Un Gâteau | Making Chocolate Ganache and Dealing with Curdled Butter

In late September, I attended an online baking class held by Dignity Social and we were making Chocolate Devil Cake with Chef Luvita Ho. I really wanted to directly follow her steps and do the baking right away. However, it was a week full of sweets and cakes and it wouldn't be friendly for my blood sugar level if I were to practice the recipe at that moment. Therefore, I try the recipe out in the following weekend.

Chocolate Devil Cake is an intensely chocolate-ey butter-based cake with chocolate ganache frosting. For the class, Chef Luvita designed the cake in three elements: the cake, the frosting, and the strawberry on top. Salut to all participants who managed to make this cake only within 3 hours with only the guidance of an online class, because I finished mine in 5 hours, which I will explain later in the process. 

I tweaked the recipe as per usual. Firstly, I forgot to buy some fresh strawberries to put on top of the cakes,  hence replaced it with a strawberry-flavored icing drizzle instead. Secondly, I turned them into cupcakes and not a sheet cake or a double-decked cake. Turning them into small cupcakes allows me to lower the individual portion (worrying about the sugar intake I was about to give to my family, lol) and gives me more people to share the cake with. Despite going through some tweaking, the cake turned out great and became the perfect after-school snacks. Let's see how I made them!

Cooking Duration: 3 Hours

Preparing the ingredients: 15 minutes

Ganache Making: 2 x 20 minutes

Creaming and Mixing: 15 Minutes

Baking: 30 Minutes

Cooling Down: 1 Hour

Frosting and Decorating: 20 Minutes (or more, to your fancy)

Yield:

23 Cupcakes (Each cake approximately 5 cm in diameter)

A. Ingredients

1. For the Cake

• Dry Ingredients

• AP Flour
• Cocoa Powder
• Salt
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda

• Wet Ingredients

• Eggs
• Granulated White Sugar
• Whole Milk
• Dark Chocolate (Couverture or Compound, both works well)

1. For the Frosting

• Dry Ingredients

• Salt

• Wet Ingredients

• Dark Chocolate (Couverture or Compound, both works well)
• Cream (Heavy Cream or Whipped Cream)
• Unsalted Butter

1. For the Drizzle

• Dry Ingredients

• Powdered Sugar

• Wet Ingredients

• Milk
• Strawberry Paste

For more detailed measurements, please contact the Dignity Social team or Chef Luvita herself. 

Let's talk about the ingredients. Firstly, There was no salt for the frosting in the original recipe. However, I was using prototype products from a local chocolatery and it needed some salt to strengthen the flavor. The chocolate also one of the reasons why it took me 5 hours instead of 3 to make this cake: they weigh 7 grams each and individually wrapped. The ganache-making could be done much faster without the unwrapping.

Secondly, make sure that your butter and eggs are at the same temperature! Otherwise, you will end up making the same mistake as me (which I will explain later in this post).

B. Preparation Step

1. Making Chocolate Ganache for the Batter

In this recipe, I made my very first batch of chocolate ganache. I did some research aside from the online class on how to nail this ganache. I found some helpful videos on Youtube and learned about the cream to chocolate ratio, different methods, and apparently, we can also make a chocolate ganache using cocoa powder. 

There are several methods we can use to make the ganache:

1. Method 1: Microwaving Cream and Chocolate. This is the most convenient method of them all. Alas, not all of us have a microwave.
2. Method 2: Pouring Scolded Cream into The Chopped Chocolate. This is the method in which we have to bring the cream in a saucepan on medium heat to a simmer. The cream has to be simmering and not boiling. This is a tricky method as we have to take the cream off the heat right before it starts to boil, pour it onto the chocolate, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, and then whisk them up until smooth. We have to closely look at the cream so that it comes to the perfect temperature to melt the chocolate without burning it. I didn't use this method because I feel like this method is temperature-sensitive. My mixing station is in a different room from my kitchen and I'm afraid that by the time I reached my chocolate bowl, the temperature has lowered down way too much.
3. Method 3: Melting the Chocolate on a Double-Boiler (bain-marie). This is my preferred method. In this method, we are heating the chocolate and cream on top of boiling water. The tools we need are a heat-proof bowl and a saucepan. Many sources stated that the bottom of the bowl and the boiling water underneath should never touch each other. To ensure this, if you are using a glass bowl, simply look through the glass and fill out the saucepan with water accordingly. But, if you are using a stainless steel bowl, fill in the saucepan with water to some extend, put the bowl on top of it, and then lift it out and check the bottom part. If it's dry, then you are good to go. Otherwise, take out some excess water and re-assess the level. Do the assessment before bringing the saucepan to the stovetop.
4. Method 4: Bring Together The Cream and The Chocolate on a Stovetop. This method is plausible. In fact, Chef Luvita used this method in the class. However, many sources don't recommend this method if we are yet to know our ingredients well. This method has a high possibility of burning the chocolate.

Choose your preferred method of making a chocolate ganache. Upon finishing it, put it into a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap (make sure that the plastic wrap touches the top surface of your ganache) and store it in the fridge while getting ready for the next steps.

2. Grease your Baking Pan

If you are making a sheet cake, line your baking pan with parchment paper and then grease it with butter/oil/PAM spray. However, you don't have to grease your cupcake baking papers.

C. The Baking Process

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the softened unsalted butter and then gradually add in the sugar,
2. Continue whisking until all the sugar dissolved,
3. Gradually add in the eggs,
via GIPHY
4. Continue whisking until well-mixed,
5. Gradually add in the chocolate ganache,
6. Continue whisking until well-mixed
7. Shift the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder altogether into the mixture,
8. Give a quick whisk for a few seconds and then fold the batter until there are no flour pockets,
via GIPHY
9. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and then pipe the batter equally into the baking papers,
10. Bake at 175 C for 25-30 minutes

Let's talk about the process. I broke my butter mixture (T^T).

via GIPHY

I learned that the butter can break (curdled or separated, you might find solid bits and liquid parts instead of a homogenous mixture) after adding eggs if they are not at the same temperature. You might see that my butter looked hard, as it was still cold. On the other hand, I used new eggs that my mom had just bought the day before and they are yet to be stored in the fridge. 

Now into my mistakes and where you can learn from me. Using cold butter and room temperature eggs is mistake number one. Make sure that they are both at the same temperature, preferably at room temperature where the butter is soft but not quite oily. To troubleshoot the curdled butter situation, we can add a few tablespoons of flour into the mixture. In my case, I added 7 x 1.2 tablespoons of flour before the mixture finally gets well-emulsified. Mistake number two, over-mixing the batter. I said that I added  7 x 1.2 tablespoon of four (that's 3 and a half tablespoon) and it made me mix the mixture for longer than needed. I should not be too focused on trying to save the curdled butter. Yes, we can bake curdled batter and it's okay. Over mixing the batter will lead to a denser cake.

C. Frosting and Decorating

1. Making the icing sugar drizzle:
• Shift our some powdered sugar
• Gradually add in milk, a little at a time, until you get the desired consistency (I made it into a paste)
• Add in paste food coloring (optional)
• Put it into a piping bag, set aside
2. Even though I was using a 1:1 ratio for my ganache, it turned out too liquidy for a piping bag. Therefore, I simply dipped my cupcakes in the ganache, as if decorating a donut. This will result in a thinner frosting. If you would like to have a thicker frosting, whip out your ganache, put it into a piping bag, and pipe the desired amount of frosting onto the cupcakes.
3. Drizzle the icing on the ganache.

D. The Yield

Notes:

1. Mistake number three happened in the frosting process. My icing was too thin that it melted everywhere. Make sure that you get a paste-like consistency out of your icing sugar.
2. Another alternative to decorate your cake/cupcakes is to add fresh fruits. The original recipe calls for some fresh strawberries.
3. What I recently learned: for better measurements (especially for dry ingredients which have to be shifted), put the bowl and the shifter on top of your scale before pushing the "tare" button.
4. Piping beautiful peaks on cupcakes do require practices A lot of practices. Don't get discouraged if yours are not as pretty as what you see on social media. Keep practicing (this is also an encouragement to myself, lol). Good luck!

Du Pain: I Learned Making Dinner Rolls for My Grandpa

Duration: 2 h 32 m - 3 h 32 m (manual kneading)

Preparation (15 Minutes)

Mixing (5 minutes)

Kneading (12 minutes)

1st Proof (1-2 hours)

2nd Proof (30 minutes)

Baking (30 minutes)

Yield:

9-12 Dinner rolls.

Three days before my Grandpa passed away, he asked for some "soft round bread that is mildly sweet and easy to chew."  Dinner rolls popped in my mind at that time. Did he get it? Yes, but it was from the local bakery. The day he asked for it, I couldn't make it right away. I need to get back home (we live in different cities), learn the recipe, test the recipe, pack it, and finally bring it to him. Even though I didn't make it in time for him, at least now I know how to make some Dinner Rolls.

Almost every recipe I found online requires light dusting of corn starch onto the bread just before it gets baked and it makes me wonder. What will a dusting of corn starch do on top of fluffy soft buns? I've tried a recipe with corn starch dusting and another recipe with an egg wash. In this blog post, I'll show you how I made the one with an egg wash. The recipe belongs to Joshua Weissman, check out his video for the detailed information on measurements and the other things.

A. The Ingredients

Wet Ingredients:

Whole Milk

Water

White Sugar

Instant Dry Yeast

Eggs

Butter

Dry Ingredients:

Bread Flour

Salt

Let's talk about yeast. You can use any dry yeast available in your local stores, just make sure that you use it as suggested in the packaging. Before this, I tried Emma Goodies recipe for the starch dusted ones. The recipe stated that she added 7gr or one packet of dry yeast into the warm milk, while Weissman added 9gr. The yeast I used is packaged in an 11 gr sachet. It is stated in the packaging that one sachet of yeast is to pair with 1000 gr flour. After calculating, it means that I only need 3-4 grams of yeast for the recipe. I was torn whether I should go with the direction or with the recipe instead. In the end, I followed the recipe. However, because Emma said that we may use one packet of instant yeast, silly me actually added all 11gr of yeast into my dough. The result? The dough turned out dry, even after I added more milk. I kept on baking the bread, but it didn't rise well and the smell was too strong in the first batch. In this attempt, I went with the recipe again since Mr. Weissman only put 9gr of yeast into his dough. 

"2 grams difference eh? maybe it will turn out better," I said to myself.

Well, while the texture did improve, the smell was still too strong. Lesson learned, go with what's directed in the yeast' packaging, the producer knows their products best.

B. Preparation Step

1. Preparing the butter

• For kneading: The butter has to be at room temperature so that it incorporates better into the dough. If you are living in a place with a warm climate, simply measure out the amount of butter you need and let it sit outside the fridge for a while before anything else. Otherwise, put the butter in a microwave for seconds (some newer generation microwave even has the option to soften butter).  Another option is to put the butter in your oven, heat off but lights on. For another option with more dishes to wash but less electricity consumption is to put the butter in a small bowl and then put it in a slightly bigger bowl filled with warm water. Make sure that you have enough warm water to surround the butter bowl, but not so much that the water flows into the butter.
• For coating: Minutes before the bread finished baking, take a teaspoon of butter and set aside. This butter will be smeared on top of the bread after it's baked.

2. Blooming the Yeast

1. Warm up the milk to 30-35° C,
2. Add in the dry yeast, stir until all the yeast soaked in milk, 
3. cover it and set aside.

3. Making Tangzhong

1. Add in the bread flour, water, and milk into a small saucepan,
2. Bring it to a stovetop, turn on medium heat,
3. Continuously whisking until the mixture thickens,
4. Remove from the heat, transfer it into a small bowl, set aside, and let cool to room temperature,

C. Baking Process

In this entire process, I will be kneading manually using my hands. Kneading duration might vary, depends on how quick you are moving your hands. 

1. Add in the bread flour and sugar into a medium-sized bowl, mix until just combined,

via GIPHY

2. Add in the tangzhong, bloomed yeast, and egg, whisk for a while to break the egg and then start to knead,

via GIPHY

3. Continue kneading for 5 minutes,
4. Gradually add in the salt, continue kneading
5. Gradually add in the softened butter, continue kneading for 7 more minutes,

via GIPHY

6. After you get smooth and supple dough, form it into a ball, put into a greased medium-sized bowl, cover it with a damp towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size (1st proofing),
7. After the dough has risen up, gently push the dough (or, punch it once, lol) to release excess air,

via GIPHY

8. Measure out your dough and divide them into smaller pieces (I divided the dough into 9 pieces),
9. Form the divided dough into balls,
10. Put it in a baking pan (i used an 18x18 pan) like so,
11. Cover the pan with a damp towel and let rise for another 30 minutes (2nd proofing),
12. Prepare the egg wash while waiting for the dough to rest: beat an egg and add a splash of whole milk, stir until well combined,
13. Add in a layer of egg wash on top of your dough,
14. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 ° C for 30 minutes,
15. Take it out from the oven, smear butter on the upper surface, let cool down.

Please make sure that you knead the dough until soft and supple BEFORE doing the first proofing. Because I feel like the dough was not supple enough in my first try (there were weird air pockets all over my dough, later I found out that is because I used too much dry yeast), I kneaded it again after the first proofing,*sigh*. 

Kneading the dough after proofing will toughen the gluten up, resulting in a dense bread. I got a rock-hard "weapon" instead of fluffy soft buns in my first try, lol. In this recipe, gently pressing the dough several times and forming into desired shapes are the only acceptable things to do after the first proofing.

There are actually more steps in the original recipe. However, since my goal is only to make plain dinner rolls, I'm skipping the garlic butter. Although steep 15 is also optional, smearing butter on top of the bread adds a pleasant aroma to it, I really recommend not to skip this step.

D. The Yield

They taste amazing! Best served while warm and with some butter, divine. They really remind me of the dinner rolls served in my local steak house and it was nice to be "reunited" again with the homemade version of it. Thank you, Mr. Weissman. Good luck to all of you who want to learn this recipe!