Recipe: Gingerbread Man

As mentioned in an earlier post, Gingerbread Man is something I always wanted to do but yet took such a long time before I get into the kitchen to start baking. I remember I always find the recipes rather 'unfriendly' as there are some ingredients that looks so alien to me.

Most gingerbread recipes usually contains an ingredient called 'molasses' which we do not usually have it at home. Hence, this always give me a reason (or excuse) for me to not get started. Determined to do it this year, I went online to find a recipe that is simple and can be easily made.

The recipe I found on mycookinghut.com is simple with ingredients that I can get from any supermarket locally. In fact, I managed  to baked at least 30-40 medium-size Gingerbread Man.

You will not believe how excited I am when I see (and taste) the final product. It is heartening that it received pretty good review from my friends and they wanted to try after seeing the photo I posted on Facebook.

Do note that the recipe may not be as hard/crunchy as a cookie as it is more like a gingerbread that is soft.

I can't decide which picture to post, so i decided to post all 4 here! :) Aren't they cute? This is my first try in making the Gingerbread Man! Getting ready for X*mas! #weecancook

A photo posted by Jaron Tng 唐偉亮 (@w33liang) on Dec 12, 2014 at 5:41am PST

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Gingerbread Man

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened plus extra for greasing
100g brown sugar
125ml golden syrup
1 egg, separated
375g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g icing sugar
1-2 drops red food colouring
1-2 drops blue food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Lightly grease the baking tray(s) with melted butter.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk. Beat them well. 
3. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
4. Use an electric beater to beat the egg white until soft peaks form. 
5. Gradually add icing sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. 
6. Divide icing among 3 bowls. Cover 1 bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Add red and blue colourings to the remaining two bowls respectively. Store them in the fridge like the first bowl.
7. Take out the dough and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 2-3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.
8. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool.
9. Place prepared icings in small plastic bags. Cut a small hole in a corner of each bag. Pipe icing over gingerbread men to decorate.

Tips:

1. You may want to place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper so that it will not stick to the roller.
2. Put the remaining dough back to fridge after you have filled up the baking tray so that the dough remains manageable for cuts.
3. Replaced some brown sugar with white sugar if you like the final product to be slightly harder.

Recipe: Christmas Fruit Cake

Christmas is around the corner and I decided to do try out something that I always wanted but have not been doing (due to laziness). When I had a day on my own during a weekend, I decided to finally get things going! I bought the ingredients a day before to save some time.

I always wanted to make a Gingerbread Man and a Christmas Log cake. Although I did not managed to make a log cake yet, I managed to bake some really simple and cool Gingerbread Man, which I will talk about it and share the recipe in another post soon!

In the end, I happened to stumble over a Christmas Cherry Cake recipe which looks simple and good. I replace some of the ingredients and quantity for my liking and it appears that my parents love it alot!

Unfortunately, the cake was cut before I could turn it into a Christmas Cake. I shall make one more soon and will take a good picture of it to share! =)

Till then, enjoy the recipe =)

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Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients
200g caster sugar
225g butter (room temperature, cubes)
2 eggs
115ml orange juice
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g sultanas
300g dried mixed fruits
200g halved glace cherries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 140 degree C. Grease a 23cm x 13cm (9 x 5 inch) loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream butter or margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs and orange juice and mix well.
3. Sift flour and baking powder. 
4. Reserve 75g of flour mixture and toss with sultanas and cherries (this will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Add the rest to the mixture and blend. 
5. Then add floured raisins and cherries to dough and mix until just combined. 
6. Pour mixture into prepared tin.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 2 hours. 

Tips:

1. Reduce the sugar amount if you do not want it to be too sweet as the mixed fruits/sultanas/glace cherries are usually pretty sweet
2. The recipe was further adjusted as the original recipes turned out to be sweet and contains too much fruit mix to keep the cake together.
3. Temperature is lowered to have a lighter brown top layer.
4. Sprinkle icing sugar after the cake is totally cooled, which can take quite a while.

Recipe : Mango Cheesecake

It was the time of the year again where my mango-lover friend is celebrating her birthday! Hence, I decided to get into the kitchen and make the cheesecake the way she like.

Although I made the cheesecake last year, I misplaced the recipe. Hence, I have to start experimenting with a new recipe. For this recipe, I actually halved the quantity from what I found in a recipe book.

Still, I'm glad it works and remains likeable by my family and friends.

If you are mango lover or like to make desserts without using oven, give this recipe a try. Do share with me on how I can improve the recipe too! =)

Mango Cheesecake topped with cookie crumbs. Halved the proportion of a new recipe! 😘 #weecancook

A photo posted by Jaron Tng 唐偉亮 (@w33liang) on Oct 10, 2014 at 6:45am PDT

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Mango Cheesecake

Base
110g Butter
200g Digestive Biscuits (Finely crushed)
50g Cornflakes, crushed (Optional)
2 tablespoons Brown Sugar

Filling
250g Cream Cheese
60g Castor Sugar
230g + 50g Mango
2 tablespoons Gelatin
150ml Whipping Cream

Method

1. Prepare and sprinkle the gelatin over 3 tablespoons of water in a bowl.
2. Melt the butter and mixed it well with the sugar, digestive biscuits and cornflakes.
3. Press the base mixture evenly over a baking tin (or any containers you prepared). Leave it to cool inside a fridge.
4. Prepare the mango puree. Set aside.
5. Whipped the whipping cream and set aside.
6. Mix the cream cheese and castor sugar together till smooth.
7. Add in the mango puree and whipping cream. Mix well.
8. Melt the gelatin mixture over low heat till liquid state.
9. Add in the mixture bit by bit while continue to mix/blend with a mixer.
10. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and leave it to chill in the fridge over at least 3 hours or till set.

Tips:
- Gelatin is soaked in the water so that it is easier to manage when needed.
- I will heat the gelatin over a pot of water, like how we usually melt the chocolate.
- Usually, I will leave the cheesecake overnight to set.
- Noticed that there is no mango cubes in the recipe. This is because my friend don't like the mango fruits mixed inside. Feel free to add some to increase the texture.
- If you are using the mangoes that are not in season, it is likely that the mango is sour. Add some sugar to neutralise the sourness to your liking.

Recipe : Gula Melaka Sago

I fell in love with Gula Melaka Sago when I first tried it back in April 2012, during my trip to Malacca. It is a simple dish with three main ingredients - Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), Coconut milk and Sago. I tell myself and my friends that I will want to make it when I return back to Singapore!

Took in 2012

The one we had was served differently as compared to others. Usually, the sago are served like a soup, like chendol or cheng ting. The one in Malacca was served like a 'kueh' submerged in the sweet syrup and coconut milk.

Though I did buy the ingredients last year, I ended up not making it due to my pure laziness. Now that I tried it, it was so simple, cheap and I definitely do not mind doing it again! =)
I did play around with the recipes but decided to post the recipe based on the original clip I saw on Youtube. I added sugar which belongs to another recipe from SBS . I like the sago to be slightly more chewy and less soft hence I rinsed thoroughly. Do try it out and enjoy!

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Gula Melaka Sago recipe

4 tablespoon sago
900ml water

200ml coconut milk
a pinch/dash of salt

2-3 pandan leaves (tied)
10g sugar
70g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar)
2 tablespoon water

Cooking

1. Boil the water. Add in the sago and cook till the sago turn translucent.
2. Drain away the hot water and rinse the cooked sago under running water to wash away the starch.
3. Pour the sago into small containers and put in the fridge.
4. Heat the coconut milk till lightly thicken. Add a pinch/dash of salt for taste. Leave it aside to cool.
5. Chopped the Gula Melaka and melt it with the pandan leaves.
6. Serve the sago in the containers or removed the sago from the containers, onto a plate to serve.
7. Pour coconut milk and Gula Melaka over the sago.

Tips:
- May want to add pandan leaves (or flavoring) when cooking the sago for fragrance.
- Leave a little bit of starch if you prefer the sago to be softer.
- Salt in the coconut milk is to enhance the taste of the Gula Melaka.
- Add white sugar if Gula Melaka is not sweet enough.
- Do not cook the Gula Melaka for too long. You do not want it to be too thick or dried up.

Recipe: Apple Strudel

My friends recently went to Europe and visited a number of countries. Apart from the usual souvenirs that we usually received, I received post cards from them reminding me not to forget to work hard on my baking skills. They told me they are going to bring back recipes to me.

Ok, they went to strudel show but not making any notes. They just brought back the Original Wiener Strudelshow's recipe. Afraid that I will lose the recipe, I decided to type it here and post it. But I did not know that Cafe Restaurant Residenz is so gracious and post a short clip of the show online with the recipe that my friends got for me!

Hence, I decided to share their video and recipe here. If you are visiting Austria, don't forget to pay them a visit! =) I will prepare myself and get into the kitchen to try this recipe out!

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Original Viennese Apfelstrudel recipe

(i) Strudel dough

250g plain flour, 2g salt, 50g eggs, 100g lukewarm water, 20g oil.

Knead all the ingredients into a soft dough until the dough no longer sticks to the hands or table surface. Form the dough into a ball, brush with oil and let sit for 20-30 minutes. Then roll the dough out into a rectangular square on a floured cloth. Flatten the dough out very thinly by hand and brush with melted butter.

(ii) Buttered breadcrumbs

100g breadcrumbs, 50g butter.

Melt the butter in a heated pan, add the breadcrumbs and cook until golden brown.

(iii) Cinnamon sugar

140g fine crystal sugar, 10g cinnamon.

Mix the dry ingredients.

(iv) Filling

150g breadcrumbs, 150g cinnamon sugar, 170g raisins, 10g lemon juice, 1kg peeled-cored-sliced apples, one shot of rum.

Mix ingredients thoroughly.

Cooking

Spread the filling on the flattened-out dough rectangle, trim any uncovered edges of the dough, using the cloth as support, carefully roll up the dough. Cook on a buttered baking tray at 190 degrees centigrade until golden brown.

Tip:
Brush the strudel with butter after removing from the oven.

Recipe can be found on Cafe Restaurant Residenz

Recipe : Butter Cookies

Over the weekend, I finally walk into the kitchen and try out this new recipe. I have been wanting to do it for weeks and, yes, i did it... The process is pretty simple and I have all the necessary ingredients ready since I do bake once in a while. It wasn't a hard recipe for any new bakers but it does take a little bit of time on the sifting and if you do not have a electric mixer at home.

But not to worry, if you do not have an electric mixer, you can still use the recipe and do it. The only difference is that it may be a little bit of hard work and slightly longer 'Prep time'. I have to say that I love how it turned out. I love the texture of the cookies though I know I can do it better. But since this is such an amazing recipe, I decided to share it out.

Enjoy!

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Butter Cookies
(from Christine's Recipe)

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: 25 pieces

Ingredients:
•       150 g plain flour / all-purpose flour
•       30 g corn flour / corn starch
•       20 g custard powder
•       160 g butter, softened at room temperature
•       50 g icing sugar
•       1/4 tsp vanilla extract
•       1 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Combine the plain flour, corn flour, custard powder  and baking powder and sift through a sieve. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and icing sugar until fluffy and pale. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Sift in the flour mixture. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Lightly knead into a dough. Wrap with a plastic film and roll into a tube in 3½cm thickness. Wrap it up and refrigerate for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until it’s workable.
4. Preheat oven to 180C / 356F. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
5. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Slice into 1½cm-thick portions. Place each portion in single layer on the lined trays, each at least 3cm apart. Use a lightly greased fork to gently press the small dough. Bake in preheated oven, for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove from oven and let hem sit for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cool down.

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Notes:

• If you are using smaller oven, like me, do rotate the tray inside the oven to make sure that the tray of cookies are evenly cooked.
• Leave the mixture in the fridge (Step 3) longer so that you are able to slice it easily. 
• Do check out some other notes originally provided by Christine's on her recipe. 

說話的藝術

This is a something I find interesting when I was in my old company. I asked my friend to print out and I brought over to my new company. Facing it, I will read it once awhile. I find it pretty meaningful and hence decided to share with you all! =)

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說話的藝術

急事， 慢慢的說

大事， 清楚的說

小事， 幽默的說

沒把握的事， 謹慎的說

沒發生的事，不要胡說

做不到的事， 別亂說

傷害人的事， 不能說

不開心的事， 找對的人說

開心的事，看場合說

傷心的事， 不要見人就說

別人的事，小心的說

自己的事，聽聽別人怎麼說

尊長的事，多聽少說

夫妻的事，商量著說

孩子們的事，開導著說

Source : carrefourtelecom.pixnet.com