Pages

Friday, August 5, 2011

Red Bean Coconut Chiffon Cake - Bean # 3


Just made this cake last week, so it's a 'fresh' post. LOL. FYI, I'm still posting a lot of back logs due to the theme thingy. If it's a cake week, I didn't bake all the cakes that week, they were collected over time. So, LOL, please be informed I didn't eat pancakes for one week nor cook noodles 3 times a week.


Lately Lyanne has been on a picking streak. She was as picky as Lydia was when Lydia was 2 and a half. I guess it must be a phase in their lives, since Lydia is no longer picky with her food but almost eating everything, including raw fish roe.

During their pickiness, if there is one thing they are willing to eat, we will not stop them from eating. But this cake.. gosh! Lyanne ate 2 pieces in a row (I cut the cake into 12) and wanted to take a 3rd. It's too much. 2 is fine but not 3. Instead Lydia didn't like this cake. She returned her piece to daddy and said it's not nice. Even her daddy told me not to be that adventurous and just stick to red bean soup. LOL.

I have to say, I'm not a red bean bakes lover. I love my red bean soup, but I don't eat red bean bread or pau with red beans filling. I try to avoid. Even this cake, at first slice, the beans made the cake heavy (where they were located) and not a very pleasant experience. The cake is still cottonny soft, but I don't like the contrast of heavy beans with the soft cake. But as I ate on, I began to love this cake. The beans flavour came through. Funny enough, the beans sort of hardened after being baked in the cake. The beans were really soft as they were fished out when the soup was ready, not any earlier. It was almost mushy when eaten in the soup, but when baked, it held it shape well, even when the cake is sliced and actually tasted very firm.


So, why did I make this cake?  I was boiling red bean soup and I seemed to have put in too much beans. Plus I had fresh coconut milk leftover from another dessert. Malaysians love our red bean soup with coconut milk, just like ice cream potong. So, I made up this cake just to see how it'll turn out. There are some regrets though. I used too much eggs and the pan couldn't accomodate after baking. Before baking it was fine. it just filled 70% of my pan.But after baked, the cake rose so high and because there wasn't enough sides to cling to, the top part of the cake somehow shrunk (to be leveled with the pan's rim) and created a slightly dense top. It wasn't too dense, but visually it just don't look nice. The texture was wonderful, soft and fluffy and contrasted with the firm beans. And it's sturdy enough to hold the beans up. I suggest you bake this in a pan larger than 25cm or shrink it to a 4 egg cake, with the rest of the ingredients reduced accordingly to the ratio.

I never bother about cracks on my chiffons. The cake is served inverted. Who sees how the surface looks like? Even  Rose Levy Beranbaum's chiffon cakes crack. If a great cookbook author's cake crack as shown in the cookbook itself, LOL, it's pretty much the norm then. So, please don't get your head cracking if your chiffon cakes crack. I never do.

Red Bean Coconut Chiffon Cake
Recipe source: Wendyywy

Yolk batter
6 egg yolks
20gm vegetable oil (corn, canola, sunflower, grapeseed oil will work well)
150gm undiluted coconut milk
50gm sugar
150gm all purpose flour (for better stability with the addition of red beans, needs better structure. So, I won't use cake/superfine flour here)
1 tsp baking powder (there’s a lot of liquid from the coconut milk and red beans, better add some)
200gm cooked sweetened red beans

Meringue
6 egg whites (room temp)
¼ tsp salt
100gm sugar

1. Preheat oven to 150(fan)/170C. Prepare a 25cm tube pan (if you have bigger, it'll be better, this batter's a bit too much for a 25cm, but it still can manage), clean and ungreased.
2. Prepare yolk batter. Mix egg yolks with the oil and sugar. Then add in coconut milk. Sift flour and baking powder together and add into the yolk mixture. Mix to form a smooth paste. Put half the red beans in and gently mix around, do not break the beans.
3. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff.
4. Pour 1/3 of egg whites into the yolk batter and fold. Put in balance of red beans (no need to mix). Pour yolk batter back into the balance of whites and fold.
5. Pour batter into prepared tube pan and gently shake it left and right to level batter.
6. Bake for 55 minutes or until done. (4 egg recipe will only need 45-50 mins)
7. Invert immediately upon removal from oven. And let it cool down totally this way. Remove from pan and slice.

To prepare red beans.
When I boiled red bean soup, I boiled extra beans and sweetened the whole pot of soup just the way that I will like it. You have the let the soup boil with sugar in it for half an hour to ensure the beans are thoroughly sweetened inside. Let the soup sit for an hour. The beans will settle to the bottom. Ladle the beans from the base and place them over a strainer. Do no press down beans. Extra liquid will drip and collect beans in strainer after 30 minutes.

*Chill this cake if it's not finished within a day. The moisture from the beans and combined with the coconut milk will make the cake not keep for long.

24 comments:

  1. Very nice chiffon, I have not try baking chiffon with red beans cos always stick to red bean soup or ice kacang.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful red bean inside the chiffon cake. Chiffon cake is everyone all time favourites, isn't it so?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good taste and yummy! The texture look very soft. :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Never judge about the look, taste is all that matters....lol.I believe it surely taste good, combinations of red bean and coconut milk, voila....

    ReplyDelete
  5. I dont know about Lydia but I think I will love this red bean chiffon...you are creative and can think of using red bean for chiffon cake LOL! My hubby said the same thing to me...cook what the family likes and keep to it...so un-adventurous...but I don't bother, no trying no knowing and may miss eating something good like this :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amelia,
    Ooo.. homemade ice kacang? yummy


    Mel,
    Yeah, Asians love chiffon cakes


    Joceline Lor,
    Yeah, this chiffon is very soft. Thanks to the coconut milk


    yummylittlecooks,
    Just like red bean soup with coconut


    Elin,
    Man hoh, they never understand.
    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. i like to cook red bean soup too, next time must cook more red bean and save to make chiffon like you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have to say this is a pretty unique combo. But since my kids don't fancy red beans...I might not be able to try this recipe. I wonder what will happen if we blend the red bean with the coconut milk....what kind of taste will it be like....potong without chunky beans? Lol!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those individual slices are gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is one pretty chiffon, I must say!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. i've not tried using superfine flour for chiffon, even if there's no filling. Are you saying that there's a possibility that the cake will collapse or cant stand well if superfine flour is used?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Wendy

    I see the above red bean chiffon is dense or rather wet at the top (inverted becomes bottom). I normally find my pandan chiffon cake of 5 eggs recipe come out this manner. Is it OK?

    Blessings
    Priscilla Poh
    Singapore

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hmmm...I'm a curious and adventurous cat, I'd like to try that if I'm staying next door to you... ;D

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hmmm.. you are very brave to put the beans in your chiffon, not something I would do, cos I know I would end up having to eat the whole cake! Nice texture though.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your chiffon looks really pretty with the red bean floating nicely surrounded the whole cake :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sonia,
    Yeah.. if not, it'll be too troublesome to cook just some


    BellyGood,
    thanks


    Bee,
    Hehe.. maybe it'll have a 'floury' feel with the blended beans. But you can try and let me know


    Little inbox,
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  17. hanushi,
    thanks


    lena,
    I'm not really sure, but I won't take the risk. Better give it more gluten when it has beans in it. But I do find chiffon cakes when made with surperfine are indeed slightly softer.



    Priscilla,
    Yup, u're right abt my cake. I suspect my pan isn't big enough. Not enough wall space for the cake to climb and remain tall. My 5 egg chiffons with this pan is fine, no problem.
    Well, whether it's ok or not, depends on you yourself. It's still edible, but just not that nice when some parts are softer than the other.



    Meldylocks,
    If you're staying next door, I'll be sending stuff over until you will hope that I will stop.


    Jeannie,
    Your kids don't like red beans?
    Chiffon cakes are not that hard to finish up yourself. But better make that a 4 egg recipe.


    DG,
    Thanks. I was glad that they were. I was worried at first that they'd sink, but they didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This combination makes me think of Chendol!! haha... very light and fluffy indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Loved the texture of the cake. Seriously inviting :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Looks really good! I have not tried making chiffon cake....must do it one day!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dear Wendy,

    Wow...wow.. you are full of suprises. Amazing lady!!
    Love this cake. I have a question. I thought meringue will usually combine with cream of tartar.
    But I see this recipe does not has this ingredient.
    Thanks Wendy, you are a GIFT to me.

    Love, Keat
    Melbourne

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi Wendy, I baked this cake this evening. I used only 4 eggs and adjusted the rest of the ingredients accordingly.Taste was fantastic but the cake didn't rise much. Where have I gone wrong?? Do you think I have over beaten the meringue? I've got a really stiff meringue (dry), instead of soft peak. Busy attending to the yolk mixture he..he..
    It was a small chiffon, guess what my husband said this is better than the regular chiffon because it has some substance; he dislike light & airy chiffon. Man!! It's all gone, my kids love it too much.

    Thanks Wendy, life is so good with you.

    Keat

    ReplyDelete
  23. Keat,
    Cream of tartar helps the meringue to stay stable, if the amount of sugar is enough, it doesn't matter, but to reduce risk of deflating, instead of cream of tartar, lemon juice or vinegar can be used.
    Glad you tried this cake and enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by my blog.
All comments are greatly appreciated.

If you have tried any of the recipes and blogged about it, please provide a link so that others may have a look at it too :)

FOR NON BLOGGERS:
Please select profile and click "Name/URL" if u do not have any profiles on any of those listed, type in the name (leave the URL empty)

It's not nice to call you ANONYMOUS, so please leave a name.
From 15/11/13 onwards, I will NOT reply comments with no name.

Only comments on posts older than 24 hours will be moderated :)
You won't see them appearing immediately if it's not a fresh post.