The Joy of Crème Brûlée

I finally said YES to the Crème Brûlée request of MyGirl.

We settled on the recipe from The Joy of Cooking.  

In my opinion, the recipe called for not too much cream, not too many eggs, a decent amount of sugar but not enough vanilla.

We made this yesterday and chilled it overnight.  

This was the final product before we had it for Sunday lunch dessert.  

I did put my foot down on adding extra sugar and making a hard crust.  

With all the the baking I did today, I figured we could all do away with the extra calories.

Crème Brûlée

Serves 6 to 8 

Heat almost to a simmer:
        2 cups heavy cream
Stir with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl just until blended:
        8 large egg yolks or 3 large eggs
        1⁄2 cup sugar
Gradually stir in the cream. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl or a large measure with a pouring lip. Stir in:
        3⁄4 teaspoon vanilla
Pour into six to eight 4- to 6-ounce custard cups or ramekins and place in a water bath.. Set the pan in the oven and set the oven temperature to 250 degrees F.  Bake until the custards are set but still slightly quivery in the center when the cups are gently shaken, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Cool the custards slightly in the water bath, then remove them and let cool to room temperature.
Cover each one tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or up to 2 days. Shortly before serving, gently blot any liquid that has formed on the surface of the custards with the paper towels. Sprinkle evenly over the top of each custard:
        2 to 3 teaspoons granulated light brown sugar
Arrange the custards on a baking sheet and place under the broiler. Broil until the sugar melts and bubbles, turning the pan and/or moving the custards around if some cook more quickly than others. Some sugar will remain unmelted and some spots will char; this is part of the charm. If you are using a propane torch, sprinkle the sugar over each custard as above. Ignite your propane torch according to the manufacturer's instructions. Hold the torch so that the flame is not directly touching the surface of the custards, but it should be close enough to melt the sugar fairly quickly. Move the torch slowly over the custards to melt all the sugar, and continue bruleeing until the sugar is a deep, caramel brown color. Serve at once.

NOTE :  The above recipe is based on my 1997 version of The Joy of Cooking.  The internet recipe called for 4 eggs, preheating the oven to 325 degrees and baking time of 30-35 minutes.

Still My Beating Heart

Remember my new mini-heart pan?

Meet my mini-heart chocolate chip cakes.

Miniature Chocolate Chip Cakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray oil into the cavities of a mini-bundt cake pan or mini-heart pan and lightly dust them with flour. 

1. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl with a whisk. 

2. Beat the egg in 2-cup measuring cup.  Add melted butter, milk, and vanilla and mix well.

3.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.   Add the chocolate chips. 

4. Spoon the batter into molds equally.  This will fill 12 mini bundt pan molds using approximately 1/4 c of batter per mold; or 6 mini-heart pan molds using approximately 1/2 c of batter per mold.  

5.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. 

6. When the cakes are done, remove them from the molds and cool.

You can glaze the cakes with a chocolate glaze made from a heaping tablespoon of  cocoa,  a  cup  of  powdered  sugar,  and  enough  milk  for  drizzling consistency

Who Kneads It?

I borrowed this book from the library last week, Five Minute Bread by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

I contemplated buying a pizza stone during the week since after the oven thermometer, the baking stone was listed as the next needed Equipment.  But with all the feedback I read on the internet (about pizza stones cracking and all), I decided that I could survive without the pizza stone and would rather buy flour and just start baking.

Yesterday, MyGirl and I went to Target to get a 5 litre container.  (Apparently, I didn't have that big a container in the house.) 

We also got a kilo of flour from Coles.  (I figured it would be simpler to remove 100 g of flour from a bag rather than measure out 900 g from our flour container.)

Last night before dinner, I mixed up a batch of the Master Recipe : Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf).  We let it rise for a while (as much as it would given the cold autumn weather).  Then we placed the dough in the new container and placed the container in the refrigerator.

This morning, I measured out 450 g of dough as instructed, shaped the dough into a ball and placed it on a silicon-mat lined baking tray.  I preheated the oven and waited.

The dough did not rise as much as I would have wanted (or imagined) but I figured I couldn't force the dough to rise even if I wanted to.  It would just have to do. 

Into the oven went the dough with a small pan of water on the rack beneath it.

When the timer went off (actually, it was more when the smoke alarm both downstairs AND upstairs went off), I pulled out the bread from the oven.

The boys were still asleep, totally oblivious of the freshly baked bread and the numerous smoke alarms.  I sliced the bread and called MacGyver and MyGirl.  

The single loaf we baked was sliced into five.  

MyGirl and I had already eaten our slices when by the time I got my camera.

MacGyver arrived and had the edge piece.  We seriously considered dividing up the last two pieces.  The sleeping boys would not know they had missed out on the bread if everyone kept their mouths shut.  

But no!  Justice and fairness prevailed.

I put one slice each on the boys' breakfast plates.

In the afternoon when MyGirl and I decided to bake something in the new heart pan we'd acquired, I decided to use up more of the dough and bake another two loaves.

The recipe is definitely a keeper.  

I found this in the internet today which will eliminate your need to head for the library or the bookstore to get the recipe -->   Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

Happy baking!

What a Long Day

I had one of those long days at the office yesterday.


How do I know that?  


For one thing, there were only a handful of people when I arrived and there were only two of us when I left.


And ... I was talking with someone in the US in the morning and someone in the UK at night. 


But the real proof was that I couldn't get back into the premises when I swiped my ID at the door upon my return from the trip to the Ladies' Room at the end of my work day.


It was really time to go home.

Big Pan, Little Pan

Baking pans.  I love baking pans.

Muffin pans.  I love muffin pans.

Pie plates.  I love pie plates.

Cookie sheets.  I love cookie sheets.

Jelly roll pans.  I love jelly roll pans.

Loaf pans.  I love loaf pans.

Bread pans.  Yes, I love bread pans.

It's simple, really.

I love baking.  I love muffins.  I love pies. 

I love cookies.  I love jelly rolls.  I love loaves.  

And yes, I love bread, too, especially freshly baked ones.

Woks and cookware?  

Nah, I don't love wo(r)king and I don't really love cooking.

Sadly, I have to wo(r)k and someone has to cook.

So let's go back to baking instead.

Whenever I go to the mall, I gravitate towards the stores that sell bakeware, cookware and other kitchen gadgets.  There is always something of interest there.

Victoria's Basement to me is like National Bookstore to Z or Dick Smith, MSY and Ace Hardward to MacGyver.

I do have a decent selection of pans.  What can I say?  Baking pans inspire me.  

One can make cookies, muffins, rolls, pies, cakes, lamingtons, bread and a whole variety of other baked goodies if one has a wide range of pans available.

However, since grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, I still like to check out what interesting pans might be out there.

My pan collection grows over time.  Slowly but surely.   The most precious pans of my collection are the ones I (asked to be) inherited from my maternal grandmother.  Those are irreplaceable.  MacGyver's sister got me a bread pan from one of her trips.  Over several trips to Manila, sisters from abroad brought me home springform pans, a beautiful bundt pan and special cookie sheets.  When Z came over to visit, I asked her to bring me one of the tube pans from Cebu Avenue.   Most of the pans I do pick up myself.
  
The latest addition to my collection is a mini-heart pan. 

In my books, sales are among the top advantages of Mothers' Day.

I have yet to bake anything in this adorable pan.  But not to worry, I am the type of person that listens to Christmas music in April, so I certainly won't be waiting for Valentine's Day to make something in this pan.

My main problem is that I still have to figure out how much batter I'd need to make heart-shaped goodies. 


Let's see ... volume = length x width x height for rectangular pans


     = base x base x height for square pans  
     = πr²h  for round pans

CIRCULAR PANS
1 (8-inch) round cake pan	4 cups	1 (8 x 4)-inch loaf pan
		1 (9-inch) round cake pan
		1 (9-inch) pie plate
2 (8-inch) round cake pans	8 cups	2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans
		1 (9-inch) tube pan
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		1 (10-inch) Bundt pan
		1 (11 x 7-inch) baking dish
		1 (10-inch) springform pan
1 (9-inch) round cake pan	6 cups	1 (8-inch) round cake pan
		1 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pan
		1 (11 x 7-inch) baking dish
2 (9-inch) round cake pans	12 cups	2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans
		1 (9-inch) tube pan
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (10-inch) Bundt pan
		2 (11 x 7-inch) baking dishes
		1 (10-inch) springform pan
1 (10-inch) round cake pan	11 cups	2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (9-inch) tube pan
		1 (10-inch) springform pan
2 (10-inch) round cake pans	22 cups	5 (8-inch) round cake pans
		3 or 4 (9-inch) round cake pans
		2 (10-inch) springform pans
9-inch springform pan	10 cups	1 (10-inch) round cake pan
		1 (10-inch) springform pan
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
MORE CIRCULAR PANS
10-inch springform pan	12 cups	2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans
		1 (9-inch) tube pan
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		1 (10-inch) Bundt pan
		2 (11 x 7-inch) baking dishes
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
9-inch tube pan	12 cups	2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (10-inch) Bundt pan
10-inch tube pan	16 cups	3 (9-inch) round cake pans
		2 (10-inch) pie plates
		2 (9-inch) deep dish pie plates
		4 (8-inch) pie plates
		2 (9x5-inch) loaf pans
		2 (8-inch) square baking dishes
		2 (9-inch) square baking dishes
10-inch Bundt pan	12 cups	1 (9x13-inch) baking dish
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (9-inch) tube pan
		2 (11x7-inch) baking dishes
		1 (10-inch) springform pan
SQUARE AND RECTANGULAR PANS
8 x 4-inch loaf pan	6 cups	1 (8-inch) round cake pan
		1 (11 x 7-inch) baking dish
9 x 5-inch loaf pan	8 cups	1 (9 x 2-inch) deep dish pie plate
		1 (10-inch) pie plate
		1 (8-inch) square baking dish
		1 (9-inch) square baking dish
8-inch square baking dish	8 cups	1 (9 x 2-inch) deep pie plate
		1 (9 x 5-inch) loaf pan
		2 (8-inch) pie plates
9-inch square baking dish	8 cups	1 (11 x 7-inch) baking dish
		1 (9 x 2-inch) deep dish pie plate
		1 (9 x 5-inch) loaf pan
		2 (8-inch) pie plates
11 x 7 x 2-inch baking dish	6 cups	1 (8-inch) square baking dish
		1 (9-inch) square baking dish
		1 (9-inch) round cake pan
9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish	15 cups	1 (10-inch) Bundt cake pan
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		3 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (10 x 15-inch) jellyroll pan
10 x 15 x 1-inch jellyroll pan	15 cups	1 (10-inch) Bundt pan
		2 (9-inch) round cake pans
		2 (8-inch) round cake pans
		1 (9 x 13-inch) baking dish

After all these, I still don't know how much batter for my mini-hearts pan (not to mention how to get a proper table into this blogpost).

I Heart(brand) Ice Cream

I've been seeing a lot of ads about Magnum and have read numerous FaceBook posts about it.  I'd been contemplating getting some to try out.  I figured I could still use my birthday as an excuse, or if that was stretching it, Mothers' Day was also available.  (Of course, the truth is that no excuse is required for ice cream.)

Anyway, it was the first Saturday of May when I headed for the ice cream cabinets at the grocery and I found out that Magnum was no longer on sale.  (It is still kind of expensive at about AUD8 for a pack of 4.)  The practical side of me prevailed and I checked out the prices of the other ice cream brands instead.

I grew up with Magnolia Ice cream but Selecta was a close contender.  When we moved here, I was surprised to see the Selecta logo under the Streets brand name.  Apparently Unilever uses this Heartbrand logo all over the world.  Wall's in the UK and Good Humor in the States, to name a few.

Well, one HUGE advantage of Streets here over Selecta back in the home country is that Streets has MINT ice cream!!  (And it was on sale, too.)

So even if I knew winter was approaching and because it was the weekend between my birthday and Mothers' Day, I figured everyone would be happy if I brought home a 2 litre container of ice cream.   I got the 3-in-1 Peppermint Cream.

The pictures below were taken last weekend when MyGirl and I dropped by the grocery on our own.   These photos show some of the other flavours available from Streets and the non-sale price of the ice cream.

If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Curd

Last weekend, lemons were on sale at $0.99 per kilo.  They are usually $2.99 or more per kilo. So I decided to get some.

I had a couple of ideas of what to do with the lemons.  I considered making lemon roast chicken but was really more inclined towards lemon squares, lemon delicious  and lemon pound cake.   

On Tuesday, I decided I wanted to get the lemons moving.  A quick check after dinner revealed that we had breaded chicken pieces in the freezer and two whole chickens and about a kilo of chicken thighs marinating in the ref.  There goes my lemon roast chicken.  (I didn't want the children growing wings, you know.)

Lemon squares is something I have done many times in the past, unlike lemon delicious and lemon pound cake.  I was more or less familiar with the time it would take to get it done (considering the next day was a workday.)

"Should I make lemon squares?I like lemon squares."

MyGirl immediately called out her objection, "I don't like lemon squares."

So there I was with a bagful of lemons and my initial ideas had been thrown out the window.   Fortunately, i had just come across a recipe for lemon curd and had written it down in one of my recipe notebooks.  Perhaps it was fate.   It was time to experiment and make lemon curd.

I didn't realise it was so easy to make lemon curd.  

Essentially it just takes the juice and grated rind of two lemons combined with 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar over a double boiler.  Once the sugar melts, add 2 well-beaten eggs and mix until the curd coats the back of the spoon.

Voila!  Lemon curd.

I loved it. 

MyGirl found it too sour.  RD was quite disappointed since it looked deceptively like the  brazo de mercedes filling, yet it was not (as) sweet.

Fortunately, MacGyver appreciated the experiment.  He and I had it on toast after dinner for the next few days.  Yum!

(I decided to make lemon pound cake today, only to discover that the recipe called for lemon extract instead of a real lemon.)

'I' Before 'E' Except After 'C'

'I' before 'E' except after 'C'?

Not according to some ancient species found in sufficient number in a science society.  They would claim to be among the exceptions.

Plus, a weird Keith out there would either have a counterfeit seizure at some foreign leisure resort or stand at full height just to prove that 'C' is not an integral part of the rule.

What brought all this about?

Well, everyday, we have transactions with Qantas and I learned something new when I asked around.

All the while I thought maybe they forgot the rule that 'Q' and 'U' go together or that maybe 'qantas' was one of those words that Australians liked to spell differently from the rest of the world.

Did you know that QANTAS is the acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services"?

Well, before I arrived in Australia, I surely didn't know that. 

Yes, I know, I should have known since PAL stands for Philippine Airlines and JAL stands for Japan Airlines.  I suppose it is because QANTAS is not usually in all caps.  It is often seen as 'Qantas' thus the assumption that it is a word rather than an acronym.

Another interesting fact I learned is that aside from the fact that the choice of a kangaroo as the Qantas logo was not only because kangaroos are only found in primarily in Australia but also because kangaroos cannot walk or move backwards (due to the unusual shape of its legs and its bulky tail) thus the 'keep moving forward' implication. 


Interesting!  


You learn something new everyday.