Apple Tart

August 1, 2015

Because I wanted to teach someone how to make the shortcrust pastry, I decided to make a quick apple tart. Since I had made this numerous times already, it was quite easy.

This was a dessert after the pizzas we had for lunch. To be honest, I was in quite a rush when tasting it, so I couldn't have said if it was as good as all previous times or not.

Homemade Pizza

August 1, 2015

This was my last day in China. My cousin's and my flights were scheduled for late in the evening, so I had time to try a couple more recipes. I had been getting a bit discouraged by the heat's effects on some of my recipes (I will not even blog about the completely failed puff pastry I attempted), but I thought I might as well give it a bit more of a try.

So I decided to try making this pizza recipe that a family friend had sent me a while ago. It's not one where the dough can be spread very thinly, but it was good! The only thing is that I would finish the cooking in a pan to crisp the bottom of the crust some more. This was topped with tomato sauce, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, and grated mozzarella cheese.

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PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 250 g flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp yeast
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 200 mL cold water
• 1/2 tsp sugar

  Procedure

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, salt, and yeast.
2. Add olive oil, water, and sugar, and mix with a fork.
3. If necessary, add flour or water depending on texture.
4. Knead dough for at least 5 mins.
5. Make a ball and put in an oiled bowl. Brush the top with some more oil.
6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
7. Take the dough out at least 2 hours before use. Knead a few seconds
8. Make a ball again, put on an oiled and floured baking sheet, and spread by hand.
9. Top with topping of choice.
10. Bake 20 mins in an oven preheated at 220°C.
11. Crisp the bottom in a pan heated on the stove.

Spiced Cookies

July 27, 2015

While in China, I traveled a lot to Hong Kong. My cousin and I also met up with a classmate from high school. During our last week there, we decided to meet up once more before our return to Europe. I thought I'd make some cookies to give to that friend.

I had wanted to make Spéculoos, but I was missing some ingredients (namely cassonade, or dark brown sugar). I tried to substitute some yellow sugar that was grated from a block, but the result wasn't exactly the same.

Instead of just putting the dash of cinnamon I usually use, I decided to go all out. I know the original Spéculoos uses at least 4-5 spices, namely cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and anis. I never have all these on hand, but I thought I'd give a few more spices a try. In this batch, I put some nutmeg and powdered ginger on top of the usual cinnamon.

The cassonade gives off a very fragrant flavor, as well as the usual dark brown color of the cookies. As I did not have this on hand, I ended up with a different type of cookies, which was rich in nutmeg flavor. It was also my first time grating a nutmeg to use, and it was stronger than I expected.

Recipe for Spéculoos can be found here~

Lemon and Nectarine Cheesecakes

 July 20, 2015

This was an unplanned cheesecake, to be honest. I went to the supermarket with my uncle, with the idea of getting ingredients for tiramisu. The cheese/dairy section of the first place we went to had been cleaned out, however, and the 2nd one did not have any ricotta or mascarpone. I had to settle for something else.

When I found a few boxes of cream cheese, I figured I could make cheesecake. My uncle had mentioned liking denser, rich cheesecakes, which is close to the ones I have been making (although I've been trying to make them less dense, these cheesecakes will never be the fluffy or spongy types that use eggs). I then ran to the yogurt aisle in hopes of finding Greek yogurt to use instead of sour cream. No luck. I went for plain yogurt, and figured I'd deal with it as it comes.

The first thing I did when getting home was to put the yogurt to drain in a strainer, in the fridge, for the whole night. I was teaching someone how to make the cheesecake, and he was surprised at the amount of water the yogurt released. This, by the way, is how to make a Greek yogurt-like substance to use. Then I made the cheesecake as usual, flavoring it this time with lemon zest and lemon juice. I did not have any egg replacer, so I tried making my own out of a mix of starches and baking powder (recipe here). I ended up with way more batter than I'd bargained for.

Therefore, I made 2 cheesecakes, with the same filling and topping, but with different crusts. The first, in a smaller mold, had a homemade shortcrust pastry crust that went up the sides, whereas the second just had a crushed cookies and butter crust at the bottom.

I topped it with watered-down nectarine jam, to which I had added more lemon juice. While I was dealing with the jam, I took some green nectarines, and let them macerate with a sprinkling of sugar, to soften them a little. Then I arranged them on the top. The slice of lemon in the middle was a reminder to the filling's flavor.

Nectarine Jam

July 6th, 2015

Yup, I'm still catching up on backlog (which keeps building but I am really getting overwhelmed with school work here).

My uncle had bought a looooot of nectarines. There was no way we were going to eat them all, especially with the heat over there in China. They wouldn't even fit into the fridge. So I suggested we make jam out of at least part of it, so as to make it easier to preserve.

This was quite easy. The recipes I've looked at usually used half the fruit's volume of sugar, and add in a lemon's juice. That turned out really sweet, so I suggest either cutting down the sugar (but sugar helps in the preservation of your jam), or just add more lemon juice. When cutting the nectarines, keep the skin on: the natural pectin in the fruit skin will help thicken the jam without needing additional pectin.

Enjoy on bread or in desserts!

Durian Tiramisu

June 24, 2015

One day, my uncle bought a lot of durian pieces. My cousin being in another city, there was no way the two of us would finish them as is. Personally, I don't find durian particularly bad, just that they are pretty rich and creamy, and I can't eat too much in one go.

Then my uncle asked me if I could make a tiramisu out of it. Having never heard of the concept, I looked it up and found a few recipes. Some replaced the usual mascarpone (or ricotta in my version) with the durian. Others just added it in. Since my uncle had already bought a tub of mascarpone, I added the mashed durian flesh in for flavor and extra creaminess.

 

Being in China, I was way out of my natural environment, and a lot of ingredients I usually find usually were unavailable. Therefore, for the base, I made a vegan pound cake that I flavored with lemon in an effort to cut through the richness of the durian and mascarpone. I made the cake in a square cake pan, then cut it so that the cake retained its shape but each piece was half as thick. The first half was set back in the pan and moistened with Darjeeling tea before being covered in a layer of durian cream. I then repeated the layering with the 2nd half of cake.

Even in the tiramisu, the durian was pretty strong, but that might have been because I put a lot to try and finish it.

Since I didn't feel like that powdered chocolate would work well on top of lemon and durian, I hunted for another option. My aunt had given me some powdered hibiscus extract to give to my uncle, and after a quick taste test, it seemed to work fine as it also had a hint of tartness.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1 pound cake (flavored as desired) -- see one of the previous recipes
• 200 mL whipping cream
• 200 g durian flesh
• 150 g mascarpone
• tea of choice

  Procedure

1. Bake (or buy) and slice a pound cake.
2. Whip the whipping cream into mid-stiff peaks. No need to add sugar.
3. Mash the durian flesh until creamy. Mix with the mascarpone.
4. Fold into the whipped cream.
5. Layer a pan, small ramekins, or other container with a layer of sliced pound cake. Soak in some tea.
6. Add a layer of durian cream.
7. Repeat until all the cake and/or cream is used up, finishing with a cream layer.
8. Dust some powdered hibiscus extract or other decorative goods.
9. Refrigerate min. 4 hours, but preferably overnight.

Small Apple Tarts

 

Whew, I got a lot of backlog to catch up on on this blog! For the past two months, I was on a trip to China. The internet there is fairly restricted, and all Google-related sites -- Blogger included -- were out of my reach. Therefore, everything I baked had to stay on my camera or laptop for later blogging.

June 6th, 2015

A couple of days after my arrival in China, my aunt who lives there told me to eat the four apples that were in the fruit basket. Not really wanting to eat them plain, and itching to attempt my very first baking in such a hot climate, I settled with small apple tarts.

I could not easily find the material I needed, so I settled with making a shortcrust dough and cutting it into circles with the edge of a rice bowl. Then I was going to just lay the apple slices on top in a spirally pattern, until I realized that the last apple was more than half bad already. I had to improvise.

Therefore I laid the whole slices with the wider curve facing out, then shredded the remaining apple into small strands, which I dumped somewhat randomly in the middle.

General apple tart tutorial can be found at this link!

Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

I have been meaning to make cookies to give to the people in the department at the hospital in which I had worked for a month, a few years back. One of them recently found an internship for me, so I wanted it to double as thanks for him, too.

Instead of doing plain butter and sugar cookies, I decided it was time to try another recipe from my shortbread cookies and crackers recipe book. I had received this book for Christmas last year, from a cousin.

I had some dried cranberries laying around (my aunt usually brings a huge bag from the US every time she comes here, as she knows many people here like them). Thus, I ended up with cranberry shortbread cookies.

These were quite easy to make, although the 1-hour waiting time was kind of bothersome, as it was 1 am by the time I could stick them in the oven. I think the most bothersome part of this recipe is that, when cutting out shapes, my cookie cutter sometimes cut through a cranberry. If I was not careful, the cranberry would rip the cookie, thus ruining the shape.

I had planned to take progress pictures, but as soon as my hands got involved in mixing the flour into the butter mix, it was impossible to handle my camera. Maybe next time! I packaged these in little transparent plastic bags to give out.

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CRANBERRY SHORBREAD RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 50 g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
• 40 g icing sugar
• 150 g unsalted, softened butter
• 200 g flour
• 1/3 tsp salt

  Procedure

1. Whisk together butter and sugar until creamy.
2. Add in flour, salt, and cranberries, and mix by hand until the dough is homogeneous and supple.
3. On a floured working surface, roll out the dough to obtain a thickness of about 5 mm. Cut out shapes, and put them on a baking sheet covered with a piece of baking paper, or a silicone mat.
4. Refrigerate for one hour
5. Preheat oven 180°C.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool.

Tarte Tatin

Do you know the story of the Tarte Tatin? From what I hear, it is about how two sisters named Tatin once baked an apple tart while forgetting to put the dough under the apples. Thus, they decided to put the dough on top of the apples, then flip the whole thing after the baking was done. This resulted in very caramelized apples that were cooked uniformedly.

The apples in this recipe were first poached in a vanilla and butter syrup, then arranged on top of a caramel layer. The whole thing was covered in an homemade, inverted puff pastry, then baked.

This was how the tart looked before I flipped it over (with a shower of liquid syrup and caramel):

The recipe was adapted from La Pistacheraie's recipe (with many pictures).

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TARTE TATIN RECIPE

  Ingredients

     Inverted Puff Pastry

• 200 g (150 + 50) all-purpose flour
• 135 g pastry flour
• 220 g unsalted butter
• 6 g salt
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 165 g cold water

     Caramel

• 200 g sugar

     Poached Apples

• 1 L water
• 150 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g butter
• 6-8 apples

  Procedure

     Inverted Puff Pastry

1. In a large bowl, mix 150 g all-purpose flour with the pastry flour, salt, cold water, and vinegar.
2. Mix until just combined. Flatten into a rectangle, film, and refrigerate until used.
3. In another bowl, combined softened butter with remaining 50 g all-purpose flour.
4. Using a baking sheet, fold so that a square section forms in the middle.
5. Put butter mix in the square, fold in flaps, then using a rolling pin, flatten into a square.
6. Refrigerate at least 15 mins.
7. Take out both doughs, and remove the paper and film.
8. On a well floured surface, roll out the butter square until it becomes a large rectangle.
9. Put the flour mix on the middle portion of the rectangle, and fold in the two remaining flaps in order to close the flour dough into the butter one.
10. Turn the dough 90°, and flatten it by pressing a rolling pin into it successively. Roll out until about 60 cm long. Fold into 3rds and turn 90°. This is a simple turn.
11. Repeat steps 10, then refrigerate 45 minutes.
12. Repeat as to obtain 5 turns total, refrigerating after every 2 turns.
13. Cut the dough in 2 equal pieces, film one and store it in the fridge.
14. With the second half, roll it out until you can cut a circle that is 1-2 cm wider than your springform pan. Poke it with a fork.
15. Refrigerate.

     Caramel

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, spread a thin layer of sugar (about 1/4 of the total amount).
2. Heat gently until melted, and beginning to color.
3. Add another 1/4 of sugar, shaking the pot to spread it.
4. Repeat until all the sugar has caramelized.
5. Pour it into the bottom of your springform pan. It will harden and become glass-like.

     Poached Apples

1. In a pot, mix water, sugar, vanilla, and butter. Bring to a boil.
2. Peel and cut apples into quarters. Put them in lemon water to keep them from browning.
3. Put about half the apples in the syrup, and cook about 6-8 minutes, or until tender, but still holding shape.
4. Repeat with the remaining apples.

     Assembly and baking

1. Preheat oven 220°C.
2. Arrange apples tightly in concentric circles on top of hardened caramel.
3. Put the circle of dough on top of the springform pan. Gently push it down until it is in contact with the apples.
4. With a skewer or a thin knife, poke a hole (chimney) in the middle of the dough.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C, sprinkle the dough with sugar, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Put another pan under the tart, as caramel syrup will leak out of the springform pan while baking as the caramel becomes liquid again.
6. After cooling a little (the tart should still be warm), flip onto a plate. A lot of syrup will flow out!
7. Tilt the plate to remove excess caramel syrup. Glaze with some watered-down apple jelly.

Nutty Brownies

I was going to visit some family friends. When I go, I usually bring some baked goods. At a loss as to which recipe to use, my mom suggested that I bake brownies again, as those friends love chocolate. I wanted to be able to cut through the sweetness a bit more, though.

Instead of using water, I put in a couple of tablespoons of decaffeinated coffee (because I did not want to keep them awake at night from eating brownies), and topped them with nuts. I made a small bunch of cupcake-sized ones to give away, and made another batch into a large, round brownie to share with my family.

Although I had added some coffee flavor in, I had also reduced the amount of sugar, because the last time, I had deemed it a bit too sweet. My nut preference would have been walnuts, but since I did not have any on hand, almonds and cashews had to suffice. This time, I did refrigerate the cake, which gave it a more fudgy texture than when not refrigerated.

The recipe can be found HERE.