Recipe: Matcha Swiss Roll with Salted Caramel Cream and Adzuki Bean

I'm not a huge Swiss Roll fan, in fact, I tend to find them slightly cheap. If you don't believe me on this, you should, for they are simply a commercial leavened sponge cake wrapped around what is usually a highly hydrogenated-fat filled oily cream. I make small exceptions for Japanese Swiss Rolls and that iced childhood favourite that no-one can not enjoy- Artic Rolls.

Swiss Rolls actually aren't that easy to make- genoise sponge is trickier than I think on most occasions. Hence, I've scanned the web to look for good genoise sponge recipes and have tried a whole bunch, I thought I would detail them here, to save you the time and effort of some duds. 

This recipe is quick to make and everyone who has had it, loves the subtle flavours of the tastes and that it is not very sweet at all. The slightly thick, bean-y, musky adzuki cuts through the sweetness, as does the sharp, jasmined bitterness of the green tea. I often find myself as the touchstone for geriatric desserts (I attribute this to my baking quite often for my parent's friends and their biggest compliment is, "it's very good, not too sweet)- this is a sure win both for the non-sweetness and the nuanced yet very Asian combination of flavours. 

I always have a tin of adzuki beans and salted caramel in my fridge, because I use both in macarons, but if you do not, I've included a simple and effective recipe (from Chef Pang of Canele and Antoinette fame, by way of Chubby Hubby) here below.

Caramel Fleur De Sel

200g sugar

1 vanilla pod
200g cream
7g fleur de sel
140g butter, chilled

In a 1 litre heavy based pot, cook the sugar, stirring all the time to get an even caramel. Then add in the vanilla pod, scraped. Add in the warm cream a bit at a time as it will bubble up and splatter. Then add in the fleur de sel. Stir to make sure all the caramel has dissolved. Cool the mixture to approximately 40 degrees Celsius. Add in the well chilled butter, cut into cubes. Using an immersion blender, blend in the butter till you achieve a smooth glossy paste. Line the surface of the caramel with plastic wrap or greaseproof paper to prevent a skin from forming and chill in the fridge until needed.

This recipe makes a large quantity of salted caramel- I actually don't add the butter that is used here, because I use the caramel in buttercream, which already has butter added to it. Cool the caramel in a tupperware and store it in the fridge for later use. This is good in buttercream, whipped cream, over berries or ice cream. 

Sponge recipes are an odd thing, you would think that they are really homogenous but actually, they are not. Most of them toggle between proportions of 4 egg whites and yolks, 75g cake flour and 25g corn flour, 75g sugar. Some have baking powder while others rely only on the egg white for leavening. Some utilize melted butter (most do) and some incorporate cooking oil. Some require you to beat the egg yolks over a hot water bath and some have you merely beat them with sugar, using a wooden spoon (this tends to produce a stiffer, heavier batter). Most importantly, I find that the recipes tend to understate the amount of powdered green tea to use- most say 5g, but you should use at least two healthy tablespoons for a more pronounced, grassy taste. 

I've tried Chocolate and Zucchini's recipe, both yield a sponge that is too dense. If you like a stronger contrast between a dense sponge and the light cream, then you should use those. I'm slowly working through several versions of genoise recipes and the latest one, which produces a loose sponge is the following from Nasi Lemak Lover here. I've been slowly trying and upgrading the recipe I use, but I can only eat my way through so many!

Ingredients:
26g unsalted butter, melted
84g egg yolk (5 medium egg yolks)
26g caster sugar
10g green tea powder
126g egg white (4 medium egg whites)
80g caster sugar
47g cake flour, sifted

Method: 
1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar over a pot of hot water till thicken and pale in color.
2. Add green tea powder into egg yolk mixture, stir well and set aside.
3. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until foamy, gradually add in sugar and beat till glossy and soft peaks form.
4. Take one-third of egg whites mixture to mix with the egg yolk mixture using a hand whisk. Then fold in the remaining egg white using a spatula until well combined.
5. Gently fold the sifted flour (in 3 batches) into the batter. Take some batter and add into melted butter to incorporate and add back to the remaining batter and mix well.

The most important part of genoise is the beating of the egg whites (same as chiffon cake)- you want truly stiff and firm pearly white meringue, not the sort of translucent egg whites where the bubbles start popping as you mix the batter- that sort won't give a good body or height to the sponge. It's also important that you mix in just a third of the egg white meringue into the egg yolk and flour, to give it some thickness- then add the rest of the egg white. Don't mix until every spot of egg white has disappeared, it's not quite possible and it's fine to have some remaining pieces of egg white. 

Spread the batter thinly over 2 papered sponge roll pans and bake at 180C for 8 minutes. If you don't have jelly pans, you can use cookie sheets, or any shallow flat tray that has shallow edges. Take care not to bake it until there are browned edges- swiss rolls don't have crispy surfaces. When the sponge is baked, lift off the paper and while it is still warm, roll the sponge up tightly with the parchment paper. This helps to form the shape and pliability for the swiss roll- if you try to roll it only after cooled, the roll will tend to crack. Hold the rolled-up shape in position for awhile, then release it to cool, opened. I tend to like my sponge fairly thin and I use one recipe to two jelly trays, spreading it fairly thin. If you like a thicker sponge, then you should just make one pan. 

When the sponge is completely cool, beat whipping cream with powdered sugar and a tablespoon of salted caramel. I use about 3/4 cup of cream with 1/6th a cup of powdered sugar. To get the best results and quickest whip for the cream, chill both the cream and the metal bowl in the fridge, in fact, I leave the metal bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes. I've tried stabilizing the whipping cream by adding melted and cooled gelatin- this method is suggested for strawberry short cake. For some reason (and let me know if you've had different experiences), the addition of the gelatin doesn't help my cream to set, in fact, it tends to have the effect of causing the cream to break somewhat. Without it and if you stop in time, rather than over-beating your cream, you'll get lovely, velveteen, tan brown swirls flecked with vanilla beans. 

I also find it slightly too tedious (the extra step of fiddling with, melting and re-heating the gelatin) and it imparts a thicker texture to the cream that isn't really necessary, it's actually nicer when left delicate, lighter-than-air and with just the flavour from the salted caramel to tint it. It sets off the thicker sponge and adzuki better that way. It's for the same reason that you should never use buttercream for sponge rolls. Cream cheese or marscapone is also pretty disgusting. (If you do make a denser cream though, you must definitely make the lighter sponge). 

Unrolling your sponge roll, fill the edge (you can choose whether you want to roll on the short side or long side) with adzuki bean and then spread the salted caramel cream in an even and thin layer over the rest of the sponge sheet. Re-roll, keeping the roll nice and tight around the intervening layers of cream, wrap the wrong in cling wrap and refrigerate it in the fridge for a day. If you have less time, you can place it in the freezer for 15 min blasts to help the cream to set. I would also advise placing it in the freezer for 15 min directly before slicing and plating the rolls. 

When plating, sieve a small teaspoon of icing sugar over the rolls and use a very sharp knife to slice the rolls evenly. Each roll should be about 1cm in width and if you've done it right, the adzuki bean will be nestled right in the center. They are an easy, sophisticated, cold dessert to serve and can be made way ahead of your dinner party. Enjoy!

Recipe: Chinese New Year Hae Bee Hiam Cookies

These cookies are addictive, spicy little packets of goodness and the most important ingredient, is of course, Hae Bee Hiam. I was lucky to be given a bottle of home-made dried prawns, ground and fried with sambal chilli, but you can either buy it (at Toast Box in Singapore, I'm told) or else make your own with the recipes  here and here.

This recipe comes from my own baking guru, who formulates and tests recipes until they just fit. This is a really easy one, essentially a sable butter cookie with the hae bee hiam added in right at the end. 

Ingredients:

1 pound butter (453.59grams)

1 1/3 cups sugar

4 2/3 cups plain flour

3 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

15 Tbsps hae bee hiam

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together till pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and then the vanilla. 

2. Mix in the plain flour and the hae bee hiam

3. Bake at 160 C for 20 minutes

4. Cool and store in an air-tight container. These cookies are best eaten warm!

To all our faithful, wonderful readers, we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year. May the Year of the Snake bring you all your heart's desires, good health and many successes. Dong dong dong chiang! Dong dong dong chiang!

Recipe: Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts, The Best Recipe Ever!

By far my favourite thing to do for Chinese New Year is to bake pineapple tarts. The reason I like this is just because home-made tarts are the best. Also, to stamp out the tarts kind of neccesitates sitting around the kitchen table for a fair period of time, which is great for bonding.

The recipe for this is very simple and very, very good. You have to make the pastry dough first because it has to chill overnight (I've given the dough recipe in the previous post). This recipe is courtesy of my Peranakan aunts, who make flawless home-made New Year goodies and this recipe really does receive lots of compliments. Or maybe home-made pineapple jam is just one of those modern day luxuries.


Each year, I use about 8-9 pineapples and the secret to this jam is to chop the pineapples up by hand. If you blend it into a food processor, you will cut all the fibres and the jam will have less flavour and no body. That's why store-bought jam disintegrates in your mouth and never gives the luscious mouth-feel of a home-made or artisanal jam.


Pineapple Jam
6 pineapples
Sugar
Cinnamon
Cloves



The jam is an easy if tedious recipe. Get your fruit seller to slice the skins off the pineapple and choose dark yellow, sweet pineapples with a good nuanced flavour. It doesn't really matter how many pineapples you use, as the jam recipe is scalable. The recipe calls for 6 but I use 8 or 9 because I don't like to have remainder dough afterward. Now, although I said to hand-chop all the pineapples, you can blend up to a third and chop up the rest, it will have the same effect. Mash up the remnants and chase all the juice and the pinapple from your chopping board into a pot. You should get something similar to what is pictured in the photo above, loose smashed pineapple.

Use about half the amount of sugar to pineapple (measure with the same bowls you used for the pineapple). I generally put Less than half and that works out for slightly not-so-sweet tarts. Throw in the cinnamon and cloves, about 4 or 5 cinnamon sticks in each pot and a handful of cloves in each. I like to use more spices-pineapple tarts are usually so sweet, I like to make mine a little less sweet and with a complex and deep fragrance and flavour.

Boil on high heat till all the pineapple jam warms through and then lower to a simmer for a couple of hours. You will know when the jam is done, because it changes colour slightly as the sugar caramelizes, the jam turns from a light or medium yellow to an almost orangey colour. Also, it becomes thicker and the juice starts to evapourate and the cinnamon sticks unfurl. You can cool and refrigerate the jam overnight, or else just wait for it to cool sufficiently.



This is what the jam will look like after being cooked for over 3 hours, a beautiful caramelized amber, dry, slightly stringy, thick and packed full of deep fruity goodness. When making the jam, be careful that the sugar has not all sunk to the bottom of the bowl and started to burn. You need to stir it throughly for the first half hour to distribute the heat. If the bottom of your jam Has burned, do not stir the burnt bits through- remove the jam to a clean pot, leaving the burnt pieces at the bottom of the first pot and begin the heating process again, in the new pot.


To assemble, just take your cookie stampers and stamp out the tarts and line them up on a silpat, or a parchment paper-covered tray. Some people like thicker tarts and some like thinner ones. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you can dictate exactly what sort of tarts you get! Then roll large and generous balls of jam and sit them in the center of the tarts, flattening the tops slightly. Remove the cloves from the jam when you come across them and decorate the tops of the tarts if you like with some spare dough strips or cloves. This is the part of the process that is very repetitive and which you can do without thinking; perfect for chatting across the dining room table.


Brush the pastry with egg yolk and bake in the over for 20 min at 140C. Don't overbake them as the dough will get dry. If you need to, you can lower the temperature and move the tray up toward the fan to dry out the jam. These are heavenly when warm and just out of the oven! I brought a freshly-baked tray out to dinner and it's amazing how quickly them little fingers move to grab the tarts!


You can also cool them, stack them and store them in prefably air-tight containers between greaseproof paper as they dent more easily then the harder store-bought tarts.

Recipe: Chinese New Year Pineapple Tart Dough

It only begins to feel like a Chinese New Year, when I start the process of making pineapple tarts. Even though it's tedious, there's something cathartic about it, like the slow shedding of a year into the next, with the stamping of each tart. I always try to involve friends in this process, not just because it helps with the workload (hehe) but because it's such a good way to sit and talk for awhile. I find that I have to find new pineapple victims every year though because most of my friends have wised up to my schemes.

This year, I was privledged to have M. and S. come by to help with the stamping and filling of tarts. I had already made the jam, as described in previous posts here and here and S. asked for the recipe for the light and crusty dough, so here it is, in pictures. There are subtle differences between this recipe and the previous ones linked for pineapple tart dough, that's becuase over the years I've refined my proportions somewhat.


Step 1: Chop up 2 1/4 blocks of cold unsalted butter (250grams each) and add it to 1kg of sifted plain all-purpose flour. I try to use a European butter like President, Lurpak or Elle et Vivre, given how much butter goes in! For the flour, I use a regular Prima flour, I have used some premium brands before but don't really find that it makes that much difference. Add a pinch of salt.


Step 2: Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. If you start with small pieces of butter, or even grated butter, this will be a much easier process but I'm usually too lazy. Your butter should be cold though, to make it easier to slice up and to prevent the dough from melting into a soft lump.


Step 3: Add 4 egg yolks and 1 egg white, beaten together lightly, 1 1/2 Tablespoons of ice-cold water and the juice of 3 limes. I like to freeze a shallow bowl of water before I begin making the dough, then remove it to thaw after I've rubbed in the dough. This ensures that the water is really ice cold.


Step 4: Mix well into the batter. This is also where, if you like, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence or vanilla seeds for the taste.


Step 5: Try to knead the dough as little as possible, stop as soon as it all adheres together, to prevent a tougher texture.


Step 6: Divide the balls of dough into 4-5 seperate pieces.


Step 7: Flatten the dough within clingwrap. This makes it easier to store, to freeze (the dough can be frozen for 3 months and if you are intending to keep it raw for more than 3 days in the fridge, you should freeze it) and then to roll out (still within clingwrap) then stamp, neatly.

Recipe: Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies

We have a few recipes to share for Chinese New Year, a really busy and communal time of year for us in Singapore and around parts of Asia. There are many traditional cakes and cookies that are served over the festive period and I've noticed, many that incorporate nuts like peanuts, almonds, walnuts and sesame. 

This recipe is a really simple one and easy to put together, you can also replace the peanut with ground walnuts to make "hap tou sou" or walnut cookies. It was also easy to shape, perfect to do with kids and they look really pretty! 

Peanut Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

1) 4 cups ground roasted peanuts
2) 1 cup icing sugar
3) 1 cup peanut oil
4) 2 cups all-purpose flour
5) 2 tablespoons of shortening (or replace with 28.35grams of butter)
6) 1 egg yolk (for egg wash)

Method:

Mix the ground peanut, sugar, oil, butter and flour together till well combined. I used my mixer but this recipe can also be done by hand. Shape into small balls and then press flat, using a fork or the palm of your hand. You could also add a circle pattern on top by pressing in with a toothpaste cap or the larger round opening of a piping tip. Brush on the egg yolk glaze and bake for 20 minutes (or until brown) at 350 F or 180 C. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before placing in Chinese New Year jars.

Recipe: Squidgy Chocolate Roll

I had first researched this recipe for Christmas last year and now am posting it in time so that you can make it part of your Christmas feasting this year. This is a heavenly chocolate mousse and cream-filled flourless chocolate cake from English doyen Delia Smith, and it should be made slightly (as the name implies) soft, loose and sweet. During the rolling up, the cake may crack, but this is quite normal and looks most attractive.

Ingredients:

Cake:

6 large eggs, separated

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa powder, sifted

Filling:

225g dark chocolate (use a good quality chocolate, as you will be eating it)

2 Tbsp hot water

2 large eggs, separated

250ml double cream, softly whipped

Method:

1. Begin by making the chocolate mousse. Break the chocolate in pieces and melt over a bain marie of boiling water with 2 Tbsp hot water (You can also melt this in the microwave). Remove from the heat and beat it with a wooden spoon until smooth. Next beat the egg yolks, first on their own, then into the warm chocolate mixture. Whisk the egg whites till stiff and fold them into the cooled chocolate mixture. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.

2. For the cake, whisk egg yolks then add the caster sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens slightly – but be careful not to get it too thick. Sift the cocoa powder into the egg yolk mixture and whisk them together, then, using a clean whisk and bowl, whisk the egg whites to the soft peak stage. Next carefully cut and fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture – gently and thoroughly – then pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

3. Bake the cake on the centre shelf for 20-25 minutes until springy and puffy. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven but leave it in the cake tin to cool (it will shrink quite a bit as it cools but don't worry, that's normal).

4. When the cake is cooled, turn it out on to an oblong of baking parchment which has been liberally dusted with icing sugar. Peel away the cake tin lining paper from the bottom of the cake (which is now facing upwards), then spread the chocolate mousse filling over the cake.

5. Whip the cream softly and spread it over the chocolate filling. With the long end nearest you, roll the cake away from you, using the parchment to help you to make a log shape. As an alternative, an 11 oz tin of sweetened chestnut purée (crème de marrons) can replace the chocolate mousse.

When I make this roulade, I roll it on the long side as I prefer a longer, thinner roll, you can also roll it on the short side, which will give you far more filling than cake. You can also sift patterns on the top of the roll, like a holly sprig or stars.

Recipe: Delicious Pear Cake

I am a huge fan of the pear cake in Amarone by Osvaldo. Crispy and with a great crumb on the outside, the cake contains smooth layers of cooked pear, bits of caramel and soft custard (I later realized that this soft custard was probably slightly moist batter) on the inside. It was easy to eat and totally delicious. I had been on a kick for awhile to 'discover' this pear recipe and I tried several online versions until I felt I'd cracked it.

The management at Amarone said that they only make this cake when a certain kind of pear is in season. I'm not too sure about that, since the cake is more in season than European pears and also, there aren't any Italian pears to be had in Singapore, but just to be on the safe side, I have generally made this cake with Rochas pears, which are from Portugal. I have only found these pears in Singapore of late, as one of the newer food products to come out of Portugal. I have never tried them with Packham pears, but those would be my next choice. The cake itself is super easy to make (essentially a butter cake with half almonds added in) and the only additional step is that you have to flambé the pears first.

Ingredients:

300 grams butter

250 grams white sugar

150 grams self-raising flour

150 grams ground almonds

5 eggs

3 or 4 pears

An additional 15 grams butter, 1 tbsp white sugar and 100 ml brandy for cooking pears

Method:

1. You can bake a tall 9 inch round cake with this recipe or 2 regular (2.5 inch height) 6 inch round cakes. Butter and line the tins.

2. Pear, core and quarter the pears and gently sauté them in a frying pan with 15 grams butter, a tablespoon of white sugar and 100ml brandy till tender. You can slice each quarter in half length-wise if you prefer. I like to use a non-stick frying pan to make for ease of clean-up.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, this will take at least 15 minutes. The aeration of the creaming process make a big difference to this cake, given the higher proportion of butter, so do not stop beating till it is light in colour and texture.

4. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time, then the flour and almonds.

5. Scrape your cake batter into the lined tin and place the pears on top in a circular pattern. These pears will sink down through the cake, ending up (hopefully) midway between the top and bottom surface of the cake. Pour the syrup from the pan on to the top of the cake either before or halfway through baking.

6. Bake at 160 C for 70 minutes until the top is browned and the skewer comes out almost clean. Don’t be concerned if the skin of the cake browns, I quite like it browner than usual, to give a bit of caramelization to the cake. The aroma sits very well with the crumb of the cake and use of brandy.

7. Eat warm by itself or with some yoghurt.

Recipe: Old-fashioned Cherry Pie

Here we are at the height of Olympic fever and I felt like eating something super-all-american, like Cherry Pie. You know, with a proper lattice and everything, maybe even a Sour Cherry Pie. The prunus avium is the sweet, black cherry, while the prunus cerasus is the sour cherry, which is shaken off its stem early and immediately plunged into water. The sour cherry is less sweet, firmer and is one of the superfoods, that is, aboriginal science has it that they have medicinal properties to cure tummy aches, sore throats, relieve pain and you know, improve your golf handicap.

I digress, I had just picked up a cherry pie from an eatery and it was good (with apple pieces and a sugared crust) but not sublime, so I perused some 20 recipes to come up with something better, and again, it makes you wonder how much time you would have spent on sub-par recipes if the internet didn’t exist.

One of my largest concerns was that the filing would be too wet (this tends to happen with even berry pies), as such, I felt that ideally, the recipe would involve cooking the cherries first, to extract and thicken the liquid, instead of having this process happen in the oven, which would wet the dough. However, very few recipes, as you can see from below, actually called for cooking the cherries.

Smitten Kitchen: Stir together the 4 cups/2.5 pounds unpitted cherries, 4 tbsp cornstarch, 2/3 – ¾ cup sugar, 1/8th tsp salt, half a lemon and ¼ tsp almond extract gently together in a large bowl. Spoon filling into pie crust, discarding the majority of the liquid that has pooled in the bowl. Dot the filling with the 1 tbsp bits of cold butter. Bake for 25 min at 400F, then reduce temperature to 350F and bake for 25-30min more.

Epicurious: Stir together 5 cups/2 pounds unpitted cherries, 3 tbsp cornstarch, 1 cup sugar, ¼ tsp salt, 3 tsp lemon juice, ½ tsp vanilla essence, 2 tbsp unsalted butter cute into ½ inch cubes. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375F and bake for 1 hour longer.

Baking = Love: Stir together 4x425g cans of pitted cherries, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tbsp tapioca starch, zest of 1 lemon, ½ lemon juice, ½ tsp almond extract and let sit for 15 minutes. Dot with 20grams of butter in small pieces. Bake at 200oC for 25 minutes, then reduce the oven to 180oC and bake for another 25-30 minutes till golden.

There really wasn't a whole lot of difference between the recipes. The Epicurious recipe will have more liquid from the cherries but then it’s baked somewhat longer. I was most inclined to go with Baking = Love because of her lovely photos, which were posted on the day of my cherry pie craving (what a coincidence, she was watching the Olympics too!)- hers seemed to have the kind of thicker texture that I was after and was a combination of Smitten Kitchen and The Pioneer Woman’s recipes- not hugely different except that the filling sat for 15 minutes which might help to leach out some moisture.

The second concern that I had was that the filling would not be dark almost blackish red that I was after, as some of the blog pictures showed a more vicious or slightly pale filling. I suspect this has to do with the thickening agent used ie. whether it was cornstarch or tapioca flour (as it turned out, it was more about the kind of cherries used).

The remaining recipes all suggested cooking the filling, which appealed to me and Colleen’s Best Pie recipe suggested cooking the liquid before adding the cherries, that and the large amount of cornstarch might have contributed to her somewhat paler filling.

Colleen’s Best Pie recipe: 2 14oz cans of pie cherries, 1.5 cups sugar, 4 tbsp+2 tsp cornstarch, pinch of salt, 1.2 tsp almond extract, 2 tsp butter. Cook one cup of drained cherry liquid in a heavy saucepan with corn starch, salt and half of the sugar, boil until thickened. Stir in the butter, almond extract and the other half of sugar, then gently fold in drained cherries. Bake 45 min at 375F.

Miz Helen’s Kitchen: 4 cups tart cherries, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp allspice, 4 tbsp cornstach, 1 tsp vanilla extract. Heat cherries over medium heat till they lose quite a bit of juice, add sugar and seasonings, mix well. Bring to boil and add cornstarch mixed with ¼ cup water. Bake at 375F for 15 min and then 350F for 45 min.

When it comes to crust, I usually use Dorie Greenspan’s All Purpose Crust Dough or Miette’s shortcrust pie dough, so I wasn’t overly concerned. An additional plus is that Greenspan’s pie dough uses ground almonds or hazlenuts, which would allow me to skip the almond essence in the filling itself. The variables in pie dough are usually a combination of a few factors, the use of shortening, the use of cold water and acid like lime juice or vinegar, the mixing process, the resting time and the baking time.

Most of the pie dough recipes will advocate the use of shortening, which I know, I know makes crispier pies but I cannot bring myself to put these hydrogenated, literally, plasticated fats into my food! I use shortening to prevent fondant from sticking to my hands and to moisturize, it smells awful and is truly elastic in nature. I just can’t fathom using it, no matter how superior the taste of the crust. As such, I had to experiment with several different crust recipes, replacing the shortening with butter. Also, and coming back to my first concern, very few of the recipes called for a blind baking of the bottom crust, which I suspected would help with the wetness of the bottem filling layer.

Baking = Love: 360g vegetable shortening, 475g plain flour, 1 large egg lightly beaten, 5 tbsp ice cold water, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1 tsp salt, pulse in food processor and chill in freezer for 15-25 min.

Coleen’s Best Pie: This is essentially a rubbing-in mixture which Coleen claims can be baked without resting. Mix 1 ¾ cups shortening with 4 cups all-purpose flour, mix 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla and ½ cup ice cold water together, until well mixed, then add it to the flour mixture.

In the end, I made one portion of Baking = Love's crust recipe (including the vinegar) and one portion of Dorie Greenspan's All Purpose Pie Crust recipe. I replaced an equal measure of flour with 50 grams of ground pistachios and 30 grams of ground almonds. It may have been the nuts or our humid climate but both doughs were incredibly soft. I added an extra 3/4 cup of flour to the Baking = Love recipe and left the Dorie Greenspan dough alone but in the end, I wound up rolling both the portions together and using the combination to line both pies, which I did bake blind.

In retrospect, first, I didn't need to worry about the soft dough but it should bake directly from the fridge, to the oven. Also, it is typical for the dough to melt in the oven and then reform in a buttery crusty pie dough. If you are uncomfortable with such a soft dough, you can add flour as I did but it does toughen the dough. For me, this was not a problem, I liked that the dough could hold it's shape a bit better and add some crunch to the pie. When you bake your pie lattice, remember to brush it with egg yolk and dust it with granulated sugar for that finished touch!

The last problem, as pertains to Singapore, is where to get sour cherries and whether to use all sour cherries, or some sweet and some sour. Unfortunately, unlike in the US you can’t get fresh sour cherries. You can get them at Phoon Huat for $10/kg, however, if you have issues with the quality of Phoon Huat’s fruit, you can get them at the German Marketplace along Bukit Timah or Tierney’s at Serene Center. You can also buy them for $18/1kg at Delicia’s online gourmet delivery, the only issue is that these are small red sour cherries, which to be honest, don’t look like the ones I saw in the blogs.

In the end, I used a mixture of half black, fresh, sweet cherries (be careful when you de-pit or halve them if you are uncertain, I found three cherry pits in my pie despite my best attempts) and half frozen sour red morello cherries. I strained out the juice from the frozen cherries and cooked that with the fresh cherries. I then added 1 cup sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 4 tbsp cornstach, 1 tsp vanilla extract and stirred till thickened, then adding the rest of the cherries (as per Miz Helen's recipe). I found that this combination produced a pie that had a slightly sour but still mostly sweet and it also simmered into a thick black, rather than red, filling, as I was after. This pie is best eaten warmed and with vanilla ice cream- easy as pie!

Recipe: Chocolate Babka

I don't really remember how the obsession with Dean and Deluca's Chocolate Babka grew. I don't even remember who it was who first introduced me to the slab of light but chewy chocolate bread, or who made me take my first bite; I only have a hazy memory of carrying a thin plastic bag around New York and slowly but surely infecting each one of my university mates with an odd love for this loaf. In our household, we even came up with a formula for how much to dampen it and how long to nuke it in the microwave for, to achieve maximum softness and chocolate richness. I once had a friend from Cornell mail me loaves of babka bread. Always chocolate, never cinammon.


Now I can finally recreate the taste sensation, with an even better version, I think, then Dean and Deluca's. Babka is a cross between challah and pain au chocolat, a Jewish holiday bread made luscious with butter and chocolate. Although the recipe takes a while to complete, the risen airy lightness of the crust and the sweet, slightly alcoholic crumb of the bread, is entirely worth it . I was taught this recipe in a New York winter by my dear friend M, who shares the most soulful food, reviews and photography at her site, melissamansur.com here.



Be aware that you need time to execute this recipe. You have to rest the dough for two hours between making and rolling it into the babka. You then need another two hours let the bread proof within the baking tins. So the earliest you can eat babka from the time you start is at least four and a half, more like five and a half hours.

M. traditionally uses 60% Schaffen-Berger chocolate in this recipe so I have stuck to that, but I have also used 70% Arugani Valronha chocolate. I've got the best results from chopping the chocolate very fine (you otherwise get lumps of unmelted chocolate) and sprinkling a little sugar onto the chocolate, as the recipe calls for. I use a egg yolk and whipping cream wash for the surface of the bread as I find milk too liquid, it leave a dark stain rather than a glossy shine. In Singapore, there are two kinds of dry yeast that are easily available in stores, the first is Fleichmann's Dry Active Yeast (in yellow packagin) and the other is a European bread yeast. I use the former as I find the latter gives a very strong, sour yeast flavour. The recipe leaves you with excess egg whites, so use them for macarons or to make a frittata afterward!


Chocolate Babka (Source: Gourmet | December 2006)

For dough:
3/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
2 whole large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

For egg wash:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

For chocolate filling
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened
8 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar



Make dough:

1) Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)
2) Add 1/2 cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Increase speed to medium, then beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to beat until dough is shiny and forms strands from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.)
3) Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.


Assemble babkas with filling:

4) Line two 8inch x 2.5 inch loaf pans with 2 pieces of parchment paper each (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise).
5) Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well-floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.
6) Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long border nearest you.
7) Sprinkle half of chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of lined loaf pans.
8) Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash, covered, to use later. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let babkas rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in pans in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours; bring to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours, before baking.)
9) Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
10) Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.


Cooks’ note:
Babkas keep, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil, frozen 3 weeks.
Yield: Makes 2 loaves
Active Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 6 1/2 hr

Recipe: Flour's Famous Banana Bread

I am a big fan of banana bread; banana cake as well but not so much as a thick, sweet, chewy banana bread. I am such a big fan that I swear one of the reasons I miss travelling to Australia is they were such great purveyors of banana bread. It was almost like a national dessert,(I know, I know, pavlova, melting moments and baklava and all these other adopted things are considered the national desserts but the truly Australian one must be banana bread).

I'm somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to banana bread, it has to have the right texture, more dense and sticky than cake, but sweeter and more cake-like than bread. I've tried all kinds of recipes and some disappointingly turned out more like cake and served better in wedges than slices. I've tried recipes with oil and with butter, with sour cream and with buttermilk (I've tried some without either but those tend to produce a very flat tasting cake-like texture), with walnuts, chocolates, cinnamon and nutmeg.

I can now truly say that I think I've found the best and my favourite banana bread recipe. Trust me, that's no small praise. Strangely, the providence of this recipe is nowhere near Australia, it comes from Chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery in Boston. Even more oddly, despite having quite a bit of time in Boston, I'd never heard of this bakery and was introduced to it's cookbook by a friend in Singapore who'd bought it at the Kinokuniya sale.

When I tasted the bread, I was delighted by it's rich texture and flavour. It had just the right mix of sourness and sweetness, cinnamon and nuttiness from the walnuts. It was also easy and quick to make and held it's shape well when baked, sliced and even frozen. I've since made the cake thrice and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly.

There were two very similar versions of the recipe, one from the cookbook and one via Food Network, so I used the cookbook recipe as a default. Here is the recipe, transposed with metric weights for convenience. The recipe doubles and triples easily, if you want to bake a sheet cake. I made one for my mum's qigong group which she served while warm, I was sure there would be leftovers from a 14x14 inch cake but it was all gone!

Flour's Famous Banana Bread

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups/ 210g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup plus 2 tbsps/ 230g castor sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup/360 grams or roughly 5 over-ripe bananas, half mashed and half sliced
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup/75 grams walnuts, toasted and chopped

Method
1. Set the oven temperature to 350 degrees or 170 degrees C.
2. Line the bottom and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf pan, or a 6x6 inch square pan with parchment paper.
3. Sift together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt
4. Beat the sugar and eggs with the whisk attachment on an egg beater until light and fluffy. Make sure the mixture is light in colour and truly thick and fluffy; it should take at least 15 minutes.
5. Drizzle in the oil; add it in a small steady stream so that it is gradually absorbed, do not add it all at once
6. Add mash bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
7. Fold in the dry ingredients and walnuts. For a better texture, try to fold in the flour rather than mixing it into the egg beater. If using the egg beater, do not overmix as the flour will work into a stiff gluten, which undermines the softness of the bread.
8. Pour into the lined tin, smooth the top and bake for about 1 hour. Check after 45 minutes. I find that it usually takes an hour for my oven, up to 1.5 hours if I double the recipe.
10. Keep warm at 100 C before serving.

Recipe: Orh-nee Cheesecake

I first heard of this recipe from a friend, whose sister had copied it from the Straits Times. They were a Teochew family and as many do, they were big fans of 'Orh-nee' or steamed yam.

She was so proud of their home baking that she insisted I try some, which I did, hesistantly. One of my perculiar food dislikes is what I call mushed-bean textures. This means that a lot of Mexican foods and more inconveniently, a lot of Chinese desserts are off-limits for me. The list is quite wide, from refried black beans, to red bean, green bean, yellow bean, mung bean, 'ling yong' or yam soups or desserts. It isn't the taste that I don't like, but the mouthfeel of the starchy, pastey texture. (I love, for example, Indian yellow dhal).


I'll tell you a secret. When I was young (for this food dislike has been a long time in the making), at the birthdays of my grandparents, I would take the birthday buns- traditionally steamed 'ling yong' or lotus seed buns encased in sweet white dough and dyed a soft pink hue to resemble peaches, a Chinese symbol for long life and, lifting the long Chinese restaurant tablecloths, surreptitiously and gently lob it under the table. I've always thought about the little pile of buns that must have built up over the years.

Having had the good fortune to have been born Cantonese, where traditional desserts tend to be clear, thin, smooth and syrupy, this was generally not a problem. Nowadays, having married a Hokkien man, the deception has become harder. His family is incapable of appreciating that anyone can systematically reject all their traditional desserts and the concept of mouthfeel hardly seems a necessary or adequate explanation. I don't think they've noticed, for example, that I never eat mooncakes.


I've of course, never been a fan of yam, or taro, as they call it in the US and my idea of taro extends to about as extensively as pearl milk tea. But this orh-nee cheesecake (orh-nee is steamed yam, mixed with cream, oil and coconut milk and blended and steamed into a smooth but thick pudding) was actually not strong and it wasn't oily either. It wasn't delicate, but then, cheesecake generally isn't and it was flavourful. I dug up the recipe which was featured by Rebecca Lynne Tan (her sister was a friend of mine) and realized it was from a fellow blogger. You can find the recipe on her lovely site here.


My chance finally came this past weekend, my godfather, who is Teochew and loves orh-nee, was coming to dinner and I had leftover cream cheese and sour cream in the fridge. I bought three lovely Thai yams from the market (this recipe just needs two yams but I didn't know that) and was completely seduced by their gorgeous purple colour, if yam tasted the way it looks, I would totally be a convert! A tip to the wise; only the head of the yam steams into a beautiful, deep purple softness, the butt of the yam is where you get the striated pattern and dry hardness, like taro chips.

The most tedious part was probably peeling the yams, the recipe itself was a cinch and I particularly liked that you don't have to use a water bath in this recipe. I tweaked a little bit of the recipe but not intentionally, I used less butter in the crust, omitted the purple colouring and I only belatedly realized that I had halved the amount of cream cheese. If I were to do it again, I would whip the egg white first, then fold it into the yam to lighten and fluff up the texture. I would also peel and cut the yams before instead of after steaming and steam them wrapped with a few knots of pandan leaves to highlight the fragrance. There were fourteen for dinner and this dessert intrigued everyone, even those who like me, weren't a fan of yam. It was particularly popular with the older folk who liked that it wasn't sweet and it had a lovely baked, savoury-sweet aroma.



Orh-Nee Cheesecake

Ingredients
Cheesecake Base:
160g Oreo cookies (1 1/2 tubes of Oreos if you remove the cream)
50g butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling:
1 3/4 cup yam (about 2 medium yams, steamed for 30 minutes, then peeled)
1 8 ounce pack of Philadelphia cream cheese
120g castor sugar
3 Tbs corn flour, sifted
2 1/2 eggs
150ml whipping cream
1/2 tsp sea salt

Topping:
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbps sugar
3 Tbs coconut cream (Kara brand)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150C
2. Steam the yams for at least 30 minutes until soft.
3. Process the Oreos till fine, mix with the melted butter and press neatly into the base of a 9inch springform baking tin. You can also use a square tin and cut the cheesecake into slices.
4. Freeze the pan for at least 30 minutes until the base is set.
5. Puree the yam in a food processor until smooth
6. Beat the cream cheese and sugar till it is smooth and creamy, using an eggbeater. Add the eggs one at a time and add the corn flour. Beat until smooth. (This is where I would have whipped the egg whites separately and folded them into the mixture).
7. Fold in the whipping cream and add the salt. I used the processer to mix all the ingredients together, as it was just faster and more convenient. Unless you are going to beat the egg whites or whipping cream separately, it doesn't really make a difference if you process all the ingredients into a smooth batter.)
8. Pour the batter into the base and bake for 60 minutes.
9. The edge of the cheesecake should be set and the centre may still be a bit wobbly. Bake on a lower rack if the top starts to crack, this will help to keep it moist.
10. Whisk the sour cream, sugar and Kara coconut cream (santan) together and pour it over the cheesecake to form a topping.
11. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. If you want a browned top, you can try grilling the surface of the sour cream topping.
12. Take the cake out of the oven but keep it in the pan till it cools completely. Chill in the fridge for at least four hours (I put mine in the freezer for two, as I was in a hurry). Unmould only when the cake is completely cooled through.
13. The recipe should serve eight slices but in today's calorie-concious society, the guests all carved really slim pieces, so there were easily sixteen slices.