Friday 28 December 2012
swiss meringue buttercream
Been so busy baking for our charity project I haven't had time to update this space! I actually have loads of recipes lined up, waiting to be tested, but until I find the time to carry out my ambitious plans, we'll just have to make do with this basic Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) recipe.
2 factors I like about SMBC are its stability and its versatility. I've tried the standard buttercream before but it was just too unstable in our sweltering heat. SMBC tends to hold up a bit better, which is a blessing when you've got a staggering number of cupcakes to frost and deliver. Plus, it's so easy to flavour! You can add in chocolate, fruit purees or salted caramel like I did--the possibilities are endless, really.
The thing to take note while making SMBC is that during the mixing stage, the mixture goes through different phases. It starts out looking watery and 'soupy', then it turns into a curdled-looking mess (that got me panicky the first time I made it), and eventually it morphs into a thick, luscious, smooth buttercream. Despite having made the stuff many times in the past month, witnessing this transition never fails to amaze me.
Other important things I've learnt:
1. ALWAYS use fresh eggs. In addition to giving you peace of mind (and GI tract), fresh eggs are easier to separate.
2. When making the meringue, some recipes indicate heating the egg white-sugar mixture to a temperature of 140-150˚F. While I've tried 140˚F before and escaped unscathed, the recommended minimum cooking temperature for eggs is actually 160˚F (or ~71˚C) so you might want to go with that instead.
Ingredients
4 egg whites
120g caster sugar
168g unsalted butter, softened
Directions
- Pour egg whites and sugar into a clean, heatproof bowl
- Heat egg white + sugar over a saucepan of simmering water, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 71˚C. I use a digital probe thermometer to check.
- Transfer to mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment
- Whisk until stiff peaks form and meringue cools to room temperature
- Switch to paddle attachment and add in the butter
- Mix until thick, smooth buttercream is formed
- Add flavouring as desired (for chocolate buttercream, I add about 100g melted good quality dark chocolate)
- Frost cupcakes/cakes!
Monday 10 December 2012
berry tart
When I visited the UK a few months back, I was delighted to find strawberries and blueberries going for about £1 a punnet. It was my first purchase upon touching down on English soil and they tasted absolutely amazing after starving for 14h on the plane. Sadly, the berries we get here in Singapore are not only hideously expensive but are often horribly sour/tasteless. I try to avoid buying them unless they're on sale at the supermarket.
I was planning to make a mixed berry tart with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries but the eye-popping price tags on the berries made me decide on a 2-berry tart instead. Might have gone with a plain blueberry (my favourite berry!) tart if weren't for the irresistible lure of the strawberries' vibrant hue. Just seeing all the bright colours in this post makes me so happy.
The blueberries were surprisingly sweet and the strawberries weren't too bad either. Sadly, I think I'd overworked my pastry this time round so it was a bit tough intially. But a night in the fridge helped it to soak up a bit of moisture from the crème pâtissière and it was just right when we ate it the next day. As you can see from the photos, I went a bit overboard with the crème pâtissière on the larger tart but it was soooo good I couldn't resist flooding the tart with it. Can you tell it's my favourite thing at the moment?
I got the recipe for the pâte sucrée from Michel Roux's Pastry: Savoury of Sweet. I strongly encourage you to get the book if you haven't already done so. It's well worth the money! (Not that you have to fork out all that much for it anyway.)
For the filling I used a mixture of whipped cream and crème pâtissière. I did some guesstimation when it came to proportions so I can't give you the exact measurements but it's approximately a 1:1 ratio in weight.
Sorry for the sketchy recipe this time round! That's the problem with leaving it too late to blog a recipe (and failing to record it down in the first place)--you forget everything! I'll be sure to update this post the next time the berries go on sale at the supermarket.
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