Ban Jian Kuih (Traditional Chinese Pancake)

All my days only surround by my son needs. When WT asked me if Gabriel goes for fullday child care, what are you going to do? This is really a hit on me, I was thinking very hard about this issue. Should I go back to my previous workplace or embark into another industry, I really don't know. Four years is a long break, enough to wash away what I familiar with and enough to intimidate me.   

This type of chinese pancake is a common street food in Penang, it was one of my favourites snack when I was very young. There are two version of chinese pancake, one is  with thick layer and another is with thin layer. I love the thin layer one since young. The crispy edge of the pancake and the peanuts with cream corns filling is so yummylicious! I still remember when Gabriel ate the pancake for the first time at age 3, he loves it so much until he cried when WT ate the last bit of it thinking he had enough of the pancake. Eventually we have to buy a new piece just to calm him.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is another overdue post... a light and airy chiffon cake. On Good Friday, our Life Group had a picnic at Jurong West Ave 3 open space area. I baked this pandan chiffon cake and prepared some salmon spread sandwishes to bring along. The texture of the chiffon cake is... super soft, it is tall, light and airy the kids and adults like it very much.  

  

Recipe adapted from Carol's Vanilla Milk Chiffon Cake with minor changes 
Ingredients for flour mixture:
6 egg yolks
30g fine sugar
60g olive oil
120g top flour
6 tbsp milk
1 tsp pandan paste (screwpine essence/paste)
a few drops vanilla essence

Ingredients for meringue:
6 egg whites
60g fine sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Step:
1. Add fine sugar and egg yolks, whisk until well mix.
2. Add olive oil, sieve in flour alternate with milk in batches. Add pandan paste. Stir until mixture is smooth.
3. In the mixing bowl, whisk egg whites until bubbles, add in lemon juice and sugar. Whisk until the meringue is stiff peak.
4. Add 1/3 of meringue into the egg yolks mixture, mix well. Fold in the rest of meringue in another two batches.
5. Pour the mixture into baking pan. Knock the baking pan on the worktop to release trap bubbles in the battter.
6. Place the baking pan into oven, bake at 170C for 50 mins.
7. When cake is baked. Take it out from oven and turn it upside down immediately. Cool completely before dislodge the cake from mould.

Cranberry Rye Bread (Overnight Sponge Dough Method)

I have wanted to bake a bread using the cranberries for sometimes, stored up lot of dried cranberries in my freezer and I still have a big bag of rye flour leftover from my previous baked, it is time to put them in good use.

This cranberry rye bread looks beautiful with the red colour chopped dried cranberries on it and I am delighted by its sweetness. The proportion of the rye flour with bread flour is 50:50, the bread is slightly brown in colour. Is delicious and healthy as breakfast or even as snack!  

I am using the overnight sponge starter in this bread to enhance the flavour of the bread.

Recipe from Ah Tze's Kitchen Play
Ingredients for sponge starter (overnight):
150ml warm milk
240g bread flour
1 tsp instant dry yeast
a pinch of salt

Step:
1. Stir all ingredients into a container. Knead a until the dough is smooth and no lump. Cover and leave it in a container place in fridge for overnight.

Ingredients for bread dough:
200g sponge starter
125g bread flour
125g rye flour
40g fine sugar
85ml cold water (can be slightly more if you find the dough is too dry)
1/4 tsp salt
30g unsalted butter, softened
100g chopped dried cranberries

Step:
1. Mix all ingredients except the butter into a rough dough (water should gradually add in). Add butter and mix into a smooth dough. Knead until it form an elastic film.
2. Add chopped dried cranberries. Roll the dough into a ball and place in grease tray for proofing.
3. Spray the dough with water, cover and let it proof for 60 mins or double in size.
4. Punch down the dough, roll it into a ball and cover. Let it rest for 15 mins.
5. Flatten the dough with rolling pin, roll it up swiss roll style in the length of the baking loaf pan.
6. Place the dough in baking loaf pan, spray with some water and cover it. Let it proof for second time for 60 mins. When the dough reach 90% of the heigh of loaf pan, place it in preheat oven bake at 210C for 40 mins.
7. Once baked, dislodge bread from loaf pan and cool on wire rack.

While I was snapping the photos, my son placed his toy ant on the bread and said "you shot the photos for so long, the ant comes to eat your bread!" OK, OK, is time to close the lens :)

Ciabatta (Italian Slipper Bread)

I still dream of ciabatta the Italian Slipper bread after watching so many bakers baked their beautiful ciabatta with great crumbs and big wholes during the Bake Along organized by Lena, Joyce and Zoe. However, I wait, and wait and wait until the day ...where I no need to cook the lunch for Gabriel and no need to do housework :)

Here it goes all ingredients into the KitchenAid and let it beats for a good 30 mins! Of course it needs to change the flat beater to dough hook in between. This is the first time I make a ciabatta and also first time encountered this type of very wet bread dough. When the flat beater stired the watery dough, my heart keep thinking wheather this is going to be a successful bread, luckily the final result is pleasing, it got lot of  big wholes :) I am really surprise by the crisp-crusted with soft bread texture Italian bread.

I am using Lena's recipe which she adapted from Sotong Cook (she followed Jason's Cocodrillo Ciabatta) As I wish my ciabatta to be more flavourful, I subsituted the water with milk and added olive oil and some herbs in it.

wet dough before proofing.

the dough triple its size after proofing. It still look and feel wet.

Recipe adapted from Lena with some changes

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

450-490ml water (used 490ml warm milk)

2 tsp instant dry yeast

15g salt

1 tsp of dried parsley flakes

1 tsp of dried coriander flakes

20ml olive oil

Step:

1. Mix all ingredients (except olive oil) with a flat beater in low speed till they are combined, let the dough rest in the mixing bowl for 10 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, change the speed to medium on your mixer (speed  4 on KA mixer) and beat for about 10 minutes. The dough is still a batter at this point of time. Change to the dough hook, pour in olive oil and continue beating on medium high speed (speed 6 on KA mixer) till the batter leaves the sides and the bottom of the bowl. This will take probably another 10 minutes.
3. Remove and pour the dough into a oiled container and let it proof till triple its size. I placed the container into the warm oven (which I heated at 100C for 10 mins) 

4. Scrape the dough out from the bowl onto a heavy floured surface and divide the dough into 2 pieces using your scrapper , gently shape the dough and use your fingers to lightly pinch all over the dough and let it proof and cover for another 45 minutes.
5. After 45 minutes, using 2 scrappers, pick up the dough and flip them over to your prepared baking pan, gently shape them and bake at 230C for 25 mins.

Tau Sar Piah/ Mung Bean Biscuits

It has been sometimes since my first Tau Sar Piah (Sep 2011), the one which end up with grey greenish filling :) I managed to buy the peeled mung beans since then and instead of let the mung beans sitting in my kitchen until crawling creature comes out from it, I better put the mung beans in good use, which is making another round of Tau Sar Piah, the snack for WT to bring to office :D

My parent stop buying the Penang Tau Sar Piah for me since they know I can bake a good one myself :) Is Ghee Hiang and Him Hiang the two oldest shops selling Tau Sar Piah in Penang going to close shop? Of course not! because I'm in Singapore, LOL!

Tau Sar Piah/ Mung Bean Biscuits a flaky pastries with fragrant and flavourful filling is irresistible. I am using the same recipe from My Kitchen Snippets with some changes in the oil content.

Note: recently I am very busy with my son who want my company on whichever games/works he is in, I have cut down time spend in kitchen and also spend less time on Internet. Sorry for not able to reply your comments and not able to visit your blog as frequent as I was.

To record Gabriel handwritting. Gabriel, 4 years old, I think his handwritting is consider neat for his age :)

Picture A

Ingredients for oil dough:
175g plain flour
100ml vegetable oil (used 80ml)

Ingredients for water dough:
345g plain flour
180ml vegetable oil (used 120ml melted butter)
135ml water

Ingredients for filling:
50ml vegetable oil
5 shallots, thinly sliced
150g sugar (used 100g)
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp white pepper
400g dried mung beans

Step:
1. Soak the beans overnight, steamed for 40 minutes or until soft, then Mashed. Add In the sugar, salt and pepper and mix well.

2. Heat up the oil and fry the shallots until lightly brown and fragrant. Add in the bean mixture. Stir and fry until the mixture is slightly dry and you are able to form it into a ball.

3. Remove and divide the filling into 65 small balls (Picture A-3) . Set it aside.

Picture B

Prepare the dough:

1. Mix ingredients for oil dough until it form into a smooth dough. If the dough is too dry add a bit more oil. Wrap dough with cling wrap and set it aside to rest for 30 mins. Divide into 65 pieces (Picture B-1).

2. Mix Ingredients for water dough together until it form into a smooth dough. Wrap dough with cling wrap and set it aside for 30 mins. Divide into 65 pieces (Picture B-1).

3. Take a piece of water dough, flatten and wrap in the oil dough (Picture B-2).

4. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin (Picture C-1), roll up swiss roll style (Picture C-2).

5. Turn the dough 90 degree, flatten it and roll up swiss roll style again (Picture C-3).

6. Hold two side of the dough and press it down (Picture C-4), flatten it into a circle and wrap in the filling.

7. Place the dough balls on baking tray which laid with parchment paper. Egg wash the dough balls and bake at 200C for 20~25 mins or until golden brown.



Picture C

Easter Eggs and Brownies

This is a special request from Gabriel's teacher. They are having a Easter Party at school and one of the game is Easter Hunt, where the decorated hard boiled eggs are hidden for the kids to search indoor and outdoor. I think may be teachers are going to tell them the eggs were left there by Easter Bunny too :)

I have not make any Easter eggs before, I search how to decorate the eggs online and actually Martha Stewart's Lace Eggs attracts most of my attention. Unfortunately, I don't have the beautiful lace in hands and have to shelve the idea :) Anyway, Gabriel has a good time helping me dyed the eggs and he was so proud to tell his teachers he made the Easter Eggs for his classmates too :)

I also baked my first brownies using Joy of Baking recipe for the party. Of course, I cut down the sugar content in it, LOL! As I am using a 11"x7" baking tray, the brownies turned out a bit thin and I cutted them out using the cookies cutter and place them into the cupcake cases for individual serving. It has a deep chocolate flavour and I like the cakey texture! Hope the kids enjoyed their Easter Party :) Happy Easter!