Happy Christmas!

I've just made a very simple log cake with no extra frosting or any fancy decoration  as time is so limited for me nowadays. As usual, I used the same swissroll recipe of 孟老师, it turn out spongy soft just as good as last year attempt of my x'mas log cake. 

The log effect was made by the cocoa mixture then bake together with the sponge. With no extra frosting around the log, we don't feel so guilty of having a big slice. Lastly, wishing everyone have a wonderful Christmas and Happy 2012 !!

16 December 2011 - Make another log cake in vertical version which is quite the same as last year but with the same method of the above non-frosting method. Beside, thanks for everyone who remember me and drop by to leave your comments. Wishing you all have a wonderful Christmas and blessed 2012.

Blueberry Chiffon Cake

I made this light, fluffy and moist chiffon cake couple of weeks ago and now only have some time to share. It's made by my homemade blueberry sauce and a simple touch up of fresh cream with digestive cookie crumbs. My guests love it very much and so do I. Hope you like it too! OK, I got to go now, very tired today. Cheers!

Recipe from 戚枫蛋糕秘方传授 20 inches cm chiffon pan

(Egg white mixture)

Egg whites 180g

Caster sugar  90g

Corn flour 10g

(Egg yolk mixture)

Egg yolk 70g

Water 20g

Vegetable oil 60g

Blueberry sauce 80g

Lemon juice 10g

plain flour 90g

Caster sugar 20g

Fresh Cream 300ml

Some digestive biscuits crumbs

Some fresh blueberries and mint leaves

1. Blueberry sauce was made with 125g fresh blueberries, splash of water, half of lemon juice and a tablespoon of caster sugar. Cook all the ingredients in a medium low heat until it become a not too thick consistency. Cool and ready to use.
2. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.
3. 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. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
4. 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. 
5. Pour the well mix mixture into a 20cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160-170'C preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it.
6. Unmold the cake and frost with whipped cream and coat the cookies crumb at the side.

Baileys Cheesecake

Oh no! This is not what I want to share about because it is not that yummy although still edible. For those who likes light and soft cheesecake, this would be great but not for me as I feel that baileys cheesecake should be in rich texture. So, I won't be sharing the recipe since it's not that nice.
I'm looking for something richer, creamier, smoother and melt in the mouth texture, so I make another experiment which is this one (shown below)!! 

You don't want to have a big piece of this as it's truly rich. Serve it with a cup of tea, it's heaven! Here is something you can eat very slowly, with a small dessert fork would be great especially sitting with someone for a long chit chat.

Ingredients for 7 inches square pan:

For the crust:

150g digestive biscuits
70g unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
500g cream cheese, at room temperature
100g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
2 large eggs, at room temperature

200ml sour cream
75ml baileys 
Method:

To make the crust:

1. Lined the springform pan with baking paper and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil.
2. Mix the digestive biscuits crumbs with the melted butter together in a bowl. Layer the crumbs into the springform pan evenly. Place it into the fridge while you preparing the cheesecake batter.
3. Lowest a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 160°C and put a kettle of water on to boil.

To make the cheesecake:

1. Beat the cream cheese with sugar, vanilla and salt until creamier and sugar dissolve. 
2. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until just combine.
3. Mix in the sour cream and baileys. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into pan that lined with the digestive biscuits.  
4. Put a roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the pan.
5. Steam bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Turn off the oven's heat leave the cheesecake in the oven for an hour.
6. Then, let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for overnight
7. At serving time, use a hot knife to potions the cakes. Enjoy!

Baileys Ice Cream

Hello to all my baking buddies! How are you doing? I'm back here to defrost my frozen blog, otherwise it would become a huge iceberg soon, hahaha... Well, I can't stay too long here, as the little one need more of my attention. 

As I don't have sufficient time to make interesting bakes, so I think ice cream would be much easier for me to make especially keep it in the freezer to serve my visitors in anytime. This Baileys ice cream was something I like to try long time ago. The unique taste of the ice cream with a bit of alcohol make me feel floated. Hahaha I must admit, I'm not that alcoholic. 

Beside, the texture remain smoothly soft when it's brought out from the freezer unlike my previous attempts which has to be wait for a few minutes before I can scoop it out nicely. I read an article about adding alcohol to ice cream enhances both flavor and texture. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so ice creams stay creamier and smoother because they do not freeze as solid and are less likely to form ice crystals. Oh yes! It's so true after my experiment. But, I was too greedy on my second experiment as I add too much Baileys in it until it became too soft. So now I've learned that too much alcohol can prevent ice cream from freezing at all. A rule of thumb is to add one and a half tablespoons of 80-proof alcohol for every quart of ice cream base. Well, I'm going to feed my baking buddies soon, hope they don't mind the texture and most importantly is, they won't get drunk, hahahaha.....

Recipe:

480ml whole milk

150g granulated sugar

4 large egg yolks

240ml heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 tablespoon Baileys 
some raisin soak in rum (optional)

Pour the milk into a medium size, heavy bottomed saucepan, add approximately 100g of the sugar, place over medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture register 77C on an instant-read thermometer.

In a nonreactive, medium-size bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 50g of sugar until foamy and slightly thickned. Carefully temper the egg yolks with the hot milk mixture by slowly adding about half of the hot liquid to the eggs, whisking continously. Pour the heated egg mixture into the sauce pan with the hot milk and return to the stove top. Stirring continously with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula, cook the mixture over medium heat until it register 85C on an instant read thermometer or is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon or spatula, taking care to make sure the mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat. Emulsify the mix, if not completely smooth, before incorporating it into the cold cream.

Pour the heavy cream into a clean, large stainless-steel or glas mixing bowl set over an ice bath. Pour the heated custard through a fine mesh sieve or strainer into the cold cream, add the vanilla extract and stir until fully incorporated. Stir occasionally about every 5 minutes until the mixture has fully cooled. This should take about 1/2 hour. Remove the mixing bowl from the ice bath, dry off the bottome of the bowl if necessary, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight. Add in the Baileys and stir incorporated. When ready, pour the chilled mixture into the ice-cream maker and about 25 minutes from being done.

Remove the finished ice cream from the ice cream maker and add in the drained raisin then place in a plastic continer. Cover with plastic wrap by pressing the wrap gently against the top of the ice cream, affix lid to container, and place in the freezer to fully harden before serving.

I'm away....

Hey hey... please stay with me, I'm the Kitchen Corner and you are at the right site. Sorry that I've been away without any news as my life is upside down now with my little one.
For this reason, I hardly bake anything at this stage but your comment is always welcome. Hopefully, I could be back to the kitchen soon as I really miss my oven and mixer. 
So, for those bloggers who are on my list please don't be lazy when I'm not around ok, I'm still checking and reading your updates from time to time although I might not be able to give any comments :) Miss you all!!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Hello there! I'll be away for some time but before that I'd like to use my very simple yet traditional new year cookies to wish all my supportive readers a very blessed Lunar New Year! Beside, I'm submitting this to ""j3ss kitch3n" who are hosting the Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011).

I know this peanut cookie might seems like nothing special to everyone but it's only what I can do for this coming Lunar New Year. I've tried out different version of peanut cookie recipes and this is the one that specially make for my mum as she particularly likes the bits of crunchiness yet the richness of peanut taste. As for me, I like all kind of peanut cookies as long as it had the finest peanut taste in it. I thought adding more grounded peanut for the cookies dough would increase the flavor but it doesn't work for my experiment last year. I found out the peanut should actually roasted to a slightly darker color in order to get a better taste. You might think the peanut may burnt but it's not actually. It helps to produce very  flavorful cookies yet the proportion used is only 400 gram of roasted peanut with 600 gram of plain flour instead of 1:1 proportion. Beside, I purposely ground the peanut quite coarsely to suit my mum taste bud, and she is happy with that! 

Lastly, I would like to bless everyone who are reading this have a wonderful yet healthy New Year! I will be here again to update my latest news after March 2011. BYE!!

Recipe:

400g peanut

600g plain flour

220g sugar powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

300ml peanut oil

1. Roast the peanut in the oven at 180C for about 15 - 20 minutes until dark brown color. Please watch it as every oven are vary.
2. When the roasted peanut still warm, try to skin off the peanut by using both hands to rub. Then use hair dryer to blow off the skin. 
3. Ground the peanut coarsely to remain some bits of nuts for the crunchy texture. 
4. In a mixing bowl, mix the grounded peanut, plain flour, sugar powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda until well combine.
5. Gradually add in the peanut oil and mix until well combine. You will get quite crumbly texture but will still able to roll into a ball with your hands by giving it a bit of squeeze.
6. I use 1 teaspoon measurement for each portions. Roll them up into balls then roast in a 175C preheated fan oven for about 13 minutes. Take them out and brush some egg yolks on top of each peanut cookies and continue to bake for another 10 - 12 minutes. 
7. Let it completely cool on a wire rack before fill them into a cookies container. Enjoy! Happy Lunar New Year!