Bandung Konnyaku Jelly

DH's ex-colleague initiated a BBQ get-together.  The gathering falls on a Saturday, which is also a busy weekend for us, so I decided to do something really simple.  With kids in mind, jelly was the first thing that came to my mind.  I'm sure they won't say no to jellies.

Since I ran out of Ribena and have a new bottle of rose syrup, I turned them into jellies.

I made them in small jelly moulds but unfortunately I've accidentally deleted the pictures while transferring them from the SD card to my harddisk. K asked for the recipe but it is a tedious process to text her via sms.  So I made these again for DD3's birthday celebration in school, just so I can take a picture of it again and post it in my blog.

Bandung Konnyaku Jelly
Ingredients
I packet Konnyaku Jelly Powder (10g)
100 - 120 grams Caster Sugar
900 ml Water
120 ml Rose Syrup
some grass jelly, shredded
2 - 3 Tablespoon Evaporated Milk

Method

1. In a small bowl, mix konnayku powder and caster sugar together.
2. In a medium pot, bring water to boil. Pour the konnyaku mixture into water gradually and stir till sugar dissolved.
3. Turn off flame and keep stirring for about 5 mins, till the bubbles dissipates and the mixture becomes clear. 
4. When the mixture is slightly cooled, add rose syrup and stir well.
5. Remove half portion of rose syrup mixture and pour into prepared mould.
6. Add grass jelly into rose layer.
7. Mix 2 - 3 tablespoon evaporated milk to remaining rose syrup mixture to make bandung.
8. Pour bandung on top of rose layer.
9. Leave to cool and chill in fridge before serving.

Easy Peasy Peanut Cookies

I simply cannot understand why people choose to be nasty in the cyberworld.  I may or may not know you, but I think there's no need to get too personal over my blog entry.  I don't see a reason why you have to belittle my child's effort when I posted her somersault pictures here.  If you do know me in person and is unhappy with me, talk to me and see how we can work things out.  On the other hand, if we do not know each other, I see no reason why you should be nasty to my family.

I've said my piece so now it's back to what this blog is all about.  I made these peanut cookies for CNY.  It is so easy even my coming 4yo child can do it.

My little helper first shaped them into balls

Gave her a straw to poke the dough.  I like to watch them at work, always full of concentration.

These she made with mini choc chips

This was originally a peanut cookie but I changed it to include some ground almond in it because I don't want my youngest to indulge in too much peanuts.

Peanut Cookies

Ingredients

600g Plain Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Baking Soda

145g Caster Sugar *

400g Coarsed/Ground Peanut **

1 tsp Salt

400ml Corn Oil ***

* Originally calls for 225g Caster Sugar.  I used 145g Icing Sugar instead.

** I used 150g coarsed peanut and 250g ground almond

*** 400ml is just a guide, use 300ml first, then slowly add more oil if dough is still crumbly.  I used 100g melted butter and 250g oil.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda into a mixing bowl.
3. Add in coarse peanut, ground almond and sugar.
4. Add oil and mix well till a dough forms.
5. Shape into small balls and poke with a chopstick (I used a straw here)
6. Apply eggwash (optional) and bake @ 170C for 15 - 20 mins

Philips Airfryer

After almost 9 months of consideration, I finally bought it last Dec.  Been wanting to get the black one but it was out of stock, so settled for this one.

What I like about the Airfryer is, when you fry fish, your house don't smell like fried fish anymore!

Bread Pudding

Today marks the 2nd day of a one week school break.  Term 1 is officially over now but with no Continual Assessment (CA1) for DD1 and DS2, I do not know how to gauge their performance.  For DD1, I'm not overly concern as her school results are fairly consistent.  But for DS2, I'm starting to worry especially on Mother Tongue.  I attempted to converse in Mandarin at home but he will request for me to speak in English as he doesn't understand.  I foresee he will struggle when exam comes.

Since it's school holiday, I invited my nephews over for lunch yesterday and we brought the kids to the neighbourhood park.  DS2 is a fast learner, despite not taking any lessons, he's able to skate fairly well now. Maybe that's the thing about boys, simply fearless?  However, he's not picking up waveboarding too well.  Nevertheless, we're taking it easy, just want him to enjoy and have fun.

With so many backlogs, I'm just going to show another quick and easy recipe - Bread Pudding.  I saw the beautiful pictures of this bread pudding in myresipi  and Zu helped me with the translation (thanks Zu!).

Whenever someone mention bread pudding, the first thing that comes to my mind is, it's baked stale bread soaked in milk, egg, sugar and dried fruits.  But this recipe is a non-baked version and best of all, it uses agar agar powder which I believe will be better appreciated by my family.

This is what you do to get a zebra effect, one tablespoon plain followed by one tablespoon chocolate mixture, till you finished up all the mixture.

Bread Pudding
Recipe adapted from Myresipi

Ingredients

(A)
4 slices bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup condensed milk
170ml evaporated milk
1/2 cup water

(B)
3 cups water
8g agar agar powder
1/2 cup sugar (can reduce if you don't like it too sweet, I used 1/4 cup)

(C)
2 T butter, melted
2 T cocoa powder

Method

1. Boil 3 cups water, agar agar powder and sugar in a pot.
2. Blend bread, egg, condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/2 cup water till smooth.  Add the blended mixture into the pot in step 1.
3. Add butter and stir till the mixture boils then turn off heat (I turned off the fire before adding butter and stir till butter dissolve)
4. Remove 1/2 portion mixture and add cocoa powder till the cocoa powder dissolves into the mixture.
5. Pour the 2 mixture alternately till all are used. You have to work quick as the mixture sets quite fast.
6. Once done, refrigerate.

Pandan Kaya Cake III

 

I made this for my birthday last April and drafted this on Valentine's Day, wanting to wish all my readers a very happy valentine's day.  But if was left in my draft until now :p

 

  

Having tried a few pandan chiffon recipes, I personally prefer the taste and texture of this.

Pandan Chiffon Cake
Adapted from Baking Mum (recipe taken from Prima's website)

Ingredients
(A)
4 Egg Yolks
40 g Castor Sugar
1 tbsp Pandan Juice
100 ml Coconut Milk
50 ml Corn Oil
Pinch of salt

(B)
100 g PrimaFlour Top Flour (I used plain flour)
1 tsp Baking Powder

(C)
5 Egg Whites
40 g Castor Sugar
1/3 tsp Cream of Tartar (I omit)

Method

1. In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Add salt, pandan juice, coconut milk and oil to the yolk mixture.  Mix well.
3. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder. Mix until smooth and set aside.
4. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated
7. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
8. Pour the batter into 8" round pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
9. Bake at pre-heated oven of 170C for 10 - 15 mins.
10. Turn down the temperature to 160C and bake for another 35 - 40 mins.
11. Reduce temperature further to 150C and bake for another 10 - 15 mins to brown the surface.
12. Remove from the oven and invert the pan to cool.

 For kaya layer, refer to recipe here