No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

  This is a sweet smelling, fragrant and crispy shortbread cookie.  They are easy to make, full of flavour with spices from the Chai Tea bag and rolled in spiced sugar before baking.  Great with a cup of coffee or tea.  If you love spices, this is the cookie for you! Jumbo Chai Tea Cookies Ingredients 113 gm butter 1/2 cup oil 90 gm caster sugar (or light brown sugar) 250 gm plain flour 1 egg 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 Chai Tea bag 1/2 tsp vanilla a pinch of salt 2 Tbsp granulated sugar + 1/4 tsp cinnamon (sugar mixture) Method Sift the plain flour with baking soda, salt.  Set aside. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy, add in the oil and beat till thoroughly incorporated. On low speed, add in the egg and vanilla, mix well.   Open up the Chai Tea bag and pour the tea leaves in the mixture, mix till thoroughly incorporated. Fold in the sifted flour, mix well.  The dough is soft at this juncture. Cover the mixing bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours. Prepare the sugar mixture

  These Airfried Honey Glazed Chicken Drumsticks are bursting with flavour, crispy and slightly sweetish on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside.  Unlike deep fried chicken drumsticks, these barely have any oil and the only oil there is, are from the chicken skin and fat.  Quick and easy to prepare this for dinner especially for working mums!  Airfried Honey Glazed Chicken  ~    气炸香蜂蜜鸡 Ingredients 6 chicken drumsticks 1.5 Tbsp garlic powder 1 Tbsp McCormick chicken seasoning 1.5 tsp paprika 1.5 tsp seasalt 1.5  tsp black pepper 2 Tbsp honey + 1/2 tsp water Method Wash the drumsticks.  Pat them dry with kitchen paper towel. Mix all the seasoning except honey in a bowl. Rub the seasoning onto the drumstick, giving them a good massage.  Let rest for 3 hours or more. Place the drumsticks onto the basket of your Airfryer.  Airfry @ 200 deg.C for 10 mins. on one side, flip over and airfry for another 10 mins. Meanwhile, dilute the honey with water and brush onto the drumsticks.  Airfr

  These dreamy and heavenly chocolate chip cookies will make your kitchen smell like a bakery.  There is a divine contrast between sweet and salty for the slight pinch of seasalt flakes intensifies and brings out the chocolate flavour.  Freshly baked, these cookies are slightly soft in the centre and crispy at the edges, but if you do have leftovers, these will be crunchy, stored in a cookie jar, for a few days. Seasalt Chocolate Chip Cookies    ~    海盐巧克力曲奇饼        Ingredients 170 gm plain flour 1 tsp baking soda 113 gm butter (unsalted) 80 gm brown sugar 40 gm caster sugar 1 'L' egg 1 tsp vanilla 200 gm chocolate chips 1/8 tsp salt Extra chocolate chips or mini chocolate buttons to put on top of cookie before baking Maldon seasalt flakes to sprinkle on cookie immediately after baking Method Sift the flour with baking soda and salt, set aside. In a stand mixer, beat the butter with the sugars, till soft and smooth. On low, add in the egg. Fold in 1/2 sifted flour, mix well fol

  It's the durian season again and I'm sharing with you a simple yet fragrant Durian Butter Cake.  This recipe does not use the traditional butter totally, in fact there is oil too.  Liquid oil tends to make the cake softer and stays moist longer as it does not solidify at room temperature.  This cake is soft and moist with a tinge of durian flavour and aroma.  A breakfast or Tea time snack for durian lovers. Durian Butter Cake ~  榴莲牛油蛋糕 Ingredients 150 gm unsalted butter 190 gm plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 30 ml vegetable oil 85 gm caster sugar 3 'L' eggs 130 gm pureed durian flesh 4 Tbsp milk a pinch of salt 1/4 teaspoon vanilla Method Sift flour with baking powder and salt.  Set aside. Beat butter with sugar till well blended, add in oil and continue beating till pale and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well. Add in pureed durian flesh, mix till well incorporated. Sift in again the sifted flour in 2 batches, alternating with the milk.  Fold in till well inc

  Three Cup Chicken is a very popular Taiwanese dish and it gets its name from the recipe which calls for a cup to measure the sauces, namely sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine together with some dark soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chillies and basil leaves.  This is indeed a very flavourful dish and certainly goes well with a bowl of  plain white rice......a keeper recipe for sure!  Three Cup Chicken ~ 三杯鸡 Ingredients 900 gm free-range chicken, chopped into bite size 6 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine  (the 1 Tbsp is for seasoning the chicken) 4 Tbsp light soya sauce 3 Tbsp sesame oil 1/2  Tbsp dark soya sauce 2 Tbsp sugar 12 pips garlic, chopped 10 gm ginger, sliced thinly 1 red chilli, sliced Fresh Thai Basil leaves a bit of salt Preparation Season the chicken pieces with 1/2 tsp salt and the 1 Tbsp wine for about 2 to 3 hours. Heat up a wok with 1.1/2 Tbsp sesame oil, stir-fry the seasoned chicken pieces till light brown. Push the chicken aside and add in the remaining sesame oil, garlic,

  The recipe for this Ginger Nut Chiffon Cake is adapted from my earlier post of Biscoff Chiffon Cake . As always, chiffon cakes are soft and fluffy and the crushed ginger nut cookies gave the cake an added crunch.  This cake can be enjoyed as a dessert or for an afternoon tea. Ginger Nut Chiffon Cake    ~  姜饼戚风蛋糕                        Ingredients (A) 6 'L' egg yolks 60 gm caster sugar 90 ml vegetable oil 155 gm plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 115 ml milk 1/2 tsp vanilla 60 gm ginger nut cookies, crushed (B) 6 'L' egg whites 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice 60 gm caster sugar Method Sift four with baking powder, salt.  Set aside. Using a handheld whisk, whisk egg yolks with sugar till creamy.  Add in oil, milk and vanilla, whisk till well incorporated. Sift in the flour mixture, fold in and add in the crushed ginger nut cookies. In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till frothy, add in the vinegar or lemon juice, beat till foamy, add in the sugar in 3 ba

  This Meat Floss Butter Roll is soft, chewy with a little bit of sweetness and has a buttery flavour.  As I have some meat floss at hand, I added it in to make the roll more yummy.  The roll does taste good on its own too.  Although bread making is very time consuming, but there's a difference between homemade and store bought ones and believe me homemade ones are definitely much better.  I did share before a Meat Floss Ring recipe using the tangzhong method.  You can stop by 'here'  to have a look. Meat Floss Butter Roll  ~ 肉松黄油面包卷  Ingredients 30 gm egg (beaten) 120 gm ice water 25 gm sugar 3 gm dry yeast 250 gm high protein flour 3 gm salt 15 gm milk powder 25 gm unsalted soft butter 10 gm or more beaten egg for glaze later Meat floss as filling (optional) Sea salt flakes or white sesame seeds (optional) Method Pour 30 gm beaten egg into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.  Add in ice water, sugar and yeast.   Add in high protein flour, salt and milk powder.  Attach a dou