Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Truffles
Coffee Truffles (makes 25-30 pieces)
120ml heavy cream
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1.5 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp (15g) butter, soft
200g dark chocolate (manjari) chopped
1.5 tbsp whiskey
Valrhona cocoa powder for garnish
Combine cream and corn syrup in saucepan and bring to a boil.
Add coffee and stir well to dissolve.
Add cream to chocolate and butter. Start stirring after about 2 minutes and stir until smooth and homogenous. Use a whisk if necc and whisk in the whiskey slowly.
Pour ganache into a bowl/baking pan and cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for 1hour or more till the ganache is firm.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scope out balls of ganache using #100 scope and place on sheet pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes. Roll each portion into round ball. Dust with cocoa powder.
Serve
**yum yum yum. dark and smooth with essence of coffee.
Salted caramel truffles (makes 30-40 pieces) - adapted from epicurious
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (caribe), finely chopped, divided
2/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons water
2/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel
Garlic mash potatoes
To feed 12 people comfortably:
10 Russet potatoes
125g salted butter - cut into 8 pieces
4 bulbs roasted garlic (brush with canola oil and cover with foil, roast at 200C for 35mins)
2 cups half & half (1 cup of whipping cream + 1 cup of milk) warmed
Wash and quarter the potatoes. Cook the potatoes at low simmer, starting with cold salted water. Make sure that the potatoes are cooked thoroughly. Drain the water and dry out the potatoes in the same pot by heating it for 1-2 minutes.
Peel the potatoes and push them through the ricer.
Mix in some garlic and butter while "mincing" the potatoes.
This can be prepared up to 3 hours prior to serving.
Just before serving, heat the mashed potatoes in the pot at medium heat. Whip in the heated half-and-half.
Serve warm
Learning points & tasting notes: Make sure the potatoes are cooked thoroughly. I had a hard time putting them through the ricer as they were slightly undercooked.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Chocolate surprise (lemon) cake
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Moist chocolate raspberry genoise
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Classic genoise with strawberries and chocolate whipped cream
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Thomas Keller's chocolate chip cookies
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 ounces 55 percent chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces
5 ounces 70 to 72 percent chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup packed dark brown sugar, preferably molasses sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
Position racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
Sift flour and baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir in the salt.
Put chips in a fine-mesh basket strainer and shake to remove any chocolate “dust” (small fragments).
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth. Add both sugars and the remaining butter, and beat until well combined, then beat for a few minutes, until mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is incorporated before adding the next and scraping the bowl as necessary. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in chocolate.
Remove bowl from mixer and fold dough with a spatula to be sure the chocolate is evenly incorporated.
The dough or shaped cookies can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 5 days or frozen for 2 weeks. Freeze shaped cookies on the baking sheets until firm, then transfer to
freezer containers. (Defrost frozen cookies overnight in the refrigerator before baking.)
Using about 2 level tablespoons per cookie, shape dough into balls. Arrange 8 cookies on each pan, leaving about 2 inches between them, because the dough will spread. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, switching the position and rotating pans halfway through baking.
Cool cookies on the pans on cooling racks for about 2 minutes to firm up a bit, then transfer to the racks to cool completely. Repeat with second batch of cookies. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
I used self-raising flour instead as it was available in the pantry and forgot to add the salt in. Also, I used only 1/2 cup of sugar instead of the 3/4 cup called for by the recipe. For the chocolate, I used Cadbury 70% and macadamia milk chocolate which turned out to be great as I love the nuts in the cookies.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
braised pork ribs
Pork Riblets Braised in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce
modified from Molly Stevens’ All About Braising (Serves 2 as a meal or 4 as a starter)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup sliced shallots
1 bulb garlic smashed, skin removed
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 slab baby back ribs (1.75 to 2 lbs)
sawed lengthwise in half
Spread the sugar in the bottom of a wide heavy-based skillet/crock pot. Pour over 1/4 cup of the water and the lemon juice. Let it sit for a minute. Then heat over medium heat until the sugar begins to liquefy. Reduce the heat the medium low and let the caramel boil until it turns red.
Remove it from the heat and slowly pour 1/4 cup water and the fish sauce into the caramel. Return to the heat and stir. Let boil for a few minutes, until the sauce is smooth and a bit thick. Add the shallots and pepper and garlic and simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Separate the pork ribs into individual riblets by cutting down between the bones. Blanch with 2 slices of ginger. Drain. Add them to the caramel sauce, stir to coat, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cover and braise, stirring every 15 minutes with tongs, for 90 minutes, up to 3hrs for large ribs Don’t let the caramel sauce boil; if the heat is too high then use a diffuser. The ribs are done when they have become tender enough to pull easily away from the bone and are a deep mahogany colour. At this point, you can serve them or store them.
If you want to store them, let them cool and then store in the fridge for 1 to 3 days. To reheat, pop them in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
Alternatively, the sauce can be modified by heating in a wok and adding a splash of shaoxing wine.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Fiesta cheesecake & strawberry shortcake
Slight changes to the recipe: used 120g of sugar instead and omitted the lemon. Also, as the eggs were small, I used 6 egg yolks and 7 whites. That resulted in a more pronounced cheese flavor. Will probably attempt again when my poor ego recovers.
Because of this "failure", I ended up making a strawberry shortcake using the genoise. There wasn't much problems with the baking but the I tried to use the mascarpone whipped cream recipe by Tish Boyle which didn't work so well for the cake. Only thing I learned was "sweetening" the tart strawberries by mixing the sliced strawberries with 2 tbsp of sugar and letting it sit for 2hours to macerate.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Flourless chocolate almond cake
Flourless chocolate almond cake
200g dark, bitter chocolate (I used Valrhona 66 %)
1 tbsp strong espresso coffee (omitted)
1 tbsp rum or brandy
120g caster sugar
150g butter
100g ground almonds
5 eggs, separated (used 6 small eggs instead)
Icing sugar for dusting
Melt the chocolate, coffee, rum or brandy, half the sugar and butter in a bowl sitting in a pot of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat and stir until well mixed.
Add the ground almonds and mix well. Beat in the egg yolks, one by one.
Beat the egg whites until soft peak, add sugar and beat till stiff and glossy. Stir a couple of spoonfuls into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, before gently folding in the rest.
Turn into a buttered and floured 20cm (8in) round or square cake tin and bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes (less if you like it fudgey, more if you like it cakey) at the lowest rack.
The cake will rise almost to the top of the tin before cracking and falling. Leave to cool before removing gently from the tin, and dust with icing sugar to serve.
Tasting notes & learning points: The cake was intensely chocolaty with a mousse-like texture. The ground almond gives it a slight nutty texture. I might cut the sugar to 100g the next time as I like dark bitter chocolate more and maybe try a cake without the almond for a pure chocolate indulgence.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Pierre Herme's Black Forest Cake
Finally made this cake with Elaine's help today. Thank goodness for Mingtze's optimism and faith in the recipe. It was actually quite yummy. No need to cut the sugar as the sweet cake balances the sourish cherries and cream very well.
Tasting notes & learning points: I only used 2-3tbsp of syrup per cake layer and trimmed the cake to fit a 8 inch ring. I will probably use more cherries next time as I used 200g of cherries but I don't think it is enough. Also, need to fold the meringue properly into the batter. A topping of chocolate shavings will be perfect and I think more whipped cream is not necc. And perhaps to make it less stressful, prepare the chocolate whipped cream, cherries, syrup and cocoa cake the day before. Assemble the cake and chill it for at least 3 hours.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
white chocolate sour cream frosting
120g white chocolate, chopped
120g sour cream
240 heavy cream
Heat white chocolate and sour cream in double boiler till it is completely melted. Stir often.
Cool to room temperature
Whip heavy cream and fold it into white chocolate.
Frost.
Tasting notes & learning points: It was difficult to melt the white chocolate and I had to put the mixture through a fine sieve to make it smooth before folding in the whipped cream. The sour cream helps to temper the sweetness of the white chocolate.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Tiramisu layer cake 2
Some changes to the recipe.
1. Added 4tsp of coffee extract to the chocolate genoise while melting the cocoa powder
2. For the cream: Whisk 8 egg yolks, 1/3 cup +1 tbsp sugar + 1/2 cup rum over double boiler to make zabagloine. Whip 500g mascarpone cheese briefly and add zabagloine followed by gelatine mixture and 1tbsp rum to it. Used 300ml of cream instead.
3. Syrup = 120ml coffee + 3tbsp kahlua + 3 tbsp bailey's. Use 6tbsp per layer (12tbsp per cake)
Tasting notes & learning points: yummy, moist & flavourful with a punch. May use less cream next time, maybe 240ml instead of 300
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
ondeh ondeh
First time it failed was because I used purple-flesh sweet potato. I loved the colour and thought that it would bring a nice colour to the onde onde. (Ya, I'm superficial) BUT... they were too fibrous and hard. I had put the potatoes through a mesh after cooking and mashing to get rid of the tough parts. Furthermore, less flour was used as the potatoes were dry. The end product tasted too sweet-potato-ish. Not bad if you like the taste of sweet potato, but not for me.
The second time it failed was because the potatoes were undercooked and too hard to mash.
Wells, as they say, first time lucky and third time is a charm. So it worked this time!
Ondeh Ondeh (makes about 40 balls)
300g sweet potato cooked till soft and mashed
2 tbsp pandan extract
100g of glutinous rice flour and more
Mix all the above in a big bowl and knead to form a soft dough. Add flour or water as necc. The end product should be a soft dough which comes together easily and does not stick to the bowl or fingers.
Make the balls by wrapping a small ball of dough around little cubes of excellent gula melaka. The new ones that were given to me are excellent.. soft, crumbly and VERY aromatic
In the meantime, steam 150g of grated coconut with some pandan leaves for 3minutes.
Cook the ondeh ondeh in a pot of boiling water with some pandan leaves. The onde onde is cooked when it is floating in the water for about 30sec. Remove with slotted spoon.
Roll the cooked ondeh ondeh in the coconut to coat the surface.
Serve within the day.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
sacher torte
Sacher torte
Make the parts
1/2 recipe of moist chocolate genoise gives a 9-inch cake which is sliced into 2 after removing top, sides and bottom - takes 25-35mins (30minutes) to bake
syrup = 80ml cocoa syrup (p189 of Rose's heavenly cake) + 1 tbsp each of dark rum, kirsch and orange liquor
1.5cup of bittersweet chocolate glaze (p306 of Tish Boyle's The Cake Book)
Apricot filling made by heating 1 bottle (250ml) of St Dalfour apricot jam and 3 tbsp of water in saucepan at medium heat till it bubbles. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.
Assemble the cake.
Brush 2 tbsp of syrup on each side of the cake slice. (total 8tbsp needed for the whole cake)
Once the syrup is absorbed, spread 1/3 of jam over the cake layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with remaining jam. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30mnutes.
While waiting for cake to chill, make the glaze. Pour glaze over cake once cake is chilled.
Allow cake to stand for at least 1hour before serving.
Learning points and tasting notes.
The cake was moist and soft. Not overly sweet and the apricot gave a nice tangy-ness. However, the glaze was a little disappointing looks-wise as it did not look as glossy and dark as I thought it should. Maybe I'll try the version on Chubby Hubby next time. Everyone liked the cake but could not discern the apricot flavor, might have to try another brand of jam or make my own the next time. Also, the sponge needs more time to absorb the syrup before putting the jam.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tiramisu layer cake
Tiramisu layer cake
First, bake the chocolate genoise (recipe from The Cake Bible). I did not change anything from this recipe and the chocolate genoise turned out perfectly moist and soft.
Then, make the coffee soaking syrup by adding 1tbsp of kahlua to 6tbsp of cooled espresso coffee (2x nespresso espresso).
Followed by the mascarpone whipped cream
1/3 cup castor sugar
½ cup brandy/rum
250g mascarpone cheese
400ml heavy whipping cream
1.5tsp gelatine melted in 3tbsp water
Whisk (5-10mins) egg yolk, sugar & rum in bowl over simmering water until thick to make zabaglione. Keep whisking even when removed from water till it cools down. (to avoid making sweet scrambled egg)
Add gelatine mixture to zabaglione. Whisk well to combine. Whisk mascarpone in standmixer for 30sec, add zabaglione (room temperature) and whisk till combined. Keep in fridge.
In separate bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold into above mixture.
Finally, assemble the cake.
Torte the cake and slice it into 2 layers to fit into 8inch cake ring. Place 1 cake layer into cake ring and sprinkle 3 tbsp of coffee syrup. Put 1/2 of mascarpone whipped cream on the cake layer. Repeat with the 2nd cake layer. It will come up to almost the top of the 3 inch high cake ring. Seal the top with cling wrap and place cake in fridge for 24hours for the flavours to meld.
To serve, remove cake ring and dust a layer of cocoa powder on the top.
Tasting notes & learning points: The cake turned out nice and soft and light. However, there seems to be lacking the oomph flavour. Will consider putting 4tbsp of syrup per layer instead the next time and maybe add some rum in the whipped cream. The flavour of rum was very strong initially but seemed to disappear by the second day. Or, maybe add some baileys to the coffee syrup.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
creamless hearty mushroom soup
Hearty mushroom soup (serves 4-6)
15g butter
1 small yellow onion diced
3 cloves of garlic diced
1 bay leaf
750g mushrooms diced - portobello, brown button and oyster
5 porcinin/shitake mushrooms diced
350ml chicken stock
100ml milk
Heat butter in large skillet.
Saute onion & garlic at low heat for 10minutes.
Add mushrooms into pan and fry at high heat for about 15minutes. The mushrooms will release liquid into the pan as they cook.
Turn off the heat and blend all the contents in the pan.
Add chicken stock and bay leaf to blended mushrooms and bring in to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer and add milk.
Stir well to combine.
Serve warm.
Garnish options: fresh cream, truffle oil, grilled mushrooms (by cooking mushrooms in clean dry skillet till all the moisture has been released)
Saturday, July 23, 2011
chocolate cake for a dear friend
I did however, 1/2 the coffee used in the chocolate mousse which helped accentuate the taste of the chocolate and yet no coffee flavour. I'll probably 1/2 the rum the next time round.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Mango cream & mousse cake for my brother
Mango Cream & Mousse Cake
This cake is a combination of the two previous mango cakes I made. It turned out better than I've expected as the mangoes were ripe and sweet.
Cake base - 3 halves of classic genoise
Mango mouuse - refer to previous recipe. The key to success is 2 large ripe mangoes. The amount was more than enough for 2 9inch layers and sides of the cake.
Whipped cream cheese frosting (see below) for 1 layer and and to cover the whole cake
Mango flavored simple syrup - 120ml of Fruit Tree mango juice, 3/4 cup of mango puree and 1 tbsp orange liquer mixed well. Use 5-6tbsp per layer of sponge.
The perfect (ok, I may be exaggerating a little) whipped cream cheese frosting
170g cream cheese
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
240ml cream
Whip cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in stand-mixer till smooth.
Whisk cream to stiff peak.
Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
mango mousse cake
Mango Mousse Cake
First, bake the genoise
For the sponge, I used the recipe of genoise riche from Rose's The Cake Bible. It is essentially the same as the classic genoise except that this uses twice the amount of butter. I baked it in a 8x3 inch round cake pan, well greased and floured. The cake took about 45minutes to bake compared to 25-35minutes if I've used a 9 inch springform pan. Hence, I had to cover the top of the cake with foil for the first 30minutes to prevent excessive browning. However, it was magnificently 2 inches tall!
While waiting for the cake to cool, make the mango mousse (adapted from Canadian Living)
750ml mango puree / puree 2 large sweet mangoes in blender
2 tbsp orange liqueur
1 tbsp lime juice
5 tsp unflavoured gelatin
50ml water
500ml of whipping cream
In bowl, combine mango puree, sugar, orange liqueur and lime juice; set aside.
In small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand for 5 minutes and dissolve over medium-low heat.
Stir gelatin into puree mixture.
Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Whip cream till soft peaks and fold one-third into remaining puree. Fold in remaining whipped cream.
Use immediately or keep in fridge.
Don't forget the simple syrup
Place 2 onces of sugar and 120ml of water in a saucepan. Heat till it is boiling and sugar has melted in covered saucepan.
Allow to cool and add 2 tbsp of orange liqueur.
Finally, assemble the cake
Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers.
Place one layer on a cake cardboard in a 8x3inch round cake ring. Sprinkle 3 tbsp of simple syrup on the cake.Put a third of the mousse over the cake layer and smooth it out a much as possible.
Repeat with the other 2 cake layers.
Place in freezer for 2 hours for mousse to set.
Remove the cake ring by using a hairdryer to warm up the sides.
Serve
Tasting notes and learning points: The mousse was smooth and set nicely but the citrus flavor was a little strong. I think it can do with more mangoes and less cream. The genoise was still a little on the dry side. It was soft and light but not as light as the classic genoise, it was also denser likely due to the excess butter. Maybe will try the golden genoise the next time or consider adding more milk/buttermilk to the classic genoise.