A touch of Claire- baking, cooking& life

Yes, it is correct- I ordered some food-graded lye on Amazon. If you are not familiar with lye, aka sodium hydroxide here, it is actually a very corrosive chemical. You know, my nerdy scientists, we use it in lab all the time. But when it comes to making pretzels and bagels, do you also recognize that the classic pretzel wash has lye in it. A quick dip in the magical/alkaline water creates a rich brown sheen with thin crust on the dough. Sounds intimidating, it is acceptable for someone who deals with other hundreds of millions of 'sort-of-scary' experiment every day lol. (I've been thinking about what my years of labwork& research have brought me for my life: for real, protocol reading and testing things out.) Plus I'm just such a bagel fanatic- that explains a lot. I guess I fell in love with bagels even before with New York City, where the best bagels are made. Toasted bagel, cream cheese and some slices of smoked salmon makes those busiest New Yorker

After centuries' not being able to bake a bread (total excuse/too lazy/distracted by someone..lol), I finally couldn't stand eating sweet potatoes and store-sold breads as breakfast anymore. And since I've been craved for so many different recipes of sourdough bread during my procrastinate-to-bake-a-bread period, I decided to make a all-inclusive bread  ~(￣▽￣)~* The sourdough starter was cultured with rye flour for one day before the bread was made so that there is extra something flavor- rye& sourdough√ Two of my favorite grains/seeds: flaxseeds and bulgur were soaked and added to the dough; lots of flavors and texture- flaxseeds& bulgur√ Sweet potatoes!!! My secret ingredient of bread since it adds both flavors (especially a subtle hint of sweetness) and moisture.√ Quinoa (soaked) was added to the dough and (dried) was dusted on top of the bread to give lots of crunchiness. I was inspired by a local bakery, which has the best millet banana bread- th

Ever felt that the cake you are trying is too sweet/rich? I guess that is one of the biggest complaints most of my (Asian especially) friends have as for the store-sold desserts. Ever thought about the solution to it? For me, it is to balance! I haven't been baking as often (for some reason) but a really good friend of mine was having her Birthday party this Saturday, so I got to make something (I mean, a cake). I used to be really afraid of high-cal cake recipes and was pretty keen on finding low-cal substitutes. But now I rather eat a smaller piece or eat less frequently, yet fully embrace the great flavors of butter, chocolate and cream. For this reason, the cake does contain a whole lot of cream (considering it was shared by almost 20 people, wasn't that bad, hmm? ), but the richness was actually balanced by my secret ingredients: almond and green tea. Apologies for that I didn't take pictures at the party when the cake was sliced, but please imagine the

Whoops, the topic today might seem too simple?  My 2014 didn't really start as I wished, too much hustle and bustle to handle; some changes to life. According to Chinese Lunar Calendar, it is actually the year of horse, which is my year. I know it doesn't really make sense, but I'm supposed to be super unlucky in this year. I don't really believe in such sayings, but I did taste it quite a bit- all those frustrations and desperations did exist. Don't really want to dig into that. But things are changing. Life seems to be back on track now, and even better! When now again enjoying the present me, I feel that life does consist of the lucky and the unlucky- just embrace both.  What never changes is my love for baking when good mood and bad mood both make perfect reason for doing it! The tart is adapted from Pierre Herme's Tarte Mangue Kiwi, only I replaced kiwi and mango to my favorite strawberries~~~ http://indigoseas.blogspot.fr/2014/01/pierre-

It was actually only until now when I am writing the post do I find that "This cake is TOO summer-y lol". I guess it is because it is a kind-of-chilled rainy Saturday morning now. (Love it so much btw!)  I don't know since when have I also fallen into the thought that "It is time to do fall-proper things now!". Apple tarts, pumpkin pies... plumy lip colors and purple eye shadows (=￣ω￣=) .  Hahaha can't believe I was searching for a dark lipstick in the market, though without buying one eventually. Going back to this cake, it was made purely out of my FOREVER LOVE for green tea and cheese. Composed of a tart base, one baked green tea cheese cake layer and one green tea cream cheese mousse layer. (I know I know, lots of green tea and cream cheese~~~) To add more texture and funs, I topped it with some toasted almond slices and dusted it with powder sugar (which is the secret to make everything look fancy!) Most importantly, it is for the LOV

Is it officially the end of summer time in NYC??? Everyone is starting the conversation with "It is so cold!!" "Yeah, I know! I even woke up last time coz the chilled weather!" Alas, it is only early September, not fully enjoyed summer sun shine, not even one serious beach tan, not (NEVER) enough ice cream!  And when I looked for some warm clothes in my closet, I realized some of my summer dresses were not even wore for once this summer, neither were my once-favorite red sandals. (sigh...) Never need to mention "How time flies" now. It is my 3rd summer in NYC, but never dare say that I managed to enjoy the great time to the fullest. So this is how I ended up saying good bye to the 2014 summer time- wearing my new chiffon skirt, my favorite red high-heeled sandals and visiting my best friends :D I went to a most casual dinner at one friend's place, but you can always find an excuse to dress up~~ I also went to my last summer BBQ on Saturd

Here comes my yearly tradition: making my own moon cakes! You know, it is Chinese tradition that everyone should make moon cakes on Mid-autumn Festival (Moon cake Festival)- just KIDDING... But we do eat those sweet& delicate cakes on that day every year, and you can always find them in Chinatown if you're ever curious how they taste. Since I moved to US, I've more&more realized that I never really appreciated things I easily reached to enough, such as moon cakes. I used to have tons of well-packaged moon cakes at home, fancy-looking and of so many different flavors. And I used to complain quite a lot about having to consume them while they're always too sweet for me. I NEVER imagined it is so complicated to make good, authentic moon cakes. Basically, to make your own mooncakes from scratch, you need to make some special caramel syrup for the dough, slowly saute bean paste to dehydrate them and render the filling, and last but not least to use extrem

I'm a big fan of the word 'ROUTINE'- placing the parts within the range of my everyday life to the exact time/location. Wake up at 7am every morning (6:20 am when I feel like doing some extra workout), go to lab, and back home. Happy hour& drink with my girls on Friday night. Grocery time every Saturday morning at the nearby farmer's market- I assume even 'more routine' than a typical graduate student routine. When I got to think of the reason, I thought of 'lameness' at once. It is probably the simplest thing to follow the routine. Even your muscles burn less calories when you keep doing the same exercises every day. And always my brain just falls into the same thinking mode: it is time to XXX now! You hear people saying such things as 'You are amazing to stick to XXX!'. But the truth is after you form a habit after 27 days, it becomes your routine and you just follow it unconsciously.  EATING is just the same for me. I do l

I've been making crepe cakes in a row for three weeks! That sounds ridiculous even to myself, but I just like to keep practicing one recipe until I finally feel happy about it. As a result, I never get the have the 'beliked' cakes often. Now, after my crepe cake battle, I did learn some tricks, especially about how to have really thin crepes. Let's have some troubleshooting, shall we? For those who are not familiar with crepe cakes, or care only about how they taste but never bother to know how they're made, crepe cakes are assembled by layers of crepes, filled with cream in between. To make a crepe cake, you make the crepes individually, let them cool, and layer them to compose the cake with the cream as 'glue'. The whole process is nothing fancy, just get your 'bricks and cement' ready and be a good builder! What is tricky are the quality of your materials, in other words, to get your crepes as thin as possible. There are professional crepe

I think I'm always more a savory person than a sweet person- I can totally control myself upon chocolate ice cream and strawberry milkshake, but can never behave myself well when it comes to rye bread and cheddar cheese. Actually, I think cheese could totally ruin my diet one day!  I don't know if the flavors one fancies have anything to do with his/her personality; I guess I can find some sort of psychological explanation behind one's eating habit. (Scientists are studying all types of weird questions anyway- why did dinosaur extinguish, why one plus one renders two, why do cells have cytoskeletons lol) The most straightforward explanation I could have is "I'm more a tough girl than a sweet girl." Don't know if that is true. So this time I thought it might be nice to try some sweet to my daily bread. The mission figs seem to be a good pick as the touch of sweetness. They are sweet and full of aromas. The figs were cut into rather big chunks so th

Inspired by my friend, I got a jar of coconut oil from supermarket. One big jar of around 6 bucks- not fancy at all. However the moment I opened it, I was immediately lost in the sweet& aromatic coconutty smell. (Anyone likes me who just can not resist everything about coconut, you know it!)  Coconut oil is so versatile that you can find articles named '101 uses of coconut oil' everywhere. My friend has been used the coconut oil as her make-up remover, and it works perfect for her. I do like massaging the aromas into my skin, but my water-proof mascara and eye liner are just too stubborn to get off easily. Instead, I've been using a lot of the coconut oil on myself (NOT the bread yet lol) as hair mask- I apply it all over my hairs and twist into a bun before going to bed, and wash it off the next morning when I take a shower. I have quite dry hair, which definitely benefits from the nourishment; PLUS just imagine sleeping with yourself smelling great all night!

I don't know if it's just the hypes among us trendy New Yorkers, but suddenly all my friends are talking about this bakery called Lady M. It even become a must-try activity in my friends' list when some of them come to NYC. So I can't help but wonder, what's the magic about Lady M? Of course as a phD. student who solves problems by trying them out (rephrase: as a FOODIE who cannot resist to try anything yummy), I waited in the line and finally got to try their signature Green Tea Mille Crêpes. It was worth waiting, the cake was nice with my favorite green Tea and an interesting texture.  However, are all the hypes and craziness about this cake really worthy? I wasn't sure... I was expecting something heavenly. Then I looked up their webpage and saw their description about the cake: Fine green tea powder is infused into every element of our delicate Green Tea Mille Crêpes, a sight to behold with no less than twenty lacy thin crêpes enveloping the light

As a phD student who is "with all her heart" devoted to science and conquering cancer- lol just kidding... by which I mean life is kinda boring and simplified- I figure that I really need to have some serious hobbies! Baking of course pops up first and it has been more or less my weekly routine. But recently I got to think that I should more or less expand a little bit. Let's say,  after I baked this bread (baking), I spent time taking pictures of it (photography), I posted it on my blog (blogging), and I need to work out to burn out the calories the bread brought me (jogging and rock climbing). See, now I have quite a few hobbies lol.     Part of the above is joking, but I've never really doing something consistently for long, so I really hope I'm going to putting new stuffs in my blog. And I met so many cool friends while climbing, and I never expected I would be enjoying it so much!  As I've been baking artisan bread for a while, I'm consisten