Chinese New Year Fondant Cupcakes

I made these marshmallow fondant cupcakes last year, for Chinese New Year 2014.

Chinese New Year cupdakes with homemade marshmallow fondant

The cupcakes were dark chocolate cupcakes, recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker's Dark Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe.

Dark Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients
113gm unsalted butter
2 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, room temperature
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Method

1. Preheat oven. See below for temperature and oven setting.
2. Melt butter, chocolate and cocoa powder over simmering water. Then cool to warm-to-touch.
3. While waiting for chocolate mixture to cool, sift flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. Mix to combine.
4. Beat the eggs with electric mixer. Add sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix till fully combined.
5. Take the egg mixture off the mixer stand. Pour in the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix with a spatula or spoon till combined.
6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix to combine.
7. Add sour cream, mix to combine. It's easier to blend in the sour cream at this stage while the mixture is still quite thin.
8. Add remaining flour mixture, mix to combine.
9. Divide batter into cupcake casings, filling each one 1/2 full, and bake.

For regular-sized cupcakes, bake at 140°C for 18-20 minutes. The recipe yields 12 regular-sized cupcakes.

For mini cupcakes, bake at a slightly lower temperature, 130-135°C for 18 minutes. The recipe yields 24 mini cupcakes.

Oven Setting
It's important to bake cupcakes using the top and bottom heating element of the oven, instead of fan-assisted convection, and bake them in the middle rack in a single tray or layer. I've learned that using fan-assisted convection could result in cupcakes with lopsided dome tops (caused by the wind from the fan before the cupcakes fully set).

Homemade marshmallow fondant cupcakes

The cupcakes were then frosted with a thin layer of chocolate ganache, before decorated with my homemade marshmallow fondant toppers.

Homemade Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Don't like the taste of store-bought fondant icing? You can make your own, with just a few inexpensive ingredients. Homemade fondant tastes much better, and if you're making it for kids, you can rest assured of the ingredients that go into it and its freshness.

Making fondant at home is not hard but the process can be tedious, and daunting if you've never made it before. You will need 30 minutes to 1 hour. There will be plenty to clean up afterwards too :)

This recipe is marshmallow fondant or fondant icing made from marshmallows. It produces a very small batch, just enough to fit into a 17.7cm x 20.3cm zip lock bag. I adapted the recipe from Rhonda's Ultimate MMF on CakeCentral.

Homemade Marshmallow Fondant Recipe (Small Batch)

Ingredients
250 gm white marshmallows
1 tbs water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
3-4 cups sifted icing sugar, adjust as needed to get desired consistency
Vegetable shortening (for greasing)

If using large marshmallows, you can optionally cut them up into smaller pieces. This helps them melt faster and more uniformly.

You can optionally add extracts to flavour the fondant, like vanilla or almond extracts. If using, be sure to use clear extracts so as to not taint the colour.

Method

1. Grease everything that will come into contact with the marshmallow, with shortening, e.g. pot, bowl, spatula, counter top, hands etc. Tip: Use paper towels to grease the utensils to avoid greasy hands in the early stage.
2. Put the marshmallows in large bowl, pour in 1 tablespoon of water and microwave for 2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir. Or, use a stove top double boiler like I did - put the marshmallows in the double boiler with 1 tablespoon of water. 
3. Heat and stir until completely melted. The mixture should look and feel very, very thick and sticky, almost difficult to stir, but completely melted with no lumps.
4. Off heat, stir in lemon juice and salt.
5. Sift icing sugar on greased counter top, make a well in the center and pour the melted marshmallow onto the sugar. 
6. Mix and knead, add more sugar and rub on more shortening as needed, to form a dough. Be careful as the melted marshmallow will be hot initially.

The dough should feel soft but pliable, smooth and shiny. Here's a youtube video that shows the 'rightness' - when you pull it, it should stretch a little before breaking off.

Steps with Pictures

1. Using paper towels, grease the tools, utensils and work counter (where you will be kneading the fondant) with shortening.

2. Put the marshmallows in the double boiler with 1 tablespoon of water.

Put the marshmallows in the double boiler with 1 tablespoon of water

3. Heat and stir until COMPLETELY melted. It should look and feel very, very thick and sticky, almost difficult to stir, but completely melted with no lumps.

Heat the marshmallows and stir until completely melted

4. Turn off the heat. Mix in salt and lemon juice.

Off heat, mix in salt and lemon juice

5. Grease your hands with shortening. Pour the melted marshmallow onto sifted icing sugar, and mix. Be care when it's still hot.

Mix the melted marshmallow with sifted icing sugar

6. Knead, add more sugar and rub on more shortening until you get a pliable dough.

Homemade marshmallow fondant

Colouring Fondant

Divide the fondant into portions to be coloured. It is best to use gel food colouring, like Americolor Gel Paste. Liquid colouring will affect the consistency of the fondant. The colour will deepen over time, so add the colour sparingly and a little at a time. Use a toothpick to dab on the colour, and knead until it is completed blended and even.

Dab on gel colour with a toothpick and knead till blended.

Storing Fondant

Fondant can be left at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, or 4 weeks in the refrigerator if wrapped and stored properly. Coat the fondant with a thin layer of shortening and wrap it securely with cling wrap. Then put in a zip lock bag and store in an airtight container.

Wrap with cling wrap, put in zip lock bag and store in airtight container

Cleaning Up

Marshmallow is made mostly of sugar, which dissolves in water. So the marshmallow bits are easy to clean. Soak the utensils for a few minutes and the stuff comes right off. The shortening though, is a nightmare to clean. It takes a lot of of dish detergent and repeated washings to get that stuff off. 

Using Fondant

When ready to use, unwrap the fondant and knead until it becomes pliable again, or microwave it for 2 to 5 seconds, depending on the amount. Grease your hands, work top and all your fondant shaping tools with shortening. Then roll out, cut out, shape, etc. as needed.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

Ganache is simply melted chocolate and cream. It can be made with different types of chocolate - dark, white, semi-sweet, bittersweet, milk etc. It is very easy to make, and you can get different 'products' out of the simple mixture. Basically, the cream is heated and then poured over the chocolate. The mixture is then left to infuse, and then gently mixed into a smooth, velvety, thin chocolate sauce. If you let it cool for a few hours in the refrigerator, the mixture thickens into a beautiful spreadable or piping consistency, like peanut butter. It can also be whipped up into a lovely soft mousse. There are many variations and there is no "right" consistency; use what works for you.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe

Ingredients
Chopped Dark / Semi-sweet / Bittersweet / White / Milk / Any Chocolate
Whipping cream

For dark chocolate ganache, use 2:1 ratio, that is, 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream. E.g. if using 8 oz chocolate, use 4 fl. oz cream.

For white chocolate ganache, use 3:1 ratio, and for milk chocolate, somewhere between the two.

You can use chocolate chips or buttons or bar. If using the bar, chop it up finely - easier for the chocolate to melt. The whipping cream must be in liquid, unwhipped form, not the ready-whipped stuff that comes in a canister.

Method

1. Put the cream in a saucepan, and the chocolate in a bowl.
2. Heat the cream until just boil.
3. Turn off heat, and pour the hot cream onto the chocolate.
4. Let it sit for 5 minutes to melt and infuse.
5. Stir gently until the chocolate is completed melted, no lumps and the mixture is combined.

Chocolate ganache, after 3 hours in the fridge

Peanut Cookies Recipe

Peanut cookies is a Chinese New Year tradition in my family. We make them every year. They are sweet, nutty and aromatic, and insanely easy to make. The recipe is very simple, with just 4 inexpensive ingredients - flour, sugar, ground roasted peanuts and vegetable oil. But the process of making them can be long and tedious.

Peanut Cookies for Chinese New Year

This is my mother-in-law's recipe. She has been making them for decades and every time, they are just as delectable. By the way, my mother-in-law never weighs the ingredients :) She goes by the ratio of 1:1:3/4, that is, equal portions of ground roasted peanuts and flour, with the portion for sugar reduced to taste. There is no measurement for oil either. Oil is added a little at a time, and mixed until a dry dough forms and tiny balls can be shaped without crumbling.

Making Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, ground roasted peanuts and sugar) together in a big bowl.

Mix flour, ground peanuts and sugar together

Add the oil, a little at a time.

Add oil, a little at a time

Mix until a dry dough forms. To test, take about a teaspoonful of dough and shape into a ball. If it crumbles easily, it's too dry - add more oil. If it holds together, it's good.

The dough - not too wet/oily, not too crumbly

Now the labour begins... Take a small portion of dough, shape into a bite-sized ball and place on prepared baking tray.

Place dough balls on baking tray - 80 pieces per tray

We use the bamboo cap of the chinese calligraphy brush to make the circle mark on the cookies.

Make the traditional/signature circle mark on the cookies

Give it an egg wash and it's ready to go into the oven. We prefer to use the calligraphy brush (new and cleaned, of course) for the egg wash as it is softer. We find the normal pastry brush too hard and tend to break the cookie.

Egg wash

Bake at 170°C for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Bake till golden brown

Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies Recipe

Ingredients
1 kg sifted all-purpose flour
1 kg ground roasted peanuts
700 gm sifted icing sugar, adjust to taste
Vegetable or peanut oil (cooking oil like Helang, Buruh, Neptune are all suitable)

Egg wash: 9 egg yolks

Makes about 500+ bite-sized pieces

Method

1. Oil the baking tray, or line with non-stick baking paper.
2. Mix the flour, ground roasted peanuts and icing sugar in a large bowl.
3. Pour the vegetable oil, a little at a time, in the flour mixture. Mix till a dry dough forms.
4. Shape into small balls and place on the baking tray.
5. Make the circle mark on the balls.
6. Brush generously with egg wash.
7. Bake at 170°C for 12 minutes.

Notes:

• You can use store-bought ground roasted peanuts, or do like we do - buy, roast and grind the peanuts ourselves. 
• Both icing sugar and granulated sugar can be used. If using icing sugar, be sure to sift first to avoid lumps.
• Don't add too much oil, even if the dough initially appears dry or crumbly. The oil will combine with the flour the longer the dough sits. You can let the dough rest for a while if you prefer.
• Personally I find the egg-yolk-only egg wash a little too thick and difficult to work with. I usually prefer egg yolk thinned with a little milk. It's easier to work with and gives a nice sheen. But MIL says egg yolk only :)
• The cookies tend to stick to the tray/baking paper if any egg wash drip onto it. So avoid brushing with too much egg wash. 
• You can make as much or as little as you like Just follow the 1:1:3/4 ratio guideline, e.g. 1 bowl of flour + 1 bowl of ground roasted peanuts + less than 1 bowl of sugar. Each ingredient can be adjusted to one's liking, i.e. more nuts for a nuttier flavour, more flour for a firmer cookie. Other variations include using butter or margarine, coarsely ground roasted peanuts, very finely ground roasted peanuts and so on. 

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts

With the pineapple jam/filling done and ready, it was time to make the pineapple tarts. I went with the enclosed version because I didn't have the piping mould for the rolled version, nor the cutter for the open-faced flower version.

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts

Since there was enough jam, I decided to try and test 2 different recipes for the pastry.

The first recipe that I chose was from Nasi Lemak Lover. Her recipe is touted and cited by many as the best melt-in-the-mouth pineapple tart recipe. I halved the original recipe and got about 36 pieces the size of Penang Tau Sar Pneah. This recipe uses a LOT of butter. For 36 pieces, I used three quarters of a 227 gm block of butter. It called for sweetened condensed milk for sweetness but no additional sugar, and the dough was soft and easy to handle. The baked tarts were very buttery... in fact, the aroma of butter was so strong that I worried that some may find it overwhelming. The pastry was firm, crumbly to the bite but not in the hands. It tasted buttery and quite bland on its own but when paired with the sweet-sour taste of the pineapple jam, the tart was delicious! I also find that they tasted better after a day, when the pastry has had time to soften.

The second recipe was from Table for 2... or more by WendyinKK. I couldn't resist this recipe because the pastry has cream cheese in it... must be good, right?! Again, I halved the original recipe and this time I made them smaller - bite-sized pieces, and got about 80 pieces. More to share :) Oh my, this recipe contains a LOT of fat - it uses less butter then NLL's but only to be replaced with cream cheese and heavy cream. This is not for weight conscious people! The dough was very, very soft and oily, which made it easy to shape around the jam ball but required quick and gentle handling to avoid a mess of dough and jam. The baked tarts gave out a milder aroma of butter but still very fragrant. The pastry was softer and more crumbly than NLL's, and slightly tastier. Other than that, I thought both recipes were very close in terms of taste, texture and flavour.

Pineapple Tarts - Tau Sar Pneah size vs. bite size

Choosing the perfect pineapple tart recipe is really a matter of personal preference. While these 2 recipes yielded aromatic and delicious tarts, I wouldn't use them if I were making tarts for someone who dislike the smell and taste of butter. NLL actually stated on her page that she used a butter blend instead of pure butter so as to not let the butter overwhelm the pineapple. I've tasted homemade pineapple tarts with pastry made with margarine, and they were equally good. Having said that, if you do love butter, as I do, you will love these 2 recipes. What I think will make or break your pineapple tart is the JAM. I know it's been said a million times but it is worth saying again - the homemade jam is superior. You just don't get the purity of taste and flavour with store-bought jam.

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts: Recipe 1

Adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover.
I halved the original recipe and got about 36 pieces the size of Penang Tau Sar Pneah.

Pastry
175 gm butter
50 gm sweetened condensed milk
255 gm all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk

Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp milk

Filling
About 350gm pineapple jam (homemade pineapple jam recipe here)

Making the Pastry

1. Cream butter and condensed milk until light.
2. Add in egg yolk and mix till combined.
3. Add in flour and mix till a soft dough forms. Don't overmix the dough.

Next, gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill while working on the jam. 

Making/Assembling the Tarts

To ensure all the tarts are consistent in size, I use measuring spoons - a tablespoon of dough with a teaspoon of jam. 

1 tart = 1 tablespoon of dough + 1 teaspoon of jam

Firstly, while the dough is chilling in the fridge, roll the jam into balls, a teaspoon each.

Measure the amount of jam with a teaspoon

Drop and roll into a ball

Next, using the same measuring technique for the dough:

• Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball
• Flatten the dough ball into a disc
• Place a jam ball on dough disc
• Wrap the dough around the jam
• Make a gentle, final roll to even the shape and place it on the baking tray
• Score lines on the top to make them more attractive and pineapple-like

Ready for egg wash

Score lines to make them more pineapple-like

Finally, give the tarts an egg wash and they are ready to go into the oven. Bake at 160-170C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 

Baked pineapple tarts

Pure pineapple and pastry that melt in the mouth - delicious!

Enclosed Pineapple Tarts: Recipe 2

Adapted from Table for 2... or more by WendyinKK.
I halved the original recipe and got about 80 mini bite-sized pieces.

Pastry
125 gm salted butter
2 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cream cheese
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 egg yolks (keep the remaining 1/2 for the egg wash)
200 gm all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp corn flour

Egg wash: 1/2 egg yolk + 1/2 tsp milk

Filling
About 350gm pineapple jam (homemade pineapple jam recipe here)

Making the Pastry

1. Sift the flour and corn flour together.
2. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese together until light.
3. Add in heavy cream and beat for 10 minutes.
4. Add in the flour and mix till a soft dough forms. Don't overmix the dough.

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill while working on the jam.

As with Recipe 1, I use measuring spoons to ensure a consistent size. To make the mini tarts, I use a teaspoon of dough with a 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

1 mini tart = 1 teaspoon of dough + 1/2 teaspoon of jam

The method for wrapping/assembling the tarts is the same as above, for Recipe 1.

Baked mini pineapple tarts

Homemade Pineapple Jam (for Pineapple Tarts)

Homemade Pineapple Jam (for Pineapple Tarts)

For Chinese New Year 2015, I am making pineapple tarts. And why not make my own homemade pineapple jam too while I'm at it, right? Pineapple jam is actually very easy to make. All you need are pineapples, sugar, and 2 hours to spare. You can optionally add aromatics like cinnamon, cloves, even star anise or pandan leaves.

I use local pineapples (think they are called Morris) that are just ripe, maybe even a little under ripe. Some say honey pineapples or Josephine, make a more fragrant jam. But I have Morris, so Morris it is.

Peeled Morris Pineapples

Peel the skin and cut away the "eyes" by scoring diagonally. I enjoy peeling and scoring pineapples... put on some background music and it's therapeutic :)

Then cut into chunks, and blitz them in the food processor. I blitz them in batches. It only takes a few seconds.

Pour the mixture into a wok or a large heavy based pan. It is quite watery from its natural juices, and the colour of pale yellow. Turn the heat to medium-low and and let it boil. I check up on it and stir every 5 minutes or so.

Cooking the pineapple puree

After 30 minutes of gentle boiling, the liquid has evaporated a little. and the colour turns into a slightly deeper yellow. This is when I add the sugar.

Add the sugar

Almost immediately the mixture turns watery again as the sugar dissolves.

Turns watery again

After 1 hour, still very wet.

Slowly but surely getting there.

After close to 1.5 hours, I get impatient and turn up the heat a little to help it "move along" :) Keep a close watch now and stir so it doesn't get burned.

And finally it is done! Only 1 hour and 45 minutes :)

Finally, pineapple jam!

Turn off the heat, and let it cool completely before storing. The jam will continue to dry as it cools. And it tastes absolutely delicious - pure pineapple taste!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

I also seal the jam, in the container, with a piece of cling wrap pressed onto the surface of the jam, to prevent any additional drying that might take place in the fridge.

Basic Homemade Pineapple Jam Recipe (for Pineapple Tarts)

2 large Morris pineapples

1 and 1/2 cups coarse sugar (adjust to your liking)

Makes about 750 gm of jam.

1. Peel the pineapples.
2. Cut into chunks with the core, and blitz in the food processor.
3. Pour the puree into a wok or large heavy based pan.
4. Boil gently on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.
5. When most of the juices have evaporated (after about 1 hour), add the sugar and stir. The mixture will become watery again.
6. Continue to boil gently, stirring occasionally, until most of the juices have evaporated.
7. Now keep a close watch and cook/stir until the jam is quite dry but not too dry. It will continue to dry after taken off heat.
8. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.