Sausage buns

This is my kind of simple light weekend lunch. Sauage laced with tomato sauce on super soft and fluffy bread. I did say light lunch but one is never enough and it's simple enough to tick all boxes for all in the house. Using the TZ bread method, the buns stay super soft till the next day. And there's something about baked mayonnaise the texture and taste changes to something yummy! I made some round ones topped with cheese and yummy...sinful? Yes, yummy? Double yes!!

The factory line

Stick to the TZ method if you want soft soft bread

 

 

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Iced gem biscuits

It's Friday and today I'm working from home. I normally work from my kitchen table so when the clock strikes the hour to indicate the start of the weekend it took all of one second to go from holding a computer mouse to holding a measuring cup! A friend of mine had recently received a batch of iced gems that her friend had kindly made and sent to her. She shared the recipe and give it good reviews. I've looked at recipes for this before but never got round to deciding which one to try and since this recipe was given and tested I thought I'd give it a go.

So what aWre iced gems? This one brings back memories from the past, these little biscuits not bigger than a 20 sen coin is topped with crunchy icing of the most attractive colours! I used to buy them in handfuls from the local shop where they were carefully weighed and then wrapped in newspaper. What a great treat it was to get home and unwrap the package to see how many different colours I got and if there were many of my favourite ones! As with eating the modern day M&Ms there is of course a sequence by which the various colours were eaten, need I say more?

Anyway, they did indeed turn out great, tasting exactly as I remembered them and best of all I managed to once again share a little of my childhood with my little girl. What a delight it was to see her create her own sequence of preference when eating the iced gems!

Baked and waiting to be iced

 

Took a bit of rummaging in the kitchen to find something that gave the size to cut the dough

 

 

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Flooded icing cookies

It's been a struggle getting back into work mode since a great holiday back to Malaysia. So this weekend something to remind me of the whole point of going to work i.e. to pay for the things I enjoy, is much needed. A friend shared a video she came across on uTube ...what else is there than to let myself be suckered in and give it a go. So this is the result of trying out flooded icing and wet on wet techniques. It was fun and not too complicated but as always working with icing sugar, the cleanup is not so fun. And since I'm not a fan of super sweet biscuits, I'm going to need willing volunteers to eat them!

Made some pink ones too

 

 

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Pop your own corn

It was a typical lazy Saturday afternoon, watching movies on the TV when we were attacked by the need to munch and crunch. I remembered that I picked up a bag of corn some time back and never got round to experimenting with popping my own corn. So a quick scan of the net and finger in the air selection of corn popping method, we were off. Then it was quick decision time, should we go buttered? Salted? Or caramel? In the end it was to be all three!! One thing to note, I used coconut oil to pop the corn which is healthier (pre buttering, salting and caramelising of course) and smells great!

Was it good? Well the saying goes a picture tells a thousand words. Btw I do feed the little one!

 

 

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Pandan chiffon cupcakes

This afternoon there was a desperate request for 'green cake' or better known to the rest of the world as pandan chiffon cake. The conversation went something like this

'I really really want the green cake'

'no, it takes a long time to make, how about tomorrow'

'But I want it now, I'll help you make it' goes off into the kitchen and started to clear a space on the table

'You put the ingredients here' so as commanded I proceeded to 'put the ingredients on the table'

Now cakes that are prone to collapsing and little helpers are not a good combo but I have seen this cake made in cupcake form. So I decided to half the recipe and make chiffon cupcakes. As it turns out, the cupcakes did not colaspe and my little helper, true to her words did a lot of the work. There was a bit of a volcanic action going on 7 minutes into the bake but once the temperature was adjusted it calmed down giving the end result a bit of a rustic look. Little helper happily ate two cupcakes as soon as it was done and left me to do all the washing up.

Unlike the full sized cake, no need to invert and cool

 

 

Still as fully and soft

 

 

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Macarons madness

This is a back post, a while ago a friend of mine shared her macarons recipe, one which she took a class for which was very kind of her. This is the first time I attempted Italian meringue, this is the one using sugar syrup to make. The meringue was not too difficult to make, it was the piping that was challenged for me. Just using drawn circles, it was hard to get the piping going at a consistent rate in order to end up with circles that would pair up. I've made another batch since the first try, it turned out to be quite fun as you get to play with colours of the shells as well as dream up flavours for the filling, I've tried lemon cream, dark chocolate ganache and green tea buttercream..all yummy!

The green tea one

 

 

Italian meringue

 

 

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Japanese cheese cake

This is my attempt at the acclaimed japanese cotton soft cheesecake. Actually, it's my second attempt, the first one, just 24 hours earlier was not what one would call a success. After the usual searching for the recipe to try and watching countless uTube videos, I settled for one and went for it. After turning up the motivation crank to full , I discovered I only had 3 eggs instead of 6 but I was still determined so I halved everything and before you know I was watching tv waiting for the ding of the timer. As the forces that be will have it, baking is not as easy sailing as that. The cake (this is the first one btw) rose and rose while I was focused on the tv and the top cracked open, bringing to mind mount vesuvious. After which once removed from the oven proceeded to deflate and resembled something like a flat tyre. Nevertheless it still went into the fridge for the required time before being consumed as per the recipe...oh, only it actually didn't as someone (not me) forgot to put it in the fridge after promising to do so. Which meant that cake nbr1 was really not meant to be. So on to cake nbr2, deciding to give the recipe another go, I started again, this time watching the cake like a hawk. End result, not too bad, there's still a bit of a collapsed but passable. Though it tastes good, would I try again? Maybe but not in the near future.

 

 

 

Pork floss (bak huu)

I was speaking to my sis this morning and she mentioned bak huu and I thought it's been a long time since I had any and since I had a pork fillet in the fridge.....why not? I did happen to have a recipe for it, just never tried it so no surfing the net required and it only required 3 ingredients...pork, light soya and rock sugar! So easy, boil everything in the slow cooker till the meat starts to colaspe, shred then fry in the pan till dry. hmmm, need to run to the supermarket to buy bread now as I have nothing to eat it with!

 

Pandan kaya

I made 3 lots of kaya in the last 3 days! The first lot was the normal caramel kaya made the night before a friend's party for pulut tai tai. Since it was made late at night, I think I sort of lost concentration and probably stirred too long as though not burnt the kaya was of a weird texture but still edible. The next day when the pulut tai tai was ready, I had some spare time and so decided to whip up a new batch of kaya for my friend instead of using the one I made previously. This time, I made the pandan version, it turned out much better, in fact I liked it so much that I made more the next day for myself as I was dreaming of kaya toast!

Kaya toast... Best breakfast ever!

 

 

Angku kuih

I was making ang ku kuih again... This time for a friend's friend's daughter's birthday, so they had to be perfect! I made some changes to the recipe I used previously which was already good but I needed the ang ku to stay nice and soft for longer. With the changes, which I have now written down before I forget which tips worked, the angku stayed soft till the next day! Wow, even I was impressed, hahaha... The ones I made for the party was with the mini moulds, no pictures as I had to rush them off in time for the birthday party. After the delivery, I can home and made up some more with the medium sized mould, these are the ones in the picts.

Inside, green bean filling

Glossy and chewy!

 

 

Croissants

This is a back post, I can't believe I forgot about this one. For a really long time I've been wanting to make croissants, am always fascinated with the folding of the dough to make the layers. I finally did get round to it using a recipe from the great British Bakeoff. To results was ok-ish, which means the hunt for a better recipe is on, however it will be a while before I will attempt it again...too much waiting in between steps!

Mini me having a go at the dough

 

 

Pandan chiffon cake

It's pot luck time again! What to bring for sharing....not wanting to have a manic morning cooking and too lazy to get in to town to the chinese supermarket for Asian ingredients, I decided to go for a store cupboard staple that I can make the night before. There's always pandan in the freezer, tinned coconut milk in the larder, no waiting for butter to get to room temperature what better choice could there be? So pandan cake it is, I've made this numerous times and my mantra while making this is ...be patient when whisking the eggs whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites AND you will be rewarded!

So two hours later, cake is baked and ready! I can watch tv while waiting for it cool, sleep in tomorrow morning and turn up at the pot luck not looking harassed! I call that a WIN!

Cake cooling

 

 

Before de-tinning, less cracking on the top than usual, I must have been a patient whisker this time round

 

Pulut Tai Tai or Pulut Tekan

One of the recent things that I have on my 'shopping list' for trips back to Malaysia is the blue pea flower or bunga telang. It is mainly used to colour food naturally. By crushing the petals and squeezing the juice out..normally just a few drops, you get pretty shades of blues and purples. So now, everytine I get back to malaysia, I'll get a bag or two of these flowers in their dried form.

So this time, I'm making Pulut tai tai which is steamed glutinous rice topped with kaya (a coconut kind of jam). This is also the first time I'm attempting to make kaya, as it turned out, the kaya recipe that I used was great if I may say so. I will definitely make more.

 

Hong Kong egg tarts

I keep looking up the recipe for these but never got round to making them. When the Great British Bakeoff had egg tarts as the technical challenge, I just had to make them. But I didn't want the 'ang mo' version, I wanted the Hong Kong version that we get at home. I was quite nervous when it came to making the custard as I've never made custard from scratch before and have have seen lots of disasters on tv where the custard becomes scrambled eggs. In my nervousness, I forgot to add the vanilla extract to the custard, luckily it still turned out right and was not too eggy. In fact, it was quite yummy if I say so myself!

Cross section of the tart, super smooth custard!

 

 

Crispy kale chips

There has been an abundance of kale in the garden and to keep up with the rate the vegetables were growing, I have started to distribute them to friends and neighbours. One of my friends came back with a superb way of using up the kale which is to simply oven bake them with a light seasoning of salt and sugar. Within 10 minutes, I had a plate of crispy crunchy kale to munch on while watching tv, just a touch healthier than potato chips!

 

Kuih Semperit

It's Raya or Ramadhan so there's a feeling of celebration. Unfortunately because I'm far from home, there's no open house to attend and no neighbours to come bearing raya cookies. For me, there's two cookies that really brings raya to mind, one is cornflake cookies and another is semperit. Of the two, semperit is my favourite so since no one is bringing raya cookies, I have to make them myself! And what a discovery, I never realised that this cookie is made from only corn flour which makes it gluten free and no eggs as well so those with a gluten allergy can enjoy this cookie without any worries! And yes I actually own a semperit cookie press, one which I bought years ago, just in case I have a craving for semperit which I did!

 

Pandan angku (tortoise cake)

Time for another potluck, this time it's to say farewell to a fellow Malaysian who will be leaving for Brunei. I remember she mentioned that she liked eating angku and since I bought mini angku moulds the last trip I was home, I decided it was time I learnt to make this kuih. Angku is normally bright orange in colour though 'ang' really means red and 'ku' means tortoise as this kuih is shaped liked a tortoise. Angku also has its significance as it is usually given by the parents of newborn babies when they reached the month milestone as well as eaten during birthdays to signify good fortune and longevity. Mine however, was green from pandan as I love the aroma of pandan as well as it is a natural colouring rather than an artificial colouring. Anyway, good luck to you Gaye and your family and may you have good fortune in your new home!

The ladies at Gaye's farewell

 

 

Japanese Swiss roll

So finally my battle with the swiss roll comes to an acceptable end. First a little history lesson, well, not that old but months ago, I had a craving for Swiss roll and attempted to make one...swiss roll no.1 failed. So ok, as a home baker, it's no big deal, we try again.... hence started the swiss roll week, from which swiss rolls no.2, 3,4,5,6 ...was produced, you get the drift. It became a challenge to me make the swiss roll that tasted like it did in my head, yes, some would by then term it as an obsession! So I tried numerous recipes, trying a swiss roll (or two) each day after work! All failed, some was not even edible....so after a week of wasted eggs, I waved the white flag. One type of swiss roll though intrigued me i.e. the Japanese variation where the texture is so soft and light, I believe there's a shop in Ipoh that specialises in them. Anyway, yesterday I brushed off my swiss roll pan and tried once again to make the Japanese roll swiss, after of course watching numerous uTube videos of other people making it look like a breeze to bake. Previously I had managed to produced ones that have the right taste but they collapsed at various stages, when removed from the oven, after rolling and after chilling on the fridge. But this time round, armed with new knowledge of whisking egg whites and folding flour, I think I may have cracked the secret of soft Japanese swiss rolls, it's not perfect (yet) but at least I feel that it no longer eludes me!

 

Banana Loaf

I found myself with a bunch of really ripe bananas this weekend... What to do to minimise waste? Banana loaf comes to mind, specifically the ones sold in the market or pasar malam by the Malay vendors. I love the fragrant banana loaf they sell, to call it a loaf I think does not do it any justice, it's a really long loaf, enough to feed a family of 12 or more I would say, I would not be exaggerating! Anyway, a quick rummage in the larder to hunt for the banana essence I was sure I had and with a little help from a pair of little hands to measure the ingredients, the loaf was baked and smelling lovely! The owner of the pair of little hands thought it was good and ate an entire adult size piece...so it must really be good!

 

Kuih Lapis

Kuih lapis or as it is known in Chinese as nine layer kuih is basically what it is called that is a kuih which is made up of nine layers. It is normally made with alternate layers of pink and white batter with the last layer a bright red but as I was looking for a recipe to try, I came across one that was made using the bunga telang or blue pea flower, this means that the kuih can be made without using artificial colouring and looks lovely and unique too. And since I was due to go back to Malaysia for my annual holiday, it was timely for me to get some dried ones to bring back. So after a trial run in Penang, I made another tray of the lovely fragrant kuih when I came back....one last thing, this kuih must be eaten by peeling each layer off, don't ask why it's tradition!