Some of the healthier recipes call for Greek Yogurt, but we can’t find in supermarkets here in Malaysia. I think it can only be found in Cold Storage, and it costs a bomb! So I’ve done some research, and have decided to make my own Greek Yogurt. Since Greek Yogurt is a strained yogurt, what you need is a large bowl, a large strainer and a coffee filter. Of course you will need a tub of fresh yogurt, just the normal low fat yogurt will do.

Place the large strainer on top of the bowl, and place the yogurt into the coffee filter which is put above the large strainer. See pic below:

After which, wrap the whole thing with cling wrap and place in fridge over night.

In the morning, you will find there is a lot of yellowish liquid in the bowl, and what is left in the coffee filter is the Greek Yogurt! Look at the texture, it is exactly what you need. I will share with you a very simple and nice Strawberry Cheesecake later, that will call for this Greek Yogurt.

I strained a tub of 500g yogurt, and it yields 240g of Greek Yogurt. The rest, 260g are just the yellow liquid! Guess the cost is reasonable, coz you will need more than double the ingredient to produce the same weight of Greek Yogurt.

My first time baked a cake using gelatin turned out to be a failure. That was when I baked the Strawberry Mousse Delight. The moment gelatin was added to the water, it became lumpy and sticky, I just couldn’t dissolve it properly. Later I found out that there is a technique to dissolve gelatin…

First, pour the water required in a bowl, then sprinkle gelatin powder onto the surface slowly. Let it absorb without stirring with spoon or anything. Once absorbed it will turn into clear color. Continue to sprinkle once turned to clear. See photo below, for the differences between the original (center) light brown color, and the soaked clear color surrounding the light brown.

Once all have absorbed water, put the bowl onto double boiler, meaning a pot of boiling water, to double boil it. Stir with a spoon until all dissolved into clear water-like texture, as if nothing is inside.

Set aside to cool before adding into whatever cake batter you are making.

In baking most (or nearly all) of the cheesecakes, it is often required to ‘steam bake’ the cake, so that the cake won’t be too dry. So, what does steam bake mean, and how to do that? This is also another question that I have received often, and I have asked many times in the beginning too!

Steam cake basically means that you bake the cake in an oven, together with water –> by placing the cake tin into a tray of water before inserting into the oven.

The tricky part is, most of our cake tin used for cheesecake is loose base. This means, if we put it into a tray of water, water can sip in, and damage the cake!

Most book would ask you to wrap the cake tin base with tin foil. I tried that, but it often leaks. Then, decided this is the best method:

The easiest solution is: Just put the loose base cake tin into a slightly larger solid base cake tin, before placing them onto a tray of water!

Example above: 8″ loose base tin was placed into a 9″ non-loose base cake tin. Then the whole cake tin was placed into a 10″x10″ (or 11″x11″) tray with water, before inserting to oven.

Happy trying!

I intend to publish a new recipe on a very healthy Pumpkin Cheesecake, and I would like to share 2 tips first before going to that, so you can bake that easily…

This is a cake that needs a biscuit crust base, and I would like to share with you this very simple way of crushing your biscuits, which is also less messy.

Very easy, just put the biscuits (or any other ingredients you need to mash or crush) into a food grade plastic bag, tie a knot at the end (after you squeeze out all the air), then roll a rolling pin onto the food until well crushed/mashed.

I haver received some comments and email asking me how does a UHT cream looks like, and what brands do I use, or where to get it. This post is to answer this question.

I don’t know what other brands available, but have always use this brand Anchor. It can be found in all cake ingredient shops and all supermarkets/ hypermarkets. It is tasteless, looks like normal UHT milk but a lot thicker.

I recently found out many do not know how to cut their cheesecake nicely, so would like to share my tips here…

Very easy, just warm your knife before you slice the cheesecake, and the cut will be smooth and the cake will not stick on the knife. No messy look on your nicely baked cake!

What you need are: knife, hot water, kitchen towel, and a cheesecake (of course!)

Either dip the knife into the hot water or pour water over knife on a sink. Wipe dry with towel quickly, make a slice on the cake before it gets cool again. Repeat the process until you get all the cuts made.

Well, since early last year, I have been trying to reduce meat intake. I think I still cannot go complete vegetarian yet, so I am still eating fish.

Now that I cook myself, frying fish became a challenge to me. I have been having problems when fishes stick to the wok. Whether I grill, fry or roast my fish, a large chunk of meat would be wasted – torn off and stuck on the wok, at the end become charcoal.

Luckily I have 2 seefu (teachers) around, my mom and MIL. This time, it was MIL who told me this ‘secret’. Apparently, if you add a little salt into the oil before frying, the fish will not stick.

I immediately try it, and it works 100% of the time!

Not only it won’t stick to the wok, the salt also helps season the fish. So, with this method, I don’t even season or marinade my fish before frying!!