Blueberry Yogurt Cake

This Blueberry Yogurt Cake was baked almost 2 months ago. Time to post this before I forget where I adapted this from and what are the variations that I have made during my baking process.

This is adapted from Azelias Kitchen. I had earlier used the same recipe and baked a tri-colored yogurt cake of chocolate, green tea and vanilla flavours. This time, I just baked the original yogurt cake with fresh blueberries.

Recipe for Blueberry Yogurt Cake

Wet Ingredients

250g plain yogurt (I used low fat)

120 g unsalted butter, melted

1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs, lightly mixed together

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

275g plain flour

200g caster sugar (I reduced to 150g)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp milk

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Baking Steps

1. Mix all wet ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in another bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones and using a large spoon fold the two together until it’s all mixed and you can no longer see any dry flour. Add in 1-2 tbsp milk so that the mixture become  slightly sloppy, not stiff and easily fall off the spoon.
4. Fold in the blueberries and mixed together to combine.
5. Pour the batter into a greased tin (20 cm size. I used a ring pan).
6. Baked in pre-heated oven at 170 cm for about 30-40 mins. Check for done-ness by inserting a knife into the centre. The cake is done when the knife blade came out clean. 

Verdict: Compared to my earlier tri-colored cake, this version is more moist and yummy with the blueberries added. A keeper definitely otherwise I will not bother to record it here for my future reference. :)

 

Rosemary Focaccia

This Rosemary Focaccia, a kind of Italy bread, is baked after dinner for tomorrow morning's breakfast. All of us can't resist the aroma when it was fresh out of the oven and started pinching piece by piece to try it out. Now, only 2/3 is left for tomorrow. :)

The recipe below yields 2 loaves but I halved all the ingredients for a single loaf.

Rosemary Focaccia Recipe

(Make 2 loaves)

• 1½ tsp dry yeast
• 1 cup tepid water
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp flaked salt
• 4¼ - 4 ¾ cups strong bread flour
• Olive oil and flaked salt for the tray and the baking
• 2 stalks fresh rosemary





1. Mix together the water, olive oil and honey, and flaked salt.
2. Mix the flour and yeast and add in the liquid a little at a time, working it into a dough and kneading for about 5 minutes.
3. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
4. Heat olive and leave the rosemary in the hot oil. Leave cool for use later.
5. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and divide it in two. Knead and shape each piece into a ball, then flatten each ball into a disc.
6. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle with flaked salt. Put the focaccias on the baking sheet and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
7. Poke the index fingers into the dough to make holes. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and flaked salted.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree C for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

My Favorite Egg Tarts

My family likes egg tarts very much but I find those store-bought tarts are too sweet for me. Hence, when I found this Cantonese egg tart recipe about a year ago, I tried it out at home and Voilà! It has become my one and only egg tart recipe that I’ve been using since.

The egg tarts tasted as good as those I used to buy from the famous bakery chain here but they are less sweet, as I can control the amount of sugar that goes into the egg custard. For a healthier version, I usually used low-fat milk and I have also tried it with soya milk for some of my office colleagues who do not take milk or milk product.

Here is the recipe which I’ve adapted from Christine Recipes  

Egg Tarts Recipe

Ingredients:

 

For the tart shells:

• 225g all purpose flour
• 125g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
• 40g icing sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the egg custard:

• 3 eggs
• 90g caster sugar
• 225g hot water
• 85g low fat milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Making the tart shells:

1. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until the mixture is fluffy and light in color.
2. Add in whisked egg in 2 batches, beat over low speed. Add vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Sift in flour in 2 batches, and mix for all ingredients to combine well. Hold the mixture together to form into dough.
4. Pinch small ball of dough about the size of a ping pong ball and press it onto the egg tart mould with your thumbs, starting from the bottom then up to the sides to make tart shell with even layer of dough. Trim away any excess dough. Repeat the same until you used up the dough. About 10-12 tart shells. Place it in the fridge until the egg custard filling are ready.

Making the egg custard:

1. Dissolve sugar with the hot water.
2. Whisk egg with the milk. Add in the sugar water. Mix well.
3. Sift the egg custard mixture to get rid of any foam into a pouring cup. Took out the tart shells from the fridge and carefully pour egg custard mixture into each tart shell.

Baking the egg tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Position rack in 2^nd level from the bottom of the oven.
2. Bake tarts for 10 to 15 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.
3. Lower the heat to 170 degree C and monitor the tarts closely. Once the custard start to puff up, pull the oven door open about 2 to 3 inches (I used a metal spoon as a stopper to prepare the oven door from closing back.
4. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the custard is cooked through i.e. when a toothpick inserted into the centre of custard stand up straight. (I like to over-baked it a little bit till some part of the custart is browned).

Baked Chicken with Chinese Wine and Five-Spice

I have been very busy at work lately and hardly have time for my hobbies - cooking and baking :( Thanks god this crazy rush of working day and night will be ending soon and I can go back to my routine of cooking during the weekend and baking in week nights to satisfy my daughters' cravings. :)

I wanted to post the recipe of this yummy and nutritional baked chicken  that I cooked several weeks ago, before I forgotten what were the ingredients I throw in to create this dish. I came across this recipe when browsing through recipe books in Popular Book Store some time back. I recreated this based on my memory of the ingredients used and preparation method. And it turned out so delicious and my elder daughter has been asking for it over the past few weeks. Maybe I will do this for weekend lunch/dinner this weekend, if time permits :(

Baked Chicken with Chinese Wine and Five-Spice Recipe

1 spring chicken
5 tbsp (or more) Chinese wine (I used Yomeishu 养命酒）
Some freshly grounded black pepper
1-2 tsp of Chinese five-spice powder
Salt to taste
1 tbsp soya sauce
A few pieces of Ginger

1. Clean the whole chicken, discard the feet and head.
2. Mix together the seasoning ingredients.
3. Rub the inside and outside of the chick with the seasoning mixture.
4. Pour the remaining mixture over the chicken and throw in the ginger slices
5. Leave chicken in the fridge to absorb the seasoning, at least 2 hour.
6. Place the chicken and seasoning mixture in a baking pan lay with aluminium foil.
7. Fold the foil to seal the chicken.
8. Baked in the pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for 50 min.

The chicken soup (note: no water was added for baking) is very flavourful and goes well with hot steamed rice.