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Chocolate-on-Chocolate Tart with Spiced Oranges

This genuinely fantastic recipe seems to have disappeared off the internet, so I'm reposting it here. The recipe was originally published in a 2012 or 2013 issue of the Coles Magazine. The text is the intellectual property of Coles Supermarkets Australia, I'm simply circulating the tapes.

Chocolate-on-Chocolate Tart with Spiced Oranges

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
120 g butter, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cocoa, for dusting
1-2 tbsp chilled water

Chocolate filling
300 g dark chocolate, chopped
300 ml cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Spiced oranges
6 oranges
1/4 caster sugar
1 star anise
4 Coles brand cloves
1 cinnamon stick

To make pastry, place the flour, caster sugar, cocoa and butter in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and chilled water and pulse to form a dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and bring dough together to form a disc. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Roll dough until 5 mm thick. Ease into a 24 cm fluted, loose-based, non-stick flan tin. Trim edges. Refrigerate for 20 mins.

Preheat oven to 180ºC or 160ºC fan. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights, dried beans or rice. Blind-bake for 15 mins. Remove paper and weights and bake for another 10 mins, until firm.

Meanwhile, to make chocolate filling, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat cream in a small pan until just at simmering point. Pour over chocolate and set aside for 5 mins. Stir until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Add eggs and stir to combine.

Reduce oven temperature to 130ºC or 110ºC fan. Pour chocolate mixture into prepared tart shell and bake for 30 mins, until filling is set but still wobbly. Refrigerate until cold.

Meanwhile, to make spiced oranges, remove zest from 1 orange and set aside. Peel all six oranges, removing pith. Using a small knife, segment each orange over a bowl, to catch juice. Strain the juice into a small saucepan, setting aside orange segments in bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water to juice in saucepan, along with sugar, star anise, cloves and cinnamon stick. Simmer for 5 mins, until syrupy. Pour syrup over orange segments and top with zest.

Dust tart with cocoa and cut into wedges. Serve with spiced oranges and a drizzle of syrup.

************

And now... here is my modified version.

Ingredients

Pastry 

120 g plain flour
70 g cake flour
15 g (1/4 cup) cocoa, plus extra for dusting
70 g caster sugar
120 g salted butter, chopped and kept chilled
1 egg, lightly beaten or 3 tbsp aquafaba, chilled
1-2 tbsp water, chilled

Chocolate filling 
300 g good quality dark chocolate
1/4 tsp instant coffee (optional)
300 g whipping cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Spiced oranges 
3-6 whole oranges
35 g caster sugar
60 ml (4 tbsp) water
1-2 star anise fruits
4 cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick (or about 1/2 tbsp fragments)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the plain flour, cake flour, cocoa, and sugar. Chill in refrigerator for 5 min. Toss butter in flour mixture, then rub with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add more flour if necessary. Mix in beaten egg. Add chilled water as necessary until the dough just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a disc. Wrap on cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 min.

Lightly grease a 24 cm (9.5") fluted flan tin. Place dough disc between two sheets of piece of parchment paper or aluminium foil, and roll to 5 mm thickness. Remove the sheets and ease pastry dough into the tin. Press dough into the tin, smoothing out any air bubbles, and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Line with aluminium foil and refrigerate for at least 2 h.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Remove tin from refrigerator and fill with pastry weights or beans. Blind-bake for 15 min. Remove foil and weights; bake another 10 min until firm.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate filling. Place chocolate in a large heatproof bowl or saucepan, and sprinkle with instant coffee if using. Over a double-boiler or in a microwave, gently heat cream until just simmering. Pour over chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool for 5 min. Add 1 tbsp of chocolate mixture to beaten eggs and mix well. Stir tempered egg mixture into the chocolate until combined.

Reduce oven temperature to 150°C. Pour chocolate mixture into tart shell and smooth the top. Cover with foil and bake 25 min until filling is partially set. Remove foil and leave uncovered in the warm oven for 10 min. Remove tart from oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

To prepare spiced oranges, reserve zest from 1 orange. Peel and segment all the oranges, reserving the juice. In a small saucepan, combine the juice, water, sugar, spices, and zest. Bring to a simmer; simmer 5 min until syrup has thickened. Strain syrup and drizzle over orange segments.

Dust chilled tart with cocoa. Cut into wedges and serve with spiced oranges.

Notes

The tart pastry can also be prepared using 190 g gluten-free flour for an extra-crumbly crust.

Recipe: Strawberry Melba Sauce

My first post of this year is about dessert. Of course.

Melba Sauce is one of those completely delicious things that seems to disappear off store shelves after you have become hopelessly addicted to it. Unfortunately, with fresh raspberries being as expensive as they are in this country (or simply unavailable), preparing the authentic version of this sauce is from scratch difficult.

Below is a workaround version I created that fairly approximates the taste of the bottled sauce. At any rate, it goes well with ice-cream, toast, and cake.

(The photograph below features two squares of zesty magic custard cake.)


Strawberry Melba Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
250 g fresh strawberries, roughly diced
50 g dried currants
1/2 cup (125 ml) raspberry conserve
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) caster sugar
3-4 strips thinly-peeled lemon rind (no pith)
Pinch salt
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Add just enough water to the currants to cover them, and soak for at least 10 minutes. In a small, non-reactive bowl, mix sugar and lemon rind. Stand for 10-15 minutes.

In a small saucepan, mix strawberries, raspberry conserve, and soaked currants (including all liquid). Place on the stove over low heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes until the fruit breaks down. Stir in the pinch salt and the lemon rind mixture until all the sugar has dissolved; remove from heat. Stand for 5 minutes.

Strain sauce into a heatproof bowl using a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth, pressing down with a wooden spoon to ensure that all the liquid passes through. Transfer the strained sauce to a clean saucepan and simmer further until thickened, if desired. Alternatively, microwave on low heat for 1 minute at a time, stirring in between.

Allow sauce to cool slightly, then stir in lemon juice. Transfer to a sterile, airtight jar. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.

2016: A Killer Year

Look back upon the glory days of 2012, when I used to post more than a dozen times per year. This hasn't quite been a good year! People have died, the world has had some moments of insanity, my chilli plants refuse to produce fruit... It's been...some year.

On the other hand, some things have gotten better, at least for me. I've gotten a handle on my chronic procrastination – on that note, I strongly recommend watching Dr. Tim Pychyl's lecture on the subject, his research drills down into the psychology of procrastination, and so his advice has a sound scientific backing. I've commented on my weight loss before, but it's probably worth noting that I've managed to maintain a healthy weight for the past five months or so. After years of being iron deficient, my iron levels are back up, too, thanks to daily consumption of black sesame soup and dark chocolate. Quite dramatically, my hair stopped falling out as much. It's funny, what you get used to when you're chronically unhealthy.

McDonald's has brought back the Gula Melaka McFlurry for Chinese New Year. Someone out there is listening!

A friend got married in December, so I attended my first-ever Chinese wedding. You can believe I spend hours reading up on gift-giving and attire-related customs before going! They weren't terribly strict about it, but I think a wedding is the worst possible place for a social gaffe. I probably didn't have to check all the banknotes (it is traditional to gift money) to ensure that the serial numbers didn't contain 4 or 13... The wedding did introduce me to Cantonese cuisine. Crispy-skin chicken looks like an interesting challenge!

I just want to say, I once tried making soufflé when I was quite young, and it failed so miserably that I didn't try again for years. Then I watched the QI episode featuring Carrie Fisher, in which she declared that soufflé is really quite easy to make, and she did not see what the fuss was about. Inspired, I tried making soufflé again.... and it worked. Perfectly. 

I was devastated when I heard Ms. Fisher had passed away. There have been many notable deaths in 2016, but this one cut deep. She was a remarkable woman, and it's no wonder that so many admired and respected her. Rest in peace, Ms. Fisher.

This was a downer of a year, wasn't it. But tomorrow is another year.

Happy 51st Birthday to Singapore!

It's SG51! The parade was great, here are my disjointed impressions:

• I love military bands in general! The four-cornered interlocking move was somewhat terrifying to watch, I kept expecting someone to bump into something.
• Bani Hidir has a voice like dark chocolate. His brief rendition of Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng was amazing, would love to hear a full-length version.
• I can't believe they left out the bit where Badang gets his powers from eating the ghost's vomit.
• The cannons used for the 21-gun salute looked very shiny this year. I can't remember if they've always looked that good?
• No mobile column. :'(
• The costumes of Badang's opponents were all fantastic. Love the shield-wielders' armour design.
• THEN THE FIRE NATION ATTACKED
• Oh man, the costumes for the Four Civilisations. So beautiful and intricate. I would love to cosplay as any of them (minus the eight-metre-tall skirts).
• The unicorn was pretty impressive. I wasn't expecting to be impressed, but I was.
• Hey, this looks like Tron.
• OMG DAFT PUNK
• OMG TAKE ON ME
• The Sky City segment was gorgeous, really great airborne prop, beautiful music, all just wonderful.
• Apropos of nothing, What a Wonderful World is a lovely song. 
• I suppose if they were going to teach us to sign any song with only minutes to practice, Count on Me Singapore was a good choice purely because of the repetitive lyrics. No, but seriously, that was a great idea, I had a lot of fun learning the signs.
• Singing Majulah Singapura at the end—without backing music initially, just the sound of everyone's voices all together—gave me genuine chills.

I think this may be the first National Day Parade I'd actually want to watch again. Really, really superb effort by everyone.

In any case, happy birthday to Singapore!

Recipe: Gula Melaka Ice Cream Dessert with Kueh Lapis Chunks

Recently, in honour of the upcoming 51st National Day (tomorrow), McDonald's released the Gula Melaka McFlurry in Singapore. I had one, one overcast Saturday afternoon. Light vanilla soft-serve ice cream, very delicately flavoured with gula melaka syrup, complemented by the startling crunch of kueh lapis croutons, it was possibly the most perfect ice cream dessert I had ever tasted, certainly the one of the best desserts to ever come out of a fast food restaurant. 

But by the next week, it was gone, replaced by the vastly inferior Dinosaur McFlurry. My mother, even more fond of all things gula melaka than I am, was positively heartbroken. She hadn't managed to try it even once.

Until our local McDonald's decides to bring back ice cream perfection, I created the following DIY version. It is not nearly as fluffy as a McFlurry—apparently, soft-serve ice cream is really difficult to make without expensive equipment—and the low-calorie ingredients do affect the creaminess (more on that in the Notes section below). Alternatively, use store-bought vanilla ice-cream, or bring along a cup and the appropriate toppings to IKEA, and take advantage of their $0.50 soft-serve cones. Almost anything can be achieved with determination!

Gula Melaka Ice Cream Dessert with Kueh Lapis Chunks

Vanilla ice cream (makes about 650 ml)

150 g raw cashew nuts

125–150 ml water

1/4 tsp salt

285 ml milk

75 g caster sugar

50 g silken tofu

1 tsp vanilla extract

Rinse cashews well. Cover with water and let stand at room temperature for 3 hours. Drain well, and transfer to a blender or wet grinder. Stir in salt and 125 ml water. Blend at high speed, scraping down sides as required, until smooth. Blend in a little more water, adjusting the consistency to resemble that of thick dairy cream. Once adjusted, the cashew cream should weigh about 290–300 g.

Set up a large heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water to use as a double-boiler. Whisk together cashew cream, milk, and 30 g caster sugar. Stir gently over heat until almost boiling, when small bubbles appear at the edges of the bowl and steam starts rising from the top. Remove from heat.

Whisk together the tofu and the remaining caster sugar until smooth and thickened. Whisk in 125 ml of the warm milk mixture. 

Reheat the milk mixture until almost boiling again. Whisk in the tofu mixture until well-combined. Simmer for about 10 minutes over low heat. The ice cream base should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Set the bowl over a dish filled with ice. Stir in vanilla extract. Cover with a piece of cling wrap pressed against the surface of the fluid, to prevent a film from forming. Stand for 20 minutes. 

Refrigerate the ice cream base for at least 3 hours to overnight, until well-chilled. Churn using an ice-cream maker, or by hand by placing the ice cream in the freezer and whisking it every 45 minutes as it solidifies. Soften the ice cream in the refrigerator for 15–20 minutes before scooping.

Kueh lapis croutons (makes about 80–100 cake croutons)

75 g butter, softened but still chilled

30 g condensed milk

3/4 tsp rum, or 1/4 tsp rum essence

20 g all-purpose flour

1 tsp cornstarch

1/16 tsp (generous pinch) rempah kueh or allspice

50 g silken tofu

30 g caster sugar

45 ml aquafaba

1/16 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 200°C. Very lightly grease an 8-inch square baking tin using a paper towel. Line with parchment paper; grease the paper, and dust lightly with flour. 

Place butter, condensed milk and rum in a medium mixing bowl. Cream using an electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Place in refrigerator while not in use.

Sift flour and cornstarch together 5 times. Whisk in spice. Gently fold into butter mixture.

Whisk tofu and 15 g caster sugar at high speed until thick and smooth. Gradually fold into butter mixture.

Clean mixer blades well, and chill them briefly in the freezer. Prepare a chilled mixing bowl, preferably stainless steel, and place over a plate or bowl filled with ice. Place aquafaba in bowl, and sprinkle cream of tartar on top. Using chilled mixer blades, whip at low speed until foamy. Slowly pour in remaining 15 g caster sugar along the side of the bowl, and continue whipping until stiff, glossy peaks form, and the bowl can be overturned without the contents falling out. 

Gently fold 1/3 of whipped aquafaba into the batter. Carefully fold in the remaining aquafaba, leaving some unmixed streaks. Refrigerate while not in use.

Preheat prepared baking tin until butter starts to sizzle. Transfer 1/3 of batter (about 90 g) and spread evenly around the base of the baking tin. Bake 5–10 minutes until golden-brown. Remove from oven.

Increase the oven temperature to 220°C; place an oven-proof tray filled with water at the base of the oven (alternatively, switch the oven to use only the top heating element). Add another layer of batter to the baking tin and spread evenly; give it a sharp rap against the table before placing it in the oven. Bake for 5–10 minutes until golden-brown.

Retrieve the tin from the oven. Press down gently using a buttered kueh lapis press or the back of a spoon. Add the final layer of batter. As before, spread batter evenly, and rap the tin against the table before transferring to the oven. Bake another 3–5 minutes until light golden, but not as fully-browned as the previous two layers. 

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5–10 minutes, until it can be handled but is still warm. Use a serrated knife to cut the cake into four even squares, and carefully stack them up on top of each other. Cover the topmost layer with a greased piece of parchment paper, and place a broad-based weight on top (I used an airtight lunchbox filled with water, with a ceramic teapot placed on top). Allow to sit for 30–60 minutes until compressed.

Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 1.0–1.5 cm cubes. Carefully transfer cake cubes to a lined and greased baking tray, spacing them out. Bake at 180°C for 15–20 minutes or longer, to desired crispness. For longer baking times, cover loosely with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent charring.

Dessert assembly

Scoop ice cream into a chilled glass or ramekin. Scatter a few kueh lapis croutons on top and drizzle with gula melaka syrup.

Notes

What's with all the bizarre ingredients? Well, I am calorie and cholesterol-conscious these days. For less healthy but creamier alternatives, substitute as follows:

45 ml aquafaba: 45 ml egg whites, from 1–2 eggs

300 g cashew cream: 300 ml heavy cream (at least 45% milk fat)

50 g silken tofu: 50 g egg yolks, about 3

Going in the opposite direction, it probably is possible to make a fully-vegan version of this recipe, by replacing the butter, milk, and perhaps sugar as well (if bone char refining is a problem). I... haven't tried.

For the kueh lapis, the all-purpose flour and cornstarch can be replaced by 22.5 g cake flour. If using cake flour, it only needs to be sifted once.

I use Sing Long Gula Malacca syrup, but the syrup can be prepared from scratch using palm sugar.

References

Cake flour directions | Cashew cream recipe | Kueh lapis recipe | Vanilla ice cream recipe

Giant List of Recipes

I prepare my own breakfast daily, lunch for six days of the week, and dinner on one day (all other meals belong to my mother - and yes, belong is indeed the correct term). I also make desserts from time to time. And since I'm a food addict and I love trying new things, I go through a lot of recipes. Occasionally I will write them up here, generally if I've made more than a few modifications to the original recipe or combined a few together. Mostly though, I just use them as-is.

Anyway, here is a list of recommended recipes that I have tried relatively recently.

Main dishes:
Black pepper chicken chop

Cheese soufflé
Hungarian goulash
Lemon chicken
Lemony mushroom pilaf
Oven-fried chicken

Pan pizza
Sichuan dry-fried beef
Simmered pumpkin (kabocha no nimono)
Steak, Guinness and cheese pie, using this rough puff pastry recipe
Stir-fried glass noodles (japchae)

Soups:

Miso ramen with crispy pork [I used beef instead of pork and omitted the burnt garlic-sesame oil]

Potato, leek and bacon soup

Rasam

Sour beef and noodle soup

Breads and side dishes:

All-green spring slaw [I used butterhead lettuce instead of cabbage, Chinese celery instead of Pascal celery, and replaced the dressing entirely with 150 g Greek yoghurt, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, and 2 finely-minced garlic cloves whisked together]

Banana bread

Cheddar scones

Crab rangoon

Hokkaido milk bread

Pink grapefruit and watercress salad [I left out the endive and sumac]

Potato bread rolls

Spicy cucumber salad (oi-muchim)

Ulundu vadai

Desserts:
Banana cake
Chocolate Nutella mug pudding
Golden vanilla cake, frosted with whipped chocolate ganache
Hot fudge sundae cake
Oil cakes (konda kavum)
Pumpkin doughnuts, using this pumpkin purée recipe
Strawberry bavarois
Welsh cakes

...I could have sworn there were more. Actually, there were more, but they may not have been very good. Many of the good ones seem to be from Serious Eats, which is a generally great site for picking up cooking skills.