Cookie & Cream Slice

Did this recipe per my gal's request, its really easy to do and no baking required. Recipe from October'13 Women Weekly magazine. I only did half recipe in a 7 inch sq ring.

Ingredients:

250g packet chocolate ripple biscuits, break(use any sweet biscuits, if unavailable) - I use 150 oreo cookies with its cream
100g unsalted butter, soften - I use 50 g of melted butter
2x250g cream cheese, soften and chop - I use 250g cream cheese
400ml thickened cream plus 200 ml extra for deco - I use 200ml dairy cream plus 100ml extra
1/2 cup caster sugar - I use 1/4 cup
3tsp powder gelatine - I use 1 1/2 tsp
1/4 cup just boiled water - I use half of 1/4 cup boiling water
150g packet Oreo biscuits, chop- I use 9 pcs of oreo sanwiched cookies
100g white chocolate, grate
mini oreos, to decorate

Method
1. Line base and slice of a 20x30cm slice pan with baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edge.

2. Place biscuit in a processor and process to form fine crumbs. Add butter and pluse to combine. Press mixture firmly onto base of pan. Chill for 30min.

3. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, cream and sugar together using electric mixer, until smooth.

4. Sprinkle gelatine over just boiled water, whisking vigorously with a fork to dissolve. Beat into cream mixture. Fold chopped Oreos and chocolate through.

5. Spoon mixture onto base and smoothen the surface. Cover and chill overnite. Cute into slices.

6. Whip extra thickened cream. Serve each slice topped with a dollop of cream and 2 mini oreos.

Trenyce's Birthday Cake

Decided to make a cake for Trenyce birthday celebration last weekend. After google thru the web for ideas, thought that castle cake is easy to manage. As the sponge cake is not that dense to hold 2 layers of sponge cake on 2nd deck, I remove 1 slice and just make a shorter 2nd deck for this cake. Maybe I didn't stress myself to deliver a perfect cake, it turns out acceptable. Most important the kids are happy with the cake :)

Blueberry Muffins

The kids requested for some afternoon snacks, as I was busy with housework and was left with little time to bake something for their tea, quick browse through my books and saw this recipe, so made 2 recipes of it, one batch of muffins were added with blueberry while the other batch I added in some chocolate crunchy pearls(was lazy to chop the chocolate bar into chips) per the kids' request. This recipe was adapted from the book Okashi by Keiko Ishida, although I didn't do the topping still its nice just eat on its own.

 



Ingredients (make 6 muffins)

120g Pastry flour

1tsp Baking powder

100g Fresh blueberries ( I use frozen ones)

50g Unsalted butter, softened

40g brown sugar

30g caster sugar (I use 25g)

1 Egg, about 65g

60g cold fresh whole milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Sift flour and baking powder twice(I only did once). Set aside 18 blueberries.

2. Beat butter with and electric handheld mixer until soft and creamy. Add both sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well-combined.

3. Add one-third flour and fold in with a spatula. Add half of milk and continue to fold batter gently. Add another one third of flour and fold in, followed by the remaining milk. Add remainging flour and fold through, but do not over-mix. Add remaining blueberries and fold in gently.

4. Spoon batter into cases until three-quarter full. Divide the 18 blueberries among each muffin (3 for each). Bake for about 25-30min or until muffin have a springy texture when pressed gently.

5. Leave muffins to cool on a wire rack. They are best served warm, and consumed the day they are baked or the day after. If not consuming immediately, store in and airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days, freeze for up to 2 weeks.

Pineapple tarts'13

This year I cooked my own pineapple jam or my tarts. Bought 8 pineapples to made the jam and endup with  
lots of left over pineapple jam, made two portions of the pastry for my sisters and my own family. The left over jam will do closed tarts to finish it. I prefer salty to sweet pastry to balance the jam sweet sour taste, so I do not add sugar to the pastry.

Pastry:
250g butter
365g plain flour } sifted together
20g corn flour   }
2 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
egg wash


Method:
1. Cut butter into smaller pieces, rub butter to the sifted plain flour and corn flour and salt mixture until it become like bread crumb.
2. Add in egg yolks and let the flour mixture combine and become a dough. Do not over knead the dough.
Chill the dough for 30min.
3. Roll the dough between two sheets of plastic. Sprinkle a little flour on the surface of the dough, cut out the shape of the tart with cookie cutter. Shape the jam into a ball and place on top of the pastry. Brush the tarts with some egg wash.
4. Bake at 160deg C for 25min. Remove from oven and cool. Store in container when tarts are fully cooled.

Kuih Bangkit

I have a little bit more time this year to make cookies for Chinese New Year, I picked kuih bangkit as one of them. I did two portions of Ms Valarie Kong's recipe that I learned couple of years back and also did one recipe from Alan Ooi's cookie book.

Valarie's Kuih Bangkit

Alan Ooi Kuih Bangkit

Below is the recipe for Alan Ooi's Kuih Bangkit from the book 'New Year Cookies published by y3k"..

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

120g icing sugar

150g concentrated cocconut milk

400g tapioca flour (stir fry in a wok over very low heat till flour become light, sieve and leave it to cool and store for at least 2-3 days)

Method:

1. Beat the egg yolk and icing sugar with a hand-held electric mixer till consistency is thick and creamy. Add in coconut milk and mix well. Lastly, stir in cooled tapioca flour and knead dough thoroughly by hand till dough is white and has a light-textured touch.

2. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic sheet. Use cookie cutter and cut out the desire shapes. Place them on lined baking trays. Baked in a preheated oven at 170degC for 15-20min. Cookies should be white and not browned. Cool them.

Tips: (extracted from the book)

1.Tapioca flour must be well fried so it becomes light. The cooling process will enable the flour to absorb in the coconut milk so dough will be soft.

2. Dough must be well kneaded to produce light cookies that can melt-in-the-mouth.

3. Always keep dough covered with a piece of clean kitchen towel to prevent drying out.

4. Its also useful to keep some extra coconut milk aside. Sprinkle a little onto dought when texture is very dry. Knead well to smoothen it.

Cotton Cheesecake

My friend S recommended this recipe to me which she found on a baking site. She said the cake is yummy and not difficult to do. I tried and indeed it easy to do, the surface didn't sink like other cheesecake recipes.

A. 250g cream cheese

200 ml whipping cream or milk

120g butter

B. 5 egg yolks

60g flour

20g corn starch

C. 5 egg white

120g  caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 150 deg C.

2. Double boil ingredients in A till melted. Add egg yolks and beat till well mix. Mix flour and cornstarch then add to egg yolk mixture. Mix well.

3. Beat C till stiff then add to egg yolk flour mixture, lightly fold till well combined.

4. Place a sheet of pachment paper at the base of 8 inch cake tin. Pour mixture into tin. Wrap a piece of foil at the bottom of tin to avoid water from sip into tin while baking. Steam bake for 50min.

Fried slice pork with crispy ginger

Am rather busy lately, didn't have time to do posting here. This dish was done sometime ago, got the recipe was from Yum Yum website, not bad, I didn't add the seed of the chilli so that its not spicy and the kids can eat it.

Ingredients :

1 cup oil for deep-frying

100g shredded ginger

500g pork belly, sliced

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 onion, peeled and cut into chunks

1 red chilli, seeded and cut into pieces

1 green chilli, seeded and cut into pieces

Seasoning :

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp water

1 tsp dark soya sauce

Method:

1. Heat up oil for deep-frying and deep-fry shredded ginger until aromatic and crispy. Dish and drain.

2. Blanch pork belly in boiling water until cooked. Dish and drain.

3. Heat up 2 tbsp oil, saute chopped garlic, onion and chilli until aromatic.

4. Add pork belly and seasoning, stir-fry over high heat until dry.

5. Lastly add in shredded ginger and stir well. Dish up and serve.