Earl Grey & Orange Chocolate Sables

Earl Grey...my love affair with it started more than 3 months ago at a chocolate buffet with free flow of tea. I picked Earl Grey then and the flavour endeared to me ever since. There are so many possibilities with this variety of tea, I can imagine making entremets, chiffon cakes, cookies and macarons with it...all bearing its signature intoxicating scent. For a start, I made Earl Grey Sables - a buttery, crumbly cookie with a light Earl Grey scent.

I love the texture of these cookies, and how it's not too oily nor too sweet. The Earl Grey scent was really light, you can smell it, taste it, but to me it's a little faint. On my next try, I'll be sure to bump up the amount of tea used in here. Nevertheless, my darling loved the cookies, and I felt instantly reassured by that sweet remark :).

Inspired by a previous trip to Antoinette (which has a good selection of French sables), I decided to whip up a batch of Orange Chocolate Sables as well. This batch has an irresistible citrus scent! I love how the addition of orange zest and a few drops of lemon extract made the citrus flavour really pop in the cookies. Coupled with Valrhona Caraibe chocolate bits, I totally adore this flavour combination.

Both flavours were made using the same basic recipe from the Rose Cranberry Cookies recipe. I made some simple tweaks, by adding ground Earl Grey leaves and orange zest with chopped chocolate for the respective flavours. I'm thinking of doing a Lemon Lavender as well as a Chocolate Fleur de Sel version to fill up my cookie jars too!

In the meantime, I have one FULL cookie jar worth of sables to enjoy for now :). Can't wait for the next opportunity to bake again!

Caramel Madeleines

Time flies when you're busy. It's been more than a month since my last post and I miss my blog! I miss baking and conjuring up sweet treats in my kitchen. I did a short clean-up of my baking supplies stash and found many expired items...no choice but to throw them all away...feels kinda wasted, oh well.

When there's no cocoa powder or lemons in my house, the next best flavour for madeleines would be caramel. Came across Shirley's post on Pierre Herme's Caramel Apricot Madeleines and decided to give it a try. Just like how she described it, the recipe yielded moist and fluffy madeleines with a nice burnt sugar taste that I love :). I have to agree that this is an excellent madeleine recipe!

These were so yummy that I had 2 at one go straight out of the oven, no kidding! My madeleines were alot darker in colour that Shirley's, which I think is due to the colour of the caramel I used. Mine was so dark it's almost black...hence I had brown coloured madeleines as a result, not as pretty as those Shirley made!

In any case, I'm happy with how these turned out. More pictures and the recipe below :).

Caramel Madeleines

adapted from Kokken

Ingredients:

36g castor sugar

10g glucose
1g vanilla extract
65g egg
65g plain flour
2g baking powder
65g melted butter
37g caramel

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder together.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, glucose using a hand whisk until well blended. (do not whisk)
4. Add in caramel and mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour in 3 additions mixing well after each addition.
6. Add in melted butter in 3 additions, mixing well after each addition.
7. Leave to stand for 20mins.
8. Place batter into a piping bag and pipe into a buttered and floured madeleine pan.
9. Bake at 200C for 8 minutes.

Yields 12 madeleines.

Orange Chocolate Macarons

Phew, what a first week of work it's been for me. I'm glad I survived when I could have potentially drowned in that mountain of work and new things to learn. Though I've been busy, I'm really excited and happy with the things I'm doing at my new place. I get to dabble with my favourite sports and the major sporting events that are being shown on television, something I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. It's getting reaaally close to my dream job and I'm all excited about it!

On the other side of the spectrum, things have been soooo hectic it really takes some getting used to at this point. I pray that it shall get easier as the days go by :).

I made these Orange Chocolate Macarons just before I started work this week. A friend of mine wanted to come over to my place for a baking session and I happily obliged. I always felt that I had to prepare in advance for such baking sessions hence I don't always say yes when such requests come in, just so that I won't feel too stressed out by the amount of preparation work I had to do beforehand. But recently, the requests are coming in at a much higher frequency that I decided to make an extra effort to accept more of them instead. Receiving these requests are definitely compliments to my baking and also encourages me to step out of my comfort zone to do something different for a change.

These Orange Chocolate Macarons were a such a breeze to make, yet yielding delicious macs all the same! I used my trusty Italian Meringue recipe and sandwiched the shells with a orange chocolate ganache made from Lindt's orange chocolate bar. I love this particular chocolate bar because of its lovely orange fragrance and the little chewy bits that are incorporated into the chocolate...very delicious! So far, the reviews I received were all positive, hence this is definitely a recipe for keeps - to reproduce again in the days to come :).

Okay, it's time to get a little more rest before work starts again tomorrow. Happy Weekend to you all!

Marbled Matcha Peach Tea Chiffon Cake

 

I never quite had a fascination for tea like the one I had for chocolate. I have now amassed enough varieties of chocolate at home to fill up one entire shelf of my baking supplies collection.  Anyways, this all changed after an outing with my bestie to TWG Tea Salon & Boutique to celebrate her birthday. I always thought that their selection of teas were confined to the sole shelf of packaged teas they have, until I opened their full tea menu.

Gosh, there were soooo many varieties of tea that I didn't even know where to begin. Spoilt for choice, we decided to ask the service staff for recommendations instead of getting lost in all the different varieties available. We settled for Snow Needles Tea, a light, floral tea perfect for the evening to accompany our macaron selection. Yes, macarons...I do love TWG's macarons for their lovely texture, balanced level of sweetness and the alluring tea-infused flavours. They were oh so goood! I decided there and then that I have to try my hand at using tea in my baked goods.

Up till now, I've only dabbled with using matcha powder in cakes and cookies. I've always wanted to posess a good variety of earl grey tea to use it in madeleines, macarons and tea cakes. So far, I haven't bought one yet and am looking for a nice one to try. Any suggestions?

I scanned my tiny tea collection for inspiration and spotted my Twinings Peach Tea. An idea came to mind and I decided to incorporate peach tea and matcha into a marbled chiffon cake. The fruity tea flavours melded perfectly and I love the resulting sweet smelling fragrance of the tea leaves in this chiffon...lovely :).

I left the tea leaves in the chiffon instead of filtering them out. Reviews from my friends on that were alright and they didn't feel it tasted weird or awful, which was a relief to me. This cake is so light and soft that I finished close to half a cake at one go - perfect to enjoy with a good cuppa tea on a cool, rainy day :).

Marbling cakes is one of the best ways to get 2 of my favourite flavours into the same cake, and it produces a pretty swirly effect too. I love looking at such pretty marbled cakes...somehow it cheers me up instantly...haha.

I used the base recipe from my last Chocolate Chiffon Cake and made slight adjustments for the replacement of cocoa powder with matcha powder and peach tea. I'm a little lazy today to post up the recipe but do drop me a note if you would like me to share that alright? I'd be happy to type them out in a while :).

Breakfast Pancakes

Election fever has taken over most, if not all Singaporeans. With such an unprecedented political environmental unlike that we've seen in preceding years, this year's elections is set to be a fiercely fought battle on many fronts. Somehow this got me thinking about the Singapore of older days (not that I have that many years under my belt), and how much Singapore has changed and transformed to become the modern city it is today.

I can honestly say I love being here, staying here and I love my country, as this is the place I call my home. This is family, this is Singapore, a place that I've grown up in and grown to love. Much of my adult years have been spent either in university or working in the corporate world and I have to say, this is a remarkable place to live in. There are many areas in which we can do better, without a doubt, but it is still one of the best places to live in - clean, comfortable and safe. I don't wish to take any of these for granted given the very exciting and volatile world events that are happening all around us. It's probably not the time to take a chance with the cards we have on our hands and take a risky bet on the future of our country. These are exciting times for us indeed, scenes that we'd love to see since years ago and now we are seeing it happen right before our very eyes. Now that it has happened, what do we do next? What do we want next? These are questions that have been weighing on my heart in recent days...

That aside, today is my first day of freedom from work! Years of working at the same company caused me to have an emotional attachment to the company and my colleagues, hence a teary and emotional farewell was inevitable yesterday. It feels good to be able to not work for the time being, yet at the same time, I feel sad that the place I call my second home is no longer that to me now.

On the other hand, this frees me up (finally) to have a slow, homey breakfast all by myself. I've been meaning to have homemade pancakes for the longest time and finally made them today! After reading Evan's post, I decided to try out this recipe that I've bookmarked for the longest time.

And the result? I love them! They are light, fluffy and very delicious with some whipped cream on the side :).

Looking around the kitchen for further inspiration, I topped these with some citron tea concentrate and they tasted even more awesome. I love these pancakes!

Haha, I was overly ambitious and I doubled the recipe when I made the recipe. It yielded me soooo much batter than there's no way I can finish them even with my family of four. I'll just have to keep them for tomorrow's breakfast, and perhaps try them out other alternative flavours :).

Breakfast Pancakes

adapted from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, separated
2 tsps caster sugar
1 tbsp oil

Preparation:

1. Combine flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl and mix well.
2. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolk and milk followed by oil. Mix well and add in the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
3. Whisk egg white until foamy and gradually add the sugar and whisk till soft peak form. Fold the meringue into the mixture above. (the batter can be refrigerated overnight to prevent it from spreading too much when cooking)
4. Heat griddle or a non-stick frying pan on medium low heat then scoop batter, about 1 ladleful onto the pan. cook until bubbles appear evenly on the surface, flip it over and cook until golden.
5. Serve with whipped cream, chocolate sauce or maple syrup according to your personal preferences.

Black Bottomed Banana Squares

I'm back! I can't believe how long I've been missing in action when it comes to baking. Life has been extremely hectic for the past month I barely had time to breathe. Now that the majority of my work is completed and I'm looking to move on in my career, it's time to take a short breather and prepare my mind, body and spirit for the exciting journey ahead! :)

I have around 1.5 weeks before I start my new job...scary, but at the same time, I feel excited! Some of the spare time I have will be used to churn out some desserts, just so that my oven won't feel too neglected...haha.

I came across this lovely recipe on Min's blog for chocolate bottomed banana squares....couldn't find a more delightful chocolate banana combination in a banana cake format than this! Love the pretty contrast between the white and black layers, and the speckled crust with dark chocolate chips...looks sooo cute! Tempted, I set out to bake this yesterday and here are the results...

Pretty cute aren't they? I do find the chocolate layer a little dry for my liking. I'd probably cut the amount of flour in the chocolate layer the next time round so that it's easier on the palate. Otherwise, I love this cake! The sweet banana fragrance and the deep chocolate flavour makes it a winning combination in any case :).

This bake came at a timely moment too, in time for Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight! I'm submitting this for this month's challenge!

 

Black Bottomed Banana Squares

adapted from Min's blog

Ingredients:

113g unsalted butter

60g castor sugar

1 egg 

1 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium bananas, mashed
180g cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
30g cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips


Preparation:
1. Cream the butter with sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add the egg, vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Beat till well incorporated.
3. Add the flour in 3 additions and fold into the mixture with a rubber spatula.
4. Divide the mixture into half and add the cocoa powder into one half of the mixture.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into an 8" by 8" square pan, followed by the banana mixture. Top with dark chocolate chips.
6. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll

Haven't been able to bake much this month, I really miss baking. I miss dreaming about the different flavour combinations and concoctions, shopping for ingredients and putting them together into pretty and delicious desserts. There's something about baking that makes it a highly therapeutic activity and gives me a sense of accomplishment every single time. I wish I'll have more time and opportunities to bake in the months ahead...I have so many more things to accomplish still!

I saw a bunch of bananas sitting at the kitchen counter and decided at a whim to make this Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll. I'm pretty sick of the overly sweet desserts outside and was craving for a rustic and homely cake. Besides chiffons, swiss rolls are the next item on my list of homely cakes...and plus, they are quick to put together and easy on the palate!

I was undecided on whether to use my leftover Van Houten chocolate chips or opt for the more luxurious Valrhona Caraibe for this. Eventually, I decided to use the latter...no point using the cheaper chocolate especially since it's for my loved ones' consumption. The cake turned out pretty tasty, not too sweet! Though I'd like it more if the sponge was more moist and the bananas more sweet and ripe. Perhaps brushing some sugar syrup over the sponge will help? Any other suggestions ? Else I might just try that next time :).

Ooooh...I am also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #5 - Fruity March (Mar 2011) hosted by Jess from Bakericious!

Am digging into a slice right now...will leave you with the recipe in the meantime :).

Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll

adapted from Eggplant10

Ingredients:

[Sponge]

25g unsalted butter, melted

45g cake flour, sifted

80g egg yolks

25g castor sugar

20g cocoa powder, sifted

10g cold water

120g egg whites

60g castor sugar

10g corn flour

[Chocolate Whipped Cream]
160g whipping cream
90g chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp milk

Preparation:
[Sponge]
1. Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar over a double boiler until it becomes a pale and thick mixture.
2. Add sifted cocoa powder and cold water and whisk till well incorporated.
3. Beat egg whites in an electric stand mixer till foamy, slowly add the castor sugar and corn flour and beat till stiff peak form.
4. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk and cocoa mixture until there are no more traces of egg whites left, then fold in another 1/3, followed by the last 1/3 of the meringue.
5. Fold in the sifted cake flour, followed by the melted butter.
6. Pour the batter into a line sheet pan and level. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes. Cool on the wire rack until ready to use.

[Chocolate Whipped Cream]
1. Whip the cream until soft peak form.
2. Melt the chocolate and milk over a double boiler and mix till smooth.
3. Fold the melted chocolate mixture into the whipped cream and chill till ready to use.

[Assembly]
1. Spread a layer of whipped cream onto the sponge. Line the bananas on top of the whipped cream and roll.
2. Chill in the refrigerator till ready to serve.