Lemon Tart

This lemon tart was made based on Heston Blumenthal's recipe.

For the pastry, I didn't follow his tips exactly.  Instead of trimming the overhanging pastry before serving, I trimmed it after blind baking the pastry for only 10 mins.  This is a very important step and it worked well for me.

I tried trimming the pastry at the very beginning before putting it into the oven, but the edge of the pastry shrank well below the height of the pastry ring, resulting in an uneven ugly-looking tart case.  I also once tried trimming the pastry towards the end of blind baking (the pastry case was pretty much cooked through), but it ended up a disaster because the overhanging pastry stick on the edge of the pastry ring and it was extremely difficult to trim even with a sharp knife.  Besides, as the bottom of the pastry case shrank while the overhanging pastry was sticking on the edge of the pastry ring, I ended up having a weird-looking shaped tart case.

I think Heston's tips is only applicable for pastry rings that have sharp edges.  Mine is not, as you can see from the photo, its edge is round.

As to the lemon filling, I followed Heston's tips of pouring the liquid filling into the tart case while it's in the oven.  That was a pretty clever tips!  Why didn't I think of that before.....

Another very useful tips from Heston is using a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the filling. When the filling reaches 70ºC, you know that the tart is done and needs to be removed from the oven immediately.

When the tart was done, it looked like as if the top of the tart was covered by a thin layer of white film. However, after a while, it will turn back to a very nice-looking yellow colour.  The filling looked so smooth.









Here's the recipe that I modified based on Heston Blumenthal's recipe to suit my personal taste and the size of the tart ring that I used.  For the pastry, I did it in a traditional way using my bare hands.

Ingredients:

Pastry

- 300g plain flour
- 150g unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 120 icing sugar
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 egg (lightly whisked, for the egg wash)

Filling

- 3 large lemons, zest finely grated & juiced
- 150ml thickened cream
- 180g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk

Instructions:

Pastry

- Put the flour on a marble slab (if you don't have one, just do it on a clean kitchen bench) and make a well in the middle.
- Place the butter, icing sugar & salt in the middle of the well and use your fingertips to mix until they're well combined.
- Then draw the flour towards the center little by little and mix them until they become a coarse sand-like texture.
- Make a well in the center again and add the egg yolks in.
- Draw the mixture towards the center little by little to mix them into the egg yolks.
- When the dough is well amalgamated, knead it with your palm 4 to 5 times until it's smooth.
- Mould the dough into a the shape of a rectangle and wrap it with cling wrap, refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
- Take the dough out from the fridge.  Roll it between 2 sheets of baking paper to the thickness of about 2mm.  Put it back to the fridge for another 30 mins.
- Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC (fan-forced).
- Line an 8 inch tart ring with the pastry, making sure to press it into the edges and leaving the pastry hanging  over the edge (not too much).
- Prick the pastry bottom with a fork all over the surface.
- Take a sheet of baking paper and scrunch it up several times to eliminate any sharp edges.
- Place the baking paper on top and fill it with enough dried beans (or rice).
- Put it into the pre-heated oven and bake for 10 mins.
- After 10 mins, take the tart case out from the oven.  Take out the dried beans together with the baking paper, trim off the overhanging pastry using a knife. Stick a knife (not a sharp one) into the edge running along between the pastry and the side of the tart ring, making sure that the pastry is not sticking onto the side of the tart ring.
- Put the baking paper and the dried beans back on top of the pastry case. Then put the case back to the oven for another 20 mins of blind bake.
- When the time is up, take the pastry case out from oven and remove the dried beans & baking paper altogether.
- Brush the entire surface of the pastry case with the egg wash using a pastry brush.  Put it back to oven for 2 mins.  Repeat this process for 3 times.
- Remove the pastry case from oven and let it cool completely.
- Leave the oven on, reduce the temperature to 120ºC

Filling

- Place all the filling ingredients in a heat-proof bowl and mix together using a spatula.

- Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, continue stirring the mixture until the temperature reaches 60ºC.  Once it's reached 60ºC, remove the bowl from the simmering heat and strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a measuring cup or jug.

- When it's ready to bake, slide the baking tray out from the oven.  Place the pastry case on the baking tray and then pour in the mixture.  Slide the baking tray back in carefully.

- Bake the tart until the filling reaches 70ºC (takes about 8 mins).

- Allow to cool completely at room temperature.

You can find the original recipe of Heston Blumenthal's Lemon Tart in this website:

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/heston-blumenthals-lemon-tart

Hazelnut & Coffee Madeleine

These hazelnut & coffee Madeleine are flavorsome.  They're perfect for afternoon tea!  The burnt butter adds an extra of nutty flavour, making them even more mouth-watering.....umm.... yum yum....

Ingredients:

- 120g plain flour
- 50g hazelnut meal (i.e. grounded hazelnut)
- 1tsp baking powder
- 60g caster sugar
- 3/4 tbsp hazelnut syrup
- 1 tbsp chicory coffee essence
- 2 medium size eggs
- 100g unsalted butter
- 1tsp vanilla bean paste

Direction:

1.  Preheat the oven to 190C.

2.  Sift the plain flour & baking powder together and mix them well into the hazelnut meal.  If the hazelnut meal is not fine enough, you'll need to sift it too.

3.  Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat it over the stove until the butter turns brown.  Take it off the heat and when it cools down, sift the melted butter in order to get rid of those burnt particles.  100g of butter should yield about 80g of burnt butter.

4.  Combine the eggs, vanilla bean paste and sugar in a medium bowl and beat them until a creamy texture is reached.

5.  Add 70g cooled burnt butter into the egg mixture and fold gently.

6.  Sprinkle the sifted flour mixture (as mentioned in step 2) over the egg mixture, gently mix until all is well folded.

7.  Rest the mixture in the refrigerator for about 15 to 20 mins.

8.  Grease well the Madeleine tin with the remaining 10g of burnt butter and fill them up with the prepared mixture.

9.  Bake in oven for about 10 to 12 mins (or until well risen and golden)

Traditional Madeleine

I came across with this recipe when I took a patisserie class in a French Cooking School few years ago. The original recipe calls for using hazelnut meal and melting the butter using microwave.  However, I modified it a bit by burning the butter on the stove so as to add a more unique flavour.  Since about 20% of the butter contains water and the water evaporates during the burning process, instead of using 100g of butter which the original recipe calls for, I used 150g, which in the end yielded about 120g.

Ingredients:

- 120g plain flour
- 50g almond meal (i.e. grounded almond)
- 1tsp baking powder
- 70g caster sugar
- 2 medium size eggs
- 150g unsalted butter
- 1tsp vanilla bean paste

Direction:

1.  Preheat the oven to 190C.

2.  Sift the plain flour & baking powder together and mix them well into the almond meal.  If the almond meal is not fine enough, you'll need to sift it too.

3.  Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat it over the stove until the butter turns brown.  Take it off the heat and when it cools down, sift the melted butter in order to get rid of those burnt particles.

4.  Combine the eggs, vanilla bean paste and sugar in a medium bowl and beat them until a creamy texture is reached.

5.  Add the cooled burnt butter into the egg mixture and fold gently.  *Remember to reserve some of the burnt butter for greasing the tin (step 8).

6.  Sprinkle the sifted flour mixture (as mentioned in step 2) over the egg mixture, gently mix until all is well folded.

7.  Rest the mixture in the refrigerator for about 15 to 20 mins.

8.  Grease well the Madeleine tin and fill them up with the prepared mixture.

9.  Bake in oven for about 10 to 12 mins (or until well risen and golden)

2-year-old Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday, my dear Gabrielle...... I hope to make you a lovely birthday cake every year!

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Recently my little one has been saying "chocolate cake, chocolate cake, yummy...". Honestly, I had never given her chocolate cakes before.  I think she must have had it in childcare center, sigh....

Anyway, this is an awesome recipe for chocolate cake lovers especially for vegans.  My very first time to try an "eggless" cake recipe and the cakes turned out really well, surprisingly moist, yummy!

Well, actually, I once made an eggless cake, not on purpose, but by mistake.  I remember there was a time I forgot to put eggs when making a cake and it turned out rather dense, but, it was still quite nice to eat.  My dad said "a cake cannot be called cake without eggs in it!" (well, if you speak Chinese, you'll know what he meant!).  I think he's wrong this time, haha!

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Dry Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
3/4 cups caster sugar
4 tbs coco powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/3 olive or sunflower oil
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 175 to 180C.
2.  Sift flour with bicarbonate soda together, then mix well with other dry ingredients.
3.  Combine all wet ingredients together.
4.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold to just combined.
5.  Pour the combined mixture into muffin / cup cake pan
6.  Bake for about 25 mins or until the skewer comes out clean.
7.  Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Macarons

Recently, a friend of mine asked me to show her how to make macarons.  She came over to my place last week and we made chocolate macarons.  However, they came out pretty bad.  I felt embarrassed and disappointing.

The first tray was a complete failure.  I think that was because the oven temperature was too low.  I have a double oven; but since the light in the top oven was out of order, I had to used the bottom oven (which is conventional, not fan-forced) to do the baking.  I baked the first tray of macarons at 130C for 15 mins.  They were all cracked while they were still in the oven baking.  It was the first time that I've ever had this problem.  I then baked the other trays at around 145C, they came out "alright" (at least they were not cracked and the little "feet" came up).  Well, I think they were just "alright" because they were not up to my usual standard.  Since I haven't made macarons for almost one year due to my busy lifestyle, I seemed to forget the correct consistency of macaronage (i.e. the combining of meringue & the almond mixture).  They were way "under-fold".  The macaron shells didn't come out flat & smooth, but rather with some "pointy" shape on the top.  They were edible of course, but not very nice looking. 

When it comes to baking, I'm kind of a perfectionist.  Since I was still feeling embarrassed by the "bad macaron baking experience", I decided to give it a go again a few days later.

This time I made sure I fold the batter just enough.  They came out pretty good.  Look at the photo below.  You can see how they should look like when you get the batter just right - no under or over-fold.  When you pipe them on the baking sheet, they'll naturally spread to a perfect shape and they should look shiny.

This is how macarons should look like after baking.  See those lovely little "feet" came up?  They look so nice :-)

Aren't they look beautiful when they have some ganache put in the middle?  Umm... yummy.....

So here is the recipe for these lovely dark chocolate macarons.

Ingredients for Macarons:  
egg white, almond meal, pure icing sugar (sifted), coco powder, caster sugar, water

Quantity of Ingredients: 
1 part of egg white, 1.33 parts of almond meal, 1.33 parts of pure icing sugar, 0.15 parts of coco powder, 1.33 parts of caster sugar, 0.33 parts of water

This is the basic formula for making macarons.  It's difficult to tell you how many egg white you need as you really need to weigh them.  The exact quantity of other ingredients depends on the amount of egg white you use.  For example, if you use 150g of egg white, you'll have to use 200g of almond meal, etc.

Method:

Generally, there are 3 parts.

Part 1:  Preparing the Almond Meal mixture

Put the almond meal, sifted icing sugar & coco powder together into a large bowl, mix well.  Then add in HALF of the egg white (remember to weigh it to get the exact or close to exact half quantity), combine well.  The mixture should become very thick & sticky.

Part 2:  Making the Italian Meringue

Put the caster sugar & water into a small saucepan, boil them on high heat, put the candy thermometer in the pan to keep an eye on the temperature.  Meanwhile, put the rest of the egg white into a large clean bowl (make sure it's super clean, no grease at all), sprinkle with a little bit of salt.  When the sugar syrup reaches 115C, turn on the electric mixer to start whipping the egg white.  Once the sugar syrup reaches 118C, take it away from the heat and pour it very slowly (in a thin stream) into the whipping egg white (pour from the side of the bowl, be careful or you'll get burnt by the hot sugar syrup).  Continue the whipping until the meringue reaches stiff peak stage.

Part 3:  Making the Macaronage

Now it's time to combine the almond meal mixture & the Italian Meringue.  Take about 1/3 of the meringue and mix it into the almond meal mixture.  You'll need to "beat the hell out of it" to loosen the thick & sticky mixture.  Once it is loosen, take another 1/3 of the meringue and start folding them into the mixture until it's JUST combined.  Finally, take the rest of the meringue and fold into the mixture again.  Be very careful and watch the consistency.  Do NOT over-fold.  The right consistency should be flowing like lava and look shinny.

Once part 3 is done.  Fill the piping bag with the mixture and pipe them onto baking paper.  Let them sit for 10 to 15 mins before putting them into the oven.

Oven should be preheated to around 145C (fan forced).  Bake the macarons for about 19 mins.

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache:  

1 part of premium quality dark cooking chocolate, 1 part of thickened cream (e.g. if you're using 200g of dark chocolate, you need to use 200g of thickened cream)

Method:

Break the chocolate into small pieces and put them in a medium bowl.

Put the cream into a small saucepan to boil.

When the cream is hot, take them out from the heat.  Pour 1/3 of the hot cream into the chocolate, mix well. Then pour another 1/3 of it into the chocolate mixture, mix well.  Finally pour the rest of the cream to the mixture and mix well.  Simple!

Put the ganache in the fridge for 1 hour to firm it up before pipping them onto the macarons.

Good luck & hope you enjoy the challenge!  Expect to have lots of wastage as you'll need to try a few times before you get it right.  It's not easy to get the right consistency of macaronage.  But it's worth trying though! As long as you've the passion to do it, you'll get it right eventually!  I tried a few times and did lots of research before I could get it right :-)

Happy Baking!

Paris Brest

As I had a jar of unopened fresh cream that was going to expire soon, I thought I’d better make use of it.  So I decided to make a Paris Brest last night.

I made a little experiment this time.  As whipped cream is not stable, it often can’t hold the shape nicely.  Hence, I thought I might try mixing it with some shortening.  I put the fresh cream and shortening together and then whipped them.  Unfortunately it was a complete failure….the mixture “weeps”.  Perhaps I should have whipped the shortening first, then add in the cream and whip.  Since I put them all together at one go and did the whipping, it’s very difficult to mix them well without over-whip.  Or.. it could be that the two can’t go well together… Anyhow, I’ll try it again next time.

Since the fresh cream filling was a failure, I had to use all shortening to do it.  I could have used half butter & half shortening (for better flavour), but I was in a rush to finish the whole thing as I was so tired by the time I got to this stage….  So in the end, I just took out a jar of Crisco shortening and whip it (much more expensive then butter… sigh… about $8 for 250g!)  Well, actually, this Crisco shortening seems to be healthier than butter as it’s 50% less saturated fat and it’s trans fat free.  There’s a similar product called “Crème Cup” which is made locally (you can buy it from some cake decoration / specialty shops) and is a lot cheaper than Crisco, but it’s certainly NOT trans fat free.  I only used it once, the texture is very smooth; but for health reason, I dare not to use it anymore.

Paris Brest

Ingredients 

For the Choux Pastry:

250ml water
60g unsalted butter (chopped into cubes)
1 tbsp sugar
125g plain flour
3 medium size eggs
some silvered almonds

For the filling:

200g Crisco shortening or softened butter
30g sifted icing sugar
3 tbsp Bushshells Coffee & Chicory Essence


Method

Preheat oven to 200C (Conventional).  Line a baking tray with non-stick paper

Place water, sugar & unsalted butter into a saucepan, bring to boil and then remove the pan immediately from the heat & immediately add in all the flour.  Mix rapidly with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Add the 1st egg into the pastry and mix completely (note that at the beginning, the pastry looks slimy but as you continue to mix, it will come together eventually).  Add the 2nd egg and mix completely.  Last, add the 3rd egg and mix completely.  When the pastry all comes together nicely, check the moisture content.  If it's a bit dry, add an extra 1/2 egg and mix well.

Put the pastry in a piping bag with decorative nozzle and pipe a 20cm diameter circle on the non-stick paper.  Brush some egg yolk on top of the pastry ring, decorate it with some silvered almond & sprinkle with some white sugar.  Bake in the pre-warmed oven until the pastry is cooked (about 40 mins).

When the pastry is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it cool down completely.

Split the pastry ring into half (sideways) using serrated knife.

Place the shortening or soften butter into a bowl, add the sifted icing sugar and coffee essence.  Mix with electric whisk until it's light & fluffy.

Pipe the cream onto the base of the pastry shell, then place the other half shell on top of the cream.  Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.