Tasty Tuesdays - flan (custard pudding)

Who here watches or used to watch anime? Well here's one for you guys!

I was always very fascinated by japanese pudding. Not only does it jiggle, but it's in so much anime and is sometimes depicted as super cute characters. What does it taste like?? Make your own and find out!

On Youtube there is a channel called "Cooking with Dog" in which a Japanese woman makes food with her super cute and well-behaved dog. Here she shows that making flan is, apparently, really easy.

Now, I'm sure there are plenty of variations of flan or custard pudding. If you think about it, creme brûlée and flan are basically the same thing, so there is definitely many other recipes all over the internet. I just like this one the most because the flan that I wanted to make was the one from anime and I trust this Japanese woman to make a basic, traditional Japanese flan. Plus, it's super easy!

Tasty Tuesdays - rubiks cube brownie

Hey there, world! It's Tasty Tuesday!

I can't remember whether or not I have already mentioned this, but I had my birthday party a little while ago in July. It was "nerdy" themed and all we did was eat and watch movies for about... ten hours? Something around that. We watched three musicals--Repoman, Little Shop of Horrors, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show--and nibbled on Lego piñata cookies, blueberry trifle, finger sandwiches, melting "ice creams", and Rubiks cube brownies.

I got the idea for lots of them from Pinterest and Youtube! There are tutorials all over the place.

The easiest to make out of all of these were the Rubiks cube brownies. All you need to do is bake brownies, cut them into cubes, and use frosting to attach the cubes of brownie. Attach three together first, and then attach two more rows of three brownie cubes. Then just decorate the outside to fit the "colour" of a Rubiks cube.

I used sprinkles because I didn't want to make frosting and didn't have enough coloured chocolate. For the full tutorial that I used to make these, go to Rosanna Pansino's Nerdy Nummies. (PS: Her end product looks ten million times better than mine. I need to find a recipe that doesn't make crumbly brownies...)

DIY Tuesdays - of panda macarons and 3 ingredient chocolate banana cake

Last Thursday, I attempted to make lemon macarons with Erika. Sunday, I successfully made panda macarons--can I get a hollaaaaaa?

The recipe is from Ochikeron on YouTube--it did help a little that I could see each step before acting them out myself. Plus, I legitimately think that this recipe is ten times simpler, partly because there are less ingredients and partly because I managed to make them by myself. Since this recipe comes with step by step instructions, I'm just going to post little tid-bits on the side... 'Cause I made a lot of mistakes along the way.

Panda Macarons:

Necessary Equipment:
electric mixer
pastry bag with a 3/8-inch round tip

Ingredients:
((Macaron Shells))
55g (2oz.) egg whites
50g (1.8oz.) granulated sugar
60g (2.1oz.) ground almonds (without skin)
80g (2.8oz.) powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
((Buttercream Filling))
2 egg yolks
40g (1.4oz.) granulated sugar
100g (3.5oz.) unsalted butter *room temperature
vanilla extract
((Decoration))
brown and pink chocolate pens

Directions:
((Macaron Shells))
1. To draw panda face, you want to make large macarons. So, draw about an inch and a half wide circles (leaving about 2 inches between) on a piece of paper. To make perfect uniform circles, you wanted to place it under the parchment paper to trace. You can search for the template online.
2. Measure the egg whites in a large bowl, and keep in the fridge (to make them easier to whip). Sift in ground almonds and powdered sugar in a large bowl, then keep in the fridge (to let them stay dry).
3. Meringue: Whip egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually add granulated sugar 1/3 at a time, then continue to whip until stiff glossy peaks form when you lift the beaters. 
4. Add the meringue into the dry ingredients, and mix with a silicone spatula until just incorporated.
5. Macaronnage: Punch down the spatula into the batter, then scrape batter from the sides to the center, and punch again. Repeat this for 10 or more times (depending on your arm strength) until the batter slowly and continuously drips back into the bowl like a ribbon when you scoop it up with the spatula.
6. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, place the template under the parchment paper. Fit a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch round tip, and fill with batter. Pipe out the batter in the circles (the batter will spread a little, so keep it smaller). Tap bottom of each baking sheet (or slam on the counter) to release any air bubbles in macarons.
7. Let stand at room temperature until dry, and a skin forms on the tops,　for about 30 minutes or more. Make sure the batter will not stick to your finger.
8. Preheat the oven to 150C (302F). Bake for 14-15 minutes. Let the macarons cool completely on the baking sheet.
((Buttercream Filling))
1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until they turn a lemon-yellow color and thick.
2. Add the butter and mix well. Then add vanilla extract to taste.
3. Pour the buttercream into a pastry bag.
((Decoration))
1. Pipe about 1 teaspoon buttercream on to the middle of one shell, then gently place another shell on top.
2. Set the chocolate pens in a cup of hot water for a few minutes. Cut the tip of the chocolate pens and draw panda faces on the macarons.

Rest the filled macarons for a day before eating them. You can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Firstly, when she talks about a template, take her seriously! My macarons were all weirdly shaped and oval at best, so it really does help to have a template! Then, because I think Japan is more humid than western Canada, I also didn't re-refrigerate the egg whites nor the almond-icing sugar mix. With the almond flour, dispose of anything that doesn't sift through! You don't want chunks of almond in your macarons, after all. 

Then, unless you are experienced with making macarons (in which case you are probably just laughing at this post), take her seriously when she describes the macaronnage. Actually count out how many times you've done it. I didn't and was trying to gauge by comparing it to cake batter; the macarons did not crack and actually came out pretty well, but they fluffed up a lot because I over-thinned it. What happened was I had a very thin, crunchy layer of macaron, and then a lot of air before a chewy and dense bottom. At least the "feet" did actually come out!

Definitely use parchment paper as it helps a lot when you are trying to get the macarons off of the baking sheet. They should stick a bit to the paper--macarons are chewy inside!--and it's just much easier to be able to hold the sheet up and peel the macaron off. Don't forget to tap it on the table because if any air bubble remain in the macaron, it will crack! 

My macarons only had to sit for about 15 minutes, but remember I also thinned it way too much. When I piped my mixture on the baking sheet, it spread like crazy (importance of counting!), and became very thin so it may have dried faster. I'm not too sure. What I do know is you can actually see a skin forming on top! It goes from being shiny--when you first pipe--to glossy.

 

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU TAKE YOUR MACARONS OUT OF THE OVEN. I squished a perfect macaron shell with my thumb because I wasn't paying attention. 

Next, the buttercream icing is pretty straightforward. The only issue I had here was that my butter wasn't soft enough. I was able to cut through the butter easily, so I assumed it to be soft enough. What I ended up having was a lot of butter chunks and I wasn't able to mix it with a spatula. I beat it on medium with my mixer instead, but that just made little butter chunks. I ended up putting the mix in a small bowl and putting that into the microwave for ten seconds. After that, I used a spatula to flatten the bigger butter chunks, and then used one of the beaters from my electric mixer and just whisked quickly until the right consistency. It turned out really well! I then put it in a bag and refrigerated it (mostly because I had microwaved it I was scared of it being too runny). It was super easy to pipe and melted in your mouth.

Lastly, the chocolate pens. I can't buy chocolate pens where I live, so I dropped some dark chocolate chips into a Ziploc bag, tied off the end (like you would a piping bag), and placed it into a cup half full of hot water. every few minutes I took the bag out and "kneaded" it just to help it melt and see how far it's already melted. I repeated this until it was completely melted, and then cut a very small hole for piping.

macaron adventure

A couple of things before I begin the adventure:

-My headphones have just broken and I am devastated. 

-I just bought a dress. This is something new, trust me. 

-Screw it, I've decided to do "Mismatched monday"s, "DIY Tuesday"s, and "trending Thursday"s. Mismatched monday will be just random thoughts I have or interesting things I've found. DIY Tuesday will be anything DIY that I've recently done (crocheting, baking, origami, etc.), with a tutorial. Trending Thursdays will be about "trending" things. Basically, I will try and find popular things and learn about them and blog about it. *Note: I'm not a very trendy person. Not even in that cool, old-fashioned, backwards way. 

-Erika's made me sound pretty amazing on her blog. She's an amazing writer, though, so I think this fact just amplifies her talent. 

On to the show!

Erika and I decided to make macarons. We were very excited, but we maybe should have seen the signs ahead of time--things weren't exactly going our way. To start things off, we couldn't find almond flour. We live in a small town, so chances were if one grocery store didn't have almond flour, none of them would and we would never be able to make macarons ever. Turns out we seemed to be blind specifically to almond flour, as we had been in the right aisle, looking at the right section, and it was just sitting there staring us straight in the face. We didn't even see it until the second trip to the aisle.

We bought our groceries, headed over to my house to pick up some necessary ingredients that I had, and headed on over to Erika's house. We had dinner. Had a nice conversation. Caught up. It was quaint and lovely. And then it ended.

Here's the recipe:

For macaron shells

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¼ cup fine granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• Yellow food coloring
For lemon buttercream
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teapsoon lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
1. In medium bowl, sift together almond flour and powdered sugar twice. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat. Slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until hard peaks. Add lemon zest, vanilla extract, lemon juice and yellow food coloring. Beat on medium speed for one more minute.
3. Sift the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture over the whipped egg whites. Gently fold the mixture running the spatula clockwise from the bottom, up around the sides and cut the batter in half, as shown in the video above. The batter will look very thick at first, but it will get thinner as you fold. Be careful not to over mix it though. Every so often test the batter to see if it reached the right consistency. To test the batter, drop a small amount of the batter and count to ten. If the edges of the ribbon are dissolved within ten seconds, then the batter is ready. I repeat, do NOT mix again. If you still see edges, fold the batter couple more times and test again. I posted a few pictures above to show you how just couple of folding changes the consistency of the batter. This step is so crucial, so please make sure to test often to ensure not to over mix the batter.
4. Transfer the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip.
5. Pipe out 1.5-inch rounds about an inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
6. Tap the baking sheets firmly on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. If you don’t release the air bubbles, they will expand during baking and crack the beautiful macarons shells. And who wants cracked macarons, right?
7. Let the macarons rest and dry for 15-30 minutes. On a humid day, it might take an hour or so. To see if it’s ready to be baked, lightly touch it. If the batter doesn’t stick to your finger, then it’s ready. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
8. Bake the macarons for 18-20 minutes. To check the doneness, remove one macaron. If the bottom does not stick, they are done.
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from the baking sheets.
10. While macarons are drying, prepare the lemon buttercream. In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and salt and beat until well combined.
11. Transfer the buttercream into a pastry bag and fill the macarons.

We began by "sifting". The only thing is, Erika does not sift, or measure to a T as I do. There was a lot of guestimation as well as me silently crying inside. Okay, maybe not that silently. I made my opinion quite clear, rudely even. 

"sifting"

We also didn't read the recipe ahead of time. I had seen a few videos making macarons, and they described this unique method of making the thick batter a bit thinner--this recipe didn't use that and instead used a simple folding technique... We may have over folded. 

 

We piped them, let them set, and put 'em in the oven. They looked pretty legitimate!

...And yet, this is how they came out:

Smiley face!

Half-eaten "macaron"

 

Erika takes really good iPhone pictures

They came out ridiculously flat--but they were sweet, tangy, and deliciously chewy. The buttercream came out perfectly, though!

Look at how incredibly fluffy and delicious that looks. You probably can't see it. That's okay, it's hard to see. You're just going to have to trust me.

Did I mention I have a Fuji Instax 8? It's a polaroid/instant camera--and, apparently, I keep forgetting I have not told anyone about it... or very few people, as Erika did not know. I had brought it along to take beautiful pictures of our amazing macarons, which didn't exactly end up happening, but Erika took beautiful pictures of the one polaroid I did take.

 

french baking

So a friend and I are going to attempt to make macarons tonight. This is something we've been dying (or at least I have!) to make for a while, and then last summer we tried to meet up to make something, but failed to before she left for university. So, now it's summer again, and we're determined to at least try.

We've never made macarons before, and I have no idea what kind of recipes are "good" recipes, so I just tried to find "easy" or tasty looking recipes.... forgive meeeee.

Chocolate macaron recipe
I WILL ALWAYS TRUST MARTHA STEWART
Ochikeron panda macarons
basic macaron recipe
orange macarons
smores macarons
chocolate gingerbread macarons
blackberry macarons
birthday cake macarons
nutmeg macarons with vanilla buttercream
lemon macarons
mint macarons
red velvet macarons
mint chocolate chip macarons

Alternatively, we may also make other goodies, so:

Snickerdoodle cupcakes

I think that's enough, right??

banana llama

Hey there!

I've decided "trying out this recipe" is too long and boring a post title--so whenever I test out a recipe I will hereby refer to it as an animal that hopefully rhymes with whatever I'm making.

I made banana shortbread today, using the recipe from Anna's Table with a few adjustments. Firstly, I had to double the recipe because of the amount of butter I had was difficult to make smaller, but I think it turned out quite well! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 large bananas, mashed

Instructions:

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Cut in butter (I used a spoon) until the mixture looks like gravel. Mash your two bananas (I cut them into small pieces, mashed it with a fork, and then whisked it so that it would be smooth, but you could probably use large chunks if you wanted) and pour half into the mixture. Cut as you did the butter. The dough should start to form. Add the other half of the mashed bananas, and mix until all the flour is gone and you have a big ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, or until hard enough to work with.

Preheat oven to 375 F (my oven is old, so the equivalent for a newer oven would be 300 F or 325 F). Cut dough in half. Place one half on a floured piece of wax paper and put the other half back in the fridge (or leave it out if you're not worried about it getting soft again). Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into rectangles (what I did - 2.5 inch by 1 inch) or use cookie cutters of your choosing. Decorate if you'd like! Bake for about 25 minutes (probably 15 with a not-super-old oven!).

It's not quite as loose as shortbread is supposed to be (it's kind of chewy when it's warm!) but it's a really creamy banana sugar cookie type of snack.

absolutely bananas

So after much research, I did manage to find a few banana dessert recipes that were minimum hassle and guaranteed to be eaten--if not by my guests, then by myself! I'm not complainin'.

Banana Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Banana bread whoopie pies.

Banana Sponge Cake.

Chocolate Banana Bread.

Polka Dot Banana Bread.

Banana Bread Breakfast Doughnuts.

Banana Split Cookies.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies.

In the midst of my late night searching, I started thinking about shortbread. I don't know why, really, I was talking about making sugar cookies and then remembered how I used to get sugar cookies and shortbread mixed up. So I started thinking about shortbread, and bananas, and shortbread, and bananas--and BANANA SHORTBREAD. Brilliance.

So the thing about bananas is that it can replace butter and sugar in baking recipes as it creates a moist tenderness and can act as a sweetener. (source) And I've been googling "banana shortbread recipe" but to no avail as all recipes involve other fruits or oats; and I have nothing against oats--I love oatmeal and oatmeal cookies--but when I want a cookie that melts in my mouth, I don't want to have to chew through it....know what I mean?

There's this really simple shortbread recipe that I think I'll be experimenting with today.

...We'll see how things go...

YouTube - Ochikeron

Do you ever, like, just have too many bananas?

Okay, so the story here is that my dad woke up before my mom and I to go buy groceries. Then, my mom and I went to the local Farmers' Market--but there were no veggies. So we went to the closest grocery store, saw that bananas were on sale for $2.99 for a bag (our's had 13), and thought 'score, fresh bananas at such a cheap price!'. Then the mayhem started, because apparently bananas were also on sale at the grocery store that my dad went to and now we have like thirty bananas basically ripe and about to rot.

But, we also have people coming over for dinner on Thursday and they happen to love dessert of any kind so...

WHY NOT MAKE BANANA DESSERT AND LET THEM TAKE IT HOME.

...was my initial idea. Here's the thing, though: I am Asian. I mean, that's not really important, it just means that most of the "western" cakes of my childhood were chiffon cakes or other cakes equally as light and fluffy. "Non-Asian" western cakes (hahaha, wut.) just seem really dense and dry too quickly for my liking. So I thought, we live in an age of convenient information. Let me exploit this... And I googled: "Asian banana cake".

The first thing that came up was this dessert called Tokyo Banana. And this Tokyo Banana recipe came in the form of a YouTube video by Ochikeron (specific video here). I watched the video out of curiosity--what the heck is a "Tokyo Banana"?--but her videos are so clean, cute, professional, and easy, that I couldn't help but look at, like...all of the rest shhhhh.

Seriously, though, her videos are really amazing--the food looks so delicious and cute, the recipes are so easy, and her utensils are amazing, I'm not gonna lie.

So, I didn't get many banana dessert recipes; but, I did learn a lot of cool dessert recipes and baking tips! I'm gonna count my wins, not my losses.