Cherry Friands

Last month, I realised that I had six egg whites in a container in my freezer. I had egg whites leftover from the time I made some shortcrust pastry as well as pastry cream for my dad's birthday fruit tart (which, to be honest, didn't turn out so well as the shortcrust pastry cracked, but the tart was still tasty nonetheless). I wanted to devise a way to use up the egg whites in my next bake other than turning them into meringues, so I did some research and stumbled upon some very useful information. I found that I could make financiers or friands, which are little almond cakes made with egg whites and brown butter. The only difference (or from what I understood) about the two is that the former is just the cake typically baked in special rectangular moulds, while the latter is the cake with added fruit and/or other flavourings, like vanilla extract or lemon zest. The little cakes looked and sounded delicious in my mind, so I bookmarked them for my next bake.

Fast forward to early June, the beginning of the school holidays. I was browsing through the aisles of the supermarket looking to buy ingredients to make meatballs marinara for family dinner, when I chanced upon a section lined with bags of big, juicy bing cherries.

"It's cherry season! I love cherries!" Naturally I was thrilled and so I happily seized a bag for myself, even though cherries weren't part of the dinner plan. Then I had an epiphany: I could make cherry friands! Thus these little morsels of goodness were born.

These little cakes are sweet, nutty, nicely fluffy and light, with bursts of juice from the cherries. To be clear, I tend to reach for rich, decadent desserts when I crave something sweet (think chocolate cake, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, etc). But these little cakes really hit the spot. They are perfect for tea and breakfast, in my opinion (and yes, I do have cake for breakfast at times, don't judge).

Best of all, they are really simple to make; you have absolutely no reason not to make them.

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Cherry Friands (Financiers)

Slightly adapted from Eat Little Bird

Makes 15 regular cupcake-sized cakes

Ingredients

• 160 g (approximately 12 Tbs) unsalted butter

• 100 g all-purpose flour

• 125 g ground almonds

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 250 g icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 6 egg whites

• 30 bing cherries, pitted and halved

• A handful of slivered almonds, optional

Method

To brown the butter:

1. Brown the butter. Place unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium heat and let the butter melt.

2. Once the butter has melted, let it continue to cook. The butter will begin the bubble. Swirl the pan occasionally and observe the butter carefully. You are looking out for changes in colour as well as aroma.

3. Once the bubbling has subsided, let the butter cook a bit more until it is brown and nutty in aroma. Pay close attention and do not walk away to do other things as the butter will turn from beautifully browned to burnt if you leave it over the heat for too long. The moment it is browned (the butter will be an amber, dark golden and there will be brown bits at the bottom of the pan), remove it from the heat and pour it into a bowl. Set aside to cool.

To make the friand/financier:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease regular cupcake tins with a bit of the brown butter using a pastry brush.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, ground almonds, salt and icing sugar. Stir together to incorporate everything.

3. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy and it reaches soft peaks.

4. Using a spatula or large metal spoon, gently fold the egg whites into the dry ingredients until combined.

5. Add in brown butter and vanilla extract and gently stir everything together until it is combined.

6. Fill cupcake tins with the batter two-thirds full.

7. Stuff four cherry halves (i.e. two cherries) into one friand and scatter some slivered almonds on top. Repeat until all the holes are filled.

8. Bake the friands for 20 to 25 minutes until they are golden and a skewer insert into the middle comes out clean.

9. Once baked, remove the friands from the cupcake tins and let them cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.

10. Enjoy warm or cold, with a light dusting of icing sugar (if you like).

#cake #dessert #snack

Simple Iced Matcha Latte

Hi everyone! I hope you have been having a great month of June so far. It's been almost a week since my short family trip to Perth, and man has it been hot around here! While we were in Perth, we enjoyed cool Australian winter temperatures, which is unlike the climate here in Singapore.

If, like me, it's hot where you are and you need a drink to cool off, this simple iced matcha latte would be perfect for the job! It is really easy to prepare and you don't need any special equipment (such as a bamboo whisk commonly used to make matcha tea) nor ingredients. All you need to make this are high quality matcha, milk, honey, water and ice cubes! You could even make this dairy-free by using a nut milk or soy milk and I'm sure it would be just as delicious.

A note on purchasing matcha powder: please get a really high quality matcha – at least a high quality culinary grade or better still, a ceremonial grade matcha. High quality matcha tastes better and is a beautiful green colour (as opposed to dull green of lower quality matcha). It would be more expensive but it would be worth it.

That's it! Really simple and straightforward, whilst being very refreshing. Hope you give it whirl!

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Simple Iced Matcha Latte

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 30 ml (2 Tbs) warm water

• 10 g (approx. 5 tsp) matcha powder

• 250 ml (1 cup) water, room temperature

• 750 ml (3 cups) cold whole milk (or any milk that you like)

• 4 Tbs honey or maple syrup (or to taste)

• Ice cubes

Method

1. In a jar or large cup, vigorously stir together matcha powder in 2 Tbs warm water to dissolve the matcha.

2. Add 1 cup water to the matcha mixture and stir until combined and lump-free. Set aside in the fridge to chill.

3. Prepare 4 serving glasses or cups. Put some ice cubes into glasses. Pour 3/4 cup (about 190 ml) of cold milk into each glass.

4. Remove matcha tea from the fridge and pour 1/4 cup (64 ml) of it into each glass containing the milk.

5. Add 1 Tbs of honey (more or less, to taste) and stir together vigorously to combine. Enjoy cold and fresh!

#drinks

Classic French Toast with Whipped Salted Maple Butter

Holidays are nice. After a very busy semester, it feels good, needed in fact, to finally wind down from work a little. I just came back from a short trip to Perth with my family (more on that soon!). It was a trip with many twists and turns, to say the least, but overall it was good one.

A few days prior to the Perth trip, I whipped up some french toast (and also my first attempt at an iced matcha latte) for B and my sister. It was a Wednesday, the Hari Raya public holiday, and the day that marked the beginning of the June break for me. Honestly I had so much fun making and photographing the french toast and the matcha latte.

So here's my recipe for french toast! (I'll post the recipe for the iced matcha latte at a later time). I know that there are tons of french toast recipes on the Internet, some of which are probably better than mine (I'm definitely not doing a good job at promoting my recipe here...), but I like this recipe as it is simple to execute and it produces a lightly crisp and golden french toast, buttery, fragrant from vanilla and cinnamon, with a slightly custardy and fluffy interior. Served with whipped salted maple butter (that stuff is delicious!), maple syrup and berries, this made for a deliciously satisfying breakfast or brunch (or any time of the day, really).

An important thing to note when making french toast is that you should always use thick slices of bread. I used my own homemade hokkaido milk bread (which is sweet and fluffy!) and sliced it up into one-inch thick slices (2020 update: I used homemade challah bread to make the French toast and it is amazing). The reason for this is so that the slice of bread can soak up as much of the custard as possible without becoming too soggy. Also, why would anyone want a thin slice of french toast? I mean, a thicker slice is so much nicer, am I right?

There you have it! Easy and quick to whip up, and utterly delicious. I hope you give it a go!

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Classic French Toast with Whipped Salted Maple Butter

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

For whipped salted maple butter:

• 226 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 113 g (about 1/3 cup) honey or maple syrup, room temperature

• 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste

For french toast:

• 8 one-inch slices of brioche, milk bread, challah, french bread, or sourdough

• 4 large eggs

• 125 g (1/2 cup) whole milk

• 125 g (1/2 cup) heavy cream*

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 tsp granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, optional

• Pinch of sea salt

• Unsalted butter, for cooking

To serve:

• Maple syrup, berries and whipped salted maple butter (or any other any things like whipped cream, powdered sugar, etc, that you like)

Method

To make the whipped salted maple butter:

1. This butter can be made in advance and refrigerated until needed. Whip room temperature unsalted butter and salt together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2. Add honey or maple syrup to the whipped butter and whip until combined.

3. To store the butter, place it on a large sheet of cling wrap and roll it into a log. Wrap the log of butter in parchment paper and place it in the fridge until needed.

To make the french toast:

1. In a shallow pan, add the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Whisk until well combined.

2. Optional: Cut each slice of bread into triangles. I just find this more aesthetically pleasing. You can just go ahead with the slices of bread as they are.

3. Dip each side of the bread in the egg mixture.

4. Melt a little bit of unsalted butter in a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Cook the french toast until golden brown, about two to three minutes on each side.

5. Serve the french toast warm** with maple syrup, berries, and whipped salted maple butter.

Note

* I used a mixture of whole milk and heavy whipping cream. Cream makes the french toast richer in flavour, which is what I prefer. However, if you want a lighter french toast, you could substitute the cream for the same amount of whole milk. Alternatively, you could omit whole milk and cream altogether and use the same amount of diary-free milk instead, such such as almond milk.

** To keep french toast warm while you are cooking, place them in an oven that has been preheated to 90°C. Ensure that the oven is switched off. You don't want the french toast to be overcooked and dry out. Alternatively, you can rewarm already cooked french toast in a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Again, just place the french toast there until it is warm. Don't overdo it as the french toast might dry out.

#breakfast