Light Cheddar Cheesecake III

25.12.2014 - Batam, my 3rd light Cheddar Cheesecake turn out same texture as 2nd baked i did.  light and airy cottony cheesecake.

But i experiment and changed my baking temperature again. this time preheat oven 200c, with 1/2 cup waterbath inside, bake at lower rack, no refilled water until dry finished.   Total baking time 60mins, first bake 180c-190c for about 32mins and reduce to 170c until finished.

As you can see, my cake look nicely brown, smooth top.   after 10mins a little wrinkles side.  After 30mins cooling, the cake not as tall as the 2nd time i made, so much wrinkle at the side shrink with parchment paper lining.

But overall this cake still airy cottony and delicious with lots of shredded cheddar cheese topping.

INGREDIENTS
*makes a 8x8 square pan

6 slices of kraft cheddar cheese
100ml fresh milk
100g unsalted butter
6 egg yolks (large)
6 egg whites (large), cold from fridge
100g caster sugar
100g cake flour ( i used all purpose flour on my 1st bake, 2nd bake i used cake flour )

Method
1. Place butter and tear up cheddar cheese slices in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, take a spatula and stir to melt, then add in milk and stir until all melted and mixed together. Set aside to cool slightly before use.

2. Lightly whisk the egg yolks in another mixing bowl. Ladle big spoonful of the cheese mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest and combine well. ( I beat egg yolks with half sugar till lemony color double volumn, mix in melted cheese mixture and 2 times shift the cheese batter to get rid of lumps )

3. Sift in the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps. ( the batter become very thick, shift have to be slow )

4. Preheat the oven 200c with a water bath (I place 5 small bowls water underneath). Grease and line (bottom and sides) of the baking pan

5. In another mixing bowl, beat egg white till foamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat till stiff peaks or at least close to stiff.

6. Use a whisk, mix 1/3 of egg white mixture with cheese mixture, mix to combine and till light.

7. Gently fold in the balance egg white mixture with a spatula, mix well.

8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface.  8.5" x 8.5"

9. Bake the cake in the oven for 60 minutes at lower rack or till the tester comes out clean.  ( first bake 180c-190c for about 32mins and reduce to 170c until finished. ) 

10. Let cake sit inside the oven for 5mins with oven door ajour. Remove from oven, immediately remove cake from cake pan, cool on wire rack.

Yummy Yummy Cheesy Crazy :) hhahaaa......

Happy Baking 

Tang Yuan Chinese Sweet Dessert, 22.12.2014

22.12.2014 - Yummy Tang Yuan.  Even thought i don't really love much sweet stuff with syrup, but can't resist these little colorful balls, they simply looking too cute to eat. Make just little bit to celebrate our yearly Winter solstice aka “dong zhi” (冬至), which usually falls on the 21st or 22nd of December.

Ingredients:
1 cup glutinous rice flour (250g)
1/2 cup water, add gradually ( i added more then 1/2 cup of water until smooth )
1/2 tbsp super fine sugar
food colouring: 1 drop pandan paste, 1 drop strawberry paste, 1 red+1 yellow food colouring to make orange

Sweet soup:
80g ginger, thinly sliced
1 litre water
80g gula Melaka chunk (use 50g Taiwanese Winter Melon Tea cubes, you can add more if you like the soup to taste sweeter)
2 pandan leaves, ties in knot

Method:
1. In a bowl, add the glutinous rice flour and sugar. Gradually add in the water. Knead the mixture into a smooth dough. The dough should feel wet and smooth with hands.

2. Divide the dough into four, one plain, one with pandan paste, one with strawberry paste and one with orange food colouring. Set aside.

3. In a small soup pot, boil the water, ginger, pandan leaves and drop in the winter melon tea cube. When the water is boiling, discard the pandan leaves and set aside.

4. Prepare a bowl of drinking water (room temperature), and boil another pot with water. Divide the flour dough into smaller balls, roll it in your palms to make it round. Drop the balls into the boiling water in step 4. When the glutinous rice balls floated on the water, it means it is cooked, keep it in the boiling water for another 1/2 min. Scoop the glutinous rice balls out from the boiling water and place it in the bowl of drinking water. Let it be there until serving.

5. Serving: Scoop out the Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) and place it into the ginger winter melon soup you prepared in step 3.

Pancakes Morning

Another yummy quick morning breakfast!! This pancake recipe never fail me, its easy and quick to prepare. Anyone can make this at home. Its healthier and cooking with love taste better than eating outside.  Here is the recipe pancakes-quick-breakfast

Soft and yummy beautiful pancakes! 

Girrafe Nutella Chocolate Swiss Roll

To chocolate swiss roll cake lovers, this is a must try, full of chocolaty goodness!

Ingredients
Egg Yolk Batter:-
3 egg yolks
15g sugar
60ml water
40ml corn oil/vegetable oil
72g plain flour
½ tsp vanilla essence
8g cocoa powder

Pattern Batter:
1 egg white ( egg whites beat together with 3 egg whites but scoop 20g of egg white meringue to add here for pattern )
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp plain flour
2 tbsp of egg yolk batter

Egg White Batter:
3 egg whites
50 g sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

Cream - Nutella Chocolate spread

Method:

1. Take a grease-proof paper and trace out the giraffe pattern.

2. Prepare a pan and place the paper with the pattern.

3. Preheat the oven to approximately 180c.

4. Take the egg yolks, sugar, oil, milk and vanilla essence and mix until combined.

5. Put in the flour until everything is smooth and well combined.

6. Remove 2 tbsp. of the batter and mix in 1 tbsp. top flour for the pattern batter. To the remaining batter add cocoa powder and set aside.

7. Beat the egg white with 2 tsp sugar till stiff peak, add and mix with the pattern batter till combined.

8. Trace the pattern on the pan and pipe the plain batter, after that bake for 1 minute and take outside the oven ( i preheat oven 180c bake during preheat ). The meringue should be prepared meanwhile and beat till stiff peak.

9. In a few batches gently fold the egg yolk batter; afterwards in the pan you should pour the cocoa batter, smooth the surface.

9. Put the pan ( i used flat pan 11"x8.5") into the oven for 15 minutes ( i bake at 25mins ). To know if it is done, gently press finger on the top of the cake, and if it springs back, it’s done, and an inserted toothpick should come out clean.

10. Immediately remove the cake from the pan and let it cool.

11. After cooling, remove the paper and let it cool completely.

12. Put any kind of filling you like, and roll up. After that you should leave it in the fridge for at least ½ an hour.

Happy Baking

Yummy! 

Yellow Noodle Soup

25.11.2014 -  Batam.  This bowl of yellow noodle doesnt seem so attractive, but i simply love the simplicity of this dish.  Its just yellow noodle soup that so good to eat on a rainy day.

Everytime i prepare this dish, I simply add any meat i have like fish fillet, prawns, squid, fish cake or fish ball, sausage, chicken or beef fillets.  For vegetables, any kind of vegetables will do but i find Sayur Manis / Daun Katuk / Mani cai or Cengkok Manis...( so many names... :) is the best vegetable suits this kind of noodle soup, i believe because of the sweetness from the leafs that make the soup tastier and more if added some anchovies to the soup will be a bonus. Yummy.

( Apologize for not having an exact measurement for this recipe, you may need to adjust to your own amount and taste )

Ingredients 

A bowl of handful yellow noodle ( boiled and cooked ) 

Few fish balls 

2 chicken sausages 

sweet leaf [mani cai] ( optional - beansprout, lettuce, chinese long cabbage etc )
2 tbsp dried anchovies - washed
1 tsp chopped garlic
600 ml water or 3 rice bowls

( for additional ingredients, you are free to add any kinds of meat or additional dry ingredients - dry seaweed, egg  that you love to be in your noodle soup )

  

For Onion Oil and Sautee Onion

1 cup of Cooking Oil 

1 whole Onion 

Seasoning

1tbsp oyster sauce

1tbsp light soya sauce

Dash of sesame oil

Salt and Sugar to taste

Dash of Pepper
Chicken granules to taste

METHOD

Step 1

1st we need to make onion oil and caramelize onion.   Heat oil in a large frypan over low heat. Add cooking oil and whole cut onions cook very slowly until onion is soft and little caramelized, stirring occasionally to prevent them from  burning. Dish up and set aside. 

Step 2

Heat wok, add in water and all seasoning at once and dried anchovies and meat, let it boil in high heat then lower down to medium fire and add onion oil and sauteed onion and mani cai vegetable.  Season to taste and add yellow noodle until boiled and off fire. 

Step 3

At this point, you may { break in an egg and lightly stir to mix ) and dish up served on a soup bowl, top with more generous amount of sauteed onion and onion oil or crispy seaweed and serve immediately.

Happy Cooking. 

Semur Betawi / Stew Beef Betawi - Indonesia Lebaran Dish

ketupat, godog and semur betawi

Bahan-bahan:
½ kg daging sapi bagian lamusir, potong-potong kotak
2 batang sereh, geprek
2 ruas lengkuas, geprek
2 lembar daun salam
5 cengkeh
3 cm kayu manis
50 ml kecap manis
Garam dan gula secukupnya
Air panas secukupnya

Bumbu yang dihaluskan:
10 bawang merah
5 bawang putih
1 cm jahe
½ sdt lada
½ biji pala

Bumbu kering dan dihaluskan:
½ sdm ketumbar
¼ sdt jintan
garam
marica


Petunjuk
• Lumuri daging dengan kecap dan bumbu halus.
• Remas daging berbumbu sampai lemas dan bumbu tercampur rata. Sisihkan 1 jam.
• Masak daging dengan cara diungkap sampai setengah matang, atau air daging habis
• Tambahkan air panas secukupnya, masak lagi sampai daging empuk.
• Masukkan bumbu kering, masak sampai kuah mengental.
• Angkat, hidangkan dengan ketupat dan sambel godog.

Kueh Momo Sarawak

18.12.2014 - Make yummy Kueh Momo recipe adapted from Sunflower food galore.  I make twice on the same time. My first batch made about 39pcs and 2nd batch slightly smaller about 42pcs.  I really have no regret making so much, these little snow balls really so delicious, it simply melts in your mouth.

Ingredients:
250g plain flour or all purpose flour
40g icing sugar (if you like a sweeter taste, add up to 75g icing sugar)
75g full cream milk powder*
150g ghee (clarified butter)
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk

about 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar (confectioner sugar)

*Full cream milk powder is not common in UK. It is available in some big supermarkets like Sainos at the Asian products shelf, or in most Asian, Chinese or Middle Eastern grocery stores. If you prefer not to use or cannot find full cream milk powder, can sub with skimmed milk powder granules. Granules need to ground to powder using a coffee grinder or mini blender.

Method:
Add flour to wok or frying pan. Dry fry at medium low heat for about 5 - 6 minutes. Keep stirring the flour to avoid burning till flour becomes very hot and smells lightly nutty. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

Ground salt with 1 tsp of the dry roasted flour using pestle and mortar to a fine powder. Add this to flour.

Add milk powder and icing sugar.

Mix dry ingredients together then sieve, break up any large lumps with fingers, remove any remaining gritty grains.

Melt ghee in microwave for about 20 - 30 sec. Beat in the egg yolk.

Pour ghee and yolk mixture into the dry mixture. Mix with a folk or spoon then finish by rubbing with fingers till dough is evenly mixed.

The dough is crumbly but should form a lump when squeeze together.

Take a handful of dough, squeeze with hand to form a lump then break it up into smaller pieces.

Squeeze each small piece again into a rough lump. Continue forming these little lumps.

Lightly roll each lump between palms into a ball without pressure or it will crumble. Size of the momo balls is up to you. I like them quite small about 1.5 - 2cm diameter.

Place balls on baking tray (pan) lined with parchment paper, arrange balls with some space for expansion.

Preheat oven to 160deg C. Put the tray of cookies in the oven, lower heat to 140 deg C fan oven (or 150 deg non fan oven), bake for about 12 - 15 minutes till light golden. Momo balls will expand slightly after baking.

Leave to cool for few minutes till cool enough to pick up by fingers. Then coat generously with icing powder. They are very fragile, be gentle and don't crowd the bowl.

These kuih momo will keep fresh for couple of weeks in airtight container.

Butter Chocolate Cheese Cake

14.12.2014 - I remember this cake go gaga on the food blog and internet! everyone was trying out this cake and so do i.  It was really damn good!! i seriously love it!! i bake for myself as my Birthday Cake!! :) delicious indeed and rich.

Forget the fats after all gone into your stomach! because it really that yummy and you can't stop eating.  ENjoy!!

Recipe adapted and modified by Enne Tay, member of Baking’s Corner FB group (original recipe by Kitchen Capers)

A - BUTTER CAKE INGREDIENTS
230-250g butter, soften ( i used 250g golden churn ) 
160g caster sugar ( i reduced sugar to 130g, perfect sweetness of the cake ) 
4 large eggs/5 small eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g self rising flour, sifted (replace 4 tbsp of flour with cocoa powder for chocolate flavour) ( i used cake flour added 1tsp baking powder )  
5 tbsp milk/whipping cream ( i used fresh milk )

B- CREAM CHEESE INGREDIENTS
250g cream cheese, soften
60g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp corn flour/self rising flour/all purpose flour * i used self rising flour


Directions

– grease and line an 8 inch square pan. preheat oven to 160c

– beat ingredients B till fluffy and set aside

– from ingredients A, beat butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. add in eggs one at a time and mix well. add in vanilla essence and milk. mix well

– fold in sifted flour (together with cocoa powder ) into butter mixture. mix well

– spread half portion of batter into pan, then spoon in cheese mixture (B). cover cheese mixture with the remaining portion of cake batter (total of 3 layers)

– bake at 160c for 60-70 mins or until cake is done ( i baked at 180c for 1 hour 20 minutes, 1hr on middle rack, 20mins removed to bottom rack oven ) 

- If making cupcakes, bake for about 30-35 mins

- Removed cake to wire rack to cool.

Basic Bread Dough for variety of Sweet Buns

31.12.2014 - This is one of very useful Basic Bread Dough with a large quantity that can use for variety of sweet buns.  Recipe adapted from Kenneth Goh basic-bread-dough-recipe-and-plum-blossom-sausage-buns-  please click link for recipe.

I used Basic Bread Dough Recipe to make "Buttermilk Buns", "Mini Sausage Buns" and "Coconut Sweet Buns".  For buttermilk filling, please refers to butter-milk-buns recipe.   I bake at 180c Pre-heated oven for 25mins or until golden brown.

This dough can make any sweet buns you desire like pizza, redbean buns, hamburger, sausage buns, any sweet bread, doughnuts or hot dog buns etc... as  mentioned on Kenneth's blog.

For Mini Sausage Buns
4 sausages ( cut into half )
1 egg ( egg wash )
Sesame Seeds
Basic Bread dough

Use the same dough to roll up the sausage in any shape you desire, brush egg wash, sprinkle sesame seeds.  let it rest for 15mins and bake at  Pre-heated oven 190c for 35 minutes or until bread turn golden brown.


For Coconut Filling ( for 8 pcs ) 
125g freshly grated coconut
70g caster sugar
30g butter,softened
30g egg, lightly beaten

1. Mix everything together. Divide into 8 equal portions and keep in the fridge to use when needed.
2. Roll out dough in to disc shape, take one portion of filling and seal tightly and flatten it with the rolling pin and shape the buns using any method you desire.
4. Let rise for 15mins, lightly covered, until double in size on a lightly greased tray. When ready, brush with egg wash.
5. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.