Baking Lesson By our Richard Goh老师: Expresso Cream Cheese Torte

Ingredients for Cake

1. 3 Eggs
2. 70g Sugar
3. 75g Plain Flour
4. 70g Butter, melted
5. 1/2 tsp instant coffee or coffe paste (optional)

Method

1. Whisk eggs and sugar at max. speed for until stiff. add coffee paste
2. Fold in sifted flour by hand, Add warm melted butter. Mix well until batter is shinny
3. Pour into baking tin and bake for about 35 minutes
4. Cut cake into two layers when cooled

Coffee Mousse Cream Ingredients

1. Water
2. 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
3. 1 tbsp Demarara Sugar
4. 1 tbsp Molasses sugar
5. 3 Egg yolks
6. 110-125g Cream cheese (thaw for 1hr @ room temp)
7. 5 tbsp water
8. 1 tbsp Gelatin
9. 200g Fresh Cream, whipped

Method

1. Boil water, coffee powder, demarara sugar and molasses sugar till dissolved. Whisk in egg yolks
2. Beat in cream cheese till smooth. Add in some of (1), mix well, then add in all the rest of the (1), leave to cool
3. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water, leave to cool
4. Add whipped fresh cream into cooled (2), then add in (3)
5. Spread half of the mousse on the cake, place the second layer of cake over and spread the remaining mousse over the top.
6. Leave the cake into the freezer to set before decorating the top

Chocolate Base

1. 100g Cooking chocolate
2. 80g Feuilletine

Method

1. Double boil to melt the choclate and add in Feuilletine.
2. Spread on a piece of paper and roll into a 9-inch rould baking tin.
3. Leave in the fridge to set for about 1hr.

08 April 09 Pulut Hitam

I had a craving for Pulut Hitam last week after watching "Sweets for my sweet" on AFC. They were featuring a famous Vietnamese Dessert Shop, Baguette @ Raffles city. Then there is this Pulut Hitam cake which caught my attention... I think I want to try making a cake like that...

Then I start searching net for ingredients & method but I can't find any... so I guess I got to explore on my own...

I found out that Pine Garden is also famous for their chewy pulut hitam cake... but I'm not going to buy anything from them anymore... after Jenn's wedding cake incident which aluminium foil was found in Pine Garden's SGD700 wedding cake!! Its not about the $$, but the "foreign object" spoilt everyone's mood :(

Anyway, my experiment starts with dessert on Wed, 08 April 09... Pulut Hitam kosong =D

No coconut cream!

Reason 1: I'm VERY health-conscious =D

Reason 2: Nyx hates anything to do with coconut, except Herbal Essence Shampoo?!!?

Ingredients

1. 250gm Black glutinous rice
2. 50gm White glutinous rice
3. 4-5 Pandan leaves, knotted
4. 120gm Honey rock sugar
5. 1500ml Water

Method

1. Wash black and white glutinous rice
2. Boil (1) in water with pandan leaves for 10mins.
3. Transfer to pre-heated slow cooker, using high option (if available)
4. Add honey rock sugar, stir occasionally.
5. Leave it to cook for at least 1 hr.

For my gals....

Pulut Hitam topped with Non-diary whipped cream! Mmmmm...

Then here comes the outcome of my experiment...

I think this is nice! I mix my pulut hitam with non-diary whipping cream, sandwiched between layers of sponge cake. Texture is light, with chewy glutinous rice. I like it ;-)

06 April 09 Pineapple Tarts

This is quite easy to make... just need a bit of time... It took me about 2.5hrs in total, from start to wash-up.

Tips from Lifeng...

Keep the tarts in air-tight container... the tarts will taste better the next day. Dun ask me why but this is true leh as the tarts dun really taste so nice right from the oven. It taste much better few days later :D

My tarts can be kept in air-tight containers for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients (makes about 80 tarts)

Filling:

1. 1 kg Pineapple
2. 300 gm sugar
3. a pinch of salt
4. 6 gm. cinnamon stick
5. 1 tsp. of cloves

Pastry:

1. 250 gm. Butter (1 block SCS brand butter)
2. 1/2 tsp. salt
3. 1 egg (70-75gm with shell on)
4. 250 gm. Plain Flour (Leave 50gm aside for dusting later)
5. 150 gm. Cake Flour (If cake flour is not available, use all 350gm plain flour also can)

For glazing: 1 egg (beaten)

Method:

For filling:

1. Peel pineapples , cut into pieces and blend till fine
2. Pour blended pineapples into a wok and fry for awhile before adding in sugar, cinnamon stick and cloves. Cook till it thickens and set aside to cool. Shape the pineapple jam into small balls.

**For my convenience, I bought ready-made pineapple filling from JB bake shop, which is sold in 3.8kg can... only RM33.00! and it taste very good!**

For pastry: (Use RUBBING-IN method, rub using finger tips)

1. Sieve together plain flour, cake flour and salt
2. Cut butter into small cubes. Rub-in butter, (1) and beaten egg till a dough is formed.
3. Roll out the dough to 0.5 - 1cm thick(depends on your likings) Cut it out with a fluted round cutter
4. Lay grease-proof paper on tray, place cut-out pastry on tray. Brush egg-glaze on cut-out pastry and place a small round ball of pineapple jam on the centre of cut-out pastry
5. Roll put small pieces of dough into thin strips and place it on top of the pineapple jam to make a cross
6. Brush with egg-glaze again on all "almost-done" pineapple tarts and bake at 170C for about 15 - 20 mins. or till pastry is golden brown. (need to watch the tarts at this stage... need to alternate the position of tray in the oven as some oven distribute uneven heat, causing different shades of brown on the tarts)
7. Leave pineapple tarts to cool on tray, out of oven for at least 15mins before transferring them on wire rack. Make sure tarts r completely cooled before storing in cookie containers.