Marble Chocolate Loaf Bread - 巧克力大理石吐司

Instead of spreading nutella or chocolate on the bread, this recipe combine the chocolate filling into it. The picture above is my second attempt, the first attempt loaf is uncooked on the top part. I didn't know at all until I keep the left over bread for breakfast the next day and while I was chewing the bread and I find the taste so weird because I can taste the doughy smell.

The first attempt loaf - Failed

The bottom part of the dough is perfectly fine. Only the top part is uncooked because I adjust the wire rack to the bottom second layer and there is a gap for the top part to receive heat from the element.

Second attempt loaf

Luckily the second attempt loaf is fully cooked. I have a difficult time on rolling and folding the dough when the chocolate is wrapped in because in order to get the pattern layer on the dough, you have to roll the dough and lengthen it into a rectangular layer. Than fold and keep repeat the step again & the chocolate keep oozing out from the dough. The whole roller pin and table is a mess and sticky.

On my first attempt, I still manage to braids the dough and is not so messy as my second attempt. Second attempt is really a huge mess and I can't braids the dough at all, I just roll into a log and let it rise. Both attempt of the dough doesn't rise very high even I left it to proof for 2 hour under the hot sun.

Slightly burn on the top of the loaf but at least is fully cooked. I like the chocolate taste but not the bread. The bread is not very soft and slightly dry. I heat the left over bread in the oven the next day and the texture is like eating a biscuit.

Recipe source: http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/carol-jay/article?mid=77394&prev=79892&next=76006&l=f&fid=38

Tim Ho Wan - 添好運

Finally I get to visit this well known dim sum restaurant that might need to queue for a few hours just to get a table and seat. Lucky me, I got a seat upon arrive as my lovely colleague arrive earlier and line up the queue. 

We visit on a weekend morning and colleagues reach around 9am and I reached at 9.30am. So the waiting time (Q for table and seat) is about 30 minute.

 

Seriously the variety of the food not many compare to the other dim sum restaurant. And all the item is not cheap, quite pricey to me but honestly I would said the service is good. One of the aunty waitress is so friendly and sociable. We are so lucky to be serve in a room like a VIP and there is a air-con where we can adjust the temperature our self.

Baked Bun with BBQ pork (S$4.50 )

This is the first time I ate a bake cha siew bun. I like the filling (cha siew) is not too sweet and the outer layer is very thin and crisp.  

Glutinous Rice Dumpling (S$5)

Vermicelli Roll with BBQ Pork (S$5.50)

Nothing special about the glutinous rice, too mash. Vermicelli roll is silky and able to see though the filling. Thump up for this. 

Beancurd skin roll with Shrimp (S$5.50)

Pan Fried Carrot Cake (S$4.50)

The carrot cake is really soft and there are radish strip in every pieces. This is what a carrot cake should be. Yummy. 

Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce (S$4) / Steamed Egg Cake (S$3.80)

I have seen 马来糕 (steamed egg cake) selling in supermarket but I have never bought and try before. I curious how the taste was like so I requested to order one. That piece of cake is pretty small but the texture is fluffy and soft.

Prawn Dumpling 4pcs (S$5.50)

Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (S$5)

The siew mai are simply crunchy and juicy. I love every bite of the combination, pork and shrimp.

Tim Ho Wan

68 Orchard Road 

Plaza Singapura #01-29A

Tel: 6251 2000

Operating Hours:

Mondays to Fridays: 10am - 10pm

Weekends: 9am - 10pm

Tonkatsu Ma Maison

I always walk pass Mandarin Gallery building when I go to town but I seldom go inside the mall. So one of the weekend while I was shopping at town so I decided to discover this mall. Well inside the mall has more branded shop and is not really crowded at all. I like the cozy and peaceful surrounding in this mall.

Walking around and I found a few restaurant which I want to give it a try. The first choice is this Ma Maison because the main highlight of the food is PORK. I love eating pork especially tonkatsu. I like the crispy texture and chewy thick meat. But not all Japanese restaurant serve good tonkatsu.

I was surprise that all the server are Japanese, how I knew it because of their essence when they talk. Appetizer was serve after the drink and is a grinded radish. I don't really like the raw radish taste even after I pour some soya sauce on it still didn't like it.

Upon arrive, on the table there are some seasoning sauce. Sesame salad sauce, spicy and sweet sauce. The spicy sauce is not spicy at all and I find it quite salty, I prefer more on the sweet sauce drip on my tonkatsu.

Jumbo Hire Katsu (S$29.80) come with a set of rice, soup and a dessert.

Tokusen Kurobuta Rosu (Black Pig) (S$31.80) come with a set of rice, soup and a dessert.

 

My friend suggest we shall order a hire katsu (fillet) and a black pig katsu (Loin) so we can taste the different. That's a good idea. The hire katsu is more tender, bigger (portion) and less fat. The rosu katsu (Loin) is more tough, it contain more fat and of course more juicy.

 

After all we prefer the hire katsu (fillet) because of the tender meat. Actually we should order both fillet (one hire and one black pig) so we can compare the tenderness of the meat but we realize that after we finish our meal.

 

Tonkatsu Ma Maison

333A Orchard Road

Mandarin Gallery
#02-35/36
Tel: 6733 4541
 

Operating Hours:

Mondays to Fridays: 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
Saturdays, Sunday & P.H.: 11am – 10pm



Stir Fried Udon

Most of the time I will cook one dish meal, simple and easy. I just throw whatever I have on hand ingredients or ingredients that I like to eat and stir fried them together. As for now is quite impossible for me to cook a few dish meal because my parent don't eat much and they would prefer hawker food or perhaps nobody appreciate my cook food. =p

I love cooking as well as baking. I find it cooking is much easier than baking. As for cooking you can adjust the taste while the food is still on the wok, example a little more salt or pepper. But for baking, once you serve the end product into the oven, you can't make any adjustment and only able to know after the bake how the taste and texture will be.

This is the first time I cooked fried udon. usually I will cook in soup base. Although it is first time but the taste is really delicious. Thump up!

Recipe source: http://rasamalaysia.com/malaysian-style-fried-udon/

Marble Chiffon Cake

I love marble cake and I chance upon this recipe from a blogger share the marble chiffon cake so I mark it down on the baking list. Making chiffon sometime is really a faint of heart task for me. I do not get a success return everytime I make chiffon cake, there are about 60% are failed and only 40% cheers me up with a nice and tall chiffon cake.

I wish to get the hang of making good chiffon cake, so I decided to look for more interesting and different chiffon flavour to practice with. Actually I have a few chiffon cake book, is all about chiffon.

Most of the time I receive the same problem of failed chiffon cake are, the cake will start to shrink when I leave it cool down and after I unmold the cake the top part will start to deflate down.

Anyway I'm so happy when the cake stand still after I unmold from the tin and I really like the marble effect. Every slice have the different marble effect pattern which is like giving a surprise. This is really a good recipe to try, the cake is so fluffy and airy. I like the chocolate taste and is not very sweet.

 

Recipe source: http://cookingcrave.blogspot.sg/2009/07/chocolate-marble-chiffon.html

 

Ingredients A:

95g egg yolks

25g caster sugar

pinch of salt

 

Ingredients B:

80g oil

80g milk

 

Ingredients C:

95g cake flour 

 

Ingredients D:

10g cocoa powder

10g cake flour

 

Ingredients E:

240g egg whites

120g caster sugar

15g corn flour

 

Method:

1. Whisk ingredient (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredient (B) in respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Fold in ingredient (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Divide the egg yolks mixture into two equal portion in two separate mixing bowl.
5. Mix 10g flour into one of the egg yolks mixture and the 10g cocoa powder into the other bowl of egg yolks mixture respectively. Mix the batter well till no lumps.
6. Beat egg whites in a clean large bowl until soft foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time and finally add in corn flour. Mix well.
7. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
8. Gently fold in half of the egg whites mixture into the cocoa egg yolk mixture and another half into the plain mixture. Make sure there are no trace of meringue can be seen in the batter.
9. To assemble the marble effect: Spoon in the plain batter to three or four different corner of the 23cm cake pan, then continue to cover the plain batter with cocoa batter. Layer by layer till the end.
10. Bake at preheated oven at 170C for 35-45 minutes or insert a toothpick into the centre and comes out clean.
11. Invert the tins immediately and leave to cool completely before unmold from the tin.

Butter Cake 2

Finally I decided to try out my new toy the cake wooden mold (蛋糕木框模). I haven't start using since I bought it around in the month of January until now. Before I use the mold to bake my cake, I soak in the water overnight and guess what, the water turn into light yellow colour the next day. After soak out, I bake the mold in the oven for 30 minutes at 160C. I found this useful tips from anncoojournal who share this, the reason behind is to eliminate odour from the wood. Only need to do this step if is a new wooden mold, subsequent using do not need to do the soak n bake of the mold again.

The purpose of this mold suppose to bake castella cake but I have read a few other baker mention that castella cake is not a easy task to make. If you can't bake a normal cake well, better don't challenge castella cake to prevent wasting ingredients. I knew I definitely will not be able to do it well so I using this mold but I baking a butter cake.

Luckily is a success and is fully cook but the top is slightly burn. Although the top surface is slightly burnt but I like the "chao ta" taste. The cake is moist and buttery taste really good. A good recipe to keep.

*Recipe source: http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2010/09/old-fashion-butter-cake.html
*How to use the wooden mold: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_494a12dc0102dt8x.html

Ingredients:

• 350 gm butter
• 280 gm sugar
• 8 large eggs, separate the yolk and white
• 330 gm self rising flour 
• ½ tsp salt
• 50 ml milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Prepare the wooden mold. 
2. Sieve the flour and salt. Set it aside. 
3. Using a electric hand mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scrapping down the side of the bowl a couple of times. 
4. Add in the yolk one at a time. Beat well after adding the next one. 
5. Follow by adding in the milk. 
6. Fold in the flour in 3 batches. Mix well and set it aside.
7. In another clean bowl, whisk egg white on high speed until soft peaks. Fold in the egg whites into the butter mixture until well blended. Do not over-do it or the egg whites will deflate. 
8. Pour into the prepared wooden mold and bake for an hour or until the skewer comes out clean when tested.