Stove top belgian waffle maker - Liege waffles

I was gonna post the recipe for the liege waffles but the waffles turned out to be a flop..a major major flop so I decided to post a review on my newly purchased stove top Belgian waffle maker which I purchased from Amazon.com. I have have been hunting for a Belgian waffle to make these special waffles because I, particularly love the liege waffles I have eaten in Max Brenner in Sydney. A Belgian waffle maker is not very easy to find in Malaysia because we eat more of the normal waffles rather than the deep pocketed waffles. After a lot of research I found this stove top Belgian waffle maker to be rather practical for me because I have too many electrical kitchen appliances and it would be difficult to get things fixed if the waffle maker fails on me. This Belgian waffle maker is from Nordic Ware and it makes beautiful waffles over low heat. You just have to brush the waffle maker with butter or non stick spray and you are ready to make your waffles.But I have to warn that you might have to keep an eye on in the beginning at first use to get to know the right temperature as the waffle might browned too fast or even burn. And you have to turn the waffle maker to make sure even cooking of waffles.

Plum clafoutis

A clafoutis is a baked French pudding traditionally made with cherries and easily adaptable to other stone fruit. ~Donna Hay Magazine

A very simple & fast dessert and it would have been a fantastic dessert if the pudding was less eggy.I found the pudding a little eggy despite using vanilla sugar & vanilla bean paste instead of ordinary sugar alone. Maybe 2 large eggs would be sufficient enough.Just an opinion.

Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Feb/Mar 2012

Butter, for greasing

100g vanilla sugar, plus extra sugar for dusting

400g plums

7 punnets of strawberries

50g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 cup whipping cream

3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease an 2 casserole dish with butter and dust with sugar.
2. Place plums and strawberries, cut side up, in the dish.
3. Place flour,sugar,vanilla paste and cream in a bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.Pour mixture carefully over the fruits and bake for 35-40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve warm with ice cream,if desired. Serves 6.

Ispahan macarons

One of Pierre Herme originality,the Lychee, Rose & Raspberry macaron but I added a twist because I didn't have enough raspberries, I used fresh strawberries as well with the frozen raspberries I had left over.I would be frank about this beautiful french sweet,I had a crazy time doing this. Firstly, not knowing the right temperature to bake these macarons was a trial & error thing for me, then came the lychee and rose ganache.The ganache was a disaster,I wasted so much because the ganache went wrong. I was my fault for using normal eating chocolate instead of the usual couverture chocolate used. I made my own lychee and rose filling in the end because the ganache did not set. Even the raspberry & strawberry jelly did not set.But the taste was pretty alright and it did come out good for a first timer.

excuse the slight crack,I was testing the perfect temperature for the macarons.

Adapted from Pierre Herme: Macarons ( I only made half the recipe) & Poh's Kitchen

For the raspberry and strawberry jelly:

210g raspberries + strawberries

40g caster sugar

2 leaves of gelatine weighing 2g each

For the macaron shells:

150g sifted ground almonds*

150g sifted icing sugar

55g 'liquefied' egg whites**

red food colouring paste

+

150g caster sugar

75g water

55g 'liquefied' egg whites

For the lychee & rose buttercream

150g unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

7 lychees (from a tin),squeeze excess syrup out from the lychees

2 drops oil based rose essence

* make sure you have 150g of sifted almond meal, the coarser grains from the almond meal can be used in other recipes.

** liquefied egg whites are aged egg whites meaning that egg whites kept in the fridge for several days, egg whites will lose their elasticity.I used frozen egg whites. I normally keep extra egg whites in the freezer until needed.

1 egg white = 30g

For decorations:

edible dust

sugar sprinkles

1. Start by preparing the raspberry jelly.Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water to soften. Using a hand blender,blend the raspberries, strawberries and sugar to a puree. Strain the puree to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the puree to 45 C. Drain and dry the gelatine and add to the hot puree. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry puree.
2. Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingflim to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for an hour at room temperature then put the dish into the freeze for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.
3. To make the macarons shells: Sift together the sifted almond meal and icing sugar together.Add egg whites & red colouring to the almond meal and icing sugar.Mix vigorously.
4. Bring water and sugar to boil at 118 C. When the syrup reaches 115 C,simultaneously start whisking the second portion of egg whites to soft peaks. When the syrup reaches 118 C, pour it over the egg whites. Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50 C, then fold it into the almond & icing sugar mixture. Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
5. Pipe rounds of batter with a template as a guideline underneath the parchment paper or silpat or alternatively pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter spacing them 2 cm apart onto baking trays lined parchment paper or silpat. Slightly drop baking trays on a hard surface to get an even looking shell. Sprinkle with decorations of your preferences and leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes or until they form a skin.
6. Preheat oven at 150C for conventional ovens and 180C for fan forced ovens then put trays in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.Leave oven door slightly ajar to allow steam to escape.
7. Remove from oven and slide the shells on to a work surface.
8. To make lychee & rose buttercream, squeeze excess water out from the lychee. Blend lychee to a puree.Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy, add the puree into the cream and continue to the mixture. Add your desired amount of rose essence.Start off by adding few drops at a time as the flavour of rose can be overpowering if too much essence is added.
9. To pipe the macaron shells:Spoon buttercream into a pipping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe a mound of buttercream on to half the shells. Lightly press a square of the frozen jelly into the centre and finish with a dot of buttercream.(I found this very difficult to do and my frozen jelly was melting into the heat of Malaysia.) Top with the remaining shells.
10. Store the macarons for 24 hours in the fridge and bring them out at point of serving.

VIOLA!!!

Cake pops

Never did I ever imagine myself having so much patience to make two desserts I have never made before.Ispahan(Rose,lychee & raspberry) macarons and also cake pops! I had too many panic attacks as I was making them.Since I had too much chocolate in the refrigerator, and I just learnt storing chocolate in the refrigerator is a wrong thing to do because it will change the texture of the chocolate,I needed to finish them all before buying more chocolates so I decided to make cake pops. Cake pops has not gained its fame here in Malaysia, just yet. I used a dense cake so that I didn't have to use a lot of frosting,in fact I didn't want to use any frosting in the beginning but the crumbs didn't stick so I made a little frosting just enough to make the cake balls.

For some reason,every time I try to melt my milk chocolate,it seized.I had no idea and I was getting frustrated because I had a train to catch at 4pm and I was still trying to do them at 1pm. I forgo the decoration part because I had no time. Juggling my time between my injured dog and making wasn't easy.( I definitely did sanitize my hand before making my cake pops,I promise!=P)

One recipe of mud cake from here

Chocolate buttercream frosting:

125g butter

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Chocolate for coating the cake balls approx ~ 500g chocolate

1. In a bowl, sift together icing sugar and cocoa powder.
2. Cream butter and then slowly add cocoa mixture.
3. Continue to cream the mixture until light and fluffy.

To make the cake pops:

1. Crumble the cake into fine crumbs, and mix the chocolate butter cream with the fine crumbs until well combined. You don't really need all the butter cream, just enough for you to be able to make small cake balls.If you have accidentally added too much butter cream, leave it to stand until the mixture is not sticky.
2. Roll the mixture into small balls and place them on a pan.Freezer the cake balls for half an hour.
3. Dip the cake pop sticks into some chocolate and pierce through the cake balls and stick it onto a piece of Styrofoam. Once finish, place then into the freezer again for an hour.
4. Melt the remaining chocolate for coating and coat cake balls then place them back on the styrofoam for another hour of freezing.

NOTE: If you like to decorate your cake pops with nuts or sprinkles, roll the cake pops on some chopped nuts or sprinkles and then place them back in the freeze to set. Otherwise,if you would like to draw on your cake pops,it's best to draw them after the chocolate coating has set.Serve

I would post more on cake pops when I make them again in the future.

Spicy Noodles

Ever since studying in Sydney and living my mother who is half Chinese,I have learnt how to make good stir fry noodles.I would have probably learnt making simple Chinese meals and noodles from the years living with her in Sydney. Her busy lifestyle only allowing her to whip up simple and quick meals like stir fry noodles,fried rice and soups. Well she does cook other pork dishes during the weekend but it would be a rare occasion and plus she hates cooking.

Anyway this recipe is no where near what her noodles taste like because I used fried chili paste to add the spiciness to the noodles but dad said it was good and my noodles are getting better.Something to thank mum,I suppose.

600g yellow noodles

6-8 cloves garlic,chopped

150g sawi,any green leafy vegetable,

3 large prawns,cut into two

5 large fish balls, sliced

3 medium size squids,sliced

1 medium deboned chicken thigh

2 fried bean curd, sliced into 6 (each bean curd)

2 handfuls of taugeh (bean sprouts)

5tablespoons fried chili paste, I used homemade (dry chilies,salt & bird's eye chilies)

Seasoning

150ml chicken stock, I used homemade (chicken + prawns)

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

2-3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

• To make the fried chili paste, heat a little bit of oil in a wok, then place chili paste in the wok and fry for about 5-10minutes until cooked.Remove from wok.
• With the same oil,fry gralic until fragrant. Place stems of the leafy vege, chicken, fish ball slices & squid slices in the wok.Cook until chicken,fish ball and squid are half cooked.Pour seasoning and give the ingredients a good stir before adding the chili paste & prawns.
• Gently place the noodles, carefully stir everything.Place the remaining ingredients like bean curd,bean sprouts & the remaining green leafy vegs into the wok and again carefully stir.
• Cover the noodles for about 5 minutes over low heat.Give the noodles a good stir to incorporate the remaining ingredients and making sure the prawns are cooked.
• Dish the noodles out and serve.

Rich butter cake

I always love simple cakes with no frosting what so ever and I particularly love butter cakes.Butter cakes are perfect for tea time or as a snack.

250g butter

250g caster sugar

250g self rising flour

6 large eggs,separated

1 teaspoon baking powder

50ml (35% fat) cream

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 180 C and line baking tin with butter and then baking paper.
• Cream butter then gradually add 150g of sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolks one at a time,making sure all eggs are fully incorporated before adding the vanilla paste and extract & cream.
• Gently fold flour and baking powder into batter.
• In a different bowl whisk egg whites until soft peaks,gradually add the remaining sugar and continue whisk until you get something similar to a meringue,not too dry.
• Fold the meringue like base into the cake batter until just incorporated.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Custard Chiffon Cake

UPDATE [9-SEPT-2012]

I made this cake again after a few months and I still think this is my all time favourite cake to eat as a snack. This time, I used 175g SR flour and 1/3 cup custard powder instead of 1/4cup which is 35 grams and it still tasted great. It probably needed to be in the oven for another 10 minutes on a lower temperature of 160 C because it was slightly on a moister side of a chiffon cake.

This has been the cake recipe I have tested in the longest time,I could make this all the time and eat it. I purposely made a whole cake to take with me for my travels to Sri Lanka and it finished within three days.

Excuse me for having writer's block at the moment.I came home exhausted from an odd timing flight to find my favourite one (my dog) with maggots and wounds all over her back. Pretty much with no rest I am here sharing you the recipe. Well I just had to share the recipe because it was simply the best cake I have tested so far.

Adapted from MMCC

200g self raising flour

2 teaspoon cream of tartar
35g custard powder

6 large eggs, separated

345g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

80ml vegetable oil

170ml warm water

• Preheat oven to 180C. You will need an ungreased angel cake tin (not a non stick one as well).Do NOT grease it.
• Sift the flour,1 teaspoon of cream of tartar and custard powder three times to ensure they are fully combined.
• In an electric mixer,whisk egg yolks with 230g of sugar until pale and creamy, then add the vanilla extract.Pour the oil and warm water into a jug. While the yolks are still whisking on low speed, add the flour mixture and the oil & water at the same time, whisking until just incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the remaining sugar & remaining cream of tartar and continue to whisk until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Very carefully fold the batter into the egg whites with a metal spoon until just incorporated.
• Pour mixture into the cake tin. Bake for 1hour 15minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into cake.
• After removing the cake from the oven, immediately invert it to cool by balancing the middle funnel onto a bottle neck. It is important for the cake to be inverted and suspended upside down until it is cool to stop it from collapsing.
• When cool, run a knife around the outside of the cake and the funnel. Left the base out of the tin, then use the knife to ease the cake off the base.