We are at the verge of Autumn

I haven’t written on Umeboss regularly for a long time and I feed bad  I used to write a post almost every day before, but now I don’t seem to be able to find the time to sit back and write what I want to write about.  I don’t want to say it’s something/someone’s fault, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing other stuff.  But I feel bad.

Here in Perth the Autumn has arrived and I’m enjoying the beautiful sky and temperature.  …. It rains a lot, and I see lots of snails (gross!), but let’s think that all this is part of nature.  :)

In my hometown, Japan, we get lots of delicious food in Autumn.  Some fruits, fish, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc etc are the best to be eaten in Autumn.  But here, I don’t see much Autumn fruits sold cheap at the shops.  Grapes, pears, mandarines, persimmon – to name a few – are the Autumn fruits, but grapes are not really cheap!  Maybe it’s still too early?  I hope the price will drop in few weeks when we start to feel winter is just around the corner.

I baked walnut nougat slices last night.  It’s a perfect sweet to munch on with a cup of hot tea.  I found that roasted almond would have gone much better on the nougat rather than walnuts, so I will try making it with almond next time.

Here is the recipe:

* butter and egg should be at room temperature

* I used 20cm x 20cm oven pan, but you can use a bigger sized pan

<Walnut Nougat Slices>

~ the base ~

• Unsalted Butter 150g
• Granulated Sugar 100g
• Egg 1
• Plain Flour 300g

~ the topping ~

• Unsalted Butter 30g
• Granulated Sugar 80g
• Cream (I used Whipping) 100ml
• Honey 30g
• Whole or chopped walnuts 150g

1. Roast walnuts in the oven or in the pan over stove.  Leave to cool down.
2. Base – Add sugar to butter, and mix using a whisk.  Beat egg, and gradually add to the butter mixture.  Mix well.
3. Shift in flour, and mix using a spatula. (DO NOT over-mix)  Once the dough comes together, wrap in plastic and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours +
4. Set oven at 180 ℃.  Line baking sheet in an oven pan, and spread the dough over.  Poke few times with fork.  Bake in the oven for 15~20 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and leave to cool.
5. Topping – Place all the ingredients except walnuts in a sauce pan.  Over low heat, simmer to caramelize.  To check it’s ready to take off the heat, simply drop the caramel into a cup of water – if the caramel forms small balls inside the water, then it is ready.  Take it off the heat, and mix with walnuts.
6. Spread the nougat over the base.  Level the surface.  Bake in the oven at 180℃ for 20~30 minutes.
7. Slice into pieces before it’s completely cool.

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Simple Rolled-Cake

Soft and fluffy, simple cake − rolled up with whipped cream and strawberry jam, topped with cocoa cream and chocolate.

As the sponge is baked in thin, flat square, it cooks & cools down quickly.    It only takes 1 hour to make!

You can add fresh fruits inside the roll, but today I just made it simple.

I didn’t add too much sugar to whipped cream as I added strawberry jam.  The sweetness is just right to my taste

<Simple Roll-Cake>

Sponge  30cm x 30cm

• Egg (L) 4  - at room temperature
• Granulated Sugar 60g
• Plain Flour 40g

Cream

• Whipping Cream 100ml
• Sugar 1 tbs

Others

• Strawberry Jam
• Whipped Cream with Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate to dust

1. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.
2. Line 30cm x 30cm shallow oven tray with baking paper.   Set oven at 180 ℃
3. Separate egg yolks and whites.  Add 1/2 of sugar to the yolks, and whisk until creamy and pale colour.
4. Shift in flour, and mix until just combined.
5. Add a pinch of sugar to egg whites, and whisk until fluffy.  Add remaining sugar gradually to form a stiff peak meringue.
6. Add 1/3 meringue to the yolk mixture.  Mix well.  Repeat with remaining.
7. Spread the mixture onto lined tray.  Tap lightly to release any air bubble inside the mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.
8. Whip cream with sugar.
9. Peel off the baking sheet, and place the sponge on a piece of clean baking paper.  Spread 1 tbs of strawberry jam & whipped cream, then roll up using the baking paper.  Chill in the refrigerator before slicing.
10. For topping; mix whipped cream with cocoa powder.  Spread on top of rolled-cake.

Sugar Donut Balls

(Christmas) tree made of sugar donuts

This super-easy-to-make donuts needs just a plastic bag from mixing the dough till dropping into hot oil.

<Sugar Donut Balls> makes about 10

• Plain flour 100g
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Egg 1
• Raw sugar 1 tbs *
• Unsalted butter 1 tbs
• Milk 1 tbs
• oil to deep-fry / sugar to dust

1. Place all dry ingredients in a plastic bag.  Close the bag with hands and shake to mix the ingredients.
2. Melt butter.  Once it’s cool enough (but not cold) add milk and egg.  Mix well.
3. Pour the butter mixture into the plastic bag.  Mix the dough well inside the bag.
4. Heat oil in a pan to 160℃.
5. Cut one end of plastic bag to make a small hole.  Squeeze out the dough into oil. Deep-fry until golden.
6. While the donuts are hot dust with sugar. **

* You can use white sugar or dark sugar – different sugar gives different flavour to the donuts
** You can use cocoa powder, cinnamon, green tea powder or kinako (soybean powder)

Soft & Moist Fruits Pound Cake

It’s getting very cold in the morning….!!  Waking up around 5AM and going for a walk around 6AM has been our (me & Hiro) routine for a while now.  This morning I couldn’t stand without a jacket, and my bare foot was so freezing.  It’s amazing Hiro still could manage to fell himself back to sleep in the cold air.  He fells asleep on a stroller when he hadn’t got enough sleep.

Anyway, yesterday was the last day of the term at play group, and it was mostly cleaning & eating for the whole 2 hours.  In between we did egg hunting as Easter is just around the corner.  All mums were asked to bring one dish to the centre and we shared the yummy food.

I made fruits & walnuts cake because it’s the easiest and quickest to make.  Other mums brought some gorgeous food such as salmon sashimi, takoyaki, chicken nuggets and hot cross buns.  I loved them all.

I made this cake with whatever ingredients I had. Actually I have lots of ingredients in my pantry at the moment because of my bagel business.  Thanks to that, I didn’t need to buy anything extra

The cake turned out moist and soft, just how I like it.  I added walnuts because I like the accent of crunchy texture.  This is the very basic pound cake recipe, but I want to share it with you.

<Fruits Pound Cake>  one standard pound cake mold  /  oven 180℃

• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 100g granulated sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter (at room temperature)
• 2 tbs mixed dry fruits
• 1 tbs crushed walnuts
• 1 tbs frozen cranberries

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1. Cream the butter with a whisk to just soften up.  Butter goes soft within 1 hour outside the fridge in summer, but in winter I recommend to warm it up over warm water bath or in the microwave to speed up the process.  Butter should be very soft.
2. Add sugar, and beat until fluffy and becomes slightly white colour.
3. Beat eggs in a separate container, and add to the butter mixture gradually.  Mix well at each addition.
4. Shift the flour and baking powder into the mixture.  Drop the fruits and nuts onto the flour then shift in using a spatula.  Try not to over mix.
5. Pour the mixture into a lined pound-cake-mold, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or it springs back when you touch the top surface.
6. Place on a wire rack to cool before slicing.

You can add vanilla extract to enhance the sweetness.  You can alternatively use other nuts instead of walnut such as pistachio or pecan nut.

Tamago Boro

Tamago Boro, egg biscuit for babies, is a very popular snack for children in Japan. It melts inside your mouth without biting, so it’s easy and safe to eat for little children.

As you cannot bring anything containing egg into Australia, I couldn’t bring packs of this tamago boro when I left Japan.  Some shops may sell this snack here in Perth, but I’m sure it won’t be a reasonable price compare to that it’s just  ¥100 for 5 packs of boro in Japan.

After coming back to Perth I made this tamago boro for my  I-want-to-eat-everything-because-I-have-a-big-appetite-and-stomach son.  It was my first prompt and it tuned out to be ok.  I think I made it little too big (store-bought one is much smaller than what I made) but it tasted and melted just the same.

<Tamago Boro>  makes around 30

• 1 egg yolk
• 80g cornstarch
• 30g icing sugar
• 1.5 tsp milk (either cow milk or formula)

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1. Mix the yolk and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add cornstarch and mix will using a spatula.
2. Add milk, and mix well.  Add less or more milk to make into shapable consistency.
3. Shape the mixture into little balls.
4. Line the balls on a baking paper, and bake in the oven 160℃ for about 15 ~ 20 minutes.

Actually I don’t like tamago boro.  Haha, it sounds funny ; I don’t like it but I’m making it for my son.  I don’t really like the texture (that melts on the tongue) but I’m sure Hiro enjoyed it.

And he loves bagel, actually.  Bagels are hard so it does the same job as rusk.

He saw me eating a plain bagel, and when I gave it to him just to joke he grabbed it and didn’t want to let it go.  He actually eats the bagel just like the photo, and I had to take it away from him as he was eating so much.  The crust may be too hard for him so now I cut the crust off before giving to him.