Happy Lunar New Year!

It's Lunar New Year tomorrow!

This year, I'm at home and was able to make things! Yey~

I started off making kueh bangkit.. which turned out as a bit of a fail because I ran out of tapioca starch. So instead of my usual little men, this was all I made:


Pineapple tarts again:


Agar goldfish, using the fish mould I got 1.5years ago in Singapore :)


And my attempt at Zumbo's macarons. I didn't realise his recipe was in bulk.. so I made a bit too many. I made pandan macarons with white pandan chocolate ganache/pandan custard! :) I used pandan paste, that's why they're that colour. I don't really like it though. I should've made them more green.. :/


Oh. And I also made some ice creams (not really Lunar New Year related). Yam and green tea. :D


Anywho, this will pretty much be the last amount of baking/cooking I'd be doing for a while.. (apart from M's cupcakes which I'll make tomorrow night). Then I'm off to HK and South Korea! Weee~ Hello Winter #1 of 2012! Glad to escape the burning sun for 3 weeks. :) And can't can't wait to get to Korea! :D
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Snow me

It's December. The festive month. Time sure does fly by..


I was planning on baking all things festive in the lead up to Christmas.. but I won't be home 2 weeks before Christmas anymore. (ie. in a week's time). No, I'm not going on holiday yet. I wish I was though. Ahh... only 7 weeks until I go to Korea/HK! :D Can't wait!

I made some Christmas pudding/fruit cake yesterday. Crumbled it up and mixed it with some vanilla ice-cream. Mmm.. Christmas pudding ice-cream. I made about 3L of it.. :S And I have half a chunk of cake left. -__- Sigh.

Since I had some condensed milk opened from the other day (A bit of Choya Umeshu, a spoon of condensed milk, then topped with fresh milk = a nice cocktail :P), I also made some quick coconut macaroons. Of course, I had to make them cute. Haha.

Meet my snow-self. Fill my heart in! :P


They're really simple to make. Just add some condensed milk to some dessicated coconut. Mix until they hold shape. Then roll them into balls and bake in a preheated 160C oven for 15-20mins. Allow to cool, then decorate with icing. Simple as. :D



Meet my snow-friends.


:)

I only have this week left to bake festively. My to do list: gingerbread men, Christmas cupcakes, snowmen cakes!

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'Sexy cookie'

Everytime I think of madeleines, I think of 'sexy cookie'. Haha. If you've watched the Kdrama 'My name is Kim Samsoon', then you'll understand where I'm coming from. :P It's one of my favourite Korean dramas. :)

Well, what are madeleines, you ask? They're basically a French shell shaped cake cookie. I've never actually eaten one before this.. :/


I've been meaning to make madeleines since the past 2 years. I've bought the madeleine pans a long time ago but have just never used them. So I finally decided to make them the other day!

Lemon madeleines
Makes about 17

4 eggs, separated
180g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
120g butter melted, cooled
100g caster sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
lemon juice, for brushing
icing, for dusting

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, lemon zest and 50g of sugar.

In yet another bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks, then gradually add the other 50g of sugar, whisking until smooth and glossy.

Fold in one third of the egg whites into the yolk mixture.
Then fold in half of the flour mixture.
Add another third of the egg whites.
Then fold in the remaining flour until just combined.
Finally, fold in the rest of the egg whites and when just combined, fold in the melted butter. (Careful not to overmix)

Allow to rest for 30mins.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Pipe mixture into greased madeleine pans.


Bake for 8-10mins until golden brown. Watch them growww! :D


Allow to cool slightly before removing from pans and allowing to cool on a cooling rack.


Brush with lemon juice and dust with icing sugar.


Serve immediately, or on the day.

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Osmanthus and wolfberry jelly

Off topic from baking, I made some osmanthus and wolfberry (aka goji berry) jelly today. I've gotten the ingredients a while ago but just never had the chance to make it.


I first tried this when I was in HK last year, at Tim Ho Wan for yum cha. I didn't know what it was but it was nice, not too sweet.


I hadn't thought much about it since then until my friend S decided to make some a few months ago after she had watched a TVB drama featuring it. (:P @ S).

So here's my attempt at it.

Osmanthus and wolfberry jelly
Makes about 38 small jellies

240g powdered konnyaku jelly (pre-sweetened)
1200ml water
~20g dried wolfberry/goji berry
~5g dried sweet scented osmanthus flowers

Boil water.
Slowly add konnyaku jelly, stirring gradually.
Allow to completely dissolve in about 3 mins.
Add in wolfberries and osmanthus flowers.
Remove from heat.
Pour/spoon into jelly moulds.

I bought these moulds in KL 1-2 years ago. I got about 6 in pack.

Allow to cool. Refrigerate until set.

Carefully remove from moulds.


There we go! Very simple and easy to make.

I think next time, I will try and find unsweetened konnyaku and add honey instead. The packaging didn't really say anything about it being sweetened, and most of it was written in Indonesian/Malaysian. :(

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Random baking

Here's some random baking photos for the past month. I don't have recipes to show you. These were just 'bake by feel'.. because I was too lazy to get my measuring tools out. Hehe.. :P

Childish vanilla cupcakes. For GK. A pre-birth celebration for the little one inside. :)

Happy cupcakes (Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate coconut ganache). For JK. Happy cupcakes for a happy person :P

Rustic jam tarts (Apricot jam and Apple, rhubarb + cinnamon jam). Well, I was making cookie dough.. then couldn't be bothered making cut out cookies anymore. So I decided to make jam drop cookies. These are a bit larger, so I guess you can call them tarts! Haha.

Baking is therapeutic. Decorating is fun.
I have so much that I want to make.. but I can't seem to find enough time or energy.. :(

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