#54 - Fruity Swiss Roll

Start of a new year, 2017!

I know I was not baking much for last year and this year, I hope to set things right! I really hope to keep to my resolution of uploading one recipe a week. Baking and sharing recipes are things I do to keep myself sane amidst my work and other chores. It is like a personal me-time. Since I enjoy these times so much, I promised myself that I shall work much harder to keep to this resolution of mine this year. I hope, I really hope so.

This is the second week of the year and I am starting my year with a Fruity Swiss Roll bake. I bought some really fresh good eggs from the wet market the other day and I was excited to use them in my bakes. Considering the fact that most of the eggs I used in my baking/cooking were bought from supermarket, this batch from the wet market was indeed different. They were much larger in size and the yolks were of a much fresher and brighter colour. It also gives the cake a really fragrant eggy smell when it is done. Love it! Nothing beats fresh and premium ingredients.

Will be trying out more versions of the Swiss Roll next. I think they make pretty good breakfast items as well as after-dinner dessert.

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Ochikeron.
Free printable version of recipe - Click here 

Ingredients

Sponge Cake
Eggs (separate the yolks from the whites) - 4 nos
Milk - 40g
Corn Oil - 40g
Vanilla Bean Paste - 1/4 tsp
Flour (sifted) - 60g
Castor Sugar - 80g

Filling
Whipping Cream - 200ml
Castor Sugar - 1 tbsp
Assorted fruits of your choice (diced)
* I used kiwi, strawberries, raspberries and mangoes

Method

Sponge Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks together with milk, oil and vanilla. Mix well.

3. Add in flour and fold it into the yolk mixture using a spatula. Ensure mixture is well combined and smooth. Once combined yolk mixture is done, set aside for later use.

4. In a separate mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer.

5. Then gradually add in sugar and continue mixing until thick and stiff peak.

6. Once it is done, fold in egg white mixture, one-third portion at a time, into yolk mixture until a well-combined batter is obtained.

7. Pour combined batter into baking tray and ensures that it is evenly spread out.

8. Tap baking tray against tabletop to remove air bubbles from batter.

9. Bake in oven at 180C for about 12 mins or until cake is lightly browned.

10. When cake is done, remove from oven and tap baking tap against tabletop to prevent shrinkage.

11. Remove sponge cake from tray and allow it to cool on cooling rack. Ensure cake is completely cooled before adding filling on the browned side of the cake.

Filling

12. To prepare the filling, combine whipped cream with sugar using electric mixer. Beat until soft peak.

13. Spread cream filling over the browned surface of the cake.

14. Top with diced fruits over the creamed surface. Leave a one-inch gap around the border.

15. Roll the cake in baking paper and cover with a layer of cling wrap. Rest the cake in fridge for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving. Best served chilled.

#50 - Raspberry & Apricot Crumble Cake

This is a recipe I learnt recently from a baking class at Phoon Huat. Crumble Cake, also known as the crumb cake, is the perfect cake to go with your coffee in the morning. In my opinion, for a crumb cake to be good, the proportion of the crumbs to the cake is very important and this recipe just hit it for me. If  I have to change something, I would probably replace the icing sugar in the streusel topping with brown sugar instead. That would give it a better sweetness and colour to the top. 

Although the recipe uses frozen raspberry and apricot, feel free to substitute that with a whole range of fresh fruits strawberries, peaches etc.) that you can choose from. The fresh fruitiness will be one of the kick for this crumb cake. 

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Chef Patrick (Phoon Huat).

Ingredients

Sugar Dough Pastry (Base)
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 125g
Caster Sugar - 62g
Egg - 30g
Plain Flour - 180g

Strussel Topping
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 100g
Icing Sugar - 40g
Ground Almond- 40g
Plain Flour - 150g
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Almond Butter Filling
Unsalted Butter - 125g
Caster Sugar - 80g
Eggs - 2nos
Plain Flour - 65g
Ground Almond - 80g
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp

Strawberry Jam - 5 tbsp
Raspberry (frozen) - 80g
Apricot (frozen) - 80g

Method

Sugar Dough Pastry (Base)
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together.

2. Fold in the egg and ensure that mixture is well mixed.

3. Add in flour to the mixture and combine to form a dough.

4. Once dough is formed, cover with cling wrap and rest it in the fridge for 40 minutes.

Streusel Topping
5. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, butter, icing sugar, ground almond, plain flour and baking powder.

6. Using rubbing method, rub & mix all the ingredients together until they are well-combined into a crumble texture.

7. Set aside for later use.

Almond Butter Filling
8. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until a creamy texture is obtained.

9. Add in eggs (one at a time) to the mixture and ensure it is well mixed.

10. Gradually add in the flour and ground almond and mix well.

11. Set aside for later use.

12. Preheat oven at 170C.

13. Remove sugar dough from fridge. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/2cm thick and cut out to the shape of the square mould.

14. Place the sugar dough cut-out in the mould.

15. On the sugar dough in the mould, spread a thin layer of strawberry jam followed by half portion of the almond butter filling.

16. Lay the raspberry and apricot on top.

17. Spread the remaining amount of almond butter filling on top of the fruits before sprinkling the streusel topping on top.

18. Bake the cake at 170C for 45 minutes or until cake tester come out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

19. Remove cake from oven and allow it to cool slightly while it is still in the mould. Dust with some snow powder or icing sugar before serving. 

#09 - Mixed Berry Souffle

Looks like I am on a berries hype isn't it? Actually, not so. It is just that these berries (raspberries, strawberries and a couple others) are so pretty when they sit in the fridge but they don't last that long for me to wonder how I should play around with them. Hence, in my attempt to finish up the last few raspberries in the box, here comes my version of Mixed Berry Soufflé. 

#P/S: Yes, I still have another box of strawberries and those will be for another time, another recipe. 

As you can see from the photos, the rise of the soufflé isn't that perfect, but still, compared to my last attempt of Nutella Soufflé, this batch of Mixed Berry Soufflés has given a better height and they do look pretty nice right? However, I have to be very honest to say that the taste of the soufflés isn't really what I was looking forward to. It was a little too mushy and eggy and I presumed this is due to the egg yolk in the batter. After making this batch of Mixed Berry Soufflés, I have managed to find another recipe which does not require the use of egg yolks and I am planning to give that a shot soon. 

But still, I do enjoy sharing my recipes, whether they are excellent, good or just plainly average. I believe that it is the joy in sharing which motivates one to continue trying and experimenting. This is also the exact reason why I enjoy teaching as well. So, here we go with the recipe for Mixed Berry Soufflé. 

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from here.

Servings

Serves 8

Ingredients

(Mixed berries jam)

165g fresh strawberries

97g fresh raspberries

50g sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

150ml milk

100ml of whipping cream

20g all purpose flour

15g corn flour

3 eggs, separated

90g sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190C.

2. Spray the base and insides of 8 small ramekins with non-stick spray and dust them with cocoa power. Chilled the ramekins in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.

3. Blend the raspberries and strawberries together using a blender / food processor until a smooth puree is formed.

4. In a saucepan, place the berries with the sugar and vanilla extract and heat them up slowly. Using low heat, stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved. When the mixture is well-mixed, has thicken and starts to boil, remove from the heat. You should get a smooth puree.

5. Sieve this puree through a sieve to remove the seeds from the berries. You will need to push the puree through the sieve using a spatula to get a nice and rich jam mixture. Cool the jam in the fridge. 

6. Heat the milk and whipping cream in a saucepan until it is almost boiling and set aside.

7. Sieve the all purpose flour and corn flour together and set aside.

8. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar (40g) to get a creamy mixture. Mix in the flour mixture and combine them well. The flour will helps to thicken the mixture and you should a creamy and smooth texture. 

9. Add 1/4 cup of the heated creamy milk to the mixture and whisk well until the mixture is smooth. Gradually mix in the rest of the creamy milk and continue whisking. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and whisk over low heat for 5 minutes to get a thick and smooth creamy mixture. Cool the mixture in the fridge. 

10. After both the jam and cream mixture has cooled down, add the jam to the cream mixture and mix well to get a nice and smooth texture. 

11. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites using a stand mixer, until soft peak formed. Gradually add in the sugar (50g) while whisking to get a thick, glossy and firm meringue.

12. Once the meringue is done, fold it in with the jam & cream mixture in Step (9) a third at a time. Make sure folding is done gently so as the air in the meringue is not knocked out of the mixture. 

13. Fill the ramekins with the soufflé mixture. Tap the ramekins gently on the tabletop to ensure that the mixture is evenly spread through the ramekins and air pockets within the mixture is removed. This will helps the soufflés to rise up evenly. 

14. To help the soufflés to rise better, smooth the top of the ramekins using the back of a butter knife and run a circle around the edge of the ramekins using your thumb. 

15. Bake the soufflés in the oven for 10-12minutes or until well risen with a light golden brown top. Serve immediately. 

#Note - 

If you would like to, you may dust with icing sugar and garnish with berries before serving. I did not do that because I felt that a good amount of sugar has already been used in the recipe as well as I do not have any extra raspberries for garnishing. 

As mentioned earlier, I also did not quite like the eggy taste in the soufflés itself which I believed was due to the egg yolks in the mixture. So I will be trying another recipe which does not require egg yolks in it. Hopefully that will cater to my tastebud better.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the appearance of the soufflés. They are pretty well risen (compared to my previous Nutella soufflés) and the texture of the light golden brown top was really chewy and nice. Got to keep improving!