Mini Custard Cream Horns

Did you ever miss or want to eat something that maybe you did not really like before? That what happened to me last week. I suddenly got an urge to eat custard cream horn. I know it was not my favorite snack. I still remember when I was a little girl, my mother used to buy some of Indonesian traditional snack from a local market. She usually bought more than one kind of snacks so I and my sister could choose which one that we want to eat. I never pick custard cream horn. I mostly pick a savory snack instead this sweet custard cream snack. No special reason. Actually a custard cream horn is a delicious snack. It is a horn shaped puff pastry  filled in with vanilla custard cream. For those who has sweet tooth (like my husband), this can be a good snack. It is sweet and crispy outside but soft and creamy inside.

Well, because of my sudden urge to eat this sweet horns, I decided to make it by myself. I already have ready to use puff pastry on my freezer and the horn mold that I ordered from Indonesia last year. But there's a big BUT. I'm going to make my custard cream horn in small size.  My custard horn will have only about half of the size of normal custard cream horn. Personally, I prefer this mini size horns because it is easier to eat (especially for my baby son), more crispy, and..... hmm... I don't know. I just like it. ^^

First, I need to make the horns.

Tip : You can make the horns one day before making the filling. Just let it cool completely, and keep it in a airtight container to keep it crispy and crunchy.

Ingredients : ( for making about 65 mini horns)

• 5 layer ready to use puff pastry (I'm using 20x20 cm ready to use puff pastry)
• 1 egg, beaten
• about 100 gram white granulated sugar
• 20 grams butter

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 200 C (392 F)
2. Prepare a baking sheet and line it up with baking paper. Set aside.
3. Prepare horn molds and grease it with butter generously. Set aside.
4. Cut the puff pastry into small stripes. (About 1.5 cm wide for each stripe) 
5. Take one of greased horn mold and wrap the pastry around the mold. Make sure to overlap the pastry a little bit for each round and press it gently at the end of the strips. 
6. Repeat the process until all the mold are used.
7. Place the wrapped horn on the baking sheet.
8. Brush the surface of the pastry with beaten egg.
9. Sprinkle or roll carefully some granulated sugar on the top of the horns.
10. Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake it for about 13-15 minutes or until the pastry become golden brown.
11. Take it out from oven and let it cool completely before starting the filling process. 

Tip : If you can not make the horn in one batch and have to reuse the mold after the previous batch, do not forget to grease the mold with butter again before wrap it with another pastry strip.

Now, let's make the filling. 

Ingredients :

• 250 ml milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 20 grams granulated sugar
• 25 grams corn starch
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation :

1. In a pot, mix together about 150 ml milk with granulated sugar.
2. Turn on the heat, stir, and simmer on low heat until the sugar are dissolved.
3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the rest of the milk with egg yolk, corn starch, and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk until there's no more cornstarch lump.
5. Pour the cornstarch mixture into the pot.
6. Stir and cook the mixture with medium heat until the custard is thickened. (Tip : Be careful not to burn the custard).
7. Turn off the heat and transfer the custard into a shallow bowl.
8. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool completely.
9. Once the custard is not hot anymore, open the plastic wrap, and stir once more.
10. Pour the custard into a pipping bag and cut the tip.
11. Fill the horn by pipping the custard into the horn.

Edible Easter Basket

Happy Easter everyone!! May this Easter spirit gives you all a new hope, faith, spirit, love, and joy. To celebrate Easter this year I've made this cute edible Easter basket because I was getting a little bit bored with painted and decorated boiled egg as usual. So, I made this as a treat for my daughter, son, and some of my daughter's friends.

Actually, the first plan was to make a mini paper basket like the one that I've made for my daughter's birthday treats years ago. I would fill those basket with small chocolate easter candies and chocolates. But like as usual, during the process, I found a nice video tutorial how to make an edible easter basket. It's easier to do (than rolling a lot of papers and weave it into a small basket) and i have almost all of the ingredients available in my kitchen. Beside, I think this could be a good experiment to learn how to deal with chocolate because it's a little bit tricky for me. I still need to learn how to melt and tempering chocolate properly so it wont be melted on the room temperature.

And, this is what I need to do. First, I need to make the strap for the basket.  I was using strawberry candy stripes for the strap (Those are the only candy that I had). The candy was too thin so I made a braid out of it.

This braided candy strips is stronger than single candy strip. But still too weak and can not stand properly. So, I decided to cover it with melted chocolate and put it on refrigerator for about 10 minutes to harden the chocolate.

Now,it's time to make the basket. I just pour about 2 tsp melted chocolate into a muffin paper cup and with a toothpick make the outer of the chocolate basket. .

Now, assemble the strap with the basket and put in in a refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes.  After the chocolate is hardened, carefully peel the paper cup from the chocolate and fill it in with some cute easter chocolate candy. It's cute, isn't it?

Chicken Teriyaki Rice Burger

Teriyaki sauce is one of my favorite sauce. Actually, teriyaki itself is  a cooking technique in Japanese cuisine. The word teriyaki is a combination from 2 Japanese words : tare (means luster) and yaki (means grilled or broilled) (Wikipedia.org). So, basically, the meat will be brushed or dipped with the sauce before grilling or broiling process. Teriyaki sauce is traditionally made by mixing and boiling soy sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin until they are thickened. It taste delicious and very famous all around the world.

This time, I want to make teriyaki burger. To be honest, i was inspired by runnyrunny999's rice burger recipe. He's using rice instead of bread for this kind of burger. It seems that this burger is quite popular in Japan. I still have some Japanese rice. So, why not try to make this rice burger. I bet they are delicious.

During the process, I found out that this burger is easy to make but quite time consuming because I had to really to pay attention on in to prevent it from burning. Beside, I still had to make the rice burger as well after making the chicken patty. And it was difficult to make the rice burger. I had to try few times before I could make it into a nice firm flat round shape like a burger. When I finally made it, the shape was still not perfectly round and some of rice will crumble all around. But it was worth it. All my hard work was paid off. The burger was so yummy. I love it.

Tip : The burger also can be served with crusty bread such as kaiser roll or Italian bread (ciabatta) instead of rice burger.

First, lets make the chicken patty.
Ingredients : (serving 4-5 burgers)

• 250 grams boneless skinless chicken, ground or minced well
• 1/2 medium onion, minced
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 3 tbs breadcrumbs
• 4 tbs flour
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder (or 2 cm fresh ginger, grated)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced 
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• salt and ground black pepper
• 6 tbs water
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs mirin
• 2 tbs white sugar
• 4-5 tbs vegetable oil

Preparation :

1. In a bowl, mix together ground/minced chicken, minced onion, soy sauce, breadcrumbs, flour, ginger powder, minced garlic, egg, sesame oil, salt and pepper.
2. In another small bowl, prepare the sauce by mixing together water, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar until most of the sugar are dissolved.
3. Preheat a non stick pan
4. Add some oil into the pan
5. Divide the chicken mixture into 4-5 part. 
6. Make a ball from each part of it. Press down the ball to make a flat burger. 
7. Put the burger into preheated pan and fry it for about 3 minutes for each side or until it become golden brown.
8. Pour the sauce mixture on the top of the chicken burger, reduce the heat, and cover the pan.
9. Let it cook for about 1-2 minute until the sauce is thickened.
10. Turn off the heat and remove the burger and the sauce from the pan. 

Now, lets make the rice burger.
Ingredients :

• About 3 cups room temperature cooked Japanese rice.
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped.
• salt
• sesame oil
• soy sauce

Preparation :

1. In a bowl, mix together rice, chopped spring onions, and salt
2. Wet your hand, take some rice mixture and make a firm ball out of it.
3. With both hand palms, press it gently until it become flat (about 2 cm thickness)
4. Repeat the process until you have 8 rice burger
5. Preheat about 2 tbs sesame oil in a pan.
6. Place the rice burger gently in those preheated pan.
7. Fry until golden brown on both sides. (Tip : do not flip the rice burger too much otherwise it will be broken)
8. Brush some sesame oil and soy sauce on both side for taste.
9. Remove the burger from the pan and assembly it with the chicken burger. 
10. Serve it hot with fresh salad.