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.

Kuih Salat

My friend S has done this kuih many times, she said its always popular. For some reason or another I didn't try till last friday. And she gave me many guidence on making the kuih, and indeed to all who ate it likes it. This is my first attempt on this kuih, am very happy with the result. Thanks S.

Recipe from Florence blog...

Pandan Chiffon Cake

My friend S recommended this cake from Wen's Delight Blog , told me to try it out said its a good .The first attempt I failed probably because the liquid was too warm and I stir in the flour too soon, the mixture end up too thick and heavy and it didn't rise alot after baked. I told my friend and she said since I have ingredients at home why not redo it.The next morning I tried again and I succeed, the cake was very fragrant and soft, the recipe is definitely worth to keep. Thanks S for the encouragement.

Cheese and Lemon Chiffon Cake

Made a chiffon cake with the chiffon cake tin bought in Tokyo when touring there last year. I like the brown crust from this cake tin compare to my other chiffon cake tins ...Recipe adapt from 福田淳子 - chiffon cake book.

Ingredients

160cream cheese

130g caster sugar

5 egg yolk (I use appx. 55g egg without shell)

25ml salad oil ( I use corn oil)

25ml lemon juice

70ml milk

2/3 tsp lemon zest (I use zest of 1 whole lemon)

130g cake flour

2/3 tsp baking powder

8 egg white   (as my eggs are larger so I only 7 egg whites)

(I added 1/4 tsp cream of tartar)

20 cm chiffon tin

Bake 180 deg C 40min for 20cm tin 

Note:

- let cream cheese rest at room temp till it turn soft.

-Sift both cake flour and baking powder together.

-Preheat oven.

Method:

1. Mix cream cheese and 1/3 portion of the sugar in a bowl, use a whisk and mix till well combine.

2. Add egg yolk one at a time and mix till well combine, add oil, lemon juice, milk and lemon zest and mix till well combined.

3. Add sifted flour mixture, use whisk and fold till a smooth batter.

4. Beat egg white, cream of tartar and balance sugar with electric mixer till soft peak.

5. Add 1/3 portion of egg white to egg batter (step 3), fold till combine, add the egg yolk batter and fold till well combined.

6. Pour batter into chiffon cake tin, bake for 40min, test with skewer to ensure cake is well baked (for my oven I baked for 50min). Remove cake from oven, invert cake and let it cool. Remove cake from tin, slice and serve.