green tea marble cake

I wasn't kidding when I said I'd backlog on all the stuff I've created in these eight months. It's not a lot, but it's definitely a bit more content for this tiny blog.

Normally, I sit around on foodgawker and look at something that strikes my fancy, but this time, two things were certain. One—I was in the mood for something green tea flavored, because I have an obsession with tea and baked goods. Two—I wanted something that could satisfy my sweet tooth, but not something overwhelming like a chocolate pound cake. So I went to Kirbie's Cravings, because I love going there when Foodgawker doesn't have anything that I'm immediately attracted to...and I found this little gem. (Well, I always find a little gem there. That site! Just... so full of gems!) Anyways, green tea marble cake! After skimming the instructions, I decided to give this a spin.




Green tea marble cake (Recipe from Kirbie's Cravings)

 Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• 1 tablespoons matcha powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line 9 x 5 loaf pan with foil.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with sour cream. Add vanilla, and mix 1 minute.
4. Portion out 1/3 of the batter into a small bowl. Mix in matcha powder, stirring well to combine.
5. Spread one-third of the plain batter into prepared pan. Use a small offset spatchula to ensure an even, flat layer. Dollop with 1/3 of matcha batter and use a spatchula to gently spread the matcha layer on the top of the other. Spread another third of the plain batter on top, followed by another third of the matcha batter. Repeat one more time so that the final layer is the rest of the matcha batter. Run a thin knife through batter to marbleize. Run spatchula over top to ensure the batter is flat in the end.
6. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire cooking rack for a few minutes. Lift cake out and allow to cool completely on rack.

The result came out pretty nicely! Not too sweet, but not bland, with just a hint of matcha that made this stand out a bit more than the standard marble cake. I think I baked it for a little too long (I left it in there for around 55 minutes) so it was a bit browner than I'd have liked it to be, but the inside was still moist, so I can't complain, right?

giga pudding

What do you know—eight months later and I've finally remembered to update this thing. I'm sorry for the two followers that followed me expecting updates... College for the most part is extremely time consuming, and I haven't been allowed to really jot down my baking adventures. Not that I have a lot when I'm in college anyway. Well, that's not entirely it. Part of it is because I get super lazy when it comes to blogging, and I got into a cooking/baking slump towards the beginning of my spring semester in college. That semester was full of Chiptole and other sorts of fast foods that I don't want to recall.

But now it's summer, and I've decided to at give this another go. Currently, I'm in Hong Kong, the home of good foods and where everything is tasty and nothing hurts. (Just kidding, everything hurts because it's either stir-fried or deep-fried. Agony.) Regardless, expect posts related to Hong Kong food and Asian cuisine in general! While I might not be blogging about my own food, maybe you'll be interested in the food that I've been trying out here...? Maybe? Here's hoping!

I'll also probably post a couple of bread/baking recipes that I've done since the last time I updated. My memory's a bit fuzzy on some of the things, but if anything, it might still be good for reference or something!

 In any case, to make this entry at least a little bit relevant, here's a quick and easy dessert recipe. Giga pudding! My roommate and I made this the day before summer break started. We originally planned on making macarons, but due to lack of time and coordination and general procrastination, we decided to throw something together quickly so that we guaranteed ourselves a dessert at the end of the day, haha.



For those who don't know, Giga Pudding originated from this Japanese commercial, selling...well... a bucket-sized pudding. Well they call it pudding, but you know, it looks like flan to me. (I still refer to it as pudding though, too...) And seeing as we can't buy jumbo-sized pudding here, my roommate and I took it upon ourselves to make our own.

Ingredients:

• 2 packs Royal Flan Mix
• 2 quarts milk

Directions: 

1. Open the caramel sauce packet and pour it into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Pour milk into a large pot, and add in the flan mixture. Stir until smooth.
3. Stir frequently, and turn off the heat when it comes to a boil.
4. Pour the milk/flan mixture into the large bowl. Let cool.
5. Store in refrigerator for 2-4 hours, or until firm to the touch.
6. When firm, use a plastic knife to go around the outside of the pudding to loosen it up.
7. Grab a large plate, and flip the pudding onto it!
8. Jiggle your giant pudding in satisfaction.

 Ta-dahhhh! Easy, right? We don't have large pots or bowls in our teeny little college dorm, so we had to improvise. We used two pots to make the mixture (1 packet/1 quart of milk per pot) and we ended up using my rice cooker pot to pour/solidify the flan in. That's why you can see the little notch markings on our giga pudding, because the notches are there to measure water and rice levels for cooking rice. (Teehee.)

It didn't come out as big as the Japanese giga pudding, but if we had used 3 packets of flan mix, we wouldn't have been able to pour all of it into one container. My rice pot simply isn't big enough—it fits exactly two quarts! Our giga pudding came out very syrupy too, because we used a lot of caramel sauce, but if you want it less sweet/less brown/less caramely, just eyeball it and see how much sauce you want to put. Our pudding resulted in something that was rich, smooth, and very fun to eat—we were surprised because we had such good results, despite it being box flan. And we had a lot of fun sharing it with our friends...no one could stop jiggling the pudding around, so we made a mess.

And just as a side note: The instructions say to add egg or use a richer (larger fat %) milk if you want a richer flan, but we used 2% skim milk without any eggs and it still worked out rich enough for us!

green tea wassant-style rolls.

I made these maybe two or three weeks ago, but I've been so behind with everything lately (in preparation for college!) that I hadn't got a chance to share this until now. I guess being inspired by the finale of Masterchef had something to do with it, but I think the larger factor is just my boredom combined with the need to do something productive late at night.

In a lot of blog posts, and especially on Foodgawker, everyone's green tea treats always look so bold, vibrant, and green. Delicious. Inviting. And then I try out those same recipes to get a completely different shade of green. It would be discouraging, if it weren't for the fact that the things usually at least still tasted great. But I'm trying to figure out what it is I'm missing. Is it the powder that makes a difference? Do people add green food coloring secretly and not tell me about it? I just want to know what I'm doing wrong with my green tea! I hope for that bright green color just as much as everyone else who loves green tea, you know?

So I decided to challenge myself, and use green tea powder even though I knew that my results wouldn't look as deliciously green. I ended up getting drawn in by a particular recipe for green tea brioches. It looked exciting, and I was itching to try something new apart from the standard loaf of bread - even the directions seemed a little bit more difficult compared to what I usually followed... Like, what the heck was a tour double? I had no idea, just that it involved a lot of folding, and a lot of rolling. Oh well, what better way to find out what they meant...by testing it out?

The entire process was simple enough, but it kept me bustling about the kitchen for almost the entire time. I thought I'd have enough time to sit back and relax while the dough was in for its first rise (2 hours!) I ended up having to make the matcha filling, and by the time I was done with that, I had to clean the mess of dirty pots and pans that had accumulated. As soon as all of that was over, the two hours I had intended on using to relax was gone, and I had to get back to work again.

This was my end result. A far cry from the pictures on the blog that I was following, but at least it still tasted good. And a tour double wasn't as intimidating as it seemed, even if I did such a poor job on it. Maybe the swirls of green tea and bread would have been more evident if the green was brighter, but we all know that's a problem I've yet to solve right now.

The recipe calls them brioches, but I'm not sure if they're really a brioche, or a wassant, or a weird hybrid of both. So if someone could actually clear that up for me, that'd be pretty neat. But for those who want to give this a shot, here's the recipe:

Green tea brioches (Recipe from Foodbeam)

Brioche dough:

• 300g strong flour
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tsp dehydrated yeast
• 125g whole milk
• one egg
• 50g butter diced and at room temperature

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except for the butter and mix until it forms a rough dough.
2. On an unfloured surface, start kneading the dough incorporating the butter as you do so until it forms a smooth ball; around 8 minutes.
3. Place the dough back into the bowl – covered with a cloth – and leave in a warm place for 2 hours or until double in size.

NOTE: When forming the dough, it is going to be really sticky. It was a monster trying to knead this dough. What I found effective was this method of kneading the dough that.... really isn't kneading, but more like beating your dough up on the table by slapping it on there for like, 15 minutes or more. But for me and my lack of stamina and not-so-strong wrists, it was a little suffering, so I cheated a bit and added some flour... I couldn't handle how sticky it was... Oops.

Green tea filling:

• 80g milk
• one egg white
• 50g caster sugar
• 20g flour
• 20g matcha green tea
• 10g butter

1. Bring the milk to the boil. While it’s heating, mix the white and sugar in a bowl until combined. Mix in the flour and matcha green tea, and beat until homogeneous.
2. When the milk is boiling, pour it over the matcha mixture, whisking as you do so.
   
3. Transfer back into the pan, and cook on medium heat until thick. Mix in the butter.
4. Spread it on a baking tray lined with cling film, around 20×15cm. Chill.

Shaping the Brioche:

1. Remove any air from the brioche dough by gently patting it down, then roll it into a 30×20cm rectangle.
   
2. Place the matcha filling in the middle, then fold the dough over it, sealing the extremities together.
   
3. Roll into a longer rectangle, then make a tour double.
   
4. Repeat the folding one more time, then roll the dough back into a 30×20cm.
5. Roll the dough onto itself to form a log.
6. Trim the ends, then using a sharp knife, slice into 3cm-thick segments.
7. Butter 12 5.5cm-wide rings, and place the slices into them, cut side up. Or if you’re making a loaf, arrange six slices into a loaf tin, and the remaining slices into rings.
8. Cover loosely with cling film, and allow to rise for 30 to 45 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

NOTE: View the tour double image that Foodbeam provided if you're a little lost! It helped me a lot when I was trying to figure it out. Also, if stuff starts leaking and oozing out, it's really not a big deal. It might be a little sticky to work with once the matcha filling starts to gush out here and there, but I think it's pretty normal. I was a little too nervous to roll my dough out too thin, so I didn't have that problem the first time around, but the second time, I had stuff oozing out everywhere... it's just a messy experience.

As you can tell, I decided to just cram them all together in a little loaf pan instead of putting them each in their separate metal rings like you'd normally do for brioches. I kind of liked them all sitting in their loaf pan, all nice and snug. And they tasted good! I wasn't so sure that they were going to taste of anything but just bread, because I wasn't sure how the green tea filling was going to work its flavor in there, but there was just a...a tiny hint of it, somewhere in there. I wish the green tea had a stronger flavor in the bread, but that might just be me and my love for green tea.

...But I still want to know why my green tea baked goods are always a poopy green. :(

earl grey shortbread cookies.

I love shortbread. And I think I've also shared my love for earl grey tea some time not too long ago. So when I was snacking on some crackers the other day during the afternoon, I decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to combine both shortbread and earl grey tea into one thing. Earl grey shortbread cookies, obviously.

As soon as I finished up my little mid-day snack, I decided to get to work on finding a recipe, and ended up satisfied with this one, by Nutrition Kitchen! It seemed too good to be true - 40 calories per cookie? I know it's a large number, but for a shortbread cookie, it is a small price to pay, compared to the 80+ calorie ones I've eaten.

Cookies have always been pretty easy - I don't want to jinx it, but I've always had somewhat good luck with them and the instructions for cookies are as simple as it gets. And these cookies are no exception. You literally measure out everything, mix it all together according to instructions, pop it in the fridge, cut 'em out, and bake!

I didn't follow the instructions to a T, deciding that it was enough dough for one long log, since I had room in the fridge to fit it all in, anyway. I guess it's just a matter of how much space you have in the fridge! But I also decided to cut these out thicker the first time (about 3/4") since my mom liked thicker shortbread cookies, and that came out to be just a little over 2 dozen cookies. The second time around, I cut them a bit thinner (about 1/2") and I got just around 3 dozen - naturally the amount you get just depends on how thick you cut your cookies!

Speaking of cutting these cookies though, that was my favorite part. Getting them out from the fridge and then cutting them all up into tiny circles. I should think you could roll out the dough and then cut out cute shapes with it, but I was getting impatient and I wanted to taste these babies soon! So in the oven they went (about 10 minutes for me) and out came this delicious aroma of earl grey.. I couldn't wait till they cooled down some.

Really though, the phrase, "it's as easy as pie" should be changed to, "it's as easy as cookies" because these are the quickest, simplest yet most delicious shortbread cookies I've ever wanted to come into my life. So without further ado!

Earl Grey Tea Cookies (from Nutrition Kitchen)
makes 3 dozen*

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Earl Grey tea, loose leaf
• 7 Tbsp unsalted butter, cooled slightly until softened, diced
• 1 Tbsp brewed Earl Grey tea, cooled

* - Just depends on how thick/thin you slice 'em!

Preparation:

1. In a small bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Set aside. In a spice grinder or food processor (spice grinder works best), process the loose leaf tea until coarsely ground.
2. In a food processor, add the powdered sugar, tea, and butter. Pulse the mixture until the sugar and butter are combined. Add the flour mixture, and process the dough until it starts to comes together. Then drizzle in the tablespoon of brewed tea, and process until all ingredients are combined.
3. Split the dough in half. Form each half into a log, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap each log in a piece of plastic and place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours until cold (I left mine in overnight).
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice the cookies so that they’re approximately 1/2 inch in width. Arrange the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until slightly browned on the edges. Then have some tea time!

Ten minutes allowed them to be kind of softer than how shortbread cookies usually are, but I liked them a bit on the softer side - if you like them crunchier, anywhere from 11-13 minutes might not be a bad idea, though. They tasted so much of earl grey, I could hardly contain my happiness. I know I'll be making these again and again (especially because there's no egg in this!) and I've already made three batches in the past two weeks!

The third batch I made though, was a green tea version which I don't think I'll blog about, since it's so similar to this one already. It had juuuust a smidgen of green tea, which I love, but it was not enough green tea for me - so I'll be adding more next time. I'm actually very excited to try all different variations with this recipe, especially black sesame since that's one of my favorite flavors.

hokkaido milk bread.

It took me awhile to gather the courage to attempt this bread by myself. Really, you have no idea how nervous I was to make this bread, and how excited I was to see the outcome. I swear someone just gave me a shot of adrenaline before I started mixing ingredients together, and it didn't wear off until I cut a slice of bread to try out for myself.

Making the tangzhong itself was a little intimidating in itself. Tangzhong, if you didn't know, is a starter mixture that's made simply with flour and water. Its purpose is to make the bread stay fluffier for longer, and also creates that slightly chewy and "elastic" texture that is commonly found in Asian pastry buns!

Anyway, I had measured it out and carefully stirred, looking carefully to see if I could spot the "lines" that show up when it hits around 65 Celsius. I didn't have a thermometer, so I just had to eye it! I actually messed up the first time, because I had to answer the phone - the flour and water got way too hot, so I had to start over, but it looked just like it should have, the second time around. "Yesss, success!" But this was only the beginning!

Was it a success? Was it a failure? I was extremely nervous about it when I took it out of the oven. Seriously, this (to me) was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as far as bread is concerned. Since I don't have a standing mixer or a bread machine, making the hokkaido milk bread with the tangzhong method was really hard because it required at least 30 minutes of kneading.

I'm normally a fan of kneading bread. There's something about kneading bread that just feels so comfortable, so fun to work with, and ultimately, it's relaxing. But when I had to stand here and knead non-stop for 30 minutes, it was definitely a little too much of a good thing. But that was the hardest part about this bread. Just the kneading. Looking back, it wasn't as formidable of an opponent as I thought it would be. I thought it'd be much more complicated, for some reason, but once the kneading was through, everything else was easy breezy!

If you guys want to try on your own, I suggest heading over to Kirbie's Cravings to see more detailed instructions and pictures! I followed her blog step by step, and managed to get this (somewhat) beautiful loaf!

...Okay, so it's a little lumpy, and not as pretty as hers, but not bad for a first try, right? Anyways, for reference, here's the recipe! I strongly suggest you guys head over to Kirbie's Cravings or Christine's Recipes to get more detailed information and pictures about it though! It'll make the process that much less intimidating and easy! (Not that it is extremely intimidating or anything... I'm just inexperienced!)

Milk Bread (adapted from two of Christine’s recipes here and here,which she adapted from the 65 degrees book)

Yields 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups bread flour
• 3tbsp+2tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup milk
• 120g tangzhong (click here for making tangzhong)
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Directions

1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.
2. When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle.
   

   NOTE: If you guys are doing it by hand like I did, follow the instructions up till the dough hook attachment..and knead, knead, knead away! Since the directions were taken from Kirbie's Cravings, I thought I might add for reference, that it took me approximately 35 minutes to knead by hand. I guess it varies from person to person, but one way you can tell for sure is by checking with the windowpane test!

3. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
4. Transfer to a clean surface. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
5. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top.
6. Flip dough over with the folds facing down,and flatten dough with rolling pin.
7. Flip dough over so the folds face up. Now roll the dough up. Place each of the rolls into the bread pan and put a piece of plastic wrap over the rolls. Let them rise until double the size, approximately another 40 minutes.
8. Beat an egg and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny eggwash finish.
9. Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

It turned out soft - extremely soft, like I was eating a cloud! I haven't had bread this soft since I was in Hong Kong. It was like an instant nostalgia trip back to places like Panash, and Yamazaki's! The bread had just the right amount of sweetness, so that it worked extremely well with a small bit of butter - perfect for a small little breakfast, served with a cup of milk tea on the side.

So! The tangzhong method is definitely welcome in my house! I'm glad I discovered it, but I just hope that next time I try variations of this bread, I'll be able to use a standing mixer. Since I had carpal tunnel once back in sophomore year of high school, my wrist has been much more fragile than it used to be, and kneading by hand for as long as 30 minutes sure took its toll on me! A few hours after I finished making the bread, my wrist felt incredibly uncomfortable and it hurt to move my wrist too much.. So I'm hoping for a standing mixer to make things a little easier for me in the future!

earl grey tea cupcakes

I've been feeling pretty under the weather the past few days, and because of it, I've been baking non-stop. As soon as I wake up, I'll grab a piece of fruit as breakfast, and then immediately whip out ingredients from the pantry to make whatever I'm in the mood for.

The past few days have very much been all about bread, but I suppose I'll backlog about those later - I decided to make my first "real" entry concerning baking right now because a friend asked me how I made these, and because it's fairly easy, I thought it'd also work for a quick blog post.

Let me start off by saying I know little to nothing about cupcakes. I've only worked with cupcakes maybe once or twice in the past. One of those times, I failed because the tops managed to cave in and refused to give me peaks, and the other time, I decided to use cake mix just to be on the safe side. Yeah, those looked good, but they tasted like cardboard. Knowing this, it's safe to assume that I like to try avoiding cupcakes unless I'm really in the mood for them. I did a good job avoiding them. Partially because I don't like store-bought ones since they throw so much frosting on the top.

And then I woke up this morning, craving cupcakes.




So here it is in all its...close-up glory. My little earl grey tea cupcake. To be honest, I was very satisfied with the taste, as well as that neat little bit of crunch that the top had. I fancy a small bit of that crunch on my cupcakes, since most of the cupcakes I got in the past already have a soggy and wet top from all the frosting that's slapped on top of it. (Can you tell I'm not fond of frosting?)

The recipe I chose was taken from this blog, though I made a little bit of my own changes just because I felt particularly ~adventurous~ today. But not really. They're minor changes, so feel free to just stick with the original instructions as opposed to my somewhat amateur methods! Anyway, the instructions/recipe (with a minor tweak and some confusing sidenotes) are as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar*
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbs. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 2 tbsp. of loose Earl Grey tea leaves.**

* - I used 2/3 cup sugar, but the original recipe says 1 cup of sugar. My sweet tooth can't take much, and I found that the 2/3 was just the right amount of sweetness for me, so just experiment with this one!
** - I just used two teabags. I like earl grey tea, and I really wanted to taste it in my cupcake. Don't judge me!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Fill a cupcake pan with liners.
3. Beat the butter until creamy, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure that they are incorporated thoroughly.
5. In a bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients, including the tea leaves.
6. Add half of the dry mixture.
7. Add the milk then the remaining flour, stir until combined.
8. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
9. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, rotating halfway to ensure even baking.
10. Let cool completely before frosting.

Since I used two teabags, I decided to cut one of the teabags and pour the loose earl grey leaves into the dry mixture, and the other one, I decided to steep in my milk which I had microwaved beforehand. I wasn't sure how strong the flavor would come out if I had just dumped the unsteeped tea bags into the dry mixture, so I was just experimenting. I wish I knew what I was doing in the kitchen sometimes!

Either way, I put my (now) milktea to the side as I beat together my wet ingredients in one bowl, and combined my dry ingredients in another bowl. Around step 7, I poured the milktea, as well as the tea leaves into the cupcake batter. In summary: everything just gets thrown in eventually, I just decided to be difficult and steep half my tea in the milk first.


I skimped out on the amount of batter I put in my liners. Which is why they kind of look flat, maybe. I'm actually not sure. Sometimes cupcakes look flat, maybe? I'm no expert in cupcakes. It's really not my comfort zone at all. Regardless, my second batch had cute, round peaks, but my family decided to devour those before I had the opportunity to take pictures of them.

I'm very happy with the flavor though! These had such a nice earl grey flavor to them, and it wasn't like "teehee, it's a subtle hint of earl grey," it was like, "woahhh, i'm definitely in your face and all over your taste buds," and I liked that. They were pretty moist and very soft too, two very important features that I had missed because I hadn't had cupcakes in a looooong time. Either way, it's worth trying out if you're a fan of earl grey tea. And cupcakes.