Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

Christmas baking was started three weeks ago. Sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and pinwheel cookies are the three main cookies on my list. Baking these cookies was a multi-step project; preparing dough, refrigerating dough, rolling out dough, cutting into various shapes, baking, cooling, preparing icing, decorating, air-drying, storing etc. Before Christmas, most of these cookies had been given away to family and friends. Of course, there’s always some for home consumption ;)

Recipes of cookies to be followed…

Mango sticky rice is a popular Thai dessert; prepared with glutinous rice (sticky rice), coconut milk and fresh mango. It’s best served with freshly steamed rice and juicy mango, drizzled with fragrant coconut milk. I’ve tasted it in Thailand and absolutely loved it! I prepared homemade mango sticky rice for the very first time and it turned out great. Here is the recipe for sharing:

Ingredients:

(A) Rice
1/2 cup glutinous rice (sticky rice)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
1 ripe yellow mango, sliced

(B) Topping sauce
1/4 cup coconut milk
pinch of salt
1 tsp white sugar

Directions:
1. Pre-soak glutinous rice in warm water for at least one hour prior to cooking.
2. Steam rice on medium high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until cooked.
3. Meanwhile, on a lightly heated saucepan, add 1/2 cup of coconut milk (well shaken from can) together with 1 tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir mixture on low heat until fully dissolved.
4. To prepare topping sauce, mix together 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp sugar, and pinch of salt in a separate saucepan on low heat. Again, stir mixture on low heat until completely dissolved.
5. When rice is cooked, pour coconut mixture from step (3) onto it. Stir well. Allow rice to absorb coconut milk for 10 minutes.
6. Place sliced mango beside the rice, and drizzle desired amount of topping sauce from step (4) on them. Garnish rice with toasted sesame seeds.

It’s that time of year again, strawberry picking season. Yay! After the tiring moving, unpacking, organizing, cleaning etc., enjoying some freshly picked strawberries might not be a bad idea. On top of that, I’ve moved closer to the u-pick farm. This year’s season is a little slow starting, due to the cool weather and consistent rain in the spring.

Miles and I visited the Sunset U-pick farm this week. Strawberries are sold at $1.30/lb or $2.10/quart basket. Pre-picked berries are available at $3.50/quart basket. I think the whole idea of visiting the farm is to be able to pick my own berries; as many as I want! 

Fresh berries are great for making strawberry shortcakes too! Home-baked tea biscuits with whipped cream and generous serving of fresh berries. Yummm….

An improvised recipe from my very first attempt of making steamed buns. Personally, I still prefer the traditional pork filling in steamed buns. It was through friend sharing and personal experience that the recipe has been a great success.

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp instant yeast
1 kg all-purpose flour
6 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp baking powder

Directions:
1. Dissolve sugar in the warm water. Add yeast into the sugar mixture. Let stand for around 5 to 10 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, sugar, yeast mixture from step (1), and cooking oil. Knead dough for 10-15 minutes or until it’s smooth.
3. Add baking powder into the dough. Knead for a few more minutes.
4. Keep dough in a bowl at a warm place for about 45 minutes, or until doubled.
5. On a lightly floured surface, punch down the dough and divide dough into ~14 pieces.
6. Roll each piece of dough out with a rolling pin. Wrap favourite pork mixture with the dough. Bring the edges together by pleating, and seal the bun in the final step. Repeat with the rest of dough and pork mixture.
7. Prepare a pot of hot boiling water. Line individual buns with waxed paper on the bottom. Steam buns on medium heat for 10 minutes.
8. Serve while warm. Enjoy!

It has been ages since my last post ;) Here is a recipe for delicious Mexican coffee buns (a.k.a. Rotiboy) I’d love to share!

These buns are a big hit in Malaysia and Singapore. Customers will patiently wait in line to savour the buns fresh from the oven! Bakery shops usually have such a great turnover, specially during lunch or rush hour that these buns are instantly gone within minutes after coming out from the oven!

Despite the tedious process to make these buns, it was well worth the effort ;) Hope you’ll enjoy them too.

Ingredients:

(A) Sweet Bun Dough
500 g (~ < 3cup) bread flour
20 g (~ 2 tbsp + 1 tsp) milk powder
75 g (~ 1/2 cup) icing sugar
6 g (< 1 tsp) salt 8 g (2 + 1/4 tsp) instant yeast 1 egg, lightly beaten 270 g water 60 g (~ 1/3 cup) butter, softened

(B) Coffee Topping
200 g butter, softened
160 g icing sugar, sifted
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp warm water
Pinch of ground cinnamon
200 g (> 1 + 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour, sifted

(C) Filling
200 g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70 g (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) brown sugar

Directions:
(A)
1. Dissolve icing sugar in warm water (about 40 degrees Celsius). Add yeast and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine bread flour, milk powder, and salt, in a mixing bowl.
3. Make a well at the centre of the flour mixture, gradually pour in the yeast mixture from (1), egg, and butter. Knead dough for about 10 minutes.
4. Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap. Keep in a warm place, for about one hour, or until dough doubles its size.

(B)
1. Beat butter and icing sugar with electric hand mixer for about 5 minutes, on medium speed, until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs gradually.
2. Next, dissolve instant coffee powder in warm water. Pour the coffee into the mixture.
3. Sift flour into mixture and mix with electric hand mixer on low speed until it’s well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

(C)
1. Beat butter with an electric hand mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed. Blend in salt, vanilla extract, and brown sugar.
2. Refrigerate the filling until firm.

Finally……
1. Divide the bun dough into 12 portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Flatten the dough, insert filling from (C), and pinch the edges of dough together.
2. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in warm place, until the size doubles.
3. When the dough is ready, scoop the topping mixture from (B) into a piping bag and pipe the topping in a spiral pattern onto the buns.
4. Bake them in a preheated oven at 400 F for 12-15 minutes, or until the buns are lightly brown.
5. Let the buns cool. These buns are best to serve warm! (*drooling*)

Polo bun is one of my favourite buns by far; filled with yummy taro paste. Delicious!

Ingredients:

(A) Sweet bun dough
1 tsp dry active yeast
70 g water
10 g icing sugar
150 g bread flour
1 tbsp milk powder
1/4 tsp salt
15 g butter, soften
1 tbsp beaten egg

(B) Polo skin
30 g butter, soften
25 g sugar
1/2 tsp milk powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp beaten egg
50 g all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Heat up water in microwave until temperature reaches around 40 degrees Celsius. Dissolve icing sugar in warm water. Add yeast and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. While waiting, combine bread flour, milk powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. Make a well at the centre of the flour mixture, gradually pour in the yeast mixture from (1), butter, and egg, while kneading. Knead dough for 10 minutes.
4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Rest the bowl in a warm place. Allow dough to rise for about one hour, or till 2.5 times bigger.
5. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. Divide dough into four equal portions. Insert filling (optional) into the bun dough. Taro paste was used here. Place bun dough on a non-stick baking sheet and let rise for 15 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the polo skin by beating the butter with a hand mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed. Mix in sugar, milk powder, salt. Stir well. Pour in the beaten egg 1/2 tbsp at a time to ensure that it’s well mixed.
7. Then, pour in all-purpose flour into the egg mixture from (6). Mix just enough to combine.
8. Divide the polo skin dough into 4 portions. Press each skin dough onto the bun dough. The top surface of bun dough should be covered by the skin dough.
9. Brush the surface of polo skin dough with remaining beaten egg, with a pastry brush. Cut pineapple patterns on the top surface with a sharp knife. Let dough rest in a warm place until the size doubled.
10. Bake them in a preheated oven at 355 F (180 degrees Celsius) for about 15 minutes, or until the buns turn light brown.
11. Enjoy the buns while warm!

* Yield: 4 buns
* Prep time: 1 hour 15 minutes
* Overall time: 2.5 hours

Ingredients:

1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/3 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (around 40 degrees Celsius)
2 cup bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
8 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp water

Directions:
1. Prepare the warm milk with by heating up milk in the microwave. Dissolve sugar in the milk. Stir well. Add the yeast and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine bread flour, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Mix well.
3. Make a well at the centre of flour mixture, pour in the yeast mixture from (1) gradually. Be sure to combine them well.
4. Next, reserve 1 tbsp of beaten eggs for later. Add remaining beaten eggs and vegetable oil into the dough from (3). Knead dough for 10 minutes until it is soft and smooth.
5. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Rest the bowl in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough doubled.
6. When dough is ready, punch down the dough at the centre to release air. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 10 to 15 minutes until it is soft and pliable. Divide dough into 12 portions. Roll the dough out to get a circular shape with a rolling pin. Wrap dough with your favourite filling (e.g. red bean paste, meat filling etc.). Make sure to seal the filling well by bringing the corners together and pinching down the dough.
7. Let the dough rest on a non-stick baking tray in a warm place for an hour, or until the size doubled. Wrap tray with plastic wrap.
8. Remove the plastic wrap. To prepare egg wash, mix the 1 tbsp beaten egg with 2 tsp water. Brush the egg wash on dough with a pastry brush. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes, or until the surface of buns are lightly brown.

* Yield: 12 buns
* Prep time: 1.5 hours
* Overall time: 3 hours

Sausage sandwiched in a sweet bun, sprinkled with sesame seeds. A delicious snack!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 + 1/2 tbsp sugar
100 ml milk
1 + 1/2 tbsp butter, soften
2 egg, lightly beaten
2 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
10 sausages
1 tbsp water
3 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Microwave milk for about 30 seconds, until temperature reaches around 40 degrees Celsius. Dissolve sugar in milk and add yeast into the mixture. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour and salt. Make a well at the centre of the flour mixture. Pour in the yeast mixture from (1), butter, and one egg.
3. Mix all ingredients well with hand until they are well combined. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
4. Leave dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, and cover with a plastic wrap. Rest the bowl in a warm place for an hour, or until the dough doubles its size.
5. Meanwhile, prepare a pot of boiling water and cook the sausages. Drain off the water in the pot and let sausages cool off.
6. When dough has doubled, punch down the centre of dough. On a lightly floured surface, knead for 10 to 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable.
7. Divide dough into 10 pieces. Roll the dough into individual rod shapes. Wrap dough over the each sausage.
8. Place them on an ungreased baking tray. Cover tray with plastic wrap. Leave them for 20 minutes in a warm place.
9. Add 1 tbsp water into one lightly beaten egg. Apply egg wash on the dough and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven at 355 F (180 degrees Celsius) for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

* Yield: 10 buns
* Prep time: 1 hour 20 minutes
* Overall time: ~ 2.5 hours

The Golden Cake recipe used in preparing the Checkerboard Cake.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
2. Subsequently, beat in milk and vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat in the flour mixture gradually with the wet ingredients from (2), just enough to mix.
5. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 8-inch round cake pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Let cool in the cake pan for 10 minutes before resting the cake on a cooling rack. Wait till the cake is completely cool before cutting.

For the chocolate layer, substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with cocoa powder. Follow the steps above.

I have the liking of checkerboad patterns. One of my favourite childhood cookies is checkerboard cookies. Wouldn’t it be nice to have checkerboard cake too?

Miles and I attempted two checkerboard cake in the past, one of which is the Festive Birthday Cake for our friend, Josie. Finding the cake cutters of different sizes was one of the greatest challenges. We found stainless steel sheet from the hardware store and made ourselves some.

Next, the recipe. Regular moist cake recipe doesn’t work too great as the cake will be too soft to handle. Hence, we tried the pound cake recipe. The texture turned out fabulous! However, I find the cake too dense. It’s not enjoyable to be eating a dense cake. Now, I’ll have to get a cake recipe that will give me a cake that’s firm enough to handle, but also moist enough to taste good. I think I’ve found one!

This recipe is modified from a golden cake recipe, and it works wonderful for making checkerboard cake!

Our second checkerboard cake attempt, with a pound cake.

The third attempt, with a golden cake recipe.

Many might wonder, how is checkerboard cake prepared? An easy answer to this: you’d need a chocolate cake and white/yellow cake. The tricky part is assembling the cake.

8-inch golden cake that was cut into half in height. Rings of various sizes (6, 4 and 2-inch) were used to cut the cake.

The same idea applied to the chocolate cake.

The nerve-racking moment was to assemble the cake. Chocolate and golden cake rings were placed in an alternate fashion. Decorate the next layer starting from the opposite color of cake ring. Icing was used to keep the rings intact.

It has been a rainy week this week. Although there are tons of things on my -to-do list, I didn’t feel motivated enough doing them. Hence, I decided that I should experiment on a self-improvised checkerboard cake recipe to relax my mind.

Here is my latest creation. Happy Summer!

*hope the rain will soon be gone*

When Miles informed me about a month ago that his classmates would like him to share a graduation cake with the group, the first thing that came into my mind was “this is going to be a challenging one!” Part of the reason, of course, is that Miles had a picture of a fancy graduation cake in mind.

From our first cake with fondant, to creating a Chocolate Cherry Cake, and later on a Festive Birthday Cake, we’ve learned a lot about cake decorations. This time around, is the ultimate challenge! Here is the big picture: two-layered cake resembles the laboratory bench and a drawer, plus some laboratory apparatus on the bench.

The cake making started a week before the cake even exists! To prepare Erlenmeyer flask and beaker, we used cereal treats (a.k.a. rice krispies). The same recipe as Rice Krispie Squares, except that we hand-molded the rice krispies into shapes of flask and beaker.

Miles prepared the second beaker, a stirring rod, as well as freehand flask, beaker, and funnel cut out shapes with gum paste (also known as sugar paste). They were let air-dry for several days.

One 9 x 13 x 2 inch marble cake was iced on top of the other, with white icing. Then, the cake was covered with fondant. Staying up “early” till 4 a.m. in the morning wasn’t very fun. But guess what? At least we got the major parts of the cake done. *Phew*

The Masterpiece that took us hours and hours to complete. A laboratory themed cake!

Erlenmeyer flask with Johnny Jump-ups around it. They are edible flowers that make nice decorations.

Bubbling potassium dichromate in the beaker. Caution! It’s hot to handle!

Chlorine gas is released from the beaker with a stirring rod. Spooky….

Happy Graduation to all the future graduates! Hope everyone enjoyed the cake ^v*

Time flies. Miles and I celebrated our first anniversary as a couple recently. When it comes to anniversary, there are different ways to celebrate it. It could be a romantic candle light dinner, a bouquet of flowers, a nice gift etc. A nice surprise, in my opinion, is a wonderful way to celebrate anniversary.

Having told that there will be an anniversary cake, I had no idea what the cake will look like, besides for it being a heart-shaped cake.

Surprise! A nicely decorated anniversary cake that Miles prepared in the midst of his hectic exam schedule. How sweet! p/s: very neat handwriting for one who doesn’t grow up learning Chinese.

The “interior” of the cake; red and blue (Miles’ and my favourite colour, respectively) marble patterns, with chocolate ganache in the middle, and topped with buttercream icing.

Of course, we shared the cake with friends too. It was one of the best homemade cake I ever had; rich but not too sweet. Very well done (someone mistakenly thought it was store-bought)!

Happy Anniversary, Miles! Thank you very much for the lovely cake :)

I came across with this Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe last week and decided to give it a try. This is definitely a keeper! 

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 + 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
2. Next, dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to the batter along with salt. Stir in flour.
3. Lastly, stir in chocolate chips. On a ungreased cookie sheet, drop cookie dough by large spoonfuls, about an inch apart.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes, or until edges are lightly brown. For crunchier cookie texture, extend baking time for another one to two minutes.

* Yield: ~ 4 dozens

Baked buns (or ” siu pau” in Cantonese, “shao bao” in Mandarin) are Miles’ new favourite. This time around, I made smaller buns (~ 18 buns) with thinner pastry and more meat filling.

Recipe can be found here. I used pork this time, for a change. It tasted just as great!