Tag Archives: Dessert

Interviews

Charins Chang, The Explorer of Textures

Leave a comment

Charins Chang’s passion for science and baking brought her to Indonesia after many years living abroad. In no time, she has captured the hearts of many through her well-crafted cakes and desserts. What are her hopes and struggles living the dream in Jakarta? Here, Charins shared the story for everyone.  

What got you into baking in the first place?

I started baking since high school and that’s because Betty Crocker’s brownie mix. I was amazed even with the process of just mixing the powder with water and then it becomes a cake. But the reason why I love baking is because it is so closely related with science and all about the chemical reactions! You don’t really see it with your eyes but it’s happening.

Did you study at a cooking school after that?

Interestingly, I went to Australia not to learn more about baking, but I was studying Biotechnology for five years there. After graduation, I moved back to Singapore and started working in the petroleum bioengineering industry. However, I never lose my love for baking. I did it almost every night and shared the cakes with my friends, to the point that my family became so sick of my baking! (she laughs)

That’s why I started my cake business online on charins.com and then after a year, I finally decided to study more properly about pastry. I did a bit of school in France and an internship with a champion pastry chef there. I was immersing myself with the language and the countryside, steering away from Paris. After that, it’s time to move to Jakarta.

What made you move to Jakarta instead of Singapore?

My parents have always been very supportive with my plans and when I told them that I want to move back here, everyone came along! We all still visit Singapore from time to time though.

Why Jakarta? I think it’s because the people are more chilled and fun here. There’s also something charming about the city, despite of course – the traffic. I saw also a high demand for quality desserts and pastries in Jakarta, but you could only find a handful of good pastry shops here a few years ago when I came. That’s the opportunity that I had been looking for.

What happens next?

Originally, the reason why I moved back was to open my own dessert shop here. After a few years though, it’s easier said than done. I don’t want to just jump in recklessly and struggling unnecessarily just because I needed more experience in the industry. So, I decided to just take my time exploring the city and looking for opportunities. I keep my Instagram active and the online cake shop helps me get by.

From there, turns out that I received a lot of opportunities for consulting, creating menu, and for supplying. There’s even this café from Myanmar which was asking to collaborate. Benedict and Heavenly Sweet found me also on Instagram.

Care to share us a bit about your dessert creations?

When I first joined Benedict, I revamped the whole dessert menu. That time, there was this hype for the Thai mango desserts, and I decided to jump in by creating my own interpretations. Surprisingly, the Mango Sticky Rice Tart was a huge success and people started posting about it.

I also created a sister dessert for it called Tart Ketan Item – with coconut and black sticky rice. It’s basically a twist of our traditional dessert of bubur ketan hitam. There’s also Marie Regal Cake because yes, everyone loves Marie Regal!

I also started making bite-sized desserts like bonbons since people are not always wanting to eat a whole cake. In each bonbon, I created a whole dessert that can consists of elements found in cakes, crunch, cookies, and ganache. I put also many things like potato chips, wajik, nastaar, and talam. For my creations, I just love doing my own formulations instead of copying recipes.

Why bonbons by the way?

I’m more interested in chocolate because it’s very science-y and no one’s making bonbons seriously yet as far as I know. I suppose it’s because the high level of difficulty to mass produce it. Bonbons must be made carefully because it won’t be good otherwise. You need to temper chocolate to a certain degree, or the fat crystals won’t crystallize properly so it won’t get the good snap. It’ll be pasty, thick, and won’t have good texture.

But I think the challenge is that most people may find it hard to understand why it costs the same as buying a whole chocolate bar instead. That’s why I’m trying to find the middle ground here to still maintain the quality but also creating time efficiency.

Lastly, what are you plans next?

Opening my own shop, that’s for sure! But for now, I enjoy teaching at Heavenly Sweet every month. I have own classes and I also create my own syllabus based on science! We do one-on-one series about sponge cake, butter cake, pound cake, or only egg whites. We explore why each recipe is made different, why adding this and that yield different results, or how to decrease the sugar content without compromising texture. It’s not about the usual recipe sharing class and for you to bake at home. It’s about how to make the student think more about the process and how to remake recipe in their own version. Other than that, I am also sharing my expertise about baking with less fortunate kids. We are creating these baking classes for them and showing that everyone can bake. We want to let them know that they have options in this industry for their future.

Featured on Passion Magazine

Jakarta

Peacock Lounge, Redefining the High Tea Time Culture (mise en place, Vol 21 – 2017)

Leave a comment

As a country among the world’s biggest tea producers, Indonesia has assimilated tea drinking culture into the daily lives of its citizens. For many, tea is a beverage that does not require specific preparations – unlike the Japanese with their tea ceremonies, and often served as an accompaniment for breakfast and snacks.

The high availability of mass tea products from abroad within the past two decades can only mean one thing: Indonesians have been exposed to a world of different flavors aside from their regular tea dated from the colonial era. At this point, many Indonesians are already accustomed to blended black tea products such as Earl Grey, Darjeeling, or tea infused with herbs and fruits.

However, higher appreciation for tea was only shown rather recently, especially with the appearances of tea houses that introduce lineups of imported tea leaves and the high tea time culture. While this haute trend is yet to reach the peak like the third-wave coffee movement in comparison, these establishments have managed to sustain their businesses for quite some time now. The movement is also reinforced by tea experts and aficionados, introducing the deeper meaning of this lifestyle.

Especially for high tea time culture, more success found at Jakarta’s five-star hotels. From the hustle and bustle behind the business district of Senayan came the Fairmont Jakarta. After its foundation in 2015, Fairmont Jakarta introduced Peacock Lounge to complement its vast and opulent main lobby. The lounge itself can seat up to 40 people and offers an intimate ambiance that is suitable for conversational tea time and lunchtime meals. Thanks to its chic persona, Peacock Lounge has also become famous among socialites and social media influencers.

The afternoon tea set here is presented unlike anywhere else. Instead of the usual trays, Peacock Lounge uses jewelry drawers, all clad in white leather. Inside one will find the seasonal changing petit fours, tea sandwiches, canapes, and traditional scones with jam and clotted cream. Accompanying the treats, Fairmont Jakarta offers an extensive range of teas from black tea, blue tea, green tea, rooibos, and even the rare white and smoky tea.

Competing with other five-star hotels prompts Peacock Lounge to devise certain advantages. While these hotels may be equally efficient when it comes to creativity, manpower, or logistics; Fairmont Jakarta instead employs collaborations as its main advantage.

In 2016, Peacock Lounge launched the Show Your True Colours campaign that featured the color-changing theme of the confectioneries from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and especially pink for the support of breast cancer awareness month.

Following next was the collaboration with Indonesia’s legendary fashion designer Iwan Tirta for an exclusive batik-themed afternoon tea for the whole two months from April to May 2017. This particular collaboration was also to support Iwan Tirta’s upcoming fashion show which was held also at Fairmont Jakarta later that April.

The most recent collaboration was held between the hotel and Kate Spade New York. Launched in conjunction with the Fall 2017 collections, the theme was inspired by 1920s Parisian color palettes which was predominantly red and black with striking motifs such as leopard prints, red poppies, and cherries.

During these promotions, Peacock Lounge’s interiors are usually redesigned lightly to match the theme with the collaborator’s products are put on display. Operation-wise, the pastry kitchen also create a lineup of products that represent the whole mood. Patrons are encouraged to share their experience through social media channels and compete for interesting prizes.

Through this strategy, Peacock Lounge has been successfully maintaining its tea time culture by keeping it fresh, exciting, and already further collaborations are planned quarterly with other premium brands. With all the values given for the hotel itself, the brands, as well as the patrons; Peacock Lounge ultimately remains faithful to its original concept as a tea lounge that is open for everyone.

The lounge opens daily from 10am to 5pm and the afternoon high tea set is available from 2pm to 5pm.

FAIRMONT JAKARTA – PEACOCK LOUNGE | Jalan Asia Afrika no. 8, Jakarta – Indonesia | +62 21 2970 3333 | www.fairmont.com/jakarta

Images by: Fairmont Jakarta

This is the unedited version of the article

Jakarta

Peacock Lounge Presents The Afternoon Tea Time with BVLGARI

Leave a comment

A tradition as old as high tea time from the British colonial era is still considered as a haute lifestyle even today. However, making it fresh and relevant may still be a tough job in Jakarta since tea houses had their ups and downs for the past few years.

However at Peacock Lounge – it’s all about great ideas and collaborations. Previously successful by partnering with Iwan Tirta and Kate Spade, Peacock Lounge is currently on collaboration with BVLGARI until the end of March 2018.

A few months ago precisely I spent some time enjoying the hospitality of Peacock Lounge at Fairmont Jakarta and witnessing how the tea time culture was again rejuvenated. This kind of lifestyle, arguably, may not really in the cup of tea of everyone as mostly people would rather eat heartily at new restaurants or hanging out casually at third-wave coffee shops.

But for Peacock Lounge, it’s always exciting to see businessmen, socialites, and even Japanese ladies sitting at one corner to take a break from their worldly affairs just to reconnect themselves with each other over a good cup of tea or coffee.

At this time around, the tea house is again already decorated with everything BVLGARI. What’s exciting of course is the tea set highly customized with accents depicting the brand – which makes it even more value adding.

Priced at IDR 588,000++, the BVLGARI tea set consists of delectable choices from the classics such as scones and madeleines, and both sweet and savory accompaniments. Naturally I’d go for the madeleine for the light entry and then head straight for the savories before finishing it all up with the sweets.

Among my most favorites from the starters are the beef and asparagus mille feuille, the salmon bouche with saffron toast, and the egg salad florentine on dill brioche. Separately a serving of prawn tempura in a cone and smoked mackerel doughnut with aioli and crispy salmon skin were also highly pleasant.

Heading next to the sweets, the BVLGARI tea set has a wide variety of choices such as the eclair, pralines, pot de creme, panna cotta, macaron, lemon butter cake, and lychee chiboust. The package also includes two types of coffee or tea which you can share with your tea time partner. We opted the pai mu tan (white tea) and the royal orchid (blue tea). Both are provided by TWG.

It’s interesting to see Peacock Lounge running this initiative from time to time, collaborating with renowned brands, and making the venue fresh with new decorations and different menus. It’s admirable to see that Peacock Lounge is among few in Jakarta’s five-star hotels that reserved a place specifically for a tea house and is thriving. Would be excited to see what happens next this 2018 and beyond!

FAIRMONT JAKARTA – PEACOCK LOUNGE | Jalan Asia Afrika no. 8, Jakarta – Indonesia | +62 21 2970 3333 | www.fairmont.com/jakarta

Bali, Bandung, Jakarta, Singapore, Surabaya, Tangerang

Krakakoa: The Finest From the Labor of Love (Passion, 2017)

Leave a comment

The bean-to-bar movement within the cocoa and coffee industry, or the farm-to-table concept found in gourmet restaurants of today have noble ideas to begin with. After four years in the business; Krakakoa has empowered hundreds of farmers, created a lineup of award-winning artisanal chocolate bars, and is ready to represent the finest from Indonesia.

Sabrina Mustopo knew well that Indonesian cocoa has a lot of potential waiting to be further discovered. Her experience working with governments and international think tanks for agricultural matters brought her to a realization that improving the lives of the farmers will positively affect the cocoa industry and the nation’s economy. As we know it, our country is the third largest cocoa producer in the world but severely lacking when it comes to quality.

Together with her colleague Simon Wright, Kakoa was established in 2013 – which later rebranded as Krakakoa. The aim is to produce high quality Indonesian cocoa beans through sustainable farming methods and direct trade. Initially concentrated with plantations in Lampung; Krakakoa also partners with farmers from Bali, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.

Krakakoa starts by training the farmers on a two-month program before finally outfitting them with tools, guaranteeing a good buying price, and giving them the freedom to choose whomever they want to sell their cocoa beans to. This bring a sense of motivation and responsibility for the farmers to truly tend their crops, while at the same time improving their livelihood and the whole industry in general.

Today, Krakakoa has a rich lineup of cacao-based products, from the single origins and flavored bars, to cacao nibs, drinking chocolates, and even cacao tea. The highlights from Krakakoa are the award-winning, signature single origin of 70% Sedayu Sumatra and 75% Saludengen Sulawesi bars. Additionally, the internationally recognized Academy of Chocolate from London also awarded their uniquely flavored chocolate bars such as the dark chocolate sea salt & pepper, the dark milk chocolate ginger, and the milk chocolate creamy coffee.

Further pursuing their ideals to showcase quality chocolate from Indonesia for the world; Krakakoa has been partnering with F&B personas and establishments – in addition to displaying their lineups at gourmet retailers in Jakarta, Bali, Bandung, Surabaya, Tangerang, and as far as Singapore.

KRAKAKOA | www.krakakoa.com
Office: Jalan Bangka Raya no. 42A-1, Jakarta | T: +621227707031

Original link:
http://www.passionmedia.co.id/b/the-finest-from-the-labor-of-love

Images by: Krakakoa

Recipe

Recipe: Es Pisang Ijo – by Chef Woro Prabandari (Passion, 2017)

Leave a comment

When challenged to create a modern Indonesian take on dessert, Chef Woro showed no signs of hesitation when she chose Southern Sulawesi’s pride and joy – es pisang hijau.

Her contemporary take for this dessert is to create the klepon-based sphere that contains the banana itself. Rather than the usual banana-shaped klepon, she chose the sphere shape as a more elegant approach for the street dessert.

Chef Woro also shaped the bubur sumsum into noodles, creating a nest to put the sphere in place. Additionally, she added dots of sweet frambozen syrup as an important representation of the much-loved syrup from the traditional version. To give the extra crunchiness, there are banana biscuits – crushed and spread all over the plate.

INGREDIENTS

Pisang hijau sphere
150 gram Pisang tanduk, steamed
100 gram Rice flour
50 gram Glutinous rice flour
50 gram Sagoo flour
50 gram Granulated sugar
50 ml Suji leaf extract
50 ml Pandan leaf extract
150 ml Coconut milk

Coconut milk porridge / bubur sum sum
25 gram Rice flour
60 gram Granulated sugar
5 gram Salt
500 ml Coconut milk

Frambozen syrup
100 gram Granulated sugar
50 ml Water
To taste Frambozen essence

METHOD

Pisang hijau sphere:
1. Steam pisang tanduk for 15 to 20 minutes until it becomes smooth. Make into round shapes.
2. Mix well other ingredients and cook until sticky and spherical. Fill it with the round-shaped steamed banana.
3. Steam for additional 15 to 20 minutes. Cool it down and ready to serve.

Bubur sum sum:
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Cook until bubbly and cool it down for 5 minutes.
3. Chill first before served.

Frambozen syrup:
1. Bring sugar and water to boil for 10 minutes.
2. Add frambozen essence into it and cool it down.

How to style the dish:
1. On the plate, make the bubur sum sum into pasta shape.
2. With the bubur sum sum as the foundation, put the banana sphere on the top.bi
3. Decorate the dish with frambozen syrup drops. You can decorate it with biscuits to make it crunchy or other garnish if you like.
4. Enjoy!

Original link:
http://www.passionmedia.co.id/b/es-pisang-hijau

Images by: Dwi N. Hadi