Wu Pao Chun's Champion white toast ( impressive recipe)

I was absorbed in other baking though I was aware of this so-called Champion white toast by this famous Taiwanese baker, Wu Pao Chun.   So ...because too many fellow bloggers baked this, I am curious to find out myself.

Coconut mini mooncake

I am still experimenting with more mooncakes, this has grated coconut caramelised with sugar creating the kind of aroma...simply delicious on mini bite size mooncakes.

Brownish caramelised filling, the aroma is beautiful.
bite sized just right for a mouthful.

Adapted from:  Nasilemaklover ( with slight alteration)
Ingredients ( I used my 100g mould to assemble 50g recipe, 30g filling and 20g pastry)

For the pastry:
130g Hong Kong Flour
90g Golden syrup
30g oil
1/4 lye water


Method:
1.  Sift flour in a mixing bowl.
2.  Mix syrup, oil and lye water well, slowly pour into the flour.
3. Use a spatula or hand (with gloves on), mix until it forms a soft dough. Cover and let it rest for an hour ( I left it overnight).
4. Weigh 20g each and roll into a ball.


Steps for assembling:

Sit dough ball in between cling wrap,  roll it out like this

Grib and shift cling wrap to help fold the dough ball

not this side but, at the opposite side to seal the end

Fill a bit of cooked glutinous rice (kor fun) into the mould, dust excess flour off.
Insert dough ball and use your palm gently flatten it to ensure dough is firmly locked in the mould.
Slowly press to unlock mooncake out of the mould.

Here you go.

after 2 to 3 days, the texture of the pastry turns just perfect.
You can now have one :)

For the filling:
15g cooking oil
70g sugar
150g grated coconut
40g cooked glutinous rice flour ( Kor Fun)
30g water
10g roasted sesame seeds

Egg wash ( 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon milk), beaten

This brush is pretty good for egg washing mooncakes

Method:
1. Mix grated coconut with cook glutinous rice flour together. Set aside.
2. Add oil and sugar in a saucepan, cook until sugar dissolved. ( I caramelised it)
3. Remove from heat and add in roasted sesame seeds, mix well.  Let it cool.
4. Weigh each 30g each and roll into ball.





















To assemble mooncake:
1.  Flatten the dough ball and place a coconut fillig in the centre, wrap, seal and shape into a ball.
2.  Lightly flour the mould, dust off excess by tapping the mould.
3.  Place the mooncake ball into the mould and flatten it.
4.  Press twice to release mooncake off the mould.
5.  Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 7 minutes ( I had a quick water spray just before baking).
6.  Remove mooncake out from oven and let it cool for at least 15 minutes.
7.  Egg wash the whole mooncake and bake at pre-heated oven 170C for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown ( I did egg wash twice).
8.  Remove mooncake from oven, immediately transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve after one or 2 days in room temperature allowing the mooncake to get softened that way ( I waited 3 days for mine).

I made another batch after the first attempt, really good.

American Breakfast Pancakes

fluffy and delicious

American pancakes are often eaten with warm maple syrup and crisp fried bacon.
My children like it plain with just  warm syrup alone, so this morning I made this simple easy one.

Coffee Jelly

                             A very refreshing dessert especially for summertime.  You can go with cold milk or whipping cream.



Here are the steps:

Instead of espresso, I used Aik Cheong black strong coffee ( 10g per packet)
Gelatine too.

Coffee bean and very hot boiling water into the plunger, wait a minute then pour into a bowl with sugar.
Stir and mix well.
 Add in gelatine powder and mix until all dissolved.

Transfer into a bowl, I used my pyrex container.
Let it cool.
Wrap it with cling wrap and store in fridge to allow it to set.

Nice!

Ingredients:

20g coffee bean ( espresso),  I used Aik Cheong coffee bean.

250ml ( 1 cup) water

3 tablespoon sugar

5g gelatin powder

whipping cream / regular milk ( I used milk)

Method:

1.  Use very hot water, pour into a plunger with coffee bean.  Rest for a minute, pour coffee into a bowl with sugar. Stir and mix well.

2.  Add in gelatin powder, stir and mix until gelatin well dissolved.

3.  Transfer into a heated proof bowl or container, let it cool.

4.  Store in fridge to let gelatine set.

5.  Cut jellies into small square pieces, serve with fresh milk or whipping cream.

6.  Enjoy!

Chicken steamed buns

Soft and fluffy buns

It  is handy to have pre-mixed Steamed bun flour, you can easily get buns done in a short time.  You can get it at any Asian grocery shop here, it's definitely a popular product here among Chinese ladies who loves to DIY steamed buns at home.

Chocolate snowskin mooncake ( cinnamon)

As a  new beginner making mooncakes, I was excited to have made this for all my students on Mooncake festival, thinking this would be something they might like...  cute little starbucks pictures on it,  lots of chocolate, nuts and Aussie kids' favourite cinnamonnnn.....!!

For me, I always make my filling and pastry one or two days ahead.  So, it was quite easy to manage mooncake making.

There were a lot of fellow bloggers who made chocolate snowskin mooncakes for the recent festival,  I read so many of it and  decided to use my snowskin mooncake recipe with slight alterations. Tested and tasted along the way as I made this, here's the final product :)

Dark hazelnut is for the centre filling and milk chocolate is part of the pastry ingredients

With a very low heat, I sat my bowl on the pan with one inch water, keep stirring until well dissolved.

Transfer to a  bowl and let it sit in a water bath, to cool completely. Gradually pour into sifted flour and mix well.
Drain through a fine sieve into a pan below.

 Steam for 20 minutes on high heat.
 Scrape paste out when it's done and let it cool a bit and do a quick knead just to bring the paste into a dough shape.
Wrap with cling wrap and store in the fridge for later use ( I kept it overnight).

Here are the main ingredients.
 As you can see, I made a few batches all in one go!

Wrap chopped chunky dark hazelnut choc inside the mung bean paste 

Next, choc pastry wrap over the mung bean paste

With beautiful strong flavour of chocolate and cinnamon......

Ingredients for pastry:
note:  This recipe is tailored for 50g mould ( you may try 30g filling, 20g pastry). I doubled the ingredients for my 100g mould ( 60g filling, 40g pastry).

1.  Milk   250g
2.  Castor sugar  50g
3.  Condensed milk  40g
4.  Rice bran oil  10g
5.  Glutinous rice flour 70g ( not cooked type)
6.  Rice flour  50g
7.  Cake flour  20g
8.  1 tablespoon cocoa powder
9.  1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
10.  milk chocolate bars 50g (for pastry)
11. coarsely chopped dark hazelnut chocolate  ( for the filling)

* prepare some cooked glutinous rice flour for assembling mould.

A good gift for my students

PASTRY
Method:
note:  I am using steaming method which takes one extra step to get mooncake done. Without shortening, minumum oil is used, so it is quite a healthy version.

1.  Combine all sifted flours together.  Set sside.
2.  Using double boiler method ( I sat my bowl on the cooking pan with one inch water,  slow heat) stir, mix and dissolve all ingredients here:  castor sugar, condensed milk, milk, oil, cocoa powder, cinnamon powder and milk chocolate).  Let it cool completely in water bath.
3. Gradually pour into the flours, mix until well combined.
5. Drain through a fine sieve into a pan.
6. Transfer pan to steam on high heat, 20 to 30 minutes ( 20 minutes for mine).
7. When it's done, let it cool down a bit, quick knead just to bring into a dough shape.  Wrap with cling wrap and store in fridge for later use.
8. Weigh 60g filling, 40g pastry each. Wrap chunky choc inside the filling and pastry over the filling each.
9. Place a pastry dough between cling film and roll it out into a thin round slice.
10.  Wrap a ball of filling with the skin, dab it into the cooked glutinous flour prepared.
11. Place it onto the mould and press gently in the corners before pushing the cake out of the mould.

Note: you can do pastry or filling / both one day in advance, just make sure they are wrapped and stored in fridge.

Method for the filling:
Refer to : homemade mung bean paste ( for 50g mould)

Spiced apple parcels

Whenever we go to Macdonalds, my daughter would also order an apple pie to go with her BigMac meal.  She just love it so much.  In fact, while eating this homemade one, she was already requesting another version of Apple pie already.:)

They are actually not as sweet, my kids just kept eating one after another last night for supper. They had it with ice cream too, really good.

cooked apple mixes with toasted almond

Fold it over

Seal it with a fork

Egg wash and make 3 slits each

Done!

Adapted from: Coles
Ingredients:

50g butter
3 medium apples (450g), peeled, cored and chopped finely
2 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoons castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice  ( I used 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder and, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder)
1/4 cup  ( 40g)sultanas  ( I didn't include these to adjust to my son's taste)
1/4 cup silvered almonds, toasted
1 and 1/2 sheets butter puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

Puff pastry, 1 and 1/2 sheet

Method:

1.  Melt butter in a pan, cook apple, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or until browned lightly.
2.  Add in sugar, spice and  maple syrup; cook, stirring about 5 minutes or until liquic boils and caramelises.  Transfer to a bowl and let it cool.
3.  Meanwhile, pre-heated oven to 220C/ 425F.
4.  Cut whole pastry sheet in quarters; cut half sheet in half. Spoon 1/4 cup apple mixture along one half of the pastry squares. Fold over to form rectangles,   Spoon out mixture, fold over and seal with a fork.
5. Egg wash, make  3 slits each.
6. Bake about 20 minutes or until browned.

Serving suggestion:
Dust with sifted icing sugar and serve with ice cream.

No- knead crusty pumpkin seeds rolls

Crusty.......

Again, crispy outside, moist springy inside.

We have been having these crusty rolls these few weeks,  it is very welcome in my family, especially my son. I used the same method as in my no-knead crusty bread recipe.  Instead of a loaf of bread, I divided it into 4 quarters with the help of my amazing tools; scraper and large spatula.  I was really careful not to deflate the air bubbles too.
If you cannot finish them in a day, you can warm it up in the oven, just for a short moment.

Homemade mung bean paste

Homemade mung bean paste is good for making mooncakes whether traditional types or the snowskin types, besides it is also popular used for other authentic Asian desserts or pastries.  Being homemade, you can have the full control of the amount of sugar or oil you like to have in it, avoiding unnecessary preservatives and additives.

Feel free to add batches from the amount here,  with the unfinished paste, just roll it into a dough shape, wrap it with cling wrap and store in the fridge for later use. You may like to get paste prepared one or two days in advance.

Adapted from SiuKitchen
Ingredients (Filling):

1.  Peeled split mung beans  160g  (wash and soaked  for 2-3 hours or, overnight).
2.  Wheat starch  10g
3.  Vegetable oil   10g
4.  Castor sugar  40g ( I used 50g)

Raw Peeled Mung Beans , get it soaked best overnight

Steaming done.
 You should feel the beans are soft and tender.
 ( I made double batches here)

Mashed and fine sieve it after

Smooth, glossy paste ( should not be very dry or wet).
 Covering a cling wrap on the paste is to maintain it's moisture.

 Method:                                                                                                                                              

1.  Add a little water to the mung beans so that it is slightly submerged.  Use shallow pans and get it steam 20 to 30 minutes until softened.
2. Drain away excess water. Mash the paste while it is still hot, sieve to puree after.
3.  Add 40g sugar into the paste and mix well.
4.  On low heat, fry the paste with a little oil at a time.
5.  Add in wheat starch when paste is becoming quite dry ( but not dry).  Stir until all well mixed. At this stage, paste should come together easily, looking smooth and glossy.
6.  Wrap around the paste with with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for later use.

Bacon & Cheese Pull-Apart Bread

A beautiful bread packed with flavourful bacon, cheese and herb,  nice to serve warm with butter. As you can see,  I had mine in two different layers, smaller pieces as compared to original D'Artagnan's.

Melt and mix coconut cake ( quick and easy)

A light afternoon tea cake

I baked this many times over the years, it is always welcome in the parties.  When you are rushing and just want to bake a simple delicious cake, this would be the one.  So easy that,  even a young child can do it.


I had this recipe from  one of the cooking magazines I read a decade ago, I can't remember which.  Anyway,  it is a good recipe.



Ingredients:

Self raising flour  225g
Castor sugar  275g  ( I reduced to 200g)
Desiccated coconut  110g
Butter, melted  125g
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Milk  180ml






Method:

1.  Grease and flour 21cm baba pan.
2.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix it with a wooden spoon. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3.  Bake at pre-heated oven 180C about 45 minutes.
4.  Let it rest in pan for 10 minutes.
5.  Invert cake and continue to let it cool on wire rack.
6.  Happy baking!