Earl Grey and Honey Madeleine: Fragrance sweet from your own kitchen

Madeleine is one of my sister's favorite sweet, and for her the only recipe that she really love is the one from 一流パティシエといっしょに美味しいケーキを作りたい (Make a delicious cake with first-class pâtissier) that I posted it a long time ago (you can see it here).

But you should know me, ^^, I love to try something new all the time, so this time I have to end up with some compromise, because after reading about the Earl Grey and Honey Madeleine from ........................... , I think this combination is very good. And another reason is I just got the Earl Grey tea from my last trip. Actually I never try the tea from Fortnum & Mason before, so I do as the tourist do ,haha, buy the Decorative Tea Caddy Selection, that consists of Earl Grey Classic, Royal Blend and Afternoon Blend. And I felt in love with the Royal Blend (stronger tea), its flavor is deep and refreshing, but the down side of buying a box set is all of them are smell like Earl Grey tea, haha. Anyway, it's not very bad because the Earl Grey tea from this tea house is quite good, even for me who didn't drink Earl Grey tea often.
When I have a good Earl Grey tea, I think it's a good time to make some good sweet from it too ^^. 
I had to make an adaptation until I can put the Earl Grey and Honey into the original recipe without changing the rich and buttery taste of it, and I'm really happy when my sister said that this Madeleine is good as the one that she like, but it's more aromatic (well, if there are no difference at all I shouldn't make it, haha). As I always tell you about the ingredient, it's depend on your taste, you can use any brands of Earl Grey tea and honey that you really "like" (this is very important, ^^), because when you love the smell of them, you will love the smell of this Madeleine too.
 You can bake these little cookies (or some people will put them in cake category, but for me the type of them don't have any problem as long as it's delicious, haha), in mini muffin tin if you don't have the special  pans with shell-shaped depressions, the look will change but the taste is not.
When brewing the tea in hot butter, be sure not too let the tea sit in the butter for too long, think about it as you brew the tea for drinking, the longer time don't make the tea tastier but it will be bitter, read the back of the package of your tea or using the maximum time for brewing "5 minutes", it's enough to release the intoxicated aroma without bitter taste.
Madeleine is best on the day that it's made, but it can be keep for 3 days, the day old Madeleine will be great to dip in coffee, ^^.
So why waiting, let get yourself ready and make something delicious together.

Earl Grey and Honey Madeleine

Makes about 24 

170 g ............................... unsalted butter
150 g ............................... cake flour
4 g .................................... baking powder
1/8tsp .............................. salt
110 g ................................ eggs, at room temperature
120 g ................................ superfine white sugar
2 tbsp ............................... honey
2tbsp ................................ Earl grey tea leaf

Heat the butter until boil and pour the tea leaf into the hot butter allow it to brew for 3-5 minutes, strain the butter and let cool while making the batter.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in to a medium bowl and set aside.

Put egg in a bowl then set the bowl over the pot of simmering water, beat the eggs at medium-high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and forms a thick ribbon when lifting the beaters. Add the honey and beat to combine.

Pour the flour and, using a large whisk, mix the flour mixture and egg together. Add melted butter into the flour mixture (little by little 5-6 times) mix until smooth do not overmix. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Generously butter two 12-mold Madeleine pans. Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. (Make sure the pans are well greased, the Madeleine will stick like crazy and hard to remove.)

Drop a generous tablespoonful of the batter into the center of each prepared mold.

Bake the madeleines for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched. Do not overbake, or they will be dry.

Remove the pans from the oven and rap each pan sharply against a countertop to release the madeleines. Transfer the madeleines, smooth sides down, to wire racks to cool.

Earl Grey and Honey Madeleine: 

Fragrance sweet from your own kitchen

November 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #46: CROSTATA!, Pasta Frolla with lemon curd and fresh berries

Crostata di frutta fresca: or Crostata with fresh fruits, is the version of Crostata that I make for this month's Daring Bakers Challenge.  Simona from briciole and who is the hostess for the November edition of the Daring Bakers' Challenge, want to introduce us to pasta frolla and let us experiment with it in preparing a crostata of our choice.

She give us two version of the pasta frolla, 1. Simple version, using all purpose flour, butter, egg, sugar and another one is the one that she suggest for the person who want to play with different kinds of flours (MEEEEEEEE! ^^), using almond, whole-grain barley and coconut flour instead of some of the all-purpose flour.

But because I don't like coconut in my tart, I have to change a bit, so I use the mix of almond flour and brown bread concentrate instead of coconut. And for the filling, I really want to try many things, haha, first I want to make simple Crostata with fresh fruits, the one that uses pastry cream. But when thinking about the nutty crust (the almond and brown bread concentrate make the pastry very nutty, I ate a lot of unbaked dough, haha), I want something that adds more flavor to the pastry than the plain vanilla pastry cream. 

So, I choose the lemon curd to be the filling, as it has a lovely tangy taste with a soft and smooth texture like the pastry cream, and when combine with the fresh fruits, the tangy taste makes the Crostata very refreshing. 
Actually you can use any kinds of lemon curd (good quality one from supermarket is OK), but I think making it by yourself is not hard to do and you can be sure about the deliciousness, haha. 
Many recipe will tell you to put the filling into a cool pastry shell, but for me I like to put the lemon curd into hot shell, because it will cook the base of the lemon curd and the shell will be less soggy (I brush the shell with the egg white too, so the crust won't soften easily). 

At last, I end up with my Crostata di frutta fresca, the nutty pasta frolla with lemon curd and fresh fruits, ^^, which I really like it. So, Thank you! Simona, for giving me new great pasta frolla recipe.

"The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well."

CROSTATA 

Crostata di frutta fresca

(Pasta Frolla with lemon curd and fresh berries)

Make 4 (using 11cm tart pan)

Pasta frolla:
1/3 cup [80 ml, 75 g, 2 2/3 oz.] superfine sugar 
1/2 cup [120 ml, 65 g, 2 3/8 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup [120ml, 65 g. 2 1/4 oz.] whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup [60ml, 28 g, 1 oz] almond flour, or almond meal, or coconut flour
1/4 cup [60ml, 28 g, 1 oz.] whole-grain barley flour or unbleached all-purpose flour (I use 10g of brown bread concentrate and  18g of all purpose flour)
a pinch of salt 
6 tablespoons[90ml, 85 g, 3 oz] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 


Filling and Topping:
........................................ half recipe of Simple lemon curd
500g .............................. Fresh berries of your choice


Red berry glaze:
½cup ............................. Any red berry jam (I use Strawberry and Blueberry Jam)
1tbsp .............................. Water


......................................... Chopped pistachio 


Directions:

Whisk together sugar, flours and salt in a bowl.

Rub or cut the butter into the sugar and flour mixture until it has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.

Make a well in the center of the flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten egg and vanilla extract into it.

Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into mixture and then use your fingertips.

Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.

Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF [180ºC/gas mark 4].
Roll out a batch of the pasta frolla and cover the base of the tart pan. 

Cut a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil large enough to cover the bottom of the crust and extend out a bit over the edges of the pan.

You can use pie weights or dry beans to blind bake. Place whatever weight you’re using directly on the parchment paper or aluminum foil in an even layer.

Place the crostata shell in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the weights and parchment paper and continue baking the crostata shell until the border is light golden, about 5 minutes (watch carefully to avoid over-baking, which results in a hard shell). In the absence of weight, the crust may rise in the middle: if that occurs, gently push it back down with the back of a spoon.

Note from dailydelicious: After taking the weight out, I brush the crostata with egg whites put it back in the oven for 5 minutes, the egg white will prevent the shell to become soggy ^^. 

Remove from the oven, pipe or spread the lemon curd into hot shell, and let them cool completely.

Put jam in small microwaveable bowl, heat for 20-30 seconds or until melt, mix water into the hot jam and strain.
Dip the berries into jam glaze before placing over the lemon curd.
If using cherries, pit and dip them in jam glaze before placing them over the lemon curd,
Decorate with finely chopped pistachio. 
The crostata must be cool, but not cold, so if you refrigerate it, take it out of the fridge half an hour before serving. 
This crostata is best eaten the same day it is prepared.

November 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #46: 

CROSTATA!, Pasta Frolla with lemon curd and fresh berries

Simple Lemon Curd

This is one of my favorites, ok, you can ask "why do you have a lot of favorites? ^^ The answer is I really love to eat, haha.

Anyway, I love this lemon curd so much, I got the recipe from the book: ..................... I make it many times, it's easy and delicious, with a tangy taste and very little sweetness. If you're the one that love clean tangy taste you will love this curd too.

Simple Lemon Curd

10 ............................................ Eggs
200g ....................................... Superfine sugar
250ml ..................................... Lemon juice
300ml ..................................... Whipping cream (35%fat)
.................................................. A pinch of salt

Put eggs, sugar, salt, and lemon juice in a stainless steel bowl. Using a whisk to mix together for 2-4 minutes, or until the sugar dissolves.

Pour in the cream and mix well to combine. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and use a whisk to stir continuously for about 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and thick. Have a rubber spatula on hand to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you work. The curd should transform as it cooks, starting off as a very thin cream with froth on top that will then become thick with bubbles. These bubbles will disappear altogether about 5 minutes before cooking is complete. most importantly, keep stirring at all times or you may end up with a grainy texture in the finished curd. 

When the mixture is cooked, remove from the heat, stir for about 1 minute longer to cool a little, then place plastic warp directly onto the top of the curd and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Simple Lemon Curd

Happy Birthday My Dearest Niece: Iris' First Birthday Cake, Strawberry dream cake

The time run so fast, I remember the time that my family was excited about our new member last year, it's a joy to think about all of that time and now she is 1 year old.

Well, the best thing that I can do for her is baking a birthday cake for her, ^^, it's my pleasure to do it.
Anyway because my niece still can't tell me what she want for her birthday, the one who made the decision is her mom (my sister), and she want a butter cake with a buttercream, it's her favorite, haha. 
For the cake even my sister want the butter cake, I didn't make it, because I don't want the cake to be too heavy, so I choose the sponge cake but not the basic sponge, it's a sponge with a lot of oil and butter so it's not dry like the low fat one. The sponge cake recipe  is base on the yellow sponge cake from: The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes for Every Occasion by John Barricelli, but I adapt it a bit, because I don't want the cake without the butter flavor, so I add the melted butter into the cake, and it's good, actually I want to fool my sister, but she knew about the cake just before I assembled it -*-, anyway because it's rich and delicious, so I'm safe, haha. 
Due to the decoration that my sister wanted to decorate the cake with the fresh berries, the inside of the cake had to complete the taste of the berry too. So, I choose the strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberry to be the filling, and if you like Strawberry flavored Pocky, my brother said that it has the same taste, haha. 
I divided my work into 2 days, the first day, I make the cake then filled and refrigerated it, then the next day I made the Italian meringue buttercream and decorated it. So, it's not hard for you to do the same, the most time consuming work is making a lot of roses from the buttercream, you will need about 50-55 of them (whites and pinks, I use 102 and 104 Rose Piping Nozzle), try to make them different in size and your cake will be more lovely ^^. The only trick that I use is making the buttercream roses on the baking paper, then freeze them until ready to decorate the cake, by this way you will be able to move it more freely and they are less fragile.
So, the last thing that I can say is I'm very happy with this cake, and "Happy Birthday Iris!"

Strawberry dream cake

make 1 cake 

(2tiers cake, 1-12cm and 1- 16cm)

Yellow sponge cake
85g .................................. Cake flour
60g .................................. Cornstarch
4 ...................................... Large eggs
4 ...................................... Egg yolks
130g ................................ Sugar
1tsp ................................. Coarse salt
1tbsp ............................... Vanilla extract
½cup .............................. Vegetable oil
½cup .............................. Melted butter (warm)

Strawberry Syrup

50g .................................. sugar 

50cc ................................. water
2tbsp ............................... Crème de fraise


Strawberry buttercream
150g ................................ Unsalted butter
140g ................................ Strawberry puree
35g .................................. Sugar


250g ............................... Strawberries
125g ................................ Raspberries


Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Sift the flour and Cornstarch together, set aside.

Line 40x30 baking pan with baking paper.

Mix melted butter with vegetable oil.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and salt until very thick and pale (thick ribbon).

Add the vanilla and beat to combine.

Pour the sifted flour into the egg mixture, fold to combine.

Pour the melted butter mixture (drizzling, if possible) into the batter and fold to combine.

Pour the mixture into prepared pan.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and spring when touch lightly.
Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.


Make Strawberry buttercream:

Beat all the ingredient together until combine.

Make the syrup:

Put the water and sugar into small saucepan and bring to boil, until all the sugar dissolved, take off the heat and let the syrup cool.

Mix Crème de fraise into the syrup.


Assemble :

Cut the cake into 4 rounds.
2-16 cm. and 2- 12 cm.
Note: when cut the cake, first cut 2 large rounds then cut the small rounds, one of the small round will made from 2 of half circle. 

Place 1 large round cake on the plate, sprinkle the syrup over the cake, spread the strawberry buttercream over the cake, place the slice strawberries over the buttercream. Spread the buttercream over the strawberries, cover with another round cake, sprinkle the syrup again, then cover with the plastic warp and refrigerate.

Do the same to the small rounds.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

115g	Egg Whites
210 g	Sugar
1/4 cup	Water
335 g	Unsalted butter a pinch of salt

To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the water and 170 g of sugar over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. When the peaks are stiff, with the mixer still running slowly pour the remaining sugar into the meringue.

Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245°F, if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245°F, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated, add a pinch of salt and beat to combine.

Cover both cake with buttercream and place the small one over the large one and decorate with buttercream roses and fresh berries.

Happy Birthday My Dearest Niece:

 Iris' First Birthday Cake
21 Nov 210

Quatre-Quarts au Chocolate: Simple chocolate pound cake in my new stylish loaf pan

Quatre-Quarts au Chocolate or Chocolate pound cake is the simple and delicious cake ^^, and it's very easy to make too.

Actually the real reason for making cake for this time is I just got very beautiful loaf pan, haha, and I really want to use it. It's a "Stylish loaf pan with removable base"(スタイリッシュパウンド型底取れ), that come from Many Many Make line of Makiko Fujino (藤野真紀子).  So, I have to think about what I will put in the pan ^^.  Finding the recipe is not hard for me, haha, I have a lot of the recipes to choose from, but the hardest thing is I can only make one at a time, -*-.

This time I give: ............................... a try, I have this book for 7 months by now, but I never made anything from this book, (I think my best friend will laugh at me when she see this blog and say that I choose the easiest recipe to make haha). 

But after comparing this recipe with other, this recipe is tempting, with a  lot of chocolate the chocolate flavor must be great, the brown sugar will make the cake moist and a lot of egg yolks will make the cake rich without a greasiness. With all these reasons in my mind, I decided, this chocolate pound cake has a right to get into my lovely pan, haha.
Anyway, I had to make some adaptation to make it fit for the pan, and luckily it works beautifully. 


I love this cake, for many reason, first it's delicious (^^, I know you think that I will say it's good looking, right?, but the most important thing for food is deliciousness), and second it's beautiful. But I have a word of warning, when you bake small cake, you have to be careful about the baking time, because the cake will dry easily. Check the cake before time (my baking time is a suggestion), your oven can behave different from me.
As I suggest you can use 27x5.7x4cm cake pan instead of the one that I use, because I know that not many people will crazy enough to collect a lot of different size of pan like me.


Quatre-Quarts au Chocolate (カトルカール・オ・ショコラ) =Chocolate pound cake (チョコレートのパウンドケーキ)

Quatre-Quarts au Chocolate

(Chocolate Pound Cake)

Make 14.5x7.5x6.5cm cake, or 27x5.7x4cm cake

30g .................................. Dark chocolate
40g .................................. All purpose flour
¼tsp ............................... Baking powder
35g ................................... Unsalted butter
45g ................................... Brown sugar
1 ....................................... Egg
1 ....................................... Egg yolk
20g .................................. Crème fraîche
.......................................... A pinch of salt
20g .................................. Pistachio 

Preheat the oven to 170°C
Place a baking paper in a pan.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together, set aside.
Melt chocolate in a bowl over a warm (50-55°C) water.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until light, and puffy.
Add egg and egg yolk, then whisk to combine. Pour the melted chocolate into the batter whisk and follow with crème fraîche, whisk to combine.

Put the flour mixture into the batter and fold to combine.

Spoon the mixture into prepared cake tin and sprinkle with pistachio.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden stick inserted into the center comes out clean.

チョコレートのパウンドケーキのレシピ

型: 14.5x7.5x6.5cm のパウンド型1台分 ( 27x5.7x4cm のパウンド型もOKです)

30g .................................. ビターチョコレート

40g .................................. 中力粉

¼tsp ............................... ベーキングパウダー

35g ................................... 無塩バター

45g ................................... ブラウンシュガー

1 ....................................... 卵

1 ....................................... 卵黄

20g .................................. Crème fraîche

ひとつまみ……………....... 塩

20g .................................. ピスタチオ

オーブンを170°Cに温める。

型にオーブンシートを敷くか。

中力粉、ベーキングパウダー、塩はあわせてふるう。

チョコレートを細かく刻みます。ボールに刻んだチョコレートを入れ、50～55℃の湯煎にかけて溶かし、湯煎をはずし。

ボウルにやわらかくしたバターを入れ、泡立って器でクリーム状に練り、ブラウンシュガーを加えてふんわりするまですり混ぜる。卵黄、卵（1個分ずつ)、チョコレート、Crème fraîcheの順に加えそのつどよく混ぜる。

分類に加え、ゴムベラで混ぜる。

型に流して平らにならし、ピスタチオを振りかて、オーブンで25-30分ほど焼く。竹串を刺して生地がついてこなければ焼き上がり。

Quatre-Quarts au Chocolate: 

Simple chocolate pound cake in my new stylish loaf pan