Es Campur aka Indonesian Fruit Punch

Es campur is something we always long for on those scorching hot and humid days, and last weekend just happened to be that kind of days. Therefore we stocked up on various tinned fruits and sweet condensed milk to make our es campur concoction 🙂 It is basically various fruits served on shaved ice with condensed milk and/or extra syrup.

It is a very common dessert to be found in Indonesia, so common that you can find them from street vendors to restaurants, who of course serve them in more fancy ways. There was one street vendor located just outside our high school building and he sells a very nice es campur. He has the ordinary es campur and you can also opt for an extra orange juice to the es campur for extra kick of citrusy freshness, very yummy and refreshing.

Since we don’t have the ice shaving machine, I will just use iced water instead of shaved ice so it is kind of soupy. The fruits mix used in my es campur is fairly seasonal, whatever I can find in store, but I always try to have avocado, coconut meat and jackfruit in my es campur. And let’s not forget the grass jelly (in Indonesia, we use cincau) – this time I used green jelly instead of the normal black herbal jelly. Then topped with generous drizzle of sweet condensed milk, which in this occasion I also use some chocolate flavored condensed milk – yummm (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

And the final product is a big batch of sweet yummy and refreshing dessert. This can last for couple days while kept on the fridge. Es campur is one thing that never ever absent from our kitchen during summer every year 🙂 Although, I think next time we make this dessert again, we might want to substitute the iced water to iced coconut water for extra hydration and minerals benefit, right?

 

 

Milk Bread Loaf with Peanut Butter&Choco

Courtesy of hubby, we welcome a new “toy” in our kitchen last week, a kitchen aid mixer. It was a highlight of 2016 so far, apart from me getting older 🙂 I love making and eating bread, and I have shared few recipes that worked for me over few posts here. So, of course we made bread using the tangzhong method that is well-known to produce milky soft bread. Previously, I kneaded the dough by hands and it took a while to achieve the smooth elastic consistency mainly because the recipe calls for slightly more liquid ingredient (in this case, milk) than other bread recipes which makes the dough very sticky. But, the end result really pays off those hard work and it is incredibly satisfying when your house smells like bakery ლ(´ڡ`ლ) The milk bread recipe is very versatile, you can bake it plain or with filling.  And this time, we made the milk bread loaf with peanut butter and chocolate rices – delicious!

Continue reading “Milk Bread Loaf with Peanut Butter&Choco”

Moist Rolled Cake

I always think of rolled cake as a tricky (or challenging) recipe and have never even think of attempting any roll cake recipe. Lately, I have seen a lot of videos on Youtube and they seem not overly scary as I once thought. After gathering more courage, I decided I want to try it out just to fulfill my curiosity and I do love these rolled cake. There is another recipe that mom gave me, but it used four times more eggs for the same size of cake as this recipe below. Although that one taste much softer and better, I just can’t bring myself to take on such risk!

First thing first, here is the recipe I copied from here, there are even pictures to help along the way of making this cake.

  • 3 eggs, separated yolks to whites in separate bowls
  • 70 grams of sugar
  • 20 grams of butter, melted
  • 40 grams of flour
  • For the cream filling: 200 grams of heavy cream, kept in fridge until whipping time and 20 grams of sugar

Beat egg whites until foamy and add the sugar in batches while keep beating continuously until it turns stiff peak.

Whisk the egg yolks in separate bowl just so they are all loosen before adding to the meringue. Carefully fold in the egg yolks and sift in the flour with a spatula. Add melted butter and fold everything together to combine, do not over-mix the batter.

Pour the batter into a baking tray of 30 cm x 25 cm, which has been lined with baking paper.

Tap the baking tray to your kitchen bench a couple of times to release any trapped air bubble before put into pre-heated oven at 180C. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until cake is cooked but not brown on the top surface.

Once you take out the cake from the oven, let it cool to room temperature.

For the cream filling: whip heavy cream together with sugar until it forms whipping texture.

* I added dash of rum and mocha paste to my whipped cream for extra flavour*

Trim off the uneven-sides of the cake, and spread the cream filling generously. Then, gently roll it starting from the end that is closer to you. Once it is rolled, wrap with baking paper or cling wrap and secure the both ends so it help to hold the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

This recipe results in light spongy cake and really doesn’t break easily. I am actually impressed that I can make pretty good rolled cake with this recipe and will definitely make these again in the future; or, until I have enough courage to use mom’s recipe ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

moist rolled cake2

moist rolled cake1

Baked Churros

The ordinary churros is deep fried and has that crispy skin, then lightly coated with cinnamon sugar and dunk into melted chococate or dulce de leche. Who can resist such yummy treat, right? Seriously…. To have this when eating out is nice, because you need not worry about cooking, oil splatter, cleaning up, etc and not to mention the amount of oil needed . This is why I have never even tried to look for any churros recipes knowing I will not give them a go anyway. Not until few weeks ago I stumbled on this recipe, couldn’t remember how I got there though. The recipe looks simple with not much mess and the churros seems to have that crisp, there are tips to help you achieve that crisp.

I followed the recipe to the dots and it sure didn’t disappoint! Except that my baking time is a little longer compared to the recipe, which is normal as every oven is different. What can I say about this recipe, it certainly is a keeper. You can whip out a tasty amazing treats in no time, without much fuss, taste great and on top of that, cause less harm to your waist line than the original version yayyy   ~(˘▾˘~)   (~˘▾˘)~

Fresh from oven...
Fresh from oven…

baked churros2

Baked Cheesecake with Mocha Marble

Ever since I tried baked cheesecake, I have grown to love it. Among all varieties that I have tried, my favorite is baked cheesecake, especially new york cheesecake. I have gathered varieties of cheesecake recipes but have never had the courage to try them out, mainly because of the amount of cream cheese needed and to think that what if people don’t like it then those ingredients will just go to waste On top of that, I used to live just with my younger brother who are not a big fan of cheesecake, so there are more restrains to try out those recipes. Now that my dear hubby is in the picture, I tend to cook/bake things to suit his liking. This is one of the case. I started with basic original baked cheesecake and add some mocha paste to small amount of the batter hoping to create the marble effect then some Nutella swirl on top, also chocolate cookies crumbles for the base. I must admit we love this! It is smooth, creamy, rich, but not too sweet, the chocolate cookies crumble works really well with the mocha flavour. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Hope you give it a try and let me know how it turns out 🙂 Continue reading “Baked Cheesecake with Mocha Marble”