Gingernuts Cookies

I have a few cookies recipes which I've bookmarked using Ginger thinking to be baked during Christmas time but every year, I always miss out baking those bookmarked recipes.  

When Hui of Waltzing Butterflies posted her Gingernut cookies recently, and looking at the simple ingredients and steps to prepare, and in no time wasted, I made mine today.

GINGERNUTS COOKIES
makes 16 cookies

Ingredients

105g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
40g brown sugar
50g unsalted butter, cold, diced
1 tbsp + 2 tsp golden syrup

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and ground ginger together in a mixing bowl. Add in the brown sugar till combined.

Mix in the diced butter into the dry ingredients till crumbly.

Add in the golden syrup into the mixture and mix till become stiff paste.  

Divide into 16 pcs and roll into balls  Place them onto the baking sheet and flatten the balls slightly.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or till cookies turn golden brown and cracked.

Original recipe from Delia Online

If you love ginger, you will definitely love this Ginger Cookies!

Chwee Kueh 水粿

For the past few years I'm still in searching to look for the Chwee Kueh recipe that has the smooth and soft texture.

In Singapore, everyone knew the Tiong Bahru's Chwee Kueh  has the best chwee kueh!  Usually there will be long long queue to get to buy the Chwee Kueh. Instead of going all the way there, I guess the better way is to make Chwee Kueh myself.  I have made Chwee Kueh once back in 2012, and thinking I could use another recipe this time.

CHWEE KUEH 水粿

Batter

(Makes about 20pcs)

280g rice flour

4 tsp tapioca flour

2 tsp salt

300ml cold water

830ml hot boiling water * (weigh the water and boil the water under hot stove!!)

4 tbsp cooking oil

Method

In a heat proof medium bowl, mix the rice flour, tapioca flour and salt together.  Using your whisk, pour in the 300ml cold water and whisk in one direction till all combined.

Pour in the hot water all at once into the flour water mixture and whisk in till no lumps and mixture is thicken.  Lastly, add in the oil and stir till all blended together.

Pour into a jug for easy pouring into the mould.

Prepare your steaming wok or steaming pot.  

Brush around the moulds with some oil.  Place the oiled mould into the hot steaming wok to heat the mould for 1 minute.  Uncover the wok and pour in the batter just below the rim of the mould.  Wipe dry the cover of the wok and steam for 15 minutes under medium heat.  Cool to set.

To serve

Using a spatula, run the edge of the mould, lift and slide the steamed cake on to the plate.  Top the cake with 1 teaspoon fried chai poh.

Chai Poh Toppings

150g mince preserved chai poh (preserved radish)

20g dried scrimp, soak and mince/blend in the blender

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1 tbsp mince garlic

1 tbsp mince shallot

1 ¼ cup cooking oil  (you can just use 1 cup)

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark caramel sauce

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt (or less)

Pepper

Method

Using your strainer, rince the preserved radish under running water briefly.  Squeeze out any excess water.

Heat up your frying pan.  Put in the sesame seeds and dry fry to toast the sesame seeds for 1 minute.  Dish out and set aside.

In the same frying pan, put in the radish to dry fry the radish 1-2 minutes to remove any excess water.  Dish out and set aside.

Pour in the cooking and sesame oil into the frying pan.  Add in the dried shrimp and fry for a minute till fragrant.  Add in the mince shallots and garlic and fry under medium heat for a few seconds.  Add in the chai poh and under low heat, stirring occasionally  fry the chai poh till blended in the fragrant oil about 10-15 minutes.  Add in the seasonings and toasted sesame seeds.  Stir fry till all combined well.  Dish up and let cool.

This Chwee Kueh & Chai Poh topping adapted from Roxana Ng of My Bakes, My Story, My Life

 

                                        This Chai Poh is fragrant and just the way I like it.  

                               This is already my second time making this Chwee Kueh, 

                               so I guess this is it...... I love this Chwee Kueh!!

            

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Singapore Month, 

hosted by Grace of Life can be Simple

Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake

It has been quite awhile I have not bake a chiffon cake already.  If you search in the internet for chiffon cakes, there are tons of flavours to choose from.  We usually would chose those flavours we like to enjoy.

I remember the very first time I baked a chiffon cake which is a flopped is the Matcha (Green Tea) flavour and didn't post it up.  And after I have mastered baking this chiffon cake, the flavours so far I have baked are the Orange Poppy Seeds, Passion Fruits, Hazelnut Coffee.  Today I try out this Palm Sugar instead.

Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake 

Ingredients

(A)

6 egg yolks

150g palm sugar or gula Melaka

100ml coconut milk  (do not use the thick coconut cream)

4 tbsp vegetable cooking oil (corn oil/canola/sunflower)

140g plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

(B)

6 egg whites

40g caster sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar (I didnt add)

Method

In a small saucepan, melt the palm sugar together with coconut milk over low heat till the sugar dissolves.  Remove and pour into a bowl, leave to cool.  

Sift the plain flour and baking powder together.  Set aside.

In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks, then add in the vegetable cooking oil and salt and whisk till all well combined.  Add the palm sugar coconut milk mixture into the yolks/oil mixture.  Mix till all well blended.

With hand whisk, add in the flour and mix till all combined well.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, beat egg whites with medium speed till frothy, add in cream of tartar. Continue to beat until the bubbles become fine soft peak, gradually add in caster sugar and continue to beat until stiff peak.

Gently fold 1／3 of beaten egg white into egg yolk batter, use cut and fold method until well blended. Then pour the batter back to the rest of the egg white and fold until mixture is well blended.

Bake in pre-heated oven on lower rack，150c for 35mins.

Remove from oven, immediately invert cake until completely cooled.

Recipe extracted from Chiffon Cake Is Done by Kevin Chai with changes.

                       Do try to use good quality palm sugar.  How to choose good quality one?
                       Well, when you lightly pinch the palm sugar and the texture breaks off, means
                        it is of good quality.

                             The cake texture is so soft..... like eating cotton cake.  



                           

I am linking this post to

 Cook Your Books #16 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours

Siew Bao / Flaky Chicken Buns

I love to eat Siew Pau / Shao Bao 烧包.  Whenever I'm at a shopping mall and if I happened to across stall selling piping hot Shao Bao, I will buy one or two to enjoy.  But nowadays the Shao Bao is getting smaller and smaller and the price is getting increasing.  Sometimes I feel it is really not worth it for paying $1.70 a piece for just a tiny bao!  

I prefer to make my own Shao Bao as I can use my own healthy ingredients.

Flaky Roast Buns With Chicken Filling / Chicken Shao Bao
Recipe adapted and copy from Sonia's of Nasi Lemak Lover with slight changes 

For the Chicken filling

450g (+/-) chicken meat (I use skinless chicken thigh), cubed small

100g onion, chopped

50g frozen green peas, thawed 

Seasonings 
3 tbsp sugar

1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 ½ tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp dark caramel soy sauce, optional (I used ABC Sweet dark sauce)

A pinch of Chinese five-spices powder 

1 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water, to thicken 

Method

Mix all seasonings in a mixing bowl, set aside.

Heat 3 tbsp cooking oil in a non-stick frying pan, add in onion, sauté till fragrant.

Add in chicken meat, stir fry till the meat half cooked.

Add in seasonings, continue stir fry for few minutes till thicken.

Add in the grean peas and stir till everything incorporated in.

Add in corn flour water to thicken in, set aside to cool. 

Dough A (Water dough)

200g plain flour

60g butter (salted), at room temperature

2 tbsp caster sugar

100g water 

Dough B (oil dough)

160g plain flour

100g shortening 

Egg wash (egg yolk +water), white sesame seeds  

Method

Dough A 

Rub butter with flour and sugar, slowly add in water, combine till form dough, set aside 10mins.

Dough B 

Rub shortening with flour, combine till form dough, set aside for 10mins.

Equally divide dough A and B into 20 portions and roll into ball

Wrap dough B with dough A (that means oil dough is inside). Roll it out into long rectangle shape. Then roll up the dough like swiss roll. Repeat this step one more time. Then take the swiss roll and pinch two ends together and roll into ball shape. Set aside to rest and repeat the rest of dough till finished.

Roll it out into a circle and place a spoonful the filling in the center. Bring all edges together and pinch to seal.

Egg wash and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes.

Take out the baking tray, egg wash again and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top (do it one by one: egg wash one sprinkle sesame seeds), and return to oven at 180C for another 15mins or till golden brown.

I have been so diligently making Shao Baos lately as this is my third  batch already!!

Steamed Yam Cake

Have some left over of Yam (taro) and decided to make Steamed Yam Cake again but using another recipe.  I like to cut the yam into slightly big chunks as I like to bite into that yummy yam in my mouth!

Just pictures here only as Im sure you will enjoyed viewing my pictures as I was not allowed to copy the recipe I have used for this Steamed Yam Cake.
Nevertheless, you can used my previous Steamed Yam Cake  recipe which is as good too!!

                             Enjoying this for my lunch today with some sweet sauce "甜酱"

Orange Peach Jelly

I happened to come across one Facebook member posting her beautiful Orange Peach jelly the other day and she used the "Ingots" mould to make this and it just captivated me how lovely those ingots jellies are.  

The "Ingots" ( 元宝) as for the Chinese regarded as a very auspicious symbols of wealth and good fortune.  Usually the Feng Shui master will advise to place the ingots in the wealth area of your home to attract and to bring abundance and financial success to you.

And as Mooncake Festival is just around the corner, why not make this Ingots jelly to welcome your guests.

Orange Peach Jelly 

Ingredients 

1 pack (10g) agar agar powder
150ml water
200ml peach syrup
550ml fresh orange juice
100g sugar (adjust accordingly; based on the sweetness of your orange juice)
2-3 slices peach, cut small to fine 

Method 
Pour the water, sugar syrup, sugar, agar agar and sugar to a medium size saucepan and bring to boil till the sugar dissolves stirring it constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add in the finely chopped peach in.  Pour into mould.

Chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours till set.

MAPO TOFU

I hardly posted any cooked dishes to my blog; but just the thought of writing out the recipe and taking photos during the late evening for my cooked dishes just doesn't get me out to do so sometimes.

I posted this Mapo Tofu picture in my facebook page and one member requested for the recipe..... well anyway, here goes my home cooked Mapo Tofu version.

MAPO TOFU 

Ingredients 

1 block soft tofu, cut into small cubes
100g mince meat
1 tbsp chopped shallot
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp Chilli Bean sauce (“Dou Ban Jiang”)
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ cup water  (adjust to your preference)
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 stalk spring onions, chopped small
(Some salt or soya sauce to your preference taste) 

Method 

Marinate the mince meat with 1 tbsp light soy sauce.  Set aside.

Heat up frying pan/wok with cooking oil.  Add in the chopped shallots and garlic, stir fry a minute till fragrant.  Add in the marinate mince meat and stir fry till the meat half done.

Then add in the chilli bean sauce and chilli powder and stir fry till aromatic.  Add in the tofu and water,  gently stir in the blend into the sauce.  Lower the heat and let simmer for 3-5 minutes till sauce slightly thickens.  Add in the chopped spring onions.

Dish up and serve hot.

Seriously with this dish alone can just have you go for another bowl of rice; and really you don't need to cook any other dishes anymore unless you have someone who is picky eater at home!!  LOL!!

Pandan Jelly Mooncake

Next week is already Mid Autumn Festival.  I been seeing lots and lots of mooncakes posting on the blog, various flavours coming up this year too.  I guess the latest trend is the chocolate flavour. 

Well, on the festival day itself too much mooncakes can get you satiated and why not make something else....... Jelly or agar agar mooncake.  

I really love this Jelly Mooncakes when Esther of CopyCake Kitchen posted hers!  And even the jelly mooncake have filling too; using grass jelly (cincau). 

PANDAN JELLY MOONCAKE 
Recipe sourced from Esther of Copycake Kitchen

Ingredients
300g water

400g pandan juice  (blend 4-5 pieces of pandan leaves in 400g+ water)

100g coconut milk

Few drops of pandan essence (I didn't add this)

3 pandan leave (tie into a knot)
120g sugar

8g Agar agar

Filling

Honey grass jelly, ready made (cut into small square size; smaller than your mooncake mould)

Method

In a medium pot, pour in the water, pandan juice, essence, coconut milk and pandan leaves and bring to simmer boil.

Add in sugar, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Add in agar agar keep stirring.  Once start to bubbles, turn off heat. Sift the agar agar mixture.

Pour some agar agar mixture into jelly mould. Put it in your freezer to set for 1-2 mins. Add in grass jelly, pour again agar agar mixture until full.

Let it chill and set in the fridge.

                                           A refreshing dessert and the kids will love it!!!