Watching the ladies from SMH making very nice puffy Cream puffs, i also made some today. The bakes turn out fantastic! Puffy and soft, suprisingly my hubby likes it, amazing cos he dun really like sweet stuffs. After comparing a few recipes, i decide to us the recipe is from yochanna' webbie again.. keke.. im a fan of hers!

pastry puffing in the oven

puff pastry with custard cream in it

Choux Paste:

85 gm. water
50 gm. Butter
60 gm. Plain flour
125 gm. eggs (about 2 eggs)

Custard filling:
420 gm. fresh milk
150 gm. sugar
5 eggs - beaten lightly
30 gm. Butter
25 gm. flour
25 gm. cornflour
1/2 tsp. Vanilla esssence

Method for choux paste:

(1) Boil water and butter till boiling.
(2) Pour in all the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon till paste is not sticky and leaving the side of the pan. Remove from heat and let it cool till lukewarm.
(3) Stir in eggs and mix till it becomes a smooth paste.
(4) Fill paste into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe onto a baking tray. Makes about 15 nos.
(5) Bake at 180C for about 20 mins. or till puffed up and golden in colour.
(6) For filling: Boil milk with sugar till sugar dissolves.
(7) Meantime, mix cornflour and flour together and then mix in the 5 beaten eggs. Seive mixture.
(8) Remove hot milk from stove, pour gradually into the egg mixture and stir till well mixed. Return to stove again and cook over low heat till custard thickens.
(9) Stir in butter, vanilla essence and rum and set aside to cool.
(10) Cut cream puffs but not cut through, pipe some custard filling into the puff and close back the top put.
(11) Serve.

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Steam Yam Cake

Finally pick up the courage to make steam yam cake last week, my mum makes very nice yam. Im afraid that mine will not be as nice as my mum's. Overall was nice, in laws says 'can sell already' but i think its still need improvement, yam was slightly hard and abit bland, i dare not add too much salt, will improve on that further.

This recipe is adapted from yochanna's blog but i modified abit.

Ingredients:
220 gm. Rice flour
300 gm. Yam - cut into cubes
20 gm. Tapioca flour
2 tsp. 5-spice powder
850 ml. water (divide into 2 portions of 425 ml. each)
5 shallots - sliced

30 gm. chinese sausage - lap cheong - diced
60 gm. roasted pork -siew yok - diced
50 gm. Dried shrimps - soaked then chopped coarsely
4 nos. mushrooms -soaked and diced
2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 Tbsp. cooking oil - put into boiling water

Seasoning:
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Vetsin
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. sesame oil


Method:

(1) Fry yam with 2 Tbsp. oil and toss with 5-spice powder, leave aside.
(2) Fry the shallots until fragrant, add in dried shrimps and fry till dried shrimps starts to jump then add in chinese sausage, roasted pork and mushrooms . Dish up and leave aside.
(3) Mix the rice flour, wheat starch and tapioca flour with 400 ml. water. Add in seasoning and stir.
(4) In a wok, boil the 400 gm. water till boiling. Add in 1 Tbsp. cooking oil. Off the heat, pour in the rice flour mixture and stir till mixture thickens. On the the heat again and cook over low heat till mixture thickens, pour in 2/3 of the dried shrimp mixture and stir till well-mixed.
(5) Pour into an 8" oiled square tray and level the top.
(6) Steam for about 45 mins.
(7) Sprinkle the balance 1/3 of the dried shrimps mixture on top and steam for another 5 mins.
(8) Leave to cool before slicing.
(9) Sprinkle chillies, fried shallot and spring onion on top and serve with chillie sauce.

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Chicken Pie

Pastry:
200 gm butter
250 gm plain flour
110 gm plain yoghurt ( i omit the yoghurt)
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt, and mix to a crumble. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough. Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling:
12 oz diced potatoes
1 big onion diced
50 gm mixed vegetable (or more if you like)
Sliced canned mushrooms (amt up to you)
2 chicken breast diced
1 tbsp corn starch or potato starch mixed with 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes with abt 4 fl oz of water and 1/2 tsp salt until soft. Set aside. In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom, chicken. Fry for a while to break up chicken. Add in potatoes. Add in abt 4 fl oz of water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in salt, sugar and pepper. Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Set aside for later use.

The steps for the chicken pie will be as per normal. You can either do big pie or mini pie. Just need to roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke hole on the base using a fork and place ingredients on top. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie and brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 mins.

The pastry turn out very crumbly, like apple crumble pie pastry, not sure issit because i omit the yoghurt.

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