Fluffy pancakes

Fooling around with the focus..


Kiwis are beautiful too

I think DSLRs make a world of a difference. Even a shitty layout like the above can look decent, with all the colors popping up, the blurring of the objects not in focus, the sharpness of the images. Gosh. I really need to brush up on my photography.

It's spring time here in lovely Perth. Strawberries are cheaper again. *hurrah!*And hey, they always look better on camera right? =D



I love fluffy carbohydrates. I really do. There's something about bread, pancakes, muffins, cakes, paus, buns, pizzas and burgers that just turn me on. Crepes, not so much. But I forgive it as it can be used to stuff with other goodies. Like chocolate mousse. Chocolate brownies. Chocolate cake. Melted chocolate. Chocolate bars...


Pancake stack with cut strawberries, kiwis and oodles of maple syrup

Here's a pancake recipe that I go to every single time. It's one of those recipes where after you have it, you know you've struck gold and The Search is over. This recipe is elegant in that it doesn't require out of the ordinary pantry ingredients like buttermilk and/or ricotta cheese to make. Awesome for a poor distracted student. =D

Fluffy pancakes recipe!

The ratio is pretty standard. 1 cup of flour serves 2 hungry growing guys. =D

1 cup plain flour
1 cup milk (I used low fat.)
1 large egg, separated (minimum 60g ones please!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
small pinch of salt, using the thumb, index and middle finger

1) Heat pan on medium heat. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a big bowl.

2) Whisk the egg yolk, milk and sugar together in a separate bowl until the sugar has dissolved.

3) Add the melted butter into the egg yolk mixture and continue whisking until the butter has incorporated into the mixture

4) Beat the egg whites in a separate clean, dry bowl on low speed on the mixer or patiently with your strong hands until it reaches soft peaks.

5) Once the whites reach soft peaks, add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk normally until no more dry ingredients can be seen. Do not overwork it with a mixer though, don't want to let all the precious air pockets from the baking powder be beaten out of it.

6) Once the mixture is homogenous, gently fold all of the soft-peaked egg whites INTO the mixture, stopping once no more white streaks are left.

7) Add a small teaspoon of butter into the pan and let the butter melt before scooping the batter and pouring it unto the hot pan. I used the 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter because I love the size of the pancakes from it.

8) Cook for about 1 - 2 minutes or until the bottom of the pancake is nicely browned before flipping and browning the other side. Don't cook at too high a temperature! Medium to medium-high is ample.


Drenching our pancakes with maple syrup. And no, we don't need to explain why. ;)

Pressure points and top tips! (from trial and error) =D

1) Resist nicking them before plating. You will only end up with enough for 1 plate

2) Beat the egg whites to soft peaks for easier incorporation. It's harder to fold in stiff peaks and you'll end up smashing out the precious air pockets.

3) Medium to medium-high heat for pancakes is sufficient! Too high and you'll end up with goo on the inside.

4) DRENCH your pancakes with maple syrup. Because you're worth it. ;)


A stack of 5 pancakes, cause thats how we roll~

August 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge - Candylicious!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Pity the competition is only for people in Canada and the United States. =\


A plate of goodies! Truffles and chocolate bark is pure love.

Anyhow, say hello to my new layout! =D I was inspired by the blogs I always frequent and decided that my blog needs change - a new direction, a new vigor, a new life. Although blogging takes quite a bit of time, but it's always such good fun! Shall push on forward with this new commitment (and hopefully still get decent grades in school. =S)

So this month's challenge was candy making. We had to make 2 different candies, with 1 compulsory one being either a truffle or a filled bonbon and the other one as whatever we liked. Since we were already handling 1.7kg of chocolate (yes, 1.7 kilo-freakin-grams), might as well use some of those for chocolate bark right?

Right.


1/5 of the mess

To say that we made an epic mess of the kitchen is really playing it down. Even natural disasters don't create such a carnage, really. We had chocolate everywhere! The microwave, the stove, the 3 bench tops, the sink, the table, the chair, the fridge handle, our fingers, my face, my foot, my camera....

The side of my lips, accidentally of course.

Trivia!
Bonbons are chocolate coated candies. And "bon" means good in French.

From Wikipedia of course!

Basic recipe for truffle

1 3⁄4 cup (420 ml/9 oz/250 gm) Dark/Bittersweet Chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup (160 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)

OR

1 3⁄4 cup (420 ml/9 oz/250 gm) Milk Chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup (120 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)


OR

1 3⁄4 cup (420 ml/9 oz/250 gm) White Chocolate, finely chopped
1⁄4 cup (60 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)

Use the best chocolate you can afford yeah. Cheap chocolate tastes terrible and especially in a recipe like this where you only have 2 ingredients, the quality of the chocolate POPS OUT so loudly. Lindt, Green & Blacks are my go-to brands. =)

Steps

1. Finely chop or grate the chocolate
2. Place in a heatproof bowl 3.
In a saucepan, heat cream until just about to boil (it will start bubbling around the edges of the pot but it shouldn't boil vigorously)
4. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate
5. Gently stir the mixture until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth


Tip: If you end up with pieces of chocolate that won't melt, put the bowl over simmering water (but not touching the water) and stir gently until it‟s all melted

Tip: Be careful if you do need to heat it over simmering water, if the mixture gets too hot it will split and you‟ll end up with gooey chocolate swimming in oil, so don‟t overheat the ganache, steam from a gentle simmer is all you need.

Of course this is a blank canvas where the truffle can be customized to any flavor you like! For liquer flavors, just stir in 2 tablespoons (or more. or less, but thats blasphemous) of your intended liquor (mmm Whiskey... =D) into the stirred ganache. For infusions such as tea, coffee or spices, put the intended flavors into the cream when you are bringing it to a near-boil. Then, allow the mixture to sit and steep so that all the flavors will be released into the cream. Then, strain the mixture to get the infused cream! For spices, do not add too much as a little amount of spice goes a LONG way.

Also if you'd like to coat your truffles with chocolate, just melted at least 400g of chocolate for easy handling. You could also temper the chocolate for better finish and texture but we didn't though.


In our first mould, ice cube trays - chilli cinnamon truffle, coffee cardamon truffle

Spiced chocolate tastes truly magnificent. I used to be an anal chocolate purist and never believed in flavoring chocolate. But after trying chilli cinnamon chocolate, my eyes were opened for the very first time and it was like a moment of enlightenment. *signals light-dawning-from-cloud effect* Chilli cinnamon chocolate is a personal favorite. We steeped the cream for 20minutes with 3 cut chilli padi and 1 cinnamon stick, crushed and broken into many small pieces. For coffee cardamon, we steeped the cream in 1.5 tablespoon of crushed coffee bean and 8 crushed cardamon pods.


Salted caramel filling. Yumsssss

Sweet + salty + chocolatey = ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Chocolate hazelnut crunch! Who needs ferrero rocher with their measly ONE hazelnut when you can roll your truffle and put 4? =D


With a new mould this time, we put in fresh cut strawberries and crushed pistachio.


Chocolate bark with dried orange peel, almond halves and fennel seed

For our 2nd candy, we made chocolate bark with the leftover melted chocolate. Just spread the melted chocolate on a sheet of baking paper and throw whatever you love on top of it. Our latest flavor obsession was orange, almond and fennel. The fennel seed adds a liquorice flavor that dances off the tastebuds gently. Really yummy!


Packed into a pretty box for as a present for a friend!

Pressure points and top tips! (from trial and error) =D
1) Repeat after me. I must use the best chocolate I can afford.

2. Ensure that the melted chocolate do not contact with water or it will become unusable for chocolate coating purposes.

3. Be daring with the flavors, but do not complicate the story. There's only so many flavors typical tongues can figure out!

Plaisir Sucre - Sweet Pleasure, it really was.

from top - toasted hazelnut, tempered chocolate sheet, chocolate creme chantilly, chocolate ganache, hazelnut praline feuillantine, hazelnut dacquoise.

My very first entremet - a gorgeous 5 layer chocolate dessert from an esteemed pastry chef, Pierre Hermes. Man was this a lot of effort. Took me a good whole day, plenty of equipment, plenty of chocolate, plenty of stray chocolate and of course plenty of finger picking and licking.

When I first saw the recipe on Evan's blog, I knew that I HAD to make it. I've always been an avid reader of her blog. Her food styling, her pictures, her interests in complex desserts and flavors and her talents just never cease to amaze and inspire me. I wish I had as much finesse as her but I know I'm way too new to attain the magic her hands possess. But it's alright. I'll get there some day!



Gosh I can't even achieve the same effect as her pictures even when I shamelessly copied the positioning. HAHAHA. I've got SO MUCH to learn, and so much more to experiment before I can carve my own style, be it in food styling, photo composition and placement and even blogging styles.

Back to the entremet now. The taste was divine - indulgent, rich and chocolatey. Exactly what I absolutely adore in a pastry. The hazelnuts were an excellent complement, naturally. The textural elements were amazing - the crispy feuillantine, the crunchy chocolate sheets, the light creamy chocolate creme, the thick ganache, the nutty hazelnut dacquoise all played together like a perfect symphony. This was truly a spectacular creation by a spectacular man in the industry. And I can only look forward to trying the real deal from the man himself, someday.

The looks have so much more to improve though, on my part. I didn't know how to slice nor store them appropriately so the dacquoise layer got a little sticky and began losing some of its edges here and there. I didn't know how to slice it cleanly as well so there weren't beautiful lines and angles (which I personally believe is critical in displaying finesse and mastery. After all if it's ugly, then what am I paying for, right? Here is the original from Pierre himself!)

It took so so SO much restraint to not finish them all instead of sharing them with my friends. I remember my sister's face when she first tried it. With wide eyed wonderment and conviction, she said "eh that pastry is Very good. Very good. omg its Very good". =)

The recipe itself assumes some basic knowledge in handling of each component and hence, is very skeletal. I'll share some tips though, things that I've encountered along the way.

Adapted from Evan's blog, from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermes.

Makes 8 3 x 11cm entremet, with plenty of components left overTempered milk chocolate sheets
at least 450g milk couverture choc. please splurge and get a good chocolate. =D The actual

Chocolate creme
143g milk choc, splurge and get good chocolate!
218ml whipping cream

Hazelnut dacquoise
35g ground hazelnuts
50g icing sugar
45g egg whites, room temp (about 2 egg whites)
1.5 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted, skinned & halved

Hazelnut praline feuillantine
100g nutella or hazelnut praline paste
25g milk choc, melted & cooled til lukewarm
1/2 cup rice krispies or 1/4 cup feuilletine flakes. wafer crumbs work as well. just something to give a textural crunch would suffice! =D
1/2 tbsp butter, melted & cooled

Milk choc ganache
95g milk choc (get good ones once again! =D)
83ml whipping cream

Steps


1. Temper the chocolate. For milk chocolate, the chocolate has to be melted to no more than 49C, then cooled to 27C, then warmed to 30C. The chocolate at 30C will be liquid and flowable. Upon cooling, the tempered chocolate will have an excellent bite (snap, they call it) that is texturally superior to chocolate that isn't tempered. Visit this site for a step by step photo tutorial on how to temper!

2. After tempering, spoon them into your mouth with a ladle spread them unto a plastic sheets preferably (I used plastic sheets that printing places use to cover the front of booklets) in a thin layer and score the 3cm by 10cm rectangle shapes. I spread the mixture onto 4 A4 plastic sheets and scored roughly 8 rectangles on every sheet. Be careful here cause they break easily. Not that I minded the extra pieces to eat... The remainder can be refrigerated until needed.

2. For chocolate creme, chop the chocolate into small pieces and place them into a large clean dry bowl. Bring the cream to a boil and then pour them over the chocolate. After 15 seconds (to let the chocolate gets warmed up) stir the mixture with a clean dry utensil until homogenous and then cover the bowl with plastic, allowing the plastic to touch the surface of the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate for 5 - 6h at least. Before using, whip the mixture until almost firm then re-refrigerate if not using immediately.

3. For hazelnut dacquoise, sift ground hazelnuts & icing sugar together & set aside. In a clean dry bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy and then gradually add in sugar and whisk until stiff peaks. Fold the hazelnut mixture into the whites gently until all the hazelnut mixture has been incorporated and then spread the mixture evenly onto a 8-inch baking tray lined with parchment paper. Scatter hazelnut halves on top then press down slightly. Bake in a preheated oven of 165C for 25-30 mins or until browned. Leave to cool. The dacquoise will deflate after cooling so don't worry, you didn't fail!

4. For hazelnut praline feuillantine, place nutella/praline paste in bowl then add in the remaining ingredients the order they're listed. Mix well then spread the praline evenly onto the dacquoise, working from the center and spread as far as it will go to the edges. Refrigerate the spread praline feuillantine for at least 30 mins to firm up. More importantly, resist spooning them into your mouth because you WILL end up with nothing left and may have to remake the entire batch of praline feuillantine.

5. For the choc ganache, chop the chocolate into small pieces and place them in a clean dry bowl. Bring cream to a boil and then pour the heated cream into the bowl of chopped chocolate. After 15 seconds, stir the chocolate and cream mixture with a clean dry utensil until the chocolate is completely melted (or when the lumpy bits have been eaten). Allow the ganache to cool & thicken or refrigerate until a pipeable consistency. If overchilled, just let the ganache sit out for a while and it'll soften back. If you're in a cold country, you could warm it up in the microwave in 10 second bursts.

6. To assemble, slice the dacquoise&praline feuillantine into 11x3cm rectangles. I managed to get 7.5 of them. Oops ate the other half. Then, pipe a thin layer of ganache over the dacquoises. Place a milk choc sheet on top, shiny side up and pipe another thin layer of ganache onto the chocolate sheet. Place another chocolate sheet over. Pipe a line of chocolate creme on top of the chocolate sheet and top with one last piece of chocolate sheet. Decorate with toasted whole hazelnuts if desired. I cemented them into place with chocolate ganache.



LOVE how this picture makes me go weak in my knees. And my heart muscles as well I reckon.

Pressure points and top tips! (from trial and error) =D

Tempering chocolate
1) Start with at least 400g so it's easier to handle and temper correctly. A thermometer is recommended, unless of course you've been tempering chocolate all your life and you KNOW what temperature it is at by just the sensation on your fingers and lips (you WILL dip your lips into chocolate when you are tempering. I can't be the only one in the world that does that, right?!)

2) Youtube it and read up on tempering chocolate thoroughly so you know what you have to achieve.

3) Lay a HUGE piece of parchment paper on the surface you're working on. Licking parchment paper after tempering seems more dignified than licking the table.

4) Ensure that everything that the melted chocolate touches is dry = free from ANY water at all. If not it'll cause the chocolate to sieze (become chunky and chalky) and render it completely unusable in its state.

5) When the chocolate gets chilled in the fridge, it distorts and bends. I used a flat weight (a frozen pizza pizza box) to weigh on top of the chocolate in the fridge so that I will still have my straight rectangles

Chocolate creme chantilly
6) Please chill it sufficiently. The longer it sits in the fridge, the better. If not, it won't hold its shape when its beaten and all you'll have is a lump of chocolate butter that doesn't fluff. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing of course... But that's another recipe already I reckon.

Hazelnut dacquoise
7) It's just like making macarons or meringue. I folded the hazelnut powder mixture until it has just disappeared. It doesn't have to be over babied.

8) The dacquoise will be sticky when it has cooled down for too much and is difficult to handle so don't be surprised that it sticks to the paper!

Overall there isn't much to look out for since each component on its own is very basic. But the beauty is in the composition of the entire entremet itself. Sweet Pleasure, it really was. From the making, to the plating, to the eating, right down to the sharing. Some people may find it too rich and cloying for their liking though (which happened to me and I had some half eaten entremets left over) but not for me. If I am going to spend some of my calorie credit, it better be on something rich, indulgent and chocolatey. =)