Kueh Lopes - Rice Cakes with Palm Sugar Sauce

3 cups glutinous rice
2 cups of coconut milk
1/2 cup of pandanus juice (extracted)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 tsp green coloring
grated coconut mixed with a little salt
Banana leaf

Ingredients for sugar sauce:
Pandan leaves
Gula Melaka akan palm sugar (can be found in Asian grocers in blocks)
Water

Method:

Wash rice. Soak for 1/2 hour.
Drain rice, then put the rice, liquid coconut milk and pandanus in a pot.
Simmer on medium heat until all water is absorbed. Turn heat on lowest setting  and cook with lid closed for 10 minutes.
Prepare steamer.
Cut the banana leaves into 4 squares, wrap the cooked rice, roll it in a cylindrical form as compact as you can. Secure with a cling wrap. Steam for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from steamer and cool the rice. Slice with cheese cutter/knife. The pieces will look like rice cakes. Coat the slices with grated coconut.
Pour sugar sauce over the rice pieces and serve.

Cream puffs

Cream Puffs aka Profiterole

I have a long-standing fear of choux pastry but today I conquered that fear, alhamdulillah. My cream puffs turned out beautifully, puffy and light and when I cut through the baked shell, there is an actual crater ready to receive the custard filling.

There are many variations of this popular dessert, especially when it comes to the filling. One can fill these puffs with Chantilly cream, vanilla custard of plain vanilla ice-cream.

Recipe for choux pastry:

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter (115g) 

1/4 tsp salt

4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
4. When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

Filling:

If you are pressed for time just use any instant pudding mix or vanilla ice cream. For today's recipe we will try the chantilly cream

300ml heavy cream
1/2 cup natvia or 100 g icing sugar
1 vanilla bean
Whip in a mixing bowl and use a piping bag to pipe into the shells.

For the Chocolate Sauce

1. 1 tablespoon butter
2. 1/2 pound semisweet chocolate, cut in chunks 
3. 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4. 2 tbsp honey
5. 1/2 cup skim milk

Combine the milk and butter in a small heavy bottomed sauced pan over medium heat. Heat the mixture until bubbles appear around the sides of the pot, but do not allow the milk to boil.  Mix in the chocolate and vanilla; remove from the heat and stir until the chocolate melts and the sauce is smooth and add honey. 

Drizzle on your cream puffs and serve. Alternatively you can use icing sugar to drizzle on the puffs.

Tepung Pelita

Yes I admit, I have been slacking off...have not been updating my blog much. So here  I am halfway into the most Holy month in the Hijri Calender; Ramadhan and I must have thought about an old favorite of my late father's. He loves to have this dessert for breaking of fast or known as iftar. It's a 2 layered pudding, with the bottom half flavored with pandan leaves topped with the creaminess of lightly salted of coconut milk. This dessert is easy to make but the tricky part may be fashioning the banana leaf casing.

I could use a ramekin dish but trust me you don't get the same flavour and aroma from the banana leaf. So I have actually created a pictorial on how to create this simple origami. Before you set off to do this, the banana leaf needs to be softened (so they don't break when you fold them) by blanching it in hot water or leave in the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes or so. Another method is to leave it in the hot sun or use the BBQ grill.

Now for the recipe.

For the bottom layer:

1 cup rice flour

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups water

4 pandan leaves blended with 1 cup water

Mix flour, water, sugar and pandan extract until well blended.

Cook over medium heat and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and shiny. Remove from heat and you can spoon mixture into the banana leaf casing. There is a reason why we spoon the mixture while it is still hot. See note*

*Optional: 

The traditional recipe is quite sweet as 1/2 tsp of sugar is add to each casing before adding the bottom layer. Hence a hot mixture will melt the sugar.

Top Layer:

1/4 cup rice flour 

2 cups coconut milk (I use Kara brand)

pinch of salt

Mix flour and coconut milk and cook over medium heat and stir until mixture thickens.

Spoon the coconut mix above the pandan layer that has now set..

Let cool and store in the fridge to chill.

Enjoy your iftar or Selamat Berbuka Puasa ! 

Sticky Buns (Cinnamon Rolls II)

My quest for the closest thing to the perfect cinnamon rolls has ended! All the while I have been using this recipe from the net for my cinnamon rolls and the results are ok but not fantastic.

I came across a new magazine with a gorgeous picture of these delicious finger licking dessert and I had to have it. I went home straight away to try out the recipe, how excited was I with that photo ;) I know food excites me that much....its scary!.

So I followed the recipe to a T and the results does not disappoint.  I have this habit of tweaking recipes to make it simpler but I would not change this one except maybe, reduce the cooking time to 40 mins from the original 45mins as the buns were slightly overcooked on the top but thankfully the bread was still moist and melt in your mouth goodness!

I didn't have any pecans in my pantry so I omitted it for now but would love to add them the next time I make this, insyaallah. Please also note that all butter are to at room temperature (unless otherwise noted)

Ingredients:

7g sachet dry yeast
125 ml warm milk
75 g caster sugar
3 eggs
375g plain flour, extra for dusting
135 unsalted butter (cut into 2cm cubes)

Caramel
125g unsalted butter
75g firmly packed brown sugar
125 ml thickened cream
60ml maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g pecans toasted, chopped

Filling
125g unsalted butter
165g firmly packed brown sugar
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Glace Icing
160g icing sugar
15g unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp milk

1. To make dough, place yeast, 1 tbs sugar and milk in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside in a warm place for 5 min or until mixture bubbles. Lightly beat 2 eggs and combine into yeast mixture.

2 Combine yeast mixture and remaining sugar, flour and salt into the bowl of electric mixer using the dough hook, mix on low speed until a soft sticky dough forms. With mixer running add 125g of chopped butter one cube at a time. Ensure each cube is mixed well before adding the next one.

3. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl. Melt remaining 10 g of butter and brush over top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and put aside in a warm area until it doubles in size (around 1.5 hrs)

4. To make caramel, stir butter, brown sugar, cream, maple syrup, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan over high heat until combined. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes until mixture is glossy. Pour 2/3 of this mixture into a 35cm x 21cm x 5cm baking dish coating bottom and sides. Sprinkle 1/3 of the toasted pecans and set aside.

5. To make filling, using an electric mixer beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt on medium speed for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.Stir through half the remaining pecans.

6. Punch down dough, then turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to a 1/2 cm thick 30cm x 40 cm rectangle. Spread filling evenly over dough, leaving a 2cm border. Roll tightly like a Swiss Roll and cut evenly into 12 pieces and arrange cut side up on top of caramel prepared baking dish.

7. Loosely cover dish with wrap and leave to rise for another 1.5 hours.

8. Preheat oven to 180C. Whisk remaining egg with 1/2 tsp water in a small bowl and brush over the top of buns. Bale for 40-45 minutes until buns are golden brown. Keep an eye on the buns, if they brown too quickly, cover with foil. Cool for 5 minutes, then spoon over remaining caramel. Scatter remaining pecan and cool for 5 minutes.

9. Lastly, combine all ingredients for icing until smooth. Drizzle on cooled buns and stand 10minutes to set before serving.


I skipped step 9 because I didn't want this to be overly sweet but in retrospect I would try it next time because the rolls are not super sweet at all.


Good Luck and Bismillah! 

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing

What does one do when one discovers a whole bag of carrots in the frigde? If you are like me who hates to see food goes to waste, there are 2 options available. You could either cook the beautiful afghan rice or try a new recipe. 
So I chanced upon a recipe posted by Melissa Wikepa Al-Khudaisi (thanks sis!) and thought its a simple enough process and I 'd give it a go. So why not try it yourself and dont let that bag of carrots rot in the crisper, turn it into something beautiful!


Ingredients:

* 1 cup vegetable oil (I use corn oil)
* 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
* 3 eggs
* 3 medium carrots, grated ( if your carrots are small, you can use 5)
* ½ cup sultanas or raisins
* 2 ½ cups self-raising flour
* ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ginger

Lemony cream cheese icing

* 175g cream cheese
* 100g (2/3 cup icing sugar)
* Grated rind and juice of one lemon
*1/4 cup desiccated coconut (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 22cm round cake tin or a square one will do just fine.

Place oil, sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until combined.

Sift in flour, bicarb and spices and beat well to combine. Stir in carrots, pecans and sultanas.

Pour into cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn onto a rack.

To make icing, beat ingredients, spread over cold cake.


Notes:

* This makes a lovely moist, dense cake and will feed a small army!

Chocolate Molten Cake

A cold rainy night would be perfect for a warm chocolate cake with a soft gooey centre, dont you agree? I must share how easy this was to make and how good it taste, especially if you are a chocoholic like me.

I must thank Sis Melissa for posting this recipe and I have been waiting for the weekend to prepare this. So here is the video of this recipe, it is in Italian with English Subtitles, thankfully.

I served mine with fresh blueberries as it is now in season. It was quite a treat!

Click to see recipe

Bon Apetit!

Choc-Chip, Fig & Walnut Slice

This desert is so easy to make that my 18 year old son out of boredom decided to try it out. Amir is having his 2 week break from college and was looking for something to do. I guess he got tired of the XBOX and computer games. I basically told him he could go through my stack of brand new recipe books that I have not had time to read.

He took me up on my challenge and decided this is the easiest recipe from Women's Weekly "a Taste of Chocolate" that he dares to attempt. Amir is quite savvy in the kitchen by the way, cooking dishes from ready mixes but he is quite apprehensive about desserts. This would be his first desert making venture.

I give it a 9 out of 10 because it turned out great and the fig really made the dish fresh and the brown sugar is not too sweet, the walnut gave it the crunch and the chewy & gooey choc chip made this a sure winner.

Recipe


185 g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup (185) plain flour
1/2 cup (65g) finely chopped dried figs
1/2 cup (95 g) dark choc chips
100g dark eating chocolate (melted in Bain Marie)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 180C
Grease 20x30cm pan, line base with baking paper, extending paper 5cm over long sides

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted butter then figs, nuts and choc bits. Press mixture into pan.

Bake slice about 25 minutes. Mark slice into 24 squares. Cool slice in pan, drizzle with chocolate.

Cut into squares when chocolate is set. Then watch how fast this disappears!