Yomeishu Baked Chicken

This east-meet-west baked chicken with herbal wine is a regular dish on my family's dinning table.Not only  it is good for health and flavourful, it is frill-free to prepare too.

 



 

Yomeishu Baked Chicken

Ingredients:

 

• 1 spring chicken
• 5 tbsp Yomeishu (养命酒)
• dash of freshly grounded black pepper
• 1 tsp of Chinese five-spice powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce

 

 

Methods:

1. Clean the whole chicken, butterfly it. 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.  Leave chicken in the fridge to absorb the seasoning, at least 2 hour.
5. Place the chicken and seasoning mixture in a baking pan lay with aluminium foil.
6. Fold the foil to seal the chicken.
7. Baked in pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for 50 min.

 

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker

Soft Cheese Butter Loaf

I have been making breads over the last few weekends. This afternoon, I made cheese butter loaf. It is so tasty and soft that I can't wait to write this post to capture the recipe.
 

 

 

 

Cheese Butter Loaf

Inspired by Table for 2....or more

Dry Ingredients:

• 320g bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt

 

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 33g honey
• 165g low fat milk
• 65g low fat cream cheese (soften)

 

• 16g unsalted butter (soften)

 

• 3 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese

 

Topping Ingredients:

• 15g soften unsalted butter
• 15g soften cream cheese
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

 

Steps:

1. Mix together the wet ingredients of egg, honey, milk and cream cheese and set aside.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. Add wet ingredients into the flour mixture.
4. Knead by hand for 10 minutes. Add in butter and continue kneading until the dough become nonsticky and elastic. Sprinkle some flour if needed during the kneading process.
5. Leave the dough in a oiled bowl, cover with fling wrap and let it rise until double in size.
6. Once doubled, punch the dough down and move it to a work surface.
7. Divide it into 6 balls.
8. Stretch each ball into a long rectangular flattened piece, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the top. Roll it up from the short side. Place roll into a greased loaf pan, seamed side down. Repeat the same for the other 5 balls.
9. Cover the loaf pan with fling wrap, let the rolls proof for the second time until double in size, around 30-40 minutes.
10. To make the topping, mix everything together and set aside.
11. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Using a knife, make a long slit in the middle the loaf lengthwise.
12. Spoon the topping over to cover the slit.
13. Bake at 175 degree C for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 160 degree C and continue to bake for another 20 minutes.
14. Brush with melted butter when it out from the oven.

 

We absolutely enjoyed the soft and yummy bread!

 

This is for yeast spotting.

Birthday Cakes for January Babies

I baked 2 birthday cakes last month. Both cakes used the same  moist chocolate cake recipe which I liked very much.

 

Birthday Cake #1 - This is for my friend who celebrated her 50th birthday - a simple cake decorated with sprinkles:

  

 

  

 

The second one, is for my 6-year old nephew. I used coco pop cereals and oreo cookies to create this "Coco-Beary Happy Birthday Cake". It was a pleasant surprise for him and he liked it very much. :)

 

 

 

 

Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

(adapted from my previous post with small adjustments and baked in 7-inch round cake tin)

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 80g unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 120g sugar

 

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degree C. Line and grease a 7-inch round baking pan.
2. Heat milk, butter, oil, coffee granules and cocoa powder till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. Combine flour, baking soda and sugar. Add this and the beaten egg into the cooled wet ingredients. Use a hand whisk to beat till the batter is smooth and well mixed.
4. Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a knife insert into the middle come out clear. Remove from oven and let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove cake from the pan and let it cool on the iron rack before applying any decoration.

 

For the Coco-Beary Cake, I first applied a thin layer of frosting (beating 1/2 cup of nutella with about 28g butter until creamy and fluffy), then I lightly pat the coco pop cereals to cover the entire cake. I used 3 pieces of yellow oreo cookies and nutella spread to form its eyes and the nose. Another 2 pieces of the cookies are stuck to the two sides as its ears.

Almond Cookies

This is another cookies that I will bake every year for Chinese New Year - Almond Cookies. They are healthier compared to many other traditional CNY cookies such as pineapple tarts as they are baked with canola oil instead of butter.

 

 

 

 

 

The original recipe is from Alan Ooi's New Year Cookies Cookbook via melspantrykitchen. I have made some variations as below.

 

Almond Cookies

(Made about 50 cookies)

 

Dry Ingredients:

• 100g ground almond
• 20g almond bits
• 150g plain flour
• 30g corn flour
• 80g icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

 

Wet Ingredient:

• 120 ml canola oil

 

For Egg Wash:

• 1 beaten egg yolk

 

Method:

1. Combine the dry ingredients together. Add in the wet ingredient and mix well with your fingers to hold them together to form a dough.
2. Pinch a small piece of the dough and roll it in your two palms to form a small marbled-size ball. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
3. Line the almond balls in a baking tray lined with baking paper. Apply egg wash over all of them.
4. Baked in pre-heated oven at 175 degree C for 20 minutes of until the cookies turned lightly golden.
5. Let them cool down completely before storing in air-tight container.

Pineapple Tarts (2013)

Chinese New Year is just around the corner again! My daughters are so excited over it, because their mummy is going to bake them pineapple tarts again.

I've been baking this Chinese New Year's must-have using the same recipe in the past few years. This year, I tried a different recipe and it yielded equally good result.

I used ready-made pineapple filling. The pastry recipe is from Thelittleteochew but as I only have a short window time frame in the night to do the baking, I halved the recipe as follows which yield one tray of little balls (about 40):

Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 25g corn flour
• a pinch (original 1/4 tsp) of salt
• 140g cold, unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)
• 1.5 egg yolks, beaten (I scoop out a spoonful from the beaten 2 yolks, and reserve for egg wash)
• 1.5 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp icing sugar (reduced from 3 tbsp)
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• For egg wash - the half beaten egg yolk + half tbsp water
• Pineapple fillings - rolled into small balls (slightly smaller than a marble)

Methods:

1. Sift flours, icing sugar and salt. Mix well to combine.
2. Beat the egg yolks, add in cold water and vanilla extra. Mix Well.
3. Add the butter cubes into the flour. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it look like fine bread crumbs.
4. Add the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture.Using your fingers again, gently mix the liquid into the flour and gather them into a loose dough ball. Leave it in a bowl, cover and chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge, pinch a teaspoonful dough and roll it into small ball with your palms. Flatten it and place a small ball of pineapple filling in the centre. Wrap and roll into a ball so that the filling is hidden inside.
6. Insert a clove into the centre to dress it up like a small mandarin orange. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.
7. Apply some egg wash over each of the balls. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160 degree C for 18-20 minutes or until the balls turned golden yellow.
8. Remove and let them cool completely before storing them in air-tight container.

Fruity White Wine Jellies

These pretty looking and delicious Fruity White Wine Jellies were dessert I made for our 2013 Countdown Party earlier.
 

 

 

 

 

I have a "Strawberry Red Wine Jellies"  recipe from a Christmas Baking Recipe booklet that came with the New Zealand Woman's Weekly Magazine I bought while holidaying in New Zealand years ago. I have made this same dessert for several times since and they never fail to impress my guests. This time I used fruity white wine instead of red wine and they turned out equally well to compliment the festive mood.

 

Fruity White Wine Jellies

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cold water (250ml)
• 1/2 cup boiling water (125ml)
• 6 tsp gelatin powder
• 3 cups fruity white wine (750ml)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• A variety of fresh mixed berries for the topping (I used strawberries, blueberries and kiwi)

 

Methods:

1. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over the surface of 1 cup of cold water in a shallow bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes .
2. Meanwhile, place white wine and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolve. Add in 1/2 cup of boiling water. Stir to combine.
3. Remove from heat. Continue to stir over an ice bath while slowly pour in the gelatin mixture. Stir to incorporate.
4. Pour into small serving cups, top with fruits.
5. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours until firm and set. Serve cold.

Cranberries Cream Cheese Bread

I was on medical leave yesterday. Supposed to be resting at home but could not resist the chance to spend my few hours of fee time in the kitchen. So I started making bread after taking my medication.

While waiting for the dough to complete it first proofing, the after effect of the medication started to kick in, making me so drowsy and sleepy. I pulled myself to proceed with the punching and shaping and the final egg wash of the dough before popping them into the oven. I also patiently waited for 20 minutes to go by before removing them from the oven. I realised my bread rolls are so much skinnier than those I saw in Sonia’s post. But they do taste as soft and yummy as how Sonia has described. So I attributed the skinny roll to my not up to standard kneading skill. After the first bite, I leave them to cool down and went to bed (finally) in the late afternoon. It was only in the late night when I read back Sonia’s recipe again then I realised that I had missed out an important step, that is the 2nd proofing to double the size before the egg wash stage. Alamak! But considering that I baked these bread rolls under the influence of medication, I shall forgive myself. But I will attempt this again over the weekend as my girls like them so much.

Cranberries Cream Cheese Bread

 (Adapted from nasilemaklover)

Ingredients:

• 50g cream cheese (I used low fat version)
• 40g dried cranberries
• 280g bread flour flour
• 40g caster Sugar
• 2.5g salt ( I added ¼ tsp)
• 120g milk (I used low fat milk)
• 40g egg (slightly less than 1 medium egg, keep the remaining for egg wash)
• 1tsp instant yeast
• 28g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
• Egg wash (with the balance egg + 1tsp milk)

Method:

1. Beat cream cheese with a spoon or folk till creamy.
2. Mix all ingredients (except butter & cranberries) together.
3. Start kneading the dough on a floured surface.
4. Add butter and continue knead till dough becomes smooth, glossy and elastic.
5. Add in cranberries and gently incorporate into dough.
6. Place dough in a oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let it proof till double size (about an hour).
7. Remove dough from the bowl, gently punch down the dough to remove air bubbles. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions ( about 90g each).
8. Roll each into small round dough ball, let them rest for 15mins.
9. Using a rolling pin, roll each small ball into flat oval shape, then roll it up like swiss roll by hand, press firm on the closing. Repeat for the other 5 balls.
10. Line them in a non-stick baking pan (9”x9”), with the closing side faced down. Let them rise until double in size.
11. Apply egg wash and bake at pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 20mins until the top is golden brown.
12. Remove from pan and cool bread on a wire rack. Store in air-tight container.

I am submitting this for Yeastspotting.