Black sesame bao with black sesame filling

I last tried a black sesame bao here with minimal kneading but both the dough and filling were too wet making it too hard to work with; and again here as a black sesame mantou that was also a very wet dough. This is a recipe with minimal kneading and proofing by LinXianShen.

Filling (makes 1 cereal bowl volume of filling)

100g roasted black sesame powder

15g glutinous rice flour

40g white sugar

20g lard

250g water

1. Put in a pot and on low fire, heat until it bubbles and turns into a sticky slurry (still quite liquidy). 

2. Put in the fridge to harden.

Bao dough (makes 10)

400g bao or regular flour

25g roasted black sesame powder

1 tbsp sugar

4g instant yeast

½ C of warm milk (use more or less as needed)

1. Combine with a chopstick until no more dry flour.

2. Roll into a dough. Knead for about 10 to 15 minutes until smooth.

3. Roll out into an oblong, about ½ inch thick. Use a 4 or 5" cutter to stamp out circles.

4. Using about 2 chinese tablespoons of cold filling, encase in the bao skin. Make into round buns and place in a steaming basket.

5. Cover and proof for 20 mins.

6. Turn on the flame to high (water from room temp) and steam for 13 mins. Turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 mins.

Recipe feedback

- Compared to the previous black sesame bao, this recipe is perfect! The filling amount is just enough and the dough is very workable. Shows that you don't need oil in the dough to make it pliable.

- Only issue is I forgot to roast and grind the sesame BEFORE making the filling (so I put it in the food processor after cooking), and also couldn't be bothered to grind the white sesame seeds (I ran out of black) for the dough. It turned out well because it gave the bao some crunch!

- I thought the lack of proofing time would make the bao hard but i was wrong! I really hand kneaded for 15 minutes with all my newfound arm power and then rested for maybe 10 mins while I prepared the steamer and washed up, before wrapping and forming the baos. Also, the bao only got 20 minutes at the end to proof, so I was worried cos they hardly seemed to have grown in size. Steaming at full heat really caused it to poof up so much that they all stuck together and to my steamer!

- Tip - really roll out the dough as large as possible (leaving the centre thicker) cos the filling is very liquid even after being in the fridge for 6 hours. The tip of cupping the palm to hold the dough and then 'applying' the filling onto the dough worked; then pleat, crimp and seal as per usual bao technique. Even though I then turned the seam over onto the parchment and the shape wasn't totally round, bao came out ok and didn't look too weird with the pleats underneath.

5 black grain mantou

From this FB recipe by MiaoVibe.

Ingredients (makes 12 four-inch wide)

50g black sesame seeds

20g black rice (I substituted with 20g raisins)

20g black beans

20g blackberries (I substituted with 20g frozen blueberries)

10g black goji (I used regular)

10g walnuts

400ml water

600g flour (I used bread flour)

5g instant yeast

1 tbsp white sugar

pinch of salt

1 tbsp lard or butter

Notice the size difference (the bottom 6) of the second batch that had 30 mins extra proofing (due to waiting for the first batch to steam) compared to the first batch

Method

1. Add the grains, walnuts and black fruits to a blender with 400g of water. Using the Soya milk mode, blend. Allow to cool down.

2. Pour the flour on a table. Create a well and add the yeast, sugar and salt (keep salt away from the yeast). Mix well.

3. Pour in the grain mixture. Use hands to knead till no flour is left. Use a scraper to gather the dough if it helps.

4. Place in a bowl and cover. Allow to proof for 1 hr until about it grows to about 1.5x.

5. Turn out of the bowl and deflate. Knead and the longer you do so, the softer the bun.

6. Flour the surface well. Form into a log and cut into equal sized pieces. Form a ball with each. Makes about 12 (approx 108 to 110g of dough each).

7. Place directly in the steamer and place over a wok of warm water to proof for 15 to 30 mins. 

8. Remove the steamer and turn on the fire till it starts boiling. Put the steamer back on the wok and steam on medium high for 30 minutes. Leave covered for 10 minutes after switching off the flame.

Recipe feedback

- Overall a very wet dough. I didn't use mixer and mixed by hand throughout.

- The second batch that had an extra 30 minutes of proofing while waiting for the first batch to steam came out so much fluffier! A definite must-do if time permits.

- So far, those recipes that I used bao flour here and here and here all using KA have been most successful. They have been easy to shape too but the issue is that their 'face' never comes out smooth and they always tend to flatten and crawl out sideways. 

- If only this recipe's dough wasn't so wet and difficult to work with, it would have been great for wrapping bao. Their 'faces' and shape came out smooth and round!

Minimal kneading Black sesame bao

Ugly sesame bao. Nearly all had burst!

Black sesame filling: https://www.facebook.com/reel/472716605688076

For Tangyuang and Bao fillings which are more flowy (compared to mooncake).

Ingredients

160g roasted black sesame powder

80g glut rice flour

150g sugar

180g water

80g pork lard (would usually be hardened)

Method

1. Mix the black sesame powder, flour and sugar well and set aside. 

2. To the water, add the pork lard. Bring to a simmer until the hardened pork lard melts.

3. Pour the liquid lard into the powders. Mix well.

4. Place in the fridge for several hours until it is less runny and roll/portion into desired filling portions. 

Recipe feedback - the filling is VERY flowy, making it difficult to wrap. It might be easier to freeze it for a few hours. There was lots of filling left if this bao recipe is used.

Bao skin https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=1631050780771945

Needs 500 to 600g of filling. Makes 12 to 13.

Makes a very wet dough but requires very little handling. Original video uses partially cooked fatty pork filling. (half cooked pork mince mixed with uncooked pork mince so that the filling is not one whole lump)

Ingredients

300g flour (for starter) + 100g 

3g instant dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

20g pork lard

230g warm water

Method

1. Combine ingredients. Use a chopstick to combine by stirring in one direction only. The dough has a high moisture content so no need to knead the dough. 

2. Once all the dough has come together and there are no more dry spots, form a ball (with the chopsticks) and cover with clingfilm. Allow to prove until it has doubled in size.

3. Uncover and use chopsticks to stir in one direction to dispel the gas. Pour in a small chinese rice bowl (around 100g) of flour. Use a spatula to mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl. 

4. Scrape the dough into an oblong shape and lift out onto a work surface.

5. Form a long rectangular shape gently with your hands. Using a dough cutter, cut into 2 finger wide strips.

6. No need to roll out. Use palms to flatten into a ball and use fingers to flatten the dough into a disc. (If the dough still feels too sticky to the touch, dust hands with flour). Should make about 2 to 3 inch wide bao.

7. Wrap the filling, about 2 tsp full. Ensure to seal well. 

8. Place wrapped baos into a steamer rack on top of a wok. Do not switch on the flame yet. Allow to prove the second time until the baos are visually larger. (a trick: put a ball of leftover dough in a bowl of water in the same steaming rack. When the ball floats, all have proved sufficiently).

9. Once sufficient proved, turn on the flame to high, and steam for 15 minutes (from boiling). Turn off the flame and leave it to rest for 2 minutes before removing the cover.

Recipe feedback: The skin was very soft and difficult to work with due to the high moisture content. It was impossible to seal properly and shape. 

- Further, the filling was so flowy so it kept spilling onto the seam. Once the filing fouled the wrapper, it was impossible to seal to encase the filling, not to mention it mucked up the pristine look of the wrapper.

Mooncake mold pastries recipe comparison

I bought so many mooncake molds (long story involving a rouge eBay seller) that I don't know what to do with them. So here is a compilation of pastries that utilise the mooncake maker.

Hakka moonlight biscuits

These use leftover golden syrup and cooked glutinous rice flour and don't require baking, only airdrying which I find odd and honestly, I'm not comfortable with.

MyKitchen101 (video) - makes her own quick golden syrup and air dry overnight.

ArinFood (video) - uses golden syrup and butter. Air dry for 2 days

Kathrine Kwa (video) - uses golden syrup and oil. Steams 20 minutes to cook.

Anncoo Journal black sesame version - Adds black sesame and uses crisco. Air dry for 2 days.

Mung bean cake

Very basically this is just the standard recipe for mung bean paste without even a binding agent eg glutinous rice flour or any flour

Souped Up recipes (video) - 200g dried mung bean

Kathrine Kwa (video) - 500g dried mung bean

Macau almond cookies

Several variations, either using mung bean flour or making the flour from scratch, and adding almond meal.

Grace baking (video) - Almond flour and mung bean powder with butter

Dawn Kee (video) - Simple version using mung bean flour and almond powder, with butter.

Meizilooloo cook (video) - Two types of biscuits, crispy vs moist

Curious cuisine - Almond flour, mung bean flour, rice flour. Explains that both green mung bean flour an yellow mung bean flour can be used.

WTTC - Explains difference between mung bean flour and mung bean starch

- Suggests other variations e.g, salted egg yolk, black sesame, lard, floss instead of almonds.

- Ratio of mung bean flour to almond flour is 1:1 but can use all of one or the other.

- Bonus Kuih Bangkit recipe

Black sesame (goma) cheesecake

This uses the standard ingredients from the 7-egg Japanese cheesecake. Only the addition of goma to the ingredients. Main change is to test out the change in technique (dropping the cake) and verify the temperatures.

Ingredients
250ml milk
250g cream cheese, room temp
65g butter, room temp
7 eggs, separated
58g cake flour
23g corn flour
133g sugar
1.5 tsp goma paste
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt

Method
1) Prepare the cake pan but buttering the sides and bottom. DO NOT BUTTER THE SIDE of the non-stick pan. Add the parchment paper to the bottom. Take a roasting tray that the pan can just fit into. Place a thin towel at the bottom so that the pan doesn't slip around. Set aside.
2) In a smaller bowl, mix the cocoa with the hot water until a smooth paste forms.3) In a saucepan on a very low fire, melt the cubed cream cheese. Add the butter and melt. Mix these together and they will look as if they've split. Pour on the milk and blend into a smooth mixture. If necessary, sieve to get rid of lumps.4) Beat the yolks with half the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese mixture and whisk until smooth.5) Sift the flours and salt. Sift them onto the cream cheese mixture and use the whisk to fold in. Ensure no lumps.
6) Add the goma paste and combine with a whisk until no big chunks of paste remain.7) In a very clean bowl, beat the egg whites until opaque and foamy. Add the sugar in three batches and beat on low so that only small bubbles are created. Periodically scrape down the bowl. Once all the sugar has been added, add the lemon juice. Turn up to high and beat until just after soft peaks but just before stiff peaks.7) Take a third of the meringue and put it in the yolk mixture. Mix until no white remains. take the second third and this time, very gently fold in with a whisk. Pour this mixture back into the remaining third of the meringue. Very carefully fold in until no whites remain but be careful not to burst all the foam.8) Drop the pan on the table top a few times to dispel the bigger bubbles. Use a skewer to trace around to burst the bubbles but try not to mix up the colours.9) Bake at 160 deg C for 30 minutes, 140 deg C for 43 minutes, and then switch off. Leave it in the oven for 25 minutes with the door closed.

10) Take it out of the oven and remove the water bath. Drop the tin from a height. Run a spatula around the edge to dislodge so that the cake doesn't tear and crack. 

11) Put cake back in the oven without the water bath to sit with the door ajar for 25 minutes.

12) Must chill overnight, this is important if you want to cut the cake without tearing or cracking.

Recipe feedback

90% success! No cracks! No sinking! No waist finally!

The only unhappiness is that the cake didn't rise enough, only 2 inches tall. I used fresh eggs and beat to stiff peaks so maybe it's because

•  the goma paste is very thick. The next time I will use finely ground goma instead
• I was less careful with folding and using the whisk to incorporate because the stiff peaks made it harder to incorporate the meringue
• At this point I'm happy though because it tasted good (a tad on the sweet side because the paste is sweet in itself) but tastier than normal lemon flavour cheesecake
• The eggs seemed smaller than normal, even though these were 60g eggs.

HK style walnut cookies

Source: https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-walnut-cookie/

Ingredients (makes 20 to 21 cookies)
100g veg oil (I ended up needing another tsp)
1 egg + 1 for egg wash
70g sugar
230g cake flour
⅛ tsp baking soda (will omit next time, see Recipe Feedback)
½ tsp baking powder
1g salt
80g walnut, chopped
1 tbsp black sesame seeds

Method
1. In a bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, and veg oil until paler in colour.
2. Sift the flours together.
3. Add to dry to the wet gradually and fold in. (at this point, I needed another tsp of oil as there was still a lot of dry flour)
4. Add in the walnuts and fold in. This forms into a nice dough that should collect up all the loose walnut pieces. It therefore makes sense to chop the walnuts rather finely but not too fine that there isn't any bite.
5. Form balls of 25 to 30g each. Roll between the palms into a ball. Transfer each ball onto a parchment covered baking tray and leave sufficient space between them to spread slightly. There isn't a lot of spreading. I need 2 trays.
6. Flatten each biscuit with the palm of your hand. Leave the edges ragged (traditional look) or smoothen them, the choice is yours.
7. Beat the egg for egg wash and brush each biscuit.
8. Top with black sesame seeds and press them into the batter. I even used the remaining egg to really adhere the seeds to the biscuit.
9. Bake at 180 deg C for 19 to 20 minutes. I swapped the trays from the top and bottom shelves halfway.
10. Leave to rest on the tray for up to 5 minutes then dislodge with a spatula. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Recipe feedback

• I'm not sure I will add the baking soda again because the taste was quite evident. There wasn't any acid in the recipe so I don't see how it's going to react.
• The biscuit is shatteringly crispy out of the oven! It doesn't taste exactly like the Chinese walnut cookies that I'm used to so maybe this alternative recipe that uses butter may help
• https://www.rotinrice.com/hup-toh-soh-chinese-walnut-biscuits/

Black sesame chiffon

I have wanted to bake this since about 2 years ago but never got down to it because I could not find a recipe for it. All the recipes I came across were for small pans but nothing suited the 25-26" pan I had. I had come across this recipe: http://greencilantro.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/black-sesame-chiffon-cake.html. It claimed that it was for a 10" pan. However, the ingredients only used 4 eggs, which didn't seem plausible for such a big pan unless it was going to come out really flat. I multiplied the proportions to 7 eggs (which my favourite blogger seems to recommend for 25"pans) and it came to something quite ridiculous e.g. way too much liquid, and way too much sesame seed powder.

As such, I decided to adapt from my favourite and most successful chiffon blogger and used this recipe for cocoa chiffon http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/11/chocolate-chiffon-cake/

I initially thought of reducing the cake flour because from past experience with this recipe, it was very dense. But after the flour went in, the resulting batter seemed too thin to hold up the sesame seed powder. In the end, I more or less followed the recipe but with a few tweaks.

Rising tall with a few cracks

Ingredients (for 26 inch pan)

7 eggs, separated

190g sugar

42g black sesame powder

224g cake flour

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

120 ml oil (½ cup)

192ml fresh milk

Beautiful! Pardon the air pockets.

Method

1) Prepare the black sesame seeds. Toast in a pan until lightly roasted. Let cool and pulverize in a food processor. 

2) In a small bowl, combine the following dry ingredients: cake flour, salt, baking powder, and black sesame powder.

3) In a big bowl, beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until the sugar has mostly dissolved. Add the oil and beat until paler in colour. Pour in the milk and whisk to incorporate.

4) In three batches, sift in the dry ingredients and fold in gently. Ensure no lumps.

5) In a very clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar in three additions and beat till stiff peaks.

6) Add ⅓ of the meringue into the yolk batter to loosen. With the next third, fold it in until no streaks of white remain. Finally, pour the batter into the remaining ⅓ meringue and this time, fold very carefully until no streaks remain.

7) Pour into the chiffon tin, making sure to distribute the batter throughout the tin. Concentrate on the sides rather than the centre. For some reason, the cake seems to rise more in the middle centre funnel than along the sides. Using a spatula, making slashes in the batter to dispel the air bubbles and especially run the spatular along the rim (as you can see in the picture, I wasn't totally successful in this area). Drop the cake tin onto the countertop from a 10 cm height. Repeat a few times to dispel the big air bubbles. 

8) Bake at 170 deg C for 65 minutes. After about 45 minutes, you can tent with foil if it gets too brown, or turn down the temp to between 160 to 165 deg C.

9) Remove from the oven and immediately invert over a can to keep the cake elevated. When completely cool (about 3 hours in winter!), unmould by literally carving out the cake from the tin. 

10) Serve with the top inverted onto a plate - the flat bottom has now become the top. This hides the cracked top.

Chiffon cake comparisons

I love doing these comparisons as research for my recipes. Having just finally bought an angel food pan for chiffon cakes, I’m eager to try it out. Now that I've had some experience beating meringue, I've also got more confidence to finally try chiffon out. All the baking temps are the same, at 170 deg C.

Earl grey
Here are 3 recipes and their features:
1) JOC
: http://www.justonecookbook.com/earl-grey-chiffon-cake/
- 17cm or 7" pan
- 3 eggs
- adds tea leaves in the cake

2) Domestic Goddess
: http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/08/earl-grey-chiffon-cake/
- She is fantastic, she worked out the proportions for 18cm to 25cm pans.
Now I just have to measure my pan! Oops!
- 18cm: 4 eggs; 21cm: 5 eggs; 23cm: 6 eggs; 25cm: 7 eggs What do I do if my pan is 26 cm?

3) Christine
: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2014/10/earl-grey-tea-chiffon-cake.html
- makes milk tea
- 20cm or 8" pan
- 5 eggs
- adds tea leaves in the cake
- makes a slash on top halfway thru baking

Pandan
1) Jo the tart queen
https://jothetartqueen.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/pandan-chiffon-cake/
- 23cm pan
- 5 yolks, 6 whites

2) Kitchen Tigress
http://kitchentigress.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/pandan-chiffon-cake.html
- 21cm pan
- measures egg by volume
- bakes at 180 deg C!

3) Christine
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2011/06/pandan-chiffon-cake.html
- 20cm pan
- 5 eggs

4) Ieatshootpost
http://ieatishootipost.sg/how-to-make-a-pandan-chiffon-cake/
- 25 cm pan
- 9 eggs

Black sesame
1) Christine
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2013/02/black-sesame-chiffon-cake.html
- 20 cm pan
- 6 egg whites and 6 yolks
- uses black sesame powder. Cake doesn't come out black?

2) Baking language
http://www.bakinglanguage.com/?p=1571
- Adapted from Christine
- Adds charcoal to make cake black

3) Gin's Kitchen
https://ginskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/black-sesame-chiffon-cake/
- Also adapted from Christine

Orange
The only recipes that I could find with a 10" (ie 25cm) chiffon pan.

1) Mandy
http://mandysbakingjourney.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/orange-chiffon-cake.html
However she bakes at 180 deg C for 1 hour. Maybe because it's more 'wet' since it uses orange juice
- 6 egg yolks, 7 egg whites
- 10" or 25cm pan
- 130g juice

2) Joy of baking
http://www.joyofbaking.com/OrangeChiffonCake.html
- 6 egg yolks, 7 egg whites
- 10" or 25cm pan
- 180 ml juice
- Bakes at 170 deg C for 55 to 60 minutes

3) Rasa Malaysia
http://rasamalaysia.com/orange-chiffon-cake-recipe/2/
- 7 eggs
- Weirdly using self-raising flour rather than cake flour
- 60 ml juice
- 22cm pan

General tips
1) https://jothetartqueen.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/back-to-basics-how-to-make-the-perfect-chiffon-cake/
- the right aluminum pan with removable bottom. Never grease it.
- proper whisking in of egg whites to avoid heaviness or streaks of egg white.
- No opening during the first 20 minutes and don't keep the door open for too long, or it may deflate.
- Foil the top once you have achieved the right colour to prevent over-browning.

2) http://kitchentigress.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/pandan-chiffon-cake-step-by-step-video.html
- Whisk egg whites in bowl with straight not curved sides if you want it more moist!
- Stale egg whites whisk better than fresh ones which turn out grainy
- Skewer inserted should come out clean but needs further 5 to 7.5 baking time for the right crust color.
- Immediately once out of the oven, invert. If it falls out, game over. If it doesn't budge, it's over done. Ideally it should drop a bit but stay on.
- Scrape the pan when cutting out the cake, don't leave the tasty brown bits behind!

3) http://ieatishootipost.sg/how-to-make-a-pandan-chiffon-cake/
- use the right size pan. For a 9 egg recipe, use 25 cm. A pan that is too big will not rise proper.
- cream the egg yolk and sugar instead of just whisking. Also, beat in (with mixer) the sifted flour rather than just mix in with whisk. This makes it easier to fold in the meringue.
- Whisk the meringue to just before stiff peaks otherwise it is difficult to fold in
- Pour in the batter from one side of the pan only. Don't rotate the pan.
- Sharply tap the pan on the countertop but also use a chopstick to go around the sides.
- Elevate the cake far off the counter otherwise there will be condensation. You can drape a wet towel over the tin to speed up the cooling.
- Use a sharp (serrated) knife and press against the side of the pan. Use one movement only, don't saw.
- You can place in the fridge to cool completely before cutting as this helps the cake to stabilise and to cut neat slices.

Black sesame paste

I am interested in using up my bread flour and decided to use black sesame paste for a change instead of red bean. This site http://japanesefood.about.com/od/saucecondiment/r/Black-Sesame-Paste.htm gas a great recipe and also explains the difference between Asian (Japanese/Chinese) black sesame paste and black tahini. The Asian version uses roasted seeds and emulsifies using its own oil and adds sugar (either as sugar or honey) but the tahani uses oil to emulsify.

Ingredients
1/2 cup black sesames
3 tbsp honey (if you prefer it sweeter, use 4 tbsp which also makes it less dry and easier to handle)

Method
1) Roast the black sesame seeds in a pan. Swirl them around and watch carefully because they burn easily. Set aside and let it cool.
2) In a food processor that is able to cut very finely (not all models do, you'll have to test), add the sesame seeds and pulse till it becomes very finely ground. The oil should secrete but it takes some time.
3) Once you're happy with the consistency, add the honey.
4) Use within the day or store in an air tight container and use within 2 days.

Coffee-infused raisins with chocolate chip ice creams

Bombastic though the name is, the recipe is very simple. It's all about using the basic ice cream recipe, then after beating the cream and adding the condensed milk, just add:

1) 1/2 cup of raisins infused in 1/2 up of coffee
2) 1 tbsp of coffee (soaking liquid reserved from raisins)
3) 1 tsp rum (to counter the coffee liquid becoming ice)

After the mixture has frozen for 3 hours, use a fork to break up the big chunks of ice. Repeat again 3 hours late. This is to mix up the raisins which would otherwise have sunk to the bottom of the container.

My chocolate still seized up to become chocolate 'chips'. This time I was careful to use a metal spoon rather than a wooden one, which could have moisture inside, one of the leading reasons of causing chocolate seize up. I was also careful to microwave the chocolate in short bursts to prevent burning. I learnt from surfing that I should not have used chocolate buttons, which has a very low chocolate percentage!

From left to right: black sesame ice cream, and coffee-infused rains with choc chips

Black sesame paste

Using the instructions given in this link, I basically multipled everything by 6 to get a big pot instead of cooking just 2 bowls. I also slightly altered the method just so that everything gets mixed up better.

Ingredients
3 cups black sesame seeds
1 1/2 cups glutinous rice flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 cups water

Method
1) In a pan, gently toast the sesame seeds on medium heat. To prevent burning, keep shaking the pan or moving the sees around with a spatula. I did this in batches so it wouldn't burn and I could toast it more evenly. Since I put in only enough seeds to coat the bottom of the pan in each batch, it took no more than 2 minutes to toast the seeds. Once u can smell it, remove from the heat immediately and set aside.

2) Either pound up the toasted seeds with a pestle and mortar, or use a blender. The original recipe called for the addition of water, but I used a food processor and that worked fine too without the water.

3) In a pot (without the flame on), transfer the ground sesame seeds. Add the glutinous rice flour and sugar, and mix everything well by trying to remove as many lumps as you can. This step is important before you add the water, to ensure that you don't end up eating gluey bits.

4) Once you're sufficiently satisfied that most of the lumps are gone, slowly add the water. Turn on the flame, and slowly add the water as you stir. As the mixture heats up, it will start to thicken. Ensure that you are constantly stirring to prevent the mixture from catching at the bottom of the pot, and to break down any lumps you encounter. You'll realise when it starts to boil, that's when it really gets pastey. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. You're basically trying to remove the uncooked flour taste.

5) Once its done, turn off the heat and serve immediately to avoid it becoming too gluey.

Goma and Rum & raisin ice cream

Based on this recipe, I went on to create more flavours.

Goma: used 4 tbsp of toasted black sesame seeds which were heated in a pan (dry fry) till there was a sizzling sound. Be careful, they burn! I crushed 3 tsp in a pastle and mortar and reserved the last tbsp for some texture. I added 1 tsp of vanilla flavour which was just nice. Next time however, I'll up it to 1 more tsp of crushed sesame seeds.

Rum & raisin: This time, I soaked 1/4 cup of raisins in 1/4 cup of rum overnight. I added 1 tsp of vanilla and the rum to the mixture. When it had set (about 6 hours in the freezer), I added in the raisins, otherwise they will all sink to the bottom. The alcohol defintely makes it harder for the ice cream to set, because compared with the Goma which was nicely set after a night, the r&r was still slightly slushy!