Friday, July 30, 2010

Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies



The name of this cookie is captivating enough. Come on, clouds? I expected the cookies to be fluffy and sort of melt-in-your-mouth like. Indeed, that was the case(: They even look a little like clouds. Don't you think?!



Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies
recipe from Joy The Baker
-makes 76 small cookies!!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract (I made my own lemon extract by simmering 1/4 cup of lemon juice to one tbsp. I accidentally added the whole tbsp in.. the cookies still turned out ok)
1 teaspoons finely grated lemon or orange zest (I left this out)





-Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
-Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
-Combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed. Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.
-Beat in the eggs one at a time. Batter may look broken and curdled. Beat in the extracts and zest.
-Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns with your spatula to bring it all together.
-Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper. Space the balls about 2-inches apart. After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough. Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes. Slide the parchment paper off the pan to cool completely.

Keep the cookies between sheets of wax paper in a plastic container with a tight lid.
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I was actually set back by the "lemon" part in the name at first (since I am not a big fan of citrus-y sweets). However, the cookies turned out with just one eighth of a hint of lemon flavor (almost none). The butter dominated! They reminded me of butter shortbread.. a soft version of it. These cookies break to the bite when fresh out from the oven. Once they cooled, they became a little crunchy and the inside remained soft. They would go great with some tea or coffee!



**Big thanks to my bff, Nicole for shooting these prettay photos! I am glad you liked the cookies too.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Cinnamon Rolls



Cinnamon Rolls
recipe from eCurry
-makes 16- 18 small rolls

2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast (use 25% less instant yeast if substituting)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 whole cup milk
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, just about melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
chopped pecans or walnuts or raisins/or both nuts and raisins (Optional)

In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour and yeast. Heat the milk, 1/8 cup sugar, 1/8 cup butter and salt just until mixture is warm (not hot) and the butter is just melted, stirring slowly.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture; add the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for about a minute while scraping the sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. Dough will be soft.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball.

*My dough was liquid-y and sticky even after more than 2.5 cups of flour. I stopped adding/kneading till I was at a stage where I can form a decent round shape dough that I can peeled off my fingers..

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl & cover; let it rise in a warm place until double (about 1 to 1.5 hours).

Punch dough down. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough in half and shape each half into a ball. Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes. On lightly floured surface roll out half of the dough into a rectangle/oblong.

Spread generously with 1.5 tablespoons softened butter. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle half over the stretched dough. Sprinkle the nuts/raisins if you are using them. Roll up from a short side.

Seal the edges.

Make a second roll with remaining dough, in the same way as above.

Slice each dough roll into 6-8 pieces.

Arrange slices, cut side down, in a greased baking pan. Cover; let rise until nearly double (about 30 – 45 minutes). Do NOT skip this step.

Place the rolls very close to each other on a baking tray. Bake rolls in a 360 F degrees oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until light brown. If required, to prevent over-browning, cover rolls loosely with foil the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking.

Invert at once onto a wire rack. Cool slightly.

Drizzle rolls with the Sugar Glaze.

Serve warm.


For the sugar glaze:
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon melted butter
2-4 tablespoons milk (or just enough to make a thick consistency)

To make the Sugar Glaze:
Whisk together the sugar, butter and milk till it reaches a thick, but slightly pourable consistency.
___________________________________________
I wonder how many times I have to mess up this yeast matter to get it inside my little brain! Blegh.. I failed to proof my active dry yeast once again!!


^I stored this batch in the fridge hoping to bake them the next day. BUT! The dough shrank and wrinkled up crazyyyyy the next morning. It was a heartbreaking sight.

Luckily, the rolls that I managed to bake right away when they were still "fluffy" were not really an utter fail. Good thing a packet of active dry yeast is not quite a full tablespoon.. so I had to open my newly bought Saf Instant Yeast. I believe that teeny bit of instant yeast gave the rolls some height and saved them from becoming hard rocks.



The rolls were hard and crunchy on the outside and moderately soft inside. Edible.. and they were just bagel-like!

I was craving more of the soft moist sticky gooey sweet cinnamon buns.
RE-BAKE soon!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies

It just takes a few simple ingredients ..and some love skills to make a good cookie. According the the NYT article, one of the things that make this recipe unique is the refrigeration of the dough. From the science pov, this refrigeration dehyrates the dough and helps the dry ingredients to fully absorb the wet ingredients, which in turns give a nicer browned and richer tasting cookie. OOOooh, scientifically proven! I like. Here it goes.



New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from NYT
-makes 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks (I used chopped dark chocolate and added some walnut pieces too)
Sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light (~5mins). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined (~5-10secs). Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.


^after 24 hours& ready to be baked.

Hmph! I am disappointed with my result. Not sure if it really is the recipe fault because I have seen other people's photos of their cookies and mine looks .. a little different? My cookies turned out flat, hard and SUPER DUPERRRRR sweet. I wanted to make a smaller batch just to test the recipe out so I halved all the ingredients. It shouldn't affect the result right? The ratios are all the same still. RIGHT?!?! WHYYYY? I am sad. I waited a whole night anticipating some real good cookies to eat during class. These were almost inedible because they were wayyyyyy too sweet. I sprinkled sea salt on a few of them and my tasts buds went crazy. Don't get me wrong. I like sea salt on sweets.. sometimes.


^the sea salt one. where are the chocolate? ;o

Not too sure what I did wrong. I like to give this full recipe a try one day. Not in the near future though. I believe I have reached my maximum capacity of CCC for this year. :p

*If you want a good CCC recipe, I highly recommend NM CCC. This recipe is the best I tried so far.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Castella (Japanese Sponge Cake)

I have always been fond of light and airy cakes. So I decided to give this Castella a try after reading numerous blog posts about it.



Castella
recipe adapted from My Kitchen Snippets
5 large eggs
180 grams granulated sugar
200 grams flour (I used bread flour)
100 ml whole milk
4 tablespoons honey
6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Prepared a square 8 x 8” square baking pan. (I used a 9" spring-form round pan) Line the bottom with parchment paper and grease it well. Preheat oven to 350F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.
2. In a mixer whip eggs and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes or until batter forms a ribbon when the wire whip is lifted, the color should be light yellow.
3. Turn down the mixer to medium speed; slowly pour the flour mixture into the batter. Next add honey to milk and slightly heat till honey is well mixed in the milk. Then, add it to the batter. Last, add the oil and make sure it is incorporated into the batter thoroughly!
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes in 350F. After that, lower the temperature to 325F and bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. (The cake should be nicely browned when it's done)
5. Remove from the pan as soon as it is done. Place it on the cooling rack and let it cool completely. Wrap with plastic wrap overnight before cutting.



The result was not as fluffy as I expected. ): It was rather dense. The honey flavor is prominent and it sort of resembles the dorayaki pancakes I made before. I believe the taste is right but the texture is not quite like a real Castella. The crust was my favorite part of this cake. It's not crunchy.. it just has a nice toasty honey taste! For next time, I shall whip the eggs for a longer period of time and pay extra attention in incorporating the flour/milk/honey/oil into the batter. Note: my cake also sank during the cooling process. undercooked? mmmhm..


^remember to wrap the cake to keep it from drying up. you may also store it in the fridge and serve cold!(:

Friday, July 9, 2010

Revisited: Chocolate Chiffon Cake



A long overdue post. This cake was made for a July4th potluck. Same recipe as last time but this time I used strawberries instead of mangoes. I also added a bit more cream because the cake tends to be dry in texture. This cake is perfect for doing layers. It's fluffy yet firm enough to be cut into thin layers (probably 4 layers for this recipe if you are careful enough!)



(chocolate chiffon cake recipe can be found here)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

A Three Course Meal.

Sometimes I wonder where I got my food-loving genes from.. because no one in the family seems to be as crazy as me when it comes to food.. especially sweets. I can always find room in my stomach for sweets even after a big meal. Can I call that a talent? Haha. Anyways, today I cooked dinner for the family. A three course meal consisting of a starter, an entrée and dessert!

First on the menu: Potato Latkes



Potato Latkes
recipe from White on Rice Couple
-makes about 12 4″ pancakes

4 medium Potatoes, peeled
1/2 lrg Sweet Onion, diced into 1/4″ pieces
3 cloves Garlic, crushed or finely minced
1/3 c Flour
3/4 T Sea Salt
fresh cracked Black Pepper, to taste
2 lrg Eggs, beaten
1/4 c + Oil, preferably peanut oil, grape seed oil, or other high flash point oil

1. Line a bowl with several paper towels, then grate potatoes into bowl. Using more paper towels, squeeze out as much water from the potatoes as you can. After potatoes are as dry as you can get them, discard paper towels.
2. Add the onion, garlic, flour, salt, pepper, and eggs then stir to combine.
3. Heat a saute pan over medium to med.-high heat, add oil, then when oil is hot place large spoonfuls of potato mix into the pan. Flatten each pancake to approx. 1/2″ thick. Cook to a golden brown on one side (approx. 2-3 min.) then brown the other side. Remove and pat dry with paper towels. May be kept warm covered in a 300° oven.
4. As you cook each batch, stir the potato mix before spooning into pan and add more oil to pan if needed. Serve warm.

These pancakes were real good. They were flavorful and CHEWY! I thought I screwed up on this fairly easy batter when the batter turned out sort of liquid-y.. Next time, I will dry the potatoes more thoroughly and maybe substitute the potato with turnip (an Asian twist?). Hehe.

Following the pancakes, we have the main course- a no-name pasta dish.



I am not sure what it really is. It's a fusion of alfredo and tomato sauce. What?! Do they even go together? Yup! Surprisingly, they sort of compliments each other. Haha.. I should have been more generous on the sauce. No recipe for now. I just whipped up everything spontaneously :p



Last but not least, my love- DESSERT!



Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake
recipe adapted from Heart Bakes
-makes one 8" round pan

(A)
100g Cream Cheese
25g Butter
120g Milk

(B)
40g Flour
30g Corn flour

(C)
4 Yolks

(D)
4 Whites
1/8 tsp Cream of tartar
70g Sugar
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven 325F.
2. Grease and line bottom of 8" round pan. Wrap foil on the outside.
3. Place (A) in mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until thick. Remove from double-boiler.
4. Add (B) and mix until well combined. Add (C) and mix until well blended.
5. Whip the egg whites in (D) ingredients. Continue whipping until soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step (4). Mix until well incorporated.
6. Pour the cheese filling onto the prepared pans. Bake in water bath for about 40-45 minutes or until firm and golden brown.
7. Remove cake from oven. (Leave oven door ajar from a couple minutes before removing cake from oven prevents the cake from collapsing!)
8. Set aside to cool.

The original recipe of this cake calls for 160g cream cheese. I reduced it to 100g and got a cake that has a more prominent egg taste, which everyone in the family liked better. I myself also prefer this soft and somewhat cheesecake and sponge like cake. (:

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Chocolate Lava Cake



Chocolate Lava Cake
-recipe from Noob Cook
makes three 6-oz ramekin cakes

100g dark chocolate, break into small cubes
100g unsalted butter, cut to small cubes
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
20g self-raising flour

1. Melt dark chocolate and butter using either the microwave, a hot water bath or a double boiler.
2. In a large bowl, use an electric whisk to beat the eggs and sugar till the mixture turns pale and frothy (~2-3 minutes).
3. Pour melted chocolate/butter you prepared in step 1, into the egg mixture prepared in step 2 (make sure the melted chocolate/butter mixture is not too hot or it will cook the eggs). Stir in the flour. Use a spatula to mix everything evenly.
4. Grease your ramekins with some melted butter (I also coated them with cocoa powder). Fill the ramekin almost 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture and bake in a preheated oven of 356F for about 10 minutes or until the cake has a high rounded dome and a single crack that may ooze a bit of chocolate. (Adjust if you are using different size ramekins; my 4-oz ramekin took ~5 minutes).
5. Remove ramekin from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Use a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto serving plate.



*If you are using different size ramekins like me, be sure to bake for less time when you are using the smaller ramekins or you will over bake and just get a moist chocolate cake. Still mucho delicious but it defeats the idea of a lava cake! Usually I just keep an eye on them and take them out when they raised to a high dome shape.



I was overwhelmed by the creamy chocolate when I had my first bite of the chocolate lava cake (first time trying one). It was super creamy and.. it makes me feel like a fatty after just one bite. But still, I couldn't control myself and licked every last drop of the chocolate "lava" on my plate. (If you ever have a strong craving for intensely rich chocolate and some room for a few lbs, this is no doubt the recipe to try out!) I personally prefer my chocolate lava cake to be 30% liquid and 70% cake. Experimenting with the baking time for just 2 cakes got me my perfect balance of oozy chocolate and chocolate cake(: These extremely rich chocolicious cake are best topped with some powdered sugar and served with a scoopful of vanilla ice cream or a swirl of whipped cream!

3.5 stars out of 5. It gives me a guilt trip with each bite I took ):

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sweet bun again. Tuna Bun!



Same sweet bun recipe but this time I substituted 20g of all-purpose with custard powder. The dough was super sticky during kneading (completely different from previous times). However, after letting the dough double its size during the first proofing, it became less sticky and easier to handle with.


^fluffy!

Substituting with custard powder made the buns softer and more airy in texture. Not sure if it's just due to the slightly longer proofing time or the custard powder itself. I will try substituting all-purpose with bread flour next time! (Note: the buns turned out bigger this time. longer proofing time?)


^before& after

Lately, I am having so much fun coming up with different combination of filling and topping. This time, I filled the buns with some canned tuna, mashed hard broiled eggs, mayonnaise and black pepper. Brushed with an egg white glaze and topped it with some Mexican Topping piped lines. In addition, I also experimented with making some twisty looking hot-dog buns when I ran out of the tuna fillings. :p



Tuna Filling
*approximate numbers
1 can of tuna (~170g)
5 tbsp of mayonnaise
plenty of black pepper
2 hard boiled eggs, mashed

Mix everything together in small bowl. And fill in buns.



Mwhaha! Call me the Bread Master.