Baked goodies for my "Artklas" Kumars! =)

As I have said in my previous post, having a baby changes EVERYTHING! That includes compromising usual night out with good friends. Since I still can't leave my baby, my thoughtful "artklas" kumars paid me another visit at home last night. They brought some pizza, and chicken, and I, made desserts! =)

Jakob's starting to have longer sleeps in the daytime, that means I have more time in my hands, and so I decided to do some baking. I texted them yesterday morning and asked them to choose between custard filled cream puffs or some chocolate cupcakes. They seem to be indecisive on what they want, and I too on what I want to make; but since I have missed my kitchen, I made both! =)

For today, I shall share with you Sweet Liaison's basic, fool proof recipe for custard filled cream puffs/profiteroles. I have missed making these babies since we stopped operations.

There are 3 parts in making cream puffs. First, is making the "choux pastry"; second, is the custard; and if you want it to be more lavish you can add another component by making it a glaze of your choice. So I won't waste any more of your time and let's begin.

Part 1: "Choux Pastry" / Cream Puff shells

Ingredients you'll need: (makes about 30 big puffs/ 50 mini cocktail puffs/ 36 mini eclairs)

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter (1/2 stick)

1/4 tsp of salt

1 cup all purpose flour (sifted)

3 large eggs

2 egg whites

Directions:

1) Cut butter into small pieces. In a saucepan, combine water and butter pieces. Bring this to a boil just until butter melts.

2. Remove saucepan from heat once butter is melted, then pour in the flour all at once.

3. Return the saucepan to low heat and continue stirring just until dough separates from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat completely.

4. Then using a hand mixer, add in the eggs one at a time. Make sure to COOL the dough prior to addition of the eggs to avoid "cooking" the eggs. 

5. Place dough in a piping bag; and use a round tip if desired. (But since I don't have any tips, I just cut the piping bag to a create a medium round shape.) Another tip: to easily place the dough mixture to the piping bag, place it in a tall glass. 

6. Prepare your sheet pan and line it with parchment paper or cookie sheet. Tip: Get some dough and paste it on some sides of the sheet pan prior to placement of parchment paper to avoid unnecessary movements.

7. Pipe round mounds making sure they have enough space even when they "puffed". 

8. Wet your index finger to flatten the pointy tips of the mounds.

9. Bake at 230 C for 30 minutes. 

Part 2: Custard filling (you can make this while the puff shells are baking)

Ingredients:

2 cups milk 

1 tsp vanilla syrup

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/5 cup flour

1/5 cup cornstarch

Directions:

1. Combine the yolks and sugar; whisk until pale yellow.

2. Sift the cornstarch and flour, then add it into the yolk-sugar mixture.

 3. Combine the milk and vanilla in a saucepan and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.

4. Once milk is boiling, temper the yolk mixture with about 1/4 cup of the hot milk; STIR VIGOROUSLY. This process is important as to avoid curdling the custard and having "scrambled egg yolks".

5. Then, quickly add the tempered yolk mixture back again to the hot milk and stir until mixture is thick. 

6. Remove from heat and place a film/cling wrap directly on top surface of the custard to avoid it from forming a "skin". Set aside until ready to use.

Once shells are cooked and you are ready to fill the shells, place the custard to a piping bag with a small round tip or "needle" tip. (I didn't have any of this so I just cut my piping bag to create a small round shape)

Find the natural crest/indent on your puff shells and pipe in there the custard until shell feels heavy enough. (Tip: you can use a small knife to gently lift the indent of the shells.)

Part 3: Sugar Glaze 

I was supposed to use a hard caramel-candy glaze for this cream puffs but since I didn't have any cream of tartar on hand, I opted to do an easier sugar glaze. This glaze is ideal for doughnuts; but there is really no hard rule to glazing or topping your puffs. You can even just dust them with powdered sugar; or dip them in chocolate glaze; whatever suits your fancy.

Ingredients for Sugar glaze:

1/4 cup of milk

1 tsp of vanilla syrup

2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Place the milk and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat.

2. Sift the powdered sugar over milk and whisk until melted.

3. Once melted, turn the heat to a low and dip the puffs to the glaze. 

Finish!!! =)

I also made some mini milk chocolate cupcakes. The recipe I used for this is new, so I won't post the details of it just yet. Well, you can say that it didn't pass in my test kitchen. Haha. According to my Kumars, it tasted good but it seems to me just like any ordinary chocolate cupcakes, nothing special. So until I have perfected the recipe for this one and achieved the oooey goooey center cupcakes I am aiming for, satisfy yourselves with just this pictures. Hehe.

Nothing beats good conversations with good friends over great foods! =) Here's my Kumars, delighted with the goodies.

Gathering of friends need not always be fancy; what's important are the conversations we make. We're always lost in the tracks of time when were together; for we can endlessly exchange stories of marital life and adventures of having a new family. Friends are blessings. I am thankful having them. =)

Happy Eating! =)

What I owe to Japan? - GREEN TEA ICE CREAM & MOCHI; and my first time with a Philips Delizia Ice Cream Maker

I have been very busy lately in the clinic, mostly because there is an increase in oral surgery and extraction cases this time of the year, meaning I say the lines “Mag ice cream ho kayo pagkatapos or halo halo”/ “Take ice cream or yogurt after, a cold soft diet is the most comfortable at this time” quite often these days.

I  have been making homemade ice creams for quite some time now, even if I don’t own any ice cream maker. The recipe I use is a no-frill; super easy recipe that only requires egg whites and sour cream as its basic ingredients. More about that in a FUTURE post about “Super Easy Homemade Ice cream”. Well anyway, I came to know that my husband’s gracious aunt owns a Philips Delizia Ice Cream Maker and she’s willing to lend it to us since she has never used them. I elatedly accepted with extreme excitement, and came to get the machine the other night. I can finally make some custard base ice cream; I wanted to see its difference from my usual egg whites-sour cream base ones.

The first custard base recipe that came to my mind was the Green tea ice cream I got from one of F&B World living’s publishing; for I love green teas! I even wear a green tea perfume. Haha =)

So here’s how I made them and know later whether it’s really worth it to have some ice cream maker of your own.

Ingredients: (for 4 servings)

2 cups milk 

5-6 green tea bags (or 3 tbsp green tea leaves); I used Lipton's Clear Green

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar (caster sugar)

tip: using caster sugar will give your ice cream a finer and smooth texture since it dissolves quickly.

2 egg yolks 

tip: I have told you about the "Super Easy Homemade Ice Cream" right? So SAVE the egg whites for that; or make it into meringue, or anything; just DON'T discard it.

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream 

(note: I could not find any heavy cream so I substituted slightly whipped whipping cream)

Directions:

 1) In a saucepan, boil 2 cups of milk. Remove from heat and stir in 6 green tea bags (I like strong green tea flavor, hence I used 6 bags. If you want it milder, stir in about 5 bags only.); and cover it to steep for 15 minutes. 

2) In a mixing bowl, beat the caster sugar into the yolks until pale yellow and thick. Beat in cornstarch. 

3) After 15 minutes, strain the milk mixture and remove tea bags. 

note: After straining the milk, I added 2 drops of green food coloring. As you can see, I wanted my Green Tea Ice Cream, well, GREEN; but I realized that the green tea bags that I bought was CLEAR. Silly me. =)

 Slowly beat warm milk into the egg mixture – this is called “Tempering”. You need to do this if you don’t want scrambled egg yolks. 

4) Then pour entire mixture back to the pan and cook over low heat; stir CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon until custard thickens slightly. 

note: At this time, I wasn't contented with the "greenness" of this, so I added 2 more drops of green food coloring.

5) Remove from heat and pour the custard mixture into a strainer into a bowl, and cool slightly. 

note: I tasted this custard before adding the slightly whipped cream; it was perfect and this is the "green" tea color that I was aiming for.

6) While waiting for my custard to cool, I made some “mochis” to go with my ice cream. Original recipe for this was from Maangchi's Injeolmi. Here are the ingredients. 

7) In a microwaveable bowl, mix ½ cup glutinous rice flour, dash of salt and ½ tbsp of sugar.

 8) Add ¼ cup + 1/8 cup water, mix well. Cover it loosely with a cling wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes. 

9) Put generous amount of Potato starch (cornstarch can also be used as substitute to potato starch) to a wooden chopping board as preparation for the microwaved mochis. 

10) Remove from microwave and mix with a wooden spoon (mochis tend to stick too much to metals) for about 20 seconds. Cover it again with a cling wrap and microwave on high for another minute. Once removed, mix as much as you can for it to be chewier then set aside to cool a little bit.

11) Transfer to the starched wooden board, generously coat your hands with potato starch and flatten the mochi dough.

12) Cut into bite size pieces using ceramic knife, (or coat your metal knife with the potato starch); coat with more potato starch to avoid them sticking to each other. Set aside. 

13) Let’s get back to the ice cream. Once custard is cooled, stir in the cream. 

note: After adding the cream, my custard mix lost its greenness so I took the liberty of adding 4 more drops of green food coloring. Note to self: must buy some MATCHA powder should I find one.

 14) You can already transfer this to another container, cover and freeze overnight. BUT since I have the Delizia, I used that. Before using it, I researched first how to properly use it. Manufacturer’s instruction says it only takes 30-40 minutes churning time and you’ll have some hard rock ice cream ready.

 BUT, after almost 2 hours, my ice cream mixture was still soft and gooey. So I ended up transferring it to a glass bowl , covering it with some aluminum foil and froze it overnight. What you can do to ensure your ice cream doesn't form “ice” crystals is to mix it every 30 minutes or so until frozen; but once or twice is enough in my experience.

15) Scoop the green tea Ice cream into a bowl and garnish as pleased. I garnished mine with some homemade sweetened adzuki beans (red monggo beans) and mochis.

The Green Tea Ice Cream was YUM, you can taste in each spoonful, the freshness of young green tea leaves; BUT I didn't get the color "green" that I was after so maybe next time I would add more green food coloring or buy myself some matcha powder instead.

The Philips Delizia Ice Cream Maker was a disillusionment last night ALTHOUGH I am not sure if the problem was because the machine was NEVER used or maybe the machine needed some dry run; or it has something to do with the recipe, which I doubt since it tasted great after freezing it overnight, .  But then again, maybe I SHOULD have been stricter and used HEAVY cream instead. Whatever it was, I won't be quitting on Delizia just yet and would still use it on my next ice cream recipe.  

I am not certain if we owe these treats to Japan but I remember that the first green tea ice cream I saw, was when the bubbly host of NHK'S "Oh Tokyo Tokyo" sampled some on one of her featured travel eats. I used to watch this show when I was a kid.

Let's just assume then that we DO owe this to Japan, and so while having some scoop of this, you might want to close your eyes too and say a little prayer for our Japanese neighbors. May there be no more earthquakes and tsunamis for them and for all of us.

Happy Eating! =)