3 hours

Three hours for 44 sweet/savoury taro buns and 24 apple and blueberry muffins.

Ps. Exams are over now, so yay for me! :D


Sweet and savoury taro buns
Makes 44 small (~4-5cm diameter) buns

Dough:
450g plain flour
100g sugar
20g instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 egg
1/4 cup corn oil
40g milk powder


Sweet taro:
600g taro, steamed and mashed
80g sugar


Savoury taro:
pork mince, marinated in crushed garlic, soy sauce and pepper overnight

Sift and mix all dry ingredients for dough together.
Add in liquid ingredients.
Mix and knead for 15-20mins.
The dough should feel sticky, but not really stick to your hands (ie. it sticks and then peels off leaving little or no residue on your hands).
Cover and leave to rest for about 1hr or when double in size.

Make your taro mixture during this time (I had prepared it the day prior). Wash, peel and steam your taro. Then mash it up. Save some for the savoury taro pork buns.

For the sweet taro buns, add the sugar while it's still hot/warm. Mix.
Set aside to cool while you wait for your dough.

When the other taro mash is cooled, mix in about 1:1 ratio of pork mince.

After your dough has risen, knead it on a floured surface. Separate into small portions (~2x2x2cm). Roll out into a circle and fill with your mixtures.

Bake in a preheated oven at 165C for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack before serving.



Blueberry and apple muffins


Using the same recipe as the previous post, but only using 2/3 cup of sugar, omitting the cinnamon and only using 2 tbsp of margarine instead.

Apple and banana muffins, café style

What to do with over ripe bananas?
Mash them of course! :)

And put them in muffins! Yum yum~


Apple and banana muffins - café style
Makes 12 large muffins

3 cups self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 small apples, peeled and diced

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tablespoons margarine, melted and cooled

Sift dry ingredients together.
Create a well in the centre, add liquid ingredients.
Mix until combined.

Add banana and apple and combine. Do not overmix.

Scoop into lined muffin trays.

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 15mins. Then turn down to 160C and bake for another 10-15mins or until cooked.

Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Clafoutis or flognarde?

Apples. I've been thinking of what to do with all these apples.

We have a lot of apples.. (You'll see plenty more apples). Haha

I've been wanting to make a clafoutis for a while now. I was supposed to make it when I had all those cherries from the cherry farm last year. But I never got the chance to.

According to Wikipedia, it's a French custard-like dessert traditionally made with cherries. And if any other fruit is used, it's called a 'flognarde'. Personally, I prefer 'clafoutis' (pronounced clafouti) as it sounds less harsh than flognarde (which sounds like it's associated with the art of whipping). :P


It's easy and simple to make. What more can you ask for?

Apple clafoutis/flognarde
Makes a 24cm diameter dish

2 3/4 small fuji apples
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup plain flour
3 tbsp sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon powder

Peel and slice apples. Place in a baking dish. (I used a 24cm diameter Pyrex pie dish, that I just bought today! Hehe).


In a bowl, combine eggs, milk, vanilla, baking powder, flour, sugar and cinnamon.
Pour over apples.


Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 35-40mins or until cooked. (Mine rested for 10mins or so before it went into the oven. Purely because something else was already baking in there.)
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.


Serve warm/hot, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

It's been a while..

So.. I am back.

I'd been craving to bake and cook so much. It doesn't help when MasterChef is on television 6 days of the week. I didn't watch the first few episodes but I've been following it since (give or take an episode, but I can always watch it online anyway). I want to make a croquembouche. I'd love to spin sugar. And I don't care if I get burns!

They made macarons in tonight's episode. My first attempt at macarons failed miserably. I blame the cookie press that I tried to use. Stupid me. I do intend on trying it again.. soon. Poh's macaron's looked so pretty, but overbaked! Sounded a bit too crunchy.. Haha.

But. I nearly gave up at one point though. The passion I once had for baking.. seemed to fade away. I won't go into my personal issues though. Let's just say, that I'm easing back into this. It's difficult considering there's another issue. Why, I'm full of issues, aren't I? -__-

Anyway, here's what I've been doing.

Lemon and blueberry yoghurt muffins.


Semi dried apple slices. Sliced and baked in the oven for 30-40mins. No need to add anything! Just bake! Yum yum.


Mushroom risotto with tomato, spinach and capsicum.

Apple custard crumble

The spare crumb mixture (see previous post) was used to make an apple custard crumble. I don't have a photo of it unfortunately, so you'll just have to use your imagination. :P

This is a pictureless recipe. :(

Apple custard crumble
Makes a small-medium sized dish

2 apples, peeled, sliced
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
2 tsp sugar
1 cup milk
remaining crumb mixture
cinnamon
water/lemon juice (I didn't have any lemon juice)

Preheat oven to 180C.
Grease the bottom of a small-medium baking dish.
Line apples at the bottom.
Sprinkle water/lemon juice over apples along with 1 tsp sugar and cinnamon.
In a bowl, microwave custard for 45secs. Or until slightly thick.
Pour over apples.
Add crumb topping.

Bake at 180C for 45mins or until cooked. Check to see if apples are softened. The topping should brown a bit as well.

Serve hot. Enjoy!

Apple cinnamon and pear muffins

To bake or to study?
Did I choose the wrong thing?

I woke up early so that I could do both. But I only ended up baking.. (I know this is bad. I hope it doesn't become a habit). I just really wanted to bake. I needed to bake.

Well, I made apple cinnamon and pear muffins. I realised that I made muffins on the same day last week as well. Haha. Well, it won't happen next week! (I hope).


Apple cinnamon and pear muffins
Makes about 24 standard muffins

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten
8 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cup yoghurt (I used Ski D'lite Berry Basket)
1/4 cup corn oil

1 1/2 red delicious apples, diced
1 william pear, diced

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Add in oats and mix.

Mix yoghurt, milk, egg and oil together.

Add liquid mixture into dry mixture and mix.

Mix in the diced apples and pear until well combined. (Try not to overmix batter)

Scoop into muffin tin/paper casings (grease them with some butter/margarine to prevent muffins from sticking to the tray/case).

Bake at 175C for about 25mins.

Allow to cool for a few hours before eating. (If you leave them for a long time the paper casing will be easier to peel off. For eg, leave them overnight if you didn't grease the casings much.)


Mmmm. Apple and pear goodness in every muffin, with a slight hint of cinnamon~ :)

Apple and custard sorbet

Yup, that's right. Apple and custard sorbet!

I had purchased a Sunbeam Snowy Frozen Dessert Maker over a year ago. And never used it.


It was on sale so I bought it. I had purchased it a week or so before my trip last year so I never got a chance to use it. But last night.. I tried it out. Haha. It's so cool! (no pun intended). The canister had been freezing in the freezer for a few weeks now and it was just taking up space in the freezer. 'Time to use it!' I told myself.

Apple and custard sorbet
Makes about 800ml - 1L

4 Red Delicious apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp sugar
some water, to sprinkle
3 tbsp water

1 cup milk
2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
1 tbsp sugar

Lay apple slices on a lined baking tray (I used a slice pan lined with baking paper).
Sprinkle with water and then with the sugar.


Bake at 165C for about 45mins until cooked.

Remove from oven to cool.


Dissolve custard powder in 1/4 cup of milk. Boil remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan. Gradually add custard milk whilst mixing constantly.
Simmer until thickens. Leave to cool slightly.

In a blender, add the baked apple and 3 tbsp water. Blend. (You may need to mash up some of the apple before it's willing to start blending).
Add in custard and blend until mixed.
Leave to cool.

Pour into ice cream machine as per instructions. Mine took about 45mins to get to an thicker frozen consistency though it wasn't as frozen as it should be. It was probably because I added the mixture when it was still warm rather than cooled. (I assume the custard would have hardened if the mixture was cooled before adding to the ice cream machine..)

Scoop into an airtight container and freeze overnight.


I could have made it creamier like ice cream by adding thickened cream to the mixture, but I didn't have any on hand. But I'm still happy with this result. Hehe. Yummm! It's like an apple and custard pie.. that melts in your mouth~ :)

I know, there's 3 apples left still. They're just sitting in the fridge... for now :P

Apple and custard pastries

I've made this once before (in late December). And the photos last time were nicer! :( Oh well. Sigh.

I was going with a theme of apples and custard. They compliment each other nicely :D Mmmm. I remember how yummy this tasted last time. I love apples with custard! I actually had something else in mind though.. but seeing as I had puff pastry on hand from making spinach and cottage cheese triangles, I decided to make apple and custard pastries. ;)


Apple and custard pastries
Makes 16 apple and custard pastries

3 small-medium Red Delicious apples, peeled and diced
2 1/2 cups milk
4 tbsp vanilla custard powder (I used White Wings gluten free vanilla custard powder)
2 tbsp sugar

4 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

Dissolve 4 tbsp custard powder into 1/2 cup of the milk. Heat the remaining milk in saucepan with the sugar until nearly boiling. Gradually add the custard milk whilst mixing constantly. Simmer for a few minutes until thicker. Leave to cool down (it will harden some more)

Cut each puff pastry sheet into 4.

Spoon some custard, add some diced apples and seal the puff pastry tightly. Use a fork to make indents to ensure closure when baking.


Bake at 165C in a preheated oven for about 30-40mins or until golden brown.


Serve warm or cooled.
And it's delicious served warm with some vanilla ice cream!


Okay. Now.. I actually peeled 10 apples. I only used 3 of them in here, so where are the remaining 7?

You'll find out tomorrow. :P