Thai Tea series - Part I Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake
Thai Tea series - Part II Thai Tea Cookies
Thai Tea series - Part III Bake Thai Milk Tea Cheese Tart

I still have a few Thai tea bakes in my list like egg tarts, butter cake, roll cake and cupcake but didn't feel like baking any of them just yet. Rather, had an urge to bake some donuts.

So yep, here's my quick and easy, very hastily put-together Baked Thai Milk Tea Donuts with Thai Milk Tea Glaze. This baked donut is essentially a "cake" version which is much easier to make than dough ones which require proofing and save the mess of deep-frying as well.

Thai Milk Tea Donuts with Thai Milk Tea Glaze
(makes 18 mini donuts)

Ingredients
(A) Thai milk tea

• 300g fresh milk
• 6 teabags thai tea

1. Heat fresh milk in small pot till hot, add the teabags and let them infuse for an hour or more.
2. Drain and squeeze as much liquid out of the bags as possible. Set the thai milk tea aside.

*There is more than enough milk tea left, extra can be made into Iced Milk Tea aka Cha Yen.

(B) Donuts

•  100g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 80g light brown sugar
• 60g thai milk tea (from A)
• 60g buttermilk
• 30g unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 175C, conventional mode. Grease donut pan and set aside. *I'm using 8-hole silicone donut mould which doesn't require greasing. Place the silicone mould onto a baking tray.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and soda together into a mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk sugar, tea, buttermilk together till blended. Add melted butter and whisk till blended.
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk till blended.
5. Pour the batter into donut pan till the batter is same level as the donut centre.
6. Bake at 175C for 13-15 mins. 
7. Let the donut cool completely before glazing.

(C) Glaze

• 3 tbsp thai milk tea (from A)
• 15 tbsp icing sugar

1. Mix tea with sugar till a thick glaze is formed.
2. Dip donut into the glaze, flip it over and place on wire rack for glaze to set.
3. Once glaze is set, donut is ready to be served.

The baked donut itself is not very sweet with just a tinge of Thai Milk Tea taste, it's the glaze that does the job. Initially I only dunk the donut into the glaze once, but after letting it sit for a while, the glaze sort of "sunk" and disappeared into the donut.

To achieve this thick and luscious glossy look, I had to dip the donut into the glaze two to three times. So yes, the glaze is the calorie-bomb here! I guess the sugar-adversed would probably cringe at the amount of sugar that goes into making the glaze! I only ate the ones with single layer of glaze :p

Anyways, the donut is a hit with my kiddo. He ate two before dinner (I refused to let him have more) and another after dinner! Luckily they are mini ones and not the regular size. I think I'm gonna explore more flavours next time. Till then :)

I'm not familiar with TCM or chinese herbs and thus seldom prepare herbal dishes at home. But once in a while when the weather is rainy and cold, my family would crave for some soothing Emperor Herbal Chicken. Those times, either we dine out at zi char stalls or I would buy commercial soup pack with all the necessary herbs and some even come with plastic sheet and aluminum foil.

After receiving a complimentary bottle of Huiji Waist Tonic (from Singapore Home Cooks and Huiji), I read through the ingredients and learnt that Huiji is made with 6 different kinds of premium-quality herbs, Cordyceps, Ginseng, Du Zhong, Dang Gui, Shou Wu and Da Zao.

So I thought Huiji would be a good alternative to actual herbs used in Emperor Herbal Chicken.


In addition to Huiji, I only added dried huai shan, red date and goji berries to the broth as I happen to have these ingredients in my fridge (cannot remember when or where I got them!).

It's really simple to whip up! There are only 3 of us in the family and we prefer chicken leg than a whole chicken so it makes this dish even easier to prepare. Just rub salt all over the chicken legs, leave for 10 mins, rinse and pat dry. In a cooking pot, combine chicken stock, huiji waist tonic, dried huai shan, red date, goji berries and rock sugar. Bring to boil and simmer till rock sugar is melted. Make corn starch slurry and add to the broth to thicken it slightly.

Line aluminum foil and cooking paper over a heat-proof pot or bowl, place chicken legs into the lined pot and pour the broth over the chicken. Wrap up the chicken and place the pot into a steamer with rapid boiling water. Steam the paper wrap chicken for 2hrs and it's ready to serve!

Huiji Paper Wrap Chicken ?????

Ingredients

• 3 kampong chicken legs
• 250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
• 100ml Huiji Waist Tonic
• 5 pcs dried huai shan
• 5 pcs red date
• 1 tbsp goji berries
• 40g rock sugar
• 1 tbsp corn starch + 2 tbsp water

 Steps

1. Rub salt all over chicken legs, leave for 10 mins, rinse and pat dry. Set aside.
2. In a sauce pot, add chicken stock, Huiji, dried huai shan, red date, goji berries and rock sugar. Bring the mixture to boil and simmer till rock sugar is melted.
3. Add corn starch slurry to thicken the broth.
4. Line a heat-proof pot or bowl with aluminum foil and cooking paper. Place the chicken legs inside. Pour the broth over the chicken legs.
5. Wrap up the cooking paper and aluminum foil tightly. 
6. Place the pot/bowl into a steamer with rapid boiling water. Steam for 2hrs and the chicken is ready to be served.

When I served this dish for dinner, the HB thought that I had used one of those commercial Emperor Herbal Chicken packs, which shows that the taste is actually similar :) Haha. In fact, I thought it tastes even better! With Huiji Waist Tonic, I don't have to buy those premix anymore! The broth is so flavourful that once again I ate more rice than usual :p

As the kiddo only ate the chicken drumstick and both HB and I managed our own chicken leg portions, I had a chicken thigh left which I kept for my lunch the next day. All I need is to cook some egg noodles and choy sum, heat up the chicken with the broth and serve together. The broth goes well with noodles too!

This recipe is another keeper for me!

 

Stir-fry Pork & Kidney in Huiji sauce ???????

Ingredients

• 200g pork kidney (1 set)
• 10-12 pieces of shallot
• 200g pork tenderloin, sliced
• 2 tbsp ginger, julienned
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 30ml Huiji Waist Tonic
• 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp hua tiao chinese cooking wine
• Corn starch and water to make slurry
• Chinese parsley, for garnish

Steps

1. Slice open the 2 kidneys (to get 4 pieces) and use a small sharp knife to carve away the whitish layer on the insides. Skip this step if the butcher has already done it for you.
2. Make shallow criss-cross slits on the 4 pieces of kidney, then cut them into bite-size pieces.
3. Place the cut slices of kidney in a bowl of water with the shallots. Let them soak for 10 mins, after that drain the water and rinse with running tap water for a few mins. Soak for 10 mins again, drain and rinse again. Repeat this process till the water runs clear when rinsing the kidney slices.
4. Finally, blanch the kidney slices in boiling water for 30s, drain and the kidney slices are rid of the unpleasant odour.
5. In a frying pan (on medium heat), add sesame oil and julienned ginger, stir fry till ginger is slightly browned and fragrant.
6. Add the pork slices and quick stir fry for 1 min till the pork turns opaque.
7. Add the kidney slices and quick stir fry for another min.
8. Add the Huiji waist tonic, oyster sauce and hua tiao, quick stir fry to combine, cover and simmer for 5 mins.
9. Add the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce.
10. Garnish with chinese parsley if desired, dish is ready to be served, best eaten hot. 

Thai Tea series - Part I Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake
Thai Tea series - Part II Thai Tea Cookies

Woohoo... I'm still going strong for my Thai Tea series ;p

This time round, decided to play with my signature Bake Cheese Tart recipe and incorporate Thai Milk Tea :) Well, since there's already a chocolate flavour in the market, other flavours could possibly be introduced in time to come?


Anyways, I baked a batch on Sunday afternoon but somehow the cheese flavour overwhelmed the Thai Milk Tea taste and I wasn't satisfied with the results. When I was cooking the custard, I added the cream cheese bit by bit to reach the desired balanced taste. Before sending the tart for baking, the Thai Milk Tea flavour was distinct with cheesy undertone, but after the tart was baked, the cheese flavour took over and I couldn't taste much of the milk tea anymore -_-"

So this morning, I tested another batch by increasing the intensity of Thai Milk Tea and reducing the cream cheese further. This time round, it was much better with more distinct milk tea flavour after the tart was baked :)

Bake Thai Milk Tea Cheese Tart
(makes 15 petite size tarts, using 5cm round cutter/3.5cm base tart case)

Ingredients

(A) Thai Milk Tea

• 150g fresh milk
• 3 Thai Milk tea bags

(B) Tart pastry

• 120g plain flour
• 25g caster sugar
• 60g salted butter, cut into cubes, cold
• 1 tbsp thai milk tea

(C) Thai milk tea cheese custard

• 100g Thai milk tea
• 50g cream cheese
• 50g whipping cream
• 40g salted butter
• 30g caster sugar
• 20g cheddar cheese
• 10g corn starch
• 1 egg (about 55g nett weight)
• Egg yolk + thai milk tea mixture for brushing on top of custard

Steps
(A) Thai milk tea

1. Add fresh milk and thai milk tea bags into a pot, heat the fresh milk till hot to touch and remove from heat. Let the tea bags infused for 15 mins. 
2. Strain the tea bags, there should be about 115-116g of thai milk tea.

(B) Tart pastry

1. Sift plain flour and caster sugar into a large bowl. Add cold salted butter cubes.
2. Using finger tips, break the butter and rub the butter into the flour mixture, until it resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add 1 tbsp (about 15-16g) of thai milk tea (from A) to the mixture, use a scrapper to mix the tea into flour mixture.
4. The mixture will come together and thereafter, use hands to form the mixture into a dough.
5. Knead the dough gently into a ball. Place the dough between 2 pieces of plastic sheet.
6. Roll the dough to about 4mm thickness and place in fridge to rest for about 1 hour.

(C) Thai milk tea cheese custard

1. Add thai milk tea, cream cheese, whipping cream, salted butter, caster sugar and cheddar cheese into a small pot.
2. Place the pot into a large, shallow pan/pot with barely simmering water. This is the bain marie method, to create a gentle and uniform heat for cooking custard. Keep stirring the mixture till everything is melted.
3. Once the mixture has melted, add sifted corn starch. Mix till well-blended, the mixture will thicken slowly.
4. Add the egg and keep stirring till well-blended, the mixture will further thicken into custard.
5. Sift the custard for a smoother texture (as they may be some fine lumps and grainy bits in the custard). Cover the custard with a clingwrap on the surface and let the custard cool down completely.

(D) Assembly

1. Remove the dough from fridge. Dust a baking mat (and rolling pin) with flour, use the round cutter to stamp the dough.
2. Use a metal scrapper (dust with flour) to lift up the cut dough.
3. Place the cut dough over the tart case and gently press it downwards.
4. Using finger tips, gently press and mold the dough into the tart tin. Use a fork to poke holes at the base of the tart cases.
5. Bake the tarts at 180C, fan mode for 10mins. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.
6. After the tart cases are cooled slightly, remove them from the tins and let cool completely before use.
7. Preheat oven to 235C conventional mode. 
8. Fill the thai milk tea cheese custard into a piping bag. Pipe the custard into the tart cases, shape slightly domed. Brush custard evenly with egg yolk-thai milk tea mixture.
9. Bake the tarts at 235C conventional mode, for 8 mins.
10. Once baked, remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Best eaten warm, freshly baked.

Totally love how the tart turns out. The tart crust is crunchy and the custard is creamy and gooey with lovely aroma and taste of Thai milk tea as well as cheesy flavour. Love the combination of sweet and savoury in one!

The kiddo ate one after lunch and already requested to pack two for his school snack tomorrow =D