Spicy Chocolate Beef

Last weekend I saw Jonathan Phang's Caribbean Cookbook in Travel channel. He cooked Spiced beef in a chocolate sauce with cook up rice. I got really curious how chocolate taste like if mix in a savory meal that's why I asked Pieter if he would like to try it as well.

I saw Jonathan's recipe online but the thing was I dont have mixed spice on hand. I can't find in our local grocery here in Holland, in Asian store perhaps but I was too lazy to cycle to go there. So I skip Jonathan's recipe and looked for a simple version, I found one from Allrecipes.com.

Jackfruit Pie

Yesterday was Pieter's day off. I promised him that I will bake something. The Jackfruit (in can) was sitting in the pantry for like 2 months now so I've decided to use it for this pie. The recipe was based on Dorie's fresh orange cream tart. I substituted jackfruit puree for fresh orange juice and this time I bake a pie crust.

It was Pieter's 1st jackfruit and according to him it tastes really delicious. But for me I think it will taste even better if there are small bits of jackfruit in the filling.

Dollhouse Miniature Macaron Display 1:12 scale (or not :-P)

This is how my dollhouse counters look like now. Still a lot of space to fill but I finally completed the macarons, though I'm a bit disappointed because they are not small enough to my liking. It's supposed to be 5 mm (still big I think) but I don't like super fat macaron shells so I flattened them a little that is why it became 5.5 mm. I also made few pieces of 4 mm as I am thinking of doing the 400 pcs (200 pairs plus filling) macarons again. Oh well macaron fake or real it is really pain in the b*** haha.

 

Those are real macaron shells.

Each polymer clay macaron was individually handmade by me without the use of mold. I baked them in the oven.

Back In The Kitchen...Fresh Orange Cream Tart or Should I Call It A Cake.

This was the second time I made Dorie Greenspan's Fresh Orange Cream Tart. As usual I made a shortcut: from sweet tart dough to digestive biscuit (again) and of course I cut down the quantity of sugar. The orange cream filling was indeed creamy even though I lessen the butter. Originally the butter used in the recipe was 2 3/4 sticks, creamy and super delicious but definitely not waistline-friendly.

How does it taste like after all the changes? soft, light, creamy, sweet and orangey...melt in your mouth goodness. The candied orange slices gives a nice touch as well.

Dorie's instructions was to pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. When you are ready to construct the tart, whisk the cream vigorously to loosen it and then spread the cream evenly in the crust. What I did was I poured the cream straight to the prepared digestive biscuit, since I did not follow the instructions and the butter quantity my orange cream has air bubbles and it doesn't look like this. But for me it doesn't matter because it was still delicious.

White Forest Mousse Cake...Happy Birthday Alma!

I made this cake for my birthday. My original plan is only genoise sponge, cherry mousse and white chocolate mousse but since this is White Forest, I want to add more cherry flavor so I made another layer which is vanilla and kirsch bavarois. For me this was one of the best mousse cake I've ever made. Soft and moist sponge, light mousse, creamy vanilla and kirsch bavarois. Kirsch goes deliciously well with the vanilla. It was really delicious! I will make a Black Forest version of this next time. 

Coco sent me a birthday card ♥

New Hobby

I am playing with polymer clay lately. This was my first project: life size macarons and tiny macaron fridge magnet for my friend. This was also my first time to handle polymer clay. Although the packaging says "soft" they still have to be conditioned before being used.

What is conditioning? (www.jaedworks.com)

Conditioning is the process that makes polymer clay ready to work with. Most conditioning is done simply by working the clay with your hands until it reaches a good working consistency. The warmth of your hands combined with the physical process of stretching and compressing the clay changes its texture, making it softer and more pliable.

Doing this for several minutes made my fingers, wrist and palm really painful. The small ones are easy but the amount of clay that I used for the big macarons took time conditioning. On my next projects I will use the pasta machine, it's much easier and faster way and less pain to conditon the clay. I still need to practice more on how to handle and mold the clay because even after baking the appearance was still look uneven. But I am very happy with the finished product, specially with the colors I've chosen. Pastel color was really perfect for macaron, they are like pastel jewels inside my glass cake stand. So I guess from now on you will be seeing clay art in my blog. 

Homemade Creme de Cacao

This was my latest DIY project: Creme de Cacao. Actually I can buy creme de cacao at any liquor store but I enjoy making things from scratch, plus I am able to use the ingredients that has been sitting in the pantry for months.
Few of the recipes online used cocoa powder but I have a lot of cacao nibs so I've decided to look for a recipe that calls for cacao nibs. I found Serious Eats recipe much better.