Sunday 23 September 2012
matcha & white chocolate cheesecake cups
Green tea-flavoured KitKats are one of my favourite snack foods (Kinder Bueno being my all-time favourite) even though I'm not really fond of green tea itself. I like my matcha in small doses as excessive bitterness is not exactly my cup of tea. (Hohoho!) Cheesecakes, too, I prefer in small doses. More often than not, they tend to be cloyingly sweet and rich, and I find myself giving up after the first 2 bites. Fortunately, this cheesecake manages to find the perfect balance of bitter and sweet.
I opted to divide the cheesecake into cups rather than bake it as a whole cake to facilitate portioning. I was pleased to discover that doing so enabled the cake to be baked more evenly (and quicker!) No more problems with centres that take forever to set!
Matcha & White Chocolate Cheesecake - makes 10 cups
(adapted from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings)
Ingredients
80g digestive biscuit crumbs
30g unsalted butter, melted
250g cream cheese, room temperature
80g + 1.5tsp caster sugar
50ml + 20ml whipping cream
1/2 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp cake flour
4 tsps matcha powder
100g white chocolate couverture
Directions
- Mix together biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press onto base of soufflé cups
- Preheat oven to 150 deg Celsius
- Whisk together cream cheese and 80g sugar until creamy
- Add in 50ml whipping cream, followed by egg and cake flour
- Measure out 25g of batter and set aside
- Add matcha powder and 1.5tsp of sugar into remaining batter and mix well
- Pour mixture onto biscuit base
- Heat 20ml whipping cream and pour over white chocolate
- Mix chocolate mixture into 25g of cheesecake batter previously set aside
- Add a dollop of chocolate-cheesecake mixture into each of the cups and swirl it with a toothpick
- Bake for 30min until cakes are firm but the centres are slightly wobbly
- Switch off oven and leave cupcakes to cool completely in oven
- Refrigerate overnight (or at least 2-3h) before serving
Tuesday 11 September 2012
salted caramel mousse tart
There are certain combinations in life that are an absolute match made in heaven. In my opinion, none more so than salty-sweet combos. Peanut butter & chocolate, ice cream with fries (you either hate it or love it and I looove it!) and of course, the ever popular salted caramel or sea salt caramel. I have a lukewarm reaction towards caramel but add a dash of sea salt to it and I could probably finish an entire jarful of the stuff--which is not too smart, given my profession.
After reading up a little on pastry, I felt inspired to make some kind of tart and was trying to decide between banoffee or salted caramel for the filling. Opted for a salted caramel mousse in the end.
I had attempted to make my own crust with this same recipe previously and it turned out quite all right but for some reason, the second attempt turned out to be an utter disaster! I had such a difficult time transferring the rolled-out dough to the tart pan! It drove me nuts and I ended up injuring my hand. Thankfully, my trusty elf was around to calm me down and suggest I try again in the morning after a good night's rest.
So the next morning, I got up bright and early and tried again. You know how they always say you need a cool environment and really cold butter to make good pastry? Well I've learnt that it definitely helps to have a cool head as well, cuz tadah!
Lovingly and calmly made, with an injured dominant hand, I might add. Yes, never underestimate the power of a good night's rest (and an air-conditioned room.)
This being my first time using gelatin and making a mousse, I miscalculated the amount of gelatin required and the mousse turned out a little too runny. Perhaps it was a subconscious thing since I find the idea of using beef collagen in my dessert rather disturbing. I've amended the measurement in the recipe below.
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
(recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver)
Ingredients
250g plain flour
25g icing sugar
125g salted butter, cold and grated
Zest of half a large lemon
1 egg, beaten
Splash of milk
Directions
- Mix flour, sugar and grated butter to produce crumbs
- Mix in lemon zest
- Add eggs and milk into mixture and gently work it together until you have a ball of dough. (Don't overwork the dough. Use cold hands.)
- Cover with clingwrap film and put in fridge to rest for at least 1h
- Take dough out and roll onto baking paper until ~3-5mm thick and large enough to cover 8-inch tart pan (I use the kind with a removable base)
- Transfer to tart pan (you can either wrap dough around your rolling pin and roll out over the pan, or just flip the baking paper with dough rolled out on it over the pan and peel the dough off, which is what I did) and gently adapt the dough to the pan as in the picture above. Remove any excess
- Poke holes in crust with a fork
- Cover with clingwrap and place in freezer for about 1h.
- Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius
- Remove crust from freezer and bake blind (place aluminium foil over crust and fill with pastry weights or pulses) for 12min or until golden brown
- Remove from oven and leave to cool
Salted Caramel Mousse
Ingredients
125g caster sugar
12.5ml water
75ml + 1 cup thickened cream
75mg salted butter
Sea salt flakes
2 tbsps water
1.5 tbsps powdered gelatin
Directions
- Pour 2 tbsps of water into a ramekin, sprinkle with powdered gelatin and set aside
- Put sugar and 12.5ml water into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves
- Raise the heat and, without stirring, wait until sugar caramelises and turns amber or golden brown (watch sugar closely, as soon as it turns yellow prepare to remove from heat as it tends to burn quickly)
- Remove from heat and pour in 75 ml thickened cream and whisk well (be careful! the cream will sizzle and spit when it comes in contact with the hot caramel)
- Mix in butter
- Add sea salt as desired
- Put ramekin with gelatin in a small saucepan of simmering water and stir until gelatin completely dissolves and mixture is clear
- Pour gelatin into hot caramel and leave to cool to room temperature
- In a mixing bowl, whip 1 cup of thickened cream until soft but stiff peaks form
- Gently fold cooled caramel-gelatin mixture into whipped cream
- Pour mixture into baked crust and leave to set in fridge for 24h (or at least 8h)
*To decorate:
Pour a thin layer of ganache (1/3 of the amount listed here) over set mousse, tilting the tart such that ganache flows to cover entire surface
Top with fresh raspberries
Refrigerate for 1h before serving
Tuesday 4 September 2012
japanese milk bread sausage rolls
I never really knew what those soft bread buns sold in local bread shops were called. You know, the soft, fluffy, slightly sweet bread that can be found wrapped around a hotdog or topped with pork floss? I am an ardent fan of that particular kind of bread and was yearning to learn how to make it but it's quite difficult to find the recipe for something when you don't know what it's called. Thanks to the most amazing search engine that is Google, not only did I come to know of its name, I was also directed to a website that taught me how to successfully make it! (And to think all I did was type in "soft fluffy bread." Google is GREAT!)
Apparently it's referred to as a Hokkaido milk loaf or japanese milk bread and the secret to achieving such fluffiness is credited to a (not-so-)secret ingredient called tangzhong or water roux starter. Tangzhong is made by heating a mixture of flour and water to 65 deg Celsius to form a paste. It is said that this will cause the gluten in the mixture to "absorb the moisture and become leavened." The explanation seems rather sketchy to me. I shall endeavour to do more research on this.
(Apologies, the prettier rolls got eaten up before I could photograph them)
The recipes below are adapted from Yvonne Chen's book 65°C湯種麵包 as mentioned on Christine's Recipes
Tangzhong
Ingredients
50g bread flour
250ml water
Directions
- In a saucepan, stir the flour and water together with a wooden spoon or whisk until no longer lumpy
- Cook mixture over medium-low heat, stirring continuously until it starts to thicken and streaks appear when stirring.
- Remove from heat and place clingwrap film over mixture such that the film is adherent to the surface
- Leave to cool to room temperature
Japanese Milk Bread (as in Sausage Rolls)
Ingredients
540g bread flour
86g caster sugar
8g salt
9g full cream milk powder
11g instant dry yeast
2 eggs (or 86g of egg), whisked
59g whipping cream
54g milk
184g tangzhong
49g unsalted butter, melted
1 more whisked egg for surface coating
~12 chicken franks or your preferred sausages
Directions
- Add flour, sugar, salt, milk powder and yeast into a mixing bowl
- Add in eggs, whipping cream, milk and tangzhong
- Using a dough hook attachment, mix until ingredients are just combined
- Pour in melted butter
- Continue to knead for ~30min until dough is elastic and smooth and no longer sticky
- Leave to rise under a damp towel until doubled in size (in my hot, humid country, this takes about 20min)
- Transfer dough to a clean floured surface and punch down
- Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius
- Divide dough into portions weighing about 60g
- Roll out each portion into a thin tube (make the ends thinner than the body) and wrap around sausage
- Place on greased baking pan (ends of dough tube on the bottom), cover with clingwrap and leave to rise for another 20min
- Brush tops with eggwash and bake for 30min or until golden brown
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