Biscuit Pudding

This is a pudding made of 3 layers of milk-dipped marie biscuits of two different flavours in the mixutre of cream and condensed milk. The first time i get to know about this dessert is when my friend bought it for me from a shop in my university as she found it very delicious. I tried to find out what the ingredients for making this dessert and I got it with just one failure. I also realized that you could alter the layering steps as well. This dessert is suitable for occasions, such as potluck, birthday party, as it is easy to make.


Ingredients:
30 pieces Marie Biscuits (Original Flavour)
15 pieces Marie Biscuits (Coffee Flavour)
300ml Nestle Cream
9 Tbs Sweetened Condensed Milk
250ml Full Cream Milk
Canned Fruits for Garnishing (Eg. Mixed Cocktail, Peach, Longan)

[Makes about 15 cups)

Method:

1. Mix Nestle cream with condensed milk. Beat for 3-4min at medium speed.
2. Pour a small amount of cream mixture into the cups. Make sure it covers the entire base of the cup.
3. Dip biscuit (original flavour) in the milk for 5 secs and place in on the cream mixture in the cup.
4. Repeat step 3 but with alternate flavours i.e. one coffee flavoured biscuit between two original flavoured biscuits.
5. Pour cream mixture into cups until it covers all the biscuits.
6. Place fruits on top and refrigerate for 4 hours before serving.

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Red Bean Paste

Making the bean paste may be a little time consuming as it takes up 1 and a half hour. Ensure that you don't have other important things to do when you're making the paste as it needs checking out occasionally. Red beans get burnt easily, that's why you need to check it out constantly. This is also the reason why I didn't get the chance to take down any pictures as this is my first time making the red bean paste.

Ingredients:
180g Red Beans
180g Sugar
Pinch of salt
[Makes about 450g]

1. Soak beans for 1 hour. Strain, then place beans in a pot covered with an inch of water.
2. Bring to boil over high heat, drain and discard the water.
3. Add about 3 cups of water to a pot containing the par-boiled beans.
4. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cover the pot.
5. Simmer the beans until soft. Add a small amount of water when the water is absorbed by the red beans to prevent scorching.
6. Check out the beans occasionally while simmering as the red beans could easily get burnt.
7. The simmering process would take about 45min to 1hr and 15min to be done.
8. Once it is almost done, all the water should be absorbed completely by the beans. Add sugar and stirring gently until the bean paste is heated through and glossy.
9. Season with a pinch of salt and mix well. The paste should be thick with some whole and half-crushed beans.

Green Tea and Red Bean Cheesecake

This is the cake that I've been looking forward to make for my friend's (who is a green tea lover) brithday since last year. If you are green tea lover, then you'll definitely love this cake. It is a biscuit-based cake with green tea light cheese filling on top of reb bean cheese filling, surrounding a sponge cake.

Biscuit Base

Ingredients:
11 pieces (around 180g) Digestive Biscuits
75g Butter

Method:

1. Crush biscuits in a plastic bag.
2. Allow butter to soften to room temperature and mix with crushed biscuit.
3. Spread and press the biscuit mixture over the base of a 9” cake tin. Put it in the freezer for about 1hour.

Sponge Layer

Ingredients:
75g Cake flour
1tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Corn Flour
3 Eggs (separate)
30g Cold Water
1-1/2oz Corn oil
2oz Caster Sugar
1/2oz Caster sugar (for egg whites)

Method:

1. Sift cake flour, corn flour and baking powder together for at least 3 times.
2. Mix corn oil, sugar, egg yolks and cold water. Then fold in the flour mixture. Use a whisk to stir it until well- mixed.
3. Use high speed to beat the egg whites then slowly add in 1oz of sugar until stiff.
4. Mix the egg whites with the mixture in (2) until well-combined using a wooden spoon.
5. Pour batter into a 9” baking tin and bake at 165 degree C for 45mins.

Red Bean Cheese Filling

Ingredients:
150g Cream Cheese
60-70g Caster Sugar (depend on the sweetness of red bean paste)
40ml Milk
250g Red Bean Paste (Refer to Note)
250g Light Cream Cheese
8g Gelatin
70ml Hot Water
3 tbs Nestle Cream

Note: For the red bean paste, you could either cook it yourself or use the canned type. I recommend cooking on your own as you can choose the sweetness of it. Moreover, the canned red bean paste is normally very sweet. Click here for the recipe of red bean paste.

Method:

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar till thick. Scrap the side of the bowl clean and add mixture into the milk in two batches.
2. Beat light cream cheese. Add gelatin into water and dissolve gelatin.
3. Fold light cream cheese into cream cheese mixture and mix well. Then add in red bean paste and mix well.
4. Add in gelatin when it is warm.
5. Pour some of the filling onto the biscuit base and lightly place the sponge cake on top.
6. Pour the remaining filling and smoothen the top and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Green Tea Filling:

Ingredients:
250g Light Cream Cheese
100g Sugar
4 tsp Green Tea Powder
70g Hot Water
7g Gelatin
8g White Wine
3 tbs Nestle Cream

Method:

1. Dissolve gelatin in water. [Always add gelatin to hot water]
2. Dissolve green tea powder in a small amount of warm water [Just enough to dissolve the green tea powder]
3. Beat light cream cheese with sugar, add in white wine and gelatin mixture. Mix well.
4. Pour in the green tea filling onto the red bean cheese filling and smoothen the top. Refrigerate until harden.

For the wordings on top, I used green tea powder. While for the decoration, I used a ribbon wrapping around the side and white chocolate chips pressed into the green tea layer on top.

Sacher Torte

Sacher Torte is a chocolate cake which is invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. This cake basically consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing with shreds of chocolate on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it, as most Viennese consider the Sacher Torte is too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

I've made this torte last week for my sister's birthday dinner. Unfortunately, the chococate icing on the top and sides turned up to be too sweet. The recipe i've found uses all-purpose flour but the result of the torte is not very spongy, so you could try using cake flour instead.





Ingredients:

6 Egg(separated)
5 oz Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Butter
1-1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Cake Flour or All-purpose flour
4 Tbs Apricot jam



For Chocolate Icing:
5 oz Chocolate
4 oz. Granulated sugar
1/4 cup Water
1/4 tsp Butter(melted)



Note: I've used the mixture of dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and milk chocolate, as I don't really like the bitterness of dark chocolate. You could choose the type of chocolate according to your own preferences. If you prefer milk chocolate, don't forget to reduce the amount of sugar.



Method:

1. Let egg whites stand at room temperature in a very large bowl for 30 minutes.



2. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.



3. Melt chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat; cool. Stir egg yolks and vanilla into the cooled chocolate mixture. Set mixture aside.



4. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beating about 4 minutes or until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).



5. Fold about 1 cup of the egg white mixture into chocolate mixture. Fold chocolate mixture into remaining egg white mixture. Sift about one-third of the flour over the egg mixture; gently fold in. (If the bowl is too full, transfer mixture to a larger bowl.) Repeat twice, sifting and folding in one-third of the flour at a time.



6. Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake in a 175 degree C oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Completely cool cake in the pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan. Brush crumbs from edges of cake. Remove bottom of pan from cake.



7. To assemble, cut cake horizontally into two even layers. Place the bottom layer on a large serving plate. Spread the apricot jam on top of the cake layer on plate. Top with the second cake layer.



8. For chocolate icing, in a saucepan dissolve granulated sugar in water and then bring to boil.



9. Brush the sides of the saucepan with a brush dipped in cold water to prevent crystals forming.



10. Cook till the sugar mixture becomes thick or syrup form, than remove from fire and leave to cool.



11. Melt chocolate until soft but not hot. Add lukewarm sugar into melted chocolate, than add melted butter into chocolate icing and stir well.



12. Spread chocolate icing on the cake.
    
    

Tiramisu

Tiramisu is one of the most popular Italian desserts. It is made of sponge fingers dipped in coffee and mascarpone cream. In the original recipe, there was no liquor as the cake was originally aimed at children and the elderly and the original shape was round. The name Tiramisu is Italian and means “pull-me-up”, a reference to the effects of the sugar and espresso, but can be translated figuratively as “cheer me up”. Nowadays, when you try to look for the recipe of tiramisu, you would find that there are many recipes that are slightly different with the ingredients but method of making it is similar.

While I was searching through the sites for tiramisu’s recipe, I saw many pictures of tiramisu which made me want to try out making one as well. Finally, I found a recipe which needs 6 egg yolks and there was 6 pieces of egg yolk left from the Mango Charlotte that I made recently. Thus, I decided to try out that recipe. For your information, most of the recipes use 6 eggs, using it separately, instead of just egg yolks.

Ingredients:
6 Egg yolks
5 tbs Caster sugar
2 tbs Caster sugar (for coffee or espresso)
1 pound Mascarpone cheese ( I used 2 packet of 8oz Philadelphia cream cheese)
1tbs Nestle cream
1½ cups Strong coffee or espresso, cooled
3 tsp Rum
24 Packaged sponge fingers
½ cup Cocoa powder for garnishing

Method:

1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale for about 5 minutes.
2. Add cream cheese and nestle cream and beat until smooth. Add 1 tsp of espresso and mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Add sugar while the coffee is still hot. When cooled, add the rum and stir evenly. Pour the coffee mixture to a small shallow dish.
4. Place each sponge finger into the coffee mixture and turn the finger 2 times. [Letting the sponge fingers soak too long will cause them to fall apart].
5. Place the soaked sponge fingers on the bottom of a long rectangular container or baking dish, breaking in half if necessary in order to fit the bottom.
6. Spread evenly ½ of the cheese mixture over the sponge fingers.
7. Arrange another layer of soaked sponge fingers and top with remaining cheese mixture.
8. Cover the tiramisu with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. For best result, refrigerate up to 8 hours.
9. Before serving, sprinkle with cocoa powder.

I sprinkled a little of coffee powder for garnishing. While for the cocoa powder, I replaced it with Milo powder instead.

The side and inner view of the tiramisu.

-= Happee Cooking=-

Mango Charlotte

The first time I saw a Charlotte Cake is from a blog that sells cakes. So I googled for Charlotte recipes and found different kinds of Charlotte. The most commonly seen is strawberry Charlotte. Some of them used sponge fingers for both the side and base. As my mum's birthday is coming soon, so I came up with the idea of making a Charlotte for her birthday. Its the season of mangoes lately and there's some mangoes from my dad's friend so I decided to make a Mango Charlotte. After some references from the websites, I decided to use sponge cake for the base and cream cheese for the filling.

This is a view when I'm halfway sticking the sponge fingers to the side of the sponge cake.

Right after when the cream cheese filling is poured into the ring of sponge fingers.

As there was extra cream cheese filling, I poured them into the small jelly cups and put some mangoes on top as decorations. There was also a few sponge fingers left so I broke them into half and put them on top.



At first, I was thinking of putting pureed mango and sliced mangoes on top. But I have no time for making pureed mango so I used diced mango instead as the top decoration.

A side, inner view of the Charlotte.

Ingredients:

Sponge Layer
75g Cake flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Corn flour
3 Eggs (separate)
28g Cold water
40g Corn oil
50g Caster Sugar
28g Caster Sugar (for egg white)

Cheese Filling
500g Cream Cheese
6 Egg whites
12tbs Sugar
6tbs Nestle Cream
10tbs Hot Water
6tsp Gelatin
120g or 1 and a half Mango

For Sponge Fingers ( ring side)
1 packet sponge fingers (Waitrose Brand)
2 tsp gelatin
3tbs hot water
pureed mango from half mango

Method:

1. Sift cake flour, corn flour and baking powder together for at least 3 times.
2. Mix corn oil, sugar, egg yolk, and cold water. Fold in the flour mixture from (1). Use a whisk to stir it until well mixed.
3. Use high speed to beat the egg white then slowly add in sugar until stiff.
4. Mix the egg white with the mixture in (2) well using a wooden spoon.
5. Pour the mixture in (4) into a 8" round baking tin and bake at 325deg F for 45mins.
6. Add the 2 tsp gelatin to a 3 tbs of hot water, then mix with the pureed mango and mix well.
7. Use the pureed mango mixture as "glue" to stick the sponge fingers onto the sponge cake's side vertically to form a ring. Refrigerate for half an hour for the gelatin to harden. [ A ribbon can be used to tie around cake to support the sponge fingers.]
8. Beat 6 pieces of egg white with 6 tbs of sugar until stiff.
9. Mix cream cheese, 6 tbs of sugar, nestle cream and gelatin mixture (Add 6 tsp of gelatin with 10tbs of hot water*). Beat at slow speed.* Always add gelatin to hot water.
10. Fold in the egg white into the mixture in (9).
11. Add in the pureed mango if there's extra. Add in the diced mango into the mixture. If you prefer a more yellowish colour for the cheese filling, add more pureed mango but mixed with gelatin.
12. Pour the mixture onto the sponge fingers rings made in (7) and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. [For best result, refrigerate overnight.]
13. To decorate the top layer, diced mango or sliced mango and/or pureed mango can be used. Mango flavoured jelly can be used if preferred.
    

Note: For extra cream cheese filling, pour into small cups. Ribbon can be used to tie around the Charlotte for decoration.

-Happee Cooking-