Sugar-Free Pochacco Dacquoise

I made these sugar-free Pochacco dacquoise for hubby's early birthday bake this year!

A closer look at the filling: vanilla bean pastry cream and brown butter cinnamon apple!

It tastes like a legit macaron except fluffier and less sweet!

You may refer to this reel for the recipe and process of making this creation:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfGPv1By70R/?srtk=ZXlydXAzdmp6Y2w=

Over the years, I have experimented with sugar-free macarons and came to the conclusion that it's a technical impossibility. Refined sugar (sucrose) is needed for the characteristic smooth tops and feet on macaron shells. So I turned to the macaron's close relative, dacquoise, so that hubby can finally eat macarons again! 

Pochacco Dacquoise

(makes about 8 Pochaccos, 16 shells, Mold size: 5.3x4.7x1cm)

Meringue:

96g egg whites

4g egg white powder*

2g cornstarch 

2g cream of tartar

60g sugar of choice*

White batter:

64g almond flour*

8g cornstarch

8g powdered sugar*

4g white powder

128g meringue

Black batter:

16g almond flour*

2g cornstarch 

2g powdered sugar*

1.5-2g charcoal powder

32g meringue 

Brown butter cinnamon apple:

13g unsalted butter

1 Granny Smith apple, coarsely chopped

Pinch of salt

1/4-1/2 tsp lemon juice 

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

2g cornstarch 

7g sugar*

Vanilla bean pastry cream:

1 egg yolk

10g cornstarch 

12g sugar*

Pinch of salt

120g full fat milk 

15g unsalted butter, softened

1/2-3/4 tsp vanilla bean paste

* Notes on ingredients:

Egg white powder

This is optional but I add it to improve stability of the meringue as sugar replacements make meringues that are less robust than real sugar. If omitting, replace with egg whites

Almond flour

I toasted the almond flour by dry frying in a frying pan over low heat until aromatic & lightly browned. This is optional if you choose to bake the dacquoise at higher temperature for a shorter time instead of drying out the meringue at low temperature like I did here. I like to add the toasted almond aroma to the eating experience of this creation

Sugar/powdered sugar

I can't disclose the types of sugar replacements & ratios I used here. You may use whatever is easily available to you. Keep in mind that each type of sugar replacement/sweetener has its own unique chemical/physical properties & taste. That's why I usually use a blend to get the best of each. If you choose to use real sugar, simply use icing sugar for the dry ingredient portion of dacquoise, & castor sugar for everything else

See the pinned comments in the reel for the method.

Freshly baked dacquoise before adding in details

The box of Pochaccos for hubby to enjoy!

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Capybara Meat Floss Mini Cakes

 We still love capybaras at home and my younger son requested for capybara pork floss cakes for his birthday bake this year!

A close up cross section cut of the cake!

You can use any type of meat floss you like such as fish, chicken or beef as well. It may sound strange to have a savoury cake to those of you not familiar with it. Meat floss cakes are actually quite popular in Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. The sweet-savoury combination is rather more-ish!

Composition:

🔸 Plain chiffon sponge with a little oyster sauce added for a hint of umami 

🔸 Mayonnaise condensed milk sauce for some tanginess and sweetness 

🔸Regular pork floss and I dark sauce added pork floss

Before this project started, I had to prepare many egg shells.

That involved removing the inner membrane of the shell.

See the pieces of membrane? When done well, the sheets peel off in large strips

The egg shells needed to be thoroughly air-dried after washing before use. Thank God for slender fingers! It helps with not needing to open too large a hole in the shell for thorough cleaning and removal of membrane. I did break one shell by accident during cleaning but this usually happens whenever I have such projects 🤭.

Just to share a couple of process photos:

Filling the egg shells about 1/2-2/3 full of batter

Assembled sponge pieces before coating with pork floss.

I will share the ingredient list here. Please refer to the pinned comments of the reel for the method.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/De2y8tnSy5F/?psln=NXBmdjllZ3R2bnhq

Makes about 7 capybaras
Chiffon sponge:
3 large eggs separated
10g oil
45g milk
3g oyster sauce (optional, adds a hint of umami)
1/16 tsp salt
56g cake flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
45g castor sugar

Mayonnaise condensed milk sauce:
40g mayonnaise (I used Kewpie)
4g milk powder
20g condensed milk

"Fur":
About 80g pork, chicken, fish or beef floss
1/4-3/8 tsp dark soy sauce

Others:

Gelatin glue using 1:6 gelation powder : water

Nutella coloured black using charcoal or black cocoa powder

I tried using seaweed strip for the eyes but it was really difficult so I used the simpler method of piping the eyes with black coloured Nutella.

This bake brought smiles for the birthday boy who found it a really unique bake!

with lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Maneki Neko Peach Creampuffs

 If you love the delicate flavour of white peach in desserts, you will love these!

Composition:

- Peach shaped choux au craquelin

- White peach diplomat cream

- White peach jam

- White peach agar jelly

- Fresh white peach

- Strawberry sour candy strips for collar and inner ears

- White chocolate chip cut to size and coated with gold dust for button/bell

- Nutella coloured black with a little black cocoa or charcoal powder for facial features

- Choux pastry leaves and mini peaches for decoration 

The pastries are yummy chilled and even yummier frozen!

Choux buns need not be round. They can come in fancy shapes like peaches too!

You may find the recipe and steps for making the peach shaped choux pastry cases in this reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DenWKH1yfZJ/?xtok=ZjR1Y2M2YXByOXVj

You may find the recipe and steps for making the filling in this reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Defn05gyonL/?xtok=MWN3a296bWI2djk3Nw==

A peek at the peach agar jelly and fresh white peach in the filling!

I will share the ingredient list here for your reference. Method is in the pinned comments of the reels.

Makes about 28 mini pastries
Craquelin:
20g cake flour
3/4 tsp (1g) white powder colouring 
18g sugar
21g unsalted butter
Yellow & pink gel or powder colouring* as needed. I used turmeric powder for natural yellow colour

* Your portion of coloring may differ from mine depending on the source. It took me 3 tries to nail the colour 

Pink dough portion out 20g & add:

1/16 tsp pink powder coloring (I used Ng Chee Lee brand)

1/16 turmeric powder

Yellow dough (remaining dough) add:

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

Very tiny pinch of pink powder

Choux pastry batter:
120g water
20g olive oil
20g unsalted butter
1tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
60g plain flour, sifted
2 eggs (about 95-110g without shell)
White, yellow, pink & green coloring as needed

Peach diplomat cream:

250g Marigold Peel Fresh select Momo (Momo juice for short)

110g full fat milk or dairy whipping cream

1/8 tsp salt

24g cornstarch

15g sugar

3 egg yolks 

24g unsalted butter, slightly softened

180g whipping cream of choice

Peach jam:

260g fresh white peach flesh, diced

25g sugar

1tsp lemon juice

Pinches of salt

10-15g Momo juice

Peach agar jelly:

2g agar powder

150g + 60g Momo juice

Fresh white peach:

150g white peach, diced

15g Momo juice

Note: Momo juice contains Vitamin C & citric acid. Both are well known ingredients that prevent cut fresh fruits from oxidizing when exposed to air

with love,
Phay Shing

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Sugar-Free Chocolate Pistachio Hazelnut Cake with Fresh Berries

 This cake is so tasty you wouldn't know it's sugar-free! Young and old, diabetics and non-diabetics all love it, except maybe people who don't like chocolate 🤭.

I made two cakes this time because one is for a client and another for my uncle. I chose to frost the cake rustic-style because you don't have to be super neat. 

Look at the layers!

Here's a photo of some of the sugar-free or no sugar added products that I used.

You may watch this reel for the process of putting it together and foe the recipe:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeQK9DESxnr/?xtok=MTlsMG9oODZ3dGZ0Mw==

This cake tastes better after letting it rest overnight in the fridge when the sponge, compote and ganache have come together and the cake becomes more fudgy.

Scale the recipe up according to your preference/parts. I provided the smallest unit

Sugar-free chocolate pistachio sponge:

( Use chiffon method for fluffier sponge, simple mixing wet & dry ingredients for denser sponge)

1 large egg, separated for chiffon method

1/8 tsp cream of tartar (for chiffon method)

50g sugar replacement of choice*

20g natural cocoa powder

20g milk

1/8 tsp salt

40g oil

20g pure roasted pistachio butter

55g plain yoghurt

1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

30g cake flour 

1/2 tsp baking soda

Sugar-free chocolate hazelnut pistachio ganache:

100g sugar-free chocolate hazelnut spread

20g 99% or 100% dark chocolate

38g plain yoghurt 

38g milk

45g pistachio butter

Sugar-free pistachio crunch:

100g sugar-free white chocolate

50g pistachio butter

50g chopped roasted pistachios 

2-3 drops of pandan paste (optional but helps to elevate the pistachio flavour and add a little green)

Strawberry raspberry compote:

Frozen/fresh fruit blended, sieved. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Cooked & reduced to 60% original weight 

You may find the method in the pinned comments of my reel.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Apple Black Tea Chiffon Cake "Apples" II

 It's been some time since I last made these but it's the first time I made a video tutorial of how it's done!

When I made my first chiffon cake "apples" back in 2014, it amazed many people because no one had ever seen anything like it before! I managed to take some photos of the process of piping the batter in the blog post over here but didn't manage to share any videos of it as I very rarely took videos back then.

I made the apples again but with filling inside for my dad's and uncle's birthdays in 2021. And again, no videos taken because I wanted to focus on making the cakes. People asked about videos and I had to say sorry I didn't take it. 

Now that I have a regular client asking me to make a cake like this for her, I took the chance to do a proper documentation of the process.

You can see the process reel and recipe over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeAuRjHSDnZ/?stkn=NWFrZHZ0c2phaWYx

Chiffon sponge:

(Note that this is the smallest unit so scale accordingly. It's recommended that you don't make huge batches as the chiffon meringue/batter will start to deflate if you take too long to pipe & marble the batter.)

15g apple spiced black tea*

10g oil

Pinch of salt

18g cake flour 

1/16 tsp cinnamon powder 

1/16 tsp black tea powder

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, separated

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

15-20g caster sugar

1/32 tsp red powder/red gel coloring

1-2 drops yellow gel colouring 

* Apple spiced black tea:

1 apple, peeled & grated 

480g water 

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/16 tsp ginger powder 

3g black tea powder (or 3 teabags of black tea)

Cinnamon sticks cut to size for stems

Here's a peek at the cake after shaping it but before inserting the cinnamon stick stem

These apples are meant as cake toppers to decorate a layered cake complete with apple black tea diplomat cream and poached apples. Keep a lookout for it in the future!

with love,

Phay Shing

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