Almond Puff

Apologies for me vanishing from my blog... Lots of things are happening on the home front and I am, for the time being, quite a busy (BUT very happy) homemaker.

When I was small, I used to beg my parents to buy me these almond puffs whenever we shopped at Maxim's bakery. I have always loved puff pastry but the crispy almond topping was its main appeal. It was so delicious that I always ate up the puff pastry and reserve the crispy topping to devour later...

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1. 250g all butter puff pastry
2. 1 egg white
3. 60g icing sugar
4. 50g chopped almonds/almond flakes

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190c.
• Use a rolling pin to flatten the puff pastry to 3cm thick. Cut out 12 3cm x 9cm rectangles. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.
• In a bowl, mix egg white and icing sugar together until the sugar is fully dissolved.
• Use a teaspoon to spread the egg white and icing sugar mixture onto each puff pastry and sprinkle the chopped almonds/almond flakes on top.
• Bake for 15 mins and then turn down the heat to 160c and bake for a further 20 minutes. Let them cool in the baking sheet for 5 minutes and remove them from the baking parchment and cool completely on wire rack.

Grape Trifle

To all the friends who are still reading this =)



Everytime I log in and see the Live Traffic Feed bar, I am very happy to see there is someone visiting this blog from Hong Kong. I don't know who you are, but I am very grateful that you still pop in to visit!

I had taken the last module of the exam last week, and will now be on full turbo to find a job... Meanwhile, there is time to squeeze in some baking and cooking! I am making trifle again... This time round, I tried to incorporate Y's favourite fruit into his favourite pudding. I cheated by using some Waitrose sponge fingers for the sponge layer. But I am pretty sure this is going to be the last time I cheated in a trifle: the shop bought ones were so sickening sweet that Y's mom immediately spotted it wasn't a homemade sponge upon tasting it...

In case you are wondering, the cherries in the picture weren't related to the trifle recipe...It is just that I picked them in our front yard in the morning and thought what beauties they were and it would be nice to show off the fruits from our garden!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

For the jelly layer

1. 1 can of assorted fruits
2. 400ml grape juice
3. 3 tablespoons caster sugar
4. 6 gelatine leaves (Different gelatine leaves do have different setting qualities, so please check the directions on the packaging to make sure you have used the correct quantities)

For the sponge layer

1. 60g soft margarine/vegetable spread/butter spread
2. 60g caster sugar
3. 50g self-raising flour
4. 10g cornflour
5. 1 egg, beaten
6. 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Or shop bought sponge fingers

For the sponge soaking syrup

1. 50ml blackcurrent liquer
2. 50ml grape juice

For custard

1. 1/2 vanilla pod
2. 275ml double cream
3. 3 large egg yolks
4. 1 tablespoon caster sugar
5. 2 teaspoons cornstarch
6. 2 teaspoons Bird's custard powder

For whipped cream

1. 200ml double cream
2. 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method:

1. You can either use 4 glass tumblers or a big deep glass dish for this recipe.
2. Make the jelly: drain the can of assorted fruits and arrange the fruits on the bottom of the glass tumblers/glass dish. Soak the gelatine leaves in some cold water for 5 minutes. Gently heat the grape juice with the sugar until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat. Put the gelatine leaves with the grape juice and stir until the gelatine dissolves. Pour the jelly mixture into the glass tumblers/glass dish. Leave it to cool and then put in the fridge to set.
3. Make the sponge: pre-heat the oven to 180c. Use baking parchment to line an 8 inch round cake tin. Make the sponge layer by placing margarine (or vegetable spread/butter spread), sugar, flour, cornflour, baking powder and an egg in a large bowl and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Spoon cake mixture into the cake tin, spreading evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out and cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool down for a while. Place the sponge carefully on the set jelly. If you are using sponge fingers, simply put them on top of the set jelly. Use a teaspoon or a pastry brush to soak the sponge with the sponge soaking syrup.
4. Make the custard: split the vanilla pod into half and scrape out the seeds from one half. Put the scraped pod and the vanilla seeds in a medium pan with doublecream. Bring to the boil slowly and immediately take off the heat and leave to stand. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks, caster sugar, cornflour and custard powder together. Take out the vanilla pod from the cream. Then whisk the egg mixture with one hand while you gradually pour the cream into the bowl with another hand. Return the mixture back to the pan immediately. Put on a medium heat and stir non-stop until the custard thickens. Since it is going to be put into the trifle, the thickness of the custard should be more like mayonaise, so it does take a bit of time to stir the mixture. Make sure it does not boil or the custard will curdle. If it happens, immerse the pan in the sink filled with cold tap water for a few seconds to cool it down. When custard is completely cool, pour it on the sponge evenly and cool.
5. Make the cream layer: whip double cream with the sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Spoon and spread the doublecream mixture on top of the trifle. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
   
   

Mandarin Trifle

To Y

When it comes to special occasions like the Valentine’s Day, girls love doing a bit of DIY for their guys. For the girls who don’t cook for the rest of the year, they often resort to making heart-shaped chocolates. Needless to say, that is what I did for our first Valentine's Day. That was a few years ago and it was way before I started to fall in love with cooking. I had made about a dozen heart shaped-chocolates: two layers of chocolate with words inscribed on top. The chocolates received raved reviews from the girls on my floor (I made some extra) and my American floormate even said I could open a chocolate shop! But as far as the intended recipient was concerned, the relevant box which housed the chocolates sat in his fridge largely untouched for 2 months... It's obviously my fault, as I had made the wrong assumption that except me, everyone else in the world loves chocolate.

Determined not to repeat this blunder, I made this trifle on our 4th Vanlentine's Day last year. Being quintessentially British, Y loves trifles. He is particularly fond of M&S's Mandarin Trifle Dessert. After a futile research to find a similar recipe online, I made up my own version of this trifle and I am, unashamedly, proud to say I have cracked it! And I am pleased to report that this trifle didn't stay in the fridge for very long... Now, I have made this time and time again with empty glass bowl guaranteed. Incidentally, I found other people enjoy it as well, so it's a great dessert that you can prepare a day in advance if you have guests visiting.

The procedures below may look long, but believe me it is such a breeze to make. If you really want less work, you can cheat by buying shop-bought sponge fingers and shop-bought custard. For best results, make it a day in advance and keep it in the fridge so that the flavours can blend in.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

For mandarin jelly

1. 1 can of mandarin orange segments in juice
2. 1 pack of orange/tangerine jelly sachet/tablets (I prefer Tartley’s tangerine jelly tablets)

For sponge

1. 60g soft margarine/vegetable spread/butter spread
2. 60g caster sugar
3. 50g self-raising flour
4. 10g cornflour
5. 1 egg, beaten
6. 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
7. About 3 tablespoon of juice from the can of mandarin
8. 1 tablespoon Cointreau

For custard

1. 1/2 vanilla pod
2. 275ml double cream
3. 3 large egg yolks
4. 1 tablespoon caster sugar
5. 2 teaspoons cornstarch
6. 2 teaspoons Bird's custard powder

For whipped cream

1. 200ml double cream
2. 2 tablespoon caster sugar
3. 1 teaspoon orange flavouring
4. Zest from 1 orange

Method:

• Arrange mandarin pieces neatly in the bottom of an 8 inch round deep glass bowl.
• Make the jelly by dissolving the jelly granules from sachet/jelly tablets according to packet instructions and make up to about 300ml (or about 1/2 pint) of jelly liquid. Pour the jelly mixture just to cover the mandarin pieces (the mandarin will float if all of the jelly mixture is poured in one go). Put it in the fridge to set, which takes about 2 hours. After the jelly has set the mandarin pieces in place, you can pour the remaining jelly liquid into the bowl. Set in the fridge while you get the other components ready.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Use baking parchment to line an 8 inch round cake tin. Make the sponge layer by placing margarine (or vegetable spread/butter spread), sugar, flour, cornflour, baking powder and an egg in a large bowl and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Spoon cake mixture into the cake tin, spreading evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out and cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool down for a while. Place the sponge carefully on the jelly and use a pastry brush to moist the sponge with the mandarin juice and Cointreau.
• Make the custard by splitting the vanilla pod into half and scrape out the seeds from one half. Put the scraped pod and the vanilla seeds in a medium pan with doublecream. Bring to the boil slowly and immediately take off the heat and leave to stand. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks, caster sugar, cornflour and custard powder together. Take out the vanilla pod from the cream. Then whisk the egg mixture with one hand while you gradually pour the cream into the bowl with another hand. Return the mixture back to the pan immediately. Put on a medium heat and stir non-stop until the custard thickens. Since it is going to be put into the trifle, the thickness of the custard should be more like mayonaise, so it does take a bit of time to stir the mixture. Make sure it doesn’t boil or the custard will curdle. If it happens, immerse the pan in the sink filled with cold tap water for a few seconds to cool it down.
• When custard is completely cool, pour it on the sponge evenly and cool.
• To make the cream layer, whip double cream with the sugar until it forms soft peaks. Add in the orange flavouring and whip to stiff peaks. Use a piping bag to pipe the whipped cream on the top of the custard layer. Add some orange zest on top. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, sprinkle some toasted almond flakes on top.

Concorde Grape Jelly

To Y

Jam making is not difficult, but it is hard to perfect. I had made apple jams, lemon and lime marmalade and blueberry jam previously, they turned out alright but I couldn't say they were very good. I didn't bother too much to perfect my technique as I don't eat jam often. But not this one. Y is a great fan of grape jelly. He particularly likes to spread plastic white bread with peanut butter and grape jelly. The problem is, grape jelly isn't available in the UK supermarkets, so we had to resort to ordering from an online British grocer which sells American foodstuff at £4 a jar! Then one day, I bought a kilo of super sweet South African black grapes in Costco, it suddenly dawned on me that I could use grapes to make jelly! But it was not exactly the quickest jam to make... It took a few hours for the boiled grape mixture to drip through a muslin bag to form grape juice (luckily this process didn't involve manual labour nor did it involve me looking at the mixture, otherwise I would have given up at this point). But the end product was so worth it, as it tasted exactly like Welch grape jelly! Now the jam jar has been scraped down to the bottom and it is time to make another batch! Being the clever, somewhat lazy, homemaker, I make the jelly with shop bought 100% grape juice this time! 20 minutes it's done! Voila!

Ingredients:

1. 325ml pure grape juice
2. 240g jam sugar
3. juice of half a lemon

Method:

• First, wash the jar and lid with warm soapy water. Dry it in a warm oven for about 20 minutes to sterilise the jar.
• Heat the grape juice, jam sugar and lemon juice in a pot. Stir to dissolve the jam sugar completely.
• If you have a food/jam therometer, when the temperature reaches 105c, the mixture has reached the setting point. If you don't have a food thermometer, put some saucers into the freezer for at least 10 minutes. When the mixture comes to a roaring boil, let it boil for a further 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take out one saucer from the freezer and pour about a teaspoon of mixture onto the cold saucer. Run a finger through the jam. If the surface of the jelly wrinkles, it has reached the setting point. If not, continue to test at 3-minute intervals.
• Once the setting point is reached, turn off the heat and let the jam cool down for 15 minutes. Then, pour it into the hot sterilised jar, cover it straight away with a waxed disc. Store in the fridge when it has cooled down completely.

Banoffee Pie

I am not a big fan of banana nor am I a super fan of caramel. But the two goes so well together that Banoffee Pie, in my humble opinion, has got to be one of the greatest British desserts... I was first introduced this dessert by my Irish floormate who made this for the floor dinner back in 2006 (while we were living in a London private hall) and it was so good that I asked for the recipe afterwards...

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1. 150g digestive biscuits
2. 75g butter, melted
3. 1/2 can of condensed milk
4. 2 bananas
5. 150ml doublecream
6. 1 tablespoon caster sugar
7. grated chocolate, to dust

Method:

• Use a piece of foil to wrap around a 6' round shallow dish.
• Put the whole can of condensed milk (keep it unopened) into a deep pot. The pot should be filled with water and cover the whole can by at least 2 cm. Boil the can for at least 2 hours on low heat, making sure the can is submerged in water at all times. Take the can out to cool completely.
• Melt the butter. Use a rolling pin to bash the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag until the biscuits become fine crumbs. Mix the melted butter with the biscuit crumbs and carefully place them onto the dish. Use the palm of your hand or a spoon to even out the biscuit crumbs on the base and sides of the dish. Refridgerate for half an hour to set.
• Open the can of condensed milk; it should now become caramel. Spread about half a can of the caramel onto the biscuit base.
• Whip the double cream with sugar until peaks form.
• Cut the bananas into 1.5cm slices and place them evenly on the caramel. Cover with whipped cream. Dust with chocolate shavings. Great to serve immediately; or have it frozen and then slightly thawed, believe me, it's even better!!!

Macau Portugese Egg Tarts

Food goes in and out of fashion, particularly in Hong Kong. Right now, scones are all the rage. Echoing Hong Kong fast-paced spirit, the food that is popular at the moment will usually have a short life span of 6 months. Usually it is like this: one shop start selling novel food (usually the food is foreign, and the shop owner imports skills and raw materials from overseas); people start talking about it and queue for it; many more imitation shops open; and interest for that food starts to wane, and ultimately, everyone has lost interest in it, and the shops are closed and the food is gone. This has happened to countless food, like potato chips doused in various sauces; Japanese cuttlefish balls; cream puffs... and Macau Portugese Egg Tart was one of them. What is different is that instead of disappearing in the Hong Kong food scene altogether, we still have KFC who are selling it and we can easily go to Macau, which is just one hour away, to have the real McCoy.

I can find Portugese Tarts here in London, but apparently they are 'real' Portugese Egg Tarts (which are sweeter and has a denser and harder custard) and I prefer the Macanese version... So I resorted to create the Macanese flavours by researching on the internet.

For the pastry, I use Delia's 'cheat' flaky pastry instead of the usual puff pastry. It is drier, less oily and crunchier. Of course, you can make your own puff pastry or buy readymade puff pastry.

Makes 12 mini Portugese Egg Tarts (I used a 12 hole bun tin, you can use ordinary Chinese tart cases, but will only yield 6)

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

1. 55g butter
2. 85g plain flour
3. pinch of salt
4. 1 1/2 tablespoon icy cold water

For the filling:

1. 60g doublecream
2. 60g full fat milk
3. 25g sugar
4. 2 egg yolks
5. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

• Weigh out the butter for the pastry and wrap in a foil and put into the freezer for 45 minutes.
• Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Take out the frozen butter and use a coarse grater to grate the butter into the bowl with the flour. Use a wooden spatula to scatter the butter among the flour. Add the icy cold water, continue stirring until the flour and butter come together. Use your hand to shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
• While the pastry dough is resting, make the filling by putting cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan in a pan on low heat until bubbles starts appearing. Bring it off the heat and add egg yolks and vanilla essence. Pour the mixture over a sieve and let it cool a while.
• Preheat oven to 200c and brush melted butter on the bun tray.
• When the dough finishes resting, take it out and roll it to 2mm thickness and use an appropriate round cutter to cut out 12 tarts and carefully place them on the buttered tray. Fill the tart with the custard mixtures to 2/3 full.
• Bake in the oven for 12 minutes in 200c and lower the temperature to 170c and bake for 8 further minutes. Best served while warm.

Cinnamon and Vanilla Crème Brûlée

Creme brulee is the ultimate dessert to many, but alas until I had made this did I realise this wasn't the case for Y. I had always thought that Y loves custard in any form, but it turned out that baked custard is the exception. So despite me very pleased with my first attempt at making Creme Brulee (it was meltingly smooth and rich), this dessert will be fondly documented and remembered here and it will be sometime I make this again... *doh*

Serves 2

Ingredients

1. 250ml double cream
2. 75ml full fat milk
3. Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
4. 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5. 3 egg yolks
6. 30g caster sugar, plus extra for making the caramel crust

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180c.
• Slice the vanilla pod and scape the seeds out. In a pan, add the vanilla seeds with the double cream and milk. Turn on a medium heat and stir gently. When you see bubbles appear around the edges, take the pan off the heat. Add in the ground cinnamon and stir.
• In the meantime, use a hand whisk to whisk 30g of caster sugar with the egg yolks for 2 minutes until pale and a bit thicker in texture.
• Pour the hot cream into the yolks, and stir gently with a whisk. Spoon off any foam on top.
• Use a beaked jug to pour the mixture over a fine sieve into two 200ml ramekins. Carefully place the two ramekins in a large baking tray and fill the baking tray with a few cups of hot water to form a water bath.
• Cover the top of the ramekins with foil.
• Bake for 30 minutes, and remove the foil carefully to check if they are softly set. They should wobble a bit in the middle. Let cool completely and place in the fridge for two hours to set.
• When ready to serve, sprinkle caster sugar (if you want extra vanilla scent, you can use vanilla sugar) on each ramekin and swirl gently so that the sugar coats the surface evenly. Use a fine water spritzer to spray some water on the sugar and then use a blow torch to caramelise it. Wait for 1 or 2 minutes and use a teaspoon to tap to see if the sugar has hardened. If you feel like a thicker crust, do a second layer of sugar and caramelise it again.

Glutinous Rice Ball with Peanut and Coconut Filling

To Pecky

One of the highlights of my trip to Hong Kong was to learn how to make these Law Mai Chis (Glutinous Rice Ball). These are soft, squidgy rice balls usually filled with either peanut and coconut or black sesame paste. My friend was kind enough to ask her relatives, who have been making this for years to sell at their shop, to show me how they make it. Of course I will not divulge their secret recipe, but I have included here my adapted recipe and my take at it...

Makes 12

Ingredients

1. 100g + 40g sugar
2. 150g dessicated coconut
3. 270g peanuts
4. 150g glutinous rice flour, plus more to dust the hands and work surface
5. 120ml coconut cream
6. 60ml water
   

Method

• Roast the peanuts in the oven until golden brown. Take out to cool.
• In the food processor, whizz 100g sugar, dessicated coconut and peanuts together until they resemble breadcrumbs. Set aside in a bowl.
• In another bowl, mix glutinous rice flour, 40g sugar, coconut cream and water together thoroughly. It should be a smooth paste with no lumps of flour.
• Pour the dough into an oiled shallow dish and steam for 20 minutes. Check if the dough is cooked by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, the dough is cooked.
• Let the dough cool a little until it is not too hot to handle. Dust your hands and work surface with glutinous rice flour. Divide the dough into 12 portions.
• Use your palm or a rolling pin to press down each portion of the dough until about 3-4mm thick. Put in the centre a tablespoon of the coconut and peanut filling and use your fingertips to pinch the edges together and roll with your hands to form a ball.
• Dust the ball with glutinous rice flour/dessicated coconut. Serve and eat within 2 days.

ChocoNut Cookies in a Jar

The last 10 weeks went past like a swirlwind. So many things happened: the Exam, the loss of a friend, my mom's eye operation, the trip to HK, Y's sis' wedding, meeting with family and friends, Christmas preparation, snowman building... ...

This Christmas, we are giving these pretty filled jars (one muffin mix, one cookie mix) to Y's 2 cousins as Christmas presents. Since they are both going to uni soon, we hope that they would enjoy cooking and baking for themselves, their family and friends.

Preparation

• A 1L glass jar with lid. I use Kilner jars here; but on hindsight, I should have probably used a taller glass jar so that the layering effects are more visible.
• Ribbons to decorate and a tag to write baking instructions and greetings.

Ingredients to be put in the jar

• 110g plain flour
• 1/4 ts baking powder
• 1/4 ts bicarb of soda
• a pinch of salt
• 75g light brown sugar
• 75g caster sugar
• 70g rolled oats
• 130 m&ms and chocolate chips
• 100g pistachio nuts (or any other nuts you prefer)

Additional ingredients

• 125g melted butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 ts vanilla extract

Method

1. Put flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a bowl. Pour them into the glass jar carefully. Top with brown sugar, caster sugar, then oats, then m&ms and chocolate chips, and finally nuts. It is important to put things in this order if you don't want seepage of ingredients that muddles the layering effect.
2. In the tag, write down the instructions as follows: 'Preheat oven to 190c. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Tip the ingredients into a large bowl. Add butter, egg and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Shape the dough into balls and place on baking trays approximately 5cm apart. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned but still a little soft in the middle. Turn the cookies to a wire rack to cool.'

Chocolate Fondant

I am not a chocolate person and I have always felt that I am the only person on this planet who doubt the theraputic effects of chocolate. Until now that is. This beautiful, rich and very chocolatey pudding has managed to bring some warmth to this gloomy day. Since this one is an effective remedy to nearly all kinds of gloominess, I suggest (and this is what I have done here) making some to be put into the freezer, so that this chocolate fondant can come to your rescue in 12 minutes...

Makes 6 7cm diameter(120ml) round ramekins

Ingredients:

1. 100g dark choclate (again, Valrhona is the best for the job), roughly chopped
2. 100g butter, roughly diced
3. 60g caster sugar
4. 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
5. 50g plain flour
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 20g butter, melted, for brushing
8. cocoa powder, for coating
9. icing sugar, for dusting

Method:

• Prepare the ramekins by brushing melted butter all over the inside of the ramekins. Then add some cocoa powder into a ramekin and swirl the ramekin so that the cocoa coats the inside of the ramekin. Tap off excess cocoa. Repeat until all ramekins are coated with cocoa (Note: I used Gu dessert glass ramekins - 7cm in diameter and can hold 120ml of liquid. You can use ramekins of other sizes, but the cooking time has to be adjusted.)
• Put inside a bowl the chocolate pieces and the diced butter and place it over a pan of simmering water, make sure the water is not touching the base of the bowl. Remove the bowl once the butter and chocolate are fully melted. Take out and leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
• While the chocolate and butter is melting, place sugar, eggs, yolks and vanilla extract in a large bowl and use an electric whisk (on a high speed) to whisk until the mixture has doubled in volume and leaves a trail like a piece of ribbon.
• Use one hand to pour the chocolate and butter mixture slowly while using the other hand (with a spatula) to fold in the mixture carefully. Sift flour over the mixture and fold again until fully combined. The mixture should resemble a loose cake batter.
• Divide the mixture between the 6 ramekins (about 80% full). Bake in a preheated oven of 200c for 9-10 minutes.
• If you are freezing them, cover each with clingfilm and keep in the freezer. When you need them, pre-heat the oven to 200c for 10 minutes and bake for 12 minutes.
• The puddings should have risen but without any cracks (cracks indicate over-baking and there will be no melting chocolate centre). Leave to cool for 1 minute. Slid a palette knife or a skewer around the edges so that the fondant can be turn out easily. Serve immediately with vanilla icecream.

Birthday brownies

To the July birthday stars: Alice, Christine, Eric, Jenny, Judy, Sze Wing and Pik To

Happy birthday! With this post you can claim a dozen of brownies from me if you drop by London...hehe...

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients:

1. 200g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 68% dark chocolate)
2. 175g unsalted butter
3. 300g caster sugar
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
5. 120g plain flour
6. 3 large eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170c and place a piece of parchment paper on the 33 x 23 x 5 cm baking tray. Grease the sides of the tray.
• Roughly chop the chocolate and the butter and put in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (be careful: don't let the base of the bowl touch the water) until fully melted. Remove the bowl and let cool.
• Add sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir well.
• Sieve in flour and fold until fully incorporated.
• Finally fold in all the eggs and the vanilla mixture.
• Pour the brownie mixture on the prepared baking tray and bake for 30 minutes. By then, the top should set but the centre is still soft.
• Take the whole tray out to cool. Cut into 12 slices when the brownie are still warm. When the brownies are completely cooled, dust with icing sugar to decorate.

Scones

Ok. I am going to give yet another simple recipe! I would love to make something grander, but I have been studying quite a lot lately *cough* and there have been quite a lot of chores to do (as Y's parents are away) etc etc. I am, for the first time since I got here, pressed for time.

Y loves scones. I made quite a few scones before, using Annie Leong's recipe, but he didn't raise his eyebrows. But this time, he liked them so much that he took 5 scones to work for his nibble! This is an Aussie recipe and how did they come up with lemonade in scone making I don't really know. But I guess the carbonated water in the lemonade helps to bring air in the scone hence making it lighter and fluffier... And there is no excuse not making these scones because you don't even need a measuring cup! The most difficult step is step 3, but I managed it with no problem and so should you!

Ingredients:

1. 1 part double cream
2. 1 part lemonade (I used Schweppes Original Lemonade, you can also use Sprite and 7-up)
3. 3 parts self-raising flour
4. sugar (optional)

Note: what I mean is you use the same bowl/cup/mug/glass to measure all ingredients.

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c.
• Mix doublecream and lemonade together.
• This is the most difficult step: DO NOT TRY TO TASTE THE DOUBLECREAM AND LEMONADE MIXTURE BECAUSE YOU WILL END UP DRINKING THEM ALL.
• Pour the doublecream and lemonade into the self-raising flour (and sugar, if using). Use a table knife to mix it very lightly. I basically just let them come together a bit without them really forming into a ball.
• Pour out the dough on a clean worktop and use a rolling pin (if you don't have a rolling pin, just use a beer bottle) to very lightly roll it to about 2.5 cm thickness. Remember don't press it down, because you will squeeze out the air. Just lightly roll it so the surface got evened out.
• Use a cookie cutter (if you don't have cookie cutter, just use a knife) to cut out the scones. Remember don't twist the cookie cutter when cutting out the scones, if you want to get a lovely crack on the sides (the lovely crack is later for you to cut up the scone easily and put in clotted cream and jam).
• You can brush some milk on top.
• Put in oven to bake for 15 - 20 minutes.
• Serve with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

Pistachio and Rose Meringues

Please bear with me while I am posting some more meringues! It was such a breeze to make but the result was deeply satisfying. This time, I added Y's no.1 favourite nut, pistachio and my favourite scent, rose to the meringue batter. According to Y, this is best eaten crumbled with pistachio gelato...

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1. 2 large egg whites
2. 100g caster sugar
3. 2 tablespoons finely processed pistachios
4. 3 drops rosewater
5. 3 dried rose buds
6. green food colouring (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 150c.
• Whisk the egg whites using an electric mixer on a low speed. Whisk until the whites are foamy, then switch the speed gradually to high and continue whisking the whites until stiff peaks form.
• Then add in the sugar gradually, one tablespoonful each time, into the whites until you have a glossy and stiff mixture. Add in rose water, pistchios and green food coloring (if using). Fold in lightly.
• On a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, spoon and shape the mixture to form 8 little meringues. Sprinkle dried rose petals on the meringues.
• Immediately, put them into oven and reduce the heat to 140c. Bake for 30 minutes.
  Turn off the heat in the oven and allow the meringue to dry out in the oven for a few hours or overnight.
  

Meringues, Meringues and More Meringues

I think the biggest realisation of living in the UK is that simplicity is a beauty in itself. I remember when I left Hong Kong, someone at work said to me, 'There is no way you can stand the boring life in the UK. You are definitely going back in a few years' time.' I have been here for about 8 months now and I am grateful that I enjoy my simple life here... Gone were the days I worked for 12 hours a day, gone were the days of unreasonable phonecalls from clients and gone were the days where I had to mind my every little step in the name of prudence...

To put forward my case that - simple is good, I offer you this simple but heavenly meringue with a crunchy shell and marshmallowly centre...

Serves 8

For Meringue Nests

Ingredients:

1. 2 large egg whites
2. 100g caster sugar
3. pink food colouring (optional)
   

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 150c.
• Whisk the egg whites using an electric mixer on a low speed. Whisk until the whites are foamy, then switch the speed gradually to high and continue whisking the whites until stiff peaks form.
• Then add in the sugar gradually, one tablespoonful each time, into the whites until you have a glossy and stiff mixture. Add in food coloring.
• On a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, spoon and shape the mixture to form 8 little nests.
• Immediately, put them into oven and reduce the heat to 140c. Bake for 30 minutes.
• Turn off the heat in the oven and allow the meringue to dry out in the oven for a few hours or overnight.

What to do with meringue:

1. Place Cadbury's Mini Eggs in the meringue (as pictured above).
2. Whip up some cream and mix it with the pulp of passionfruit/some raspberries and rest the mixture on the meringue.

3. Make Eton Mess by crumbling a meringue nest and mix it with strawberries and whipped cream and strawberry juice (by whizzing the strawberries in a food processor and sieve out the pulp and seeds). Or if you fancy a less known version of Eton Mess, mash up a banana with a few drops of lime juice and mess it up with cream and crumbled meringue...

Coconut and Pandan Pudding with Aduki Beans

This, I think, is the Chinese version of panna cotta. Strangely I've never got to like panna cotta, but I love this Chinese pud. Traditionally, it is made with yellow split peas ('ma dou')/aduki beans with coconut cream. I twisted it a little by adding pandan water, which complements coconut cream really well... Yum!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1. 35g Aduki beans
2. 60ml evaporated milk
3. 100g sugar
4. 130g coconut cream
5. 50g cornflour
6. 2 leaf gelatine
7. 3 pandan leaves
8. Water

Method:

• Soak the aduki beans for a few hours and boil them in water until soft. Drain.
• Cut the pandan leaves into small pieces and whizz them with some warm water in a food processor. Use a sieve to filter the pandan water into a bowl. Discard the leaves.
• Add warm water to the pandan water to make a total of 300ml of pandan water.
• In another bowl, soak the leaf gelatine with 100ml of cold water. When the gelatine leaves are softened, put the bowl over a pot of simmering water until the gelatine leaves are fully dissolved. Take out the bowl to let it cool a little.
• In another bowl, put in the coconut cream, evaporated milk and cornflour and mix well.
• In a pan over medium heat, dissolve sugar with pandan water.
• Then add in the cornflour mixture. Stir constantly until it comes to a boil. You will see the the mixture starts to thicken and turn gluey.
• Remove the pan from the heat. Add in the gelatine water and blend well. Also add in the aduki beans.
• Pour the mixture into ramekins. Let it cool completely and store in the fridge to set.