Orange Chiffon Cake

 

 

Baked this Orange Chiffon for my cousin sister in-law, a hairstylist who gives us [my family] free hair cut and anything from hair cream to hair spray etc... A big thank you to her.

Spongy, soft and moist chiffon with nice tangy aroma of orange.

Ingredients - Egg Yolk Mixture

[recipe adapted from Happy Flour with slight modifications to ingredients and method]

110 gm cake flour [superfine flour]
1 tbsp castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 large egg yolks

3 tbsp corn oil

85 ml orange juice [from 1-2 oranges]
1 tsp orange zest

• Place all the dry ingredients [sifted flour, salt and sugar] in the mixing bowl.  Make a well in the centre.  Pour in all the liquid ingredients [egg yolks, orange juice, oil and zest].  Beat together using a paddle hook on medium to high speed until well combined and mixture is smooth [takes about 5 minutes].   Set aside.

Ingredients for Egg White
3 large egg white

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

• Whisk egg white in a clean mixing bowl till frothy, then add in cream of tartar.  Continue beating for a second and add in caster sugar gradually.  Continue beating all the time until soft to stiff peaks formed [Note - it is easier to fold in soft/stiff peak egg white mixture to egg yolk mixture].
• Fold in 1/3 the egg white mixture to egg yolk mixture till well combined.  Then fold into the balance egg white mixture.  Fold till mixtures are well combined.  
• Pour into 7" chiffon pan and bake in preheated oven at 170 degrees C for 30-35 minutes on lower rack.
• Remove from oven and immediately invert pan to cool cake before removing from pan.

Cake shrinks a little after cooling

 

My Ping Pei 2012 [Snow Skin Mooncakes] - 2

These are my second batch of Ping Pei Mooncakes giveaways.  Since they are for giveaways, I can't slice them for pictures [will try to take some photos when we savour these mooncakes this Sunday on Mid-autumn festival day].

You may be wondering why I have to wait until Sunday [mid-autumn festival], cos' I don't keep any mooncakes at home.

These are photos of my second batch of Ping Pei mooncakes for my mum and mother in-law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:
For recipes of these mooncakes, please refer here and here.

Black Sesame Ping Pei Mooncake with Mixed Nuts

Here, I am using the Black Sesame Ping Pei Skin to wrap the mixed nuts filling [Ngoh Gin]  [recipe here].  The snow skin paste has a strong, nice aroma of sesame seeds.

Ingredients for Black Sesame Ping Pei Skin  
[dough weighs about 350 gm]
[makes 5 x 60-70 gm pieces depending on the thickness]

2 tbsp each of toasted black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds -  finely ground
80 gm fried glutinous rice flour [kao fun] - sifted

80 gm icing sugar - sifted

90-100 gm shortening [too little shortening the skin will be crumbly unless you make it thicker]

40-50 ml iced cold water [may not use all]
green and yellow colouring [optional]
mooncake mould 

 

 

1. Use a blender to finely grind both sesame seeds.
2. Combine sifted icing sugar and kao fun, then add in ground sesame powder.  Mix well
3. Use rub-in method, add in shortening to [2] and mix until fine grains.  Gradually add in iced cold water until the dough binds.
4. Knead into a soft and smooth paste.  Cover and rest for 15-30 minutes.
5. Divide dough into  5   equal portions.
6. Wrap skin over mixed nuts filling, roll into a smooth ball and edges are well sealed [always dust your hands with extra kao fun to prevent dough from sticking].
7. Place onto dusted mooncake mould, press to fill up the mould then knock out mooncake.
8. Serve chilled.

Notes:
I kept 1/2 portion plain and add some yellow and green colouring to the other portion [giving  some of these mooncakes to my mother in-law, she likes mixed nuts but  may not like to see black and white mooncake skin].

 

 

I'm submitting this post to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday hosted by

 Suresh of 3 hungry tummies

Mixed Nuts Mooncake Filling

Usually, mixed nuts filling [ngoh gin in Hokkien dialect] is used for making traditional baked mooncakes. This year, I'm not in the mood for baked mooncakes since I've prepared quite a lot of  figurine mooncakes [koong chye paeng].  I believe Ping Pei with this filling should be nice too with all the nuts and seeds to munch.  
This filling is not sweet like store bought as I have replaced some of the icing sugar with candied winter melon.

Ingredients for Mixed Nuts Filling

[makes 110 gm x 7 pieces]

100 gm toasted walnuts - chopped

100 gm toasted almonds - chopped

100 gm toasted melon seeds

100 gm toasted sesame seeds

50 gm candied mandarin [keat paeng] - chopped

50 gm candied winter melon [tung kwa] - chopped

75 gm icing sugar

3 kaffir lime leaves [limau purut] - shredded finely

75 ml cold boiled water

35 ml corn oil

1 tbsp brandy

75 gm cooked glutinous rice flour [kao fun]

1. Prepare all the dried ingredients as above and place is a big bowl.
2. Combine all the liquid ingredients together, then pour over the dried ingredients.  Mix to combine well.
3. Lastly, sprinkle the cooked glutinous rice flour over the mixture.  Stir to combine into a thick dough.
4. Use your hands to shape the mixture into round balls of  110 gm each.
5. Place in a container, covered and leave them in the refrigerator until using.

For wrapping this filling, I used the Black Sesame Ping Pei Skin [recipe here].

I'm submitting this post to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday hosted by Suresh of  3 hungry tummies.

My Ping Pei 2012 [Snow Skin Mooncakes] 1

Some of my Ping Pei mooncake giveaways this year.  The fillings are quite similar as previous but with different combinations.

Mooncake with the above mould

 

 Mooncakes using the above new moulds

Ingredients for Ping Pei Skin [dough weighs about 800 gm]
[makes 12 x 60-70 gm pieces depending on the thickness]

200 gm fried glutinous rice flour [kao fun] - sifted

150 gm icing sugar - sifted

70 gm shortening

1 tsp essence [lemon] - optional

200 ml iced cold water
yellow, green, pink and chocolate colouring [optional] - according to own preference, you can keep it plain or a single colour

Icing Sugar, Shortening and Kao Fun

Ping Pei dough divided into various colours

• Mix together sifted flour and icing sugar, then add in shortening.
• Use rub-in method to mix flour, sugar and shortening together into fine grains.
• Slowly and gradually add in ice cold water.  Mix well and knead with hand till  smooth.  Cover and leave to rest for 15 - 30 minutes.  [Notes - If making different colours, divide into a few portions and add in colouring, knead till well combined then rest the dough for 15-30 minutes]
• Divide dough into 12 equal portions [about 60-70 gm each-thicker skin].  You may make about 14 pieces if using smaller mooncake moulds and less filling.    Roll out 1 portion thinly into a circle that is large enough to wrap a ball of filling [about 110 gm] - depends on size of mould.  Coat filling with kao fun and wrap with ping pei dough.
• Press into mould dusted with kao fun.  Knock mould lightly to dislodge the mooncake.  Place in plastic mooncake tray and mooncake container.  Refrigerate before serving.

Notes :
- Various Ping Pei Fillings [can be mix and match to suit you preference]

[Most of the paste can be store bought or you can make your own.   See this post for the recipe for some of the mooncake fillings.
- You can make each Ping Pei in a single colour or any combination of colours according to your own  preference [please refer above photos on the combination].

- The paste which I used for this year's Ping Pei are:-

Savoury Sweet Mung Beans Paste with Cream Cheese

Pandan Lotus with Melon Seeds

Tau Sar with Melon Seeds

Lotus Seed Paste with Melon Seeds

Pandan Lotus Paste with Salted Egg Yolk 

 

 - These are the first batch of giveaways and second batch to come, next post [My Ping Pei 2012 [Snow Skin Mooncakes 2] with pictures only.

Vegetarian Fried Beehoon

A noodle dish I like when I thought of meatless meal.  Usually will serve the noodle dish with a warm/hot sweet dessert like green beans with barley sweet soup [recipe here] or red beans soup [recipe here].  

Looks like there are lots of ingredients for this noodle but take a closer look at it you will realise that you may have most of them in the kitchen cupboard or fridge.  You need not follow exactly all the ingredients, just make do with what you have in hand and you will end up with at least a 'five coloured noodle', believe to be good for health [protein, fibre, carbo etc....].

Ingredients

[serves 2-3]

150 gm beehoon [rice vermicelli] - soak 5-10 minutes and drain [I used 3 pieces of A1 rice vermicelli]

2 pieces sweet beancurd sheet [tian-zhu] - cut 1/2 inch pieces and deep fried till crispy

1 piece firm beancurd - cut strips

4 stalks of bok choy - cut [or sawi/choi sum]

1 small carrot -cut strips

1/2 can of young corns

30 gm dried lily buds [kim chiam] - knotted and soak to soften

2-3 dried mushrooms - soaked and cut strips

2-3 florets of black mushrooms [bok nee] - soaked and break into small pieces

some cut red chillies

2-3 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp each of salt, msg and pepper

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce [more if you prefer darker noodles] 

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cup water

1. Heat some oil in wok  to fry firm beancurd until firm.  Dish out.
2. Using the same wok, fry young corns, lily buds and carrots for a minute.  Dish out onto plate with beancurd.
3. Add in dried mushrooms and black fungus.  Stir fry for a minute, pour in water and add in seasoning to taste.  Bring it to boil and add in beehoon.  Use a pair of chopstick to mix noodles with sauce.  Add in the bok choy, all of the other fried ingredients and deep fried sweet beancurd sheet pieces.  
4. Mix well and cover wok to let noodles and ingredients cooked through.  Takes about 3 minutes.  Uncover and stir fry noodles lightly until gravy is almost dried up and noodles are soft.
5. Dish out to serve immediately with cut chillies.