Lychee Babycakes with Rosewater Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to make lychee macarons but couldn't find lychee powder. I will have to order it online when I find it. I'm sure someone is selling it. Nowadays there's nothing that you can't buy online if you search long enough. I didn't want to wait for either freeze dried or powdered lychee so I baked lychee babycakes and topped them with buttercream frosting flavored with rosewater essence. The flavors are a perfect match. The cake is buttery soft and not too sweet but there's too little lychee for the amount of flour. I should have used 2 cans. Well, next time.

Lychee Babycakes
1 14-ounce can lychees, drained (reserve the liquid)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 brownie (square) cups with paper liners (or line an 8 x 8-inch squaree pan with parchment paper).
• Chop the lychees, set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
• In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Mix to combine. Add in slowly about 4 to 6 tablespoons of the reserved lychee liquid. Mix between additions to fully incorporate before adding more.
• Toss the lychee pieces in the flour mixture to coat (this will help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the batter). Add flour and lychee mixture to the batter and mix to combine.
• Scoop batter into prepared pans. Bake for 20 minutes for cupcakes and 35 to 40 minutes for square pan until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack before frosting.

Rosewater Buttercream Frosting
adapted from MORE FROM MAGNOLIA
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 or 2 teaspoons rosewater

• In a medium saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture becomes very thick and begins to bubble, 10 - 15 minutes. Cover with waxed paper placed directly on the surface and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• In a large bowl, on medium high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating continuously for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the rosewater and a drop of red food dye and beat well. Add the cooled milk mixture and continue to beat on medium high speed for 5 minutes until very smooth. Cover and refrigerate for no less and no longer than 15 minutes. Use immediately.

birdienumnum: moist, soft, and buttery babycake

Mellow Bakers: Grissini

The Italian bread sticks Grissini is one of the MellowBakers breads for May 2010. The bread sticks are very easy to make and the whole process takes less than 2 hours which goes: mix water, flour, olive oil, butter, salt, and yeast; let ferment for 1 hour; roll into a rectangle; cut into thin strips; bake without proofing for 20 minutes or until golden. The garlic studded dough didn't give me any problems other than the bread sticks got eaten very quickly. Easy come easy go.

I had these yummy sticks for lunch dipped in sour cream and gorgonzola and also for dinner with a pasta dish that has been a favorite of ours for more than 10 years, Farfalle with Asiago Cream Sauce.

8 ounces bow tie pasta
2 ounces pancetta or unsmoked bacon, diced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Asiago cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and black pepper to taste

• Boil the pasta in salted water for 11 minutes. In a large skillet, fry the pancetta until golden brown. Transfer into a plate and remove all but 1 tablespoon of rendered fat. Add the onion and stir fry until soft. Using a skimmer, transfer the pasta into the skillet and stir cook for a few minutes. Add the heavy cream and pancetta. Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat. Stir in both cheeses. Serve immediately.

Join us, we're mellow!

KULINARYA Puto

The puto recipe in the KULINARYA guidebook is slightly different from the more popular recipes. It doesn't have coconut milk but has instead cooked rice added to the soaked rice. Using uncooked rice makes the recipe a bit involved with an added step of straining the blended mixture in a cheesecloth or fine sieve. The procedure uses greased plastic wrap to line muffin cups which is also time consuming.

The flavor of simple plain rice and sugar is very good and I really like it but I am not going to use raw rice and plastic wrap again. I prefer the easier to use rice flour and my puto molds lined with banana leaves.

Puto
adapted from from KULINARYA: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine
1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cooked rice
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
plastic wrap
oil for brushing plastic wrap

• Wash rice and soak in water for at least 5 hours. Add the cooked rice. Put the rice in a blender. Add enough soaking water to reach the level of rice. Blend for 1½ minutes.
• Pour the blended rice into a bowl and add the rest of the water, sugar, and baking powder. Mix until smooth. Using cheesecloth or a very fine sieve, strain the mixture into another bowl.
• Brush the plastic wrap with oil, line each well of muffin pan or 1¾ inch puto molds. Trim the wrap so that each one fits snugly into each well or mold. Pour 2 tablespoon of the mixture into each well or mold. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes, undisturbed.
  
• Remove muffin pan or molds from steamer and let cool. When cooled, pull up each puto using the plastic wrap, discard plastic. Serve with butter or grated coconut.
• For puto pandan: Wash 6 pandan leaves, cut into 1 inch pieces, mix with the water, and blend. Strain and use the water to soak the rice. Add a drop of green food dye if desired.

Pork and Me: A Love Story

My love affair with pork came late in my life. Growing up we didn't have much pork dishes because my parents specially my dad didn't like it. He didn't mind small portions of pork as a flavoring in vegetables, noodles, and in chicken pork adobo, and maybe once a year he was fine having grilled pork chops. I myself didn't cook pork very often and only have been cooking it more frequently since I started this blog 4 years ago. Better late than never in discovering its goodness, I guess.

I read in our local news here in Ashburn about a competition among chefs to prepare locally produced ingredients and this year pork is at center stage. The winner will be named King or Queen of Porc. Read more about the competition at their website: Cochon 555. I'd like to crown myself the princess of pork but I know there are many others who can out-pork me.^_^

Well, pork, how do I love thee, let me count the ways:

bagnet, lechon kawali, or pork belly confit

I made these bacon appetizers today. They are so porklicious specially the bacon candy.

Chestnuts Wrapped in Bacon

a few rashers thin smoked bacon, cut into 3 pieces
whole roasted chestnuts (or water chestnuts)

• Wrap the chestnuts in bacon pieces and place on a wire rack cut side down. Place the wire rack on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven until bacon is golden and cooked through.

Bacon Candy

crrrunch!

thin smoked bacon rashers, cut into 1 inch pieces
brown sugar

• Dredge the bacon pieces in brown sugar. Place on a wire rack and put the wire rack on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven until caramelized and darkish brown (do not burn). They will become crisp as they cool.