Passionate About Baking: June 2012

Monday, June 18, 2012

Chocolate Wassants

When I saw the Chocolate Wassants from My Little Space blog, I bookmarked it and told myself I really have to try it. That was before I went for my Beijing holiday. When I came back, she posted the recipe for chocolate paste for the Chocolate Wassants. That was even more ideal!

I got down to making it. Even though my chocolate wassants were not so neat and pretty, it tasted really good. Thanks to her wonderful recipe. This is a sure keeper

Recipe for Chocolate Wassants, modified from My Little Space blog.
(Makes 18 mini wassants)

Chocolate Paste
(Makes approx. 375g)

Ingredients:
(A)
2 Egg whites
80g Fine sugar
50g Plain flour
10g Corn flour
2 tbsp Whole milk

(B)
150g Dark couverture chocolate buttons, melted

Method:

1. Combine ingredients (A) in a saucepan and mix well.
2. Then add melted (B) into (A) and stir to combine.
3. Simmer mixture over low flame till became thickened and turned into thick paste.
4. Once it's done, leave to cool before transferring to a (sandwich) plastic bag and flatten.
5. Keep chilled overnight.

Chocolate Wassant

Ingredients:
Starter Dough:
225g Plain flour
1 tsp Instant yeast
100g Water

- Combine all ingredients to form a dough and let to rest for an hour or till double in size (the dough is rather tough)

Main Dough:
125g Bread flour
100g Plain flour
100gm Fine sugar
1 Whole egg
60g Water
70g Unsalted butter
1 tsp Fine salt

*Homemade chocolate paste

Method:

1. Once the starter dough is ready, tear into pieces and add into main ingredients.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix to form a soft dough then let to rest for an hour or till double in size.
3. Place dough to a slightly floured working table and knead till smooth.
4. Then roll it out flat, slightly bigger than the chocolate paste.
5. Place the chocolate paste on the flat dough, and wrap dough over the paste till totally sealed.
6. Again roll wrapped dough into 9x13" size and fold into 3 sections and roll flat again, like making a pastry dough.
7. Repeat one more time and finally roll into long rectangular shape (12'x16"), then cut into triangle shape (size as desired).

8. Roll each up like a swiss roll then place them onto a baking tray, again let to rest for an hour.
9. Brush on egg glaze then bake at preheated oven 180C for about 17 mins or till brown.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Cheesy Waffle Bites

Honey Bee Sweets made these. And so did Precious Moments. Thanks to their reviews, I made mine and it turned out very cheesy and yummy! I doubled the recipes and used grated red cheddar cheese. When the dough was heating in the waffle maker, the cheddar cheese aroma filled the air.

Recipe for Cheesy Waffle Bites, modified from Honey Bee Sweets.
(makes about 50 bite size)

Ingredients:
400g Plain flour, sifted
150g Icing sugar
200g Unsalted cold butter, cubed
150g Red Cheddar cheese, grated
40g milk powder
2 Whole eggs, beaten (approx. 100g) [I added extra egg yolk to add up to 100g]

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, add in the flour, icing sugar, milk powder and cheese in.
2. Stir in to mix well.
3. Then add in the cold cubed butter and rub it in with your fingers.
4. When the mixture resembles bread crumbs, add in the beaten egg.
5. Stir well to form a soft pitiable dough.
6. At this point you can either chill or work with it right away.(I chilled mine as it was too soft. Could be due to the extra egg yolk I added.)
7. Divide the dough into small ball portions of your preference.
8. Heat up your waffle maker.
9. Then place the dough into each "joint" of the waffle maker.
10. Cook for about 3-4 minutes (according to your waffle maker heating element).

11. Remove and let them cool on a wire rack. Repeat till all the dough portions are cooked.
12. When the waffles are removed from the dough, it'll still be quite soft. It hardens upon total cooling.

Friday, June 15, 2012

One Week in Beijing - Food 3

The Beijing cuisine that we had were just fantastic! Most of the 小吃店 (small cafe) were as good as the bigger restaurants. The prices were also cheaper. The most expensive food we had were at the famous Quanjude Peking Roast Duck restaurant (全聚德烤鸭店) at 和平门 (Hepingmen). This branch was said to have the best 烤鸭 amongst all the branches.

However, my personal favourite is 大碗居(dawanju). They also have branches all over Beijing. In my one week's stay in Beijing, I had 烤鸭 for three meals! The difference between Singapore and Beijing 烤鸭 is in the sauce and the wrap. The sauce is saltier in Beijing vs sweeter version in Singapore. The wrap in Beijing is much thicker and flourer vs Singapore's thinner and sometimes egg wrap. The 烤鸭 tasted better in Beijing, but not its wrap and sauce though. That was in my opinion.

The quantity of duck, mutton, beef and rice which I ate over that one week were probably equivalent to my whole year's intake!

Singapore Airline Breakfast (Sgp-Pek)