Tea Infused Baking

Attended "Tea Infused Baking" workshop yesterday with my buddy.  It was an interesting and fulfilling session, we learnt some new tricks and we are both very surprised that tea leaves can be incorporated in so many types of bakes.

I have tried making buttercream fo my cakes before but never succeed because the cream always end up too watery.  Not sure why?????  >.<  Luckily，the making of Marshmallow Buttercream for the Macarons is part of the workshop, its simple, taste nice and yet not too sweet. :)

Green Tea Macarons w Marshmallow Buttercream. 

I was so happy to see "feet" appearing during the baking. :)

Earl Grey tea is one of my favourite tea, it's a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit. Both my kids like the cake alot, boy commented that the top is cripy and the  inside is moist, he was hopping that I can make it again. :) To me, this recipe is certainly a keeper and I'm grateful to Anna, Sugar Inc for sharing.

Earl Grey Milk Tea Cake

Those little black dots are earl grey tea leaves...very sweet and smell heavenly.

Since ancient, Chamonile tea has been used as a healing drink so it's no wonder that it is estimated that over 1 million cups are ingested every day. It's best known ability is to help you relax. Many people like to drink it before bedtime as a sleep inducer and one herbal medicine guide claims that drinking chamomile tea before bed will stop nightmares.  Just wondering if it will be the same effect just by eating Honey Chamonile Cookies? (^.^) 

Personally I like this cookies as it was very crispy and it leaves a little minty taste in my mouth after eating. 

Honey Chamonile Cookies



Flower Bun & Ham Rolls

My kids asked me this morning if I can make some buns for them to bring to school tomorrow.  As I still have some white lotus paste in my fridge, I agreed. I remembered seeing this very pretty flower shape mooncake somewhere before so I thought it may be a good idea to shape my buns into “flower”.

After making all the “flowers”, still have some dough left, so I just ask the kids to flatten the dough, put a ham in the middle and roll it up. J

Here is the recipe for the Basic Bread Dough taken from Bread Code with a slight modification.

Ingredients A:

500g high protein flour

1 tsp instant yeast

Ingredients B:

60g sugar   (will increase next time as I prefer sweeter bread)

1 tsp (5g) Salt   (I omitted as I used salted butter)

1 tsp (5g) milk powder   (I replace this with soya milk powder)

Ingredients C:

1 Egg

250g water

Ingredient D:

5og butter

Method:

1. Put ingredients A in a mixer and blend at low speed for 1 min.
2. Add ingredients B, blend for 1 min.
3. Add ingredients C, blend at low speed for 1 min, then use medium speed to blend for 5 min until dough-like.
4. Add ingredient D and continue to blend 10-15 mins till dough is shiny and springy (I didn’t use mixer so hand kneading will take about 30 mins)
5. Use a wet towel to cover the dough and allow to leaven for 45mins till the dough doubled.
6. Divide the bread dough into 40g and wrapped the white lotus paste, flatten and use a knife to cut out 5 openings.
7. Place on baking paper, glazed with beaten egg  and sprinkle some almond nuts in the center of the flower (additional step by me)
8. Place into pre-heated oven, baked at 180 C for 20 mins.
9. Cool on cooling rack.

中秋节 Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is here again and traditionally on this day, all the family members and friends will gather together to admire the bright round moon and eats mooncake.

Wishing everyone Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

祝大家中秋节快乐！

 

My 1^st batch of snowskin mooncake.  There are 2 types of lotus paste wrapped within.  The inner filling is chocolate paste and the outer layer is white lotus paste with melon seeds. I use chocolate emulco to make the chocolate flavoured snowskin. 

My 2^nd batch of snowskin mooncake.  I wrapped premium dried cranberries with a layer of white lotus paste with melon seeds.  I chopped and added some cranberries to the snowskin to give it a nice and chewy feel.

My 3^rd and last batch, used 2 difference snowskin, green apple and red cherry to wrapped the chocolate paste with almond nuts.  I love this batch the most as it was very colourful. J

Ingredients for Filling:

1 kg of lotus paste + 120gm of melon seeds + 80g dried cranberries
1 kg of chocolate paste + 150 gm of chopped almond nuts

Ingredients for Snowskin:

1000 g Snowskin flour (Premix)
500-550 ml cold water
200g – 220g  shortening

Chocolate emulco for the chocolate snowskin
Chopped dried cranberries for the cranberry snowskin
few drop of green apple colouring and cherry red colouring

Method

1. Snowskin: Sift kao fen into a mixing bowl and add the cold water and mix well.
2. Rub in shortening and knead lightly.
3. Divide the dough into 3 portions and add in the chocolate emulco, cranberries and colouring to each portions.
4. Knead until a soft dough is form and set it aside for 15-30 minutes.
5. Weigh the skin and wrapped the paste and roll it into a round ball.
6. Coat with some cooked glutinous rice flour and pressed into mould.
7. Unmould it and keep it refrigerated.
8. Thaw a few minutes before serving.