Sweet & Savory

SHF 17 - Caramel Chocolate Balls

Creamy chocolate ganache infused with the comforting flavor of caramel — exactly what we had in mind when we found out about this month's dairy-themed SHF hosted by Spittoon Extra. I know they may seem like nothing special, but as much as we work with chocolate in other creations, this is the first time we've actually attempted truffles. Happy to say they were delicious and the addition of a scant pinch of sea salt definitely helped to intensify the caramel flavor.

IMBB 20 - Raspberry Soufflé with Crème Anglaise

Wow! Two cooking events in one month.. in one weekend no less!

Kitchen Chick hosts this month's IMBB 20 — Soufflés, and here is our last-minute entry — raspberry soufflé with crème anglaise (recipe courtesy CIA's Baking & Pastry). The soufflés rose about an inch up out of the 4-ounce ramekins, displaying their pretty pink color, topped with a lightly-browned "cap".

We dusted them with cacao nib powder (leftovers from our SHF 13 nib tuiles) and spooned on some crème anglaise before we ate them.

I felt that the soufflé was way too sweet, so I will probably cut back on the sugar next time, maybe by as much as half. But, otherwise, the raspberry flavor was intense and the texture of the soufflé itself was like that of meringue — light and airy.

SHF 13 - Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet

The Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet is our contribution to Lovescool's SHF 13, whose theme is dark chocolate!

The inspiration came from a lovely chocolate mi-cuit we had at Marinus a couple months ago. Not having been so bold as to ask their pastry chef for their guarded recipe, we instead made these molten chocolate cakes, from Jean-George Vongerichten. Despite being accustomed to the darker Scharffen Berger baking chocolates (70% bittersweet and 80% extra dark varieties), we decided to stay true to the recipe and use 61% Valrhona chocolate.

After sitting for a mere minute out of the oven, each molten chocolate cake is inverted and topped with a chocolate cacao nib tuile. As a finishing touch, we added a few drops of strawberry sauce and a scoop of yogurt sorbet, made from Straus' whole milk vanilla yogurt (recipe courtesy of Claudia Fleming's The Last Course).

We could hardly wait for the photos to be taken to dig into this delicious looking and smelling dessert. The molten cakes were cooked slightly more than intended, probably because we didn't have 6 ounce ramekins but had instead used 4 ounce ramekins, but yet forgot to reduce the baking time to account for this change. So, some of the centers were set like the mi-cuit we had hoped to duplicate, much to our delight. We had been a little afraid that the tuiles would turn out to be too thick or inconsistent buttery messes, but were relieved in the end. They were delicate yet crisp, adding a little texture to the otherwise smooth combination of cake and sorbet.

Two things we might do differently when we make this again — to use raspberries instead of strawberries for a more intense and contrasting flavor; and to use our 80% Scharffen Berger chocolate for an extra dark decadence!

SHF 9 - Peach and Almond Tart

We saw the the notice for SHF 9 posted on Life in Flow about 2 weeks ago. With the theme being tarts, I remembered Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte contained a recipe for peach and almond tart that I wanted to try. Peach season is starting to peak in California. It was perfect timing.

I am really really sad as A and I missed the deadline for SHF 9. The tart dough and the frangipane were made on Wednesday night with a plan to blind bake the tart dough and stew the peaches on Thursday and to assemble and have the final baking on Friday, just in time for the deadline. Well, everything went downhill after Wednesday. I ended up staying at work until 4 am on Thursday only to get up and make it to work by 10 am Friday. Got home after work around 7 pm on Friday and promptly slept until 10:45 pm. No amount of poking or prodding by A could arouse me from my sleep. Poor A was left to manage our SHF endeavor by himself. When I finally woke up, A had already finished poaching the peaches and had started to the blind baking of the tart dough. (What a delightful man!) Our SHF project was not finished until 2:30 am. Though tired and dealing with pounding headaches, we were happy with our finished tarts.

A and I, in the past, have posted the recipes we used to make our creations, whether they are our own inventions or lifted from some cookbook. Lately, I've gotten a little paranoid about copyright laws so no more posting recipes from cookbooks. (Can you imagine if I posted something from the French Laundry Cookbook and Mr. Keller got so mad he banned me from EVER eating at French Laundry again?! *shudder*). If you would like to make this tart, the recipe can be found starting on page 310. The tart consists essentially of three components: the crust, the poached peaches, and the almond frangipane. Trust me when I say the tart dough and the frangipane were unbelievably easy to make. At least 50 times easier than the puff pastries we made for Clement's SHF 5. Poaching and preparing the peaches was not difficult either but more time consuming. The peaches were poached in a mixture of rosé wine, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, salt, sugar, lemon and vanilla. We liked the remaining poaching liquid so much that we saved it and made it into a sorbet.

When all three components are prepped, they are assembled together to be baked until the crust is golden brown and the almond frangipane is puffed and browned. The entire house was awash in the delicious scent of a home-baked tart. Here is our peach and almond tart with a scoop of peach and rosé wine sorbet.

IMBB 13 - Banana Cupcake Surprise

In less than six hours, J and I will be soaring over the great American Midwest bound for New York City for our (early) anniversary trip. We will be spending the next week and a half putting our best effort into eating through the Big Apple, as only a pair of insane foodies can do on their first trip in such a place. As such, we were compelled to post an early entry for IMBB13, hosted by Maki of i was just really very hungry. When we read that the theme was cupcakes, we knew exactly what we were making.

One of my favorite flavors of pie is that of Boston Cream Pie, which is not even really a pie. It's actually a cake, typically formed by layers of yellow cake, sandwiching a silky vanilla cream filling, and glazed with chocolate. My addiction to this classic combination of flavors had inspired me to brainstorm on a cupcake version. I'd been thinking about baking them for a while, and IMBB13 was the perfect occasion to finally do it.

My basic idea was to:

• use a butter cake batter for the cupcakes
• hide a dark chocolate truffle inside each cupcake
• cover the cupcakes with vanilla pastry cream

As you can plainly see, the end result was very different from the beginning idea. The cupcakes evolved in our heads. What started out as Boston Cream Cupcakes merged with Banana Cream Cupcakes and eventually became Banana Cupcake Surprise! I kept the first two steps of my original idea, but ended up topping the cupcakes with simply a slice of caramelized banana.

I made this last-minute change mainly because I ran out of time before our NYC trip. I will probably try it again with the vanilla pastry cream when I have another chance. And I promise to get recipes up here when we get back from our trip, but for now, I need to finish packing! :)

SHF 5 - Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane & Puff Pastry with Whipped Ganache

Clement from À la Cuisine! came up with the most brilliant topic of puff pastry for the 5th installment of Sugar High Friday. Yay for Clement! J and I have never made puff pastry before. We've certainly eaten our share of it but have never been courageous enough to face this seemingly herculean task. This seemed like a good time to try it out and see what different creations fellow bloggers from around the world would come up with.

We hmmmed and hawed over our collection of cookbooks. After much meditation, debate, and drooling, we reached a consensus. We would create an adaptation of Pierre Hermé's Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à l' Orange. This beauty had a 2-page photo spread all to itself in the book, designed to show off its perfection in minute detail. To make things a little more interesting for us, it would be banana flavored instead of orange - sort of a different take on the all-American banana cream pie or the boston cream pie.

Our resulting Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane were not complete successes but they were far from failures. The banana crème mousseline came out lovely - light and airy with an appropriate amount of banana flavor. The mille-feuilles, however, did not come out quite as lovely as we had hoped. The initial bite is a buttery flaky goodness, but then a strange salty aftertaste lingers. We know that salt is sometimes used to bring out sweet flavors but this was too salty. It ruined the taste of the puff pastry. Was the strange salty aftertaste because of the salt? The unsweetened cocoa powder? Was it supposed to taste like this? (Hope not!) We were fairly certain we had measured out 30 grams of salt as specified in the recipe. Was French salt different from American kosher salt? Or were we not suppose to use kosher salt? So many questions ran through our mind.

Unsatisfied with our first attempt at puff pastry, we decided that we were going to try our hands at making it again but this time with the puff pastry ingredients and ratios from Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook. The filling would be whipped chocolate ganache instead of banana pastry cream to try out a different combination of flavors.

There was significant improvement on the flavor, no weird aftertaste, just a hint of salt to complement the sweet chocolate ganache. This second puff pastry showed great improvement in flavor over our first attempt. However, the center sections of the puff pastry were dense and thick, not at all flaky like what we expected. Maybe we should have baked it a little longer?

However imperfect the puff pastry was, it was still a lovely dessert to eat!

Of course we will continue on our quest for the ultimate puff pastry... But maybe after a short break as we have been eating an awful lot of puff pastry lately. SHF this time turned out to stand for Sugar High February for us. :)

Banana Crème Pâtisseière
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé and The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

• 6 large bananas, peeled
• 1 liter whole milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 250 g caster sugar
• 100 g cornstarch
• 240 g egg yolks
• 100 g unsalted butter

Place the bananas, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan over low heat. Cover the bananas with a sheet of paper towel to keep them submerged. Continue to heat on low for 10 to 15 minutes, keeping it just under the point of simmering, so that the bananas poach in the hot liquid. Remove the saucepan from heat when the bananas become soft but not mushy. Remove the paper towel and the bananas and discard. Strain the remaining contents of the saucepan several times to remove any bits of banana from the poaching liquid. Place this banana-infused milk back into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, constarch and egg yolks, until smooth and pale in color. Pour about 1 cup of the simmering milk over the egg mixture and beat vigorously before stirring it into the rest of the milk. Bring to a boil, stirring consistently with the whisk. Allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then pour at once into a bowl placed in an ice water bath. Continue to beat from time to time. When the temperature of the "crème" reaches approximately 140°F (60°C), add the butter and stir until fully combined. Let chill until ready to use.

Caramelized Chocolate Puff Pastry
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé written by Dorie Greenspan and The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

Détrempe

• 1 kg fine wheat flour
• 30 g kosher salt
• 10 g white vinegar
• 420 g water
• 260 g melted butter

Beurrage

• 800 g butter
• 180 g powdered cocoa

For the détrempe, mix together the wheat flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and vinegar and stir to combine. Then add the melted butter and beat with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together. Turn out the dough onto your work surface and knead for 1 to 2 minutes before gathering it into a flat ball. Wrap in a plastic film and refrigerate it while you start the beurrage.

For the beurrage, place the butter on a cold surface, such as a marble slab, and pound it with a rolling pin to make it malleable. Fold it over itself once or twice and pound it out again. The butter should now be soft but still cold and not oily. Sprinkle the cocoa over the butter and use a plastic dough scraper to cut the cocoa into the butter until the butter has a fairly consistent cocoa color. Form the beurrage into a 9-inch square and set aside. If it is no longer chilled, place it in the refrigerator while doing the next step.

Clean the work surface and dust it with flour. Lay the détrempe on the work surface and roll it out to a 12-inch square. Mark a diamond shape in it, connecting the center of each side. Dust the dough lightly with flour. Roll out the corners of the square (the triangles formed by the diamond) so that the points extend for about 6 inches, leaving the center mound thicker than the edges.

Lay the beurrage on the diamond, adjusting its size to fit the dough as necessary. Fold the rolled out dough flaps over the beurrage, stretching them and overlapping them as necessary to totally encase the butter and form a square package. Seal the edges by pressing lightly with the rolling pin. Dust with flour. Gently press the package into a rectangle approximately 10 inches by 20 inches. Place on a tray and clean the work surface. If it is warm and the butter seems soft, refrigerate it for 30 minutes before continuing.

For the first double turns, place the dough on the work surface with a short side facing you. Roll out the dough from top to bottom or bottom to top, using even pressure, into a rectangle approximately 12 inches by 24 inches. It is important to keep the edges of the pastry as straight as possible during rolling, or else you may not get even folds and the pastry may not rise as it should. This may be facilitated by flipping over the dough, vertically, once in a while to roll on the other side. As you roll, sprinkle the work surface with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Also, be careful that the butter does not start to leak out from the sides (as will occur with more rolling). If it does, seal the hole with some flour and refrigerate the dough for several minutes before continuing.

Fold over both short ends of the dough to meet in the center, then fold one side over the other to form four layers. Turn the dough 90 degrees to the left, so that the fold is on your left, and repeat the rolling and folding a second time to finish the first set of double turns. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours. Repeat the double turns a second time and refrigerate again for 2 hours. Repeat the double turns one last time for a total of 6 single turns.

At this point, the puff pastry can be frozen if desired. If using right away, use a pastry cutter to cut the puff pastry into thirds. Each third will be rolled out to fit in one half sheet baking pan. Prepare the baking pan by lining it with parchment paper and then brushing the parchment paper lightly with water. Reserve another half sheet baking pan and parchment paper of the same size for later in the baking process. Roll out the puff pastry until it is 4 millimeters thick. Place the rolled out dough onto the moistened parchment paper, prick it with a fork, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. This will allow the flour's gluten to relax so the pastry will rise evenly and maintain its size and shape under heat.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator, lift off and discard the plastic wrap, and dust the top of the puff pastry evenly with caster sugar. Slide the baking sheet into the oven, close the oven door, and immediately lower the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C). Bake the pastry for 15 minutes, during which time it will rise and begin to brown. Pull the baking sheet from the oven and cover the pastry with the reserved parchment sheet. Lightly place the second baking sheet on top. Carefully turn the whole setup over and place it on a work surface. Pull away the first baking sheet and parchment sheet so that the uncaramelized side of the puff pastry is now the side you see. Sift confectioners' sugar evenly over this side and return to the oven for another 5 minutes to allow the sugar to melt.

At this time, remove the baking sheet from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 475°F (245°C). Once the oven is done preheating, return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the sugar is caramelized and the pastry is starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Be sure to watch closely so you don't end up burning the pastry. Pull the baking sheet from the oven, place the pastry on a cooling rack, and allow it to cool completely before assembling the mille-feuilles.

Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé

• 1 kg Banana Crème Pâtissière
• 200 g single pouring cream
• Caramelized Chocolate Puff Pastry

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold this gently into the banana crème pâtissière until fully combined, to form banana crème mousseline.

Cut the puff pastry to the desired size. You will need three layers of the same size for each mille-feuille assembly. Spread or pipe the banane crème mousseline over the first layer and cover it with a second layer of chocolate puff pastry. Repeat this process once more and decorate with confectioners' sugar. Serve as soon as possible.

IMBB 11 - Mung Bean Mochi

Our internet connection at home is still in the process of being repaired, but we were not about to let that get in the way of participating in Is My Blog Burning 11. Cathy of my little kitchen hosts this month's theme of beans.

A couple weeks ago, J had roused me in the middle of the night by making lots of commotion while stomping around in the bedroom. Apparently, she'd been looking forward to participating in the next IMBB, but was stumped when she found out about the theme. She just could not think of anything she could make for this upcoming weblogging event, since she does not particularly like beans in general (with some rare exceptions). As recounted to me later, I then sat up in a dream-like state, turned to her, and said "My dear.. make mochi.." and then promptly fell back asleep.

And so it was decided.

Japanese mochi, filled with sweet bean paste, has been a weakness for J and I for quite some time now. Every time we are in Japantown for lunch, we'd inevitably stop by the manju shop on Jackson Street. When we first found this treasure trove of confectionary treats, we tried one of every shape, color, and texture. Nowadays, we just get one each of our favorite - smooth mochi with smooth white bean paste filling.

This would be our first attempt at making mochi ourselves, so we wanted quality recipes from which to start. The mung bean paste filling is adapted from a Chinese cookbook recipe, which J's mom graciously translated for us. The mochi itself is adapted from a recipe that a friend's mom has used in the past to make her own mochi famous among family circles.

Mung Bean Paste

• 1 cup dried mung beans, without peels
• 1½ to 2 cups water
• 100 g (or 1 medium) yellow yam, baked and peeled
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• a pinch of salt

The filling starts from dried mung beans, which I found in a conveniently peeled form in my local Asian grocery store. Wash them thoroughly to remove any residual peels. Combine the washed beans with 1½ cups of water in a medium saucepan, and simmer over medium heat, uncovered, stirring constantly. The beans should be cooked until they are soft enough to be mashed with a spoon. Add more water as necessary, but do not exceed 2 cups total or else the end result will be too wet.

Once the beans are soft, remove from heat, smash with a spoon until smooth. Mash the yellow yam and mix it with the bean paste. Incorporate the sugar into the bean paste, stirring to mix uniformly. You may have a different preference to the level of sweetness, so add additional sugar to taste. Finally, stir in the butter and salt.

At this point, the paste can be stored, refrigerated, in an airtight container, until ready to use.

Mochi

• 1 cup sweet rice flour
• 2/3 cup water
• ¼ cup sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a microwave-safe plastic container and mix vigorously until smooth. Microwave, with the lid on, but not totally sealed, for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture until it is smooth. Return the container to the microwave and heat for another 30 seconds. Again, stir until smooth. Repeat this heating, followed by stirring, for a total of 2½ minutes. The mochi should now feel smooth and sticky, yet springy and resilient. (If you didn't stir enough between heatings, you may end up instead having a lumpy mess!)

Liberally sprinkle your work surface and dust your hands with corn starch, to prevent sticking. While the mochi is still hot, scoop out a chunk with a spoon. Cover the remaining mochi, to keep it warm, while you do these next steps. Roll the mochi chunk between your hands to form a ¾-inch diameter ball. Flatten the ball like a pancake until it's about 1/8-inch thick. Spoon your reserved mung bean paste in the middle of the mochi "pancake". Bring the edges of the mochi to the center, wrapping the filling, and pinch to seal. Repeat with the remaining mochi in the container, reheating 10 seconds in the microwave if it becomes less malleable.

The finished product - mung bean mochi - is a bite-sized confectionary with an unassuming outer appearance wrapped around a sweet secret center.