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Mango Rosette on Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Korean Strawberry Shortcake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese

Red Bean Citron Matcha Sponge

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Matcha Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Thai Milk Tea Cupcakes

Banana Muffins

Moist & Dense Cocoa Loaf Cake

Carrot Cake

Matcha Chocolate Twirl Cake

Carrot cake

Chocolate Honey Cake

Hershey's Perfectly chocolate Cake with Matcha frosting

Gudetama Egg Tarts

Gudetama Matcha Egg Tarts

Rudolph Chocolate Honey Cupcakes 

Choc Chip Oatmeal Bars

Durian Puffs

It's that time of the year again. Every year during this period of time my house will be overloaded with durians because my dad goes into the forest (?) nearby my house to pick durian during durian season. In case you do not know, durians is said to be the king of fruits with a strong distinct smell. Its a seasonal fruit, rather popular in south east asia. Most people either like it or hate it. Its flesh is thick and creamy, thus making it really good to be used as fillings for many kinds of pastries. Prickly and unflattering on the outside, but on the inside the bright yellow flesh is something that many love deeply. At home, my dad and grandma love it and can practically eat it everyday without getting sick of it. Personally I am not a huge fan of it though. Another point that I love about the durians that my dad brings home is that it is 'organic'. As it is grown without anyone's care in the wild, there are not pesticides used on them making them much healthier than the imported ones. I believe that those imported ones have chemicals added to them to ensure quality. Whenever I eat those I fall sick easily, but it never happens with those my dad brought home.

Since I have lots of durians at home, I decided to make some pastries with it. First that came to mind is durian puffs! I love those puffs that are filled with durian filling. Extremely satisfying and brings out the authentic taste of the heavenly fruit. Must mention that the puffs are easy to make as well. Probably one of the easiest yet yummiest thing that I can make.

RECIPE for choux pastry
(yields 36 medium sized puffs)

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup (~115g) butter
1 cup (~130g) plain flour
4 eggs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 200 deg cel.

2. In a pot, boil water and butter.


3. Sift in flour until mixture forms a ball.



4. Allow the pot to cool slightly (you don't want the eggs to get cooked when you add them in!) Beat in eggs one at a time into the dough. Mix well.


5. Pipe heaps of dough (or you can choose to drop tablespoonfuls) onto a baking sheet.


6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. (Refrain from opening the oven door during the first 10 minutes to ensure that the puffs rise properly.)


FILLINGS
Meawhile while the puffs are being baked you can get started on the fillings. Besides durian flesh as filling, you can opt for custard, chocolate or even savoury fillings like tuna or egg mayo. It's up to you! I used the more ripe durians and scrap the flesh off from the seeds. Depending on your preference, I pipe approximately flesh of 2 seeds of durians into one puff.






Hope you will enjoy making these puffs!
Good luck! :)

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies

Hello everybody~ Merry christmas! Here's another recipe made from tea! I love this recipe because I LOVE EARL GREY TEA. Okay, I think any food that has earl grey tea in it, I love it. That's it. When I came across this recipe online, I knew I had to bake it.



Recipe adapted from Lydia bakes
(Another reason that made me bake it is because of the gorgeous photos of it on Lydia's site. Hop over to see them!)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Flour
1/3 cup Caster Sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste
1 tbsp Earl Grey Tea Leaves
1 tbsp Finely grated orange zest
150g Unsalted Butter, room temperature

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Sift flour into a bowl and add sugar, vanilla paste, Earl Grey leaves and orange zest and mix in together.

3. Grate the butter into the flour mixture then mix with your hands until mixture resembles large crumbs.

4. Press the mixture together firmly on top of a sheet of baking paper on your bench or work surface.

5. Place another piece of baking paper on top and roll out mixture to about 1 cm thick. (I would suggest that you chill it for awhile so that it will be easier to cut when it is firm)

6. Cut into even sized pieces and carefully place on the baking tray.

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly golden.



Once cookies are baked, remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle extra caster sugar on top.
Leave cookies to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

On Lydia's blog she drizzled the cookies with orange glaze, but in my case I omitted it because I do not want it to be too sweet. Perhaps next time I will try it out with the glaze. It makes the cookies look to enticing! :)

Before I even considered it into my CNY baking list, my mum already instructed me to bake these for Chinese New Year. Alright! Earl grey babies, we'll meet again soon! A month more to Chinese New Year!

Good luck in baking! :)