Foccacia

Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma's "Essentials of Baking"


2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon course sea salt (optional)


1.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the yeast in warm water and let stand until foamy.  Add sugar, olive oil, flour, and fine sea salt.  Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes.


2.  Remove the dough from the bowl, transfer it to a slightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise until it doubles in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.


3.  Oil a sheet pan with olive oil.  Turn the dough out into the pan.  Press the dough evenly into the pan.  Cover the pan loosely with a dry kitchen towel.  Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.


4.  Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 450F.  Dimple the dough by pressing your fingertips all the way into it at 1-inch intervals over the entire surface.  Sprinkle it with the course salt, if desired.


5.  Bake the focaccia until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan.  Cut it in to squares and serve warm or at room temperature.  


I also sprinkled some rosemary on top.  The focaccia turned out to be a bit dry (crunchy)... I may reduce the baking time to 12 minutes.  

Mango Tart

This mango tart took me 3 hours to make... The pics sucked because of the poor lighting (as usual) and that I was exhausted.  Mangoes are in season now so I bought a case last week... We baked fruit flans in our baking class but I was not too happy with the results as I found the custard filling too bland.  So this time I found recipes for the filling and I improvised a little by adding a layer of sponge cake and a layer of fresh cream.  

Sweet shortcrust pastry

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ cup icing sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

125g cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 large egg yolk

1. In a mixer, mix the flour, sugar and salt for a few seconds. Add the butter and beat until it becomes pebbly. Add the egg yolk and combine until the dough clumps together. 
2. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and lightly knead for 30 secs. Wrap the dough up and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the dough out between two sheets of non-stick parchment paper and line a 22cm (9 inch) fluted flan tin. Remove the lined tin from the fridge and prick the base with a fork.
4. Fit a piece of non-stick baking paper tightly against the crust and fill with weights. Place the tin on a baking tray and bake in in a preheated oven (350F) for approximately 15 minutes or until the exposed edges are a very light brown. Remove the baking paper and weights. Bake for a further 8-10 minutes or until the base is golden brown. Allow to cool on wire rack.

Vanilla pastry cream

2 cups (500ml) whole milk

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

5 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

50g cold unsalted butter, cubed

1. Bring the milk to the boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the eggs, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Pour a little bit of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk well. Pour the remaining milk into the egg mixture and whisk.
3. Place the saucepan onto the heat and whisk constantly, bring the mix to boil. Reduce the heat down to medium and cook for 2 minutes or so or until the custard becomes very thick. Remove from the heat.
4. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Whisk in the butter until it’s smooth and silky.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake 

1 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 ℉.  Butter and flour either a 9" round pan
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs until light, about 4 minutes.  With the mixer running on medium, slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light yellow and comes off the whisk in a ribbon when the whisk is lifted, about 7-8 minutes.
4. While the eggs and sugar are beating, bring the milk and butter just to a boil in a small saucepan set over medium heat.  Stir the vanilla into the hot milk.
5. With the mixer running on medium speed, slowly add the hot milk mix to the egg mixture.  Mix until combined, then reduce the mixer speed and add the flour mixture slowly, just until thoroughly combined, stopping to scrape down the bowl once or twice.  Pour the batter immediately into the prepared pan and place them into the oven.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are browned and just pulling away from the pan or a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake, comes out clean.  Let cool slightly in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Fresh Cream Filling

1 cup of whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

Whip the cream and sugar until it reaches soft peak.

Assembly

3 large, ripe mangoes

1. Cut the cheeks off both mangoes. Using a large spoon, carefully scoop out the flesh. Cut the mango cheeks into thin slices.
2. Fill the crust with the pastry cream, ensuring the filling is smooth.
3. Put a layer of the sponge cake on top of the pastry cream.
4. Then spread the fresh cream on top of the sponge cake layer.
5. Arrange the mango slices over the fresh cream.
6. The tart can be chilled in the fridge for a few hours before serving. 

And of course I couldn't wait any longer... I consumed a slice before it's properly chilled.  It is very delicious...

Chocolate Almond Cookies

Tony Wong's recipe

Ingredients:

150g  Unsalted Butter

150g  Granulated Sugar

50g   Egg

150g  Almond Slices

260g Cake Flour (sifted)

40g   Cocoa Powder (sifted)

1.  Cream unsalted butter and sugar.  Pour in beaten egg.  Beat until mixture light and fluffy.

2.  Add almond slices.  Stir well.

3.  Fold in sifted cake flour and cocoa powder.  Stir gently and just mix.

4.  Rub to brown dough with hands.

5.  Line a piece of parchment paper on a shallow tray.  Press dough into a rectangle of the same height as tray.  

6.  Cover the dough with baking paper.

7.  Use a rolling pin to roll over dough.  Level surface to even height.  Freeze until firm.

8.  Peel off parchment paper.  Cut hardened dough to rectangles of 5 cm length x 2.5 cm width x 5mm thick.

9.  Bake at 350F for 18 - 20 minutes.  

I visited Tony Wong's Patisserie when I was in Hong Kong.  We saw people lining up outside of the shop waiting for their turn.  I wasn't expecting too much of it, thinking it's probably just another hype.  People usually do take-out, but the four of us couldn't wait and decided to consume the beautifully decorated cakes there.  We were totally surprised of how good the cakes were.  Each has a distinct complex flavour, hitting our taste buds at different levels.  It was almost an orgasmic experience.  

A while ago, a good friend of mine gave me two Tony Wong's recipe books.  I have read them and these Chocolate Almond Cookies are probably among the easiest to make.  I found them much lighter than the usual shortbread.  This recipe yields about 50 good size cookies and only called for 150g of butter (1/3 of the package) so somehow I feel less guilty making (and eating) them.  

Hokkaido Milky Loaf

http://schneiderchen.de/237Hokkaido-Milky-Loaf.html

When I saw this wonderful recipe for white sandwich bread on Rita's blog, I knew I had to try this out.  I hope you get to try this too because it is so easy to make.  The bread came out so soft and moist.  This would be perfect for making any sandwiches.  

I will be making this again in a heartbeat.  I love working with the dough!  

Bran Muffins

This recipe yields 18 muffins
15g     Baking Soda
5g       Baking Powder
100g   Bread Flour
40g     Milk Powder
300g   Brown Sugar
5g       Salt
325g   Whole Wheat Flour
75g     Bran
100g   Raisins
75g    Walnuts
230g   Vegetable Oil
450g   Water
100g   Eggs (2)
3g      Vanilla


1.  Sift together the Bread Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Milk Powder.
2.  Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the above and blend well by hand.
3.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil until blended.
4.  Add the water and egg mixture and whisk together.
5.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients.  Fold together just until blended.  Do not over mix.
6.  Let the mix rest for approx. 10 to 20 minutes so the bran has time to soak up the liquid.
7.  Grease tops of muffin pans.  Paper line with muffin cups.
8.  Once mix has rested, deposit batter with piping bag evenly over 18 muffins.
9.  Baking muffins at 400F for approx. 20 minutes; until the muffin springs back when touched.
10.Remove muffins from tins directly after baking to prevent "sweating". 


This recipe is taken from the Baking Arts course I took at George Brown.  Prep time is minimal.  I used less sugar and oil to make an even healthier version.  Best to serve warm with jam.

Chinese Cocktail Buns 雞尾包

http://blog.junbelen.com/2010/05/12/how-to-make-coconut-buns-chinese-cocktail-buns/

I haven't baked for almost a month now.  My husband and I came back from holidays last Sunday.  I'm still jet-lagged.  I kept waking up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep.  Fortunately, I didn't feel tired when I was at work.  I was so looking forward to this weekend so I could sleep more.  It turned out I had only 4 hours sleep Friday night.   This morning I woke up at 6 am and all I wanted to do was to bake. 

These buns are a specialty of Hong Kong, their chewy interior is the sweet coconut filling.  These buns brought back some childhood memories so when I found this recipe through Tastespotting, I was determined to make them.  This recipe yields 12 delicious buns.  I wasn't able to grind the coconut flakes into smaller flakes using my mini chopper, I would have preferred a smoother filling.  The buns are soft and moist, but quite solid (not dense).  I may adjust the flour to 3 cups or even 2 1/2 cups if I make these buns again.  

Pâtisseries in Tokyo