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 :)

Whole Wheat Apple Muffin

I bought muffin cups.

So I have to bake some. Still keep making them.

Before that,

Browsing......

Researching......

Deciding.....

Keep searching.....

Thinking......

Decided!

I'm gonna use Deb's from Smitten Kitchen Whole Wheat Apple Muffin :D

Here's the recipe's link for the moist muffin

brown sugar and chopped almond on top

Strawberry Panna Cotta

I never thought Panna Cotta was this easy! Make this because my boss's request, for his anniversary. And I called this Project Strawberry and Cream. Not only the main ingredients are strawberry and cream (of course,duuh~), but the color too. I made a packaging box for this panna cotta, but i completely forgot to take pictures *sighh* The packaging was so cute, combination between tartan and polka dot pattern, with the bright red and cream color (try to imagine, i can't give you pictures).

And for better, I based the panna cotta with vanilla shortbread. So it'll give more texture, the bouncy creamy panna cotta with soft-crunch shortbread. I tried it with hazelnut shortbread before, but the hazelnut came out too strong and defeated the panna cotta's flavor. We're back to basic!

I browse a lot of recipes before i came out with this one, David Lebovitz, with a little adaption, since I use strawberry instead of vanilla flavor.

Strawberry Panna Cotta

adapted from http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/perfect-panna-cotta/

For Panna Cotta :

4 cups (1l) heavy cream (or half-and-half)

1/2 cup (100g) sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 packets powdered gelatin (about 4 1/2 teaspoons)
6 tablespoons (90ml) cold water

strawberry, cut into little pieces, use as much as you need

For Buttercream :

60 gr unsalted butter

1/3 cup (about 75gr) icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence - I recommend to use good quality vanilla essence, this basic thing need an extravagant taste.

1. Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan or microwave. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

(If using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds from the bean into the cream and add the bean pod. Cover, and let infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the bean then rewarm the mixture before continuing.)

2. Lightly oil eight custard cups with a neutral-tasting oil.

3. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Add the strawberries into cream mixture.

4. Pour the very warm Panna Cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

5. Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the prepared cups, then chill them until firm, which will take at least two hours.

If you’re pressed for time, pour the Panna Cotta mixture into wine goblets so you can serve them in the glasses, without unmolding.

6. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each Panna Cotta and unmold each onto a serving plate, and garnish as desired.

To make Panna Cotta with sheet gelatin: Soften 25g (approximately six sheets) in a liter of cold water for 5 to 10 minutes. Wring the sheets out and stir them into the warm Panna Cotta mixture in step # 4, until dissolved.

I made the mini version of this.

here's the link for you to learn more about gelatin http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/how-to-use-gelatin/

Almond Biscotti

I've tried a lot of biscotti before i decided to bake one. I have to make sure the perfect texture, the taste, and the flavor. After starbucks, coffee bean, bengawan solo, and cheese cake factory, the winner is Coffee Bean! They got the right texture, i love the flavor : Almond, but i should omit the berry thing.

So, here I present to you, my first Biscotti :

Almond Biscotti

from http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2006/05/almond-biscotti.html

300g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g whole blanched almonds

Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F.

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl.

Whisk the eggs with the vanilla extract, then stir into the dry ingredients. Add the almonds, then turn out onto a lightly floured bench.

The dough should be soft but able to be moulded into shape. I found the mix to be too sticky so I had to add a fair bit of flour until it achieved the appropriate consistency. As all flours are different, this is just something you need to keep an eye on when baking.

Divide the dough into two and shape each into flat logs about 25cm (10 inches) by 5cm (2 inches) in size. Place on baking paper and onto oven trays. These will spread out so leave plenty of space or put them on two trays.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Remove and let cool slightly.

Using a serrated knife slice evenly - about 1cm or thinner.

Place the slices back on the trays (cut side down) and return to the oven - cook for 10 minutes, then turn them over and cook for another 10. You are looking for the slices to dry out but barely colour - if you press a finger into the cut surface there should be resistance.

When done, place them on a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container - these should keep for a few weeks

Best thing to do in the morning : dunk the biscotti to your coffee!

Easy Apple Crumbs Cake

When i said easy, it means real EASY. Well, not that easy that a 5 years old can do this by them self. But an amateur baker like me surely can!

Easy Apple Crumb Cake
from The Amateur Gourmet

For the cake:
Unsalted butter, for the baking dish
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 ripe pears or apples, if you use apples, you should probably peel, cored and chopped them.

For the streusel topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut up
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish.

To make the cake, combine the flour with the baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then mix in the milk and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the pears, and mix well. Pour this into the buttered baking dish.

To make the streusel, mix the sugar, flour, cold butter, and cinnamon in a bowl by pinching them together with your fingers until well combined. Sprinkle over the top of the batter.

Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, until it is golden and dry on top. Cool in the pan, and then cut into squares.

Lesson in this post : i use whatever apple i had in the fridge, which is such a terrible idea. The apple inside the cake lost much of its flavor. fyi, i use Fuji, the one that should be for eating out of hand. For baking, you can use Rome, Jonagold, Granny Smith, or visit this link for more details :

Apple varieties and their best uses
http://www.usapple.org/consumers/appleguide/variety.cfm

Apple varieties with pictures
http://www.usapple.org/consumers/appleguide/guide.cfm#braeburn

More about apple
http://www.fruitandveggieguru.com/apples.html?pccid=1&tabid=70&kw=apples

Peanut Sesame Pasta

I only have macaroni in my fridge, so...

E and i were at Kem Chicks (a gourmet lifestyle supermarket at Jakarta). We were at pasta section. And i asked E,
Me : Do you like pasta?
E : Umm..Yes.
Me : Do you like peanut butter?
E : Sure i do.
Me : Have you ever consider to mix them together?
E : ....... What??Are u sure?That sounds.... weird.

Yeah. That's what i'm thinking too when i read this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite blog. Seriously, you can add peanut butter in pasta? And does it even edible?

I read the recipe over again, it looked like it easy to make, and i have most the ingredients on hand (minus sesame oil). So, what the hell. I tried them. And it no doubt become my favorite pasta! By the time i post this, i've made this pasta again and again. And again.. Oh, how i love you SK!

Peanut Sesame Noodle (or pasta)
from Smitten Kitchen

Servings: Makes 6 side-dish or 4 vegetarian main-course servings.

For peanut dressing
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 medium garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons Asian toasted sesame oil*
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes or a splash of the hot sauce or chili paste of your choice

For noodles
3/4 lb dried soba nooodles (dried linguine fini or spaghetti will work in a pinch)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
Half a seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 cup firm or extra-firm tofu, cubed
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Pour dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl.

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain in a colander, then rinse well under cold water.

Add pasta, scallions, bell peppers, cucumber and tofu to dressing, tossing to combine. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

It's damn easy, right? You can make this in the morning for your lunch. Well, i did :D

*Substitution for sesame oil (for 1 tbsp) : 1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds saute in 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

Galette Charentaise

still hot from the oven

The ingredients are simple. You only need 5 main ingredients : flour, sugar, butter, cold water and salt, which i'm pretty sure you must have them on hand already. Mix them together, bake, done. But still, i need to wake up at 6 (yes, 6 am) to make this french shortbread. Yap, because i need to fridge the dough about one hour before put it in oven.

After my alarm on (luckily i have the spirit of baking the night before), i made myself wake up: double slap the cheeks plus some stretching. Walked up to kitchen, open the fridge, scale all the ingredients-hope i saw the numbers right with the sleepy eyes. Mix them with bare hand, that's what the recipe said. You may want to use one hand to mix the dough, and other hand to clean the other one, because the dough's texture is so crumbly-sticky, especially after you add the cold water. The dough is done, then put it in fridge. Meanwhile, i prepare myself, took a shower, put some make up, had cup of coffee, and ding! It's 1 hour already. Yay~ Bake, another ding moment and... that's my breakfast! :)

I got the recipe from Elra, but i halved the ingredients. That's what i do when i try a new recipe. Bet u all do the same thing, don't you?

Is this how the shortbread's texture supposed to be?

Galette Charentaise
http://elrasbaking.blogspot.com/2008/09/galette-charentaise.html

250 grams all - purpose flour

125 grams soften unsalted butter, cut into pieces

100 grams sugar

1 tablespoon ice cold water

pinch of salt

Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 teaspoon milk, beaten with fork

sliced blanched almond

1. In a large mixing bowl, place flour, butter, sugar, ice cold water and salt. rubs the butter with all other ingredients together with your fingertip until the mixture resemble coarse crumb.

2. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap with plastic then refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 180C.

4. Roll the dough into 8" inches circle, transfer to a cookie sheet. Score the surface into criss cross pattern. If desire, you can also create a scalloped pattern around the edge of the dough. Glaze with egg wash and scatter slice almond over the dough.

5. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.

6. Let the galette cool completely before serving.

Question : Can i add extract to richen the shortbread flavor? Cause it's kinda floury when i ate it.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

Do you guys always intrigued to make a recipe because of the title?? Because i do. I really do. That's how i decided to make one. So, when i first read this from David Lebovitz's blog, i was like "man..i'm totally gonna make this one" (even though i don't ow n an ice cream maker). But because of this recipe, i made myself promise i'm gonna have one someday. See that, i said "have one", which means i don't have to buy it myself, anybody could have buy one for me *writing i-c-e c-r-e-a-m m-a-k-e-r on my wish list* ;D

From my experience with this ice cream, it's not that easy to make a smooth ice cream without ice cream maker. We have to constantly check on the mixture. Every 30 mins we stirring it vigorously as it's freezing, really beat it up and break up any frozen sections. Then return in to freezer. It will take about 2-3 hours to be ready. Oh and believe me, it's still not so smooth as David's (well, i have not try his yet, but you can see it through his pictures). Plus it couldn't handle room temperature well. I eat the ice cream at second or third spoon, but after that i can just drink it all *sigh* wondering what's wrong with mine?

Half-melted Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream
from David Lebovitz
make one generous quart

Because of the caramel in this ice cream, once churned and frozen, it'll remain nice and creamy. To make it firmer, crank up your freezer a bit or store it in a shallow pan.

For the caramel praline (mix-in)
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
3/4 teaspoon sea salt, such as fleur de sel

For the ice cream custard
2 cups (500 ml) whole milk, divided 1 1/2 cups
300 gr sugar
4 tablespoon (60 gr) salted butter
scant 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. To make the caramel praline, spread the 1/2 cup (100 gr) of sugar in an even layer in a medium-sized, unlined heavy duty saucepan: I use a 6 quart/liter pan. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or brush it sparingly with unflavored oil.

2. Heat the sugar over moderate heat until the edges begin to melt. Use a heatproof utensil to gently stir the liquefied sugar from the bottom and edges towards the center, stirring, until all
the sugar is dissolved. (or most of it─ there may be lumps, which will melt later.)

Continue to cook stirring infrequently until the caramel starts smoking and begins to smell like it's just about to burn. It won't take long.

3. Without hesitation, sprinkle in the 3/4 teaspoon salt without stirring (don't even pause to scratch your nose), then pour the caramel onto the prepared baking sheet and lift up the baking sheet immediately, tilting and swirling it almost vertically to encourage the caramel to form as thin a layer as possible. Set aside to harden and cool.

4. To make the ice cream, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl about a third full with ice cubes and adding a cup or so of water so they're floating. Nest a smaller metal bowl (at least 2 quarts/liters) over the ice, pour 1 cup (250 ml) of the milk into the inner bowl, and rest a mesh strainer on top of it.

5. Spread 1 1/2 cups (300 gr) sugar in the saucepan in an even layer. Cook over moderate heat, until caramelized, using the same method described in Step #2.

6. Once caramelized, remove from hear and stir in the butter and salt, until butter is melted, then gradually whisk in the cream, stirring as you go. The caramel may harden and seize, but return it to the heat and continue to stir over low heat until any hard caramel is melted. Stir in 1 cup (250 ml) of the milk.

7. Whisk in the yolks in small bowl and gradually pour some of the warm caramel mixture over the yolks, stirring constantly. Scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan and cook the custard using a heatproof utensil, stirring constantly (scraping the bottom as you stir) until the mixture thickens. If using an instant-read thermometer, it should read 160-170 F (71-77 C).

8. Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk set over the ice bath, add the vanilla, then stir frequently until the mixture is cooled down. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or until thoroughly chilled.

9. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

10. While the ice cream is churning, crumble the hardened caramel praline into very little bits, about the size of very large confetti (about 1/2 inch, or 1 cm). I use a mortar an pestle, although you can make your own kind of music using your hands or a rolling pin.

11. Once your caramel ice cream is churned, quickly stir in the crushed caramel, the chill in the freezer until firm.


Note : As the ice cream sits, the little bits of caramel may liquefy and get runny and gooey, which
is what they're intended to do.

Variations : Add some strong liquid espresso (or instant espresso powder) to the custard to taste, prior to churning the ice cream to make Coffee-Caramel Ice Cream.