Plain Banana Muffins

We always buy a lot of bananas from the pasar tani as my husband and I always eat a banana in the morning after our one cup of water. Sometimes the bananas ripen too quickly. However, I have never bin my bananas. I will either freeze them for later use or bake them immediately into banana cake, banana muffins or banana bread. But my son will always make a smoothie out of them.

Ingredients:

• 290 g or 4 big ripe bananas (I use Pisang Berangan.)
• 200 g cake flour (You may use all-purpose flour.)
• 120 g brown sugar (You may reduce if your bananas are very ripe and sweet.)
• 1/4 tsp salt, only if you are using unsalted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 115 g melted butter
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175 degree C.

• Line a 12-hole muffin pan with muffin liners. 11 liners only if you want a dome-shape muffin.

• Add the dry ingredients - cake flour, sugar, cinnamon powder, salt (if you are using), baking powder and baking soda - into a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine all the ingredients evenly.

• Mash the bananas.

• Add the wet ingredients - mashed banana, melted butter, vanilla essence and eggs into another bowl. Whisk to combine these ingredients.

• Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until both are well-combined. However, do not over-mix to avoid dense muffins.

• Scoop the batter into the muffin liners.

• Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

• When done, remove the muffins from the muffin tin and let them cool down on a metal rack.

Apam Harun Manis

 

Apam Harun Manis brings back my childhood memories. I have not seen this traditional Malay kuih being sold anywhere. Thus, I have to make them myself to savour them as well as to introduce them to my children. The method of making them is easy - just mix and steam. However, you need to have the small porcelain or plastic cups them.

Ingredients:

• 140 g gula Melaka
• 160 ml water
• 2 eggs
• 70 g sugar
• 170 g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 pisang raja, sliced thinly
• 25 porcelain or plastic cups, greased

Method:

• Prepare a steamer with boiling water.

• Boil gula Melaka and water till the gula Melaka dissolves. Sieve and set it aside to cool down.

• Beat eggs and sugar with a whisk till the mixture is double in volume

• Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.

• Add egg mixture to the flour and mix till no flour can be seen.

• Add gula Melaka syrup and vanilla essence to the flour and mix till the batter is smooth. The batter should not be too thick nor thin. You may add a bit of water if it is too thick and a bit of flour if it is too thin.

• Scoop the batter to the greased cups (up to 2/3 of each cup). 

• Place a slice of pisang raja on top of the batter.

• Steam the batter for 20 minutes.

• When done, let the kuih stay in the cups for about 5 minutes before removing them from the cups.

• The kuih should be flat or a big sunken on top. (I had filled my batter to the brim in order to steam all in one batch and I had not allowed the kuih to rest in the cups for 5 minutes before removing them. Thus, the kuih had a rounded top.)

Bow Tie Milk Buns

 

 

We usually shape our bread dough into balls to be baked in a round or square pan. However, our dough can be beautifully shaped so that the resulting buns are more pleasing to the eyes and mouths. One of the designs that we can shape our buns into is the bow tie shape. 

Ingredients:

• 250 ml warm milk
• 50 g sugar, white or brown
• 3 g instant yeast
• 1 egg, grade A
• 400 g bread flour plus some for dusting
• 5 g salt
• 75 g butter

Method:

• Add warm milk, sugar and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir and wait for 10 - 15 minutes for the yeast to be activated.

• Once bubbles have formed showing that the yeast has been activated add egg to the bowl.

• Add bread flour and salt.

• Start kneading the ingredients till a dough ball is formed.

• Add butter to the dough ball and continue kneading till the butter is incorporated into the dough.

• Continue kneading till window pane is achieved.

• Oil a bowl and transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough proof till double in size.

• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter top.

• Divide the dough into the number of buns that you would like to have. (Weight of dough divide by the number of intended number of buns will give you the weight of each smaller dough.)

• Roll each small piece of dough into a dough ball. 

• Cover the dough balls and let them rest for 10 - 15 minutes.

• Take a dough ball and roll them into flat round dough. 

• Refer to the pictures above.

• Using your bench knife, make a slit at the top of the round dough, two slits at the bottom and two slits on each side of the dough. 

• On one side of the dough, bring the 2 pieces of dough under the middle dough. Repeat this on the other side.

• Then, bring the slim dough over the centre.

• Place your bow tie dough on your baking pan which has been greased and lined with parchment paper.

• Let the bow tie dough proof for a second time till they have doubled in size.

• Sprinkle bread flour over the proofed dough using a sieve.

• Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 20 - 25 minutes.

• Once done, transfer the buns to a metal rack for them to cool down completely.

Long Rolls with Herbs and Seeds

    

Dinner rolls are soft and fluffy. They are usually round. However, for this round I have shaped them into long ones. I have sprinkled them with herbs and seeds for the aroma and taste. You just need to slice them lengthwise, spread them with butter and they will be good for the palate.

Ingredients:

• 520 g bread flour
• 230 g water
• 25 g lukewarm milk
• 18 g sugar
• 3 g yeast
• 10 g salt
• 1 egg
• 40 g butter

• Herbs - Oregano, Thyme, Italian Mixed Herbs
• Seeds - White and Black Sesame Seeds

Method:

• Activate the yeast by adding sugar to some of the lukewarm milk, stirring the milk to dissolve the sugar and then sprinkling the yeast onto it.

• Once bubbles have formed (after approximately 10 minutes), the yeast mixture is ready for you to start making the rolls.

• Pour water into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Transfer the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl.

• Break the egg into the mixing bowl.

• Add the flour and salt.

• Start kneading until a dough ball is formed. Once that is achieved, add in the butter.

• Continue to knead until the butter is incorporated into the dough.

• Continue to knead until the dough passes the window pane test.

• Oil a bowl.

• Transfer the dough into the oiled bowl, cover the bowl with a cling wrap and put a wet towel over the cling wrap. Let the dough proof until it is double in size.

• Slightly flour the table top. (I like to slightly oil the table top.)

• Transfer the dough onto the table top.

• Punch down the dough to de-gas.

• Roll the dough out into a long log.

• Cut the dough into 5 pieces of about 180 g each.

• Roll these pieces into little balls.

• Cover the little balls with cling wrap and let them rest for about 15 minutes.

• Take a dough ball. Roll the ball into long rectangle and then roll it up.

• Place these rolls onto a greased pan.

• Brush the rolls with water and sprinkle herbs and seeds of your choice onto them.

• Make a few slashes on the rolls diagonally.  

• Cover them with cling wrap and let them proof until double in size.

• Bake the rolls in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 20-25 minutes.

• Remove the rolls from the pan immediately after baking and let them cool down on a wire rack.

Bak Kian

 

   

   

Bak kian is also known as ngoh hiang and lor bak. In English it is simply fried meat rolls. The main ingredient is minced pork. The other ingredients that go into these meat rolls are varied; fish or prawn paste can be added to the minced pork. As for the vegetables, you can add carrots, jicama or water chestnut. Minced onions, shallots and garlic are a must when making the meat rolls. To make them more tasty, you can add coriander and green onions. So it all depends on how simple or elaborate you want your meat rolls to be.  And these are then rolled up in bean curd sheets and fried. They are best served with sliced cucumbers or lettuces. They can be eaten with chili or tomato sauces although I think that it is not necessary as the rolls are savoury enough.

Ingredients:

• 500 g minced pork
• 80 g finely chopped carrot
• 70 g finely chopped onions
• 50 g finely chopped shallots
• 45 g finely chopped coriander, optional
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp 5-spice powder
• 1 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 9-10 bean curd sheets cut to the size of 1/2 of an A4 paper
• A small bowl of water
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Add minced pork to a large bowl.

• Add all the other ingredients to it and mix till they are well incorporated.

• Apportion these meat fillings into 9 or 10 portions as we do not want any leftover or insufficient fillings at the end. (Nine portions for a thicker roll and ten for a thinner one.)

• Get ready a small bowl of water for sealing the roll.

• Take a piece of the bean curd sheet and put 1 portion of the filling on top of it.

• Bring each shorter side in.

• Then roll up the bean curd sheet with meat fillings from one end of the longer side to the other.

• Or, you can just roll up the longer side to the other end and just tuck the ends under the roll. (But I think you will get a neater roll with the earlier method.

• Heat up a pan with cooking oil.

• When the oil is hot, put is the rolls side by side.

• When the bottom has turned brown, flip the roll to the other side.

• Once this side has also turned brown, dish it out onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.

• Serve.