SHF #24: Little Bites Of Delights - Strawberry Amores

Sugar High Fridays #24: Little Bites Of Delights - Strawberry Amores

Here goes another bake journal entry for a blog event, Sugar High Fridays (The brainchild of the Jennifer over at The Domestic Goddess who started this event way back in October 2004). For Sugar High Fridays #24 or in short, SHF #24, hosted by Jeanne of Cook Sister!, the theme is: Petits Fours.

I decided to showcase one of the many petits fours that i did recently for my own 21st birthday celebrations - Strawberry Amores. Petits Fours may look difficult to do at first, but with proper planning of your Mis En Place, it is indeed a joy to make and it gives me a great satisfaction to see my friends enjoy the petits fours.

Strawberry Amores are simply made by assembling a heart-shaped cutout shortcrust pastry base, pipe some strawberry chocolate gananche and topped with a heart-shaped cutout white chocolate (with pink stripes).

Complicated as it may sound, these Strawberry Amores are indeed great conversational topics during parties as your guests would be overwhelmed by the attractiveness of this petit four.

Click Here for the Roundup.

Baking Recipes using Fong Yit's XO Kaya!

Baking Recipes using Fong Yit's XO Kaya!

(Centre: XO Kaya Soya Flower Buns, Right: XO Kaya Almond Friands).

On Wednesday, at Mayer Causeway Point, I conducted yet another baking demostration. This time round, I have created 2 new healthy recipes, namely: XO Kaya Soya Flower Buns and XO Kaya Almond Friands. Of course, I must first thank Mr Goh from Fong Yit Kaya who responded promptly on my request for Fong Yit to sponsor the XO Kaya used for this baking demostration. Note: XO here has nothing to do with liquor...

Here are some information with regards to Fong Yit's XO Kaya...

Besides all the health benefits, I must say Fong Yit's XO Kaya is also bakeable as you can see from the buns, the kaya is not burnt. This is mainly due to the use of isomalt in this kaya instead of sugar which would caramelised and burnt.

Since, previously I have shared with you all a bread recipe, I have decided to share a friand recipe this time round. What is a friand? Friands (French for "Little Cakes") are traditionally made mainly with nut-meal, usually Almond, melted butter and only a small measure of flour. In addition, friands usually use egg whites, which is low in cholesterol. You may think what a waste! How about the egg yolks? No fret, the 3 egg yolks that you have left, keep them in air tight containers in the fridge. I promise to post a recipe that will use 3 egg yolks soon. Or else, one can always make french toast with them for breakfast!

Lastly, thanks to Linda for constantly helping me to blog about my events or new baked products created by me. Check her latest blog entry where she blogged about Mr Bean's Soy Ice Cream, in line with my XO Kaya Soya Flower Buns. (By the way, I am also a fan of Mr Bean's Soy Ice Cream!). Talking about ice cream, YES! Ice Cream uses egg yolks!!!! But you will have to look out for my future entries...

Here is the recipe... It is so easy! so healthy!

Ingredients:
90 g Butter
50 g Icing Sugar
A drop Pandan Essence

120 g (3 Nos) Egg whites
40 g Plain Flour, sieved
70 g Almond, grounded

6 rounded tsp "XO Kaya" (Fong Yit Brand)
30 g Almond, flaked

Method: Makes 6 friands

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 6 muffin pans.
2. Cream butter, icing sugar and pandan essence till light & fluffy.
3. Whisk egg white till thick and foamy.
4. Combine creamed butter and whisked egg white.
5. Fold in sieved flour & grounded almond, stir until just combined.
6. Divide half the mixture among prepared pans, fill with 1 tsp of chilled "XO Kaya" filling and divide the other half of the mixture into the prepared pans and topped with flaked almonds.
7. Bake at 180C for 25 to 30 minutes.
8. Serve with a little extra sifted icing sugar.

Recipe By Samuel Chan
October 2006
http://www.samscakes.blogspot.com

World Bread Day 2006 Roundup

World Bread Day 2006 Roundup

Please Click Here

World Bread Day, 16th October 2006

World Bread Day, 16th October 2006

Thanks to Angie's Blog (My Kitchen: My Laboratory), I got a chance to participate in this event, hosted by Zorra of Kochtopf.

I am a fan of all breads and I hope to inspire more people to make their own bread. Through my short baking demonstrations, I try to introduce new flavours to our breads. Which brings me to the point of this blog entry... Eggless Pumpkin Buns.

As I have already mentioned in my first Bake Journal entry, I am very proud of this bun, simply because it is nutritious (high in Vitamin A & Beta Carotene due to the Pumpkin) and Eggless (Low in Cholesterol), but yet it is still very soft!!!! (No bread improvers added!) For those people out there who shares the same passion for bread as much as I do, you should try out the recipe (First Bake Journal Entry).

It has indeed be a joy for me to constantly develop new bread recipes and to share them in my baking demostrations. Now this sharing of new bread recipes have reached a new level, sharing with bread lovers around the world. There will be a round up of all the entries submitted to Zorra on 17th October. I look forward to see what my fellow bread lovers around the world would submit to Zorra on 17th October!

Happy World Bread Day!!!!

Cream Corn Chiffon Cakes

Cream Corn Chiffon Cakes

Instead of the usual Pandan Chiffon Cake, I experimented and came up with a new chiffon cake: Cream Corn Chiffon Cake. This cake is nutritiously packed with corns and is so light! Previously, when I made coffee chiffon cakes for my relatives and friends, the response was also tremendous! It suddenly dawned upon me on how, in most people's perception, cakes are suppose to be light, soft and moist. However, there are cakes that are heavy such as my ever famous Carrot Cake. Well, I guess it still takes time to educate people on how to appreciate the cross cultural differences in food or in this case, cakes.

Bun Susi

Bun Susi

On Sunday, Philip (owner of RICE - Resources In Cuisine & Events) invited me to teach his students how to make buns at his place in Clementi. Philip specialises in Peranakan Cooking and organises culinary tours. Over at his place, I taught his students how to make our soft asian buns with a twist. The filling was a truly Peranakan recipe. It consists of mainly minced meat with some onions and spices, cooked and cooled before being wrapped in the buns. This is what Philip calls the modified version of the Bun Susi (which incidentally, I found the recipe on the internet). The original Bun Susi (according to Philip) is actually the minced meat filling wrapped in a shortcrust pastry. In addition, the minced meat filling is slightly sweet.

To make the bun more interesting, I made a slit with a scissors, egg glaze and baked the buns. After which, I used the thai sweet basil leaf and a sliced chilli for a final touch.

Isomalt Snowskin Mooncakes

Isomalt Snowskin Mooncakes

I have successfully formulated Isomalt Snowskin Mooncakes for Sam's Cakes & Bakes! I know that those who are in the industry reading this journal entry, may say that this is nothing new as Isomalt has already been used in countries such as Hong Kong to do their mooncakes. But like I have mentioned in my first journal entry, this bake journal is mainly used to depict my baking and culinary adventures!

Most people will think so what if isomalt is used in mooncakes? Well, to find out more, you can visit the company's website: Palatinit.

To sum up, when isomalt is 100% used in a product, it can be classified as a diabetic product. In addition, isomalt gives a lighter colour (Left: Normal Mooncakes using Icing Sugar, Right: Isomalt Mooncakes using Isomalt) and a fresher look of the end product. To make it even more interesting, the filling used in these isomalt mooncakes is black sesame paste (made using 100% isomalt). You will hear more about another isomalt product, XO Kaya by Fong Yit, when I do a demo at Mayer Causeway Point on Soya Kaya Buns (the Kaya, using the Isomalt XO Kaya by Fong Yit).

First Sam's Bake Journal Entry & Eggless Pumpkin Buns Recipe

 

Welcome to Sam's Bake Journal! This is another phase that Sam's Cakes & Bakes is undergoing. I have decided to incorporate a Journal to depict my baking and culinary adventures in my kitchen, school laboratory or anywhere that allows me to continue to pursue my passion in this area. Do feel free to drop me an email if you do have any burning questions with regards to food and I will try to post the reply as one of the journal entries so as to educate more people who shares the same interest and passion! To kick off with my first journal entry, I have decided to post the recipe that I taught at a recent Mayer Workshop. By the way, Mayer Marketting is the Singapore distributor for Ariston Ovens and KitchenAid Mixers. I must say that they are household brand names nowadays and are used extensively in most homes.

This recipe that I am going to share is a very unique recipe! After much research into asian buns, I have came up with this Eggless Pumpkin Buns Recipe. Traditionally, most asian buns uses eggs to flavour the buns and shortening for the fat. In this recipe, however, the shortening has been replaced by butter and the eggs have been removed. But fret not! These buns are still as soft as ever with a very unique pumpkin filling! (which can also be replaced by yam). So here goes the recipe:

Filling Ingredients: 270 g Pumpkin, Steam for 20 mins & mashed, then cooled 135 g Icing Sugar Method: Makes 8 X 50g Pumpkin Filling 1. Mix all the ingredients together into a paste. 2. Freeze the paste for 30 mins. 3. Divide the paste into 50g portions and keep it back in the freezer till ready to use.

Bread Ingredients: 240 g Bread Flour 100 g Pumpkin, Steam for 20 mins & mashed, then cooled 1 tsp Milk Powder 1/8 tsp Salt 30 g Sugar 6 g (1/2 pkt) Yeast 35 g Water 30 g Butter

"Egg" Glaze: Evaporated Milk A drop of Yellow Colouring (Optional) Method: Makes 8 Muffin Cup Buns 1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl, except Butter. 2. Knead till the side of the bowl is clean. 3. Add in Butter and knead till well developed. 4. Round the dough and rest for 30 minutes. 5. After resting, turn the dough bottom side up and punch down to flatten. 6. Divide the dough into 8 X 54 g pieces. 7. Roll the dough out and wrap around the Pumpkin Filling. 8. Place on a greased baking pan. 9. Proof the bread till double in bulk, approximately 30 to 45 minutes. 10. Preheat oven to 200C. 11. Brush the surface lightly with "Egg" Glaze. 12. Bake at 200C for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown. 13. Brush with melted butter when baked to give a glossy finish. Recipe By Samuel Chan September 2006 http://www.samscakes.blogspot.com