Lemon Curd Creme Puffs with Matcha White Chocolate Ganache

I'm done with my surgery rotation and I finally have time to meddle in the kitchen! Even if I was waking up at 4am and sleeping 4 hours everyday, I'm going to miss the excitement of being in the operating room. Surgery has been hand downs my fav rotation and I got to work with so many amazing people (including an attending who may be reading this...but I only have high praises for him hahaha ;))

I can't believe I spent all of winter in the OR and it's almost spring! Here, I made some cream puffs filled with fluffy lemon curd cream and topped them off with matcha white chocolate ganache and edible flowers. Don't they just look like spring and sunshine?

Don't let the long list of instructions fool you! These are actually very simple to make. You can make the lemon curd cream the night before, so all you need to make are the puffs and matcha ganache the next day. If you have a kitchen aid mixer, making the dough will be a breeze. I have mixed the dough by hand before and I think that's why my right arm is twice the size of my left :P. Hope you guys are enjoying the warmer weather!

Lemon Curd Creme Puffs with Matcha White Chocolate Ganache

makes 20-25 mini creme puffs

Pâte à Choux (made here too!)
1 stick butter, cubed
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Whipped Lemon Curd
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1 large lemon and zest
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp powdered sugar

Matcha White Chocolate Ganache
1-2 tsp matcha powder
1/4 cup white chocolate chips (I used ghirardelhi)
1/4 cup heavy cream

• Cream puffs: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a large baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat
2.  In a medium sized pot, put in the butter, milk, water, sugar and salt. Place on medium-high heat and stir frequently. Once it has all melted and starts bubbling on the top, reduce the heat to low
3. Dump in the flour and stir with a heat proof spatula. It will start coming together and form a giant shiny yellow ball (less than 5 minutes)
4. Place the dough in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and stir slowly to cool for about 2 minutes. Crack 1 egg at a time and mix on low until it is thoroughly incorporated. Repeat with the other eggs. Now the dough will be smooth, yellow and thick.
5. Transfer into a pastry bag with a 1/2" tip. Pipe out 1.5" mounds on the prepared tray about 1 inch apart (they don't spread too much). Using a wet fingertip, smooth the top of each mound where you pulled the dough away from the tip so they don't burn in the oven. 
6. Place in the oven, reduce the temp to 350F after 1 min and bake until puffs are golden brown (~30-35mins). DON'T open door while baking or all the puffs will deflate! Once they come out, take a paring knife and poke a hole in the side to let the steam escape and transfer to a cooling rack.

• Lemon Curd (made the night before):

1. In a small pot, whisk egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and its juice and salt. Heat on medium flame and continuously whisk until thickened slightly. Whisk in cornstarch and keep whisking until it is the consistency of greek yogurt (taste test here and add more sugar if needed). Take off heat and cool for a few minutes. Place saran wrap directly on the lemon curd surface and stick it in the refrigerator
2. In a clean and cold mixing bowl, whisk heavy cream and powdered sugar on high until stiff peaks form. Whisk in vanilla
3. Fold the now cold curd with the whipped cream. You don't have to use all the cream if you think it's too much. I put in 3/4 of it I think
4. Only pipe in the cream when you are about to eat/serve it, otherwise the puffs can get soggy.

• Matcha Ganache
• Stir matcha powder, chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small bowl. Microwave in 10 second bursts and stir. Mine was done in 14 ish seconds. I always have trouble with white chocolate seizing on me, so now I have chocolate PTSD and check every 5 seconds
• Drizzle this over lemon curd cream filled puffs and serve!

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Matcha Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

I am absolutely obsessed with Korean dramas right now. It's so bad for my health because I stay up all night watching them. I just finished a 20 episode one today, that are 1 hour long each in 2 days! My eyes are about to shrivel up and die in its sockets. I bet I'm going to sleep through my bus stop today, which I have done too many times and walked home to spare the bus fare back to my original stop :(

I can't even explain why I watch them. The love triangles drive me crazy, the acting is terrible, it makes me cringe when they try to speak English, the overdone story of rich boy gets poor puppy eyed girl drives me nuts.... I could go on forever but I just can't stay away from them!!  Somebody pull me away from the TV!!!

Now that I don't have my trusty KA mixer, I'm not in much of a mood to bake. I want to bake bread but the thought of kneading makes my arm willy-nilly :P Here's a macaron recipe I did before I left for LA (tweaked from Piña Colada Macarons). My macaron feet looks soo good now.

Also I have a giveaway (click!) this week. Don't forget to enter!

Matcha Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

makes about 25 macarons
notes below ***

Macaron Shells
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2.5 tsp matcha powder
2 large egg whites, ages 2 day in fridge and 1 day at room temp
5 tbsp granulated sugar

White Chocolate Ganache Filling
6oz white chocolate, chopped (or use chips, roughly 1 cup)
5 tbsp heavy cream

• Filling:

1. Heat heavy cream in a small pan until it is just about to simmer. Pour over chopped white chocolate (in a bowl) and let that sit for 1 min
2. Then mix until you have a nice creamy consistency. Let it cool until okay to touch
3. Fill a piping bag and place into the refrigerator until ready to pipe

• Macarons:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat and get a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch plain tip prepared
2. In a food processor pulse almond flour, matcha powder and powdered sugar until mixed and fluffy
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat egg whites with the whisk attachment on medium low for 2 mins, gradually adding in the sugar.
4. Increase speed to 7 to whip for another 3 minutes and then at 8-10 for another 4 minutes. You should be getting a stiff meringue that you can make soft peaks with. Try not to over beat.
5. Fold the dry ingredients in 2 batches with a rubber spatula and make smooth sweeps to the bottom of the bowl. You do want to deflate the meringue and after about 40-50 foldings it should look glossy and when you drop some from your spatula to the batter, it takes about 10 secs for it to mold back into the mix. Don't over mix or it will a runny and watery mess!
6. Fill your pastry bag and pipe batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 3.5cm circles, spaced 1" apart. 
7. Rap the baking sheet a few times about 1 inch above the counter top to flatten the macarons and to get rid of bubbles. Let them rest at room temp for 45-60mins. The tops should be dry and nothing should stick to your finger if you poke them. 
8. Preheat your oven to 310 F. Bake for 16-18 mins each pan separately and rotating pans halfway. You can check they are done by lifting one macaron you can sacrifice. If the feet comes off, leave it in longer. You always want to overbake than underbake.
9. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together.
10. Let them sit in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 1 day before serving. Seriously!! They taste 100x better when the insides of the macaron shells soften a bit and the filling flavors come together

***

• I let the egg whites sit in the fridge longer (2 days) and let them rest outside for 2 days too
• I baked them at a longer temperature. But if you bake them too long, they will turn brown and won't keep green. You may want to use green food coloring
• It could be difficult to lift the macarons from the paper. When it has cooled for about 5-10mins, sprinkle some water on the baking tray under the parchment paper. The steam helps them unstick but peel them off quickly or they might get soggy

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Chocolate Ganache Tart

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope everyone ate until their buttons popped off their pants and have now settled into some expandable sweatpants and onesies. I am still feeling like a beached whale! I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends who can really whip up some superb dishes. There were some home-made cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing, bacon mac and cheese, fluffy mashed potatoes etc... I'm feeling kind of full just listing them out. I ate until my stomach was pushing against my diaphragm...no space left for breathing :/

The dessert line up was spectacular too. Pumpkin cheesecake, fudge-y brownies, a chocolate tart, all smothered with freshly whipped bourbon whip cream. I don't think I can eat until next Thanksgiving...

A picture of our Thanksgiving spread

Chocolate Ganache Tart

Makes a 9" tart
Ingredients
French Shortbread Tart Shell
6 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp oil
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup flour

Chocolate Ganache
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into pieces
2 tbsp butter, chopped into pieces
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks

• For the shell: Set oven to 410F. In a medium saucepan, add butter, oil, sugar and salt and melt at low-medium heat
• Once the butter bubbles and browns around the edges, remove from heat and dump flour and stir quickly.
• The dough should pull away and stick to the sides. Put in your tart pan and spread it out with a spatula. When its not too hot, palm the dough to the bottom and push onto the sides, covering the entire tart pan. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden (not brown, because we have to bake it again)
• For the filling: Reduce oven temp to 325F. Heat heavy cream and vanilla at low-med heat until it bubbles at the edges, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate and butter. Let it melt for a bit before stirring.
• Whisk in sugar and salt and make sure everything is nice and smooth. Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl with 1 tbsp of heavy cream, add a spoon of the ganache to whisk and temper the egg yolks.
• Add the egg yolks into the ganache and blend well.
• Pour into the tart shell, level with a spatula and stick it in the oven for 5 mins, just to set. It should still be wobbly when you take it out but if it will set after 2 hours at room temp or in the fridge for 30 mins.
• Before serving, let it sit outside for 20 mins (nobody wants to eat a chocolate bar). Serve with homemade whipped cream!  

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