An Dango

Here in Perth it’s Spring and the weather has been strange – hot day, then rainy day, then cloudy day then again hot day! Hmmm I know Summer is just around the corner but I am not really looking forward to these scorching hot days..

Today was a hot day, and usually I would take my kids to the park in the early morning or to the swimming pool but we had someone come over to fix the garden today so we stayed home. Staying home with 2 kids means lots of food preparation. To combine the “cooking” and “playing”, I involved them in cooking and this is one of the things we made together – dango.

I love dango – I love the chewy texture! In Japan we normally use “shiratama-ko”  or “joshin-ko ” to made dango, but I do not have neither at home. Instead, I stock up this rice flour from Coles.

Erawan Glutinous Rice Flour. It has to be this green package! It’s just over $2 a packet and so easy to make sticky dango snack.

The recipe is roughly measured, so please adjust the amount of water. And, I mixed tofu to the mixture this time, but you don’t need tofu if you don’t have. Just water and this flour is fine.

<recipe> makes around 20

• Erawan Glutinous Rice Flour … 1 cup

• Tofu (silken or momen) … 50g

• Water … around 1-2 tablespoon

• Anko (or some alternative shown below)

1. Drain the tofu from water, then wrap with kitchen paper. Microwave for 30 seconds ~ 1 minutes. This drains more water from tofu.
2. Place flour into a bowl. Add cooled tofu, then smash the tofu and mix well.  Add water bit by bit to adjust the consistency of the mixture. It should be as firm as your earlobes.
3. Boil water in a deep pan. Shape the mixture into small balls (1.5cm) then press lightly in the centre to flatten a bit. Drop the balls into boiling water.  Once the balls start to float, count 10 seconds then take them out of the water, and then drop them into a bowl of cold water.
4. Drain the dango. Skewer them onto toothpicks, then place anko on top.
5. Enjoy ♬

I made koshi-an (strained smooth Anko) but you can just buy a can of Anko from Asian grocery store, or you can eat dango with kinako (sweet soybean flour) or sweet soy sauce (Japanese soy sauce + sugar).   It’s all up to you!

Bûche de Noël

It’s that time of the year again!  It’s a time to express our love to family and friends, time to reflect on the past year, a time to set new goals for the upcoming year….  I wish 2015 was a great one for you.  Mine was great 🙂 Not many posting on Umeboss this year though… so it will be one of my goal for 2016 “write more posts for Umeboss”.

This month has been an event-full one for me : lots of cake-making, a family trip to a town of dolphins Bunbury, my son graduating kindergarten and family gatherings.

After making these 4 huge cakes for my son’s Japanese kindergarten’s Christmas party, I had some leftover of sponge and whipped cream in the fridge.  Then I remembered when I was little I used to make this cake Bûche de Noël for Christmas.

Bûche de Noël  is the French name for a Christmas cake shaped like a log, and is a traditional dessert served near Christmas, especially in France.  It’s fairly easy & fun to make.  I used to just buy a Swiss roll cake from a store, and cover with whipped chocolate cream.  I loved the decorating part – making the pattern resembling skin of log using a folk, and place these “kinoko-no-yama” chocolate on top.

It was a fun “cooking” as a little girl, and tasted good too 🙂

You may find this chocolate “kinoko-no-yama” in Perth too, (Korean version maybe available as well) but I didn’t even want to go out to buy extra ingredients for the cake – I just wanted to make now!  So here it is;

Very simple 😀
It actually should have a Holly leaves as a decoration, but I substituted with mint leaves and M&M….   Some “kinoko-no-yama” on top and side of the log would look much nicer, I think.

You used leftover sponge for this, but you can buy a Swiss roll cake from store (like I used to do) and cover with whipped chocolate cream.  Place the cake in the fridge to set the cream (about 15 minutes) then draw a pattern using a folk.  Then, you will have a lovely0looking Christmas cake for yourself.  Please try!

Dinosaur Themed Birthday Cake

As my son is currently crazy about dinosaurs, it was no surprise he requested a dinosaur birthday cake for his 3rd birthday.

I’m sure a dinosaur shaped cake covered with colourful sweet icing will excite him, but I still feel uncomfortable with these Western too-sweet-treat :{ I love Japanese cake and I’ve been baking Japanese style cake for his birthdays, so I decided to make one again for his 3rd birthday.

To make it more appealing to him, I put some dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs (Easter eggs, actually lol) on top of the cake.  The cake consists layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, and lots of fresh fruits as usual.

I started making dinosaurs few weeks ago.  It’s made of chocolate and it can be kept in the fridge for a long time once it’s made, so at least one thing is done in early stage it gives me lots of relief.

If you love drawing, you will love the process.  Of course you can create anything rather than dinosaurs!

It’s pretty easy and you’ll just need chocolate (dark and white) and some colouring.

Here is how I made these dinosaurs… ↓↓

Firstly, print out an image of what you want to draw.  An image with simple lines and not too many colours is a better choice.  You can draw the image from scratch if you’d like.  Remember, the image will be reversed once the chocolate is set – so if you are writing any letter it has to be reversed to a mirror image.

Once you have a clear image on nice clean paper, place a piece of baking sheet on top.  Staple the paper so it won’t move.

Secondly, melt dark (or milk) chocolate on a plate or small cup over hot water bath.  Using a skewer, just like a pen draw the line according to the image.

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Thirdly, make coloured chocolate.  Melt white chocolate in a place or small cup.

If you decide to make green colour, I found Matcha green tea powder works the best when mixing with white chocolate.  For other colours like red or yellow, if you happen to have some colouring powder (e.g. jelly powder) I think it’s easier than mixing with liquid colouring as chocolate and liquid don’t really get mixed well.  Too much liquid colouring will curdle the chocolate.  So, if you are working with liquid colouring make sure you start with a super tiny bit of drop.  Mix with melted white chocolate, and add some more until it reaches desired colour.

Make few colours according to your image.  I made green, yellow and red (pink).

Carefully, spread the coloured chocolate over the image.  Be careful not to move the chocolate line you drew.  (I do sometimes…)

Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Lastly, melt white chocolate in another plate or small cup.  Spread to cover the thin area or all over the image.  Let the chocolate set in the fridge.

Once the chocolate is set, carefully remove from the sheet and flip it over.  Now you have a cute image to decorate your cake 🙂

TA-DA!!!

The green dinosaurs’s dots look like they’re bit melted when spreading green chocolate :p  But still look good aren’t they?

I made this Japanese anime character “Anpanman” for my son’s 2’nd birthday.

Another dinosaur for my friend.

A truck for a 3-year-old boy.

a

Custard Dorayaki

My oven had broken down…!!  I can’t bake until Tuesday as this is long weekend and no-one could come down and have a look at it.

Since I can’t use the oven, I’ve made something using the stove – this custard dorayaki.  … They look like pancake sandwiches :p

Dorayaki is one of Japanese sweets which usually contains azuki bean paste inside.  My husband doesn’t like azuki bean paste, and custard is much easier to make, so I went with custard dorayaki.

I don’t like it too sweet, so if you like sweet custard add more sugar to the recipe.

<Custard>

• Milk 100ml
• Granulated Sugar 20g
• Egg Yolk 1 (L size)
• Plain Flour 10g
• Condensed Milk 5g
• Vanilla essence few drops

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Shift in the flour.
2. In a sauce pan, warm up the milk.  (not too hot, around 36℃)  Pour the warm milk into the egg mixture through a sieve.  Stir.  Pour the mixture back into the pan, and heat over low heat.  Stir constantly.  Heat until the custard thickens.  Off the heat, and add condensed milk & vanilla essence when the custard is slightly cool.  Mix well, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Keep refrigerated.

<Dorayaki>  makes 16 mini pancake = 8 dorayaki

• Plain Flour 100g
• Baking Powder 1 tsp
• Honey 2 tbs
• Sugar 2 tbs
• Milk 4 tbs
• Egg 2

1. Mix everything in a bowl.  Heat a small frying pan, spray with oil, and pour a small ladle of mixture to make a small pancake.  Repeat until you use up all the mixture.
2. Once the pancakes are cooled down, spread custard cream between 2 pancakes.  Serve immediately.

We are at the verge of Autumn

I haven’t written on Umeboss regularly for a long time and I feed bad 🙁  I used to write a post almost every day before, but now I don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit back and write what I want to write about.  I don’t want to say it’s something/someone’s fault, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing other stuff.  But I feel bad.

Here in Perth the Autumn has arrived and I’m enjoying the beautiful sky and temperature.  …. It rains a lot, and I see lots of snails (gross!), but let’s think that all this is part of nature.  🙂

In my hometown, Japan, we get lots of delicious food in Autumn.  Some fruits, fish, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc etc are the best to be eaten in Autumn.  But here, I don’t see much Autumn fruits sold cheap at the shops.  Grapes, pears, mandarines, persimmon – to name a few – are the Autumn fruits, but grapes are not really cheap!  Maybe it’s still too early?  I hope the price will drop in few weeks when we start to feel winter is just around the corner.

I baked walnut nougat slices last night.  It’s a perfect sweet to munch on with a cup of hot tea.  I found that roasted almond would have gone much better on the nougat rather than walnuts, so I will try making it with almond next time.

Here is the recipe:

* butter and egg should be at room temperature

* I used 20cm x 20cm oven pan, but you can use a bigger sized pan

<Walnut Nougat Slices>

~ the base ~

• Unsalted Butter 150g
• Granulated Sugar 100g
• Egg 1
• Plain Flour 300g

~ the topping ~

• Unsalted Butter 30g
• Granulated Sugar 80g
• Cream (I used Whipping) 100ml
• Honey 30g
• Whole or chopped walnuts 150g

1. Roast walnuts in the oven or in the pan over stove.  Leave to cool down.
2. Base – Add sugar to butter, and mix using a whisk.  Beat egg, and gradually add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.
3. Shift in flour, and mix using a spatula. (DO NOT over-mix)  Once the dough comes together, wrap in plastic and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours +
4. Set oven at 180 ℃.  Line baking sheet in an oven pan, and spread the dough over.  Poke few times with fork.  Bake in the oven for 15~20 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
5. Topping – Place all the ingredients except walnuts in a sauce pan.  Over low heat, simmer to caramelize.  To check it’s ready to take off the heat, simply drop the caramel into a cup of water – if the caramel forms small balls inside the water, then it is ready.  Take it off the heat, and mix with walnuts.
6. Spread the nougat over the base.  Level the surface.  Bake in the oven at 180℃ for 20~30 minutes.
7. Slice into pieces before it’s completely cool.

a

Simple Rolled-Cake

Soft and fluffy, simple cake − rolled up with whipped cream and strawberry jam, topped with cocoa cream and chocolate.

As the sponge is baked in thin, flat square, it cooks & cools down quickly.    It only takes 1 hour to make!

You can add fresh fruits inside the roll, but today I just made it simple.

I didn’t add too much sugar to whipped cream as I added strawberry jam.  The sweetness is just right to my taste 🙂

<Simple Roll-Cake>

Sponge  30cm x 30cm

• Egg (L) 4  – at room temperature
• Granulated Sugar 60g
• Plain Flour 40g

Cream

• Whipping Cream 100ml
• Sugar 1 tbs

Others

• Strawberry Jam
• Whipped Cream with Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate to dust

1. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.
2. Line 30cm x 30cm shallow oven tray with baking paper.   Set oven at 180 ℃
3. Separate egg yolks and whites.  Add 1/2 of sugar to the yolks, and whisk until creamy and pale colour.
4. Shift in flour, and mix until just combined.
5. Add a pinch of sugar to egg whites, and whisk until fluffy.  Add remaining sugar gradually to form a stiff peak meringue.
6. Add 1/3 meringue to the yolk mixture.  Mix well.  Repeat with remaining.
7. Spread the mixture onto lined tray.  Tap lightly to release any air bubble inside the mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.
8. Whip cream with sugar.
9. Peel off the baking sheet, and place the sponge on a piece of clean baking paper.  Spread 1 tbs of strawberry jam & whipped cream, then roll up using the baking paper.  Chill in the refrigerator before slicing.
10. For topping; mix whipped cream with cocoa powder.  Spread on top of rolled-cake.

Sugar Donut Balls

(Christmas) tree made of sugar donuts 😀

This super-easy-to-make donuts needs just a plastic bag from mixing the dough till dropping into hot oil.

<Sugar Donut Balls> makes about 10

• Plain flour 100g
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Egg 1
• Raw sugar 1 tbs *
• Unsalted butter 1 tbs
• Milk 1 tbs
• oil to deep-fry / sugar to dust

1. Place all dry ingredients in a plastic bag.  Close the bag with hands and shake to mix the ingredients.
2. Melt butter.  Once it’s cool enough (but not cold) add milk and egg.  Mix well.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the plastic bag.  Mix the dough well inside the bag.
4. Heat oil in a pan to 160℃.
5. Cut one end of plastic bag to make a small hole.  Squeeze out the dough into oil. Deep-fry until golden.
6. While the donuts are hot dust with sugar. **

* You can use white sugar or dark sugar – different sugar gives different flavour to the donuts
** You can use cocoa powder, cinnamon, green tea powder or kinako (soybean powder)

Soft & Moist Fruits Pound Cake

It’s getting very cold in the morning….!!  Waking up around 5AM and going for a walk around 6AM has been our (me & Hiro) routine for a while now.  This morning I couldn’t stand without a jacket, and my bare foot was so freezing.  It’s amazing Hiro still could manage to fell himself back to sleep in the cold air.  He fells asleep on a stroller when he hadn’t got enough sleep.

Anyway, yesterday was the last day of the term at play group, and it was mostly cleaning & eating for the whole 2 hours.  In between we did egg hunting as Easter is just around the corner.  All mums were asked to bring one dish to the centre and we shared the yummy food.

I made fruits & walnuts cake because it’s the easiest and quickest to make.  Other mums brought some gorgeous food such as salmon sashimi, takoyaki, chicken nuggets and hot cross buns.  I loved them all.

I made this cake with whatever ingredients I had. Actually I have lots of ingredients in my pantry at the moment because of my bagel business.  Thanks to that, I didn’t need to buy anything extra 🙂

The cake turned out moist and soft, just how I like it.  I added walnuts because I like the accent of crunchy texture.  This is the very basic pound cake recipe, but I want to share it with you.

<Fruits Pound Cake>  one standard pound cake mold  /  oven 180℃

• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 100g granulated sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter (at room temperature)
• 2 tbs mixed dry fruits
• 1 tbs crushed walnuts
• 1 tbs frozen cranberries

a

1. Cream the butter with a whisk to just soften up.  Butter goes soft within 1 hour outside the fridge in summer, but in winter I recommend to warm it up over warm water bath or in the microwave to speed up the process.  Butter should be very soft.
2. Add sugar, and beat until fluffy and becomes slightly white colour.
3. Beat eggs in a separate container, and add to the butter mixture gradually.  Mix well at each addition.
4. Shift the flour and baking powder into the mixture.  Drop the fruits and nuts onto the flour then shift in using a spatula.  Try not to over mix.
5. Pour the mixture into a lined pound-cake-mold, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or it springs back when you touch the top surface.
6. Place on a wire rack to cool before slicing.

You can add vanilla extract to enhance the sweetness.  You can alternatively use other nuts instead of walnut such as pistachio or pecan nut.

Tamago Boro

Tamago Boro, egg biscuit for babies, is a very popular snack for children in Japan. It melts inside your mouth without biting, so it’s easy and safe to eat for little children.

As you cannot bring anything containing egg into Australia, I couldn’t bring packs of this tamago boro when I left Japan.  Some shops may sell this snack here in Perth, but I’m sure it won’t be a reasonable price compare to that it’s just  ¥100 for 5 packs of boro in Japan.

After coming back to Perth I made this tamago boro for my  I-want-to-eat-everything-because-I-have-a-big-appetite-and-stomach son.  It was my first prompt and it tuned out to be ok.  I think I made it little too big (store-bought one is much smaller than what I made) but it tasted and melted just the same.

<Tamago Boro>  makes around 30

• 1 egg yolk
• 80g cornstarch
• 30g icing sugar
• 1.5 tsp milk (either cow milk or formula)

a

1. Mix the yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add cornstarch and mix will using a spatula.
2. Add milk, and mix well.  Add less or more milk to make into shapable consistency.
3. Shape the mixture into little balls.
4. Line the balls on a baking paper, and bake in the oven 160℃ for about 15 ~ 20 minutes.

Actually I don’t like tamago boro.  Haha, it sounds funny ; I don’t like it but I’m making it for my son.  I don’t really like the texture (that melts on the tongue) but I’m sure Hiro enjoyed it.

And he loves bagel, actually.  Bagels are hard so it does the same job as rusk.

He saw me eating a plain bagel, and when I gave it to him just to joke he grabbed it and didn’t want to let it go.  He actually eats the bagel just like the photo, and I had to take it away from him as he was eating so much.  The crust may be too hard for him so now I cut the crust off before giving to him.

Cinnamon Sticks

In a cold afternoon, drinking hot milk tea and feeling something to snack on….. Could it be only me?  Or, you just don’t want to throw away the bread crust – the left over from making sandwiches the other day?  Now here is the way to make delicious snack out of it.

This golden crisp cinnamon stick is a great accompaniment to your morning or afternoon tea (of coffee!).  And, is very simple to make too.

<Cinnamon Sticks>

• 8 pieces bread crust (from 2 slices of bread)
• cinnamon sugar
• oil to deep-fry

a

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Deep-fry the bread crust until golden.
3. Drain the oil well, then coat with cinnamon sugar.

a

You can also make it without deep-frying.  Toast in the oven, or in a frying pan (without oil) until golden crispy.  Keep them  in an air-tight container after cooled down.a

a

Black Sticky Rice Porridge

This Asian style sweet porridge is one of my favourite winter sweets.

I normally eat it warm, but it can be eaten at room temperature or chilled.  It is usually eaten with dash of coconut cream.

You can cook this in a slow cooker or in a deep pan, just like making congee.  Adjust the amount of water to achieve right consistency.

It should be thick in consistency.  The chewy black sticky rice is so juicy and delicious 🙂

I added fresh persimmon to it, and the combination was lovely.  With seasonal fruit and eating it warm or chilled, this sweet pudding can be served all year round!

<Black Sticky Rice Porridge>

• 500g black sticky rice (can be found at Asian grocery shops)
• water to soak the rice
• 2L ~ water
• 3 tbs ~ palm sugar
• a pinch of salt

a

1. Wash the rice thoroughly and soak in water for about 2 hours to overnight.
2. Put the rice, salt, sugar and 2 L water in a deep pot on high heat until water boils, then lower it to the lowest heat your stove can do. Stir constantly.  Simmer.
3. When the liquid is almost gone, check the rice – if it’s still too hard, add more water to it.  Keep during this until it achieve the right consistency.
4. Serve with coconut cream.

a

Chocolate Cake Ball Pops

This bite-sized chocolate cake looks so cute, and is a great finger dessert for a party or a lunch box.

I got this recipe idea from Coles magazine years ago.  The recipe used Coles mud cake, but I baked my own and used it for the recipe.  I didn’t coat the cake with chocolate entirely as the cake is already rich and sweet.  Sprinkled with hundreds and thousands, they turned into fun pops for kids.

What attaches the sticks to the cake is the melted white chocolate.  I got these sticks from Spotlight (sold as “craft sticks”).

The inside is rich, moist chocolate cake.  This is one of the cake I’m asked to bake when friends coming over to my house. 🙂

You should serve this chilled.

a

<Chocolate Cake>  makes around 40 pops

21cm Φ cake tin

• 5 eggs (room temperature)
• 150g granulated sugar
• 45g cocoa powder
• 45g corn flour
• 200g dark cooking chocolate
• 200ml cream
• cooking white chocolate
• hundreds and thousands
• 40 craft sticks

a

1. Separate egg whites and yolks.
2. Add sugar to egg whites, and whip until thick and fluffy.  Shift cocoa powder and corn flour into the bowl, and fold in.
3. Pour the mixture into lined cake tin, and bake in the oven at 180℃ until just cooked (around 20 minutes).  Let it cool.
4. Heat cream in a sauce pan to just before boiling.  Turn off the heat, and add chocolate.  Stir until all chocolate is melted, and let it cool until spreadable consistency.
5. Slice the chocolate sponge, and spread the ganache.

<into pops>

1. Chop up the chocolate cake, and shape into balls using hands.
2. Melt white chocolate in warm water bath.
3. Insert a stick to a chocolate cake ball, and spoon melted chocolate around the stick’s root area.  Repeat with remaining.
4. Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands.

a

aa

Fruity Cinnamon Rolls

D and I have been having a craving for sweet rolls these days…   It’s great to wake up in the morning with freshly baked bread with a cup of coffee, isn’t it?? 🙂

I made some with lots of dried fruits and a hint of cinnamon.

It’s was a pretty cold day, but it took only 2 hours to make these.

The texture is like between bread and … ummm scone?  muffin?  It turned out to be more like cake-type bread.

<Fruity Cinnamon Rolls>

a:

• 4 cups plain flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 10g dry yeast
• 300ml milk, warm
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt

b:

• 2 cups mixed dried fruits
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2.5 tsp cinnamona

c:

• apricot jam

a

1. Place all the ingredients from “a” in a bowl.  Using a dough hook, turn on the machine to mix the dough for 5 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.  You can knead by hands, too.
2. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 30 mins to prove, or until doubled in size.
3. Punch down dough, remove from bowl and knead lightly.  Roll dough to rectangle .
4. Sprinkle “b” all over dough.
5. Roll up dough to enclose filling.  Cut into 2cm slices.  Place in a deep baking pan lined with baking sheet.  Prove another 30 mins.
6. Preheat oven to 180℃. Bake for 20~30 mins, or until cooked.
7. Place apricot jam in a heat proof cup and microwave until smooth.  While the rolls are hot, brush jam over top to glaze.

Serve warm or at room temperature. 🙂

a

Salty Caramel Popcorn

D has been craving for this sweet and salty popcorn.  Personally, I don’t really like too-sugary food, but I remember the popcorn sister-in-law brought us long time ago (post) and I decided to make some at home.

I have many machines and tools for the kitchen, but this popcorn machine has been one of the best-buy.  (post) It makes popcorns using hot air (no oil), and they are my favourite healthy snack.  I don’t add salt or butter to it.  D, however, doesn’t seem to enjoy the plain non-flavour popcorn :p   I’m the only one who uses this machine in this house now.  It’s a shame, this machine looks so cute and works very well.

The caramel is sweet and sticky. I would probably get sick of it if it’s just sweet caramel popcorn, but because of the slight saltiness it became addictive delicious snack.  It’s a great way to use up old popcorns (plain) too.

I tried the recipe from Best Recipes , and added salt once the caramel is cool.

Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 cups corn kernel –  air popped
• 60g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp honey
• salt

1. Place the butter, sugar and honey in a small sauce pan, and bring to the boil.  Cook until it turns to caramel colour without stirring.
2. Pour the caramel into a bowl of popcorns, and mix through quickly using a spatula.
3. Transfer the popcorns into baking sheet to cool down.
4. Break up the popcorn, and sprinkle salt.  Mix through.

When handling caramel, be careful not to burn yourself as the caramel is very very hot.  To wash the sauce pan, simply fill with water and bring it to boil.  Caramel is very difficult to wash when it’s cold.

a

Melty Milky Pudding

I’ve been having a craving for the Japanese pudding I used to eat back home.  The soft, melty, milky pudding!  There’re so many delicious puddings in Japan, but my favourite one was “tamago-to-gyunyu nameraka pudding” from Meito.  I don’t know if they still sell it.  The milkiness and the sweetness was just perfect to me.  It melts in your tongue.  Ummm… I miss it (><)

The pudding you get here in Perth is little too sweet.  And, not milky!  So I decided to make one myself..

… and, it turned out GREAT.

The key is not to overcook when you steam the pudding.  Remove from the steamer while the centre is still soft, and the inside will be just cooked by the heat.

I add a layer of caramel sauce at the bottom, and a layer of whipped cream on the top of the pudding.  Yum!

<Melty Milky Pudding>  makes 6 cups

• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbs sugar (40g)
• 150ml milk
• 200ml cream
• few drops vanilla extract

a

1. Mix the eggs and yolks in a mixing bowl.  Try not to whisk too much and don’t let any air go into the egg mixture.
2. Place the milk, cream and sugar in a pan, and gently warm up over medium heat.  Pour it into the egg mixture, stirring as you pour.  Add vanilla extract to the bowl.
3. Divide the mixture into 6 heat resistant cups.
4. Place the cups in a deep pan, and pour water so it comes up to half way up the cups.  Turn on the heat.
5. When the water starts to boil, place aluminium foil on top of the cups to cover.  Turn down the heat to low, and place a lid.  Steam for about 10 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, and leave the cups for another 5 minutes.w

Once the pudding is cool, top with whipped cream and/or decorate with fresh fruits. 🙂

White Nests for Easter Eggs

Easter is just around the corner!  … Well, there is nothing particular to do for me on this holiday, but I do get influenced by all the marketings from the shops – Easter eggs, chocolate, bunnies…

This “white nest” is nothing special, but everyone does love them, especially with white chocolate.  Does anyone hate white chocolate?  Maybe?  Personally I love white chocolate.  It’s sweeter than milk chocolate, and looks so cute when used in cooking.  D loves white chocolate (he doesn’t like milk/dark chocolate) and has been eating this nest everyday since I made!

<White Nests for Easter Eggs> makes around 15

• 200g white chocolate
• 50g Kellogg rice bubbles
• 30g desiccated coconut

1. Melt chocolate in a bowl, over a pan of hot water.  Be careful that the bottom of the bowl holding the chocolate does not touch the hot water.
2. Stir in rice bubbles and coconuts, and mix through.
3. Using two spoons, drop the mixture on baking sheet – shaping into circle and make a dent in the centre.  Repeat with remaining.
4. When it’s set, place an Easter egg on each nest.

The Miami Bakehouse Cafe

D has been having such a big craving for a sweet bun with icing…  He loves sweets, especially sugary ones and buttery ones.  I really think he should cut down his sugar intake!  I can’t believe his favourite flavour of ice cream is cotton candy.  The vivid colour (blue? pink? purple??) really turns me off…

Anyway, the other day he wanted to grab some icing buns from somewhere.  It was mid afternoon and Hiro was awake but quiet, so we decided to go out to get some fresh air and buy some buns.  Somehow, we headed to Miami Bakery in Melville. (I wrote about this place before here)

To be honest, I don’t really like their pastries… they look great, but  are not to my taste.  Pies are nice though, they have a variety of flavours.  The pie of this month “chicken green curry” was tempting.

…..  I did it again.  I thought “hey this apple turnover looks nice” and ordered one.  The pastry was too dry and hard (I think it was more than 2 days old…), and the cream was tasteless.  I think I had this experience here before, and I totally forgot about it.  I should not order anything with cream here…

I thought D was going to have something with icing, but he ordered chocolate croissant instead.

They do hight tea now. (only at Mandurah and Melville shop)  It’s $27 per head, and includes warm savoury pastries, finger sandwiches, scone with jam & cream, and a selection of desserts and cakes.  Ummm, if you chose a right dessert/cake, I think it’s a good deal.

* Miami Hight Tea $27.00 per person

* Sparkling High Tea (with a glass of sparkling wine) $33.00 per person (only at Mandurah)

Mandurah Foreshore: Saturdays & Sundays from 2PM (08 9581 3000)

Melville: Sundays from 2 PM  (08 9319 3555)

Sugar Pie Cookies

I don’t know if I can say this is a recipe, but it’s so easy to make using left over frozen pie sheets, and I thought I’d post it here.  What you need are frozen pie sheets and sugar.  That’s it.

Although it’s effortless to make, they taste delicious and one whole tray of cookies were gone within 1 hour (by D).

<Sugar Pie Cookies>  makes about 30 tiny cookies

• 2 pie sheets (half-thawed)
• 4~ tbs sugar

1. Line a pie sheet on a clean kitchen surface.  Sprinkle sugar to the every corner.
2. Line another sheet on top.  Sprinkle sugar to the every corner.
3. Gently roll the pie sheet towards the top, while sprinkling extra sugar on the way, until it is completely rolled up.
4. Cut into 1 cm thickness.  Coat with more extra sugar, and bake in the oven at 180° for 30 minutes or until golden.

I used granulated sugar, but you can use raw or dark sugar too to enjoy different taste.  Let it cool on the tray until completely cooled down, and keep in an airtight container.

Orange Mousse

I made this orange mousse on the BBQ (post is here), and everyone loved it.  I had made cheese cake as dessert already, but in the morning I thought I would make one more dessert.

This mousse is such easy to make, and you can actually use bottled orange juice you have in your fridge – if you don’t have any fresh oranges.  That’s what I used, and it tasted as good.

<Orange Mousse> makes about 2L

• 200ml water
• 100g granulated sugar
• 13g gelatine (powder) + 2tbs water
• 240ml orange juice (100%)
• 30ml lemon juice
• 30ml cointreau (optional)
• 340ml fresh cream

1. Soak gelatine in 2 tbs water.  Whip the cream to the soft peak.
2. Place water and sugar in a sauce pan, and simmer over medium-low heat, while stirring with a silicon spatula, till the sugar dissolves.  Turn off the heat, and add the gelatine.  Stir well to blend.
3. Transfer the gelatine mixture into a mixing bowl.  Add orange juice, lemon juice and cointreau, and mix.
4. Place the bowl over iced water.  Stir until the mixture become slightly thicken (but not until the gelatine sets).
5. Mix the whipped cream to the mixture.  Blend well.
6. Pour the mixture into a mould, and keep in the fridge until it sets.

It’s a perfect dessert in summer.  Enjoy with orange coulis, whipped cream, or fresh fruits!

Mitarashi Dango

Dango is one of my favorite Japanese sweets!  I love the chewy texture.  Sanshoku-dango (three-color-dango) and mitarashi-dango are must item for me for 3PM tea time, and always get one or two while I’m in Japan.

Dango is made from rice flour, but there are actually few kinds of rice flour in Japan, called dangoko, joshinko and shiratamako.  It’s bit confusing and many people don’t know if there are any differences between them.  They are all made from rice.  Differences are the process of making each flour and also a kind of rice.  Dangoko is made from a combination of mochi rice and uruchi rice. Joshinko is made from uruchi rice.  Shiratamako is made from white mochi rice.  Dango made from dangoko are chewer than those made from joshinko or shiratamako.  Shiratamako gives soft texture and chewiness to dango and it doesn’t go hard when it’s cold.  Joshinko is mainly used to make most kinds of Japanese sweets (eg: mitarashi-dango, kashiwa-mochi etc)

I happened to have joshinko at home, and made mitarashi-dango using a recipe from my grandma!

<Mitarashi Dango> makes about 15

• 70g joshin-ko or rice flour
• 35g corn flour
• 10g sugar
• 170cc water

1. To make dango, blend all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix until smooth.
2. Place the mixture in a sauce pan, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thicken and the color is almost transparent.  Remove from the heat, and cool.
3. Meanwhile, prepare a steamer.  Start boiling water, and line baking sheet on the bottom of the steamer tray.
4. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, shape into small balls by hands.  You can use corn flour if the mixture keeps sticking to your hands.
5. Arrange the dango on the baking sheet, and steam for 20 minutes.
6. To make sauce: place water, sugar and soy sauce in a small sauce pan, and simmer until the sugar dissolves.
7. Mix corn flour with 1 tbs water.  Gradually add the cornflour mixture into the sugar water, stirling constantly, to thicken the sauce.
8. Pour the sauce over dango and serve.  If you like better flavour, grill dango slightly and caramelize the sauce over the heat.

Cherry Pancake

Here is the recipe of cherry pancake I made on Christmas day.  You can prepare the mixture ahead and keep in the fridge until needed.  Try adding different fruits instead of cherries for a variety!

<Cherry Pancake>  makes about 6 

• 1 handful of cherries, pitted
• 1 egg
• 25g sugar
• 150ml milk
• 30g butter, melted
• few drops of vanilla extract
• 150g plain flour
• 5g baking powder

Cookies for a Christmas Tree

Baking cookies is one of the fun activities you can do for Christmas!  You can create them in any shapes, and decorate with your favorite color.

Poke a hole on the cookie dough before baking so that they can be hung on your Christmas tree. 🙂    Make sure the hole is big enough as the hole will go smaller after baking.

a

<Cookies> makes about 30~40 of 5cm Christmas trees

• 160g butter, unsalted
• 120g sugar
• 1 egg
• 320g plain flour
• a drop of vanilla extract

<Icing>  makes enough for 60 cookies

• 1 tsp vanilla yogurt
• 4~6 icing sugar (adjust the consistency: hard, but soft enough to pipe out)
• coloring 

1. Cream butter in a bowl using a whist or hand mixer until whitish color.  Add sugar, and mix until the butter is fluffy.
2. Add
3. …
4. Mix until the dough comes together.  Wrap in plastic, and rest in the fridge for more than 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough into 5mm thick.  Cut the dough into decorative shapes, using cookie cutters.  Arrange cookies on lined oven tray, and bake at 180℃ for about 10 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookies are golden. 
6. Once the cookies are cooled down, mix the ingredients for icing and put it in a small piping bag, or plastic bag.  Make a tiny hole on the tip, and decorate your cookies.
7. Leave until the icing is set.  

Merry Christmas to you all !! (^0^)-☆

あ

Marzipan Flower

Yesterday was my sister-in-low’s birthday, and she requested a pavlova – one of her favourite sweet.  Although meringue is not really my favourite food, I couldn’t eat it anyway because of the soft marshmallow-like centre.  Parents -in-low are also not permitted to have lots of sugar (especially at night), so only her, another sister and my husband finished most of the cake!

here is the recipe of a pavlova I made last Christmas.  When making meringue, some people wonder what they are going to use the yolks for.  I normally add few yolks to the whole eggs when making omelet, or you can use them to make custard cream.  If you are planning to bake some buns, you can use the egg yolk wash to create the intense shine on the bread.  I’m actually going to use the egg yolks (not all of them) to make tsukune (Japanese chicken meat ball) 🙂

Marzipan is one of the option to decorate a cake.  I made a pink flower using homemade marzipan.  This is an instant recipe and there won’t be any left-over or waste when making little amount of marzipan.  You can also make green leaves and some dolls to create a cake with personality!

<Marzipan> about 8cm 1 rose

• 3g egg white
• 20g granulated sugar
• 10g almond meal
• red coloring

Maccha Banana Shake

As I bought lots of banana from a market and they started to turn black already, I decided to finish them up by making a banana drink!

I didn’t have much ingredients to use in the fridge, so I just added milk and honey to taste.  With a dash of maccha green tea powder, it turned out to be delicious 🙂

It was little thick, just how I like it.

<Maccha Banana Shake> makes 1 glass

aa

• 1 monkey banana (or 1/2 normal banana)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp Maccha powder

Apricot Tartlet

An apricot tartlet with sweet moist filling.  Great accompaniment for a tea time ♪

aa

<Tartlet Base> 20cm tartlet tin

• 150g plain flour
• 70g unsalted butter (softened)
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 egg yolk

Chocolate Cupcakes

The contrast of dark cocoa colour and pure white cream… looks cute, aren’t they?  No artificial colouring and all natural.  These little bite-size cupcakes are great sweet item for afternoon tea, or as a dessert after the meal.  You can add dried fruits to the batter, such as strawberries, cherries and orange peel.  Enjoy your special flavour 🙂

<Chocolate Cupcakes> makes about 10 mini

• 50g unsalted butter (softened)
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• 50ml milk
• 85g plain flour
• 15g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• fresh cream, icing sugar, chocolate to decorate

Grapefruit Semifreddo

My neighbor left grapefruits outside their house with a memo saying “free grapefruits from the garden!”

I love grapefruits!  I thought it was a spring fruit :p  It’s refreshing, and great item to eat in the morning – healthy, and rich in vitamin.

I took 3 home, and ate 2 of them as they are.  The rest, I made semifreddo with it 🙂

Semifreddo is an Italian, meaning “half cold” “half frozen”.  As the name indicates, it is eaten as semi-frozen.

<Grapefruit Semifreddo>

for 1 x pound-cake tin

• 1 grapefruit
• 100ml cream
• 2 eggs
• 60g sugar

Japanese Pancake with Sweet Red Bean (Dorayaki)

A fluffy pancake sandwich with chunky azuki bean paste….

You may have seen Doraemon, a cat-shaped robot in Japanese cartoon, eating dorayaki.  Dorayaki is a Japanese sweet which consists of two small pancakes and a filling of anko (azuki bean paste).

I list 2 recipes below : ↓↓

• 2 Eggs (M~L)
• 4 tbs (60g) Sugar
• 2 tbs Honey
• 80g Plain flour
• 20g Baking flour
• 1/2 Baking soda
• about 4 tbs Milk (to adjust)

• 80g tsubu-an (chunky red bean paste) (recipe here and here)
• margarin to spread (optional)

aaa

1. Place egg, sugar, and honey in a bowl and whisk until fluffy.
2. Shift in the dry ingredients.  Mix using a spatular quickly. (don’t mix too much)
3. Add milk gradually.  Mix with spatular, but do not stir too much.  Move the spatular as if you are cutting the batter.
4. Heat an skillet or hot plat, and spray oil lightly.  Using a small ladle, pour a scoop of the batter into the skillet and make a small pancake.
5. Turn over when bubbles appear on the surface. Repeat this process with remaining batter to make 8 pancakes.  Cover the pancakes with plastic wraps to prevent from drying.
6. Spread margarine on one side of pancakes, and sandwich a scoop of azuki bean paste.

aaa

2)

I used this recipe when making dorayaki last night.  This recipe uses less ingredients, and still turned out to be delicious :))

1. Beat egg with sugar in a bowl.  Add honey, and mix until smooth.
2. Shift in flour & baking powder, and mix with a spatula until the mixture is smooth and has shiny surface.  Let the mixture rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
3. Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Take the pan off the stove and place the bottom of the pan on a wet towel to even the heat.  Place the pan back to the stove, over low heat, and spray oil lightly.  Pour the mixture (about 2 tablespoons) into the pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface.  Flip the pancake and cook another side.  Keep the cooked pancakes on a plate covered with plastic wrap to prevent from drying.  Repeat with remaining mixture.
4. Spread anko between 2 pancakes and press lightly to shape.

Petit Baguette

Baguettes?  … no, they are actually cookies !  Tiny baguette-looking cookies seem to be too cute to eat, but its size and the texture are perfect for munching.

It could be a great gift too.  Just wrap them up with brown paper and now they look exactly like real French baguettes.

<Baguette Cookies> makes about 30 

• 75g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 60g sugar
• 1/2 egg (L size) (at room temperature)
• 130g plain flour
• 20g cocoa powder

Three Color Pavlova

When I was told that I was in charge of dessert for the Christmas dinner, I asked sister what I should be making.  If it was in Japan, I would be making simple strawberry cake with vanilla sponge and fresh cream, but I didn’t know if Australian (in-laws) would like it.  Sister said that Australian traditional Christmas dessert is either pavlova, or trifle.  As sister finished her sentence with “trifle may be bit heavy”, I decided to make pavlova.

It was actually my first time to make pavlova.  Umm, actually I may have made it before at TAFE, but I think it would have been a small, individual size.  

I made family size pavlova with three colors: white, pink and chocolate.  Looked like Napoleon ice cream :p  I decorated with whipped cream, some fresh fruits and roasted nuts.  It was pretty good. 

<Pavlova>

• 6 egg white
• 1+1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbs corn flour
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• tiny drop of red coloring
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 200ml whipping cream
• 1 tbs condensed milk
• cherry, kiwi, peach
• roasted nuts ( I used Almond praline)

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.  Line baking paper on an oven tray, and dust 1tsp of corn flour.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until thick and glossy. Add remaining 3 teaspoons cornflour with the last tablespoon of sugar. Fold through vanilla and vinegar.
3. Take 2~3 tbs of meringue into another bowl. Shift in cocoa powder and mix through.  Take another 2~3 tbs meringue into another bowl and add tiny drop of red coloring, mix through.
4. Spoon half of white meringue onto baking paper, shaping into about 24cm (diameter) circle.  Pour pink and brown meringue into the white meringue bowl.  Do not mix.
5. Spoon the three colors meringue on top of white meringue on oven tray.  Gently spread into circle shape, with a slightly higher edge and a low centre. Make three colors marbled.
6. Reduce oven to 100°C.   Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until dry and crisp. 
7. Turn off oven and open oven door. Cool completely in oven (pavlova may sink during cooling).

    

Please be careful when you are moving the pavlova into a serving plate.  Gently slide the pavlova onto a plate, or it will be like this … (T_T)  ↓↓↓

• Crush Almond, and roast in a pan (without oil).  Be careful not to burn.
• Place whipping cream and condensed milk in a bowl and whip until soft peak.  
• Spread cream on top of pavlova, and arrange cut fruits and sprinkle roasted nuts.