Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ginger Brulee Tart



Recipe from the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook
If you haven't been to the bakery, you should! And if you only buy one thing, it should be a brulee tart, either the Strawberry and Vanilla or the Ginger.
The pâte sucrée they make is amazing! So thin and crisp. It's absolutely to die for.
Mine didn't turn out so death-bringing, it was crisp, but not as thin, and it's possible I may have overworked the dough.
This has a very strong ginger taste, not for people who don't like sweet ginger food.
Mine didn't brulee very well as I don't have a blow torch, using the grill just didn't have the same effect.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Cheese Blintze



Found the recipe in Nigella's "How to be a Domestic Goddess"
It turned out pretty good, I'd be just satisfied if it was all cream cheese filling instead of cream and curd cheese :p
I also used mixed berries to make the compote. Yummy and bloody looking.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Jasmine Green Tea and White Chocolate Macaron


Once I tried the White Chocolate and Jasmine Green Tea Macaron at La Renaissance Cafe, I was in lurvvvvve~!
I had to give this a shot myself.
Unfortunately, macarons have always been difficult for me. This Just didn't want to work. Three batches of macaron. None of them successful.
However, I feel that 160°C for 18mins might be the optimal temperature for my oven.
The recipe said let it sit for 1 hour, i think it might have been too long and the recipe was also rather dense. I will try a different recipe next time, without as much sugar and almond.

The White Chocolate Ganache filling recipe:
200g White Chocolate, chopped.
150ml Cream (35% fat, not that it makes much difference in this case, but it just so happen to be the cream i had.)
2 teabags of Jasmine Green Tea

  1. Heat the cream in a small pot. Once it starts to simmer, drop in the tea bags and let them brew. Using a teaspoon to press the bags every so often until you are satisfied with the strength of the tea.
  2. In the meantime, melt the white chocolate in a large heatproof bowl sitting about a pot of simmering water, make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Remove from the heat once all the chocolate is melted.
  3. Pour the cream into the white chocolate and whisk to mix.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed (I should thicken up by then)
  5. Once cooled, whip it up and spoon it into a piping bag , I don't use any piping nozzle, just cut the tip off and pipe onto one macaron and sandwich with another.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Biscotti!



Biscotti can be addictive. Learning this after buying my first bag of biscotti not long ago and no matter how I try, I was unable to stop eating it. Before you know it, the entire bag was gone!
Lemongrass and Ginger, I believe it was. It doesn't matter, because the subsequent bags of different biscottis bought were all just as addictive.

So, of course, I have to give it a go.
This recipe contained dried fig, dried apricot, sultanas, almonds and hazelnuts.
It did turn out a little bit wrong. My original roll was much too large so it didn't cook properly (I didnt realise), so when it came time to slice it up for the second baking, it was a little bit difficult.
But despite that, it was oh so yummy. I kept eating as I was baking each batch of biscotti (one cookie tray, large biscottis). I still ended up with a fair bit.
It took one day for all of them to disappear. I am very happy that it was that well recieved.
Another thing, I love my new lil tea-for-one teapot and cup set!
Cute isn't it?