Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

5 large egg whites
1 cup plus 2 Tblsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 pound ( 4 sticks = to 453.6grams) unsalted butter, cut squares, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( since pure vanilla extract has 35% alcohol, I switch this to 1 vanilla bean )

Egg whites seperated. I usually keep the yolks in the refrigerator and make pastry cream later.

the best exact 2 sticks of butter brands is SCS or Anchor brand.

Slightly costly but i just love to see the texture of it.


(optional) To tint buttercream, reserve some for toning down the color, if necessary. Add gel-paste food color, a drop at a time (or use the toothpick or skewer to add food color a dab at a time) to the remaining buttercream. You can use a single shade of food color or experiment by mixing two or more. Blend after each addition with the mixer (use the paddle attachment) or a flexible spatula, until desired shade is achieved. Avoid adding too much food color too son, as the hue with intensify with continued stirring; if necessary, you can tone down the shade by mixing in some reserved untinted buttercream.

These are ready for storage.


This will be used on Saturday.

I will be back soon with the cupcakes recipe.

Till Saturday then..

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Basic Cookie Recipe - Rachel Allen

Any home maker would know how to bake a cookie if it was easy. And i found a way that is simple and it works all the time. You can even mix and match your varieties of taste. These can be ready in 1 hr.

I have made so many types of cookies just by using 1 recipe alone. Here it is

Basic Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

225 grams ( 8 oz ) - Unsalted butter - softened
(remember that the better the butter, the tastier the cookie)
100 grams ( 4oz ) - Caster Sugar
275 grams ( 10 oz ) - Plain flour
pinch of ground spices / 1 tsp of grated lemon zest ( preferred )

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 170 degress before you start.

Cream butter in a large bowl till soft or till pale yellow.

Add sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Sift in the flour, add lemon zest and bring the mixture together to form a dough.

Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut size balls and place them slightly apart in a baking tray.

Flatten them slightly with the back of a damp fork ( this is totally optional - you can create the cookie in any shape you want but if you want to use a cookie cutter, refrigerate the dough for 15 mins first

Bake for 13 - 15 mins.

Variations:
Double Chocolate Chip
Use 250 grams plain flour and add 50 grams sifter cocoa powder to the flour. Bring the dough together and mix in 125 grams of dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips.

White Chocolate and Dried cranberry Cookie
Add 50 grams of chopped cranberries to the flour. When the ccokies are baked and cooled, dip or drizzle the tops with 50 grams of melted white chocolate and allow it to set.

Cornflake Crunch
Add 50 grams of crushed cornflakes to the flour and 50 grams of chocolate chip pressed on top of the cookie dough.

I call these the Coin Chip cookies. These have mini chocolate chips inside. I made it in rounds and flattened it.

I love cornflake and with this ingredient inside, it gives the cookie and additional crunch which I love!

Cranberry Cookies. I added dried cranberry and omit white chocloate. This is my favourite!

This one had crushed cornflakes in it and I dip the cookie with chocolate rice before i bake.

This one has cornflakes and chocolate chip in it too but I shape it differently.

The variations can be endless of you just use your creativity. This is a recipe I will use all the time. And now that I share it, I hope you all like it as much as I do.


P.S: Good butter makes delicious cookies!

Hazelnut Balls

I have been super backdated. I just didnt realize that time had flew so fast. I had so many unwritten post ever since I got pregnant. And well , I gave birth to the most cutest girl I could have imagine (at least for me!)

All the missed unwritten posts were worth it!

That's her! Hadya is her name.

Ok back to the post, I'm going to give the easiest recipe for this Hazelnut Ball. The cheaper version of this recipe is Almond London on which I prefer hazelnut to almond as it taste so much better. 


Hazelnut Balls
( Hazelnut covered with cookie dough and covered with chocolate coverture )

Ingredients:
250 grams - Salted butter ( softened )
100 grams - ground hazelnut
250 grams - Hong Kong flour
70 grams - icing sugar
50 grams - Rice flour
1 teaspoon - Vanilla essence
Roasted hazelnuts for the fillings.
Tulip brand bar of chocolate ( to be double boil )
Chocolate rice or colourful sprinkles of your choice for decoration

Directions:
Beat butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and grounded hazelnut evenly till creamy.

Fold in the Hong Kong flour and rice flour till well mix.

Roll dough in balls & stuffed in the roasted hazelnut in each ball.

Bake in mediun heat ( about 150 degrees ) for 20 minutes or till slight brown.

Place all cookies aside and cool.

Later, dip in these cookies on at a time in the melted chocolate and place them in the mini paper cups.

Sprinkle chocolate rice and let the cookies set for about 15 mins.

Store these cookies in airtight container and you can keep these for up to 2 weeks!

Kids love these!!

Enjoy..