Homemade Subway Chocolate Chip Cookies

When Jean posted her chewy chocolate chip cookies, my instincts told me that these are the cookies that I have been searching high and low for. I have always looked forward to chocolate chip cookies that promise a signature subway chew, firm yet almost crisp-free. So far, the chewy cookies that I have tried are too tender for my liking, so much that they are more appropriately described as cakey.  

Most cookie recipes that are categorized as "chewy" usually consist of a large amount of brown sugar. While it imparts a nice caramel undertone to the cookies, it does not necessary result in cookies that are chewy to the bite. Grasping the baking time for these so-called chewy cookies can be tricky; a short baking time will result in overly tender cookies while over-baking the the cookies would mean that they will become crispy. 

What caught my attention were the ingredients called for, more specifically melted butter and bread flour. The use of bread flour seems to promise a firmer mouth-feel and there was something alluring about using melted butter, a method of making cookies that is somewhat foreign to me. Perhaps it is this unfamiliarity that draws my curiosity and attention to this particular recipe, hoping that it would churn out results the way I was expecting.

My expectations were put to the test. The first batch turned out tender in the middle with crisp edges, but they were noticeably firmer compared to cookies I have baked in the past. Great, I am one step closer to my aim.

Moving on, I checked the results on subsequent batches, extending the baking times. Baking the cookies longer would meant they would turn out crispier on the whole. Making use of the high humidity levels to my advantage, I allowed the cookies to rest in the open for some time for the sake of softening them. It worked, and it work brilliantly indeed!

The process of firming the cookies up adequately and softening them to offset the crisp churned out cookies that had a firm chew 70% similar to that of Subway cookies. Flavour-wise, they were extremely good since the whole lot was loaded with an abundance of chocolate chips and there was a nice caramel fragrance. What else more could I have possibly asked for?  

Since the type of fat used is said to determine the texture of cookies, I have always suspected that the type of fat used for subway cookies is something else other than butter, possibly shortening. Now that melted butter works well, I shall not be toying with the idea of experimenting with shortening, margarine or even a combination two fats. 

Some thoughts on cookies I would like to consolidate and share:

1. All cookies will firm up when the baking time is extended. However, it does not necessary means that all cookies will becomes crispy when baked for a longer time. 
2. Freshly baked cookies have the best crisp. After being subjected to humidity, they lose their crunch/crisp. Simply re-bake the cookies and allow them to cool. The crunch/crisp will return. 
3. To keep crunchy/crispy cookies well, store them in air-tight containers when they are completely cool.
4. Not all cookies are created equal. Their texture differ from chewy, sandy, crunchy/crispy, melt-in-the-mouth, crumbly, fudgy to cakey. 
5. The type of sugars used affect the taste and texture of cookies. Icing sugar are used more for melt-in-the mouth cookies. Plain sugar is said to impart crunch while brown sugar is imparts a chewy characteristic. 
6. The type of fat used affects the flavour and spread of cookies. Butter cookies spread the most, compared to cookies containing shortening or oil. Personally, I feel that butter imparts the best flavour. 
7. The amount of chilling time and presence of nuts and chunky ingredients also affect the spread of cookies. Chunky cookies loaded with nuts and chocolate chips do not spread as much as plain cookies. Well chilled cookie dough do not spread as much as cookies that are unchilled. Vary the chilling time to get thick or flat cookies as desired. 
8. When cookies melt into an oily pool after baking, it means there is insufficient flour. Usually, the weight of butter will not exceed the weight of flour. 

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers # 7 - Chocolate Delights (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Good Eats by Alton Brown)

Texture and taste: Chewy and firm. Has a distinct caramel flavour and is loaded with chocolate chips

For the recipe, refer to :

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

My adaptation:

• sugar cut down to 30g
• brown sugar cut down to 230g
• increased vanilla to 2 1/2 tsp 
• Mixed melted butter while it was warm instead of letting it cool completely
• Bake 3 tbs sized cookies for 17 mins (or firm enough) at 190 degrees C and allowing them to cool and soften. 
• Makes about 20 jumbo sized cookies. 

Note:

• When overbaked, the cookies turn crisp crunchy. Quite a versatile recipe that yields either firm chewy cookies or firm crunchy cookies. 

Chocolate Log Cake 2

This is another chocolate log cake made for my younger brother's party. I was pretty glad that I get to practice on my rolling of swiss roll. This time round, I made sure that the sponge was rolled tightly and it there were no cracks after rolling. However, it turned out to be tightly rolled on one end but not so much on the other end. Nevertheless, it served as a good practice.

After slicing of about one-fifth of the original roll and placing it at the side of the main roll, this is how the log cake should look like before coating with buttercream (coating with chocolate ganache should work too).

There is lesser of a fuss when it comes to doing the frosting for the log cake as compared to that for layer cakes. There is no need for the frosting to be mirror-smooth. After doing the 'tree bark' effect using the tines of a fork, the surface willl look rugged anyway.

To ensure that the buttercream do not make a mess on the cake board, I chucked rectangular slips of baking paper under the log cake. After the frosting is done, the papers are carefully removed and the cake board remained clean.

As depicted in the above picture, the frosting did not make a mess on the cake board, saving the hassle to wipe away any frosting that has stained the board. This trick of using rectangular slips of baking paper picked up from Rose Levy Beranbaum is useful when frosting layers cake too.

Dust the completed log cake with snow powder/ icing sugar to give it a simple snowy feel. Alternatively, decorate it with xmas figurines, white chocolate curls or coloured dragees.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010)



Chocolate Log Cake ( Sponge recipe adapted from Elegant Swiss Rolls by Kevin Chai, chocolate buttercream recipe adapted from Chocolate Ephiphany by Francois Payard)

Serving size: 10 slices

Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and *slightly chewy. Chocolate buttercream is smooth and chocolatey.
Equipment and materials:
1) 12 x 12 inch pan or 10 x 14 inch pan
2) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
3) Spatula
4) wire whisk/balloon whisk
5) Mixing bowls
6) Heatproof bowl
7) Wire rack
8) Flour sieve
9) Parchment/baking paper
10) Brush for oiling pan
11) Weighing scale
12) 10 x 10 inch square cake board
13) 10 x 10 inch square cake box

Sponge Cake:
250g whole eggs, room temperature (about five 55-60g eggs)
90g caster sugar
95g plain flour (cake flour will do as well)
20g cocoa powder
70g unsalted butter, melted

Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream:
125g egg whites, room temperature
85g granulated sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
50g cocoa powder (add more if desired to up the chocolate factor)

Making Cake Base:
Pre-preparation: Line the swiss roll tin with baking/parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Combine dry ingredients: Mix the flour and cocoa powder together in a large bowl to ensure they are evenly distributed.

Beating whole eggs: In a mixing bowl, beat whole eggs with 90g caster sugar on medium speed untill eggs are well aerated and have expanded about 4-6 times in volume. The beaten eggs should be thick and fluffy. When the beater is lifted, the falling batter leaves a ribbon-like trail that does not level with the rest of the batter immediately (takes about 20 seconds before levelling with the bulk of the mixture). This is know as the 'ribbon stage'. Continue to beat the foamed eggs on low speed for abother 2-3 minutes. This is to stabilize the egg mixture.

Folding dry ingredients into beaten eggs: Sift one-third of the dry ingredients into beaten eggs. Fold using a balloon whisk, gently and gradually, untill the dry ingredients are incorporated. Repeat the same for the remaining two-thirds of the dry ingredients. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a flexible spatula every now and then to incorporate flour that is stuck to the sides and that which have sunk to the bottom. We want the beaten eggs to deflate as little as possible in the folding process.

Adding the butter: Scoop a small portion of the flour-egg batter and mix it with the melted butter in a medium bowl until smooth. This makes it easier to fold the butter into the main flour-egg batter. Add this butter mixture back to the main bulk of the flour-egg batter. Fold gently to obtain a evenly mixed foamy batter.

Baking the cake: Pour cake batter into lined tin and bake at 200 degrees C for 8 to 12 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted at the middle comes out clean. The top skin of the cake should be springy when pressed and moist and sticky to the feel. Once done, remove cake tin from oven and place on a wire rack. Cover the surface with a sheet of aluminuim foil or baking paper to maintain the moistness. Take care not to overbake the cake. It will turn dry if slightly overbaked.

Preparing the Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream:
Dissolve sugar in egg whites: Place 125 egg whites and 85g granulated sugar in a heatproof bowl. Sit the heatproof bowl on a saucepan filled with water. The base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water. Bring the water in the saucepan to a slight simmer. Use a balloon whisk and stir the egg whites and sugar constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved (no gritty feel when rubbed with your fingers) and the mixture is warm to the touch (test by inserting a finger). Take care not to scramble/cook the egg mixture.

Beating egg whites: Remove the heatproof bowl and beat the warm egg white mixture on medium high speed to obtain stiff peaks using an electric beater. At stiff peaks, the beaten egg whites will not budge when bowl is overturned. When the beaters are lifted from the beaten egg whites, the surface of the egg whites should form stiff upright peaks (not drooping peaks). The beaten egg whites should be cool to the touch (room temperature), not warm like when it was removed from the saucepan.

Adding butter and cocoa: Beat in 225g butter into the beaten egg whites in 3 batches, ensuring each batch is incoporated before adding the next. The mixture will be watery at one point in time. Just continue beating and the mixture will become sturdy, creamy and fluffy. Lastly, sift in 50g cocoa powder and continue beating to obtain a smooth chocolate buttercream.

Assembly:
Turning the cake out: Turn the baked sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake.

Rolling the cake: Apply half the prepared buttercream over the surface of the sheet cake. With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll.

Covering cake with buttercream: Place swiss roll on a 10 x 10 inch square cake board. Slice one-fifth of the log and position this sliced portion at the side of the main roll. This is to give the log cake a branched shape. Chuck rectangular slips of baking paper under the log cake.

Apply a thin layer of chocolate buttercream over the log to seal in the crumbs. Cover the entire log evenly with chocolate buttercream. There is not need for the buttercream to be very smooth. Use the tines of a fork to scratch along the surface of the buttercream to give a 'tree bark' effect. Dust with snow powder/icing sugar and decorate as desired. Carefully remove the rectangular slips of paper.

Notes:
1) Store completed log cake in the refrigerator in a 10 x 10 inch cake box (with 10 x 10 inch square cake board). Allow it to soften at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.  
2) Decorate the log cake with xmas ornaments like santa claus, reindeers and snowman figurines; green/silver/golden mini christmas trees; red and green mini dragees/sprinkles, gold and silver mini/normal dragees; white chocolate curls etc. Most of these can be obtained from baking supply stores (Phoon Huat, Sun Lik etc).
3) I have reduced the amount of sugar by a lot. Do not be tempted to further reduce the sugar.
4) Use good quality cocoa powder like Valrhona for the best results.
5) Chocolate ganache may be used to cover the log cake instead. Alternatively, plain whipped cream may also be used.
6) 200 Degrees C ensures that the sponge sheet is baked at a short time while less water content is evaporated, keeping the cake moist. If sponge cake is overbaked and turns out dry, brush it with a simple syrup to moisten it. A simple syrup consists of equal mass of water and sugar.

Cake Project 5: Summer Passion Cake and Bee Happy!

Its another cake project! October is a busy month for me, when most of my close friends are having their birthdays. This is the second birthday cake I baked in the same month and its a rather elaborate one, which means lots of work involved. Tiring.... whew!

Since the cake is meant for my friend's 21st birthday, I wanted to make a layer cake that is really memorable for her. It would have to be both aesthetically appealing and pleasing to the tastebuds. After discussing and exchanging ideas with another friend, Aud, we had some good ideas coming in. Here's the blueprint:

• Sponge Layers: Using my trusty chiffon cake sponge recipe in most of my layer cakes. Its great as a cake base. Moist, fluffy and tender crumbed.
• Homemade Strawberry jam: Get fresh rosy red strawberries and churn them into a nice sweet-tart jam to be spreaded onto the sponge cake layers. Recipe is adapted from Happy Homebaking's Double Berry Confiture.
• Passionfruit Buttercream Frosting and Filling: Flavour a basic swiss meringue buttercream with passionfruit flavour using fresh passionfruits. The passionfruit buttercream will be filled onto the jam layer and the entire cake will be frosted with the passionfruit buttercream. (I flavoured with passionfruit juice with a little lemon juice to heighten the flavour)
• Shape of Cake and Decorations: 9 inch square cake with piped stars around the border. A picture of a pink coloured bee will be drawn in the middle using piping gel/jelly. I derived the insipration from neighbourhood confectionaries as most of the birthday cakes they offer use a lot of piping gel for decoration in the form of cartoon characters like SpongBob etc. Thanks to Wendy, I confirmed that the material used for all these cake graphics is piping gel/ jelly.

The reason why we thought of the bee picture is because the birthday girl is named Bee, and pinkbee is her nickname (reminds me of a blogger friend Bee Bee who has a similar name). Now, that sounds like an enormous challenge to me. It was my first at attempt making homemade jam and drawing using piping gel. I get the jitters sometimes when I attempt something new. Its the worry of coping with the unfamiliar. Things may or may not turn out as planned. This time, I felt a somewhat adventurous spirit in me. My limited drawing ability would not deter me from completing the bee picture. ( I did thought of chickening out initially due to a lack of confidence, but I carried out the task anyway since I had bought the piping gel and thanks to encouragement given by Pei-Lin)

I was glad to have Aud helping me out with part of the caking making, namely the buttercream and baking the sponge cake. If not for her, I would have taken a much longer time to complete the entire cake, with all the measuring of ingredients and washing up of pans and bowls, some of which needed to be reused.

Making the strawberry jam was a breeze. First, wash and slice the strawberries into small chunks. Add sugar and mix well with the strawberry chunks and allow to sit for some time. This will draw out the juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and it will thicken nicely. Tada! There you have, a nice homemade strawberry jam. I followed Happy Homebaker's advice and added some lemon juice, which is supposed to help the jam gel together. It also adds a nice tartness to the jam. The steps were easy to follow and yielded a promising result; one of the best strawberry jam I had! Would not hestitate to attempt making jam again when the occasion arises.

We had intended the cake to be a 9 inch square. After trimming the sides, it shrank to an 8 inch square. I gathered all the cake trimmings and sampled them with the remaining jam. Yummy~! It has a summery fruity sweet taste with a pleasant tang. Since the fruits used were kind of summer related, I decided to name the cake as Summer Passion Cake. The first name that came to mind was Whispers of Summer, but that was'nt original as it is the name of a fruit juice drink I like from Ceres. I could'nt stop sampling and all the cake trimmings were gone in two days. (there is quite abit of cake trimmings). Oops! I actually ate the cake even before before the cake cutting. (*feels a little guilty, well maybe not, haha)

As you can see, the above are my drawing tools. No palette and paint brushes used. No artist hat and drawing stand either. Just my chef hat and my apron. Haha, just kidding =].  My piping bags are home-improvised using freezer bags. Sometimes, I would use ziplop bags. These work pretty well and can be used for various purposes like storing buttercream and frostings etc. The bottle on the right is the piping gel/jelly used, obtained from Phoon Huat.

You might be wondering why there are toothpicks lying around. These are my 'pencils', used for sketching the bee picture. Firstly, I googled and selected the bee picture I had in mind. I then copied it down on paper as I do not own a printer. With the original bee picture beside me on paper and the cake in front of me, I began to do the initial outlining using a toothpick. If the sketching is out of porportion, simply wipe it away using a spatula. It will smooth the buttercream surface and act as an eraser.

After the initial sketching is done, pipe black coloured piping gel (mix some black colouring into a portion of the gel) onto the outline.The piping gel has the consistency of jam and is rather easy to control. So no worries about it overflowing and messing up the surface. Once the black outlining is done, fill up the necessary places with the desired colouring and you have a nice picture with a glossy stain glass effect. I mixed a little jam into the gel as I did not have any red colouring on hand. Just realised that I used more jam than I should and it turned out red instead of pink only after the picture was done.

The making of the Summer Passion Cake was a great success and I had loads of fun! Imagine me going on a baking adventure likened to a roller-coaster ride. Too bad Aud missed out on all the fun part, especially the drawing of the bee. I'm going to think of more opportunities to work with piping gel in future. I think I found my niche in baking and its going to be cakes and the likes of it; cupcakes, layer cakes, swiss rolls and cheesecakes; since its the area I am more proficient in and enjoy the most. Not into fondant making at the moment yet. I might get too addicted if I start making them.

Erm... looks like I am getting long-winded these days, even more so when I typed my recipe and instructions. Maybe due to influence from a certain friend, haha...

Summer Passion Cake ( Sponge Cake recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款)

Serving size: 12 - 14 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Passionfruit lemon buttercream is smooth,creamy, buttery and fruity.
Equipment and materials:
1) 9 x 9 inch sqaure pan
2) 10 inch square cake board
3) Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 9 inches
4) Balloon/wire whisk
5) Rubber spatula
6) Handheld beater/Stand beater
7) Baking paper
8) Wire rack
9) Toothpicks/wooden skewer
10) Flour sieve
11) Mixing bowls
12) Cake turntable (optional)
13) Piping tip/s
14) Piping bag/s, ziplock bags, freezer bags
15) Coupler for piping

Chiffon Sponge Cake (3 layers):
6 egg yolks, room temperature (55-60g eggs)
65g caster sugar
75g vegetable oil
75g water
130g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
6 egg whites, room temperature (55-60g eggs)
65g caster sugar

Homemade Strawberry Jam:
500g strawberries
130g sugar
2 tbs lemon juice

Swiss Meringue Passionfruit lemon Buttercream:
195g egg whites
245g granulated sugar
420g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
100 - 125ml passionfruit juice + 2 tbs lemon juice ( juice from 18 passionfruits. strain the seeds. use passionfruit concentrate if possible, add a little 1 tbs at a time to taste) alternatively, omit the passionfruit juice and use 100 -125ml lemon juice instead.

Making the Chiffon Sponge Cake:
Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture: Whisk sifted flour and sifted baking powder in a large bowl to combine.

Making the egg yolk batter: Place egg yolks, 65g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Mix well with a wire whisk untill the mixture is evenly mixed. Add the flour mixture in and whisk to obtain a smooth and thick batter.

Beating egg whites: Next, whisk egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium-high and beat untill egg whites are at soft peaks. Add 65g of sugar gradually and beat untill egg whites are just stiff and still moist. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned. Do not beat until the egg whites are dry and clumpy.

Folding in egg whites: Using a ballon whisk, fold one third of beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter gently to lighten and combine. Fold in the rest of the beaten whites to combine. Final batter should be foamy and uniform in colour with no streaks of egg white present. Folding egg whites gently using a balloon whisk will prevent egg whites from deflating too much.

Baking the sponge cake: Pour batter into a greased and lined 9 inch square pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -40 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. When the cake is done, the inserted skewer will come out clean. Cake will shrink from edges on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Making the Strawberry Jam:
Wash and slice the strawberries: Wash the strawberries well. Drain the water and remove the leaves. Slice them into small chunks. The chunks will break up when cooked.

Mix strawberries with sugar: Mix the sliced strawberries with sugar and leave it to sit for 30 minutes. The juice will be drawn out.

Cooking the jam: Bring the strawberry mixture, together with the juice to boil in a stainless steel pot or saucepan (do not use aluminium, cast iron or copper pans) over medium heat. Stir the jam constantly. The jam will thicken and start to foam when it boils. Scoop off the excess foam and continue stirring.

Lower the flame and keep it at a medium simmer. Continue stirring and the jam should become thicker and transparent, no longer foamy. Add in the lemon juice slowly and continue to simmer for another 2minutes. Allow jam to cool before using.

Preparing the Swiss Meringue Passionfruit Lemon Buttercream:
Dissolve sugar in egg whites: Place 195 egg whites and 245g granulated sugar in a heatproof bowl. Sit the heatproof bowl on a saucepan filled with water. The base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water. This is known as a double boiler. Bring the water in the saucepan to a slight simmer. Use a balloon whisk and stir the egg whites and sugar constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch (test by inserting your finger). Take care not to scramble the egg whites.

Beating egg whites: Remove the heatproof bowl and beat the warm egg white mixture on medium high speed to obtain stiff peaks using an electric beater. At stiff peaks, the beaten egg whites will not budge when bowl is overturned. When the beaters are lifted from the beaten egg whites, the surface of the egg whites should form stiff upright peaks (not drooping peaks). The beaten egg whites should be cool to the touch (room temperature), not warm like when it was removed from the saucepan.

Adding butter and passionfruit juice: Beat in 420g butter into the beaten egg whites in 3 batches, ensuring each batch is incoporated before adding the next. The egg whites will deflate furiously when butter is added. Continue beating until the mixture is creamy and fluffy (Initially when the butter is added, the mixture may become watery. As more butter is added and the mixture is continually beaten, the buttercream thickens up). Lastly, beat in the passionfruit juice to flavour.

Assembly, filling and frosting:
Slicing sponge cake: Slice sponge cake into 3 even layers using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the layers: Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport the sponge layer onto a 9 inch square cake board. This is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Spread a thin layer of jam evenly onto the first layer. Fill the first layer (on top of the jam layer) evenly with 230g of buttercream using a palette knife or spatula. Place a second sponge layer carefully over the filled 1st layer and align it properly with the 1st layer. Repeat the spreading of jam and filling of buttercream for the 2nd sponge layer.

Once the filling is done for the first two sponge layers, add the 3rd sponge layer and align it well with the first two layers. You may want to trim the four sides to get a nice even square. For the 3rd sponge layer, do the crumb coat on the surface as well as for the sides of the cake. This means spreading a little buttercream evenly over the cake surface to seal the crumbs. Once the crumb coat is done, add more buttercream to the surface and sides of the cake and smooth the buttercream using the palette knife. There should be some leftover buttercream for piping.

Piping Patterns: Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe stars at the border. Add colouring to frosting if desired. I used wilton star tip no.4.

Drawing with Piping Gel/Jelly: Steps are mentioned above.

Notes:
1) Store cake in airtight container in the refrigerator to prevent cake from drying out after slicing.
2) Buttercream recipe can be altered and flavoured acording to taste as desired. For example, strawberry, coffee, rum, Ribena and orange flavoured buttercream. Jam or cordials would work well as flavourings.
2) The buttercream will hold at most 150ml of liquid. Hence, jam, cordials and concentrates are best for flavouring. In this case, using passionfruit concentrate will produce a buttercream with a stronger flavour.

Baking with Bakertan - Going Bananas Over Chocolate

Good day folks! Thank you for tuning in to Baking with Bakertan =]. Today, Bakertan is going to bake a Banana Chocolate Cake.

First of all, we need some bananas. Make sure you are using overripe bananas. Notice the black spots on the bananas? This is an indication that the bananas are starting to over-ripen. Overripe bananas are sweeter and have a much stronger flavour. I am using Del Monte since they are easily available from supermarkets.

Next, we need to line the loaf tin. Cut out a rectangular piece of baking/parchment paper such that the width of the paper fits the length of the loaf pan. The length of the paper has to be long enough so that there will be excess paper jutting out when pressed to fit into the tin.

Remove the paper and oil the loaf tin lightly either with softened/melted butter or vegetable oil. Press the paper back into the tin so that it adheres itself nicely.

Meanwhile, sift the self-raising flour and the baking powder into a large bowl. Use a wire whisk to mix the dry ingredients, ensuring that they are uniformly distributed.

At the same time, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Fill a saucer with water and place the heatproof bowl over the saucer so that the bowl is sitting on the saucer without coming in contact with the water. This setup is known as a double boiler. (Oops! Bakertan forgot to take pictures on melting chocolate). Bring the water in the saucer to a low simmer (low heat please) and melt the chocolates, stiring the chocolate occasionally. Leave the melted chocolate to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Tip the softened butter and caster sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, as explained in How to Cream Butter. Once the butter is well creamed, add the eggs one by one and continue beating on medium low speed, ensuring that each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Notice that the colour of the egg-butter mixture (picture on right) has a slight yellowish hue compared to the off-white colour of the creamed butter (picture on left).

In a medium bowl, mash the overripe bananas using a potato masher until you get banana puree. Alternative, you can do it using the back of two forks.

Add the mashed bananas/banana puree to the egg-butter mixture in 3 additions and beat on low speed until well-combined. The mixture may curdle/separate when the banana puree is added (The curdling may cause the banana loaf to become dense, but it is perfectly alright. It still taste great). This is normal and will be alright when the flour is added in.  

To complete the batter, sift the flour mixture into the banana-egg-butter mixture in two batches. Beat the batter on medium-low speed to incorporate the flour. After the first batch of flour is absorbed, give it a further beating of 10 seconds and sift in the second batch. Once the second batch of flour is absorbed, scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl to incorporate loose flour. Beat the batter for 20 seconds to obtain a smooth batter.

Now that the batter is done, we need to do the layering. First, scoop 1/4 of the cake batter into the loaf tin and level the surface.  

Use a spoon and drizzle 1/3 of the melted chocolate randomly or evenly (your choice) over the cake batter.

Scoop another 1/4 of the cake batter to cover the melted chocolate. Repeat the layering of cake batter alternating with melted chocolate until all the cake batter and melted chocolate are used up. The batter should fill up to 4/5 the height of the tin.  

Place the loaf tin onto a baking tray and place them in the oven, to catch any overflow of batter if any. (just in case) Bake the cake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Start checking for doneness after 1 hour by inserting a wooden/metal skewer into the centre of the cake. It should come oout clean when the cake is done (it is ok to have some crumbs sticking to the skewer, but not wet uncooked batter). The top skin should be nicely browned after 1 hour. Place a piece of aluminium foil over the loaf tin to prevent the surface from over-browning and continue baking until the cake is done.

Tada....A nice chocolate banana cake is done! Allow the cake to cool in the loaf tin for 15 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Sit back and enjoy your banana chocolate cake with a nice cup of tea. Thats all for today folks! Cya and stay tuned to Baking with Bakertan.

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While the cake was baking, the smell permeated the entire house. I can swear those walking past the common corridor can sniff it. This happens when you make a banana cake. Free aroma therapy while waiting for the cake to be done.

I have lost count of the number of times I have used this recipe. By far, this is my best attempt, probably because I increased the proportion of bananas. It worked brilliantly as the banana flavour had a strong presence without being overtaken by the taste of the rich melted dark chocolate. While this version of the banana chocolate cake is more banana-ish, there is the other version which is more chocolatey in nature. One such recipe is the Cocoa Banana Bread (if my memory served me correctly; I do not own a copy of the book) in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, which baking enthusiasts should be familiar with. A similar chocolate banana cake can be found from Jess Kitchen.

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Banana Chocolate Cake (Recipe adapted Chocolate: 70 of the Best Recipes by Hamlyn)
Serving size: 10 slices
Texture: Moist, moderately dense with a prominent banana fragrance layered with rich semisweet chocolate with the consistency of a good chocolate frosting.
Equipment and Materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowls (one of which is heatproof)
5) Wire rack
6) 9 x 5 inch loaf tin
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Brush for oiling pan
10) Weighing scale

Cake Batter:
190g unsalted butter, softened
285 - 300g mashed bananas ( 2 1/2 overripe bananas)
160g castor sugar
150g eggs (about 3 55g eggs)
240g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
175g chocolate, melted (55-60% cocoa)

Making the banana chocolate cake:
Follow instructions as above.

Notes:
1) Take care not to overheat the chocolate, it will cause the chocolate to 'burn'/become dry/ thicken and become lumpy .
2) Do not allow any water/moisture/steam to come into contact with the melted chocolate. It will cause the chocolate to seize/become grainy.
3) Reduce bananas to 230g for a more buttery cake. The baking time will be reduced as a result of the lesser amount of liquid).

Baking with Bakertan - French Apple Tart ( Tarte Aux Pommes)

Yo folks! Bakertan will be doing a French Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes) today. First of all, we need to prepare the tart base. The tart base we will be using is known as Pâte Brisée ( paht bree-ZAY ), the french version of an unsweetened shortcrust pastry, according to Maxine Clark. Pâte Brisée is a rather versatile tart base and it yields a rich, crumbly flaky texture.

Now, we need to sift the flour onto a clean work surface. Sprinkle a generous pinch of salt evenly over the flour. Make sure both your hands are clean, folks. Use the knuckles of one hand and make a well in the centre of the flour.

Dice some butter and soften it at room temperature. Add the diced butter to the well together with an egg yolk.

Use all 5 fingers of one hand and 'peck' the butter and egg yolk. You will want them to end up looking like scrambled eggs.

Ok, now that one of your hand is greasy, you have the other hand free to use. Grab a palette knife with the other hand and start turning the surrounding flour over the butter yolk mixture. Chop through the mixture like you are chopping nuts. Sprinkle iced water over the mixure. Repeat the chopping action and turning of flour until all the flour is combined with the butter mixture. You can see that the end result is some coarse and fine flour-coated butter crumbs.

 

Folks, we need to bring all the crumbs together to form a dough. So, gently gather the crumbs. Knead them gently so that they come together into a ball.  Make sure that you do not overknead the dough. We do not want the dough to be well kneaded and everything is evenly distributed. This is not cake making ~ Once done, flatten the ball slightly and wrap it up with clingfilm. Place the dough in the refrigerator for at at least 30 minutes.

So, once the dough is chilled, we can work on it again. Remove the clingfilm and let the chilled dough soften a while at room temperature. Meanwhile, we need to dust a clean work surface and a rolling pin with a little flour. This will prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and the work surface. Roll out the dough evenly using the rolling pin. Dust the rolling pin every now and then to prevent dough from sticking.

How do we know when to stop rolling? Place the tart tin onto the rolled out dough. The rolled dough should be larger than the size of the tart tin. We want to have excess dough so that we can cover up the sides of the tin.

Next, remove the tart tin and place the rolling pin onto the rolled out dough. Slowly lift up the dough from one end and wrap it around the rolling pin lightly. You have to do this slowly so as to prevent tearing the dough. Remember not to roll the dough tightly onto the pin or else it will stick together. That will spell trouble, oops!...  

Once done, place the wrapped dough onto the tart tin. Starting from one end of the tart tin, slowly unwrapped the tart dough until the tart tin is covered. Press the dough down to fit the tart tin, ensuring that the dough adheres to the base and the sides well.

There will be excess dough over-hanging from the sides. How do we deal with that? We need a sharp knife. A small one will do. I am using a paring knife here. Simply run the knife through the sides to cut off the excess dough. Nevermind if the tart tin is not fully lined. We can do some patching up.

Use the excess dough a little at a time and patch up the bald areas. Tada! We have a nicely lined up tart base now. Thats all for preparing a tart base and lining a tart tin. Return the tart base to the refrigerator for another 15 minutes. We still have to prepare the apple fillings.... Wrap up the remaining dough with clingfilm and use it to make a small tart.

To prepare the apple filling, core and peel 4 or 5 baking apples. Golden Delicious or Granny Smith will be good choices. Slice the apples thinly and arrange them nicely on the chilled tart base in nice concentric circles, starting with the outer circle and followed by the inner circle. Arrange smaller pieces of sliced apples in the middle. Sprinkle sugar evenly and place cubed butter all over the apples. Place tart tin on top of a baking pan and bake the apple tart at 200 degrees C for an hour until the apples are nicely browned. We are not done yet... Warm some apricot jam in a saucer over low heat and spread it over the apple tart to give it a glossy look and added flavour. Voila! We now have a nice French Apple Tart.

Thats all for today, folks. Stay tuned to Baking with Bakertan. Cheers and have a nice day~  

Ok back to how I usually blog. I thought I would deviate from my norm since I do not have anything interesting to write. So I was thinking: "Hey, why not 'host' a baking demonstation here"? That should break the monotony.

After using up some of my Golden Delicious Apples for my previous apple-upside down cake, I had some leftovers and was planning to use them soon. Youfei's post on her apple tart movtivated me to do a French Apple Tart. There should be no more Golden Delicious apples by now. No, not really. I just caught hold of a new bag of Golden Delicious, without any hesitation! That means.. More baking with apples! It  takes a bit of luck to find it these days, so I am not going to take any chances by passing up the opportunity...

Two weeks ago, a visitor to my blog emailed me. I was delighted to know that we live really near each other, just five minutes walk away. She managed to find me here, all thanks to Edith's blog. I met up with her this evening and passed her some of my freshly baked French Apple Tarts. Really look forward to more baking exchanges and sessions with my newly found friend...

French Apple Tart ( Tarte Aux Pommes) (Recipe adapted from Tarts: Sweet and Savoury by Maxine Clark)
Serving size: 8 to 10 slices
Texture: Buttery flaky and crumbly tart crust. Apple filling is sweet and moderately firm, not mushy with lended flavour and sweetness from apricot jam.
Equipment and Materials:
1) 24 or 25 cm tart tin with removable base
2) Rolling pin
3) Flour sieve
4) Measuring spoon set
5) Clingfilm
6) Baking tray
7) Palette knife
8) Wire rack

Pâte Brisée:
220g plain flour
a generous pinch of salt
110g unsalted butter, diced and softened at room temperature
15g egg yolk (I used a 55g egg)
3 tbs water

Making the Pâte Brisée:
Follow instructions as mentioned above.

Apple Filling:
4 or 5 baking apples, peeled and cored, about 400g of sliced apples (I used Golden Delicious)
2 tbs caster sugar (I used raw sugar)
40g unsalted butter, diced
2-3 tbs apricot jam, warmed  (I used IXL apricot jam. St Dalfour's Peach Jam would be a good choice too)

Making apple filling:
Follow instructions as mentioned above.

Notes:
1) Do not be tempted to add more apricot jam. The sweetness will steal the focus from the apples.

Apples

Nutella Cream Layer Cake

After reading Jess's post on her red pitaya yoghurt mousse cake from My Birthday Cake by Kevin Chai, I decided that I will be using the same book soon to make a layered cake. Since I have bought the book, I would have to make an effort to use it. The recipe that came to mind was the hazelnut cream cake.

Since there were leftover cream from my recent truffles making, I thought I would put it to good use. Afterall, heavy cream does not store very well and has to be consumed quickly once the pack is opened. All that is left is the hazelnut chocolate spread. Naturally, Nutella was the wise pick here. When it comes to cream frosting, I do not like plain whipped cream. At the very least, I would prefer cream chantilly - vanilla flavoured whipped cream with icing sugar added. In this case, Nutella would lend a rich chocolatey taste to the otherwise plain dairy whipped cream.  

I took out my Wilton cake leveller and my plastic turntable, both obtained from Phoon Huat. These are the baking toys that will come into good use for any layered cakes.

Instead of using the sponge cake recipe as stated, I used a chocolate sponge recipe from another book, similar to the sponge used in my strawberry yoghurt mousse cake, since I did not have any chocolate sponge mix on hand.

Cutting the sponge cake is quite straightforward when using the cake leveller. Simple hold the handle, adjust the height of the cutting wire and cut through the cake in a smooth sawing motion.

 

Notice the grooves on the sides of the cake leveller. The height of the cutting wire can be adjusted by moving the ring attaching the wire up and down and resting on the grooves. The cutting wire may look thin but it is actually taut and strong.

Using the cake leveller to cut sponge layers will result in uniformly sliced layers with smooth flat tops.

Due to the warm humid weather (as always), I had to firm up the cake (with the cream frosting) in the refrigerator so that it will be easier to smoothen the hazelnut cream icing. If the cream is too soft, It will slide down the sides easily.With the help of the plastic turntable, it was so much easier to smoothen the hazelnut chocolate cream. I recall watching a pastry chef working with a turntable at Jurong Point. Back then, I stood aside and watched carefully how the cream frosting was spreaded around the cake, learning some nifty tips and techniques which I applied to my own cream cake.

Overall, I feel that I could have done better with the layering and coating with cream. I should have sliced off the slightly domed top of the sponge and ensured the layers are of equal height. The cream layer is abit too thin to be noticeable towards the edges. Perhaps I will increase the amount of cream next time. I also forgot to do the crumb coat first, resulting in some stray crumbs making their way to the frosting. Nevertheless, it served as a good practice for preparing a layered cake. Since I regarded this as a practice, I did not decorate the top and sides. I will probable use chocolate love letters (wafer sticks) to surround the sides and top the cake with some unskinned hazelnuts next time as suggested.

Tastewise, I like the richness of the hazelnut chocolate cream. It reminds me of melted chocolate ice cream! The sponge is soft and moist but much more springy compared to the one used in the strawberry yoghurt mousse cake even though the recipes are very similar. Maybe this is due to the addition of cocoa powder.