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.

Durian Cream Puff

 
This so call  "easy " pastry - cream puff has actually take up lots of our effort and few painful attempt.Why is it painful? When the puff is not puffy and is not what you expect , all the effort go in drain..

I have not done this before. The last time when we have a home made cream puff was done by my love . After he has done the best cream puff ( according to his own judgement) , he told me this is an easy pastry that he could handle it. My oh my , when your memory play you out and you thought you are right , it turn out that is a lesson for us to learn .

So one fine day , we have some friends over for dinner . Run out of time , we want to make some desserts that is "easy" and in a short period of time, we decided to make cream puff. Little do we know , we totally forget about how the texture should be like and what the dough should be right for the whole cream puff thingie.

The pain started when incorporate the egg into the dough , without mixing in well , we put in more flour. As we knew the dough should not be so watery. Doh ! mistakes no 1. Then we cant pipe it and is like a cookies on the baking sheet. So we make another batch, the other pain started , when mix in the flour to the butter , how the texture should be? ( At the point we have not learn the problem is the egg did not incorporate well , we thought the mistakes was in the mixing of flour into the butter) . Doh ! another mistakes no 2. All in all we make 3 batches and only the last one seem to be right. Well we are not happy with the result but our guest is happily eating all the small parthtic puff. Arghhh.

Ok failure will only make us strike to get this right. Finally , after all the search and understand and realised where are mistakes was. Here is the cream puff that we both knew was RIGHT !

I am submitting this post to -> Aspiring Bakers #34: Choux Party (August 2013) hosted by Jasline of Foodie Baker .

Recipe from ->NasiLemakLover

Ingredients :

100g butter
250ml water
150g flour (all purpose) + a pinch of salt
1/2tsp vanilla essence
1/4tsp baking powder
1tbsp sugar
2-3 eggs (I have the egg incorporate one after one. On the last egg I have it beaten in a bowl and slowly add in to test the consistency and adjust accordingly , this seem a better way to have the better batter of the dough)
reminding egg can be used as egg wash to brush on the puff before baking

Durian cream

Blend Durian meat 300g
Whipping cream 200g ( beat the pouring cream till soft peak)
* mix both together and chill in the fridge
Method :

1. Mix flour, baking powder,salt and sugar in a bowl and  set aside.
2. Melt butter in a pot with medium heat, when butter start melting add in water and  mix well.
3. Add in flour mixture quickly and vanilla essence mix well till a soft dough form and  turn off the heat. The dough should be soft and shinning.
4. Set the dough aside let it cool down but not completely cool.
5. Mix in the egg one at a time and whisk the dough till the egg incorporate well.
6.Mix in another egg and continue the process. The amount of egg added in can be adjusted , the consistency we are looking for is a soft but not watery dough.
The test to use here is when you put some dough between 2 finger you can stretch it to a line and it will not break and still soft.
 7. Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a tip. Pipe quarter-sized puffs about 1 inch apart on a baking pan line with baking paper.( I put the dough in a ziplock bag and cut a small hole at a corner , I find this a lot easy to work with )
8. Brush some egg wash on your cream puff .
9. Bake at pre-heat oven at 180C for 25mins or until golden brown.

Once the puff is done , take it out from the oven cold it and pipe in your durian cream . ENJOY !

Yes finally we got this right and the puff is yum , only good puff deserve the durian cream . ( As I told my husband , I do not want to waste my durian on lousy puff)

Hope this is a good guide for you to try out the cream puff making.

Japanese Style Bacon and Cheese Bun (Tang Zhong Method)

Another bun moment . I have my mixer replaced. Is such a shame when the mixer broke down after I make this bun . It was a gift for my last year present, apparent the model is not that powerful to handle bread dough . The mixer died half way of my making. Thank GOD, I have another old old "Kenxxxx" brand mixer to help me to finish off this bread . Since it was within the warranty period, we can get another replace. However understanding the model was not suppose to knead heavy dough I upgrade it to another higher version.

Allow me to whinge, the brand "Brexxxxx" is quite misleading, when my friends bought the mixer for me , on the manual it did show it can knead dough. Well how misleading those manufacturer can be. Just so totally not right for this whole things to happen. Ok I shall stop here, GOD will surely bless me with a KA soon :)

Come back to this lovely recipe ->Christine's Recipes. I love all her baking and cooking. The picture is neat and the instruction is very clear. Some of it come with a step to step picture and you will not missed it. The result is always good and yum.From her blog I leanrt a lot of different method of TangZhong. I am not too fuss on the name but I do know there will give variety of result , one just need to know what is your preferences.

So here is the result of this “65°C湯種麵包” by Yvonne Chen 陳郁芬. I will leave with you to read on her blog where she explain the TangZhong and how to mix in variety of different bread.


I used her recipe to do this Bacon and Cheese Bun. Of course sharing is loving , so this bread has been share with my love friends and they all enjoy it as breakkie.

Ingredients

TangZhong

50gm Bread Flour
250 ml Water ( I used 50/50 milk and water portion as mention in her recipe)

Bread :
(I double up the version of the recipe to make more buns)

700gm Bread Flour
90gm Caster Sugar ( original recipe is 110g I always reduce my sugar)
2 Tsp Salt
112g Eggs ( 2 large eggs)
14g milk powder ( I did not have milk powder so I did not put )
250ml Milk
250g TangZhong ( all the above)
12g Instant Yeast
60g Butter ( cut into small pieces)

Fillings : ( as per your own preference)
80-100g Bacon
80 - 100g Cheese

Method :

Making TangZhong

1. Mix flour in water well until no lumps. Place in a sauce pan cook over medium-low heat, stirring consistently with a whisk to prevent from burning and sticking while cooking.
2. The mixture will eventually become thicker and thicker . Once some lines appear in the mixture for every stroke you make with the whisk, the tangzhong is done.
3. Remove from heat and transfer to a clean bowl. Cover with cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent for drying up. Let it cool , this can be used straight away once it cool down to room temperature.

I cooked this one night before and stored in the fridge , the next day while preparing my bread I have this took out from the fridge and let it get back to room temperature before using.

Making Bread :
( I used standing mixer to knead my dough )

1. Place all the wet ingredient in the mixing bowl including the tangzhong except the butter.
2. Put in all the dry ingredient Bread flour, sugar, salt , milk powder ( if you used it ) in the wet ingredients. Make a well in the dry ingredient and have the instant yeast place in. And start to knead the dough with a dough mixer. Start off with lower power till all ingredient well combine it might take about 10mins.
3. Once the dough is in dough shape and gluten has developed, put in the butter for continue kneading. At this stage the power of the mixer can be increase and combine to knead till the dough is smooth and when you stretch the dough it will forms a thing "membrane" or pass through the window pane test.
4.Knead the whole big dough into a ball shape. Place in a greased metal bowl and cover with cling wrap . Let it proof till double its' size . It takes about 1hour. ( I have mine place in an oven with a cup of hot water, this help the proofing better and faster)
5.Transfer the 1st proof bread in a clean floured surface. ( I do notice this bread is more sticky than usual) Deflate and divide the dough into each 70g portion. Knead into ball shapes and cover with cling wrap and have it rest for another 15 -20 min
6. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling ping into a oval shape. Sprinkle bacon and cheese evenly as much as your liking. Then roll once again and have the seals face down. ( I have it shape in different shape)
7. Arrange the rolled-up dough in a greased/ line on baking paper. Leave it for 2nd round of proofing , it takes about 40-45 min, until the dough rises up to 75% of the original size.
8. Preheat oven to 175C. Brush the surface of the bread with egg wash. Bake in the oven for 30-40min. It depend on the shape of the bread you making , if you put the bread in the tin it will take longer time.
9. Once is done, transfer the freshly bake to wire rack and let it cool completely.

We have the bread while it still warm , is hard to resist the smell of bread when is warm and the aroma is full in your house. The reminding can be kept in airtight container.

Indeed this bread still very very soft even after 3-4 days. I guess the cheese does help to maintain the softness in the bread. And is the best bread by far I love from my own baking. If you love bread , I guess this can be a good basis dough and from there you can make it to any other filling of your bread. Well, try this out and happy "bunning " :)

Raspberry Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake

 

Hokkaido is a very beautiful place in Japan. This place will always have a special place in our heart. We have our honeymoon in Hokkaido. Our first encounter with snow , it was said Hokkaido snow was the most beautiful as it was not polluted and fine like caster sugar. Imagine you have sugar rain on you. It just melt as you start touches it. How does it taste like ? Nothing! How do I know? Ya out of curiousity we taste it ! Well , you got to do silly thing here and there in life. At least we have lots of memory in our honeymoon.

So when I come by this recipe with the word chiffon , it is hard not to draw my attention . The pink is so beautiful and it just so suit for a gal afternoon tea and brighten one day . Instead of doing the -> Strawberry Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes. I change it to Raspberry Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes. The pink is more red on my version and of course this must go in a pink cupcake mold.


So below are the recipe I used and adapt from the original link ( as above)
I made 9 cupcake for my mold size


Chiffon Cake
 
Ingredients


3 egg Large ( separate yolk and white)
20g Sugar
30g vegetable oil
60g milk
70g cake flour

25g Sugar ( beating with the white)

Raspberry Cream
100g pouring cream
10g sugar
60g raspberry puree ( I used frozen raspberry and blend it to puree)

Method :

1. Pre heat oven to 170C degree
2. Line baking paper on baking tray
3.Whisk the egg yolk and sugar till pale with a hand whisk.
4.Pour in vegetable oil and milk combine well
5.Sift in cake flour, combine well and put aside.
6.Beat egg white with hand held mixer till foamy and add in sugar gradually and continue to beat till soft peak.
7. Fold in egg white to egg yolk mixture in 3 portion .
8. Scoop the batter into the cupcake mold about 90% full,
9. Bake for 20-25 min ( I put in lower rack , depend on how your oven function )
10. Beat the pouring cream in a cold metal bowl with hand held mixer till soft peak form.( I add 1Tbsp of caster sugar in as raspberry can be quite sour)
11. Add in the raspberry puree and combine well. Chill the raspberry cream in fridge and used it when cupcake has cool down .
12. Once cupcake is done and cool down. Pipe the raspberry cream in and decorate with fresh raspberry .
13. Put in an air tight container and refrigerated before serve.

I make this for myself. Love the color and the soft texture of the chiffon cupcake. I share this with one of my best family in Australia as an appreciation of their care and love for us all time.

It was so so refreshing the cream and the cake is soft. Taste is super yum. My love one seeing this beautiful cake can not resist and have some too . Is hard not to share when he is your love one.

And yes the cream is basically overflow and we think we stuff in too much for the first few. However it all goes well to our tummy :) Again another healthy cake , the size is small and it contain fruit ^^.

Simple good dessert for a peaceful night. Try this , is simple and impressive. Honestly who will resist a beautiful cupcake .


 

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

It just make you feel so great when people like what you are doing and appreciate the work of your hand . I have a friend who love my cake and place an order for someone birthday celebration . Not too sure what exactly they will love , is always best to use the ingredient that is fresh or in the season.

Yes is winter in Australia. How different is it when we have winter in the middle of year and the rest is summer hot hot . Since is winter we will have all the great berry fruits . I asked my friend what fruit she preferred , strawberry or blueberry. She choose strawberry as her daughter love that fruit. I always touch by the heart of a mother, as I knew blueberry is my friend's favourite.

So this is the beautiful cake that I have make and I follow the recipe from ->Table for 2 Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients

3 layer of Sponge cake ( I used my sponge cake recipe ->Lychee Lime Yogurt Mousse Cake
( I used a 6" round cake mold)


Filling

600gm Strawberry yogurt (original recipe is 500g , mine is a 3 layer cake)
200gm Whipping cream (Pouring cream) ( + 50g of whipping cream on decoration )
1 3/4 Tbsp of Gelatin
65ml water

Method :

1. Put water in a bowl , sprinkle gelatin on top . Let it bloom and heat up in microwave for 30sc or let it sit in a bowl of hot water to dissolve the gelatin.
2. Beat the pouring cream with hand held mixer in a cold metal bowl till soft peak.
3. Fold in the whipping cream in the strawberry yogurt ,combine it well.Sprinkle the gelatin in and incorporate it well to the yogurt cream mixture.


Assemble the cake :

1. Place one piece of the sponge cake in the 7" spring foam cake mold.
2. Pour in 1/3 of the yogurt mixture in . Smooth the surface.
3. Place second piece of sponge cake on top of the yogurt mixture.
4. Pour in another 1/3 of the yogurt mixture in smooth the surface.
5. Place the last piece of sponge cake on the top of the yogurt mixture .
6. Pour in all the yogurt mixture and smooth the surface well . As this will be the top of your cake.

Let it chill in fridge at least 4 hours or overnight.

Carefully dislocate the cake from the springfoam mold . And decorate with strawberry on top.

I have asked my friend to take a picture of the cake and see how was the cake like . The picture is not very clear as was taken outside . But the layer is quite to my satisfaction .

All the girls love the cake and I would say this cake is definitely healthy is YOGURT !!! It just make you feel good to have some dairy in your dessert.

Try it out yourself , your friend will sure enjoy this cake as much as you do .