JOE'S TIRAMISU

Finally got around making the TIRAMISU.

It was not easy to find the Italian Vicenzi Ladyfingers.  Luckily found it at a Asian market - SP Market at 65th Street, Sacramento.

The recipe is from http:\\www.joyofbaking.com - TIRAMISU

What I did differently is the amount of coffee and spirit the recipe called for.

I used 1/4 Cup of Meyer's Dark Rum instead of Marsala because that's what I have in my kitchen.

I used 1/4 C Burger King's "Joe" (Coffee) Black with some cream in it.

If you can get hold of strong ESPRESSO coffee, go for it.  I like my TIRAMISU with distinct flavor.  Remembering the bland coffee taste of TIRAMISU cake previously made in our pastry class, I modified the  Coffee mixture.  I took advantage of the strong aroma of BK Joe coffee and added additional 6 Teaspoon of Decaf dry instant coffee (Kroger brand.  Imported from Spain).

The recipe also called for 1/4 C Dark Rum or Marsala in the Coffee Dipping Syrup.

I used Coffee Liqueuer instead.

Instead of 1/3 C of sugar to sweeten it, I used 1 Tbsp of Regular sugar and the rest with TRUVIA to cut down on the calories.

I used one 6 inch round removable bottom cake pan and one 5 inch round springform cheesecake pan.

And, don't forget to line the side of the pan with 3" clear acetate band to help with perfect ease of removal out of the cake pan.

TIRAMISU

from http:\\www.joyofbaking.com

Serves 6-8

Some of the basic equipment I can remember of : Medium and Large Saucepan, Whisk, Heatproof bowl, Spatula, Mixer, Thermometer, Wooden Spoon, 3" clear acetate band, round cake pan or as in the joyofbaking site's recipe, a rectangular cake pan.  Cake cardboard for the bottom of the cake pan.  One 6 inch Tiramisu served 8 people and have plenty left for more.  I froze the other 5 inch Tiramisu to save for later.

JAPANESE MATCHA KASUTERA #3

I baked Matcha KASUTERA tonight.  I was going to do it without adding any MATCHA - Japanese Green Tea Powder, but I like the flavor, so I added two teaspoon to the KASUTERA recipe.

This particular recipe I used is quite involved in its "baking" process.  Like CANNELES DE BORDEAUX, the ingredients are very basic and simple, but the baking technique is quite involved.  The recipe instruction even call for wet newspaper to drape over the cake to bake the last half hour.  I couldn't follow that in fear of "fire" hazard.  I think this batch #3 turn out quite as good as the 2nd one I posted previously.  It would still be better if I can have the same type of mold with correct dimention to bake in, however.
I think the Maltose is very challenging to handle.  Yet, combination of MALTOSE "MAYA-TAN" and honey, milk and Japanese MIRIN (cooking wine) gives that special KASUTERA flavor and aroma that I've always remembered since I was young.
Even though I am quite satisfying with this batch's result, I will continue to quest for the SPONGE look... maybe by 10th batch... Yaiks!  I hope by 6th batch testing.
I didn't write down the recipe and baking method tonight, but here is the picture of how it turned out.  I will post the recipes and method when I have more time.

Lime Chiffon Pie

My first Lime Chiffon Pie. Preparation would be less hectic if you have a helper beating the egg while you are preparing the others.

Mediterranean Olive Bread

I am not a olive eater, but this olive bread is surprisingly tasty. Need to improve in the rolling technique so that olives are distributed all around rather than lumped up in the 'folds'. The recipe called for the Kalamata Olives, but the regular black olives worked out quite well.

Southern Home Biscuits and Milk Gravy

Love this tender puffed up Southern Home Biscuit. Add some Spice of Provence, and these biscuits turn into sophisticated and out of this world best biscuits.



Preheat oven to 425'F or 450'F
Serves 4  (depending on the size of the biscuit cutter)

INGREDIENTS:

1-1/2 C All Purpose Flour or like the Southerner cut the chase and use the Self-Rising Flour

1 Tbsp non-aluminum baking powder                    1/2 tsp salt

4 Tbsp butter or shortening              pinch of baking soda

6 Tbsp of cold Buttermilk and or with water - Add more to form soft moist dough

METHODS:

Shift flour, salt, baking powder, and soda in the shifter 3 times.

Mix butter in.  Flatten butter pieces between fingers to form flat flakes. Leave them as is.

Add cold buttermilk 2 Tbsp at a time and allow it to be absorbed.  Fold dry flour over, add more buttermilk, repeat folding dry flour over, then more buttermilk. The dough is shaggy and sticky.  Flour your hands. Gently flatten the dough into disc and cut out with biscuit cutter or roll out gently without pressing down too much and cut out with biscuit cutter.

Bake until golden brown.

MILK GRAVY

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup milk                  1/4 tsp salt                 

 pinch of ground white or black pepper

Slurry made of 1 Tbsp  milk and 1 Tbsp flour                     

1 Tbsp butter and or some bacon drips from the pan

METHODS:

Heat milk in a saucepan with salt and pepper.  Mix milk and flour to make slurry.  Add some more heated milk to mix and add it o the milk in the pot.  Simmer.  Stirring frequently till thickens.  Remove from heat.  Drop a tablespoon of butter to melt on top.

Cream Scones with Cranberries and Raisins

I love this Cream Scones. I love the tender texture of this cream scone without Butter! What a surprise.

          

No-Knead Bread

This is the infamous No-Knead Bread. Practically you mix all the required ingredients in a large mixing bowl that the bread would be rising. Mix the ingredients. Cover. Proof. After - 8+ hours later, punch it down, Shape, Proof, & Bake. If you time it right, you will have fresh bread with your meal for dinner. Thanks to my dear friend who shared this recipe witih me. It's a delicious recipe.

MATCHA MILKY BREAD

While checking out one of my favorite blog site HappyHomeBaking.Blogspot.com, I came across her Matcha Milk Bread Recipe.  I tried her recipe for Matcha Milk Bread with Red Bean Paste - AZUKI.  It turned out great.  This is from her link to another site where HOKKAIDO MILKY LOAF recipe was listed ( http://schneiderchen.de/ ).  I tried to gather as much similar ingredients as I can, but unfortunately I do not have Powder Milk in my pantry.  So, I substituted it with Coconut Powder (20g) and Matcha (Green Tea Powder, 10g).  Truly as described at happyhomebaker that while the dough is being kneaded, it was very sticky.  I decided to use my "Artisan" Kitchen Aid Mixer with dough hook.  As the photos show below, the dough looks very sticky - sticks to the mixing bowl.  I started to mix the dough around 8:40 pm and finally got the glutenous shiny dough around 9:35 pm.  It was worth the wait.  The doughs are rising right now.  Cant' wait to see the result.  They will likely be baked at the crack of dawn.

Mix all dry ingredients as listed at http://schneiderchen.de/ HOKKAIDO Milky Loaf Recipe.  But I only had 179 g of Bread Flour left in the pantry, so I had to improvise by substitution, 1 C High Gluten Flour Plus 1 C All Purpose Flour = 353 g to make up the total 540 g of Bread Flour the recipe called for.

I warmed up the milk and heavy cream in the microwave a bit.   Warmed up the whole egg in a bowl of warm water also.  

Mixed warm milk, heavy cream, and beat the egg together a bit with a small whisk.

As you can see the dough is very sticky - sticks to the dough hook and the side of the mixing bowl for the first 30 minutes.

  

Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl.  As you can see, the dough is very sticky.  The gluten has not finished developing to the consistency I want - shiny and smooth.

Finally, close to an hour.  Stopping and scraping the bowl at least 5 times.  Noticed the dough started to leave the side of the bowl and started to show the shine and smooth surface.

At this time, you should almost clearly see the bottom of the bowl.

Stop the mixer.   And roll it out to a work surface.   I did not use more than 1/2 tsp (half tsp) of Bread Flour on my "glass" cutting board (because my kitchen surface is "tile" surface")

The dough is smooth and did not stick to my hands at all.  

Cut them into 4 equal sizes.  282g each.    Roll and Tuck.  After thought:  Dividing into 3 portions maybe better.  The recipe called for 13x33x12 cm load pan.  If I had 7x4x4" Pullman Loaf pan, it would have helped also... the size matters.  :-)  Placed in the square cake pan for the 1st rise...  

After looking at the photo of the HOKKAIDO Milk Bread at Angies' website, it looks like the breads were baked in a large Pullman loaf pan right next to each other.  (Beautifully baked.)

 I though I would use my 9x9 square cake pan to proof and bake after the 1st rise in it.  (It's sprayed with Vegalene).    Well, decided not to take the risk at my 1st try with this recipe.

After the 1st rise, I transferred the dough into my large Roasting Pan.  
I quickly rolled each one out on my flat glass cutting board... as I have tiled counter.  Then, rolled the dough out, roll and tuck and placed in the roasting pan. 

As it was already 11 pm.  I decided to just cover the pan with the lid and went to sleep.


Truthfully, I use this roasting pan for many other bread baking.  Something about this "dark" coating and the lid that it produces wonderfully baked bread.   I have been having a great baking result with my Mediterranean Olive Bread or the No-Knead Bread. After the perfect beautiful 2nd rise, I put the pan in the oven to bake at 345'F.  Recipe called for 40 min. baking time.

At:5:30 am, the doughs were well doubled to their beautiful Loaf size. I preheated the oven to 345'F.

 A glass pan with HOT water was placed at the bottom of the oven to provide some steam.... this is called for in the original recipe, but it has been my habit to place a pan of hot steaming water in the oven when I bake bread.  It's like doing the job of "steam injection"of the commercial oven.  I egg wash on the doughs.  Started the bake time at 5:55 am.

The bread was beautifully baked after 35 minutes.  
Due to the timing - had to leave for work.  I loaded the hot pan into my van & in the hasty loading of cutting board and serrated knife and packing Ziplock bags, I unpanned the beautiful bread...  My car smelled wonderful... and the bread looked wonderful. 

But the bread started to deflate while I started to drive. ... but not in a bad way....  What I mean is that I am expecting this to be very soft tender bread as I have tasted it to be so when I purchase the Milky Loaf Bread from the Asian Market. ($3.99 for half a loaf!!)  

The bread actually deflated to half it's size.  I am not sure if the bread would have stayed tall and true even if I had waited for 15 minutes minimum before unpanning.  

Regardless, the bread's texture is soft and well developed.

 Love the chewy tasty flavors.

This is a successful Matcha Milky Bread.

I read at one of the blog site about this "Steam Baking Master Pan" for French Bread, etc.  The design make sense, and I would like to get hold of one and test it myself.

Well, for now, I am very happy with this Milky Loaf recipe.