Chocolate surprise (lemon) cake

Made this for E's birthday today. It turned out surprisingly well except for the glaze. I say surprisingly because I came up with this myself. Hee ;-)

So the layers are as follows: (from the base)

1. German chocolate cake (1cm) made from Rose's heavenly cake with 200g instead of 300g of sugar and 1 extra egg as the eggs I have are rather small

2. Chocolate praline layer (0.5cm) adapted from Pierre Herme using 50g dark chocolate, 200g nutella, 15g butter and 1 +1/3 cup feuilletine

3. Thin layer of chocolate mousse using 70% valrhona, cream, milk, 1 tbsp each of rum & Cointreau

4. Frozen lemon cream (0.5cm) courtesy of Pierre Herme

5. Thin layer of chocolate mousse

6. Cake 1cm

7. Remaining mouse 1cm

8. Chocolate lacquer glaze from RHC

Next time, I'll use valrhona 64% for the mousse instead or maybe try the mousse recipe from either Pierrre Herme or Hidemi Sugino.

Moist chocolate raspberry genoise

Finally got around making this. It turned out much heavier than expected.

The taste was moist and chocolatly with a hint of raspberry, somewhat similar to the sacher torte I made the last time since they are made of essentially the same elements. Will I make this again? Most likely not. I'll much rather make the sacher torte.

I

Classic genoise with strawberries and chocolate whipped cream

Made this over the weekend as I wanted to try out my new 6 inch cake pans. So I made the classic genoise batter for a 9 inch cake and divided into two 6 inch pans. The pans managed ffto fit into the tiny oven together. I was planning to make one cake at first but the two small cakes turned out taller than the usual 9 inch one. Hence, I ended but filling & frosting both cakes in the end, after slicing the cake into 3 layers each. It was filled with chocolate whipped cream and strawberries, covered with chocolate ganache. It turned out rather yummy actually.

Thomas Keller's chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Ad Hoc at Home (makes about thirty 3-inch cookies)

Thomas Keller writes in the book: This is our version of what is arguably the best cookie ever. I like to use different chocolates, one sweeter, one with a more complex bittersweet balance. After you chop the chocolate, sift it to remove any tiny fragments to give the cookies a cleaner look. If you like softer cookies, don’t underbake them, just mist them with water before baking.

2 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
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.

Well, these cookies are good. Not the best I've ever had but nevertheless good. Crispy edges with chewy centers, somewhat reminds me of those sold at subway. However, I'll probably cut some of the sugar the next time AND maybe rest it overnight in the refrigerator for the flavors to meld, as suggested by Amanda Hesser.

braised pork ribs

YyTried these a few times and they are awesome! Never gotten around to keeping them for the next day though as they are usually gone on the day itself.

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.

Fiesta cheesecake & strawberry shortcake

I was planning to re-create the strawberry souffle from Flor since strawberries were on sale. But alas, the Japanese cheesecake was not to be. I overbeat the egg whites to stiff peak and the cake rose spectacularly like a souffle and fell just as spectacularly too. Ha ha. But it still tasted great though! Reminded me of fiesta cheesecake which used to be quite popular.

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.

Flourless chocolate almond cake

Read about this on Times online and Little Teochew and felt that I need to try it. This is also known as Queen of Sheba cake although I'm not sure why.


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.