Scallion Pancakes

I made Chinese pancakes with scallion fillings recently. This is a traditional snack that is well-liked by my family. They are easy to prepare and healthy too.

Scallion Pancakes (葱油饼）

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup warm water
• Canola oil, for brushing and pan-frying
• 1 bunch scallion (or Chinese leeks or spring onion as substitute), chopped thinly

 

Methods

1. Mix flour with 1 cup water until it forms a smooth dough. Knead by hand until the dough is smooth and no longer stick to your fingers. You may need to add in more flour (if too wet) / water (when too dry) in the process. Form it into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.
2. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll them into individual balls. On a floured surface, roll out one of the balls into thin rectangle/oval sheet with a rolling pin.
3. Lightly brush the top of the flatten sheet with oil, then sprinkle it evenly with chopped scallions. (You may also sprinkle some salt for taste which I have leave it out in my version).
4. Roll the dough up from the long end by hand to form a rope with the scallion fillings stuffed inside. Coil the rope into a spiral circle.
5. Flatten the circle (coiled-side up) into a thin and round pancake with a rolling pin. Repeat the same for the remaining 5 balls.
6. Heat a non-stick frying pan and drizzle / brush with oil, pan-fry the pancakes individually on low-medium heat until golden brown and crispy on both sides. (About 2 minutes on each side).

The pancakes are best eaten warm with chili sauce for dipping. My daughters actually waited eagerly beside my stove. Each time when I dished up a piece of the pancake from my cooking pan, they took it from me immediately to savour it.

You may use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut each pancake into small bite-size wedges as pictured but somehow, it tasted better when you tear them into pieces by hand.

Nutty Tartelettes - Gateau au Noix

Gateau au Noix is a traditional French nut tart. I made these nutty tartelettes on Sunday night for 2 close friends who came to meet me for lunch at my workplace on Monday. Both of them love nuts.

The recipe came from The Australian Women's Weekly - Home Baked which I picked up from the Library. It yields four small (10-cm) tarts. As neither me nor my family like nuts, I did not intend to make extra for us. As I used smaller tart tins (8-cm), I got an extra tart for me to do taste testing. And to my surprise, it tasted delightfully nice. The nuts are crunchy and have the perfect-toasted taste. The maple syrup fillings are not as sweet as I was worried of initially. The Hubby and the 2 girls also took a bite each. And all of them also agreed that it tasted good. My elder girl who initially "warned" me not to bake extra for her (as she is averse to walnut), even whatapps me these messages - “Nut Tart = AWESOMENESS” “Superyummy” “Awesomely Awesome”, “To put it simply” I WANT MORE!!”  This is my girl, the drama-queen. :)

I will make the tarts again soon but will definitely reduce the quantity of maple syrup and add in more nuts. The original filling has too much liquid and not enough nuts.

Gateau au Noix (Nut Tart with maple syrup)

Ingredients

For the tart shells:

• 185g plain flour
• 55g icing sugar (I reduced to 40g)
• 30g ground almond
• 125g chilled butter, chopped
• 1 egg yolk

For the filling:

• 130g of assorted nuts, toasted*
• 2 tbsp brown sugar (I reduced to 1 tbsp)*
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 40g butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten lightly
• 3/4 cup (180ml) maple syrup (I reduced to slightly less than ½ a cup)*

* I used pecans, walnuts, almonds and cut them into smaller bit size pieces before toasting them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 120 degree C.  Or you can simply place the nuts in a plastic bag and crush them with rolling pin before/after toasting them. I will increase the quantity of nuts to 150g and reduce the maple syrup to 1/4 cup the next time when I make them. I think there is no harm to totally omit the brown sugar in the filling since the nuts will already will fully soaped with maple syrup.

 

Methods

1. Place flour, icing sugar, ground almonds and butter in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, mixed them into bread-crumb alike mixture (or you can use a food processor for this step).
2. Add egg yolk, continue to mix them with the pastry cutter until all ingredients just come together. Knead dough on lightly floured surface. Wrap in cling film, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Divide pastry dough into 4 parts. Roll each pieces between 2 sheets of baking paper / cling wraps, into flat disc, large enough to line into a 10-cm round loose-base tart tin. Press pastry into the sides, trim edges. Repeat for the next 3 pieces. Cover, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine all filling ingredients and mix well. Set aside for later use.
5. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Place tart shells on oven tray. Line each shells with baking paper, fill with dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove paper and beans/rice. Baked, uncovered, for further 7 minutes or until tart shells are browned lightly.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 160 degree C.
8. Divide filling among the baked tart shells. Baked 25 minutes or until set (when the centre of the tart puffed up).

Orange Pound Cake with Nutella Swirling

12 loafs of Orange Pound Cake.

No, I do not bake for a living. These pound cakes were for my elder girl's school fund raising carnival. Her class was running a bakery stall she asked me to bake these pound cakes for sales at $5 for 3 slices. Besides pound cakes, the stall also carried cup cakes, fruit cakes, bars and cookies contributed by the parents of her other classmates.

The carnival started at 10am on Saturday morning. She excitedly called me at 1 pm to inform me that the pound cakes were all sold out. They are the first item being sold out among the rest. Many "customers" sampled the cake and gave very good comment on it. A few of them even bought the cake in loaf, instead of individual slices.

This is my first time baking pound cake as I am concern with the high fat and calorie content due to the relatively large amount of butter and sugar called for (compared to the many other type of cakes) in most traditional pound cake recipes.

I actually baked 13 loafs over 2 nights (5 on Thursday night and 8 on Friday night) as I wanted to sample my own cake to ensure that they are of "edible" standard. The citrus aroma from the baked cake was so nice and strong that I cannot resist to try a slice in the late Thursday night.

When hubby and my girls ate it on Friday morning, they love it too. Elder girl (she left the house for school before I woke up) left me a note to tell me that the cake is "soooooo yummy" :) She really knows well how to make me "work" for her without complaint.

The original recipe from Joy of Baking is for a standard buttery pound cake but as my daughter specifically asked for Orange Pound Cake, I have done some variations to the original recipe to come up with this Nutella-swirl Orange Pound Cake. I baked the 12 loafs over 3 batches and for each batch, I tripled the quantity. The recipe below yield one load (9x5x3 inch).

Orange Pound Cake with Nutella Swirling

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice (Original: 3 tbsp milk at room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (Original: 1½ tsp)
• Zest from 1 orange (Not in original recipe)
• 150g sifted plain flour (Original: Cake flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100g caster sugar (Original: 150g)
• 185g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsp Nutella (Not in original recipe)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Butter the loaf pan and Line the bottom of the pan with baking paper. (I did not do the lining).
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, orange juice, vanilla extract and orange zest.
3. In another bowl, place the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) and mix the ingredients until blended. Add the butter and half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed with mixer until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about one minute to introduce air into the batter to develop the cake's structure. Slowly pour in the remaining egg mixture over 2 additions. Beating about 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the egg and strengthen the cake's structure. 
4. Scoop the one-third of the batter into the prepared pan and slightly smooth the surface. Drizzle 2 tablespoon of nutella along the top and cover it with the rest of the batter. Insert a knife into the batter and do a zip-zap swirling movement from one long end to the other end of the loaf pan. Lift up the knife only when it reaches the end so that the filling can be discretely hidden under the batter. Smooth the top with an offset spatula.
5. Bake for about 55 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. To prevent over-browning of the top before it is done, cover the top of the cake with a piece of lightly buttered aluminum foil after 30 minutes of baking.
7. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a lightly buttered wire rack.

Spicy Aglio Olio with Garlic Prawns and other weekend Meals

As a working mother, I only cook on weekends. As hubby and daughters prefer home-cooked meals instead of eating out, I will try to cook at least 2 meals, in between our many weekend activities.

Below are the home-cooked meals that we had over the recent weekend.

Spicy Aglio Olio with Garlic Prawns

My daughters' favorite (They are the "spice-girls" who like spicy stuff).

Garlic Prawns

Heat a nonstick skillet pan over medium high heat. Saute minced garlic with olive oil. Then add in the peeled and deveined prawns. Cook until the prawns are pink and just firm. Remove the prawns to a plate and set aside until the Aglio Olio is ready for serving.

Aglio Olio

1. Cooked the pasta (I use Angel Hairs) to al dente.
2. In a pan on medium low fire, saute minced garlic with olive oil until frangance but not browned. Add in chopped chili padi (amount to be adjusted according to your tolerance to spiciness) and the drained pasta. Toss the pasta in the pan with the garlic, chili and oil. Season with sea salt, dried mixed herb, to your taste.
3. Serve with the garlic prawns.

Pan-seared steak with red-wine sauce & Roasted Potatoes

A quick and tasty steak meal without a high price tag.

I bought 3 pieces of good quality thin steak from Fairprice Fineness Supermarket for less than $15.
I prepared a quick seasoning sauce with 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and some dried herb. Brush the sauce over both sides of the steak just before cooking in pan with some butter. As the meats are thin, it took only a short while to get medium done and tender steak.

For the red wine sauce, I boiled half a cup of red wine in a small pot, cut in some butter to thicken the sauce, season it with sea salt, black pepper and dried herbs. Leave it to simmer in the pot for a while and the sauce is ready. But we ended up actually eating the steak without/with little red wine sauce as the steak itself was very juicy and flavourful.

 

Steamed Bamboo Clams with Garlic, Chili and Glass Noodles

I hardly buy frozen seafood but when bought a packet of this frozen bamboo clams few weeks ago when I was on grocery shopping with my husband. Both of us like to order this dish when we eat in seafood restaurant.

I slightly defrost the clam before giving them a quick rinse and remove the part at one end of each clam that contains sands. Lay some soaked and soften glass noodle on top of each clam before sprinkling generous amount of minced garlic and some chili padi over each of them. Before they go into the steamer, I drizzle some fish sauce over them. They are done after 8 minutes over high-fire. The meat will be tough to chew if they are over-cooked. Best eaten while they are still steaming hot.

Pain au Chocolat

I set my eye on this recipe when I saw its picture in the bread recipe book I found in the Library. I baked this two weekends ago and intend to bake it again this weekend, with some slight variation to the filling as my kids find the filling too bitter for them.

Pain au Chocolat

(Source: Genki Japanese Bread by Yau Yung Ling)

Ingredients

For the Dough:

• 120g bread flour
• 80g cake flour
• 4g salt
• 6g yeast
• 6g custard powder
• 30g sugar
• 110g water (I used milk instead)
• 1 egg
• 20g butter

For the filling:

• 100g butter, melted
• 40g chocolate, melted
• 20g cocoa power
• 20g cake flour

(Note: my kids feedback that the fillings tasted bitter. Next time I will replace some quantity of butter with sweet condense milk as a variation to sweeten the filling)

Methods

1. Combine filling ingredients. Blend well. Refrigerate until firm.
2. Combine dough ingredients. Blend until incorporated. Knead to a soft, smooth, elastic dough. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. (Note: the dough will be very sticky and wet. You will probably need to add in more flour during the kneading process)
3. Take out the chilled filling. Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper into a thin rectangle block.
4. Roll out the chilled dough to a thin rectangle layer on a floured surface. Place the filling on the centre of the dough sheet. Fold-in the edges of the dough sheet to wrap up the filling. Roll the dough into thin rectangle sheet again.
5. Visually divide the sheet into 3 rectangular sections, fold the 1st section over to stack on the middle section and then fold the 3rd section over to stack on the middle section too (just like the way we fold a piece of A4 letter to fit into an envelope). Roll the rectangle sheet to about 16cm X 8cm in size.
6. Cut the sheet into 8 squares of 4cm by 4cm. Put in a lightly oiled baking tray. Proof for roughly 45 minutes.
7. Place proofed square in a preheated 200 degree C oven. Bake for about 10 minutes. 

This is for Yeastspotting.

Mango And Peach Flognarde

I baked a Mango and Peach Flognarde on Thursday night for the family. I adapted the recipe of a

Cherry Clafoutis by replacing the cherry with fresh mango and canned peach. 

Clafoutis is baked French dessert using cherries. When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is properly called a Flognarde or flaugnarde. The last time I baked a Flognarde was more than a year ago. This time, I added 2 fresh Thailand mango which is selling only at S$1.40 each from the supermarket. They are so sweet and juicy that I am very tempted to get a few more this weekend to make the traditional Thai's dessert, Mango with Sticky Sweet Rice. :)

Anyway, first things first, here is my adapted recipe for Mango and Peach Flognarde:

Ingredients

• 125g self raising flour
• 2 fresh mangoes
• 1 piece of canned peach halve, without the syrup
• 40g caster sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten 
• 300ml milk (I used low fat)
• 75g unsalted butter, melted

Method:

1. Cut the mango and peach into chunks and spread them in a greased baking dish.
2. Sieve the flour and sugar into a bowl.
3. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the beaten eggs and the milk.
4. Add in the melted butter and mix well.
5. Pour the mixture into the baking dish over the mango and peach.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C for 30 minutes or until firm and golden brown.

This is best serve lukewarm but we had it over breakfast in the next morning and it is equally tastly and custard-like soft.

Peach Yeast Tart with Whipping Cream Topping

This is a very unique tart - it does not have the usual buttery tart base that one would expect from a fruit tart. To me, it is more of a bread than tart. To be precise, it is a yeasted bread topped with fruit and whipping cream.

 

 

This is my second time baking this, following the recipes from Technicolorkitchen and Table for 2... or more. The last round, I made the Apple Yeast Tart and this time round, I used canned peach to replace the apple. Both fruits are good topping options for the tarts and I think pear is another option that I will consider the next time when I bake this.

Peach Yeast Tart with Whipping Cream Topping

Ingredients:

• 245g all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 120ml warm milk
• 28g softened unsalted butter
• 4 pieces of peach (halve) in syrup (discard the syrup and cut into 2 slices for each halve)
• 50g brown sugar
• 120ml whipping cream, whipped to soft peak

 

Methods:

1. Place flour, caster sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl. Whisk egg with milk and mix into flour mixture.
2. Add in butter and knead to a smooth dough. I knead it by hand. Note: the dough will be quite sticky.
3. Place in a buttered bowl and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a draught-free place for 30 minutes.
4. Punch down the risen dough and give it a quick knead (1-2 minutes) then press it into a 22cm buttered spring-form pan, cover with plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes (it will rise slightly).
5. Preheat oven to 200°C. Press peach slices into the dough, and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Place pan on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 180°C. Spoon cream over peaches and bake for another 15-20 minutes. The top should be slightly caramelized and the tart light and spongy.

This is for Yeast Spotting.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecakes for 2 birthday girls

I baked 2 Japanese Cotton Cheesecakes over the last 7 days for 2 birthday celebrations in my family - one for the most senior member in my family i.e. my dearest mummy for her 64th birthday and the other is for the youngest member in the family i.e. my baby niece for her 1st birthday.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake #1: This is for my mum - a simple, no-frill cake for a simple but strong woman.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake #2: This is for my little niece - decorated with strawberries and shredded white chocolate that are sweet and appealing to her.

 

Both cakes are not so nicely decorated but they are baked with full blessing from the bottom of my heart. For both cheesecakes, I followed the recipe from The Little Teochew, her cotton cheesecakes looked really nice and cotton-like. Mine still have a lots of room for improvement. 

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 140g fine caster sugar
• 6 eggs, separated
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 block (250g) cream cheese
• 100ml fresh milk
• 60g cake flour
• 20g corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Methods

1. Preheat the oven at 160°C. Place 2 bowl-oven proof bowls of water at the bottom-tier of the oven (as an alternative to water bath the cheese cake).
2. Lightly grease a 8-inch springform cake pan and line with baking paper on the bottom and sides. The paper for the sides should be higher than the cake tin by about 1.5 inches.
3. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool
4. Combine the flour, cornflour, salt, egg yolks. Add into the cooled cream cheese mixture and mix well. Sieve the batter using a wire mesh sieve to remove any lump to get a smooth batter.
5. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar over several batch and whisk until soft peaks form.
6. Add the egg whites to the sieved cheese mixture and fold well. Pour into a springform pan.
7. Bake cheesecake for 1 hour 10 mins or until set and golden brown at 160°C.
8. Leave to cool in oven with door ajar, about 30mins to 1 hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.

Take a peek at the internal-appearance of the cake below. The soft and light-texture will make you wanting to take an extra slice, without much guilt :P