319: Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
Once you get the hang of making ice-cream, everything is a breeze. If you grasp the basics of making the custard, everything is a breeze. The problem comes in when you are trying to modify the flavour or the taste of the ice cream. You need to ensure that the heaviness of the cream and the milk does not overpower the flavour of the ice-cream.
I think making ice cream is all about experimentation. The recipe book can tell you this amount but you need to modify the ice cream to your own taste and liking. More often, I find the trusty recipes from my ice-cream recipe books too sweet for my liking so I would bravely half (or even 1/3) the amount of sugar used. And as for the “flavours”, they may specify a specific weight or amount of ingredients needed (e.g. 1 vanilla pod, 2 tbsp of matcha powder, 2 tbsp of pure vanilla extract, 5 Earl Grey tea bags) but often, I find myself needing more than the specified amounts. There are obviously variations in the quality of ingredients used and I would prefer my ice cream with a deeper and more intense flavour, hence I would often increase the amount needed.
I love earl grey tea, for its citrusy bergamot flavours. I love bringing a mini thermo flask of hot earl grey tea to school on cold days or when I have lessons in extremely wintery (and humanely impossible to endure lectures in it without a trusty cardigan) lecture halls. And so I decided to embark on making the earl grey tea ice cream at the request of the younger sister and the mum. (That reminds me that I haven’t tried the Earl Grey and Fig ice cream from Cedele!)
This is the beautiful cocoa coloured Earl Grey Tea ice cream after churning and freezing in the freezer compartment for about an hour. It’s a little messy because I just plunked the freshly churned ice cream into the container without attempting to smoothen the top. But well, in my opinion, it looks messily beautiful.
The ice cream was really good, the earl grey tea taste was there. And there was a lovely citrusy aftertaste that lingered on in my mouth even after tasting the ice cream.
This time round, I modifed the Earl Grey Tea ice cream recipe I found online from here. I increased the number of tea bags used and decreased the amount of sugar. In addition, I threw in a handful of chopped toasted almonds since the family loves nuts. And I decided to make a small batch to yield about 500ml of ice cream.
Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
makes about 500ml
2/3 cup whole milk
1 and 1/3 cup of heavy cream (or whipping cream)
1/4 cup sugar
7 Earl Grey tea bags
3 egg yolks
- Warm the milk, half and half, and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from heat, place tea bags in the pan, cover and steep at room temperature for an hour. Remove tea bags.
- Rewarm tea-infused milk. Whisk egg yolks together in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the bowl with egg yolks, whisking constantly.
- Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan constantly until the mixture thickens to a custard and coats the spatula.
- Cool the mixture, and freeze in your ice cream maker (NOTE: I added a handful of chopped baked/toasted almonds into the ice cream maker while it was churning too.)
318: Sunday Blues, Monday Blues
Tomorrow will be back to school after the one week of break. The break was a terrific end to the honeymoon period of my last semester in uni. From tomorrow onwards, everything’s going to be fast forward many times, the workload is going to keep increasing. I hope I’ll stay strong and brave through all the trials and difficulties!
I know it’s going to be Monday blues tomorrow. So I just prepared my custard for my ice-cream just an hour ago. We’re making Earl Grey Tea ice cream this time round. E helped this time too because’ she was the one who suggested Earl Grey. I hope it’ll taste yummy! For now, they’re cooling on the bench top before I transfer them to the refrigerator to chill overnight. Shall churn it in the ice-cream maker tomorrow when I return from school. I’m thinking of adding some baked chopped almonds to it too!
I like Earl Grey tea (got to remind myself to pack some hot Earl Grey tea in the thermo flask for school tomorrow). I hope the ice cream will taste yummy!
Stay strong, hang on, the end is near!:)
317: Delighted (The King’s Speech)
Had a lot of fun with a friend of mine yesterday. It was a really impromptu meet-up which started from a mere sms the evening before. The original plan was to catch “The King’s Speech” and I’m so glad that we did. The hall was packed full but the audience was a pretty good bunch. Most importantly, there were no giggling or whispering schoolkids and no disturbances from the munching of popcorn and chips because I don’t think “kids” younger than I am would be interested. I saw mostly adults in their twenties and even in their fifties. But the film was good!
It was a really very inspiring film, with really great acting from Colin Firth (ooh good ol’ Darcy from BBC’s Pride and Prejudice) and Geoffrey Rush (whose name sounds so terribly familiar but I cannot recall why). And there was also Helena Bonham Carter (Olivia from BBC’s Twelfth Night (my good ol’ literature text back in secondary school) and also many Tim Burton films). The storyline was fairly simple and it was just about how the Duke of York (and then King George VI) overcame his stammer. It may be simple but there was a lot going on and I was quite moved by it. And delightfully amusing at times. Lionel and Bertie 🙂
The soundtrack was simple (I love that there was just simple piano and strings), not exceptionally memorable but it really suits the film very well. I’ve chosen TWO of my favourite tracks here.
02 – The King’s Speech
12- Speaking Unto Nations (Beethoven Symphony No 7 II)
After the film, we combed the mall to do some shopping. It’s been a terribly long time since I’ve shopped physically at the malls. During busy times, I’ve mainly been shopping behind the computer screen (which can be terribly addictive too). But well, shopping physically is just so therapeutic. We were both faced with times when we had to choose (decisions decisions!). We were pretty terrible in resisting because in the end, we gave in to both. I love all my loots from F21 ♥ (:
But after paying for our items, the feeling was really good. Triumphant? Haha (: When girls shop, we practically go crazy. And it was a really amusing scene to see all the husbands and boyfriends and kids sitting in a row just at the entrance of the F21 storefront. The thought that’s probably resounding in their heads was probably “the women….”, complete with some shaking of the head with disapproval. Haha but I was a happy girl at the end of yesterday.
316: Vanilla Beans Madeleines
After many months (or a year or so) of hiatus, I decided to bake some madeleines! And this time round, I have the prized vanilla pod lying in the refrigerator. So off I went baking this batch of vanilla beans madeleines.
I must say it’s almost there. The taste is almost there. I haven’t tasted many madeleines in my whole lifetime and it would be so lovely to fly to France one day to try their famed madeleines. But well that can wait. So the best I’ve tried so far are the ones from Delifrance. And this batch of madeleines has the lovely fragrance of the vanilla beans! It’s buttery and oh-so-lovely with a cup of Earl Grey tea.
Not forgetting the lovely lovely hump of the madeleine.
I got this recipe from here, who in turn got the recipe from one of my favourite local baking blogs. Replaced the 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste with the beans from 1 vanilla pod (sliced lengthwise).
French Madeleines
(Recipe from Bossacafez, matcha powder omitted)
Ingredients
- 160g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
120g cake flour
130g caster sugar
4.5g (about 1 heaped tbs) double acting baking powder
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.
Grease madeleine mold with butter, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Freeze the madeleine mold before baking.
Sift together cake flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix well.
Fold flour mixture into egg mixture followed by melted butter. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure that the butter is mixed in, leaving no oily residue on the sides.
Cover bowl with cling film and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours or overnight.
When ready, pour batter into mold using a pouring cup/jug. You may also use a spoon to fill the mold although a jug is a little less fussy. Fill the mold to fill 2/3 or 3/4 of the shell-shaped fill. Do not spread the batter out in the molds once poured in.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-13 mins, until puffed and golden around the edges.
P.S.: Meanwhile, I’ll continue searching for the metal madeleine pan/mould I desire. I don’t like that the silicon moulds doesn’t brown the bottom of the madeleine.
315: Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Sauce
It’s the last day of the week long break and I am just so happy to stay home alone. Past few days have been busy with the many other things in my life so it feels so good to be home and most importantly, alone. Yes to me-time and also yes to having the whole kitchen to myself. I realised I’ve been surviving on mostly bread/buns/bagel/sandwich for lunch since the start of this year. Just like how I had just a simple sandwich for lunch yesterday. Wanted to do something different for lunch today.
So I decided to cook some spaghetti with my first attempt at homemade tomato sauce. So I googled recipes for homemade tomato sauce and decided to just improvise it to my own taste and to the availability of ingredients at home.
I must say, it was good! It’s my kind of food. It tasted very light and just like good old comfy food. So goodbye to all the “preservatives and sodium and unknown ingredients and flavouring enhancers”-laden store-bought pasta sauce! The taste was slightly tangy yet you could taste the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. And of course, lots of onion and garlic for the extra oomph!
This looks like a heap of pasta but in fact, there was only very little spaghetti (just a tiny bundle). The bulk of it was the sauce (the tomatoes, lots of mushrooms and some minced pork).
I’m not going to go into detail. But well, briefly what I did.
I cooked the Barilla spaghetti no. 5 with generous amounts of sea salt (yum). I blanched the tomatoes to remove the skins. Mashed the tomatoes into tomato pulp, discarding most of the seeds. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add in generous amounts of garlic and onion and stir-fry until fragrant and onions are translucent-clear. Add in the tomato pulp and allow it to simmer until thick (for at least 5 minutes). The pulp will start breaking down into a more homogenous mass. Season with a little french sea salt, dried basil, dried oregano and some black pepper. Add in the minced pork (only because I didn’t have ground beef at home) and mix and cook further. Finally, add in the sliced fresh shitake mushrooms and cook further. Toss in the cooked spaghetti and serve!
DELICIOUS and healthy MESS (:. Me like!
314: meow!
I realised I’ve been posting really random posts on this blog quite a few times this week only because’ it’s the holidays (recess week). It’s ending pretty soon but I’m glad for this mini break between the semester. I can sense that upcoming weeks (all the way until the exams) are going to be jam packed with tests every week, dispensing practicals (oh no we have to physically counsel this time round!), preparation for FYP oral defense and poster presentation. Oh wells, it’s still the holidays! Thank goodness for this recess week because I can finally have some me-time. I remember recess week last semester was terrible (the worst ever) because I had to go down to lab from dawn to dusk every day.
Anyway, I just want to remind myself how happy and fortunate and blessed I am. I truly am happy. I truly am happy being who I am. In some points of life, you meet crazy people, people who try to ‘tear’ you down, people who try to make life difficult for you, people who just make others around them feel terrible. And most of the time, I choose to ignore them and lead a happy world of my own. That’s because I know that when life gets tough, I know I have family and friends who would stand by me always, never doubting me. Love them! (: Just like how I would be willing to do anything and everything for all my loved ones as well.
I started thinking about the happy little bubble I was in back in secondary school. A JC friend of mine used to comment that we’re like “温室里的小花” and at that point of time, I didn’t quite agree with him. After going through JC and now uni, I realised that it’s pretty true. I realised that I missed those days when we used to run along the walkways and corridors, turfing, collecting all the twigs and punk, setting up the fire for outdoor cooking, practising footdrill in the basement carpark during recess time… secondary school life was so memorable, so eventful. It’s the place where I had so much fun, the best four years of my lifetime. The four years I would never forget EVER. Blessed with awesome classmates and wonderful teachers, what more can I ask for? I miss and love secondary school life.
Well, after going onto JC and uni, I realised that with age comes more responsibilities. We were not able to play and laugh as freely as we were back in secondary school. Life became really dull and mundane and our studies became our top priority. Friends became people with agenda, no longer the loyal faithful ones you can count on for anything and everything. But still, at each point of life, I’m still thankful for the close few who stood by me, for the new friends I’ve met along the way…
I’m proud to say that we’ve aged gracefully into our twenties. Here’s to many more years to come!
I truly am happy to be who I am. No one can pull me down 🙂
I shall end off with a new song from Big Bang! I’ve been waiting for Big Bang’s comeback for years and they are finally back. Their previous album was released in 2008 (with subsequent other solo projects that followed). This is my favourite track off the latest 4th mini album, entitled “Tonight”.
313: Fatball
I know I’ve said this many times but I love pumpkin fatball, my uber cute hamster!
It feels really nice and warm to know that someone is waiting for you back at home, after a long day at school.
Plus I can’t resist holding that fat blob in my palms and wobble and jiggle his fur-covered fats. Just sooo cute! 🙂
And especially at this moment when I’m feeling so down and dejected.
There’s just so many things going through my tiny brain now.
WHY OH WHY?
And I’ll find a 1001 reasons to think otherwise.
Reassurance, self-preservation.
WHY?
311: Madeleine pan!
I hereby declare I have a new item on the wish list: a new metal madeleine pan/mould!
I’m currently using the silicone ones I bought from Daiso and they don’t brown as beautifully on the bottom. And speaking of madeleines, I haven’t baked madeleines for ages. The last I baked them was a year ago? Partly because I didn’t like how ‘unbrown’ they turn out to be with my silicone moulds.
When I saw how beautiful the madeleines (and canelés) from this French pattisier/bakery “Le Grenier à Pain” were in the display box at a French fair at Isetan one day, I was smitten. They were so perfectly brown and firm. From that day on, I knew that I needed to get a new metal madeleine pan in order to bake those little brown creatures. And speaking of “Le Grenier à Pain”, they are a real French bakery in (where else but) Paris, France. They had an outlet in Sembawang Shopping Centre but I believed it closed down soon after as business was pretty poor. The madeleines were so pretty BUT they were really expensive ($4+ for 100g).
And somehow, it reminded me of the times back in Japan. I love strolling along the food halls of the department stalls in Hokkaido and Tokyo and taking lovely photos of the desserts and cakes and macarons on display at the different stalls. I love all the colours and the beautiful intricate designs of the cakes. I love that so much effort and love was put in by the pastry chefs into decorating the cakes and desserts. It was a sight to behold! The sweets and desserts were pretty expensive but oh so gorgeous. Although we left Japan without trying out any sweets, it was a truly wonderful experience all in all. And those times were way before I started getting hooked onto baking.
You know, they say girls (in particular) have an extra stomach for desserts and sweet stuff. Even when we are so full from eating, we wouldn’t say ‘no’ to desserts. When I do meet up with my friends, this still stays true. The girls would be in a frenzy deciding what dessert to order next after the main course. But well, not for me now. Ever since the parents got involved in healthy eating years ago and I was greatly influenced by it as well, I’ve been resisting all sorts of temptations (refined sugars and butters and all). Except for the occasional indulgence where chocolates are involved. But well, I love eating healthy. It makes one feel good and happy.
Haha (: Oh wells, I have digressed. I need to look for a new madeleine pan soon. And it’s the holidays now! Need to get down to doing my projects (x3) and catch up on some studying. And maybe some running later in the evening. (: Cheers!
310: I’m an Evil Baker
I think I’m an EVIL baker (and the EVIL mastermind behind all sweet goodies).
Friends have been complaining that I bake and feed them and make them fat! Because when I do bake, I don’t really eat my baked goods! OOPS! I do the ‘taste test’ first after each bake but after that, I’ll gift the rest away. To me, baking is one of the simple joys in life because’ I get to share and feed the people around me with things I baked with all my love. And the joy you see on their faces as they bite into one of your baked creations is enough to make me happy.
And of course, knowing the process of how the baked creation came about and how much butter and sugar and flour were used, you become so afraid of the artery-clogging properties they may possess! The horrors!
But yes, I’ll admit I’m an EVIL baker.
But I can’t help it, I really like playing around in the kitchen. With the lovely electric mixer, the adorable measuring cups, the trusty oven and more. And I love the lovely scent that infiltrates the whole house as I bake the little sweet goodies in the oven!
I baked some marble muffins today. They were good but being the EVIL baker, it’s ONE for me and the rest for them (the family). Oops:)
309: the weather
Just a very random thought..
“Conversation about the weather may be the last refuge of the unimaginative but way more inspiring than condescending nonsense.”
307: Happy as a Clam!?
Finally a silly musing…
Haha that’s the cutest phrase I’ve heard about describing happiness. As happy as a clam? I still remember English lessons back in primary school where we learnt idioms and whatsnot and how being happy was “as happy as a lark”. I’ve no idea that you can be as “happy as a clam”. Some variations include a “happy as a clam in butter sauce” or rather the more appropriate as “happy as a clam at high water”. So interesting!
Well, apparently, it has been suggested that open clams give the appearance of smiling. “As happy as a clam at high water” is so because hide tide is when clams are free from the attentions of predators; surely the happiest of times in their world.
And yes as “happy as a clam” just means a state of contentment and a feeling that all is well with the world! I guess, that’s how I’m am right now. Although I may whine and lament about how I don’t like school and the horrible horrible FYP that just brought nothing but misery to my final year in uni, I just feel happy and blessed to have the many lovely people in my life! My family – even though as the kids (us) grow up and we’ve less time for one another but they are still people I love so dearly (and the adorable little cousins; I totally agree that kids say the darndest things). Friends – we’ve fought through thick and thin through the many many years but still so grounded and true and loyal and as crazy as ever when we’re together. Especially the 아줌마s -we’ve travelled through many miles (which crazy bunch will travel to Korea twice in two consecutive years and go crazy there shopping like nobody’s business?) and always so crazy when we’re together out for a meal or singing K or having our random cookout/picnic sessions.
I just wanted to say that you guys mean a lot to me since I think Vday’s just around the corner! Thank you for being in my life! I know I often say Valentine’s Day is cliched and all. Or maybe it’ll mean something different next time, I don’t know.
Haha(: I’m happy too also because I’ve succumbed to online shopping once again. I couldn’t resist! A pretty dress and bag is coming my way soon! I sometimes think I’m crazy(:
Alrights! It’s back to study! It’s a sad sad life. 😦 So much to study – chemo, nutrition and PD’s going to drive me crazy!
306: NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies Experimentation I
After reading the many food blogs on the legendary New York Times Chocolate Chip cookies that people have sworn by, I got tempted to bake the NYT cookies as well. Try googling “NYT chocolate chip cookie” and you can read the many blogs of people who attempted the recipe! People have been baking this cookie for years since it was first published in NYT in 2008. I’m 3 years late but never too late huh!
The key differences between the NYT recipe and typical chocolate chip cookies recipe are that:
1) It uses a mix of bread and cake flour. It’s so rare to see bread flour being used in cookie recipes. Bread flour is a high gluten flour whereas cake flour is a low gluten flour. I guess the mixture of both, makes a medium gluten flour (just like how some bloggers still use all purpose flour to replace the mix of bread and cake flour).
2) It requires refrigeration of the cookie dough for at least 36 hours (max 72 hours). The time the cookie dough spends in the fridge is supposed to allow the dry ingredients to absorb the wet ingredients and to bring out the full flavours of the cookie. A lot of people have commented that this is the crucial part of this cookie recipe!
3) A sprinkle of good sea salt at the end before baking! Many have declared that the addition of the sea salt to the sweet chocolatey cookie does add dimensions to this simple chocolate chip cookie.
4) LARGE cookies have to be sent into the oven for baking. 3 1/2 ounce (generous golf ball size) dough is required (around 99grams). Apparently, it brings texture to the cookie. It will be crisp on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. Kind of like Subway cookies, no?
After reading all the lovely reviews online, I had to bake them! And since, Valentine’s Day is a week away, I wanted to bake some for my friends in school. And since, we’re graduating this June, this will probably be the last Valentine’s Day we’ll spend together as a clique or class. In Singapore (especially in our school days), Valentine’s Day is a day when we give lovely treats or gifts to people we care about (i.e. our friends in school etc). It’s not just a day for couples in love to spend their money on expensive flower bouquets or chocolates or overpriced food at restaurants. The past few years, I’ve been giving my friends chocolates but somehow, everyone’s giving each other chocolates. It gets kind of boring. So I decided to put my baking skills to use and bake some lovely treats for the friends this year! I was deciding between marble muffins or chocolate chip cookies. But I’ve decided that chocolate chip cookies it shall be!
And shall I bought a bag of good semi-sweet chocolate chips (couldn’t find any good chocolate discs) and a bottle of Le Saunier de Camargue Sel Fin de Camargue (aka Fine sea salt from the Camargue area in France). Couldn’t find the Le Saunier de Camargue Fleur de Sel so I had to settle with the fine sea salt! And together with my newly acquired Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla extract! It’s just completely wonderful.
I couldn’t resist baking one to try so I baked just one cookie after merely two hours of refrigeration. I wanted to see how big the cookie would ‘grow’ in the oven and to estimate the baking time in my oven, so that when I do bake all the dough this Friday for my Valentine’s Day gifts, they would turn out fine. And it could serve as an experimentation as to how refrigeration changes or modifies the cookie dough!
So this was after 2 hours of refrigeration! Not that pretty as I expected it to be. It wasn’t as flat as I hoped it would be. It was kind of fat in the centre. But the texture was not bad! It was crisp at the edges and the outside and soft on the inside. I’m hoping that after many many hours of refrigeration, the cookie would be prettier and better tasting! The refrigeration HAS TO do something to the cookie, right?
Anyway, this was impatient (not too large) chocolate chip cookie! With lovely french sea salt sprinkled on top. The salt DOES wonders to the cookie! Never skip the sea salt!:)
ALRIGHT! Till the NEXT TIME I blog about the NYT chocolate chip cookies EXPERIMENTATION 2, after at least 36 hours of refrigeration. Possibly this Friday, I hope.
The recipe is from New York Times and adapted from a renowned French pastry chef, Jacque Torres.
NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies
// // Adapted from Jacques Torres
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.
Rina's Silly Musings 