Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Hopyes Pudding

When I visit one dear friend of mine whose house just in the corner of mine, I saw a huge bundle of Primarasa recipes. She said it was her friends' recipes collection which she has borrowed for quite long and said that the recipes are great. Wow....it's really tickling my "recipes-sense" and I started to browse that sweet-bundle-of-recipes.
I can tell you, the recipes collection are really mouth-watering. It also shows step by step pictures that really a big help especially when I tried out the Cheese Stick pastry... yup, I did it gals...Successfully!!

Back to Hopyes pudding, Hopyes is a combo flavour of caramel and coffee like old fashioned candy which calls Hopyes too ;p.
Puding Hopyes
Pudding:
  • 125 g sugar (I)
  • 50 ml water
  • 1.5 T instant coffee granules (Nescafe, Caswell, Indocafe, etc)
  • 350 ml fresh milk
  • 75 g sugar (II)
  • 1 sachet (7 gr) agar- agar powder
  • 1 yolk, lightly beaten
  • 125 ml egg whites
  • 2 T rum

Sauce

  • 500 ml fresh milk
  • 150 g sugar
  • 2 T cornstarch
  • 2 yolks, lightly beaten
  • 3 T rum

Direction

  • Wet 1500 ml-capacity pudding tin with drink water, Set aside
  • Pudding: Make caramel from sugar (I) . add water and mix thoroughly then add coffee granules. Mix well. Remove from stove.
  • Combine milk, sugar (II), and agar - agar powder, bring to boil. Pour about 150 ml into beaten yolks, quickly mix so it won't clogged. Pour it back to hot milk. Mix well and add caramel-coffee liquid.
  • Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually pour in the hot pudding mixture and keep on whisking. Continue whisking until a little bit warm. Add rum.
  • Pour into the wet tin. Set aside and cool.
  • Sauce: Mix all sauce ingredients. Cook on medium heat, whisk until boil and thicken. Keep on whisking until sauce is luke-warm. Add rum. Cool

Cheese Stick










I love cheese stick so much!!! with extra cheese of course. Honestly, this is not my first attempt in making cheese stick. Couple months ago, I tried my luck to make cheese stick (puff pastry) which turned out to be successfully failed :(( hiks hiks hiks....because I didn't know what was envelope-fold looks like and what I had to do with the pastry margarine. You know....I didn't cut the pastry-margarine into small-thin cubes but I just put the whole big lump in the middle of the dough hehehehe... It really a complete disaster since I had to struggle so hard when rolling out the dough and it won't puffed like it supposed to be.. hard as a Rock dude!! hiks hiks hiks

Based on my last experience, a bad one indeed... I need about 3 months of recovery to gather some encouragement to come out and play with pastry....

Fortunately, I found a cheese stick recipe plus its step-by-step pictures... Whoaaaa....my prayers was finally answered :DD...

Here is the FAIL-FREE guarantee CHEESE STICK from Primarasa Menu 16 from Menu Keluarga 79.

Ingredients:
500 g flour,10 g salt, 50 g butter/margarine, 225 ml cold ice-water, 250 g pastry margarine or butter**, 2 egg yolks for greasing, 150 g cheddar cheese (shredded), 100 g parmesan cheese (for sprinkle)

Method:



  • Combine flour, salt, margarine/butter, and cold water in a large mixing bowl. Mix well with pastry-fork or simply use your fingers....be careful not to over mixing by transferring too much heat from your fingers to the dough. Form a ball. Put into a plastic bag and let rest in the frigde for 30 mins.




  • Roll out dough into +/- 7 mm thick, put pastry margarine or cold butter evenly onto 2/3 of dough surface. Fold un-greased dough to the middle and fold the other 1/3 of greased dough on top of it.




  • Roll out again into +/- 7 mm thick, sprinkle 1/3 part of the dough (in the middle) with 25g parmesan. Cover with 1/3 part from your left then sprinkle again with 25 g parmesan. Close with 1/3 dough part from your right side. Roll out into +/- 7 mm thick again. Double fold. Let rest for 15 mins.




  • Roll out again into +/- 7 mm thick. Sprinkle half of the dough with 50 g parmesan. Double fold again. once again, roll out. Double fold. Let rest for +/- 30 mins.




  • Pre-heat oven into 200^C. Roll out dough into 2 mm thick. Spread with lightly beat egg-yolks. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese evenly. Cut into 1x20cm size.



  • Twist and place neatly onto cookie tin. Bake for 10 mins. Lower the temperature into 150^C. Bake for another 25 mins until pastry completely puff and golden brown.
** Chill the butter and continue the process.


Yummmmmyyyy....... Ready for snack time....

Red Velvet Cake

When I saw Oprah Show some times ago with a topic : Famous Cake Shop around America, I was bewitched by Red Velvet Cake from one of the cake shop (sorry, I don't remember its name). The cake was reported wildly delicious!. Well, with the stunning colour and cream cheese frosting...who will say NO to RVC?
Needless to say, I began my search and randomly browsing foodies' websites on net until I found a Red Velvet Cake by martha stewart. The recipe's rating was highly appreciated so I copied it down and started my baking process.
My co-workers and friends who had tested RVC said that it was totally yummy and cream cheese frosting gives a richer taste. Ok guys, I couldn't be more agree with you.
The method is really simple with superb result :D
Dare to try it?...
Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-raising)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flavorless oil (I used grape seed oil)
2 large eggs
2 tbsp red food coloring (one 1-ounce bottle)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vinegar (white or apple cider)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Generously butter two 9-by-2-inch round cake pans. Sprinkle with flour, and tap out the excess. Set your pans aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside your dry ingredients.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the sugar and oil on medium speed until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add food coloring and vanilla, and beat until well combined.

Add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add vinegar to batter, and beat for 10 seconds.

Evenly divide the batter between your prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from the pans, and return to the rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(enough to fill and frost a 2 layer 9-inch round cake)

4 ounces (1 stick-115 g) unsalted butter, softened at room temp.
12 ounces (1.5 bars) cream cheese, softened at room temp.
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted (I used 1 cup only)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until combined, about 2 minutes.

Let's Have A slice Of RED velVet Cake
My recommendation: companied with a cup of ESPRESSO from Caswell freshly ground coffee or
Coffee Domba.
and..... PLEASE don't you ever think about your DIET :D... Just leave behind, RelaX and enjoy the RVC....

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Mini Cheesecake Pie

This week is PASTRY week for me.....
I made Cheese Stick several times and the last one was Mini Cheesecake Pie (my first experience with PIE really).
Mbak Ade, my hunny's best friend, was having ARISAN at her housing complex. She ordered cheesecake with note "Please make it small Rea, I don't want to hassle the ARISAN host by providing saucer and knife". "Hmmm...Ok", I said. I instantly thinking on slice cheesecake.
Then she called back requested, "rea, I want something that not so sweet, topped with fruit and looks like Pecan Pie". "Could you make something like that please?". ".........", hmmmm..OK", I said.
If you notice the "hmmmmm..." word.... well, it's because I never made pie before. Have no problem about making cheesecake but PIE?? hmmmmm....

I browsed my recipes books collection and decided to make pie shell with bake cheesecake filling and garnished it with fruits.

The recipes follows:

Pie Shell
3 cups flour
6 T white sugar
110 g butter, cubed
110 g margarine, cubed
2 yolks
1-2 T water

Cheesecake Filling
500 g cream cheese
100 g sour cream
150 g caster sugar
1 t lemon
1 t vanilla extract
3 eggs

Garnish
Pineapple, removed "eyes", thinly sliced.
Mandarin orange
maraschino cherries, sliced into 4
Green grapes
1 t konyaku jelly mixed with 1 t sugar and 1/2 cup of water, bring to boil


Directions
*Pie Shell*
  • Process flour, sugar, butter and margarine (feel free to subtitute margarine for butter, it's taste better really) until crumbly. Use Pulse mode to prevent the dough getting to much heat from mixing process.
  • Add yolks. Process until well combine.
  • Add enough water to form a smooth dough. Form dough a ball-like. Put in plastic bag and let it rest in the frigde for +/- 30 mins.
  • On lightly dusted flour, roll dough into 0.5 cm and cut into the pie tin. Trimm excess dough.
  • Lightly prick the dough on the pie tin with fork for not letting them arise to much when baked.
  • Baked for 15 minutes in 160"C.
  • Pour with filling and baked again until filling is fully bake.

*Cheesecake Filling*

  • Beat cream cheese, sour cream and sugar in medium speed.
  • Add eggs gradually. Mix well.
  • Add lemon and vanilla extract. Mix well.
  • Pour into pie shell. Bake for 35 mins on 180"C
  • Garnish with sliced fruits and brush with hot jelly mixture for shiny finishing

Kommentare:

Mbak Ade: Enak Rea.... Enak Banget...

Mbak Chaca: wah hebat....bener loe yang bikin? lembut banget cheesecake-nya...(cuma pie shell-nya ga dimaem karena emang ga suka kulit Pie si Mbak yang satu ini)

Hunny: Enaaaak yang. Lain kali garnishnya ditambah daun mint biar tambah cantik ya...

Peserta arisan: wah..pinter banget bikin kue...Enak..enak...enak... Bisa pesen buat ultah anak ku ga?

Aku: "Ya bisa banget lah mbak :D. ditunggu ya Pesenannya. (hehehehe...I think I got a lot of compliments on that sunny afternoon...)

Thanks ya Mbak Ade for promoting me to your ARISAN's ibu - ibu Taman Mumbul.


Friday, April 18, 2008

60th Birthday Cake

Another big size birthday cake, 28x52cm. This cake was ordered by Cik Hany, my Hünny's partner for her father-in-law's 60th birthday. The cake was consisted of 3 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling.
The design was choosen by Cik Hany herself (PS: I brought her lost of cake deco books) from cake decorating made easy.
The 60 number was edible too...it's Lapis Surabaya cake.

The party run merry and lots of laughter and shouts (yes, shouts!!), a happy ones though, from the kids who never tired playing run and catch in that huge restaurants. Thanks God, they've booked a private hall for this party hahahahaha...

The food were Great and everybody's happy and loved the cake. Yippeee....that's what I've been hoping for...Kids were acting like kids normally, they just couldn't stop themselves to prick the cake and tasted the buttercream ;D

Cik Hanny and some of the family members told me directly that this cake was beyond their expectation (I was invited to the party too). The cake was great and more over, they told me that they are going to order more cakes in the future from me...

I am so honoured Cik Hany and welcome you and all of your family to be Rea's Cake customer...

Psssst...despite of those happy story, the situation was a bit tense when Cik Hany finally saw the birthday cake.....I just bring small party candles consisted of 12 candles and she thought that the cake would be perfect if I bring bigger candles... So, I ran out to the supermarkt below the resto and bought 2 big candles that we usually used whenever there's a blackout hehehehe...

But, she decided to use the small candles then....hehehehehe

PS: I will upload the party pics after I got the copies from my Hünny...soon I hope :D

Monday, April 7, 2008

I'm sorry but I'm back


I'm so sorryyyy...
For neglecting my food-blog for almost 1 .5 months...
But, I'm back now even not as diligent as I did before....
I'm try really to keep my promise for the baking world...
Here was my first baking experience after I got back to Bali, my lovely home.... after more than a month travelling around...

TAPE CAKE (Fermented Cassava Cake)
4 eggs
250 gr fermented cassava, mashed well
100 gr cake flour
25 gr chocolate powder
250 gr sugar (I use only 200 gr)
100 ml coconut milk (I use fresh milk)
pinch of vanilla powder

Directions:
  • Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and double sized.
  • Fold in flour and fermented cassava alternately. Combine well.
  • Add milk. Mix thoroughly
  • Divide batter into 2 portion. Add chocolate powder into 1 of it. Mix well.
  • Pour into 20x20cm well greased and lined baking tin.
  • Bake for 35 mins at 170C

ENJOY with a cuppa tea or coffee