I made it to another round of challenge with Bingka Ubi (Baked Tapioca Kueh)

It is a stretch of 4 off day for my kids as it is blocked off as PSLE marking days. I am pretty happy with the "off" because I am planning to do more by staying up since I need not wake up early to send boy to school. Furthermore, hubby will be outstation so no one to bug me to sleep. *sigh* but my body cannot take it. Cannot deny I am not young anymore.

I have wasted last night and so tonight I am going to update this post while it is still hot! Bingka Ubi was made today! Bingka Ubi's mandarin translation is "烤木薯糕" (baked tapioca kueh - if translated into English from Mandarin).

I love any form of tapioca - in form of chips (spicy or bitter), in its original form steamed and eaten with grated coconut or baked. Me and my mother were having trouble getting tapioca. The NTUC is not selling it, so we have to depend on the wet market. After a few tries, she finally saw it yesterday and she has bought some for me. The amount is enough to make a quarter of the recipe in the book. Luckily a quarter, I am already having trouble finishing them as me and my mother (maybe my girl) will be the only one eating the kueh.

I took probably 45 minutes to grate 450g of tapioca using the mini grater that is sold in NTUC. Quite alright as I have set aside time for this bake today. After that, the steps are easy. Just mix all ingredient and heat the mixture till thick then off it went into the oven. As I did not want to burn the mixture, I use a really small heat so it took quite a while of constant stirring before the mixture seemed to dry up abit. While the mixture is in oven, the whole house smelled of coconut milk (windows are all closed as it was raining heavily). I love it.

However, I think I overbaked my kueh. So disappointed that after all these years of baking, I can still overlook the relationship of baking time and amount of bake. I knew I overbaked, but did not realise I should have adjust the time based on amount of bake. I simply followed the required time to bake which was 95 minutes for a 10" round tray while mine was only an oval pie dish! Furthermore, I only realised the mistake when I was blog hopping just now and chanced upon other bloggers' Bingka Ubi baked under 1 hour for a smaller amount. I can only console myself that I did not think much as I tried to follow as close to the instructions as possible since this is a new bake. Luckily I know how to tent my kueh but I tented it too late. It started browning after 10 - 15 minutes. However I am afraid it will not bake well if I tent it too early (with respect to the 95 minutes baking time). So I had a very brown skin Bingka Ubi, rather tough skin but the inside is still soft and chewy. It also has a natural yellow colour even though the tapioca is whitish. It got its colour from the gula melaka. Good thing I did not use yellow coloring. I also reduce the sugar and the sweetness is just perfect for me.

Here's my pie dish of Bingka Ubi (ya, that corner went into my mouth).

See the dry top. But the inside is a nice yellow. (ok, now you see how dark the base is.)

I ate 1/3 of it and my mother took another third. The last third is in my fridge now. Anyone can advise me how long can I keep them both in room temperature and the fridge?

Ok, here is the recipe from Tempting Kuih（chinese title : 茶粿香), complied by Wong Kee Sun, published by ONE PUBLISHER, library call number : 641.86 AZI - [COO]

Ingredients

1800 gm tapioca (grated)
500 ml thick coconut milk
400 ml water
300 gm gula Melaka
150 gm  castor sugar
50 gm milk powder
80 gm butter
1 1/2 tsp fine salt
Little yellow colouring

Method
1. Combine all ingredients stir till even.
2. Stir over heat till mixture is almost thick.
3. Pour into a 10" round mould and bake at 180dC for 95 minutes.

Note :
1. Brush mould with butter at sides and bottom.
2. If prefer a yellow kuih, use 450 gm castor sugar and little yellow colouring.


Note by self to self :
Only made a quarter of the recipe as follows :-

450 gm tapioca (grated)

125 ml thick coconut milk

100 ml water

75 gm gula Melaka

37.5 gm  castor sugar (I use only 30 gm for convenience)

12.5 gm milk powder

20 gm butter

1/8 + 1/4 tsp fine salt

The pot of mixture ready to go on stove

The ring of rainbow after I washed the pot

It is a pity my dh only comes back on Friday night. Not sure if I shall keep a piece for him to taste test, but surely no point since it will not be as tasty as when it is fresh from oven.
*sigh* I still do not understand why are my kids rejecting gula Melaka.

I am so happy that I am able to submit this to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011), hosted by Small Small Baker.

Supporting AB again - chocolate cupcakes

I did "Individual Milk Chocolate Cupcakes" (what a long name!) this morning with my girl. I started at around 10am and finishes at 12pm, with her help! But it is suppose to be very very simple.

Since she started PM session, she has not much chance of baking with me, so when I came across this recipe from this book I just borrowed from the new Clementi Library, I knew I just have to do it. However, I find that this recipe is rather familar. I cannot recall where is the similar recipe. Anyway, that is not so important. The important thing is, this recipe is easy, uses the ingredients I have on hand and also very much want to "get rid" of due to the soon to come expiry date.

The recipe goes like this :-


Inidividual Milk Chocolate Cupcakes (Makes 12)


75g (2 and 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
75g (2 and 3/4 oz or half cup) milk chocolate chopped
80g (2 and 3/4 oz or 1/3 cup) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
60g (2 and 1/4 oz or half cup) self raising flour, sifted


Ganache
80g (2 and 3/4 oz or heaped half cup) milk chocolate chopped
2 tablespoons thick (double/heavy) cream


1. Preheat the oven to 160 dC (315dF/ Gas 2-3). Line a flat-bottomed 12-hole cupcake tray with paper cases. Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water - make sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir until melted and combined. Remove the bowl from the heat, add the sugar and egg and mix. Stir in the flour.


2. Transfer the mixture to a measuring bowl and pour into the paper cases. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a cake comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.


3. To make the ganache, place the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Place over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Once the chocolate has almost melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir until the remaining chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Allow to cool for about 8 minutes, or until thicken slightly.  Return cakes to the cold cupcake tin to keep them stable while you spread one heaped teaspoon of ganache over the top.


Recipe taken from Great Tastes Little Cakes published by Bay Books (sorry no author)

See, that is the end. Easy isn't it? I let my girl stir the chocolate and butter while I prepare lunch. I use dark chocolate couverture instead of milk chocolate by the way, dark chocolate healthier ya? Then I poured in the sugar first (to melt them with the heat),  after that wait for the mixture to cool down before I poured in the egg (incase the egg gets cooked). The mixture is pretty warm and I did not bother if the bowl touches the simmering water. What is the rational for not allowing bowl to touch the water? Can anyone tell me?

The batter consistency is not too runny, but it has alot of bubbles, so not sure if it is from the raising agent in the self raising flour or due to my constant vigorous stiring.  So, pretty straight forward, but after filling my 12 mini cupcakes I still have some left. I guess the recipe is for a 12 hole big muffin tray? After a round of 25 minutes, I baked the rest (6 only). Not sure if it is due to the batter not covered,  I noticed the batter turned alot stickier and thicker, and not so easy to pour the second round. Anyway my girl and I used spoon to scoop, thus we took a long time to fill the tray.

The resulted cupcakes are very nice and soft when warm, but looked very ugly because of the holes on top (perhaps resulted from the airy batter). After cool down, has a hard top and I feel that it is a little to the dry side. Perhaps I over baked. Should try again and bake only the standard mini muffin timing like 10 to 20 minutes.

Here's how ugly they looked.

the "solid" inside :-)

I am participating Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted with this entry.

p/s : I am sorry I have to type degree Celsius in dC and fahrenheit in dF .. and the fractions ... sigh, cos I do not know how to enter special characters.