Beancurd Meat Rolls (腐皮肉卷 ) and Banana Cake with Oreo chunks

The pressure is on....exam is coming soon, especially those that are seating for PSLE & 'O' level exams. It is hard on the kids and on the parents. Don't we already know since we went through it ourselves, but probably with much less pressure that time, lol! I do feel that it's real hard to be a student nowadays. Although my kids still have a few years to go, I am already fearing the process and "torment" my kids have to go through. :( But it's part and parcel for kids here in Singapore, so as a parent, we can only help our kids make this journey a little easier by being there for them. I sincerely wish those students especially my 2 nieces that are sitting for the Singapore-Cambridge exam all the very best! 加油！

Back to food. Today I'm introducing a dish call Beancurd Meat Rolls (腐皮肉卷 ). It may seem like the Hokkien style five spice meat rolls (五香肉卷), but it is much simpler to prepare and lesser ingredients involved. It's really quite simple to make, I bet any mommy at home knows how to whip this up. :)

I didn't do a good job frying them, looks a little uneven browning. (-_-") I suspect it's because I left the meat rolls in the fridge before frying them...made the skin a little soft. Or maybe it's the brand or type of beancurd skin? Anyway, just make sure you have ample time to wrap and fry them at one go.

Ingredients for Beancurd Meat Rolls (腐皮肉卷 ):

Meat filling:

500g minced pork (preferably with some fat to make it tender, i.e 五花肉)

100g fresh prawns, shelled and mince small

1 tbsp finely minced ginger

5 water chestnut, peeled and diced ( I omitted this time)

1 egg

2 sprigs of green onion, cut into small sections

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/4 tsp sesame oil

dashes of white pepper

1.5 tsp cooking wine (绍兴酒)

1 tbsp sugar

1.5 tbsp cornflour

beancurd skin, at least 60cm by 60cm

egg wash

frying oil

Method:

• In a large mixing bow, add in all of the ingredients up to cornflour and mix it well.
• On a counter top, open up the beancurd sheet and moisten it slightly the corner you are using with a clean damp towel a little.
• Scoop about 1 heaping tablespoon worth of filling onto a corner of the moisten beancurd sheet. Then cut out the sheet enough for you to wrap one roll. Fold in the sides and roll it up like a swiss roll and brush the ends with egg wash to seal it.
• Have ready a frying pan heated up with some oil and fry the meat rolls until golden crispy. Scoop up and drain on paper towels. Serve while still hot or over a bed of sauted greens.

I had mine served over some sauted bai chai (小白菜) just to make it a more well balanced dish, heehee. :D One thing to note is that you should go easy on the salt on this as the beancurd skin itself can be quite salty. So one of the reason why I moisten it was not only for easy wrapping, also to wipe away some of the saltiness on it. :) Do try this out and make it for your family, I'm sure they'll enjoy this dish very much, just like mine did. :)

Next up is desert, a simple cake that my kids love; Banana Cake with Oreo chunks. I probably have posted close to a dozen banana cake recipes in my blog now, but it always seems like a popular and easy to reach ingredient to use, don't you agree? It not only moisten but also added extra flavor and texture. And with Oreo added, what's not to love? This recipe has been adapted from the recipe in Florence's blog; Do What I Like.

This is actually a simple moist banana cake with a lot of Oreo chunks mixed into it. Some how I feel that my kids loved it mostly because of the Oreo in it, lol! :D

When I served the last slice to my younger daughter, she said "Make again tomorrow Mama!" Lol! I said "Don't you want to try other cakes?", her reply was simple "No". ^_^"

Ingredients for Banana cake with Oreo Chunks:
Set A:
135g all purpose flour (sieved)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda (original calls for 1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp salt
30g brown sugar
34g castor sugar
1 tube of Oreo cookies, cream and all, broken into chunks

(B)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
40g melted butter
25g corn oil
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp condensed milk
1/4 cup plain yoghurt (original calls for sour cream)
3 medium banana, mashed.

Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients for Set A and mix well.
2. In another separate bowl, mix all the ingredients for Set B and mix well.
3. Pour (A) into (B) and mix everything with minimum handling.
4. Spoon batter into muffin tray lined with paper muffin cups up to 80% full.
5. Top with sliced banana and oreo pieces if desired.
6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes for muffins and 30 minutes for loaf pan. If tester comes out clean, it's done.

The crumbs are fine and the cake is light, not dense. Remember not to overmix the batter. :) Feel free to subsitute the Oreo with Chocolate chips, but I doubt it'll be the same. :P Try it out and you will see what I mean. Happy baking!!

Okay all, have a great week ahead! Cheers!
BB

German Style Cheese Pudding Tart (德式乳酪布丁塔)

My kids love tarts, especially my elder daughter. Whenever we are at bakery stores (yes, I still buy bread and pastry even though I bake so often), she would choose tarts over bread or buns. So that is why I am always on the look out for good delicious tarts that are not too hard to whip up. Just over the weekend, I had some free time (thanks to my husband) and found a good one from Carol's site. It's call 德式乳酪布丁塔, loosely translate as German style Cheese Pudding Tarts.

This recipe incorporates both Parmesan and Cheddar Cheese into it, so it has a nice evident cheese taste in it, just right and not overpowering at all. I love it very much and so are my kids. In fact this is the first time I have this kind of sweet and savory taste tart, really delicious and unique. :))

These tarts have this distinct char look on the top of the cheese custard surface. However I am no fan of charred food, so I try to minimize the charring, lol! I will post my version of the recipe since I did make some modifications to it. But if you are interested in the original recipe and need to see more detail pictorial steps, pls refer back to Carol's site.

Ingredients for German Style Cheese Custard Tarts (makes about 4 or 5)

Pastry:

100g cake flour

30g confectioner's sugar

50g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp grated Parmesan Cheese

1 large egg yolk (Original calls for 2, one was suffice for mine)

1/4 tsp salt

• In a large mixing bowl. sift the cake flour and confectioner's sugar in. Add in the Parmesan Cheese and salt and mix in. Then knead in the cold cubed butter pieces using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Lastly add in the egg yolk and knead till everything comes together to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30mins before use.
• In the meantime, grease and dust with cake flour the tart shells and set aside.
• After 30 minutes, remove the chilled dough and divide it equally into 5 portions (4 if bigger tarts). Then press the dough portions into the prepared tart shells. Then chill in fridge until needed.

Cheese Custard Filling:

80ml fresh milk
2 slices of Kraft Cheddar Cheese
24g caster sugar
80ml dairy heavy cream
1 egg yolk + 1 whole egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp raisins soaked in warm water and drain after 10 minutes

• In a heat proof sauce pot, add in the milk, sugar and tear in the cheddar cheese. Place over medium low heat and stir constantly till the cheese and sugar melts and well combined. Remove from heat.
• In another bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk together and add in vanilla extract and the heavy cream and stir well.
• Slowly add the egg mixture into the warm milk mixture and mix well till well combined.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• In the pastry tarts, place about 4 to 5 raisins at the base. Then distribute the custard filling equally among the 4 or 5 tart shells to about 85 to 90%.
• Bake the tarts in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes till the top is browned and doesn't wobble when shaken.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely before unmolding. You can glaze the surface with some warm fruit jam.

The pastry is buttery and cheesy, I love it! The custard filling is sweet, savory and cheesy cream texture, yum yum! The raisins inside is like a sweet bonus. I will definitely make this again, and double the recipe. :)) Do try this out if you like cheese and tarts, its highly recommended!

Have a good weekend all! Cheers!

Happy Birthday To Dear Hubby

Sometimes I wonder will it change.....for it has been so many years now, probably close to a decade! I am actually talking about the number of birthday cakes I have made for my hubby all these years. I had a vague memory of the first birthday cake I made for him while we were still in States. It was definitely a chocolate cake and I know I didn't do a very good job. But I do remember my hubby was very happy at that time....just like today when I gave him the cake. The same happy reaction after so many years. :)

There is only two flavors of cakes that my husband loves, that is durian and dark chocolate. Yeah, super "heaty", lol! So it's no surprise why I kept baking these 2 flavors of cake every year lately, hahaha! Sounds boring isn't it, but I don't hear the birthday boy complaining. :)

For the chocolate sponge cake inside, I have adapted a new method call "烫面方式" (cooking the batter). I wasn't sure did I went wrong somewhere but the cake I baked didn't meet the high expectations I heard about and anticipated. Nevertheless, it was still acceptable and I just used it anyways since I don't have the lesiure to bake another one!

Ingredients for Dark Chocolate Decadence Cake: (Makes an 8" cake)

Set A:

60ml fresh milk

64g unsalted butter

Set B:

24g unsweetened quality cocoa powder (I used Valrohna)

50g cake flour

Set C:

5 egg yolks

1 whole egg

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Set D:

5 egg whites

100g caster sugar

Method:

• Cook Set A ingredients in a heat proof sauce pot over medium low fire. Have a thermometer to make sure the temperature reaches 65C. Once it reaches 65C, add in the sifted cake flour and cocoa powder. Stir and mix well till the mixture is thick.
• Mix the ingredients in C in another mixing bowl and gradually add it into the flour mixture. Once incorporated, set aside for later use.
• Using the beater, whip the whites till foamy and gradually add in the sugar and beat till the mixture is stiff peaks and shiny.
• Preheat the oven to 170C. Get ready an 8" X 3" round cake pan with removable base.
• In 3 separate portions, add the whites to the egg yolk batter till everything is incorporated in. Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake till the cake top is formed, about 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C and continue to bake for another ~25 minutes till the cake tester comes out clean.
• Once done, remove from oven and invert on a rack to cool completely before removing from pan.

For the chocolate cream and ganache my previous recipes, thanks.

I added fresh pitted cherries in the cake which gave it more texture, flavor and juiciness. The cake turned out very chocolaty, rich and yes very yummy. :) My hubby loved it very much and said he won't change a thing about the cake, hee. :)

I also made a mini 6" rich durian cake for my husband on his lunar birthday just for fun, heehee. :) Check it out:

This cake was made with fresh durian meat which I bought a while back when it was still in season and froze it well in my freezer. And to our delight, the durian cake taste really good, still very fragrant and creamy. :)

Gonna leave this post with this last picture, a rustic but tempting looking slice of the durian cream cake. :)

Hope you all have a great week ahead all!

The Yam Affair; Sweet Yam Bread Loaf & Flaky Spiral Yam Mooncakes

Call it anyway you like it, yam or taro, this root vegetable is one delicious ingredient that I love adding into my cooking. In fact I regularly steam up some yam kueh every month for my family since they liked it a lot. However, today I'm posting 2 other yam recipes; Sweet Yam Bread Loaf and Flaky Spiral Yam Mooncakes (芋头酥饼).

First up is Sweet Yam Bread Loaf. This recipe is created by yours truly and I have to say it's pretty successful. *thick skinned* Lol!:D

c

Although I do still need to brush up on my shaping technique ^_^", overall I am still very happy with this recipe. The bread turned out really soft and bouncy, and no long hours of waiting for the pre fermented dough! Sweet isn't it?! I experimented a couple times, first with purple sweet potato, and then with yam. Both gave very good results. I guess you can't really go wrong using root vegetables in bread baking, it usually yield very soft bread.

I used pre fermented dough technique but chilling it only up to 4 -6hrs in the fridge. I also chilled the mashed root vegetable in the fridge which I think helps removing extra liquid. However, bare in mind that the yam can come with different water content and thus may influence the dough. So the amount of water added to the main dough can be subject to change. Anyway, here is my recipe:

Ingredients for Sweet Yam Bread Loaf: (makes one 4"X4'X9" loaf pan)

Starter dough:

65g cake flour

1/2 tsp instant active dry yeast

40ml warm water

pinch of salt

In a mixing bowl, mix everything together and knead till it becomes a soft pliable dough. Place the dough into a small zip-lock bag and chill in the fridge up to 4-6hrs.

Main Dough:

All of the above starter dough

250g bread flour

10g skimmed milk powder

135g peeled, steamed, mashed and cooled yam (I chilled mine)

40g caster sugar

1 tsp instant active dry yeast

1/4 tsp salt

180 to 200ml water (add only as per needed)

30g unsalted butter, room temperature

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable and pass the window panel consistency.
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top. If open top, brush with egg wash. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

Since yam (taro) itself has not much of a color, it's no surprise that bread baked with it will turned out looking like plain old white loaf. But there is a slight evidence of yam fragrance in the bread, nice! Although I did think about adding mashed sweetened yam as a filling, but later put it off the idea as I worry it will weigh down the whole loaf and hinder the rising of the dough.

Once you know how to gauge your dough's moisture balance and the kneading stage which you can reach the window panel, you are pretty much on your way to baking an excellent bread. It took me many failures to come to realize this and I believe there's no short cut to that. So don't despair if your bread didn't turn out as soft or nice, it happens. :P Just like the old saying goes; Don't give up, just bake and bake again! :D

Next up, I like to post up the Flaky Spiral Yam Mooncakes that I baked a week back. Somehow I fear that if I don't post this up sooner, it'll go out of "fashion" since Mid-Autumn festival is already way over!

You folks must be going "another spiral yam mooncake?!" Hahaha, I know, this is such a popular recipe among the bloggers this year! All thanks to Carol for sharing this wonderful, yes, super wonderful recipe for us to try.

I love this flaky skin mooncake with the creamy yam filling. And since I can control the sweetness of the yam filling, I made it mildly sweet which turned out just right. My parents & sister loved it and commented that I should bake this again next year. :)) I'm posting the recipe for my own future reference:

Sweet Yam Filling:

500g peeled, cut into chunks

80g caster sugar

30g unsalted butter

20g skimmed milk powder

Steam the yam chunks at high heat till soft. While still hot, mash the yam till creamy. Then quickly add in the sugar, milk powder and butter and mix till well combined. Let cool and chill in the fridge till needed.

Flaky Spiral Yam Mooncakes:

Water Dough:

200g plain flour

15g confectioner's sugar

70g ghee

105ml ice water

Mix everything together and knead till it comes together into a pliable soft dough. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

Oil dough:

170g cake flour

80g ghee

1/4 tsp yam essence (optional)

some purple food coloring

Mix cake flour, essence and ghee together till it's soft and pliable. Then add the food coloring and knead till the color is uniform. Cover and let rest 20 minutes or chill in fridge till needed.

Divide the water and oil dough into 10 equal portions and roll round. Cover the dough when not using to prevent from drying. Also weigh out 20 portions of 40 g yam fillings. 

Do check out my post on Purple Sweet potato Mooncakes for the steps in making them. 

Needless to say, I'll be submitting this to this month's Aspiring Bakers #11; "Mid-Autumn Treats!" hosted by Happy Home Baker. 

If you have not tried using yam to cook / bake before, all I can say is why not start today? It's down to earth (literally), nutritious, healthy and all so delicious when you incorporate into your meal. So like I said, have a "yam affair", a yummy "yammy" one. :D

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Update (26th Sept 2015): I baked this recipe again and decided to use Purple Sweet potato filling and Yam with chocolate truffle filling as well. 

Will include some of the steps here for a clearer picture:

• After you have divide both the oil and water dough portions, take one of each. Flatten the water dough and place the oil dough in it.

• Wrap the water dough around the oil dough and seal up nicely.

• Use your palm and gently flatten it. The using a rolling pin and roll it out into a long oval shape, making sure you don't rip the dough.

• Then gently roll up from one end to a swiss roll form. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Placing oil dough in water, seal, roll to oval shape and roll it to swiss roll form. Do till all the doughs are used up.

• Next you take one of the swiss roll and roll it flat into a long flat dough as shown below:

• You then again roll up from one end like a swiss roll. And repeat for all the dough portions.

• Take one of the swiss roll and cut it into two equal portions.

• You will repeat and then have 20 of these halved swiss rolled dough portions.

• Now you flatten the halved dough and placed the rolled round filling in the center and seal it up nicely. If you are adventurous like me, you can even add chocolate truffles into the yam filling. Else try Purple Sweet potato paste, also peel 200 g , steam, mashed with 40 g butter, 30 g powdered sugar and mash till creamy thick. 

• Bake in the preheated oven of 165C for 26-28 minutes.  Once baked, remove from oven and let cool over rack and enjoy while still warm. The pastry skin will be best on the day it is baked. Else re-toast in the oven at 150C for 10 minutes.

I actually love the filling a little chunky to give it that homey rusty taste. :) And that new chocolate truffle with yam paste turned out surprisingly yummy. :9 The older folks actually love the yam and sweet potato filling the best since it is not overly sweet. 

Do try this out and let me know how you like it!

Good Day All!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节快乐！)；紫地瓜酥饼 (Purple Sweet Potato Mooncakes)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to one and all, young and old! 祝大家:花好月圆人团圆，寄去相思和祝愿，幸福快乐好梦圆！

Hope my well wishes are not too late. Have been so busy the whole day that I didn't get a chance to seat down to blog. I do hope everyone has a nice reunion with their love ones; ate a good amount of mid autumn treats and even get a chance to bring their kids to carry lanterns, heehee. :)

Today I managed to sneak a couple hours out to bake this delicious Purple Sweet Potato Mooncake; 紫地瓜酥饼. This recipe is adapted from Carol 自在生活's 地瓜麻糬酥餅. Instead of using yellow flesh sweet potatoes, I used purple ones in this recipe. I also omitted the mochi filling as well....but regretted a little because I think with mochi will be very yummy too. :)

I did make some slight modification to the dough recipe as well:

Ingredients for Purple Sweet Potato Mooncakes (紫地瓜酥饼): (makes about 8)

Purple Sweet Potato Filling:

300g peeled, steamed and mashed

30g confectioner's sugar

30g unsalted butter

While the mashed sweet potato is still warm from the steaming, add in the butter and sugar in. Mix till all incorporated. Set aside to cool before use.

Water dough:

90g plain flour

10g confectioner's sugar

30g ghee

40ml ice water

Mix everything together till it comes together to form a soft dough. Divide into 8 or 10 equal portions, cover and let rest till needed.

Oil Dough:

90g top flour

40g ghee

Mix everything together till it comes together to form a soft dough. Divide into 8 or 10 equal portions, cover and let rest till needed.

Assembly: (for pictorial guide, please refer to Carol's site for details)

• Wrap each oil dough portion inside a water dough portion and seal nicely. Repeat till all has been wrapped in.
• Then roll each round into a long flat oval. Roll it up like a swiss roll and again repeat for the rest of the doughs.
• Then roll each swiss roll into a long flat oval and again roll it up like a swiss roll. Repeat for all and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 175C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Weigh out 8 or 10 portions of 40g of sweet potato filling. Then taking a swiss rolled dough and roll it out into a round and wrap with a sweet potato filling in it, making sure it seals up nicely. Repeat till all is wrapped up.
• Brush all the mooncakes with egg wash and bake in the oven for 20 minutes till the mooncakes are golden brown. Once out of the oven, you can again give it another egg wash coat to make it more shiny.
• Let cool completely then store in air tight containers or freeze them up to a month. Just thaw to room temperature when want to consume.

I just love the flaky light & buttery outer crust with the soft creamy sweet potato filling inside. I ate one up once it cooled down with a nice cup of hot tea, heehee. :D I even added an addition layer of sweetened mashed yam / lotus paste to go with the purple sweet potato to give it more texture and flavor. The cakes were not overly sweet or heavy at all, just the perfect desert to enjoy right after dinner tonight. :) In fact, this delicious cakes should be made even if its not mid autumn, it's good anytime!

P.S.: If you are wondering why there's a rabbit on my mooncake. Well, if you know the story of嫦娥, you will know she has a rabbit with her on the moon. There are so many versions of the story as of why there's this rabbit with her, so I shan't go into much detail. :P But I just thought the idea of having a rabbit chop on the mooncake makes it even more festive, heehee. :D

I am submitting this post to this month's Aspiring Baker's #11 "Mid-Autumn Treats!" hosted by Happy Home Bakers.

Will sign off here, and will try to post up another mid autumn treat soon. Have a good one all!

Fish shaped Mooncakes (小鱼月饼)

I hope everyone is doing well. :) As for me, tied down as usual with kids and the house. Strange that I actually got more busy these few days, even though its the school holidays. But I was still glad that I managed to squeeze out some time to bake mooncakes. And since I didn't want to bake the same old stuff again, I consulted my better half on what he likes best. After his feedback, I decided to try baking traditional mooncakes for once. But hold up, I don't own a single mooncake mold...how in the world will I bake a traditional mooncake? -_-'' Buy? Err...., really out of the way to just go get a mold. :P *sigh* I almost gave up the idea when I happened to come across a fellow blogger's post, 鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝‘s ingenious idea of how she uses a egg mold from DAISO. :)) Without hesitation, I borrowed her idea and these fishes are born:

Yes, it's pure coincidence that I own this mold too! And I have to say it is truly a handy little tool, it was very easy to use and the mooncake dough dislodge easily. Cool! Guess I didn't really need a mooncake mold after all,....well at least for this year. :D

I have used the recipe that Anncoo has posted recently, thanks Ann! :) Considering the first time, I'm pretty please with the result, heehee *thick skin*. :D

Ingredients for traditional mooncakes : (makes 12 mini fish shaped mooncakes)

225g Hong Kong flour (sifted)

134g golden syrup

4.5g Alkaline water
56g vegetable oil

120g Lotus paste

120g Red Bean Paste

Method:

• Measure out the golden syrup, alkaline water and vegetable oil in a small bowl and mix well.
• In a large bowl, add sifted Hong Kong flour, make a well and add in the golden syrup mixture. Stir well and gradually will form a soft pliable dough. Cover and let rest for 20 mins.
• Lightly dust some Hong Kong flour on table. Then divide the dough equally into 12 portions of 34g.
• Also measure out six 36g of red bean paste portion and six 36g of lotus paste filling.
• Wrap each filling portion inside a dough portion and lightly dust the ball with some flour and place it into the mold. Gently and carefully press the mold to form the desired shape.
• To dislodge the mooncake, gently push out the unbaked mooncake on the lined baking tray.
• Baked in preheated oven 180C for 5 mins and rest to cool down (about 10 mins) before egg wash mooncake with a soft brush and bake for another 10 mins at 175C.

I will be submitting this to this month's Aspiring Baker's #11 "Mid-Autumn Treats!" hosted by Happy Home Bakers. Thanks for hosting HHB!


Okay folks, its getting late, signing off now. Cheers!

Black Sesame Paste Chiffon and Pandan Chiffon

School holiday has finally arrived...a much awaited one. Funny how it sounds like school holidays are like my personal break times. :)) No early mornings and chauffeuring for a week is indeed a nice break. Anyway, I am looking forward to have some time to bake moon cakes which has been on my mind for the past week. :P Plus a good friend will be dropping by my place for a visit this week....some quality "girly" time, lol! Hopefully more will come end of the week as well, fingers crossed. :)

Today will be posting 2 chiffon recipes which I find them pretty yummy. :) First up is Black Sesame Paste Chiffon Cake. Notice I said "paste" because I didn't use black sesame powder for this recipe, simple as that. My family has been helping me get black sesame paste from Taiwan since its quite $$$ here in Singapore.

I chance upon the recipe from 我的厨房乐园, which I was pretty intrigued by the usage of coconut milk in it. I trust that it'll be very fragrant plus the nutty aroma from the black sesame, should be good! :) And I was glad I did give it a try, thanks neyeeloh! Even my younger daughter whom is not fond of black sesame also gave praises to it. Anyway, here is the modified version of the recipe:

Ingredients for Black Sesame Paste Chiffon Cake: (fills a 21cm or 22cm tube pan)

Egg yolk batter:

5 egg yolks

20g caster sugar (my black sesame paste has some sugar added, so I reduced a little here)

1/4 tsp salt (if you are using box coconut milk, you can reduce it to a pinch)

64g cake flour

60g black sesame paste

1 tsp baking powder

50ml vegetable oil

100ml coconut milk

Egg white batter:

6 egg whites

80g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

• For egg yolk batter: In a large mixing bowl, add in egg yolks, caster sugar and salt and beat till it doubles in volume and the sugar has melted. (~4 to 5 minutes)
• Add in black sesame paste, coconut milk and vegetable oil and mix well till combined. Then sift in the cake flour and baking powder into the yolk mixture and stir well till no visible flour.
• Preheat the oven to 175C.
• For egg white batter: In a large mixing bowl, beat the whites and cream of tartar at high speed till foamy. Gradually& slowly add in the caster sugar while its beating. Once the whites reaches stiff peaks, reduce the speed to lowest and let it stir for another 20 sec before switching it off. This step will help stabilize the bubbles.
• In 3 separate portions, fold the whites into the yolk batter. Then pour the batter into the tube pan and bake for 28 to 30 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.
• Once you remove the tube pan from the oven, immediately invert it to let it cool completely before removing the cake out from the pan.

This is actually my 2nd attempt baking a black sesame chiffon cake. The first time was pretty much a failure as the cake was quite dry. :P But this one turned out moist, soft and fluffy with a nice nutty sesame aroma. :) But I have to admit I totally suck at unmoulding chiffon...no matter how many time I did it, it's almost always with parts of it torn. *sigh*

I wonder if I replace the coconut milk with evaporated milk or half and half, will it still taste as good? I guess the only way to find out is to bake it out myself. :P

With the balance of the coconut milk, I decided to bake a Pandan chiffon. This recipe which I came up with was pretty good and I thought why not just post it up to share.

See what I mean about the unmoulding? *sigh sigh* Luckily the cake turns out heavenly soft and very yummy. :) Anyway, here is the recipe I came up with:

Ingredients for Pandan Chiffon Cake: (fills a 23 or 24cm tube pan)

Egg yolk batter:

3 egg yolks

40g caster sugar

1/8 tsp salt

8 pandan leaves, washed and cut into small strips

100ml coconut milk

50ml fresh whole milk

40ml vegetable oil

108g cake flour

Note: Blend the pandan strips together with the coconut milk and milk. Got this tip from Gertrude of Kitchen Snippets. Then sieve the greenish mixture through a fine sieve. Yes, NO pandan extract is needed.

Egg white mixture:

6 egg whites

75g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

The method will be similar to the steps above.

This recipe uses more egg whites and I reduced 1/3 of the coconut milk to using fresh milk. It is still very fragrant but i know it's a much healthier version.

As you can see, the chiffon is really soft and nice. I like it a lot! Will bake with this recipe again next time when I crave for pandan chiffon again. Do try it if you are interested and love pandan chiffon. :)

Got to go folks, hope you have a nice weekend and school holiday break!