MyProject: Playing with Icing Fondant

I was relaxing myself for a whole week and it was super fun,relax, no stress and real damn njoy my life after I experienced the worst time of my life for two months. And finally I am free...Thanks God...

Sleep like an owl, snore like a pig, free like a bird, lazy like I am hahaha...

On my free time, I played with my fondant...

Oreo New York Cheesecake with my lil fondant :D

Bee bee and Boy boy                                                       Lil mushroom  

My Project : Hello Kitty Oreo Japanese B’day Cheesecake

Made this fluffy Japanese Cheesecake for J.C 姐. I make a lil bit twist on it, which using cheese cream instead of usual butter cream :D ( So I need to put them in the fridge all the time, if not…it melts haiz)

My super fluffy Japanese Cheesecake hehe :D lope it :D

Recipe: Petite Profiteroles / Cream Puff

I have no time for updating my blog…damn it…blame on my new job…hahaha…

I make this profiteroles years back, and tried to make it again last week. A profiterole or cream puff or choux à la crème is a choux pastry balls filled with whipped cream, pastry cream or ice cream. They can be garnished with chocolate sauce, dusting powdered sugar or maybe just left it like that. 

Choux Paste:

• 250 ml water / milk
• 100g butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 150g plain flour
• 4 eggs

Fillings that you can choose:

1. Chantilly Cream:

• 250 ml milk
• 1.75 tbsp icing sugar
• .25 tbsp vanilla essence

2. Pastry Cream:

• 200 ml milk
• 0.25 tbsp vanilla essence
• 50g sugar
• 20g plain flour

3. Ice cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Choux paste :
1. boil the water, butter, salt and sugar then remove from the heat
2. Sift the flour first and add to the wet ingredient all at once ( or else it will form lumps)
3. Mix mix mix with a wooden spoon
4. Return to the heat and stir until it is formed a white layer on the bottom of the pot. Let it cool
5. Add the eggs one a time, and mixing in between until a dropping consistency is achieved. Place into a piping bag.
3. Pipe the choux paste onto tray and dip your finger into water and then tap the tips down
4. Bake in the oven for 15- 20 mins and make sure that it is dry in the centre (Notes: Do not open the oven for the first 10 mins or it will collapse)
5. Chantilly cream:
1. Beat the chilled cream until soft peak and then add in icing sugar and vanilla essence
2. Whip to desired consistency and chill
6. Pastry cream:
1. Heat milk in a pot
2. Beat the egg yolk and the sugar until it lights in colour.
3. Add in flour, vanilla and whish through
4. Add in the hot milk gradually while keep whisking
5. Pour back the mixture to the pot and bring to boil
6. Whisk it continuously until it starts to thicken
7. Cook for another 2-3 mins and strain into a container
8. Cover with cling firm to prevent the forming of skin and refrigerate
7. Pipe in the Chantilly cream/ pastry cream from the bottom of the profiteroles (cut a cross in the bottom of it) . But for ice cream filling, cut a cross from the middle of the puff ( ice cream is too hard to pipe in)
8. Dip the puff into melted chocolate or dust it with icing sugar
9. Enjoy your petite profiteroles :D

Recipe : Indonesian sweet pancake (martabak manis terang bulan)

Living outside our hometown, for sure we will miss our hometown foods especially its snacking such as martabak (pancakes/ crepes) manis (sweet). In Medan, you can choose either thin or thick pancakes. I love thin one better than thick, cause crispier n crunchy.

One day on our way to market for having our brunch, he suddenly said he was craving for martabak manis (Oooou…wat happen to u hunny?). So I made him one hahaha…although it was not made by expert martabak-man but at least I tried my best to fulfil his craving hehe…

• 250 gr all purpose flour (can substitute it with 230 gr flour + 20 gr tapioca flour to make the skin smoother)
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 150 gr sugar
• 375 cc warm coconut milk or milk
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• Fillings : sweet condensed milk, chocolate rice sprinkle, cheedar cheese, sugar, coarse ground peanuts, margarine ( n all of them are optional…put watever u love cause u are the boss :D heheh)

1. Warm the coconut milk (or milk) in microwave for couples mins and mix it with the yeast, stir  well and set a side for 5 mins
2. Mix all the dry ingredients and gradually pour the wet ingredients (milk +yeast) into the flour mixture, stir until well combine.
3. Add in eggs one by one and keep stirring…stir stir stir…
4. It is better to sit the mixture for 15 to 20 mins and cover it with warm damp cloth so the yeast can work to its best hehe
5. Heat up the non stick pan and smear it with butter or margarine. Pour the mixture (stir it first before use) to the pan and cook for about 10 mins or until the the top full of holes. Put lil bit margarine/ butter and grease it on the top then sprinkle some sugar on it.
6. Take out from the pan and feel free to put watever fillings you want on it. Fold into half and spread the outside skin with margarine again to make it shinny and make it looks more mouth watering :D
7. Serve it warm en njoy fellas…

Recipe : Colorful cute sweet petite macaroons

Looked a glance on the recipe, will think that making macaroons is so easy peasy, but actually no. Seems like need skills on doing that, first piping skill, baking skill etc…

Our first attempt making it, we undercooked and end up not really fluffy as what we expected. Although the appearance was not perfect but it tastes yummy. Super suitable for people who love sweet tooth♥

My first attempt, totally failed on piping hahah (shame on me >.<) . Piped it too big heuheheu..become huge macaroons –_-“

Anyway I make it better on my second attempt yeay :D

 

• 175g icing sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 3 large free-range egg whites
• 75g caster sugar

For the filling

• 150g butter, softened
• 75g icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160C
2. Bake the almond for a while to make it dryer, set a side and let it cool first before blend it in a food processor to a very fine and mix it with the icing sugar (dry mixture)
3. Whisk the egg whites  + pinch of salt + caster sugar( gradually) until thick and glossy (wet/ meringue mixture)
4. Divide the meringue mixture among different bowls if you want to make more than one colour and more than one flavour.
5. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue and mix well, make sure it is shiny, thick and has ribbon-like consistency.
6. Spoon into piping bag with a 1 cm plain nozzle
7. Pipe small rounds onto the baking sheet and let it sits for 15 – 20 minutes on room temperature to form a slight skin (try to use ur finger to touch them lightly and make sure that it doesn’t stick to ur finger)
8. Happy baking after that for 15 mins (tips: try to use wooden chopstick to hold the oven’s door meanings that the oven’s door slightly open)
9. Let’s them cool and meanwhile make the fillings (first beat the butter till light and fluffy then beat in the icing sugar and add ur flavorings or color or nuts etc into it and you are almost done)
10. Use two macaroons and sandwich them together with fillings in the middle and your njoy your macaroons 

    

Recipe : Tofu green tea ice cream

Tofu tofu…let’s make a healthy yet yummy dessert…inspire from what I saw on challenge TV shows days ago…let’s eat yummy dessert with free of sin hahaha…

• 2 cups cream
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (flexible)
• 2 tbs green tea powder (or any flavors such as mango puree, strawberry etc)
• vanilla pod/ vanilla essence
• 1 pack of silken tofu

1. Whisk the cream,icing sugar, vanilla and green tea till it hold to its shape
2. Blend the tofu with blender or handheld crusher till it really smooth
3. Mix the tofu and the cream together gently and freeze it for 30 mins
4. Take out the mixture and put them into the blender to blend it again and freeze it again (repeat this process 2 or 3 times to make the texture more moist and it blends well)
Your yummy yet healthy dessert ready to serve :D

Recipes : Strawberry basil mille feuille

For this hot season, why don’t we treat ourself a cold, easy and yummy dessert…for sure everyone will love it… Mille feuille means thousand leafs in French if I’m not wrong (correct me if I’m wrong) and sometimes people just call this napoleon. Oops..I remember one of my mom’s fav napoleon in Chinatown Sydney, it is made by Chinese Emperor Garden Cakes and Bakery. My mom always dream to go there and eat that again hahaha… cause their napoleon is just unique, different and I don’t know how to do it..(so sorry mom…)

It’s a recipe from Chef Gordon Ramsay, no need oven at all yeay :D and I did a lil bit twist on it…hope you like it hehe…

What you need :

• whipped cream
• filo pastry, in sheets
• Icing sugar 
• butter (prefer clarified butter)
• mixed summer berries e.g. raspberries, blueberries, redcurrants, wild strawberries
• vanilla pod/ vanilla essence
• fresh basil
• egg white

What you need to do:

1. To make the filling, tip the cream into a bowl with 3 tbsp of sugar, and the vanilla seeds. Lightly whisk until the cream just hold its shape. Finally shred the basil, then fold through the cream and lastly chill until needed

2. For the mille feuille, divide the pastry into three large sheets. Brush each one with egg white, lay the sheets on top of each other pressing together gently. Dust both sides with icing sugar and pat off the excess. Using a pastry cutter or chef’s ring cut the pastry into rounds. Fry the discs in clarified butter for 2 -3 minutes each side until they are brown and crispy, remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper

3. Cut the berries , here I only use strawberry…cut cut cut…

4. For assembly…place a little spoonful of the cream on the plate and place a pastry on top. Begin to create the layers by spreading more cream onto the first piece of pastry, scattering over a mixture of berries and another spoonful of cream. Top with another disc and repeat the process. Finish with the third disc, dust with icing sugar and garnish with any remaining fruit and voila….you did it…yummy yummy dessert…

For more details, watch this video for how to make the mille feuille hehe…(Remember I make a twist on this recipe which I combine two recipe become one – ahahha as usual I choose the easier way to do it hahaha… not time consuming and same super yummy hehe)

Tips from the chef :

The millefeuille can be assembled up to 2 hrs ahead and kept somewhere cool. You could also prepare the pastry rectangles, and cream mix the night before. However, don't add the basil to the cream until just before assembly, and keep the pastry well wrapped in cling film.

Do you know that…my cooking team make this mille feuille as our dessert on the blackboard challenge and all the jury (read: chefs) love it hehe…but they complain that they can’t taste the basil well haiz… (we make a square one at that time and using oven to make the pastry)

Got these pictures from Lynette’s facebook (the owner of Palate Sensation), thanks a lot hehe…cause seems like I forgot to take a shot for this dessert haizzz…

Recipe : Buttermilk Panna Cotta

MELELEH…(means melting)…yeay…this is wat happen recently in Singapore…so hot…hot…hot and hot… Hate to go out hahaha… (is this only my excuse lol)

So let’s make us a healthy, fresh yet yummy dessert to be eaten in this hot season. It’s quite simple and seems like there’s a different way to make this panna cotta.

I have made this before I learnt it from cooking class soo it’s up to you which one do you want to follow haha…(of coz the one from my cooking class taste better XD)

Well, before that Panna Cotta is an Italian dessert which means cooked cream, they are soft (like tofu/ pudding) and just perfectly melt on your mouth (yummm XD). Best served with fresh berries or maybe other fruits such as mango, passionfruit ( no durian please haha).

Recipe 1: (using cream)

What you need:

• 100ml cream
• lil of bit vanilla essence ( or you can use fresh vanilla pods so you can see the vanilla on your panna cotta)
• 15g gelatin leaves (not suitable for Muslim frens)
• lil bit lemon zest
• 600ml buttermilk ( homemade buttermilk mix 1tbs lemon juice/vinegar and 1 cup milk if you cannot find a ready use buttermilk)
• 100ml semi whipped cream
• 120g sugar (depends on your preference)

Panna Cotta:

1. Mix the cream with sugar, lemon zest,vanilla and boil it on small pan

2. Soak the gelatine on water (for several mins), drain, squeeze and add it to the scalded cream mixture. Mix mix mix and let it cold.

3. Gradually strain the buttermilk inside and make sure it is well mixed

4. Mix together whipped cream and the mixture

5. Pour into moulds and put it into the fridge at least 2 hours, after that ready to be served :D

Recipe 2: (using yogurt instead of cream)

What you need:

• 1 cup skim milk ( you can add lemon juice as well to make it become buttermilk, taste great :D)
• 2 cups of vanilla yogurt
• lil of bit vanilla essence ( or you can use fresh vanilla pods so you can see the vanilla on your panna cotta)
• 15g gelatin leaves (not suitable for Muslim frens)
• lil bit lemon zest
• sugar (depends on your preference since yogurt is sweet enough)

Panna Cotta:

1. Mix the skim milk with sugar, lemon zest,vanilla and boil it on small pan

2. Soak the gelatine on water (for several mins), drain, squeeze and add it to the scalded cream mixture. Mix mix mix and let it cold.

3. Gradually strain the yogurt inside and make sure it is well mixed

4. Pour into moulds and put it into the fridge at least 2 hours, after that ready to be served :D

Note: I personally more recommend to use gelatin leaves as it give a more flexible texture :D

Feel free to see this video from Nicko’s kitchen on how he make his panna cotta :D

Happy cooking :D

Recipe : Strawberry daifuku

Love love daifuku (Japanese mochi), it is quite pricey in Japanese restaurant >.< so why don’t we try to make it and share with our family ehehe…
What you need:

• 100g glutinous rice flour/shiratamako
• 2tbsp sugar (I use confectioners sugar and the sweetness is depends on your preference)
• 95-100ml water or maybe more
• 1 tbs olive oil
• premade anko (Japanese red bean) or maybe you made it by youself
• corn starch / potato for dusting

DIY anko
1.Wash the uncooked anko
2.Boiling water + uncooked anko in small pot (cook 3 times to soften the anko)
3.For 3rd time, cook it till only lil bit water left (or u can drain it) + sugar
4.Set aside and make small anko balls
tips: using anko powder is easier (but I never try it hahaha :P)
Anko + Strawberry
1. Wash and cut the head of the strawberry (make sure the strawberries are dry)
2. Cover it with anko and set a side (put in the fridge)
Strawberry Daifuku:
1. Water + sugar + glutinious flour in a heat-resistant bowl = mix well + olive oil
2. Put the bowl in boiling water (double boiler) for 15 mins, make sure that the dough is well cooked (till the dough inflates)
3. Dust your hand and flat pan with potato starch
4. Remove the hot mochi dough to that flat pan and dust with more potato starch
5. Divide them into 6 pieces and round them
6. Flat the mochi and wrap the strawberry anko by stretching mochi (no worries the mochi is super flexible haha).
7. Round…round and round the daifuku
8. Serve it directly (best with ice cream) or you can store it up to two days (max) since we have strawberry inside the daifuku.

 Get creative on the daifuku…
~ different fillings such as mango, peanuts, sweet coconut (like we have it in Indonesia “onde-onde”)
~ cover the daifuku with black sesame, peanuts
etc etc and etc…looking forward to the daifuku twist :D

Recipes: Mooncake on Harvest moon

Harvest moon is coming…

I don’t like mooncake after one of my friend make them for me in Sydney and that’s the first time I tried mooncake hahaha…I was quite surprise knowing that he can bake a mooncake (what a talent :D , well he used to be a culinary student so no wonder haha… ) eniwei I still miss that mooncake, they were delicious yummy yummy…

I tried to make them yesterday (well because it’s already morning now) and I did it…I only can make a snow skin one since I don’t have any oven here (as I told before haizzz)…there’s two recipes in doing these mooncake, steaming and unsteaming. So I just make two of them and let my friend judge them.

The first jury, xiao mei, love the unsteamed one. Well, the unsteamed one looks great but I’m just afraid the flour is undercooked since I was using pan cook rather than oven bake. She said that the steamed one is just exactly like mochi, and yes she is right, it is a mochi recipes just adding some rice flour inside…As it is a mochi style so i can’t hold the mold shape strongly and easy to reform its original shape back haiz….(as can be seen on pics)  

Ingredients:

• 1cup glutinous rice flour
• 1cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup glutinous flour for dusting
• 1/2 cup icing sugar (depends)
• 200 ml olive oil / shortening
• 400 ml milk
• food coloring
• fillings: lotus paste, red bean paste etc

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400 F and bake for 30 minutes; stir flour every 5-10 minutes. To define the flour is cooked or not, you can see how the flour changed in color, instead its original white color, it will turn to brown color. You can either cook them on pan (like what I did hehe)
• Set aside to cool flour.
• Mix all the glutinous, rice flour,  icing sugar with milk,oil and food coloring bits by bits until ingredients form paste/dough.
• You can add food essence and/or food coloring while mixing the ingredients.
• Dust your mold with cooked flour
• Make balls/rolls of the paste and the fillings, flattened the paste ball and place the filling ball in the middle, close the flattened paste ball, seam to seal, place it into the mold, press with your palm, knock slightly and turn mold over onto a serving plate.
• Serve mooncake chilled.

 

I made the choco biscuit fillings and it taste very nice haaha ~ a new taste for mooncake hehe :D Uncooked mooncake with lotus pandan as its filling