Yet again, a fresh piece of paper

Started work for 3 days and ended my tai tai life. I could really make my tai tai life permanent. Work, boss, colleagues are ok so far, except that the girl who came in with me is kind of over-enthu. It's a relaxed European working culture and I wanna keep it that way. Pyschoing myself that today is a good day, things will get better after I know her. Life will get better too.

Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake

This recipe is widely raved on Diane Desserts. Was so tempted to read it after reading Jamie's & Little Teochew's Blog. And since, I'm finally starting work next week, and meeting my ex-colleagues this week, I thought this would be a good ending!

Well, I was also ambitious, instead of baking it in a springform pan, I baked the mixture in a 6-pc muffin pan cos I don't have a pan to do a waterbath with a springform pan. What I did was placed my muffin tray on the baking tray and filled the baking tray with hot boiling water.

I also halved the mixture, and it worked out just nice for 6 large muffins. My only gripe is, it doesn't look cotton soft. In fact, somehow, water seeped into the base of the cake. Which until now, I still do not know why. Other than that, the cake actually taste good! It's slightly more dense than what I saw from the photos, but it does taste light. Since I have another half of the cream cheese left, I think I will do another batch this weekend to see how it turns out.

Japanese Cotton Soft Cheese Cake
 Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Pre-heat oven at 160 degrees celsius

2. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

4. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold well. Fold using a plastic spatula, draw the spatula across the mixture, then fold in the mixture.

5. Lightly grease and flour the bottom and sides of  each muffin hole on the tray parchment.

6. Pour mixture into the muffin hole.

7. Fill the baking tray with water before placing the muffin tray into the oven.

8. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degree celsius.

9. When the time's up, open the oven door slightly or hold it with your kitchen towel or wooden spoon so that the cakes does not shrink due to sudden change in temperature. Leave it for about 45 mins to 1 hour

10. Once cool, the cakes will come off easily when you over turn them on the cooling rack.

Enjoy and let me know how it works out for you!

Meringue Cookies

Having wanting to try to make my own meringues for ages. The opportunity came when I made my custard for the fruit tart. I was left with 4 egg whites, hence I googled what I can do with them, and Meringues became my top choice. It was super easy to do, based on the the Meringue Cookies reciple that I followed. My only issue was, I am so bad at piping! I can't control the $2 pipe from Daiso. So my Meringue Cookies ended up shit-like. :p

Nevertheless, they taste so good. A tad too sweet for my liking though, but you need the sugar to make it crispy. The final product, is so crispy, yet it breaks into your mouth like a marshmallow. Yummers!

Meringue Cookie Recipe (Adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients

4 Egg whites

450g SIS Caster Sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 95 degrees C.

2. Line Baking Tray with Aluminium Foil. You can choose to butter and flour a baking sheet as well.

3. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. 

4. Beat in the vanilla extraxct. 

5. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing.

6. Transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag. Pipe the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet using a large round tip or star tip.

7. Place the meringues in the oven and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature

 

Mixed Fruit Tart

Last week, I wanted to used up my ready made pie crust that I got from Cold Storage for my Apple Pie before I leave for my short holiday. Decided to try doing mixed fruit tart with Custard filling cos I thought it would be easier. Well, I was so wrong. My first try at the custard tasted so good but looked and felt so wrong. It was totally clumpy. So I tried another recipe. It was ok, but still abit tough. I think I must have stirred them too much or something, cos it doesn't feel like cream at all. :(

On top I didn't drained the syrup from the peaches properly, so it was dripping with syrup. I did coat the pie with chocolate though, but the crust cracked. I think I kinda hit it and broke it when I bought it, cos my apple pie crust cracked too! It was kind of a sad experience for me. But, the tart still taste good. Cos they cracked like crazy, I couldn't take a proper photo of the sliced tart. :(
Anyway, here's the recipe, not much of recipe except for the custard. You can choose any fruit toppings of your choice. 

Mixed Fruit Tart
Ingredients:

Pie Crust Recipe
Ready Made Pie Crust from Cold Storage ( They come in set of 2 pies crusts on Aluminium Foil)
Fruits Toppings: Kiwi, Canned Peaches, Bluberries
8 squares of Lindt Chocolate for coating on crust
20ml of milk

Custard Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking:
300ml Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
3 Large Egg Yolks
50g SIS Caster Sugar
20g All-purpose flour
20g Corn Starch

Pie Crust
1. Baked the ready made crust in the oven for about 15-20 mins at about 175 degree celcius or according to manufacturer's specs.

2. Crust should be slightly brown and left to cool for about 30 mins.

3. Meanwhile, warm up milk in a saucepan and add in the chocolate, keep stirring until it becomes fondue like chocolate. If texture is too hard, add more milk. If texture is too diluted, add more chocolates.

4. Brush the chocolate mixture on the crust covering the base and the sides of the cruse.
At this point, you can choose to remove crust from the aluminium foil and placed the done crust in the fridge. I didn't remove the foil and had problems cutting it. haha

Custard
1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) 

2. Sift the flour and cornstarch (corn flour) together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.  Set aside.

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the milk and vanilla essence on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) 

4. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) 

5. Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. 

6. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.

7. Remove from heat. 

8. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. 

If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Assembling the Fruit Tart

1. Scoop the custard on to the tart and spread nicely using a spatula.

2. Decorate with fruits.

Some recipe would glaze the finished product with warm apricot glaze, I don't have it, so I didn't use. Just bear in mind that if you leave it in the fridge for too long, it will dry up. 

Enjoy!