Leche Flan con Cream Cheese

Dessert

If you think the Leche Flan you've been consuming all these years is rich, this recipe will surely make you reconsider.  The creator is Celia Fisher and was shared by +Chef Ron Bilaro.  After my first attempt, the following recipe has some minor fine-tuning.  It is a wee bit more dense than your regular leche flan, practically like a cheesecake.  Who can say no to that??!? Definitely not my family.

Celia Fisher, the creator of this crazy good recipe.

Ingredients & Process (for a 9 1/2 inch baking tin; sorry, we want our custards big & thick so I don't use the typical, dainty llanera)

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Make the caramel in a small pot by gently heating 1/3 cup water, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. This would take about 6 minutes until sugar is melted and golden brown. Per the original recipe, you can prepare the caramel directly on the pan.  Unfortunately, cack hands and induction cooktops don't go safely together :p
• Pour the caramel onto the pan.  Submerge the bottom of the pan on ice water to stop the cooking process ie, you don't want the sugar to harden.
  
• You can do the following in a blender or if you're lazy to set up and wash too many things, just bring out your hand blender. In a big bowl with spout, hand-blend the following.  Make sure there are no cream cheese clumps hiding in the mixture. Believe me, the cream cheese is tricky.

1. 5 eggs - room temperature
2. 1 can evaporated milk
3. 1 can condensed milk 
4. 4 oz cream cheese (that would be half a tub)
5. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
6. 2 tablespoons vanilla

• Carefully pour mixture into the pan.  That's why you need a spout on your bowl because you don't want the caramel and custard to mix - you want them as separate layers.
• Cover pan with tin foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in a bain marie.
• When done, dispose of tin foil and chill flan in the refrigerator to set.
• Run the dull side of a thin knife around the edge before inverting on serving plate.

Truly Coffee Coffee Cake

Dessert:  Coffee Cake

This is an adaptation of +thepioneerwoman's recipe called "Coffee Cake, Literally!".  When I hear or read coffee cake, I don't know why but I want that cake to be coffee-flavoured not just something to go with my coffee.  Me and my bizarre word association.  This cake is dedicated to +Laverne McMahon who was my regular "coffee-mate" in Singapore when our eldest sons were still in pre-school. She posted this on her Facebook page yesterday :)

You'll be needing a lot of bowls, big & small, for this recipe and eventually, you have to bring out your mixer.

Strawberry Shortcake - Japanese Style

Fruity Baked Dessert

Nothing beats greeting summer than by serving fresh fruit desserts to your family and guests.  

Strawberries are really affordable nowadays so I decided to prepare Japanese style strawberry shortcake.  As opposed to American style, Japanese style is lighter and "airer".  Not laden with too much sugar, flour and absolutely no shortening, just a smidge of butter. Have even encountered some shortcakes with whipped cream from spray cans.  Yikes!

This version is mainly a copy of +The Tart Tart recipe with some minimal refinements. http://www.thetarttart.com/2013/10/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/

I remember having Strawberry Shortcake scented erasers and stickers when I was still a wee one :) Did you have one too??!?

Lemon Bar Cookies

Dessert

Nothing says "hello warm weather" better than the fragrant smell of lemon wafting in the house.  Naturally erasing other stinky cooking smells to boot.

Here's an easy recipe, no need for a mixer, yey!

"CRUST"

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 stick butter cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

"FILLING"

• lightly beat 2 eggs in a small bowl
• 1 cup granulated/fine sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 juicy lemon so better roll on your counter with a little pressure)
• lemon zest of 1 lemon; finely chopped.  I used a mezzaluna.
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

PROCESS

1. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. either process or just use a pastry cutter to cut the flour, powdered sugar and pre-cut butter until it looks like cornmeal
   
3. spread out on a 10 1/2 x 8 x 1 inch baking pan lined with parchment paper with edges sticking out. Pat down with clean hand.
   
4. bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven
5. while the "crust" is baking, prepare the filling by mixing eggs with sugar in a medium-sized bowl
6. add lemon juice, zest, salt, flour and baking powder.  The consistency is supposed to be runny.
   
7. pour into crust.  Bake 30-35 minutes.
8. sprinkle additional powdered sugar
   
9. cool then cut into desired shapes, like bars
   
   
   
   

Sour Cream Coffee Coffee Cake

Dessert:  Coffee Cake

I saw this recipe from +mylifeasmrs blog post.  It originally came from her granny.  Thing is, whenever I read "coffee cake", I always imagine it to be coffee-flavoured.  Am weird like that. Coffee cake is described as cake you eat with coffee like during breakfast or coffee klatch.

Anyway, I made adjustments on the original recipe to incorporate a hint of coffee flavour in this cake, thus, Coffee Coffee cake :)

Ingredients:

1 Yellow Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker brand)
1 cup sour cream and I mixed in a tablespoon of lemon juice 
4 lightly beaten eggs
1 small instant vanilla pudding packet (well hello Jell-o)
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

Process:

• pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
• grease and flour a pound cake or bundt pan; my bundt pan is made of silicone so I just lightly greased it

The Bundt pan is ideal for dense cakes like pound or coffee cake with indentations for a decorative finish.

• in a stand mixer with paddle attachment, pour in the cake mix, sour cream, eggs, pudding mix, coffee and oil
• start on low and increase speed to medium until well combined.  Stop mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides and bottom; it's pretty sticky. A total of about 5 minutes.
• in a small bowl, mix together the sugar, nuts, cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee
• line liberally the bottom & sides of the bundt pan with the nut mixture
  

• reserve 2 tablespoons of the nut mixture and fold in the remainder in the batter
• pour batter in the bundt pan and top with the reserved nut mixture
  

• bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.  Do toothpick check for done-ness
  
  
  

  

  Coffee Coffee Cake happiness.

Bread Pudding and Blackberry Betty

Dessert

My mother never really prepared desserts when I was young.  She usually just served fresh fruits if ever we had dessert.  I don't know what triggered it, maybe there was too much old bread at home. There was a lengthy period that she kept on preparing and improving her bread pudding.  This is a trite word but it was really moist!  She kept on experimenting on the best liqueur to incorporate or best type of stale bread.  She finally settled on rum and pan de sal.  Our poor piano teacher was fed the many bread pudding iterations for weeks on end.

The following recipe is an homage to my mum and her one and only dessert dish.

My anti-dessert mum in our Quezon City home.

BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients/Process to prepare a 10 inch diameter pyrex dish with additional 6 1/2 diameter dish :

• microwave 1 1/2 sticks of salted or unsalted butter for a minute; make sure you cover your container - you don't want the butter splattering inside your micro.  It is best that you slice the butter following the lines on the wrapper so everything will be melted at the same time.
• in a big bowl, whisk lightly 2 lightly beaten eggs, 2 1/2 cups of cream, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar. Whisk well to incorporate all ingredients; no need to over beat.
• pour the melted butter in the big bowl with the cream mixture, whisk some more.
• on to your stale bread.  Roughly cut you bread of choice into 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" chunks; no need to be precise. Dunk into the big bowl containing your egg/butter/cream mixture.  Press bread so all bits will be submerged in the mixture.  Set aside.

Like what my mum has discovered, stale pan de sal is fantastic for bread puddings.  I don't know why. Through numerous hits and misses, old potato bread and brioche make great puddings too. Rye and wholewheat, not too much.

• roughly chop a handful of dried fruits and place in a small bowl.  I just buy a bag from the grocery which has a combination of dried apples, apricots, pear and various berries.  Alternatively, you can use raisins, it's just that my boys aren't that keen on raisins.  Pour 2 tablespoons of Cointreau and place just enough water to cover the fruits. Let soak.  
• Back to the soaking bread.  Using your hands or ask one of your kids to do this fun, messy business (just make sure all hands are clean!!!!), lightly squeeze the bread bits.  Swirl it around the bowl so all the bits are squeezed. Let it soak some more while you quickly grease your baking dishes.  I think this was my mum's secret to the creamy, custard-like texture - squeezing the bread bits and soaking for a period of time.
• UPDATE!!!! Thanks to my eldest's suggestion, I have added cooked salted duck eggs to the bread mix.  I scoop from the shell the egg part with a spoon then roughly chop it. I used 3 eggs because I still want the sweetness to come out. Kind of similar to mooncake actually :)
• in a small pot, place a cup of brown sugar plus 1/3 cup water & half a teaspoon vanilla. On high heat, swirl it around until the sugar is melted.  Just eyeball it, this will take about 4 minutes or so.
• pour the syrup into baking dishes
• drain the soaking fruits and add in the bread mixture.  Mix well.
• slowly pour the bread/fruit mixture in the baking dishes with syrup
• to ensure that the bread pudding is cooked with uniform heat around, set up a bain marie or hot water bath. I just use a roasting dish, place the pudding containers then carefully pour hot water around it (not the pudding!!!!)

Bain Marie (ban mah-REE).  Image from theKitchn.

• bake at pre-heated oven, 350 degrees, for 45 minutes until it is firm; do toothpick test and see if it comes off clean. 
• remove from oven and carefully remove your pudding dishes from the roasting pan and let cool
• when cool, place your serving plate over the pudding then invert. Voila, look at the syrup crawling off the sides of the pudding!
• you can serve this pudding at room temperature or warm for a minute in the micro and serve with whipped cream or ice cream on the side.
  
  
  
  

Ultimate Choco Chip Cookies

Dessert (Cookies)

I got this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen and +Monique Volz, the genius creator, calls it Nutella-Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt.

My boys are slaves to choco chip cookies (CCC) so I'm always on the lookout for the "perfect" recipe and I think I've found it. Thank you Ambitious Kitchen for discovering and sharing this ultimate CCC recipe.  It's so fantastic, I have to bake another batch for Christmas goodies since the first two batches were immediately consumed by my boys.

Soooo gooey, and the touch of salt adds the perfect contrast to the amplified sweetness of CCC stuffed with Nutella.  The browned butter with nutty flavour is a perfect complement to the Nutella.

Chewy Butterscotch Bars

Desserts 

I first encountered butterscotch morsels two years ago when my husband brought home (Taiwan then)two bags from his U.S. trip. All along, my exposure and usage was limited to dark, milk and white choco chips. I didn't dare try to bake with mint choco chips I found then in Sogo, an upscale Japanese department store with a grocery catering to mostly expatriates.

Nestle Butterscotch Morsels

I immediately researched online on cookie and brownie type of recipes.  The boys (that includes my hubby) are old school so they still prefer regular choco chip cookies. But this recipe has become a relatively new family favourite.  Easy to whip up, no need to bring out the mixer.  So yummy, I always prepare two 7" X 7" tins which the family would consume in 2 days!