Midnight Blue Trifle

It has been almost 5 months since I last time updated my blog.  I have been too busy to translate my Japanese recipes into English.

In May this year, my mother had a cerebral hemorrhage and hospitalised.  I had to go back to Japan to look after her, as well as looking after my father who is 91 years old and left at home by himself.  Ironically, on the day I left Seattle, I was going to demonstrate how to cook my Lobster Macaroni & Cheese on KCTS's cooking show.  Sadly, I had to cancel my appearance. :-(

Anyway, miraculously, my mother has recovered steadily and has recently been told by her doctor that she would be discharged from the hospital hopefully early next month!  This means that - after we bring her home - that I will not have to go back to Japan every month.

I therefore would like to restart my project to translate my recipes into English and share them with my non-Japanese speaking readers.

As the first recipe after reopening this blog, I would like to introduce this delicious trifle.

Trifle is one of the British traditional deserts and it used to be a jumble of left-over sweets and deserts.  The one I am introducing is not a recreation of left-overs but instead is based around its original roots. I made the recipe as simple as possible by using purchased lady fingers and custard mix powder.

The only one thing in this recipe cooked from a scratch is the jelly.   I made this jelly with the blackberries that my husband and I picked in our garden.

The colour of jelly reminds me of the deep dark Autumn night,  Thus, I decided call it Midnight Blue Trifle.

It is very tasty and if you serve it to your family, friends or even important guests, no one can tell that most of the ingredients are ready-made or instant.   


Ingredients for 6 - 8 people
(jelly)
11oz frozen blackberries - no need to thaw
1+1/3 cup water
5 oz sugar
2 tablespoons cherry brandy (optional)
2 envelopes Knox gelatine

(custard)
2 tablespoons Bird's custard powder
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1 UK pint (20 fl oz) milk

(sponge base)
10-12 lady fingers
some blackberry or blueberry jam
3-4 tablespoons dry sherry

(toppings)
1/2 US pint of heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
some grated white chocolate
some blackberries to garnish


Instructions
To make the jelly, place the blackberries, water, sugar and cherry brandy (if you are using) in a pan and cook on a medium heat.  When it starts boiling, reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 15 - 20 minutes until the blackberries are nice and soft. 

Using a masher, crush the cooked blackberries, then transfer the blackberries and juice to a strainer.  Using a wooden spoon, press down firmly the blackberries to extract the juice and discard the seeds. Dissolve the gelatine into the strained juice while it is still hot, transfer to a shallow dish and chill for several hours or overnight until it completely sets.

To make the custard, combine the custard powder, sugar and a couple of tablespoons of the milk and mix well until it becomes a paste.  Place the remaining milk in a sauce pan and heat until it reaches almost boiling point, then pour onto the custard paste and stir well.

Return the custard mixture to the sauce pan and bring to the boil over a low heat stirring continuously.  Transfer the custard to a mixing bowl, cover the surface of the custard with cling film to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool completely.

With a knife, cut each lady finger into 2, spread the jam over the bottom side of one of the half and sandwich with another half.  Lay the sandwiched lady fingers on the bottom of a trifle bowl and pour the dry sherry all over.

Pour the custard over the lady fingers, then scoop the jelly with a tablespoon and place evenly over the custard.

Spread the whipped cream evenly over the jelly, sprinkle the white chocolate and garnish with some thawed blackberries.

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If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese with pictures covering every step, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!

Matcha Roll Cake with White Chocolate Cheese Cream

 

I am from Japan, but personally do not like matcha flavoured sweets.  For me, they are a bit too bitter.

The only matcha flavoured sweet I love is Starbucks Japan's matcha frappuccino.  I know similar matcha flavoured frappuccino is available in America, but, trust me, the one their Japan branches serve to customers is 100 times tastier!  Sooooo...yummy!  If you are a great matcha fan and have a chance to visit Japan, you must try it! 

Having said that however, even if you are a matcha freak, traveling to Japan to taste the frappuccino is not a cheap option.  So why don't you try making the matcha roll cake using my recipe?

I created this recipe inspired by the flavour of Starbucks Japan's matcha frappuccino.  My husband who is British (from the county of tea!) hates any forms of tea, but even he enjoyed this roll cake very much.

I added matcha to the batter of the sponge, but it has none of the strong bitterness of green tea and a very mild flavour.  The filling is sweetened with white chocolate without adding sugar at all and its texture is heavier than whipped cream, but lighter than butter cream.  It is a very delicately delicious roll cake.


Ingredients for 2 rolls
2 tablespoons unsalted butter + extra for greasing the pan
2 tablespoons milk (I used 1% low fat milk)
2.8 oz (80g) cake flour
5 teaspoon cooking matcha*
pinch of salt
4 eggs
4.2 oz (120g) raw cane sugar

(filling)
6.4 oz (180g) mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1.4 oz (40g) white chocolate, melt in microwave at 1000W for 40 seconds

(Other)
some matcha and powdered sugar for dusting

Note: I usually use metric scales, especially when baking.  I converted the metric figures of my recipe into avoirdupois, but if your scales have a convertible function to metric, I strongly recommend to use the metric figures that I included in the above recipe.

* Cooking matcha is available at Japanese stores, but I actually bought it at the Oriental corner of American supermarkets (QFC).  I will attach a picture of the cooking matcha that I used at the end of this post.


Instructions
Combine the butter and milk in a microwavable dish and heat in a microwave at 1000W for 30 - 40 seconds to melt.  Stir well and leave in a warm place to avoid setting.

Grease an 11 x 16 inch oven tray with the butter and line with parchment paper.  Make sure that each end of the long side has a couple of inches paper hanging over the end of the tray (useful for removing the sponge from the tray when it is baked). 

Sieve the flour, matcha powder and salt together.  Set aside.

With an high speed electric beater, beat the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl until it becomes thick and pale (it really takes ages, maybe 6 - 7 minutes!), then reduce the speed to low and beat a further 1 to 2 minutes to make the mixture smoother.

Carefully fold the shifted flour mixture into the bowl.

Add the melted butter mixture and fold together making sure not to break the batter's fluffy bubbles.

Spread the batter into the lined tray and smooth the surface.  Gently drop the tray a couple of times on the kitchen surface to remove the air from the batter and spread it out more evenly.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of sponge comes out clean.

Lift the sides of paper to remove the sponge from the tray to a wire rack, cover it with a large enough parchment paper to prevent it from drying and cool it completely.

To make the filling, place the cheese and cream in a mixing bowl and lightly beat with a whisk until they are incorporated but still a little runny.  Do not over whisk the filling as it will becomes thicker when you add the melted chocolate.

Add the melted chocolate into the cheese mixture and beat until it becomes fully spreadable cream.

Invert the sponge and gently remove the parchment paper that the sponge was cooked with.  Invert the sponge one more time to the parchment paper that you used for the cover (now brown side up) and spread the filling all over the sponge (note that you should be spreading the filling on the "cooked" side of the sponge!).

Starting at one of the long sides, gently roll up the sponge and use the parchment paper to wrap it and hold it in place.  Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before slicing. 

Trim off the each end of roll cake and divide it half and half.  A trick for slicing beautifully is to warm up your knife in hot water, dry with a paper towel, and slice whilst the knife is still hot.  Make sure you clean the knife every single slice!  Dust one piece with the matcha powder and the other with the powdered sugar.

I bought this can of cooking matcha

at my local QFC's Oriental food corner.

If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!

Battenburg Cake

One of my favourite British cakes is Battenburg cake which is a sort of variation on a Victoria sponge cake.

Battenburg cake is made of four sponge bars of which two are pink and the other two are yellow.  Four sponge bars are alternated in a checkerboard pattern and wrapped with marzipan.  It has a deliciously delicate scent of almonds.

Last Christmas I made a Christmassy version of Battenburg cake using two typical Christmas colours - red and green.  Rather than the classic 4 checkerboard pattern, I made the cake a little bit more complicated using sixteen sponge bars.

I wrapped my cake with cellophane sheet to add to the distinctive four by four pattern and gifted to one of my girlie friends.

The cake looked so pretty and tasted beautiful.  It surely was a tasty Christmas present for her!


Ingredients for 1 cake (6~8 people)
6 1/4 oz butter softened + extra for greasing
6 1/4 oz sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self rising flour, sieved
few drops vanilla extract
1//4 teaspoon red food colouring
1/4 teaspoon green food colouring
some apricot jam
14oz ready made marzipan
powdered sugar for dusting


Instructions
Grease and then line two 7 inch square cake tins with parchment paper.  Place a large mixing bowl on scales and weigh it.  Write down the weight of bowl in order not to forget.

Combine the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl and mix well until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs to the butter mixture, a little at a time, beating well between each addition.

Carefully fold the flour into the mixture, then stir in vanilla extract.

Place the mixing bowl on scales again and subtract the net weight of bowl that you wrote down to find the weight of batter.  Transfer the exactly half weight of batter into another mixing bowl.

Stir in the red food colouring to one of the mixing bowls and the green food colouring to the other mixing bowl.

Spoon the two different colour batters into the individual cake tins.  Bake both together in a preheated oven at 325F for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centres of the sponges come out clean.

Leave the sponges in the tins for 5 - 6 minutes, then turn them out to a wire rack.  Remove the parchment paper and leave to cool completely.

Trim the edges of the sponge cakes making sure the two cakes are exactly same size.  Cut each sponge into 8 equal rectangles.

Take 2 red and 2 green rectangles of the sponge cakes and place the red, green, red and green sponges side by side, spreading the apricot jam for each joint as glue.

Spread the apricot jam all over the top of first layered sponges.  Place next 2 red and 2 green sponges on top of the first layered sponges alternating the colors like a checkerboard.

Spread the apricot jam on top of the second layered sponges and repeat for the third and forth layers.  The apricot jam should also be spread on top of the fourth layer of sponge.

Roll out the marzipan on a surface lightly dusted with the powdered sugar into about 8 x 18 inch rectangle (it should be large enough to wrap the cake completely).

Turn the cake upside down onto the middle of marzipan and spread the apricot jam all over the front, back and top sides of the cake.

Wrap the marzipan around the cake, trim the each end of marzipan, overlap and pinch them to seal.

Place the seam side down and trim off each side.

If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!

The Ultimate Plain Scones

I am often asked by my friends how to make the perfect scones. None of my friends seems to be happy with the results of their homemade scones.  What are they expecting of scones, and what type of scones do they call perfect?

In their standards, the perfect scones should be fluffy and moist as if they are sponge cakes.  Unfortunately, they are fundamentally misunderstanding what real British scones are like!

Scones are not supposed to be fluffy and moist cakes, but flaky quick breads originated in Scotland.

Having said that, however, I also dreamt of having a cream tea with a fluffy and moist cake-alike scone or two, with lots of clotted cream and jam on top, and in fact, like my friends I have been secretly experimenting to improve my scone recipe for many years.

After multiple trials, eventually I have created a recipe that I think can answer my friends' questions! 

I have tested my newly improved scone recipe several times before disclosing it in my blogs, and every trial I have had satisfactory results.  Thus, I am now fully confident in sharing the recipe with my friends and the readers of my blogs.

I can't think of any other ways to make better cake-alike scones.  That's why I call it - ultimate plain scones!


Ingredients for 11 - 12 scones
160g bread flour
160g Japanese wheat flour (Hakuriki Ko Violet Nisshin)*
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
60g salted butter, chilled and cubed (half inch)
150ml milk (plus some for glazing)
1 egg

* You can buy Hakuriki Ko Violet Nisshin or other Japanese brand Hakuriki Ko at Japanese food stores.  If there is no Japanese food store in your area, you may replace the bread flour and Hakurikiko with 320g of self-rising flour.  In that case, you do not need to add baking powder.

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 420F and when the oven is preheated place a non-stick cookie sheet in it.

Sieve the flours, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Add the butter to the bowl and, using a pastry blender or your fingertips, rub it into the flour until the mixture becomes crumbly.

Combine the milk and egg in a half litre measuring cup and beat lightly. Add the mixture into the flour.

With a palette, mix the flour until almost fully incorporated, then using your hand, knead to a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board or silicon mat and press it out with you palm to about one inch thick. Using 2 inch cookie cutter, cut out the scones.  Repeat until you can cut out as many scones as you can.

Take out the cookie sheet from the oven, then quickly place the scones on it.  Glaze the top of each scone with milk and bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until they rise well and become golden brown.

Let the scones cool down a bit on a wire rack and serve them warm with butter, whipped cream and jam (ah, and of course, don't forget to make a cup of tea!)


If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appeti!

Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes

A British traditional sponge cake is now miniaturised!  We no longer to fight each other about who got the biggest slice.

Individual Victoria sponge cakes are prettier than scones or biscuits and muffins.  Ideally eaten with a strong milky tea!


Ingredients for 6 cakes
6oz butter, softened

6oz granulated sugar

3 eggs, beaten

few drops of vanilla oil (optional)

6oz self-rising flour

about 12 teaspoons strawberry or raspberry jam

about 6 rounded tablespoons whipped cream

powdered sugar to dust

Instructions

Grease the inside of 6 ramekins and line the insides with baking paper.  Make sure the lining papers a half inch taller than the ramekins.

With electric beater, beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until the mixture becomes light and creamy.  Add the vanilla oil (optional).

                                                                                      

Add the eggs to the bowl gradually, beating well after each addition.

When the eggs are incorporated, sift the flour into the bowl and, using a spatula, gently fold the flour into the mixture.

Divide the mixture equally between the 6 ramekins.  Cook in the preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted to the centre of the cakes.

When the cakes are cooked, leave them in the ramekins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and remove the paper.  Allow to cool completely.

Split each cake in half.  Spread the jam evenly over the bottom sponge, top with the whipped cream, and sandwich with the top half of the sponge cake.  Dust the powdered sugar over the top of the cake.


If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!

Jammie Dodgers

 

I made these biscuits mimicking Burton’s (a UK biscuit manufacture) “Jammie Dodgers”, but making a more sophisticated version.

The rich buttery biscuits can be eaten as they are, the mildly sweet fluffy vanilla cream melts in your mouth and the strawberry jam used is homemade (jam’s recipe will be published in a separate blog article sometime later).

I gave these biscuits to my husband colleagues and they all loved them!  Some even asked me to disclose this delicious recipe.

Thus, I am writing the step by step recipes in more detail than usual, including my cooking process pictures and techniques.

Ingredients for 38 - 40 biscuits

12 7/10oz (360g) all purpose flour

pinch of salt

9 5/10oz (270g) unsalted butter, diced and chilled

6 4/10oz (180g) granulated sugar

1.5 egg yolks, beaten

(Vanilla Cream)

2 8/10oz (80g) unsalted butter

few drops of vanilla oil

5 3/10oz (150g) icing sugar

Strawberry jam for the filling

Instructions

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Put the butter in the bowl, and then with your fingertips or using a pastry blender, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the sugar and mix well, then add the egg yolks, and using your hand mix until it becomes smooth pastry.   Wrap the pastry in aluminum foil and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

On a well floured surface, roll out the pastry to about 1/10” thickness. Using a 2 1/2” flower or round cookie cutter cut out the pastry.  Eventually, You will have just over 70 rounds.

 

Technique 1

This pastry is fragile and quite sticky, so you must work on a well floured surface. 

Using a well-floured silicon matt is highly recommended for rolling. 

As it is flexible, you can remove the rounds as if you were removing a sticker from the sheet.

We will now use a small heart-shaped, star-shaped or your choice of small cookie cutter, to cut out the centre of half of the rounds.

Technique 2

If you cut out the centre of the rounds on the silicon matt, 

it is very difficult to remove it without damaging. 

Prepare a parchment paper cut into the size of your palm. 

Transfer a round to the paper and cut out the centre with the small cookie cutter.

In this way, you can remove the pastry without damaging it.  Repeat for the remainder.

Place all rounds on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake them in the preheated oven at 350F for 10 - 12 minutes.

When baked, transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely.  Be careful of handling just baked biscuits as they are very soft.

To make the vanilla cream, put the remaining butter in to a microwavable mixing bowl and heat it in the microwave for 15 seconds at full power.

Add a few drops of the vanilla oil into the soften butter and mix well with a wooden spoon.  Add the sugar and beat well until the butter becomes fluffy and smooth.

With a butter knife, spread a little amount of the vanilla cream to each whole biscuit, then about teaspoonful strawberry jam.  Sandwich it with the round with a centre hole.  Do the same for the rest of the biscuits.

If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!