Saturday August1, 2009
Tokyo, Japan @ ABC Cooking
I'm getting irritated with Typepad's editor. Can't figure out why I get double space no single space sometimes. Anyhow, I'm sure it is one of those things they will fix along with the Facebook feed.
Well, today I learned how to make a Roll Cake. We made a green tea flavored rolled cake filled with azuki cream and chocolate/green tea cream. The filling was delicious especially the azuki cream, especially since I love azukis. Azuki's are Japanese red beans that are often used in traditional sweets. They are sweetened by boiling them with sugar. Sometimes they are just boiled until softened but many times are made into a paste so it can be used as a filling for the traditional Japanese sweets. I find anything made from azuki to be delicious!
The cake is relatively easy to make. However, I'm not a fan of tea flavored cakes or sweets so it tasted OK to me. However, if you love green tea, you will love this relatively easy to make cake.
We first made the Green Tea Souffle Cake:
Ingredients:
- 35 grams of cake flour
- 5 grams of Matcha – Japanese Green Tea Powder
- 25 grams of unsalted butter
- 25 cc and 50 cc of milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 egg whites
- 1 whole egg
- 30 grams of granulated sugar
Sift the cake flour and the Matcha together twice.
Melt butter on low heat in a non stick sauce pan and remove from heat. Add flour/matcha to the pot and with spatula mix well.
Return pot on low heat and fry the batter until shiny and then remove from heat. (it should expand and bubble a bit)
Then add 25 cc of milk heated to 80C to the batter and mix well. Then place the batter in a mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks with the whole egg. Then add the egg mixture in the batter 1/3 at a time while beating the batter at medium speed with an electric mixer.
Then add 50 cc of the milk in 2-3 parts while continue to beating at medium speed and set aside.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Then add 1/2 of sugar until shiny and then add the rest of the sugar and continue beating until the egg whites are creamy.
First fold 1/3 of egg whites into bowl with the batter. Then dump the batter into the bowl with the egg whites and fold until well blend.
Dump the batter in a lined with cooking paper square 23x23cm pan in the center and make even with a scraper. Tap the pan a few times to remove any air bubbles.
Bake at 180C electric oven for 13-15min. For gas over bake at 170C for 10-12 minutes.
While baking, make the Green Tea Ganache:
Ingredients:
- 25 grams whipping cream
- 20 grams white chocolate
- 1tsp Matcha
Pour warmed whipping cream over the white chocolate to melt. Add the Matcha and blend well with spatula. Put it in the refrigerator to cool, then beat with electric mixer until stiff. Place the ganache in a pastry bag with a size 8 (japanese) tip.
Now make the Azuki Cream:
Ingredients:
- 10 grams of condensed mild
- 50 grams of boiled azuki beans
- 100 grams of whipping cream
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend at medium speed with hand held electric mixer.
Assembling the Cake:
First cut the edges so they are all smooth. Then brush the cake with a syrup made from 10cc sugar water and 5cc of matcha liquor (you can use any kind of syrup).
Then spread the Azuki Cream over the cake. Leave a bit though in the bowl.
Pipe 3 lines of the Match Ganache at the top half of the cake. Then cover the line that is closest to the edge with the left over azuki cream.
Then roll from edge where the Matcha Ganache is as depicted in the photo. It will be easier to do if you have cooking paper underneath the cake.
Then slice the cake in 1/3 and you are done.
Voila! A Japanese influenced French dessert!