souffle cheesecake and white chocolate passionfruit mousse entremet.

My first attempt at sliced cakes and while they certainly are pretty to look at, there's just too much wastage. You have to measure how much to cut to be able to fit them on those little rectangular gold plates you see there and it involves a lot of trimming. A slice here, a swipe there, and you've just wasted what can amount to be a slice of cake.

Plus, it takes skill to cut a clean straight line.

But you have to admit, they're stunning. I've received praises on just how they look, and they haven't even tried it yet! A tiny neat dessert always ends up being sophisticated, no matter the flavour. Another downside? It's way way too small to satisfy my appetite. I always have a separate stomach for sweets! If you want something light to end your dinner though, this is one cake to look for.

Japanese souffle cheesecake, white chocolate passionfruit mousse, passionfruit jelly, coconut macaroon

I was searching for something fruity to make and I chanced upon this recipe in one of my favourite blogs. I tweaked it, incorporating passionfruit into the mousse and did away with a few other components as well as adding my own.

She used a white chocolate mousse and I substituted half of the milk for passionfruit puree according to her suggestion. I also added a passionfruit jelly topping since I wasn't going to make chantilly cream. Besides, I love the crunch! And I topped it off with the coconut macaroons I made yesterday. It somewhat had a tropical feel to it.

The cake was so moist, it didn't need the soaking syrup in the first place. In fact, I omitted it as I was going to freeze the cake and I was worried the syrup would ruin the texture if they were frozen together. It was also lightly cheesy so the mousse overpowered it, to me. Considering that I don't like cheese and all, this cake you definitely have to try!

The white chocolate was kind of lost in all of the passionfruit's fruitiness, but it did lend a richness. I think I would either cut down the puree to a third or use just a passionfruit mousse next time. I need to say this again- I love the coconut macaroon!

It wasn't easy assembling this cake. The base was no problem, I just used a 7 inch square pan, intending to trim it down to a 6 inch square. Then the obstacle course began. I had no 6 inch square ring, so I had to use a 7 inch one to contain the mousse. (After trimming, the cake was slightly smaller than 7 inch so I could not just leave it as it was.) As a result, the mousse was shorter than what it was supposed to be and there was excess hanging over the edges of the cake. I had to steel my heart and cut them away. Tsk...  Wastage, wastage...


Next was the jelly topping. Since I had no cake ring, I decided to use those plastic thingys to put around the sides of cakes, hoping that it would at least serve as a working mold. That was not to be, when majority of the jelly flowed down the sides through the gaps when I poured it over. And so, after whatever little jelly set, I had to trim the cake again. 

Thank goodness all that effort was worth it!

Please refer to her blog for the original recipe!

coconut macaroons.

No more macarons this time. Its macaroons. Coconut macaroons.

I can't believe I took so long to make this! Golden and slightly crisp on the outside, beautifully moist and chewy within- love it.

Just love it.

Plus, it's another great way to use up leftover egg white without having to resort to macarons. And being a one-bowl cookie doesn't hurt either.

I used Alice Medrich's recipe and although she clearly stated her preference for unsweetened dried coconut, I went ahead with sweetened shredded ones because that was what I had. She frowned upon them as they are artificially preserved. The sugar content doesn't change though, regardless of which kind you use.

Now I need to give them away before I devour the whole jar and have a private licking moment with it.

Captivating Coconut Macaron Cookies

recipe from ALICE MEDRICH

Yields 22 2 1/2 inch cookies 

4 large egg whites

3 cups of sweetened shredded coconut 

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Place all ingredients into one heat proof bowl and set it over 2 inches of barely simmering water. Stir mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to prevent any burning. Continue heating until the mixture is hot the touch and egg whites have thickened, about 6-7 minutes. Mixture is ready when a scoop can hold its shape without a puddle of syrup forming around it.

Scoop 2 tablespoons of the mixture and place it 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until edges of cooking and protruding parts are golden brown. Cool cookies completely before removing from paper.

pandan gula melaka macarons.

What inspired me to bake these macarons? Hmm...

Honestly, I was more than just slightly euphoric after my long-standing battle with macarons ended, with me (hah!) emerging victorious. Empowered with newfound confidence, I whipped up another batch just to prove that once you got it, you've got it. 


And probably just to supplement my ego.

Gula melaka, also known as palm sugar, has this unique taste and should not, I repeat, should not be substituted with brown sugar, although they do resemble each other. It is also extremely hard to melt, so I advise you to finely chop it so that when heating the egg, you won't end up with it in a repulsive scrambled state before the sugar has liquified completely. Also, if pandan leaves are not readily available to you, 1/4 teaspoon is easily exchangeable for 1 pandan leaf. It's much more convenient, anyway.

I tried to paint the macarons shells with a mixture of pandan paste and water but it turned rather splotchy instead of a nice clean stroke. I think I diluted it too much.

I noticed recently how my shells soften up way too much in the refrigerator in a matter of two days. There were some that were so soft they were pliable and stuck to my container. That never happened with my previous tries. It may be the humidity where I live- its the monsoon season right now, or I should have baked them longer. They didn't have a good enough chew to them too.

Pandan Gula Melaka Buttercream
recipe adapted from MACARON FETISH


Ingredients

1 large egg
250g butter (soften at room temperature)
125g gula melaka (chopped finely or ground it)
1 pandan leaf, cut into 4-5cm pieces

Methods

1. Warm up a pot of water on the stove. (large enough to sit your metal mixing bowl inside)

2. In the mixing bowl, add the egg, gula melaka and the pandan leave. Put it over the pot of water, using a hand beater, beat the egg and sugar. Beat until you obtain a fluffy mousse texture.

3. When the mixture becomes lukewarm, remove from the pot. Continue beating to cool down the mixture.

4. Add in the soften butter little by little into the mixture. Stop mixing when you get a smooth creamy texture. It should takes about 10 minutes to get the texture.

5. Pipe the buttercream on one of the macaron shell, then close up with the other shell in similar size.

6. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.

good morning muffins.

The best thing about Christmas? Presents! And I certainly got quite a spread of spanking new cookbooks this year. One of them is Flour.

Scanning through the pages, Good Morning Muffins caught my eye. According to Joanne, its filled with wholesome, good-for-me ingredients but still light, moist and delicious. And, its a brilliant excuse to switch on the oven without the guilt.

The original recipe called for shredded zucchini, raisins, pecans, coconut and a diced apple but due to the lack of availability of some ingredients, I substituted carrots and diced pineapples for the zucchini and raisins and apples respectively. It's still healthy anyway. 

Normally, healthy bakes not-so-secretly gets blacklisted as disgusting chew too. These definitely are not. They are indeed unbelievably moist, even with the addition of oats in there. I have a sweet tooth and I would add in more sugar the next time, given that brown sugar is less sweet than white sugar. I would also up the cinnamon too. There's no such thing as too much cinnamon for me and these muffins had only a hint of my favourite spice.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the recipe (plus I'm lazy) so I shall not. If this post is any incentive for you to get Joanne's cookbook, do it! It's truly an awesome cookbook filled with her passion for baking. I can tell that she has put her heart and soul into the makings of it. It's like she is speaking to you about her experiences and recipes, not just dictating how you should carry it out and how it tastes like. I think I've found my new idol!

I want to be a pastry chef when I grow up!

macaron take #6.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally. Perfect, blemish-free macarons. No pokey feet monkey business, no cracked shells, and at least they had some height to them. Sweet sweet success.

Turns out that my theory was right. Letting the shells just develop a light crust is also a very important factor in macaron making, albeit a not much talked about one. My feet rose and merely collapsed a tiny bit, but that happens to every macaron.

Again, I intended for them to be blue but went too light handed on the colouring. I did put in more though. Ah well, at least I don't have to buy green food colouring!

I filled these with lemon curd. Tangy and sweet- delicious.

They are definitely not the prettiest macarons out there, especially when there are so many talented bakers such as Tartelette and Not So Humble Pie. I'll keep improving and continue to churn out more flavours now that I have some confidence. Perhaps I'll even dedicate an entire page of this blog to macarons so any first time macaron bakers will learn from my mistakes and hopefully pick up some pointers. And not to give up too! Don't forget, this is my sixth batch.