Hokkaido Pandan Chiffon Cupcakes with Coconut Cream 北海道班兰牛奶蛋糕

I can never say no to pandan chiffon cakes...

... especially those that are moist and flavoursome like the cooked dough pandan cake and those that are silky soft like the most ideal and fluffy pandan chiffon cake. Regardless of all pandan chiffon cakes that I have baked, I'm extremely happy today that I have discovered the another ultimate way of enjoying pandan chiffon cake!

... and it is to eat it in a form of Hokkaido cupcake with coconut cream!

Hokkaido pandan chiffon cupcakes with coconut cream 北海道班兰牛奶蛋糕

Why these pandan chiffon cupcakes classified as the Hokkaido kind? As mentioned at my previous Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes post, Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes are chiffon cupcakes that are filled with cream and its cake base is usually made with milk rather than other liquids like water or coconut milk. Using milk and the unique Hokkaido cupcake recipes at here and here, I have never fail to bake very extremely soft and enjoyable chiffon cupcakes. Hence, this is why I'm baking these Hokkaido pandan chiffon cupcakes.

Pandan cakes without coconut milk??? To me, it's perfectly ok to bake pandan chiffon cake with water at here or with milk at here. Without the addition of coconut milk, the pandan chiffon cake baked with milk can be as good as those that I have baked with coconut milk. Having said that, I can't deny that the pandan chiffon cakes are usually more fragrant, flavoursome and "complete" when they are made with coconut milk.

To complete my Hokkaido pandan chiffon cupcakes, I'll like to enjoy my cupcakes with coconut milk. To do so, I will fill the cupcakes with this light and creamy coconut cream ...

At a start, you need a can (270ml) of light coconut milk with 13% fat.

The steps that I used are exactly the same as how I cooked the coconut cream for my Kuih Dadar
... but this cream is much lighter and less thick than the one that is made with regular coconut milk.
Allow mixture to cool to room temperature and chill it further in the fridge.

Next, I did this to extract pandan juice from fresh pandan leaves.

After cooking the mixture, I noticed that there are flakes of pandan and milk in the lukewarm mixture.
Not to worry as the cake will turn out to be ok!

Like most chiffon cakes, I need to separate egg yolks from the whites.
Glad that I have this handy Tovolo Yolk Out to do this job. 

After whisking in egg yolks into the pandan-milk mixture, I did these.

Then you will yield this doughy thick and green egg yolk mixture. Set aside.

Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form.

Fold egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and fill each baking cups with 3/4 full of batter.
This Tovolo Cupcake Scoop is fantastic! Every scoop it made is pretty standardised.
All I need to do is to scoop 3 scoops of batter in each baking cup.
Easy! No mess! No drips!

Baking the cupcakes in a slow oven for 40 mins. All are nicely risen with no cracks! Yippee!!!

Pipe coconut cream into the cooled cupcakes using a long narrow piping tip.

Now, I'm ready to feast on one pandan cupcake...

Gorgeous!
Sweet, salty, soft, fluffy and creamy!
To me, this is pretty ultimate!!!

Here is the recipe that is mostly adapted from here

Makes 13 cupcakes

A
6-7 pandan leaves, washed and sniped
60ml milk, plus extra to top to 80ml if necessary
60g oil that is neutral tasting

B
5 egg yolk (from medium large eggs, 60-70g each)
2-3 drops of natural green colouring, if desired.

C
100g cake flour, preferably 7-8% protein and unbleached
pinch of salt

D
5 egg white (from medium large eggs, 60-70g each)
90g sugar

E
To make coconut cream filling:
1 can (270g) coconut milk preferably Ayam brand light one with 13% fat
10g all purpose flour
10g rice flour
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
Note: This coconut cream is not sweet but salty and it compliment the cakes very well.

Preheat oven to 140°C, preferably not fan forced. If you have no choice and have to use fan forced, use a lower temperature like 125°C. If you are using paper baking cups like the ones that I'm using, arrange them on baking tray. Otherwise, you can line baking cups in a muffin tin.

Using a blender, process pandan leaves and milk (from ingredients A) until the leaves look blended and chopped. Place a muslin cloth over a medium heatproof bowl and pour the milk mixture through the muslin cloth. Gather the edges of the cloth and squeeze the retaining liquid out from the pandan pulp. Top with extra milk if necessary to form a total volume of 80ml. Add oil and stir until combined.

Place the bowl of the milk mixture on a double boiler and cook until mixture is lukewarm. Otherwise, mixture can microwave in high power for 30-40 secs. Note: At this step, I noticed that there might be flakes of pandan and milk when the mixture is cooked to lukewarm. Not to worry as the cake will turn out to be ok!

Using a hand whisk, whisk in egg yolks and green colourings, if desired (ingredient B) until combined. Sift in all of the ingredients C into the egg yolk mixture and fold until mixture is well combined.

Using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg white (from ingredient D) in low speed for 2-3 mins until foamy. Increase beating speed to medium high. While beating, add sugar gradually in about 3-4 batches and continue beat till stiff peaks form.

Fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture in 2-3 batches and do it very gently. When the mixture is well combined, fill batter into baking cups to about 3/4 full.

Bake them at 140°C (or 125°C fan forced) for 20 mins at the middle rack. If you are using fan forced oven, you can cover the cupcake very loosely with a foil (not touching the batter) if your oven is too strong with its top heat. After 20 mins, remove the foil (if you are using one) and increase the temperature to 150°C (or 140°C fan forced) and continue to bake for another 20 mins, After removing the cupcakes from the oven, drop the cupcakes gently from a height onto the table top immediately - This step helps the cakes to shrink lesser. Transfer the cupcakes to cool on wire racks completely.

To make the coconut cream filling using ingredient E:

Combine half of the coconut milk, both flours, salt and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook mixture with low heat and constant stirring until thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the coconut milk. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. Chill mixture in the fridge for at least 2-3 hrs to allow the mixture to thicken further.

Pipe coconut cream into cupcakes using a long narrow piping tip (like Wilton 230). Serve at room temperature or chilled and both are as good.

Notice that I didn't dust the cakes with any icing sugar? Yes that I did dusted some icing sugar on some of the cupcakes but prefer the ones without the icing sugar! I reckon these pandan cupcakes are the best with its subtle sweetness and salty combination. For this instance, NO icing sugar for me, please!


Happy Baking
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