Mixed Fruits with Lime Mint Pineapple Yogurt

Quick and easy dessert that is effortless to do and delicious to eat. Best last minute dessert.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup   Greek style yogurt
1    tbsp. Chopped mint
1    tsp.   Grated lime zest
Juice of 1/2 lime
2    tsp.   Pineapple jam
4    pcs.  Crushed plain sweet cookies
Grapes, strawberry, papaya, canned pineapple and blueberry

How to do it?

Mix well the yogurt with mint, lime zest, lime juice and pineapple jam.

Place half in a wine glass topped with crushed cookies. Place a layer of fruits on top of the cookies crumbs the top again with the remaining yogurt. Add more fruits on top.

Serve :)

Kenny's No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake

This classic no-bake cheesecake will blown everyone away. No one will ever know that it is so easy to make. Impress your guests with this and believe me they will ask for more.

Ingredients:

200 grams  Plain sweet biscuits, crushed into crumbs
130 grams  Melted butter
500 grams  Cream Cheese
500 grams  Sweetened condensed Milk
1/2  cup       Fresh lemon juice
2     tbsp.     Lemon zest

How to do it?

In a mixing bowl, combine biscuit crumbs and melted butter. Stir until it become wet sand consistency that when you press against the side of the bowl, the biscuit crumbs hold together.

Transfer  the biscuit crumbs mixture into a 9" spring foam tin press the mixture with a flat bottom glass until you have a firm biscuits base. Chill in the fridge.

In the meantime,  put cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Using a electric mixer, mix everything together until you have a thick smooth filing. Fold in the lemon zest.

Transfer the cream cheese filing onto the chilled biscuits base and put into the fridge to set overnight.

Enjoy :)

Lemon Meringue Pie

This is a lovely sharp lemony custard filing pie in a short-crust pastry top with soft pillowy meringue. It took me three attempts to perfect this recipes. Now it has become my favourite. You should try it. It may took a little practise but trust me you will gonna love it. I usually make the filing one day  ahead.

Ingredients:

Short-crust pastry

1 1/2 cups    Plain flour
3       tsp.      Icing sugar
140   grams  Cold unsalted butter, diced
1                   Egg yolk
2       tbsp.    Cold water

Lemon Custard Filing

1/2    cup      Corn flour
1       cup      Castor sugar
1/2    cup      Lemon juice
1 1/4 cup      Water
1       tbsp.    Grated lemon zest
3                   Egg yolks
60     grams  Unsalted butter

Meringue

1/2 cup Castor sugar
4           Egg whites

How to do it?

In a saucepan, add in corn flour, caster sugar, lemon juice and water. Stir constantly over a medium heat until the sugar dissolve and the mixture thickens up to a glue like consistency. Take it off from heat. Add in unsalted butter, egg yolks and lemon zest, stir quickly until all combine. You should have a nice shiny yellow filling as below. Set aside allow to cool then transfer into a container, cover and put it inside the fridge to chill overnight.

To make the crust, sift the flour and icing sugar together. Rub in cold butter until the flour comes together. Add in the egg yolks and cold water, 1 tsp. at a time not too much water, until it brings everything to a smooth dough. Wrap the dough with cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roll the dough out about 2 inches larger than the pie tin with a rolling pin. Roll the dough onto the rolling pin then transfer to the pie tin, trim off any excess. Prick some hole with a fork on the pastry dough then cover with a piece of baking paper and weigh it down with some uncooked rice or beans and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, take the baking paper and the weigh off then put it in the oven for another 10 minutes until the crust is golden brown and start to pull away from the pie tin. Take it out from the oven and let it cool completely.

Once the crust is cool completely, prepare the meringue by beating the egg whites until frothy then gradually add sugar and beat it until stiff peaks formed.

Pour the chilled lemon custard on top of the crust, level it with a rubber spatula. Spoon over the meringue and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 6 - 8 minutes until the meringue brown.

Enjoy.

Notes:

Never over-bake in the final steps as the filling will be watery which will makes your pie soggy.

Rose Mascarpone Cheese with Spice Red Wine Syrup and Strawberry

As I made the Spiced Red Wine Poached Pear which I shared previously in this blog, I have some leftover red wine syrup which I kept in the fridge. So I decided to use up the remaining syrup by turning them into another simple yet delicious dessert. This also comes in handy when you have leftover red wine. Enjoy :)

Ingredients:

1     cup      Spiced red wine syrup (see below)
1/2  cup      Strawberry, hulled and roughly chopped
250 grams  Mascarpone cheese
2     tbsp.    Rose water / essence
2     tbsp.    Icing sugar
1/4  cup      Pine nuts
5                 Cape gooseberry to decorate (optional)

How to do it?

In a container, soak the chopped strawberry in the wine syrup for 40 minutes before serving.

In a mixing bowl, mix Mascarpone cheese, rose water and icing sugar until well incorporated. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Divide the mixture into 5 ice cream glasses. Spoon over the wine syrup and sprinkle some pine nuts. Top each glass with a cape goose berry.

Serve chill.

Notes:

2    cups   Red wine
1/2 cup    Sugar
1              Whole star anise
2               Whole cloves
2               Cinnamon sticks
1               Vanilla bean, split

Combine all the ingredients above in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolve. Bring it to a boil then let it simmer until the syrup is thickens. Leave to cool completely then chill in fridge until you are ready to use it.

Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears

This recipe comes to rescue your left over wine. The red wine and the spice just go so well together and the pear is juicy and tender. What else do you want more? I just have to share this recipe and hope you will enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

4               Pear (I use Packham Pear), just ripe, peeled
2    cups   Red wine
1/2 cup    Sugar
1              Whole star anise
2               Whole cloves
2               Cinnamon sticks
1               Vanilla bean, split
1 packet    Mascarpone cheese (200 grams)
2 tbsp       Icing sugar
2 tsp         Vanilla extract

How to do it?

Cut off the bottom of the pear a little so it could sit straight.

Combine the wine, sugar and the spices in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook for few minutes until the sugar dissolve.   

Add in the pear and cover the saucepan. Make sure the pear covered in wine. If needed add some more wine. Bring it to a boil. Once boiled, reduce the heat and poached the pear for another 40 min - 1 hours or until the pear is tender all the way through when pierced with a knife.

Remove the pear. Continue boil the liquid until it thickens and turn into syrup consistency. Leave it to cool.

In a mixing bowl, mix well mascarpone cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract.

To serve, place the mascarpone cheese mixture on a serving plate. Top the mixture with the poached pear and drizzle over with the syrup.

Enjoy :)

Notes:

The cooking duration depends on the ripeness of you pear. I choose pear that are just ripe. If you have the really ripe pear, you should reduce the cooking time.

If you want non-alcoholic version, use fruit juice instead. I have made the same recipe using Roselle juice and it turns out just as delicious. Perfect if you serve it to the kids.

Banana Walnut Raisins Cake

Banana cake is my all time favourite. The soft, moist and packed with flavour cake with nutty texture is simple irresistible. This is a really moist cake and very good with a cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon.Serve with some fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, you will be in heaven.

Ingredients:

375   grams Plain flour
350   grams Castor sugar
1       tsp      Baking soda
1       tsp      Ground cinnamon
1       tsp      Salt
300   grams Mashed banana
1       cup     Vegetable oil (I use corn oil)
1 1/2 tsp      Vanilla extract
3                  Large eggs
1       cup     Raisins
1/2    cup     Walnut chopped
1/2    cup     Milk  

How to do it?

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add in sugar and mix well with a whisk.

Make a well in the centre of flour mixture. To the flour, add in oil, eggs,vanilla, milk and mashed banana. Mix to incorporate everything together. Fold in the raisins and walnut.

Pour the batter into a 10" tube pan. Bake in the oven for roughly 1 1/2 hour or until it is done. Cool on the rack before remove from the pan.

Pressed Butter Cookies

Classic butter cookies. A very versatile cookies that you can literally do all sorts of variety of butter cookies with this recipe. You can make the dough ahead and roll it into log shape and put it into freezer it can last for months, make cut-out cookie when you desire. Also you can add in nuts or chocolate chips on to of the cookies before baking or put some icing on top or even dip it in the chocolate to make chocolate butter cookies. These buttery cookies are perfect for afternoon tea and as a gift on special a occasions.

Ingredients:

227 grams Unsalted butter, softened
135 grams Castor sugar
296 grams Plain flour
1                Large egg
1     tsp      Vanilla extract
1/2  tsp      Orange zest
1/2  tsp      Lemon zest    
1/4  tsp      Salt
Hundred and thousands for decoration

How to do it?

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg, orange zest, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

In another mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Gradually, add the flour to the butter mixture and beat well to incorporate. Divide the dough in four and turn it into log shape. Put it in the fridge to chill for 40 minutes. If you are doing ahead, just put it in the freezer at this point.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking sheet with some parchment paper.

Take it out from the fridge. Insert the cookie dough into the cookie press and press the cookie on a baking sheet. Spacing about 2 inch between the cookies. Prepare on egg wash by add 1 teaspoon of water to 1 egg white. Brush the top of the cookies and sprinkle over hundred and thousands.

Bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until the edge of the cookies are golden brown. Let it rest on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store the cookies in the air-tight container. It can last for several weeks.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie

 

 

14 Mar is pie day. Let celebrate with fresh pumpkin pie.

 

 

Ingredients:

(A) Crusts

2 2/3 cups All purpose flour

1       tsp    Salt

1       cups Cold unsalted butter (200 grams)

1/2    cup   Cold water

 

(B) Filing

2    cups Fresh cooked pumpkin, mashed

1    can   Evaporated milk (350 ml)

2            Eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup  Soft packed brown sugar

1     tsp  Ground cinnamon

1     tsp  Ground nutmeg

1/2  tsp  Ginger

1/2  tsp  Salt

 

How to do it?



Pre-heat oven to 200°C.

In a mixing bowl, mix together flour and salt. Put in the cold butter. With a knife, mix the flour and butter in cutting motion. Add 1 tbsp cold water to mixture at a time continue mix it until the dough is moist enough to hold together.

Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and shape it into a ball. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Place the pie tin upside down on the dough. Cut the dough 1 1/2 inch larger than the 9 inch pie tin.

Gently roll the dough around the rolling pin and transfer it right upside on to the pie tin. Unroll, ease dough into the bottom of the pie pan.

In a large bowl, add in mashed pumpkin, evaporated milk, beaten eggs, brown sugar, spices and salt. Combine everything with an electric mixer until combined. Pour into the prepared crust.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filing is set. To check, simple insert a knife one inch deep and pull out. If the edge is clean then it is cooked.

Hope you enjoy it :-)

Tiramisu

A classic coffee-flavour Italian dessert. It is a must have dessert if you are a coffee addict and chocoholic. Most importantly it is easy to do.

Ingredients:

200 grams Ladyfingers (sweet sponge biscuits) (20 - 24 pcs)
250 grams Mascarpone cheese
60   grams Castor sugar
2                Eggs, separated
200 ml       Strong black coffee (warm)
1     tbsp     Kahlua or other coffee liquor (optional)
A pinch of salt
Cocoa powder for dusting

How to do it?

Cream the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Add in mascarpone cheese and mix well. Set aside.

In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until it formed soft peaks. Set aside.

Gently dip half of the ladyfingers into the coffee just till it absorb just enough liquid. Do not put too long or it will become mushy. Arrange the dipped fingers into a baking dish.

Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Pour half of the mixture on top of the ladyfingers and dust it with cocoa powder.

Repeat the same for the second layer. Put in the fridge to set for 4 - 6 hours or overnight.

Before serving, dust more cocoa powder on top.

Enjoy :-)

Plum Almond Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a French dessert which traditionally made with black cherries that top with a pudding like batter. Instead of black cherries, I am gonna make this dessert with the excess plums that I have in my fridge. Serve this at the dinner table or weekend get together. Everyone gonna love it especially warm from the oven. Just serve this with some icing sugar, custard, whipping cream or even vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

350 grams Plums (halve and pitted)
250 ml       Whipping cream
100 ml        Milk
1                 Vanilla pod
3                  Eggs
80  grams    Caster sugar
80  grams    Ground Almonds

How to do it?

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Lightly grease a shallow baking dish.

In a saucepan, pour in cream and milk. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seed out. Put the vanilla pod and seed into the cream mixture. Bring to a simmer over low heat, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and ground almonds. Remove the vanilla pod from the cream mixture and stir the cream mixture into the egg mixture until well combined.

Arrange the plums in the baking dish. Pour the batter over the plums and bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm with dusted icing sugar, custard, whipping cream or ice cream if desired.

Notes:

You may substitute the plums with other fruits like peach, cherries, dried prunes and etc.

Chocolate Mud Cake with simple icing

 

Chocolate? Who doesn't love it? I will share with you a simple chocolate that are so easy to put together and the best part it comes with a simple chocolate icing. The moist chocolate cake top with the simple sweet chocolate icing it's just irresistible.

Ingredients:

(A) Chocolate cake

1 1/2 cup     Self raising flour
1/3    cup     Cocoa powder, sifted
1       cup     Sugar
1       cup     Milk
2                  Eggs
125   grams Butter, room temperature
1       tsp      Kahlua / Instant coffee powder (optional)
1/2    tsp      Vanilla extract

(B) Chocolate Icing

1 1/3 cup     Icing sugar
1/4    cup     Cocoa powder
4       tbsp    Water

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC. Grease and lined an 8" round baking tin.

Sift together self-raising flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter for 2 minutes until creamy. Add in sugar and continue to beat for 5 - 8 minutes until it is light and fluffy.

Add in egg, one at a time into the butter mixture. Mix in Kahlua / instant coffee powder and vanilla extract.

Fold in flour and milk alternately starting and ending with cocoa flour mixture in three addition. Mix well to combined.

Transfer to the baking tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until it is cooked all the way through. Cool in a wire rack.

Once cool, prepare the icing by mixing together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and water until it becomes a thick and spreadable consistency. Pour over the cake and spread evenly on the cake.

Easy Chocolate Fudge

Last minute preparation when your friends are on the way and you don't have time to bake? Now here is the simple chocolate fudge that are so simple to make that it's just take a few minutes to assemble. All you need is to melt the chocolate down and pop it into the fridge to set. Just three ingredients needed.

Ingredients:

50   grams Butter (unsalted)
375 grams Dark chocolate
395 grams Sweetened Condensed Milk

How to do it?

Prepare a square baking tin and line with some baking paper. Leave some excess baking paper at the edge so you could easily take it out when it is set.

Place all the ingredients in a large heat proof bowl and put it on top of a saucepan with some boiling water in it. Slowly melt down all the ingredients until smooth. Alternately, just pop everything into a microwave oven on high setting for 3 minutes.

Very quickly, transfer the melted chocolate mixture into a baking pan and set it in fridge to 1 - 2 hours. Cut it in slices and you are ready to serve.

Just that easy. You must try it and sure every would love it.

Orange Chiffon Cake

The soft, sweet, tangy and full of flavour cake will just blown everyone away. It is perfect for afternoon tea or party and it's cheap too.

Ingredients:

(A) Orange cake batter

225 grams Cake flour, sifted
250 grams Caster sugar
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp    Orange oil or orange essence (if you can't find it use vanilla instead)          
6 Egg yolk
2 tbsp  Orange zest
180 ml  Freshly squeezed orang juice (approx. 3 - 4 oranges)          
120 ml Vegetable oil (I use corn oil)

(B) Egg whites

7 Egg whites
50 grams Caster sugar
3/4 tsp Cream of tartar (or white vinegar)

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 170ºC. You will need a 10" tube pan (ungreased) for this recipe.

In a mixing bowl, combined flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a balloon whisk, whisk every to combine. After that, make a well in the centre. To the well, add in egg yolks, oil, orange juice, orange oil and orange zest. Beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth and combine. It should only take 1-2 minutes.

Using separate clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed until it is foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and continue to beat until it form soft peaks. Gradually, add in the sugar slowly and beat until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites formed stiff peaks.

Using a large spatula, fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the orange batter to lighten the batter. Add in the remaining egg whites and fold gently. Do it gently if not your cake batter will deflate.

Pour the combined batter into the tube pan and bake for 50 - 60 minutes until the skewer comes out clean when inserted and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Invert the cake immediate once it is come out of the oven. Let the cake cooled completely before removing from the pan.

Notes:

To test whether the sugar has dissolved in your eggs whites, simple place a little egg whites on to your thumb and rub it against you index finger. It should not feel grainy. If it does, you might need to beat it for another moment.

Do not open your oven once the batter put in. Only open after at least 45 minutes.

Mix the batter as gently as possible so as not to deflate the air bubble inside the batter.