Bella is baking

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Homemade Fortune Cookies

It is possible to make fortune cookies at home. It is not that difficult, but your hands must be super fast.

I tried a couple of recipes and compared them. The best recipe I found is from Martha Stewart's website.

The original recipe is very sweet to my taste. So I half the sugar. This recipe is very similar to Tuile (pronounced as tweel) and the taste is very good. Much much much better than those store bought fortune cookies.

Ingredients

37.5 gram unsalted butter
2 large egg whites (about 60 gr)
0.5 cup superfine sugar (I use 1/2 cup only)
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

Write your message on a long strip of paper, around 10 cm long.
Heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray or use non stick pan. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 10-12 cm circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean kitchen towel. Using your fingers (using gloves is advisable) fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Press the cookies to the edge of a cup to form the shape of fortune cookies. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it. Place the fortune cookie on a muffin pan to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Chinese New Year Goodies - Ant's Nest

Happy Chinese New Year. This is a late post due to hectic baking schedule.. back to back Chinese New Year and Valentine's day baking.

My dear cakelette, aka Hebe, loves ant nest so much. She could eat 10 at one time. If I dont stop her, she probably could finish the whole container. This is a 50 years old recipe that was handed down to me from my late mother in law. She used to bake this; my hubby and in laws love this so much. So though the process of making it is pretty tedious, I bake it every year. It is very heartwarming to see that everyone loves it and in fact my nephews and nieces fought for it, literally.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Happy Valentine's Day

What is more lovely for Valentine's day other than macarons? answer: Heart Shape macarons! Now love is in the mouth too.

After a few attempts, I managed to shape the macarons into Heart Shape, and the result is pretty amazing. Imagine putting that little thing into the mouth.

The special flavour for this valentine's day

Rose macarons, Lemongrass and ginger macarons, Japanese Green Tea macarons, and Apple Cinnamon Macarons.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Rainbow macarons for Caroline

Caroline had a care bear theme for her 1 year old birthday. What is care bear without rainbow? So I made rainbow macarons for her party. I am so happy that the colors are so vibrant and the guests like the macarons too!

The girls are posing with the macarons. Hebe is showing off her creation for Caroline

The pink one is of course rose macarons. The yellow one is salted caramel. The green one is japanese green tea. Blue one is chocolate. Purple one is lavender.

Pretty Dessert Table

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Pink Rose Macarons

I had the first bite of pink rose macarons back in 2008, about 5 years ago. It was in Laduree, Paris. I was addicted. Things would have been easier if I stayed in Paris, or at least nearby. The problem is that I am living 14,477.9 km away!

Since then I was content to just have my bite of rose macarons when visiting Laduree in Tokyo. But the addiction is getting worse and I just have to do something about it. I visited countless of patisserie in Singapore, I've tried all shops that sell macarons, the famous ones like Canele and Antoinette, or even the less known ones ... but not one is close to the one in Laduree.

So I started making batch after batch of macarons to make the perfect rose macarons. Now, after countless of baking, I am happy to say that my rose macarons are good enough to satisfy my addiction.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Blueberry Muffin

What is better than a warm blueberry muffin out of oven on a lazy Saturday morning. I had been wanting to try this recipe, ever since I saw this in Okashi recipe book.