Just a day before Valentine’s Day!!!

Guess what? I baked Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons! I wanted to make something heart shaped and pink, and the idea fitted the brief. I succeeded! Well, sort of. I would have completely succeeded had I kept the oven heat, stable and constant. I was impatient and multitasked. When baking Macarons, you kind of have to focus on the oven especially when it’s a domestic type because it doesn’t really do your macarons any justice when you don’t. Especially when the oven’s temperature keeps getting hotter as time passes. I had to open and close the oven door to lessen or increase the heat so that it stays at the favorable temperature. It’s a bit of a hassle, but the flavor and the look of the macarons are quite rewarding. Anyway, having an unstable heat made the feet of many of my macarons bake lopsided. 悔しかったな。

My first Heart-Shaped Macarons!

This was actually my second try. In my first try after months of hiatus, I missed a step and that ruined the entire batch. I completely forgot to beat the white eggs and sugar together. Aha ha ha ha. What a rookie mistake! I had to dispose of the entire batch and start over. I felt so miserable, I slept on it and tried again the next day.

If you look at the edges of my Heart-Shaped Macarons pictured above, you will notice they looked a bit burned. Well, no. They’re not burn marks. They’re the edible pens that traced into the Macarons during baking period. I don’t have heart-shaped Macaron molds, so I drew circles on the parchment paper as a guide with a black edible pen. Next time, I’m going to use a color that best matches the cookies. I do have an edible red pen, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that beforehand. Another rookie mistake. Hah!

So, did you use the French Macaron method? Nope. I was going to do the Italian Method, but I am still a little unfamiliar with it and since the Swiss Method is very similar to the Italian in that they both sort of cook the white eggs with the sugar, I tried the Swiss version. And you know what? I think I prefer the Swiss Version over the French Version! It feels a bit more stable and adding colors and flavors is easier, too. Well, we’ll see. One of these days I will try the Italian Macaron Method and get back to you on that one. For now, Happy Valentine’s Day to all, Single and Couples alike. May your day be most romantic!

The Belgian Macarons

Macarons de Beaumont

Months ago I have tried and practiced making the French Macarons. I almost got it perfected, until I had to cease baking due to skin problems. I suspected that I was consuming too much food coloring, so I took a hiatus from baking cute and rainbow barf inducing cakes. Now I’m fine, I have recovered, and I am back into the game! I really, really wanted to try the Italian Macarons, but I don’t have enough courage since it’s trickier and more meticulous than the French Macarons. So, I decided to try the Belgian Macarons as a warm up.

There’s a BELGIAN MACARON?! Sounds surprised? Well, yes it exist! And it’s super, duper basic! All you need are 3 ingredients: almond flour, granulated sugar, and egg whites. You also need a baking tray, baking paper, a medium sized nozzle, and a medium sized piping bag. It’s so easy, it’s like walking on air.

The Belgian Macarons is called “Macarons De Beaumont”. Beaumont is a French-Speaking city in Belgium located in the Walloon region in the province of Hainaut.

Macarons De Beaumont have more almond flour than sugar and are therefore nuttier, fuller, and appeals to a rather mature palate. French Macarons are like chewy, colored candies children eat in comparison. Also, the Belgian Macarons do not require any fillings. So, no extra buttery sweetness! Are you interested? Don’t worry, I’ve halved the amount for you so you won’t have to bake too much for your try-out.

Macarons de Beaumont

  • Ingredients:
    • 30 g egg whites (from 1 egg)
    • 37.5 g finely grinded almond flour
    • 87.5 g granulated sugar
  • Instructions:
    • Preheat oven to 180 C
    • Cover baking tray with baking paper and prepare a piping bag with nozzle for later use.
    • Beat egg whites with 10% of granulated sugar until nice and foamy.
    • Once foaming, add the rest of the sugar. Beat until it forms a stiff peak.
    • Add almond flour in 3 parts, carefully folding with a spatula.
    • Transfer into a piping bag. Pipe about 10 grams of the batter each, making about 15 pieces.
    • Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar, pop it into the oven, and bake for 12 minutes or until the macarons have turned golden brown.

Banana Cupcakes

Deliciously Homey Banana Cupcakes!

My son loves bananas and I would add a banana fruit in his lunch pack for school almost every week! There are usually 5 bananas in one pack, but sometimes the supermarket would add more depending on the weight. And it so happens that last weeks’ pack had 7 pieces of bananas. That left me with 2 pieces extra for this week. They were getting too ripe to be eaten alone, so I decided to make banana cupcakes!

Bananas are one of those healthy fruits we can indulge! They are great for anti-stress relief! They contain folate and Vitamin B6, two key components in the production of serotonin. Serotonins are chemicals that reduce anxiety and relieve stress in our body. It’s highly important that children are aided in the production of serotonin to help them cope with school life and growth! Feeding them bananas are the easiest, most delicious, and natural way to help our kids!

When I told my son that I was going to turn the ripe bananas into cupcakes, he was so thrilled, he jumped about on our couch! Yipee!

Most recipes will tell you to add 200g of granulated sugar to the banana cupcake batter, but that’s way too sweet for our tastebuds!!! Besides, aren’t bananas already sweet? They’ve been genetically modified for decades to taste sweeter than its predecessors! Originally, bananas were quite bitter and had bigger seeds as did most fruits! Now their seeds are soft and small, and almost taste as sweet as the candied bananas (Bananarama: phased out in 2014!) by Nestle! Naturally, I lowered the amount of sugar from 200g to 120g and they’re delightful!

Since my oven is a domestic type (SMEG) made for home baking, the recommended oven temperature and baking time by professionals do not apply. If I follow those instructions, my cupcakes would form a volcano, dry up, and burn. To avoid this, I changed the temperature from 176 C to 150 C and extended the baking period from 17 minutes to 25 mns. They come out soft and moist!

Unsalted Butter and Buttermilk (karnemelk in dutch)

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own buttermilk with just lemon and milk. I have posted a recipe and instruction over at this link!

This recipe takes about 45 mns to do and makes 24 cupcakes. I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you have any questions, send a message ♥️

Banana Cupcake Recipe

  • Ingredients:
    • 256 g all purpose flour
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • I /2 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 57g unsalted, softened butter
    • 60g vegetable oil
    • 120 g granulated sugar
    • 3 ripe bananas
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1tsp vanilla extract
    • 240 ml buttermilk
  • Directions:
    • Preheat oven to 150 C
    • Line cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
    • Bowl 1, Dry Ingredients: mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
    • Bowl 2, West Ingredients: cream butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.
    • Add mashed bananas, eggs, vanilla extract and whip for 3 to 4 minutes
    • While whipping, slowly add the Dry Ingredients in 3 parts and mix until combined.
    • Scoop batter into cupcake liners 2/3 of the way, full.
    • Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Homemade Buttermilk

I actually made an experiment comparing 2 different type of homemade buttermilk: vinegar vs lemon based. Check it out at this —> link.

Can’t find buttermilk at your local store? No problem! Make your own batch! It’s super easy.

Homemade Buttermilk Recipe

  • Ingredients:
    • 10 ml of squeezed lemon juice
    • 150 ml of full milk
  • Instructions:
    • Pour the 10 ml of lemon juice into a cup of 150 ml of milk. Totalling to a 160 ml of mixture. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes so that the milk curdles and resembles the flavor and texture of buttermilk. It should become creamy and tangy. After 5 minutes, it’s ready for use! 
Note: The amount of lemon juice is approximately 6% of the total mixture. So you can adjust according to the amount you need. For example:

6% of 160 ml mixture= 10 ml of lemon juice
6% of 237 ml of mixture= 14 ml of lemon juice.

Experimenting with Homemade Buttermilk

Today I did a little experiment to figure out which acetic acid solution is best to use for making a homemade buttermilk: Lemon or Vinegar? Allow me to first explain what and why buttermilk is important.

Mizkan is a Japanese Brand!

Buttermilk is a fermented dairy, product of butter churning. It’s creamy with a tangy flavor and is excellent as leavening in baked goods. They have a longer shelf life which is essential in baking. Buttermilk helps cakes develop a soft sponge and hold its volume. So if you don’t like dense cakes and you love tangy flavors, I highly recommend adding buttermilk to your cake batter! There are also a couple of recipes that requires buttermilk and if you need a substitute, you’ve come to the right place!

To make my experiment, I had my Control Test for comparison (store-bought buttermilk), a bottle of vinegar, and a glass of full milk. Next, I calculated the percentage of vinegar needed in a glass of milk to make buttermilk. It’s six percent. Assuming it would provide similar result, I made another buttermilk solution but with 6% lemon juice. I was disappointed to find that there were hardly any difference other than the added lemon flavor. Using a teaspoon, I kept adding 1 ml of lemon juice until it matched the flavor and texture of the Test Control. When I tested the vinegar again based on the lemon buttermilk solution, it gave me yet a different result. I was wondering what the problem was with the inconsistencies until I noted that the measurements on the teaspoons were ruining my calculations!!

  • Test Control:
    • 160 ml of store-bought buttermilk
  • Vinegar Based Buttermilk Solution
    • 150 ml of full milk
    • 10 ml of rice vinegar
      • Result: 6%; tangy & light
  • Lemon Based Buttermilk Solution
    • 150 ml of full milk
    • 10 ml of squeezed lemon juice
      • Result: 6%; tangy/citrus & creamier

So which is better? Lemon or Vinegar? Definitely LEMON is better than vinegar because it is closer to the consistency of an actual store-bought buttermilk: tangy and creami—ER. Whereas the vinegar based buttermilk is extremely tangy but light-ER. However, this may be because I used a rice flavored distilled vinegar! There may be different results with other types of vinegar (except for Apple Cider Vinegar! Do not use apple cider vinegar!).

I hope you enjoyed this entry as much as I had experimenting. Let me know if you tried experimenting with other types of vinegar!

Kokosnoot RijstePap (Coconut Rice Pudding)

A couple of months ago, during the first wave of the pandemic, I went a little crazy and consumed lots of food and drinks that are high in histamine. Back then I had no idea I was even histamine intolerant. I had an inkling that something was wrong because I would often react to particular food like dried fish or leftovers. Still, I’d often brush the thought away thinking that maybe it was all in my head. It kind of was . . . my brain was telling me, those food are not for my body type! Nope!

Fast forward to today, I realized that I had to lower my histamine levels by avoiding the said food that creates and liberates this allergen. I began eating more fresh food like fruits (except for avocados), vegetables (except for spinach), meat, and some fish carefully making only enough to consume for one day. Instead of oatmeal, I would eat freshly boiled corn for breakfast. I’ve been doing this for quite some time now and I got extremely bored with the taste of corn so I decided to make something else. Then I thought of rijstepap.

What is rijstrepap? Rijstepap is a favorite Belgian Dessert made of rice, saffron, vanilla, milk, and an egg. Since egg whites and cow’s milk are liberators of histamine, I removed them from the ingredient and replaced them with coconut milk and coconut flakes. Coconut is anti-inflammatory, which helps a lot in Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Histamine Intolerance! It is also full of healthy fats that support brain health, hormone balance, and the good cholesterol! So, yay for me!

But, wait a minute!!! You eat desserts for breakfast? You’d wonder. Well, it’s all a matter of perspective. Take for example, pancakes! Some people view them as dessert with ice cream on top, while others sees them as breakfast! So, yes! I would eat rijstpap for breakfast! It’s delicious!

This recipe is made for two servings per person. I don’t really like giving out an enormous serving per recipe because I understand how frustrating it is when you’re trying a recipe and you mess up; or you decide you don’t actually love it, but then you feel guilty dumping all that food in the trash. So, if you do like this recipe and you would like some more, just multiply the amount by the number of people you will serve. I also normally don’t bother to cool down my pudding. I like eating it hot-warm, but you can cool it down for 20 minutes in the fridge before consuming!

My Coconut Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

  • White Rice 1/4 cup (or 45 ml)
  • Coconut Milk 1/2 (90ml)
  • Water 1/2 cup (90 ml)
  • 2 tbsp coconut flakes
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1/2 tsp saffron
  • 1 tsp of brown sugar

Instructions:

  1. Pour rice and water in a pot. Boil on high for 5-7 minutes. Careful not to allow the bottom to harden by stirring constantly.
  2. Once boiling, add coconut milk. Lower heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Add sugar, saffron, and vanilla essence.
  3. Continue simmering if rice is still hard, until softened.
  4. Let cool for 20 minues. Serve with sprinkles of coconut flakes and a teaspoon of brown sugar.

ENJOY!

Palitaw: Filipino Sticky Rice Dessert

When I was little, I loved chewing on this simple, country dessert we Filipinos call ‘Palitaw’ as a ‘mirienda’ (snack). Palitaw literally means, ‘floating around’. It’s made up of flattened glutenous rice flour dough, boiled in hot water. Then it’s coated with a mixture of white sugar, white roasted sesame seeds, and grated coconuts. My Filipino grandma used to make them for me, but as she got older the quality of her dessert have gone down and my usual enthusiasm for Palitaw have diminished to the point that I no longer miss it. Don’t get me wrong! I love my grandma, but I really, really wanted that flavor I knew as a kid and she has completely forgotten how to make them properly. Old age. What can you do? As the years gone by the nostalgia for the flavor and texture hit me so powerfully, I started looking for recipes to make this desert. I had no idea how easy it is to actually make once I have gotten the hang of it! Now I’d just make myself a small batch whenever the desire arises and whenever my kids ask for them! They, LOVE IT!

PALITAW

The recipes I found online were very wishy-washy. They don’t really explain well enough for us beginners how to properly make them even with all those pictures and videos. They explain it as if they’re addressing veteran chefs. I find this to be true for many recipe blogs and it’s a bit daunting. I also didn’t like the fact that they don’t provide the amount of ingredients in METRIC system. It makes SO MUCH difference! And on top of that, they constantly provide ingredients in HUGE servings. Unless you’re entertaining guests, you don’t need that much in one go! I prefer small servings ’cause it helps keep our weight in check. *wink, wink* And really, it’s a lot easier to start from small amount and then increase later, than it is to start with big amounts. All that re-calculating and measuring is so . . . in the words of the Japanese, “面倒くさい” (bothersome).

There’s also the brand of ingredients! If you’re going to use Mochiko Glutenous Rice, 1 cup would measure for 150 grams! How much more water? Dunno! I’ve never used it because it’s not available where I live! They don’t even deliver it to my place from online shops. I tried. Since that was not an option, I use Erawan Brand and 1 cup of their glutenous rice equals to 130 g! If you want to be adventurous or you can’t find the Erawan brand, you may try the Mochiko, Koda Farms brand. Just know that I have NO idea how much water it needs or how long it has to be cooked! You’d just have to wing it. The idea is that the dough, once you’ve mixed it with water, is not too sticky or does not crumble in your hands. I would start with 1 cup of water, sprinkle it onto the flour, then add more until you get the desired result. If the dough gets too sticky, just sprinkle a little more glutenous rice flour.

Be warned, my recipe is for 1 serving only. If you want more, just double, triple, etc., the amount except for the cups of boiling water– of course! Unless they all evaporated in which case, just add another cup or two! Without further ado, below is my recipe!

MY PALITAW RECIPE

Ingredients:

(For the Sticky Rice Dough)

  •  130g/1 cup Glutenous Rice Flour
  • 237 ml/1 cup of Water*****

(For Boiling)

  • 1.5 liter/6 cups of water in a deep pot.

(For the Topping)

  • 2 tbsp of grated coconuts
  • 2 tbsp of white roasted sesame seeds
  • 1.5 tbsp of granulated sugar

Instructions:

1. Boil your 6 cups of water in a pot on medium-high.  

2. Place rice flour in a large bowl. Little by little, add the cup of water and mix them together until you can form a solid dough. Make sure the dough isn’t too sticky otherwise, it will be a lot more difficult to mold it into shape. *****You don’t really have to use up all of the cup of water. In other recipes, they tell you to only use 1/4th to half a cup. In my case I prefer soft and smoother consistency other than a rough, crumbly one. They’re easier to shape and they cook better!

3. Get a small digital scale. Take a piece of the dough, and measure it to 20 g before rolling it into a ball. Do this until you have about 7-8 pieces. Place them on a tray, covered with a thin layer of rice flour.

4. Powder your hands with a thin layer of rice flour. Place a small ball of rice flour dough in the center of your palm. Take your other hand and use bottom the side of your thumb to flatten the ball into an oblong shape, and at about half a centimeter thick. Do this for all the other balls. Set aside.

5. When the water starts boiling, drop at least 4 pieces of flattened dough into the pot. Once they start floating to the surface, wait 2-3 minutes before removing them from the pot. This helps make them become stickier and fun to eat! Set aside.

6. While your Palitaw are boiling, make the toppings by mixing grated coconuts, white roasted sesame seeds, and granulated sugar in a bowl. Set aside.

7. When you have all your Palitaw boiled and placed in a big, flat plate, carefully sprinkle them with the toppings. You can turn them over with a fork and sprinkle the other side if preferred. Then they’re ready to serve! Enjoy!

Let me know if you’ve tried this recipe in the comments! 😀     

My Caramel Popcorn Recipe

YUMMYLICIOUS!

I have started to bake and cook more cakes, cookies, snacks and other desserts when pandemic forced us all into quarantine. It rekindled my long lost passion for desserts. The passion bloomed as I was baking my daughter’s birthday cake (a story to be told later) however, I turned to popping corns recently as a quick movie snack for my kids and myself to enjoy. My husband actually purchased a small popcorn machine last year, but since we were too busy to figure out how to properly add flavorings, we were quickly disenfranchised by the process and resorted to the classic chip and dip movie snack. Thanks to the pandemic, I had more time and energy to experiment! We could have just bought ourselves a ready-made bucket of popcorn, but the bland taste and the cheap “caramel” flavor of the store-bought popcorn made it impossible to appreciate. It just tasted like white syrup and I have an idea why that is! They use oil in the pan to pop the corn kernel with a table spoon of sugar!!! It’s simple, anyone can do it but I would prefer a wholesome flavor! Speaking of pans, you can totally use a non-stick pan with a cover on top to pop your kernels! Just don’t add oil!! You may use butter if you’re going for a butter flavor! In this situation, clarifying butter is probably the best choice. All you have to do is to first heat up the pan and allow the butter to melt. Then test if the pan is warm enough by putting one kernel in the center and wait a few minutes. Once the kernel pops, the pan is hot enough to cook the rest! Another option would be to get this Popcorn Popper Maker Bowl from Amazon! It’s super easy and it saves you more dishes to wash!

A nice bag of corn kernel.

So, there I was in the kitchen, experimenting and figuring out how to make a nice, deliciously perfect caramel popcorn! It wasn’t easy. Here in our home, we have 2 kinds of butter: clarifying butter and the “normal” butter. Since I usually use clarifying butter for almost all of our cooking, I didn’t see the harm in using it as the ingredient for my caramel. It took me two fails to figure out that I should use the “normal” butter!!! My husband actually got annoyed when I dumped the second batch of failed popcorn. I felt very guilty because clarifying butter costs almost €3 per 250g! And since I was experimenting, I wasn’t sure how much of it I needed. I learned I was using way too much for a family of four! I lowered the amount.

My next lesson was from the type of sugar I used. We have 6 types of sugar at home: granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, powder sugar, “normal” sugar, and what I call, “the pancake” sugar. Or, Cassonade Graefffe. Now, I live in Belgium and although I have been here for more than 5 years, I haven’t entirely mastered the language. It’s safe to say, it’s easy for me to get confused with the differences between the types of sugar we have at home. Since the “pancake” sugar looked a lot like brown sugar, I used that ingredient for my caramel.

At the time, it was also the only “brown sugar” available. The result was too grainy and it didn’t mix well with the butter! Third time’s a charm, right? Nope! Not for me, that was not my day! I gave up, took a break, and thought about what might have been wrong!

Well, now we know! And to further improve the recipe, I learned that adding a teaspoon of granulated sugar will smoothen the texture of the caramel. Some people use Corn Syrup, but since that wasn’t available at hand, I used what I have and it worked just as wondeful! So, without further ado, I now share my personal recipe with you! Enjoy!

My Caramel Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 55g popcorn kernel
  • 75g brown sugar
  • 75g soft butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar

What you need:

Instructions:

  1. Pop the kernels in the popcorn machine. Or, heat up clarifying butter in a non-stick pan with cover. Test the heat by placing one corn kernel in the center of the pan. Once the corn pops, it’s ready to cook the rest. Put in a large bowl. Set aside.
  2. Make the caramel sauce:
    • In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar on medium-low heat, whisking constantly.
    • Once the mixture is completely incorporated, keep stirring until it starts to boil. Allow the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn.
    • Add baking soda and mix.
    • Remove from heat, add vanilla essence and granulated sugar, and mix well.
  3. Mix them together: Pour caramel sauce over the bowl of popped corn. Then cover with another large bowl. Holding the two bowls together, firmly shake the content until every corn is coated with caramel.
  4. Let cool: Allow the caramel on the corn to cool for 3 mns before serving.
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