Pandan Chiffon Cake 2

Tried another Pandan Chiffon Recipe on Wednesday & Thursday.
This time round, it's perfect!
The texture is perfect, the taste perfect,
even on the 2nd day, its still taste perfect!

The first i tried, i'm using recipe from here.
The chiffon then was slightly underbake, i think,
cos it had a denser bottom half and a airy light top half.
The recipe i tried this time, was from a recipe that
i bought titled "Chiffon Cake is Done" by Kevin Chai.
The entire book have nothing else but purely chiffon recipe.

Most of the recipe calls for equal number of egg yolk-white ratio,
which i like cos i dun have to waste any.
The ingredient called for are simple & always avail in my stockie.

This time, i didn use pandan essence.
Instead i use freshly blended pandan leaves for the smell & taste.
I use 1 screwpine leaf, washed, then put in blender with 2tbsp of water,
blend away like mad, till the mixture is fine enough.
Go through the liquid with a cloth sieve.
I also reduce the amount of sugar, cos mummy comment that its a tad sweet to her liking.
I adjusted the recipe to bake with my 16cm tube cake tin.
The petite size which gives me 6 generous slices is perfect for my family.
We could finish the cake in just one morning!

I did one trial cake on Wednesday night.
The cake was gobbled up by me, mum, chun & my maid 10min just out of oven.
Nothing was left, except the crumbs!! lol..
No picture was being taken, cos there's simply no time for it..
Out of oven, slice (even when its still hot), & EATEN...
everyone was particulary hungry, esp mum,
cos she hasn't had her dinner...
My maid still ask me "why never take photo ar?"
So i told her, "this one just try only"... hahaha..

The next day, after chun went out for his appointment.
I start to make another chiffon.
Its really easy to prepare the batter & bake all under an hour.
This is definately gng into my staple recipe corner.
Gng to bake one to bring to my grandma house this sunday!

Tried baking 發糕 too!
Will post my adventure with Mr Fatt later...

the top looks ugly cos i didnt use a sharp knife to seperate it!! I just shake it to release..
If u want a nice looking top, always seperate with a sharp knife in one smooth action, pressing firmly against the cake mould

Cottony soft texture of the Pandan Chiffon, even on the 2nd day

Homemade Yogurt

Initially thought this is a post which i'll never post.
Simply cos the recipe seems to have failed me miserably.
But..... But magic happens sometimes...
And from this experience, i can see that i'm really not a patient person. lol..

I made a batch of yogurt on last tuesday,
taste it on wednesday, & almost threw it away there & then!!
(I already threw away 2 cups of it!)
The yogurt have a very tart taste with an extreme sourish finish to it!
On Thursday, magic happens to the yogurt..
I think it have something to do with the good bacteria fermenting & sleeping....

I recall that the bacteria will be activated at the right temperature, 110F.
Any cooler, it'll be sleeping & not fermenting...
Any warmer, the bacteria will probably die off.
So the gist of making yogurt,
is just a good handy thermometer thats all.

I have do some online research bout the different method of home making yogurt.
I ty 2 differnt incubation method while fermenting the freshly made yogurt.
As of yesterday evening, the 2 sets of yogurt gives almost the same taste to me.
The only different is that one thicken more & the other is slightly more liquid.
I dunio know if its due to the container size that i use to contain the milk,
or its really the method that cause the different in thickness.
I have a feeling that its the container more then anything else.
As smaller container is better warmed throughout due to its small size.
Here's the method that i use, after reading a ton of other method.


Homemade Yogurt
(1 large bottle & 4 small bottles, pictured above)

Ingredient
1. 1.9Liter Whole Milk (cannot be skim / low fat milk)
2. 118ml Good Quality Plain Yogurt (Must have Live Cultures)

Procedure (A) (Small bottle, more firm yogurt)
1. Prepare the incubation for the yogurt.
a) I used my outdoor cooler, put a glass with warm water of 130F in the cooler & close the lid.
We wanna make the environment warm so that the culture can work the new milk.
2. Boil the glass jars that'll be used to ferment the yogurt in boiling water
to kill any bacteria for 10mins.
3. Bring the Milk to a 180F on med fire in a heavy bottom pot,
stirring occasionally to prevent milk from scorching at the bottom.
4. Turn off the heat once it reached 180F,
Allow it to cool to 110F, i put the pot in my sink filled with cold water.
Meanwhile, boil a pot of water & put aside for later use.
5. While cooling the milk, measure the starter yogurt & allow to cool slightly,
at the same time keep a close look of the cooling milk.
If the milk accidently cooled below 110F, heat up the milk slightly.
6. When the temperature is at 110F, scope some warm milk into the boil of starter yogurt,
mix till the starter yogurt is fully combined with the milk with no lumps.
7. Pour the starter yogurt mixture into the warm milk & mix thoroughly,
we wanna ensure that the starter is even spread throughout the mixture.
8. Pour the yogurt mixture into clean jars & closed them finger tips tight.
9. Place the jars into the incubators with glass of 130F warm water to maintain
the temperature inside the incubator.
10. When is the yogurt ready
Incubate the yogurt for 6-8hours, i check the water temperature,
and top up water to 130F after 4hrs as the water have cooled down slightly.
After 6-8hrs, check that the yogurt have thicken but still slightly liquid,
remove from incubator & rest in fridge for 24hrs.
11. After 24hrs, give the yogurt a good stir to stop the fermenting completely

2nd Incubation Method (Big Bottle, slightly more tart & more liquid)
1) I also try the water bath method.
Use a small cooler, line with 3 plastic bag, fill warm water of 130F in the plastic bag,
later, i'll sit my jar of yogurt inside the water bath, with the water level below my jar lids.
2)After the milk is heated up & cooled down,
fill jars with milk yogurt & check that the water temperature in the plastic bag is still 130F.
3) Incubate the yogurt for 4hrs & removed from water bath,
place in fridge & rest for 24hrs.
4) After 24hrs, taste & give the yogurt a good stir to completely stop the fermenting!
5) There'll be a layer of yellowish liquid on top of the ready yogurt,
this is perfectly alright, even commercial yogurt sometimes have that on top.
Can just stir in the yogurt & eat as normal or scope & remove.

Afternote
I got thicker yogurt using the first method,
i didnt know if its the size of the bottle or the method that i used.
The 1st method also produce yogurt less tart.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

I made a batch of homemade yogurt on Tuesday.
On Wednesday evening when I tasted it,
i thought it had all gone wrong.
The yogurt was very tart with a strong sour finish.
Anyway, i'll talk bout the yogurt making in another post.

So Yesterday, thinking that i have 2liters worth of yogurt sitting
in the fridge wasting away.
I flip thru my recipe collection with a lookout for something yogurt...
I didnt want to waste the 2l worth of milk..
And i didnt want to have to drink smoothie all the way with them.
Then i came across this beautiful Chocolate Bundt cake recipe,
which i can't recall where or when i took it down.
It calls for the use of a little sour cream.
The ingredient was simple and i have them all..

I recall that sour cream is somehow similiar & interchangeable with yogurt recipe.
And i have also read that straining the yogurt will gives u a thicker version,
somewhat like the geek style yogurt.
So i measured & scope out the yogurt & strain them with a coconut straining cloth,
which i bought to make marmalade.
And while scoping out the yogurt,
i decided to give them another try, see if ther's any changes after sitting for more then 24hrs.
To my suprise!!!!
It was no longer tart with a sourish finish!!
Instead, the whole bottle of yogurt have develope a yogurt-dy taste,
like those commercial store bought plain yogurt.
I was stunned for a second, before i scope out the rest of the 3 small bottles of try them all.
Seems that, all the yogurt have rested well enough,
and the tart sourish taste is no longer there! haha.. Wee....



Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredient
90g Plain Flour
28g Cake Flour
46g Valrhona Dutch Processed Cocao Powder
1 1/4tsp Baking Powder
1/4tsp salt
170g Unsalted Butter
180g Castor Sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Paste
121g Homemade Yogurt (Strain to thicken)

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 170C with low rack, grease 5" high bundt mould & set aside.
2. Shift flour, cocao powder, baking powder & salt together.
3. In another bowl, beat butter till light, around 2mins on med.
4. Add Sugar into butter & cream till light & creamy, around 4min on med-high.
5. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down between the addition on low-med till combined.
6. While mixing, mix vanilla paste & yogurt together.
7. Mix the Flour mixture into the batter in 3 seperate addition,
the yogurt mixture in 2 addition, alternating between the flour & yogurt mixture,
scrape down as n when necessary, on low speed til combined.
8. Pour the mixture into the greased bundt mould leaving 2" on top,
smooth the top & bake for 50mins, till a skewer test comes out clean.
9. Invert the mould & cool.


Afternote:
The cake is chocolately rich yet soft & crumbly,
doesn't have the heaty chocolate after taste after gobbling a slice of it.
The taste is somehow similiar to Peggy's Rich Chocolate cake,
except that this doesnt need chocolate chips & its not moist & not so "thick".
A perfect light tea cake for daint little tea party w a scope of vanilla ice-cream!

Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oat

After searching & calling various Cold Storage,
I have finally made it back with a packet of Steel Cut Oat.

The hunt for Steel Cut Oat starts when i'm googling for "healthy breakfast".
Came across so many different variety, so many different brekkie across different culture.
I remember watching a kiddy show on Channel 8,
thats shows sg children having a taste of working farm life in NZ.
The staple breakfast there is homecook oatmeal, with a variety of condiments.
It looks appetizing enough that i wanted to try it.

Then a few weeks back, I came across a article on Simple Bites,
featuring the different types of oats availiable.
And the different ways to cook them.
In particular, i was hook on the Brown Butter Toasted Oatmeal with Roasted Pears.
It's simple shouts "delish" to me..... I knew then i HAVE to get some of that oats.
Thus, the hunt begins....

I googled briefly online "where to buy steel cut oat in singapore".
Results are fairly simple.
"Availiable only where the ang mohs like to market..."
Which means, west side, only can try Holland, Cluny, Guthrie hse..
I pick Cluny & called them,
but they told me they didnt have it, told me to try Tanglin / Great World,
cos they have a larger Bob's Mill variety there...
Called Tanglin Market Place CS & wala!!!!

So tonight, i'm gng to go home, cook up a small batch to try.
I dunno if chun will like the taste of it.
And considering it needs cooking time of 20-30min.
I dun know if the lazy bird in me will wake up just to
prepare that for brekkie on weekdays!!
BUT, i do remember eating oats can help one lose weight,
if thats really true, maybe i will have the determination....

Looking forward to my batch of home made yogurt tonight when i get home!
Hopefully it'll firm up,
hopfully it'll not taste nasty due to use of Meiji Milk, that i dun drink.

Chewy Oat Cookie

Made a batch of Chewy Oat Cookies for brekkie on wednesday night.
Just nice i have an open packet of old-fashion rolled oat in the fridge from my granolar.
I have always like the macadamia nut cookie & oat cookie from Subway.
They're chewy, but a tad too sweet to my liking
to finish the entire cookie by myself.

After some quick research & flipping of my recipe book.
I used one of the recipe i had on hand.



Chewy Oat Cookie

Ingredients (A)
1. 110g walnut, toasted at 170C for 8mins & chopped
2. 170g unsalted butter
3. 150g light brown sugar
4. 1 egg
5. 1 tsp Madagascar vanilla paste
6. 250g old-fashion rolled oats
7. 1 cup any mixed berries or chocolate chips

Ingredients (B)
1. 100g all plain flour, shifted
2. 1/2 tsp baking soda
3. 1/2 tsp salt

Precedure
1. Preheat oven to 170Deg C
2. Beat butter & sugar till light & fluffy
3. Add egg & vanilla paste, beat till combined
4. Mix Ingredient B together lightly in a seperate bowl
5. Combine Ingredient B into sugar batter & beat till combined
6. Mix in the oats & berries
7. I use a tablespoon to scope out the batter & arrange on greased baking sheet 1inch apart,
flatten the dough slightly with thumb & bake in oven for 13mins,
till edges are slightly golden brown but the centre still white.
8. Cookie will be soft when removed from oven,
cool slightly on baking tray before removing to rack for further cooling.

Afternote:
The cookies are not too sweet & very chewy, gng to be a good staple recipe for brekkie.
Makes about 2 large containers of 2inch diameter cookie,
have to half the recipe next time if only baking for my own family.

Jam Drop Cookie w Home made Strawberry Conserve

Darling was on course for the last 2 nights,
so i have plenty of me time to myself.
Wednesday night was spend donning masks,
afterwhich i watch " The haunting of Conneticut".
Weird things started happening......

I was initally whatsappt-ing with Cel.
Then i went to shower so the conversation stop.
Happily putting body lotion while watching the movie on HBO.
Saw the adverts few days back, and i thought it'll be a good show.
15min into the movie, getting a bit scary liao.. the plot building up...
My phone beeped, its the whatsppt tone..
I didnt bother to check cos the part is getting exciting...
Another 2 beeps followed, so i check it out.
Didnt see any new messages on whatsppt.
So i thought to myself, "whatsappt must be having problems again"..
went back to movie.

After 5min pass, whatsapt beep again...
I check immediately, no new messages.... starting to get paranoid..
Another 5 min pass, whatsappt sounded AGAIN!!!!
Check, no new message.... Getting goosebumps..
Ard 10min later, whatsappt beep AGAIN!!!
Seriously getting scared liao,
so i sms darling see if he's coming home soon,
unfortunately, he says not so early.
Damn, so i switch channel,
watch some lame chinese show for 15min,
then go to bed with the lights on...
Miraculously or coincidently,
no more whatsappt beeping sound after i switch channel.. *spooky**

So yesterday, i decided to give movies a miss,
in case i got freak out again..
I knew that there's a spare package of strawberry lying ard,
and it needs to be use up soon..
Therefore, i went ahead to make Jam Drop Cookie,
with fresh home made strawberry jam..
I reduce the amt of sugar called for in my earlier post of Strawberry Jam.
The ingredient listing is pretty simple & easy to make.
I use the recipe here & modified it slightly.



Afternote:
Didnt really like the taste of the drop cookie.
Should have stick to my good old butter cookie recipe!!
Next try, Danish Cookie.

Home made Strawberry Jam!!

The actual reason there's a part 2 for this post,
is actually due to my own laziness.... haha
The jam was made on Sunday night,
ready by monday morning.
But, Monday, Wed & Fri is exercise day for me & chun.
I came home happily, slightly early from work.

Chun reached home earlier then i did.
He's all ready in his exercise attire, even his socks is on!!
So the evening was spend roller-blading, followed by dinner..
By the time we finish eating, there's no sunlight to speak off.
So i have to wait for tuesday before i can take photos.....
That calls for the delay of the photos,
thus the post cant be completed on monday,
BUT i was so excited of my jam,
I can't go w/o posting my adventure.... haha...

Anyway I borrowed some books from NLB during lunch on monday.
Didnt know they have a teeny winny section on canning & food preservation.
Pop by during lunch time to grab the 3 books.
Some were books that i'm looking forward to purchasing
but havent done so, cos i still have outstanding orders which were not here yet.
Since they were availiable, decided to borrowed & read thru first.

Alot of these canning & preservation books does not
comes with many colorful pages of beautiful pictures like recipe books.
Instead, i realise they have drawing as illustration,
or even just plain description with texts.
A bit disappointed with none pictured books.
So probably will not get those.

Many canning books / even internet have said not to
reduce the sugar portion in the recipe.
As sugar is one of the main ingredient that helps to preserve food,
if we do intend to keep it for a longer shelf life.
If we're just making & using it straight away,
we dun even need to go thru the water-boiling canning method.
We can simply cook & refrigerate & use it within 3-4weeks safely.
So if that's the case, we can alter the sugar ratio more flexibly.

In singapore, with the abundance of most types of fruits / veg all yr round.
Canning & food preservation will not have a big impact on our lives.
Since we have to import all the food that we eat.
It doesnt matter really that much, food prices are already high to begin with!

Enough rumbling, I started making the strawberry jam at 10pm on Sunday night!
After a few rounds of Bingo with my family, which i lose $3 btw..
I choose a relatively easy recipe that didnt require pectin.

Home Made Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
1. 3cups sliced strawberry
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 2 tbsp lemon juice (i use freshly squeeze cos i have spare lemon lying ard,
but its advisable to get those canned / bottled lemon juice for their stability)

Instruction
1. Put the jars into a soup pot & bring to vigorious boil, covering jar with at least 2' water.
2. Put all the ingredient into a non-reactive pan.
3. Melt the sugar on low heat, once sugar melted,
switch to med-high heat, keep stirring to prevent burnt strawberries til gelling stage is reached.
4. The cooking process take approximately 18min for my 3 cups sliced berries,
cooking time will varies slightly from strawberries water content, types of pan used.
5. The strawberry mixture will bubble & foam quite alot.
6. To test for gelling stage, use either a candy thermometer maintained at 220C or,
put a few drops of the hot mixture on a frozen plate, rest it for 30sec,
if it cools down to a gel-like stage, the mixture is ready,
if the mixture is still runny like water, continue to boil down the mixture & test again.
7. For my batch, i cook them for approximately 20min before
i have success with the plate test.
8. While cooking the strawbeery mixture, my jar & lids are soak in the hot water
to sterilise.
9. When the mixture is ready, fish out jar & lids with thongs.
10. Ladle the mixture into jar, leaving 1/4' headspace from the top of jam to lid,
usually this is the bottom of the screw band of the jar.
11. Make sure that the rims of the jar are clean to ensure proper sealing later.
12. Tighten band to finger tip tightness, not excessively tight,
air needs to escape from the jam during hot water canning period.
13. Lower the jar into soup pot with hot water, ensure that the jar is covered
at least 2' from top with water. Bring to vigorious boil & start timing for 10min.
14. Remove the jar & leave to cool for 12-24hrs before checking for seal.
15. To check for seal, press the middle button, it should be convex & not move at all.
16. If it does move, it means that it is not probably sealed, but the content can still be eaten.
Just refrigerate it immediately & consume content within 3-4weeks!
17. I have made approximately 300g of strawberry jam worth with above recipe.
The 2 bottles that i go thru with the hot water canning method sealed,
1 bottle sealed just 15min after taking out from the hot water,
the other bottle, when i check out the next morning, it was sealed too.
So i have no idea what time did the button pop for bottle no. 2.


Afternote:
The jam did set properly, its not excessivly runny,
i could use it to spread my bread as per conventional store bought jam.
But i feel that the jam is a tad too sweet to my liking.
For my next batch jam, i'll probably adjust the sugar ratio slightly.
Since im making it for home consumption purely,
and with the little jam that i made,
my family cld finish it within a month safely.
So unless im intending to give it as gift,
I'll continue to lower the sugar ratio and try it out.

Canning Fever~

Haven been runing with Canning fever recently after reading Simple Bites.
Didnt know that making jams/jelly can be soooo easy peasy.
The procedure are relatively easy & ingredient easy to find
except for recipe that calls for pectin.

Phoon Huat has it, but they dun call it pectin,
nor is there any instruction for it.
What they have is a small bottle and a chemical name, which i forgot what its called.
When i ask for the instruction to use, they simply told me,
"1kg fruit to 1tbsp", thats all..
I didnt know if it'll work,
i dun wanna have to waste a few punnet of strawberry with that,
considering strawberry isnt exceedingly considered cheap in Sg.

The other more headache problem is the lack of canning supplies in Sg.
Obviously, our major supermarket, NTUC doesn't sells it.
I have check a few baking supplies store,
Pantry Magic sells it, but at a very high price.
I remember getting some jars from Tom & Steffanie before.
Maybe i'm not looking at the right places yet.
But so far, i have seen a small variety only at Sheng siong.
And they are priced from $2.40 onwards for a small 200ml, Bormioli Glass jar.

I wanted to have a hands on the canning process,
hear the lovely "popping" sounds of the can when they seal. hehe
With no pectin on hand, i choose a recipe that can do w/o it.
And the easiest i thought, to start with will be a strawberry jam.

So i tag along with mummy n brother to Sheng siong supermarket.
Searching for the lovely red berries,
began to panick when i see no signs of them...
"Strawberry season over liao meh?"
I remember buying 2 boxes for $10 bucks offer just a few weeks back.
Then in one tiny corner, i saw a small carton of strawberry.
Didnt have much selection,
there was only about 20+ small boxes for me to choose from.
I consider not making them, instead try another fruit.
But then i was so desperate, i just grab 3 boxes.
They cost me close to $12 for 750g of strawberry.
Darling even commented, so expensive to make jam ar...

To be continued~~