STAY HOME - CHIFFON, CHIFFON CAKES

I think I made 5 Chiffon Cakes in the month of April.  I shared most of them away - just to have a good reason to drive out for contactless delivery.
I love taking pictures of meringue each time I make chiffon cake.
By-the-way, all my chiffon cakes are without baking powder.  It all depends on the well beaten meringue.  All chiffon cakes recipes are in the previous blog.
From time to time, I test substituting COCONUT Milk with regular milk, low-fat milk.  Sometimes I put less organic avocado oil.  The avocado oil is the best vegetable oil I think in the cake.  It has no take-over flavor of its own like the extra virgin olive oil.  I've used Wesson's vegetable oil many years ago, it's not that bad either.  But I've change mostly to organic oil, organic sugar, etc, as much as possible.  Pandan leaves are extracted and were kept in the freezer.  They are defrosted and used.  I do not add GREEN Food color to make the cake look all so nice and green.  And whenever I can, I grate or process and make my own coconut milk... but I find it hard because I end up eating the 'young' coconut.  But, it is possible to do so from the old brown hairy coconut you buy from the store.   Otherwise, buy a canned coconut cream or milk to test with.
Sometimes, I use 9 oz precooked and strained KABOCHA (Japanese pumpkin) in place of coconut milk or pandan liquid.   Please check previous blog for the recipe ratio.
I've also tested with Kale powder, but that particular blog showed my miscalculations in the mixture. That one turned out dense or collapsed cake.  Since then, I've tested a couple of times later with some modifications, and it turned out great.  It's just like a science lab in the kitchen.

Previous blog for recipe found at: https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2014/10/kabocha-chiffon-cake.html
https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2013/07/pandan-coconut-chiffon-cake-and-my-new.html
https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2010/08/pandan-chiffon-cake-ii.html
https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/2010/08/pandan-chiffon-cake-adventure.html
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/pandan-chiffon-cake/#comment-1635 - except that for my oven and flour type I have, I use 160 g of flourand No baking powder.

This particular photo journal is Kabocha Chiffon's.

The mixing technique I have been testing is "swirl mixing."  When you mix the meringue into egg yolk batter that contain all other ingredients, Swirl in the meringue into the batter at the top level as though you are cooking a SHABU SHABU.  

Each time you add 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter, repeat the swirl process, then, use the spatula to fold under a couple of time, then, repeat the swirl mixing of the meringue at the top level again.

 

Using a very thin, pointing serrated knife, release the cake all around the cake pan and from the center "core". 

 *I will test and see the next time, if the regular thin knife without serrated teeth would result in smoother nicer looking cake exterior.

 

Turn the cake pan right side up.  *Picture is not here.

Insert a very thin pointy knife touching the center 'core' of the chiffon baking pan, turn and slide the pan bottom and knife until completing the full circle turn.

Cover the top of the cake with a plate.  I used a large paper plate and revert the cake pan and to catch the cake.

Remove the cake pan bottom.

The cake airy light.
 Slice and enjoy!  Woops!  don't forget to use the serrated knife to slice in sawing motion.
DO NOT Slice Down the knife.  Unless you want a squashed cake.

 Decorate or serve as is or top with whip cream.
This one below got coconut cream, etc.
Can't use up all the coconut cream, so I froze them for the next use.

 Smash and let them melt.

 Whip up the meringue till stiff peak forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next one is with Less Oil and a bit different technique.  Beating egg yolk up with sugar first till pale, then, added all the ingredients in.  The result?  Not much difference for the effort.

Added oil, milk, pandan, flour.

 Meringue.

 

Add some meringue to the egg yolk batter and make the batter lighter before adding ore meringue.

 

 After cooling completely upside down.   You can see the chiffon cake has risen at least 2 inches *without the help of baking powder.

Stuck at Home Breakfast

How many different recipes or inventive menu have you come up with during the self-quarantined "Stay Home", Be Safe, from COVID-19?
Between my family and I, I think we were cooking more at home than ever.  Not that we don't enjoy eating out, but ever since mid-March, a Lots of our Daily routines have changed and so has our daily menu.
Working at home made it challenging.  I need to to be able to stand up and work, and I don't have one of those ergonomic adjustable table at home, so I moved my workstations to my kitchen counter top.  I was sitting far too long in my home office desk.  Even though I make it a point to stand up and walk around the house, up and down the stairs intentionally.  My kitchen counter became my favorite place.  It's bright and I can work standing up or sitting down when I need to.
One of my old favorite and very dependable tested recipe is from Alton Brown's "Good Easts 2" - Cinnamon Rolls recipe in there.  I can make it every time, it stays the fluffy and tender the longest even after a day... that is if it got any left.

 

Interesting thing is that for whatever reason, this batch of dough didn't rise as expected.  I was very concerned that the yeast has gone bad??  The dough looked too plasticky for many hours.  Don't know what is going on but I went ahead and prepped it, and the result - a tasty breakfast.

I divided the dough into halves and made something else with the others.

 They don't look very live even after a day.

Bake them anyways.   Looks very promising.  They are rising.

 

 

 Ready for frosting.

 Very good!

Next one is the Souffle Hotcake made from Single Egg. (It was posted previously.)  That was really good.  It turned out great.  It was like after testing 3 other recipes?  This one was the best.

 

Then, I tried Korean Twist Donuts I saw on the YouTube.

 

I had just as much fun watching this lady giving instructions and making them.  I learned how to make the twist donuts quite good looking. 

 Hold one of the dough on the work surface and roll to twist the other end with the palm of the other hand.  Fold in half.  Press the ends together well and tuck.

Fry in Electric skillet with temp control is very convenient.  I like to use this skillet because it's without Teflon.  I tilted one end of the skillet because I did not have enough oil to cover the whole skillet and deep enough to fry properly.    See what happens when the ends of the donuts are not pinched tight.  The ends will unwind as they expand during frying.

 

Place in paper bag with sugar and cinnamon to coat the donuts.

 

 Not bad looking and tasty donuts.

 

I think I made the Green onion pancakes a lot.  It is so simple.  And I got enough Green onions in my garden to make some every 1-1/2 to 2 weeks on  warm days. They are posted under Taiwanese Green Onion Pancake blog.

MOCHI WAFFLE!

 

Mother's Day Banana Cake

Keep SAFE... Don't be Selfish... STAY HOME - whenever and IF you can and Enjoy Home Cookings.  

IF YOU JOG - DON'T EXPEL YOUR BREATH into the open air to contaminate - WEAR MASK!!