Tiffany's Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

225 grams unsalted butter (room temperature, softer the better)

130-180 grams white granulated sugar (I used 130 grams in the video)

4 large eggs

200 grams cake flour/ all purpose flour

25 grams cocoa powder

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

120 grams dark chocolate

120 grams milk

Chocolate Butter Cream:

225 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)

80 grams cocoa powder

500 grams icing sugar

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

300 grams good quality dark chocolate

300 grams heavy cream (35%)

Very Healthy yet Fast and Delicious: Broccoli Soup

Step by Steps (Coming Soon)

Ingredients: (for about 4 servings - the amount does not have to be exact, this recipe is totally to taste)

2 normal sized broccoli

1/3 cup heavy cream (you can also use milk or whole milk, depends on how rich you want your soup to be.)

salt and pepper to taste

graded Reggiano Parmesan cheese to taste (Optional, I used about a tablespoon)

Garnish: (Optional)

sliced almond

extra virgin olive oil

GUYS I'M BACK!!

Slow Cook Beef Shanks

Seared Scallops with Orange Jalopeno Vinegar Dressing

The Rennet Tablets finally came!! Key ingredient for making Mozzarella Cheese

I ordered a box of rennet tablets on ebay around the end of 2011, and they finally arrived yesterday!!! I've been waiting for so long!:) I've been searching for rennet tablets for ages, I even tried to find them before moving to Canada, I traveled almost 1/3 of Hong Kong to look for them and I failed. 

Rennet and citric acid are the main ingredient for making Mozzarella. Rennet is actually an enzyme from cow's stomach, it is often used for cheese production. Rennet reacts with milk, it separates milk into solid(curd) and liquid(whey). I'll be using them to make homemade FRESH Mozzarella Cheese. And I will be using them to make pizzas or salads. And of course I will make a video recipe for that too, stay tuned guys!

Valentine's Chocolate Truffles

 

Step 1 – Chop all your chocolates into small pieces. Put them into a large bowl. In this recipe, you can only use dark chocolate, around 85% cocoa would be perfect. You can still use milk or white chocolate, but I think this kind of soft, chewy chocolate truffle works the best with dark chocolate.

Step 2 – Measure 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, the heavy cream I used was 35% fat). Pour them into a small pan, bring it to a gentle simmer on low heat. Be careful not to burn the cream, stir occasionally.

Step 3 – Pour the hot cream into the chocolate. Use a small spoon to spread the chocolate so the hot cream can cover the chocolate equally. Don’t touch it and let it sit for a minute or two.

Step 4 – After a few minutes, use a spoon or spatula to stir until combined. If you think you're chocolate is not warm enough, put them into the microwave for 20 seconds and then mix well.

Step 5 - Lay a big sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Pour your chocolate right in the middle on the plastic wrap. Fold the plastic wrap around and try to remove the excess air to make the chocolate smoother, you don't want any air inside your chocolate truffles. Press it down to a flat square or rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap your chocolate and place it on a  plate, put them into the fridge for an hour or until the chocolate is nice and firm.

Step 6 - An hour later, remove the plastic wrap. Cut it into sticks and then cubes. The size doesn't really matter, as long as they look the same then that's fine.

Step 7- In a small bowl with some unsweetened cocoa powder, slightly dust your chocolate truffles and you're done:) 

Ingredients:

200 grams Good quality Dark Chocolate

1/2 cup Heavy whipping cream (35%)
p.s. you might need to put a little more, depends on the chocolate itself. If the chocolate you're using is SO hard like mine, you will definitely need to use a bit more.  

1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder

What's better than homemade, all purpose Tomato Sauce?

Step 1 - Finely dice 1 to 2 ribs of celery and 1 onion. Mince 3 cloves of garlic and chop a small bunch of Italian parsley. You can adjust the amount of celery depends on how big or long they are, I used 2 ribs in the video.

Step 2 - In a large sauce pan, with a tablespoon of olive oil, sweat the celery and onions on low heat for 7-9 minutes. You want them to be completely softened but you don't want them to brown. Add in freshly ground pepper, salt, vinegar(optional), sugar, cayenne pepper and dried herbs.

Step 3 - Once they're completely softened, add in minced garlic and cook it for a minute or two. **(In fact, you should add in tomato paste and cook for another 2 minutes after this step, I was rushing because I had to go out for a dinner for CNY, so I forgot... shame....) 

Step 4 - Pour in 2 cans of crushed plum tomatoes,1 cup of water and chopped fresh Italian parsley. Turn the heat to medium or medium high and bring it to a simmer. 

Step 5 - Once it comes to a simmer, turn the heat back to low and let it simmer for 1.5 hour covered. Stir continuously to prevent the bottom from sticking. If the sauce gets too thick, add another splash of water and continue cooking.



Step 6 - After 1.5 hour, continue cooking and reduce the sauce uncovered for about 15-20 minutes. Add in tomato paste(if you did it in step 3, you can't just leave it, but if you think your sauce needs more colour, you can adjust by yourself. Why? Cause u're the boss of your sauce:P).

Ingredients: 

1-2 ribs of celery

1 onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon white sugar

2 teaspoon white vinegar (optional, but I recommend my sauce to have some acidity) 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary 

1 teaspoon dried bay leaf (or 1 whole bay leaf)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 cloves of garlic

2 cans of plum tomato (mine was 28oz each, so 56oz together)

1/2 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 cup water

2 tablespoon tomato paste

French Macarons

Step 1 - Separate 3 large eggs, you need exactly half a cup of egg whites. You might have more than half a cup of egg whites in 3 eggs, put the excess egg whites and use it cook something else. You must leave the egg whites in room temperature for at least 7 hours before using them. It depends on which country you live in, for example, Toronto's weather is dry, you can leave the egg whites in room temperature for 7 hours or up to 12 hours and they won't turn bad. But lets say you live in Hong Kong, a very humid country, you might have to leave them in the fridge for 30-40 hours, then leave them in room temperature for 1 hour before using them.

Step 2 - Sift 125g almond flour or almond meal and 175g powdered sugar into a large bowl. Use a small spoon to help crushing the almond through the sifter. Almond flour or almond meal are very difficult to find, I can only find almond meal in Freshco (in Toronto). The brand name is called Compliment - ground almonds, it's also Freshco's product. You cannot replace almond flour to normal all-purpose flour, they are completely different.

Step 3 - Pour the egg whites into a large bowl. Using the highest setting of your electric beater and whip the egg whites for 4-6 minutes until firm and shiny. Slowly add in fine granulated white sugar in when the egg whites start to turn white. Then add in 2-3 drops of gel paste food colouring. Gel paste food colouring are also hard to find, you could use liquid food colouring but that might give the egg whites too much moisture and might affect the results. So if you're using liquid food colouring, I recommend you to let your egg whites 3-4 hours more. To tell if the whipped egg whites are ready, turn the bowl upside down for 2 seconds, if it doesn't move at all, it's readied. If you're doing the "epic test", don't blame me if you fail :P

Step 4 - Pour the first 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and use a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients. You can ONLY use the folding technique to incorporate it, do not use any other technique. By folding it will produce the least amount of air to the batter, you don't want any air in your Macarons, because they will crack while baking and they will look horrible. Once the first 1/3 of the dry ingredients are just mixed, pour in the second 1/3 and so on. Make sure you do not over mix.

Step 5 - Transfer all the batter to a large pastry bag or piping bag with a 1/2 inch plain round tip. Make sure you use a clip to clip the bottom part of the pastry bag so the batter won't leak out while preparing.

Step 6 - Lay the sample sheet and parchment paper on a baking sheet and start piping you Macarons.

Step 7 - Let your Macarons sit in room temperature for 1-2 hours. Until the surface of your Macarons are slightly hardened and it's not sticky. Gently touch the surface with your finger to test them.

Step 8 - Put them into a preheated 300°C oven for 10-14 minutes. After the first 4-5 minutes, open the oven and leave a gap for one minute to let the steam out. Every oven is different, so you have to play around with it a couple times to practice, some might need 325°C, some might need to take longer etc. Just one thing you have to remember, making Macarons is seriously the hardest thing to counter. The weather and temperature could affect the results. Don't expect you will success for the first try.

Step 9 - When they're done, remove the parchment paper with the hot Macarons from the baking sheet, this will stop cooking the bottom of the Macarons. Transfer them to a cooling rack and don't touch your Macarons. When they're cooled completely, remove them from the parchment paper and start piping your filling and sandwich your Macarons. I'll upload another video on how to make Chestnut Butter Cream filling very soon, so stay tuned. Enjoy:)

Tips & Techniques
a) You must leave the egg whites in room temperature for at least 7 hours before using them. Your Macarons will not rise if the humidity level is too high. So for the entire recipe, you basically don't want any moisture.
b) Try to use a hard plastic bowl to whip the egg whites. I've tried to use glass or metal bowl, the egg whites turn out weird because the bowl was too cold. You want something that's not a good conductor.
c) If the almond flour or almond meal that's you're using doesn't sift through your sifter, use a food processor to make them finer. Be very careful not to over blend, because oil might be produced.
d) You must use a very accurate food weight to measure everything in this recipe.
e) Every oven is different. In my case, I have to put my baking sheet towards the outside, not even in the center of the oven.
f) Use 2 layers of parchment paper can help preventing the bottom part of your Macaron shell from burning.
g) Don't expect you will success for your first try. Remember, making Macarons really depends on the weather and how long you let your macarons and egg whites sit. You have to practice a lot of times to make good Macarons.


Ingredients

125g almond flour/ almond meal/ ground almond

175g powdered sugar/ icing sugar

1/2 cup aged overnight egg whites

75g white granulated sugar

2-3 drops gel paste food colouring

(or 2 drops liquid food colouring)

Crème Brûlée!

Step 1 - Pour in 2 cups heavy cream to a pot. I used 35% cream, you can use 18% if you want but it's not as good.

Step 2 - Cut the vanilla bean in half, then scrape off the seeds with a small knife. Put the seeds and the bean into the cream. Vanilla beans are kind of hard to find and expensive, if you couldn't get them, replace it by using Vanilla extract.

Step 3 - Heat the  vanilla cream mixture with medium low heat for about 4 minutes or until the cream turns a bit yellow. You don't want your cream to boil because cream is very easy to burn, specially the bottom of your pot, so make sure you keep stirring while you're heating it.

Step 4 - Strain your hot cream mixture. By that you can make your custard smoother and you can remove large chunks of vanilla seeds, beans or even egg shells. 

Step 5 - Separate 4 large eggs. In this recipe, you only need the yolks. Transfer the yolks to a large bowl, put in sugar and mix well.

Step 6 - Temper your egg yolks by adding a couple tablespoons of your hot cream mixture and give it a couple of stir. Then slowly pour in the rest of your hot cream mixture into the large bowl. The purpose of tempering the egg yolks is to prevent the hot cream mixture to cook the egg yolks, or else your egg yolks will solidify.

Step 7 - Use a butane torch to remove all the bubbles on the surface, the bubbles should be removed immediately like magic. Use a spoon to remove excess bubbles or foams.

Step 8 - Place your ramekins into an ovenproof container or a casserole. Carefully fill your ramekins, they should be filled almost to the top. Again, use the butane torch to remove the rest of the bubbles.

Step 9 - Fill your ovenproof container or casserole with boiling water, make sure you don't drip any water into the custard mixture. The water level should reach about half way through the ramekins.

Step 10 - Put them into a preheated 150C° oven for 25-30 minutes. When they're done, their consistency should be like jelly. After they are cooled enough to handle, take them out and let it sit for 30 minutes then put them into the fridge for at least one hour. You can serve them right away if you like your creme brulee hot.

Step 11 - Sprinkle brown sugar on top of your custard just enough to cover, use a butane torch to caramelize the sugar until it starts to bubble. You should purposely have some dark burnt spots, although it's bitter but it holds a lot of flavor. You should always do this step right before you serve them, because the caramelized sugar will melt and become soggy within 30 minutes. Enjoy:)

Ingredients:

2 cup  Heavy Cream ( I used 35%)

1 whole vanilla bean 

(or 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract)

4 to 8 tablespoon white granulated sugar (depends on how sweet you what) 

4 egg yolks

For the caramelized sugar (per serving):

2 teaspoon brown sugar or white granulated sugar 

Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

This is how I designed my cookies :)
I actually stayed up all night from 8pm till 8am (12 hours!!) to make these cookies for all my friends.
I made around 300 cookies for 18 friends. All the cookies came with a beautiful tin container.

Step 1 - Cut 2 sticks of unsalted butter into cubes and leave them in room temperature for 1 hour. In a large bowl, use an electric beater to cream softened butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. (Tip: make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl.)

Step 2 - Crack one large egg and mix until the egg is just about to disappear.

Step 3 - Pour in one cup of Molasses and mix well. One cup might seem a lot, but I can tell you, it's not. I don't like my recipes to be too sweet, so don't worry about the cookies are going to be very sweet.

Step 4 - In another large bowl, weight out 5 cups of all purpose-flour and put in ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg(optional), ground ginger, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Use a fork to mix them and break down the lumps, you can sift it if you want. (If your dough is too soft and seems like it needs more flour, put a few tablespoons of flour and work on your dough until you get the right consistancy.)

Step 5 - Pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Keep folding until most of the flour are gone then pour in the second 1/3 of the dry ingredients and so on.

Step 6 - Once everything is combined together, transfer you dough to a large surface or a cutting board, work on the dough for about a minute or two, then split you dough to half and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Put them into the fridge for 2 hours.

Step 7 - 2 hours later, you dough should be slightly firmer and will be easy to work on. Roll your dough to about 5mm thin and use your favorite cookie cutters and start cutting out your cookies. Then transfer your cookies to a baking pan with wax paper on it.

Step 8 - Put them into a preheated 150-160C° oven and bake for 10-13 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let them cool completely and decorate your gingerbread cookies with icing!! Enjoy :)

Do you guys want me to do a tutorial on how to decorate the cookies?

I will be making 200 Ginger Cookies and decorate with my design for my lovely friends, so I can show you guys how to using icing!!

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup molasses
5 cup all-purpose flour (maybe you will need 1/2 cup more)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional, I didn't use this in my video)
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda