French Madeleines

Madeleines are light and airy with a slightly crisp exterior fresh out of oven. The lemon zest used gives it a hint of lemony taste. They are best eaten on the day they are made. Leftovers are great dunked into coffee or tea. You will need a Madeleine pan to give it its characteristic shell like exterior. 

Makes 10 Madeleines of about 3 inches

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/16 teaspoon salt
33.3 grams (1/6 cup) white granulated (fine) sugar
31.3 grams (1/4 cup) all-purpose (plain) flour
1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
28.3 grams (1/8 cup) butter
Extra all purpose (plain) flour, for dusting the pan

You will also need a madeleine pan. I have only 1 pan that can make 5 at a time, so i did them in 2 batches.

Preparation:

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Zest a lemon to get about 1/2 tablespoon of lemon zest.

3. Measure out the other ingredients. As this recipe do not need very great precision, i use measuring cups to measure out most of the ingredients.

• Put the salt, vanilla essence and egg into a bowl.
• Measure out and melt the butter.
• Put granulated sugar, flour and lemon zest separately.
• Grease (using oil spray or butter) and flour your madeleine pan using all-purpose flour

4. Using an electric beater, beat the eggs, vanilla and salt mixture till it is paler, for about 1 minute on high speed.

3. Then, slowly and gradually add sugar, all the while maintaining your beater at medium/high speed until the mixture is thick and pale and you can see the beater leaving obvious prints on the batter while you are beating.

4. Gently fold in flour in 3 additions (1/3 of the flour at a time).

5. Gather the batter at the middle of the bowl and add the lemon zest and butter around the edge of the batter. Quickly and gently fold in the melted butter into the batter.

6. Spoon the batter into the madeleine moulds, filling them to the top. Bake them for 7 - 9 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown and springs back to the touch when you gently press with your fingertips.

7. Use a spatula to loosen the cakes from the pan and cool them on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

The original recipe is taken from Allrecipes.com which makes double this portion.

Spritz cookies

I've tried recipes for spritz cookies that were difficult to handle and stick to my cookie press and that is extremely frustrating. When i tried this recipe, i was relieved. This recipe yields a easy to handle dough which lets you make spritz cookies in a breeze with a decent cookie press. You may add more/less of the essences as you like to tweak the cookies to your taste.

Ingredients:

• 156 grams (1 1/4 cups) all purpose (plain) flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 113 grams (1/2 cup) butter
• 78 grams (3/4 cup) confectioners (icing) sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*You will also need a cookie press*

Preparation:

1. Prepare baking trays lined with baking mat/baking paper.

2. Measure out the flour and salt and whisk well to mix.

3. In a small bowl, combine egg yolk, almond extract and vanilla extract.

4. In a medium bowl, mix butter and icing sugar together till creamy.

5. Add in the yolk and extracts and mix well.

6. On low speed, mix in the flour and salt all at once.

5. At this time, preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit). You may preheat the oven earlier, depending on how much time your oven takes to preheat (mine takes about 7-15 mins).

6. Fill a cookie press with the dough.

7. Shoot cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart onto a baking mat or baking paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degree Celsius (400 degree Fahrenheit) for 6-7 minutes.

The original recipe is taken from Allrecipes.com. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Cream Puffs with Almond

Makes 12 puffs of about 2 to 2 1/2 inches diameter.

Ingredients:

For the puffs (pâte à choux pastry)

62.5 grams (1/2 cup) all purpose/plain flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
56.7 grams (1/4 cup/4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
125ml (1/2 cup) water
2 eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten

For the whipped cream filling:
375ml (1-1/2 cups) heavy whipping cream
66.7 grams (1/3 cup) sugar

For salted caramel sauce:

200grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
90g (6 Tablespoons ) salted butter, cut into cubes
120ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

1. Prepare one or 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper or baking mat.

2. Measure our plain flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.

3. Whisk to make sure it is thoroughly mixed.

4. Crack the eggs in a small bowl and using the same whisk lightly beat the eggs.

4. In a heavy bottom saucepan, measure out the butter and water.

5. On medium low fire, melt the butter in the water. Bring the mixture to a boil.

6. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour mixture till combined.

5. Return the saucepan to the heat, stirring constantly with a silicon spatula till the mixture puts neatly away from the sides and forms a ball. Be careful not to overcook this! Else your mixture may become too hard and prevent you from having a smooth batter later.

6. Now, preheat your oven to 200 degree Celsius (400 degree Fahrenheit).

7. Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes in the saucepan, or till it becomes lukewarm. Beat the dough on low speed for about a minute, then add the eggs in.

It may look like there's a lot of liquid, but do not worry. The mixture will become kind of runny and separates, just keep beating till it looks smooth and thick.

8. Using a small ice-cream scoop, divide the batter into 12 moulds onto the baking sheet, with each about 2 inches apart. The batter may look like it spreads, do not worry.

9. Bake at 200 degree Celsius for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 176 degree Celsius (350 degree Fahrenheit) to bake for 15 minutes more, or till the shells are quite dry inside. They should be a light brown colour. Take the puffs out of the oven and leave them on a wire rack to cool.

You can work on the cream and caramel sauce while the puffs are baking & cooling:

10. Measure out the heavy cream and sugar in a bowl. Make sure the heavy cream is COLD.

11. Use an electric beater to beat on high, till it starts to thicken.

11. To prevent your whip cream from being over-whipped, when it thickens, switch to low speed. Be patient here you don't want to over beat these, else it might curdle and separate.

12. On low speed, beat till it looks like this, stiff. Store this in the refrigerator till you need to use it to assemble the puffs.

Now we make the salted caramel:

13. Measure out all the ingredients required for salted caramel. For the sugar, measure out directly in a heavy bottom saucepan.

14. On medium heat, melt the sugar, stirring constantly with a silicon spatula. It will start to clump together.

Then it will start to melt. 

Then it will turn into an amber liquid. At this moment you may want to reduce the heat as you do not want to burn your sugar.

15. Once all the sugar has melted, add in all the butter. The caramel will start to bubble instantly.Stir in the butter till completely melted, about 2 minutes.

16. Then add in the heavy cream. It will bubble up rapidly again.

17. Keep stirring and allow the mixture to boil for about 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils. Do not overcook.

18. It may seem too runny for your puffs but do not worry, it thickens up on cooling. Remove from heat and stir in the salt. Allow to cool down before using. I transferred the caramel directly into a glass bottle. Be careful, its hot.

Assemble the caramel cream puffs:

19. Fill a pipping bag with the cream filling. By this time your puffs would have cooled enough to be filled.

20. Using a butter knife, make a little cross in each puff, then pipe the cream in.

21. Using a teaspoon, spread some caramel on the top of each filled puff.

22. Chop up some toasted almond nuts or whatever nuts you like and garnish. The nuts will stick on the caramel.

The cream puff recipe is taken from Design.Bake.Run and the caramel sauce recipe is taken from Sally's baking addiction.

Enjoy!