Anyway, let's get back to the lovely desserts.  First it was baked desserts, then it was chilled, now... ah, how can we ever forget about.... chocolates !!! So let's bring em on!

Ok, maybe something not so chocolaty, totally unrelated :P

It's Cointreau Sabayon . Sabayon is a warm sauce thickened with egg yo0lks and traditionally flavoured ith Marsala (Zabaglione). Now this is some serious trick or treat to the biceps. Whisking over a bain marie for over 10 minutes so the egg yolks gets foamy and stiff. Like.. why wasn't there a mixing machine that's also a bain marie ?? hrm, that make sense don't it ?

Strawberries are then placed in a martini glass, and just fill it up with Sabayon. The detriments of this sauce is that, it doesn't stay stiff for long. It needs to be served immediately, and of course, eaten immediately :P

NExt..

ah.. yes! Chocolate mousse !! yummy. SEe I kid you not on the chocolate part.

Chocolate Mousse Recipe

150ml Cream
200g Dark couverture
10g gelatine
500ml whipped cream

Boil cream, add to chocolate, and soaked and drained gelatine as well, if using sheets. Stir till smooth. Leave it to room temperature, fold in semi-whipped cream. Pour into moulds and refrigerate. Voila!

And this was poured into a glass as well, decorated with whipped cream, strawberry and chocolate cigarette.

Another version.

This chocolate mousse that we made in class was actually added with some sabayon, but it can be omitted. Alcohol can be added to it :P  Which reminds me .. that I still have some chocolate liquer in my fridge !!!!!!

Next !!!!! *virtual drum roll*

Yum ! this is absolutely orgasmic!!!! I could easily eat all of it *burp* Just kidding, obviously i didn't have all of it..

Recipe

125g butter
125g dark couverture
3 eggs
75g caster sugar
35g plain flour
vanillla essence

Melt butter and couverture together. Beat eggs and sugar and mix to the chocolate-butter mixture. Add in flour as well. Butter and sugar ramekins and bake at 150 C at approximately 15 minutes. Becareful not to overbake it or else there won't be any sauce in it!

It's a self chocolate sauce pudding. some people call it.. molten cakes, and stuffs. Well, if the photo is not clear enough, it means, that there's chocolate sauce in the pudding.

That's it for the day ....

*hot cross buns ... one a penny two a penny hot cross bunssss*

I was on a baking-roll lately that I just wanna bake bake and bake despite the fact that I also bake bake and bake at work. Tiring but well, both are different things. One, is like a mini routine. Whereas another, is more experimental and "Oh-I-feel-like-a-chocolate-caramel-thingy-today" kinda thing if you get what I mean.

Being all so ambitious, I just wanted to bake everything. But this particular luscious tart caught my eye from Kate Zuckerman's The Sweet Life. Almost everything from the book is so attractive. I think this is the first (but not last) dessert I made from the book. I did get alot of ideas from the book, like my self-invented caramel mousse cake with rum jelly, and the brown butter, and some macaron ideas. The next thing I wanna make from the book would be... ermm, we'll see. Maybe some sorbet / ice creams.

OKay, let me introduce the tart. Its a chocolate tart (duh!) Wait, let's be more specific.

Chocolate Caramel tart filling, that's almost mousse-like in texture but at the same time so rich and fudgy. For the crust, the normal sweet pie crust. For this, I used a hazelnut sweet crust which was so good! In which, hazelnut meal substituted a portion of the plain flour or almond meal. It's like magic!

mmm yummmyyy

So, after a long long time of not baking at home leisurely, I decided, alright, today is the day. Once again, I have alot running in my head on what to bake. This time around, I wanted to try on macarons ala French. Not coconut. We'll talk about that later but lets hope into the wonderful world of hazelnut.

For me, hazelnuts are the next best thing to pistachio, if not, actually both are my favourite nuts! I can still remember the amateurish Pistachio Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Ferrero Rocher I made long time ago, pistachio ice cream, gianduja chocolate cannelloni, and the ever-cool Chocolate Croquembouche with assortments of chocolate truffle. But the problem here is that, hazelnuts and pistachios are rather expensive compared to other nuts like almond, cashew and walnuts. (Hey, there's a price to pay for good stuff)

I hooked up with Nigella's Torta Alla Gianduja from her How to be a Domestic Goddess bakebook. The picture looks amazingly attractive and rich. I wanted to take Hugh's recipe when he challenged Gordon Ramsay in The F Word show going on now in 703 or 707. But couldn't really find it. Oh no, wait. That was actually a Chocolate Chestnut cake. Not hazelnut. Anyway...

I decided to make them into mini cakes rather than a huge cakes because it's easier to share this way. I used my canele-look-a-like flexipan mould for this cake.

Torta Alla Gianduja

6 large eggs, seperated
pinch of salt
125g soft unsalted butter
400g Nutella (1 large jar, yes you've read it right its 400g)
1 tbsp Frangelico
100g ground hazelnut
100g dark couverture chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Whisk egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry.
3. Meanwhile, beat butter and Nutella together in another bowl. Add in Frangelico, egg yolk and ground hazelnuts.
4. Fold in cooled, melted chocolate and then lighten the mixture with a dollop of egg white.
5. Gently fold in egg whites a third at a time. Pour into prepared tin and cook for 30-40 minutes depending on size of mould or until the cake is beginning to come away at the sides.
6. Cool on rack
7. Serve with ganache and toasted peeled hazelnut.

*Tip: If you buy unpeeled hazelnuts, roast them in oven first. Then put them in between a dry cloth and rub them. The skin will peel off easily. Return to roast those which needed further roastings.

Perhaps it was a wise move to make them into mini sizes because they were so rich. SO RICH! but it was awesome.  It should replace the choc pistachio cake as my favourite chocolate-nut cake.

And with the drizzling Frangelico infused ganache. its just awesome.

Btw, Tham Jiak is doing a series of floggers interview so I'm first. HAha. Click here to read.

And I know I've been keeping where I work a secret. It IS a secret tho. Won't be revealing till Christmas. But there's no need to tell where I work right ?? hehehe. But there's a surprise coming in this December, so till then, feel free to browse on my old entries. I'm gonna make my niece's birthday cake sometime soon. Just thinking what should I make...

This is the best Salt & Pepper Squid I've tasted in Sydney. yummmmmmmm

Today is the exact day to celebrate this festive, so I guess it is forgivable for me to put up another mooncake post. hee hee.

I never believed that food should be coloured with artificial colouring. It should stay the way it is or use natural food dye (like pandan juice or beetroot juice) But when it comes to this type of flaky mooncake, I say, a little bit of colours wont harm much. Infact the mooncake jumped straight out screaming "Look at me!"

I made this kinda flaky mooncakes once before; Pandan Spiral Pastry. I didn't quite achieve the results aka, the flakes. So this time, I was quite satisfied with the amount of visible layers of flakes on the mooncake.

For the filling, I adapted it from another recipe.The thing with mooncake is that they're quite versatile in terms of which type of filling you use. So, you can use lotus paste, red bean, pandan, yam.. etc

Filling

530g Green Tea Lotus Paste
60g roasted almond flakes
10g Japanese Seaweed

• Cut the seaweed to small pieces.
• Mix everything together and divide filling into 30g each

Ingredients for skin

100g plain flour
10g icing sugar
20g shorterning
45ml water

Ingredients for Oil skin

80g flour
45g shorterning

Method

• Combine all the ingredients for first skin in a bowl. Mix well and roll into a square piece of 13"x13" (more or less)
• Mix ingredients for Oil skin and divide into 4 parts. Colour 1 part with pink/red, 1 part with yellow and 2 parts with green. Roll all parts squarish and place in the center of the square piece the pink layer first. Then followed by yellow overlapping the end of pink layer. Same goes to green layer overlapping abit of yellow. It should look like the pic below.

• Press flat, enclose both ends together. Rest for 20 minutes. Use a rolling pin to flatten all sides, turn over and roll flat.
• Roll into a swiss roll starting from the pink dough, so the pink is inside and green is the outer layer. Cut off excess parts from both ends and keep aside. Cut out 20 pieces from the roll. Make sure you cover the dough with a damp clothes to prevent it from drying out.
• Then take a piece, roll flat with a rolling pin and wrap in the filling. Seal the ends facing downwards. Bake in preheated oven at 180 C for 15-20 minutes till baked through but not golden. Cool before cuting.

This would give u a better idea.

Note: Try not to roll the dough too thin on the middle (the pink part) cause it's gonna be too thin and you can see the colour of the filling inside. And for a tip, to get many layers of flakes, try to roll the big flat dough as flat as possible before rolling into a swiss roll, that way you can achieve the result. But too much might cause the dough to break while you wrap in the filling. So, becareful.

I think abit of colour wouldn't do any harm. :D And it kinda matches my paper towel. Ha Ha

The outer skin was very flaky and its like melt in your mouth type of texture. Prolly because of the size of the mooncake, you dont get too much filling on too little skin, hence, it's not so jelak. The filling was abit weird and new for me. I guess it's probably because of the seaweed inside. The smell of seaweed really stood out and some people might or might not like it. So I guess it depends on personal preferences. If you want to stick to more traditional type of filling, go for it :)

Check out this article, and maybe this one too

I adapted the recipe from my favourite domestic goddess. (yes, it's also time to take a break from pastry chefs like Pierre, Hidemi and Paco) Time for some homemade goodness ;)

Its a very plain cake compared to the complicated layered cakes I used to make. It's a one off thing, just one element, which is the cake itself. The lemon was rather intense but given its a dense and damp almond base, it was just right.

Damp Lemon and Almond Cake
(Nigella Lawson, How to be a Domestic Goddess)

225g soft unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
50g plain flour
225g ground almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 180 C. Cream butter and sugar until almost white. Make sure the sugar is melted otherwise the texture of the cake might be harder than its suppose to be. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a quarter of the flour after each addition. When all the eggs and flour have been incorporated, gently stir in the ground almonds with your hand. Then add in the zest and juice and essence. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for about 50 mins depending on ovens. Check with skewer, if it comes out clean it is done. Remove the tin when its cooled.

I missed out on covering the tin with alu foil after 30 mins of baking, so my top was abit dark. So I turned over the cake and served it downside up which was a no-problem at all.

I left it to cool a couple of hours outside while we went out to ... bump around. Hah. The cake was just intime for after dinner dessert. So I quickly made some glaze by mixing sifted icing sugar and lemon juice. And just just lazily drizzled around the cake, pop in some strawberries (actually the other way round, berries first, then glaze). It really is a no-brainer kinda thing. all in all, the cake was nice. It was a good "home-style" cake. Not cafe or bistro style

So, my oven is working perfectly fine (fingers crossed)

btw, where can I get flexipan moulds?

And solution, beautiful and trendy wine racks. Now who doesn't like pretty stuffs? The Vine Store has a wide range of racks made from wood, metal and even wall mounted ones (to save even more space). They range from chiq bottle stands for one to a huge but neat looking wall mounted rack for 22 bottles. So there's a choice for everyone. Not forgetting cellars for commercial use. Price ranges from $15 and above. It would make a good gift as well for new neighbours or newly weds. If you can't decide, just get the gift certificate. Other than racks, there's also wine tables, cooling racks and wine glasses. Check out their store for more.

*This is a sponsored post

I was meaning to go to bed say almost an hour ago, but then something came up, and I don't quite feel like sleeping just yet. So, while I'm on the roll to blog, I might as well put up this cake. It's for a BBQ party tomorrow afternoon. Actually, I don't really know the host, he's my housemates' friend. anyway I was just thinking the reason I got invited is because I can make a bloody cake. *pppfff*

But I don't mind anyway cause I was planning to make one for our BBQ at home this weekend anyway, so, since I've made one for Friday, I can make other stuffs for Sunday. (thinking of Kate Zuckerman's Goats Cheese Cheesecake already :)~ Her book, The Sweet Life is currently my fave book, along with Bathers Pavillion Menu and Recipe book. Gotta check out the Amuse bouche section. like SERIOUS DROOL !!

Anyway, back to my humble lil Easter cake. So, It's for .. well Easter, and also for the one off event hosted by A Slice of Cherry Pie. So the challenge is to make a Easter related cake. As a child, I don't remember ever celebrating Easter. Neither do I do now. It's just another festive occasion for me, at least. *yeah, a festival filled with chocolates and bunnies and eggs*

I dont know but maybe it's just me, that I can only think of carrot cake for this occasion. It make sense, like.. easter = bunnies = carrots = carrot cake! And coincidentally I saw a lovely recipe of carrot cake in Mae's Rice and Noodle site. I've already made carrot cakes many times, but I just thought of trying out another recipe.

Turns out I kinda prefer my older version but next time, I'd add in ground cinnamon, mixed spice and ground ginger or nutmeg and orange zest as well. This one was abit wet for my liking, maybe it's because of the orange juice. But then again, the recipe is catered for cupcakes sized one. So perhaps lessening the amount of liquid in the batter would be better. But now after revising the reciped I used before, it makes sense that this one (the one u're looking at right now) is wetter because the different amount of flour is to vast. Hang on, it could just be... because I didnt bake it long enough. HAHAHA. I'm just kidding.

And for the deco, I did it the fast way. Frosting is made by mixing philadelphia cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, icing sugar, lime zest and juice. Gotta becareful with the cream cheese though because it has this sour-y and thick smell. If it needs a lil more icing sugar, go ahead, it's frosting! The frosting came in well together with some limezest too!

the logs are just Cadbury Flakes. I know how to make them but I just dont wanna trouble myself melting and tempering chocolate just to get a few 'logs' out. And those are M&M Easter eggs chocolates. I don't know if I made a mistake by putting it on so early, because I peeped that the colour started to melt / fade during my photography session with the cake. So, Let's just hope that I don't get a rainbow cheese frosing tomorrow morning. :\

And the bunny, well, store bought of course!

I guess it's just the type of cake where u can go bonkers over the design of it. you can even put like a bunch of carrots on top, or fondant / marzipan bunnies and other things you can imagine of.. Make it colourful if there are kids. I'm sure they'll love the eggs. PLUS, theres no foil to cover it, so you don't need to chase after them and catch the foil wrap!!

Ok, now I'm feeling sleepy.

Cheers!

Happy Easter !!

P/s : taste verdict.

Not really my liking as it was too wet and dense. I might have did some mistake somewhere along the line. Ah well, I shall stick to my recipe next time. Anyway more bakings tomorrow. So. Dead. Tired. =.="

Right, ok, I relying on the dial up connection right now, missing my Greys Anatomy and Top Chefs. *ouch*

Apple Fritters with with Pistachio Ice creams. Honestly, deep fried fruits for desserts is NOT MY CUP OF TEA. I'd prefer to keep my fruits fresh, or pureed. Oh wait, hang on, maybe banana fritters (pisang goreng) is exceptional. The Malaysian style of banana fritters *wink*

Lemon Meringue Tartlettes. There might be like a million of recipes and versions for this lemon tart out there. Basically it's lemon curd filling in a Pate Sable and toped with Italian meringue and torched for some extra texture and colour. IT maybe be simple dessert, but I love it! Maybe I like the idea of having something citrusy in a sweet dessert. Well, the contrasting of flavours and textures in a dessert is as important as how it looks (Oh, but really it depends on individuals) The lemon curd in this tart makes you go "KAPOOW" for a sec, then the sweetness of the meringue balances it back so your face dont scrunch up like a sourgrape :P

Cut it, I love this tart I'm going to post the recipe

Pate Sable Recipe

150g unsalted butter, at room temp
95g icing sugar
vanilla extract
250g bakers flour
pinch of salt
30g almond meal
60g eggs

Make sure the butter is pliable and soft. Cream with icing sugar and add vanilla. Be sure to mix it well and free of lumps. Then add in flour, almond meal and a pinch of salt. Add eggs in the end to ensure the consistency is not too runny or hard. So, add eggs gradually, but don't overwork. Press flat onto a clingwrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Generously flour the bench and pin out to about 3mm thick. Cut to desired size and line the tart shells. Prick holes to remove traped air between the tart shell and pastry while baking to ensure evenness of the tart. Chill in freezer to relax the gluten and to prevent shrinkage while baking. But since it's a small tartlette, it wouldnt really shrink as much as a big tart case would. Bake at 200 C till golden brown.

Lemon Curd filling recipe

200g Butter,
125g sugar
150g eggs
125ml lemon juice (approx 3 whole lemons)
zest of1 lemon

Half melt 100g butter, sugar and zest in a pan or bain marie. Add lemon juice and eggs. Whisk till 85 C (to pasteurize the eggs) It should start bubbling abit and the consistency should be somewhat thick. Well, I'm not too sure why in this situation, the eggs dont really cook considering the fact that eggs coagulate at 60 C onwards. It might be because of the acidic level in the lemon juice that prevents the eggs from cooking, or bringing up the cooking temperature for eggs. Any ideas? Enlighten me :D Then add the rest of the butter and whisk till melted. Transfer to a bowl and chill.

Pour the lemon curd into the cooled tart cases and leave in the fridge to cool further.

Italian meringue recipe

250g egg whites
500g caster sugar
175ml water

Mix sugar and water in a pot and cook to 110 C. Begin whipping egg whites in the machine to medium peaks. Check when the sugar mixture reaches to 115 C, add like a flowing stream into the whipping egg whites. Keep whipping till cold and stiff and ready to use.

When the tartlets are cold and ready, pipe meringue on top. Glaze with torch

Yeah, that caramel piece looks like a whale, but it was not intended. *tsk tsk*

The tart's just served with pistachio ice cream and crushed pistachio nougatine and some pistachio flavoured creme anglaise. The pistachio is just something extra cause the lemon curd tart is just as good as it is by itself.

Yum..

I know, you must be wondering, HUH ???

Anyway, it will just be a brief entry as, I'm just using my friend's pc for the internet access. (not to blog initially) .. It's to get some info off the Immi Dept website, but because it doesnt help much, I might as well blog. Anyone working in the Immi Dept ? care to lend me a hand ? cause it's no fun calling them and waiting for a good-freaking 15 minutes, and then, being shut down. Heh, talk about being efficient. Blek

So Suzette in the title means, crepe suzette

its crepe. yes. crepe.

then we cooked the orange juice reduction sauce and flambee it with grand marnier, or was it cointreau? best eaten with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. awesome.

*ignore the bloody dial up. ggrrrr*

Crepe batter recipe

100g flour
175ml milk
75ml water
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
20g sugar
25g melted butter

Combine eggs, salt, flour and whisk. Add butter and sugar. Mix. Add milk and water gradually to batter till its the right consistency. I would just take all of it I guess. Mix everything till well incorporated and make sure there's no lumps. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Warm a cast iron pan, or a crepe pan, or a flat surfaced pan then spray with cooking oil. Becareful, not to spray straight onto the pan on the stove. Take the pan off heat and spray, to avoid unwanted accidents. When the pan is hot, use a small ladle and scoop the batter, and pour onto the pan, swirl it so the batter is evenly distributed. Make sure the crepe is thin and not .. thick. Cast iron pans take the heat quite evenly, so as long as the temperature of the pan is right, the crepe wouldn't burn. Flip the crepe over and just lightly cook the other side; doesnt need to be very coloured tho (the inside). Remove the crepes and lay flat on silicon paper. Continue till batter finishes.

When the crepe is slightly cooled down, fold it to a quarter shape and leave aside

Sauce

50g sugar
100ml Orange Juice
zest of 1/2 orange.
50ml Grand Marnier
30g butter

Caramelise sugar in the pan. Means, just cook sugar on a dry pan till it dissolves and browns and caramelise. Be careful not to burn it. Pour in orange juice to hydrate the caramel and reduce it to the desired thickness. Add in zest. The juice should be reduced to say maybe something that has a slight body to it. Its really quite hard to describe :/ Then pour in Grand Marnier to warm. Remember, alcohol is flamable product, so be careful when pouring to pan. The tilt the pan abit to catch the flame. Then flambee until all alcohol is evaporated, when the flame stops.

You can detour to put the folded crepes into the pan and lightly cook it, serve on plate and add butter to the sauce, cook and pour the sauce onto the crepes. Or, add butter straight to the sauce, and just pour over the crepes on a plate.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Bon apetit

and for Babas, well, they're actually known as Savarins. They're yeasted cakes, soaked in poaching syrup and drizzled with rum, and served with whipped cream and fruits. Babas are the smaller version of Savarins. We made several small ones so I call them Babas, they sound cuter :P

That's one Baba, served with fresh fruits and a not-so-generous amount of orange caramel sauce (from the crepe suzette)

For this one, the Baba is served on a pineapple carpaccio and i made some crushed mint sugar. The mint sugar was quite nice tho, to be eaten with thinly sliced pineapple. If the baba was smaller, it would look just fine.

And I also made spun sugar. I dont know if you can see the spun sugar "sweating". Because of the humidity in the kitchen, the spun sugar starts absorbing moisture and it just melts very quickly. in just say, 15 minutes time ? So, ideally, spun sugar is not really a good idea for a long-houred display, unless you wanna spend money on ... (forgot the name) but its a type of sugar that doesnt absorb moisture that quick.

Savarin taste wise, well, not my type of stuff. But if anyone decides to sell it, please by all means, soak it with syrup and alcohol please. cause it taste bad without any liquid. :(

The space itself is open and colorful, a touch industrial, but warm, if that makes sense. (Pipes on the ceiling are still pipes, after all.) It also has a huge window in lieu of a back wall, giving a view into Lisa Dupar's catering kitchen. Already, I was imagining getting into my car for snacking escapes, and daily pastry shows.

And the food! Most of the lunch menu centered around an item called firebread - like a thinner take on focaccia, with delicious toppings. You can check out the full menu using the links above.

I opted for the homemade tomato soup and grilled (white cheddar) cheese sandwich. Comforting and delicious. One of my friends had a slow-cooked, pulled-pork sandwich, which he enjoyed greatly. Making simple things well can sometimes seem too understated an approach for many restaurants and chefs. I'm glad the approach is embraced at Pomegranate, to every diner's benefit.

Oh, and make sure you save room for dessert. Whether you go for the Key Lime Meringue tart or the understated knockout that is the bread pudding, you'll enjoy it. I'm looking forward to my next trip.

Well, I'm pretty sure no one would resist little cute petite desserts on their buffet spread or plate. So tiny and mini, it almost seems like they're for dwarfs. Ha, being the giant I am, I do admit, I have to be particularly precise in decorating these petit fours as they are small, hence any crooks or unevenness would just crack them up.

I guess right now, our basic skills would be put to test, like making sponges, tempering shiny fondant, and those basic stuffs. And we would just need to polish our skills further like decorating precisely (esp with piping) and beautifully, being creative and leaning towards the business side (like, producing simple yet beautiful cakes fast. eg. these petit fours)

Er, piping still need lotsa improvement.

They're basically sponges with added almond meal, and layered. then soaked with rum and spreaded a layer of sticky apricot jam (or whichever jam) then layed with a thin layer of marzipan. So when the fondant is poured, it's rather flat instead of the unevenness of the sponge. And also to avoid the crumbs to run into the fondant too!

For this one, it's no doubt, a coffee flavoured one. Well, actually, just the fondant is coffee flavoured. Haha, but u know, if big scale wise, the sponge can be made with coffee extract. Just that for this, we made just one sponge and cut them into different shapes, so, we can't really do much about it.

This one is so beautiful ! Ha, not that I'm praising myself, but just credits given to the chef on teaching us this (Cause actually another chef next class didn't did this petite version or petit four and decoration) HAha, but anyway, let's not talk about Chefs for now.

Roses are made by rolling coloured marzipan and the leaves are just gummy jellies cut outs, then the cake is just glazed with white fondant to increase the risk of getting diabetes, or sugar high.

The sizes of these petit fours are 3x3 cm and 4.5 x 2.5 cm. So, you can just imagine how small they are.

Simple simple simple. Keeping it as simple as possible but still looks nice. Just a stroke of chocolate ganache and scooped white chocolate deco dusted with cocoa powder.

So, sum it all up, you wouldn't wanna spend like 5 minutes on one petit four. By then, your boss would either fire you or you'd run out of time / business. Possibility is endless in decorating petit fours. Just keep them simple yet beautiful.

Cheers

METHOD

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Gradually beat in sugar, then oil.
Seive together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.
Add flour mixture alternately with zucchini into the egg mixture.
Stir in the walnuts and vanilla.

Pour batter into two 9 x 5 inch greased and lightly floured loaf pans.
Bake on lowest rack of the oven at 350 degrees F for 55 minutes. Let cool for 10
minutes in the pan, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

To freeze, wrap loaves in plastic wrap, and then wrap in heavy freezer paper.

will be back.. .

soon

The first Opera, and probably the last one (unless special occasions, or being invited - f.o.c.) that I watched was Turandot, a couple of weeks after I arrived in Sydney. Hey, not bad eh ? hahaha.. Eh, hang on, seriously, I'm gonna talk about the gateau, not Turandot.

Opera gateau is assembled from different components : Joconde, ganache, butter cream and chocolate glaze.A Joconde is a very thin layer of sponge cake. It needs to be baked quickly so it does not dry out. If it dries out, then its harder to absorb the coffee syrup. So the layering goes like this, sponge soaked with coffee syrup, coffee buttercream, joconde, ganache, joconde, coffee buttercream and chocoalte glaze, or maybe like this

The joconde is not completely soaked in the coffee syrup. Heh, but I was happy enough that at least the coffee buttercream was, er, straight and the cut as well.

Joconde Recipe
250g icing sugar
250g almond meal
300g eggs
66g plain flour

50g melted butter
200g egg whites
33g sugar

Mix icing sugar and almond in to eggs and whip it till light. Fold in flour and melted butter. Whip egg whites till stiffs, fold into first mix. Bake at 220 C for 8 minutes.

Haha, that's a sicko writing..

Coffee Buttercream recipe
125g egg whites
100g caster sugar
500g soft unsalted butter
10ml coffee essence

Slightly warm egg whites and whip to a firm meringue. Add sugar graddually and whip till cool. Add butter and whip. Add coffee essence. Don't keep in fridge.

Dark chocolate ganache and glaze recipe
400g dark couverture
400ml cream
50g butter

boil cream, then add to dark couverture. Stir till well incorporated. Divide into 2 bowls, 1 slightly more than another for the glaze. Add butter to it. Another bowl with slightly lesser ganache is used for the layering.

To assemble, lightly brush 1st layer of joconde with chocolate as the base. Then brush coffee syrup (made with sugar, water and instant coffee powder) over the joconde. Make sure its soaked really well. Then pipe lines and lines of coffee buttercream, of if you can spread it at the same height all the way, go ahead. Then lay another layer of joconde, brush in coffee syrup. Pour ganache over it and let it set a lil while, add another layer of joconde. Brush with more syrup. Add another layer of coffee buttercream. Then flatten it, or rather make sure it's straight or even at the top. Cover with silicone paper and chill in fridge for about 20 minutes, (or till the silicone paper can be removed easily without tearing the buttercream. Pour over the glaze, if it's harden, warm up abit. Put in fridge and let it set. then, voila. Cut the edges with knife dipped in luke warm water for a nice clean cut.

mini operas

Yum. This cake is nice, *reminder; I'm not a coffee-fan*. The bitterness of the chocolae and coffee actually reduces the sweetness of the cake. It's quite a heavy cake, as in, you can only eat a small piece at 1 time. But hey, doesn't everyone has a cow's stomach when it comes to dessert ? haha maybe not everyone.

180g dried dates, pitted, chopped
1 tsp bicarb soda
50g unsalted butter
150g brown sugar
2 eggs
180g self raising flour, sifted
Vanilla Ice cream to serve

Toffee Sauce
150g brown sugar
250ml cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
20g unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 180 C. Combine dates and bicarb soda in a heatproof bowl. Pour over 250ml of boiling water. Set dates aside till room temp. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl till pale. Add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Fold in flour then stir in date mixture (yes, plus the water)

Pour mixture into grased cake pan and bake for 30-45 minutes until cooked through. Set aside for a couple of minutes before turning out. To make sauce, combine all ingredietns over low heat, stirring until butter has melted. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot!

Just imagine theres a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and drizzling toffee sauce -.-"

My sticky date pudding was slightly dry at the sides. Might have left in the oven too long. :P

Croquembouche is a traditional French dessert usually made as a wedding cake. *oh my, I wouldn't want my wedding cake to be a droquembouch!* Profiteroles are stacked onto a shape like cone, and the size of profiteroles are usually 4 cm diameter. So, imagine, a 1000 profiteroles croquembouche !! my oh my, that would be HUGE ! French Croquembouches are profiteroles dipped in caramel and filled with creme patisserie. It's base is made from Nougatine. The nougatines are cut into shapes and moulded while its hot! So bascially, the whole thing looks golden brownish in colour. The Italians, make croquembouche as well, but instead of caramel, they use Chocolate. Now, I wouldn't mind chocolate *hehe*

Mini Profiteroles

Profiteroles are dipped into caramel and stick to each other. Sticky job, and risky, I suppose.

So, we stack and stack and stack till we reach the top! Mind you, it's not like the chocolate croquembouch that I made before where there's a cone in the middle to support.

But yeah, managed to stick them up together, haha Nougatines were very fragile as they may just break despite the 'toughness'. Spun sugar is made and just swirl it around the Croquembouche.

Worm's eye view ;)

Like seriously, I can't imagine how this is eaten. The caramel is so hard that if an elderly's teeth are not strong, they may break before the caramel does! Not to mention the Nougatines.

toodles

However, the dough for me doesn't seem to be as good as using filo or puff. That's because it becomes slightly chewy a few hours after baked. Well maybe apple strudels are meant to be like that, but there's a reason why people use filo for it.

Traditional Apple Strudel

Baklava..

Are probably the easiest thing to make ever. All you need is grinded nuts of your liking, filo pastry and ghee. Ok well, maybe perhaps sugar syrup as well. Oh wait, maybe some flour and sugar. Haha.

The history of baklava, like that of many other foods, is not well documented. Though it has been claimed by many groups, the best evidence is that, despite its Arabic-sounding name, it is probably of central Asian Turkic origin.

It is claimed on some Web pages that baklava is of Assyrian origin; it is sometimes claimed that it dates to ancient Mesopotamia, and was mentioned in a Mesopotamian cookbook on walnut dishes. No scholarly support has been found for these claims.

Vryonis (1971) identified the ancient Greek gastris, kopte, kopton, or koptoplakous, mentioned in the Deipnosophistae, as baklava, and calls it a "Byzantine favorite." However, Perry (1994) shows that though gastris contained a filling of nuts and honey, it did not include any dough; instead, it involved a honey and ground sesame mixture similar to modern pasteli or halva .

Perry then assembles evidence to show that layered breads were created by Turks in Central Asia and argues that the "missing link" between the Central Asian folded or layered breads (which did not include nuts) and modern phyllo-based pastries like baklava is the Azerbaijani dish Baki pakhlavası.

Medieval Arabic cookbooks such as Al-Baghdadi's Kitab al-Tabikh had recipes for baklava.

Further development would have occurred in the kitchens of the Topkapı Palace, where the sultan presented trays of baklava to the Janissaries every 15th of Ramadan in a ceremonial procession called the Baklava Alayı. (Wasti, 2005)

quoted from wikipedia

So, greek or middle eastern delicacies ? it remains a mystery.

There are different shapes of baklava. Mainly diamond shape which is cut from a large tray, ladies finger (well, no idea why it's called ladies finger) and bird's nest. To make baklava, lay about 15 sheets of filo pastry on a 4-sided flat baking tray, then spread the grinder nuts (walnuts, pistachios, cashews) that's already been lightly mixed with 2 tbsp of flour and sugar. Then place another 15 layers of filo ontop and thighten the corners and sides so they don't open up when baked. Then cut straight lines. and pour melted ghee till it's all absorbed, then cut diagonally so they form a diamond shape. Then bake at 150 for 60-90 minutes. I was quite surprised how come we didn't get to make our own tray of baklava. *sigh* But chef did demo some different shapes of Baklava, and baked some. Add hot sugar syrup on the baklava and let it stand for a couple of hours for the syrup to be absorbed. Now, is that easy or what ?

This is the birdsnest baklava with cashewnuts and pistachio with rosewater flavoured sugar syrup. the pistachios tasted awesome !! I adore pistachios!

1/2 C. Butter
1/2 t. salt
1 c. Oat flour
1/2 c rolled oats
1T baking powder
1c. milk
1c. brown sugar 
3c. fresh or frozen fruit

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt butter in 9" square baking dish in oven.

mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk and pour over butter.
Add fruit on top.DO NOT mix.  Bake 40 minutes.  Serve warm.  Serves 6.

(Note: You can use dairy substitutes for the milk and butter and it's still delicious)

Cream butter and sugars, add banana. Mix together flour, oats, soda, salt, baking powder and add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla. drop by spoonfuls, bake at 375.

They are more cake like than true cookie in texture but are good. they also are good with Chocolate chips if you can find ones with no nut contamination.

1 fresh sugar pumpkin, seeded peeled and cubed..no this isn’t easy
1T butter
1T Maple Syrup

1 stick butter - softened
1.5 cups rolled oats
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
cinnamon and nutmeg
pinch of salt (if you use unsalted butter)

Spread pumpkin cubes across bottom of baking dish, drizzle with the maple syrup and dot with the butter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Mix the remaining ingredients with hand to make a crumbly topping. After the 30 minutes is up, sprinkle it over the pumpkin. Replace back in oven for 30 minutes.

Really good when served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream

The thumbprint cookies are the understated masterpieces of the Rosie's case, just like the guy who really loved you. Not flashy, no floral embellishments. A simple cookie. But it's all the best stuff - fresh butter, just enough sugar and flour to keep it bound together, and a zing of raspberry jam. And don't let the diminutive size fool you - the thumbprint has more fullness and staying power than cookies 5 times its size. The flavor that lingers is warm, full, satisfying. Love in all its aspects, as the tarot reader says.

Now for the za. I'm sensitive to the fact that people have strong opinions on pizza. I'm one of them. But in my advanced age, I've learned enough about "authenticity" to know that what I like is what I like. If what I like is some bastard hybrid of what finds in Sicily and someone's kitchen in Revere, so be it. Kind of like what you find attractive in a person. In my youth, there had to be a natural beauty, humor, and sharpness. Some bite. That's what I like in my pizza, to this day.

Regina's had at least two expand and contract periods in my memory, but luckily for me the last contraction left the ovens at South Station in tact. I ask for a simple slice of cheese, and sit down to a salty wedge with decent sauce and a near-grail crust. I like a thin pizza, with the crust nearly overdone. I like to hear a little snap on the first bite, and Regina consistently delivers. Easy on the oil, decent if not gourmand cheese, and a nice mmmmm. Like a memorable first kiss from a date in my teenage past; delicious and not always good for you. Now I know to keep it to one slice.

I swear I must be last ever person in Sydney's food-blogosphere to post about this. This event was held last Saturday 28th Oct 2006. I'm 5 days, almost 6 late. Ha.. Even the Good Food Month wrap up by Reb is done! *crap*

Sunny day for an outdoor event like this, eh ? It was, jam-packed!

uber huuuuge foccacia from Brasserie Bread

High Tea from The Tearoom on the left and Canape selection from Salon Prive Catering on the right. I wonder if they might accidentally pick up the wrong one. haha

Delicious giftbag that was, tooooo good to be true. 2 vouchers, November issue of delicious, a book-compilation of desserts, barrila tortellini, tea sachets, sweets and candies, Fiji mineral water. I bought it of course!

Cooking Risotto at Industrie - South of France

Scallop and prawn Rissoto. This was absolutely beautiful! The queue was very long but we were lucky enough to be one of the last few to managed to grab a serving! and it wasn't even 1pm yet!

Thai Noodle Salad with BBQ Pork from Longrain. Yum!!!

Lobster 'fishcakes' Sung Choi Bao, with pineapple salsa from Ocean Room

Grilling prawns at Pomegranate Thai / Prasit's North Sydney

Toasted Marshmallows from Marque Restaurant *good idea, remembers it*

preperation at Quay Restaurant

Grilled, stuffed baby squid with salad of eggplant, olive and parsley from Quay

Thai Beef Noodle Soup from Arun Thai Express

Papardelle with braised rabbit 'cacciatore' style with braised tomato, mushroom, olives and white wine with fresh mint leaves and parmesan cheese from Local Wine Bar & Restaurant

And that wraps up for this years Good Food Month!

related posts -

Sugar Hit @ Sheraton on the Park
Night Noodle Market @ Hyde Park
Good Living Grower's Market @ Pyrmont

This is my first Good Food Month, hopefully I'm still in Aus next year for my second Good Food Month !

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