Kitchen: Durian Pandan Chiffon Cake

I swear this blog is so random... . Haha... . On this occassion, I am going to blog briefly about my latest bake: Durian Pandan Chiffon Cake.

The cake is so light, fluffy, and airy. It is a tad too moist for my liking, due to the Durian puree (I used durian puree, not essence) added to the batter. But the texture is perfect, although the bottom (or top, whichever you see it) is slightly broken because I did not wait for it to cool long enough before removing it from the pan.

Recipe:

Pan size: 25 cm in diameter (top diameter) angel cake tube pan

(A) 

• 6 egg yolks
• 50 gr caster sugar (sifted)

(b) 

• 190 gr cake flour (sifted twice)
• 2 tea spoon baking powder (sifted twice along with the cake flour)
• pinch of salt
• 2 tea spoon pandan paste (I use koepoe koepoe brand)
• 2 tea spoon vanilla essence (optional, it just makes your cake that extra fragrant)
• 180 gr durian puree 9 (I bought frozen Thai durian in packages at Asian food store, thaw it, and pureed it using an electric hand blender)

(c)

• 140 ml combination of: coconut milk + pandan leave extract + milk
• 90 ml corn oil

I did not have the whole 140ml of coconut milk. Instead I diluted the coconut milk with pandan leave extract & regular milk to make the end cake result less moist/wet. If you like your cake extra moist, do go ahead using 140ml of coconut milk. If you don't have pandan leave extract (I bought it in a can type at an Asian food store), you can dilute it with water. 

(d)

• 9 egg whites
• 100 gr caster sugar
• 1 tea spoon cream of tartar

Method:

• Pre heat your oven to 170 C. The oven must be well heated before baking.
• Whisk, using a hand whisk (do not use electric whisk) to mix (a) together. Keep whisking until color is kinda pale. I found this to be around 4-5 minutes. 
• Add (c) to the above gradually and whisk slowly until all incorporated. I usually add corn oil first, then the coconut milk mix.
• Add pandan paste & vanilla essence, whisk slowly. Add the sifted cake flour + baking powder, add salt, whisk slowly until all are well mixed and THERE ARE NO VISIBLE LUMPS. Otherwise your cake will have ugly white lumps. The mixture will be thick at this point. Add durian puree to the mixture, whisk until fully incorporated. Set aside while you prepare the egg whites meringue below:
• Using an electric whisk under low speed setting (I use electric hand whisk, so it is possible even if you don't have the big fancy table top electric whisk), whisk the egg whites until frothy, then add the cream of tartar. This will stabilize your egg whites longer when they reach soft/stiff peak.

Ensure your mixing bowl for the egg whites is free of water, oil, and any traces of egg yolk. To separate eggs easily, I find it easier to separate cold eggs (straight for refrigerator). Cover the mixing bowls containing the egg yolks & egg whites with cling wrap and wait until around 1 hour for the eggs to reach room temperature before you do any whisking to the eggs.

• Change the whisk setting to high, gradually adding the caster sugar in 3/4 batches every 1 minute or so, continue to beat the egg whites until stiff peak. To reach this state, I found it takes around 4-6 minutes.
• take 1/3 of the egg whites meringue and fold it into the yolk mixture using a plastic spatula. Do not press on the meringue while incorporating it into the yolk mixture, otherwise you will deflate it. Keep folding until there is no visible white streaks. Add the second 1/3 of the meringue into the mixture (the yolk mixture should be quite smooth now after the 1st meringue), fold until no visible white streaks. Add the last 1/3 meringue, and repeat fold.
• Pour the batter to the pan. Smooth the top surface with spatula, and give the pan a light bang on your table surface (lift it just a tad bit and drop it. This is to release the trapped air bubble in the batter to avoid hollow tunnels in your cake once it's baked).
• Pop the pan into the oven, and bake at 170 C for at least 20 minutes. DO NOT open the oven while it's baking. Then lower the temperature to 160 C for the next 35-40 minutes.
• Once baked, turn the pan upside down straight away. Otherwise, the cake will sink down. I use a bottle of wine and pop it as a stand into the middle hollow tube of the pan. 
• Let it cool for 2 hours. Smaller pans can get away with 1 hour wait.
• Using a sharp thin knife, run it along the edges of the pan to loosen up the cake and take it off the pan.

The whole apartment smells of heavenly durian and pandan. Mmmmmm... . So far husband has gone through 1/4 of the pan all by himself. I don't expect long until I need to bake a new batch... .