This was quite an impromptu bake because I was suddenly inspired by another baker to incorporate the flavours of lychee and rose into a Singapore National Day bake. Presenting my lychee and rose iced gems!
Those of you who have followed our blog long enough will know that my attempts at old school iced gems began more than a decade ago. I shared the improved version and used egg whites for the royal icing instead of meringue powder in a post 2 years ago over here. You may refer to it for the detailed recipe and important baker's notes for the vanilla flavoured ones. I will share the ingredient list and baker's notes for the lychee and rose flavoured gems in this post.
(Makes about 100-110 biscuits)
Biscuit base:
140g plain flour
1 tbs (10g) full cream milk powder
2 tsp baking powder
20g icing sugar
1/8 tsp salt
50g vegetable shortening
50-60g milk or as much as needed to form dough
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Biscuit base:
140g plain flour
1 tbs (10g) full cream milk powder
2 tsp baking powder
20g icing sugar
1/8 tsp salt
50g vegetable shortening
50-60g milk or as much as needed to form dough
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
White lychee royal icing*:
15g egg whites
1/16 tsp cream of tartar
70g icing sugar
2-3g lychee powder*
2 drops lychee flavouring* (optional)
Red rose royal icing*:
16g egg whites
1/16 tsp cream of tartar
1/16 tsp red powder colouring
75g icing sugar
3g rose syrup or 1/8 tsp rose water*
You may refer to the reel below for the method and visuals of the process:
The key to making the biscuits really light and crisp is to make sure that the biscuits have absolutely no moisture by the time they are done, including after drying out the royal icing. So some patience is needed to make these really yummy. Take your time to dry them out using the oven. Once the biscuits become less crisp during storage, you can pop them back into low temperature oven at 70-80C to recrisp again
*Notes on ingredients:
🔸Royal icing: I shared how to use fresh egg whites to make royal icing here. While it's great for home bakers who don't want to buy a tub of meringue powder just to make these biscuits, using meringue powder to make royal icing makes it easier to incorporate lychee and rose flavours without affecting the icing consistency too much. If using meringue powder, instead of adding water, you can use lychee syrup or puree to make lychee royal icing, and more rose syrup can be used to impart a stronger rose flavour if meringue powder is used instead of egg whites. See alternative recipe for royal icing using meringue powder below.
🔸Lychee powder: Imparts strong lychee flavour without adding more fluids and it doesn't have a chemical aftertaste that lychee flavouring tends to have. If you don't have access to it, you may add 1/8 tsp lychee flavouring. If you have access to freeze-dried lychee, you may grind and sift it with icing sugar to impart lychee flavour to the icing too
🔸 Red powder colouring: I used Ng Chee Lee brand of powder coloring, the same one that's used to colour Ang Ku Kueh. A little goes a long way and it doesn't leave a chemical aftertaste
🔸Rose syrup: It's the same syrup used to make a popular drink, Bandung, in Singapore. You may replace it with 1/8 tsp rose water if you wish. I prefer using rose syrup to rose water for imparting rose flavours because there is less chemical aftertaste but this is a personal preference so your opinion may differ from mine. The rose flavour is subtle in the recipe I shared with fresh egg whites as adding too much rose syrup will make it harder for the meringue to reach stiff peak. If you prefer stronger rose flavour, use rose water or switch to meringue powder instead of egg whites
Alternate royal icing recipe using meringue powder:
125g icing sugar
9g meringue powder
18g drinking safe water**
2g light corn syrup
1. Whisk together icing sugar and meringue powder
2. Add water and light corn syrup and beat using electric mixer until stiff peaks.
** For flavoured royal icing, replace all or part of the water with puree or syrup. Adjust consistency of icing accordingly. Adding a drop of water at a time if it's too dry, adding a little icing sugar (not too much or the icing will turn hard to bite) if too wet.
Happy Birthday Singapore! I am really thankful to be a Singaporean!
with love,
Phay Shing
No comments:
Post a Comment