CNY bakes

No no, I didnt not attempt any cookies or whatsoever for the festive season, it was just too much work and practically impossible to spend hours in the kitchen without disturbance from the two babies.

I did, however, tried Sri's Honey Pound Cake as I am a sucker for pound cakes, especially SaraLee's. I can eat the whole bar if no one stopped me. I must admit, this comes quite close or even better than SaraLee's especially when it is chilled. However, I must remember to lower the oven temperature since I am using a nonstick bakeware, see the dark crust?



I also made a red bean nian gao for CNY. This is the second time I tried making red bean nian gao, but like my first, it was not firm enough after steaming. I'm still trying to figure why, did I not steam enough? This time, I used a different recipe that calls for glutinous flour instead of tai 太白粉 the last time.



I'll just leave the recipe here, so that any one can comment and let me know what went wrong.

Red Bean Nian Gao

200g Glutinous Flour
250g Cooked Red Beans
180ml Coconut Milk
150g Brown Sugar

Heat up the coconut milk until it bubbles, turn off the heat and stir in the sugar, and make sure it dissolves.
Leave it to cool down before stirring in the glutinous flour and finally red beans.
The mixture should be thick and gluey.
Pour the mixture into a baking tin lined with cellophane paper (optional) and steam over high heat for 1 hour.
Test for doneness but sticking in a skewer, it should come out clean.
Cool before cutting.