Banana Muffins

What will you do to over ripe bananas?  I don't like to eat them if they are too ripe!
Besides being too soft to eat, you will also see irritating fruit flies around them too.

Some might say can keep bananas in the fridge.  I noticed that all fruits can be kept in the fridge and usually I like to eat fruits that's cold.  However definitely NOT bananas...I find it strange eating them cold.

I think the best way is to make it into muffins!!

Ingredients:
260g Ripe Banana
280g Sugar
3 Eggs
100g Sour Cream
120ml Corn Oil
100ml Milk
1/2 tsp Banana Essence (optional)
320g Self-Raising Flour (Sieve)
60g Walnut (toast at 160 degree for 10 minutes first and then chop it coarsely)
60g Macadamia Nuts (toast at 160 degree for 10 minutes first and then chop it coarsely)

• Preheat oven at 200 degree.
• Place bananas in mixer bowl and add in the sugar then whisk at medium speed till well mixed.

• Add in eggs to mix well then pour in the sour cream and continue to whisk for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Pour in corn oil and milk to mixer bowl and add few drops of banana essence (if like) and continue whisking.
• Turn mixer to slow speed and add in the flour and nuts and continue to mix till well done (don't over mix).

• Scoop batter into muffin cup and bake 20 to 25 minutes till golden brown.

I like to eat hot moist banana muffins!!  Yum Yum

Something brainy...Walnut Cookies

I heard walnut is good for the brain.  Do you believe so?

Many old folks believed that pig brain is also good for our brain.  You dare to eat?  Ha..definitely not me!  And I'm not sharing any pig brain soup recipe here...

I fine that our brain is a very special organ.  How can such a small piece of "toufu" store things like a memory card huh?

Anyway, I like to share with you this walnut recipe and let's hope by eating it, it will aid in boosting our brain cells ha!

Ingredients (recipe makes about 120 pieces of cookies):

300g Top Four (sieve)
150g Walnut (bake at 160 degree for 10 minutes, cool and blend to coarse powder)
100g Walnut (raw - don't bake)
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
180g Icing Sugar
120g Butter
120g Shortening
1/2 tsp Vanilla Powder
2 Egg Yolks

For Glazing - 1 Egg + 1/8 tsp salt (beat lightly and sieve)

• Put Top Flour, salt, bicarbonate soda, baking powder and blended walnut powder in a bowl and mix together then leave aside.
• Sieve icing sugar into the mixer bowl and add in 120g butter and shortening, vanilla powder and 2 egg yolks into mixer bowl.  Beat it for 2 minutes (1st minute slow and then change to fast speed).
• Add in the flour mixture bit by bit into the mixer bowl and continue to beat with slow speed till all flour has been added in and well mixed (do not mixed too long).
• Grease few baking tins with oil and preheat oven at 180 degree.

• Roll dough into small equal size balls and put a piece of raw walnut on top and press lightly.  Leave enough gap in-between dough because cookie will expand when baking.
• Egg wash cookies and bake at 180 degree for 10 minutes and then remove tray to do 2nd round of egg wash and then bake till golden and remove to cool before storing.

 Here's your nice walnut cookies!  Enjoy!!

Fruity Fruit Cake

I just brought a new mixer last night so I decide to give it a first try by making an easy to bake fruit cake!  My hubby gave me just 89 marks...hmm...he's very stingy ha ha....89 marks but he ate a few pieces at one go!!!!

Well, you can try making and judge how's the taste!

Ingredients (makes a 9 inches square cake):

Part A
250g Hard Butter (Direct from fridge and cut into few pieces for easy beating)
150g Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
250g Plain Flour             } Sieve together
1 tsp Baking Powder       }
250g Mixed Dried Fruits (optional to soak with 50ml hard liquor or rum for 1 to 2 days)
1 tbsp Rum (add this if you didn't soak dried fruits with liquor or rum ahead of time)

Part B
5 Egg Whites
50g Sugar
1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar

• Preheat oven to 160 degree.  Grease and line a 9 inches square or round baking tin with paper.
• Cream Part A - butter and sugar together with slow speed first for 1 minute then turn to medium speed (speed 3 for Kenwood mixer) and cream for 15 minutes or until fluffy.
• Turn speed to slow and add in egg yolks (and rum) and mix well for another 2 to 3 minutes with medium speed.
• Add mixed dried fruits into the sieved flours (to separate them so that they don't stick in a lump)
• Add in the flour cum dried fruits into mixer and cream with slow speed till well mixed (don't over mix).  Remove and transfer it into a big mixing bowl. 

• Wash mixer bowl clean and dry it.  Pour in Part B (egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar) and use egg whisk and whisked at maximum speed until stiff.
• Add egg white mixture into butter mixture and mix well until all is well combine (with hand whisk).

• Pour batter into baking tin and bang it before bake.
• Bake cake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.  (test with knife in center to make sure it's clean means it's fully baked).  Should you find the top colour is already quite brown before timing, cover with a greased paper or aluminum foil so that the top won't be burnt!

Enjoy your baking!!

Terrific Baked Potato Cake

Today is a boring Saturday for me.  Did nothing but wrapped some dumplings and steam it for my lunch.  Went to buy a new mixer (finally can start to bake my cakes, cookies and buns again!)

Since I have my new mixer again, I will share with you today on how to bake a nice potato cake.  This is different from the usual butter or cream cake.

WOW..was the first impression I had in mind when I first tasted this bake potato cake.  It smells wonderful and it's very tasty.  Not difficult to do but make just need to make sure you test different areas of the cake to make sure it's fully baked before removing from oven,

Ingredients (recipe makes a 7 inch square tin cake):
1 kg USA Potato (peel, slice thick and steam for 40 minutes.  Mash it while hot and leave aside)
250g Sugar
150g Wheat Flour (Deng Flour)
150g Soft Butter (thaw in room temperature for 45 minutes from fridge)
5 Egg Yolks (lightly beaten and add 1 tsp vanilla essence in it)
3 Egg Whites
* 1 egg for bushing (lightly beat and sieve it)

•  Preheat oven at 180 degree.
• Beat sugar and butter together for 5 minutes with maximum speed.
• Add in egg whites slowly while still mixing and continue to blend 3 more minutes.

• Thereafter slowly add in egg yolk and continue to beat till well mixed.
• Add in mashed potatoes and mix well.
• Turn mixer to slow speed and then add in wheat flour slowly to mix well (don't beat too long for this process).
• Grease and line 7" square tin.
• Pour mixture to tin and bake for 10 minutes then remove and apply egg wash.  Continue egg wash process after baking every 10 minutes (total 3 times = 30 mins)

• Bake for another 15 minutes (or till cooked) after 3rd egg wash.  If skin is turning very golden before cake is fully cooked, cover the cake tin with aluminium foil and continue to bake till done.  The foil will help to prevent the top from burning and yet can continue to bake the cake till cooked. (prick with skin or stick on different areas of the cake to make sure it's cooked.)

Transfer cake to wire rack to cool after baked.  Cut only after it has cool down completely or just slightly warm.

Mashigeta..(means Delicious in Korean)  Enjoy!

Melt In The Mouth - Almond Cookies

Sesame Street's Cookie Monster is here!!!

 I love cookies...especially home-baked.  Today I will share with you my Almond Cookies Recipe.  This cookie is easy to bake, nice to eat and you can even bake it and give to friends and relatives during Chinese New Year period too!

It is always a fun thing whenever I do baking!  I like to see the satisfied look from family and friends when they tasted my cookies or cakes or dishes.  I think that's what every "cook" love to see!

Tomorrow is Saturday, if you have the time try baking some since the ingredients are easy to find.

Ingredients (Recipe makes about 120 pieces):
300g Ground Almond
300g Plain Flour (Sieve)
100g Icing Sugar (Sieve)
1/2 tsp Salt
150g Shortening
* You will need to get cookie mould (any shape or design you like)

• Preheat oven at 150 degree for 15 minutes.
• Spread ground almond on baking tray and bake for 25 minutes (mix every 5 to 10 minutes to prevent over burning).  Leave to cool completely.
• Turn oven temperature to 180 degree now.
• Put plain flour, icing sugar, cooled almond powder into mixer bowl and mix well with hand.
• Add in shortening and mix softly with hand using rubbing in method (do not press, just rub gently).  Grab a handful and press it to see if it holds (If don't, slowly add in 1 tbsp water to mix and try again...repeat method till mixture can hold).
• Grease 3 baking tin and dust some flour on the surface of the tin.
• Fill the cookie mould with almond powder mixture and press it till it's even on the surface and tight.  Knock out the biscuit (you got to try a few round to get the right strength when knocking out the cookies) and place it onto the tray (don't need to leave big gap between cookies because it won't expand).
• Once the whole tray is filled with almond cookies, bake it for 15 to 20 minutes till light golden colour and remove to cool. 

This cookies melts in the mouth so its very soft and fragile.  Handle it lightly when storing into air-tight jar.

That's it!  Easy right?

Yummy Egg Tarts

I noticed that seldom got people don't eat eggs hee..
I like eggs but don't like to eat egg tarts.  I remembered I ate my 1st egg tarts when I was about 15 years old (given to me by a friend...and oh...that's soooo long ago!) and I don't quite like the taste because it's cold!  To me eggs should be hot and when it's cold, I felt it's smelly.  Crazy right?

Then as years goes by, there's Portuguese egg tarts and those fluffy crust egg tarts in the market too but still I don't quite like to eat them.

2 Years ago I learned this egg tart from a teacher and it's the best I have eaten so far.  Although the pastry is not those fluffy type but it's very fragrant.  I could eat 6 egg tarts in one go after baking (while it's still warm).  I have baked a couple of times and bring to party and gathering and all the children and adults loved it.

Egg Tarts Ingredients (recipe makes about 30 to 35 tarts):

100ml water + 125g sugar (boil till sugar dissolved and leave to cool) - This is the syrup and need to do first before preparing to do the rest of the steps.

400g Top Flour
20g Milk Powder
20g Custard Powder
(Sieve all the above 3 powders together)

125g Semi Hard Butter
125g Margarine
100g Icing Sugar (sieve)
7 Eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Fresh Lime (extract the juice)
200ml Fresh Milk or Carnation Milk (I like to use fresh milk)

• Preheat Oven to 180 degree.
• Put butter, margarine and icing sugar in mixer bowl and beat it for 5 minutes in normal speed (speed 1 to 2 for Kenwood Mixer).
• Add in 1 egg and vanilla essence and beat at high speed for 2 minutes and then reduce to slow speed and add in sieved flours bit by bit into the bowl to mix.  Turn to high speed and beat 1 minute after adding all the flours.
• Remove dough and rest it for 10 minutes (cover the dough to prevent dryness).
• If your tart mould is new, you got to grease it with cooking oil.  If not, then can skip this step.
• After resting the dough, remove and roll it into long roll and divide dough into smaller ball of about 25g each.
• Roll dough into ball and press it inside the mould and leave edge a bit higher then mould and prick lightly on the tart base with a fork (do not prick through the dough or else tart will stick to the mould when baked)

• Bake the tarts in 180 degree for 8 minutes (Half bake the tart base first) then remove from oven to cool.
• Crack 6 eggs in a bowl and mix it with hand mixer lightly and add in the cooled syrup water and the fresh milk and mix well. (Turn the oven temperature to 170 degree now)
• Sieve the egg mixture twice and add in the lime juice and mix well lightly.  (Optional to add a drop of "Egg Yolk Yellow" colouring if you want a brighter yellow colouring.
• Pour egg mixture into cooled tart base to 90% filled and place it into oven and bake at 170 degree for 12 to 15 minutes (depending on your type of oven, best to see the egg texture to determine if tart is fully baked.  Do not over bake).  Got to make sure when place tart into oven, do it lightly, don't let the egg mixture flow out from the tart or else it will cost the tart to stick to the mould.

• If your oven is small and can't bake all tarts at one time, put the egg mixture in fridge before using.

• Remove tarts from oven and cool it for 5 minutes and try to remove tart from mould to paper holder (beware mould still hot!).  Serve it warm is the best!!