From Grub to Gourmet: 2015

Coffee Granita on a Sweltering Fall Day

I always get confused on how October should feel like. Here, in San Francisco Bay Area, it's been sweltering hot since the summer and the severe draught drags on. Despite an earnest effort by retail stores to lure us into the spirit of the seasons, it just doesn't feel so... yet! I hope.

I found this easy and light recipe from My Little Expat Kitchen -- and it's really yummy. The coconut whipped cream perfectly compliments the coffee and the mint leaves finishes it off with super refreshing feeling.

Yield: 10 small glasses

Ingredients
500 ml (2 cups) freshly brewed, strong, hot filter coffee (I was out of coffee, so I used instant coffee - 2 packets per cup and that worked out alright).
90 g demerara sugar
20 ml Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur (I skipped this too.)

Special equipment: shallow baking tray or dish 33 x 24 cm in size (approximately), suitable for the freezer, plastic wrap

Preparation
Make the coffee and while still hot, pour it into a large jug and immediately add the sugar. Stir well to dissolve. Give the coffee a taste and add more sugar if needed. Make it sweeter than you usually drink it.

Pour the mixture into the baking tray/dish and cover with plastic wrap.

Freeze the coffee granita mixture for about 1 hour or until the liquid starts forming crystals around the tray (Mine took about 2 hours to start freezing). Take it out of the freezer and scrape the granita with a fork, breaking up the ice, and put it again in the freezer. Repeat the same process every hour, until the granita is completely frozen. This will take about 4 hours, depending on how strong your freezer is. In the end you must have a mixture that resembles icy snow.

You can eat the granita now or keep it covered with the plastic wrap. It keeps well for 4-5 days but it’s at its best during the first two.

Coconut whipped cream

Ingredients
1 can coconut milk (400 ml), full-fat (thoroughly chilled - overnight preferably)
2 Tbsp icing sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract (I omitted/forgot this)
pinch of salt to taste

Special equipment: stand or hand-held electric mixer

Preparation
Skim the cream that rises to the top and put in the mixing bowl of the stand mixer (chill the bowl for half an hour before whipping will help speeding the process). Add other ingredients and beat at high speed for about 3-4 minutes until soft peak is formed. Serve immediately or the cream can keep in an airtight container for a few days.

Scoop the granita into glasses and spoon a dollop of cream over the granita and top it with sprigs of mint and serve. Enjoy! :D

1 comments

, by Dori (ต่อย)

appetizers

Macarons 102 - Getting There

In the last blog, I was so happy that my macarons were starting to resemble macarons and not just some weird-shaped almond cookies. Yay! And even though my oven is not behaving that cooperatively on most days (On some cold winter days, it could take up to an hour to get the pilot lit properly -- arghhh), I found ways around it (here).

So shielding the macarons with another empty pan put on rack above works well, so here are some shots from the second batch.

These macaron shells have no extra flavors just different colors. I filled them with store-bought dolce de leche that proves to be wayyyy toooo sweet. I also made some lemon curd filling from the leftover egg yolk -- that turned out to be waaayyyy too runny

The foot was high, but the shells were somewhat hollow. I did try to bake them on the lower shelves -- That was disastrous.

The dolce de leche filling that was too thick and too sweet

2 comments

, by Dori (ต่อย)

French

Macarons Test Lab - Here I go again...

Two years ago, I embarked on a journey to try to bake French macarons but got so discouraged and humbled that I swore to never go on this hair-pulling, teeth-grinding, suicide-inducing baking experience ever again. Alas, I should have known better. You guessed it, never say never, right? So here I am again, being drawn into the labyrinth of recipes and techniques, and with sugar-stained hair and wayyyy too much coffee in my vein, I'm doing it again.

Somehow, I faintly suspect that I'm more of a masochist than I care to admit. Oy Vey!!!!!

Anyhow, this time, I decided to put a method to my madness by sticking to one recipe and wrestle the little devil down until I somewhat master it before moving on and up.

Much to my satisfaction, I've got some progress!!! Hurray!!! And all the jubilation and elation is owed to the marvelous Not So Humble Pie's Macaron Troubleshooting with tips and tricks from Joy of Baking and shared passion and tenacity for achievement of Yaya Yayai who tirelessly compared baking notes with me -- THANK YOU!!!

The most joyful experience was to watch the long-coveted 'FOOT' all of a sudden materialized out of thin air. Oh! Joy -- Now, at least, if I don't do anything else in life. This will be enough -- I can safely say that this is closure for me. LOL.

So here is the recipe. I make half the recipe for each batch. It's more manageable for me, so I include the measurement also for easy reference:

Not So Humble Macarons v3.0128 - Full Recipe
yields approximately 50 cookies
(Half recipe measurement below)

5 g dehydrated egg white powder*
28 g granulated sugar
225 g confectioners (powdered) sugar
125 g almond meal**
100 g aged egg whites***

Not So Humble Macarons v3.0128 - Half Recipe
yields approximately 50 cookies
(Half recipe measurement below)

3 g dehydrated egg white powder*
14 g granulated sugar
113 g confectioners (powdered) sugar
63 g almond meal**
50 g aged egg whites***

* I used CK Products as recommended by Not-So-Humble-Pie, but I just checked on amazon and it was not available, so one's got to find another brand. Just make sure it is dehydrated egg white and not meringue powder.

** The 5-day aged egg white seemed to work perfectly.

*** I used Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour Super Fine Grind . I may try Bob's Red Mill next time, if I can't find Honeyville

My First Succesful Macarons - Basic Macarons with Lemon Mousse Filling. The foot formed but the color of the meringue was not white

- Prep two half sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking mats.

- Pre-heat your oven to somewhere between 290°F. My oven heat is not the most consistent in the world and tends to overheat drastically. That oven thermometer really is a life saver. So I only use this temperature.

- Start by weighing out your sugar and egg white powder into a small bowl. Mix with a fork until uniform and set aside.

- Sift together your almond meal and powdered sugar.

- Weigh out your egg whites and begin beating them on low speed until foamy. Begin slowly sprinkling in the powdered egg white and sugar mixture as you beat. Then increase the speed to medium and beat until a firm meringue forms. (I sneaked and used medium high speed -- about 8 -- on my stand mixer and it turned out okay -- or so I thought -- to speed things up a bit).

- You want firm, glossy peaks in your meringue, you don't want to beat all the way to stiff peaks. So hold yourself back.

Man, I love that peak. Won't be able to do that with my hand mixer though :P

- Beat in food coloring gel now (I use Buff) and then add 1/3rd of the almond mixture. Folding it in gently. Once combined, add another third of the almond mixture, and so on. For visual reference on how to combine and fold, see this video by Chef Nini. (Note: the batter should be deflated a bit to let the air out).

- Add your batter to a piping bag with a round tip (any size bit under 1cm works fine) and pipe rows of macarons.

I baked on these silicone mats I bought from Costco -- super good-valued compared to the original Silpat - much cheaper and they also have templates for piping newbies like me :)

- Pick up the pan with both hands, and holding it level, tap it firmly onto the counter several times. This will bring up any air bubbles in the cookies. Pop the bubbles with a toothpick if they don't break while tapping.

- These cookies NEED to rest on the counter. Between 30-60 minutes depending on the humidity. They will become tacky and opaque and not stick to your finger when touched. Then they are ready to bake.

- This is where the fun starts. Each stove and kitchen has its own challenges, mine included. So it took me one sleepless night to figure it out and crossed referenced with the Not-so-humble pie's troubleshooting list. This is my conclusion for my kitchen. You will have to experiment and come up with your own way - and then again, you might not have to.

- After several trials and errors, I baked one tray at the time mine on doubled trays. Then put another empty tray on the rack above to shield the cookies which browned to much if I didn't. Bake the cookies for roughly 15 minutes.

- Once the cookies lift easily from the parchment or silicone baking mat they're probably done. To be sure, pop a cookie off with an offset spatula and break it open. The insides should be set and not overly moist (wet uncooked meringue is no good). If it is too moist the cookies will collapse when they cool.

First Successful Shell - foot wise -- But the top browned to much and a bit flat in my opinion. They are supposed to be plain white.

After my initial success, I felt a bit more confident and more reckless, hence the color purple. I filled the shells with Lemon Curd Mousse (that's a story for another time). The shape and texture were perfect -- no hollows but the top was still too brown. So I had to try to fix.

So I thought, perhaps I baked too cool and too long. So I tried 350 degrees 12 minutes with airing the oven by open and close to let the steam out after 8 and 10 minutes (a friend share the tip from Pierre Hermês book) -- A disaster. The shells were uncooked and collapsed out of the oven thus creating huge air pockets.

This is the final disaster before I ran out of egg white -- In attempt to fix the brown top, I baked on the lower rack (lower third) with an empty tray on the rack above to shield the cookies. Just like the Troubleshooting list states, because they were cooked on too low of an oven rack, the cookies rose rapidly due to strong heat from the bottom of the oven. Even though, I double stacked the pans, it didn't help, so I put them back on the middle rack (in the double-stacked pans) and put another rack on the top-third position with an empty tray to shield the cookies. So, though the cookies are all cracked and hollowed, the color is perfect.

So, I think I figured it out, but didn't have enough egg white to test this theory. So until the next batch, Bon Appétit.

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, by Dori (ต่อย)

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I've adapted the recipe by Noreen's Kitchen to make only half the recipe. Here it is.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 - 4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup mashed potato flakes
1/3 cup sugar
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 large egg (2 medium ones)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Heat butter and milk until melted

2. Place 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, salt, potato flakes, milk mixture, water, pineapple juice and vanilla in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer

3. Blend with dough hook until well incorporated

4. Add eggs - one at a time, blending with each addition

5. Add in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough. Resist the urge to add more flour or your end result will be a tough bread

6. Knead for 7-15 minutes until the dough forms a film in The Windowpane Test by pulling off a golf-ball-sized piece of dough and stretch it into a thin sheet between your fingers. If the gluten is well-developed, the dough will stretch into a paper-thin film without breaking. If quickly breaks...you guessed it, keep kneading).

7. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a soft cloth. Allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

8. Once the dough finishes rising, remove dough from the bowl and gently press air out. Cut the dough into 2-4 oz. pieces and roll until smooth.

9. Place dough balls into 2 oiled baking pans. The size of the pan will determine the number of rolls you fit into them

10. Preheat the oven to 350°F - cover and allow dough to rise until doubles, approximately 30 minutes.

11. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown

12. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter. Allow bread to cool before serving.

No comments

, by Dori (ต่อย)

bread

Potato Bread

Recipe by กินเที่ยวกับ yaya yayai

Ingredients:

Bread flour 200 g ( 2 c.)
cake flour 50 G ( 1/2 c.)
yeast 1 1/2 teaspoon
milk 120 G ( 3/4 c.) luke warm
egg 1
sugar 4 Tbsp ( divided - 1 Tbsp in the milk and yeast)
salt 1/4 Teaspoon
butter 40 G ( 1/2 stick)
Sweet potatoes or potatoes boiled and mashed 150 g ( 3/4 c.)

Directions:

1. warm the milk and add 1 Tbsp sugar and yeast. Rest for 5-10 minutes until the yeast grow and become bubbly.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Then add the yeast mixture.

3. Knead with dough hook until smooth about 15 minutes - 20 minutes - (Test doneness by The Windowpane Test by pulling off a golf-ball-sized piece of dough and stretch it into a thin sheet between your fingers. If the gluten is well-developed, the dough will stretch into a paper-thin film without breaking. If quickly breaks...you guessed it, keep kneading).

4. Take the dough out of the mixing bowl. Tug the side under to form a ball and put in a greased bowl. Cover with soft cloth or plastic wrap then let rise in warm spot until double in size (about 1 hour).