Ingredient:
125g ground almond
125g plain flour
250g castor sugar
5 eggs
1 tbsp milk powder (or milk)
125g butter (room temperature)
125g margarine
Method:
1. Lightly beat eggs
2. Mix ground almond, flour and milk powder together.
3. Cream fats and sugar until sugar has dissolved and mixture becomes light and fluffy using medium speed.
4. Add in beaten eggs in several portion. Do not add in too much eggs too quickly to prevent curdling. Curdling is the result of having more liquid than the fat-coated cells have a capacity to retain.
5. Before last batch of egg, put in some dry ingredient to prevent from curdling using speed 2. Or you can also alternate dry ingredients with eggs.
6. Spoon or pipe into tarts. Sprinkle almond flakes on top.
Note: you can boil one tbsp of apricot jam with one tbsp of water, and coat to baked tarts for shiny topping.
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Egg Tarts and French Almond Tarts
We make the simple crust, not the layer crust.
Ingredients:
Short Crust Pastry
400g flour
100g butter
100g margarine
100g sugar
50g egg (1egg)
pinch of salt
Egg Custard
eggs and water same quantity
5 eggs (50g each)
250g water
120g sugar
milk powder
Method:
Short crust pastry
1. Preheat oven to 180c - 185c.
2. Butter and margarine must be at room temperature because they need to be incorporated into the flour as quickly as possible. If it is too cold, you will have to rub it in for twice as long; the fat will become oily with the warmth of your hands and the pastry will be difficult to roll out.
3. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt, holding the sieve high above the bowl, so that as much air as possible is incorporated.
4. Cut the butter and margarine into small lumps and add to the flour. Using a knife, cut the butter and margarine into the flour. Go on doing this until it looks fairly evenly blended, then begin to rub the fat into the flour using only your fingertips and being as light and gentle as possible.
5. As you lightly rub the fat into the flour, lift it up high and let it fall back down into the bowl, which again means that air is being incorporated all the time, and air is what makes pastry light. Speed is also what's needed here. If the fat becomes oily because the rubbing-in takes longer and everything is too warm, what happens is it coats more flour grains than it should. This means the flour is unable to absorb enough water and the pastry will crumble and be difficult to roll out.
6. Add in eggs slowly.
7. Then, with a knife, start bringing the dough together, cutting and turning to make it start to cling together. Then discard the knife and bring it all together with your fingertips. All the bits of flour and fat should be incorporated and the pastry should leave the bowl completely clean.
Egg custard
1. Light beat eggs and water and sugar and milk powder together.
2. When sugar has dissolved, sift egg through strainer.
3. spoon the egg custard into the tarts.
Ingredients:
Short Crust Pastry
400g flour
100g butter
100g margarine
100g sugar
50g egg (1egg)
pinch of salt
Egg Custard
eggs and water same quantity
5 eggs (50g each)
250g water
120g sugar
milk powder
Method:
Short crust pastry
1. Preheat oven to 180c - 185c.
2. Butter and margarine must be at room temperature because they need to be incorporated into the flour as quickly as possible. If it is too cold, you will have to rub it in for twice as long; the fat will become oily with the warmth of your hands and the pastry will be difficult to roll out.
3. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt, holding the sieve high above the bowl, so that as much air as possible is incorporated.
4. Cut the butter and margarine into small lumps and add to the flour. Using a knife, cut the butter and margarine into the flour. Go on doing this until it looks fairly evenly blended, then begin to rub the fat into the flour using only your fingertips and being as light and gentle as possible.
5. As you lightly rub the fat into the flour, lift it up high and let it fall back down into the bowl, which again means that air is being incorporated all the time, and air is what makes pastry light. Speed is also what's needed here. If the fat becomes oily because the rubbing-in takes longer and everything is too warm, what happens is it coats more flour grains than it should. This means the flour is unable to absorb enough water and the pastry will crumble and be difficult to roll out.
6. Add in eggs slowly.
7. Then, with a knife, start bringing the dough together, cutting and turning to make it start to cling together. Then discard the knife and bring it all together with your fingertips. All the bits of flour and fat should be incorporated and the pastry should leave the bowl completely clean.
Egg custard
1. Light beat eggs and water and sugar and milk powder together.
2. When sugar has dissolved, sift egg through strainer.
Orange Chiffon Cake
The basic ingredient is chiffon cake, but with one orange peel and squeeze one orange. The orange juice will mix with water to form the water quantity. When the batter is ready, throw in some chocolate rice to add some colour. The finishing is garnished with butter cream we made.
Swiss Roll
The recipe for swiss roll is almost similar to chiffon cake, only without baking powder, so that the cake is softer to roll. The method is the same. Instead of using cake tin, use baking tray.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Chiffon Cake
Mr.Chin doesn't provide us with written instruction. He only writes down the ingredients.
He said he wants us to pay attention so as to follow. However I wonder how the novice is going to follow. We have two boys who are asked by their mothers to come to learn. One only has education up to PMR, one doesn't understand English and one doesn't speak Chinese. Mr.Chin speaks Mandarin most of the time, with broken English mixing in between. I feel that Mr.Chin is supposed to provide us with complete recipe as we are paying so much for the baking class. RM1320 for 75 contact hours in 12 days. On average, one day is RM110. Mr.Chin is also very particular about throwing away plastic bags, paper, and he even bothers to scrap back small traces of buttercream sticking on the piping paper. I personally feel that it is a waste of time when he does that.
Anyway, this is the Chiffon Cake which I learned from him. I tried Chiffon Cake before but they didn't turn out right. Now, I know where my mistakes are. By the way, Mr.Chin didn't give us the instructions, and I don't know how to write full instructions, I sort of borrow instructions from here and there similar to what I learned.
Ingredients:
Flour batter
8 egg yolk
100 g water
100 g vegetable oil (Do not use Eagle oil as it has added flavour. Minyak Saji and olive oil is okay)
200 g cake mix ( can be replaced with 100g sugar and 100g flour and baking powder)
100 g plain flour
a pinch of salt
Meringue
8 egg white
100g sugar
cream of tartar
Flavour
vanilla, brandy, cinnamon
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 170°C and position a wire rack at the lower rack. Prepare a clean chiffon cake tin, do not grease.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the corn oil and sugar to form an emulsion. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture. Add in vanilla, cinnamon and brandy. Whisk well into a smooth batter, there should be no lumps. Set aside.
3. Get a separate mixing bowl. Make sure it is WITHOUT ANY OIL STAIN. Clean it properly, or else your egg whites will not rise. On high speed of a mixer, whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar. Start adding the sugar once the egg whites begin to foam, gradually in 3 additions. Beat till the meringue is smooth and glossy, with stiff peaks, but curls at the end. If the peak is too stiff, the cake will come out dry.
4. Immediately stir in approximately 1/3 of the meringue into the flour batter. With a flexible rubber or silicon spatula, fold in the meringue gently and mix well. Once a roughly homogenous mixture is achieved, add the rest of the meringue and repeat the gentle, light-handed folding process till the cake batter is well combined. Scoop from the bottom of the bowl to ensure no meringue or flour batter is left unmixed. Do not beat or overwork the batter as this will knock out the air you've put into the meringue.
5. Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin. Gently bang the tin on the table top to release air bubbles. This is to remove any large air bubbles possibly trapped while pouring in the cake batter.
6. Bake at 170°C for about 30 min. The cake tester should come out clean. Don't fret if the top of your cake cracks a little, this is normal.
7. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately overturn it to cool completely, up to 2 hours. Even the best chiffon cake pan won't keep your cake fluffy if you handle it roughly after baking. While the cake is warm, its structure is still malleable, and it can fall. Always cool chiffon cakes upside down by supporting round set at the corners. Don't move the cake much before it cools completely.
8. Release the cake by running a sharp, thin knife along the sides of the cake tin and subsequently the bottom of the tube. The cake is meant to be served upside down as it is heavier on the top.
9. Cake keeps well chilled in an airtight container or cling wrapped up to five day.
Note: I use 90g of sugar for batter and 90g for egg white. The sweetness is fine.
He said he wants us to pay attention so as to follow. However I wonder how the novice is going to follow. We have two boys who are asked by their mothers to come to learn. One only has education up to PMR, one doesn't understand English and one doesn't speak Chinese. Mr.Chin speaks Mandarin most of the time, with broken English mixing in between. I feel that Mr.Chin is supposed to provide us with complete recipe as we are paying so much for the baking class. RM1320 for 75 contact hours in 12 days. On average, one day is RM110. Mr.Chin is also very particular about throwing away plastic bags, paper, and he even bothers to scrap back small traces of buttercream sticking on the piping paper. I personally feel that it is a waste of time when he does that.
Anyway, this is the Chiffon Cake which I learned from him. I tried Chiffon Cake before but they didn't turn out right. Now, I know where my mistakes are. By the way, Mr.Chin didn't give us the instructions, and I don't know how to write full instructions, I sort of borrow instructions from here and there similar to what I learned.
Ingredients:
Flour batter
8 egg yolk
100 g water
100 g vegetable oil (Do not use Eagle oil as it has added flavour. Minyak Saji and olive oil is okay)
200 g cake mix ( can be replaced with 100g sugar and 100g flour and baking powder)
100 g plain flour
a pinch of salt
Meringue
8 egg white
100g sugar
cream of tartar
Flavour
vanilla, brandy, cinnamon
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 170°C and position a wire rack at the lower rack. Prepare a clean chiffon cake tin, do not grease.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the corn oil and sugar to form an emulsion. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture. Add in vanilla, cinnamon and brandy. Whisk well into a smooth batter, there should be no lumps. Set aside.
3. Get a separate mixing bowl. Make sure it is WITHOUT ANY OIL STAIN. Clean it properly, or else your egg whites will not rise. On high speed of a mixer, whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar. Start adding the sugar once the egg whites begin to foam, gradually in 3 additions. Beat till the meringue is smooth and glossy, with stiff peaks, but curls at the end. If the peak is too stiff, the cake will come out dry.
4. Immediately stir in approximately 1/3 of the meringue into the flour batter. With a flexible rubber or silicon spatula, fold in the meringue gently and mix well. Once a roughly homogenous mixture is achieved, add the rest of the meringue and repeat the gentle, light-handed folding process till the cake batter is well combined. Scoop from the bottom of the bowl to ensure no meringue or flour batter is left unmixed. Do not beat or overwork the batter as this will knock out the air you've put into the meringue.
5. Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin. Gently bang the tin on the table top to release air bubbles. This is to remove any large air bubbles possibly trapped while pouring in the cake batter.
6. Bake at 170°C for about 30 min. The cake tester should come out clean. Don't fret if the top of your cake cracks a little, this is normal.
7. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately overturn it to cool completely, up to 2 hours. Even the best chiffon cake pan won't keep your cake fluffy if you handle it roughly after baking. While the cake is warm, its structure is still malleable, and it can fall. Always cool chiffon cakes upside down by supporting round set at the corners. Don't move the cake much before it cools completely.
8. Release the cake by running a sharp, thin knife along the sides of the cake tin and subsequently the bottom of the tube. The cake is meant to be served upside down as it is heavier on the top.
9. Cake keeps well chilled in an airtight container or cling wrapped up to five day.
Note: I use 90g of sugar for batter and 90g for egg white. The sweetness is fine.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
1st Day at Baking Class
My first day of baking class was much anticipated! I wish to improve my baking skill! At least to know how to bake the basic cakes and buns correctly.
There are altogether 12 of us in the class. 10 of them are about my children's age! Learning with those who are 30 years younger than me :-) ! Luckily there is another auntie in the class! That make me feel less awkward!
Our teacher is Mr.Chin, 30 years of work experience in the bakery industry. He carries with him with lots of expertise. He is willing (and eager) to teach as we go along. Though he doesn't seem to be well prepared with the class, and doesn't seem to plan properly of what he is going to cover, he comes with a mind to pass his knowledge to equip us!
The pastry room has a big oven, a big mixer and a marble countertop table. But it is not equipped with baking tray, baking tin, bowls, spatula, and so on and so forth. Mr.Chin has to borrow from his friends all these things. They were quite dirtily stained. We spent an hour cleaning all these stuff. Then, we started our first lesson --- how to make buttercream.
Mr.Chin said in the previous 16 years, he partnered with 2 other friends in Sabah Bakery. He was in charged of wedding cake decoration. I think that was why he feels that knowing how to do piping is very important in cake making. Decoration brings up the appearance of the cake, and it practically brings up the value of the cake! He said we have to do piping in every lesson as and when we have time.
Opp...Mr.Chin said he forgot to buy icing sugar for the buttercream. Since he is an experienced senior, he substituted icing sugar with sugar syrup.
Ingredients for Butter Cream
1 kg sugar
1 kg water
500 g unsalted butter (he used Anchor)
1 kg cream well (creamlite)
Method:
1. Dissolve sugar in water using medium fire. Once dissolved, leave the water syrup to room temperature.
2. Pour the water syrup in the mixer. Add in butter. Beat.
3. Add in creamlite. Beat well on medium speed until light and fluffy. Remember to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.
There are altogether 12 of us in the class. 10 of them are about my children's age! Learning with those who are 30 years younger than me :-) ! Luckily there is another auntie in the class! That make me feel less awkward!
Our teacher is Mr.Chin, 30 years of work experience in the bakery industry. He carries with him with lots of expertise. He is willing (and eager) to teach as we go along. Though he doesn't seem to be well prepared with the class, and doesn't seem to plan properly of what he is going to cover, he comes with a mind to pass his knowledge to equip us!
The pastry room has a big oven, a big mixer and a marble countertop table. But it is not equipped with baking tray, baking tin, bowls, spatula, and so on and so forth. Mr.Chin has to borrow from his friends all these things. They were quite dirtily stained. We spent an hour cleaning all these stuff. Then, we started our first lesson --- how to make buttercream.
Mr.Chin said in the previous 16 years, he partnered with 2 other friends in Sabah Bakery. He was in charged of wedding cake decoration. I think that was why he feels that knowing how to do piping is very important in cake making. Decoration brings up the appearance of the cake, and it practically brings up the value of the cake! He said we have to do piping in every lesson as and when we have time.
Opp...Mr.Chin said he forgot to buy icing sugar for the buttercream. Since he is an experienced senior, he substituted icing sugar with sugar syrup.
Ingredients for Butter Cream
1 kg sugar
1 kg water
500 g unsalted butter (he used Anchor)
1 kg cream well (creamlite)
Method:
1. Dissolve sugar in water using medium fire. Once dissolved, leave the water syrup to room temperature.
2. Pour the water syrup in the mixer. Add in butter. Beat.
3. Add in creamlite. Beat well on medium speed until light and fluffy. Remember to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.
Friday, 12 April 2013
Baking Class
I bought 2 white T-shirts at Metro Jaya to wear to the baking class starting next Wednesday. The dress code in the 3 weeks class is white T-shirts with collar, long trousers or jeans and toes wrapped shoes. I shopped at Suria Sabah this afternoon to look for a pair of comfortable flat shoes but I don't find any suitable pair with toes wrapped. Perhaps I should repair my old pair of shoes. The strings at the side came off a little bit. I think a needle and strings will fix up the loosen part.
I am looking forward to the baking class. I have tried many times to better myself in cake and bread making but sometimes they don't turn out right. I realize now that some recipes in the web and even published recipe books have mistakes in them. It's a waste of time and money and efforts and really put me off at times. I remembered many years ago when I was still a teenager, I gave my dog my "failed" recipe outcome. The dog loved my cake !!!
I strongly believe these three weeks class will get me a good start to make cake, bread and pastries. These two years have been quite relaxing. I am not much in pressure to bring in income now. Suppose it is a good time to enjoy what I love doing now.
I am looking forward to the baking class. I have tried many times to better myself in cake and bread making but sometimes they don't turn out right. I realize now that some recipes in the web and even published recipe books have mistakes in them. It's a waste of time and money and efforts and really put me off at times. I remembered many years ago when I was still a teenager, I gave my dog my "failed" recipe outcome. The dog loved my cake !!!
I strongly believe these three weeks class will get me a good start to make cake, bread and pastries. These two years have been quite relaxing. I am not much in pressure to bring in income now. Suppose it is a good time to enjoy what I love doing now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)