ANOTHER LUNAR NEW YEAR TREASURE!

To usher in The Year Of The Rat is truly oriental style.

So I decided to share this recipe with the concoction

of lotus root and black raisin.

My mother (a typical Cantonese) will definitely

make lotus root soup for our reunion dinner

because to her lotus root in Cantonese is 'lin ngo'

the auspicious phrase is ' lin lin yao' meaning

A Abundance or A bountiful.

So I will name this cake...

A BOUNTIFUL OF GOLDEN BLESSING CAKE

INGREDIENTS:

A: 3 egg white (grade A)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

60 gm castor sugar

B: 180 gm salted butter

60 gm castor sugar

C: 3 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

D: 168 gm superfine flour (cake flour) ] sieve

1/2 tsp baking powder ] together

E: 60 gm lotus root (grated) ] Mix with

F: 60 gm black raisin (soaked 1/2 hr and drain) ] 20 gm superfine flour

Line 7" square tin with baking paper

METHOD:

1) Whisk A until soft peak, remove

2) Cream B, add C

3) Add D

4) Fold in A

5) Add in E and F

6) Bake at 180 degree celsius for 40-45 min

BAKER'S ONE RECOMMENDATION

Our new year goodies promotion started last week in the household department of Metrojaya Midvalley and as you walk in you will probably smell vanilla essence in the air, our Retail Instructor is demonstrating the new year goodies such as pineapple tarts and cookies. Most of the cookies sold there are personally made by the in house economist of Baker's One. The responses is surprisingly good!

These are the top selling products:

Coffee meringue (something light and melt in your mouth)

Golden pineapple tart (wrap tart is our speciality)

Crabmeat crisp (taste like prawn crackers..)

Seaweed beancurd crisp (very light and taste yummy)

Sesame crisp (kei zai) (it so thin and crispy)

Prefer DIY then you can browse thru the Premixes trolley. All premixes come with step to step instruction. These premixes has no added preservatives or emulsifiers

And if you are tired of making lapis cake, fruit cake then go pick up the muffin mix from the counter. These mixes come in 2 flavor - the vanilla and blueberry. It's so easy to make these muffins:-

You need:

A: 3 whole eggs

B: 200 ml fresh milk

C: 1 packet Baker's One Blueberry Muffin Mix

D: 175 gm melted butter or corn oil

METHOD

1) Whisk A (eggs) for 1 min

2) Add B (milk) (with machine running)

3) Add C (muffin mix) gradually (with machine running)

4) Lastly add D (melted butter)

5) Fill muffin pan (lined with paper cup) or muffin cup (3/4 full) , put to bake in

preheated oven at 180 degree celsius for 20- 30 min

And you have delicious homemade muffin

NOTE:

CAKE MIXER USER: Whisk egg, muffin mix and milk for 5-8 min at medium speed, reduce to low speed add melted butter whisk for another 1 min.

Bao! Bao! Bao! - Queen of bao recipes collection

Bao, bao, bao..... oh boy ever since I committed myself in conducting a dian xin class, it's nightmare! All my very, very old recipes don't seem to work, what happen? After testing for more than 2 weeks it's just don't seem to be the bao I use to make long time ago. And this food testing has been ongoing since Dec '07 till just 2 days before my class (12-01-08)- a quick calculation, it's like 200 to 300 pcs. It's nightmare!

These bao are some of the most presentable ones that I have tested before Christmas

So I decided to make a trip to Singapore, to source help from a dian xin 'sifu' and after the test 'sifu' gave me the 'old dough' to take back for my class and the 'old dough' is still resting in my refrigerator.

'Look 'sifu' in action and the result PERFECT bao during the food testing

Then come Monday I was given a chance to see my friend who own a dian xin restaurant in Seremban, it was a good experience for me as I was given the opportunity to learn the right way to 'wrap' the bao. It was very kind of my friend's assistant to personally coach me on the know how and believe it or not I wrap up 200 pcs of bao. What a lucky devil I am to have this 'personal coaching' and then I got another new 'sifu' (want to take a look at my new 'sifu') - Can't believe your eyes right an Indonesian, she speak perfect cantonese and make perfect bao

don't believe me to take at these bao zzzzz fluff up like a 'huat kueh'

Conclusion, it not easy to make such baozzzz because you need the 'old dough' which I believe no 'sifu' will teach you.

New 'sifu' give me another pc of 'old dough' (in bread making we call it the sour dough). Full of confident I started to test my bao again, very disappointed no bao fluff like those above. As I was going to give up, my friend gave me some good advise and another recipe to try out and the moment I open the steamer lid WHA! look at these beautifully fluff up bao... what a relief

And now I have in hand 8 different bao recipes ain't I the queen of bao recipes collection"

Okay bao classes finally over and now getting ready for Chinese New Year, if you are running out of idea what to make this year, go on try this recipe I learned long time ago. It's simple and easy to make.

SUGI COOKIE

INGRE A: 60 gm almond nibs (toasted)

210 gm ghee
B: 1/8 tsp ammonia ] mix till
1/2 tsp water ] dissolved
C: 100 gm icing sugar
D: 310 gm plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

METHOD

1) Beat A together till even

2) Add in the rest of the ingredients B, C and D, process till bind

3) Remove mixture and roll into 2mm thickness, cut into require shape with cookie

Use a spike to create design on cookie

OR

divide into small balls (5 gm each), lightly press to flatten

Bake in preheated oven 160 degree celsius for 15-20 min

remove and egg wash (for small balls sprinkle top with some almond nibs) return to oven and continue to bake for another 5-10 min

NOTE: For Magimix user - Use Sabatier blade

Just add all the ingredients thru the feed tube on the lid

with the machine running

Look out for more new goodies coming...

HAVE A CHEESE CAKE FOR 2008

Go ahead and try out this recipe, it is easy to make and taste em... even my family vouch for it!

BAKED CHOCO BISCUIT CHEESE CAKE

BASE INGRE

A: 120 gm oreo biscuit (net weigh)

B: 60 gm unsalted butter (melted)

1/2 tbsp honey

1) Process A until fine add B and press into a 7"

loose base tin

(lined mix until bind with parchment paper) chill 1/2 hr

FILLING

A: 2 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar
20 gm castor sugar

B: 250 gm cream cheese

20 gm castor sugar

C: 2 egg yolk

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 no lemon juice and rind

D: 70 gm whipping cream

E: 20 gm corn flour

F: extra oreo biscuit

METHOD

1) Whisk filling A till soft peak, remove.
2) Cream filling B until smooth

3) Add C gradually and process until smooth

4) Add D, E lastly fold add in A

5) Remove tin from the refrigerator, wrap the base with foil.

6) Pour in very little cheese mixture,place oreo biscuit on the side of the tin. Pour in

more cheese mixture, place oreo biscuit onto the cheese filling, top with the

remaining cheese mixture and finish off with oreo biscuit.

7) Place tin into a dripping pan filled with water, transfer to preheated oven

temperature 150 degree celsius - steam bake for 55 min or until cake is firm.

Leave cake in oven with door ajar for 10 min, remove leave to cool

8) Chill for 3 hrs before serving.