Filed under: Choux Pastry
When i mentioned that this blog is done by me, an amateur baker, i really meant it. I am amateur down to the last atom in my body. I have been wanting to make eclairs, for the longest time, for my yang and i also thought it would be a nice dessert/pastry to know how to make considering it’s quite a favourite among my closest friends. So, i put aside an entire afternoon to work at it. (Trust me, it should not take that long).
Making eclairs can be quite a …(let’s keep this family friendly).. pain, but if u make it a couple of times, u will surely get the hang of it.
I’m just going to bring you through my very first attempt at making eclairs. Feel free to laugh at my pictures and the way the eclairs look ‘cos..yeah, they do look funny and physically challenged.
So, i got the recipe from rachel allen. I love her recipes. And these are what you need.
Choux pastry
- 100g (3 ½ oz) strong white or plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 150ml (1/4 pint) water
- 75g (3oz) butter
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 extra egg, beaten – to brush eclairs before baking
For the chocolate glacé icing
- 200g (7oz) icing sugar
- 25g (1oz) cocoa powder
- 1 2 tbsp boiling water
For the crème chantilly filling
- 50g (2oz) icing sugar (1 generous tbsp), sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 400ml (14fl oz) whipped cream (measure when whipped)
2 piping bags
- Plain 5-8mm (1/4 – 3/8 in) nozzle
- Plain 3 mm (1/8 in) nozzle
You get the necessary stuff, nothing out of the ordinary.
And you start mulling.
First comes the sifting of flour. 100 grams.
Then you beat the 3 eggs.
And you throw in the 70g of butter and 150 ml of water into a saucepan on medium-high heat.
It looks a little gross, but you keep stirring till all the butter has melted and the mixture comes to a “rolling boil”.
Yup, there it is, in all it’s yellow glory, boiling.
You then remove it from the heat and throw in the 100g of sifted flour and mix it till it comes together.
You lower the flame to a medium and put the saucepan back on and stir till the play doh starts to stick a little to the base of the pan. Then you remove it from the heat completely and pour in a little of the egg mixture.
And you beat like crazy. You continue adding till you get a shiny, dropping consistency from the batter. Kinda like this.
Now beware! The recipe says to add in 3 eggs, but honestly all i needed was 2. The batter should not be too runny or too thick, so make sure you keep a close eye on it while you’re adding in your egg bit by bit.
The recipe calls for piping bags, which you probably know, i don’t have. But i bought some fancy looking thing e.g. cake decorator cum pipng bag from cold storage, and it kinda did the trick.
So all i did was to line a baking tray with parchment paper and squeeze the batter onto it, in worm-like strips.Brush them with the last beaten egg.
AND this, my friends, is the start of funny lookin eclairs.
While you’re busy squeezing that out, keep your oven preheated at 220 degrees and pop the worms in for approximately 10 mins. Then you lower the temperature to 200 degrees and leave it in for a further 15 mins.
You finally take them out when they’re slightly golden brown, poke a small hole on the under side or at the side of the eclair, with a small sharp knife, to let the steam escape and put them in for a further 5 mins.
This is me, poking.
Once they’re baked, leave them out to cool on a wire rack.
While they’re cooling,You sift the cocoa powder and icing sugar into a bowl.
And you pour (again beware of what is written on the recipe, it came out too gooey if you pour 12 TBSP of boiling water) i think 1 to 2 table spoons.But just pour spoon by spoon and mix till its a spread-able paste.
This took a lot of trial and error because i followed the recipe and it came out all wrong so i had to do a lot of adjustments here n there.
For the cream filling, you take 400 ml of the whipped cream, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 50g of icing sugar.
This is the gross looking mixture, before it is mixed. But trust me, it is quite yummy.
I dont have pictures for the rest of the steps that i did ‘cos i was panicking over how awful my eclairs looked.
You take the cream and put it into another piping bag and you squeeze the cream into each eclair till it’s filled proper. (This is not easy).
And then you spread the eclair, on the top, with the chocolate.
This..is amateur eclair.
(keep it chilled before you serve).
This is professional eclair.
But they taste almost the same. So i’m quite satisfied. =)
Haha! I get tickled reading the title of this post.
I just came up with that name, because what i’m gonna show you guys reminds me of this cartoon where the babies have hair like this. But i just can’t remember the name of the cartoon.
It’s such a simple recipe, but it tastes pretty yummy if you’re into cotton candy and melt in your mouth kinda stuff.
Here are the ingredients.
2 egg whites at room temperature
1/2 cup (115g) caster (superfine) sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Filling (Optional):
125g dark chocolate melts
90 g (1/3 cup) sour cream
This is really, all you need.
You preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius and you line your baking tray with baking paper.
Now comes the fun part.
This was what the book mentioned:
“Using ELECTRIC BEATERS, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating well after each addition. Beat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy. Add the cinnamon and beat well.”
I’m sure you understood every word of it. I’ve read that soft peaks thingy in countless cookbooks, but i’ve never done it. And if you haven’t either, check this out.
This is how it looks at the start.
You add the sugar, gradually, and keep beating.
And beating. Boy, this is getting fun. It reminded me soo much of chemistry experiments in the lab. I loved those sessions.
And just like in titration experiments, how your heart skips a beat (with excitement) when you see the intial stages of colour change, mine skipped a beat when i saw the first peaks forming. (Don’t forgot to add the cinnamon).
And you will slowly see the peaks forming more prominently.
And Ta-dah!
Cute peaks.
Then you get your piping bag with a fluted nozzle ( i don’t have one, so i used a ziploc bag and cut a hole at the bottom, sounds pathetic, i know) and you squueze it into cute little baby hair.
Trust me, they look nicer with a proper icing bag with a fluted nozzle.
You bake the for 30 mins, or till theyre pale and crisp. Leave the door ajar and in the oven for a couple of mins after it’s baked.
And you bite into it….melt in the mouth yumminess.
The filling is meant to be a dip kinda thing, ‘cos it does taste a little plain. SO if you have sour cream around the house, use it.
Filed under: Cupcakes
I have a friend whose birthday falls on the 9th of november and we had planned a post birthday celebration meet-up. Sadly, I got called up at the last minute for an interview. I had made this a day in advance, in hope that i’ll be able to meet my friend, even for a little bit after the interview, unfortunately….
So what i did was to pack it nicely and hope and pray that she would be able to meet me the day after, but alas, she couldn’t.
The little thing I had prepared for her was perfect for her ‘cos she is one of the few, actually, the only one i know who likes mint chocolate.
And these are the ingredients involved.
60 g unsalted/ salted butter, softened
1/3 cup (80g) firmly packed soft brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 cup (60g) self raising flour
1/4 cup (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
Chocolate Mint:
A decent amount of mint chocolate (e.g. cadbury’s)
1 tablespoon of butter
So here’s how it goes.
You preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.
You beat your sugar, butter and vanilla till pale and creamy.
So i was thinking that maybe i didnt need an electric beater ( I was just plain lazy to take it out) and beat it manually.
BAD IDEA. ‘cos THIS is what you get. Cookie dough.
Definitely not pale and creamy.
I freaked out, decided not to be lazy and took out my electric beater and…TA-DAH!
Much better.
Then you add in the egg and beat well. Even more TA-DAH!
Ok, you know that flour and cocoa powder? Sift it together into a large bowl (If you can be bothered to. Sift i mean).
And you add half of it to the butter mixture you’ve been beating. And whisk gently.
And you add the milk. Mix together.
And add the other half of the flour mixture and mix well.
Take a pinch of the batter, insert it into your mouth and fly to heaven for 1 minute. It is THAT yummy.
You divide the batter evenly into paper cases. Up to you whatever size you may want.
And pop it into the oven for 15-20 mins. Or till the skewer comes out clean.
For the mint filling. You get your mint chocolate. I got simple ones that come in a roll. I used about 3/4 of it.
Add the chocolates and the 1 tablespoon of butter into a double boiler and let it melt! Remember to stir occassionaly during the melting process.
Once the cupcakes/muffins or whatever you wanna call them, come out baked, you cut a tiny circle in the centre and dig it out (hopefully it’s still intact as and after you dig it out). (Sorry i don’t have a pic for this).
And you cut that circle in half (in the centre).(Sorry i don’t have a pic for this)
You put a little bit of the mint chocolate into the hole and you put the two halves of the circle on top of it such that it looks like butterfly wings.
The white stuff is not fungi. It’s icing sugar that is unsifted.
And you do it for all the other cupcakes/muffins and put it into a little box and seal it up hoping for the day she would realise how much she means to you.
Sigh.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Here’s to everyone!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
More baking escapades coming up after christmas. Stay tuned!
So what happened was, somewhere between late october to early november, when a friend of mine was going through soo much shit with school and tests and her final year project, i decided to do something nice for her and make her one of her favourite desserts.
(To make this blog REAL and realistic, i feel i should put both successful and unsuccessful bakes into this blog, and well, as can be read from the title, this was a failure).
The reason why i chose this particular recipe in the first place was ‘cos it was recommended by one of my favourite online websites. Sadly, i think it was my carelessness or my oven settings that failed me.
Anyhow, i am going to put up the ingredients and pictures and hopefully you might have more luck baking it and you can prove to me that i was just a molten chocolate lava cake failure.
Here’s what you need:
28g (1 oz ) of semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 whole eggs
2 whole egg yolks
6 tablespoons flour
2 cups whipping cream (optional, i didn’t use it)
2 tablespoons sugar
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and butter your muffin/cupcake trays like crazy.
Melt the baking chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave if your baking chocolate allows you to do so).
You should get a mixture of good consistency. Then you stir in the sugar till its well blended. And you mix in the eggs and the egg yolks.
Then you add in the flour (this is where i didn’t like the mixture anymore and felt it was going to be a failure).
You divide that (failure) mixture into the cups and put it into the oven.
NOW, THIS IS THE CRUCIAL PART.
BAKE THE CUPCAKES for less than 10 mins or till you see the top part rising then stop!
The center should still look a bit wobbly. And you let them cool for a min then you remove them (even if it risks having you burn your hand, DO IT).
You see, mine looked promising.
and then….
No molten or lava or volcano..Boo.
So at the end of the day, i felt cheated and my friend was molten chocolate lava cake-less.
Now, most of my friends know that i’m a huge fan of Jamie Oliver. I used to watch his tv programs, which tend to only play at the oddest hours of the day, when i was on school holidays. I have to say he was/is one of my main inspirations to pick up a saucepan and start cooking.
I remember when i was in Australia, he started this revolution known as Ministry of Food, which basically was to get people to stop eating take outs and microwaveable foods and get back into the kitchen and cook fresh recipes for themselves and their family.
Thankfully, i got my hands on his book and flipped to the roast section and thought, what the hell, i’ve never tried roasting a chicken, so why not try it? I sadly do not have step by step photos of how i did it, but i do have a pic of it roasting in the oven, which i will put up, but let me just tell you how its all super- simply done.
You’ll love how simple it is that you’ll feel like doing it over and over again.
So first of all, these are the ingredients you need:
1. A whole chicken with all it’s innards removed, head and feet chopped off.
2. 2 large onions
3. 2 carrots
4. 2 sticks of celery
5. A whole bunch of garlic
6. 1 lemon
7. Bay, thyme, rosemary leaves.
8. Olive oil
9. Sea Salt and Pepper
First of all, preheat your oven to 240 degrees celcius and prepare a baking tray for the roasting.
So what you do is you cut the carrots, celery into bite size pieces. Cut the onions into rings, not too small. Separate the garlic cloves, but don’t remove it’s skin (trust me on that).
You place them nicely in the centre of your baking tray.Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables.
Then you get ur chicken. Sprinkle a GENEROUS amount of salt and pepper (and if you’re indian like me, sprinkle some chilli powder). Nicely massage the chicken all over. Nice and easy. Treat it right.
Once that’s done, put it on the vegetables, drizzle more olive oil over the chicken. Poke holes around your lemon with a fork or knife. Don’t poke urself in you hand while doing that. Get your bay, rosemary, thyme leaves and stick it up the bottom hole of the chicken (which will be gaping open). Just half in, so you can actually see half of the lemons and herbs sticking out. Damn , i wish i had a picture to show that proper.
You bring down the temperature of the oven to 200 degrees celcius, put it into the oven and you roast it for approximately 1.5 hours.
Below are the only 2 pics of the chicken i took with my humble handphone camera while the chicken was roasting.
I have to say one thing, this recipe yielded the most tender and delicious chicken ever. Healthy too.
Go try it and if you can, please spread the love (recipe) like what Jamie suggests. You never know who’s life you might change.
Filed under: Cookies
I decided to go back to the basics this week and baked something really simple BUT i have to say they are the yummiest i have baked, yet.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!
In all honesty, i find baking cookies one of the toughest things to bake, ‘cos i’ve never really gotten them to taste the way i like them. But this one, this one hit THE spot. Plus, if you hate the idea of pulling out your electric mixer or kitchen aid..this is THE recipe for you. All you need is your trusty wooden spoon. Easy peasy cheesy weezy. (Learnt that from the hot tutor of a cute 8 yr old).
So here’s the recipe:
1. 165 g (1.5cup) plain flour
2. 90g (3/4 cup) cocoa powder
3. 280g (1.5 cup) brown sugar
4. 180g salted OR unsalted butter cubed
5. 1 cup chopped dark chocolate
6. 3 eggs at rm temperature, lightly beaten
7. 265g (1.5 cup) choc chips
And here’s how it goes:
You preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and you line your baking trays if you need to.
Then you sift the fl0ur and cocoa into a large bowl. You know, i love baking, the way everything comes together and forms into this yummy thing while its in the oven or fridge but the process known as SIFTING..that’s a pain in the a@@. seriously. I hate how everything flies everywhere, unless you have this:
Yup, that’s a handheld mixer. Get it, if you can. And if you have it already, I’M JEALOUS.
So after you sift the cocoa powder and flour, you add in the sugar and make a well in the centre.
Put that aside and take out your double boiler and melt the butter and chocolate in it.
Once again, presenting my pseudo double boiler.
And once that’s fully melted, you fold it into the dry mixture till it’s JUST combined. No over-mixing please.
Now, pictures which involve mixing this with that always turn out a bit…weird and ugly and shaky, so my BAD.
Once that’s all gooey and chocolatey, you fold in the choc chips. I used 2 different brands of choc chips, but i have to admit, i prefer one to the other. Make a willllld guess.
No, it’s not what you think it is.
And finally you spoon the batter onto the tray.
My tray has been lined with aluminium foil. This is a convenient method if you’ve ran out of baking paper or if you’re lazy to butter your tray. Thank you to my brother and penny for this tip.
You bake it for about 7-10 mins and WALA! Yummy yummy choc chip cookies.
Recently i had to wait for my boyfriend somewhere in woodlands and i had quite a bit of time to waste so i decided to hop over to the library. I was naturally drawn to the cooking section, which had a pretty good collection of all types of cookbooks, including one which had over hundred potato recipes. That was an interesting read.
But as always, the ones which kept me busy and in awe were the chocolate recipe books. I have to admit im not exactly a huge fan of EATING chocolate but there’s just something about baking something with chocolate in it. Desserts with chocolate just taste better and i don’t know why.
So i borrowed this book home. And i swear by the recipes in this book ‘cos they are THE best.
And i sieved out a couple of recipes which i’ve always wanted to try out. This was one of the many, White Chocolate Cheesecake. I’m not sure if i am allowed to do this, but i shall anyway.
This recipe called for:
1. butternut biscuits, for the base. But i absentmindedly forgot to include it into my shopping list, so i ended up making an oreo base one instead
2. 85g of white chocolate chips
3.250g of cream cheese
4. 60ml of whipping cream
5. 115g of caster sugar
6. 1 egg
7. 250g of mixed berries (i chose to only put strawberries)
8. 1 cup of butter, melted (for the base)
9. 1 cup of brown sugar for the base
So i started of with the base. Remove the cream from the oreo biscuits put them into a ziploc bag or whatever bag you can seal up and vent out your frustration on it with a pestle (every asian home should have one) or bulldoze it with a rolling pin till it turns out super fine and crumbly and u feel like just opening the bag up and pouring it into your mouth. OR if you have a food processer at home, you can always just throw the biscuits in and get them all beautifully smashed.
And then you mix in the sugar with the crumbs. And it should look something like that.
And you finally pour in the melted butter (that’s the funky looking yellow stuff in the tiny bowl) and give it a good mix till they don’t fall apart in crumbs anymore.
And then you press the crumbs into the base of whatever you intend to bake this on. I decided to make them look like mini cakes e.g. cupcakes, so i took out those cute paper cupcake holders and pressed the crumbs into the base and put them in the fridge while you carry on preparing the rest of the cake.
And while that’s in the fridge, you melt the white chocolate in a double boiler.
Check this out, my improvised double boiler. Works as well as a real one. Please ignore my mom’s red pot in the background.
(Pssst, this is when i started to preheat my oven at 160 degrees celcius)
While that is melting, beat together the cream cheese, whipping cream and half of the sugar.
And when that is mixed, you add in the beautifully melted white chocolate. I told you, my improvised boiler works as well as the real thing.
Beat in the egg as well and you mix it all up.
Then you remove the base that has been in the fridge and pour the batter into each cup and you put it in the oven for approximately 25 mins.
While that is happening, take out whatever berries you have. If you have strawberries, cut them up into pieces, up to you to decide how small you want them. I cut mine pretty small and poured the other half of sugar into it, mixed it well and put it into the fridge.
I baked both mini and large cupcakes, these were the mini ones, fresh out of the oven. Damn the cracks.
And you let them cool completely. Then you refrigerate them for about an hour.
And when you’re ready to serve, put the strawberries or whatever berries you have on top for deco and serve!
In the foreground is the leftover base that i baked into mini cupcakes.
And when you bite into the cheesecake…..YUM.
The base doesn’t photograph well but they taste equally yummy.
That cookbook has never left my side since ive borrowed it. I absolutely love the pictures and the way the recipes are presented.
Any idea if i could buy books from the library?
Filed under: Cupcakes
I’m gonna cheat a little on my first baking entry and cut/paste an entry that i did in my non-food blog and put it in here. ‘Cos im anal and want everything to be put in it’s place.
So the first entry is about how i attempted at making Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese and/or chocolate buttercream frosting. I have to say, the thing i love about red velvet cakes/cupcakes is it’s gorgeous texture, which obviously, comes from it’s name: Velvet. It’s Red, my favourite colour, and it’s ALMOST yummy (not exactly a fan of it’s taste) when freshly baked.
I was highly inspired to make this cupcake when a fellow baking enthusiast cousin of mine, Anita, introduced me to a website by bakerella. Go check it out if you got the time. It has the most creative baked stuff that i’ve ever seen and relatively easy as well. So from that website i started to look around and found more websites by awesome dessert chefs/bakers and whatever else you wanna call them.
So yesterday, i baked red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, something i’ve always wanted to try and finally got my ass down to do it.
I got the recipe by Paula Deen , yet another famous baker.
And this is how i did it.
Took the dry ingredients aside: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sugar.
Sifted the flour painstakingly with a tiny sieve, ‘cos the bigger one just didn’t do the trick. Thanks for your help though.
And you mix all the dry ingredients together till you can’t tell them apart.
And then i dumped all the wet ingredients into my mom’s huge pink bowl (which has been my saviour in baking) Eggs, buttermilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and of course, red food colouring.
Whisk them all up till they turn nice and red.
And then, you painstakingly sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk it all together.
You then line your cupcake tray with cute cupcake cups, which i managed to get from cold storage. They were the perfect size. Cute as well.
And you pour the goooey mixture into each cup. The batter reminded me of ang ku kueh. hmm..
and you pop it into the oven for about 20 mins. I feel this highly depends on your oven. If you know it well, you’ll know when to stop. haha.
And while that’s baking, comes the second part, the cream cheese frosting!
So you dump in the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and mix it all together. This time i used a handheld mixer ‘cos that’s most effective for making frosting. And then you add in sifted confectioner’s sugar, bit by bit. And make sure u take time to taste how sweet the frosting is, especially if you have people around you who are prone to getting diabetes. ‘Cos if you dump it all in, u might have to cut off a finger or a leg or an arm.
SO make sure it’s all soft and fluffy, like clouds. And put it aside, covered, in the fridge preferably.
Once the cupcakes are out, let them cool, completely, for about an hour. And then you start dressing them up with frosting. Throw in some choc chips and m&ms if you have them around the house.
Oh i also had chocolate buttercream frosting, so i used that too.
And there you have it! Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese and/or chocolate buttercream frosting.
You bet you are.
I knew this would happen. I knew i would start it sooner or later. My very own food blog!
I’m thoroughly excited. Soo excited that im dancing in my seat as i type this entry out.
I’m no chef or anywhere close to being one, But i know my medium rare from my rare. I know how to devein prawns and i know how to bake a decent pound cake. That should be enough…right?
WRONG.
I love food. I love the way its cooked, the way its presented and most importantly the way its eaten. I love my salads, i love my meats, i love my seafood (double thumbs up to sushi). My love for food is what that has driven me to experiment in cooking/baking/burning down the kitchen.
I have to say, i started out experimenting with food, proper, when i left tertiary education and basically was between temporary jobs. My year away from home showed me both the boon and bane of cooking. There were days i absolutely hated eating and wished that my body would consider a packet of fruit juice an all rounded meal. Unfort, it didn’t and i soon felt the effects of it and started to cook proper all rounded meals, and yes, see the beauty and science of food.
People often take for granted the effort and passion put into crafting out a dish. I use the word craft, because some people do not realise that your meal is a piece of art.
I know of people/friends who will be reading this who are much, much better cooks than i am. To you guys, just bear with my amateur cooking and if you do have tips to make it less amateur-ish, i’m all ears, seriously.
I would love to be able to bake a pavlova or a baklava or a turducken one day. I will work my way up but till then, i will start with….
(Stay tuned).
