Coconut Shortbread Cookies

I believe I mentioned before that I got an awesome cookie stamping set along with a cookbook. The cookbook is full of shortbread cookies and cracker recipes.

I thought it was time for me to tackle one, with some of the ingredients I had on hand.

Due to having some shredded coconut left, I decided to make some coconut shortbread cookies! I personally thought they were kind of on the dry side, and not as good as some I've made in the past, but I liked experimenting. I used egg-replacer instead of the egg yolks in the recipe.

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COCONUT SHORTBREAD COOKIES RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 2 tsp egg replacer
• 2 tbs water
• 100 g softened butter
• 200 g flour
• 70 g sugar
• 50 g coconut powder
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• 2 pinches of salt

  Procedure

1. Mix sugar and flour. Add the coconut, vanilla sugar, and salt.
2. Mix egg replacer and water. Add to the mix.
3. Add in butter
4. Let the dough rest 1 hour.
5. Roll out the dough into a 5 mm thickness.
6. Cut shapes out of the dough.
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 190°C.

Eggless Quiche

I got a new kitchen (with induction stove, microwave, and oven all included) installed in my to-be apartment at home! I really was looking forward to testing the oven!

I found a pastry dough in the freezer, and decided to tackle an egg-free version of quiche. Going with what vegetables were available, I quickly stir-fried some shredded carrots, celery, cauliflower, and frozen green peas. To that, I added some crushed tofu (about half a block).

To bind it together, I made a béchamel sauce which had Greek yogurt instead of milk or cream (for a healthier option, as well as for thickening purposes. I was really surprised when the quiche came out of the oven somewhat yellowed! I guess the browning from the oven, plus the color of the carrots kind of helped to bring out such a color. I am very happy with using tofu and béchamel to bind things together into a quiche, so I'll likely make it again.

Apple Cinnamon Cake

My cousin's birthday was yesterday, and I could not find any of my usual baking tools. I did have a couple of things I had brought back from university with me, but I had little ingredients to work with, and little tools. (All my plans for an attempt at doing fancier decorations flew out the window).

I whipped up a vegan cake recipe (easiest, and I usually tend to have the ingredients for it in the kitchen). I added a dash of cinnamon in the batter for extra fragrance. Then I used some of the whipping cream that was sitting in the fridge and made a whipped cream topping. As I was out of idea, I found an apple sitting in the fruit basket, and sliced it, poached it in some sugar syrup, and topped the cake with that.

Then I used the remaining sugar syrup mixed with leftover glaze from some old apple tart, and glazed the apples for preservation and shiny-ness. The whole cake was then sprinkled with cinnamon.

Just for kicks, I'll include the cake recipe below. This is my go-to recipe for cake when I don't have much time or ingredients.

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BASIC VEGAN CAKE RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tbs vanilla extract
• 1 tbs white or apple cider vinegar

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180°C. Grease and flour a cake pan. Alternatively, use cupcake liners.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. In another bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.
5. Mix well, ensuring there are no dry pockets of flour.
6. Pour into pan.
7. Bake for 30 mins (for a whole cake) or 20 mins (for normal-sized cupcakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let it cool and ice/top it however you want.

See, easy, right? =D

Grapefruit Cake

In an effort to use more yogurt and use up the 2 grapefruits sitting around in my fruit basket, I whipped up this cake. Unfortunately, the soy-based whipping cream I used was too runny, so the icing is a mess. It did solidify a little overnight in the fridge, but not enough.

I used the cake recipe used here, and baked it in a loaf tin. To be honest, I expected the cake to be a bit fluffier. Despite that, it was good, and my cousin liked it. I will definitely make it again.

I added some grapefruit zest and juice to the batter, and more zest in the cream. The fresh supremed grapefruit slices on top were refreshing.

Banana Bread

Yay for banana bread! My cousin tends to buy bananas and just leave them in the fruit basket... Since we had to finish a max of food before the Spring Break, it was high time to use them!

Instead of using a large, rectangular pan, I used a loaf pan this time. Makes for a much more bread-like cake! I personally prefer it like this, so I think I will keep making banana bread in loaf pans from now on.

Here it is, fresh out of the oven. It flattened a bit after cooling.

As usual, the filling includes chopped walnuts from my uncle's garden, and some diced dried figs. The nuttiness and texture added just go so well with the cake itself.

Having slices of the banana bread is also much more presentable than the rectangles I have had in the past.

And here's a last picture, one of my favorite ones!

Recipe over this way~

Peanut Butter Chips, White Chocolate Chip Brown Sugar Cookies

American-themed hallway dinner? Due to a lack of time and inspiration, I decided I would make cookies. Easy right? I've made so many choc-chip cookies before, it would be easy!

Wrong.

I went and weighted my remaining half block of butter, and found out that I had less than 150 grams of butter. The recipe I usually use requires around 340 grams. I did not really want to end up with only 6 cookies, so I went to look for an alternative.

This recipe was the one I used. Since it uses oil instead of butter, I could use it safely even with my butter shortage. Instead of putting all the sugar, however, I did not put the 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (as I used some white chocolate chips, which are plenty sweet already). I also added more flour as I felt the dough was too wet and would spread too much while baking. The last adjustment made was that I used white chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (Reeses ones that a cousin brought me from the US).

The cookies are pretty much vegan, except for possibly the white chocolate chips~

These cookies were well liked by my hallway mates during dinner!

Egg-free Frangipane and Pear Tart

Pears getting old in the fruit basket? Time to test a new recipe! I made the crust the same way as I always do (see recipe). Then I topped it with frangipane, an almond-based paste.

Since frangipane is usually made with eggs, I had to look for a good substitute, which I found on Z'oeufs peux pas, a French blog written by a mother with some kids who have egg allergies. The recipe itself can be found at this link, and is translated below.

As the pears were kind of hard, I poached them in sugar syrup with a hint of cinnamon. I topped the pre-baked crusts with the frangipane paste, then laid the sliced pears on top. The whole was baked for about 25 minutes, then glazed in reduced poaching liquid.

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FRANGIPANE RECIPE (for about 7 mini tarts)

  Ingredients

• 50 g butter, softened
• 100 g ground almonds
• 40 g golden sugar
• 63 g golden sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

  Procedure

1. Mix sugar and butter. Add in ground almond.
2. Mix in the plain yogurt and baking powder.
3. Mix until smooth. This is easiest using a fork.

Orange Cheesecake, Christmas Tree Cake Remake

 

For yet another hallway dinner (February 2nd), I made a very simple orange cheesecake. The crust is a simple crushed cookie and butter crust, topped with a cream cheese and orange juice mix. The hardest part was making the topping using supremed tangerines. The failed ones got chopped into small pieces and cooked with a bit of pectin to cover the rest of the surface. Then I just shaved some chocolate on top.

I made about 10 of these, and will make this recipe again when I'm in a pinch, as it is so very easy to make. The recipe called for less orange juice than I used, but I just added enough for the batter to reach a consistency I felt was normal for cheesecake, based on previous experiences. This cheesecake also does not need to be baked, simply chilled overnight.

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I also made a 2nd Christmas Tree cake, with an improved interior. The exterior, however, wasn't as good due to my ganache not holding the way it was supposed to...

Pseudo Terrine

 

Some of you might know how much of a manga fan I am. Lately, I've been reading a lot of Shokugeki no Souma. In there, one of the characters makes a terrine. Since I read that, I've been thinking of making a terrine for a while.

Some issues: most terrines use meat or gelatin or eggs to hold the layers together. Due to an excess of carrots, I decided to try to make a semi-mousse out of them. I used some peanut butter and corn starch as binding agents. Unfortunately, I had to add a lot of water for the carrots to blend properly. Then I didn't have time to chill the whole thing... so it kind of flopped.

The edge is made out of steamed eggplant slices. Then I had a layer of carrot "mousse," a mix if mashed peas and potatoes, some sliced mushroom, then another layer of carrot. This was served with an herb sauce (perilla, cilantro, lemon juice, and a bit of olive oil) and a quark sauce.

Maybe next time I'll add tofu to the carrot layer... and I will chill it properly with a weight for it to hold together better.

Nian Gao 年糕 (Chinese New Year Cake)

Last weekend was the weekend after the Lunar New Year (February 19th this year). For a small dinner among friends, I thought it was the time to try and make some traditional Asian dessert that goes hand-in-hand with the New Year.

年糕 means "year cake," although it is also used to also mean "higher year" because the words sound similar in Chinese. If I understood correctly, it's a wish for the coming year to be better than the passed year.

The recipe I got was from Little Corner of Mine. Instead of the usual 5 hours or 12 hours of steaming for the caramelization of the sugar, this recipe uses brown sugar, which of itself tastes a bit caramelized. I personally felt it wasn't as fragrant as other such Nian Gao that I have had in the past. Maybe next time, I will make a sort of caramel syrup out of the sugar first before mixing in the flour.

I also added a red date about halfway through the steaming on 4 of them.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 400 g glutinous (sticky) rice flour
• 300 g brown sugar
• 400 mL water
• red date (optional)

  Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar with 200 mL of hot water until dissolved. 
2. Add the remaining 200 mL of water.
3. Mix in the flour.
4. Steam for 40 minutes.
5. If using, put the red date in about halfway through cooking.

  Tips

     Caramelize sugar and water prior to adding flour for a better fragrance and more pronounced flavor.