Ensaimada (Brioche)

A couple of weeks ago, we saw King Kong, the musical (play) at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. Technically it was brilliant. You kinda appreciate the hard work wired into the movements of arduously making KingKong move like the real thing. To carry the arms and the legs of the mammal is a mammoth task. Pun intended. The head of King Kong was made to move by an electronic board. The limbs' were all due to puppeteers. The story line was old; setting was New York, heroine Anne falling in love with the skipper of the ship that brought them to Skull Island, King Kong saving her from the dangers of jungle, heroine showing empathy to King Kong, King Kong was drugged and brought to Broadway , and the iconic scene on top of the Empire State Building where King Kong fell into the abyss of oblivion. That in a nutshell is the story of the giant gorilla. Although King Kong doesn't belong to my top 3 musical plays (Les Miz remains my all time favourite), I like it as much. Just because.The last musical play I was able to watch was Rock of Ages and that was eons ago. My eyes welled up as soon as they turned off the lights, signalling the start of the show. I literally have shivers shooting down my spine every time the heroine hits an octave higher. 

I like musical plays and Im arty fartsy that way. My little boy tells me so. I love going to the museums, appreciating art. I love old buildings, pebble stones on alleys of brick wall. Soaking in other cultures is up my alley. I cant draw to save my life. But I appreciate good things and hard work and innate talent. of the old world and the new.

This recipe is from old and distant past. It is spanish in origin. Adapted by Filipinos and made it their own. I must say its the best brioche bar none. We call it Ensaimada. And its my favourite merienda or snacks of all time. I try  to make it as less sinful as I can. You can tweak it by putting ube or purple yam in between those rolls or make the butter on top even more sinful and delectable. I chose not too, mindful of those love handles slowly showing their ugly head.

*Snagged from thetummytrain.com

All photos are raw and by NoSetMenu

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water, 100 to 110° F *
6 tablespoons sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature, plus more melted butter for brushing the rolls
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup evaporated milk
canola oil for greasing proofing bowl, baking sheet, and brioche molds

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. To proof yeast, add one tablespoon sugar and let stand for 10 minutes. The mixture should foam up and double in volume. This means the yeast is active. If the yeast does not foam and double, discard and repeat.
2. Sift flour and salt together twice. Add about 1/2 cup of flour to the yeast mixture and set aside.
3. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the mixture on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
4. Turn the speed to medium-low, add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add flour-salt mixture alternately with milk, mixing until well incorporated.
6. Finally add yeast mixture, beating well.
7. Replace the paddle with a kneading hook and knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Alternatively, knead the dough by hand on a clean surface dusted with flour until smooth and elastic.
8. Let the dough rest in a bowl greased lightly with canola oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until double in size, about one to two hours. Meanwhile, brush 12 brioche molds lightly with oil.

9. Once risen, punch down the dough and divide into twelve equal portions.
10. Roll out each piece to a thin sheet, brush with melted butter, and roll it like you would a jelly roll.
11. Coil this into a spiral-shaped bun. Either place the coiled dough flat on greased baking sheets or in greased fluted brioche molds.
12. Set the dough aside to rise a second time, until double in size, about an hour. When the dough is almost done, preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C).
13. Bake until the crust turns golden brown. Brush with melted butter and dust generously with sugar. **

Storage: The rolls will keep for about a day or two at room temperature. Refrigerate to make them last for up to 5 days and simply reheat before eating, if desired. Remember that bread is best eaten fresh.

** You can also top ensaymadas with margarine, a sprinkling of sugar, and some grated cheese, if desired.

Salted Caramel Brownies

What a nice surprise to find my blog NoSetMenu with 36,000++ hits. Say what??  In absentia in blogging for two (2) years, I found my blog with thousands of hits. The thousands is an icing on the cake really. I know 36,000 is a pathetic number, as other bloggers would have millions but hey it is still something to reckon with and be proud of. Somewhere across the universe, there are kindred spirits who share my interest. Lol. My intention of opening a blog is to share with you my love for food. Or creating them for that matter. If randomly you found the recipes and you are able to re-create them then Im a happy camper. I have some pushover friends and friends of my little boy who encouraged me - to open a blog that is; a treasure chest where I could keep memories of my tiny kitchen, an avenue to hone my interest and a  place where my creative juices overflow.

To cut the chase off, here is a recipe that will knock your socks off;

*Recipe snagged from Ed Kimber/TheBoyWhoBakes

** Photos are all mine. All raw.

Salted Caramel Brownies – Makes 12

Salted Caramel Filling
175g caster sugar
150ml double cream
10g unsalted butter
large pinch of flaked sea salt

Fudge Brownies
180g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder (my preferred brand is Green and Blacks)
1/4 tsp salt
300g dark chocolate, around 65-75% cocoa solids
150g unsalted butter
220g light brown sugar
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make the caramel place the sugar into a medium saucepan, set over medium heat and cook until the sugar melts and caramelises – make sure to cook it far enough – it should look like the colour of an old penny. Pour in half the cream and all the salt, be careful the mixture will bubbly up violently. Once the mixture has calmed down pour in the remaining cream followed by the butter, if there are any lumps place the pan back on the heat and stir until smooth. Take off the heat and allow to cool and then pour into a squeeze bottle (this makes it easier to spread the caramel later).

For the brownies preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan. Grease a 9×13 light coloured pan and line with a strip of parchment leaving about a 2-inch overhang along the long edges to make removing the brownies easier. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and salt together into a medium bowl and set aside. Place the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water, and stir occasionally until the mixture is fully melted. Take the bowl of the heat and add the eggs and sugars and beat until the mixture is smooth. Sieve over the flour mixture and gently fold together.

Divide the mixture equally in half and spread out the first half into the prepared tin. Using the squeeze bottle pour the caramel over the batter leaving a 1 1/2 cm border around the outside. You now need to spread the remaining batter over the caramel and this bit can be a little tricky. You can gently drape it over the caramel but it can be hard to get an even layer so my preferred method is to use a piping bag using a wide flat piping tip(with the flat side facing up).

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 until the a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, you dont want raw batter. Allow to cool completely before using a sharp knife to cut into squares.

Lemon Macarons

Today, I opened my blogsite after a long time. My heart did a flutter but my fingers froze...musing, do I have to? Mulling over, can I still do it? I don't think I can still write. I'm rusty. Real life has taken over. My writing skills wasn't made out of genetics I think. Unlike some people I know. I wasn't borne with great writing skills. Mine was nurtured over time and out of a requirement from studying - tons of reports and analyses, a thesis or two; Borne of writing emails, investigation reports and transcripts at work. And from reading - encircling those proses, phrases and words, remembering them and savouring their meaning. 

Reading has always been one of the things I love to do. I still do. Words and Proses especially those beautifully crafted almost always move me. I usually cant wait to finish reading beautiful words. I remember them. And like honey touching my lips, words are sweet. I love "flowery" words. To me, they have colours and beauty. They are alive. I used to memorise all the adjectives in Thesaurus too. 

While my writing skills isn't natural, my cooking and baking skills are. And I would like to think so, if you may. My legendary Mommy passed on to us, her kids, her natural skill in the kitchen. 

Since my words and phrases are filled with ineptness, let these photos do the talking. Let them move you as words do me. You can have the cake and eat it too.... Life is too short.

Lemon Macarons – Pierre Herme “Macaron”

300g ground almonds

300g icing sugar

110g egg whites “liquefied”

1/2g yellow gold food colouring (or 1 / 4 tsp. Coffee)

10g lemon yellow food coloring 

300g Granulated Sugar

75g of mineral water

110g egg whites “liquefied”

225g fresh whole eggs  

240g granulated sugar

8g Lemon zest

160g fresh lemon juice

350g unsalted butter

100g ground almonds

1. The day before, prepare the lemon cream. Rinse and dry the lemons. Zest the lemons so you have 4g of zest. Rub the zest into the sugar with your hands. Mix lemon juice, sugar/lemon and eggs in a bowl. Put it in a bain-marie. Whisk until the mixture is at 83/84C (this took forever and I’m not sure I got all the way!)

2. Leave to cool to 60C before adding the butter in pieces. Whip until the cream is smooth using an immersion blender, mixing for about 10 min. Pour the cream into a baking dish. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the cream and keep it in refrigerator overnight.

3. On the next day, sift the icing sugar with the almond powder. I tend to put this almond/sugar mix in a food processor for a good few pulses because the store bought ground almonds are apparently not as fine as a professional kitchens use and this can effect the way the wet is absorbed by the dry goods. Mix the colourings in the first amount of “liquefied” egg whites. Add this to the icing sugar/almond mix but don’t mix together.

photo taken with my Iphone

4. Boil the water and sugar to 118C. Once the syrup is at 115C, simultaneously, begin to whisk the second amount of “liquefied” white eggs. Pour the 118C sugar syrup onto the whites down the side of the mixer bowl avoiding the whisk. Continue to whisk and let cool to 50C before adding them to the sugar-almond mix.

5. With a rubber spatula, fold it into the icing sugar almond powder whilst turning the bowl through a quarter turn on each fold. When the dough just begins to shine, it is ready. The batter will resemble a cake mixture being a bit runny. Online this stage is often described as looking like magma, which I take to mean the batter should form a ribbon that keeps its shape for around 10 seconds.

6. Pour it into a pastry bag fitted with a No. 11 plain tip. Pipe the mixture into circles about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them every 2cm on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Tap the baking sheets on a work surface covered with a kitchen towel to let any air bubbles rise out. Let the shells crust for at least 30 min – they should go from shiny to a slightly duller look that wont stick to your finger if you lightly touch one. This rest is to help to develop the proper “feet”.

7. Preheat oven to 180C. Put the baking sheets into the oven. Bake for 12 minutes quickly opening the oven door twice during baking first at 8 minutes the at 10. Out the oven, slide the parchment and shells on the work surface. For me this has always been too high a temperature I cook at around 160C and for a little less time but it all depends on your oven but you don’t want them to brown so bear this in mind.

8. Mix the lemon cream with almond powder. Pour it into a pastry bag fitted with a plain no.11 tip and pipe generous amounts onto half the shells and top with a second shell. Store in the refrigerator overnight to obtain the perfect texture.

Photo taken with my Iphone