Plum Persimmon Tartlets



That day, my neighbor, Mary Ann invited me to another neighbor's house, Milo, to pick some plums in the backyard. He has a very beautiful backyard with green lawn, a gazebo with nice outdoor furniture set, some beautiful colorful flowers and some healthy fruit trees especially the santa rosa plum tree. I was amazed by the number of colorful purple magenta light red plums hanging on that giant tree, just like Christmas tree full of colorful ornaments. I said to myself that I am going to get a plum tree in my backyard too. Now, it is my recipe making this plum tartlets and added in some persimmons too. The crust recipe is one of my favourite recipes I have. Enjoy the summer treats.

Recipe soon.

Perfect Raisin Bread Pudding

So far, I can say that this is the best bread pudding I ever made. The flavor is so right, the texture is smooth and comfort, and the looks was delicious.

Recipe soon.

Joanne Bo Bo Cha Cha

I never seen or tried the Bo Bo Cha Cha with banana in it. Joanne, originally from Penang, Malaysia, was making this dessert on the Labor Day weekend. The first thought about banana in Bo Bo Cha Cha was, Very Interesting!!!! Of cos, I am a foodie, I would try anything people make for me. For those who dont know about this Malaysian dessert, it is a coconut based dessert. There are yam, sweet potatoes, taro, pandan leaf or pinescrew leaf, tapioca balls and black eye peas. Soothing and comforting dessert in fall and winter.

Pumpkin Cake with Cherry sauce

Looks good, right? I am the expert on keeping the ingredients from last year, use it this year. The pumpkin puree is from last year Halloween. See, dont throw it away. This pumpkin cake was my favourite, I remember my sister, Pauline Chong, loves to make this at home. I was like, what is this, So So Good! I asked her for the recipe and she sent it to me years ago. But I did not make pumpkin cake at all until today. Actually, I wanted to clear my freezer, thats why I have to use the pumpkin puree. I can use the puree for my ravioli but I wanted to make something different and for the first time. Here is the result and I love it.

Recipe soon.

Recipe soon.

First Vanilla Ice-Cream with Black Berry sauce

My first Ice-Cream I made, thanks to Chef Neda for giving me an ice-cream maker as my birthday present a year ago. This one is also a recovery meal for me after my bad sore throat. Doctor suggested me to eat ice-cream, to cool my throat. And it is a soft food. Then I decided to make one, using Chef Neda's Vanilla ice-cream recipe as a guideline. See, I like to improvise. I have some milk left in the fridge and I bought heavy cream. Then I make a pint of a vanilla ice-cream, of cos with the Black Berry sauce. These black berries were from our neighbor, Mary Anne and Fran. They have black berries grown in their backyard.

Recipe:-

1 cup Whole Milk
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Method:-

1. Add all the ingredients together in a pot, simmer but not boiling. Once a little bubble starting to form at the side of the pot, pull aside to cool down a little.
2. Put the mixture, while still little warm, into the ice-cream maker. Let it stir for good 30 min or until it appears to be little crystalised and thick.
3. Put in a container and freeze for at least 4 hours.


Black Berries sauce:-

2 cups of black berries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

*cook them until thicken and syrupy.

Cinnamon Shortbread

When you were making crumbs topping for your pie and still have some leftover, well, make it into shortbread. Good for tea time with a cup of your favourite coffee or tea.

Recipe soon.

Kaya Pear Pie

This is my first time using Kaya (Chef Chong's coconut jam) for this pie. The Asian pear is from our backyard. The turn out to be very good...

Recipe soon.

Chef Chong's Chocolate Lava Cake Special

I searched for this recipe, but somehow my brain told me not to follow exactly what written. I changed some of the ingredients especially the portion. My friend, Miss Fain, loves chocolate for dessert. I knew, this Lava Cake of mine will make her happy, including my partner, Gregg. All of us have to workout more to burn the calories we put in.

Recipe:-

2 cups Semi sweet Chocolate chips (any brands you want)
1 1/2 stick melted butter (salted or unsalted)
1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup Sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 Tablespoon Triple Sac Orange
a pinch of salt

Method:-

1. Melt the semi sweet chocolate chips and butter together in a silver bowl or a pot, do the double-boiled method (cook on top of a pot of boiling water, not direct from the fire). Keep stiring.
2. Once melted, then add flour and sugar, stir again until mixing well. Pull aside, let it cool down a little.
3. Add the eggs and egg yolks together one at a time, then vanilla, salt and triple sac, stir well.
4. Oven must be 400 F, scoop the lava mixed into ramiken of your choice (preferably cup size). Bake for 10-13 min until the side of it pull aside from the ramiken. The center still a little jiggly.
5. Pull out once ready, flip it on to a dessert plate and then sprinkle with powder sugar.
6. Caramel sauce: 1 cup sugar, melted in a sauce pan medium high. Once starting to brown, lower the heat, add 1/2 cup heavy cream and pinch of salt. Stir well until really mixed and creamy. Dont over cooked it.

"Anda Boleh"

Bread Pudding

Do you have a finicky loved one who hates crusts on their sandwiches?  Don't throw out the crusts!  Turn them into a simple bread pudding.   This I made with leftover crusts from a raisin bread and added craisins.   Serving it warm is perfect on a cold winter's day.

Recipe
Soon to come

Boulder's Apple Strudel Pie

I've made this pie before, but it's become one of my regular desserts to make. This time, I made it for our friend, Cecilia, in Boulder, Colorado when we were staying there. This, I promise you, will be a hit at any party.

Ingredients:-

5-6 Red Delicious Apple

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Stick Unsalted Butter

8" Frozen Pie Shell

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice (optional)

Toppings:-

1/3 cup All-purpose flour

1/2 stick unsalted butter (soften)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

* Mix all together with hand, until crumbly. Dont over do it.

Methods:-

1. Peel and slice the apple, so that you can arrange it on the pie shell.

2. Heat a pot in medium, and melt the butter. Throw in the apple, sugar, cinnamon and salt.

3. Cook for 15 min or until the apple filling get syrupy and shiny. Add vanilla and lemon juice (optional). Cook for another 10 min until little concentrate.

4. Fill the pie shell with the filling and put the toppings cover the pie. Then bake at 375 C for about 25-30 min.

5 am Coffee Cake and 5 am Scones

I call them 5 am coffee cake and scones, because I couldn't sleep one night, so just decided to get out of bed and start baking. It reminded me of the days when I was a baker and used to wake up early and make all the sweets for the customers who would soon be coming.

Recipe:

Soon to come

Homemade Beignnet

It was great going to New Orleans and trying the Creole and Cajun food. Everyone told me I had to go to Cafe Du Monde and have a beignnet and a cup of coffee. I thought, first of all, that it was very interesting, that it wasn't New Orleans natives that were working in the restaurant, actually everyone was Vietnamese. The beignnet was fluffy and full of powdered sugar. I knew instantly I could make my own. So this is my version:

Ingredients

Phyllo dough

Coconut flakes

Brown sugar

Powdered sugar

This is very simple very easy, so when you want a little taste of New Orleans, make a batch of these.

A little Love

I HAVE FOUND IT! Well, actually I made this, but what I found is my signature dish! This is it! I'm calling it "A Little Love". It's called that, because you can just put a little of this delicous sweet spread on something, and you're going to be in love! You can use it on a warm roll, or a piece of toast, or add on a cinnamon roll. It's better than butter! It's a little love. Watch for it soon on sale at http://www.angelnet.com/

So the recipe will be my secret recipe.

But I will tell you this.

It is made with love.

I hope you all enjoy, and have a little love!

Pear Cobbler

If you have a pear tree that's dropping pears faster than you and your neighbors can eat them, make this recipe. It's soooo good warm with some ice cream or better yet, I served it with some warm coconut cream and drizzled it on top.





Ingredients


8 pears, cored and sliced
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour

• Layer the pears in a glass or ceramic pan
• Stir together the sugar, butter and eggs
• Then add in water and oil
• Finally stir in the flour
• Pour this mixture all over the layered pears
• Bake at 350 until brown, and a little crisp, about 40 minutes

Baking is easy as pie, well, in this case, easy as pear cobbler, :)

Soft Shortbread cookies

Usually shortbread is so hard, I like this recipe because the shortbread comes out nice and soft. The secret is not to overbake it. If you like things soft, always underbake it, that's why Mrs. Field's was so successful. I like it this way.

Ingredients

1 cup cold butter, cubed

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

salt

1 tbsp cold water

1 tsp vanilla

Recipe

• Mix the ingredients together


• Knead with your hands


• Cover in saran wrap


• Put in fridge for 1 hour


• Take out of fridge


• Roll out with rolling pin


• Cut whatever shape you want


• Bake 325 for 15 minutes


• After cools down, spread filling like an oreo, and create a shortbread sandwich!

(I used my apple strudel filling. Note that this is used in so many of my recipes. You can make a batch, and put it in the freezer, and just take out what you need and use in countless dishes)

Coffee Cake with Apple Strudel Topping

My tip here is if you don't have sour cream, DON'T RUN TO THE STORE. If a recipe calls for sour cream, simply add some vinegar to some milk, and stir until it curdles. Then add it to the recipe, and you have just added sour cream. Here I used for a coffee cake I made, and added my apple strudel recipe on top.

Queer Dada

It's really called Kueh Dada, but this was for dessert at a gay party, so the name stuck. It's a Malaysian dessert, the place where I'm from, so it was fun introducing it to my friends. It's sweet and coconutty, so if you like both of those, you'll love this.

Recipe:

Crepes

1 can coconut milk

1 cup all purpose Flour

1 egg

2 tbsps cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Filling

3 cups of Coconut Flakes

2 cups of Palm Sugar (you can get this at the asian market, if not, just use brown sugar)

• For crepes, use spatula and mix all the ingredients together
• Then spray pam on pan, and make a few crepes
• For filling, just mix together, and melt on low heat in a skillet, and stir until reduced
• If you can, drain the coconut mixture, so dry enough to roll into crepes
• Like making a burrito, just roll the coconut mixture into the crepes, cut into slices, and have fun.

Food all around the world is pretty much the same, it's just a different ingredient here, a different ingredient there, so don't be shy of trying new things!

Soft Gingerbread cookies

You know what I'm talking about - those storebought gingerbread cookies are hard as a rock. I made this recipe up an hour before meeting my boyfriend's family for Thanksgiving, because I wanted to give everyone a little treat. We didn't even have cookie cutters, that's ok! We drew out a gingerbread pattern from online, made a wax paper template, and cut them out ourselves from the dough!

• 2 Eggs
• butter - softened- 1 1/2 sticks
• Vanilla extract - 1 tbsp
• Brown sugar - 1 cup
• white sugar - 1 cup
• ginger powder - 2 tbsp
• maple syrup (leftover from a friend in Canada who gave me a souveneir) - 1/4 cup
• baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
• all purpose flour - 2 cups
• wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Beat butter,brown and white sugar, and syrup until well mixed

Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium until slightly fluffy

Then add the flour and baking soda, and mix well for a few seconds

cool the dough a little in the fridge, roll out, put on a sheet pan, bake at 375 for 10 minutes or less until the edge is a little brown

Then take out and cut into gingerbread shapes, and add quick frosting touches. You'll have a soft homemade gingerbread cookie that everyone will be talking about!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't make "not knowing a good recipe" stop you from baking creatively. You don't need any recipe to cook. All you need to do is create what you feel like. For example, my boyfriend felt like having some cookies. I just looked in the cabinets, saw that we had chocolate chips and went from there. Don't know the perfect amounts of each item? That's ok! Cooking is always an experiment, and that's how some of the best recipes come to be, by just trying to create something! So here I blended together eggs and butter and sugar and brown sugar. Then I added some vanilla, some baking soda and the chocolate chips. To add a little more flavor I tossed in some milk chocolate toffee chips. Within 10 minutes, without thinking, the smell of chocolate chip cookies were in the air. And there's nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie in the winter!

A Pomegranate Touch

The holidays are soon approaching, and for some, there's the pressure of "what to make", "what will be different". All you have to do is take a simple store mix, and add some leftover makeover, in this case, a splash of color, from a pomegranate.

I made a Devil's food cake mix, and simply added a "snowy" cover of powdered sugar, and then a lot of pomegranate seeds for that eye popping look. You can make them into cute little cupcakes and put it on a holiday platter or a nice big sheet cake for that wow effect. The pomegranate seeds give each bite a little extra moist sweetness.