Homemade Kaya

香兰咖椰

Kaya is a sweet and creamy/custardy jam made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar. It is served in toast with butter in most coffee stalls. Kaya comes in two flavours: pandan or caramel. I'm sharing the recipe for pandan kaya which is less sweet. 

Ingredients

6 large eggs (355g nett)

360ml fresh coconut milk

100g sugar

5 pandan leaves

Method

1. Prepare pandan extract: Cut pandan leaves into small pieces and put into blender with 100ml of the coconut milk. Sieve the mixture, squeeze the pulp to extract as much pandan liquid as possible. Discard the pandan pulp thereafter.

2. In a container/bowl, lightly beat the eggs and sugar until sugar dissolves. Sieve the egg mixture into a small pot, add in the pandan extract and the remaining coconut milk. Stir using a small whisk to combine.

3. Set up bain-marie: Prepare a big pot and put a steaming rack in it. Fill up with water until it just covers the steaming rack. Place the small pot with coconut egg mixture on the steaming rack (so just a small amount of water touched the bottom of the small pot), turn on the stove heat and bring the water to a boil. Then lower heat to medium-low and keep stirring the coconut egg mixture in one direction. Note: High heat will cause the coconut egg mixture to curdle and kaya will be lumpy.

4. It took me 1.5 hours to cook down the mixture and get my preferred thick and custardy texture and consistency. Remove the small pot from bain-marie once done and continue to keep stirring at room temperature to cool the kaya down. Once completely cooled, store in a clean and sterilised jar and refrigerate. Best consumed within 2 -3 weeks.

Focaccia

意大利香料面包 (佛卡夏)

Made this fluffy herbs focaccia today! Recipe is from Peng Fudong and I made half portion using a 18cm x 18cm square baking pan to achieve a tall bread.

Ingredients:

500g bread flour or even better, 00 flour; 250g (half)

325g water; 162.5g (half)

9g salt; 4.5g (half)

3g instant yeast; 1.5g (half)

75g water - to be added slowly in 3 batches; 37.5g (half)

10g olive oil; 5g (half)

olive oil & water mixture ratio: 1:1 (for oiling baking tray/pan, dipping your fingers into the dough to make dimples)

Method:

1. Put flour, yeast, salt and 325g water into the mixing bowl. Use a dough attachment to knead the dough (slow speed first, then medium) until it comes clean from the sides of the mixing bowl. Dough is SMOOTH and should be slightly extensible. This takes about 10 minutes.

2. Add 75gwater into the mixing bowl in 3 batches. For each addition, knead using slow speed first to avoid water splashing out of the mixing bowl. Then increase speed to knead. Make sure water is fully incorporated into the dough before adding the next batch of water. After all water has been incorporated, the dough should be SHINY and very extensible.

3. Add olive oil and knead (slow speed first, then increase speed) until fully incorporated. Do window pane test.

4. Generously coat the baking tin with olive oil & water mixture. Transfer the dough to the baking tin, fold the dough onto itself (i.e. gently lift the edges of the dough and fold it towards the centre), flip the dough and tuck in the edges of the dough to make it rectangular. Cover the baking tin with clingwrap or cloth and proof for 30 minutes. At the 30th minute mark, repeat the folding (to incorporate air into the dough) and continue to proof for another 30 minutes. These foldings are known as "stretch and fold" and is a technique used to strengthen high hydration dough like this one (80%) and develop gluten. An alternative method is "coil fold" (lifting the dough from the middle using both wet hands and folding the dough over itself).

5. After one hour, gently stretch the dough to the corners of the baking pan, drizzle olive oil & water mixture over the dough and create dimples all the way to the bottom of the pan starting from the center of the dough. Cover with clingwrap or cloth and proof until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour (in Singapore's weather). 

6. Dab fingers in the olive oil & water mixture and gently press into the dough to create more dimples. 

7. Add toppings (e.g. herbs, olive, creme fraiche, bacon bits, chives, confit garlic, roasted tomatoes) and sprinkle sea salt flakes. Drizzle a bit more olive oil over the dough.

7. Bake at 230 degrees celcius for 15 minutes (middle rack, no fan) until the edges of the focaccia are crispy and the top is golden brown. For crispier focaccia, bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Note 1: To make olive oil soaked cherry tomatoes, cut 250g cherry tomatoes into half, mix in olive oil and dried/fresh herbs, then roast in oven at 150 degree celcius until almost dry.

Note 2: For better flavour, rest the dough in the fridge after step 4 for 24 hours. 

Note 3: Instead of using a mixer, you can prepare the dough as follows to replace steps 1 to 4 above:

- Mix water, yeast/discard with bread flour using dough scrapper and rest 30mins (autolyse - for flour to absorb water)

- Add olive oil and salt, and mix in by squeezing. Rest 30mins

- Do 4 coil folds, 30 minutes apart.

Note 4: To make sourdough focaccia (half portion):

200g bread flour

100g sourdough discard

125g water

4.5g salt

1.5g instant yeast

15 to 29g water

5g olive oil

Fried Fermented Bean Curd Chicken Wings

炸鸡翅膀

Fermented bean curd is a type of preserved tofu. There are 2 types - white and red. This recipe uses the red fermented bean curd which makes the chicken wings very aromatic and fragrant. And crispy too!

Recipe credit: Fried Red Bean Curd Chicken Wing (Nam Yue Chicken Wing) - MyKitchen101en.com

Ingredients

8 chicken wings

1 tablespoon rice flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Marinade:

30g red fermented bean curd (2 pieces including some liquid)

1 clove garlic (grated)

1 shallot (grated)

1 medium egg or 1/2 large egg

1/4 tsp sesame oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Wash and clean the chicken wings, then dab dry with kitchen towels. Pierce the chicken wings with a sharp knife.

2. Prepare marinade and add them to the chicken wings. Ensure the wings are well coated with the marinade. Set aside for at least half hour - the longer you marinade, the better the taste.

3. Heat up cooking oil in wok under medium-low heat.

4. Mix the rice flour and cornstarch, then add them to the marinated chicken wings. 

5. When the oil temperature has reached approximately 160 deg celcius, put in the chicken wings and fry until light golden colour. Turn up the heat to medium-high and continue to fry the wings until golden in colour, about 30 seconds. Transfer the fried chicken wings to a wire rack to drain excess oil. Note: fry the chicken wings in batches.

6. Serve the fried chicken wings hot.

Condensed Milk Bread

煉乳牛奶面包

If you have condensed milk and fresh milk in your fridge, I highly recommend that you bake this bread. It is very soft and fluffy  even up to the 3rd day after baking.

Ingredients:

280g Bread flour

10g Sugar

4g salt

210g Fresh milk

10g condensed milk

4g instant yeast

28g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Dissolve condensed milk in half of the fresh milk, and set aside.

2. Put all ingredients (except butter and salt) into mixing bowl. Knead at medium speed until the ingredients come together to form a pliable ball of dough, around 10minutes.

3. Add butter and salt, and knead for another 10minute until dough is smooth and elastic. Do window pane test (for gluten development). Once window pane is achieved (refer to picture below), lightly grease a mixing bowl with olive oil and transfer dough to it. Cover the mixing bowl and let it proof at room temperature for 1 hour or until double in size, whichever is earlier. 

4. Punch down the dough (528g) and divide it into portions (depending on size of your baking tin), shape and proof for 30-40min until double in size until dough reaches 90% of tin capacity - around 45min to 1 hour. I've tried proofing under the size of the dough exceeds the tin capacity (refer to picture below), and it is still fine.

5. Press dough lightly, if the dent stays means ready to bake. Egg or milk wash the top of the dough, then bake 180deg cel (fan mode) for 30 minutes at lowest rack in oven.

6. Cool the bread on wire rack.

This is the crumb shot:

Bread (single proof)

吐司 (一次发哮)

If you have whipping cream that is about to expire, and want a loaf of bread quickly (in less than 2 hours), you can try to bake this Killer Toast recipe by Victoria Bakes. The bread is very soft and fluffy especially when it is out of the oven. On second day though, it will not be as soft, but still nice. The bread is quite dense and I think it may be more suitable to make small buns instead of bread loaf.

Ingredients

260g bread flour

3g yeast

5g salt

20g sugar

30g butter

160g to 180g egg mixture (don't dump all in):

whipping cream + milk + egg. If whipping cream is more than 80g, can omit butter.

or

milk + egg

1. Prepare/weigh the egg mixture.

2. Put all ingredients (except butter and salt) into mixing bowl. Leave 10-20% egg mixture and add in only when the dough is dry. Knead at medium speed until the ingredients come together to form a ball of dough. 

3. Add butter and salt, and knead for another 3.5min until dough is smooth and elastic. Do window pane test (for gluten development), divide into portions (depending on size of your baking tin), shape and proof for 30-40min until double in size until dough reaches 90% of tin capacity - around 45min to 1 hour. This recipe only requires a single proofing.

4. Press dough lightly, if the dent stays means ready to bake. Egg or milk wash the top of the dough, then bake 180deg cel for 45 minutes at lowest rack in oven.

5. Cool the bread on wire rack.