Because SMBC (yes, an acronym for buttercream!) doesn’t rely on sugar for structure the way American buttercream does, it allows you to control the sugar as you first create a meringue then add butter.

The only problem with SMBC is that sometimes it’s too, well, buttery-textured. Sometimes this is appropriate, like with a light spongy cake, but with a buttery butter cake, it can actually be too much. I know y’all love your butter, but still.

So I was really pleased to find a recipe for a creamier-tasting frosting that just happens to be a classic. Ever hear of “ermine frosting”? It’s the classic Southern topping to red velvet cake, before that interloper cream cheese frosting took over as the modern standard. Ermine frosting is also what’s known as boiled milk frosting. Sounds appetising, doesn’t it? Actually, all the names of this frosting are highly unappetising. Ermine makes me think of a cake covered with fur coats, boiled milk speaks for itself, and its traditional name of “gravy icing” makes me consider serving it with a roast chicken. No wonder Cooks Country called it “miracle frosting” when they published a recipe for it in 2008.

Names aside, the frosting is basically a starch pudding, a flour and milk-based roux with butter added once it is cooled. It doesn’t require eggs, but its body comes from the initial pudding. Pudding frosting sounds nice, doesn’t it?

It still calls for quite a bit of butter, but somehow resembles more of a sweetened cream frosting rather than a traditional buttercream.

So add this to your frosting arsenal. It’s great with buttery cupcakes (here’s my easiest go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes) and as a filling for whoopie pies. Or, of course, for red velvet cake.

Classic boiled-milk frosting
makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes, or 1 nine-inch layer cake

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (35 g) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons (45 g) cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups (360 ml) whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces (330 g) butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

1. Combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the milk.
2. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture boils and thickens. (This takes me about 7 minutes.) It should be the consistency of a very thick pudding. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Transfer to a clean bown and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. (It’s important that the mixture is no longer warm when you start adding the butter later.)
4. With a mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the milk mixture on low speed, adding the butter one piece at a time. When all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Allow the frosting to sit at room temperature about an hour, until stiff.

You know you really like a place when you return home from vacation, and the *very same day*, you hit up that bakery. Only to find that it’s closed.

For another two weeks.

Then you stand there for five whole minutes in disbelief.

After I collected myself and dragged myself home (the sky suddenly seemed a little darker, the wind a little colder), I continued working on macarons since I would have to be self-sufficient with French baked goods for the next two weeks.

I’ve struggled in the past with macarons, but eventually got “feet” with vanilla-flavored ones. I tried over and over with chocolate ones, but just could not make it happen, no matter how much I pleaded and cajoled the tiny puffs as they sat in the oven, taunting me. I still can’t get the chocolate ones to develop feet, the slippery little things. (If anyone has a magic trick I could try, or a spell I could recite, please message me.)

However, I have been able to make it happen with espresso macarons. This is especially nice because I can sandwich dark chocolate in between and you basically get a nice little mocha fix.

So until I get those chocolate ones worked out, these are my go-to recipe.

Espresso macarons with dark chocolate ganache
Makes about 16 filled cookies
I suggest reading my instructions in my previous post: I have detailed bullet points on what seemed to work well for me. Also, make sure to store the macarons in the fridge overnight before eating; the cookies need to ‘fuse’ with the filling to create that heavenly macaron texture.

For the cookies:
Ingredients
2 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons fine granulated sugar
2 teaspoons espresso powder
3 ounces (85 g) almond flour
5.25 ounces (150 g) powdered sugar
3 large egg whites at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, sift together the almond flour, espresso powder and powdered sugar through a strainer (you won’t want any big pieces of almond in the mixture.)
2. In a small heavy saucepan, combine the 5 tablespoons granulated sugar with the 2 tablespoons water. Swirl — don’t stir — over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat just a bit until the sugar mixture comes to a boil. You will want to use a candy thermometer to make sure it comes to 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). At this point, you will need to take it off the heat and quickly start streaming it into the meringue, so it’s important to get the meringue started as the sugar syrup is boiling.
3. Meanwhile, start beating the egg whites in a stand mixer with the wire whisk (level 6 on a KitchenAid). When you have reached soft peaks, add the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. When the sugar syrup is ready, very, very slowly and steadily trickle it into the meringue mixture as the mixer is running. As soon as all the sugar syrup is added, you will now add the almond flour mixture.
4. Stir in a third of the meringue into the flour mixture with a spatula until it was well combined. Add the rest of the meringue and fold in until all the flour has been combined with the meringue.
5. The macaronnage: Using a spatula or dough scraper, scoop the entire mixture from the bottom of the bowl and turn it upside down. Do this about 15 times, or until the batter “flows like lava,” or drips slowly from the spatula when lifted.
6. Fill a piping bag with a 1-cm tip and pipe the cookies into 1-inch (or 2.5-cm) wide circles on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
7. Rap the baking sheet against the counter a few times, set another baking sheet under it, and let the cookies rest while preheating the oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
8. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, turning the baking sheet halfway through the baking time.
9. Transfer the parchment to a cooling rack while you make the filling.

For the ganache:
Ingredients
1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy cream
4 ounces (approx 100 g) dark chocolate
wee pinch of salt

1. Chop the chocolate and set it aside in a bowl.
2. Bring the cream and pinch salt to a simmer over low heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate. Wait 5 minutes.
3. Whisk together the cream and chocolate until well combined. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

Preparing the cookies:
Spoon a bit of the ganache onto a macaron and sandwich with another. Store in an airtight container in the fridge overnight.

Link: Vanilla Macarons (crispywaffle.com)

Barbecue and ice cream.

The best thing about barbecue and ice cream?

Ice cream.

So besides throwing down on barbecue chicken (pinoy-style, of course), my gift to myself was to actually take the time to make one of my favorite ice cream flavors: salted butter caramel. Back when I started making this, I used David Lebovitz’s excellent recipe (you can find the original here). But because I’m – let’s face it – lazy, I started making the caramel in the water/sugar method, the way I do for leche flan (and I have made dozens of leche flans), and dropping the caramel praline. I figure that if it takes less time, I’m more likely to make it. And if I’m more likely to make it, then more caramel ice cream for everybody. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get some on your birthday.

Lazy Kine Caramel Ice Cream
makes 1 quart / 1 liter

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups (300 g) fine granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup (100 g) salted butter
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
5 egg yolks
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
2 cups (500 ml) whole milk

1. Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Add the sugar to a medium saucepan and pour the water over it. With the heat on low, swirl the pan around until the sugar has nearly dissolved. Be careful not to let it boil — if it starts getting too hot, remove it from the burner for a few seconds, continuing to swirl.
3. Once the sugar has mostly dissolved, raise the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover it immediately and leave on boil for 2 minutes.
4. Uncover and continue swirling the mixture until it becomes dark amber. (Be careful — you want it to be dark, but it can go from dark to burning in seconds.) Take it off the heat immediately, and stir in the butter and salt. It’ll splatter, but just keep stirring it to keep it from splattering. The butter will eventually incorporate. Gradually whisk in the cream until fully incorporated. Stir in the milk.
5. Whisking constantly, add about a third of the warm caramel mixture to the egg yolks (careful not to curdle the yolks). Place the yolk-caramel mixture back into the saucepan with the rest.
6. Heat the custard over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens a bit and hits 170F (77C). Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl through a strainer. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
7. Churn in an ice cream maker as directed.

This is even better sprinkled with a wee bit of sea salt.

A post-anniversary treat!

One annoyance: TSA actually confiscated Skillet Bacon Jam despite Carmen’s pleadings. Hmph. Kyle wondered if bacon jam may just be the perfectly ironic way for an Islamic terrorist to carry dangerous liquids.

Oh, and I hear the Eltana bagels Carmen brought us are the first to make the trip across the Atlantic and touch down in the Netherlands. So we gave them a proper welcome with some local cream cheese.

Bagels from Eltana

Theo chocolates. Ballard’s own!

Eltana + Cape Cleare salmon + a chive cream cheese from around the corner.

Beans from Caffe Umbria. Black gold.

Sitaw guisado, or stir-fried long beans, is one of my favorite Filipino vegetable dishes. Because proper yard-long beans can be harder to find where I live, I decided to try to make it with a substitute that is more readily available to me: haricots verts. Haricots verts are th small, very thin green beans, essentially a baby version of the normal pencil-width green beans. They’re great because they cook much faster and I find that I don’t need to blanch them; ideal for a three-minute stir fry.

The classic sitaw guisado usually calls for pork, shrimp, tomatoes and onion, as well as sometimes soy or fish sauce. I love this for yard-long beans, but haricots verts have a much more delicate flavor. For these, I scaled back until they were almost naked: just the beans, garlic and a tiny hit of oyster sauce. (Oyster sauce is the truth.) Because it’s so simple, I’ve worked out the steps so they’ll come out just right: the beans need to be quickly fried over high heat, then a bit of water is added to make sure they cook through, then after, the garlic and oyster sauce are added. (I always add the garlic towards the end otherwise you’ll taste nothing but burnt garlic.) If you want to get all fancy, fry some sliced Chinese sausage before frying the beans. If you can’t tear yourself away from the mighty pig, this is a delicious way to incorporate it into this otherwise meatless dish.

Haricots verts guisado
serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients
150 grams (6 ounces) haricots verts
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Rinse the green beans and drain in a colander.
2. Heat the wok over high heat. Add a small glug of vegetable oil and swirl around immediately.
3. Add the green beans and a big pinch of sea salt and stir for one minute.
4. Add 2-3 tablespoons water. Continue to stir fry until the beans almost entirely absorb the water (there should be a little bit at the bottom of the pan).
5. Add the garlic and give it a quick two or three stirs. Add the oyster sauce and give it another quick stir.
6. Immediately turn the whole thing out into a serving dish and eat with rice.

Macchiato and gelato (hazelnut and chestnut) in the background. Does the pattern confirm that the dude was flirting with me? Eh, probably not. Bianco Latte, Milan.

Yoghurt and Bacio. Bianco Latte, Milan.

Bomby. Pistachio and fiordilatte from Chocolat, Milan.

Gotta love a place that has SIX kinds of chocolate gelato. Chocolat, Milan.

I decided to swirl Nutella into one of my favorite flavors: creme fraiche. The trick to swirling in flavors into ice cream is to layer it in the container rather than adding the stir-in into the ice cream maker itself. It keeps the ice cream separated so it doesn’t just turn the whole ice cream chocolatey. (Not that I mind that so much.)

I noticed that the texture of Nutella varies from country to country. Here it’s not very syrupy, so I would suggest adding just a bit of water at a time until you get a texture a wee bit thicker than chocolate sauce. I noticed that the Nutella became pretty firm in the freezer when I added too much in a single spot.

The tangy creme fraiche cuts through the sweetness of the Nutella. I could. Not. Stop. Eating. Straight from the ice cream maker. I’d say that would be a make again recipe, wouldn’t you?

Creme fraiche ice cream with Nutella
adapted from David Lebovitz
makes about 1 quart or 1 liter

Ingredients
1 cup (230 ml) whole milk
5 large egg yolks
2/3 cup (130 g) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups (475 ml) creme fraiche
1 generous cup of Nutella

First, make the custard. Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until it’s steaming. Pour the milk over the egg yolks, whisking the whole time. Add the milk/egg mixture back to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. When the mixture thickens (at around 190 F) and coats the back of the spatula, pour the mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Chill the mixture in the fridge for a few hours until cold.
When ready to freeze in the ice cream maker, stir in the creme fraiche. Chill in the ice cream maker as directed and the ice cream is thickened.
Meanwhile, stir the Nutella (adding a little bit of water) until it can pour in a ribbon from a spoon. It’ll seize up when you first add the water, but don’t worry, just keep stirring and it’ll come back together.
Add a layer of Nutella to the bottom of the container you will be placing the ice cream in.
When the ice cream is done freezing, add a layer of ice cream over the Nutella, then a layer of Nutella, then ice cream.
Freeze for at least 2 hours.

Links:
World Nutella Day
Ms. Adventures in Italy
Bleeding Espresso

So my first post of the year is for this month’s Kulinarya Cooking Club challenge: your favorite birthday food.

Since my birthday is in the summer, I would probably narrow it to barbecue skewers. But this is January, so I’m not going to be standing out in front of the grill in my winter coat (although I have been known to do that in the past). That said, I would have to go for one of my favorite desserts: leche flan. This is total pinoy party food because:

a) It’s super rich. The only way it would ever become richer is if you figured out a way to add pork. (Which I don’t think I would recommend, even though I am in fact, Filipina.)
b) It’s kind of a pain to make. It’s not difficult, but there are a couple of annoying steps. And you have to wait before eating it.

I used to make leche flan with a combination of whole eggs and egg yolks, but I prefer the super creamy texture that all egg yolks bring to the table. (You can see my older recipe here — I made a video with my daughter outlining the steps.)

Filipino leche flan contains condensed milk, which adds to the creamy texture. I heat the milk mixture first, although this is something I wasn’t taught, it’s a fairly important step. The trick to making a flan is tempering the eggs. When you add hot liquid to the egg yolks, the egg yolks acclimate to the hot temperature, thus preventing them from curdling when you put the flan in the oven. (I’m sorry to say I’ve tasted a fair share of rubbery homemade flans, and this has to do with the eggs curdling, among other things.) Also important: make sure to bake it in a bain-marie (water bath).

I love the taste of citrus in flan, so I use orange zest. Lemon zest is also great, and adds a little bit of a fresh, light flavor. (You’ll like it if you’re a fan of lemon curd.) If you prefer a non-citrusy flavor, just replace the orange zest with one scraped vanilla bean.

Orange-scented leche flan
makes one 8-inch flan
I just use a baking dish, but a fluted brioche pan makes it look extra pretty. If I spotted a flan that was baked in a fluted mould, I’m sure it would whisk me back to being a 7-year-old at my grandma’s house, celebrating my summer birthday.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
10 large egg yolks
1 14-ounce (400 g) can of sweetened condensed milk
1-1/2 cups (350 ml) whole milk
zest from a small orange (or, if not using, 1 vanilla bean, scraped)
pinch salt
For the caramel:

1. Have your 8-inch baking dish next to the stove — you’ll need is as soon as the sugar is done.
2. Add the sugar to a small saucepan and pour the water over it. With the heat on low, swirl the pan around until the sugar has nearly dissolved. Be careful not to let it boil — if it starts getting too hot, remove it from the burner for a few seconds, continuing to swirl.
3. Once the sugar has mostly dissolved, raise the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover it immediately and leave on boil for 2 minutes.
4. Uncover and continue swirling the mixture until it becomes dark amber. (Be careful — you want it to be dark, but it can go from dark to burning in seconds.) Take it off the heat immediately, and pour the caramel into your baking dish. Swirl the caramel around the pan before it sets (you’ll have to do this really quickly.) Set the pan aside.

For the custard:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F (150 C). Have a kettle of boiling water ready to go for the water bath.
2. In a heavy, medium saucepan, combine the milk, condensed milk, orange zest and a pinch of salt. Bring to a low simmer, making sure it doesn’t come to a rolling boil.
3. Meanwhile, crack the egg yolks into a large bowl and whisk lightly.
4. Whisk in the warm milk mixture. Make sure to add the milk in a slow steady stream, whisking constantly, otherwise the eggs will curdle.
5. Pour the custard mixture over the caramel in the baking dish.
6. Set the baking dish in a roasting pan and place in the preheated oven. Pour boiling water in the roasting pan until halfway up the sides of the baking dish.
7. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the flan is still jiggly in the dish (you don’t want it to be totally firm, otherwise the edges will be curdled).
8. Let cool to room temperature, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
9. To unmould: Place the baking dish in a roasting pan filled with warm water, then loosen the edges of the custard. Turn the flan out onto a large plate. The caramel will pool around the custard.

I know it’s a bit late to be posting a recipe for Christmas ornaments, but I figured if everyone is like me, you have another week of Christmas tree. These are a great way to keep the kids busy during that time off (or at least it will kill an afternoon of boredom), and they can be used next year as well.

My kids and I made these ornaments last year, and they, incredibly, still have a strong cinnamon smell. The Christmas tree smells amazing. We stored them in a plastic container with all the other Christmas ornaments. Just make sure not to eat them!

Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments
adapted from Martha Stewart Living
makes a couple dozen cookie-shaped ornaments
We decorated these with a standard royal icing, which also hardens and keeps really well.

For ornaments:
1/2 cup applesauce (120ml)
1/4 cup glue (such as Elmers) (60ml)
1 cup ground cinnamon (about 100g)

For icing:
1 large egg white
1-1/3 cup powdered sugar (150g)

1. Mix all the ingredients together with a rubber spatula until it forms a dough.
2. Turn out on a flat surface.
3. Sprinkle a cutting board with a little bit of cinnamon, and roll 1/4 of the dough to 1/4-inch thickness.
4. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Make sure to poke a hole in the ornament with a straw to make a hole for hanging them.
5. Transfer the shapes to parchment paper. Dry in a 200 F (90 C) oven for 2 hours.
6. Whisk together the royal icing ingredients.
7. Decorate the ornaments with royal icing.