Dim sum ~ Chinese steamed bun

I have left over baked meat balls in the fridge and wanted to use some as filling for Chinese steamed buns ; one of my favourites dum sum. Searching my bookmarks I decided upon Lily's layered pau's dough as I have all ingredients in my pantry.

I have tried making chinese steamed buns before without much success. I think it was due to my lack of natural touch for kneading. However, I'm satisfied with how this dough turned out. The scent of the buns when freshly steamed was very much like the ones I had at home. One negative was the dough wasn't leaven fully ; perhaps due to the old instant yeast I had in the pantry.

Chinese steamed bun

Dough
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp baking powder*
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk, warm
1 tbsp oil

To make the dough:

1) Mix together warmed milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside to ferment. It is ready when mixture is frothy.

2) In another bowl, mix flour and salt. Create well in the centre of the bowl and pour in the yeast mixture and oil.

3) Knead dough. let dough rise until it is double in bulk.

4) Before you divide the dough, roll the dough into a rectangle and mix baking powder with a little water and spread it onto the surface, roll it up and knead dough until it is well mixed and smooth. Then divide dough in to dough into 4 portions.

5) Spray or grease a pan with oil and line with parchment paper.


6) Roll each portion into thin circle and put in your choice of filling (it can be sweet or savoury) . Seal by pinching the edge together and place of steaming tray.

7) Brush top of dough with oil to prevent drying out.

8) Let it rest for 30 - 45 minutes and in the meantime, bring the water in a steamer to the boil.

9) When dough has rested and risen, put into steamer and steam on high heat for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when pricked into the middle of the bun.

10) Let cake cool a bit and serve warm.

Read Lily's how-to on pleating bun

Lemon cottage cheesecake

With lemon in season, I've been addicted with lemon curd since I made my first batch about a month ago. In fact, this batch is the third I've cooked consecutively!

Lemon cottage cheesecake
source : credited respectively below as I was combining 3 recipes

Crust ~ adapted from Joy of Baking

100 gm crumbs of vanilla cream biscuits

57gm unsalted butter, melted

* sugar was eliminated as vanilla cream from biscuits should give enough sweetness. You can add sugar if you will.

Lemon curd ~ from Joy of BakingMakes 360 ml

3 large eggs

80 ml fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)

1 Tbsp finely shredded lemon zest

150 grams granulated white sugar

56 grams unsalted butter , at room temperature

Cottage cheese filling adapted from Not quite Nigella
250gm local cottage cheese
2 eggs
24 gm vanilla infused caster sugar

Method

Pre-heat oven at 180°c

For crust
In a bowl combine the biscuit crumbs and melted butter. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and about 1 inch (2.5 cm) up the sides of the springform pan. Cover and refrigerate while you make the filling.

For lemon curd

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C). This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.

For cottage cheese filling

In a bowl, mix cottage cheese, eggs, , vanilla sugar until smooth using hand blender. Mix with 3/4 of lemon curd, set aside

Assembly (text as per http://homecookingrocks.com/coffee-cheesecake/)

Take the crust-lined springform pan out of the fridge. Place the pan in a larger pan. Pour the cheese mixture over the crust.

Pour enough hot water into the larger pan to reach halfway up the height of the pan. Bake the cheesecake for an hour and 45 minutes. The center should be jiggly. Leave the cake in the oven to cool completely. Decorate top of cake with remaining 1/4 of lemon curd. Then, chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Filling ~ Walnut butter cream

Walnut butter cream frosting
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/gazdag_diotorta_recept_1659

Ingredients
200gm ground walnut
1 Tbsp plain flour
250ml milk
100gm sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
lemon zest from 1 lemon
100gm margarine , room temperature ( I used butter)

Method
1) In a sauce pan, mix together milk, sugars, lemon zest. Heat it just until boiling point.
Add in flour and walnut mixture. Bring it to boil again. and set aside to cool

2) Beat margarine (butter) with elec. mixer. When butter is light and fluffy, add in walnut mixture cooked earlier. Combine well and it is ready to be used as cake filling.

Lemon curd cream tarts

Lemon curd recipe from Joy of Baking


Easy no roll pie crust from Joy the baker

I've just combine 200ml of whipped cream with lemon curd (add gradually until you get the desired taste)

Tomata cream sauce

My search on google for "tomato cream sauce" yield me this recipe by The Pioneer Woman . I have made this sauce twice now since last week - of course it was good !

As usual I 've adapted the recipe to what I have in the pantry. So go to the link above if you want the exact ingredients and methods. Here are what I've cooked with...

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
pinch of dried basil
4 medium very ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Brown sugar , to taste
1 cup cooking cream (22% fat)
Fresh parley, Chopped
250g pasta

Chocolate Truffles for your valentine

A gorgeous looking plate & simple recipe from BBC Good Food

Swedish Almond Cake inspired by Ikea

Ikea swedish almond cake....mmmm yumm, right? I thought it would be rather easy to find a compatible recipe to recreate at home ; but my google search gave too many different kinds of swedish almond cake. In the end, I gave this one a try.


Erm... look nothing like the ones I ate in Ikea ; however, taste wise it was pretty close! So, next time I'll just need to search for an icing to go with this cake.

Swedish Almond Cake
http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1914

75g unsalted butter
2 tbsp dry white breadcrumbs
1 large egg
125g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp double cream
100g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
50g flaked almonds (didn't have any, sub. with roasted snack type)

Melt 50g butter and use some to brush inside an 18cm flan tin then dust generously with breadcrumbs.

Heat the oven to 180C (160 fan).

Break the egg into a large clean bowl and whisk until frothy. Slowly add 100g sugar and beat until thick.

Stir the vanilla and 2 tbsp cream in evenly, sift in the flour and baking powder and fold through, followed by the remaining melted butter.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 25 minutes until the middle is barely firm{*}. Meanwhile melt 25g butter in the same saucepan then add the almonds, 25g sugar, a tsp of flour and 1 tbsp cream and stir over heat until bubbling.

When the cake is cooked remove from the oven and turn the heat up to 210C (190C fan). Spoon the almond mix over the cake, return to the oven and bake another 5 - 7 minutes until golden. Remove from the tin while warm.

{*} the cake was already cooked after 20 mins. , I'll adjust baking time to 15 mins.