Sticky-date Pudding

I think I first tried sticky date pudding back in Melbourne, Australia when dear Aunty Thina made some really lovely ones over her christmas lunch. I LOVED IT! I still remember how awesome it tasted with her home made toffee sauce, it just melts in your mouth.... This is a version I found online...rather than the overly sweet toffee sauce, I prefer it with vanilla ice cream=)
A little different from Aunty Thina's, certainly not nearly as good as her version, but good enough me thinks ;) it's 'momsfillibaba'.....

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups of roughly diced pitted dates (I bought mine from a regular middle eastern grocer, they are delish!)
125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 cups boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
Self raising flour mixture (I used 2 cups wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp salt)
3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.
   
2. Roughly dice the pitted dates and place it in a bowl. Add in bicarbonate soda and then the boiling water. Let mixture sit for about 30 minutes (this would allow dates to soften, and turn into almost paste-like consistency)
3. In a cake mixer, beat butter and sugar until thoroughly mixed and then add in vanilla essence and the eggs one by one.
4. Slowly fold in the flour mixture and continue mixing until smooth. Then gradually fold in the dates from (1) and mix well.
   
5. Prepare a 20 or 25'' baking pan. Lightly grease with butter on the base and sides, then dust a little and shake off access flour.
   
6. With a ladle, transfer pudding mixture from (4) into the baking pan. Place pan into oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes (or check with a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake to test if it's cook or not. If it comes out clean then your pudding is ready to serve)

I love mine served warm and topped with a medium scoop of vanilla ice cream...YUMMERss..

Prep time: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Chocolate-dipped Strawberries

If you love Strawberries AND chocolate, you have to make these yourselves. It looks delicious, tastes amazing, and sOOO much fun to make. It's pretty easy....although it does require some tidious steps. It's basically a fruit fondue that you can do with grapes, apples, or bananas. It reminds me of school days, during school fairs where there will be stalls selling choc-dipped apples and marshmallows everywhere... So here's what you'll need:

Ingredients :
Baking chocolate bar ( I prefer going for the dark chocolate, slightly bitter sweet)
Fruits

Instructions:

1. You'll need to wash the fresh fruits thoroughly and then air dry them or pat dry with kitchen towels.
2. Bring a small pot of water to simmer on low-medium heat. Place a glass bowl over it, making sure it sits perfectly well on top of the pot, and the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water surface.
   
3. Once chocolate melts, you can start coating the fruits. (IMPORTANT: the fruit has to be absolutely dry when dipping into the chocolate sauce, as any moisture would turn chocolate grainy, and it would not give the fruits a shiny smooth coating)
4. Gently swirl fruit until excess chocolate is dripped off the fruit, then gently place it on a plate and cool it in the refrigerator for approx 30 minutes.
   
5. Best eaten within 24 hours.

Difficulty level: easy

Time : 1 hour

SoyBean Jello Pudding Recipe

This is a rather refreshing dessert, simple to make to. All you'll need is the following (make about 10 cups):

1 litre soy milk, unsweetened / less sugar
3/4 can of evaporated milk/ cream
1.5 tbsp gelatin powder dissolved in 3tbsp water (add to increase firmness of pudding)
3-5 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
Pandan leaves (tied into a knot)
one can of longan in syrup (a type of tropical fruit)

Instructions:

1. Add Soy Milk into a pot on low to medium heat, add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Throw in pandan leaf to give it fragrance.
   
2. Add evaporated milk and stir well. simmer for a few minutes then add in dissolved gelatin powder. Mix well and make sure there are no clumps.
3. optional: add 0,5dl longan syrup. Mix well and turn off heat and leave it to cool for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour mixture from pot, through a sieve, into a bowl to attain smooth silky liquid. Let cool for 5 minutes.
   
5. Pour even amount of mixture into pudding containers/cups/ moulds. Set them aside until cooled and then store in refrigerator for at least 5 hours before serving.
   
6. To serve: Check if pudding is set and firm enough to be served. Top pudding with few pieces of juicy longan fruit (pre-chilled in fridge).

Note: Pudding is best served chilled. Enjoy!

Prep time: 30 minutes

Difficulty level: Easy

Onde-Onde (nyonya desserts) Recipe

Had a craving for Onde-Ondes, so I googled for the recipe and delighted to know it's so easy to make.... I love this because of the delightful sweet surprise you get on the inside. When you sink your teeth into the fragrant chewy ball you'll get liquid sugar oozing out....yummers.. but it's not any ordinary sugar, you'll need Gula Melaka (Palm sugar) (found mainly in south east asia/ sometimes your favourite asian grocer).
Here's all you'll need:
palm sugar (chop and shaped into tiny balls of sugar balls, about the size of a peanut, personal preference)
250 g glutinous rice flour
50 g tapioca starch flour
80-100 ml pandan juice*
grated coconut ( I used coconut flakes)

(* pandan/ screwpine leaves : juice can be extracted by blending 8 leaves with 1 cup of water. It is important to make sure you chop the leaves finely before blending. Then over a sieve, further squeeze juice from leaves with hands into a glass and set aside. Then with the same blended/drained leaves, blend them again with another cup of water to get slightly less concentrated juice.Pandan juice will give the dish a natural green colouring and fragrance)

Instructions:

1. Slowly add Pandan juice to flour mixture. adjust amount of juice according to the consistency desired. You want to knead the dough to get a smooth, green coloured dough.
2. Tear the dough to make approximate 1 inch balls. Make a cavity in center of ball ,place 'palmsugar-ball' and cover up neatly and give it a good roll to get a smooth ball.
3. Place balls into a pot of boiling water. Boil until balls start to float on the surface, further boil for 2-3 minutes to get sugar to melt inside.
4. Remove ball from pot into a bowl of coconut flakes/grated, roll the ball to give it a thorough coating.
   
5. Serve when cooled. Do not keep overnight / in the fridge as they will get very hard to chew.

Cook time = ~ 10 minutes per ball
Difficulty = tricky

No-Bake Cheese Cake Recipe

When you feel like having a snack, like say a cheesecake, and you dont know much about baking (like me) here's a simple basic 'no-bake' cheesecake recipe you can follow.

Ingredients (20cm baking tray):
1 package Soft Cream Cheese (Philadelphia)
1/2 pack of McVites Digestives biscuits (1 whole pack for thicker crust, as in picture)
150g butter, softened
250g whipped cream
lemon
vanilla essence
2 1/2 tbsp gelatin powder
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Blend/ finely crush biscuits and add soft butter. Mix thoroughly and firmly fill bottom of tray (making sure it's compact, avoiding air pockets - brittle cake)
2. Beat the cream cheese, whipped cream and sugar together. Add 1-2 drop of vanilla essence.
   
3. Dissolve gelatine with 3-5 tbsp warm water. Add into cheese mixture and continue beating.
4. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice and some grated lemon zest. Pour mixture onto biscuit layer.
   
5. Chill in fridge for a couple of hours. Voila, best served chill.

*optional: you may top the cake with blueberries/strawberries/ raspberries.

Prep Time: ~30 minutes
Difficulty level : Easy