Category: Tutorials

I’m going to post this recipe now, even if I’m not 100% sure of the quantity of agave syrup needed, as maybe some of you would want to try it for the holidays or for Valentines Day.

The first time I’ve made some, I’ve used 100g of cocoa butter, 50g of cocoa powder and 20g of agave syrup. I found it too buttery and a bit too sweet for my liking. So, the second time I’ve made some, I’ve used 100g of cocoa butter, 60g of cocoa powder and 20g of agave syrup. I liked it better, but it was slightly bitter. I’m yet to make some with the quantities I’m posting today, so I’d advise you taste and tweak if needed. I’ll edit this recipe if needed in the future. Note that if you’re used to eating very sweet stuff, you might find this recipe not sweet enough. Also, some brands of agave syrup might be sweeter than others, so you might need to add more (or less) of it.

 

Ingredients for the chocolate :

Cocoa butter : 100g

Cocoa powder : 60g

Agave syrup : 25g

 

Ingredients for the ganache :

Chocolate (already made from the ingredients above) : 35g

Orange juice : 35g (1 orange)

Agave syrup : 4g

Ginger powder : 2g

 

You will need a mold. This recipe is for 18 chocolates. I think my mold is for 10g chocolates.

 

Step 1 : make the chocolate.

Melt the cocoa butter using the double-pot method. When it’s fully melted, add the cocoa butter slowly while stirring. Stir well. Take the bowl out of the double-pot thingy. Add the agave syrup. Stir well.

 

Step 2 : make the chocolate shells.

There are different methods to do this. You can pour chocolate in the mold, then pour it back in the bowl. Or you can use a cooking brush. I’ll let you check for proper tutorials. I do it twice, to make sure the shells are thick enough (otherwise, they won’t be unmolding, like the 2 chocolates in my latest video). Do it once. Put the mold in the fridge for a few minutes. Do it a second time. Put the mold in the fridge for a few minutes. If the chocolate in your bowl hardened, just reheat it using the double-pot method.

 

Step 3 : make the ganache.

Pour 35g of the chocolate in a bowl. Heat it using the double-pot method. Add the agave syrup. Stir well. Add the ginger powder. Stir well. Take the bowl out of the double-pot thingy. Slowly add the orange juice while stirring. Make sure to use orange juice at room temperature. Freshly squeezed with a bit of pulp is best here. Stir well. Your ganache is ready. Use it right away. From experience, reheating the ganache will lead to a disaster of hardened chunks and water parting ways with the other ingredients.

 

Step 4 : fill the chocolates.

Put the ganache inside the chocolate shells/inside the mold.

 

Step 5 : close the chocolates.

Pour the remaining of the chocolate on top of the filling in the mold.

 

Put in the fridge for 2 hours. Then unmold.

 

This recipe is for a chocolate bar of approximately 90g.

 

Ingredients :

Cocoa butter : 45g

Cocoa powder : 30g

Agave syrup : 15g

Cinnamon powder : a teaspoon (I mean an actual spoon, not the Australian measurement unit). Mix it with the cocoa powder.

 

You will need a mold.

 

Melt the cocoa butter using the double-pot method. When the cocoa butter is fully melted, slowly add the cocoa powder (+ cinnamon powder) to it while stirring. Stir until the powder is fully dissolved. Take the bowl out of the double-pot thingy. Add the agave syrup and stir well. The chocolate is ready to be poured in the mold.

I usually add raisins in the mold. You can add other dried fruits or just not add any.

Put it in the fridge for 1 hour. Then unmold the chocolate.

(I forgot to take a picture of the finished chocolate… )

 

I’m used to eating 85% dark chocolate. This recipe is sweeter than 85% dark chocolate from the store. If you’d like something sweeter, you can adjust the quantity of agave syrup.

 

I also wanted to try milk chocolate. We need powdered milk thingies in order to make chocolate. Using liquid ones will give ganache. I had bought soy powder (full soy beans powder for instant soy milk drinks). Well, soy powder isn’t soluble in oil… I’ve wasted a lot of cocoa butter as I didn’t manage to do anything properly edible.

Next time, I’ll try with coconut milk powder, as I’ve seen recipes using this for milk chocolate and white chocolate. I’ll buy some after the holidays. I’ll post a recipe if I manage to do something good.

I’ve made lotus moon cakes. ^_^

 

First of all, I’d like to emphasize the fact that my recipe is absolutely not the traditional recipe, it’s a hugely adapted one. The traditional recipe seems to be using (a lot of) maltose syrup for the dough, which is basically the sole liquid. I like using agave syrup when sugary stuff is needed. According to the info written on the packaging of the agave syrup I’ve bought, you need to use 3 times less agave syrup than honey or other syrups, as it’s way sweeter. I always find most recipes way too sweet and divide their quantities by 2 or 3 as well. (Same for the oil.) When you take the syrup out of the recipe (or only use a tiny bit of another syrup), you’re left with basically dry flour and need to add another liquid in it. Hence why my recipe is so different from the original traditional recipe.

Traditionally, there’s a salted egg yolk inside of the moon cake. It symbolizes the moon. I really don’t like it, though. Therefore, this recipe is without salted egg yolks.

I also like the dough/paste to be slightly thick. Cantonese style moon cakes (and other similar cakes) have a very thin paste/dough. It’s just a matter of preferences. The recipe here will give you a slightly thick dough/paste.

 

Lotus moon cake recipe (for around 15 moon cakes, using a 25g moon cake mold (mini moon cakes)) :

For the lotus paste :

– 200g of lotus seeds

– 20g of agave syrup

– 16ml of sunflower oil

Note that it will give a slightly sweet paste. If you want something sweeter, just add more agave syrup.

It’s easier to use lotus seeds which skin and center have already been removed. Otherwise, you will need to do it yourself.

 

Clean the lotus seeds (by rinsing them in water).

Boil the lotus seeds in a good amount of water for 30 minutes. (The lotus seeds should then be soft and easily mashed with a fork.)

Let the lotus seeds cool down.

Mix the lotus seeds into a paste using a mixer. Add a bit of water with them to ease the mixing process. (You might want/need to do this by batches/part of the lotus seeds at a time, depending on your mixer.)

Pour half of the oil in an non-sticking pan, allow to heat a little (just like when you usually cook), pour the lotus paste in the pan, mix well until the oil is mixed into the paste. Add the agave syrup. Mix well. Add the rest of the oil. Mix well. The paste should be consistent.

 

Note : you won’t get the same consistency as in the traditional recipe (very smooth and shiny), because it’s not the same ingredients. It cooks very fast ! Use a rather mild-low heat, keep stirring all the time. When it becomes difficult to stir, it’s done.

 

For the dough :

– 200g of wheat flour

– a bit of cinnamon (optional)

– 1 egg yolk

– 15 ml of sunflower oil

– 100 ml of coconut milk

– 1 soup-spoon of agave syrup

Whisk the egg yolk. Add all the other ingredients and mix them together. You should get a soft paste which doesn’t stick and is not dry. (If anything, either add a bit more flour or a few drops of mineral water to get the proper consistency.)

 

Use 20g of dough and 18g of filling (lotus paste) for each moon cake.

Make lotus paste balls.

Flatten the (20g of) dough using a small rolling pin.

Place the lotus paste ball at the center of the flattened dough and wrap it with it. (Basically like when making dumplings, but the result should be a ball instead.)

Put the resulting ball into the moon cake mold to make a proper moon cake.

 

Cook the moon cakes in an oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

 

 

So, I’ve been testing and stuff recently. Therefore I’ve learned new stuff.

One of them is that you need an EFI partition in order to install an OS. As I’ve sofar installed Linux Mint as dual boot, there was already an EFI partition (from the pre-installed OS) on it. This is why I didn’t pay attention/know about it until recently.

You can check the install tutorial for Linux Mint that I’ve made before, if you don’t already have : edited in 2022 : check the newer one : https://melina-j.me/linux-mint-install-tutorial-2021/ .

So, if you’re installing in dual boot, the install process is basically the same and an EFI partition is already there.

 

Now, if you want to install on a computer where nothing has yet been installed (or if you wiped your disk clean), you need to start by making an EFI partition. I’m going to simply summarize from memory how to do so here, I’d advise you to still check here and there, there are probably very clear step by step video tutorials somewhere…

Also please note that I’m basing this on what should be done when installing Linux Mint, stuff might slightly differ for other distros.

All the articles/tutorial I’ve read explained to make an EFI partition before starting the install of Mint.

When you are booted on the live USB, open GParted. If the computer is brand new with nothing on it, you will need to “create partition table” (gpt) first (in “device” menu). Then in the “partition” menu, click “new”.

Then fill in the “form” :

* Free space preceding (MiB) : 1

* New size (MiB) : lots are recommending to use something in the 500th, some use “512”, others “550”.

* Create as : primary partition

* Partition name : EFI partition (or EFI system partition)

* File system : Fat32

* Label : EFI

 

Then click on “add”. Then click on the tick (“V” kind of sign) in the second top menu bar in order to apply the changes. After it’s done, right click on it, choose “manage the flags”, select “boot” (“esp” should be selected together with it automatically, if not, select it too).

Your EFI partition is created. You can proceed with the install, just like I showed in the video (choosing the option “something else”).

 

Note that if you don’t want/need to install other versions/distros later, you can just skip all this by choosing the “erase disk and install Linux Mint” option, which will use the full hard drive and do everything automatically.

 

Something else I’ve learned, is that you need to tweak (or verify the setting) in the BIOS UEFI menu/settings. (I know it’s either one of them, but it’s literally how it’s called by everybody, so…) While I knew stuff were supposed to be tweaked before, I let the computer vendor do it and he didn’t explain to me last time. Now I’ve learned that secure boot needs to be off, as well as fast boot. I’ve also learned that not all motherboards allow you to turn secure boot off…

There’s also something about hardware that should be in AHCI mode rather than RAID, but I’m not too sure about the details here, so I’m just typing it like this and would advise you to ask someone who knows better about this.

 

There you go. Hope it helps. ^_^

I’ll make a video soonish to talk about stuff. I’m going to be busy with several stuff for the next few days, though.

Sharing another recipe, which I came up with/adapted from several different recipes.

So, this is a recipe to make cream, to use in pies or cakes likes “éclairs”, “choux à la crème”, etc… You can just replace the coconut floss from this recipe : https://melina-j.me/tarte-recipe/ with a layer of cream.

Ingredients :

1 egg yolk (the yellow part of the egg)

25g of rice flour

250ml of coconut milk

50g of almond powder

(optional : 25g of white sugar)

 

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolk, add the sugar (if you add any) and whisk it together, then add the rice flour and mix it. (Careful to not get chunks)

Pour the coconut milk in a pan, heat it until it starts to boil (the small bubbles on the side, not the big bubbles when it boils).

Pour half of the hot coconut milk in the bowl (which contains the egg and flour), add the almond powder, whisk until you get a creamy consistency. Then pour this cream into the pan, where there’s the other half of the coconut milk. Heat it over low heat, stir until you get a consistent cream. (Careful here, takes very fast).

Pour the cream in a bowl, wait a bit until it’s cold. Use it for pies and other cakes.

Notes :

I used these quantities as the coconut milk I buy is sold by 250ml boxes, but I had enough to make 2 pies, (more or less 25 cm of diameter), unless you like your pies with a very thick layer of cream, just divide the quantities by 2 (except for the egg, use a small one, I guess).

Most recipes use maizena, I just use rice flour instead. I guess you can use wheat flour instead if you don’t have maizena nor rice flour.

Most recipes use 2 or even 3 eggs. I decided to only use 1 as I’ve tried a recipe before which is called “crème aux oeufs”, egg cream, which is a dessert, not cream for pies, I followed the recipe except that I used soy milk instead of cow milk. I don’t know how it was supposed to taste with cow milk, but what I got tasted like sweet omelette. That’s why I only added one egg here. Bad memories, was afraid it would taste like omelette again.

Now that’s why I don’t really like to use soy milk when baking and rather use coconut milk : soy milk is quite bland in taste, and a bit bitter, so you need to add sugar in your cakes, otherwise it doesn’t really taste good, whereas coconut milk is naturally sweet and very strong taste-wise.

I think this cream is ok to use without adding sugar in pies with lots of fruits, but you defo need to add something to sweeten it if you want to use it in cakes like “éclairs”, it’s a bit bitter, which makes it great to contrast with fruits, but not for standalone use.

That’s also why I don’t add sugar in the paste. Cooking is like music, you need to make sure everything goes together, that it blends together. If you add sugar to the paste, then the cream would taste bitter and bland in comparison, so you’d need to add sugar in it, but then the fruits would taste less sweet in comparison, so you’d need to add a mixture of butter and sugar on top of the fruits, like they do in big bakeries. It’s all or nothing.

 

I forgot to take pictures of the cream, so yeah… ^_^

 

Also, the Cymellia website will be back online in a few days, we’re implementing new stuff and will need to do some testing as well.

I’ve been experimenting with tartes (pies) recipes lately. I’ve finally found one that I like.

Here’s a picture, although it’s not the final recipe I’ve tried, this one in the picture, the crust was a bit too thin and the fruits are a bit messy, but nevermind. I’ll post a better picture at some point.

I used to be lazy and just buy ready made multi-purpose paste at the supermarket, that’s why I was still experimenting. I can’t find any here. So, I’m learning how to do the paste myself.

Ingredients :

– wheat flour : 250g

– cinnamon powder

– vegetable oil : 15ml

– coconut milk : 125ml

– 1 egg

And

– coconut floss

– apples

Usually, the paste from the supermarket doesn’t contain milk/coconut milk or eggs and is made with palm oil. I’ve used sunflower oil here. I added an egg so that the paste is a bit like a biscuit. Also coconut milk is quite oily, if you choose to use soy milk or water instead, maybe you will need to add more oil or the crust might be too hard. Most recipes I’ve seen online contain 50ml or even 100ml of oil. I’ve tried with 50ml, I really don’t like greasy stuff. The crust was softer and all, but it was too greasy for me. Most pastes from the supermarket don’t contain sugar as they’re multi-purpose (for sweet and salty recipes), so I didn’t add any either. You can add some if you like your pies extra sweet.

In a bowl, add the flour and the cinnamon powder, mix a little, so that it’s homogeneous, add the egg, the oil and the coconut milk, stir a little with a spoon, then mix it with your hand until you have a paste ready to use. I’ve read to not overdo this or the paste will become elastic.

Flatten the paste with a pastry roll. This needs a tiny bit of practice : too thick might feel “too pasty”, too thin might render the crust too hard.

Put the paste in a mold, take the excess off. Pick the paste with a fork all over the bottom (the surface, don’t make full holes, you shouldn’t be able to see through/see the mold).

Cover the bottom with coconut floss. Then cover with apples.

This recipe is even better with pears. The type of pears you can find in France. The ones sold in China are not quite good for this recipe, as they’re like a mix between an apple and a pear and they don’t really soften when cooked. Or use peaches. Make sure to use juicy fruits, so that the coconut floss is a bit humidified when cooking.

Cook in the oven for 25mn at 180 degrees (Celsius).