Here is my all time favourite – “Mushroom Head” Milk Loaf for breakfast. It is best served with jam or Nutella.

See the Bread slice texture’s close up. It’s extremely soft and fluffy.

Whoever would like to know more about its recipes, kindly drop me an email.

I guess most of the Malaysian loves to eat our all-time favourite – “Kuih Bahulu” since young. It is a spongy and popular Malaysian little cakes, which made of mainly egg, sugar and flour. During my honeymoon to Europe last month, first time I tasted the delicious petite cakes in Paris which is so similar to this famous “Kuih Bahulu” ! Both has slightly different texture, crustiness and the after-taste.

I love how cute and tiny they are and just enough sweetness to satisfy my cravings. Madeline’s are Petite French cakes with distinctive shell shapes. Rich and buttery that are soft and moist with lightly crisped edge. Well, I’m thinking to make it coco or milo flavour next time. I guess it is the best companion for high tea and serve a cup of good coffee.

I have always been intrigued by these petits gâteaux élégante- tiny elegant cakes. After some research I learned the rich History and was inspired by folk legends and romance of Madeleines. In France, they are most often linked to the town of Commercy, in the region of Lorraine. A legend suggests King Stanislas Leszczynska sent the recipe for Madeleine to his daughter Maria following her marriage to Louis XV at Versailles. She named it for her father’s French cook, Madeleine. See more details here.

Since Ioving it so much, I bought this special silicon mold all the way from Paris to make my own French Madeline at Malaysia later. If you find any difficulties to find the molds below, just drop me the email to hankerie@gmail.com or click on this Shop page for more details.

Ingredients & Method

Refer to previous post titled "Creative Strawberry Swiss Roll"

See the swiss roll’s top view

I’m submitting this entry to this month’s Aspiring Bakers #9 themed ‘Swiss Rolling Good Times’ hosted by ‘Obsessedly Involved With Food’ (Details here).

Recipe adapted from this basic of making swiss roll

Ingredients

Ingredients
26g Oil
3 eggs
26g caster sugar
1/2tsp Vanilla Essence
63g caster sugar
47g flour
Green & Red food coloring

Filling
whipped cream

See my swiss roll close-up

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2. Grease and line a Swiss roll tin.
3. Put eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk until light and creamy (it should be very thick at this stage).
4. Sieve flour into mixture and fold very gently using a teaspoon.
5. Add on oil and vanilla essence.
6. Spilt the batter into 2 different bowls (1/4 – red colour and 1/3 porportion).
7. Scoop the 1/4 red colour batter onto the tray, bake for 1 minute. Remove from oven.
8. Pour the 1/3 remaining mixture into tray carefully.
9. Cook for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch.
10. While cooking place a piece of greaseproof paper on a cooling tray and sprinkle with sugar.
11. When the sponge is cooked remove from oven, tip upside down on sugared paper and carefully remove paper from sponge.
12. Cut off any hard crusty edges. Spread with jam and roll.
13. Leave in paper for a few minutes before serving on a plate.

Recipe adapted from this basic of making swiss roll

Ingredients

Ingredients
26g Oil
3 eggs
26g caster sugar
1/2tsp Vanilla Essence
63g caster sugar
47g flour

Filling
whipped cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2. Grease and line a Swiss roll tin.
3. Put eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk until light and creamy (it should be very thick at this stage).
4. Sieve flour into mixture and fold very gently using a teaspoon.
5. Add on oil and vanilla essence.
6. Pour the mixture into tray carefully.
7. Cook for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch.
8. While cooking place a piece of greaseproof paper on a cooling tray and sprinkle with sugar.
9. When the sponge is cooked remove from oven, tip upside down on sugared paper and carefully remove paper from sponge.
10. Cut off any hard crusty edges. Spread with jam and roll.
11. Leave in paper for a few minutes before serving on a plate.

There are several useful tools for baking successful chiffon cakes despite relies on the whipped egg whites correct method. Description of the picture from left to right as below:

1. The removable chiffon cake tube pan (20cm in diameter suitable for 3-4 eggs recipe), central tube assured the even distribution of heat to the batter, resulting in cakes that cooked more quickly.
2. Non-sticky chiffon cake huge tube pan 26cm in diameter (depends on your batter percentage , normally use for 5 eggs and above recipe)

1. Cake tester to draw any line above your chiffon cake batter before baking or you may use it to test whether the cake is ready after baked.
2. Small spatula to remove it smoothly from chiffon cake tube pan. I found it is the vital tool.

If you find any difficulties to find these baking tools/molds above, I can help you to place order and send over to you. Just drop me the email to hankerie@gmail.com or click on this Shop page for more details.

Baking have become one of my favorite hobbies, specially to destress after a hectic day. Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

Chiffon cake history: (Excerpted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiffon_cake)
The chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman turned caterer. Mr. Baker kept the recipe secret for 20 years until he sold it to General Mills. At this point the name was changed to “chiffon cake” and a set of 14 recipes and variations was released to the public in a Betty Crocker pamphlet published in 1948.[1]

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped chives
2 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
6 cups flour

Method

1. Cut potatoes into pieces, place into a pot and boil it. Strain out the water & place the potatoes into a bowl. Add in the sour cream & butter.
2. Using a potato masher or forks, mash the step 1 till smooth. Add in the egg, instant yeast and chopped chives.
3. Add in flour. Allow this mixture to rest for 10 minutes. Add in the salt.
4. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes till the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Add a little oil to another bowl and add in the dough.
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest till double in bulk, about 1 hour.
6. Shape the bun creatively
7. Sprinkle with a little flour and place into a preheated 190C oven for 25 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Along my baking journey especially for bread, kneading is the most important part of bread making. It helps the bread rise and achieve the fluffy texture. Kneading develops the flour’s gluten, or protein, into long, stretchy strings with yeast helps. If don’t knead enough then the bread will be too dense. If knead too much then the gluten will get too tough which will make the bread tough. The most wonderful thing is bake your own bread with the healthiest ingredients (no any softener or bread improver), see it proof and see the results until the end. This special feeling indirectly give me more courage and determination to try out more. In my experience, practice really can makes perfect. The more time you do, the better bread it will turn to be.

These sweet hearty dinner rolls are easy and quick to prepare. Also, it’s calories is extremely low as no butter contains in it. Of course, they are at their best while still warm from the oven. For a lighter, fluffier version you can replace the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour.

If you would like to learn more about this dinner roll (get the 100% tested recipe with the ingredients’ percentage, step-by-step method or join any baking class), just feel free to drop me an email at hankerie@gmail.com