Thai Iced Tea Ice-cream (without ice-cream maker)

I have been on a Thai Iced Tea craze since my trip to Chiangmai. We had a half day off on the eve of Deepavali and I rushed to Raffles Place to have my favourite Thai Iced Tea and Shibuya Honey Thick Toast at Nam Nam's. I was sorely disappointed to be told that the Thick Toast was sold out!!

After making the Thai Iced Tea cake 2 weeks backs, I came across a You-tube video showing a Thai Iced Tea Ice-cream. It is pretty similar to the ice-cream recipe that I have shared previously. Just 2 ingredients and the addition of the flavour of your choice. I couldn't wait for the weekend to try the recipe. The additional step in this recipe is that you will need to infuse the Thai Tea into the whipping cream and let it chill overnight in the fridge before whipping the cream.

Thai Iced Tea Ice-cream 

2.5 cups whipping cream
6 tbsp Thai Iced Tea Mix
1 cup condensed milk

1) Heat the whipping cream and add in the Thai Ice Tea mix.

2) Stir well and let the cream come to a gentle boil (do watch the cream carefully as it boils over easily)

3) Turn off the fire and let the tea steep for about 5 minutes and then strain the mixture. Do not let it steep too long as the cream will thicken and make it difficult to strain. You should have about 2 cups of tea infused cream.

4) Cool the mixture and chill overnight in the fridge. Chill the condensed milk overnight too.
5)  Beat the chilled cream till soft peaks using a cake mixer.
6) Add in the condensed milk and whipped till stiff peaks.

7) Transfer the mixture into a container and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.

8) You may drizzle some condensed milk on the ice-cream if you like.

I love the flavour of the Thai Tea which came out rather strong in the ice-cream. The combination of Thai Iced Tea and condensed milk is a perfect match. A lovely treat on a hot day! Stay tuned as I experiment with more Thai iced tea flavoured desserts.

Thai Iced Tea Cake

The last 2 months have been hectic! I have been so busy with work and holidays that I haven't really tried new recipes. Since my last post, I have travelled to Chiangmai and my 2nd home, Shanghai. It's due to my trip to Chiangmai and also discussion with 2 colleagues that I have decided to try making Thai Ice Tea Cake for a colleague's birthday tomorrow.

It was a lovely girls' trip to Chiangmai with my mum and sis in September. We stumbled upon a nice cafe for lunch and tea. It was at this cafe that I bought my Thai Iced Tea mix. The cafe had a colonial house feel and the food had infused tea into some Thai dishes. My fish dish had a lovely tea sauce that was drizzled on it. I bought some tea leaves from the cafe to take home but didn't get a chance to try the Thai Iced Tea mix yet as some crisis came up at work and I was rushing to finish up before my Shanghai trip.

Last Friday, I was having a discussion with colleagues on what to bake for the birthday celebration tomorrow. A chocolate cake seems too common and a few colleagues don't appreciate carrot cakes. One colleague suggest Earl Grey tea as the birthday girl loves tea and I wondered if I should try making Thai Iced Tea cake since I have the mix at home. Both colleagues agreed that it's a wonderful idea since she had worked in Thailand a few years back and had fond memories of the place. I googled around for recipes and found a few links which has made use of this recipe.

Thai Iced Tea Cake (8" round cake) (recipe from here with modifications)


2 cups milk
3/4 cup condensed milk
3/4 cup Thai Iced Tea mix
3 cups cake flour
3 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
11/2 cup sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter
6 eggs

1) Bring the milk, condensed milk and Thai Iced Tea mix to a simmer and let it steep for at least 30 minutes. You will need 3/4 cups of this mixture for the cake

2) Pre-heat oven at 175 deg C.
3) Beat the butter and sugar together till pale and fluffy.

4) Add in the eggs one at the time and mix well

5) Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together.
6) Alternate adding flour and tea mix into the batter and mix well.

7) Pour into 2 8" lined cake tins.

 8) Bake for about 45-50 minutes till the cake is cooked.

9) Cool the cakes before decorating

Thai Ice Tea Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup tea and milk mixture from above
500g cream cheese
250g butter
13/4 cup icing sugar (more if desired)

1) Cream the cream cheese and butter together till smooth.
2) Add the tea and milk mixture slowly and mix well
3) Add the icing sugar and mix well.
4) Decorate as desired.

Bangkok Part 3 and Chicken Bak Kwa with cognac

This is the last part of my Bangkok trip. We took the sky train to Mo Chit station and reached Chucktuchack weekend market at 9am to avoid the crowd and the heat. I wanted to get some aromatherapy diffuser and managed to find the shop selling Yu products without having to search around. 2 of friends recommended the brand and told me that it's only available at the weekend market or Pratunum. The diffusers cost 250baht each or 700 baht for 3! Half the price of the cheaper brands in Singapore and about 20% cheaper than those sold in Siam Square area. I got 3 diffusers and 3 refills.

We saw some stalls selling food and sat down for breakfast. Fried rice and my favourite Thai omelette! The fried rice was a tad sweet. Mum kept looking at the next table who brought their own little tubs of chilli but due to language problems, we couldn't find out where to get those chilli. Next I went to the crockery section and was so tempted to buy so many stuff but I had to restrain myself. as they were heavy stuff to lug back. Mum bought some cushion covers and tissue covers as gifts for her friends. We left at 11am as we had to check out of the hotel at noon. While looking for the escalator to the sky train platform, I found the Jelly Bunny shop inside Mo Chit station. I first found this brand in 2012 and love their jelly shoes. They finally opened a shop here in Singapore. As we were rushing for time, I just showed the sales lady photos of 2 designs and bought those. We checked out of our hotel and had lunch at Som Tam again at the request of Mum. This concludes my trip to Bangkok.
My loot from Chucktuchack market:

I have seen recipes for homemade Bak Kwa (Dried Barbeque Meat) for a few years but have not gotten round to trying it out. After finishing my stash of Lim Chee Guan Bak Kwa within 3 days, I decided to make my own instead of going to the city to buy more. It was actually quite easy to make the bak kwa, just marinate the meat overnight, bake and grill for less than half hour and you will have tasty bak kaw. I tried making the Bak Kwa twice so far; the first time using Nasi Lemak Lover's recipe and store bought minced chicken and the 2nd time using Everyone Eats well in Flander's recipe and chicken thigh meat with the addition of Cognac. The bak kwa turned out a little too tough the first time round and the taste a little off due to the Hua Tiao wine. I tried again the next day using chicken thigh meat which had more fats and the taste turn out very tasty and fragrant. My mum reached for a 2nd piece when I asked her for her feedback :) Action speaks louder than words.

Homemade Chicken Bak Kwa(adapted from here)
450g chicken thigh meat
100g sugar
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp light soya sauce
1tsp kecap manis
1/2tbsp cognac
1tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp honey
1/8tsp five spice powder
1/2 tsp salt
a dash of pepper

1) Mince the chicken thigh meat in a food processor or chopper
2) Add all the seasoning and stir the meat till gluey (so that the meat will stick together)

3) Leave the minced chicken to marinate for 6-8 hours or overnight in the fridge
4) Line a cookie tray and spread the marinated meat with a rubber spatula as thinly as possible.

5) Bake the meat for 15 mins at 160 deg C. It will look like a big piece of cooked minced meat.
6) Cut up the meat into 9 pieces and change the greaseproof paper under the meat.

7) Brush some vegetable oil and diluted honey on the meat and grill the meat till brown on each side, about 10 mins on each side.

Yummy chicken bak kwa, all for less than S$10!

I toasted 2 slices of bread lightly and made a bak kwa sandwich the next day for breakfast.

All the bak kwa is gone by the next day when my mum and a friend dropped by.

I am submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #5 - Chinese New Year Goodies (Jan/Feb)" hosted my Miss B of Everyone Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House

Bangkok trip part 2 and Heart shaped Nutella rolls

Continuing on my Bangkok trip, we went to Chinatown and Terminal 21 on the 2nd day. Usually I don't drop by Chinatown as the traffic jam is quite bad and there is no direct BTS. 6 years ago, a friend working in Bangkok showed me another way to get to Chinatown. Since my mum is with me for this trip, I thought I would attempt to use this route to Chinatown. When we arrived at the Central pier (Saphan Taksin BTS station), I wasn't too sure which boat to take and ended up following all the tourist by taking the 40 bhat per trip tourist ferry and alighted at Pier 5. We exited the pier and walked along the main road and saw the accessories wholesale market which I visited 6 years back. There were so many varieties of necklace, earrings and rings that I had a hard time choosing them.
After making my purchases, we walked along the shops and came across other wholesale shops selling ribbons, party decorations, toys, bags, kitchenware, etc. I bought very pretty foldable luggage bags, recycle grocery bags, aprons, bath towel and bath sponge.

As it was nearing lunchtime, we exited the wholesale market and walked towards the main road, Yarowat. Mum was very happy to see dried food stalls and fruit stalls. She bought 1 kg of cashew nuts and 2 guavas. I had to stop her from buying more as I was worried about the load. There were numerous roadside food stalls and we even saw Chwee Kueh, Thai style.

We found a nice restaurant across the road and had a good lunch of roast duck, claypot glass noodles with prawns and spinach. The roast duck in Bangkok is moist and tender and I love the chilli sauce they have to go with the duck. I was very tempted to order another serving but restrained myself.
On our way back to the pier, we came across a traditional Teochew pastry shop. There were many local Chinese ladies there buying the pastries. It was very nostalgic to see many traditional pastries.

That evening, I brought Mum to Terminal 21 as she hasn't been there before. She was impressed with the travel theme of the mall. We tried a new restaurant, Reflections and I finally had my steamed fish with lime and chilli and my curry crab!

Look out for my next post on my last day in Bangkok.

Today I decided to bake Nutella bread as I had a bottle of Nutella expiring this weekend. I tried the recipe that was posted on Everyone eats well in Flanders but decided to shape the bread similar to Cinnamon rolls. This is the 2nd time I tried the recipe. I spread too much Nutella the first time round in bid to finish the Nutella and the buns were pretty greasy. Since Valentine's day is round the corner, I used my heart-shaped Chiffon pan today for the rolls.

Heart-shaped Nutella rolls (recipe adapted from here)

450g bread flour
70g sugar
2 eggs yolks
2 tsp instant yeast
250ml warm milk
30g unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
6 tbsp Nutella

1) Put all the ingredients (except Nutella) into a mixing bowl. Using a dough hook, mix all the ingredients till it forms a dough.

2) Continue beating for about 10 minutes till the dough becomes elastic and non-sticky.

3) Remove the dough, grease the mixing bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and allow the dough to prove in a warm place till double in size. (I switched on the oven to 60 deg C and left the mixing bowl on the door of the oven to shorten the time).
4) When the dough has risen to twice the size, punch out the air and let it proof it again in a warm place. (It took 45 mins to double in size)
5) Divide the dough into 3 portion so that it's easier to handle.
6) Flour the work area and roll out 1 portion of the dough into a rectangle.

7) Spread 2 tbsp of Nutella on the dough and roll the dough up like a swiss roll. Using a pastry cutter, cut the roll into 2 inch size and place them on a greased heart-shape pan (or any other pan of your choice). Remember to leave space between the cut rolls as they will expand.

8) Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg C. Leave the rolls to proof for another 20 mins in a warm place. Brush on some egg whites to glaze the buns.

9) Bake them at 180 deg C for 20 mins till golden brown.

10) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Note: I used 2 portions of dough for my 21 cm heart-shaped pan and put the 3rd portion into a 16cm chiffon pan.

I love the texture of the bread. Its soft and fluffy and goes very well with coffee or tea. Do bake them for your love ones this Valentine's Day.

I am submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #5 - Chinese New Year Goodies (Jan/Feb)" hosted my Miss B of Everyone Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House

Bangkok trip and Artisan bread

Sawadee-ka! I am writing this post from Bangkok while drinking my morning coffee. Arrived here yesterday with my mum for a short trip. Our first stop after checking in was Aree Baker Centre (Ari BTS station, across the road from Villa Supermarket) which was on our way to the BTS station. Bought some cute cupcake cases and I heart U candles. All for Bht205! Contemplating whether to buy the pretty polka dot cake boxes back.

 Next stop is my favourite dessert place, After you (above Villa Supermarket, opp Ari BTS). Missed my Cheddar Cheese toast with vanilla ice-cream. Mum was impressed with the way coffee was served and she loved the toast. I was worried that she will complain about the cheese but she loved it.

After a nice relaxing massage at Napaspa (level 5, Siam Discovery Centre), we had dinner at another of my favourite restaurant, SomTam. There’s now an outlet at Siam Centre! Thanks to Mum for insisting to check out Food Republic, I saw the new place next to the exit. No more queuing and jostling with the crowd at Siam Square! We ordered Crispy Fried Fish, Fried Chicken and Green Mango Salad. Mum loved the fish so much that she insisted we ordered another! Finished the day with shopping at Boots Pharmacy and Siam Paragon Foodhall. We are off to Chinatown and Platinum today. Keep watch for next post.

 Alas, the recipe I am sharing today is not Thai food. You may want to check out my earlier post on Roast Chicken with Tom Yum herbs if my post on BKK has got you craving for Thai food. I am going to share with you a recipe for Artisan bread and the tip for making the bread soft and fluffy. I have been baking breads for 2-3 years but found that the western bread tend turn dry and hard the next day. I asked my friend, a chef on the reason and he asked me how many times I punch down the dough before shaping them. I replied once and he said I needed to do it about 2-3 times and he gave me the recipe for his yummy bread. I finally got a chance to bake the bread 2 Sundays ago on a rainy afternoon. I kept one loaf in an air-tight box for 3-4 days and I froze the rest.  I brought one frozen loaf to a barbeque last Sunday and toasted it lightly in the oven. Everyone loved it.

Artisan Bread (makes one big loaf and 2 smaller ones)

500g bread flour

500g plain flour

500ml warm water

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 1)      Dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the warm water. Leave it to bubble in a warm place for 5-10 mins. (if the yeast doesn’t bubble, please discard and use a new pack)

2 2)      Put the bread flour and plain flour into a mixing bowl and add in the yeast solution bit by bit till it forms a dough. You may use a dough hook or your hands. Knead the dough for about 10 mins till elastic.

3 3)      Cover the mixing bowl with a clean damp cloth and leave the dough to rise till double in size. It took me about half hour. (I switched on the oven to the lowest temp and left the mixing bowl on the open door)

4 4)      Punch down the dough to remove the air and let it rise again. Repeat the process.

5 5)      After the 3^rd rise, flour the tabletop and your hands before shaping the dough into your desired shape. I shaped them into round loaves and made some cuts with a serrated knife.

6 6)      Leave the bread to rise for 15 mins before baking at 180 deg C for about 25-30 minutes.

7 7)      The bread will sound hallow when you knock it if it’s baked.

The bread goes very well with the Pumpkin soup which I have shared previously.