Green tea chiffon cake with Green tea white chocolate whipped ganache

I have a lot of green tea in the fridge now ^^ (as I told you that you need to keep the green tea powder in the fridge or freezer to keep color and aroma of it).
I bought some of them from Japan, and there are some can that I got from my friends. Green tea will lose it quality if you keep it too long, so I think I have to use it more often.

This time I use this one, (thank you Kapook). Anyway, this recipe uses a lot of green tea powder so I have to mix it with other brand of green tea too ^^. I choose chiffon cake to use as a base, but I want more butter taste in the cake so I use melted butter instead. The texture won't be as light as the original but not as dense as butter cake and stay soft. Sprinkle the cake with syrup helps the cake become moist longer too. 
For the ganache, it needs to be cold enough or it will be hard to whip, but don't let it too cold, it will become solid. 
With a lot of green tea, the bitterness of it (in a good way) shows, follow by the sweet and rich taste from white chocolate and butter. I love to eat it with a cup of hot tea, it's the best companion.

Green tea chiffon cake with Green tea white chocolate whipped ganache 

Make 20cm cake

Green tea Chiffon cake
65g ............................................ Melted butter
70g ............................................ Yolks
105g .......................................... Egg whites
135g .......................................... Granulated sugar (a)
50g ............................................ Granulated sugar (b)
150g .......................................... Cake flour
15g ............................................ Green tea powder
1/2tsp ........................................ Baking powder
100ml ........................................ Water
1/2tsp ........................................ Salt

White chocolate green tea ganache
250g .......................................... Whipping cream
250g .......................................... White chocolate, chopped if large
2 1/2 tbsp .................................. Green tea powder

Syrup
50g ............................................ Simple syrup
1tbsp ......................................... Green tea liquor (optional)


Preheat an oven to 170C
Line 20cm round cake pan with baking paper.
Sift the flour, salt , baking powder and green tea powder together.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar (a) until light in color.
Add the melted butter, whisk to combine.

Add the water and whisk to combine.

Pour the flour mixture into the bowl.

Whisk to combine.

Whip the egg white until foamy, add the sugar (b) and whip until stiff peaks formed.

Fold the meringue into the bowl, in 3 additions.

Fold until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, tap the pan lightly to remove large air bubbles.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the top of the cake spring back when touch lightly.

Make the White chocolate green tea ganache:
Sift the green tea powder into the bowl, heat the whipping cream until boil, pour the hot whipping cream into the bowl.
Whisk to combine.

Pour the white chocolate into the bowl.

Whisk to combine.
Let the ganache cool, then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Whip the ganache until spreadable.

Slice the cake into 3 layers.
Mix the syrup and liquor together.
Sprinkle one layer of cake with syrup, and spread the ganache on top of the cake, repeat with the rest of the cake.
Spread the ganache over the to and side of the cake.
Sprinkle with more green tea powder to decorate it (optional).

Green tea chiffon cake with Green tea white chocolate whipped ganache 

Wholewheat Banana Strawberry Muffins

 My brother's friend came to visit us last week, he brought as a lot of banana from his farm ^^.
Well, it's not easy to eat all of them, so I had some of very ripe banana left after eating too many. And  for me the best way to use ripe banana is turning it into something sweet, anyway I thought about something healthy too. By using wholewheat flour in this muffin, not only that we get delicious morning treat, it comes with a lot of fibre too.  

Rice Bran flour

Because I have this rice bran  flour I use it in my muffin instead of wheat germ, (The flour is very nutty, smell like toasted nut. It doesn't contain any gluten so it's a good choice for people who're allergic to gluten. It's a sample from King Rice bran oil company ^^). 

Strawberry adds sweet and slightly tangy taste to this muffin, you can use other kinds of berry, blueberry is a good choice too. 

If you love muffins with a lot of goodness (fibre and fruit) I think you will love this recipe, for anyone who don't want dairy product you can use soy or almond milk instead of milk for non dairy version. 

Wholewheat Banana Strawberry Muffins

Makes 12-14

115g ........................................ Whole wheat flour
95g .......................................... All purpose flour
20g .......................................... Wheat germ
1tsp ......................................... Baking soda
1/4tsp ...................................... Salt
115g ........................................ Shortening (I use non-hydrogenated shortening)
75g .......................................... Granulated sugar
65g .......................................... Brown sugar
2 .............................................. Eggs
150g ........................................ Ripe banana, mashed
1/3cup ..................................... Milk
1tsp ......................................... Vanilla
115g ........................................ Strawberries, cut into small pieces

I use this Shortening  (non-hydrogenated shortening).

Preheat an oven to 180C
Have ready 12-14 muffin cups (depends on the size of your cup ^^).
Put whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, whet germ and baking soda into a bowl, whisk to combine.

 Beat the shortening with salt until softened, add both of the sugar, beat until combine.

Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until smooth. 

 Add the mashed banana, and beat until combine.

 Pour half of the flour mixture into the bowl, fold to combine.

 Pour the milk into the bowl, fold to combine.

 Pour the rest of the flour into the bowl with strawberries.

 Fold to combine.

Divide between the muffin cups (about 70g per cup).
Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the top of the muffins spring back when press lightly.
Let the muffins cool on a wire rack.

Wholewheat Banana Strawberry Muffins

No bake sweet: Oreo Pops

 I love Oreo, and I know that you know that haha. This delicious black and white cookie is something that I can't resist. 
This time we transfer it into something very cute, "Oreo pops". It's very easy to make and you don't need an oven too. The ingredient list is short, Oreo cookies, cream cheese and white chocolate. I use chocolate coating for this recipe because it's easy to work with, (anyway I really recommended you to use the best quality coating chocolate that you can find, it makes a lot of different). You can use plain white chocolate too but when using plain it will melt easily if you don't tempering it properly. 
I think that if you love Oreo as much as me, you won't be able to resist this black and white cake pops too. ^^

 Oreo Pops

Makes 12 pops

330g ............................... Oreo cookies (with filling)
100g ................................ Cream cheese
Coating
200g ................................ White chocolate (I use coating white chocolate)
......................................... Vegetable oil (1/4-1/2 tsp)
2 ...................................... Oreo cookies (without filling), finely chopped

Put the Oreo cookies into the food processor, and process until fine.
Add the cream cheese and process until fully combine and dough formed.
Remove the dough from the food processor bowl, put in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Line a tray with baking paper.
When the dough is ready. Use a scoop to divide the dough and roll into a ball.
Place the balls on a tray while you finish the rest of the dough.
Melt 50g of the white chocolate in the microwave, on low power (1-2 minutes).
Dip a tip of the stick into the melted chocolate and insert into a ball. 
Refrigerate for 10 minutes to solidify the chocolate.
When the cake pops are ready, melt the rest of the chocolate, add the vegetable oil and stir to combine.
Dip the cake pop into the chocolate, roll gently and tap lightly to allow the excess chocolate to run off.
Sprinkle the Oreo crumbs on top and let the chocolate solidify before serving.

No bake sweet: Oreo Pops

Cream cheese mousse with passion fruit cream

 My friend came to stay with me last weekend, and you can doubt ^^ what we did, haha.
We baked a lot and had a good time, I love to have someone baking with me, it's fun. But when baking with my friend I forgot to take the how-to photo ^^". When eating this dessert, it's so delicious that I want to share the recipe with you. Anyway,I think that you won't have any problem as it's not hard to make.  
Cream cheese goes well with slightly tangy taste of passion fruit, I choose the passion fruit puree with seeds, as black colour from it makes the passion cream cute. 
Ps. Serve it cool from the fridge is recommended, it's very refreshing that way ^^. 

 Cream cheese mousse with passion fruit cream

Make 8 (5.5x7cm)

Crumble 

65g ....................... Unsalted butter

63g ....................... Icing sugar

63g ....................... Almond powder

63g ....................... Cake flour

.............................. Pinch of salt

Cheese mousse

5g ......................... Gelatine powder

30g ....................... Water

135g ..................... Whipping cream

100g ..................... Italian meringue

270g ..................... Cream cheese, soft

1g ......................... Lemon zest

-Italian meringue-

72g ....................... Egg whites

126g ..................... Granulated sugar

30g ....................... Water

Cream passion

55g ..................... Egg

63g ..................... Granulated sugar

58g ..................... Passion fruit puree (with seeds)

80g ..................... Unsalted butter, soft, cut into small pieces

............................ Pinch of salt

Make the crumble:

Mix all the ingredients together with fingertips until small crumbs formed, press together to crate large crumbs. Line the baking pan with baking paper and put the crumble onto the pan, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

When the crumble is ready, put in the oven and reduce the temperature to 160C.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

Make Cream passion:

Put all the ingredients except the butter into a saucepan, whisk until combine. Place the saucepan over low heat, whisk all the time until the temperature reach 82C. Remove from the heat, gradually add the butter, and whisk until fully combine.

Place the plastic warp directly over the cream and let it cool to room temperature.

Make the cheese mousse:

Put the water in a microwavable cup, sprinkle the gelatine powder over the water and let it soften while processing other step.

Put the cream cheese into a bowl and beat until smooth (place the cream cheese bowl over a bowl of hot water, will make it soften quickly). 

Heat the gelatine mixture in the microwave for 30 seconds (low powder) or until melt.

Pour the gelatine mixture into the cream cheese bowl and beat until fully combine.

Make the Italian meringue following this method.

Whip the whipping cream until soft peaks formed.

Fold 100g of Italian meringue into the cheese mixture, then fold the whipped cream into the cheese mixture.

Pipe cream cheese mousse into cups only half way, then pipe the cream passion, repeat the process.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until firm.

Decorate the top of the mousse with crumble and dark chocolate before serving.

 Cream cheese mousse with passion fruit cream

Quick fix desserts: Nutty Cream cheese Nama Chocolate

 Rich with chocolate and cheese, this little treat is suitable for both chocolate and nut lover. ^^
It's easy to make (so easy that I forgot to take the photo, haha). Just melt all the ingredient then mix it with digestive biscuits and decorate with nut. To make it easier, you can use salted roasted nut (buy different kinds of them). 
I use freeze dried raspberry to add more dimension but simple dried cranberry is a good choice too. This little treat melts easily so keep it cool is recommended ^^.  

Nutty Cream cheese Nama Chocolate

 50g ............................ Cream cheese 
60g ............................. Dark chocolate (I use 57%), chopped
60g ............................. Milk chocolate, chopped 
2tbsp .......................... Whipping cream
2 pieces ...................... Digestive biscuits, chopped

Topping
.................................... Nut of your choice, roasted
.................................... Freeze dried fruit

Line moulds or small baking pan with baking paper or plastic warp.
Put all the ingredients except Digestive biscuits in a bowl.
Place the bowl over a bowl of hot water, stir lightly until melt and fully combine.
Mix in the Digestive biscuit pieces, then pour into the prepared pan or moulds, smooth the top.
Place the roasted nuts and dried fruit on top of the chocolate, and refrigerate until firm.
When the chocolate is firm, remove from the moulds and serve.

Ps. this chocolate needed to be kept in the fridge ^^.

Nutty Cream cheese Nama Chocolate

Oatmeal cookies: comfort food, comfort thought

 I love to have cookie on hand actually I love to eat something I can chew ^^.
Oat meal cookie is the best choice for me as I love the smell and texture of it. Plus this cookie has pecan nuts and dried cherries, and I love both of them too. I still in lazy mode (don't know how long it will take, hehe), there are many things I want to do but the hardest point is to start. The fact is I got a lot of inspiration from my vacation but I still didn't finish categorise them. I tried to crate some of the sweet that I tasted while traveling but the result is not as good as I want and it irritated me. Well I know that it's not easy, but I still want to be able to make something from my imagination, haha. So, as the result I needed some delicious and comfort sweet to get me through this feeling.
Turning to this comfort food makes me happy, as it brings good memory to me. Makes me remember why I love baking, I started baking because I love to eat and my family love to eat that's the real reason ^^. 
We are always be like that, we started with some passion, when time passed, we run to new goal and forgot why we did it in the first place. All I want to tell you is don't forget why you want to bake, try to remember the smile on your family member face when they enjoyed your first homemade cookies, their laughter and your own happiness. With this thought in your heart You know why you want to bake more and more.

 Oatmeal cookies

Makes 10-11 pieces

 70g ............................... All purpose flour
1/2tsp ............................ Baking powder
1/4tsp ............................ Salt
60g ................................ Pecan, roasted and chopped
40g ................................ Dried cherries, chopped
100g .............................. Rolled oats
90g ................................ Unsalted butter
45g ................................ Dark brown sugar
90g ................................ Granulated sugar
30g ................................ Egg (about 1/2)
1/2tsp ............................ Vanilla extract

Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

 Beat the butter with salt until soft, add both of the sugar, beat until fully combine.

 Add the egg and vanilla, beat to combine.

 Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, add rolled oats, chopped pecan and chopped dried cherries.

 Fold to combine.

Scoop the cookie dough (or roll into a ball about 4.5 cm ) onto the prepared baking sheet, press lightly.
Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edge of the cookie firm to touch.
Let the cookies cool and set on the baking sheet before moving to the wire rack to cool completely.

Oatmeal cookies: comfort food, comfort thought