Monday, January 7, 2008

Durian Roll

durian roll


Filipinos believe that serving twelve rounded fruits during the New Year will bring you and your family good luck for the coming year. Well that's not always possible, either because of money constraints - fruit prices skyrockets during this time of year - or simply because of unavailability of the rounded fruits.

Durian is definitely not one of those fruits you'd served during New Year. Not only is it off season, it really smells and has spiky thorns - qualities you wouldn't want adapt for the rest of the coming year. But my father wanted some durian in the table and supply was not an issue so I doctored a Brazo de Mercedes recipe into a Durian Roll.

Ingredietns
1 c. cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
6 large eggs
1/4 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Procedure
Shift all dry ingredients in to bowl (use only 3/4 sugar), make a well in the center and dump in the liquid ingredients (water, eggyolks and flavoring) and mix well.

Make a meringue with the eggwhites, cream of tartar, and remaining sugar and fold it into the batter. Pour into a 12x16 pan lined with an oiled wax paper and bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until done.

durian roll


Generously dust a clean towel with sugar. Turn the cake out onto the towel, and peel off the wax paper. Gently roll up the cake using the towel, and let cool. Unroll the cake, spread an even coating of filling onto the top and roll the cake back up into a tight spiral, and remove the towel. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving. The filling I used was some durian jam mother made a while ago thinned with evaporated milk.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Puto Cheese

Puto Cheese


I played hooky one time in class and missed making Puto cheese, which was too bad since I really love these tiny white cakes. So once I got a copy of the recipe from a classmate I immediately set out to try it at home. I didn't have those tiny plastic mold though so I steamed mine in metal cupcakes mold and as I used very yellow margarine, it didn't turn out white either. Oh well, the taste was good and in the end that's what really matter.

Ingredients
1/2 c. butter or margarine
3/4 c. sugar
2 c. all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
4 pcs. eggwhites
1/2 of cubed cheese

Procedure
Cream butter then add half a cup of sugar gradually. Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk and set aside. Whip the eggwhites and remaining sugar until fluppy and fold into the first mixture. Spoon into the moulder, top with cheese and steam for 20 minutes or until done.

I added a pinch of cream of tartar to the eggwhites when I whipped them just because I find that it always gave them better stability. The first mixture will be very thick so fold in a little of the meringue first to thin it a little before folding in the rest. I was told that these baked beautifully too - which my classmates did with half of their batter - but I wouldn't know.


Puto Cheese

Honey Bran Muffin

honey bran muffin


These turned out better than I expected. My father seeked me out to say I'd better be not expecting some company because he finished off three of the dozen I made. I don't trust his taste buds that much but still this recipe will be printed and placed on my recipe box.

The recipe was from eHow, not from class and I only tried this because I had a lot of leftover wheat bran and I wanted it all used up already. In fact I started using wheat bran as dusting for when I make pizza - in lieu of cornmeal and it really makes one crispy pizza - but there was still a lot of it and I need the space in the ref.

honey bran muffin


honey bran muffin


I went easy on the nutmeg though, I used only about a pinch, since we (filipinos) are not really used to having spices on our cakes.