Coconut Jelly

Saw this recipe from the newspaper & so decided to give it a try.

End result – because I have put in too much cendol, d cendol part of the jelly breaks off very easily. Might not try this again as no-one in the family is interested to eat it...

Chrysanthemum Jelly

My ‘little sister’ from Thailand had this dessert in a restaurant & fell in love with it. When she came back, she requested me to try out & teach her how to make. So here’sd end result served on top of fruit punch.
Ingredients
A handful of chrysanthemum flowers
900ml water
A pkt of konnyaku jelly powder
190g of sugar ( can adj according to yr own taste)

Method
Wash chrysanthemum flowers be4 putting them into the boiling water. Let it boil for another 5-10 min be4 removing from d heat. Do not boil too long or d jelly will turn out bitter...
Remove from heat. Steep covered for another 10 min be4 sieving d tea into a cooking pot.
Add jelly powder & sugar, stirring constantly bringing boil. Ensure both powder & sugar has alrdy dissolved be4 removing from heat.
Pour into moulds to set and let it cool. Chill before serving.

Super good on a hot sunny day!

Purple Passion fruit jelly

With so many left-over purple passion fruit, I decided to use them up for jelly.

Very refreshing! MIL loves it & ate half of it over 2 days!

Sour Plum AgarAgar Jelly

With so much agar agar powder on hand, I decided to give some of BH’s recipes a try. All ingredients d same with d excepation of the Konnyakau powder which I replaced with agar agar powder.

End result - MIL mentioned that I shd have used Konnyakau powder instead but my purpose was to used up whatever’s on hand & not get new ingredients.
Hubby preferred d Ribena jelly that I made for Hayden’s birthday party (which I forgotten to take pic).

Bamboo Water Chestnut drink

Was walking ard d local supermkt when I chanced upon some sugar-cane. That’s when I remembered I have just bought some water-chestnut ytd for soup. But with d weather so hot, some sugar-cane + water-chestnut drink shd be better. & I even mgd to locate a recipe online which is quite similar to my recipe.

• 15 - 20 water-chestnuts
• 10-15 sticks palm-length sugar cane
• 1 branch pandan leaves, washed
• 100 gram of rock sugar

Remove water-chestnut’s skin, washed & soaked in clean water for 1 hour or longer in order to get rid of d bacteria/micro worms that are hidden inside d flesh.
Scrubbed sugar cane & peel off d skin.
Put all (except rock sugar) into d slow-cooker & simmer for abt 1-2hrs on low heat. Switch off d heat & put in d rock sugar. Allow to dissolve be4 serving it warm or chilled.

Apple & Pear dessert

On d very same nite, I also made some sweet dessert in order to used up d bal apple & pears be2 they get spoiled. I decided to use this apple/pear soup recipe but change it by replacing d meat with rock candy (冰糖) instead. Even with d modification, I understand it’s still very effective for soothing throats & removing phlegm.
End result – too sweet for me but both Hubby & MIL loves it.

• 1 apple, peeled & de-cored
• 2 sand pears砂梨, peeled & de-cored
• 4 candied dates蜜枣, washed
• 10g sweet & bitter almonds南北杏, washed
• 1l water
• 400g lean meat (replaced with 25g rock candy冰糖)

Put all into slow cooker & cook over low heat for 3-4hrs. Better effect if serve warm but can be drink chilled.

MIlk Cupcake

As Hayden has not been feeling well past wk, thus, I decided to steam up some cupcakes for him. This rd, I added raisin to it but Hayden still preferred w/o raisin.

SB Marshmallow Cake & Milk Cupcakes

Hayden’s birthday is today so last nite, with no oven, I decided on making d SB marshmallow cake for his sch. However, I was only able to make a much smaller one so to ‘top’ it up; I also steam some milk cupcakes to bring along.
For this rd, I decided to use orea cookies as base since most of his classmate will be under 3yrs. However, even though I have made this quite a number of times, I was still unable to ‘catch’d right timing & thus, some of d cut strawberries sunken into d cake since it's not 'frozen' long enough. I tried to ‘save’ it but d cake is alrdy in ‘unsaved’ mode. I still went ahead & ‘cover’ it up with d jello. Hopefully, none will notice it.
As for d steam cupcake, I used 2 diff flavor pkt milk for a colored effect - Strawberries & Milo. Also, this time, I top up d batter till almost overflowing & mgd to get d ‘smiling’ effect after steaming! Job Well Done!
Hayden took 1 as BF & loved it! This is really a big improvement cause he rejected d last rd of unsmiling cupcake. Hurray!!!

Baked mini Donuts

Bought this donut maker during my last wk in Bkk & decided to give it a try last nite. However, as I have mis-read d recipe, d end pdt was not very good looking – flat & discolored. D recipe requested for 10ml but I have spooned only 6-7ml onto d cup because it’s alrdy overflowing to d side! Thus d flat looking donuts. But am not able to explained d 2-tone color.

But Hayden loves it! He finished 7 pieces during d walk from home to his sch!

• 75g All-purpose flour
• 35g sugar
• 2 tbsp coco powder
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 75ml fresh milk
• 1 egg
• 30g unsalted butter (melted)

1. Preheat donut maker for 5 mins.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl be4 adding d wet ingredients.
3. Stir till well mixed & smooth.
4. Fill each hole with 10ml of batter.
5. Close the lid and lock the latch.
6. Bake for 2 mins. Allow to cool & if desired, coat with icing sugar or top with jam for a sweeter version.

Milk Cupcake_Steamed

Saw this recipe on Blessed HomeMaker’s blog few days ago. It stated no mixer or oven needed, which is perfect for me! So here goes.

End result – a very rounded (same as BH’s previous attempt) Dome shape cupcake. Not smiling at all! ;-( In fact, it looks more like d originator Aunty Yochana's end pdt. So am not really sure if it's considered successfully or a failure. Both MIL & Hubby said it's good, strong milk flavor. But Hayden rejects it without even tasting it. Maybe I shd make it more presentable to kids & offer it to him again. Since it’s such an easy recipe & only yields 8 small cupcakes, am willingly to give it anther go, in fact, very soon.

• 170 g Fresh Milk (mixture of 1 pkt full cream (110g) & bal low-fat)
• 60 g sugar
• 100 g cake flour
• 20 g rice flour
• 2 tsp double-action baking powder

Whisk d milk & sugar till sugar has dissolved.
Add in remaining ingredients & stir well.
Spoon into small cups lined with paper liners/muffin cup.
Steam at high heat for 10-13 mins, or until cooked.
Remove and cool on wire rack.

Pear & Ginger muffins

Packers will be coming tomorrow to pack all d stuff, thus, tonite will be my last bake post unless it’s ABM baking related cause I don’t have oven in SG. For my last bake, I selected this recipe simply because I happened to have most of d ingredients on hand. & for tonite’s bake, I even happened to have a friend over to help out, who also became d 1st to taste it.
End result – very soft & tasty batch of muffins! Hurray! My last bake is successful! For this recipe, I actually reduced d amt of sugar & taster said that d sweetness is just right, coming mainly from d pears. Do note that it’s best eaten while still a bit warm out from oven.

• 1¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar (I used brown sugar)
• ½ cup plus 6 tsp packed light brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cup peeled & diced pears,
• ¼ cup candied ginger, diced

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk d flour, sugar & baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
3. In another bowl, mix sour cream, oil, honey, & eggs well be4 gently fold in into d dry mixture. DO NOT OVERMIX (note that this can be done d nite be4)
4. Fold in the diced pear & candied ginger. Again DO NOT OVERMIX.
5. Spoon batter evenly among the muffin cups to 2/3 full.
6. Then sprinkle d top with ½ tsp brown sugar & bake for 20mins. Remove & allow to cool be4 eating.

Chocolate Cheesecake

In 2 days time, we will be packing & moving out of Bkk! Time really flies! 3yr in Bkk (including 9mths of baking) & with no future plan of getting an oven in SG, d only regret that I have is – why I didn’t try out this Chocolate Cheesecake sooner! OMG! Hubby’s ofc gals felt that it tasted just like d cheesecake from Secret Recipes! WOW! Maybe this is really a good reason to get a new oven?

Base Ingredients

• 100g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 45g unsalted butter (melted)

Mix all well & press on d bottom of a 16cm spring form pan.

Fillings Ingredients

• 110g dark chocolate (chopped)
• 2 tbsp whipping cream
• 250g cream cheese (room temperature)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt chocolate in the heavy cream in a double boiler.
2. In another bowl, mix cream cheese & sugar well be4 adding in d egg & vanilla extract.
3. Then fold in d chocolate mixture. If u prefer a cake with marble effect, dont overmix.
4. Pour fillings into the spring form pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 150C oven until it is set, ard 45-60 mins.

Raspberry Coffee Cake

Another day of trying to ‘utilise all bal ingredients’. Long, long ago, I saved this recipe on my to-dos cause I love d simplicity of it. But then, I realised I cant find d main ingredient – Bisquick mix, in d local supermkt & recipe was 'shelved'. Then last wk, for some forgotten reason, I ‘researched’ on d word Bisquick & found out what Bisquick mix is made up of! Thus, tonite, I finally get to give this simply/easy recipe a try. Of course again, I made some changes. For example, instead of a green apple, I used frozen raspberries. And because of d frozen raspberries, I reduced d milk amt to cater for d liquid that will be released from d frozen raspberries during baking.
End result – quite a bland cake, 1 can only taste a bit of saltiness here & there (although am not sure why since I only added ¾tsp of salt). D top is a bit crusty but underneath is a very soft cake. Both Hubby & MIL prefer yesterday’s peach-a-berry tart as compared to this cake. In fact, Hubby's ofc's gals thot I forgotten to put in sugar! That's how bland it was!

• 2 cups Bisquick mix*
• ½ cup low-fat milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup frozen raspberries (unthawed)

* replaced with 2cups flour + 3tsp bking powder + ¾tsp of salt + 2tbsp melted unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Grease 9" round pan. Mix all ingredients & spread ½ batter onto pan.
3. Put in d raspberries & spread d rest of d batter onto of it.
4. Bake 30 mins or until golden brown, testing with a toothpick.

Peach-a-Berry tart

Another interesting recipe for me to utilize some of my bal ingredients – Peach-a-Berry pie. As usual, I made some changes in order to finish up my ingredients. Also, recipe requires 2 pie crust but I only used 1 as base, thus, my pie is kind of ‘topless’, looking more like tart than pie.
End result – a very ugly looking pie but taste GREAT! D sour taste of d raspberries adds a very nice ‘touch’ to d overall sweetness of d pie. D bal streusel topping that I added on top also added a crusty ‘bite’ to d pie, which to me, is a nice additional too. But might slice up d peaches next time in order to make it look better. Or maybe it's supposed to look so ugly, thus, d need for a 2nd crust to cover it up... mmmmm

• 1 can of halves peaches – drained
• 1 cup frozen raspberries – thawed & drained
• ½ cup white sugar
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pie crust
• ½ cup Streusel Topping

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Gently mix peaches & berries with sugar, flour, & cinnamon. Transfer all onto d pie crust. Sprinkle with streusel toppings be4 spreading thin slices of unsalted butter across d top.
3. Bake 50 mins in d preheated oven, until crust is golden brown.

SB Marshmallow Cake_III

Hubby’s ofc gals requested for d Strawberry Marshmallow cake so I checked for ingredients. No normal UHT milk but lots of strawberry pkt milk, no red/pink color jello but got blue (berries flavour) color jello… mmm… I went ahead & made it. So here’s a diff color version of d SB MM cake (no-bake).

Dried Fig Muffins

Hayden has been sick with diarrhea & vomiting after his sch Halloween’s party. And he’s not eating at all because he was aware that he will be vomiting them out later. Thus, within 2 days, he has lost almost 1kg! Even d doc suggested putting him on drip in order to ensure he does not dehydrate further & stress out his kidneys. But in d end, hubby decided to take him home & try medication instead. So, with Hayden not eating well, I went online to search for something to bake that will have a strong taste to get Hayden interested in eating again.
That’s when I saw this interesting muffin receipe from HHB’s blog & since I love figs, I decided to give it a try. But as usual, I made some adjustment to it to reduce d sweetness since d originator stated in her post that it’s still too sweet for her even after she has reduced d amt.
End result – Hayden ate ½ muffin! Hubby commented that d muffin texture is ok but it’s too sweet for him & he does not like it at all. I informed him that I have reduced d sugar amt by 1/3 alrdy & d sweetness is from d figs. Well, cant go rd & please everyone. Since d main aim is to get Hayden to eat, I will consider this a success…
Yield 9 muffins

• 205g dried figs (de-stem & cut quarters)
• 90g unsalted butter
• 250ml apple juice
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 315g plain flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 125g sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Heat juice & butter in a saucepan over low heat until butter has melted.
2. Remove from heat & add in figs & zest. Leave to cool for abt 1hr or till figs r softened.
3. Preheat oven to 170C.
4. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, salt & baking powder.
4. Make a well in d centre & add all d wet ingredients. Stir until just combined with d batter still slightly lumpy. Do not over-mix.
5. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to d rim of d cup.
6. Bake for abt 25-30 mins or until golden. U can also insert a toothpick into d centre & it’s done when toothpick comes out clean. Transfer muffin onto cooling rack & leave to cool completely.

Seduction Brownies

Tomorrow is Halloween & Hayden is required to bring 1 dish to his sch party. So here I was, searching for a easy recipe to try out, when I went back to Cookie Baker Lynn’s blog. She really loves brownies & as I was browsing through, I saw a rather simple recipe that I think I shd be able to handle so here goes - Seduction Brownies.
It’s really a very easy recipe but am not sure why my brownies does not look like d original pics. At first, I thot it might be because I didn’t prepare d ganache (didn’t want d kids to get too much chcocolate). Then I realised d round baking pan might be d reason. D brownie came out with BIG cracks all around & d inside r still slightly wet. I was still trying to figure out whether to consider this a failure when Hubby happened to walk in & saw it. He’s a chocolate fan & requested for a slice so I cut 1 for him to taste. He loved it! MIL also tried a bite & find it very bitter at first, followed by a sweet taste after it has ‘flow’ down her throat. Interesting cause I have alrdy reduced d amt of sugar. Mmm….
But now with a slice in my hubby’s tummy & cracks all over it, I cant send this to Hayden’s sch. So I baked another 1, this time using d same size pan as stated in d original post – 20cm square baking pan. This time, d brownie looks so much better than d 1st attempt & there is no visible cracks on d brownie after it’s be remove from d oven! Hurray! Even though it still looks flatter as compared to d original pics but shd still be consider a success (at least to me) ;-p

Hubby's ofc gals commented d rd brownie is not soft enough. However, Hayden's sch loves d flatter brownie. So I guess I shd be baking this in d square pan next time.
115g unsalted butter
115g unsweetened chocolate chips
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup or 105g all-purpose flour
½ cup or 65g chopped almonds

1. Preheat oven to 140C. Butter an 20cm square baking dish.
2. Melt butter & unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler, stirring often.
3. Once melted, remove from heat be4 stirring in d sugar, followed by eggs & vanilla extract.
4. Fold in d flour & nuts, stirring just till incorporated. Scrape batter into prepared pan & smooth d top.
5. Bake for 25 mins. Cool completely on a wire rack be4 cutting.

Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Was just browsing ard d web when I chanced upon Kevin’s blog & drawn by some of his bakes. I was very interested in 1 of his BF recipe – Blueberry & Lemon Coffee cake. However, with 2 toddlers ard, am not sure if coffee cake is d right thing for them until I found out that a coffee cake does not necessarily have coffee! D name mainly suggest serving d cake with coffee! Great, since tomorrow is Sunday, I decided to give this recipe a try.
It’s really a very simple cake. However, hubby & MIL prefer me to reduce d amt of sugar so I decided to omit d toppings. Also, as mentioned in my past few bakes, I believed weather temp plays a part in d batter so instead of adding all d milk at 1 go, I pour it in part by part & stop when I feel that d batter is wet enough. So there will be some slight diff betw my ingredients as compared to d originator – Kevin’s.
End result – OMG! It tasted really GOOD! I wld actually considered this a success bake even though it’s flatter as compared against Kevin’s cake given d fact I actually used a smaller pan (8’x8’). I really love it! MIL commented that she can tasted very strong lemon but hubby brushed that aside & said it’s actually very nicely done, very light & fluffy. ;->

Ingredients:
2 cup flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
90g butter (soften)
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
100ml milk
1 cup wild blueberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Directions:
1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Cream butter & sugar in a bowl.
3. Mix in eggs.
4. Fold d flour mixture & milk into butter/sugar mixture.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Pour mixture into a greased 8' x 8' baking pan. Sprinkle grated lemon rind over d top.
7. Bake in a preheated 170C oven for abt 35 mins.
note - Kevin also mentioned this coffee cake freezes well so it can easily be store away in d freezer for another time.

Gula Melaka AgarAgar

With 2 toddlers at home, I decided to give this dessert recipe a try after reading abt it from BH’s blog. However, after taking note that my MIL prefer tougher agar agar, I reduced d liquid amt.End result - a tough agar agar, MIL commented too tough & Hayden does not like it. But both my mum & my nephew took 3 pieces each! Guess 1 cant make everyone happy…

Ingredients - Milk Layer
1 tbsp agar agar powder
500 ml water
80g condensed milk

Method
1. Put d water in a saucepan & turn on d heat, then whisk in agar agar.
2. Cook until agar agar is dissolved, then add in d condensed milk.
3. Pour into a cake pan to cool be4 popping into d fridge to set. Once it’s set, use a cutter to cut out the pattern & remove d cut-out with a toothpick. Lease aside in another bowl. Put both back into d fridge while you prepare d brown layer.

Ingredients - Brown layer
7g agar agar powder
600 ml water
100g gula melaka
35g sugar

1. Boil all d ingredients together until dissolved.
2. Pass ½ of d mixture through a fine sieve onto d prepared milky layer pan. Pop back into fridge to harden.
3. Place d previous milky cut-out shapes into small jelly moulds & fill up with bal brown layer. Leave to cool be4 putting into fridge to set.
Once set, remove from pan/mold & serve.

Yoghurt Panna cotta

I found out abt Bill Granger when I was searching for a good/easy scone recipe. After gg through some of his recipes & shows, I realised he always tries to provide simple & easy recipes to suit any novice who’s interested in learning to cook/bake. N because of that, I became a fan! So there’s another simple dessert recipe 'Yoghurt Pannacotta' from Bill Granger. I dont really know what Panna Cotta meant until I researched for it on Wikipedia. It actually & literally meant "cooked cream" in Italian.
I actually made this 2 days ago but posted-phone d posting cause am missing 1 ingredient for d topping. However, after 2 days, I still have not got d rose-water. So I decided to replace it with honey instead. It’s really a very easy dessert to prepare. Taste a little heavy (due to d cream), bit sour (due to d raspberries) & sweet (due to d honey) all at 1 mouth. Great add-on after a light meal!

• 185 ml Cream
• 55 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• 1½ leaves Gelatine
• 250 g Honey yoghurt

1. Place cream, sugar & vanilla extract in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then just bring to the boil before removing from heat.


2. Soak gelatin leaves in cold water until soft. Squeeze out excess water & drop it into the hot cream mixture & whisk until dissolved.


3. Add yoghurt & whisk until smooth. Strain mixture through a fine sieve.


4. Divide mixture betw four 100 ml cup, cover with plastic wrap & chill for minimum 3 hours, or until just set.

Toppings

• ½ cup of frozen rasberries, thawed
• ½ tbsp icing sugar sifted
• 1 tbsp honey, runny

Place half of d rasberries in a glass bowl & crush with a fork. Stir in the icing sugar & taste for sweetness. Fold in remaining raspberries & d honey. Chill until ready to serve. To serve, place spoonfuls of the honey rasberries on top of each pannacotta & serve immediately.