Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Bars.

I think my mind is blurred because I'm starting class soon. As it's coming nearer, my heart is getting weaker. And excited. And happy. And mad. And
And 
And
I don't know.
I think I have Didaskaleinophobia.

This class is going to kill me soon. I have already spend like a few hundred bucks just to buy class materials.
But everything is worth it. 

Anyway I'm so happy because I just made a Ruffle Cake over the weekends for  baby boy birthday. It was my first time doing a ruffle cake. And ... I'm quite happy with my results. 

YES. 

IT'S ANOTHER RAINBOW CAKE AGAIN.
BUT IT'S A RUFFLE RAINBOW CAKE! YAY!

Anyway I got this apple from my office as we have fruits day every week. 
I stole 5 apples. HOHOHO.

Actually I didn't steal. Carol told that I can take as many as I like. 

I wanted to tell her can I take the whole carton of apples instead?

And I'm just joking.



Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Bars
Yields: 12 big servings

For the salted caramel sauce:

1 cup - 200grams sugar

200ml heavy cream

1 tbsp - 14grams butter

1/4 tsp salt

For the apple filling:

5 cups - 500grams diced apples (green ones are preferable)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup - 62grams all-purpose flour

1 tsp cornstarch

3/4 cup - 150grams brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground allspice

For the crumble:

3 cups - 375grams all-purpose flour

1 cup - 200grams sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup - 226grams cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg, lightly beaten

For the salted caramel sauce: Place heavy cream in a small bowl. Heat the sugar over medium-high heat in the bottom of a large saucepan until the sugar has liquified and turn into a deep amber colour. Swirl the pan occasionally to ensure even caramelization of the sugar. Off the heat, slowly stream in the heavy cream while whisking quickly to prevent the caramel from bubbling up too much and overflowing. Add the butter and and salt and stir to combine. Cool the caramel completely before using.

For the crust: Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer or if you do not have a standing mixer you can use a pastry cutter. Add the cubes of cold butter, mix until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add in the egg and mix until the dough starts to clump together.

Take about 3/4 of the dough and press it into the bottom of a greased and floured 8 x 8 inch pan evenly. Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Store the remaining 1/4 of the dough in the fridge as well while you prepare the apple filling.Bake the crust for 15 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Prepare the apple filling.

For the apple filling: Combine the diced apples and lemon juice together in a large bowl and toss to coat the apples. In another bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice together. Pour this mixture over the apples and carefully combine.

Pour the apple filling over the crust and drizzle over the salted caramel sauce. You will only need 1/2 to 3/4 cup. Crumble the remaining dough over the apples and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the crumble topping has browned and the apples are soft. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes:

As caramel needs time to cool, I suggest you make the caramel a day before.
This is best served on the day itself. Any left over can be store in a air tight container and reheat but the texture will not be as nice as eaten on the day itself.

Tim Tam Cheesecake with Salted Caramel.

OH-MY-GAWD.

This cheesecake has been in my to do list for a long long time. 

But I just doesn't have the time to do it. 

I think my baking list is piling up.

The amount of recipes I have on hand can take F O R E V E R to finish. 

And the best thing is I keep collecting them. 

But I'm happy. Who cares??

Soon I think I will have to sleep with my recipes and cookbooks because I have no space to store them.

Tim Tam Cheesecake with Salted Caramel.

Slightly modified from here

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients: 

Base:

200grams oreo, cream remove (about 27 oreos)

7 tablespoon - 100grams melted butter.

Filling:

150ml Whipping cream

3 teaspoon gelatine 

1/4 cup - 60ml water

250grams cream cheese (room temperature)

1/4 cup - 50grams castor sugar

1x200 grams Tim Tam chocolate biscuits, chopped.

Salted Caramel:

3/4 cup - 150grams sugar
Tiny bit of water
6 tbsp - 85grams butter
1/4 cup - 60 grams heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
Base:

Crush your oreos using either a food processor or if you don't have one, dump all your oreo cookies into a plastic bag and using a rolling pin, crush it until it becomes fine crumbs.
Mix the crushed oreos together with the melted butter and combined till it looks like wet sand. 
Press it onto your cake base pan and chill the base in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

Whip the whipping cream till stiff and place in fridge for later use.

Sprinkle gelatine over water and let stand for about 10 minutes.
Place in microwave for 30 seconds or over stove top to melt the gelatin. 
Stir and cool. Set aside. 
Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth using a stand mixer about 4 minutes.
Stir in the cool gelatine mixture.
Add the chopped tim tam biscuits and combine together. 
Fold in the whipping cream.
Pour filling onto base. Smooth the top and cover with a plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill at least 4 hours or overnight before consuming.

Salted Caramel:

Place sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan over stove top over medium high heat. 
Add a tiny bit of water and cook the sugar until it reach a deep amber colour, about 3 to 4 minutes. You have to monitor as it will burn very quickly. 
At this point, add the butter in and stir until melted. 
Slowly pour in heavy cream.
**Be careful as it will splatter! 
Add the salt.
Mix well and pour onto a flat tray to let cool before drizzling on the cheesecake.

Banana Nutella Swirl Bread.

Anything with Nutella is never wrong. 

They won't go wrong, how can that possibly be right?
And the addition of banana.

Yummy.

As I was typing Nutella, the computer actually suggested another word. 

WHAT? You mean Nutella doesn't exist in the dictionary? 
This is pathetic.


Just saying.

Anyway, this banana bread is fantastic.

Moist, soft, fluffy.

................................

with Nutella. 

I use the overripe bananas who people always think that it's too disgusting to be consumed.

Let me tell you something, you are so wrong.

You can use the bananas to make it into a cake, or bread. Or cupcakes.

Or, whatever you can think of.

Never waste these precious. They make the best out of dessert!

Nutella Banana Bread

Yields: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup + 9 tablespoon - 200grams all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt 

2 eggs, room temperature

6 tablespoon - 85grams butter, melted and cool

5/8 cup - 120grams brown sugar

1/4 cup - 60ml milk

3 bananas, mashed until no lumps

3/4 cup - 85grams nutella 

1 teaspoon rum or vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

Grease a loaf pan with butter. 

In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, milk, eggs and rum. Mix until just combine. 

In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until smooth.

Add mashed bananas into batter and mix until just combined.

Place nutella on heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir until it becomes runny.

Alternatively, you may microwave about 20 seconds to soften it. 

Take about 2/3 of the nutella and drizzle over the banana batter. 

Gently fold the nutella using a spatula. Do not over mix.

Carefully pour batter onto prepared grease pan evenly so that the swirl will be even. 

Add the remaining nutella and swirl the batter again.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, depending on your oven. 

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack before serving. 

Or just eat them warm.

FANTASTIC.

By: Black Baker

Matcha Eclair.

Recently I'm having matcha fever. Matcha pound cake, tart, cheesecake.
Whatever you name it. 

Did I mention before my favourite drink was green tea? I love green tea. 
So to have green tea with my favourite dessert is double joy!

Life is short. Eat dessert.
I mean, really. Eat dessert. But do eat in moderation.

I love these matcha eclairs.
Every bite is filled with soft matcha taste on your tongue. And with the chocolate ganache.
Ummmm... Slurps.


I hope to create more unique eclair flavours. 

How I miss these.
I love the weather yesterday. Makes my photos look great.


Matcha Eclair
Makes about 20 to 25 eclairs

Ingredients:
Pate a choux:

9 tablespoons - 72grams all purpose flour or pastry flour
1/4 cup - 60grams milk
1/4 cup - 60grams water 
4 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon - 60grams butter
1/4 teaspoon salt**
1 teaspoon sugar 
2 eggs, at room temperature, light beaten
1 egg white, if needed**
Fine mist spray with some water


Matcha Custard Cream:

1 heapping tablespoon - 10 grams corn flour
1 tablespoon - 10 grams all purpose flour/pastry flour
3 teaspoon matcha powder
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon - 200grams milk
3/4 teaspoon sugar 
8 teaspoons - 37grams unsalted butter 
Pinch of salt


3 small egg yolks - 45grams 
3 tablespoon - 45grams sugar
3 1/2 tablespoon - 50grams milk


Chocolate Ganache:
1/2 cup - 120grams heavy cream
4 oz - semi sweet chocolate


Directions:
Pate a choux:

In a small saucepan, combine milk, water, butter, salt and sugar.
Heat the milk mixture until the butter melts completely. 
Remove from stove and quickly add in flour and stir until mixture combines. 
Return the stove and over low heat, stir the mixture until a thin paste forms beneath the saucepan. 
Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a medium bowl. 
Using a rubber spatula, press and fold the mixture slightly to remove heat before adding in beat eggs, about 3 to 5 minutes. 
Slowly add in beaten egg in 4 portions, ensuring each addition is incorporated before adding next. 
Test the consistency of the batter when you finish adding the 3 eggs. 
Using your spatula, scoop some batter up and let it fall, if the batter can drop with 3 seconds and a v shape is left hanging beneath the spatula, you have reach the right consistency. 
Using a pastry bag or ziploc bag inserted with a plain tip, transfer batter and pipe out 3 inch long, leaving a 1 inch gap between the choux pastry as they will expand during baking on baking tray lined with baking paper/parchment paper.
Spray the choux with water to prevent drying. 
Bake in preheated oven 400F/200C for 10 minutes. 
Lower temperature to 350F/180C and bake for another 20 minutes. 
Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.


Matcha Custard Cream:


Sieve corn flour, all purpose flour and matcha powder together. Set aside.
In a saucepan, simmer 200grams milk, 3/4 teaspoon sugar and butter over medium heat until butter and sugar is melted and dissolved. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks with 3 tablespoon sugar until light and pale. 
Add in flour mixture and whisk until incorporated. 
Add 50grams milk and mix well. Add the mixture from saucepan slowly and stir well. Be careful not to cook the eggs. 
Strain mixture back into the same saucepan and place over medium low heat stirring and whisking vigorously until mixture is thickened. Be very careful and watch closely as you may burn the custard.
The mixture will bubble at the centre. Remove from heat and transfer to a baking pan or flat tray lined with cling wrap. 
**This is my new way of letting it cool faster.
Pour custard onto the baking tray lined with cling wrap and let it cool. 
Or you can choose the ice bath  method. 
Let it cool before placing in refrigerator to chill.


Chocolate Ganache:

Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
In a small pot, bring the heavy cream to a boil.
When it starts to boil, turn off heat and pour the cream into the bowl of chocolate.
Let it stand for 10 seconds before stirring the mixture until it becomes smooth.


Assembly:

1/2 cup - 120ml Heavy whipping cream

Whip heavy whipping cream to stiff peaks form and fold in to the matcha custard cream. 
Leave in the fridge to cool first before using.
Cut the choux pastry sideways or you can choose cut a hole on top of the choux puff for pipping in the pastry cream. 
Fill your pastry cream in a pastry bag filled with a small plain tip or open star pipping tip
Pipe filling into the empty pastry shell and dip chocolate ganache on top of the pastry shell. 
Place elcair on a tray and let it cool in the fridge for about 30 to 45 minutes before storing.


Notes:

**You can make the custard cream the night before as custard cream needs to be chilled before using.
**For pate a choux, if you are using salted butter, do omit the salt.
**Egg white for the pate a choux can be added a little at a time to achieve the right consistency. Do not over add the eggs. If it becomes too soft, you will need to discard the whole thing and redo again. 
**When lowering the oven temperature for pate a choux, do not be tempted to open the oven door as this will cause the puffs to sink.


Slightly adapted from Tanoshii

Lemon Meringue Tart.

It's the middle of the week.

Two more days to the weekend. Somehow, my mood is still quite stable, hasn't gone  quite haywire yet. 

Or not.

It's Mother's day this weekend. Have you guys plan to bake anything for your mum?

Food Photography is a very very expensive investment.

From cameras, to photo editing software, backdrop, lightings. 

Unless you have unlimited funds, otherwise those equipments are going to burn your pocket. 

I am rolling my eyes as I type these because I don't have unlimited funds. 

Sometimes you really have no time to shoot in the day and you can only depend on natural light to shoot your food. 

It's real headache.

The worst thing is, I don't have professional photography friends. So all I can do is to learn it online or read. 

I'm trying to look for a budget or DIY food photgraphy lightbox.

I've found quite a few which are quite easy to follow. I wonder how do they think of all these?

So amazing! And I'm thankful.

Because It's really expensive to buy those studio lightings y'know.

Those backdrops you see at my photos are my DIY's.

I didn't do an amazing job, but I'm happy with what I have. Those wooden planks already cost me a bomb, mind you.

 

I'm going to let out another sigh. 

Endless sigh.

Anyway, end of my ranting. 

Lemon meringue is good. 

Whether it's the meringue or the curd or the pastry.

Sourish, sweet with lemon curd.

Underneath lies a buttery shortcrust pastry. 

Damn. 

Start off with making the shortcrust pastry first because it needs time to chill. 

Then you will make the lemon curd.

Meringue will be the last. 

Lemon Meringue Tart

Yields | 8 inch tart

Pastry Crust:

1 1/2 cups - 180grams all purpose flour

2 teaspoon sugar

6 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon - 90grams unsalted butter, cold

1 egg yolk + 2 to 3 tablespoon water

Pinch of salt 

A little egg white for brushing

Lemon Curd :

10 tablespoon - 150ml lemon juice (About 2 1/2 lemons)

Lemon zest from 2 lemons (Avoid the white pith as it is very bitter)

3/4 cup - 150grams sugar

4 egg yolks (medium size)

3 oz - 85grams butter, cut into cubes 

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Meringue Topping:

3 egg whites, room temperature

1/3 to 1 cup - 60 to 100 grams sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tatar

Directions:

Pastry crust:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl. 

Using a pastry cutter or by hand, rub butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in egg yolk mixture and combine to form a dough. 

Using a plastic wrap, wrap up the dough it place dough in fridge to chill for about an hour or more.

Roll out dough between baking paper slightly larger then the tart pan.

Transfer the dough sheet to tart pan. 

Trim the edges and chill again for another 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350F/180C.

Remove tart base from fridge and prick the pastry base with a fork and blind bake for 20 minutes. 

Remove tart from oven and remove the weights and brush a thin layer of egg white. 

Return to oven to bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Leave aside to cool.

Lemond Curd:

Add sugar and lemon zest to a food processor or blender and pulse until the zest is finely ground up with the sugar.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar mixture until fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined.

Add the lemon juice and beat until combined. 

**It will look like it curdled but fear not, it will be ok when it starts to cook. 

Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring continuously about 10 to 15 minutes. 

**Temperature should read 170F/76C on candy thermometer. 

Remove from heat and let cool.

Cover the top of lemon curd to prevent a skin from forming. 

Meringue Topping:

In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites till foamy.

Add in cream of tatar. 

Gradually add sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks. 

Assemble:

Spread the lemon curd over the cool tart shell.

Pipe or spread the meringue onto the lemon curd. 

Place in oven at 400F/205C (top heat) to brown the meringue for 2 minutes.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti.

ok.......

I am thinking should I post this. Because my biscotti are too FAT. 
I sliced it too thick. 

A mess.
But I like messiness. 

Oh really, what am I trying to say?

But on a side note, they tasted good.

I need some comforting food again. 

Like cookies? or brownies.
Life just need to have some of this.

These are filled with chocolate chips and toasted almonds. 
The only regret I had, was that I sliced that biscotti too thick. 

TOO FAT.

drizzle with melted chocolate...

And more if you like..

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Yields: 1 dozen

1/4 cup - 57grams unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup - 150grams granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup - 45grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups - 187grams all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces - 113grams silvered almonds, toasted

1/4 cup - 80grams semi sweet chocolate chips

1 ounce - 28 grams semi sweet chocolate, melted

Method: 

Kindly preheat oven to 350F/180C

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Add the eggs one by one, beating after each addition.

Mix in the vanilla extract. 

Gradually add the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt mixing until fully combined. 

Stir in the almonds and chocolate chips.

Mix until combined. The dough should be slightly dry to the touch.

Place the dough on a baking sheet and form the dough into a log 12 inches long by 3 inches wide.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the dough cracks on top and just begins to brown.

Remove it from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or until the dough is cool enough to handle.

Using a serrated knife, cut the log into 1/2 inch slice.

Place the slice cut down onto the baking sheet.

Bake for additional 8 to 10 minutes.

For a crunchier texture, flip the biscotti over and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes. 

Place the melted chocolate into a plastic or zip loc bag and snip off the corner.

Drizzle the chocolate over the biscotti.

Allow to dry before storing.

NOTES:

Please do not slice thicker then that otherwise your biscotti will be as fat as mine!

Biscotti should be kept in a air tight container.