Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

The title itself makes you drool doesn't it?hehhe! Since I was a young girl, I have always loved eating this particular soft and delicious cake that can be found at those neighbourhood bakeries. Then, I didn't know that I was eating Japanese cheesecake until lately when I picked up baking. Have always wanted to try this out but didn't have the time 'coz it involves lots of steps (to me!); so when the opportunity came last night I didn't waste a second to go on a little Japanese "baking adventure"!

The recipe that I had used is from:
http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2312/Recipe.cfm
I had snapped pics of the process and verdict is right at the end! Enjoy!;p

First, melt the cream cheese, butter and milk. I had cut up the butter and cream cheese into smaller cubes so that it will melt easier.

Cream cheese, butter and milk; melted and well-combined



Added in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks and lemon mixture. I whisked everything till smooth.

Egg whites before beaten. Do ensure that there are no traces of egg yolks at all.

Do Not stop when the egg whites are of this texture or your cake won't be light at all! I had taken this pic as a Warning..hehehehe..

Egg whites beaten till soft peaks.

After adding sugar, I beat the egg whites till stiff peaks. I think I can see a heart shape. Can you?ehehehe..;p

After adding the sugar, mixture will turn shiny and glossy. It is called 'meringue'. (At this juncture, you can add in cornflakes, mix well, put them into tiny cups and bake at 180 Degrees Celcius and you'll get Cornflakes Meringue but that's another recipe..*winks*)

Stiff peaks

This is a mistake that I had done. I had actually taken 1/4 of the egg whites and whisk it into the mixture first before folding in the rest of the egg whites. OMIT this step! Egg whites should just be folded in, not whisked into the batter!

 

Step one of folding the egg whites into the batter. Scrape from the sides and to the centre.

Repeat the process quickly and evenly. Do Not stir.

Final batter should look something this. It's ok if there are lots of air bubbles. This is normal considering that we have just folded in the beaten egg whites. To make the air bubbles rise to the top, tap the pan on your table counter twice before placing it in the oven.

Slightly burnt as I was watching TV!-_- Cake will pull from its sides but this is normal too. Ensure that you have greased your pan well so that it will pull from the sides instead of shrinking.

Warm from the oven. There are no 2 different textures as mentioned in the website by some who had tried th recipe.

It was still very hot but I couldn't resist tasting just a bit from the cake!heheheh!;p

My very first Japanese cheesecake! WeeeeHooo!!!;p

Ok, here's my verdict. I think it was a successful first attempt. The cheesecake tasted good, the texture was soft and apart from the slightly burnt top, I think I did quite alright. However, I didn't manage to get the cotton soft texture and I think that was caused by me overbeating the batter at one of the steps mentioned above. Here are the correct steps (adapted from baking911.com):

1. Beat the yolks till pale

2. Fold in the flour + cornflour alternately with the lemon juice, ending with the flour mixture

3. Fold in the beaten egg whites

DO NOT overstir, overbeat or pat down the egg whites when mixing as this will result in a very dense cake

Other than that, this recipe has been a delight to bake and I will definitely try it again! Do try this recipe too and let me know how you did! Good luck and happy baking! ^_^

Gingerbread with hazelnut ganache

This was actually baked during the fasting month. I didn't want the common chocolate almond and so tweaked a recipe that I have and turned it into theseeeee!! ehehehe! The recipe was for a gingerbread man that I baked for a school event (will post the pics soon I hope!;p), changed it a little here and there, added hazelnut and created my own ganache and voila!

It was a very crunchy cookie but it wasn't quite a favourite for many; maybe because of the spices but I love it all the same!eheheheh! I can't remember where I got the recipe from but it was online and basically most of the gingerbread recipes were similar. Don't really know why the chocolate ganache was not the "dry" kind, will try to find out and post it here!

Meanwhile, do try out this recipe!;p

Ingredients

Cookie Dough

(Get ready aluminium cups)

- 21/2 cups of all purpose flour

- 1 cup of granulated sugar

- 1 teaspoon of baking soda

- 1/2 cup of powdered hazelnut

- whole hazelnuts for the middle of the cookie

- 1 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger

- 1 teaspoon of powdered spices (5 spices, usually comes in a bottle so you don't have to literally find 5 different spices!)

- 2 eggs

Hazelnut Ganache

- some powdered hazelnut

- 1 cup of heavy whipping cream

- 1 cup of baking chocolate

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

- 1 cup of sugar

- 1/2 cup butter

Method

- mix everything (except whole hazelnuts) to form cookie dough

- heat up oven at 180 Degree Celcius for 10 minutes

- take a whole hazelnut, roll it into a small ball of cookie dough and press it down into aluminium cups

- bake for 10-15 minutes (not too long or it will be very hard)

*** if not too sure whether cookies are baked, insert a small toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, ur cookies are done. Don't panic if cookies seem soft coz it will hardened when cooled***

- cool cookies

- for ganache: melt butter with chocolate

- remove from double boiler and stir in the rest of the ingredients till well-mixed

- lastly, pour over the cooled cookies and put in the fridge

- serve the next day!

*** keeps for a month in the fridge, not longer than that! else you will have to eat green, mouldy cookies instead!hehehhe!***

Happy trying!!=)))

Quail eggs in 'sambal' (chilli paste)



These quail eggs are just soooo pretty don't you think? I was rinsing these cute little things when I noticed the unique pattern on each egg. You can't find 2 eggs with a similar pattern and I find it rather intriguing especially when I was cupping about 20 eggs in my two hands. It's hard to describe in words, so go get yourself some quail eggs and you will know what I mean!=)

Anyhoo, I was preparing Nasi Lemak (Rice with Coconut milk). For those who are not familiar with this dish, Nasi Lemak is traditionally served in banana leaves, with the sambal ikan bilis (anchovies in chilli paste), cucumber and a small fried fish (which I can't recall the name at this point of time) but this is my version, with whatever ingredients I have in my kitchen. Tastes good but urm, forgot to take the picture of the rice!heheheheh...

Recipe

1. 20 quail eggs

2. 10-13 pieces of dried chilli (soaked in a bowl of boiling water)

3. 10 pieces of shallots

4. 4 pieces of garlic

5. a pinch of salt to taste

6. 2 teaspoons of sugar

7. 30g of dried small prawns or dried anchovies (halved and cleaned)

8. 4 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method

Sambal

1. Boil the quail eggs and peel the shell off

2.. Blend the chillies, shallots, garlic n prawns/anchovies until it becomes a paste

3. Heat up the oil and then fry the paste continually for 5 minutes

4. Add in the eggs, sugar and salt and stir fry for another 3 minutes

5. Ready to serve

Rice (serves 1)

1. Rinse a cup of rice

2. Cook the rice in half cup coconut milk + 3/4 cup water

*** You can serve the rice with slices of cucumber, fried chicken wings and crispy, fried anchovies if you wish



Fried Rice with Enoki Mushrooms



This is a dish I often cook as it is very flexible and I can change the ingredients accordingly, depending on my mood! hehehe..This time round, I had some Enoki mushrooms in my fridge and I was feeling kinda lazy to cook anything that requires me to get my blender out. Here is a close-up shot:



The Enoki mushrooms look like beansprouts, don't they?=) But much nicer to eat! Heh! If you haven't noticed, I do not have vegetables in my dishes. So feel free to add in any vege of your choice if you are trying out these dishes! What goes well with this fried rice recipe will be green leafy vegetables or carrots.

Recipe (serves 1)

1. 1 cup of cooked rice (you can reduce or increase the amount accordingly)

2. 3 tablespoons of vegetable or Canolla oil

3. 2 red chillies (sliced)

4. 1 pack of Enoki Mushrooms (I think it's 200g)

5. 1 egg

6. 2 teaspoons of fish sauce (optional)

7. 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

Method

1. Heat up the oil

2. Stir in the chillies for 3 minutes

3. Add the mushrooms and mix well

4. Add the rice and mix again

5. Make a small well in the middle of the wok/pan and then break in the egg

6. Wait for about 3-4 minutes before mixing the egg with the rest of the ingredients

(You can add in the vegetables at this point of time before adding the sauces)

7. Add in oyster sauce and the fish sauce

8. Fry for another 4 minutes before serving

***I made the well at the centre as I do not like the egg to mix with my rice and make it yellow. You can beat the egg and stir together with the rice if you wish.=) It's just that I prefer my colours not to mix..heheheh..

***Beat the egg into a small bowl first before putting it into the wok/pan in case you get a rotten egg and you wouldn't want to spoil the dish that you have in the wok/pan

Cereal Prawns

My very first entry!!;p Have always loved the cereal prawns at restaurants and it was the one at Batam that struck that cooking chord in me. ^_^ A really simple, fuss-free and delicious dish to prepare. It took me about 15 minutes to whip up the whole thing but it would have tasted better if I had added more butter (read: oily=tasty!heehee..p) Oh well, there's always a next time!

Recipe

1. 15-20 pieces of prawns (medium sized prawns)

2. 1 cup of Nestum (250g)

3. 3 stalks of curry leaves

4. 3 tablespoons of butter

5. 3-4 sliced red chillies (more if you prefer it to be spicy)

6. 2 tablespoons of sugar

7. some oil to fry the prawns

Method

1. Fry the prawns till the prawns turn orange then take it out

2. Remove the oil and add butter

3. As soon as it melts, add in chillies and curry leaves and stir fry for 5 minutes

4. Add in the prawns and then quickly stir in the Nestum and sugar

5. Remove as soon as all ingredients have been mixed well

*** Do not fry the Nestum for too long or it will be soggy