Sun Dried Tomato Carrot Buns

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

Recipe

Ingredients
35g warm water
5g instant yeast
1/2tsp caster sugar

250g bread flour
30g caster sugar
1/2tsp salt
110g carrot juice
1tsp honey
20g shortening

25g carrot (finely chopped)
40g sun dried tomato (chopped)
adequate black sesame seed

Steps:
1. Mix warm water, yeast and 1/2tsp caster sugar together, cover and set aside to prove for 10-15mins.
2. Combine bread flour, sugar and salt in a mixer and mix well at low speed.
3. Add yeast dough from step no.1, carrot juice and honey into the dry ingredients.
4. Knead at medium speed until it form a dough.
5. Add in shortening, continue to beat until it form a smooth and elastic dough.
6. Lastly, add in chopped carrot and tomato, mix till well blended.
7. Cover dough and let it prove for 50mins.
8. Knock down proved dough, hand knead on a lightly floured surface for a while.
9. Divide dough into 9 equal portions about 55g each and rest for another 10mins.
10.Shape each dough into round ball and arrange it on a greased tray.
11.Cover and leave it to prove for 45mins until it doubled in size.
12.Preheat oven to 190C.
13.Spray surface of the dough with water and sprinkle some black sesame seed on it .
14.Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12mins until buns is brown.
15.Remove bread from tray and cool it on a wire rack.

Note: If you find that the chopped carrot and sun dried tomato is wet, use a kitchen paper to pat it dry then add it into the dough and mix till well blended.

Strawberry Soda Cocktail Jelly

Recipe

Ingredients
Strawberry jelly layer:
2pkts 'Tortally' strawberry flavour jelly crystals
2tsp gelatine powder
500ml boiling water
300ml cold water

Soda jelly layer:
2cans 'F&N' Ice-cream soda (room temperature)
250ml water
90g sugar
50g gelatine powder
1tsp agar-agar powder

4-5 strawberry (diced)

Steps:
Strawberry jelly layer:
1. Mix jelly crystals with gelatine powder together.
2. Pour in boiling water and stir till jelly crystals and gelatine powder is totally dissolved.
3. Add in cold water and stir.
4. Fill 1/3 of the mould with the jelly syrup.
5. Chill in the fridge till set.

Soda jelly layer:
1. Mix gelatine powder, agar-agar powder and sugar together.
2. Add in water and mix well.
3. Boil till mixture dissolved.
4. Pour soda into gelatine syrup and mix well.
5. Set it aside for a while for the gases foam to subside or spoon away the gases foam.
6. Bring out strawberry jelly mould and fill in the soda jelly syrup.
7. Scatter the diced strawberry into the jelly.
8. Return it to the fridge and let it set.

Chocolate Cake Balls

Last Saturday, Hubby organised 'Friends & Family' gathering at our place. I was as busy as bumble bee for the whole week. I intended to bake some thing then I realized that my fridge was too pack with 20 cups of jelly, food stuffs and one big rock melon. While browsing though my friends blog I bumped into Cake Pops. So I decided to make them into small balls and placed it in paper cups instead of sticks, this way it wouldn't take up a lot of space in my fridge.

Recipe from Anncoo Journal-My First Cake Pops and Tested and Tasted-Cake Pops.

Ham and Mushroom Pizza Bread

Yesterday afternoon, I baked some pizza bread for an afternoon tea. This was a last minutes bakes so I just use my usual Sweet Buns Dough recipe from here.

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

Recipe

Ingredients
Bread dough:
200g bread flour
100g plain flour
6g instant yeast
50g sugar
140g milk
1 egg
1/2tsp salt
40g butter

Topping:
5pcs ham (cut into small pieces)
12 button mushroom (sliced)
adequate tomato sauce
adequate grated cheddar cheese

Steps:
1. Combine all bread dough ingredients in a mixer, except butter.
2. Beat at medium speed until it form a dough, add in butter.
3. Continue to beat until it form a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Cover dough and leave it to prove for 45mins.
5. Divide dough into 40g each.
6. On a lightly floured surface, mould each dough into round ball.
7. Cover and rest for another 10mins.
8. Flatten doughs and roll it into round shape.
9. Place it on a greased tray.
10.Cover and leave it to prove for 45mins until it doubled in size.
11.Preheat oven to 190C.
12.Brush surface with egg wash.
13.Arrange ham and button mushroom on the surface.
14.Drizzle some tomato sauce and scatter with grated cheese.
15.Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12mins until brown.
16.Remove bread from tray and cool it on wire rack.

Berry Tea Chiffon Cake

Recipe

Ingredients
3 egg yolk
15g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
40g veg. oil
3 'Liton' Cranberry Raspberry & Strawberry Tea Bag (about 5g)
60g hot water
75g cake flour
3 egg white
65g caster sugar
1/4tsp cream of tartar
40g dried cranberry (mix with some flour and sift away excess flour)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Sift flour and set aside.
3. Cut the tea bags, pour tea leaf into a cup.
4. Pour hot water into it and leave it aside to cool.
5. With a hand whisk, whisk egg yolk, salt and sugar together.
6. Add oil, tea together with the tea leaf residue and flour into the egg yolk batter.
7. Whisk until well combined.
8. Use a cake mixer, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
9. Gradually add in sugar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
10.Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture until combined.
11.Then fold in the rest of the meringue in two portions lightly until well combined.
12. Lastly fold in the cranberry.
13.Pour batter into a 20cm tube pan, smooth the surface.
14.Place pan into a preheated oven and bake for 35-40mins.
15.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table top and leave it cool.
16.Remove cake from pan and serve.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (烫面)

The above photo shown the consistence of the (烫面)Tang Mian egg yolk batter.



After my first tried on (烫面) Tang Mian chiffon cake, I did some reading on the internet to learn more about it. Done with theory, now is practical time.

I used this recipe original from Forbidden Garden-烫面香兰戚风 to test out two experiments. First, I used 5 eggs yolks and 1/2 egg white for the Tang Mian batter and 4 1/2 egg whites for the meringue. The result didn't turn out as I expected. The cake is soft but slightly moist. :( After some reflection, I used the same recipe again but this time I made a twist on the steps. Hahaha...it turn out what I wanted. The texture of the chiffon cake is very light, soft and fluffy. :)

Following is the recipe which I had made some slight changes on the steps and I find that it is much easy to manage.

Recipe

Ingredients
5 egg yolk
70g coconut milk
30g pandan juice
50g unsalted butter
1/4tsp salt
90g cake flour (sifted)

5 egg white
1/3 cream of tartar
85g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Mix egg yolks and pandan juice together, set aside.
3. Pour coconut milk, salt and butter in a sauce pan, boil over low fire till butter melted about 60-65C (when few bubbles started to appear on the surface).
4. Remove from fire, add in flour and stir till it form a soft dough.
5. Slowly add in egg yolks mixture, whisk till smooth batter and set aside.
6. Use a cake mixer, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
7. Gradually add in sugar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
8. Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter until combined. (By now, the egg yolk batter should be lukewarm.)
9. Then fold in the rest of the meringue in two portions until well combined.
10.Pour batter into a 23cm tube pan, smooth the surface.
11.Place pan into a preheated oven and bake for 40-45mins.
12.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table top and leave it cool.

Pandan juice: Blend 10-12 blades of pandan leaves with 100ml of water, squeeze out the liquid from the puree. Pour the pandan juice into a bottle, cover and chill in the fridge overnight for the residue to settle down. Discard the clear liquid, use the residue left at the bottom of the liquid. This concentrate part of pandan juice give cakes a nice and light fragrant of pandan leaf.