Pak Thong Kou

The weekend was hot hot hot!!!!! I have never sweat this much in my entire life (well...except for the PE classes during primary and secondary school).

It's a good thing that the weather is warm...perfect condition for proofing the bread dough or whatever dough you wanna proof. I chose to make the authentic Chinese sweet dessert (or breakfast for me...hehe!)....the "PAK THONG KOU"

I remember vividly that my grandma used to buy this sweet cake for me every Sunday morning for breakfast. There used to be a van packed with all sorts of homemade Chinese sweet cake that goes around the neighborhood where i used to live. I never fail to shout for the driver to stop so that i can buy my favourite sweet cakes and fill up my little stomach...mmmm...yum yum....well..those were the days! Kids now don't get to experience the good old times we had been through....oh well...thanks to the ever rising crime rates!

Anyway, enuf said....here's the recipe...enjoy folks!

Ingredients:

• 220g rice flour
• 160g caster sugar
• 380-400ml of water
• 1 tsp of yeast
• 1 tbsp of warm water

Method

Mix the yeast and warm water and set aside. In a pot, mix the rice flour and sugar. Pour the water over the sugar and flour and stir continuously. Bring the pot over low fire and continue stirring for about 3 minutes. (DO NOT BOIL THE MIXTURE!!!!) Strain the mixture into a baking/steaming tray. Let the mixture cool down for a while. Stir in the earlier prepared yeast mixture. Cover the tray with cling wrap and keep the tray in a warm place (a microwave oven is a good place) for proofing process (about an hour for a hot weather like Malaysia....). When the mixture has bubbles surface, the mixture is ready for steaming. Steam the mixture over rapid boiling water for about 25 minutes. Leave the cake till completely cool before slicing it. Enjoy the sweet cake with a cup of hot green tea....yummmz!

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake

Have you tried the Lemon Pound cake from Starbucks? It's absolutely delicious! It's just me again craving for rich cakes but with the current economic situation going downhill, i just can't bring myself to spend $$$ on cakes anymore. It's cheaper if you just bake them yourself. For anticipated bakers, this recipe is the one for you if you're looking for a rich lemoney cake.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. of cream cheese, softened
• 150g of butter, softened
• 1 cup of sugar
• Rinds of a lemon
• Juice of a lemon
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/3 cup of flour
• 1.5 tsp of baking powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175 DC. Beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix well. Scrap the sides of the mixing bowl from time to time. Add in lemon rinds and juice. Mix well. Lastly, add in flour and baking powder. Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

* I sprinkled some chopped almonds on the cake batter before baking it. It's yummy....crunchy on the surface and soft inside* =^=

Ha ha ha ha....

....staying alive staying alive.....<-----adapted from Bee Gees Classic

Hi People....suhhhhhpliceee!!!!!! Flied Lice!!!

Okay not funny.....i'll be back tomorrow with some baked food photos....ya...i know...after the long hiatus rite? My bad...i'm busy + lazy + half dead......going down with the current economic flow.

So people...come back come back come back.....i'm back!!!! Stay tune for updates ya!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (modified)

Last Christmas, i had a surprise from my aunt who resides in Los Angeles. She handed me a rectangular box nicely wrapped with a Christmas Gift Wrapping paper. After saying thank you to her, the inner child personality in me urged me to quickly unwrap the gift. After the tearing and shredding of the wrapping paper, aha! This was what greeted me and left me smiling the whole night! OMG! Thank you so much auntie!!!

Last Monday was a public holiday for KL and Selangor. However i woke up extra early that day and thinking, hmm...bb is not picking me up for at least the next 5 hrs...why not bake a batch of cookies and offer some to next door neighbor (felt guilty coz they gave us some homemade CNY goodies but i remained lazy and did not bake anything for anybody). After 2 hours of enjoying my breakfast, i started baking the cookies.

I wanted some chocolate and something oaty. Found this recipe from the book that my aunt gave me. It was easy and ingredients were kept simple: butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, flour, melted chocolate, rolled oats and chocolate chips.

I do not have any cooking chocolate, hence i used the cocoa powder instead and i also replaced the chocolate chips with chopped Hershey chocolates. I also added a packet of almond nibbles into the cookie dough. 12 minutes after dropping the teaspoon size cookie doughs on the baking tray, i had my first batch of freshly baked chocolate oatmeal cookies. After cooling them down, i popped one of the cookies into my mouth. My my my....it was heavenly tasty. I'm sure my neighbors will luv it. True enough, the next day, my neighbor was commenting how tasty the cookies were and jokingly suggested that i can even sell a small container of the cookies for RM28 during CNY. Hmmm....probably that would be my side income for year 2010???? Oh well....if only i have the time.

I managed to get 4 full small tubs of chocolate oatmeal cookies that day. I gave a tub to my neighbor, a tub to my bb, a tub for my colleagues and a tub for myself and family.

Anyway, if you guys are interested, do check out the Amazon website for the recipe book. Meanwhile, i will try out a few more recipes and will randomly post some of the recipe which i think it's too good to just keep it to myself in this blog soon. So stay tune!!!

Marble Cheese Chocolate Cake

I was confused. How am going I to name the product? Marble Cake? nope coz it contains cheese. Marble Cheese Cake? nope, coz it's not entirely a cheesecake per say. How about Marble Cheese Chocolate Cake? Ha! Yes..it gotta be this because it's a chocolate cake base but with some cheese for the marble effect.

My cousin and cousin sis in law invited my family for CNY open house party on Chor Mm (30th January 2009). They were way too generous as they invited all of my other relatives as well and food was solely sponsored by them. I felt shy..because i was not only eating, but i was taking money (ang pows) from them too. So i offered to bake a Cheese Brownie for them initially. My plan turned sour as at the very last minute, when i checked my kitchen's cabinet, i had only about 20 grams of cocoa powder left!!! Mom was suggesting me to replace cocoa powder with Milo instead...=.=

Mom....Cocoa powder is unsweetened....and Milo is too 'milky' for my recipe. SO i ransacked my recipe books....hoping to find something with cheese and something that can utilize the 20grams of cocoa powder. Ha! Found it! Anges Chang's Baking Made Easy book!

Verdict: Oh well...no one really gave me a comment...i did not eat a single slice of the cake because of my irritated throat...but i guess it was a good catch on that night because the cake was pretty much whacked by the entire Wei clan.