Pumpkin Roll Cake

I still have some stock of pumpkin. I bought them a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to make soup and pumpkin based cake. However, because of the usual new priority around the house and with the children activities and demands, I had to cancel my plan several times.

Last weekend, I pushed myself to try pumpkin roll cake recipe. After searching and comparing some recipes, I combined some recipes and end up with the final recipe I used in this posting. If you are a fan of Swiss roll cake, please be warned that this roll cake is not the soft type like the Swiss roll. This one is more similar to carrot cake texture. That is why, the cake should be made thin, to avoid the cake to break.

For the recipe below, I used 2 Lapis Surabaya pans, size 26 cm x 26 cm. The result is optimal. Since you will get two thin cakes, which will yield smaller roll cakes. The small serving portion is, in my opinion, a good balance to the "heaviness" of the cake.

I did not expect my children will love this cake, but they do love it. Each of them can finish 3 thin slices of the roll tart for dessert. I think this is a nice variation to the carrot cake that I always made a few years ago.

Ingredients
100 gr butter - soft, room temperature
200 gr sugar
3 eggs
100 gr cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
200 gr pumpkin puree
1 tbsp pumpkin spice or   (1/2 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/8 tsp ground cloves + 1/4 tsp ground ginger + 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg)

For the filling
185 gr cream cheese (1 package)
60 gr butter, soft room temperature
100 gr powder sugar

Method
1. Beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one by one and mix until the eggs are well incorporated.
3. Add the pumpkin puree and mix until well incorporated.
4. Add the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin spice. Mix it with lowest speed until the mixture uniform.
5. Heat the oven 180Celcius
6. Pour the batter into two pans 26cm x 26 cm or slightly smaller.
7. Bake for around 15 minutes until the top of the cake springs back when touched. Do not forget to check regularly and swap the position of the pans when necessary.
8. Remove immediately from the oven and the pan, and let the cakes cool down on a wire rack. Some recipes will recommend rolling it first, but I found it still quite easy to roll the cake when it is cold even without pre-rolling it.
9. Filling: mixed all the filling ingredients until the mixture is smooth.
10. Move the cake to a clean baking paper sheet. Spread the filling on one side of the cake.
11. Start rolling the cake from one side. Wrap it with the baking paper sheet and another layer of cling wrap.

Store it in refrigerator until you want to serve it. I usually take it out of the refrigerator at least half an hour before I serve it. However, my boys are usually impatient and cannot wait. Many times they will just eat it directly.

Cheese Stick Cookie (Kaasstengel)

I grew up eating this cheese stick made either by my mom or my grandma. I love it and I took it for granted. Any time I wanted it, I always got it. Sometimes I helped them to make this, but I did not see it as hard work. It was fun. Other time, when they did not have time to make it, we could just buy it somewhere. We could find from the not-so-good quality (using salt instead of good cheese) or the good quality ones.


Last vacation, my children were pampered by the grandparents. They also enjoyed this cheese stick and another type of cookie with pineapple filling. The cheese stick is easier to make. So, when my children were begging me to make the cookies after we were back to the Netherlands, I decided to just make the cheese stick. This one is Indonesian version, because the Netherlands version is very different. It is difficult to explain the different of the texture and taste, but the Dutch version, in most recipes, uses puff pastry sheet, while the Indonesian version uses all-purpose flour.


Make sure that you use an old cheese type and not the young cheese type. It makes the taste different.


Ingredients
300 gram grated old cheese + 100 gram extra for topping
350 gram all-purpose flour
250 gram butter, soft and room temperature
1 tsp salt
5 egg yolk

2 egg yolk for egg wash

Method
1. Beat the butter and egg yolk until it becomes thick (almost) white mixture for a few minutes.
2. Add the flour, salt and cheese in a few steps and knead the dough until everything is well mixed. You can also use hand in this process. It is not as hard as kneading bread. (Warning: do not over mixed. If you do over mixed, the dough will become oily and the result is not crunchy)
3. Roll the dough using a pin roll until the dough reaches a uniform thickness.
4. Cut the rolled dough into sticks and arrange them on the baking pan. (I used baking paper as liner).
5. Brush the cheese stick with the beaten eggs and sprinkle them with the extra grated cheese
6. Heat the oven 170Celcius. Baked the cheese sticks for around 20 - 25 minutes, depends on your oven. I baked two baking pan together, and I changed the position halfway.

Fresh from the oven

8. Take the baking tray out of the oven and let the cheese sticks to cool down.
9. Store the cheese sticks in the air tight container.

Now, you can enjoy it with a cup of warm tea.

Sweet Potato Curry with Cauliflower Rice

One night, after the children were already asleep and the laundry has been done, we sat in front of the television for a half an hour. I managed to watch part of the Jamie Oliver show and was interested in the sweet potato curry and cauliflower rice. So, I googled it in the internet and found a few similar recipes and the next weekend I went to market to buy the ingredients. It is quite interesting for me, cauliflower as rice!! It has fewer calories and the taste was comparable to couscous.

The children were not amazed, however. They preferred the more "normal" food, rice with chicken curry. But, they had no choice other than to finish the sweet potato curry. Once in a while, vegetarian food is also good, not only for our health but also for our environment.

The downside of cooking this is the mess. If I cook normal rice, I only need to put the rice in the rice cooker and let it cooked by itself. But with cauliflower rice, I have to put it in the food processor part by part because of the size of my food processor. So, that is why it was quite messy.The cauliflower rice itself had a nutty taste. It was definitely not real rice, but I could enjoy it. It is surely an interesting dish for me.

Here is the adaptation of the recipe.

Sweet Potato Curry Ingredients (served around 16 portions)
2 big Sweet potato (wash it clean and peeled; cut the sweet potato into cubes around 2x2 cm)
1 big pink onion (I love the mild taste - cut)
3 cm of grated ginger (I used 1 tsp ginger powder)
1 can of 500 gram chickpeas (drained)
6 tomatoes (chopped)
500 gram tomato puree
3 tbsp Rogan Josh paste
300 gram Spinach
200 ml coconut milk (I used Kara) + 400 ml water
1 handful Coriander stalk and leaves - chopped
brown sugar to taste

Method
1. Heat the oil and brown the onion.
2. Add the sweet potato and cook it for around 5 minutes
3. Add other ingredients except the coriander, sugar and spinach.
4. Cook for around 15 minutes until the sweet potato is tender.
5. Add the coriander stalk.
6. Add sugar and salt to taste.
7. Cook until the sauce is thick and add the coriander leaves and spinach.
8. Serve it with the cauliflower rice.

If  you want to freeze part of it, keep it in a plastic container in portions after it is cool.

Cauliflower rice
Ingredient: 1 big cauliflower and olive oil.
Method: cut the floret and process it with food processor. Sprinkle the cauliflower rice with a bit of olive oil. Bake it for 10 minutes in oven, 180 Celcius. Do  not forget to turn the cauliflower rice halfway of the baking time to avoid it getting burned. The rice can be kept in the refrigerator. Just heat it in the microwave (highest heat) for around 3 minutes, before it is served.

Brioche "cupbread" with Varities Filling

My family loves sweet soft bread. Some of our favorite are the water-roux based bread and brioche bread. As a variation and idea for children's lunch box, I made this week brioche "cupcake" bread filled with some children's favorite filling: chicken mushroom, cheese and chocolate sprinkle.


It is basically brioche bread, but I baked it in a cupcake paper and filled it with some of our children's fave fillings. The effect? They found it cute to eat bread cupcake. And since it is small, I could pack a few cupbread into my oldest's lunch box. He found it practical and he could finish all the bread easily. The plus point for me, I just have to defrost a few cupbreads the night before, put it in the microwave (low heat for only 40 seconds), and pack the cupbreads in his lunch box. Fast in the morning, although I have to prepare them before (2 days before). However, despites the 2-days preparation time, I could prepare at least 30 cupbreads in advance. More than enough for a week supply.


It is better to warm the bread in the oven (also low heat), but for practicality in the midst of morning chaos time, I prefer to warm the bread using microwave. And luckily, my critics are happy enough with that. Aside for the success, I feel that my freezer does not have enough space now for my stocks.

RECIPE IS UPDATED: 29th May 2020

Chicken Mushroom Filling
Chicken fillet (chopped)
Champignon mushroom (cut)
Garlic (I used 4 cloves garlic, pressed)
1-2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Heat the oil, and the brown the garlic. Add the chicken and other ingredients (except mushroom). When the chicken is almost cooked, add the mushroom. Taste and adjust it with salt and pepper. Put aside.


Chocolate Sprinkle Filling
2-3 tbsp butter room temperature
Chocolate sprinkle (I used pure/dark chocolate variant)

Mix the butter and chocolate sprinkle using spoon until they form an almost homogen mass. Put aside.


Cheese Filling
Grated cheese


Cupbread Ingredients
500 grams white bread flour (high gluten flour)
7 grams instant yeast (my local brand yeast, suggests 7 grams for every 500 gr flour)
1 tsp salt
6 eggs (or 5 if you use bigger size eggs)
70 grams sugar
125 ml milk + 1 tbsp creme fraiche
250 grams butter (soft, room temperature)
1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Method
1. Place the flour in the bowl, sugar at one side of bowl, salt at one side of bowl and the instant yeast in the middle. Mix the dry ingredients well, you can immediately use the knead (hook) extension of your mixer.
2. After the dry ingredients well mixed, add the eggs and mix it well.
3. Add the milk and condensed milk and mix again the dough until the milk is good incorporated.
4. Cut the butter in cubes, and add them one by one into the bowl. Knead the dough until the gluten develops well. This is when the dough does not stick anymore to the side of the bowl. It is, however, a bit greasy compared to the dough of normal sandwich loaf, due to the high content of butter and eggs.You should be able to stretch the dough easily, although it will not form a relatively thinner membrane like the dough of sweet bread with water roux method. But it should be similar to that.
5. Remove the dough to a plastic bowl and cover it with cling film (plastic wrap). If you cannot bake it at the same day, store it in the refrigerator overnight, or around 24 hours to let it proof. If you can immediately bake it, you can let it proof at room temperature. By then, the volume of the dough should be at least twice.
6. After the dough rise double in size, punch down the dough and divide into several pieces, around 30-40 grams each. Flat the dough using roll pin and put the filling in the middle of the dough. Cover the filling with the dough and pinch the edges and press it to make sure that the filling will not leak out. Put each bread in a cupcake paper (I used cupcake pan to hold the cupcake paper).
 7. Let the dough to raise again for around 2-3 hours, outside the refrigerator, at room temperature. Brush the top of the bread with the beaten egg.
8. Heat the oven, 180Celcius. I baked 2x 12 cupcake pans (plus extra 6 more cupbreads) and used both lower and upper heat. I exchanged the position halfway through the baking time. Bake the bread for around 30 minute or until the skewer inserted into the bread comes clean. Let the bread cool on the rack before serving it.


My oldest son loves the cupbread so much, especially the chicken mushroom filling. He even gave a couple to one of his best friends, who claimed that he loved the cupbread with chocolate sprinkle filling. And my youngest? He simply ate the filling only and pushed away the bread. 

Green tea Mille-crepe with Azuki Bean

I have seen pictures of mille-crepe tart, or thousand layer pancakes tart pictures all over the internet since last year. I was curious how pancakes can be served as celebration cakes (birthday cake, etc.).


I usually baked something for our family celebration. During my husband last birthday, I used the occasion as an opportunity to challenge myself to make this mille-crepe tart with green tea flavour. I still had a bag of matcha (green tea powder) in my kitchen and was initially planning for green-tea roll cake. However, the mille-crepe tart was quite intricate to try. I saw pictures of these tart from friends posting and from certain cake shops in Asia. The pictures are beautiful.

What made me curious is: pancake as tart? I always thought that pancake, cold one, was not delicious. But, why did they make it as tart? I had to try and proof it myself.

After searching the internet for how the mille-crepe tart was made, I understand that it is basically a softer version of the breakfast pancake/crepe with a LOT of cream. I think, that is they key!

I finally settled with the following recipe. What I  like with this kind of tart is: no baking is needed. What I hate is: it is difficult to produce good crepe in the short time, I have to stand quite long to make the crepes.

The result: my children love it. However, my husband comment was: the tart is quite heavy, because of the layers of crepes and the cream. I used in this one, fresh cream (slagroom). It is delicious, but it is heavy.

Ingredients of the Crepe
75 gr butter (melted)
200 gr all-purpose flour
6 eggs
800 ml warm milk (I used pasteurized full milk - be careful not to use hot milk since it will cook the eggs)
20 gr matcha powder
100 gr sugar (or 80 gr sugar if you want less sweet crepe)
1 pinch of salt

Method (Crepe)
1. Mix the flour, eggs, green tea powder, sugar and the salt in a bowl.
2. Add the warm milk and butter to the mixture. Mix it well until everything well incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
3. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours. I left it overnight, to divide my work load.
4. Prepare a non-stick frying pan (I used 28 cm diameter). Heat the pan and add a bit of butter. Melt the butter and spread the butter evenly.
5. Using a soup ladle pour 1 portion of the mixture to the pan and swirl the pan a few times to ensure that the mixture is spread evenly.
6. Cook until the upper side of the crepe is not wet anymore and the colour change to light brown.
7. Slowly flip the crepe. I used both the spatula and my hands, since I cannot flip it easily. Be careful not the tear the crepe.
8. Cook the other side for around half to 1 minute, depends on your stove.
9. Remove the crepe to plate for cooling.
10. repeat steps 5-9 until all mixture is finished. I produced around 16 crepes with this mixture.
11. Let all crepes cool before arranging the crepes.

Ingredients of the Cream
250 ml fresh whipped cream
2 tbsp matcha powder (I used sweetened matcha powder for the cream) + 1 tbsp water

Method (Cream)
1. Beat the fresh whipped cream until it becomes fluffy
2. Add the green tea (matcha) solution and beat again the cream until the solution is incorporated and the cream become fluffy whipped cream and the volume increased.

How to arrange: 
Additional ingredient: Ready to use Azuki bean paste (red bean paste)
1. Prepare a big plate covered by baking paper.
2. Put 1 crepe on the plate.
3. Spread a part of whipped cream and extra azuki bean sporadically.

The assembly process

4. Cover with 1 crepe.
5. Read steps 3 and 4 until the last crepe.
6. Cover the last crepe with the whipped cream.
7. Dust the upper whipped cream with green tea (matcha) powder as decoration.

The end result

After we eat one slice of it