Standard mille feuille

The mille feuille literally means thousand leaves. It is also known as a custard slice and the Napoleon. It is made with three puff (rough puff or full puff) pastry pieces, each piece separated by a layer of vanilla flavoured custard cream or mousseline. I have previously covered the recipe for a full puff pastry here. 

Ingredients (for 5-6 mille feuilles) 

• Puff pastry (shop bought or homemade)
• 150ml milk
• 20g caster sugar + extra full pastry caramelisation 
• 2 egg yolks
• 10g corn flour
• 2 tsps vanilla essence

1. Cut the pastry into desired size at about 3-4mm thick and put back in the fridge(N.B. you need 3 slices for each piece of mille feuille)
2. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C 
3. Sprinkle some caster sugar on the pastry
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the surface is crisp and golden brown, take it out of oven to cool down
5. Beat egg yolks with sugar, vanilla essence and corn flour 
6. Heat milk in a saucepan until it starts to boil
7. Pour milk gradually into egg mixture whilst whisking it the entire time
8. Pour the whole mixture back into saucepan over medium heat and whisk the entire time until it thickens
9. Take mousseline off the heat and let it cool 
10. Pipe mousseline between the pastry layers 

This goes very well with berry sauces, to make the sauces, simply blend 120-150g berries and add desired amount of sugar (start with 5g and increase if necessary) and 2g corn flour. Put puree over moderate heat until it starts to boil and take it off the heat to cool down. Pour over mille feuille to finish. 

Coffee and walnut cake

It has been a while since I last blogged about a recipe. I made this cake on Sunday for a friend's birthday at her request. Personally, I'm not a big fan of coffee, so have never attempted a coffee flavoured cake until now. But here it is! 

Ingrdients

• 150g self raising flour
• 120g+50g caster sugar in separate containers
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 80g unsalted butter
• 5 tsps instant coffee granules
• 4 tbsps boiling water
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract 
• 40g finely chopped walnut+extra for decoration
• 350ml double cream
• 2 tbsps icing sugar 

1. Dissolve coffee with boiling water and set aside to cool
2. Heat butter until melted and set aside to cool for 30-40 minutes
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 23cm round cake tin
4. Mix flour, chopped walnut and 120g sugar
5. Add melted butter, egg yolks and 2 tbsps of coffee essence to flour and sugar and mix until it is a dropping consistency (you may need to add 10-20ml of water at this stage)
6. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with electric whisk and add remaining sugar a little at a time until the egg white has formed soft peaks
7. Mix in 1/4 of egg whites  and fold in the rest into the cake mix
8. Pour cake mix into tin and bake for 55-65 minutes
9. Test with a clean skewer and it should come out clean
10. Let cake cool slightly in tin for 5 minutes and take it out to cool
11. Whip double cream until thick and add in remaining coffee essence to the cream along with icing sugar, if it is not sweet enough, add another tsp of icing sugar
12. Slice cake horizontally into two and fill with 1/3 of coffee cream
13. Spread remaining coffee cream over the rest of the cake and decorate with walnut and chocolate as desired. 

The Liebster award...what is this you ask?

For those of you who don't know what a Liebster award is, it is an award for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers and is generally an honour we bloggers share with other friendly fellow bloggers. Apparently, Liebster means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved and welcome in german. I didn't know about this either before I was nominated and looked up what this award is about! 

For those who aren't frequent browsers of my blog, I am a PhD student in the field of tumour research and I bringing my beloved calculations and precise measurements into baking as well! I have a bunch of lovely friends and colleagues who enjoy tasting my bakes and keep me inspired with ideas. If you are a keen baker and would like to get in touch with your inner geek, I would recommend this book to you. Science of Bakery Products by William P Edwards. 

Now, moving on to the serious stuff. To follow the tradition and rule of the Liebster award, I have answered the questions set by my nominee, the lovely and talented Lucy scott. http://www.lucyscottbakesalot.blogspot.co.uk

• What is your favourite baking "discipline" and why

I love making tarts, you can make them look absolutely spectacular with decorations of sparkling fruits and the combination is limitless. It is versatile, whether you decide to have a warm or cold filling, sober or alcoholic. Also, I tend to use less flour and sugar in a tart, so it's a "healthier" alternative to cakes!

• and your least favourite ?

Biscuits, by far, I just find them so delicate and a pain to make! It's so hard to get the right consistency! Many would argue, but let's just say I'm not gifted in the field of biscuits is an understatement to not gifted. 

• Do you watch The Great British Bake Off .. who is your favourite EVER contestant and why?

Oh, the amazing Great British Bake Off! Who knew a baking program can be so jam packed with drama! My favourite contestant EVER was Holly Bell from series 2. Holly was so persistent in perfecting everything and she has clearly practised a lot for all the things she has made and it is so inspiring! I can relate to her in the sense that I believe practice makes perfect! 

• What made you decide to take up blogging, what keeps you carrying on?

It started off as a way to keep a copy of tried recipes and to share personal experiences, tricks and advice with others who may want to make the same thing. But eventually, I wanted to infuse a bit of science into it too to interest others in science through our shared passion in baking! It's lovely and nice to see an encouraging comment every now and then about my recipes and also the fact some people have actually read my blog to help them with their own baking. 

• When you are not whipping up a storm in the kitchen what else ticks your boxes to pass the time? 

When I'm not in the kitchen??? That's hard to imagine! Hunting for good bakeries, go see the odd musicals and plays and I'm also keen on writing. 

• What has been your biggest baking success .... ?

The first time I managed a successful chocolate chestnut flavoured chiffon cake! You have no idea how hard it was to get the chestnut flavour to shine with the chocolate! But they really do harmonise each other once you get the balance right! (a little bit of dark rum in the chestnut cream helped a lot!)

•  And disaster .. 

Where do I begin?! The genoise sponge is my arch nemesis! Sometimes it turns out great, sometimes it doesn't, but I can never quite seem to get the hang of it! Frustrating little thing!

• From which country do you get your biggest baking inspiration, for example rustic italian breads or the good old British Victoria sponge? 

A lot of people would think France, but I'm actually quite big on the Japanese culture. They are not known for their breads, but their combination of flavours for cakes and other desserts are fantastic! Taste, appearance, texture are impeccable. 

• Who inspired you to take up baking?

I'm what you would call self inspired. No one really baked very much around me, it was the fact I love eating sweets and baked goods that got me baking at the start and what is keeping me baking now!

• What is the best cake / bake you have eaten and still dream about .. ? 

There was this amazing cotton chocolate cheesecake I tasted in China, but I have never been able to find it again. The pastry chef has apparently moved on. It was so light and fluffy and so rich in flavour. The texture was that of a angel cake, but the flavour was chocolate and slightly cheesy! I really miss it!

I would like to nominate:

1. Jen at Blue kitchen bakes, I came across Jen the first time when she encouraged me to make breads, which I was rubbish at. She also hosts a monthly classic french challenge, which is a great way to know how other people put their own spin in classic recipes. 
2. Lauren at A baked thesis, Lauren is talented and extremely encouraging and comes up with many original recipes. Not only that, she was baking her way through her PhD, which is what I'm also doing at the moment. 
3. Ryan at Baked with Kindness, Ryan is truly passionate about baking, often infusing new flavours and his own spin in classic recipes. He also keeps us updated on many news in the food world, from new recipes, books and even mobile apps!
4. Zoe at Bake for happy kids, the name says it all, it's so sweet! 

Here are my questions for all of you who got nominated:

1. What is the best bakery/patisserie (in your opinion) you've been to?
2. What is your favourite bake and why?
3. Who is the favourite person in the world you like to share your bake with?
4. What distracts you the most (e.g. TV? Books? The person in the corner wearing a dinosaur costume?)
5. If you can live anywhere, where would that be?
6. If I say "bazinga", what would you think of?
7. Have you ever helped out with a cake sale for charity? If you have, what was the most selling good?
8. Would you go to the gym just so you can pig out on all the food you enjoy?
9. Who inspired you the most in  your life and why?
10. If you had a dog and a cat, they both fell into the water, which would you save first?