Coffee Bun

Some say "roti boy" some say "mexican bun", whatever it is, I must say it's delicious! I think everyone will hardly resist the coffee smell when it's about to come out from the oven. For me, it is.

The buns are super soft and I didn't feel I've eaten two of it in a short time. I hardly tell the difference of the commercial one with these buns. Yes, we can get this kind of bun easily everywhere but I just feel good to make it myself and it's as good as the commercial one! Try it out!

(Recipe for 10 little buns)

For the dough:

250g bread flour

38g caster sugar

3g salt

4g yeast

1/2 beaten egg

135g fresh milk

30g butter

For the filling:

100g butter (softened)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

35g brown sugar

For the topping:

50g butter

40g icing sugar

38g beaten eggs

1 teaspoon granulated coffee dissolve with 1 teaspoon water

pinch of cinnamon powder (optional)

50 plain flour

How I made it:

1. For the filling, using an electric mixer beat the butter and brown sugar until light and pale until the sugar totally dissolved. Add in the vanilla extract for the final beating. Place the mixture into the fridge until it harden. Divide the harden mixture into 10 portions and sit in the fridge until ready to use.
2. For the toppings, beat the softened butter with icing sugar until everything well combine. Gradually add in beaten eggs then the coffee mixture. Add in pinch of cinnamon powder with the flour and beat until everything well incorporate. Place the mixture into a piping bag and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
3. For the dough, knead all the ingredients together except butter. When the dough become a smooth dough add in butter and continue the the kneading process until the dough become smooth and elastic but not sticky. I used a standing kneading mixer to knead for approximately 30 minutes at speed 2.
4. Divide the dough into 10 little doughs and shape it into round ball shape. Let it rest for 15 minutes before add in the filling.
5. Roll out each doughs to a flat disc and add the butter filling. Seal it tightly. (make sure you seal it tightly otherwise it will split out during baking)
6. Place each doughs on a baking tray, make sure they sit a part from each other because they might stick to each other during the baking. Cover the doughs with cling film and proof for 50 - 60 minutes.
7. Before the doughs place into the oven, pipe out the filling in a spiral start from the top center of each buns. Bake for 12 minutes at 200'C preheated oven.

Enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom Pizza

I baked some 12 inches thin crust pizzas in the weekend, there are six different flavours. I would like to introduce the creamy mushroom pizza that my friends and I love it so much!

The pizza doesn't need tomato sauce for the topping as the creamy mushroom had its unique flavour with the mozzarella cheese. The recipe is very simple, pan fry lots of chopped garlic, then add in some chopped sticky bacon together with one big chopped yellow onion. Pan fry at low heat until the bacon caramelized with the onions. Stir in big chunky of fresh mushroom for about two minutes or so. Don't over cook it. Season with salt and peppers and add 5 tablespoon of cream and 5 tablespoon of milk. Add some dried oregano or italian herbs. Cook for another two minutes and it's done! Top on the pizza dough and go with some mozzarella cheese and bake until the cheese melt. Delicious!

I've also baked another chiffon, pumpkin chiffon. It's beautifully baked!

Berries Cream Puffs

A sweet lady bought me super sweet and giant size of strawberries last week. Normally I find big size of strawberries would not be so sweet however these package of strawberries really super sweet. I need four big bites to finished a strawberry and imagine how big it is and I love strawberries crazily.

To appreciate her lovely thought, I quickly tuck into my kitchen to make some cream puffs to sandwich the strawberries and some leftover blueberries for her. The berries cream puffs was very refreshing in this hot and humid weather.

Recipe for 20 puffs:

For the Puff: 70g plain flour/3 beaten eggs/100g water/60g unsalted butter/Pinch of sugar and salt

For the custard: 3 egg yolks/200ml milk/60g sugar/20g plain flour/10g unsalted butter/1 tsp vanilla extract

How I made it:

1. For the puff, boil the water, butter and pinch of sugar and salt in a cooking pan until its bubbling. Off the heat, add in all the plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon until well combine and become a smooth dough.
2. Add half of the beaten eggs and mix (this stage is a bit hard work but please patient and keep stirring until the egg mix into the dough.) Once the eggs completely mix with the dough, you will find it quite dry and hardly to mix. Add the beaten eggs little by little into the dough and continue mixing. You might not finish using the beaten eggs. You will need to have a smooth and silky consistency of the mixture. When you spoon up the mixture, it should drop back to the pan very slowly. The mixture should not too dry or too wet.
3. Once you get the right consistency of mixture, transfer it into a piping bag and pipe out about 20 dollops of mixture on a baking tray with baking paper.
4. Dip your fingers with some water and gently touch the top of the mixture. This is to prevent it over burning while it's baking in the oven. Then spray some water on the mixture surface. (Not too much)
5. Bake at 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes until it puff up then turn the temperature to 170'C and bake for another 15 minutes. Transfer the puff on a wire rack to cool down.
6. For the custard, boil the milk with sugar until sugar dissolve but not boiling. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks and flour a thick paste but no lumps. Add two tablespoon of milk if you find it too dry to mix.
7. Pour the dissolve warm sugar milk into the egg yolks mixture, pour little by little and mix with a hand whisk until everything combine. Then, pour back the mixture into the cooking pan. Cook in very low heat and keep stirring until it thicken.
8. Once the mixture thicken, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the heat slightly cool down but slightly warm. Then add in the butter and vanilla extract. Continue stirring until well combine.
9. Transfer the custard into a plate and cover with cling film. Make sure the cling film touch on the mixture, this is to prevent it from skin forming on its surface.
10. To assemble the berries cream puffs, squeeze in some custard then sandwich some strawberries and blueberries. Chill in the fridge before serve.

Coffee Chiffon

To increase my confident, I'd like to try again another chiffon which I made before. Other than instant granulated coffee, I added cocoa and cinnamon powder to give it an extra flavour. I love coffee with some cinnamon taste, it's wonderful! Some expert said, the smell of cinnamon could give you a clear of mind.

Inside the chiffon, I added some mocha beans that bought from Phoon Huat and I cut it in four portions. The mocha bean really gave the texture a boost and I won't feel boring with a plain coffee chiffon. This chiffon had given away so I'd no chance to cut out a piece for the shooting. But I'll do it another time. I'm very satisfied with the result, as it's getting much better, as well as the flavour really special. Hope you will like it.

Recipe for 17cm round chiffon

For the egg whites mixture: 110g egg whites 55g caster sugar 5g corn flour

For the egg yolks mixture: 40g egg yolks 50g milk 36g vegetable oil or olive oil 55g plain flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder 3g cocoa powder

3g instant granulated coffee

10g sugar Method:

1. Mix the egg yolks, milk, oil until everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. Add the cinnamon powder, cocoa and granulated coffee and mix until everything dissolve then add in sugar. The mixture would be very thick and and smooth. Fold in the mocha beans.
2. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Continue to beat until soft peak foam. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)
4. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160-170'C preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it.

Chocolate Chips Cookies

All thanks to HHB for a wonderful recipe. I followed exactly her recipe. It's crunchy yet not too sweet, fantastic! I'll use this recipe to make more than four hundred cookies for a charity concert for Myanmar refugee. Thank you HHB!

Troubleshooting on Chiffon

Actually I don't have confidence to do it anymore, but I really like to give it a try again. This time, it raised steadily, the texture cottony soft and it was great. I'm happy now. Thanks for everyone gave me such a great encouragement. Thank you thank you!

I followed the recipe which I normally use to and all of the recipe at my blog are about the same method is it just about the flavor and additional ingredients for the texture. This is a simple chiffon with some dried fruit & chopped walnut. The texture very cottony soft and fruitful with the walnut gave the crunchy texture was great!

Recipe for 17cm round chiffon

For the egg whites mixture:

110g egg whites

55g caster sugar

5g corn flour

For the egg yolks mixture:

50g egg yolks

36g water

36g vegetable oil or olive oil

55g plain flour

10g sugar

20g walnut

120g dried fruits

Method:

1. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour (I used electric mixer, its came very handy for this process). Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be very thick and and smooth. Mix in the dried fruits and chopped walnut.
2. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Continue to beat until soft peak foam. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)
4. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160-170'C preheated oven for 40 - 45 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it.

Milky Wholemeal Bread

This wholemeal bread very cottony soft because it's made by plenty of milk. It's been our daily bread for year. Sometimes I bake the dough in the bread tin but this time I just simply rolled it into two log and bake. Well, it's just another kind of sensation. I used some leftover bread to make some sandwich french toast with cheesekraft, ham and some parmesan cheese, it's very enjoyable breakfast!

Recipe for the bread:

Bread flour 270g

Wholemeal flour 30g

Yeast 3g

Sugar 6g

Salt 5g

Cold milk 240g

Unsalted butter 12g

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a kneading bowl with 240ml cool milk except butter. Knead until everything combine.
2. Gradually add in the butter continue the kneading process until it become smooth and elastic. (the dough might have a bit wet but not sticky, you might need longer time to knead it)
3. Shape it into a smooth round dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 80 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and roll to form 'ball' shapes.
5. Flatten each dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough like a swiss-roll. (I put some rye flour on the bread to give a country look. Place the rolled doughs on a baking pan proof for 60 minute.
6. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown at 190'C preheated oven.

To make six pieces of french toast.... you will need six slices of bread, 1 egg, 3 tbsp milk, 1 tbsp sugar, pinch of salt and pepper, 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese, six slices of ham and cheesekraft.

1. Mix the egg, milk, sugar, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese in a bowl.
2. Cut apart (don't need to cut into to two slices) on each slice of bread and place a ham and cheesekraf to sandwich.
3. Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saute pan. Soak the sandwich bread with some egg mixture and cook on the pan each side until golden brown.

Praline Chocolate Ice Cream

After my first attempt on chocolate tofu mousse recipe, I'm quite curious about tofu desserts recently. This time I'm going to make ice cream which is without cream but tofu, again :P

Well, I've got this recipe through chocolate peanut butter ice cream, I changed the recipe to praline chocolate ice cream.

I've made a cup of praline paste using hazelnut with caramel sugar. I feel that Hazalnut and chocoalte always go very well. You'll hardly get the beany taste from the ice cream as I added vanilla extract and the praline already won over the beany taste.

This ice cream couldn't compare with those Häagen-Dazs ice cream as it didn't contains egg yolks and cream, so it's definately not as rich as Häagen-Dazs. But, it's no different compare to those ice cream box selling in the supermarket with the smooth and creamy texture, and nutty flavour. This is something good for those who afraid of fatness but craving for ice cream.

Recipe for praline paste:

1. Heat the 150g sugar in a pan (non-stick pan would be good). Make sure the sugar dissolves and the colour is a nice caramel (the praline can taste bitter if it colours too much). Pour the 100g hazelnut (halves) into the caramel and stir quickly.
2. Pour the mixture onto a non-stick mat or onto a sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking tray to cool. Spread the praline out to a thickness of about 1cm.
3. When the praline has set, lightly crush with a rolling pin then place into a bag. Using the rolling pin to punch until praline become the size of rock salt.
4. Place it into a food processor and blend until it become a thick paste.

Recipe for the ice cream:

1. Blend all these ingredients in a food processor (12oz silken tofu, 1 cup praline paste, 3/4 cup pure maple syrup, 1 cup soy milk, 2 tsp vanilla extract)
2. Melt 1 cup of dark chocolate in a double boiler. Add the melted chocolate to the tofu mixture (1).
3. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 2 hours then process in the ice cream machine.
4. Freeze in the freezer for couple of hour. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Smoothie

No mood to bake these days especially chiffon cake. I've failed on baking chiffon cake since last year December and I don't really know what's wrong. Looking back to those chiffon I've baked, and I don't feel there are my works. I've really disappointed to myself.

Well, to get myself a relaxing mind and forgot about the failure. I've made a drink to cool down my mind, banana and peanut butter smoothie. I've been making my homemade peanut butter for years and I found this recipe is really tasty. For the peanut butter, I simply roast some peanut then take off the skin. Blend it in a blender until it become a smooth peanut butter consistency. I didn't add sugar in it as I normally spread another layer of blackcurrant jam on my bread and the sweetness was just nice. For banana smoothie, I used 1 big ripe banana, 1/2 cup nonfat milk , 1/4 cup plain nonfat natural yogurt, 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Ahh... I feel much release after this smoothie. Take a break, I shall try the chiffon next time.

The coffee

The coffee mean so much to me. It's the most wonderful yet relaxing day I had in this land since my arrival. Thank you Lord for preparing such a lovely companion for me. I appreciate every single minutes of the sharing and kindness. It's unforgettable one! God bless you!

Chocolate Tofu Mousse

Chocolate mousse, the dessert that I hardly resist and my weakness! Everytime I feel guilty after I eat it as most of the traditional chocolate mousse recipes would contain lots of cream and egg yolks. Somehow, there was a genius who used tofu to replace the cream and egg yolks for the chocolate mousse and that really cheer me up. Tofu! yes it's tofu which I never think that can be used to replace cream for making desserts. There are plenty of tofu chocolate mousse recipes and here I followed my favorite nutritionist Ellie's recipe.

The chocolate mousse took no time to prepare, just ignore the pictures shown with the shortcrust pastry cases and the cake base. The chocolate mousse could actually simply serve in cups or any serving dish but I just made a little bit extra for weekend. Simply blitz all the chocolate mousse ingredients in a food processor and pour into a serving dish and set in the fridge for couple of hours, job done!

I like the sourly of raspberries in the chocolate mousse as I think they go very well. So, I used raspberry puree to replace the water from the recipe as well as using the puree for the toppings. For the cake base, I was quite lazy to make the sponge cake so I simply blend together 60g egg whites, 25g ground almond, 50g sugar powder and 30g melted butter in the food processor then bake in a 180'C preheated oven for 20 minutes, simple! I find the cake is slightly thick which suppose to be in very thin layer.

As for the shortcrust pastry, I used some left over pastry in the fridge to roll it into a few chef rings and bake blind until golden brown. Here I've got a broken one and it's such a waste.

The pastry and almond cake go very well with the chocolate mousse whereas the mousse is really smooth, soft, light and my other half hardly taste the tofu until I told him. Other than using tofu for the chocolate mousse, a good quality at least 70% chocolate and cocoa powder is needed. It would definitely gives you a scrumptious dessert.

Recipe for the chocolate mousse:

10 oz silken tofu

3 oz 70% dark chocolate

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup water (I used raspberry puree, drained & seeded)

1 tbsp brandy (optional)

1/2 cup sugar (I reduced 2 tbsp for 1/2 cup)

1. In a blender or food processor, puree the tofu until it is smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, water and brandy (this is quite optional) in a saucepan or heat-proof bowl fitted over a pot containing 1-inch barely simmering water. Stir frequently, until melted and smooth.
3. Add the chocolate mixture to the tofu and puree until smooth and well blended. Spoon the mousse into serving dishes, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or 2.