Mixed Herbs Roast Chicken

It's that time of the month again, yes, time to change bedsheets!  I make it a point to change my bedsheets fortnightly because we've got a dog that sheds 365 days a year.  Though we're only a family of 5, we've got 8 pillows and 4 bolsters.  It is indeed a chore to change these frequently.

If you have been following my blog, you know I like to involve my children in my baking.  In addition, I get them to help out in simple household chores too.

DD3 pooped just when I was about the change the bedsheets.  DS2 was bored and asked "What should I do?".  I made a causaul remark for him to change the bedsheets and when I came out of the bathroom after washing DD3, I saw a busy boy :)

He is such a sweetie pie :)

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I bought a frozen bird last week and I cooked it for our dinner.  The important thing about roasting chicken is to PAT PAT PAT the chicken really dry to get a nice crispy skin.

Rubbed some sea salt onto the chicken, sprinkled with mixed herbs and fresh ground black pepper.

Stuffed with loads of garlic, and more garlic and sweet potato wedges on the pan to elevate the chicken.  I've tried using the rotisserie once but never again.  Although it browned the chickren really nicely and the skin was really crispy, my oven was splattered with oil all over and cleaning up was a chore.  So now, I'll elevate the chicken on some hard/root vegetables and garlic so the chicken doesn't get soaked up in the drippings.

This should go well with lemon but I ran out of it.  Made a trip to the local supermarket to buy some but the shelves were empty!  Not a single lemon to be seen!  Doesn't matter, we just make do with the dried herbs, salt and pepper, it still tasted great.

Mixed Herbs Roast Chicken

Ingredients

1kg chicken
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into wedges
Sea salt
Dried mixed herbs
Ground black pepper
Garlic
Butter/olive oil

Method

1. Wash, clean and pat the chicken dry with paper towels all over, including the cavity.
2. Rub sea salt all over the chicken and inside the cavity.
3. Sprinkle dried mixed herbs and ground black pepper over the chicken.
4. Gently separate the skin and rub the leftover mixture on your fingers onto the chicken breast.
5. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
6. Thaw chicken to room temperature (around 30 mins), then brush some olive oil/butter all over chicken.
7. Stuff as many cloves of garlic into the cavity of the chicken.
8. Line the roasting pan with aluminium foil (this is for easier clean up later).
9. Toss the sweet potatoes with some salt, freshly grounded black pepper and olive oil/melted butter.  Arrange the sweet potatoes and balance garlic in a single layer on the prepared pan.
10. Place the chicken breast side up, on the prepared pan.
11. Bake in preheated oven of 250C for around 40 mins.  Turn the chicken over and roast for another 15 - 20 mins.
12. Turn the chicken over again, breast side up, and roast for another 10 - 15 mins, or till chicken is cooked.
13. Allow to cool for at least 10 mins before serving.

Note
To check if the chicken is cook thoroughly, pierce a satay stick/skewer between the drumstick and the thigh. It is cooked if the juice runs clear.  If there are still streaks of blood (pink liquid), cook the chicken longer.

Matcha Milk Agar Agar

I can't quite recall where I've seen this recipe and didn't add the link to my favourites then.  When I tried to google for it, I can't find it now.  Anyway, I didn't want to spend too much time searching for it so I came out with my own version.

Matcha Milk Agar Agar
Ingredients
1 packet (12g) agar agar powder
1000ml water
180g caster sugar
200ml evaporated milk
1 tbsp matcha/green tea powder

Method

1. Dissolve one packet of agar agar powder in 1 litre of water.
2. Add 180g of sugar, stir and bring to boil over medium heat.
3. Add matcha and stir till all sugar has melted.
4. Sieve mixture and let it cool down slightly.
5. Add in evaporated milk and sieve again.
6. Pour mixture into moulds/tray. Chill well before serving.

Totoro Cream Puffs

Are you in love with cream puffs?  I'm a hardcore cream puff lover, and so is my Dad.  Maybe I inherited the love from him?  Hahaha!

I chanced upon these cute Totoro Cream Puffs by Fatmum and finally made some yesterday for our afternoon tea.  The concept came from Anna's blog with step-by-step pics to guide you on how to make Totoro cream puffs.

To save time, I piped the eyes onto the choux pastry but it was a mistake.  As the pastry was not flat, the icing slided backwards and the shape got distorted.  My children ain't bothered with the flaws and gorged them down within seconds ^-^

Instead of following the cream puff recipe, I used back my trusted recipe here which was originally from Florence's blog.

Totoro Cream Puffs
Choux Pastry
Ingredients (8 puffs)
85ml water
50g butter
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence (I omit)
50g bread flour
20g cake flour
2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Method

1. Cook water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan till bubbling hot. Turn the heat to low.
2. Add in the flour mixture in one go and mix with a wooden spoon till a dough is formed.
3. Still on low heat, cook the dough for 1 - 2 minutes till a thin white film is formed at the bottom of the saucepan.
4. Transfer dough to a mixing bowl and beat till it is lukewarm.
5. Add in egg by thirds and mix till well blended and smooth.
6. Place batter into piping bag and pipe it onto a lined pan in rounds of about 5cm in diameter. Spray some water on it.
7. Bake at 200C for 25 minutes then 180C for 8 - 10 minutes or till dry and golden brown in color. Turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for 30 minutes.

Creme Patisserie
Ingredients

240ml skim milk
4 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg + 2 yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch

Method

1. Mix 60ml of milk with the cornstarch till smooth.
2. Add the beaten egg and yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
3. Boil the remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan till bubbling hot. Pour 1/3 of this hot milk into the egg cornstarch mixture. Stirring all the time.
4. Now pour the egg cornstarch mixture through a strainer into the rest of the boiling milk. Stirring constantly till mixture thicken. Do not burn the custard.
5. Cling wrap custard with glad wrap with the wrap touching the surface of the custard (this is to prevent a hard film forming on surface of the custard) and chill till ready to use.

Santa Claus Cake

This blogger, Happy Home Baking, has inspired many to bake and I'm one of them.  I must say she has a wonderful blog and all her bakes and cooks look fabulous!  Upon seeing her Santa Claus cake (the idea came from Japanese Meiji website with a self explanatory video demo on how to decorate the cake), I told myself I just have to make it one day.

Since Dad's birthday falls on 31 December and he's usually away for holiday this period, we usually have an early celebration for him.  This year, we celebrated his birthday at Bro J's house again.  My kids love such gatherings, and so do I.  The barbecue was great though I didn't get to eat much as DD3 was extremely clingy that day (she missed her afternoon nap).

The only strawberries available from my nearest supermarket were from Korea and they ain't delicious red.  I had to pick out the darker coloured ones for this cake.

Frosting the cake was horrendous as I must have under-whipped the dairy cream and it was melting on me.  It was no easy feat shaving the chocolates too.  I tried HHB's method ie to use a plastic spoon (for dispensing medicine) but that didn't work.  I used my cookie scoop and peeler too but none worked.   I didn't want to waste too much time on that so I just scrapped and get bits and pieces here and there, just enough to use as Santa's beard.

I did the decoration the night before and when I took it out to show my kids the next day, I realised the M&M chocolate melted on me too.  The eyes smudged!  Since I have some leftover whipping cream in the fridge, I tried to salvage the eye by removing the frosting and piped a new "eye".  Put new "pupils" onto them and it looked almost perfect.  But when we got to the venue, the chocolate smeared again!

Using a chiffon cake base, I sandwiched the layers with some cream and diced strawberries.  I was "stingy" now and didn't add too much strawberries as my previous cakes were all loaded with fillings and the cake collapsed upon slicing.  Nevertheless, the cake was well received.  The only complaint from Dad was the strawberries came in odd numbers.  He wanted even numbers, not odd numbers....  So I just picked up 1 strawberry and popped it into my mouth and rearranged the balance 10 :P

Santa Claus Cake
Ingredients
(A)
4 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
30g castor sugar

(B)
60ml corn oil
125ml milk/water

(C)
150g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
*sifted together

(D)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
30g sugar

Method

1. Mix ingredients (A) well with a hand whisk.
2. Add (B) into yolk mixture, stir well.
3. Stir (C) into yolk mixture and mix well.
4. Whip egg whites in a clean mixing bowl until big bubbles are formed. Add in the cream of tartar and whip until white in colour. Add in sugar over 3 times and whip until egg whites is stiff.
5. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
6. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into a 8" round pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
8. Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely.
9. Bake in preheated oven of 170C for 15 minutes.
10. Turn down the temperature to 160C and bake for 20 - 30mins.
11. Remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 5 to 10mins to brown the surface.
12. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled. The surface will feel abit wet but it will be dry after exposing to the air.
13. Cut cooled cake into 3 layers and decorate accordingly.

Oreo Cookie Bread

This was baked a long time ago and I totally forgotten about it. 

I've never thought of adding cookies into a bread recipe but when I saw this recipe in Irene's blog, I went to buy a pack of Oreo cookies just to bake this.

The bread was soft but I didn't think it was creamy enough.  Nevertheless, my children love this bread.

The recipe originally calls for margarine but I substituted with butter.  As usual, I doubled the recipe and kept 1/2 portion baked bread in my freezer for future consumption.

Oreo Cookie Bread
(adapted from myrecipe.org)
Ingredients
500g bread flour
340g fresh milk
1 egg
40g sugar
6g salt
110g oreo cookies (crushed)
20g butter
2tsp yeast

Method

1. Add fresh milk into your bread machine.
2. Add the crushed oreo cookies into your bread machine.
3. Add the remainings ingredients into your bread machine and set to Dough function.Let the machine knead for 15mins, stop the cycle and re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another cycle.
4. Let it proof in machine for 1 hour or till double in size.
5. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
6. Divide dough into 5 equal portions and shape into balls. Let the dough rest for 15 mins.
7. Roll out each portion into a long flat oval shape, then roll up lengthwise, swiss roll style. Pinch to seal all sides.
8. Place dough (seam side down) in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Proof for another 1 hour or until dough is double in size.
9. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 to 25mins.
10. Remove bread to cool on rack completely.
11. Slice and enjoy.

White Christmas

I've been really busy the past 1 week and didn't have much energy to blog.  Here I am with another over-due post :P

I made this upon the request of SIL LY.  Tried a new recipe and I thought the texture seems better than my previous logcake.  It was originally a chocolate swiss roll recipe but I just omit cocoa powder and substituted with flour to get a basic swiss roll.  Also I didn't follow to bake at a lower temperature for a longer time.  The end result was satisfactory despite not following instructions ^-^

Bought a can of blueberry pie filling for this log cake but unfortunately my kids didn't quite like it (only DD3 enjoyed the cake).  Also, I didn't manage to roll up the swiss roll tightly so it became oblong instead of round.

Swiss Roll
Ingredients
4 Egg Yolks
40g Corn Oil
100g Cake Flour
80ml Water
4 Egg White
40g Castor Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice (optional)

Method

1. In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks, oil, water and sifted cake flour until well blended.  Set aside.
2. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in lemon juice and beat till soft peaks.
3. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
   
4. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
   
5. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
   
6. Pour batter into 11" X 14" and bake at pre-heated oven of 200C for about 10 - 12 mins.
   
7. When the cake is cooked, leave to cool completely.
   
8. Spread a layer of whipped cream/butter cream/jam onto the sponge cake. Roll it up and chill in fridge before serving.

Tang Yuan (湯圓) for Winter Solstice

Oops, I've been lagging again...  this was made so long ago but I clearly forgot about it until I saw Sonia's post here.

I kneaded some glutinous rice flour with water and sugar and added colourings to 2 portions.

DD1 helped to roll out the pink dough, DS2 the green ones and I did the white lot.  The kids enjoyed the rolling process and enjoyed eating it too :)

I didn't measure out the ingredients as my mom only vaguely explained through the phone to knead some glutinous rice flour with water and knead into a dough.  I prefer to add gula melaka to the soup as it enhanced the taste and fragrant of it.  However, I'm posting Sonia's recipe here for those who are interested.

Tang Yuan (湯圓)
Ingredients
200g Glutinous Rice Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
150ml Water (add more if the dough is too dry)
Colourings, optional

Syrup Soup
Ingredients
Water
Gula Melaka (or you can use brown sugar/rock sugar)
Some pandan leaves
1 thumbsize ginger (I like mine with extra spice so go easy on this one)

Method

1. Mix glutinous rice flour and sugar in a bowl.  Add in water gradually until the mixture becomes the texture of dough.
2. Divide the dough into 3 portions, add desired colours to each portion.
3. Pinch off pieces from the dough and roll into small balls.
4. Drop the balls into boiling water and cook them until they float.
5. Bring a pot of water to boil.  Drop balls into the boiling water and cook them until they float.
6. While the balls are cooking, prepare the syrup soup by putting all ingredients into a pot and brings it to boil.
7. Put the cooked balls into the soup and serve.