dailydelicious: Japanese cookbooks

Showing posts with label Japanese cookbooks. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Microwave Deco crepe: Testing my new toy

I love to buy cookbooks, and there are a lot of them by now, haha, but it still makes me happy each time that I get my new book.

天使と悪魔のフル－ツロール: Angel and demon roll cake, Because life always has 2 sides.

I always love the animation and manga (if you believe my motto "No one is too old to read (manga)^^". And esp. when I saw the one that story bases on sweet making I really happy to read it.

Review お菓子作りのプロが教える!決定版お菓子の基本 (Professionals teaching on how to make basic sweet ! ) by エコール辻東京製菓研究室

Today, I'm not going to talk about the sweet ^^, because I want to talk about this book, お菓子作りのプロが教える!決定版お菓子の基本 (Professionals teaching on how to make basic sweet ! )by エコール辻東京製菓研究室, the one that I fall in love now.

Actually I got this book for 3 months by now, but I rarely have a chance to take a close look at it, maybe because I have too many new books for a past 3 month, haha. Anyway, after I used this book when making the cheesecake (for Chicken Farm Baker's Project # 25 : My Lover Say Cheese, Parmesan Cheese Cake), I just put it back in the shelf.

But last week, when I felt that I didn't have a time to enjoy this book, I take it out again and well, I have to say that "I love it".
Even I have a lot of books about basic baking but each one has their own style. For this book, it's very good for the beginner who want to try many kinds of sweet, and the book start from the most basic things, like the first of the first chapter is "The things you must know before making the sweet". That's about the size of the egg (M size egg for this book), how to sift the flour, and all you need to know BEFORE making any kinds of sweet.

1. Sponge cake & Rolled cake, 2. Chiffon cake

Then the book will divided into 9 chapters: 1. Sponge cake & Rolled cake, 2. Chiffon cake, 3. Pound cake & Baked goods, 4. Cheese cake, 5. Tart& pie, 6.Choux pastry, 7.Chocolate& and chocolate dessert, 8. Cookies& biscuit, 9. Cold dessert and the last part of the book is how to use equipments and ingredients.

3. Pound cake & Baked goods

Like other Japanese cookbooks, the how-to photos are a lot (I mean "A Lotttttttttt"). The photos are step by step, (like how-to make the sponge cake has about 35 photos plus the photos of good or failed cake). It like looking at a slide show!

4. Cheese cake

And most of them will be like this, the beginning of each chapter will be the basic of how-to (with a lot of photos, haha), and then you will see that with the basic knowledge, you can create a lot of delicious sweet.

5. Tart& pie

I love the way the book presents, not only you know how to make something, like cake. But you will understand that cake is not just a cake, it can be divided into sponge cake, chiffon cake, butter cake or rolled cake.

6.Choux pastry

And each of them has their own characteristic, the ingredients, the method of making it, or the pan that each of them will be put into.

7.Chocolate& and chocolate dessert

So, the best thing that you will get from this book is "an understanding". It is the key to success in baking, because you will know what you do wrong when each problem happen and with that knowledge, you can solve the problem too.

8. Cookies& biscuit

I believe that when you really understand what's going on, you can create many kinds of beautiful and delicious sweet, and making all of them will make you happier ^^.

9. Cold dessert

Because there are many kinds of dessert in this book, you can learn the basic of many things, you can make simple things like cakes, cookies, etc. or create more complicate thing like puff pastry, ice cream or even tempering the chocolate. See, how cool this book is ^^.

"How to use equipments and ingredient"

The bonus that you will get from this book are lovely photos ( cute, cute and cute, haha), a lot of delicious recipe (about 100 recipes!) and when you can create delicious sweet at home, you will get a smile on your face too, ^^.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Lemon cream sandwich cake: Tangy cream + sweet cake equal Delicious!

I just fall in love with my new book ^^, (well using "just" is not the right word because I fall in love before I bought it!). And the book name is パウンド型ひとつで作るたくさんのケーク -しっとりパウンドケーキ、ふわふわウィークエンド、ごちそうケーク・サレ…et plus！- (one loaf pan, a lot of variations, pound cake, soft week end cake, cake salés and etc.) by 若山曜子(Yoko Wakayama)

And you can see from the name that in this book you need only 1 loaf pan, to create a lot of delicious and good looking cake .

I really like the first table that will show you the list of the ingredients that you will use if you have different pan (18cm, 12cm, deep 18 cm loaf pan and 22cm loaf pan), plus the suggest baking time.
The basic of the loaf pan that used in this book is 18x7x6.5cm, and with this table even you have different loaf pan, you will be fine!

Like most of Japanese cookbooks, the illustration is a lot (and it's good if you're in doubt, ^^).

The book divided into 4 section:
First basic pound cake, with a lot of variations.
For example, cake with dried fruits, cake with different flavor (ex. coffee or chocolate and hazelnut), cake that make from different kind of flour, marble cake, cake for grown up, cake made with sweeten bean or canned fruit, and cake with fresh fruit.
Second soft and puffy pound cake:
Weekend cake with variation (ex. lemon, pineapple and yusu), cake with different flavor (ex. tea, rose), cake with fresh fruit, and cake with filling (ex. lemon cream sandwich cake ).
Third other kinds of cake:
Cheese cake, carrot cake, gingerbread, short cake, fondant chocolate, and pumpkin pudding.
Forth, cake salés:
Carrot and mustard, broccoli and curry, tomato and olive and etc.

You can see that this little book has a lot to give. ^^

And after talking about the book, now we can talk about the cake, and I choose the one that I like most, the lemon cream sandwich cake. As I told you before, I love the tangy taste, so lemon curd is one of my weakness, I just love to eat it!
This cake can be the right answer for me, the soft and puffy pound cake that split in 3 layers and sandwich them with tangy lemon cream. This pound cake is made from foaming method, you start the batter by beating a lot of air into the egg, like the way you make the sponge cake. The result is very puffy cake, the texture is more light and I think it doesn't become dense and heavy after refrigerate like the plain pound cake.
The lemon cream is very easy to make, ^^ and I love it, haha. Just put everything (except the butter) into the pan and with a little stir over the heat, you will get the lovely yellow cream, that you will use in this cake, eat alone, or with other bread or dessert that you want to.
I finished this cake very quickly ^^, and come with the feeling that I want to share this recipe with everyone (esp. I really like this book), so hope you try this recipe and wish you love it like me.

Lemon cream sandwich cake

Makes 1 (18x7x6.5cm loaf)

Cake
90g ................................. Melted butter
2 ...................................... Eggs (about 100g)
80g .................................. Sugar
60g .................................. Cake flour
20g .................................. Corn flour

Lemon cream
1 ....................................... Egg
2tsp ................................. Corn flour
40g .................................. Sugar
50cc. ................................ Lemon juice
.......................................... a pinch of lemon zest
20g ................................... Butter

Icing
6tbsp ............................... Icing sugar
1 tbsp ............................ Lemon juice

Prepare the pan by lining the pan with baking paper.
Sift cake flour and corn flour together, set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Beat the egg and sugar, by placing the bowl over warm water (the water temperature is about 60-70°C), until very thick and pale.
Pour the sifted flour into the egg mixture, fold to combine.
Pour the melted butter into the batter and fold to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Make the lemon cream, by putting all the ingredients except the butter into the pan and put over low heat, stir until thicken.
Take off the heat and put the butter into the pan stir until the butter melt.
Place the plastic warp over the cream surface and let it cool completely.

Assemble the cake:

Slice the cake into 3 layers, spread the lemon cream cake over 2 of the cake layers, and place the last one on top.

Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together, and pour the mixture over the cake.

Lemon cream sandwich cake:

Tangy cream + sweet cake equal Delicious!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Strawberry and Mascarpone Cupcake: cute little cake with a review of the book, ラブリー！ハッピー！贈るお菓子

ラブリー！ハッピー！贈るお菓子 (講談社のお料理BOOK)

Lovely! Happy! Sweet for Gift is the name of this book and from the name you can imagine that most of the sweet in this book is great for giving ^^.

Actually I fall in love with the look of the book (well, I order it from Amazon, without seeing the inside of the book, but the cover says it all for me), and the author is famous for her books and her baking class.

Anyway, for me this is the first one of her book that I bought, and I have to say that it's very beautiful!!!!! You know that I love beautiful books ^^.

The book divided into 5 chapter, start with 1. A Gift for Thanks, 2.A Gift of Hello, 3.A Gift of Congratulations, 4.A Gift of Merry Christmas and the last one A Gift of Love. Plus the last chapter, how to make the base for all the sweet and the Q&A.

All of the chapter have the many kinds of sweet, cakes, roll cakes, cheese cake, marshmallow, scone, jam cookies, pies, jelly, quiche, choux, and chocolate. I love the decoration, they are so cute and the packaging idea is good too.

In each kind of sweet, there will be a instruction for making the decorating item, like this one is how to make the iced flower.

You can see that the photos are great too, only looking at all these lovely photos makes me happy ^^. She show us how to turn some simple sweet into something special, like the cut out cookie that turn out to be super cute cookie!

The decoration for the Christmas chapter is great too, very seasonal, and giving some of these sweet will surly make the recipient smile.

The last chapters, A Gift of Love, most of the sweets are chocolate, with lovely decoration, and a lot of "Love", you can give them to anyone you love, not only your boyfriend or girlfriend ^^. They are cute enough to show anyone who received them, that you really care for them.

The last parts of the book are the photo instruction for making all kind of base (because most of the basic is the same), like how to make genoise sponge, puff pastry , butter cake and how to tempering the chocolate.

For the Q&A section, the questions come from the pupils in her class or from the e-mail. Like how to prepare the sweet if you don't have enough time, ingredient and equipment guide.

I really recommend this book if you love to decorate your sweet, love to make a lovely packaging and most of all love to give your sweet as a gift!, this one is made for you.

The cupcake is a basic butter cake, the texture is soft and moist with a piece of strawberry inside. Anyway, I fall in love with the frosting , it's delicious and very easy to work with, if you love mascarpone you will feel the same, haha. For the buttercream rose, you can use any recipe for me I use the Italian meringue buttercream, or you don't have to make the buttercream at all, only the cake and the frosting are very good.

So, you can make this lovely cake in any occasion, as a gift for someone you love or as a gift for yourself, and your heart will feel great to have a delicious and cute cupcake as an afternoon treat, who say you can't give a gift for yourself, haha.

Strawberry and Mascarpone Cupcake

Make 7 (7cm cupcake)

50g .................................. Butter
80g .................................. Sugar
1 ....................................... Egg
.......................................... A pinch of salt
60ml ................................ Half and half
100g ................................ Cake flour
1tsp .................................. Baking powder
½tsp ................................ Vanilla bean paste
4 ....................................... Strawberry, cut in half

Mascapone frosting
200ml ............................. Whipping cream
35g .................................. Sugar
50g .................................. Mascarpone cheese
1tbsp ............................... Lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 170 °C

Place the baking paper in to the cupcake tins.

Sift the flour and baking powder together.

Beat the butter, salt and sugar until light and fluffy, add the vanilla bean paste and beat to combine.

Put the egg in to the batter and beat until combine.

Divide the flour mixture into 3, put 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter, stir with a spatula, when combine, add half of the half and half, follow with 1/3 of the flour, stir again then add the rest of the half and half. Finish with the rest of the flour, mix to combine.

Scoop the batter into the tins, add the strawberry half in the center.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cake is spring when touch lightly.

Let the cake cool completely before frosting it.

Beat all the ingredient together and put the frosting into a piping bag.
Frost the cake with the frosting and decorate as you wish, ^ ^.

Strawberry and Mascarpone Cupcake:

cute little cake with a review of the book, ラブリー！ハッピー！贈るお菓子

Sunday, February 28, 2010

My Bookshelf

The date that follows the name of the book is the year that I bought it (only the one that I remember, haha).

This list will never end, ^ ^, so you can come back to see my new book from time to time, as I still buy more (and the old one still don't finish yet).

Note: the name of Japanese book will be unreadable if you don’t encode.

English Books