Whole Wheat Bolognese Pizza





I like the bolognese sauce recipe from Jamie Oliver. It's very simple yet delicious! Once  the bolognese sauce has cooked, it can be stored in the freezer and use at anytime especially when I feel lazy to cook, so it's good to cook extra. Simply cook some pasta then mix it with the bolognese sauce, job done for my lazy day.
Another way to do is, which I've just realized that bolognese sauce go so well with a cheesy pizza. What I did is just to spread the sauce on a pizza dough and sprinkle all kind of cheeses that I've in the fridge and bake.  To add a bit of the goodness for my pizza, I make a whole wheat pizza dough to go with it. The whole wheat pizza dough really surprise me as the crust texture is very delicious and crispy. I make the bolognese sauce a bit spicy as I add in some chili at the earlier stage. So, the crusty whole wheat pizza, the spicy bolognese sauce and all the cheeses... what to say.... simply the best! 

Recipe for the whole wheat pizza dough:  In a mixing bowl, add 100g bread flour, 100g whole wheat flour, 10g caster sugar, half teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of instant dry yeast and 110g water. Knead all the ingredients until they become a crumbly consistency then add in 10g olive oil.  Continue to knead until  smooth springy soft dough, cover it with cling film and let it rest for 1 hour. Divide the dough up into two equal portion and roll them into two of 8 inches round baking pan. Let them rest for 15 minutes. Spread the bolognese sauce onto the pizza dough then sprinkle with some freshly grated cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Continue to proof for another 15 minutes. Bake the pizza at lower rack in the oven at 220 preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. 
Recipe for the bolognese sauce: Finely slice 2 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, peel and finely chop 2 medium onion, garlic, carrots, celery and a fresh chili. Place a large casserole-type pan on a medium to high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil with the sliced bacon and 2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano and cook until bacon is slightly golden. Add the chopped veg to the pan and stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly colored. Stir in 250g mince beef and 250g mince pork together with 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes. Fill both empty tins with water and add to the pan. Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper. Finely chop a small punch basil stalks and stir into the pan. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on for about an hour, stirring every now and again to stop it catching. Remove the bolognese sauce from the heat. Finely grate 100 gram parmesan and stir half into the sauce. Tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones for sprinkling over before serving. Mix up everything and taste and season with a little more salt and pepper if needed. At this stage you can allow it to cool, bag it up and freeze it, or eat it straight away with your pasta or pizza. 

Marble Soft Cheesecake


This is very much like soufflé texture and also soft like feather light kind of cheesecake. It is the softest one in my cheesecake menu. My hubby falls in love with soft cheesecake recently as he feels like eating a big piece without adding any calories into his body (which is not true, haha!), but I guess it should be less calories than the rich cheesecake, which also my favorite.


Generally, the cheesecake taste very good, just the marble effect doesn't looks good, I did not make a good job at this stage but will definitely practice again as I want to make another two more in the coming weeks for my friends. For the cake base, I used the cocoa sponge cake recipe which I feel the best in my menu as its soft and spongy texture just so match to the soft cheesecake. I cut the cocoa sponge into three layers and use a piece for the base then freeze another two for next bake.



Recipe:

160g cream cheese
50ml whippping cream
70ml milk
60g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
30g corn flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 thin slice of 8 inches cocoa sponge
  1. Melt cream cheese, whipping cream, milk and butter over double boiler. Stir occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat.
  2. Add in 50g of sugar, corn flour, vanilla and egg yolks then stir well.
  3. Beat egg white and cream of tartar in another clean bowl until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in the rest of sugar, continue beating until frothy and stiff peaks form.
  4. Gently fold beaten egg white foam into cheese mixture until blended.
  5. Stir 80g of cheese mixture with cocoa powder until well combined.
  6. Place a sponge cake into a 8 inches lose bottom or spring form baking pan. Pour vanilla cheese mixture into cake tin. Drizzle some cocoa cheese mixture over the surface and draw marble pattern with skewer. Place the baking pan in a large tray.
  7. Pour enough hot water into larger tray to come half way up sides of baking pan. Bake in preheated oven at 140C for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 120C and continue bake for 30 minutes.
  8. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Chill in the fridge for overnight before serve.

Jamie's Chocolate Brownie

I made this chocolate brownie many times and I've been waiting for sharing this recipe long time ago but I've always got no chance to take any pictures for sharing. This time, I manage to took a few pictures on this brownie before it sent to my cousin during the CNY. This chocolate brownie is rich, gooey, dense and super chocolaty! Look, it's very simple to make and I took no time for making this but the trick is to make sure don't overcook them, unlike cakes, you don't want a skewer come out all clean. My cousin and all the family members love it.

This classic chocolate brownies have been on the London Fifteen Restaurant's menu till now which is created by the founder, Jamie Oliver, my idol chef. If you're a chocoholics, try this!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello! Just want to wish everyone who are here always to give your support and lovely comments. May this season brings you lots of joyful and all the best on your continuous baking. I've got nothing to proud about my new year cookies because there are nothing special which I made them before. There are not the best but still edible and presentable. I hope mum will satisfy with all these goodies as well as the guests who are going to visit us very soon. I'll be away for some time, but will definitely drop by at all my lovely supporters to read your new updates. Happy Chinese New Year!

Coffee Soft Cheesecake

Papa's birthday falls on the 7th day of lunar new year. I'm glad to know that he is so blessed by the people around him with so much love and joy. I managed to make a simple cake for him and accompanied him for lunch at his favorite coffee house as well as a wonderful dinner with a few lovely friends who always give lots of support and love to him. Papa loves coffee, so I made this coffee flavour kind of soft cheesecake for him. I hope he enjoys the cake and most important thing is the fellowship that we had together is unforgettable one!
About the cake, I feel that the bottom part of sponge cake was too thick whereas the cheesecake had a cottony soft texture and very flavourful. I shall make a thinner slice of sponge cake for the base next time. This piece of blessing means so much to everyone!
Recipe:
Plain sponge cake for the base:
(I used 3 eggs recipe for a 9 inches cake tin, I think 2 eggs recipe would be better)
3 whole eggs
90g caster sugar
80g plain flour
30g unsalted butter (melted)
Coffee cheese batter:
380g fresh milk
250g cream cheese
2 sachets of 3 in 1 instant coffee
50g cake flour (shifted)
5 egg yolk
5egg white
70g caster sugar
How I made it:
  1. Make a plain sponge for the cake base. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the baking parchment for the bottom of a 9 inches round cake tin. Grease the side of the cake tin then coated with some bread flour.

  2. In a clean bowl, whisk the eggs and gradually add in the caster sugar. Whisk until it double the size. The texture should be fluffy and pale in color.

  3. Gradually shift the shifted flour into the egg mixture and use the spatula gently fold it in.

  4. Add in the melted butter little by little and fold it in gently until well combined.

  5. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
  6. For the cheese batter. Grease the side of a 9 inches spring form cake tin then coated with some bread flour. Place the sponge cake at the bottom. Wrap the base and surrounding of the tin with 2 layers of foil.
  7. Double-boil milk, cream cheese and instant coffee until a smooth batter.
  8. Add in flour, stir and cook until mixture has thicken. Remove from stove and set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 140C. (I preheated at 120C)
  9. Whisk in egg yolk into the cream cheese batter until well combined.

  10. Whisk the egg whites till frothy. Gradually add in the sugar and whisk till soft peaks form.
    Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the cream cheese mixture until combined. Then fold in the rest of the meringue in 3 portions until well combined.
  11. Pour batter into the prepared spring form pan. Steam-bake cheesecake in a preheated oven for 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours. Leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven for half an hour with the door ajar. Remove cake from the tin and chill in the fridge for over night. (You can also chill the whole cheesecake in the cake tin.) Cut and serve the cheesecake.

Evolution Choux Pastry

I know I should post up some cookies at this time but let me do this first before the new year cookies. My dad loves cream puffs especially durian one. We are deciding to serve some cream puffs to our guests durian the CNY, so I've made some experiment on the choux and hope he will likes it.
Recently, we like to sandwich the choux with ice cream, since my freezer storing some different ice cream, that's really a good chance to experiment about it. Here, I've got papa choux which is the coffee bun topping, polo choux that is the polo bun topping and the other two topped with shredded coconut and diced almond. That's very simple, pipe out the choux then pipe out a layer of any toppings that I've mentioned above and bake. I personally like the polo choux very much, however each one of them got their own characteristic.
I made the choux slightly bigger than the normal cream puffs which is just enough to fit in a small scoop of ice cream. This is quite a fancy choux and I hope you will like it too or make something fancy to serve your guests in this CNY. Cheers!

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

I would like to store some homemade vanilla ice cream in the freezer because sometimes I need it to serve with crumble or some hot desserts. Rather making a plain one, I was thinking to make the raspberry ripple so that it's also can be served straight. This is a recipe of Nigella Lawson but I've modified it a bit as I feel the custard is quite rich and thick. So, by reducing the sugar and adding some yogurt with fresh milk make a slightly light and refreshing ice cream. I like the sourly of raspberry, it served so well with hot chocolate desserts, crumble or cream puffs!
Recipe:
600g single cream (I used 300ml whipping cream & 300ml fresh milk)
6egg yolks
120g caster sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoon plain yogurt
100ml fresh milk
125g raspberries
  1. Warm the milk, whipping cream and half of the sugar in a saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.

  2. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir in the vanilla extract. Mix it into the yogurt and fresh milk, then whisk it vigorously. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

  3. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

  4. While the ice cream freezing in the ice cream maker, put the raspberries and the remaining sugar in the processor and puree, then push through a nylon sieve to remove the pips. Then pour into a small, airtight container and stick it into the freezer to thicken but not to set hard.
  5. When the ice cream frozen, but not solid, put one third of it into a container and then dribble over a third of the semi-frozen raspberry syrup. and repeat with another two layers of each. Take a wooden skewer and squiggle through so that the syrup ripples through the ice ream, Cover and put in the deep freeze till set. Enjoy!