Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

This is a recipe from Martha Stewart.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Yields about 2-3 dozen cookies.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. 

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. 

6. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Storage of Frozen Dough:

Roll the dough into a round stick. Wrap in parchment paper. Twist the ends and use cotton thread to tie them. Put in freezer. It can be kept for up to 6 months. Or you can store dough in portioned balls.

Floating Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake (红心巧克力慕斯蛋糕)

I was so impressed when I saw the cake at wenxuecity. This cake requires some planning since there are 4 different components, the raspberry puree, chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse, and the top glaze. It is a minimum 3-day process.

 PART A: Day 1 - Raspberry Puree

Ingredients:

Fresh raspberry - 24 oz
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Gelatin - 1.5 bag ( about 3 tsp)
Uses 8" cake pan, lined with shrink wrap

Steps:

1. Puree the raspberry in blender until smooth, and then pour the puree thru fine sieve to a saucepan.

2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the puree and allow the gelatin to soften for about 5 minutes. Then heat the puree over medium heat until the gelatin melts completely.
3. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Cool the mixture slightly and pour into plastic lined cake pan. Freeze for at least 12 hours.

PART B: Day 2 - Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Large egg - 2 at room temperature
Large egg yolks - 6 at room temperature
Almond paste - 6 oz
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 3 TBSP
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Unsalted butter - 3 TBSP, melted and cooled

Steps:

1. Preheat over to 400°F. Prepare a 9" cake pan with parchment paper covering the bottom
2. Put egg, yolks, almond paste, and powdered sugar in mixer bowl and mix at medium low speed until smooth, thick, and pale, about 5 min.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa, and sugar. Add these to the egg mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Add butter and mix for another 5 seconds.
5. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 8 minutes or just until firm to the touch. Do not over bake. When you insert a toothpick, it will come out with wet crumbs.

6. Cool it completely and fridge until ready to assembly.

PART C: Day 2 - White Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

White chocolate - 12 oz
Water - 1/3 cup
Gelatin - 1.5 bag
Heavy whipping cream - 3 and 3/4 cup

Steps:

1. Put the chocolate chips in a stainless steel mixing bowl that fit over a saucepan. Add water to the saucepan and heat it until the chocolate melt entirely.
2. In another saucepan, add 1/3 cup water and sprinkle in the gelatin. Let the gelatin soak for 5 minutes, and then set the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the gelatin dissolves.
3. Pour 3/4 cup of the heavy cream in another sauce pan and bring it to boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat immediately.
4. Add the gelatin to the hot cream and stir until well mixed; then add the mixture to the melted chocolate and stir well until the mixture is very smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and allow the chocolate mixture to cool until its just warm.

5. Use electric mixer to whip the rest of the heavy whipping cream until it just holds stiff peaks.
6. Use rubber spatula to gently fold half of the whipped cream into the slightly warm chocolate mixture. Add the remaining whipped cream and fold gently until smooth. Do not over fold the mixture; it should still have a few distinct streaks of white chocolate and whipped cream.

PART D: Day 2 - Assembly

1. Optionally, trim the 9" chocolate cake to 8". Then put the cake in the middle of the 9" mousse ring.

2. Pour in half of the white chocolate mousse and put raspberry puree in the middle of the white mousse, gently press it in.

3. Then add the rest of the mousse and put the cake in refrigerator overnight.

PART D: Day 3 - Glaze Top

Ingredients:

Raspberry puree - 100 g, filtered using fine sieve
Sugar - 30 g
Water - 100 g
Gelatin - 5 g (about 3/4 bag)

Steps:

1. Add water, sugar, gelatin in a small saucepan, heat in medium heat until gelatin fully dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add raspberry puree in the sauce pan, mix well. Wait for it cool before use.
3. Pour cooled raspberry mixture on the mousse cake from the day before, then put the cake back to refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or until the jello surface is set.

4. Remove the mousse ring. Pipe some letters and decorations on parchment paper using melted white chocolate and then place on cake when they are harden.

Agar Jelly with Filling

A simple, but beautiful desert.

Ingredients

Agar Agar Powder - 1 oz for about 12 pieces
Pastry filling - Purple yam, pineapple or other, or use fresh fruit
Sugar - 1 tsp or to your taste

Steps

1. For every ounce of Agar Agar Powder, add 1 cup water into a saucepan. Cook in medium high heat. Bring to a full boil.
2. Immediately pour Agar agar powder and sugar into the saucepan. Dissolve completely. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring 1 minute.
3. Add about 1 tsp mixture into each mold, put the mold in refrigerator for a few minutes to cool until the mixture starts to solidify.

 4. Put some pastry filling in each mold, and pour mixture to fill up each mold.

5. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Then remove the jelly from the molds.

Try different fillings, or small pieces of fresh fruit for a colorful desert.

Green Tea Crepe Cake (绿茶千层可丽蛋糕)

When I asked about crepe recipe, quite a few people say just mix flour, egg, milk, butter to your desired consistency, and lay them like pancakes. That probably is a correct statement since the portion is not that strict in making crepes, however it is hard to follow for first timers. I referenced the recipe from this Tinrry's video and Ivy's notes.

Ingredients

【Crepe】
Cake flour - 1.5 cup
Whole milk - 3 cup
Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Egg - 6
Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup
Optional: Grand Marnier or RUM - 1.5 TBSP
Optional : MOCHA powder / green tea powder - 3 to 4 tsp

【Creme】
Heavy whipping cream - 4 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Gelatin - 1 bag (7g)
Green tea powder - 1 TBSP

Steps

1. In a big mixing bowl, add eggs, and gently beat it
2. Add milk to the big mixing bowl

3. Sift cake flour, (green tea powder, if added) powdered sugar, and salt into the big mixing bowl, and mix well.

4. Run the mixture thru fine mesh sifter, you should get a more consistent mixture.

5. Melt the butter in microwave or stove in a small bowl, then add 1 cup of the mixture from previous step in the hot butter, mix until butter is fully integrated into the mixture. Then pour the mixture with butter back into the big mixing bowl.
6. Refrigerate the batter for over 2 hours, or overnight.
7. In a non-stick frying pan, adjust stove to medium heat, make crepes as thin as possible. It takes about 1/4 cup per 8" crepe. The thinner you can make the crepe, the better.

8. Once you get all the crepes done, wrap them in parchment paper, and refrigerate for about half hour to let them cool down fully. Trim the crepes using a round bowl or cake pan as guide.

9. While the crepes are chilled, make whipped cream frosting.
10. Now just put one crepe, then a layer of whipped cream frosting, then another crepe, and another layer of frosting until you run out of crepes or frosting. It looks better if you can have at least 20 layers. Finally you can sift some powdered sugar or green tea powder on top for decoration.

11. Refrigerate the cake overnight before serving.