Cream Puffs In A Jiffy

Why In A Jiffy?  Yes, it did not take long to cook the dough as it was done in the microwave.  The longest time is the baking time.  Prep time is less than 5 minutes.  Hurray!! No washing of saucepan and wiping the stove top.  Try baking some and give me a feedback. Perhaps give two thumbs up for i can assure that you will not  regret baking them.

Flaky Pastry Egg Tarts

 When my friend, Peng, linked me a video about a hong kong grandpa retiring and teaching his grand daughter to make his famous flaky pastry egg tart, i remembered that i have also made the flaky pastry this way but have not posted cos i have been neglecting my blog, but this recipe will be lost if not shared.  All flaky recipes have been following the western way of layering by wrapping the butter dough with the less butter dough(the chinese called this the water dough and the butter dough, oil dough), but for this egg tart, it is the other way round, the water dough is wrapped by the oil dough.  It is really flaky and easy to roll.  I have used the traditional ingredient - LARD but vegetable shortening can be used.  LARD  is available in 1 lb block in all our supermarkets and it is inexpensive.  Follow my instructions and you will have perfect flaky egg tarts.

Puff Pastry Topping Pork Floss Roll

I have tried so many sweet bread recipes for rolls and buns and non has failed. When i want to make sweet bread but am lazy to look for the complicated recipes, meaning recipes using different methods like tangzhung method etc, i will go for this straight method.  Lately i have been making sweet bread with the sponge method as the texture is so much softer with a bite which the straight method lacks.  Instead of making a simple filled sweet roll this time, I topped the roll with a piece of puff pastry and nori, and this really kick up this sweet roll a couple of notches. 

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Revisited

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for everything—but i am extra-thankful for all my family and friends who will be enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner with us.  I know they love the High Roast Turkey which has never failed to please and traditionally the Sweet Potato Pecan Pie.  This time around, i have changed the method but not the recipe to this Sweet Potato Pecan Pie and used a Tart mold instead of the Pie dish.  Before i share the new method, I would like to wish all my readers and their family a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Mini Shanghai Mooncakes

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar,  and it falls on September 30th this year (2012).  Although it is still about 1 1/2 months away, preparation for the making the mooncakes has to begin now especially if you are to make the Traditional Mooncakes - the syrup has to be cooked and kept until needed, in fact the longer it is allowed to settle, the better it is.  Most mooncakes bakers will cook the syrup last year for this year's baking.  If this syrup cooking is too tedious and intimidating, i am sharing this recipe which s full of the fragrance of butter and pure lotus paste/red bean paste and the best part, you don't need any mooncake molds.

I make mooncakes every year and somehow could never find time to post it in time for my readers who would like to try and have a hand in making some for the festival.  This year, i make sure that i will post first before i start getting into the actual baking and forget to post.  Sorry.................

Seaweed Crispies

GONG XI FA CAI

This is a spin-off from Nori Crisps.  These seaweed /nori crispies are so addictive and flavorful that they have to be fried and served for The Chinese New Year.  They are so easy, just 3 ingredients and oil for deep frying.  This year, instead of rolling them up or plain flat, i have twisted them into ribbons following Sesame Ribbon Crisp but do not double up the prepared pastry.  For this recipe i have tweaked and used egg whites instead of the whole egg and found that the crispies remained crispier.

Sesame Ribbon Crisp

When i was making the Crispy Crackers for Yee Sang, i decided to make this Sesame Ribbon Crisp as it is the same recipe only it is formed into ribbons.  These ribbons do not need any introduction, one bit into one and before you can chew on it, your hand will be reaching out for another.  That's how good they are.

Samosas

Samosa, the delightful tasty little savory patty is a great gift to the world. from India.  Samosa is so delicious and addictive that it cannot be mentioned in singular, Samosa, it has to be plural - Samosas, cos when served, - 'satu makan dua mahu" - in Malay, translated - 'you eat one and you will ask for seconds'. 

Samosas are cheap, easy to make and  the beauty is,  you can make them in so many different ways, each cook adding their own different signatures to this time honored patties. I have known Samosas as triangular patties  made with popiah skin filled with spicy potatoes, peas and meat but my neighbor told me that the traditional Indian Samosas are made with homemade pastry and the shape is not flat triangle but more puffy, pyramid shape.  When i heard, "traditional", i get all excited, i have to keep all sorts of tradition die, even it is not my tradition.  This has been in my to do list for a long time and finally i gave these Samosas a try. 

Eclair

I have made eclairs and i have made eclairs, also i have made cream puffs but what is the difference between a cream puff and an eclair?  Both are made with choux pastry, so, shape is only essential difference.  Every time i make a batch of choux pastry, i will pipe some round and some long.  To my grand kids, don't ask if they want cream puffs or eclairs.  Renee will say she wants the round ones and Alexander prefers the long ones - no name calling.  To me, somehow the round ones - cream puffs are more photogenic but eclair is the ugly duckling.  I could never get a good shot and strangely, when i think it looked good, it was out of focus.  I think i got a lucky break when i found this éclair à la vanille from this cookbook - Laduree: The Sweet Recipes.  The recipe started with making a vanilla pâte sablée which is rolled onto a thin layer and place on top of each éclair.  When you bake  them, the sablée melts into the choux and gets mostly incorporated, making a perfect éclair, with a thin crunchy layer on top.  You would not have guessed that this thin layer could kick up the eclair with pronouced butter and vanilla flavor.  I have changed the recipe but the idea was adapted from this cookbook.

Flaky Egg Tarts

If you are a Dim Sum lover, you will recognise these delectable tarts and if you frequent the Dim Sum restaurants, you will know that these tarts disappear fast.  If you do not ask the waitress to reserve some when they are out of the oven, you will not have any.  You must be wondering why, after so many years of baking, it is only now that i am posting these egg tarts.  I have to admit that these tarts are one of the most difficult of all the bakings i have baked.  It was quite challenging and the family had been eating the not so pretty products, they tasted good but just not presentable.  One would think that the recipe was at fault but no, it was me, not that proficient - first the pastry had to be mastered - good rolling skills and patience needed.  The best part of these tarts was the flaky pastry, it has to be flaky of course, although the custard had to br right too.  This marriage will be in a very rough situation and not very forgiving if not worked properly.  To make this marriage work, the thickness of the pastry had to be right, too thick - there will not be enough room for the custard, too thin - the flakiness in the pastry will not be effective. Docking the pastry was my greatest regret.  i must have poked too hard and the custard seeped through, making the tart impossible to remove from the mold.  Then the baking - know your oven - a hot oven to me worked best and baked these tarts at the last third of the rung in your oven, this will ensure that the pastry will get browned and the custard being further away from the top elements will not get cooked before the pastry.  Lower the heat after 15 minus to finish cooking the custard to perfection and this did not mean that the whole tray of tarts will be ready at the same time, uneven hot spots in the oven are to be blamed and this is a common fact.  You would have to remove the tarts accordingly and leave the uncooked ones to finish baking.  Accordingly means that the tarts with firm custard around the rim and will jiggle slightly in the middle,  are to be taken out of the oven.  When or if the custard in some of the tarts should puff. open the oven door to lower the oven temperature.  These tarts have to be baby-sat for the last part of the baking and they can be moved around for even baking - do not move them if the custard is not firm around the edges, otherwise another regret, the uncooked custard will spill over causing ????????.


Do not let this lengthy jabber hinder you from trying to bake some, just heed my advise and you will produce the most delicious tarts ever.

Homemade Strudel - Viennese Apple Strudel

According to Wiki - "traditional Austrian Strudel pastry is different from strudels served in other parts of the world that are often made from filo or puff pastry. The traditional Strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, egg, water, and butter with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly. Pertaining to anecdotes, purists say, it should be so thin that a newspaper can be read through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the towel and baked in the oven." 


I was told that i was crazy to make the strudel pastry from scratch but it's me, crazy Lily, always wanting to bake from scratch.  It was not that difficult and i am glad i gave this recipe a go,   I was especially interested to know if by keeping the dough warm would enable to stretch it better and it did, the difficult part for me was that it was winter and the kitchen was colder, so, the warm cloth used to keep the bowl warm was not very efficient.  The next time around, i would use the heat pad which i use for my back pain.  Can anyone give me an idea of how to keep the boil warm for 45 minutes besides using the hot towel or the heat pad, much appreciated.  Now that i know that keeping the dough warm while it rested enabled it to stretch better, I can apply this way to other recipes like making roti canai or mein fun koh. etc..

Apple Frangipane Tart

This tart has that perfect combination of buttery and crumbly pastry, sweet almond cream, and slices of apple. Apples are one of the more versatile fruits and in baking, it is important to use the right type of apple i.e. one that retains its shape when baked and Granny Smith Apples is the one.  They are readily available year round and their tart flavor and firm texture make them ideal not only for this tart, but in pies too..

Frangipane is the French name for a rich pastry filling/topping whose principal ingredient is ground almonds or almond paste.


Since i have a roll of almond paste which has been in the freezer begging to to used and i had to bake something for my daughter, sandra, to bring along for a dinner party.  Time was not with me as the request for something to bring was at an impluse.  Thinking that making this tart would be an easy and quick task but no, no, - the almond paste was hard as rock. How can i use it?  It needed to be softened, I tried using a meat mallet to break it, but it refused to budge.  Perhaps i should just throw it away but thinking that i paid an arm and a leg for it, i just can't see it going into the garbage bin.  Think, think fast and as i was going through all sorts of possiblities, i saw the steamer.  Yes, steam will softened this roll of rock, after all, it was only sugar and almond which has lost it's moisture.  So, in the steamer it went and after 15 minutes, it was nice and soft and ready.  Lucklly, it did not take that long for the almond paste to be pliable and anyway, the crust dough needed sometime to rest too in the fridge.  I made the tart in time for Sandra to bring to the dinner. 

Ong Lai Rabbit/Rabbit Pineapple Tarts

I made these pineapple tarts this year in the shape of the Rabbit and name it Ong Lai Rabbit.  "Ong Lai" in hokkien dialect is 'Pineapple' and the hokkiens love 'Ong Lai' cos it sounded like 'Ong'  which means 'fortune or luck' and 'lai' means 'to come'.  Put them together - 'Ong Lai'  means 'fortune or luck please come'.  Who wouldn't want that. 

With these Ong Lai Rabbits, i wish all alot of 'ONG ONG LAI'
& GONG XI FA CAI