April 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #39: Steamed Pudding, Spotted Dick

I feel like the time fly, it's a Daring Bakers' challenge again. It's seen like a long time since I start being a Daring Bakers member. I remember the time that I feel so exciting to receive the email telling me that I'm the one who can be called "Daring bakers".

I follow this group for a long time, and love to see all the 
creation that every members make it, and I wish I can be one of them. Until the October 2007, I started making my blog and I got enough courage to write the application to be one of the Daring Bakers members.
And I must say that I try not to skip the challenge, even sometime, I'm not feeling well. Like this month, I have a little health problem (not much but it makes me want to sleep rather than baking, haha). So after reading the 6 page longs challenge, I felt " I couldn't make it". Because I didn't get anything, like the element of the challenge or what the host want us to do. -* - 
Anyway, just 2 day before, I felt so much better and I try to read again and, and now I know that this challenge is not that hard or long as the paragraph, it's easy and interesting.


 The required elements of this challenge are:
1) to make a suet pudding using real suet or as close a replacement as you can manage or is acceptable to you; and
2) to cook it by steaming or if you want to be even more traditional by boiling tied up in a cloth.


So, both of the elements are not hard to follow ^ ^. For the Pudding, I choose to make the traditional English pudding with a name "Spotted Dick", the sweet steam pudding with current and peel but I can't find suet (it's not easy to find it in Thailand) so I use the Crisco instead of the suet. And luckily I have a steamer so I can use it, and this way is easier than  traditional way by boiling tied up in a cloth. And this month I still keep on the challenge like I want to, haha.
I don't know what kind of breadcrumb is the right one, but I think the fresh one will be a lot better, as it give the pudding a moisture and the taste is better. I serve this pudding warm with a lot of vanilla sauce, and all I can say is "It's delicious!"

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Steamed Pudding, Spotted Dick

Makes 1 litre/ 2pint pudding 

Type 2 puddings – Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type.
(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs (dailydelicious note: use fresh one)
(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar
(75g/3oz) currants 
(25g/1 oz) mixed chopped peel
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

Vanilla sauce to serve

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs,currants, mixed chopped peel sugar and suet.
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk

4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin  (I use small pudding tin)and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.

5. Steam steadily for 2.5-3 hours (for the small one steam for 1.5 hours).

6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

April 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #39: 

Steamed Pudding, Spotted Dick

Homey Cake for Everyone: Caramel Apple Cake

We all love the aroma from the cake when we bake it, as it fill the house, some of us will close their eyes and imagine what the taste of the cake will be like. The sweet smell always bring everyone a good memory too.

For me, I like to take a deep breath while baking, the homey smell give me a sense of comfort and peace. So, baking at home is the best thing for me ^ ^.
The most delicious smell that I like is anything with the apple and cinnamon, I think it's the most homey aroma in the world, haha. This cake is very easy to make and very delicious esp. for anyone who love the caramel (like my sister, she really crazy about caramel, haha, even she doesn't like cinnamon, she still love this recipe).


The original recipe uses the soft toffee instead of the caramel sauce, so if you don't want to make the caramel sauce you can use 50g of the soft toffee (use the Werther's chewy toffee) with the 2 tbsp of the double cream. By melting the toffee in the small saucepan with the double cream and use it as a caramel sauce. This method is great for anyone who don't like to play with the hot liquid like the caramel and safer ^ ^.
Apple cake can be served as a afternoon tea treat or a great start of the morning, each bite of the cake filled with the soft and sweet cake with the sweet apple which turn into another level of the deliciousness by the taste of the caramel and nut. I like to have it warm with a cup of tea, imagine the sweetness of the cake, the little bitterness of pecan, they will make you feel great every time of the day. 

Caramel Apple Cake

Make 1 (20x20cm) cake

175g ................................. Unsalted butter, soft
150g ................................. Golden caster sugar
1 tsp ................................. Vanilla extract
2 ....................................... Eggs
¼tsp ................................ Baking powder
¼tsp ................................ Salt
½tsp ................................ Cinnamon
225g ................................. All purpose flour
4tbsp ................................ Yogurt
2 ........................................ Apple, peeled, cored, and cut into small chunks
70g .................................... Pecan, roasted 
............................................ Caramel sauce 


Preheat the oven to 160°C
Line the pan with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together and set aside.

Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla extract until pale, then beat in the eggs, one by one. 

Tip in half of the flour mixture, fold to combine, then add the yogurt, fold again.
Pour all of the flour and apple then fold to combine. 

Scrape the mixture into the pan, smooth the top.
Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer poked in comes out clean.
To decorate, warm the caramel sauce to liquidize it. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top sprinkle the pecan and drizzle again, then leave to cool.

Homey Cake for Everyone: Caramel Apple Cake

Chicken Farm Baker's Project 21 : Cool & Freshly with A la mode Dessert, Green tea ice cream with white chocolate red bean cake and red bean ganache

As the weather in Thailand is very, very hot, there is nothing better than the ice cream when the situation is like this, haha. For this month, Ball (who is the host), want all of us to make the ice cream and serve it with whatever we think it goes well with.

I like to make the ice cream and make it very often (because all the members of the family love it).

But most of the time, I just serve it plain, (it's easier, haha). So this is the chance for me to think about something more. 

What is the flavor that I want to use? For this moment, I must say the green tea (or Matcha) that I got from my friend last month, and I really want to try it, ^ ^.  My friend said that it's great (and very expensive, haha), because it came from the special tea house. So, I have to test it, to see if the price is matter (and I have to admit that the price is matter when you ask for the quality of the tea, but for the taste of it, it's really up to you, ^  ^).

And I love it, this Matcha is very good, the taste is mellow with a little bitter taste (tea has to be bitter, right? ^ ^), and a great smell too.
So, when the ice cream is great, I have to think about the thing to serve with, and the answering is still in japan, haha. The green tea ice cream usually serve with sweeten red bean  so when I want to go on with the Japanese theme, I end up with the mix and match of the green tea, red bean and chocolate (both dark and white).
I make the white chocolate cake red bean cake and the red bean dark chocolate ganache, because I want to mix the sweet and earthy taste of the green tea ice cream and red bean with the sweet and mellow of the white chocolate and the bitterness of the dark chocolate. 
And the result, ^ ^, it's great! The mixture of the taste is great, they go very well together, and the texture of them are great too. The soft and cool ice cream and the cake make both of them more delicious, and the red bean ganache add the little bitterness, that reduce the sweetness from the ice cream and cake too.

I made this dessert just after the host gave me the project, but if you can see this month, I post it so late, because my computer got a virus!!!
I never had this problem before, and it made me feel very bad, imagine when you can't turn on the computer and you don't know if your document and the picture are alive or not -*-. And I have to admit that I addict to the computer, haha, because I didn't know what to do, and using other people computer is not the answer I think most of us are the same, right?
Anyway I'm lucky enough that all my files are safe, because if they are gone, I think you won't see my project for this month for sure, haha.

 Green tea ice cream with white chocolate red bean cake 

and red bean ganache

Green tea Ice cream


250ml ............................ whole milk
120g ............................... sugar 
......................................... Pinch of salt
500 ml ........................... heavy cream
4 teaspoons ................... matcha (green tea powder)
6 ...................................... large egg yolks


White chocolate red bean cake


100g ............................... Cake flour
½tsp .............................. Baking powder
50g ................................. Unsalted butter
120g ............................... White chocolate, chopped
70g ................................. Sugar
250g .............................. Sweeten red bean
2 ..................................... Egg


Chocolate red bean ganache


50g ................................ Dark chocolate, chopped
95g ................................ Whipping cream
70g ................................ Red bean paste


For serving 
........................................ Sweeten red bean


Make the green tea ice cream:

Warm the milk for 1½ minutes in the microwave, then add the sugar, salt and green tea powder. Pour the mixture into the blender.
Pour the egg yolks into the blender and blend until smooth, for 2 minutes. 

Pour the mixture into back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (or about 85°C).  

Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.


Make the white chocolate red bean cake:


Preheat the oven to 170°C and line the base of 20x20 cm pan
Sift the 80g of flour with baking powder.

Melt the chocolate and butter over the a bowl of hot water (don't let the bowl touch the water).
Mix the 20g of flour with the red bean to separate it and prevent it to stick together.

Beat the egg with the hand mixer until light then slowly add the sugar and beat until light and thicken.

Pour the chocolate and butter mixture into the egg mixture, fold to combine.
Pour the flour mixture into the egg mixture fold until almost combine, add the red bean and fold to combine.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes (after 25 minutes cover the cake with the aluminium foil to prevent over browning).


Make the chocolate red bean ganache:

Pour the whipping cream into the saucepan and bring to boil.
Take the cream out of the heat and pour over the chopped chocolate wait for 1 minute, and stir to combine.
Put the red bean paste into the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine.


To serve:


Cut the cake and place the ice cream on top, drizzle the ganache on top and sprinkle with the sweeten red bean.

Chicken Farm Baker's Project 21 :

 Cool & Freshly with A la mode Dessert, 

Green tea ice cream with white chocolate red bean cake and red bean ganache

Sweeten red bean

The Sweeten red bean is the ingredient for making the Japanese sweet. Use it as a filling, or it's can be eaten as a snack or serve with the green tea ice cream.

Sweeten red bean

Make about 500 g

200 g	Red bean (azuki bean, small red bean)
150 g	Sugar
A dash of	Salt

Wash the beans, cover the cold water, and soak overnight. Drain beans and discard water.

Place beans in a saucepan, add cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 2 hour, or until very soft. Monitor the pan to make sure water doesn't dry up.

Add the sugar, and dash of salt, cook and stirring until the mixture is dry.

Chocolate Almond Rocher: Crunchy and nutty chocolate bonbons

Ok, life is not easy, everyone can't always get what he or she want. Like me, I have a little problem when making chocolate, because I love dark chocolate (darker is better for me, ^ ^), while my brother and sister love milder chocolate. 

So every time that I want to make anything, I have to think about it, like, they want to eat it or not, because I don't want to make anything that I don't want to eat but I just can't eat much , haha, (a bit selfish, right? but for me, when making something that I want to eat I will be very happy,hehe).


But for this time, I want to try, this chocolate is very interesting , especially I have a chance to make the nougat (well for me, I love to try something new, and this nougat is my first time too). I think that this chocolate rocher will get a warm welcome (from my sister and brother), ^ ^, because this chocolate using the semisweet chocolate in filling and coating with the milk chocolate rather than the dark chocolate and the sweetness comes from the nougat too.


If you love the chocolate that is not too bitter and full of nut you will love this chocolate bonbon. The filling made from the almond nougat with chocolate ganache and coated with chocolate and almond (as I said that anyone who love nut will be happy with this chocolate).


It's not hard to make the nougat for the filling. But when rolling the  nougat, it will be easier if you have the silicone liner, and beware of the nougat as it's very hot.

Chocolate Almond Rocher

Makes about 50 pieces

Nougat

75g ...................... Almond diced

100g ................... Granulated sugar

35ml ................... Water

8g ........................ Unsalted butter

Ganache

100g .................... Semisweet chocolate, chopped

60ml .................... Whipping cream

½tbsp................... Rum

Coating

250g ...................... Milk chocolate

3tbsp ...................... Almond diced

Make the Nougat:

Prepared 2 silicone liners.

Put the sugar and water into the pan, put over medium heat, let the sugar melt and caramelize. When the mixture is dark amber put the butter into the mixture, follow with the almond diced. 

Pour the mixture over one of the silicone liner and place the other liner on top, then use the rolling pin to spread the mixture into thin sheet.

Let the mixture cool, then break into small pieces.

Make the ganache filling:

Put the cream into the pan and bring to boil, then pour the cream over the chocolate, wait for 1 minute. Stir until the chocolate melt and the ganache is smooth.

Pour the nougat into the ganache, stir to combine.

Use small scoop, scoop the ganache into small portion (about 12g/ pieces) refrigerate until firm then roll into a ball.

Coating with chocolate:

Divide the chocolate into 2 part, 190g and 60 g.

Put the 190g chocolate into the bowl, then place the bowl over the simmering water.

Heat the chocolate until the temperature reach 45°C, then take the bowl out of the heat.

Pour the 60 g chocolate into the melted chocolate, stir until the temperature drop to 27°C.Place the bowl over the simmering water, again heat until the temperature reach 29-30°C.
The chocolate is now ready to use (if the chocolate cooler, heat it again but don't let the temperature higher than 30°C). Pour the almond diced into the chocolate, stir to combine.

Coat the filling with the chocolate, let the coating dry before packing.

Chocolate Almond Rocher: Crunchy and nutty chocolate bonbons

Yoghurt and Walnut Cake with Figs: Finally I got my fig form my garden !

I love to grow trees and I have a dream of a garden full of many fruits and vegetables, well it's only a dream because every time that I tried to grow something it died, haha.

 

Anyway I just can't stop trying, so this time I told my brother to take care of the trees for me, ^ ^. I really want to grow the fig tree for a long time, and my first attempt for fig  D-I-E-D (like other kind of fruit or herbs which I tried to plant -*-). So this year, when my brother asked me what to buy I choose fig. It's like something that I need to make over.

Months after months, I had to take a look at the trees almost everyday, hoping that I will get the fresh fruits for baking (I had to tell myself not to touch it, haha, there was a time that I had a jasmine tree, it was beautiful with a lot of flowers, it died after I tried to take care of it, -*-).
Finally, the time that I waited for is coming, the fruits are here, like you can see in the picture, and I start finding the recipe to use them. It's not hard to find the recipe for the fresh fig, (eat it plain, haha), because I have a lot ^ ^.

Luckily, I found the recipe for this lovely cake in the Vogue Entertaining + Travel (issue: February/March 2010), in the Turkish inspired menu. Fig usually used in the Mediterranean region because it widely grown in that climate.

I love the look of this cake, it's very lovely with the green and red jewel (from the pomegranate seed). The cake is a little dense because the cake contains nut and and soaked with the lemon syrup.

If you can find the pomegranate with the red seeds, the cake will be very lovely, but there are some kind of the pomegranate, that the seed is not red, it's yellow. So, if your pomegranate is not ruby red, just add the red food coloring when simmering the seeds in the syrup (or if you don't think the look is important use it as it is).

Some people don't like to eat fig, because it's quite sweet and it has a distinguish taste and smell. Anyway, for this cake, if you don't like fig or don't have it, don't worry it's still delicious. 

Adaptation from: Vogue Entertaining + Travel issue: February/March 2010.

Yoghurt and Walnut Cake with Figs

Makes 20 cm cake

75g .................................... plain flour
80g ................................... fine semolina
¾ tsp ............................... baking powder
¼ tsp ............................... baking soda
75g ................................... walnuts, roasted, finely ground
2 ....................................... eggs
260g ................................ caster sugar
70g ................................... unsalted butter, melted
30ml ................................ vegetable oil
1tsp .................................. vanilla extract
150g ................................ yoghurt
.......................................... Finely grated zest of 1 lemons
.......................................... juice of 1½ lemons
½ ..................................... cinnamon quill
3 ....................................... cardamom pods, crushed
1 ........................................ pomegranate, seeds removed
4 ....................................... black or green figs, torn in half
1 tbsp .............................. slivered pistachios or chopped pistachios, to serve


Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease a 20cm springform tin, then line the base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 5cm beyond tin rim.

Sift flour, semolina, baking powder, baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt into a bowl, then stir in ground walnuts.

Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs and 110g of sugar together until thick and pale.

Combine butter, oil and vanilla in a jug, then pour over flour mixture. Add yoghurt and one-third of the egg mixture and stir together to combine, then gently fold in the remaining egg mixture. 

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake on the lowest shelf in the oven for 40-45 minutes, covering the top with baking paper towards the end of baking to prevent over-browning, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of’ the cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile, place 110g of sugar, 90ml of water, lemon zest and the juice of 1  lemons, cinnamon and cardamom in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 5 minutes. Strain the mixture, discard spices.

Using a skewer, prick the top of the cake, then gradually brush the hot syrup (I slowly pour the mixture over the cake) over the hot cake and leave to cool in the tin.

Place remaining 40g of sugar, juice of ½ lemon and 2 tablespoons water in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add pomegranate seeds and simmer for 2—3 minutes or until the seeds tint the syrup pink.
Place the cake on a platter with a lip, arrange figs over the top of the cake, scatter with pistachios, then drizzle over the pomegranate syrup.  

Yoghurt and Walnut Cake with Figs: 

Finally I got my fig form my garden !