Pistachio Dacquoise

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If you are, like me, still staring at that container load of egg whites in the fridge, left over from all the Pineapple Tarts and Kueh Lapis CNY baking frenzy, then this is one recipe you will appreciate.
Less temperamental and with a simpler process than the macarons, these little cookies are every bit as French as their priMA donna cousins. I made these quite some time ago here after I acquired my dacquoise mold from Japan. Since then, the mold had sat in the cabinet, forlorn and neglected. So I am glad that this stood out as a reminder as I flipped through Pierre Herme's Le Livre des Fours Secs et Moelleux - another cookbook which I have had success with several times.

If you do not have a Dacquoise mold, you can still pipe these out round like macarons. They will still look super cute like little rustic looking burger cookies.

I decided to experiment a little with the recipe using Pistachio. Instead of the usual ground almond or hazelnut, I used a blend of ground pistachio and ground almonds with a white chocolate pistachio filling.    Pistachio cream, in my opinion, always have the ability to refine the taste of any pastry, elevating blandness to elegance.

I however, made a mistake when I made these. It is standard to dust the meringue generously with icing sugar before baking. The sugary surface will take on a crystalline crispy finish in the oven. I totally overlooked that and only realised my mistake when the dacquoises were baking away in the oven.
Nevertheless, I thought the cookies still look presentable and am happy with my simple experiment.

So, what else are you making with the left over egg whites? I still have a load of them.... (hopefully any suggested recipes would not require me to break any more eggs for yolks! :D )


Pistachio Dacquoise
Recipe: (this is a very small recipe that bakes only 6 cookies)
80g                     Egg white
25g                     Castor sugar
2g                       Dried powder egg white

25g                     Ground pistachio
25g                     Ground almond
50g                     Icing sugar
10g                     All purpose flour
Icing sugar for dusting

Filling :
40g                     White chocolate
40g                     Pistachio paste

Method :
1. Sift the ground pistachio, almond, icing sugar and flour together and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 170C.
3. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, whisk egg white and dried egg white powder together until foamy. Add castor sugar in 3 additions and continue whisking until stiff peaks are formed.
4. Fold in sifted dry ingredients from (1), taking care not to deflate the meringue.
5. If you are using the Dacquoise mold, mist the mold with water and lay it on a baking sheet/ silpat sheet.
6. Pipe (4) into each cavity of the dacquoise mold and scrape to level meringue.  (if you are not using the mold, simply pipe rounds on to the baking sheet. I particularly like to finish the rounds with a pointy tip)
7. Lift the dacquoise mold and dust the meringue with icing sugar. Once the icing sugar has melted into the meringue, dust one more time with icing sugar.
8. Bake at 170C for 20mins.
9. Cool down completely before removing the dacquoise from the baking sheet.
10. Our climate is humid. The cookies will soften if not stored in an air tight container hence I would advice to keep them in air tight containers and store in the fridge.
11. For the white chocolate pistachio filling, melt white chocolate over a bain marie. Mix in pistachio paste.
12. Pipe or apply filling on to dacquoise with a offset spatula. Sandwich with another cookie. 

Pierre Herme's Macaron au Chocolate Amer

A while back, I was on a roll with Pierre Herme's sables. I was so entrenched in those recipes that for a while I thought I had found a new defining moment for myself.  You've probably noticed that I am currently in the mood for macarons and what better way to merge the two obsessions than to experiment with  the Macaron Master's recipes?

Pierre Herme's macarons have to be the most celebrated in the pastry world. My first encounter with the Macaron was at Laduree when I was in Paris for the first time almost 10 years ago. At that time, I was staying at a hotel at Champs Elysees and I was ignorant about Laduree's fame. I ventured in one Sunday morning because it was a pretty restaurant/ cafe and I wanted to have breakfast.  I recall being overwhelmed by the queue and the crowd hovering over the pastry counter. It was then that I spotted these colourful, gem-like pastries.  I  joined the queue and bought a gift box of macarons which I brought back to the office as souvenirs.

When I returned to Paris again 2 years ago, I could have gone to Pierre Herme's Patisserie, but strangely, I didn't feel compelled to do so. Perhaps it was because I had already seen his creations in Tokyo or perhaps I had other higher priorities like shopping for cookware at E.Dehillerin...

Whatever it is, it has not stopped me from lusting after his coveted cookbook Macarons. Available only in French now, I am waiting fervently for the English translation. In the mean time, I have tried to search for others who may have baked from the book. 2 recipes stood out, one is a Ketchup Macaron recipe which is too unorthodox for me. The other is this Macaron au Chocolate Amer which incorporates melted 100% Chocolate.  Chocolate has the infamous reputation of destabilising meringue and up till now, I have never quite come across any recipe that calls for the use of melted chocolate in a macaron biscuit or even a chocolate chiffon ( I have only come across one recipe). Cocoa powder is most commonly used and a good quality cocoa powder like Valrhona will give a deep rich chocolate hue to the pastry.


I did not succeed during my first attempt because I had been too confident and had gone ahead to bake it at 155C like I have done before.  The shell of the macaron,  though looked smooth and lovely in the oven turned out to be quite soft. Upon cooling, this immediately turned all puny and wrinkled.  Luckily, with macarons, I have cultivated the habit of piping a few macarons on 2 small sheets for test baking. This allows me to check for proper drying which can be reflected in the proper development of the macaron feet.
I reverted back to the instructions in the recipe which called for baking the macarons at 180C with fan mode.

This time round, the macarons turned out well. The shell is not as crisp as the last 2 recipes but  slowly crystalised over time to yield a very delicate thin shell with a sponge-like chewy center- most fascinating.
The beauty of this recipe is that the 100% Cocoa is so bitter,  it actually neutralizes the sweetness of the meringue quite effectively.


Recipe : (from here) 
Shell
150g       Almond Meal
150g       Icing Sugar

55g       Egg White A
2g         Red colouring

150g       Castor Sugar
2.5 tbsp   Water

55g         Egg White

60g         100% Dark Chocolate

Ganache Filling

180g       70% Dark Chocolate
20g         100% Dark Chocolate
200g       Cream
70g         Butter (room temperature)

Method :
To make the shells

Line 2-3 baking sheets with baking parchment. Mark the parchment with circles 1½in/3.8mm wide (I drew around a piping nozzle of the correct diameter), spacing them ¾in/2cm apart. Turn the paper over (the circles should show through).

Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds (you’ll need a fairly wide mesh sieve for this) into a large bowl.

Chop the 100% cocoa solids chocolate and put it in a bowl over a pan of just-simmering water, leaving it to melt and reach a temperature of 122F/50C.

Divide the egg whites into two equal portions.

Mix the food colouring into one portion and add to the bowl with the icing sugar and almonds (no need to mix it).

Put the mineral water in a small pan and add the granulated sugar. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then boil the syrup using a thermometer to track its temperature.

Meanwhile, put the other half of the egg whites in a bowl and plug in the electric beaters. When the syrup reaches 240F/115C, begin to beat the second quantity of egg whites to soft peaks.

Once the syrup reaches 244F/118C, pour it slowly on to the whites, beating all the time. Keep beating until the mixture returns to a soft peak consistency and has cooled to 122F/50C. (This egg white-syrup mousse is what chefs call an Italian meringue.)

Add the beaten egg whites to the bowl with the icing sugar and almonds.

Mix, then add the melted chocolate. Once it is incorporated, beat the mixture hard with a wooden spoon for a minute or so, without trying to incorporate more air.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a ³/8in/10mm plain tip. (Depending on the size of your piping bag, you’ll probably need to do this in three or four batches.)

Pipe the mixture onto baking sheets lined with the parchment paper marked with circles. Using a sifter, sprinkle lightly with powdered cocoa (you’re aiming for a few freckles, not an even dusting).

Tap the baking sheets on a work surface covered with kitchen towel.

Let the shells stand for half an hour, until a skin forms on the surface. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4.

Slide the baking sheets into the preheated oven. Bake for 12 minutes, quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during the cooking time to let the steam escape.

Take the baking sheets out of the oven. Slide the sheets of parchment paper with shells onto a work surface and leave to cool.

To make the ganache

Cut the butter into pieces.

Put the chocolate into a bowl. Boil the cream and pour about a third at a time onto the chopped chocolate, mixing each time. The mixture will separate and look grainy, but keep mixing and it will come together.

Allow the chocolate mixture to cool to 122F/50C.

Add the chopped butter and beat until smooth.

Pour into a wide dish. Press clingfilm onto the surface of the ganache and refrigerate until thick enough to pipe.

To assemble the macarons

Spoon the ganache into a pastry bag fitted with a ³/?in/10mm plain tip. Pipe a generous mound onto a shell, then top with another shell, twisting lightly so that the filling spreads and bulges enticingly.

Store covered in the fridge for at least 24 hours to allow the inside of the macaron shells to soften.

Bring back to room temperature before eating.

Raspberry White Chocolate Macarons

Here's one for the Sweet Tooth Fairy. Without cocoa powder to neutralize the sweetness of the macaron shell, this biscuit is sweeter than the Chocolate Macarons I had made earlier. (Actually strangely enough, I found that as you let the macarons age for a few days, they became less sweet, so the chocolate macarons were really quite perfect after they have sat out 3-4 days in the fridge. )  With the Raspberry White Chocolate filling, the sweetness level was propelled to astronomical level. In the spirit of research and experimentation, I had only made a few macarons with the Raspberry White Chocolate filling recipe I found in Australian Women's Weekly 'Macarons & Biscuits'.  I filled up the rest of the biscuit stock with the dark chocolate ganache.

One of the challenges I had faced many years ago when I managed to achieve consistent macaronage was to get the perfect pastel shade cookie without browning. Pretty peaches, Bubblegum pinks and Melon greens were what I was after. Hence, when I was sure that macaronage was still within my reach last week, I couldn't wait to get them out in every bubble gummy shades... First up, is of course, the girly pink colour. I baked these at 155C without using the fan mode and left them on the lowest rack in the oven.  They turned out quite decent with very little browning.

So if you have a weakness for anything sweet and pretty, this one's for you.


Recipe ( I had used Trissa's Recipe which uses the French Meringue Recipe here)

Please refer to the recipe at Trissa's post. Her recipe has been tried and tested by many and I find it less troublesome to follow. A few points to take note :

1. I added the pink colouring after all the castor sugar has been added and the meringue is relatively stable.

2. I let the macarons dry out for 1.5 hours in an air conditioned room before baking. If you are staying in a cooler region with lower humidity you can cut down the drying time to 30mins.

Raspberry White Chocolate Filling (Australian Women's Weekly Macaroons & Biscuits)

60ml         Pouring cream
150g         White chocolate
1 tbsp        Raspberry Jam

1. Bring the cream to boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate, stir until smooth. Stir in jam and tint with pink colouring. Refrigerate until spreadable.

2. Sandwich Macarons with filling.

Chocolate Macarons -Experimenting With Adriano Zumbo's Recipe

Have you noticed something interesting among successful pastry chefs? Whether it be Pierre Herme, Australia's Adriano Zumbo or our own Singapore home grown Chef Pang Kok Keong, they invariably have an accolade of macaron trophies that applaud their pastry wizardry.

I deem the macaron the holy grail of baking. I started experimenting with it possibly 4-5 years ago,  before I started blogging. At that time, macarons were difficult to come by in Singapore and they were (and still are) frightfully expensive. I did most of my research on line and would be baking every evening, trying out one recipe after another, adjusting one condition after another... throwing out one tray of cookies after another... not because I liked to eat macarons but because I was obsessed with the quest of getting my hands on the holy grail...
When I finally achieved consistency, using the Italian Meringue technique, I felt proud and at peace with myself....

For all who had attempted to make the macaron, you would know that these cookies are more temperamental than a prima donna and has to be coddled with utmost attention and sensitivity. There is no fool proof recipe for macaron - too many factors can rub the spoilt little biscuit the wrong way. If you are new to macaron baking and is successful for the first time with a particular recipe, congratulations - you were very lucky... the next challenge then requires you to reproduce this with the consistent outcome again again and again.... Among the many pressure points that can kill your joy are

1. The stability of your egg white;
2. The end point of meringue deflation (what some people call macronage, the lava flow consistency you need to achieve before piping them out.)
3. The air drying time which can be affected by room temperature and humidity - In humid Singapore, don't expect to dry your macarons properly in 30mins as is usually stipulated in most recipes)
4. Your oven condition.

The recipe is the least of my worry - most of them, if you scrutinise closely have roughly the same component ratio. (The ones with higher sugar to almond meal/egg white ratio tend to be more stable to work with but you will need to have a very sweet tooth to enjoy them.)  The real challenge lies in the technique and conditions - the only way to grasp these is to be prepared to make batch after batch until you understand the limitations of your working conditions, until you can recognise what the macronage end point looks like...

I have been inspired to bake macarons again by an elimination challenge in Australian Masterchef. In the challenge, the contestants are expected to create Adriano Zumbo's Macaron Tower. What intrigued me was not the unique flavours of the macarons (if you can't get the biscuit right, no amount of clever flavour ideas will redeem you) but the baking condition recommended in Zumbo's recipe - he had recommended that the macarons be chucked into a 200C oven, turn the oven off for 10 mins before finishing the baking process at 155C for another 9 mins. Too many voodoo oven settings have been written for the macaron... Pierre Herme's recommendation to insert the macarons into a 220C oven and immediately change the setting to 180C to continue the baking process with a wooden spoon jammed into the oven door to keep it slightly ajar ...sounds amusingly like old wife's tale.

However, the temperature ramping is not without its purpose. The higher temperature crisps the shell of the macaron while the lower temperature cooks the inside of the macaron while keeping it soft and chewy. The end result is not a biscuit that is crunchy through - that would have made it a meringue - it should have a crisp shell with a gooey center. This method, I think, is especially useful if the sugar to almond meal ratio is about 2:1. Higher sugar ratio, I think, will be able to crystallise better at lower temperature to give a glassy crispy shell even at a lower temperature e.g. 150 - 160C.



I tweaked the recipe and added about 50g of cocao powder to the original recipe (see below). I also dried the macarons in my air-conditioned living room for 1.5 hours before baking.
The result is very good. As promised the shell is crisp while the center remains chewy and gooey...
I urge you to play with the recipe. Do not be discouraged if you do not get it right the first (few) time round - especially if you've never made macarons before. Repeat it and pay attention when you do. Till my next macaron (I am still not a fan), may we all find macronage!


Recipe : Please refer to Adriano Zumbo's Recipe on Masterchef Website for instructions.

225g     Almond meal
225g     Icing sugar
50g       Cocoa Powder
82.5g    Egg White

225g     Castor sugar
55.5g    Water
82.5g    Old egg white
1.5g      Powdered egg white


Chocolate Ganache Filling :
240g     Dark chocolate
250g     35% Fresh cream

1. Heat cream in a saucepan until it boils.
2. Remove from heat and boil the boiling cream into a bowl that holds the chocolate.
3. Let it infuse for 3 mins. Stir the chocolate gently until it is totally melted.
4. Cool down to pipe-able consistency.

Creme Brulee With Caramelised Banana

We all know that the meaning of food has expanded beyond the humble role of a sustenance fuel.... how else would one explain the popularity of reality TV programs like Masterchef, Topchef, Ironchef, Hell's Kitchen...?  Among these productions, my favourite has to be the Australian Masterchef. As Lisa Abend stated in her book, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentices', Food 'should be a source of nurture and nourishment.'-it is the Universal ambassador that celebrates the bounty of nature, binds culture, brings joy and aspires. In my humble opinion, Australian Masterchef is the only reality cooking program that has given the right focus to food and cooking. (Observation made from the Season 2 screening which is airing here now)

I love it that the program pushes the contestants out of their comfort zone, forcing them to deliver beyond their own imagination. I respect that in the midst of the competitive heat, it takes time off to send its contestants to masterclasses to brush up their skills and I am even more delighted to pick up little tricks and know-hows in the cooking masterclasses conducted by George and Gary. This is possibly the only cooking reality show that I walk away, feeling educated and inspired. Last week, the contestants were whizzed away to Paris and were asked to cook 2 dishes that would be quintessentially French enough for a Parisian bistro.

I found myself slipping into the contestants' shoes as they sprint towards the market for their ingredients.... wondering what I could potentially pull out of my own little hat if I were them. I found myself poring over  my limited collection of French Recipes, (most of which are desserts) after the show -  of which my favourite at this point, is Justin North's beautiful book, French Lessons.

First up, is the quintessential Creme Brulee which no self respecting French Chef would do without. The humble Creme Brulee can be served in so many ways, infused with so many different beautiful flavours, I am literally spoilt for choice.


Here, I am sharing a plain vanilla Creme Brulee served with a rum glazed caramelised banana. The Creme Brulee can be pre-baked and stored in the fridge. This can then be bruleed and served with freshly prepared caramelised fruit. The contrast between the hot fruit and the cold custard is actually quite delightful. I urge you to try it out for yourself.


Recipe : (Basic Creme Brulee From Justin North's French Lessons)
Creme Brulee
350ml      cream
125ml      milk
1/2           vanilla pod
7              egg yolks
70g          castor sugar
demerara sugar

Bananas
2            mini bananas or 1 normal sized bananas sliced.
2 tsp      demerara sugar
Splash   Rum ( enough to deglaze pan)

Method :
1. In a pot, heat milk,cream with vanilla pod and vanilla seed (scraped from pod). Once milk starts to boil, remove pot from heat and cool down to room temperature.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and castor sugar together until light and thick. Remove the vanilla pod from the cool milk/cream and pour slowly into egg yolk mixture. Stir gently to combine.
3. I left the mixture in the fridge overnight to 'degas' the air bubbles which has formed during the whisking and stirring from (2).
4. Preheat oven to 110C. Pour cream mixture into creme brulee ramekins and lay them in a bain marie. (Pour in hot water as cold water will take a long time to warm up in the oven)
5. Bake the cream in the oven at 110C for 45 mins until set.
6. Cool down and let the creme brulee rest for 2 hours at room temperature. You can store this overnight in the fridge. If you do, make sure you blot dry the surface condensation with kitchen tower before torching.

7. Bananas
In a frying pan, add a little butter and caramelise bananas with sugar until slightly brown. Do not over cook as bananas will turn mushy. Remove bananas from the pan. Add a slug of Rum to deglaze the pan. Pour the deglaze over the bananas.

8. Sprinkle demerara sugar over surface of creme brulee. More sugar will give a thicker glassy and crunchy caramel sheet.
9. Spoon caramelised bananas over the creme brulee and serve immediately.

Financier Pistachio

As a curious and somewhat avid baker, nothing delights me more than sussing out interesting ingredients, flavourings that I can experiment with. My frequent overseas business trips take me to markets which are bigger and more mature in such disciplines affording me access to interesting ingredients which are otherwise hard to come by in Singapore.

During my recent trip to Hong Kong, apart from getting tart molds, I had also managed to cinch an interesting Pistachio Paste. A thick nutty paste that comes in a hue that resembles deep chlorophyll, the 100% Pistachio Paste reminds me of Sicilian Pistachios that are generally smallish and when ground, yield a jade green powder. The paste on its own is utterly delicious - a little like a drier Pistachio butter spread. I guarded the little 100g tub almost possessively....

I have decided to try out the paste using one of Pierre Herme's Financier recipes. Like the Madeleine recipe I had tried earlier, Pierre Herme has once again incorporated inverted sugar in his recipe which results in one of softest and moistest Financier I have ever tasted... a moistness that I am still not quite used to expect from a Financier. The pistachio paste turns the tender crumbs into a glistening emerald green, by itself, quite a lovely sight to behold. 

Once again, I know this precious paste would be on my replenish list when I stop by in Hong Kong next time. 

Recipe

Icing Sugar          90g
Almond meal       30g
Hazelnut meal      5g
Bread flour           35g
Baking soda         1g
Egg white             95g
Invert Sugar         5g (if not available, just use glucose syrup)
Pistachio Paste     25g
Melted brown butter    60g
Lemon zest                  Pinch
Pistachio nuts      25g (roasted at 160C for 7mins and chopped)

Method :
1. Mix icing sugar, almond meal and hazelnut meal in a mixing bowl. Add in sifted bread flour and baking soda.
2. Add half of the egg white and blend with the dry ingredients until well corporated.
3. Add invert sugar and mix until totally combined.Add the remaining egg white and mix until homogenous.
4. Add in pistachio paste and mix until well corporated.
5. Stir in brown butter gradually, stirring well to ensure well mixed.
6. Add lemon zest. Mix well. Scoop batter into a piping bag.
7. Pipe batter into a oiled financier mold to 80% filled.
8. Sprinkle chopped pistachio nuts on top.
9. Bake at 190C for 10 -12 mins.
10. Cool down and demold.

Hong Kong Egg Tarts - Flaky Egg Tart, 酥皮蛋挞

I have always wondered about the Egg Tart. It has all the elements of a western pastry, from the short crust/ puff pastry and the egg custard to the little tart molds but yet, I have only seen them offered at Chinese Dim Sum restaurants or bakeries in Chinatowns. There is no doubt that these had originated from Southern China. Some postulated that Southern China/ Hong Kong, through their interaction with the Western world could have adapted the egg tart from the English tart. These custard filled tarts have also been associated with the Portugese egg tart pastry, Pastel de Nata. Whatever it is, we know that the Chinese love their egg tarts. I have so far identified three basic varieties of Dan Ta, as they are fondly referred to in cantonese.

The one featured in my last post, has a short crust pastry which is easy to handle and is generally the variety most would try to bake at home. The key is to make the crust just thin enough to hold the glorious silken tender custard.

The second variety is the Portugese egg tart which uses a puff pastry crust and is filled with an egg custard mixture that would caramelise upon baking. If one uses store-bought ready rolled puff pastry, this could be the easiest egg tart to whip up at home.

The third variety is what is normally served at dim sum restaurants and comes with a flaky crust that can only be achieved with an obscene amount of shortening and deft pastry folding skills. The recipe requires one to wrap a highly oily dough with an oil free 'water dough' . This is not unlike making puff pastry from scratch but the ratio of the oily dough to water dough is much higher, thus rendering this a very difficult dough to handle... especially in warm and humid Singapore. I have been told by a dim sum chef that at the restaurant, they would normally roll out the dough (开皮) in a cold room. Once the dough is rolled out, it is folded in 3 folds, rotated 90 degrees and rolled out again. This process is repeated twice while for the third time, instead of 3, the dough is folded in 4 folds before it is rolled out to the desired thickness and cut to size. This process gives the dough the nice layered flakiness.


It was with a little bit of gungho spirit and a little hubris that I embarked on the venture of baking this at home. I don't have a cold room to work in and I am not skilled enough to work as quickly and deftly. As a result, even though my crust still tastes lovely and flaky, the discernible pretty layers were missing. I also experimented with the oven temperature to find the right balance to bake the crust to a crisp but not turn the custard into rubber ducky.

I have to admit that this is not the easiest recipe to work with and I am glad that I have managed to roll and fold the dough as required. However, there is still room for improvement. Lining the tart cases more evenly would have to come with practice and deftness ... especially so for a dough that wilts under the heat of the thumb.


Recipe :

Pastry Dough :
Oil Dough
Shortening                 180g
Butter                         50g
Plain Flour                 150g

Water Dough
Bread flour                 29g
Plain flour                   90g
Egg                             12g
Custard Powder          7.2g
Water                          60g

Egg Custard Filling : Refer to here

Method :
1. Mix ingredients for Oil Dough together in a cake mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and wrap dough between plastic sheets and chill for 3-4 hours.
2. Mix ingredients for Water Dough in a mixer fitted with the dough hook and blend until dough is no longer tacky to touch.
3. Wrap dough between plastic sheets and chill for 20mins.
4. Roll out Water Dough and place oil dough in the middle, fold and roll as illustrated below:


5. After final fold, roll out dough to about 0.5cm thickness, cut out rounds with a cookie cutter and line tart molds with the dough.
6. Fill the lined tarts cases with egg custard.
7. Bake for 13 mins at 200C.
8. Remove from oven, cool down and serve while warm.

Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts - Nostalgic Saint Honore Egg Tarts

I didn't quite expect the kind of positive response for my Danish Butter Cookies when I posted them. Interestingly among the comments for the posts, almost all of them alluded to nostalgia of some form or other... key buzz words included : Nostalgic, Memories, Childhood, Reminisce...  Yes, nostalgia is a powerful ingredient as is eloquently captured in Joycelyne Shu's new book. If you have been a fan of her blog, Kuidaore, then you will enjoy her book. Filled with great nostalgic treats, most of them entrenched in a deeper and more passionate sense of history and root that are keenly appreciated through her own personal experiences....

For me, I have come to conclude that Nostalgia,as a flavour, is like a good wine that needs aging and maturing. The older you get, the fonder and the more potent it becomes... as in, for example, there is more nostalgic punch when a 50 year old reminisces about something he or she has eaten at the age of 10 vs a 20 year old dreaming about a taste he/she had when he/she was 10.

Do not over think when you are dealing with flavour elements that has strong lineage to memories and childhood. Very often than not, you will find yourself working against the usual theory and definition of good flavours. The dish can be crude and unpalatable to others but douse it in a coat of warm fuzzy nostalgia, they can beat Pierre Herme's Macarons anytime! Such is the liberating power of Nostalgia. To question or doubt Nostalgia only suggests that subject is frigid and uptight.

I was in Hong Kong 2 weeks ago wandering along the famous Shanghai Street. It was there that I spotted these oval shaped tart molds. The first imagery that came into my mind was Saint Honore Cake Shop's oval egg tart.  For those who are old enough to remember, Saint Honore Cake Shop from Hong Kong, made a brief but illustrious appearance in our local bakery scene here in the eighties. They opened their first shop at Marina Bay and aggressively advertised about their oval shaped egg tarts. I recall queuing for their tarts during their first few opening weeks....and the shop assistants' sing-song Hong Kong English accent. Simple fare that caught on like wild fire.  I know I was besotted. Their egg custard was smooth and shiny, tender and wobbly....the pastry crumbly and thin.


I also couldn't understand how a popular shop like theirs did not survive in Singapore. Did they not expand fast enough or was the market too immature for slightly more sophisticated pastry back then? I have no idea but Saint Honore is still operating its pastry chains in Hong Kong today and till date, their oval shaped egg tarts remain on of their perennial favourites....

When I decided to recreate the egg tart with these molds,  there were a couple of elements which I knew I had to nail : a thin short crust pastry shell that would hold its form and a tender, silken tofu like egg custard. Googling over internet, I found a couple of forums discussing about this but it was at this site that I found something comprehensive and promising.... I am very pleased with the results and I suspect if you were to try it, you would be too.




Recipe :

Pastry
90g              Unsalted butter
40g              Powdered sugar
12g              Egg
170g            Plain flour
8g                Evaporated Milk

Custard
160g            Eggs
80g              Castor Sugar
50g              Evaporated milk
210g            Water

Method:
1. Cream softened butter with sugar until white and creamy.
2. Add egg (12g) and mix until well incorporated.
3. Add evaporated milk (8g) to (2) and mix until well incorporated.
4. Add in flour and mix well.
5. Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour before dividing the dough into 10 portions. Press the dough into a tart mold and press well to line the tart mold. Chill the lined tart molds for 15 mins. In the mean time, prepare custard.
6. Prepare custard by mixing all ingredients for custard together.
7. Pour custard mixture into tart casings.
8. Bake at 250C for 10 mins until custard sets.

Raisin Danish Butter Cookies

I had mentioned in my earlier Danish Butter Cookies post that I was just one cookie short to complete the full array in the nostalgic blue tin. Here it is , my last instalment of the Danish Butter Cookie collection. Made during that short interval just after I got back from Korea last weekend and before I scuttle off again on Sunday, I did my best to snap a couple of photos before packing these up to bring for my colleagues in Taiwan.

This version, unfortunately did not taste quite like my favourite coconut raisin cookie in the blue tin. Possibly because the coconut component was insufficient in the recipe. If I were to tweak this further, I would probably try to increase the amount of dessicated coconut and find ways to incoporate some coconut cream or oil into the recipe. Nevertheless, if you had enjoyed the earlier sable cookies recipe, this will still have the buttery flavour and the light crisp texture that we had loved about the recipe.

For now, let me leave you with this very short post. Will cook once I get my travel laundry done :)

Recipe :

95g              Unsalted Butter
1g                Fleur de Sel
1/8 tsp         Vanilla extract
40g              Powdered sugar
15g              Egg white
100g            Plain flour
15g              Dessicated Coconut
20g              Raisins chopped.

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk unsalted butter with Fleur de Sel until creamy.
3. Add in egg white.
4. Add in flour and dessicated coconut, raisins and mix until well combined.
5. Roll the dough in between 2 sheets of plastic to 0.3cm thick.
Chill the sheet in the fridge for 30mins or more. Cut the dough into desired shapes using a cookie cutter.
6. Bake at 180C for 10-12 mins or until golden brown.
8. Cool down and store in air tight container.

Madeleine C'bon - Pierre Herme's Apricot Caramel Madeleine

Yes, I am forging ahead, yet again with Pierre Herme's recipes. I can't seem to get enough of it - not so much because he is THE pastry guru but because there are so much to discover in terms of technique and methods in the recipes documented in this particular book, Le Livre des fours sees et melleux de Pierre Herme . In my last post, I was exposed to the methology of using cooked egg yolks in a butter cookie recipe to achieve a crisp texture. Today, just as I thought I have understood enough about madeleines, the famous little French cakes that have come to be associated with Proust, I find interesting elements in Pierre Herme's recipes that started me wondering and thinking about these scallop shaped snacks again. After I had acquired my very expensive madeleine pan in Paris, I milked it as much as I could by making madeleines, here, here and here...

As pretty as they may look, they were, honestly beginning to bore me... the crumbly, not very moist texture did not exactly stimulate moreish inclination. The 2 elements in this recipe that made my eyes pop were : the incorporation of inverted sugar and caramel. Most of the other recipes I had worked with looked more like a straight forward sponge formulation.

Inverted sugar, for those who may not be familiar, is actually sucrose broken down by water to form Fructose and Glucose. These are smaller molecules and are known to be sweeter. The products made with inverted sugar tend to retain their moistness and softness better. Professional bakers normally reach for a product known as Trimoline when the recipe calls for inverted sugar. I, however, did not bother with that and just used Glucose to substitute the inverted sugar.

I will have to say that this is by far, the most tender and moist Madeleine I have made. I was at first concerend that the recipe, with so many sugar components, would be too sweet but suprisingly, it wasn't. Addition of the glucose does yield a more tender and moist crumb. The caramel (I cheated by using bottled Dulce de Leche), I thought ,gave more body and creaminess to the little cake. This was then balanced by the bits of fruity apricots.


One word of caution about baking a madeleine - make sure you work with the right baking temperature. When the temperature is too low, the batter will fail to 'swell' and you will not get the famous hump on the cake. Not only that but the crust will remain moist. When you have the right temperature, the levening agent will puff the cake correctly to yield the hump. In addition, the crust will be dried out a little to offer a nice textural contrast to the tender crumbs.

For me now, this is THE madeleine recipe for me.


Recipe

36g                            Castor Sugar
10g                            Invert Sugar (I use glucose)
1g                              Vanilla Essence
65g                            Egg
65g                            Plain Flour
2g                              Baking powder
65g                            Clarified butter/ melted butter
25g                            Dried Apricots

37g                           Caramel ( I used Dulce de Leche)

Caramel
40g                          Castor sugar
40g                          Fresh cream

Method :
1. Preheat oven (fan assisted mode) to 200C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder together.
3. Dice apricots into small bits.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, inverted sugar using a hand whisk until well blended. (do not whisk)
5. Add in Caramel and mix well.
6. Add in sifted flour in 3 additions mixing well after each addition.
7. Add in melted butter in 3 additions, mixing well after each addition.
8. Add in apricots.
9. Leave to stand for 20mins.
10. Place batter into a piping bag and pipe into a buttered and floured mandeleine pan.
11. Bake at 200C for 7 mins.

Caramel :
1. Place sugar in a heavy saucepan. Wet the surface of the sugar with just enough water. Heat sugar until melted and turns brown (3-4 mins)
2. Remove from heat and carefully add in cream and stir until smooth. Leave to cool down.

Pate de Fruits Cassis - Cassis Fruit Jelly Candy

My parents were strict with us when we were growing up. I don't recall ever vehemently demanding for anything when we were young. We would gladly take whatever my parents would give us, be it sweet treats, stationery, books or clothes. If anything we set our eyes on were deemed expensive by our parents, we learnt to let go and make do with cheaper alternatives. We did not whine or throw tantrums, we just learnt to enjoy and made the best out of what we had... When it came to candies and sweet treats, Cadbury chocolates were not heard of within our households. The best we would see were Van Houten almond chocolate ovals that came in oval shaped tin cans or long rectangular tin boxes.
For Candies, my mother would always get us Polo mints - possibly the most unpopular and the most boring candy for a kid. Second to the Polo mints, our other favourite would be the Rowntree Fruit Gums.
They were fruity and sweet and for a long time, these were my favourite. The only cons about this candy were possibly that they were hard (which made them last forever to chew) and had the tendency to stick on to the teeth. Following the Rowntree fruit gum came something which has remained my firm favourite till today - the Rowntree Blackcurrant / Tropical Fruits pastilles. These were soft, tangy and had a more natural fruity taste compared to the gums. These were a little more expensive compared to the fruit gums and the polo mints (polo mints were the cheapest) but whenever we went grocery shopping at the supermarket then, we would always look out for the typical special offers that would come as 3 tubes in a pack.

My love for fruit pastilles continues till today - I can at any time, finish up a whole tube of Rowntree (now owned by Nestle) Blackcurrant Fruit pastilles faster than you can finish sucking your Polo Mint!
Hence, it comes as no suprise that I have always been tempted to make Pate de Fruits - a little sweet treat often served as petit fours with other sweet treats.
This is not the first time I have attempted a Pate de Fruit. I recall trying to make these with Mango puree but for some reason, it just would not gel... it could have been the fact that I had tried to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe or it could have been due to the pectin I was using at the time....


The recipe I am using today is taken from Le Cordon Bleu "De la Cueillette, a la Recette"  - an illustrative Le Cordon Bleu French Pastry Training Manual  which I find rather useful. The recipe combines the mildness of pear puree with Casis to soften the tartness. The amount of sugar used in the recipe is still maddeningly huge but I refrained from tweaking the recipe for fear that it will not gel again. In addition to pectin, this recipe also calls for the addition of citric acid. ( the recipe I tried before used lemon juice) The citric acid was added at the end of the cooking process and was the critical component that ensured problem-free gelling of the cooked jam.

Verdict- the fruit jelly was bursting with rich fruity flavours - The tartness and sweetness were so intense that I could not really decide if it was more tart or more sweet. I definitely feel more encouraged this time and am looking forward to work with other fruits and ... yes, I am still adamant on tweaking the sugar level !


Recipe :

Cassis Puree                   200g
Pear Puree                      150g
Pectin                              8g
Castor sugar  A               38g (mix pectin and sugar A together)
Castor sugar  B               375g
Glucose                           75g
Citric Acid                       8g
Coarse Sugar                  For coating

Method :
1. In a copper pot, heat Casis Puree and Pear Puree until 40-45C. Add  Pectin and sugar A mixture slowly into the puree mixture.
2. Add glucose and continue to stir and heat until puree starts to bubble.
3. Add the rest of the castor sugar in 3 additions. Stirring well to dissolve after each addition.
4. Continue to stir and heat until temperature reaches 107C.
5. Remove from heat. Add in citric acid and stir well to dissolve.
6. Pour jam into an 18x18cm square ring. (place square ring on a tray lined with silpat mat/ baking sheet.
7. Leave to cool and set at room temperature for 12 hours. (note, once citric acid is added, puree will gel quite quickly, so work quickly to pour into mold)
8. Dust with coarse sugar and cut to size.