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Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Holidays!
christmas this year is rather disappointing coz i didn't manage to make any x'mas goodies. i was up to my elbows with orders even until the eve itself and these peppermint dark chocolate macarons you see here were specially requested by a customer, else i wouldn't hv anything festive to post. i had lotsa things in mind to bake actually - panforte, stained glass cookies, two-toned peppermint marshmallows and white choc rum truffles coated with four different toppings but in the end, i made none.
i did however make some apricot eggnog to go with these leftover macarons and to sip before bedtime. they turned out quite nicely without having to use too many egg yolks.
happy holidays and hv a blessed christmas everyone!
apricot eggnog (serves 4)
ingredients : 120g dried apricots 600ml milk 4 eggs (i used the yolks only) 1.5 tbsp honey 1 vanilla bean, scraped 1 tsp cinnamon powder 2 tbsp grand marnier liqueur or to taste ground nutmeg, to serve directions : 1. boil apricots with a little water (just enough to cover) until the apricots are soft and all the water has been absorbed. 2. place milk, eggs (or yolks), vanilla beans, cinnamon powder, honey & liqueur and mix well to combine. bring to a boil and mix in the apricots. blend with a food processor or hand blender until smooth. 3. ladle into glasses or mugs and serve with a generous dash of nutmeg before serving. Labels: drinks, festive bakings
bossacafez | | direct link to this entry
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Pierre Hermé's Macarons!
it was a dream come true to finally be able to taste pierre hermé's macarons, thx to my lovely friend vickii who so generously shared them with me. of coz, i must also thank vickii's BFF who got them for her from tokyo. since i only wanted ONE BITE, i was elated to see a pretty row of exquisite looking gems that i almost squealed in excitement :p definitely a bonus to be able to try so many flavors. flavors as seen : mogador, macha marron, rose, chocolat, montebello & cafe.
cafe, montebello & rose. montebello is my favorite flavor among the lot. with pistachio ganache & raspberry compote center, its irresistable!
macha marron, mogador (passionfruit milk choc) and chocolat. eating macha marron reminds me of mont blanc, very nice!
i hope i'll get to go tokyo very soon (tentatively next apr) and when i do i promise to conquer all the patisseries there and lug home lots and lotsa goodies from pierre herme & sadaharu AOKI!
edited :
since we're at the topic of pierre hermé, just wanna show off showcase some of these miniature toys claire got for me from the PH boutique in japan last year. there are total of 11 sets and here are three of them :
on the left : assorted PH entremets (spot the plaisir sucre!), right is the satine range if i'm not wrong.
fetish ispahan set. and so far i've tried recreating three ispahan desserts - the emotion ispahan (verrine), macaron ispahan & tarte ispahan. maybe when i'm feeling adventurous i might wanna try making the miss gla-gla and the millefeuille ispahan :p i really adore the lychee rose & raspberry combination and i think PH is a genius!! actually not just me, i'm sure everyone thinks so too :DLabels: french macarons, musings
bossacafez | | direct link to this entry
Friday, December 18, 2009
Corporate Christmas Order - Discovery Travel & Living
i feel extremely honored to be given the opportunity to bake for discovery travel & living and their clients this x'mas. 45 boxes of assorted bakes, 3 days of non-stop baking (minus very little rest & sleeping time), i suddenly feel very accomplished. while i'm not really a stranger to big orders, this one must be the biggest yet! very challenging indeed. planning started weeks ago and it was fun to jot down the massive amt of ingredients used (i used close to 30 blocks of butter & 200 eggs) and go shopping for packaging and ingredients.
a glimpse of what i made and here's just part of it. along the other two sides of the table are crammed filled with boxes & boxes of macha financiers, orange choc madeleines & tri-colored choc mascarpone & pistachio pound cakes, all individually packed in cellophane bags. plus dark choc raspberry tartlets & lemon meringue tartlets.
i guess the most memorable thing about this order must be how well my macarons turned out. they've got the most prominent feet & puffiest shells compared to the previous times i made them, i'm still wondering how that could happen. maybe becoz i made 6-8 batches at a go so the chances of overmixing were lessened, not sure. nevertheless, i'm elated they turned out so well.
and lemon meringue tartlets, my favorite! for a moment i couldn't decide how i wanna decorate the meringue topping. should i do swirls, or spikes? i decided in the end to just pipe a dollop on top. don't they resemble hersheys kisses? too cute.
i was extremely exhausted and worn out after the order that i even missed lunch with a friend coz i overslept (poor friend actually sat waiting in the restaurant for me). i'm truly sorry but i'm really looking forward to the nx one! to come to think of it, i'm not sure how i survived this. i worked ALONE, from sourcing for ingredients to baking and washing up to packing. its unbelievable. hubby only made sure i had food on the table, either cooked by him or bought and helped squeeze a few lemons, but that was so not counted. still, i don't think i've reached my limit yet. with some careful planning and maybe a bigger mixer, bigger oven, bigger fridge, i feel like i could accomplish even more.
last but not least, i wanna thank yixiao for this opportunity. this order wouldn't have been possible without her. and the funny thing is, she has never tried my bakes before so i feel extremely grateful and appreciative she placed order with me without any hesitation, and without even sampling. thank you yixiao, a million times :)Labels: events, festive bakings, projects
bossacafez | | direct link to this entry
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Of Pinks & Reds
something interesting i did - combining my favorite colors into a mosaic using the pics i took since i got a DSLR 1.5 years ago. very pretty, i love collages :) of coz another reason why i did that was to compare my present photos with the old ones.
old photos taken using my canon powershot G3. tho' colorful, i hate how artificial and saturated they looked. another big no-no was the use of colored borders. plus weird composition & styling. what was i thinking? :pLabels: musings
bossacafez | | direct link to this entry
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Pumpkin Puree Soup With Burnt Sage Butter
gnocchi must not like me very much, coz i tried making it twice and failed. first time i mashed the potatoes using the hand blender and they turned out too watery. second time i added too little egg and the gnocchi separated upon boiling! and with the sage leaves already bought (planned to make potato gnocchi with burnt sage butter initially) i had to think of something else.
i singled out a few pumpkin recipes but settled for the soup in the end coz its really really easy to make. while the soup was pretty decent i didn't think it was that spectacular. might be the type of pumpkin i used, local ones which are dirt cheap. at 10 cents a 100g, 800g of pumpkin only cost me 80 cents *chuckles* am gonna try japanese pumpkin or butternut squash in future to see it makes any difference. and maybe roasting the pumpkin prior to cooking might make the soup more fragrant.
recipe source : donna hay mag, issue 32
ingredients (serves 4) : 1 tbsp olive oil 800g pumpkin, peeled and chopped 3 cups chicken stock 1 red onion, chopped 1 cup single/pouring cream 120g butter 1 bunch sage, leaves picked 1 tbsp lemon juice salt & pepper to taste directions : 1. heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. add the oil and onion and cook for 4-5 mins or until tender. 2. add the pumpkin and stock, cover and bring to a boil. cook for further 20 mins or until the pumpkin is tender. 3. place into the bowl of a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. add the salt, pepper, cream and stir to combine. 4. to make the burnt sage butter, heat frying pan until hot, add butter and stir until melted then add in sage leaves and fry until crispy. add in lemon juice and place ontop the soup and serve. Labels: soups and stews
bossacafez | | direct link to this entry
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