White Chocolate Crepes

White Chocolate Crepes

I love crepes. I always get them the first chance I get.  I found this easy recipe and decided to make some.  I have to say me and my family finished them in one day. They were so tasty.  The recipe below makes about 8 crepe if you use a crepe pan.  

Ingredients:

2 eggs room temperature3.5oz. cake flour2 tbsp. granulated sugar2 tbsp. melted butter250ml milk room temperaturea few drops vanilla extract


Directions
1. Sift the flour in a bowl. Add sugar and egg, and mix well with a wire whisk.
2. Add half the milk and melted butter, and mix well. Strain the batter to remove lumps. Then add the rest of the milk and a few drops vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.
3. Cover with a plastic wrap and leave the batter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
4. Use a nonstick pan, or wipe the surface of the frying pan with a thin layer of cooking oil using a paper towel. Heat the pan on medium, pour a ladle full of the crepe batter into the pan, slowly move the pan in a circular motion to spread the batter evenly.
5. Cook the crepe until the edges begin to dry, then flip the crepe over and cook the other side for about 10 seconds.
6. Serve and enjoy. 

White Chocolate Crepes

Madeleines

Madeleines

I love Madeleines.  I might go as far as say I'm addicted.  I especially want to try making the ones in the picture: Poppy and lemon madelines.  I made some but I didn't have the poppy seeds. So, it was just lemon madelines.  

Ingredients:

3 eggs 

80g sugar 

80g self raising flour 

75g butter 

1tbs poppy seeds 

zest of a lemon 

• Melt Butter in a pan

• In a large bowl, crack the eggs and whisk together with the sugar, until all sugar is incorporated and the mixture become thick and light in color.

• Sift in the flour into the egg mixture, and fold in the poppy seeds. Add lemon zest and mix everything together.

• When the melted butter is slightly cooled, pour into the mixture and gently combine to make a batter.

• Lightly line a muffin tray with butter and flour

• Scoop enough to reach the top of your madeline pan.

• Bake in a preheated oven at 355f for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

• Remove from pan and serve. Enjoy!

Directions

My lemon Madeleines

Paris Brest

Paris Brest

I first got introduced with a Paris Brest through the Japanese bakery chain, Beard Papa.  It was really delicious that I sort of became addicted to having a least one everyday. But because I didn't have a lot of money, I could not continue buying Paris Brest everyday.  so I wanted to try making them at least once. So I pinned a recipe from cake duchess , which had a lot of nice pictures to follow along with. 

Her recipe also had raspberry filling which I like.  

Recipe:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup water

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, room temperature

Raspberry Whipped Cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 1/4 cup whipped cream

1 cup fresh raspberries

Raspberry Whipped Cream Directions:

Puree the raspberries in a mixer. Strain the raspberries through a fine sieve and set aside (you need to remove the seeds from raspberries).

If you like your cream sweeter, add a little more powdered sugar. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the cream with the powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the raspberry coulis and beat on low speed until combined. Set in refrigerator to chill while you prepare the dough.

To make the Pâte a Choux-Cream Puff Dough:

In a heavy sauce pan, combine the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Add the flour and stir until smooth with a heavy wooden spoon.

Turn the heat up to high and cook the flour mixture stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. The flour will be cooked when a thin film forms on on the bottom. You are essentially drying out the dough and the process should take about 4-5 minutes.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a mixer (I used a stand mixer) and let the dough rest a minute or two. Add the eggs to the dough one at at time on medium speed until the dough is thick and smooth.

The dough needs to be used as soon as it’s made. It can’t be put in the refrigerator to use later, so make sure you are ready to go when it’s done.)

*You could draw with a  pencil 8 circles on your parchment paper lining your baking pans to help you follow the design and make them evenly shaped. Place the dough in a pastry bag using a star tip (or plain round) 1/2 –inch tip and pipe onto parchment lined baking sheets forming 8 circles.

Bake at 375 F for about 22-26 minutes (omit the almonds if you need to. still will be wonderful!). If you open the door, the puffs may deflate. The dough should be golden colored. Allow the puffs to rest on the baking sheet.

Assembling the Paris Brest:

After the dough has cooled, carefully slice in half the pastry rings. Pipe the chilled whipped cream on the bottom layer of the rings. Top with the other halves and dust with powdered sugar.

My Paris Brest turned out well, though somewhat misshapen and thin due to the pastry tip I used. Also I still need to practice my technique with the pastry bag.

Because of the size I needed up eating 3 Paris Brest each time. 

Galette des Rois

Galette des Rois

I have a love for Galette des Rois especially when you get the fèves inside.  Fèves are little charms, usually one is placed inside a galette and whoever gets the piece of galette with the charm gets to wear the crown and be king or queen for the day.  They also get a wish.  

I used recipes from youtube in order to make mine using the ingredients above.     

Almond Filling

• 1 cup (200g) almond flour
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• pinch salt
• 3 1/2 ounces (100g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla

1 pound (450g) puff pastry, divided in two pieces, chilled

A fève, or  whole almond or piece of candied fruit.

Glaze

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon milk

1. To make the almond filling, in a medium bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the almond flour, sugar, salt, and orange zest. Mash in the butter until it’s completely incorporated. Stir in the eggs one at a time, along with the rum and almond extract. (The mixture may not look completely smooth, which is normal.) Cover and chill.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On lightly floured surface, roll one piece of puff pastry into a circle about 9 1/2-inches (23cm) round. Using a pot lid, plate, or bottom of springform pan as a template, trim the dough into neat circle. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

3. Cover it with a sheet of parchment paper or plastic film, then roll the other piece of dough into a circle, trim it, and lay it on top. Chill the dough for thirty minutes.

4. Remove the dough and almond filling from the refrigerator. Slide the second circle of dough and parchment or plastic from pan so that there is only one circle of dough on the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the almond filling over the center of the dough, leaving a 1-inch (3cm) exposed border. Place an almond or piece of candied fruit to act as the fève (prize) somewhere in the almond filling, if you wish.

5. Brush water generously around the exposed perimeter of the dough then place the other circle of dough on top of the galette and press down to seal the edges very well. (At this point, you may wish to chill the galette since it’ll be a bit easier to finish and decorate, although it’s not necessary. It can be refrigerated overnight at this point, if you wish.)

6. To bake the galette, preheat the oven to 375ºF (180ºC.) Flute the sides of the dough (as shown in the photo) and use a paring knife to create a design on top. Stir together the egg yolk with the milk and brush it evenly over the top – avoid getting the glaze on the sides, which will inhibit the pastry from rising at the edges. Use a paring knife to poke 5 holes in the top, to allow steam escape while baking.

7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the galette is browned on top and up the sides. (During baking, if the galette puffs up too dramatically in the oven, you may want to poke it once or twice again with a paring knife to release the steam.) Remove from the oven and slide the galette off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack. The galette will deflate as it cools, which is normal. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Galette before baking

Before I baked my galette as I was trying to make the designs, the fillings started to spill out on one side.

Galette all baked

Above was my Galette after it finished baking. It continued to spill on one side as it baked.  However, the Galette was delicious.  I could not even wait to take a picture, I had to have a piece.

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

Bake Cheesecake

This beautiful cheesecake is by Gordon Ramsay. I wanted to try it but did not have any raspberries, so I tried to use the small wild strawberries I had. 

Ignore the milk there is no end for. 

Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing
• 550g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 160g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 200g raspberries or Strawberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Butter a 23cm springform cake tin.
2. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the beaten eggs bit by bit until combined. Add the flour and lemon zest, then fold through the raspberries.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, tapping it against the work surface to remove any bubbles and help the raspberries rise up from the bottom. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until set on the edges but wobbling slightly in the middle.
4. Once cooled, remove from the tin, running a knife around the edges to loosen if necessary, and serve.

I decided to used muffin tins for mine, because one, I didn't have a cake tin and two it was a nice serving size.  Below is my outcome. It tasted great, not too sweet with a little sourness from the berries.  My oven is a bit testy, so the top did not brown as much as I wanted but that did not take away from the taste in anyway.

Japanese Desserts: Cheesecakes

Japanese Cheesecakes

Souffle and Baked

     I like desserts and sometimes I try to make some myself. I have a particular like for Asian and European desserts.

I first tasted Japanese Cheese cake in Hong Kong.  I had it as much as I could if it was not sold out.  When I came back from Hong Kong.  I couldn't find a place that sold it, so I decided to try making it myself.  When I was looking for recipes.  I found that the cheesecake I had is often refer to as Japanese Souffle Cheesecake.  The cake is quite fluffy and light.  I also came across another Japanese Cheesecake recipe that I tried. 

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

 The cheesecake I made came out well, but did not taste as light and cheesy as the one I had in Hong Kong and I think that may have been because I did not use a recipe that included cream of tartar.  This recipe is my own, a kind of compilation of many that I found.

Preparation: 35 minutes

Baking time: 1 1/2 hrs

200g Cream Cheese

50ml Milk

50ml Cream

40g Sugar

2 Whole Eggs (Separated)

15g Flour 

3 Tbs Lemon juice (lime or orange)

Start with lining your pan. Separate your eggs into the whites and yolks. The Pre heat oven at 175 Celcius (~350F). If possible have your eggs and cream cheese at room temperature. Combine milk, cream, and cream cheese in a bowl and mix it until melted over double boiler or low heat (watch carefully).  Mix constantly until the cream cheese has melted and incorporated into a mixture. And into the mixture 30g of sugar and 2 tbs of the lemon juice and mix well. Whisk in the egg yolk. Then sift in the flour and mix well.  In a separated bowl whisk the egg whites, sugar and lemon juice until it forms a fluffy soft peak. Mix the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture gently. Pour your mixture into the baking pan and using a bain marie (place a baking tray that is deep enough to hold water into the oven, pour in about 1 inch of hot water and place the cake pan in it) put them in the oven and bake.  Lower temperature to 150 Celsius about 15 minutes when the top of the cake has browned. Then remove cake and enjoy.  

I want to try the recipe with cream of tartar and butter to see what the difference is.  The second recipe I found was when I was looking around and I found a Baked Japanese Cheesecake recipe. Though I have never tasted the real one, the baked Japanese Cheesecake I made tasted good, although my oven burned the crust some.  

Japanese Baked Cheesecake

This recipe is by ichikeron.  She has a youtube channel with a lot of recipes. Many of which I will be trying. She makes them look easy and simple.  

Time: 40min + 2-3 hours refrigeration time
Number of servings: 12 cheesecake bars

Necessary Equipment:
6-inch square brownie pan
(9-inch square brownie pan makes 18 flatter cheesecake bars)

Ingredients:
For the Crust
120g (4.2oz.) vanilla wafers
40g (1.4oz.) butter (softened)
For the Cheesecake
200g (7oz.) cream cheese (softened)
60g (2.1oz.) sugar
2 egg
150cc fresh cream (or whipping cream is okay)
1 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. flour
20g (0.7oz.) butter

Direction
The Crust

1. Line the brownie pan with waxed paper or parchment paper.
2. Smash vanilla wafers in a Ziploc bag, add butter (softened), and mix well. Press firmly into the brownie pan. Chill until set.
The Cheesecake
1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
2. Beat cream cheese with wire whisk. Add sugar, beaten eggs (little by little), fresh cream, lemon juice, flour (sift in), and melted butter, and mix until smooth.
3. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the brownie pan and bake at 180C (350F) for 35-40 minutes.
4. Allow to cool to the room temperature and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Cut into bars.

The best way to cut a cheesecake is to use a long knife that has been warmed in hot water. Dip the knife in hot water, wipe, and cut. Repeat this each time you cut! Then wrap each piece for individual servings. 

These are two great desserts that I found and tried.