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!!

Plain Scone

Ok just a quick one:)

Ingredient

400g Plain flour

25g Baking powder

100g Butter, room temperature

2 nos Egg

85g Sugar

150ml Full Cream Milk

Method

Sift plain flour and baking powder in to a bowl. make a well in the middle and put the rest of the ingredients in to the bowl. Mix it together just until it combines (you don't want to over mix it it will cause it to be rock hard ) lightly flour your bench.

Then transfer the dough on to the bench, flour your hands or you could also lightly flour the top of the dough and gently press it down to a thickness of 3-4 cm.

With a round cutter, cut the dough and place it on a lined baking tray about 1.5-2 cm a part (but its too close you say?)this will help in the rising of the product:)

I am sure at this point you will be wondering what to do with the scraps of dough. what i did is i push it all together (with out kneading it) to form a ball or sort of round disk to the same thickness and cut it again till its all gone.

Now in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C, place the scones in the oven and bake till golden brown, roughly 10-15 min

serve it warm with tea or coffee with a side of jam and whipped cream.

* if you like to add dried fruit to the scones you can but make sure you soak it in juice or some alcohol or both so that it would not be dry. for this recipe about 400g of dried fruit(raisin) would do the trick.(to be added with the rest of the ingredients after the flour has been sifted)

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. :)

Curry Puff With Potato Filling

Hi this was an impromptu or should i say i felt like making it at the time... the filling was made up with what ever i had:)

Filling :

500g potato, peeled and diced

1 medium size onion, diced

2 tsp of garlic, crushed

1 tsp ginger

curry powder, to your liking

Salt and pepper

coriander

250 coconut milk

Dough:

Water dough:

200ml oil

120g shortening

200ml water

640g plain flour

oil dough:

200g plain flour

120g shortening

Method

Filling- mix curry powder with some oil to make a paste. In a hot pan/ pot with a little oil fry off the paste with the garlic, ginger and the onions, till fragrant. then add in the potato and coat it with the paste. add the coconut milk and bring up to the boil, add Salt and pepper and then simmer till its cook (you might need to add a little water or veg stock while cooking, when needed) when the potatoes are cooked but not mushy fold in the coriander and set a side to cool and chill.

water Dough- mix everything in a bowl till it forms a dough, portion it to 100g each

Oil dough- make sure the shortening is room temperature rub in the flour, and portion in to the same amount of water dough you have

then roll out the water dough, round and put the oil dough in the middle and seal the dough. press down the dough and roll it, oval and roll it up like a swiss roll and turn it where the swirly part is facing up and on the beach press it down and roll it, oval and roll it up like a swiss roll. ( repeat the same process with the other water and oil dough). leave it to rest for 20-30 mins.

For a smaller curry puff cut the dough so that you can see the spiral, place the cut side down press down and roll in to an oval shape put some filling in the middle and pleat the sides.

in hot oil of 160-170C fry the pastries till golden brown, served hot or warm. with a coffee or tea :)

enjoy:)

Cha Siew Pau

Filling:

500g Char siew(chinese BBQ pork) small dice

1 tbsp oyster Sauce

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp corn flour

2 tbsp water

Method:

Combine everything and lightly fry in a pan till all combined. Set a side and cool. Chill well if possible overnight.

Dough mix:

12g dried yeast

2tbsp tepid water

1 tsp sugar

500g pau flour(hong kong flour)

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

250ml water

6 tbsp sugar

5 tbsp shortening

Method:

In a small bowl mix yeast and 1 tsp sugar and tepid water, give it a stir. then sprinkle some of the flour over it and set a side to let the yeast do its magic:) till frothy.

In another bowl sift flour and baking powder and and add in all the dry ingredients, mix well. make a well in the middle and add in the yeast mixture, add water and mix well till it forms a dough, knead in the shortening till smooth. Leave a side covered with a cling film or a damp tea towel till double in size. knock down dough and shape in to a log and cut in to 16-17 portions (small pau)

how to put the pau together?

roll the dough in to a circular shape and put some filling in to the middle, bring up the sides to seal. *try not to get sauce on the outer ring of the dough it will help in the sealing proses and it will not open up when steamed:) place a piece of grease proof paper at the bottom of the pau.

leave to rise 10 - 15 min(well depending on the temperature the time will vary). Then steam pau over rapidly boilling water for 12- 15 minutes.

oh if you have leftover filling this is one way of using it up :)

Long yolk, Bak kwa, Chinese Pork Jerky

Ingredients

1 Kg Mince Pork

1/4 Salt

1/8 tsp 5 spice powder

3 tbsp soy sauce

300-345g Sugar (pending how sweet you like it could go less if liked)

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/8 tsp White Pepper

2 tbsp Fish sauce

Mix all in to a bowl and marinade 4-6 hrs or overnight

press into a thin baking tray with baking paper in between (i used cling film(plastic wrap) over the meat and a rolling pin to prevent the meat from sticking on to the rolling pin)

Bake at 200C for 12 min, then cut in to squares

and it should look like this

using a grill or better if you have a Bbq pit :)

Yum yum :)

Lo Pak Ko / daikon cake, Chai Tou Gau

Ingredients

600g-700g Daikon (chinese turnip) Grated or chopped

30g dried Shrimp

20g Dried Chinese Mushroom

150g chinese sausage ( Lap Cheong)

1 tbsp Oil

3 stocks Spring onion (Scallion/ Shallots)

6-7 shallots (eshallots/ french onion)

3 tsp sugar

3 tsp Shao Xing Rice wine

1/4 ground white pepper

salt to taste

2 tsp chopped coriander

300 rice flour

500-600 ml of reserved liquid (water)*

Method

I chopped and sliced the turnip. soak mushroom in boiling water till soft drain and squeeze out excess water (reserve all liquid), discard stems and dice caps. Sausages you can ether boil it or steam it. I choose to boil it. then finely dice it. (reserve all liquid) soak dry shrimp in boiling water roughly for an hour and drain.(reserve liquid) roughly chop spring onion and coriander. add some chilled reserved liquid into a bowl with the rice flour just to avoid lumps in the mixture later :)

heat wok on high, add oil and heat till smoking. Add sausage and fry for a minute and add in the shallots, shrimp and mushrooms. fry till fragrant, add turnip give it a good stir. then add in rice wine, pepper, salt, sugar and the rest of the reserved liquid. mix it through and cover and simmer for 4-5minutes and turn off the heatadd in the spring onions. After that add in the rice flour mixture and mix it through.

Pour the finished mixture in to the mould(i used a 20 inch silicone mould i think, you could use a square mould if you like) spread it out evenly. place in the steamer and steam for 1.5 hours or till firm, over a simmering water. Have a jug or pot of hot water ready to replenish steaming water. After that remove from the mould and cool and chill in the fridge overnight. Or if you can't wait.. :p when its slightly cool

You have two options.

1. cut it roughly 5cm by 5cm and 1cm thick, then heat a pan and about 1 tbsp of oil, pan fry the cake on both sides till golden and crispy

2. turnip cake (diced)

light soy sauce

rice wine

dark soy sauce

spring onions (sliced)

bean sprouts

egg

salt and pepper to taste

method

heat a pan with a little oil and fry off the turnip cake till golden. beat the egg lightly in a bowl and add to the pan, mix through. then add in the rice wine and soy sauces, mix well. and add in the bean sprouts and the spring onions, mix well. add salt and pepper to taste

yum yum!!! hope you too get to enjoy this dish!!!!