Edible gardening

I've been wanting to make an edible potplant for the past year. I'm not sure where it came from, but I recall seeing photos of potplant desserts popping up. Perhaps it started from Heston Blumenthal and his amazing edible garden? I'm not really sure. I just really wanted one..

Instagram is a wonderful thing. It's one of the things I use as a "to do", "to go", "to eat" wishlist. Okay.. call me Asian (well actually, I think it started off being an "Asian thing" to do, but now it's just a "foodie thing"), but I love taking photos of food. Food is meant to be seen by the eyes, smelt by the nose and tasted by the tastebuds. For me it's smell, see and then taste. And because you can't preserve smell and taste, you can at least capture how it looks. Hehe :P

When I was in Sydney this year, I wanted to get a potplant dessert from Blackflower Patisserie. Thanks to Instagram, I saw a photo of it whilst I was in Sydney and decided to go find it. (I love how Instagram tells me where to go.. instantly. It also happened in Tokyo when I saw a photo of a really cute cafe with the cutest matcha latte art. So I went there on my last day of my holiday). But when I got to Blackflower Patisserie, I found out that it was only served during the evening. I was quite disappointed because I had to fly back that evening.

But... as I was browsing Instagram for any cute (I really am a sucker for cute things..) or interesting things in Seoul before I went again, I found out about Banana Tree. They served potplant desserts and potplant bingsoo! I saw it. I wanted it.. and I got it! Hehe. They didn't serve the bingsoo during winter though, so I was a tad disappointed.

The potplant looked great! I think I was more in love with the shovel spoons though. The dessert itself was just a small patty case of cream and cake. A tad disappointing for the price, but definitely cute! I eventually decided that I had to find those shovel spoons for myself and found them on ebay. :)

I decided that I'd make my own pot plant desserts. I tried looking for mini terracotta pots but couldn't find any. So I ended up with plastic ones.

Edible potplants
Makes about 10

Matcha genoise (see recipe below)
Matcha mousse (see recipe below)
Black sesame crumble (I made mine with blacksesame, butter, sugar and a little flour)
Matcha cookie crumble (I made mine, but I don't have a recipe for you)
Chocolate mushrooms (I made mine)
Chocolate rocks (I bought a packet)

This was how I imagined it:

Matcha genoise

2 eggs
40g sugar
40g plain flour
8g matcha
20g butter, melted and cooled

Cream the eggs and sugar. Add in sifted flour and matcha.
Fold in melted butter.
Pour into a lined slice tray.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 15mins.

Matcha mousse

100ml milk
10g matcha
1 egg, separated
40g sugar
80ml cream
1 tsp gelatin powder

Beat egg yolks and 20g sugar until pale.
Heat up milk and matcha on low heat. Take off from heat.
Gradually pour the eggs into milk, constantly mixing.
Add the gelatin.
Sieve the mixture if needed.
Add the cream.
Whip egg whites with 20g of sugar until stiff peaks.
Gently fold into matcha mix.

To assemble:

Make sure your pots are clean firstly.
I double lined mine with some IKEA cupcake patty casings as they're taller than the average patty case. Stickytape it at the bottom so it stays.

Cut rounds of cake out. I used the back of a piping nozzle.
Layer one round of cake. Half fill with mousse. Add another piece of cake. Fill with mousse to the top.
Refrigerate overnight.

Sprinkle black sesame crumble.
Gently twist a toothpick into the mushroom chocolate stalk (This will keep it steady). Stick the mushroom into the cake.
Sprinkle some matcha cookie crumbs. Add a few chocolate rocks.
Refrigerate when not consuming.

Great for gifting ;)

I love my shovel spoon! It also came with a shovel fork. Hehe.

Chubby Pocky :)

Everytime I'm back here, I say, it's been a while. Haha.. I'm sorry. I'm still here, but not here us much as I used to be. :( I've been baking/cooking, but I just haven't been blogging about it. I thought it'd be worth me blogging this post though, seeing as I'd probably want to make these again. :)

I thought to myself the other day.. "how hard is it to make my own Pocky?". I actually wanted to make giant pocky (I bought a box of matcha and a box of melon ones from Japan earlier in the year, but I don't have anymore). But seeing as I've never tried making these before, I didn't want to get my hopes up on such a big scale. So I made something in between. I call them chubby pocky. :P

I made two batches: purple sweet potato (using the purple sweet potato powder I found at Bangsan Market in Seoul a few months ago) and matcha (I have lots of matcha. Hehe).

My house has been smelling really nice over the past few days with all the baking. I have heaps of chocolate and caramel chip cookies that I made earlier this week too. I think it's time for me to stop..... until next week. Next week or so I shall start my Christmas baking! :)

Homemade pocky
Makes about 33-34 medium chubby sticks (~15cm)

100g skim condensed milk (1/4 cup)
20g water (2 Tbsp)
200g plain flour (1 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp baking powder
30g sugar (2 Tbsp)
a pinch of salt
* some cinnamon/nutmeg (for plain biscuit sticks)
* 18g matcha powder (for matcha biscuit sticks)
75g butter, softened.

Mix condensed milk and sugar.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and *cinnamon/nutmeg OR *matcha.
I used my BEM800 stand mixer for this.
Add in butter until you form fine crumbs.
Then add in condensed milk and mix until a dough forms.
Wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate for about 30mins.

Weigh out 14gm of dough.
With your hands, firmly mould out a small sausage like shape. Place onto a smooth stable surface like a pastry board or chopping board that won't move. Using a thinner flexible chopping board, gently roll the sausage shaped dough until it thins out to about 15cm in length.

Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in a preheated 160C oven for 15-20mins.

Allow to cool.

To make chocolate dipping:

2x250gm white chocolate
4-5 Tbsp purple sweet potato powder
3-4 Tbsp matcha powder

Over a double boiler, heat 250gm of white chocolate with either of the powders until completely combined.
*Only do one flavour at a time.
Allow to cool slightly.
With a spoon, spread chocolate over the biscuit stick. Shake off excess to smooth out the chocolate.
Stand upright (I used a cookie cooking rack) and allow to set at room temperature. Do not refrigerate immediately.

Store in an airtight jar.

Mooncakes galore! :)

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

This year I made my usual snowskin mooncakes with taro lotus, green tea lotus and mung bean fillings, baked red bean mooncakes and matcha and durian ice cream mochi mooncakes!

This ube flavouring gives such a nice smell and colour! Love it! But I seriously am desperate in finding taro flavour or powder still! :( This is the 5th year of making snowskin mooncakes (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), my 2nd year of baking mooncakes and the first time making mochi icecream mooncakes! Hehe. I'm kinda getting sick of my mooncake designs now though.. I really need to look for different ones.

Before baking

Baked then eggwash applied.

And the end result? (I stole this off C's instagram :P)

Anyway, getting back to the mochi icecream mooncakes or daifuku as the Japanese call it. :)
A few weeks back, I made matcha and durian ice creams.

Durian icecream
Makes about 700ml

5 pieces of durian flesh (each seed)
350ml milk (I used Physical No Fat, as I couldn't be bothered going out to buy normal milk)
300ml cream
4 Tbsp sugar
4 egg yolks

Blend durian into a paste.
In a saucepan, heat up milk, cream and sugar until dissolved. Heat till near boiling and stir in durian.
Turn heat down.
Add egg yolks and mix until combined.
Refrigerate.
Use icecream machine as per instructions.
Place into a container, cover with cling wrap and close lid.
Freeze overnight.

And.... I can't remember my quantities for the matcha icecream anymore :( (I seriously feel like I'm getting dementia). There were no eggs involved in the icecream.

Anyway, back to making the mochi ice cream mooncakes. What you need to do is scoop the icecream and set it first. I used 2 scoops of icecream (combined into one ball) per mooncake. Must work quickly to prevent melting and freeze these overnight.

For the mochi skin:
Makes enough skin for about 4-6

100g glutinous rice flour
120g sugar
200ml water
(matcha powder or durian flavouring)

lots of corn/wheat starch (~100-150g)

*I halved the quantity of each ingredient for each flavour.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper and lots of corn/wheat starch.
Mix all other ingredients until combined. Cover lightly with cling wrap.
Microwave for about 2mins. (I did 1.5min each)
The mixture should be cooked. Mix it again.
Cover lightly with cling wrap again.
Microwave for another 30 secs.
Mix again until smooth.

Place onto baking tray. Cover with more corn/wheat starch.
Push the mochi out into a rectangular shape.
Refrigerate for 30mins to an hour.
Cut mochi into about 4 sections (I ruined mine by stretching out a bit too much in some points, so only managed to get 2 usuable pieces per flavour)
Get a pieces of cling wrap.
Dust off excess corn/wheat starch from the mochi piece, place onto cling wrap.
Place ice cream ball on top, and gently wrap. Twist cling wrap tightly and freeze immediately.

Once hardened, carefully push into a mooncake mould.

Wrap into cling wrap and freeze until ready to eat.
Enjoy. Remember to drink lots of yummy tea with your mooncakes! :)

When injeolmi met matcha icecream

Asian fusion dessert; a fusion of Korean, Japanese and Chinese tastes!

Home made green tea ice cream and Korean rice cakes (injeolmi). I've always known that rice cakes and icecream can be friends. Yummy friends. Haha :P


Green tea icecream
Makes about 800ml

250ml cream
240ml milk
2/3 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tsp matcha (green tea powder)

Prepare ice-cream maker. (ie. Freeze the cannister 24hrs in advance).
In a saucepan on low heat, heat cream, milk and sugar until combined. Do not let it boil.
Cool the mixture for about 15mins.
Whisk into egg yolks and matcha.
Set aside and allow to cool completely before refrigerating until chilled.
Then follow ice cream maker instructions to create your ice cream!
Either serve immediately or place in airtight container and freeze until needed.


Ingeolmi (Korean rice cakes)
Makes.. a lot? Say, about 60?

500gm glutinous rice flour
1 3/4 cup water

1/3 cup soybean powder (plus extra if needed)
3 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup black sesame powder (plus extra if needed)
3 tbsp sugar

Boil a large pot of water.
Mix glutinous rice flour and water until a dough is formed. It should not be too wet nor too dry. So it shouldn't be sticky or crumbly to handle.
When the water is boiled, drop little balls of dough (~1.5cm in diameter) into the pot. They will rise to the top when cooked. Allow them to float at the top for a while before removing them into a bowl of cold water.

In a different dry bowl, mix soybean powder and sugar.
Drain your rice cakes and roll into soybean powder while still warm.
Set aside.
Repeat remaining rice cakes with black sesame powder if you wish.


Serve as is, or with ice cream!


I find that the soybean rice cakes taste good by themselves as the Koreans like to do. The black sesame one isn't traditionally Korean. I just wanted to try it, and the fact is, it wasn't that great by itself. Add some vanilla icecream and it'll taste much much better! Next time, I'll just stick to the traditional soybean ones! :P

Mid Autumn/Moon Festival

I never really knew what the tradition was for. All I ever remembered was eating 'moon cakes' around this time of year. I never really liked moon cakes. The traditional ones.. are too rich. Too fatty. (They have a lot of larrrrrd). Not delicious in my eyes, as a child. And I still think that way! But with the new types of moon cakes around, such as the snow skin and the mochi ones.. I've found something that I can settle for.


Last year my sister came home with some mochi mooncakes from BreadTop. (They're about $6 for 2 mini ones). And wow! They were nice! I hadn't been eating moon cakes for a while (We'd have the traditional ones each year but I'd never eat any). Haha. They were delicious, and so adorable! I knew I wanted to make some! Hehe :)

So I searched in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for some moon cake moulds. (There was a slim chance of me finding any in Melbourne. Sigh). But I came back fruitless. I did find some jelly moulds and other kueh moulds, just not proper moon cake ones. :( Luckily for me though... a friend found some in Vietnam for me. Thank you so much A! They were not mini, but they were sufficient enough. Hehe! I'm still on the search for mini moon cake moulds..

This year, we did not buy any moon cakes. It was all up to me.. :/


My first attempt at making snowskin moon cake. I'd like to say it was a success~ :)


Anyone want some for next year? Put in an order, pay me and I'll make you some. :P

(I used the jelly moulds I found in KL to make these mini ones)

Snow skin moon cake
Makes about 21 medium moon cakes

Snow skin
40g wheat starch (tang mien flour)
300g fried glutinous rice flour (koh fun)
245g icing sugar
65g shortening (I used melted copha, a vegetable shortening)
350ml cold water

matcha powder
yam/taro powder
vanilla extract

Custard (fake egg yolk)
100g sugar
25g corn flour
20g low protein flour
20g custard powder
50ml coconut milk
80ml milk
1 egg yolk
10g butter, melted
few drops of yellow colouring

Filling
250g taro paste
250g white lotus paste
250g green tea lotus paste
(I bought the pastes, which came in 500g packets. There was also red bean and mung bean also, but I didn't get them)

Make the custard first. Sift all the dry ingredients.
Add the liquid ingredients apart from the butter.
Add the melted butter when all is mixed.
Steam for 30mins or until cooked.
Leave to cool.

When cool, roll into little balls that resemble egg yolks.

For the snow skin, sift all the dry ingredients together.
I then split into 3 bowls (as I made 3 different flavours).
I add matcha powder to one bowl and yam/taro powder to another bowl.
Then split the water into the 3 bowls equally, as with the shortening.
Add some vanilla extract to the last bowl.

Mix until a dough is formed. If too sticky, add more fried glutinous rice flour until it can be handled.

Now you can start making the moon cakes!

Wrap some of the filling around each 'egg yolk'. Then wrap some of the snow skin around that. (I used the matcha snowskin with green tea paste, the vanilla snowskin with white lotus paste and the yam/taro snowskin with the taro paste)
You should now have a three layered ball (outer snowskin, filling and inner custard 'egg yolk').

Dust it with some fried glutinous rice flour. Dust the mooncake mould as well. Press gently into the mould and carefully remove.

And there you go! All you need to do is refrigerate overnight and it is now ready to serve.
They will harden as the days go by. I suggest you consume them within a week.


Slice into 4/6/8 pieces and serve with a nice cup of jasmine tea. ;)


Looks so much like an egg yolk. The texture was quite similar too! Hehe~ :)

Macarons!

Last time I tried making them, it didn't quite work out. This time.. it worked! But only after a few tweaks with the oven temperature. Too high of a temperature will make the macarons crack and you won't get the 'foot' or they won't 'pop' (as some people call it).

The macarons are chewy on the outside and soft on the inside with a very slight hint of green tea flavour amongst the almond.


My only disappointment was that I wasted 2 trays (out of 3) and they're not green enough! :(

Green tea macarons with white chocolate ganache
Makes about 25-30 or so (50-60 pieces)

Italian meringue:
55g egg white
150g caster sugar
40g water

Tant pour tant:
110g almond meal
110g pure icing sugar
55g egg white
1 tsp matcha powder
few drops of green food colouring

Ganache:
150g thickened cream
300g white cooking chocolate
(I had a lot of ganache left over.. so you might want to cut this down)

Draw circles of about 1.5cm diameter onto the back of the baking paper that you will be using. You may need 2-3 sheets depending on the size of your baking tray.

Sift almond meal, icing sugar and green tea powder twice. Add in 55g egg white and combine. Add a few drops of food colouring

Heat water with caster sugar until 116C using a candy thermometer.
In another bowl, whisk 55g egg whites until soft peaks are formed. On low speed, pour the hot syrup slowly down the sides of the bowl. Whisk until combined and thick and smooth in consistency.

Mix 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Then gently fold the rest of the meringue into the mixture within 20 strokes.

Place into a piping bag and pipe circles out onto baking paper lined trays. Sprinkle with remaining almond pieces that were sieved out earlier. Allow to dry out for at least 1hr or until a skin is formed.

While this is happening, you can make your ganache. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Remove and add cream. Mix to combine and then allow to cool. Refrigerate until use. The mixture should be smooth and not runny. Should be spreadable like.. peanut butter? (It will usually harden when cooled)

Bake macarons at 180C for 3 minutes, then down to 150C for another 5 minutes or until cooked. Bake one tray at a time.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from baking paper. Then allow to cool completely before applying ganache.

Allow to set before serving.

Refrigerate when storing.

Snowskin matcha and white chocolate marble cake with matcha mousse

07.01.09

Very long self explanatory title. The process was as long as the title. Haha.


I decided to bake a cake for someone's birthday. A green tea one. But I ended up making something you'd probably not find in bakeries.

What is and why snowskin?

Well.. snowskin as in the snowskin from snowskin mooncakes (see recipe below for what it's actually made of). And why? Because I assumed fondant would be too sweet. So I tried this alternative. Haha..

Green tea (matcha) marble cake
1 1/2 cup plain flour
100gm white cooking chocolate
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup milk
75gm butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp matcha
2 tsp vanilla essence

Sift flour with baking powder
Add egg yolk, melted butter, milk and vanilla essence

Melt white chocolate (I did it in the microwave. But be careful as you might burn the chocolate if it's in there for too long), cool.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks are formed.
Gradually add sugar until stiff peaks are formed.

Mix in the melted white chocolate into the batter mixture.
Then fold in the egg white mixture.

Split the mixture in half, mix in green tea in one.
So now you have a green mixture and a white mixture.

Mix in a pan and bake at 160C for 35mins or until cooked. (Do a poke test)

Green tea (matcha) mousse
1 tbsp gelatine powder
3 tbsp water
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp fresh milk
135gm whipped cream
1 tsp matcha
4 tbsp sugar

Whip cream with 2 tbsp sugar, set aside.
Dissolve gelatine in water and microwave.
Whisk egg 2 tbsp sugar, milk and matcha over pan, do not boil.
Pour in gelatine mix and leave to cool.
Fold in whipped cream.

Green tea (matcha) buttercream
1/2 tsp matcha
1/2 tbsp milk
1 tsp margarine, melted (I suggest perhaps 2 tsp butter instead of margarine as it didn't harden)
1/2 cup icing sugar

Mix together until smooth and green.

Snowskin
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup fried glutinous rice flour (koh fun)
1/3 cup water, cold

Mix together. Knead till smooth, adding more koh fun/icing if too sticky.

Assembly

Cut sides of cake.
Split the cake into two layers.

Spread mousse onto one layer of cake and place the other layer on top (I didn't do this so one side of the cake wouldn't sit still when cut)

Spread buttercream all over the cake.

Wrap snowskin around cake carefully and decorate as required.

By the way, I didn't draw the face with an inky pen. It's black food colouring. I used a toothpick to draw it on. Oh. And I forgot to mention how everything was stuck on. I used glue! Haha. Nah, I mixed some icing with milk and made a paste. That was my glue :)

See how the snowskin didn't stick? And the bottom layer of cake isn't so attached? :(
I also forgot to mention that this dries out quickly. The cake needs to be refrigerated until serving as the snowskin likes to dry out.

I wouldn't mind trying this again. But I'll need to buy some more matcha. :)