (Water Roux) ..– Best to prepare the night before

Part 2 – Preparing the Dough for the 1st Proofing

Part 3 – Preparing the Butter Fillings

Part 4 – Preparing the Dough – Wrapping the Fillings and 2nd Proofing

Part 5 – The Baking Process

 

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TANZHONG METHOD OF BREAD MAKING

Tangzhong (汤种）is a relatively new method of bread making and the main advantages of it is because bread made using tangzhong were usually soft and fluffy and  able to keep longer. Previously, bread improver were used to make the bread softer for a longer period of time. However, this method have used all natural ingredients without any chemicals  to get the same effect.

According to Cookipedia:

“Tang zhong (also known as a ‘water roux‘) is a method used in bread making to create soft and fluffy bread which was originated by the Japanese. However, it was popularised throughout south-east Asia in the 1990s by a Chinese woman called Yvonne Chen who wrote a book called The 65° Bread Doctor. Using this method also allows bread to stay fresh for longer without needing to use artificial preservatives.

To make the tang zhong, you mix together one part flour with five parts liquid (by weight) to make a smooth paste. This is usually water, but can be milk or a mixture of both. The mixture is then heated in a saucepan until it reaches exactly 65°C (149°F), removed from the hob, covered and left to cool until it is down to room temperature, when it will be ready to use. It would be useful have a digital thermometer with a probe when making this as other types of thermometer tend to be too large. If you are not making your bread immediately, the tang zhong will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but will need to be brought up to room temperature before use. The tang zhong is added to the main flour with the liquid and mixed in and kneaded as normal.

The amount of tang zhong used should be about 35% of the weight of the main flour. It is best to make a little extra, because the liquid will evaporate slightly during heating. To make a loaf weighing about 1kg, I would suggest using 480g flour, 200g liquid and 170g tang zhong (made with 30g flour and 150g liquid), which will give a hydration of about 68%. You can of course adjust the amount of liquid either side of the 200g, but the tang zhong proportions should not be adjusted. “

(http://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Tang_zhong)

You will note that my recipe for Tang zhong (that are detailed below) are different from what is mentioned above. You can either use my recipe or the recipe as mentioned above.

 

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PROCESS OF MAKING THE SARAWAK STYLE BUTTER BUNS

PART 1 – MAKING THE TANG ZHONG (WATER ROUX) …..

What is required

• 50g bread flour

• 50g boiling water (water should be boiling hot, otherwise you have to put it over the stove to cook it)

Steps of preparation

• Get ready the bread flour in a mixing bowl. Pour the boiling hot water into the flour, mixed well and shaped into a ball.

• Let the ball cooled down at room temperature. Once cooled, covered bowl with a cling wrap and keep it in the fridge overnight.

• This recipe will make about 90 g of tanzhong. If you cannot finish tanzhong, you can put it in a container and keep it in the fridge for future use.

Update:

The picture below is from my second batch whereby I have used the method specified in the Cookipedia above and is append here for your reference.

What is required

• 25 g of bread flour
• 125 g of cold water

Steps of preparation

• In a metal mixing bowl, mixed the water with the cold water. Stirred until well mixed.

• Place the flour mixture under medium to low heat until the mixture boils.

• Continue to stir until it resembles some types of glue or when the mixtures start to dissociate itself from the wall of the bowl. Cool and keep it in the refrigerator for the portion that was not used.

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PART 2 – PREPARING THE DOUGH – 1st Proofing

What is required

• 180 g of bread flour (you can substitute 5 g of bread flour with milk powder, in that case you need only 175 g of bread flour)

• 30 g of sugar

• 4 g of instant dry yeast

• Pinches of Salt

• 35 g of beaten egg (the above picture is for illustration. 35 g of eggs is equivalent to about 1 egg)

• 55 ml of fresh milk

• 20 g of butter – soften

• 45 g of tangzhong, refer to recipe above (about half of the tangzhong made above)

 

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Steps of preparation (dough)

 

• Mix all ingredients except softened butter and beat at slow speed for about 5 minutes.

• Add the softened butter and continue kneading at medium high-speed for about 20-30 minutes or when the dough did not stick to the wall of your mixing bowl and do not break when you pull the dough.

• In the flat surface dusted with normal or bread flour, take out the dough from the mixing bowl and slightly knead it using hand for 1-2 minutes and shape it into a ball.

• lightly oil you mixing bowl and place the ball in the bowl. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap (to prevent moisture loss).

• Leave it to proof until almost double in size. This should be about 30-45 minutes depending on the day’s temperature.

• If you are using a metal mixing bowl which are slightly cold when touched, put it in your oven at temperature of about 30 degree Celsius for about 10 minutes or when your bowl feel warm when touched.

 

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PART 3 – PREPARING THE BUTTER FILLINGS

What is required

• 150 g of butter

• 150 g of sugar

• 180 g of flour

Steps of preparation

• Melt the butter in the microwavable bowl (1 minute). Alternatively, you can also melt it over the smallest heat directly under the fire.

• Add the sugar to the hot melted butter, stirred until dissolved.

• Add in the sifted flour gradually and used a spoon to stir until well mixed.

• Let the flour mixture cooled down and let it rest for at least 5-10 minutes (note that the flour need sometime to absorb the liquid and don’t worry if it is too watery. After 5 minutes, the flour will also expand and you can see a slight increase in volume.

• Once cool, shaped it into 10 small balls of about 40 g each. Set aside for later use.

 

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PART 4 – PREPARING THE DOUGH – Wrapping the fillings and 2nd Proofing

• Take the dough out, punch into the dough to let any trapped air escaped. Knead for one minute and divide into 10 equal size round ball.

• Wrap the dough around the butter filling ball as even as possible. Put it in a baking tray and cover with the same damp cloth.

• Let it proof for another 30 minutes or when balls were almost double in size.

 

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PART 5 – THE BAKING PROCESS

• Set the oven to temperature 190 degree Celsius.

• Put  in the oven and bake at 10-15 minutes. After 10 minutes of baking, egg wash (please see below) the buns quickly and continue baking for about 5 minutes or when the top start to turn slightly golden brown. Alternatively, you can egg wash first before you send into the oven. I prefer to egg wash at the latter stage as I can control the colour better.

• Egg wash – Crack one egg and mixed with 3 teaspoons of water and 2 drops of oil, slightly beat and sift into a small box, use the brush to brush on top of the surface. The purpose is to let the buns looks shinny and golden brown. 

• Take out from the oven and transfer to a rack for cooling.

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MODIFICATIONS AND VARIATIONS

• For the butter fillings, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of milk powder to the flour. Personally, I do not prefer to have milk powder added since it will negate the butter aroma. However, commercially, they do add milk powder to this and in fact, my kids loved the fillings that have milk powder.

• For the dough, you can add 1 teaspoon of milk powder as well. However, both this modification are not traditional methods of preparation.

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CONCLUSIONS

• This is a traditional bun that is very popular among the Sarawakians.  The history has yet to be traced. However, this bun is usually prepared by Hainanese “kopitiam” (coffee shops) and most of the good bakers are Hainanese. Hainanese are the descendants of immigrants from the Island of Hainan in People’s Republic of China. It is also a Chinese dialect group and they are very good chefs and pastry chiefs. This is because they arrived South East Asia later than other Chinese dialect groups (like Cantonese, Hokkien, Foochow) and they were employed as chefs in the then British families and well to do local and nonya families. They were trained by the British in baking and when the colonial era ceased, they started to set up coffee shops cater for the Chinese immigrants in from China. The consumption and usage of butter in pastry were mostly influenced by the British administration. Though unconfirmed, however , it appeared to be logical because Chinese traditional cooking did not use its butter in its delicacies.

• The Sarawak Style butter buns have a nice buttery fragrance and taken a bit resembles taking a teaspoon of butter and sugar in the mouth….It is divine especially eaten with a cup of tea or coffee. It is ideal as a breakfast item or afternoon snacks.

• The use of tanzhong in this recipe made the bread softer even after a day or two. This newly developed baking method is widely used by bakers in the Asian region and that is one of the reasons that sweet buns and soft buns were popular in Asian region. The texture will definitely different from the traditional method of bread baking.

Hope you take a move in trying out this new recipe. For my readers who are in other countries and never tasted this bun, just take a bowl, add equal amounts of melted butter, sugar and flours, stirred and put in the microwave for 2 minutes. Have a small scoop of filling and tell me if this is your cup of teas.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day. Cheers. 

 

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I Am Short Of Time And Craved For A Cookie.. So I Made..–Microwave Cookies

INTRODUCTION

Previously, I have a post on Microwave Mug Cake and yesterday when I browsed through the internet, a recipe in this Facebook Page – I love showing my personality in my cooking, caught my attention. I have always loved this Facebook Page because of its simple, unusual and daring recipes. In his/her post FOR THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE COOKIE!, the Page owner was using microwave to prepare some cookies. Analysing at the ingredients, I was amazed how simple were the ingredients. Looking at the number of Likes in the post, at that time, there were 110 Likes and 736 re-shares. I thought I might as well give it a try.

This morning, I am toying with his/her recipes. I started to try the original recipe and followed by additional recipes modified by me including 2 eggless recipes. Prior to this, I do know there are some eggless cookies recipes and I thought I might as well try to make these eggless cookies using microwave. My previous post of Eggless, Butter Less and Milk Less Cup Cakes was quite well received and I believed there will be some readers who are interested in microwave eggless cookies too.

Altogether, I have prepared 5 cookies:

1. Butter Cookies with Caramel Chocolate Chips – As per the original recipe except substitute chocolate chips with caramel chocolate chips;
2. Chocolate Cookies with Almond Chunks
3. Eggless Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices
4. Eggless Blueberry Cookies with Fresh blueberries
5. Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices

For eggless cookies, the eggs were substituted with equivalent volumes of strawberry milks or fresh milks. For this post, I will only list out the recipe of the  first cookie and highlight the changes in ingredients for the other cookies.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: FOR THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE COOKIE by I love showing my personality in my cooking

• 1/4 cup of plain flour

• 1 tablespoon of butter (melted)

• 1 tablespoon of white sugar

• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons of caramel chocolate chips (optional)

• 1 egg yolk

• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

• Pinches of salt

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

 

• In a bowl with melted butter, add in white and brown sugars, stir until well mixed. Add in egg yolks and followed by plain flour. Stir until combined and followed by addition of caramel chocolate chips.

• Place the cookie batter in the lightly greased  microwavable plate or bowl. Microwave 45-60 seconds or until the centre of the batter is set.

NOTE:

Just like ovens, every microwave oven will have some differences in terms of heat released. Like the microwave oven I have in my house, it is a very simple basic microwave oven with no function to adjust the heat. As such, you can start using medium heat (if there is any) and see how is the result. If at the end of 60 seconds, the cookie still does not look set, add additional 10-20 seconds to the cooking time. It is considered as cooked when the centre of the cookie is set or not runny.

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CHANGES IN OTHER COOKIES’ RECIPES

For other cookies, the changes are as follows:

• Chocolate Cookies with Almond Chunks – Addition of 1 teaspoon of chocolate powder to the batter and replace chocolate chips with almond chunks; 

• Eggless Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices – Replacement of egg yolk with 20 grams of strawberry milks and substituting chocolate chips with one fresh strawberry (cut in slices)

• Eggless Blueberry Cookies with Fresh blueberries – Replacement of egg yolk with 20 grams of  fresh milks and replacing chocolate chips with 10 fresh blueberries (mashed)

• Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices – Replacement of almond chunks with one fresh strawberries (cut in slices).

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OUTCOME OF THE EXPERIMENTS

Butter Cookies with Caramel Chocolate Chips 

The texture of the cookie is definitely satisfactory. It is rather light and a chewy type of cookie. It is quite fragile and if you view the original website, you will see that the Page Owner is using a fork to eat the cookie. However, given adequate time to cool, the cookie can be cut into neat pieces and definitely worth a try.

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Chocolate Cookies with Almond Chunks

As expected, since it is a change of dry ingredients (from chocolate chips to almond chunks) and addition of chocolate powder, the texture is the same as the first cookie. Definitely recommendable even though it is not as crispy as the traditional cookie.

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Eggless Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices

Well, for this cookie, there was a rather major modification to the ingredients. So, what is the impact of the substitution of egg yolk with strawberry milks and the addition of freshly cut strawberry slices to the cookie? As expected, as there is no egg, it become a very dense “cookie” or “cake” if you  want to call it.

As I have explained earlier in my Eggless, Butter Less and Milk Less Cup Cakes post, eggs have the role to support the structure of any baked products. Without eggs, the rise of any baked products (cookies included) will have to be solely depend on the leavening agents (baking soda or baking powders).

Since we are using plain flour (without any baking soda or baking powders), will the cookies rise? The answer is quite certain, NO.

How about if we substitute the plain flour with self raising flours? It may or may not since the milk have much more moisture content than the eggs and it may not be able to support the flours.

Taste wise, it is acceptable. It is moist and full of strawberry flavour. Having one full cookie with some strawberry ice cream will definitely be welcomed by your guest…For Asian taste, this resembles a steamed dense cake..

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Eggless Blueberry Cookies with Fresh blueberries

 

I then continued my adventure with the blueberry cookie by substituting the yolk with fresh milk and addition of blueberries. The outcome is the same as the eggless strawberry cookie, dense but chewy and edible.

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Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Slices 

Looking at the dense eggless “cookie” that I have made, I have decided to revert back to the usage of yolk in the cookies. For this cookie,  I have only substituted the chocolate chips with one strawberry fresh slices.

The texture is slightly better than the eggless cookies but it is too moist. The reason was simple, the juices from the fresh strawberry slices have negate part of the structure supporting effects of eggs  in the cookie.  If strawberry is to be added, I personally think that some baking powder and more flour will be needed to make it less dense.

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CONCLUSION

Depending on individual tastes, I would strongly recommended making the first two cookies (butter cookie with caramel chocolate chips and chocolate cookie with almond chunks). These two cookies are very delicious and light. However, if you do not mind to have dense “cookies”, you can try eggless strawberries and blueberries cookies. It was moist and very tasty.

Hope you like my adventure today and do take a step out to prepare this one minute cookie for yourself or share with your family members. Is it not baking and cooking is fun with endless possibilities to try?

Have a nice day and cheers.

Eating “Rat’s Shit”? You AreTotally Gross! –Vegetarian Fried “Beethyemak” Rice Noodles

INTRODUCTION

Beethyemak (“米大目”） is the name stated in the package of rice noodles that I bought from the supermarket. It is also called “Loh Su Fun” (“老鼠粉”） in Cantonese literally translated as  “Rats flour” …In my Chawan dialects group, it was called “ngiao chu sia” （”老鼠屎“） literally translated as “Rat’s shit”. My mother in law who is a Teochew, called it “ngiao chi ni” (“老鼠奶“） literally translated as “Rat’s milk”..

If you ask me what is the English translation? I will just translated it into a type of rice noodles taken in different form of the shape of disgusting “worms”. Apparently, it was shaped liked a “rat” .. Does it? I don’t know! I looked for some write up for this noodle dish and I managed to get a Chinese description in http://www.baike.com , the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia. What is written is:

“米苔目是闽南语，又叫米筛目，漳州龙海特色小吃，是用米和番薯粉做成的。制作米苔目的工序颇为复杂：先要将米浸泡磨成米浆，然后放进布袋加压脱水成“饭脆”，将“饭脆”加入番薯粉，揉搓成饭团，再把饭团做成细条状，放到锅里煮熟捞起后用冷水冲洗，使之滑嫩。米苔目加入糖水、刨冰，可以做成冰凉可口的甜品，咸吃则可以用乌醋拌食或放入柴鱼熬煮成汤，再加入爆香的作料；像河粉一般热炒的米苔目很有嚼劲。 米苔目现在是闽南地区以及台湾著名的美食。” (Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/68002.htm)

I have used Google Translation to translate and this is what I got:

“Mitai Mu is the Taiwanese language, called m mesh , Zhangzhou Longhai snacks, with rice and sweet potato flour made. Making process is quite complex Mitai Mu: Soak the rice milled rice milk first and then put into a pressure dewatering bag “rice crispy”, the “rice crispy” adding sweet potato powder , rub into balls , then made ​​into balls thin strips, into the pot boiled picked up after the rinse with cold water to make it smooth and delicate. Mi Taimu added sugar , ice, can be made ​​into delicious cold desserts , salty food, you can use the black vinegar mixed with food or put dried fish boiled into soup, then add the spices until fragrant; like rice noodles stir-fried rice general moss mesh very chewy. Mitai Mu is now southern region as well as Taiwan ‘s famous cuisine.”

Well, if readers can understand, it is best. However, if you can’t, I think that is unfair to you and I will try my best to translate for you.

“ Beethyemak is the name in Mingnan (Fujian or Hokkien) and the “thye” can also be translated or treated as “sift” in Hokkien. It is a famous snack in Longhai County, Zhangzhou (People’s Republic of China) and it is made of rice and sweet potatoes flour. The manufacturing process is rather complicated. Firstly, the rice grain have to be soaked and ground into rice batter, These are then put in a bag made from cloth. A heavy object is then placed on top of the rice batter to exert pressure and squeeze out the water making it to become a drier batter. Sweet potatoes flour are then added and mixed well. It is then made into long stripes by pouring the batter into the hot water. When cooked , the noodles are immediately dip in cold water such that the texture will be smooth and springy. To serve as a dessert, syrups and crushed ices were added to beethyemak . For savoury dishes, beethyemak can be stir mixed with black vinegar。 It can also be cooked with Bonito broth, and garnished with aromatic deep fried garlics or shallots. It can also be stir fried like Horfun (Kway Tiao) and both noodles have almost similar textures. Beethyemak is now a famous cuisine in the Mingnan (Fujian) area and Taiwan.”

I have been eating this noodle dish since I was young. Because of the name “Rat’s shit”, psychologically, I do not really like it. In addition, when I was young in Kuching, Sarawak, the Beethyemak is mostly made from pure rice flour. The texture is rather coarse and tasteless. It is not until when I came to Singapore that I started to like Beethyemak. The Beethyemak in Singapore is more springy and if properly cooked, it taste better than rice vermicelli or Kway Tiao (another flat type of rice noodles). 

This noodle is not easy to prepare as compare to rice vermicelli or Kway Tiao. You can either cook it in soupy version or stir fry it.

For stir frying, if you want to maintain the shape, the oil for frying will have to be quite a lot. Otherwise it will stick to your frying pan making it hard to fry. The purpose of this post is to illustrate how to stir fry this noodle dish, the ingredients can be anything from prawns to meat to the vegetables of your choice.

Again, as I am still on my vegetarian diet, this dish will be a vegetarian version. But remember, you can always add meats, prawns, fish cakes etc. of your choice. In addition, you can always used the same method to fry rice vermicelli and Kway Tiao or Horfun.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

There will be no quantity stated here and you have full flexibility to change the ingredients. This illustration is the vegetarian version and please add in any other ingredients that you like.

• Some cabbage cut in slices

• Some black fungus – soaked and cut into small slices

• Some tofu puff – cut into small square cubes

• 1 package of Beethyemak rice noodles (about 500 grams – servings of 4-5 adults)

• Some eggs, lightly beaten

• Some celery – cut into small cubes

• Some mock meat – cut into strips

• Some dried mushrooms – soaked and cut into strips

• Some shredded gingers and/or shallots and/or garlics

• Condiments of your choices – light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, flavour enhancer like mushroom concentrate, white pepper, salt)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Put one to two tablespoons of cooking oil in the frying pan. Add in shredded gingers and mushrooms (non vegetarian version can put in shredded shallots and garlics) and stir fried under high heat until the fragrance starts to spread.

• Add in cabbage, stir fry for one minute and follow by celery, mock meat, tofu puffs, black fungus, stir fry until well mixed. Add in half a cup of water (estimate) and let it cooked for one – two minutes.

The above garnishes of spring onion for picture taking purposes, Religion vegetarian cannot have spring onion in the dish.

Note

• The purpose of adding the water is to soften and cook the vegetables. Remember, unlike stir frying rice vermicelli, the water has to be minimal as the noodles are rather wet and will not be able to absorb any more water.

• If your are frying with meat, meat will be the first item to be stir fried followed by hard vegetables (carrots, cabbage, celery etc.), leafy vegetables and tomatoes in this order.

• Add in the noodles and stir fry until well mixed. Add in dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, pepper, salt and flavour enhancer. Stir fry until well mixed. Add in beaten eggs and fry until all the noodles were coated with the eggs.

Note:

• In this illustration, I have purposely used this method of adding the eggs to the noodles. The purpose is to let the eggs coating the noodles. If you do not like the moist soft egg coated noodles, you can prepare the omelette and cut it into strips. You can refer to Vegetarian Tom Yam Bee Hoon for making of omelette strips. The difference is this way of frying noodles will result in moister noodles.

• Add in tomatoes and and stir fry for another minutes before scoop out to the plate for serving. Best serve hot with your preferences of garnishes such as coriander leaves, freshly cut chilli or Chinese celery leaves.

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CONCLUSION

This noodle dish looks easy to prepare but in fact, it need some practise. The challenges is to ensure the noodles are well coated with eggs and not stick to each other or soggy. To get this texture, the following points have to be taken into considerations:

• The heat has to be high heat throughout the stir frying. Therefore action have to be fast. If you can’t handle, this, you have to use at least medium heat. High heat is required to ensure that all the fragrances of gingers/shallots/garlics mix well with the noodles and any moisture or water contents dries up quickly. With this, there is less chance for the noodles to get soggy.

• There is always a trade off between the look of your final cooked noodles and the amount of cooking oil used. You have to chose whether you want to have a healthier dish (using less oil) but an uglier dish (may be a bit out of shape as some of the noodles may stick to your frying pan). If you want to have an impressive non stick noodles, you will have to use quite a lot of oil to achieve that effect.

• Unlike fried rice vermicelli and Kway Tiao, the water used for simmering the vegetables or side ingredients cannot be too much, otherwise, your noodles will be soggy and stick to the frying pan. If you have accidentally added too much water, you would rather let the water dry up first (meaning cook a bit longer) rather than having some soggy noodles.

• If you do not like moist egg coated noodles, you can use egg omelette strips.

• All side ingredients in this illustrations are optional and substitutable. Please use what you like to fry the noodles. I have raid my fridge to come out with this and is a vegetarian version. Otherwise, I would have added pork belly meat, prawns and even some dry shrimps. So, use whatever that your family likes to cook the noodle dish.

• Though all ingredients appeared to be optional, however, the selections will usually based on the colour of the side ingredients and a good combination of colour will make the dish looks appetizing. I usually used tomatoes or carrots for orange, chillies for red colour, choy shym or leafy vegetable for green, dried mushrooms or black fungus for black,  and corns or eggs for yellow colour. This minute detail of colour combination will make this simple dish becoming a presentable dish.

• Remember that this method of cooking is equally applicable to fried yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, Kway Tiao, Pad Thai and etc..

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

Soft Chewy or Crispy,You Choose Yourself! – Baby Cereal Oatmeal Cranberry Biscuits (麦片饼干）

UPDATED POST ON 2-10-2014

A biscuit that I like very much but went unnoticed because I did not like the initial pictures taken.. Since I have some cereal at home, I decided to prepare this for my relatives as a hand gift. Nothing change except that I substitute the oats portion with instant cereal since I do not have it at home. In addition, instead of cranberry, I have used raisin instead. It is crispy outside and chewy in the middle. You can make it totally crispy if you make it a smaller size and extend the baking time at a lower temperature. A rather addictive cookie and I really love the cereal flavouring.

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INTRODUCTION

One number baking ratio now extends it to biscuit and of course it had to be slightly amended. In this recipe, one portion of milk was being substituted by a portion of flour to make it a cookie liked structure.  This biscuits can be a soft chewy type of biscuit that is crispy on the outside but slightly soft in the middle. It can also be a crispy type of biscuits it you prefer it to be crunchy.

This is not the first time I prepared these biscuits. I prepared these biscuits a few months back. I loved it for its chewy texture and the baby cereal fragrance.

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WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN INSTANT OATS “MEET” QUAKER OATS

I like to blend my instant Quaker Oats with the Nestum Baby Cereals and make it into a breakfast cereal drink. I usually put 50% of instant oats and 50% of baby cereals and use a food processor to blend these two items. The breakfast cereal drinks will have instant oats “stickiness” but with baby cereals fragrance. I usually sweetened it by some condensed milk and if it was too “sticky”, I will add in some fresh milk. Bananas and nuts were added when I craved for it. May be I shall have another post on this wonderful breakfast drinks and you wouldn’t be disappointed with this cereal drink..

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 100 grams of butter

• 100 grams of plain flour

• 50 grams of instant oat

• 50 grams of instant baby cereals

• 100 grams of sugar

• 100 grams of eggs

• 50 grams of cranberry (optional and substitutable with raisins or other dry fruits)

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 0.5 teaspoon of baking soda

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparing the instant oat baby cereal mixture

• Blend 50 grams of instant oats and instant baby cereal each using a food processor until your desired textures.

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Preparation

• Get ready 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper or baking paper.

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

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Preparation the batter and baking

• Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and followed by the mixture of oats/baby cereals. Stir and mix well.

• Add in the sifted flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix until just combined. Stir in cranberries or raisins and mix well.

• Place one teaspoon/tablespoon full of soft dough (depending on the size you want) on the parchment or baking paper.  Give adequate space for the dough to expand when cooked.

• Bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes or until the colour starts to turn golden brown on the edges but still soft in the centre.

• Cooled completely in a rack before store in an air tight container.

• Best served with hot tea and coffee and as a snack.

VARIATIONS

• If you preferred the crunchy version, after the 20 minutes baking at 180 degree Celsius, reduce your temperature to 150 degree Celsius and continue baking for another 10 minutes. Note that the cookies will not be hardened until you take it out from the oven. Let it cool and see if that is your desired texture. In the event you prefer to be even crispier, put back to the oven and baked for another 5 minutes. The longer you baked, the more moisture will be lost making it to be crispier. However, do watch out for the colour of cookies. If it is too brown, you can turn off the top heat and use the bottom heat to continue the baking.

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CONCLUSION

From preparing the biscuits until I finished this posting, it took me about 2 hours. Therefore, readers should comprehend how easy this biscuit was. If you like baby cereal like I do, you will like it. If you like soft chewy type of biscuits where the edges are crispy and soft in the inside, you will like it. Take a step to make this, tailor to your family taste buds, it definitely wouldn’t disappoint yourself and your family members.

Join me to have some of these cookies as breakfast and of course, not forgetting a cup of hot Earl Grey tea.

Cheers and have a nice day!

 

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 28 July 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 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.

You Stingy Old Man, You Ruined My Mexican Coffee Buns–Polo Buns and Mexican Coffee Buns

INTRODUCTION

Please scroll down for the updated posts

Guaishushu is seriously regretting for his “creativities” and “stinginess”. He made a batch of Polo buns and Mexican Coffee Buns. However, as the final proofing of his bun is less than his desired diameter, he was left with some coffee pastry dough. Instead of throwing it away, half way when he baked the buns, he just took out the buns and pumped in the left over coffee pastry dough thinking it will melt and become a coffee buns with double dose of crusty coffee toppings… And the end, he found that instead of making it more beautiful, he made a bunch of ugly buns… Well, he still decided to share the recipe here as readers can just follow the recipe and get some good quality buns…… Don’t be misled by Guaishushu’s pictures.

POLO BUNS AND MEXICAN COFFEE BUNS

Polo bun or pineapple bun is a type of soft, sweet bun commonly found in Asia. The word “Polo” in Mandarin literally translated to pineapple. In another word, it is supposed to be a soft bun that have skin that resembles the skin of pineapples. Usually what is being sold in the market is with fillings such as barbecue pork. However, as I am on a vegetarian diet, I have opted to make it into a plain bun for breakfast. The buns were wrapped with a soft cookie liked dough on top of the buns, when it proved for the second time, the plain dough will start to make the soft cookie liked dough to break and those resembling the skin of a pineapple. Some have used a knife to cut into a pattern of a pineapple skin.

Mexican coffee buns is popularized by Rotiboy in Malaysia and it is a type of sweet bun with coffee flavoured crusty toppings. Usually, inside the buns, there is  a slice of butter which will melt when the buns are baked. Therefore the buns is full of buttery flavour.

THIS IS DEFINTELY A WORKABLE RECIPE AND IF YOU LOOK AT MY WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES, YOU WILL SEE THE IT IS OKAY UNTIL THE VERY LAST MOMENT WHEN GUAISHUSHU IS GREEDY TO ADD ADDITIONAL COFFEE TOPPINGS.

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This post is a rather long post and have the following sections

Section A: Preparing the Buns

Section B: Preparing the Polo Buns Crusty Toppings

Section C: Preparing the Mexico Buns Crusty Toppings

Section D: Preparing Polo Buns for Baking

Section E: Preparing the Mexico Buns for Baking

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SECTION A: PREPARING OF BUNS

What is required

• 500 g bread flour

• 100 g castor sugar

• Yeast one packet (about 11 grams)

• 30 grams of butter (at room temperature)

• Pinches of salt

• 50 grams eggs (about 1 egg)

• 240 grams of water

• 50 grams of tangzhong (please refer to https://kwgls.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/home-sick-buns-yes-it-is-sarawak-style-butter-buns/)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Mix all ingredients except softened butter and beat at slow speed for about 5 minutes.

• Add the softened butter and continue kneading at medium high-speed for about 20-30 minutes or when the dough did not stick to the wall of your mixing bowl and do not break when you pull the dough.

• In the flat surface dusted with normal or bread flour, take out the dough from the mixing bowl and slightly knead it using hand for 1-2 minutes and shape it into a ball.

• lightly oil you mixing bowl and place the ball in the bowl. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap (to prevent moisture loss).

• Leave it to proof until almost double in size. This should be about 30-45 minutes depending on the day’s temperature.

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SECTION B: PREPARING THE POLO BUNS CRUSTY TOPPINGS

What is required

• 75 grams butter, melted

• 110 grams of bread flour self raising flour, sifted

• 50 grams of icing sugar, sifted

• 25  40 grams of eggs, lightly beaten

• 30 grams of milk powder
• One egg yolk for egg washing
• Some sugar for sprinkling

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Steps of preparation

 

• Melt the butter in an microwave oven for 1 minute.

• Add in beaten eggs, sifted icing sugar, milk powder and sifted bread flours self raising flour. Mixed well until it form a soft dough.

• Divide the dough into 8 equal portions.

• Shape in round shape and set aside for later use.

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Section C: Preparing the Mexico Buns Crusty Toppings

What is required

• 100 grams of butter, melted

• 100 grams of flour, sifted

• 80 grams of icing sugar, sifted

• 50 grams of eggs, lightly beaten

• 2 tablespoons of unsweetened instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water.

• 8 pieces of 1 cm x 3cm x 0.2 cm cold cut butter (sizes is just for reference and you can just cut the butter in a small piece) – for usage in Section E. Store the butter in the fridge.

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Steps of preparation

• Melt the butter in an microwave oven for 1 minute.

• Add in beaten eggs, sifted icing sugar, instant coffee paste and sifted bread flours. Mixed well until it form a soft sticky dough and set aside.

Note that in the above illustration pictures, I only add in the instant coffee paste at a later stage.

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SECTION D: PREPARING POLO BUNS FOR BAKING

* For newer detail instruction of preparing it from frozen dough, please scroll towards the end for the updated post

• Take the dough out, punch into the dough to let any trapped air escaped. Knead for one minute and divide into 2 portions. Set aside one portion for Mexico Coffee Buns in Section E.

• Divide the dough equally into 8 portions and shape it into a round ball.

• Use a roller to flatten the “cookie liked dough” as prepared in Section B.

• Use a brush to lightly brush some water on the plain dough so that it is easier for the cookie dough to cling on the plain dough.

• Wrap around the plain dough and let it prove until double in size.

• As the dough proves, you will see the cookies dough started to break. If you find you cookies dough have the tendency to drop from plain dough, spray or brush with additional water to let them stick together.

• When double in size, baked in the oven at 190 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes.

* For newer detail instruction of preparing it from frozen dough, please scroll towards the end for the updated post

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SECTION E: PREPARING MEXICO COFFEE BUNS FOR BAKING

• Lightly knead the other half of the dough as mentioned in Section D.

• Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and shape into a sound ball.

• Use a roller to roll the ball into a flat dough, place a piece of cold butter on top of the dough. Use the dough to wrap a butter and make it into a round ball.

• Put it in the baking tray and proved until double in size.

• Put the coffee soft dough into a piping bag. Cut a small hole in the bottom.

• Pipe the coffee soft dough on top of the proved buns in the pattern as in the above images.

• After finished piping, bake in the oven for 190 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes.

 

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CONCLUSIONS

In this post, I have shared two types of common sweet buns. If you have some baking basics, it is definitely not a difficult bun to prepare. The crispy toppings of both buns are rather similar except the proportion of each ingredient is different. These toppings can actually be prepared in advance to shorten the preparation time. Remember that you can always wrapped barbecue pork in the Polo buns and you can refer Guaishushu’s Facebook Page post P1 – Roast Meat Bun (烧肉餐包）.

Sincerely, honestly, faithfully hope you like the post today and don’t get discourage by the ugly pictures today. Guaishushu’s promise to be less stingy (at least for photo taking purposes, ha-ha) in my coming illustrations..

Have a nice day and cheers….

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UPDATED ON 2 AUGUST 2014

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I have prepared some Mexican Buns on today and I have decided to take some picture and update the post.

As the above dough recipes uses tangzhong is rather time consuming, I have decided to use another faster dough as in my Blueberry Sweet Bread. It is definitely a faster and easier straight dough method that yields a fluffier bread.. As for the toppings, it is the same as the recipe above.

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UPDATED POST ON 12 SEPTEMBER 2014

With the frozen dough that I have in the fridge, I have decided to prepare some polo buns for the breakfast.

There are some changes to the recipe as indicated in “red” as above as I found that this recipe for the topping is better. In addition, I have used another way of preparing the buns.

• Pre-heat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.

• Cut the frozen dough into 10 parts of about 30 grams each. Let it defrost in the room temperature for about 5 minutes before shaping into a ball. You can refer to the basic dough recipe in this post  : Basic Bread Dough Recipe And Plum Blossom Sausage Buns (梅花香肠面包）

• Weigh the  topping and divide into 10 equal balls. Take one topping, shape it like a ball, place a dough ball on top of the crust ball, wrap the topping around the dough ball. Use a knife to cut some lines on on top of the toppings.

• Let the dough proof until double in size, egg wash with the egg yolk followed by sprinkling some sugar on top of the crust. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes or when the breads turn golden brown.

 

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 28 July 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 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.

How I Wish This World Is As Colourful As A Rainbow–Cranberries Raisins Rainbow Loaf

INTRODUCTION

Guaishushu told himself, once in a while playing with colouring is okay since he did not have a chance to colour since after schooling.

Two months ago, he “accidentally’ brought a full set of colouring intended for icing decoration for about SGD 30 and he thought that it’s only SGD3. By hook and by crook, he wanted to use up some of his colouring and he knew that the only colour that he really needed and always used is the red colour for the preparation of red eggs during his kids’ Lunar calendar birthday celebration. Besides making the red eggs, he really don’t know what to do with these colourings!

One day, when he was browsing his Flipboard application in iPhone, he saw some rainbow loaf which is extremely beautiful but he is hesitant whether or not he should proceed to prepare this since it will need a lot of colourings.

Though it is generally not encouraged to consume too much food with colouring, but there should be government regulations that governed the import of permitted food colourings. If it is hazardous to health, he shouldn’t be able to get it in this “efficiently administered” country, Singapore. He searched the manufacturer Wilton LLC, apparently, it is an USA well established company set up in 1929. He told himself he is just a commoner, if this company had been established for so many years, their products must have been used by many people in the world and he should not casting doubt on its product reliability! In this thinking process, he gradually convinced himself that it is acceptable for him to prepare the bread!

He knew that if he bake the bread, he will have nothing to worry about the “marketability” of his rainbow loaf as his kids will definitely fight for the bread. While he was struggling to make a decision, he certainly thought of a blog “Bake for Happy Kids” by Ms. Zoe. Her blog title is correct, he should bake to make his kids happy!

This post is about rainbow raisin and cranberry loaf. Guaishushu aims are to share about the making of rainbow loaf and raisin loaf. Therefore if readers are not fond of making the rainbow loaf, he can just make the raisin loaf instead.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

This recipe was adopted from the Sarawak buns recipe here and some of the picture are in the above mentioned post.

• 360 g of bread flour (you can substitute 10 g of bread flour with milk powder, in that case you need only 350 g of bread flour)

• 70 g of beaten egg

• 60 g of sugar

• 40 g of butter – soften

• 90 g of tangzhong (refer below)

• 110 ml of fresh milk

• 11 g of instant dry yeast ( 1 package)

• 7 different types of colour gel or colouring (refer below)

• 100 g of raisins and/or cranberry soaked in water/rum.

• Pinches of salt

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THE PROCESS OF MAKING RAISIN AND CRANBERRY RAINBOW LOAF

This illustration will use the Tangzhong method of bread making and it involved 4 stages in the following orders:

Part 1 – Making the Tanzhong (Water Roux)

Part 2 – Preparing and Colouring the Dough for the 1st Proofing

Part 3 – Wrapping of Cranberries and Raisins and 2nd Proofing

Part 4 – The Baking Process

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Part 1 – Making the Tanzhong (Water Roux)

PLEASE REFER TO THIS POST for the making of Tanzhong and reasons and history of Tanzhong.

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Part 2 – Preparing and Colouring the Dough for the 1st Proofing

• Mix all ingredients except softened butter and beat at slow speed for about 5 minutes.

• Add the softened butter and continue kneading at medium high-speed for about 20-30 minutes or when the dough did not stick to the wall of your mixing bowl and do not break when you pull the dough.

• In a flat surface dusted with normal or bread flour, take out the dough from the mixing bowl and slightly knead it using hand for 1-2 minutes and shape it into a ball.

• Weigh the ball and divide into 7 equal portions.

• Take one dough and place some colour gel and knead until all the colour are even. Keep in a lightly greased bowl and covered with lightly greased cling wrap to prevent moisture loss.

• Do the same for the remaining 6 dough with your desired colours.

• Leave it to proof until almost double in size. This should be about 30-45 minutes depending on the day’s weather.

Colour Selection

For this pictorial illustration, the colours that I have selected was in this order (from left to right and eventually from the top level to the bottom level):

Lemon Yellow – Golden yellow – Pink – ”No-taste” Red – Kelly Green – Royal Blue – Violet

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Part 3 – Wrapping of Cranberries and Raisins and 2nd Proofing

• Lightly grease a loaf tin with a cover.

• Get ready a small bowl of water and the raisins and/or cranberries to be wrapped in the dough.

• Start with the lowest layer, take out the violet dough and use a roller to roll into roughly the size of the loaf tin.

• Brush slightly with some water on the surface and place your raisins/cranberries.

• Get the royal blue dough (second bottom layer) and use the roller to roll into roughly the size of the loaf tin.

• Place the royal blue dough on top of the violet dough. Press the sides and ensure that the royal blue dough and the violet dough stick together.

• Brush slightly with some water on the surface and place some raisins and/or cranberries.

• Get the Kelly green dough (third bottom layer) and use the roller to roll into roughly the size of the loaf tin.

• Place the Kelly green dough on top of the royal blue dough. Press the sides and ensure that the Kelly green dough and the royal blue dough stick together on the sides.

• Repeat the same for all the other layers and finished with the lemon yellow dough on the top.

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Part 4 – The Baking Process

• Place the dough into the lightly greased loaf tin and let it proof until it is double in size. How long it will take depend very much on the weather and today, it took me another 45 minutes to reach the desired size I want.

• Set the oven temperature to 200 degree Celsius

• When the second proofing is done, i.e when the dough have double the size, bake in the oven for 30 –45 minutes..

• At about 35 minutes or when you start to smell the aroma of the bread, use an oven thermometer and insert into the bread and see if the temperature inside the loaf is more than 90 degrees Celsius. If it is less than 90 degrees Celsius, your bread will not be cooked and it is likely that when you take out the thermometer, there will be some wet dough stick with your thermometer. In this case, continue baking until when you inserted again the oven thermometer, the thermometer shows at least 90 degrees Celsius. If you find that the top starts to turn brownish, you can lower the temperature by 10 degree Celsius. General rule of thumb is that if you are unsure, rather bake slightly longer than under cooked.

• If you don’t have an oven thermometer, one way of testing is after about 45 minutes (which is a reasonable timing for this size of loaf), take out the loaf from the loaf tin and try to use your finger to knock the bottom of the loaf. If it is a hollow sound, your loaf is cooked, otherwise, the loaf is uncooked. Put it back into the loaf tin and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes until you are certain that the dough is cooked. Again, if the top layer has signs of getting burnt, lower the temperature slightly.

Note that the LOAF IS NOT BURNT. The dark brown color is the color of the violet dough on the side of the loaf.

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CONCLUSION

While too much food colouring is not advisable, I choose to believe the Government’s stand on permitted food colouring. As long as consumption is not too often, such colouring shall not post a/any serious health hazard to our body.

While I am making this loaf, the kids were schooling. When they were back, I asked them to close their eyes and show it to them, “wow” are their reactions! They can’t believe that I am baking this loaf. They have requested to eat a piece of the bread but rejected by me because dinner is to start in 10 minutes time. In their mind, the loaf will definitely much tastier! Once in a while, why not bake your kids something “extraordinary” and joined them for a rainbow breakfast! Trust me, it will definitely a “colourful” and “fruitful” breakfast!

Hope you like this post on Cranberries and Raisins Rainbow Loaf. Have a nice day ahead and cheers.

I am submitting this to Welcome To All My Bloggy Friends and #Recipeoftheweek

   

 

One Number Baking Ratio Adventures Continues… Grapefruit Cognac Pound Cake With Grapefruit Posset…

INTRODUCTION

One number baking ratio adventures continues and gradually extends to other pastry. I have explained in this post about how I want to apply this ratio to cup cakes, muffins, fruit cakes, layered cakes and other pound cakes. The main objective is to further testify this ratio and giving assurance that this easy to remember simple ratio will beneficial lazy people like me. Very briefly, Guaishushu believes that egg : flour : sugar : butter : milk (or other liquids) can be 1 : 1 : 1 : 1 : 1, hence called it “one number baking ratio”.  You may also be interested in the following posts based on principle of one number baking ratio:

• 1 Butter + 1 Sugar + 1Egg + 1 Flour + 1 Milk = Pound/Butter Cake- Guaishushu’s Version
• Hey, My Chick Want To Eat My Zebra Pound Cake !
• One Number Ratio Baking Adventures – Layered Pound Cake ………

Today, he is going to twist a little bit to become a fruity pound cake and served with grapefruit posset – a traditional Western drink/dessert.

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ONE NUMBER BAKING RATIO VS FRENCH’S QUATRE à QUATRE

As one reader pointed out that the ratios that I am using is basically the “quatre à quatre” ratio used in French cake making and I am basically just reinventing the wheels and revert back to the traditional ratios.

I tends to agree  with this and in fact, I am ignorant about the above ratios before the reader pointed out. I have to thank him for his knowledgeable input.

It is really a coincidence that all the while I am fond of using one number and it would be ideal if it applies to all cakes. I have written in the reply to the reader: I do not think that I am brilliant enough to create a good theory as cooking is just my passion! However, if you analyse in details,“quatre à quatre” ratio differs from Guaishushu’s “one number baking ratio” in that there is a portion of milk (or other liquids) which I insisted to be included in this ratio. So, Guaishushu is just promoting this modified traditional ratios instead of remembering different ratios for different ingredients and for different cakes.

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WHY THIS CAKE?

Grapefruit again? Yes, though Guaishushu just issued a post on Grapefruit Chiffon Cake – Grapefruit Chiffon with Grapefruit Citrus Glaze,… Ever Try This?, however, as grapefruit is very cheap in Singapore this month, I can’t help but to grab another 5 large and juicy grapefruits for SGD2.85 and I am thinking of preparing some other cakes with this fruit. While thinking of what cake to bake, i realized that I have a cognac sitting in my kitchen shelf for many years that I have never used it because I am allergic to alcohol. In fact, when I tried to open it, the cork on the bottle have broken (too dry) and I have to sift the alcohol and transfer to another small bottles.

This cake is rather simple to make and again it is based on Guaishushu’s one number baking ratio. To make is slightly different, I have substituted some portion of milk with grapefruit juices and  addition of some grapefruit peels. With the aim of differentiating this cake with other cakes, I have made the cake slightly pinkish and of course all these colouring are optional.

Note that the recipe applies equally well to an orange cake. Just substitute grapefruits with oranges.

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SELECTION OF GRAPEFRUITS AND PREPARATION OF GRAPEFRUIT PEELS

I will take this opportunity to share with readers about the selection of grapefruits that are juicy after many years of observation!

The grapefruits on the left were smooth with lights reflection. As it is smooth, it implied that the air holes in the skin are very small and therefore moisture loss will be less than the grapefruit on the right. As contrast to grapefruit on the left, grapefruit on the right appeared to have more holes and if you touch it, you will find some unevenness on the surface. More moisture will be lost and at times, it will feel a bit like a sponge when you squeeze it. Therefore, when one buy a grapefruit, just ensure that it is smooth and full when you squeeze it.

Preparing The Grapefruit Peels

I am peeling the grapefruit using the above peeler. I just peel in the S shape and a nice pattern will evolve. Try not to peel too deep as the white spongy skin can be rather bitter. Make sure the grapefruits or oranges was thoroughly wash before it the peeling begins. Cut into small strips and chopped fine before adding to the batter as required below.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

 

• 250 grams of white sugar (divided into 100 grams for beating of egg whites and 150 grams for beating of egg yolks)

• 250 grams of self raising flours (sifted)

• about 250 grams of egg white and egg yolks (about 5 eggs separated into egg yolks and egg whites) (Note below for calculation)

• 150 grams of milks (Note below for calculation) – Balancing

• 100 grams of grapefruit juice (Note below for calculation) – Fixed

• 150 gram of grapefruit peels

• 5 tablespoons of rum or any other alcoholic drinks (cognac, whisky or others) – Optional

• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar (optional)

Note: Calculation of liquid required

In accordance to one number baking ratio – eggs plus milk should be equal to 500 grams.

Today, my eggs yolks and egg whites worked out to be  298 grams, therefore, the balancing of milk used is 500 grams (total milk + eggs) less 100 grams (grapefruit juice) less 298 grams (egg yolks + egg whites) =  102 grams of milk (actual usage after considering egg size)

 

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

The steps of preparation will involve:

• Beating of egg whites , creaming of butters, mixing of flours and folding of egg whites

• Making of pinky patterns (optional)

• Baking

• Making the grapefruit posset (optional)

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Preparation…

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Lightly grease an 8” diameter baking tin preferably with a detachable base.

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Beating of egg whites , creaming of butters, mixing of flours and folding of egg whites…

• In a clean, grease free mixing bowl, add egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar. Beat using the machine whisk to whisk the egg whites until firm peak. Spoon the filling into a clean bowl and set aside for later use.

• Change your whisk to a K beater, place your remaining 150 g sugar and butter, beat until light and creamy.

• Add in the grapefruit peels and eggs yolks and use slow speed to “mix” until well mixed. Eggs yolk should be added one by one and scrap the bottom of the bowl to ensure no unmixed egg yolk settled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

• Add in 1/3 of the sifted flours, add in 1/3 of milk and 1/3 of the grapefruit juice, used slow speed to mix together. Repeat for the other 2/3 portion. Off the machine and bring out the mixing bowl.

• Once well mixed, fold in the egg white swiftly and lightly until the batter are smooth.

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Making of pinky patterns (optional)…

• Take out about 1/4 of the of the batter and add 2 drops of red colouring (optional). Mix well.

• In the greased cake tin (note that I have also slightly floured it but this is optional), start with 4 big tablespoons of the beige batter. Add 2 tablespoons of pink batter on top of the beige batters. Shake it slightly so that the batter spread over a wider surface. Add another 3 tablespoons of beige batter on top of the pink batters follow by 1 tablespoon of pink batter on top of the beige batter. Do the same for the next step using 2 tablespoons and finally one tablespoon until all the batter have finished. In the event you still have left over, just create another pattern with the batter that you have!

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Baking….

• Shake the baking tin slightly and baked at 180 degree Celsius from the first 30 minutes.

• Reduce the temperature to 150 degree Celsius and bake for another 15 minutes or until the top turn yellowish brown and until a skewer comes out clean.

• Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 1 hour before cutting the cake. It is best to let it rest overnight if time permits.

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Making of Grapefruit Posset

WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 120 grams of white sugar

• 1.5 cups of cream

• 150 grams of grapefruit

Note: Most posset will called for double thick cream, however, since I wanted it to use as some form of toppings, I will use normal cream for whipping. As such, the curdling will not be less strong and easier to pour.

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STEPS OF PREPARATOIN

• In a sauce pan, place the cream and sugar.

 

• Cooked under low heat and bring to boil and let it boil slowly for 2-3 minutes.

• Off the heat and add in the grapefruit juice. Chilled for at least 3 hours or overnight.

• Pour on top of the cake and let it drip naturally.

Note that whether you posset will successfully curdled will very much depends on the acidity of your grapefruit. If your grapefruit is sour, it will curdle easily. If it can’t curdle, add in few drops of fresh lemon juice. The use of normal cream and grapefruit juice will produce a posset that are slightly runny which is easier for you to pour on top of the cakes.

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CONCLUSION

A simple cake to make using one number baking ratio. However, the twist to add in grapefruit peels and cognac transformed it into a cake that is full of fruity and cognac fragrance. While posset is generally served with biscuits, the modified grapefruit posset goes well with this cake and will heighten and wake up one’s palate especially  with a cup of Earl Grey tea!

Hope you like this cake and have a nice day. Cheers

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up “Eggs” event organized by organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by (Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out). You can link your egg recipes here.

I am also submitting this to #recipeoftheweek and Marvelous Monday and Welcome to all My Bloggy Friends

    

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 5-8-2013

1	Shrimp paste chicken	虾酱鸡
2	Lotus root pork rib soup	莲藕排骨汤
3	Blanched kailan with pork slices	芥兰猪柳
4	Fresh Coriander Fried with Fish Cake and Bean Curd	鱼饼豆腐炒芫茜
5	Spicy Seaweed Stripes	香辣海带丝

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Fresh Coriander Fried with Fish Cake and Bean Curd (鱼饼豆腐炒芫茜)

This is a small household dish that you can hardly find in restaurants or even recipe books. Generally, Fish cakes and Taukwa (beancurd of a lesser moisture content) were cut into small pieces. Have some oil in your wok, stir fried some chopped garlic or/and shallots until golden brown or until the aroma starts to emit. Add the cut taukwa or fish cakes and fried until well mixed. Since both taukwa and fish cakes are cooked, there is no need to stir fried very long. The objectives of stir frying is just to let the taste blends. Add in fresh coriander leaves (alternative: Chinese celery 芹菜), add seasonings of your choice and scoop out to serve. Seasoning I have chosen this time is sugar, salt and dark soya sauce. Because there are fish cakes and I hate the fishy smell, I have added some white pepper. This is a dish that should be well liked by both children and adults and I usually cooked this to go with porridges or white rice.

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Shrimp paste chicken (虾酱鸡)

This is an extremely popular Chinese dish in Singapore.  In any stall located in the coffee stops that sells dishes to order (煮炒），you will bound to find this dish in the menu. Most families include mine will order this dish when we eat out!  The recipe of this dish is adapted from  http://www.noobcook.com/prawn-paste-chicken. It is rather unusual to have a Chinese dish that were made with Belachan or shrimp paste and become so popular. So far, I have never taste such dish before even in Malaysia.

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Spicy Seaweed (香辣海带丝)

This is a dish that were my relatives brought from Kuching Sarawak. I have ever explicitly said that I do  not like seaweed dishes and I can’t stand the  smell. My relatives who come here and visit me here brought some vegetarian spicy seaweed and what surprises me is that there  were no such “funny sea smell” which I can hardly described. This is the first time I have a seaweed dishes that do not have such strange smell and I finished half of the plate. My relatives claimed that this is another species of seaweed and do not have such smell and I am in doubt whether or not this is true…

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Blanched Kailan With Pork Slices (芥兰猪柳)

A simple dish just blanced the Kailan, add seasonings and set aside. Prior to this, pork slices were marinated with light soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and some corn flour. Blanched the pork slices and placed it on top of the vegetable, sprinkled with sesame seed. I have mentioned that I am trying to blanch my vegetable dish instead of stir fried the vegetables. So far, I have blanched most types of vegetables and apparently no complaints from the family members.

Hope you have a nice day and cheers.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 17-7-2013

 

I am trying out this format whether it works or not.

On 17-July 2013, white rice served with:

1	Spinach pork rib soup	菠菜排骨汤
2	Fried Bean Curd and Fish Cake with Chinese Celery	豆干鱼饼炒芹菜
3	Pak Choi Soup	大白菜排骨汤
4	Long Bean Stir Fried with Minced Meat and egg	长豆肉碎炒蛋
5	Grilled Saba (mackerel) with lemon	柠檬烤鲭鱼

Seem like today we have a lot of food. Again, my wife’s godmother cooked the Pak Choi Soup and gave it to us.  We can’t finished most of the dish and therefore, it is likely that we will be having porridge for lunch “getting rid” of these leftover food before I cook something new for the dinner.

Dish is nothing special that really worth mentioning. May be the bean curd and fish cake with Chinese celery. I have a lot of Chinese celery and it is unlikely that I can use all purely for garnishing purposes. I remember used to fried minced meat with Chinese celery and I thought I will try the method to fry some taukwa (bean curd of less moisture content) and fish cakes. The conclusion is it a good combination. extremely simple dish.

My kids loves Saba for its “omega 3” fatty acids. As it is very fatty, the meat are rather soft and tasty. However, for Saba, besides simple grilling, I do not have any other methods of cooking. I presumed frying is possible but not steaming. Cooking curry? I think it is a waste. I hope readers can share with me how do you usually cooked this type of fish.

Have a wonderful day ahead and cheers.