Croissants

There are so many masters showing how to make croissants and i am overwhelmed but after spending hours reading and watching youtube, i think i am ready to make some.  I am not very happy with the appearance of my croissants as i think they looked like Mr. Crab.  I ate the ones i opened up for pictures and i could not stop eating them - they were light, crispy on the outside and the inside is soft and buttery, unlike the ones you get from the store which are all air.  I am glad, i followed the advice of a croissant master whose advice is - "You don't actually need to proof croissants very long. The longer you proof them the more air they take in and the weaker they'll taste. Try not proofing them and you'll be amazed at how much better they will taste. proofing is great if you're selling them - makes the buyer think he's getting more - all they're actaully getting is more air which robs them of intensity. Cheers from the croissant master."

Armed with the book - About Professional Baking - The essentials by Gail Sokol, i made croissants.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm(110f)
3 1/2 tsp instant yeast
2 cups/10 ozs/285 g bread flour
2 cups/9 ozs/255 g all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups/12 ozs/340 g unsalted butter, cold but not hard(leave at room temp for 30 mins to soften slightly)


Method:

Croissant Base Dough

In the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment on low speed, blend the honey, brown sugar, and lukewarm milk until well combined.

Sprinkle the yeast over the milk mixture and blend on low speed.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together both flours.  On low speed, add the flours, the vinegar, and the salt to the milk and yeast mixture.  Blend until a soft dough forms.  If the dough feels too sticky, add another 1/2 to 1 oz(15 - 30 g) all purpose flour.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Do not overknead.  Using your hands, shape the dough into a rough rectangle about 1 - 2 inches(2.5 to 3 cm) thick.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it for about 30 minutes.

Preparing the Butter to be enclosed : 

Place a sheet of plastic wrap on a work surface and lay the butter in the center of it.  Place another piece of plastic wrap on top.

Hit the butter with a rolling pin until it softens.  Once it has softened a bit, roll the butter into a 6 - 12 inch(15 by 30 cm) rectangle.  Chill the butter while the dough is being rolled out.

Enclosing the butter:

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 10 bu 15 inch(25 by 37.5 cm) rectangle.  Peel one sheet of plastic off the butter and flip the butter onto the middle of the dough, lining up the butter with the dough so that the butter covers approximately two thirds the length of the dough.

Fold the unbuttered third of the dough up over the center.  Then fold the remaining buttered third over the top, just like a letter is folded.  Be sure to pull the edges of the dough being folded over so they match the edges of the dough underneath.  Press to make sure the edges are sealed.  If the edges do not eal, brush a small amount of water on the bottom layer to act as glue.

Completing One Three-fold or Letterfold Turn:

Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that when the dough is rolled out, the open ends become the short sides of the rectangle.  Again, roll out the dough to a 10 by 15 inch(25 by 37.5 cm) rectangle and fold it in thirds like a letter.  This completes one three-fold turn.  Using a pastry brush, brush off any excess flour.  Press one finger into the dough to show one turn has been completed.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it for 1 hour.  A marker can also be used to mark the plastic wrap to show the number of turns completed.

Repeat rolling, folding, and marking the dough with a finger to show the number of turns completed two more times for a total of 3 three-fold turns, chilling the dough in between each completed turn.  After three turns have been completed, wrap the dough twice in plastic wrap and chill it overnight in the refrigerator.  Because the yeast in the dough will cause it to expand overnight, be sure to wrap the dough securely.

The above makes one recipe of croissant dough, using one half in this recipe and reserving the other half for another use.

Rolling and cutting croissants:

On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into 12 by 16 inch(30 by 40 cm) rectangle.  The dough should be approximately 1/8 inch(3 mm) thick.  Brush off any excess flour and sqaure off the edges using a ruller and a pizza cutter.

Using a pizza cutter and a ruler, remeasure the length of the dough and cut it in half crosswise.  Do not separate the two halves.  Cut down the length of the entire rectangle, dividing it into thirds beginning at one of the short sides.  There shoud be a total of six(6) rectangles.

Separate the six rectangles and cut each one diagonally to form two triangles.  There should be total of 12 triangles.  If at any point in rolling the dough and it becomes too soft, gently place it on a sheet pan and chill it for 10 - 15 minutes.

Using the pizza cutter, make a small 1/2 inch(1.2 cm) slit at the base of each triangle.  Taking one triangle, gently roll over it with a rolling pin so its length is stretched about 50% longer than its original length.  Do not press down hard with the rolling pin or the layers will be flattened.  Using both hands, gently pull the base so that it widens out even more and begin to roll the triangle from the base, pulling the tip of the triangle to elongate it.  Roll it into a tight crescent shape, making sure that the tip of the triangle is tucked underneath the crescent so it will not unroll during baking.  Place the croissant on a parchment-lined sheet pan, curving the ends to resemble a crescent as it is placed on the baking sheet.  Repeat slitting, rolling and shaping the remaining chilled dough to make a total of 12 croissants, maintaining a space between each one.  Place the croissants in a proof box set at no highter than 85f(39c) for 1 hour until they appear spongy and puffed (i do not have a proof box so i left the sheet pan, covered on the kitchen counter).

Preheat the oven to 425f(219c).

Spritz the croissants lightly with water using a spray bottle before placing them in the oven(oops i forgot to do this).  Once the croissants are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 400f(205c).  Bake for 10 minutes and then rotate the pan and continue baking the croissants for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.(i baked another 5 minutes only cos i was on convection).

Serves

Omelette Noodle

Alexander's Pre School teacher wanted to have the recipe of his favorite dish as she is making a recipe book of all the favorite food of her class.  When i asked him which is his favorite, i was glad that it was something that i cook for him and not something out of the box.  He loves noodles in any form and he could use his chopstick and pick up the most slippery kind.  This pair of child chopstick is worth every cent spend and every asian mom should get a pair for their child as eating noodles using chopsticks is so much fun.



Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1 tbsp cornstarch/tapioca starch dilute with 1 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Beat all the ingredients until blended.

Heat a small frying pan preferably a non-stick one with as little oil as possible.

Pour in enough of egg mixture to make a thin omelette. When omelette sets, flip over and cook the other side.

Remove onto a chopping board.

Continue to make omelette with the rest of the egg mixture .

Pile the omelette and roll it up like a swiss roll, then cut into tiny strips, loosen the strips and ta-ta noodles are ready.

Enjoy them as much as Alexander does.
Serves

Cooling Herbal Tea

Chinese Wisdom..."When you are calm and stable, careful of attention, the celestial design is always clear,open awareness is unobscured;then you have autonomy in action and can deal with whatever arises."The Book of Balance and Harmony.Cleary, T. (trans.), p.3.

However wise we might be, it was inevitable that i will get what the whole family was experiencing - down under the weather. What i learned from my 'Ah Po' was, when we are not well, our body must not be balanced, and out will come the huge pot to make 'herbal tea'. She would ask me to go to Eu Yan Sang, The chinese medicinal shop to get her the concoction she wanted - i would repeat the names of the herbs again and again and strangely enough, everytime, without fail, as i stood in the counter and the guy ask "Ah Mui, yew mat yeh?" - I would just open my mouth and nothing came out - blank, not a word. Then i would be questioned from left to right, what sickness? how many of us were sick? etc, Watching him collect the herbs from the drawers marvelled me as he had never opened a wrong one at all and there were so many drawers that it was unaccountable when i was at that age. Another fantastic feat was seeing him pack those leafy herbs onto a tiny piece of pink 1 foot square paper - he was like a magician at work, fast and efficient - 'nah' he would say and handed me the nicely wrapped pink packet on a string - '20 cents'. A lot has changed since then, no more 20 cents, it must be at least 2.00RM and it comes in plastic bags.

Ingredients:

Pak Chee chao(Xia Ku Cao Prunella vulgaris)

Har Fui Chao(Zi Cao (Gromwell Root or Arnebia or Lithospermum))

Thong Thoong Kua- Candied Melon

Kum Cho - Liquorice

Method:

Wash and soak the herbs, remove the herbs from the water and throw away the water, this way you will not disturbed the sand and grit that have sunk to the bottom.

Put washed herbs and the remaining ingredients in a large pot, fill with enough of water - amount does not matter - the more water you have, the tea will only be more diluted.

Bring to the boil and continue to boil for another 10 - 15 minutes. Strain and take this drink for cooling purposes.

Use the herbs again and reboiled with more water, this consumption will not be as cooling as the first pot, anyway you need a lot of liquid when you are well.

Soft Boiled Cassava

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.“~ Confucius

Think Simple - There are so many simple pleasures that we don’t always take time to enjoy. Take some time to really focus on something simple - focus on your breathing, focus on drinking down a cold glass of water, focus on enjoying the simple things you do every day. We can find so much happiness in the small everyday things. They are there if we seek them, and when we seek, we shall find and i have great pleasure eating something as simple as a piece of cooked cassava. I eat them as is or with sugar and grated coconut or however as this soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and goes well with most 'sambals' or sauces.

Cassava can be cooked in various ways and there are endless recipes but a word of caution - it has to be cooked and not to be eaten raw because they contain two cyanogenic glucosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. These are decomposed by linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava, liberating hydrogen cyanide

Ingredients:

Raw Cassava

Salt

Water

Method:

Cut the woody ends of the cassava and then cut into 2 inches pieces. Remove the skin and soak the peeled roots in water for at least 1 hour.

Drain and put into saucepan with enough water to cover the roots.

Add salt and turn on the heat. Bring to the boil and stir to prevent roots sticking to the bottom of saucepan.

Check for doneness, roots should be fork tender.

Drain and place roots back to the warm saucepan to dry-out.

Cooked cassava is ready for consumption. Eat with whatever fancy your palate. The pictures above are with 'sambal shrimp' and 'xo sauce'.

Cassava Fritters is a spin-off from these boiled cassava.

Cassava Fritters/Ketuk Ubi

I love everything cassava/tapioca/yucca/ubi kayu and have not had these fritters for quite awhile. I have refrained from buying the fresh cassava as they have become moldy and shrivered and that is the sign of a dead root. In Malaysia, the root has to be consumed as soon as it has been harvested so, it is a strange sight for me, seeing them for sale in the asian store's shelf. I am enlightened by the fact that these roots are treated with wax to prevent them from getting moldy and save to eat. Thanks Chan, for letting me know and allowing me to enjoy and making all the goodies that can be dished out from them.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked cassava

1 cup grated coconut - white only

1/2 cup sugar

a pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Batter:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornflour/cornstarch

1 tbsp rice flour

1 tsp double action baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cooking oil

3/4 cup/6 fl oz/180 ml water

Method:

Prepare the batter by mixing all the batter ingredients and leave aside.

Heat oil until 350f. While oil is getting hot, prepare the cassava balls by mixing all the ingredients together and making into golf size balls.

When oil has reached 350f, dip balls into batter and put into hot oil to deep fry. Do not crowd the wok and crank up the heat and removing some hot oil from the wok, at the last stage of frying. Removing some oil will allow the temp. of oil to rise higher and faster and this way, the balls will be not be soggy. When balls are golden brown, remove and drain on an overturn cake rack which is sitting on kitchen towels - the excess oil will drip down and since the balls are not touching the kitchen towels, they will not soak back the oil while cooling.

Pour back the removed oil and finished frying the rest of the balls.

Note:

Noticed the long one? I have left some cooked cassava unmashed and dipped them in batter to fry. Try it this way, it is just as delicious.

Serves

Blueberry Muffin Tops

Muffin tops are, as everyone knows, truly the upper crust of those jumbo-sized, coffee-shop muffins. Why is the top so much better and how do we go about baking the tops without the bottom? Offer the bottoms to the Culinary God? That's effective but wastefull and the best solution so far has been muffin pans that are extremely shallow—only about 1/2 inch (1.25cm) deep. This recipe turned out some very delicious bottomless enjoyment, Renee ate 3 as soon as they were out of the oven. I had one and now i can understand why these kind of tops are beloved by 'Seinfeld'' partisans.

Ingredients:

For batter

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 whole large egg
1 large yolk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (12 oz)

For topping

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar

Special equipment:

2 muffin-top pans, each with 6 (4- by 1/2-inch)

Muffin-top cups (1/2-cup capacity);

or regular muffin pans

Method:

Make batter:

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 375°F.

Generously grease muffin pans.

Microwave butter in a big microwave-safe bowl on high for 1 minute.

Whisk in milk, then whisk in whole egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined well.

Sieve together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, then add milk mixture and stir until just combined.

Fold in blueberries gently but thoroughly and do not overmix.

Divide batter among 12 muffin cups, spreading evenly.

Rub topping ingredients together with your fingertips until crumbly, then sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick or skewer inserted diagonally into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool in pans on a rack 15 minutes, then run a knife around edge of each muffin top and carefully remove from cups.

Serve warm or at room temperature.


Serves

Chance Tomato Gugelhupf

I named this savory Gugelhupf after my dear friend, Nancy whose nickname is 'Chance'. This nickname is only known among our classmates from The Convent. Being taught to speak in english, we would all chance or dance but nancy somehow adopted the american slang and it was 'Chance", so that's why we nicknamed her so. Nancy has the same passion as i do, we both love to bake and our conversion would be always about baking something. I have told her that i wanted to make 'gugelhupf' but have not been able to bake one cos i do not have the proper mould. The day, i took her to Denver downtown, it was so hot that we can't remain outdoors anymore, by chance , we landed in TJMAX and what did we see? A blue silicone gugelhupf mould staring at us. Since my birthday was around the corner, 'Chance' gave me the most wanted present and so i have to bake a gugelhupf as soon as we got home. Thank you, dear 'Chance' for making this possible and hope that you had a safe and comfortable journey home to Malaysia.

Ingredients:

(for a 23 cm / 9 inch bundt pan)

3 large eggs + enough water to make 1 cup

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

3 cups bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

1 stick/4 ozs soft butter

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 bunch parsley

4 spring onions

25 cherry tomatoes

a dash of pepper

Method:

Roast pine nuts without any oil until fragrant.

Wash and chop parsley.

Wash and dice spring onions.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Put the ingredients for the bread in the bread machine according to the order listed, starting with the liquids and ending with the yeast on top of the flour.

Choose the dough function and when dough has formed, add in the butter.

At the first beep, add in the pine nuts, parsley and spring onions. Continue dough function until it is over. The dough should have been doubled.

Butter the bundt pan.

Wash and dry the tomatoes.

Roll the dough into a log shape.

Cut off 25 slices of dough.

Press down each slice, put one tomato on each slice, add some pepper.

Wrap each tomato into the slice of dough, forming little balls.

Put balls into pan.

Let rise until dough has doubled its volume.

Bake on bottom rail of the oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

Let cake rest for 10 minutes, then flip over onto a wire rack.

Serves

Fan Tuan

i have not heard about this breakfast delight until my friend, Claire asked me about it. I looked up in the net and found what it is and it looked easy to prepare. I had all the ingredients to make them and i even made the Yau Char Kway. It is a really heavy breakfast, one of these rice rolls will fill you until dinner, you can skip lunch.

Ingredients:

2 cups glutinous rice - washed and soaked

1 cup Pork Floss

1/2 cup sichuan vegetable(char choy)

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp sugar

8 pieces Yau Char Kway

1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp oil

Method:

Put glutinous rice and salt in a rice cooker and add in water just enough to cover the rice.

Cook rice until cooked.

Heat oil and add in chopped garlic. Saute until garlic is fragrant, then add in the sichuan vegetable. Add in sugar to taste. Remove and set aside to cool.

To assemble:

Place a huge scoop of cooked rice on a cling wrap with a sushi mat at the bottom, then to top rice with a tbsp sichuan vegetable, 2 tbsp of pork floss and a piece of yau char kway.

Roll the rice over to cover the fillings and wrap tight with the cling wrap.

The roll is ready to eat

Serves

Cornish Pasties

Making the shortcrust pastry for these pasties bring back fond memories. This is the first pastry that i learned to make when i was in school and i have always treasured the moments of these cookery classes, where we learned the technics of making goodies to eat and the beginning of a long culinary journey for me. My girlfriend, Nancy, who is visiting me at the moment, has been through thick and thin with me in the Convent, inspired me to make these as a remembrance of our friendship which started in 1952, the first day we attended Stantard One in The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, Seremban. We were classmates until we left school in 1962. Nancy is only one of the classmates who are all very dear to me. Christina, Alice, Florie, Lee Lan, Sang Meng, Nyong Nga,Cheng Mei, Maqgie, Joan and many more, if you all happen to read this, i missed you all.

My filling for these pasties is the leftover from the Corned Beef, Onion and Potatoes.

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups lard, chilled (3/4 lb) cut into ¼ inch cubes

8-10 tablespoons ice water

1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

FILLING:

Corned Beef, Onions and Potatoes

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

To make pastry

Using the food processor, pulse together flour and salt, then add in the fat to make a coarse meal. Add 8 tablesppons ice water all at once. If dough crumbles, add more water. Refrigerate to rest one hour before rolling out.

Roll dough to a circle ¼ inch thick and cut into 6 inch rounds. Re-roll and scraps and cut into additional circles.

Put ¼ cup of the mixture into the center of a rolled out pastry.

Moisten pasty edges, fold in half, and crimp to seal. Place on a lined baking sheet and brush lightly with egg wash.

Make 2 slits in each pasty to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 400 degrees F 15 minutes, reduce heat and continue at 350 degrees F until golden.

Serve hot or cold.

Serves

Making Yummy Salt Water Taffy

(36-48 pieces)

I love salt water taffy, but had never made it. I came across this recipe on the Farmer's Almanac, and decided to give it a try. I ended up making raspberry flavoured taffy.

The taffy required about 15-20 minutes of pulling and the result was well worth the time and effort. It was probably the best salt water taffy I have tasted, and it was very fresh! This is something I will probably make again at some point.

1 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup corn syrup
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
flavoring
coloring

Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan, add corn syrup, butter, and water. Stir until boiling point is reached and boil to 250 degrees F (or until a bit of syrup dropped into a cup of cold water forms a firm but not sticky ball).

Add salt, pour on greased slab, and when cool enough to handle pull until light colored.

Divide taffy in separate portions and add flavor or color as desired while it is being pulled. Lemon, orange, peppermint, lime, strawberry, or pineapple flavoring may be used along with pink, green, yellow, or orange food coloring.

Pull out until 1-1/2 inches wide and 3/4-inch thick. Cut in pieces with scissors and wrap in waxed paper.