Matcha Cheese Souffle: a beginner's luck

A few years ago I tried to make Japanese Cheesecake as my first choice to learn baking. Apparently it's not a wise choice. I should've chosen muffin or simple pound cake for a start. But no, when the soft, fluffy, creamy Cheesecake waved at me from my monitor display, I couldn't stand it. I decided to jump right on, without any skill, without any experience in holding a hand mixer at all.

What happened then? Well, as a cake, it definitely passable, edible, and even tasted great (well, when you have cream cheese in there and you like cheese, you have nothing to complain actually). But it's not at all a Japanese Cottony Cheesecake! It missed the fluffiness, because it didn't rise well. Since that point, I never tried again. Until a few weeks ago, I feel an urge to make cottony chocolate cake. I feel up to. The cotton cake trauma has been healed, so I thought I'll give it a go. But then, turned out it's even worst than the first time! Oh my. Beginner's luck does exist.

So, when I looked at this souffle recipe, I had a mixed feeling about handling the meringue. I had two unpleasant experiences with meringue, but then again... it is NOT cotton cake. It's souffle. I wonder whether this one could be considered my first, even though this is the third time I handled meringue. Well, I had to go through it myself to answer it. So that's it. A few days ago I finally came out victorious when seven cups of souffle disappear gracefully into our--me and my husband--stomach.

Some will say it's an easy recipe anyway. It's true, and doesn't take a lot of time as well. Both to prepare and to bake. And the fact that it doesn't need a lot of quantity of ingredients is just a plus point. Since you wouldn't be disappointed if it turns not in the way you expect. But, really, I realize that it only needs a bit of carefulness to make it works well. And here are some dummy tips to make it works.

MATCHA CHEESE SOUFFLE

Ingredients
For the custard

1. Milk 100 ml
2. Cream cheese 65 ml
3. Egg yolks 2
4. Granulated sugar 15 gr
5. Flour 18 gr
6. Matcha powder 1 tbsp

For the meringue

1. Egg white 2
2. Granulated sugar 30 gr

For lining the ramekin, use about a tablespoon of butter and convectioner sugar or plain flour

Method

• Coat the surface of the ramekin with butter and dust with sugar/flour
• For the custard, heat up the milk with cream cheese in a small sauce pan, using low heat

• Beat the eggs with sugar in separate bowl

• Add flour and mix well until smooth 
  
• Mix the eggs in the bowl with the milk from the pan. Don't put the eggs mixture at once. Instead, take 1-2 tbsp of milk, add into the bowl and mix well, the put the mixture from the bowl into the pan gradually
• After adding the egg mixture, keep stirring on very low heat until the mixture thickened. It is IMPORTANT to keep stirring, unless your mixture will be clumpy

• Remove from the heat immediately when the mixture has been thickened or form a ribbon. Transfer the mixture into the bowl or put the bottom of the sauce pan into an iced water to stop the heating process. Let it cool. You can also refrigerate to make it cool faster 
• Once it cooled, add the matcha powder by sifting it through a sieve

• Combine well 

• Now, start making the meringue. Make sure your bowl clean without any spot of water or oil/fat, and no yolk included. Start to beat the white egg with a hand mixer on speed 1 for 2 minutes, add sugar gradually and increase the speed to 3, continue for 3-4 minutes until it reach soft peak (unfortunately I'm too anxious when making meringue, so I forgot to take picture)
• Combine the meringue with the custard. First add 1-2 tbsp meringue to the custard and mix well, then fold in all the custard mixture into the meringue.
• Baked in preheated oven at 200 degree celcius.

A few note: The souffle rise really well, but better to enjoy it while it's warm, and if you want to photograph the souffle, better hurry before it sinks... because when it cooled, the surface will drop.

The Dummy Cook Greetings

Greetings view from my window, 7 a.m. in the morning

It has been a long time yearning for me to be involved in the magical process called cooking. Yet I didn't have the chance (or courage?) to jump and just try it like my other fellows. When I was a kid, my mother freed me from domestic responsibility as she wanted me to pursue other thing that caught my interest as well; school. I know, it may sound strange, since parents usually encourage their children to have as many interests as possible outside academic education; cooking, music, paintings, other form of arts, writing, sports. But I grew up in a small village where the most educated parents think the best--and perhaps the only--way to go further and survived outside the small boundary of our village is by excelling in formal education. I didn't feel forced or somewhat restrained, because I also love the quiet ambience of library and making acquaintance with books. Yes, yes, perhaps I was the nerdy type back then. But, I really don't mind, since it's what has brought me to where I am now.

But, again, my interests for other things apparently kept safely inside, waiting to resurface when I have enough space for them. Then, once I had enough room on my mind other than how-to-survive-and-not-falling-to-often, I took  a small step in my shabby dorm kitchen four years ago, by making a dish I barely know the ingredients of. I was amazed by how the broth changing smell and color on each addition of ingredients. I was amazed by how it achieved the 'well rounded' aroma of a finished dish when you put everything accordingly. And how you missed the 'well-roundedness' (is that even a word?) if you forget one or two key elements. I thought it was like magic.

And I still think it is.

Now, when I have more time, I just want try more, enjoy more, share the joy, learn more from (many) failures and mistakes which happen...well, quite often. Still, it's fun! Really fun to watch how raw ingredients create such flavor when they're cooked. And also exciting. Exciting to see how the results turn out. I really consider myself as a dummy, or less than that maybe. XD So, what I put here is my trial and error process. I will tell you when it works, and definitely warn you to not go the same road, if I failed.

Enjoy! :)