Prune Kueh Lapis - Spekkoek

I do not remember eating this during Chinese New Year when I was young. In fact, I do not remember ever eating this during my early schooling days.... Then one day, it found its way into our household, and we've never been without it during Chinese New Year ever since... Initially, this (as with many other rare treats like,Bakwa, barbecued minced meat) was regarded as a special once a year Chinese New Year only treat. We would normally purchase this from the neighbourhood bakery which would only offer this during the CNY festival. Then, bakeries like Bengawan Solo which specialises in local kuehs and tarts started to expand aggressively and the kueh lapis became more accessible.

The cake which evolved from the Dutch Butter cake in Indonesia during the Dutch colonisation days,was given a well-spiced twist. Better known as Spekkoek in Indonesia, it literally means 'bacon cake', so named for its semblance to streaky bacon. This is possibly the most expensive cake that is served during Chinese New Year. Rich,buttery and moist, this is also the most decadent unfrosted cake I have ever come across. An 8x8 inch cake uses 17 eggs and almost 2 blocks of butter. If not for the way this cake is meticulously built by grilling layer upon impossibly thin layers of batter, I cannot imagine how something so rich and dense can even be palatable.

Indisputably the King of all spice cakes, this is best enjoyed in thin slivers (as shown in the photos above) with a cup of aromatic coffee. Heaven forbid that anyone should hoard a wedge of it like the way butter or pound cakes are usually served!

This is the first time I am baking this cholesterol choked treat. Thanks again, to Valerie Kong's class, the process became less intimidating and I have to admit, is less tedious than making pineapple tarts! Baking the Kueh Lapis is not tedious, it just needs a lot of patience to build layer by layer.

Valerie spiked her recipe with dark rum while others, I know like to add cognac for depth and flavour.

The traditional plain Spekkoek is modernised here with the addition of pitted prunes, the honeyed acidity of which pairs really well with the richness of the cake.

Last but not least, I would like to wish everyone celebrating CNY, A Very Happy And Prosperous Chinese New Year!

I am not publishing Valerie's Recipe here but I have found a very similar recipe at Swee San's Blog. This is the recipe from her blog...






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Prune Kueh Lapis
Recipe :

(makes a 9″ square)

450g butter
120g sugar
1 vanilla pod
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 whole eggs
12 yolks
1 can of 510g condensed milk
240g cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
prunes, snipped half, flattened

Method

1. Preheat oven to 230 C using the normal top and bottom heat to heat up the entire oven. If your oven has grill function with temperature control, use that. If yours’ is like mine, I heat the oven, then before I put the batter in, I turn on the grill function (which only need less than 2 minutes to warm up)

2. Line the bottom of a 9″ square pan. Prepare a water bath and put the empty pan into the oven to warm it up for more even batter distribution later.

3.Cream butter, sugar till light and fluffy. Scrape seeds off vanilla pod and add into butter. DO NOT discard vanilla pod. Put them into your sugar jar or rum. It makes everything smell nicer.

4. Crack eggs, add in vanilla extract. Mix in eggs one at a time, making sure the batter is well mixed before adding the next egg.

5. Mix in condensed milk (this stage, you can have 1 eye closed and forget about the fact that IT IS a whole can of condensed milk lol)

6. Sift flour and salt. Fold into the batter.

7. You can use a scoop / ladle to pour the batter in, making sure each time, it’s the same amount. Or separate them into 10 bowls. I used the 1st method, and ended up with 9 layers. But you can adjust it up to your liking or the size of the ladle.

8. Remove pan and water bath from oven. Turn on grill function. I transfered the water into a smaller cake tin and left it in the oven, this way my oven stays at a nice temperature without being too dry or hot.

9. Spread a portion of batter into the pan. Level batter with a spatula or tilt left and right to level the batter. Grill for 5-7 minutes or till golden.

10. Remove from oven, press cake layer to remove excess air. Spread another portion of batter, level it and arrange prunes onto the batter. Grill for 5-7 minutes or till golden.

11. Repeat step 9 and 10 till batter is finished. After that, I turned off the grill function, turn down the temperature to 180, and let the cake bake for 10-15 minutes to let it dry a little.

Pineapple Tarts 2012

I first attempted to bake pineapple tarts last year. This is decidedly the most popular Chinese New Year cookie among my family members and friends. I have a friend who would order his $1.50/piece pineapple tart every year without fail and it is not uncommon to pay $1/ piece for home-made pineapple tarts nowadays.

In case, you are reading this in the hope to pick up a recipe so that you can make your own tarts and save a few quid, I need to be upfront and urge you to abandon your wishful thinking. The ingredients which include primarily pineapples(lots of them) , good butter, some flour and eggs are not going to be cheap. Then when you factor in the tediousness of grating your own pineapple, stirring the jam cauldron for 2-3 hours and fiddling with the pastry to shape them into pretty little morsels, you just want to give up.

I kind of did...give up. Not wanting to repeat the same old same old as last year, I decided to work with 2 different recipes, one for the open tart and another for a closed tart. Thanks to Valerie Kong's Traditional Chinese New Year Goodies class, I think I have truly found a melt-in-the mouth pineapple tart recipe. Contrary to what most food bloggers believe, you don't need corn flour to achieve the tender melt-in-the-mouth texture. Her recipe appears to be simple enough, with flour, butter, egg yolk and milk powder. I am uncertain if it is the golden ratio of her recipe or if it is the technique of incorporating the flour with the butter that delivered the melt-in-the-mouth end result.

The cookie turned out to be one of the most tender and delicious pineapple tart I have eaten. My dad couldn't stop eating them and at one point, was stuffing 2 cookies at one time into his mouth! Kind of funny to see the old man behaving like a kid.

I was feeling ambitious and attempted one of the most traditional closed tart design. This entails wrapping the jam with the dough and shaping it into an acorn shape before making little snips around the  tart to achieve the semblance of a little pineapple. The whole process of shaping and snipping was so laborious that I only managed to get some 20 tarts in close to an hour. I gave up and chose a simpler shaping method which only required me to roll the round dough across a little ribbed plastic panel.


I have just finished cooking my second batch of Pineapple Jam and can't wait to bake another batch of closed tarts.

I shall not publish the recipes of the pineapple tarts here as I know Valerie conducts the classes every year.  If you are interested, please check in with Shermay's Cooking School or contact Valerie for class schedules.

In the meantime, if you do not already have your own 'heirloom' pineapple tart recipe, I welcome you to start here.

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Crispy Golden Prawns With Lemon Mayonnaise

The Chinese culture is most particular about celebrating auspiciousness. For a happy occasion like the Chinese New Year that celebrates a new beginning, we are even more mindful about surrounding ourselves with auspicious symbols. When I was young, we were not allowed to sweep the floor on New Year's Day, for fear that we would be sweeping all the good luck away. Almost all the dishes and food we serve during the festival have been given a clever twist to evoke an aura of good luck and prosperity.
Fish, for example is a favourite dish to serve during Chinese New Year meals because to have fish can also be interpreted to be as having surplus.We are generally not allowed to finish all the food served during our reunion dinner on New Year's Eve... it is bad luck to have an empty rice pot on New Year's Day. The pineapple tart, due to the way it is pronounced in Chinese is made to sound like the arrival of prosperity and success, hence its popularity.

Prawn dishes are also popular during Chinese New Year because these little crustaceans are pronounced as 'Har' in cantonese which can be construed to sound like laughter (hahaha) symbolising happiness in abundance....

Battered fried prawns may be deep fried and laden with calories and cholesterol but they are still popular among young and old. I am giving this a little Spanish tapas twist by pairing it with a tangy homemade Lemon Mayonnaise. Served wrapped with lettuce, it makes this a little less guilty to indulge... This is an egg white,beer laden batter which is crispy and light. If you are looking for a interesting way to serve your Happy Prawns this year, I encourage you to give this a try.

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Crispy Golden Prawns With Lemon Mayonnaise
Recipe :

1.0kg               Medium sized prawns (Grey tiger prawns is fine)
Oil for deep frying

Seasoning (A):
1 tsp                 Chicken Powder
2/3 tsp              Salt
2/3 tsp              Sugar
Dash                Sesame Oil
1 tbsp               Potato Starch

Batter:
85g                   Plain flour
125ml               Light beer
2 tbsp                Olive oil
2                        Egg white

Mayonnise:

4                        Garlic cloves
2                        Egg yolks
1tbsp                  Lemon juice
1tbsp                  Finely grated lemon zest
300ml                 Sunflower / Canola or grapseed oil (neutral oil)
Pinch                  Sea salt & pepper

Method :

Mayonnaise
1. Transfer garlic to food processor and add the egg yolks, lemon juice and lemon zest. Process briefly until just blended. With the motor still running, gradually add the sunflower oil through the feeder tube until it is emulsified.

You can either serve the mayonnaise in a dipping bowl or drizzle over the prawns like the way I did for mine.

Battered Prawns
1. Wash and devein prawns and marinate in Seasoning (A) for 5-10mins.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the batter together and let set it aside for 5- 10mins.
3. Heat frying oil until hot.
4. Coat the marinated prawns in the batter and deep fry until the prawn turns golden yellow.
5. With a slotted spoon, remove prawns from oil and let it blot on oil absorbant paper to remove excess oil.
6. Serve with mayonnaise and lettuce.

Mandarin Friands - 金吉蛋糕

春到堂前添瑞气  日临庭上增吉祥
To all those who are celebrating the Lunar New Year, (and that includes all Chinese in China, Taiwan, SE Asia, the rest of the world and not forgetting the Koreans) here's wishing every one a very prosperous and successful Rabbit year ahead. ( And I learnt that for the Vietnamese, it is the year of the cat!!?)

While Christmas is a time for religion,parties, pretty dresses and presents, Chinese New Year is a time for spring cleaning, tradition, family get together and non-stop feasting. For many, this is a time, where we literally hop from one family to another, visiting some relatives whom we would only see once a year...
L was complaining to me how he has been eating every 2 hours and gorging himself to surfeited lethargy...
I made matters worse for him when I faithfully regurgitated what I heard over the news yesterday... a pineapple tart contains 180-200 calories, a slice of barbeque pork (bak kua) carries with it 300-400 calories and a couple of egg rolls/love letters will throw in another 150-200 calories... Should I feel stressed? Yes, definitely! To think that popping 10 pineapple tarts would already have completed one's calorie intake required for the whole day, I must have consumed at least 3X of what I need for the day, binging on the variety of Chinese New Year treats.

I choose to share this Mandarin Friand treat because it does not contain any oil or butter. Nevertheless, the little cake is still amazingly moist and tender because of the generous amount of pureed Mandarins. The Friand, for those who are not familiar, is a traditional French cake which is based on nut meal. Most commonly baked with almond meal, I chose to make mine with Macadamia nut meal instead. It is not unsimilar to the Financier but this version does not contain any melted butter. Instead, seasonal Mandarin Oranges are boiled ,pureed and added into the cake to impart an exceptional burst of citrusy moistness. With the auspicious Mandarin Oranges as the staple ingredient, the aptness of this treat for the festival is impeccable.Served with orange flavoured Chantilly cream, this would also be a perfect treat for afternoon tea...


Recipe :
2          Mandarin Oranges, washed and scrubbed clean.
55g      All purpose flour
1 tsp    Doubel baking powder
3         Eggs
150g   Castor sugar
250g    Macadamia Nut meal
1tsp     Orange extract
Candied orange peel for garnishing.

Method :
1. Place oranges in a small saucepan. Cover with water and  bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 1hour. Cool down. Cut the oranges in half and remove the pith and pips. Puree the oranges with skin in  food processor and set aside.
2. Heat oven to 180C.
3. Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl.  In a mixing bowl, mix Eggs and sugar until well combined. Whisk in flour, macadamia nut meal , orange puree and orange extract.
4. Grease mold with butter and pour batter into mold. Garnish with a strip of orange peel.
5. Bake at 180C for 20mins.
6. Cool down and serve.

Pineapple Tarts

By the time this is published, most of you would have seen,baked and eaten one pineapple tart too many in the last few weeks to want to read about yet another Pineapple Tart post...

As popular and festive as it may be for Chinese New Year, I have never made the pineapple tart before. I wrote about how futile it would be to try to create a tart that is good enough to hold its own against the myriads of family heirloom recipes here. A couple of sightings last few weeks prompted me to give this a go this year. First glimpse was sighted on Ju's Tweet. Second came in the form of a step by step guide to homemade pineapple jam at Wendy's blog.

Some of you may know that I had traveled to 2 continents and 3 regions in the last 2 weeks. I touched down at midnight last Saturday and was already stirring at my first batch of pineapple jam on Sunday morning. Made with ripe pineapples, I found the jam too sweet even though I had reduced the amount of sugar suggested by the recipe. In my desperation, I tried to balance the sweetness with fresh lime juice. This complemented the jam so well that for all subsequent batches, I retained the lime juice component.

For me, the element that blew my mind was the little ball of homemade jam on the buttery pastry. Juicier and fruitier, this is starkly different from the dry sticky pre-packed paste sold at bakery supply stores. And really, cooking the jam is more easy and effortless than I had originally thought.


Typical of me and prompted by my vegetarian sister, I also experimented with organic wholemeal flour for the pastry. The pastry took on the strange musty brown colour of the wheat flour. Although the texture was very similar to the cookie made with refined all-purpose flour, a 'wheaty'/grassy after taste lingered. I am not keen to see the scrunched up faces of friends I will be serving these to, so I guess between my sister and myself, we will have to clean these up.

P.S.: Just learnt that j3ss kitch3n is hosting a Aspiring Bakers event for 'My Favourite CNY Cookie'. I shall contribute this to join in the fun!


Recipe :
Pastry (Adapted from Ju's Recipe)

200g            All purpose flour
50g              Corn flour
1 tbsp          Icing sugar
1/4 tsp         Salt
140g            Butter
2                  Egg yolks
1/2tsp          Vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp       Cold water

1 egg yolk for glazing

Method :
1. Sift flour,corn flour,icing sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate for 5 mins.
2. Cut chilled butter into cubes.
3. Add cubed butter into flour and work the butter into the butter with finger tips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Mix egg yolks, vanilla extract and cold water together in a cup. Add this to (3). Work briskly with finger tips to mix the liquid with the flour. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 10-15 mins.
5. Roll out dough to 0.8mm thickness. Cut dough with pineapple tart cutter.
6. Brush egg yolk glaze over the cut dough.
7. Place a ball of pineapple jam on the dough.
8. Bake at 160C for 20mins. Cool down and store in air tight containers.

Pineapple Jam (Please refer to Wendy's post if you need more details)
Recipe
1000g         Semi ripe pineapple, cut into chunks and puree in a blender.
150g             Castor sugar
1                   Lime juice
2                   Twigs of cinnamon

Method
1. Place pureed pineapple into a large heavy pot.
2. Add lime juice, and cinnamon. Heat over medium heat until 80% of moisture has evaporated. Stirring occasionally.
3. Add sugar. Stir once and leave to reduce further over medium -low heat until jam is 90% dry.
4. Increase heat and continue heating for another 10mins. Stirring 2-3 times to avoid burning.
5. Reduce heat to low and further dry up jam.
6. Remove from heat and cool down completely.