Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

It was Halloween on Sunday. People with their Halloween costumes were seen walking around town on the weekend. I prepared some Halloween treats for the special occassion ;)

I liked the one on the front left. He was quite a character ;)

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*

Do you like soft cookies, or crunchy ones? Personally, I like the texture that lies in between; not too soft and not too hard. The baking time, hence, plays a major role in determining the texture of cookies. I usually bring cookies out of the oven when they start turning brown on the side. The cooling process allows them to harden some. Therefore, cookies will taste crunchy but soft for chewing ;)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 + 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
1 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cup rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the eggs, vanilla extract, and honey.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, baking soda, and ground cinnamon. Next, gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture from step (1). Stir until well incorporated.
3. Lastly, stir in the rolled oats and raisins, just enough to mix.
4. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto a lined cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 10 to 15 minutes, or until cookies start to brown. Remove from baking sheet and cook on wire racks.

* Adapted from Allrecipes.com

A soft, squishy texture of this special dish has granted itself a unique name, otak-otak (meaning brain in Malay). Otak-otak is a fish cake prepared by blending fish fillet, onion, coconut milk and a mixture of spices (turmeric, lemon grass, galangal etc.) into a fine paste, wrapped in banana leaf, and then either steamed, grilled, or baked. It is a popular dish in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

The otak-otak recipe caught my eyes one day and I decided to give it a try. Sure enough, it reminded me a lot of the Malaysian otak-otak. Yummy!

Ingredients:
(A)
~ 500g fish fillet, chopped
1 medium onion
1 tsp belacan chili
1 tsp lemon grass powder
1 tsp galangal powder
4 dried red chilies
180 ml thick coconut milk

(B)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 egg
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Grind ingredients (A) with a kitchen blender until a fine paste is formed.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together the fish paste and turmeric powder. Add the rest of the ingredients (B) into the fish paste. Beat the mixture until smooth.
3. Rub some oil on the banana leaf. Pour the fish mixture onto a 20 cm x 20 cm banana leaf. Wrap around tightly.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 15-20 minutes, or until firm to touch.

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!

If there is snowman, there should also be snowwoman! Miles and I found a snowman cake pan from Wal-mart before Christmas. We’ve been waiting for to bake a snowman cake. And guess what, snowwoman is getting into the picture too!

Snowman is dressed in his manly black hat and a red scarf.

Snowwoman is dressed in a girly pinky scarf, with a purple and pink hat.

Christmas is just around the corner! For a Christmas potluck/Yankee swap at work, Miles and I made some gingerbread cookies with royal icing. Yummm…

It was my first time making gingerbread cookies and they turned out wonderful. Nonetheless, I’ll probably put an extra teaspoon or two of ground ginger next time around, for more “gingery” taste cookies :)

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
6 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup shortening, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together shortening, molasses, brown sugar, water, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. Next, gradually stir in the dry ingredients from (1), until they are well incorporated.
3. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Pat down to 1+1/2 inch thickness each, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto a cookie sheet.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies will look dry when done, but still be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on wire racks.
6. Decorate cookies when cookies are cooled completely.

* Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Royal Icing

Ingredients:
3 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 egg white, beaten

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, sift together icing sugar and cream of tartar. Using an electric hand mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for approximately 5 minutes, or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.
2. Add food colouring into icing accordingly. Mix well. Insert icing into an icing bag and decorate cookies accordingly.

* Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Josie, a good friend of Miles and I celebrated her birthday last weekend. We wanted to prepare a birthday cake for her during a Christmas/birthday party at her place. The first question that came into my mind was, “how am I going to incorporate the two themes into the cake?”

Tier cake, fondant covered cake, layered cake etc. After a few days of discussion, we finally decided on a checkerboard cake. Mind you, it’s a festive checkerboard cake!

Josie’s wedding bouquet had her favourite white roses and orange lilies. To personalized the birthday cake, I handmade the flowers with fondant and gum paste as cake decorations.

It seems like a long process preparing just a 4-layer 8-inch round cake. Nevertheless, Miles and I had great fun preparing it, despite the challenging part where we had to put the rings of cake together. A good try!

We were glad that Josie enjoyed the cake. All the “wows” and ‘wahs” we received for the pretty flowers and a surprise festive checkerboard pattern as everyone savoured the cake.