Calamansi Meringue Pie

A few days ago, I craved for some lime or lemon pie. Something sour and sweet at the same time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any limes or lemons but what I did have were some calamansi. They’re these tiny limes abundant here in the Philippines and are about the size of a cherry tomato.

Yes, I had to squeeze the juice out of these tiny little limes and by the end of it, my thumbs were frozen in the squeeze form.

Okay, no not really but it definitely took much longer than squeezing out lime or lemon juices.

I used the recipe from food network from Giada’s Weekend Getaways program and halved it since I didn’t have enough calamansi. Unfortunately, I didn’t think through properly because the pan I used was too wide for the amount of filling thus, the relatively thin filling as you can see below. :(

The pie itself was deliciously sour although runny even after refrigerating since I think I pulled it out of the oven too soon or perhaps with the ratio of ingredients… but the meringue! I have grown to love torched meringue. Yummy goodness.

UPDATE: I placed the remainder of the pie in the freezer overnight and it’s a lot better!

Calamansi Pie
adapted from Joe’s Stone Crab Key Lime Pie recipe 

I did make this pie a couple of years back and it turned out great, as it should. However, I decided not to include the adapted version of the recipe of the pie itself here as it didn’t turn out properly, perhaps something wrong with the ratio of egg yolks and the baking time since I halved it.

Meringue
from MasterChef Australia

2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

-In a bowl, using a stand or hand mixer, beat egg whites until foamy.
-Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff.
-TORCH.

Mochi Ice Cream

Last weekend, I was in Manila for the long weekend. Between traffic, going around malls, shopping, window shopping and whatnot, there was the food. Although this post won’t be about those places where dined at (as I didn’t bring my camera to document.. surprise, surprise!), one thing I was able to try were some mochi ice cream which I’ve been wanting to try and they didn’t disappoint.

For the past few days, it has been incredibly hot here. Perfect, I thought, to try my hand at making mochis. After searching for a recipe, I learnt that it’s incredibly easy to make. Just really sticky and messy but it isn’t as time consuming as I thought. And very delicious.

These mochi ice creams were filled with the only flavor available in my freezer: Double Dutch, which I’m not so sure if it’s a flavor outside the Philippines but it’s vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, cashews and marshmallows.

One thing I will try next time is to learn how to properly wrap without an obvious seal/wrap since as you can see, the mochi is really thick at the bottom. Aside from that, is there something you can add so that the mochi stays slightly chewy from the freezer without needing to thaw a bit?

I followed the recipe over at Use Real Butter.

My first Daring Baker challenge entry + celebration

For a couple of years now, I’ve been meaning to join the Daring Bakers but, as I was studying abroad and didn’t have a kitchen, I had to put it off. Until now. Since I’m back home for good, I quickly applied, waited and got my acceptance email and read the recipe over and over again. Excited? Yes, of course!

This month’s challenge was hosted by Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes and she got us making Fraisiers! Which is absolutely delicious so thank you!

At first, I thought of using only mangoes (since we were allowed to use other fruits) and I wanted to use a local fruit as strawberries are hard to come by here and are rather expensive but as I visited the grocery the other day, lo and behold, les fraises were there! So I decided to use both fruits as we are rather known for our mangoes ;).

Coincidentally, I made this cake around the time my sister-in-law gave birth! I’m extremely excited to be an aunt to Vivienne Elise (Angelina Jolie much? xD)! She wasn’t due til August but she’s completely well and healthy. She’s also rather tiny at the moment but absolutely adorable :3

Cancelled flight + Cookies that didn’t exactly turn out right.

I’m supposed to be on a flight en route to New York at this moment. Supposedly. Due to the weather over there, my flight was unfortunately cancelled. I was half-expecting it to be honest; probably why I’m somewhat calm about the whole thing. I’ve rebooked for the 29th and hopefully all will go well then since I’ve already lost 2 days in NY. BOOOO! I’m mostly disappointed because I won’t have much time to visit places I wanted to spend more time in, but what can I do..

Anyway, I returned back to the apartment and changed back to my house clothes. A few hours, I had the sudden urge to bake. Baking is a form of therapy for me although not all results turn out well, especially on a bad day.

What were supposed to be nicely round cookies ended up like this.

Yep, I could totally imagine your face. xD

But even I was surprised when I thought of cutting them out instead of throwing them in the bin. Normally, a few months ago, I’m embarrassed to admit that I would frustratingly place the baking sheet immediately into the sink. But today, I looked for something I could cut out the mis-shapen cookies with and cut them into rounds.

excuse the blurry picture :p

They were delicious though! Too thin for my liking but that’s probably because the dough had too much butter which made it spread too much. But on the parts where it was somewhat thicker, it was really good and chewy. After it cooled, the tops were crunchy but the inside still chewy. The extra touch of coffee I added made it really smell good too.

So this got me thinking what my New Years’ Resolution would be; to think positive. I’ve always been too realistic to the point of being negative. So in 2011, hopefully, I’ll be able to fulfill this resolution. ;)

Lastly, I’ve asked this in my previous post but unfortunately my pictures weren’t good enough to get accepted at FB/TS, but anyone have any recommendations of places to visit (aside from Momofoku)? Food and other sites? ;)

Coffee Macarons with Coffee Ganache

I can’t believe it’s just a few more days until Christmas and eventually the New Year. Since I baked, I’ve always given baked goods as gifts to friends. Although some say it’s a good thing since I won’t have to think much about what I’m giving the person, I feel somewhat guilty because truth be told, I’m really bad at giving gifts and I would like to give them something that would last rather than something that would be consumed in a week.

This year, I’m trying to do both; giving them baked goods and material gifts. I’ve been hoping to make some goodies with peppermint but I couldn’t find any peppermint extract or those peppermint swirl candies around here. BOO. So instead of the original plan which was Peppermint Mocha (Fave holiday drink at Starbucks, which sucks since they don’t have it here in Switzerland >_>) Macarons, I’ve left out the peppermint and stuck with the mocha and coffee ganache combo. Yup, since my successful macarons in my previous post, I’ve had the courage and confidence to try them again. And this time turned out even better as all but one had almost perfect smooth tops and nice feet.

They were delicious. I especially loved the coffee ganache! Still a tad bit sweet especially since it’s white chocolate but still delicious. I made these for my friends here by the way, but I had a few extra since the box was full already xD.

Lastly, I’ll be going to NY and LA over my vacation next week, any particular recommendations? Excited to try out delicious food which I’ll be taking pictures of, of course! ;)

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Coffee Macarons
adapted from Trissalicious

100g egg whites (I popped mine in the microwave for 10 seconds instead of aging, still worked :o)
50g sugar
125g ground almonds
200g powdered sugar
2 tsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. coffee powder

  1. In a bowl, beat egg whites for about a minute then gradually add sugar until stiff.
  2. In another bowl, sift together almonds, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and coffee powder.
  3. Pour the dry ingredients onto the egg whites and fold slowly to incorporate. Careful not to overmix. You can tell it’s good to go when you run your spatula in the middle and it would take about 5-6 seconds for the batter to come together. Or test with spoon and it’s still somewhat thick and flattens a tiny bit (it shouldn’t be runny and thin).
  4. Pipe into rounds on lined baking pans. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. When you touch it, the batter shouldn’t stick.
  5. Preheat oven to 150C.
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on size. Let cool before peeling off the silpat/wax paper.

Coffee Ganache
this made more than needed but it’s oh so goood. lol

150g white chocolate
2 tbsp butter
100g cream
1 tsp. coffee

  1. Place white chocolate and butter in a bowl.
  2. Bring the cream to a boil and pour over white chocolate and butter.
  3. Stir in coffee until smooth.
  4. Chill until nearly hard.
  5. Pipe or spoon onto macaron shells.

Made me some doughnuts!

Last week, I had a sudden craving for doughnuts. I found this recipe from Joy the Baker and I was drooling with anticipation after reading the comments. I knew I had to make them.

These doughnuts were delicious! And just the kind I like too; a little melt-in-your-mouth but still has a bite and chewy (does that make sense?! xD). I had to control myself from eating more as my thighs arms were already protesting.

So go check out Joy the Baker’s recipe for these awesome, appropriately titled OMG Doughnuts! You won’t regret it. ;)

 

 

Doughnuts on FoodistaDoughnuts