joicydoodle♥: Mint

Been awhile! :) my last few months in Manila is occupied by local travels, local cafe hopping, eats, concerts, spending time at home and with friends.... Or some migration errands.

As much as I wanted to update my blog often and feature recipes that are out of the box, competition par like those in Chefs-Talk and the flocks in Instagram, I just can't find the time. And so, I'm trying to make recipes that are easy to make and to replicate at home, let's be basic for now, after all, I will soon have the opportunity to create beautiful pastries again and share to all of you.

Soon, I will be off to a better adventure. I will be a different nomad than I already am. My goals in jumping off to this excursion are simple; to become a better pastry chef. To outgrow thy loser self, haha. To meet more experienced chefs. To gain experience as I wanted to become a food historian. To study again, and to earn more so I have the means to invest in future endeavors such as traveling, studying and much more.

Sydney could be a good start. Yes, you read it, a good 'start'...I have so many places to see, so many food to try, so much more to learn. Im excited yet scared. I guess this is the first time I'm officially sharing this, I will be working in Sydney for a year (to start) and then another one if opportunity strikes.Then I will figure where exactly to head next (Stockholm, Seoul or San Francisco are my tight choices, I love places that starts with 'S', yes!)

Nomad life isn't easy for me, if you have some advice how to un-clutter my mess, please be kind to email me. Haha. I started packing already and packed four boxes of my stuff, I'm re-sorting, throwing away trinkets, til I get just one final, can't live without, box.

I suddenly don't know how to pack light my shit

While sorting my things, I wanted to also make a recipe that I can run easily in a busy day, I realized how inevitable Chocolate cake is. I think all pastry chefs, home bakers, and house wives should have a decent Chocolate cake recipe that we can flex, tweak, and pair with frostings of our hype. And so I created this recipe, I will be honest with all of you, I use chocolate cake premix a lot of time, something I mastered at work for its convenience and low cost. But what if there's no premix ever, this will be one of my Chocolate cake base. One of, yes, many more in the future! (I will share soon my Melt In The Mouth Childhood Chocolate Cake) but for now, let me share this Chocolate Velvet Cake with Peppermint Ganache .

Peppermint Ganache

All Purpose Cream 180ml

Dark Chocolate 500g

Drops of Peppermint Essence (to taste)

Chocolate Velvet Cake

All Purpose Flour 3 c

Cocoa 6 Tbsp (90 ml)

Baking soda 3t

Fresh Milk 1 1/2c

Sugar 21/4c

Vegetable oil 2 1/4c

Eggs 3 pcs

The ingredients are grouped into 3; dry ingredients, oil & sugar, and the liquid ingredients of egg and fresh milk.

Whisk together vegetable oil and sugar until the granules are

smaller. Add the eggs one at a time and continue whisking til mixture is uniformed.

Add in the sifted dry ingredients in about two-three batches, mixing the batter until just combined but uniformed.

The mixture has to be a smooth, lump-free and fully combined batter.

Pour into a 10" diameter x 2" height pan, covering til 3/4's full.

Pop in a preheated oven of 375 F and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake is done.

Rest and cool down the cake before unmolding from the pan... while cooling down, you can prepare the Peppermint Ganache.

Once fully cooled down, slice the Chocolate Velvet sponge into three layers, filling each layer with Peppermint Ganache

To make the Peppermint Ganache, scald cream over low heat, add in chopped dark chocolate off the heat and mix until all the chocolate has completely melted. Add the drops of Peppermint essence, and transfer into another bowl to cool down faster, chill and mix occasionally until thick but spreadable.

Mask the cake with more Peppermint Ganache and decorate with piped rosettes

Sprinkle with red, white and green dragees for the complete Peppermint feel

Chill before serving, best with strong black brewed coffee on ice!

I gave this cake to my dear friend Vincent, Polar Beer for his past birth day, and decided to use the occasion to share this recipe.

The versatility of this recipe is endless, this Mothers' Day sunday, why don't you spice up the Ganache with chili? Or spiked it with Bailey's? You can also mask the basic Ganache and Chocolate Velvet Cake in toasted desiccated coconut or chopped Iranian pistachio nuts. It will be a sweet mom and daughter/son bonding. Or why don't you bake and dedicate it to your mom, I just did.

It's not really her presence that made me who I am now, but her absence. And though she isn't there for more than half of my life already..I'm always trying to be right so that she won't get upset, eh sakit kaya mangurot.

I got this mommmey, keep chillin', kisses to the heavens! <3

Always,

An advocate of home baking: this week I tried combining the idea of Cappuccino bars from my childhood baking class with Chef Jill Sandique, and I'm very lucky that despite the hot weather, my experiment yielded a good hybrid.. This is my "Cappuccino, Peppermint & Pretzels"

I baked the cheesecake one night ahead and let it set in the chiller over night. While I was unstacking my pantry of old ingredients and culinary tools, I found this old, little rusty, manual hand mixer. I go like "look how cool my mom is"

Mommeh, you so cool! My mom got some vintage baking toys that she passed on me, like this one.

Going back to my featured recipe this week, this is a jackpot of a beginner's luck or just got lucky today kind of recipe ... few of the recipes that I post are untested prior to featuring, meaning I bake them first time and then if it works, I post it. Most are old tested ones though, especially when I tagged it as my "favorite in the world" or "childhood favorite". Honestly, I have enough in my draft that is unpublished because it's a total failure/bad idea/ really bad idea. HAHA.

On baking Cheesecakes however, I'm betting my whole salary for the month, that one could never go wrong and most likely to succeed, win the heart of your crush, unless you try to save on money and use low quality ingredients. Cheesecakes is one of the reasons I could never get abs, or one of the primary reason I'm bloated this very moment, but as they say cherish every minute, this is my celebration!

Cheesecake Diary essentials; Oreo cookies or Graham crackers, Australian Creamcheese, White Chocolate, and fresh Eggs

This is my very first mixer; My sister bought this for me as a gift when I just started in cooking school. It came with a box and standing detachable body and plastic bowl that rotates on its own. I was so happy and teary! This is not even Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer, but the thoughts just hit me well, that one day, my resourcefulness will pay off. I still have it and I used it now for I'm little lazy to manually whip my components

I started baking (and going to baking class) at 14, before that, my curious inner Julia Child is (til now) very experimental. I'm always creating crap out of jams, cheddar cheese and saltine crackers and I thought, honestly, even if this costs my credibility, that is how you make Blueberry Cheesecake and it was a funny disaster.. that afternoon my sister just gave up on me and said "Okay, since you are really persistent with these experiments of yours, you're going to baking class, but you make me what you learn in class" -Maaan, that's how I started! That was October 14, 2006

Now, a real Cheesecake recipe on my cue...

I used a 10" x 10" x 2" square cake mold for this recipe. I'm not a fan of spring form pans though my good friend Phillip Ching gave me one for my 18th, because the water could get in.

Basic crust; combine crushed Oreo cookies and melted , unsalted butter. Then press it against the prepared mold and set aside in the chiller.

Whip creamcheese and sugar together until light and fluffy

At the same time, melt chocolate over hot water bath and dissolve coffee in hot water


Then add eggs at a time, notice that the batter will loosen and become smoother

Slowly pour in the coffee and continue whipping, then fold in melted white chocolate

Whip until the mixture is smooth, I prefer it a little airy.

Pour in the batter into the prepared Oreo crust and bake over warm water bath at 160C for 25 mins

For walking the tray into and out of the oven;Pour the hot water just about halfway or quarter of the mold, you can refill if it dries out than pouring a lot more and spill on your hands

The bottom will be a little jiggly but firm. Then cool down a bit and chill overnight

The next morning, I unmolded the baked Cappuccino cheesecake and continued my components


already good on its own


The morning that came after...

I used a plastic chocolate mold for this Praline. Drizzle tempered and colored chocolate in the mold for a rustic two toned effect. I used color green and a darker shade of mint green.

Spoon tempered white chocolate and tap facing down to take off excess. Set aside the shells and dry at 22 C room temperature or in the chiller


A rustic, two toned Green on White effect.

Add crushed Pretzel in the Ganache and chill to thicken the consistency

Pipe the Pretzel Ganache in the prepared shells and fill up each cavity to 3/4's full

Seal the Pralines with remaning tempered white chocolate and hardened and dry fully before unmolding

Melty Mint & Pretzel Pralines

Liquid filling; the consistency loosens when exposed at warmer temperature upon serving

Baked Cappuccino Cheesecake

400g Creamcheese

95 g Sugar

2 pcs Eggs

135g White Chocolate

4 tsp Instant Coffee diluted in 2 Tbsp Hot water

240g crushed Oreo

90g butter

Let this be a mother Ganache base and divide into three for this recipe's other components; Scald milk and melt chocolate, let it set until thickened in the chiller. Divide the Ganache as per recipe

Chocolate Ganache

2 cups Dark Chocolate

160 ml Fresh Milk

Mint & Pretzel Praline

100g Tempered White Chocolate (28 C)

1/2 c Dark Chocolate Ganache

1/4 tsp Peppermint Oil

Black & White

Combine Ganache and Mint oil together, then add in Heavy cream, whip until stiff peaks and chill

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mousse

1/2 c Ganache

1/4 tsp Peppermint Oil

300g Heavy Cream

Pretzel Ganache
1 c Ganache
1/4 c Pretzels, crushed

Spread Pretzel Ganache on top of Baked Cappuccino Cheesecake

Pipe Mint Chocolate Mousse on top of Pretzel Ganache layer

Even and spread Mint Chocolate Mousse until all is covered

Then using the tip of offset spatula, make random swirls for an edgy effect

Top with Chococlate decors and Melty Mint & Pretzels Praline. Finish with more Chocolate Ganache with tadpole effect

Trim the sides with a clean, warm Chef's Knife, better cut it when very set or frozen.

One of the challenges in home baking is the warmer temperature at compact, home kitchens and the chiller that is not as cold and spacious as the industrial, restaurant ones. What you do is to be very patient while making your components and wait for them to set. Move quickly to avoid your cake and chocolate from melting, and plan your baking as we have many components in this recipe.