Double delicious: Chocolate Crème brûlée, delicious treat for the chocoholic in you

 

"I like Crème brûlée" said my dear friend, "but I don't want to make the same thing, the custard one, I want other flavor, a delicious one", well, this is the question, when we talk on the phone.

For me, I like the Crème brûlée too, but, the simple one is not the right choice. So, I went to bed with this question on my mind (haha, I'm not mad, but I always dream about what I want to make every night).Then, I couldn't sleep, and what happened next was I kept on browsing through the cookbooks, one by one, to find the right thing that I want to do.

The recipe that got me is the Chocolate Crème brûlée, it's the answer to the people who love the richness of the cream and the chocolate and most of all it's the answer to my friend, who want the special Crème brûlée !
This Crème brûlée is very special, especially for the chocoholic one, the cream is the mixture of the cream and the chocolate (well, I think it's up to the bitterness that you want, or the level of the chocoholic that you are, ^ ^, just choose the right percentage that you love), so each spoonful, will full of deliciousness.
As always (or as you know), I made only 1/4 of the original recipe, and use a petite ramekins (and I got 4 of them, well, enough for me, ^ ^), so my baking time is very short, if you follow my path, be sure to watch the oven real close, the Crème brûlée is overcook easily (and even under cook, it's better than overcook it).
When making the caramel topping, it's your choice again, I love my caramel to be brunt and dark, but you can go on lightness by sprinkle the sugar less than the given amount, it's your Crème brûlée anyway, ^ ^.

I think this delicious dessert can be served any time of the day, esp when you need a real chocolate to lighten up your day!

 Chocolate Crème brûlée

Make 8-10 (medium size ramekin)

  

Chocolate custard cream

750 ml (26 fl oz/3 CUPS) ................ cream (35% fat)
250 ml (19 fl oz/1 cup) ................... full-cream milk
110 g (3¾ OZ/½ cup) .................... sugar
185 g (6½ Oz/ 1¼ cups) ................ chopped dark chocolate
185 g (6½ Oz/ 1¼ cups) ................ chopped milk chocolate
8 .................................................. egg yolks

CARAMEL TOPPING

110 g (3¾ OZ/½ cup) .................... caster (superfine) sugar (I use golden caster sugar)

Preheat the oven to 150 °C
MAKE THE CHOCOLATE CUSTARD CREAM:

  

Put the cream, milk and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the chopped dark and milk chocolates and allow to stand for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth.

  

Using an electric mixer, beat the yolks in a bowl, then gradually add the chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Strain the custard into the jug.

  

Pour the custard into the prepared dish. Stand the dish or ramekins in a roasting tin and position the tin in the oven Add enough hot water to the roasting tin to come halfway up the sides of the dish or ramekins.

Bake for 45-60 minutes for the large dish and 25-30 minutes for individual ramekins (or 15-20 minutes for petite one like mine ^ ^). The custard should still be slightly wobbly in the centre; it will continue to cook on standing and will become firmer as it cools. Carefully remove the dish from the roasting tin. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

MAKE THE CARAMEL TOPPING:

 

Using paper towels, remove the moisture, if any, from the surface of the chilled custard. Sprinkle the surface evenly with the sugar.

Position under a preheated grill or use a small blow torch to caramelize the sugar. Allow to cool then refrigerate until required.

 

 

Double delicious: Chocolate Crème brûlée, 

delicious treat for the chocoholic in you

Lemon Biscuits: Easy and delicious cookies, that I want to share!

 

I always have lemons in the fridge, because it's like the basic ingredient for the baking. But there are many times which I was too busy (with my work, well, I'm not lucky enough to bake for living) and I had to find the recipe to use it, as I don't like to waste anything.

This time the recipe that comes to save my life come form The Olive magazine Issue: February 2010. Talking about the magazine, I really like this one. There was a time that I just couldn't resist it, I buy 4-5 magazines per month (well,  they are good but it's too much I never had enough time to try the recipes from them). So, I try to change, I just read it before buying it (^ ^, so, now you know that most of the time I just grab them from the shelf and pay>*<, no browsing just paying, very bad habit).
But this one is still the one that I buy almost every month, I like the photo (the style of the photo is great, and very modern), I like the easy recipes which I never disappointed. There is another magazine from the BBC, that my friend's very crazy about, the BBC Good Food, she's really love it. But for me Good Food is great but I still like Olive more.

If you like cooking or baking, you know that food magazine is a good way to give you the inspiration. I love to read about the new trend in cooking or baking market (I think, because I have blog about baking so I'm in this business too, I have my mission to show you some great baking trend, haha). Anyway, the thing that I really get from all of my magazine is the good recipe to share with all of you, and hope you like it too.

And this time the recipe that I want to share with you is the lemon biscuits, it's very easy to make, because this time you don't have to use anything much, only the food processor.
Just pour everything into the machine, step by step, roll and cut, then bake, and you get the tangy sweet (and delicious) cookie, ^ ^ fresh from the oven. The Lemon icing is easy to make too, it makes the cookie looks lovely and more yummy.
After baking and drizzling with the icing, it's your decision that you want to keep them for your own tea time treat (^ ^, I know that you consider this one first), or give it to your friends or any people you love, well, 60 cookies is a lot, so sharing them with other people is my suggestion, and they will love you much much more, haha.  

Lemon Biscuits

makes about 60

 

Lemon biscuits

325g ...................... All purpose flour

200g ...................... Salted butter, chilled and chopped

125g ...................... Golden caster sugar

.............................. Lemon zest from 1 lemon

.............................. Juice from 1 lemon

2 ........................... Egg yolks

Lemon Icing

100g ..................... Icing sugar

............................. Lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the baking sheet with the baking paper or silpat.

Put the flour, and butter into the bowl of the food processor, and process until breadcrumb like.

Put the lemon zest, egg yolks, sugar and lemon juice into the bowl and process to a combine.

Pour the mixture onto the working surface, and press them together.

Roll the dough to 5 mm thick.

Cut the dough using 4.8 mm round cookie cutter.

Put on the baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Let the cookie cool completely.

Make the Lemon icing:

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and mix with enough lemon juice to make a runny icing.

Drizzle the icing over the cookies.

Lemon Biscuits: Easy and delicious cookies, that I want to share!

Strawberry Milk tart: Try the new way to make the pastry dough.

First, I want to try the recipe, second, I have a lot of strawberry in the fridge, haha, so it's the reason why you see this tart in my blog. And the result is a lovely and delicious tart.

The recipe comes from the book: キッシュ&タルト (quiche &tart) by  三宅 郁美 (Ikumi Miyake) If you notice I got this book on focus about 3 months ago, ^ ^, well, like always I just can't find enough time to do anything that I want to try.

As I said that this is the testing recipe, I found the recipe for the pastry is very good, the how-to is very easy. You don't have to use many equipment to make a great tart only the plastic box! All you have to do is put all the ingredients into the box and shake (well, I love it ^ ^, it's fun to shake it haha, new way to make a pastry dough). After that just wrap it with the plastic warp and then roll it out as usual.

I really like to suggest this method for anyone who never make pastry dough before because you don't have to worry about the result from working too much and the pastry will be tough cause you just shaking it, remember ^ ^.
But for the filling I must admit that there is a little problem, the first batch of it, the filling never thicken, so I have to adjust it by adding more white chocolate. Be sure to refrigerate it to make it thicken before placing the strawberry on top of the filling, otherwise the strawberry will sink to the bottom.

So, I really want you to try, (yes, I mean you ^ ^), the new way to make the pastry dough, it will make your life easier, haha, no need to wash the food processor and no mess at all. 

This tart tastes a bit like the strawberry and cream but more mellow and sweet, I think the people who love white chocolate will be love it. It's both refreshing and fulfill, just imagine the cool tart with a warm cup of tea on the afternoon, well, I think you might want to try it now, haha.

Strawberry Milk Tart

makes 7 (9cm in diameter and 2 cm deep)

Pastry    
200g ........................ Cake flour
¼ tsp ....................... Salt
2tbsp .......................  Confectioner ‘s sugar
1 .............................   Egg yolk
2-3 tbsp ...................  Cold water
100g ........................  Unsalted butter (melted and cool)
1 .............................  Egg white for brushing

White chocolate cream
80g ..........................  White chocolate
50ml ........................  Whipping cream
20g ..........................  Sugar
................................  Vanilla extract

Topping
400g ........................ Strawberry
3tbsp ........................ Strawberry jam
................................. Pistachio, chopped

 

Sift the flour, salt and confectioner’s sugar into a plastic container; make a well in the center.

Mix the egg yolk and the water together and pour into the well, follow with the melted butter.
Close the lid and shake for 30 times.

Pour the pastry into the plastic wrap, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 7  tartlet tins, 9cm in diameter and 2 cm deep.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Cut into rounds to fit the base and sides of the tins. Gently press into the sides to fit, trim the edges, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pick the pastry with fork, and line each pastry shell with baking paper and fill with baking beads or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and weights and bake for 7-8 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.

Brush with egg white while still hot.

Let cool.

Make the white chocolate cream:

 

Put the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a small pan and bring to boil.

Pour the boiling mixture over the white chocolate , stir until chocolate melt and the cream is smooth.

Pour the smooth cream into the prepared tart shell and let the filling cool.

Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Prepare the topping:

 

Heat the strawberry jam by heating it in the microwave for 30-50 seconds until turn into liquid and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps. 

Dip the strawberry in the jam and place it on the white chocolate cream.

Chill for 20 minutes and sprinkle with chopped pistachio before serving.

Strawberry Milk tart: Try the new way to make the pastry dough.