Raspberry Tiramisu recipe - with lady's finger recipe

My husband wants to buy mascarpone few days ago when we were in the supermarket, he probably wants to eat tiramisu. As it is so hot this week, I decide to make tiramisu but in summer version! So I used raspberries :)

I used Chefnini's recipe but modified the cream a bit, I'm so happy that now I learn how to make the lady's finger!

If you don't have lady's finger at home, you can actually make it yourself! I always buy a package and it took me long time to finish using them, and they become soft :(

Lady's finger
Ingredients (yield: 32 round shaped):
2 eggs
20g + 36g sugar
66 flour
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
some icing sugar

Instructions:
Before starting:
a. Prepare the piping bag, we will use a round end tip (10mm diameter)
b. Prepare the baking tray, the size of each biscuit will be 4cm diameter.
- If you have a silicone sheet (for macaron) with more or less this size, put it on the grill.
- If you do not have a silicone sheet, draw 32 round shape with 4cm diameter on a baking paper. Pay attention don't draw them too near to one another, because the biscuit will rise a bit... 
then turn the drawn baking sheet upside down, we will squeeze the mixture on the other side (if you don't want to eat the ink)

OK let's start:
1. Separate egg yolks and egg white

2. In a mixing bowl, beat 2 egg yolks & 20g sugar until it becomes foamy

Add in vanilla extract, flour & baking powder, mix well

Note: the mixture might look dry, but once you incorporate egg white, it will become foamy

3. In another mixing bowl, beat egg white, when it becomes a foamy, add in 36g sugar, beat it until it's firm

Note: You can also add the sugar to egg white before beating the egg white

4. Fold in egg white to the egg yolk mixture

5. Pour the mixture in the piping bag, squeeze the round shape on either the silicone sheet or baking paper

6. Sprinkle icing sugar on the top with the sieve and let it rest for 10mins. You can now preheat the oven at 180°c (it takes about 10mins to preheat the oven!)

7. Bake the biscuits for 10-12mins or until golden. When they're ready, take them out from the oven and sprinkle again some icing sugar with your sieve, let them cool down


Tips: 
You may find the biscuits a bit soft, don't worry, if you are not in hurry to use them, you can wait 1-2days then the biscuits will become harder. 
But I used it immediately with the mascarpone cream and the biscuits become like cake texture when you serve the next day.

Mascarpone cream

Ingredients:

2 eggs
60g sugar
2 drops of red colorant
250g mascarpone
200g* frozen red fruits (strawberries, raspberries...) or just frozen raspberries
Optional: fresh raspberries

*You can prepare more than 200g if you like, take it out from the freeze earlier to defrost it before you use 

Instructions:
1. Separate egg yolks and egg white. Beat egg yolks with sugar until it becomes foamy

2. Fold in mascarpone, colorant & 80g red fruits/raspberries. Do NOT beat them to avoid the mixture becomes too liquid
Note: you can add more fruits if you like - attention: add little by little to ensure the mixture will not become too liquid!

3. Beat egg white, when it becomes firm, fold in the mixture of step 2

Assembly of biscuits & cream
1. Put the biscuits at the bottom

2. Pour some cream => cover the biscuits

3. Add red fruits/raspberries

4. Repeat steps 1-3

5. Last layer: It is up to you, you can be creative this part!
- If you have fresh fruits, put them on the top
- If you don't, cover the cream by biscuits and then put the defrost fruits, you can also sprinkle icing sugar over the top

Enjoy!

Floating island/ île flottant recipe with custard sauce recipe

I have the recipe of île flottant for long long long time, given by my lovely friend, but always didn't have a chance to try it! Now I have one because I used the left-over egg white from making the dinner roll (click to get the recipe) hehe!

In the recipe it requires 6 egg white but I have only 3 so I divide the recipe into half.

Ingredients
*I used 3" deep X 6" diameter pan

Custard sauce
3 egg yolks
150g sugar
1/2 L milk
1/2 tbsp corn starch
lemon zest

Egg white mixture

3 egg whites

pinch of salt

50g icing sugar

Instructions
A. Custard sauce
1. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolk with sugar until the color looks lighter, then add corn starch & lemon zest, mix well

2. In a sauce pan, boil milk until there is steam. Take off from heat, pour the milk gently and little by little to the mixture of step 1.
Beat the mixture at the same time while you are pouring the milk
Note: I used kitchen aid to help so that I can turn on the motor to mix the mixture while I pour the hot milk

3. Pour the whole mixture back to the sauce pan, stir the mixture under low fire, to prevent the corn starch being cooked. The mixture should become thicker and thicker while you stir it all the time

4. When it becomes thick enough - when you use a wooden spoon to stir it, the custard sauce will have stirred mark => that means it is ready

B. Egg white
Optional step to start: In a pan, caramelize the sugar & water mixture, then pour into a deep pan
Note: I omitted this step 

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180°c.
Whip the egg whites with pinch of salt, then add sugar & continue to whip until stiff

2. Transfer the egg white mixture into the caramelized pan.
Bake it "bain-marie"* for 20 mins.
"bain-marie" means to put a larger shallow pan with water, then put the egg white pan in this shallow pan

C. Serving
Remove the egg white from the mould delicately. Serve egg white with the custard sauce

Enjoy!

Dinner roll recipe - simple, fast & delicious

 I always like people make dinner roll, they look nice and yummy, the little buns on the pan look cute too! Yet I thought it is difficult to make them, haven't tried them until yesterday... 

I searched for the recipe and see how to make it, I'm surprise to find one which is super easy, fast but also tasty! I'm so happy to have the exact size of the pan mentioned in the recipe! Thank you Laura Vitale!

This is the recipe for making 12 rolls. Here you go!

Ingredients:
1cup Milk (slightly warm)
1/3cup Sugar
7g Dry yeast
4cups All purpose flour
1tsp Salt
1/3cup or 75g Butter (at room temperature)
3 Egg yolks


3tbsp Butter (melted)

Instructions:
1. Warm the milk, add in sugar & yeast, let it rest for 10mins so that the yeast becomes active and foamy

2. In a mixing bowl, add in  flour, salt, mix well at low speed. Then add the mixture of step 1, butter & egg yolk, mix well at low speed 

3. Knead the dough at medium speed for 5-7mins or until the dough becomes soft and smooth, it will not stick the side of the bowl

4. Slight grease the bowl and form the dough into ball shape, cover with plastic wrap, put it in a warm place for about 1hour or until it doubles its size
Note: I put in oven with a tray of hot water under to keep it warm and humid

5. Put the dough on the working surface (you can sprinkle some flour on the working surface if necessary), punch the dough and divide it into 12 parts

6. Grease the 9"X13" pan, roll the dough into ball shape and hide all the seams at the bottom, place them one by one on the pan (see the photo - 3 X 4)
Note: when you work on each dough, cover a kitchen towel on the rest of the dough to keep them from drying out

7. Cover the pan with a dry towel or plastic wrap in a warm place for 45mins - 1hour or until the size is doubled or 1.5 times bigger

8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 180°c. 

9. Bake for 20-25mins or until golden color. When it's ready, bring it out of the oven and brush the surface with melted butter 
Note: I didn't brush the top with butter

Enjoy!  

Chinese dumpling recipe - filling & sauce

 As I posted the dumpling dough the day before yesterday, now I'm posting the filling & the sauce. 

Actually I think the quantity & variety of the filling can be adjusted, personally, I like more garlic.
Don't underestimate the importance of a good sauce, I think it is important, so better make a tasty one.

FILLING
Ingredients (you can adjust ingredients and quantity) - portion for 1pound dumpling dough:
350g minced pork (I prefer to smash it at home with the food processor)
5cup chopped cabbage*
raw chopped shrimp (optional)
5 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame oil

*Add 1/4tbsp salt in the cabbage & let it stand for 10 mins, it will be dehydrated and the yield will become about 2cups.

Instructions:
1. You can either use a knife or use a food processor to chop the pork, cabbage, shrimp and garlic

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the minced pork with cabbage & shrimp, mix in garlic, soya sauce, salt and oil

How to FOLD the dumplings?
There are many ways to do that, I found a funny video on 7 ways to fold the dumpling.

SAUCE
Ingredients:
1/3 cup soya sauce
2 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar*

Optional:
1/8 cup sugar
3 tsp chili oil (adjust the quantity if you can't eat too spicy!!)
1 tbsp finely shredded fresh ginger

Mix everything together.

*Note: I didn't add sugar but I added less rice vinegar so you can adjust the quantity written here

Enjoy!

Chinese dumpling dough recipe

Last weekend I just looked through recipes to make dumpling dough and I tried one, which is simple. I don't need to use water to close the edge of the dough, I just simply press the edge and it sticks well. Can't wait to share with you all!

I remembered the first time I made dumplings (years ago), I made the dough super thick, which tasted like bread with meat inside... it was awful... After I learnt to make different desserts especially tarts, now I feel more confident to try again to make the dumpling dough!

So now whenever I want to eat dumplings, I can make some hehe! Don't need to wait to go to Chinese supermarket to buy the ready made dough.

I like the explanation of Chow about dumpling dough:
Asian wheat flour wrappers may be made with cold or hot water — the temperature is traditionally dictated by the cooking method. Boiled dumplings are said to require thicker skins made from cold-water dough in order to withstand the pressures of boiling, whereas panfried and steamed dumplings require thinner skins made from hot-water dough for their gentler cooking processes.

Ingredients - portion about 1 pound (= about 40 dumplings)*
2 cups All-purpose flour
3/4cup just-boiled water
Note: Just-boiled water means when you boil the water, turn off the heat and after the bubbling action subsides. Use the water within 2 mins.

*I used 1/2 portion and I made 20 dumplings.

Instructions:
1. You can use either food processor or kitchen aid. Put flour into the mixing bowl, turn the machine on. (If you use kitchen aid, use flat beater)

2. Pour just-boiled water little by little, mix the dough until it becomes a ball. 

3. Put the dough on a slightly-floured working surface, knead the dough for 30 second. The dough should be smooth and quite elastic. When you press the dough, your finger print will be lightly remained.

4. Put your dough in a ziplog bag or air tight container for at least 15 mins up to 2 hours. 

You can either:
a/ use it immediately, or 
b/ wrap the dough and put it in the fridge overnight and use it the next day - take it out earlier so that the dough will return to room temperature

To make the round dough
Option 1. Easy way - Roll out the dough into thin layer on the floured working surface. 

Use a big cookie cutter to cut the round shape - exactly the same size of each dough

Option 2. Traditional way - Divide the dough into 40 portions, roll each dough into ball shape and then roll the dough out against yourself.

IMPORTANT: You will always need some flour on the working surface to avoid sticking the dough on it.

Next time I will post the ingredients & sauce used.

Keep fit - tips to overcome this long term battle

 Last time I talked about my experience - how I get my body fit and strong, and how I benefit through exercise and my life changes. This time I am going to emphasize how to keep fit in long term.

When I was young I wanted to lose weight, so I just eat less and exercise. When I get thin, I still tried to eat less but I stopped exercising. So I got fatter and I felt frustrated, finally I got back to the original shape again. Later I didn't realize that I didn't have correct motives and I had wrong concept of keeping fit. 


Keep fit is long term battle, you need to bear in mind the following points:

1. To have correct motivation
It is NOT ONLY to lose weight, to get perfect body shape. It is all about having a HEALTHY body, to make you feel stronger, to conquer the diseases. 

2. ONLY eat less won't help you to keep fit in long term

Eat less can help you to lose weight and get slimmer, but can you eat less for your whole life? When you have meals with friends in the restaurant, can you not to eat or can you not to be tempted to eat as much as your friends? 

Actually eating less at some point will make you feel stressful, because when you eat a bit more than usual, you will worry that you will gain weight and you will regret. 
In fact, under stressful state, you will eat more and you wouldn't notice.

3. Exercise & training
Exercise & training is important to lose calories and helps to improve your metabolism. When you consume food, you are inputing energy and fat in your body, so you need to consume the energy and fat in your body through exercise & daily activities. Otherwise it will accumulate in your body i.e. calories and you become fat.

What do you have in mind about exercise? running, swimming, cycling? these are cardio exercise (= aerobic exercise), which can help you to burn fat. However, once you stop doing cardio exercise, which means you stop burning fat, even you are eating less, you will gain weight.

So what can you do? You need both cardio exercise and muscle training. When you decrease the fat portion in your body, at the same time you need to increase your muscle portion. If your body contains more muscle than fat, you will have less chance to lose your fit body shape.

4. To have healthy life style

Healthy life style means to eat healthily, sleep early and wake up early, have social activities (meeting friends, hobbies). It can keep you happy and relax, leads to positive physical and psychological effects.

Right time & right food.
Consume healthy food means have balance meal. Really balance meal - carbohydrates, protein, fiber, fat. LESS sugar and salt. I'm eating rice, pasta, meat, vegetables, fruits, desserts... I also eat snacks, ice-cream...(YES!! read it again) but I eat less snacks and desserts (e.g. once per week), to avoid taking in too much salt & sugar.

Do NOT eat too late, try to eat early everyday. Your stomach needs time to digest food before you go to bed.

5. Do NOT expect you can become fit in only few weeks or a month

You might see a lot of stars can lose weight in only few weeks, but you do not know what cost they paid. They might take medication, or not to eat and do a lot of exercises... It is NOT healthy to lose weight within short period, your body is under shocked when you lose weight too vigorously.

Do not expect to have great changes within short time - your motivation is important here (see point 1). You want a healthy fit body! Even though you do not see your body shape changes in short time, do not feel frustrated, because you can see changes in long term. You will look healthier and more energetic when you change your life style and exercise yourself.

6. Do NOT set too high objective

If you want to lose 10kg within 1 month - I can tell you it is IMPOSSIBLE! Just like I'm asking you to drive like an experienced driver after 2 hours of lesson.

Set reasonable & achievable objectives. For example, as a beginner, set your objective as exercise twice per week, eat dessert & snacks only during weekend...
Also, try to stick to your objectives, you can make little exception if it is necessary. It can keep your psychological state healthier, you will have less chance to give up.

When you can achieve the objectives and when you feel more comfortable, you can set higher objectives. Then you can adapt the changes little by little, it is easier to maintain and achieve your objectives in this way.

I hope after reading this article, you will start paying attention to your health and start this long term battle together!

Whole wheat pizza dough (homemade)

 I have found a whole wheat pizza dough from Jamie Oliver, it turns out really easy and tasty!

Spinach crème fraîche pizza (next time I will add an egg on the top!)

Smoke salmon tomato basilic pizza






Ingredients:
150g whole wheat flour
100g strong flour
7g sea salt (if you use normal salt, you can use 4g)
1 1/2tsp olive oil
140g warm water
7g dry yeast
7g sugar

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven 220°c. 
Mix water & sugar with yeast, leave it for 5mins so that yeast will react => foamy milky mixture

2. Mix the above mixture with flour, oil, salt

2a. Optional step: if you have time, put the dough in the fridge and wait at least 1hour, I prepared the dough in the morning and then put in the fridge, I use it in the evening for dinner

3. Divide the dough into 3, recipe said each 7inch, I didn't measure how big and I made them in rectangular...

4. Add topping with olive oil
Note: See my photos to get some ideas or simply add what you like
Tips: the yummy tomato sauce - recipe here

5. Put the pizza in the oven for 10mins 
Note: recipe said 10mins but I found 12mins the edge of the pizza becomes golden color

If you can't use up the dough at one time, you can store it into the freezer up to 1 month

Optional topping - soft boiled egg
1. put the pizza without egg in the oven at 180°c for 10mins
2. beat an egg on the top of the pizza, then raise the temperature to 220°c for 8-10mins

Enjoy!