Peanut Butter & Jelly Frangipane Pie with PB&J Ice Cream (vegan and gluten free)

That’s it. I give up being boring. Wry , senseless dry humour, incoherent thoughts, nonsensical behaviour (I’m guessing no second person has ever dislocated their ankle by being asleep) is the definition of my name, which I must add people have found many ways to pronounce– some in a way that terrifies every fibre in my body, some downright insulting, some ingenious… but almost never correctly.(PS, its not ‘cheating’, that’s a lame shortcut I respond to but no longer want to. QT is the safe way to go.) From next post on, I’m going back to my roots (or whatever they are).  These couple of days, I’ve been downing bowls of dead bitter medicine instead of yummy herbal chicken soup, exercising like a crazy person, studying, baking, trying to record the sound of my brother snoring for my ringtone (how fun would that be?), going for physio, learning to drive and so on. 

I’ve been experimenting on frangipane for the longest time. Typical frangipane is clogged with lumps of butter, sugar and eggs. Trying to make it healthy is one of the most difficult challenges I’ve ever taken on. I wanted to make it vegan, lower in fat and with peanuts instead of almonds since almonds are pricey. And finally, this happened.

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Peanut butter and Jelly Frangipane Pie with a gluten free crust, healthier frosting, berry cream and Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream, of which all components are significantly healthier than typical counterparts.

And the best thing about this pie is that it is really easy to make!

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Recipe for Shortbread Crust is inspired by Chockohlawtay.

Recipe for Berry Cream is also from Chockohlawtay.

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Strawberry Mirror Cake (No fat added!)

A couple days ago, I made this strawberry mirror cake. Its awesome and so good even without butter, oil, margarine, etc. 

Notes

Strawberry Mirror  adapted from Blessed Homemaker.

You can make this vegan by using a vegan sponge/white/yellow cake.

Enjoy your week… and have some cake! 😀

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pie — The Ultimate Makeover

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Imagine a delicious, guilt-inducing pie that’s all these…

Alright, quit imagining because its reality. 

Just look at that! A square piece of Peanut Butter & Jelly Pie and a cup of Homemade Soy Milk. A vegan high tea set! 

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I like the pie frozen, but if you’re not into an ice-cream like,  peanut butter and jelly confection, and more into a creamy, mousse-like pie, just have it chilled and equally delicious. 

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Recipe for shortbread crust is adapted from Chockohlawtay, one of my favourite blogs.

Vegan: Use tofutti cream cheese.

A visual presentation of the process of making soy bean flour:

1. bake soy beans at 200C for 15 minutes. let cool.
2. grind in a grinder till powdery.

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Till next time!

Exploding Cream Buns 爆浆面包 (Whole Wheat & Vegan)

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One of the things I love most of Taiwan is the varied speeds of change in the country. The rocky path to my grandparents’ house  have those same old rocks embedded, the same old metal spring buried at one side, rows of crops of 槟榔叶 (betel leaves) grown by the same old farmers at the other, the same kinds of grass growing at the side, the same family of daisies swaying along to the wind. Largely the same people, plus a few babies, minus some who passed away, the same smiles, the same faces, with a few more wrinkles. The same breakfast shops that had not changed in any way since before I was born. Things like that stay the same. They make the place we come from what it is.

Cycle a couple kilometres along the sort-of-expressway into the city. Most things would be different a year on. The same lady selling my favourite pancakes 车轮饼 stands at the same spot, but in front of a different shop. Shops promoting PDAs with wireless network connection spring up. Just 5 years ago, barely anyone owned a computer, let alone knew what the hell the internet was. [Even today, in the area my mum was born, few people have an internet connection (an estimated 1 in 3).] And right in the middle of the Pingtung city, now stands at least 3 new french bakeries, 1 Japanese bakery, and 1 modern Taiwanese bakery. That’s where I found 爆浆面包, or as I translate– Exploding Cream buns. An innovation unto the traditional tiny buns accompanying Western meals. Today, they are one of the most popular buns in Taiwan. Though they’re typically filled with a buttercream filling, I decided to go the healthier way with, well, tofu. If you don’t tell the people you’re serving that the buns contain tofu, there is little chance they’ll find out.

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The cream is injected into the bun rather than pre-inserted. DO NOT inject the cream into the bun while the bun is warm lest you want baked cream (a mistake a made for 2 buns, one of which’s innards are in the photo below).

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I’m providing 2 choices of filling. The Oreo Cream.

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The Coffee Cream version.

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And now the recipe! The recipe for buns is adapted from Christine’s Recipes. There are errors though! Add another 1 tsp of lemon juice for Coffee Cream and 1/2 tsp for Oreo Cream.

Assembly: stuff cream of choice into a piping bag. Make a hole in the corner of the bun and fit the piping nozzle into the hole to squeeze cream into the bun. If you press too hard such that too much cream enters, the bun literally explodes. So be careful!

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Hopefully, I’ll have something great for you tomorrow!

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This post is going to YEASTSPOTTING!!!

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Oreo Coffee Cream Layered Cake for One (with the Perfect vegan Whipped Cream)

I’ve been up to so many crazy stuff these days. Like making my idiotic right arm more horrible than it already is (I think its badly sprained), convincing my brother that a B in Math (for ‘A’ levels) means I’m incapable of helping him with his math homework, sulking over the gold dye (for highlights) that left my hair with barely visible red streaks (not complaining about the red), studying for a very important test, wondering whether I’ll get my driving instructor killed (worst case scenario), thinking about blue highlights, filling up university applications and more. Somewhere in between, I finally (!!!) found some time to bake and experiment to get a perfect tofu whipped cream. With one hand because I’m afraid of furthering injuring the hand which is disgustingly swollen. Its one of those times I wish I don’t have Erb’s Palsy. I’m sort of scared that one day I won’t be able to use it anymore. Sort of. 

You probably think its weird that I dumped Oreos and coffee into the same cake. Rest assured I don’t promote the activity of poisoning. I’m all for the caffeine and sugar boost. 

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Unfortunately, I have the frosting skills of a 4 year old. You can tell, I’m sure.

Nonethless, don’t let my horrible frosting skills deter you from trying this whipped cream! I swear you won’t be disappointed and I don’t do promises like this often (because results vary sometimes but this is so easy! The secret to this whipped cream is the fresh extra firm tofu (NOT silken) and lemon juice. Its stable, creamy, tastes so unhealthy, VEGAN, gluten free, raw, costs much less than regular whipped cream (in Singapore anyway), is so easy to make, you don’t even have to whip it and basically everything normal people love about whipped cream. I’ll never ever buy regular whipped cream again. Why purchase some when you can have this?

NOTE: for recipe, you will have lots of tofu whipped cream left over. Quarter the recipe if you know you won’t need any whipped cream in the next 3 days.

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Yeah, I consume cakes layer-by-layer. That’s the point of them being layered cakes. I’m not weird; I just have an exotic way of swallowing layered pieces of cake. 

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Take a look at my DIY mini cake stand (for cakes serving 1-3). For someone who usually handles flour instead of glue, cardboards and tape, it felt odd. My clumsy hands made it crooked. Not on purpose of course.

The ribbons are scraps I found around the house. The round top is made of round cake boards and the ‘pyramid’ stand is actually 2 stacked Styrofoam cups. 

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Sadly, its now time to part. Sarcasm comes in handy at this time because words sound genuine.

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Self-Saucing Milk Tea Pie 巧克力奶茶派

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I swear I’m trying to change myself. Become more innocent than I already am (near-dumb kind), be a very very nice person, pray more, eat less junk, do more exercise, be less sarcastic and therefore less entertaining, be neater and more organised, blah blah blah. You might also want to know  my plan’s not exactly working. Not that I have one to begin with. I have a guideline (see 2nd sentence). Obviously guidelines are always overlooked. That’s the reason they are guidelines and not rules. Nonetheless, in an effort to become a better person, i once again embarked on the tedious task of tidying up the rubbish dump that is my room. Since I’ve confirmed that I passed ‘A’ levels, all the ‘A’ level stuff either went to my bro’s bookshelves or into bags to go to my bro’s best friend. Its kind of neat, at least according to my unique definition of ‘neat’. That makes one person who thinks my room is neat. 1 task down. The rest to go!

So today I made a weird pie. Chocolate sauce not-so-mysteriously flows out of the pie onto your plate. Make sure you have a not-so-flat plate or ants will be having the chocolate instead of you.

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*I pressed the crust into the mold with the bottom of the very clean cake tin.

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And this ‘pictures’ thing? I’m working on it, alright? Practicing! Its difficult but I hope I’ll get there.

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You might want to know that the meringue tastes like melt-in-the-mouth marshmallows, and the strawberries are absolutely essential for that additional sweet-and-sour tang.

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And here you go with the recipe. 

*if crust mixture is too dry (barely comes together), add 10g of melted butter at a time.

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😀 Till next time. Or to be precise, next post. 

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Japanese Strawberry and Cheese Shortcake

This cake serves one hungry person or 2-3 for a light snack. Its a recipe of a Japanese chef. I’ll make this post snappy. No words from this moment on. 😀

Just Because its the ‘A’ levels Doesn’t Mean You’ll Get All ‘A’s…

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So the ‘A’ level results were released on Friday. Before that, you guys saw me burping out words like ‘acetylcholine’, ‘2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine’, and ‘synapses’ and other stuff and probably assumed I was reaching for membership in an asylum. I was really being nonsensical and acting all smartypants so that I could conjure just a bit of confidence for the crazy exams. 

Are ‘A’ levels the end of the world? Well, yes. And no. Yes because the results were released in 2012 and 2012, as we all know, may be the actual end-of-the-world. Jokes aside (not funny, so jokes nonsence), ‘A’ levels are not the end of the world because you still have one-in-the-millionth chance to become the millionaire you aspire to be. You know, via investing in stocks, gambling (not encouraging this), stealing (its illegal– don’t do it), having rich parents, taking over your rich parents’ business, selling your grandparents’ expensive jewelry (also not encouraged), working hard, no longer aspiring to become a millionaire and blah blah blah.  

Now, steering away from my usually useless talk to slightly more ridiculous talk, here’s a brief summary of the grades someone as ridiculous as I would have. From lousy to good.

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1. I got a C for General Paper i.e. a subject testing you on how well you can use your vast linguistic capabilities to portray accurately your thoughts regarding real world issues (rather than crap). My grammar hasn’t exactly taken the hint to climb after Jack up his magical beanstalk since I exchanged James Patterson (the old pervert)’s books for thick and icky stacks of Biology 2 years earlier. I’m not grieving over this grade because the (very) few hundred of you who visit my website/blog everyday know I’m perfectly capable of stringing my thoughts into readable short ‘essays’ that are too impolite to be reciprocated during exams, and that should not be but is enough for the mini me. 

2. A B for Biology. You expected it. I expected it. It was bound to happen. I didn’t get a C (which was what I really expected considering my limited brain space. FYI, I like to say that my brain stores gigabytes and megabytes of information. Its an analogy. Why do so many people not get it????) I studied most for Biology. It took up 50% of my time. I completed every single question the teachers gave us to practice and reviewed every single one of them. I got E for my prelims and B for ‘A’ levels. I’m just grateful to God.

3. A B for Mathematics. I felt murderous after the papers, especially after the first. Complex numbers are way too complex for me. Real numbers have become a joy to my eyes. Math, to me, depends on luck. Its a question that you like that comes out or not. So, just my luck. I’m okay with it; when you’re mentally prepared for something, you won’t grieve (seriously, one should only grieve at non-academic stuff, like if your best friend/boyfriend/wife/husband dumps you or something). You’ll feel fine.

4. B for Higher Mother Tongue (Chinese). Chinese is too mysterious a language. Don’t push it. 

5. Now, to the As! An A for China Studies in English. I barely studied for this. With practically all my time squished around biology and chemistry, with the remaining desperately centred on Math, this subject must have felt neglected and pissed off. For the A, I really have to thank my teacher. It was also luck. 1/3 of the paper tested Taiwan-China relationship. If I didn’t get an A, I think it would be like, really, really, really, really weird, and disappointing. Plus an insult to my roots. Considering my dad’s family (my grandparents were born there) comes from Fujian, China and my mum’s from Taiwan (which, I repeat, is so NOT NOT NOT NOT part of mainland China) My dad says I’m partially a genius because I chose this subject instead of economics which is highly challenging and mind-blowing.

6. An A for Chemistry. I’ve screamed at Chemistry (in my mind), tore my notes, tried to pull out my hair (didn’t manage to pull them out because it kinda hurt just trying), crossed off all the questions in tutorials out of anger but I guess we kind of got along in the end after all. My parents and I were utterly surprised. It’s not something I click with.  Kudos to the absolutely terrific, most amazing tuition teacher I’ve ever had in my life. A truly amazing teacher who wowed me on the first lesson. And of course my many many chemistry teachers in school. I kept doing really bad at it and had no idea why but I truly loved the subject; I loved it so much I just couldn’t give up. It was thanks to these teachers (ALL OF YOU) that I couldn’t just hate Chemistry and stop working on it. Thank God. (not an expression. I literally thank God.)

7. An A for Project Work. Kudos to my group members! I’ve still not eaten ANY red meat in my life and certainly don’t plan to. Mostly because I think its icky but gggaaahhhh. You guys actually don’t have that much control over my life. 😉

*Note: Mother Tongue was a subject taken for ‘O’ levels at age 16 and Project Work was completed in JC1 at age 17. 

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Have fun gleaming over getting better results than me; I’m happy for you. If you did worse, its not the end of the world. Its the beginning of a not-so-academic centered life that the vast majority of us will have and soon yearn not to have. If you’re from the grand America, Canada, France, Germany, or wherever else, just read this for fun. I’m not that boring. 

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Sesame Chocolate Entremet

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I’ve been sick the past few days, since I went off medication. My cousin’s passing still feels like a blur– like its half real and half a nightmare.  So much like a dream that most of the time I still believe he’s alive and not suddenly without heartbeat. The last time something like this happened was with my 大姨丈(mum’s biggest sis’s husband) who died from a mild stroke complicated by the negligence of the medical team taking care of him. I honestly don’t know what to say to comfort my aunt and uncle; I imagine words will only bring more pain and sadness. 

Anyway, I made a Sesame Chocolate Entremet today. I was so tired it turned out so ugly my wonderful camera could only make it look this ‘okay’. Don’t worry, there’ll still be regular recipes back on soon. 

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Its dangerously delicious. 

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Recipe is from Japanese Cake Boutique/日本蛋糕名店, recipe is by 铃木一夫

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Click here for larger version.

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Be back soon.

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