Pierre Herme’s Genoise v. 2.1

The middle of this cake sank halfway through baking while the top got more and more brown.

This cake is sweet, and rather sticky. The center column of the cake was more tender and had smaller air pockets than the sides! It’s almost as if there were 2 different cake batters (Isn’t that an idea).

Low sugar genoise, v. 1

Genoise is a basic cake, it is a little dry and sturdy enough to be soaked with flavored syrups. Genoise recipes generally share these basic steps – Eggs and sugar whisked over a bain-marie until lukewarm and the sugar dissolved, then whipped to a pale fluffy foam. Flour is folded in, followed by melted butter, and baked at about 175C until it pulls away from the sides of the tin.

Green tea red bean roll

This is really tasty! The cake, flavored with matcha, is rolled up with red bean cream. There are versions that use adzuki straight up, or cut with a little yoghurt, but the red bean fresh cream combination is so delightful cold from the fridge, and the drier genoise pairs well with the extra moisture of this filling. It’s light on the tongue and packed with flavor, plus a little texture from the red bean bits. Too easy to wolf down 3 and still want more, I say. Dangerous…

Roasted Banana Galette

Bananas take on a lovely deep flavor when baked, releasing their juices and caramelizing on top. There is nothing quite like a house perfumed by sweet roasting bananas. Too bad they look like they’ve emerged on the losing end of a fight, all soft, bruised and black in places. My gracious guests’ only comment was that it was very good. This is a dessert for people who can appreciate inner beauty.

Banana Breadcake

On day 1, I bought a bunch of ripe bananas for granola. By day three they had become soft, black and unloved. You could freeze them and turn them into ice cream, or make banana breadcake. A regular banana will do in a pinch but very ripe bananas will give a really intense banana fragrance.

Simple Apple Galette

1 Fuji, 2 Royal Galas, 2 Granny Smiths

In our country of eternal summer, the changing seasons evoked by this rustic fruit tart makes up a large part of its appeal. It appears in other blogs with impromptu visits from friends, farmer’s markets, and weather cool enough for dough to survive more than 2 mintues out of the fridge. I try to create these experiences by making galette.

Marshmallows

It feels pretty awesome to make home made marshmallows. Part of the fun is getting to handle them – nothing quite compares in terms of airy-light bounciness. I coated them in pure cocoa powder. The mallow fluff didn’t stick as much as many recipes said they would, I wonder if I did something wrong… They set up beautifully in the fridge after 4 hours, despite being a bit softer than commercial marshmallows. I’d definitely make these again, in other flavor variations. Matcha coating perhaps, or covered in bittersweet chocolate – something that can offset the sweetness.

My favorite pie dough

When the incorporation of butter and flour is such a bitch in this weather, the recipe had better worth it. The fat had always been cut in with fingers (too darn hot) and two forks (painfully slow). Any flaky dough was approached with a mild sense of tedium and a lot of freezer time.

Macarons v. 1: Browned, crisp and chewy

For my virgin macaron attempt I used the Italian meringue method as it’s supposed to be more stable and had a smaller proportion of sugar compared to other versions. The recipe was quartered to reduce waste keeping in mind the high failure rate of macarons.

Lemon Curd

It’s shocking how many eggs go into lemon curd, one could probably fry a lemon omelet with the stuff. I was busy taking pictures of the thickening mixture and in a matter of seconds, the curd started developing disturbingly solid-ish lumps. The curd turned out quite tasty after sieving out the egg scramble (I didn’t taste those, thank you), albeit a little eggier than I’d like. Serves me right for not watching it more closely.