Almond Bread aka Biscouti (杏仁脆饼）

Almond bread (also known as biscouti). Anyone? This is also one of my favourite cookies especially during Chinese New Year celebration. Despite of having many things to settle recently, I have decided to make this during this Christmas season as I feel like making this for my children. :)

Here's how I make this almond bread or biscouti:-
3 large egg white
110g-120g icing sugar
120g plain flour
120g unblanched/raw almond
**Need 1 loaf tin (around 20cm x 10cm size but mine is slightly bigger)
Note: To make biscouti, you have Day 1 and Day 2 processes as you need to chill in the fridge for at least 1 day before Day 2 steps.

Now the steps...

Day1:-

(1) Whisk egg white until just frothy..

(2) Slowly add in the icing sugar and continue to whisk the egg whites until the meringue become stiff (ie. could form a small peak). (Note: For every add of sugar, I added in 1/4 of the icing sugar.)

  

(3) Then, add in flour and almond. Fold lightly with the meringue until just mixed.

 

(4) Line in baking paper in the loaf tin and put in the almond meringue mixture.

(5) Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 35 minutes or until it's cooked and lightly brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down.

(6) Cover the baking paper over the loaf of baked almond bread and let it chill in the fridge for at least 1 day.

Day 2:

(7) Use a sharp knife and thinly slice the almond bread. Then arrange them on the baking tray like the picture below. (Note: As thin as you can. If you have a electric knife, it will be easier for this step.)

 

(8) Bake at 130 - 150 degree C for about 45-50 minutes until the biscouti is dry and crispy. (Note: I used 150 degree C.)

(9) Leave to cool before storing in the air tight container.

Almond bread aka Biscouti is now ready. :) How about having it with a cuppa or tea?

Wish you successful in making this! Cheers!

Kuih Kapit (Love Letter) Using Love Letter Toaster （鸡蛋卷 ）

Kuih kapit (aka love letter), this is one "biscuit" not to be missed during Chinese New Year celebration. Very yummy and addictive. Easy and fast to eat but really, lots of effort and patience are required to make this delicious all time favourite. I still remember that an elderly aunty always make this during the Chinese New Year time and my dad will always order from her. Now that I am away from home, it is indeed not easy to find anything like that over here.

As I do not have the traditional kuih kapit mould, my mum-in-law helped me to get the electric love letter toaster from Singapore. Only make 2 at a time. Not fast but better than nothing.

Now, the recipe. I adapted the recipe from Agnes Chang's baking book for this kuih kapit:-

150g rice flour

60g plain flour

25g tapioca flour

600ml thick coconut cream (Note: I use one 400ml thick coconut cream mixed with 200ml water)

4 eggs

225g sugar (Note: preferrably castor sugar but it is okay to use normal sugar)

Steps:

1) Sift rice flour, plain flour and tapioca flour into a mixing bowl.

2) Add in the coconut cream and mix well.

3) In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar until well mixed.

4) Pour the eggs and sugar mixture into the flour batter. Stir and mix well. Strain.

Now, the harder part. Pouring some batter on the kuih kapit toaster.
Tips: You need to make sure that you don't pour too much batter on the toaster each time as the kuih kapit will turn out thicker like some type of love letter biscuit. In addition, too much batter will end up having not crispy edges, hence, more work needed to trim the edges with kitchen scissors.

Tips: For each bake, the little batter you pour on the toaster should not be more than the inner circle as pointed.

5) Pour in a little batter on the kuih kapit toaster, cover and bake it until the desired brown (light golden brown)  (Note: If I remember correctly, I think I put about 0.75 tbsp batter per kuih kapit.)

**Picture shows: The look of the batter when it was baking at initial stage. Remember to pull down the toaster cover for baking as you need the kuih kapit pattern and both side of the kuih kapit to be brown.

 **Pull down the cover during the baking process

 **Picture shows: Browning stage but not ready yet.

When it was baking, the toaster light will turn on. So, when the toaster light is off, wait for 30 second and open the toaster cover to check whether the kuih kapit is brown enough. If not, pull down the cover again and let it bake a little longer.

 Once the kuih kapit is brown enough, quickly fold it into half and then quarter like the above picture. Remember, you need to fold the kuih kapit immediately when it is hot, otherwise, it will be "harden" and it will break when you fold. (Tips: I use a pair of chopstick to help me with the folding to avoid fingers touching the hot toaster.)

Repeat step 5 until batter finishes.

**This recipe makes about 2 to 2.5 containers of kuih kapit.

My boys finished 1 container of kuih kapit in a day. Wow! So much effort from mum! I will only make this occasionally as I was standing in my kitchen for about 2.5 hours for this much of batter.

Steamed Glutinous Rice With Chicken, Mushrooms and Chinese Sausages (Sticky Rice) （糯米鸡）- Loh Mai Kai

Do you want to learn this? The steamed glutinous rice with chicken, mushrooms and Chinese sausages, which also known as "loh mai kai" in Cantonese or some people called it sticky rice. The related photos have been sitting in my photo album for a week plus now. I just haven't got the time to arrange them properly for my blog post as I was caught up with many matters! o_O

Okay, let's go straight to the points..

Firstly, the main ingredients needed...

(1) 2 Chinese sausages (lap cheong 腊肠) - Note: Please remove the thin layer of the sausage skin.

(2) 10 Chinese black mushrooms

(3) 450g glutinous rice (to make 10 bowls of sticky rice ie. Loh Mai Kai)

(4) About 800g chicken breast fillet

DAY 1......

- The glutinous rice: Wash the glutinous rice and soak in water overnight.

- The mushrooms: Wash the mushrooms and soak them with about 1.5 cups of water until completely soft. (Note: I used 1.5 cups of water for soaking the mushrooms as I need to retain it for steaming the glutinous rice on the following day.) 

Note: Please do cover them with a pot cover or any cover so that no "tiny creatures" crawl in while you are resting. ;)

- The chicken: Slice the chicken fillet into thick chicken slices. Thickness depending on personal preferance, but not too thin nor too big pieces.

>> Put the chicken slices in a bowl. Then, when the mushrooms are soften, remove the mushrooms from the water and place them together with the chicken slices. Now, do not pour away the mushroom water. Please KEEP it for later use.

 *Setting aside the mushroom water for later use.

>> For the bowl of chicken and mushrooms, mix in....

- 2 tsp garlic powder

- 2 tsp sesame oil

- 2 tbsp light soy sauce

- 0.5 tsp white pepper

- 0.5 tsp salt

- 3 tsp sugar

- 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce

- about 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shao Xing)

- 1 tbsp cooking caramel

Use a cling wrap or any cover to cover over the bowl and place it in the fridge to marinate overnight.

*Marinating the chicken and mushrooms

DAY 2....

- Place the glutinous rice in a lightly greased steaming tray and pour in 1 cup of the mushroom water. (Note: I just use little cooking oil to grease the steaming tray.)

- Then, add in:-

- 1.5 tsp sesame oil

- 0.75 tsp (ie. 3/4 tsp) salt

- about 1.5 tsp Chinese five spice powder (*you may reduce this slightly if you do not like to have too much of Chinese five spice powder)

- 0.5 tsp white pepper

- 2 tsp sugar

- 2 tbsp oyster sauce

- 3 tsp soy sauce (light)

- 1.25 tsp cooking caramel

And use a spoon to stir the seasoning around until well mixed.

- Next, steam over boiling water for about 15 minutes with medium high heat. (Note: Cover the steamer when steaming the glutinous rice.

*Note: For photo purpose, I have removed the cover to snap a picture. Please do cover the steamer during the steaming process.

- Then, remove the cover and use a chopstick to stir and mix in order to loosen the rice.

- Use the back of a rice scooper to smoothen the rice again and place the Chinese sausages on top. Continue to steam the glutinous rice (coverred) for another 20-25 minutes or until the rice is cooked. (Note: I steamed for 25 minutes.)

- While the steamer is steaming the glutinous rice, you may work on the chicken and mushrooms.

- In a pot, heat up 1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil, then put in the chicken pieces and mushrooms. (Note: Keep the marinade for later use.)
- Stir fry them until the chicken pieces are almost cooked. Then, add in half the marinade that used to marinade the chicken and mushroom and add about 1 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of soy sauce. Continue to cook until the chicken are completely cooked.

- When the glutinous rice is cooked, remove the rice and the Chinese sausages from the steamer. Thinly slice the Chinese sausages and set them aside for later use.  

To assemble the Loh Mai Kai:-

 

- Lightly greased the bowls with little bit of cooking oil.

- Plase 1 mushroom, 2 pieces of chicken, 2 or 3 slices of Chinese sausages and about 1 to 1.5 tbsp of the cooked chicken and mushroom sauce into each of the greased bowls.

- Then, put in the cooked glutinous rice and pressed firmly to cover the fillings as per the photo below.

- Return all the bowls of sticky rice in the steamer and steam over medium high heat for about 30 minutes.

- Then, your Loh Mai Kai are ready to be served!!!

**Use a plastic knife to cut around the edges, invert the bowl and pour out the Loh Mai Kai..

Hope you all enjoy making them at home! :) My boys love it especially my 11 year old kiddo. He ate 2 Loh Mai Kai like mum and dad now! o_O He was delighted and so happy that he could bring this to school for lunch the next day when there's balance which we couldn't finished.

Lemon Chiffon Cake（柠檬口味戚風蛋糕 / 柠檬口味雪芳蛋糕）

I was really busy for the past few days :(  but I need to bring a supper for sharing after church meeting last Saturday. Since I haven't gotten much time to think, I decided to bake a lemon chiffon cake, i.e. one of my all time favourite since I have some free lemon from my friends' tree!  

Okay, let's talk about the processes!!

Get ready 2 mixing bowl and the following ingredients...

(A) 6 egg yolks, 75g cooking oil, 90g fresh milk, 109 or 110g cake flour or low protein flour (低粉/低筋面粉), about 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp lemon rind, AND 3-4 drops of lemon essence if you wish (optional).

(B) 6 egg whites, 0.5 tsp cream of tartar, about 140g - 150g icing sugar (yes, I use icing sugar...)

(Note: you need more icing sugar than the original flavour as the lemon juice will reduce the sweetness of the cake very much. I have tried putting around 125g icing sugar, but I just felt not sweet enough. Just needed a little more. Hence, I suggest 140g - 150g icing sugar will be great. However, if you know that the lemon juice you have is really sour, I would think 150g icing sugar will be better. If not, you can adjust by adding slightly more than the recipe after tasting a little of the (almost ready) meringue.)

** Use large eggs. However, if the eggs are medium large, then add 1 extra egg to the recipe. Meaning, the recipe becomes 7 egg yolks and 7 egg whites.

Steps for egg yolks batter (A)...
- Combine egg yolks with oil. Mix well.
- Add in fresh milk. Stir well.
- Sift in flour. Stir until smooth (well combined). 

- Add in the lemon juice, the lemon rind and the optional lemon essence. (Note: You can omit lemon essence it you don't want to.) Mix well.
* Put aside the egg yolks batter and let it rest.

While the egg yolk batter is resting, let's move on to work on ingredient (B) ie the egg whites...

Steps:-

- Combine egg whites and cream of tartar and whisk with high speed until just frothy. Note: Must do it in one direction only! (- Add in 1/3 of icing sugar. Continue to whisk with high speed until well mixed (doesn't take long)
- Quickly add in another 1/3 of icing sugar and continue to whisk with high speed until combined.
- Add in the balance icing sugar and continue to whisk evenly until stiff (ie the meringue can form a small peak like the 4th quarter photo below) and will not fall off the mixing bowl when inverted...

(Note: To test whether the meringue is ready, you need to test few spot of the meringue eg. the middle, the left, the right, the north and the south. It is ready for next step if each part tested gave the same peak  pointy look like the 4th quarter photo below.)

Final steps:

- Put 1/3 egg whites meringue into the egg yoke batter. Fold gently with spatula to combine the meringue with egg yolk batter. Gently... Don't rush.

- Then pour this batter into the balance egg whites meringue. Fold gently until just combine. Remember: Don't over do it. Otherwise, you will deflate the meringue...

- Pour the ready batter into an ungreased 22-25cm chiffon cake baking tin

- Pat gently around the baking tin to remove the air / small bubbles that were captured during whisking

- Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree C for about 55min until cooked and light golden brown. (Tip: use a tooth pick to test whether it is cooked)

- Remove from oven. Quickly pat GENTLY around the baking tin and invert it immediately to let it cool. (Note: I find that pat gently around the baking tin before inverting works for me. If you live in countries where there are 4 seasons weather, I suggest you need to do this essential step. During my inital learning, my chiffon cake somehow sank regardless of how well and how pretty the cake came out from oven. However, after discovering this tips, my chiffon cake seems to look okay everytime I bake. No more sinking cake after cooling! Yes!)

- Be patient. Let it cool down completely before removing from the baking tin and cutting to serve.

*I find that this is the best way to cool my chiffon cake. :)