lychee tarts

experiment file#0497 : lychee tarts elpea was experimenting with making tart crusts and out of the blue came up with the lychee filling. well, also we had leftover canned lcyhee from CNY. she filled the tarts with the lychee, chocolate syrup and toppped it off with rainbow sprinkles.

tastewise, the lychee actually complements the sweetness of the crust and the chocolate syrup.

yummy.

simple cinnamon rolls

its a been very productive weekend for me and its only Saturday. the next thing that i baked was a simple cinnamon roll. since the sweet dough buns were quite good, i decided to "experiment" with that and make cinnamon rolls.

i basically used the sweet dough bun recipe as a base but infused it with cinnamon powder. i also made a cinnamon mix out of... well, what else, but cinnamon powder and with chocolate chips and chocolate powder. i managed to make 2 rolls which i basically cut up into a total of 11 individual buns. once i got the dough rolled out into a rectangular shape, i proceeded to spread the cinnamon/choc mix evenly on the dough, then rolled it carefully into a tube. then i sliced them into 2 inch circular slices. bake for 20mins @180C i was a bit wary since i used the sweet dough bun recipe as it wasn't the original recipe for cinnamon rolls. BUT....... surprisingly the end result was actually interesting. its actually very nice. the texture of the dough still remained quite soft. the chocolate bits in between the rolls melted nicely and the cinnamon mix formed a sweet crunchy crust. by the way, there's still the scent of cinnamon in the air :-) Recipe for Sweet Dough Buns:

Ingredient A

100g all purpose flour

400g high protein flour (or use super soft bread flour)

220ml water

1tbsp instant yeast

100gm sugar (according to Lanvin yeast feasts on sugar and make the bread rise)

1 egg

Ingredient B

75gm butter

Method (hand knead)

1. Mix A till smooth and all mixed

2. Add in butter and knead till smooth

3. Leave it to rise - double the size. Remember to cover it with a piece of damp cloth.

4. Knead again

5. Leave it to rise. Then form into desired shapes.

6. Leave it to rise for about 10-15 mins, brush with egg and bake for ~ 20 mins.

Floral Pandan & Santan Jelly

The folks up north is having house warming party tonite and I was given the task to make jelly. Normally I will make Koniyaku jelly which is easy, pour everything into boiling water and cook. This time I thought of being creative so I made these.

I made the santan jelly first and using floral mould I cut the shapes and placed them into jelly moulds. Cooked pandan jelly and poured them into the jelly moulds.

Give it a try. It is pretty easy. .

thou shalt not cin-nabon

When I got tired of donuts, I turned to my other sin..

Cinnabon, that is. Well, at least I don’t smoke, right?

These 2 boxes of beauties are imported from kay-el… where else..

We are so cut off from the world here on our small lil secluded island… :-P

Anyway, the fruity apples and berry toppings didn’t really agree with me but the other choc+cheese+walnut ones suited me just fine..

Again, I would have been just fine with no toppings and just the plain cinnamon bun.

You just got to love the tons of cinnamon sprinkled on and in-between the buns.

Eeer, if you don’t like cinnamon then this is definitely not for you.

krispy kreme galore

So here they are.. Fresh from KL.. the Krispy Kreme Donuts have finally arrived.. The 1st shop is in the Berjaya Times Square mall in KL and I hear they plan to expand to open another 19 more stores all around the country. Well, we’ll see.

Anyway, my sis bought me 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme Donuts.. (God bless her kind heart and I’m sure her place in heaven is booked..) And Yes.. that’s 2 dozen donuts…

And YES..!!!!, that’s 24 donuts..

She got me a dozen assorted

and another dozen of glazed.

There are basically 2 types of doughnuts: The normal yeast raised doughnut and the “cake” doughnut. Both taste excellent but both are SUPER-sweet… and I mean "Diabetes-inducing-SUPA-DUPA-SWEET"..!! and my tolerance level for sugar is quite high. I think the donuts are 90% sugar and 10% dough.. I actually went looking for water after eating donut#2…

The Original glazed was very light and the glaze sort of melts in your mouth. I didn’t really like that. Elpea like it though. But we both agreed that it would be quite nice just plain without any glaze at all. The Glazed chocolate cake was not as heavy as the ones from dunkindonuts. Its much lighter, less crumblier and quite moist. I didn’t quite like it this way though. Overall, i like the Chocolate iced kreme filled the best.

The rest were basically the same donut but with alternate toppings : Glazed cruller, Chocolate sprinkles, Chocolate iced glazed, Chocolate iced cake, Powdered strawberry filled, Almond, Hershey bits, etc..... So whats my verdict? You definitely cannot find a better yeast raised doughnut than the above. Bonus points for the lightness and texture of the doughnut itself. BUT, its just a tad too sweet.

On the other hand, if I had to choose a “cake’ donut, I would still go for the ones at dunkindonuts. This one is just my personal preference.

So sis, the next time you come back, you know what to do laah..

BIG APPLE DONUTS @ gurney plaza

Was at gurney during the weekend and was surprised to see the “big apple donuts” where “pastasia” used to be.. Actually not very surprised as I was just waiting to see ”who” would replace “pastasia” as its business was not very good :-) We bought the 6pack…cost ~$12 (in pix, clockwise from top left) CHOCOHOLIC x1 (with choc stuffing..very nice) WIT NUT x1 (with peanut butter stuffing..my favourite) ALIEN x2 (this is the one with the chocolate shavings) KIWI x1 (ry had this as he requested it. It had green gooey kiwi jelly, which I don’t think I liked. Reminded me of ‘slimer’ from Ghostbusters, but ry enjoyed it and finished the whole donut by himself) CINNAMON x1 (surprisingly light and nice as well.) The doughnut base is different from “dunkin donuts”. It’s the bread/bun-base and not the cake base. It’s very light, soft and fluffy. Again, you need to consume it within 24 hours else it won’t taste that nice anymore. Can be refrigerated but take out 5-10mins before consuming. Do not recommend to microwave By the way, I used to “import” these donuts or the dunkin's everytime my sis comes home from KL… well, not anymore….. hehehe..The only other thing missing is “dunkin donuts”…I’m patient....

excuse, me, i have to make a call, "hello sis, eh, you got big apple donuts in KL or not...?..."

rojak at chai leng park

Elpea used to eat this every day after school she says. (this and the sugar cane water, which is now on her banned list but that is another story…)

Anyway, I only started eating the rojak after I got to know her and I must say its quite addictive. The rojak is very good actually And the sauce has a very unique taste as well. The rojak has got all the normal fruits (cucumber, pineapple, bangkuang, mango) and squid

BUT I like it because it has the additional ingredient of crunchy refried ”eu char koay” and you can also add the packet of fried/dry joohoo. These go really well with the fruits and the sauce.

The “push-cart” is next to the corner coffee shop on the intersection of jalan gan chai leng and tingkat kurau4. hes there from lunch time onwards.

We actually bought 2 pack home so some assembly is required.. Both packs finished before the day was done. Overall rating of 8/10

Chocolate molten cake

Was watching one episode of Ramsey’s kitchen and he was making this choc molten cake, where when you cut into the cake, melted choc ‘flows” out like lava and I was very intrigued.

Then I saw the recipe in a magazine and it was pretty simple: choc, sugar, eggs, flour and the overall process was not very complicated. Start to fin in 30minutes.

Filled up 3 big ramekins and 3 small ones. I didn’t grease the ramekins enough and some of the cakes actually stuck to the bottom of the ramekins so they didnt “pop” out nicely..

Texture wise, it was a 3 layer experience, the outer crust was a bit chewy, the inner part was quite soft and the middle was basically “melted choc’ and it did really ooze out when I cut into it.. cool

Taste wise, it was super sweet, even for me and I had to finish practically all of them. Also it was supposed to be served with vanilla ice cream and I believe the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream would have balanced out the sweetness of the cake. But I didn’t hv any ice cream so I don’t really know. I would make them again but with some changes. Things to remember the next time…

-Cut down sugar by 40% to 50% -Only cook it when i hv enough people to finish it, as it needs to be served fresh and hot. Does not taste good once in fridge and microwaved.. -Grease ramekins properly

sweets for my sweet

beautiful isnt it....

Elpea made Crème caramel for me…. well, I’ve been bugging her for quite a while already and she finally relented. She made this the same time I was doing my chocolate molten cake.

She was complaining about the sugar quality which was not very good and she had to redo the caramel part. Next time need to get the “koay-kang-prai” sugar. Better quality ..

It taste just as good as I remember it. Not soft like jelly but it has a firm smooth texture. And with a sweet creamy milky taste.

Overall rating of 9/10

Muar chee and ham chin peng

Muar chee @lip sin market

There are 2 type of muah chee, The butterfly type which is slighty puffier and the ribbon type which is well ,, see the picture …

The one I had is the ribbon version

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside

Generous amounts of muah on it as well.

Overall 7/10

Haam chim peng @lip sin market

Quite tender and with lots of red bean paste.

Much more redbean than what I’ve seen elsewhere.

The sg ara one cant beat this. Sorry.

Overall 8/10

dominos dessert

for my birthday this year, i suggested to go with an "alternative" cake. i'm pretty sick of the normal sponge, cheese, choc , mousse or blackforest cakes... so this year we went with dominos... yes, thats right... dominos..!!! the banana kaya dessert (aka alternate birthday cake#1) its basically a personal pan pizza base smothered with kaya and pieces of banana tastes so-so only. much too little slices of banana. 5/10 only. the cinnamon bread dessert (aka alternate birthday cake#2)

its bread topped with cinnamon and sugar. very nice and soft. not fluffy soft though. and its different from the other pizza place cinnamon bread sticks etc. best consumed while its hot. it actually taste quite nice and sweet already without the icing provided. i give it 7/10.