sugar, give me sugar

Friday, January 23, 2009

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In the essence of what M told L :
" If i spend another second in this house, i will go absolutely out of my fucking mind."

this black venom runs in my confucian blood and i am just dying to purge it out.

~

yay! PROFITEROLES

I have the faintest memory of my first home made cream puff. The crust was soft, the cream was smooth. That is about all i can recollect.

About a few years later, I was initiated into the Sun Moulin fan club with its Cream puffs. A tower of probably the freshest, tastiest (without an all too conspicuous added sugar-ness) Japanese fresh cream (in Singapore that is) sandwiched between two soft, slightly salty pastry shells.

Then beard papa came around. With its crispy Pâte à Choux and creme patisserie. More liquidy than ever but smooth like a smooth operator.

There was a Japanese bakery in Pudong, Shanghai which D boasted had the best cream ever. The pastry forgettable, but the cream inspired me - it had no intention of hiding their kitchen formula: Cream puff cream usually had whipping cream in it. In fact, their yellow yolky creme patisserie was separate from their white whipping cream! It wasn't spectacular but i savoured the new-found knowledge.

And finally, Liang Court (SG)'s Tampopo Cream puffs. JJ, a self-proclaimed non-cream puff fan but queue-obsessed heartlander, went to queue (he din even get to queue actually, it was empty that day) for that 40-cream-puffs-an-hr-for-4-hours-with-max-order-per-person. He is SUCH a sucker for Limited stuff. But i cannot complain since i queued hmmm 5.5 hours for LCG bakwa. I KNOW. First and last time , I swear. It was all to appease the insatiable appetite of the Thunder Gods (to no avail apparently -see above-) Anyways! The cream here was normal. But they had a very interesting choux pastry that was uber crispy AND layered somehow. I really can't say that choux pastry can get very yummy unless someone decided to add whiskey into it somehow but its all about how its texture complements the cream (and the addition of salt or not).

Then there is mine. Hohoho.

It never really crossed my mind to make profiteroles until I tried those at the Pudong bakery. It wasn't so much that it was good, but it was fun to know the cream had 2 different elements in it (i always thought it was boring whipping cream that only tasted different with random infusions and cos of the quality of milk used - silly me! i should have been able to taste the yolk!)

And very coincidentally the day after the Pudong bakery, I went to Shanghai's 书城 to look for a reference book for an exam and erm..ended up sitting off the edge of a book shelf, copying dessert recipes for an hour off a browsing copy of French Recipes. Heheh. It was too expensive! 50 sgd for it plus i had no idea if its recipes were feasible. Although i must say it had pretty full page photos that stirred both the appetite and curiosity. Anyways (I digressed again!), i saw the recipe for Creme Patisserie and Choux Pastry! What luck.

So like a day before my birthday, I attempted the great Profiterole! It was funny how the dough for the choux had to be cooked in a pot and i was lucky it didn't get burnt cos my stove fire burns bright heh. I have reservations about the accuracy of the recipe since my dough dried up almost immediately and i was so worried it'll burn that i added quite alot of additional milk (which might explain why my choux went soft quite quickly?).

Piping choux raised alot of debate online but i'm thinking "SERIOUSLY.". There were like the piping in figure of 8, piping like a coil of poo, piping inwards, piping outwards?! I'm no nitpicky cook so whatever goes. I say, if you like "cute as a button", pipe ; if you like your pastry shaped more naturally, then use a spoon. But generally, i prefer smaller choux. Cos it means more cream:pastry ratio and more pop-into-mouthy. HEH.

Then there was also the whole issue about baking the choux dry. The bottoms were browned too quickly (foil to the rescue) and i still have no idea when the choux was ideally baked. There were so many varying opinions floating in cyberspace on how to achieve the perfect baking result: Some called for pricking the pastry half way to let out moisture inside (which made sense), some called for opening the oven door for the last 15 min to let out excess moisture , others disallow opening the oven door. There was the remove-one-choux-prematurely to test if it was done. Too many methods. I pricked and opened my oven door since my oven was a non-ventilation.

I ended up with a little bit of raw pastry inside my choux which the recipe book said was normal (at least for the Choux Ring). Just had to dig it out before filling in with cream. That got a little messy as the raw pastry was limp and flappy. And it made a few holes in my choux but all in all it was quite successful. Didn't collapse immediately but 1-2 hours out of the oven (even in super dry shanghai) , it turned all soft. I'll definitely try baking it for another 10-20 minutes.

The cream however was SPLENDID. Do remember to carry out cling wrap instruction (over the cream) or the hard skin will form. I whipped it together with whipping cream and it turned out with the perfect sweetness, and smoothness without being all too watery. D said it was better than BPapa's and SY said it was equivalent to BPapa's (which i decided was a compliment!).

I tried to make two Profiterole swans. Not as easy as i thought : the neck of the swan didn't seem to expand evenly throughout so i got a fat-headed swan. And piping was tough too since i haven't gotten my nozzles yet. But i chose the better "necks" of the lot and added my favorite fruit to the body to make it prettier. Didn't get to use blanched almonds for the beak nor add the chocolate eye (too much work!). But i was pleased with the swans overall. I remember mum making it, hers were prettier but i think i have the better cream. HOHO.

Anyways, i baked into my birthday, as a resolution to improve my baking for 2009! (It was also meant to be a 好兆头, for things and our pockets to PUFF up! so 俗!)

1/23/2009 12:43:00 PM

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

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Last week was TOO much food. I think there was one day I had to eat 3 ice creams from 3 different outlets. All the nutrients (and grease) accumulated to the point beyond threshold and my body protested by throwing a fever tantrum. Which was easily subdued by having er... less lunch and dinner the next day. I am now a convert - Moderation please!

*whistles for a minute*

i'm having a dinner buffet with J on thurs.

...

I-koi! Wow after like 6 years. I'll blog if its worth mentioning!

***************

TIRAMISTER ZY!

Its tough trying to pick up the habit of food-blogging right after i'm done with the cooking. But i perfectly understand why people do that. It ssssucks to blog a month after. Its like not eating your baguette when its fresh from the oven. Actually, its worse than that! Its like trying to pick the miserably few edible morsels off a stale white bread.

But if i don't, i'll have nothing to blog about! Since i have been too busy stuffing myself even BEFORE CNY. There is a another reason actually : Mum has banned me from the kitchen cos' she's up to CNY baking. Although I did manage to make my little apple crumble cups today. But that was only cos i made it seem like an impromptu effort to use up the going-going-gone green apples and i very diligently helped out with washing. Grumble.

Okay! So i'm going to revisit my Tiramisu attempt on December 20th ( i think ). It was a pre-Xmas celebratory dessert (it was not an excuse to eat! it was cos i wont be around to bake on xmas - exams and all).

I was msn-ing J before the tiramisu attempt. She was VERY rude. First by saying she didn't love them. Then by insinuating that tiramisus were too simple and all about chocolate & coffee quality. HMMMPH. Okay there is SOME truth in that but it wasn't THAT simple. I could remember my first attempt like 5 years ago. It died a watery death and gave me watery bowels.

The Tira flowed. Yes. So the 2 things in my mind before working on Project-Solid-Tiramisu :

1) It must not flow.

2) It must not give me diarrhea.

I did my usual homework by surfing online for theory. Apparently, most people don't think cooking the egg yolks over a hot steam bath make a difference. It certainly wouldn't affect the taste and only to the cautious, did it mean better hygiene. But I should know better so a water bath was mandatory this time. (My mum just as in "just" just, told me that egg whites were the germ carriers so hmmm i don't know) This recipe called for egg whites. I went with it because i definitely wanted something lighter. Nothing like fluffy tiramisu.

The flowing bit would have to be attributed to oversoaked ladyfingers. There were different routines to tackle this : the 1-2 or the 1-2-3-4. Er basically 2 seconds in the coffee or 4 seconds with 2 on each side. I think this would be more of an experimental problem so i decided to just go ahead.

Buying mascorpone cheese was a heartache. It was 60 RMB (12 SGD) for 250 gm. More than twice the price of cream cheese. I've heard of restaurants using cream cheese as a cheap substitute. I really can't tell the difference except mascorpone was slightly lighter in both taste and texture AND it had a smell (which i hate!) that would definitely go after mixing in the yolks and whites. Anyways it was so expensive that i knew i couldn't afford to go wrong, and what i should definitely afford to get is : good quality ingredients for the rest of the recipe - ie good coffee.

I couldn't remember how much coffee was required but i definitely thought 1 cup was good enough. I was contemplating Starbucks or Costa (another rubbishy coffee chain which was slightly better than Starbucks). I know i know, i should use something better but i didn't have good coffee powder at home and wasn't about to spend another 100 RMB on quality espresso powder. PLUS D had vouchers for both and it just made sense to save costs!

LH and ML were totally against Starbucks coffee for tiramisu and LH thought Costa (she tried when she was in SH) was better (not by much tho) -- so Costa it was! So i got my ass down to Costa and got an Americano which had 3 shots of espresso already. I asked for another two (additional 10 RMB). Hot steamy coffee! Now the problem was how i was going to take that coffee home! I got the staff to seal it up tightly then i tried to position it upright in that oversized paper carrier they gave me by STUPIDLY sitting it in my wool scarf. And guess what? The moment i lifted it up, tadaaaa, coffee on scarf. TMD.

Okay so the tape that was supposed to seal the opening on the lid didn't work. I had an empty mineral water bottle in my bag. (HAH! So much for D complaining that my bag had too much rubbish - you never know when the stuff comes in handy!) So i er... made my way to a toilet cubicle. Where i took off the lid of my Costa Coffee. And in the cubicle, started to .... BLOW my COFFEE COOL. Okay i know im the least glamorous baker alive. And my OCD was really serious. But i HAD to find a way to pour steaming hot coffee into my plastic bottle! And where else to do it but the toilet! The toilet was clean thank goodness. So i was there blowing blowing blowing, ignoring kicks on my locked door by needy patrons, blowing again and finally it was lukewarm so i poured it into the bottle, ran it under tap water (lucky it was winter and SH had no heater for public toilets) and tadaa! Portable Tiramisu Coffee!

On my way back home, I decided to get strawberries! I got cherries initially as my additional ingredient. But for some reason, I had "frozen fruits!" in my mind and i froze the cherries for a week. They came out rock hard and upon thawing, turned into a puddle of smelly juice. The cherry vendor wasn't around so i had to make do with strawberries.

Tiramisu is relatively simple. Yolk over steam bath. Whisk whites till stiff. Whip cream. Mix cheese and all. Tadaaa.

Now came the arrangement. Ladyfingers are fun to soak cos they soak well as in they don't come apart immediately. Some people use sponge but i think sponge's too absorbent and might need drizzling instead. I tried 1-2-3-4 routine. It worked pretty well but i think the point is just to make sure the fingers are soaked only until the white centre disappears and the tiramisu retains the slightest firmness. I did oversoak once or twice but i decided to squeeze out the excess coffee this time. Rather they lose shape then turn my dessert into soup.

Chocolate Shavings. Some say its only a matter of preference. To me, its MANDATORY. It gives that sharper sweetness which the cream cannot provide. The chocolate taste is only of secondary importance. Dusting the top with cocoa powder is also a must-do. Some blogger worried that it would choke the eater cos its too dry but i agree with the reply he got : The wet cream will take care of that. Cocoa powder provided the bitterness and depth and it ,dissolved in the cream, was oooohmff.

My strawberries were only added to fulfill my whim of making Blackforest Tiramisus which sounded wonderful! (I should have used dark cherries since it was blackforest, i know but read above for self-defense!) I pureed my strawberries, simmered the puree with a little sugar till it turned a darker red (it would never reach the nice purple of cherries tho). And then it went in between the first layer of cream n 2nd layer of fingers. OH YUM. It was really good! It really rejuvenated the taste buds when the tiramisu was getting jelat! Added fruity freshness into a cream-coffee dessert. I always believed in the dialectic formula of desserts : ie, most of the time, they could only belong to either C or F. C - Coffee, Cream, Chocolate, Cheese : Mudpies, Chocolate Cakes, Cream Puffs ; F - Fruits : Sherbet, Cherry Pies, Strawberry Romanoffs. C is rich and divine but easily slips into a sickening monotony of taste; while F is always refreshing but never seems to please one wholly. C is an intense romantic which might disappear on a summer's day; while F is that cute little thing that can never give you an orgasm where you need it.

And then there are the rare, occasional hybrids like the Strawberry Fondue, Blackforest Cake, Blueberry Cheesecake which orchestrate the elements of C and F in harmony. (its interesting how the berries are usually the chosen ones for this job) I wouldn't say my Black(red)forest Tiramisu managed that but it was certainly meant to!

Then there was the entire packaging. I was troubling myself over dessert glasses - whether it was worth getting those nice round-bottomed glasses (like a pear!) which get slightly narrower as they go upwards , something like the curves of a bordeaux glass. I saw those at the online catalogue for Ikea and they weren't really expensive but to get them just for the infrequent parfaits, tiramisus?! Nope. This is a cook with self-discipline! (and a half-filled pocket). While i was going thru my stash of lousy tupperware, it suddenly occured to me that i could use my wine glasses instead of dessert/cocktail glasses! Hooray!

Arrangement was fun. Its the fun-nest part of Tiramisu (besides eating it) imo. Its like cherry-topping the BFC, breaking the 18 eggs for kueh lapis and whisking the no-ice-cream-maker sherbet every 2 hours. With 1 entire serving, i made 4 wine glasses and one 7 in x 4 in plastic container with cream remaining (i was out of coffee and fingers.)

Tadaaa~~~~:

(From top to bottom: 4 babies , BF tiramisu , Original tiramisu)

I know it looks like my babies are lacking fingers (LOL!) but its just cos of the shape of the glass. Was too lazy to squeeze them to the sides. And yea i had too much cream to spare. heh.

I was a little concerned bout the cocoa powder being too thick though. I need to learn dusting proper.

As for the taste, YUM. At least to me. D, SY, ZW, P tried it, i got pretty much +ve comments! But after a few more bites there was definitely room for improvement in the Taste dept.:

1) I still got a few soggy woggy fingers.
2) The cream should have been kahlua infused as well!
3) I should have just loaded the coffee with another 6 more tbsps of kahlua. Hoho.

What i thought was good:

1) Bravo to accidental milk chocolate shavings. Needed the sweetness.
2) Strawberry Puree did provide Freshness but the strawberry flavor per se didn't quite cut through. Maybe cherries would have worked out or i shouldn't have cooked the puree.
3) A smaller serving made the tiramisu much more appetising

************************

So i saw J again. I had to admit, Tiramisu was REALLY all about coffee and choc. But hey, at least it didn't turn out watery like before. That still requires skill right? About as much skill as a 13-yao on the mahjong table i guess.

1/20/2009 05:32:00 PM