Chocolate Ginger Milk Curd

Continue with the ginger milk curd fever, I made another today.. Chocolate flavor

If you were to ask me which one I prefer, I would definitely choose the Chocolate flavour one.


A simple test to test if the milk curd has set or not.. Apparently yes...

This is how the chocolate ginger milk curd looks like.. Texture wise is soft and even softer than beancurd.. But I like this kind of texture very much!

Chocolate and ginger sound weird and "disgusting" but trust me this is really good.. It taste like a softer version of chocolate pudding.

Once you put this into your mouth, you can immediately taste the rich chocolate taste, after which then you will taste the ginger taste.. Its sweet (from the chocolate milk) and hot (from the ginger) at the same time! New taste accquired!

Presenting to you the recipe:

Chocolate Ginger Milk Curd

Ingredients
120mL chocolate milk (I use HL brand)
1/2 tsp honey
2 tsp ginger juice (freshly squeezed)

Methods

1. Place the ginger juice in a bowl.
2. Heat milk and honey together till honey dissolves and the milk bubbles at the side.
3. Remove pot from stove and stir it with a spoon for 20 times.
4. Pour the milk into the cup containing ginger juice and give it a quick stir.
5. Put aside and wait for the curds to form, approximately 2mins.
6. Serve warm.

Do try it! Its good!

Brownie Muffin (with a twist)

Baked this brownie muffins after finish studying one of my module.. I wanted to take some rest and surf the net for a while, then suddenly craves for some chocolatey stuff.. So I bake these to stop the cravings.. Hehe!


On top of the original recipe, I add in some peanut butter and a piece of mint chocolate.

The interior view of the brownie muffin. The pale brownish stuff is the peanut butter, and some slightly shiny blacky stuff is the melted mint chocolate.

After making the brownie batter, I saw that there's a bottle of peanut butter on the tabletop so I thought, "why not add some in? I'm sure it will be yummy!" And so, I proceed on to add some PB in.. Quite a smart move.. As I really like this little surprise.. hehe!

And as for the mint chocolate, you can sub it with any chocolate you like, I used this because there only a few pcs left, and I thought of finishing it up..

Brownie Muffins

Ingredients
3 tbsp valhorna chocolate powder
100g sugar
87g brown sugar
100g plain flour
0.5tsp baking powder
0.25tsp salt
75ml oil
50ml evaporated milk
1 tbsp bailey's irish cream
2 eggs
100g chocolate chips (I use pcs of peppermint chocolate)
some peanut butter

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sieve flour, chocolate powder and baking powder and salt together, and then stir in the sugars.
3. Mix eggs, evaporated milk, oil and Bailey’s together, and pour them into the dry ingredients.
4. Stir till no more visible lumps.
5. Spoon 2 tsp of batter into prepared cases, then adds in a piece of chocolate, followed by 1 tsp of batter, top with some peanut butter and finally another 2 tsp batter.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
7. Cool muffins thoroughly and store in air tight containers

I brought 8 of these to school for my classmates to try.. And reviews are good.. I guess its chocolate, so naturally will be a hit among the ppl who tried them!

Ginger Milk Curd

Ginger Milk Curd, also known as Jiang1 Zhi1 Zhuang4 Nai3. Its easy to make this if you get it right.. I have the most experience in this... (as in failures..)

If I did not remember it wrongly, I tried this for about 5 or 6 times, and each time I failed to get the curds, so I end up drinking ginger milk.. haha!

See the milk curds?

A clearer picture.. I know this looks like the steamed egg custard that I've just posted, but its not the same..

One require steaming the other no.. And FYI, I made this 2 on the same day (half an hour apart). So by the time I finish both, I'm really really fullll~

Recipe adapted from KC, posted by Florence.

Ginger Milk Curd

Ingredients

115mL milk
1 tsp sugar (Omitted)
2 tsp ginger juice
0.25tsp vinegar (Freshly squeezed)

Methods

1. Put vinegar and ginger juice in bowl.
2. Scald milk and sugar till sugar dissolves.
3. Remove milk from heat and stir for 15 times (to bring the temp of milk down).
4. Pour into (1) and leave till set, for a firmer texture, steam on low heat for 6minutes.
5. Serve warm or chilled.

I omited the sugar and just boil the milk till the side bubbles..

Milk should not be boiled till 100C as the addition it into the ginger juice would denature the enzymes, and curdings will not occur.

The ginger taste/smell is not too strong, so no worries.. And this dessert really warms up the body, and its good for a chilly weather!

Steamed Eggs (a.k.a Tan Tan)

Tried making steamed eggs just now..


Surface of the steamed egg is not smooth as compared to florence's. I used medium fire instead of low fire..
The steamed eggs is very smooth and nice.. Taste abit like beancurd (Tao huey), only difference is that this has the egg and almond fragrance.

Recipe adapted from Kitchen capers, posted by Florence.

However I made some changes here and there to suit my tastebuds.

Steamed Egg

Ingredients
60mL water
0.5 tsp honey (recommand 1 tbsp instead)
115mL milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp almond powder

Methods

1. Boil honey with water till honey dissolves.
2. Stir in almond powder till dissolved.
3. Add milk and eggs to the cooled mixture.
4. Strain mixture into 2 cups (I pour into 1 cup), cover with foil and steam over low heat for 10minutes.
5. Serve warm or chilled.

Alas.. I re-read the recipe, then I realised that I did not cover my cup with foil, which I guess it contributes to the "Rocky" surface of the custard and next time round I shall steam in 2 cups, so I can eat one cup warm, the other chilled.. Hehe

I don't like anything sweet, so I used only 0.5tsp of honey, and trust me.. Thats a bad move.. Should have up it to 1 tsp.. Really not sweet at all.. The additon of almond powder really enhances the taste of the steamed egg.. Very fragrant! Yumm.. Hehe! (Will make this again tml, but with variations of course!)

I made another milk dessert on the same day, and I ate both by myself.. So now I shall declare that my stomach is really overloaded.. With milk..

I shall post the other milk dessert in a seperate post.

Bento #4

Went back to school yesterday with classmates to mug for the upcoming exams.. So I woke up early in the morning (only 1 hour earlier) to prepare a bento for B..


I packed the bento using Lock n' Lock lunch box and a free lipton box.

Lunch today consist of gourmet blackpepper hotdog bun with cheese and egg, bacon potatoe salad, fried butterfly prawns (X3). In another seperated box, I added in watermelons (X2), slices of orange and strawberries (X3).

The strawberries are from korea, and it's really sweet.. My dad bought 2 punnet for $5. So it works out to be $2.50/punnet.

I think its quite cheap.. Consider to get 2 punnet for my bakes.. hehe!

Coming back to this bento, B really enjoyed the food! He asked me to double up the potatoe salad and the prawns! Heheh! And I'm really glad that he enjoyed the food I've prepared for him!

=P

My favourite subject

Ello all..

Sharing with you what I did for my Secondary 4 O'levels Food and Nutrition exam..


Appetiser: Watercress and Peas soup
Main: Baked fish with herb butter
Side dish: Chicken Potatoe Patties
Dessert: Berry delicious yoghurt

I was given 2 hours to whip up all this.. It wasn't stressful at all, in fact, I enjoyed the whole process very much!

I still remember during my sec school days, my favourite subject is none other than Food and Nutrition! We get to cook once every 2 weeks.. Most of the time we cook..

Actually cooking is another passion of mine.. I love to cook.. Cook for my family and those peeps that I love..

So in this bloggie, apart from my bakes, I will post up my "cooks" (if there's any) and my bento.. Stay tuned!!

Christmas Logcake

Trying hard to clear off all of my "bakes" pictures by posting 3 post at a go..

Presenting to you my last year Yule logcake.. My maiden attempt at it..

Actually B requested me to bake somethings for his family's x'mas party.. Since its a X'mas party, I've in mind to bake a logcake..

I was really afraid that I'm not up to the standard yet, so I bake one "trial-trial" solely for my family's consumption. Something random: personally I like the cream cheese filling very much!


The "naked" yule log that survive the trial test.. But since its for family consumption, I did not add on any decorations.. (my family didn't mind either) =P





The above is the one that I brought over to B's family party.. A really simple decoration.. As it totally slips off my mind that I need to buy snow powder to dust the cake, so I used icing sugar.. But its a big NO-NO as I realised that it kind of like melt into the chocolate ganache..

The feedback from B's family were fairly good.. And that makes me a happy girl for the whole day!

Recipe adapted from Florence's blog.

Christmas Yule Logcake

Ingredients
(A)
5 egg yolks
25g castor sugar
Pinch of salt

(B)
Dissolve 20g cocoa powder in 55g warm oil

(C)
65mL warm milk

(D)
80g Cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g castor sugar

Cream Cheese Filling
125g cream cheese
30g sugar
110g whipping cream + 1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Chocolate ganache
100g 66% valrhona dark chocolate (chopped)
90ml cream
12g butter

Methods

Yule Log

1. cream ingredient (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. add in ingredients (B) and mix well. Stir in (C).
3. sieve in (D) and mix till no lumps.
4. beat egg whites with an electric whisk till frothy, sprinkle in cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Continue beating till stiff peaks form.
5. fold in half of egg whites into yolk mixture and mix with a hand whisk in 6 strokes.
6. Pour in yolk mixture into the rest of the egg whites and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Bake in a lined tray at 180C-190C for 20minutes.
8. Prepared a sheet of baking paper large enough to hold the sheet cake. Sprinkle icing sugar all over the baking paper.
9. Turn cooled cake onto the sugared baking paper and roll the cake in swiss roll style while it is still warm.
10. Keep sheet cake in its position till cool enough to spread filling and frosting.

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Whip whipping cream with icing sugar till mousse state.
2. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
3. Cream cheese with suga till creamy. Stir in gelatin mixture.
4. Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate 10min prior to use.

Chocolate Ganache

1. Bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add in chopped chocolates and stir till smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in butter while mixture is still warm.
4. Refrigerate for 30minutes then cream frosting till thick.

Assemble

1. Unroll the cake carefully, spread filling all over the cake. Roll up the cake again.
2. Spread the ganache over the whole cake, and decorate with fork.
3. Decorate as desire.

Woah, longest recipe I ever typed.. Fingers aching.. haha! Personally I find that the difficulty I encounted then is that the chocolate roll wasn't soft enough.. And I strongly believe its my skill of folding in of egg white, back then I really couldn't fold whites well..

Bento #3

Another bento lunch prepared by yours truly.. And I really mean it that I cook these from scratch.. Considering that it's quite an achievement.. Hehe




My favourite strawberry shortcake box! (Cos it's big, can dump lots of things in it and its PINK!)

This bento filled with (L-R, clockwise): Blanched french beans with grilled capsicum, pan fry pumpkins, thai sweet chilli sauce, pieces of Otah skewer together, blanch baby corn, pan fried blackpepper salmon, and blanched broadbeans?

Gosh, suddenly just forgot the name of the bean.. But I assume it is alright cos A picture worths a thousand words, yeah?

I really enjoy the salmon very much! Cos I marinated it with lots of black and white pepper.. Fiery hot.. YUM!

Vanilla cupcakes

Hey hey.. I'm back in action again.. after MIA for weeks..hehe!


Of course I'm back in action with more things to share..


Zillion Months ago, I made my favourite vanilla cupcake again! My all time favourite..




A tried and tested recipe that never fails me.. I bake these cuppies and brought some for my project mates and share with them! And they were generous with the praises, which gave me extra boost of confidences in baking!


Presenting to you the recipe:


Vanilla Cupcakes


Ingredients


125g butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
60ml milk


Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line cupcake pans with paper cases.
2. Combine butter, sugar, extract, eggs and milk and mix till just combined. Sift in flour and beat on low speed to incoporate the flour.
3. Increase mixer speed to medium and continue for 3minutes until mixture is smooth and change to a paler colour.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared pan till 80% full.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20minutes, check for done-ness.
6. Remove cake from oven and turn top side up to cool.
   

Note: Actually you can add variations to the cupcakes. I fold in almond flakes and chocolate chips into the batter. Then decorate the top with A.flakes and choco chips as well.

The recipe is a really simple one.. I simply adore easy bakes.. Minimise the washings.. Hur Hur Hur!

Hope you'll enjoy this simple cuppie!

Durian Chiffon Cake

Now I'm into the Chiffon craze.. Tho abit late.. Hehe..

I usually walk home (to and from school) instead of taking bus as I treat this as a form of exercise.. So on my way home today, I saw DURIANS! I've a reallly realllly soft spot for this thorny creamy fruit.. So almost immediately I stop and bought a box for $5, consider that as quite cheap as january is not the durian season..

I continue to think what can I do with this durian other than eating it down to my stomach.. So I thought of DURIAN CHIFFON!

I got the recipe from Aunty Yochana's bloggie.. I've it printed out and place it nicely into my file.. hehe!

See how tall this chiffon is..

I really like the golden brown colour on the surface of the cake.. Looks beautiful right? hehe

See the air-holes, and a whineey speck of egg whites.. Hehe.. Didn't fold it well..

DURIAN CHIFFON CAKE

Ingredients

6 egg yolks (use only 5)
150ml coconut milk (Replace with full cream evaporated milk)
4 tbsp corn oil (Use only 3tbsp)
Pinch of salt
150g durian puree
1/4 durian essence (omitted it)
50g caster sugar (use only 10g)
140g plain flour (use top flour)

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar (use only 80g)

Methods (base on how I did it)

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar till light and creamy, and stir in the durian puree, evaporated milk, and oil and stir to mix.
2. Gently stir in the sifted flour and salt.
3. Whisk egg whites with caster sugar till foamy, then gradually add in caster in 3 batches, continue whisking at high speed till stiff peaks forms.
4. Gently fold in the egg whites (in 3 batches) into the yolk batter.
5. Pour batter into a 23cm chiffon tin and bake at 175C for 45mins (I use 50mins) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven and invert pan immediately onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.
7. Remove cake from pan, and serve.

Personally I think that baking at 45mins is not sufficient as the skewer did not come out clean.. So I bake at 50mins.. However, I suggest to add addition 10g of flour as the cake surface is dry, but interior is slightly wet/moist..

Nevertheless, mom love this cake.. she rated it 8/10... However I suspect it's because she likes durian.. So for her, anything that goes with durian is good.. Haha! I wrote down in a short note from on the recipe, next time try pairing this cake up with durian mousse.. I think it will be heavenly! Hehe!

But I would say that this cake is quite sucessful! Will definitely try this again, when the durian season (June/July) approach! Hehe!