I've been baking quite a bit recently and I'm glad that I do not have to finish all the baked goods by myself as I have my classmates to share the calories with! I brought an earl grey pound cake to class before the New Year and I've been wanting to share the recipe here but I've been procrastinating until now. Well, better late than never, right? ;-)

Earl Grey Pound Cake Recipe
Recipe taken from はじめてさんのお菓子作り

Ingredients:
130g cake flour
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
7g earl grey tea leaves, crushed
120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons milk

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Lightly grease and line a 18X8X6.5-cm cake pan with baking paper.
2) Sift flour, baking powder and tea leaves into a bowl. Set aside.
3) Using an electric mixer, mix butter and 50g of sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy.
4) Beat in egg yolks one at a time, follow by milk. Beat well with each addition.
5) In a separate bowl, beat egg white until soft peak forms. With the mixer running, add the remaining 50g of sugar in a slow stream and continue to beat until the egg whites are glossy and form firm peaks.
6) With a light hand, fold 1/3 of egg white into butter mixture until just combined.
7) Repeat step (6) with the remaining egg white.
8) Scrape the batter into cake pan. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake turns out clean. Let the cake cools on wire rack.

Here's wishing all my blog readers a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

I like to use Japanese cookbooks for baking as they tend to use ingredients that are not common in western recipes. The cookies in the photo above use kinako, or soy bean flour as the main ingredient and it gives a nutty flavour to the cookies. If you have not bake with kinako before, give the recipe a try!

Kinako Cookies Recipe
Recipe taken from いつでもクッキー、どこでもクッキー

Ingredients: 
70g unsalted butter, softened 
50g caster sugar 
1 egg yolk 
1 teaspoon milk 
120g cake flour 
1/4 teaspoon baking powder 
20g kinako 

Method: 
1) Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. 
2) Sift flour, baking powder and kinako into a bowl, set aside. 
3) Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes. Add egg yolk and milk, and mix until well combined. 
4) Add the flour mixture and mix only until the dough begins to form a mass. 
5) Transfer to a lightly floured surface, knead for 4-5 times, or until smooth. 
6) Roll the dough into a 12X15X1.5cm rectangle. 
7) Slice the dough into cookies with the size of 4X2.5cm. You should have about 18 cookies. Pierce 6 holes in the top of each cookie using a skewer. 
8) Place the cookies in the tray, bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. 
9) Remove from oven, and let the cookies cool on a rack.

Are you running out of time to bake for Christmas? Well then you should try making this lemon and almond-flavoured cookies! This is an easy-peasy bar cookie recipe the requires short preparation time. The cookies are baked at one go in a baking pan instead of baking by batches. And when the cookies are done baking, just cut them up into whatever size that you want!

Lemon-Almond Cookies Recipe
Recipe adapted from The Ultimate Cookie Book

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest

Topping:
3/4 cup almond slices, toasted
2-3 tablespoons caster sugar, for sprinkling

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Line a 13X9X2-inch baking pan with non-stick baking paper.
2) In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium to high speed for about 30 seconds. Add sugar, salt and vanilla and continue to beat until well combined.
3) Beat in as much flour as possible. Stir in remaining flour, lemon zest and half of the almonds.
4) Press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle remaining almonds and sugar over the top. Press lightly into surface.
5) Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
6) Remove from oven, cut the cookies into rectangular pieces. Cool on wire rack.

Sorry for the lack of updates these few weeks as I was busy studying for my Japanese language test that took place two Sundays ago. Right after the test, I wanted to put up some new posts and also revamp my blog design but laziness got the better of me and I spent all my free time watching Korean dramas instead (I know, you're rolling your eyes right now :-P). Anyway, I have a few cookies recipes to share and first one on the list is a crunchy and nutty cranberry and pumpkin seeds biscotti. If you are still looking for Christmas cookies recipes, stay tune as there will be a few more recipes coming your way!

Cranberry and Pumpkin Seeds Biscotti Recipe
Recipe adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Issue 60

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pumpkin seeds

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
2) Combine flour and baking powder and sift the flour mixture into a bowl. Add caster sugar and stir to combine.
3) Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, cranberries and pumpkin seeds, and mix until a smooth dough forms.
4) Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead until smooth.
5) Divide the dough into two portions and roll each portion into a 20cm-long log. Place the logs on the tray, flatten slightly and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until firm. Set aside to cool completely.
6) Using a serrated knife, cut the log into 3mm thick slices and place the slices on the tray.
7) Put the tray back into the oven and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until the golden and crisp.

I love winter in Taipei as the weather is cool and I can have fun dressing up with coats and scarfs. But downside of it is that, it rains almost everyday! The sky is depressingly grey and the ground is often wet and slippery. Going out has become a chore too as I have to carry an umbrella all the time. Because of the cold and wet weather that I'm experiencing right now, I've been cooking stewed dishes very often lately and one of the new recipes that I tried out few days ago was a stewed chicken with beer and mushrooms dish. If you're craving for some stewed dishes to keep yourself warm, give this recipe a try!

Stewed Chicken with Beer and Mushrooms Recipe
Recipe adapted from きょうの料理ビギナーズ 2007年 12月号

Ingredients:
2 whole chicken drumsticks, rinse and chopped into pieces
2/3 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, to taste
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1 onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped finely
200g button mushrooms, rinse and cut into halves
350ml beer
1 bay leave
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3 to 4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Method:
1) In a medium bowl, marinate chicken pieces with salt and pepper, set aside for 10 to 20 minutes.
2) Lightly coat chicken pieces with flour. Heat up oil in a frying pan. Pan-fried both sides of the chicken pieces until golden brown. Dish out and set aside.
3) Melt butter in the frying pan, saute onion and garlic until fragrant. Add mushrooms and chicken pieces and then make a few quick stirs.
4) Add beer, tomato and bay leave. Cover the pan and cook in medium heat for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Turn the chicken pieces 2-3 times in between.
5) Season the dish with salt and black pepper. Dish up and serve immediately.

I was supposed to post a honey-roasted pear clafoutis recipe that I made two weeks ago with the last two pears that I have. But I was too caught up in making a diaper bag for my SIL that I was in no mood to blog at all. I realised that I'm not too good at multi-tasking, especially when it involves a complicated sewing project that requires my full concentration. Well, now that the bag is completed, I can finally heave a sigh of relief and go back to my daily routines of surfing the internet and watching TV. :-)

Anyway, this clafouti recipe is taken from the same site that I found the recipe of red wine pear cake. The last time i made clafouti was more than 2 years ago, and I wonder why I didn't make it more often. It's extremely easy to prepare and in my opinion, it tastes much better than puddings too. The warm clafouti is definitely a perfect and satisfying dessert to have on cold autumn days!

Honey-roasted Pear Clafoutis Recipe
Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:
2 pear, peeled, cored, quartered
1 tbs honey
10g butter
1/4 cup (37g) plain flour
1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar
1 eggs, lightly whisked
1 egg yolks
20g butter, melted
1 cups (250ml) milk
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Place pears in two 14-cm oven-proof dishes, and then drizzle with honey and dot with butter.
2) Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, and when the pears are tender and starting to caramelise, remove from oven and set aside for 15 minutes.
3) In the mean time, combine flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the egg and egg yolk and whisk to combine.
4) Add melted butter, milk, liqueur and vanilla to the flour mixture and whisk until well combined. Pour the batter over the pears.
5) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until just set. Remove from oven, let it rest for 5 minutes, sprinkle icing sugar on top, serve.

After making these mini pear rustics, I still have a few pears left. So I went online to search for recipes that I could use for the remaining pears. The beautiful picture of red wine pear cake from this site caught my attention and as I have all the ingredients on hand, I started baking immediately. I made half portion using a tiny 12-cm cake pan that I got from my recent trip to Tokyo. Everything went well until the end of mixing process, the batter seems dry to me and so I decided to add some yogurt to "loosen" up the batter. It turned out to be a great decision, as the cake was moist and tasted really good with the poached pears.

Red Wine Pear Cake Recipe
Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (125ml) red table wine
1.5 cups (375ml) water
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 pears, peeled
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
75g butter
1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cups (112g) self-raising flour
50g almond meal
1/2 tbs ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/8 cup (30ml) milk
2 tablespoons plain yogurt

Method:
1) In a saucepan, combine red wine, water, pears and cinnamon. Let it simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pears, add 1/2 cup of castor sugar to the saucepan and boil the syrup for 15-20 minutes. In the mean time, halves and cores the pears.
2) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Lightly grease and line a 12-cm round cake pan with baking paper.
3) Mix flour, almond meal, ground ginger and mixed spice in a bowl. Set aside.
4) Using an electric mixer, mix butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Fold in flour mixture, following by milk and yogurt, mix until well combined.
5) Spoon the batter into the cake pan and smooth the surface. Press the base of the pear halves into the cake mixture, standing them upright.
6) Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Drizzle the cake with red wine syrup. Serve.

Even though fresh and delicious fruits are available in Taiwan all year round, but certain common fruits like pear are nowhere to be found at all. I guess that's because pear has to be imported and if you've been to Taiwan, you'll notice that the range of imported food (or any goods in general) are quite limited. So for local seasonal fruits like mango and strawberry, once the season is over, it is really impossible difficult to get hold of them. In Singapore, other than durian and lychee, most "seasonal fruits" are available all the time as they are imported from different parts of the world. But the downside is that, they're usually not as sweet and juicy as the ones that I get in Taiwan, especially when such fruits are in the midst of their peak season. Well, I guess I can't have the best of both worlds and I just have to live with it!

Back to the topic of pear. To me, it is part of the 4 staple fruits that are available in Malaysia/Singapore at all time, i.e., apple, orange, banana and pear. Even when I was staying in Saudi Arabia, there's never been a shortage of these fruits. So imagine my surprise when I first came to Taiwan and realised that pear is no longer the staple that I've grown accustom to. Having said that, I'm not really a big fan of pear, and I only bought it occasionally for baking. But since I came to Taiwan, I could only ogle and sigh at the beautiful pictures of pear desserts/pastries and I could never have the chance to try the recipes out.

But two days ago, when I was doing grocery shopping at a small supermarket next to the apartment where I stay, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few packs of pears (with a label that says, "imported pear") lying in the fruit section. I am not sure if they will continue to import these pears but I knew that I had to grab a pack before it's all gone!

To make full use of the precious pears, I tried out several new recipes and one of them is mini pear rustics. The original recipe yields 24 tartlets and that's too much for a two-person household. So I scaled down to a 1/6-batch and I got 4 tartlets instead. The edge of the tartlets are supposed to be folded towards the filling, but I did that for only two of them and left the other two unfolded.

Mini Pear Rustics Recipe
Recipe from Nancy Silverton's Pastries from the La Brea Bakery
Note: This is a full batch recipe, yields 24 pieces of 4-inch tarlets

Ingredients:

For the dough:
3 cups plain flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons castor sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons water

For the streusel topping:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons castor sugar
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cube and frozen

For the filling:
4-5 pears, unpeeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons castor sugar

Method:

To prepare the dough:
1) In a medium bowl, combine flour and sugar. Add butter into the mixture, toss and make sure that every piece of butter is covered with the flour. Using a pastry cutter, press and cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine meals.
2) Mix vanilla and water in a small bowl, add to the flour mixture. Continue to cut and press the mixture until the dough barely comes together.
3) Turn the dough into a floured surface. Dip the heel of your hand in flour, and working with small sections, smear the dough away from you to blend it together. When the dough is all smeared out, using a scraper or spatula to gather it together.
4) Knead the dough a few times and shape it into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

To prepare the streusel topping:
1) Combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Add butter, cut and press the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to be used.

To prepare the filling:
1) In a medium bowl, toss the pear cubes with sugar. Let it rest for 1 hour or until the fruit begins to release some of its juices.

To assemble the tartlets:
1) Divide the dough in half and return the other half to the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and place them on trays lined with parchment papers. Chill the circles in the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Repeat the steps with the remaining dough.
2) Remove circles from the fridge. Mound 2 tablespoons of pear cubes on the center of each circle. Fold a small section of the edge of the dough up toward the filling and press down to seal. Fold another section up toward the filling and press down where the two edges overlap to ensure that the dough holds the folded shape. Continue to make your way around the tart and make about 6 folds. Repeat with the remaining circles and place them on the tray lined with parchment papers, 2 inches apart. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3) Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Spoon a tablespoon of the streusel topping over the exposed fruit and press down gently so that it adheres.
4) Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Rotate the tray halfway through to ensure even baking.

I bought a block of Philadelphia cream cheese before the start of summer as I promised a reader that I will feature another cheesecake recipe from this book. But a few months has passed and that block of cream cheese still sat in my fridge! With only a few days left before it expires, I had no choice but to finally drag myself to the kitchen early in the morning today and made a layered caramel cheesecake.

The recipe below may seem long but it is definitely not difficult or complicated at all, just a bit time-consuming. If you're a fan of caramel, this is the recipe that you should not miss!

Layered Caramel Cheesecake Recipe
Recipe from ちっちゃなスクエアケーキのレシピブック

Ingredients:

For the base:
100g digestive biscuits
40g unsalted butter

For the plain filling:
120g cream cheese
110ml fresh cream
30g castor sugar
4g gelatin sheet
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon brandy

For caramel filling:
45g castor sugar
1 tablespoon water
140ml fresh cream
120g cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh cream
1 tablespoon castor sugar
4g gelatin sheet

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

Method:

To prepare the base:
1) Grease and line a 15X15cm square pan with parchment paper.
2) Melt butter in a saucepan. Pour the biscuit crumbs over the melted butter and stir until uniformly moist.
3) Pour the crumbs into the pan. Using fingers, press the crumbs to form an even layer on the base of the pan.
4) Keep the pan in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the plain filling:
1) Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy.
2) Add 55ml of fresh cream and brandy, whip until well combined. Set aside.
3) Soak the gelatin sheet in a bowl of cold water. Remove from water as soon as the sheet soften, wring gently to remove excess water, set aside.
4) In a saucepan, heat up milk and 55ml of fresh cream. When the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat immediately. Let it rest for 2 minutes. Add the softened gelatin and stir until it dissolves. Let the cream-milk mixture cool to room temperature.
5) Add cream-milk mixture into cream cheese mixture from Step 2. Stir until well combined.
6) Scrape the batter into the pan with cookies base. Keep the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 1.5 hours.

To prepare the caramel filling:
1) Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy.
2) Add 2 tablespoons of fresh cream, whip until well combined. Set aside.
3) Soak the gelatin sheet in a bowl of cold water. Remove from water as soon as the sheet soften, wring gently to remove excess water, set aside.
4) Cook 45g of sugar and water in a saucepan. When the syrup turn into amber color, remove from heat immediately.
5) Stir in fresh cream. Let it rest for 2 minutes. Add the softened gelatin and stir until it dissolves. Let the caramel mixture cool to room temperature.
6) Add caramel mixture into cream cheese mixture from Step 2. Stir until well combined.
7) Scrape the batter into the pan with cookies base and plain cream cheese filling. Keep the cheesecake in the fridge for another 1.5 hours or overnight. Cut into squares, sprinkle sea salt on top, serve.