Monday, November 4, 2013

Nutella Pudding Tart

With the saved crust dough from fig frangipane tart, I made NUTELLA pudding tart!


Nutella Pudding Tart
Filling
recipe adapted from For the feast
halved to make a 9'' tart

1 tbsp corn starch
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup nutella *used <1 cup="" for="" mine="" p="">1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp instant coffee

1. Whisk starch with some of the heavy cream.
2. In a saucepan over low heat add rest of heavy cream, nutella, vanilla and salt.
3. Whisk in the starch cream mixture from step 1.
4. Bring it to a boil while whisking (turns thick pudding/custard like).
5. Let cool for 10 minutes.
6. Pour into pre- baked crust and bake at 300F for 25 minutes.
7. Take out of oven and let rest for 20 minutes.
(I put mine in the fridge overnight and served chilled the next day!)

Crust
Move the dough from the freezer to refrigerator the night before baking and leave at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before rolling. The crust after freezing was less oily than the fresh made ones. It was still very buttery and flaky and yummy!

before


My mom commented on the tart saying it tastes like a chocolate egg tart! I am surprised the filling solidified pretty well from starting with just cream. It was perfectly sweetened with the nutella itself and no extra sugar needed at all. I would definitely make this again! Very simple ingredients and steps.

after

Next time- the tart could probably use some nuts and powdered sugar to make it look prettier.

Taste: 5 stars out of 5
nutella goodness and buttery tart
Texture: 5 stars out of 5
custardy filling and  flaky crust(:



Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Got extra whipped cream? 
Solution: bake a cake
layer it with cream
.. and NUTELLA
Why not?
(:





Trying a new chocolate chiffon cake recipe this time. Need to get back to a rhythm(?) before I start tweaking and playing around with recipes. After baking a good number of chiffon cakes, I feel like the recipes are more or less the same. Mixing the yolk and flour, folding in the whites. Is there like a template for a basic chiffon cake? Then for different flavor chiffons, just switch out cocoa powder for matcha powder or espresso powder. That'd be very convenient. Probably not that simple I am guessing. Maybe need to take into account of moisture, density.. and the unknown. Definitely one of my biggest baking goals to figure this out because I really love these light and fluffy cakes<3 p="">

For now, I will get more recipes in my archive and then test and experiment.. etc etc. My ideal recipe is one with the least amount and least variety of ingredients. If I can make the same size cake with 3 eggs.. why use 7. This recipe calls for 4 eggs total only which is acceptable. However, what almost turned me away from using it was the left over yolk! Now I need to find a recipe to make good use of that one extra yolk. Motivation to bake more?


Chocolate Chiffon Cake 
recipe adapted from Cakelets and Doilies
makes one 17cm tube cake

65 g cake flour
20 g cocoa powder
*substitited 5 g cocoa powder with instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

3 yolks
35 g sugar
50 ml vegetable oil
90 ml milk, room temperature

4 whites
40 g sugar
5 g corn flour

1. Sift together cake flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Whisk yolks and 35 g sugar until pale and creamy.
3. Drizzle oil in yolk and whisk to incorporate. Repeat with milk.
4. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
5. Combine 40 g sugar and corn flour.
6. Whisk whites until foamy. Add half of sugar/ corn flour mixture and beat.
7. Add remaining sugar/ corn flour mixture and beat until glossy and stiff peaks form.
8. Add one third of white into yolk/ flour mixture and fold lightly with spatula.
9. Add remaining and fold to incorporate completely.
10. Pour into pan and lightly tap on bench to get rid of large bubbles.
*I also like to run a skewer through the batter a couple rounds to even out the batter!
11. Bake at 170C/ 338F for 40- 50 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and invert the pan. Let cool before unmolding.




Cake smelled ahhh-ma-zing when I popped open that oven door at the 40 minute mark. I think I need to make chiffon cupcakes next time. Then maybe I can skip that cooling part and just inhale them fresh from the oven. Hehe!










Cake was actually pretty firm/dense. Great for >1 layers. My one layer didn't held up well. It was hard to eat without the two layers falling apart. Ratio of cream to cake should be higher.



Taste: 4 stars out of 5
-chocolately and not too sweet
Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5
-a bit dry, need more cream