Creating A Stir

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-25T23:20:00.000+09:00

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Christmas is coming...

2011-12-07T20:22:00.006+09:00

Literally. Mince pies and Christmas pudding are on their way! :-)

It's our fourth Christmas here in Japan, and as each year passes I crave just a little more of the smells and tastes of home. Year one was a total write-off, with M (and therefor me) spending her very first Christmas in hospital with pneumonia. Year two, I attempted to make do with what I could buy in my local supermarket to make my own mincemeat and Christmas cake, unaware that the dried fruit was tropical papaya and mango rather than the traditional blend that I was familiar with. By year three, I was willing to pay the inflated prices of a single jar of Robertson's mincemeat and a mini-box of Quality Street from my local import shop (pretty much the only British items they had in stock!). And this year...

I am one happy Brit! And look what else will be in my super parcel...

Now you may mock, but after an extended absence you really do develop very strong cravings for such basics, and they simply cannot be found for love nor money on Shikoku (as far as I am aware). Oh thank you, Foreign Buyer's Club! Now if I could only talk them into stocking Marmite...

Daring Bakers Challenge November 2011 - Filipino Desserts

2011-11-27T14:36:00.009+09:00

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

The problem with being a Daring Baker is that our creations are hardly low on calories and generally come with a baked-in 'just-one-more-slice' factor. On the other hand, there is nothing better than being able to share the fruit of your toils with friends. And thank goodness I had friend old and new to help me eat this month's offerings!

As soon as I read the description of the Sans Rival, I knew that this would be exactly up my alley. I've always had a terrible weakness for the meringue and buttercream combination. Each birthday I would ask my mum to make a Gateau Diane, and on Saturdays lunchtimes I would sneak out of the shop I worked in to buy a Jap Cake... yeah, I've always had a sweet tooth :-D I couldn't wait to get started!

I used the given recipe, using chocolate and cashew nuts, and it all went very smoothly. I made the buttercream the day before, very dangerous as I couldn't resist checking it every now and then. I didn't bake the meringue in a tin, instead I just drew a circle on parchment and spooned it into shape. They weren't as crispy as I'd hoped they'd be, but that was entirely because I'd left it til late to bake them and I really needed to go to bed rather than hang around my oven into the early hours. Next time I will make sure to bake in the morning.

The finished product was utterly divine! I can see me making this again and again, although it would be fun to play around with flavours (I'd hoped to make a matcha and kinako version before the deadline). I am already mentally lining up social occasions to be able to try just another slice!

I also took up the optional challenge to make Bibingka. It was rather a last minute decision and I knew I hadn't left enough time to make the salted eggs, so I used quail eggs in the hope that they would absorb the brine faster (I had less than a week). I forgot to take photos of the first batch of eggs, but I have a second batch of hen eggs soaking right now as I will be making this recipe again for our church Christmas service (we have a lot of Filipino members and I thought they might enjoy a taste of home).

Like many other DBers, I had trouble dissolving the salt, in spite of simmering the mixture for a good while. The murky jar looks like some kind of science experiment, although the quail eggs did look far more pretty than the hen eggs. Oh, and I didn't have any brandy so ended up using some homemade umeshu (plum liqueur) instead. The quail eggs tasted great - I snacked on one or two as they were very fiddly to peel and some of them didn't survive in tact to make it to the cakes! ;-)

I couldn't find banana leaves anywhere, so instead opted to make Bibingka cupcakes (which worked very well with the smaller eggs). The batter was very easy to make, although mine was much, much thicker than the example we were shown and I have no idea why... Still, they turned out just fine. The only thing I did differently was to brown the tops of the cakes after sprinkling with the topping rather than before. Not that I was trying to be clever or anything, I'd just misread the instructions!

They were made for my friend (and pastor's wife) M-san, who will be celebrating her birthday on Tuesday!

Thank you to Catherine for challenging us with such interesting and delicious desserts, it was great fun to do! :-D

Sans Rival:
Servings: 12

Ingredients
10 large egg whites, room temp
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) cream of tartar
¼ cup (60 ml) (20 gm) (2/3 oz) Dutch processed cocoa (optional and not traditional)
2 cups (480 ml) (240 gm) (8½ oz) chopped, toasted cashews

Directions:
Note: You will need four layers which will mean that you might have to bake in two batches. Be sure to use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.

1. Preheat oven to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3.

2. Line cake pan bottoms with parchment paper and butter and flour the sides really well.

3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy (2 mins.). Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form. (about 7-10 mins.)

4. Fold in nuts, reserving enough to use for decoration.

5. Divide meringue into four equal parts. Spread in pans, evenly to edges. If doing batches, use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the meringue from the baking pans while still hot; allow to cool slightly. Peel off the parchment paper while it is still warm, it is difficult to remove sometimes when they have completely cooled.

7. When cool, trim edges so that all 4 meringue layers are uniformly shaped. Set aside.

French Buttercream:

Ingredients:
5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1¼ cup (300 ml) (2½ sticks) (285 gm) (10 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
Optional Flavorings: 2 oz (55 gm) unsweetened chocolate, melted, or 1½ teaspoon (7 ½ ml) almond extract, or 1½ teaspoon (7 ½ ml) vanilla extract, or any flavor you like

Directions:

1. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.

2. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235°F/112°C (or thread stage).

3. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is ROOM TEMPERATURE (about 15 mins). Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add flavoring after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it.

Assembly:

Set bottom meringue on cake board with a dab of butter cream to hold it in place. Spread a
thin layer of buttercream and then place another meringue on top. Repeat with a thin layer of
buttercream, meringue, thin layer of buttercream, meringue, and finally buttercream the top and sides. Decorate with reserved nuts.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. It is easier to cut cold. May freeze.

Bibingka
Thank you to Jun, from Jun-blog, for his recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups (480 ml) (320 gm) (11.3 oz) rice flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) (80 gm) (2.8 oz) glutinous rice flour
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) baking powder
3/4 cup (180 ml) (170 gm) (6 oz) sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup (80 ml) (75 gm) (2⅔ oz) unsalted butter melted
1-1/2 cup (360 ml) coconut milk
6 pieces banana leaves cut into 8-inch (20 cm) circles
1 salted egg, sliced into 1/4-inch (6 mm) thick slices, recipe follows
Butter, salted or unsalted, for brushing the tops
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) white granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) grated coconut (optional)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) grated Edam cheese (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.

2. Line six tart pans or ramekins with banana leaves and brush the leaves with butter.

3. Combine rice flour, glutinous rice flour, baking powder, and sugar together in a bowl. Beat eggs in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Add butter and coconut milk and mix well. Add the flour mixture and blend well until smooth.

4. Pour the rice batter equally into the six pans or ramekins. Lay a slice of salted egg on top and bake until the cake is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Take the cakes out of the oven and brush the top with butter. Turn the broiler to low and broil the cakes to brown the top for about two minutes.

5. Serve the cakes warm. Brush the cakes with butter and sprinkle with sugar, grated coconut, and grated Edam cheese.

Cooking notes from Jun:

• For the rice and glutinous rice flour, I recommend using the Thai brand commonly found in most Asian grocery stores.
• Use either tart pans or ramekins lined with banana leaves cut into circles. The cakes baked in 6-inch (15 cm) pans more closely resemble the traditional ones. The cakes baked in 4-inch (10 cm) ramekins are thicker and take longer to bake.
• Instead of a sliced salted egg, the cakes can be topped with slices of Edam or Gouda cheese.
• When using frozen grated coconut let the grated coconut thaw then place the thawed coconut on paper towels to soak up the extra moisture. Place them on a baking tray and lightly toast them for about a few minutes with the broiler (griller) turned on low. Use grated coconut and NOT grated young coconut.

Salted Eggs:

Ingredients:
1 part salt
4 parts water
sichuan pepper corns
1 tablespoon brandy or whiskey
Eggs, duck or chicken (duck is traditional)

Directions:

1. Boil all ingredients except eggs on the stove until the salt is dissolved. Let the liquid cool.
2. Place eggs in a clean mason jar, pour in the salt water, seal.
3. Place in your pantry for 2-3 weeks. To check if they are done, remove an egg, cook it, and taste it. You may decide that the rest of the eggs need a few more days.

October 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Povitica

2011-10-28T17:52:00.005+09:00

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

When I discovered that this months challenge entailed rolling out dough on a cloth to be tissue-thin before rolling it, I was filled with utter dread. Memories of the strudel challenge came flooding back. Uh oh. But this is what being a Daring Baker is all about, right? I can't just wimp out because I failed in the past, I've got to at least give it a try! It sounded so delicious, I resolved to give it a go.

I set aside Sunday afternoon to get working. I decided to make just one loaf, as walnuts are very expensive here and the recipe called for a lot. In fact, I thought I'd bought more than plenty for my loaf but, when I delved into the cupboard for the filling ingredients whilst the dough was rising, I realised that I only had half the amount called for. Ooops. I did, however, find a bag of poppy seeds that needed using up (I read that traditional povitica is often made with poppy seeds), so I decided to go half and half and hope for the best.

The next hurdle I faced was rolling the dough out. My previous experience using a cloth resulted in in a serious mess, lots of angry muttering, and a strudel impatiently scraped off the cloth and messily plonked together on the baking tray. Rather than risk a similar episode, I decided to split the dough and make two rolls, using a silicon mat instead of my bed sheet.

Success! It was far easier to manipulate, and didn't stick at all - hurrah!

I was itching to try a slice, but this isn't a throw-it-together-and-bake affair and I was obliged to wait just a little longer...

Tadaa! Perfectly bronzed and an aroma making me drool, I still couldn't tuck in as it needed to cool before I could get it out of the tin... arghh!

But the wait was worth it - look who I found tucked inside! Or is it just me who can see the cute raccoon...

I think this was one of my favourite challenges so far. It was very interesting to learn about this bread and to search old recipes for advice and inspiration. I'd never heard of Povitica before, but I can certainly see myself making this again. Not too soon, though, as it is super-calorific and I had to give my bread to a friend to save me from myself! A big thank you to Jenni for such a great challenge - more like this please!

Povitica

Preparation time:

To make Dough: 40 minutes
Rising: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Rolling and Assembly: 20 minutes
Baking: 1 hour
Cooling: 30 minutes
To Make the Filling: 15 minutes, including the grinding of the nuts

Dough Ingredients (Makes one loaf 1.25 lbs/565 grams)

To activate the Yeast:

½ Teaspoon (2½ ml/2¼ gm) Sugar
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/¾ gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour
2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Warm Water
1½ Teaspoons (7½ ml/3½ gm/0.125 oz/½ sachet) Dry Yeast

Dough:

½ Cup (120 ml) Whole Milk
3 Tablespoons (45 ml/43 gm/1½ oz) Sugar
¾ Teaspoon (3¾ ml/9 gm/0.17 oz) Table Salt
1 Large Egg
1 tablespoon (30 ml/30 gm/¼ stick/1 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted
2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz/0.62 lb) All-Purpose Flour, measure first then sift, divided

Filling Ingredients

1¾ Cups (420 ml/280 gm/10 oz) Ground English Walnuts
¼ Cup (60 ml) Whole Milk
¼ Cup (60 ml/58 gm/½ stick/2 oz) Unsalted Butter
1 Egg Yolk From A Large Egg, Beaten
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
½ Cup (120 ml/115 gm/4 oz) Sugar
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/1 gm) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/¾ gm) Cinnamon

Topping:

2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Cold STRONG Coffee
1½ Teaspoons (7½ ml/7 gm/¼ oz) Granulated Sugar
Melted Butter

1. In a small bowl, stir 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, and the yeast into ½ cup warm water and cover with plastic wrap.

2. Allow to stand for 5 minutes

To Make the Dough:

3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk up to just below boiling (about 180°F/82°C), stirring constantly so that a film does not form on the top of the milk. You want it hot enough to scald you, but not boiling. Allow to cool slightly, until it is about 110°F/43°C.

4. In a large bowl, mix the scalded milk, ¾ cup (180 gm/170 gm/6 oz) sugar, and the salt until combined.

5. Add the beaten egg, yeast mixture, melted butter, and 1 1/2 cups of flour.

6. Blend thoroughly and slowly add remaining flour, mixing well until the dough starts to clean the bowl.

7. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead, gradually adding flour a little at a time, until smooth and does not stick.

9. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover loosely with a layer of plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel and let rise an hour and a half in a warm place, until doubled in size.

To Make the Filling

10. In a large bowl mix together the ground walnuts (and poppy seeds!), sugar, cinnamon and cocoa.

11. Heat the milk and butter to boiling.

12. Pour the liquid over the nut/sugar mixture.

13. Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

14. Allow to stand at room temperature until ready to be spread on the dough.

15. If the mixture thickens, add a small amount of warm milk.

To Roll and Assemble the Dough:

16. Spread a clean sheet or cloth over your entire table so that it is covered.

17. Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons to a handful of flour (use flour sparingly)

18. Place the dough on the sheet and roll the dough out with a rolling pin, starting in the middle and working your way out, until it measures roughly 10-12 inches (25½ cm by 30½ cm) in diameter.

19. Spoon 1 to 1.5 teaspoons (5ml to 7 ½ ml/4 gm to 7 gm) of melted butter on top.

20. Using the tops of your hands, stretch dough out from the center until the dough is thin and uniformly opaque. You can also use your rolling pin, if you prefer.

21. As you work, continually pick up the dough from the table, not only to help in stretching it out, but also to make sure that it isn’t sticking.

22. When you think it the dough is thin enough, try to get it a little thinner. It should be so thin that you can see the color and perhaps the pattern of the sheet underneath.

23. Spoon filling (see below for recipe) evenly over dough until covered.

24. Lift the edge of the cloth and gently roll the dough like a jelly roll.

25. Once the dough is rolled up into a rope, gently lift it up and place it into a greased loaf pan in the shape of a “U”, with the ends meeting in the middle. You want to coil the dough around itself, as this will give the dough its characteristic look when sliced.

26. Repeat with remaining three loaves, coiling each rope of dough in its own loaf pan.

27. Brush the top of each loaf with a mixture of ½ cup (120 ml) of cold STRONG coffee and 2 tablespoons (30ml/28 gm/1 oz) of sugar. If you prefer, you can also use egg whites in place of this.

28. Cover pans lightly will plastic wrap and allow to rest for approximately 15 minutes.

29. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.

30. Remove plastic wrap from dough and place into the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes.

31. Turn down the oven temperature to slow 300°F/150°C/gas mark 2 and bake for an additional 45 minutes, or until done

32. Remove bread from oven and brush with melted butter.

33. Check the bread at 30 minutes to ensure that the bread is not getting too brown. You may cover the loaves with a sheet of aluminum foil if you need to.

34. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes, still in the bread pan. Remember, the bread weighs about 2.5 and it needs to be able to hold its own weight, which is difficult when still warm and fresh out of the oven. Allowing it to cool in the pan helps the loaf to hold its shape.

September 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Croissants

2011-09-27T07:27:00.009+09:00

O-hisashiburi... Long time no see. The last time I posted was just before heading to the UK for the first time in nearly 3 years. Less than two weeks before Japan was hit by the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Not going to write about that right now, I'm sure you read and saw enough in the news reports. We live far away from the emergency zone, but even so those events knocked me flying off my feet. Writing about baking fancy cakes seemed frivolous

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

I've been keeping a close eye on recent challenge, looking for the right moment to jump back in. Some were just too expensive, others were never going to work in this sticky summer heat... But this time round I was over the moon to see a recipe that uses cheap (except for butter - 300 yen for 200g!) and easily available ingredients! :-) I immediately printed off the recipe to try and work out timings, and I could see that this was going to take some planning.

So, I carefully calculated exactly when I needed to do what, and set to work. Didn't take me long to realise that something was wrong, even though I was following the recipe to the letter... my dough was waaaay to dry, it was like trying to knead a block of rubber! A quick check of the Daring Bakers website revealed that there had been an error in the published recipe, which listed twice as much flour than was required... oh well. Starting again meant that I fell behind on my military precise operation, and I ended up working on the dough until past midnight, but I was determined that we would be eating delicious croissants for Sunday breakfast!

The dough was very lively and, even during the fridge proves, rose quite spectacularly - even bursting out of the plastic wrapping on one occasion. The final, overnight rise was unhindered by placing a heavy item on top of the package. Considering this, I was disappointed by the final rise after the croissant had been shaped. Perhaps they would continue to rise in the oven?

As I am currently counting every calorie I consume in a bit to be fit and healthy by the time I turn forty, I decided that I would make half of the batch of croissants that little bit more attractive to the children by including a chocolate filling. I had high hope that these might turn out something like the pain au chocolat I used to buy, fresh from the oven, on my way home from a night on the town during my my time in the south of France!

Well, they didn't rise much further so they were somewhat mini-croissants, but they were quite delicious! The texture was good, very authentic and not at all 'bready' (if you know what I mean). They were a tad salty though, so when I make these again (and I will) I must make sure to reduce the amount, but other than that there were no complaints!

In fact, the boys polished off the lot - thank goodness, otherwise I might have had to do that job myself! ;-)

Very happy to have learned a new skill and add a new recipe to the breakfast menu, I'd like to thank Sarah for hosting this month's challenge! Thanks to you, I am back :-)

Croissants

Servings: 12 croissants

Ingredients
¼ oz (7 gm) of fresh yeast, or 1¼ teaspoon (6¼ ml/4 gm) of dry-active yeast (about ½ sachet)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water (less than 100°F/38°C)
1 teaspoon (5 ml/4½ gm) sugar
1 3/4 cups (225 gm/½ lb) of strong plain flour (I used Polish all-purpose flour, which is 13% protein)
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
1½ teaspoon (7½ ml/9 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml/¼ pint) milk (I am not sure if the fat content matters. I used 2%)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) tasteless oil (I used generic vegetable oil)
½ cup (120 ml/1 stick/115 gm/¼ lb) chilled, unsalted butter
1 egg, for egg wash

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast, warm water, and first teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Leave aside for the yeast and sugar to dissolve and the yeast to foam up a little.
2. Measure out the other ingredients
3. Heat the milk until tepid (either in the microwave or a saucepan), and dissolve in the salt and remaining sugar
4. Place the flour in a large bowl.
5. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture to the flour
6. Mix all the ingredients together using the rubber spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and let it rest a minute while you wash out the bowl
8. Knead the dough eight to ten times only. The best way is as Julia Child does it in the video (see below). It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially involves smacking the dough on the counter (lots of fun if you are mad at someone) and removing it from the counter using the pastry scraper.
9. Place the dough back in the bowl, and place the bowl in the plastic bag.
10. Leave the bowl at approximately 75°F/24°C for three hours, or until the dough has tripled in size.

11. After the dough has tripled in size, remove it gently from the bowl, pulling it away from the sides of the bowl with your fingertips.
12. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or counter top, and use your hands to press it out into a rectangle about 8 by 12 inches (20cm by 30cm).
13. Fold the dough rectangle in three, like a letter (fold the top third down, and then the bottom third up)
14. Place the dough letter back in the bowl, and the bowl back in the plastic bag.
15. Leave the dough to rise for another 1.5 hours, or until it has doubled in size. This second rise can be done overnight in the fridge

16. Place the double-risen dough onto a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the plate in the fridge while you prepare the butter.
17. Once the dough has doubled, it’s time to incorporate the butter
18. Place the block of chilled butter on a chopping board.
19. Using the rolling pin, beat the butter down a little, till it is quite flat.
20. Use the heel of your hand to continue to spread the butter until it is smooth. You want the butter to stay cool, but spread easily.

21. Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured board or counter. Let it rest for a minute or two.
22. Spread the dough using your hands into a rectangle about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
23. Remove the butter from the board, and place it on the top half of the dough rectangle
24. Spread the butter all across the top two-thirds of the dough rectangle, but keep it ¼ inch (6 mm) across from all the edges.
25. Fold the top third of the dough down, and the bottom third of the dough up.
26. Turn the dough package 90 degrees, so that the top flap is to your right (like a book).
27. Roll out the dough package (gently, so you don’t push the butter out of the dough) until it is again about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
28. Again, fold the top third down and the bottom third up.
29. Wrap the dough package in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge for 2 hours.

30. After two hours have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and place it again on the lightly floured board or counter.
31. Tap the dough with the rolling pin, to deflate it a little
32. Let the dough rest for 8 to 10 minutes
33. Roll the dough package out till it is 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
34. Fold in three, as before
35. Turn 90 degrees, and roll out again to 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
36. Fold in three for the last time, wrap in plastic, and return the dough package to the fridge for two more hours (or overnight, with something heavy on top to stop it from rising)

37. It’s now time to cut the dough and shape the croissants
38. First, lightly butter your baking sheet so that it is ready
39. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for ten minutes on the lightly floured board or counter
40. Roll the dough out into a 20 by 5 inch rectangle (51 cm by 12½ cm).
41. Cut the dough into two rectangles (each 10 by 5 inches (25½ cm by 12½ cm))
42. Place one of the rectangles in the fridge, to keep the butter cold
43. Roll the second rectangle out until it is 15 by 5 inches (38 cm by 12½ cm).
44. Cut the rectangle into three squares (each 5 by 5 inches (12½ cm by 12½ cm))
45. Place two of the squares in the fridge
46. The remaining square may have shrunk up a little bit in the meantime. Roll it out again till it is nearly square
47. Cut the square diagonally into two triangles.
48. Stretch the triangle out a little, so it is not a right-angle triangle, but more of an isosceles.
49. Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up towards the point, and curve into a crescent shape.
50. Place the unbaked croissant on the baking sheet
51. Repeat the process with the remaining squares of dough, creating 12 croissants in total.
52. Leave the tray of croissants, covered lightly with plastic wrap, to rise for 1 hour

53. Preheat the oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
54. Mix the egg with a teaspoon of water
55. Spread the egg wash across the tops of the croissants.
56. Put the croissants in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are browned nicely
57. Take the croissants out of the oven, and place them on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

February 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

2011-02-27T18:36:00.009+09:00

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I can't believe that, considering I had this month's challenge done and dusted right at the start of the month, I didn't manage to post my results on time! It's been a busy month, and we're off to the UK on Saturday and there's still so much to get done...

I did manage to complete both elements of the challenge, although not at the same time. It was actually very straight forward, I didn't really have any trouble with the recipes (apart from trying to throw things together in a hurry, and I should know better by now).

I made the panna cotta for my MIL, and went with the vanilla recipe provided. I made a chocolate syrup and poured it in the bottom of each glass (not easy to see in the photos, I should have used a white background!), poured the vanilla panna cotta over the top (got a few bubbles around the edges) and decorated with melted dark chocolate.

The only thing I changed in the recipe was the vanilla pod - at 600 yen for one, I went for the much cheaper option of using vanilla extract! I also halved the recipe, as there were only a few people to eat the dessert, and cream here is far too expensive to waste (not that there would have been any left over, they went down a treat)!

Giada's Vanilla Panna Cotta

Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:

Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

The Florentine cookies got made a week or so later, which worked in my favour as the calorie count of the panna cotta and cookies together would most likely have taken me over one day's allowance in a single serving. These Florentines are nothing like the Florentines from back home (fruit and nuts, yum!) and really were a doddle to make. OK, I'll come clean and admit that the first batch was already in the oven when I realised that the syrup, milk and vanilla I'd measured out were still sitting on the kitchen counter - oops. I did wonder why the mixture seemed a little dry as I was spooning it out onto the baking tray. Funnily enough, they were actually very nice - crunchy but a little pale in colour :-) Once I'd stirred the liquids into the remaining mixture, the resulting cookies were pretty much as they should be.

I didn't enjoy these florentines as much as the ones from home - made with oats they had a rather porrige-y flavour - but once I'd sandwiched them together with some melted chocolate they reminded me of some biscuits sold at Ikea (Gilles?), oh my, they were gooood...

Nestle Florentine Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter
2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats
1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour
1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup
1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.
To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.
Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.
While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).
Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).
Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.

This recipe will make about 2 1/2 - 3 dozen sandwiched Florentine cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate (over your wax paper).

6.40am

2011-02-11T08:49:00.004+09:00

It is very rare for our town to see snow that actually sticks around where we live. So when the boys got up this morning, there was no time wasted by getting changed out of their pyjamas (or even putting on a coat, for that matter).

I, on the other hand, stayed inside and watched from the (relatively) warm.

I know that my friends in the north of the country are laughing... you call that snow?! Yep. Maybe even enough to get me out of spending the afternoon at SIL's!

January 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Biscuit Joconde Imprime

2011-01-27T08:02:00.007+09:00

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Oh my, a what?!

Joconde imprime /entremets: A joconde imprime (French Baking term) is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in ring molds. A joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist, flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleized for a further decorative effect. This Joconde/spongecake requires attentive baking so that it remains flexible to easily conform to the molds. If under baked it will stick to the baking mat. It over baked it will dry out and crack. Once cooled, the sponge may be cut into strips to line any shape ring mold. Entremets (French baking term)- an ornate dessert with many different layers of cake and pastry creams in a mold, usually served cold. Think Trifle in a mold vs. a glass bowl. A joconde imprime is the outside cake wrapper of the Entremets dessert.

After a short while spent eying up examples of this rather impressive looking dessert on the 'net, I was totally intimidated! But with the birthday of a special friend falling towards the end of the month, I had time to muster up courage, plan, and give it a crack. Having sussed out that Very Cute Hiroko-chan would generally plump for a chocolate cake given a choice, I decided to fill my entrement with chocolate and raspberry mousses. Armed with my shopping list I hit the shops, but there was not a raspberry to be found, frozen or fresh! Quick change of plan and I grabbed a large juicy iyo ama orange instead.

The joconde imprime was far easier than I'd anticipated. I chose a very simple design as I was so worried that I would mess it up, but everything went according to plan and I ended up wishing that I had been a little more adventurous! I did have a slight wobble when I thought that the baking tray I was working on wasn't going to fit in my freezer drawer (after I had piped out my batter), but a bit of juggling and I just managed to fit it in. :-)

So the joconde imprime turned out fine, next on to the entrement. I started of by making a biscuit base by smashing up a packet of choc chip cookies and mixing the crumbs with some melted butter, easy peasy. Lined the tin with my joconde imprime, however failed to realise that I cut it rather too tall before filling with my first mousse layer:

Orange mousse

zest and juice of one large orange
1 teaspoon gelatine/agar
50g caster sugar
150ml double cream
2 eggs, seperated

Heat the juice and zest in a small pan for one minute, add the gelatine/agar and stir until dissolved. In a bowl over a pan of simmering water, whisk together the cream, sugar, egg yolks and orange juice zest for about 10 minutes, until thick and foamy. Remove from the heat and continue to whisk until cool, then whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the orange custard. Pour into a bowl or mould and leave in the fridge to set.

It dawned on me that I was going to have to improvise another filling when, after the second layer was poured in, the entrement was still only half full:

Milk Chocolate Mousse

100g milk chocolate
70ml double cream
2 eggs, seperated

Melt the chocolate and beat in the egg yolks. In seperate bowls, whisk the egg whites and cream, then fold into the cooled chocolate mixture. Bour into a bowl or mould and leave to set. I wasn't sure if this would set, so I added a little agar to the chocolate mix while it was hot.

And even a third layer didn't reach the top:

Mocha Mousse

2 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
135ml milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon gelatine/agar
2 teaspoons instant coffee
50g dark chocolate
140ml double cream

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Heat the milk and vanilla almost to boiling point, whisk over the egg yolks and return to the pan and heat slowly until thickened (do not let it boil). Sprinkle in the gelatine/agar and stir it to dissolve before straining the custard to ensure it is smooth. Melt the chocolate and coffee together (dissolve the coffee in a tablespoon of hot water first) and whisk into the custard. When the custard has cooled, whip the cream and fold in. Pour into a bowl or mould and leave to set (pipe once the mousse is firm).

I was out of time and ingredients and, frankly, had had enough of washing mixing bowl after mixing bowl, so finished off by piping rosettes of the mocha mousse around the inner edge. Wouldn't you know it, the top layer failed to set properly and the rosettes ended up as flat splodges, not the look I was going for! And of course, the loose mousse meant that it really wasn't a pretty sight once it had been cut into. :-(

In spite of how it looked, this dessert was delicious. I'd never made a mousse before (why ever not?!) and I learned a lot from this challenge. To see what proper bakers produced this month, take a look at the Daring Bakers website - there are some real works of art there. A big, big thank you to our host Asheroshe, I am so happy that I didn't wimp out of your fabulous challenge!

Mandatory Items: Make the full biscuit joconde imprime, cut and fit into a dessert mold. Complete entremets.

Variations allowed: Use the recipe provided for the Joconde. I have baked it many times without problems. Use any fillings for your entremets. Use a mold. You can use store bought fillings, to save time, or make homemade. The real task here is making the joconde wrap properly in a beautiful molded dessert presentation.

Preparation time: This is difficult to guess at. This time will vary. 2 hours for the joconde?? Entremets portion will vary depending on your fillings.

Equipment required:

Silpat
½ baking sheets or a 13” x 18” jelly roll sheet (rimmed baking sheet)
Mixer (optional)
Bowls
Knives
Offset spatula
Regular spatula
Pastry comb (optional)
Rulers
Spring form pan
Biscuit cutter (or ring mold, or cut PVC pipe, or whatever else you can think of to use as a mold for individual desserts)
Torte/entremets mold/Springform pan/ Trifle dish (for larger desserts)
Cling wrap
Parchment paper
Gel, paste or liquid food coloring (optional)

Joconde Sponge

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients:
¾ cup/ 180 ml/ 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal - *You can also use hazelnut flour, just omit the butter
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 ml/ 2⅔ oz/ 75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
¼ cup/ 60 ml/ 1 oz/ 25g cake flour *See note below
3 large eggs - about 5⅓ oz/ 150g
3 large egg whites - about 3 oz/ 90g
2½ teaspoons/ 12½ ml/ ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted

*Note: How to make cake flour: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/

Directions:

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. )
Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
Fold in melted butter.
Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients
14 tablespoons/ 210ml/ 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons/ 385ml/ 7oz/ 200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites - about 7 oz / 200g
1¾ cup/ 420ml/ 7¾ oz/ 220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid

COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
Fold in sifted flour.
Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:

Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one.
Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.
Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste.
Bake at 475ºF /250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.
Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

Preparing the MOLD for entremets:

Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. CUT the parchment paper to the TOP OF THE MOLD. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.
A biscuit cutter/ cookie cutter- using cling wrap pulled tightly as the base and the cling covering the outside of the mold, placed on a parchment lined very flat baking sheet. Line the inside with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping.
Cut PVC pipe from your local hardware store. Very cheap! These can be cut into any height you wish to make a mold. 2 to 3 inches is good. My store will cut them for me, ask an employee at your store. You can get several for matching individual desserts. Cling wrap and parchment line, as outlined above.
Glass Trifle bowl. You will not have a free standing dessert, but you will have a nice pattern to see your joconde for this layered dessert.

Preparing the Jaconde for Molding:

Video: MUST WATCH THIS. This is a very good demo of the joconde and filling the entremets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca4eLDok-4Q

Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.
Decide how thick you want your “Joconde wrapper”. Traditionally, it is ½ the height of your mold. This is done so more layers of the plated dessert can be shown. However, you can make it the full height.
Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length. (Use a very sharp paring knife and ruler.)
Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are cut perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to “wrap “your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.
The mold is done, and ready to fill.

*Note: If not ready to use. Lay cake kept whole or already cut into strips, on a flat surface, wrap in parchment and several layers of cling wrap and freeze.

Entremet- Filling Options:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e1DsyDtcd0&feature=related

It is nice to have a completed dessert so you can unmold and see the Joconde working. Fill with anything you desire. Layers of different flavors and textures! However, it needs to be something cold that will not fall apart when unmolded.

Suggestions:
Mousses, pastry creams, Bavarian creams, cheesecakes, puddings, curds, jams, cookie bases, more cake (bake off the remaining sponge and cut to layer inside), nuts, Dacquoise, fresh fruit, chocolates, gelee.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T22:11:00.006+09:00

And here are a few reasons why this New Year is so happy for me:

I have my very own copies of Stella's cook books! We were at her house for dinner on Christmas Day and she handed me a present from dear Minori-san, telling me that I had to open it straight away, and I quite literally jumped for joy as I tore back the paper :-D

We have added to our family! Bingo is a 7 month old toy poodle, and a new best friend for the kids. He is the biggest softie and is coping with our family very well! He loves the kotatsu...

What's not to like about a kotatsu? Oh, and our house is much warmer than it was last year, even though it is freezing outside! K sealed off all the draughts and you wouldn't believe the difference. Will I still be feeling warm in February? Dunno, but one thing that is making me especially happy at the moment is the fact that I now have our flights booked for a visit to the UK in March, so that alone is enough to help me get through the coldest months!

I am happy to see that the New Year decorations hang around much longer than the Christmas decorations did (they get taken down on Christmas Eve here, to make way for the New Year goodies).

2011 is the year of the rabbit. And M loves rabbits. Especially Miffy :-)

Here's to a very, very happy year! xxx

December 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Christmas Stollen

2010-12-27T20:21:00.008+09:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’ demonstration.

I was so pleased when this month's challenge was revealed, as I'd been keeping everything crossed that we might get to make stollen since last year! I needed to do some Christmas baking to help get me into a more festive mood, and this would solve my dilemma of what to give friends as gifts :-D

We were asked to start off with the recipe provided and, realising that this would make one huuuge stollen that would no way fit in my oven, I split the dough into two smaller (but still huge) loaves.

The first was served up to my Mama & Me group when we met for our final session before Christmas. I was disappointed that the bread seemed a little dry (just served as is) in spite of being served freshly baked, and could have done with more fruit. The second loaf was served at our church's Christmas worship service, and I sent it along (I had to stay at home with a poorly little girl) sliced and smothered with butter - a massive improvement! ;-)

My second batch of stollen was made using 200g raisins, 150g dried cranberries and 100g marons glaces (crystallised chestnuts), and I also used mikan (mandarin orange) in place of the orange zest/juice. The recipe made 4 very large, regular-shaped stollen, which were baked and delivered on Christmas morning.

Sadly, I didn't get to taste this version (I should have made the loaves a bit smaller so that I could have had one too!) and I'm still awaiting a verdict.

Much thanks to Penny for hosting this month's challenge, for helping me to feel much more Christmassy, and for choosing a recipe that I will now look forward to baking each year from now!

Christmas Stollen Wreath

Preparation time:

The following times are approximate. I suggest you gather and scale/weigh/measure (mise en place) all your ingredients before you begin mixing.
• Approximately 1 hour first stage – then rest overnight or up to 3 days
• 2 hours to warm up after refrigeration
• 15 minutes shaping
• 2 hours proofing
• 30-45 minutes baking
Equipment required:

• Mixer with dough hook or strong arms and hands
• Mixing bowl
• Bowl to soak raisins
• Small saucepan
• Sheet of plastic or plastic wrap to cover when proofing
• Bench or pastry scraper (very handy for cutting dough and also cleaning work surface)
• Rolling pin
• Dough whisk can be handy but not necessary
• Pastry Brush
• A scale is really important to have when making bread so I strongly advise you to get one. You do not have to have one though. (would make a good Christmas gift!)
• Sheet Pan or round Pizza pan
• Parchment Paper
Stollen Wreath

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people
Ingredients

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)
2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk
10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)
5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar
¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract
¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (link below to make your own)
1 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons (45ml) rum
12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)
1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange.
Directions:

Soak the raisins
In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. See Note under raisins.

To make the dough

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.

Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder. Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape. Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough. Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!

When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style. The stollen tastes even better in a couple of days and it toasts superbly…. so delicious with butter and a cup of tea….mmmmm

Storage
The more rum and the more coatings of butter and sugar you use the longer it will store.
The following is for the recipe as written and uses the 45 mls of rum and two coatings of butter and icing sugar
1. Stollen freezes beautifully about 4 months
2. The baked stollen stores well for 2 weeks covered in foil and plastic wrap on the counter at room temperature and
3. One month in the refrigerator well covered with foil and plastic wrap.

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-24T22:33:00.000+09:00

This digital greeting card made with Smilebox

Traumatised

2010-12-16T12:07:00.003+09:00

I have just taken M for her very first haircut ever...

She is delighted - it is I who has been traumatised by this event! Sob sob...

Hungry?

2010-12-14T12:51:00.006+09:00

How about heading down to your local Aeon shopping centre to check out what is on offer...

You reckon that looks good? Well, for a start, it's plastic (in case you're an overseas reader, this is quite normal). But that's not what I'm getting at! Look closer! Do you see what I see?

Why yes, that IS a dead cockroach! Not hungry any more? Me neither. Actually, I spotted this just a week after we spotted large cockroaches running around the sushi shop just a few doors down! Back home, these shops would be shut down immediately. Not here. Cockroaches are everywhere and are generally ignored. We didn't even get an apology after having asked a staff member to get rid of the two nasty beasts under our table - oh, to have had Gordon Ramsay dining with us that evening!

Sorry if I put you off your lunch.

Perhaps this'll make you smile:

It's a children's bowling ball :-)

Sew much fun

2010-12-08T12:54:00.006+09:00

I have a brand new nephew! He arrived in the early hours of November 28th, and oh how I wish I could meet him and have a cuddle!

Waaay back, as soon as I heard that my sister's family would be welcoming a new addition, I signed up for Kelly's {Make} A Bag Sew Along. Having recently acquired a sewing machine, I was smitten with the idea of making Kelly's bag and accessories as a 'baby bag', something cheerful for carrying nappies, wipes, goodies for big bro' and the like. Now, I am a complete beginner who barely knows how to thread the machine, but Kelly's tutorial instructions are so detailed and easy to understand that even I could follow along (just don't ask me how many times I sewed fabric pieces together the wrong way round)! And in doing so, I picked up so many techniques that by the end of the project I was even brave enough to create an extra item all by myself (sorry, I spend all my waking hours with a 3 year old by my side!).

I chose bright, summery fabrics to match the season in Australia, but still managed to find coordinating Japanese prints. And look inside! It's lined and has pockets! (Can you tell how excited I am that I could ever make something like this?)

And here's a peep at what went inside:

And inside that:

I had a few strips of fabric left over, just enough to piece together a changing mat - OK, I confess that I rushed this a little and so it might not last the distance ;-)

I enjoyed this sew along so very much that I can't wait to join in another! I've definitely caught the sewing bug, no longer am I afraid of my machine... I am now even brave enough to crank up the speed dial :-D Following Kelly's beautifully presented instructions has given me a new found confidence, and I can see myself making patchwork covers for anything that might gather dust in the house (watch out kids)!

November 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge - Who ate all the pie?

2010-11-27T13:51:00.013+09:00

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

A very special friend of mine was celebrating her birthday this month so, as soon as the challenge was announced, I started planning what I would bake for her. We are just entering mikan (mandarin orange) season here, so I easily settled on making a chocolate mikan crostata.

The pastry came together very well (recipe at the end of this post), I didn't encounter any difficulties while working with it. I blind-baked the pastry case and grated a layer of dark chocolate over the base while it was still warm. Once the chocolate had set, I filled the shell with my mikan custard:

Mikan Custard Filling:

3 large eggs
120g caster sugar
juice and finely grated zest 6 mikan (mandarin oranges)
juice 1/2 lemon
100ml double cream
60g dark chocolate, grated

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry to line a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin, leaving an overhang around the edges. Line the case with baking paper, fill with baking beans (I used uncooked rice), then blind-bake for 20 mins until golden. Remove the beans, then continue to cook for 10 mins until the base is also golden, cover the warm pastry case with the grated chocolate (it will melt) then set aside to cool. Chill briefly to set the chocolate. Reduce oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Whisk the eggs and sugar well, then whisk in the juices, zest and cream. Scrape into a jug and set aside. Once the case is cool, trim the overhanging pastry.
Carefully pour in the orange custard to the pastry case. Bake for 45-50 mins until the custard has just set, then cool in the tin. If you're making ahead, this can now be chilled overnight.

Although I was under the impression that we would be hosting a party for the birthday girl at my home, it turned out that the plans had changed... only they forgot to tell me! As I had neither transport nor a babysitter, I ended up sending my crostata along to the party with a friend (and a request to take photos), sob, sob...

It went down well, from what I hear :-) And I was delighted that they saved me a slice so that I could taste it for myself the next day!

The pastry had been so straight-forward that, when I did a cooking demo earlier this week and found myself with half a jug of pumpkin pie filling left over, I decided to make another crostada - a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!

I'd never eaten pumpkin pie before, but it was really very, very good! And I had lots of pumpkin puree left over even after making the pie and ended up making some pumpkin swirl chocolate brownies... and pumpkin soup...

Pumpkin Pie Filling:

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 pack (200g) cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream together the cheese and sugar until smooth.
Beat in the pumpkin puree, followed by the eggs then the spices.
Pour into the blind-baked pastry case and bake for 40 minutes at 180c.

I really enjoyed this month's challenge - basically an enriched, sweet shortcrust pastry. Back in the UK I usually took the easy route and bought ready-made pastry, but the only pastry you can get your hands on here in Japan is puff pastry - no good for mince pies! I'll be using this recipe again over Christmas, that's for sure! Thanks, Simona, for hosting another fantastic month with the Daring Bakers! xxx

Mandatory Items:
You must make the pasta frolla using the recipe that I have provided here and use it as the base layer for a crostata.

Variations allowed:
You can make a crostata with fruit preserves (traditional) or pastry cream or any other filling of your choice. Here's where you can be creative!

Preparation time:
The following times are approximate, as the time depends on your dexterity to cut the butter and work the dough (which should not be overworked) and your familiarity with the rolling pin.

Preparing pasta frolla with a food processor takes 10-15 minutes
Preparing pasta frolla without a food processor takes 20-25 minutes
Allow the pasta frolla to chill thoroughly. I recommend at least two hours.
Rolling the pasta frolla and assembling the crostata takes 25-30 minutes, if you use fruit preserves.
Baking the crostata takes about 35 minutes, if you use fruit preserves.

Preparation time for other types of crostata vary. For example, making crostata with pastry cream requires the time to make pastry cream (25-30 minutes) and a longer baking time. If you make crostata with fresh fruit, you'll need time to prepare the fruit, besides the time needed to prepare pastry cream. In this case, you assemble the crostata after the crust is baked.

Equipment required:

bowls, as needed
fork
knife
bench (or pastry) scraper
rolling pin
pastry brush
9 or 9.5-inch [23-24 cm] fluted round tart pan with removable bottom, about 1 inch [2.5 cm] high.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar (see Note 1) or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
grated zest of half a lemon
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Making pasta frolla by hand:

Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Making pasta frolla with a food processor:

Put sugar, flour, salt, and lemon zest in the food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
Add butter and pulse a few times, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal.
Empty food processor's bowl onto your work surface
See step 3 above and continue as explained in the following steps (minus the lemon zest, which you have already added).

Live action!

2010-11-15T08:33:00.003+09:00

Just been into the boys' room to open the shutters and noticed something exciting happening in the fish tank (occupied not by fish, but a zarigani (crayfish) J and W decided to home during the summer). A good few weeks ago, K decided that it was time for the zarigani to be released back into the wild, when he noticed a clutch of eggs tucked under her tail! Needless to say, Mrs Z got transferred to a larger, nicer tank for observation over the coming weeks, and...

There look to be hundreds of tiny babies about to be dropped. We are pretty sure that mum with start to eat her offspring straight away, so K has suggeested that I transfer her to a different tank as soon as possible... um, would you want to stick your hand in there?!

Wow!

2010-11-07T14:36:00.004+09:00

When we moved here just two years ago, our little church used to meet in our pastor's home. The church was very few in number, but our family's arrival added another five to their congregation and things were getting more than a little snug! We relocated our Sunday service to M & H's home, but it was a temporary move and we knew that when they returned from the US we would need to find somewhere else to meet. And just look at what we found!

Nestled between rice fields and lakes lies this old farm house. Not exactly what you'd expect a church to look like, eh? But as soon as we saw it, we knew that it would be perfect. The large building on the left is the church building, with a large (warehouse-type) room for worship, a kitchen and bathroom downstairs, and three large, bright and airy rooms upstairs, as well at a prefab building joining the church to the pastor's house (below).

Isn't the house lovely? The location is so beautiful and peaceful.

As you can see, there is still an awful lot of work (and money!) needed to complete the renovations, but today was a big day for us as we held a special dedication service for the church. Members from our sister churches in the area came to join us, and we hosted around 100 visitors for the celebration - it was a full house, with every seat taken!

It was a wonderful service, the building was filled with singing and praise! And of course, there was an amazing spread of food...

From meeting in someone's living room to this... wow! :-D Talk about prayers being answered!

Watch this space - God is working here!

Daring Bakers Challenge October 2010 - Going nuts

2010-10-27T12:54:00.005+09:00

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Now this was a challenge I was only too eager to take up! For the first time in months I didn't leave things to the last minute, and my first batch of doughnuts had been gobbled up (mainly by me) on the 2nd of the month! :-)

Although most of the doughnuts sold here in Japan seem to be the ring-type, for me the perfect doughnut has to be filled with jam and rolled in sugar a la Tesco, and so I plumped for the bombolini recipe to start off with.

They were surprisingly easy to make, and were utterly delicious - thank goodness I'd halved the recipe! I stuffed them full with blueberry jam (unable to get raspberry here), and rolled them in sugar, but for some reason the sugar wouldn't stick so I ended up dusting them with icing sugar. I had to force myself to leave some for the rest of the family (I made them when they were all at the park)! I was reminded of the doughnut eating contests of my university years (eat as many as you can in a minute, without licking your fingers or lips - far, far harder than you might think)...

Bomboloni:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 35 minutes
Rising time - 1 1/2 hours plus overnight
Cooking time - 10 minutes

Yield: About 32 Bomboloni

Ingredients
Water, Lukewarm 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon
Active Dry Yeast 3 ¼ teaspoon (1.5 pkgs.) / 16.25 ml / 10 gm / .35 oz
Honey 1.5 Tablespoon / 22.5 ml
All Purpose Flour 3 cup / 720 ml / 420 gm / 14 ¾ oz
Milk 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml
Egg Yolk, Large 6
White Granulated Sugar 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 75 gm / 2 2/3 oz + more for rolling
Kosher (Flaked) Salt 2 teaspoon / 10 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml / 42 gm / 1.5 oz
Canola Oil 3 cup / 720 ml / (Or any other flavorless oil used for frying)
Raspberry Jam, Seedless ¾ cup / 180 ml / 300 gm / 10.5 oz (or any flavor jam, preserves, jelly)

Directions:

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (160 gm) of the flour. (Alternatively, whisk the ingredients by hand.) Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.
Return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (260 gm) of flour, along with the milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and the salt. Mix at low speed until blended, then add the butter and knead at medium speed until silky but sticky, about 5 minutes; the dough will not pull away from the side of the bowl.
Using an oiled spatula, scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
In a large saucepan, heat the canola oil to 360°F/180°C. Line a rack with paper towels. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 inch (12 mm)of granulated sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Using a 2-inch (50 mm) round biscuit cutter, stamp out rounds. The original recipe said to not re-roll the dough, but I did and found it to be fine. Fry the rounds, 4 to 5 at a time, until they are browned, about 4 minutes (mine only took about a minute each – try to go more by sight). Be sure to keep the oil between 360°F and 375°F 180°C and 190°C. Drain the bomboloni on paper towels.
Roll them in the granulated sugar.

Filling Directions:

Fit a pastry bag with a plain donut tip (or a 1/4-inch (6 mm) tip) and fill with the preserves (you can also use a squeeze bottle). Poke the tip three-fourths of the way into the bomboloni and squeeze in the preserves, pulling the tip out slightly as you squeeze to fill them as much as possible. Serve warm.

Next up came the yeast doughnuts.

Again, I halved the recipe (and this time made sure that I had plenty of people around me to help me eat them!) and they turned out wonderfully! As before, I had no hassles with the recipe, eveything was very straight forward. :-) I rolled half of the batch in cinnamon sugar, and the other half got dipped in Alton Brown's chocolate glaze... phwoarrr...

Yeast Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes

Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:

Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Chocolate Doughnut Glaze:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk, warmed
1 tablespoon light corn syrup (I didn't have any on hand and so substituted with treacle)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions:

Combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate, and whisk until melted. Turn off heat, add the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

This was such a delicious challenge - I really don't think that you can beat freshly cooked doughnuts like these! My tastebuds are thanking you, Lori, although my waistline my never forgive you!

What happened to Popo-chan?

2010-09-24T21:30:00.000+09:00

Answers on a postcard please.

3!

2010-09-21T08:28:00.004+09:00

We had a birthday! Actually, it was last week. Somehow the days pass without me hardly noticing and I get so far behind in reporting on our happenings...

My baby is 3! Yikes, can you believe it? And the excitement... I think she has the idea that she is catching up with her brothers in age :-) Certainly, she thinks that she can do whatever they can. Especially now that she has a bike!

She still hasn't got the hang of peddling, but clever bike has a handle on the back (which can control the steering) for me to push her along. Not so easy to keep under control when heading down a hill, I've found.

And the cake. Ah yes, the cake. The Anpanman (Japanese kiddie cartoon character) that she requested daily in the run-up to her birthday...

Well, she was happy with it in the end. But the conversation when she first saw it went something like this:

Me: M, wake up! Come and see your cake!
M: Anpanman cake!
Me: Tadaaa!
M: ...
Me: What's wrong?
M: Don't like it.
Me: What?!
M: I want Baikinman (Anpanman's foe)...

And here, a year...

2010-09-03T14:16:00.009+09:00

A year ago, Heather mentioned an exhibition she had seen where a number of artists had taken photos of the same view throughout the year. It's so easy to not notice the gradual changes to our surroundings as the months roll by! We have an amazing view from the front of our house, and yet the house was not designed for it's occupants to admire it - to my amusement, the best view to be had is from the small window in the upstairs toilet (at around 6pm - see above). I resolved to to take a photograph from our front door on the first of each month at around 10am, for a whole year, resisting the temptation to wait for the clouds to pass or the the sun to come out properly. Of course, me being me, I did forget a couple of times and so a few of these snaps were taken a few days late (OK, August was nearly 2 weeks late, but it was the summer holidays and I had a lot on my plate...), but please enjoy the view from here - from October to September :-)

e

Daring Bakers Challenge August 2010 - Nutty and toasty meets cool and creamy

2010-08-27T08:42:00.006+09:00

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

After last month's challenge, when the task for August was revealed I must admit to feeling, at first, slightly disappointed... ice-cream based, combined with cake... Don't get me wrong, I love ice-cream and I've been having immense fun experimenting with my own concoctions. I started to trawl the internet for inspiration, and suddenly my interest was ignited - literally - when I discovered that a Baked Alaska could be set on fire! It would make the perfect birthday cake for my MIL.

Big ideas and all that... the flaming bombe idea went out of the window after I read an article describing how a waitress had been killed as she served such a dessert in a fancy restaurant! I knew that K would never allow it, after all he won't even let me go ice-skating with the kids in case I break my leg. And it's not what you think - he's just concerned that if something were to happen, there would be no-one to cook, clean and look after the kids! No fun.

Having made a lemon meringue pie - the first one I've made in years - for Sunday lunch a month or so ago which was a hit with K (he's really not a pudding guy, which is probably one of the few things I would change about him!), flavour choice was easy. I did not want to be the only one eating this!

I chose a creamy lemon ice-cream recipe from Epicurious, rather than use the vanilla recipe provided. I poured the churned ice-cream into a clingfilm-lined basin and set to work on the browned butter. Oh my goodness, the browned butter - what a revelation! So simple to make, I resolved to always have a batch on hand in the fridge ready to go - I am smitten! Who would have thought that cooking butter would give it a caramel, nutty flavour? Wow. The resulting poundcake was so delicious, I couldn't bear to throw the trimmings in the bin and they got munched up over the course of the afternoon.

Everything went very smoothly, until I read the part where we were supposed to put the complete Baked Alaska in the freezer for an hour before baking. There is no way my freezer could contain my creation, I only have a draw at the bottom of my fridge... so it was going to have to go straight to oven, and I was worried. I slathered the cake and ice-cream with meringue as quickly as I could, not wanting to risk any thaw before it got pushed into the furnace, and in it went.

I eyed it nervously as it browned quickly, before proudly bringing it to the table much to the delight of MIL. Would it collapse into a molten mess as I stuck the knife in it? Erm, no. Amazingly, the ice-cream was still frozen solid, and took quite an amount of force to cut into.

It tasted exactly as I had imagined it would - lemon and meringue are perfect together, and it was perfectly refreshing for such a hot (36c+) day. :-)

Elissa, thank you so much for introducing me to the delights of browned butter! The challenge was a fantastic choice, and I can't wait to make another, and another...

Note:

• The challenge does not require you to make both desserts. If you want to do both, you will need to make two brown butter pound cakes. The amount of ice cream you will need depends on how large you make your Baked Alaskas, but the recipe provided below makes one quart.
• While there is not a great deal of active time, this challenge cannot be easily completed in a day because of freezing time. Make the ice cream first, then the pound cake, then the glaze/meringue as stated in the assembly instructions.
• The pound cake calls for cake flour. You can make 1 cup of cake flour by placing 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a 1 cup measure, and filling to the top with all purpose flour.
• The ice cream can be flavored however you want by infusing the cream, stirring in extracts or mix ins, or folding in purees, sauces, etc.
• Instead of using a tea cup as a mold for the Baked Alaska, you can simply top the cake round with a scoop of ice cream and freeze until solid.
• For the petit fours, you are not required to use the chocolate glaze and can use your own recipe for fondant, poured fondant, royal icing, or marzipan. I recommend the chocolate glaze because it freezes well and balances the sweetness of the ice cream, but it does limit the scope of your decorations.

Mandatory: Whether you make the Baked Alaska, the petit fours, or both, you must make the brown butter pound cake as written and the ice cream from scratch.

Variations Allowed: Both desserts can be made in any size or shape, and the ice cream can be any flavor you can think of! For the Baked Alaska, you can flavor the meringue however you want. For the petit fours, you are not required to use the chocolate glaze, or you can add additional flavors. You can also brush the cake with a simple syrup if desired.

Preparation time:

Ice cream – 45 min active time, ice cream rests/chills for 1 hour then overnight. Without an ice cream maker, the ice cream chills 2-3 hours and must be stirred every 30 minutes.

Brown Butter Pound Cake – 2 hours (includes cooling time)

Chocolate Glaze – 15 minutes

Meringue – 10 minutes

Assembly of Ice Cream Petit Fours – Ice cream must be frozen ahead of time several hours, then the cake and ice cream freeze overnight. After dipping, the petit fours freeze for one hours.

Assembly of Baked Alaska – Ice cream must be frozen head of time several hours, then the Baked Alaska is frozen 1 hour or up to one day.

Equipment required:
• Small and medium saucepans
• Paring knife
• 2 quart (2 litres) bowl
• Electric mixer
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Sieve
• 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square baking pan
• 10” (25 cm) skillet
• Cake leveler/serrated knife
• Cooling racks
• Rimmed half sheets
• Teacups
• Plastic wrap
• Piping bags (optional)
• Ice cream maker (optional)
• Cooking blow torch (optional)

Directions:

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Meringue (For the Baked Alaska)

8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt
1 cup (220g) sugar

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembly Instructions – Baked Alaska

1. Line four 4” (10cm) diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid.

2. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out four 4” (10cm) diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.

3. Make the meringue (see above.)

4. Unwrap the ice cream “cups” and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.
6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Glaze (For the Ice Cream Petit Fours)

9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours

1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.

2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.

3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.

4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)

5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).

6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.
7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.

That's refreshing

2010-08-20T12:40:00.005+09:00

A few weeks ago, Gaijin Houswife In Japan introduced me to Biore Powder Sheets, and I will be forever in her debt. They are amazing. I have just been outside to clean the rabbits and returned inside the house dripping, but after a quick wipe down with one of these sheets I am feeling and smelling as fresh as a daisy! K was impressed when I first tried them out, thought they would be good for the boys to use after football, if only they didn't smell so... girly? Then I remembered, there is a masculine version too - Gatsby Body Paper! Haha, these adverts really make me laugh! Especially the Face Wash version :-D

He's still got it, don't you think?

K bought a new lid for the bath yesterday. For those not in Japan, we cover the bath to keep the water hot for the next person, and to stop the room steaming up, or at least that's what I thought...

Turns out that the lid is supposed to be a cunning disguise. Waddaya know?

Paaarteeee!

2010-08-16T12:31:00.003+09:00

Last week was our area's summer festival, held in the grounds of the boy's school. It's a surprisingly well run event, very typical of local festivals accross the country. There are stands selling traditional festival foods and games for the kids (and K) to play, dancing, karaoke and fireworks. My boys (yeah, all three of them) are obsessed with kingyou sukui, where they are given a paper scoop to try and catch as many little goldfish as they can before the paper disintegrates. J has honed his technique, and the guy running the stand had to ask him to stop or else there wouldn't be enough fish to last the evening...

The bag at the back belongs to W, he didn't manage to catch any but he was given two as a consolation prize. The front bag is J's - we are not sure how many he caught as they are difficult to count, but we reckon that there are more than twenty in there!

I was assigned to goldfish minder whilst the boys joined thir team for the Bon Odori. The different kodomokai (children's association, based on neighbourhoods) team up to dance in a competition. J and W waited with their friends, while K joined the dad's in downing beer and yakitori...

And then they were off...

I've tried to upload a clip of the dance here, not sure if it will work...

K is bringing up the rear with M perched on his shoulders. The women wearing green yukata (summer kimono) are our neighbourhood mums. Yep, it turns out that I could have participated, too, only no-one had told/asked me... why doesn't that surprise me?

Anyway, the kids had a fantastic time. M cried all the way home as she didn't want it to end.

Sumer time...

2010-08-11T19:51:00.003+09:00

... and the living is... hot and sticky! There's supposedly a typhoon on it's way and, although we are not in it's predicted path, it is extremely muggy and humid. Will be nice to have the rain over and done with and the air cleared. The heat doesn't seem to bother the kids, though - they spent the afternoon running around the house playing hide and seek whilst I refereed from under the air con unit. They let M join in, it was so funny. She gets that the idea is to hide, but hasn't twigged yet that although she can't see anything, it is pretty obvious where she is :-) I was very impressed at her attempts, here are a couple (sorry the pictures are a little blurred, I had the camera on the wrong setting):

in the shoe cupboard (that's as far as the door would shut)...

and my personal favourite, under the living room rug!

To help cool everybody down, J made dessert for everyone after dinner - parfaits all round (this was one of his homework tasks for the holiday)! He helped make some frozen yoghurt this morning, and then used it to make the parfaits by layering it with cornflakes (it's a Japanese thing!), mango, chocolate sauce and the obligatory sprinkles, and he was as pleased as punch with the result!

The frozen yoghurt was very simple to make (just 200ml whipped cream, 200ml yoghurt and 5 tablespoons sugar stirred together and thrown in the ice-cream maker), no cooking required.

Oh, and I finally persuaded him to let me cut his hair and he's now looking very handsome!

Daring Bakers July Challenge: Part 2

2010-07-31T14:05:00.008+09:00

Our guests have just left, the dishes are in the dishwasher, and I can now finally tell you more about this month's Daring Bakers challenge...

As I hadn't decided on what ice-cream flavours I would be making (it all hinged on what I would be serving for the main course), I started off by making a plain sponge and filled it with a custard cream. Once I'd settled on serving temaki zushi (hand-rolled sushi) for lunch, my mind was soon made up to fill the cake with matcha (green tea) and ginger ice-creams, with warabi mochi between the layers:

As there would only be four of us eating this dessert, I made a smaller version using a 1 litre bowl. The slices of Swiss roll look a big large really, perhaps I should have made min-rolls... I also thought I'd put too much matcha ice-cream in, leaving little room for the final layer of ginger ice-cream, but it turns out that the ginger had quite a kick to it and would have been overpowering had I added any more!

Using warabi mochi for the middle layer was a total gamble, I had no idea how it would handle being frozen (I'm afraid I cheated here and used shop-bought warabi-mochi - it is in fact very easy to make, but I didn't know that at the time ;-) - me bad!) Much to my relief, it didn't end up at all hard, just slightly chewy (kind of like a dense marshmallow).

This was definitely a grownup dessert, and although the kids got very excited about it as I brought it to the table, they were more than satisfied with their home-made rocky-road ice-cream :-). Except M, who would much rather eat what the oldies are eating (you should have seen her eating salmon roe by the spoonful) - at the age of (nearly) 3 she has a more adventurous palate than K!

So there you have it - Mark's Matcha Birthday Bombe! And there isn't any left...

Matcha Ice-Cream

100ml cream
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
100ml milk
1 tablespoon matcha (powdered green tea)

Mix the matcha with the milk. Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together until pale and light, then pour into a pan along with the matcha milk. Cook over a low heat, stirring all the time, until the mixture thickens, then allow to cool. Whisk the cream until it is thick, then stir in the cooled matcha custard. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so before churning into ice-cream.

Ginger Ice-Cream

100ml cream
2 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
100ml milk
10g ground ginger

Make as above, mixing the ginger into the milk before preparing the custard.

July 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - SwissRoll Ice-Cream Cake

2010-07-27T10:42:00.007+09:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

It's done, I promise! I am so excited about this challenge and I can't wait to see how my creation turns out, but I am going to have to be patient for a few days more... sadly, I don't think my choice of flavours (matcha, ginger, and warabi mochi in place of the chocolate sauce - see, I am bursting to tell you about it!) would go down too well with the kids and although I'm confident that I could polish this off single-handedly, I am trying my best not to give in to my greedy tendencies ;-) So, we must wait until Friday, when the cake will be presented in honour of a friend's special birthday... Apologies for not being able to provide photos of the finished dessert at this point, but here's a sneaky peek just to show that it is indeed done and sitting in the freezer:

Actually, this month's challenge opened up a whole new part of summer for me - many months back I bought a second-hand ice-cream maker, which I put in a safe place and promptly forgot about!

It is very unlike the ice-cream maker I have in storage in the UK. It doesn't have a bulky core to take up room in the freezer, just a steel basin. You fill the basin with your chilled custard (or sorbet) base, attach the battery-powered motor/paddle, set it to work and put the whole unit to do it's job in the freezer. It does take longer to freeze the ice-cream than a regular maker (between 1 and 4 hours, depending on how much you are making), but of course there is no waiting for the core to freeze (or thaw enough to be able to clean it!). While preparing the ice-creams for this challenge, I was extremely thankful (having left completing the challenge to the end of the month, e now thas per usual) that I could whip up several different flavours back-to-back :-D

Thank you, Sunita, for a wonderful, wonderful challenge! My kid's will love you forever as, thanks to you, they are now enjoying thinking up their own original flavours for me to churn for them in time for dinner :-D

Here's the recipe we were provided with (I used Sunita's Swiss roll recipe as written as I hadn't decided on flavours, but used my own recipes for the ice-cream and will tell you about them when I post again after the tasting):

Notes-

You do not need an ice cream maker for this recipe. But if you will be using one, make sure you churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions after mixing the ingredients.
Whipping cream is a lighter version of double cream, with at least 35 per cent fat, and it whips beautifully without being quite so rich.
Vanilla extract is made from vanilla beans that have been steeped in alcohol while vanilla essence is commercial manufactured by chemicals.
Caster sugar is finely ground granulated sugar. It can also be found as “superfine sugar”, “fruit sugar” or “quick dissolving sugar”. If you can’t find it, you can make your own by whizzing some regular granulated sugar in the food processor or blender.
Keep aside enough time for cooling and chilling the rolls and also for the layers to firm up before adding the next one. Moreover, the ice creams have also got to be made before assembling. I spread out the challenge over two days. I made the cakes and ice creams on the first day, and the fudge topping and assembly on the second day.
While adding the final layer with the second ice-cream, make sure not to add it right to the brim. It may spill and will not look good.
While inverting the final dessert onto the serving plate, if the cling film refuses to budge from the bowl, just wipe the outside of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will release from the dessert very easily.
Take the dessert out of the freezer at least 10 minutes before serving, of course depending on how hot it is in your neck of the woods.
Dip the knife in hot water for easy slicing.

Mandatory- I want all of you to have fun with the recipe, so will be allowing a lot of variations. But please keep the final product true to the original idea. This means that-

You must make the Swiss rolls, a filling for them, two ice creams and a fudge sauce, from scratch.
You must set the dessert in a bowl/pan etc in the order given in the recipe-Swiss roll, first ice-cream, the fudge topping and, finally, the second ice cream.

Variations allowed-

You can either follow the given recipes for all the components or change the flavour of the Swiss rolls, filling, ice creams and fudge topping.
You can make it in whatever shape and size you want.

Preparation time-

For the 2 Swiss rolls-

30 mins each + cooling time (at least 30 minutes) before filling and rolling. The filling can be made while the cakes cool.

-For the ice creams- 5+10 minutes + freezing time

For the fudge topping- 5 minutes + cooling time

Assembly- At least an hour of freezing time between each layer (I took much more)

Equipment required-

A large mixing bowl
Spatula/mixing spoon
Sieve
A small saucepan
Containers for ice creams
Cling film/plastic wrap
Greaseproof baking paper
Food processor/grinder
Electric/hand held beaters
Whisk
2 Baking pans, 11 inches by 9 inches each
Kitchen towels
Cooling rack
A pudding bowl / any other bowl, pan in which you are going to set the dessert. I used a 2 litre capacity, 9 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.
Freezer
Oven
Serving plate
Knife

Swiss roll ice cream cake (inspired by the recipe of the same name from the Taste of Home website)

The Swiss rolls-

Preparation time- 10 minutes

Baking time- 10-12 minutes

Rolling and cooling time- at least 30 minutes

Filling-5-8 minutes

Filling and rolling- 5-10 minutes

Ingredients-

6 medium sized eggs

1 C / 225 gms caster sugar /8 oz+ extra for rolling

6 tblsp / 45gms/ a pinch over 1.5 oz of all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp/40gm /a pinch under 1.5 oz of natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together

2 tblsp /30ml / 1 fl oz of boiling water

a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-

2C / 500 mls/ 16 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

5 tblsp / 70gms/2.5oz of caster sugar

Method-

1. Pre heat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.

3. Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.

4. Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.

5. Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.

6. Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.

7. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.

8. Repeat the same for the next cake as well.

9. Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processor till nicely mixed together. If you are using vanilla extract, just grind the sugar on its own and then add the sugar and extract to the cream.

10. In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.

11. Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.

12. Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Assembly-

1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).

2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

4. Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour).

5. Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour).

6. Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .

7. Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

8. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

Little things

2010-06-30T15:50:00.005+09:00

Don't you love it when something seemly unremarkable turns out to be the highlight of your day?

Here in Kagawa-ken there are udon shops on almost every street. People travel for miles and miles (even from the mainland) to sample the renowned Sanuki udon, queuing for hours on end at the weekends in order to slurp up a bowl of thick noodles from the most famous shops. Fortunately, living in the area, we can often avoid the waiting as we can visit these gourmet shrines during the week :-) On Monday I was invited to join some friends for lunch at Yamagoe Udon, a shop we had tried to visit a fews months back but were put off by the crowds. From the outside it really doesn't look much - just an average, rather grubby, cheap noodle shop - and as we approached, I wondered why such a shop would need over 200 parking spaces. We ordered our noodles at the counter, were handed our trays of food, and were then directed around the back of the shop... into a beautiful oasis! There are big benches everywhere for people to sit and eat (no tables), all set under wooden pergolas. The garden is Japanese-style, and beautifully composed, I could happily have sat there all afternoon (if I didn't have a two year old). Wow, how unexpected! And the noodles were really, really good (and cheap at 150 yen for a basic portion) - I bought a pack to bring home to K. Definitely a place to return to! (Sorry, no photos as I didn't have my camera with me)

The other thing that surprised me was what a difference a decent (don't laugh) bread knife can make! I've been struggling with my rubbish 100 yen knife (I know, you get what you pay for), getting frustrated as my freshly baked bread ended up getting crushed and sliced ultra thickly. Mum tried to buy me an electric carving knife while she was here, but we couldn't find one anywhere. Then I had a delivery from Amazon - K had ordered me this gem! My oh my, this knife is a-ma-zing. I didn't need to saw at all, it just cut straight through without any pressure at all. I was so impressed, I stood at the kitchen counter eating slice after perfect slice. This is about as exciting as life here in Ayagawa gets, by the way. ;-)

Something else that has really made my day today is that I have finally worked out how to insert working links into my posts, haha!

Mum's visit

2010-06-28T20:05:00.005+09:00

Last month was busy, lost of sightseeing with special guests! Mum came to visit, staying for two weeks (which flew by). She was here for Mother's Day, and so I took her for a weekend in Kyoto - as much a treat for me as well as her, as I'd never been! We stayed in a traditional ryokan (a Japanese-style inn with a tatami room, futon on the floor, etc.), wandered the streets for hours, ate and ate and ate...

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June 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Pavlova with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

2010-06-27T20:23:00.003+09:00

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Oh, what joy I felt when I read of this month’s challenge! Honestly, this heavenly dessert is composed of my favourite foods of all time, and I was itching to get started. Writing out my shopping list, however, I realised that this indulgence was going to have to wait for a special occasion - just check out how much cream/mascarpone/chocolate is called for! So I gritted my teeth and resolved to wait until Father’s Day.

As the big day approached I gathered my supplies, and decided to price the recipe up... gulp... over 5,000 yen! Don’t think we’ll be eating anything this fancy again for quite a while. Having said that, the finished pavlova was huge! We each ate the most enormous slice, and it was so rich that even I（!） couldn’t manage seconds. The mousse （not really sure that I would describe it as a mousse, more a cream） was sublime, the highlight of this creation. I must confess that, after getting the boys and K out of the door the following morning, M and I enjoyed a sizable slice for our breakfast! I would have eaten it for lunch, too, but knew that this would be a very bad thing to do... so off-loaded it to some friends just around the corner!

Everything went very smoothly as I followed the challenge. I didn’t pipe the meringue, choosing to make a large, free-form shaped pavlova. My oven couldn’t be set low enough to be able to bake the meringue as per the recipe, so I just baked it my usual way (actually, Nigella’s way - heat the oven to 180c, reduce the temperature to 150c as the meringue goes in and bake for 1 and a 1/4 hours. Leave the meringue to cool in the oven after baking) and it turned out perfectly. And I didn’t use any alcohol as it was being made for the whole family. I served it with the mascarpone cream and some juicy, American cherries (the recipe made far too much cream, so I used it to make a tub of ice-cream).

I will be saving this recipe to be made again, but not whilst we are living here in Japan! K, if you’re reading this (I know he won’t be), can I request that you make this for my birthday?!

Chocolate Pavlova with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

Mandatory items: The recipe is comprised of three parts, four if you include the crème anglaise. You must make the chocolate pavlovas, the mascarpone mousse and the mascarpone cream using the recipes provided.

Variations allowed:

* You can use orange juice for the Grand Marnier in the mousse if you don’t use alcohol
* You can omit the sambuca from the mascarpone cream.
* You may substitute any crème anglaise recipe you might already have in your arsenal.

Preparation time: The recipe can be made in one day although there are several steps involved.

* While the pavlovas are baking, the crème anglaise should be made which will take about 15 minutes.
* While it is cooling, the chocolate mascarpone mousse can be made which will take about 15 minutes.
* There will be a bit of a wait time for the mascarpone cream because of the cooling time for the Crème Anglaise.
* If you make the Crème Anglaise the day before, the dessert should take about 2 hours including cooking time for the pavlovas.

Equipment required:
• Baking sheet(s) with parchment or silpat
• Several bowls
• Piping bag with pastry tip
• Hand or stand mixer

Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)

Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.

Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)

Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Directions:

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.

Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Assembly:

Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

May 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Piece Montee

2010-05-27T07:18:00.006+09:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Hurrah for creme puffs! I was very pleased when I read of this month's challenge, and fortunately for me (but not my waistline) the weather has remained unseasonably cool and was was able to complete my creation without any problems. Early in the month I'd worked out my battle plan, but changed my mind last minute, couldn't say why (I'd thought of creating a croque-en-bouche in honour of the Icelandic volcano, with black sesame in the pastry batter and a filling of strawberry creme)... Ended up going with a matcha (green tea) creme instead :-)

I decided to make it for my Mama & Me group. I made the choux pastry puffs the day before, and although I was concerned that they were looking rather wet and flat before they headed for the oven, I was delighted to find that they had puffed up gloriously - wow! I had enough beautiful puffs to create a rather impressive structure, but it wasn't until I was filling them only an hour or so before the ladies were due to arrive that I realised that I had seriously under-estimated the amount of filling that I would need. Ah well, I'd have to make do with what I'd got, and then make some more to treat the family in the evening :-) Just as well, really, as it turned out that there were only three of us at the gathering. We did a pretty good job of demolishing my creation... it all went. Good job I'd skipped breakfast to allow for this indulgence!

As was required, I used the recipes provided (adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of matcha to the creme). I chickened out of doing the spun caramel after reading of the numerous casualties on the DB forum, as I knew that there was no way my two year old 'helper' would agree to remain at a safe distance. Instead, I 'glued' the puffs together using white chocolate, and got artistic a la Jackson Pollock with some white and some matcha chocolate.

The remaining puffs got served after dinner, filled with vanilla custard and smothered in dark chocolate. Loved by all :-)

This was way more straight forward than I had imagined it would be, and I can't wait to make these again - especially having seen some of the other DB creations (oh my, you just have to check out some of the spun caramel at www.thedaringkitchen.com - amazing)! Cat, thank you, thank you, thank you for a fun and totally delicious challenge!

This recipe has 3 main components: the pate a choux, the crème patissiere, and the glaze used to mount/decorate it. While you can purchase or make a cardboard conical structure to build your piece montée or use toothpicks as an aid, it is relatively easy to assemble it using just the baked pate a choux as the main building blocks and the glaze as the glue.

While a piece montée may be a bit time-consuming to assemble, the various components are relatively easy to make and don’t require any special ingredients. The best part about them is that once you have mastered them, you will be able to go on and make many beloved French French pastries such as éclairs, profiteroles, Paris-Brest, etc. all of which are made with this pate a choux recipe, a filling and glaze.

Variations allowed: I am providing the recipes for 3 variations on the crème patissiere: vanilla, coffee and chocolate but please feel free to flavor your crème patissiere in any flavor of your choosing or a mix of different flavors. You may use either a chocolate glaze or caramel or both (recipes provided) to build your piece montée. You must use the recipe provided for the the pate a choux batter however. As for the structure, feel free to be creative as you want – but it must be a “mounted piece” meaning that it has some height; you may decorate it with any objects you desire.

Preparation time: You will want to use your puff pastry batter and chocolate glaze or caramel as soon as it has been prepared and as close to serving time as possible. This is not a dessert that stores well and it may be a bit temperamental in humid areas as the glaze needs to harden to hold the choux together. The crème patissiere can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the fridge until ready to use.

You will need approximately 10 minutes to prepare the puff pastry, 10 minutes to pipe and about 30 minutes to bake each batch. The crème patissiere should take about 10 minutes to cook and then will need to be cooled for at least 6 hours or overnight. The glazes take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Equipment required:
• several baking sheets
• parchment paper
• a whisk
• a pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• a pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• a flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée
• some of the items you may want to use to decorate your piece montée include ribbons, Jordan almonds, fresh flowers, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolates, etc.

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best. Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate.

Daring Bakers Challenge April 2010: Traditional British Pudding

2010-04-27T11:50:00.006+09:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

The required elements of this challenge are:

1) to make a suet pudding using real suet or as close a replacement as you can manage or is acceptable to you; and
2) to cook it by steaming or if you want to be even more traditional by boiling tied up in a cloth.

When I first read of this months challenge, I must confess that I felt very little enthusiasm. As a Brit who has never really gone in for traditional steamed puddings (give me a crumble any day), I wondered if I should just sit this one out... but I missed last months challenge... darn it... I hadn't meant to miss last month's challenge, in fact I got as far as making the marmalade, it's just that before I knew it posting day had been and gone... So anyway, I resolved not to duck out of this one and started to trawl through recipe after recipe for inspiration.

Ah yes! The delicious lemon marmalade I'd made! Kind of killing two birds with one stone, I thought ;-)

I then stumbled upon Allegra McEvedy's steamed marmalade & poppy seed pudding recipe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/18/steamed-marmalade-poppyseed-pudding-recipe

and yes, I was sooo excited that I couldn't wait to get cracking! No leaving things to the last minute this month, and MIL was coming for a visit so I had the perfect excuse to make it - hurrah!

I was so proud to carry this magnificent pudding to the table, glistening on the plate before being drenched in custard (naturally) - there was not a scrap left over - MIL had thirds! Esther, I'm so sorry that I ever doubted that I would enjoy this challenge. This recipe is now bookmarked and will be used time and time again!

Steamed Lemon Marmalade and Poppy Seed Pudding

8 tablespoons marmalade (I used my own home-made lemon marmalade)
4 tablespoons golden syrup (can't get it here, so I used mizu ame)
small knob of butter for greasing
150g flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3 slices thick white bread, no crusts, torn into small pieces
120g suet (unavailable here, so I used shortening)
150g caster sugar
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
pinch of salt
a few drops of vanilla
2 eggs
220ml milk

Use the butter to grease a two-litre pudding basin. Spoon half the marmalade and all the golden syrup into the bottom and give it a stir.

In a big mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, pieces of torn bread, suet, sugar, poppy seeds and salt.

Separately, in a smaller bowl, whisk up the eggs, vanilla essence, milk and the last of the marmalade. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the egg mix in, gradually combining to make a smooth batter.

If the batter has come out very thick, add a splash more milk to loosen it up a touch, to what is called "dropping consistency". Then ladle it on top of the marmalade in the bottom of the basin.

Loosely cover with greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil and secure with string just under the lip of the basin (the greaseproof stops it sticking and the foil stops water getting in).

Arrange a few pastry cutters, or spoons or anything metal and reasonably low, in the bottom of a saucepan big enough to hold the basin, plus water to come about halfway up. Don't worry if you can't get a lid on – tight-fitting foil is OK too.

Sit the basin on your metal arrangement, pour in hot water to halfway up, cover with a lid/tight foil and bring to a boil. Once you see steam, turn it down to a simmer and, apart from checking the water level every now and then, forget about it for two hours.

Turning it out is simple and impressive – just run a knife around the edge, and turn upside down.

Deka Dora

2010-04-21T08:46:00.006+09:00

On Monday, a friend called by with a box of the most humongous dorayaki I have ever seen! For the uninitiated, a dorayaki is a type of sweet cake, made up of two pancake-like sponges which are sandwiched together with red bean paste. They are the snack of choice for the very-much loved, robot-cat-from-the-future superhero, Doraemon :-)

She had bought them fresh from a bakery (Morikami-ya in Kokubunji), and advised me to leave them for a day before eating. I had to beat the boys of with a stick to stop them getting at them, their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw how big they were. Unfortunately, by the time they got home from school the next day, eagerly awaiting their treat, I was dealing with a very, very pukey baby and the dorayaki were almost forgotten... until this morning. I honestly would not have even considered eating these for breakfast had it not been for a friend posting me a link to Bill Cosby's chocolate cake sketch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5YBNQq-Qo

After seeing that, I felt entirely justified in serving this nutritionally balanced meal before school :-)

Check out the filling!

Just popping in!

2010-04-19T14:12:00.004+09:00

I don't want you to think I've gone quiet on you again, but things have been busy and blah, blah, blah... I spent ages over the weekend trying to set up my Etsy shop, finally managing to list my first item yesterday - woo hoo! There's still a lot of tweaking to do on the site, but I'd been putting it off for weeks so was determined to get it up and running (I'm so impatient).

Just so that you know that I've been at least thinking of writing, here's a couple of very quick recipes for you :-)

OK, so the first isn't really a recipe... more like an idea that I wished I'd have thought of sooner! Not sure what to call it... Chocobanana Mush? Anyway, take an unpeeled banana and wrap the whole thing in cling film. Microwave for about 2 minutes, depending of the size, then spit the skin open and sprinkle with a little cocoa or even drinking chocolate. Voila!

I made this for the children, so took them out for the skins for serving. I can't normally get the boys to eat bananas, but these disappeared as soon as they arrived at the table :-)

Next up are some kabocha dango (Japanese pumpkin dumplings). I had a friend coming to visit this morning and wanted to make some kind of snack, but I know that she has a lot of allergies and so needed to play things safe with the ingredients. These were a doddle to make, really quick, and looked very pretty.

Kabocha Dango

200g kabocha, peeled, seeds removed and cut into chunks
100g rice flour
120 - 150ml water
kuromitsu (or molasses/treacle)

Put the kabocha in a bowl, cover and microwave for about 4 minutes, until soft. While still hot, mash with a fork and allow to cool a little. Gradually mix in the rice flour, then carefully add the water until it forms a fairly soft dough. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and gently squeeze with your thumb and finger to flatten and make a dent in the middle. Drop into the boiling water and cook for about 15 seconds, the remove them and place in a bowl of iced water to cool. Serve the dango drizzled with kuromitsu.

Introducing...

2010-04-14T15:28:00.004+09:00

Remember the nappy cakes I showed you earlier in the year?

I had so many people telling me that they thought I should sell them that I am testing the water by introducing them in a new blog:

www.cakesagoogoo.blogspot.com

Please take a look and let me know what you think, and kindly spread the word!

Yoroshiku ne!

Sweet!

2010-04-07T11:57:00.005+09:00

Last night, as I called in to Jusco to pick up necessities for the next day, it occurred to me that I could actually indulge in a leisurely browse at the book shop (without having to be concerned about what my two year old might get up to if I were to take my eyes of her for more than a split second - her favourite new pass time is ripping paper into shreds!). Naturally, I headed straight for the cookery section and spent a good half hour trying to whittle down the small mountain of books in front of me to just one, oh decisions, decisions!

I do have plenty of gorgeous (yes, cookery books can be gorgeous) recipe books that I brought with me from the UK, but here so many of the ingredients can be hard to find (like self raising flour or golden syrup), and so I was after something Japanese. Torn between a book on how to make wagashi (those delicate, sweet morsels that get served with green tea), a book on baking with vegetables, and another book on the various uses of goma (sesame), I eventually settled on this:

It pretty much covers all of the above, plus has the advantage of being fairly simple to understand :-) Gosh, I am amazed at how many of the 363 recipes I can't wait to cook! Buckwheat sable biscuits? Kinako (roasted soya bean flour) and goma cookies? Sweet potato doughnuts? Obviously, I need to go shopping again...

Of course, I wanted to try something out straight away, so chose a simple sweetcorn bread (actually, it's more like a slightly savoury cake) that could be made in the rice cooker (remember, my temperamental oven has a strong dislike of baking):

This was so easy (and delicious) and turned out exactly like the photo in the book - yay!

Sweetcorn Bread

50g sugar
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons powdered cheese (I used Parmesan)
100g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon milk
100g sweetcorn, drained (defrosted if using frozen)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Whisk together the sugar and eggs, then add the salt and cheese. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then stir in the milk, sweetcorn and butter. Grease the rice cooker pan with a little butter and pour the batter in. Cook on the white rice setting, checking to see if it is cooked through as soon as it beeps to tell you it is done (if not, press the switch again and cook for an extra few minutes), and turn out onto a rack to cool.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T20:28:00.006+09:00

Happy Easter! So, did you all eat your body weight in chocolate? I think M did :-)

This week has been somewhat difficult, won't go into details here but let's just say that today wasn't quite the fun holiday that I had planned. All things considered, I amazed myself by not eating the last of the brownies left over from lunch!

Of course, this morning we were at church. A few weeks ago we were all given a small wooden cross, and were asked to carry it with us and think about what it means to us. We were then to express our thoughts in some way, for example by decorating the cross, writing a poem, painting a picture, etc., and to bring it to church today. This was my contribution (sadly, nobody else brought theirs along):

The brownies were for a treat after lunch. I chose this recipe because I just happened to have everything needed in the cupboard (I couldn't face shopping with all three kids in tow), it uses cocoa rather than melted chocolate. I'd never used this recipe before, but it's a keeper :-) Rich, fudgy, intensely chocolaty...

Fudgy Coconut Brownies

100g cocoa
250g butter
500g golden caster sugar
4 eggs , beaten
100g self-raising flour (which I can't get here, so I used plain flour and a teaspoon of baking powder)
100g desiccated coconut

Gently melt the cocoa, butter and sugar in a large saucepan, stirring so the mixture doesn't catch. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the eggs, little by little, followed by the flour and coconut. Pour into a 21cm square, non-stick (or lined) tin and bake at 180c for about 45 minutes (check after 30 minutes and cover with another piece of baking parchment if the crust is browning too much). DO NOT OVERCOOK (it is much better to slightly under cook them than to end up with dry, cakey brownies)! Leave to cool in the tin, then carefully lift out and cut into squares. If you can wait for them to cool completely, unlike me, then you will get better shaped brownies than the one you see here in the above photo ;-)

Still here

2010-04-03T14:28:00.005+09:00

No, I haven't been in hiding, nor sulking this time. Just been rather busy, and the school holidays have meant that by the time the kids are in bed, I am worn out and unable to string a sentence together, let alone remember what we've been up to. Back to school on Tuesday... WOOO HOOO! It's not that I don't enjoy having them all at home, not having to get up at 6.15am, etc., it's just that it's sooo noisy, and the house is a complete pigsty! Oh, and as they boys' favourite way to pass time is by playing 'explorers' out in the paddy fields, the washer has been running almost non-stop. Anyway, we have had rather a fun time over the last few weeks. For a start, we have added to our family:

Making their debut here today are Polly and Penny! Actually, their names could well change. K wants to call them Tinky and Winky (I don't think so), I quite like Thelma and Louise or Thomasina and Geraldine (Tom and Jerry), the boys want to name them after themselves... Any good suggestions?

I'm still trying to eat healthier, and came across some unusual choccie treats - vegetable chocolate! There was a whole range of different flavours, I picked up the following two to try out:

On the left is spinach and white chocolate, and on the right we have carrot and mandarin orange in dark chocolate. The verdict? A waste of money and calories! The carrot one was OK, couldn't taste much of the filling at all. The spinach one was absolutely disgusting, I took a small nibble and then passed it on to the children (who wolfed it down in seconds - I didn't tell them that it was made with spinach)!

I'd much rather eat my veggies in curry form - why ruin good chocolate? Speaking of curry, I made this healthy dish for dinner the other day (it was a Yoshikei recipe) and as it's so easy to play around with I will be making a lot more of the (I need to get my protein):

Tofu with curried vegetable sauce

2 packs of tofu, cut into large pieces
1 carrot, cut into juliennes
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of nira (anyone know what this is called in English?)or spring onion, sliced thickly
1/2 tablespoon curry powder
240ml dashi (I used kombu)
30ml cooking sake
40ml soy sauce
40ml mirin
pinch of salt
1 rounded tablespoon cornstarch

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the vegetables and curry powder. Add all of the liquid ingredients and salt and heat to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the vegetables. Heat again until thickened slightly. Arrange the tofu on plates and microwave to heat through, then top with the curried vegetables.

His 'n' hers

2010-03-15T12:31:00.003+09:00

K loves scallops. I have caught him drooling over pictures of the juicy shellfish whilst browsing the the internet. So I treated him:

Hotate (scallop) Don
(have you noticed I make a lot of don? Fewer dishes for me to wash!)

12 scallops
1 tablespoon cooking sake
20ml soy sauce
2 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
a pinch of salt
chili powder
some toasted nori (seaweed)

Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Beat the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt, scramble them and set aside. Fry the scallops on both sides in a little oil. Pour over the sake, then put a lid over and allow them to steam cook. Remove the lid and add the butter and soy sauce to the pan, turning the scallops over to coat. Serve the scallops over a bowl of rice, with the scrambled egg, sprinkle with a little chili powder, and garnish with some shredded nori.

Over recent months I've spent so much time trying to cook things that my meat-eating family will enjoy, with very little thought to myself. So I have resolved to at least occasionally cook something that we can all tuck into as a family, and first up is a veggie shepherd's pie :-) As well as being extremely healthy and tasty (this will now be making a regular appearance at our dinner table, there were absolutely no complaints about this dish), it was also very cheap to make!

Veggie Shepherd's Pie

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 large carrots (500g/1lb 2oz in total), peeled and cut into chunks
2 tablespoons thyme, chopped
200ml red wine
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
410g can green lentils
950g sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into chunks
25g butter
85g grated cheese

Heat the oil in a frying pan, then fry the onion until golden. Add the carrots and all but a sprinkling of thyme. Pour in the wine, 150ml water and the tomatoes, then sprinkle in the stock cubes and simmer for 10 mins. Tip in the can of lentils, including their juice, then cover and simmer for another 10 mins until the carrots still have a bit of bite and the lentils are pulpy. Meanwhile, boil the sweet potatoes for 15 mins until tender, drain well, then mash with the butter and season to taste. Pile the lentil mixture into a pie dish, spoon the mash on top, then sprinkle over the cheese and remaining thyme. Bake at 190c for 20 mins if cooking straight away, or for 40 mins from chilled, until golden and hot all the way through.

Daring Bakers Challenge February 2010 - Tiramisu

2010-02-27T09:07:00.005+09:00

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

When I first read through this challenge I felt a little intimidated - all those components... and 4 days to make it?! I almost fired off a note making my excuses to sit this one out, but then remembered that this was exactly why I'd signed up to the Daring Bakers in the first place, I wanted to learn new methods and techniques, I wanted to be pushed to try something new :-) So I reread the challenge, started to work out a time plan... and suddenly knew exactly what I wanted to do - a Japanese-style Tiramisu using matcha and yuzu!

This month's challenge required us to make our own fresh mascarpone for use in the tiramisu, as well as well as Savoiardi Biscuits (Lady's Fingers). Even though I'd never tried making mascarpone before, I risked substituting the lemon juice with yuzu (a small citrus fruit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzu) grown in abundance in our local area) and fortunately (cream is expensive here!) it worked beautifully.

Likewise, I used yuzu zest in place of lemon zest when making the zabaglione and pastry cream. Other changes I made to the recipe provided included adding some matcha (green tea) powder to the Savoiardi Biscuit batter and dusting the biscuits with kinako (roasted and ground soy beans) before baking, using Yuzu Sake (made here in the town where I live - I couldn't believe my luck!), and replacing the espresso coffee with matcha. Finally, matcha was the obvious alternative to cocoa to finish the whole thing off!

The addition of matcha to the Savoiardi Biscuits was an afterthought. I'd already piped one batch of plain biscuits:

so stirring in the powder caused the batter to drop slightly and the resulting biscuits were a little more spongy than the plain ones, not as light. I think that this was the reason that they did not soak up the liquid quite as quickly when dipped, I think I should have been a little braver and let them get a little more soggy before adding them to the dish... am I the only one who had the problem of biscuits floating to the top whilst putting the dish together?!

I had a grand design in my mind - I planned on making a dome-shaped tiramisu by freezing it before turning it out of the dish - but the creamy mixture really did look rather runny and I was afraid that it might not hold it's shape as it defrosted, so I chickened out of that. Just as well, really, as I really don't think it would have turned out as desired. But have I mentioned yet how it tasted? Oh my, creamy heaven on a plate... Yes, it was a bit fiddly to make and required a fair bit of planning, but the result was certainly worth the effort. The flavours worked together beautifully, and I am thankful that I had lots of friends to share it with as it would have been a danger to my waistline had it just been me and the family eating it ;-).

Aparna and Deeba, thank you for this fantastic challenge - I truly enjoyed every step, and now have a star desert added to my repertoire!

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:
Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

Nearly 40

2010-02-26T12:11:00.004+09:00

There's a lot sitting in my camera waiting to be shared here, but the for last couple of weeks I have been dealing with poorly children and a severe lack of sleep and so whether you will get to see those photos or not remains to be seen.

Yesterday, according to my husband, I turned 'Nearly 40'. I take issue with this, as I still have another two years to go! But in spite of his comment, I did have a lovely day. Actually, it started a couple of weeks ago when my present fron K was delivered - a bread maker, and you wouldn't believe how happy this appliance has made me! There is absolutely nothing in this world nicer to wake up to than freshly baked bread (spread with butter, of course)... I fear for my waistline! Although I had nothing special planned, it was a day full of little surprises and treats (actually, the first surprise turned up on my doorstep the evening before), and although I would have given anything to be enjoying an Indian take-away with my friends back in the UK, I went to bed very happy!

A blogger friend caused me to rush out to the shops to buy the ingredients for a recipe I'd seen recently on NQN's blog (http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/02/23/tim-tam-cookie-pops/), and while we were out I was enticed by a cream puff from Beard Papa (premium chocolate, mmmmmmmmmmmmm)... I this is allowed on occasions such as nearly 40 birthdays :-)

The Tim Tam Cookie Pops were a doddle to make, and the kids could barely contain their excitement when I brought them to the table after dinner.

I must say, though, that I will not be sharing any more with M as she is far too wasteful:

Honestly, I felt so loved yesterday - I had so many cards, messages, phone calls, and beautiful and thoughtful presents.... it really was a special day!

Oh, and I thought I'd share with you the card my sister sent me (cheeky!):

Very nice, you might think...inside it reads, "Hallucinating and loss of reality are early signs of brain cell loss in women your age."

One-sided Valentine

2010-02-14T20:00:00.004+09:00

This year was the first year K didn't do anything for me on Valentine's Day. The tradition here is that women give chocolates to men, and then the men reciprocate with cookies on White Day (14th March), but K has always acknowledged that that's not how we Western women do things and bought me some nice choccies... but not this year. Well, if that's how he's going to play things, then I shall be expecting the traditional sankai gaishi (three-fold return) gift. Haha!

K didn't do badly today. He got some hand-made nama choco (truffles) made by my own fair hand (actually it was a joint effort by the Mama & Me group, we joined forces to make them), some chocolate beer:

which was far, far tastier than we could ever have imagined (dark and rich, mmmm), and a special dinner:

The above was my attempt at a tower of sushi, but I didn't have a suitable mould so layered it in a bowl and tipped it out before decorating. Very, very easy to make, just prepare some sushi rice and layer it with whatever you fancy. I used raw tuna, salmon and scallops, some chopped egg and mayonnaise, avocado, shredded lettuce and shiso, and salmon roe.

I wonder what he'll be cooking for me in return ;-) (Yes K, if you're reading this you can take that as a challenge!)

She's potty

2010-02-08T12:25:00.003+09:00

Rather chilly here this morning, so have been playing with M to keep warm. Played peek-a-boo under the kotatsu:

Even she decided that it was too cold to strip off for the potty (I don't know who told her that all clothes need removing when going about her business), and she came up with her own version of a heated potty:

Yes, she's tucked under the kotatsu. Very clever, or at least I think so :-)

License to kill

2010-02-07T19:40:00.006+09:00

I was asked recently about how I got my Japanese driving license... gosh, where to start?

Ordinarily it should be a straight forward process. According to most sources it should have been a simple swap, my UK license for a new Japanese license. But this is Kagawa prefecture, where the police need to find something to do to occupy their time. Here's how it went:

1. K needed his UK license transferring as well, so he rang the licensing centre to book an appointment for us both. But they will only do one person per day, and they only hold these appointments one day a week. Great. K books me in for the following week.

2. The whole family accompanies K to his appointment, a 40 minute interview with a policeman. He is told to come back the following week to complete the process (photo, etc).

3. The whole family returns to the licensing centre for my interview and for K to get his license. I am interviewed by the same policeman, for well over an hour (and entirely in Japanese). Surely there should be a set list of questions that he needs to ask me? No, he wants to know everything about how I got my UK license (20 years ago). How much did I pay for my provisional license? How many driving lessons did I take? How much did each lesson cost? Where did I practice? How much did it cost to take the test? etc., etc. K is told that he will have to return to the centre in order for them to add the bike permit onto his license, as they can't do both car and motor bike on the same day.

4. The whole family returns to the licensing centre to complete and collect both of our licenses.

So much for straight forward - K had to take 3 half days off work, and I dread to think how foreigners who can't speak Japanese would get on. Grrrr.

Oooh, I've got a recipe for you! I made this Miso Mayo Teriyaki Chicken a couple of days ago and I've never seen Jack eat so quickly!

The meat was served with stir-fried spinach, sweetcorn and onion, and some daikon (mooli radish) and wakame (seaweed) soup.

Miso Mayo Teriyaki Chicken

4 chicken breasts
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons miso
4 tablespoons mayonnaise

Prick the chicken breasts all over with a fork, season with salt and pepper, and dunk in some flour before frying in a little oil until cooked through. Whilst the meat is cooking, mix together the remaining ingredients to make a sauce. When ready, pour the sauce over the meat and let it sizzle for a minute, turning to coat it all over. Slice the meat into chunks and you're ready to go!

Daring Bakers Challenge January 2010 - Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-27T19:44:00.004+09:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

There was no way I was going to sit out this month's challenge, not after I saw a picture of a Nanaimo bar... drool... and I knew exactly who I wanted to make them for. I wasn't familiar with them at all, in fact to me the name suggested that they might be made out of some kind of potato (imo is Japanese for potato) but read that,

"Nanaimo Bars are a classic Canadian dessert created in none other than Nanaimo, British Colombia. In case you were wondering, it’s pronounced Nah-nye-Moh. These bars have 3 layers: a base containing graham crackers, cocoa, coconut and nuts, a middle custard layer, and a topping of chocolate. They are extremely rich and available almost everywhere across the country."

My friend Kyna was with her family in Canada when the challenge was announced, but came back to Japan last week with the news that she and her family are to return to Canada in the Spring. I'm so selfish, I really don't want them to leave! But they recognise that this is where the Lord is leading them and are putting their trust in Him, and so who am I to try and talk them out of going? They will be terribly missed here... but they haven't gone yet and so we must make the most of the remaining weeks!

This month's challenge was in two parts. Firstly, we were to make our own Graham Wafers (preferably gluten-free), and then to use those Graham Wafers to make the Nanaimo Bars. As I've sat out a couple of challenges over the past year, I decided not to take the 'easy' option (for a change) and to go with the gluten-free version.

The only problem I came up against was working out what flour to use, as I wasn't able to get hold of tapioca starch or sorghum flour. In the end I found a packet of roasted corn flour and it all turned out fine. In fact, the Graham Wafers were far, far tastier than I expected them to be! I've never even seen one before, and just assumed that they were like digestive biscuits (which is what I usually use when Graham Wafers are called for). Maybe they are supposed to be like digestive biscuits, however mine weren't. They tasted more like those little biscuits you are sometimes served with coffee... can't remember what they are called. Mine turned out quite dark (that was due to me having used koku sato) and very crunchy, but utterly delicious!

When making the Nanaimo Bars, I added the zest of a mikan (mandarin orange, the fruit of the moment around here) along with a squeeze of juice to the middle layer, as well as adding a little mikan juice to the top layer of chocolate.

Now, I need to give these away as soon as I possibly can, or else the scales may never forgive me!

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers

1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Lightly poached

2010-01-26T20:13:00.004+09:00

Evening all! Apologies if this post is full of typos, but I can barely keep my eyes open... the after-effects of a long and busy weekend. The boys had school on Sunday (happyokai (performance) in the morning, followed by lessons until the usual time) with a day off in lieu yesterday. K decided to have the afternoon off work so that we could take the children swimming. There's a funky pool (complete with an onsen) not too far away, and K was very keen to try out their climbing wall (yeah, it's meant for kids, but there ain't a bigger kid that K):

I chose to soak in the various baths instead, the first time for me to venture into one of these since... certainly before having the children... I was very thankful to have my friend Laura with me, I would never have gone in on my own! We chatted away for ages, poaching in the hot jacuzzi, and I came out feeling the warmest I've felt in months. Now why didn't I do this sooner?! Can't wait to check out the radon hot spring in our town next :-D And we rounded off the day by stopping off for sushi on the way home, 'twas bargain day at only 88 yen a plate!

On the food front, made some tofu burgers the other day that got wolfed down in seconds by all three kids (including M, and she's turning into the picky one of late)! None of them even noticed that there were veggies hidden in them.

Tofu burgers

1 pack tofu, very well drained*
300g minced beef/pork
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 green peppers (Japanese peppers are very small, so just use one if they are large where you are), finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg
2/3 cup bread crumbs
3 tablespoons milk or water
seasoning

* The easiest and quickest way to drain tofu is to cut it into quarters, place it a couple of layers of kitchen towel on a plate, then microwave it at 500 watts for about 2 and a half minutes

Sauce

4 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons cooking sake
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin

Mix together the sauce ingredients, turn off the heat and pour straight over the cooked burgers.

I served these Rocomoco-style, over rice, shredded salad and cherry tomatoes, and topped with a drizzle of Kewpie mayonnaise, a sprinkling of sesame, and a fried egg.

For your own good

2010-01-19T12:40:00.003+09:00

I may well be preaching to the converted here (where I live is hardly a metropolis, it takes a while for anything interesting to find it's way from the city to our littlish island), but there is something I am just bursting to tell you about! On Sunday we spent the afternoon with friends, and they arrived with two large boxes of the most delicious pastries you could ever imagine - Beard Papa's cream puffs! Now I'm not usually a fan of this type of thing, I've never really gone in for fresh cream or custard... until I was introduced to these heavenly treats:

After our visitors left, there was one pastry remaining - a strawberry cream puff. Not strawberry flavour (yuck), but fresh, strawberry puree whipped into fresh cream. It is no more. Words fail me, you have to try one! There are branches of Beard Papa's globally now (http://www.beardpapa.com/index.php), so if you find yourself in the vicinity of one just walk in through those doors and indulge!

Feet futons

2010-01-17T14:13:00.010+09:00

OK, I have to stop complaining about how cold I am - I've just read about the Arctic temperatures over at Heather's place (http://shinshuulife.blogspot.com/2010/01/wed-be-better-off.html) and she wins! And actually yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day, even though we've once again woken up to a very heavy frost (and solidified olive oil). The weather here is so fickle, but I really appreciated the reminder that Spring will soon be on it's way, especially after such a cold spell.

I took Heather's advice and invested in some warmer footwear for inside the house:

They are effectively feather futons (duvets) for feet (modelled here by M - I should have bought them in any other colour than pink!). They are doing the trick, warm toes = happy mummy. And these, teamed up with the huge, cosy fleece house coat sent to me by a very sweet friend up in Hokkaido (I owe you, Vicky!), are making me far more pleasant to live with.

Something else that made me happy this week was being asked to sample some prototype food products which have been developed with a view to becoming new '名物' (meibutsu, local speciality) for Kotahira. It's very much a Japanese thing, the desire to have a unique product which might become synonymous with the place of it's origin. If they can come up with just the right kind of product, they could rake in millions as the tourists come in their hoards to buy their omiyage (souvenir goodies). The powers that be of Kotohira have decided that they want their town to become famous for... garlic! I was given a bottle of garlic infused soy sauce, and a jar of garlicky miso to experiment with:

They are branding it 'Garlic Zamurai' and I rather like the package design. The soy sauce has a very pungent garlic smell, so I used it in recipes that called for garlic but without adding any, any they turned out great! The miso is far more interesting, not your average miso at all. It's chunky and spicy (I thought that the slivers of green were negi (spring onion) but they turned out to be sliced green peppers!), delicious actually, although I could probably use more of it if it didn't have quite so much kick to it. I tried it out on K the other night, making a sauce to spoon over some pan-fried tofu:

I can't quite remember what went into it, but it went something like this:

2 tablespoons miso
60ml dashi (stock, I used kombu)
1 tablespoon sugar
a splash of soy sauce
a splash of cooking sake

Mix the ingredients together in a small pan and simmer gently until reduced.

Warm thoughts

2010-01-13T19:58:00.004+09:00

Today must have been one of the coldest days of this winter yet. I really, really don't like to be cold. I am miserable if I get cold toes. So before I dive back under the kotatsu, I just wanted to show you something I picked up in the shops today.

Obviously I am not alone in yearning for the spring to arrive - it would appear that new tactics are being employed to will this cold snap away. There I was, looking for some comfort snacks to munch on whilst warming my extremities, when I came across a display of the usual fare... but it was all pink! The packages all featured a huge cherry blossom tree, and the flavours were all... cherry blossom! OK, so the cherry blossom Kit Kat released last year was good, but how would this work with prawn cracker snacks (Ebi Sen) and the like? In spite of my diet, I just had to find out:

What we have here is a bag of Saya Endo, a salty rice based snack made with peas (and yes, they are shaped like pea pods). I am rather partial to a bag of these every now and then on the basis that they contain a vegetable and must therefor be good for me ;-) This particular bag is 'salty cherry blossom' flavour, and according to the label really does contain powders made from both the blossoms and leaves of the cherry tree. Reading a bit closer, I understand that this is part of a range of products designed to encourage students sitting entrance examinations, and that there is a supposedly sacred tree in Hokkaido to which one can ask for special help (some people will believe anything - personally, I feel that their time would be better spent doing a bit of extra revision).

Anyway, I ate them and indeed they did have a slightly floral taste to them. Not bad, but I'll stick with the regular flavour next time. At least as they disappeared to a warmer place, I was visualising the arrival of the warm sun as it wakes the flora around. Ahh, the power of the mind...

Getting back on the horse

2010-01-12T20:13:00.003+09:00

I've been sulking. A few months back, I took a few knocks that really put me off blogging here. I was upset and quite cross! Anyhow, I've decided that I do want to write here, and those who don't want to read it don't have to - there, you have my permission! I have decided to do this for me, and I'm pretty sure that the children will also like looking back on this sporadic documenting of our life in years to come.

So, time to get back in the saddle.

I'm easing in here with a recipe for you. The weather has turned cccccold, and we spend a great deal of time snuggled under the kotatsu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu). We need food to warm us to the core, and so lately I have been making lots of nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono). For a start there's very little preparation needed so I don't have to stand in my chill kitchen for very long, and then we all get to sit around the steaming hot pot :-). There's really no rules for this dish, just throw in whatever you fancy/whatever is in the bottom of your fridge, but I'll include yesterdays ingredients here just so you can get an idea of things. I apologise for there not being a photo of this dish, it was pillaged before I had chance to join the ravenous clan at the table. And besides, I have now idea how the restaurants manage to present their nabe to beautifully with everything in it's place, with mine the ingredients all get mixed up as soon as they get added to the pot! Anyone got any tips?

Chicken Meatball Nabe

Soup

1200ml dashi (stock)
50ml cooking sake
30ml soy sauce
30ml mirin
seasoning

Chicken Meatballs

480g minced chicken
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
20ml cooking sake
10ml soy sauce
1 rounded tablespoon cornstarch
some fresh, grated ginger
seasoning

1 pack enoki mushrooms, roots cut off
1 1/2 packs tofu, cut into large cubes and very well drained
400g Chinese cabbage, thickly sliced
240g daikon (mooli radish), peeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into half-moons
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
1 leek, sliced diagonally into large chunks

ponzu, for dipping/drizzling, add a little chili powder if you like

Bring the soup to a simmer in a large pot or pan. Mix the meatball ingredients together, and drop spoonfuls into the soup (I used a small scoop, made things very easy) followed by the rest of the ingredients. Continue to simmer until the meatballs aren't going to give anyone salmonella poisoning, then bring it to the table and let everyone help themselves!

Daring Bakers' Challenge December 2009 - Home for the Holidays

2009-12-29T21:32:00.005+09:00

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I was delighted when I saw what this month's challenge was to be! I had planned to make one of these for the first time last Christmas - I'd made the dough and was all set to enroll the boys' help on the 25th, when M got taken into hospital, and by the time we got out the dough was only fit for the bin!

I chose to work with Y's choice of recipes, simply because I could easily get the ingredients needed. The dough was, as many DBs noted, extremely dry even after spending a day resting in the fridge:

I didn't have time to start again so just persevered with what I'd got. It worked out OK, I still managed to roll it out thinly (and I was surprised at how thick the gingerbread was after it had been baked). I made my royal icing a little too thick (which I suppose is better than too runny!), but I had no trouble 'gluing' the house together. Decorating it was the fun part, however what happened to all the sweets that I'd bought for this project?! Never mind, I'm beginning to think that less is more...

The pattern I used was taken from the BBC Good Food website:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/templates/gingerbread-house-2576.pdf

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-23T14:24:00.001+09:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Daring Bakers Challenge October 2009 - French Macaroons

2009-10-27T21:36:00.006+09:00

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

It's days like today when I wonder if I was dreaming when I imagined I could bake. Maybe it's because I was already in rather a bad mood before even tying my apron strings. Let's just say, I've been knocked back a peg or two.

I had to gulp when I read of this month's challenge. The posh department stores have stunning arrays of French Macaroons, all perfectly formed and beautifully stacked. I've never tried one, never considered treating myself to one of these delights - they always seemed too sophisticated, too chic for me! My opinion hasn't changed.

It was my own fault. As usual, I'd left things to the last minute and was on a tight schedule. I'd gathered all the ingredients (and 'aged' the egg whites for 3 days) and scribbled what I needed to do on a scrap of paper, but stupidly didn't allow time to read the comments and advice from, thinking "If I just follow the instructions, I'll be fine!". I knew exactly what I wanted to do - they were being baked for K to take in to the office tomorrow to share with his colleagues (he's another year older!), and I'd planned a chili-chocolate roulette. K really isn't into fancy flavours, and I wanted to do something a little more interesting than just chocolate (his request), so the idea was that I'd bake a box of cocoa macaroons filled with a chocolate ganache, one of which would be secretly laced with chili. And cross my fingers that K's boss wouldn't pick the wrong one. I'd bought a fancy black and red box to package them in, they were all going to be sooo impressed!

Pride comes before a fall. Everything appeared to be going smoothly, however the smug feeling started to fade as I was piping them onto the trays. I counted them... enough to make 14 filled macaroons (the recipe states that this can yield 5 dozen!), perhaps mine were a little on the large size? The next problem, the lowest setting on my oven is 100c (the recipe said that the first bake needed to be at 90c). Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Next step, baking for 7 to 8 minutes, or 10, or 15, or 20... they just didn't want to cook! It was now quite obvious to me that they were not going to look anything like French Macaroons, I decided to treat them as a completely different type of treat (K has never even heard of them anyway, no-one need know). They were flat, sightly soft and chewy, but actually quite delicious! So I paired them up and sandwiched them together with the ganache I'd prepared.

Then I phoned K. Exactly how many did he need (I was dying to try one)? "At least 15." Noooo...

Now, if it weren't the end of the month I would have had another attempt at this recipe (or, as many of the other DB's did, try Tartlette's recipe out), but unfortunately I am out of funds until Friday, so I raided the cupboards to see what else I could throw together. Reluctant to trust my oven again, I decided to go with one of the recipes in the instruction manual - my oven has various functions (including steam) and recipes programmed in, and these seem to work most of the time. Apart from today. My choux pastry didn't puff up at all, no chance of squeezing any cream in those... So much for the tight schedule, ended up baking a batch of CocaCola cup cakes. So much for sophistication!

Check out www.thedaringkitchen.com to see how French Macaroons are supposed to look. xxx

Kicking off

2009-09-26T22:01:00.003+09:00

Saturday is soccer day. Both the boys train and play for the local junior club, which means that I get to spend hour upon hour on the side-line doing the dutiful mother thing. Which is a bit more involved than it was back home. Training is on Saturday afternoon from 2 til 5, usually running over by half an hour (and Sunday mornings, but we're at church). The athletics ground is brand spanking new, and is just on the other side of our little mountain.

And I admit, the view makes the wait more pleasurable. But at least when it's just training, all we mums have to do is watch and look interested. Match days, well... the day of this home match, dads were asked to come early to prepared the ground for play, meeting at 7.00am! Mums needed to arrive by 8.00am, bearing 2 large blocks of ice (must be made in 1 litre milk cartons), 2 small towels, drinks, packed lunches (it was a tournament), balls and don't forget the kids! At 8.30 there was the briefing on how to use the kakigori-maker (ice-shaving machine, we had to man the stand whenever own own kids weren't playing, and the children could have as much as they liked), and then we were drilled on how to serve the kakigori (ice first, clear syrup next, then more ice, then fruit syrup, do not deviate from this) before kick-off at 9.00am. Of course, everything has to be done just so, no initiative-taking allowed. I got into trouble when, at half-time, I started to hand out the iced towels to the hot and sweaty players but... used the wrong box first. Shock horror. The two boxes were identical, one was for half-time, the other for when the final whistle blows. And as I was the only mother standing on the side-line watching (the others had all retreated to the shade as their UV-protective long sleeves, hats, scarves, gloves and SPF50 sun cream might not offer them quite enough cover) and found that the hoard of red-faced boys were heading straight for me, I opened the box nearest to me. Stupid foreigner.

Hey ho, it's good for the boys and they enjoy it, so I guess I'd better learn the ropes in this new role. I noticed something today at practice that wouldn't happen at home - towards the end, the coach was stood on the pitch directing the youngest players with a cigarette in hand! So much for encourage heath and fitness.

Oh, and today is pretty Ayumi-chan's little boy's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Noah-kun! I made him a 'Totoro' cake (Totoro is a character from one of my favourite anime, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro). It didn't quite go to plan, as the fondant icing I'd made was far too dry to do anything with, so quickly had to change to Plan B and work with butter cream. Of course, I couldn't do any modelling, so the finished cake isn't as fancy as I'd hoped (I wanted to include some makkuro kurousuke (dust bunnies?), acorns and leaves), but hey, the birthday boy is only 2 some I'm sure he won't be complaining.

M took one look at the cake and then begged to watch the film after we'd spent a good while marching around the room singing "arukou, arukou"!

How roo'd

2009-09-25T12:50:00.003+09:00

Remember a while back I posted about cooking with kangaroo meat (http://creatingastir.blogspot.com/2009/08/faba-roo-ny-yeah-i-have-toddler.html)? I'd been sent some meat by www.roomeat.co.jp for me to have a play with and see how the folks liked it. It occurred to me that I'd prepared two different recipes but, what with all the excitement of the sudden trip to Australia, I forgot to tell you about the second. And isn't is just like me to forget where I found the recipe? I know it was on-line, I thought I'd bookmarked it... Anyway, I'd had to adapt the recipe as I wasn't using beef, and I started off want to make tataki however ended up simmering the meat in a marinade for a few minutes instead of the traditional method of searing the meat. I think I can pretty much remember the recipe. Not sure if this is really tataki, but it went down well with K and was unbelievably simple to make...

Kangaroo Tataki

a good size piece of kangaroo long fillet
3/4 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 cups dashi

Mix together soy sauce, sake, mirin and dashi in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the meat and return to the boil. Cook 3 to 5 minutes (depends on the thickness of the meat, but be careful not to overcook the meat;it should be rare on the inside). Remove the meat, wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge overnight. Continue gently boiling the liquid in the pan until it has reduced to a thick sauce, being careful not to let it burn. Allow it to cool and keep in the fridge overnight with the meat. To serve, slice the meat thinly, arrange over hot rice, pour a little of the sauce over the top and garnish with some sliced spring onion.

Naturally, cooking with kangaroo has generated some interesting conversations. One friend said that she would probably enjoy eating it as long as she didn't know what she was eating (and remember, I didn't tell K the first time I fed it to him as I wanted to see if he found it tasty without any prejudice). That seems to be the main issue - kangaroos are cute! But it is far more ethical to eat the meat of an animal that requires culling than to raise 'ugly' animals battery-style for our dinner tables. Hey - cows are beautiful, just look at those big eyes! I do think that kangaroo meat would benefit from a new name (just as with beef or pork). There has been some attempt to re-brand the meat as australus, but it doesn't seem to be taking! Check out some of the other suggested names here:

http://calorielab.com/news/2005/09/06/kangaroo-meat-touted-as-diet-food/

hahaha, cyril! Don't be shy to have a look at what RooMeat have to offer (www.roomeat.co.jp - it's not all kangaroo!), the site is all in Japanese, but if you send them a note in English I'm pretty sure they'd be very happy to help you work it all out!

Let the games commence

2009-09-19T19:57:00.005+09:00

As I write this, mums all across Ayagawa will be busy at work preparing impressive bentos (packed lunches) for tomorrow's school sports day. And out of all the events that sports day entails, this is perhaps the most competitive. This is where the women proudly display their prowess in the kitchen, producing artistically arranged boxes of goodies to catch the eye of the family sitting beside them. I wasn't going to buy into it. I was perfectly happy to do an English-style picnic with sandwiches, crisps, fruit and cake... but then K phoned his mum this morning to ask her if she wanted to join us, and so I had to up my game somewhat. The menu now stands at:

onigiri (rice balls), three different flavours
sticky chicken drumsticks
deep-fried octopus
sausages in various animal shapes
spicy tiffin eggs (recipe follows)
edamame (boiled soy beans)
sweet potato sticks in syrup
mini tomatoes
fruit salad (apple, nashi, kiwi, orange, banana)
shortbread
various crackers, crisps and snacks

I am breaking one of the rules, I refuse to prepare all of this on the morning of the event as we need to be out of the house by 7.30am and so most of it is already done. I'm just not that dedicated. I must say, I am most proud of the tiffin eggs! I wanted to make something vegetarian for me to enjoy and the recipe for these leaped of the BBC Good Food page at me just begging to be made! It's a bit like a scotch egg, only without the meat and it's baked instead of fried.

Spicy Tiffin Eggs

7 eggs
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
250g carrots, grated or very finely chopped
2 heaped tablespoons of curry paste (your favourite, I used Patak's Coriander and Cumin)
200g bread crumbs
75g pine kernels, toasted and chopped
3 tablespoons flour

Boil 6 of the eggs for 5 minutes, then cool them in cold water and peel. Fry the onion for a few minutes, add the carrot and fry gently for 10 minutes. Add the curry paste, cook for a couple more minutes, then stir in the bread crumbs and allow to cool. Beat the remaining egg and add t0 with the carrot mixture. Divide the mixture into 6 balls and flatten them with your hand. One by one, roll the eggs in the flour, then wrap them in the flattened discs, squeezing the mixture around the egg until completely covered. Roll the balls in the chopped pine kernels and put on a baking sheet. Bake at 190c for 15 - 20 minutes.

They smell amazing.

Time flies, my little flutterby...

2009-09-13T19:17:00.005+09:00

Gosh, M's two! How did that happen? She was still a baby last time I looked... now she's a proper little madam! I decided to invite the rellies over for an English style party tea, it was all very girly - can you guess the theme?

Yes, I know they're fairy cakes (and not just fairy cakes, I'll have you know, they are made with murasaki imo (purple potato?) and cream cheese frosting) but we also call them butterfly cakes. M loves butterflies. There's a TV programme on in the mornings that sometimes features a butterfly dance...

You must have worked it out by now, but just in case...

Really, I should have coloured the icing pink, but I thought it was a bit much given the colour of the actual cake underneath all that frosting. It was a Red Velvet cake and was, indeed, very, very red. Not very cakey though, kinda dense and chewy... wooops, I'll blame my oven! I'd read a lot about red velvet cake on other blogs lately, it's something I'd never heard of let alone eaten. Certainly, mine did not turn out how it was supposed to but I will attempt to make it again (it tasted rather good in spite of the texture, there were no complaints, everyone had seconds and there's only a small slice left!). And it's bound to turn out better next time as I have a new best friend to help me out! Yes, allow me to introduce you to...

I haven't stopped grinning since she was delivered! I recently sent an SOS out asking if anyone had an old mixer hanging around that they weren't using, and within seconds of me clicking send I had a reply from my lovely AFWJ friend Betty! Betty, if you're reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you for making my wish come true! There's no stopping me now, oh I can't wait to get creative again!

PS Just in case you are wondering, we did eat lots of stuff other than cakes - we had little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, sausages made into rabbits, lots of healthy, bite-size finger foods such as cheese, Nigella's kiddie meatballs, mini-onigiri (rice balls), but yes, copious amounts of e-numbers and sugar did get wolfed down and barely a crumb was left. Maybe that's why M is still awake 2 hours after her bed time. Ah well, it's only once a year.

Random

2009-09-09T21:26:00.011+09:00

This is going to be a bit of a mish mash, I'm afraid. I've a collection of photos sitting in my camera that were supposed to be blogged about weeks ago, but then other stuff happens... Anyway, I'm just going to get them out here for you, all a bit random but never mind.

While M and I were gadding about Sydney, they boys were busy partying hard. It was Matsuri season! There seemed to be at least two Natsu Matsuri (summer festivals) each week, each town has their own. The fun includes games (the top favourite one being the one where you try to catch fish with a tissue paper scoop, we still have two survivors living in our genkan), food (W has been known to eat 4 helpings of kakigori in one evening) and fireworks. Our local festival enrolled the children in the bon odori (a dance) and here they are ready for the off in all their finery:

Next up, chocolate. Gotta love funky flavoured Kitkats! Back home we get the odd release, maybe a dark version, or chocolate orange. Here, there are special limited versions appearing on the shelves all the time, and they are are far more creative than you could ever imagine! This, for example:

Uh huh, that's right, lemon vinegar! They were actually very nice, it took me days to pin down what it was they reminded me of - lemon puffs (you know, those biscuits you can buy that are sandwiched together with lemon cream)! Other recent varieties have included cherry, plum soda, melon soda and kinako (a powder made from roasted and ground beans that gets dusted over lots of Japanese sweets).

In spite of the yummy chocolates I enjoy here, I managed to find a photo of me looking really very trim:

Obviously the gorgeous girl in the foreground is little M, but that's my leg you can see behind her. No, not the hairy one, look to the left. Amazing!

Not too long ago I escaped to the mainland for a weekend (first time to leave this island in a year!) and got to enjoy a train journey through the countryside without a small child climbing all over me! For any train geeks reading from back home who have never seen what the shinkansen (bullet train) looks like, here is one of the most recent models:

They look so unbelievably sleek as they glide into the station, stopping at exactly the right spot for you to board your allocated carriage.

Well I did warn you that this was going to be a scatty post. There are plenty more, but as this isn't making much sense I'd better leave them for now. Thanks for bearing with me!

Coming out of hiding

2009-09-06T20:09:00.009+09:00

At long last, the storm that is the summer holidays has finally past. The boys have gone back to school and I have already almost completed the clear-up operation necessary after having had the house full of boys big and small for the last 40 days. Not that I dislike the holidays, quite the opposite! There's no need for the morning rush to get everyone fed, suited and booted and out the door by 7.30am, no uniforms to prepare, the boys help to look after baby sis and we do have a lot of fun. But at the same time, it's sooo intense and utterly exhausting (as well as very noisy). There's not much chance of a break, I've no-one to meet up with for a play date, no-one to meet at the park and chat with while the kids play, it's just me and the kids at home all day, every day, and the fighting does get me down... it get's a bit lonely and that's when I really miss my life back home the most. BUT...

I did get a break! My sister in Sydney rang a few weeks before the holidays were about to start to say that she'd got enough airmiles to fly M and me over for a visit, and it took me the blink of an eyelid to accept! We escaped the heat and bugs and headed off down under for 10 days, leaving the boys with dad (believe me, they couldn't have been happier - they got to stay up late, eat junk, and do all they things I won't let them do). There were lots of firsts - I'd never been to Oz, never seen a koala, never touched a kangaroo, never seen cherry blossoms in August, but the best one was that I'd never met my nephew and I got to be there for his first birthday! And a very handsome little chap he is too:

We had a busy time whizzing around the sights of the area, taking in the beaches and mountains as well as the sights of the city. Yep, I could live there. I also had the chance to have lunch with the fabulous Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella - what a treat! We totally went for it on the cake front, take a look at Lorraine's blog to read of our gluttony:

http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/08/20/pasticceria-papa-haberfield-the-famous-ricotta-cheesecake/

(Apologies if I can't get this link to work, I'm still not very adept at this blogging stuff, but it's worth cutting and pasting to take a look as Lorraine has a far better way with words than I do, and she took some gorgeous photos of M, too!)

As well as treating me to lunch, she also gave me a super duper bag of Australian goodies to try... yuuuuuum!

I should point out that there were also 3 chocolate teddy bears in there for M, which M promptly ate on the spot (including a 70% dark one, that's my girl!), not that I minded as it kept her occupied and happy as we chatted!

The last day of our visit was nephew O's birthday party, Italian style! Lots of family and friends over, lots of food, lots of wine - perfect! I made his cake, the first one I've done in over a year so was a little nervous. Turned out well, although the cake itself was a little dry as sis and I were to busy chatting to remember that it was in the oven (didn't really matter as the wine had been flowing for a good number of hours before anyone tasted it!):

Hurrah for sisters and airmiles! Honestly, I came back a different person, a break from life here was just what the doctor ordered (indeed, the Lord truely does provide that which I really need)!

Daring Bakers Challenge August 2009 - Dobos Torta

2009-08-28T11:19:00.011+09:00

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodger's cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite desserts from the Classic Caffes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Phew, I did it! I admit I was a little scared when this challenge was first announced, but after reading through the recipe a few times I decided that it was perfectly doable and so not to chicken out. The result is just lovely. Well, mine doesn't look a patch as good as a lot of the other entries I've seen (take a look here: http://www.thedaringkitchen.com/), but it tastes absolutely divine. I just wish that that I'd timed making this with a special occasion, but hey, it's Friday and that's good enough! I'd promised something special for dessert tonight, but now I have to confess that the boys persuaded me to cut into it after lunch... hope there's still a piece left by the time K gets home.

I'm having a little trouble with blogger at the moment, it's not allowing me to paste the recipe for you but you can find it in The Daring Kitchen (it's eight pages long, so I hope you don't mind that I won't re-type it here!). As I was making this for the family, I went nut-free.

It's the butter cream that does it for me. I'd never made this type of butter cream before, but I think that it is the same type of butter cream that my mum used to use for her Gateau Diane, a creation that I would request of her every time my birthday came around!

Yeah, this was quite a challenge for me. As I said yesterday, my batter went a little flat from being left to stand. As a result, the layers were crepe thin and a little difficult to work with, and the final cake wasn't as deep as it should be (in spite of having 8 layers). I didn't encounter any problems with the top layer, which was the part I was most worried about - hurrah! A big thank you to our hosts this month for choosing such a fabulous cake for us all to make, and for the great lengths they went to to ensure that we would be able to pull it off! xxx

It's on it's way...

2009-08-27T21:07:00.003+09:00

OK, it's made, just not yet assembled! Ran into a few problems, mainly due to preparation. I was very prepared before I went away (more about that another day) as I knew I'd be pushed for time to meet the posting deadline, but I hadn't factored in the possibility of my MIL moving in during my absence. I happily started on the sponge mix bright and early this morning, only to find that the new bag of icing sugar I'd bought was nowhere to be found (I later discovered it 'tidied away' at the back of my plastic tub cupboard) so had to make do with half icing and half caster sugar, then when I came to prepare the layers for baking I was irritated beyond belief to find that the baking parchment bought specially for this project (and DH confirms that this was indeed prepared as I'd sent him out to buy it before I headed off into the blue yonder) had also vanished into thin air! So my lovely, creamy, light mixture sat in the fridge until this evening when I could dash out for more supplies, and by the time I came to use it had separated and need a thorough beating which knocked out a lot of the air. Oh well, I'm pleased to report that I did end up with a good number of layers, the butter cream is ready and waiting (I hope there's enough left, I kept raiding the fridge for a spoonful), and you will see the finished result tomorrow. I suppose I could finish it tonight, but then I'll have to try some and it's getting a bit late for that...

Yikes!

2009-08-27T15:22:00.003+09:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I am right in the middle of doing my Daring Baker's Challenge for August and am determined to post about it before the day is out! Somebody has been using my baking paper and finished the roll without telling me. Arghhhh! Please bear with me...

A cut above

2009-08-05T20:33:00.004+09:00

Sorry, didn't have my camera with me so you're just going to have to use your imagination for this one! I was beginning to look a bit like a shaggy dog in desperate need of a hair cut, but needed keep the purse strings tight this month in anticipation of next week's trip. Instead of heading for the luxurious, totally indulgent and relaxing salon, I chose to slum it at the cheap and cheerful 1000 yen (about £6.50) cut shop.

It's a no frills, no appointment necessary outfit, along the lines of Supercuts back home. Only of course this is Japan, so they've managed to squeeze in a bit more technology and they are super polite. I went in the evening so I could be child free, and I was the only customer so didn't have to wait at all. Bought my ticket at the vending machine and was ushered to a chair by a very nice lady who draped me with a gown and made me very comfortable. Not half as comfortable at the fancy shop on the 3rd floor, but I'm not complaining (I'll tell you about that another day). My bag is stashed away in a cupboard behind the mirror so that it doesn't get covered in hair. One of the things I really feel uncomfortable with when I visit a salon is having to stare at my own reflection, but here there is a TV screen showing the latest news updates, a great distraction, even if I can't actually read the majority of it! My stylist asked what I wanted (just a trim, wasn't about to risk anything too drastic) and set to work. Ten minutes later and she was done. Then came the highlight for me... she pulled out a long hose with a soft brush on the end from the side of the mirror and hoovered my head! What a fantastic idea! It got rid of all those prickly bits of hair that usually get stuck in your collar and down your back, far, far more effective than the quick brush off you get from a salon back home. And then finally, she presented me with a shibori (wet towel) to wipe my hands with before saying 'Otsukaresamadeshita' ('thank you for your hard work!') and bowed until I was out of sight. Hardly slumming it, eh?

Faba-roo-ny (yeah, I have a toddler)

2009-08-02T20:33:00.005+09:00

Had a very disappointing day today. Was feeling very sorry for myself until I walked into my kitchen and set to work on a special dinner. Earlier this week I was delighted to take delivery of a very exciting parcel from an AFWJ friend who's family have a business importing meat from Australia (www.roomeat.co.jp), and so a have had enormous pleasure browsing my cookery books for recipes that could be tweaked to suit kangaroo and ostrich meat!

I decided not to tell K what I'd be serving and just watch his reaction to the taste. People can get very judgemental and picky about a new food just from hearing it's name, before even taking a bite. What's cute and cuddly in one country is often a delicacy in another, but I can't be doing with this pick-and-choose attitude - flesh is meat, right? I should point out that I myself am a vegetarian (I don't eat any meat or fish, my personal choice and not one that I force on others), although I do prepare and cook meat and fish dishes for my family. (Oh, and I don't understand people who claim to be vegetarian and yet eat fish, or even chicken, that always seems somewhat hypocritical to me...)

Anyway, on to tonight's dinner! I decided to attempt my own version of a recipe I saw in Nigella Lawson's Feast (Sake Steak and Rice), I suppose I could call it Kangaroo Don but let me know if you can think of anything better!

Kangaroo Donburi (serves 2, but K ate the lot!)

2 good size pieces of Kangaroo long fillet
some thinly sliced spring onion
2 shiso leaves, chopped

Marinade:

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 crushed clove of garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon wasabi

Sauce:

60ml sake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon wasabi

As I was advised, start by soaking the fillets for a while to remove some of the blood before adding to the mixed marinade ingredients and leaving to steep for a good few hours. Take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to cook. Heat a frying pan (or a griddle if you have one) and cook the fillets for two minutes on each side. Double wrap each fillet in foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.
Put the sake in a small pan and bring it to the boil before adding the remaining ingredients. Open the foil parcels and pour the juices into the sauce. Slice the meat (it should be rare and cooked perfectly), place on top of steamed rice, pour over some of the sauce, and garnish with the onion and shiso - ready to go!

A quick look at the wikipedia entry for kangaroo meat should be enough to convince you to give this a try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat

So if you've read that, you now know that it is free-range, as organic as a wild animal can be, high in protein and anti-cancer and body fat reducing CLA, and very low in fat. But does it taste good? I can't tell you from my own experience, but as I said, K ate the whole lot, mumbling 'oishii, oishii' the whole time, so I can assure you that it gets the thumbs up in this house!

A huge thank you to Eric for the very generous package - friends, please do have a look at his website to see what they have to offer! And watch this space for more recipes, K is now very keen to sample ostrich...

Something sweet

2009-07-29T10:03:00.005+09:00

I realise I've been somewhat of a slacker on the recipe front lately. Not that I haven't been cooking, of course, it's just that everything seems to get eaten so quickly and I keep forgetting to have the camera on hand before I lay the plate on the table! I'm blaming the humidity, it seems to anaesthetise my brain cells...

Here's one I prepared earlier.

Girls, it's low fat!

Almond Sponge with Lemon Yogurt and Blueberries (serves 10, 200calories per slice)

4 large eggs
200g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g plain flour, sieved
50g ground almonds
500ml fat-free yogurt (ideally Greek, but I couldn't get any)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
zest of 1/2 a lemon
225g blueberries
15g toasted, flaked almonds (I forgot to use mine!)

Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla for about 10 minutes, until pale and moussey. Gently fold in the flour and almonds, taking care not to knock the air out of the mix. Pour into a prepared and lined 20cm tin and bake at 180c for about 30 minutes. Turn the tin upside down on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Beat together the yogurt, syrup and lemon zest. If you're using Greek yogurt it should be thicker and you can cut the cake in half and sandwich it together with some of the yogurt mixture (sprinkle some of the blueberries in the middle, too). If you're using normal yogurt, just spoon some over each slice as you serve it before topping with some berries.

Creating A Stir

Happy Christmas!

Christmas is coming...

Daring Bakers Challenge November 2011 - Filipino Desserts

October 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Povitica

September 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Croissants

Croissants

February 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

6.40am

January 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - Biscuit Joconde Imprime

Joconde Sponge

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

Video: MUST WATCH THIS. This is a very good demo of the joconde and filling the entremets:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca4eLDok-4Q

Happy New Year!

December 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Christmas Stollen

Merry Christmas to all!

Traumatised

Hungry?

Sew much fun

November 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge - Who ate all the pie?

Live action!

Wow!

Daring Bakers Challenge October 2010 - Going nuts

What happened to Popo-chan?

3!

And here, a year...

Daring Bakers Challenge August 2010 - Nutty and toasty meets cool and creamy

That's refreshing

Paaarteeee!

Sumer time...

Daring Bakers July Challenge: Part 2

July 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - SwissRoll Ice-Cream Cake

Little things

Mum's visit

June 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Pavlova with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

May 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Piece Montee

Daring Bakers Challenge April 2010: Traditional British Pudding

Deka Dora

Just popping in!

Introducing...

Sweet!

Happy Easter!

Still here

His 'n' hers

Daring Bakers Challenge February 2010 - Tiramisu

Nearly 40

One-sided Valentine

She's potty

License to kill

Daring Bakers Challenge January 2010 - Nanaimo Bars

Lightly poached

For your own good

Feet futons

Warm thoughts

Getting back on the horse

Daring Bakers' Challenge December 2009 - Home for the Holidays

Happy Christmas!

Daring Bakers Challenge October 2009 - French Macaroons

Kicking off

How roo'd

Let the games commence

Time flies, my little flutterby...

Random

Coming out of hiding

Daring Bakers Challenge August 2009 - Dobos Torta

It's on it's way...

Yikes!

A cut above

Faba-roo-ny (yeah, I have a toddler)

Something sweet

Video: MUST WATCH THIS. This is a very good demo of the joconde and filling the entremets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca4eLDok-4Q