Thursday, 29 October 2015

Coconut Buttermilk Pancakes

We love fluffy soft pancakes ... had made these Pumpkin Buttermilk Pancakes a few times and I thought using the sample recipe (omit pumpkin puree) with added coconut milk and dessicated coconut should taste as great too. Yes ! These fragrant coconut milk pancakes tasted soft yet slightly chewy crunchy of the dessicated coconut bits  ... Lots of maple syrup and some berries if you wish ... Yummy ! Enjoy!



Recipe source : myrecipes
My slightly modified version with added coconut milk & desiccated coconut.

Coconut Buttermilk Pancakes 
Ingredients :
(A)
126g all-purpose flour
1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar
10g dessicated coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

(B)
120ml Buttermilk
80ml Coconut milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Method :
1) Lightly whisk and combine the dry ingredients (A) in a large bowl, and make a well in centre of mixture.

2) In another smaller bowl, whisk ingredients (B) till combined and pour to (A) and whisk with a manual whisk until smooth.

3) Heat the non-stick griddle or pan with low flame. Dap some cooking oil with kitchen towel and lightly grease onto the non-stick griddle or pan.

4) Spoon batter of your desired size into the pan (big spoon, ladle or ice-cream scoop).
Flip gently with a spatula when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Cook for another 1 - 2 minutes or till golden brown on both sides.

Having my brekkie at my cosy corner.


♡♡♡♡ ~~~~ ♡♡♡♡~~~~♡♡♡♡

 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious

Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Easy Danish Pastry - Pineapple Jam & Coconut

Not too long after I've made the Easy Danish Lemon Curd Puff Pastry, realised that I've some leftover store bought pineapple jam {for making pineapple tarts} (about 150g) hidden inside the freezer. With such small amount, it would definitely be nice to make some warm dainty Danish pastries for our after meal dessert. Hee ... hee ... using ready frozen puff pastry ! Pineapple + coconut sounds tropical ! So, here's the quick & easy way to make some 'tropical' Danish pastries ... Somehow this post has been 'sleeping' the longest time till the ingredient 'coconut' woke it up ... hee .. hee !


Easy Danish Pastry - Pineapple Jam & Coconut
Ingredients :
1 sheet ready frozen puff pastry
150g Pineapple Jam
4 - 5 tablespoons of unsweetened dessicated coconut
Half an egg - beaten for egg wash

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Prepare a baking sheet with greased parchment paper.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface. Place the pastry sheet on the work surface.

3. Using a pizza cutter, cut the puff pastry sheet into 4 strips, then horizontally cut 2 lines to make 12 rectangular sizes.

4. Poke holes at the base using a fork.

5. Divide the pineapple jam about 10g - 12g. Shape it like a log and place on the puff pastry.

6. Sprinkle about half teaspoon of dessicated coconut.

7. Fold both the ends, form like a small parcel. Seam side down. Crimp the edges with a fork or leave them "open".

8. Poke holes on the surface using a fork.

9. Egg wash and sprinkle some dessicated coconut.

10. Place the pastries onto the baking sheet.


11. Bake for about 18 - 20 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown.

*Note that I made some other shapes. Feel free to cut and shape the pastry dough into any shapes & sizes you like.

Freshly baked ! They are best eaten warm on the day of baking. Time for some flaky dainty sweet Danish pastries! My big kids liked it while I find them rather too sweet. Anyway, ain't dessert suppose to be sweet ? So I'm enjoying these sweet treats with a cup of green tea ^-^!



Enjoy !
♡♡♡♡ ~~~~ ♡♡♡♡~~~~♡♡♡♡

 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious

Sunday, 25 October 2015

Banana Coconut Nutella Crepe



A crêpe is a type of very thin pancake. The batter is usually made from flour, butter, milk & egg. But I suppose with any crepe batter recipe, you can be creative and innovative too to make delicious crepes with the types of filling you wanted. Rolled or folded ….  filled with sweet fruits and jam or savoury ones. 

Last month I tried out the Milo Mille Crepe Cake, we loved the crêpe cake to the max, so here, I tweaked a little make these kinda "east-meets-west" dessert ...
Banana Coconut Nutella Crêpe
Makes about 10 crêpe, size 20cm
Recipe source : Eugenie Kitchen for the crêpe batter.
Ingredients :
(A)
123g all-purpose plain flour - sift and set aside
25g caster sugar
(B)
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
120ml milk (I used Skimmed milk, adjusted the quantity to 150ml)

Method :
1) Combine and mix ingredients (A) in a clean bowl.

2) In another bowl, make ingredients (B) : whisk eggs with a manual whisk and mix in the melted butter. Next, pour the milk in and continue to whisk till combined.

3) Add in (A) to (B) mixture and whisk till a smooth batter (ensure no lumps).

4) Heat the non-stick griddle or pan with low flame. Grease with a little cooking oil.

5) Pour crêpe batter using a small soup ladle or ice-cream scoop, swirl to cover the surface of the pan. Cook about 1 minute.  Using a chopstick to tip the side, with your fingers, gently and carefully flip the crêpe over, continue to cook for about 30 seconds.

Remove the cooked crêpe. Repeat this process till finished the batter.

To make pandan coconut sauce:
Ingredients :
1) 200ml coconut milk (I used Ayam brand trim)
2) Wash clean 1 pandan leaf and tie a knot.
3) Few small pieces of crystal rock sugar (or 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar)
4) Some thinly sliced coconut  (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, cook in low flame and bring to a boil till sugar melt. The mixture will be slightly thickened. (do adjust the sweetness to your preference).


To assemble crêpe:
Filling :
2 - 3 large bananas - sliced
Nutella

1) Spread about 2 tablespoon of the Nutella onto the middle of the crêpe (spread more if you like). Place a few slices of banana.

2) Fold both sides of crêpe to the center. Top with about 2 tablespoon of the pandan coconut sauce.


Lovely! Can't wait to try it ... It's time for some desserts ...  ♡ the great combo of banana plus Nutella with sweet pandan coconut fragrance crêpe. Enjoy !

Have a sweet weekend !

♡♡♡♡ ~~~~ ♡♡♡♡~~~~♡♡♡♡

 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious


Thursday, 22 October 2015

Whipping Cream Pound Cake

Finally tried out this pound cake using heavy whipping cream instead of butter.  Although it lacks the sweet buttery aroma, I like the texture which is light, not too oily.


Recipe source : Cookpad , and the sharing from Fion and Ann sometime ago.

Method :
1) Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the loaf pan (size: 500g) with parchment paper. Sift the flour and baking powder together, set aside.

2) Put the whipping cream and caster sugar in a clean mixing bowl, whisk until stiff using the electric mixer.

3) Add one egg at a time to Step 2 and continue to whisk constantly. Add vanilla essence and whisk further.

4) Add the sifted dry ingredients into Step 3 and fold well with a rubber spatula until evenly combined.

5) Pour the batter into the prepared pan to 80% full. Give several taps to get rid of excess air. (Opps ! I've forgotten this step, resulted few big air pockets ...)

6) Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes. Check for doneness with a skewer inserted into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done.

7) Allow the cake to cool in loaf pan for about 10 mins before removing to cool completely on wire rack.


Enjoy ! Happy baking and have a great weekend ^-^

Monday, 19 October 2015

Ondeh-Ondeh Cupcake

"Going coconut again ?!" ... ha ha ! No complain cos my big kids love these unique Ondeh-Ondeh Cupcakes. While we are so used to eating Ondeh-Ondeh (usually bought from some food stalls selling Nyonya kuehs and occasionally I will make some, shared here and here ) but we have not tried them in cupcakes.  I know baking or cooking with pandan leaves, gula melaka and coconut would be very fragrant and yummy ^-^!


Recipe source and adapted mostly from : Sharmeee Ondeh-Ondeh Cupcakes
Below my modified version as I've adjusted the quantity of some ingredients.
Ondeh-Ondeh Cupcake
Makes 12 regular cupcakes
Ingredients for Pandan Cupcake
190g all-purpose plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
80g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter softened at room temperature

2 tablespoons concentrated pandan extract (refer here for homemade concentrated pandan extract).

2 eggs (each 60g with shell)
120ml milk

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line the muffin pan with cupcake liners. (The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust the temperature and timing to suit your oven).

Sift the flour and baking powder together into a large bowl and set aside.

2. In a clean mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar till pale and creamy with electric mixer.  Add one egg at a time and mix on medium speed.

3. Add the sifted flour, alternating with milk and the pandan extract. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and beat for another 1 - 2 minutes or until the batter is well incorporated.

4. Use an ice cream scoop or 2 spoons to spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each one only two-thirds full.

5. Bake in the oven for 15 to 17 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake if it comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on rack.

Note: I made an experiment for 3 cupcakes (with arrows) filled with the pandan gula melaka coconut filling and baked them together. Simply dropped a scoop of batter, fill in 1 teaspoon of filling and topped with 1 scoop of batter. They turned out great too without the creamy whipped cream.

To make the pandan gula melaka coconut filling:
1) Grated fresh coconut 150g
2) Wash clean 1 pandan leaf (screwpines) and tie a knot.
3) In a saucepan,  pour about 150ml water, add 200g gula melaka/palm sugar (chopped smaller size) and bring to a boil till it melt. (do adjust the sweetness to your preference).
4) Add in the grated coconut and pandan leaf. Cook till the mixture fairly dry over medium-low heat.
Set aside to cool. (The filling can be prepared a day in advance and keep in fridge until use).
Note: I didn't use up all and freeze the balance.

Whipped Cream
240 ml whipping cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Garnish: about 6 - 7 tablespoons dessicated coconut (to sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon lightly on frosting of each cupcake).
Note: This is the leftover whipped cream from recent Coconut Cupcakes

To assemble, core the cupcakes, then fill in with 1 teaspoon pandan gula melaka coconut filling.  Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle some dessicated coconut.

Enjoying these with or without whipped cream :)



Yummy-licious! Love the fragrant pandan gula melaka coconut filling that complement the soft cupcake texture. My big kids gave thumbs up too ^-^!

Have a great week ahead !

 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious


Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Coconut Cupcakes

Still have half an opened pack of dessicated coconut in the fridge ... so baked some coconut cupcakes for our weekend afternoon break. While I was frosting the cupcakes, I remembered I had made some butterfly cupcakes 2 years ago ... So very quickly, I turned a few of the coconut cupcakes into "butterfly design" ... hee ... hee !



I was wondering why they didn't look as good ... soon I realised that I've positioned the 'wings' wrongly. .. lol .. they looked more like the T-Rex or Godzilla horns instead lol ... ha ha !

Made these about 2 years ago with a normal vanilla cupcake recipe. 
Here's an old picture of my 1st attempt in making butterfly cupcakes ... obviously they looked more like butterfly >~<

Recipe source :  Mrs Multitasker (Coconut Cupcakes with Pink Vanilla Buttercream) where she adapted closely from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. Below my slightly modified version as I've used whipped cream instead of buttercream for my icing.

Coconut Cupcakes
(makes 12 regular cupcakes)
Ingredients :
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
180g caster sugar (I reduced to 100g)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g self-raising flour
120g all-purpose plain flour
125ml coconut milk (I used Ayam brand trim coconut milk)
25g desiccated coconut
Coconut flakes, lightly toasted in the oven (optional – I didn’t have any)

Whipped Cream
240 ml whipping cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Garnish: about 6 - 7 tablespoons dessicated coconut (to sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon lightly on frosting of each cupcake).

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 175°C and line the muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2. In a clean mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar till pale and creamy with electric mixer.  Add one egg at a time and mix on medium speed for about a minute after each one. Lastly add the vanilla and mix to combine.

3. Sift the flours into a large bowl. Add one-third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Then pour in one-third of the coconut milk and beat well. Alternate the remaining flour and milk until it is all used up. Use your spatula to fold in the desiccated coconut.

4. Use an ice cream scoop or 2 spoons to spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each one only two-thirds full.

5. Bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are slightly raised and just firm to touch. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake if it comes out clean.

6. Leave pan to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely.

To make the whipped cream (recipe source: Joy of Baking Whipped Cream Frosting)
1) Place the clean mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Then place the cold whipping cream and caster sugar in the cold bowl and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form.

2) Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle some dessicated coconut.

To make butterfly decor :
Use a sharp knife to cut a upside-down, shallow cone shape out the top of the cake, then cut it in half. Fill the hole in the cake with whipped cream. Sprinkle some desiccated coconut.
Place the cut out cake on top to make it looks like wings.

I didn't use up all the whipped cream and kept the remaining in freezer for a few days for other mini cakes.


Enjoy ^-^!
 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Oaty Coconut Chocolate Chip Squares



I've used rolled oats & desiccated coconut to bake some healthy delicious Banana oat breakfast cookies previously and we loved it.  So when I saw this oaty coconut recipe, I know I must bake this too.  What's more ... it's quick and easy ... minimal washing to do like the Chewy Almond Squares I've shared sometime ago.



Recipe source: Taste.com (Cadbury)
Oaty Coconut Chocolate Chip Squares
Dry ingredients :
80g rolled oats
102g dark brown sugar (I reduced to 70g)
100g Chocolate Chips (I used 70g as that's all left in fridge)
38g desiccated coconut
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Wet ingredients :
100g unsalted butter, melted
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method :
Step 1 : Line a 20cm square baking pan with baking paper. Lightly grease with some butter, letting some excess hang over the sides.

Step 2 : Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together the butter, egg and vanilla extract then stir into oat mixture until combined using a spatula. Spoon into pan and gently smooth the surface.

Step 3 : Preheat oven to 180ºC. Bake for 25 minutes or until just firm.
Use the paper to lift from the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into 16 squares. (can cut into bigger squares if you like) Store in an airtight container until required.
 
opps ... the uneven edges ... hee hee!

Enjoying these dainty oaty coconut fragrance snacks with a glass of cold soybean milk !
Have a great week ahead ^-^!

 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious

Sunday, 4 October 2015

Coconut Juice Konnyaku Jellies

I recall that Konnyaku jellies was very popular in the late 1990s as most Moms were always busy making those jellies for their kids then. Of course, my big kids loved the chewy fruity jellies too when they were very young.

Well ... when they no longer ask or crave for these jellies ... I no longer make these 'long forgotten' Konnyaku jellies at home ... hee .. hee.


Made these jellies using coconut juice that contained coconut pulps. These chilled jellies definitely tasted refreshingly good in the current humid and hazy weather !


Coconut Juice Konnyaku Jellies
Ingredients:
10gm Konnyaku powder 
40gm caster sugar (I reduced the sugar amount drastically as the coconut juice has sugar cane sweetness)
950ml water (I used coconut juice)

Cooking methods according to the packaging:
1. Mix the Konnyaku powder and caster sugar together well.
2. Pour the mixture into a cooking pot of water (I replaced it with coconut juice) gradually over low-medium flame. Stir till boil, turn off the flame.
3. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes till the bubbles disappeared.
4. Pour into mould, chill to set in fridge about 3 hrs before serving.

*served with some canned pineapple cubes, longan or fruits if you like.

Enjoy ^-^!


 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ October 2015
Event Theme : Coconut
and hosted by Jess of Bakericious