Egg Tarts

Egg Tarts~~ Weee~
Found this recipe from Ching and Mikko

Definitely a keeper! *thumbs up
This recipes yields around 21 - 22 tarts (standard size)

Ingredients for fillings:
140 g sugar (i used 120g which is ideal for my family cause they don't like sweet)
288g water
4 eggs
80g evaporated milk

Method:
1. Boil the water and stir in the sugar until melted
2. Let cool for about 5 minutes or so then add in beaten eggs and evaporated milk
3. Sieve the mixture for 3 times.
4. Set aside

Ingredients for dough:-
300g plain flour
8g custard powder
8g milk powder
8g sugar
1 egg
200g butter

Methods:-
1. Melt butter in double boiler. Let it cool for a while
2. Mix flour, custard powder, milk powder and sugar together in a bowl until combined
3. Add in beaten eggs and melted butter. Mix until just combined only (with a spoon)
* Do not overmix them
4. Divide dough into balls of 26g each
5. Press dough into tart moulds
6. fill the moulds with egg fillings
7. Bake in preheated oven of 160 degree celcius for about 20 mins or till egg custards are cooked.
8. Let the tarts cool for a while, turn over the tart and lightly knock them out of the mould.

Tips:
1. Baked tarts in lower tray to avoid overbaking the egg custards
2. If the egg custards started to puff up, open the oven door a few inches because the temperature may be a bit too high.

Oatmeal Almond Muffin

Recipe from Ching

Ingredients

120g butter
200g caster sugar (i reduced to 150g)
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
250 ml milk
1tsp vanilla essense
240g self-raising flour (sifted)
40g almond slices
40g Oatmeal (i used nestum)

extra almond slices for topping

Method:
1. Melt butter and sugar in double boiler until melted
2. let cool and add in eggs, milk and vanilla
3. Add in sifted flour, almond and oatmeal and mix lightly
4.. Pour mixture into muffin cups
5. Bake in pre-heated oven 180 degree celcious for about 25 mins

Jamie Oliver's Bloomin' Brilliant Brownies

It was quite last minute when i decided to make something to bring to Sharlene's house last Saturday. I only had about 2 hours of preparation and cooking available after arriving home after work. I did not have time to go shopping for ingredients. I ruled out chicken pies because the dough needs time to refrigerate. Cookies are not a good idea because you see cookies everywhere especially during this chinese new year. So what to make? Good thing i have a block of cooking chocolate and butter in my fridge. Shu Vun highly recommended this brownie recipe from Jamie Oliver.

I added a little alcohol in my brownies. I do not have any Tia maria or brandy so i used this lychee wine i have call Kui Fei. There is a slight fruity taste in the brownies which i think is just fine.

I didn't have enough time to take a picture of my brownies. But it was really really chocolatey.
So I will use Shu Vun's brownie pic.


Ingredients
• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark Fairtrade chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
• optional: 75g dried sour cherries
• optional: 50g chopped nuts
• 80g cocoa powder, sifted
• 65g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 360g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• optional: zest of 1 orange
• optional: 250ml crème fraîche

Methods

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the cherries and nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares. These make a fantastic dessert served with a dollop of crème fraîche mixed with some orange zest.

**note: i found that 360g of sugar is too much so i only used 50g. The sweetness is just right for those who are not too fond of sweetness.

Baked Rice

It's holiday today! Happy National Day!! ~

I was planning to make spaghetti today but i was too lazy to drive out to buy the ingredients so i decided to make this baked rice instead. The recipe is from HappyHomeBaking.

I was drooling at this dishes for a while now. So upon checking my fridge, i found out that i still have some cream left from the last cheesecake i made and left over rice from last night's dinner. However, i don't have mozarella cheese so i use cheddar cheese instead. The colour doesn't turn out to be as pretty as the dish made by HappyHomeBaking. But the taste is good.

I don't have fresh chicken stock so i used half a cube of chicken stock mix with about 1/2 cup of water. The rice doesn't turn out to be too wet or too dry. I like the texture just fine. =)

Below recipe is copied from from HappyHomeBaking.

**Thanks for sharing the wonderful recipe~

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

1.5 cups uncooked rice
2 chicken thigh
100g fresh mushrooms of your choice , sliced thickly
some minced garlic
1 cup cream (dairy)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt (adjust according to taste)
some black pepper
some grated mozzarella cheese
dried parsley

Method:

1. Wash and cook rice with rice cooker.

2. Bring a pot of water to the boil, put in the chicken thigh and boil till the chicken is almost cooked. Let cool and shred the chicken into bite sizes. Reserve half cup of the chicken stock.

3. Heat up a deep pan, with some cooking oil (or butter) stir fry minced garlic and mushrooms. Add in the shredded chicken meat. Add pepper and salt to taste. Continute to stir fry till the mushrooms become soft.

4. Add in the cream, stir well. Add in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. (Note, always add cream BEFORE the chicken stock, otherwise the mixture may not be smooth.)

5.Add in the cooked rice. Stir and let it cook for a few mins or until the sauce is almost fully absorbed by the rice.

6.Place rice into a heatproof baking dish. Cover top with grated cheese.

7.Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degC, till the cheese turns golden brown. Sprinkle with some dried parsley. Serve immediately.

Enjoy this wonderful dish~

Sausage Muffin

Recipes from Ching

All right, this is not a sweet dessert. I like the ingredients use here because it's not too much egg, not too much butter and sugar. Ideal for my super health conscious family. I personally like the fragrant of the black pepper. I would definitely make this again and with more black pepper.

Ingredients A:
5 sausages
1 tbsp butter

Ingredients B:
2 eggs
60 butter
60 caster sugar ( i used brown sugar)
1 tbsp of tomato sauces (you can use more if you like)
200g milk

Ingredients C:
250g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp of black pepper (can be more if prefer)
1/4 tsp salt (omitted this if you use salted butter)
1 tbsp chopped basil leaves (optional)

Methods:
1. Melted butter in fying pan and stir fried sliced sausages until cook. Set aside.
2. Melted the butter in ingredients B over a double boiler.
3. Sieved flour together with baking powder and set aside.
4. Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl and add in ingredients C
5. Fold in sausages.
6. Fill muffin cups up till 9/10 full
7. Bake in preheated oven in 170 degrees C for 15 -20 mins

This recipe make 7 small muffin cups

Enjoy~

Macao Sawdust Pudding (Serradura)

A super simple easy dessert to make!!!!

Recipes taken from Wendy
Thanks Wendy for sharing the recipe~

Ingredients:
250ml whipping cream
80g Maries biscuit or more
50g condensed milk
2 tsp of vanilla essence

Method:
1. Crush marie biscuits finely. Set aside
2. whip whipping cream till soft peaks. Add vanilla essence and condensed milk. Continue to beat the mixture until stiff peaks
3. Transfer the cream into a piping bag, fitted with 1 or 2 cm nozzle (i didn't use this, i just scooped them into the cup =p)
4. Place a layer of the biscuit crumbs at the bottom of your cups or moulds. Pipe a layer of cream on top. Layer with biscuits and cream again until cup is full.
5. Chill in the freezer for 2 hours. Take out the dessert and let it sit at room temperature about 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy~

Patrina's Apple Crumble

This recipe is given by Patrina.

Had always wanted to bake an apple crumble but there are just too many recipes online. Which one is good? Patrina told me this recipe of hers is delicious and seeing how easy it is. I just have to try. =)

Patrina's original recipe use pre-made Apple fillings but since i don't have this in hand. I made myself. I did not cook the apple as some people would do because i prefer the fillings to have a bit of solidness when bitten into them, if you get what i mean.

Here's the ingredients:-

For the apple fillings:-
2 apples
1 tbsp of brown sugar (optional)
1 tsp of cinnamon powder/mixed spice (optional)

Crumbles:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar (i reduced to 1/2, which i think is sweet enough)
1/3 oatmeal
1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
dash of cinnamon (optional)

Methods:-
1. Slices apples and toss them with sugar and cinnamon/mixed spice. Set aside
2. Place all the ingredients for Crumbles together and mix them up in a bowl.
3. Butter up a loaf dish
4. Put half the crumbles onto the dish. Layer with apple fillings. Then cover the apples with the rest of the crumbles.
5. Bake for about 50 mins to one hour until top is brown for 180 degrees C.

It's that easy. Cinnamon is optional. If you are the more adventurous type, the apples filling can be replace with Pears as well. xD

Enjoy this lovely dish~

Cheddar Cheese Cake

Recipes from Ching

I used the wrong baking pan. So now the cake looks flat and short. Should have use the loaf pan.

The cake is still spongy though. Cutting was messy because my mom gave me a blunt knife which she thinks its enough for cutting. Sigh, cin cai la.

Hmm, the taste is not bad la. Not too cheesy since this recipe only use 3 pieces of cheese slices. So it's ideal for some who don't like cake which is too cheesy.

I messed up some of the step. Too kan cheong and failed to read the instruction before hand. haha. Good thing the cake still looks ok

I will probably try again with loaf pan ^^

Recipes (translated):
Ingredients A
3 slices of cheese
50g milk
50g butter

Ingredients B
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp of vinegar or cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

Ingredients C
50g flour
3 egg yolks

Methods:

1. double boil ingredients A till melted. Set aside
2. Beat egg white and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in half the caster sugars. Beat a while and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat until stiff peak forms
3. Mix egg yolk into ingredients A (step 1)
4. Fold half of the egg white into the egg yolk mixture gently. Fold in sieved flour.
5. Fold in the rest of the egg white
6. Bake it in a water bath in a preheat oven at 140 degrees C.

Spiral Curry Puff

Recipes from Florence

The below recipes are copy word for word from Florence's blog. For a more detail explanation with pictures, please visit her blog.

Ingredients: (16 pieces @ 9cm in diameter)
Water Dough:
210g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
95ml warm water
25g lightly beaten egg
1 tbsp or 14g margarine

Oil Dough:
100g plain flour
60g - 70g margarine

Filling:
120g chicken thigh meat(cubed)
3 medium potatoes (cooked and cubed)
1 onion (cubed)
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp chicken curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat up some oil in the wok, stir fry the onions for a while, add in the diced chicken meat, diced potatoes and the rest of the seasonings. Stir fry till chicken is cooked. Leave aside to cool for use later.
2. Mix all ingredients for the water dough in a mixing bowl and knead till you have a soft and pliable dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes.
3. After the water dough is rested for 30 minutes, mix everything for the oil dough till you get a workable dough.
4. Divide water dough into 2 pieces about 175g each. Divide oil dough into 2 pieces about 78g each. Work on one piece of water dough and one piece of oil dough. Keep the other pieces in a bag to retain moisture.
5. Wrap oil dough in water dough.
6. With sealed edges facing upwards, roll this into a flat long sheet.
7. Roll it up swiss-roll style.
8. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a thin rectangular flat sheet. Roll it up tightly in swiss-roll style again. Trim away the left and right edges to tidy it up.
9. Divide into 8 pieces and you will get this.
10. Flatten each piece into a round disc and wrap in the filling.
11. Fry the puff in medium heat and when they are about to be cooked, turn up the heat to force the oil out of the puff. Drained well and serve.
12. For the remaining dough, repeat steps (5) to (11).

And if you want to learn how to fold the curry puff like that, please visit this video at youtube. It's very easy. only took me 5 mins to learn = ]

Thanks Florence for sharing this nice recipe~

Pandan Raisin Cupcakes

Recipes from Ching

Ingredients:
100g Caster Sugar
100g Butter 100g
2 Eggs
120g Milk
1 tsp of Pandan essence
200g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g raisins

Methods:-

1) Soak raisins in hot water for 30 mins. Mix milk and pandan essence together and set aside
2) Beat butter and sugar till light
3) Add in eggs slowly and beat well
4) fold in sifted flour (with baking powder) & milk mixture with spatula
5) fold in raisins. Fill paper cups
6) Bake in 170 degree celcius preheated oven for 20-25 mins

Makes 7 small cups, sized 5 cm x 5.5 cm
For a healthy option, i use brown sugar instead and it works fine =)
And i don't have cake flour.. so i use 1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour as replacement. haha
This cake is still soft and nice. Definitely a keeper.

Thanks a lot to Ching for sharing ^^

Chicken Pie

Made Chicken Pies today~

Haven't cook or bake anything for a very long time... *back pain. -_-"
I followed the recipe from My Culinary Journal and BakingMom.

**Thanks for the wonderful recipe ^^

Recipes below are copied from My Culinary Journal

Pastry
150 gm butter
250 gm plain flour
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

1 tsp of herbs ( mixed / rosemary)

100 gm yoghurt

Put all the ingredients, except yoghurt, in a mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until like breadcrumbs. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough.

Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling (i followed the fillings from BakingMom)
12 oz diced potatoes
1 big onion diced
50 gm mixed vegetable (or more if you like)
Sliced canned mushrooms (amt up to you)
2 chicken breast diced
1 tbsp corn starch or potato starch mixed with 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Seasonings :
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt n pepper to taste

Methods:

• Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes until golden. Set aside.
• In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom, chicken. Add in potatoes.
• Add in water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in seasonings.
• Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Cool and set aside.

this dough is enough to make 6 half-cup muffin size pies.

Roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke holes at the base using a fork. Put 2 - 3 tablespoons fillings in. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie. Brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180°C for 25 - 30 mins.

use remnant to make decorations for pies.

Before goin into the oven

The Results

After 25 mins, my pastry still look a little pale.. so i baked for another 15 mins more
I may add a little bit more butter next time =D

Flood!!!!

The view outside my room


The view from my parent's room

Sien!!!

CNY bakes

Chinese new year ("cny") is less than 2 weeks away. I just won't feel like cny without baking anything. So i baked some cornflake cookies and kuih mor for giveaway yesterday. And also Kek Batik. The only things i didn't make this year is prawn roll, melting moments, pineapple tarts and cheesecakes. Too little time.

I baked till 8+ p.m. last night. I was really tired and i felt like i was soaking in butter. BUT I felt happy and satisfied. =) I can't remember i baked how many batches and tubs but i only found 4 tubs left tonight.

I also ordered some cookies from Anna Mok and cakes since i wasn't planning to bake so much this year. Her almond cookies and cornflakes are my favourites.


Well, my brother will be goin to UK to further his studies this Thursday. And I will be goin to Singapore/Johore this Sunday for about a week.

So here wishing every chinese readers a Happy Chinese New Year and non-chinese readers a Happy Holiday!

Happy New Year 2009~!

It's the first day of the new year so I would like to wish everyone who read this a very Happy New Year XD

Here's something funny from an anime i watched yesterday:-



Enjoy your holiday XD

A Surprise...

My noobie brother took out my birthday cake at about 9.30 p.m. just now. He lined up all the candles on one side of the cake and he thinks its more unique this way. Some candles were actually standing at a slight 45 degree -.- He also dripped candle wax from lighting the first candle till the end.

After another round of singing and blowing candle and cutting cake, my noobie bro and his girlfriend took out a Huo Ho paperbag.



"This is from us to you" They said.

Lots of thing went through my mind. Is it a watch? i asked myself. Then i stopped. It was not possible because my bro is suppose to be broke. So what was in there?

I looked inside and saw a small dirty box with some label like "AC-DC" something. I stared at it for a long time and was trying to process what was this thing i was holding.

"It's a charger." They said cheerfully and they went on to explain how this multi charger can be use for many purposes while i was still... blank.



I showed my mom the charger and she keep laughing and laughing. I next showed it to my dad and he coolly comment that it was not bad -.-

While i was still dangling the charger on my hand, noobie bro took out a big box of surprise from the storeroom with a huge grin on his face. For the 2nd time tonight, my mind went blank again. HUH?! WTH

His girlfriend, Han asked me how did i feel when i received my "first" gift. She said I looked so disappointed . -.- But as i realised this was not a 2nd joke, i couldn't stop myself from grinning cause this was what i want. I just can't believed they actually get it for me.


I asked my bro to open up the gift for me and we played around with the function for a while. lol

*ouch... gastric pain (must be from eating too much today)

Can i MC tomorrow?

A very Excited Hwan on the loose

It may be my birthday today but it seems that there is another person who is more excited than I am O_o

My facebook

MSN

My Bloggie

hmm.. did i miss any others..?

わたしのたんじょうび - My Birthday XD

** had added some new songs & music to my play list. so enjoy =D

Today is my Big day~ 私の誕生日 ~

Took half day off from work. My precious afternoon is half gone and here i am, at home sitting in front of my computer... blogging. -.-

My morning in office had been quite busy (from eating). First, Jia Ren bought a slice of Carrot Cake from Fleur De Lys and get almost everyone on the 2nd floor to sing happy birthday to me. *embarassing. Cause there was only one slice and others don't get to eat.


With Betty's help, i ordered a bucket of Tau Fu Fa to treat everyone in the office. The Tau Fu Fa is so nice and so silky smooth. That big bucket cost only $16 , free delivery some more.

so after eating a big bowl of Taufu Fa plus that carrot cake and some other snacks bought by one of my colleagues from KL. I was so so so full. Then at bout 11.30 a.m. Another surprised came.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake smtg-smtg from Bakerlyn. Sponsored by 3 lawyers namely Melissa, Weng Leong & Zheng. The bottom layer of the chocolate cake is made of waffles and the top layer is of soft sponge that is rich in chocolate. Hazelnut is an instant win here. Love Hazelnut with Chocolate XD

There was no singing this time cause everyone already sang during the first round of Carrot Cake. There wasn't anytime for making any wish because the white chocolate was melting fast so I just quickly blow the candle.

Had lunch with my noobie bro and Oreo Aurey in Charcoal. Urgh.. so full. I think i gained a few pounds today ¬_¬"

2 more hours to dinner. I found a box of cake in the fridge -.-"

Do i become a few years older from blowing more candles each time...?

Double Happiness...? XD

Some of you may already know, i had my Japanese language Lvl 4 exam last night. It was quite difficult and i did not have any confidence in passing at all. Questions consists of multiple choices and most of them were grammar related. Sensei told us the result will only be announced next Tuesday. So this morning, i had a real surprised when my Sensei msg me:-

I remembered screaming out loud after the message sink itself into my brain. I was jumping up and down, showing this text to anyone who was near me. Seconds later, Pei Hwan msg me to tell me that she had passed. I called Lo san to check on him but he hasn't receive any message during that time, yet. Less than half and hour later, Lo san called me to tell me the good news. He passed as well.

For the rest of the day, i was excited and couldn't sit still. Partly because i passed the exam and also due to the reason that tomorrow is my very big important day~ It's the day when my mom gave birth to me some 20+ years ago XD

As Xio Li will be busy tomorrow night, she and Sze Wei asked me to yum cha at Taurean tonight and gave me my advanced gift


I shook the box and like an excited kid, i kept asking them what was inside. So, Xio Li told me the small box contain shoes. I almost believed them cause they look so serious when they said that. I kept wondering how did they squeeze a pair of shoes inside that small box?! I even place the box beside my foot for measurement. The length of the box is certainly smaller than my foot!!

So i open up & found:


Well, she was not kidding when she said "shoe" < < singular noun. It was a small stand and I was told i that could hang my accessories/earrings with this. That tiny pair of white shoes are souvenior from Sze Wei from her last trip to ... uh, where did she go again?! Holland ma?!

Anyway, the gift is very unique. Lol.

Thanks for remembering. XD

New albums!

Just finished my Japanese exam and it's not looking good. There were don't-know-how-many- questions which were all multiple choices. =.=

Well, been so busy lately that i haven't look out for any new albums. I was surprised to find out that there are so many new releases.

Here are some of them (that i m interested in)

Yui - My Short Stories

Tracks:-
1. I'll be
2. HELP
3. Last Train
4. Winter Hot Music
5. Jam
6. Skyline
7. Free Bird
8. I wanna be...
9. Oh My God
10. Cloudy
11. Driving today
12. Understand
13. crossroad
14. It's happy line
15. Why me

This album is due to release on 12 November 2008.

Rainie楊丞琳 - 半熟宣言

Tracks:-

01.太煩惱
02.帶我走
03.我的愛吊點滴
04.冷戰
05.火星
06.半熟宣言
07.愛我請Shut Up
08.在你懷裡的微笑
09.女生我最大
10.幸福的節拍

This album was released on 7 November 2008

Genie卓文萱 - 超級喜歡

Tracks:
01. 愛的城堡
02. 一句話
03. 超級喜歡
04. 獨家快樂
05. SAVE ME
06. 下個幸福
07. 自己找答案
08. 不說
09. 一個人勇敢
10. 靜電

also released on 7 November 2008



Jolin also released an English album called Love Exercise

蔡依林 - 愛的練習語

Tracks:

01. Get this party started
02. Lovefool
03. Kiss me
04. The blower's daughter
05. I Won't Last A Day Without You
06. Lady marmalade
07. Physical
08. When You Say Nothing At All
09. Thank You
10. Angel

Released on 31 October 2008

and Hey, Micheal Learns to Rock got new album. It was released last month on 28 October 2008

Michael Learns To Rock - Eternity

Tracks:

01. When Tomorrow Comes
02. It's Gonna Make Sense
03. Shadow Side of Me
04. You Want More
05. Sweetest Surprise
06. Family Tree
07. I Do
08. Look Around
09. The War is Not Over
10. Lonely Satellite
11. Walk with Me
12. Eternity


Christmas songs from Sixpence None the Richer~

The Dawn Of Grace

Tracks:

01 Angels We Have Heard On High
02 The Last Christmas
03 O Come, O Come Emmanuel
04 Silent Night
05 Riu Riu Chiu
06 Carol Of The Bells
07 Christmas Island
08 River
09 Christmas For Two
10 Some Children See Him

Released on 14 October 2008

Haven't try any of them yet but going to~ XD

Wedding invitation

receive a wedding invitation through msn today -_-

It's from one of my cousin in Kelantan... so i asked him when is he going to send me an air ticket.. this is what he said:-



very smart