No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

Winter Solstice or Dongzhi festival is here again and it's time to make tang yuan.  This time I tweaked it a bit by stuffing the glutinous rice ball with some black sesame paste and cooked Osmanthus syrup to pair with it.   This year the Winter Solstice festival falls on Tuesday, 22nd December. Recipe for Black Sesame Osmanthus Tang Yuan ~ 桂花黑芝麻汤圆 Ingredients 150 gm glutinous rice flour 125 ml water, approximate 100 gm black sesame paste 1.1/2 Tbsp dried Osmanthus flowers Rock sugar or Brown piece sugar to taste A piece of ginger, smashed Method Mix the glutinous rice flour and water to form a dough, cover with clingwrap and refrigerate overnight.  (You may need a little more or a little less water). Knead lightly, form into balls of dough and put in the black sesame filling in each of the balls of dough. Meanwhile, make the syrup by boiling water and adding in the smashed ginger.  Add in the Osmanthus flowers, sugar to taste, set...

This is a relatively simple sugar reduced cookie recipe, full of peanut butter flavour with added oats and choc chips. Decorated with a sugary top, these will make a lovely gift for your relatives and friends during this X'mas season!    Recipe for Chocolate Peanut Cookies - 巧克 力 花 生 曲奇 餅 (adapted from 'Baking - 200 Moreish & Comforting Recipes' with modification) Ingredients 250 gm chunky or creamy peanut butter 1/4 cup canola oil 70 gm dark brown sugar 70 gm caster sugar 2 large eggs 3 Tbsp plain yoghurt 2 tsp vanilla 150 gm plain flour 20 gm cocoa powder 40 gm rolled oats 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/4 tsp salt 50 gm choc chips 50 gm raw sugar Method Whisk or sieve flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl, add in rolled oats and mix well, set aside. Beat peanut butter, oil and sugar in a large mixing bowl.   Add in eggs, yoghurt and vanilla till just combined. Mix in the flour mixture and add i...

The month of December is both the holiday and fete season which makes it the perfect time to enlist your kids to help in making these Fairy Cupcakes.  I'm sure these will be a crowd pleaser especially with kids at your X'mas get together. Recipe for Fairy Cupcakes ~   仙女纸杯蛋糕 Ingredients 4 oz butter 3 oz caster sugar 6 oz self-raising flour 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 2 Tbsp milk Marmalade Snow powder Method Beat the butter and sugar till light and creamy. Add in the eggs, one @ a time, mix well. Sift in the flour, mix well. Add in the vanilla. Put the batter into cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 deg.C for 20 mins.  Test with a skewer till it comes out clean. Let cool in the pan before removing to cool on a wire rack. Using a sharp knife, cut a cone shaped piece from the top of the each cupcake, about 4cm wide and 1.5cm deep.  Cut each cone-shaped piece of cake in half.  Fill up th...

Panettone , a traditional Italian Christmas bread is suitable for breakfast, tea or as a dessert.  This recipe reminds me of   Kugelhopf , a southern German, Austrian and Swiss term for bundt  or marble cake which also consists of a soft yeast dough with raisins and nuts.   Making a Panettone is a long, long process as it takes many hours of proving in a warm place and after all my efforts, I was a bit disappointed that my Panettone didn't rise to a dome shape, instead it was a bit flat.  But the consolation was that it tasted soft and fluffy, when served warm.  As I couldn't find any Panettone paper moulds, I used an 8 inch springform cake pan and lined it with parchment paper with higher sides to give more room for the Panettone to rise. Combine warm water and warm milk, sprinkle yeast over and let sit for 5 mins, or more. Add 4 Tablespoons flour and 1 Tablespoon sugar to the yeast mixture, combine till thick, cover with clingwrap and let it s...

As the name implies, this cake is certainly very suitable to be baked for the X'mas season.  I've eaten this cake before but didn't know that it's called Bishop's Cake  or   Stained Glass Window Cake until I spotted this on the internet.  According to the website this is an old English fruit cake that got its name from the stained glass window of the churches and cathedrals because of the appearance of the cross-section of each slice of cake.  Also known as American Christmas cake.  The wonderful part of it is that no fat is used in this cake!   As X'mas is not too faraway, perhaps you would like to give this a try as it can be kept in the refrigerator, wrapped in foil, for about 2 months.   As this cake is quite sweet, cut and serve in thin slices with coffee, tea or sherry. Bishop's Cake ~ Stained Glass Window Cake Ingredients 150 gm dried pineapple, coarsely chopped ...

I was contemplating whether to unmould this chiffon cake by  hand  or with a thin palette knife and after deliberating for a while, I decided to give unmoulding by hand, a try.   To my pleasant surprise the cake was dislodged quite easily and there weren't any unsightly patches.  I had to wait 2 hours to let the cake cool completely before unmoulding.  This is a moist, light chiffon with a good taste of Rum, just what I need with my hot cup of tea! Recipe for Mocha Chiffon Cake ~  摩卡戚风蛋糕 (adapted from 'here' ) Ingredients (A) 6 egg yolks 4.1/2 Tbsp caster sugar 6 Tbsp canola oil 1.1/2 Tbsp Rum 120 gm plain flour 3/8 tsp baking powder 1.1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder  1.1/2 Tbsp coffee 75 ml hot water (B) 6 egg whites 6 Tbsp caster sugar 3/8 tsp cream of tartar Method Dissolve the cocoa and coffee powder in hot water, mix well, set aside. Sift plain flour,baking powder into a mixing bowl.  Add in the egg yolks,...