The Year of the Snake approaches steadily. Chinese New Year has been historically celebrated in our household with feasting, funds, and fiery red decorations. Nian Gao, or Leen Go/年糕, is another quintessential component of the traditional holiday.
This space has seen numerous iterations of the formula, though the past few years has remained more or less consistent.
I'm moderately proud of having organized the festive decorations and relocated them away from the kitchen, where they had previously found. Despite possessing a plethora of zodiac animal plushies though, the snake was, unfortunately, not a member of the existing collection. A giant pink serpent with disintegrating insides were summoned for the annual New Year Cake display, but ultimately reinstated to its dusty post on the couch shortly afterwards.
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The Leen Go was chewy, tasty, and not cloying in the slightest. Amusingly, this year's edition revealed itself to have drier edges. On the fourth day of consumption, microwaving would lend the centre a soft gooeyness and the edges an unmistakable sturdiness often associated with pan-fried nian gao slices.
Creations of the week(end) included:
1) Orange Yogurt Cake
In recent years, I've strictly purchased Astro's Balkan yogurt to pair alongside homemade granola. Its tanginess complements the crunchy, hearty profile of nuts, seeds, and oats, while its texture loose enough to crumble readily for seamless spoonfuls of yogurt and granola. Activia's vanilla yogurt did not provide the same eating experience. Despite bearing lovely base notes of aromatic vanilla, the texture was lumpy and seemingly synthetic. By reading the ingredient list, I confirmed this was indeed the case: starch stabilizer was the culprit behind the off-putting consistency.
Naturally, the next step was to deplete the container in a manner that did not involve direct consumption. I turned to SK's Grapefruit Yogurt Cake.
1) Orange Yogurt Cake
In recent years, I've strictly purchased Astro's Balkan yogurt to pair alongside homemade granola. Its tanginess complements the crunchy, hearty profile of nuts, seeds, and oats, while its texture loose enough to crumble readily for seamless spoonfuls of yogurt and granola. Activia's vanilla yogurt did not provide the same eating experience. Despite bearing lovely base notes of aromatic vanilla, the texture was lumpy and seemingly synthetic. By reading the ingredient list, I confirmed this was indeed the case: starch stabilizer was the culprit behind the off-putting consistency.
Naturally, the next step was to deplete the container in a manner that did not involve direct consumption. I turned to SK's Grapefruit Yogurt Cake.
Originally, I debated the use of butter instead of oil, contemplating a modification of Ciao Kitchen's Lemon Pound Cake. However, making adjustments were not as straightforward as desired: the recipe was scaled for three mini loaf pans, exclusively relied on cake flour (which I did not have), and used under 100 g of sour cream, ultimately defeating the core objective of exhausting my yogurt supply. Reddit had advised increasing the amount of butter if using in place of oil, given that butter was comprised of both liquid and solid fats while oil was wholly liquid. But the conversion ratio was not clear, and furthermore provided solely in US measurements (cups or tbsp) instead of metric. To simplify my concurrent loaf construction project, I'd resist altering SK's cake guideline altogether - save swapping one citrus for another.
The instructions were read with haste, thus compromising accuracy of the steps. My version used two bowls, along with application of cake-making principles that may or may not reveal their worth in the final product. For clarity sake, both the ingredient list and process are detailed below:
Ingredients:
i) Loaf
The instructions were read with haste, thus compromising accuracy of the steps. My version used two bowls, along with application of cake-making principles that may or may not reveal their worth in the final product. For clarity sake, both the ingredient list and process are detailed below:
Ingredients:
i) Loaf
- Zest of one orange
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- vanilla extract
- 230 g plain yogurt
- 195 g AP flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 120 g canola oil
ii) Orange Syrup
- 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar *
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