creme brulee - 焦糖布丁

I've been wanting to make creme brulee myself for such a long time, but I really did not feel like getting a kitchen torch. After all, I don't think i would actually make good use of it very frequently at all. So after looking around I decided to try out the broiler method. This method i feel would probably only work if you had a gas oven; I am inclined to say that electric ovens' broilers might not be hot enough (at least it has no actual flames coming out) to achieve the same effect, although I have not tried it myself. Feel free to try it with an electric oven and let me know how it goes, I'm pretty curious about it actually. So here's how I did it:

Materials:

A. 1 pint of heavy whipping cream (or heavy cream)
B. ~1/2 tblsp. vanilla extract (may add or subtract based on personal preference)
C. 5 6oz. ramekins
D. 5 strawberries (optional)
E. 6 large egg yolks
F. 3/4 cups of sugar

*prepare ~3 additional tablespoons of sugar on the side for making the sugar crust before serving

Directions:

1. Pour the heaving whipping cream into a pot and heat it over the stove with small-medium heat. keep an eye on this and do not allow the cream to boil. when you see a rim of small simmering bubbles forming on the surface of the cream, turn off the fire or remove it from the stove. Move onto step 2 while this is heating, but again, keep an eye on it.

2. add the sugar into to egg yolks in a mixing bowl and whisk gently to combine. there is no need for vigorous beating here, the goal is the combine the yolks and the sugar.

3. after the cream has been heated and removed from the source of heat, begin slowly dripping the hot cream into the yolk + sugar mixture prepared in step 2 while mixing/whisking gently to combine the ingredients. It is important that the cream is added SLOWLY to the yolks and mixed while it is being added. if the hot cream is added too quickly or not mixed while being added, it will cook the yolks and you will end up with flakes of cooked egg yolk instead of the final smooth egg/cream mixture.

4. after all the cream has been added, add in the vanilla extract and mix well. then strain the batter through a sieve to remove any clumps/flakes of cooked egg and foam that may have formed while mixing.

5. pour the mixture into your ramekins until they are 90% full. do not fill it to the rim. the mixture is very thin (you should realize it at this point) so if you fill it up too full, it will be difficult to move them to the oven for baking later. pre-heat your oven to 350F (~180C).

6. place the ramekins in a baking pan or oven-friendly container that has a little depth to it. heat some water in a pot on a stove and pour the hot or boiling water into the pan carefully so 3/4 of the ramekins are submerged.

7. move the entire tray with the ramekins and water in it into the pre-heated oven and bake. If you are using shallow ramekins, they should be ready in 25-30mins. if you're using deeper ones like me, it will take ~ 45 mins. You may place the tray on the lower level of the oven racks to avoid the tops from burining, and assist with the cooking of the creme brulee below the surface. check for the progress by inserting a knife or fork to see if it is cooked.

8. remove from the oven and allow the creme brulee to cool at room temperature. then cover with saran wrap and move into the fridge. refridgerate for ~3 hours to overnight, or they may be kept for ~3 days or so without going bad at all in the fridge.

9. before serving, remove from the fridge, dab the surface dry (in case of an condensation in the fridge). then sprinkle some sugar over the top.

10. turn on your oven to the "broiler" setting and place your creme brulees in a row along the broiler at the top of the oven. The ramekins should be ~1 inch away from the broiler itself on the ceiling of the oven. allow them to broil for ~3 mins while checking their status. turn off the broiler and remove them from the oven once the sugar appears to be caremelized (Brownish in color).

11. after cooling (Which only takes a couple of minutes, max), the sugar will have formed the signiture sugar crust of creme brulees.

you may garnish them however you like. I paired mine up with a strawberry to balance out the sweetness with the natural fruity taste of the berry. some people enjoy whipped cream over it, or caramel etc. play around and add what you prefer!

now its time to eat! enjoy your fresh home made creme brulee!

bon appetit!

questions, concerns, suggestions welcomed! just drop me a line in a comment below!

<3 Ney

soymilk rice ball dessert [紅豆草莓抹茶豆奶白玉]

Sticky rice balls are commonly made with glutinous rice flour mixed with plain water and either cooked in water, or steamed in a steamer. truthfully speaking, they taste good made with water, but wouldn't it be nice if we also added a little more richness to the original aroma of rice? So this japanese stlye dessert was originall made with milk, but since i only had soymilk and soymilk has the additional scent of soybeans, i decided to give it a shot. I paired this dessert up with redbean (Azuki bean) paste, green tea ice cream, and fresh strawberries along with condensed milk drizzled over the top. It tasted absolutely phenomenal, so I decided to share it with all of you. Here we go!

Materials:

A. condensed milk
B. redbean (Azuki bean) paste (maybe home made or commercially available too)
C. Soymilk (may be substituted with milk)
D. fresh chopped strawberries
E. glutinous rice flour
    green tea (matcha) ice cream (not shown)

Directions:

1. take a small portion of the glutinous rice flour and mix it with some soymilk until it turns into a smooth piece of dough (it should not stick to your hands). roll the dough into a ball then press down onto it so it more or less resembles a pancake (the thinner shape allows for faster cooking of the dough).

2. boil some hot water in a small pot. once the water has come to boil drop in the litle piece of dough made in step 1 and allow the dough to cook in the hot water. The dough should start off sinking to the bottom of the pot, as it cooks the dough will gradually rise to the surface. Once it has floated to the surface, allow it to cook for another 30seconds to 1 minute to enusre that the dough is fully cooked.

3. remove the dough from the hot water pot (do not dispose of the water since we will need it again later). add the remainder of the glutinous rice flour to a mixing bowl and drop the cooked piece of dough in. add more soymilk to the mixing bowl in small amounts to ensure u do not make the dough too water. mix together the cooked piece of dough, remaining rice flour, and the added soymilk. Note: be careful as the dough may still be very hot!. It is natural for the dough to feel sticky and stick to your fingers in this step. the stickiness comes from the piece of cooked dough. The cooked dough is an important determining factor in the chewiness of the final product so don't omit this step!

4. once mixed into a smooth piece of dough, break the dough in to large marble sized pieces and roll into a ball. these balls will feel somewhat sticky so coat them with some more rice flour on the outside. Then use your thump and press down the middle of the balls in your plam so they form an indentation in the center. As a biologist, I would describe the shape you're trying to produce here as looking like a red blood cell.

5. bring to boil, a pot of water. you may reuse the pot of water previously used to boil the small piece of dough, but make sure the water is boiling first before you drop the piece of rice dough you just made into the pot. allow the dough to cook until it floats up, then allow it to cook an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute.

6. once the dough is cooked, remove them promptly from the boiling water and drop them into a pot/bowl of cold (prefably ice cold) water. This will add more chewiness to them. allow the dough to soak in the hot water until they are cool.

7. place the cooked rice balls in a small serving cup or bowl and pour soymilk until it its 3/4 the way to the top of the dough placed in the cup.

8. to add the finishing touches, lay some strawberries on top, scoop 1 scoop of green tea ice cream and lay some red bean paste on top of the ice cream. finally drizzle some condensed milk over the top.

There you have your home made soymilk rice ball dessert!

this recipe is pretty easy as it does not demand very many ingredients or too much experience in mixing and combining ingredients, it is relatively easy to succeed and of course is delicious!

that's my little experiment for today!

have fun in the kitchen ;)

-Ney

Green tea (matcha) redbean mochi cupcakes - 抹茶紅豆QQ杯子蛋糕

Redbean + matcha a combination that always seems to work wonderfully for desserts. I've thus decided to make it into mochi cupcakes too! I’ve made this quite a few times so some of you may have tried some already. anyhow, i decided to share the recipe with all of you. I originally found this recipe online, but made a few changes to it so i’ll share it with you guys.

Here we go!


Materials:

• A 6 oz. evaporated milk
• B 8 oz. glutinous rice flour
• C 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional, but advised)
• D 1 tsp. baking powder (NOT baking soda)
• E 1/2 cup of butter (look at the wrapping paper on the butter, it’ll tell you the volume)
• F 1 cup granulated sugar
• G ~1 1/2 tsp matcha powder (add/subtract depending on your preference)
• H 2 eggs
• I redbean paste (add according to your preference)
• J cupcake pan and cupcake cups
• Hand mixer (not shown)

Directions:

1. soften butter. you may choose to place the butter in the mixing bowl and put it in the microwave for 10 -20 seconds to soften it if it’s fresh out of the fridge and really hard (Note: it’s ok if a part of the butter melts into liquid, but do not melt the entire stick, just allow it to soften so you may mix it smoothly with a handmixer). Then add sugar into the softened butter in the mixing bowl.

2. Use the handmixer to cream the sugar and butter together until it looks like a bunch of butter/sugar creamed lumps (shown below).

3. add in the evaporated milk and mix again with handmixer until smooth.

4. add in the eggs and mix again with hand mixer until smooth.

5. add in the vanilla extract (Note: this is optional, but it’ll make the cupcakes taste a lot better!), matcha powder, and baking powder. mix with handmixer again until smooth. the batter should look somewhat greenish due to the matcha powder by now.

6. Add in the glutinous rice flour and mix with handmixer until smooth (Note: I usually add in the glutinous rice flour a quarter of the amount at a time because the flour is really light so if you add it in all at once, it’ll fly everywhere once u start mixing with the handmixer). So add 1/4 of the flour at a time and mix until smooth before adding the next 1/4 in. do so until all of the measured glutinous rice flour is mixed in. By now, the batter should be thicker and seem somewhat pasty in texture.

7. place the cupcake cups into the wells in the cupcake pan and fill each cup ~1/3-1/2 way full of the batter you just made.Pre-heat oven to 350-375F

8. pinch off a gumball size piece of redbean paste, roll it into a ball, then press it falt between your palms. then place one into each cupcake.

9. Fill up each cupcake with more batter so it covers the redbean filling you just placed in. (Note: cupcakes will rise when you bake them so only fill them 75-80% full).

10. place the filled cupcake pan into the previously preheated oven and allow it to bake ~30 minutes.

11. Once the tops of the cupcakes begin to brown, and as time approaches, you may check to see if they are done by poking a fork/tootpick into the cupcakes and pulling it out. If the fork or toothpick appears to be clean (no batter stuck onto it) when you pull it out it means the center of the cupcakes are cooked and near done. you may then take them out. If there still appears to be wet batter stuck to the fork/toothpick, allow it to bake some more and check periodically with this method until baked.

12. Once you remove the cupcakes from the oven, set the cupcakes aside to allow them to cool.

Now you’ve just made your own redbean match mochi cupcakes! so take a bite and enjoy!

These go pretty well with dark coffee or tea! The flavor of this can also be altered depending of your preferences and what ingredients you have. for instance, substituting matcha powder with cocao powder will give you chcoloate flavored ones. I’ve also tried making fresh strawberry ones, which were also delicious. so experiment around and have fun!


:)

-Ney