taste-o-meter: 10/10

Oh my gosh! I think I havent touched my blog in ages, figuratively speaking. Literally, it is probably around 1.5 years. A lot happened in those 1.5 years. I got married, moved to another country, and started my PhD. I am not yet ready to resurrect my e-kitchen due to the non-existence of my physical kitchen. My housing does not include a real kitchen. We only have a shared kitchen with a one-burner induction cook top, teeny-tiny toaster oven, and microwave. I have no doubt that I can work with these minuscule range of appliances; the real deal breaker is that I left my camera at home. A recipe post sans picture just does not cut it. Well, just bear with me. Once I go home or hubby comes here, I’ll get my camera back.

In the mean time, I have dug my recipe files and found this gem! The recipe itself is superb! (thanks mbak camelia@home!). The problem that I had was that my steamer is small, therefore I cant use an appropriate size of cake pan. I ended up making two small lapis sagu, which translates to spending twice as much time hanging around my steamer. It wasnt too bad as I had a lot of companies for chit-chatting (uhm you mean gossiping?)

Below is the recipe in Indonesian, which I shamelessly copied from mbak Camelia

LAPIS SAGU PANDAN
by. Ny. Liem

Bahan I :

1 kg tepung tapioka kualitas baik
900 gr gula pasir
2 sdm tepung ketan
4 sdt garam
1 sdt vanilli bubuk

Bahan II :

1500 ml santan kental dari 1 1/2 butir kelapa
800 ml santan encer

Bahan III :

75 ml air daun pandan dan suji (aku pake 1 sdm pasta pandan Toffieco)
50 gr coklat bubuk, larutkan dengan 75 ml air panas

Cara membuat :

• Bahan I : Campur tepung tapioka, gula pasir, tepung ketan, garam dan vanilli bubuk menjadi satu. Tuang bahan II sedikit demi sedikit sambil diaduk hingga menjadi adonan yang licin dan tidak berbutir.
• Bagi adonan menjadi 2 bagian, masing-masing diberi air daun pandan dan satu lagi diberi larutan coklat.
• Olesi loyang ukuran 26 X 26 X T 6 cm yang telah diolesi dengan sedikit minyak hingga rata. Panaskan di dalam panci pengukus hingga agak panas.
• Tuang 125 ml adonan ke dalam loyang (aku pake sendok sayur besar aja), kukus selama 5 menit hingga adonan matang. Lakukan hal yang sama secara berselang-seling hingga adonan habis. Kukus kembali selama 10 menit. Angkat dan dinginkan (tunggu hingga benar-benar dingin ya, masukin kulkas kalo perlu)
• Potong-potong, sajikan.

From: Cook’s Library – Baking, 2003, pg: 35

I basically followed the posted recipe, except changing the filling as below:
Spinach fillings (inspired by Mbak Rieke @ sexychef)
4-6 shallots, sliced
1-2 garlic, sliced
spinach (amount to your liking)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of milk
cheddar cheese, grated (amount to your liking)
sugar and pepper to taste

methods: Stir fry onions until they turn translucent. Add in the spinach. Turn off heat and grate cheese over the spinach mixture. Let it cool. In another bowl, combine two eggs with a cup of milk. Transfer the egg mixture onto the spinach mixture just before you pour it onto your pie; it is the intention that the eggs are still raw at this point.

These pretty lattice pies are equally delicious served hot or cold. They make a good picnic food served with salad.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter, for greasing
250 g fresh ready-made puff pastry
50 g ham, chopped finely
125 g full-fat soft cheese
2 Tbsp snipped fresh chives
1 egg, beaten
35 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
Pepper

Methods:
Grease 2 baking trays with the butter
Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured work surface and cut out 12 rectangles, each measuring 15 x 5 cm/6 x 2 inches. Place the rectangles on the prepared baking trays and leave to chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the ham, soft cheese and chives together in a small bowl. Season with pepper to taste, then spread the mixture along the centre of 6 of the rectangles, leaving 2.5 cm/1 inch border around each one.
To make lattice pattern, fold the remaining rectangles lengthways, then, leaving a 2.5 cm/1 inch border, cut vertical lines across the folded edge.
Unfold the latticed rectangles and place them over the rectangles topped with the ham and cheese mixture. Seal the pastry edges well and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in preheated oven, 180oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4, for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Cook’s tip:
These pies can be made in advance, then frozen uncooked and baked fresh when required.

I dont think I can eat more than one of these goodies in one day. They are so dang sweet. I did not deviate much from the original recipe, except fiddling around the number of eggs needed. I dont like having leftover egg whites. So, for the mud cake, I used 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk; for the cookies, I used 1 egg white and 1 whole egg. Everything turned out fine..

Source: The AWW: Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies. 2008

Makes 24.

250g butter, softened

330g firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

450g plain flour

75g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

2 Tbs cocoa powder, extra

Chocolate Mud Cake

150g butter, chopped

100g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely

220g caster sugar

125ml water

2 Tbs coffee liqueur

150 gr plain flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

2 egg yolks

Combine butter, chocolate, sugar the water and liqueur in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until smooth. Place mixture in medium bowl; cool 10 minutes. Whisk in sifted flour and cocoa, then egg yolks. Divide mixture among pans. Bake about 25 minutes. Cool cake in pans. Using 6.5cm round cutter, cut 12 rounds from each cake.

Chocolate Ganache

80ml cream

200g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarselyBring cream to a boil in small

saucepan; remove from heat. Add chocolate; stir until smooth.

Refrigerate until spreadable..

1. Preheat oven to 170C/150C fan-forced. Grease two 20cm x 30cm lamington pans; line with a strip of baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edges of pans.

2. Make chocolate mud cake.

3. Make chocolate ganache.

4. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in sifted flours and cocoa, in two batches. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth; divide in half, roll each portion between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.

6. Using 6.5mm round cutter, cut 48 rounds from dough. Place about 3cm apart on oven trays. Bake about 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

7. Spread ganache onto underside of cookies; sandwich a mud cake round between two cookies.

8. using heart template, dust cookies with extra cocoa.