Homemade Classic Puff Pastry

Making puff pastry is time consuming but it's so worth it! The picture of the left is my first attempt to make homemade puff pastry. I was glad that the pastries turned out great. 

The main ingredients for puff pastry are flour, butter, water and salt. The most important thing to remember  when making puff pastry is everything gotta be chilled;  the ingredients, utensils, cool surface and including yourself. :-) 

Puff pastry consists of many fine layers. Between every layer of dough, there's a layer of butter. During baking, the melting butter will be absorbed by the dough. The moisture from the dough is converted into steam and the expanding air lifts the pastry, keeping the layers separated. Thus, this makes the pastry crisp and flaky:)

So for my first attempt, I decided to follow the recipe from Not Without Salt. She shared step-by-step pictures and video to make puff pastry too. Cool! ;)

Classic puff pastry

Ingredients:

13 oz (390 g) all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp (7 ml) salt
3 oz (90 g) unsalted butter, cold
7 fluid oz (210 ml) water, cold
10 oz (300 g) unsalted butter, softened

To form the detrempe (dough), sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Cut the cold butter (3 oz) into small pieces and then cut the pieces into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add all the water at once. Using a rubber spatula or your fingers, gradually draw the flour into the water. Mix until all the flour is incorporated. Do not knead. The detrempe should be sticky and shaggy-looking.

Note: The detrempe can be made in a food processor. To do so, combine the flour, salt and pieces of cold butter in a food processor bowl fitted with the metal blade. Process until a coarse meal is formed. With the processor running, slowly add the water. Turn the machine off as soon as the dough comes together to form a ball. Process with the remainder of the recipe.

Turn the detrempe out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a few times by hand, rounding it into a ball. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill overnight.

To roll in the butter, first prepare the softened butter by placing it between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll the softened butter into a rectangle, approximately 5 inches by 8 inches (12.5 cm by 20 cm). It is important that the detrempe and butter be of almost equal consistency. If necessary, allow the detrempe to sit at room temperature to soften or chill the butter briefly to harden.

On a lightly floured board, roll the detrempe into a rectangle approximately 12 inches by 15 inches (30cm by 37.5 cm) Lift and rotate the dough as necessary to prevent sticking.

Use a dry pastry brush to brush away any flour from the dough’s surface. Loose flour can cause gray streaks and can prevent the puff pastry from rising properly when baked.

Peel one piece of plastic wrap from the butter. Position the butter in the center of the rectangle and remove the remaining plastic. Fold the four edges of the detrempe over the butter enclosing it completely. Stretch the dough if necessary; it is important that none of the butter be exposed.

With the folded side facing up, press the dough several times with a rolling pin. Use a rocking motion to create ridges in the dough. Place the rolling pin in each ridge and slowly roll back and forth to widen the ridge. Repeat until all the ridges are doubled in size. Using the ridges as a starting point, roll the dough out into a smooth, even rectangle approximately 8 inches by 24 inches (20 cm by 50 cm). Be careful to keep the corners of the dough as right angles.

Use a dry pastry brush to remove any loose flour from the dough’s surface. Fold the dough in thirds, like a business letter. If one end is damaged or in worse condition, fold it in first; otherwise, start at the bottom. This completes the first turn.

Rotate the block of dough 90 degrees so that the folded edge is on your left and the dough faces you like a book. Roll out the dough again, repeating the ridging technique. Once again, the dough should be in a smooth, even rectangle of approximately 8 inches by 24 inches (20 cm by 60 cm).

Fold the dough in thirds again, completing the second turn. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling and folding technique until the dough has had a total of five turns. Do not perform more than two turns without a resting and chilling period. Cover the dough completely and chill overnight before shaping and baking.

A short video from Ashley Rodriguez.

Notes:

Puff pastry is cooked when the bottom of the item is browned and the pastry does not collapse into itself.

• Use a very sharp knife to cut puff pastry. A blunt knife will crush the layers together and prevent the pastry from rising to full height.
• Do not get egg wash or milk wash on the sides of the pastry. This will glue the layers together during baking and result in uneven lift.
• Excess flour left on the item will burn easily in the oven. Dust it off with a soft pastry brush.
• Always bake puff pastry in a very hot oven (220°C/425°F). A hot oven ensures the moisture in the dough turns into steam, which is what makes puff pastry rise.
• Puff pastry should only be baked for a short time. 15 to 20 minutes usually suffices. This is dependent on the oven and recipe used.
• Open the oven flue during baking to allow steam to escape and the pastry to dry, or failing that, open the oven door near the end of the baking.
• When using puff pastry as a base, small holes can be cut into the pastry allowing airflow to reach the under side (sometimes referred to as puffin' holes).
• Puff pastry can be refrigerated for a week, or frozen for three months. Stored puff pastry will have less lift than fresh pastry.

 

Homemade Chwee Kueh

Chwee Kueh is a type of steamed rice cake, served with fried preserved radish or some top theirs with a fried shallot oil and hot chilli sauce. This is a popular Chinese breakfast item in Singapore. 

Ingredients:

Topping 

60ml cooking oil

3 cloves garlic (minced)

100 gram ground beef or chicken

200g preserved radish(chai poh) (if you want less salty, soak for a while before you used them) 

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tbsp black sweet soy

Rice cake

 180g rice flour

2 tbsp sago flour (I used 1½ tbsp tapioca flour + ½ tbsp cornflour)

750ml water

2 tbsp corn oil

½ tsp salt

Method for the topping:

Heat oil in a saucepan or wok and saute the minced garlic until fragrant. Add meat and preserved radish. Stir and add the seasonings (sugar, white pepper and black sweet soy). Cook until dry. Then set aside to cool. 

Method for the steamed rice cake:

Prepare your steamer and grease your molds/cups. 

Stir the rice flour and sago flour (tapioca flour+cornflour) in a large bowl. make a hold in the center and 300 ml water to form a smooth batter. Strain the batter to remove any lumps. Set aside. 

Bring the remaining of the water, salt and salt to a boil.  Pour the boiling water mixture to the batter and stir well and quickly. Pour the batter into the molds and steam it over high heat for 10-12 minutes or until the rice cake is cooked. (Depending on your molds, the timing varies). Remove and let it cool for 10 minutes. Remove the kueh, top it with preserved radish and serve. 

Note:

The recipe I used was from the newspaper cutting but I found an excellent info about chwee kueh from Gastronommy. Check it out!

Kawaii Panda Bread

This is a Japanese bread. It's called Kawaii Panda Bread... It looked so cute. I kept thinking about it ever since I saw the photo. Finally, I made it on last Thursday. It was quite a challenge, a lot of hard work and time consumed since it was my first time.

I found the recipe from Makansutra Blog Street!. Originally the recipe is from Taro Taro at www(.)cookpad(.)com. Thank you to Ms Lorriane Koh for the translation. Since I did not have green tea powder in hand, I substituted it with pandan essence. After all that hard work, I was very pleased with how my panda bread turned out. The bread taste really good but I feel I need to make it a little more lighter. Hubby said I did a great job and even suggested to create other animals' face... haha..

Spread butter over a slice of a warm fresh bread... ...Oooo... yummy! ;)

Ingredients:

For the dough

3 cups of all purpose flour

3 tbsp of sugar

1 cup of milk together with 1 egg yolk

¾ tbsp of salt

1 ½ tablespoon of butter

2 ½ tsp dry yeast

For the coloring of the Panda face

1 tbsp green tea powder mixed with 2 tsp hot water (I used pandan essence)

3 ½ tsp of Cocoa powder mixed with 1 ½ tsp of hot water

Method:

Warm the milk and egg mixture by placing it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Set aside.

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, butter and yeast together in a bowl.

 

Then add the milk and egg mixture. Mix together for about ten minutes. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into three portions – two about equal in size to each other, while the third should be sized about 1/3 of the other two. (Refer to image.)

Place one of the larger pieces in a bowl and add in the green tea. Mix together till the green is evenly spread out. Cover the green dough with cling wrap and set aside.

Take the smallest piece of dough and mix in the cocoa powder. Cover the brown dough with cling wrap and set aside. Do this for the white dough as well. Leave the dough pieces for about an hour (in a warm, covered surrounding) till they double in size.

Now it’s time to craft the panda face. Take the white dough and separate into three pieces – two about equal in size to each other, while the third should be sized about 1/3 of the other two (as you did earlier).

Take the brown dough piece and separate into four equal pieces.

Use one of the larger white pieces to form the face. Use two quarters of brown dough to form the eyes. Place the smallest white dough piece in the middle of the two brown “eyes”, to keep them in place. Flatten the other big white dough piece and wrap it around tightly. 

As for the other two brown dough pieces, roll them into “ears” and place them on top. Divide the green dough into two – the bigger piece is about 4 times the size of the smaller piece.Place the smaller green part in the middle of the ears. Flatten the bigger green part and wrap it tightly around your creation.

Place the whole piece into a lightly greased loaf pan, cover and let rise until doubled, for around 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven for half an hour at 400° F (200° C) in the meantime. Once the dough is doubled, place it in the oven for 30 minutes.

HERSHEY'S Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

I asked hubby if he wants chocolate chip cookies or brownies. He said brownies with a big grin on his face! I was looking for the recipe in my favorite recipe book and guess what! I didn't have any brownies recipes at all. I thought I might just make chocolate chips cookies but when I looked at the HERSHEY'S semi-sweet chocolate chips packet, there's a recipe for brownies. Yay! (I didn't even think about it at first) 

The brownies turned out great, not dry. I did a little change. Instead of using 2 cups of white sugar, I used 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar. For the frosting; in the middle of mixing, I did not have enough powdered sugar. So I took some of the white sugar and blend in my small blender. I thought I had it good but not good enough.. When I mixed those sugar with my not-done-yet frosting, it didn't turned out so smooth, a little grainy.  Well, we enjoyed the brownies and the smell lingering within the apartment. Yum-Yum!! :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup butter, melted and divided

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup HERSHEY'S semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

One-bowl Buttercream Frosting

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.

Sift together cocoa and baking soda in a large bowl, stir in 1/3 cup butter. Add boiling water, stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs (make sure to stir quickly when adding the egg) and remaining butter. Stir until smooth. Add the flour, vanilla and salt; blend completely. Stir in chocolate chips and pour into prepared pan. 

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely in the pan on a rack. Frost with One-bowl Buttercream Frosting. Cut into squares. Makes about 36 brownies.

One-bowl Buttercream Frosting

6 tbsp butter

softened 2-2/3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup HERSHEY'S cocoa powder **

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter in a medium bowl. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting. 

** I did not add the cocoa powder in my frosting.

Yorkshire Puddings

My first home-made Yorkshire Puddings. It was easy to make. It was funny when I opened the oven door and saw that my Yorkshire Puddings rose on one side. hehe.. but seriously they were delicious. I used the recipe from Steamy Kitchen. :) 

Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp table salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature

3 tbsp beef fat

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and salt. Sift in the flour in three stages, each time whisking until flour disappears before adding in more flour. Let rest at a room temperature for 30 minutes and up to 3 hours.

When the roast is finished, spoon out 3 tablespoons of beef fat. Turn oven to 450 degrees F. Stir 1 tablespoon of the beef fat into the batter. In a muffin pan, fill each cup with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining beef fat. 

When oven has reached temperature, place muffin pan with fat into oven for 3 minutes until smoking hot. carefully take out pan and pour batter into each cup, filling to 2/3 full. Immediately return to oven and bake for 20 minutes. Do not open oven door during baking or the Yorkshire Puddings will collapse. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, pierce each Yorkshire Pudding with toothpick to allow steam to escape and prevent them from collapsing.