I got invited by Lindt to the reopening of their Chocolate Cafe at Martin Place, and to try out their new Lindt Creation Blocks! I took the opportunity to grab a chat with Thomas Schnetzler, Master Chocolatier and Chocolate Ambassador for Lindt Australia, and learn more about chocolate.
Tammi from Insatiable Munchies was invited as a guest of Lindt and the Trish Nichol Agency.
With Mothers’ Day just around the corner, I thought it might be a good idea to have a quick Mother’s Day gift idea roundup! I know how hard it can be to get Mum that perfect gift, but there are some ideas that can come pretty close, so I hope these ideas can inspire you like they inspire me!
Saturday Morning in a Box
From Make the Best of Everything
Mums usually don’t get to relax and sleep in on the weekend because they pick up the slack when the rest of us are taking the time off. So, why not give your mom an experience in a box? It doesn’t have to be Saturday Morning in a Box, but you can always add all of your mum’s favourite things for a relaxing morning – and then give her the morning off!
Edible Flower Pots
From Flour Arrangement
These uber cute rose cake pops are only made cuter by them sitting in ice cream cone flower pots!!! They look so simple to make, and definitely could be a part of a breakfast in bed for mum.
Rose and Vanilla Tea
Speaking of roses, I do have to toot my own horn. =) I made this Rose and Vanilla Tea infusion for my mum this year, gifted in a cute thermal cup. With black tea tips readily available, why not experiment and make your own infusion for mum? Maybe with some freshly baked scones for breakfast?
Glass Jar Photo Frames
From Rikki Hibbert
Mothers’ Day Envelope
From Cherished Bliss
If you’re the card-giving type, how about a personalised envelope? With some twine, fancy borders and a bit of creativity, you can give mum a lovely card inside of a lovely envelope. Not keen on a card? Why not use the envelope to contain gifts, like tickets to the theatre for her and dad?
Tetris Cookies
From Sweet Explorations
For the mum that loves Tetris – I know that there are many. I’m looking at you Cayte! What better than some Tetris cookies to snack on while you and/or your siblings valiantly volunteer to do the housework while she puts her feet up?
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I hope that these ideas help you out like they’ve helped me. What are you giving your mum for Mothers’ Day this year?
More gift ideas for mum in the leadup to Mothers’ Day! Thoroughly inspired by Dilmah’s French Vanilla and Rose Tea – one of my mum’s favourite because it’s so fragrant – I decided to make my own Rose and Vanilla Tea!
With roses, a popular gift is chocolates. So, moving in with the tea theme – my mum likes tea =) – I really liked this recipe that I was sent by Horizon Communication Group and thought that it would make a great gift idea! The ganache turned out really gooey, so I just rolled the chocolate truffles using tea spoons, then coated them with white chocolate.
Earl Grey Infused Truffle
Adapted from Dilmah’s Real High Tea Recipe
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Earl Grey Tea from three tea bags
170g high quality chocolate
Heat the cream and butter over low heat and bring to the boil.
Stir in the tea leaves and allow to infuse of the heat for 5 minutes. Break chocolate into a heatsafe container – I used a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate – and pour the tea infusion over the chocolate through a fine sieve, pressing against the tea leaves to squeeze out all the tea.
Stir till all the chocolate is completely melted, and place in the fridge to set.
Once set, roll out the ganache into balls. Place on a lined tray and pop tray into the freezer for a couple of minutes to firm up.
Meanwhile, melt white chocolate chips with some butter to loosen it to coating consistency. Take your cold chocolate balls out of the freezer and coat with melted white chocolate. Use two forks to drain off the excess before placing on a lined tray and pop back into the fridge to allow everything to set.
Sprinkle with sea salt to finish.
Mother’s day is just around the corner, and it can be hard to find just the right gift. The most common thing to get is a bouquet of flowers – roses, carnations – but I really don’t like the idea of flowers wilting in a vase on the dining table.
So why not an edible bouquet of flowers?
The idea is simple: cupcake base with buttercream frosting piped into a rose. But what kind of cupcake and what kind of buttercream?
Part of the charm of the rose is its glorious smell, and not to mention the flavour. So that’s the butter cream done. And I think Earl Grey cupcakes will go fabulously with it. So…
Earl Grey Chiffon Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream Frosting
[For the Cupcakes]
Adapted from Allrecipes
Makes about 30 cupcakes
7 large eggs, separated.
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cold Earl Grey Tea (Make it a strong one!)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups sifted cake flour (I used plain)
Cupcake cases, preferably high sided so the chiffon can rise
Preheat your oven to 160C (150C fan forced)
Whip your egg whites, cream of tartar and salt to stiff peaks.
In another bowl, whisk together your egg yolks and sugar till pale. Whisk in your vegetable oil – creating your emulsion – and then slowly add in your cold tea. Mix in your vanilla extract, then fold in your sifted flour and baking powder.
Next – and this is important because you want to retain as much air as possible – add in just a third of your whipped egg whites to the batter to loosen it. Then gently fold in the rest of the egg white mixture, and fill the cupcake cups to 2/3 full.
Bake on a tray till risen and brown. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes, then do the skewer test to see if it’s done. Opening the oven door will cause it to sink and you to have a dense chiffon. Don’t worry if it’s not as airy as you want it though – it still makes a delicious, soft cake!
[For the frosting]
Adapted from My Cupcake Addiction
5 cups Icing Sugar
250g Unsalted Butter
2 tsp Vanilla extract
3 tbsp rose water
Cream softened butter till light and fluffy. It should take on a lighter colour and a slightly pearlescent finish. Aerate that butter!
With the mixer running – or you could do this by hand – incorporate the icing sugar little by little. If you add it all at once, you’ll be coughing up icing sugar because it’s poofed up you’ve breathed it all in. Once it’s completely incorporated and dissolved, mix in the rosewater and vanilla.
Add a couple of drops of red/pink food colouring, and you’re ready to go.
Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, you can just pipe the buttercream frosting on top. Yes, it goes against my cupcake to frosting ratio per bite because buttercream can be a bit heavy, but it’s a special occasion. You could always fill the cupcakes because the chiffon will have a bit of give, but it’s a challenge enough to try and pipe the roses on. (Apparently a Wilton 2D tip is all you need, but it’s out of stock everywhere!!!!)
As a final touch, I think pearls go very well with roses, and I’ve been very lucky to have conveniently received Queen Soft Sugar Pearls from Beyond the Square.
The white ones are just perfect for this, and it’s an elegant solution to filling up any gaps on the side of the roses because my piping skills are terrible. I considered using cachous, but they are hard and like jawbreakers, while these taste heaps better.
So go on, bake a few cupcakes and throw a party for Mum!
More stuff in the mail! The lovely people from Beyond the Square has sent me more interesting product to try, and this time I’ve got fruit curds from Anathoth! Now I’ve already blogged about their amazing jams, and I’m a big supporter of preserves, because it gives you a little taste of summer when the fruits are no longer in season!
So with the passionfruit curd I thought it might be interesting to make a filled muffin, because I think that provides the best muffin-to-curd ratio with every bite!
Basic Muffin Recipe
Makes 12 regular muffins or 24 mini muffins
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable or other bland oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups self raising flour
Preheat your oven – 180C for regular sized muffins, 200C for mini muffins
Simply pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix till a batter forms. The batter will be a little lumpy, so don’t succumb to the temptation to keep mixing it till it’s smooth! It’s better to have a slightly lumpy better but a muffin with a beautiful soft crumb.
Simply partially fill the muffin tray with batter (about 1/2 full), then add a heaped teaspoon of passionfruit curd (1/2 tsp for the mini muffins) in the middle – it will sink slightly – and cover with just a little bit of batter to bring the muffin cup to 2/3 full. It may seem lopsided, but the muffin batter will rise around the filling, and the filling tends to sink, so it’s better to have more batter underneath it methinks.
Bake till golden brown on top.
With these filled muffins you can’t exactly do the skewer test, but at those temperatures, I got a crispy top, fluffy insides, with a gooey filling. I much preferred popping the whole warm mini muffins into my mouth, but be careful, because it’s really hot!!
I think it’s great having products like these around during the colder months because I absolutely hate shopping out of season if I can help it, and this gives me the opportunity to have summer flavours, like passionfruit and lemon, during the winter months. And there are so many recipes out there that can provide winter comfort! =)
What are your favourite recipes to use fruit curd in?
Once again, a big thanks to Beyond the Squareand Anathoth for giving me some inspiration for some weekend baking.
It’s that time of the week again, where I look in my fridge and wonder what I’m going to do with the random things that are in my fridge and pantry. This time it’s the great winter veg: the brussel sprout!
Brussel sprouts get such a bad rep because of the possibility of them being bitter, but that’s also because many places that sell brussel sprouts tend to boil them to death, like the ‘steamed veg’ option in a bad steak restaurant. But they actually taste really lovely when done right, and are really not that hard to cook.
So, as with the other recipes that involve me clearing out my fridge, there aren’t any quantities, but feel free to use as little or as much as you like. Also feel free to include or omit whatever you’d like, and get creative with it!
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Brussel Sprouts
Bacon
Parmesan
Olive oil
Cumin
Honey
Preheat your oven to 180C. Halve the cleaned brussel sprouts (click the outer leaves off if they’re a bit raggy and give them a quick wash) and toss them with olive oil, ground cumin, salt and pepper.
Roast them in the oven till lightly browned, then sprinkle the chopped bacon over the top. Once the bacon starts browning and the brussel sprouts look lovely and golden, drizzle with honey and pop back to the oven for a minute.
Finish with grated parmesan.
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It’s great as a side or as a light, healthy lunch, especially when it’s cold and rainy outside, like it was today. Hearty and satisfying. =)
I haven’t forgotten you, I promise! How has your long weekend been? It’s been a great Easter for me, and it all kicked off with a short holiday to Kiama.
I’m not quite the outdoorsy kind of girl, but I must say that Kiama has been idyllic. I’ve had a fantastic time strolling by the water, sampling the local cafes, and trying out some night photography!
What do you think?
I also really liked the quaint Scoops Ice Creamery, even if the service was slow. The ice cream though, was delicious!!! Just what I needed on a hot day.
How about you? What did you get up to over the Easter long weekend?
I LOVE receiving mail!!! So just imagine my surprise and delight when I received a box of Queen Fine Food’s Jel-it-in!
Jel-it-in is a vegetarian alternative to gelatine. Because gelatine is, by definition, made from animal products (you know how really good stocks set into a jelly? It’s thanks to gelatine!), many vegetarians cannot eat it. Imagine life without jelly! Well, besides agar agar as an alternative, which set much harder and more brittle than gelatine and so gives you a different effect, Jell-it-in is made from Carrageenan, which is extracted from seaweed, and locust bean gum, which is a thickener. The reason why it’s a mixture (I think), is because the carrageenan sets slightly harder than gelatine and the thickener gives it a slightly softer finish.
And if you’re not into the science, then I’ve got a tangible experiment to show you!
So. I’ve got two recipes that I’ve tried with Jel-it-in this post: Panna Cotta, and Chocolate mousse. I made a Jel-it-in version and gelatine version and put it side by side. I’m especially excited about the Chocolate Mousse recipe, which I got from a Harvard Lecture by Bill Yosses, executive pastry chef to the White House.
Panna Cotta (makes 3):
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cream
1/2 vanilla bean
1/4 cup sugar
4g powdered gelatine (or 4g Jel-it-in)
Bring the milk and the cream slowly to the boil. Open up the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pot, and chuck the pod in to infuse. You need a couple of tablespoons of boiling water to dissolve the gels, and the Jel-it-in actually needs a larger amount of liquid than gelatine and a minimum of about 70C to dissolve. In the case of the Jel-it-in, you might want to heat the milk and dissolve it separately (milk boils at about 90C). Then simply remove the vanilla pods and place into 125ml lightly oiled dariole moulds and set in the fridge. When you’re ready to serve, simply unmould it by inserting a thin knife down the side of the mould to create an air pocket, and tip out the panna cotta.
Chocolate Mousse (altered):
200ml Water
3g gelatine (4g Jel-it-in)
150g 70% cocoa mass dark chocolate (I used Lindt)
Simply heat the water up and dissolve the gelatine in it. Pour the hot water over the dark chocolate and mix till smooth. Put the boil over iced water and use an immersion blender to mix till the mixture cools. The reason why I’d say to use an immersion blender is because you want fine air bubbles within the mixture (it’s still a mousse) and using something like an electric whisk gives you bubbles that are too big. Then simply put the mixture into the fridge and it sets!
The result?
The panna cotta with the Jel-it-in actually gave a slightly softer result than the gelatine! When I cut into the Jel-it-in panna cotta it has a texture reminiscent of silken tofu. If left for a longer period of time it actually weeps moisture gradually. It melted straight on the tongue and gave way to a creamy finish. Now, there is a slight downside. I actually noticed that there was some bits of Jel-it-in that didn’t dissolve properly, and had to strain the mixture. I don’t know whether the softer result was because the dissolution was incomplete – the gelatine dissolved easily and evenly – but either way, my preliminary result shows that the Jel-it-in has a softer result in the panna cotta.
But what about the chocolate mousse? Well it seems that it’s quite the opposite! The chocolate mousse made with gelatine has the softest, lightest, meltiest mousse that has the pure flavour of chocolate. Not that there’s anything wrong with making chocolate mousse the traditional way, but sometimes I just want the pure flavour of 70% chocolate without the added cream. The Jel-it-in chocolate mousse actually mixed and set more easily and thickened up really quickly, but produced a slightly heavier, thicker result.
Either way, I think it’s a great alternative to traditional gelatine. I have many friends who are vegetarian, and I love the extra option of being able to to serve them a gel-set dessert. Some recipes might need a bit of tweaking, but I know I’ll keep experimenting.
Please do let me know if you have recipes that you’ve tried it with! Just leave a comment on the blog or send me an email at insatiablemunchies@gmail.com.
Note: Tammi Kwok of insatiablemunchies was given samples of Queen Fine Foods Jel-it-in by the lovely people at Beyond the Square Communications.
After seeing the long queues outside Ippudo in Westfield’s Sydney, I thought I’d give a Singapore outlet a try whilst I was there. Riding on a good experience from Ippudo Tao, we decided to go to Ippudo Mandarin.
We ordered the Shiromaru Tamago and the Akamaru Tamago (left, and right respectively). The broth was actually decent, and the noodles springy. But the bit that I was really waiting for was the ni tamago. As mentioned before, whenever I go to eat Ramen, I always order a ni tamago if they have it. The egg should be a lovely dark brown colour on the outside, and a fluid or oozy egg yolk on the inside. Most of my attempts to find a great egg in sydney have failed, with most places serving up way too over-cooked egg yolks, but I still have hope!!!
Unfortunately though, my egg dreams were shattered this time.
All of the eggs that came with our noodles were failed eggs. Entirely too overcooked, and lacking in flavour. While the main dish was decent, it wasn’t amazingly mind-blowing enough for me to overlook the bad egg.
Oh, and the sides?
While decent in flavour and texture, the sides were let down by the service. We were mostly ignored by the service staff, and even after ordering, they completely forgot one salad and a side that we ordered to go with the meal.
All in all, a relatively disappointing experience. And, since Singapore has no lack of great places to eat at, it won’t be my first choice for a comforting dinner any time soon.
We ate at:
Ippudo SG
333 Orchard Road
Singapore 238897
+65 6235 2797
