Butter cookie - Vanilla, Coco and Green tea (香草/巧克力/绿茶曲奇饼干)

This is a recipe from 君之的手工烘焙坊.

Ingredients:

【Vanilla butter cookie】- make about 30

Cake flour - 200g
Unsalted butter (soften) - 130g
Sugar - 35g
Powdered sugar - 65g
Egg - 1 (about 50g)
Vanilla extract - 1/4 tsp

【Chocolate butter cookie】

Coco powder - 20-30g to replace equivalent weight of cake flour

Not add vanilla extract

【Green tea butter cookie】

Green tea powder - 10g to replace equivalent weight of cake flour

Not add vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Put butter in a mixing bowl, add sugar, powdered sugar, use electrical mixer to beat the mixture until it is expanded and color is lighter.

3. Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl, add to the butter mixture in 2-3 batches. Use mixer to beat it well each time.
4. Fold in vanilla extract. Mix well.
5. Sift in the cake flour. Mix well.

6. Fill the batter in the piping bag, and pipe cookies to cookie sheet.

7. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until it is golden on the bottom. Watch over the cookie at the last few minutes to make sure it does not burn.

Purple yam moon cake (紫薯月饼)

Same way to make and bake as the Lotus seed moon cake. The only difference is the filling.

To make the filling:

1. Peel purple yam (about 400 g) and cut into chucks to steam.

2. Blend the cooked purple yam with mixer. 

3. In a large fry pan, add 6 TBSP of butter, purple yam, 4 TBSP sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 cup sugar, simmer together. Gradually add 3 TBSP of corn starch and cook until the mixture can be easily folded with spatula.

Lotus seed moon cake (广式莲蓉月饼)

This is from Ivy's  recipe. I first learned this from Jenny's cooking class. This is what has kindled my passion in baking. Moon cake is always a premium pastry desert in my mind. If I can make this, how hard could anything else be ;-)

Equipment:

Oven, kitchen scale, electrical mixer, large fry pan, mixing bowl, sauce pot, moon cake mold (small, 50g)

Part 1: Prepare syrup

Ingredients:

Granulate Sugar - 800g
Water - 250g
Lemon juice - 6 TBSP
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Steps:

1. Mix baking soda with 1 TBSP of water. Set aside.
2. Put sugar, water and lemon juice in a small sauce pot, cook at medium to low heat until the liquid is clear and the temperature reach 110°C(230°F). You should keep stir the liquid while cooking.

3. Add baking soda water from step 1 to the liquid, leave it to cool.
4. Put the syrup in a sealed glass jar in dark corner. It is ready to use after 1 day. The side product is some candied lemon rind.

Part 2: Prepare lotus seed filling

Ingredients:

Dried lotus seed - 1 bag 400g
Unsalted butter - 45g
Corn oil - 45g
Sugar - 1.25 cup (this can be reduced per personal preference)
Sweetened condensed milk - 4 TBSP
Corn starch - 3 TBSP

Steps:

1. Soak dried lotus seed in water overnight.

2. Boiling lotus seed in water until the beans are soft. Drain out the excessive water.
3. Blend the cooked lotus seed with a blender or electrical mixer, add sweetened condensed milk, sugar.

4. Pour the mixture from step 3 to a large fry pan, add butter and oil. Simmer under low heat, gradually sift in corn starch until the mixture can be folded with spatula easily.

5. Take mixture out and let it cool down. Chill it in refrigerator. If you do not plan to use it within a day, you can put it in sealed container in freezer.

Part 3: Prepare skin dough

Ingredients:

Cake flour - 235g
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Water - 1 TBSP
Oil - 48g
Syrup from part 1 - 155g

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl. If it is too sticky, add 1 TBSP cake flour, 1tsp oil until it is not sticky to hand.
2. Let dough sit for 1 hour.

Part 4: Making the moon cake

Ingredients:

Egg yolk - 1

Water - 1 TBSP

Steps:

1. Put egg yolk and water in a small bowl, mix well. Set aside for later use.
2. Preheat oven to 395°F.
3. Use kitchen scale to weight fillings and roll them to balls; weigh skin and roll them to balls. For a 50g moon cake mold, the proportion of filling vs. skin could be 30g:13g.

4. Flatten a skin ball gently on your palm, put in a filling ball. Wrap the filling with the skin. Use one hand to hold the rim of the skin, and another hand to push the filling down gently. Rotate the ball until the filling is fully wrapped.
5. Place the ball on a cooking sheet, place the moon cake mold over the ball. Push down the plunger to get the moon cake in shape.

6. Put the tray in oven and bake for 7 minutes. Then take out the tray. Brush each moon cake gently with thin layer of egg yolk solution.

7. Reduce oven temperature to 345°F. Bake for 6 minutes. Then take out and apply another layer of egg yolk solution to each moon cake.

8. Reduce oven temperature to 340°F. Bake for 5 minutes or until the moon cake is browned. 

8. When moon cake is cooled, store in sealed container for a couple of days for the skin to soften before serving.

Marbled Swiss Roll

This is a recipe to make a Swiss roll that is approximately 17" long. It can be cut into 20+ pieces to fill a party tray. 

Ingredients:

Cake flour  - 1 Cup

Egg - 8  

Sugar - 100g (~1/2 Cup)

Oil - 90g (~100ml)

Water - 80g (~80ml)

Salt -1g

Unsweetened hot coco powder - 2 TBSP

Optional: Strawberry jam for filling ( or choose other flavor )

Equipment:

Electrical mixer, oven, Half sheet cookie tray 13"x18", Parchment paper, mixing bowls(2), piping tip & bag

Steps:

1. Separate the eggs into egg yolk and egg white. 

2. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat egg yolk, oil, water, salt together. Then sift in the cake flour. Mix well until there is no lumps in egg yolk batter.

3. In an mixing bowl, add egg white, and sugar. Use a electrical mixer to beat it to soft peak.

4. Pour 1/3 of egg white foam into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them. 

5. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

6. Preheat oven to 350°F.

7. Grease the cookie sheet with butter or oil, and line parchment paper on. 

8. Pour all batter, except 1/2 cup, on the cookie sheet. Use spatula to make the surface flat.

9. Add hot coco powder in the 1/2 cup batter left. Use piping bag to pipe it on the cake as straight lines. Then use a toothpick to draw across the batter which will form the marbled pattern.

10. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until the surface is golden.

11. Take the cake out of the cookie tray, cool for 30 minutes.
12. Lay a new sheet of parchment paper on flat surface, coat the parchment paper with oil. This is to prevent the cake roll sticking to the paper. Put the cake upside down on the new parchment paper.

13. Remove the top layer parchment paper, and spread a thin layer of strawberry jam.

14. Roll the cake into a tight roll. Twist the paper on the end. Put the roll in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

15. Cut the roll into slices.

Here my swiss roll's skin was still sticky to the paper some. It may be because I did not brush the oil on parchment paper evenly, or I left it in refrigerator for too long before taken out to slice. I need some improvement there.

Rose swirl chiffon cake (玫瑰戚风蛋糕)

With my recently purchased Wilton cake decorating tools, I was looking for a project to get started. When I saw a video of this cake online, I thought this would be a perfect cake for my sister since she loves purple and roses. The rose swirl does not seem too difficult for first timer like me. So I made this cake for my sister's birthday; my sister and the family all love it.

Part 1: Bake two 9" chiffon cakes

Ingredients:

Egg - 10 Large
Cake flour - 170g
Oil - 80g
Milk - 80g
Sugar - 120g for egg white
Sugar - 60g for egg yolk

Material cost: approx. $4.00

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 340F.
2. Separate eggs into egg yolk and egg whites.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar lightly. Add oil and milk, and then sift in the cake flour, mix well.

4. In a clean mixing bowl, use electrical mixer to beat egg white at high speed to firm peak. Sugar for egg whites are added in 3 batches during the mixing process.

5. Pour 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them well. 

6. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

7. Pour the cake batter to two 9" round cake pans. The pan bottom should be greased, or lay some parchment paper so it is easy to remove the cake later.

8. Hold the cake pan and bang the bottom on the table a couple of times to release large air bubbles from the batter.
9. Bake both cake pans in oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and the top of it springs back when lightly touched.

10. Take out the cake pans, and cool off on cake rake upside down. After the cakes are totally cooled, take them out of the pans.

Part 2: Prepare the icing

The icing is Wilton's buttercream icing recipe, with doubled quantity.

Ingredients:

Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1 cup
Butter softened - 1 cup

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 8 cups (approximately 2 lb.)
Milk - 4 TBSP

Icing color - Wilton icing color violet

Steps:

1. In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
3. Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. It may be necessary to add additional sugar for the correct consistency.
4. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

To add color, use toothpick to take some icing color and mix in the icing. Keep add more icing color until you get to the color desired.  I first made the icing into light lavender color and used it for crumb coating. Then I add more icing color to make it into darker violet.

Part 3: Decorate the cake

1. Trim the two 9" cakes to level them. Then crumb coat the cakes.

2. Use Wilton piping bag with 1M tip to make rose swirl from bottom to top. Here is a video of how to do this.