Thursday, May 29, 2008

Daily Blogger Award

I feel it's time for me to give away an award to my fellow foodie bloggers ~ the “Daily Blogger Award”. This award is to be given to blogs that have at least 3 posts per week. I appreciate their kindness and generousity of sharing their wonderful recipes with us rain or shine.

Here are the first few of many winners:
LEKKER
Happy Homebaker
Little Corner of Mine
My Culinary Journal
Precious Moments
Jen's Kitchen Diary

I present to you the Daily Blogger Award.


Please feel free to distribute this award as you see fit.

Oreo Butter Cake


Since I have some left-over Plain Yogurt in my fridge, I went to look for recipe which has Yogurt in it. Yes, I have found a few and decided to bake this Oreo Butter Cake, recipe shared by Angie. PhotobucketMy daughter likes to eat Oreo cookies very much. So this cake will be one of her favourite cakes. The texture is very soft and moist. Yummy!
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I use salted butter, and omit the salt in this recipe. As for the flour, I use Top flour (I bought it to bake Pandan Cake). I use hand power using wooden spoon, whisk and spatula to mix all the ingredients.

bg_iconOreo Butter Cake

Ingredients:
225g cake flour (or Top Flour)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
85g unsalted butter,
oftened
170g castor sugar
2 eggs
, room temperature, beaten
1 cup (240ml) nonfat unsweetened yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
80g Oreo cookies,
roughly crushed
Whole Oreo cookies, for decorating

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C and grease or line a 8-inch round tin.
2) Sift together all the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3) Cream the softened butter and sugar until light and creamy. I use the measuring cup to pour in the beaten eggs gradually, beat for about 2 minutes.
4) Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Mix in half portion of the yogurt. Then beat in the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining yogurt, and vanilla essence. Finally mix in the remaining flour mixture.
5) I put the Oreo cookies in a plastic bag and crush it. Pour the crushed cookies into the batter and mix lightly.
6) Pour into a lightly greased baking tin, arrange whole Oreos on top and bake for about 40 - 50 minutes, till skewer inserted comes out clean.
7) Cool in baking tin for 5 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and cool completely.


Note: Do not open the oven door to peep when it's baking for the first 15 minutes.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Very Nice Pancake

This is what we had for breakfast today. My daughter said it's very nice, so I call this pancake ~ "Very Nice Pancake". My son likes to eat it too!

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Pancake (American recipe)
makes 8 - 10 pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup corn oil



Method:
Mix all ingredients until smooth. Let it rest for 20 minutes.
Heat a non-stick surface skillet over low heat.
Pour the batter by spoonfuls into the hot pan, forming 5-inch circle.
When the edges appear to harden, flip the pancake. It should be light brown.
Cook on the other side till light brown.
Serve with Maple syrup, butter or fresh fruits.

To make Buttermilk = 1 tbsp lemon juice or white/cidar vinegar to a cup of milk.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Orange Butter Cupcake




bg_iconOrange Butter Cake
(makes 23 cupcakes)
Recipe shared by jam (M4M parenting forum)

Ingredients A:
200 g flour ~ (sift together with baking powder and milk powder)
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tbsp of milk powder
250g butter

Whisk all the above in the mixer till creamy and remove into another bowl, wash and dry the mixer to be used again later.

Ingredients B:
5 eggs
175g castor sugar
2 tbsp of orange juice
1 whole orange zest ~ grate and chopped into fine pieces. do not use the white part as this is bitter.

Method:
1) Beat the eggs and sugar using the mixer till the sugar dissolved, then add in the first mixture of flour, butter, baking powder and milk powder. Mix evenly.

2) Add in orange juice and orange zest and mix well.

3) Pour into a greased baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 170 celcious for about 40 minutes.

4) For making cupcakes, the baking time is around 20 minutes.



Chocolate Icing (small quantity)
Ingredients:
1 square of baking chocolate (melted in double-boiler)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Method:
Using handwhisk to mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth.
Then pipe them on top of the cupcakes.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Today I bake this cake again. The last time I'd tried baking this cake was 11 years ago. I remembered, there's an old friend, an old lady told me the tips of making Chiffon Cake. She told me the cake tin must be clean and dry and not oily.

This Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe is shared by Lee Lee (bakingmum), she told me it's a very good recipe. I totally agree with her, the taste is just right, it's so fragrant and the texture is soft and spongy.



bg_iconPandan Chiffon Cake
(recipe taken from Prima's website)

Batter:
4 Egg Yolks
50g Castor Sugar
50ml Corn Oil (I use 35ml)
¼ tsp Green Colouring
1 tbsp Pandan Juice (I use a tsp of pandan paste)
100ml Coconut Milk
Pinch of Salt
100g PrimaFlour Top Flour (I use cake flour)
1 tsp Baking Powder

Foam:
5 Egg Whites
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
50 g Castor Sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 170°.
Extract pandan juice from finely pounded pandan leaves and add to coconut milk.

Add egg yolk, 50 g sugar, oil, colouring and salt to the coconut mixture. Mix well using hand whisk.

Sift PrimaFlour Top Flour and baking powder and fold into mixture. Mix until smooth. Set aside.

Beat egg whites and tartar at high speed until foamy. Add remaining 50g sugar and beat until stiff.

Add 1/3 beaten egg white to the yolk mixture and mix using a hand whisk.

Slowly fold in this mixture to the remaining 2/3 of beaten egg whites gently.

Pour mixture into an ungreased 18cm chiffon tin (make sure the tin is dry) and bake for about 50 minutes or until cooked.

Turn tin over on a cake rack to cool before loosening cake.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Chicken Pie

When I pass-by "Polar" bakery shop, I will stop by and buy a few Special Pies and Chicken Pies. I never thought of making a Chicken Pie myself as it's so easy to get it in most shopping malls.

I've kept this recipe in my recipe collection (shared by bakingmum) for many years and have read many good reviews about Lee Lee's Chicken pie recipe.

Today I bake this pie for lunch and my children simply love it and wanted more.
Lee Lee, Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe with us.
The filling is so tasty and delicious!

I post the recipe here for your convenience.
bg_iconChicken Pie

Pastry ingredients:
200g butter
250g plain flour
110g plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

Method:
Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt, and mix to a crumble. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough. Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling ingredients:
350g (12 oz) potatoes, diced (I use 1 big potato, 300g)
1 big onion, diced
50g mixed vegetable (or more if you like)
Sliced canned mushrooms (amount up to you) ~ I use 1 can
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 tbsp corn starch or potato starch mixed with 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar (I use 2 tsp)
2 tsp salt (I use 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp pepper (I use black pepper)

Method:
Heat about 2 table spoon of oil and fry potatoes with about 125ml (4 fl oz) of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook until soft. Drain and set aside. In a clean wok, heat 2 tablespoon of oil. Fry the diced onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom and chicken. Fry for a while to break up chicken. Add in potatoes. Add in about 125ml (4 fl oz) of water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in salt, sugar and pepper. Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Set aside for later use.

The steps for the chicken pie will be as per normal. You can either do big pie or mini pie. Just need to roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke hole on the base using a fork and place ingredients on top. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie and brush with 1 beaten egg.

Baked in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 30 minutes.

Optional: You can add hardboiled eggs if you like.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Chewy Rolled Oats Raisins Cookies

My children like these cookies very much. I found this recipe at "Happy Home Baking". I have modified the recipe slightly to suit my taste.
bg_iconChewy Rolled Oats Raisins Cookies


(makes 24 cookies)
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
150g rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
150g light brown sugar
50g raisins
1 egg
125ml corn oil
1 1/2 tbsp milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, sugar and raisins in a bowl.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg, oil and milk.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Mix together to form a soft dough.

Place spoonfuls of dough well apart onto the baking sheet.
Bake for about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air-tight container.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Banana Pancakes

Banana Pancakes

Ingredients:
4 bananas
1 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of baking soda
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
Mashed banana and mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Let it stands for about 20 minutes.

Lightly grease the frying pan with butter. I don't use butter as I'm using Tefal non-stick frying pan. Use low heat to cook the pancakes till all the sides turn light brown (you will see small bubbles on the surface). Turn over the pancakes and cook for a while. Serve warm or cold with maple syrup.