Steamed pandan milk cupcakes

Happy New Year peeps! 

I haven't blogged for so long. Been busy. Vacation. Work trip. Busy in shop. Little one started going to playschool. Etc etc. Anyways, despite all these, I managed to kick my own butt to make some nice treats for the little fella. The hubby has been away for a few days so it was just the lil' fella and I during the weekend. He has been behaving so well, I got surprised. I realized that he's especially well-behaved when there's not many of us around. When the grandparent, the aunties and uncles are around, his mischievous side reveals. 

I made these steamed pandan milk cupcakes for our Sunday treats. It smells so good. I plucked those pandan leaves from my garden and blitzed them with milk, was intending to make pandan chiffon cake w/ them, but was disappointed to realize I haven't got cornflour at home to make the cake flour required to make chiffon cakes. Oh, by the way, if you have not known, to make cake flour from all purpose flour, here's how you can do it - to make 1 cup of cake flour, just take 1 cup of all purpose flour, take away 2 tablespoon of all purpose flour, replace with 2 tablespoon of corn flour. Cake flour renders a soft and cotton-y texture to the chiffon cake. I have tried making chiffon with all purpose flour. Failed terribly. The cake rose nicely, but it collapsed when I sliced them, and wasnt as soft as the ones baked with cake flour. So I randomly picked a recipe for pandan steamed cakes from google and found this, which to my surprise, it tastes good! It was a surprise to me, cos when preparing it, I felt that the batter was a little on the thick side, almost like the texture of creamy peanut butter, yet it turn out quite soft and crumbly. I had some extra left over, so I kept them in the fridge. The next day, I steamed them for another 5 min and had them for breakfast. Tastes as good! 

Recipe adapted from Peng's Kitchen

This recipe yields 8-9 cupcakes 

• 2 eggs, medium size 
• 100g sugar (I used 80g brown sugar) 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 60g corn oil (I used virgin coconut oil) 
• 100g pandan milk (taken from the pandan milk I have made from blending together 8 pandan leaves and 200g fresh milk)
• 200g all purpose flour, sifted 
• 2tsp double action baking powder (I omitted the baking soda, and used 2.5tsp baking powder) 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda  

Method 

1. Using an electric whisk, beat eggs, sugar, salt and oil until thick and frothy. 
2. Beat in pandan milk till combine. 
3. Sift in flour, baking powder and fold till smooth batter is formed. 
4. Fill up cupcake liner till 3/4 full. 
5. Steam for about 12min. 

I was supposed to blog about my trips. But there was so many backlog on the trips to update, I get lazy when I think about it. Anyways, here's one of my favorite photo from my trip to Taiwan with the little one. Here's my babywearing little J with my I-angel hipseat carrier (model name: Josh). 

  

Breadmaker black sesame hee pan (kikaku)

My clients are getting sick of just baking bread with their Donlim breadmaker. So they are asking if I can come up with more recipes, other than bread. Yesterday, I made soft and fluffy banana and walnut cake with it. This morning I made these Hakka delicacies with the breadmaker. I kneaded the dough and let it proof in the breadmaker, then steamed them in the steamer. The lil' fella loved them. He had about 2-3 of them. I had 3 myself. We love the chewiness but at the same time, also fluffy, especially when warm. 

This is a sponge dough recipe. It requires additional steps of preparation. I have made some simple dough method, but I felt that the texture of the kikaku is quite dense, so I have always prefer those made with this sponge dough. You can refer to those easier ones if you felt that this recipe is a little too cumbersome for you. Here's the link for the easier straight dough recipe. 

Sponge dough: 

• 1tsp active dry yeast 
• 200g all purpose flour
• 150g black sesame drink / pandan juice (if making a pandan heepan) 

Combine all ingredients. Cover and proof overnight at room temperature. 

Main dough: 

• 100g all purpose flour (I have used 85g all purpose flour + 15g cornflour) 
• 150g glutinous rice flour 
• 125g water / pandan juice (if making a pandan heepan) 
• 125g sugar (I've replaced with 75g brown sugar) 
• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 
• Some oil for rubbing on palms when moulding the hee pan later on. 

1. Place all ingredients, including the sponge dough into the breadpan. Select mode no. 6 for knead (和面）。 Press Start 启动/停止。Let it knead for 10minutes. Press Stop 启动/停止。 
2. Select mode no. 8 for Proof (发酵）。 Adjust TIME 时间 to 01:00 (1 hour). 
3. After an hour, bring dough out of breadpan. Punch out trapped air. Shape into 50g ball and place on a steam paper or banana leaf. Press to flatten. 
4. Let proof for another 15min. Steam on medium heat for 10min. 

中文翻译

面种: 

• 1tsp 酵母 
• 200g 普通面粉
• 150g 黑芝麻奶 

在一个碗内将以上材料混合。盖上保险纸 ， 放在室内室温发酵过夜。 

主面团：

• 100g　普通面粉 （我用85g 普通面粉 + 15g 生粉) 
• 150g 糯米粉
• 125g 水
• 125g 糖 (我只用了75g 黄糖) 
• 1/2 tsp 酵母 
• 油　（整形的时候抹在手板上用）　

1. 将所有材料，包括面种，放入面包桶内。启动菜单 6  和面。 和面 10分钟，按停止。　 
2. 启动菜单 8  (发酵）。 调整时间为１小时。　按启动／停止。　 
3. 一小时之后，　将面团取出。敲打以将空气敲走。　将面团分成50克的小圆形，　放在香蕉叶上压扁。　
4. 发酵15分钟. 中火蒸10分钟。　 

Black sesame and oat mantou (steamed bun)

Here's the recipe

Recipe modified and translated from Carol.

*old dough 100g (see following for preparation of old dough) *I did this step too, according to her, it improves the fragrance and texture to great extent. But I had to leave mine in room temperature for about 3hours for it to double its size. It didn't proof when in the fridge.

*300g Cake flour/  superfine flour (I didn't have cake flour at home. Instead, I used 270g all purpose flour with 2tbsp corn flour)

*1.5tbsp black sesame powder

*1tsp Instant active yeast

*100g fresh milk (lukewarm) 

*3tbsp rolled oat in 50g fresh milk (soaked for at least 15min)  

*30g Brown sugar

*1/8tsp Salt

*50g Rice Bran Oil

Preparation of old dough

*120g all purpose flour 

*1/2 tsp instant active yeast 

*80g warm water  

*pinch of salt 

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and knead till it becomes a smooth dough (about a few minutes, max). 
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let proof for 6-8hours under room temperature, or let proof in fridge until the next day.  

• Old dough that is not used up can be kept in the fridge for 3-5 days or in the freezer for at least 1 month. Thaw before use. 

 Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients and knead. I used my Donlim breadmaker to knead. Knead until the dough is stretchy and has smooth surface (about 10min in my bread machine).

2. Leave to proof in an oiled bowl till it double its size. (i did this in the bread machine using the Proofing mode, about an hour)  

3. On a floured surface, punch the risen dough to knock out all the trapped gas.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll into a thin flat dough. Roll up like rolling up a swiss roll  

5. Cut into 10 equal pieces. (I made some into bun some, since he loves the round bun)

7. Place onto non-stick parchment paper.

8. Let proof for another 30-40min.

9. Steam in vigorously boiling water for about 12min. Wrap the lid with a tea towel to prevent the condensate from dropping back onto the pau, which will uglify the outlook. Do not open the lid right away. Let cool gently so that the skin of the pau wont turn wrinkly.