Gingerbread Man or Christmas Molasses Cookies

Ok, this is a delayed post cause was caught up with all the Christmas Celebration. 

Made another batch of Gingerbread cookies cause the previous one doesn't take as nice.  This time round, I manage to find another recipe and modified it a little myself and opmitted all the spices except ginger as I don't like spices. The cookies turns our beautifully and based on the feedback from my friends and kids, it tasted really good.  But the best of all, the dough is super easy to work with and it doesn't require me to put it in the fridge so I can work at it immediately.  I frosted the cookies with white chocolate (I just melted a bar of white chocolate over the microwave for 1 minute).

 

Here's the recipe:

Christmas Molasses Cookies

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt 

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter.
2. Blend in orange juice and molasses.
3. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Roll dough, a portion at a time, on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes.
5. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes. Cookies will be soft and chewy if baked 12 minutes; crunchy if baked longer.

Gingerbread Cookie with a hint of Orange

Personally not a fan of Gingerbread, but as the Christmas Season is coming, I thought I just have to try making some for the kids.  So, search the net and found this Gingerbread Cookies that include orange zest and decided to give it a try.  I replaced the corn syrup with Molasses to give it a more gingerbread taste. The final product turns out quite nice but I think I did not add enough ginger and orange, so the taste doesn't come out.  Next time, I'm going to put the amount according to the recipe instead of cutting it down.  I then iced the cookies using a mixture of egg white and icing sugar, the frosting was really easy to work with and it drys beautifully.  Add got my boy to help me put the m&ms for the buttons, he have a great time eating the m&ms.....Enjoy!

 

Gingerbread Cookies with a Hint of Orange

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup (I replace this with molasses)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I obmitted this as I hate the cinnamon smell)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I obmitted this)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 Directions

1. Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the orange peel and dark corn syrup. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, I like to chill overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are firm and lightly toasted on the edges.

 Royal Icing

 

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

 

1. Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy (use only grade A clean, uncracked eggs). Gradually add sugar and extract. Beat at high speed until thickened.

NOTE: When dry, Royal Icing is very hard and resistant to damage that can occur during shipping/handling.

Cupcakes ! Cupcakes ! Cupcakes !

For the past few weeks, I have been having friends coming over to my place for afternoon tea.  So, was in a cupcakes making mood and since Christmas is coming, my cupcakes was all in a really colourful and christmasee look.

Chocolate Oatmeal Christmas Tree Cupcakes
I did this using the chocolate oatmeal cupcake recipe and the fondant icing from my older post.

Colourful Carrot Cupcakes
I did this using the Carrot Cupcake recipe from my older post and just iced the cakes with a mixture of icing sugar and milk and sprinkles with colourful candy sprinkles.

The kids enjoyed it.  Bonn Appetite!

Ribena Cheesecake

I bought a bottle of Ribena cordial for qutie sometime, have been trying to do something to make used of it.  So finally, decided to make a Ribena Cheesecake with it.  The cheesecake turns out beautifully although I personally fill that it tasted more like Jelly then cheesecake.  Maybe I added too much yoghurt and gelatin, next time I may reduce the yogurt to 150ml and gelatin to 1.5 tablespoon instead and see if it taste better.

 

Here's the original recipe from Happy Homebaking, enjoy:

Ribena Cheesecake

 

Ingredients

 

crust:

• 150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
• 60g butter, melted

filling:

• 100ml water
• 20g (2 tablespoons) gelatin granules/powder
• 250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
• 75g caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) natural plain yogurt
• 75ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

 topping:

• 100ml water
• 2 teaspoons gelatin granules/powder
• 80ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

Method:

 

1. Line the sides of a 18-20cm round pan (with a removable base) with parchment paper or clear plastic sheet (I cut out a strip of plastic sheet from a cookie bag), set aside. To make the crust, combine crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter together in a mixing bowl. With the back of a spoon, press the biscuit crumbs onto the base of the prepared pan. Chill in the freezer compartment for at least 1 hour. (To ensure the crust is even, I used the base of a flat-bottom glass to press down the crumbs.)
2. Filling: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add in the gelatin solution and yogurt, beat till the mixture turns smooth.
4. Divide mixture evenly into two bowls (about 1 cup each). Add 75ml of Ribena into one of the bowls and mix well with a spatula.
5. Spoon the two mixtures in alternate blobs into the chilled crust. Level top and swirl with a knife through the mixture to create a marble effect. Refrigerate until set (about 2 hours as stated in the recipe, but I left mine to set over night since I omitted the topping).
6. Topping: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin. Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove bowl from the pot and stir in 80ml of Ribena. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, pour mixture over the cheesecake and chill for several hours or overnight until set.

 

Breakfast Cheerio Cookies

I always find it really difficult to get my kids to eat their breakfast and ended up having loads and loads of different type of breakfast cereals in my fridge waiting to be thrown away. So I decided that I should do something to get rid of these cereals, search the web and found this Cheerio cookies from Food.com which is perfect to use up my Cheerio.  Beside being able to get rid of my Cheerio, the cookies was really healthy and can be served as breakfast since it contains oats and peanut butter and of course, my wholegrain Cheerios.  My boy loves it, I have to stop him from eating too much.  Here's the recipe:


Breakfast Cheerio Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup raisins 

 Directions

1. Mix the butter, both sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs thoroughly.
2. Sift flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Fold into the first mixture.
3. Add oatmeal, Cheerios, cranberries and raisins.
4. Drop by tblsp onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes.
6. I got 40 cookies , using a small cookie scoop that holds approximately 1 Tblsp dough.

3-in1 Sushi

I haven't been very diligent in writing my blog, was going through a lazy phase, but I'm still trying out dishes and all. Especially during the weekend, I was kinda in a multinational mood, was trying out different countries' dishes during the last few weekends.  Here's Japanese sushi.  I served it with Mayonese instead of wasabi and my boy loves it.  I have to make this dish repeatedly over 2 weekends as my boy kept requesting for it.  Here's the recipe, enjoy:

3-in-1 Sushi

Ingredients for the Rice

• 2 cups of Japanese Rice
• 1 tsp of vinegar
• 1 tsp of mirin
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp sugar

Ingredients for the filing

• 2 Japanese Cucumber
• 1 pkt of Japanese Seaweed sheet
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs of flour
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/2 pkt of mock crab stick

Directions

1. Cooked Japanese rice as per package instructions.  Once the rice is cooked, mix in the sugar, salt, vinegar and mirin. Kept the rice warm in the rice cooker for 15 mins. Then scoop it out in a container ready to roll.
2. To cook the Japanese Egg.  Gently beat the eggs, add sugar, flour and salt and mix well.  Then, hit up a frying pan and fry the eggs mixture in low heat until cooked. Make the eggs thick by using a smaller frying pan. Cut egg into strips.
3. To prepare the cucumber, roll the cucumber with salt and then wash it away, this will help get rid of some excess water in the cucumber.  Then cut cucumber into strips.
4. For the crab stick, gently cooked the crab stick with boiling water for about 5 mins.  Then cut stick into strips
5. To assemble the sushi.  Use a bamboo sushi roll, put a piece of seaweed sheet, then cover the sheet with a very thin layer of cooked rice, put a strip of cucumber, a strip of eggs & 2 strips of crab stick in the centre.  Then roll them up tightly & slice into 3/4" thickness.
6. Served with Mayonese and Enjoy!

Soft Bread in a cup

Brought Baby FAN to a shopping trip one day and a lady offered her a piece of home-made milk bread as a sample for the Bread Machine that she was selling and Baby FAN loves it.  So I thought, maybe I can try making a milk bread myself. Of course, I don't have a Bread Machine, the one that the lady was selling cost $300 plus, so I ended up kneading the bread with my bare hands for 15 minutes.  It was a really good work out for me...hi hi...

Well, here's how the bread turns out, I added some dry cranberries on top to make it looks more appealing.  The bread was really soft and just the right sweetness.  Going to served this for my breakfast tomorrow and see if the kids like it.

Soft Bread in a Cup Recipe
(modified from Do What I like)

Ingredients & Directions

• 310g Bread Flour
• 60g Self-raising Flour
• 40g Milk Powder
• 115ml Warmed Milk
• 20g Condensed Milk (about 1 tbs)
• 55g Castor Sugar
• 3g salt (I put about 1/4 tsp)
• 7g instant yeast (I put about 1 tsp)
• 1 egg + 2 egg yolk
• 40g butter (room temperature)
• Egg Glace - 1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

1. Sieve bread flour, self-raising flour, milk powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix warmed milk, condensed milk and sugar into a bowl, then sprinkle on it to form the yeast mixture.
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the yeast mixture and eggs into the flour.
4. Mix till dough is formed and knead in the butter until you get a smooth  dough.
5. Proof dough for 50 minutes or until double in size.
6. Divide dough into 12 equal portion and put it into the greased muffin cups. Make 3 cut on the surface of the cup bread with a pair of floured sissors. Proof for another 50 minutes until double in size.
7. Put cranberries on the cup bread and glace it with the egg glace.
8. Bake cup bread in 190 deg cel preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked.
9. Enjoy!

Wholemeal Pizza

Suddenly got the urge to make pizza and thought that it would be fun to get the kids involved in assembling it.  So, I plough through my stack of recipes and found this one that I used to make when SMALL FAN was a baby.  I top the pizza with ham and cheese for the kids, as well as pork floss and mayo.  I think the kids really enjoy putting the pork floss onto the pizza while eating it at the same time.  However, was really disappointed with how the pizza turn out.  The crust was ok, but the Regu pizza sauce doesn't have much taste and the mozzarella cheese I used was totally wrong.  I used the slice version and thought it would be easier, but the cheese doesn't melt like the normal mozzarella cheese ;(  My boy keep telling me he don't like the cheese....sigh....  I will probably make it again but this time round, going to just go for the traditional mozzarella cheese instead.

Here's how the pizza look inside

Kids enjoying themselves putting the toppings for the pizza.

Final product before baking.

Here's the recipe:

Wholemeal Pizza

Pizza Crust

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Pizza Toppings

• Japanese Mayonnaise
• Pork Floss
• Pizza Sauce
• Ham Mozzarella Cheese

1.  In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the wholemeal flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 8 pieces for 8 thin one-person size crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Spread pizza with mayonnaise, then sprinkle with pork floss or ham, and cheese.
5. Bake for 15 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Ice Cream Birthday Cake

It's Big FAN's big day, so decided to bake a special cake for him.  Big FAN is not a cake person, he don't like sweet stuff, so decided that instead of making a cake for him, maybe I make something that he would like to eat like ice cream?  So search the net for an ice cream cake recipe and stumble upon this Black Forest Ice Cream Cake from BIY.com.  Decided to do a similar cake like this and here's my own version.

 

Ice Cream Chocolate Cake

 

For the Cake (this make a small 8" cake)

• 3/4 cups self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, mix on high speed of an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  
4. Cut cake into half horizontally.

For the Chocolate Ganache

1. Heat 1/2 cup cream, then add 100gm baking chocolate. Be sure not to burn the chocolate.
2. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3. Cool mixture. To check if it's ready, a dropof ganache onto the mixture should disappear quickly.

Assembling the Cake

1. Soften ice cream by allowing it to thaw in room temperature for a while
2. Lay 1st layer of cake on the bottom of the 8" pan and spread with 1/4 tub of ice cream
3. Lay 2nd cake layer on top of the ice cream, and spread with another 1/4 tub of the ice cream. The cover entire pan with aluminium foil and freeze for at least 1 day
4. Glaze the cake - pour 1/2 lukewarm ganache onto the cake surface, quickly swirl it around until entire surface is covered.  Ganache will harden almost immediately due to the cold surface.  Cover with foil again to freeze.
5. For piping with ganache, whip it quickly in mixer until color lightens and ganache achieves a consistency of buttercream.
6. To remove the cake from the pan, dip a towel into hot boiling water, squeeze out excess.  Lay cake pan onto the hot towel and wipe sides with it thus loosening the cake from the cake pan.  Then life the cake out of the pan and onto a serving plate.  You may want to put the cake back into the freezer to chill before decorating 
7. 1 hour before serving, take the cake out of the freezer.  Pipe large swirls of whipped chocolate ganache around the edges of the cake. After the cake is prepared, leave the decorated cake in the refrigerator to thaw a little before cutting.

Celebrate Teacher's Day with some Cranberries & Raisins Oatmeal Cookies

Teacher's Day is just round the corner, so I decided to get the kids involved in making some cookies for their teachers.  Search the net and found this very nice blog Mennonite Girls Can cook and the outrageous oatmeal cookies and I thought I just have to give it a try.  However, she uses a lot of oats and so little flour in her cookies, I was worried that the cookies will taste too oaty, so I went back to my favourite allrecipes.com and found this Cowboy cookies recipe and decided that I will combine these 2 recipes and make my own.  Here's the final recipes:

Cranberries & Raisins Oatmeal Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I cut down the sugar as I prefer cookies that are less sweet. The original recipe called for 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar) 
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup of raisin

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream margarine, oil, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until well blended. Mix in oats, cranberries and raisins (note: I reserved  some of the raisins & cranberries for decoration later). Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Put the remaining raisins and cranberries on top of the batter. 
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let set up on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.  

Carrot Cupcakes

Ok, this post is kinda a delayed post, I made this cupcakes for a national day celebration at my SIL's place. Wanted to make a simple cupcakes for the kids to decorate with the fondant icing I made in my earlier post. As usual, wanted my kid to eat something healthy instead of just sugar laden cakes, so, search the link and found this Carrot Cake recipe from www.allrecipes.com. It was really easy to make and it actually tasted quite nice, it doesn't have the carrot taste and the kids ate it like any other cakes. Am going to make this cakes again, a definite keeper for me.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients & Directions

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I opmitted this)
• 2 cups white sugar (I replace this with 3/4 of brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups grated carrots

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon and sugar. Add the oil and eggs, mix until blended, then stir in the carrots and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean. Cool cakes on wire racks before removing from pans.

Happy National Day, Singapore!

National Day is coming.  My sis-in-law invited us to her place to celebrate.  I decided to make some cupcakes and get the kids to decorate it there at her place.  However, I was worried that all the icing and creaming maybe a little too messy (don't want her to be cleaning the house after we left), so decide to do a not so messy icing, that is, a fondant.  At least it's like playing playdough for the kids and it wouldn't create too much of a mess.  Search the web for an easy recipe and stumble upon this Marshmallow Fondant from allrecipes.com  I decided to give it a try, it was actually quite easy.  I made 2 colour, one white and one red as that's our Singapore Flag's colour.  However, I make a huge mess with my first attempt as I was too eager to knead the dough, so I added half the icing into the marshmallow and started kneading it, it was a sticky messy and it took me almost an hour to get the dough into the correct texture.  So for my next attempt, I have learnt from my mistake, I melt the marshmallow with a little water, then pour in as much of the icing as I can until I form a really stiff dough, than I put on a disposable gloves, coated it with lots of butter, take a chopping board and put it with lots of icing, then took out the entire dough and started kneaded it.  It was so much easier this time round and I manage to get the dough ready in 15 minutes....phew....

I also realised that I should make the dough in small portion as it was so much easier to handle since I'm using it for cupcakes.  Here's my small portion recipe:

Marshmallow Fondant

• 100g of Marshmallow
• 2 teaspoon of water
• 250g to 300g of icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
• food colouring
• 1 tbs of butter

1. Put marshmallow and water in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30sec to melt the marshmallow.
2. Stir in the vanilla essence and food colouring and 100g of icing sugar. Wait for a while and let the mixture cool down.
3. Pour in another 200g of icing sugar and stir until you form a very stiff mixture.
4. Put dough in a flat surface, preferably on a chopping board or something that won't get stained by the food colouring, that have been generously covered with icing sugar. Then wear a disposable gloves and apply a generous amount of butter or shortening on the gloves.
5. Start kneading the dough until it become soft and pialable.  Then wrap dough in a cling wrap and refrigerate overnight or until ready to use.
6. To use the dough, take it out of the refridgerator to let it soften slightly before working on it.  Enjoy!

This is how the end result looks like with the carrot cupcakes and cream cheese frosting that I made in my next post.  The fondant kinda melted when the kids was working on it, so it looks kinda messy but the fondant was really tasty, the kids was eating it while decorating the cakes.

Waffle Donuts

I'm still in my quest for the perfect donut recipes as that's the only type of bread that my Baby FAN eat (beside ice-cream bread). So I just have to buy this waffle maker when I saw it on sale at NTUC, it allows me to make sandwiches, waffles and donuts. 

My Waffle Maker



So, I searh around the net for a recipe that calls for Donut Batter and uses donut maker but don't have much luck, stumble upon this one http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m031102.htm and decided that I should just give it a try. 

The Donut turns out really nice but it tasted more like a waffle then a donut.  But it actually tasted quite nice and was reall fun to eat since it's very small and cute.  My boy can eat 3 at a go.  I'm definitely going to use this recipe again but maybe next time I try using the waffle plate instead of the donut plate.

Here's how much donuts I have made with the recipe

This is the actual size of the small donut waffle

This is how the inside of the donut looks inside

 

Here's the recipe:

Donut Waffles

 

Ingredients n Directions:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 egg 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Stir dry ingredients together.
2. Add egg, vanilla, and milk and beat one minute with electric mixer or vigorously by hand. Add oil and beat one minute more. Add oil and beat one minute more.
3. Blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Preheat donut maker for 10 minutes. Pour batter into cavities in bottom of donut maker. close lid and bake for 5 minutes. Remove carefully with fork and place on grate or rack.
5. Makes 12 donuts.

Variations:

Any other extract may be substituted for the vanilla. You can also add 1/2 cup of nuts, raisins, or coconut to the batter. 1/2 cup chocolate chips may also be added. This is especially good if you add 1/4 teaspoon orange extract to the vanilla glaze.

Afternote:
I used this recipe to make waffles and it turns out quite nice and crispy.  Here's the final product.

Fa Gao (Huat Kueh)

With my boy going into Primary School in 2 years time, I have to start thinking about which school to put him.  So decided to put him in the school which is only 2 busstop away.  As a kiasu parents like many others, I decided to work as a parent volunteers, so as to secure a place for him as well as for me to find out more about the school so that I can make a better decision on whether this school is right for him.

Today, I'm starting my first day as a PV to help their school in their Little Planters programme.  Beside this, I have also volunteer to be involved in their Racial Harmony day, which we are supposed to provide samples of traditional food items for the kids to try out.  So, I volunteered to make Fa Gao as searching the internet, Fa Gao seems to be a relatively easy item to make in large quantity.  So, for the pass 2 weeks, I have be experimenting on Fa Gao recipe.  Stumble upon, this one from the following blog:
http://hutofcranberry.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

Fa Gao Recipe


Original Version:

•  250g sifted Self-raising flour
• 200g Brown sugar
• 220g Coconut Milk (½coconut, mixed with 100g water, Squeezed out coconut milk)

 Hut of Cranberry's Modified Version:

• 250g sifted Self-raising flour
• 170g Dark Brown sugar
• 250g Fresh Packed Coconut Milk (you can get it from NTUC or supermarkets)

 Method:

1. Mix Self-raising flour & Dark Brown sugar into a mixing bowl.
2. Add in Coconut milk and mix until well-combined.
3. Line aluminum cup with paper cup.
4. Pour batter into cup till 90% full, steam with high heat for 15 minutes.

I decided to give it a try.  I wanted to buy ready made Coconut milk (so I don't need to spend too much time squeeze coconut) and found this NTUC Fairprice housebrand of Coconut Cream.  I'm not sure what's the different between Cream or Milk, but instead of the 250ml milk stated in her recipe, I added 200ml of the Coconut Cream and have to add an additional 100ml of water so as to get the batter to reach the desired consistency.  I also simmer the coconut cream with a leaf of Pandan leaf to make the Fa Gao smell nicer. Luckily, my Fa Gao open up really nicely.  However, I do find that it's a little too dense for my liking but my mom said the traditional Fa Gao should be dense like this.  I'm going to try making Fa Gao again this weekend using a different brand of Coconut milk and see how it turns out....keeping my finger crossed that my Fa Gao will "Huat" this time round.  Here's how it looks like:

Baked vs Fried Donuts

Baby FAN loves donuts, so instead of feeding her the really fattening storebought fried donuts, decided to try my hand at making it myself.  At least I can control the type of oil used to fry the donuts.  Was browsing the net for a good and easy recipe to use and stumble upon this site Secret Donut Recipe.  Followed the recipe step by step and was able to come out with quite a decent donut.  I fried half the batch and bake the other half a batch at 200 deg celsius for 8 minutes.  The donut turn out quite well actually although personally still feel that fried one taste nicer.  I will definitely make this donut again but going to bake all the next time, at least it's heathier (since less fat) and it's also less messy and I don't have left over oil that I dunno what to do with it.

Baked Donuts



Fried Donuts


Fried Donut vs Baked Donuts
 


Here's the recipe:

Yeast-rised Donuts
(1 dozen donuts)

 

Ingredients & Directions

• 2 cups of all purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup of warm mashed potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of warm milk
• 5 teaspoons of yeast (2 packets) 
• 2 Tablespoons of oil

1. Microwave 1 cup of milk so that it is warm (not hot) add the 5 teaspoons of yeast (2 packets) and a pinch of sugar and stir. Let stand for about 5 minutes. 
2. In a bowl combine flour, mashed potatoes, salt and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, add the milk mixture (from step 1) and oil.
4. Mix the dough well by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook for 3 minutes.
5. Prepare your kneading surface by spreading a few tablespoons of flour on a smooth surface.
6. Put the dough in the middle of the flour and sprinkle a little flour on top and on your hands. Knead the dough a few times.
7. Once the dough has been kneaded, spread it out to be a half inch thick with your hands or with a rolling pin. Cut out the donuts.
8. Place the donuts on a floured pan to let rise as you get the oil ready. Let them rise for a total of ten minutes (it takes about five minutes for the oil to heat up).
9. Pour about a half inch of oil (vegetable oil) into a cast iron pan. An electric fry pan works great also.
10. The oil needs to be about 360 degrees which on my stove is about Medium to Medium High. If the oil starts to smoke it is way too hot.Test the oil with some of the scraps of dough and when it is ready cook the donuts until golden brown on each side.
11. Allow the donuts to cool on a rack or on some paper so that the oil soaks off.
12. For the baked version, I actually let the donut raise for about 1 hour before baking it in a pre-heated oven at 200 deg celsius for 8 to 9 minutes.  I coated the donut with an egg wash before baking to give it a brownish tinct.  For baked donut, take the donut off the oven once the bottom of the donut turns brown, do not over baked or it will be hard.
13. Served donut with icing sugar or chocolate glaze coating.  Enjoy!

Pig Pancake with Ice Cream

Wanted to make waffles for the kids but my waffle maker suddenly went up in smoke, so I was left with some waffle battle.  Decided to try making pancake with the waffle battle using my newly bought pancake pan that I bought from Giant for $3.95.

The pancake looks great and it tasted quite good but the texture was a little too dense and hard.  I served it with ice-cream and the kids just gobble up.

Cauliflower Soup

My kid's love soup, have tried making pumpkin soup, broccoli soup for them.  So this time round I tried making Cauliflower Soup.  What I like about this soup is that it doesn' need to use flour to thicken up but uses potatoes instead.  The kids gobble up the soup and Hubby says it tasted a little rough, not as smooth as the normal soup I made (I think it's the potatoes).

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients & Directions 

• 
  
  2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (omitted this)
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry (omitted this)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (omitted this)

1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in potatoes and carrots and cook 5 minutes more. Pour in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in cauliflower, cover, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, 10 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Puree in batches in a blender or food processor, or in the pot using an immersion blender. Return to low heat and stir in milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg and sherry. Heat through. Serve garnished with parsley.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

It's that time of the year again and I just have to try baking a cake for myself.  As it's my own birthday cake, I decided to indulge in something I like and make a cake of it, Chocolate.  Had wanted to make a normal chocolate cake but stumble upon this cake recipe in allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try as the review sound really good.  The cake was super simple to make, it takes me only about 15 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake.  The verdict, tasted really nice, not too reach and not too sweet...I served it with strawberries, the sourish strawberries compliment really well with the chocolate...yum yum....going to make this again, it's too easy not to make it again. Best of all it's gluten free since no flour involved and as I have cut down the sugar, it's also not as sinful as other chocolate cakes.



Flourless Chocolate Cake
(make a thin 8" cake)

Ingredients and Directions

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used cadbury dark chocolate instead)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar (I reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup as my chocolate is already sweet)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder (I omitted this an replace it with another 2 ounce of cadbury dark chocolate)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cocoa Powder for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.

 Had wanted to decorate the cake with a nice Granache but I ran out of time, so I just simply decorated the cake with a dusting of cocoa powder and strawberries.