Ice skin mooncake to celebrate mid-autumn festival

It will be Chinese mid-autumn festival soon (in September), I see tons of photos on facebook this few weeks. That makes me want to make some also :)

The ingredients of ice skin mooncake is very similar to those of Mochi. Thanks to Christine's recipe I can enjoy the mooncake!

Ingredients
Ice skin dough:
40g glutinous flour
35g rice flour
18g all purpose flour
55g sugar
200ml milk
20ml vegetable oil

corn starch

Filling:
250 - 300g red bean paste or custard

Instructions
To prepare the mooncake dough
1. Mix sugar, milk & oil

2. Add in all kinds of flour, mix well until without lumps, you can use spetula to press the lumps, let it rest for 35mins

3. Prepare the steamer when the mixture is nearly ready to steam. Steam the mixture under high fire for 20mins until the dough is completely cooked.
Then use a spoon to stir the dough (it takes some time to stir until smooth). Let cool

To wrap the filling into the mooncake dough

1. Place the dough on a lighlty floured surface - use corn starch.

Divide the dough into about 12 portions (it depends on the size of the mooncake mould or cookie cutter you use, you can use any shape that you like)

2. Use your hands to shape the dough into ball shape. Sprinkle some corn starch on the rolling pin, then roll out the dough. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle some corn starch on the dough as well

3. Put some red bean paste on the center of the dough, do not put too much otherwise you can't close the dough
wrap & close the dough by squeezing the edge toward center

4. Make sure the dough is not sticky before you place it in the cookie cutter or mooncake mould, press the dough with your fingers to fit the size of the mould and flatten the dough. Remove the mould/ cookie cutter
Freeze it for 6 hours before serving

Enjoy!

Custard recipe for bread/ bun/ mooncake

The brioche that I made is finished :( this time I want to make the bun with filling inside. 

I found a recipe of custard, note that it is different from pastry cream. It is because we use corn flour only in pastry cream, we don't use all-purpose flour. Also, we don't have custard powder inside this custard.





In general, we use this kind of custard for Chinese bun filling, mooncake filling...

The picture at right - the custard served as filling for bun of Hong Kong style










Thanks to Winnie for the recipe :) It works well for the 1st time!

Ingredients:
2 eggs 
4 tsp sugar
2 tbsp custard powder*
120ml whole milk
50g flour 
40g butter

*Substitue of custard powder, click here.
Note: I used 2 tbsp corn flour & 1 tsp vanilla extract to replace custard powder

Instructions:
1. In a mixing bowl, mix egg and sugar until the color is lighter with foam on the top

2. Add in custard powder, mix well, then add in milk, mix well

3. Add in flour, use a spetula to press the lumps on the side & mix well

4. Add in butter

5. Put the mixture on a bigger saucepan, cook the mixture with medium high heat, stir the mixture for 2-3 times within about 10-15mins, or more time, remove from heat when the mixture is thick enough - which means when the mixture doesn't stick much on the spetula

6. Let the mixture cool down. Set aside - ready to use!

Note: in the recipe, it is written to sieve the flour/ custard powder, I didn't do that, I found that the result is good. So it's up to you

Enjoy!

Raspberry soufflé - celebration of our wedding anniversary

Today is the wedding anniversary :) I found that I have the right amount of frozen raspberry remained in the freezer - it's perfect occasion to use it up!!

The soufflé is not cook enough inside :( I will make again to see if I can get better result... then I will share the recipe with you all :)

Love you my dear :)

Ice-cream making - Trial of new taste

I have some whole milk to use up asap, so I bought the 35% cream from the supermarket, freeze my ice-cream bowl and try to make ice-cream.

In the past, I have made different flavors - green tea, black sesame, yam, coconut ginger lime, vanilla, raspberries, coffee, rose... so this time I want to make caramel flavor!

The result is not as strong as I think, may be I should buy caramel extract to strength the taste of caramel!
However, it's wise to add caramelized macadamia & the caramel sauce! It's tasty and chewy!

If I get the portion right, I will share the recipe hehe...

Paper art & Chinese knot art - tea box

My lovely friend bought me a book of cartonnage, I'm so blessed!

I like drinking tea and I have different tea boxes.... so... I need a tea box!
I try to follow the instructions (I never like reading instruction.... no user manuel for example...) to make a box. It is not 100% the same because the demonstration in the book is for something else, but I used the basic structure and then I divided the box into 3 parts to put different tea bags inside...

Also, my friend helped me a lot in explaining me important things to be aware of (she is so caring), thanks to her I'm able to make this tea box!

I bought the Japanese paper, it suits the best for a tea box!

Then when I almost finished it, I was thinking what decoration could match this box? I do not want it to be too plain... not too much decoration neither... May be an Asian decoration will match the Japanese paper better, so Chinese knot comes to my mine.

I'm very thankful about the technology nowadays, it makes life simplier & easier! I watched youtube to find out how to make a nice knot.
There are so many knots to learn, they can be super complicated. However, it is my first time to tie a knot, I better do something simple. So I chose the "Good luck knot", you can click here to make one.

It also took me some time to find a solution to hide the extra robe with a tassel... it seems solid :)


It is just a start for discovering the Chinese knot, I will try to make more since I have 20 meters of red robe to use!!

Green tea / Black sesame ice-cream recipe

I bought a package of black sesame powder few days ago in a Chinese supermarket, because I like eating black sesame sweet soup. I tried it when I got home and I was quite disappointed, I followed the instruction to add hot water in the powder, but the taste and texture wasn't what I expected.

Yet, I found another usage of this powder - ice-cream/ mousse...
That is why today I made the ice-cream!

I adapted this recipe from green tea ice-cream... so I will indicate the quantity used of black sesame or green tea or even yam!

Ingredients:
2 cups half-half (can be replaced by 1 cup double cream & 1 cup milk)*

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt
4 tbsp Black sesame powder**

* I used 1 cup 35% cream & 1 cup whole milk
**If you want to make green tea ice-cream, add 3 tbsp green tea powder

Instructions:
Before you start, freeze your ice-cream bowl 24hours ahead!

1. Bring all the ingredients in the sauce pan under medium heat, stir it and cook it until the mixture start forming foam with steam (but not boiling)

2. Let it cool down. When it's cool enough, place a plastic wrap right on the mixture - to avoid a layer of skin forms. Then put it in the fridge for 2hours - to ensure the mixture is cool enough

3. Now you can pour the mixture to the ice-cream machine and follow the instructions of your machine

Enjoy!

Some joyful moments of last weekend

Super busy weekend!

Saturday morning we ran for 15.7km! Yeah! We broken the record! Keep it up :)

Then I made some cocktail bun - it is Hong Kong bun :) 

The process is a bit long but when they are taken out from the oven, every effort worths. I'm very touched when I bit it hot, that is heaven!!

We got this cocotte finally, we have been waiting for few weeks... To launch it, I made Thai Tom Yum soup :) It is so good! My husband loves it.

How's your weekend?

Stenciling technique - home decoration idea

I have learnt the stenciling technique when I was in secondary school. My art teacher taught us this technic, we used pastel and finger to achieve soft effect. I appreciated a lot her teaching, because today I applied this technique again, but on a wall, not only on a paper!

I have helped out my lovely friend to decorate the church, thanks so much for her trust. ( I love her so much >v< ) She always has good idea ;) We are always the best team, ever!

For more explanation on Stenciling technique, click here.

Basically it is to have a piece of plastic or thick paper, draw your design on it. Then cut the empty space out (spaces between lines) and color the empty part.

Here are the steps how I stencil the words on the wall:

1. In "Word" document, type in the words that you want to print out, choose the font and size that you like
Note: You may find that not all the words fit on the same page because the word is too long, that is ok. Leave them on separate pages, you can later cut out the alphabets and put them together to form a word.

2. Print out the document

3. Cut out ONLY the letters with a sharp cutter, put your cutting matt underneath, don't damage your table - you won't need these letters
You will now have a piece of paper with holes (these should be alphabets)

Note 1: It is better to put one word on the same paper - but in step 1 if you have one long word separated into few pages, now you need to use scotch/tape to stick them together
Be careful of the spacing! You can use your finger to measure, like the spacing of 1 finger or 2 fingers

Note 2: You may have a question - for the alphabets like "a", "o", "b", "d" etc, you want to keep the space in the middle not painted. What to do? 

See the above picture imagine it is the alphabet "o", you see there is an opening called "Bridge", because the non painted part connects the round shape in the middle called "Island". It is like a joint
If you accidentally cut the whole thing off (that is what I did too), don't panic, use scotch to fix the problem!

4. Now draw a straight line on the wall with your pencil, at least for the 1st row! To ensure the words are stenciled nicely!

Then you can stick these papers on the wall & paint the words. 
As you see in the photo the words are on several lines, the order to work on it: from the top to the bottom

5. With the line of the 1st row drawn on the wall, you can put the paper of the 2nd row just under this line to ensure the 2nd row is straight, then paint it.
Also the advantage is to have the equal spacing between rows!

Then, DO NOT remove the paper! I know you are getting excited... Me too! But keep calm! Keep them on the wall, put the paper of 2nd row, then you can remove the paper of the 1st line or you can keep them

6. Now come to the 3rd row, do the same, do not remove the paper of the 2nd row, stick the paper of 3rd row right under the paper of 2nd row. Then, you can paint it

7. If you have several lines, repeat step 6

Note: I didn't draw any line on the wall... because the paper on the 1st row just touch the border.

8. When the paint is dried, erase the pencil mark

DONE!

Enjoy!

Japanese Mochi Recipe - green tea & red bean flavor

I have this recipe since long time from a Japanese cook but I didn't have a chance to make it. Tonight I found that we have no dessert (ahhhh... it's awful...), so I decided to try it!

I changed the ingredients of the recipe from using ice-cream filling because I don't have ice-cream at home :( but it's ok, I wanted to make green tea mochi with red bean filling => they are perfect match!!

It is actually very easy if you follow all the instruction.

Ingredients:
Mochi
50g glutinous rice flour
75g sugar
100ml water
1 tbsp green tea powder
1 tsp Mizuame* (japanese sweetener)
Potato/ Corn Starch about 100g

Filling**
250g-300g red bean paste

*You may not have Mizuame, so you can use 25g sugar, I used 1 tsp  corn sirup

**If you want ice-cream filling, prepare 300ml ice-cream


Instructions:
1. In a bowl (can be put in the microwave), mix glutinous rice flour, green tea powder and sugar together 

2. Then add in water, little by little. Make sure there is no lumps, use a spetula to help

3. Then wrap the bowl with plastic wrap, put it in the microwave - 600w for 2 mins*
Note: It is better to cook 1 min first, take it out and mix it well, put it back and cook for another min

*In the recipe, they ask you to cook for another 40 seconds, but I didn't because the mixture is well cooked - which means it becomes sticky and shiny

5. Pour the corn starch on a tray, pour the sticky mochi on the tray, spread the mochi out with your fingers - press it gently but be careful not to press it too hard, or you will make the mochi too thin and it will break easily

The size of the dough should be about 6" X 12"


6. Put the tray in the fridge for 30mins to relax the dough

7. After 30mins, take the tray out, divide the dough into 8 portions in square shape

8. To wrap the filling into the mochi - take one portion, put it on your hand, remove excessive corn starch, put the filling, wrap it by squeezing the edge toward center. Then put some corn starch to prevent from sticking

9. If you want to make it round, use a plastic wrap to wrap the mochi, turn the end of the plastic wrap. Then put it into a small bowl (size just fit the mochi)

10. You can either eat it immediately, or put the mochi on a plate and put them in the fridge. Serve when you want to eat

Note: If you want to use ice-cream as filling, before starting 1st step, cut the aluminum foil into 8 portions, scoop 8 ice-cream portions and put each of them on a piece of aluminum foil. Put them in the freezer.
Take them out at step 8. 
At step 10, put them in the freezer until it is firm

Enjoy!

Basic yellow spongy cake recipe

I have made a cake for Sunday for a sister's birthday. Her husband told me about her birthday so I decided to give her a surprise :)

This is a good recipe for yellow cake because the cake is equally spongy everywhere, even in the middle of the cake!

I used 6" diameter X 3" deep pan

Ingredients:
4 eggs
40g butter
125g powder sugar (fine, not icing)/ normal sugar
125g flour
salt

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, melt butter, keep it warm

2. Fill in some water in a pot, put it on the stove, heat it with medium fire.
In another big mixing bowl, add 4 eggs, sugar & a pinch of salt. Put the bowl on the pot. Use an electric mixer to mix the ingredients





The technique called "Bain-marie", click here to get the explanation, or see the pic at the left to get clear picture











3. When the water becomes hot, and while you are mixing the ingredients, the mixture becomes mousse and the color becomes lighter.
When the volume rises double/ triple, you can turn off the fire. Put it aside to cool down a bit

4. Add the melted butter and then flour onto the egg mixture little by little, incorporate delicately with a spatula - Cut the mixture fast and fold it from the bottom

5. Pre-heat the oven at 150°c. Grease the pan or line baking sheet on the bottom & side
Pour the mixture on the pan and put in the oven, bake for 30mins or until it is golden color
Note: If you use 3" deep pan, the baking time is 35mins