Scones

6Jul2012

This is a very easy recipe. Whenever  I run out of idea what to eat for breakfast the next morning, I will think of scone. It is easy to make and short preparation time and most important it taste very would whether you eat it plain or with jam and butter. For this reason, I made scone quite often. My family love them too. There were few times my husband commended that those that he bought from bakery are not as nice as homemade scone. And for this reason, I am  encouraged to bake homemade scones  for my family and friends. Sometime, I made them for my cell meeting too. This is also a lovely gift to share with neighbours too.

You may also view this in my facebook page Catherine's Cooking Journal

Ingredients

250g  self-raising flour

50g butter

2 tablespoon caster sugar

75g raisins (you can replace with mixed dried fruit or dried cranberries)

150ml - milk added 1beated egg

Method

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and fruit. Add enough milk to give a fairly soft dough.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface, knead very gently (do not over knead) then roll out to a 2 cm thickness. Cut into 5cm rounds and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Brush with milk and bake in a preheat hot oven , traditional oven 220° C for 10 min -12min or when it is slight brown on the top. Cool on a wire rack.

You can cut it half and spread with butter and jam to serve or just eat it plain.

Note on 18/September/2014:

For the first time I have tried using oven fan function at temp 200°C. To my surprise the scones turn out very good. Using  fan function, the scones brown very fast. Though I have set 10min but at about 8minutes it was almost done. I would suggest 200°C oven fan and bake for 10min. 

Beancurd Roll (Ngoh Hiang 五香)

Learn this beancurd roll  from  my mother-in-law who loves cooking and trying out new dish on her own without recipe. This is the dish that she has been doing it for over 40 years. however family, especially my 2 children, love beancurd roll. As my children love this dish so much thatrecommendfinitely prepare for every Chinese New Year and after years it become a MUST  dish for Chinese New Year. I will prepare them few days before Chinese New Year and store them in the frozen section of my refrigrator.  For this recipe, I have added yam. However, if you do not like yam, you can omit it. Personally, I find with added yam make the beancurd roll tastier because of the  yam texture and the aroma. 

Ingredients :

1 pc of Beancurd skin

500gm Mince Meat

500gm Prawn (mince)

1 carrot                       )          

¼  Yam                        )     cut and chop into small pieces

5 water chestnut        )         

5 stalks spring onion  (cut into small bit)           

1 tbsp five spices powder

1 tbsp coriander powder(Home fried n grind*)

3 tbsp light sauce

1 ½ tsp sugar

2 tsp potato flour (can replace by plain / corn flour)

1 egg

Dash of pepper

Method :

Remove shell  from the prawn. Wash and use kitchen paper towel to dry it. Mince it.

Put all ingredients (except potatoes flour and egg) into a large pot or bowl.  Mixed well. Then add potato flour and egg.  Mix them well. If the mixture is too moisture,  add another teaspoon of flour. Set aside in the fridge if you are not going to wrap them immediately.

Cut the beancurd skin into size of 6cm x 8cm.

Wrap the mixture in the beancurd skin.

Deep fry beancurd roll in pre-heated oil till it is golden brown. 

*Note: Fry the coriander seeds in a wok without oil till fragrant then grind into powder. If you do not have home made coriander powder,  you can omit this item. I would not suggest you buy ready made unless it is fried before grind. As the taste for unfried coriander powder be very different. 

Special note 1: This dish depend alot on the bean skin saltiness.  So I suggest you scoop a small amount n wrap with a small piece of skin n deep fry to taste whether it is to your desire taste. Because I have reduced the saltiness in this recipe. Usually it will be just right. 

Special note 2 (dated 22/Jan/2014) : Some bean skin are very salty whereas some are not. Even the same brand bean skin vary. Yesterday I used the usual one that was bought from Fairfare, it was not salty. Personally, I prefer Fairprice Pasar brand because the colour after deep fried n saltiness is just right for my taste.  Some bean skin turn brown very easily when it is put into hot oil. Would recommend once oil is heated , lower the fire to medium then put in the roll to deep fry then adjust to high fire again. Adjust the fire according to the colour of the bean skin.  Usually, I will use high fire to deep fry. This process of adjusting the fire is to prevent the roll get burn too quickly and meat not cooked. It is recommended to use high fire just before rolls are remove from fire so that the rolls will not be oily when eat.

Double Chocolate Chips Muffins

My husband and children love chocolate.  My husband only eat chocolate cake and brownie. He loves chocolate so much that he needs to have one serving every day after dinner. Since they love all kinds of chocolate dessert and cake, I bake this double chocolate muffin with unsweeten cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate which give you the rich chocolate favour.

Ingredients
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweeten cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder ( add only 1 tsp if use self-raising flour)
¾ cup white sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ cup fresh milk
1 egg (beat)
125gm butter (melt)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¾ cup chopped walnut (optional)


Method
Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda ,baking powder, chocolate chips, walnut, sugar and salt in big bowl.
Mix melt butter, fresh milk and beated egg in a big jug and pour into the dry ingredients and mix them together. Do not over mixed.
Spoon into the prepared muffin cases. Bake in a preheated oven (175 degree celcius) for 20-25 minutes.

You may like to try these muffins recipes
1. Blueberry Yogurt Muffins
2. Blueberry Banana Muffins
3. Orange Muffins