SUMMER LOVIN'

When you see lemons in abundance, you know that summer has arrived. I love lemons - so fragrant, so versatile.  And they are especially plump and juicy this season.

The time has come, said ChilliCrab, to make French-style Lemon Yogurt Cake. 

It's hard not to fall in love with this cake. Just how good is it? Mama Crab and Papa Crab gobbled up 3 slices between themselves even before I had time to grab my camera.  When I take them to work, they're gone long before I had a chance to draft the hi-everyone-there-is-cake-in-the-usual-corner email.  It's that irresistable.  One cake never last very long.

So how about FOUR?

Gâteau au Citron

FRENCH-STYLE LEMON YOGURT CAKE
Adapted from this recipe by Orangette

Makes two 16.5cm x 8cm x 7.5cm loaves or

two 18.5cm x 9.5cm x 5cm or

one 20.5cm x 10cm x 5.5cm

For the cake: 
125 grams plain yogurt
200 grams granulated sugar
3 large eggs
140 grams all-purpose flour
60 grams almond meal (ground almond)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Grated lemon zest from 2 lemons
95 grams canola oil

For the glaze: 
Juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat your oven at 180 degrees C.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into oiled cake pan/s.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake. 

Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely. 

When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

Serve.

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BAKING WITH STEPH

Steph fell in love with this Matcha Azuki Financier from Japan.  So we made tried a hand at making it today.  To cope with the big turn out over at Steph's home this afternoon, we tripled the recipe.  At first I was secretly doubtful if we would be able to cope but I shouldn't have worried.  Everyone eagerly contibuted in her own way - shopping for ingredients, measuring them out, greasing baking tins, whisking the 12 egg whites, melting and filtering butter, spooning cake mixture into tins ...

In Steph's kitchen, the saying "Too many cooks spoil the soup" doesn't apply.  In fact, the many heads provided more solution to problems. For instance, when the melted butter was taking much too long to cool someone suggested, "Let's put the saucepan in a bowl filled with cold water!"  "Add ice into the water!" chipped in another. (I wish I had thought of that earlier.  Duh.)

I used the Financier recipe from Bea's.  Do check out her blog where she shares the most amazing recipes and photograhy.  Some people call these little cakes Financiers, some call them Friands.  No baking powder is used.  The rising agent is egg white, which we whisked until foamy, but not firm.  We didn't have the proper financier molds so we made used of whatever baking tins we had on hand.

The 1st batch was overdone but I love the colour and the crispy crust.



The next batch has a softer centre.  (At first we debated whether the insides were undercooked.  However, I came home to check Bea's photos and her financier appears to have a soft centre so we did do things right!)

Next up: Mini Cha Siew Buns. I wanted a bread dough that is soft and rich so I chose the recipe from Page 58 of 孟老师的100道面包by 孟兆庆。The ingredients are:

100 grams bread flour

50 grams all-purpose flour

20 grams caster sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

20 grams egg

80 grams milk

10 grams unsalted butter

The dough was hand-kneaded, mostly by Diane.  When I told everyone, "The bread dough should rise in a warm environment" someone offered "Shall I warm up the microwave oven then push the dough in?" 

How delicate is this dough?  Jamie Oliver will be impressed.  Proof that many cooks in one kitchen can spark off some really great ideas. I'm so going to use the warm microwave method in the future!

The buns were well received.  People were wolfing them down and exclaiming with every bite, "Oooh these are SO good!"  It must be because of the wonderful cha siew filling, handmade by Jane!  It has the right balance of meat, fat and just the right amount of sweetness.  Yums.

Jane is a great cook who has endless cooking tips to share.  All you need to do is ask. She also makes a mean roasted pork (烧肉) - the kind with the crispy crackling.  I hope she will teach me to make it some time.

第一次做包

今天试做蛋黄香菇肉包，非常成功！ 赶紧选几个似摸似样的秀一下。

This is my first attempt at making bao. There's definitely room for improvement but I'm rather pleased with the result. 

I used the same dough recipe as I did for my Chinese Muffin.  The filling is made up of 400 grams of minced pork (that has been marinated a few hours before), 1/3 of a salted egg yolk and a small braised mushroom.  I was able to get 18 bao in all.

The first batch of bao looked too goofy but with time my confidence grew, the pleating got easier and the bao slowly took shape. Much to my own amazement (and relief), one or 2 actually started to look like a proper bao!

蛋黄香菇肉包

I didn't realise that bao can be so easy to make!

NOW THERE ARE NINE

There was a little dough leftover from last week's baking, which I kept frozen.  This afternoon I stirred in white chocolate bits to make Triple Chocolate Cookies!

Fresh from the oven -- ten beautiful cookies with a soft, chewy centre.  Mmmm ... I already wolfed one down as I was taking photographs.

Nine chocolate cookies with a soft, gooey centre.  For the Cookie Monster who drops by unexpectedly (you know who you are!) to look in on my parents while I'm away at work.

CHILLICRAB AND THE MANGOES

The sign above the mangoes read “$1.99 for 3”, attracting about a dozen Aunties all with an eye for bargain.  They gathered around the crates, elbowing one another, frantically grabbing the fruit as if they were free of charge. Like a flock of hens, their feathers ruffled, squawking. As though some unknown catastrophe was fast approaching and they were scrambling to peck the last grains off the supermarket floor.

Kiasuism got the better of ChilliCrab. She dived right in, dodging vicious beaks (ouch!) and menacing claws, and snatched away what she believe to be 3 of the plumiest fruit – all in under two minutes.

Fruits of my labour

ChilliCrab's worst fear has been realised -  #iAMauntie