Peanut Butter Cookie for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is around the corner, this year round I would like to try something cute for the kids. So I decided to do a simple peanut butter cookie that can be cut into any shape that you like, and Mickey Mouse is for me. You can get those cheap and good cookie cutter online and Daiso (dollar shop). Try it out with your kids and let them choose the pattern that they love.

The recipe below is for small quantity, please double the quantity if you are doing for big box. 

Ingredients

125g butter
50g icing sugar/caster sugar
100g peanut powder
 (if it comes with sugar you can reduce the sugar above if you prefer less sweet cookie)
125g all purpose flour
a pinch of salt

(option: you can choose to grind your own roasted peanuts with 25g of the 125g of the all purpose flour stated below so as its not so oily)

Direction
1. Cut the butter into small cubes.
2. Combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk until it forms a smooth creamy mixture.
3. Add the powder peanut into the bowl. Sift the flour and salt into the same bowl and combine well with spatula.
4. Form them into a ball of dough and cling wrap it.
5. Refrigerate them for at least 1-2 hour.
Option: You can refrigerate them overnight but you have to let them rest in the room temperature for at least 5 min before rolling them out.
6. Roll out dough to about 1cm or lesser thickness and cut out using cookie cutter. Gently transfer the cut out dough to parchment lined baking tray. Repeat the same process until all the dough is used up.
Note: Its advisable to flour your cutter, the roller and the table top.

 

7. Bake at 170-175C for 15-20 min or until the cookie turn into slight golden color.
8. Remove and let it cool on the baking tray. Store in air tight container when its cool. 

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Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Vermicelli ~ Bun Thit Nuong

This is one of the vietname dish that I always like to eat at the local restaurant Nam Nam... Saw my friend did it at home for her son then inspired me to try out on my own... We exchange recipe and come out with the following.

Ingredients (Servings 2)

Vermicelli noodles, prepared according to package directions and quantity for 2 pax
Fresh lettuce
Pickled carrots and cucumbers
~ cut carrots and cucumbers into thin slices and place them in a small bowl. Cover them with rice wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar.
Mint leaves
Corriander leaves
Roasted peanuts

Marinade
500g pork shoulder
 ~ steak size or slightly smaller, you can also use pork with a little bit of fat, lean pork will be too dry
 ~ beat the pork with a meat pounder or a rolling pin to make them tender
4 stalks of lemongrass
 ~ only use the white and tender part, the following youtube show it well if you dont understand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exe3Aa1d7Ro
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 shallots, minced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tsp pepper

Dipping Sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp warm water
bird eye chilli (optional)

Directions
1. Grind garlic, shallots and lemongrass until they turn into paste. This step is optional.
Tip: Add a little bit of water for easy grinding.

2. In a bowl, add honey, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix until the sugar is dissolved. Add the rest of ingredients or the paste above and mix well. Add pork and massage them with the marinade until the meat has been thoroughly covered. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hrs.

3. For the dipping sauce, combine fish sauce, sugar, fresh lime juice, warm water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add chili paste. Adjust amounts to desired taste.

4. Grill the pork either with your pan or outdoor grill until they are cooked and browned.
Tip: Use the remaining marinade to brush over the pork when grilling.

5. To assemble, place the cooked vermicelli on top of the lettuce. Pour some dipping sauce into the vermicelli. Add the pickled carrots and cucumber on top and finally the grilled pork. Garnish with crushed peanuts, mint leaves and corriander leaves.

 

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Osmanthus Flower Snow Pear Dessert ~ 桂花炖雪梨

 

 

 

 I learn about this dessert on my recent trip to HongKong. me and my husband fell in love with it right away, however we felt sad that we may not be able to drink it again when we were back in Singapore. Therefore I went to buy Osmanthus flower or the proper name Osmanthus fragrans at the Hong Kong dried ingredient shops and hopefully I will be able to make the similar dessert for my Boss when I am back.

Understand from the local that snow pear is good for lungs and it provides healing effect to cough and phlegm. Its especially good for those who always sleep late and drink very little water as it nourishes the lungs and the body. And traditional Chinese medicine claims that osmanthus improves complexion and helps rid the body of excess nitric oxide, a compound linked to the formation of cancer, diabetes, and renal disease.

In conclusion this dessert is good for our throat and lungs and most important for our complexion.

This is a very simple dessert and especially suitable for lazy people like me. Most importantly it looks so yummy and luxurious but your guests will never know it can be done so easily.With only 3 ingredients and double boil it for one hour and its DONE.

Ingredients:
2pcs Snow Pear
1tsp Dried Osmanthus Flower (桂花）
2tbsp Rock sugar
4-5 cups of hot water
Optional (red dates and dried longan)

Directions:
1. Peel and core the pears as below.
I used fruit shaper which I bought from Daiso to dig out the core of the pear from below.

 

 
2. Place all of the ingredients, including the rock sugar, inside a soup terrine and fill it with water to the top. I don’t have a Chinese soup terrine, so I used a very thick oven safe bowl.

3. Using a medium to large sized pot, place a metal rack on the bottom and fill it with enough water so that the level is just underneath the surface of the metal rack.

4. Put a lid on your soup terrine or in my case aluminium foil and place your terrine inside the large pot. Once the water boils, turn it down to low so that it simmers gently. Check the water levels every half an hour or sooner, and replenish with boiling water as necessary.

5. Double boil for 1 hour (or until the pear is soft) and its ready to serve. You can choose to drink it hot or chilled but I belive hot will be better especially in cold winter.

If you want to read more about Osmanthus Flower--> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmanthus>

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Snow Globe Cake for Christmas?

 

 

 

When I saw this thin glass sold at Daiso (local $2 shop), it gives me an idea to do something for Christmas, that is a Snow Globe on top of coconut cake. I choose coconut cake because they look like snow. At first I thought of using shredded chedar cheese but i find coconut is whiter and resemble snow.

 

 

 

Its actually pretty easy cake to do and let your imagination run into designing the globe. What I did is to put some cotton on top of the glass and with a little red ribbon and I place all the cute disney cartoon that I got from some chocolate eggs that I ate the other day.

As for the cake:

1. Bake a sponge cake of you choice or you can follow my recipe below.

2. Cut the cake into 2 layers and spread some whipped cream/coconut pastry cream in between.

3. Cover the top and sides of the cake with more whipped cream/coconut pastry cream.

4. Sprinkle coconut flakes all over the cake and its done.

 

Ingredients

5 egg whites

80g sugar
5 egg yolk
30g honey
30g butter
80g cake flour

Flaked, sweetened coconut, for sprinkling

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line bottoms of 6-inch. round/square baking pans with parchment paper; grease paper.
2. Melt the butter in microwave for 30 seconds and let it cool.
3. In a large bowl, whip egg whites and half of the granulated sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Then add the rest of the granulated sugar and whip them until firm peaks form. *If it's thick enough, you can turn the bowl upside down without it sliding out.
4. Meanwhile, combine melted butter, honey and yolks in a bowl and mix well.
5. Once egg whites are stiffened, add in the butter mixture in step 4 and mix till well combined.
5. Shift in cake flour and fold well with spatula.
6. Pour batter into the pan around 70% full and bake in the preheated oven for around 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks; remove paper. Cool completely.

7. Cut the cake into 2 layers and brush syrup onto the each layer (wet but not flood).

Note:
To make syrup, mix 2/3tbsp granulated sugar, 20ml hot water and 1/2tbsp fruit liquor (optional).

8. Place one layer on a serving plate, spread whipped cream/coconut pastry cream and then place the second layer over and then spread remaining whipped cream over top and sides of cake; sprinkle with coconut flakes. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

 

As for the frosting, you can either use whipped cream or coconut pastry cream.

 

Whipped Cream

200 ml heavy whipping cream

1tbs granulated sugar

 

Beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form.

 

Coconut pastry cream

250ml milk

2 egg yolks

20g corn flour

50g sugar

25g butter

1tbsp coconut liquer/1tsp coconut flaour essence

 

Bring milk to the boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a medium heatproof bow, gradually whisk in hot milk mixture. Return mixture to pan; whisk over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove form heat; whisk in liquer/coconut essence and butter until smooth. Cover surface with plastic wrap. Stand until cooled to room temperature and refrigerate before use.

 

 

 

 



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Is it Takoyaki or is it Cake Pop?

I came across this cake pop dessert when I was surfing around the internet, This lady had done quite a lot of nice and beautiful cake pop that you can think of.

http://www.bakerella.com/pops-bites/cake-pops/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpIifr0VOxY

Of cos some of her design is too challenging for me and I prefer to do it with a cake pop mould as it is much easier. And then I come across this Chef Ochikeron that make something fun and super easy to do cake pop, that is Takoyaki Cake Pop. Its a great idea to surprise your friends with your new dessert.

You know Takoyaki?

However you need to have the folloing mould to make this cake pop. The brand is Nordic ware.

My recipe below is to do white chocolate cake pop and I did only a small serving of 12 cake pops just nice from one time baking.

Ingredients:

((Cake Pops))

65g  white chocolate chips
55g  butter
50g  sugar
1 eggs
50g  cake flour  
1/2 tsp. baking powder)
1/4 tsp. salt

((Decoration))

Chocolate Syrup
(you can also melt some chocolate in microwave oven for 30seconds and stir it well and put into a pastry bag and cut a small hole to use it to decorate)

Condensed Milk
Green tea powder
Red chocolate rice

Directions:

((Cake Pops))

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (338F). Grease and flour pan.
2. In medium saucepan, over low heat, melt white chocolate chips and butter together. (Stop the heat when the butter starts to melt and mix with residual heat with patience. Otherwise the mixture will be separated.) Stir until smooth. Then pour into medium bowl.
3. Add sugar and mix until blended. Add egg and mix well.
4. Sift in flour and salt. Stir until blended.
5. Spoon the batter into bottom half of pan (without holes) filling each well so it mounds over the top of the pan.
6. Place top half of pan on top and secure with keys. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.
7. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove cake pops from pan to cool completely. Trim the edges of cake pops, if needed.

For the decoration part:
Top with Chocolate Syrup to look like Takoyaki sauce and condensed milk to look like mayonnaise. Sprinkle with matcha green tea powder to look like green laver and top with red rice chocolate to look like red pickled ginger.

I did this for my last Christmas...

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Fraisier Cake ~

 

Fraisier Cake

 

I did this cake for my mom in law birthday... Surprisingly they love the cake very much and its gone in seconds....

However to make this cake, my boss and I cracked our heads on the assembly part of the Jello on top of the cake... maybe one day we will be able to find a better way and I will share it with you...or you may want to share the tips with me....

I assigned my boss on the strawberry part, so he took this task very seriously and he search high and low for the right strawberry in supermarket.... the criteria is nice colour and standard size so they will look good on the assembly part around the cake...

This cake is actually not complicated to do, you just have to be more patience in the assembly part..

other than that its just a standard cake...

There are only 5 steps for doing this cake:

1. The rolled sponge cake (1 for the bottom and one for the middle part of the cake).

2. The Creme Patissiere (commonly known as custard cream).

3. The Creme Mousseline (combination of creme patissiere and butter).

4. The Raspberry Jello (optional).

5. The assembly part (You need the following ring mould for this part. I used a 7 inch ring.).

   

So if you have your own recipe for the sponge cake and custard cream, you can just do it your way and assemble it to be Fraisier cake. If you dont, you can follow the recipe below:

Step 1: Rolled Sponge

Ingredients
5 egg whites
80g sugar
5 egg yolk
30g honey
30g butter
80g cake flour

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 210C.
2. Melt the butter in microwave for 30 seconds.
3. In a large bowl, whip egg whites and half of the granulated sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Then add the rest of the granulated sugar and whip them until firm peaks form. *If it's thick enough, you can turn the bowl upside down without it sliding out.
4. Meanwhile, combine melted butter, honey and yolks in a bowl and mix well.
5. Once egg whites are stiffened, add in the butter mixture in step 4 and mix till well combined.
6. Sift in cake flour and fold well with spatula.
7. Pour batter into 2 pan (1 for the bottom cake which suppose to be the size of your ring mould and 1 for the middle of the cake which suppose to be 1 inch smaller than your ring) and spread around 1 cm thickness or less).
8. Bake in the preheated oven for around 10-12 minutes or till golden brown. Preferably using only the top heat and not top bottom heat.

Note: Of cos you can also do the same size for both the bottom and top cake, but I find it prettier to do the other one 1 inch smaller. You can cut the middle cake by 1 inch smaller if you do not have another cake pan.
You can also pour the left over batter into cupcake moulds to do cupcakes as well and bake at 170C for 15-20min.

Step 2: Creme Patissiere (Custard Cream)

Ingredients
100g Sugar (separate into 2 bowls of 50g)
40g Corn Flour
4 Egg Yolks
500ml Milk
1tsp vanilla essence (preferably 1/2 vanilla pod)
50g butter

Directions
1. Whisk egg yolks, corn flour and 50g sugar in a bowl until mix well. Set aside.
2. Boil milk with 50g sugar and vanilla essence/vanilla pod. Pour half of the mixture into the egg yolk mixture and mix well.
3. Strain back into the pot and cook on medium heat. Whisk the mixture constantly till thick.
4. Once boiled remove from heat. Add the butter and continue to whisk for another 1-2 minutes till smooth.

Note:
You can prepare this one day in advance and store in the refrigerator.

Step 3: Creme Mousseline (Custard Cream+butter)

Ingredients
400g Creme Patissiere (you can use the left over custard cream and insert into the additional cupcakes that you did and then you will get a Hokkaido Cupcake)
150g butter
40g Kirsch (optional)

Directions
Combine creme patissiere, butter and kirsch in a mixing bowl and cream till light and fluffy.

Note:
You should start with a low speed and gradually increase to medium speed and mix for around 10-15 minutes until they are smooth.

Step 4: Jello layer (optional)

Note:
Follow the directions of the Jello you bought and pour into pan of the size of the mould you use. Do this at least 4 hours or 1 day in advance.

Step 5: To assemble Fraisier CakeLine the mould with clear cake band as below:

 
1. First layer, place the bigger sponge cake in a cake mould ring. Brush syrup onto the sponge cake (wet but not flood).
Note:
To make syrup, mix 2/3tbsp granulated sugar, 20ml hot water and 1/2tbsp fruit liquor (optional).
2. Arrange cut strawberries along the sides of the mould.
(Ensure you choose similar width strawberries and cut them the same height to have a beautiful look on the outside.)
3. Spread a layer of creme mousseline around the strawberries around the sides of the ring. Add the rest of the strawberries in the centre and cover with the creme before you top the other sponge cake.
4. Top with the other smaller sponge cake on top of the strawberriesand moisten it with the syrup.
5. Cover the top of the cake with more creme mousseline and smoothen it..
7. If you go for the Jello, cover the cake with the Jello.
8. Store the cake with the mould in the fridge for at least 4 hour. Before consume, you can pull out the ring and the plastic off. Finally decorate them with more berries on top.

I did this strawberry rose to decorate on top where I learnt from this youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuGd42Yx_c

 

 

 

 

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