More Merry Moo!

I can’t believe it’s been two and a half years since I first blogged about Merry Moo. Back then, they were only available via Mercato Central. But my family and I would make the trip all the way to The Fort on weekends and never ever leave without a scoop and/or pints of their delicious ice cream. I love Merry Moo Ice Cream so much that I’ve collaborated with them on flavors. Twice!

So I’m very happy to announce (and a little proud, if you don’t mind my saying, Kelvin, if you’re reading this) that Merry Moo has just recently opened its first two stand-alone locations! The first is located at Food Choices in Glorietta 4, Makati:

And the other one is at the 2nd floor of SM Mall of Asia, across Topshop:

A third location is in the works at the Lower Ground floor of the mall du jour, SM Aura Premier.

If these malls are still nowhere near where you live or work, then fear not. Merry Moo also has stockists further north in San Juan and in Quezon City. Of course, Merry Moo is still a mainstay in weekend markets. While they are no longer in Mercato Central (RIP, Mercato) they still have kiosks in several other weekend locations.

So to get your fill of fresh, unique and delicious artisanal ice cream, see the complete list of Merry Moo branches, weekend market locations and stockists below:

Merry Moo Branches:
SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City M.M.                                       Food Choices, Glorietta 4, Makati City, M.M.
2nd Floor, across Topshop                                                   3rd Floor, beside Dulcelin in food court area
Open daily 10am-10pm                                                     Open weekdays 11am-10pm, weekends 11am-11pm

Weekend Markets:
Midnight Mercato Night Market                                       Salcedo Saturday Market
Corner of 8th Avenue & 34th Street,                                 Salcedo Park, Salcedo Village, Makati City
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig                                             7am-2pm, Saturdays
Fridays and Saturdays from 9pm-3am

Mezza Norte Night Market                                               Podium Mall Weekend Flavors Market
Trinoma Open Parking Lot                                                3rd floor, Podium Mall, Ortigas, Pasig
4pm-3am, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays                      10am-10pm Fridays to Sundays

Cucina Andare
Glorietta Park, infront of 6750 Building
Makati City
4pm to 3am, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

Stockists:
ECHOstore Serendra                                                          ECHOstore Centris
G/F Serendra Piazza, McKinley Parkway,                            Eton Centris Park,
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig                                              Quezon Avenue, Quezon City
11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily                                                     11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Tel: 901.3485

Deli Master                                                                         DEC – Diao Eng Chay Food Plaza
33 Anapolis St., Greenhills, San Juan City                            203 Wilson St., Greenhills, San Juan City
10:00 am – 8:00 pm Mon – Sat                                          8 am to 10 pm Daily
9:00 am – 8:00 pm Sun                                                      Tel: 721 1105 / 721 3649

 

Photo courtesy of Merry Moo.

Tiong Bahru Bakery in Singapore

I am never one to resist a French carb, so when one of my friends suggested going to Tiong Bahru Bakery during my Singapore trip last week, I was definitely up for it.

Officially named Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier, TBB is named after the relatively quiet neighborhood where its first branch opened early last year. I honestly have never heard of Gontran Cherrier before this, but according to my research he’s a third generation boulanger with a few bakeries in Paris. Apparently he is the “Brad Pitt of the Paris bakery scene” known for spicing up his breads with miso and other flavors. However, I put more stock in the fact that Dorie Greenspan called his chocolate tartlet “lovely“.

The smaller of the two branches, the original branch, was packed on Saturday lunch, but my friend and I only had to wait a short time for a table to clear up. We needed the time to decide what to have for lunch anyway:

My friend and I decided to split a Specialty Bun with Bacon (right) and a baguette with Arugula, Prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes:

The baguette for the prosciutto sandwich was lightly spiced with curry, providing another layer of flavor after the saltiness of the prosciutto and the peppery kick of the arugula. If I had known beforehand that the bread was curry-flavored, I might not have gotten the sandwich, since I would have thought that there would be too many clashing flavors already. But surprisingly, it works. And even more surprising: a light smudge of apricot jam (made available by TBB in little dishes, along with strawberry jam and French butter) just ties everything together. The bright sweetness of the jam is just a great counterpoint for all the savory flavors the sandwich has going on.

The bacon is, in a lot of ways, similar to the prosciutto sandwich, just with varying degrees of flavors. The watercress is less peppery than the arugula, but the bacon is saltier than the prosciutto. The bun is less savory than the baguette, but it compensates for that with the sprinkling of curry powder on the the top bun. It all works together though, and, as with the previous sandwich, it’s even better with apricot jam. I just might start putting apricot jam on everything.

Jam aside, though, the real reason I agreed to go all the way to Tiong Bahru was for, of course, the desserts.

My friend decided on an Almond and Chocolate Croissant (bottom right corner). I chose the Lemon Tart, a vanilla choux pastry and a Kouign Amann for the road (not pictured).

The vanilla choux pastry (i.e. cream puff for the rest of us) filling was delicious and tastes just as you expect cream puff filling to taste: creamy, velvety and lush. The choux, though, is slightly different from what I expected: slightly heavier, denser and drier than your average cream puff. It also came with a strange crust on top, like the ones you would usually have on a coffee bun. Not a dealbreaker for me, but still strange.

Also slightly non-traditional would be the crust for the Lemon Tart. TBB uses a crust that is more like shortbread, versus a tart shell. No biggie for me, really, because I care more about the filling. I would have preferred the lemon filling to be a little silkier, smoother, to be honest. But what it lacks in the texture department, it more than makes up for in taste. If you like your citrus flavors subtle and mild, then I would not recommend this tart to you. Gontran Cherrier meant business when he made the filling for this: bold, strong, tart… almost too tart, and that’s something, coming from me, a lover of all things lemon-y and lime-y. But he just takes the lemon flavor up to line of “too much” without crossing it and the result is citrus-y heaven.

My favorite thing from the Tiong Bahru Bakery, though, is the one thing I don’t have a proper photo of: the Kouign Amman. Crisp, flaky, sweet, salty awesomeness. Traditionally a cake made with layers of salted butter, sugar and dough (don’t you just LOVE the French for thinking up things like this?), Monsieur Cherrier’s version is of the rolled type, like a cinnamon roll. I’ve never had the traditional version of this Breton dessert (something that will change on my next trip to Paris, obvs), so he won’t get any complaints from me. TBB’s Kouign Amman is wonderful: with the inside sometimes doughy and sometimes flaky, and a crispy outer shell topped with clear, buttery caramel. Le sigh. I’m getting depressed by the fact that I’m just writing about it and not actually eating it.

On the merits of the Kouign Amman alone, I highly recommend Tiong Bahru Bakery. But if caramelly, buttery French carbs are not your thing are you human?!?! there are still other things from TBB that would make it well worth the trip to the neighborhood (or Raffles City).

Tiong Bahru Bakery
56 Eng Hoon st. #01-70
Singapore 160056
Daily: 8am to 8pm

252 North Bridge Road
#B1-11/12 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Daily: 9am to 10pm

My food Bucket List

I have a long, long list of recipes I want to try out, from cookbooks and from the internet. If I cooked one everyday, I would probably be cooking for the next few months. Some things I just noted in passing but some  things are just foods I really love and want to make my own version of.

Below is a list of the latter group. My food bucket list of sorts. Things I’m desperate to make but haven’t either because (1) I don’t have the tools to make them (i.e. food processor) or (2) I haven’t found the perfect recipe to take the plunge with or (3) I’m too daunted by how complicated they seem and, almost always, (4) they scare me sh*tless. Yes, I’m weird. We’ve long established that.

• Lemon Curd- it’s creamy, velvety and filled with lemon-y goodness. What’s not to love? I’ve had this with Greek yogurt at Breakfast at Antonio’s and it was really wonderful. Sunshine in a teaspoon. Another argument for making this is that I can use it for item #2 below:

• Lemon Meringue Cupcakes- Isabella, the first winner of Junior Masterchef Australia, made this on the show and all the judges went crazy for them. I wanted to reach through the screen and grab one from Isabella’s work station. Little Red Hen’s lime version of this is citrus-y perfection, and I’ve been dreaming of having something similar, if not exactly the same. Since I haven’t seen anyone offering lemon/lime curd-filled meringue topped wonders, then I really don’t have a choice but to make my own.

• Pierre Hermé’s Lemon Tart -So I guess there’s a theme. I keep kicking myself for not getting one of these in Paris. Dorie Greenspan sings praises of  this tart in her cookbook, making me even more desperate to make it. Alas, I don’t have the tools that I need to make it (food processor, tart pan). Nor do I have the guts (yet, at least) to take on a world-famous pastry from an even more famous pastry chef.
  

• Crack Pie – I don’t think we really need to go through why again.

• A really, really good burger – I kind of feel that a burger is something everyone should know how to make, like a steak. Or is that just burger-obsessed me? And I’m not talking fancy, gourmet style burgers stuffed with foie gras or blue cheese, even. Just a basic, medium-cooked burger on a generously buttered toasted bun, with  lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo, good cheddar and maybe a strip of bacon. Being able to make that should be a basic skill, right?

• Buttermilk Fried Chicken- I can’t count how many Food Network shows I’ve watched where they showed crispy, juicy and moist buttermilk fried chicken being touted as the best of Southern/comfort/diner/food truck/Soul food. And I want me some of that!

• Perfect French Fries - After burgers and fried chicken, I might as well complete the holy trinity of junk food. The Pioneer Woman’s Perfect French Fries require a lot of REALLY hot oil, a thermometer (anything apart from the oven that needs to be heated to a certain temperature is scary to me), frying the potatoes twice… basically it’s a lot of work. But apparently double-frying is key to get perfect fries (baked fries, while delicious, do NOT count as the real thing, in my book). Even the Queen of Goop says so. But before I get to experience the perfect french fry, I need to get over my fear of 400º oil splattering all over me.

I really don’t know when I will start tackling all of these. For some of these, I have valid reasons for not making them yet (for instance, the search for freeze dried corn powder for Crack Pie still continues). But mostly, I’m worried about messing up, wasting all that food and putting all that effort into something that may not turn out as good as I built them up in my head.

Hmmm, if I had a shrink, I wonder what he/she would say about thoughts like these?

But never mind that. Do you have things that you want but are scared to make?

Please click on the images for the sources.

From Milk: Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookie

I was finally able to make something from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook this weekend. I’ve been putting it off for a few reasons. For one, I haven’t had the time to chase after the tricky ingredients I’ve ranted about in this post. For another, there’s something daunting and intimidating about trying to make and replicate something you’ve had from an iconic New York bakery. Who do I think I am, trying to make something Christina Tosi herself created? I knew I was going to be crushed if things did not turn out well (and yes, these are things I obsess about. Don’t judge.).

But I have to at least try, no? And so, try I did.

The recipe I tried out was the Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookie. No weird ingredients needed in this one, although it is one of those many recipe within a recipe things in the book. To make this cookie, you need to make Cornflake Crunch, basically a mixture of cornflakes, milk powder, butter, salt and sugar, baked to a crispy perfection. Although the cookie recipe only requires 3/4 of the crunch recipe, make the whole recipe. If you’re human at all, you will be snacking on this, and, like me, will leave barely enough to meet the 3-cup requirement for the cookies.

Christina Tosi recommends using a #16 ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measure to make the cookies. I didn’t have the scoop, so I used the latter, and my cookies turned out HUGE, some of them almost the size of a saucer. I was only able to bake three at a time on my cookie sheets. I just Googled the #16 ice cream scoop, and it turns out that its equivalent is 4 tbsps or 1/4 cup. So I will definitely use that the next time I make these.

The cookies are actually on a full-sized plate here.

But bigger cookies are not exactly a bad thing when it comes to these ( and maybe for any cookie for that matter), because they are a marvel. They are crispy, as in thin and crispy, in the edges but gooey, chewy and sticky in the center. I don’t know if it’s Christina’s 10-minute creaming method, or the marshmallows or both, but the contrast of the textures is really something else.

Also something else? The way the cookie tastes. Imagine if you will, a chocolate chip cookie injected with the toasty caramelly-ness of roasted marshmallows, with bursts of the sweet-salty crispiness of the cornflake crunch. It may not be a classic combination, but it’s fantastic nonetheless.

And so while there some things that I didn’t get quite right to perfectly match the Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow cookies I had last September (for instance, I think mine spread a little too much), I think these turned out quite well. I am so glad I didn’t mess them up. Whew. And, yey!

So I guess Compost Cookies are next? Then, maybe (gasp!) Crack Pie?

I love/hate you, Christina Tosi

I love Momofuku Milk Bar. During my trip to NYC, I visited the East Village store and wanted to just camp out there. I think I got decision anxiety trying to choose which cookies to get (corn, compost and cornflake marshmallow), deciding on how many slices of Crack Pie I can actually eat without passing out in a sugar coma (I didn’t want to risk it, so, one) and if I could still have Cereal Milk soft serve ice cream after the Salty Pimp I just had from my previous stop at Big Gay Ice Cream (alas, no). I wanted to try EVERYTHING. But obviously that (and setting up a tent on the sidewalk) wasn’t an option so I had to be content with  my purchases.

And I loved them ALL. So, as you can imagine, I loved the cookbook, too, which I got for Christmas from one of my best friends.

Apart from the recipes (we’ll get to that later), I find Christina, her story and her approach to baking fascinating. She went from working on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (or HACCP) plans for New York restaurants, to working as part of the “etc.” of Momofuku (no kitchen work involved). And then one night, after tasting another one of the home baked goodies Christina brought to work with her, David Chang asked ordered her to make something for dinner service at Ssäm. And the rest is sweet delicious history.

Reading about how the now-iconic recipes came to be, about the goings-on at the Milk Bar kitchen is quite fun, too. For instance, I find the fact that Marian Mar measures the Milk Bar cake layers by the gram amazing and also quite disconcerting. I also think it’s pretty cool that the Cornflake Marshmallow Chocolate Chip cookies was a result of over toasted cornflake crunch for the cereal milk pana cotta at Ko.

But. BUT. Uggggh.

Glucose. Freeze dried corn. Freeze dried corn powder. Pectin NH. Gelatin sheets. Clear vanilla extract.

Where the heck can I find these things in Manila?

No, it’s enough that these recipes are some of the most specific, most labor-intensive recipes I’ve ever seen. Christina has a 10 minute creaming method, has non-negotiable ingredients, has recipes within recipes within recipes and wants me to make my own Concord grape juice (must add Concord grapes to the list of impossible-to-find items).

Uggggh. Sad face.

Realistically speaking, the glucose is probably available in Manila, the gelatin sheets, too, if I try really hard. But freeze-dried corn powder?!?!?!

And the heartbreaking thing is that you need the freeze dried corn powder to make Crack Pie.

I. CAN’T. MAKE. CRACK. PIE.

*cue temper tantrum that would make a four year old proud*

Why are you doing this to me, Christina Tosi? Why make a cookbook that only people who own/live beside a specialty baking store and Concord grape farm can cook from? Whyyyyyyy?

*resume temper tantrum*

 

Temper tantrum aside, any leads on where I can get those hard to find ingredients? Fellow home bakers, Crack Pie addicts, help please! I need my Crack (Pie)!

December: Bittersweet Brownies and, yay!!

And just at the nick of time.

I finished what I set out to do when I started my 2012 Cooking Challenge on the last day of the year. Twelve months, thirteen recipes, the last of which was Dorie Greenspan’s Bittersweet Brownies.

And yes, I had to cram this in to make sure that I completed what should have been an easy enough challenge. I picked this recipe because it was easy, I had all the ingredients available at home and because I wanted to try out another brownie recipe after my attempt at Ina’s Outrageous Brownies didn’t come out absolutely perfect. I’m stubborn like that.

And sometimes, persistence pays out:

As you can see from the picture, I had no issues with the texture of these brownies whatsoever. They came out perfectly, and I could slice them without the edges crumbling to pieces.

Taste-wise, these were great, too. Despite the recipe’s name, these didn’t taste as bitter as I expected them to be. Ina’s actually tastes darker and more bitter.

And if you asked me to choose between the two, I couldn’t.  Well, ok, maybe I’ll go with Dorie’s recipe because I know I can make that perfectly. But my pride aside, you really can’t go wrong with any of the two recipes. They both are chocolatey, moist and delicious. I guess it will just be a matter of taste or mood or what kind of chocolate you find in your supermarket. In the mood for something darker, with fudgy and oozy bits of chocolate chips in the brownie? Then go for Ina’s. Could only find bittersweet chocolate at Rustan’s? Then Dorie’s would be perfect.

Ah, if only all of life’s options always turned out so well.

November: Outrageous Brownies

It’s December 30th and here I am, still scrambling to finish my cooking challenge. With Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies, I am left one recipe short with one day left in the year. Let’s see what I can scramble to make tomorrow, but for now, let’s get to the brownies.

The original recipe in Ina’s Barefoot Contessa cookbook is huge, requiring 4 sticks of butter, a little over 2 pounds of chocolate and a 12×18 inch baking pan that I don’t think would even fit in my oven. Not to mention the recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate, which is hard to find in Manila.

Ina Garten’s new cookbook, Foolproof, has a variation of this recipe which conveniently only uses half of the batter, saving me the trouble of doing the computation myself. I’ve also been able to find locally made unsweetened chocolate (Goya, who knew?), so I finally had everything I needed to make these babies and see if they really are as “outrageous” as Ina claims them to be.

Taste-wise, these do not taste like the brownies we’re used to. Probably because of the coffee powder used, the chocolate taste of these brownies is deeper and richer, even if there are only 3 oz of unsweetened chocolate to 8 of semi-sweet. I love that they taste of darker chocolate, but this might not be recipe to use if you want a sweeter, milk-chocolate-y taste.

Texture-wise… Well. I may have messed things up in that department a little. Weirdly enough, while the brownie wasn’t dry or sandy at all, it was still very crumbly. Is that possible, for something to still be moist but be crumbly? I guess it is, since that’s how these turned out. I don’t know what it was. I took them out of the oven even if the toothpick wasn’t coming out completely clean yet, even if they already baked longer than the 35 minutes recommended by Ina. Maybe it was because I used a glass pan instead of a metal one? Whatever it was, I ended up with this after slicing up the brownies:

Brownie… clumps? I wouldn’t call them crumbs, because they were bigger than that. As you can see, there was a lot of them. And as you can also see, I couldn’t bear to throw them out. I hate things (especially good butter and chocolate) going to waste, and I figured this was a problem (if you could call it that) a little ice cream couldn’t fix.

So despite the initial annoyance at the texture of the brownies did not come out perfect, I guess ending up with yummy ice cream topping is not something I should be complaining about. Two desserts from one recipe is not such a bad outcome for an afternoon.

Chocolate caramel/Speculoos tartlets (a.k.a. little bites of heaven)

I’ve been wanting to make David Lebovitz’s chocolate caramel tartlets for I while now. I thought they would be a perfect way to use up the Trade Joe’s Fleur De Sel Caramels I hoarded bought during my trip. I thought long and hard about buying mini-muffin pans since I didn’t want to spend money on something I will rarely use. I’ve already spent too much money on my assortment of baking pans as it is. And when I finally decided to get them, they took forever to find.

It also took me forever to make these. I only found one 12-slot mini-muffin pan so it took me almost two hours to mold, freeze, bake and cool two and half batches of tartlets (I ended up with 31 tartlets instead of the 24 in the recipe). By the time I was finished, it was almost 2am and I was exhausted, so I left the filling for the next day.

That took quite a while, too. Peeling a bunch of caramels wrapped in super thin plastic wrapping was slow-going, especially when you have to keep washing your hands after you unconsciously lick off the caramel sticking to your finger tips.

And as it turns out, I didn’t peel enough caramels. I made 33% more of the caramel filling since I ended up with more tart shells, but still came up short. While figuring out how much caramel it will take to fill up 5 empty tartlets, I had a genius idea:

Two delicious, heavenly words: COOKIE BUTTER (I won’t even attempt to describe how it tastes. Just go and get some for yourself. NOW. YESTERDAY. Ugggh.).

The tartlets were then topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache. And the final flourish was a sprinkling of sea salt, in this case, Trader Joe’s Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (I love Trader Joe’s obvs).

And the end product was TO. DIE. FOR. But with chocolate, caramel and Cookie Butter (I daresay I might even like the Speculoos version better, shocker!), how can these tartlets be anything but delicious? Well, unless you screw something up, of course. But it would be hard to even do that, since the recipe is quite straightforward and easy.

And can you imagine the possibilities? If you can’t get your hands on caramel or refuse to fork over the ridiculous PhP 550 stores charge for Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter locally (I’m one of those people, since it’s less than $5.00 at TJ’s), you can use dulce de leche, peanut butter, strawberry or raspberry jam or any other filling you love.

So, go, buy the mini-muffin pans so you can you make these little bite-sized wonders. I actually just bought my second one, a 24-slotted pan. Moment of weakness, you say? But I still have some Trader Joe’s caramels left over and six jars of Cookie Butter to work with, so I’d like to think of the pans as an investment. An investment that will pay delicious, mouth-watering dividends.

Note: Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter is available locally via Blue Kitchen. Although I do think you’re better off having your relatives from the US buy it for you straight from TJ’s for less than $5.00 (there’s still time to ask those coming home for Christmas, go!!! Ask them to get you the caramels, too, while you’re at it!). Also, mini muffins pans are available in 12s and 24s at Cook’s Exchange, which should’ve been the first placed I looked.

October: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

One of my pet peeves about baking recipes is the fact that they all seem to require different sizes of pans. For instance, for the chocolate cakes I’ve baked, I’ve had to buy 8 inch pans and 9 inch pans. When I came across a recipe calling for a 10 inch pan, I flat out ignored it. The thing with baking is that, while you can use a smaller or bigger pan than what the recipe requires, you’d also have to tweak your baking time and/or temperature correctly, or you’ll risk burning or undercooking what you’re making.

And this is why it took me so long to make Dorie Greenspan’s Espresso Cheesecake Brownies. I thought long and hard about just using the 8 inch square pan that I already have. When I did finally decide to spring for the 9 inch pan the recipe required, it took me a while to find one. Anyway, I finally did get one (the last one in the store!) and made the brownies this weekend:

I didn’t make the sour cream glaze in the recipe because I really didn’t want to a sour cream AND confectioner’s sugar layer to something that already had chocolate, cream cheese, sugar and eggs. And, I also didn’t have enough sour cream on hand. Hehe.

I would make a couple more changes for the next time I make them. First, I would double up on the instant coffee powder I used for the cheesecake mixture. The recipe called for instant espresso powder and I substituted the same amount of instant coffee powder. Yeah, someone didn’t do their research. Second, I would probably increase the brownie mixture by half because I think the brownie layer is just a tad too thin and I also need more of the batter to swirl on top.

But don’t get me wrong, these were yummy. I just need a little more batter to swirl and for the coffee flavor to be as intense as Dorie  meant to it be.

Merry Moo and Me

I’m so excited to share this with everyone!

I have collaborated with Kelvin Ngo of Merry Moo on a flavor that will be sold in limited amounts this weekend!

And what’s the flavor, you ask? Well, the photo below should be a clue. I baked this last weekend and our ice cream will be filled with yummy (if I say so myself) chunks of this:

Cheesecake by me, photo by Kelvin.

So come over to any one of the Merry Moo stalls to give their Cheesecake Ice Cream a try. They have stalls in Mercato Centrale, Mezza Norte, Salcedo Saturday Market, Legazpi Sunday Market and the Podium Mall. We’re still perfecting this one, so feel free to let us know what you think of it on Merry Moo’s Facebook page!