Eclair recipe in the shape of profiterole ...

I made a mistake in the photo as it should have read "profiterole". Anyway, majority of the choux dough I did piped the Éclair shape but not photographed.

Can't believe that this is only the second time I've baked them as last time I did was for my FIL's name day , five years ago! There are so easy to do as dessert and feels lighter especially in the summer heat.

Basic Éclair recipe from A series of kitchen experiment

Notes
Add a packet (1x10g) vanilla sugar to the orig. recipe
I did the dough few days in advance and freeze it in freeze-safe bag. Thaw the dough in the fridge a day ahead and leave in out in room-temperature 30 mins. - 1 hour before you want to bake them as per recipe above. It may be still cold but you can start piping the dough onto the baking dish.

Pastry cream - I've used left over instant pastry cream (the reason why I decided to bake this the first place)

Chocolate glaze - just melt chocolate with some milk in the microwave. I microwave for 30 seconds. Let it sit a bit in the micro. and take it out and mix until glossy.

Caramelised sugar - also microwave !! I used this method with success.
 (extracted in case, I loose the link later)

• Place 1 cup sugar in a 2-cup Pyrex glass bowl. Add ¼ cup water to the sugar and mix. Place the bowl in a microwave and set it on high/800watts/100%.

• The sugar will take approximately 50secs to 3mins to caramelize depending on how dark and brittle you want your caramel to be - the longer you cook the darker the caramel gets.

• A quick tip would be to check on the sugar after 30sec and again after every 20 secs. The caramel continues to cook even after removing from the microwave, hence remove the caramel from the microwave when the sugar is one shade lighter than the desired color. 

• Transfer the caramel to another bowl immediately to halt the cooking and prevent the caramel from burning and getting bitter.

 

Salsa Verde

Yummy recipe from here !

We spread it on roti, topped with ricotta cheese and dill.

Broccoli Lemon chicken with toasted sesame seeds

Bikini season is soon ; so, time for lighter foods!

Broccoli Lemon Chicken with Toasted sesame seeds
Inspired by BBC Good Food

Ingredients
1 tbsp groundnut oil or sunflower oil
340g pack of chicken breast fillets , sliced into strips
2 garlic cloves , sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
200g broccoli florets
200ml chicken stock
1 heaped tsp cornflour
1 tbsp clear honey or 2 tsp golden caster sugar
the zest of half a lemon and the juice of a whole one
a large handful of toasted sesame seeds


Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the chicken and fry for 3-4 minutes until golden. Remove from the pan and add the garlic, ground cumin and broccoli. Stir fry for a minute or so then cover and cook for 2 minutes more, until almost tender.
Mix the stock, cornflour and honey or sugar well, then pour into the pan and stir until thickened. Tip the chicken back into the pan and let it heat through, then add the lemon zest and juice, and sesame seeds. Stir, then serve straight away with basmati rice or noodles.

Chocolate mousse & cream triffle cake

I intended to bake this Hungarian chocolate butter cream sponge cake (aka Ludlab) again for my FIL since I received favourable reviews the last time I made it. As the butter cream in that recipe was a bit heavy for my liking, I searched for a chocolate mousse recipe to replace the butter based one. I know the portion of chocolate mousse would not be enough to satisfy my FIL preference of more creamy filling less cake and so I added chocolate flavoured whipped cream to it. Finally, when I was deciding on presentation of the cake, I have to take into account on the convenience of travelling with a layered cake ; presenting it in a triffle cake form would be much easier to carry around - done!

Everyone loved the cake. It was chocolaty and light at the same time. There's plan to bake it again next week for another celebration.

Chocolate mousse & cream triffle cake

Ingredients

For Sponge cake ( source : flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/elfrieda/sets/72157601094692691/ )
3 eggs,
3 tbsp caster or superfine sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp cake flour {substitute with 3 tbsp plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder}

For the filling :-for Chocolate mousse (source http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/330616/really-easy-chocolate-mousse )

75g dark chocolate , chopped and melted (use a standard dark chocolate for this rather than a high cocoa one as it combines better)
2 eggs, separated
25g butter , melted
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tbsp coffee liquor (optional)- I used rum

for chocolate flavour whipped cream
125g dark chocolate
250ml whipping cream
1 sachet cream stabiliser
powdered sugar, to taste

For the syrup
200g sour cherry preserve, with juice (roughly divide into 3 portions)
a pinch of cinnamon
sugar, to taste
2 tsp rum

For chocolate ganache
45g chocolate
a little cream or milk just to loosen chocolate

Processes
For sponge cake (I baked this few days earlier before and kept in freezer)
Grease 18cm cake tin with a small amount of butter and sprinkle a bit of cocoa in the pan to prevent sticking.
Separate eggs, cream yolks with sugar until pale.
Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa in a separate bowl.
Beat egg whites separately until stiff.
Gently combine wet and dry ingredients.
Bake in 180°c/350°F oven in round cake tin for 25 minutes or until cooked.
Set aside to cool. Once cool, cut across horizontally to create 2 cake layers.

For syrup (this can be prepare earlier as well and kept in the fridge)
Place sauce pan over low heat, pour the juice from cherry preserve into sauce pan, and sprinkle 1 portion of the sour cherry preserve, sugar and cinnamon. Cook it down until a thick consistency. Not too thick as this will use to moist the cake

For chocolate mousse
Melt chocolate and butter in microwave for 30 seconds until melted. Mix together melted chocolate and butter until well combine. Then quickly mix in the egg yolks.
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and whisk in the sugar gradually until mixture is shinny and stiffFold in the two mixture and along add in coffee liquor if using (I used rum).

Start assembling cake

In a glass bowl, put one of the the layered cakes in the bottom of glass bowl. Brush some sour cherry syrup on the cakes and sprinkle with pieces of sour cherry (cooked together with juice)

Pour in the chocolate mousse, sprinkle with 2nd portion of sour cherries. Let it set in the fridge for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate ganache simply by microwaving the chocolate and a little bit of cream or milk til loosen and melted. Melting chocolate in microwave needs to be done by heating gradually, if chocolate is stiff add cream/milk to loosen.

For second piece of sponge cake, again brush the sour cherry syrup to moisten , let it soak up of the syrup before spreading the chocolate ganache prepared above, finally dot it with the 3rd portion of sour cherry. Set this cake layer aside while waiting for chocolate mousse to set.

For chocolate flavour whipped cream
Once chocolate mousse is set,
Melt chocolate set aside.
Start whipping the cream with sugar and cream stabiliser.
Half way through the whipping process, pour in the melted chocolate and whipped until it holds. Don not over whipped.

Pour this whipper cream over the set chocolate mousse, finally topped with the 2nd layer (the one with chocolate ganache)of sponge cake prepare earlier and it is ready.

Serve cold.

Vanilla custard "Pie" using Dr.Oetker Házi Krémes krém

Vanilla custard slice or Francia Krémes (in Hungarian) is quite a favourite over here in Hungary. I've tried making vanilla slice using one of the recipes found on the www without success ; the cream just not as stiff and stablised as those we buy from confectioneries. So, when Dr. Oetker launched this new product Házi krémes krém I was intrigued and bought it immediately.

Of course in future I would like to try my hand in making the custard from scratch again but this product is very convenient by just mixing cold milk and instant powder. This is definitely something you can use when short of time.

Vanilla custard "pie"

Pie Crust recipe from Joy of Baking
While waiting for pie crust to cool, whisk together the custard powder with milk (as per packet's instruction)

Pour the custard onto pie crust. Let it set in fridge for 1 hour.

I make basic toffee (butter, cream and brown sugar) to drizzle on top.

YUM!

Chocolate cake in-a-minute cooked using microwave !

Chocolate cake in-a-minute {cooked using microwave}
Recipe from collaborative curry

Ingredients
4 Tbsp plain flour
4 Tbsp white sugar (changed to 1 Tbsp white + 1 Tbsp brown)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
a pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large Egg, room temp
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
a dash of vanilla extract (switched to rum)
2 microwave-safe coffee mugs (I cooked it in mini casserole microwave-safe dish)


Method
1. Mix together dry ingredients
2. In another bowl beat the egg lightly, next add-in the rest of the wet ingredients ; mix well with a fork.
3. Mix in the dry mixture , mix until well combined.
4. Pour the batter into your microwave-safe baking dish
5. Microwave on high for a minute (my microw. is 900w). At this point the centre of the cake is gooey, it is cooked. Just keep in the microwave for another 10 seconds. Do not overcook or you might end up with a dry cake.
6. Let it cool before digging in!

No bake biscuit cake

This is going to be a great recipe for the hot summer months especially when I crave Gerbeaud cake / slice . To me this is a cheat version of the classic Hungarian confection ; one of my favourite sweets from Hungary!

No bake biscuit cake
source : Local Hungarian cooking mag

Ingredients
250gm biscuit crumbs
200gm powdered sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar / or use vanilla extract
120gm margarine (I used butter, melted)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp rum
100gm ground walnuts
grated zest of 1 orange (I used lemon)
Milk, as needed to combine

Chocolate icing
100gm dark chocolate

Method
1)Mix together dry ingredients and then combine in the wet ingredients. Press the mass into a rectangular tin and spread to get 2cm thickness

2)Melt chocolates and cover the top of cake.

verdict
I like it! need to be brave with milk! the "cake" base was a bit loose. Perhaps next time I'll try with vanilla cream filled biscuit crumbs.