baking with a day job can be challenging - 2011 has been a hectic year in the financial markets and even the month of december is uncharacteristically busy. then i need to catch up with the baking orders when luck has not been on my side - sometimes i would run out of simple ingredients like almond powder while other times the freaking batter just wouldn’t rise right. one night, my mixer even broke down in the eleventh hour, so i had to hand-whip meringue and cream – i swear my biceps became 0.5cm bigger in radius. it’s been so exhausting that i even fell asleep on a date (in my defense, that leather chair at the theatre house was bloody comfortable!)
my bible - pierre herme's ph10
something i've been doing repeatedly - brush tart with strained beaten eggs then poke holes at the bottom - actually it is best to brush with cacao butter, but does not balance my book
bake at 160C for about 16min till golden brown - it shouldn't shrink too much if rested long enough
roast almond/hazelnut at 160C for 15min
caramel - boil 1 part of sugar with 1/3 water. add some glucose when boils. cook until dark amber color. stop the cooking with 1/2 part of warm heavy cream. add a slice of butter for better texture
pour in caramel to the blind-baked tart till half full. add nuts. freeze till set
add chocolate ganache (1:1 dark chocolate to heavy cream, and a little butter for texture). garnish
creme patissiere - trick is to slowly add sugar while mixing the egg yolk to produce a light yellow emulsion
it’s physically demanding but also a lot of fun. now, all i want for christmas is… a good night’s sleep :-O
