Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Desserts

Sweet Potato Egg Tart

When come to egg tart, everyone might mention about the flaky pastry, filled with a smooth, lightly sweetened egg custard. What about giving it a twist for today? Instead of buttery flaky pastry, we switch to use sweet potatoes, raw oats and glutinous flour to make the tart base. This sweet potato egg tarts are high in fiber and delicious. And it requires no cooking skills. After baking, the oatmeal sweet potato crust is soft with naturally sweet and chewy, paired with smooth egg tart fillings. Oh my god! It smells so good. Every time it’s fresh out of the air fryer, the entire family gathers around, eager to grab a slice. The water content of the tart crust is very important. I am using orange sweet potatoes, which contain a lot of water after steaming. Perhaps yellow and purple sweet potatoes would be easier to shape. You can also use instant oats, which have good water absorption. For this recipe, I use cup cake liner as mold. I baked it with an air fryer to cut down on time...

Fried Taro Puff Dumplings (Woo KOK 芋角)

Taro puff dumplings or Woo Kok ( 芋角 ) are another must-eat snack when you go to a restaurant. The outside is honeycomb-shaped, and the inside is soft and smooth. Even if you go to a restaurant to eat, not every restaurant makes them crispy. And for that reason, I decided to learn how to make this snack. Someone once told me, because of the complicated workmanship, it is difficult to make at home. She advised me not to spend effort on it. If you know me well, I always like to challenge my limits. Today, I will show you how to make them! The fillings of taro dumplings must contain pork, dried shrimps, and mushrooms! The filling can be prepared one day ahead. The dumpling skin is made of taro paste. I am using Areca taro ( 槟榔芋 ). It has a tough, brown exterior with an interior that is white/beige in color with purple flecks. The ideal taro for this recipe will be more mature and starchier. The hardest and most tiresome step of the entire process is frying Woo Kok. A crispy crust w...

Easy Apple Tart With Almond Cream

This apple tarts made with frangipane or almond cream, and apples. It’s delicate, beautiful, and most importantly, delicious. The combination of apples, almonds, and cinnamon creates a warm and delightful dessert. Excellent while still warm from the oven, at room temperature, or even cold. The tart itself is buttery and crunchy. It is simple to make, and you don’t need a food processor or hand mixer. The key is that the butter is COLD. I cut it into small cubes and keep it in a freezer for 10 minutes which is much simpler to incorporate into the flour mixture. The almond cream or Frangipane is simple to prepare, and you can make it a day ahead with only a few ingredients. Spread the almond cream over the prebaked pie crust which adds a wonderful flavor, but it also acts as a shield to prevent the apple juices from penetrating into the crust. I am using a 24cm round and removable pie try or tart pan for making this apple tart. It is one of the staple pieces of equipment in my kitc...

Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert (杨枝甘露)

The weather is getting hot, there is nothing that can’t be solved with a glass or a bowl of this Yang Zhi Gan Lu ( 杨枝甘露 ) 。 It’s a kind of mango pomelo sago dessert. It has a strong mango aroma, chewy sago peals and coconut milk. It’s unique with its sweet taste and great to beat the heat. The name itself seems complicated; it is actually easy to make at home. The recipe, the ingredients are straight forward. There is no fixed method of making this dessert. You can add other fruits you like to increase the flavor.   If you don’t have coconut milk, you can replace it with milk, evaporated milk, or fresh cream to make the dessert with rich flavor. I think the key point of making this dessert is the method of cooking sago. There are a few tips that I would like to share about cooking sago. First, the sago cannot be soaked or washed in advance, because sago is made of powder, soaking or washing in advance will make sago completely dissolved in water. Second, sago is not coo...

Indulgence Cake With Chocolate Glaze

  Recently, I learned to bake another cake. This cake is baked especially for my mother-in-law – birthday cake. She loves chocolate cake, so I decided to bake this cake to indulge her. I once ate at a restaurant Secret Recipe. I tried to choose a cake for dessert after dinner.  It surprised me to discover that, out of all the cake varieties displayed in the cake display fridge, only this indulgence cake had three slices left. The remaining cake was either left untouched or only one or two slices were consumed. So, I thought this cake must be the signature cake of this restaurant. I decided to give it a go. Indulgence cake is an impressive looking cake. Four layers of moist chocolate cake that are stacked, one on top of another, with good quality dark chocolate and white chocolate mousse. The mousse ingredients are straightforward, egg-and gelatin-free that is significantly more convenient. When the cake is sliced, the layered pattern of Secret Recipe's cake is revealed, with c...

Longevity Peach Ang Ku Kueh (寿桃红龟糕)

Among Nyonya pastries, red tortoise cake is a very common and popular Nyonya pastry. The red tortoise cake also names as Ang Ku Kueh. Because red tortoise cake represents blessing, honor and longevity, it is a must-have offering during worship services by the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore, especially during the birthday of the Jade Emperor on the ninth day of the first lunar month and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This year is my mother-in-law’s 73rd birthday. The kitchen is where I get creative. Since some people make longevity peaches into birthday buns, I can also make birthday buns into a longevity Ang Ku Kueh peach for her birthday. For this recipe, I am making my own mung bean paste, it really paired well with this longevity peach Ang Ku Kueh. You may use other fillings like red beans paste, peanuts, custard or even salty filling with black-eyed peas or turnip This longevity Ang Ku Kueh does not need a mould. All you need is a littl...

Baked Cassava or Tapioca Cake (烤木薯糕)

Cassava or tapioca cake can be prepared in several methods, including baking, steaming and wrapping in banana leaves. It can be made with or without eggs and with or without butter. Today, I am going to share how to bake cassava or tapioca cake. Tapioca cake is very easy to make, whether to steam or to bake. The only tedious part is grating. I used to grate them into fine silk manually. But now I blend them with Thermomix to paste form. If you are using a regular blender, add a little water to the blender to blend it together. This cassava cake has a beautiful burnt skin on top and dense golden color inside. My daughter thought it was burnt cheesecake. The texture is soft but firm and not too sticky compared to the steam type. Every bite taste of cassava, coconut milk and the burnt aroma. Not overly sweet and greasy. If using a blender, cut the tapioca into smaller chunks, then carefully cut out the tough, fibrous core from the middle of each piece using a knife.   Once the t...

Pastry Rice Cakes (酥皮年糕)

  Rice cakes or Nian Gao are a symbol of "prosperity", so during the Lunar New Year. Every household will buy or make rice cakes during the Lunar New Year in the hopes of a "higher year," which represents greater success and fortune in the upcoming year. Instead of frying the Nian Gao” with batter, I wrap it with a piece of puff pastry and bake in the oven, in this way, I can taste a gluey Nian Gao with crispy pastry. I made this last year, and my kids requested to make this again for this year. It is not a recipe, it is merely a method of serving Nian Gao, or Chinese rice cake. Everyone will be thrilled by this fantastic twist and surprise to a classic. In I'm using store bought puff pastries.   Some come in 8" or 4" square sizes, while others come in a rolled-up sheet. If you're using the rolled-up sheet, as I did, you'll need to roll them out and cut them to the appropriate size. Simply place the Nian Gao onto a piece of puff pastry a...