Tiramisu

From bbc good food
Ingredients

568ml pot double cream
250g tub mascarpone
75ml marsala
5 tbsp golden caster sugar
300ml strong coffee, made with 2 tbsp coffee granules and 300ml boiling water
175g pack sponge fingers
25g chunk dark chocolate
2 tsp cocoa powder

Put the cream, mascarpone, Marsala and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until the cream and mascarpone have completely combined and have the consistency of thickly whipped cream.

Get your serving dish ready. Put the coffee into a shallow dish and dip in a few sponge fingers at a time, turning for a few secs until they are nicely soaked, but not soggy. Layer these into your dish until you have used half the biscuits, then spread over half of the creamy mixture. Using the coarse side of the grater, grate over most of the chocolate. Then repeat the layers (you should use up all the coffee), finishing with the creamy layer.

Cover and chill for a few hrs or overnight. This can now be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days. To serve, dust with cocoa powder and grate over the remainder of the chocolate.

I am quite happy with the outcome for this; previously, I used a recipe with no alcohol and it simply didn’t taste like tiramisu. This time with alcohol and specifically coffee flavoured liquor, it worked perfectly!

As an update, I used leftover pannetone instead of the sponge fingers – adds a extra layer of flavour with the dried fruit

Salted Caramel Ice-cream

Four ingredients maketh the most luscious tasting ice-cream around. Who would have known it would be so…easy?

Easy not…it took my third attempt to get it right, but once I got it right, it was rather easy to get going. I got to know what the color of the caramel should be, what the smell and texture should be. And that one hour standing in front of the stove stirring? All worth it.

Recipe here. I also referred to this post to compare the coloring for my first attempt.

David Lebovitz’s Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Whole Foods was having a one-day sale on organic strawberries so I got J to drive me there and we bought 3 pounds dutifully. With so many strawberries, what better way than to test my new (and unused) ice-cream machine. I was initially hesitate about a frozen yogurt recipe but it turned out to be the BEST strawberry ice-cream we’ve ever tasted (I would love to try it again by sticking to the recipe exactly).

Soaking strawberries in sugar for 2 hours to get the nice bright colours out.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
About 1 quart (1l)

French yogurt is astoundingly good and I suggest you use a good-quality, whole milk or Greek-style yogurt for best results.

1 pound (450g) strawberries, rinsed and hulled
2/3 cup (130g) sugar
optional: 2 teaspoons vodka or kirsch
1 cup (240g) plain whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Slice the strawberries into small pieces. Toss in a bowl with the sugar and vodka or kirsch (if using) until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, stirring every so often.

Transfer the strawberries and their juice to a blender or food processor. Add the yogurt and fresh lemon juice. Pulse the machine until the mixture is smooth. If you wish, press mixture through a mesh strainer to remove any seeds.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

I made a mistake and bought 2% fat plain yogurt instead of whole milk yogurt, so I added some light cream to give the yogurt a bit more fat content for freezing. It could freeze better – but still really good!

Also I did not use alcohol because we don’t have any at home but I can’t imagine how much better the ice-cream will taste! 4 ingredient ice-cream! I love this recipe.

Cheng Teng

This is my favourite dessert back home in Singapore. The recipe is a combination of a page off a recipe book my dad scanned for me, my mom’s instructions over the phone, my own improvisation, and basic common sense. :p

Ingredients:

1 piece of white fungus (I bought the good kind, 1 piece was around the size of my face)

4 fistfuls of dried longans (soaked in warm water till softened)

8 dried red dates (soaked in warm water till softened, pitted)

1/4 cup of barley

1/2 cup of lotus seeds (soaked in warm water, green stuff in the middle removed)

rock sugar (to taste)

Optional ingredients (1/4 cup of azuki beans, gingko nuts, sea coconut, whatever)

1. Bring 4 bowls (half a pot) of water to a boil.

2. Throw in all ingredients and simmer till soft and the longans turn pale.

3. That’s the cue that it’s as sweet as the soup is gonna get, so add rock sugar to taste.

Can be served hot, chilled or with shaved ice on top.

Double chocolate brownies

From Home Food
Ingredients

80g butter
40g cocoa powder
145g caster sugar
2 eggs
60g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven on to 180 degrees. Brush your cake tin with oil or melted butter, put piece of baking paper in the bottom

Melt the butter in a saucepan. When it is ready, take it off the heat and stir in the cocoa and sugar, followed by the eggs.

Put a sieve over the saucepan and tip in the flour and baking powder, along with a pinch of salt. Sift everything into the saucepan, then mix it in. Make sure you don’t have any pockets of flour. Add the chocolate chips and stir them in.

Pour the mixture into your tin and bake it for 30 minutes. If you have used a different sized tin, the cooking time may be shorter or longer. You will know your brownies are cooked when you can poke a skewer or knife into the middle of them and it comes out clean. Remember though, the chocolate chips may have melted and if your skewer hits one of those, it might look as if the mixture is still wet. Leave the slab to cool in the tin, then tip it out and cut it into brownie pieces.

Ugh I should have bought vanilla ice cream to go with the brownies. It’s just not complete without it!

I couldn’t find any chocolate chips at Waitrose so instead I used white chocolate chunks.

Cantaloupe Sago with coconut milk

Rock Melon (or cantaloupe) Sago with Coconut Milk

Cantaloupe (Rockmelon) Sago  Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 whole cantaloupe
• 1/4 cup of sago (tapioca pearls)
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• Water

Method

Cut cantaloupe into half, cut 1 half of the fruit into small cubes and chill in fridge.

Blend the other half into a puree and chill in fridge.

To prepare sugar syrup, bring to boil 1 bowls of water in a pot with the sugar. Stir until water has reduced to half Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill sugar syrup in the fridge.

To prepare sago, soak sago in cold water for 30 minutes before straining and boiling till sago turns translucent. Strain the sago and leave sago in strainer soaked in cold water and chill.

To serve, combine about cantaloupe cubes and cantaloupe puree and sago in a bowl. Stir in coconut milk and sugar syrup to your liking. Drizzle coconut milk on top of bowl before serving. I had a little jar of coconut milk on the side for my guests to add more if they like, and some do like more coconut milk than others.

Before I discovered (good) cakes and chocolate, this was my all-time favourite dessert. You can find it in Cantonese restaurants as a dessert course and I remember my mom making it when I was a child. It never dawned upon me to make it myself, or eat it even after I got older and fancy European desserts took over my tastebuds. But I thought it would be fun to make a healthy Chinese desserts at my dinner party last night and boy, was it a hit. I love it that it is healthy, vegan and so easy to make.

Oh, usually people use honeydew, but I never liked the sickly green colour and always preferred the sweeter cantaloupe.

Coffee and cocoa cake

I am experimenting with the basic butter cake recipe to see what combinations I can come with up. I added cocoa and coffee to the mix and this is the end result. Will post a proper recipe once I get my measurements right. I am trying to reduce the amount of sugar and butter in my cakes but the difference between the full recipe and the “healthier” recipe is just too stark…

Apple cake

From the Silver Spoon
Serves 6

Ingredients

80g unsalted butter, softened
300g self raising flour plus extra for dusting
3 eggs
150g caster sugar
3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a cake tin or mould with butter and dust lightly with flour. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the butter until thoroughly combined. Sift the flour into the mixture then add the apples and mix gently. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin or mould and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then turn out, or serve immediately while hot. Serve with whipped cream, if you like.

40 minutes in my oven wasn’t enough and so I had to pop it back into the oven. I did it for 10 more minutes and i thought the cake was a bit dry on the sides, but fine in the middle because thats where most of the apples are. I may go for 45 minutes the next time. Of course another reason why it may be too dry is that i reduced the amount of butter to 50g (on my mom’s request). Taste absolutely perfect, the apples moist and sweet. I think I am starting to get the hang of making loaf tin cakes.

Chocolate and cream cake

From Ginette Mathiot I know how to cook

Serves 6

Ingredients

Butter for greasing
5 eggs
250g caster sugar
125g chocolate, grated
125g flour
100 ml creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Grease a cake tin with butter. Whisk the eggs and sugar until white and foamy. Fold in the chocolate and flour, and finally gently fold in the creme fraiche. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Cake making is much more precise compared to my usual toss everything into the casserole pot cooking, and i guess that’s why it’s more enjoyable particularly if it succeeds. It also helps when you have a Kenwood food processor with a grating attachment (for the chocolate) and a whisking attachment for the sugar and eggs. It’s kind of fun to hear and see the mixture swirling at high speeds.

Anyway, don’t trust the recipe (i am glad I didn’t), it should be 180 degrees for 50 minutes, it was still moving around like a chocolate jelly when I took it out at 30 minutes. And I added icing sugar on top as a final touch.

Portuguese Egg Tart

We have a Mardi Gras party to attend this evening and I have to bring something. Feeling totally uninspired and lazy, I was going make a salad and bring some beer until I chanced across this recipe on Tiny Urban Kitchen (who is based in Boston too!) It’s easy enough to make, though Batch 2 is more successful than Batch 1, Batch 1 looks kinda Jaundiced.

So they might not look like the real stuff, but they kinda taste like the real stuff.

So there.

I can make my own eggtarts. Yay.