Croissants! First attempt

Croissants! A definite bake most likely to be seen in Parisian cafes and loved by many including my granny. Truth be told i'm not the biggest fan of croissants...they've never really appealed to me and I would always turn my head away from them no matter how delicious and flaky they looked. My family however, grandma in particular loves them to death! When she lived here in the UK for 2 years in the past she would have a croissant and tea for lunch almost everyday. My dad would bake her pretty little ones fresh from the oven and she would loathe over them. xD. Nowadays we just buy them from costcos because they're hella cheap and huge!

Since my grandma now lives in Hong Kong, she always says how Hong Kong's croissants are no match for ones you in the UK because people in Hong Kong are conscious of their health and most baked products are low in fat, most probably sugar and salt too therefore they lack in flavour. So whenever we go to visit her in Hong Kong we will bulk buy her packs of costco croissants xD 

Even though we give her these croissants, I would still love to be able to bake a perfect batch for her, so she can enjoy properly fresh made ones. 

My first batch of croissants! Completely flopped face down...they were too sweet and I didn't bake them for long enough :/. Totally forgot they needed longer in the oven when I saw that they had already browned evenly and took them out of the oven and was rather excited. ==''...after realizing I chucked them back in the oven, but they still needed longer, but I could no longer be bothered to turn the oven back on...hehe. -forever under baking stuff...especially bread types of bakes- 

They puffed up nicely, but deflated a little the next day, and was a little rougher than I had hoped, very buttery though! The toughness might have been because I under proved the dough? I was pleasantly surprised by the aroma that came out whilst these croissants were baking, soo delicious! the combination of the yeasty, bread smell and a rich buttery smell. Mmmm. Luscious. 

How it looks inside...definitely needed more baking!

Lil before and after gif to finish off! Will watch more videos, recipes and study how to make croissants harder... haha. There will be more posts about croissants! Hopefully I will be able to bake a presentable croissant by the time I fly to Hong Kong to see my granny~ 

This is the recipe I used, a very detailed and well presented one.

Trip to William Curley's boutique

On a Tuesday I ventured to Richmond to find William Curley's boutique. It was about a 5 minute walk from the station (probably less if we knew our way properly). I was so excited to be there seeing as I'm quite a big fan of his...I was honestly thinking if I should bring my book (well, his) just incase I see him and then hopefully return with a signature on the book haha. His boutique was among all these other cute shops, there was a tea and coffee specialist kind of shop next door, a restaurant opposite, a clothes boutique and various other shops. The whole atmosphere of the place was a calm, relaxed and jolly. 

Honestly, it was very weird to see all the desserts displayed in front of me when I went into the boutique as I usually see them in his chocolate recipe book. It felt...surreal? haha. A bit like when I first went to a concert of this Korean pop band, a sort of 'wow, I never would have expected to have this kind of experience' feel. The boutique was actually smaller than I expected it to be, but it was better this way because I wouldn't feel overwhelmed and out of place in a high class environment. I felt like it was just right, it was in a cosy, small side street with a few seats outside. As I'm use to big restaurants and maybe some cafes (usually ones in central London) with various seating and huge spaces coming to this boutique felt like a special find, despite the fact that I had previously researched on how to get there exactly...hehe xD. 

Anyways, these were the desserts we chose, also with a salted caramel bar and 2 scoops of ice-cream, but we never got to photograph it because we were lazy :D. My sister chose the top left, yuzu praline tart (if i remember correctly, forgive me if I'm wrong), I chose the top right, a raspberry and chocolate slice, a mango and passion fruit entremet and a cassis taecake. They were all so scrummy as I expected *-*, as a chocoholic and a huge lover of raspberry, the slice was just right for me, it was the right amount of indulgence though I should've ordered a colder, fresher drink to wash down the rich chocolate, Matcha latte would be better suited for a colder weather. The mango and passion fruit entremet was extremely light and flavoursome as well, it was sooo delicious. 

The marshmellow in the teacake was so vibrant with a sprinkling of the purple/pink ish hisbicus powder (if that's correct?) was so pretty. And then deeper with a darker tone from the blackcurrant jam. Mmm yummyy~~

Later on the day we went to went to a restaurant in Piccadilly called Shoryu where they were doing a 2 week offer of only £5 a ramen bowl *0*, bargain! Usually everything in London is ridiculously overpriced. But of course, we ordered dessert which added to the overall bill. The starter and the main course was soo delicious. They even have garlic crushers on the table along side with fresh garlic bulbs for people to crush into their mains. I love it when restaurants do this haha, a kind of 'add your own touch' feel despite it just being raw garlic and maybe a splash of soy sauce... c:

The desserts? Not worth it in my opinion, the matcha roll cake was much too sweet from the anko and the matcha couldn't be tasted much since the cream was too much and it was rather hard to get into. The Japanese cheesecake, the cake should be light and fluffy but the cake was more damp than fluffy. The mochi however, was the best out of all the desserts as well as the matcha ice cream (didn't get to take a photo of it either), I guess the simpler desserts wins?

Hopefully I will be taking a trip to William Curley's boutique sometime soon, or maybe his dessert bar this time? Next place that I will most probably be visiting; Lanka in Finchley!

Mactcha, rose, chocolate and vanilla viennese cookies.

Mmm. I really love baking at night, it's when it's most quite and I wouldn't have to rush handing the kitchen over for my parents to use for the takeaway (I love behind a chinese takeaway shop). It's so calming but when whenever the clock strikes 4am+ I start to get freaked out that there may be ghosts are lurking around haha. Probably should fix my sleeping time and bake in the morning instead ==''. merh. 

So i've always wanted to make these biscuits, they look elegant and delicate and have the richest buttery taste with the lightest crumb. MMMmm. yummmyy. :D This post is partly inspired by the anime I mentioned previously; Yumiero Patissiere. In the anime there are 3 characters called the 'sweet princes'. 3 of them would have their own flavour that they 'own' or is the flavour that is just their 'thing'. One of the sweets prince's called Kashino's flavour would be chocolate, Andoh's would be anything that is traditionally japanese based flavoured (anko, matcha and yuzu etc.) and lastly; Hanabusa's would work best with any candy art, as well as that he has a crazy obsession with roses, so rose flavoured desserts appeared a lot too. 

I never really liked the flavour of roses in anything edible, roses just weren't for me. But the anime really changed my view towards it and I started getting intrigued by using rose in desserts, still not a favourite of mine and wouldn't be one of my first choices for anything to do with food but I certainly have come around it and have been more fond of eating rose flavoured products :). The rest of the flavours I really like, the anime got me into using matcha more too. But hell is it expensive! I like my matcha strong so I tend to use a lot in my desserts. It hurts me when I use so much T^T. my matchaaaaa ahh. 

The dried rose flakes didn't really affect the biscuits much to be honest, I just thought the biscuits would looked nicer with the bright rosey flakes marbled through :), though I think it did contribute to some of the flavour, same principle with using lemon zest I presume? 

Going clock wise- Vanilla, matcha, rose and chocolate. 

As you can see from the photos, the vanilla and rose dough was the smoothest, which meant they were both the easiest to pipe, however after baking they lost their shape and were quite flat =^=~ The matcha however was smack bang in the middle, the consistency was just right for piping (although I did need to microwave the dough to soften the dough a little for ease of piping) and the shape didn't change or anything. The chocolate one however...ohhh, what a bother this one was. the dough was so stiff my piping bag exploded because I applied too much pressure to try and ooze the dough out. The dough was stiff despite microwaving a few times .__. so I ended up just rolling the biscuits out. 

Rose flakes! Some of the flakes I crushed too finely so they kind of 'dissolved' in a way into the dough. 

The matcha cookies were much easily pipe-able, stayed in shape and all~

The matcha cookies had the strongest taste out of all the cookies, I was quite surprised because usually the taste of matcha doesn't always come through, it might've actually been too bitter for my taste too and I prefer my matcha to be relatively strong too. The taste of the rose delicate and weren't too strong. I would count the matcha and the rose cookies to be the 2 most successful flavours :D.

I was hoping the butter would be richer, but I could barely taste much, might add an egg yolk or something next time I make these vanilla cookies to make it richer in flavour. The chocolate cookies were strong too like the matcha ones, though it was more acceptable because I like my fari share of chocolate xP. 

An awfully shaky video because I couldn't be bothered to get the camera stand haha. Oh well, Just a little clip. 

Recipe: 
vanilla version: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 1tsp vanilla essence - add however much according to how strong you like the vanilla

Chocolate: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 9g cocoa powder 

^with this version, I suggest using less flour so the dough is easier to pipe with

Rose: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 90g plain flour
• 90g plain flour 
• 2 drops of rose essence 
• 2 tbsp of crushed, dried rose flakes

Matcha

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream
• 90g plain flour
• 9g matcha powder

Directions: 

1. Bring butter to room temperature. Whisk the butter with icing sugar until light and fluffy. 
2. For vanilla and rose cookies, add the essence at this stage. Whisk to combine. 
3. For the matcha and chocolate cookies, sift the powder with the flour before whisking in the flour.
4. Add the sifted flour to the creamed butter until fully combined. 
5. Pop the dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe out whatever shapes you desire for these cookies onto a greased baking sheet. 
6. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes at the top rack of the oven. 
7. Once cookies are done, Slide them onto a cooling rack to cool down. 
8. Store in an airtight container or whatever container you have; enjoy!

I recommend adding maybe a pinch or half a handful of flour more to the rose and vanilla cookies, the essence could have been the reason why they lost a little shape as the consistency of these were like cake batters than thin dough. 

Carrot half-entremet?

Studying food tech for GCSE and A levels really gave me an excuse to polish up and try out different recipes I wanted to. Most of which I would have to make changes to because I would have to look at the nutritional aspect of the product as well -it was such. a pain in the neck! xD I would spend hours researching on the internet for inspiration because food tech was probably the only time I get to bake (my home oven is so big that it wastes so much gas when I bake so I would always bake several things at once or just not bake at all so less gas is wasted). Today's post is about one of my design ideas which I 'recreated' from a drama called Zettai Kareshi/Absolute Boyfriend. The main character, Riiko and her boss goes through trials to make this delicious looking carrot cream which is used for the main component of this carrot entremet Riiko later finished off. The way they filmed it made it so special that I wanted to try it out, not to mention because carrots are included which ups the health factor? :D 

Watching the drama the first time was also when I was introduced to these cute silicone  sphere molds. I was totally like ''*0* omg this is how they make round desserts?'' haha, major noob times. 

Tada! This is my take on that carrot dessert xD. Totally no where near as fancy and polished up as the one shown in the drama. When I tried to make the pieces of carrot toppings I had difficulty shaping them, they needed to be softened which would take quite a while and I just didn't have that patience at that time, so slices of par-boiled --> baked carrots it was! Was originally going to make carrot twirls, but the carrots just wouldn't stay in shape and I didn't have all night, so carrot curled coins it was! 

Originally, this was how the dessert was supposed to be like, bare without it's frilly skirt. Wasn't too happy with this so I added more :D. 

I found a recipe that had similar cooking shown in the drama, well, the boiling carrots part only really. ^^;. The carrots in the mousse couldn't really be tasted, though I would have probably added more for a brighter colour as well as flavour. It tasted more of orange because of the outer gelee layer- I used orange extract and colouring for the vibrant colour, though sweetened orange juice would be a better alternative, I just had some extra plain gelee to hand. In the center, I added a set lemon curd (for the presence of vitamin C haha and also because of the recipe I looked at used it too ) it was really nice and made the dessert creamy . 

I guess this would explain why I called this dessert a 'half-entremet'. An entremet contains quite a few layers which usually includes textures like crunchy, crispy, silky, smooth, aerated etc. 

Recipe

Click here for the full recipe. I replaced the glazing and didn't include the sponge, however I do think it's a nice touch and would give the dessert added depth of flavour. 

I definitely will try more entremets, they're fun and quite straight forward to make. :). 

Baumkuchen

Baumkuchen, or 'the tree cake' (because of the rings/layers the cake has, which resembles a tree cut open), is originated from Germany however is widely popular in Japan. To be honest, I would think even more popular in Japan, but that's really just my own opinion, but also probably because I knew of this from a Japanese outlet; anime^^''. Speaking of which, I first stumbled upon this cake when I was watching Yumeiro Patissiere (amazing anime, I LOVE it.), although it didn't look as fancy and dressed up as the other cakes shown in the anime it was special because it looked so simple and looked delicious despite it being in an anime; though I must admit, almost all food in animes looks ridiculously mouth watering =^= like a simple onigiri, gah. 

Baumkuchen is usually made with this special spinny oven, where the batter would either be poured on, or rolled in. 

So even after watching the anime, this cake was one of the cakes that was imprinted in my mind, I never thought I would be able to try it unless if I traveled to Germany or Japan or found special places where they sold them, so I was really surprised when I found quite a variety of baumkuchen cakes in Muji during my holiday at Hong Kong (which backs up my point about the Japanese loving this cake as Muji is more popular with their stationary and furniture stuff). Bought an original flavoured mini baum cake home and after one bite I simple couldn't stop, I was like ''*0*, so this, THIS IS THE TASTE OF BAUMKUCHEN?''. It was sooooo good! Buttery goodness and all, ahhhh. Bliss. 

Mini Baumkuchen from Muji! 

Well after tasting a baum cake I could understand why it is so popular, it most definitely bumped up to my top favourite cakes of all time. As London would never have a place that would sell baum cakes (although there could be, just never got round to baum cake hunting :P) I'm pretty much stuck with having to make it myself but being a home baker obviously I wouldn't have these ovens ;w;. So I decided to adopt the method that was used in Yumeiro Patissiere. 

^screenshots of the main bits that teach you how to make it at home. The rest was finding a suitable recipe and  using my own common knowledge! :D 

 Yumeiro Patissiere episode 22 - Baumkuchen

My first attempt on a Baum cake! Far from being as perfect and as fine as the one that can be bought but I definitely will try again, this time making the layers thinner and getting a bigger pan so we get more..==. My hopeless, tiny square pan only managed a cake around 15cm probably? And only 4 proper nice cuts! (Chomped on the trimmings of course). The taste of the cake was actually very nice, in the original recipe I replaced the ice cream with more butter as the cake I bought from Muji had a rich buttery taste, and I didn't want to lose that, I also thought that the cake was going to be too wet from the ice cream too. I was worried that the cake wasn't going to be sweet enough, but it turned out to had just the right amount :D, not too sweet and not too bland. The corn flour really gave the cake an interesting 'crumb', it also made the cake a little like a soft, biscuit? 

After slicing the roll, I was surprised at how the cake didn't fall apart and weren't all flimsy because when I tried to make egg rolls with it, it was possible the most easily separable thing I had made ==. I figured that the loose bits of cake that won’t stick properly together were the bits that was thoroughly cooked through, in which I realized that this method needed the cake to be only half done or at least a thin layer of cake batter left uncooked to act as an adhesive in addition to other rolled layers. 

Ingredients: 

• 60g plain flour 
• 40g corn flour
• 80g sugar
•  60g butter
• 2 eggs 

-As the batter needs to be quite thin (so that it'd be easier for to spread around the pan) the butter can be melted in advance. As I made this at night and my kitchen is rather cold, the butter in the batter solidified after a while after being left alone. If the batter turns out to be at a thicker consistency or the butter has solidified a bit, place the bowl over a bain-marie being careful that the bowl is not touching the water. Keep stirring the batter so the batter doesn't cook. This method is just used to make the batter thinner by melting the butter. 

-Make the foil roll in advance; adjust the size of how big you want the middle of your cake to be by adjusting the width of the foil roll. Trimming may be needed to adjust to fit your square pan. 

1. Cream the room temperature butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 
2. Incorporate the eggs in one at a time (the batter can split and curdle if the eggs are added all at once)
3. Sift the cake flour and corn flour into the batter and whisk lightly. No folding is needed as the air isn't really important in this cake, though you don't want to over mix the batter so all air is knocked out, some will help create a fluffier cake. 
4. Heat the pan up and brush a light layer of butter in the pan to prevent sticking. Pour a thin layer of the cake in the pan; wait until each layer is nearly cooked through. Place the aluminum roll at the top of your square pan, and gently roll the cake towards yourself. Make sure the layer of cake is quite tightly rolled around the foil roll so ensure no loose bits. 
5. Carry on with each layer until the outer layer can no longer wrap around the the entire cake roll. 

The original recipe I got was from here. Do check her blog out if you're interested in Japanese food and cooking. 

^leftover batter: a Baum sqaures? haha.