Sweet Nostalgia: Cream Puffs May 11, 2008

Cream puffs (or we call them “Choux Cream”) have a very special place in my heart, and probably in many Japanese kid’s as well. They were one of those special snacks that you only get on special days in Japan – birthdays, graduations, or when your mother’s rich friend visits (the guest either brings them as a gift, or your mother goes out to buy them to show off). Even now, I get pretty nostalgic when I make cream puffs, remembering the colorful rows of French-inspired puff pastries in a glass showcase in an upscale department store and wishing that I can have a piece.
Despite the sophisticated exterior and image, cream puffs are one of the easiest desserts to make. I’ve tried several recipes and liked them all, but decided to go with Martha Steward’s recipe from Baking Handbook this time for the first time because her version used a total of eight eggs between the pate a choux and the pastry cream, which was exactly the amount I had in a refrigerator (I was too lazy to run out to the store).

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly and altered it slightly. Instead of using the recipe for Cream Puffs, I used the recipe for Pate a Choux and the Pastry Cream and combined them together to make my version of Cream Puffs. I added fresh strawberries to add a touch of spring to the dessert.

And look at the beautiful bouquet of flowers my boyfriend brought for my mother for Mother’s Day. They were beautiful and the wonderful floral scent, coupled with freshly baked cream puffs, filled the entire room with sweet nostalgia.

Breaking the (fear of) Bread: White Sandwich Loaf April 24, 2008

Although my last attempt ended in utter failure, I decided to put aside my fear and give bread baking another chance. I also wanted to take my newly acquired KitchenAid Stand Mixer in Komen pink for a little spin, and I thought making bread would be a perfect way to welcome the arrival of the newest member of the kitchen family (I think she and the lime green Le Cruset pot will get along well).

I used a recipe I found on the Food Network site to make a white bread loaf. (click here for the recipe).  I decided to go with this recipe instead of using the baking books I have because of the success rate I’ve had with recipes that came from Food Network Kitchens. All their recipes are very simple to follow and I’ve been quite satisfied with the outcome.  Let’s just hope that this will provide a similar result.  (Oh, and please note that this post is not an instruction on baking bread … it’s merely a documentation of my first attempt of a potentially-disasterous bread baking endeavor.)

Yeasts scared me a bit at first. First off, they stunk like a mo-fo, and second, they were … alive (ewwww)! I knew all these but watching them grow and get foamy in front of my eyes was … well … interesting, at best, and yes, pretty unappetizing, at worst. But I quickly developed a special attachment to these hard-working cooties, and I found myself talking to them during the course of the proofing process (“come on, guys, get frothy and make me proud”).  What you see here is a mixture of warm milk, melted butter and sugar, with a packet of yeast sprinkled on the surface of the liquid.  This was added to the flour and salt, and got massaged in the mixer for few minutes. 

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When the dough came out of the mixer, it was bouncy and sticky, but after kneading for about 10 minutes, it firmed up and becomes tough. This was strange for me because cakes and cookies discourage you from mixing too much but I guess it’s encouraged to knead continuously for breads. (Even though I was slightly sore afterward, I really enjoyed the kneading process. Seriously, who needs to go to a gym when you can work on your upper body like this?)

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When I finished kneading, I put the dough in an oiled bowl and let it multiply in size (it took me 1-1/2 hours). I used extra virgin olive oil to grease the bowl. Some recipes discourage the use of olive oil because the flavor is strong, but I did it anyway.

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Well, the next step got me confused. The recipe didn’t call for more kneading at this stage but every other white bread recipe did. So I decided to go with my gut feeling and kneaded some more.

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I placed the dough in a baking pan, and let it sit again until it enlarged in size. This took about 1-1/2 hours. I took the dough out, kneaded a bit more, and put it back in the pan for baking.

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Drum rolls, please!  Ta daaaa … here’s my baby fresh out of the oven.

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Okay, okay, please don’t laugh. I realize that the dough turned out a little funky in shape and it pretty much exploded on top, but I was happy with how my baby turned out.  As for the flavor … well, let’s just say that it was exactly what I had expected for my first attempt — not better, not worse.  I certainly would not call it the best bread I’ve ever tasted but it was still edible.  It’s actually quite tasty when toasted with a little drizzle of honey! 
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I was most impressed with the way the crust caramelized perfectly at the bottom. Although very subtle, I can taste the sweetness of the butter, milk and sugar in the backdrop.  The crusty sound it made when slicing the loaf was a real music to my ears.  And don’t get me started on the heavenly aroma that filled the entire house!  

The main concern I had was that the inside turned out a bit too dense.  It was lacking that certain lovely airy-ness that comes from a perfectly baked loaf.  I need to figure out if this was a kneading issue (do I need to do more or less?) or a fermentation of yeasts.  Boy, bread making is an endless process, isnt’ it? 
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This was my first attempt but I know that I’ll be back for more. And I’m really excited to explore the world of bread baking!

A Sweet Culinary Playground: Green Tea Cake January 13, 2008

One thing I regret to this day is not visiting Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki when I was in Paris a few years ago, to experience his famous Matcha Opera Cake, or any of his world-renowned green-tea inspired desserts for that matter. Ever since I read about him about five years ago in a Japanese fashion magazine, I’ve been smitten by his creativity and the ability to incorporate traditional Japanese ingredients such as matcha (green tea) and yuzu (citrus fruit) into authentic French pastries, and I’ve been inspired to include something similar to my own baking repertoire.
The thing that kept me from making any matcha desserts until now, however, was my inability to locate green tea powder, which is the key component of these desserts. I had tried several Japanese grocery stores in the past but all I could find were “green ice tea mix,” which already included sugar. And when I finally did find them, they were too expensive for me to afford. Then, when I was making my regular rounds to Teavana the other day, I ran into one that was reasonably priced at $16 an once so I snatched up a couple for my pantry. Now fully equipped, I was eagerly ready to enter the Franco-Japanese culinary melting pot.
While visiting Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit a few months back, I encountered this amazing recipe for Green Tea, Lavender, and Honey Cupcake Bombe. I had since filed it away in my baking “to do” folder hoping to someday bring it to life, and I was able to finally wipe off the dust and put this recipe to work! I thought about making the full-blown version of the bombe at first, but after contemplating I decided to just try the green tea cake recipe for more simple dessert.

Would you like a cake to go with my butter?

I recommend this recipe to anyone who is interested in making a dense, moist, oh-so-heavenly matcha cupcake or a sheet cake as I did here. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of butter and sugar that went into this beautiful pistachio-colored batter but you will realize when you take a first bite that all the fat and calories are worth it.  And because it is rich, a small slice will satisfy your sweet tooth. One mistake I made was mixing the matcha power with the dry ingredients when the recipe called to dissolve the powder with milk and incorporate it into the wet ingredients.  Oops (but the end result still came out perfect, thank goodness).

Look how beautiful the batter looks!

My initial plan was to sandwich the sweet red bean (azuki) paste between two heart-shaped cake, but the cake was already pretty thick so I settled on placing azuki on the side, and finished off by sprinkling powered sugar on top. I matched the cake with steaming Japanese green tea, of course!

I really like the simplicity of this dessert. Keeping everything beautiful yet clean and simple allow the flavors to take center stage, which is what makes Japanese and French desserts truly timeless.

The Perfect Cure: Chocolate Chip Cookies December 16, 2007

There’s an old Japanese proverb that says that, “stupid people don’t catch cold.” WTF? Well, I’m assuming that it means that active kids who played outside are typically more intellectually inept than those who stayed home and … read or something. Naturally, the latter would build up enough tolerance to fight cooties from being outside, thus making them unlikely to get sick.  I think I can credit my insecurities as a youth to this saying because I was one of those kids who never, ever got sick and because of that I always believed that I was stupid.
Well, either the proverb was proven to be full of shit (yeah) or I’m becoming smarter (neh), but I’ve been susceptible to cooties lately. This “turning 30” thing has really wreak havoc on my system, I tell you. For example, it takes me at least three days to recover from one night of wild fun (and by this, I mean going to a 10:00 p.m. movie), and forget losing weight. My ass gets bigger just by thinking about sweets. But what’s more frustrating than anything is that I get sick now just by walking past someone who’s coughing!  What is all that about?!?
After suffering this nasty cold for nearly a week, I finally felt good enough to get myself out of bed today and do something I’ve been wanted to do for weeks — baking.

I didn’t want to do anything intricate so I went for the good old chocolate chip cookies, which give me enough satisfaction while providing guarantee results. I’ve tried many chocolate chip cookie recipes in the past but my favorites came down to  ① the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chips, and ② Martha Stewart’s.
Although I wouldn’t call myself a fan of hers (she’s kinda scary), Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook is actually one of my favorite cookbooks. Everything that I’ve tried from this book has been successful, and I like the way the instructions are written. I used her recipe this time and the cookies certainly satisfied my sweet tooth.  This particular recipe called for more butter and less flour so the results were more crisp and less chewy, and I loved them. 
Nothing cures cold better than a couple (or a dozen) of no frill, no nonsense homemade cookies, for sure.
Maybe I’ll save some for Santa too.

Dinner Impossible? Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner November 26, 2007

Changes are difficult to swallow, especially when it comes to something so grand like a holiday supper. But when my mother, an amazing chef, handed me the honor to cook the special dinner for the family this year, I was committed in making something fresh, homemade and healthy — unlike the usual artery-clotting delights that is Thanksgiving dinner.
I was determined to create everything from scratch this year, and none of the packaged stuff was to appear on the table. Most of the ingredients came from Whole Foods, and although they were a little more pricey than usual, the freshness made everything worth the extra splurge. Unfortunately, I could not afford the turkey from Whole Foods so I settled for Butterball’s 8.9-pound birdie, which turned out very juicy, tender and flavorful. I stuffed the bird with lemons and oranges, along with bundles of thyme and rosemary. Aside from giving turkey the light finish, putting citrus in the cavity seemed more humane than stuffing the bird with all the dressing up its behind …

I began the meal with leek and potato soup, a recipe courtesy of my favorite Gourmet Next Door, Amy Finley. I watched her prepare this simple but hearty soup on her new show the other day and got inspired to create a soup dish as a starter. I like Amy – the worthy winner of The Next Food Network Star (I even voted for her!) — and her cooking, which is very simple but elegant. Soup is not something that appears on our table regularly (unless it’s a miso soup) so I caught everyone by surprise when I brought out the warm, comfort delight. It was a bit tough to make this pureed soup without an immersion blender though. I had to use a regular blender and made a big mess (although it is nothing new when I’m in a kitchen)!

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The side dishes included:
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Brussels sprouts sautéed with minced shallots, garlic, and Pancetta. I used the thinly-sliced Pancetta and chicken broth to soften the Brussels sprouts to reduce the amount of oil that went into the pan. I made this especially for my father because ① he’s probably never had this strange looking vegetable before, and ② he is the biggest cabbage fan in the world.  I knew he would find the dish quite amuzing. 
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Sautéed spinach with red onion. This is such a simple but delicious dish. What makes it so delicious is the drizzle of balsamic vinegar that goes in right before serving. The tanginess of the vinegar really brings out the sweetness of the onion and spinach.
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Sweet mashed potato. I still don’t know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes but I think I used the latter … I steamed the potatoes instead of boiling them to help retain the flavor and nutrients and mashed it up with a tiny bit of half-and-half. Absolutely no sugar was added but it was sweet and absolutely heavenly. I think this was my favorite side dish of the night.
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Roasted zucchini and squash. I made my own version of Herb de Provence by mixing thyme, sage and rosemary to my course sea salt and sprinkled it generously on olive-oil-coated zucchini and squash and roasted in the oven for 30 minutes. I decorated the turkey platter with them.
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Stuffing. Okay, I cheated on this one. I bought the boxed stuffing and added chopped celery, carrots, onion and chicken broth to create this holiday staple. I mistakenly picked up the cornbread stuffing instead of the regular so I didn’t care too much for it. Bummer.
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Couple of the things I forgot to photograph were: ① Green bean casserole (Thanksgiving is not complete without the casserole!), ② Cranberry Sauce I made by cooking fresh berries in freshly-squeezed orange juice and a sprinkle of sugar. It was really tangy and tasted nothing like the canned one, and thought it was delicious, and ③ Spaghetti salad with romaine lettuce, which is my mother’s specialty and she made it for us.

Because I’m more a baker than a cook, I was most concerned about the outcome of the pumpkin pie. I made the Pate Brisee from scratch by mixing the flour and butter in a blender (yep, I don’t have a food processor either), blind baked it, and pour the pumpkin pie mixture. I thought the result was fabulous. The dough was flaky and the edges of the pie caramelized perfectly in the oven.
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It took me about four hours (except the turkey) to create everything for a small party but I had a blast! I can’t wait until Christmas dinner. And I would like to take this moment to send my sincere thanks to everybody and everything that makes my every day full of joy and happiness.
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Changing the Dessert Landscape: Beard Papa November 17, 2007

Certain events in history make me feel incredibly proud of my Japanese heritage. For instance …
The moment Kurara Chibana was crowned Miss Universe Runner Up in 2006, although she should have won the title, in my humble opinion (photo courtesy of this site, thank you!) …

The day Yutaka Fukufuji became the first Japanese-born player to debut in the National Hockey League the same yaer with my beloved Los Angeles Kings no less  (and I was there to witness this momentous occasion!) …

And the day Beard Papa came to town and changed the cream puff landscape forever.  Desserts like éclairs and profiteroles used to house exclusively in fancy French patisseries, but the emergence of this Japanese-born bakery franchise made these sophisticated pate a choux desserts more accessible and less intimidating to us all.  Now, that’s a history-changing event! 

Beard Papa successfully replaced donut shops as the source of quick sugar rush by McDonalizing the way cream puffs are made. The assembly line is formed behind the glass-window counter to create each cream puff in flawless sequence: ① select the choux (plain or chocolate-covered), ② insert the choux with custard cream, ③ sprinkle powdered sugar, ④ place the cream puff in a yellow, logo parchment paper, and finally ⑤ carefully place it in a bag or a box. The result is a perfectly soft and airy dough filled with lightly sweetened custard cream that melts in your mouth.  Boy, I love my papa! 

Available flavors vary by location. The original vanilla flavor is available in all locations, but consider it your lucky day if you can get a hold of green tea (subtle yet delicious), Earl Gray tea (too good for words), or strawberry (tangy, just the way I like it), among other delicious flavors. 

I frequent the one in Hollywood and Highland the most because, contrary to its busy location, the store is relatively quiet. This minimizes the wait which, in a popular location like the one in Sawtelle, can add up to a whopping 15-20 minutes. One mistake I made was to go right before the closing time and they were all out of cream puffs, so go as early as you can.

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Beard Papa’s Fresh’n Natural Cream Puffs
Hollywood and Highland
6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028
(Click here for list of locations)
★★★★★

Trick or Treat? Sprinkles Cupcakes November 1, 2007

The recent food trend that settles well with my stomach is frozen yogurt. I’m a self-proclaimed fro-yo addict so the fact that shops are popping up right and left is nothing short of pure delight (competition only helps consumers!). My date night with my boyfriend is not complete until we take a trip to a nearby frozen yogurt shop that we feel, believe it or not, may offer better yogurt than Pinkberry (if that were possible). I somehow always find ways to squeeze in a spoonful (or a bowlful) of ice-y swirl even on a full stomach.
Well, another trend I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is over cupcakes (even a magazine like InStyle dedicated a section on celebrities and their favorite shops). This, unlike the frozen yogurt fascination that is completely justifiable in my book, is still a bizarre concept for me. Although I like eating cupcakes, it’s difficult for me to tell the difference between the gourmet kind and the one you pick up at a local bake sale. Afterall, isn’t a cupcake just a miniature sponge cake smothered in sugary frosting? Really, how do you make a cupcake outrageously better than a bakery next door, and moreover, how can each cost as much as a meal?

So I turned to the trendy and popular Sprinkles Cupcakes for answers. But after sampling a few of its offerings, I became further confused.
Let me preface this by stating the obvious: the cupcakes from Sprinkles are good. The place have great selections, from the basic vanilla and chocolate, to more exotic flavors like Chai Latte and Red Velvet, and the entire experience of visiting the most talked-out place is truly titillating. But if I ignore all the fluff and focused solely on the product, I’m afraid I’m not able to justify the whopping $3.25 each cupcake costs.
I know that cupcakes have great possibilities. Just take a look at this amazing blog, Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit which features colorful and unorthodox recipes like Green Tea, Lavender and Honey Cupcake Bombe (ooooh). Or a mouth-watering recipe like Pomatcha Cupcakes found on Raspberry Eggplant (aaaaah).  Now, for a bite of something like that, I’ll be happy to dish out my hard earned money. But nothing at Sprinkles stood out as extraordinary, and they were just … well, good, at best.
I’m not dismissing Sprinkles altogether though. I will probably pick some up for special occasions as the decoration/packaging alone makes it a lovely gift. I hope someone will bring me some soon so I can enjoy the sweet cake without burning a hole on my wallet.

I went to the Sprinkles in Newport Beach (in the same shopping center as Tommy Bahama) but there’s a more popular one in Beverly Hills.

Sprinkles Cupcakes: 944 Avocado Avenue, Newport Beach, CA 92660
★★★☆☆

I met this sweet pup, Hug, dressed up as a lion for Halloween while waiting in line at Sprinkles. He was so charming that I could not resist taking a picture!  Happy Halloween, everyone! 

In Your Dreams: Jin Patisserie October 31, 2007

If I met a kid who says his dream is to be a professional hockey player but does not even know how to skate, I will probably die laughing. Kids can dream, sure I’m all for that, but there’s something definitely wrong if that kid is 30-something.
Well, I’m THE kid, and my dream is to one day open my own boulangerie (those of you who are culinary challenged, it’s a bakery). My fascination with bread began in 2004 when I strolled into a baking contest while walking in the streets of Paris. It was a complete coincident that I walked in to witness the professional bakers in action. It must have been the heavenly aroma of freshly baked bread that lead me there and I’ve been in love with bread-making ever since.
But the problem (just a minor one) is that I can’t bake bread. My only two attempts ended in utter failure and yeasts, well, they scare me. So yes, I’m the kid with no magic skates but that doesn’t mean that I can’t submerge in my imagination, just for fun.
Jin Patisserie in Venice is the place that allows me to imagine what my shop would be like. Although it’s a patisserie and not really a boulangerie, it’s close enough. The place is a part botanical garden, part someone’s backyard, and part irresistible pastry shop. The little waterfall in the middle of the garden provides a very zen-like atmosphere, allowing patrons to bathe in the nature’s beauty. Despite the trendy location, this place is so unpretentious that you can often find celebrity owner/chef Kristy Choo doubling as a server between magazine interviews. Make sure to enjoy the selection of lovely tea from Le Palais Des Thes with your sweets or savory, or both.
Once you experience the wonder of Jin Patisserie, you may dream about opening your shop too.

High Tea with fiinger sandwiches, savories, homemade scones, pound cake, praline and Chef’s selection of mini sweet pastries
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Smoked Salmon Salad (this lovely place offers much more than just sweets)

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Jin Patisserie: 1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
★★★★★

A Timeless Treasure: Porto’s Bakery and Cafe October 10, 2007

Maybe I have OCD. Not severe like Melvin Udall but I do strange things sometimes that are quite unexplainable, which makes me believe that I may have a baby OCD (if there is such a thing). For example, I set all my clocks forward 45 minutes. The logic behind it is that by forwarding them 45 minutes, I will never over-sleep or be late to places. Even if the alarm doesn’t work and I wake up at, say, 8:00 a.m. (which is late), I actually haven’t overslept because it’s still 7:15 a.m. And 45 minutes is not random. My snooze button goes off every nine minutes. Therefore, I can snooze five times and still wake up on time. This logic, however, doesn’t work because I still manage to somehow arrive late to work more often than I’d like to admit.  But the fact that I still refuse to change this behavior confirms that I have some serious issues. 

But, maybe my issue is not OCD but just that I’m not a morning person. In fact, I have trouble getting up every morning. I also don’t eat breakfast because I don’t like to put anything in my mouth before 10:00 a.m. Furthermore, I’m extremely cranky before my first cup of tea. Simply put, I’m pretty much a non-functional zombie in the a.m.  Until I walked into Porto’s.

I stopped by Porto’s Bakery and Café in Burbank (the lesser known branch of the two, in Glendale, although very popular in its own rite) on the way to work this morning to pick up a birthday cake for my special friend/colleague. I was half-asleep and cranky as hell as I parked my car and walked toward the entrance on Magnolia and Hollywood Way. But something magical happened when I sat foot in this popular Cuban eatery. The welcoming scent of the freshly baked baguettes, butter croissants, and the nutty aroma of freshly brewed coffee awakened all my senses and this zombie was suddenly alive. And the sight of Guava and Cheese Strudels, Apricot-Cheese Danishes, Carrot Apple Muffins, and a colorful array of whole cakes fresh out of the oven, even wet my appetite that I absolutely had to pick up a pastry for myself for breakfast.

I selected the whole Chocolate Raspberry Mouse cake, which the birthday gal and I, along with other friends and colleagues, enjoyed at lunch. The combination of silky chocolate and tangy raspberry mouse melted in my mouth like magic. It was so light and smooth that, although most of us were full from decadent lunch, we managed to eat the entire cake and even licked the plates clean. 

Aside from sweets, Porto’s also offers wide selections of savory dishes, from fresh salads to Cuban sandwiches. My favorite (and everyone else’s too) is, hands down, the famous Potato Balls. Once you take a bite out of the warm, croquette made out of mashed potatoes and seasoned ground beef, your culinary world will never be the same. Media Noche Sandwich, a Cuban ham, pork and Swiss cheese sandwich served on a toasted sweet roll, is the close second. 

Everything served at Porto’s is timeless, and it’s never too early or late to dive into the heavenly treasures … even for a nocturnal like myself.

Porto’s Bakery and Cafe:  3614 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505

★★★★★

Beat It: A Biscotti and a Puck October 6, 2007

Question: What does biscotti and ice hockey have in common?  Answer: Everything.
In my life, baking has become synonymous with the Los Angeles Kings hockey in a strange, serendipity kind of way. Here’s the story. 

About five years ago, I went to my first hockey game at the Staple Center and fell absolutely in love with the sport and my local team. Since then, my life has revolved around the Kings and my mood heavily depended on the outcome of each game. And if you follow professional hockey at all, you can imagine what kind of despair, disappointment and rage I’ve had to endure since … well … 2002 to current.

One night, after yet another loss, I got so frustrated that I needed to do something to calm my nerves. So I went into my kitchen at 11:00 p.m., cracked open eggs, pour sugar and melted butter in a bowl, and started beating the crap out of the mixture. The motion relieved the aggression and somehow relaxed me, and I began performing this Zen ritual after each frustrating loss.  And let me tell you, I did A LOT of baking in the last several years.

There’s nothing more therapeutic than taking out my aggression on the innocent butter and sugar.

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Calming down a bit …

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… I think I’m okay now …

Well, the new hockey season has just begun and tomorrow is our first home game! It’s time to turn over a new leaf, a new beginning, a new hope. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that I don’t need to open a pastry shop in April.

 

Regardless, I will ALWAYS love my boys! Go Kings go!