Caramel Custard

During my recent trip to Ipoh to climb Bukit Keladang which is well known for the local for morning and evening trekking. (Refer to blog malaysiatrekking.blogspot) Our Ipoh friend took us to this coffee shop which is always crowded in the morning.

Most of the food served here are famous such as "kei si hor fan", "chee chong fan", pork satay and etc. Our Ipoh friend told us that the caramel custard is famous and many local order for their party at home. I tried them and it is good. Yoke Sim told me she make them at home and this prompted me to ask her for the recipe.

8 tbsp sugar
4 eggs 'A' slightly beaten
2 tbsp sugar
3 cups of milk













1. Heat 8tablespoon of sugar in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is melted and golden brown. Divide sugar syrup among eight custard cups, tilt cup to coat bottom. Allow syrup to harden in cups.

2. Mix the lightly beaten eggs with 2 tablespoon of sugar. Gradually stir in milk. Strain the mixture and pour over syrup in cups and cover with aluminum foil.

3. Steam over low heat for 30 minutes or until knife inserted halfway and edge comes out clean. Remove cups from steamer and cool them. Refrigerate until serving.

4. To remove, carefully loosen side of custard with knife. Place dessert dish on top of cup. Holding tightly and turn dish and cup upside down. Shake cup gently to loosen custard.













Bravo! Here is the Ipoh famous caramel custard which are sold at Rm2 each. Thanks Y.S for this wonderful recipe.

Coconut Agar-Agar (Fresh Young Coconut)

On my daughter's birthday I tried out this new agar-agar recipe given by Lilian from Sg. Pelek (refer to post). She is one of my Shaklee member since 2 years ago and with consistent persuasion she tried our GLA for her allergy problem, actually it is a hormonal problem. She is very sensitive to various types of food products. Since then she has not stop consuming GLA and other Shaklee products.

This agar-agar is easy to make but is costly. Young coconut normally cost RM2.50 - RM3 each. This coconut have to be freshly cut and sieved. Use a spoon to scrap out the flesh from the coconut.

25g AAA agar-agar powder.
2200g sieved fresh coconut water (approximately 10 coconuts)
200 - 250g sugar (depending of the sweetness of the coconut water)
Coconut flesh.

Bring the coconut water to boiling and add in the agar-agar powder and sugar till dissolved. Lastly add in the coconut flesh and bring it to boiling.

Pour the mixture into a square tray and cool them completely before putting them into the refrigerator. In Betung, Thailand this dessert is widely served.

Have Fun And Be Happy!

Butter Cake II (Victoria Sandwich)

Ever since I got hold of the recipe on butter cake, I have tried baking them many many times using the margarine that my friend's wife mentioned in her recipe. Later I tried one brand which contain buttermilk and vegetable oil. This particular brand is more expensive because it contains buttermilk. Not until my Hainanese friend commented that "not bad but it is a stingy butter cake". He is the person who told us that he help his mum to bake this cake during his younger day. They used a certain brand of butter which is no longer available.

Knowing very well that margarine is not good for health. I have not use them in all my pastry and cakes. Not until this particular recipe, no wonder in the morning market this so called 'butter cake' can be sold at RM5.

I have make a search in the internet on margarine vs butter. Margarine is a product next to plastic. So with this understanding, my advice is never substitute butter with margarine.















In my last post, I mentioned that I have not tried this simple recipe that uses 1kg of butter, 1 kg of self raising flour, 1 kg sugar and 20 eggs. This recipe is actually known as Victoria sandwich by Good Housekeeping Institute.

"Stingy butter cake" comments prompted me to bake the cake again using only pure butter.


500g Butter (2 x 250g)
500g Castor sugar
500g Plain Flour with 1 tsp baking powder (sieved)
10 egg, separate egg yolk with egg whites

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add in the egg yolk and lastly add in the flour and set aside. In another bowl, whisk egg whites till stiff and fold them into the above mixture. Line four 7" baking tins and place the mixture into the prepared tins. Each weight about 520g. For marbled effect mix some cocoa powder with the plain mixture and lightly swirl the cocoa mixture with a knife.



Lightly smooth the surface in the tins with a palette knife to ensure an even surface when cooked. Bake them at 190 C for about 25 minutes until they are well risen, golden, firm to the touch and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tins. Turn out and leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.

With this new recipe, I managed to sell 8 pieces of them at RM9 each.

Butter Cake (Malaysia Coffee Shop Favorite)

This all time favorite butter cake is still very popular in many old coffee shops in small towns of Malaysia. It is displayed in glass cabinet and sold in slices. During Chinese New Year this butter cake is very popular as offering at the praying alters of Chinese home. It is best to be taken with hot beverages such as kopi 'O' (black coffee) or tea 'O' (tea without milk). Our Hainanese (Chinese Dialect Community) friend told us that during his younger days, he used to help his mother (coffee shop in Kajang) to make this cake during Chinese New Year when they received overwhelming orders (60) for this cake. They sell them in slices in their coffee shop during the day. 30 years ago it cost 10 cents per big slice but today is RM1 per small slice.

There are many ways of making this butter cakes. One kg (kilogram) of butter/margarine to one kg of flour and one kg of sugar and 20 eggs. I have not tried this method. During Chinese New Year Simon's wife gave this recipe to me and immediately I proceeded to bake them. I was told this recipe is from her friend in Kuantan. It was delicious and reminded us of the old time when we had this type of cakes in the Hainanese coffee shop. In olden days in Malaysia many coffee shops were operated by members of the Hainanese community.









9 AA size eggs (separate egg yolks and egg whites)
450g Butter/Margarine
400g Castor Sugar
425g Red Rose Flour + 1/2 tsp Baking Powder (sieved)
1tsp Vanilla Essence (optional)
1tbsp Condensed Milk


Cream butter and castor sugar until white and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks one at a time. Lastly add in the flour and vanilla essence and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites till soft peak and fold into the above mixture. Add in the condensed milk. I used 4 pcs of 7" cake tins and lined them with parchment paper. Each weight about 450g excluding the cake tin. For marble effect mix some cocoa powder. I was told in the morning market this cake was sold at RM5 each. Looking forward to have 60 butter cakes orders in the next Chinese New Year. Ha! Ha! Ha!



Have fun and be happy!

Meringue (Pavlova)

Have not been doing any posting since last year June. As usual in the month of February and March there was two birthday party. In every birthday party I will try to have new dishes or new desserts. This dessert recipe is from a friend in Ipoh. She served Meringue to us and this prompted me to ask her for the recipe.








This classic meringue is named after Anna Pavlova, the famous Russian dancer.

4 egg whites
250g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp corn flour
1 tsp white wine




In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar till finish and continue to beat until egg whites are glossy and hold a firm peak. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Lightly fold in the corn flour, vanilla essence and white wine into the meringue.


Draw an 7" circle on non-stick paper and place the paper on a baking sheet. Spread the meringue mixture over the circle and approximately 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 120 to 130 degrees for 2 hours. Leave to cool on the baking sheet then carefully remove from paper. The meringue should be hard on the outside and slightly moist on the inside.

To make up the the filling, whisk 300ml of whipping cream until thick. Spread the whipping cream on the meringue and arrange the fruit on top. Freshly cut fruits such as kiwi, strawberry and mango. I used canned cocktail mixed fruits, drained. During my son birthday, I served a small portion meringue with a piece of cheese cake.

Have fun and be happy!

Steamed Caramel Cake

I found this recipe from one of the Periplus Mini Cookbooks. It is a Malaysian traditional cake. This steamed caramel cake can be prepared within one hour. Cooked 150g of fine sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently until sugar melts and caramelizes to golden brown color. Take care to keep pan on very low heat to avoid burning the caramel and remove pan from heat once it reaches a golden brown color. Pour 100ml of water onto the caramel. Be careful not to get burned from the sputtering caramel. Boil caramel until completely melted and a syrup is obtained. Cool the syrup and pour it out into a measuring cup - 180 ml. If you have less, just add a little water to make up the specified quantity.





Melt 70g of margarine (butter) and cool them. Add 1 beaten egg and 75ml of evaporated milk to the melted margarine and cooled caramel syrup and stir well to combine.







Sift 150g of plain flour, pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl. Stir in 70g fine granulated sugar. Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the liquid, stirring gently with a wooded spoon to form a smooth batter.



Pour batter into prepared tart let mold till three quarters full and place in a preheated steamer for 30 minutes. Do not open the steamer before the 30 minutes is up or risk your cake collapsing.

Bak Chang (Dumplings)

Last weekend was a bak Chang festival. Friends will bring their homemade bak chang to our regular coffee shop to treat us. We do not really celebrate bak chang festival like most chinese household. We will make bak chang as and when we feel like eating them. Bak chang is available in morning market and night market. Unlike olden days we only get to eat bak chang during the festival.

Almost every Sunday a group of friends from Klang will visit Broga for mountain trekking, so we decided to make the Bak Chang to treat them. We do not have the exact measurements of the ingredients. Just prepare the following ingredient using your own estimation.












Soak the dried bamboo leaves and hemp strings overnight. Clean bamboo leaves with a damp cloth, wipe dry and set aside.

The last trip to Kelantan we bought 5kg of Thai Glutinous rice. Just washed and soaked 1kg of glutinous rice, drained and set aside. Prepare some shallots, thinly sliced and some coarsely chopped garlic. Heat 250ml of oil in a wok and fry shallots and garlic until fragrant. Discard the shallot and garlic from wok and uses half portion of the fragrant oil to fry the rice. Add in some salt, pepper, Five Spice Powder and thick soy sauce. Remove the fried rice to a basin.

The following ingredients have to be cleaned and half cooked for the filling:-

400g Belly pork, removed skin
150g Chinese Mushroom, soaked and halved
100g dried prawns, soaked in water and cleaned.
150g dried chestnuts, soaked with 1 tsp of alkaline water for 15 minutes. Blanch for 15 minutes in boiling water twice. Boil them for another 15 minutes over low heat.
20 salted egg yolks, halved them and sprinkle with rose wine and steam for 1 - 2 minutes
300g Black eye peas, boiled with a pinch of salt and drained.


























Uses the other half portion of fragrant oil to saute the belly pork, Chinese mushroom, dried prawn with some seasoning and dish out and separate them.

Take 2 bamboo leaves, arranging them so that one sits on top of the other. Fold into a conical shape, bringing the two ends together. Put 1 tbsp rice into the case, arrange one piece of belly pork, Chinese mushroom, some dried prawn, black eye peas, dried chestnuts, salted eggs. Cover with more rice. Fold the leaves over the rice to form a pyramid shape. Tie with hemp string. Repeat process till all is done. Do not make too big a dumpling otherwise you will have trouble of tying and cooking them later. Traditionally the dumplings are boil in a large pot of water with some salt for more than 3 hours over medium slow fire. We used pressure cooker to boil the dumplings and the cooking time was only 30 minutes. With pressure cooker we can only cook 20 pieces medium size dumplings at one go. When done, hang dumplings to dry.

Have fun and be happy! ♥

Sweet Potatoes and Green Bean Sweet Porridge

The last trip to Ipoh, a friend of us served us this sweet porridge dessert - green bean with sweet potato. We usually cook green bean with brown sugar and coconut milk. During durian season you can add in some 'durian' (Thorny King of Fruits) flesh.

Boil green bean till soft otherwise use pressure cooker to cook for 5 minutes. Our government encourages us to use pressure cooker to save gas. Soak one cup of sago and drain them in a colander. Cut sweet potato into cubes. Clean a few pieces of pandan leaves and tie them into knots. Put the sweet potato cubes, pandan leaves, sago and the cooked green bean in a big pot. The sago should no longer have any opaque bits, indicating that it is cooked. Add require amount of sugar to taste.

Homemade Yogurt

In my last blog on smoothies, I used homemade yogurt. My children love yogurt with honey or sometimes they mix cranberry, raisins or freshly cut fruits.


To prepare the home yogurt, firstly buy some plain yogurt from the supermarket as culture.
Mix 500ml luke warm water with 12 tablespoon of milk powder. Stir till milk powder dissolve completely. Sieve them with a plastic sieve into a clean container. Mix 3 tablespoon of the plain yogurt culture with the milk. Cover the container with a cardboard and leave them in a warm place. After 8 hours the milk will begin to thicken around the edges and the yogurt is set.



Place the homemade yogurt in the refrigerator until completely chilled. Reserve 3 tablespoon of this yogurt to begin next batch. Homemade yogurt can be refrigerate up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Have fun and be happy!

Smoothies

I received an enquiry from Angie on the best blender use for fruits and this prompted me to share about smoothies. Smoothies are usually served in hotels at international breakfast. It is a very healthy drink and easy to prepare. Just blend your favourite fruit with yogurt, fruit juice and ice cubes.

























We usually have home made yogurt serve with fresh fruit cut into cubes, raisin, cranberry or just honey alone.

Just put in some plain yogurt, ice cubes, mango juice/orange juice, bananas or strawberry and
blend them until smooth.

Ta-Da! Smoothies!

Yam Rice

This Yam rice is quite easy to prepare unlike glutinous rice instead of steaming, you can boil them in the electric rice cooker. One can easily consume 3 to 4 bowls especially to go with 'chili padi' and light soya sauce.
















These are the following ingredients:-

4 cups of rice (cleaned and drained)
600g yam (cut into cubes)
500g Long bean (cut into 1" length)
300g Dried Shrimp (wash & drained)
5 pieces shallots (cut into slices)

In a wok deep fried yam cubes till cooked, dish out and set it aside. Saute dried prawn till fragrant, dish out and set aside.








Leave behind some oil to fry shallots till fragrant, then add in the rice and long bean. Add in dried shrimp and cooked yam cubes. Flavour these with some dark soya sauce and pepper. Dish rice mixture into the electric rice cooker and add 6 cups of water instead of the normal 4 cups.

Omit the dried shrimp and it become a vegetarian dish.

Achar-Achar (Spicy Salad)

Achar-achar is actually a Hindustani word for spicy variety of pickle. In Malaysia this spicy salad is known as acar-acar. Achar-achar goes well as an accompaniment to any spicy meal (nasi lemak) or eaten by itself. Use it as a dip with prawn crackers. My children will sandwich achar-achar with two pieces of prawn crackers.







This dish is quite laborious. You need to prepare the ground spices and the amount of ground spices depend on how much vegetable you prepare. Always prepare more because any extra can be kept.

Pound or blend all these ingredients: Shallots, Garlic, Lemon grass, Candlenuts, Fresh turmeric root, Galangal and Dried chillies (soaked and seeded). Instead of pound the dried chilies, you can buy chili paste from the market.

Fried all the ground spices with oil till fragrant and oil separated. Add sugar, salt and tamarind paste to taste. Lastly add in pounded peanuts and sesame seeds. Set aside to cool.

Cut cucumber into quarters lengthwise. Cut away the soft center. Slice into strips (4 x 1 cm). Cut carrot into strip (4 x 1cm). Combine cucumber and carrot in a mixing bowl. Mix with salt and set aside for 30 minutes. Wash thoroughly with water then drain and squeeze out excess water.

Cut long bean to 4 cm lengths. Cut cabbage into 2 cm square. Prepare a pot of boiling water for scalding vegetable. Mix some vinegar and salt into the boiling water. Scald long bean and cabbage separately for 2 - 3 seconds. Pour the vegetables into a colander and drain well. If possible sun all the prepare vegetables.













In a big mixing bowl, mix the cooked ground spices with the four type of vegetables. You can add in pineapple slices too. Allow the achar-achar to pickle for a day before storing them. Before serving, sprinkle some pounded peanuts and sesame seeds.

Jellyfish Salad

On 25th March, during my son's birthday we served Jellyfish salad, salad sticks (carrot, celery, cucumber, turnip) dip with thousand island sauce. These two salads go very well with fried chicken wings and the children love it too!


Wash the shredded jellyfish throughly. Blanch in boiling water for less than a minutes. Toss in vinegar and leave for 15 minutes. Wash off the vinegar through slow running tap water. Drain and immerse the jellyfish in ice water. This makes the jellyfish more crunchy. Drain then chill in the refrigerator.


Shred cucumber and onion finely and keep them chilled. In a salad bowl, combine the shredded cucumber, onion and the chilled jellyfish. Stir in Thai chili sauce and a few dash of Thai fish sauce. Serve immediately.

Mua Chi (Glutinous Rice Flour & Sesame Peanut Kuih)

Since my last blog on Tang Yuan, I have been so busy baking CNY cookies to meet orders and during Chinese New Year there were many orders for "Yee Sang". We Visited Kelantan and Penang during Chinese New Year. Celebrated my daughter's birthday on 18th Feb. On 22nd March hosted our HHH run and on 25th March just celebrated my youngest son birthday. We served Mua Chi as one of the desserts because there is a lot of roasted peanuts and sesame left over from "Yee Sang". Mua Chi is famous in Penang and it is a street hawker's favorite that is liked by everyone. It is so simple to prepare at home.








Dry-fry peanuts in a wok till roasted and skinned. Put peanuts into a food processor and blend coarsely. Dry-fry sesame seeds until golden in color. Combine the peanut a blend sesame with castor sugar and set aside.










In a large mixing bowl, mix 250g of glutinous rice flour with 300ml cold water and 1 tablespoon of oil. Pour batter into a lightly greased tray. Steam over high heat for about 30 minutes or till cooked. Leave to cool.


Using a plastic spatula to cut Mua Chi into bite-sized pieces. Coat them with the sesame peanut mixture and then place Mua Chi into individual serving plates and serve immediately.

Tang Yuan (Dong Zhi)

Dong Zhi or Dong is the most important date in the Chinese calender. It is also the last festival of the Chinese Calender and falls six weeks before the Lunar New Year. During Dong Zhi, or the Winter Solstice festival, it is a traditional Chinese practice for tang yuan to be served as a reminder that one more year has passed by or one have grow one year older. Tang yuan is made from glutinous rice flour and sometimes stuffed with peanut, black sesame seed or red bean paste filling.


This year it fall on 22th Dec (Saturday) and it is also one of our HHH member's run (Goldprick). So I have prepared tang yuan for 40 hash members but the turn up was only 22 members because it was a big day for the Chinese. We managed to finish the tang yuan because one person have more than 2 servings. Some even commented that the tang yuan taste so much better from what they have tasted before.


Tang yuan is made from glutinous rice flour. You can buy ready made tang yuan dough normally white and pink in color from the wet market. But I prefer to make my own home made glutinous rice flour dough without coloring (pink). I steamed the 'Indonesia Sweet Potatoes' and mashed them (approximately 350g). Mix them with 500g glutinous rice flour and 500ml of water. Add the water bit by bit to get into a consistency and knead it into a dough. You will get a natural gold color dough. Pinch a piece of the dough off and shape into small balls using both the palms.

Heat a big pot of water with pandan leaves and lots of ginger to make the sweet syrup soup. Add in sugar and cooked till sugar dissolved. Make sure to scoop out the pandan leaves and ginger. Lastly only add in the cooked tang yuan which are cooked separately.

In a separate saucepan heat up a pot of water. Add the glutinous rice balls into the boiling water and when the rice balls float to the top (indication that it is cooked!) scoop them out and place them in cold water. Mix the cooked tang yuan with the ready boiling sweet syrup soup.


I brought along the mini stove and heat up the tang yuan and served them hot. The run site was at Genting Sempah which is approximately 1500ft above sea level and the weather was cold after a heavy rain.


Have fun and be happy! ♥

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Milk Rice)

Nasi Lemak is literally translated as "rice with fat" or "rice in coconut milk". The name is derived from the cooking process whereby the rice is soaked in rich coconut milk and then the mixture is steamed or cooked. Nasi Lemak is a dish that commonly sold in every street corner and local themed restaurant (cafe) in Malaysia. It is served as breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and supper especially in most of the 'mamak' stalls.



Kajang Buddhist Center just organized its 6th Teenage Camp on 13th - 16th Dec 2007. I have volunteered to prepared one lunch and one breakfast for all the participants and helpers approximately 100 of them. For the lunch I have prepared Nasi Lemak and 104 pieces of sausage pizza breads for breakfast.

There are few methods of cooking this nasi lemak. The simplest method is just cook the rice with coconut milk in the electric rice cooker. Another method is still using electric rice cook, wait till the rice is almost cook just mix the coconut milk evenly and let it stand for 10 to 15 mins to allow the rice to absorb the coconut milk. The method I use is a steaming method which I have learned from a friend. I was told this method is originated from Melaka. One cup of rice to one cup of water or coconut milk. Cook the rice, water, coconut milk, knotted 'pandan' leaves and few pieces of young ginger in a wok until dry and steam them in a steamer till cook. I went to Malacca to purchase a wooded tub to steam the nasi lemak. Because the amount of rice (10kg) are too much therefore I have to use the big steamer to steam them first and when the rice are cooked, only transfer to the wooden tub. I will place banana leaves around the wooded tub.















Other essential condiments to be served with Nasi Lemak are:-

1. Sambal ( Hot spicy sauce plain with big onion or with ikan bilis)
2. Fried Ikan Bilis (Fried Anchovies)
3. Fried Kacang ( Fried Peanuts)
4. Hard Boiled Egg (served quarter or half)
5. Slice cucumbers

Method of preparing sambal (Plain Sambal with big onion)

2 kg of Chili Paste
3kg of Big onion
Tamarind sauce (Asam Paste)
Belachan (Shrimp Paste) - toasted in the wok
Sugar/salt to taste
Vegetable oil

Heat vegetable oil over medium heat and cook chili paste, stirring occasionally until chili paste become dried and the chili oil emerged. Add in the toasted shrimp paste, tamarind sauce, big onion and lots of sugar. Cook until gravy thicken and dark reddish brown.

Fried the peanuts over medium heat in vegetable oil until lightly brown. Remove peanuts and place on paper towels to soak up excess oil. Sprinkle some salt over the peanuts.

For the anchovies, wash and drained away excess water. Deep fried briefly until crispy and place on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Place eggs in a big pot and cover with water and a dash of salt. Cook over low heat and stirring all the time to prevent the egg yolk to set on one side. Bring water to boiling and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and soak with cold water for peeling. Slice them into half.





Extra condiments:-

1. Fried chicken
2. Chicken curry or rendang
3. Beef curry or rendang
4. Mutton curry or rendang
5. Cuttlefish or cockle sambal

Have fun and be happy! ♥

Pineapple Jam For Nastar

Chinese New Year is two months away. I have just started preparing the pineapple jam for the pineapple rolls or some call it Nastar, or tananas which are pineapple jam filled cookies. These cookies are popular treats for most of the festivals in Malaysia. In Malacca you can find freshly baked Nyonya pineapple tarts/rolls through out the yea

I have been selling this pineapple rolls for a number of years. It is very popular because the pastry with strong hint of butter, melt in your mouth, especially the pineapple jam is home cooked which is not too sweet nor sour.

I will normally prepare the pineapple jam filling in big quantities. I bought 40 pieces of pineapple fruit from the market and make sure you wear glove before you cut the pineapple otherwise your hand will bleed easily at the end of day.

Do not cut the stem away, use it to hold the pineapple while slicing off the skin and carving out any remaining "eyes" with the tip of knife. Chopped the pineapple into smaller pieces and blend them with a juice blender.




Cooking pineapple jam is the most tedious job. Put all the blended pineapple in a big pot without draining the juice. Add in some cinnamon powder and 8kg of sugar. Bring to boil then reduce heat to simmer. Stirring frequently until pineapple jam is thicken and sticky. This process normally takes about 6 hours or more. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. I will normally weigh the jam into 5g each and roll them into a cylinder shape to prepare for making Pineapple Jam Rolls or Nastar for the coming festive season.

Have fun and be happy! ♥

Pullman Bread (Pain de Mie)

Pullman Bread (Pain de Mie) is a French recipe, however, it was served extensively on Pullman railroad cars, hence the name Pullman Bread. This loaf when sliced have a fine compact crumb and a shape that is almost perfectly square. In general this type of bread is used for sandwiches.

Sponge Dough

600g High Protein Flour
350g Cold water
15g Instant Yeast

Mix the high protein flour and instant yeast with cold water to form a dough. Leave it to prove for 2 - 3 hours in a big container with cover.


Main Dough

400g High Protein Flour
70g Sugar
15g Salt
20g Milk Powder
200g Whipping cream
60g Shortening


Mix all the ingredients in the main dough with the sponge dough. Lastly add the shortening and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. Divide it into 8 equal pieces (207g each), mould them into balls and let them rest for 15 minutes. This method is similar to making sweet bun dough. Flatten the dough then roll it up like Swiss rolls. Place 4 pieces of dough into the Pullman bread tin with lid (20cm x W11.5cm x H11.5cm). Let it prove for 45 minutes, or fill it till 80% of the loaf tin. Preheat the oven at 200ºC and bake for 35 minutes. Remove it immediately from the loaf tin when baked.

Have fun and be happy! ♥

Bread (Sweet Buns)

The price of bread and baking ingredients have increased. I have not been buying bread from shops ever since I attended a basic bread baking course. I bought a numbers of books on baking bread. Once you know the basic methods of bread making , just refer to the recipe books and you can make wonderful home baked bread. My favorite is sweet bun because with this sweet bun dough you can make many types of buns with fillings such as sausage bun, cocktail bun, cream horns, cheese stick, meat floss bun, peanut, tuna, sardine, curry chicken, red bean, and the list can be endless. I even baked multi grains buns for my camping trip to Gunung Chamah.

My daughter is having her SPM examinations starting tomorrow and I have started preparing a few type buns since last week. She told me she would prefer to have bread rather than the food sold in the school canteen or food court nearby. I have prepared some plain buns that can be topped with cheese or garlic or mixed herbs, mixed fruit plait bread and sausage pizza bread. I store the ready shaped buns in the freezer and take them out to prove before baking, normally it will take a least 2 - 3 hours for proving.

There are 3 methods of making basic sweet bun dough. First method is 'no time dough' method which does not need to go through basic proving. Second method is 'straight dough' method which needs one basic proving for about 45 - 60 minutes. The third method which I have learned is 'sponge and dough' method. This method needs longer preparation time. First of all a sponge dough is prepared which needs to prove for 4 - 5 hours or even longer. After a second mixing, it has a 10 minutes rest. Then divided, mold it round, then fill it with filling and shaped. This method produces a softer, bigger buns which last longer.

Sponge Dough

630g High Protein Flour
7g Instant Yeast
383g Water

Mix the high protein flour, instant yeast and water to form dough. Keep them in a big container with cover for proving at least 4 - 5 hours.


Main Dough

270g High protein Flour
38g Milk Powder
14g Salt
180g Sugar
18g Instant Yeast
45g Water
113g Eggs
135g Butter

When the sponge dough is ready, prepare the main dough by mixing all the dry ingredient with water and eggs. Add the sponge dough to the main dough. Lastly, add the butter and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. Divide the well proved dough into 55g each and there will be 33 pieces. Shape them into balls and allow to rest for 10 - 15 minutes. For shaping and filling , just flatten the dough and put in the filling or make bread into the required shape. When the bread has been throughly proved and is ready for baking, brush the top with egg wash. Preheat the oven at 190°C before baking. Baking time is less than 10 minutes or till the buns become golden brown. When is ready glaze them with butter.


Last but not least, try them out and practice a lot.
Have fun and be happy! ♥

Homemade Pan Mee

Pan Mee is the literal translation of "flat flour noodles". Pan mee is a type of noodles that is handmade from kneaded flour or the dough can be kneaded using dough mixer. The kneaded dough can be cut into strips using noodle processor or the traditional way using hand by taring into bite size. I have often made this dish during our camping trips and during weekend when we do not feel like eating rice. It is easy to prepare and yet it taste good.


The last trip to Gunung Datuk, I prepared the dough on the night before the trip and kept them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Ikan bilis (anchovies) and chili padi is a must in this dish! Imagine eating hot and spicy soup that make you sweat and even have running nose! Some Malay camper were amazed with our Pan Mee because normally they will just have instant noodles. In our trip to Gunung Chammah I prepared the dough early in the morning before climbing the peak. Only cook them when we desend to the campsite after almost 12 hours trekking.


To prepare the Pan Mee dough for 10-20 servings just mix 1 kg of flour with 1 eggs, 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, water 300ml or enough to bind them without sticking to your hand. Do not put all the water at one go, bit by bit. Reserve some flour in case it is too wet. Just add flour and continue to knead by hand or machine till it does not stick to your hands.


Fry ikan bilis (anchovies) and garlic till fragrant and add enough of water to make the soup. For seasoning use white pepper and salt. Boil the ikan bilis soup for 10 to 20 minutes. Use hand and tare the dough into the boiling ikan bilis soup. You can cook them with any leafy vegetable of your choice and the best is "pucuk manis". Serve them with chili padi soak in light soya sauce.



Have fun and be happy! ♥