Five Things I Learned from Chef Hasset Go

Two weeks ago, I received an invite to attend a baking demonstration of one of Manila's baking protégés - Chef Hasset Go at The Maya Kitchen. When I hear the word protégé , I immediately think of Mozart. But let me tell you, Chef Hasset is way easier on the eyes than Mozart - not that I have ever seen Mozart in person, that would be creepy.

Anyway,  I contemplated long and hard if I would accept the invitation. it sounds exciting and seems like a lot of fun. But it was scheduled early in the morning. Now, now, now... early is relative okay? Early may be three am for a baker who needs to produce countless pastries for everyone's breakfast or early is nine am for someone who watched a Family Guy marathon on DVD till 2am scratch that! I mean, nine am is relatively early for someone who finished a Friday deadline in her day job. Or could be both.

But then again, I haven't attended a baking demo in years. I might be missing out on something since I'm always tied to my oven 24/7. So I decided to attend. Good thing I did because there are five things I learned that day, and I am sharing them with you -

1. Think out of the box -

Classic Filipino dessert flavors sometimes need to keep up with the times. Ever heard of Ube Jackfruit Cake? Here's the recipe.

2. Just dump it all in -

Sometimes, rules are just meant to be broken. Mixer set to low then gradually to high, why not set to high immediately? Saves time, yeah?

3. Fancy baking toys are not required to produce a good cake

Chef Hasset made a delicious Energy Mug Cake with the simplest of ingredients and simplest of tools - a mug, a spoon and a microwave. It can not get any simpler than that.

This just proves you really do not need the fanciest baking tools to produce a cake fit to satisfy a sugar craving.

4. Sometimes, shortcuts save the day

I love the story behind the One Block Away Easy Pastel Tres Leches Chef shared with us. He used to live in an apartment where a panaderia/bakery is just a block away. When he's craving for something custard-y cream-y and milk-y, what he does is buy mamon from the panaderia and soak it in three different types of milk - condensed, evaporated and cream. Shortcuts rock!

5. Custard Spring Rolls

This recipe alone is worth getting up early in the morning to make it in time for the 9am baking demo call time. Heck, I would even wake up at an ungodly hour of three am if needed. It's. That. Good. 

Custard Spring Rolls

Custard

1/3 cup Maya Cornstarch

3/4 cup fresh milk

6 pieces egg yolks

1 can condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cooking oil for frying

Spring roll wrapper / Lumpia wrapper

Procedure:

Make the custard:

(1) Add cornstarch to milk

 (2) Dissolve cornstarch with milk. 

 (3) Mix in egg yolks and set aside.

(4) In a saucepan, boil condensed milk and evaporated milk and over mediums heat.

(5) Temper the milk. Which basically means, as Chef Hasset explained, we'd need to bring the temperature of the egg mixture slowly to the temperature of the milk mixture. Which in turn basically means, don't shock the eggs, otherwise you'll have sweetened scrambled eggs instead of a custard.

(6) Lastly add butter and vanilla

 (7) Let custard cool.

(8)  Wrap the custard as you would a turon. See below

Here they are stacked!

Fry in a pan. Make sure not to overcrowd since it'll lower the temperature making the rolls soggy.

Now, you can serve it with a variety of things - whipped cream, ice cream, fresh fruits, mint leaves, powdered sugar, chocolate, strawberry or caramel sauce. As for me, whipped cream and cherries - classic.

So glad, I took time to attend the demo. A special thanks goes to the Maya Kitchen and Ms Tess Laurente for inviting me :)