Thai Tea, Ube, and Green Tea Madeleines

I based my recipe from Just One Cookbook, which covers a basic green tea one. However, I split the batter into three and added flavoring at the end. I'm not sure if that's taboo, since the recipe said don't overmix...BUT, I didn't have any issues so I think it's fine. I'll list what I did. The thai tea, ube, and green tea amounts are for 1/3 of the batter. If you want to make just one of those flavors, multiply by 3.

Madeleines: thai tea/ ube/ green tea [18-20 total madeleines]

113 g unsalted butter + some melted butter for coating pan

113 g sugar

120 g flour (sifted)

pinch of salt

5 g baking powder

2 large eggs (room temp)

15 g milk

For green tea: 2.5 g matcha powder

For ube: 2.5 g ube extract

For thai tea: 2.5 g thai tea powder

1. Melt butter in a small pan. Cool butter to room temp once it has melted.

2. Add sugar, flour, and sugar into a bowl. Note, if you're going to make only one flavor, add any dry ingredients now (thai tea powder or matcha powder). Whisk to combine.

3. In a separate bowl, add eggs and milk and whisk until frothy throughout. If you're making only the ube flavor, add the ube extract to this mixture.

4. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold together.

5. Add the cooled butter and fold some more until completely blended.

6. Now, for multiple flavors, divide your batter into three (I put ~150 g of this batter into two other bowls).

7. Add in the flavoring and fold until incorporated. I tried not over over mixing.

8. Cool the batters down in the fridge for at least an hour or if you're in a hurry you can throw them in the freezer for 30 min (guilty).

9. Use a pastry brush or something to spread the melted butter onto the madeleine pan. Be generous.

10. Fill each mold with some batter. I put the pan on a scale and added in 25 g of batter. It equated to about a 1 tbsp of batter. Youtube videos online also use those small ice cream scoops as well. You don't want to overfill it.

11. Bake at 375F for 11 min.

12. Take out and let cool for a few minutes and then remove from pans and let cool further on a cooling rack.

Custard: thai tea/ ube/ green tea

1 large egg yolk

9.25 g corn starch

85 g milk

25 g sugar

~1ish gram of either thai tea powder, ube extact, or matcha powder

1. Combine egg yolks and cornstarch until fully incorporated.

2. In a saucepan, high heat, combine milk and sugar. If you're just doing one flavor for the custard, incorporate it now.

3. Bring to boil and remove from heat.

4. While whisking constantly, slowly add to bowl with yolks and cornstarch. You are tempering the egg yolks so that they won't scramble.

5. Return the mixture to the saucepan on high heat.

6. Bring to rolling boil, while whisking/ mixing constantly. The mixture will become custard like.

7. To get rid of lumps in your custard you can either sieve it through a fine mesh or use a hand blender (works like magic!). Or you might not have any lumps to begin with and then you're all set.

8. Divide custard into three and then stir in respective flavoring.

9. Add custard into a piping bag with a small tip.

Filling:

1. Make a cavity in the madeleines. I was ghetto and stabbed the bottom edge of the madeleine with a chopstick and swirled it around, making sure to not crack the entry point or the cookie itself. 

2. Pipe in the custard. You should feel pressure to stop/ see that the cookie might crack soon.

3. Enjoy the deliciousness :D.

Final notes:

It might be beneficial to make the custard first, that way you can pipe it into warm madeleines. I didn't do that and it still worked, but I figure the cookie is easier to cavitize (is this a word?) when warm.

Gluck!

Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake

There are 5 main components for the cake, including the macarons (green tea sponge, whipped cream frosting, green tea glaze, green tea macaron shells, strawberry curd filling). The optimal timeline is probably: make the cake and whipped cream and assemble and chill. Make mirror glaze and cool to RT. While that's cooling, make the macarons.

1. Matcha Sponge : [makes 1 jelly roll sheet]
112g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
16 g matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
156 g granulated sugar
60 g whole milk

1. Oven at 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat

2. Whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, green tea and salt.

3. In a different, large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and milk until pale.

4. Separately, whisk egg whites until medium stiff peaks (if you whisk too stiff, it's harder to incorporate).

5. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and fold together. Then slowly fold in the medium stiff egg whites.

6. Pour batter onto the baking sheet and then rap the sheet down a few times to release any big air bubbles.

7. Bake for 9 minutes (a toothpick should go in and out cleanly).

8. Using a knife or something thin, move along the edge of the pan and cake. Remove cake from pan and silpat and let cool on a baking rack.


Note: I'm guesstimating on amounts for the whipped cream frosting. To make it stabilized, just make a corn starch paste first and add enough to make the whipped cream firm. Also sugar can always be adjusted based on your sweetness preferences.
 
2. Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting:

350 g heavy whipping cream
10 g powdered sugar
10 g powdered sugar
10 g corn starch
some strawberries, not wet and sliced 

1. Whenever whipping your own cream, make sure the first thing you do is throw your bowl and whisk attachment into the fridge or freezer. Cold is your best friend.

2. First make your corn starch paste. Add corn starch, one 10g of powdered sugar, and about 100 g of cream and stir in a pot.

3. Heat over medium, stirring constantly. When it becomes paste-like (you will see a drastic change in the consistency from liquidy to custard like), take the pan off the heat and continue to mix until smooth. Make sure it cools down to room temp (throw in freezer if need be).

4. Take out chilled bowl and whisk and add the second powdered sugar and remainder of the cream. Whisk until soft peaks.

5. Whisking at a fast speed, add in the paste (make sure it's not hot!), a bit at a time.

6. Whisk until stiff peaks.

7. Remove about 1/3 of the whipped cream and save that for the outside of the cake.

8. With the remaining 2/3, fold in the strawberries. You could also use whatever other fruit you like. Purees should work too, but just be careful of how much you add to not deflate the whipping cream (I usually make extra whipping cream if I know I'm adding a puree).


3. Matcha Mirror Glaze:

100 g white chocolate
35 g condensed milk
50 g sugar
61.25 g corn syrup
25 ml water
4 g gelatin (+ about 15 ml water to bloom)
3 g matcha powder

1. Mix gelatin in water until you get an apple sauce consistency. 

2. In a small pot add corn syrup, water, matcha powder, and sugar and bring to a boil.

3. Add in gelatin and condensed milk. Whisk until gelatin fully dissolved.

4. In a bowl with the chocolate, add the liquid mixture and whisk until chocolate is fully melted. If you have a hand blender, I highly recommend that you use it to blend the chocolate. 

5. Add desired food coloring.

6. Bring the glaze to room temperature or slightly colder. (You can cover it with cling wrap and throw it in the fridge, but be careful. You don't want it to solidify, but don't want to melt the whipped cream frosting either.)


4. Matcha Macaron Shells:

For about 10 1.5 inch macarons:
46 g almond flour (sift, no big almond pieces)
40 g powdered sugar
2 g matcha powder
35 g egg whites (room temp)
35 g granulated sugar

1. Oven to 300F (or 325F, see below). Measure out and sift your powdered sugar, matcha, and almond flour. Whisk together and set aside.

2. Make your meringue. Beat/ whisk your egg whites until frothy and start to incorporate the granulated sugar a bit a time. Beat until stiff peaks.

3. Okay. You should look up macaronage (folding of ingredients) on Youtube if you don’t know how already. Make sure you set aside some of the batter if you plan to make faces.

In summary: add in dry ingredients to the meringue, a third at a time until mixed. And folding by basically scraping along the edge of the bowl and then pressing down along the center in sort of a J shape. Do this until you have a lava like consistency, where you can pick up your spatula and the batter will drop down in a ribbon. My test is to bang the bowl on the table and see if the ribbon that just fell incorporates back into the main blob—if it does, it’s ready. Otherwise, I do a few more folds. Put into a piping bag.

Add black/ other food coloring to the batter you set aside and fold until the right consistency and put into a bag. (I have tiny piping tips, but if you don't, a sandwich bag with the very very end cut off would work well too.)

4. Pipe out your macarons. I use a silpat (would highly recommend). Rap the baking sheet against the table a few times. Pipe on derpy faces onto the shells. You could also probably use a toothpick if you're gentle enough.

5. I hate waiting for the shells to dry, so I cheat and actually put the oven temp at 325. Then I open the oven and hold the tray in the oven, rotating it every 10 seconds or so for about a minute. Then again for another 30 seconds. This quickly dries out the shells :p.
You want to be able to touch the shell and have it not be sticky. Then I drop down the oven temp back to 300 (it’s about this low anyways since the door has been open.)

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes.


5. Strawberry Curd:

5 - 8 strawberries, pureed (you can sieve if you want)
16 g corn starch
50 g granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
10ish g lemon juice
28.5 g butter (sometimes less, depending on how thick you make the custard)

1. Add puree to a pot. Heat up until simmering.

2. Lightly beat the egg yolk and add sugar, sifted corn starch, and lemon juice. Get it so it's not lumpy.

3. While whisking, slowly add the heated up puree onto the egg/sugar/cornstarch/lemon. You're tempering the egg to prevent it from scrambling. Once it's fully incorporated, add the mixture back into the pot and stir constantly on medium. Eventually, it'll start to thicken. I usually thicken until it's a nice paste.

4. Take off the heat and stir in the butter, a little a time.

5. I transfer to a piping bag and chill it in the fridge for a short while to firm up before piping onto my macaron shells.


Assembly:

1. Slice off a small piece for topping decoration. Slice cake into thirds. Remove any obvious crumbs.

2. Smooth out a layer of strawberry whipped cream between the cake.

3. Use the normal whipped cream to surround the cake. I go slowly to not get crumbs showing. You can add a small amount then throw it in the fridge. Then add the final amount to cover any crumbs.

4. Once finished frosting, chill the cake in the fridge or freezer.

5. When mirror glaze if room temp and the cake is cool, add it over the top, with only small amounts so you can get some nice drips.

6. Assemble macarons.

7. Make the top look pretty by adding sliced strawberries, macarons, cake fragments (from that small piece you cut off before you sliced it into thirds), and strawberry curd.

Enjoy!

Guava Matcha Roll Cake

I had been wanting to try a matcha roll cake for a while and finally decided to give it a shot. I used The Little Epicurean's recipe for the sponge component. Adapted it for the guava whipped cream.

Matcha Sponge

For one jelly roll sheet:
112g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
156 g granulated sugar
60 g whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.

2. Whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a different, large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and milk until pale.

4. Separately, whisk egg whites until medium stiff peaks (if you whisk too stiff, it's harder to incorporate).

5. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and fold together. Then slowly fold in the medium stiff egg whites. Be careful not to deflate them too much.

6. Pour batter onto the baking sheet and then rap the sheet down a few times to release any big air bubbles.

7. Bake for 8-9 minutes (a toothpick should go in and out cleanly).

8. Invert cake, remove silpat or parchment paper and let cool.Whichever side is nicer, let that side be the outside of the roll (bottom).

9. Let cool.

Guava Whipped Cream

250 g heavy whipping cream
~1/2 - 3/4 guava, pureed and sieved 
2 g gelatin
10 ml water

1. Mix gelatin with water until apple sauce consistency.  

2. Melt until liquid, about 30 seconds in microwave if gelatin has set. 

3. Whisk together whipping cream and powdered sugar.

4. Slowly add in liquid gelatin and whisk until stiff peaks.

5. Fold in the guava puree.

6. Fold in chunks of guava.

Assembly

1. Cut a small corner of the sheet off like: |________| ---> /________\  (helps with rolling)

2. Add the whipped cream onto the sheet layer.

3. Using the parchment paper or silpat that the cake had cooled on to help, slowly roll the cake up and over itself.

4. Maintain the shape until fully rolled then place rolled cake, seam side down, in fridge to chill.

5. Dust with powdered sugar or matcha or your favorite dusting before serving.

Gluck!

-Mario