Canelés

I only discovered these little nuggets of goodies a few months back when I bought one to try after I couldn’t get my caramel sel macaron fix at Canelé. When I first sank my teeth into the canelés, I was a little surprised to find the outer crust a tad hard. But that gave way to a nice caramelised crunch with a good bite and a soft moist centre, not unlike the texture of some nonya kuek-kueks.

And that was the beginning of my love affair with canelés, to the extent that I would bypass the rows of macarons in search of these little black-brown treasures.

A lot of people must feel the same way too. Cos many a times when I hit the Canelé counter in the late afternoon on weekdays, I would learn to my dismay that they have all been sold out. They seem to be a popular treat.

I swore that I would learn to make canelés on my own. That way, I can make my own and fix my cravings whenever the mood strikes. That resolve turned out to be a little harder than I had expected. Becos the key to baking a good canelé requires the use of copper moulds. Silicon bakeware just don’t make the cut. And finding copper canelés in Singapore is a lot harder than one would think.

While at Jocelyn Shu’s cupcake class one day, I had the chance to ask her if she had any idea where to get copper canelé moulds in Singapore (apart from overseas). Our conversation was overheard by Shermay herself and she excitedly told me that she’s getting Daniel Tay of Bakerzin to conduct a class on making canelés. Concurrently, she’s also sourcing for a supplier to acquire copper moulds for the class participants.

Hooray!!!

And thus I found myself at class last Saturday, and am now the proud owner of 12 pieces of copper canelé moulds. Truth be told, those copper moulds cost a bomb -- due to rising cost of copper and the strong Euro. But I had discussed the purchase of them with Louis and he gave his nod of approval even though they were costly cos he is a canelé fan himself too :)

I really have to make lots of canelés to make the moulds worth the price. So far, I’ve already made two batches of it. And they all turned out great. A tad sweet but I can easily adjust the amount of sugar in the original recipe the next time.

Second attempt at cupcakes

How often do you eat your own words? I seem to do a great job at that. Probably becos I've got the bad habit of shooting my mouth off. However, I'm glad to report that this time, it isn't something downright mortifying, nor am I that far off from my original determination.

I did swear off baking cupcakes some months ago. Only to turn around and attend a class cum hands-on session today for Cupcakes Baking Level 1 by Jocelyn Shu of Kuidaore. Like the macarons saga, I just had to prove to myself that I can make some cupcakes if I really really am desperate enough to.

S sms-ed me this early in the week just to let me know she was going for a cupcake class. Turns out that we have both coincidentally signed up for the same class. Yippee! I have company.

The hands-on that we did was for a chocolate cupcake recipe. Something easy that required only a mixing bowl and a good whisk to whip out. Jocelyn pre-prepared some vanilla cupcakes for the participants so that we had a mix of 12 vanilla and chocolate cupcakes mix to try our hands at decorating.

I really do not seem to have the knack, creativity nor patience to create intricate little pieces of artwork on my cupcakes. In fact, S & I were standing there, scratching our heads as to what designs we could draw on our cupcakes that is visually appealing yet tasty. We didn't like too much icing sugar or butter cream on ours in case it became overly sweet and creamy. Neither did the taste of marzipan gel with our taste buds.

In the end, we just did a little of each different types of decorations but left one chocolate cupcake undecorated cos we wanted to enjoy it in its simple form.

We were lucky! Ours was the first class that Shermay decided to give every participants pretty cupcake boxes (instead of those from Phoon Huat) that lovingly showcases all the nicely decorated cupcakes to bring home. Its a double-edged sword yah... ugly cupcakes are cruelly displayed for the world to mock at too ;) Mine's not too hideous looking, but neither were they stunning.

Oh well... I think I shall pass some to my niece and nephew. I don't think Louis and I can finish 12 cupcakes all by ourselves. Hopefully, they won't criticise the lack of creativity and will enjoy the cupcakes. Hee hee hee...

I'm not sure when will I make a batch of cupcakes on my own. But I know that if the occasion calls for it, at least this time around, those cupcakes would be halfway decent and edible :)

Chocolate Macarons

If CP was to read this particular posting, he would have the last laugh. More than a year ago, way before I was expecting Faith, CP asked if I would like to go with him to attend a baking class on macarons. I clearly remembered telling him very confidently and somewhat haughtily that I wouldn't even think of it. I would rather just buy them and eat 'em, thank you very much. Part of the reason stemmed from the fact that I've heard that it was difficult and tedious to make macarons.

If you think about it, cooking itself can be tedious at times, what with the preparation work beforehand, chopping, dicing, seasoning, stewing, braising yaddah yaddah yaddah... and preparing all the mise-en-place just to cook something that is eaten within less than 15 minutes.

I couldn't imagine going through all the steps needed, although at that time I didn't know the exact process of macaron-making beyond what I've heard, just to produce macarons that were so small and delicate that you would finish them in 2 bites. To me, the act of eating macarons is an event and an enjoyment in itself that I wouldn't want to mar with the thought of hours spent making and baking them prior to eating these delectable morsels.

However, many many moons later, I've this urged to try to make macarons myself. Why? Mostly, I was curious to try and ascertain for myself just how tedious macarons making can be. Thanks to CC, who passed me the macaron recipe from a class that she attended together with CP (maybe this is what you call poetic justice? :)), I've got myself a very very detailed recipe to try my hand with.

The outcome of it? Well... as I was sieving the ground almonds and later, while mixing together the whipped egg whites and the ground almond mixture and much later on, the pipping of the macaron cookies, I kept mumbling to myself, cursing all the while, "I'm never gonna make these macarons myself again. I'd rather pay the price to eat macarons!".

Perhaps I didn't have the right tools to help aid me in making them. I was using a really miniscue sieve (the size one normally use to sieve tea leaves) to sieve the ground almonds. I was also using some cheap plastic bag to pipe the cookies out, without any piping tips.

The long and short of it was that through this process, I've come to appreciate why the per unit cost of one macaron can be so exorbitant, depending on where you bought it. Other than the whipping of the egg whites, which I've thankfully got my KitchenAid to deal with, the rest of the stuff, you've got to do it by hand. Piping even and round macaron cookies of similar size was yet another challenge which I wasn't able to successfully master on this first attempt. Hence, I had many varied and uneven ovals instead of round macaron cookies at the end.

By the time I was done with it, I realised belated that the macarons would taste better after sitting overnight in the fridge. Since I did them yesterday, it would be best if I eat them only today. In a somewhat eureka moment, I ingeniously told Louis that I especially made them for him as a gift for Valentine's Day. This is so that he would be guilt into helping me finish most of the batch of macarons, no matter how they tasted. Hee hee... Till now, my hubby still haven't have the faintest idea of his wife's little trickery ;)

Suffice it to say that one batch of my macarons turned out nicely with the frilly edges at the bottom (known as "feet"), that is supposed to be the hallmark of a good macaron. Unfortunately, they didn't quite acquire the nice dome, yet another hallmark of macarons. Nonetheless, they were still very edible and very sinful, on account that I've made chocolate macarons.

At this juncture, I doubt I would make many more batches of macarons, although I am determined to give macarons making another one or two more attempts so that I wouldn't repeat some of the same mistakes that I did this round. The other more important reason, being that I would like to be able to proudly say that I've baked a good and credible batch of macarons myself.

However, I think I would still continue to patronise and buy macarons in future for my own personal enjoyment. The reason for this is simple. When you bake a batch of macarons, you tend to only make one flavour. For me, the real thrill and fun of eating macarons is to select and try as many varied flavours and offerings that is available, without buying seconds (not to mention thirds of fourths) of any flavours. That's something that I simply cannot produce as a home-baker!

And since its Valentine's Day today, here's wishing that all of you had a good one.

Happy Valentine's Day, Darling!

New toy

Our wedding anniversary and Christmas came early this year. At least, the gift-giving part of it came early for me. I've got another brand new, spanking, shiny kitchen gadget from Louis. Its a KitchenAid Food Processor. Yippee!

Unfortunately, kitchen counter top space, like the real estate market in Singapore, is scarce. Hence, said gadget has to be relegated to a cupboard, which I had specifically cleared to make space for :)

Still, I'm rather excited by my new toy. So, am now wondering what should I make to maximise the use of the food processor. A rosti, hummus, cake, soup or all of the above? Hmmm... time to peruse through the cookbooks again for recipes and ideas.

The uglist cupcakes ever

Cupcakes and I just don't cut it. And I think I've baked my second and very last batch of cupcakes. Ever.

Last week, I baked the first batch of cupcakes based on a recipe from a renowned local culinary school that a friend gave me. It was absolutely disastrous! The instructions warned to be careful when mixing the liquid butter into the batter to ensure it emulsifies properly or you would see the butter melting out of the cupcakes while in the oven, creating a dodgy cake texture. Guess what? I didn't beat the butter in properly and it wasn't emulsified. True enough, I could see the butter leaking out from the cupcake cups while in the oven.

I wanted to throw the entire batch into the rubbish chute but my mom insisted on bringing half of them back home for my dad. According to her, he devoured them all and loved it. I was flabbergasted. The remaining half of course ended up in the dustbin cos Louis wasn't too keen on it and I felt it tasted like rancid oil. Urrgghhh!!!

After the failed session, I "researched" on the Internet, ploughing through a number of cupcake recipes from cooks/chefs that I admire and finally settled on a mascarpone cupcakes with strawberry glaze recipe by Giada de Laurentiis, a Le Cordon Bleu trained Italian-American chef who has a smashing figure and great face to go along with the smarts.

This time around, the sponge itself turned out great. It was light and fluffy, helped by the use of mascarpone cheese. My only grouse was that the recipe used an instant cake mix -- making it fail-proof -- which coming from Giada, I was a teeny-weeny bit disappointed cos it feels like I'm cheating. The glaze or icing was a totally separate issue.

I decided to use lesser icing sugar so that it wouldn't be too sweet. Of course, I didn't realise until later that the portion of icing sugar used makes a different to the thickness of the glaze and how quickly it would dry up. Hence, when I coated the first few cupcakes, it was all runny and the glaze was dripping down the sides of the cupcakes onto the kitchen counter top. So, I added more icing to make it up to the original amount stated in the recipe but still, it was a bit runny.

Which leads me to my conclusion and the first two sentences of this post. I've baked my last cupcakes and I doubt I will ever bake another again. Why, you may ask. The third time might be the magic. But I highly doubt it. The problem lies not with the recipes or even how practice makes perfect. The problem lies with me.

You see, I always feel that when you cook or bake something, you have to have passion and a healthy dose of respect or even awe for what you're doing. Unfortunately, I've neither that much passion, liking nor respect for cupcakes. Perhaps, that's why my 2 batches of cupcakes went south :)

Don't get me wrong. I totally respect the skills and creativity of the many people who have baked and decorated beautiful and dainty cupcakes. I think its an art. Just one that's not for me.

I don't really like to eat cupcakes. To be fair, I haven't eaten that many cupcakes but from accounts by a few friends, cupcakes are more aesthetically pleasing then pleasure to the 5 senses. Plus, there's no audience for my cupcakes. Louis isn't too keen on them. And I think the "demand" from the rest of the extended family for cupcakes is lacklustre at best. Furthermore, I only want to bake cupcakes, not eat them myself.

Maybe its the green-eye monster in me that's oozing everything sour at my two failed attempts while seeing others happily baking their nth batches of cupcakes. Damaged pride aside, I think I should focus any remnant energy from being a mother to something that yields a much higher ROI. If cupcakes ain't it, there's a whole universe of other desserts, pastries and different cuisine for me to experiment.

So, au revoir cupcakes and hello to everything else ;)

"Marblelous" Gift

After more than a year of staying in our home, Louis and I still love it very much. Coming home after a few hours away or after work is always pleasurable and restful. Its definitely more than a house. Its our home. Filled with creature comforts, knick-knacks and memories that we like and love. And I think Faith feels the same way too. Whenever we are out after a day and when we bring her home, we'll put her in her cot and turn on the mobile at her bed. And she would have a delighted smile, at times, kicking her hands and feet in excitement and pure pleasure.

Louis and I took nearly half a year of intense house hunting before we finally found this unit that we loved at first sight. Everything felt right about our house. Naturally, the kitchen takes pride of place in the entire house and its where I love to potter, cook and bake. The wall between our kitchen and living/dinning room is separately by glass halfway from the waist up to the ceiling. While I'm in the kitchen doing my baking or preparing Faith's food, I could always see what she's up to in the living room.

Really, there's nothing that I don't like in the house, although I sometimes daydream that if we have another house and/or a bigger renovation budget, I would like to have a marble kitchen counter top. We currently have a gray with white speckles solid surface that looks pleasing and serves its purpose. Except that when I want to roll out rich doughs (doughs enriched with more butter), its a little of a challenge given our humid and hot weather.

I used to bake and make a lot of apple galettes, a type of open, crispy and crusty apple tart, when I was in France. When I returned and tried making them in my kitchen, the toughest challenge is always rolling out the dough. Just out from the fridge, it would be too cold and hard to roll. After a few minutes of rolling, the dough goes from softer and pliable to become wet and sticky, that no amount of flouring would help. And I would end up having a holey dough at the end as I try to transfer the dough from the counter top to the tart tray.

A marble counter top would be useful as it is cool and would hopefully make it easier to roll the dough without it getting wet and sticky too quickly. I've read that in some professional kitchens when they do a lot of rich doughs (e.g. those for croissants), their steel counter tops would be fitted to have cold water running underneath it so that counter top remains cool. That makes it easier to handle the doughs. I'm not a Michelin-starred chef nor am I'm running a professional home-kitchen myself. Which is why I am perfectly happy with just a marble kitchen counter top ;)

My friend, Ching has been renovating her new house and has generously given me a rectangle slab of marble cut out from her bathroom sink. Actually, she was so generous that she gave me the bigger of the 2 marble slabs she had. Plus, she had her contractor chamfered the marble slabs so that there wouldn't be any rough edges.

So, while I do not have a marble counter top, I have the next best thing now... a nice slab of marble (very heavy though). I think I shall make me (and her, of course) a nice apple galette with it very soon ;)

Thanks much, Ching :)

Raspberries & Chocolate Chip Muffins

Raspberries and chocolate chips seems like a nice combination for a muffin, wouldn't you? That's what I thought would be a perfect mix, although Louis seemed a little puzzled by my choice of ingredients for the muffins at the beginning. However, he soon changed his mind when he sank his teeth into one. *grin*

Imagine the tartness of raspberry, combined with the sweet, velvety smoothness of chocolates. Mmmmhhh.... and that was exactly how my raspberries and chocolate chip muffins turned out. Lovely with its cake-like texture, each bite into the muffin might give a sudden burst of the slight sourness of cooked raspberry, mingled with the bitter-sweet taste of chocolate.

This time around, I actually bought raspberries with the intention to make a raspberry and chocolate cake from Clothilde Dusoulier's Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. However, the ingredients seemed altogether rather sinful and rich, as it was almost like a flourless fully-cook fondant au chocolat (aka warm chocolate cake), except that it has mashed raspberry added. Plus, I wasn't feeling too good for the last week on account of restless nights looking after a sick Faith, and that I myself was recovering from my bout of gastric/stomach flu.

Rather than letting the raspberries go to waste, I decided to use them for muffins, with the addition of some bitter-sweet chocolate chips. The recipe for the muffins were the same as my blueberries and apple muffins posted earlier, but replaced this time around with the 2 other ingredients.

Raspberries and Chocolate Chips Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp

180ml milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

113g butter, at room temperature,

190g sugar

1 punnet raspberries (approx 170g, I think)

50g chocolate chips (approx cos I forgot to measure. I just threw in what seemed to be a good amount)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Shift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, blend milk, egg and vanilla extract.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth in texture. Add the flour mixture in 3 separate additions, alternating with the wet ingredients in Pt (2). Then, increase speed to medium and mix until the batter is very smooth.

4. Fold the raspberries and chocolate chips into the batter, working gently and just long enough to distribute the ingredients evenly.

5. Divide the batter evenly amongst 12 muffins cups/moulds. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Let muffins cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing.

This time around, I poured some of the muffins into little disposable muffin cups. I think they looked cute! Between these and the blueberries and apple muffins, Louis like my latest muffins better. So do I, actually :)

Blueberry & Apple Muffins

A number of moms have been blogging about their home-baked products of cupcakes, birthday cakes and muffins. With some blueberry and apples sitting demurely in the fruit compartment of my fridge and spurred by these moms, I thought that I would bake me some muffins too! Since I'm not a chocolate fanatic, I'm rather happy with my blueberry and apple combination.

I was using two different sets of silicon muffin moulds and hence, you can see from the picture that my muffins turn out in 2 different sizes and slightly different shapes. Regardless, I think they tasted yummy.

Here's the recipe that I'd adapted from the "Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America":

Blueberry & Apple MuffinsMakes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
180ml milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
113g butter, at room temperature, plus another 1 tbsp
190g + 2tbsp sugar
100g blueberries
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced in 0.5cm cubes (I use Fuji Apples)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Shift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder into a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat a dry frying pan and add the 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp sugar. Let sugar caramelised and then add the diced apples in. Stir and mix well to coat apples. Leave them to cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, blend milk, egg and vanilla extract.

4. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth in texture. Add the flour mixture in 3 separate additions, alternating with the wet ingredients in Pt (3). Then, increase speed to medium and mix until the batter is very smooth.

5. Fold the blueberries and cooked apples into the batter, working gently and just long enough to distribute the fruits evenly.

6. Divide the batter evenly amongst 12 muffins cups/moulds. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Let muffins cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing.

Viola! You've got yourself some delicious muffins. Bonne la cuisine!

To the start of artisan bread-making... hopefully

2nd time success at Focaccia bread making

I've been trying my hand at baking recently, specifically bread at that. I used to bake my breads in the bread machine that I found in my MIL's cupboard. But it keeled over one fine day while I was trying to bake a cranberry pecan bread and that ended my bread-making sessions.

Since then, I hadn't made any cos I wasn't too keen on kneading bread by hand -- tried once and my arms ached after. Until most recently. I finally haul out my spiffy KitchenAid that was sitting idle on its side in my kitchen cabinet. I had bought it during my 3rd trimester but hadn't had the chance to use it post-pregnancy.

And so it was, I decided to make sundried tomato focaccia, inspired by the ones that Louis and I have eaten at Pete's Place at Hyatt Hotel. The first time I made it, it was using the recipe from Beth Hensperger's "The Bread Bible". It wasn't too bad for a first time attempt, but the inside of the bread was rather dense, not chewy. I was wondering if it was becos I didn't shift my flour.

Then, I decided to use another recipe from "Baking at home with the Culinary Institute of America". The recipe required an overall longer time for the bread to rise and it also used bread flour as opposed to plain flour in Hensperger's recipe. Lo and behold! The bread turned out to be fantastic with a crispy crust and airy, chewy interior. In fact, it was the best bread that I've ever made!!

Bread-making is definitely very satisfying, seeing how simple ingredients like water, yeast, flour and oil could turn out something so beautiful. Eating a good loaf of bread always brings back memories of our one-year stay in France, where boulangerie abounds and you can get pretty good baguettes wherever you go. In Singapore, the best baguettes so far come from Delifrance, but somehow, they don't keep as well. Whatever that is bought has to be eaten the same day.

Back in France, I used to buy a few loaves of baguette au levin (baguettes that taste a little like sourdour bread) on market days and store them in the freezer, popping them into ovens whenever we wanted some bread. They were good with practically everything, ranging from sandwiches, to pizza, with cheese, as accompaniments to a main meal etc. And they always taste so good. Contrary to popular belief, croissants aren't as popular as baguettes, which were staples to the French like rice is to Asians.

I remembered when we first arrived in France, we were rather amused when we see the French carrying their baguettes everywhere. What shocked us really was that their baguettes are not fully wrapped in neat size packaging like the ones we get in Singapore. Instead, the bakeries would simply wrap a small rectangle or square piece of paper onto the middle of the baguettes, leaving a large part of the 2 ends "naked". And so the French would strolled out of the boulangeries with their baguettes tucked under their arms (hope they don't have smelly armpits), or stuffed into their grocery bags, dumped onto the back seats of their car etc.

After a while, we got used to it and fancied ourselves localised such that we carry our baguettes stuffed into our grocery bags and walk around nonchalantly. Admittedly, we never dared to tuck them under our arms, even though we showered at least twice even in winter.

Thus, for every bread that I successfully bake -- or not -- it never failed to evoke fond memories of Europe and especially, how good the breads were in that part of the world. And we conceded that the French baked the best breads in the world.