Young Coconut Muffins

Have you ever changed plan of doing something suddenly? It's just happened to me once I found out that I run out of coconut milk in my kitchen storage. Initially, I wanted to make coconut agar-agar (asian jelly) but end up to bake these coconut muffins.

These muffins are not like a typical coconut muffin recipes which you can find on the internet coz they do not use coconut flakes or dried coconut or shredded coconut but they use fresh young coconut meat to add the flavor and texture to the muffins. To get my version, I did some adjustment from the original recipe by using whipping cream mixed with coconut juice to make them even more coconut flavor, added a little bit more of baking powder, used chopped almond for topping, also I preferred to use salted butter for my muffins and here is my Young Coconut Muffins Recipe:

Young Coconut Muffins
Serving size 10 pcs.

Cake flour 180 g.
Baking powder 1/2+1/8 tsp.
Baking soda 1 tsp.
Salted butter 50 g.
Sugar 160 g. (add more sugar around 170-180 g. if you are a sweet tooth)
Eggs (small) 4 (1 egg = 50-53 g.)
Vanilla 1 tsp.
Whipping cream 30 g.
Coconut juice 30 g.
Lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp.
Young coconut meat (sliced or cut into pieces) 200g.
Chopped almond (toasted) for topping

1. Sift cake flour, baking powder and baking soda together then set aside.
2. Mix coconut juice and whipping cream till incorporate then add lemon juice. Stir well and let it stand for at least 5 mins.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar till light in color. Gradually add egg one at time and add in vanilla.
4. Divide the flour into 3 portions and add 1 portion into the batter alternatively with a half of whipping cream (flour>whipping cream>flour>whipping cream>flour). Stop the mixer.
5. Add in young coconut meat and fold till combine (Do not over mix). Divide the batter into the muffin liners equally and sprinkle with chopped almond on top.
6. Bake in the preheat oven 190C for 20-25 mins until you insert the toothpick and it comes out clean.

Special Thanks: Khun Bua (Tiny Bakery Bloggang.com) for sharing a delicious recipe and be my guideline of creating my own version of these perfect young coconut muffins.

Thai Milk Tea Pudding

Anyone has ever tried Thai Milk Tea before? If you visit Thailand or any Thai restaurants, I suggest you should order this traditional drink and you will never regret :)

Japanese milk tea pudding was my inspiration to find out the recipe of making pudding. I'm in love with the milk tea pudding from Tampopo Deli which offers a great japanese pudding I ever had. Their pudding is so smooth, milky & tasty also quite pricey for 1 cup is almost S$4. Due to I'm a fan of Thai Milk Tea, I decided to do the pudding with Thai tea powder which I brought in from Thailand. Lucky me, to find out this recipe which made my dream of having my own pudding came true.

The original recipe adapted from www.maesalim.com but I made the adjustment to get it with my own taste especially topping the pudding with cold daily whipping cream before serving.

Thai Milk Tea Pudding
Serving size: 2 big martini glasses

Thai tea powder 2 Tbsp.
Hot water 250 g.
Gelatine powder 2 tsp.
Milk 75 g.
Whipping cream 80 g.
Sugar 4-5 Tbsp.

1. Mix hot water and Thai tea powder together then set aside for 5 mins and stain out to get the tea.
2. Sprinkle gelatine powder in milk and set aside for 10 mins. Bring into the microwave and stirring till the gelatin is dissolved.
3. Add sugar into the milk and keep stirring till the mixture becomes warm. Pour warm mixture into the tea and stir till incorporate.
4. Add in whipping cream and taste. If it's not that sweet, you can add more sweet condensed milk.
5. Pour the mixture to the martini glasses and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.
Optional: Add in whipping cream on top of the pudding before serving, make it more delicious!

Smoked Sausage & Champignon Mushrooms Quiche

Just finished baking and had this quiche for afternoon tea and can't wait to share some ideas for baking this delicious quiche with you. I got a new baking toy which is pastry weights so I wanted to use them this time. I'm still using my favorite pastry crust recipe which is from Le Cordon Bleu Book (the recipe is in my previous post http://thesweetmaison.blogspot.com/2010/10/ham-spinach-quiche.html For the quiche filling I also used the same recipe with some adjustment and changed to use smoked sausages & champignon instead of ham & spinach. You can use whatever you feel like for the filling to create your own quiche I'm sure they will not go wrong.

Pate Brisee or Short Pastry Crust (for 9" tart pan) *Recipe adapted from "Desserts" by Le Cordon Bleu

Plain flour 200 g.
Salt 1/2 tsp.
Unsalted butter 100 g.
Egg (beaten) 1
Water 2 tsp.
(The recipe does not mention cold or room temperature water but for my experience I used cold water)

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl then rub in the butter until form small crumbs.
2. Mix in the egg and enough water to bind the ingredients to a firm dough. Roll into a smooth ball and remove from the bowl.
3. Press like a disk and wrap with cling film. Chill in the fridge for 30 mins before use.
4. Roll out in circle shape with the thickness around 3-4 mm. and the size is bigger than the tart pan then place on the tart pan press the dough to smooth the tart pan and cut out the excess dough. Wrap and chill in fridge for 30 mins.
5. Bring it out from the fridge and use the fork to make holes on the dough at the bottom pan. Place foil on the dough fill with beans or pie weights and bake in preheat oven at temperature 190C 15-20 mins. Take out from the oven and remove the foil and pie weights and put in the oven to bake for another 15 mins.

Filling

Eggs 2
Egg yolk 1
Milk 50 g.
Whipping cream 110 g.
Mozzarella cheese
Cheddar cheese
Seasoning with black pepper and salt

Topping
Diced onion
Diced smoked sausages
Sliced champignon mushrooms

1. Preparing topping by stir-fried diced onion, smoked sausages and sliced champignon mushrooms for 5-10 mins. and let it cool to room temperature.
2. Combine all the ingredients of the filling except cheeses and whisk till well blend. Seasoning with salt and pepper.
3. Fill the topping into baked crust then pour the filling over. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese.
4. Bake in preheat over 170C for 20-25 mins

For what I learnt about baking quiche today, I found out some techniques as below:

Baking crust:
1. Please keep your eyes on the crust when you first bake and be careful of the oven is overheated. It can cause your crust too brownish before your finish baking.
2. After remove the pastry weights or beans in the crust (to help the crust not to pop up when baking), you can bake just until the bottom crust is dry and firm which might not take too long.
3. Carefully to use the fork making holes at the bottom crust. You should not press the fork too hard just slightly go through half layer is enough.

Filling:
1. Make sure that your filling (meat, onion, ham, sausage, mushroom) is cool to room temperature before adding to the baked crust.
2. Adjust the amount of salt by adding 1/4 tsp. each time and taste it till you get the right taste.
3. Mix eggs, whipping cream & milk with the wire whisk till well blend before pouring to the crust.

I hope the above techniques which I found out from my baking quiche experiences will be a good idea or help you to get a better result of making the quiche.

American Drop Biscuits

Popeye's Biscuit is the inspiration for me to find out the recipe to make my own. I could not remember where I got this recipe from coz when I first started baking I noted some recipes without the source details. In my baking bible I only saw this recipe as buttermilk biscuit. I bake these biscuits every month and have been fine tuning the recipe to make drop biscuit instead. With many experiments in this recipe, finally I got the best drop biscuit recipe for my family and it made my hubby and I changed our minds to love homemade biscuits than commercial one from Popeye!

This recipe is super easy and fast to bake. You will spend only 30 mins to prepare the ingredient and bake after that you will enjoy hot biscuits out from the oven. They are great for tea time with a cup of tea or else you can eat them with fried chicken or many kinds of soup you prefer as well. Don't worry about the biscuits will be too dry coz this recipe will make you experience the cripsy outside with soft & fluffy texture inside. I'm sure you will love them ^^

American Drop Biscuits
Serving size: 11 scoopes

All purpose flour 240 g.
Baking soda 1 tsp.
Cream of tartar 2 tsp.
Salt 1/2 tsp.
Sugar 2 Tbsp.
Cold unsalted butter 75 g. (Cut into small cube)
Cold Buttermilk 3/4 cups.

1. Sift flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt together 2 times then mix in sugar.
2. Put cold butter into the flour and use your fingertips to mix in flour and butter together till the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Slowly pour in cold buttermilk and use a fork to mix in quickly till incorporate.
4. Use ice cream scoop to divide the batter into greased muffin pan and brush the top with the leftover buttermilk in the cup.
5. Bake in preheat oven at 220C for 10-12 mins until the top is slightly golden brown and checking by using the toothpick insert to the biscuit and come out clean. Serve them hot is the best!

Espresso Coffee Cookies

Baked these Espresso Coffee Cookies since last month, I modified the recipe from basic butter cookies by adding espresso coffee powder to make them more special. The important thing when you want to make butter cookies that is the butter quality. From my experience, it a big difference if using good butter as the ingredient.

Though it's just a plain cookies without adding nuts or dried fruits but you can enjoy eating them with non stop!

Espresso Coffee Cookies

All purpose flour 250 g.
Baking powder 3/4 tsp.
Baking soda 1/2 tsp.
Salted butter 125 g.
Icing sugar 130 g. *
Egg (medium) 1
Espresso powder 1 1/2 tsp. (mix in hot milk 2 tsp. and let it cool to room temperature)

1. Sift flour with baking power and baking soda then set aside.
2. In the mixing bowl, cream the butter till soft and add in icing sugar. Beat the butter and icing to light and fluffy about 6 mins.
2. Add in egg mix well then add coffee mixer.
3. Slowly add flour mix with low speed till incorporated (only few mins).
4. Put the cookie batter in the piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton's tip 1M) and pipe the cookie batter to the greased baking tray. Bake in preheat oven 180C for 10-12 mins.

Remarks: From the above recipe, the amount of icing sugar can be adjusted to suit your liking.

Special Thanks: Khun Lee from bloggang.com for sharing her good butter cookies recipe.

English Muffins ... it's great for breakfast!

I am a McDonald's breakfast fan and always like their english muffin. I mentioned these to one of my friend and she asked me to try to make my own english muffin also she's so kind to lend me the recipe book. The recipe had been noted for almost a year and I already forgot! Once I saw her photos of english muffins that she made then I realized I had to give it a try....

Due to the problems which I faced on the baking day not enough bread flour and milk, I had to adjust and mix to get the right amount as indicated in the below recipe. You can either follow the original recipe or what I did and try to find the right taste for yourself. Hope you will enjoy this homemade english muffins for a great breakfast same as me :)

English Muffins
Serving 9-10 pcs.

Warm milk 350 g. (I used milk 300 g. + water 50 g.)
Yeast 7 g.
Sugar 1/2 tsp.
Oil / Melted butter 15 g.
Bread flour 450 g. (I used bread flour 400 g. + cake flour 50 flour)
Salt 1 1/2 tsp.
Semolina flour / cornmeal for dusting

1. Mix yeast, sugar and warm milk together then add in oil or melted butter. Stir to combine.
2. Mix bread flour and salt in the mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in wet ingredients to the flour and knead to get a dough about 5-10 mins.*
3. Cover the dough with cling film and proof the dough for 45-60 mins.
4. Punch down to release the air and roll out the dough to get the thickness about 1/2 inch and cut the dough with the cookie cutter or glass in 3.5 inches diameter. Dust both sides of the dough with semolina flour or cornmeal.
5. Place the dough on the greased tray and wrap with cling film and set aside for 20-30 mins.
6. Heat up the teflon pan and grease slightly with oil or butter with medium fire then pan-fried the doughs each side for 5-7 mins.

Remarks: if the dough is to wet when kneading, can add a bit more bread flour to make the dough not to sticky.

Special Thanks: P'Mon (Maejj) for always sharing a good recipe.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Milk Cream Frosting

Got a box of fresh strawberry so I was thinking to make strawberry cupcakes for this time. I noted this recipe for quite sometime back and it is Strawberry Cupcakes from Sprinkles Cupcakes in USA which you can find the recipe on www.marthastewart.com website.

Me and my hubby, we are strawberry lover and this recipe is great! though I did not make the frosting as in the original recipe coz personally I does not like the buttercream which using main butter and icing sugar. I rather went for my favorite buttercream recipe and mixed with strawberry puree to create my own frosting instead. I knew it's not a good idea for what I did coz I will never know how great of their cupcakes could be. For this matter, I suggest you to follow the original recipe for both cupcakes and frosting as below:

Strawberry Cupcakes
(Adapted from Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes recipe on martha's website)
Yield 12 cupcakes

Whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed 2/3 cup *I used fresh strawberries
Sifted all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder 1 tsp.
Salt 1/4 tsp.
Milk (room temperature) 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract 1 tsp.
Unsalted butter 1/2 cup (113 g.)
Sugar 1 cup
Egg (large) 1
Egg whites (large) 2

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
2. Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
5. With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake at 175C until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Frosting

Whole frozen strawberries 1/2 cup
Unsalted butter (firm & slightly cold) 1 cup
Pinch of coarse salt
Sifted confectioners' sugar 3 1/2 cups
Pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp.

Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

Croissant Coffee Pudding

This menu will always come to my mind when I need something for afternoon tea which is quick & easy to make. What you have to prepare as the main ingredient that is croissant! You can either use croissant or bread which you prefer but for me I like croissant it's more calories to concern though.

I modified the pudding recipe from the original one to suit my preference by adding coffee powder and use evaporated milk instead of whipping cream.

Croissant Coffee Pudding
(Serving size for 2)

Croissants 2 pcs.
Sugar 20 g.
Honey 10 g.
Milk 80 g.
Evaporated milk 50 g.
Coffee powder 1-2 tsp.
Raisins (as per you like)
Egg (large) 1
Unsalted butter

1. Cut croissant into medium piece and place in the ramekin (1 croissant for 1 ramekin). You can spread the butter on the croissant before place it to the ramekin but I skip this state.
2. Mix sugar, honey, milk, evaporated milk and raisins in cup and bring to heat in the microwave till it's warm then put the coffee powder mix well.
3. Once the mixture is slightly warm, mix with the egg and stir well.
4. Pour the pudding mixture into the ramekins equally and put some sliced butter on top the croissant. Bake in the preheat oven 180C for 15-18 mins. Serve warm!

Special Thanks: Khun Jum (Maesalim) for the original recipe.