Chocolate Souffle

I couldn't wait - had to dig in

Sunday morning came and the only thing on my mind was "I want to make a souffle now". Yes, I wake up with such thoughts in my head.

I've seen Souffles being made many times on TV and my mom had it once at Hoshino. But it was ridiculously eggy smelling and I didn't like. But somehow or rather, I wanted to give it a go. Browsed the net and found an easy enough recipe from Eugenie's Kitchen.

Chocolate Souffle (recipe adapted from Eugenie's Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 T unsalted butter
1 T plain flour
1/3 cup / 80ml whole milk
1 1/2 oz / 43g chocolate chips
2 eggs separated
1/2 t vanilla essence
2 T caster sugar

Extra sugar and melted butter to coat the ramekins

Preheat the oven to 200'C.

Prepare two large ramekins by brushing the insides with the melted butter, all the way up to the rim. Then coat it well with sugar. Put sugar into one ramekin and tip the sugar into the other ramekin while rotating. If this is confusing, I suggest watching some youtube videos. There are countless online.

Preparing the ramekins

So I prepped the ingredients : butter, flour, milk, chocolate,vanilla essence, eggs (separated) and caster sugar.Prepped the ramekins as well. Brushing the insides with melted butter and coating with caster sugar.

It all starts with a roux. Melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour. Mix well and cook it till foamy. Then take off the heat and add the milk. Back onto the stove and stir until mixture thickens. Texture should be similar to wallpaper glue.

Take off the heat and add the chocolate. The mixture turns into a doughy like texture. Add in the 2 egg yolks and vanilla essence and stir vigorously. It should turn smooth and silky.

Smooth and silky chocolate batter

Now onto the egg whites.

Whisk the egg white till foamy and slighly soft peaks. Gradually add the caster sugar and continue to whisk. Whisk until glossy soft peaks are achieved. About 5 mins with a hand held mixer or forever by hand.

Whisking the egg whites

Next, take a large spoonfull and mix into the chocolate batter. This folding doesn't have to be too delicate as we are trying to lighten the chocolate batter. Then once incorporated, tip the chocolate batter into the whites and fold gently so as to not lose the air. Its the air that makes the souffle rise and be airy.

Mixing the whites into the chocolate 

Once well mixed, pour into prepared ramekin dishes and clean the sides of the ramekin, either with your fingers or a clean tea towel. This is to prevent the surface from catching onto the rim and stopping the souffle from rising.

Filled ramekins ready for the oven

Bake in the oven for about 15 to 18 mins.

Serve warm right out of the oven, dusted with confectioners sugar and a chocolate sauce or creme anglaise.

Careful the ramekins will be HOT !

Can you see the spongy texture 

The souffles were delicious !!! They were like hot mousses. Soft, firm, springy, light, airy - oh my god !!! It was soooo gooood !!! I'm so going to try out other flavours.

French Macarons

Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

After baking cookies for a friend, I had egg whites left over and I was wondering what could I do with them. The thought of making macarons did cross my mind but all my previous attempts lately were horrendous. Mostly cracked shells and no feet ! Ugh ! It was enough to put me off making them.

Then recently whilst book shopping, I chanced upon a recipe by Hisako Ogita. The recipe seemed simple enough and I thought, well lets give this a try. What the heck !

And boy am I glad I did.

Macarons  (adapted from a recipe by Hisako Ogita)

Ingredients

2/3 cup / 85g of ground almonds
1 1/2 cups / 150g  icing sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 T / 65g caster sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar and sift it twice. It is important to aerate the mixture.

In a clean dry bowl, add the egg whites and whip slowly to break the whites and make them foamy. Beat until soft foamy peaks appear. Then gradually add caster sugar and increase the speed of beating the egg whites. Add all the sugar and keep beating till glossy stiff peaks are achieved. It roughly takes about 5 mins with a handheld blender. We have now prepared the french meringue.

If you want to colour the macarons, add colouring, a few drops, to the french meringue and beat well.

Add a large spoonful of the meringue to the dry almond mixture and mix well. You can be vigourous as we are trying to incorporate the mixtures together. We are not looking for a light airy batter. Once mixed through, continue adding the rest of the meringue and fold through. You can beat it a little if you like. Remember we don't want too much air in the batter. Add the vanilla extract. Mix until the infamous lava-like texture is achieved.

If the batter is too thick, beat it a bit more. If you drop a little batter on itself, the drop should disappear slowly.

If the mixture is too runny, I'm not sure how to fix it. So don't overbeat it !

Pipe circles on parchment paper and let the macarons dry to form a skin. Ogita says this step is important to develop the pied (the frilly feet of the macaron)

Not enough drying = Cracked Shells

Too much drying = No pied

The drying times for the macarons vary depending on the temperature and the humidity of that day. It can take from 15 mins to an hour. Mine sat for about an hour and half.

Touch the surface of the macarons every half hour to see if the surface of the macaron is dry to touch. Once our touch does not leave a mark on the shell, they are ready to be baked.

Use two trays to bake these macarons. Ogita says this is important.

Now Ogita's recipe calls for the macarons to be baked at 190'C for 15 to 18 mins. But when I did this, my batch burnt.

So I turned the oven down to 150'C and baked mine for 7 to 10 mins. Once I saw the rims of the macarons browning, I took them out.

Macarons baking in the oven

Et Voila ! Macarons with shiny firm tops and pretty frilly feet !!!

No cracks and Pied on the Macaron

I was jumping for joy in the wee hours of the morning baking these. Hahaha ! I had made a batch of white chocolate ganache before and so I quickly went on to fill these puppies with the ganache.

Let the macarons sit overnight with the filling as for some reason, these taste better overnight. If it's a perishable filling, keep it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy !

2am:dessertbar

I had to meet up with T to plan a hen's night for our cousin M and I had been having the urge to try out desserts at 2amdessertbar in Holland Village. So we made the reservation and waited with bated breath as the day approached.

We decided to go on a Tuesday as I would be in the Commonwealth area on Tuesdays which was near Holland Village. Made the reservation for 9.30pm and I parked in the carpark beside the Cold Storage. I have heard that parking in Holland Village could be a nightmare but the carpark was pretty empty. I guess the nightmares only take form on Fridays and the weekends. Hmph.

The initial feel of the space is very bar like. Nothing really informs you that this is a dessert bar other than its name. The interior is modern with high ceilings, custom table tops and couches (for a more relaxed 'loungy' feel). Its not a very big space so I think reservations will be a must.

The dessert bar / workstation

I had looked through the menu online and knew exactly what I wanted. I was going to have Shades of Green and Chocolate H20 and T chose the Cheesecake. The service staff advised  us to have the H20 later as the sorbet may melt if we're going at three desserts at one time. I appreciated that thought and took his advise.

So we started with two desserts first 

The Shades of Green : pistachio sponge, coco mousse, pandan gula malaka custard. What arrived was a masterpiece ! Art in a plate ! I have had deconstructed desserts at other high end restaurants. Most of the time, its a miss. Separate components on the plate would be amazing but there would be no harmony amongst them. 

Let me tell you - desserts here are not only well executed but they are bloody well singing amazing grace in my ears ! Every component is well thought of. Tastes amazing individually and together even in different pairings. 

The service staff explains the dessert when they serve so that you are aware of what you're going to be eating. This dessert came with the pandan gula malaka custard, served as a quenelle in centre of the dish, with coconut cream mousse on a bed of pistachio crumble (super duper amazing) shards of coconut foam, light pistachio sponge and some sort of tuile dics. Everything was so so good. This dish was the highlight of the evening. And because the custard was so smooth and soft, you would think that it would melt. But it doesn't. So this dessert can be enjoyed at any pace. 

Shades of Green

All shades singing in harmony

 T had the Cheesecake : smoked tofu soup, milk sauce, malt. This cheesecake is not like any other cheesecake we've had. Three squares of cheesecake were set in a pool of cream sauce that had baileys in it (oh my god jump for joy) followed but a column of malt ice cream topped with a layer of passion fruit gelee.

The texture of the cheesecake itself was really different. It felt more like compressed ricotta. As you put it in your mouth, its not smooth but the individual nuggets of cheese just disintegrate ever so softly imbuing the palate with a tart cheesy taste. The bailey's soup was like heaven. I will swim in that soup if I could. I didn't like the passion fruit gelee but T said she liked it. It lend acidity to the dish which cleansed the palate before each bite.

Cheesecake

Us deconstructing the cheesecake

 Midway through our meal - the Chocolate H20 :72% dark chocolate, salted caramel, Evian, yuzu sorbet was served. It's a chocolate mousse made with Evian water to enhance the chocolate flavour. A yuzu sorbet to cleanse the palate and salted caramel. There was chocolate soil for texture and bursts of citrusy gels. The recommended pairing for this dessert was a glass of Finca Constancia Petit Verdot and Syrah 2010. I had a glass of that and happily sipped away the rest of the evening.

It's a very 'chocolatey' dessert. Chocolate is the highlight of this dish. I was sooo intrigued by a mousse made of water. This is going to sound weird but I could taste the water. Or perhaps the lightness of it. Something about this dessert tripped me. But needless to say very well executed again.

H20

 Just when I thought we were going to retire from our meal, T takes the menu and goes -"so what shall we have next". Honestly, I could not have picked a better person for this dinner. I suggested the Purple : purple potato puree, blackberry parfait, leather lavender marshmallows, fruits of the forest sorbet.

This was another art work on display. According to the service staff, it was inspired by a painting, which is the image you see below the dish. T was shocked by how small it was and I was amazed by the colours. This was the perfect end to the meal. The dessert was tart and sweet and fruity. T didn't like the sorbet - she thought it was too tart. I thought it was perfect.

Purple

Purple and I

T and I

 The evening was filled with laughter and bitching and some planning. All in all we had a wonderful wonderful time at 2am:dessertbar. I'm definitely coming again !

Our meal came to S$97 +

2am:dessertbar

21a Lorong Liput

Singapore 277733

T : 62919729

Monday - Saturday : 6pm-2am

Closed on Sundays

Bistro du Vin

U wanted to give mom a treat and was collecting suggestions from me as to where would be a good place to bring her. She suggested dim sum and I was like 'no way', mom would run a mile away in the other direction. Prior to this a friend of mine had raved about his dining experience at Bistro du Vin and since I hadn't been there before, we thought it would be perfect.

Bistro du Vin is a French Casual Dining establishment under the Les Amis Group. It's located at Zion Road which is beside Shaw Centre. We reservations for dinner and were excited about finally bring mom to dine out after what seems like an eternity.

We parked at Shaw Centre and walked to the restaurant. Once inside, the decor has very Parisian feel. The paraphernalia on the walls include menus and prints in french, posters with chef cartoons and so on.

Interior of Bistro du Vin

 We had a look at the dinner menu and it was quite extensive. There was coq-au-vin, pork chops, rabbit, beef, lamb and sea bass. Very traditional french recipes. The specials for the day included burrata. U and R had had that before at an Italian restaurant and recommended it. So after a few minutes of browsing and discussing we finally ordered the burrata and a nicoise salad for starters, coq-au-vin and braised lamb shanks for mains and walnut tart, creme brulee and a marron dessert to end our meal.

Freshly made bread with butter

The bread basket came swiftly and I love that the butter was room temperature. Me and U were commenting on how it is impossible to spread cold butter on soft bread unless the bread came steaming hot from the oven. The bread was soft and had a good crust on it, so thumbs up.

Burrata with tomatoes, basil and olives

 When the Burrata came, it reminded me of mozzarella and I later found out that it is in fact mozzarella but differs slightly as  it encases a mixture of mozzarella curd and cream. It was divine. When we cut into it, the cream oozed out together with the curds but the cheese still maintained most of its structure. The taste was clean, fresh, milky and paired well with the tomatoes and basil. Double thumbs up.

Coq-au-vin , nicoise salad and braised lamb shanks

 The Nicoise arrived with the mains and we got a side of truffle fries as well. When the dishes were served and their lids removed, they looked and smelled amazing ! Very rustic looking and inviting. I tried the Coq-au-vin first and it was delish ! There was a good background of wine flavour in the dish that was not too strong. The poultry was literally falling of the bone and moist. There were mushrooms, carrots and I'm pretty sure there was lardon in it but I kept that information from my mom. The dish was accompanied by mashed potatoes and they were velvety smooth. So good !

The braised lamb shanks were equally good but had a strong lamb flavour. I personally welcome that flavour but I know a few who could be put off by that. The meat was also falling of the bone and the braise had a good hearty tomato flavour as well. This was accompanied with broken potatoes and these were swimming in butter. I've heard the saying the three most important ingredients in French cooking is butter, butter and yeap BUTTER ! And there were lots of it in these potatoes. The serving size was perfect as if there had been any more potatoes swimming in butter, I think I would have got sick of it.

The Nicoise salad was ok. I was expected seared tuna in the salad but it was served with the canned variety. So it was a decent salad and that's all. The truffle fries had a good truffle flavour to them but personally I prefer the shoestring type of fries. These spuds reminded me of British chips.

All in all we were pretty satisfied with our dishes. Mom was enjoying herself and the conversation was rolling and rolling. At this point we had to end the evening with dessert.

Walnut Tart

 U and R shared a Walnut Tart which was the special for the day. The base was too thick and the filling was too hard. The ice cream was ok. The only plus to this dessert was the caramel sauce that managed to hit that bitter note that is still inviting and bring out the sweetness of the caramel.

Creme Brulee

 Mom had the creme brulee. She likes to test a kitchen's ability to produce a good brulee and sadly this did not make the mark. The brulee was overcooked and so instead of producing a velvety smooth custard, it was a little curdled. Sad. Tasted fine but the texture let it down.

Marron Dessert

My dessert was a complete shocker. When I ordered a Marron Dessert, I was expected more of a traditional chestnut tart with the spaghetti like cream around it. Instead, I was presented with this and I was taken aback. It looked more like a sundae and was constructed like one too. There was a mound of whipped cream, vanillia ice cream, whole marrons, some kind of meringue and as I took my final scoops there was a shot of whiskey at the bottom. Whoo ! Totally confusing dessert. I didn't like it and would probably not have it again.

I've heard that Bistro du Vin does a good brunch as well and I would love to try that. The food is truthfully well executed and delicious. But their desserts fail to live up to that standard.

The dinner for four without wine cost us S$170 ++

Bistro du Vin
56 Zion Road
T : 68366313

Desserts at Broth

After dinner us three decided to head over to Broth, as recommended by Z, for desserts. He had worked there prior and I was curious to see the place that he is still fond off. So we walked from Club Street to Duxton Hill. The restaurant is located at the top of the hill and so suggests that their name BROTH is a play on the words B ar  R estaurant  O n  T he  H ill. Hah ! Cute !

It is nestled within a row of restored shophouses and the interior is chic and modern. Predominantly white interior with mirrored walls to widen the dining area. The restaurant manages to make the space wide yet cosy.

They have quite a few desserts on the menu. We settled for the Sticky Date Pudding, Pavlova and Chocolate Beetroot Cake. They didn't have the Key Lime Tart =( Oh well, another time perhaps.

Sticky Date Pudding with Ice Cream 

 The sticky date pudding was divine. I've had a few renditions of this dessert back in Australia and they can easily turn too sweet and cloying. However, this dessert was exceptional. The pudding was moist and light at the same time. The caramel sauce was carefully brought to the point where there is a hint of bitterness in the sauce. Together with the vanilla ice-cream, it was divine.

Pavlova 

 I'm not personally a fan of Pavlova as I don't enjoy the springy texture of wet meringue. I prefer the drier varieties that get smashed into Eton's Mess. Mmmmm. When I put my spoon into the dessert, I felt some resistance from the meringue - ooh maybe its crispy all the way through - and as the meringue breaks and yields to the mound of perfectly whipped cream, a multitude of cut fruits and passion fruit pulp, I find myself repeatedly going for a second and third spoonful and so on. Soon, it becomes my favourite dessert of the night. Sorry sticky date pudding.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

 This Beetroot cake is intensely chocolaty.  Its super moist and I think the beetroot gives the cake a very dense and coarse wet crumbed texture. It comes gleaming with a blanket of dark chocolate sauce that I believe has coffee in it as well and a crown of Cadbury Flakes. J enjoyed this dessert but I was more pre-occupied with the pavlova.

Z wasn't really digging into the desserts more so because I believe he must have had them a multitude of times before. So he was gentlemanly enough to let us girls gorge on the desserts... giggles....thanks Z.

Me and J

We had champagne with our desserts as J had really good news to share. Totally happy for you babe and hope all your other dreams come true !

Broth
21 Duxton Hill
Singapore 089604
T : 63233353