Pumpkin & apple muffin, with raisins & walnuts

Yes, you read the title right! This is one muffin filled with plenty of goodness! Made with pumpkin & apple purees, plus raisins and walnuts to round off the yummy-ness... And, there's no fat used in this recipe. Convinced? I hope so... hahaha...

Following recipe makes 9 medium sized muffins:

Ingredients:

210g plain flour
260 to 280g white sugar (adjust based on personal preference)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon (adjust based on personal preference)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cloves (adjust based on personal preference)
2 eggs
290g pumpkin puree
80g apple puree
40g chopped walnuts
90g raisins

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 C. Grease muffin pans or line with muffin cups. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground cloves together in a bowl. Separately mix the eggs, pumpkin, and apple puree together smooth. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till just combined. Be careful not to over stir. Stir in carefully the raisins and walnuts. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin pans or cups. Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Pumpkin bread

Nope, its not yet thanksgiving but there's always no harm in making some yummylicious pumpkin bread, which is exactly what I did last weekend. This bread has a beautiful golden crumb that somehow reminds me of bright sunny days. I love its slightly sweet taste and soft crust... not to mention its a healthy choice!

Recipe below is adapted from Bread by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno. It makes a tiny loaf that's just nice for 2 of us at home. You can double the recipe if you prefer a full 500g loaf.

Ingredients:

- 150g pumpkin puree

- 1 tsp dried yeast

- 1 tsp honey

- 250g white bread flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 tbsp milk for glazing

- nuts or seeds of choice for sprinkling on top

Method:

Sprinkle yeast into 60ml of water. Leave for 5 minutes, add honey and stir to dissolve. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture followed by pumpkin puree. Gradually mix in the flour to form a fairly firm, coarse, sticky dough. If its too dry, add a few tablespoons of water. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead till smooth, silky and elastic, about 10 minutes. Put the dough into a clean bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise until double in size, about 1.5 hours. Knock back, then leave to rest for 10 minutes. Shape dough into a round loaf. Place on an oiled baking sheet and cover with a tea towel. Prove until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Brush the dough with milk glaze and sprinkle with nuts or seeds of choice. Bake in preheated 220 C oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and hollow sounding when tapped underneath. Leave to cool on wire rack.

Earl grey & baileys milk chocolate mousse cake

I realized its been about a month since my last post.  For 2 weeks I was away in Europe on a holiday and upon return work got the better of me for another 2 weeks... It wasn't until this weekend that I finally found some time for therapeutic baking!  

I first made this mousse cake about a year ago when earl grey flavored desserts got very popular in Hong Kong.  This was before I started this blog, hence it was never written about in a post.  I wish I had a shorter and more fanciful name that could adequately describe the perfect blend of earl grey, baileys liquor and chocolate... well, if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know!

There are 3 main parts to this dessert: butter génoise as base, a layer of baileys milk chocolate mousse set over the génoise in the middle, and earl grey mousse (in a dome shape) on the top.  A layer of dark chocolate wrap is added round the mousse cake to finish off, adding both flavor and aesthetics.  It might all sound very time consuming given the many parts to this but each part takes only a short amount of time to complete.  None of the steps are too complicated.  Also, the 2 mousses are set separately and assembled only when both are ready so saving a considerable amount of time. For me, the unforgettable taste of earl grey, baileys and chocolate deliciously harmonized in one single dessert makes it worth it! =P

Recipe below makes 8 individual cakes using 6-cm cake rings & dome molds

Ingredients:

1. For the butter génoise

-  2 eggs

- 40g sugar

- 40g plain flour, sifted

- 20g unsalted butter

2. For the baileys milk chocolate mousse

- 80g milk couverture

- 130g whipping cream

- 20g baileys liquor

- 1 sheet gelatin (2.5g)

3. For the earl grey mousse

- 11g earl grey tea leaves

- 125g fresh milk

- 175g whipping cream

- 50g egg yolks

- 40g sugar

- 2.5 sheets gelatin

Method:

1. For the butter génoise

Preheat over to 180 C.  Hand-whisk eggs and sugar over bain marie till mixture reaches 40 C.  Using an electrical whisk, beat eggs and sugar on high speed till fluffy and peaks form.  Fold flour into egg mixture in 3 batches.  Be careful not to overmix. Melt butter over bain marie, add a scoop of egg & flour mixture and mix well.  Fold mixture back into remaining egg & flour mixture and fold gently till batter surface is uniformly shiny.  Pour into 9-inch round cake tin and bake for 18 mins.  Let cool before cutting into small 5-cm rounds placed at the bottom of lined 6-cm cake rings.

2. For the baileys milk chocolate mousse

Beat whipping cream on medium speed till soft peak forms, set aside.  Soak gelatin sheet in cold water for a few minutes till it blooms.  Melt gelatin sheet over bain marie, then add 1 teaspoon of whipped cream and mix well.  Keep gelatin mixture over bain marie.  Melt milk couverture over bain marie.  When its fully melted, fold in 1/3 whipped cream, then add in gelatin mixture and mix well.  Fold in remaining 2/3 whipped cream into mixture, then gently mix in baileys.  Pour mousse into lined cake rings over butter génoise.  Leave for about 2 hours in refrigerator till set.

3. For the earl grey mousse

Soak gelatin sheets in cold water for a few minutes till it blooms. Prepare earl grey milk by boiling earl grey leaves and milk in a small sauce pan.  Cover sauce pan for 5 minutes after boiling to intensify tea flavor in the milk  Strain leaves and ensure there is 80g of earl grey milk for the mousse. Boil prepared earl grey milk and whipping cream together.  Whisk egg yolk and caster sugar till frothy, then pour in 1/3 of earl grey mixture and mix well.  Pour egg mixture back into remaining 2/3 earl grey mixture and boil, stirring constantly, till mixture thickens slightly.  Add gelatin leaves and mix well.  Pour mousse into 8 pieces of 6-cm dome molds and leave for about 2 hours in refrigerator till set.

4. Assembly

Remove baileys milk chocolate mousse from cake rings (using hot towel or flame torch).  Gently remove earl grey mousse from dome molds (by carefully dipping bottom of molds in hot water, taking care not to allow water into the mousse) and place each dome on top of each baileys milk chocolate mousse layer.  Wrap exterior of individual cakes with dark chocolate, leaving top of dome layer visible.  Top with dark chocolate decoration if desired.

Guilt-free banana walnut wholewheat muffins

We were having breakfast one morning last week when Herr Scherrer suddenly asked "Hey hun, can you make me some banana muffins?". I was amused by his request as the only other time he's ever asked me to bake something specific were also banana muffins... of all the many things that come out of my kitchen.... =P

Bananas are easily available all year round from most Hong Kong supermarkets. The problem though is getting bananas that are ripe enough, if not you'll end up having to wait a couple of days before being able to bake those muffins. I was lucky that day though, got my ripe bananas on special offer at HK$4 for 6!

Instead of my usual banana muffin recipe, I decided to make a healthy version this time, using milk instead of butter and replacing white flour with wholewheat flour. I had a bag of walnuts at home and decided to throw that in too, modifying a wholewheat banana nut loaf recipe I had from Carole Clements' The Great Big Baking Book into a healthy wholewheat banana walnut muffin recipe. The guilt-free muffins were moist and nutty, not greasy at all due to the omission of butter. I'll recommend it to anyone who is looking for a healthy treat!

Recipe below makes 5 muffins:

Ingredients

- 130g wholewheat flour

- 75g sugar

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 2 ripe bananas

- 60g milk

- 1 egg

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

- 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

- extra walnuts for sprinkling on top

Method

1. Sift flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon together.

2. Add sugar and salt and mix well, then set aside.

3. Smash bananas with a fork into a puree, leaving some bite-size chunks intact.

4. Combine milk, egg and vanilla and add to smashed banana, mix well.

5. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir till just combine, careful not to over mix. Mix in the walnuts towards the end.

6. Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin trays, filling to the top.

7. Sprinkle the extra chopped walnuts on top.

8. Bake in 177 C preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes till a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

9. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Oooh those buttery sablés

You can't tell from the photos but I went sablé cookies crazy this weekend! I made at least 100 of these buttery yummies, enough to fill 2 large cookie jars! I love the taste of rich buttery cookies and sablés are one of my favorites. As always, with biscuits and cookies its always easier to make a big batch of dough at one go and freeze part of it if you don't wish to bake it all at once.

A french cookie originating from Normandy, sablés are crisp yet delicate and crumble nicely in your mouth. A french chef once told me I should never to refer to sablés as cookies... hehe.... anyhow, pair it with a good cup of coffee and you pretty much get my idea of a lovely afternoon tea.

These dainty bites come in all sorts of fancy designs, e.g. swirls and checkers. I was a little lazy with mine and went with four chocolate and vanilla quadrants placed alternate to each other.

Cherry hazelnut financiers

I recall the first time I came across financiers a few years back. It looked very much like a cupcake, in fact, I did think it was a cupcake until I bit into it and was pleasantly surprised at its texture - somewhat of a cross between a sponge cake and a moist cookie. The one I had was made with almond flour topped with berries.... yummy!

A little bit of research about financiers taught me that they are traditionally made flourless and baked in ingot-shaped pans, hence the name. A classic french petit four, no good baker should ever mistake it for a cupcake, so I'm told! The must-have base ingredient of a classic financier is beurre noisette, or brown butter, giving it a wonderful and distinct buttery & nutty flavor. These days financiers are commonly baked with fruit toppings.

Over the weekend I got my hands on a big bag of cherries. Perfect for a hazelnut financiers recipe I've been wanting to try out. I love financiers with almonds, but I love it even more when its with hazelnuts!!

Recipe below adapted from FCI's Fundamental Technique of Classic Pastry Arts (makes about 18).

Ingredients:

- 190 unsalted butter (for the beurre noisette)

- 30 g cake flour

- 30 g bread flour

- 190 g sugar

- 135 g hazelnut paste

- 150 g egg whites, at room temperature

- cherries for topping

Method:

1. Place butter in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the milk solids have separated out in the bottom of the pan, and the butter has turned a light, golden brown and has a very nutty aroma. Set aside to cool.

2. Combine the cake and bread flours in a mixing bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to blend. Add the sugar and hazelnut paste, stirring until very well blended.

3. Then, add the egg whites, a bit at a time, beating well and scraping down on the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.

4. Stir in the cooled beurre noisette, beating until the batter is smooth.

5. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate the batter for 1 hour, or until well chilled.

6. Preheat the oven to 177 C.

7. Fill cupcake baking cups (up to 2/3 full).

8. Bake financiers for 10 minutes.

9. Remove financiers from oven and top each financier with a cherry, pressing the cherry halfway into the dough.

10. Bake financiers with cherry for another 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Best served warm.

Victorian milk bread

I still think nothing beats the wonderful smell of bread baking in the oven!  Still in the habit of making my own bread for breakfast whenever I can, sometimes the type of bread I end up with is dependent on the ingredients I find available in the kitchen.  Last week I realized there were quite a bit of milk in the fridge and decided on the classic victorian milk bread.

Known for its soft crust and crumb, this bread keeps well and remains crisp. The dough is easy to handle hence allowing it to be shaped creatively or even braided if one doesn't want to bake it in a loaf tin.  Most of the time milk loaves don't come with additional toppings but I decided to sprinkle poppy seeds over mine this time. Instead of kneading the dough by hand, I used a bread machine, removed the dough after rising and followed the recipe below from step 5.

Recipe below taken from "Bread" by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno

Ingredients:

- 2 tsp dried yeast

- 1 tsp granulated sugar

- 350 ml tepid milk

- 500 g strong white flour

- 1.5 tspp salt

- egg glaze, made with 1 egg and tbsp milk

Method:

1. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar into 100 ml of milk in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Stir in half of the remaining milk.

2. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeasted milk. Mix in the flour. Stir in the reserved milk to form a sticky dough.

3. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

4. Put the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise for 45 minutes.

5. Knock back, cover, and leave the dough to rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Grease a 500g loaf tin. Shape the dough into a S-shape to fit in a loaf tin. Cover with a tea towel, then prove until the dough is 2.5cm above the top of the tin, about 1 hour.

6. Brush the top of the loaf with the egg glaze. Bake in 200 C preheated oven  for 45 minutes until golden and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath. Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.

French fruit jellies aka Paté de Fruit

We just had a very wet and gloomy weekend here in Hong Kong.  It was raining for almost 1.5 days, definitely a disappointment for anyone planning for the outdoors.  Many people were looking forward to the Germany vs England world cup match and by now most of us have heard or seen replays of Frank Lampard's disallowed goal that was actually in.  

Rainy days were always fun for me as a child growing up in Singapore as we were almost certain there would be clear blue skies after a good shower and if you're lucky, even a rainbow.  Dark skies often made their point and move on promptly, giving way to sunny weather quickly, all within a few hours.  Having had no time for any kitchen creations the whole week, I was kind of happy to have Saturday indoors while it was pouring outside.  I've been wanting to try making paté de fruit for some time and it was the best lazy afternoon to do it.

Not wanting to head out in the rain, I looked into my kitchen cupboards to see if I had enough of the right ingredients. Thankfully, paté de fruit only requires 4 basic ingredients: fruit puree of choice, sugar, liquid pectin and lemon juice.  I had a choice of making either strawberry or peach flavored paté de fruit and settled on peach after considering my last post was on strawberry macarons.

Like macarons and eclairs, paté de fruit is popular with food bloggers and I had no problems finding plenty of recipes, guides and information on the internet which is always great for initial attempts.  In terms of recipe I eventually settled for one provided by talented Helen of mytartlette.com, who also uses liquid pectin.  

In my opinion it all went pretty well up to the point I had to remove the set paté de fruit out of the pan to cut into little bite-size pieces.  I was ready for the extensive amount of non-stop stirring required, and the constant monitoring of the candy thermometer.  But none of the "to dos" and "not to dos" I read on the internet warned me that the paté de fruit was going to be so absolutely sticky that I should have lined the pan up the sides, such that I could just lift the entire piece out easily.  I had lined only the bottom of the pan and after loosening the sides with a spatula, I tried to flip the entire piece out on a parchment paper only to have half of it fall on the side of the pan...argh...given how sticky the paté de fruit was, tearing it off from the side of the pan meant I pretty much destroyed it... : (  Thankfully I still manage to save the other half of it....

So, for the sake of anyone else that's attempting this at home, my list of notes would be:

1. Be prepared to stir the mixture non-stop for about an hour closely monitoring the temperature via a candy thermometer.

2. Don't try this at home without a candy thermometer, its futile.

3. Use a big saucepan or pot with tall sides, it helps with the evaporation and stirring.

4. Line the bottom & sides of the pan using a single sheet of parchment paper so you can lift the entire piece of paté de fruit out easily instead of trying to flip it out.  Coat the top with sugar before flipping it over on a clean surface and tearing the parchment paper off to coat the other side, then using a sharp knife cut into small pieces or shapes or your choice. 

So pictures you see here are that of my half a pan of paté de fruit that survived.  To make it more interesting I used a cookie cutter to cut it into flower shapes instead of the conventional cubes.

I've been told its good to leave recipes after each post so I'm making a point to do so from now on, even though I'm really lazy when it comes to typing or copying out recipes. =P

Below is the recipe I used, slightly adapted in terms of methodology (including my own notes) from Helen's posted at www.mytartelette.com.

Ingredients:

380g peach puree, drained through a medium sized mesh to remove any large pieces

1 tablespoon lemon juice
400g sugar, divided into 100g and 300g portions
4 tablespoons liquid pectin

Method: 

1. Line bottom and side of a 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside. 

2. Place the peach puree in a saucepan or pot  and add in the lemon juice. 

3. Stir in 100g sugar and heat mixture until the temperature registers 45 C, stirring constantly. 

4. Add the remaining 1.5 cups (300gr) sugar and the pectin to the pot and slowly bring the mixture over medium high heat to 93 C, stirring constantly. 

5. Turn the heat down a bit and keep the mixture at 93 C for 2 to 3 minutes. 

6. Turn the heat back up and slowly bring the mixture to 106 C, keeping it there for an additional 2-3 minutes (turn the heat down if necessary to do so). 

7. Remove from the heat and immediately pour the mixture into your pan lined with parchment paper. Let set for a couple of hours in room temperature.

8. Remove set mixture from pan by lifting parchment paper off from the side.  

9. Lightly dust top of the set mixture with sugar to ensure its not sticky.  Turn set mixture over and tear off the parchment paper before dusting the other side with sugar.

10. Cut shapes with a sharp knife or cookie cutter dusted with sugar and roll the pieces in sugar till nicely coated. 

11. Store in refrigerate.

Italian meringue & fruity macarons...

Much has been said about how temperamental french meringues can be when it comes to making macarons. Known as macarons au blanc monté, the french meringue method is definitely less of a hassle compared to its italian counterpart, but extremely sensitive to conditions such as humidity and temperature. Not a reliable choice for home bakers who have little control over weather conditions in the kitchen.

Most professional cookbooks recommend the italian meringue method, i.e. macarons au sucre cuit, which requires heating sugar syrup to exactly 118 C, then pouring it it gradually into a bowl of egg white while its been whipped. The rest of the recipe is pretty much similar to the french meringue method.

Last week I decided it was time for me to try the macarons au sucre cuit and find out for myself if its worth the extra trouble. A standing whisk is definitely recommended for this task for a couple of good reasons: (1) One has to start beating the egg whites while the sugar syrup is heating up; (2) The sugar syrup has to be poured into the egg whites while it continues to be whisked; (3) The egg white & sugar mixture has to be beaten for a good 10 to 15 minutes till it cools down and a firm meringue forms. I don't know about other home bakers, but I definitely couldn't have managed all these if I didn't have my standing mixer, which btw I've had for about 15 years now - I'm amazed its still working after all I've put it through!

So what were the key differences? When I got down to folding the dry ingredients & italian meringue together, the mixture was noticeably smoother compared to my previous attempts with the french meringue. It also took me less folds to get the dry ingredients properly mixed in, though I've read on the internet that it should take longer (hmm...?). Other differences were my shells took 5 to 10 minutes shorter in the oven to bake and had tidier & prettier looking feet (the latter made me jump for joy!).

My conclusion? I definitely prefer the italian meringue method. A little extra hassle with sugar syrup is definitely worth it for beautiful looking shells!

For those also interested to try it out, I made reference to Duncan's basic macarons au sucre cuit recipe posted on www.syrupandtang.com (He has also put together great tips and guides for macaron making.). I adapted his basic recipe to create strawberry and mango flavored shells, which I filled with strawberry chocolate ganache - bascially adding strawberry puree to a standard chocolate ganache recipe.

Passion fruit panna cotta

Panna cotta is an Italian dessert believed to have originated from Piemonte, a region in northern Italy. I love it for its simplicity and yet versatility. It goes well with most fruits, particularly berries, and is a good base for plenty of flavors.

Last week I made some panna cotta at home and paired it with passion fruit. A popular combination, it works well due to the passion fruit's tangy taste. It also adds a sweet smelling fragrance to the dessert. Leaving the seeds adds an extra crunch.