Coconut Bread 椰子面包

I found a pack of desiccated coconut at the deep corner of my freezer, hmm... what should I do... thinking of the way to make full use of it. Flip through the recipe books, finally go straight to Carol's recipe.

Is fun to shape this bread. Cut and show off the inner filling make it looks tempting. I made the filling a night before making the bread, this make the whole process much more organized for me.

When bread was done, the moment I opened the oven, I was captured by the intense coconut's aroma! If you like coconut, this is a must try recipe! Carol's mentioned in her recipe that the bread looks like a chicken feet 凤爪, what do you think :D

Recipe adapted from Carol

I made 11 nos 

Ingredients for filling:

70g unsalted butter, soften

100g coconut powder (used 150g desiccated coconut)

60g icing sugar

30g milk powder

25g egg (1 egg)

Ingredients for bread dough:

270g bread flour (used 300g)

30g plain flour

1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

1 egg

30g sugar

1/8 tsp salt

150ml milk

30g unsalted butter

Steps for filling:

1. Place desiccated coconut, icing sugar, milk powder and salt into a bowl.

2. Add in soften butter, use hand to mix well all ingredients until combined.

3. Add in egg and mix well until it form a dough.

4. Cover and keep it in fridge for at least an hour (I keep it overnight)

5. Take out from fridge 10 mins before shaping the bread. Divide into the 11 portions.

Steps for bread:

1. Place all ingredients in a big bowl (except butter and milk), mix the mixture with hand, gradually add in milk, knead to form a rough dough. Add butter and knead to form smooth dough.

2. Spray water on dough, cover and let it proof for 60 mins.

3. Punch down the dough, divide the dough into 11 portions, roll dough into a ball, cover and let it rest for 15 mins.
4. Flatten the dough, wrap in the filling, flatten the dough again and roll it into oval shape. Fold it into half and into another half again (the dough now is a triangle with 4 clear layers)
5. Use knife to cut 2 lines on the dough and flip the cut side upwards.
6. Place the dough on baking tray, spray with water and let it proof for another 50 mins.
7. Egg wash the dough before place it into oven.
8. Bake at 170C for 18~20 mins.

My Birthday

Day pass a day and year pass a year,

finally I come to this junction,

where should I go,

turn left or turn right...or just stop at this point of time?

How am I going to proceed?

I wish I have the answer ...

I find myself in a dry land, deserted from my previous me,

what should I do? what should you do?

I wish I can go back...

how about you?

Sunday was my birthday, I baked a simple chocolate sponge cake with cream cheese frosting for myself. It is very meaningful to me because it is my first attempt in getting a tall sponge cake. My son loves this cake, WT think it is yummy too :) The cream cheese frosting is delicious and not too buttery. If talking about the cake decoration, well, as you can see, I need more practise.

To all fellow bloggers and readers, I just created a page on Facebook to record down my cooking and baking journey. Hope you don't mind to click on the Facebook "like" button on the right side column or here to support my attempt, thank you!

Ingredients for chocolate sponge cake:

3 eggs

100g fine sugar

2 tbsp milk

55g plain flour

15g unsweetened chocolate powder

20g unsalted butter

Steps:

1. Whisk egg with sugar.

2. Place the mixing bowl in a double boiler, whisk the egg mixture until light and fluffy.

3. The egg mixture temperature should be between 38~40C.

4. Remove from heat and beat the egg mixture in high speed until ribbon stage.

5. Add milk and flour mixture in 3 batches. Stir the mixture in one direction to mix the mixture well.

6. Add melted butter and mix well. Pour in baking mould, knock out bubbles.

7. Bake at 170C for 30 mins.

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting:

200g cream cheese

30g butter

50g icing sugar

Whisk the cream cheese until smooth, add butter and icng sugar and mix well.

Crispy Roast Pork Belly (aka Siew Yoke 脆皮烧肉）

Roast Pork Belly also called Siew Yoke/Siu Yuk in Cantonese or Shao Rou in Mandarin. Is a fatty dish loves by most Chinese. Still remember my father loves roasted meat, if he got the chances he would buy roast pork belly, char siew and roast duck to add on to the table. My sisters, brother and I always like to eat only the salted portion of the meat and leave behind the crispy and fatty portions...which would finished up by my parent. Now we get older and I still love this roast pork belly, not just the salted portion but the whole of it. 

Last year, saw many fellow bloggers homemade the crispy roast pork belly, at that point of time I told myself "I don't think I can do that!" This week, thinking of this dish and want to list this into my recipe collection, I try to look for more information, some used the recipe with an ingredient called nam yuk, I chose to use the recipe without it. My first attempt turned out quite nice, love the taste, the meat is tender and juicy, the crispy rind is crispy but still got room to improve!  This is one of WT's favourite dish, he will be happy to see it when he comes home :)

Thanks Ann from Anncoo Journal for making the recipe easy for me to follow!

Steamed Black Sesame Custard Bun (黑芝麻奶黄包 Black Sesame Nai Huang Bao）

My son requested to have Creamy Custard Bao for breakfast yesterday, and I promised him I'll make a nice one for him today. It has been nearly a year since I last made the bun with this custard filling recipe. It is different from Carol's recipe because of the coconut milk added. It has a stronger coconut's aroma and ...involved more work, the custard needs to be steamed, mashed and kneaded. Of course, for my son, the extra work is nothing.

I made the baos with two types of filling, one is with red bean paste (leftover from making mooncakes) and the other one is creamy custard. Added black sesame powder to the bao dough turned the bao into a stunning grey, with the yellow custard filling it looks  beautiful and perfect for my afternoon tea. 

Chai Kueh (Steamed Vegetable Dumplings)

I fried the jicama with other vegetables yesterday, a big bowl of it, usually I with use the leftover to make spring rolls but today I decided to make Chai Kueh/ Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. 

Well, this attempt was a hard one, out of the eight dumplings only one with unbreakable pastry, the rest have holes on them even before go into the steamer. When I transferred the dumplings to the steamer it was frustrating to see the dumplings skin sticked on my hand and ... torn :(

When WT eat the dumpling, I told him this is $10 each, because of the tidiousness in getting a perfect translucent skin :) If you ask me, will I try it again, the answer is a sure ...yes!

Anyway, thanks 董夫人 for the pastry recipe!

Lesson learnt:

1. First oil your hand when flatten and handle the dumpling skin.

2. Filling must be fried until very dry.  

Hakka Yam Abacus 算盘子

I will buy this dish whenever I see there is one selling it. The feel of munching an elasticity and juicy yam abacus balls is why I enjoy this dish so much.

Saw the recipe at Precious Moments many months ago and I told myself at that point of time, I want to try it out. Then saw it again last month at 鲸鱼's blog, and again at I Heart My Bakes. Eventually make my move because of the step by step photos at I Heart My Bakes look easy to prepare.

Oh my! This is delicious! Thanks Edith from Precious Moments, for the details in spelled out the steps.

For the recipe in Chinese, you may refer to 鲸鱼's blog.

Pretty soft yam ball ladies waiting ...

Forgot to add fried shallots while snapping the dish...

Recipe adapted from Precious Moments 

Ingredients for yam balls:

490g steamed yam, mashed
150g tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup of hot water
2 tbsp oil

Ingredients for stir-frying the yam balls:
3 clove garlic, minced
3 shallot, sliced
4 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked and chopped
250g minced meat (used 100g)
3 mushroom, soaked and sliced thinly
6 black fungus, soaked and sliced thinly


Seasoning:
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
salt to taste (omitted and used 1 tbsp light soy sauce)
1 cup water

Steps:
1. Mix all ingredients together and knead till the dough is smooth. Make sure the flour is well incorporated.
2. Divide into 5g each and roll into a ball. Press your thumprint for the imprint. (I didn't weight the balls, just made them into thumb size balls)
3. Boil a pot of water, add a dash of oil.
4. Add the abacus piece by piece to prevent it from sticking together.
5. Once it float, it is cook. Drain and put into a bowl and add 1 tbsp of oil to prevent it from sticking.
6. Heat some oil and saute shallot and then garlic till fragrant.
7. Add in dried shrimps and continue to fry till fragrant.
8. Add in minced pork, mushroom, black fungus and fry till everything is thoroughly mixed.
9. Add in seasoning and bring to boil.
10. Add in the abacus and stir fry till the liquid dried up.
11. Garnish and serve hot.

Stir Fried Chicken with Black Fungus

I cooked this dish quite often, as I love to eat the soft black fungus with white rice.

This recipe appeared in Mum's Favourite Dishes cookbook (妈妈暧心菜) too. It is such a simple and comfort dish. Three main ingredients in this dish are chicken, black fungus and ginger, and I addded needle mushrooms. 

Butterfly Banana Cakes

I have been thinking very hard on what to bake for this month Aspiring bakers which is hosted by Min from Min's blog The theme for this month is "Enjoy cupcakes!" I've tried out a few recipes but some of the results end up too sweet, I personally don't like them and I believed my blogger friends and readers won't like it too. 

I came across the recipe for Butterfly Cakes in The Australian Women's Weekly this morning, trust my instinct to try this out by adding banana in it, yes, indeed the cake is nice! I baked 12 cupcakes and used 4 of them to create the butterfly cakes. Cutting the round on top of the cupcake is not as easy as I think, my first try, not a clean round wings.

Souffle Cheese Cupcakes

Another rainny day, a perfect dessert for Gabriel is this Souffle Cheese Cupcake. He dashed to the dinning table when he heard "cheese cupcake", he spooned the cake spoonful by spoonful into his mouth while saying "Mama, this is so nice!" I'm glad to see him content and satisfy with this cupcake.

Salted Crispy Chicken 咸酥鸡

Recently feel so drain by my son's tantrum, people said terrible two, I say is terrible three!

A fast and simple dish from Mum's Favourite Dishes cookbook (妈妈暧心菜）I didn't snap photo for the dipping sauce I made, for the main dish only 3 ingredients needed, chicken, salt and lettuce. I like this dish, is a sure keeper for all busy mothers!

Turmeric Rice and Chicken Curry (Nasi Kunyit)

After I came back from Penang, Gabriel, WT and I became healthier, no more coughing! My mum fed us daily with double boiled soup and chicken essence. This really make be believed how important it is to add a soup on the table!

Missed Penang very much, suddenly thinking of Nasi Kunyit or Turmeric Rice, the taste of the curry and coconut's fragrance. I cooked the chicken curry the easy way, using Asian Home Gourment brand Indian Chicken Curry paste and added other ingredients to suit my family taste.

Dumplings

Saw 子瑜妈妈美食坊 made the beautiful mini prawns dumplings, at 子瑜妈妈爱米美食坊  she shared how to make the store bought dumpling skin thinner. By using the rolling pin to roll over the store bought dumpling skin a few times, we can get a thinner skin. Trying her recipe with the store bought dumpling skin.

Indeed the dumpling skin becomes bigger after rolling, whether it has becomes thinner, this you have to justify it yourself. I always deep fried the dumplings, this is the first time trying to boil them in boiling water. When I used the chopstick to poke the dumpling, gravy oozing out from it, I love this! This is definately a healthier choice if compared to deep fried dumplings. 

  

Clitoria Flower Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Melacca is famous for lot of things such as: chicken rice balls, gula melaka, coffee, art and craft, nyonya kuehs, etc.

I know most of the foodbloggers who love to make kuehs like me will be interested to know where to get the Dried Clitoria Ternatea or Butterfly pea flowers or Bunga telang. With this flower, we are able to produce the food in natural blue. Yes, I managed to buy the flower from Melacca! How I found it? Well, I asked nearly each food stalls which I stopped over at 鸡场街 about this flower, not a single stalls selling it! I managed to buy the flowers from a nyanya kuehs shop at the side lane out from 鸡场街, with RM5.00 a pack. After that I bought another two packs with a cheaper price from an old run down grocery shop at the end of 鸡场街, with RM1.60 a pack.

So sorry that I was in a hurry that I didn't note down the shop's name. The grocery shop is at the left side of the ice kacang stall, opposite the public toilet which is at the end of 鸡场街. With this clue, hope you are able to find the dried clitoria flowers too.

If you are my usual reader you will know that I rarely baked a big cake with the beautiful frosting, the reason of that is it requires time to do the deco and also I have no confidence in baking a big cake. 

WT's birthday was on Halloween, as we were just back from Penang and I didn't have time to shop for a good cake, I decided to brave myself baking a cake for him. His answered was "I can buy one when I get home!" Haha...no confident in my cake deco.

The cake sponge is a chiffon cake just because Gabriel likes this kind of soft cake. Do you see the green chiffon cake above? The blue juice of dried clitoria flowers mixed with the egg yolk and egg white turned the batter into green, I was thinking whether this is as simple as blue + yellow = green. 

The chocolate ganache didn't turn out well, I tried to stabilise it with a piece of gelatin but it was still runny. I fridged the cake for a few hours before WT cut the cake. He was delighted to see the cake .... haha, at least this is not a plain chiffon cake :) Gabriel also said yummy to this cake!

I really need to practise more on cake baking and deco!

Happy Birthday WT!

Recipe from Ah Tze's kitchen play

6" round springform pan

A. Egg yolk batter

5 egg yolks

90g top flour

15g fine sugar

30ml olive oil

5 tbsps dried clitoria flowers juice

B. Egg white mixture

5 egg whites

1 tsp lemon juice

60g brown sugar

C. Chocolate Ganache

200g dark chocolate, chopped

125ml double cream

D. Deco

Walnuts

Almonds

Strawberries

Bluberries

Steps:

1. For egg yolk batter: Mix the egg yolk with sugar, whisk until creamy. Add olive oil. Add the flour alternate with flower juice. Set aside.

2. For egg white mixture: Beat the egg white with lemon juice until foamy, add in half of the sugar, beat in high speed until soft peak, add in another half of sugar until stiff peak.

3. Stir in a portion of B to A. Fold in B to A in 3 portions.

4. Pour in the batter into baking pan, knock the pan on table top to reduce the bubbles forming in between batter. Bake at 170C for 40-45 mins.

5. Once baked, turn upside down the pan to let the cake shrinks to flat top. Let it cool completely before deco.

6. For chocolate ganache: melt the chocolate, cream in a double boiler over barely simmering water, stiring occasionally until smooth, add in the soften gelatin. Set aside to cool and it will thicken slightly. Refrigerate for later use.

7. For Deco: Pour the chocolate ganache on the cake, fridge it for an hour before deco.