Nutella & Peanut Butter Chiffon

Oh boy, I can't believe I didn't blog for more than 3 weeks, this has never happen b4 :p   U may be curious on what did I do while little girl is having her holiday, well, I was busy working, on projects and has just slow down to share the holiday with little girl.  Yeah, bentos were not needed during holiday and I was far away from the kitchen to bake too.

We didn't go to parent's place today, thus decided to bake a chiffon with little girl at home.  After consulting her on the flavor she adores, she finally settled with nutella and peanut butter.  Little girl helped me on breaking the eggs, measuring the milk, scoop the flour or sugar while I stir or beat, then finally helped me washed the utensils that we used during the mixing process.... a great helper?  Oh well... no comment...

I used the tangmian method for this chiffon, but I changed the baking time to 170C for 40 minutes.

Ingredients
120 ml milk
50g butter
100g self raising flour
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

2 tbsp nutella
1 tbsp peanut butter

I mixed 1/3 of the batter with peanut butter and 2/3 of the batter with nutella, then mix them together to form a marble look.

The smell of peanut butter has infused the house during baking and the taste of the chiffon has a mix taste of both nutella and peanut butter, the combination was no bad at all :p

Bacon, Onion & Cheese Bun

Didn't bake bread for so long, I had been longing for some savory buns lately, and this came into my mind.  I modified Carol's rice tang zhong recipe (米饭汤种), instead of using cooked soft rice, I used mum's leftover porridge :p

I did the measuring, kneading, 1st proofing and the shaping part, as of the 2nd proofing and baking was taken care by my sis, as little girl, me and hubby rushed to karaoke with hubby's relative :p  Thus I didn't get to see and taste the bread until this evening (it was yesterday's project), it still stay soft, and the smell & taste r awesome.  Mum said it tasted the best when it just came out from the oven, they 'telan' (swallow) a few :)

Ingredients
Yield: 10 (100g each)

300g porridge
440g bread flour
20g wheat bran
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
50g bacon fat (fat remained after frying the bacon)
15 slices streaky bacon, fried, cut into small pieces
1 onion, chopped, fried til soft
1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
Handful of mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese for topping

Wanna have one?

Final Day of Standard 1 Bento (308) and A Cupcake Party

Hurray!  Finally it comes to the end of the school year and little girl will start her long holiday 2moro, yippee :)  I don have to wake up early to prepare bento for 1 and a half months \ (^_^) /

It is a final bento for her standard 1 and I made her a simple one, which combined cheese and mushroom frankfurters and kiwifruits.  It took me only about 10 minutes to have it ready.

Actually the reason I made a small bento was little girl has requested me to bake her a batch of cupcakes so that she able to have an early birthday celebration with her classmates.

Vanilla cupcakes with glaze icing 

(it was so diluted that the cakes absorbed the icing, thus it was not visible on the cake),

purple colored sugar and lots of sprinkles

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs were actually the 1st baked dessert I tried during my teens or 20th, I can't remember well :p  I'd tried so many cream puff recipes, however recipes from those days were not so complete, sometimes I got the puffs baked nicely, but sometimes it would be a total failure.  Also, I didn't have a good custard cream recipe, therefore the cream puffs weren't that tempting those day but I still enjoyed eating them.

Now, with the help of internet, nothing is secret and I managed to get the recipes I wanted so easily.  I choose Masa's cream puff recipe and Carol's vanilla custard recipe (the leftover from Hakkaido Chiffon Cupcake) I promised you this combination is really really yummilicious!

Cream Puffs
Ingredients
(Yield 36 mini puffs)
60g cake flour / superfine flour
60g bread flour / high protein flour
80g butter
100ml milk / water
2 - 3 eggs, beat

1. Mix cake flour and bread flour together, sieved
2. In a sauce pan, bring butter and water to a boil or until butter melted, off heat
3. Pour all flour into hot liquid, mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula, turn on low flame, cook until a thin layer skin lightly stick to the pan, off heat
4. While batter is hot, fold in egg, a little at a time, until getting a smooth thick paste or when the batter drip down from spatula, it drips slowly in a triangle form
5. Spoon into piping bag, pipe your desire size of choux pastry onto baking tray
6. Spray some water onto the choux pastry before put into oven
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 200C for 30 minutes
8. Cool on rack after taking out from oven
9. Serve with vanilla custard cream squeezed into each puffs

They puffed up so beautifully and cute

Little girl loves this cream puffs so much that she ate about 6 right after dinner!  Even picky eater Y said he liked the cream very much and requested 1 for supper.

Kimchi Fried Pork and Rice Bento (307)

The kimchi fried pork was a leftover dish from previous night.  I decided to finish the dish as my bento lunch in office, yum!

For this bento, I just have to pre-heat the rice and kimchi fried pork in the microwave, then packed into box.  it was ready in about 10 minutes.

White rice top with furikake, 3 ugly looking quail eggs and the kimchi fried pork

Mango wedges and grapes

Macaroni with Bolognese Sauce Bento (306)

I was supposed to make something cute, however it didn't turn out as what I wish :(  It was a total mess.
Took about 20 minutes to get the bento ready.

Macaroni mixed with bolognese sauce, top with 2 cheese sausages and 3 chick faces quail eggs

Skewers of mango cubes and grape hearts

Pasar Malam Food Bento 2 (305)

It was my lunch bento which I brought along to office.  Packed within 10 minutes.

In the box: 2 pieces of fried yam cake, 1 piece of blue flower glutinous rice cake with kaya (kaya was hiding under the glutinous rice), some mango wedges and a packet of chili sauce.

Though the bento might look small, it was really filling.

Pasar Malam Food Bento 1 (304)

Ok, I know I shouldn't give little girl any frying food since she has just recovered from fever, but little girl insisted she wanna the fried yam cake, thus I gave her half in the bento.

Used less than 10 minutes to pack the bento.

In the box: Half piece of fried yam cake, 1 ang ku kuih, some grape hearts, a container of ketchup (for the yam cake) and 2 cola candy.

Wantan Noodle Bento (303)

Ok, this ain't little girl's bento, it was mine, I brought it to office as my late lunch :)

Little girl has recovered from her fever (at last, after 3 long nites, phew...), but I still hold her resting at home, don wanna her pass the virus to her fellow classmates.

The bento bug bit me this morning, that's why I gotta bring a bento to office :p  Bento was ready in about 15 minutes.

Home cooked wantan noodle, blanched choy sam and wantan

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake

Little girl is ill with fever since last night, luckily I managed to catch enough sleep yesterday due to the Deepavali holiday here. Thus, I was feeling bored while she was taking her nap this afternoon, after hopping thru from blogs to blogs, I settled with Hokkaido chiffon cupcake which was highly rated by most of the bloggers.

I used the recipe from 周老师的美食教室, she suggested a recipe which produced the softest cake, and it is similar to those famous Hokkaido chiffon cupcake.

Hokkaido chiffon cupcake
Yield 15
Ingredients
(A)
100g / 5 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
40g corn oil
40g milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
50g superfine flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

(B)
210g / 5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
105g sugar (I used 90g only)

I adapted Carol's vanilla custard recipe this time, the portion is bigger comparing to the one I tried previously, however, both recipes are providing equally delicious vanilla custard.

Vanilla custard
Ingredients
(A)
200g milk
20g sugar
1/3 stalk vanilla bean

(B)
1 egg yolk (I used the whole egg)
20g sugar

(C)
50g milk
10g corn starch
15g superfine flour

(D)
10g unsalted butter (used salted butter)


(E)
200g non-dairy cream

1. Split vanilla bean, remove vanilla seed and mix into (A), simmer with low flame
2. In a bowl, mix (B) til even
3. Mix (C) with a hand whisk til well combine and with no lumps
4. Combine (3) into (2), mix til even
5. Slowly pour in (1) through a sieve, stir continuously while pouring
6. Cook mixture with low flame, do not stop stirring while cooking
7. Cook until mixture turn thick, off heat, add in (D), stir until combine evenly
8. Cover with sling film while hot and leave to cool off
9. Whisk non-dairy cream til stiff peak, fold in cool vanilla custard, fold til even, ready to squeeze into cupcake

Believe me, this combination (the chiffon cake and vanilla custard cream) is really superb, even baby J asked for 2nd helping (actually, he ate the cream more than the cake :p )

Fish Cake and Cucumber Maki Bento (302)

Little girl has asked for sushi for bento, however, we were out of nori at home, luckily there was 1 piece of the Korean Seaweed left in the fridge.  Little girl agreed to use that since it was late and we couldn't buy nori anywhere.

It turned out to be a mistake to use Korean Seaweed as it was so thin that it tear easily.  Sigh, thus my maki looks so disappointing :(

Used about 15 minutes to complete the bento.

Fish cake and cucumber maki

Grape hearts

Party Finger Food Bento (301)

Fried a batch of mini glass noodle spring rolls yesterday, yummy, they were so delicious, I kept a portion for little girl's bento and my lunch today.  The rest of the fried chicken and fish balls were bought from SS2 night market on Mon, little girl purposely kept for her bento but I'd forgotten to include them yesterday.

This bento is really speedy as I just need to heat the finger foods, sliced some cucumber, packed and done.  Used about 10 minutes only.

Finger foods that we usually find in house party here

Some grapes and jelly, also a container of ketchup for the finger foods

Konnyaku Noodle, Mushroom and Bacon Bento (300)

Didn't realize it has come to the 300th bento so soon, thus didn't plan out anything, just a simple bento for little girl.

Little girl had bacon and fried egg for breaky this morning, she kept 2 pieces of the bacon specially for the bento.  I used about 15 minutes to get the bento ready, cos I just need to blanch the noodle, mushroom and veggie, then drizzled some oyster sauce & soy sauce to flavor them.

Konnyaku noodles, mushroom, veggie and top with bacons

Chinese pear and jelly

Empty Bird Nest Bento (299)

Was out of ideas after making all those Halloween theme bentos, I asked little girl what she wanna have for bento, and her answer was cold soba, alright, u get your cold soba.

Bento was ready in about 15 minutes.

Cold soba (marinated with men shoyu) as the nest, some mayo chicken, shredded cucumber at the center and garnished with some shredded nori

Chinese pear wedges and jelly

Sweet Potato Chiffon

Actually I'd planned on a few loafs of 2 tones sweet potato swirl loaf on Sunday morning.  When I reached mum's place afternoon, I got the sweet potatoes steamed but was pulled over to the mahjong table (not enough 'kaki').  Then sis came, she helped me skinned and mashed the sweet potatoes while waiting for me to escape from the mahjong table til bro returned to take over my seat.

Just when I started my baking project, I came to realize that SIL has bought the wrong flour, I'd asked her to get 2kg high protein flour and she gotta 2kg self raising flour.  I even went out to hunt for high protein flour at the nearby Giant but they don carry any :(  While driving back home, I told sis that we should change our plan, lets bake chiffon since we have so much self raising flour, so we ended up with sweet potato chiffon cakes.  We didn't finish at one chiffon cake, we ended  up baking 3 cakes, used 15 eggs from my mum's stock (while she was busy on the mahjong table) :p

Ingredients
5 egg yolks
100g water
80g corn oil
150g sweet potato, mashed
100g self raising flour
20g sugar

5 egg whites
60g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

The purple turned the cake lovely and romantic :p  

The smell & taste of sweet potato in the cake was awesome too!

Kuromi Bento (298)

I just found out a few days ago that Kuromi's birthday fall on Halloween, thus how can I not including her in the Halloween theme bento.

This might look simple and easy, but it took me about 95 minutes to complete!  I started very late at Thu nite (at about 12.30am), doing all the ground works like sketched out Kuromi, cut it out, blanched 2 crab sticks, cut the crab stick and nori according to the sketch.  I finished the works at about 1.15am.  Then waked up very early to continue on the bento (used about 30 minutes), made the sandwich (meat floss with mayo), place Kuromi on top, glued (with mayo) everything intact, put on Kuromi's expression and finally made 2 skeleton heads to fill the space.

Closer view of Kuromi 

(not that pretty looking but it was the best I manage in a tiring night & morning)

Skeleton head 1

(I like this one, cute)

Skeleton head 2, funny looking :p

Again, happy birthday Kuromi and happy Halloween to those of u who celebrate it, trick or treat!

Not Spooky Creepy Crawly Bento (297)

This could be the most tedious bento project I ever encountered, but it was not that difficult to get it done, I managed to pack  the bento within 45 minutes.

The spiders has been crawling in my mind for days, I got it done in my mind mentally and I believed it will be able to work fine.  I first got the rice balls ready (rice mixed with furikake and have a small crab stick as filling), wrapped in the nori (seaweed), made the face (crab stick), then poked the legs (cucumber sticks) intact.

The spiders were crawling on some leafs (edamame), guarding their eggs (grapes) in front of the letter S (don know what to imagine with this, placed it in as a gap filler)

Closer view of spider 1

Spider 2

Little girl told me she likes this more as it looks cuter with the winking eye :)

S for Super Spiders :p

Happy Halloween!

Pasta with Bolognese Sauce Bento (296) and Grape Heart Making Pictorial

We didn't buy any bread this week, little girl didn't want me to bake either, thus ended up with the pasta again.

It was a quick bento, just cook the pasta, preheat the sauce, cut the grapes and pack into box, took approximately 15 minutes.

The very last batch of transport pasta with bolognese sauce

Apples wedges and grape hearts

Stretching My Imagination has asked me how to make the grape hearts, with the help of little girl, here are the grape heart making pictorial :)

1. Wash the grapes

2. Cut the grapes half slantingly

3. Turn one of the halve grape upside down, so that they are having the similar shapes at the same position

4. Join the cut part together to form a heart

5. Skewer with a food pick to hold the shape, done.