Bento #10

These are today's bento that I prepared for the girls' breakfast.

Hokkaido Cupcakes

I fell in love with this cupcake known as Hokkaido cupcakes once I tasted it the other day. It was so soft and fluffy and moist that one is surely not enough to satisfy your appetite. It has some creamy fillings in the centre. It was so nice that I had to look for its recipe and tried it at home. I have no difficulty in finding the recipe online. In fact, it is everywhere......

I don't know how or where this cake got its name from. It doesn't originate from Hokkaido...... I will do some research on this if I have some time to spare later on. Now is definitely not the time. I am racing against time. I have so much things to do before the arrival of a new family member. *wink* *wink*

Although this recipe is quite ok, I still can't get the cake to be as moist as the one I tasted the other day. I will definitely refine the recipe later when I have time. I am still one happy "girl" as the girls and hubby like the cake. It is such an enjoyment when you see people especially your loved ones enjoying the food that you prepared specially for them.

I got this recipe from here.

Homemade Chocolate Ice-Cream with Chocolate Chips

This is my first attempt at making ice-cream using an ice-cream maker. So, I was thinking of making a simple one. I modified a recipe for matcha ice-cream that I found online and turned it into chocolate ice-cream with some chocolate chips.


Hubby said the ice-cream is very nice and he seems like enjoying it much to my delight.

The followings is the recipe that I used:

Ingredients:

250ml whipping cream
250ml full cream milk
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar (I processed it into powdered form)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
200g chocolate chips

Method:

Prepare the freezer bowl and put it into the freezer at least 8 hours in advance. Pour the whipping cream, milk and sugar into a food processor and process it for a few minutes. Then dissolve the cocoa powder with some hot water and pour it into the mixture and process it again till all ingredients are properly mixed. Once done, transfer the mixture into the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. Once eveyrthing is ready, take out the freezer bowl from the freezer and churn the mixture according to the ice-cream maker manufacturer's instruction. Add the chocolate chips into the mixture towards the end of the churning (roughly 5 to 10 minutes before the end of the cycle). Normally, ice-cream produced with ice-cream maker at home tend to be softer than the store-bought one. If you prefer more hardened ice-cream, transfer it into a container and put it into the freezer for a few hours before serving.

End product directly from the ice-cream maker before further freezing

Ice-cream after further freezing for 1 day

Mantou

I made these fluffy and soft mantous yesterday. They were so nice that Cheryl asked for another one. These mantous were the product of my own "concoction".

Ingredients:

175ml full cream milk
75ml morning glory juice
3 cups low protein flour
4 tbs sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast
A pinch of salt


Method:

Mix all ingredients into the breadmaker according to the above order. Set the breadmaker to dough function. Once done, remove the dough from the breadmaker. The total weight of the dough would be approximately 700g. Divide the dough equally to 10 smaller pieces of 70g each and shape them to your preference.

Pandan Buns with Kaya Fillings

I made these buns on last Monday.

Sardin Buns with Cheddar Cheese Toppings

I made this batch of buns on last Saturday. I am quite happy with the result as they turned out just like how I imagined they would be. I managed to make about 10 buns.

For the fillings, I used a small can of sardin, 1 onion, some chilli sauce and tomato ketchup as well as vinegar. For toppings, I cut 2 pieces of cheddar cheese into strips.

Bento #9

Today's bentos for the girls are Tuna Sandwiches...Yummy!!!

Ice Cream Maker

My ice-cream maker has finally arrived on Monday after a long wait. Yeay!!! Now I will have to find some time to start experimenting with this new gadget.

Pandan Mantou

I made these mantou today. I had initially plan to make sweet potatoes mantou but ended up making these as the sweet potatoes that I steamed earlier has spoilt. So, I tried to think of something to replace the sweet potatoes. As I have planted some pandan/screwpine leaves, I thought of using them to flavour my mantou. However, I only managed to get 3 to 4 leaves, thus leaving me with such pale green colour on my mantou. The taste of pandan is also not very strong. In fact the taste of milk is even stronger. Nevertheless, they really taste very good and soft...and soooo fluffy. Cheryl kept on asking for another mantou to eat. I will definitely use this recipe again in the future. I just need to experiment with more flavour so that I can come up with more varieties for my loved ones to savour.

I got this recipe from here and altered it. I just use the milk as the liquid to blend the screwpine leaves to get the screwpine juice. The only point to remember is to ensure that the resulting milk/screwpine juice is as per the original recipe ie 1 cup/225ml.