Pandan Coconut Milk Layer Crepe Cake

When I find out that is a pandan baking theme this month. It really excite me. I love anything to do with pandan, palm sugar and coconut milk. I always see this as a blessings from GOD to the SouthEast Asia regions. There is a lot of herbs around the world yet this 3 ingredients can produce varieties of desserts and savoury food . 

I planned to make Kuih Tako. However it seem to happen in such a way when you want something in shop you always can not find it , when you do not want it , it will just keep flashing in front you. I have saw and bough fresh pandan the past few months. When it come to this month, NO ! I just can not find any trace of pandan leave or even the frozen one. This is just upsetting! I have few frozen one in my freezer but is just not enough for me to make Kuih Tako .

So with the spirit of not giving up. I come by this recipe which seem interesting. So I decided to have this modify to Pandan version. The original recipe is from ->My little Favourite  ( which is one of the host for Pandan theme)

So here is my version of Pandan Coconut Crepe Cake.

Ingredients :

Pandan Coconut Milk Crepe
 
1 cup Plain Flour
1/3 cup Caster sugar
1 tsp Pandan essence or 1 1/2 Tbsp Pandan Juice
4 Eggs
350ml Milk
150ml Coconut Milk  ( you can varies to your liking)

Nob of butter for greasing the pan

Method :

1. Whisk eggs , milk and coconut milk in a jug . Combine the pandan juice well in it .
2. Sift the flour and sugar in a big bowl. Make a well in the centre , gradually pour in the egg, milk mixture in it.
3. Stirring gently with a whisk to combine ( do not beat) . As not to incorporate air in it.
4. Heat up a 20cm flat round pan. Grease with nob of butter.
5. Fill a 1/4 cup measure to about 2/3 full with batter. Pour into the centre of the pan and swirl the pan around to evenly cover the base. Cook in medium heat ( depend on your stove heat) about 1min. turn it to low and flip the crepe over to cook further 30 sec.
6. Place in the wire rack to cool once is done.
7. Repeat the process till all batter finished.
8. Stacking the crepe on top of each time nicely each time it has cool down on the rack .

This recipe yield for 20- 25 piece of crepe ( this is how much I have made with a few damage one in between)

Fillings ( I did a Coconut cream to go with the pandan crepe)

Ingredient

200ml Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp of sour cream
1 Tbsp of coconut milk
1 Tbsp of caster sugar

Method :

1. Use a cold metal bowl beat the whipping cream with sugar to soft peak.
2. Mix in Sour cream and beat to combine.
3. Pour in the coconut milk and fold to combine
4. Chilled in fridge before use

Assembly

1. Put a piece of crepe on the flat surface
2. Used the back of the spoon to gently coat the creamy filling in a thing layer over the crepe.
3. Place another crepe on top neatly, continue the process till all finished.
4. Chilled in the fridge in a container , till serving time cut into wedges and enjoy.

Do not chill too long as it will dry out the surface of the crepe cake. I guess I have spread too little cream in between the crepe cake. Next time if I make this again will spread it sparingly. Just thinking out loud maybe I can do a vanila crepe cake with durian cream. It will be a great combination too .

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up September Pandan Hosted by Joceline@ Butter, Flour & Me, organised by Zoe@ Bake for Happy Kids and Mui Mui @ My Little Favourites DIY

Am excited to see so many pandan dishes and creation . Thanks for organising this ladies.

Hopefully you like what I have "created" . Have a great pandan experience.

Jelly MoonCake - Palm Sugar with Red Bean Paste

I really wanted to try make some Jelly mooncake this year. This is one of the mooncake we have in Malaysia , it started few years back and it has become a trend. Instead of getting the traditional mooncake , people are getting the colourful mooncake for the celebration. I can understand the reason of it, first, in hot weather , chilling stuff is always welcome. It is also something different from the traditional style and we can have more variety in jelly mooncake . The mooncake is pretty and is seem lighter to many as well.

I do not have the jelly mooncake mould. However I do want to have a try on this new style of mooncake for one of my Mid Autumn festival celebration dinner. So I use my other cake mould to have this cute little jelly mooncake in a more cartoon design.

Thanks for one of the friend , who went back to HK early the year and grab me this little cute mould . The effect is good and I am sure nobody has any objection in having some cartoon style mooncake :)

The recipe I used was in this blogger ->Frozen Wings

I mixed her 2 recipe to make my jelly mooncake. One for the skin and another one by the fillings (Red Bean)

Ingredients :

For the Fillings :

150g red beans paste ( cook the red bean and mashed/blend  it)
350ml water
80g caster sugar (original recipe 100g)
2tsps agar agar powder
1/2tsp instant jelly ( I do not have instant jelly so I omitted this)
1 blade pandan leaves (knotted)

100ml coconut milk
1tbsp cornflour, dash of salt
( have coconut milk with corn flour and salt mix together )

Method :
1. Combine all the ingredient except the coconut milk mixture together.
2. Bring the red bean mixture to a boil and add in coconut milk mixture.Let it come to another boil.
3. Turn heat to low, cook for further 2 mins. Turn off heat, remove pandan leaves.
4. Pour the jelly mixture into the  smaller moulds till almost full . Leave it cool and set , this can chilled in the fridge and prepare one day before.

Dislodge the fillings before proceed to make the skin.

For the Skin :

Palm Sugar mooncake skin  ( I choose this as the color is more towards traditional mooncake)

60g gula melaka ( chopped small )
20g caster sugar ( original recipe is 60g)
4tsps agar agar powder ( depend on the strength of the agar agar powder , I reckon read the instruction and adjust accordingly)
400ml water
250ml thick coconut milk

Method :

1. Put everything in the pot and bring it boil.

Assemble of Jelly Mooncake

1. Pour a little of the skin mixture in the mould and let it half set.
2. Put in the red bean fillings that have already set earlier
3.Pour balance of the skin mixture into the mould till the brim
4.Let it set and chill in fridge .

To unmould the mooncake, soak the mooncake in the mould with some warm water this make it easy to unmould.

I guess the contrast of my mooncake color is not that great as both filling and skin is both dark color. Next round I would definitely try other colourful Jelly mooncake. I hope I will have the right mould next year :)

Happy Moon Cake Festival.

Piglet mooncake and Happy Mid Autumn Festival

 
I did my first batch mooncake last year. However I did not manage to blog about it. Too many things happened and I am not sure have I done it right and I did not do a lot . One of the fail is the Shanghai Mooncake I tried last year. Too much of parmesan cheese and I find it too strong the smell and I can not eat it myself.

I did the filling last year with purple sweet potatoes and taro paste. However I do not think I have cooked them long enough hence the paste seem to be watery and my mooncake does not last too long. Well is all a learning process.

This year I decided to buy some lotus filling and have it started early . So the moon cake has enough time to "breath" to become moisture and oily. 

I did not make the snowskin mooncake this year, as I realised snowskin is not so much of my fancy, (rather I did not get the skin texture right).However I did the Jelly Mooncake and the Piglet mooncake. Of course the Piglet Mooncake is none but Anncoo style. It was so so cute. When I first looking for recipes , I saw her blog ,however for some reason my Ipad can not seem to load the slide show. I can not figure out the whole process of the making. So I make my own style . HaHa not too bad for a total novice :)

When I finally got to my PC and reload the page - there was the step of this cute little piglet mooncake. It seem to have create a fad of making this among the blogger. My piglet is a bit dark. Ya I sort of bake it too high and maybe a little over baked. My dear has been asking me during the baking session, " It seem burning! " , " Do you want to have a look ." "I think is time to let it out" . My respond is " Oh ya, is fine " ," No worries" . Ok that is the consequences of being err lazy !!

For the Mooncake Recipe I follow ->Christine Recipe . It works well for me and easy to follow . I did not put egg yolk in my mooncake and I bought the Lotus filling from the store.


Ingredients : ( I have double the portion )

200g Plaim Flour
120g Golden Syrup ( Store bought , it was sell in Coles in Aus)
1 tsp Alkaline water ( Lye Water)
56g Vegetable Oil

Fillings :
840g Lotus Paste

Egg Wash :
1 egg yolk and 2 Tbsp of egg white

Method :

1. In a large bowl , mix in golden syrup, alkaline water and oil well to combine.
2. Sift in the flour , using a spatula to combine all ingredient. Be careful not to over mix. . Knead the mixture into a soft dough. Cover with film wrap and let it sit for 40 - 60min.
3. Divide the dough into equal portion ( as per your mold size) . There is various of ratio you would like to follow to your own liking. ( See note below )
4. Divide the filling paste into equal portion as per the dough divided portion. Roll into ball shape.
5. Preheat the oven to 170C .
6. Roll each dough portion to a thin disc on top of a plastic film wrap. This is to prevent the dough on sticking on any surface. Place the filling into the dough paste and wrap it nicely and shape into a ball.
7. Oil the mooncake mould, gently place the stuff mooncake in the mould, press it with firm pressure to ensure the print is moulded to the mooncake.
8. I tab the side of the mooncake mould and remove mooncake from the mould . Place it on the baking tray.
9. Repeat the step till all the dough has finished with nice print.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 min . Brush the mooncake with egg wash, let it rest for 10 - 15 mins. Return to the oven and make for another 10-15 min with 160 C .

Once the mooncake has finished baking, it does not look right or good. It seem to be cracking and dry. Do not panic, this is normal. The mooncake need to be kept in air tight container for 4-5 days , to let it "breed" ( this is what I called) in order for the oil and the moist to release and you will have a nice coated golden brown mooncake to enjoy.

This process is important , as it make the pastry soften, fluffy and moist to enjoy .

Step of making the piglet. You can follow the link in Anncoo ( Snowskin version).

Ratio of the mooncake :
Dough : Fillings

1. For the small mould my ratio is 15g : 35g
2. For the bigger mould my ratio is 30g : 150g
3. For the piglet mooncake my ratio is 20g : 50g

I have a few different filling for my mooncake this round Lotus, Red Bean and Chestnut. Love the taste of chestnut and is best to get those less sugar . If you read on the calories of each mooncake , at time it really stop you from eating.

I will post my Jelly mooncake in another post.  Wish everyone a Happy Mid Autumn Festival.

Blueberry Mirror Cake & Strawberry Mirror Cake

The birthday moment. I knew blueberry is my friend's favourite. I always love to celebrate other birthday as a family. Though I only knew this couple when they move to Australia. However I believe there is no meeting by co-incident. GOD always bring forth people to bless us or share our blessings to another. So this time I created this mirror cake by using my friend favourite fruits - Blueberry. The effect is not bad, as you can see from the picture, it does have the shining effect of the mirror and good enough to reflect the image of the candle light.

Thiis cake is quite a small size , it will be just nice for a group of six people. But we only have 4 adults and 1 little gal to enjoy :) As always the birthday gal got to bring back the rest of the cake to enjoy it.

On the same week I make a larger Strawberry Mirror Cake by order. The recipe I used is the same as my last recipe ->Strawberry Mirror Cake. This is a birthday cake for some sisters in my group. I suppose pink always suit the gals better and I knew one of the gal love strawberry ( too bad she was not there that week). I decorated the cake with some raspberry instead of strawberry , it does cause some confuse as everyone thought this is a raspberry cake! Raspberry can be very expensive at time, to use the amount of raspberry to make this cake I guess it can be quite expensive.

The verdict? The cake is very yum and very welcome by everyone , we have children come and ask for a piece of cake from our group during the celebration. Of course we can not reject the children, but we do try to cut it as slim as possible so everyone has a slice of it. The lightness and the berry taste just so refresh and is a good a dessert after a full meal lunch.