Two Tone Fried Puff Pastry (莲花酥)

Ingredients:

【Skin A】
-  All purpose flour - 2 cup
-  Butter / Lard - 1/2 cup
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Sugar - 1 TBSP
- Wilton food color gel, Red
【Skin B】
- Cake flour - 1.5 cup
- Corn oil - 1/3 cup
【Filling】:
- Red bean pastry filling
【Coating】:
- Egg yolk wash - 1 egg yolk + 1 TBSP water, mix well
- Sesame seeds

Steps:

1. Melt butter in microwave
2. Add all ingredients for Skin A to warm butter. Knead to smooth dough, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
3. Knead ingredients for skin B into a dough, and let it sit for 15 minutes.
4. Split dough A in two, and use food color to dye one dough red.
4. Portion the dough A and dough B into small balls, about 10-11g for skin A, and 6-7 g for skin B.

5. Wrap each dough B into dough A, and round it to a ball. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into oval shape, then roll into a bundle. Repeat in the other direction.

9. Use rolling pin to make round wrapper. Overlap one white skin A with one red skin A, and then wrap the filling (about 30g) in side.  Use knife to cut through the skin.

10. Fill a pot with oil that can immerse the whole pastry. Fry the pastry over medium heat until the skin puffs up. 

Minecraft Block Cake

The cake was made by 4 layers of  Chocolate Chiffon Cake, each layer was 8"x8", filled and crumb coated with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, and then covered and decorated with Marshmallow Fondant.

Ingredients for cake
Egg - 20 Large
Cake flour - 240g
Cocoa powder - 120g
Oil - 120g
Milk - 200g
Sugar - 240g for egg white
Sugar - 80g for egg yolk
Lemon juice - 4 tsp
Baked at 350°F for 25 minutes.

4 batches of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting were needed, and each batch used
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups  (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 3-4 TBSP

I made two batches of Marshmallow Fondant. Each with
1 package (16 ounces) white mini marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2-5 tablespoons water
2 pounds (about 8 cups) sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
The fondant was made two days ahead. I then tinted one batch light brown to cover the whole cake, and
tinted some fondant different shade of green, brown, and blue.

I also made a batch of vanilla buttercream and colored it green to make the grass border. The ingredients were:
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter softened - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 2 TBSP

Black Sesame Puff Pastry with Salt and Pepper (椒盐牛舌饼)

The DaoXiangCun's black sesame puff pastry (北京稻香村的牛舌饼) is one of my favorites. This homemade pastry is an attempt to mimic the taste. The filling is from MaoMaoMom's receipt. The puff pastry dough is my usual receipt,originally from my friend Liu Qiang.

Ingredients:

【Skin A】
-  All purpose flour - 2 cup
-  Butter / Lard - 1/2 cup
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Sugar - 1 TBSP
【Skin B】
- Cake flour - 1.5 cup
- Corn oil - 1/3 cup
【Filling】
- Cooked glutinous rice flour  - 1/4 cup
- Roasted black sesame - 1/3 cup
- Roasted pecan - 1/2 cup
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Sugar - 1 TBSP
- Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum 花椒) - 1/2 tsp
- Honey - 2 TBSP
- Egg white - 1
【Coating】:
- Egg yolk wash - 1 egg yolk + 1 TBSP water, mix well
- Sesame seeds

Steps:

1. If you have not done so, roast the glutinous rice flour in a dry fry pan over low heat. Let it cool. Roast the black sesame and let it cool. Follow the recipe to prepare the roasted pecan with five spices powder.
2. Use spice grinder to grind the roasted black sesame, pecan. Or you can use a rolling pin to ground the pecan and black sesame in a Ziploc bag.

3. In a mixing bowl, add all ingredients for filling and knead the mixture into small balls (about 7g each) and set aside.

4. Melt the butter with microwave
5. Add all ingredients for Skin A to warm butter. Knead to smooth dough, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
6. Mix ingredients for skin B into a dough, and let it sit for 15 minutes.
7. Portion the dough A and dough B into small balls, about 10-11g for skin A, and 6-7 g for skin B.

8. Wrap each dough B into dough A, and round it to a ball. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into oval shape, then roll into a bundle. Repeat in the other direction.

9. Use rolling pin to roll out an oval shape wrapper, and then wrap the filling inside. Press or roll it into oblong shape.

10.  (Optional) Brush the pastry with egg yolk wash.

11. Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 20 minutes.