Tag: buzzfeedfood

Kaya Maple Loaf Cake

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If I had to choose the one local breakfast item I miss most from Singapore, it would have have have to be good, buttered kaya toast. Made complete with a steaming, frothy cup of teh tarik and half-boiled eggs. Thinking about it is already making me salivate.

Kaya toast to me is the epitome of simplicity done right– warm, charred white toast, the crusts traditionally, almost clinically removed with a sharp serrated knife, slathered thickly and unevenly with unsalted butter and a thick layer of homemade kaya. For those of you who do not know, kaya is basically coconut jam. A creamy, sweet, thick curd made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar. Some days I want butter and marmalade on my toast, others warrant almond butter, honey and banana, and sometimes it’s all about good old butter and kaya. The latter occasion has greatly increased in frequency.

This kaya loaf cake made with olive oil and maple syrup is your favourite local breakfast in one big warm hug of a loaf. It’s :

  • sweet, earthy, tender
  • such a breeze to make!!
  • got the most amazing sweet and crusty top
  • heaven in the morning
  • actually your new wake-up call

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It’s one of the most moist, dense (in a good way) and tender loaf cakes I’ve baked in a while, undoubtedly due to the texture of kaya itself, as well as the addition of olive oil, dark brown sugar and maple syrup.

The components all possess deep, earthy, sensual undertones which complement each other fantastically, the dark brown sugar providing a hint of molasses, the kaya’s almost-fluffy consistency offering milky sweetness and volume. I used nyonya kaya (couldn’t find the traditional brand on Amazon; the link I provide is the closest I could find but you should be able to find it at any oriental supermarket), but Hainanese kaya, which uses caramelised sugar and sometimes honey and is brown instead of green, would work perfectly too.

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Kaya Maple Loaf Cake (makes one standard 9×5-inch loaf), based loosely off my banana bread recipe

Ingredients

190g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

one generous pinch salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

60ml (1/4 cup) maple syrup

1 cup kaya (no metric measurement eek– you should be fine!)

2 eggs

120g (1/2 cup, packed) dark brown sugar

2 tbsp plain yoghurt (I used coconut yoghurt for extra pizzaz, but you don’t have to go that far)

120ml (1/2 cup) olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the crusty top: 2 tbsp dark brown sugar+ 1 tsp ground cinnamon

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and grease (line as well if you wish) a 9×5-inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk together everything else except the ingredients for the crusty top. Pour the dry mix into this wet mix and stir everything together well with a whisk or wooden spoon. Pour the thick, green-tinged mix into your greased loaf tin– the batter should appear quite wet and not very lumpy (like a typical banana bread batter). Mix the topping ingredients briefly with a fork in a small saucer and sprinkle evenly on top.

Bake in your preheated oven for 50 minutes, then remove and let cool for at least a half hour before slicing. Any leftovers can be stored at room temperature for 3-5 days, or kept in the fridge for a week. It’s wonderful toasted on its own, with a smear of salted butter and hot coffee.

 

 

 

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Classic Pancakes

Currently (sadly) alternating between periods of intense revision and:

  • wondering what Leonardo da Vinci’s Snapchats would be like
  • researching the nutrition of scallops and uni, in other words my two current favourite types of seafood
  • embarking on The Kitchn’s baking school program, which is definitely one of the most interesting and exciting things I’ve started in a long time.

Busyness aside, there will always be time for a good settle-down in the kitchen. Like a good breakfast. Something like this:

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thin, tender, lacey (English) pancakes (here topped with fresh ripe banana, drizzled with almond butter and salted caramel walnuts+melted matcha chocolate I saved all the way from Japan)

For creativity and mood’s sake, I gave in to the whole almond-matcha theme the first time round. It’s one of those things I’ve done before, loved, and you can check it out right here. Admittedly, the day after, I reheated a couple of extra pancakes and went for the classic, ever-loved combo of freshly-squeezed lemon juice and sugar. Deliciousness= lemon and sugar soaking into thin pancake flesh, into every crevice of the crumpled carpet. That being said, there’s also something magical about the combination of a fresh, warm pancake with a creamy slather of almond butter. The melted matcha chocolate hits everything with a sweet and slightly bitter kick.

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Sorry– trypophobics beware.

Having made plenty of American pancakes, the sort which fluff up and bounce and you top with butter and maple syrup, I thought it fitting to try something else. That’s when I came across Nigella Lawson’s recipe for classic crepes. And so another question popped up:

  • what’s the difference between a crepe and a pancake?

After trying out the recipe and doing the research, I had a hard time deliberating whether the final result was more akin to one or the other. The nuances of the recipe made this more a pancake than crepe, so pancakes it was. The main difference lies in waiting time, so calling it a crepe wouldn’t be sacrilege.

These pancakes are a real treat any morning. Very thin, lacey, and have a light brown, crispy underside. The great bit? You can put them together in a pinch and any leftovers can be chucked in the fridge and reheated the next morning/ whenever you want.

Took a while for me to get these pancakes as thin and lacey as possible, but a few good tricks to have up your sleeve are:

  • when putting melted butter into the pan before ladling of the pancake batter, do not use a paper towel to remove excess butter– add a generous amount of butter, let melt and swirl around. This will promote excellent browning and crispiness at the edges.
  • I repeat– generous amount of butter.
  • use medium-high heat– should hear a mild sizzle when batter hits the pan and a heavier-bodies sizzle when batter is ladled into pan.
  • After ladling, lift the pan off the heat to swirl it around evenly. This prevents any batter that’s already been ladled from cooking too fast and lets you swirl everything nicely and thinly.

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Classic pancakes (makes 8–10 medium pancakes; adapted from Nigella’s crepes recipe)

Ingredients

150g plain, all-purpose flour

2 tbsp white sugar

pinch salt

28g (2 tbsp) melted, unsalted butter, plus more for the pan during cooking

1 large egg

340ml milk of choice (I used both whole and almond milk on 2 occasions and both worked perfectly)

Directions

Preheat your pan or crepe pan on medium-high heat and ready some butter for cooking. In a large bowl, tip in the flour, salt, sugar, milk, egg and butter, in that order, and whisk everything together. Continue whisking until no lumps remain, and the batter is pale and silky. Use a small ladle to ladle in a little batter and immediately swirl in a circle formation to spread the batter evenly in the pan. As mentioned earlier in the post, you should hear a heavy-bodied sizzle upon the application of melted butter to the pan, and a mild batter when the batter actually hits the pan and starts cooking.

Your first and second pancakes might be a little dodgy, but it gets better as you go along (promise). Once the edges of the pancakes crisp up and brown, slide your spatula underneath and flip. Cook for up to 45 seconds on this side, then remove from the pan and place on a paper towel. When cooking the pancakes/crepes, layer paper towels between each to absorb the condensation.

Serve warm with more butter and honey/maple syrup, or lemon juice and sugar. Try out the combination in the picture above too– does wonders for your tastebuds, friends.

 

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Spiced Nutella-stuffed Matcha Baked Doughnuts

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The longest flight cannot deter me from the baking buzz. Oh, sweet, unfailing kitchen and oven!

All at once, 2015 is behind my shoulder, at the top of my head, and heavy in my heart. As I was scrolling through my old posts and reading my personal diary, I realised how important and special this little place has become to me– never did I think it would grow into such a shrine of my passion. I’ve sometimes blurred the line between personal thought (which explains the existence of my diary, something I’ve kept for 10 years and counting!) and just rambling on about cake and anything to do with sugar, but I’ve learnt to embrace that once in a while, and it’s only enhanced my excitement over writing about anything in general. With a long, hard year ahead, I’m determined to keep it close, despite all the work I know I will face during the long run.

I don’t think this post would be complete without a little more on the main inspiration behind this recipe– Japan!

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Amazing food, small kitsch gadgets, overwhelming magnanimity. If there’s a country that’s got tourism down pat, it’s the Land of the Rising Sun. Oh, and not forgetting heated toilet seats. Really. That’s always a plus.

Afterwards– a solid, foreign calm. Back to the heat, the familiarity of my favourite tiny island, though admittedly, and as a friend put it so well, it feels so weird not to be held accountable for anything anymore, then suddenly be thrust into the routine of family fun. It does require some getting used to.

The taste of Japanese food after a good 3 months without the stuff was almost a spiritual experience. Just imagine– the freshest uni possible (mildly rough texture that gives way to buttery insides, mmph), slippery, thick slices of fresh pink otoro (fatty tuna), and of course… green tea.

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Green tea kit kat, green tea mochi, green tea… everything, really. We came across so many different varieties of matcha (the finely ground powder of specially grown green tea) chocolates, in other words the main inspiration for the final product:

fluffy matcha baked doughnuts, stuffed with nutella and covered in a matcha glaze.

You see it, I see it. It’s got all the goods, and anything stuffed with chocolate/hazelnut chocolate spread is a win. Based off my previous recipe for maple bacon doughnuts (I implore you to try these at some point in your life as well), the results were lush– fluffy, cake-like doughnut base, a slight twang of sponge in there, gooey nutella in the middle, and a glaze that speaks loudly of matcha instead of simply being a sugar overload.

The addition of spice is simply my excuse for not being around during Christmas do indulge in the usual Christmas baking routine, but it adds another level of flavour that propels this simple recipe to something that much more festive. By all means, leave the spices out if you prefer a more straightforward chocolate-matcha pairing.There’s something about the pairing of the mild bitterness present in all that matcha, and rich milky hazelnut chocolate that’s unbeatable on a Sunday afternoon, coffee and book in hand. Right, let’s do this.

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Spiced Nutella-stuffed Matcha Baked Doughnuts (makes 6 doughnuts)

Ingredients

For the doughnuts:

125g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp matcha powder

75g (1/3 cup) white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

120ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk

28g (2 tbsp) unsalted, melted butter

~1/3 jar of nutella/melted dark chocolate (the quantity is up to you)

 

For the matcha glaze:

115g icing sugar

1 tsp matcha powder

2 1/2 tbsp whole milk

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 177C and grease a doughnut pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, matcha powder and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract. (tip: it helps to have all your ingredient at room temperature for even, stress-free mixing). Tip your dry mix into the wet mix and mix together with a wooden spoon or spatula until everything is well combined.

Take a tablespoon of batter and place at the bottom of a doughnut mold, spreading so it coats the bottom (you don’t want too many chocolate leaks) and goes about halfway up the side. Using two teaspoons or a piping bag (or use a small ziploc bag with the tip cut off), line the middle of each doughnut with nutella/any chocolate spread or even melted chocolate. Do this 6 times for 6 doughnuts, then place the molds in the preheated oven and bake for exactly 8 minutes. I find that the shape and size of the doughnuts are perfect if you fill the molds 3/4 of the way with batter, rather than all the way. Once you take them out of the oven, the doughnuts will feel soft and tender to the touch, with a gentle rise and the gentlest browning on top. Leave them to cool on a cooling rack while you make the icing (thankfully, it doesn’t take long).

For that, simply whisk together the icing ingredients and set aside to use once the doughnuts are cool, else it will melt everywhere. After 10 minutes, remove the doughnuts from their molds,and dip one side into the bowl containing the matcha icing, then place right way up again on the cooling rack to let any excess icing drip down the sides.

Eat right away, or store in an airtight container and keep at room temperature for 1-2 days, or the fridge for up to 4 days. The sooner, the better!

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Lemon Yoghurt Bars (classic, fast, easy)

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Sweet, tangy, gooey lemon yogurt bars with a dense and buttery base. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again– nothing gets me like a good lemon dessert. Lemon bars in particular are my absolute favourite. I’d say lemon meringue pie too, but that does require the extra meringue component, and if you so wish for some lemony satisfaction at any point of time during the week, these do the trick in a wink without requiring you to whip out any fancy kitchen gadget.

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Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery’s cookbook, so kindly purchased by my friend as a birthday present, I couldn’t resist trying these guys out. The recipe looked much to easy to pass up, and there’s never a time I’m not in the mood for lemon bars. With too much yoghurt on hand, I decided no harm would be done if a minor twist was made. Worth it, to say the least. The yoghurt adds a mild creaminess to the body of the lemon bars without subtracting any tang or sharpness.

Crust? Easy. Forget blind-baking and the works.

Filling? 2 minutes max, after weighing some 200g of sugar and squeezing a lemon, I guess. Zilch effort.

Term is winding down, coming to an end. There’s always so much to do here, and see, and enjoy. Friday night shenanigans balance all work-related stress and unrelenting fear of missing out or not knowing enough content. Despite the roller coaster, I must say that there are always the constants that get me through. Morning routines, cup of black in my hand, the oven hum, people with the brightest and most interesting personalities, House of Cards (which I just started and can’t get enough of)…. Missing home is a secondary emotion. Christmas and family and home are calling, but this already feels somewhat like home.

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Lemon Yoghurt Bars (makes 16-20 evenly-sized rectangular bars, adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook)

Ingredients

For the base: 

290g all-purpose plain flour

70g icing sugar

large pinch salt

220g unsalted butter, melted

 

For the filling:

200g white caster sugar

3 eggs

4 heaped tablespoons plain yoghurt (greek works fine too)

120ml (slightly less than half a cup) freshly squeezed lemon juice

half teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 170C (325F) and grease a 9×9-inch square pan.

Mix all ingredients for the base in a large bowl and press into the bottom of the pan– take your time here for it’s a bit sticky, but it gets easier after all the gloop actually unsticks from between your fingers. Bake for 20 minutes. In another bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the filling. Pour into the half-baked crust and bake another 15 minutes (at the same temperature, leave the oven on when you’re pouring in the filling). Once baked, leave to cool completely. You may place in the fridge to cool faster, but the bars will set up fine after an hour or so even at room temperature.

Cut into even bars and serve!

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Chocolate Caramel Nougat Tart

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Sweet shortcrust pastry filled with dark and milk chocolate, melted chocolate nut bars, caramel, topped with chopped pecans and peanuts

There’s little space for mistake(s) when it comes to food pairings made for each other. Rich, dark chocolate filling, chewy bits of nougat, the occasional crunch, smooth caramel. Contemplating the meaning of life earlier on this week whilst scavenging my brain for some coherent essay material, I knew I needed to make something sweet, and good, soon. The brain needs glucose, after all.

Magic results lie in the temperature of your butter (cold cold cold, please), and the speediness of all the hand work involved. It all seems a bit of a hassle at first, but I encountered nothing more therapeutic the past week. The movement of my hands in a bowl, rubbing butter into flour and salt and the works is like a welcome slowing down of all the motions you’re forced to go through in life. If you just take an hour out for yourself, make something, have a cup of coffee, or even just think about nothing, everything around you, everything you experience, becomes brighter and more beautiful. I’d hate to sound too much of a yogi because I’m no more the wiser, but the truth only came with experience.

Also, you’re probably wondering why there’s one picture in this entire blog post. Now I know as a blogger one is obligated, expected to take a million photos of the entire process, for the reader’s pleasure and benefit. It’s true, I know, but having hall-mates all around means the lifespan of anything baked (especially with chocolate) is circa half an hour, if not just a little less.

It was too delicious for too many shots. The waiting had to wait. I’ll leave it at that, and hopefully the next time I won’t disappoint.

 

Chocolate caramel tart (makes one 9-inch tart)

Ingredients

For the crust: ingredients may be found here, minus the black sesame powder

70g dark chocolate, broken up into large chunks

60g milk chocolate, broken into large chunks

one large chocolate nut candy nougat bar (Snickers works well), or substitute with 10g more milk chocolate and a handful of chopped peanuts  (though you won’t get the bits of sticky nougat this way)

14g (1 tbsp) unsalted butter

50g (around 1/3 cup) chopped pecans and peanuts (optional)

For the salted caramel: ingredients and procedure may be found here. You will need 80ml (1/3 cup) of the stuff.

 

Directions

Prepare pie crust as stated in aforementioned recipe. At the bit where it says ‘preheat the oven and cover with aluminium foil’ preceding the blind bake, don’t! Just bake it normally, then remove once done and let cool, during which time you can prepare the other components. Prepare salted caramel and let cool for a half hour, so it solidifies just a little.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt together both types of chocolate, butter and the chocolate bar in 30-second intervals, until everything has nicely melted together. There will be a few sticky bits if you’re using a Snickers bar  thanks to the nougat, but that’s what makes it all the more pleasurable. Into the cooled tart crust, pour in the salted caramel and spread into an even layer. Then pour in the chocolate mixture, and sprinkle chopped pecans and peanuts around the edges (optional). This tart need not set in the fridge, but leave to set and stiffen more at room temperature for at least half an hour. Cut using a sharp knife, wiping with a wet towel between each slice.

Serve on its own or with whipped cream and more chopped nuts.

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