For the 2nd year in a row I have been baking my own mooncakes to be given away to relatives. Last year I took up a lesson in mooncake making from a local baking supply shop–I needed to learn the trick of getting the mooncake skin really thin while the cake is filled with a generous amount of paste filling. I must say the lesson costing RM 80, was worth every single sen.

The secret to having a very pliable dough lied in the golden syrup that I used–to be specific Tate and Lyle’s. Westerners are familiar with this syrup at the breakfast table, drizzled over plump and fluffy pancakes or that crispy waffle. The consistency of the syrup allowed the well-rested dough to remain pliable while I stretch it thin, wrapping it around a ball of paste.

Mom was my mooncake moulding helper. I passed the mooncakes over to her and using her body weight and strong arms she pressed out these lovely cakes like a machine. I have 3 designs which I use to differentiate the type of filling per mooncake.

With 4 kilos of lotus and pandan paste filling we managed to output approx 70+ moonies in about 3 hours. Baking them was the easy part–they had to go into the oven for 30 minutes, stopping 2 times at 10 minutes and 20 minutes for the egg glaze. The result after 30 minutes doesn’t look very appetizing–the skin is slightly spotty, dry, not shiny and is very tough. Crispy too.

The secret is to leave them to release its oils, usually appearing after 3-4 days in a container. The skin starts to soften, the colour turns darker, the oil is started to secrete slowly giving it a very good shine and the mooncake design comes up even sharper.

After a week, this is how it looks like. Notice how the colours has evened out? Mooncakes are not difficult to make at all, it’s just time consuming. And, uses a lot of elbow grease, particularly if you’re using those traditional wooden moulds. All the knocking may even hurt your eardrums!

This year we attempted an all time favourite, the mixed nuts mooncake. Traditionally, it contains bits of ham but we stuck to the nuts combo. The filling was a challenge, toasting everything, chopping them, getting them to bind together, shaping into 55g balls–argh–next year probably think twice about this. Now I know why these are so pricey!

If you ever thought of making your own mooncakes, go for a class. It’s really the technique that you pay money to master, and then it’s a smooth ride after. Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

Inspired by Pastor Ryan’s handmade pasta, I fiddled around with the measurements (the eggs mom bought were rather small) and came up with my own combination — 4 eggs, 3 cups of flour and plenty, PLENTY of elbow grease. Oh, remember to tie back your hair and pin up your fringe. You’ll sweat like you’re running a marathon. OK, maybe you’ll sweat like you’re walking up a flight of staircase like 25 times.

Anyhoo, after endless kneading for about 30 mins, I split the dough into smaller balls so that we could put it through the noodle maker to roll into thin sheets.

Once the sheets were rolled out, we dusted it with plenty of flour, just to make sure they don’t stick to each other when we stack ‘em up.

Mom’s trusty noodle make is older than me. Seriously. It still looks new sturdy cos we use it like once in 2 years. Ok, maybe once in 5 years. Anyhoo, we then cut out the sheets into lovely strands of 0.5 cm thick fettucine…

…and continue to shower them with lotsa flour to keep them all from clumping up–like a cold instant noodles.

Then, we boil them in salted water, and once they begin to float to the surface, we transfer them into a cold bath so it’ll stop the cooking process and get all chewy, bouncy with a slight bite to it. My Italian friends would say–al dente.

Serve with your favourite pasta sauce.

This is not my first attempt at baking a cheesecake, in fact I’ve done it so many times, it’s quite a walk in the park for me. IF there’s one thing you should know when baking a cheesecake, is to not OVER bake it. As long as the filling ain’t jiggly, it’s done! If you see a crack in your cheesecake, don’t fret, try again till you get it rite. This is however my first shot at having durian in my cheesecake. I’ve never thought the nasty fruit could complement the creaminess of the cheese but after hearing so much about it and tasting Secret Recipe’s Durian Cheesecake at FIL’s birthday, I decided to give it a try. Turned out pretty tasty. Give it a try!

Step 1 – The biscuit base

1. Line the base of a 9” springform pan
2. 40 pcs or more, marie biscuit crumbs, depending on the thickness of the crust you’re looking for
3. Melt a knob of butter enough to combine the biscuit crumbs together
4. With a spoon, compact the crumbs to the sides of the pan and the base
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 150 ° Celsius for 10 mins
6. Remove to cool then using aluminum foil, wrap the base of the springform pan to avoid water seeping through during the steam bake process

Step 2 – The cheese filling ingredients

• 500 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 200 g durian flesh, mashed with a fork
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup of sugar

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl 2 – 3 times during the process to ensure there are no lumps
2. Add sugar and continue beating for a further 5 mins
3. Add in egg yolks and flour and beat until combined
4. Pour in the milk and vanilla extract and beat on low speed until the mixture has come together into a smooth batter
5. Finally add in the durian flesh, and mix till combined, set aside
6. In a separate clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar + sugar until stiff.
7. Fold egg whites into the cheese mixture and using a spatula, careful not to deflate the egg whites
8. Pour batter into the biscuit base
9. Steam bake for 30 minutes at 150 ° Celsius
10. Leave to cool before chilling in the fridge overnight before serving
11. Warning, makes everything in your fridge smells funky!

Earlier I baked these “not-for-those-who-have-nut-allergy” cookies. It has 2 whole cups of chopped pecans, walnuts and almonds. Something in the nuts gave the cookies a slight spicy flavour. I also added rind from one orange to give it a lil bit of a citrus tang. This is a semi chewy cookie so, here’s the recipe:

170g butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds combined

• Cream butter and brown sugar until pale, for about 7-10 minutes
• Add in milk, vanilla extract and the egg, mix on low speed until combined
• Sift all dry ingredients together and fold into the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until everything is evenly combined
• Pour in the chopped nuts and mix on low speed for another 1 minute.
• Using a spoon, drop spoonfuls of the cookie batter onto a lined tray, keeping it well spaced in between each cookie. It will expand.
• Bake at a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celcius for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Cool before storing in an air tight container

As I was grating the orange rind last nite for this recipe, I thought I’d like to introduce you to my favourite kitchen tool. My very very precious Microplane grater. I love how it can get the rind out without much effort, just like how Anna Olson does it on Sugar. People, meet my really great, grater.

I had some leftover pineapple jam from CNY hidden away in the freezer, and some leftover unbaked quiche crust from the Cheating Spinach Quiche I made last month. My brain went *tick tick tick* and I decided to turn them into Pineapple Cinnamon Crumble Rolls. I refered to (and modified the method a lil) Pioneer Woman’s fantabulous Cinnamon Roll dough (half recipe) and used up all my leftover pineapple jam as the filling. I then made a crumble topping with the leftover unbaked quiche crust, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and chopped almonds. Boy … they were surprisingly tasty (and crunchy on top yums!)

So here goes (makes approx. 30 rolls):

Dough
-A-
470 ml milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
7g dry yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
-B-
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp salt

Filling
1/2 cup – 1 cup Pineapple Jam (the same stuff that you’d use for pineapple tarts, available at all baking supply shops) — or u can use any jam that you have.

Crumble topping – combine everything in a bowl and mix thoroughly
Leftover unbaked quiche crust, about the size of a soap bar (quiche crust mainly contains almost equal amounts of flour and butter, some salt, sugar, and sometimes egg yolks to bind it together)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup of chopped almonds

1. In a saucepan, heat up milk until lukewarm (the kinda heat that you can leave your finger in the milk and don’t feel like you’re cooking ur flesh). Then add in the sugar and stir till dissolved. Then throw in the yeast and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
2. In a big mixing bowl, put in the 4 cups of flour. Then, pour in the milk mixture and the 1/2 cup of oil. Using a spatula, mix until everything is combined, then cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour.
3. In another bowl, combine the 1/2 cup of flour + baking powder + baking soda + salt. Then add onto the risen dough (after 1 hour) and with your hands knead the dough until all the flour has been incorporated.
4. Generously flour your work table and roll out the dough into a rectangle approx. 1 cm thick.
5. Using your fingers evenly spread the pineapple jam all over the dough. Roll up (like a Swiss Roll) and pinch the edges to seal. Then using a knife/plastic scraper, cut the roll into 1.5 inch thick pieces.
6. Using your fingers, stuff some crumble on top of the rolls, just enough to cover it. Repeat with the remaining 29 rolls.
7. Set aside to rise for another 20 minutes before baking it in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees Celcius for 20 – 30 minutes.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack before storing in air tight containers.

-A-
250gm Cream cheese
100ml Milk
50gm Butter

-B-
6 Egg yolks
70gm Castor sugar
1 tsp lemon oil *optional
60gm all purpose flour
20gm cornflour
(Sift both flours together)

-C-
6 Egg whites
1/4tsp Cream of tartar
70gm Castor sugar

Method:
1. Cut up cream cheese and butter into small cubes (to ease the melting process) and put into heat proof bowl over double boiler with milk and heat till everything melts and well incorporated. Leave to cool.
2. Mix egg yolks, sugar, lemon oil and slowly add in sifted flour making sure there’s no lumps. Add into cheese mixture and mix well.
3. Beat egg whites, add in cream of tartar when foamy followed by sugar slowly and continue beating till soft peaks form – slightly stiff but not dry.
4. Pour cream cheese mixture into egg whites and fold in both mixtures.
5. Pour into a silicone 8 inch round pan and bake in a water bath (filled about 1inch) at preheated oven at 120′c for 1 hour and  or until top is golden brown and clean when inserted with tester. The cake shouldn’t be wiggly and will be firm to the touch.
6. Do not remove cake from oven and leave to cool in oven with door ajar. Cake will slightly shrink and loosen from sides. Chill well in fridge before serving.

Decorators use rolled fondant to cover cakes, so it gets a nice, smooth appearance — just like our wedding cake seen here:

There’s more to fondant than wedding cakes. I love modelling with fondant cos you can shape it into anything you want. Like these lovely petunias I recently made in preparation for my best friend’s weddingOr these forget-me-notsOr this huge blooming roseOr carrots and cheese

Or these cute lil’ baby Crocs, flip flops, booties, heels

Or Mr Birdie and multi-colored ducklings

Or PacMan, Mr Leg and  plain boobiesGosh, the possibilities are endless.

Pastry
Buy a pack of pineapple tart pastry mix and follow the instructions there. One 420g pre-mix can yield 3 pastry shells on a regular loose bottom tart/flan pan which is approx. 1 inch in height, 9 inches in diameter. Once you’ve mixed together the pastry dough, divide it equally into 3 parts, and keep the other 2 in the freezer for future use.

With the soft dough, press onto your tart/flan pan, trim edges, and bake in a preheated oven at 170 deg Celcius for 20 minutes. While this is baking, prepare your filling.

P/S: Better still, buy ready made tart shells from Cold Storage or Village Grocer, lagi cheating!

Filling
100 g frozen chopped spinach
2 – 3 tablespoons of water
1/2 big onion, chopped
25g butter
2 eggs
250 ml water
2 slices of cheddar cheese (like Kraft’s)
2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of dried mixed herbs

Method:

• In a pan, combine the frozen spinach & 2 – 3 tablespoons of water and cook till the spinach has softened. Using a sieve, press out as much water as you can from the spinach. Set aside.
• In the same pan, cleaned and wiped dry, melt the butter and saute the onions until soft. Becareful not to burn the butter. Set aside.
• In a bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together with the salt, pepper and mixed herbs. You must whisk it well so that the egg custard when baked will not be lumpy. Whisk till frothy.
• Once you have removed the tart shell from the oven after 20 minutes pre-baked, spoon in the onions and spread it out. Then spoon in the chopped spinach and spread it out evenly too. Place the tart/flan pan on a baking pan so it’ll be easier to handle when you pour in the egg mixture and bring it to the oven.
• Carefully pour in the egg mixture into the tart shell. It should fill up to the brim (for a 1 inch height x 9 inch diameter tart/flan pan).
• Tear in sheets of the cheddar cheese and toss randomly all over the quiche.
• Carefully return the pan into the oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until the custard had firmed up. You’ll know when you try to shake the pan a lil’ the custard is fairly solid, like an egg tart.
• Leave to cool to the touch before cutting.

Told you its cheating!