Kjeldson Butter Cookies

I baked these last week as a pre-Christmas gifts for colleagues. It was my fave Danish butter cookies! Yeap.. Those that came in blue round tin. This biscuit has been going round the blogging scene recently so I Googled it as well.

Alan's website came out and I like the way pictures were taken and explanation seems easy. Why not??

I only need flour, icing sugar, good quality butter & vanilla paste which I substituted with vanilla extract. The steps are easy for novices like me. Do not over-mix the dough.

Piped the dough on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Try it.. you will not regret it.

Strawberry Shortcake

It was a dear colleague's birthday on 12 Nov so few of us decided to do a mini celebration in the office. The unofficial baker that is me took up the challenge to bake her a cake.
I always wanted to bake a strawberry shortcake Japanese style. The sponge layer must be cottony soft with the right amount of whipped cream in between. From Monday I was Google-ing a few recipes and saw the recipe from Rima's blog that look super duper awesome. It was simple and quick too. Right..this is the one

Strawberry Shortcake
145g cake flour
15g cornflour
1 egg
5 egg yolks
150g butter
65g fresh milk

Meringue
5 egg whites
100g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt

How?
- Preheat oven to 160C. Prepare a 9"square pan and wrapped the bottom layer with aluminum foil.
- Heat milk and butter in a small pot until warm. Do not let it boil. The butter will be melted by then.
- Remove pot from heat and add in sifted flour and cornflour. Mix. It will be lumpy at this stage.
- Transfer mixture to a bigger bowl and add in lighted whisked egg and egg yolks.
- Mix the batter until smooth.


- This is how the batter should look like.
- In another clean bowl, beat egg white until frothy.
- Add in salt and sugar in 3 addition.
- Beat the egg white till soft peak.
- Add 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg batter and mix well. Add the remaining egg whites and fold gently.
- Pour cake batter into prepared tin.
- Bake it using bain marie method for 45 minutes.


I am using another larger square pan and fill it with water to steam bake the sponge cake.

Whipped Cream
2 tsp gelatine powder
8 tsp cold water
2 cup whipping cream, keep cold
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

How?
- In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatine on the surface of the cold water. Let rest for 5 minutes.
- Place pan over low heat and stir constantly until gelatine dissolves. Remove pan from fire and set aside to cool.
- Using a clean bowl and chilled beaters, beat whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract till it thickens.
- At low speed, gradually pour in gelatine mixture and beat till stiff peak.

To assemble the cake

- Cut the cake horizontally. It is easier to cut with less cake crumbs if the cake is chilled. I chilled the cake for about 3 hours but 30 minutes is suffice.

- Brush some syrup (mixture of sugar and water) on the cut layer cake.

- Spread some whipped cream on the cake followed by cubed strawberries. Cover with another thin layer of whipped cream.

- Place the other layer of cake on top and brush with syrup.

- Spread a thin layer of whipped cream and chill the cake (this steap is known as crumb coating).

- After 30 minutes - 1 hour, cover with another layer of whipped cream, smoothen it or piped with design.

- Decorate as you wish.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERENE!

Nutella Swirl Rolls

Inspired from cinnamon roll I made these Nutella Swirl Rolls. I'm not a fan of cinnamon. Hah..
I've actually attempted the Hokkaido Milk loaf recipe countless times but I've only succeeded once! *sad*
This time round I was very very careful with the ingredients measurement and steps. Followed them to the T!
I'm glad I had the courage to try again because the bread went very well.



First time able to shape into nice balls. ^_^



I think I've overloaded my pan. After 20mins it's too tight for the bread. Oops..
Nutella Swirl Roll (dough adapted from Christine Ho - *I halved the recipe because we can't finish such big loaf)
540g bread flour
86 g caster sugar
8 g salt
9 g full cream milk power
11 g instant dried yeast
86 g whisked egg (about 2 eggs)
59 g whipping cream (*I omitted this and replace it with milk instead)
54 g milk
184 g tangzhong (50g of bread flour + 250g of water/milk and cook over low fire)
49 g unsalted butter, melted (* I used salted butter and reduce the amount of salt above. Agaration method)
How?
- Put all wet ingredients (milk, cream and tangzhong) into bread maker follow by dry ingredients (salt, sugar, bread flour and yeast).
- Set bread maker to Dough function (I am using Kenwood so it is Function 8).
- At 1:23 minutes, add in melted butter.
- At the end of the dough function (dough should rise to double or even triple in size), remove and place on cleaned floured surface.
- Deflate the dough by giving it a few kneads or punch. Do not over-knead or the bread will turn out hard.
- Divide into 3 equal portion, cover with clingwrap and rest for 15 minutes.
- Then shape the bread - at this juncture, you may add any ingredients you want. I rolled them up into rectangular shape and spread nutella on them and roll it.
- Let the dough rise for 1 hour. During the last 10 minutes, pre-heat oven to 170degree.
- Before putting it into oven, brush with whisked egg yolk.



I must say this is a very aromatic bread..the smell of Nutella with
freshly baked bread makes me hungry! I can't wait for it to cool down before chomping 4 pieces..haha
Note:
When placing dry ingredients, be sure that the salt and yeast is placed far apart from each other and yeast not to touch the wet ingredients.