Baked Custard Mooncake

Have wanted to make baked custard mooncake since last year. Finally today I fulfill that "dream". 

Viewed through many blogs, both English and Chinese, and also You Tube.  This is my Baked Custard mooncake.

Custard Filling:

25g soften butter

60g caster sugar

3 egg yolks

1 tbsp homemade condensed milk 

100ml coconut milk

20g plain flour 

15g custard powder

10g tapioca flour 

In a bowl, combine flour, custard powder and tapioca flour with a whisk.  In another bowl, use a wooden spoon, stir or beat the butter and sugar until it form a light creamy texture. Add egg one at a time and beat until combined. Add in condensed milk, coconut milk and mix them well.  Sift flour mixture into the egg mixture and mix until well combined. 

2. Pour the mixture into a bowl and steam over medium heat for 25 mins. Stir every 5 mins during steaming process.  Set aside for mixture to cool a little.

3. While the custard is still warm, wear a  powder free vinyl glove and knead or press custard until smooth. Then wrap it in a plastic bag or cling wrap. Chill it in the refrigerator for over night or minimum half hour before use.

Pastry:

110g soften salted butter

68g icing sugar
20ml groundnut oil

1 whole egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

230g all purpose flour 

38g custard powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 sea salt

Egg wash :

1 egg yolk + 2 tbsp water + 1 tsp milk, mix well and strained.

1. In a food processor pulse function, cream butter , oil and sugar into light creamy texture. Add beaten egg and vanilla essence and sea salt, then continue pulse function to well combined. (You may use hand whisk or mixer)

2. Sift plain flour, custard powder and baking powder into a big bowl. Add the butter mixture into flour mixture and mix them will a spatula until it form a soft dough. Wrap dough into a plastic bag or wrap with cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour. I rest mine for half a day. 

3. Divide the custard filling into 20g each and pastry dough into 36g each. Shape each into balls. Set aside. Note: for baked custard, in order to have crispy custard, the pastry need to be thicker. Therefore, filling is less than pastry unlike traditional mooncake.

4. Take a pastry ball and flatten it with your palm(please wear glove for hygiene purpose). Place a custard ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the custard filling inside the pastry and roll them into smooth ball. 

5. Prepare some plain flour in a plate. Roll the round mooncake on the flour. Shake away any excess flour. Place the mooncake ball onto the baking tray laid with parchment paper. Use the mooncake mould and press over it gently, then release the mooncake on the tray.  Continue the rest until they are all done.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spray some water onto the mooncakes just before putting into the oven and bake for 10min. Remove the mooncake from oven. Turn oven temperature down to 175°C. Allow the mooncakes to cool slightly on the tray for 10 mins. Brush eggwash onto the mooncakes. Return the mooncake into oven and bake for another 15mins.  The cooling process is necessary to prevent the filling expand and pastry crack. As I did not wait for 10mins. So they crack during 2nd baking. Lesson learnt.

This is after 10min after first baked, the colour was a little more pale before eggwash. 

Enjoy!😊 Share with me if you have use this recipe. I will be glad hear from you.😊

You may like to view my other posts:

1.Purple-sweet-potato-snow-skin-mooncake

2. Traditional Mooncake

Ginger and Lemon

A friend shared this ginger and lemon paste that keep him and family away from doctor. I was curious and asked him how he make the paste. After trying this home remedy,  find it is good for me. The ginger help me to clear the wind from the stomach and at the same source of vitamin C. Daughter likes it too. Ever since I learnt this new remedy, daughter and I have been drinking ginger and lemon water daily. Sometimes we add honey into the drink but most of the time we drink it without honey. Thanks to this brother who shared his home remedy that all can benefit from it. 

Few months ago we were away for family trip. 2 days after we touched down, 3 out of 4 in the family were down with sore throat  and unwell. As you know when we are in unfamiliar place or oversea, it is not easy to find clinic to visit doctor. Instead of looking for clinic, we went to the nearby supermarket and grap lemon and honey and ginger back to our apartment.  There was no blender at the apartment. Still we can have ginger lemon honey drink. We sliced the ginger and lemon and place them into  cups  and pour boiling hot water into the cups then add the local honey and drink. We recovered from sore throat within 1 or 2 days without medication. So throughout the trips we continue to buy lemon and ginger whenever we go supermarket and drink ginger lemon water.😊

Ingredients:

Old ginger about 3 fingers size (appr 100g-120g)

1 lemon

1/4 cup cold water

Method:

1. Wash the ginger and lemon. I scrub the surface of lemon with salt, rinsed, and soak with vinger added with water for 10mins. 

2. Slice ginger and lemon to small pieces and place into a blender. Add cold water. Blend until it become a soft paste. 

3. Store into a cleaned dry container and keep in fridge for use. 

4. Each time use a clean and dry spoon to scoop a spoon and add with warm water and drink. It is a good source of vitamin C and ginger help to remove wind from stomach. You may add some honey if you like it sweet. I drink just as it is. 

Enjoy!😊

Carrot Cake

几天前，公主在互联网上看了胡萝卜糕说"I am craving for carrot cake" . 她已經好久没吃蛋糕了。今天去了超市买了3个胡萝卜。 午饭后， 做了这些胡萝卜小蛋糕。希望能为公主打打气!😊😊😊

I have been wanting to make western carrot cake. Today, I finally fulfill my dream. 😊

Ingredients :

1 cup plain flour (150 g)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon(will reduce to 1/4)

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg*

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger *

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup finely grated carrot (approx. 140 g)

1 teaspoon orange zest (optional)

1/2 cup soft dark brown sugar (80 g) (will reduce to 1/4 cup 40g)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (100g /120ml)

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (60 g)

2 tablespoons raisins or sultanas (28 g)

You may replace nutmeg n ginger with 1/2 allspice. 

*Spices was replaced.

Method : 

Line paper cups into muffins tray

1)Preheat oven to 175°C. 

2)Grate carrot. And zest an orange (optional). Set aside.

3)Sifted flour, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger (or allspice), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk a little and set aside.

4)In a separate bowl, add in soft dark brown sugar and vegetable oil. Whisk to combine. Stir in eggs one at a time. 

5)Pour the dry ingredients into wet mixture all at once. Fold until combined.

6)Fold in grated carrot, chopped walnuts, and raisins or sultanas. Use a ice-cream scoop to scoop into papercups. 

7)Bake for 25 minutes, or until an inserted satay stick or wooden stick comes out clean.

Note: You may pour the mixture into baking tin and bake for 45-55 minutes.

French Bread

Using bread maker to bake french bread was my first time. I have taste someone who bake french bread using Philip BM. It tasted good. I got the recipe from a FB friend ( Thanks Joni). I did some modification on the ingredients 

The first attempt wasn't very successful as my instant yeast wasn't active. Resulted I have very short and cute loaf of bread.

This is the cute and short bread which the yeast was not active. Thought was a new box of yeast with expiry March 2018. However, it just not active. When I saw the dough in the tin was not rising, felt something is not working. I did a test. Pour half teaspoon of instant yeast into lukewarm water. Even after half hour, there was no bubbles found. So, I threw away all the rest balance yeast. Heartache! And bought new one from supermarket.

2nd attempt was good. Bread taste good. Even the 1st attempt though short and heavy still it taste good. I use this bread with my Homemade Otah (see recipe here) to make otah sandwich. Taste really good and delicious. 

Ingredients 

270gm  Water

1.5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar( not in original recipe)

1.5 tablespoon olive oil

400g bread flour

50g rye flour

1.3 teaspoon instant yeast.

Note : Original recipe is 450g bread flour. No rye flour. I replaced 50g of bread flour with Rye flour. You can use all 450g bread flour. 

Method:

Directions using Bread Maker:

1)Place water, salt, sugar, oil, bread flour, and rye flour into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

3) I used "French Bread" "Function 3" with "Light" crust. Choose weight 750g. My BM indicated it take 3hrs 30mins for french bread to complete the whole cycle.

4)When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve.

Purple Sweet Potato Snow Skin Mooncake. 紫蕃薯冰皮月饼

Ingredients 用料 (冰皮 Snow Skin)
45g Glutinous Rice Flour 糯米粉45克
35g White Rice Flour 粘米粉35克（大米粉）
20g Wheat Starch 小麦淀粉20克（澄面）
18g Vegetable Oil 植物油18克
185g Milk 牛奶185克
35g Icing sugar 糖粉50克

Filling ingredients馅用料:
1 whole purple sweet potato without peel about 80g 一个80克紫色蕃薯
10 gm sugar 糖10克
15g vegetable oil 植物油15克
15g coconut cream 椰浆15克
10gwheat starch 小麦淀粉10克
10g water 水10克

Or

220g lotus paste 莲蓉馅220克
15g melon seeds 瓜子15克

Method for Purple Potatoes Filling紫蕃薯馅做法:
1. Place washed purple potatoes with skin into a small pot and cover the potato with enough water. Boil it over a stove for half an hour or until potato is cooked. 将紫蕃薯放进一个小锅， 加水盖过蕃薯煮熟。


2. Remove potato from fire once it is cooked. Peel off the skin. Use a fork to smash the potato while it is hot. 将煮熟的紫薯去皮。乘热用勺子压成泥。


3. Press sweet potato through a fine sieve. Set aside  a tablespoon of potato. Add sugar into the rest.  Mix wheat starch with water, then pour into the mashed sweet potato. Stir in coconut cream and oil. Transfer to a non-stick pan and cook over medium heat. Stir occasionally until most of the moist is dried up and the wheat starch is cooked through. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for later use.然后过筛一遍成幼滑薯蓉。加糖。澄麵粉加水先拌勻，跟椰奶一起拌入紫薯蓉中，最後加油。转置不黏底锅中，用中火炒至澄麵粉熟透和乾身。蓋好，放入雪櫃中，備用。

Method for snow skin 制作冰皮
1. Combine milk, vegetable oil (sunflower/corn oil) and icing sugar together. Do not use olive or peanut oil. As the aroma for the oil is too strong.
将牛奶、植物油（选择如玉米油、葵花籽油等色浅无味的植物油，不要用橄榄油、花生油等有特殊气味的油）、糖粉倒入碗里，搅拌均匀




2. Combine glutinous rice flour, white rice flour and wheat starch  in a bowl. Add the above 1 and also 1 tablespoon purple smashed potato into flour and mix them well.
糯米粉、粘米粉、小麦淀粉倒入另一个碗里。将上一步的牛奶混合物和紫蕃薯慢慢倒入粉类里，边倒边搅拌，直到混合均匀

3. Sieve the liquid mixture 1-2 times
混合好的粉浆，过筛1-2遍

4. After sieved, cover the bowl of mixture with cling wrap and put into boiling water to steam for 25min.
过筛后，静置半个小时。表面盖上保鲜膜，放入烧开水的蒸锅，大火蒸25分钟

5. Immediately after steam, remove from heat and use a pair of chop stick to stir the dough into a smooth dough.
蒸好的面糊，趁热用筷子用力搅拌，直到变得顺滑均匀

6 Let the dough cool down and then store in fridge.
面糊冷却后使用。同样，如果想尽快冷却，可摊薄在盘子里，放入冰箱

7. Prepare some kou fen (fried glutinous flour). You may fry some glutinous flour in low fire  if you do not have ready made kou fen. Remove from heat once it turn light yellow. Kou Fen is done.
准备一些糕粉，如果没有现成的糕粉，将糯米粉放入锅里小火翻炒，炒到微微发黄。蘸少许品尝，没有生粉味道，就表示熟了。冷却后即为糕粉

8. Add melon seeds to lotus paste.
将瓜子加进莲蓉馅。

9. When the snow skin dough is cold, divide the dough and lotus paste filling into small portion. Snow skin is 25g and lotus filling is 47g and purple sweet potato filling is 47g
冷却后的冰皮面糊与莲蓉馅和紫蕃薯馅分别分成小份. 则冰皮分成25克1份，莲蓉馅分成47克1份,  紫蕃薯馅分成47克1份。

10. Put snow skin dough on hand and flatten it. Place filling on the snow skin. Wrap the lotus filling with the skin.
将冰皮放在手心压扁。然后把莲蓉馅或紫蕃薯馅放在冰皮上。用冰皮把馅 包起来，收口捏紧

11. Sprinkle some kou fen(cooked glutinous flour) into mould, shake  off excess flour. Lightly coat mooncake with cooked kou fen. Shake off any excess flour. Place into a mooncake mould. Press to print the pattern. Repeat this step until finish all the dough and fillings. Store the mooncakes into an air-tight container. Refrigerate for few hour. Serve it cold.
月饼模里撒一些糕粉，晃一晃，使糕粉均匀的沾在月饼模上，再把月饼模在手心磕一磕，将多余的糕粉磕出来。把包好的面团放入月饼模。压出月饼形状。到这一步，冰皮月饼就做好了。做好的冰皮月饼，放冰箱冷藏数小时后再食用，口感最佳。

You may be interested in my other post:
1.Snow-skin-mooncake (Instant Method)

Dairy Free Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
2  egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (240 ml) unsweeten soy milk added 2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup (80 ml) melted coconut oil
2 cups (260grams) self-raising flour
1/4cup (50 grams) caster sugar 
1/4cup (50 grams) brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 - 1 1/2 cups (240-360 ml) fresh blueberries

Method:
Blueberry Muffins: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Position rack in center of oven. Butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the lightly beaten egg, soy milk+lemon juice and melted coconut oil

In another large bowl whisk the flour with the sugar(brown + caster), and salt. Gently stir in the blueberries. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined and moistened. (The batter will be thick.)

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin just comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Makes 12 muffins.

Pancake (Non-Dairy)

Lately my princess wanted to keep away from dairy products. Pancake which is sold in the market are added with cow milk. She has been seeing her friends having pancake and waffles and craving for it. So this morning to give her a 'surprise'  I have did some slight modification on my homemade-pancake recipe.

Princess is happy and finished 2 large pancakes.
Obviously when she is happy I am happy too!


Ingredients
1.5 cup self-raising flour
1 cup Non Sweet Soy milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3 tbsp caster sugar

Method
Add lemon juice into soy milk and let it stay for about 5-10min. I do this to achieve buttermilk texture. You can substitute lemon juice with white vinegar or apple cider. Note: if you do not have lemon or vinegar,  you may omit it. Just soy milk is fine.

Sift flour in a large bowl.  

In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for few minutes. Add the above buttermilk(soy+ lemon juice). Whisk them together. Then gradually whisk the egg mixture  into the flour. Whisk until mixture makes a smooth batter. Tranfer batter to large jug. 

Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Highly recommended non-stick pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into frying pan. Cook pancake until you see bubbles appear on surface and almost dry. Turn the pancake with a spatula to lightly brown other side. Cover pancakes on plate with foil to keep them warm. Continue to make more pancakes with remaining batter.

Serve pancakes topped with your desired jam and butter or margarine

P.S.  If you are using a normal frying pan, oil the frying pan with 1 teaspoon of oil. Then use a kitchen paper towel to wipe away excess oil. Note: the first piece using normal frying pan will not look so desirable. But subsequent one will be perfect.

Note: If you do not have a metric measuring cup at home, you may use any kind of  drinking cup which you use for your water or coffee etc.. Just make sure you use the same cup to measure all the rest of ingredients

You may like to view my other posts :
1Rice-omelette-pancake
2kimchi-pancake