Tri-Flavoured Chiffon Cake 三味戚风蛋糕

Chiffon Cake, a light and airy cake which is popular among Asian. There are many different recipes and may be "rules" for baking a successful chiffon cake (which the cake sponge will not collapse or shrink a lot, once the cake is out from the oven). I used to adhere to my pandan chiffon cake recipe which I baked a lot recently for fundraiser.  

In this Tri-flavoured Chiffon Cake recipe, first rule is "you have to know your oven", yes, as simple as the rule yet very difficult for us baker to remember the fundamental baking rule. I placed an oven thermometer in my oven to monitor the actual temperature while baking the chiffon cake. 

In my recipe, I don't use cream-of tartar and baking powder. Beat the egg whites to the exact soft peak is very important. Combine the meringue into egg yolks mixture by using the correct folding technique is crucial for a successful chiffon cake. Yes, even I abide with the above rules I still encounter many times of unsuccessful bakes. We are human after all. ^^ There are many factors contributed to it, for instance, water in the mixing bowl, oily unclean cake pan., etc. 

(18cm chiffon cake pan)
Ingredients for egg yolk mixture:
4 egg yolks
20 g sugar
50 ml olive oil
50 ml thick coconut milk
90 g cake flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp strawberry essence
a drop of pink food colouring
1/2 tsp coffee emulco 
a drop of brown food colouring
a drop of pandan paste

Ingredients for meringue:
5 egg whites
50 g sugar
a pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a bowl, hand whisk egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves and the egg yolks is light and pale. 

2. Add vanilla extract, olive oil and coconut milk. Mix well.

3. Sift in the cake flour in three batches, mix well.

4. Divide the batter into three equal portions with a spoon (I didn't weight my cake batter)

5. Add strawberry essence and a drop of pink food colouring to one portion of batter. Mix well.

6. In another portion of batter, add coffee emulco and a drop of brown food colouring. Mix well.

7. For the remaining batter, add a drop of pandan paste. Mix well.

8. In a clean KitchenAid mixing bowl, add egg whites and a pinch of salt. Mix with speed 4 for a while until bubbles form. Turn the mixing speed to 10, add in sugar in three batches. Beat the egg whites until soft peak stage. 

9. Scoop two heap tablespoons of meringue into each batter respectively. Stir well each batter to break down the mixture. Then divide the remaining meringue into three equal portions, gently fold in the meringue into each egg yolks batter.

10. Pour the batters into a chiffon pan layer by layer. Use a spatula to even out the surface of each layer. Gently tap the cake pan against the tabletop to remove trapped air bubbles.

11. Bake in preheated oven at 140~150C for 55 mins. or toothpick come out clean.

12. Once baked, remove the cake pan from oven, invert the cake pan to let it cool down completely. 

13. Dislodge the cake only when it is cool. 

Milk Bread Curry Buns 柔软咖哩面包 (65C Tangzhong Method)

I have some leftover chicken and potatoes curry filling from making Spiral Curry Puffs, this week I'm into bread baking. In fact, I have made three batches of Milk Bread Curry Buns! Some of the curry buns were given away as a present to my son's piano teacher.

When I was searching for curry buns on the Internet, I saw the lovely curry buns created by Nasi Lemak Lovers, she wrapped her curry buns with Pandan Leaves. I think this is a good way of presenting the curry buns in South East Asia style, the pandan and curry leaves give a lovely fragrance and it does make this curry buns standout a lot. I'm using the bread recipe from my Pork Floss Buns, this recipe produces a soft milky bun texture which I think is best to go with the warm chicken potatoes curry filling. 

If you didn't finish consume the buns within the same day of baking, you may place it in fridge, heat up 20 seconds in a microwave will warm up the curry filling. 

This recipe yield 10 pieces of buns.

Ingredients:
Water Roux/Tangzhong:
25 g bread flour
125 ml water

Bread Dough:
200 g bread flour
90 g cake flour (top flour)
6 g instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
30 g sugar
15 g milk powder
1 egg
65 ~100 ml water (the bread dough form has to be soft and moist to touch, if not gradually add more water)
120 g Tangzhong (water roux)
45 g butter, cut in small pieces
some flour for dusting the hands and dough

Filling:
150 g chicken and potatoes curry filling

Extra (Optional):
some pandan leaves
some curry leaves

Egg wash:
1 tbsp golden syrup + 1 egg, mix together

Method:

Prepare water roux: In a small pot, add all water roux ingredients, cook and stir the mixture until thicken, remove and set aside to cool for later use.

Prepare bread dough: In the KitchenAid mixing bowl, add bread flour, cake flour, instant dry yeast, salt, sugar, milk powder, egg, and water roux. Using low speed (speed 1), mix for a min, gradually add water. Switch the speed to 2, mix the ingredients until it comes together to form a rough dough. Add the butter pieces, let the Kitchen Aid knead the dough at speed 4 until the dough form elastic window pane. 

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and proof until the dough double its size. Punch down the air in the dough and divide it into the portions you like, in my case 10 portions. Roll the dough into round balls, let it rest for 10 mins. 

Flatten the dough into circle, wrap in a heap teaspoon of curry filling, seal the edge and seam site down on lined baking tray. Wrap the dough loosely with a pandan leaves, place a piece of curry leaves on top of the dough. Let it proof second time, until double its size. Egg wash the bun dough.

Bake in preheat oven at 180C for 5 mins then switch the oven temperature to 150C and bake for 10 mins. Let the buns cool on the wire rack. (Oven temperature and timing may vary depends on the capacity of your oven)

Spiral Curry Puffs (Karipap Pusing) 螺旋咖哩角

Spiral Curry Puffs also known as Karipap Pusing is mainly the Malaysian and Singaporean popular teatime snack. It is not just consume by Malay, but Chinese and Indian too. They are deep-dried crescent shape pastries filled with curry powder and curry leaves, which give its distinctive fragrance and flavour, if you want to make it a spicy Curry Puffs, you can add chilli powder in it.  The filling is mainly with potatoes, onion and chicken. 

The success of this pastries lies in how you make the spiral skin, beautiful, crispy yet able to stay the same way when the puff cool down. Don't be intimidated by the step of making puff pastries, it is actually easier than you think. 

I made 40 small Spiral Curry Puffs (1/2 palm size) using recipe from Huang Kitchen with adjustment on the filling. (I have extra filling for another baking) You can straight away freeze up the extra curry puffs in the freezer, deep fried it only when you need to consume, no thawing require. A handy snack for a busy mum.  

这里已近入冬天，今早还下了一场冬雨。寒冷的外头和刚煎炸好滚烫的螺旋咖哩角形成强烈的对比。厨房空气里还弥漫着浓厚咖哩香料的味蕾， 感恩可以待在里头，一手抓着咖哩角，一手捧着热茶，享受凌静和独处的喜悦。这个螺旋咖哩角真的好棒！

Spiral Curry Puffs ready for deep fry

Ingredients for filling:
500 g chicken breast, cut into small cubes (option)
5 tablespoons meat curry powder, add some water to form curry paste
4  tablespoons cooking oil
2 big red onion, diced
1 bulb garlic, minced
3~4 eggs, hard boiled and cut into small wedges
3 big potatoes (~600 g ) cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups warm water 
1 bunch curry leaves, minced 

Ingredients for pastry (water dough):
400 g plain flour, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100 ml warm water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for pastry (oil dough):
200 g plain flour, sifted
150 g melted butter

extra:
enough oil for deep frying
some curry leaves

Steps:

Preparing filling:

1. Heat up the oil in the frying pan. Add minced garlic and red onion, stir fry for 2 mins. Then add curry paste, stir fry until it is aromatic.

2. Add chicken cubes and fry it for a few mins. Make sure the chicken is thoroughly coated with curry paste.

3. Add in the warm water, bring the liquid to boil. Add the potatoes cubes. Season with salt and sugar.

4. Cover the pan, let it simmer until the potatoes has softened, and the liquid dry up. (Make sure not to burnt the potatoes) Stir in the minced curry leaves. Set aside the filling for later use.

Preparing pastry water dough:

1. In a mixing bowl, add plain flour, salt, beaten eggs and gradually pour in warm water, knead well to form smooth dough. Cover and dough with cling wrap and set aside for 30 mins. 

2. After 30 mins, divide the water dough into 20 pieces. Cover the dough with cling wrap to prevent it from drying.

Preparing pastry oil dough:

1. In a mixing bowl, add flour and melted butter, stir the mixture together to form soft dough. Divide the oil dough into 20 pieces. Cover the oil dough with cling wrap to prevent it from drying.

Assemble:

1. Flatten a pieces of water dough, wrap in a piece of oil dough. Seal up the dough. Repeat the same for the rest of the water and oil dough.

2. Flatten the combined dough, roll it out in a long rectangular shape with rolling pin. Roll one end up Swiss roll style.

3. Turn the dough 90 degree (upright), flatten the dough again into long rectangular shape. 

4. Roll up Swiss roll style again, cut the dough into two equal portions with a knife. Place cut side down on the surface, flatten the cut dough into round circle with a rolling pin. 

5. Place a teaspoon of filling and egg in the middle of circle dough, fold it into crescent shape, pleat the edge of curry puff dough to seal up the filling. 

6. Repeat the same for the remaining combined dough from step 2 to 5.

7.  Heat up enough oil in a small pot, add in some curry leaves. Remove the curry leaves once it turned crispy. 

8. Gently slide a few curry puffs in the oil pot, deep fry the curry puffs in batches. Turn the curry puffs with a pair of chopstick when it is lightly brown, continue deep frying until the whole curry puff is lightly brown. Remove the curry puff with a strainer, drain the curry puffs on kitchen paper towels. Serve warm is the best!