Lemon Roll

I love the tangy taste that lemon adds to desserts, it cuts the sweetness well. I remembered drooling over a lemon roll that I saw on the Hairy Bikers cooking programme, so I decided to give it a go today as I had quite a few lemons in the fridge which suited me well on this occasion. I didn't have the recipes, which I could have easily obtained from the BBC website if I had wanted to but I decided to do my own. Starting with the cake base, I made a genoise. Unlike other cakes, a genoise doesn't use a leavening agent, its volume comes from the air suspended in the batter during mixing using the bain-marie method. During the week we were learning how to make genoise, "Artisan power!" could be heard in class to spur everyone on, punctuated with a deep breath out whenever someone caught a quick rest in between the whisking.

Once the genoise was baked, I got on with making the lemon butter cream, then the lemon curd (again, more whisking) and finally the lemon syrup to soak the genoise. Finally came the fun part - putting the different components together. The result was a delight! I brought a few slices to a dinner date I had with Anne-Marie and she loved it! We had a nice evening tucked in warmly in her attic apartment, listening to the rain splashing on the windows, knitting and watching Bridget Jones Diary (it was like the 20th time she'd watched this movie!!). When I came home, my editor had tasted my lemon roll. Perfect was his word :)

Home-Made Market - Prins Hendrikstraat, Den Haag

Three weeks have passed since my last post, I have not done much besides meeting friends. The rain kept coming, patchy but persistent. Nothing exciting on the weather front, but not so for sport! On the day of Manchester's triumphant win over Arsenal at Old Trafford on the 28th of August 2011, a decision was made - I was going to participate in the Home-Made Market :)

I spent the whole week planning for my inaugural sale, and still managed to slot in time to cook up a dinner for my editor's colleagues. The morning of the day before, I woke up early (not really my forte since I moved to the Hague) to get ready for a baking marathon. My editor doubled up as my assistant, running around to get stuff that I needed. My day went by pretty smoothly except for a little drama at the end - a few of the lemon tart bases crumbled, so I only had one instead of four as planned. It was not until 5am that I finished baking... I sank straight into my bed snoring away before being woken up three hours later by the alarm...

It wasn't the best weather at the start of the day, clouds were hovering above and there were rain drops. I quickly washed up and donned a dress. I still hadn't really figured out how to transport my cakes and tarts! But no time to panic, I started cutting the cakes while working out a plan. Finally, we loaded everything onto a bamboo board and in baskets, cling-wrapped it and set out to the market. We were an hour late for the scheduled opening time.

The crowd started to pour in and my cakes started to disappear one by one... I was sold out in just about 3 hours! I made a profit, a small but proud one ;) I was so tired but it was well worth the experience and fun, I'm glad I did it :) A big hug to my editor and Eva who came to help and a big thanks to all the people who bought from me :)

Egg Tart

While the West have croissant and coffee for breakfast; in the East, we have pastry too for breakfast, egg tart. It's very much like the portuguese egg tart but with a wobbly and soft egg custard centre. Oooh... it's delicious! We do not only have it for breakfast, for lunch, tea, in fact at any time of the day as your heart desires ;) It's a familiar dish during "dim sum" where you savour individual portions of food - dumplings and pastries, steamed or baked or fried served in a bamboo steamer basket or plate. Egg tart is a must for me, especially when it's fresh from the oven!

Pizza

I like to eat, and don't be fooled by my small frame, I could eat as much as my editor! I like food of all kind (almost ;)). I grew up eating fast food pizza and never liked it, but eating the real thing in Italy changed my mind :) We chanced on a pizza restaurant in Alghero, Sardinia one evening and had some amazing pizzas that it inspired me to make my own!

Brioche aux fruits

The rain finally stopped, well, for today. Went for my tennis lesson. It wasn't the most strenuous session I ever had but strangely I was panting badly after only a short rally. It's probably one of those days or maybe the rain has been keeping me away from tennis, enough to undo whatever stamina I had built up over the last week. I was really hungry and tired when I got home. As my editor had a prior engagement with his colleagues, I was left to fend for myself this evening. Not very exciting cooking for myself, so I decided to bake.

Blueberry Tart

Summer is my favourite season. The sun is bright, the day is long, the fruits are sweet and abundant and the mood is uplifting! Except for the peculiarly heavy rain that dampened the mood on some days... On days like this, I just stay in and bake. Today, I decided to bake a blueberry tart.

Summer Berry Bavaroise

After a long break, I'm slowly picking up baking again. I first made this dessert for a friend's wedding. I wanted to give them something delicious and had this idea in my head of dacquoise, summer berry coulis and raspberry bavaroise. I had never made this before, so doing it for the first time as a wedding gift was rather risky. But I took the (calculated) risk anyway, putting in love and care to make sure it was done well. It paid off :) She came back wanting to learn how to make it! So we decided to organize a pot luck evening with some girls.

Profiteroles

Profiterole - it’s a choux pastry ball filled with pastry cream (whipped cream, ice cream etc.) garnished with chocolate sauce or caramel sauce. To prepare good profiteroles is rather tricky; it’s sensitive to the amount of liquid (water, milk or eggs) in it. Too little liquid the pastry won’t rise, too much of it the pastry will just collapse. I’ve made profiteroles a couple of times in class. Each time, the amount of eggs added varied, depending on how long the liquid had been boiled, to adjust the consistency. 

Chocolate Soufflé

I invited some friends (a jazz singer, a musician and a boxer) over for dinner today. I was having trouble deciding what to cook. My menu changed from lamb, steak, fish... finally my editor decided for me - chicken rice, a typical food you find in Malaysia and Singapore, should be nice for my Hungarian, Venezuelan and Dutch friends ;) For dessert, I chose chocolate soufflé.

Croissant

Waking up to freshly baked croissants is heavenly ;) It’s all I want on some Saturday mornings ;) This was my first attempt after procrastinating for months, well, nothing new. Never mind, procrastination and hesitation are history now and I started getting my hands dirty. First, the dough. Happily measuring all the ingredients in the mixing bowl according to the recipe, some time passed, my dough was still very wet and sticky.

Macarons!

Oh macarons, macarons… so what’s the fascination with these French meringue-like cookies? The first time I had them, well, I honestly don’t quite remember when (who does? It’s irrelevant), but it was quite heavenly. I was fascinated by the assorted macarons displayed in the shop window - so delicate, so cute, so colourful. I was very excited that I finally got to learn the secret behind the macaron!

Custard Cream Pastry

I have been procrastinating to bake millefeuille, meaning thousand leaves, because I was afraid that I’d get disappointed if the puff pastry didn’t rise, also I was more interested in playing tennis in the sun than to stay in-door to bake ;). Well, I think I have put it off long enough, it’s time to confront it!

Carrot Cake

I have been lazy since coming back from Cuba. Still trying to recover from the surreal holiday. I had such a great time in Cuba! It was unpretentious, laid back, rough and exciting! The scenery changed from one city to another - from lush Vinales, to pretty Trinidad, charming Camaguey and beautiful and lively Havana. Coming back to normality was a little difficult but

Orange Day

* Why Orange? see previous post on "Orange Toque? Find out on Queen’s Day"

It took me a while to get up this morning, was still recovering from jet-lag after two weeks in exotic Cuba. Or perhaps I was trying to escape from the Queen’s Day sale that I had been planning for weeks. I was a little bit hesitant; I had nightmares thinking that I just may have to eat all the financiers myself!

Orange Toque? Find out on Queen's Day :)

Why Orange Toque? And why on Queen's Day? Toque is the hat worn by a chef. Queen's day is a national holiday in the Netherlands that celebrates the birthday of the Queen. Orange is the Dutch national colour.

Passion Fruit Bavaroise

Trees are sprouting and flowers are blooming, it’s the start of a beautiful season. Yes, spring is here! ;) How about celebrating the arrival of spring with a dessert?

Pancakes with Orange Pomegranate syrup

I promised my editor that, one day I would make him some pancakes served in bed. He likes the fluffy American pancakes, so do I, though I also like crepes, the French version of pancakes. Pancake is great for breakfast or brunch especially on a lazy Saturday or Sunday.

Mini Break

I'm off for two weeks... will be back after my holiday, stay tuned ;)

Strawberry Mascarpone Tart

Strawberries and cream, a Wimbledon signature snack! Oh yes, Wimbledon, Wimbledon, one of the Tennis Grand Slam tournaments and one that has a special place in my heart. Oh how I used to dislike the drizzle of London, but on this occasion in June 2005, I was glad it rained, or I wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch a Special Sunday Wimbledon Final. 

Galette du Roi

I’m always amazed by the layers in puff pastry like croissant, millefeuille, chausson aux pommes (apple turnover)… and last but not least la galette du roi (the king’s cake), it’s one of my favourite French puff pastries.