Hakka Rice Puff Cracker / 客家米通

Today I am introducing this traditional CNY snack/food that my family have since young. It is a must have CNY goodies at home. As it was a culture to be vegetarian for the 1st day of CNY (初一), this was great for us due to the ingredients used.

Many people is asking me what is Puffed Rice. Puffed Rice are just like Popcorn. The method of making puffed rice and popcorn is quite similar. Rice would first be heated under high pressure or being sun dry naturally. Puffed rice also referred to as pop rice.

Puffed rice is tasteless but try slipping in some syrup and it becomes yummy. Puffed rice cake is a traditional food for both the Cantonese and Hakka.

Puffed rice cakes can be stored for two to three months, depending on how it is kept.

Phoon Huat selling 2 type, White & Brown. I took the brown type since young.

Close-up

$18 / Bottle of 18 pcs

Recipe attached as below:

Ingredients

800gm  Crispy Rice Puff Brown

800gm  Toasted Peanuts

200gm  Toasted White & Black Sesame Seeds

Syrup

1000ml Water

800gm  Castor Sugar

1tbsp     Maltose

1tsp       Cooking Oil

1tsp       Lime Juice

Preparation and Cooking Instructions

1. Mix the rice puff with peanut and set aside.
2. Pour all the ingredients for the syrup into a wok and let it boil until the sugar is completely dissolved. Keep stirring and cook till thick. To test whether the syrup is ready, drop a few drops into water and if it forms into small balls and not dissolve, it means the syrup is ready.
3. Pour the cooked syrup into rice puff mixture and stir till completely combined.
4. Pour the mixture into a rectangular wooden tray (5ft by 5 ft) and press down firmly. Leave to cool till semi-warm.
5. Cut into pieces when still warm and then leave it to cool.
6. Store in air-tight containers.
7. Enjoy!!!

Taiwanese Pineapple Shortcakes / 台湾凤梨酥

(Crunchy Outside and Melt-In-Mouth)

Pineapple Tarts are always one of the must foodies during CNY. I had being wanting to try out Taiwanese Shortcakes & this round with SCS Competition, I tried it & got enough likes to be qualify in sharing my recipe in "SCS CNY 2015 Pineapple Tart Recipe Booklet".

Pineapple Shortcakes

Mold used

Recipe attached as below:

Ingredients:

Pineapple Paste

1 pc Large Pineapples
1 cup Sugar
¼ pcs Cinnamon Stick
2 pcs Cloves

Pineapple Pastry

220gm Plain Flour
30gm Milk Powder
25gm Icing Sugar
½ tbsp Honey
125gm SCS Salted Butter
2 pcs Medium Sized Egg
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
 
Preparation and Cooking Instructions:

Pineapple Paste

1. Peel the pineapples.
2. Hand grinds the pineapple & discards the core.
3. Cook the pineapple (including pineapple juice) with cinnamon stick & cloves on medium heat until it thicken. (Do remember to keep stirring in this step to prevent the paste to be burn)
4. Turn the frame to low heat.
5. Add in sugar. (It will turn watery again & continuous stirring is required as well.)
6. When the paste is caramelize & sticky, it is ready.
7. Keep it air tight container after it is completely cool. (Keep in fridge up to 2 weeks & in freezer up to 3 months)

Pineapple Pastry

1. Sieve the flour & milk powder together into a mixing bowl then set aside.
2. Beat the butter, honey & icing sugar till fluffy & pale.
3. Beat in the egg one by one till well incorporated.
4. Add in the sieved dry mixture from step 1 to form a dough.
5. Wrap the dough with the paste* & push it into the mould. (Do not remove the mold as it is required during the baking process in the oven to secure the shape of the tarts)
6. Take a portion of the dough & add the green food coloring. Stamp the leaves' shape using the fondant puncher & place it on the tarts. 
7. Bake in preheat oven at 150C for about 25 – 30 mins.
8. Allow the tarts to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Note:

1. Proportion Total = 50 gm Dough = 30 gm Paste = 20 gm
2. The mold can be bought in Totts, Kitchen Capers or Sia Huat Warehouse Sale.

Flowers Bloom Pineapple Tarts / 花开菠萝挞

(Crunchy Outside and Melt-In-Mouth)

Pineapple Tarts are always one of the must foodies during CNY. I had being attracted to this pineapple tart in a flower shape when I first saw it from "my little favourite DIY" so I make it since last year.

Flower Blooming Pineapple Tarts - Original

This was taken during my 1st trial of baking. I used it to submit to SCS Competition. The reward is to share my recipe in "SCS CNY 2015 Pineapple Tart Recipe Booklet" if I'm selected to be within the list of top 12 likes.

Flower Bloom Pineapple Tarts - Charcoal & Original

I make a twist on the usual pineapple tart by adding a bit of Bamboo Charcoal to make a black flower bloom pineapple tart... I believe that I can increased the amount of Bamboo Charcoal so that I can achieved a darker black dough. 

Latest creation

A photo taken by my baking buddy

Recipe attached as below:

[ Make 30 pcs ]

Ingredients

Pineapple Paste

2 pcs   Large Pineapples
2 cups Sugar
1 pc     Cinnamon Stick
4 pcs   Cloves

Pineapple Pastry

220gm Plain Flour
30gm   Coffeemate
20gm   Parmesan Cheese
37gm   Caster Powder
30gm   Icing Sugar
125gm SCS Salted Butter
25gm   Whole Egg
½ tsp    Vanilla Extract

Method

Pineapple Paste

1. Peel the pineapples.
2. Hand grinds the pineapple & discards the core.
3. Cook the pineapple (including pineapple juice) with cinnamon stick & cloves on medium heat until it thicken. (Do remember to keep stirring in this step to prevent the paste to be burn)
4. Turn the frame to low heat.
5. Add in sugar. (It will turn watery again & continuous stirring is required as well.)
6. When the paste is caramelize & sticky, it is ready.
7. Keep it air tight container after it is completely cool. (Keep in fridge up to 2 weeks & in freezer up to 3 months)

Pineapple Pastry

1. Sieve the flour, milk powder, parmesan cheese, caster powder & icing sugar together into a mixing bowl.
2. Rub the butter into above mixture using fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Mix egg & vanilla extract into the resemblance breadcrumbs mixture to form dough.
4. Wrap the dough & refrigerate for a while before use if you find it is soft to handle. (can keep in an airtight container for up to a week)
5. To make the flower shape, flatten the dough to a thickness of 5mm.
6. Cut out the flower shape with the mould shown above. (Remember to dust the mould with some plain flour before use)
7. Lightly bring inwards the edge of the cut out pastry & place it into a paper liner, follow by the paste.
8. Flatten some dough to 2 mm thickness & punch small little star & love. Place it on top on the pineapple paste to complete the look.
9. Bake in preheat oven at 150°C for about 25 mins.
10. Allow the tarts to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

The mold use in this recipe

Conversions Guide For Square And Round Cake Tins

I recently have some enquiry about how to calculate recipe ingredients as well as converting the ingredients for various sizes of cake tins. I was very blessed that my baking buddy, Grace taught me how to do a calculation on it.

On top of this information, I also manage to find that ingredients required for a round cake tin is approximately 25% or 1/4 lesser than a square cake tin.

Easy Conversions Guide For Different Sizes Cake Tins

Formula as below:

(Size of New Cake Tin/Size of Original Cake Tin)*Volume of Original Recipe

Easy Conversions Guide For Square and Round Cake Tins

An easily remembered conversions guide for square and round cake tins would be the following:

Answer 1.
A round cake tin will hold approximately 25% or a 1/4 less than a square tin

and

Answer 2.
Use a round cake tin that is one size larger than a square tin for a given recipe
Therefore, we can make a simple quick comparison chart (in inches) for adjusting a recipe from a square to round cake tin or visa versa.

5″	4″
6″	5″
7″	6″
8″	7″
9″	8″
10″	9″
11″	10″
12″	11″
13″	12″
14″	13″
15″	14″
16″	15″

Hope this information can help every readers of my blog including myself.

Desiccated Coconut Gula Melaka Chicken Wings

I joined a Facebook group named "Singapore Home Cooks" which hold many challenges weekly, This is the 4th week that they are holding it, the theme was "Chicken Wings". This is an ingredient that many home cookers will use in almost their daily meal like me. I decided to give it a try on a recipe using gula melaka. Gula Melaka is normally an ingredient used in dessert only till recently my friend, Rita, told me that she ate Gula Melaka Chicken Wings in a Nyonya Peranakan Restaurant with her family. According to her, it was tasty but too sweet.

With the inspiration from what she had mentioned and my unawareness of the actual taste, I take a risk to try cooking this dish. As we all know that coconut is always a best partner of gula melaka therefore I planned to combine this two ingredients together with chicken wings to work out a dish.

Here it is, first trial of this recipe.

Desiccated Coconut Gula Melaka Chicken Wings

Recipe attached as below:

Ingredients

3 pcs Chicken Wings
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Soya Sauce
1 pinch Grounded Pepper
1 tsp Ginger Juice
Cooking Oil (enough to fry the chicken wings)

Coating

100gm Plain Flour/All-Purpose Flour
1 egg
100gm Desiccated Coconut

Sauce

45gm Gula Melaka, crushed
15ml Water
25ml Coconut Milk
10gm Butter
¼ tsp Salt

Method

1. Season the Chicken wings with salt, soya sauce, grounded pepper & ginger juice for 2 hours or overnight.
2. Coat the chicken wings with plain flour then egg & lastly with dessicated coconut.
3. Deep-fried it till cooked.
4. Add the gula melaka & water in a thick bottomed pot and cook until gula melaka melted. Keep swirling the pan so that the sugar can cook evenly.
5. Once the gula melaka is boiled, take it off the heat and add butter. Stir until it's completely melted into gula melaka.
6. Next, add in the coconut milk and salt and whisk in until you have a consistent sauce.
7. Add in the chicken wings & coat well or you may choose to drizzle it over the chicken wings.
8. Serve & Enjoy !

*Note: 

• You can choose to increase the amount of ingredients for sauce as it can be store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. 
• Serve it on a cake, in a cake, over ice-cream, tarts, crumbles, pancakes, brownies, waffles, toast, granola.

Fried Carrot Cake - Black

Fried carrot cake is one of the foodies in my growing up life as breakfast or tea-break or supper no matter it is black or white. Being loving it so much and seen many homemaker cook this at home.

Recipe out there are always for large portion of 2 pax and above. Therefore it is really hard for me to follow when I just need just 1 pax amount. After a few try, I finally found the right amount for each ingredients to dish up an amount just nice for 1 pax especially like myself with a small consume ability for each time.

Carrot Cake for 1 pax

Recipe attached as below:

Ingredients

150 gm carrot cake (store bought)

3 tsps chai po, minced (also known as Preserved Turnip/菜脯)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsps cooking oil
1 - 2 tbsp of Black Sweet Sauce (depends on how dark you like to have it & the type of black sauce you use)

½ tsp homemade sambal chilli (add more if you like it to be more spicy)

Method

1. Soak and wash the chai po then set aside.
2. Minced the clove of garlic and set aside.
3. Heat the wok with cooking oil. Add the carrot cake and cut up the carrot cake while stir frying for about 5 mins. Scoop into a bowl and set aside for later use.
4. Add chai po and garlic into the remaining oil in the wok and stir fry till fragrant.
5. Add back the carrot cake and stir to mix then add 1 tbsp of black sweet sauce.
6. Add in the beaten egg, ½ or 1 tbsp of the black sweet sauce together with the chilli. 
7. Enjoy it !!!

I personally have a preference of ingredients. If there is time allowance, using homemade carrot will taste even better. But if you do not have the time, no worry, you may buy the ready made carrot carrot from most of the supermarket like NTUC Finest, Sheng Siong.

Ready-made Carrot Cake Pic 1

Ready-made Carrot Cake Pic 2

I also like to use Kwong Cheong Thye (KCT) Black Sweet Sauce as it is able to give me the same taste as those carrot cake sold out in the hawker centre. you can purchase it from it's retail outlet in aljunied or some supermarket like NTUC Finest do carry. 

Black Sweet Sauce by KCT

Bittergourd Mi Soya Noodle Soup