Saturday 29 February 2020

Brown Butter Pistachio Cookie


Crispy cookies with a nice burnt butter aroma and nice pistachio nut flavour and texture 😋

Yield: about 50 plus cookies

Ingredients
80g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
20g caster sugar
26g icing sugar
20g beaten egg, cold
110g top/low gluten flour
6g milk powder
26g pistachio nuts, chopped coarsely


Directions
1. Combine top flour with milk powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Warm butter over low heat till milk solid burnt in the hot butter. Swirl the bowl constantly to prevent hot butter from popping and splashing.

Wait for the hot butter to cool down before refrigerate for 15 minutes to solidify the butter.

3. Chop pistachio nuts coarsely and set aside.

 
4. Cream cold burnt butter, salt, caster sugar, and icing sugar till light and pale.

 5. Mix in the cold beaten egg.

6. Sieve and mix in the flour mixture from Step 1.

7. Combine the chopped pistachio nuts to the dough.


8. Divide the dough into two portions and wrap with cling wrap. Shape into a block, and compact the content to prevent the contents from falling off the dough during cutting.

Freeze the dough for about 30 minutes, or till solid.

9. Cut the frozen cookie dough thinly.

And place the cut dough slices over a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

10. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 180℃ for about 8 to minutes, or till the cookies turn golden.

11. Let the cookies cool down before enjoying 😋


Pandan Coconut Sponge Cake

Yes, another pandan coconut sponge cake recipe again 😉 The main difference was the use of bulk fresh pandan leaves paste prepared beforehand. When I bought a new batch of fresh pandan leaves, I would use some of the young leaves combined with some of the imperfect mature leaves, and grind them into paste with water. Cover tightly and keep in the chiller compartment of the fridge, so I can use it conveniently without having to grind a new lot of fresh pandan leaves when I need it 😊

Yield: one round cake
Pan size: 6x3" round cake pan

Fresh Pandan Leaf Paste

1. Cut 20g of pandan leaves into thin strips before blending with 50g of water into a smooth paste.



Cake Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature
Using 55g Omega 3&6 eggs

40g organic coconut oil
60g top/cake flour

20g fresh pandan paste*
15g milk
10g condensed milk

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites
pinch of salt
45g fine sugar

*Blend 20g fresh pandan leaves with 50g water, and collect 20g of pandan paste for use in this recipe.


Directions
1. Line an 6" round cake pan with parchment paper at the base. Need not grease the wall of the pan. Place a grid iron at the base of a 20cm square pan. Set aside.
I bought the grid iron from Daiso.

2. Combine fresh pandan paste, milk and condensed milk a small glass. Set aside.

3. Warm coconut oil till you can see convection waves at the bottom of the oil. Pour in the top flour, remove from the heat source, and mix with a spatula into a smooth paste.

4. Pour in the pandan-milk mixture from Step 2, and mix well.

5. Combine the yolks, one at a time, to the dough. Set aside.


6.  Beat egg whites in a clean, dry and grease-free bowl, till frothy. Add in a pinch of salt,

and first batch of the fine sugar. Continue to beat the egg whites. Slowly add in the remaining fine sugar in two batches.

Stop beating after the meringue has achieved firm peak stage.

7. Transfer about 1/4 of the meringue to mix with the pandan dough from Step 5.

Pour the pandan mixture back to mix with the remaining meringue.


8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan from Step 1.

Stand the cake pan over an grid iron in a 20cm square pan, filled with 1cm deep hot water, .

9. Bake at lower rack of a preheated oven turning on only the upper heating coil at 170℃ for 40 minutes. Lower the temperature to 150℃ turning on both the upper and lower heating coils for about 20 minutes.
Or, you can bake at 160℃ for about 60 minutes, with both upper and lower heatings.

10. Remove the cake from the oven. If you want to dry the cake after un-moulding, you may want to keep the oven door close to conserve the heat.


Drop the cake with the pan from a height of about 10 cm to a kitchen towel thrice.
Let the cake cool down for about 20 minutes in the pan.

When the cake starts to pull away from the wall of the pan, jiggle to loosen the cake,
and turn it out to a cooling rack.

You may want to dry the cake in a warm oven using the remnant heat for about 15 minutes.

Cut and enjoy 😋😋




Sunday 9 February 2020

Mini Condensed Milk Butter Cake


I bought a mini waffle maker recently. Tried a few recipes and found this recipe the best in taste and the cake did not shrink after cooling down. The mini cakes had a crispy crust when hot, but softened after cooling down for a period of time. In spite of the reduced crispiness, the overall good taste of the cake remained 😋

Yield: about 14 mini cakes
Equipment: PowerPac mini waffle maker

Ingredients
All ingredients in room temperature
Using Omega 3&6 egg

1 egg  white
pinch of salt
30g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

20g top flour
15g Prima Plain Flour Plus/plain flour
1g milk powder, optional
1g baking powder

10g unsalted butter, melted
5g condensed milk
8g milk


Directions
1. Mix top flour, plain flour plus, milk powder and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Warm and melt the butter with condensed milk and milk. Cool down before use.


3. In a clean, dry and grease-free mixing bowl, beat egg white till frothy before adding pinch of salt, and gradually add in the caster sugar. Beat the meringue till glossy and reaching firm peak.
Blend in the egg yolk.

4. Sieve the flour mixture from Step 1 to  mix with the batter.

5. Transfer about 3 tablespoons of batter to mix with the melted butter mixture from Step 2. Mix using a whisk.

Pour the butter batter back to mix with the main batter into smooth form.


Transfer the batter to a beaker with a spout for easy pouring out later. Let the batter stands for about 15 minutes.

6. Apply a thin coat of oil to both the upper and lower plates of the mini waffle maker before turning on the power. Wait for the green indicator light to light up, then off again.
Pour in the batter to each moulds, and close the lid.


Let the batter heat for about 8 to 9 minutes depending on the degree of brown you prefer for the cake crust.

Enjoy 😋