Eton Mess

I came across this recipe from Laura in the Kitchen and decided to give this a try. After doing some research on this dessert, I realize it's a traditional English dessert. Pretty cool... thought it'd be nice to try something new. The presentation of this desert looks absolutely delicious. This taste is quite refreshing and I think it would be excellent on a spring or summer day :)

This recipe isn't complicated at all. Although I've never tried this before, it's pretty much just heavy whipping cream, strawberries, and meringues. I'm not a big fan of meringues to be honest. I think they're just too sugary and not tasty alone, but since my boyfriend loves meringues and strawberries, I decided to give this recipe a try.


Ingredients:

• Orange (for zest and orange juice)
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
  1 to 2 Tbsp of Confectioner Sugar
  1 ½ cups of Chopped Strawberries
  2 Tbsp of Granulated Sugar
  1 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
  2 Tbsp of Fresh Orange Juice
  1 tsp of Fresh Orange Zest
  About 8 Meringues - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf
   1-2 Tbs of confectioner's sugar
• 1 pound of strawberries
• 2 Tbs of granulated sugar
• 1 Tbs of balsamic vingear    
• 6 medium sized meringues or 8-10 small meringues

Procedure:

es - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf

1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
1 to 2 Tbsp of Confectioner Sugar
1 ½ cups of Chopped Strawberries
2 Tbsp of Granulated Sugar
1 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbsp of Fresh Orange Juice
1 tsp of Fresh Orange Zest
About 8 Meringues - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf

1. Wash and dice up about a pound of fresh strawberries. (More or less of the strawberries really doesn't matter) Put them into a bowl and add 2 Tbs of granulated sugar
2. In a stainless steel bowl, pour the cold heavy whipping cream in.
3. With a grater, zest a good amount of orange skin into the heavy whipping cream bowl
4. Slice the orange in half and squeeze the juice out of both half into the strawberry bowl. Mix well and set aside
5. Beat the heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. The original recipe tells you to whip them until they are soft peaks. I made them with soft peaks and feel that they would've been much better if the peaks were a bit stiffer. Add about 2 Tbs of confectioner's sugar along the way.
6. Pour about half of the strawberry mixture into the whipping cream mixture. Fold it together delicately.
7. Crush about 6-10 meringues with your fingers into the whipping cream mixture. You can put as much or as little as you'd like. If you want it more crunchy, put more in. If you want it less crunchy, put less in. 

Assembly:  

In a trifle cup, put some heavy whipping cream mixture in. Top it with the fresh strawberries left over from before and crush a few more meringues on top of everything. 

This is a very simple and quick recipe. I know for some, this recipe is to die for. You can't really go wrong with whipped cream, strawberries and a little crunch from the meringues. In my honest opinion, this was a nice dessert but wasn't anything striking to me. This was fun for me to make ;) I would probably make this again during the summer time for guests. 

Tiramisu

I did a ton of research on how to make Tiramisu. I've made Tiramisu twice... this is my second time. the first time I made it was for my mom's birthday and it was okay. She was happy with it, but I wasn't too satisfied. I used the same recipe again this time, but made sure to beat the egg whites much more until they were stiff. Also, I added a little something else to the original recipe to give the custard some more volume and thickness.

I used the recipe from Giallo zafferano. Here's her video. I watched it a couple times, but for some reason, my egg whites NEVER get as puffy and voluminous as hers does in the video. I find it impossible... it could be because she has a stand mixer and I'm just using a regular old hand electric mixer. I did beat the egg whites until they were stiff enough for me to put the bowl upside and see that nothing will drip out (a little trick to see if your egg whites or cream has reached it's stiff peaks ;) always a great trick) However, they did not come to the size that she shows in the video. If I were to do this recipe again, I'll try and whip those egg whites even longer, but I highly doubt it will work.

Cake version:

 

Trifle cup version: 

Ingredients: 

• 1-2 boxes of 7 oz lady fingers (try to use hard shelled ITALIAN made lady fingers. Not the soft shelled ones)
• 1 pound of marscapone cheese
• some cocoa powder
• 10 Tbs of granulated sugar
• 6 eggs (will need to separate them into egg whites and yolks)
• 2 cups or so of really strong coffee (preferably espresso)
• about 4 Tbs of rum (or however much you like) This is something I added myself since I saw lots of other recipes use it
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (This wasn't in the original recipe. I added it to give the custard more density and volume. Without this, it would be a bit too runny for me)

To be honest, the amount of lady fingers and marscapone cheese that you use is all relevant to how big your casserole dish or baking dish is. I used a 2.8 L square glass baking dish that had a good amount of height to it. I found out that I really only needed ONE 7oz box of lady fingers. Two wasn't really necessary. I ended up making a huge cake with 3 layers by using 1.5 boxes. (Lady fingers are quite pricey, so if you don't need to buy that many, don't lol) My cake would have been better off with just 2 layers (by using 1 box of lady fingers) and a little less marscapone cheese mixture (perhaps 1/2 - 3/4 pounds would have been enough) 

Procedure:

1. Separate the egg yolks and whites into 2 separate bowls. Prepare a bigger bowl for the egg yolks, because this is where all of your ingredients will combine into in the end. Wash your eggs well! Use organic and good quality eggs (Grade A or Grade AA) These eggs will NOT be cooked, so make sure everything is clean. Try to avoid letting the egg yolk or whites touch the shell. Make sure to dry the eggs after you wash them. You can't have any water in the egg white mixture.
2. Add 5 tbs of sugar to the egg yolks. Whisk until well combined and the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add the Marscapone cheese to the egg yolks. Mix well. It should be a slightly thick mixture with a pale yellow color.
4. In the bowl with egg whites, beat on high until it becomes frothy. Add a pinch of salt and gradually add 5 tbs of sugar while mixing. Beat it vigorously with either a stand mixer or hand mixer until it forms nice stiff peaks. Make sure there is absolutely NO water or oil or anything in the bowl before placing your egg whites in there. They will definitely prevent your egg whites from forming stiff peaks. If you're using a hand mixer, this will require some patience, but don't worry it will form those stiff peaks in the end. If it doesn't, you need to start over, because the results that these egg whites produce aren't that voluminous to begin with. :(
5.  Fold the egg whites into the marscapone mixture. Fold them together very delicately just until the mixture comes together. Since I feel that my mixture was on the runny side, I thought of a way to make it a bit more voluminous. I beat about a cup of heavy whipping cream in another bowl until it formed stiff peaks. I added a bit of sugar along the way. Then, I also put that into the marscapone + egg white mixture. It helped add a little bit of texture, but not a whole lot :/ That's our custard mixture :)
6. Get your casserole or deep pan dish ready so that we can start assembling our Tiramisu
7. Get another shallow, wide pan for dipping the lady fingers in. Make some espresso or very strong coffee and add a little bit of rum in it. mix it well and wait for the mixture to be cool. 
8. Soak the lady fingers in the espresso mixture for about 2-5 seconds and let the excess espresso drip out and then line them in the casserole dish to form a layer. 
9. Cover generously with the custard mixture and dust that layer with some coco powder using a fine mesh strainer. 
10. Repeat steps 8-9 one more time except line the lady fingers in the opposite direction as what you did for the first layer. This isn't really "necessary" but I think it provides more stability and prevents the custard from leaking to the bottom too easily. 
11. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (preferably OVERNIGHT!) Patience is key :) let it set and enjoy it the next day :)

I've also made these in little trifle cups which I think are adorable :) They look so cute and much more presentable than in a big square glass dish lol. The procedure for assembling it is pretty similar. You break the lady fingers in thirds, soak them, and place them on the bottom however they can be arranged in a trifle cup.  Put some custard on, do another layer and then dust with cocoa powder. 
Use lady fingers or espresso beans if you have any on hand to garnish the trifle cup. I think it adds a little extra touch to it ;) If I had espresso beans, I would definitely put on 2 or 3.

I'm not totally satisfied with this recipe, but it is the most authentic one that I have come across. If I make another revised version in the future, I will be sure to post about it. Lots of websites have said that bakeries use pastry cream instead to make their tiramisu because it's simply much easier to hold up and it has that nice texture/volume. As much as I would love for the custard texture to be perfect, I want to make the tiramisu the authentic way. Making it without marscapone cheese or lady fingers, to me, is just simply not tiramisu. You just can't substitute it with sponge cake or white cake for lady fingers.The taste will be similar but it's just not the same. Honestly, I wouldn't put in the heavy cream if I didn't have to... that was just out of desperation to save the custard lol. Substituting it with cream cheese will also give it a sour taste. I've gotta say making this tiramisu is quite pricey and could be more pricey than what you buy in stores, but it's fun and you feel like you accomplished something after you do it :) 

Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

This past valentine's day, I made these vegan cupcakes for my dear friend Cassie :) I love her for always being there whenever I need her and for being supportive. I know how hard it is for her for find vegan baked goods, because so many of the key essential ingredients that we use in baking all the time are things that she can't eat like eggs, butter, milk, etc. So, I searched long and hard for vegan cupcakes and I came across Chef Chloe's recipe.

Again, I kind of winged it at the end with the whole decorating. It was so much fun decorating these cupcakes and I felt that that was the most time consuming part. The cupcakes themselves were easy and quick to make. 

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour plus ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coffee, water, or coconut milk
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (I hate using this so much!! But I had no choice..)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 5 tablespoons soy, almond, or rice milk  

Garnish

• 1 ½ cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
• Powdered sugar

• Procedure

  Chocolate cupcakes:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake pans with 14 cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
  4. Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
  Frosting:
  1. Use a electric mixer, beat the shortening until smooth. (I suggest you let this shortening come to room temperature or at least NOT straight out of the fridge so it'll be easier to beat it...) With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon nondairy milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. Beat on high for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy.
  Now, I don't know why my cupcakes didn't puff up as much as Chloe's did and I realize that I h ave constantly been having this problem with all my cupcakes.. not just vegan ones. I think that it's because I don't add enough batter to each cup because the ones that puffed up more were the ones that I put more batter in. However, I divided the batter in such a way that all 14 cups can be lined up. If you want to make them more puffed up, I suggest to just use 12 cups and see if you can fill it up all the way. The reason why I really needed them to puff up was so that I can slice off the top part of the cupcake and decorate accordingly to make it into a sandwhich effect. 
  From, the picture, you can see that some of my cupcakes have a chocolate top on them while others didn't. I cut the tops off of the ones that were really puffed up. The ones that weren't as puffed were just garnished like a normal cupcake. 
  So, to assemble the cupcakes, wait from them to cool COMPLETELY. Slice off the top 1/3 of the cupcake and put the frosting and freshly sliced strawberries. Place the top back on and put some more frosting on. Dust with powdered sugar for garnish. Again, garnish these cupcakes however you want! The white frosting with freshly sliced red strawberries make these cupcake look gorgeous instantly. Plus, confectioner's sugar always adds a little magical touch to them :) 

Raspberry Semifreddo Heart

I made a raspberry semifreddo with bittersweet chocolate for my boyfriend for this past valentine's day. I've never had semifreddo in my life before, so I have no idea what it "should" taste like, but from researching this online and reading people's comments about the texture of semifreddo, I think I pretty much got it down :)
I used recipe from Martha Stewart. This is what it's supposed to look like:

 

I made some improvisations on mine since I messed up on the bittersweet hearts lol. I'll mention later what I think MAY have gone wrong... 

 

So here's the recipe: 

Ingredients

Semifreddo:

• 18 oz of fresh raspberries or 1 pound frozen raspberries (I used fresh raspberries)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons kirsch, or champagne (I used Martini's Asti champagne)
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• Confectioners' sugar, for garnish

Bittersweet Chocolate:

7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

Procedure: 

1. prepare a pan that you would like to use. I used Wilton's Heart mold as my baking pan. You can use a regular baking pan, line it up with parchment paper and then later use a heart cookie cutter to make the heart shapes. I just thought this heart mold made things much more convenient.
2. Place fresh raspberries into a medium skillet over medium heat. Simmer so that the raspberries can break down and some liquid is released (4-5 minutes). Transfer it to a food processor and puree (only takes a few seconds) Use a fine mesh strainer and place a bowl underneath it. Let the rapsberry pass through it and help it by stirring it with chopsticks/spoon. Leave it there to cool. 
3. Fill a large bowl with ice and water and set aside. Fill another pot with water till it's about 1/4 way up. Let it come to a boil then let it simmer. Use a medium stainless bowl to whisk together egg yolks, 2 Tbs of sugar, corn syrup, and champagne. Place the bowl over simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture is thick. (The mixture should be thick but runny at the same time. When you lift the whisk up, you will see it leave a ribbon-like trail, but more fluid than you would expect it) Transfer the bowl into an ice-water bath and whisk the mixture while it cools. Add 3/4 cup of raspberry purree to mixture. Whisk to combine, set aside
4. Use an electric mixer and beat the egg whites on high speed until frothy (30 sec). gradually add 6 Tbs of sugar as the mixer is running. Beat until very stiff. 
5. Use another bowl to beat the heavy cream until it has stiff peaks. *Crucial: Do not overbeat the heavy cream! It can curdle in a second so make sure to keep an eye on it! The rate that it changes from stiff peaks to curdled cream happens quicker than it does for egg whites! I made that mistake and had to start over again T.T*
6. After the cream is beat, fold it into the egg whites. Fold raspberry mixture into the egg white and cream mixture. Pour the mixture into a prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set it into the freezer for at least 4 hours. 
7. For the rest of the raspberry sauce that remains, stir in superfine sugar (2 Tbs). (You can skip this step it you want... I didn't find it necessary to add the sugar in)

 Bittersweet Heart Chocolate: 

1. Cut parchment paper to fit a 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan. Brush vegetable oil in corners and center of the pan, pressing parchment to adhere it. Set aside.
2. Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer. Place chocolate in a medium stainless-steel bowl; place the bowl over, the simmering water to melt the chocolate (~4 to 6 minutes)
3. Remove chocolate from simmering water. Pour chocolate into prepared pan. Using a large metal offset (bent-neck) spatula, spread the chocolate evenly over the surface 1/6 inch thick. Freeze until chocolate sets, about 6 minutes.
4. Working quickly, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (3 1/4 inches across at widest point), to cut out six chocolate hearts. If chocolate begins to soften, return to freezer for several minutes. Run an offset spatula under the hearts, and place in a container. Cover and freeze until ready to use, up to 2 weeks.
   (I think I may have made a mistake when I let the chocolate set in the freezer for way more than 6 minutes. By the time I took it out to cut it with the cookie cutter, it was way to hard for me to cut it and even when I did, the chocolate shattered into random pieces. I'm thinking that you should take the chocolate out when it's in the middle of freezing but is still soft enough for you to cut through with the heart shaped cookie cutter)
   Serve this however you like :) Be creative! It doesn't have to look like the way Martha Stewart's was set up. You can place the bitter sweet chocolate off center and then the semifreddo somewhere. Garnish well with fresh raspberries and confectioner sugar! Use the raspberry sauce to decorate the plate however you want ( I may have OD'ed on that part lol but hey, this was my first try:)