Sunday 15 November 2015

My Pavlova and I


Assalamualaikum everyone! Hallo and hi, i have been away far too long. I have been busy could be my excuse , but the truth is my blog is not in my priority list at the moment. 


But I feel that I should write as I have been showing my students how to make pavlova... And recently the weather had been so humid and the pavlovas that I have been making using my recipe has become moist and sticky!!! I have also added salt and cream of tartar on top of vinegar and cornflour and vanilla in my pavlova. My pavlova tasted the way i wanted them to taste, but they became sticky! So! I decided that I should experiment with new methods and omitting salt and cream of tartar and vinegar and cornflour....and I also roasted my sugar before adding them to the egg whites!


What did I get? A crisp pavlova with soft marshmallowy interior, baked in about an hour an a half for a pavlova and 50 minutes for mini pavlovas! And do you know that the Meringue Girls swear by the roasting the sugar technique!

What else did I do?? Once I got the technique right I decided to add back my "missing ingredients" ie salt , cream of tartar and vinegar and flour and vanilla... voila, it worked!


But really making a pavlova is all about how the ingredients react wt each other when beaten. Afterall egg whites consist of 75% water abd 25% protein. Beating the egg whites a bit in the beginning of making a meringue speeds up the process of the molecules to absorb sugar. However, if the molecules were overbeaten, they would "shy sway" from the sugar, and that would probably be the end of your pavliva making, fail...period! Unless you add some fresh egg whites to the meringue ( well I do that to salvage my meringue when I make my macarons when this accidents happen...they are real they happen ok!)

In the early days and when I was in Lindon I made BakedAlaska and I whipped my meringue using my hands. And I didn't add anything on top of egg whites and sugar, and my meringue was purrfecttt! Hence, if you used the Meringue Girls way, their meringue consisy of only sugar and egg whites. And their recipe is inbthe ratio of 1:2 egg whites:sugar. But the sugar needs to be roasted in the oven at a temperature of about 200 C, for about 5 minutes whilst you beat the egg whites to be like a shaving foam texture. By warming the sugar the meringue became more stabilised and absorbed the sugar faster. And you have to beat the meringue untill the sugar just dissolved. I was quite sceptical until I tried them myself. It worked! And my pavlova was not super sweet, in fact the act of roasting the sugar gave a caramelised effect to the sugar, when I added salt in my meringue I could comprehend how the Parisian could just eat their meringues just like that!

Would you add salt, cream of tartar, vinegar , cornflour and vanilla? I would not do without them...but adding them would make your pavlova more chewy. And I think best that you weigh your egg whites. Whilst using 4 egg whites and a cup of sugar worked forcme during the dry season, when the weathwr is hot and humid it is a whole lot of different story with my meringue. Hence, now I use the ratio of 1:2 egg whites:sugar with all the additions ir salt creamof tartar vanilla vinegar and cornflower and made my minis in 50 mins and pavlovas in an hour an a half at a temperature of 150C! And I only whisk the meringue until the sugars dissolve and the merigue do not have that gritty feel. 

Okay, enough said, you could give it a shot by using a general recipe such as 4 egg whites and a cup of sugar or you could use a ratio of 1:2 egg whites and sugar ratio. They should all work , the only thing is that having more sugars strengthen and stabilises the meringue. But foung them properly , I could assure you that you would enjoy snacking the pavlovas alone like I did! 

Good night peeps, hope this helps, go make a pavlova!

Monday 29 June 2015

Two Years and We Are Staying...


Assalamualaikum and good morning! I have not been updating my blog and i'm not ashamed to admit that. I believe that at this age, I will do what I had to do and updating my blog was not in my top priority list. But, I have many things planned , hence, closing down this blog was not in my to do list.

On 1.7.2015 would mark my two years leaving full time employment... 2 is just a small number....but, boy have I done and achieved and learnt so much! I remembered the few months before that  I decided to quit, the thought was very scary! When I counted my earnings then, I could only barely survive...and yup 6months after I left my paid job, I had only rm1k in my account!

I couldn't turn back, so I decided that things have to work out and I have to work (my butt out)...alhamdulillah, today I have some extras to give away...but that was not what I learnt...I was tested (a lot, but best wo!) last year...I was played out many times and used a lot of times ... errr sometimes I allowed them to use me, haha! And not to mention pictures of my bakes being used on the media! Anyway, I'm ok with all this, no feelings , numb now...

Being new in business (yeah this baking business is just a home based business), but whatever principles strategy costing planning all play their role...and I am the master planner of my small business. I'm beefing up myself in this areas, in fact measuring my cake batters to be divided into cake tins would also be measured...I'm a sanguine you see, we are happy with agak-agak jer...competition is stiff now and I'm competing with this young lanky pretty girls who bake, so, I couldn't make myself younger or prettier, having nicer and more delicious and pretty cakes are the way to go haha!

Our focus is still making cakes and bakes for the masses as we have decided that we will stay a bit in this industry and we also decided to grow, hehe, Happy Anniversary The Kitchen Guardian!



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