Bakescapades

Days before work began, i camped in the kitchen baking. Friends tell me i'm mad to be spending my precious free time baking, despite knowing i'll be stuck with it for the next 2 years and perhaps for a lifetime. But i tell them... this is why i call it a passion.

Baking is my escape from the real world.

Here's some edibles done during NYE and 2010. Recipes & detailed entries will come in when time permits.

Strawberry Panna Cotta Verrines

vanilla bean panna cotta. korean strawberry mousse. korean strawberry gelee. meringue sticks. totally elaine's kinda thing.

Dark Chocolate Royaltine

chocolate sponge. hazelnut feuillete. 64% dark chocolate mousse. valrhona cocoa nibs. raspberry.

Raspberry Ivory

ivory white chocolate mousse. raspberry gelee. raspberry mousse. honey sponge.

Strawberry Shortcake Ver.XX

soft vanilla sponge. creme chantilly. fresh strawberries.

Dad loves strawberry shortcakes so i've been experimenting with various sponge & chantilly recipes in hope of a perfect duo. Will keep trying and trying!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Tarts

pate sucree. caramel fleur de sel ganache. roasted hazelnuts. milk chocolate chantilly. cocoa powder. valrhona pearls.

Beware.this.might.be.the.ugliest.mont.blanc.you.ever.seen.

Mont Blanc Tarts

Pate sucree. chocolate coat. sponge. roasted chestnut. creme chantilly. french marron mousse.

Eeks what ugly piping! I couldn't stop laughing at the curly-wurly mess i made cos it is embarrassingly hilarious. The solution: blindfold yourself & eat it. French marrons are yum.

Cheesecake Lollipops

vanilla cheesecake. bittersweet chocolate coating. 100s & 1000s.

Homemade Bailey's Icecream

Creme Caramel Bailey's goodness lightly infused with vanilla beans. 100% hand-whisked.

innards.

After seeing the stark differences between domestic & commercial baking, i still feel more inclined to the smallish operations at home. I like producing hearty bakes at a leisure pace, and watching my loved ones savour them. Mass production can never provide the same contentment. Kinda missing it now!

Shall blog about work soon alright.

Bakeeelicious Christmas

So what's baking this christmas?

X'mas is all about our annual family get-together, with me contributing some sugary treats to the party spread. This year's desserts is no grand affair, nothing fanciful or complex, just edible bites to appease the sweet tooth(s) of both young & old.

On a side note, Dad requested for some cookies as gifts for his colleagues. Shed some sleep to bake an assortment of pinwheel, checkerboard, chocolate-chip walnut & winnie-the-pooh danish cookies, then packed them into little snowman bags ready to give away. Childish, but i like them cute this way!

Pinwheel Butter Cookies

Chocolate-chip & Walnut Cookies

Cookies N' Cream Cupcakes w Buttercream

Cranberry Orange Cupcakes w Rose Icing

Macha Madeleines

Chocolate Walnut Brownies

Duo-tone Strawberry Marshmallows

Each of them had their share of supporters phew. And the feeling of watching others chow down your food with glee is simply contenting! For a moment, all the invested money, efforts, forfeited sleep & time gets effaced (:

My personal favorite had to be the walnut brownie. Totally loved the way it turned out- crisp flaky crust, soft moist interiors (without the irksome brownie-stickyness), starring plenty of walnuts. I used a mix of semi-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder in my batter so the sweetness is controlled. yummieebrownieelicious~

And what's christmas without a requisite logcake?

Forget the swissroll & buttercream tales from before. This year i attempted a french-style Chestnut Yule Log, assembling a few of my own unprofessional & haphazard ideas...

French chestnut mousse, vanilla bavarian cream, praline crunch, almond succes, candied roasted chestnuts. Tasted real sweet.

bite in.

With a wink, christmas is history & a brand new year approaches... Time to round up my best meals of 2009 and start on new year resolutions.

Have a blessed festive season!

Strawberry Almond Tart

If life is a tart, i'll be a strawberry tart.

Doesn't the bright red hue beguile you? I constantly keep a punnet or two of strawberries in my fridge and the turnover is rapid... I add them to my breakfast cereals, icecreams, dunk into chocolate or simply eat them fresh & unaltered. I could squat beside the refrigerator and pop in one after another until the punnet goes poof!

Strawberries can come from US, New Zealand, Eygpt, Korea, Japan & Aussie yada yada... but i especially love the korean breed (japanese is best but unaffordable here haha). Those juicy softies are pumped with a sweetness so fragrant it simply perfumes your mouth! Can never get enough of them.

The best time to make a strawberry tart is during the berry season. When in harvest, you start to see them stacking up on supermarket shelves with irrestibly low prices. That is the call.

This tart is merely frangipane (almond filling) on sable dough, sans custard or cream. It may sound plain or dry but i've gone a step further to flavor it with Bailey's so the result is perked & sufficiently moist. I also used New Zealand strawberries (happened to be the NZ berry season when i made it) which may not be as saccharine as the Korean ones but their firmer flesh can keep well much longer.

Tarte Aux Fraises
makes 1 large tart & a few small tarts

Sable is French for 'sand'. It is a crumbly, sandy dough baked just like cookies. For a perfect tart, go the extra mile to make a vanilla custard and spread inbetween the berries & baked filling... Your efforts will be rewarded.

Sable Dough
175g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
100g icing sugar
250g plain flour
35g finely ground almond
1 egg

Almond Cream
200g ground almonds
125ml cream
20g corn flour
150g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
125g eggs
2 tbsp Bailey's (or replace with rum)

In a mixing bowl, cut butter into cubes and allow to soften at room temperature. Cream the butter, sugar and salt until pale. Beat in the egg ans make sure it is well-incorporated. Sift in the flour & almond powder and mix on low until the dough comes together. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before use.

For filling: Beat the ground almonds, corn flour, butter and sugar in a mxing bowl for 10 mintues and totally free of lumps. Add the eggs one at a time and ensure well blended in. Stir in the cream and Bailey's and mix into a smooth paste.


Roll out the chilled sable dough into a 0.2cm thick sheet and line the tart pan. Trim away and excess edges. Spoon in the almond cream to fill about half the pan then spread evenly with a palette knife. Bake at 180C for 30-35mintues or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

Brush the surface with sugar syrup if desired. Arrange strawberries on top and dust with icing sugar. To maintain the bright color, simply brush the berries with mirror gel or apricot glaze as a finishing touch.


Now's the Korean strawberry season btw, you can find them even at Fairprice & Giant so hurry go grab some!

Raspberry Rosewater Roll

The next pink thing.

It thrills me to blog about another pinkie idea... Raspberry pink is perfect in giving desserts that rightful touch i lust after. When raspberry meets rose, the word is alluring.

What i tried this time sometime back was a Japanese souffle cake recipe which destines at a dulcet soft sponge with the shade of pale cream. A fraction like towel rolls; 5 times more refined than generic spongecakes. I'm glad my attempt pulled through.

Once the oven tinked i cautiously removed the cake to prevent overbrowning (color is crucial for this)... But not all blunders were evaded- i realized i had no buttercream on hand! So with limited time to marshal a rollup before my cake stiffens, i grabbed a pot of mascarpone cheese from the refrigerator and lashed up a simple spread. Whipped it icing light and trickled some sensual rosewater to scent...voila!

I'm sharing the recipe for the souffle sponge roll. Fillings are self-explorable from flavored buttercreams to creme Chantilly; or even a frantic whip-up like mine would work fine. Basic swissroll techniques still apply. (Pardon my lousy rolling skills cos i'm no swissroll expert)

Biscuit Roulé type Soufflé

makes 1 regular roll

190g egg yolks

50g caster sugar

vanilla essence

230g egg whites

100g sugar

100g cake flour

25g butter

55g fresh milk

In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar and vanilla essence until thick & creamy.

In another bowl whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, adding sugar in 3 additions. Fold a third of the whipped whites into the egg yolk mixture. Sift in the cake flour and incorporate well. Fold in all remaining whites and mix well with a spatula.

Place the butter and milk into a microwaveable bowl and microwave until both melts (approximately 70C). Gradually pour it into the egg mixture and fold into a smooth, glossy batter.

Tip the batter into a lined and greased rectangular pan, then even the surface with a scraper. Bake at 180C for 15 minutes or until cake has set & resistive to touch. Immediately remove from oven & lightly knock tray on a work surface to release any trapped air. Unmould the cake while it is warm but spread your desired fillings after slight cooling (but still pliable).

Raspberries, rose & mascarpone.. this ain't solely about the color anymore. It's feminine fragrance seduces. And beware, i may just pounce in with another heavily-pinked entry lol.

With love,

the girl loving her raspberries always.

Raspberry & Poppyseed Loaf

Poppy seeds.

You heard them right. The one seed breed you rarely encounter on our sunny island (thanks to Sihan for sharing!). Dad once told me that poppy seeds are banned in Singapore because of their pedigree from opium pods.... Really, are they?

Fact or myth, i can only vindicate that the seeds themselves contain very low levels of opiates. Hence non-detrimentally edible... but not exactly addiction-free. Cos they furnish such unique minuscule popping! No wonder you see them in bakes everywhere outside Singapore.

I loved this cake. Not merely for poppies but the overall goodness it swanked. Obediently use buttermilk, trickle in some wonder seeds, plonk the batter into a pound cake tin & watch it grow. The loaf emerged soft and loose, rupturing in the middle... fragile to handle but moistly rewarding. Raspberries offered replete elevation like it always does. Very scrumptious when eaten warm off the oven.

Raspberry and Poppyseed Cake

makes 1 large loaf

170g butter, softened at room temp

250g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

180g buttermilk

180g cake flour

4g baking powder

3g salt

7-8g poppy seeds

100g fresh raspberries (mine were fresh but stored in freezer to lengthen shelf life)

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and pale in color. Add the vanilla extract evenly. Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping with a spatula to incorporate well after each addition.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift into the butter mixture and mix. Gradually stir in the buttermilk, followed by the poppy seeds and raspberries.

Pour the batter into a lined and greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing, for neater cuts (i was impatient for warm cakes & got them all rubbly messy haha)

Entries will be slowing down these two months... its the (most dreaded) ALevels plus i've got some buzzing personal matters to settle. December comes, i'll be as freeeeee as a bird can't wait! Kyushu! And i seriously need to replace my faulty cake mixer!

Bacon, Corn & Mushroom Quiche

When i decided to go savoury one Sunday morning, the sugar pangs disorientated me. My quiches looked like a mess because i carelessly forgot to blind-bake them! Only realized the missing step after my pastry shells have sat in the oven for 5 minutes & already shrunk in height... Too late to rescue ):

Ugliness aside, quiches still make a comforting start for any weekend. The assemble of crisp bacon, butter-sauteed button mushrooms & sweet corn kernels within a rich egg+cream+cheese custard tastes especially gratifying when fresh off the oven.

Here's my messy take. I adapted the body from a classic Quiche Lorraine recipe, inserted my choice of fillings, then fixed everything over Michel Roux's Flan pastry. His pastry recipes are always pretty dependable. Just don't forget to blind-bake them with the appropriate weights!

Bacon, Corn & Mushroom Quiche

makes a 23cm tart or about 8 small tarts

Flan Pastry (by Michel Roux):

250g plain flour

125g butter, diced

1 medium egg

1 tsp salt

2tsp caster sugar

Filling:

100g back bacon, cut into tiny pieces

150g sliced button mushrooms

some corn kernels

3 medium eggs + 2 yolks

200ml double cream

50g grated cheese (i used a mixture of shredded red & white cheddar)

sea salt & ground black pepper

To make the pastry: Put the four into a mound on a work surface and make a well in the middle. Put the butter, egg, salt & sugar into the well. Using your fingertips, mix all the ingredients in the well together, then gradually draw in the flour, little by little.

Mix until all the ingredients are almost amalgamated and the pastry has a slightly sandy texture. Add 40ml cold water and incorporate, using your fingertips. Knead the pastry 2 or 3 times with the heel of your hand to make it completely smooth. Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours before using.

Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface, cut out accordingly and line the tart tins. Prick the base, then chill for 15 minutes. Blind bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 5 minutes.

To make the filling: Panfry bacon until cooked and fragrant, drain on kitchen towel. Saute mushrooms in butter till moist. Put the eggs and cream into a bowl, beat well, and season with salt & pepper to taste.

Divide bacon, mushrooms and corn kernels evenly among tart shells. Sprinkle grated cheese over, then carefully pour the egg mixture over. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes until just set and browned. Serve warm.

Try having a quiche for breakfast one Sunday!

Raspberry Coconut Rhapsody

Raspberry Mousse. Raspberry Gelee. Coconut Dacquoise. White Chocolate. Pistachio.

.

Pink is alluring. Raspberries are love. With a few punnets of raspberries piled in the refrigerator, i had a sudden idea of colluding them with..... coconut! Imagine. Senses-awakening tartness paired with musky depths of the tropical fruit hmmmm.

No use of coconut cream here. I trickled it in through the form of a dacquoise made with dessicated coconuts & a small proportion of ground almonds. The alloy actually turned out softer & airier than regular, replete with coconutty fragrance.

Ever since i started using dacquoise i never wanted to revert to sponge cake dependance anymore. There's so many reasons in it to love: extra texture, fuss-free to prepare, oil-free- which meant less probability of feeling queasy.

If you've noticed... i also decided not to strain the berry seeds away, for a verifiable reason. My family is fond of having some nitty crunch in their desserts and retaining them would please the folks better. Try offering them a chocolate brownie vs a chocolate walnut brownie... & you'll see what i mean haha.

The combination was palatably genial!

If you are highly receptive to coconut transformations (like mummy), or share an undying love for berries as i did... you'll likely not reject this Marriage-in-pink (: A whole load of fresh raspberries invested in there!

New York Cheesecake

I happen to love cheesecakes unfalteringly.

While most people whoop over tons of gooey cheese within their savories, im happier having cheese in my desserts. Don't get me wrong. I still sink regularly into pizzas and gratins & their irresistible relatives with no disdain, but the cheesy sweets take me to a higher realm of delight.

I'll usually keep a close watch for my favourite species: American, Blueberry & Walnut. Or anything bearing the blood of cheese, say cheese+tart, cheese+brownie, cheese+souffle, cheese+icecream, or cheese+whatever's morally acceptable...

So when i saw Jamie Oliver's screamingly-mouthwatering New York Cheesecake emblazoned on the cover of a Delicious issue, i took almost immediate action. The product: a creamy, moderately dense cheesecake smacked with robust vanilla Yum! Double yum with a dollop of blueberry topping (:

Here's the original recipe, unmodified.

Jamie Oliver's New York Vanilla Cheesecake
recipe from Delicious Magazine march 2009 issue

His recipe reacted quite well to modifications so you can try adding your own touches. i tweaked the base's butter-to-biscuit ratio, added walnuts for crunch & adjusted the proportions of some ingredients for mine.

Serves 8-10

250g digestive biscuits, crushed

150 unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup cornflour

900g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature

2 large organic eggs

1/2 cup thickened cream

seeds of 1 vanilla pod, or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (1/2 tsp for me =p)

grated zest of 1 lemon

Blueberry Topping

450g blueberries

1/4 cup caster sugar

Grease and line the base of a 24cm springfoam cake pan. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix the biscuits and butter in a bowl, press into the base of the pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Turn oven to 200C. Combine sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Add cream cheese and beat with an electric whisk until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Gradually add the cream, beating until smooth, then beat in vanilla and zest.

Tip mixture into pan, level the surface and sit on a baking sheet. Place in centre of oven and bake 35-40 minutes until top is browned and the filling is set around the edges. A piece of foil over the top wihh stop it from browning too much. Allow to cool. Place in fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Put the blueberries in a sacuepan, sprinkle over sugar and add 1 tbsp of water. Put ona medium-low heat to simmer gently for 10 minutes. Cool and serve with cheesecake.

Maybe i'll try incorporating some fresh berries into the cheese batter next time, so it'll become a true-blue blueberry cheesecake. Oh i so love those =D

Mango Mousse Cake

mango mousse. mango jelly. almond dacquoise. pineapple & mango compote.

A simple mango mousse cake brings back chunks of memories for me. I could count a million times i had it since a child.

It was the failproof cake for most of our family occasions (either mango, pandan or chocolate)

It was the first ever cake i bought on my own at the age of 7. A classic Jack's Place mango mousse for Mum's birthday.

It is the cake i'll pick at Bakerzin when feeling undecisive; which always happens.

It is one unerring flavour suitable for folks of all ages. Mangoes are nothing new right?

In my version i hosted fresh mango mousse with mango jelly slices on almond dacquoise instead of a sponge base. The jelly was prepared in a separate mould, chilled to solidify before embedding it within the mousse. No use of mango essence or extracts here cause i believe nothing beats the goodness of real fruits.

So glad to have mastered this! For a while i've been attempting various recipes in search of a good & unfailing method. The cream-based mousses are often too mushy and shortlived, whereas this had a lasting form and great texture. Gonna stick with this custard-based technique period.

No need for Bakerzin's mango dosages anymore!

Matcha Souffle Cheesecake

Everyone will have their Matcha-mood someday...

When mine struck, i splattered some greentea powder into cheese... And out came these high milk content, semi souffle-like slices.

Matcha 抹茶 is love <3

Chocolate Praline Royale

Hazelnut Feuilletine. Chocolate Sponge. Milk Chocolate Mousse. Dark Chocolate Ganache. Raspberry.

Don't you just love cakes with praline feuilletine?

When i was a child i used to like the Coco Exotic Cake from Four Leaves Bakery. It is chocolately all within and had a crunchy layer that sparkles in the mouth. Then i formed my naive assumptions about it: skeleton of my cornflakes cereals, taste of Ferrero Rocher and texture of chocolate wafer biscuits. Really thought they were made of those!

Until all grown up and learning the true art of cakes & pastries.

Fact is, Praline Feuilletine comprises a simple mix of hazelnut praline, feuilletine flakes and chocolate. All purchasable at specialized baking stores. But for a virgin attempt, i convinced myself i should make my own praline paste (thankgod it worked!). The nuts were really costly things to think about but when the smooth, glossy praline paste emerges.. the result is ultra rewarding. Anything hazelnutty smells so good!

Alternated layers of chocolate fudge sponge, milk chocolate mousse over the praline feuilletine base and coated the top with a dark chocolate ganache to snip the sweetness. The family loved the final product (thanks to the base) but felt that more crunch would be better. Perhaps next time, i'll make double or triple feuilletine layers haha.

And when im lazy, i'll get my slice from Four Leaves or Prive Cafe (:

Dad's Favourite Things

Hit the pots and pans again for this special occasion. My menu-planning began a week ago but the eventual dishes were only finalized a day before. There's no designated cuisine here, its a convenient mix of everything to suit my theme: Dad's favourite things.

And thanks to a friend's kindness, i had the privilege to work with lavish add-ons like truffle oil & porcini mushrooms, and used a siphon for the first time in my life haha. Also attempted to inject more creativity this time and invested on pricier ingredients.. my apologies if i didn't do justice to any of them!

Photos are pretty lousy as well. The lighting in my house is hardly accentuating and i was clod between cooking on the spot, serving and snapping quick shots ):

enjoy...

Play, Redefined.

Bread

Homemade Parmesan, Sundried Tomato & Onion Roll

Amuse Bouche

Marinated Crab Salad, log of Earl Grey, lemon-infused evoo

ORANGE

Cream of Butternut Squash cappuccino, pumpkin seeds, parmesan stick

Hazelnut-crusted Scallop, lobster emulsion, caviar

Scallop & Avocado tartare, tobiko, chives

FRITTER

Breaded Button Mushroom Lollis, citrus aioli

FUNGHI

Chilled angel hair, porcini saute, black truffle oil

PESCE

Panseared Barramundi, bacon buerre blanc, medley of textures, saffron risotto

POMMES

Fine apple tart, cinnamon, vanilla icecream, crumble

this is my gift to dad. hope the family enjoyed their dinner.

Happy Father's Day!