Talam Roti Paun

It was a rough week at work. Three weeks more before my contract at this workplace expires. Can't wait to bid sayonara! Couldn't wait to try this recipe too when I first saw it. I've read about how delicious Talam Roti Paun is but had not seen the recipe until Yatie shared it recently. This is a three layered steamed Malay cake creatively inspired by Malaysian Chef Asmah. It consists of bread pudding at the bottom topped with 2 layers of custard pudding.

The kuih turned our perfect! The look, the texture, the taste are just excellect. I love it & it sure is a keeper! I started making it yesterday morning. By afternoon, it was completely cool for me to cut. Took some pictures & then packed most of it for dessert at my mum's place in the evening.

Talam Roti Paun
(1/2 recipe)

Recipe by Chef Asmah.
Shared by Yatie of Sinar Kehidupanku.

Bottom layer:
6 slices white bread (torn into pieces)
1 egg
25g raisins (I didn't use.)
1/4 cup fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
75 ml thick coconut milk
150 ml water

Combine all ingredients in a bowl & leave aside for 30 minutes to soak the bread. (I left it in the fridge.) Pour mixture into a  pan lined with plastic & greased with oil. (I used an 8 inch round pan lined with baking paper. If making full recipe, you need to use a 10 inch round or square pan.) Steam for 20 minutes (25 minutes for full recipe.).  Remove from steamer & gently scratch surface with a folk.

Middle layer:
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
50g thick coconut milk
150 ml water
green colouring
pandan paste (I used pandan leaves.)

Combine all ingredients. Strain & pour mixture into a pot. Cook mixture on medium fire until steam can be seen & sightly thickens. Remove from fire & pour onto the cooked bottom layer. Steam for 20 minutes (25 minutes for full recipe). Remove from fire & scratch the surface gently with a folk.

Top layer:
1/4 cup custard powder
1/4 cup fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/16 tsp vanilla essence (I used 1/4tsp vanilla paste.)
1 1/2 egg (I used 2.)
50 ml santan
150ml air
yellow / orange colouring (I didn't use.)

Combine all ingredients. Strain & pour mixture into a pot. Cook mixture on medium fire until steam can be seen & sightly thickens. Remove from fire & pour onto the cooked middle layer. Steam for 20 minutes (25 minutes for full recipe). Remove from fire & leave to cool. Remove from pan & cut using a plastic knife.

Some tips when making kuih talam:

1. If using freshly-squeezed coconut milk, before mixing it with other ingredients, it's advisable to cook it over medium fire (continuously stirring it to prevent curdling.) until just before it boils so that the kuih will not turn bad so quickly.
2. To remove water accumulating on the surface of kuih after steaming it, use a damp kitchen towel & spread it over the surface of kuih & then lift it up.
3. Line pan with plasic or baking / parchment paper (not grease paper) so that the kuih can be removed from the pan easily before cutting.
4. Use a plastic knife to cut the kuih so that the kuih doesn't stick to the knife.

Tish Boyles's Pound Cake





Plainly Perfect Pound Cake

Source: Kokken69
Recipe by Tish Boyle from The Cake Book

Ingredients:
200g/2 cups plain flour (I used cake flour.)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
227g/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
250g/ 1 1/4cup castor sugar (Like Shirley, I reduced this to 200g)
4 large eggs
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
80ml heavy cream (I used thickened heavy cream. This may explain why my cake turned out dense.)

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. Cream butter in a mixer at medium high speed until creamy (about 2 mins). Add sugar gradually and continue beating for 4 mins until light and fluffy.
4. Reduce the mixing speed of the mixer to low and add eggs one at a time mixing until well mixed.
5. Add the citrus zest and vanilla extract.
6. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating it with cream (added in 2 additions).
7. Pour into 2 lined 3"x 7" pound cake mold (I used three 6"x 3" loaf pans) and bake for 60-70 mins or until the cake turns brown and a testing skewer comes out clean. (Trish Boyle had baked this at 162C but I had to use a slightly higher oven temperature to ensure that the cake is cooked through without dense uncooked spots).

Have some tea in these cookies.....

When I saw this recipe posted by Anncoo, I thought it was one interesting recipe. I've always come across recipes using coffee, but not tea. So last week, I baked  these Earl Grey Tea Cookies. 

The dough sure smelled of tea. That's not a surprise since 2 tea bags were used, including the leaves! Just take note when baking them. You may need to bake them for more than 15 minutes. After baking them for 15 minutes at 180C, my cookies were still uncooked. So I reduced the temperature to 160 & continued baking for another 30 minutes. Thanks Ann for sharing this recipe!

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Source: Anncoo Journal

Ingredients:
150g butter, softened
100g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
60g ground almond
200g plain flour
50g fresh milk
2 Earl grey tea bag

Method: 

1. Heat up fresh milk (not boiled and off heat), add Earl Grey tea leaves in it. Cover and leave to cool then run Earl Grey tea through a sieve and set aside (keep the tea leaves).
2. Beat butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy. Add in egg yolk and mix well.
3. Slowly add in Earl Grey tea and mix till combined (add one to two tablespoon of plain into it if batter is too wet).
4. Add in the remaining tea leaves and mix well.
5. Mix plain flour and ground almond together and pour into the batter in two batches and mix well to a soft dough with a rubber spatula.
6. Put soft dough into a plastic bag, press flat and place soft dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes or freezer for 10 minutes.
7. Take out dough from refrigerator and knead it to a soft dough again (do not over knead) and fill into piping bag fitted with a star tip half full. Pipe out cookies onto the prepared trays (you can use cookie press if you prefer).
8. Bake at preheated oven 180C for about 13-15 minutes until the cookies are lightly golden. ( I baked for about 45 minutes at 160 deg C.)
9. Leave cookies to cool on wire rack and store them in an airtight container.