TWD: Traditional Madeleines

The recipe for this week is a great choice as I love madeleines and most importantly, I've finally get to use the madeleine pan that I bought many months ago!

I had so much fun baking madeleines that I made the lavender and honey version right after the first batch, it is a recipe that can be found under "Playing Around" section of Earl Grey Madeleines in page 169.



Don't forget to check out the entries from the other participants here!

Traditional Madeleines
(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:
2/3 cup plain flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Method:
1) Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2) In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
3) Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
4) With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. 5) Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines.
6) GETTING READY TO BAKE: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
7) Grease 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. (Omit the flour if you are using a nonstick pan)
8) Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don’t worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven’s heat will take care of that.
8) Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched.
9) Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife.
10) Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature
11) Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners’ sugar.
Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies

TWD: Florida Pie

Did it ever happen to you that nothing goes right during cooking? Well, it happened to me last night. I guess I should not push myself to do it when I didn't feel like cooking, but I still carried on because I've bought all the ingredients for Florida Pie already.

It's disastrous right from the start! I misinterpreted the amount of cookies crumbs needed for the pie base. The recipe mentioned 1 and 3/4 cup, but instead of measuring it with a cup, I calculated the weight instead. So I had too much cookies crumbs and too little butter, and no matter how I mixed it, the mixture was still very dry. I still tried to press the mixture onto the mini tart pans though, and I was hoping that by freezing it before baking, it will turn out alright. But of course, my silly plan did not work, and right after baking, when I tried to touch one of the crusts, it crumbled immediately.

But by then, it was too late to back out because I've already prepared the lime cream. So I've decided to leave the pie crusts as they were and continued with the cooking of shredded coconut and cream. And I made yet another mistake with the amount of coconut. The amount shown in the ingredient list is 1 and 1/4 cup, and the "1/4" cup is actually meant to be used later in the meringue base. But I used it all with the cream, and the mixture turned out a tad too thick even before cooking.

Third mistake happened when I tried to brown the meringue. I have not done this before and I did not know how long it will take to achieve the desired result. So I was washing up the utensils after I put the pies in the oven, and just within a few minutes, I could smell that something's burning! I immediately took the pies out from the oven but the meringue on some of the pies were slightly burnt. The pie in the picture above were one of the few pieces that happened to be in the cooler zone of the oven, and lucky for me, at least I still have a picture to show on this post.

I can't comment much about the recipe as my Florida Pie was a failure. All I can say is that the lime cream tastes good, and even though I've put in all the condensed milk called for, the cream was not overly sweet and it tasted just right with the lime juice.

Hopefully, I will be more alert when I try out the recipe for TWD next week and in the mean time, check out the entries from the other bloggers here.

Penang Prawn Noodles

After saving the prawn shells in the freezer for months, I've finally decided that it's time to use them to make prawn noodles. This is also part of my plan of clearing out ingredients before leaving Singapore.

Cooking the Penang prawn noodles (aka Penang Hokkien Mee) is quite a lengthy process. I wanted to have it for lunch on Sunday, but I've already started to cook since Saturday night. Preparing for sambal paste and prawn stock took about 4 hours, but after this part is done, the rest was quite easy and I had a bowl of yummy prawn noodles to savor on Sunday afternoon.

Did you notice that there is only rice vermicelli in my version of prawn noodles? Well, the real deal would have yellow noodles in it. But since yellow noodle is one of my least favourite food on earth, I find it more enjoyable to have a bowl of prawn noodles (or should I change the name to Penang prawn vermicelli?) without the yellow and soggy stuff.

On a side note, I've been telling everyone I know that this is probably the most expensive prawn noodles I've ever eaten in my life. Well, you see, one of my fingers was pricked by a prawn head when I was rinsing the shells. I did not take notice initially but the wound has swollen with pus the next day. I tried to drain the pus myself with a silly method (don't ask me what I've done) and the wound got worsen. In the end, I had no choice but to seek for medical treatment and the bill cost me a hefty $38, sigh!

Penang Prawn Noodles
(Adapted from Famous Cuisine magazine, issue 36)

Sambal Paste

Ingredients:
30g dried chilli, soaked until soft
10 shallots
5 garlic cloves
30g dried shrimps, soaked
6 candlenuts
1 cup oil

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbs sugar

Method:
1) Pound all ingredients with mortar and pestle or in a blender until fine.
2) Heat up the oil in a wok, stir-fry the pounded ingredients over low heat.
3) Add in seasoning, continue to stir-fry briskly until fragrant, or until the chilli oil is separated. Dish up and ready to be used.

Prawn Broth

Ingredients:
2 pcs whole chicken carcasses
150g dried anchovy (ikan bilis)
500-800g prawn's shell
5 tbs home make sambal paste
5L water

Seasoning:
1 tbs salt
30g rock sugar
1 tbs chicken stock granule

Method:
1) Rinse the whole chicken carcasses and dried anchovy. Cook in a deep pot with water. Bring to boil, reduce to low heat, and then cook for 1 hour.
2) Stir-fried prawn's shells with 2-3 tbs sambal paste. Remove from wok and place into the pot of chicken stock, bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer for further 1.5-2 hours until fragrant.
3) Lastly, add in seasoning and 5 tbs of sambal paste, stir well and cook for another 20 minutes.

Prawn Noodles

Ingredients:
1.5kg medium prawns
500g yellow noodles (Note: my prawn noodles did not have yellow noodles at all)
500g rice vermicelli, soaked
150g kangkong (water convolvulus)
100g beansprouts
300g lean pork
4 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and sliced
Some fried shallot slices

Method:
1) Rinse the prawns. Remove the shell which are then used for the prawn stock. (Note: I copied this step directly from magazine. However, I did not use the shells from "1.5kg of prawns" but I used the prawn shells which I've saved for a period of time instead. Then I only used about 500g of prawn flesh and some of which can be seen in the picture above. If you do not have any prawn shells on hand, you can follow this step directly)
Blanch the shelled prawn into boiling water until cooked, dish out.
2) Heat up 2 tbs of sambal chilli oil (from sambal paste), add in shelled prawns and 1 tbs sugar, stir-fry briskly until fragrant and slightly dry. Remove, leave to cool.
3) Cook the lean pork in prawn broth until done, dish out and cut into slices.
4) Blanch yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, kangkung and beansprouts in boiling water separately. Remove and drained. Serve with prawn stock, pork slices, prawn flesh and egg slices. Sprinkle some fried shallots on the noodle and serve with sambal paste.

Braised Chicken with Lemon & Shallots (柠汁炬鸡)

Yesterday evening, when I was lying on sofa browsing through a stack of newly bought cookbooks, I suddenly realised that I've bought 10 books over a span of one and a half weeks! Well, if this is not crazy, I don't know what is! Just when I thought that I better make good use of the books since the damage has already done, a recipe caught my eyes and I thought it would be perfect to cook on a day that I don't have to go to class - today, that is! The best part is that I have all the ingredients on hand, including a zestless lemon in the fridge, which was a leftover from here. That would save me a trip to the market!

Having said that, I was still comtemplating whether I should go to the market just to get some coriandar or spring onions as garnish this morning. But the weather was so hot and humid that I did not feel like going out at all. Thus, I can only show a picture of boring brown color chicken dish here. But don't let the picture fool you, the dish is full of flavour and extremely yummy. In fact, it tasted so good and I've decided that this will be the first dish that I will cook for my hubby when I go over to Saudi. Ha!

Braised Chicken with Lemon & Shallots (柠汁炬鸡)

Ingredients:
3 pieces of chicken drumsticks and 3 pieces of thighs
12 shallots, peeled
3cm ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, peeled
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbs oil
1 tbs shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbs brown sugar
Cornstarch solution (2 tbs water + 1/2 tsp cornstarch)
Salt, to taste

Marinade:
2 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp salt
pepper, to taste

Method:
1) Marinate the chicken pieces with the marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2) Heat up oil in a wok. Saute shallots, garlic and ginger slices for a while, remove from wok and set aside.
3) Place chicken pieces in the wok and fried until the surface of chicken turn golden brown. Pour shaoxing wine around the side of the wok.
4) Pour shallots, garlic and ginger slices back to the wok. Add in chicken broth and lemon juice. When it is boil, add in brown sugar and salt.
5) Cover the wok with lid, and let it cook under low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces a few times.
6) When the chicken pieces are cooked, remove from wok and place them on a plate.
7) Pour the cornstarch solution into the gravy, heat it up, then add sesame oil.
8) Pour the gravy on the chicken pieces, serve.

TWD: Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake is interesting indeed... ricotta and polenta in a cake? Well, I've no idea how it would look (no picture in the book) or taste like when I read through the recipe. So I was really excited to give the recipe a try!

The recipe called for dried figs, but I do not have them on hand and I am reluctant to stock them up. I wanted to make good use of existing ingredients that I have, and so the figs were replaced with dried cranberries and prunes instead.

Before I started baking, I've read the comments from other bloggers that the cake is a tad sweet, and so I reduced the amount of sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup. On top of that, as I've forgotten to cut and chilled a tablespoon of butter, it was totally omitted from my baking and so the cake did not have the light-colored circles on top, as described in the recipe. And I'm glad that I used my 8X8 inch square tart pan instead of the 9-inch round pan, because the amount of batter was just enough to fill the pan nicely!

The cake was yummy indeed, it was dense and moist, with a strong aroma of honey. However, I still find that it was too sweet, even though I've reduced the amount of sugar. But the classmates that I shared the cake with certainly did not think so, and I was told that it's very oishii (it means delicious in Japanese). ;-)

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake
(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:
200g dried cranberries
8-10 pcs of prunes, cut into halves
1 cup medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 stick (or 113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup ricotta
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup honey (if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs

Method:
1) Pre-heat the oven to 325 deg F. Butter a 8X8 square fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Wrap a piece of aluminium sheet around the sides of the pan, to prevent leakage.
2) Check that the dried cranberries are moist and plump. If they are a tad too hard, steam the cranberries for about 3-5 minutes. (Or, as mentioned in the book, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then pat dry.)
3) Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder and salt together.
4) Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light.
5) Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, cranberries and prunes, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.
6) Pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary.
7) Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan.
8) Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

TWD: Bill's Big Carrot Cake

The theme for TWD this week is carrot cake. I've tried out various recipes from other authors and I was curious to find out how Ms. Greenspan's version will turn out.

After reading through the recipe twice, I've decided to make some slight changes. First of all, I felt that the amount of sugar called for in the recipe would be too much for me and so I only added 75% of the sugar. Secondly, instead of baking 3 individual round cakes and stacked them up with with cream cheese frosting in between, I've decided to take a short cut and bake it in my 10X10 inch square cake pan. This is because I do not have any baking pans of 2-inch height that I can stack them up and fit into my oven and it is also not feasible to bake them individually as the baking time would take at least 2.5 hours.

During the mixing process, the amount of shredded carrot did get me worried though. When I added half of it into the batter, the carrot has already filled up to the brim of the mixing bowl and I had to mix it very slowly. After that, I've decided to add only 50% from the remaining half of the carrots to the batter and gave the leftovers to my rabbits. Lastly, the recipe mentioned that the baking time is 40-50 minutes and I thought, since my cake is thicker, the baking time should be longer. But after 1 hour, the cake was still not cooked. Then I tried to bake for another 15 minutes and again, it was still not done. In the end, I had to prolong the baking time further and to prevent burning, I sat in front of the oven and watched over the cake. In the end, the cake was finally done.... after 1 hour and 40 minutes of baking!

The long baking time did not affect the texture of the cake at all. The cake was still very soft and moist, and the coconut gave an extra kick to the overall texture. To me, the best part from the whole baking experience was licking the paddle of the mixer clean after mixing the cream cheese frosting. :-)

I don't have time to type the whole recipe now, as I need to pack my luggage for my trip tomorrow morning. Do check out the entries from other bloggers from TWD site and you will be able to get the recipe from there.