Monday 23 May 2016

Dorayaki (II) with Salted Egg Yolk Custard Filling

Hamburger? Kids asked.
Nope ... it's Dorayaki! But filled with savoury filling instead of the usual sweet red bean paste.



I've made Dorayaki 2 - 3 times since my 1st successful attempt here 2 years ago. Other than the sweet red bean paste filling, I've also tried with kaya filling too.

Besides the famous Liu Sha Bao, salted egg yolk prawns/crabs ... I've seen many recent debut of  'salted egg yolk (SEY) craze' that has been raving a storm here in some bakeries/cafes/restaurants ... like SEY Xiao Long Bao, SEY Croissant,  SEY Lava Cake, Liu Sha Custard Doughnuts, SEY Cream Puff, Liu Sha French Toast, SEY Crab Spaghetti etc. etc.

Previously I had made some Egg Custard Steamed Buns recipe shared by Zoe, so I thought to tweak the custard recipe a little ... Dorayaki with salted egg yolk custard filling ... so call to join the fun SEY maniac ! Ha .. ha!

To make the salted egg yolk custard filling:
Recipe source : Bake for Happy Kids Egg Custard Steamed Buns, below my slight modified version with added salted egg yolks and adjusted the texture with more coconut milk & butter.
Ingredients :
2 salted egg yolks
50g unsalted butter
20g icing sugar
20g cornflour
30g custard powder
100ml coconut milk (I used Ayam brand light, ok to use regular ones)

Method :
Prepare a small cooking pot with water. Boil the salted eggs for about 8 - 10 minutes. Once cooked, shelled, separate the cooked yolks and whites. Use only the yolks, mash with fork till fine. Set aside.

Sift custard powder, icing sugar, and cornflour into a saucepan. Whisk in coconut milk. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Next, add butter and the mashed salted egg yolks.

Stir constantly until the thickened mixture comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a firm texture.

Transfer the filling to a bowl and allow it to cool down completely. Once cooled and spreadable, ready to use/spread on pancake. If not use, cover the surface of the custard with cling wrap to avoid any condensation form on the cling wrap dripping on the custard. Leave in fridge to chill until ready to use.

To make the pancake batter
Recipe source : Bake for Happy Kids Easy Dorayaki mostly adapted from Just One Cookbook Dorayaki
Makes 10 (20 pancakes) Note: I yield 8, 16 pancakes as I used ice-cream scoop.
Ingredients :
4 extra large eggs (the size of my egg is 65g with shell each)
100g sugar
2 tablespoons honey
160g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

About 2 teaspoons cooking oil for greasing the pan.

Method :
Combine and sift the plain flour & baking powder together.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, and honey and whisk well until the mixture becomes frothy.

Add the flour into the egg mixture. Whisk mixture gently until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter after the addition of dry ingredients. Cover the batter with cling wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for 15 mins.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over low flame. Dap some cooking oil with kitchen towel and lightly grease onto the non-stick pan. Wipe off excess oil if necessary.
Hint: The oil on the frying pan should not be visible.
My observations : I find that without greasing the pan with any cooking oil, it yields evenly nicely brown texture of the pancake. So after the 1st three rounds, I did not grease the non-stick pan.

I used an ice-cream scoop to scoop batter onto the warm heated pan to cook.

Flip gently with a spatula when surface are covered with bubbles. Cook for another 30 - 40 secs.

Transfer to a plate and cover up with cling wrap to prevent the pancakes from drying. Repeat the cooking process till finished the batter.

To assemble :
Spread about 1.5 tablespoonful of salted egg yolk custard filling on each of 8 pancakes.


Place the other pancakes on the pancakes with the paste to form a pancake sandwich. Wrap each sandwich with cling wrap to make them moist, tasty and 'stayed in shape'.

Enjoying this savoury Dorayaki
with a cup of green tea latte :)
Having tried 2 Dorayaki batter recipes, both work well for me.

Enjoy! Yeah! Glad that they liked the savoury fillings.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Coconut water & pomegranate agar agar



In the past 2 - 3 months of hot humid weather here, we have been quenching our thirst and cooling our temperature with ice cold water, various kinds of juices and coconut water. Of course having lots of fresh fruits and some frozen yogurt barks :)

It has been ages since I last had some pomegranates. Though I know pomegranate is an extremely healthy fruit. Read more here.  Somehow ... I didn't really like 'eating' the seeds.  As I was eating and swallowing the seeds, I thought why not add some to make agar agar with coconut water.

Coconut Water & Pomegranate Agar Agar
Ingredients:
500ml coconut water
1.5 tablespoon granulated sugar (* do adjust the sweetness to your preference)
1.5 teaspoon Agar Agar powder
2 pieces of pandan leaves, knotted
Some pomegranate rinsed


Method:
1) Mix the agar agar powder and sugar together well. Pour the mixture into the pot of coconut water with pandan leaves.

2) Cook with low flame and stirring occasionally and bring to a boil. Off the flame. Discard the pandan leaves.

3) Put some pomegranate in the mould. Pour agar agar mixture into mould, chill to set in fridge a few hours before serving.


Serve with more pomegranates to eat alongside with the chilled desserts. I've learned to appreciate the whole 'crunchy' texture of agar agar and sweet seeds with every mouthful bite. Enjoy !