visions of clarity...do as infinity

Saturday, May 12, 2007

A Baking Day: Millefeuille and Meringue

Hello

Today I baked for my early Mother's Day Gift! [My brother's contribution was urm. Transport. And according to him "moral support by not getting in your way".-___-"]

So I decided to try my hand at making my mom a Millefeuille: The Home-Baker Version.^_^" I say homebaker version because there is no way in the near future I can anything as gorgeously YUMMY as Pierre Herme's little minions. Sigh.

So I shall bring you through the small guide to a Millefeuille!

A millefeuille literally means "thousand leaves", referring to the numerous layers of puff pastry and pastry cream used in its construction. It's an intricate and absolutely to-die-for pastry that one HAS to try at least ONCE. =D

Puff Pastry!!! =D Okay, so I cheated. I bought the ready-made puff pastry and cut it out myself.=X Ahem. Puff Pastry is very difficult to make from scratch in our horrendously tropical weather! *defensive*

Pastry Cream! =D I made the recipe from the book "Paris Sweets". ^_^ It is LUSCIOUS. And fattening. But pretty good if I do say so myself. Haha. It was also a horror to make from scratch. X__x My maid and I were completely panicking because it became custardy over the stove [I thought I had failed by not getting a luscious, smooth product]. But my fears were assuaged by the addition of butter.=D Oh gorgeous dairy products!

So yes, as you can tell, one has to layer the puff pastry and pastry cream! ^_^ And thus my amateurish efforts:

In the process of layering [it sounds more professional when you say layering when one is kind of stacking it together. Haha.=X]. ^_^" You kind of blob the pastry cream on then attempt to spread it prettily on the puff pastry.

Needless to say, I am not blessed in the "good plating" department.=X

But do you not agree that it looks edible anyway? =D

So after clumsily layering the Home-Baker Version Millefeuille plus decoration and plating, I ended up with this!

The berries were shockingly expensive but very good. Haha.=X

Points to Note for next time:
- Use better milk for the pastry cream [I bought the cheapest which my brother AND father both declared dubious. Which is really saying something.]
- Hunt down cheap(er) Vanilla pods! [I couldn't bear to spend so much money on vanilla pods and returned to my darling vanilla extract instead. =X]
- Buy ALL-BUTTER PUFF PASTRY! Never again will I trust this.. this.. VEGETARIAN puff pastry.-_-"
- Alternatively, find time, patience and skill to make puff pastry from scratch!
- Try different toppings/fillings for the millefeuille!

And then because I had so much egg white left over [do not ask. X__x], the first thing I came up with to make was meringues.

I have been DYING to make meringues since forever even though I don't like meringues [I think they are too sweet] because I have been absolutely dying to try getting my egg whites to achieve stiff peaks successfully!

And today, I succeeded! =D

I love looking at whipped egg whites.=D It looks like this huge fluffy and soft cloud.

And I get very pleased when it reaches that stage and doesn't collapse. ^_^ I'm rather strange I know.

I added a little something to the meringues to make them less boring! =D

Apparently, there are 2 methods to make meringues.
1) High heat, fast baking will get you crispy and almost hollow meringues.
2) Lower heat, slow baking will get you crispy outsides, chewy and soft insides [like a pavlova].

Mm.

The insides! =D I added chocolate chips and chocolate chunks. Which helped a LOT with the sweetness of the meringues. They had soft, chewy insides and relatively crisp exteriors. It reminded me a lot of cotton candy! =D

I had already reduced the sugar and yet it was extremely sweet. X__x And to think people sandwich ice-cream between merigues?! Still, I have to say that I very much enjoyed the texture of the meringues and if I were to make these again,
1) I'd make a smaller batch.
2) I'd reduce the sugar further.
3) I'd add cocoa powder to give the meringue itself more taste
4) I'd attempt a pavlova!
5) I will find many many people who actually like meringues to be my guinea pigs.^_^

And then I watched Gackt's Jougen no Tsuki concert while baking! =D And I discovered a slightly easier way to screencap. ;)

The dramatic singing.

The dramatic lighting.

The dramatic exit.

xD

And I wanted to post this the other day but I forgot.

Japan had an ice-cream day! =D Haagen Dasz/Dazs set up this event where guests reclined on beds, ate ice-cream and watched a concert!

And I have been DYING to share this REALLY cute Coca-Cola advertisement: Happiness Factory.=D It is ADORABLE! And I really really really like the music they used.

The whole ad is 1.5 minutes long and you can watch it here: Happiness Factory (link). I strongly encourage you to watch it! =D I think it's a very cute and catchy concept but I wonder how they adapted it for TV where they usually play 15/30-second commercials?

Anyway, I've been watching the winter/spring 2007 anime.^_^ I like actually being up to date on the anime scene, it's easier to get fansubs. Haha.=X

Lovely Complex
- Short boy meets tall girl. Set in school, this manga-turned-anime has a predictable storyline but is pretty funny. ^_^ And absolutely for shoujo manga fans.
- Only 1 episode so far.

Kekkaishi
- Demons, exorcists, magic and a male and female protaganist who have to protect their city, school, families, etc and yet carry on with their ordinary lives while hiding their special ghost-busting abilities! Pretty primary-school-ish in terms of the storyline but interesting nonetheless. I love these fantasy animes with fighting themes.^_^ Brilliant brainless watching.
- 18 episodes so far and I'm not bored! That's a good sign.=D I can't wait to see what happens next.

Darker than Black
- A Japanese anime version of Heroes which appears pretty interesting. Plus, although I had initial misgivings about the drawings [not very pretty], the title is far too interesting to pass up!
- 0 episodes so far, I'm going to watch it after posting this.^_^ [edit: it started off REALLY interesting.xD Haha. This looks like something good!]

Red Garden
- Set in New York, this murder mystery anime is resolved within 22 episodes so it's short and sweet. It also involves female protaganists! =D A good thing in my book.
- 0 episodes so far, I'm still getting the fansubs.^_^"

All this on top of Code Geass [on hold], NANA [very slow] and Kyou Kara Maou [even slower]. ^_^

cheers
*[-witchstone-]*

[music : Orenji no Taiyou Gackt & Hyde]
[mood : tired]
[food : JAPANESE FOOD. (T_T)]

Jiamin: Haiyos. I have NO IMAGES OF KEITA. Send me! =D And I don't really have images of Nobu either. Haha.=X And I think Shin is cuter than Nobu. Though Nobu is cute too. Oh. And I think Ren is cool as well. Yasu is cool too! X__x And I like Suzaku too!!! But he's too irritatingly idealistic. At least Lelouch is brilliant though stubborn and occasionally over confident. As for Shou and Nao, I'm saving them for another episode of Midweek Men. ;)

Joyce: I don't actually think Kim Jeong Hoon is that goodlooking. AHEM. No offence! And YOU TWO! Omy. I can't feature THAT many people in one post. Hahaha. Save them for another time!!!

Labels: anime, baking, Darker than Black, edibles, Gackt, Kekkaishi, Lovely Complex, Meringue, Millefeuille, misc, Red Garden

Welcome

visions of clarity...do as infinity
by witchstone

My Emotible!
starry-eyed: filled with such youthful hope and optimism that one's eyes twinkle even when it's dark

Wish List

ie: motivation to save money!
- clothes
- shoes [heels! boots!]
- the perfect tote
- coats/outerwear! [Soïa & Kyo, Burberry...]
- Gackt - nine*nine
- Gackt Photobooks:
1 The Gift The Sixth Day & Seventh Night Tour Document (2004)
2 Crescent Photobook (out of print)
- Cookbooks!
1 Thomas Keller The French Laundry Cookbook
2 The Nobu Cookbook
3 Emily Luchetti A Passion for Desserts
4 Alice Medrich Pure Dessert
- Anime/Manga
1 Rurouni Kenshin
2 xxxHOLiC
3 Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
- Proficiency at Japanese!
- Learn French for Food!

Links

My Flickr Page
spoonerisms*inc a food blog (by wendy & I)
my translation blog

witchstone...

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Checklist: EAT!

The Common Grill, Chelsea
The Black Pearl, Ann Arbor
Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes, Detroit
Bella Ciao, Ann Arbor
Craft, NYC
Momofuku, NYC
Alinea, Chicago
The French Laundry, California
Goto, Singapore

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