Gingerbread

Ingredients

1L Honey

0.5kg Sugar

0.33L Fresh Milk(UHT milk can be used)

4 nos Eggs

10g Ginger Powder

13g Cinnamon Powder

20g Baking Powder

20g Baking Soda

2kg Cake Flour(plain flour)

Method

Bring sugar and milk to boil then add the honey and take off the heat. Mix well and set a side to cool. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

When honey mixture has cooled pour in to a mixing bowl(if using a mixer use a dough hook), add the eggs mix well.

scoop in the sifted dry ingredients on a low speed setting till it is all combined,( the mixture was too much for the mixture so i transfered it to another bowl to finish the mixing process by hand) Do not over mix the mixture.

When all is combined, set a side for at least 2 hrs resting time or you can continue the next step the next day.

On a floured bench take out a chunk of the dough, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Then dock it with a fork or a docker(Dock=to make small holes on a pastry)

And use a cutter of your choice to cut the dough( in this case its a Gingerbread man). Place the gingerbread man on to a lined baking tray, brush egg wash over the gingerbread man and bake in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C(every oven is different i set mine at 150C) for 6-7 min then take it out of the oven and brush egg wash over the gingerbread man, back in to the oven for another 6-7 min or till golden brown.

Now you will have left over Scrap dough. What to do with it? well you still can use it, but remember you must not over mix it. So no kneading the dough, just pile the dough together and just press the dough together to form a square or round, and roll it out again like before.

Always try to get as much portions from the first roll.

This yields a lot of gingerbread man. I estimated about 60-70 nos of this size of gingerbread man.

Have fun:)

Bread pudding

Ingredients

1lit milk

8 eggs

2 egg yolks

150g sugar

Left over Bread*

Butter

20-50g sugar, just for coating

Method

Butter the baking dish that your using and coat it with the sugar. Cut bread in to cubes and place in to buttered dish

Place the eggs in to a bowl and in another pot bring the milk and sugar to the boil. Then whisk the eggs and add a ladle of the milk mixture and mix well, now pour in the milk in a long thin stream while whisking the mixture together. then pour the mixture in to the buttered dish with the bread, and soak for at least 1 hr.

Bake in a pre-heated oven of 150-140C for 30-45 min or till cooked. To test if its cook give it a little shake if its still jelly like in the middle it not done or you could use a small knife to poke in the middle and see if there is still liquid that has not set.

To be served warm. with a side of ice cream/ berry compote/ vanilla custard

Have A wonderful Day!!

Traditional Moon Cake

Moon cake is traditionally made during Mid autumn festival in China. This is where it all started. The Chinese people would celebrate it by making lanterns and making moon cake and i think there is a story behind this celebration. Something about a lady in the moon. :)

Well here it goes!!

Ingredients

(1) 300 ml Golden syrup

7 tbsp peanut oil *

1tsp Alkaline water

2 tbsp flour

(2) 500g flour

Method

Mix (1) in in a small bowl and set a side overnight to rest.

Sift flour in to a bowl and make a well(can be done on the table) pour (1) in the well and knead till it all comes together.

Cover with a wet towel(plastic wrap) and rest 30 min. then divide the dough in to portion according to your mold size. ratio filling to dough 60%:40% or 3:2

Anyway i portion this 40g per portion and 6 portions of 26g.

The filling I didn't make this time around but i bought it in(saves time)

made 3 types of filling for this traditional moon cake

Filling (1)

1 can of red bean paste (510g each)

Sunflower seeds(toasted)

Filling(2)**

100g walnuts (toasted)

100g almond (toasted)

100g melon seeds

100 sunflower seeds

2 pcs candied mandarin orange (finely chopped)

100g candied winter melon strips( finely copped)

seasoning

50g caster sugar

6 tbsp groundnut oil*

3 tbsp sesame paste(tahini)

1/4 tsp salt

4 tbsp ice water

100 g roast glutinous rice flour

1 tsp brandy

1/4 tsp pepper

Filling (3)

2 cans lotus paste(510g each)

sunflower seeds(roasted)

Filling(1)

Place red bean paste in a stainless steel pot and cook it out for 15-20 min to get the excess moisture out, add seeds mix thru and set a side to cool. Once cooled portion to 40g each.

Filling (2)

combine all into a bowl and mix till it comes together portion in to 60g each

Filling (3)

Place lotus paste in a stainless steel pot and cook it out for 15-20 min to get the excess moisture out, add seeds mix thru and set a side to cool. Once cooled portion to 60g each.

Egg wash

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

50ml milk

To put it together

Roll out the dough in to a round shape place the filling in the middle (60g filling:40g skin, 40g filling: 26g skin) bring the skin up and seal the filling in. Place the moon cake in a flour dusted moon cake mold(if you just want to make it for your self and don't have the mould its ok, the main thing is the taste:D). knock it out and there you have your first moon cake. Repeat the process till finish. ( for the red bean paste filling i used a smaller mold). keep the moon cakes under a damp tea towel till your all done.

Glaze the moon cake with egg wash using a brush.

In a pre heated oven of 230C, place the moon cakes in the oven for 10 min and take it out to cool for a bit and re-glaze it again with egg wash and back in to the oven to bake for another 10 min. Then cool on a wire rack.

Best to be eaten a few days later. This is to allow the oils to come out to develop the flavors (lets say 2-3days would be best but minimum of 1 day)

* now days many people are intolerant to peanuts, normal vegetable oil would do. traditionally lard was used.

** 100g chinese bbq dried chicken cut finely, i didn't use this because it is hard to find it where i live. Just switch the pork to chicken breast. some recipes use the pork ones. :)

Nian Kau

made this on Chinese New Year

Ingredients

Glutinous Rice flour 400g

Brown Sugar 400g

Coconut Cream 400g

Method

caramelise some of the sugar. (yes I know there is caster sugar there ran out of brown). When caramelise add in coconut cream and the rest of the sugar. mix till all the sugar has desolved.

Add the Coconut mixture to the G. Rice Flour in a bowl and mix well.

as you can see its lumpy, mix it all the lumps are gone.

Heat up some banana leaves over the flames so that it will be easier to work with. Line the steamer or mould with the banana leafs and pour in the batter about 3/4 full. steam on High for 3- 4 hrs or till its cooked. (if you find its not cooked you can re-steam it)

if your not using a bamboo steamer make sure you have a tea towel wrapping the cover to catch the water drips.

How to consume this Cake. Well there are many ways, first slice it as above then the variation starts. you can sandwich it between Yam/ taro or sweet potato and dip it in to a fritter batter and deep fry, or you could just dip in to lightly beaten eggs and pan fry or just re steam it till just soft.

wishing you all the best whit this one :)

pavalova

Made this on Australia day :)

Ingredients

Egg whites 120ml (roughly 4 eggs)

Caster Sugar 200g

Cornflour 2 tsp

Vinegar/lemon juice/cream of tartar 1 tsp

Method

Mix sugar and corn flour in a bowl. In another bowl put egg whites in a clean, grease free Bowl. Using an electric mixer whisk the egg whites on high, till soft peaks form then add the sugar mixture bit by bit ( I did this with a tablespoon) while the mixer is still running, till all the sugar is all in the egg mixture. Add vinegar.

then continue beating it till stiff peaks form

line a tray with baking paper and scoop the meringue on to it and spread it roughly 18-20 cm in diameter. you can also pipe the meringue if wanting to make mini pavalovas. Bake in a Pre-heated oven at 120C for 45-1 hr or till it just changes colour (peach brown colour)

** Small ones take less time :)

Ingredients

Soft fruits

*berries

*peaches

*kiwi

*Papaya

*mango

*passion Fruit

Cream 200-300 ml

Caster Sugar 1 tbsp

Whip the Cream and the sugar till soft to medium peaks form. when meringue has cooled spread cream on to the top of the meringue and pile on the fruits. :)

*you can make the meringue a head of time but it has to be stored in a airtight Container

*The pavalova is best to be consumed with in 1-2 hrs after assembled

* Cream fresh may be used in stead of cream, But I would go half and half.

Hope you have fun with this:)

kaya/ siri kaya

All along I thought Kaya was hard to make. listening to other people say its hard made me think so. The moral of the story is don't believe everything you hear. :)

Ingredients

Coconut Cream 400ml

Sugar 400g

eggs 300ml (6x50g eggs)

Firstly caramelize the sugar in a pot or wok. then pour in the coconut cream (be careful liquid will spit) and bring it to boil till all the caramel is desolved. Set a side to slightly cool.

break the eggs in a heatproof bowl or a metal bowl. yes there is only 5 eggs in the picture its because I used a bigger size eggs.

using a whisk mix the eggs and pour in about a ladle full of the coconut mixture and mix well. then pour in the leftover coconut mixture in a steady stream into the egg mixture while mixing. (you don't want to have scramble eggs :))

Then over a double boiler on a medium to low fire and continue to whisk till it coats the back of a spoon. ( this is just like making Custard sauce)

it should look like this, remember it will slightly thicken up again when cooled.

this how you indulge in this lovely spread!!! toast a slice of bread, slice cold butter and the lovely spread!!! the trick to this is if you could get the toasted bread as thin as possible :)

hope you get to enjoy this spread!! :)