Baby Dragons Cupcakes

Having a little fun with cupcake decorating. Made 18 baby dragons with fondant. They are all ready to go to the school's medieval summer fête! 

Homemade Apricot Jam

Apricot is in season now! They are juicy and yummy.  Last year was not that good but this year is extremely yummy.  Vicky my friend shared this "dead easy" recipe. It was easy but I think I needed more practises! ;)

Here are the steps that how they were prepared.

Apricot Jam, turned upside down and in the cooling process.

Apricots, cleaned.

Halved and add sugar, allow 18 hours to macerate.

Slowing bring to boil and to reduced the syrup.l

Sterilised the jam jars.  I cleaned and boiled them for a few minutes.

Fill up the jars with jam.l

I just have to try them with bread and butter. Yum!!!

Homemade Apricot Jam

Ingredients 

1kg apricots halved & remove seed

750g sugar 

Clean & sterilized jam jars

Preparation steps: 

1. Cleaned apricots, halved & remove seed. 

2. In a clean pot, put the apricots & the add the sugar. Gentle mix, cover & leave it 18 hours to allow the apricot to macerate ( breakdown). 

3. After 18 hours, slowly boil the mixture until syrup thicken. Fill up the jar with jam straight from the pot. 

4. Cover the lid & turn it upside down to "seal" the jam. Turn in back when jam is complete cool. 

5. Store in a cool & dry place ( do not have to be in the fridge). 

6. Voilà! Serve with your favourite bread / scones / biscuits! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Fill the jam to the rim. I should have done that. 

2. It should last for a year if unopen but I won't know until next year ;) 

3. Once opened , stored them in fridge. Always used a clean spoon to take jam from jar to prevent contamination. 

4. Couldn't resist. Opened a small jar of jam to try.. It was delicious!! :p

5. Added on 21 June 2015 - I tried who make some jam again with 500g of sugar to 1kg apricot. It works but the jam a bit on the sour side. I prefer the sweeter jam. 

Lovely Cherry Almond Cupcakes

My childhood friend, SiewLoon brought me a lovely silicone mould from Florence Italy. She is in Paris for a few days before she returns to KL, Malaysia. We met for dinner at my home & she insisted that I must try to bake something with the new mould as she was eager to see the end products.

Decided to bake some cupcakes with the cherry almond loaf recipe. A recipe which I wanted to try as cupcakes.

Here is our lovely bakes. The cupcakes turned out very pretty. 

From this mould : 

From this silicon mould.

Chin's notes:

1. Here is the link to the recipe: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1039628/Cherry-almond-loaf.html

2. We baked the cupcakes at 170 degree C for 30mins. 

3. It is a lovely recipe. :) Here my Cherry Almond Loaf

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/05/cherry-almond-loaf.html?m=1

Pandan Chiffon or Mushroom?

Baked some chiffon cupcakes using IKEA's cupcake baking tray. The shape of the chiffon turned out well & the dome stays nice without much sunken in after an hour in the cooling period. 

I'm very satisfied with  today's bake! :) 

Chin's notes: 

1. Baked these in a preheated oven @ 160 degree C for 30 mins.

2. I'm using the following recipe: 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/04/chiffon-cupcakes-again.html?m=1

Wrapping Rice Dumplings (包粽子)

Rice Dumplings

One of my favourite snacks. Usually I will buy them from the market or at the mall.  The most difficult part is not the ingredients, it is the way it was wrap & how to get all the nice corners & the dumpling has a nice solid shape!!

I have always wanted to learn how to wrap them & decided to take up the challenge a few days ago. I have been gathering information on how to wrap the rice dumplings. 

I found this video (the link below) very informative because she showed you how to get the nice corners. 

http://youtu.be/Hitm0V8unvs

This is my first attempt & I don't want to use expensive ingredients. For this practice session I used glutinous rice, some beans & peanuts soaked overnight then fried with salt & coconut milk. Only made 7 rice dumplings. 

Ta-da!!! My first rice dumpling. :)

A bit skinny, need to get a fuller dumpling next time.

How they were made...

1. Soaked the dried bamboo leaves. Cut away the hard stems from the bamboo leaves. 

Trim of the hard stems they will get in the way during wrapping.

2. With the top side of the bamboo leaves facing you, make a cone & fill up with rice. 

Fill it up with the rice and pressed to firm up the rice mixture.

3. Fold the top flap flat onto the rice filling & press the 2 corners & adjust accordingly until you get a nice pointy corners ( refer to video). Then get the other corner & fold it neatly & tug away the leaves to the side. 

Side View: Fold the top flap down and adjust the 2 corners.

Top View: Need to get into this shape where the top flap were folded onto the rice.

4. Secure the rice dumplings with strings. 

It takes a while to get the hang of it.. Took me a while to secure ONE.

5. Boil for 1.5hr with dumplings completely submerged into water then hung to dry & cool. 

They are heavy after cooked.

6. There were one or two dumplings with exposed rice but all my rice dumplings were still intact! Overall I think it was quite a successful challenge!!! :) 

Oops! An exposed rice dumplings!

Bon courage!!!

Chin's notes: 

1. Use the top side of the leave instead of the bottom. When the rice are cooked, they will not stick to the leaves. 

2. I find that it is easy to wrap if the glutinous rice is slightly cooked compared to raw glutinous rice.

3. I practiced with raw glutinous rice, a bit too loose. It is more difficult to manage the corners as well. 

Chicken Parcels ( 纸包鸡）

This a favourite family dish ( chi pao kai in Cantonese) with some juicy gravy. I have been busy with other recipes & totally forgot about this easy & yummy dish! 

Made some for dinner today... :p

This parcel was my first chicken parcel wrapped in August 2014. 

Chicken Parcels Recipe

Ingredients:

8 chicken thigh - cleaned, I removed the skin & keep the bone intact. 

3 stalks spring onions - cut about 3cm length.

4 baking paper / greaseproof paper - big enough to hold 2 chicken thighs. 

Marinade:

3 tbsp oyster sauce / mushroom sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce 

1 tsp sugar 

1 tsp sesame oil 

2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine ( shaoxing/huatiow)

Pepper & salt to taste

4 clove of garlic - minced

Thumb size ginger - minced 

Preparation steps:

1. Clean chicken & leave in the big bowl. Add in the marinade & mix well. Marinate for at least 1 hour. Best if leave overnight.

2. Prepare the paper & put 2 pieces of chicken thighs & garnish with spring onions. 

3. Wrap it up & seal it. 

4. Repeat until all the parcels are done. 

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes. 

6. Remove from oven & served immediately with steamed cooked rice! 

Bon appétit !! 

Chin's Notes:

1. Great to make for individual serving / one big parcels. For big parcel, best to use double layer of the baking paper. 

2. I just used normal baking papers. 

3. I did not remove the bone because more effort is required. I like to keep it simple. But will remove the skin ;) 

4. For sealing I will tie it up / seal it with a stainless steel pin. 

5. Alternatively you can also wrap it like below. ;) as long as the chicken is sealed properly! 

Cherry Almond Loaf

Cherries are in season. My friend, Sarah shared her lovely Cherry Almond Loaf recipe. It was a long bake, about 1 hour but worth it all. My eldest son, finished 1/3 of the loaf.... :p

The process... 

After 1 hr of baking.

Here is the link to the recipe: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1039628/Cherry-almond-loaf.html

Chin's notes:

1. Cupcakes in the next bake. 

2. Added almond flakes to the loaf.