Gula Melaka Steam Cake "椰糖糕" & Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookies

Before I start off my post today, I would like to thank those faithful readers of mine that frequently drop by my blog and giving me supporting comments. It's you guys that urge me to make this blog a better one! No, no, I didn't get all inspired by the recent award shows on TV that got me all giving thanks to everyone. It's just that a blog with faithful readers makes it a more worthwhile and meaningful one. And I realize even with my little updates lately, you guys still lovingly come by with a note for me. So thank you, thank you and thank you...I couldn't say it enough. :)

Just a little update on my personal life. My house renovation is almost coming to a completion now...another week and we are good to move. But unfortunately, due to the inconsiderate and poor service from the shipping company we engaged in, our container shipment from California has been delayed to almost a month! Apparently they have chose to dock our container at Korea and went ahead to ship other more "profitable" items! What in the world?! *Sigh* I just hope this delay will not incur more inconvenience then what we are going through now. :P

This time I decided to try out a new cake recipe call Gula Melaka Steam cake or"椰糖糕". It is really easy to make and ingredients are simple.The name itself might make you think that this is a real sweet desert, but actually it's not. The deep musky gula melaka aroma is intense but not over powering. This steam cake taste almost like those Chinese Fatt Goh that people use to pray with, but much much lighter in texture and fluffier. :)

Ingredients for Gula Melaka Steam Cake "椰糖糕" (makes a 8" round)
Sugar Mix:
130g gula melaka, chopped small
40g honey
65ml water
Main Dough:
200g plain flour
35g rice flour
35g glutinous rice flour
7g baking powder
3g baking soda
Wet Mix:
3 eggs
100ml fresh milk
40g vegetable oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Method:

• In a small sauce pot, place all sugar mix ingredients in and heat over medium fire. Stir until everything melts and starts to turn into dark amber color.

• Sieve all the dry ingredients in to a large mixing bowl, set aside.
  
• In another bowl, add the fresh milk and vegetable oil in. Crack the 3 eggs in and stir well till everything is blended in. Add this liquid mixture into the flour mix and gently stir.
• Add the sugar syrup into the batter and stir till everything comes together.
• Let this mixture stand for 20 minutes, covered.
  
• After 15 minutes, get ready the steamer and with some water and start boiling at medium high fire.
  
• After a quick stir, pour the batter into a prepared round 8" pan, lined with parchment. Place in the steamer and steam for 20 minutes.
• Just before removing from steamer, sprinkle the sesame seeds over the cake. Let cake cool before removing from pan and slice to serve.
  

My younger daughter's initial reaction to this cake when she first saw it was she thought it's a chocolate cake. Any cake or cookie that is brown is chocolate to her, lol! But after her first eager bite, she said "Mummy, it's not chocolate cake." :D

I really enjoy this cake, fluffy light and slight chewy texture. :) The next time round, I will steam up double the recipe to make some for my parents and my sisters.
The other item I baked this week was this Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The last time I baked cookies was during Chinese New Year and my girls has been bugging me for some lately. These cookies may look like normal chocolate chip cookies to you...but it ain't as simple as it looks.

As the name implies, these cookies are basically using a browning butter method instead of the usual creaming of the soften butter. I was intrigued by this and was eager to try it out myself. Basically browning the butter, brings out the nutty flavor of the butter which makes the cookies has this yummy nutty, caramelize flavor.

Okay...a little confession to make. I bought this enormous bag of Nestle Semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels during my last trip back to California: I placed that 250g SCS butter beside the chocolate chip bag to show you how big is this pack of chips.

You must be thinking this woman (me) had her luggage packed full of baking ingredients instead of cloths! Lol! Don't you worry...I will use it all up...I'm quite confident of that, heehee. :D

Ingredients for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookies (makes about 30 medium size cookies)
200g unsalted butter
120g caster sugar
150g packed dark brown sugar
230g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chip cookies

Method:

• In a small saucepan, heat about 150g of the butter until it melts at medium low heat. Continue to cook, swirling constantly until the butter turns dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma. This takes about 2 minutes. Keep a watchful eye over it making sure it doesn't burnt!
• Remove from heat and carefully transfer this hot liquid into a heat proof bowl. Add the remaining 50g butter in and stir till it melts.
• Add in both sugars and salt and stir well. Add in vanilla extract, egg and yolk and whisk well till most of the sugar has melted. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes. Then whisk again for 30 secs and let stand again for another 3 minutes. This process is repeated for another 2 times until the mixture is thick, smooth and shiny.
• Using rubber spatula, stir in the flour and baking powder till it just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
• Cover the mixture and let it chill out in the fridge for 2 hrs before baking.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough of about 1 tbsp full and space them 3cm apart from each other.
• Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Do not over bake as the end result will be too hard. Let cool on rack before serving. Can be kept in air tight containers up to a couple weeks.

I made the mistake of over baking these cookies and some turned out quite hard. :P Guess I really did lost touch with baking a good batch of cookies! But fortunately, my "cookie monsters" at home love it....and my elder daughter has continuously brought it to school for 3 days! She has even requested to bring more to share with her classmates. :P So I guess a hard cookie ain't a bad cookie, lol! See the cookies packed with those semi sweet chocolate morsels? Yum-O! Some might find this cookie method a wee bit "labor-intensive" as compared to the conventional kind...but I assure you...if you are a cookie lover, don't give this a miss!

Oops, almost midnight...still another long day tomorrow. Guess I better sign off for now...thanks for hanging out with me again. You all have a great one! Cheers!