Chinese New Year Bakes 2012

My baking blog seems to be gathering cobwebs due to several weeks of neglect. Before it continues to fall apart due to lack of maintenance, it is time to do some "Spring Cleaning" and "repair works".

This post was supposed to be up during Chinese New Year period. For this Chinese New Year, I have decided to move away from doing just the usual pineapple tarts. Come to think of it, it is my fourth year doing the all-time festive favourite. Before I could decide if I want to make the pineapple paste from scratch, mum happily handed me two packets of store-bought paste, leaving me with no choice but to use them.

Ever since I had my maiden attempt on making homemade pineapple jam, the bar has been raised. I am no longer satisfied with the one-dimensional plainly sweet pineapple jam. There is far too much sugar in store-bought paste, probably necessary to allow the paste to keep for a long period of time. In addition, store-bought jam is much drier compared to homemade ones, does not taste as fruity and lack the cinnamon taste which gives it the extra oomph.

Next year, I will likely not be doing any pineapple tarts and will be shifting the focus to trying out other CNY cookies instead.

Preparing the pineapple balls and pineapple tart crust.

Store bought pineapple paste. Sweet and sticky.

Pineapple tart pastry made with Lurpak butter.

Besides doing pineapple tarts, I have tried Florence's peanut cookies recipe. These cookies are so fragile that they crumble in the mouth right away, giving the melt-in-the-mouth texture. Personally, I prefer my peanut cookies to be firm and crunchy, but taste-wise there is nothing for me to find fault with, for they are packed with loads of peanut flavour. I will be using caster sugar in place of the icing sugar for this same recipe next CNY to give a crunchy texture instead.

Just a few tubs of CNY goodies I have made.

Peanut cookies and pineapple tarts.  

Peanut Cookies (recipe from Do What I Like by Florence)
Taste and Texture: Strong peanut flavour with melt-in-the-mouth texture.

click on the following link for recipe:
recipe


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Baking with Bakertan - French Apple Tart ( Tarte Aux Pommes)

Yo folks! Bakertan will be doing a French Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes) today. First of all, we need to prepare the tart base. The tart base we will be using is known as Pâte Brisée ( paht bree-ZAY ), the french version of an unsweetened shortcrust pastry, according to Maxine Clark. Pâte Brisée is a rather versatile tart base and it yields a rich, crumbly flaky texture.

Now, we need to sift the flour onto a clean work surface. Sprinkle a generous pinch of salt evenly over the flour. Make sure both your hands are clean, folks. Use the knuckles of one hand and make a well in the centre of the flour.

Dice some butter and soften it at room temperature. Add the diced butter to the well together with an egg yolk.

Use all 5 fingers of one hand and 'peck' the butter and egg yolk. You will want them to end up looking like scrambled eggs.

Ok, now that one of your hand is greasy, you have the other hand free to use. Grab a palette knife with the other hand and start turning the surrounding flour over the butter yolk mixture. Chop through the mixture like you are chopping nuts. Sprinkle iced water over the mixure. Repeat the chopping action and turning of flour until all the flour is combined with the butter mixture. You can see that the end result is some coarse and fine flour-coated butter crumbs.

 

Folks, we need to bring all the crumbs together to form a dough. So, gently gather the crumbs. Knead them gently so that they come together into a ball.  Make sure that you do not overknead the dough. We do not want the dough to be well kneaded and everything is evenly distributed. This is not cake making ~ Once done, flatten the ball slightly and wrap it up with clingfilm. Place the dough in the refrigerator for at at least 30 minutes.

So, once the dough is chilled, we can work on it again. Remove the clingfilm and let the chilled dough soften a while at room temperature. Meanwhile, we need to dust a clean work surface and a rolling pin with a little flour. This will prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and the work surface. Roll out the dough evenly using the rolling pin. Dust the rolling pin every now and then to prevent dough from sticking.

How do we know when to stop rolling? Place the tart tin onto the rolled out dough. The rolled dough should be larger than the size of the tart tin. We want to have excess dough so that we can cover up the sides of the tin.

Next, remove the tart tin and place the rolling pin onto the rolled out dough. Slowly lift up the dough from one end and wrap it around the rolling pin lightly. You have to do this slowly so as to prevent tearing the dough. Remember not to roll the dough tightly onto the pin or else it will stick together. That will spell trouble, oops!...  

Once done, place the wrapped dough onto the tart tin. Starting from one end of the tart tin, slowly unwrapped the tart dough until the tart tin is covered. Press the dough down to fit the tart tin, ensuring that the dough adheres to the base and the sides well.

There will be excess dough over-hanging from the sides. How do we deal with that? We need a sharp knife. A small one will do. I am using a paring knife here. Simply run the knife through the sides to cut off the excess dough. Nevermind if the tart tin is not fully lined. We can do some patching up.

Use the excess dough a little at a time and patch up the bald areas. Tada! We have a nicely lined up tart base now. Thats all for preparing a tart base and lining a tart tin. Return the tart base to the refrigerator for another 15 minutes. We still have to prepare the apple fillings.... Wrap up the remaining dough with clingfilm and use it to make a small tart.

To prepare the apple filling, core and peel 4 or 5 baking apples. Golden Delicious or Granny Smith will be good choices. Slice the apples thinly and arrange them nicely on the chilled tart base in nice concentric circles, starting with the outer circle and followed by the inner circle. Arrange smaller pieces of sliced apples in the middle. Sprinkle sugar evenly and place cubed butter all over the apples. Place tart tin on top of a baking pan and bake the apple tart at 200 degrees C for an hour until the apples are nicely browned. We are not done yet... Warm some apricot jam in a saucer over low heat and spread it over the apple tart to give it a glossy look and added flavour. Voila! We now have a nice French Apple Tart.

Thats all for today, folks. Stay tuned to Baking with Bakertan. Cheers and have a nice day~  

Ok back to how I usually blog. I thought I would deviate from my norm since I do not have anything interesting to write. So I was thinking: "Hey, why not 'host' a baking demonstation here"? That should break the monotony.

After using up some of my Golden Delicious Apples for my previous apple-upside down cake, I had some leftovers and was planning to use them soon. Youfei's post on her apple tart movtivated me to do a French Apple Tart. There should be no more Golden Delicious apples by now. No, not really. I just caught hold of a new bag of Golden Delicious, without any hesitation! That means.. More baking with apples! It  takes a bit of luck to find it these days, so I am not going to take any chances by passing up the opportunity...

Two weeks ago, a visitor to my blog emailed me. I was delighted to know that we live really near each other, just five minutes walk away. She managed to find me here, all thanks to Edith's blog. I met up with her this evening and passed her some of my freshly baked French Apple Tarts. Really look forward to more baking exchanges and sessions with my newly found friend...

French Apple Tart ( Tarte Aux Pommes) (Recipe adapted from Tarts: Sweet and Savoury by Maxine Clark)
Serving size: 8 to 10 slices
Texture: Buttery flaky and crumbly tart crust. Apple filling is sweet and moderately firm, not mushy with lended flavour and sweetness from apricot jam.
Equipment and Materials:
1) 24 or 25 cm tart tin with removable base
2) Rolling pin
3) Flour sieve
4) Measuring spoon set
5) Clingfilm
6) Baking tray
7) Palette knife
8) Wire rack

Pâte Brisée:
220g plain flour
a generous pinch of salt
110g unsalted butter, diced and softened at room temperature
15g egg yolk (I used a 55g egg)
3 tbs water

Making the Pâte Brisée:
Follow instructions as mentioned above.

Apple Filling:
4 or 5 baking apples, peeled and cored, about 400g of sliced apples (I used Golden Delicious)
2 tbs caster sugar (I used raw sugar)
40g unsalted butter, diced
2-3 tbs apricot jam, warmed  (I used IXL apricot jam. St Dalfour's Peach Jam would be a good choice too)

Making apple filling:
Follow instructions as mentioned above.

Notes:
1) Do not be tempted to add more apricot jam. The sweetness will steal the focus from the apples.

Apples

Cake project 2 - Puffy Strawberry Napolean Shortcake

My friend came over my place on 2 consecutive days this week to bake a cake for her mum's birthday.  She suggested baking a napolean cake. This is the first time I had heard of this cake.

The traditional Napolean cake is made of 3 layers of puff pastry sandwiched with layers of  pastry cream or sometimes whipped cream. However, that was not what we planned. She suggested including sponge cake layers along with the puff pastry. I felt confident doing the sponge layers but was unsure about working with puff pastry as it was something I have not tried working with. So, we decided to get ready made puff pastry.

So the grand plan was born. The idea is to construct a cake consisting of 3 layers of puffy pastry coupled with 2 sponge cake layers. In between the sponge cake layers and puff pastry layers will be vanilla whipped cream with fresh strawberries. 

On the first day, things went smoothly with the sponge cake. When it came to preparing the puff pastry, things seemed a little out place. It was difficult to roll the puff pastry to a uniform thickness and into a square. When the pastry was baked, it was a mix of flaky and doughy texture. As it was getting late, we had to carry on with the remaining tasks the next day. As for the baked puff pastry, I did not dump it into the bin but matched it with ice cream. The combination proved to be a good one - an ice-cream strudel, puffy and ice cold creamy.

The next day, we tried out a different brand of puff pastry. On the second attempt, the puff pastry is butter based as compared to the first which is made of margarine. The butter puff pastries were shaped nicely into squares of uniform thickness, saving us the time to roll them. After baking, the butter puff pastries turned out better in terms of texture and appearance - crispy and golden brown.

With the barrier overcame, assembling the cake was the final hurdle. First step of assembling involved trimming the 3 puff pastries layer to the same shape as the sponge cake. The sponge cake was evenly sliced into 2 layers with the aid of a wilton cake leveller,a trusty cake tool I keep around for assembling layered cakes. To make the vanilla cream, we simply added icing sugar and vanilla extract and whipped the cream till it peaked. Lastly, freshly bought dark red strawberries were sliced and set aside.

To complete the cake project, a layer of puff pastry was laid on the cake board. Strawberries were added and a layer of cream was spreaded evenly over the puff pastry. A sponge layer was adhered onto the layer of cream. Another layer of cream and strawberries was then added to the top of the sponge layer. The layering of cream and strawberries continued whenever a puff pastry layer or sponge layer was added. In total, the cake consists of 3 puff pastry layers, 2 sponge cake layers and 4 vanilla cream and strawberries layers.

I was pretty eager to know the verdict of the taste and texture of the cake. My friend commented that the puff pastry layer was not as crunchy as it was when we first baked it. Her mum enjoyed the cake though. Perhaps we were too generous with the cream, resulting in the puff pastry turning soggy. Looking at the pictures, the sponge layer looked somewhat a little thick. A shortcake that is nowhere short.

Puffy Strawberry Napolean Shortcake
Equipement: 8 inch square cake tin, cake leveller or large serrated knife longer than 8 inches, baking/cookie tray, 9 inch square cake board

Sponge Cake:
5 egg yolks
55g caster sugar
60g vegetable oil
60g water
110g cake flour
1/2 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites
55 sugar

Preparing Sponge cake:
1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
2) Place egg yolks, 55g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium high speed until thickened and fluffy (ribbon stage), about 10 minutes. The batter should increase in volume about 4 times and when the beater is lifted, the falling batter will leave a visible trail on the rest of the batter. The falling batter will not level with the rest of the batter immediately.
3) Whisk flour and baking powder in a large bowl to combine. Sift the flour mixture into beaten egg yolks in 3 batches and fold each batch gently using a ballon whisk. The volume will decrease due to inflating of egg yolk batter. Be sure to fold gently to prevent excessive deflating. Use a spatula to scrape sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure flour mixture is evenly incorporated.
4) In a clean metal bowl, whisk egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium and beat untill egg whites are foamy. Gradually increase speed to high and add the other 55g of sugar gradually. Beat untill egg whites are stiff but moist looking. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned.
5) Using a ballon whisk, fold one third of beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter gently to lighten and combine. Fold in the rest of the beaten whites to combine in another 2 batches. Final batter should be foamy and uniform in colour with no streaks of egg white present. Folding egg whites gently using balloon whisk will prevent egg whites from deflating too much.
6) Pour batter into a greased and lined 8 inch square pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 30 - 35 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick.
7) Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on wire rack.
8) Slice of the part that has domed. Slice cake into 2 layers.

Puff pastry
3 square sheets of puff pastry larger than 8 x 8 inches
1 egg mixed with 1 tbs caster sugar

Preparing Puff Pastry:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2) Brush egg wash over the surface of a puff pastry sheet.
3) Bake puff pastry on a lined cookie/baking tray for 15 -18 minutes until top is puffy and golden.
4) Remove puff pastry and allow to cool. The bottom will be oily and soggy
5) Flip the baked puff pastry and bake the bottom (now facing up) for another 15-18 minutes. Both sides should be crispy when properly baked. Leave to cool.
6) Repeat steps 2) to 5) for the other 2 puff pastries.
7) Place the 8 inch square baking tray on top of a puff pastry. Trim puff pastry to 8 x 8 inches following the outline of the tin using a sharp knife. Repeat for the other 2 puff pastry sheets.

Cream layer:
400ml chilled whipping cream (we used dairy whipping cream)
2 tbs icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
350g ripe strawberries

Preparing Cream Layer:
1) Place chilled whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla extract.
2) Beat on low speed to combine sugar, whipping cream and vanilla extract. Add more sugar and/or vanilla if desired.
3) Continue beating on medium high speed till creamy and stiff. The cream should hold its shape well and the cream will not budge much when bowl is overturned. Do not overbeat else the cream will separate into butter and water.
4) Wash and remove leaves and stems from strawberries. Cut 2/3 of the strawberries into thin slices. Set aside the rest for decorations.

Assembly:
1) Place a layer of square puff pastry on a 9 inch square cake board.
2) Arrange a layer of strawberry slices on top of the puff pastry, leaving a small border at the edges.
3) Apply a thin layer of cream evenly over the strawberries, enough to cover them and filling the entire square.
4) Place a sponge cake layer over the strawberries and cream.
5) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 1st sponge cake layer.
6) Next, place a 2nd  layer of puff pastry over the cream layer.
7) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 2nd puff pastry layer.
8) Next, place a 2nd sponge cake layer over the strawberries and cream.
9) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 2nd sponge cake layer.
10) Next, place a 3rd layer of puff pastry over the cream layer. Cake is fully assembled.
11) Dust top of assembled cake with icing sugar and decorate with remaining strawberries.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

Art of The Chocolate Tart

These days, tarts are fast becoming part of my baking routine. With some leftover cream from a previous bake, I decided to churn out some chocolate tarts.

Flipping through my collection of bake books, I decided to marry two recipes from two different books. Instead of making a whole 10 inch tart, I thought it would be nice to tweak things a little. Why not make smaller tarts instead? Well, it seemed pretty straight forward, but there is slightly more work involved in making smaller tarts. I have to measure out the exact weight of dough for each small tart tin and press the dough in to fit. The recipe made enough for 13 tarts, meaning that I had to repeat the pressing dough into tart tin process 13 times. I would not say it is difficult to do so, but the repetitive nature is enough to bore me. What a chore!

Next up was deciding the amount of chocolate filling for the tarts. I made a small portion and it was sufficient to fill 6 of the tart crusts. After filling the 6 tart crusts, I soon realized that the filling was too bitter for my liking. What I did next was prepared enough filling for the rest of the tart crusts. I then scooped out the fillings from the tarts I have already prepared and mixed them in with the rest of the newly prepared filling, added some honey and it was good to go.

Silky Chocolate Tarts (Crust recipe adapted from Tarts: Sweet and Savoury)
Equipment: 3 inch (measured from top) individual tart tins. Mine comes in a pack of 12.

Pate Sucree:
200g flour
60g icing sugar
85g diced unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs iced water

Method:
1) Sift flour and sugar into a bowl. Use a whisk to distribute the ingredients evenly.
2) Pour the flour and sugar mixture onto a clean surface. Make a well in the middle.
3) Place the butter, egg yolks and vanilla in the well. Use one hand to peck the butter and yolks together until it becomes like scrambled eggs
4) Using a long palette knife, spoon flour over the well and chop throughout to mix the butter mixture and the flour mixture. The end result should be lumpy.
5) Add the iced water and continue chopping with the knife.
6) Using both hands, bring the mixture to a ball of dough.
7) Wrap it in clingfilm and allow dough to chill for 45 minutes.
8) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
9) When dough is chilled, weight 30g dough for each tart tin. Press dough evenly to fit the tins.
10) Chill dough for 20 minutes before baking.
11) Place a piece of baking paper over the top of the tart tins. Fill with baking beans or dry beans/ raw rice. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes.
12) Remove baking paper and baking beans and return tart crusts to oven and bake a further 10 - 15minutes till crusts are dry.
13) Allow crusts to cool and remove from tart tins when done.

Silky Chocolate Filling:
225ml cream
180g dark chocolate (50 - 60% cocoa)
1 tbs liquer of choice: Bailey's, Rum, Cointreau, Kahlua will do fine.
2 - 4 tbs corn syrup/ honey (start with 2 tbs, add more if desired)

Method:
1) Heat cream in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler. When cream is hot, add the chocolate. Allow chocolate to soften then stir to allow chocolate and cream to combine.
2) Remove bowl from heat. Stir in corn syrup and liquer. Allow chocolate filling to cool
3) Spoon chocolate filling into individual tart crusts. Chill tarts in fridge until filling is set.

Granny Smith Apple Fragrance

I have never preferred baking tarts to cookies or cakes. The pictures illustrated on books always look so tempting and delicious but it always turn out to be a whole lot of work to me when I attempt to bake one.

This time I was determined to bake a proper whole tart. The last time I did so was a lemon tart. It tasted good but the appearance did not turn out ideal.

Preparing the tart crust was alot easier than I thought this time round. Things went smoothly, too smoothly I thought. Then, the not-so-smooth bug came into the picture. I had problems preparing the crumle topping. The recipe asked for softened butter and the crumble topping turned out to be an oily mess. I immediately knew there was something wrong with the recipe. I re-prepared the crumble topping, this time round using chilled butter. It do not turn out to be what I expected. Too much butter I thought, based on my intuition and experience. 

After running a brief search for recipes online, I found out the the recipe I referred to used too much butter. In the end I had to re-prepare a third time and the consistency turned out ok. What a waste of butter!I did not feel so heart-pained for the wasted flour and sugar as butter is the most expensive ingredient here.   

Apple tart recipes in bake books all seem to have something in common. Most of them require Granny Smith apples. I then found out that Granny Smith apples are green apples. And as most people would know, green apples have a tart flavour. For a moment, I thought the apples would still retain their tartness after baking.

On the contrary, the apple pie came out to be apple-sweet with a twist of tangy lemon and there was the subtle aroma of cinnamon circling around. I almost could not resist the moist juicy sultanas hidden among the apples. Looks like it was worth making this tart after-all ~

Lemony Apple Crumble Tart (recipe adapted from Tarts: Sweet and Savoury)

Equipment: 23cm tart tin

Sweet rich shortcrust pastry:

250g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

125g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

2 medium egg yolks

2 tbs iced water

2 tbs icing sugar

1 egg beaten for brushing base

Method:

1) Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl. Add the salt and use a whisk to distribute the ingredients uniformly.

2) Add in the chilled and diced butter into the bowl. Rub the flour mixture into the butter until it becomes like breadcrumbs. There will be some grains that will be larger than the rest. Leave it as that.

3) Next, mix the egg yolks and iced water and add to the flour butter mixture. Use a fork to mix and moisten the dough.

4) Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly using your hands to bring the dough together. Once the dough comes together, form it into a ball and wrap it up with clingfilm. Do not work the dough too long. It will become rock hard upon baking.

5) Chill the dough for 30 mins before using.

6) While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling.

7) When tart is chilled, bring it to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough out to a circle slightly bigger than the tart tin. (Remember to take into account the side of the tart tin as well). Wrap the dough around the roller and transfer the dough to the tin. Unroll the dough and press the dough into place. Use a knife to cut off excess dough from the sides of the tin.

8) Prick the base with a fork all over. Chill the tart for 15 minutes.

9) Preheat oven to 190 degrees C

10) Cut out a piece of foil or baking paper larger than the tart tin. Line the top of the dough with the paper or foil. Fill the tin with baking beans. (Use rice or barley or other dry beans if you do not not have baking beans)

11) Bake the tart for 10minutes. Remove the beans and bake the tart for a further 5 minutes. Let the beans cool. Store and reuse the beans.

12) Brush the base with the beaten egg to cover the fork holes. Put the tart into the oven and bake for 5mins until the base is dry. If  necessary, repeat this step.

Apple filling:

6 Granny Smith apples (or 6 green apples)

60g sultanas

fine zest of 1 lemon (wash lemon thoroughly before zesting)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

55g brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon (more if desired)

1 tbs plain flour mixed with 1 tbs castor sugar

Crumble topping :

75g plain flour

75g castor sugar

40g butter, chilled and diced

fine zest of 1 lemon

Method:

1) Peel and core the apples. Cut the apples into small chunks. I cut the apples into quarters, then half each quarter length-wise. Next, I cut the 2 length-wise pieces into 6 chunks. One apple would give 24 chunks.

2) Place the apples into a big bowl and add the sultanas, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon and brown sugar. Mix them together.

3) Scatter the mixed flour sugar mixture onto the baked tart base. Place the apple chunks on top of the tart. There is more than enough apples to form a layer. Discard the liquid left behind.  

4) Prepare the crumble topping. Mix the flour, sugar and lemon into a bowl. Rub the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Scatter the crumble topping over the apples evenly.

5) Bake the assembled tart at 190 degrees C for 15 minutes then lower temperature to 180 degrees C and bake for another 30 minutes. Tart taste best when served warm.

My 1st Heavenly Cake - Gateau Breton

This is the very 1st cake I attempted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's - "Rose's heavenly cakes". Hence, the entry is titled as My 1st heavenly cake. When I first browsed thruough this baking bible at borders weeks ago, I immediately decided that it would be a book I would want to keep. Having read raving reviews about this author and baking compendiums under her from Amazon and Sunday Times, I understood why she is named the queen of cakes.

As described by Rose, a Gateau Breton is a pastry like crispy on the exterior and has a soft, dense and moist texture. It is a cross between a shortbread and a pound cake. To me it is more like a marriage between the pie and the butter cake. While the pastry was baking in the oven, I could sniff the aroma of  rum when actually the amount of rum included was only a miniscule tablespoon.

When I popped the first morsels into my mouth, I could feel sweetness of butter and rum permeating inside. Hidden among the buttery rum fragrance was nutty hint due to the almonds. Definitely, this is one recipe I would re-cake again.

Among the vast varieties of recipes included in "Rose's heavenly cake", the Gateau Breton is one of the easiest. There are plenty of other recipes which span more than 3 pages and I could imagine the number of hours required to assemble the cakes. Nevertheless, the effort should pay off well.

I shall look forward to my next heavenly cake - apple upside-down cake.

The recipe can be found in the following blog:

Gataeu Breton recipe

Backlog- CNY Pineapple Tarts

For CNY i baked a total of 5 tins of pineapple tarts. Whew! it sure was a tiring task having to roll all the pastry skin and the pineapple fillings into balls. Luckily, mum and younger bro decided to help me since the whole family is mad about pineapple tarts. We ate a total of 7 tins this year, and i estimate that i would need to bake 5 to 7 tins next year for CNY.

Baking pineapple tarts is a very time consuming, tedious yet fulfilling process. It only cost me 10bucks to bake 3 tins of tarts whereas 1
tin of handmade pineapple tart can sell for 10bucks or more on the market. On the other hand, homemade pineapple tarts can cater to personal taste and with some practice they easily turn out to be a delicious treat.

I was inspired to bake these tarts after reading youfei's blog. I followed her recipe and baked my first batch of tarts. It turned out decent, however my pastry skin was a little too thick. The 2nd time i tried baking i used a recipe featured in the sunday times. The outcome were tarts that were soft and give a melt-in-the-mouth feel. However, the skin seems to peel and the tarts seem to stick to the mouth after eating.

The best results i had were tarts baked on my 3rd attempt. This time round i altered youfei's recipe and used 50g butter less. The tarts gave a crumbly feel which suited our preference. I am so going to use this recipe for CNY next year. However, i think i wont be doing my own pineapple jam next year like this time round as it is too time consuming to me. Storebought Phoon Huat or Bake King brand pineapple paste seemed good enough.

Backlog- Egg Tarts

This was one of my most successful attempts in baking. I was pretty satisfied with the results considering this was my first attempt on baking egg tarts. My elder brother commented that it was as good as those sold in bakeries. This recipe from aunty yochana's is definitely a superb one.

The recipe can be found here:
Egg tarts

Welcome 2009

My friends and I decided to have a potluck cum mini BBQ at East Coast Park on New Year's Eve. I flipped through some recipes and decided to do - pizza slice! It looked appetizing in the pictures and I was praying that mine would turn out well.

The original recipe called for ready made puff pastry. I did not have that in hand hence I decided to use pie pastry instead. For me, the challenge was the pastry base. I did not have any prior experience doing the pie pastry. In this attempt, the pie pastry did not turn out as well. It became soggy after i added tomato paste and the rest of the toppings. Perhaps i did not let my pastry base cool before adding the toppings.

There was this grave mistake I made while adding the toppings. The recipe indicated oregano herb to be added and i used dried rosemary instead. Little did I know that rosemary gives of a very strong and bitter taste. To think that the label even mentioned that rosemary is suitable for pizzas. Yucks! I am never ever going to touch rosemary again. Apart from the rosemary misfortune, the toppings turn out well. The toppings were simple yet they blended harmoniously. My elder brother and his girlfriend commented that i added too much capsicum and I can add in sausages and mushrooms.

This recipe is worth a second attempt man! Next time round, I will make sure the pie pastry turns out better. Imagine adding cheese sausages, button mushrooms, black pepper ham, onions, tomato paste and cheese and topping them all over the base... yummy! Shall post the recipe when I am satisfied with my next attempt. Stay tuned..