Che Banh Lot (Cendol) with Ruby Chestnuts and JCC

Desserts tonight is cendol and Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. Have not make these for a while so testing recipes again. Cheesecake was exploding with cracks but still tall soft and tasty. I ate desserts before dinner as I couldn't wait...lol😋😋😋

Recipe for Cendol using microwave click here
Recipe for JCC from Craftpassion click here

Cendol Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup+ 1tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp mung bean starch (can use tapioca starch)
3 3/4 cup red limestone water or white limestone water
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 tsp pandan paste


1 can coconut milk + 2 tbsp sugar +1/4 tsp salt

Syrup: half the recipe if not eating too sweet. This amount of sugar is for double the recipe.⬆️
250 gram palm sugar + 1 slap brown candy sugar + 2 cup water

1 potato ricer (or anything with holes)
a big bowl of ice water

Method:

Red limestone water- 2 tbsp red limestone mix with 8 cups water. Stir well and let lime crystals sink to the bottom at least over 1 hr. Just use the clear top water. Better to strain over paper towel. (Note: Add more water to the lime crystals after each use and you can use it again and again.)

1. Mix rice flour, mung bean starch, 3 3/4 cup red limestone water, salt, and pandan paste. Mix well.

2. Cook on stove with medium high heat and continuously stir to prevent burning on bottom.  Best to use nonstick pot.  Turn heat on low medium once batter thicken. Continue cooking, stirring until batter is cooked, smooth and shiny.  Better to over cook than under cook. If under cook, cendol will break easily. You can test if ready or not by doing drop test. Drop a piece of cendol in cold water. The cendol should be smooth and chewy. If break easily then cook longer. 

3. Have a large bowl of ice and add in some cold water. Now quickly pour the rice mixture in the ricer and press lightly to desire length. The cendol should fall freely in the water when you press it. Continue until all mixture is gone. Add more ice if water is warm. The cold water is very important for the hot mixture to harden. Drain the cendol out of the ice water and serve with syrup, ice, and coconut milk. (Note: must work quick before the mixture gets harden. Once harden it, your cendol will not come out smooth. Pressing harder will give fatter cendol)

4. Cook the coconut milk mixture. *optional on cornstarch. 

5. Boil the palm sugar, rock sugar, and water until slightly thicken.

6. Put some cendol in a cup. Add in 2-3 tbsp syrup, ice, and coconut milk. Serve cold.


Note: You can serve this with red bean, mung bean paste , grass jelly, or ruby chestnuts.

Ruby Chestnuts Recipe:

5-6 chestnuts diced
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2-3 drop red food coloring

1.  Soak diced chestnuts with red food coloring. Use only few drops of water to mix. Leave for few minutes then drain off any water.
2.  Coat chestnuts with tapioca starch.
3.  Boil a pot of water. Add coated chestnuts in when water on rolling boiling. Cook until chestnuts float and transparent. Remove and rinse in cold water.
***Optional:  If not all chestnut coated, then mix few drop of red to the cooked chestnuts and then coat with more tapioca starch and boil in boiling water again. Second coating will leave better result.😉

Pandan Madeleine ( Banh Con So La Dua)

Turning French madeleine to Asian by adding pandan and coconut milk.🤣 This time I want a more gentle cookie so I reduced baking powder and temperature.
Testing to see how I should add pandan. Tried one by blending pandan leaves with melted butter another just by pandan paste. Asked family and they couldn't tell the difference. So to make it easy, just use pandan paste...haha. However, I do like the pandan leaves better as the color and smell is nicer.

Below show pictures of both natural and paste. See which one you like better.😉

 Pandan leaves

 Pandan paste

Recipe adapted from Brunoskitchen

Ingredients for 12 cookies

2 large eggs

1/4 cup +1 tbsp granulated sugar (already reduced)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp coconut cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp pandan paste or 1/2 tsp for lighter color

If you want natural do this instead of paste:

***optional: (4 pandan leaves chopped blended with melted butter, strained, mix in coconut cream +1/4 tsp paste)

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar until combine. Add in vanilla and pandan paste.

3. Whisk in sifted flour mix. Batter should be sticky at this point. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hr or overnight.

4. Using some soften butter and coat Madeleine pan for 10 mins. Refrigerate pan.

5. Preheat over at 350F.

6. Melt butter in microwave at 30, 20 second until melted. Leave to cool/warm before adding to dough. Use a spatula to mix butter and dough until combine.***

7. Use a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon to scoop batter on center of well and do not touch it. Batter will distribute evenly during baking. 

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake or your cookies will be hard! (Mine was a bit big as didn't want to waste batter so baked 10 mins...🤣)

9. Leave cookies in tin for 2-3 minutes before turning to cool.

Enjoy!

*Best eaten same day or microwave 5-10 seconds to soften.

Blended pandan leaves with melted butter

French Buttery Madeleine Cookie (Banh Con So)

In the mood for some buttery cake like cookie. I have not bake Madeleine for over a year now so thought I should bake them again for my kids. I must say I've never baked Madeleine with this explosive result before!😜 The trick here is to chill your dough for at least 1 hr. before adding in the melted butter. Also the high temperature helps with the huge humps on the cookies too.

Recipe adapted from Brunoskitchen

Ingredients for 24 cookies

4 large eggs

150g granulated sugar

280g all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks (230g) unsalted butter, melted 

1 tsp vanilla or orange/lemon zest

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar until combine. Add in vanilla. 

3. Whisk in sifted flour mix. Batter should be sticky at this point. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hr or overnight.

4. Using some soften butter and coat Madeleine pan. Refrigerate pan.

5. Preheat over at 500F with a cookie sheet on middle rack.

6. Melt butter in microwave at 30, 20, 10 second until melted. Leave to cool/warm before adding to dough. Use a spatula to mix butter and dough until combine.

7. Use a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon to scoop batter on center of well and do not touch it. Batter will distribute evenly during baking.

8. Place Madeleine pan on top of cookie sheet and bake for 4 minutes.

9. Lower heat to 350F and continue to bake for about 4-6 minutes until edge slightly golden. Do not over bake or your cookies will be burnt!

10. Leave cookies in tin for 3 minutes before removing to cool.

11. Repeat for leftover batter. Chill greased pan each time before using.

Enjoy!

Nian Gao and Alkaline Dumplings

Here is my Lunar New Year must have once a year! First time using gula melaka sugar to make Chinese New Year cake nian gao. As it is my first time using this sugar, I managed  to make a black cake!🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So to save the day, I make another one using palm sugar and coconut milk. I have not taste them yet so can't tell if they taste good or not.😆

Update: All cakes and dumplings taste good!

I also make one of my favorite alkaline dumplings Kee Chang. A very simple chewy dumpling which I eat with brown sugar syrup.
Recipes below⬇️

Here is all the recipes I used. I used instant pot to save a little time.
Nian gao (recipe) high pressure 40 mins

Coconut nian gao (recipe) 6 inch pan. Line with banana leaves. Brush inside with some oil will help easy removal later. Cover top with aluminum foil to prevent water dripping on cake. 2 cup water. Use trivet. High pressure 1 hr, natural release 15-20 mins.

Alkaline dumplings (recipe) using 8qt pressure cooker.24 dumplings. 1/3 cup glutinous rice each. Use trivet. Place all 24 dumplings in. Fill water to max line. Add in 1 tbsp oil. high pressure 1hr 5 mins, natural release 15-20 mins.

Almond Pumpkin Seeds Tuiles/Brittles/Biscuits/Crisps

First time making these almond pumpkin seeds tuiles and they are so addictive! I love the crispy crunchy and full of aroma while chewing. I made more to test out my recipe and to give some to family and friends.

Ingredients:

150gr sliced almond
105gr lightly salted roasted pumkin seeds
10gr ground almond
50gr unsalted butter
100gr sugar
30gr all purpose flour
2 large egg white (70 gr)
1/4 tsp salt( no salt if use salted seeds)
1/4 tsp almond extract or 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

1. Melt butter in double boiler or microwave. Leave to cool.
2. Use double boiler method. Once water boiling, turn off and place bowl on top without touching water. Whisk egg white and sugar until melt. Keep stirring to prevent egg cooking.
3. Take out whisk until foamy with fine bubbles and whisk in butter, then all purpose flour and then almond flour. Then add in vanilla.
4. Use spatula mix in almond/pumkin mixture until combine.
5. Preheat oven 335F.
6. Spread mixture into parchment paper to even and thin layer.
7. Bake 10 minutes then lower temperature to 320F. Bake until 17-20 minutes.
8. Cut into desired sizes right after taking out of oven as it will shatter easily once cooled. (Now if color is not golden then place in oven for few more minutes.)

Note: Some part might brown faster due to uneven heating so will need to take out and cut to desire pieces then place back into oven for few more minutes until all golden. Leave to cool before storing in airtight container.
Optional: toast sliced almonds for few minutes at 250F. Let cool before using.

Egg Tarts

Snowing outside today and have some egg yolks left so used them to make egg tarts!!! Getting better this time since I can unmold tarts without sticking to mold. 🤣 But so fat I ate 3 just to see if I like it or not...lol😅

I used nofrillsrecipes
I was able to get 16 tarts dough so I had to use 1 1/2 custard recipe plus added two leftover yolks. I also used 85gr sugar. I think if you like sweeter then 90gr is good.

CNY Dragon Cookies

Saw the dragon cookies post by Keem Ooi and it totally got me interested! So I went thru my piping tips to see if I have anything similar. To my surprise, I found a very similar tip (#1E tip)!!! Woohoo...so excited I started right away even though I didn't have margarine so I replaced with butter. Below is recipe adapted from Keem Ooi's recipe. These cookies are crispy yet melt in mouth. Remind me of Vietnamese yeast cookies banh men or kuih bangkit. What do you guys think? Dragon or snake? Asked my family and some think it looks like snake, some even say fish and tadpoles!😆😆😆

Ingredients:

• 4 oz unsalted butter 
• 4 oz powder sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1 large egg
• 25-30 g coconut powder
• 11.5 oz cornstarch
• 0.5 oz all purpose flour
• red color for eyes

Directions:

1 Combine butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla essence, beat over medium speed until light and fluffy.

2 Add in whole egg mix until well 

3 Blend in coconut powder and then add cornstarch and plain flour. Mix over low then medium/high speed until fine crumbs. Then use hand and knead to dough. Be quick to not melt butter.

4 Wear glove. Put some dough (35g) into piping tip and use the thumb to push out the dough to form S like dragon.

5 Use toothpick dip with red color for the eyes.

6 If piped dough lines too straight, can use scissor to snip edges for more scales.

7 Set piped dough tray in refrigerator for an hour until hardened before baking (this will help the cookie to maintain its shape when baked). Or can leave outside for 2 hrs before baking.

8 Preheat oven to 350F and bake for 20 mins. Leave to cool completely before removing cookies.

Chocolate Orangette / Best Candied Orange Peels

Best candied orange peels I've tasted! It's hard to find orange peels here and if I do find one it's not good. I need some orange peels to try nougat recipe and since I have some oranges, I decided to make some. Did a google search to see which recipe is best. Found the perfect recipe! I used 6 oranges so plenty of peels. Some will use for nougat, some to save for future use, some to make these chocolate orangette. Yummy!!!

Used Bruno Albouze's Chocolate Orangette recipe (here). I also blanched orange peels 4 times.

Pineapple Tarts

Chinese New Year is around the corner and many people already finished baking CNY cookies. While I just started to bake some pineapple tarts! Melt in the mouth!!! So good and fat die!🤤

I'm using 1/2 recipe only since only have one pineapple. Dough is 17g and filling is 10g. Made 29 tarts.😋

I'm using Nasi Lemak Lover's recipe (here)

Orange Cotton Cheesecake

Another late night baking. Tonight I'm trying Jeannie Tay's orange cotton cheesecake (recipe). I started out with 5 eggs as stated in recipe but then I'm using 8x3 pan and feel my cake might be short so I added another egg. Then batter is so thin I feel I will get big cracks...so added more flour!!! Lol...I am so bad at following recipe.😵 Lucky cake turns out good with some small cracks and minimum shrinkage🤣 Will need to follow instructions next time.😅😅😅

Durian Cotton Cheesecake

Finally got my lazy bum to bake a durian cotton cheesecake!!! So soft and delicious when eaten hot!😋😋😋

Pandan Coconut Cake with Fairy Mushrooms

Happy New  Year to everyone! Wishing everyone a colorful year!!! 💥🎇🎆

This is my first cake for 2019. One of my childhood favorite is pandan coconut cake.  Not much options back in the days.  Either pandan coconut or pinapple cake from the bakery. Both taste pretty good to me! Since moved to PA, there is no bakery that sell these type of cakes here.  So if you want to eat then you'll need to make it yourself.  😋

Mushrooms recipe from JoyofBaking. 

Pandan Sponge from JeannieTay

 .

Instant Pot Pandan Flan

Have a lot of yolks left from buttercream and pandan extract so I used some to make flan in my instant pot. Have not eat flan for a while and it is so smooth and addictive!!!😋😋😋

Ingredients:


3 large whole eggs & 3 egg yolks


3 cups whole milk


1/2 cup sugar


1/4 tsp salt


3 tbsp pandan extract (blended from pandan leaves and water) Can omit and use more paste instead


1/2 to 1 tsp pandan paste


 


Caramel syrup:


1/3 cup sugar


1-1/2 tbsp water


1 tsp lemon juice


 


Mix and boil until desire color. Darker will give a bitter taste.  So turn off heat once golden. Swirl around until bubble subside before pouring into glass bowl. Swirl fast to coat bottom of bowl. Bowl used is 7 cup glass oven safe. 


 


Custard:


In a pot, mix together milk, sugar and salt on medium heat to melt sugar. Add in pandan favor and paste. Don't boil the milk.


If boiling hot then cool 3-5 mins.


In a bowl, gently stir eggs. Do not over beat.


Pour warm milk into egg while stirring to mix.


Strain the mixture with fine mesh strainer. Pour into bowl.  Cover bowl with aluminum foil.


 


Oven method:


Place bowl on a towel in a water bath. Bake it at 325 F for 1&1/2 hr.  After done, cool and chill it in the fridge.


 


Instant Pot method:


2 cup water in the 8qt IP


Place bowl towel on the steam rack into IP


10 mins manual High Pressure.


10 mins NR then QR to get the rest of the pressure out.


 


Remove, cool and then chill in refrigerator before serving.