Baking!

time: 5:01 Pm
place: Dad's "office"

Have i mentioned how i seriously hate baking?

Well, not that i hate baked goods, trust me I love them! It's just that baking or making any form of desserts for that matter, seems to have a serious all out war against me!

To explain myself further, exhibit A. Failed attempt of a tiramisu made last 2009:

Turning stateside!

Time: 4:25PM
Place: Starbucks Northgate, Alabang


Fun but complete utter fail!

Better!

Time: 09:18PM
Place: Banawe


Well, today went okay and true to Thailand's promise, im still doing okay. No more hurting, no more grudges, no more pain.

I went out around 4pm ( after watching 2 Gumiho episodes) to go to Serenitea and pick up some groceries after. I am quite getting used to being alone again.

Baked Pasta with quails' eggs and Mocha Mudpie #4

Now, I’ve no one to blame but my sleeping problem for the delay in posts.

For the past 2 weeks or so, (since my last post) I’ve been having trouble NOT sleeping. Yes, that's right. I seem to be asleep ALL THE TIME. On my way to work (commute), during lunch break at work, during work, upon coming home, before eating, after eating, on a darn Friday night, on an even darn Saturday night and all Sunday- day!

Pizza and Panna Cotta # 2

I've been meaning to try to make a pizza ever since I came across this no-bake homemade pizza idea in a magazine several years ago. But since i've no drive and no determination, I always forget to do so. But while i was grocery-ing and saw this lovely pack of flour tortillas, I decided, what the heck? might as well;
And before i knew it, in my push cart along with the tortillas were ham, peppers, quickmelt cheese, button mushrooms, and ready-made pizza sauce!

weekend shopping.

While looking for a clean restroom in Megamall (for some reason I have to say this because the nearest restroom lead me to the plates) my sister and myself saw these posh - lookin' plates and impulsively bought them for future use. Buying them was not part of the weekly budget but I thought, what the heck, they are quite nice, and cheap too!



On a totally different level, while paying for the plates, the Cashier was strategically situated near the goodies and sweets section and something caught my attention. Or in this case, two somethings:


One is Royal Family's Mochi Choco Ball (imported from Taiwan, i think, wikied it.) which is actually a Japanese glutinous rice confection filled with strawberry jam! Okay, my one weakness is strawberry so I went ahead and tried it. How to describe it? Think chocolate-coated strawberry-flavored tikoy filled with strawberry jam coated with marshamallow. Beat that!

It's like a mini strawberry explosion, and to be honest, i couldn't quite understand the taste! It's like, it tasted sweet, then sticky because of the glutinous rice, then sweet again because of the jam, then sticky again because of the mallows... Yikes! Had me confused!




Another is Elsa's Story Lemon Pastry Bites. 2 words: HEAVEN-LY. One bite and a thousand (a bit exaggerated) flavors tickled my tastebud. I taste cinnamon, i taste lemon, a bit of pineapple, some raisins, some orange, some apples... I don't know how they were able to roll it all into one small bite size pastry but i definitely would recommend this treat. I only had one bite, there's still about 11 here. Let me know if you want one! :)

***

Next up: Solo Pizza and Panna Cotta! Do you think i can handle it?

Watch out for the coming entry! =)

Tiramisu! #1

*trumpets!*

This is it!!


Thursday, 10:30 pm. After work.

Finally, THE first attempt. I came across this rather simple recipe in Yummy Magazine, October 2008 issue, page 19. I got lucky in buying this particular issue cause it covered everything chocolate! tempering to truffles? it's all in there!

anywho, let's get started =) For this particular recipe, i used the following ingredients: Exhibit 1: 7 oz ladyfingers and 7 oz grated semi sweet chocolate.

Exhibit 2: 1 3/4 cups mascarpone cheese (used cream cheese instead)

1 1/4 confectioner's sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

Exhibit 3: 3/4 cup brewed coffee, cooled, 2 egg whites, 4 egg yolks.

Okay, just to be PERFECTLY clear on one thing: somewhere along the way, i learned NEVER to replace mascarpone cheese with cream cheese. I went to S&R to check out if they carry mascarpone cheese and lo and behold! it costs p500+ per 8oz! So what i did, i went to SM supermarket and bought Magnolia cream cheese instead. solve! *giggles!* but the result was one step short of a disaster.

Read on to find out why.

Exhibit 4: Beat egg yolks with sugar until pale and fluffy.

Exhibit 5: Gently fold in the mascarpone (or in this case, cheap CREAM CHEESE) and then mix in the egg whites.




Exhibit 6: soak lady fingers in brewed coffee and arrange as shown.



Exhibit 7: Cover with a layer of the "CREAM CHEESE" mixture
and layer with the grated chocolate.



"Continue making layers until all ingredients are used up.
Dust with cocoa powder and chill."


These are the words to be found in the magazine and shown above it is a lovely picture
depicting the supposedly finish product.


I somehow ended up with:



Exhibit 8.




and..

Exhibit 9.

Darn mascarpone cheese. From this point on, i will always ALWAYS follow instructions. And won't substitute or come up with a recipe of my own. *scout's honor*

Shown in the magazine, the mascarpone cheese blended very nicely with the egg mixture. However, in my case, there were CHUNKS! What a horrid disaster! I was mixing and mixing for almost 30mins but still, the mixture contained lumps of cream cheese!

Panicking and sleepy and tired, decided to ignore the obvious and continued layering them ladyfingers.

Refer again to exhibit 8. The mixture is too wet and too.. yucky.

But an idea pops into mind. Why not microwave the gooey finish product? for the cheese-egg mixture and chocolate to melt?

It actually got better! =)

The chocolate melted wonderfully,the mixture blended with the ladyfinger layering itself the way it should. *kilig!*

Placed the tiramisu in the freezer overnight. Finished 11:30pm.

The following morning..

Woke up @ 5am. Excited. Opened the freezer. HELLEW TIRAMISU! Sliced through the cake/dessert, and yes, took a bite at such an ungodly time.

It may not look presentable, it may not even level with professionals, but since it's my first, i love it =)

location: Starbucks Shell. Friday. 7:43am.

White Choco Mocha Extra hot. Non-fat. No Whip.

**Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu ! to Marc Angelo Sy