Vanilla Ermine Cream

I like to use ermine cream as it uses less fattening butter yet deliver a smooth and milk-rich taste. Most important of all, it is more stable in our warmer climate.  

Yield: 245g of ermine cream 

 Ingredients

100g low-fat milk *, preferably thawed

50g raw sugar/fine sugar

10g corn starch/potato starch

100g unsalted butter, softened

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

* you can use full-cream milk too

Directions

1. Add raw sugar and 

corn starch to low-fat milk.

2. Stir over medium-low heat regularly

till the mixture thickened into a milk roux with consistency similar to condensed milk.

3. Cover with a sheet of cling wrap touching the surface of the milk roux. To lower the temperature faster, you may sit it in a bowl of icy cold water.

4. When the milk roux has cooled down, you are ready to prepare the ermine cream.

5. Cream the softened butter till light, then add the salt and vanilla extract.

6. Add cool milk roux to the butter cream by spoons. Add a new spoon of milk roux after the previous one has been well combined with the butter cream.

Continue to whip the cream till it is light and fluffy.

7. Transfer to a piping bag and the ermine cream is ready to be used 😀

Christmas Cookie

A small batch of thin and crispy butter cookies sprinkled with Christmas colour pearl sugars for an added festive look and feel 🎄🎅

My family was addicted to the home-baked butter cookies that I have to baked a second batch fast. The second batch of cookies were sprinkled with an additional white pearl sugar 😍🎄🤶

Simple ingredients, simple steps, but gave a very crispy and buttery taste cookies 😋

video of the Christmas Cookies 

Baked: about 29 ~30 cookies

Home-made colour pearl sugar

5g pearl sugar

Green and red food colour gel

Directions

1. Coat a small patch of green colour gel to the base of a small glass.

2. Add about 2g of white pearl sugar to the small glass.

3. Swirl the small glass to let the pearl sugar brush up the green colour gel, till evenly coated.

4. Repeat the steps for red colour pearl sugar.

5. Set aside.

Butter Cookies

[Ingredients]
50g unsalted butter, softened 
<1g low-sodium salt
25g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

55g plain flour
10g potato starch

[Direction]

1. Cream softened sugar with salt and icing sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Mix vanilla extract to the butter mixture.

3. Sieve plain flour and potato starch, and fold into the butter mixture. Avoid over mixing the cookie dough.

4. Transfer the cookie dough to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1D nozzle.

5. Pipe dough to a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

 

6. Sprinkle the coloured pearl sugars over the cookie dough.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 8 to 10 minutes, or till the edge of the cookies start to brown. Turn off the oven, and continue to bake for about 1 ~2 minutes.

8. Cool down and enjoy 😋

For un-consumed cookies, keep in an air-tight cookie jar 😊

Honey Butter Pillow Cake

A light honey butter sponge cake, baked using cooked dough method, suitable to be served as a light supper😋

I happened to be using relatively small eggs for this cake, so the cake appeared to be shorter than usual 😖 Although the egg carton specified the total weight of 10 eggs was 550g, the individual egg weighed below 55g with most of them closed to 50 to 52g. Feel being cheated 😓

INGREDIENTS
All ingredients in room temperature

Omega 6 eggs weighing 50~52g each

[A]
20g unsalted butter

[B]
27g low-fat milk
5g honey 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

[C]
30g top/cake flour 
2g corn starch

1g milk powder/corn starch

[D]
2 egg yolks

[E]
2 egg whites
Pinch of low-sodium salt
10g fine sugar
18g raw sugar/fine sugar
3g corn starch 

Pan size: 199x73x65mm paper cake pan

Directions

1. Heat Ingredient A till reaching 75 to 80℃.

2. Remove the melted butter from heat source, and fold in Ingredient C. Mix into a smooth dough without any liquid butter or loose flour can be seen.

3. Gradually mix Ingredient B mixture into the butter dough.

Followed by Ingredient D.

Mix into a smooth butter-yolk paste. Set it aside.

4. In a clean, dry and oil-free mixing bowl, beat egg whites of [E] till frothy before adding low-sodium salt, followed by both sugars.  

Beat the meringue till reaching almost stiff peak stage.

Sprinkle corn starch over and mix using an electric mixer for a few seconds.

5. Take about 1/4 of meringue to mix with the butter-yolk paste till smooth. 

Pour the mixture back to mix with the remaining meringue into a smooth batter.

6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bang to get rid of air bubbles and level the batter.

7. Bake at lower rack of a preheated oven toaster at 150℃ for 40 minutes,  or till the cake is cooked through.

8. Dropped the cake with paper pan thrice, and invert it over a cooling rack for about 1/2 hour. 

Cut and enjoy 😊