Vanilla (Chocolate & Matcha) Éclairs - French Fridays with Dorie

Its only my second week of French Fridays with Dorie, and the complexity of the recipes has already risen up a notch. From leisurely steaming broccoli last week to this, making éclairs. I was slightly intimidated to start off with but then realized that I had no real reason to be. Despite common perception, éclairs are actually not that complicated to make especially when you've got Dorie's soothing words guiding you.

My arsenal of choice for this challenge consisted of a wooden spoon, different-sized ziplock bags, gigantic piping tips, an ice water bath and really strong arms. Okay, I cheated on the arms part and gave in to the convenience of an electric whisk. If you even have the slightest intention of conjuring up choux pastry and its accompanying custard cream filling one day, then this you should know, there's going to be some seriously heavy duty stirring/whisking involved! So be prepared and muscle up your strong arm.

My ridge fetish

I don't want to mislead you into thinking that this was the first time I've ever attempted éclairs, oh no....I have made these puff, puff babies before. Once. My last flavor combination was lavender and black sesame éclairs with dulce de leche pastry cream filling. Quite the adventurous little missy I was, and I won't even waste your time explaining the rationale behind that feat. In short, those flavors worked amazingly well. You'll probably be relieved to know that this time round, the recipe in Dorie's book, 'Around My French Table' stated simply Vanilla Éclairs. Sadly, I had no excuse to go too far off the plot.

Saying that, however, I couldn't claim the right to call mine an adventurer's kitchen if I didn't at least try to explore other possibilities. So here are some things I did a bit differently to my heart's calling:

1. I used a star tip to pipe out my choux pastry because I actually like the beauty of ridges on my éclairs.

2. I opted for a bitter-ish, dark chocolate ganache glaze instead of the tart, sugary version suggested in the recipe. The ganache made for easy glazing, especially on the ridges. I just dipped the tops of the éclairs in the soft ganache and it spread very readily over and in between the ridges.

3. Apart from the vanilla flavored pastry cream, I also made additional chocolate and matcha cream fillings. It was easy, I just divided the vanilla cream into 3 equal portions, added melted chocolate to one and a teaspoon of matcha powder to the other. The third portion was left plain.

4. As I was preparing to fill the choux fingers, I had a lightning (haha) moment. Wouldn't it be a great idea to pipe two flavors into each éclair? Chocolate-vanilla. Vanilla-Matcha. Matcha-Chocolate. You get the idea. The execution wasn't as simple - I had to engineer a large enough piping bag out of heavy duty plastic ziplock, and fitted two little baby ziplocks in there filled with the different flavored pastry creams. Not a pretty sight as you can see below, but it worked. You can't tell from these photos but I actually had bi-flavored éclairs. It's nice to have a little bit of something for everyone, you know.

My makeshift ziplock piping bag for dispensing the double-flavored pastry cream!

5. It was raining a typical rainforest thunderstorm the day I made these so I knew there would be trouble as far as maintaining the puffiness of the pastry was concerned. Luckily, I'd burnt my fingers from hot ovens too many times just so I could gain this knowledge... which is, the best strategy for combating humidity is to let the cooked choux pastry dry and cool in the oven well after the stated cooking time. I simply turned off the heat, lodged a wooden spoon in the oven door (to keep it ajar) and left it for an hour. Guess what, the choux fingers stayed proudly puffy....not a single one had deflated.

Chocolate, vanilla, matcha or me?

So there you have it, a recount of my fairly uneventful (but plenty messy!) éclair attempt. The verdict from The Clan was super-thumbs up! Oh, the kids didn't really notice the double flavors so I managed to get them to down some matcha which is a sizeable achievement. If you wish to learn the recipe, you'll likely have to buy the book. After which, you might as well join along and cook with us. Take your pick of éclairs from the other FFWD bloggers here.

Happiness is an Apple Tartelette

Did you know that in Bhutan, there exists a Gross National Happiness Index? That's right, they officially rate their citizens' happiness alongside their GDP as one of several main economic indicators. Their King believes that happiness is an indicator of good development and good society, and with all the bad things happening around the world recently, I think it won't hurt for us to buy into this concept too. :-)

Bright, sunny skies almost always invoke feelings of intense happiness, at least in myself. However, the day I made these, it was raining and the skies outside were dark and grey with rolling clouds (hence the dull photos, sorry). I was determined to stay lit up inside though in the company of these wonderful Sweet Biscuit Apple Tartelettes. 

Have glass, will cut

If you remember back in February, I made a Plum Cupid's Cobbler topped with sweet cream biscuits and for the tartelette base, I simply used the same biscuit recipe. Say you were me, you'd probably make loads of this biscuit dough in one go and freeze the remainder so that whenever you feel like it, you can just defrost the cookie-like dough and make simple tart bases like this one.

I often think the easiest, simplest things can turn out to be the most beautiful things (although I may have trouble remembering this and tend to go overboard with some recipes!). Funnily enough the older I get, the more I realize how very little it takes to make me happy. And these apple tartelettes, yes definitely, just a whiff of them lifted my spirits high!

The recipe is short and yes, sweet. Have fun, stay happy!

Sweet Biscuit Apple Tartelette
Makes 8 (3-inch diameter)
Ingredients:
Sweet Cream Biscuit dough (half the Cupid Cobbler's recipe)
2 red apples
3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
butter, softened

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Prepare the cream biscuit base first.

2. Place dough in between two sheets of wax paper and roll out thinly to about 1/2 cm thick with a rolling pin. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter or rim of a wide glass, cut out discs in the dough. Transfer the disks onto a baking tray lined with parchment or non-stick baking paper.

3. Cut each apple into quarters and remove seeds and core. Slice each quarter very thinly using a mandoline. 4. Arrange these slices in a round, fan pattern on top of the biscuit. Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon sugar over the top of each tart and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the edge of the biscuits start to turn golden brown.

5. Remove from oven and place a dab of butter on top of the apples. Let it melt fully into the tart before serving.

Matcha Cendol and Faux Red Ruby Dessert - A twist on two Asian classics

The great thing about living in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, is that you can get several versions of the same dish. Usually by the way it's served, you can tell which country it is from. Same, same….but different, as the popular phrase goes.

L-R: Rice flour, mung bean flour and matcha powder

Take cendol, for example. This is a Malay dessert - short, green noodles made from mung (or green) bean flour, served with palm sugar syrup and coconut milk. Pandan (screwpine leaves) are used to flavor the noodles and impart the green color. The Singapore version uses only green bean flour, but the Malaysian version uses rice flour and sometimes tapioca starch as well. Tapioca starch makes the noodles more stretchable, whereas green bean flour gives the cendol a slightly springy texture. The Indonesian version often uses a mix of rice flour and sago flour. The Singaporeans and Malaysians serve their cendol with red beans over crushed ice while in Indonesia, cendol is served with sliced jackfruit. As for us in Brunei, we tend to eat our cendol plain because that’s how we like it. The simpler things we know are often the best, although a heavy dose of coconut milk helps too (bad, bad, bad for the heart…I know!)

For this post, I wanted to do a fun take on two classic Asian desserts: Malay Cendol and Thai Red Ruby or Tub Tim Grob. Tub Tim literally means 'ruby', and Tub Tim Grob means 'crunchy ruby'. Red Ruby is essentially chopped water chestnuts encased in tapioca flour and served with coconut milk. The chestnuts are colored red and when they are cooked, the tapioca coating turns translucent, making them look like shining rubies. The first time I had this dessert, I was only a tiny tot and forgivably mistook the rubies for pomegranate seeds!

I’m always up to playing around with ingredients in my kitchen so for the cendol, I did away with the pandan flavoring and substituted matcha (green tea) powder instead. That gave the resulting cendol an ever so slighty bitter matcha taste but hey, still maintaining the traditional green color. For the Red Ruby, I couldn’t be bothered to mess around with water chestnuts (the dastard peeling….gah! Luckily, I didn’t have any in the house), so I replaced that with a crisp, green pear instead. I liked that the pear retained some crunchiness after being boiled for only a few minutes, and it also gave a soft fragrant to the rubies upon chewing.

Now you and I know that everything tastes a gazillion times better when it’s frozen. With this valuable insight in hand, I decided to freeze the accompanying condiments of coconut milk and palm sugar in pretty ice cube moulds to make them more interesting – plus you can actually see that they are part of the dessert. It’s just a whole lot more fun to eat this slowly in pace with the melting of the ice cubes!

Okay, let me focus on some technicalities here, in order to make those cendol noodles you would need special equipment. The pros use a cendol press, but not everybody has one at home. I will therefore make life easier for you (and me) by recommending that you use one of these makeshift equipment* that works wonders as well:

• A large holed potato ricer
• A colander with round holes
• A metal ladle with holes (I used this)
• A cookie press using the attachment with many small holes
• A clean, durable, food grade ziplock plastic bag (To make a hole, snip off a small corner about 2-3mm) 

Did you get the key word? HOLES…the more the better! The last suggestion is probably the best because ziplock bags are available everywhere so now there's no reason for you not to try out this recipe!

Matcha Cendol and Faux Red Ruby Dessert

Serves : 4

Matcha Cendol “Noodles”

½ cup rice flour

½ cup mung/green bean flour

2 tablespoons matcha powder

3 cups water*

3-4 cups soybean milk

1. Before you start, prepare a basin of ice water. You will need to press the cooked flour mixture straight into this mixture to solidify it into cendol.

2. Mix all the above ingredients together and cook on low heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

3. Fill mixture into the equipment* you're using (see post above). Press dough down with a spoon or squeeze, dropping the mixture into the ice water. Work fast as the mixture solidifies quite quickly!

4. When the cendol mixture has all been squeezed into the ice water, keep cendol in the fridge together with the ice water until ready to use. Use a slotted spoon or sieve to scoop cendol out.

5. Reserve soybean milk for the dessert assembly.

* You can substitute the water with pandan juice: Just blend 1 cup loosely packed pandan leaves - washed, snipped with scissors - with 3 cups water and strain to get the pandan juice. If fresh pandan juice is not available, just use 2 teaspoons green pandan paste/essence with 3 cups of water.

Palm sugar ice cubes

150g palm sugar

2 tablespoons caster sugar

500ml water

Place palm sugar, caster sugar and water in a saucepan and boil until sugar has melted. Continue to simmer for 2-3 minutes until syrupy. Let the mixture cool in pan to room temperature, then pour into ice cube trays and place in the freezer until frozen solid.

Coconut Milk Ice Cubes

500ml coconut milk

Pinch of salt

Simply add the salt to the coconut milk and stir until dissolved. Warm mixture in a pan on low heat, if necessary, them cool. Pour mixture into ice cube trays and place in the freezer until frozen solid.

Faux Red Ruby

1 cup chopped pear (pea-sized)

1 cup tapioca flour

5 drops red food coloring (or 1/2 cup beetroot juice)

1. Place pear pieces into a bowl and add red food coloring, mix well and leave to soak for 5 minutes.

2. Next, turn the pear pieces into 'rubies' - Spoon tapioca flour into a ziplock bag and add the pears. Shake well to coat the fruit pieces, leaving them in the bag until required. Remember to shake off excess flour using a sieve before cooking.

3. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil and add half the pears at a time. Stir to separate while cooking, it should be ready when the flour coating becomes translucent and the pear pieces float to the surface (2 minutes).

4. Scoop out rubies with a strainer and place into a basin of ice cold water. Drain and add to the final dessert.

Planning and assembling dessert

1. Make the Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk Ice Cubes a day ahead. On the day of serving, make the Matcha Cendol first, then the Red Ruby.

2. To assemble, you would need soy bean milk as a liquid base. Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup soy milk into each bowl, add the strained Matcha Chendol and Ruby Reds and dump in the ice cubes (a piece each of coconut milk and palm sugar, or to individual taste). Serve immediately.

Guava and Prune Mascarpone Ice Cream with Honeycomb Topping

Back in the days before pop corn became a staple fare of cinema or movie-theatre goers, we enjoyed feasting on simpler snacks sold by street hawkers just outside, yes.. not inside, the cinemas. Snacks such as steaming hot chick peas (garbanzo) and sweet corn kernels, skewered Chinese/Asian pears pickled in brine, and sliced guavas sprinkled generously with dried prune powder. These street snacks still exist today, of course, but they are no longer consumed within the walls of a cinema. More likely, we'll buy them at the night market and snack all the way home, or else have the crisp fruits while strolling back to the office after lunch on a hot day.

Before I go on further, I just wanted to mention that I finally got myself an ice cream machine while on a short trip abroad. I lugged the heavy thing in my suitcase and prayed that it would not break and oh yes, for sunny skies too (it's been raining buckets here lately). Even though sniffles, coughs and sore throats still exist in parts of the house, I foresee many smiley, ice cream days ahead :-).

For my first ice cream adventure with the coveted machine, I wanted to recreate the flavors of one of our street snacks, guava dipped in prune powder. I didn't want to mess around with a custard base, so I settled for mascarpone to hold the flavors together and the mascarpone somehow made the texture of the ice cream that much better. Because fresh guava is so crisp, I had to cook it first to soften the flesh, otherwise it would just turn into rock-hard guava pieces likely to break your tooth once frozen. I blended most of the cooked guava to make the ice cream, but reserved some to add into the semi frozen mixture (right after churning) to retain some of that fruitiness.

The salty-sweet prune powder complemented and enhanced the guava ice cream well. To round off the dessert, I decided to make honeycomb shards for a topping and flavored this with prune powder. It was fun and ultra easy to make... all that whooshing, bubbling up reminded me of my days in the lab when things got really exciting, or out-of-hand, or both. LOL. Naturally, most kids love all this honeycomb stuff (remember Crunchie?) but just don't overdo it or the dentist will come after you with a massive drill!

Honeycomb shards

 

To my friends KJ and Layloo, both new moms and guava and prune powder addicts, this recipe is totally for you!

Guava and Prune Mascarpone Ice Cream with Honeycomb Topping
Makes: 3/4 litre
Ingredients:
250g fresh guava, peeled, cored and sliced into tiny chunks
50g sweetened prune powder
50g caster sugar
1/4 cup water
200ml milk
200ml mascarpone

Method:

1. Place guava chunks, prune powder, sugar and water in a deep pan and let it boil on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly until the guava turns soft and slightly mushy (similar to the texture of cooked apples). With a slotted spoon, scoop out 1/3 cup of cooked guava and set aside. You can chop these finer if you wish, as they will be incorporated later into the soft ice cream.

2. Add milk to the remaining mixture in the pan, let it cool slightly then blend in a food processor or blender until smooth.

3. Pour blended mixture into a bowl and whisk in the mascarpone until just combined. Pour into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

4. Stir the reserved guava above back into the soft frozen mixture before placing it in an airtight container. Leave in the freezer to freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve with prune honeycomb topping sprinkled on top.

Prune Honeycomb Topping

Makes: 125g

Ingredients:

100g caster sugar

1 tablespoon prune powder

4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Method:

1. Put the sugar, prune powder and golden syrup into a deep cooking pan and stir to mix.

2. Place the pan on the heat and let the mixture melt, then turn into to a bubbling mass the colour of maple syrup - about 3 minutes.

3. Turn off the heat, whisk in the bicarbonate of soda and the syrup will bubble up instantly into a big, fine cloud of aerated pale gold. Turn this immediately onto a piece of reusable baking parchment or greased foil.

4. Leave it to set at room temperature and then bash it with a meat beater or something solid, so that it splinters into many pieces. Sprinkle on top of ice creams or cakes and store the rest in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Blood Orange Onde-Onde with Dark Chocolate Filling

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

won't you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton

When I think of sunny skies and a lightness in the air, I think of onde-onde, a favorite childhood dessert. Made of glutinous rice flour and filled with anything from nuts, sweet bean paste to palm sugar, with a decadent coating of grated coconut, these fresh, round dumplings are for me the epitome of simpler days, of happiness. My mother used to make onde-onde in the traditional pandan (green) flavor, filled with brown palm sugar that just melts in your mouth.  I opted to fill mine with chocolate because it won't be a Foodiva recipe if I didn't sex things up a bit!

I also added blood orange juice into the mix because I figured it would give a pretty, baby pink coloring and a subtle citrus fragrance to the overall dessert. In case you didn't already know it (although I can’t imagine why?), pink, citrus and chocolate go very well together… yes, they do.

The best thing about this dessert is that it can be made within minutes, with no baking involved. You only need to boil the onde-onde balls for about a minute before they are cooked and ready to eat!

The second best thing is what happens as you take a bite out of the soft, chewy onde-onde. Its contents spew out, then you start to feel and taste the sweet, dark chocolate oozing slowly onto your tongue. Sensory-wise, it's right up there fully approved by Dionysus (Greek God of Earthly Delights). Taste-wise, it's pretty good, too. Come on... you get chocolate, peanut, coconut and yes, blood orange flavors in one go! And that's before you even swallow.

Blood Orange Onde-Onde with Dark Chocolate Filling
Ingredients:
1 cup glutinous flour
2/3 cups blood orange juice

200g dark chocolate, chopped into 1/2cm chunks
1 cup dessicated coconut flakes

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour with blood orange juice and knead lightly to form a dough.
2. Pinch a small piece of the dough (about 1/4 of it) and drop it into a pot of boiling water. When the dough rises up the surface, remove it with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water. Mix it back into the main dough and knead well to form smooth dough.(Adding cooked to uncooked dough stabilizes the whole dough). Cover the dough and set aside for about 15 minutes.
3. Bring the pot of water to boil again. Pinch a small piece of dough (about a tablespoon) and flatten lightly. Fill the center of the dough with about 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate. Pull the dough up to cover the chocolate, and pinch to seal the dough. Roll in your palm to form a smooth ball and drop about 5-6 glutinous rice balls at a time into the boiling water. When the rice balls float to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water. I usually tap the spoon on an absorbent paper towel.
4. Coat the rice balls with coconut by rolling them in the flakes. Serve immediately. Also keeps for 2 days, covered, at room temperature.
 

Vanilla Rooibos with Coconut and Macadamia Bread Pudding and YBR

Your kind words and support have made me feel like it's time to come out of the woodwork and cook up something nice for you. Think of it as my Thank You :-).

I also feel that I need to fulfill some obligations to fellow bloggers this month. The first is the Bread Pudding of the Month Club hosted by my lovely friend, Victoria at Mission Food. Anyone who has made bread pudding during the month of March is invited to link up to her event, and I'd greatly encourage you to check it out before the month is out, soon! This is my contribution: Vanilla Rooibos with Coconut and Macadamia Bread Pudding, topped with White Chocolate Cream Sauce.

I first discovered this blend of Vanilla Rooibos tea when I stayed at an upscale serviced apartment in Virginia last year. The housekeeping ladies, bless them, left out fresh fruits, pastries and the most amazing coffees and teas for their guests every morning and I guess that was where I got hooked on this rich and full-bodied tea with a creamy vanilla finish. This organically-grown Rooibos is also rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and is a naturally caffeine-free infusion, so it was only inevitable that I cargoed home boxes of the stuff when I left Virginia! They're distributed by Tealeaves.com, in case you're interested.

Since I love the heavenly aroma, I decided to flavor my bread pudding with Vanilla-Rooibos and wrapped the bread with coconut and macadamia to give a lush, tropical feel to it. But that's not all, top the warm pudding with a white chocolate cream sauce and you know you've arrived in the big leagues when you take a bite out of this. It's called the Power of Attraction, don't you know?

Here's the step-by-step, folks:

Now for the slightly tedious part, but only slightly....

Bringing up the rear for another event, please head out to Your Best Recipes hosted by the lovely, uber-accomplished Nancy of Spicie-Foodie. My best recipe for February was my Valentine's Cupid's Cobbler made of plums, cream biscuits and rose-basil seed cream! Check out her site for other participants' contributions or send her your best recipe before the end of March. Gosh, I just realise that I haven't got any recipe, let alone a best one, for March! But there are a few days left, and there's hope yet....

Vanilla Rooibos with Coconut and Macadamia Bread Pudding and White Chocolate Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
Bread Pudding
2 organic Vanilla Rooibos teabags
1 litre milk
1/2 cup palm sugar, grated
2 eggs, lightly beaten
8 slices stale bread, crusts removed
50g butter
1/2 cup sweetened dried coconut slivers, chopped finely
1/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped finely
Butter, for greasing pan

White Chocolate Cream Sauce
200g white chocolate
200ml heavy cream

Method:
1. Butter a shallow baking dish (1-2 inch deep) and set aside.
2. Flatten each bread slice with a rolling pin and use the rest of the butter to spread on one side of the bread slice.
3. Spoon about a teaspoon each of chopped coconut and macadamia on top of a buttered slice, then roll the slice tightly to form a cylinder. Cut each cylinder into three 1-inch long slices and arrange the circles tightly (cut-side up) on the base of the baking dish in one layer. Do this with all the bread slices until the dish is full. Set aside while you make the custard.
4. Place the milk and vanilla rooiboos teabags in a pan and heat until just starting to boil, stirring constantly to prevent the milk from burning. Remove from heat while you prepare the egg mixture.
5. Whisk eggs and palm sugar in a small bowl, then add a cup of the warm milk and beat further. Pour this mixture back into the pan with the rest of the milk and stir until it just starts to simmer. Remove the teabags.
6. Carefully spoon the custard onto the bread slices until they are completely soaked and the custard reaches the rim of the baking dish. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Drizzle with white chocolate-cream sauce before serving.

7. For the sauce, simply warm the cream in a pan on medium-low heat and add the white chocolate until completely melted. Use immediately.

MIA in a Foreign Land

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
Chapter 1
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5
I walk down another street.

Portia Nelson's "There's a Hole in My Sidewalk"

To borrow a quote from Marian Keyes, "The pissed is a foreign country, they do things differently there". Just substitute pissed with sick and that's where I've been. The Land of the Sick. It started fairly innocently with pneumonia, then developed into something else that escalated into something else that paralyzed me entirely. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't write, I couldn't read, I couldn't talk to people. If this sounds familiar, then you've probably gone through it and know exactly what I'm talking about. In Portia Nelson's piece above, I'm probably somewhere between Chapters 2 and 3 right now, but slowly crawling my way out to 4 and hopefully someday, 5.

Anyway, despite my head being in the dark clouds, I am still aware that there have been recent troubles in the world in the wake of monster earthquakes, tsunami and floodings. And that many other people are suffering more, very much more than I am, and my heart and prayers go out to them. Therefore, I won't go on about myself. I just wanted to say sorry that I turned my back on this blog, abandoned YOU, for over a month. Thank you for your kindness because you've all been so lovely to me. Full service will resume when the clouds lift, hopefully soon ;-).          

Much love,