Goma-Shu

Recently, I was in Torrance and went to a La Patisserie called Chantilly's. Here at Chantilly's, they serve Goma-Shu, or Black Sesame Cream Puffs, among many other goodies! Food Critic Jonathan Gold actually mention this place and its Goma-Shu on his 99 Things to Eat in LA Before You Die. http://www.laweekly.com/2010-02-26/eat-drink/99-things-to-eat-in-l-a-before-you-die/

It was delish and made me miss Japan so much! I also had a black sesame macaron (I'm a bit

obsessed with kuro-goma/black sesame these days).

Some history about cream puffs.

Inspired, I decided to make my very own Goma-Shu's! I also made white sesame and luckily, they were a success!

Here's the recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients

Cream Puffs (about 12 shells):

1/2 unsalted butter

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

1 cup flour

3 eggs

1 Tbl Black Sesame grounds

a pinch of sugar

Cream Puff instruction

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Boil butter, milk, and water in a sauce pan. Once boiled, lower heat and add flour at once. Mixture should thicken.

3. Once flour is well mixed, remove sauce pan from heat. Add 1 egg and mix. Add second egg and mix. Mixture should be thick and slowly runs and breaks off spoon. Add half of last egg if needed.

4. Pipe onto cookie sheet and bake for 20min. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake for another 20min.

5. Let cool and cut open to fill.

Custard Cream:

3 egg yolks

1 cup milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/8 cup flour

half vanilla bean stick

Custard Instruction

1. In a saucepan, combine milk, a 1/3 of the sugar and vanialla beans and mix over med heat.

2. In another bowl, beat remaining sugar and yolks till white and frothy. Mix in sifted flour.

3. Combine egg mix with mixture in saucepan and cook till thick and lumpy.

4. Remove from heat. Prepare a dish lined with plastic wrap and pour custard into contained and wrap. Put in fridge for about 30min to an hour.

Sesame Ingredients

1.5 cup Heavy Cream

1 Tbl granulated sugar

1 Tbl Black sesame paste

1.5 White sesame paste (I used grounds)

1. Beat cream and sugar till whipped and set aside.

2. Take out custard and place half of it in a bowl. Beat with black sesame paste and pipe into 6 puff shells.

3. Pipe half of whip cream on top. Place shell top on top.

4. Mix remaining whip cream and white sesame paste/ground into remaining custard. Pipe into remaining shells and top off with shell caps.

5. Dust with sesame seeds and powdered sugar if desired.

(Black sesame up front and white sesame in the back)

La Provence Cafe on San Vicente

Went to a new cafe for a change! Still love Urth, but I should really take in all that LA has to offer. La Provence is a French style cafe that is primarily known for their macarons. Definitely had to try this place! They were apparently in Cupcake wars and are considered one of the best cafe's in Beverly Hills.

So one of my partners in crime tagged along and we had tea. We both ordered Rose tea and split two macarons (rose and salted caramel) and a chocolate raspberry mousse.

The rose tea was nice. I liked how I had my own pot, but then again, that's typical at cafes. I just don't drink a lot of tea when I go to cafes, I guess. The mousse was light, not too heavy, with a nice hint of raspberry. The macarons were amazing! The cookies were probably the one of the best I've had! Perfectly crunchy on the outside (but not too crunchy! Phew!) and soft and moist on the inside. The rose flavor was nice and buttery and produced a cool feeling in the mouth like mint would. It's hard to explain, really. The salted caramel was a bit chewy. It was good, but I definitely prefer the rose more! Will definitely make a trip back!

White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies that need to be guarded...

Before....

The fridge was way crowded and there was pumpkin puree that had to be used. Hence, I decided to make these DELICIOUS white chocolate pumpkin cookies I made last October. The batch yielded 27 cookies. I decided to give them out to friends since I love to share such GOODNESS with good people :)

Just after I pulled out the cookies from the oven, my roommate came home and immediately without asking just grabbed a cookie and ate it! "Ok," I thought, I would've offered her some anyway so whatever. I left to meet up with a friend and came back a few hours later. I noticed three cookies I set aside on a separate plate all disappeared (along with the plate actually). "Oh man, " I thought, "Better wrap these babies up!" So I wrapped 13 cookies in one foil and 3 more for myself.

Next day, I took them to class and they were a hit! Not a single one left over and many compliments came haha. All day, I dreamed about the cookies I set aside for myself in the aluminum foil.

After a long day, I come home, I open the foil expecting to find 3 cookies. Lo' and behold, there was only one! My roommates mooched my cookies from me! Out of the 27 cookies I had only two cookies while between my two roommates they had seven! A very sad day for me. But they're popular.

After....

• Ingredients
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 10 ounces white chocolate pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 300 F. Grease cookie sheet

2. Mix brown sugar and butter in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla and then stir in pumpkin puree. Combine dry ingredients together and then add to pumpkin mixture. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spoon cookies onto sheet, leaving 2 in of space in between.

4. Bake for about 20 min and then allow to cool.

There you have it folks! Make sure to hide 'em or eat them before others get to them!

• 
  

Pumpkin Saffron Macarons

Having a can of Pumpkin Puree sitting in my cupboard, I decided to make Pumpkin Saffron Macarons. Having not made macarons in awhile, I went through four attempts until my cookies came out just right! The filling was a cinch to make: pumpkin cream cheese. You can probably use the Pumpkin cream cheese that they sell at Trader Joe's. However, since that is seasonal, you can easily make your own.

I've made and had other flavored macarons before. Not a big fan of the pumpkin cream cheese filling (for macarons), but regardless, it still tastes good. If you're a big fan a cheesecake and pumpkin, then this recipe is for you!

Here is the recipe:

Saffron Macaron

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp saffron

5 Tblsp granulated sugar

2/3 cups almond powder

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1) In a food processor combine saffron, almond powder and powder sugar and quickly grind into smooth powder. Set aside.

2) Make sure egg whites are at room temperature (it will help the eggs meringue properly). Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add granulated sugar into eggs. Continue beating eggs until thick and and glossy. Don't over do it or else the cookies won't bake properly!

3) Pour half of the powder made in 1) into 2). Using spatula, mix powder with meringue, scooping from bottom. Try to do it in few stirs possible. Add rest of powder in and mix as before. Try not to do more than a total of twenty stirs.

4) Preheat oven to 300F~345F depending on how hot the oven is. I would go for the lower heat just to be safe.

5) On a parchment lined baking tray, pipe circular cookies about a 1.5in in diameter. Space apart 2in. Wrap tray a few times. This will help the cookies get the prized feet! Leave out to harden for about 15~30min. You can test by touching the cookie lightly. If it does not stick to your finger, it has hardened enough.

6) Place in oven and cook for about 8~15 min. Make sure to check on them because you don't want them to over cook!

7) Once done, remove from oven and let cool for 10min. Remove from tray. Cookies should be crunchy on the outside but soft and moist on the inside.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

2oz Cream Cheese at room temperature

2oz Pumpkin Puree

1/8 Ground Cloves

1/8 Ground Cinnamon

1) Mix all ingredients together into a bowl.

2) Pipe cream cheese between 2 equal sized macaron cookies

There you go! You have successfully made Pumpkin Saffron Macarons! Enjoy!

Royal-T Cafe/Maid Cafe

Went to my first maid cafe today at the Royal-T Cafe. i wouldn't say it's as legit as the Japanese Maid cafe, but it'll pass.

http://www.royal-t.org/

The industrial, cement floor building contrasts with the very artsy decorations (not to mention the Andy Warhol exhibit!). It is a feast for the eyes!

Ordered the Royal-T High Tea Set: a brew of Royal-T (black tea steeped in soy milk) with assorted canapes and desserts. The Royal-T was amazing! but the sandwiches could've been a tad bit better. I personally thought the bread was a bit stale. The desserts were pretty good, but I'm a sucker for anything sweet :)

Our waitress/maid was very bubbly and fun to talk to! I get the feeling she may be one of their top servers. There are other waitresses there too, who are Japanese, but their English is very limited so they don't make the best "sociable maid":/ In the end, the service was very good.

I LOVE URTH

I love Urth Cafe. There are so many places in the world I want to live, but I am very likely to choose LA because there is Urth Cafe. Sad reaon, but oh well. My life, my rules. I am gonna have some posts dedicated just to Urth because I love this place soooo much!

Today, I went out for brunch with one of my lovely friends! Ordered Japanese Tea Latte, Spanish Latte, Chocolate Black Out Pound Cake, Bowl of Strawberries and cream, and Organic Oatmeal plus fruit. A divine brunch!