I have stopped baking for a while, but still been tempted to make this. The recipe sits in my to-try-list for more than a year, attempted once but failed last year. Finally, I bought a pack of strawberries and made this batch. My intention is to make a very healthy version, but I ran out of wholemeal flour, so used plain flour instead. Next time I will use wholemeal flour.

We served this in our Friday cell group. Initially I wasn’t confident to serve, because… without coordination, all of us brought desserts! We had banana muffins, mash sweet potato chocolate pie, and this strawberry oat bars.

But surprisingly, everyone raved about this! The ladies were asking for this recipe, so no matter how lazy I am to post this, I must write down the recipe now. :p

From My Bakery

STRAWBERRY OAT BARS RECIPE
Ingredients
For Base
2 cups oats (I use regular rolled oats coz that’s the only one I have at home)
1 cup plain flour (intend to use wholemeal next time)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg (or chia egg for vegan = 1TBSP chia seeds + 4TBSP water, soak few min)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
2TBSP milk (or soy/almond milk)
Some sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

For Strawberry Jam
2 1/2 cup chopped strawberries
3 TBSP sugar
Some lemon juice (approx 1-2 tsp)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 9×9 square pan with baking paper. No need to oil it, coz the base is oily enough.
2. First, prepare the strawberry jam. Mix all ingredients in a pot, cook in low-medium heat for 10-15 min. At first it will sweat and juice will come out and the mixture will be very watery. After continuous cooking, the natural fruit pectin will react and thicken the jam. At the end, if it is still too runny (which happened in my 1st attempt last year), you can add some chia sees to help it thickens. Set aside to cool.
3. Now to prepare the base: mix all dry ingredients well in one bowl (except for sesame seeds). In another bowl mix all wet ingredients well (you may want to use electric mixer). Then pour the wet into the dry, and you may want to use your hand to mix them well.
4. Press the base mixture onto the pan but reserve about 1/2 cup for topping.
5. Spread the strawberry jam onto the base.
6. If the reserved base mixture is too wet, you may want to add in more oats at this stage. It should be able to sprinkle on top of the strawberry. Lastly, sprinkle some sesame seeds around.
7. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min. When baked, allow to cool before removing and slice them into the shape you like. Keep in fridge or consumer right away.

I plan to use pumpkin seeds in future to replace the sesame seeds. Just need to remember to bake a while to allow it to pop, before sprinkle on top of the jam.

My mom loves pandan (screw pine leaves). I remember when I was younger, every birthday cakes in the house were pandan cakes, and she also loves those kuih that has pandan like Kuih Talam, Seri Muka etc. I am the opposite of her, I tend to hide away from pandan, not that I hate it but… maybe too much in the past I’ve developed some phobia? LOL!

Anyway, for her birthday, I’ve decided to make something that she likes — Pandan whatever. And I am only good at making cheesecakes, so naturally I baked her a Pandan Cheesecake.

As mentioned in an earlier post on how I made Pandan Ice cream, I really believe in using the ‘real stuff’ – the real pandan leaves, and good quality santan (coconut milk), same goes with this cheesecake. It proves worthy, coz with the ‘real stuff’, the fragrance released from the oven is so strong and nice.

The aroma of the pandan leaves and the coconut milk is really killing! I was so hungry smelling the aroma, which filled every corner of my house. No one could hide from this aroma attack! LOL!

From My Bakery

RECIPE OF PANDAN CHEESECAKE
Ingredients
500g cream cheese
80g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
20g corn flour
20g plain flour
200g coconut milk + Pandan Juice from 8-10 leaves (extract with a little of the coconut milk blended together)
1 drop of green food coloring (optional)
3 egg whites
60g castor sugar

Method
1. Mix the cheese with sugar till creamy. Add yolks, one at a time.
2. Add corn flour and plain flor, mix well.
3. Add coconut milk & pandan juice (and coloring if wish). Mix well.
4. In a separate clean bowl, whip egg whites with sugar until soft peak.
5. Fold the whites into the cheese mixture. Mix well.
6. Pour into a lined 8″ cake tin and steam bake at 160C for 60-70 min.
7. At the end, remove from the water and return to the oven with heat turned off, for another hour.
8. Run a knife through the sides. Chill at least 5-6 hours before removing from the tin and serve.

This cake is very soft, and because it is without a crusty base, removing needs to be more careful.

When I shared a mint chocolate chip ice cream on my FB account, someone asked me if pandan ice cream exist or not. The following week happened to be my mom’s birthday, and she loves pandan (screw pine leaves). I then decided to make this Pandan Ice Cream, together with a Pandan Cheesecake (recipe will be shared in a separate post) for her.

I remember those days when we make any pandan desserts, we would pound the pandan leaves with a mortar and pestle and then squeeze out the juice using a cheesecloth (kain muslin). THAT is the kind of pandan juice I expected to use for my two desserts. And I also expected them to have coconut milk (santan) as part of the ingredients.

But somehow, after searching around, most recipes simply substitute vanilla pods with screw pine leaves paste/flavoring, in a standard vanilla ice cream recipe. That is not what I want, not enough Asian! So I’ve improvised a little, and it turned out FANTASTIC! The key is to use the ‘real’ stuff: good amount of pandan leaves and good quality young coconut milk (like Ayam brand).

Whether I was cooking the custard for this ice cream, or baking that cheesecake, the aroma of the pandan leaves, together with the coconut milk’s scent, filled the whole house, making everyone so hungry. We just couldn’t wait to try out. This is a must have for a pandan lover, or if you fancy some Asian flavor.

From My Bakery

RECIPE OF PANDAN ICE CREAM
Ingredients
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup castor sugar
8-10 pandan leaves (depending on size)
7 egg yolks
A pinch of salt

Method
1. Mix sugar, pandan leaves, coconut milk and heavy cream in a pot, bring to near boil. You may tight the leaves in knots for easy removal later.
2. Turn off heat, cover and let simmer for 30 min.
3. Remove the leaves. Blend the leaves (will be wet with the cream and milk) and then squeeze out the juice using cheesecloth (I used coffee filter).
4. Add the leave extract back to the pot. Reheat the liquid till near boil.
5. Beat the egg yolks a little, and temper the yolks with the heated liquid, then return to pot to cook at low heat. Add a pinch of salt.
6. Keep stirring and scraping the bottom until mixture reaches 77C (if you have a thermometer), or till the liquid cling to the back of your spoon. Be careful not to overcook, as it will curdle.
7. When done, stir to cool down a little and cover with a cling wrap touching the surface to avoid skin formed.
8. Chill in fridge for at least 3 hours (prefer longer), and then churn using your ice cream maker.

This will produce a pandan ice cream very rich in both the flavor and fragrance of pandan and coconut milk. Yumm…

The salt added has 2 functions here: one is to augment the coconut’s taste and second is to help preventing the ice-cream from freezing too hard, because I’ve reduced the amount of sugar. I wonder if there is any pandan liquor that I can also add here? Hmm?!

I have made our favorite orange sorbet twice, yet every time I forget to take a photo. :p So today, I’m going to share with you a very easy Mango Ice Cream recipe instead of the planned orange sorbet. Sorry! :p

From My Bakery

This mango ice cream is very easy to make. I have reduced the sugar from 3/4 cup down to 1/2 cup. If you like it sweeter you can keep to the original recipe.

Maybe mango is thick enough, this recipe does not require any thickening agent, no cooking/boiling/heating required. I love it for this!! Just blend and chill, then churn! Fewer things to wash too!

MANGO ICE CREAM RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
2 cups of mangoes
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used juice of 1 small lemon)
1 cup heavy cream (dairy)
3/4 cup full cream milk

METHOD
1. Blend mangoes till smooth, add in sugar and lemon. Continue to mix till sugar dissolved.
2. When fully incorporated, add in cream and milk. Mix well.
3. Keep in fridge overnight, and then churn according to your ice cream machine’s instruction.

Easy, right?

Inspired by Rachel Khoo – Little Paris Kitchen!! Her first season’s first episode featured this croque madame muffin. Children were drooling over that, so I made it the next day!!

We purposely bought a tray of F-Graded eggs, the smallest in Tesco, to go with this. But when they were used, we still feel it is a little too much of white. Maybe we still have to remove some whites the next time, just like how Rachel did in her show.

Happened that my friend gave me a muffin tin which I’ve never put in use, this time it becomes really handy!

From My Bakery

Initially I tried to make 6, but with further thought, remembering how much Ian can eat during lunches, I added 2 more. Good that I did that, coz he alone swallowed 3 pieces. If he had more time (tuition teacher arrived when he was attacking his 3rd piece), I believe he could take another piece!!

Look at the individual piece when I removed from the pan. Remember to oil your pan for easy removal, I forgot so it was quite a challenge just now.

From My Bakery

Inside the crunchy bread base, there is a layer of ham, and 1 whole egg, topped with bechamel sauce and grated cheese. The egg yolk supposed to ooze out when sliced, but I intentionally over cooked it slightly, coz I don’t like it to be runny.

From My Bakery

CROQUE MADAME MUFFIN RECIPE (Adopted from Rachel Khoo-Little Paris Kitchen)
INGREDIENTS
Bechamel Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
200ml milk
Nutmeg, dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste
(Optional) Some Parmesan cheese to taste

Muffin
6 slices of bread
Some melted butter (approx 60g)
6 slices of ham
6 very small eggs
Grated cheddar cheese

METHOD
1. Prepare roux by melting 1 tablespoon butter in pan and then add in 1 tablespoon flour. Cook for while.
2. Add in milk slowly, whisk to mix well with the roux (roux is thickening agent for this sauce).
3. When thickened, add in seasoning to taste and set aside for later use.
4. Cut off the 4 sides of bread. Use a rolling pin to press the bread down to half its original size.
5. Coat both sides of the breads with melted butter, and place in the muffin tin to form cup shape.
6. Inside of each ‘bread cup’, place a slice of ham, and crack 1 small egg onto the ham.
7. Scoop 1 tablespoon of the bechamel sauce onto the egg, and top with grated cheese.
8. Bake at 180C for 10 min. At 10min the egg yolk will be runny. Add 5 min if you do not like it runny.

Happy trying!!

This is a custard based chocolate ice cream. While I was learning to make ice cream, I learnt a few technicality aspects of making ice cream. Ya, that few months wait, and the anxiety of waiting for it, has turned me to all these reading. :p

Apparently ice cream or sorbet or frozen yoghurt etc is in those texture, instead of a large chunk of ice, is due to the breaking of the ice crystals during freezing process. This way, the ice crystal will be small – the smaller it is, the creamier it is. There are a few ways to make ice cream with this concept. We can get an ice cream maker that has a mixer that keep breaking the ice while it freezes, or we can simply repeat the process of freeze a while and stir the mixture.

Sugar is important in preventing the mixture becoming too hard when stored in the freezer. If sugar amount is reduced, salt and alcohol can be used to supplement it, but of course the taste will be altered.

This recipe that I used, uses egg yolk as thickening agent. Some recipes would replace this with corn starch, but whichever used, must be cooked.

From My Bakery

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
60g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped and melted
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup full cream milk
1 cup heavy cream (dairy)
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Beat yolk and sugar together a few min till light and fluffy.
2. Heal milk, cream and cocoa powder to scalding point.
3. Scoop some of the milk mixture into the egg mixture, stir well and pour back to the pot.
4. Continue heating and stirring (do not boil) at low heat, until mixture thicken.
5. Remove from heat. Add vanilla essence and melted chocolate. Stir well.
6. When cooled, keep in fridge at least 3 hours (best overnight to let it age).
7. Churn according to your ice cream machine’s instruction. Alternatively, if do not have a machine, you can freeze the mixture in a pan, for 30 min. Then stir the mixture with a spatula till all break up and mix well. Then freeze again for 30 min. Repeat process until the texture is ice-cream-like.

Happy trying!!

I ordered this Ballcar Ice Cream Maker on Groupon a few months ago. Due to Raya and the delay at custom, it has only arrived a couple of weeks ago. I have, since then, loving the experimenting of various ice cream projects.

From My Bakery

This is the kind that is without compressor, hence the base require freezing overnight before churning the ice cream. It is a little inconvenient especially for my kitchen — I have a very small sized fridge, every space is precious. Because of this ice cream maker, I have to limit on my freezer-food!

But the ice cream maker –> BOLEH! My first project was a chocolate ice cream. Yummy! Some people commented that it tastes even better than Baskin Robin! Wahahahaha!

And my second attempt was orange sorbet. Slurp! I love sorbet. And I love this one specifically! We made it twice. Also Ian’s favorite. I will share recipe separately later. Happy me…!

A friend told me this is the latest “in” thing in town ==> the Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake, and asked me to try making it. Out of curiosity, searched around, and saw from some bakery shops… Initially wasn’t that interested to try, because this is essentially a chiffon cake, baked in a muffin cup, and pumped in custard cream. But finally convinced it is going to be smooth, light… After procrastinating for a while, I finally baked this, THREE times. First was an instant success. Second, I under baked, the whole thing gone into drain. The third time, I nicely decorated and photographed for this post. LOL!

From My Bakery

Aiyu said the texture is very soft and fine, and she loves the custard. Isabel alone could eat at least 3 at one go. But Ian doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like anything that is light in color apart from cheesecakes. >_<

I actually copied the deco from De Pastry Chef. Well, of course, they use Cameron's strawberries, extremely tiny and I believe they quartered them, coz really REALLY THIN! Think mine looks better, hahaha, perasan!

From My Bakery

This is how fine the cake is… very soft and fluffy and fine texture…

From My Bakery

Inside, the surprise awaits — custard cream!

From My Bakery

Using IKEA’s green container (biggest one), I can fit 6 into it. So far this is the best container for me to keep my Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake.

From My Bakery

HOKKAIDO CHIFFON CUPCAKE (Adapted from 周老師的美食教室)
Cake Ingredients
5 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
40g vegetable oil
40g milk
Some vanilla essence (optional)
50g low protein flour (sieved)
1/4 tsp baking powder (sieved together with flour)

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tatar
85g castor sugar

Custard Cream Filling
120g whipping cream (heavy cream, diary)
25g instant custard powder
75g cold milk

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Mix egg yolks with salt. Add in oil and milk and mix well.
3. Add flour and baking powder and mix well.
4. In a clean mixer bowl, beat egg white with cream of tatar until foamy. Add sugar slowly and whip until stiff peak.
5. Fold 1/2 of the meringue (stiff egg white) into the egg yolk mixture, gently fold till well mixed.
6. Fold the remaining meringue into the mixture and gently mix well.
7. Pour into cups with approx 40g each (make approx 12 cups).
8. Bake at 170C for 20 minutes.
9. While baking, prepare custard. Whip up the cream. Mix custard powder in cold milk till custardy, and mix into the cream. Put into piping bag and set aside.
10. When cake is done, let cool completely before piping custard into the center (approx 16g each).

Note: The cake will rise very high, and then will collapse till ‘wrinkly’, that is completely alright. That’s why some regard this cake to be ugly but delicious (or fun?!).

Well, the original recipe calls this roll a “30 minute rolls“, which I think it was not quite true. The original recipe asks to proof the yeast for 15 min, mix a few min then shape into balls, place in pan and let prove for 10 min, and then bake at 10 min. Even if mixing and rolling into balls require very little time (I actually took 15 min to do both), simple maths 15+10+10 would be already 35 min. Okay, I am picky, I know…

But whatever it is, this recipe is still great, because… it really does reduce the time by a great deal. I never know we can have fresh bread, in just 40 min (or slightly more). And the best thing is, it does not compromise the taste and texture of the bread. The rolls turned out to be very soft and yummy, a little more dense but that’s how a typical dinner roll is anyway!

From My Bakery

Look at the pic above, from top to bottom is the rolls right after shaping, after 10 min, and after baked. It is very simple to make, even if you are new in this, you can certainly manage. My version of recipe below is already adapted to Malaysia weather (more humid), to be used with bread machine, and uses instant yeast. If you do not have instant yeast (i.e. only regular yeast), do hop over to the original recipe for instruction.

40 MINUTE ROLLS RECIPE
Ingredients
1 cup + 1 TBSP warm water
1/3 vegetable or olive oil
1 TBSP + 1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cup high protein flour

Method
1. Put all the wet ingredients (water, oil, egg) into the base of bread maker.
2. Add sugar and salt, then flour. Make a well in the center of flour, add yeast into the well, separating it from the salt.
3. Start bread maker, program = dough.
4. Only knead dough for about 5 min, end the program.
5. Remove dough, shape it into 12 small balls and place at the base of a greased 9″x13″ pan. Let rest for 10 min.
6. While resting the dough, pre-heat oven to 180C.
7. Bake at 180C for 20 min. Serve when cooled.

If you like the shiny effect of my rolls, you can egg wash the dough just before inserting into the oven.

Ever since the Puffilicious event at our church last Christmas, my children have developed new cravings for cream puffs. A store bought cream puff is so expensive, we have to be extremely careful in consumption. THAT is the main reason for me to try making this – nothing beats the demand from our own kids, right?

I’ve done some ‘researches’ on the web, apparently the pastry itself is called Choux Pastry. Most recipes use plain flour, but I’ve also found some pastry chef commented that a high-protein flour would yield better texture, so this recipe I’m going to share uses high protein flour, and the result is fantastic. I don’t know how true it is, but one of my friend said she has thought it was store bought, until I told her that I made them.

This recipe has been adapted from many MANY recipes that I’ve researched, until I can’t recall which sources that I took them from, so sorry for not able to link back.

From My Bakery

CREAM PUFF RECIPE

CHOUX PASTRY
Ingredients
1/2 cup milk (can be substitute with water only)
1/2 cup water
150g (or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt (omit if use salted butter)
1 cup high protein flour
4 large eggs

Method
1. Mix milk, water, butter and salt together in a saucer pan, heat to a rolling boil.
2. Reduce heat, add flour and mix well until well combined (texture is a little ball-like).
3. Remove from heat to cool. When cooled, beat with a mixer, add in eggs one at a time, until well combined.
4. Pre-heat oven to 200C.
5. Pipe the batter onto lined (but ungreased) baking sheet, about the size of between a round teaspoon to a round tablespoon, depending on your own preference (I prefer a mini type, each is a bite size so I go with the teaspoon size). Ensure around 2 inches apart.
6. Bake at 200C for approx 20 min, until puffed and golden brown.
7. Cool on a rack before piping in the cream custard.

CUSTARD FILLING
Ingredients
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar (adjust as you like)
3 cups milk
1 1/2 TBSP all purpose flour
1 1/2 TBSP corn flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Beat yolks and and sugar until whitish. Add in milk slowly while mixing, until all sugar is melted.
2. Mix in flour, corn flour and vanilla essence and mix well.
3. Over medium heat, mix the mixture until thickens and boils.
4. Cool and refrigerate before piping to the puff.

I really find this cream puff can be addictive. While piping it, I keep popping them into my mouth. Kids protests whenever they see me pop one into my mouth. Wahahahahaha! :p