Durian Mousse Cake

It's been very long time I've not doing anything here. No baking and no blogging as I was very sick for the pass few weeks, but now I feel much better and trying to share a recipe with you - all my supporter and blog lovers. I made this last month and like the texture very much. I'm quite particular with mousse texture before too much gelatin will produce a hard jelly type which couldn't give the "melt in the mouth" and creamy texture whereas not enough gelatin would afraid the mousse will not set nicely.

This time the texture is just right to what I was looking for and really happy with the result. Airy soft, moist and creamy. For Durian lovers, you will like it. My guests enjoy it very much!

Recipe for 8 x 5cm individual cake:

For the base:

100g digestive biscuits

30g butter (melted)

For the durian mousse:

200g durian flesh (pureed)

3 pieces gelatin leaves

200ml whipping cream

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 egg yolks

50ml milk

40g caster sugar

1. To make the base, process the biscuits in a food processor to make rough crumbs and add the melted butter. Process again until it makes damp, clumping crumbs and then tips them into every chef rings. Press the biscuits crumbs into the bottom of the tin to make an even base and put into the fridge while you make the filling.
2. Put the gelatin leaves in cold water. In a sauce pan, warm the milk with sugar until the sugar completely dissolved. Add in the softened gelatin and mix well. In a large bowl, add in the egg yolks then gradually pour the warm milk to mix with the yolks. Mix in the lemon juice and durian flesh until well combine.
3. Whip the whipping cream until stiff peak. Fold it into the durian mixture and divide the mixture into every chef rings. Chill in the fridge until it set. Enjoy!

Blueberry Bakewell Tart

I guess it's blueberry season now as I realized there are many bloggers had posted their bakes with blueberry which had given me lots of inspiration. I didn't think much and took two punnets of fresh blueberries when I saw it in the supermarket. At first, there are many ideas came to my mind whether to make muffins, pancake, juice or crumble etc but I don't really have the appetite to eat what is in my mind so ended up I choose to make a rustic yet with country feel of bakewell tart which will top with my fresh and juicy blueberries. I like bakewell tart because the almond bring lots of flavor with the combination of butter together with the shortcrust pasty. Normally I would like to make bakewell tart with plum or apple and here I found blueberry goes well well with it too! A piece of this nutty and buttery flavor tart for an afternoon tea,  simplicity is my biggest satisfaction. 

Recipe for 8 inches baking pan

For the pastry:

220g plain flour

110g unsalted butter

20g sugar powder

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks + 2 tbsp water

For the fillings:

95g ground almond

27g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

83g unsalted butter

55g caster sugar

1 egg

some blueberry jam

Method:

1. For the pastry, add the cold water to the egg yolks and stir with a fork.
2. Place the flour into the bowl of a food processor, followed by the cold butter, sugar powder and the salt.
3. Turn the processor on and pulse several times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Add two-thirds of the egg yolk/water mixture and pulse again. If the mixture is still too dry, add the remaining egg and water mixture (you may not need to use all of it). Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Stop pulsing when the mixture has the consistency of chunky breadcrumbs.
5. Turn the pastry out onto a clean, floured work surface and, with floured hands, bring together to make a smooth dough, but don't knead.
6. Shape into a flattened ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes. You can keep the pastry at this stage for 2-3 days if not using it immediately.
7. Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a clean, floured work surface, roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it's slightly larger than the flan ring. Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry and lay it over the flan ring.
8. With your fingers, lightly press the pastry into the sides of the ring. Run a rolling pin over the top of the ring and pull away the excess pastry at the edges. Using your fingers, gently press the pastry up to slightly build up the height of the pastry at the edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.
9. For the fillings, blitz the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a food processor until light and creamy.
10. Add in the ground almond, plain flour and beaten eggs and whiz until completely mixed and smooth.
11. Place in the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour.
12. Spoon some blueberry jam into the pastry case then spread the almond batter over the blueberry jam.
13. Arrange the blueberries on the surface of the almond batter, pressing them in lightly.
14. Bake the tart in the 180'C preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Remove tarts from the oven and leave it to cool.

Milky Square Loaf

I've received quite a few comments from previous bread post recently. Many of them having some problems just like I do, either the dough couldn't rise to the perfect square or the texture was not right etc. I must said I'm not a perfect baker and sometimes I do have problems with my dough too especially my first year of learning bread making, it's really a struggling. I think the problems could be the room temperature, humidity, yeast and all other ingredients that cause a failure. However, we all learn from mistakes. The more you practice and the more you could figure out the solution. I've been long time didn't bake a square loaf because I was crazy about the wholesome blacky bread recently, the texture and taste is just so good for me. This milky wholemeal bread is the one I did it quite often at my earlier bread learning journey and it become my almost daily bread. As some of the bloggers had problem making it, so I decided to give this a try again since I quite miss it too! 

I'm quite happy with the result this time, it's a square loaf and the texture is soft and light. I hope people who face the failure please don't be dishearten and give up. Do it again until you get it. I'll not shame to tell you that I've feed the bin with my failure doughs many times which I couldn't remember how many. Again, thanks for everyone dropping at my blog for leaving your words! Let's face the problem and solve it. You'll get a right bread soon!

Recipe for the bread:

Bread flour 270g

Wholemeal flour 30g

Yeast 3g (this time I used 4g for a square loaf)

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. (This time I proof for 60 minutes)
4. Divide the dough into 3 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. Place the rolled doughs on a baking pan proof for 60 minute. (I forgot to set the time, and almost proof until 95% full of the tin about 80 minutes)
6. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown at 190'C preheated oven. (For a square loaf I baked at 200C about 35 minutes)

Durian Soft Cheesecake

I know the weather has been extremely hot and it's not good to eat durian at this time but when I see some durian selling in the market, I just can't help myself to buy some for baking. So, here I made a light version of durian cheesecake that called for only a little amount of durian flesh which yield a light version of durian cheesecake. The texture is similar to Japanese cotton cheesecake, quite moist and soft. 

One thing that I always worry on making soft cheesecake is the cake might crack on the surface and shrink terribly. This time the top still have a bit of crack but not too much. Perhaps I could still turn the heat slightly lower. As I know it's definitely going to be shrank, so what I do is to help it shrink nicely. Grease the side of the pan with butter and coated with bread flour. I find this method quite good. Although the weather is quite hot, this light and moist durian cheesecake quite a refreshing dessert. Just to make sure it's cool enough to serve.

Recipe from Chef Alan Kok

1 slice 7" sponge cake (I used 8")

250g cream cheese

3 egg yolks

150ml fresh milk

150g durian flesh

3 egg whites

60g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 7" round cake tin (I used 8" , serves 9) with grease proof paper and put in a slice of prepared sponge cake (I greased the side of the pan with butter and coated with bread flour) 
2. Beat cream cheese, egg yolks at low speed until well mixed. Add fresh milk, durian flesh and mix well.
3. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk egg white and caster sugar at high speed until soft peak is formed. Mix in mixture (2) in 3 batches.
4. Pour mixture onto sponge cake.
5. Steam bake the cheesecake at 180C for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 140C and bake for another 1 1/2 hours.
6. Leave cake to cool in the oven with door ajar 1 hour. Chill in the fridge for overnight. 

Ingredients for the plain sponge cake:
(Please follow the video clip)
140g plain flour / 4 eggs / 30g milk / 180g sugar / 4g salt / 30g oil

Wholesome Blacky Bread

What is in your mind when you look at this bread? Yes, healthy and...... must be a solid or hard texture bread, right? At first, I thought it is but I don't care as I was thinking to get all the goodness for my body. 

Somehow the outcome surprising me with a very soft texture like those milky bread and it stay soft until the third day. I deeply falling in love with this recipe because its wholesomeness and softness had encouraged me  to bake this more often. 

The bread consists of whole wheat flour,  黑八珍 and some walnuts. I use to drink this 黑八珍 for breakfast that contains eight kind of goodness in it. There are 黑芝麻, 黑木耳, 黑米,黑豆,黑枣,黑麦,黑糖,灵芝. all blended into powder which can be easily melted in hot water for breakfast. All these are good for ladies if you know all the ingredients. The bread taste really good, not only the softness but the crunchiness of walnut and the taste of 黑八珍, fantastic!I think the dough can be baked in a loaf tin or make it into little buns, either use it for sandwich or any favorite spread or just eat as it is. I will add some dry fruits, sunflower and pumpkin seeds for my next baked. Anyone like healthy and soft texture bread, give this a try!

Recipe for a loaf of bread:  142g bread flour / 50g 黑八珍 / 40g whole wheat flour / 5g milk powder / 10g caster sugar / 3g salt / 5g yeast / 120g fresh milk / 48g water roux / 13g unsalted butter / 75g chopped walnut / some wheat bran for coating

Recipe for the water dough "water roux": Cook 125g water with 25g bread flour at medium low heat, keep stirring until it become thicken and no lumps left. If you've a candy thermometer, measure it until the temperature turn to 65C then turn of the heat. I didn't measure it with thermometer, so I cook it until like a baby porridge. Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with a cling wrap to avoid skin forming. The amount of water dough here would be more than a recipe required, you could store it in a the fridge for 2 days, if the color turn to dark grey.


Knead all the ingredients with a dough hook mixer except butter until the ingredients combine into  a dough. Add in butter and continue the kneading process until the dough no more sticking at the side of the mixing bowl. It should be smooth and elastic. Let it proof for 40 minutes in a clean bowl cover with cling wrap. Punch out the gas and shape into a ball shape to let it rest for 10 minutes. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin. Place the chopped walnuts around then roll up into a loaf shape.

Prepare some water on a clean plate and place a kitchen towel on the top. Damp the surface on the dough and run the damp surface with the wheat bran. Place on a baking tray and let the dough proof for 40 minutes.

Bake at 180C for  25 minutes.