HomeMadeS

Bakpia: Something to Remember

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Bakpia is one of many Indonesian cakes that is so traditional you can find them in almost any food shops or bakeries in Indonesia nationwide. It is said that it originates from a food factory in Pathuk/Pathok, Central Java in Java Island, Indonesia. It is the first-sought food to bring back home when someone happens to visit Central Java.

When we first traveled to Jogjakarta in my teen years, these little gems were the most lovely thing I enjoyed. I remember to eat a packet of them while reading a book. Bad habit. But, who cares? I still loved them when I last visited Yogyakarta back in 2000. So I guess, I may be in love with it. Something to remember, something I can still enjoy.

Since there are many varieties sold out there, I have identified which of them I like best. It is the one which is enveloped with thin flaky pastry. So thin, it just melts in my mouth without too much effort biting into it.

The pastry does not taste buttery like your common butter puff pastry. In fact, it is so humble you almost think it does not taste of anything, but it does actually. In fact, it is the most interesting part I find in bakpia.

Living more than 4,000 miles away from Central Java, I search the recipe for it. I found some promising ones, but I would like to stick with the ones which have been proved right. So, I come across Hesti's blog, where she was posting about the very thing I crave for.

Now, here I'm judging by the look, because I still remember vividly the appearance of bakpia I once ate that I liked best. Hers is the closest thing I have found. Other recipes were looking a bit too good to be true with too many flakes like those of puff pastry can produce, or otherwise layers are way too thick with rather dense-looking pastry like quiche pastry which holds too much butter.

I give it a go. Read and re-read the instructions, check and re-check the ingredients. Well, I am not the luckiest person ever alive since I have failed many times to find either whole or split mung beans available in our local Asian groceries shops, so I decided to use aduki beans instead. We can always improvise, can't we?

I cooked the aduki beans paste a night before I make the pastry the next day, so they are completely cooled when is needed.

Now, the interesting part begins: the pastry.

There is not only one kind of pastry here, but two. One is the outer pastry, the other one is the layered pastry. The layered pastry is not quite like the 'real' pastry, but more like crumble pastry. This crumble pastry is going to go inside the outer pastry. Confused? Don't be.

It is rather simple to make. It does not require any butter block or six times rolling-and-chilling like common puff pastry does. In fact, it is made out of flour, a little salt, water, and oil.

OK. Here, I am just going to pinpoint the uniqueness of the pastry. You can cook the filling as to your liking, either savoury or sweet. Be my guess.

Time to make the pastry.

Here is the recipe I got from Hesti's blog. I translate it for you, in case you are interested in making it and can't read in Bahasa Indonesia.

This is not gluten-free, so if you want to make it gluten-free, perhaps you can experiment with rice flour, potato starch, or any gluten-free flour you can think of, and use xanthan gum with it as to help as the 'gluten'. But I can't guarantee, as I haven't tried it with gluten-free flour just yet. Let me know if you have. I'd love to link yours here on my post.

The pastry (outer/skin)
125 gram standard plain flour
65 gram high grade flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 milliliter water
200 milliliter vegetable oil (50 mil for the dough and 150 for soaking the dough)

Heat the water until lukewarm (do not boil), add in sugar. Stir well until sugar is diluted, and remove from the stove. Mix flours and salt. Pour in the sugar syrup. Mix well until all combined. Pour in the oil, knead well.

Take 10 gram of dough. Roll and thin out. Spoon on the crumble pastry layer (the recipe will follow below) on the thinned dough and spread well on. Gather all the sides of the pastry, like when you fold an envelope. This step is important as to produce the flakes later on. Roll it like a ball, and soak in the oil for 15 minutes. Repeat the process until all the dough is used.

Crumble pastry layer
65 gram standard plain flour
25 milliliter vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon margarine

Mix everything well. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200 Celcius.

When all the pastry dough are done, roll out the dough ball. Your crumble pastry layer will be trapped in between the outer pastry. This crumble pastry layer will act like the 'butter block' somehow that retains moisture in the pastry and gives more tone in it. It also will produce the texture of the pastry.

Once the pastry ball is flatten, put the filling in the centre of the pastry. Close the filling by joining all the sides. Roll into balls again.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Gluten-Free Blueberry and Sour Cream Bundt Cake

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:48:00 +0000

Something I baked to enjoy on Jan's birthday last weekend dinner. Not too sweet, not too rich. Blueberries make it sweet and moist at the same time. Orange zest give the flavour citrusy and scented. The cream cheese frosting is a teaser, to top up the sweetness of blueberries and the orange zest fragrance. Just right to end the meal.

I am loving my new bundt cake tin, ordered from Cookware Essentials owned by Pam who happens loving to cook and bake herself, as much as I do. Take a look at her recipes on her website. She also has a recipe to fit in this bundt tin.

However, I am using this recipe and altered some ingredients to suit our needs. I use gluten-free flour and almond meal and substitute lemon with orange. I thought blueberries go really well with oranges. I also use margarine and cream cheese frosting.

The cream cheese frosting is scented with orange zest as well as its juice to thin its consistency a little bit. To make it interesting for my kids, I sprinkle some chocolate hails which came directly from Indonesia.

Gluten-Free Raspberry and White Chocolate Friands

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:02:00 +0000

I know I have told Andrew personally in our friendly emails-exchanged that I have given up blogging. I also had made my husband raised his eyebrows when I answered his curiosity why I haven't been blogging anymore the same thing I told Andrew. "Why would you stop blogging since it gives you pleasures?", he reasoned. I just shrugged. I had made some fellow Kiwi and Australian bloggers sympathized with my decision, but one American fellow blogger thought I would come back.

And she was right.

Well, I might still write if I am given some time to sit and write, as it is difficult to do it these days. Mind you, I am still homeschooling my two children (age 8 and 10 now) and babysit my two year old who is as busy as a bee. Time is not entirely mine, but I thought I will be able to squeeze 30 minutes at a time in between schooling, house chores, the fun in the kitchen, and gardening. It depends on my strong will now. I will keep it up for my faithful readers, thank you for being so patience with me. If this is a promise, then I will keep it bravely.

The iPad is rather helpful as to let me keep writing in my spare time, just to jot down a thought or two. I still photograph my kitchen produce with it, an easy approach I would say. I can't be bothered to mount different lenses on my SLR camera, though. At this moment, photographing from my iPad is just enough. Time is tight.

So, here is what I baked last time: Gluten-Free Raspberry and White Chocolate Friand with the rest of egg whites I used for Bika Ambon, KBB's latest challenge.

Gluten-Free Raspberry and White Chocolate Friand

I adapted the recipe from Taste Mag here, but have to substitute the plain flour with gluten-free flour, and made a change for some measurements and method. Here is what I do.

8 egg whites, whisked loosely
125 gram frozen raspberries
195 gram margarine, melted
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon gluten-free flour, sifted
1 cup icing sugar + 2 teaspoon cornflour, sifted
115 gram almond meal
125 gram Whittaker's raspberry white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease friand tins with margarine. Now, with this tin, I bought it online from Milly's Kitchen, here. It is much cheaper from other cookware shops I have been in in Auckland (that I know of). The tin itself is perfectly non-stick. So, grab one. It is one of bakewares your kitchen must have.

Divide raspberries into two equal portion. Crush coarsely.

What I do I just throw the wet ingredients in a rather medium bowl and sifted the dry ingredients, except almond meal and chocolate. Then, add in almond meal and white chocolate. Mix well. Add in crushed raspberries. Mix well.

The batter should be able to be spooned into the tin and rather thick but not firm, smooth and smell wonderfully raspberry! Spoon the batter into each friand tin. Top with the rest of raspberries (I crushed these raspberries too and add another quarter cup to top the batter).

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until spring back when touched. The friand will have that lovely golden colour smeared with ruby red raspberries. Oh, so heavenly. My kitchen smells awesome!

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before transfer them on the cooling rack to cool completely.

We enjoy our little French tea cakes with raspberry sauce, using the rest of frozen raspberries we have. Just add a little honey and vanilla paste, let it boil and simmer to your liking consistency. We just like them a bit runnier so the juice will be soaked up nicely by the cakes.

Let me tell you, it's delicious, moist, and oh so lovely, you cannot resist to have another one!

I'm sending these little tea cakes to Sweet New Zealand event, hosted this month by Sue of Couscous and Consciousness. This event was originated by our one and only food writer Alessandra Zecchini.

BBD-57: Savoury Bread

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:13:00 +0000

I have been missing out so many blogging world's online event for years, blaming my own mood if not this business of raising two homeschoolers and a toddler. The time to write is so limited and always be interrupted with the kids' and (sometimes) the father's needs. I guess it's just one risk of being a multitasking person, I believe.

Today, I ask them to let me have an hour free to prepare this blog post and here I am. Zorra, I keep my promise. Here is my entry for your BBD#57: Blogwarming Party.

Savoury Bread

with Beef Mince and Mushroom Filling

Actually, I made assorted bread from one dough recipe. I am that kind of person, who'd like to grab any opportunity to taste different things at one time. I think I am eligible for a wine tasting. *kidding

From this rich bread dough recipe, I made three kinds of bread: Mexican Coffee Buns, Savoury Bread with beef mince and mushroom filling, and Mexican Coffee Buns with Nutella filling. They all turned out really good and delicious. That's what my family said.

I followed the recipe for the bread dough here. It turned out really good, kind of spongy for a homemade bread.

And this is my recipe for the Beef Mince and Mushroom filling.

300g beef mince

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1 cup shiitake mushroom, soaked in warm water, chopped, reserve the soaking water

2 medium tomatoes, blanched and diced

2 Tbs tomato paste

3 Tbs smokey BBQ sauce

1 tsp chopped rosemary

1 tsp chopped thyme

2 cups fresh homemade beef stock

salt and pepper to taste

oil to cook

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Cook chopped onion until translucent. Add in beef and brown. Throw in chopped garlic while beef is cooking. Throw in chopped mushrooms and its soaking water. Add in diced tomatoes, tomato paste and BBQ sauce, stir well. Pour in beef stock, cook until bubbly and the beef mince is tender. Throw in chopped herbs and season to taste. When the sauce is thickened, remove the filling from the stove to cool and ready to be used for bread filling.

Have a great party, everyone!

Ayam Taliwang, A Memory from Bali

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:46:00 +0000

Kafe Batan Waru is one of Bali Good Food's restaurants, which is located on Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud, Bali that I often dine in when I am back to Indonesia. I love the atmosphere, I love the staffs, and I love the food. I go there so often that right now I can have a vision sitting at one of those chairs, overlooking the street, and watching the passers by while munching away lemper ayam or lumpiah as a starter.

Dining in Kafe Batan Waru when I just landed for several hours on this lovely island is like a child learning more Indonesian flavours that I have been missing during my living abroad. Although I often cook Indonesian food at my Kiwi kitchen, it just is not the same. In New Zealand, many of the ingredients on a recipe I have to omit because of its rarity or if I'm lucky enough I might bump into some ice-burnt items from the frozen bins in an Asian groceries shop. But it is not often the case. The thing like kencur (kaempferia galanga), I have given up looking now. The shop keepers always raise their eyebrows when I ask about a specific herb like that, indicating it is a foreigner.

I often have a thought to smuggle kencur from Bali, but as a good citizen of New Zealand, I don't ever try as I know it is impossible to happen. Well, it might happen, but I might end up paying fine for it, since New Zealand custom is very strict on biosecurity check. Even when I declare, perhaps the herbs will end up in an airport bin or destroyed by the biosecurity officers. I may be right or I may be wrong.

To tell you the truth, that is the herb I miss so much, as there is a number of dish uses this herb for a complete Indonesian recipe and flavour. Pecel (Javanese steamed green leaves with peanut sauce) does not taste like it when it misses kencur in its peanut sauce, to name a few.

Fortunately, when I craved for Ayam Taliwang, kencur is not required, so I am just quite happy to cook it. I first eat Ayam Taliwang at this very restaurant, Kafe Batan Waru, Bali, although Ayam Taliwang itself is told to be Mataram's delicacy. They served it with a small bowl of rice placed nicely in a traditional bamboo-woven bowl, a plate of sauteed water spinach, and a bowl heap of sweet chili sambal.

The sambal was so deliciously red, I could just lick the bowl empty. Surely, they are generous with sambal. If you do love it, just never miss Chili Crab Tuesday they often hold as a weekly deal. You'll be devoured by lovely sweet chili sauce!

I brought that memory back to my Kiwi kitchen, just like when I experienced that green mango salad with crispy fish and cooked it at home to become Crispy Fish and Granny Smiths Salad with Thai Dressing. With Ayam Taliwang, I have made a research and I decided to do it my way.

Here is what I do.

Ayam Taliwang

I am using chicken legs for this dish. You can use fresh chilies if you'd like, but I use dried chilies because the chilies in my garden are still green. The hotness of the chili paste can be made to your liking. I tend to use less chilies because I cannot eat too much chilies any more, and neither can the rest of my family member. I love using kaffir lime leaf for more flavour and scent, but you can omit it if you don't feel like it.

1.5kg chicken legs

half lime, juiced

salt

Sweet Chili Paste: 3 shallots, 3 garlic, 1 dried chilies, toasted shrimp paste, a pinch of salt, 1 Tbs of shaved palm sugar, oil to marinate (blend all of these ingredients in a blender or mortal and pestle until smooth)

Make Chili Paste:

8 large shallots, peeled

6 large cloves garlic, peeled

8 dried red chilies

1 Tbs shrimp paste, toasted

1 tsp shaved dark palm sugar

1 tsp white sugar

1 kaffir lime leaf, finely chopped

juice of one lime

oil to cook

Clean and trim chicken legs. Pat dry. Marinate the chicken in sweet chili paste in a ovenproof dish. Cover with aluminum foil and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 160C. Slow roast the chicken for 30 minutes. The chicken should be just half-cooked. We will finish them on a grill later on, getting that lovely char on them. Remove from the oven.

Heat the grill. Grill the chicken, basting it often with both the rest of the marinate mixture and the chili paste until they are all used and the chicken are thoroughly cooked. Serve warm with the vegetables of your choice and warm fluffy jasmine rice. We enjoy them with turmeric rice, microgreens, sliced of tomatoes and cucumber.

Chili Paste: Roughly chopped shallots, garlic and red chilies. Grind in the mortar and pestle until smooth. Grind in toasted shrimp paste, sugar, and chopped kaffir lime leaf. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Sauteed the paste until your kitchen smells heavenly exotic. Add in lime juice and remove from the heat to cool. Use this chili paste to baste the chicken while grilling.

NCC Indonesian Jajanan Traditional Week: Ketan Serundeng

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:41:00 +0000

Natural Cooking Club mailing group once again is holding a one-off event. This time, we all are celebrating Indonesian Jajanan Traditional Food, persuading our memories to rake up childhood delicacies which often are memorable to be presented today in the modern day.

It's not that 'jajanan pasar', as we call it, has vanished completely from the culture and modern culinary, but it seems people less and less regard it as something to be appreciated these days. Kids eat more burgers than wajik (sweet sticky rice cakes). I think many confessions have to be declared here, that Indonesian mothers today are interested in making black forest cake or tiramisu rather than are mucking their hands up in a bowl of klepon.

It's a shame, really. I believe the love of culture of one's origin can only be developed when someone makes it by doing it. Introducing kids to traditional food can give them insights of cultural experiences from other countries. I tend to cook any food from other countries, as well as from my home country, to let my kids grow with various flavours, to let them understand what other kids eat at some parts of the world.

I'm quite blessed to have children as are good eaters. They love Indonesian food I often make for a break from other cakes and cookies. It's good that they appreciate Indonesia through its cuisine. It's important for them to know where their half root is coming from.

This Ketan Serundeng that I made the other day is no stranger to my children, for I have made it many times for their after-school snacks.

My mother used to make this for us when we were kids and I just loved it. My grandmother used to feed me with this too when I was still living with her at my early years. I loved it when she wrapped it in a banana leaf and put it on my little palm. The scent of banana leaf against the warm sticky rice and sprinkled with fragrant serundeng was enough to satisfy my senses. I was so happy.

To make sticky rice as traditional as it is, I found it a bit of a hassle in my Kiwi kitchen at the moment. For we are in a dry summer season, I need to save water from washing too many dishes. Therefore, I made the sticky rice in a rice cooker, with adjustment and patience.

Here is what I do.

2 cups glutinous rice, rinsed well

2 pandan leaves, knotted

1 tsp salt

1 cup coconut cream, at least 50% cream

1/2-1 cup extra coconut cream or water

Put the rinsed rice in the rice cooker. Add in salt and pandan leaves. Pour in 1 cup coconut cream and 1/2 cup of water, stir well. Put the rice cooker on. When it's bubbling, stir the rice. Keep checking. When the water is totally absorbed, and the rice grain is still a little dry, pour in a little tablespoon of water/coconut cream at a time, and stir well until the rice is thoroughly cooked but the grain is still visible. I don't recommend you to pour all the extra coconut cream or water, because your sticky rice will become a porridge.

(Traditionally, you need to steam the rice for about 15-20 minutes, then transfer it to a saucepan and cook it with coconut cream, pandan leaves and salt until rice absorbed all the liquid and then steam it again until cooked through).

Serve the rice with serundeng. Here is my recipe for serundeng.

This serundeng is typically lighter from my mother's serundeng. She uses toasted coriander seeds, tamarind paste, and shredded kaffir limes leaves in hers. I chose to use dried shrimps as to replace shrimp paste, as I could not find the proper shrimp paste we used to use at home at our local Asian groceries store in Pukekohe.

Traditionally, we use freshly grated coconut flesh to make serundeng, but because New Zealand does not grow its own coconut trees, I have to use desiccated coconut. The reason to soak desiccated coconut in a heated coconut cream is to moistened the dry coconut thread in its supposedly original flavour substance. My theory.

Well, I hope you enjoy something traditional from my Kiwi kitchen this time. Have a great weekend!

My First Barbie Cake: All About Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 01:08:00 +0000

Natural Cooking Club celebrates togetherness as of society of culinary lovers with extravaganza barbie doll competition, held in Jakarta, Indonesia yesterday. Since I have become a member for 8 years now (and will always be), I have an urge to participate on my own way from my New Zealand kitchen.

And, so I decided to make my own barbie doll cake. My first one, honestly.

I have got no clue how to bake, let alone, decorate a barbie doll. Thoughts come cross my mind, of how I am going to do it, in spite of such an inexperience baker in handling such delicate work.

Oh, well. I have a promise and I hate to break it. So I go on. Here's what I do. I am sending this to Michelle of Greedybread for Sweet New Zealand event, initiated by Alessandra Zecchini.

Dark Chocolate Leather

I tripled this recipe, making sure I got sufficient dough to cover the whole dress, and a little more for half body. I used Whittakers' 72% dark chocolate for the dark modelling paste, and Valrhona Ivoire Coverture for the white modelling paste.

Source: Wedding Cakes from Start to Finish, by Elaine MacGregor

155g liquid glucose

185g melted chocolate

Pour in the warmed liquid glucose into a bowl of melted chocolate. Stir until thickens, and it will move away from the sides of the bowl. Tip it out onto a well greased work bench. Knead thoroughly until it's smooth and leathery. Cover and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

I made chocolate roses firsthand before moving on to make gluten-free chocolate cake. I do have photos of molding the roses on my account on Twitter or Facebook if you care to look. I don't post it to Flickr, though. But it's easy enough to make roses, so I don't think you need a tutorial for that.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

I takes two cakes to fill in this tin of barbie cake from Wilton. It is called WonderMold Pan. I bought it from The Cake Shop in Pukekohe. I just greased and floured the cake tin before baking, no baking paper involved (and it handwash easy too).

The mixture fills about ¾ of the tin. It springs fine to the top of the tin and it is perfectly level when it's baked.

185g margarine

1 ¼ cup caster sugar

4 eggs

2 cups gluten-free flour sifted with 50g Varlhona cocoa powder and 1 tsp baking soda

½ cup almond meal

150g melted dark chocolate, cooled

2 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 165C. Beat margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Beat in melted and cooled dark chocolate. Add in vanilla essence. Beat a little bit more and turn the mixer off. Fold in the flour mixture, and then almond meal, mix gently well.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until the skewer comes out clean when inserted from the centre of the cake. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and transfer the cake, the wider side down, and let cool.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

250g cream cheese, room temperature

60g icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla essence

juice from half lemon

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar, vanilla and lemon juice together, until the mixture is soft and fluffy. Use this to sandwich and cover the barbie cake.

Assemble

I divide the cake into 4 layers and sandwich them with buttercream, then cover the sides of the cake with it. Leave it in the fridge until the buttercream hardened a little bit.

Then the tricky part is coming. To roll this mass of chocolate is one hell of a baker job, especially when your kitchen is heating up with sun poking mixed with the heat of the oven and stove (as I was cooking dinner as well).

It did not go quite as I expected. It could not roll out thinly as I wanted it. Whenever I try to roll it out thinly, it breaks. I decided to just leave it thicker and forget that paper thin layers I had in mind. There is always a plan B in this life, don't you think?

I worked on it in batches. Front part of the dress has to be fitted first. That one is then pressed with sunflower pattern to make a rather unplained dress. And then I work around the cake, a little at a time (while handling chicken satay on the grill!). The overlapping sheets of chocolate leather is then made to make a resemblance of the flow of the gown.

After I feel that things going on smoothly, it is time to decorate the other half of the barbie. I use a little bit of the chocolate leather on the chest and around, and use my scalpel to form a top dress.

Then the barbie top is inserted in the hole. From there, I worked on to glue the roses one at a time while eyeing on the balance. So, there it is.

My first barbie cake. I don't know what to feel. I completely am not satisfied, for I thought I could do better than that, but for a first try, I did okay. Don't you think?

The Review

We have this cake for morning tea over at my mother-in-law's place. I was quite pleased to see the cake was still moist and tasted really good.

The buttercream went well with the cake. The chocolate leather, though, was not a pick. It tasted rather sweeter to us surprise. But the white chocolate roses taste better. I wonder if the quality of chocolate does make a difference? Who knows. I am already ordered to make this cake again for someone's birthday next, so I have more opportunity to play around with different design. Have you made yours?

Rolls Nice: Japanese Roll Cake

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:55:00 +0000

I was wondering if cake decorating term is only applied to cookies and layered cakes. When I saw a Greentea Japanese Roll Cake from Rachmah's blog post, I have a thought the term could be enlarged with decorating roll cakes somewhere under that particular category.

I mean, what's the difference? Although decorating roll cakes doesn't need sugarpaste, royal icing or buttercream, it surely needs imagination like a 'normal' cake decorating needs.

It involves drawing and painting with batter. It involves colours and techniques.

And there is skills.

Honestly, I have never met a challenge like it before and it took me by surprise that it is not as easy as it looks. I failed one of my roll cake, cracked and split when I was trying to roll it. I suspect, I was too adamant to put fresh strawberries in the centre and perhaps way too heavy for the sponge to take them all. I learned my lesson.

Another tricky thing is to use the right baking paper. Everytime I put coloured batter on to make decorations, the moment it came out of the freezer, the baking paper will be wrinkled. And that means, the final product will not be as smooth as I want it.

Some girls in the group said to use silpat, but my my silpat is way too big for the measurement required on the recipe. I don't know how they did it, but one time around, I decided not to grease the roll tin. The result was just the same, if not only to satisfy my observation on what to overcome with those two techniques. Nah, I'm still not able to make my roll cakes looking perfectly as smooth as I want to.

There is one thing I have forgotten, a result of not reading the recipe properly. It's that I have to put a pattern paper under the baking paper, so that the baking paper is not on contact with the bottom of the tin. I must try that again one day.

Well, are you feeling challenged now? Here is the recipe.

Japanese Roll Cake (JRC)

Source: Junko Book (Hop on this website to see what the book look like. It includes step-by-step too. I wonder where to get it in New Zealand)
Modified by Rachmah Setyawati
---------------------------------------------

Ingredients
Batter I
4 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
40cc vegetable oil
60cc water
80g plain flour

Batter for Decorations

60g egg whites
15g caster sugar
10g cornflour

Batter II
160-175g egg whites
0,5g salt
50g caster sugar

1tsp lime juice
15g cornflour
　

1 Tbs Blueberry Paste or dark purple food coloring (I omit this somehow, using different ideas of decorations and colours)

Filling :
Fresh cream, whipped

Methods:

Batter I: Beat egg yolks and sugar until fluffy, drizzle in oil a little at a time while mixing well and then continued with water until all combined. Fold in flour and mix well. Set aside.

Batter for Decorations: Beat egg whites with half of the sugar until foamy, add in sugar a little at a time while still whisking, until all the sugar is used and it forms soft peak. Fold in cornflour, mix well until the batter appears thicken but not hard peak. Set aside.

Get 5-6 tablespoons of Batter I and spoon into the Batter for Decorations, mix well. Divide into two portions. For the first portion of batter, divide into three colours: light pink, dark pink, and light yellow, following the drawing below, provided by Rachmah Setyawati.

Decorations drawing by Rachmah Setyawati

Prepare 2 roll tins measured 20X20X5cm. Prepare your paper which is already sketched with your desired patterns and place it on the bottom of the tin. Grease this paper with a little butter and put the baking paper over. So the paper with patterns is covered by baking paper. Do not grease your baking paper.

Take a little light pink colour, spoon it on to the love pattern. Then get the dark pink one, spoon onto the rest of the love pattern which is not decorated yet. Repeat the process for the dot patterns.

After all patterns are filled and done, put the tin into the freezer until the batter is frozen and dry. Then pour in the Batter I.

You can create another pattern as much as you want. So with this recipe, it will yield two sponge roll cakes.

Preheat the oven to 165C-175C.

Batter II: Make this while freezing the patterns. Beat the egg whites with half of the sugar until foamy, add in the rest of the sugar a little at a time while whisking. Add in lime juice, keep whisking until soft peak. Fold in cornflour, whisk well until thicken.

Combine Batter I and Batter II until incorporated well enough, no egg whites streaks, that is. Divide into two portions. Drop blueberry paste or food colouring as to your liking into one of the portions, mix well.

Remove the tin out of the freezer, then pour in the blueberry coloured batter onto the love-patterned tin, and the the other portion into the second tin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until well cooked. Peel off the paper and let it cool.

Assemble

When the cake is cooled, spread the filling over the non-patterned side, roll well and wrap with baking paper. Let it be hardened in the freezer for a little while and serve.

My Review:
Although I still bump into difficulties of making it right, I definitely will try again and let my children design the patterns.

So yeah. We had had a good time with Japanese Roll Cake. Afternoon tea feels so cute with these little rolls. Do ahead with yours, and let me know what you come up with!

January Sweetness of New Zealand Round-Up

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 06:20:00 +0000

There are sweet reasons of Summer in New Zealand. One of them is that we get to eat as so much delicious as many different flavour of ice cream available everywhere in every corner of this Kiwi land. The option is enormous. It's just like pointing your finger at one kind of ingredients, and voila! the next thing you know there it is churning in your ice cream machine, ready to end your Summer meal.

That is proven by some fellow Kiwi bloggers who had sent me entries of ice cream as to beat Summer heat for Sweet New Zealand. Mairi has her Cardamom Ice Cream, then Sue with her Roasted Apricot Gelato, Lesley with her Creamy Orange Ice Blocks, and I am here with my Black Dorris Plum Ice Cream that I make every year using our homegrown plums and my recipe here. Last but not least, to tell the truth how hot New Zealand is at the moment, there is Pineapple, Coconut and Mint Ice Pops from Alli to quench the thirst of beach babes. Yay!

Some cool and delicious fruity desserts are marching sweetly for Summer feast below! Some lovely cookies and fruity cakes are on the menu as well. And that delicious Lemon and Mascarpone Meringue Roll that Monique baked to name a few is really something I'd die for. I just love that combination of meringue and lemon curd. There are also beautiful biscuits and cake slices to accompany coffee or tea as you may will see on an array of goodies below, so take your pick.

There is always a way to celebrate this fruity season and everyone has got her best entries served. I am just so happy to receive and enjoy every one of them. Thank you to all my fellow Kiwi bloggers for your lovely goodies. Enjoy your Summer.

Cheers!

Strawberry Mini Loaves
by Arfi of HomeMades by Arfi

Indonesian Caramel Honeycomb Cake
by Arfi of HomeMadeS by Arfi

Rhubarb, Lemon and Cream Cheese Cake
by Monica of Delissimon

Gluten-Free Bake Apricot Madeira Cake
by Nicola of Homegrown Kitchen

Strawberries, Granola and Greek Yogurt
by Shirleen of Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Pineapple, Coconut, and Mint Ice Pops
by Allison of Pease Pudding

Roasted Apricot Gelato
by Sue of Couscous and Consciousness

Ricotta with Blueberries and Honey
by Alessandra of Alessandra Zecchini

Creamy Orange Ice Blocks
by Lesley of Eat, etc.

Carrot Cake
by Genie of Bunny.Eat.Design.

Pecan and Almond Biscotti
by Julie of Domestic Executive

Molasses Spice Cookies
by Frances of Bake Club

Lemon and Mascarpone Meringue Roll
by Monique of My Little Chequered Kitchen

Cardamom Ice Cream
by Mairi of Toast NZ

Comfort Food: Model Palembang

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:25:00 +0000

I confess that I have been feeling homesick lately. It's my third year I haven't been back to my home country, that means, I have been missing all of local delicacies Indonesia has got to offer. It ranges from mangoes or rambutan to gado-gado, from tofu fritters to Nasi Uduk, from fresh young coconut juice to ice kacang, and I even miss Indonesian's very own butter: Blue Band.

Even if I can make many of these delicacies I have been missing, still it is not the same as sitting down with friends by the road talking about nothing while waiting for someone to make food for us. Not that I am sure that I still can eat street food, given that my body has been accustomed to Kiwi food, but at least, I can be with good companies and practice my mother tongue.

Palembang had been my home for my high school and college years and I miss its specific food. Like this one I have made these couple of days. I ate nothing more than Model Palembang.

Model Palembang is simply fish dumplings stuffed with firm tofu and served in seafood broth with bits and pieces of little morsels.

In daily life, Palembangese often have model for breakfast as another option to the famous empek-empek. It isn't quite as filling as lontong sayur (rice cakes served with vegetable curry) as your breakfast, but it is of course on the little more soupy side.

Making model is no other simpler than using food processor. Finely minced fish fillet is what we need here. I choose to use a cube of chicken stock as to enhance the flavour of the fish dough itself, so when it is made into balls and cooked in a boiling water, they'll remain flavoursome.

The seafood stock is a simple fresh mixture of prawn heads and skins, fish bones, leeks, a head of garlic and a large brown onion, left overnight, and strained before using it to make the soup. I like making soup fresh from scratch rather than using cube stocks or powder. I have found it much more delicious than ready-made one.

Many of Indonesian traditional food use morsels as the side dish and garnish. Perhaps, you can omit them, but to me, they are as important as the main dish itself.

Here is what I do. And within this bowl, my homesickness is evaporated. For now.

Sweet NZ: Caramel Honeycomb Cake

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:45:00 +0000

Bolu Sarang Semut. That's we, Indonesians, call it. It is indeed simply a sweet caramel cake that has a unique texture resembling honeycomb or a slice of termite mound--well; the latest perhaps a bit exaggerating. But perhaps, that's where the name is coming from.

I made this once I saw Anh showed us her breakfast on instagram that appeared on my Facebook news feed. It was a cake made by her husband (how lucky she was!), and it looked alike this caramel cake we used to eat when we were kids. Anh apparently has hit the homesickness in me which has been lingering for such a long time.

One positive thing about it is that my children get to taste what my childhood was like. While enjoying this cake, I take them back to my old times. So they know.

My second entry for Sweet New Zealand.

Sweet NZ: An Opening Year of Sweets

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:03:00 +0000

January 2013. Happy New Year! This is my first post of the year, dedicated for Sweet New Zealand and for those who read my posts from year to year and for those who have just discovered me. I am so grateful to have you all who have followed me throughout the years, even I haven't really written much.

My first attempt of baking this year of 2013 is gluten-free Strawberry Mini Loaves. Since we pick strawberries a small bucket every three days from our garden, I am using fresh strawberries. I especially made it on an effort to explore my SLR camera again after more than half years depending on my iPad camera. Long story short.

Yea, I'm a happy person. *pulling my lips from ear to ear.

Now, the result of being a happy citizen of the world, here comes Strawberry Mini Loaves from the happy oven. As a happy host for January Sweet NZ, originated by our happy and lovely New Zealand very own food writer, Alessandra Zecchini. Looking at the links, it seems I am the regular host for January when many of NZ food bloggers are away for vacations. But I'm not to lose hope that many yummy sweet entries will be sent my way.

There are simple rules to join in. I just write it shorter:

You are a Kiwi blogger, living here in NZ or overseas.
You are a sweet tooth and love sweets...kidding. You can send me your recipes of desserts/cakes/biscuits/anything sweet that you produce from your own kitchen.
Send me your sweets to arfi.binstedATgmailDOTcom no later than 28 January 2013 with details of your name, blog name and link plus post link. A photo is also a mandatory, not exceeded than 500kb please.

In the meantime, here's my entry.

Strawberry Mini Loaves

Not difficult to make these. They're in fact are muffins baked in mini loaves. Nah, I don't trick you. Just want to make it different for a change, because I'm submitting it on my next photography article, written with Tika for Rasa Indonesia online magazine. It is published in Bahasa Indonesia.

21/2 cups gluten-free flour

1/2 cup almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

a handful strawberries, hulled and diced if they are large; keep them as is if they are thumbprint size

1/2 cup caster sugar (more if you like it sweeter)

1 vanilla bean, halved and scrapped out the seeds

1 lemon, grated

2 eggs, loosely whisked

1/2 cup rice bran oil

1 cup soy milk/rice milk/almond milk

extra strawberries, sliced for topping and mixed with a little raw sugar or demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 190C. Prepare your 8 muffin tins or 8 small loaf tins by greasing or lining them with paper cup. I just grease and flour the loaves.

Combine flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add in diced strawberries, stir well. Set aside. In another bowl, prepare the wet ingredients. Mix vanilla seeds, eggs, grated lemon, oil and milk together until well blended. Pour into the dry ingredients while mixing with wide metal spoon until just incorporated.

Spoon into each muffin/mini loaf tin. Top with sliced sugared strawberries. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before take them out of the tin and put them on the wire rack to cool completely. Serve dusted with icing sugar. Makes 8.

NCC Bread Week: Homemade Ciabatta

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Yes, It's Peter Reinhart's recipe again, from his book Artisan Breads Every Day. I made ciabatta this time because I was thinking about making bruschetta for our light lunch today.

I started the dough two days ago and had it kept in the fridge until I was ready to bake this morning. I only had one hour to bake before we went out for a Saturday sport day. So I was rushed with many other things to prepare.

I decided to make two toppings for bruschetta: Tomato and Basil; and Olive and Chili. We ended up finish the bread all up with leftover eaten by my beloved husband with marmalade for his sweetmeat.

This is my second entry for NCC Bread Week.

Pain à l'Ancienne Rustic Bread (for Ciabatta)

Source: Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart

I'm not using mixer, so I am adjusting the method to suit me. I'm making ciabatta, so I'm using olive oil. If you'd like to make other than ciabatta, such as baguettes, foccacia, etc you can leave olive oil as optional.

567g unbleached bread flour

11g salt or 2 1/2 tsp coarse kosher salt

4g instant yeast

454g chilled water (about 13C)

14g olive oil

Combine the flour, salt, yeast, and chilled water. Stir with wooden spoon until well mixed. Let it rest for 5 minutes to hydrate the flour. Add in olive oil. Mix again and knead for 1 minute until the dough becomes smooth. If your dough is still wet and sticky, don't worry, that's how it should be. Transfer this dough into a clean and oiled bowl. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Oil your work space. Transfer the dough on it and start using the stretch and fold method for each side. Put it back into the bowl. Leave to rest for 10 minutes. Repeat this step three more times.

Cover the bowl and I refrigerate the dough overnight. Remove from the fridge three hours before baking ciabatta.

Line the back of a baking tray with baking paper. Transfer the dough to the generously floured work space. You need to do it very gently as not to degas it too much.

I cut the dough into three portions and made three ciabatta.

Gently fold the dough into thirds. I just sprinkle flour on the top and side of the bread. I did not roll it into flour because I'm afraid I would degas it if I do it. I leave my ciabatta for 2 hours before baking while I attend other house chores.

Preheat the oven to 288C (my oven has only 250C as the highest temperature) about 45 minutes before baking. I don't use baking stone, as I thought the pizza stone I have is too thin for such a job. I use lined baking trays and insert an oven pan on the bottom of the oven.

Bake ciabatta and pour in 1 cup hot water into the oven pan and lower the temperature to 232C (my oven gets only 230C). Bake for 12 minutes, rotate the trays, bake another 15-20 minutes.

Remove the bread out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack. The crust should be hard to tap but it will be soften when it cools down.

When we came back home, I just sliced the bread and grilled it on a grill pan to make bruschetta.

Here's what I do for the toppings.

Tomato and Basil Topping

Makes 2

3 tomatoes, blanched, skinned and diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

a bunch of basil leaves, chopped

1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs pure olive oil

salt and pepper

a drop of honey

Combine tomatoes, garlic and basil in a bowl. Mix honey, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and pour it into the bowl. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Check the taste. Leave it for an hour for the flavour to develop. Enough for 2.

Kalamata Olive and Chili Topping

Makes 2

3/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped

2 Tbs capers, drained and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Tbs pure olive oil

a bunch of Italian parsley, chopped

a drop of honey

1 1/2 tsp aged balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Combine olives, chili, capers and parsley in a bowl. Mix honey, vinegar and olive oil, pour it into the bowl. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Check the taste and leave it for an hour to develop the flavour. Enough for 2.

NCC Bread Week: Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:11:00 +0000

The first thing that interests me when I hear about Peter Reinhart is his cold fermentation method for proofing bread dough. I thought how could it be? When people are fussy about getting the warmth of the sun to proof their bread dough, he keeps his dough in the fridge for a good certain time. Isn't he clever!

I got his Artisan Breads Every Day book, and I fall in love with its content. It's just perfect for a home baker like I am.

I have tried his sourdough bread recipe. I made the starter myself from scratch. It turned out rather well, but it wasn't as well as I expected it. I might try again sometime in Summer.

This recipe of his, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka, has caught my attention since the first time I bought this book. The combination of chocolate and cinnamon, how could I resist?

With NCC Bread Week coming, I have found a good reason to actually make it happen.

I am rather lazy to write down the recipe because it takes 4 pages in the book to copy here, but you can visit Lea and Jay's website on their post Chocolate Cinnamon Babka. I'm just going to write the recipe in Bahasa Indonesia below and make a short version of it.

It's not difficult to make, this bread is. It's just like your common rich bread with ingredients common to find in any pantry. With 4 egg yolks, you bet you'll get beautiful yellow dough.

I braided the bread, just want to try something different. And just because I do love the picture of braided babka on his book. For some reason, my dough goes rather much bigger than the bread pictured in his book, and short in texture.

But I do love it! It appears like I am eating the cross of cake and bread with chocolate and cinnamon temptation in each bite. Sensational! I enjoy it with my afternoon coffee. Just perfect to spend an awesome afternoon.

----------------

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

Sumber: Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart

19g ragi instant

170g susu hangat (sekitar 35C)

85g mentega tawar, lelehkan atau dalam suhu ruangan

85g gula

28g minyak sayur

7g ekstrak vanili

85g kuning telur

425g tepung terigu unbleached

7g garam, 1 1/2 sdt garam kosher kasar
1 butir telur dan 1 sdM air untuk egg wash (jika menggunakan taburan streusel sebagai topping)

Campur susu hangat dan ragi instant, aduk-aduk hingga rata dan ragi larut. Sisihkan selama 5 menit. Sementara menunggu, kocok mentega dan gula hingga lembut selama 1-2 menit dengan kecepatan sedang. Campur kuning telur, minyak sayur, dan ekstrak vanili dan kocok lepas. Masukkan campuran telur ini ke dalam kocokan mentega dalam empat kali tuang. Setiap tuangan dikocok hingga rata, baru tuang lagi porsi berikutnya, lakukan hingga habis dengan kecepatan tinggi hingga campurannya rata dan menjadi lembut.

Masukkan tepung dan garam, lalu tuang campuran ragi dan susu. Kocok lagi dengan kecepatan rendah hingga adonan elastis. Pindahkan adonan ke atas meja kerja yang sudah ditaburi tepung. Uleni dengan tangan selama kurang lebih 2 menit, tambahkan tepung jika perlu. Adonan akan menjadi berasa lembut, elastis dan berwarna kuning terang. Bulatkan adonan lalu letakkan ke dalam wadah yang sudah diolesi minyak. Tutup dengan plastik lalu biarkan mengembang di dalam suhu ruangan selama 2 1/2 jam.

Filling
255g DCC semisweet (saya pakai yg 50%), bekukan
7g kayu manis bubuk
56,5g mentega tawar dingin

Topping Streusel (optional)
56,5g mentega tawar dingin
64g tepung terigu
113g brown sugar
sejumput garam
1/4 sdt kayu manis bubuk (optional)
Proses semua bahan di dalam food processor hingga menyerupai cornmeal. Tabur ke permukaan roti (bentuk loaf atau coffee cake) setelah mengolesinya dengan eggwash terlebih dahulu. Untuk bentuk kepang tidak menggunakan topping ini.

Siapkan blender atau food processor. Masukkan DCC ke dalam food processor, lalu proses hingga hampir berupa bubuk. Tambahkan bubuk kayu manis, aduk rata. Masukkan mentega yang sudah dipotong-potong dadu, proses lagi hingga tercampur rata.

Ambil adonan yang sudah mengembang, gilas membentuk kotak dengan ukuran 15 x 15 inci dengan ketebalan antara 1/4 - 1/8 inci. Taburi filling chocolate ke atas adonan yang telah digilas tersebut, sisakan pinggiran adonan sekitar sebesar 1/4 inci. Gulung seperti menggulung bolu gulung, lalu padatkan sambil terus digulung hingga mendapatkan ukuran panjang 18-24 inci.

Saya membentuk roti dengan cara mengepang, jadi tidak memakai taburan streusel. Setelah mendapatkan gulungan sepanjang 24 inci, saya belah dua, lalu letakkan salah satu bagian melintang ke atas bbelahan lainnya. Dari situ mulailah gerakan mengepang satu sisi, diikuti dengan sisi lainnya. Letakkan roti kepang ini ke atas loyang, tutup dengan plastik dan biarkan mengembang selama 2-3 jam.

Panaskan oven dengan suhu 177C. Panggang babka selama 20-25 menit, lalu putar loyang. Panggang lagi hingga warna babka kecoklatan. Total waktu memanggang adalah 35-45 menit. Di dalam kurun waktu ini, roti akan kelihatan kecoklatan (tapi tidak gosong) dengan cepat, ini dikarenakan banyaknya kandungan gula di dalam adonan. Keluarkan dari oven dan biarkan dingin minimal 90 menit sebelum dihidangkan. Babka lebih enak dihidangkan pada suhu ruangan dan coklat sudah 'set'.

Bubur Ayam

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:16:00 +0000

It's rice. It's savoury. And it's delicious.

It is Bubur Ayam (Rice Porridge with Chicken Broth). It's a very common hearty breakfast in Indonesia which can be rather cheap for an awesome portion of it.

We have it for our dinner. It is simple, although it requires a lot of morsels to come with it.

Here's what I do.

Bubur Ayam

Rice Porridge

300g white rice

1.5-2 litre homemade chicken stock

2 bay leaves

2 kaffir lime leaves, torn

a pinch of salt

Cook rice with water, just to cover, until comes to boil. Add in the spices ingredients. Pour in chicken stock 500 ml at a time, stir well. Simmer while keep stirring to avoid the catch on the bottom of the pot. When you see that the rice has become soft like you used to cook rice pudding, then remove from the stove.

Chicken Broth

1 free-range whole chicken, weighed about 1.5kg, washed and jointed

5 kaffir lime leaves, torn

2 lemongrass, bruised

1 cm galangal, bruised

1 litre water

Make Paste: 8 shallots, chopped; 8 cloves small garlic, chopped; 2cm fresh turmeric, charred; 1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted; 1/2 tsp cumin, toasted; 5 candlenuts, toasted; blend in a blender or grind on mortal and pestle.

2 Tbs oil

1/2 tsp ground white peppercorn

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

a pinch of salt and raw sugar

Put the chicken portions in the water, together with kaffir lime leaves, galangal, and lemongrass until boiled, then simmer to a low heat. Meanwhile, heat the frying pan and add in oil. Cook the paste, ground white peppercorn and ground nutmeg until fragrant. Put this sauteed paste into the chicken broth. Stir and cook until the chicken is tender. Season with salt and raw sugar to balance the flavour. Remove the chicken and drained.

Once the chicken drained, fry them on a shallow oil just until it gets colour. Remove and drained on paper towel. Shred the meat to complete the morsels set.

Morsels

Shredded chicken meat

Fried shallots (4 big shallots, thinly sliced. Fried in a shallow oil until beautifully browned but not too dark. You'll get that nice soft golden brown colour. Spread this on top of paper towel on a baking tray. Do not pile, or you'll get soggy and oily fried shallots. Leave them dry. Your fried shallots will be crispy)

Celery leaves, chopped

Fried soy beans (soak soy beans in a tap water normally when you are going to make tempeh, drained, and fried)

Fried Melinjo crackers, or other fish or tapioca crackers might go well too

Cakwe (A Chinese finger bread, fried--I made this myself but not too successful, so I won't run down the list)

Sambal, a homemade or you can cheat by buying a bottle of Indonesian sambal at your Asian grocery store

Assembling

Spoon the rice porridge in a bowl. Add shredded chicken on top, sprinkle with chopped celery leaves, fried shallots, fried soy beans, served with Cakwe, fried Melinjo crakers, and sambal as the sides. Enjoy.

KBB#31: Who Ate The Pies?

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 05:34:00 +0000

Tantangan kali ini adalah Pie, yang pastry-nya merupakan kombinasi antara rough puff pastry dengan hot water pastry. Tidak begitu susah sebetulnya bikin rough puff pastry. Aku sudah sering bikin bareng anak-anak. Menurutku sih rough puff pastry merupakan versi shortcut-nya flaky puff pastry yang dulu pernah jadi tantangan KBB juga. Fillingnya boleh dibikin sesuai selera, jadi aku bikin pie daging cincang.

Review:

As usual, anak-anak suka. Kangmas juga suka. Biasalah, Kiwi people love pies! Selamat ulang tahun, KBB dan KBBers dimanapun berada. Keep baking happily ya!

Resep Rough Puff Pastry

By Gordon Ramsay

www.bbcgoodfood.com

250g tepung protein tinggi

1 sdt garam

250g mentega, di suhu ruangan namun tidak lembek

150ml air dingin

Ayak tepung dan garam ke dalam mangkuk lebar. Robek-robek atau iris mentega hingga potongannya kecil-kecil (dadu juga boleh tapi jangan terlalu fine), masukkan ke dalam campuran tepung dan garam dan remas sekedarnya. Kita masih harus bisa lihat bentuk mentega di dalam adonan.

Buatlah lubang di tengah-tengah adonan dan tuangkan 2/3 air dingin, aduk hingga membentuk adonan padat tambahkan lagi air dingin jika perlu. Bungkus dengan plastik bening dan biarkan istirahatdi kulkas selama 20 menit.

Keluarkan dan letakkan di atas papan kerja yang sudah ditaburkan sedikit tepung, uleni seringan-ringannya dan bentuklah adonan menjadi empat persegi panjang. Gilas adonan hanya ke satu arah hingga 3 kali lebar asal, sekitar 20 x 50cm. Jaga sisi-sisi pastry tetap lurus dan rata. Jangan terlalu lama menguleni mentega yang terlihat nyata di dalam adonan, karena adonan yang seharusnya baik (untuk rough puff pastry) adalah adonan anda memiliki efek marble (dengan mentega--don't think about chocolate, girls!)

Lipat pertiga atas adonan ke tengah-tengahnya, lalu lipat sepertiga adonan bawah ke atas dan di atas lipatan tadi. Putar adonan 1/4 turn (ke kiri atau ke kanan) dan gilas lagi hingga 3 kali lipas panjangnya. Lipat seperti sebelumnya (like you would puff pastry, girls), bungkus dengan plastik bening dan biarkan dingin kurleb 20 menit sebelum digilas untuk dipakai.

Hot Water Pastry

by Donna Hay

150g butter, chopped

160ml water

375g all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp sea flakes

Place the butter and water in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat. Add the flour and salt and stir until a smooth dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Untuk filling, aku pake resep di bawah ini, tapi ganti beef brisket dengan mince pies dan tidak memakai beer, melainkan diganti dengan air.

Beef, Guinness and Mushroom Pies

by Donna Hay

Guinness bisa ditiadakan bagi kita yang mengkonsumsi minuman non-alkohol.

1 Tbs olive oil

1.5kg beef brisket, chopped into 6cm pieces

1 brown onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

500ml beef stock

430ml Guinness beer

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

300g Swiss brown mushrooms, halved

2 x quantities hot water pastry

eggwash

Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan over high heat. Add the beef and cook, in batches for 4 minutes or until browned. Set aside. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes or until softened. Add the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce and cook for a further 1 minute. Return the beed to the pan with the sugar, stock and beer. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Remove the beef and shred with a fork. Add the flour to the pan and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat, add the beef and mushrooms and stir to combine. Refrigerate until cooled.

Preheat oven to 200C. Divide the pastry in half and roll each portion out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 4mm thick. Line a lightly greased 17cm x 35cm pie tin with 1 sheet of the pastry. Spoon the filling into the pastry and place the remaining pastry on top. Press the edges to seal and trim the excess pastry. Brush with the eggwash and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden. Serves 4-6

Gluten-Free Whole Tangelo Almond Loaf

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:40:00 +0000

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This is my second entry for Sweet NZ, originated by Alessandra Zecchini and this month is hosted by the very lady.

I consider this loaf as the healthiest loaf ever in the whole world. It does not contain either wheat flour nor dairy products. It tastes very citrusy with tangelo oil lingers in your mouth for a good long time. We love every slice of it.

We pick our own fresh tangelos in the garden. We just wash them and do a little scrub to remove dirt if there are any. If you buy your tangelos from a supermarket, you should soak them for a minute or two, wash them carefully and scrub its wax firsthand before you use them.

Gluten-Free Whole Tangelo Almond Loaf

This loaf is moist, gluten-free, and dairy-free. We love enjoying sliced with extra hot syrup. It keeps well in the fridge, covered. We ate them slightly warm.

4 whole tangelos, washed

2 whole extra tangelos, grated rind and juiced

1 extra whole egg

6 eggs

220g caster sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

280g almond meal (blanched almond and process until fine, measure the exact amount)

Place 4 whole tangelos in a saucepan, cover with water and cook until tangelos soft. It will take about 50-60 minutes on medium heat. Keep the water checked while cooking and top more water when you see it's going to dry.

Remove cooked tangelos with a slotted spoon to cool down. When they are cool enough to handle, slice them in half and scoop out the flesh. Discard the pips. You can remove the white pith if you'd like to make sure your cake won't taste bitter.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a deep loaf tin, greased and lined with baking paper.

Process cooked tangelos with fresh rind and juice of 2 tangelos and an extra egg together in a blender until smooth.

Beat on high heat 6 eggs with caster sugar and baking powder until thick, but not too pale or fluffy. Just thick enough to hold itself and air the whole mixture later on. Reduce the speed to low and beat in almond meal and tangelo pulp mixture. Pour into the prepared tin, level and bake for 45-60 minutes until it springs back when touched. Remove from the oven and let the loaf cool in its tin for 5 minutes.

At this stage, you can prick the loaf and pour hot tangelo syrup over, or remove the loaf from the tin and serve it with hot syrup. Whatever suits you. I pour half of the syrup over and reserve the rest for more syrupy companion to serve.

Hot Tangelo Syrup

2 large tangelos, zest and juice

1 cup white sugar

Cook the tangelo juice and sugar together until thick and add in the tangelo zest. Cook for a further 3 minutes and remove from the heat. Pour over the loaf or to serve.

Rain, Spring, Garden, and Pennylane Brownie Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:12:00 +0000

Rain, rain, go away

come again another daaaaaay!

My children keep singing those lyrics, but Spring is nothing without rain. Showers still are going to pouring, on and on, over and over again, every single day. And the worst yet to come: a coldsnap. I can hear drops of hail on our rooftop, making noisy tap above our heads. We have to light the fire again. In Spring!

Sometimes, when I look up the sky, it has one part of clouds grey, and the other half parts blue and sunny. It seems weird, but it is not so if you are in New Zealand. It seems that the sky is split into two parts: the wet one and the sunny one. Each one is interchangeable, making the split second weather cast unpredictable. But yes, we are warned by the forecast. We are the country of 4-Seasons-in-A-Day.

As a country people who keep garden and orchard, we enjoy the spirit of Spring. Spring means a joyful display of enlivening fruit trees. With their blooms so pretty, we can comprehend that they are going to produce, and that means we can start giving them a good supply of manure, working around them to free their weeds around their feet, and keep them in shape.

Plum trees with their creamy white blooms, nectarine, peach, peacherine, and peachcott trees with their pale pink to bright pink blossoms which start sending some kind of invitation to bees or other insects to come and pollinate them are eye-pleasure views.

A group of wax eyes are having a ball up there, too. We just don't know what they're doing. We just found out they are doing it this year. Perhaps, they help us with the pollination or eating insects. So far, they don't do any damage really.

Hope not.

In the very early of Spring, our plumcott (the cross between plum and apricot) trees have started blooming. They are always the first fruit trees to start the display. Unfortunately, it is often the time when bees are not many buzzing around, as it is often too windy. We have to start hand-pollinating until bees are back to work. We use a spare lens brush as it is so fine and can catch pollen easily with one swap. I can see the results now as the blooms are faded to be little tiny young fruits. We can't be satisfied yet, until the young fruit have come to mature and give us rewards for what we've done. It takes time, but we are patience.

Spring is so beautiful with magnolia tree near our master bedroom blooming and sending wonderful mild perfume carried by the wind. Its pale pink with purplish shade petals are just lovely, blown by the wind and dropped a handful at a time to the ground, like a carpet around the feet of the tree. Soon when the petals are all dropped, this tree will be all dense with foliage.

The spirit of Spring has lifted up my mood with its rather generous availability of sun (the precious days which can be counted by fingers) that allows me to attend the garden more often than before and with a new hope to relive the garden with new seedlings.

It is a lovely feeling to see splash of colours in the garden and orchard with Spring bulbs cheering up with their different colours and shades, perennials start shooting out, and my roses which grow young shoots. A promise for colourful Summer.

It is a lively feeling to have a contact with dark earth on my fingers, to witness the freshness of dew hanging tightly on flower petals, and to hear buzzing bees in the garden. And the seeds I have been germinating in our newly home-built greenhouse have started sprouting, giving promises of a range of self-sufficient fulfillment of needs in the future. It's all good.

We order a lot of seeds from the King's Seeds this year. Vegetables I often miss much from Indonesia, such as snake beans (long yard beans), bitter guard/squash, and kangkung (water spinach), are now available from seeds in this particular nursery. I am so excited to see how they are going to take in. I also germinate peanuts and soy beans besides many other vegetables, such as celeriac, beetroots, beans, buttercup, leeks, onions, etc. There are so many I can make a long list here. We'll see if they can grow well. I'll let you know.

With it all rain and sun coming in almost equal length of pour and shine, come all sort of weeds that have become the occupant of most of our vegetable beds. From early Spring until today, we have been bending our knees, pulling out weeds with the help of forks and what's not. They've been my most challenge in the garden. There is always something to do though, and that is fine with me.

Rain gives me a more opportunity to browse recipes and try out many of them. I did more cooking these days rather than baking. I have been busy cooking something traditional since the end of Ramadan. My children are the ultimate reason for me to cook a lot. I think they are growing up more with all the muscles they have been building through karate and swimming, not to mention running around the paddocks, climbing up and down the hills, riding bikes or scooters many times a day, or chasing calves who happen to jump over the fence to the side of the road. They are just so busy with their homeschooling and extra activities as well as home chores and responsibilities. And that makes me a busy Mum who provides healthy food to help them growing with value of good nutrition.

Indonesian food suits them much, although we also cook sushi, won ton, lasagna, or other pasta from scratch every other day, just for a change. It is good for them to taste different varieties of food.

I often bake as a treat for them. And also for me. Chocolate is the top option of all the baking treat. I bake PennyLane Brownie Cookies the other day, and they just love them. I'm sending these chocolate brownie cookies to Sweet NZ, hosted by Alessandra Zecchini.

These cookies are originated from Joy of Baking, and made popular in the Indonesian cooking and baking group by Riana. I don't care if the cookies do not meet the standard of success--like some people are fussing about. They are just as delicious no matter what. I love them soft-baked with just 12-13 minutes baking time. They are best eaten warm when the chocolate chunks in the cookies are still oozing and smeared my fingers. My opinion.

These cookies can be addictive. I have warned you.

PennyLane's Chocolate Brownie Cookies

original recipe by Joy of Baking

Modified by Riana

I have to convert this recipe into a gluten-free treat. I replace the flour with Gluten-Free flour, use caster sugar instead of white sugar, use margarine, and use Whittaker's 50% for the mixture, Whittaker's Dark Ghana 72% for the dark chocolate chips, and Whittaker's White Chocolate for the white chocolate chips. I also use hazelnuts, toasted and chopped, skin on.

Here's what I do.

60 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
450 grams bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
60 grams unsalted butter or margarine
250 grams granulated white sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 gram instant coffee powder, diluted with a few drops of hot water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
175 grams semisweet dark chocolate chips
175 grams white chocolate chips
200 grams your favorite nuts, coarsely chopped and toasted

Sift flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler on a low heat, stirring until smooth. What I do is to let everything melt, then stir even I still can see some chocolate chunks. Just keep stirring, so I will end up with thick chocolate mixture rather than thin one. Remove from heat and set aside.

Beat sugar, eggs, and salt until fluffy and pale in colour, around 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture, diluted coffee, and vanilla. Fold in the flour and mix lightly until just combined and you can't see any streak or lumps of flour. Stir in the chocolate chunks and nuts. Cover and refrigerate until firm, around 30-60 minutes. I baked half of the cookie dough and freeze the other half for later use, in case I'm craving again.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Prepare the baking tray and lined with baking paper. Spoon the cookie mixture on to the lined baking tray, flatten if you like, but I just mound the balls as they will be flatten by itself while baking.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies appear to have cracked skin. I soft-baked them, slightly undercook, for I love the gooey chocolate chunks from warm chocolate cookies smeared my lips on each bite.

Remove from the oven, let cool on the tray, then transfer to the wire rack to cool completely. That when you can wait. I just love eating them warm!

Kue Lapis: A Tradition Alive in My Kiwi Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Kue Lapis is a popular layer cake, commonly served in Eid and Christmas in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Ever so popular I won't want to miss baking it this year.

'Lapis' means layer. Some people translate kue lapis as thousand layers cake, which is quite hyperbolic really, given that the cake consists of only 10 to 15 layers, 20 to 25 at the most perhaps. Mine reaches 10-12 layers mostly. The more layers, the more egg yolks it requires.

With 10-12 layers, I have to use 30 egg yolks. Put triple exclamation marks if you like, but it indeed requires that many egg yolks. Since I haven't got problems with egg production at our chicken farm, I baked a batch of Lapis Legit (Indonesian Spiced Layer Cake) and Lapis Agar (Indonesian Agar Layer Cake).

Lapis Legit

Years ago when I started baking lapis legit to sell to an Auckland-based Indonesian caterer, I didn't use salted butter. I had to receive complaints from her customers as the result that the cake did not reach the standard-taste test, for what they were after was a rich spiced cake with a perfect balance of sweetness and saltiness in each layer. The salted butter could have done it, they recommended. I failed, but I learned.

These recent years, I use half salted butter-half margarine and I agree that the taste is so much improved, although I bake them only for our plates. I might try to sell this cake again one day, if only I have more time.

Lapis Legit

by Yasa Boga

300g butter,
200g margarine,
3 Tbs sweetened condensed milk,
1 Tbs mixed spice,
100g plain flour,
350g caster sugar,
30 egg yolks,
½ tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Beat the butter and margarine until fluffy and pale. Add in the sweetened condensed milk. Beat until well mixed. Set aside.

Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until thick and pale. Whisk in the butter mixture one spoon at a time, mix well. Fold in the sifted flour and spices, mix well.

Prepare a square cake tin 22x22cm, line with greased and floured baking paper.

First layer: Spoon the batter into the tin, 3 Tbs at a time, level the surface. Bake first layer.

Next layers: Spoon in 3 Tbs batter on to the first layer, level. Bake under the grill for about 3 minutes or until the surface is golden brown. Remove and repeat the process until all batter is used.

Last layer: adjust the oven back to 170C. Spoon the last mixture, level and bake until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the wire rack.

Sliced to serve.

There are many versions of kue lapis. I have tried several of them. Let's see.

Lapis Legit Gulung (Rolled Layered Cake)

Posted on my blog on Multiply:
Lapis Legit Gulung

This is basically a version of lapis legit with reduced egg yolks and baked on a Swiss roll tin, which then rolled.

Lapis Legit Keju (Cheese Layered Cake)

Posted on my blog on Multiply:
Lapis Legit Keju

This is a cheese version of kue lapis. Not my favourite, but worth to try out. The cake was quite nice when it has been kept for days after being baked.

Lapis Tikar (Tikar Layer Cake)

Posted on my blog on Multiply:
Lapis Tikar

This kue lapis is made from egg whites. Not so much the texture I like to taste, but it is a great entry to use-up the heaps of leftover egg whites used on the previous baking. Sadly, this recipe and photo had been copy pasted by an irresponsible party who breached my copyright and downloaded it all and wrote it on a recipe book published in Indonesia without my permission or any other effort to give me a notice. I wrote it on my blog post here. I was so angry I wanted to sue these people, but then it won't worth the money and time.

There is one version I try out recently. It is called Lapis Agar. And yes, it is made from agar-agar powder. Allison of Pease and Pudding sent me a little jar of agar-agar powder months way back and I still have half of them to use.

I found the recipe from my mother's old recipe collection, handwritten by her. I have been searching for a reason to bake it, now I have found it.

Lapis Agar (Agar-Agar Layered Cake)

The thing about old recipe is that you don't get the exact amount of measurement. They use 'glass' in many of measurement in the olden days. In the original handwritten recipe, the amount of butter is using 'glass' instead of cup. But which glass? Which volume? So, I just adapt this recipe to our modern standard measuring cup as much as I can.

The use of 1 can of sweetened condensed milk is too much for me, so I reduce it. Even so, the cake is sweet enough to my taste. I also add 1 tsp vanilla extract into the mixture.

10 eggs

1 cup butter (I use salted butter)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (I only use 1/4 cup)

11/2 cups caster sugar

1 sachet agar-agar

4 glasses of water

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the tin lightly and lined with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add in eggs, one at a time. Beat in milk. Set aside.

Cook agar-agar in 4 glasses of water, cooled down. When it's cool, pour into the butter mixture, mix well.

Bake a layer at a time. (at this stage, I use lapis legit baking method, to bake first layer with 180C, then change the oven function setting to grill, 100% on my oven. Last layer, I turn the setting to conventional and set the temperature back to 180C).

A Yellow Post, A Beautiful Memory, and A Fond Farewell to Barbara

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:03:00 +0000

Barbara had been a good and true friend of mine on/offline that I dearly loved. Her passing on 29 June hit me hard. I found it's quite hard to believe she's now gone. This is the second biggest loss I have ever felt since the loss of my father last year, both lost battle of cancer. She had become one of important people in my life, and losing her has never been easy.

She had offered me a genuine friendship since we first met. I never knew she had put me on a 'very prominent' person in her life until Bryan broke the news of her passing. She wanted me to know that she regarded me as a true friend until the end of her time. This has saddened me deeper, as I would never be able to tell her how grateful I was to have a friend like she was and how much I loved and admired her.

Since I saw her on a local magazine and made a contact with her first time sometime in 2005, I had grown fond of her. She was so bubbly that it seemed we had been friends for a good long years before.

This was taken at the Halal Bihalal, sometime in 2006 when we first met in Auckland.
We chatted about food and blog the whole time.

I met her first time on the occasion of Halal Bihalal (Indonesian Muslims gathering that usually is held after Eid el Fitr) where I invited her to join us in Auckland (Apparently, Barbara wrote it here and I wrote it here). There was nothing else we chatted about but food and blog. We had enjoyed Indonesian meals that day and she sampled my Negro African Tart squares.

This was taken in September 2006, when Barbara and Bryan had come down to our farm and lunched with us.
I remember she asked me about how to cook such fluffy rice.
She also loved my lemon cake that she mentioned it several times on her blog.

Another time she went down with husband Bryan was in January 2007, where she sampled fresh fruits from our orchard. She wrote on her blog that when she ate the peach, she had to stand over the kitchen sink as the juice was dribbling her chin.

On one occasion, one day in July 2007, Barbara baked and brought these Matcha cookies for my daughter's birthday. She loved my sourdough bread as she kept saying as they were 'fresh and homey'. She also sampled my Damson Plum cheese and Apple Cider Cheese, which she loved and then she took some home.

Barbara's Matcha Cookies she baked to contribute on my daughter's birthday in July 2007.

Before she and family moved to Australia in 2008, we had had another luncheon date at our family's old good friends' river cottage on the side of Waikato river one day in a sunny November 2007. It was whitebaiting season, so we had a chance to watch Ralph Dwen did the fishing and gave my children experience more of Kiwi adventure. Barbara brought her potato foccacia that she baked for Daring Bakers that Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups was hosted that month (you can see some photos Barb took during whitebaiting by clicking the link) which was really nice. We all enjoyed Sue's whitebait fritters which the fish were freshly caught and tasted so sweet. Bryan loved to have a chance to taste my green swiss roll and Greek shortbreads on the occasion. It was just a wonderful time. Apparently, it was the last time I ever saw Barbara again.

This was taken back in November 2007, the last day I met her and Bryan before they moved back to Brisbane, Australia. We went whitebaiting at our close friend's whitebaiting post on the Waikato river in Te Kohanga.
She was sorting out whitebaits from other baby fish with my children.

I knew Barbara as a brave lady and had a strong will to live her life one day to be cancer-free. On one occasion once we were together, she bent down to pick some French beans in my garden and softly said "If I am finally gone, I don't mind. I have had a good life, good friends, and good family." I got a sudden pang and had to bend lower to hide my tears. She had accepted that cancer might kill her one day, but for now, she would just battle as hard as she could.

On many emails we so very often sent to each other, she once told me that the tumors on her lungs had been growing again and she had to be ready for a series of chemo again. For days she had to live with semolina porridge and joked that she could share it with my baby daughter. One time, she gave me an update when she went to the surgeon that she had to have these tumors removed, and I just couldn't sleep thinking of her, until she wrote to me that she was recovering.

Could you imagine that Barb had been battling her cancer since 2004, and she had to go through scan which she wasn't allowed to eat for a certain time, had to go through chemo sessions which was not only once or twice, and had to go through surgeries at a number of times, not to mention had to deal with the after-chemo impacts that somehow made her tastebuds gone numb for quite some time? She was one strong lady, she was!

That she in the end lost a battle against this monster, it must be understandable. There's no drugs to prove strong enough to kill cancer, not that I know of. But she is pain-free now. And may God give her the best place in heaven, for she was a wonderful lady and had a heart of gold that she still thought of her friends and other people before she departed.

Her last request is if you can kindly give donation to the "Colon Cancer Research". Rest easy, Barb.

On the occasion to remember her presence on the blogging world and in the special place in our lives, I join in the long-loved Monthly Mingle event, originated by the famous Meeta Wolff of What's for Lunch, Honey? and this month A Taste of Yellow theme is hosted by Jeanne of Cook Sister to pay a tribute to our late Barbara Joan Harris of Winos and Foodies.

I made Lemon Tapioca Pudding with Crushed Raspberries and Lemon Shortbreads. It's basically tapioca pearls soaked in clean water for 6 hours, since I use small pearls, discard the water and then cooked the pearls in half portion of milk and fresh cream and zest of two lemons, and sugar to sweeten. Towards the end of cooking, I whisk an egg yolk which tempered by two tablespoons of tapioca mixture, then added to the pan, mix well. Lastly, I poured in 2 tablespoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, mix well. Remove and cool.

I quite like adding lemon curd on the bottom of the dish, spoon the pudding over, and topped with crushed raspberries. This curd adds an extra note of lemon when scooped out, mixed with not-too-sweet pudding and sour raspberry crushed, I like this combination.

The lemon shortbread is just a complement if you like something crunchy to company the whole soft dessert. I was thinking to make sesame cigars, but didn't have time to do it.

Cheers Barb!

The Caker Takes The Cakes

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Jordan Rondel is the popular Caker. She bakes beautiful-looking cakes in Auckland, and am sure they taste wonderful too. I haven't been yet to Auckland to taste her cakes, but I have been able to try out her Chocolate Chip Cookies. It is so simple to make and is kids-friendly.

My children love baking them as well as enjoying them warm when the chocolate chunks are still soft and melting in their mouth. Wait until you see the chocolate smear all over their faces and fingers with eyes that twinkle! If chocolate makes your children happy, why shouldn't you treat them with these lovely gems!

I use gluten-free flour and almond meal to substitute the plain flour. I also use our local Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana chocolate to substitute 70% dark chocolate button.

And of course, milk is the best company for chocolate chip cookies, my children say. I like enjoying these cookies with a cup of black coffee as they complement each other well.

Sweet NZ: Valrhona Hot Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:32:00 +0000

It's so cold today, so I thought I'm just going to send out my hot chocolate drink to fellow Kiwi bloggers nationwide this winter as an entry for Sweet New Zealand, hosted by Shirleen of Sugar and Spice this month.

I love Valrhona Manjari from Sabato, and I often use it for hot chocolate drink. I love its flavour and its intense dark chocolate of 64% cocoa solids. So delicious to get rid of winter blues.

Valrhona Hot Chocolate Soy Drink

by Arfi Binsted

50g Valrhona Manjari Feves

2 glasses soy milk
2 Tbs Valrhona Cocoa powder

honey or sugar to sweeten (optional)

1 cinnamon quill

marshmallows

Put chocolate feves, soy milk, cocoa and cinnamon quill in a pot over a low heat until hot and chocolate melt, simmer for 3 minutes. Remove cinnamon quill. Sweetened if you like, but I just like it sweetened by melted marshmallows. Enjoy.

The Imperfections of Black Forest Cake

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:22:00 +0000

This is a sudden crave. I must eat a slice of black forest cake.

To be honest, I have made chocolate cake perhaps hundred times but never ever occur to me to make it black forest. It is so classic that you can see almost in any bakery this cake is sitting gracefully on the counter. So popular that I want to have it on my plate.

The thing is, I don't have cherries. Cherries are Black Forest's best friend. Without cherries, black forest won't be a black forest.

Our cherry trees in the orchard is almost naked with yellow leaves fallen down, piled to make compost for their own food supply, and there is not a single fruit up there, no matter how much I want it. It's early winter here in New Zealand and there is no way I am going to buy $20/kg imported fresh cherries. Besides, I support local produce. I also forgot to buy Morello cherries on our groceries store last week, so well, black forest without cherries? There is the imperfection number one.

OK. How about Maraschino cherries? This has been on my list for such a long time. But, you know what? I can't find it anywhere at the supermarkets, health food stores, and bulk food stores, everywhere. I give up. I don't think that horrible taste of glace cherries will do the topping. So, black forest without maraschino cherries on top? There is the imperfection number two.

Well. Now the search for chocolate cake. I want it something gluten-free. Yes, I can use my own favourite recipe, but I want something different. Something that I have never done before. I browse around. And found the Black Forest Cake on Taste, Australian online magazine website.

Reading the recipe, I must admit that some ingredients I have to omit because of the unavailability. What is Nuttelex? Is it some kind of baby Nuttela? And I don't have baby cereal. Our baby doesn't eat cereal, as she prefers fresh fruit and yogurt or rice pudding instead of a box of cereal (I don't like feeding my baby out of mass produce baby food that comes out of a packet or a jar anyway--I'd rather cook). So I increase the use of almond meal.

I also don't have gluten-free self-rising flour, so I just use gluten-free mix and add a teaspoon of baking powder and half teaspoon of baking soda.

And I begin the adventure.

The cake comes out fine. Rather thinner than I thought. My head is full with speculations that I'd rather split it into two rather than three, because I might have really really thin layers; too thin they will break. But I determine I will split the cake into three thin layers, so I did. And there is the imperfection number three. The layers break as I predicted. The cake is so fragile as well as so moist. Split it to two layers might have been better. But well, there's no time to weep, can't glue the cake back, the show must go on, the crave is still on.

I whip the thick cream with a little icing sugar, spread in between three broken layers, mending as I go along, sort of. I have made the chocolate shards the night before, to decorate the sides of the cake, so what I do is just to get it out of the fridge and unfold it, just follow Donna's instruction on Donna Hay iPad app on back Birthday Issue (can't get the link--sorry). I ran out of the cream, not enough to cover the whole cake, so this is the imperfection number four.

Looking into the pantry, searching for dark chocolate, I find myself disappointed. I had used all my 72% dark chocolate for the side garnish the other night, nothing left for making ganache (to replace the whipped cream). So, OK. I'll use whatever I have. Milk chocolate is my second last to list, and now I beg its mercy.

With whatever leftover whipped cream I have, I melt the milk chocolate along in a double boiler. What did I get than a curdle mixture that started to expose the oil. I removed it out of the stove, beating like mad. The mixture stays curdled. I ran to the fridge and found a little more fresh cream in its bottle. I heat that and pour the hot cream a little at a time into the curdled chocolate. Do you know what comes next?

I just couldn't believe myself, that the mixture is getting smoother and smoother to the right consistency that I expect it should be. I was on top of the moon, in fact, I was going to Saturn!

To finish the cake, I strip off Ferrero Rocher's golden dress to reveal its nutty ball and put it on piped swirled leftover whipped cream. My dream cake is done.

I enjoy every bite. The layers are so moist, so chocolaty, enriched by slightly sweetened cream chantilly that goes well together, so soft that I could just use my tongue to melt it into a creaminess goods for my tummy to digest. Milk chocolate ganache which is another element for me to get worried about before is there actually to complement the dark chocolate that spiked around the edges of the cake and crumbled on top of it.

I love this imperfect black forest cake.

I'm sending this cake for Sweet New Zealand, originated by Alessandra Zecchini. Jemma of Time for A Little Something is hosting this month.

On the Sweet Side

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I was woken up, in the middle of the night, craving on something sweet. I remember I had baked another batch of Butterscotch cupcakes and had also keep the caramel sauce in the fridge. Just need to warm up the sauce, and I'll be good.

I have used Donna Hay's Butterscotch Cupcakes for years, and this time I made the gluten-free version one. I didn't really measure all the ingredients precisely, though, so no need to ask me the recipe. I just did what I did as I went along. If you are not gluten intolerance, you can use the original recipe, link provided up there.

I am sending these cupcakes to Frances of Bake Club who is hosting Sweet New Zealand this month.

Just to add a touch, here is an array of blue sky portraits we have been getting lately. This is what our previous Summer should have been!

Have a great week!

Cezanne's Secret Admire Here IV

noreply@blogger.com (arfi binsted) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:48:00 +0000

A recap of my 366 project on moody light food photography and still life, using iPad2 camera and various applications available on the iTunes.