Apple Strudel

Had been thinking and thinking for a long time and finally, managed to do it this time. If you want it easier, you may buy ready made pastry, otherwise make yourself. If you making yourself, start with the pastry, while resting it in the fridge, do the apple filling, then work on the pastry again and the custard cream and back the pastry. This way, you can maximise your time.

Do note that I had used brown sugar instead of castor sugar and I had reduced the amount. If you using castor sugar and have sweet tooth, top up a bit of it.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• Puff Pastry, refer to recipe here
• 35g brown Sugar (if castor sugar, 70g)
• 1tsp cinnamon powder
• 1tbsp melted butter

For the apple filling

• 5 small size apple
• 50g butter
• 70g brown sugar (if castor sugar, 90g)
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 30g raisins
• Juice from half a lemon
• 7g corn flour
• 1 tsp water

For the custard cream

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 1 cup cream milk mixture (I used 80% cream and 20% milk)
• 1/2tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Prepare the puff pastry as per instruction of the recipe link provided.
2. Prepare the filling. First, peel the apple, core it and cut to either small chunks or slices up to your preference. Mine was cut to small slices. Sprinkle half of the lemon juice to the apple to prevent it from browning.
3. Melt the butter in the pot, add in all the apples and stir it till it is well coated. Cook with medium low fire and continuously stir to avoid it from burning.
4. Once the apple is soft and a little wilted, add in the sugar and cook till it dissolved.
5. Sprinkle in the cinnamon powder and continuously stir it.
6. Mix the corn flour with water and the balance of the lemon juice. Set it aside.
7. After cooking for about 5-6mins, slowly pour in the corn flour mixture and stir till it is thicken. Turn off the fire, set aside to cool
8. Next, prepare the custard cream. Stir in the yolks and sugar in a pot till it is creamy. 
9. Add in flour and stir till it is even and no clump.
10. Finally, add in all the other ingredients and turn on the fire, low and stir. The mixture must be stir continuously.
11. Once it started to thicken, turn off the fire and continue to stir till it cool down. Scoop into a container and let it cool in the fridge.
12. Roll out the pastry (half of the recipe, unless you using store bought one) to roughly 1cm thickness and cut it to 3pcs.
13. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Brush the butter to the top of the pastry, and then sprinkle the sugar cinnamon mixture to the top of the pastry.
14. Preheat the AF at 200c for 2mins (if using oven, preheat at 180c for at least 10mins). 
15. Place the pastry into the AF and air fried it for 16mins at 160c. If using oven, 190c (fan forced) for 16mins too.
16. Once done, take it out to cool before plating.
17. Arrange the first piece of the pastry and top with some custard cream, apple filling, then the other piece of pastry, custard cream and apple filling and finally covered with the last piece of pastry. Sprinkle some icing sugar to it if you like and serve. 

Below is the other version that I had made using the curry puff mould.

Puff Pastry

The easiest puff pastry by Gordon Ramsay that I had slightly amended the recipe after some test and trial.

Ingredients:

• 100g of bread flour or strong flour or high gluten flour
• 150g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 220g of butter, at room temperature
• 130ml cold water

Steps:

1. Mix the flour and salt together till they are even.
2. Cut the butter to small pieces and use your hand to mix them into the flour, pinching it to mix.
3. Add in cold water and knead till it forms a dough. It may be a bit of wet, but it is ok. Cover with cling wrap.
4. Chill in the fridge for 20mins or more.
5. Dust the work bench with flour and dust the dough too. Roll it out one direction.
6. Fold left to the middle and right to the middle, as though the dough is 3part.
7. Now, roll the dough out again on one direction but the other way of what you work on just now (if earlier you work on landscape, it will be portray now).  Again, fold up the dough, like in step 6.
8. Cover in cling wrap and chill in the fridge again for at least another 20mins. 
9. Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 for one more time and chill the dough for at least 40mins this time.
10. The pastry is ready for use now.

Chocolate Fudge (low calories, for diet consumption)

This recipe is from Lose Baby Weight that's kinda yummy, but I find it quite sweet.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of walnut
• 1.25 cups of dried dates
• 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp warm water

Steps:

1. Line a small baking pan with greased proof paper.
2. Blend all the ingredients till well mix and the mixture bind.
3. Pour out on the baking pan and press it down.
4. Chill for bout 2-3hrs before cutting it to small pieces.

Lor Bak Gou (Turnip Cake)

I was rather amazed that I had made this like so many times but had never blog the recipe down. Well, here it is just in case I need to hunt for it again one of these days.

Ingredients:

• 500g turnip (julienne with my magi mix)
• 300g rice flour
• 50g corn starch
• 2.5 cups water (inclusive of those reserved water)
• 2 pcs of lap cheong or chinese sausages (cut to either small cube or slices)
• 6pcs of dried mushroom (hydrate and cut to small cubes - reserve the water)
• 4pcs of dried scallop (soaked in water and then shred it - reserve the water)
• 60g dried shrimps (soaked in water and lightly chopped - throw away the water)
• 2pcs of shallots, finely slices
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp salt (for marinade)
• 1/2tsp sugar (for marinade)
• 1/2tsp wine (for marinade)
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2tsp white pepper
• 1tbsp oil

Method:

1. Marinade the lap cheong, mushroom, dried scallops and dried shrimps with the marinate ingredients.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix the rice flour, corn starch, water, soy sauce, white pepper and 1tbsp of oil.
3. Heat up the 2tbsp of oil and saute the items from step one for about 2-3mins. 
4. Next add in shallots and saute for another 2-3mins before adding in the garlic.
5. Now add in the radish and stir fry it till it is mix evenly with all the other ingredients.
6. Lower down the fire and pour in the liquid mixture and quickly stir it around. Once evenly coated, turn off the fire.
7. Prepare the water to steam the cake. While the water is boiling, scoop the creamy mixture on a greased pan.
8. Steam for about 20mins on high.
9. After it is done, leave it to cool before slicing or serving otherwise it will be sticky.

Oven Bake Donut

I basically do no deep frying at home. The only frying is either shallow pan fry or air fry. Hence I'm testing out oven bake donut that's easy to make and clean as well as healthy. Too bad that I don't have a donut pan that will help me make one that looks good, so my donut looks kinda flat. They are piped on to the silicone mat. 

Here is the recipe


Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Steps:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and stir it so that it mix well especially the baking powder.
2. Then mix all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and give it a light whisk.
3. Pour in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir evenly.
4. Preheat the oven at 160C.
5. If you do have the donut mould or even the popsicle cake mould, lightly oil it. Otherwise you can use the silicone mat or oil your baking tray.
6. Scoop all the mixture into a piping bag or alternatively, use a plastic bag (cut off the tip).
7. Pipe the mixture out in circle or even straight line (this is easy for the baby to hold on).
8. Bake for about 8-10mins depending on the heat of your oven.
9. Once done, remove to cool before removing and decorating it.

Decorations:

1. Brush some butter on the top of the donut and sprinkle with either rainbow sprinkle or whatever sprinkle you fancy.

Blueberry and Yogurt Loaf

Since my almost 1 year old darling loves bread, mommy needs to bake more of it and makes a variety so that she gets her nutrients (she sort of don't really eat). And coincidentally I saw Farmer's Jack selling frozen fruits on loose rather than pre packed... hence blueberry bread.

Ingredients:

• 275g bread flour
• 25g cake flour
• 3g yeast
• 50g over night starter dough, recipe here
• 30g sugar
• 1g salt
• 125 warm fresh milk (if you using mixer or hand to knead, if bread machine, it is ok to be just cold)
• 5g olive oil
• 50g plain greek yogurt
• roughly 15-20g blueberries either fresh or frozen (I was even too lazy to thaw it)

Methods:

1. Place all ingredients, except the blueberries in the mixing bowl starting with the dry stuff then wet. Ensure that you don't put the yeast and salt together. 
2. If you using bread machine, use basic dough function to knead. Otherwise, use the mixer or hand to mix till the dough forms a nice soft elastic dough. Finally add in the blueberries and let it proof for 1hr.
3. Then knead again and fold the bread over and over. Place it on the baking tin and proof another 1 to 1.5hrs.
4. Preheat oven at 180C for 10mins. Bake for 20mins.

Sweet Potato Bread

Not sure bout the consumer, but the maker is a bit bored with plain white or chia seed or milo bun, so for a change, we are having sweet potato bread this time round.

Slight change to the original recipe that I had found from To Food with Love (she uses purple yam and butter, I used sweet potato and oil and too heavy handed on the overnight sponge).

Ingredients:

Part 1

• 300g bread flour
• 35g sugar
• 1/2tsp or 3g salt 
• 1.5tsp or 5g yeast

Part 2

• 100g Overnight 5c batter, recipe from here

Part 3

• 145ml cold milk
• 30g egg (roughly 2/3 of a L size egg)

Part 4

• 120g sweet potato
• 30g olive oil

Method:

1. Mix the ingredients from part one till well mixed then add in part 2 and part 3. Knead all the ingredients to form a dough either manually or using Bread Machine or your mixer using the dough hook.
2. Next add in ingredients from part 4 and continue to knead till it form a smooth and elastic dough. My dough is rather soft and a little sticky.
3. Leave the dough to rise/proof in a warm place for roughly bout 45mins to an hour till it is almost double in size. I covered the mixing bowl with a wet towel to keep it moist.
4. Punch the dough down and knead it briefly. If your dough is like mine kinda sticky, oil your work surface and your hand to ease the handling of the dough. 
5. Cut the dough to shape according to your preference. If you planning to make bread slices, roll the dough out flat and rolled it up. Place it in the baking tin (lightly oiled) to proof for another 1hour to 1hr15mins. Make sure you leave some space for the dough to rise or get bigger.. :D
6. Preheat oven at 180c for roughly 10mins.
7. After proofing, brush the dough with the balance of the egg.
8. Bake at 180c for 20-25mins depending on your oven's heat.
9. Remove and cool the loaves before trying to slice it.