my bare cupboard

Melon cake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 03:30:00 +0000

When the going gets tough, the tough gets baking!

How's life so far, guys?

Remember the trending Japanese melon cake last year? Here's my cheaper version 😜 It's actually pretty easy to make than it looks!

Well, this is the second time that I made it, I helped one of my taste tester to make a cake for her husband's birthday more than a week ago. We didn't expect much but how hard can it be?! Surprisingly it turned out pretty awesome, with layers as good as the one we've seen on Instagram! *pats my back again* 🙄🤣

Onto the melon, as you can see from the photo of the melon below, it has a Japanese label, and since melon from Japan is pretty expensive, the one I bought was probably grown elsewhere as it's dirt-cheap! Those wily fruit vendors and gullible consumers! 😁 In fairness, the melon tastes good, it's sweet with a bit of crunch, the way I like my melon....

Making this cake is really easy though a much riper melon is easier to handle as the inside is much softer.

Basically a layer cake, with Chantilly cream aka dairy whipping cream with a bit of sugar to hold the layers together. No step by step photo though but it's easy to figure it out.

I used the same old, same old genoise sponge recipe, it's a forgiving recipe and will come out delicious no matter how you manhandle the batter....

The only issue I have with this cake is the melon jelly, this is the first time that it doesn't hold its shape after several hours in the fridge 😞 Maybe I overheated the jelly mixture but I usually do that most of the time and no problem at all......

Warning! This is a light, sort of boring cake but perfect if you love less sweet cakes and not for those who loves buttercream frosted cake....

Matcha genoise sponge, recipe adapted from Okashi

115 grams cake flour

4 grams matcha powder (sifted once or thrice together with flour and salt)

2 grams fine sea salt

45 grams whole milk

30 grams butter

5 grams vanilla extract

170 grams (3 large) eggs, at room temp, lightly beaten

100 grams caster sugar

15 grams (liquid) glucose

** You can either bake this in a 7-inch round (30-35 minutes) or 12-inch square pan (20 minutes). Line pan with parchment paper.

* Preheat oven to 170ºC.

* In a small heat-proof bowl, combine milk, butter and vanilla, set aside.

* Combine the eggs, sugar and glucose and stir until combine. In a pan of barely simmering water, heat egg mixture while whisking (in broad strokes) until temperature registers 40ºC or 60ºC (faster to whip)

* Take out pan from heat and beat until mixture has tripled in size and when you lift the beater, the mixture will just stay on top rather than dissolving after few seconds. Fold in the flour mixture.

* Meanwhile, heat the milk-butter mixture until butter is melted, keep warm.

* Add about 1/3 of the batter to the warm butter mixture, mix well. Pour it back to the remaining batter and gently fold until just combined.

* Pour batter in a prepared pan and tap several times to the counter to remove air bubbles.

* Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

* Take out sponge from the pan and place in a wire rack, cover with plastic wrap or place in a food-safe plastic bag to prevent it from getting dry. Cool completely and place in the freezer until needed.

* Cut out two 5-inch and one3.5-inch round, put back in the freezer until needed. You can use the leftover sponge to make other cake.

Melon jelly

120 grams melon purée

8 grams caster sugar

3 grams gelatine powder

* In a small heat-proof bowl, stir the purée and caster sugar, sprinkle the gelatine powder on top and let bloom for about 5 minutes. Mix well and place bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir until gelatine is completely melted. Let cool at room temp before pouring into the prepared mould.

* Freeze until needed.

Preparing the melon

* Rinse and wipe dry the melon, cut about 1-inch off the top. Using a rounded tablespoon, remove the seeds in the middle first. If you only have one melon, use the melon baller to cut out some balls. You can also use a pairing knife to hasten the work but be careful not to pierce the sides. Scrape as much melon as you can.

* Once you hollowed out the melon, pat dry with kitchen paper towel. Put it on the plate upside down and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to further dry the inside so as to chill it.

Chantilly cream

325 grams dairy whipping cream

25 grams caster sugar

* Beat cream until stiff peak forms, chill in the fridge until need.

Assembling the cake

* Cut the melon and strawberries into desired shape. Pat dry each piece with kitchen tissue.

* Pipe some cream at the bottom of the hollow melon, place the (3.5-inch) sponge on top and cover it with the cream.....

* In a nutshell:

cream

sponge

cream

melon

cream

sponge

cream

strawberries

cream

sponge

toppings (melon balls and jelly)

* Decorate the top with melon balls and only add the melon jelly 30 minutes before serving.

* Chill in the fridge for at least 12 hours before serving, less time during winter.

Mango-yogurt (no bake) cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 14:38:00 +0000

Life is short, eat more cheesecake...

Since Thai mangoes are abundant and cheap in this side of the world, I decided to make another no-bake cheesecake. This a just a simple cheesecake but using a cheese-shaped silicone mould (check photo below) makes it a bit less ordinary.

You can always use any mould, be it silicone or stainless steel or drinking glass(es). The mango batter will nicely fill in a 6-inch heart-shaped or 7-inch round mould.

The recipe calls for 1 egg yolk, you can omit it, if prefer, but it gives the cheesecake batter a certain richness. Use full-fat yogurt rather than low-fat.

The jelly has no sugar, my diy mango purée is so sweet it doesn't need any added sweetener.

Recipe adapted from Charles Ho

Mango jelly:

200 grams mango purée

6 grams gelatine powder

40 grams cold drinking water

10 grams Grand Marnier, optional

* Pour water in a heat-proof bowl, sprinkle gelatine and let sit for about 5 minutes or until spongy. Stir in the purée.

* Place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir until gelatine is dissolved completely. Stir in the Grand Marnier, if using. Let cool slightly before pouring into the cheese mould, chill in the fridge until needed.

Mango cheesecake batter:

120 grams mango purée

18 grams/1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

5 grams gelatine powder

40 grams milk, cold

170 grams cream cheese, at room temp

60 grams caster sugar

110 grams dairy whipping cream, whipped

100 grams mango-flavoured yogurt or plain or Greek

5 grams lime juice

200 grams mangoes, cut into small cubes

* Pour milk in a heat-proof bowl and sprinkle gelatine powder, let sit for 5 minutes or until spongy. Stir in the beaten yolk and mix to combine. Place bowl in a saucepan with barely simmering water, stir mixture continuously to prevent yolk from curdling. Keep warm.

*** If you have a food thermometer, check the temperature of the yolk-gelatine mixture, I heated mine to 68ºC/154ºF but you can do 76ºC/170ºF to be safe.

* Combine cream cheese and sugar, beat until fluffy. Add in the whipped cream and beat until mixture is smooth. Add in yogurt, purée, lime juice and the gelatine mixture, mix until well-combined. Place cheesecake batter into a piping bag.

* Take out the mould from the fridge, add about 15 grams mango cubes on top of the jelly, pipe in cheesecake batter. Gently tap the mould on the table several times to prevent air pockets, use spatula to smoothen the top. Freeze overnight.

Cheesecake crust:

190 grams shortbread cookies/biscuits

40 butter, melted

* Place ingredients above in a food processor and whizz until well combined. Use a triangle-shape cookie cutter to form a crust at 20 grams each. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Green tea, lime and mango mini entremet

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 08:46:00 +0000

Spring has sprung!

Hey, there, lurker, still remember me?!

How's the situation in your side of the world? Hopefully, all is well and good, if not, take care!

If you're into French pastry, you've probably tried or made an entremet. Entremet is a multi-layered mousse-based dessert with various complementary flavours and textural contrast. It's a bit time-consuming but actually pretty easy to make.

This refreshing East meets West dessert is made of green tea genoise sponge, lime cream cheese mousse, chunky mango gelée, green tea mirror glaze and the shortbread crust base. The shortbread crust is not a typical base layer for an entremet but I was to lazy to make a pâté sucrée/ sweet shortcrust pastry crust.

Rome wasn't built in a day and so as this entremet. You can make each component if you feel like it, leave it on the freezer for days while contemplating the meaning of life 🙄🤣

Make Green tea genoise sponge, you can use half of the recipe if prefer. Using a 5 cm/2 inches cookie cutter, cut 7 round sponge about 8 to 10 mm thick, freeze until needed.

Chunky Mango Gelée, recipe adapted from Indulgence Mousse cake, a bilingual book

50 grams mango purée

10 grams water

10 grams caster sugar

1 gram gelatine leaf, soak until softened and squeeze off excess water

100 grams diced mangoes

* Combine water, sugar and softened gelatine in a small heat-proof bowl, place bowl in a saucepan with barely simmering water, stir until gelatine is completely melted. Stir in the mango purée and let cool at room temperature before adding in the diced mangoes. Divide evenly into the prepared mould (I used a copycat Silikomart mini truffle mould). Freeze until set.

* Makes about 10 balls

Lime cream cheese mousse:

180 grams cream cheese, softened at room temp

180 grams dairy whipping cream, whipped and chill in the fridge until needed

90 grams caster sugar

8 grams gelatine leaf, soak until softened and squeeze off excess water

60 grams lime juice

lime zest, optional

* Melt softened gelatine until melted, keep warm.

* Whisk cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy; add juice and zest. Stir in the melted gelatine and whisk until well-combined. Fold in the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, if you can't make the mixture smooth, use the electric whisk on low speed and beat for about 30 seconds.

* Pour about 2/3 of the mixture into each cavity, gently add in the mango balls in the middle and pour in some mousse to cover it. Gently tap the mould on the counter to release air pockets. . Add in the sponge and gently push it down, use a spatula to smoothen the top.

* Makes 7 and 1/4

Shortbread crust:

115 grams shortbread crumbs

25 grams melted butter

* Mix everything together until well combined. Use a 2.5 inch round cutter to form each crust at 19 grams each.

* Makes 7

Green tea mirror glaze, recipe adapted from Patisserie

Recipe here, I made 80% of the recipe. Mirror glaze mixture is more than enough to glaze about 15 pieces of these mini entremets.

* Pour glaze several times to get the desired thickness. Use a baking pan lined with plastic wrap to catch the dripping glaze.

* Keep leftover glaze for 3 days inside the fridge.

Assembly:

* Unmould the mousse and place it on top of a wire rack set over a plastic wrap-lined baking sheet. Pour glaze several times to get the desired thickness. Gently tap the wire rack to remove excess glaze. Carefully transfer each entremet onto the top of the shortbread crust. Place in the fridge to defrost for about 2 hours before serving.

* Decorate top with fresh mandarin leaves or you can make a (tempered) chocolate leaves.

Mango-coconut no bake cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 08:04:00 +0000

What is better than #Duterteland mango cheesecake?!

Love mango and coconut? Then this no-bake cheesecake is for you!

Smooth, creamy and refreshing, this cheesecake is a perfect summer dessert. Sweet mangoes are in season right now, okay, maybe not as abundant as last year but you still can find lots of it here in smoggy Hong Kong....

Crust:

You'll need six 3x2 inch mousse or any silicone moulds or one 7 inch mousse ring/pan with removable bottom

60 grams Speculoos or any biscuits

60 grams toasted pecans

30 grams salted butter, melted

* You can either bash the biscuits and pecans until fine with a rolling pin or process both in a food processor. Add in the melted butter and stir until well combined.

* Place (about) 25 grams of crumbs in each mould, use a straight-sided rolling pin to flatten the crumbs or use a spoon. Freeze until needed.

Filling: recipe slightly-tweaked from Sutekina Okashi

10 grams gelatine sheets

100 grams whipping cream

150 grams cream cheese, at room temperature

75 grams condensed milk

60 grams coconut milk or cream

200 grams mango purée

* Soak gelatine in cold water until softens, 5-10 minutes. Once softens, squeeze off excess water and set aside. Start boiling water in a small saucepan.

* Whip cream until stiff peaks form, chill in the fridge until needed.

* Melt softened gelatine, keep warm.

* Beat cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth, add in the coconut milk and mango purée. Add in melted gelatine and whisk until well incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream.

* Divide filling into the prepared mould. If using a mousse ring, chill in the fridge or if using a silicone mould, freeze. Chill or freeze cheesecake overnight.

Mango compote topping:

5 grams pectin

15 grams caster sugar

100 grams mango puree

100 grams cubed mangoes

* Mix together pectin and sugar, set aside.

* In a small saucepan, combine the purée and the cubed mangoes, bring to a boil. Add the sugar and pectin mixture, cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Transfer to a small heat-proof container, let cool completely then chill in the fridge until needed.

To un-mould the cheesecake:

* Un-mould cheesecake by blowing the hairdryer around the sides of the mould for few seconds. Place cheesecake in baking sheet and chill for 1 hour before adding in the toppings.

Chicken arroz caldo and ube puto

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 04:50:00 +0000

Keep calm and don't hoard rice and tissue

Arroz caldo is a Filipino-style rice porridge almost similar to congee. The name is derived from Spanish word arroz (rice) and caldo (broth). It is typically made using glutinous rice (but any rice will do), it is fried with ginger and garlic, chicken is added and lots of water then simmer until mixture thickens. It is served with fried garlic, spring onion and boiled egg. Sometimes for economic reason, chicken is not added when making the porridge but egg is a must.

I used boneless whole chicken leg but any chicken parts is fine. If using tenders or breast, which tend to tun a bit tough if cooked longer, to avoid this, after frying, take them out and add in the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Making porridge is also one way to make sure your rice stash will last a bit longer just in case there's a Zombie Apocalypse...

Arroz caldo is usually served during breakfast but it is also a popular meryenda/ tea time snack. It is a hearty one-pot meal and perfect during rainy days or wintry days.

Puto is a Filipino-style steamed rice cake, it is traditionally made from ground soaked rice then steamed. It is typically served with savoury Fiipino dishes such as dinuguan, a pork blood stew. The easiest way to make it is to use rice flour though plain flour is also another alternative. Toppings like cheese or salted egg are popular and you can fill it as well.

It is filling breakfast or tea time snack, perfect with coffee...

I used rice flour and added a bit of my homemade ube powder. Not much, only 10 grams as the my diy only yield a measly 36 grams out of 350 grams of thinly-sliced fresh ube tubers baked for 5 hours 🤪

Chicken arroz caldo, recipe adapted from The Food of the Philippines, with some tweaks

1 tbsp oil
15 grams peeled garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
10 grams peeled ginger, thinly sliced
150 grams (Jasmine) rice
2000 ml water
300 grams, boneless (skin on) whole chicken legs, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tsp fish sauce

* Heat oil in a pot, add onion and stir-fry over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add in the garlic and ginger and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add in the rice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.

* Pour in the water, cover the pot and bring to the boil; when it boils, take off the lid and boil over high heat for 10 minutes. Turn down heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.

* Stir in the fish sauce and cook for another 2 minutes or salt. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot.

Fried garlic

15 grams peeled garlic, minced
2 tbsp oil

* Fry garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.

Toppings

Calamansi or limes
Chopped spring onions
Black or white pepper
Boiled eggs

Ube puto, recipe adapted from Oggi, with some tweaks

Makes 24 mini puto

130 grams rice flour
10 grams (diy) ube powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
70 grams sugar
2 grams fine sea salt
125 grams coconut milk
115 grams water
5 grams ube paste
1 gram violet gel colour

some cheese slices

* Lightly grease 2 mini muffin tins. Start boiling water in a wok or a pot.

* Combine dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Pour in liquid ingredients gradually over dry, using a wire whisk to stir mixture until smooth.

* Pour mixture into the prepared pan, about 3/4 full. You can either add cheese on top before steaming or add it halfway. Steam over high heat for 20-25 minutes.

* Let cool slightly before removing from the tin.

* Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Thai-style fried chicken part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 12:02:00 +0000

Because there is no such thing as too many fried chicken post 🤪

Clearing some of the frozen meat that populated our small freezer. Since I always stock up on some Thai ingredients, it's easier to whip up a Thai-inspired dish anytime.

No food shortage here ~~yet~~ only surgical masks, hand sanitizers and alcohol shortage 🙄

As with most fried chicken recipes, this one is very easy to make. The hardest part is marinating the chicken pieces for several hours, I always marinate mine for 8-12 hours to get the maximum flavour. You can also add more chillis so as lime juice to your marinade if desired.

I used the smallest saucepan so that I don't have to use too much oil, the downside though was frying several times. No double frying this time as I was quiet hungry, if you want a much darker colour or crispier skin then you really need to double-fry.

Recipe adapted from A Celebration of Food

1 kg chicken (combination of wings and boneless whole chicken legs)

15 grams peeled garlic cloves
2 red bird's eye chillis
15 grams fresh coriander roots (including some of coriander stems)
70 grams Thai fish sauce
25 grams raw sugar
70 grams lime juice
zest of 2 limes
1 gram white ground pepper

(sunflower oil) for deep-frying

* Rub coarse sea salt to the chicken pieces and rinse well. Drain and pat dry with kitchen towel, set aside.

* Place garlic, chillies and coriander roots in a mortar and pestle or use a mini food processor and grind into a paste. Mix the paste with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, zest and white pepper.

* Combine the chicken and the marinade together, mix well to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours. Take out from the fridge 30 minutes (more time if it is winter) before cooking.

Batter:

95 grams rice flour
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp chicken powder (optional)
1/2 cup drinking water mix with 1 tsp baking soda

Dry coating:

125 grams rice flour

* Whisk batter ingredients together, the batter will be thin. Drop several pieces of chicken into the batter and coat the battered chicken with rice flour, shaking off excess flour. Lay each piece in a wire rack or baking sheet for 15-20 minutes to dry out before frying.

* Meanwhile, heat oil when oil is hot, drop each pieces gently to avoid splatter. Cook in batches (but not too many at the same time as this will lower the oil's temperature and will result in soggy coating) for 12 minutes or until chicken pieces are cooked through. You can double fry by turning up the heat and fry the pieces again.

*Serve hot on its own or with steamed rice and veggies or make a chicken burger.

Salted caramel and pecan tartlets

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 07:39:00 +0000

Keep calm and wear a surgical mask.

How's the situation in your side of the world lately? Hope everything is fine...

Nope, still no butter shortage in smoggy Hong Kong...

Fingers-crossed.

Got a new set of tart mould and a bag of pecan halves courtesy of my 2 enablers, Yanyan and Fufu, I heart you, guys 😁

Since I got time on my hands, which is almost all the time, I decided to make another layered dessert.

Yup, one of those time-consuming dessert that I like to make. You can make everything in just a day or two but you can stretch it into 3 days like I did 🤣

This tartlet is made of 3 components (4 if you count the pecans), the pâte sucrée, coffee joconde and salted caramel.

This may look a bit time-consuming to make because it really was but the combination of different flavour and texture will surely please even the most finicky French pastry enthusiast!

Tartlets assembly

* Place (4 x about 1-inch) joconde sponge at the base of the tart shell/case, pressing down gently. Sprinkle some chopped pecans on top of the sponge and pipe in some caramel, 30-35 grams (guesstimate). Use an offset spatula to smoothen the top and top with pecan halves and heart-shaped cookies.

Depending on the ambient temperature, you can serve it right away or chill in the fridge until the caramel firms up a bit.

Salted caramel sauce

280 grams (vanilla) sugar or add 1 tsp vanilla extract
60 grams drinking water
230 grams whipping cream
50 grams salted butter, softened
2 grams fine sea salt

* In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Cook over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until colour turns into amber.

* In another saucepan, heat cream, keep it hot.

* Take pan off heat, gradually add in the hot cream while stirring the mixture vigorously. If there are some lumps, return pan on the stove, turn heat to low and stir until caramel is smooth. Once mixture is smooth, add in the butter and salt, stir until well combined.

* Let caramel cool slightly in the pan for 10-15 minutes before pouring into the prepared sterilized jar. Cool completely before using.

Caramel sauce texture is perfect for spreading on toast/bread or drizzling over ice cream. Because of the current temperature in this of the world, 11ºC when I used it, it looks thicker that the usual caramel sauce.

Toasted pecans

150 grams (or more) pecan halves

* Preheat oven to 180ºC.

* Put pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 6-10, stirring halfway through. Check pecans as they are easily scorched. Transfer toasted pecans in a heat-proof plate, let cool.

If you want a shiny pecans, while nuts are still warm, brush the top with apricot or in my case, strawberry jam. You'll need 30 pieces for topping and 12 grams/6 pieces coarsely chopped pecans for the filling.

Coffee joconde sponge, recipe adapted from Pâtisserie

63 grams icing sugar, sifted
63 grams ground almonds
19 grams plain flour, sifted
2 grams instant coffee
81 grams whole eggs
14 grams unsalted butter
50 grams egg whites
15 grams caster sugar

* Preheat oven 200ºC. Line a 12 inch baking pan wit parchment paper.

* Combine the icing sugar, ground almonds, flour and coffee; add in the whole eggs and beat for 10-12 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy.

* Melt butter, making sure it's not too warm. Slowly add it to the mixture, beating well until it is fully incorporated. Set aside.

* Beat egg whites until foamy, add in the sugar and beat until firm peaks form.

* Fold meringue into the egg mixture then spread onto the prepare pan. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden brown and the sponge springs back when pressed gently.

You'll only use about 1/3 of the sponge

Pâte Sucrée, recipe adapted from Baking at Republique, with some tweaks

200 grams cake flour
50 grams plain flour
45 grams almond flour/meal
120 grams icing sugar
120 grams cold butter, cubed (88 grams salted, 32 grams unsalted)
50 grams (whole) eggs, lightly beaten

* In a large mixing bowl or clean work surface, sift the flours and sugar, make a well in the centre and add in the cubed butter.

* Use your fingers to rub flours and butter together until mixture resembles a fine breadcrumbs. Add in the beaten eggs and mix to form a smooth, homogenous dough.

* Divide dough into 2 portion, form into a 6-inch square and wrap it in a cling film. Chill in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours before using.

* You'll only need one portion (300 grams) to make 6 tartlets plus heart-shaped cookies for topping/decoration.

Always remember that it's easier to roll the dough in a cool room

* Lightly grease six 12 cm x 3.5 cm rectangular tart ring (or any size you have on hand)

* Place dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper, dusted with a bit of flour. Roll dough into 3 mm thick, better if you can do it at 2.5 mm. If the dough is a bit stiff to roll, let it stand for 5 minutes.

* Line the prepared tart cases with dough, pressing it snugly along the bottom and along the sides. Trim excess along the edges with a knife. Prick the bottom with a fork. Freeze for 1 hour.

* Take out from the freezer and line the tart shells with parchment paper then place in the baking weight/stones. Place back in the freezer for 20 minutes/

* Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180ºC.

* Blind bake tart shells for 20 minutes or until edges are lightly golden. Take out from the oven and
carefully remove the weights from the shells.

* Lower down the temperature to 160ºC and bake shells for 6-8 minutes or until the base is also lightly golden or almost. Let cool completely before using.

Ube halaya cream tart

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 14:35:00 +0000

Poor Judgement.

It's that time of the year again! How's the Christmas shopping er baking so far?!

Remember to buy only what you can afford! Needs vs Wants. Your purchase(s) may look good on Social Media but not on your bank account...

A friendly reminder from someone who's earning a pittance. You're welcome!

I baked this nearly 2 weeks ago but as always, it's easy to bake, even easier to consume almost all the whole tart.. Writing the blog post though is another matter especially if you don't know what to write 🙄

Anyway....

Ube halaya is a Filipino delicacy made from mashed ube or purple yam, coconut milk, condensed milk and some pantry staple ingredients. Cooking is straightforward as you just need to combine everything and cook until mixture thickens.

Ube is a tuberous root vegetable often confused with taro or purple sweet potato though it has almost the same flavour characteristics as the other two. Colour may range from vivid purple to lavender but sometimes you can find white ones as well.

When the weather starts to get a bit cooler here in smoggy Hong Kong, you can find lots fresh ube at the wet market. If you go to market often you can also find it during summertime though not as much compare to cooler months.

Ube halaya is delightful on its own or as a bread or cracker spread, on cheesecake, ice cream but why stop there?! Colour of the ube halaya will depend upon how vivid the ube you've used. You can use ube food colouring if desired.

Giving this popular Filipino delicacy a French twist, another one of my East meets West dessert. This tart has 4 layers, the sweet pastry crust, salted caramel, diplomat cream and the homemade ube halaya. No, don't omit the salted caramel (recipe here) as the diplomat cream and ube halaya combination is a bit boring without it.

Layers are not as neat as some of my previous tarts and the crust is bit uneven as well but taste is all that matters...

Ube halaya, recipe adapted from KULINARYA

350 grams (steamed and mashed) ube/purple yam
85 grams sugar
300 grams coconut milk
50 grams condensed milk
45 grams butter, softened

* In a blender or food processor, combine ube, sugar, the 2 milk and process until mixture is smooth.

* Pour mixture in a non-stick pan, let it boil over high heat while stirring constantly. When mixture starts to bubble, turn down heat to medium heat and cook for 10-15 minutes or until it thickens.

* Transfer to a prepared sterilized jar, let cool completely before storing in the fridge. Take out in the fridge an hour (more time if it is cold in the side of your world) before using.

* You'll need about 350 grams to fill the the rectangle pan so as the 2 minis. Stir or beat lightly so that it'll be easier to pipe.

Makes about 750 grams

* Make this a day ahead.

Adjust the sugar according to preference. You can add ube flavouring if you want a vivid purple hue.

Pastry cream

3 grams gelatine leaf/sheet
200 grams whole milk, fresh or UHT
25 grams sugar (1)
some vanilla seeds (from homemade vanilla extract) or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks (about 35 grams)
15 grams sugar (2)
20 grams cornstarch
20 grams unsalted butter, softened

* Soak gelatine in cold water for 5-10 minutes or until softens. Once softens, squeezed out excess water and set aside.

* In a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar (1) and vanilla seeds, bring into a boil.

* Meanwhile, whisk yolks and sugar (2) until light and creamy, add in the cornstarch and stir until smooth. Pour hot milk gradually over the yolk mixture, stir as you pour to prevent curdling. Pour mixture back into the saucepan, bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Cook cream over medium heat for another 2 minutes until mixture thickens. Turn off heat, add in the softened gelatine and stir until melted then add in the butter, mix until well incorporated.

* Transfer to a bowl and place a plastic wrap directly on top of the cream. Let cool completely and chill in the fridge before using.

* Make this a day ahead.

Diplomat cream

250 grams pastry cream, at room temp but still cool, recipe above
145 grams whipping cream

* Beat cream until almost stiff peaks, set aside or you can chill it in the fridge if the weather is warm.

* Whisk pastry cream until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream in 2 additions until well combined. If the diplomat cream looks a bit lumpy, use the hand mixer and whisk over low spread for about 30-45 seconds. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Sweet tart dough, recipe adapted from Pastries

75 grams butter, softened
50 grams icing sugar
25 grams almond powder
2 grams salt
20 grams/ 1 egg yolk
5 grams vanilla extract
75 grams cake flour + 50 grams plain flour

* Beat butter until smooth, add in the sugar, almond flour and salt. Add the flour and beat until just combined, add in the yolks and vanilla and use a spatula to mix everything. Gather dough into a ball and knead gently 4-6 times until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and chill into the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

* The next day when you assemble the tart: Roll dough into 3 mm thick, gently transfer dough into the prepared lightly-greased 25x9.5-cm fluted tart pan, lightly smoothing the sides and bottom, trim off excess. Do the same with the mini tart using two 6x3-cm square and trace a mini spoon to make 2-4 pieces spoon-shaped cookies. Prick the pastry shells with fork and freeze for 1 hour. Take out from the freezer, line the pastry shells with parchment paper and fill with baking stones. Freeze again for another 20 minutes (a must if the weather is hot).

* Preheat oven to 170ºC.

* Bake for 20 minutes. Take out from the oven and remove the baking stones and the parchment. Return the tart base to the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes until light brown in colour.

* Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 30 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool completely before adding in the filling(s).

To assemble the tarts

* Spread a bit of salted caramel at the base and top with diplomat cream. Lastly, spread some ube halaya on top of the cream. Use a small offset spatula to smoothen the cream and the halaya. Pipe a bit of remaining diplomat cream so as the ube halaya on top, Chill in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

* Decorate with ube macarons and spoon-shaped cookies before serving.

Mango-matcha charlotte cake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 12:57:00 +0000

No butter shortage, only money shortage

Here's my take on the Charlotte cake, giving it a delightful Asian twist, using mangoes from #Duterteland and matcha-flavoured sponge cake.

Charlotte cake is made of ladyfingers or sponge and filled with cream or mousse or jelly and top with variety of fruits. The name of the dessert was a tribute to Queen Charlotte. Bread though was the basis for the earliest charlotte recipes, it's a dessert with fruit jelly or preserves and baked over hot coals and eaten warm.

Charlotte cake is more of a summer cake, the abundance of strawberries during summertime makes this cake a popular choice for a simple yet refreshing dessert. But that doesn't mean you can't make it past summer 🤣

My version of Charlotte cake is mostly made of the usual things you'll find in some French pastries. I used créme diplomat because I've got some egg yolks from macaron making and it's pretty easy to make. Créme diplomat is just a mix of pastry cream and whipped cream. Genoise sponge is sturdy enough as a base to hold the cream. The filling is supposedly a mango jelly but I want to try a compote. Compote means a chunky fruit sauce but the very ripe mangoes tend to disintegrates when you cook it thus the smooth compote. As you can see from the photos, there's a slight dip in the middle of the sliced cake because I forgot to add another layer of cream on top of the compote before adding the sponge. I used some of the extra créme diplomat to make a mini cake, sponge is from scraps.

Toppings are leftover créme diplomat, homemade green tea macs and fresh cubed mangoes

So how's your Baking mojo nowadays?! 😅

Pastry cream, make this a day ahead

250 grams whole milk (UHT or fresh)

40 (1) grams sugar

some vanilla seeds or 1 tsp vanilla extract

3 large egg yolks

10 (2) grams sugar

20 grams cornstarch

1 gram fine sea salt

20 grams butter, softened

4 grams gelatine sheets

* Soak gelatine sheets in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Once softens, squeeze out excess water and set aside.

* Bring milk and sugar into a boil.

* In a mixing bowl, beat yolks and sugar until light and creamy, add in cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Gradually pour in the warm milk mixture, whisking as you pour to prevent eggs from curdling. Pour back mixture back into the pan and bring into a boil while whisking constantly. Let cream boil over medium heat for 2 minutes until thick, turn off heat and add butter; stir until well combined. Add in the softened gelatine and still until completely melted.

* Transfer to a shallow heat-proof bowl and place a plastic wrap directly onto the top of the pastry cream. Let cool at room temperature before putting it in the fridge.

Mango compote, recipe--->>> here

Genoise sponge, recipe adapted from Okashi

115 grams cake flour
4 grams matcha powder, sifted 3 times together with the flour
170 grams (3 large) whole eggs
100 grams caster sugar
15 grams glucose syrup
30 grams butter
45 grams (fresh) whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

* Line a 12-inch square pan with parchment, set aside.

* Preheat oven to 190ºC.

* In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with whisk, add in glucose and sugar, mix well. Place bowl over a saucepan with barely simmering water, stir mixture until sugar is completely dissolved or the temperature has reached 39-40ºC.

* Take bowl off heat and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and continue beating for 1 minute to even out the batter. Gently fold in the flour flour-matcha mixture.

* Combine the butter, milk and vanilla in a small heat-proof bowl, place bowl in a saucepan until butter is melted.

* Add about 1/4 cup of the egg batter to the warm butter mixture and mix well. Add it back to the remaining batter and fold evenly.

* Pour into the prepared pan, drop the pan gently several times to remove air bubbles.

* Bake for 16 minutes. Take out cake from the oven and immediately remove from the pan. Cover cake with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled, gently scrape off the brown crust from the top of the cake before cutting.

Créme diplomat

350 grams pastry cream
250 grams whipping cream

* Beat cream until (almost) stiff peaks, chill in the fridge until needed.

* Beat pastry cream until soft, fold in whipped cream. If there are still some lumps, beat mixture over low speed for about 30 seconds until smooth.

* Chill in the fridge until needed.

Cake assembly: See photos below

You'll need a 6-x3inch mousse mould to hold the cake so as 5-inch mould to cut out two 5-inch sponge

* Cut 2.5-inch x 17-inch rectangle to line the sides of the mould. Use the 5-inch mould the cut 2 pieces of round sponge.

* Line the sides of the mould with the rectangle sponge and place 1 round sponge at the bottom. Pipe in some créme diplomat in the middle (leave about 2 cm gap from the top of the sponge) use a small offset spatula to smoothen the top. Pour in some mango compote on top of the cream, top another layer of cream and cover with the remaining round sponge, pressing it down gently. Pipe in more cream along the sides and over the sponge, use a long spatula to smoothen the top. Reserve some créme diplomat for decoration. Chill in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours or overnight before un-moulding the cake.

* Ran a hairdryer or a kitchen torch along the sides of the moulds for few seconds and gently shake to un-mould the cake. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm it up a bit.

* Decorate top with leftover diplomat cream, mango cubes and green tea macarons.

Calamansi and salted caramel tartlets

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 05:27:00 +0000

When life gives you calamansi...

Back home in #Duterteland, calamansi is a popular choice when making a refreshing juice, marinades, dipping sauce to name a few; it's cheap and can be found anywhere, well, almost...

And just like lemon or lime, calamansi is also widely (?) use in baking.

This is a calamansi version of the tarte au citron, a French lemon tart.

So, what's the difference between the French version and the classic lemon tart?!

Yup, you've guessed it right! Spin a win!!!

Butter makes the French version a stand out. It is buttery, rich and tempered with the perfect tanginess of the calamansi.

And also unhealthy!

Hey, you only live once....

The filling of this tart is basically a calamansi curd that has been cooked with butter (okay, lots of it to clog your arteries). Some version is to add softened butter after you've cooked the mixture but cooking it together saves time and effort considering the amount of it. I did reduced the amount of butter, from 140 grams to a respectable 90 grams. You can either bake the tart at 180ºC for 5-8 minutes to set the curd or just chill it for for at least 2 hours before serving.

I also added a layer of salted caramel sauce for flavour contrast.

Topping is supposedly a meringue but I over whipped it and and the result looks like a scrambled egg whites tsk! Good thing I've got frozen raspberries and mint leaves 🙄

Salted caramel sauce

115 grams whipping cream
140 grams sugar
30 grams (drinking) water
20 grams butter, cubed and softened
1.5 grams fine sea salt

* In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil; keep warm.

* In another saucepan, combine sugar and water, shake pan gently to evenly distribute the sugar. Cook over medium heat, shaking the pan from time to time, for 6-8 minutes until the colour turn into golden brown or amber. Take pan off heat, add the warm cream gradually, whisking the caramel until smooth. Add in the butter and salt, mix until well combined. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before pouring in the prepared sterilized jar. Let cool completely. Chill in the fridge until needed. Make this a day ahead.

Yield: 225 grams

Pâte sucrée, recipe adapted from French Pastry 101 (slightly tweaked)

85 grams cold butter, cubed
150 grams cake flour or plain flour, sifted
60 grams powdered/icing sugar, sifted
30 grams almond powder
2 grams fine sea salt
30 grams (lightly beaten) whole egg, chilled
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

* In a mixing bowl or clean work surface, combine butter, flour, sugar, almond powder and salt. Use fingers to rub ingredients together until you have a texture like a coarse breadcrumbs. Add in the beaten egg and vanilla, stir with a spatula until liquid in absorbed; gather together to form a cohesive dough and gently knead 4-6 times until dough is smooth. Place in a plastic wrap and form into a 5-inch square. Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours before using.

* Lightly grease six 8-cm and two 5.5cm tart rings, place them on a baking sheet. Pâte sucrée recipe will nicely fit in eight tart rings or a 9-inch fluted tart pan.

* Roll dough, between 2 sheets of lightly-floured parchment paper, into 2-3mm thick. Line each tart ring with dough, scraping the excess from the top with a knife, re-roll if necessary. If the dough becomes soft, place in the fridge to firm it up before working with it again.

* Freeze for 1 hour. Take out from the freezer and line the surface with parchment paper, add in some baking weights on top and freeze for another 20 minutes before baking.

* Preheat oven to 180ºC.

* Blind bake for 22 minutes until top is slightly golden. Take out tarts from the oven and carefully removed the baking weights. Bake for another 8 minutes. Let cool completely before using.

* Colour of the baked pâte sucrée is a bit darker in real life.

Calamansi curd filling:

2 large egg plus 1 large yolk
115 grams sugar
100 grams freshly-squeezed calamansi juice
2 grams calamansi zest
90 grams butter, cubed

* In a small saucepan, combine the eggs, yolk and the sugar, whisk until mixture is light and smooth. Stir in the juice and zest; add in the butter.

* Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid scorching the bottom, for 6-8 minutes, at 85ºC/185ºF. Strain curd over a fine wire-mesh sieve and let cool for 10-15 minutes before using.

To assemble the tartlets:

* Place 15 grams of salted caramel in each tart ring and 10 grams in smaller ones. Pour in the cooled calamansi curd on top. Chill in the fridge to set for at least 2 hour or so.

* Decorate with raspberries, mint leaves and some milk Crispearls. Serve straight from the fridge. Best eaten the day the tart is made but leftover can be stored inside the fridge in an airtight container. Consume within 3 days.

Salted egg yolk chicken wings

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:02:00 +0000

A moment on the lips, forever on the hips.

I'm probably late on this salted egg yolk craze but better late than never...

By now, you've probably heard or even eaten salted (duck) egg yolk fish skin or chips....

Or the crisp-fried lizards in packets of salted egg fish skin in Singapore?!

If not, where the hell have you been?! 🤣

Salted egg yolk is a popular ingredient in Chinese cooking, from soups to traditional baked mooncakes and now the ubiquitous salted egg yolk fish skin or chip snacks which exploded in Singapore's food scene 2 years ago.

And there's of course, the salted egg yolk fried chicken, an Asian-inspired take of the ever popular poultry. Fried wings are simply coated with rich and creamy egg yolk sauce. Original recipe calls for 20 curry leaves but I can't find it here so I sub it with both lime zest and Thai basil.

Recipe adapted from MeatMen

15 pieces chicken wings or 600 grams boneless whole chicken legs, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 egg, beaten
120 grams sweet potato starch or potato starch

Cooking oil, for deep-frying
2-3 bird's eye chillis, sliced
Zest of 2 limes
10 pieces Thai basil
40 grams butter

Marinade for chicken:

3/4 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp raw sugar
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp cooking sake or Chinese rice wine

Salted egg yolk sauce:

6 egg yolks
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger

* Marinate chicken for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight in the fridge (or 1 hour, if using boneless chicken pieces). Take out chicken from the fridge and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before using.

* Add beaten egg to the marinated chicken. Set aside.

* Prepare salted egg yolk sauce: Steam egg yolks over medium heat for 10 minutes. Once cooked, push yolks through a fine-wire mesh sieve to get a smooth texture or mash with fork (or potato masher) as fine as you can.

* Heat oil in a wok or pan over medium heat, add the mashed salted egg yolks and stir fry until foamy, about 3-6 minutes. Add in the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Dish out and set aside.

* Coat chicken with potato starch, shaking out excess.

* Heat enough oil for deep-frying. Fry chicken in batches for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through. Place in a wire rack to drain excess oil, set aside.

* In a clean pan, heat 2 tsp oil over medium heat, add chillis, lime zest and basil. Stir fry for about 30 seconds, add in butter and egg yolk sauce and fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add in the fried wings and toss until evenly coated with the sauce. Dish up and serve. Best eaten with rice.

Cherry-calamansi curd breton tartlets

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 05:18:00 +0000

Easier said than done.

I made these tartlets last week so no leftovers. Sorry! Not!

It's easy to make pastries, much easier to take millions of nice photos but writing a blog post?! #*%$@

So, I'll just keep this post short and sweet....

The recipes though are way too long 🤣

Sablé Breton is a French butter cookie, the dough is enriched with egg yolks and seasoned with sea salt. It originates in Brittany, France, which is famous for its Guerande sea salt and of course, butter.

This butter cookie is leavened with baking powder and has a crumbly texture with delightful crunch in every bite. You can eat it on its own or use as a base for fruit tarts.

You can use diplomat cream rather than mousseline cream as frosting, ~~but I want to eat butter,~~ thus the latter. Mousseline cream is made of pastry cream enriched with butter, mixture should be 2 parts pastry cream to 1 part butter.

I love pastry with contrasting flavour so I used calamansi curd to offset the rich and buttery sablé so as the butter frosting. And what is French pastry without fresh fruits?!

Sable breton recipe adapted from The New Pâtissiers

72 grams all-purpose flour
5 grams baking powder

1 gram fine sea salt
25 grams egg yolks
51 grams sugar
51 grams butter, softened

* Lightly grease five 8.5cm tart rings and place into a silicone/parchment-lined baking sheet.

* Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

* In a small mixing bowl, whisk yolks and sugar until thick and creamy. Gradually add in the butter into the yolk mixture and whisk until well-combined.

* Add in dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Divide evenly into the prepared tart rings, place a small parchment on top of the dough and press gently to smoothen the surface. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

* Chill in the fridge overnight.

* The next day: Bake at 150ºC for 22-24 minutes.

* Let cool slightly before unmoulding. Cool completely before using.

Pastry cream

200 grams milk
some vanilla seeds (from homemade vanilla extract)
35 grams egg yolks
40 grams caster sugar, divided
20 grams cornstarch
15 grams butter, softened

* In a small saucepan, combine milk, half of the sugar and vanilla seeds; bring to a boil.

* Meanwhile, whisk yolks and the remaining sugar until creamy; add in the cornstarch and whisk agin until smooth. Gradually pour in warm milk into the yolk mixture and whisk until there are no lumps. Pour back mixture into the saucepan and bring it to a simmer while continuously whisking. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until thickens. Turn off heat and add in the butter, stir until well-combined. Pour pastry cream into a shallow tray or bowl, place plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent skin from forming. Let cool and chill in the fridge until needed.

* You can add 2 grams of softened gelatine leaf/sheet to make pastry cream a bit stable.

* Make this a day ahead.

Yield: 275 grams

Mousseline cream

135 grams butter, very soft
275 grams pastry cream (temperature should be almost the same as the butter)

* Beat butter until smooth, add in the pastry cream in 2 additions and beat until mixture is smooth and pipeable.

Calamansi curd, recipe here

Assembly:

Cherries (sliced and whole) for topping

Mint leaves and (Callebaut) strawberry crisp pearls for garnish

* Pipe some calamansi curd in the middle of the sable breton. Using a French star tip, pipe some mousseline cream around the sides. Do the same with the rest.

* Add in some sliced and whole cherries in the middle and garnish with mint leaves and crisp pearls.

* Chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature, before serving.

Thai green beef curry

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 14:07:00 +0000

Keep calm and curry on.

Because making this dish is easier than laminating the croissant dough... Hey, one can only make so many French pastries!

Green curry is one of my favourite Thai food. Chicken rather than beef is commonly used when making this type of curry but I think using the latter is so much better.

Green curry paste is made up of different spices, the green colour comes from bird's eyes chillies and by adding Thai basil in the mixture, it will intensify the colour without the heat.

It may not look like much but this curry is packed full of flavour, the combination of different flavours and textures are perfect with steamed rice or noodles. Nope, the green curry paste is not made from scratch as I don't have all the spices on hand.

This is more like a soupy curry rather than the thick saucy version that I usually have in some Thai resto here. According to Hot Thai Kitchen cookbook, where I got this recipe, this curry should have a creamy mouthfeel but should not be thick or viscous, so I got it right. I like a more thicker version though, maybe will adjust the amount of liquid next time 🤪Recipe listed below is my tweak version.

You can use different kinds of vegetables when making this dish. I added zucchini for its firm and crunchy texture.

Recipe adapted from Hot Thai Kitchen cookbook

600 grams boneless short ribs, cut into bite-sized pieces
500 grams coconut milk
85 grams (store-bought) green curry paste
5 grams coarse sea salt
3-4 cups water, for boiling the beef
5 kaffir lime leaves, torn into chunks
50 grams palm sugar, grated or finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
300 grams bamboo shoots (from 1 can, drained), cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 stems of Thai basil, use only the leaves

* In a medium-sized saucepan, add the beef, 60 grams coconut milk, 25 grams curry paste and 5 grams salt. Add enough water to completely cover the beef, bring to the boil, loosely cover and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours. Skim off the scum that accumulates on the surface of the stock. Add more water if necessary.

* Remove beef chunks from the stock and set aside. Reserve 500 ml of the beef stock, if there isn't enough, add more water to make up the difference.

* Reduce 3/4 cup of the coconut milk in the saucepan over medium-heat until very thick and the clear coconut oil starts to separate from the white portion, 10-15 minutes. If the separation doesn't happen, don't worry, just proceed with the recipe.

* Add curry paste to the reduced coconut milk and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes until curry paste is very thick. Add the remaining coconut milk and stir to mix. Turn heat to medium and add the beef stock, lime leaves, palm sugar, and the fish sauce, bring to the boil. Add the beef chunks, bamboo shoots, zucchini and bell pepper and cook for another 3-5 minutes, adjust seasoning if necessary. Turn off heat and add in the basil leaves, mix well.

* Transfer to a serving plate or bowl or ladle over rice or noodles. Garnish with basil leaves. Serve hot.

No-bake mango-calamansi curd mini cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 00:59:00 +0000

To err is human, to forgive, absolutely galling (N.R)

Instead of practicing my non-existent frosting skill, I decided to make another mango-based dessert. Mango season is nearly over but I've read online that it's a bumper crop this year back home in #Duterteland. A boon to those who love mangoes as the price per kilo is a bit lower than usual. Hopefully, some will continue to trickle here in "smoggy" Hong Kong.

If I have a "roadside" café, this cheesecake will be one of seasonal produce desserts. It's refreshingly delicious and perfect summer treat. The calamansi curd certainly adds a delightful flavour contrast.

This maybe a no-bake cheesecake but the "crust" base is baked cookie made from pâte sucrée. The base is 3mm thick, ideally, it should be 2 or 2.5mm so that it'll be thin enough to cut with a dessert spoon or fork easily. The cookie ring though is a perfect thickness or should I say, thinness?! If you haven't tried that type of sweet pastry dough, you've probably missed two-thirds of you life lol

I used silicone mould to shape the cheesecake "filling". You can use any mould you have on hand. Filling will "probably" fill a 5x2-inch mousse ring with 1/2 inch crust base.

Toppings are just the usual suspects, mango compote or sauce (a leftover from last month yup, it's still edible because it'll stay fine indefinitely as long as you freeze it), mango cubes and piped calamansi curd. I don't have mint leaves on hand so I used cilantro leaves 😁And for a pop of colour, I added green tea macarons.

Have you ever wondered why those goodies at French or Japanese pâtiserries are expensive?!

Calamansi curd

1 (61 grams with shell) egg
65 grams sugar

70 grams freshly-squeezed calamansi juice
35 grams butter, cubed and softened

* In a small saucepan, combine egg and sugar; whisk until mixture is light and smooth. Pour in calamansi juice and stir well. Add in the cubed butter.

* Cook mixture over low heat for 10-12 minutes until thickens. Strain over a fine-mesh sieve, let cool for few minutes before pouring into a small sterilized jar. Let cool completely. Store in the fridge.

Makes about 145 grams

Mango-calamansi curd cheesecake

100 grams whipping cream, whipped (medium peaks), chill in the fridge until needed
5 grams gelatine sheet/leaf, soaked in cold water for 5-10 minutes, excess water squeezed off
100 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
45 grams condensed milk
120 grams mango purée
75 grams calamansi curd, recipe above
5 grams dark rum, optional

* Melt softened gelatine over a pan of barely simmering water. Keep warm.

* Beat cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth. Add in the purée, curd and rum, mix well. Pour in the melted gelatine and beat until well incorporated.

* Fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, mix well.

* Place cheesecake batter into a piping bag and pipe into the prepared silicone mould. Rap mould onto the counter to prevent air pockets from forming. Smooth top with a spatula.

* Freeze for at least 6 hours preferably, overnight.

Pâte Sucrée, recipe adapted here

110 grams cake flour, sifted
50 grams icing sugar
30 grams almond flour
1 gram fine sea salt
60 grams cold butter, cubed
1 (18-20 grams) egg yolk

* In a mixing bowl or a clean work surface, combine the flour, sugar, almond flour, and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and add in the butter. Using your fingers, rub everything together until it forms a cohesive dough. Gently knead dough, 4-6 times, until smooth. Place in a plastic wrap and shape into a 5-inch square. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.

* Roll out dough, between 2 sheets of lightly-floured parchment paper, into 2-2.5mm thick. Using a 7cm scalloped-shaped round cookie cutter, cut out 12 pieces, re-roll the dough if necessary. Use a 4cm round to cut the middle of the 6 pieces for cookie rings. Bake excess dough together with the rest.

* Bake tart dough at 170ºC for 12-18 minutes. Cool completely before using.

To assemble the cheesecake

Makes 6

Toppings:

1 mango, cut into cubes
some mango compote/sauce
6 pieces homemade green tea macarons, optional
some mint leaves
some calamansi curd

* Place cookies on the cake holders, add the frozen cheesecakes on top and de-frost for 1 hour inside the fridge.

* Take out from the fridge, place one cookie ring on top of each cheesecakes. Add about 1 teaspoon compote sauce in the middle of the cookie ring and some mango cubes. Decorate with macarons, mint leaves and pipe in a bit of calamansi curd. Serve immediately.

No-churn green tea and raspberry cheesecake ice cream pops

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:10:00 +0000

I scream, you scream, we all scream for green tea ice cream!!!!!!

Well, if green tea is your thing.... If not, go away! I don't need negativity in my life 🤣

How's the weather in your side of the world lately?! *#¡¿%*@#!

Yeah, I feel you! *sigh*

It's hot as Hades here lately and the high humidity is adding more discomfort. For someone who doesn't like summer, I'm counting the days okay, months, until it's winter again 🙄 😅

But summer has its own merit, making ice cream for one thing, lots of ice cream!

And because I love using green tea or matcha in almost everything bar savouries.....

No ice cream machine needed in making this refreshing dessert. All you need is good-quality ingredients and time.

Haven't had cheesecake ice cream yet?! Then you're in for a treat!

Cheesecake ice cream is pretty much the same way you make a no-bake cheesecake except you don't need gelatine to make it stable.

What's the 2nd (ha!) best thing about this ice cream?! The chocolate glaze! You can never go wrong with chocolate, right? This glaze is almost the same as the one I've made last time, I just reduced the amount of cocoa butter and toasted the almonds which added a delightful nutty flavour. If using the usual cocoa butter, you need 2 parts couverture chocolate to 1 part cocoa butter to make the glaze.

Green tea cheesecake ice cream:

300 grams whipping cream (35%), well-chilled
105 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
135 grams condensed milk, chilled
12 grams green tea powder
2 grams fine sea salt
10 grams calamansi juice

75 gram raspberry compote (recipe below)
30 grams caramelized biscuits/speculoos, coarsely chopped

* Pour cream in a chilled bowl (or you can prepare an ice bath esp if the weather is very hot) and beat until stiff peaks form. Chill in the fridge until needed.

* In another bowl, combine cream cheese, milk, green tea powder and salt. Beat until mixture is smooth, stir in the calamansi juice. Fold in half of the whipped cream to the green tea mixture until well-combined then add in the remaining half, stir well.

* If using a small kind of silicone mould, place ice cream mixture in a piping bag and pipe into each cavity halfway. Add in small amount of raspberry compote, pipe in more ice cream mixture to the rim. Use a chopstick to make a swirl then add in some crushed biscuits on top. Do the same with the rest and use a metal spatula to level the top. Freeze until almost solid then stick in lolly stick on top of each ice cream balls.

* Or you can pour half of the ice cream mixture into a freezer-proof container. Add in 1/2 of the compote and some crushed biscuits and pour the remaining ice cream mixture. Spoon in the remaining compote and biscuits and use a chopstick or a knife to make a swirls. Freeze overnight.

Raspberry compote:

200 grams raspberry purée
40 grams raw sugar
5 grams pectin
5 grams calamansi juice

* In a small bowl, combine sugar and pectin, set aside.

* In a small saucepan, bring purée to the boil, stir in pectin-sugar mixture and let boil for 2-3 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add in the juice and mix until combined. Transfer to a small heat-proof bowl and let cool completely then chill in the fridge until needed.

* Store in the fridge and use within 5-7 days or freeze and it'll last for months.

* You can make this a day ahead.

Chocolate-almond glaze:

110 grams (Belgian) Maracaibo milk chocolate buttons (44%), finely chopped
40 grams (Valrhona) dark chocolate feves (55%), finely chopped
10 grams (Callebaut) Mycryo cocoa butter powder
20 grams diced almonds, toasted

* Melt chocolate (temperature not more than 45ºC) over a pot of barely simmering water., stirring from time to time. Take pan off heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted.

* Once melted, add in the cocoa butter, wait for few seconds before stirring. Stir until smooth; pour glaze in a tall and narrow glass/container, add in diced almonds. Use glaze at 34ºC.

* Dip each ice cream ball onto the glaze one at a time, lightly scrape the bottom along the top of the glass to remove excess glaze. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and do the rest.

* Glaze will set almost immediately so it's important that the ice cream ball is hard when you dip it.

* To easily dip each ball onto the glaze, if not using a lolly sticks, (just like I did with some of the ice cream balls) use a bamboo or metal skewer and poke the top and dip. Use a small fork to hold the glazed ice cream ball then gently remove the stick.

* Freeze for at least 30 minutes before serving.

* For the ice cream on the tub, let stand for about 5 minutes (depending on ambient temperature) at room temperature before serving.

* The amount of the glaze will only coat 16 pieces of ice cream balls. Adjust the ingredients accordingly.

Mango entremet

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 31 May 2019 01:28:00 +0000

Suffer in silence.

Taking advantage of the cheap mangoes we have here in smoggy Hong Kong. Started freezing some of them lately, just in case. There is no such thing as overdosing on Philippine mangoes, right?! 😁

This entremet is made of matcha genoise sponge, mango mousse, mango pudding, mango cream cheese (supposedly cheesecake but I forgot to add some crumbs) and mango glaze. It was a bit time-consuming to make with all those layers crammed in a 6x2-inch mousse ring but with mangoes so sweet and abundant right now, what better way to showcase this delicious fruit?!

It's actually a bigger version, if you can call 6x2-inch big 🙄, of these Mango pomelo and matcha petit gateaux that I made last year. I tweaked the recipe a bit to fit a 6-inch mousse ring and used a different glaze. The glaze on that minis looks much better compare to this version, maybe because of the shape of the mould.....

No step by step photos on how I constructed the layers though as my mood is as gloomy as the weather lately.....

The matcha genoise sponge is actually scraps from the letter cakes that I've made earlier this month. I just fused 3 scraps together to make a 5.5-inch round sponge and it's way faster than baking a new one. If you have some excess sponge, freeze it, you'll never know when you need one....

Just like the sponge layer, you can make the mango pudding a day ahead and just freeze it.

The day you construct your entremet layers, you'll only need to make the mousse and mango cream cheese filling. These 2 layers are actually very easy to make. It"s very important to freeze the cake several hours preferably, overnight or it'll wilt as you pour the glaze.

The glaze is made of store-bought neutral glaze gel, gelatine and mango purée. This kind of glaze is not as viscous as a chocolate-based one and I had a hard time glazing the sides. You can see that glaze along the sides is very thin. I should have trimmed the top edges slightly so that the glaze will flow freely along the sides *sigh*

For the decorations, the round balls are excess mango cheesecake, I poured the batter in a silicone mould (photo below) to create some balls.

The matcha chocolate feathers are diy, a cheat's way of tempering actually 😁I added Callebaut Mycryo cocoa powder to the tempered white chocolate thus eliminating the re-heating step before it can be used. Still needs lots of practice when it comes on making these chocolate feathers but still happy that I made 8 passable pieces out of 36 lol And using just a small amount of white chocolate means the mixture will solidify quiet fast so I had to re-heat the chocolate again.....

Matcha genoise sponge , you can make half of the recipe and bake it in 6 or 7-inch round pan. You need 1/2-inch thick sponge for this cake.

Mango pudding, make this a day ahead

10 grams whipping cream
15 grams coconut milk
70 grams mango purée
20 grams sugar
10 grams milk
4 grams gelatine sheets
85 grams fresh, diced mangoes

* Soak gelatin in cold water until softens, about 5-10 minutes. Squeeze off excess water, set aside.

* Pour cream, coconut milk and mango purée in a small mixing bowl, mix well.

* Combine milk, sugar and softened gelatine in a small heat-proof bowl; place bowl in a pot of barely simmering water, stir until sugar and gelatin are completely melted. Take bowl off heat and add the purée mixture, stir until well-combined.

* Pour pudding mixture in a 5.5 or 5-inch round silicone pan or a mousse ring lined with plastic wrap at the bottom. Let cool at room temperature then add in the diced mangoes. Freeze until needed.

Line the baking sheet with a 7-inch parchment paper and place the 6-inch mousse ring on top.

Place a 5.5-inch sponge cake at the bottom of the mousse ring.

Mango mousse:

4 grams gelatin sheets
30 grams milk
100 grams whipping cream
30 grams sugar
100 grams mango purée
5 grams calamansi juice

* Soak gelatin in cold water for about 5-10 minutes, squeeze off excess water, set aside.

* Combine softened gelatin and milk in a small bowl; place bowl in a pot of barely simmering water. Stir until gelatin is completely melted, keep it warm.

* Whip cream and sugar until medium peaks, add in mango purée and mix well. Stir in melted gelatin and mix on low speed until incorporated.

* Place mousse in a piping bag and piped it around and over the matcha genoise sponge, make sure to fill in the gap between the sponge and the mousse ring. Gently tap the baking sheet to eliminate air pockets along the sides of the ring.

* Take out frozen pudding from the mould and gently place it on top of the mango mousse. If the mousse is too soft, freeze for about 15 minutes before you put the pudding layer. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Mango cream cheese filling:

4 grams gelatin sheet
80 grams (Philadelphia) cream cheese, softened
85 grams whipping cream
35 grams sugar
50 grams mango purée
5 grams calamansi juice

* Soak gelatin in cold water until soft, 5-10 minutes, squeezed off excess water, set aside.

* Beat cream until medium peaks; chill in the fridge until needed.

* Melt gelatin in a pot or barely simmering water, keep it warm.

* Beat cream and sugar until smooth, fold in the whipped cream until well-combined. Add in the melted gelatin and mix thoroughly.

* Pour cream cheese mixture on top of the pudding, make sure to fill in the gap along the sides. Smooth the top with a spatula. Excess filling can be place in any small silicone mould or any desired small cookie cutter to be used as decoration. Freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Unmould the cake by running the hair dryer along the sides of the mousse ring. Freeze for another 30 minutes before glazing.

Matcha white chocolate feathers:

100 grams Callebaut white chocolate callets (33% cocoa)
2 grams matcha powder
1 gram Callebaut Mycryo cocoa powder

* Please check instructions at Meilleurduchef

* Matcha powder is added to white chocolate before tempering.

* Please check this Youtube video on how to make chocolate feathers.

Mango glaze, recipe below will nicely covered an 8-inch cake

18 grams gelatin sheets
200 grams neutral glaze gel
140 grams mango purée
3 drops of lemon yellow Americolor gel

* Soak gelatin in cold water until soft, 5-10 minutes, squeeze off excess water and set aside.

* Place the mirror glaze in a small saucepan and stir over low heat, don't let it boil. Add in the softened gelatin and stir until completely melted, turn off heat and add in the mango purée, mix well. Strain glaze over a fine sieve and use glaze at 34ºC.

Pour glaze all over the cake. Chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes until glaze is set. Use a metal spatula to scrape off excess glaze at the bottom.

De-frost the cake for an hour or 2 in the fridge before serving. Decorate the top with mango cream cheese balls, matcha chocolate feathers and strawberry crisp pearls.

Consume within 2 days.

Mango cream tart

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:01:00 +0000

Familiarity breeds contempt.

It's mango season, peeps, head out to the supermarket and buy mangoes as much as you can probably carry! This month is the best time to hoard Philippine mangoes here in smoggy Hong Kong, eat as much as you can and freeze the remaining........

Let's talk about the bi-colour laminated tart crust, some of you have probably seen it on Instagram by Preppy Kitchen. I'm gonna tell you, it was effin' hard to make especially if you're ~~pissed~~ and the temperature that day is freakin' hot that even the ~~stupid~~ aircon at full blast is no help at all! I usually make a tart crust in about 10 minutes but this one took me more than an hour! Well, most of that time though was spent going to the freezer and tweedling my thumb waiting for the dough strips to get firm again 😬Despite the mishaps, the manhandling of the dough and less than neat laminated tart dough, the result turned out nice, well, according to thy ~~unsophisticated palate~~. Crust is delicious and wonderfully crisp despite the rough handling and of course, the filling.....

Filling is just a simple diplomat cream, a lightened pastry cream mixed with whipped cream. A versatile pastry filling and frosting.

Thinking of doing a minimalist topping peg 🙄but my greedy self said, "It's mango season for cripes' sake!" As you can see, some of the piped diplomat cream literally drowning in mango compote! Because there is no such thing as too much mangoes, right?! lol

Mango compote/sauce:

200 grams mango purée
15 grams caster sugar
5 grams pectin
5 grams lime juice

* In a small bowl, stir together sugar and pectin, set aside.

* In a small saucepan, bring the purée into the boil. Add in the pectin-sugar mixture and let boil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring from time to time, add in lime juice. Transfer in a small heat-proof container, let cool then chill in the fridge until needed.

* Make this a day ahead.

Pastry cream:

250 grams milk
some vanilla seeds or vanilla extract
50 grams sugar, divided
2 egg yolks
20 grams cornstarch
20 grams unsalted butter, softened
4 grams gelatine sheets

* Soak gelatin for 5-10 minutes until softened; squeeze off excess water.

* Bring the milk, vanilla, and half of the sugar into a boil.

* In a small mixing bowl, whisk together yolks and the remaining sugar until creamy. Add in the cornstarch and whisk until smooth.

* Gradually pour in warm milk into the yolk mixture, whisking as you pour to prevent curdling. Pour back the mixture into the saucepan and bring to the boil while whisking constantly. Let cream boil over medium heat for 2 minutes until thick. Remove pan from heat; add in the butter and stir until well combined. Add in the softened gelatine and mix until completely melted.

* Transfer in a shallow container or a bowl, place a plastic wrap on top of the cream. Let cool then chill in the fridge until needed.

* You can make this few hours or overnight before using.

Diplomat cream:

140 grams pastry cream, recipe above
140 grams whipping cream

* Beat cream until stiff peaks form, chill in the fridge until needed.

* Stir or beat pastry cream until smooth. Fold in whipped cream in 2 additions until well combined. Using a beater/handmixer, beat diplomat cream over low speed for 30-45 seconds until smooth. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Makes enough for a 6-inch tart, with extra cream for decorating

Sweet tart dough, recipe adapted from Pastries, with some adjustments

75 grams unsalted butter, cold
50 grams icing sugar
20 grams ground almonds
75 grams cake flour
50 grams bread flour
pinch of fine sea salt
25 grams whole egg

Matcha tart dough, recipe as above but add 2 grams of matcha powder

* In a mixing bowl or a clean work surface, mix together the butter, sugar, almonds, the 2 flours and the salt. Rub ingredients together until it forms a fine breadcrumbs, add in the egg and mix until it forms a shaggy dough. Gather dough together and knead gently, 4-6 times, until smooth. Place in a plastic wrap and form into a 5-inch square. Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight.

* Roll out the dough separately (duh) into 2 mm thick, using sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut a long strips to about 8-10 inch in length and 1/2-inch wide (rough guesstimate). Carefully lift out each strip of dough and place it alternately in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If the dough gets too soft to handle, freeze for about 10-15 minutes or until it's firm yet pliable.

* Grease a 6-inch tart ring and use it to cut the bottom base, cut strips of dough about 2/3-inch thick to line the sides. Remove the unused dough strips and save it for later use. Freeze for 1 hour before baking.

* Preheat oven to 180ºC. Press parchment paper against the crust, fill with pie weights and blind bake for 15 minutes. Take out from the oven and remove the weights and bake for another 10 minutes until crust is golden brown. Let tart cool in the ring over a wire rack before removing it.

To assemble the cream tart:

* Spread 55 grams of mango sauce at the base of the crust and pipe in some diplomat cream over it, smoothing the top. Chill the remaining diplomat cream for decoration. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

* Stir diplomat cream until smooth, place it in a piping bag with a small star tip, pipe randomly according to preference. Add in some round and cubed mangoes and add in some compote. Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving. Decorate with some mint leaves.

* Store leftover tart in an airtight container and place in the fridge. Consume within 3 days.

Ube religieuse

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 15:26:00 +0000

Life is a mystery......

I know, I know, it's another choux pastry! But what can I say? I need to clear out some of my bread flour as I discovered another 2 kilos of T55 lurking somewhere in the Hell's Kitchen, supposedly for croissant making! Tsk!

A drop in a bucket as I only used 75 grams of bread flour in this recipe 🙄

Religiuese is French pastry made of two cream-filled choux, one larger than the other, buttercream or whipped cream is piped to join both puff to create a frilly collar or a ruffle to resemble a nun. A plump nun! Religiuese means nun in French.

My take on the traditional French pastry, incorporating ube or purple yam, a popular tuber back home in Duterteland, to create these delightful East meets West pastry.

Ube, for those who are uninitiated, is a tuberous root vegetable with vivid purple colour (some are not vivid at all) and widely use for desserts. Ask any Filipino what's their favourite ice cream or cake flavour and you'll get a chorus of "Ube", especially for those who are outside the country.

Of course, I didn't use fresh ube here, only ube paste and powder, but you can find ube here in smoggy Hongkong!

Just like most French pastry, Religiuese is made of several components, the choux, pastry cream, (French) buttercream and chocolate ganache. I used craquelin as a choux topping because I love the texture and not as messy as using the ganache. The craquelin though has lost its pretty colour along the way lol I don't want to sacrifice the texture of the choux (not crisp enough), just to get that very Instagramable purple colour, if I scale down the baking time. Okay, maybe if only I remember to tent the top of the choux after 30 minutes of baking..... Small oven problem!

For the pastry cream filling, I only used half of the recipe listed below as I ran out of milk. I added 75 grams of whipped cream to make a diplomat cream (sans gelatine) but not enough to fill all the choux (only 5 large and 4 small choux). Diplomat cream is a lighter and delicious version of pastry cream, whipped cream is added to make a voluminous mixture that can be piped.

I only assembled 3 religiuese as I need to do what I was supposed to be doing but you can make 8 pieces out the the choux recipe ( I can only fit several pieces of choux in one pan as you can see in the last photo).

I say a little prayer for you.......

Ube craquelin:

42 grams butter, cubed
54 grams brown sugar
50 grams cake flour
1 gram ube flavouring powder
pinch of salt
small drop of ube paste

* In a mixing bowl or clean work surface, combine butter, sugar, cake flour and salt. Rub ingredients together until it resembles a coarse bread crumbs, add in the ube paste. Gather the dough and knead gently, 4-6 times, until dough is smooth. Transfer into a plastic wrap and shape into a 5-inch square. Chill in the fridge for an hour or overnight.

* Roll out dough into 3mm thick, using a 3-cm cutter for small choux and 4.5-cm for a bigger one, cut out 8 small ones and 8 big ones. Re-roll the cookie dough, if necessary.

Ube pastry cream:

250 grams milk
some vanilla seeds
50 grams sugar, divided, half for the egg yolks and half for the milk
pinch of salt
36 grams/2 egg yolk
15 grams cornstarch
15 cake flour
10 grams butter, softened
1/8 tsp ube paste

* In a small saucepan, combine, milk, vanilla seeds half of the sugar and salt and bring to a boil.

* In a small mixing bowl, whisk the yolk and the remaining sugar until creamy, add in the cornstarch and mix until smooth.

* Gradually pour in the warm milk into the yolk mixture, whisking as you pour to prevent curdling. Pour back mixture into the saucepan, and cook over medium heat while whisking constantly. Let mixture boil for a minute or 2. Remove pan from heat, add in the butter and the ube paste, and whisk until well combined. Transfer cream into a shallow container and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge until needed.

* Whisk the pastry cream until smooth before using.

Ube buttercream:

50 grams butter, softened
100 gram icing sugar
15 grams whipping cream

* In a small mixing bowl, combine ingredients above and beat until smooth.

* Make 8 or more small flowers, using Wilton 102 tip. Chill in the fridge until needed.

* You can make the flower decoration the day before and chill the remaining buttercream to use for the "collar" of religiuese.

Choux pastry, recipe adapted from Complete Guide to Baking

83 grams milk
45 grams water
55 grams butter
1 gram caster sugar
1 gram sea salt
75 grams bread flour
100 grams eggs

* Preheat oven to 200ºC.

* In a small saucepan, combine milk, water , butter, sugar and salt; bring to the boil, stir until butter is melted. Take pan off heat, add the flour in one go and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until dough forms into a ball. Put back pan on the stove and cook over medium heat for 1 minute to dry out the dough.

* Transfer dough into a mixing bowl and beat over low speed to for 2 minutes or so to cool down a bit.

* Add eggs in 3 additions, beating well after each, until dough is smooth and shiny.

* Transfer dough into a piping bag with 1-cm round tip for the small one and 1.5-cm tip for the bigger one. You can use the 1-cm tip to pipe both choux, if desired. Top each choux with ube craquelin.

* Bake for 15 minutes at 200ºC then lower temperature to 180ºC and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

* Take out the choux and turn oven off. Poke each choux with a pairing knife to release the steam. Place back into the oven and let it sit to dry out the inside of the pastry for 15 minutes.

* Let cool completely before piping in the filling.

To construct the Religiuese:

* Using a small round piping tip or a pairing knife, poke a hole at the bottom of each choux.

* Place the pastry cream in a piping bag fitted with a round tip and fill each choux.

* Stir the softened buttercream until smooth and place into a piping bag fitted with a large French piping tip. Pipe buttercream into each top of the bigger choux to create a "collar" or "ruffle", place the smaller choux onto the top, pressing down gently. Repeat until you make 8. Smear a bit of buttercream on top of the choux and add in the buttercream flower decoration.

* Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Choux au craquelin/crispy green tea cookie cream puffs

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 06:57:00 +0000

On wasted years and what might have been....

Hey, all!

I'm still alive!

Clearing up some of my flours, okay, lots of flour, nearly 6 kilos to be exact 🙄Expect more bread post in the next few days.....

Choux is a French pastry made from milk, butter, flour and eggs, these ingredients are cooked to form a dough then baked. There is no leavening agent in this pastry, it relies on the steam from the cooked dough to puff up with almost hollow interior when baked.

Choux is a versatile pastry, it can be filled with ice cream, pastry cream or in my case, whipped cream. You can use it for making eclairs, Paris-brest or the show-stopping croquembouche to name a few.

Choux au craquelin is a choux pastry with cookie dough added on top. The topping adds a delicious crips layer when baked and almost the same texture as that of Mexican or pineapple buns. I added some green tea powder both for flavour and colour.

The filling is just a simple whipped cream flavored with green tea milk spread. This easy to make spread is just milk, cream and green tea cooked together until it thickened. This is just as good as that Ossuloc green tea milk spread and way cheaper 😁

And because it's already mango season in Duterteland, I added some sweet mango slices to the filling. Smoggy Hongkong supermarkets are teeming with cheap, okay, not really and the sweetest mangoes yet! You have to wait few days though for the mangoes to ripen lol

Green tea milk spread, recipe adapted here

100 grams whipping cream
150 grams (UHT) milk
60 grams (raw) sugar
pinch of fine sea salt
5 grams (Japanese) green tea
15 grams hot water

* In a small saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and salt. In a small bowl, sift in green tea and pour in hot water, stir until smooth; pour the mixture into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 14 minutes until thickens, it will thicken further as it cools down. Transfer to a small sterilized glass jar, let cool at room temperature then chill in the fridge until needed.

Yield: about 190 grams

Green tea cookie dough, recipe adapted from Never Skip Dessert

42 grams unsalted butter
54 grams raw sugar (or brown or cassonade)
50 grams cake flour
pinch of salt
1 gram green tea powder

* Combine all ingredients above and rub mixture together until it resembles a coarse bread crumbs. Gather the dough and knead gently 4-6 times until smooth. Form into a 5-inch square and cover with plastic wrap, chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

* Roll dough to 3mm thick between two sheets of parchment paper, if the dough is still a bit hard to roll, leave it for a minute or so before rolling it again.

* Using a 4.5cm cookie cutter, cut 10 circles, wrap the remaining dough for future use, chill in the fridge until needed.

Choux pastry

100 grams (UHT) milk
25 grams water
40 grams unsalted butter
10 grams sugar
1 gram fine sea salt
some vanilla seeds (from my homemade vanilla extract) or half vanilla pod, seeds scrape off
75 gram cake flour
85 grams whole eggs (about 2 eggs)

* Preheat oven to 190ºC.

* Combine the milk, water, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Take pan off heat, add in the flour in one go and stir mixture vigorously; return pan to the stove and cook over medium heat for 1 minute to dry out the dough or until it pulls away from the side of the pan.

* Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer (or a wooden spoon), stir mixture over low speed for 2 minutes or so to cool down a bit.

* Gradually add in the eggs in 3 additions, beating well after each and scraping the sides of the pan as needed. Dough should be smooth and glossy.

* Using a piping bag with 1/2 inch round tip, pipe about 4.5cm balls onto the baking sheet lined with baking paper. Top each choux dough with cookie dough circles, pressing down gently.

* Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

* Take out the choux from the oven and turn the oven off. Use a small pairing knife to pierce the side or bottom of the choux to let the steam escape. Place back the choux into the oven and let them dry out for 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Makes 10 3-inch puffs

Matcha cream filling:

180 grams whipping cream
45 grams green tea milk spread

* Whip cream until slightly thicken, add in the milk spread and continue beating until stiff peak forms. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Assembling the choux:

* Slice off the top, about 1/3 or 1/2, depending on your preference, of the choux. Transfer whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with a star tip and fill in each choux, add in fresh mango slices and top it with the other half of the pastry. Do the same with the remaining choux. Consume immediately. Ha!

* Choux won't stay crisp for a long time, maybe about an hour. Fill the choux just before serving.

Mango-chocolate ice cream popsicles

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 11:55:00 +0000

Because today is 8-8-2018 😁

And freakin' hot!

So an ice cream post....

I made these ice cream pops few days ago as part of my freezer clean up drive heh! I've got loads of frozen fruits and purée stash so what better way to use one of them than making ice cream.

You can only make so much mousse cakes and entremets.....

This is a custard-based ice cream; milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks are cooked together until thickens.

There's a bit of ice crystals in the ice cream though and not as smooth as most of the homemade ones I've made before. Not sure if it's the liquid content of the mango purée or I didn't churn the mixture long enough. Maybe a Philadelphia-style ice cream is more suited when it comes to fruity ice cream. That said, this is one delicious ice cream, according to my un-sophisticated palate, rich, almost creamy yet taste very refreshing and the calamansi juice adds a wonderful flavour contrast!

The mango-calamansi ice cream is fantastic on its own but the chocolate-almond glaze not only adds a visual appeal , the taste compliments the ice cream really well!

For the mould, I used a Silikomart small cubes mould (15 cavity). Ice cream recipe below will fill up 14 cubes. You can, of course, use any freezer-proof mould or container of your choice.

Mango-calamansi ice cream

250 grams milk
150 grams whipping cream (35% fat)
40 grams caster sugar
40 grams egg yolks ( from 2 large eggs)

35 caster sugar
200 grams mango puree, cold
25 grams calamansi juice

* Combine milk, cream and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

* Meanwhile, beat yolks and the (2nd) sugar until light and creamy.

* Gradually pour warm milk into the yolk mixture whisking as you pour to prevent curdling. Pour milk-egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for 20 minutes or until mixture thickens.

* Transfer custard into a heat-proof bowl and place it over an ice water bath. Let mixture cool completely, stirring from time to time.

* Stir in mango puree and calamansi juice into the cool custard. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

* Churn mixture in an ice cream machine for 20-30 minutes. Spoon ice cream into the silicone mould and cover top with plastic wrap. Freeze until almost firm then shove a flat bamboo skewer stick halfway into each cube. Freeze overnight.

* Un-mould mango ice cream cubes and place into a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze for 1 hour.

Chocolate-almond glaze, recipe adapted here

Recipe below is enough for 7 ice cream cubes

25 grams (Lindt) milk chocolate (bar), coarsely chopped
25 grams (Valrhona 55-70% combo) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
50 grams (Mycryo) cocoa butter powder
25 grams coarsely chopped almonds, chilled

* Melt chocolates over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring from time to time. Once melted, add in the cocoa butter powder and mix until smooth. Transfer into a small jug/bottle and stir in the almond, let cool to 90ºF before using.

* Take out ice cream cubes from the freezer and working quickly, dip popsicles into the chocolate glaze one by one. Place glazed ice cream cubes back into the baking sheet.

* Return the glazed ice cream into the freezer and freeze for another 1 hour before serving.

* Eat as much as you can!

Fraisier/French-style strawberry cake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 03:17:00 +0000

Here's a lighter version of the popular French gateaux, Fraisier.

Fraisier comes from the French word fraise meaning strawberry. It is basically made with mousseline cream (pastry cream blended with softened butter), sponge (genoise or joconde), strawberries and traditionally decorated with marzipan.

In this lighter version, I used diplomat cream which is made of pastry cream mixed with whipped cream rather than mousseline cream. This is not as stable as the one with mousseline especially during hot summer months.

This is another one of my East meets West cake, a not-so classic French gateaux with a Japanese twist by adding matcha to the joconde sponge.

I made two-thirds of the joconde sponge but I think my meringue is not firm enough so when I folded it to the almond mixture, it deflated. To add insult to the injury, the bottom of the baked sponge has some shallow tunnel running here and there tsk tsk! I should have made the full recipe.....

The sponge in mini gateaux is actually scraps that I patched up to fit in the 3-inch mould because there's still enough leftover cream.

The pastry cream has some gelatine added to make the diplomat a bit firmer. You should also take into consideration the pastry cream-whipped cream ratio, the more whipped cream added to the pastry cream, the firmer the texture. I used 500 grams pastry cream and 320 grams whipping cream to make this diplomat cream and the texture is good enough to pipe. If you want a more stable diplomat cream, do a 1:1 ratio. Update: Not sure about the 1:1 ratio but more pastry cream (with gelatine) and less cream is much better.

When making this gateaux, set aside a bit of leftover diplomat cream, about 1 tablespoon for patching up the sides of the cakes just in case there are some unfilled gaps/holes after you un-mould it.

Note that after un-moulding the cake, some of the berries will be covered with thin film of diplomat cream. To make it more presentable, use a pairing knife and gently scrape the cream off or use a paper kitchen towel and gently blot it off.

For the strawberries, you need berries with almost the same size. If using a mousse ring with 2-inch height, the base of berries should be about 1-inch and each sponge should be 1.5-cm thick. The height of the ring that I used in one cake (5x2-inch round) though is not enough to add the jelly so if you have cake acetate sheets, line the side 1/2 inch higher.

I used 3 different mousse ring/mould sizes in making these cakes. The one without the jelly glaze is 5x2-inch round, 5x3-inch square and the mini using a 3x2 3/4-inch moulds. You can of course, use an 8 or 9-inch mousse ring, preferably with 2 1/2-inch height but need to bake 1.5 of the sponge recipe.

The glaze is a must if you want your berries to look shiny. Of course, on their own, berries are pretty enough. You can probably make a homemade shiny glaze out of a packaged jelly powder, preferably strawberry-flavoured , just reduced the amount of water so that the glaze will be thick.

For the decorations, beside the whole and sliced berries, I added edible flowers which are actually pretty tasteless and a tad expensive, 12 pieces for HK$40., but from the look of them the price is so worth it! lol

The "crumb shot" photo below is actually from my previous gateaux (different pastry cream recipe and freeze-dried strawberry powder is added to the diplomat cream) as I was just too lazy to take photo of it for this batch.

Joconde sponge, recipe adapted from Pâtisserie

125 grams icing sugar, sifted
4 grams matcha powder, sifted
125 grams ground almonds
38 grams plain flour, sifted
162 grams whole eggs, about 3-4 egss
28 grams butter, melted
100 grams egg whites, about 3 eggs
1 tsp calamansi/lime/lemon juice or cream of tartar
30 grams caster sugar

* Please check how-to here

* Chill in the fridge until needed.

I made 2/3 of the recipe and baked in 12-inch square tin

Pastry cream, recipe adapted from The Advanced Art of Baking and Pastry

454 grams milk
56 grams caster sugar
36 grams egg yolks
50 grams whole egg
36 grams cornstarch
56 grams caster sugar
28 grams butter, softened
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped, keep the pod for other use
5 grams gelatine sheets, softened for 5-10 minutes, excess water squeezed off

* In a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar and vanilla seeds and bring to a boil.

* In a small mixing bowl, beat the yolks and whole egg until thickens.

* Pour hot milk gradually over eggs, whisking as you pour to prevent the eggs from curdling. Pour milk-egg mixture back into the saucepan, let mixture boil, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat for 3 min or until mixture is thick. Turn off heat and add in the softened gelatine, stir until completely melted.

* Take pan off heat, add in softened butter, stir until well combined.

* Pour cream on a shallow pan and cover with plastic wrap directly on cream to prevent skin from forming. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Diplomat cream:

500 grams pastry cream
320 grams whipping cream, whipped

* Take out pastry cream from the fridge and let stand at room temperature until it softens enough to stir easily. Stir pastry cream until smooth, set aside.

* Whip cream until medium or nearly stiff peaks.

* Fold whipped cream into the softened pastry cream. Chill in the fridge until needed.

Strawberries, 500 grams and some extra for decorations.

* Wash and pat dry strawberries and cut out the base.

Raspberry jelly:

100 grams raspberry puree
30 grams caster sugar
5 grams gelatine sheets, soaked in cold water for 5-10 minutes, excess water squeezed off

* Combine puree and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, make sure that the sugar in completely melted. Turn off heat and add in softened gelatine, stir until well combined. Pour in a small bowl, set aside.

Make this jelly while the cakes are chilling in the fridge.

Assembly:

* Cut out two 5-inch square and two 5-inch round sponge using the mousse rings, save the scraps for the 3-inch mini cake. Place ring with the sponge inside on top of a cake holder and place it on the baking sheet.

* Place one sponge at the base of one mousse ring.

* Place some diplomat cream on piping bag and pipe a thin layer on the sponge base.

* Place strawberries along the sides of the ring and pipe in cream to fill in the gaps, add in more strawberries in the middle. Pipe more cream to cover the berries and use an offset spatula to gently push down the cream all over to prevent air pockets. Smooth the cream and place in the other sponge, gently push down the sponge, pipe in more cream to cover the sponge. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before adding in the jelly.

* Save a bit of diplomat cream to patch the sides of the cakes just in case there are some small holes/air pockets after un-moulding.

* Chill overnight.

Glaze:

45 grams neutral glaze
14 grams drinking water

* Combine glaze and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Brush berries while glaze is hot.

Un-moulding and decorations:

* Ran a hair dryer along the sides of the mousse ring for a minute or 2 to unmould the cake.

* Place back cake in the fridge and chill for at about 30 minutes.

* If there are some holes/air pockets along the sides of the cakes, fill holes with the reserved diplomat cream using a small offset spatula and smooth it out. Gently srcape off the thin film of cream on the surface of the strawberries using a small pairing knife or wipe with paper kitchen towel. Chill for another 1 hour before serving.

* Decorate top with whole and sliced berries and garnish with edible flowers and mints.

* Slice and serve.

Matcha-strawberry tart

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Sat, 07 Jul 2018 04:15:00 +0000

The only thing I love about summer nowadays is the abundance of cheap seasonal fruits that usually trickle in Hong Kong from different parts of the world. Mangoes, lychees, cherries and of course, strawberries! Okay, these berries may look sweet and juicy but almost of all them, well, are a bit tart- no pun intended!

Not that I'm complaining! I love the flavour contrast of tart berries with the rich and almost sweet filling.

This is 3-layer tart, 4, if you count the berries- the matcha pâte sablée base, almond-pistachio cream and créme diplomat.

This is a sablée with almond powder added, not only it adds a delicious flavour, it makes the base sturdy and not prone to breakage. The recipe below is my tweaked version from the Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts book. The tart dough was actually too soft and not really sure if it was the too hot ambient temperature or I added too much butter or egg to the mixture. As I always chill my tart dough overnight, I don't really have a problem with too soft sweet pastry dough. The pastry dough of this tart wasn't blind baked first but baked together with the almond cream.

I'm not fond of almond cream, there's something almost meaty with the taste and was ambivalent at first whether to use it on this tart. Good thing I gave it another chance heh! I think the added pistachio paste tone down the meatiness so as the strong almond flavour. Maybe it helps that I reduced the amount of almonds.....

For the créme diplomat layer, it was supposed to be a pastry cream but when I looked at the amount, it can hardly cover the almond cream! Note that the original recipe use a 9-inch tart ring and for this tart, I used a fluted 24 cm (9 1/3-inch) tart pan which is a tad bigger. So I added some whipped cream to the pastry cream to make a substantial amount thus the créme diplomat.

Tart crust will stay crisp throughout the day, okay, more the sides than the bottom crust. Surprisingly, the next day, crust still have this delightfully crisp texture, maybe it's those extra liquids that I added.....

So, what are the seasonal produce in your side of the world right now?!

Recipe adapted from French Patisserie Techniques /Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts

Matcha shortcrust pastry:

80 grams cold butter, cubed
80 grams cake flour
50 grams plain flour
5 grams matcha powder
30 grams almond powder
60 grams icing/powdered sugar

1 grams fine sea salt

30 grams lightly beaten egg

* Place cubed butter in a bowl, sift in the 2 flours, matcha powder, almond powder and salt; if there are some small almond pieces sitting on the sieve, tip it into the rest of the mixture. Rub mixture together until it resembles a fine breadcrumbs. Gently knead pastry dough 4 to 6 times and form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and flatten into a 5-inch square, chill overnight.

* Lightly butter a 24-cm/ 9x1-inch fluted tart pan/tin.

* Roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper into 3-mm thick, it should be 1-inch wider than the tart tin. If you feel that the pastry dough is a bit soft, chill in the fridge for few minutes. Peel the top parchment off the dough, put the tart tin on top and turn it up side down. With the parchment paper on top, gently press the dough along the sized and top of the tin, also smoothing the bottom part. Gently peel off the parchment on top of the dough. Freeze for an hour.

Almond-pistachio cream:

60 grams butter, diced, at room temp
60 grams caster sugar
50 grams almond powder
25 grams pistachio paste (homemade or store-bought)
50 grams lightly beaten egg

* Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Beat softened butter with spatula or a wooden spoon until creamy. Add the sugar, almond powder, pistachio paste and egg; beat until mixture is smooth. Pipe or pipe mixture on top of the frozen base of the tart .

* Bake for 30-35 or until almond cream is golden. Let cool completely.

Pastry cream, make this a day or few hours ahead

125 grams (UHT) whole milk
25 grams caster sugar
25 grams egg yolks
12 grams cornstarch
20 grams butter, softened
1 grams gelatine leaf/sheet (optional)

* Soak gelatine in cold water for about 5 minutes; squeeze off excess water and set aside.

* In a small saucepan, bring milk and half of the sugar into a boil.

* Meanwhile, whisk yolks and the remaining sugar until light and creamy, sift in the cornstarch and mix until smooth. Gradually add in the heated milk, whisking as you pour to prevent scrambling the yolks. Pour back mixture back into the saucepan, bring into the boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Continue to boil for 2-3 minutes, still whisking.

* Take pan off heat, add in the softened gelatine and stir until completely melted. Add in the butter and mix thoroughly. Transfer cream into a shallow bowl or a rimmed baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap over the surface, let cool. Chill for few hours or overnight.

Créme diplomat:

1 quantity of pastry cream, recipe above
75 grams cream, whipped

* Take out pastry cream from the fridge and whisk until smooth, fold in the whipped cream.

To assemble the tart:

about 500 grams fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into 2 pieces
some pistachio kernels
small amount of heated apricot jam, for glazing the berries
some mint leaves, optional

* Pipe or spread the créme diplomat over the cooled tart crust. Arrange berries on top of the tart, and brush berries with apricot jam. Sprinkle pistachio kernels on top. Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.

* Slice and serve. Best eaten the same day it's made.

Matcha brioche feuilletée/ flaky matcha brioche

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 02:48:00 +0000

Baking my way through my longggggg to-bake list!

Brioche feuilletée is basically an enriched bread made almost the same way as danish or croissants. Butter block is encased in a brioche dough, rolled and folded several times to create flaky layers.

Brioche is a French pastry similar to an enriched bread, it has a higher egg and butter content to give it a tender crumbs.

How to make a brioche that will stay soft for days?! Okay, maybe 3 days because obviously at that time, even crumbs are all but a memory....

The secret is all in the kneading, okay, not a secret really. If you're into Asian-style bread and most of those bread are enriched meaning egg, milk, butter, sugar and kneaded within an inch of its life. Yup, stretch the dough and look for a window pane, just Google it. Depending on the recipe, some brioche dough will tear after you'll stretch it far too wide so just use common sense....

The recipe is from Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts book that I borrowed from the library. Listed below is actually my tweaked version, substituting some of the bread flour with cake flour, added more milk as the dough was too dry and Saf gold yeast instead of fresh yeast. Instructions are also the one I usually do when I make danish and croissants.

Matcha is again sprinkled on both sides of the butter block rather than on the dough as it adds an interesting colour and flavour contrast. You can use other flavours such as ube or purple yam, purple sweet potato, pandan/strawberry/raspberry powder to name a few.

If you want a bigger brioche, cut the dough into 8 or 9 portions. I made 12 pieces so brioche is on the small side.

You need European-style butter with 84% butterfat as it is drier and melt slower than some butter. You can, of course, use any good-quality butter but always remember, don't skimp when it comes to your baking ingredients!

Texture of the crust is shatteringly crisp while brioche is still warm but will lose its crispness once it cools down.

I didn't use egg wash in this pastry, only a spray of water on top before the 2nd proofing.

Baking is obviously a relaxing endeavour and if you want to learn laminating dough, turn on the aircon for cripes' sake! Okay, but that doesn't mean I can roll the dough uniformly yet, but hey, at least no French words were uttered while making this fantastic flaky pastry!

Recipe adapted from French Pâtisserie with slight tweaks

Makes 12 brioche (2-1/2x3-inch each)

60 grams whole egg, chilled, slightly beaten

87 grams whole milk, chilled

5 grams fine sea salt

30 grams caster sugar

220 grams bread flour

30 grams cake flour

3 grams Saf gold

20 grams butter, softened

150 grams unsalted butter (84% butterfat), well-chilled

4 grams matcha powder

If using a bread machine: Pour beaten egg and milk into the bread pan/tin, followed by salt, sugar and the 2 flours. Make a well on top the flour and add in the yeast, cover it with some flour. Turn on the dough kneading cycle and do 2 cycle, about 22 minutes each, add in butter after 20 minutes. Take out the dough, knead for another 10 minutes.

* Shape into a smooth round ball then flatten into about 6-inch square, cover with plastic wrap but don't wrap it too tight; leave a bit of space for the dough to expand. Place dough on the baking sheet, let stand for 30 minutes then chill in the fridge overnight.

Make the butter block: Place sliced butter between 2 sheets of parchment paper and shape into 5-inch square. Sprinkle the matcha powder on both sides of the butter. Chill until needed.

The next day:

* Take out dough from the fridge, roll dough to 8-inch square, put butter block at an angle, just like a diamond (in the sky). Roll out the 4 sides of the dough to 3 1/2-inch, close the flaps to encase butter.

* Once butter is enclosed, gently pinch the seams. Use hands to flatten dough so as to soften and spread the butter along the sides, to create an 8x6-inch square rectangle.

* Using a rolling pin, press it up and down on top of the dough, creating ridges so that butter and dough will adhere better and also elongating it. Once dough is pressed down all over, roll the pin back and forth, smoothing out the ridges. Do this every time before you roll the dough.

* Roll dough into 8x16-inch rectangle, remember to fluff/lift the dough from time to time to prevent sticking on the work surface. Dust flour as needed.

* Do the 3-fold, just like folding a letter. Rotate dough at 90º so the the opening is on the right. This is the 1st turn.

* Wrap dough in plastic wrap, place on the baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.

* Do the 2nd turn the same way as the 1st and chill for another 30 minutes.

* Do the 3rd turn and chill for 1 hour.

* Lightly butter two 6-cavity muffin pans, set aside.

* Roll dough into 5x18-inch rectangle and cut into 12 pieces. If you want a bigger brioche, cut into 8 or 9 portions.

* Braid each piece and place it on a lightly-grease muffin pan.

* Spray top of each piece with water and cover with lightly-floured plastic wrap.

* Proof for 2 hours, depending on ambient temperature or until doubled in size.

* Bake for 15-17 minutes, convection function, or until brioche is golden brown.

* Best eaten warm but still wonderful at room temperature.

* Store leftover in an airtight container at room temp, consume within 3 days.

Baked mango cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 01:20:00 +0000

Philippine mangoes are arguably the best in the world.

Hey, I'm a Filipino, what can I say?! lol

And because it's still mango season in Duterteland......

It's my 2nd baked mango cheesecake since I made a mess out of the first attempt. For someone who bake cheesecakes for years without a problem, seeing that baked cheesecake crumpled in front of my greedy eyes was a bit disconcerting 😀 I was used in baking cheesecake where recipes doesn't contain much liquid, just eggs or lemon so baking time is much shorter.

I baked this 6-inch cake for more than an hour and texture is almost perfect so my cheesecake world is right again lol Unlike my previous baked cheesecakes where I always place the pan one rack above the water bath so no water can seep into the cheesecake mixture, this time, I put it onto another bigger seamless pan and placed that pan directly into the water bath.

Not really happy with the taste though, my unsophisticated taste buds felt that there's something lacking in this attempt. My first disastrous baked mango cheesecake tastes so much better than this! Still can't find that recipe in my messy files though....

I should have added more mangoes to the batter!

For the toppings, I spread some whipped cream before arranging the mango slices. The mangoes that I used though were not so plump and on a small side, so the rose-shaped design looks a bit short. I actually had to redo the first rose-shaped design as it looks really ugly!

If you want to try the recipe, especially if you like your cheesecake sweet, add more condensed milk and definitely add more mangoes to the batter! If you can find good-quality mango paste, add 1 teaspoon to the batter as well.

Crust:

100 grams biscuits, finely crushed ( I used M&S rich tea biscuits)
35 grams butter, melted
15 grams caster sugar

* Butter the sides and bottom of a 6-inch (loose-bottom) pan and line base with parchment paper.

* Combine ingredients above in mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Press crumbs into the prepared pan, use a spoon to smoothen the surface. Freeze or chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes until it hardens.

Batter:

250 grams cream cheese, cubed, at room temperature
115 grams condensed milk
120 grams sour cream
pinch of salt
1 large egg
2 teaspoons lime juice
155 grams mango purée

* Preheat oven to 160ºC.

* In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and condensed milk; beat until blended, add in sour cream and salt, mix until smooth. Add the egg and beat until just combined. Stir in lime juice and purée, mix well. Pour into the crust.

* Bake in a water batch for 50 minutes (cover top of the pan with foil after 40-50 minutes of baking if you want a light colour cheesecake), lower temperature to 140ºC and continue to bake for another 40 minutes. Turn off oven, open door slightly to release steam. Let cool for 2 hours or completely before removing pan from oven. Once cool, chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Note: Every oven is different, please adjust temp and time accordingly.

Whipped cream topping:

50 grams whipping cream
5 grams icing sugar

* Beat cream and sugar together until stiff peaks form, do not over beat. Chill until needed.

Mango slices:

about 5 Philippine mangoes, depending on the size

Mango compote/sauce, please check this recipe, substituting strawberries with mangoes

Assembly:

* Un-mould cheesecake and place on a serving plate, pipe or spread whipped cream on top of the cheesecake.

* Decorate top with mango slices. Spoon in mango compote along the sides of the cake.

* Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving.

Pistachio-raspberry petit gâteaux

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Regalado) — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:07:00 +0000

Ahhhhh summer! You either love it or hate it.....

Counting the days okay, months 'til it's winter again *sigh*

Have you ever tried photographing mini entremet/petit gateaux during summer? Even the air con can't stop the glaze from melting! At least the pistachio mousse is made from sterner stuff unlike my triple matcha mousse cakes 2 summers ago! lol

You'll probably heard about entremet by now unless you're not into French pastry....

Entremet is basically a multi-layered cake with various complementary flavours and textures (Pâtisserie/William Curley).

As with most French pastries, this petit gateaux or mini entremet/cake involves a bit of work. Every layer should be made/prepare beforehand, construct the components then glaze; easy-peasy but it takes a bit of time. But for someone who likes to dawdle, I love to make this kind of pastry because you can construct the cake/s, freeze and just assemble whenever you have the urge. Of course, 5 days and up to a week is my time limit heh! This batch though is my record-breaking entremets as I assemble everything in 3 days! 🤣

This mini cake is made of 5 components, a pâte sablée base, pistachio joconde, pistachio mousse, homemade raspberry jelly and store-bought neutral glaze.

For the pâte sablée cookie base, I tried the recipe which I tweaked a bit, from Chef Antonio Bachour that I've seen from his Facebook page. Almost the same as the recipe from Cookpad that I use from time to time. This is a pâte sablée with almond powder so it taste so much better.

For the pistachio joconde, I used my favourite recipe from the Pâtisserie book. Joconde sponge or biscuit Joconde is a light almond sponge cake, baked in thin layers and mostly use as a base or linings for layered cakes such as entremets. It is named after the famous painting, Mona Lisa which is called La Joconde in French.

For the pistachio mousse, another tweaked recipe from my fave bilingual cookbook author and chef, Charles Ho. Omitted both almond extract and custard powder because I don't really like the taste. You can make 8 pieces dome-shaped cakes from this recipe. As I only have 1 silicone mould, I used a mini mousse ring for the excess mousse; I chilled it instead of freezing as it's faster to unmould. Colour of the un-glazed pistachio mousse is lighter in real life. The amount of the mousse will nicely fit in a 6x2-inch mousse ring, just guesstimate the amount of jelly insert so as the thickness of the sponge.

Raspberry pairs really well with pistachio so I made raspberry jelly as insert for this gateaux. You can use strawberries or blackberries if prefer.

The glaze is just a simple 3 ingredients neutral glaze. You can make a homemade version if you can find pectin NH, note that it is different from the pectin which is mostly use in jam making. The recipe is again from Chef Antonio Bachour's facebook page. The glaze though is a bit disappointing, not really sure if it is the brand that I used or the very hot weather, it keeps sliding as you can see from the photos. The 250 grams neutral glaze and 30 grams water with a bit of green food colour is good enough for 6 mini cakes.

Decorations are just freeze-dried strawberries (both fresh and freeze-dried raspberries are too expensive for my taste) and some crushed and whole pistachio kernels.

Joconde sponge, recipe adapted from Pâtisserie

63 grams icing sugar

35 grams pistachio powder

30 grams almond powder

19 grams flour, sifted

81 grams whole eggs

14 grams butter, melted

50 grams egg white

15 grams caster sugar

* Preheat oven to 200ºC. Line a 12-inch square pan with parchment paper or silicone mat.

* Combine icing sugar, flour, pistachio and almond powder in a mixing bowl. Add the whole eggs and beat until ribbon stage, about 10-12 minutes.

* Melt butter and slowly add it to egg mixture, mix well to combine.

* Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold meringue into the egg mixture and spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for about12-15 minutes until golden brown.

* Let cool completely before using.

* Cut out 6 pieces of joconde using a 6-cm (metal) ring/cutter and one 7-cm round for the excess mousse.

Raspberry jelly:

100 grams (homemade) raspberry purée

20 grams drinking water

20 grams caster sugar

3 grams gelatine leaf/sheet

* Soak gelatine sheets in cold water until soft, squeeze off excess water and set aside.

* In a small saucepan, bring the purée, sugar and water to a boil, stir until sugar is melted. Turn off heat and add in the softened gelatine, stir until gelatine is completely melted. Transfer to a heat-proof cup and let cool slightly before pouring onto the silicone mould.

* Freeze until set.

Makes eight 4-cm mini dome-shaped jellies

Pistachio mousse, recipe adapted from Homemade Parent-Kid Baked Goodies/ Charles Ho

6 grams gelatine sheets

200 grams whipping cream (35% fat)

30 grams caster sugar

18-20 grams egg yolk

70 grams milk, fresh or UHT

70 grams (homemade) pistachio paste

* Soak gelatine sheet in cold water until soft, about 5-10 minutes. Squeeze off excess water, set aside.

* Whisk cream until it has the consistency of a thick yogurt, chill in the fridge until needed.

* Whisk yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl until light in colour. Pour in milk and place bowl on top of a saucepan with simmering water. Stir constantly until mixture has reached to about 165ºC. Mixture has the (almost) consistency of evaporated milk. Turn off heat, add in the softened gelatine, stir until gelatine is completely melted. Stir in the pistachio paste and mix until well-combined.

* Fold in the whipped cream and mix well.

Assembly:

* Fill in the 6-cavity silicone mould with pistachio mousse, about three-fourths full. Gently press down the raspberry jelly on each filled mould, top in with a bit more mousse to cover the jelly. Place the joconde sponge on top , gently pressing down; fill in more mousse along the sides of the biscuit. Use an offset spatula to smoothen the top. Assemble remaining jelly and mousse in a 7x5-cm mini mousse ring. Freeze mousse in silicone for at least 8 hours and place the one in mousse ring in the fridge.

Pâte sablée, recipe adapted from Chef Bachour's Facebook page

60 grams cold butter, cubed

40 grams icing sugar

pinch of salt

20 grams almond flour

70 grams plain flour

62 grams cake flour

24 grams whole egg, cold

* Preheat oven to 170ºC. Line baking sheet with silicone mat/parchment.

* Place cold butter, sugar, salt and the 2 flours in a mixing bowl. Use fingers, rub dry ingredients and butter together until it resemble a breadcrumbs; add in beaten egg and mix until it forms a shaggy

dough. Gently knead 4-6 times until smooth, pat dough into 6-inch square and wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

* If the dough is a bit firm to roll, let stand for about 2-3 minutes, depending on ambient temperature. Roll dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 3-mm thick, chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes if the rolled dough turns a bit soft. Use a 2 1/2 fluted cutter (3-inch is better) to cut 6 pieces and one 3-inch round. Use some small cutters for the excess dough.

* Place cut dough into the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour before baking.

* Bake for 14 to 20 minutes until lightly-browned.

* Cool completely before using.

Glazing:

250 grams store-bought neutral glaze

30 grams drinking water

a bit leaf green Wilton food colour

* Combine glaze and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Transfer to a heat-proof cup and stir in the food colour. Let cool to 100ºF before using.

* Unmould pistachio mousse and place on a wire rack, place rack on a plastic wrap-lined ( for easy clean up) baking sheet and freeze for another 30 minutes before glazing.

* Glaze frozen mousse, chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes for the glaze to set. Take out glazed cakes and transfer to a cake holder, place back in the fridge and let de-frost for about 2 hours before decorating.

* Serve straight from the fridge.

* Store petit cakes in an airtight container and place fridge. Consume within a week.