Chopped-Chocolate Coffee Cookies

Finally! My own recipe, after adapted from here and there, experienced a lot of errors, and goodness too, I present my own chocolate chip cookies recipe. Tadaaaa.....

Butterism Chopped Chocolate Cookies

make about 25 2" cookies

110 gr butter, room temperature

55 gr caster sugar

55 gr brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp coffee essence (if you want a lighter version, you can change it to vanilla essence)

200 gr all purpose flour

150 gr chopped dark chocolate (not chocolate chip, trust me it's so much better if you go with the chopped chocolate)

nb: I change my recipe's name halfway writing this post, as I realized it doesn't involve chocolate chip at all.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ^oC

2. Beat butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl, whisk until fully incorporated and the mixture's color turn into lighter brown.

3. Crack in the egg and add the essence, keep whisking until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny with no sugar lumps.

4. Stir in the flour, whisking just until half-combined. Stop the whisking and using spatula continue the mixing. Stir together gently, don't overmix the dough.

5. Add the main ingredient, stir in the chopped dark chocolate, and giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

6. Using tablespoon or cookie scoop, drop balls of cookie dough on an ungreased cookie sheets. Don't flatten the dough.

7. Bake it for 5 minutes, and then take the cookies out (don't forget to close your oven lid!) flatten the cookies with fork, and get them back where they should belong. Bake for 15-17 minutes more, until the cookies are golden brown and start to smell like heaven.

I think everybody has their own characteristic of chocolate chip cookies. Me, I like it crisp and thick, rich and chocolaty, and I found it already :) How do you like yours?

Raisin Roll

I've been wanting to bake cinnamon roll since like...I don't know when. But the problem is nobody like cinnamon in the house, nobody except me, myself. And then I saw one of my friend post her cinnamon roll on facebook, and I can hear myself saying "It's time, baby!"

As always, I will do some research before actually bake them. Just read and keep reading. Then I decided I'm gonna try her recipe. Her step by step photographs really taught me well, I know how the dough will look like, the instructions is very detail, and she convinced me to bravely pour a whole lot of melted butter. I quote her, "This is not non-caloric".

And because no one like cinnamon, I change it to raisin and brown sugar for the filling.

What makes me happy is, just when I'm done baking them, everyone's home from work and the smell of freshly baked bread is just the most comforting smell after long day working. You just gotta eat it right away!

I make some in the cupcake form

Butterism on Tea Party

Strawberry, Lemon and Mint

I always love Chartreuse, this apple green color

Yayy~ I was so excited when my boss ask me to join her little showcase party. So the idea was several designers gather in this one event showing their artworks, and sell them, of course. There's clutch, accessories, shoes, dress, toddler clothes, and me as the pastry designer (that sounds good, isn't it? pastry designer :) )

I was a little bit worried, though. This is my first time trying to sell what I b

aked. So far, I just baking for my own happiness and relatives birthday. Oh, and for my boss' anniversary too. Wondering and asking myself, am I capable to organize my little showcase? Here's the thing, I'm a pessimistic, but on the other hand, J's annoyingly an optimist and positive person. Then he convinced me that I definitely can do this. So, what the heck, let's do this! :)

After couple days of research and research, I decided to bake :

1. Margarita Cupcake. which is basically a vanilla cupcake, with lemon cream cheese frosting, plus lime and straw for garnish.

It supposed to be a key lime with white pulp.

I accidentally grab the wrong lime -.-"

2. Saint Honoré. I was so intrigued to bake this when I saw this LV's video ad and this post. I never bake this before, and I didn't have time to practice. I just depend on luck, and hoping I can do this right :D I adapted the recipe a bit, still using the Chiboust Cream though, but I combine this delicate pastry with Mango preserve.

What a messy assembly

Chiboust Cream and Mango Preserve

3. Mini Cream Puff. Because I baked a lot of mini cream puff for Saint Honore, it's better if I sell them as well. I filled this mini puff with mango custard. It has a kinda hard shell, but when you bite it, the creamy custard is balancing the shell.

Sugar glaze on mini cream puff

4. Cookies. Too bad I didn't have enough time to bake this, so I asked

one of my friend to fill in this one job.

5. Cake Pop. Now, this one is a hit at the showcase! I read and read and practice and more practice. Why the cake fall off? How to melt the chocolate? Which cake is better for the cake pop? And so on.. I got them all, but still, practice makes you better.

Inside the cake pop

And I tried to make macaron. But it didn't succeed. Too bad :( I think it'll be a hit too.

Anyway, this event take place about err... 3 months ago. Yea yeah, i was so lazy updating my blog. But here's some of the pictures!

Whoops.. one of the cream puff fall off!

Little Bianca confused, pink or the blue one?

Blue it is!

aww... look at her chubby cute face

Concorde Cake My Way

I made this before, for my friend's birthday. The last disc broken up when i'm about to arrange them. Damn! one disk took me 2 hours to bake. Anyway, aside from the last broken disk (and of course i didn't give it to her) it actually great, the combination between meringue and dark chocolate mousse. I ended up eating half of that 20cm cake at 9 pm, after dinner! Hahaha i do realized that was a enormous calorie i had, and as i remember, i think i got some sugar-high back then XD

This time, again, and i don't know why, i chose to bake this again for another friend's birthday. I made smaller version, though. Cake-sliced size, about 4cm x 8cm. And i think it tastes better when you put it in a fridge for a while. Fyi, Concorde Cake is a satisfying dessert of the chocolate meringue disk and creamy layers of chocolate mousse, topped with meringue tubes. Because this is a Concorde Cake My Way, i made this more simple, just layers of sweet meringue and dark chocolate mousse with a dust of cocoa. Simple, but it will make you yell "Oh, my goodness!!"

Concorde Cake My Way

For Cocoa Meringue

280 gr (6-7) egg whites

500 gr icing sugar

3 tbs cocoa powder

For Dark Chocolate Mousse (you can prepare this the day before)

200 gr dark chocolate --> choose any of your favorite dark chocolate, the darker the better :)

200 ml cream

200 ml whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Meringue :

1. Prepare baking sheet. Draw shapes on the baking sheet as you want. It'll be easier later where to pipe. I drew 4cm x 8cm rectangles on mine. Fit about 9 pieces of rectangles, and still remain some space, so i drew more 2 lines 1cm x 28cm. Reverse the baking sheet, pipe on the other side.

2. Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Beat the egg whites with a electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar-cocoa and the continue beating until stiff peaks form and the meringue looks glossy and smooth.

3. Preheat oven to 110C. Fit a piping bag with the large plain tube (or you can just cut your piping bag about 1cm). Fill with the meringue, pipe it over the prepared baking sheet, starting from the edge and working inwards filling the edge. With the remaining meringue, pipe into the long lines.

4. Bake for 2 hours, until the meringue is crisp and thoroughly dry. Let them cool and carefully peel off the paper.

Dark Chocolate Mousse :

1. Chop the dark chocolate into a smaller size. Put it in a microwave-save bowl. Microwave for 1 min, until they half melted and stir them. The heat will melt the rest.

2. Boil the cream with saucepan. When you starting to see bubbles, pout them over the melted chocolate. Let stand for 1-2 mins. This is what we called ganache.

3. Meanwhile, whip the cream with electric mixer. Make sure the cream is cold, and much better when your

bowl and beater is cold too. Fold in gently the whipped cream to chocolate ganache. Mix in vanilla and salt. Let it cool, and put in the fridge. You can eat it right away, or maybe you should wait for the meringue for better :D

Assembling :

With rosette piping tube, fill the mousse and pipe on a meringue. Top with another meringue, and pipe the mousse again. Place another meringue on top. Dust the cocoa powder.

If you like it, you can decorate the cake with the thin lines meringue. Cut them into small pieces and put the on top of the meringue, dust with cocoa powder. There you go! Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Taraaaa~ you have your concorde cake!

Cinnamon Apple Galette, For Two :)

Here's the scenario in my head when i'm about to post this.

Sunday morning. Just me and you. We have bunch of time, but we got nothing to do.

But we still gotta eat, right? :)

So, what will i make for our lazy sunday?

Hmmm...

1. This thing have to be easy and simple.

2. Comforting.

3. Do not take a lot of ingredients.

4. No fancy appearance (less work, that's why it called LAZY sunday)

And, Cinnamon Apple Galette it is.

It meets all my requirements.

We can enjoy this at tea time with milk tea, watching some dvd, laughing and lazy-ing (still with the lazy thing)

What a perfect sunday!

But reality came back to me.

I made this when i took half-day off from my office.

After i finished baking and cleaning, i hurry took a shower, pack my galette, enjoy this when i have time at office :(

But i'll definitely make this scenario become a real one someday :)

love the crust!

Cinnamon Apple Galette, for two

For pastry crust

80 gr flour

1/2 tbs sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup (55 gr) cold butter, cut in dice

3 tbs ice water

For filling

1 sour apple (i use granny smith), slice thin

cinnamon, sugar, and water, just enough to taste and soak the apple

For crust glazing

Egg yolk

Milk

Coarse sugar

1. Place the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, mix well

2. Add the cold butter. If you don't have a pastry cutter, just use spatula or butter knife to mix the dough. You may use your hand, but you have to do it quick. Otherwise, the butter will get warm from the heat of your hands. The secret of making a good pastry crust is the cold butter.

3. When the dough looks like bread crumbs, add the water. Mix well, until you can shape the dough into ball.

4. Divide the dough ball to 2 portion. Flatten, and rest the dough in fridge for 1 hour, or more. Just until you ready to bake them.

5. When you're about to bake them, prepare the filling first. Mix water, cinnamon, and sugar together. Coring the apple, and cut them into 1/4inch wedges. Soak the wedges into the cinnamon sugar liquid.

6. Make the glazing. Mix egg yolk and milk together.

7. Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare 30cm x 30 cm baking tray with baking sheet on it. Get the dough ball from fridge, roll them into circle at baking tray (enough for two small galette) and arrange the apple wedges in a circle, leaving about 4cm edges free at edge.

8. Brush apples with cinnamon sugar mixture. Fold dough into center, you can fold it easily if the dough half-cold. Brush the crust with egg milk mixture, and dust coarse sugar over the dough. It's the sugar that make this galette have the rustic look :)

9. Bake about 15-20mins at 180C. Then change your oven to griddle/rotisserie mode, which means the heat only come from the top oven. Raise the oven temperature to 200C about 10mins or just until the crust turn brown. Mine took exactly 30mins.

10. There, you have the rustic crispy crust with soft cinnamon apples. Feel the contrast between them.

crisp and soft, together as one

I love contrast. Just like i love sweet crisp meringue with smooth dark chocolate mousse.

Wait for the next post :)