Gula Melaka Kueh Bangkit

It's the time to bake CNY cookies again. After 1 year break from Kueh Bangkit, I am trying my hands on it again.

Followed Aunty Yochana's recipe and switched the sugar to gula melaka. The gula melaka really made it fragrant. Can smell it even when the cookies are still in the oven! This batch is just an experiment, to test the texture and refresh myself with the 'feel' again, esp the feeling of the dough, can't be too dry or too wet. My 1st batch was too dry, resulting in a crispy texture. Only the third and fourth tray really churned out the texture that I was looking for, the melt-in-your-mouth texture. My hubby and MIL, both fussy eaters of Kueh Bangkit, gave the thumbs up! Really glad that this recipe works out.

Once again, Thanks to Aunty Lucy!

Sesame soda biscuits

Followed Aunty Yochana's recipe to churn out biscuits in lightning speed! haa..Made these for my hubby who's going away on a business trip. He liked them alot. Only thing I changed is the shortening to butter as I had no shortening on hand. Thanks Lucy!

Cranberry Shortbread Bar

Red Jewels

Fresh cranberries are a rare find in Singapore and when I saw them at the local supermarkets sold at a reasonable price, I immediately grabbed 2 bags and stashed them into the freezer. Cranberries is a must for Christmas, but I did not manage to use it for the X'mas. Instead, I used it to mark the last day of 2008. Lovely jewels, these darlings, and when they are cooked, the skins just burst and the lovely juice coloured the whole pot red. Brillant. My recipe came from here. Once again, another recipe for keeps. Only complaint is that my shortbread did not get golden brown after 30mins at 190C. Maybe it's my oven, but I ended up baking for another 30mins, with 20mins at 200C. At the end of it, the top is still not golden brown and I am running out of time, I did a naughty thing... grilled it for 3mins, and voila! A nicely browned shortbread. Don't worry about the sugar content in the cranberry syrup, it's necessary, otherwise, it's just too sour to eat it fresh. Trust me, I did not believe and tried it right from the packaging. Urksss... really really sour. The wakening effect is better than any espresso!

Breakfast bread..again

Same recipe as the earlier post, but changed the yogurt to coconut milk, simply because I had a pack in the fridge which need is expiring soon! :P Even added 2tbsps of Milo in it to add more flavour. But I can't really taste the coconut or Milo when I ate them. The bread smelled of coconut though... W liked it alot..oh well, his tatebuds are never fussy but that also mean he don't even know I added coconut milk! Oh yes, my mum liked it too, as the texture is pretty soft, unlike some breadmachine breads which may harden after sitting out in the open for a while.

Nigella's Chocolate Fudge

Made chocolate fudge for Xmas presents for my colleagues. Decided to do this after watching Nigella's Christmas. I managed to find the recipe on her website. Not a fan of pistachios, so just switched to silvered almonds instead. I can't seem to find a 23cm disposable square pan as required in the recipe, so I ended up using my springform pan instead. Thought there should not be any difference since no baking is required. :P

Oh well, there's no difference untill the unmoulding part. It's not possible to remove the entire fudge from the pan and cut it on a clean board. With a disposable aluminium pan, you just need to tear away the sides and the fudge will come off. And.. the humidity here does not help at all... After every 15mins, I have to pop the whole tray back into the fridge to harden the fudge again, so that it does not smudge the bags.
Taste wise, the fudge really tasted quite good, not too sweet, just nice for me. Process wise is really pretty idiot proof and if you stick to the disposable pan, you will be pretty safe.. hee.. I packed 4 pieces in each bag, and manage to get about 18 packs. Pack them into your freezer till ready to distribute. :)

Breakfast...Fast

Making breakfast can be a chore, or a superb way to start the day! I am out of breakfast this morning and was planning to do something if I can find a quick and easy way to make something, you know, those mix and bake sort of stuff. Found one yesterday at http://www.ytower.com/. This is the link to the article and recipe. I modified a little but the bread turns out to be pretty good. So if you happen to wake up an hour earlier, try your hands on this, not a bad way to start the day! I intend to attempt this recipe again with other combinations, wholemeal flour, oats, choc chips, or even shredded carrot and peas!.

Ingredients:
200g all purpose flour ( I used 100g of bread and cake flour each)
13g of sugar (I used eye power to estimate)
8g of baking powder (again...eye power, no way am I going to use my manual scale and see the needle tip and stop at 8g at 630am in the morning...keke)
pinch of salt
150g of Paul's low fat yogurt
1 egg
dried cranberries, almond flakes, walnuts, whatever you have in your pantry and need to be used up.
Sift the flour and the baking powder into a mixng bowl. Add the salt, sugar, egg and yogurt and mix well with a whisk. If the batter seems dry, which mine was, add another tablespoon of yogurt. The yogurt was a 200g bottle, so I ended up adding all of it. Add in the cranberries at this point, mixing just enough to get the fruits through the batter.
If you are using a non-stick muffin tin, there's no need to flour or butter it. Good news right? no need to get your hands oily and messy in the morning. Clean and easy..:P or maybe...just lazy. Spoon the batter into the 6 hole muffin tin. Without the tin, just spoon it onto a lined baking tray and spread it roughly with the back of the spoon. The size of the pastry is up to you to decide then, which of couse affects the baking time.
Sprinkle the almond flakes over the batter. The original recipe had the nuts mixed in sugar syrup before placing them onto the batter. I have no time for this in the morning..hee, so it's just almond flakes. You can easily replace this with any corsely chopped nuts, no need to be roasted, since it's going into the oven anyway.
Preheat the oven to 220 degress C. Bake it for about 25 minutes and test with a wooden skewer. It's done when the skewer comes out clean.
Verdict: Well, my husband liked it, nice combi with almonds and dried cranberries. Not really bread like texture, as there is no yeast and no kneading. Easy to make, and not too heavy for breakfast or even afternoon snack.

Taipei food porn

All these food are just the a tiny bit of the glorious food in Taipei. Not to forget all the night markets! Enjoy the food porn!:D