at Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Strawberry Tartlets with Chocolate Ganache and Vanilla Pastry Cream

A simple dessert that anyone can make/ assemble at home. I do reckon homemade tart shells than store bought ready-made tart shells though. Although it requires a bit more effort, the buttery taste and texture is incomparable. I could totally tell the difference after taking my first bite at the ready-made tart shells.

Vanilla Pastry Cream (adapted from Allrecipes.com with some modifications)

2 cups milk

1/4 cup white sugar

3 egg yolks

1 egg

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup white sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean (cut length wise)

1. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the milk, vanilla bean and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and egg. Stir together the remaining sugar and cornstarch; then stir them into the egg until smooth. When the milk comes to a boil, remove vanilla bean for later use, drizzle the milk into the bowl in a thin stream while mixing so that you do not cook the eggs. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly so the eggs don't curdle or scorch on the bottom.
3. When the mixture comes to a boil and thickens, remove from the heat. Remove vanilla beans from the pods. Stir in the butter, vanilla beans and vanilla extract, mixing until the butter is completely blended in. Pour into a heat-proof container and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled before using.

Assemble

Prepare tart shells. Put chocolate ganache into piping bag and pipe into the shells about half full. Chill filled tart shells until chocolate ganache is harden. Pipe in pastry cream on top the layer of chocolate ganache. Decorate with Strawberries or any fruits that you prefer.

at Friday, December 09, 2011

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

My granny is very particular in food, especially desserts in any kinds. That's because she herself is a very good cook, not so much of a baker but she makes amazing nyonya desserts. We all know that the only cake she likes is pandan layered cake so I used to go to an old bakery at SS2 to get her one. That's the only shop that sells really good layered cake and some other traditional sponge cakes. That's when I got addicted to simple vanilla sponge cake with white chocolate. Recently, the shop closed down and I can't seem to find any other traditional bakeries that sell the same kind of cakes anymore. In order to satisfy my cravings (again) I had to bake some my own. Of course this is nothing compared to the one I had before :(

Also, this is my little effort for hubby's belated birthday. He doesn't like sweet stuff so I omitted sugar for the frosting and also reduce the sugar for the cake.

Recipe for vanilla cupcakes is adapted from Cupcake Project. I didn't follow the recipe entirely because I didn't want to spend for vanilla beans without testing the recipe first. Probably it's because of that, the cupcake didn't taste that much of vanilla. The texture is good when it is freshly came out from the oven. Very soft and light. It looks pretty too. I left the cake on the table uncover for the night and the next morning, they are sweating! Obviously it is due to the humidity :( There's a reader suggested to double the butter and omit the oil, try to reduce the liquid, which could be an issue if the weather is humid. I will try to do that next time.

I must say that this recipe is a keeper if use vanilla beans and make some tweaking here and there to avoid sweating. It's very easy and fast to make. The preparation time is only about 20 minutes and baking time around 15-18 minutes.

Frosting is adapted from Diana's Dessert but again, I didn't follow the recipe completely. I omitted the sugar and added unknown amount of milk to get the desired consistency. And I didn't add that much of butter to the frosting. The end result is still pretty good but I will use better quality white chocolate next time to enhance the chocolaty taste.