Friday, January 25, 2008

Strawberry Crepe Cake



Making crepe is easy but you need patience and dedication. Thanks to kitchen temparature of 8 C, the creme didn't easily melt and mess up my kitchen. Once done, you've got to be patient and chill it for hours until set. Otherwise, layers will collapse and that would definitely break your heart.


I should call it a heart-breaker. You know why? I cut it right after I finished the top layer and..... Dah!!! Things can't be un-done (not with the ctrl + z ). Patience is indeed a virtue.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Pancakes

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Nov 5, 2015 : I would like to add some notes.
- Here the baking powder and baking soda creates the fluffiness. The baking powder acts twice (which is why it's called double-acting baking powder) when 1) it's humidified (i.e. mixed with milk/ water) 2) when it's heated up.
- So, when you mix dried and wet ingredients and let the batter sit for 15 minutes, it will bubble up.  Leaving it for a hour won't be a problem for me, but I notice leaving it for 8 hours wouldn't be as good as freshly-made batter because baking powder keeps reacting with humidity while the batter sitting on the working table. It loses power.
- Baking powder will reacts the again when the batter is popped into the oven. So, if your wet ingredients are hot, baking powder will reacts while you mix the batter too, and that's not good.
- The question is , if you want to prep for a party, you can do this ahead of time by prepare the wet in one bowl and the dries in another. Let them sit at room temp before you are ready to mix it.
- Mixing bananas and berries are good idea, it sticks to the griddle sometimes even when I use non-stick pan, dah ??!! . For those who dont', you need lots of butter on the pan. :-) Real butter is not gonna kill you, I guarantee.
- The last point here, Alton brown looks even better when he grows older. He still my culinary hero. Love him.
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Thanks to Alton Brown, these pancakes are awesome. Fluffy and light. I don't need to explain as you can see from the photo. I have manuka honey and Canadian maple syrup....which one would you like?


I can't help digging a fork in the middle of the stack. Sorry if this looks like a crime scene for pancake lovers.

Recipe: Adapted from Alton brown's, more sugar added for my version.



Dry ingredients
1/2tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
3 tsp sugar
2 cup All-Purposed flour

Wet Ingredients: Mix together
a) 4 Tbls melted butter + 2 yolks ; mix together
b) 2 cups buttermilk or yoghurt at "room temperature" mix with the white. Before adding the whites, you can warm up the buttermilk in the microwave to body temperature. Body temperature is easy to tell , as you dip your finger in the buttermilk, you can barely tell whether it's hot or cold, it's just the same as your body temp, that's all.

Mix a+b together to team up the wet-team.

Once you mix the dry with wet ingredients, stir until "just" mix. You'll see small crumbs and those are fine. If you overwork, your jaw may be dislocated while chewing.
Enjoy!

Cinnamon bun















The original recipe suggests individual buns fitted in muffin pan. That looks lovely and is a twist from what we see in stores. But this should as well be cut and served as a cake. The bread is butter-rich and soft so I can cut it with serrated knife easily. So, here comes the round shape that I fitted in a 9-inch pan.


I have plenty of nuts to choose from but I love walnuts, cashews and almonds. A handful of each....no mercy.

A scoop of vanilla icecreme would be a complement . And no, I was not counting calories while digging my fork in it.

Oh...for those who wanna make this at home, here's the link for recipe with photos. Thank you Elise for a great recipe.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001734cinnamon_sticky_buns.php