Simple Doughnut Balls!

Hi I'm Francis, the host of this show, "Cooking with Dog".

It's not what you think.

Today, we are going to prepare simple "doughnut holes" following a youtube recipe from Francis.

Sift 100 g of plain flour and 2 tsp of baking powder into a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk 1 egg, 2 tbsp brown sugar, roughly 1/4 cup milk and 1 tbsp melted butter. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to form a batter.

The milk/flour ratio is important - you can adjust it so the batter is liquid enough to be mixable, but not runny.

(I tried this once with the 2 tbsp milk in the original recipe and ended up with what looked like dry chicken nuggets...)

Heat oil to 170 deg C. Drop a little bit of batter into the oil - it is the right temperature if it bubbles but not too vigorously. When ready, take a half spoonful of batter and scrape it into the oil to form small balls.

A little misshapen sometmies - the batter was slightly too runny.

Once the dough balls have grown in size and are browned on the outside (a few minutes), leave them to cool on a rack.

These doughnut balls are delicious when still warm and crisp on the outside. Eat as many as you like at this stage - they taste surprisingly like those asian fried dough things "haam jim beng???" (咸煎饼) or even "you tiao".

Once cooled completely, place them in a plastic bag and shake together with your desired coating (sugar, cinnamon, matcha etc.)

Identify the magazines for 10 points.

Serve with your favourite ice-cream!

Matcha doughnuts with black sesame ice-cream.

For a black sesame ice-cream recipe, it was basically the same as my green tea ice cream recipe, except with ground toasted black sesame seeds.

Lemon and Blueberry Cake

My goodness it's been far too long since I did this blogging thing. Life is busy etc, you all know how it is. Just a fantastic little recipe I found at Joy of Baking which I whipped together (literally) at 12am today, since I had two spare lemons and Wednesday is Problem Session day (aka Cake day) in our research group.

Despite not having a bread-loaf tin, I have a cake tin of the same volume as described in the recipe, except far flatter and wider... still came out lemony and delicious! Joy of Baking is amazing. (It's like the Organic Syntheses of the baking world)

Protip: I made extra of the lemon glaze - strangely delicious on vanilla ice-cream

Ingredients:
Cake Batter:
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

Lemon Glaze:
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a non stick vegetable spray) the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inch) (23 x 13 x 8 cm).   In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the 1/4 cup (50 grams) of sugar and the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  When the bread is done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Pierce the hot loaf all over with a wooden skewer or toothpick and then brush the top of the loaf with the hot lemon glaze. Cool the loaf in the pan for about 30 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

This bread is best served on the day it is made.

The Big Bake-Off (Part 2)

Last time on The Big Bake-Off...

Tasting and Judgement
On the panel today we have eight mathematicians including The Shok, a physicist (PC) and the chairman M+M himself.

Cakes can be awarded a maximum of 100 points: 50 for taste, 25 for creativity and 25 for presentation.

And now for the verdict. In this chocolate, fruit and cream cake battle, we've seen both chefs go at it for hours to create M+M's dream dessertland. Will it be the defending champion, the express precision of the TGV, or does the food blogger steal a win from left field? Who takes it? Who's cuisine reigns supreme?

...


And the scores for YH are as follows:
Taste = 423/500
Creativity = 188/250
Presentation = 191/250
Total = 802/1000

Now for the TGV:
Taste = 452/500
Creativity = 233/250
Presentation = 216/250
Total = 901/1000

The winner is TGV with her amazing croquembouche!

The Twist
But wait, did I not say that there were 8 mathematicians on the panel, including one statistician? A quick t-test on Excel revealed that in fact the results were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

Does this mean TGV didn't win/I didn't lose? Well, even if statistically there's more than 5% doubt about the result, it was quite clear to everyone that  TGV definitely won the day, no doubt about it! Although clearly this calls for further experiments (ie. bakeoffs!) to increase the sample size and get a statistically significant result...

The Recipes
Alrighty, enough fooling around... here are the recipes for the different parts of the cakes, mostly adapted from a bunch of different food blogs!

The Secret Picture [kinda like the Secret Sound on old radio shows]... What is it? (10 points)

1. Chocolate Cherry Cake based on Not Quite Nigella
Melt 180 g butter, 140 g dark chocolate, 1 cup water, 3/4 cup vegetable oil and 60 mL coffee in a pan until melted.

Mix 3 cups flour, 3 cups caster sugar and 3/4 cup cocoa. Add melted chocolate/butter mixture to this dry mixture.

Mix in 3 eggs, one at a time. Then add 3/4 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk + juice of half a lemon)

Fold in a splash of vanilla essence, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, pinch of salt and 20 chopped cherries.

Pour into baking tin and bake for ~50-60 minutes at 180 deg C.

(If I had 2 baking tins, it would be easier to split the batter into two tins rather than have to cut the cake into layers layer. Plus, the amount is too much for one tin - it overflowed in mine!)

2. Buttercream Frosting from Sweetapolita
Place 5 egg whites and 1 cup caster sugar into a very clean (any traces of grease will kill the egg whites) mixer bowl. Heat over a pot of boiling water whilst whisking until the sugar dissolves and the foam is hot. Keep whisking until thick and glossy.

Then with 450 g butter softened at room temp, add it in small chunks whilst whisking until a silky smooth texture is achieved. Add a splash of vanilla essence and pinch of salt. Refrigerate.

3. Candy Floss from Cooking Books
Add 400 g sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 1/4 cup honey in a saucepan and heat the bejeezus out of it.

Meanwhile, set up two skewers over the edge of a table, weighed down at one end. Place some newspaper or similar on the floor to catch the mess...

When it starts becoming thick and very bubbly, test it out by dipping a fork into the caramel. Bring it over the skewers and shake it back and forth. If the dripping liquid caramel forms strings which solidify over the skewers, all good!

4. Chocolate Cherries
Heat 125 mL cream in a saucepan until almost but not boiling. Pour over 250 g of chopped up dark chocolate. Mix with a fork until smooth. Leave in fridge to cool.

When cooled but still workable, take a spoonful of ganache, stud with a hazelnut, shape into a ball around the nut. Roll the ball in icing sugar. Stick a cherry stalk into the top.

Heat chopped cherries and sugar in a saucepan until reduced to a thick liquid. Use this liquid to coat the fake cherries.

5. Raspberry Jam
Heat raspberries and sugar in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon juice until reduced to a jam consistency.

6. Ganache Drizzle
Same as the ganache in number 4, except use equal amounts of cream and chocolate (1 cup, 250 g).

7. Assembly
Cut the top off the baked cake so that it is flat. Then cut cake horizontally into 2 layers (difficult!). Coat the first layer with raspberry jam, then sandwich with second layer. Coat the whole thing with some of the frosting. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Then use the rest of the frosting to do a second coat. Refrigerate again for 20 minutes.
 
Drizzle cake with ganache until it drips down the sides. Top with fruit, chocolate cherries, candy floss and some chocolate shavings (scrape a chocolate block with a knife).

Breathe a sigh of relief.

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Hope you enjoyed this two-part Bake-Off series!

On a totally different note, I'm in the process of writing BA dinner menus for the Michaelmas term. If you have any ideas, let me know!

The Big Bake-Off (Part 1)

Allez cuisine! The heat will be on...

The Intro
Five weeks ago, a man's fantasy became reality in a form never seen before: Pearce Hostel Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune (*cough cough*) to create Kitchen Stadium was to encourage others to bake cakes for him, true artistic creations which he would then devour himself. To realise his dream, he started choosing the top student chefs from all Cambridge, and he named his students the Iron Grad Students, invincible grads of culinary skills.

The Contenders

In the red corner, we have yours truly, food blogger with Hungry the Ate, and a self-confessed novice at baking. Quite the expert at eating though. Semper Eat'em!
Pre-bakeoff quote: "The last thing I put in an oven was some round bottom flasks in my lab which needed drying."

And in the blue corner, it's the defending champion, known only as the TGV. She's travelling at the speed of light, baking at 200 degrees, that's why they call her Miss Farenheit. Reputed to be able to execute a recipe perfectly the first time she tries dominates it.
Pre-bakeoff quote: "Tell him I'm using tomatoes. Tomato is a fruit. Psyche!" (may be fictional)

The Theme Ingredient
Chairman M+M unveils the theme ingredient for this battle... kyo no tema wa, kore desu:

As it happens, blackforest cake is vetoed as a theme for being too restricted. So the theme is reannounced:

Any cake with chocolate, fruit and cream!

The Battle
It's 3pm on a Saturday, so bang a gong and we are on in this epic cake battle! The early going seems to be a little rough for the challenger. It appears that YH has underestimated just how much his cake will rise - it's like a little vomcano giving rise to a second smaller cake at the base of the oven. Incredible!

YH: And then I just chundered everywah... disgusting.

Meanwhile on the human bullet train, the TGV appears to be making plenty of noise with an electric mixer. Out comes some wonderfully coloured raspberry panna cotta:

TGV panna cotta in a box

Back to the challenger, and he seems to be making faux cherries! I can report that the 'seed' is a hazelnut, hidden within chocolate truffle ganache and coated with cherry glaze.

Faux cherries by YH

Returning to the other side, it looks as though TGV's plans are starting to become clear after a serious profiterole manufacturing task. The choux pastries are filled with the panna cotta we saw before, and coated in chocolate. My mouth is beginning to water already...

TGV is a profiterole-making machine

In YH's kitchen, some serious layer action going on - it looks like a coating of raspberry jam is going down.

YH lays down the law, and the raspberries

TGV is almost done with her croquembouche, assembling the profiteroles with fruit and caramel.

TGV's tower of yum

The last minute decorations are happening on YH's side as well. It's a case of situation substitution with the candy floss, using honey instead of corn syrup, but it looks like the bet has paid off!

Shiny sugar strings on YH's side

And that's it, the cake baking battle is O-VAH!!!

The Final Products!
The challenger YH presents a dark chocolate cake flavoured with a hint of coffee, cayenne pepper and cinnamon, sandwiching a layer of fruity raspberry reduction. The whole affair is coated in vanilla buttercream frosting, doused with liquid chocolate ganache and topped with a sugar nest of faux cherries.

TGV counters with an immaculate croquembouche of chocolate profiteroles filled with a raspberry panna cotta. The entire profiterole stack is studded with cherries, raspberries, mulberries and strawberries, and wrapped up together in golden strings of caramel floss.

The Verdict
What do you think the result will be? You'll have to wait until next time, on Part 2 of the Big Bake-Off!

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I figured this was pretty long so I've split it up into two. Part 2 will have the judging criteria, scores, statistical analysis (yeah baby) and recipes for my cake at least (I don't have TGV's recipe unfortunately).

Apologies if you aren't familiar with the original dubbed Japanese Iron Chef. Wait, why am I apologising? Shame on you! Go watch it now. It's awesome, I promise you.

Stay tuned!

Mississippi Mud Pie

Firstly, two foodblog posts you should read, polar opposites yet both incredibly awesome.

1) Becasse Chef's Table from Grab Your Fork
Class. This is what separates the men from the boys.
http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2011/07/becasse-chefs-table-sydney.html

2) The Stoner Degustation from Yo Levins
I only recently heard about this guy, but I mean, wow. Perhaps the very definition of awesome.
http://yolevins.com/post/2492239247/half-baked-the-stoner-degustation

And that's why I love Sydney.

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Dark chocolate + cream + butter + sugar + eggs must taste good right? Here's a recipe I found on the BBC Food website for Mississippi mud pie. I made a few changes here and there, like replacing bourbon biscuits with digestives (supermarket only had bourbon creams). Plus I completely ran out of time making this, so I slightly underbaked it and didn't have time to let it cool, which resulted in a warm gooey cake. Still good though.

Cake Filling:	Fudge Topping:	Base:
85g dark chocolate (70%) 85g butter 85g sugar 100mL double cream 2 eggs	150g dark chocolate (70%) 150mL double cream 175g icing sugar, sieved 3 tbsp honey/golden syrup	300g digestives 150g butter

Procedure:
1. Start by crushing the digestive biscuits into fine crumbs (easy to do in a plastic food bag). Melt butter and mix into biscuit crumbs. Press into base of a 23cm springform tin. Chill in the fridge for a few minutes.

2. For cake filling, melt dark chocolate and butter together (microwave works great). Meanwhile, whip together eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Fold cream and melted chocolate/butter into beaten egg mixture.

3. Pour chocolate mixture into biscuit base and bake in a preheated oven for 40-50 min at 180 deg C, or until set.

4. Let the baked cake cool (actually I didn't have time...). In the meantime, combine all the fudge ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth. Let cool for 5 min and pour over the cake.

5. Stud with fresh raspberries. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. (again, I didn't have time)

Green Tea and Red Bean Layer Cake

A while back I made some green tea ice cream using a stash of matcha I got from a recent trip to Hong Kong (which I'm yet to blog about!). I was looking for some other matcha dessert recipes and found this one here and here. Don't be fooled by it's appearance... green tea and red bean is a great combination in desserts!

Anyway, I'm not great at baking (I think I'm too careless in terms of measuring things), so the cake turned out a little messy, but overall the recipe worked great!

Here's the recipe, although it basically comes straight from Sugar & Everything Nice:

Ingredients:
2 eggs 60 g icing sugar 60 g almond meal 1 1/2 tsp matcha 30 g all purpose flour 30 g melted unsalted butter	2 egg whites 1/8 tsp cream of tartar 30 g caster sugar 1 cup whipping cream 1/4 cup sweetened canned red bean

Procedure:
1) Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Line a half sheet pan (about 30 x 40 cm) with a sheet of baking paper.

2) Combine the 2 whole eggs with the icing sugar and almond meal and whip until light and about double in volume.

3) Add in the matcha powder and combine.

4) Sift the flour over the egg mixture.

5) Whip the egg whites in a different bowl until they start to froth. Then add the cream of tartar and whip until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar and whip to incorporate.

6) Scoop about 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg mixture and fold in gently with a spatula. Add the remaining egg whites and fold in until uniformly mixed. Pour the melted butter over the batter and fold in to incorporate.

7) Pour the batter into the pan and distribute it evenly, making the layer as level and smooth as possible. Tap the bottom of the pan to get rid of some of the air bubbles.

8) Bake in the oven for about 6 to 8 minutes, until the cake is just firm and lightly brown but not completely brown. (I found it seemed to need longer to dry out properly - maybe my cake slices were too thick?)

9) Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it from the parchment. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

10) Flip the cake over, then carefully peel the parchment paper from the back of the cake. Then flip the cake back on it's right side over a clean piece of parchment.

To Assemble:
1) Trim off the edges and slice the cake in along the short side into 4 equal-sized pieces

2) Whip the cream to soft peaks. Leave aside 1/4 of the cream for the topping. For the remaining cream, fold in the red beans gently until evenly distributed.

3) Taking one layer of the cake, cover the top with 1/4 of the red bean cream. Then lay the 2nd layer on top and continue with the rest until the last layer is in place. Try to keep the layer even.

4) Top the last layer with the 1/4 plain cream.

5) Cover the cake and refrigerate overnight.

6) When you are ready to serve, trim off the sides of the cake to make them nice and even. Dust the top with some matcha powder.

Ice-cream updates...

The green tea ice cream I made a couple of weeks back was such a success, I had to try making more... but this time chocolate! Yum.

Basically just substituting the matcha powder with cocoa seemed to do the trick, although the ice-cream texture turned out a little more dense, rich and icy than the green tea version. Not sure if it's because you need to add more powder-flavoury-stuff (cocoa/matcha), or if it's because I didn't stir it enough whilst it was freezing because I fell asleep...

Cocoa and Walnut Ice Cream (with a splash of brandy)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup cocoa 1/2 cup sugar 300 mL milk 300 mL cream	capful of brandy 4 egg yolks handful of walnut pieces pinch of salt

Pretty much the same as the previous green tea recipe. Warm milk (don't boil) and dissolve the cocoa. Mix egg yolks and sugar and then add to the warm cocoa milk until dissolved, followed by salt and brandy.  Strain through a sieve and let cool to room temp.

Someone told me once that salt draws out the full flavour of chocolate. Surprising but true!

Lightly whip cream and add to the chocolate mixture. Cool in fridge for a couple of hours then put in freezer. Stir the mix vigorously every hour, scraping down the frozen sides as you go. When it gets to a slushie stage, add the walnuts.

I googled salt and chocolate, and what did I find? This. OMGBACONYUM.

Homemade Green Tea Ice Cream (no machine)

When I found this recipe on Sabra's amazing food blog Spoonful, it sounded way too good not to try. I'm a real sucker for good green tea ice cream, and surely the idea of being able to generate your own ice cream at will is the sweet-tooth equivalent of being able to grow money on trees, or turning water into wine...

Somehow here the lighting balance dulled the green a little - it looks more vibrant green in real life!

Poor similes aside, I've had this recipe stuck on the brain for a while now, and so I bought some Matcha during my recent trip to Hong Kong. Matcha is amazing stuff. Delicious with sweet red bean paste in cake, strangely concentrated and foamy when served in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and killer as an ice cream flavour.

Best matcha ice cream experience? Soft serve matcha ice cream from a shop on the walk up to Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. Tangents aside, here's the recipe, and it works so well that I've almost directly copied it straight from Sabra's blog (hope it's ok, thanks!):

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)
2/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream (aka whipping cream)

1. In a small bowl, mix the green tea powder with 2 tablespoons sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks and remaining sugar.

3. Pour the milk into a small pan and gently heat taking care not to let it boil. Remove the from the heat and mix a few spoonfuls of the warm milk with the matcha/sugar combination. When you have a smooth paste, add it to the remaining milk in the pan, then gradually stir in the egg yolk/sugar mixture.

4. Return mixture to the stove and heat slowly over low heat (taking care to not let the mixture boil), until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, strain through a fine sieve, and allow to cool completely.

5. Lightly whip the cream and then add it to the cold green tea-milk mixture.

6. Chill mixture for an hour or two in the refrigerator and then put it in the freezer. As ice crystals start to form, remove, and mix vigorously and thoroughly with a fork to break them up and return the mixture to the freezer. Repeat this a few times as it freezes to ensure that the ice cream is smooth.

Tips:
- As a few people have commented on Sabra's blog, I'd recommend adding a little more matcha and less sugar to bring out the green tea taste more.

Seriously Foolproof Brownies

I'd always been under the impression that brownies were relatively easy to make. But not this easy... I found the same awesome recipe here, here, here, here, here and here. This many people can't be wrong.

This was made for the poorly-equipped student: no electric mixer, no beating of eggs, no double-boiler. Just a saucepan, a spoon, a baking tray and an oven.

And they taste amazing. But hey, you can't go wrong with tons of butter, sugar and cocoa.

Ingredients:	Optional Extras:
150 g unsalted butter 225 g sugar 80 g cocoa powder 2 eggs 75 g plain flour pinch of salt	an orange (for a bit of zest and juice) a few oreos white chocolate chips chopped walnuts

0. Preheat oven to 160 deg C.

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. When melted, add sugar and stir. Then add cocoa and stir until mixed properly.

2. Add salt and eggs and mix to get a lovely smooth chocolatey velvety mixture. Resist the temptation to eat it.

3. Add flour and gently fold in until just combined - don't overmix. At this stage, add whatever extra flavourings you like. Be creative!

4.  Transfer mixture into a baking tray (~24 x 12 cm). Probably easiest if it's lined with baking paper so it doesn't stick. We didn't have any but it worked fine anyway. Bake for about 50 mins (very roughly). The top/edges should start to dry out, and when you stick a skewer in, it should come out moist but not covered in chocolate goo.

5. Cool and cut. Dust with icing sugar. Decorate. Devour until you and your friends feel guilty. Repeat.