Merry Christmas To All!

Have not made logcake for a long time, the thought of making it have been lingering in my mind these few day. So finally did a simple chocolate logcake this afternoon for my family...

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 egg

2 egg yolk

50g icing sugar

2 egg white

40g caster sugar/fine sugar

40g cake flour

10g cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp corn oil

some chopped walnut

Cream:

50g chocolate coverture

200g whipping cream (whipped till peak)

Method:

Cream:

Melt chocolate coverture over double boil. Add melted chocolate into whipped whipping cream, mix till well combined. Place in fridge till later use.

Cake:

1. Sift icing sugar. Mix cocoa powder and cake flour, sift 2 to 3 times, set aside.

2. Beat whole egg, egg yolk and icing sugar till pale yellow color. Mix oil and vanilla essence, add into egg yolk mixture.

3. Beat egg white till form, add in caster sugar in 3 portion, beat till stiff peak form.

4. Mix flour mixture into egg yolk mixture, mix well.

5. Add half portion of egg white into 4) mix lightly till well combine, pour the mixture back into the balance portion of egg white and mix well.

6. Lined pan (24x28cm) with baking paper. Pour batter into pan and bake at 200 deg C for 12-15min.

7. Remove cake from oven, place it on a cooling rack and let it cool down completely.

8. Remove the baking paper, place the cake on another shit of baking paper larger than size of the cake. Spread some chocolate cream on it, sprinkle some chopped walnut. Roll the cake using the baking paper. Spread more cream on the cake, then use a fork to create the lines on the cake. Decorate as desired.

Rainbow Tangyuan

Sunday was dong zhi (冬至）, the kids had requested to make multi color tang yuan and Trenyce requested to add nutella into her tang yuan. Trenyce help me to form half of the tang yuan balls, I didn't teach her how to do and to my surprise her tang yuan was quite well done. I did 2 type of simple soup base, one was using canned peanut, the other was clear soup with brown sugar for the kids.

Ingredients (tang yuan):

400g glutinous rice flour

330ml warm water (approx.)

edible coloring (optional)

Method:

1) Place glutinous rice flour into a big mixing bowl, add water a little at a time till it form a dough, knead the dough for about 15min. Cover with dough with cling wrap or cloth for 15min.

2) Split the dough into portion and add a little color into each portion and knead the dough till the color is evenly distributed.

3) Roll the dough into a long rod, take a small portion and form into balls by rolling it between two palms.

4) Boil a pot of water, add sugar to taste, add in tang yuan into the boiling water. When the tang yuan floats, its done. Serve warm.

Rainbow Agar Agar

I made this agar agar for my mum's birthday, she didn't want a cake. This agar agar was quite popular among the family during the gathering.

Kuih Lapis

This recipe is nice but abit short, I followed the recipe recomendation used 7" square tray still it came out quite short, I think 1.5 times the recipe will get a nicer height. Recipe from fenying's blog.

Banana Butter Cake

There were some ripe bananas and nobody wants to ate it, so I use it to make a butter cake. I prefer to bake in disposable loaf tin, ate 1 loaf and can keep the other and not messy too. Recipe from Kevin Chai's book.



Ingredients:
250g butter
250g caster sugar (I reduce to 180g sugar)
¼ tsp salt
5 eggs
250g banana puree
¼ tsp banana essence
250g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method:
1. Grease and line a 20cm baking pan. Preheat oven to 175°C.

2. Beat butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.

3. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

4. Add in banana puree and essence, fold in sifted flour, baking powder and soda. Mix until well blended. Spread into prepared pan.

5. Decorate with banana slices. Bake in oven for 35-40min or until cooked.

Stew Pig Trotter

Last weekend, saw supermarket selling some pig trotter, the thought of trying this dish flash across my mind, so bought half a pig trotter and try. I did about half the recipe, but I added more water to prevent it from drying up and to make sure the skin will be cooked till soft, also added some mushrooms as I like braised mushrooms. Recipe from 'Sensational Braised and Stewed'.

Ingredients:
1 (600g) pig trotter,
10g old ginger (flatten)
30g garlic cloves
2 tbsp cooking oil
1200ml water

Spices:
4 star anises (八角)
1 piece tangerine peel (陈皮)
1 tsp szechuan pepper
5 pieces Licorice/”gan chao”(甘草)
10 cloves (丁香)
4 stalk “gui zhi” (桂枝) (Don’t have this so didn’t add)
1 inch cinnamon stick (桂皮)
6 cekurs/ “sha jiang” (沙姜) (Don’t have this so didn’t add)
2 “chao guo” (草果) (available at chinese medical hall or sengsiong)

Seasoning:
25g rock sugar
5 tbsp soya sauce paste
1tsp dark soy sauce
3 tbso shao xing wine
½ tbsp monosodium glutamate (I don’t use this at home)

Method:
1. Ask the butcher to cut the pig’s trotter into convenient pieces. Blanch into boiling water for a moment. Remove and drained. Praboil into hot oil for a while (I didn’t do this step). Dish up, rinse under cold water. Keep aside.

2. Cook the spices with water in a deep pot until boiling, simmer for about 20min. Add in pig trotter pieces, old ginger, garlic cloves and seasoning. Bring back to the boil, covered, and stew over low heat for approximately 1 hour until tender.

Focaccia Bead

I only did half recipe for this bread as I though that only Kenny and myself will appreciate such bread, to my surprise Trenyce like it so much that she at quite alot of it. Recipe from phoon huat demo class.

Ingredients:

400g Bread flour
100g Plain flour
10g Yeast
15g Caster sugar
5gm Mix herb
2tsp Black pepper
2tsp Garlic powder
280-300ml Water
3 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp Soften Unsalted Butter
1tsp Salt

Topping:
Rosemary
Sea salt
Coarse Black Pepper
Olive oil
Chopped Garlic

Method:
1. Put all ingredients into mixing bowl and stir well.

2. Beat dough until smooth and soft, rest for 30-40min.

3. Divide the dough into 4 piece (each about 220g), shape round and let it rest for about 15min. Roll into oval shape and place on grease baking tray proof till double size.

4. Brush with olive oil and use finger tip to make small indentations all over the dough.

5. Sprinkle the top with Rosemary, sea salt, coarse black pepper and chopped garlic.

6. Bake at 210°C for 15-20min till brown.

7. Remove bread from oven, apply a layer of olive oil.