Thursday, October 22, 2015

Rilakkuma Pull apart bread

It's been a long time since I attempted bread making. I am a bread person and making good, tasty and fluffy bread is an art which I think is really hard to pursue and master. Even having lessons could not yield me the kind of soft fluffy breads that we get from local bakeries.

The breads that I used to baked are usually good on the day itself but they turned really heavy the next day which is something I am not looking forward to. Another reason to why I am not into bread making is because Baby Kwok #1 and Prince Charming hated breads so much that it just turns them off LOL! No idea why but I guess its because they dislike the constant chewing.

Recently, there was this huge craze over Japanese pull-apart breads where the bakers attempted to convert these breads into really cute and interesting characters. I super love the ones for Totoro and happen to come across 2 floggers who did Rilakkuma version.

I went to my usual Youtube subscriptions and tried my luck searching for a good fluffy rolls recipe. Happened to view the video by Bakingwithmi who shared her dinner rolls recipe and I decided to create my own pull-apart bread with her recipe.

Like I mentioned above, the breads were good on the day itself. I swear they were so soft and good but when I tried them the next day, they became really heavy :( Sigh.. When will I be able to get really good fluffy bread that can stay soft for 2 days at least? If you have a foolproof recipe, please share with me!

Here's my own Rilakkuma pull apart bread :)
I took the tip from Bento days by baking these rolls in a chiffon pan.
 Gracious me forgotten to greased the pan and the bread were stuck terribly :/

If you are interested to try Bakingwithmi's dinner roll recipe, please hop over to her channel in youtube :) 



Sunday, September 06, 2015

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I am getting the momentum of resuming my blogging lifestyle - Something that I used to do it really often before embarking into Motherhood. As much as I would like to update my blog like how I chase after the kids, I just could not get the time properly organized. Sleep is often deprived and "myself" is no longer in the dictionary - I am sure mummies out there definitely agree with me, well maybe some.


Anyway, I have been tempting to bake a Pandan Chiffon cake because this is one of the cake that I hardly bake (For your info, once in my baking journey). I roll my eyes at the moment I learnt that it is an essential to make your own Pandan juice (Screwpine juice). The thought of dragging that bulky food processor just turns me off but for no reason (I really do not know why) - I felt really enthusiastic to make one yesterday and so yes, I dragged my big butt to the nearest Supermarket after we came back from lunch and bought a bag of Pandan leaves and you got it! I MADE MY OWN PANDAN JUICE! Wheeeeeee!



The Pandan Chiffon was really soft and fluffy!
Btw, Super adore the dining cloth that I got from Typo sale! It cost merely $3!



To make this, you will need:
  • 8 Egg yolks 
  • 70g Sugar
  • 140g Fresh Coconut milk (I used the chilled kind)
  • 110ml Oil (I used Canola)
  • 2.5 Tbsp Pandan juice
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 pinch of Salt
  • 200g Cake flour

  • 8 Egg whites
  • 100g Sugar

To make Pandan Juice - You will need 10 finely chopped Pandan leaves with 40ml of Coconut milk. Blend the ingredients using a food processor. With the help of a sift, sieve the mixture to extract the Pandan juice. You may opt to use your hands to squeeze the juice out from the mixture otherwise.

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C
  2. Sift the cake flour and baking powder. Set aside
  3. In a bowl, beat the yolks and sugars till pale yellowish. Add in the oil, vanilla extract and pandan juice. Continue to mixt till well combined.
  4. Add in the sifted flour and salt into the mixture and mix to ensure no lumps.
  5. In a clean dry bowl, beat your egg whites till frothy. Gradually add in sugar and continue beating till you reaches soft peak stage.
  6. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and incorporate into the cake batter mixture. Pour the mixture back to the remaining egg white and fold well.
  7. Pour your mixture into a 23cm Chiffon pan. Tap the pan against the table top to release air bubbles.
  8. Bake for approx 35-40 mins depending on your oven temperature.


Monday, August 31, 2015

Fluffy soft Banana cake

That bunch of bananas have been lazing on the kitchen top for 2 days. I regretted getting such a big bunch forgetting that bananas ripe way too fast in our tropical weather. Banana is one of Baby Kwok #1 favourite fruit. He can eat them EVERYDAY for breakfast - No, he does not find them boring. He even told me he would not mind having them again the next day (on repeat mode).

As a mum, I would not want my children to overly indulge in one particular food. I hope they can widen their food choices and learn not to be as fussy as the mum (oppss) during her younger days. Vegetables still a tough one to conquer for Baby Kwok#1 but well, at least he eats the really soft broccoli without any complaint (well, maybe one or two). Baby Kwok #2 is more adventurous with food but she seems to be really fussy lately! Used to love eating meat and now spitting them out! Grrrr..... I hope it is just the teething phase.

Anyway, back to banana - So not to waste those bananas, I baked a banana cake! I was not expecting much praise from Prince Charming because 1. He does not really like eating banana as much as his son do. 2. He has been complaining to me about his weight. He was with all praise for this banana cake!!!! I should have asked him to draw 4 numbers for me :X

Been into Instagram lately. If you are keen to follow me, add me!
You can search under @Orangejimbo




To make this, you will need:

  • 2 ripe Bananas, Approx 220g
  • 85g Sugar
  • 100ml Oil (I used canola oil)
  • 3 egg Yolks
  • 1 tsp Vanilla powder
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 150g Cake flour

  • 3 egg Whites
  • 25g Sugar

  1. Mashed the bananas finely and set aside. Preheat your oven to 180°C
  2. Sift the dry ingredients (Flour, Baking powder & Vanilla powder)
  3. In a bowl, beat the yolks and sugar till it turns pale yellowish. Slowly add in the oil and mashed bananas. Continue to beat till well combined.
  4. Add in your sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Ensure there are no lumps.
  5. In a clean dry bowl, beat your egg whites till frothy. Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating it till it reaches Soft peak stage.
  6. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and incorporate into the banana mixture. Pour the mixture back to the remaining egg white and fold well.
  7. Pour into a cake tin and tap against the table top to release bubbles.
  8. Bake for approx 35-40 mins or when skewer comes out clean. 



Friday, May 22, 2015

Still alive.. the blog i mean :)

Although I have not been posting much recently, I did not give up on my kitchen or rather my oven.
Have been on/off doing some small bakes for the kids, family and friends. Trial tested a few macarons recipes but failed (feet visible but uneven or macarons did not rise the way I wanted), went for a Macaron class that specialized in Character macarons (Tsum-Tsum, Monster Inc, Totoro etc).

I have to say - most of the time I was busy figuring out the best/perfect Macaron recipe that works well for me because being someone who is on the visual side - I have my own expectations on how I would like my macarons to look like.

Prince Charming has been really supportive because for every batch of Macrons that I baked - It means he has to be the 1st guinea pig to sample them (Giggling) and then down a few weeks, you hear him complaining that he gained a few pounds (LOL), and to my pleasant surprise, I also have my little royal supporter - Baby Kwok #1!

It is amazing that every time I put on my baking apron, his eyes sparks and started his reasoning with me on why he should help me out in the kitchen. Technically, I love to have him baking with me but theoretically I preferred not to. I had previous scared to death experience where we were baking halfway through and he opened up the oven! Of course, I was not worried about failing the bakes but I was so afraid that the high heat coming out from the oven might hurt him. I guess I'll need to wait till he is much older before I brace enough courage to let him do some simple baking with me again.

Anyway, not a good writer so I shall stop my typing here. Pictures shall do the talking ;)

Pineapple tarts using Sonia's recipe. Love the Melt-in mouth texture!
Shared this recipe with my colleague who went crazily addicted to them.


The famous Ogura cake. Referenced Jennie's recipe but made some modification.
For mine - I replaced milk with Chocolate Soy milk and added Cocoa powder.


One of the Macaron recipe that I tried. Feets were visible but just not the kind that I wanted :/
Batter was undermixed as well - See the "nipples" on each macarons?


Went for a Macaron making class with one of July 2013 mummy. :)
It was a tedious class - My neck was so sore from looking down for 3 hours!


Saw a video on Facebook and decided to attempt it for breakfast because it is so simple!
Original recipe calls for Tomato puree as the spread and mashed Avocado for borders.
Mine was a simplified version -Tostitos Creamy Spinach dip as the borders, egg and Swiss cheese.


Another recipe that I tried for Macarons - Love the feet but the macarons were not even. Some of the
sides had no feet and they were hollow. Prince Charming took a bite and it went down his shirt.


Now.. here is my perfect Macarons (in my personal opinion)! Love the feet and overall.
Easier than most recipes and it managed to survive in a humid environment!


Same recipe with different flavors - This was a green tea buttercream


This was Chocolate buttercream! The texture of these Macarons were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.


Now that I mastered the art of making Macarons, Prince Charming requested for them to bring to work. I used the egg tray to store these macarons :)


Thursday, January 01, 2015

Beard Papa's style Cream Puffs

On the very last day of 2014, apart from spending quality time with Baby Kwok #1 ( Opps.. Baby Kwok #2 was with her babysitter) I actually did something that was not intended to!

I.....Made....Beard Papa's style.....CREAM PUFFS!
Prince Charming and Baby Kwok #1 are both fans for Beard Papa's cream puff mainly because of the cookie dough shells. They are pretty expensive in my opinion - $2.50 for a normal custard filling and $3.80 for a speciality flavour (e.g. Durian)

With a cost for about 5 pieces of Beard Papa's puffs, I easily made about 11 puffs which means its almost 50% savings! Cheapo mummy on the run! LOL!

Anyway, I was really happy with the puffs because my family enjoyed them and I get good reviews on how it looked like the ones from Beard Papa! Something to make the last day of my 2014 so worthwhile!



Note: Custard cream and Cookie Dough should be made in advance before you start preparing for the shells.

To make these, you will need:

Shells
- 120g Butter
- 3/4 cups of Water (Approx. 170ml)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/3 cups of Sifted Flour (Approx. 190-200g) 
- 5 Eggs (Mine is about 58g each)

1. In a pot, add water, butter, salt and sugar. Bring to boil and ensure that the butter are distributively
    melted.

2. Remove from heat and add the flour into the mixture. Stir well and ensure that the batter is lump 
     free. Put onto the stove to further cook. Cook for approx. 2 mins.

3. Stir well and let the steam go off from the mixture before adding in the eggs. Remember to add 1
     egg at at time so that the mixture corporates well.

4. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto a tray lined with baking paper. Add the Cookie 
     dough over the mixture. 

5.  Bake for 22-25 mins or until puffs are raised nicely and golden.


Cookie Dough
- 30g Butter
- 1/3 Cup Icing Sugar (Approx. 50g)
- 1/3 cup Plain flour (Approx. 50g)
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Tbsp Veg oil (Optional)

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. Combine the dry ingredients into the melted butter and mix well till it forms a dough.
3. Keep the dough in a ziplock bag for later use.

Tips: If you realised that your cookie dough is dry just before applying to the shell mixture, add in 2 tbsp of Veg oil and combine well with the dough. 


Custard Cream
- 3 Cups Full cream milk
- 1/2 Cup of Flour (Approx. 70-80g)
- 1/2 Cup of Sugar ( Approx. 110-115g)
- 4 Egg Yolks
- 30g Butter
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup of Whipped Fresh cream

1. Beat the yolks with about 50ml of the milk.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the sugar. Add the yolk mixture to it.

3. Mix well and add in the remaining milk.

4. Cook over stove on medium heat till the mixture get thicken. You should be able to see ribbon
    trails when you stir the mixture. It should look like a normal custard cream but slightly thicker. The
    thick consistency will ensure that the custard filling will not flow out from the shells while pipping.

5.  Add in the butter and vanilla extract and stir well. 

6. Cover with a cling wrap touching the surface of the mixture. This will prevent a thin film from 
    forming on the surface while cooling.

7. Before pipping, mix the fresh whipped cream into the custard cream. The texture would be like of 
    a thick melted ice-cream. It pretty taste like Ice-cream too :)


To assemble:

1. Ensure that your shells are fully cooled before you start pipping the custard filling

2. You can use a toothpick to poke a small opening at the sides of the puffs OR if you find that a 
     hassle like how I feel (actually I am just being lazy), simply use a long pipping tip to create a   
     opening while pipping the cream.

3. Dust the cream puffs with icing sugar before serving OR you can choose to serve them cold. I
    popped my puffs into the freezer for about 3 hours and they tasted like ice-cream puffs! 


To end this post, I like to wish all my readers a HAPPY 2015! May 2015 be a better and fulfilling year for all of us and till then, may I be blessed with more baking posts (If the little ones allow). Hahaha!