I know that I haven't posted in... two years? It is because I lost access to the show's episodes. If anybody knows of where I can get free access from the USA to the episodes, I will continue to post recipes and keep testing them out. Please help if you would like me to continue. Thank you!

Rose Water Poundcake! It was delish!

I made rose water pound cake - delicious and luckily moist!

  

The prep, the batter, the loaf.

 

The proper way to eat and store pound cake... from the middle.  That way you can place the ends back together and plastic wrap it so that the moisture stays in.

... I think I'll try matcha and chocolate next.  Or maybe I should follow the show exactly and do peach, white chocolate and coffee?

World Sweets Avenue Opening

Here is a tribute to some of the food Ichigo and Johnny find during the opening of the World Sweets Avenue - the first street on St. Marie's Garden to officially open.  Since some of these are more identifiable, I may actually attempt to make some of these!  I know that I've done the recipe already for the German sweets recipe for Baumkuchen and will be attempting a Sachertorte soon!  ;)

  

 Mooncakes, Sweet Chestnuts, Almond Tofu, and Mango Pudding
from the shop Shanghai Sweets

Baumkuchen, Stollen, and Austrian Sachertorte
from the German sweets shop

Gelato and some kind of tart or pie from France/Italy/Spain

 Then Johnny got all in a tizzy over the American shop, Candy Pop, and how since it is a land of immigrants, they've brought in food from all over the world but do have a few that are American originals.

  

Brownie, Chiffon Cake, and Cotton Candy
from the American sweets shop

Rotating Shops

So for their first week of being open, the new team decides to rotate shops to determine who will be the new leader via highest sales... but none of them seem to do very well at all.

Ichigo's Patisserie

 It had a very cute homy feel that welcomed families but it's stock seemed entirely focused around berry cakes, tarts, puddings, and other pastries where the main ingredient is strawberry.

Makoto's Chocolatier

It had a more urban feel for more sophisticated tastes since Makoto wanted customers who could tell the difference in his technique.

Cafe de Lemon

 Lemon wanted an open air shop like the one's in Paris that bring people together.  Cafe Lemon tended to be a very lemon-centric shop just like the others... does anybody else find it funny how everybody has a namesake-flavor that they specialize in?

Johnny's

Johhny's is a very themepark-like restaurant which only seems to serve one thing - Cowboy!  Also, his costumes give quite a laugh.  I find it really quite hilarious how they view American's in this show.

Original Sketches

Their Original Shop Idea Sketches... hahaa!

Pudding (Crème Caramel)

Ichigo challenges Maya to a Pudding Showdown using the basic ingredients but doesn't know the first thing about how to take the basic ingredients of milk, sugar and eggs and how to make them in to a beautiful dessert!

What is it?

Pudding, as it is called in Japan, is actually known in most of the world as either crème caramel or flan.  It is a rich custard usually served as a dessert.  Traditional crème caramel has a caramel top that actually resides at the bottom of the mold prior to inverting.  Just as the show suggests, the flan custard is actually very very simple to make.  All you essentially do is steam the dairy liquids, stir in eggs, add some sugar and that's basically it!  While some versions require you to bake it in an oven, others actually require refrigeration to solidify.  The only slightly difficult part, just as in the show, would be the caramel.  In some versions, this caramel is poured on top of the flan after cooking and inversion but in the show as well as in most traditional versions, it is usually poured in to the mold before the custard to create a soft caramel crust on the top of the inverted pudding.  CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF PUDDING!

Where can I try it?

A very popular dessert in the nations of it's European origins, entire store shelves in Japan have been known to be dedicated to various pre-made puddings and pudding mixes.  In one case, you can even purchase a toy called "giga pudding" that allows you to create a giant crème caramel that is equivalent to twenty servings!  You can usually get some Jell-O Brand Instant flan mixes off of the shelves of your local grocery store but since the ingredients are simple, you cam eliminate the veritable chemistry set of ingredients and make it yourself from scratch!  You can also commonly get flans already made and packaged from brands such as Kozy Shack.

These scans are by Cookie Dough.

How can I make it?

I will post the official cookbook recipe after either I or cookie.dough translates it.

How can I make it better? (recipe from Cooks Illustrated)

Custard Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole milk (you want the fats, so don't use any other kind)

1.5 cups light cream (adjust liquid proportions if other kind of cream)

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla extract (or adjust to taste)

Custard Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350F and bring oven rack to center position.

2.  Steam the milk and cream together until 160F. (takes 6-8 minutes on high heat).

3.  Gently whisk eggs, yolks and sugar until just combined in a large heat resistant bowl.

4.  Off heat in head resistant bowl, add steamed dairy liquids to egg and sugar mixture, the add vanilla.

5.  Strain in to a heat resistant spouted container such as a large glass bowl.  

Caramel Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp corn syrup

1/4 tsp lemon juice

Caramel Directions:

1.  In a saucepan, bring everything to a simmer over medium to high heat. Don't stir.

2.  Continue to cook until syrup turns from clear to golden. Swirl for even browning for about 8 min.

3.  Constantly swirl until large slow bubbles appear and pop for about 4-5min.

4.  Be VERY careful, since it will be over 300F, pour a little bit in to each ramekin to coat the bottom.  

5.  Allow to harden for 15 min.

Creme Caramel Directions:

1.  Pour custard evenly between all ramekins.  

2.  Fold a white dishtowel in to the size/shape of the pan and place flat inside pan.  

3.  Place ramekins on to towel inside of deep pan.

4.  Pour boiling water in to the pan careful to not get any in to ramekins. Fill until half of ramekin height.

5.  Cover with foil and create a large slit for steam to escape.

6.  Bake for 35-40 min.

7.  CAREFULLY remove from oven and place ramekins on to a cooling rack.

8.  At room temperature, slide a paring knife around edges of pudding with blade against ramekin.

9.  Invert on to a plate and enjoy!

Tips from the show:

- Get to know your oven since some ovens bake hotter than others while some even have hotter pockets of air one side as compared to the other side.

- If you don't boil down the caramel enough, you'll get a really light honey-colored sweet sauce.  If you boil it down more, you'll get a darker and slightly more bitter tasting caramel.

Tips from the real world:

- Careful working with the caramel, it is very hot and very easy to burn yourself.  

- To minimize bubbles, minimize air by letting the custard sit for ten or so minutes before pouring in to the molds and then tapping out the bubbles once in the molds.

- Commonly, creme caramel is either too firm and eggy or too rich and milky, play with the proportions of milk and cream until you get something that satisfies your texture preferences.

- The more gentle your heating method, the smoother and more creamy your texture will be.

- Use an instant read thermometer to take temperature readings to know that your creme caramel is done.

- The pan holding the boiling water and the pudding cups will be VERY hot - be very careful not to spill or drop it.

- To clean the hardened caramel from your pot, boil water in it with a little dish soap.  To get it out of your ramekins, boil water in a large pot and put the ramekin in it or boil water in your kettle and pour it in to the ramekin.  This will make it easier to chip off the solidified caramel.

Ideas for variations:

- You can make various flavors by eliminating the caramel and using various kinds of extracts in place of the vanilla such as strawberry, orange, coffee extract, or even chocolate liquor, etc.

- Add toppings such as fruit or whipped cream after inverting the creme caramel to a serving plate.  

- The ingredients may stay the same but you can play with the proportions until you reach a taste you like.  The important part is to maintain the same volume of overall liquids.  For example, I personally used 2 cups milk, 1 cup heavy cream and 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract because of product availability and the fact that I love vanilla.  I omitted the lemon juice since I had neither lemons nor juice (which tends to be stronger than actual lemons).  Since my oven runs hot and I only had six ramekins, I also had to adjust how long it kept in the oven.

References:

http://ribon.shueisha.co.jp/recette (Ad for Official Cookbook)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crème_caramel

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY FIRST CREME CARAMEL!

CLICK HERE FOR THE COOK'S ILLUSTRATED RECIPE IN PDF!

Crème Caramel (pudding) Success!!!

I have to say that while I was quite terrified of making caramel and burning myself - it all went splendidly well!  I altered the recipe a bit since I didn't have any light cream.  So instead of 1.5cups whole milk and 1.5cups light cream, I substituted 1 cup heavy cream and 2 cups whole milk.  It turned out well except that one of my ramekins cracked from the oven heat and majority of the caramel remained hardened at the base of the ramekin instead of inverting entirely on top of the pudding.  My mom said it was normal since she has made the filipino version of this, leche flan, before.  It tasted great and I didn't have any cavities... there were however small bubbles on the sides.  I'll have to try again to perfect that... though, I'm that too is normal and almost impossible to rid of.

The caramel cooling in the ramekins and the finished creme caramels cooling on a rack.

... I really wish I had something other than my old phone camera to take better pictures.

I'll post the recipe soon.  =)

---------- Edit five minutes later ----------

I just looked up creme caramel pictures and while my top is lighter, since I don't like bitter tasting things, and I had both fewer bubbles on the outside and perfectly smooth and bubble-less insides, I'd say that mine was more of a success than the google image search ones!!!  =D

---------- EDIT 1 hour later ----------

OMG I LOVE THE JAPANESE!!!  GIGA PUDDING!!!

http://www.kirainet.com/english/giga-pudding/

Minasan - sorry that I've been away.

I'm sorry that I've been away.  After the LSATs, I had to catch up with everything else in my life that I had fallen behind in.   I'm back and I've been researching recipes!  I've found some amazing recipes at cooksillustrated.com and have been reading all of those great recipe books that I've borrowed from libraries!  I plan on updating more often and now that I have both the recipes and ingredients, will be attempting to make all kinds of goodies!  Here are all of the recipes that I got from them!  Best of all, since they test their recipes ad naseum in their test kitchen before publishing so thatI know that their recipes will work!  =D

Buche de Noel

Cheesecake

Chiffon Cake

Creme Caramel

Fruit Tart

Macaroons

Pound Cake

Profiteroles

Sacher Torte

Souffle

Cowboy

The First time Johnny and Ichigo meet at St. Marie's Salon, Johnny tells ichigo to try his creation, the "Cowboy." Immediately, it brings up images of the wild west and she says that while it's rough on the outside, it's sweet and gentle on the inside - just like a cowboy.