TBB: Praline Pecan Meringue Ice-Cream Sandwiches

I made half recipe as I wasn't sure if meringue will last in this climate here..  In fact, I was half hearted about making this recipe..seeing it requires 300g of pecan nuts..that's a lot of pecan nuts and it's expensive here. What if I don't like them and it will mean $22 down the drain..! 

Fate had it that I developed sore throat, along with headache, slight fever yesterday. I could only think of things like ice-pops, ice-cream, ice-kachang..  you get the idea.  And since my husband complained the other day that my ice-cream maker has been in cold-storage for a long time, I decided to make rum & raisin ice-cream because it is my daughter's favorite flavor, and I can't make chocolate anything because chocolate is 'heaty' and at times like this, is one of the food I have to avoid eating.  

After making the custard base for ice-cream, I realised I have leftover white and I might as well make the meringue.. half recipe would be enough for a test batch.. 

So I began toasting the pecan nuts..

And whisk the egg whites & brown sugar. I heated it up a bit hoping to get rid of the moisture so it will be not be soft later on... so I think.. 

chopped all pecans.. no need to leave 1/2 batch of whole pecans..since only half recipe. 

Whipped for 5 mins until it turn pale white.. 

At this point..very sticky meringue.. maybe I over-beat..

Scoop and drop and flatten with spatula.. but I think I didn't flatten enough...cos you can see why later..

Tada! Meringue cookies all baked ..

I baked at low temp 130c for 30mins.  

Very dry and crispy now.  Happiness..that they didn't collapse and I was so tempted to eat one but my helper reminded me not to as they are even numbers now... *dang*..lol!

Next churn the custard into ice-cream

After 30mins later... ice-cream! Still need to rest in freezer first.. 

Now..top with meringue cookie on top and enjoy! 

No bottom cookie cos too fluffy already..LOL! 

Even though I messed up the meringue and made them into some mini pavlova looked-alike.. but they taste amazing with ice-cream. The crisp, light and airy texture - pairs so well with ice-cream. Loving it. Next time I have to remember to really make flatten them down. 

Thumbs Up!  Everyone loved it. My husband said this is such a good idea... ya.. I told him this is not my idea but Rose's idea. LOL! And even though I messed up her original idea, they are still delicious. 

PS: I'm glad I made half portion because right after making these I was sick for 2 weeks and they are still in containers - nobody ate them...(because I was out of action and didn't 'prepare/assemble' it for them..seems like they cannot do it themselves..)! I tried to eat one last night on it's own but it's very sweet without ice-cream. So still better with ice-cream.  No longer as chewy in centre as before but still good. :)  

TBB: Double Damage Oblivion

It's very hard to find a chocolate cake that I don't like.  I hope it is not the hot weather that is influencing me lately.   It is really double damaged to me. 

Made the Chocolate Oblivion the day before.  Melt the chocolate & butter. 

Whipped the eggs. 

Fold in chocolate mixture

Water bake for 10mins.

All baked and out of oven.

 Make the chocolate cake layer.  

Cake technique is similar to the Polish Princess Cake. 

Oh..no..cake came out so flat?!?!  

How do I cut into 2 and make into a birthday cake for my helper?? 

So I had to make another layer again!

I don't like my layers both have a dome in the centre..

After the ganache is ready, time to assemble the cake.

I left some tiny ganache to do a crumb coat on the cake.

Next day, dusted powdered sugar/snow sugar on top

and placed some candles. My helper's birthday.

After singing happy birthday song and wishing her, she cut her cake.  Seems like the top cake has a higher dome..because I didn't press it down like I did for the bottom cake..lol!

The chocolate oblivion centre tasted like ganache...it wasn't something so different from ganache. In fact, it taste great and it is very rich like truffles - quite like Royce Nama Chocolate (my favorite is their champagne version)..very good on its own.. but only can have one or two pieces because it is very rich.  

Cake is quite like the polish princess cake. I'm not fond of this method of cake making. I find it a bit on the dense/dry texture. But the polish princess cake layer had lots of vodka syrup soaked, so the cake tasted moist and soft. This chocolate cake was not my favorite..and texture wise I can't quite pinpoint but I find like something is missing..maybe some liquored syrup? I actually would have preferred the German Chocolate Cake Layers in Rose's Heavenly Cake Book to be used in this cake.  The same German Chocolate Cake layers we used in Ice-Cream cake too..was the best..I still make the ice-cream cake from HCB once in a while. .  

So this cake tasted way too rich for me... like I needed a cup of milk to go with it to wash it down.  

But that could be my doing because the recipe only said 1 cake layer to be sliced into 2 layers..so the cake layers supposedly thin so that way it goes perfectly with the Oblivion I guess that was what the recipe was intended to be.

My daughter couldn't finish her slice. My helper said it is good but the next day she said she doesn't want to eat anymore. I guess she was worried she had to eat the whole cake since it is her birthday cake.   My husband ate a slice and didn't say anything.  

The next day, I ate 2 slices after lunch and stared at my 3/4 left over cake thinking what to do with it?! 

 I cut up the whole cake into pieces and then added 1/2 cup of Bourbon and made them into cake balls.  Wow..I think I know what was missing..Bourbon!! LOL!  The cake balls were really good.  My daughter liked it and brought all the cake balls to share with her colleagues.  

Next time if I do make this cake again, I will used bourbon syrup to soak the cake layers. :D  Smart or what? ..hahaha.. 

TBB: The Red Velvet Rose

I'm not a fan of red-velvet cake. Partly due to the scary amount of red food coloring and to me red-velvet cake taste good only with the cream cheese frosting which is ultimately the main feature of the cake imo.  

So when I saw the Red Velvet Rose was up on schedule next, I wasn't very excited about this cake. So I decided to try making it with beetroot juice as suggested as an alternative for food coloring.  

I roasted 2 small beetroots for 90mins. When I opened up the foil, there wasn't any juice on the foil. This is my first time cooking beetroot..so I wondered if the beetroot are cooked through or not. Skewer in felt it was tender through, so I peel the skin, blended in food processor and then sieved for the juice to drip.  Thankfully, the juice was exactly 37g... 

The batter was pretty straight forward. Creamed the butter/oil/sugar first, then the flour/buttermilk and lastly the eggwhite/beetroot juice/vanilla. (I reduced sugar by 20g).

Batter all mixed and ready

I was lazy and wanted to make a quick raspberry sauce. Actually to be honest, I didn't want to spend too much time making this cake as I didn't think I would like it.  So I just used frozen raspberry puree and cooked the sauce down.  I think I cooked a bit too thick and it became more jam like than sauce like.

After 45mins in the oven.  Looks like Pink Velvet Cake instead of Red.

Turn over and oh..what happened to the color?!  Turned blonde? 

Brush the raspberry sauce...er..jam all over to make it look red. Looks scarily red to me!

Next time if I want to make Halloween Cake, I know what jam to use....!!  Looks like bloody rose .. literally....I'm not swearing.. 

I tasted the cake in the morning and liked the raspberry sauce-jam, so I slathered all the leftover jam on the cake.

I packed this 3/4 cake for my daughter's office colleagues to share it out.  They have been asking my daughter why I have not baked anything this week. LOL! 

So here it is.  Oh..that small tub is cream cheese frosting to go with the cake... my no-recipe cream cheese frosting...just eyeball the ingredients..lol! 

Verdict: The cake tasted plain on its own.. texture tasted like pound cake. But with the cream cheese and raspberry sauce/jam.. surprisingly tasted quite good! I like the pairing of the cream cheese and raspberry jam.   

My daughter just texted me from her office to say that her colleagues liked the cake. She texted "Cake is VERY nice! Esp. with Cream Cheese. Everyone liked it".  

I'm glad it turned out great when I didn't expect it to.  

However, I think still prefer the Red Velvet Cake in Rose's Heavenly Cake book.  Iirc, HCB red velvet cake had a softer texture and paired with the cream was really very good.  

Now what do I do with the 2 beetroot puree sitting in my fridge? Find another recipe for red velvet using beetroot puree? Lol!  

TBB: Classic Brioche

We made this when we made the caramel buns. It's the same recipe. Since this is a Classic Brioche, I guess it's suppose to be plain and eat like a loaf bread?  I wanted to try the traditional brioche shape so I bought the biggest brioche pan..which wasn't very big either.  

So bear with me - if I sound like I am repeating myself all over again. 

Make the sponge...

Pour the flour mixture and leave it for 1-2 hours.

Later mix in the eggs and then butter..and knead till you get stretchy dough.   This stretchy membrane dough is very soft because the weather here is VERY hot.  Everything is melting including me... 

Then proof for 1 hour.. very fast.. cos so humid and hot at our room temperature. 

Then I just dump the whole dough into oil plastic bag. 

I didn't want to take it out to roll again.   I checked the fridge and it puffed up..so I fold inside the bag and then pressed it flat. 

Next morning, I shaped the dough.  I think I am supposed to roll the dough with a smaller side dough and ring it in the centre..but it's not easy to roll a dough that is melting so quickly.  

So I just put a baby dough on top of the mother dough.  The more I look at it, the more it looks like eerrr.....mmmm....  I placed in fridge to proof.  

After 6-7 hours in the fridge proofing, I took out from fridge for it to come to room temperature.

Egg glazed and Into the Oven. Baked for 40mins. I think it is a bit overbaked...I should try 35mins next time. 

Wow.. it ballooned up in the oven.  Lopsided though...hahaha~  

I cannot wait to try, so I broke off the tiny baby brioche to try. 

Next day we eat these for lunch with sunny side up eggs and bacon.

Very soft, rich and buttery.  

  The yellow color reminded me of Panettone.

I should have taken this slice with 2 scoop of ice-cream. 

Delicious ice-cream sandwich ever. :) 

  

BB: Ricotta Loaf

Get all ingredients ready.

Knead for 10mins with mixer. 

The dough looks weird..like it has moon-craters. 

Very hard to handle without breaking apart. I put in the fridge overnight.

Overnight, still looking weird, so I re-rolled again..and it looked alright.

But after proofing at room temperature for 2 hours..the dough looked weird again.

I tried to slash but some parts of the dough came off but I could easily just smear it back again. 

Baked the loaf as instructed. 

The bread tasted like a cross between scone & bread. Tasted good but some what dense and heavy.

I would have preferred if it was made into tiny scones..cos the crust was the most flavorful part, I find. 

This is not like the kind of bread I like. When I think of bread, I think of something fluffy.  It's like how I don't like Banana Bread..and why I prefer Banana Cake.  

  

The next day, the bread is slightly harder and dry.  Another reason why I don't like bread that doesn't last at least 2 days...such wastage because our family won't be able to finish bread in a day.  Plus we like bread cottony soft. 

Or maybe I did something wrong along the way...that caused my bread to turn out like this...?