久违了～ 班兰戚风蛋糕 Tall Pandan Chiffon Cake

难得弄了班兰汁当然要做班兰戚风。戚风蛋糕的口味可以花样百出，自从接触到外头的花花草草，几乎忘了旧爱还是最美。想当年班兰戚风蛋糕（简称班兰蛋糕）和戚风蛋糕几乎划上了等号。

很久没做一整粒的戚风蛋糕了，所以选了个可信赖的食谱，Alex Goh老师的食谱不会错。这个食谱的面粉量高，蛋糕自然比较挺，看到蛋糕发到高高的心里好欢喜。虽然粉量高，但放心蛋糕还是有戚风应有的软。

蛋糕吃进口里，天然的班兰香---那久违了的味道。。。

这个蛋糕还是用空手脱模，自从尝试了空手脱模我就爱上了这个方法，好玩又方便。

Tall Pandan Chiffon Cake
(Basic chiffon cake recipe adapted from Alex Goh’s “Creative Making of Cakes” with personal adaption)

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolk
45g castor sugar
(B)
70ml coconut milk
45ml pandan juice (including 2 tbsp home-made pandan essence)
70ml (62g) vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt
(C)
150g plain flour/cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
(D)
4 egg white
90g castor sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1) Whisk egg yolk and sugar in (A) till sugar dissolved. Add (B) and mix well.
2) Sift in (C) and mix till a smooth and uniform batter is formed. Set aside.
3) Whisk egg white till frothy, Add 1/3 of sugar and cream of tartar in (D). Continue to beat and add remaining sugar in 2 sessions and beat till stiff peak (original recipe is to beat whites till soft peak then add sugar/cream of tartar at one go).
4) Fold in 1/3 of the meringue to egg yolk mixture, fold till just incorporated. Repeat the same for the remaining meringue.
5) Pour batter into 20cm tube pan, bang it on tabletop twice to release air bubbles.
6) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 40 mins (when in doubt, bake for a few more mins. For chiffon cake, it's better to over baked than under baked). Invert the cake immediately once taken out from the oven. Cool completely before removing from mould.

Note:
1) Use egg of net weight 60g each (without shell).
2) Cream of tartar can be replaced by 1/2 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar.

This is how I cool my chiffon cake. Cake must be far from the tabletop to prevent water condensation on cake surface.

班兰汁和班兰精华 Home-made Pandan Essence

小时候看姑姑做班兰蛋糕时榨取班兰汁的方法是把班兰叶剪短后盅烂，然后再用手用力挤出班兰汁, 一点水也没加。挤出来的班兰汁是深绿色的，滴滴是精华。

当然现在应该很少人用这种原始的方法了。我对班兰叶有点敏感，每次处理后手就会痒痒红红的，所以很少自己弄班兰汁，偶尔想念班兰口味就用市售的pandan paste代替，根本不到位。

这天妈妈带来好多新鲜的班兰叶，大概有三四把。我觉得如果就让它们干了坏了很可惜。于是就勤劳点弄了一罐班兰汁，收在冰箱里慢慢用。不是很确定新鲜班兰汁可以收多久，到现在大概一个多星期了还没变坏。

做法很简单，把班兰叶剪短然后加入搅拌机，加最小量的水（让搅拌机可以操作的份量就行了，这点视个别搅拌机的功能而定）把班兰叶打烂。如果要搅大量的班兰叶建议不要一次过加完，搅烂一部分后再一点一点加，水份也一样。最后把班兰汁过滤，最好是倒入布袋内用手像挤椰浆一样挤干。

把挤出的班兰汁静置冰箱内一天底部沉淀深绿色的部分就是班兰精华了。上面浅绿色的部分也很香，可以配搭班兰精华来使用。

Home-made Pandan Essence

Cut Pandan leaves (screwpine) into small pieces with scissors.

Put them into blender and add as little water as possible, just to allow the machine to puree the pandan leaves. If you are blending a lot of pandan leaves, add them bit-by-bit, same to the water amount.

Once done, sieve the mixture over a fine strainer and squeeze the pandan pulp to extract the juice as much as you can.

Store the juice in a clean container, let it sit in the fridge for at least one day.

You will notice the pandan juice will be separated into two parts. The green concentrated bottom is the pandan essence. This is the part which gives your bake the lovely green hue and intense pandan frangrance. As it is very precious, so use it with pandan juice (the clear light green part) to make up of the amount needed (usually 1-2 tbsp of pandan essence is good enough for an 8” pandan cake). Of course if you have plenty to spare, use it liberally as you like.

Savour 2012 (Bread making tips and Demo Video from the Global Baker Dean Brettschneider Included)

Sharing some photos taken during SAVOUR, a gourmet event in Singapore.

The SAVOUR concept is a first of its kind in Singapore, with a philosophy to unite the finest food and drink with a plethora of expert master classes, live demonstrations, fun workshops and culinary shopping, in an event that is accessible to all. It was held from 30th March to 1st April 2012 at the F1 Paddock and Pit Building, just beside Singapore Flyer. I was there on 30th March evening.

I have bookmarked three workshops that I would like to attend prior to the event but unfortunately I only managed to attend two which already made me feel very excited. I will share the detail and what I have learnt (including video clips) at the end of this post.

A glance from top

The prominent Singapore Flyer

Hong Kong’s popular street food - egg waffle “gai dan zai”

Do you notice the black colour thingy? It’s black truffle!


This is the final product, serve with a scoop of condensed milk ice-cream (S$9), creation of Bo Innovation, Hong Kong.

Molecular xiao long bao

Molecular xiao long bao by Chef Alvin Leung of Bo Innovation, Hong Kong (S$6).

Borrowing a technique created by el Bulli's Ferran Adria, the liquid soup filling is served without its traditional dough wrapper. Rather, the liquid is encapsulated in a thin gel skin which bursts immediately upon entering your mouth, creating much the same effect as eating a traditional xiao long bao.

It’s about the same size of a typical tangyuan or slightly smaller, the whole thing is ultra smooth and jelly like. The red colour hairline is actually pickled ginger. Eating this is an unique experience to me. In fact this is the first time I tasted molecular food.

Some macarons and sweet treats seen in the Gourmet Market



From a stall selling organic veggies and food in the Gourmet Market 



ThreeSixty Market Place. Can't get enough of food sampling.

ThreeSixty Market Place. I didn't try the Iberico ham because I had tasted it before and I didn't like it.

ThreeSixty Market Place

ThreeSixty Market Place. Do you expect this in a supermarket?

ThreeSixty Market Place must be the largest exibitor in the Gourmet Market. It occupied the entire flour. The set up was almost like the real one at ION, except that there were many booths for food sampling, even with a live band to keep all the visitors entertained.

VIP pavilion

VIP ticket holders got to enjoy free flow of wine, champagne and snack in the pavilion.

My cup of champagne

Now come to the highlights of the two bread making workshops that I attended.

Chef Jason Tan from Vina Artisan Bakery

I attended ARTISAN BREAD MAKING workshop taught by chef Jason Tan. He is young and friendly. In the workshop I got the chance to learn the basics of bread making from him including some hands-on. We were given the recipe of French Baguette.

Here is a video clip of chef Jason Tan demonstrating how to shape a French Baguette.

I ended my day by attending another workshop - SECRET RECIPES OF THE GLOBAL BAKER taught by chef Dean Brettschneider. Chef Dean is founder and co owner of the global bakery chain Baker & Cook in Singapore. Coincidentally, Baker & Cook was featured in the local newspaper (My Paper) that day.

The Global Baker Dean Brettschneider

Chef Dean is very charming and humorous in person (I think he looks better in person too :P).

Here is a short video clip of chef Dean demonstrating how to knead bread dough by hand.

In the video Chef Dean is kneading 1kg of flour. His hands motion helps to incorporate air into the dough and air is one of the key factors for the yeast to grow. This was the only step he followed throughout the kneading process. Look simple, isn't it?

Bread made by Chef Dean

The bread was not fully cooked art the end of the session. So I didn’t get the chance to taste it.

Dressed up pecan pie

Notice the beautiful caramel deco on top? Chef Dean showed us how it was done. He simply took spoonful of caramel and dripped it on the back of a ladle. The beautiful deco was then done in no time.

Often we do not know how to drop cream nicely on serving plate expect using a piping bag. The secret is to warm the spoon (just dip in warm water) before scooping the cream. See how the scoop of cream turns out in the picture.

Below are some tips of bread making I learnt from both workshops that I would like to share with you: -

1) The secret of easy and effective kneading by hand is to rest for 30-45 seconds several times during the kneading process. This allows both the baker and the elastic flour protein to relax a little before further kneading.

2) At the moulding stage, use both hands to roll the bread dough on tabletop in circular motion. The friction helps to “seal” the bottom of the dough and you will get a smooth round dough.

3) The correct way of punching after first proofing. After seeing the demonstration from chef Dean I realized I had done it wrongly all the while. When recipe writes punch down, we don’t really punch the dough. Instead, we should use both hands to press down the dough gently and fold in the four sides.

4) Singapore weather is perfect for proofing. Thus, don’t be tempted to create a warm environment to fasten the proofing process. It’s okay to let it proof for longer time. Importantly is to observe the dough. I like to put my dough in the oven beside a cup of warm water during second proofing; I should not do that next time.

5) Artisan bread needs to have steam during baking in order to get crispy and thin crust. Both chefs suggested to spray water right after the bread dough is sent into the oven. Chef Dean just poured some water from his mineral water bottle during the live demo. Chef Jason also suggested putting some ices in the oven. When the ices start to melt, they create steam.

The entrance ticket

The ticket was sponsored by Bosch. Thanks Bosch for the Savour experience. It was a long story. To cut it short, I was being stopped at the entrance because I brought an expired ticket unknowingly. It was not my fault but I also got to blame myself for being too careless by not checking the tickets individually. Luckily, Min of Bosch came and “rescued” me from the awkward situation and even passed me the VIP ticket.

Bosch is one of the main sponsors of Savour. Too bad I didn’t manage to attend any of the Bosch cooking class that day as the class schedule clashed with the bread making workshop.

Savour official website:
http://www.savour.sg/

The Answer Is........

So what is this?

The answer of the guessing game I posted last week is.....molecular xiao long bao 分子小笼包。

My upcoming post will have more write up about this. So do check it up!

Cook.Bake.Love 三周年纪念日快乐！Happy Third Blog Anniversary！

三年前的今天Cook.Bake.Love在Blogger悄悄成立了。从开始的门可罗雀到今天虽没有门庭若市，但时不时都有朋友来访，喝杯茶吃个包，嘘寒问暖，让作为主人的Angel倍感温馨。

今天是Cook.Bake.Love的三周年纪念日。踏入四月份有两个我不会忘记的日子，一个是我妹的生日，一个是D的生日，而我差点就忘了这个重要的日子。最近比较忙，更新和回复留言的速度也放慢了，给我留言的朋友们真不好意思。

在此，Angel要谢谢大家这些日子来的关照，也要特别感谢Cook.Bake.Love的299 位followers，有谁要成为第300位？呵呵 :P

 

更新于5:05pm -  谢谢知足常乐的spdong成为Cook.Bake.Love的第300位follower。spdong，你的动作可真快！

Happy Third Blog Anniversary, Cook. Bake. Love!

Random Tuesday - Make a Guess 猜谜

Guess what this is. Answer will be announced in my next post. (No prize if guess correctly :P)

猜猜看这是什么。答案会在下一篇里揭晓（答对无奖！）。