Saturday, November 13, 2010

Cotton Soft Cheesecake












Looking for a cotton soft cheesecake!!!Yes! yes! here is the recipe from Carol.
I really love all her recipes, she is so details..

I'm making a 7 inches cake, so here is the recipe.


(A) Cheese batter:
70g milk
30g fresh cream
100g cream cheese
10g caster sugar
2tsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
30g cake flour
5g cornflour


Method:
Put milk and fresh cream into a double-boiler, with a low heat. Add in the soften cream cheese, using a hand whisk and mixing it into a smooth batter. Remove it from the heat and add sugar and lemon juice. Mix well. Add in egg yolk slowly once at a time. Then add the sifted flour and mix well.


(B) egg white mixture:
2 cold egg white
1/2 tsp lemon juice
30g caster sugar

Method:
Put egg white into a clean and dry bowl, using an electric beater, start beating egg white first, slowly add in the sugar then the lemon juice 1/2 tsp. continue beating until it form a stiff peak.


Combine A and B

Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture(B), fold it into the batter(A) with a spatula. Mix well and pour this batter mixture into the (B). Folding it lightly until it form a smooth batter, pour it into a 7 inches tin lined with the baking paper. Prepare another bigger cake tin filled with 1cm of hot water, place the cake on it and bake at preheated oven 180C for 15minutes, after that lower the temperature to 110C and bake until the cake is set about 35minutes.


C Topping:
1/2 tbsp gelatine powder
1/2 tsp cold water.

When the cake is cooled, brush the topping onto the cake.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Coffee Wholemeal Rice Bun










Coffee Topping are piped on top of the bun before baking.


This is my second post in a day, I'm in love with all the different kinds of bread made by Carol and 孟老师。Happy to know that there are so many method of achieving soft bread.

For the past few posts on bread making, I have been using the tangzhong method, and this is my first experiment adding rice paste. The bread came out equally soft, just like the tangzhong method. Next time I can use leftover cooked rice to make these type of bread.

The bun I made today was a modified version of Carol's Wholemeal Custard Bun Recipe. If you are interested to know how carol did it please see below.

Carol's Custard Wholemeal Rice Bun


My Recipe is here:

To make rice paste ingredients:
100g Cooked rice
200g water

Method:
Mix cooked rice and water together in a sauce pan, bring it to a boil for a few minutes and let to cool. Blend it to a fine rice paste.




To make the coffee topping ingredients:
50g butter
40g icing sugar
1 whole egg beaten
2 teaspoon granulated coffee dissolve with 1 teaspoon water
50g plain flour


Method:
Beat the softened butter with icing sugar until everything well combine.
Gradually add in beaten eggs then the coffee mixture. Add the flour and beat until everything well incorporate. Place the mixture into a piping bag and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

To make custard filling ingredient:
1 egg
20g caster sugar
130g milk
10g flour
1 tsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp brandy



Method:
Mix egg and sugar well with a whisk in a bowl.
Add the sifted flour, then very slowy pour in the boiling milk.
Return to the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring continuously with a whisk, until it begin to boil and thicken.
Remove from the heat and add the butter and brandy.
to avoid a skin forming while the cream is cooling, cover with a cling wrap.
Keep in the fridge until ready to use.


For the dough

To make the bun ingredients:

Main dough
230g Rice paste
200g Bread flour
100g Wholemeal flour
1 tsp Instant yeast
A pinch of salt
30g Sugar
40g Unsalted butter


Method:
Knead all the ingredients together except butter.
When the dough become a smooth dough, add in butter and continue kneading until the dough become smooth and elastic but not sticky.
First, prove dough for 45-60 minutes.
Punch down dough and divide into 12 pieces. Roll them into round balls .
Let it rest for 15 minutes before add in the custard filling.
Roll out each doughs to a flat disc and add the custard filling. Seal it tightly. Make sure you seal it tightly otherwise it will split out during baking.

Place each doughs on a baking tray, make sure they sit a part from each other because they might stick to each other during the baking. Cover the doughs with cling film and proof for 50 - 60 minutes.

Top the bun with the coffee topping before baking

Bake at 180C-190C for 15-18 minutes.

Serve.


Dulce De Leche Cheesecake





Dulce De Leche!!! What is this??? I have never seen this before and I can't pronounce it, but I'm very curous about it. After reading so much about it, I used the slow cooker method to make my first can of Dulce De Leche. It was quite easy. I submerged the whole can of unopened condense milk into the slow cooker and left to cooked it overnight. It came out perfectly.Haha...
Do you know what "dulce de leche" means? It means sweet milk and it is a traditional milk product from the country of Argentina. It is used as a topping for ice cream or fresh fruit, like bananas, as a filling for cakes, cheesecakes and cookies, or as a simply decadent spread for toast. Thick and intensely flavored, it should be slightly warmed to make it pourable.

I made some changes and did not follow the recipe that I found from Bakericious's Blog to make this cheesecake. Dulce de leche is used to give the cheesecake a delicious caramel flavor.

Ingredients:


Biscuit Base:
12pieces of oreo cookies
(used roller to crush the oreo)



Filling :
250g cream cheese
4 tbsp sour cream
4 tbsp of sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp of lemon zest
4 tbsp of milk
2 tbsp of dulce de leche

Method :
1. Prepare a spring form pan and greased it with some butter. Pre-heat oven to 160 degree.

2.Crush the oreo biscuits with a rolling pin. Press firmly to the baking pan and baked it for 10 minutes and set aside.

3. Mix all the filling ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour 2/3 of the filling on top of the crust. Add 2 tbsp of dulce de leche to the balance 1/3 of the filing and mix well.

4. Drizzle dulce de leche filing over the cheesecake filling then use a skewer to swirl it around.

5. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the center of the filling set.

6. Let cool 20-25 minutes before covering and placing in the refrigerator. Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight before serving.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Red Bean Chinese Yam Tangzhong Bun (山药红豆汤种面包)









The chinese yam(RhizomaDioscoreae 山药) is sweet in flavour, neutral in nature, and acts on the lung, spleen and kidney channels. It can be used in compatibitity with other herbs to treat deficiency of the lung, lingering cough, asthma, deficiency of the spleen, anorexia, loose stool, deficiency of the kidney, spermatorrhea, frequent micturition and other syndromes.

Effects: Invigorating Qi, nourishing Yin controlling spermatorrhea and reducing urination.


Ingredients:
Tangzhong ingredient:
(A)
115g chinese yam(grated)(山药泥)
100g water
45g bread flour


Mix chinese yam(山药泥), flour and water till it is smooth in a small saucepan.
Cook over medium heat and stirring contantly with a hand whisk to prevent it from burning. You will see lots of small bubbles forming on top. Keep stirring and when the bubbles disappeared, you will see trace in the mixture for every stir you make with the hand whisk. Stop at this stage and you will have the 65C Tangzhong. Pour the hot Tangzhong into a bowl and cover it with a cling wrap toughing the surface of the mixture, to prevent a film forming on the Tangzhong. Leave to cool before using it.



(B)
150g wholemeal flour
100g water or milk

Mix wholemeal flour and water or milk together while waiting for the tangzhong to cool.

Main Dough ingredients:
(C)
380g bread flour
30g brown sugar
1 tsp salt
6g instant yeast
1 whole egg
75g butter


Filling ingredient
300g homemade red bean paste(I made 10 red bean buns and 6 plain buns)
Divide the red bean paste into 10 portions and roll to a small ball.

Topping decoration:
A little flax seed or black sesame seeds


Method:
1. Mix ingredients(A), (B)and (C) except butter, flaxseeds and filling to form a dough.
Add in butter and knead till dough is smooth and pliable.

2. First, prove dough for 45-60 minutes.

3. Punch down dough and divide into 16 pieces of about 60g each. Roll them into round balls .

4. Rest the dough for 10-15 minutes, flatten the dough and put in the filling and shaping each into a nice and smooth round ball. Using a rolling pin lightly roll the bun and flatten it a little like a pancake.

5. Prove the shaped bread for 45-60mins.

6. Apply egg wash to the shaped bread and top it with some flaxseeds or sesame seeds. Apply a little egg wash again.

7.Bake at 190c - 200c for 15-17 minutes or till golden brown.