Chocolate Mousse (with no cream and yolks!)

Not surprisingly at all, my chocoholic son loves eating chocolate mousse. Having said that, my son has made numerous requests for me to make this super-easy dessert and yet, I have hardly make any for him.

Why? - You might ask. My main reason is because most of the chocolate mousse recipes that I have come across contain mainly cream (with 35% fat or above) and egg or egg yolks and making them in the minimal four serves are usually too much, rich and heavy for us to finish. Typically when we buy just one serve of chocolate mousse from shops, the very least amount of this rich dessert is usually so much easier for three of us to share and finish...

Then, I came across this recipe, Raymond Blanc's basic chocolate mousse from Angela's blog, My Golden Pear. Angela has found this fantastic chocolate mousse which contains only chocolate and egg whites which I'm really keen to try...

With 10g of added sugar in per serve (or even less if you divide the servings further) and no cream at all, these chocolate mousse are not overly sweet and rich. Although I've made three serves of these light and fluffy chocolate mousse, the three of us still strangely prefer to share one serve and save the other two to share on tomorrow and the day after. Maybe we do like chocolate mousse and only like to eat it in a moderate amount without being overly indulged. Or maybe, we just like sharing... LOL!

Overall, I must say that I would highly recommend this if you are after a light and delicious chocolate mousse recipe. This is really good!

Our chocolate mousse served with chocolate flakes

It is essential to make these with good quality chocolate.

Beating the egg whites for nice and fluffy mousse texture

Very light and creamy mixture

For a finishing touch, shave some chocolate flakes...

... and sprinkle them generously on each serve of mousse

Enjoy!

Here's the recipe from BBC food recipes
(with my modifications and notes in blue)

Ingredients

170g good-quality dark chocolate, minimum 60 % cocoa, roughly chopped
(I used Callebaut chocolate with 70% cocoa)
7 free-range egg whites
¼ tsp lemon juice
40g caster sugar

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Instead of using this method, I have used microwave with low power to melt my chocolate.

2. Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice in a large, clean bowl until they form soft peaks. The lemon juice will stabilise the egg whites, make them easier to work with and help to prevent over-whisking.

3. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until firm peaks form when the whisk is removed. Do not whisk beyond this stage - the egg white will start to collapse and separate into dry froth and runny liquid, and you'll lose all the air that you've whisked in.

4. When the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat.Whisk one-third of the egg whites into the hot chocolate quickly and vigorously, until thick and well combined - if you add the egg whites in too slowly, their cold temperature can make the hot chocolate seize, solidify and result in a lumpy mousse.

5. Fold the remaining egg whites into the chocolate mixture, using a spatula, until all of the egg white has been completely incorporated into the chocolate. Don't overmix at this stage as you'll knock out the air bubbles and the mousse will be dense.

6. Spoon the mousse mixture into four Martini glasses. Chill in the fridge for 2-3 hrs, or until set.

Note: Using 3/7 of the recipe, I have made 3 serves of chocolate mousse all divided with 3 glasses.

Enjoy this treat.

Don't forget to participate our Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event starting on 1st March 2013. This event is hosted by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Hope that you can be the trend-setter of this event. Good Luck!

 

Plain and Simple White Bread (Delia Smith)

For all Cook like a Star participants, please don't be panic! It is not March 2013 yet and this is just a prelude to the coming March Cook like a Star (Delia Smith) event...

As March 2013 is approaching, I have realised that the Cook like a Star event that I have been organising is approaching its one year anniversary! For this, I'm giving away a gift to a Cook like a Star participant who cooks or bakes the most popular recipe within the Delia Smith, Cook Like a Star blog hop event. To win, you have to be trend setter of Cook like a Star with Delia Smith theme. This means that if you are the first person that cook or bake the most popular Delia Smith recipe for this month, you will be the winner.

Trend-setter? Who and how? For example, we have black banana ice cream and perfect poached eggs being the most popular recipes in the previous Masterchef, Cook like a Star and this means that the best trend-setters for the Masterchef event are Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Vivian from Vivian Pang Kitchen for being the first to post these popular recipes. However, there can only be one winner and this means the first person who post the most popular recipe (which is Baby Sumo in this example) will win the giveaway and of course, the winner wouldn't be me... LOL! The winner will receive either a cookbook from book depository (I will provide you a few titles to choose) or the latest copies of Donna Hay magazine and Australian Super Food Ideas magazine.

So, why wait? Let's start cooking like Delia Smith and join in the fun of this blog hop... I reckon that the simpler recipes that you will cook, the most likely you will win.

Simple recipes? How about baking this plain and simple bread by Delia Smith?

This recipe contains only five essential ingredients for bread baking. They are flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water! No butter and oil added! It is so simple and yet still good to eat. It has a similar texture to a French bread being crusty on its outside and chewy in its inside. I have toasted slices of these with Gruyère cheese and my family can't have enough of it.

As mentioned by Delia Smith, you can made this bread by hand or even food processor. To ensure that the yeast culture develops well in the bread, Delia has recommended warming the flour before kneading and also the use of hand-hot water. As I was using a bread-maker (with temperature setting), I wasn't too concern about the temperature of my flour and water. I chose not to warm them and use them as they are in normal room temperature.

My plain and simple white bread (recipe from Delia Smith)

I've used the bread dough to shape into a loaf and some rolls.

Watching the dough "growing" can be very therapeutic.

They are so simple and good!

Here's the recipe from Delia Smith.
(with my notes and modification in blue)

1 lb 8 oz (700 g) strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for the top of the bread
1 level tbsp salt, or less, according to taste
1 level tsp easy-blend dried yeast
1 level tsp golden caster sugar (I used normal white caster sugar)
about 15 fl oz (425 ml) hand-hot water (I had to use another extra 50 ml of water)

You will also need two 1 lb (450 g) loaf tins or one 2 lb (900 g) loaf tin, well buttered.

Begin by warming the flour in the oven for about 10 mins, then turn the oven off. (I didn't do this)

Sift the flour, salt, yeast and sugar into a bowl, make a well in the center of the mixture, then add the water. Now mix to a dough, starting off with a wooden spoon and using your hands in the final stages of mixing, adding a spot more water if there are any dry bits. Wipe the bowl clean with the dough and transfer it to a flat work surface (you may not need to flour this). Knead the dough for 3 mins or until it develops a sheen and blisters under the surface (it should also be springy and elastic). You can now either return the dough to the mixing bowl or transfer it to a clean bowl; either way, cover it with clingfilm that has been lightly oiled on the side that is facing the dough. Leave it until it looks as though it has doubled in bulk, which will be about 2 hrs at room temperature.

Note: Instead of kneading by hand, I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 1/2 hr.

After that, knock the air out, then knead again for 2 mins. Now divide the dough in half, pat each piece out to an oblong, then fold one end into the center and the other in on top. Put each one into a buttered tin, sprinkle each with a dusting of flour, then place them side by side in an oiled polythene bag until the dough rises above the tops of the tins – this time about an hour at room temperature. Alternatively, place all the dough in the one tin. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 8, 450°F (230°C).

Note: I had shaped half of my dough into a loaf. I had further divided the other half into 5 portions. To shape each roll, I had flatten each dough into rough rectangle shapes and roll them with up their shorter end and place their seam side downward. Then, I cut a slit on the top side each roll.

Bake the loaves on the center shelf for 30-40 mins, or 35-45 mins for the large loaf, until they sound hollow when their bases are tapped. Now return them, out of their tins, upside-down to the oven to crisp the base and side crust for about 5 mins, then cool on a wire rack.

Note: My rolls were baked for 15 min at 210°C fan forced. My loaf was baked for 15 min at 210°C fan forced and another 15 min at 190°C fan forced.

Please refer to here if you are interested to know more about using food processor to make this bread.

Happy Baking

Don't forget to participate our Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event starting on 1st March 2013. This event is hosted by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Hope that you can be the trend-setter of this event. Good Luck!

This post is also linked at Yeastspotting and February's Bake Your Own Bread

Donna Hay's Melt-and-Mix Gluten-free Chocolate Cake

No offense to all cake recipes that use gluten free flour... I must admit that I'm not a fan of using gluten free flour for cake baking. Based on the cakes that I have tasted, I am always disappointed with most cakes that are made of gluten free flour...

Despite all these disappointments, I was silly enough to buy a packet of gluten-free flour again. I was baking gluten-free apple cupcakes for a celiac friend's birthday party, assuming that this gluten free recipe is from a reputable source and might work well for me this time. Not surprising at all, it didn't. I was disappointed again that these cupcakes had a "waxy-floury" after-taste. 

After expressing my disappointments to my baking colleagues, they actually feel the same too. Together, we have all agreed that we prefer to bake flourless cakes rather than using gluten free flour to bake our gluten free cakes. My celiac friend was telling me too that she prefer to use gluten-free flour in smaller proportion so that the after-taste will not obviously detectable.

Feeling clueless with more than half a kilogram of leftover gluten free flour now, I thought of checking out the White Wings Flour website to see if there is any recommendations. Then, I found a fast and easy Donna Hay's recipe which saves me from tossing this gluten-free flour in the bin. Thanks, Donna Hay! This recipe is brilliant!

Unlike most cakes that are made of gluten free flour, this melt-and-mix chocolate cake has NO after-taste at all. It is very moist and delicious with a fudgy mud-cake like texture. The cake is so moist that there is hardly any loose crumbs on its serving plate. My husband and son love this chocolate cake very much, not knowing at all that this cake is actually made of gluten-free flour. To them, this is another delicious chocolate cake that I have baked.

Making this super-easy cake batter - just mix all and bake!

Cake tester comes out clean... the cake is cooked :D

Making the icing and spread over the cake

Look how moist this cake is... Yum!

Here's the recipe from White Wings.

(with my modification and notes in blue)

Serves 8–10

Chocolate cake

250g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup (75g) cocoa, sifted (I used Dutch processed one)
1 1/3 cups (295g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups (180g) almond meal  
(per-roasted at 160ºC fan forced for 5-7 min)
1 1/2 cups (225g) Gluten-Free self-Raising flour, sifted
(Mine is not the self-raising kind and so I added 1 tsp of baking powder for every cup of flour used)
3/4 cup (180ml) milk

Chocolate fudge icing

250g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I used the one with 70% cocoa)
1/2 cup (125ml) single (pouring) cream
70g unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 180ºC (fan forced).

Place the butter, cocoa, sugar, eggs, almond meal, flour and milk in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Pour into a lightly greased 22cm round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 1 hr or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tin completely.

To make the icing, place the chocolate, cream and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely. Beat the cooled icing with electric beaters until thick and fluffy and spread over cake with a palette knife to serve. (I didn't whipped my icing using an electric mixer. I spread the icing over the cake when it was slightly cooled.)

Note: Using 1/2 of the recipe, I have baked my cake in 15 cm round cake tin at 180ºC (fan forced) for 45 min.

Happy Baking

This post is link to Roxana's Home Baking, February 2013 Chocolate Party at her blog post. Her chocolate party theme is double chocolate… As I'm using cocoa powder and dark chocolate for my chocolate cake, I'm linking up my post to her event. Cheers!

Don't forget to participate our Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event starting on 1st March 2013. This event is hosted by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Hope that you can be the trend-setter of this event. Good Luck!

Mocha Xiang Si (Ogura) Cake

Since September and late last year, there is a trend among most Malaysian and Singaporean food bloggers to bake this exquisite cake called Xiang Si Cake (相思蛋糕), otherwise also known as Ogura cake. Prior to all these Ogura cake baking, I have never hear and taste this cake before. According to Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover, the real Xiang Si cake can be found at Batu Pahat, Malaysia and why is the cake called Ogura?

Ogura in Japanese language can be a name or has a meaning of small storehouse or red bean paste. Most often in Chinese culture, we like to associate red beans with love and would literally translate the meaning of Ogura to 相思 which means love sick in Chinese language. Although having a Japanese name, this cake is not Japanese originated at all. It is simply called Ogura or Xiang Si meaning that everyone will be lovestruck after tasting this cake.

With this catchy name, even I got into the craze baking this cake... Typically, Xiang Si cake has a chiffon-like cottony texture but short with a flat cake top. It is quite a tacky cake to bake, archiving the right techniques for its most ideal look.

Not surprisingly at all, the first Xiang Si cake that I baked was totally disastrous! It was badly cracked on its top and soggy inside. I had lots of strange mixed feeling after experiencing this failure... Is it my curiosity, pride or disappointment? Or am I lovestruck or what? I just don't why I am pursuing to bake this cake so much?

With more thoughts and less sleep, I finally managed to bake my Xiang Si cake... And these are what I did for my second bake:
 
One: To avoid cracked top, baking the cake with an oven with the right setting is important. Like what Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover always says "You have to understand your oven..." Now, I can clearly understand... LOL! My oven is a fan forced oven and seems that 130°C fan forced is the best temperature setting for my Xiang Si cake baking. To avoid too much initial heat while baking, I have covered my cake loosely with a foil (pierced with holes) at its first 40 minutes of baking.

Two: Most bloggers prefer to bake this cake with steam bake which is basically baking with boiling water. For my first bake, I didn't boil my water prior preheating the oven with the tray of water and reckon this affects the overall oven temperature resulting my cake to be soggy and uncooked in the middle. My lesson learned: use boiling water if I'm going to steam bake my Xiang Si cake.

Three: To prevent excessive Xiang Si cake rising, beating egg white to the right stage for this cake is very important. According to most bloggers including Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover, the egg white is only required to beat to soft peaks. To further tackle this problem, I have used the same technique that I did baking my Japanese Honey Castella Cake which is to pour my cake batter through a sieve into a cake pan. This simple test will ensure and determine if your egg white in your cake batter has been over-beaten or not. If your cake batter can't pass through your sieve, this means that you have over-beaten your egg white...

Update on 1 May 2013: Please check my Vanilla Xiang Si Cake post for my improved Xiang Si cake baking. As advised by Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover, the egg whites should be beaten to near stiff peaks, not soft peaks. 

Finally... my Xiang Si cake

These are things to prepare...

Making the cake...

Baking the cake...

Invert my cake onto a cake rack to cool completely

A little sweet and salty with nice coffee fragrance: a perfect way to enjoy nice cottony texture of this cake.

Here's my adapted recipe (which half amount of the recipe used by most Asian bloggers including Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover, Minty from Minty's Kitchen and Min from Min's Blog)

For 14cm square tin

A:
5g decaf instant coffee and 5g cocoa powder mixed 20ml of hot milk
25ml rice bran oil
20ml milk
¼ tsp salt
2 ½ egg yolk
½ whole egg
35g cake flour

B:
2 ½ egg white
35g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

Line baking sheet at the bottom of an un-greased 14 cm square pan and preheat the oven to 130°C fan forced with a tray of boiling water on the most bottom rack.
 
For A:
Whisk corn oil, milk, coffee mixture, salt, egg yolk and whole egg until frothy.
 
Sift in flour and mix well, put aside.

For B:
Using electric mixer, beat egg white with tartar powder and castor sugar till soft peak.

Using a spoon, mix mixture A and B together until well combined. Press with a spatula to help batter go through a sieve. Tap pan lightly to remove air bubbles. Using a spatula, smoothen the top of batter to remove any remaining bubbles.

Cover the pan loosely with foil with holes and bake at 130°C fan forced for 40 mins. Remove foil and bake for another 20 mins or until cake tester comes out to be completely clean.

Invert pan onto a cake rack and allow it to cool completely.

Please note that this cake has a little bittersweet taste and please do not reduce the amount of sugar added into this cake.

Happy Baking

Being away from home (Singapore), this is where and how we celebrate our Chinese New Year. We were at Lorne, a seaside town along Great Ocean Road at Victoria, Australia with blue sky, fine sand and crystal clear water... Enjoy the scenes of our "Chinese New Year" celebration! 

A view of Lorne and the "tiny" Lorne pier

Here's my son enjoying the sun, the sand and the sea.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover. Cheers!

Pineapple Tarts Again! (Part Two)

This is the part two of my recent pineapple tart experimental baking.
 
In my previous post , I have tabulated and compared three pineapple tart recipes by standardising their butter content to 100g in order to have a better understanding their differences. Using my homemade pineapple jam, I have baked the tarts and let's see the result...

Here are the interesting characteristics, pros and cons of the three recipes used:

One from Mandy of Fresh from the Oven
This recipe uses creaming method to cream butter and egg yolk before mixing in the dry ingredients.
Pros - The pastry dough is easy to handle even at room temperature.
Cons - The baked tarts are quite fragile and require careful handling when stacking them into the cookie jars. As shown in Mandy's post, hers were the enclosed ones and I reckon the enclosed ones might be tougher to handle than the open-faced ones.

Two from Alvina of Alvina's Baking Journey
This recipe uses rubbing-in method and contains milk powder to create a nice melt-in-the mouth effect.
Pros - True enough that the pastry of these tarts does melt-in-the-mouth with a little extra milky taste. Good that this recipe can be used to make both enclosed and open-faced kind of pineapple tarts.
Cons - Pastry dough is very soft and need to be chilled before shaping and rolling.

Three from Sugahmommy of A Spoonful of Sugah
This recipe uses rubbing-in method and contains whole egg and the least amount of sugar.
Pros - The tarts are sturdy and stacking them into cookie jar is never a problem. As described, these tarts are indeed slightly firmer with a biscuit-like texture.
Cons - Pastry dough is very soft too and need to be chilled before shaping and rolling.
 
Now which recipe do you think is the best...

More pineapple tarts made with my homemade pineapple jam

The Fresh from the Oven recipe uses creaming method and the other two use rubbing-in method.

Shaping the open-face tarts with different pastry moulds...

... this helps to differentiate the different recipes used.

The answer is here!

Thumb up from my little boy!

Here's the comparison table showing three of the chosen pineapple tart pastry recipes.
(with my notes and modification in blue)

Ingredients:

* Number of pineapple tarts made can vary with the sizes of mould used.

All of the above standardised recipes do not contain any vanilla extract or iced water for fair comparison

My egg wash: 1 egg yolk plus 2 tbsp of milk

Methods

Recipe One, Fresh from the oven

Sieve all purpose flour, corn flour, salt and icing sugar into a medium bowl. Beat butter in a mixer until it turns light in color and fluffy. Add in egg yolk until well combined. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

Although the dough is workable at this stage, I have standardised all recipes and chilled the dough for at least 30 mins before proceeding the assembly.

To assemble, roll pineapple filling into small individual rounds. Turn dough out and roll into small rounds. Flatten the rounds and use it to cover the prepared filling.

Note: I rolled the dough into 0.5 cm thickness and cut them into shapes into my mould. I placed small and rolled teaspoonful of pineapple jam in the center of each pastry and decorated the edge with a pincher.

Brush the unbaked rolls with egg wash.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F/180ºC for 10 to 15 mins or till lightly brown.

Recipe Two, Alvina's Baking Journey

Whisk top flour, milk powder, icing sugar together until very mix well.

Rub in the cold butter cubes with your finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumb. Add egg yolk to the flour and butter mixture and gently mix with a spatula until the dough comes together.
 
Knead very briefly , wrap in clingwrap and chill for 15 to 30 mins.

Preheat oven 200ºC. Portion pastry dough into 8 to 9 g each , flatten dough and wrap in 1 tsp of pineapple paste.
 
Note: I rolled the dough into 0.5 cm thickness and cut them into shapes into my mould. Then, I placed small and rolled teaspoonful of pineapple jam in the center of each pastry

Brush the pastry ball with egg and bake for 13 to 16 mins.

Recipe Three, A Spoonful of Sugah

Sift flours and icing sugar together, twice. Cut butter into small pieces and run into sifted flour. After it is completely rubbed in, add egg and then slowly add in the cold water (only if needed and I didn't do that) to get a nice and fairly firm dough. 

Wrap each portion in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins. Roll out into 0.5 cm thickness between 2 sheets of plastic and then chill again for another 15 mins. (I skipped this chilling step)

Meanwhile, roll jam into small balls for easy filling.

Take out dough and cut using a pineapple tart mould. Fill with jam. If dough is too soft to work with, flour your hands, the work table and rolling pin, making sure not to add too much flour to the dough or it will become tough. If necessary, flour the tart cutter before cutting each tart, so that the tart removes easily with all its patterns/grooves intact.

Arrange tarts on tray lined with baking paper. Chill in fridge for about 10 mins (I skipped this last chilling step), then bake at 140ºC for about 30 mins. When ready, leave to cool and store.
----

For all three recipes, I have baked all tarts at 160ºC fan forced for 13 mins
----

We are very happy with all the tarts made with the above recipes but there is always a winner in respective with all comparisons and the winner is Recipe One, Fresh from the oven

Although the fresh from the oven's tarts are quite fragile and difficult to handle, they are the tastiest of all. In fact, this recipe contains the most amount of icing sugar than the other two. Interestingly, even with more flours content and without the milk powder, these simple tarts are able to melt into our mouth and even melt better than the ones made with the other two recipes.

With all these baking, I also learned that whole eggs does firm up the final texture of pastry creating a nice biscuit-y texture. And, if you are the person who prefer the biscuit-y kind of pineapple tart, Recipe Three, A Spoonful of Sugah would be the perfect recipe for you.

Why is Recipe One, Fresh from the oven so good? 

Remember my last year post when I baked my pineapple tarts using the recipe by The Little Teochew? I really love the tarts made with this recipe and did re-visited The Little Teochew recipe a few times after this post. Now, I begin to ask myself... which is better? Fresh from the oven or The Little Teochew?

Honestly, I think both are equally good! Why? I guess this may be the answer to my question...

When I compared both recipes by standardising their butter content to 100g, I found out that they are actually quite the same! Their amount of flour + cornfour, icing sugar and egg yolk are almost the same. The main difference is their mixing method which require an extra 20g of flour to firm up the dough if the butter is creamed at room temperature. 

Another thing that I have noticed is that The Little Teochew has used 8g more cornflour than Fresh from the oven which makes the pastry more melt-y with a lesser gluten content. When I re-visited The Little Teochew recipe, a curious me had replaced all-purpose flour with cake flour and the outcome is actually quite disastrous! The tarts made with cake flour are extremely fragile to handle and so I would like to conclude that these two recipes have reached their maximum point of their melt-in-mouth composition. 

Last and most importantly, I learned not to reduce the amount of icing sugar in any these recipes further. Without adequate amount of sweetness, these pineapple tarts wouldn't be tasty at all. 

Depending on individual tastes and preferences, the best pineapple tart or even other bakes can be very subjective. I realized that some of my relatives (being Asians) don't like the milky smell of butter at all and prefer their tarts made with margarine. Now, I wondering if any of these recipes would work well with margarine...

With all these pineapple tarts baking, I'm asking myself... Have I find the pineapple tart recipe? I think so... Through this Little Thumbs up pineapple event, I have discovered a lot more pineapple tart recipes. Some are simply the enclosed kind. Some are the nastar kind. Some are the Taiwan-style kind... In particular, I would like to try these two recipes from Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover and Angel from Cook.Bake.Love before Chinese New Year next year. If time permits, I would love to try baking a lot more pineapple tarts recipes any time sooner...

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by me again, Bake for Happy Kids, at this post.

Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is PINEAPPLE for Feb 2013 and link with us at this post for the next 14 days. Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within Jan to Feb 2013 . (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids or/and my little favourite DIY. For more details, please see this.

What after Feb 2013? Doreen from my little favourite DIY will be the next hostess of March 2013 and her theme will be TOMATOES! All the upcoming ingredient theme and hostess for the forthcoming months are listed at "Little Thumbs Up" side bar of my blog and hope that you can join in the fun of this event.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me for this pineapple Little Thumbs Up event. Please visit their blogs for more of their thumbs-up pineapple cooking. 
 

I am submitting this post too to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover.

Last but not the least, I would like to wish everyone a...

Pineapple Tarts Again! (Part One)

I can't believe that it's Chinese new year soon again...

At about same time last year, I was committing myself to search for my most ideal pineapple tart recipe but tested only three recipes and prefer this one (by The Little Teochew) the most. Afterwards, I got carried away and didn't continue my quest for more delicious pineapple tart recipes - Oopsie!

Wake up, Zoe! Got to get back to my pineapple tart experimental mood again...

To start off, I need to make my pineapple jam from scratch. Last year, I have used this recipe from Wendy, Table for 2 or more and really love using this super-reliable and effective method. I reckon I don't have to test any other pineapple jam recipe further and happy to stick on this recipe for the rest of my life - LOL!

For the pastry, I'm testing out three different recipes from three different bloggers:

One is a popular recipe from a popular Malaysian blogger, Mandy of Fresh from the Oven who resides in the United States since 2005. Unfortunately, Mandy has stopped blogging since June 2011.

Two is from Alvina of Alvina's Baking Journey. This pastry recipe contains milk powder which create a nice melt-in-the mouth effect.

Three is from a Singapore blogger, Sugahmommy of A Spoonful of Sugah who claimed that this is THE pineapple tart recipe. In her post, she described that her best pineapple tarts are the ones with moist and caramelized jam with melt-in-the-mouth but firm biscuit-like pastry

For a better comparison, I have converted three of these recipes by standardising the amount of butter to 100g and list all the ingredients in a table for a better understanding of the recipes' differences. Before proceeding onto my pineapple tart pastry comparison, I would like to show the reliability of Wendy's pineapple jam recipe again... It's like watching a giant pineapple transforming itself into a container of pineapple jam... Magic - LOL!

Please stay tune for part two to see which is my preferred pineapple tart pastry recipe.

Pineapple tarts made with homemade pineapple jam

Here's my star ingredient - PINEAPPLE!

Making the jam using Wendy's recipe

From one giant pineapple to one small container of pineapple jam...

... jam used to make these lovely pineapple tarts

Here is the pineapple jam recipe from Table for 2 or more
(with my notes and modification in blue)

2 Morris pineapples
(about 1.6kg each before peeling, after peeling it’s about 900g each)
(I used one giant pineapple only. It is 2.5kg before peeling, after peeling is about 1.2kg)
2 cups sugar (400g)
(I used 200g for 1.2kg of peeled pineapples - please see note*)
1 cinnamon stick (I didn't add this) 

1. Peel the pineapples.
 
2. Cut pineapples into chunks. Do not discard the core which contains most of the precious fiber.

3. Put half the pineapple chunks into a blender, add 1/3 cup of water and blitz away. Pour 80% of the blended stuff into a pan or wok. (Tip: Wendy recommends pan or wok with large evaporation surface)

(I didn't add any water while blending the pineapples. I blended the pineapples in 4-5 batches and didn't need any water to blend the smaller batches of pineapples)

4. With some remaining blended pineapple in the blender, repeat blending process with the rest of the pineapples, always leaving some blended stuff in the blender if you need to blend more chunks and you won't need more water.

5. Cook pineapple paste with cinnamon stick (I didn't add this) on medium heat until it's very pasty, like thick oatmeal. Do not stir it all the time.

6. Add in sugar and the jam will turn "watery" again. Turn to lower medium heat, and cook until it is very pasty. Stir once a while only, but keep an eye on it.
 
7. Increase the heat to high. Do not stir to allow the base jam to develop its caramelized colour. Stir once a while to check on the colour. Stop when it almost reaches your preferred colour. Take note that some pans will continue to caramelize even when the heat is off.

Wendy's important tips:

• Add sugar after the pineapple paste has lost more than 80% of its water. It reduces the risk of burnt jam and the most importantly, it splatters horribly when there is a lot of water with the large amount of sugar.
• Do not stir often when you reduce the pineapple paste. Once you stir, it starts splattering again, even with no sugar.
• Use a heavy based pan, if possible. It reduces the risk of burning the jam.
• Wear kitchen mittens to protect lower arms and hands from hot splattering jam.
• It's better to under-cook the jam rather than to overcook it. The jam will thicken further when it is cooled. If the jam is too wet after cooling, the jam can be cooked it again to reduce the moisture further. If it's too dry, diluting the jam with water may ruin its texture.
• If need to cook more than 2 pineapples, do not cook all at once. Pour in paste from one fruit into the pan/wok and let it reduce. While it reduces, prepare the next fruit and pour in when it is drying.
• Turn on exhaust hood to aid the evaporation of moisture

* Please note that Wendy has suggested this amount of sugar to ensure that the pineapple jam will preserve and store well at room temperature. With my reduced amount of added sugar, the sweetness of my jam is just right for us. My pineapple jam was stored in the fridge and made into pineapple tarts on the next day. Eventually, we finished all our pineapple tarts in less than two weeks which means storage and shelf-life of these tarts is never a problem for us. Cheers!

Here's the comparison table containing three of the chosen pineapple tart pastry recipes :

* Number of pineapple tarts made can vary with the sizes of mould used.

All of the above standardised recipes do not contain any vanilla extract or iced water for fair comparison

Please remember to visit part two of this post to see the baking of these tarts and details of these recipes. My sequential post will also reveal which will be my preferred pineapple tart pastry recipe... So stay tune!

Happy Baking!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by me again, Bake for Happy Kids, at this post.

Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is PINEAPPLE for Feb 2013 and link with us at this post for the next 14 days. Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within Jan to Feb 2013 . (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids or/and my little favourite DIY. For more details, please see this.

What after Feb 2013? Doreen from my little favourite DIY will be the next hostess of March 2013 and her theme will be TOMATOES! All the upcoming ingredient theme and hostess for the forthcoming months are listed at "Little Thumbs Up" side bar of my blog and hope that you can join in the fun of this event.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me for this pineapple Little Thumbs Up event. Please visit their blogs for more of their thumbs-up pineapple cooking. 
 

I am submitting this post too to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover.

Bak Kwa (Chinese Pork Jerky)

At January last year, I remember seeing Biren from Roti n Rice baking homemade Bak Kwa to celebrate her Chinese New Year for the year of Dragon. This year, I am not missing out baking these delicacies for my family too...

Bak Kwa in Hokkien dialect, is also known as Rou Gan (肉干) in Chinese. It is a salty-sweet dried meat product that is quite similar to the texture of a jerky. They are made in the form of flat thin sheets and usually sold in red boxes or packets during festive seasons. In Malaysia and Singapore, Bak Kwa is a must for most families to celebrate Chinese New Year.  As always, there are long queues at popular Bak Kwa shops like Kim Hock Guan and Bee Cheng Hiang at Chinatown during the Chinese New Year season buying boxes of these delicacies as gifts and for their own celebration.

I have not been back to Singapore for Chinese New Year for the past 9 years. Although we can buy Chinese New Year snacks and goodies at most Asian grocery stores, I can never find a place in Melbourne that sells good bak kwa like what we had in Singapore.

This homemade Bak Kwa recipe that Biren used originated from Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover. This simple and easy recipe is brilliantly written and executed. Eating these really makes me feel like at Singapore celebrating Chinese New Year... Being highly requested and with no doubt, I have baked these more than once... *smile*

My homemade Bak Kwa

These are all that I need...

Surprise surprise... making Bak Kwa can be so easy!

They are nicely grilled and ready to eat...

Stacks of Chinese New Year delicacy - surprisingly made by home!

Here's the recipe from Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover
(with my modification and notes in blue)

450g minced pork (at least with 10% fat)
100g sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark caramel sauce
1/8 tsp Chinese five spices powder
a dash of Pepper
1/2 tsp-3/4 tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp honey

Method

Put all ingredients in a big bowl and start mixing them with a pair of chopsticks. Blend and stir the mixture in one direction until the meat becomes gluey - very important to stir till gluey otherwise meat will break out. Store in the fridge for several hours.

Spread the marinated minced pork thinly onto the 13 inch x 13 inch baking tray (using fingers to spread).

Bake at pre-heated oven at 160°C for 15 -20 mins. (Mine is baked at 130°C fan forced for 20 mins) for 15-20minsRemove from oven. Increase the oven temperature to 240°C (or 220°C fan forced).

Wait to slightly cool, cut into your desired size and shape using scissor, knife or pizza cutter, place them in the same baking tray.

Grill (with top heat only) one side at 240°C (or 220°C fan forced) for 10 mins, remove from oven, flip over another side, wait oven back to 240°C (or 220°C fan forced) and grill for 7 mins or until golden brown with slight burnt. Sonia is right that knowing your oven is essential. I've learned that using my fan forced oven does not require the use of top grill heat function as the heat from fan forced is strong enough to bake these bak kwa to its ideal colour. Using 220°C fan forced, each side of the bak kwa is only baked for 5 mins.

Note: I have a smaller baking tray which is 25 cm x 35 cm and used 2/3 of the recipe to make 9 of my smaller sized Bak Kwa. 

Happy Baking

Wishing all a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 

hosted by Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover. 

If you are linking up with me with your pineapple post, please go to this. Cheers!