Apricot Jam - Preserve Summer into Autumn

Summer has gone, though we hardly had the real Summer this year. It was the wettest Summer we had in years.

I love to preserve fruits that are in season into jams. Not only buying things in season are more sensible and economical, I can prolong the fruits of each season into the next. I can linger on Summer in Autumn.

Coming from an Asian background, Thailand where foods are abundant and cheap. We don’t make things ourselves when it is so cheap to buy and eat out. So, the idea of making jam was foreign to me. I suppose it is the same with anything else, when you don’t know how to make it, you seem to be excited to learn that it is actually can be done.. at home!

I remembered the first time I had great homemade jam (or B&B-made, shall I say). We went away to Healsville and stayed at Mt Rael Resort and had fabulous homemade raspberry jam for breakfast. It was sort of moment that changed my attitude, no supermarket jam will be good enough anymore. However, the good artisan jam can be quite expensive (which I don’t really understand why good food are usually not reasonably priced? Why we need pay a big premium for better than average food?), and a lot of the time, those jam are not that great either!

That got me started making my own jam.  I wanted to relive that great jam moment. I wanted to find the tastiest jam. And I think I did, the homemade jam tastes fabulous. It tastes real fruit with real flavour, not just a jar of sugary jel. 

The other good thing of making your own jam is that you can control the amount of sugar, the texture, and the flavour. I never use pectin in my jam. Sure, the jam won’t solidly set, but it will be set enough and I like my jam to be easily spreadable. Moreover, fruits, lemon and sugar have their own natural setting agent, why use other substances when it is not necessary. I usually reduced the amounth of sugar by 40% of general recipe (1 part fruit:0.60 part sugar).

Apricot jam is one of my favourite. Personally, I think tart fruits made good jam. Good jam needs a balance of flavour, something to cut through the sweetness. Tartness of acidic fruits or bitterness of citrus zest work well as a result. I have tried making many jams, tangelo, nectarine, strawberry, apricot, raspberry and fig. My top three picks are raspberry, apricot and tangelo.

Apricot jam is also perfect to use as glaze for pastries and bread. It gives more flavour to the bread or buns. I made the Hot Cross Bun using apricot glaze and they were delish.

Apricot Jam recipe
Make about 4 medium-sized jars (300 ml)

Ingredients
1 kg fresh apricot, stoned, cut in quarters (reserved 4-5 stones)
4-5 apricot stones (seeds)
600 g sugar
Juice of one lemon

Method 
Place apricot and sugar in a large heavy-based pot. Cover the pot and leave at room temperature for few hours. Alternatively, you can leave this overnight in the fridge.

The fruits and sugar will interact and release the juice. This will help shortening the cooking time.

Using hammers breaking apricot seeds to get the apricot kernels (the kernels resemble almond kernel). Chop the apricot kernels finely and set aside. The seeds will help with the jam-setting.

Mix lemon juice and chopped apricot kernels in the apricot-sugar mixture. Bring the mixture to the boil over medium-high heat.

Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil for further 20 – 30 minutes until the jam is set. Stir the mixture occasionally to prevent it sticks.

Note: One way to test if the jam is set: Chill a saucer in a freezer, place a teaspoon of jam onto a cold saucer. Run the finger through the jam, the line where you run the finger through should stay separated if the jam is set.

Pour warm jam into warm sterilised jars and seal. Unopened jars of jam can be kept in the dark cupboard for up to three months. I usually keep mine in the fridge and they stay good for at least 6 months.

To sterilise jars: Wash jars and lids in a warm soapy water. Soak them in a pot filled with boiling hot water. Drain the jars and lid and dry them in a low heat oven (below 50C) until the jars and lids are thoroughly dry.

Perfect on toat, perfect for breakfast...at home!

Traditional Hot Cross Buns - Easter is almost here = Long weekend is not far away

Easter is just around the corner. It is the longest weekend in the year and we even have longer weekend this year in Australia, with Easter falls on the Anzac Day, we end up with five-day long weekend. I am so looking forwards to our short-break and getaway :)

One of Easter food symbol is Hot Cross Bun, which I believe originated from England. I love Hot Cross Buns, or spice fruit bread in general. I can eat them all-year round, Easter or not. Do you know that back in Elizabeth I day, Hot Cross Bun was only allowed to be sold at Easter and Christmas (source: Wikipedia)? How sad was it? Well, nowadays, shops stock them year-round.

I thought that my Hot Cross buns wouldn’t have eventuated. My convection oven was not working properly (it wasn’t heating up beyond 70c). It felt like my world was falling apart. Without the convection oven, I am not sure how the macarons are going to copeL

The thing was I didn’t know that the oven didn’t heat up until I was about to put the bread in. I did my usual thing; spraying the oven wall before loading the breads and saw no steam, water drops just stay on the oven wall. My inner persistent self pushed me to load the buns in anyway (I still don’t understand why I listened to that inner stubborn me). As I would have guessed, the bun showed no signs of activity…they just sit still. Thank to my obsession with baking, I usually sit and watch how the baked-goods develops in the oven. I am really hopeless like that. I would just sit in front of the oven, sit and stare at them on every angles. So, I could feel that something wasn’t right and pulled the buns out of the oven after few (or five) minutes, and retarded them in the fridge while sorting out my oven issues.

Well, my oven doesn’t have a conventional oven option. I baked the buns the next day, using combination of grill and fan-assisted grill, with some improvisation (I was actually hoping that the oven would be okay the next day as well, but it wasn’t). See, grilling bread would make bread brown before it is cooked. So, here goes improvisation…bake without foil for 5 minutes, then cover the tray with foil for 5 mins, then turn the tray upside-down and bake for another 10 minutes. These poor buns have been through a lot of trauma. It was a pleasant surprise that the buns turned out edible.

In fact, they tasted lovely. The spices’ aroma was great when the bun were being baked. I also love mixed peels in the bun. It added extra bitterness and citrusy note to balance the flavour. The crumbs showed some signs of trauma from multiple actions of warm bake, retardation, and confused baking modes, but they were lovely nonetheless.

However,  I will have to redeem myself baking these buns again with a proper dough handling and baking mode (actually they're excuses, I love these buns and will make them again before Easter).

I adapted the recipe from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Traditional Hot Cross Bun recipe from Bread: a baker’s book of techniques and recipes. I changed the recipe somewhat by including sourdough starter (about 15% of total weight), replace 10% of bread flour with whole wheat flour, replace currants with raisins, and using mixed peel instead of chopped citrus zest. I also changed the crossing paste slightly and use my homemade apricot jam mixed with water as glaze. This is a great recipe producing great tasting buns.

Traditional Hot Cross Buns Recipe

Adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: a baker’s book of techniques and recipes

Makes 12 buns

Ingredients	Overall Formula	Baker’s Percentage
Bread Flour	337 g	89%
Whole Wheat Flour	40 g	11%
Milk	120 g	32%
Water	70 g	19%
Butter	57 g	15%
Sugar	66 g	18%
Spice	3 g	1%
Salt	3 g	1%
Egg	60 g	16%
Mixed peel	37 g	10%
Sultana	114 g	30%
Yeast	7 g	2%
Total Weight	914 g	244%

Sponge

Bread flour 37 g

Milk 120 g

Sugar 9 g

Yeast 7 g, instant dry (2 ¼ tsp)

Final dough

Mature sourdough starter 140 g (at 100% hydration, water:flour, 1:1)

Bread flour 230 g
Whole wheat flour 40 g

Butter, soft 57 g

Egg 1 egg

Sugar 57 g

Salt 3 g (1/2 teaspoon)

All spice, ground 3 g (1/2 tablespoon)

Sponge 173 g

Sultana or raisins 114 g

Mixed peel 37 g

Crossing paste

All-purpose flour 65 g

Milk 65 g

Butter, melted 10 g

Sugar 35 g

Vanilla 1 teaspoon

Lemon zest, grated ½ lemon

Glaze

Apricot jam 2 tablespoons

Water 2 tablespoons

Method

Sponge: Mix yeast into the milk, add flour and sugar and mix until thoroughly incorporated and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap or plastic bag and leave at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. The sponge will grow about 3-4 times of its original height. 

Mixing: Mix soft butter and  bread & whole wheat flours together until roughly combined. Add eggs, sugar, salt and all spices and mix them altogether. Then, add the sponge and starter and mix until the dough ball is formed.

Knead until medium gluten development is achieved (that the dough can be gently stretched into a thin sheet without tearing). It would take approximately 6 minutes on second speed if using mixer.

Add the currants and mixed peels and mix until these are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Bulk fermentation: 1 hour – 1.5 hour, with a light fold after 30 minutes.

Dividing and shaping: Divide the dough into 75-g pieces. Shape the pieces into rolls and place them inside baking tin. The dough should line in an even configuration. Leave spaces between each buns as the buns will expand during proofing and baking. Cover the tin of buns with a plastic bag to prevent surface drying out.

Final fermentation: About 1 hours.

Crossing paste: Make the crossing paste while the buns proof. Mix melted butter with sugar. Add milk, vanilla, grated lemon zest and flour. Mix until it is well combined and become a smooth paste. Fit a piping bag with a 0.5-cm round tip. Pipe crosses on to the proof buns, starting from left to right for each row, and turn the tin 90 degree to continue with other direction for the cross.

Glaze: Mix apricot jam and water together and strain to a bowl. Alternatively, you can also use simple sugar syrup as a glaze (mixing one part water and one part sugar in a saucepan, and boil  and simmer for 5 minutes)

Baking: Bake the buns at 220c for 14 to 16 minutes. Brush hot bun with the glaze.

Submitting this post to YeastSpotting.

Apple Sourdough Bread - the scent of apples, the sign (or sigh) of autumn

This is the first time I used recipe from Dan Lepard’s, arguably the most successful baker in UK.  The recipe comes from his book: Exceptional Bread. It is also first time I bought bread making book originated in UK. Generally, most recipes are similar, only ingredients are called differently.

Flipping through the book, I came across Apple Bread ,using Bramble apple, which I had no idea what it was but the recipe suggested Granny Smith as an alternative. We had a big bag of apples from S’ dad, which I believe they were Granny Smith. They were home-grown in his house at Drysdale in country Victoria. I actually had the apples for quite sometimes but didn’t get the chance to make anything with it.

The recipe had no baker’s percentage. It has become my habit that I have to calculate the baker’s percentage to get a better feeling of the recipe. Personally, I feel like I am flying blind without the Baker’s Percentage.

And I was glad I did put the recipe into Baker’s Percentage. Dan Lepard’s recipe only has 45% hydration (with water and apple juice). The recipe also contains 10% of yogurt. If counting yogurt as hydration (which was not really the case, as yogurt might only contain 50% liquid and 50% fat and other substances), the total hydration is still extremely low at 55%. The recipe also contains 35% of combined rye and whole wheat flour. With rye and whole wheat’s water-absorbing capabilities, the effective hydration could be just 50%. It was a very very stiff dough to work with. I intentionally, didn’t adjust the water to start with as I wished to try Lepard’s recipe right on and adjusted the water as I went along. Turned out I had to add 10% more water. Even so, the dough was still relatively stiff. It made me wonder what were the reasons behind such a low hydration dough, was it because of 30% of apple in the final dough, or was it simply a typo?

Lepard’s recipe uses a mixed flour starter that was cultivated and fed with apple juice and yogurt. I am still quite new to bread making but I haven’t come across sourdough culture with apple juice and yogurt before. I had to convert the recipe into my usual starter fed with water and included the apple and yogurt into the final dough. I, though, wonder what flavour Dan Lepard’s sourdough culture would produce, and I’ll have to try using the starter with apple juice and yogurt in the future.

As Dan Lepard suggested that this was heavy dough. It was indeed heavy as it contains 30% of apple chunks inside. I believe this, somewhat, inhibited the bread rising. The crumb was somewhat tight, which could be the result of high percentage of rye and whole wheat flour, low hydration and heavy dough. The bread also didn’t gain the volume much. Original recipe has commercial yeast as optional (1 sachet, which I had no idea how big was a sachet in UK. I am guessing that it’s same as Australia’s, 7 g or 1% in baker's percentage term), which I omitted as I retarded the dough for 8 hours in the fridge. I also wonder if including commercial yeast would have given the bread more volume and open crumb.

I had trouble with shaping and scoring the bread because of the wet, soggy and chunky apples in the dough. I was afraid that the bread would split during and/or after the bake. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the bread held its shape well.

I also increased Lepard’s recipe by 40% to make three large loaves as a way to try using up the apples, and gave one loaf to our neighbour. I love sharing home-made food with people. It is an absolute joy to see people enjoying your fruit of labour.

All in all, this was flavoursome bread. The aroma of apple and its juice was fantastic. The flavour was quite complex with mixed flour starter, three different flours in the dough, apple juice and yogurt. The chunks of apples were tart and sweet at the same time. It added moisture and fantastic flavour to the bread. The bread tastes better as it ages as well. I honestly didn’t think much of this bread on the first day. It was sort of nice, but nothing more. The second day it tasted better but by the third day, it was excellent. I totally enjoyed it.

Here is the recipe....

Apple Sourdough Bread
adapted from Dan Lepard's Exceptional Bread

make 3 large loaves

Note: the recipe includes the adjusted hydration

INGREDIENTS

	Overall Formula	Baker’s Percentage
Bread flour	765 g	65%
Rye flour	188 g	16%
Whole wheat flour	223 g	19%
Water	353 g	30%
Apple juice	177 g	15%
Salt	23 g	2%
Apples	353 g	30%
Yogurt	118 g	10%
Total	2.20 kg	187%

Sourdough Built

Rye flour 110 g

Bread flour 110 g
Water 220 g
Mature culture 90 g

Final Dough
Bread flour 655 g (I used flour with 12.5% protein)

Whole wheat flour 223 g
Rye flour 78 g

Water 133 g

Apple juice 177 g

Yogurt 118 g
Salt 23 g
Apples 353 g (granny smith or any dessert apples)

Sourdough starter 440 g (all less 90 g for future use)

METHOD

Prepare sourdough built:  Mix all ingredient together until well-combined about 12 – 14 hours before mixing the final dough. Leave it in a covered container at room temperature.

Mixing: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, except salt and apples.  Mix until the ingredients are incorporated. Leave it to autolyze in a bowl covered with plastic bag or wrap for 15 - 30 minutes. 

Preparing apples, peel and core the apples and cut them into quarters. Cut each quarters into 4-5 pieces.

Sprinkle salt over the dough surface and mix on the first speed for 3 minutes and continue mixing on second speed for further 3 – 4 minutes, until a strong gluten development is achieved (the dough can be stretched gently until you can see the transparent membrane and dough doesn’t tear).

Gently pat the dough into rectangle about 1-cm thick. Scatter the apple pieces over the dough surface. Wrap the dough to enclose apples.

Bulk fermentation: - Leave the dough in a lightly oiled container and cover the bowl with plastic bag or wrap for 2-2.5 hour until doubled in size.

 
Divide the doughs into three equal portions. Pre-shape the doughs into rounds  and let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes under a tea towel.

Shape the doughs into oblong (batard) or boule (round) and place into proofing baskets/bowls. Slip the proofing basket into a large plastic bag. Retard the dough in the fridge overnight or proof at room temperature for 2 hours or until almost double in size.

Baking: If retarding, take the dough out of the fridge and leave them at room temperature for 60-90 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature and prepare the oven steaming.

Lower temperature to 225C and bake for 40 - 50 minutes with steam.

Submitting this post to YeastSpotting.

Blueberry Cheesecake Macarons - two of the things I love in one bite

I love cheesecake or the cream cheese in particular. It used to be my dessert of choice. If I had to name my own poison, it was always the cheesecake on the top of my mind.

That was before I met the new love of my life, macaron. Don’t get me wrong, I still love cheesecake or cream cheese and its unique creamy and sour flavour combinations. Wouldn’t it be nice if I can combine my two greatest beloved food items into one? Cheesecake macarons sound like a fabulous idea, for me

Personally, I think cream cheese by itself is a little lacking, so a flavoured cheesecake macaron was in the agenda. When it comes to cheesecake, one flavour that comes to my mind is blueberry cheesecake. Blueberry cheesecake is (or was, I’m not sure given that I have left Thailand for over a decade now) a popular dessert in Thailand for both home-made and shop-bought. I suppose it is easy to make at home with limited equipment. It’s the kind of cheesecake that doesn’t require baking and most homes in Thailand don’t have ovens. And of course, it is popular because it tastes good.  

I recently bought a book called Flavour Thesaurus. It’s about flavour pairings. It’s an interesting book and makes me look at some of the ingredients differently and more creatively. What the book said about blueberry was that blueberry on its own was bland, sort of flavourless. However, when it paired with lemon, it created spectacular flavour. It is something never occurred to me before and it is so true. It also got me thinking that maybe this is why blueberry is so well-matched with cream cheese. It seems that blueberry needs acidity to help it shines.

I made the blueberry cream cheese filling as I would do with cheesecake filling, a mixture of whipped cream, cream cheese and blueberry jam (in this case a reduced blueberry cooked with sugar and lemon juice). To match the colour of blueberry, the shell needs to be purple, a challenging colour to mix for macaron shells. When I made the lavender macarons and wished to get pale purple colour, I ended up with blue (purple = red + blue). A word of caution, be easy with blue colouring, a little of it goes a long long way. It is a good idea to start with red colour first and gradually add small amount of blue at a time until you achieve the purple colour.

This flavour doesn’t disappoint. Almond meringue shell makes a perfect base for cheesecake filling. The moisture and tang of cheesecake filling works really well with the sweet macaron shell. It is one of my favourite macaron flavour, it’s no surprise there...it’s the two most-loved food items for me, cheesecake and macaron. Nothing can’t go wrong!

Here is the recipe….

Blueberry Cheesecake Macaron Recipe

Makes 25 3-cm macarons

More details on Basic Mararons using Italian Meringue techniques can be found here.

You can also see more detailed intructions on making macarons in my Basic Macaron Recipe and I heart Macarons blogs (however, they are recipes using French meringue method. Most of the processes are similar between Italian’s and French’s. The only difference is the handling of sugar and egg white).

Macarons shell ingredients
125 g pure icing sugar
125 g almond meal (almond flour or ground almond)
100 g egg whites (separated 24 -48 hours in advance and is at room temperature)
125 g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
30 ml water (2 tablespoons)
red and blue or purple colouring powder or liquid

Blueberry Cheesecake filling
100 g Blueberry, fresh or frozen is fine
100 g cream cheese
100 g thickened cream (minimum 35% fat content)
50 g caster sugar (super fine sugar)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 small sheet gelatine or half of big gelatine sheet
 
Making macarons shells
 

Sift almond meal and icing sugar together through fine sieve and set aside.

Divide egg whites into two equal portions (50 g each portion).  Put one egg white portion (50 g) into a bowl and mix in red and blue (or purple) colouring powder or liquid until you achieve the desired colour. Start with red colour first and gradually (seriously gradually) add blue colour into the mixture until you get an intense violet colour. The colour will be substantially diluted once it is mixed into the macaron batch.

Top: colour of the egg white. Bottom: how blue can really stick and stuck!

Pour the coloured egg white into the almond meal/icing sugar mixture.  Don’t mix or stir them, just leave it as is.

Put the water and caster sugar in a heavy-base saucepan over medium-high heat. When the syrup starts to boil. Place the rest of egg white (50 g) into a mixing bowl, using the whip attachment, whip egg white to the soft peak. When the syrup reaches 118°C (on a thermometer), take if off the heat and let it cool down to 115°C (or until the bubbles slightly subside).

While the mixer is still running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl. Be careful not to pour syrup onto the whip as it might spatter.

Continue mixing until the meringue cool down to slightly above body temperature (50°C) or when the side of the mixing bowl is just warm to touch. The whipped egg white will be (very) stiff and glossy.

Mix a third of whipped egg white into the almond meal mixture and combine them well. At this step, I work the mixture very vigorously to blend the egg white with almond meal mixture. Fold the rest of whipped egg white into the mixture and mix well, yet gently, until the batter is smooth. The batter will be thick. It resembles a very thick cake batter, or as many web sites describe it as a magma-like consistency (I believe it means the thick batter would flow slowly like a magma).

Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 1-cm plain tip (size #11). Pipe the staggering rows of 1-inch rounds onto baking trays lined with parchment papers or baking sheets. You will need two trays for this recipe.

Let the piped shells stand at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes to let the crust forms. This depends on the room temperature and humidity. When the piped shells are dry to touch without it sticking to your finger, they are good to go into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan-forced or convection oven, increase the temperature by 20°C if you’re using conventional oven) for at least 15 minutes. Just before baking, turn the temperature down to 150°C and bake the macarons for 15 minutes.

Lift the baking papers/sheets off the baking tray to the cooling rack and let it completely cool down before removing macarons (it is easier to remove cool macarons off the sheet. They are also less likely to stick to the paper).

Sandwich cool macaron shell with chilled blueberry cheesecake filling.

Store macarons in airtight container in the fridge. Macarons will taste better after they are chilled overnight as the filling flavour will blend in and shells will be less dry.

Soak the gelatine sheet in cold water (make sure that all part of the sheet is hydrated).

Making  Blueberry Cheesecake Filling

Put blueberry, sugar and lemon juice in a small heavy-base saucepan over medium heat. Bring it the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine sheet and dissolve it in the blueberry mixture. Set aside.

Using electric mixer, whip the thickened cream to a whipped cream texture. Set aside in a bowl and chill until ready to use.

 

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy (using medium high speed for about few minutes). Pour cool blueberry mixture into the cream cheese and mix until thoroughly combined. Fold in whipped cream and mix until well-incorporated.

Chill the filling about 30 minutes before using.



Two of my greatest love in one bite!

Submitting this post to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Rachel from The Crispy Cook.