Comfort foods are what we need when we really need comforting. It’s like the mother/wife replacement when they are not around you or if you are traveling on a long journey to somewhere far away.
One such comfort food would be the humble sweet potato soup eaten more like a dessert more than a meal. It’s the quintessential comfort food that most Singaporeans would know and if you were to smell it from a distance with its signature spicy gingery flavour, it ust oozes goodness and warm feelings of home.
It’s also just about the easiest recipe to make as well. Just wash and cut the sweet potatoes into bite sized cubes, add ginger, sugar and water and its ready to eat when it is softened.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 large pieces of Sweet Potatoes (for one person)
5 thin slices of Ginger Sugar (level up to you) Water (just enough to cover the sweet potatoes)
Method
1. Wash and cut sweet potatoes, of course peel the skin first. Cut into bite sized pieces. Easy to eat.
2. Cut 5 thin slices of ginger, any type will do. Add water to cover most of Sweet potato in the pot can already. Too much water is pointless.
3. Add Sugar to taste. Up to you. Once cook, and the test is to be able to smell the fragrance. Then serve.
This is my first attempt at making Strawberry Hearts. I have always wanted to make this dessert for the longest time but somehow never got down to it.
I guess it is partly due to the fact that baking is more tedious than cooking. The amount of layering required for this recipe is quite insane, and you have to get each step correct. You can taste your way to perfection for cooking but with baking (or no bake) recipes, you can’t make any mistakes. Each misstep can lead to undesired outcomes.
So someone posted on Singapore Baking Facebook that they made their own Strawberry Hearts. And then someone else posted another recipe and from the looks of it, it is rather authentic. Immediately I knew I had to try it. So I went about buying all the ingredients, and alas, the supermarket near my place had sold out on gelatin. Incredible.
That’s like the stabilizing factor in the no-bake cake industry. I was so close, having already gotten the bulk of the ingredients in another earlier purchase. Then I still vaguely remember having already purchased gelatin. After returning home I realized it had already expired and my wife disposed of it.
So this is my gelatin-less version of the Strawberry Hearts.
Recipe
Ingredients
Biscuit base
200 grams of Digestive Biscuits (the other recipe started 300 grams, but I felt it was too thick)
100 grams Unsalted Butter (best to use unsalted butter as you won’t want your biscuit base to taste too salty)
Cream Cheese Layer
2 x 250 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese (you can buy bigger blocks from Phoon Huat)
2/3 cups Castor Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 1/2 tbsp Gelatin Powder (I substituted magnolia full cream milk instead, 1/4 cup)
1 1/4 cup of Boiling Water (didn’t use water but used milk)
Jelly Layer
160 grams of Strawberry Tortelly Jelly Powder
Lastly – 1 punnet of Strawberries (make sure you check the sizes are similar, korean strawberries are the best)
Method
(I gleaned off the recipe from Ms Karen Lim aka “Bing” ‘s recipe and adapted it to what I think would work for me)
1. Bing’s recipe was done on a glass pan or casserole dish. I think I have that same glass dish as well, also about the same size. Pretty standard. But the 300 grams of digestive was a little too much. So if I were to do it again, I would reduce to 200 grams (as indicated above) and also reduce the butter correspondingly from her 150 grams to 100 grams.
2. I crushed the biscuits in a Kenwood Food Processor, for this, you could try the biscuits in a ziplock bag and whack it with a rolling pin approach, but seriously, it is not the same. Bing’s biscuit crushing appliance is also a tad too small. You want to crush the biscuits until they are fine grains. Follow her photos and recipe process, but take into consideration my pointers here.
3. Gelatin is an absolute must. You can’t just pretend that it is not there. I pretended of course (read the story above as to why I didn’t have gelatin in my bakery warchest) and used Magnolia Full Cream Milk to fake the presence of Gelatin. I am taking this calculated risk because I want to create liquid but not make it too solvent (get it?!). So I added a 1/4 cup of Milk to reduce the density of the cheese mixture but yet not too much so that it still retains structure (also I don’t quite like the taste of gelatin in my cakes). My plan worked. Of course if you are still not sure what I am doing, follow Bing’s recipe with the gelatin, cannot go wrong.
4. Once the biscuit is set, I did the fork-poke-holes in biscuit crust thing as what Bing suggested. I think it is to allow the cheese mixture to fill into the tiny holes so that they can retain the structure. In my case it was kind of redundant because my cream cheese mixture was like molten lava texture. There was very little liquid to begin with.
5. I bought Driscoll’s (US) Strawberries, which upon hindsight was a bit of a mistake. These US strawberry farmers usually like to pack in all different sizes. The Korean guys are better in that they pack the same sizes. Korean strawberries are pretty to look at (like korean pop groups) and they are perfect if you want your strawberry hearts to look cookie cutter.
6. I got Philadelphia Cream Cheese which was made in Australia. Of course if you can find the ones produced in the US, then that is better. I find the Australian versions not as nice. But limited choice so bo pian. You may buy the bigger slabs from places like Phoon Huat but the quality would again differ.
7. I used Tortelly Jelly because I couldn’t find the brand of jelly that Bing used, then after reading her blog, realised that she lives in New Zealand (haha!!). So naturally I need to find my substitute here. It’s not the best, Konnyaku would have been better. 160 grams of jelly was just nice for what I did, so that’s a keeper.
8. Her note about setting the cream cheese with the strawberries is not without reason. I did my fake-gelatin method and set it for 3 hours only before scooping in the liquid strawberry jelly mixture. Even then the bits of cheese mixture floated (a bit only, cannot really see), so you might need to set it at least 4 hours or longer. Thankfully none of the strawberries floated, so that was good.
9. Once the strawberry hearts were set overnight, I used a sharp knife to cut the pieces out. My gosh, they are huge slabs, measuring about 4cm by 5cm. I am now wondering how in the world the jelly hearts business people manage to create their so thinly. Theirs is truly beautiful. Mine, was just not pretty at all.
10. The only saving grace was that the strawberry hearts tasted fantastic. Really nice. I would definitely do it again, but with gelatin and maybe with 3 tsp of Lemon Juice.
I have always loved Tiramisu, and I like making it even more. The problem is, I rarely get a chance to do it these days, other things have become more subtly more important and I also always tend to forget how to make it. Even for this recipe, I was struggling to recall the proportions right up to the minute before I actually remembered how to make this Italian “Pick Me Up” cake.
This beautiful no-bake recipe is da bomb. Once you know how I make it, you can also do likewise. If you don’t like it the way I do it, then please feel free to mutate the recipe to whatever configuration you like. Ultimately it must make sense to you and the taste must be absolutely fantastic.
I took up a class on how to make Tiramisu recently, and the trainer said that due to the presence of unsavoury hygiene habits of some bakers, they have decided to stop using eggs in this no-bake version of the Tiramisu. I thought it could be more like an industry-wide conspiracy to boycott the use of eggs. But then I discarded that thought as there were many other recipes that still called for the use of eggs.
Anyhoo, I think eggs are perfectly fine for Tiramisu and in fact they make the taste uber yummy. But suffice to say, if you’re a parent, you might want to stop your children, especially toddlers from eating this delicious Tiramisu as the eggs are uncooked. But again, your children, you decide. But if they suffer massive LS, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t know what is LS? Ask your Singaporean friends.
Some bakers will opt to whisk the eggs over a boiling pot of water when combining with the Mascarpone. Well, you can do that if you like. I personally think it is kind of silly. But again, it’s a baking technique, and I am not here to change the status quo, if it makes you happy, then do it. I am not doing it that way. In fact if you know what I do for my recipe, you might exclaim in a loud voice “Wah SO EASY ah?”
Yes, it is that easy to make Tiramisu.
Okay, just in case you think I am bragging, take a look above at the rather nondescript photo of my Tiramisu. It’s perfect don’t you think so?
For those of us that cannot visualise my instructions, I found a video on how to make Tiramisu for you to follow. There are plenty of videos with all different concoction of ingredients, but trust me, mine is the best. No alcohol, and no added flavouring. And just in case you think I sound like that on video, well I don’t. I chose the video because the video quality looks quite good. Just imagine that it is me teaching you. Disregard his ingredients and follow mine.
Recipe
Ingredients
500 grams Mascarpone Cheese (can buy from NTUC finest or Cold Storage, any brand also can)
100 grams Castor Sugar
4 Eggs
1 and half packets of Ladies Fingers (not the vegetable, but they are also known as sponge fingers biscuits with sugar)
Very Strong Coffee (I use Nescafe Gold Blend)
Method:
1. Firstly separate the egg whites from the yolks of the 4 eggs. Make sure the egg yolks don’t drip into the whites otherwise the egg whites won’t be able to achieve the stiff peaks. But I had some egg yolks dripped into my egg whites. Of course, if you ask me what did I do next? I continued to whip it using my super-duper KitchenAid machine. It whacked the egg whites into submission and they all stood stiff at the end of it. So don’t believe what people tell you. Take it from me.
2. Oh, you have to add the 100 grams castor sugar into the egg whites before whipping them. I know some recipes say that you are supposed to add the sugar into the egg yolks and not the egg whites. I think it is the same, so if you want to follow other people’s way of doing it, you can. Whipped it until it it stiff peaks. Then you taste the mixture. It should taste something like candy floss.
3. Next up whip the egg yolks with the Mascarpone cheese until pale yellow and creamy in texture. You generally want to incorporate as much air into your mixture as possible. Once you have done these two steps, you can combine the two together and fold them until they are one.
4. Using a large dish, you are now ready to make your Tiramisu. Make a large cup of extra strong coffee. I use Nescafe Gold Blend and I make it extra strong by adding more coffee grinds and less water. I dip the sugar coated end of the ladies fingers into the strong coffee and quickly take them out and flip them on the reverse side and then place the biscuits into the tray. Basically by doing so the biscuits don’t become soggy too quickly and you still have the basic taste of the biscuits.
5. You want to line the dish with the coffee infused ladies fingers so that it forms a bedding for the whipped Tiramisu batter. Once you have arranged a layer of the ladies fingers, you can now dump the batter into the dish and form a layer. After you have done that, you can powder a thin layer of cocoa powder. Repeat the ladies fingers dipping action and form another layer of bedding. After that, dump the remainder of the batter into the dish.
6. Once you have done all that, seal it with cling wrap and throw it into the fridge to set. Some recipes call for overnight freezing for it to set. I think if you have a good fridge, it should set in 2 hours tops. After all, it should be eaten in a soft mushy manner.
7. Once it is set, and sufficiently chilled. Dust it with cocoa powder and you can serve.
Is it really a soup? Or is it really a dessert? But why do people call it Red Bean Soup and not Red Bean Dessert? I guess people probably do, just that I have also heard some folks say Red Bean Soup. I never questioned the intention behind calling it, but I guess I will call it Red Bean Broth. Just for fun. I mean who cares right?
Anyway, I have been cooking quite a couple of desserts lately, and this is something that I thought would really rock as an inclusion into my pseudo recipe e-book that I intend to release at a future date. A blogger’s got to make some money somewhere down the road right?
Anyhoo, so I decided that I would cook Red Bean Broth *wide grin* and I would do it the traditional “kick-ass” way that would rock the socks off any old-school grandmother dessert expert. So here goes..
Oh before I start, incidentally I found a pretty good (and short) video recipe of Red Bean Soup that I thought was pretty decent – I think most of us have trouble reading recipes, so a video presentation is needed to help us who are more attuned to visual learning – learn. Good thing is, there are a gazillion videos on YouTube that helps us understand different things easily. This video on Red Bean Soup really helped me, and I am sure it will also help you as well.
When you watch the video, read my blog post and just pretend that it is me showing you how Red Bean Soup is cooked.
Where I shop?
I do all my shopping at NTUC Fairprice usually, but on this occasion I went to NTUC Finest, and I realised that they have some things that the regular ones don’t and at the same time, the regular ones have the things that they don’t carry as well. Say like never say right?
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Organic Red Adzuki Bean (I heard that these beans are better than the regular sized ones)
1 Bunch of Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
3 bulbs Fresh Lily Bulb
2 packets Fresh Gingko Nut
100 grams China Barley
Method:
1. I know the video tells you to soak the Red Beans overnight. You can follow the video if you like, or you can follow what I did. I just dump the 250 grams of organic red adzuki beans into a pot of water as well as dumped the bunch of pandan leaves into the pot. Turn the heat up and start boiling. Red Beans for some strange reason takes a longer than usual time to break down or become nuah (soften) so if you think that this is going to be a walk in the park – think again. Or maybe take a walk in the park while it boils. <– not a good idea by the way.
2. Boil until the red beans starts to look as if they are soften and the broth becomes a dark murky reddish colour. This is perfectly okay by Red Bean Broth standard. Red Bean is supposedly heaty(is there another way to say heaty?) so with the addition of the China Barley, which actually has a cooling effect on the body, helps to neutralise the heatiness (is there another way to say heatiness?) So in a sense after you add this and that, it kinds of helps maintain-the-balance.
3. So while the Red Beans and Barley are getting to know each other a little better in the now very hot pot. We should also be smelling the sweet fragrant aroma of the pandan leaves (screwpine) screwing with your nasal cavities and arousing a sense of bewilderment that only an Eskimo would understand. Like I said, boiling Red Beans takes a while, especially if you didn’t follow the video to soak the beans overnight, so you got to entertain yourself while the beans dance the cha-cha.
4. Once the beans are almost softened, take out the pandan leaves and discard. Add the fresh gingko nuts and fresh lily bulb to cook. As the latter ingredients are fresh, you don’t need to cook them for very long, especially the lily bulbs. They tend to melt under extreme heat, so you don’t want to have no lily bulbs when you do serve the broth.
5. Add rock sugar lastly until you feel that it is of the right sweetness, and then you can call all your hungry friends to chow down.
Here is an all time favourite local dessert eaten by virtually anyone, and most people will tell you how difficult it is to cook this delicacy and that you would need to spend a lot of time cooking it etc. Well, half of what people tell you is true, all the other stories are mostly not true.
Let me show you how easy it is to cook this and if I can do it, you can also.
Fortunately for those that need a little more visuals, I found a really good video on YouTube that we can all follow. See Toh from Makansutra does it really well. You can follow his instructions and ingredient list if you like, or you can follow my no frills method.
I shop and got all my ingredients from the dry goods section at NTUC Supermarket.
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Mung Beans or Green Split Beans (don’t ask me why they are called Green when they are actually Yellow)
1 bunch of Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
Sweet Potato Flour
Method:
1. You may rinse the mung beans if you like. Most people do this until the water is clear. If you ask me why do people do that, I will tell you that it is totally unnecessary. Why make your life so difficult? Just dump the entire 250 grams into the pot and fill it up with 1.5 litres of water.
2. Wash and twist pandan leaves into two or three bunches. Dump the bundles into the pot of water with the mung beans. Boil until mung beans are jumpy and dancing in the pot. Sing twinkle twinkle little stars.
3. Walk twenty metres away from the pot and stay there. When you start to smell the pandan flavour from 20 metres away, chances are it is almost done. Walk back to the pot and remove the pandan leaves. By now the water should be a watery yellow in colour. You can take a few beads of mung beans and test them for softness. If the required texture is achieved which is basically softened mung beans, you can proceed to add the flour mixture.
4. This is when you mix your sweet potato flour in a bowl of cold water until it is a milky mixture. Slowly pour it into the boiling mung bean broth and stir until it thickens into a starchy mixture. If you have poured the entire bowl into the pot and it is still not starchy like the usual tau suan texture, then feel free to mix some more and continue to pour into the pot.
5. Once ready, add some You Tiao or fried dough fritters, and you can eat. If you’re looking for Halal dough fritters, Old Chang Kee sells them but only in the morning. And don’t forget to add the rock sugar! Add until it is just about starting to be sweet then stop.
Here’s a really delicious cheesecake (non-baked) that I would like to recommend to all. It’s undoubtedly the best non-baked cheesecake recipe in the whole wide world (think fairytale).
Tastes great served chilled with a cup of unsweetened earl grey tea or simply on its own. Serves 8-10 slices and it’s excellent for small group socials or office parties.
Light and creamy like gelato, yet maintaining a fresh fruity zesty flavour on a mildly salted crumbly digestive biscuit base.
Ingredients:
Biscuit Base:
120 grams Plain Digestive Biscuits
70 grams Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
Method:
1. Pulse Digestive Biscuits in the food processor until coarse grains. Remember not to blend it till it is too fine. If you don’t own a food processor, get one. You won’t regret it. Otherwise, you may opt to crush the biscuits into crumbly bits in a ziplock bag and hammering it with a rolling pin.
2. Add the already softened butter into the biscuit and combine. Pulse the mixture again until butter combines into biscuit crumbs evenly. Try not to short-cut the process by melting the butter in the microwave as many are tempted to do. You won’t want to cook your butter. I always use Pure Creamery as the type of butter you use makes a big difference. Never substitute it with low-fat margarine! That’s sacrilegious.
3. Pour the biscuit mixture into a grease-paper lined 20 inch Spring-Form Pan and tamper down the crumbs to compact it. After which, you can put the pan into the freezer to let the biscuit base set for about 30 minutes.
Cream Cheese Filling:
227 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Room Temperature)
1 can of Sliced Peaches
200 ml Heavy Cream
3 tbsp Castor Sugar
3 tsp Gelatin
2 tsp Lemon Juice
rind of half a Lemon
Method:
1. With a wooden spoon break the cream cheese and mix it with the castor sugar. I like to use Philadelphia Cream Cheese especially the ones from USA and that’s why it’s 227 grams, however, these days Philadelphia makes its product in Australia, and it comes in a 250 grams pack. I found the Australian product to not be as smooth.
2. Do not over mix the cheese and the sugars. You just want it to be slightly creamy in texture and not stiff peaks.
3. Pulse the sliced peaches into smaller pieces but at the same time you want to take care you don’t end up turning it into a puree. I like using Sliced Peaches from Hosen because the textures of the peaches are firmer and it has a nicer bite and taste when it is chilled. I have used other brands, but they all cannot make it. Some peaches from other brands tend to become mushy and watery after you pulse it a little. Not nice.
4. Pour the peaches into the creamed cheese mixture along with the lemon juice & rind and combine the peaches with the cream cheese, using a wooden spoon. Again take care not to break the peaches into smaller pieces.
5. Double boil the gelatin in a bowl with half a cup of water and let it dissolve. Once the gelatin is sufficiently dissolved, pour it into the cream cheese filling. Using a metal whisk, gently whisk the mixture while pouring the heavy cream into the mixing bowl.
6. Ensure that there is an even consistency as you combine the ingredients.
7. Pour your cream cheese filling into the chilled Spring-Form Pan and again tamper it down at the bottom of the pan so that the filling sits evenly on the biscuit base.
8. Chill the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 8 hours so that the gelatin will hold the cake together.
I wrote this recipe out of boredom one fine day in I can’t remember when, and I decided that I would endeavour to make the best Pineapple Tarts in the world. At least the best according to my taste buds, and I am one to not easily like Pineapple Tarts. To be honest, I hate eating Pineapple Tarts that I buy from outside, they are just not to my liking for some reason.
There was always something wrong with it. Either there was some strange after taste of oil which makes my teeth “siap-siap” or the jam was just too sweet. I simply hated it.
As Chinese New Year was around the corner then, I thought it would be great if I can make my own Pineapple Tarts instead of buying them this year. This is an all time favourite for many, and for me it’s also one of those must do; must try recipes. And trust me, it’s true what they say about doing Pineapple Tarts the traditional way. It’s nothing short of tedious. But nothing ventured; nothing gained. So let’s try it!
If you want to learn how to do anything well the first time, you got to do everything from scratch, that means – no shortcuts!
So I bought a pineapple, one whole, from NTUC named “Sweet 16” – please don’t ask me why it’s called that – apparently it’s supposed to be a sweeter variety of pineapple. Alright, whatever.
I started scouring Google as well as asking around for the best Pineapple Tart recipe. There were many who ranted and raved about their recipes, and some even swore by their great-grandmother’s grave, but like they all say, the prove of the pudding is in the tasting, isn’t it? And after all that reading, I decided that if the pastry has enough butter, it will melt in your mouth; not in your hands. And if it has enough egg yolks, it will be soft and creamy as well. A little sugar for tasting and salted butter would give it that added savory flavour.
The difficulty in making Pineapple Tarts the traditional way is the grating of the pineapple – I did that by hand – and then afterwards cooking it in the saucepan till the sugars in the pineapple caramelised. This is a slow and tender process of stirring the mixture over a medium heat to allow the water content within to evaporate while preventing the sugars in the pineapple from caramelising too quickly. This whole painstaking process of cooking the pineapple filling took me about 45 minutes. And mind you, this is just for one pineapple. I don’t know how some people manage four pineapples at one go?!
As you can see in the picture, one whole pineapple weighs about 700 grams (minus the metal bowl), quite a lot of pineapple if you think about it. I grated the whole pineapple including the centre of the fruit and that’s how you get the stringy texture in the fillings.
I added 5 teaspoons of Castor Sugar into the pineapple mixture noting that this is not your garden variety of pineapple as it is already sweeter to begin with. Adjust the sweetness accordingly. I chose 5 teaspoons because 5 is the number of grace. You can also do likewise.
As the water content in the mixture dries, you can see (literally) the sugars starting to caramelise and the pineapple mixture starts to brown. This is the critical part because if you let up your concentration now, the mixture will burn and you will have to start all over again. Thank God mine turned out perfect.
For the pastry, I decided that I wanted a soft buttery and yet not too overwhelming feeling in the mouth – in other words – I can pop 5-6 Pineapple Tarts and still have an appetite for other yummy new year goodies. I decided to use 300g of Plain Flour combined with 45g of Castor Sugar and mixed in a whole slab of salted Butter – 250g (room temperature) and using the tip of a metal fork, I pressed in the Butter into the Flour and continued pressing until the Flour, Sugar and Butter was well-combined.
I decided that I wanted my Pineapple Tarts to be soft and creamy and that basically calls for more Egg Yolks. This is not your typical Lisa Leong Healthy Recipe. It’s sinful to say the least. I added 4 Egg Yolks (no whites!) and continued with the “Fork Technique” of pressing the dough instead of kneading immediately. The whole idea behind the “Fork Technique” is so as not to stress the dough with too much hard-hitting tension.
When it is fairly combined, dust the table with some flour, and massage the dough mixture a little more. And then leaving it to “breathe” for about half an hour. This is to allow the dough to “rest a little” (from all that tension from the kneading).
Then roll out whatever amount you want to bake, into whatever shape you want. I decided that I wanted to do them in the shape of rounded pillow cushions. You may prefer the Pyramids of Giza. Whatever. So I literally hand-moulded each one of these beauties, glazed the tops of each with egg yolk and water batter so that they will all glisten gloriously after baking.
I baked them in 160 Degress Celsius in the oven for about 20 minutes and then allowing them to brown a little in the oven for 5 more minutes with the power turned off. The oven that I am using is a Dual-Heating Element type (top and bottom) and with the tray placed in the middle, so that the temperature will be evenly distributed. Remember to pre-heat the oven for at least 10 minutes before putting in the tray. Then you get on your knees and pray that they turn out ok.
Once they are done, take out the tray to let the pineapple tarts cool. They turned out ok! Thank God. Technically speaking, they aren’t really tarts, more like Kisses. Well whatever, you should get the idea, right? And it’s ready to eat.
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands, filling is not too sweet, blends in perfectly with the pastry and the pastry is not too overwhelming, soft and crumbly. Perfect.
Here’s the ingredients list if you didn’t know what in the world I was saying just now.
Recipe
Ingredients:
Pineapple Filling:
1 Whole Pineapple (sweet type or honey pineapple) – if you choose the not-so-sweet type, you might have to tweak the sugars by taste. 5 teaspoons of Castor Sugar – remember 5 is the number of grace!
Method: 1. Hand-grate the whole pineapple including the core of the fruit. Do not short-cut the process and use a blender, although it would definitely make the whole process easier. Doing so would change the texture of your pineapple filling. 2. Cook the pineapple mixture over medium heat, and make sure it doesn’t burn. Note: Don’t be tempted to use high heat as it will make it harder for you to estimate when exactly the sugars will caramelised. 3. Keep stirring, and tossing, and turning the mixture with a wooden spoon till it is fully caramelised into a pulpy sticky mixture. Don’t let it dry up or brown too much. For one whole pineapple, this should take about 45 minutes.
Pastry:
300g Plain Flour 45g Castor Sugar 250g Salted Butter (room temperature) – Please don’t short-cut the process by melting it in the microwave or oven. You don’t want to end up inadvertently cooking the flour while mixing the dough.
Method: 1. Weigh the flour on a digital kitchen scale, make sure it is exact. Add in the Sugar and mix with a fork, so that the sugars are evenly distributed. Then add the Butter and continue to press the dough in using the tip of the fork. 2. Add 3 egg yolks (no whites) and continue to use the “Fork Technique” to press in the egg yolks until they are well-combined. Remember to knead the dough and then let it rest (or breathe) for 30 minutes before rolling them into shape.
All the best, and Happy Chinese New Year folks, even if it is not Chinese New Year, you also can make Pineapple Tarts.
Tāngyuán is a kind of Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour and is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water spiced with old ginger and castor sugar. It typically comes in one plain white colour, but some families have chosen to add a little food colouring to make the dessert a little prettier.
Culturally for many families in China and also migrant families overseas, it is a meal eaten together. The round shape of the balls served in round bowls symbolises family togetherness. Tāngyuán translated means “Round Dumplings in Soup”.
I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and this is how it works.
Recipe – serving for a family
Method
1) Add 400g glutinous flour with 350ml water. Add the water slowly so that the dough mixture will not be too moist. If you accidentally added too much water, just simply balance it out with more glutinous flour.
2) Knead the mixture into dough. Then pinch a little and roll it in between your fingers. If the dough were to crack, it just means that it is too dry. If the dough ball does not hold its shape, then there is too much moisture in the pastry.
3) Divide into the dough into two (02) portions and with one portion, add a few droplets of food colouring – Cherry Red is good – and then knead the food colouring into the dough. The whole dough should now be pink in colour.
4) Put each portion of dough into a plastic bag and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5) Remove from the freezer and begin to roll. (if however, after freezing the dough is too dry, just simply dap it with a little water.
6) Put the balls in boiling water, until they all start to float. Then off the fire and allow the dough balls to sit in the broth for about 5 minutes.
7) Scoop out the dough balls with a ladle and put them inside a bowl of cool tap water.
8) Prepare 300g castor sugar and put into the broth to boil a little, after which place slices of old ginger and pandan leaves into the soup and bring the soup to a boil.
9) Ladle the dough balls into the broth and allow them to sit in the fragrant mixture until the flavour has infused into the dough balls.
10) Allow the dessert to sit in the broth overnight, and when ready to eat, just heat up the soup and serve.
