Carrot Cupcakes

A friend of mine had asked me for a favour. He needed to do a cake for his friend's birthday. After some discussion, I recommended that we do a batch of carrot cupcakes, using my trusty Rachel Allen's Carrot Cake recipe which never fails to yield the most tender, fluffy and flavourful cupcakes. 

According to him, these carrot cupcakes were sweeter and not as spicy as compared to the ones found in Cedele. From my recent maiden experience with Cedele's carrot cake, I found that Cedele's carrot cake is actually less spicy in taste, making me wonder if there is actually something wrong with his tastebuds or if the problem lies with mine. I could only sense a faint hint of cinnamon in Cedele's version. For Rachel Allens's carrot cake, it uses ground nutmeg and mixed spice in addition to cinnamon. I also believe that Cedele's carrot cakes are baked using white sugar whereas these carrot cupcakes are baked using brown sugar, hence the colour disparity between the two.

Frosting wise, Cedele's cream cheese frosting is purely vanilla flavoured and has a firm cheesecake-like texture. On the other hand, Rachel Allen's cream cheese frosting has a vibrant character due to the marriage of flavours attributed by vanilla and orange zest and the texture is smooth and less firm (because I cut down on icing sugar). 

While doing the cream cheese frosting, I noticed that different brands of cream cheese do play a part in determining the texture. Using Elle & Vire cream cheese, the frosting turned out to be fluffier, softer, smoother and it was a breeze piping swirls with it on the cupcakes. Phoon Huat's cream cheese seemed to produce a firmer frosting frosting which is less smooth and did not look like it will pipe well into swirls. 

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting ( recipe adapted from Bake by Rachel Allen)
Taste and Texture: Moderately-spicy, moist, fluffy and chunky with moist plump raisins and crunchy walnuts.
Serving size: about 10 cupcakes

Making the carrot cupcakes:

Baking the cupcakes - Follow the recipe and directions in Carrot Cake. Instead of baking the batter in a loaf tin, spoon the batter into a standard muffin tin lined with cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Decorating the cupakes - Spoon cream cheese frosting into a piping bag attached with a large star tip. Pipe swirls of cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes in a circular fashion to create rosettes.

Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

The American Carrot Cake is one cake that I hardly have any encounters with. One reason could be that it is not a staple cake in conventional bakeries and it is more commonly found in western style coffee chains like Starbucks or Coffee Bean. Once, I had a serving of it at a hotel buffet and I was immediately drawn to its spicy taste accompanied with cream cream frosting that is signature of carrot cakes. 

Flipping through and comparing my recipes, I decided that the carrot cake by Rachel Allen is the more authentic one, using a combination of mixed spice, nutmeg and cinnamon. My other recipes had cinnamon as the sole spice ingredient. 

While I was reading and following the instructions, one particular matter caught my attention. The method of mixing is in fact the conventional mix-dry-wet ingredients muffin method. Being cautious, I made sure not to over-mix the ingredients, ensuring that the mixing stops once the dry ingredients were moistened. Apart from the tedious process of grating the carrots, this is one very simple cake to make. To my amazement, the outcome was a fluffy, moist and pleasantly spiced cake with moist plump raisins and chunky walnuts, topped with a refreshing citrusy orange cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese frosting is one delightful icing on the cake, with vanilla added to accentuate the orange flavour. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe adapted from Bake from Rachel Allen)

Taste and Texture: Mild-spicy, moist, fluffy and chunky with moist plump raisins and crunchy walnuts.
Serving size: 8-10 slices, Makes a 9 x 5 inch loaf
Equipment and Materials:

• 9 x 5 inch loaf tin
• Baking paper
• Grater
• Mixing bowls
• Wire whisk
• Handheld beater/ stand beater

Ingredients:

• 110g whole eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
• 150ml vegetable oil
• 185g brown sugar
• 280g carrot, finely grated
• 90g raisins
• 90g walnuts, chopped
• 190g self-raising flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon, ground
• 1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated (I omitted this)
• 1 tsp mixed spice

Making the carrot cake:

Prepare loaf tin and oven - Line a loaf tin with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl. Use a wire whisk to whisk the mixture until it is evenly distributed. 

Preparing wet mixture - In a mixing bowl, add  in the eggs, oil, sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped walnuts and mix well with a large spoon. 

Adding dry ingredients to wet mixture - Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and very gently stir the mixture with a spoon until dry ingredients are moistened (the last bit of dry ingredients disappear). Batter will be very watery. 

Baking the cake - Pour prepared batter into prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour at 180degrees C, or until a cake tester/ wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow cake to cool in the loaf tin for 15 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Orange cream cheese frosting:

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar ( add more if desired)
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Making cream cheese frosting:

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter to combine. Beat in icing sugar until it is incorporated and mixture is smooth. Lastly, add in the vanilla extract and orange zest beat well to obtain a smooth frosting. Spread cream cheese frosting over the top of the carrot cake. 

Notes:

1. Add more icing sugar to stiffen the frosting or add some milk/orange juice to thin out the frosting according to desired consistency. 
2. You can omit the raisins and use chopped pecans instead for a nutty carrot cake.

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

Lose Some, Gain Some and Muesli Cookies

Its must have been a long while since I exercised regularly. For the past two weeks while I was away for Reservist training, I found it to be especially physically exhausting. Perhaps age is fast catching up on me too. Whichever it is, it just signifies that it is time for me to hit the running track and go for laps in the pool.

When I got back home after training was over, I got a rude shock. My laptop went down. What a nice timing it had to be.... My baking pics were all gone, including pics for two backlogs - raisin oatmeal cookies and a cookies and cream cake, along with other files that were in my hard disk. My windows vista even got downgraded to windows XP as the recovery disk was one for windows XP.

On a positive note, my friend got me a stand mixer at a real steal - a 1150W 5L capacity beater (lesser known brand), all for only 50 bucks. Well, I guess sometimes you lose some but you gain some in return. I am going to use it for bread making and big-batch baking. The two extra mixing bowls could come in handy too.

I missed baking a great deal now that I have endured two bake-less weeks. For a start, I tweaked the raisin oatmeal recipe and used raisins + Dorset Cereals (low sugar content, with natural sweetness from dried fruits) instead to churn out a batch of Muesli Cookies. The great thing about using Dorset Cereals is that they offer a wide variety of dried fruits and nuts all mixed together. And how did it turned out? Chunky, oaty-nutty-fruity cookies which were cereals-ly good! 

Muesli Cookies (recipe adapted from the Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet) 
Serving size: 40 cookies
Taste and texture: Chunky, nutty, fruity. 
Equipment and materials: 

• Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
• Flour sieve
• Measuring spoon set
• Spatula
• Mixing bowls
• Wire rack
• Baking trays/ cookie sheets
• Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:

• 120g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 80g brown sugar
• 35g castor sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (60g with shell)
• 150g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 190g muesli (I used Dorset Cereals)
• 75g raisins

Making the Cookies:

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.  

Cream butter - Beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. The butter need not be as well-creamed as that for making cakes.

Making the cookie dough - Stir in the egg into the creamed butter and mix on medium low speed until combined. Next, stir in flour mixture and beat on low speed to combine butter-egg mixture and flour briefly. Stop once the dough starts to comes together. Scrape and fold in any stray flour with a spatula. Lastly, fold in the  muesli and raisins. 

Baking the cookies - Scoop leveled tablespoons of dough onto baking trays/sheets lined with baking paper, leaving 1.5 inch between each cookie dough. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and bake for 12-18 minutes. Once done, the cookies should be firm to the touch and will firm up further upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.

Notes:

1. Bake cookies for 12 minutes for softer cookies or 18 minutes for firmer cookies. 
2. cookies do not spread much since there is a great amount of oats, nuts and dried fruits. 
3. Use 140g rolled oats and 100g raisins for raisin oatmeal cookies. 

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

Bakertan's Christmas Goodies - Cornflakes Raisins Chocolate Chip Cookies

For the entire week, I was holidaying in Bangkok. My itinerary was packed with tons of shopping expedittions and endless visits to tourist hotspots. Needless to say, I ended up with near to a dozen t-shirts. There isn't any baking stuff this time. Seems like baking is a rare sight in Bangkok and bakeries are almost nowhere to be found, except the high-end shopping centres.

It was a refreshing experience. Me and my friends navigated our way around taking various modes of transport like the skytrain, MRT, tuk-tuk, cabs, water taxis and not to forget the most basic - walking (lots of it). While roaming Bangkok, we were greeted with the many different faces of the city; street hawkers, thai massage parlours, MRT and skytrain stations, highways, traffic congested streets, night markets, pubs, railway slums, river life, buddhist temples, palaces etc.

Its feel good to be home. The air is clean and I am thankful for the amenitites we have here that make life so much more convenient and comfortable. Sometimes, it takes a short overseas trip to realise that the best place to be is still home - Singapore.

Since I was away for 6 days, it is a bakeless week. I miss my books and baking gadgets and am eager to get back to what I love most. For now, I shall share a bake that I have made previously for my 1st round of Xmas goodies - Cornflakes Raisins Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This is the second time I am making these cookies. After I first made them, I thought I won't be making them for awhile. The same thoughts re-surfaced after I baked them a second time. I have to admit that I love the results that the cookies offer, but dread going through the process of making them. Making 60 of these cookies took me more than 3 hours alone and most of the preparation goes into shaping the cookies.

The efforts are well worth it. The first time I made these, my elder brother and sister-in-law were full of praises for it. This time round, my mum and younger brother loved them to bits. The toasted cornflake exterior pairs off really well with the orange flavoured chocolate chip filled interior, giving a light yet refreshing taste. Do a favour for youself by saving some cookies after baking them, before you regret that the cookie jar is emptied in no time.

Cornflakes Raisins Chocolate Chip Cookies ( recipe adapted from Crazy for Chocolate by Periplus)

Serving size: 60 cookies
Taste and texture: Crunchy-chewy.
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Grater
8) Baking trays/ cookie sheets
9) Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:
2 tsp grated orange zest
200g unsalted butter, softened (I recommend reducing this to 160g)
160g castor sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250g self-raising flour
100g semi sweet chocolate chips
100g sultanas
200g cornflakes, lightly crushed

Making the Cookies:
Preparing the zest: Finely grate the zest of a large orange or two small oranges over the sugar. This will allow the sugar to catch some of the orange oil. Rub the sugar with the zest well to infuse the flavour of the orange oil and the sugar. The sugar will become moist and will be tinted orange.

Creaming the  butter and adding eggs: In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is pale and fluffy. Add in eggs one after the other, beating the mixture well before the next is added.

Adding flour: Sift in self-raising flour and beat on low speed to combine butter-egg mixture and flour briefly. Stop once the dough starts to comes together. Scrape and fold in any stray flour with a spatula.

Folding in raisings and chocolate chips: Combine the raisins and chocolate chips and distribute them evenly.Gently fold them into the cookie dough.

Shaping the cookie dough: Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to firm it up.  Scoop rounded teaspoons (slightly heaped) of dough and shape them into balls. Coat them with crushed cornflakes. Place coated cookie doughs on lined cookie trays/sheets and leave some space between each dough to allow for expansion. Bake the cookies at 180 degrees C for 15-20 mins, until the dough turns golden.

About 10 minutes into baking, the cookies would have expanded and will become sparse/bald as a result. Lightly cover the surface with crushed cornflakes and return them to the oven. Nevermind if they make a mess on the tray.

Cooling and storing baked cookies: Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing them in airt-tight jars.

Notes:
1) If cookies soften after storage, bake/toast them for a couple of minutes to re-crisp them.
2) Vary baking time to get desired texture. A short baking time will result in a slightly cakey/chewy interior. Longer baking times will result in a full crispy interior.
3) Confirm the baking time by making a test batch of 2-3 cookie dough as the oven temperature and baking time varies from model to model. Once you are satisfied with the texture, use the same baking time for the rest of the cookie dough.
4) Half the recipe to get yield a smaller batch of cookies.
5) The dough is really soft. Refrigeration will make the dough easier to handle and shape.

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

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory - Part II

2 boxes of  rum and raisins dark chocolate truffles. The size of these truffles were smaller compared to the white chocolate matcha truffles.

Rustic, homemade look

I tried to 'temper' the chocolates using the seeding method without a candy thermometer and it did work for a short moment. The chocolate coating was glossy but when it set, it turned dull, probably due to rapid change in temperatures. 

Notice the inconsistency in the colour of the chocolate coating. This is due to the chocolate undergoing extreme change in temperature. The chocolate coating has developed a chocolate bloom.

Plain dark chocolate truffles with dark chocolate ganache centers. These chocolates were made using a simple inexpensive chocolate mould.

Rum and Raisins Truffles / Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles - see notes below (recipe adapted from Chocolate: 70 of the best recipes from Hamlyn)

Serving size: 15 -20 pieces
Equipment and materials:
1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
85g bittersweet (60% cocao) dark chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
35g raisins finely chopped and soaked in 2 tbsp dark rum for 1 hour, covered  (I used Meyer's dark rum)
1-3 tsp dark rum
120g - 150g dark chocolate pistoles or finely chopped

Method:

Making the Chocolate Ganache: Place 85g of finely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Place heavy cream in a saucer and heat it untill it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Turn off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped dark chocolate and allow chocolate to sit for a while in the heated cream. Stir gently to allow chocolate to melt and blend in with the cream. Do not overstir or the mixture may become grainy. The smooth cream and dark chocolate mixture is known as a dark chocolate ganache.

If dark chocolate is not completely melted: Place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the bottom of the bowl should not be in contact with the water in the saucepan. Bring the water in the saucepan to a low simmer on low heat. This is known as a double boiler. Stir the chocolate cream mixture gently to obtain a smooth ganache. Do not overstir or the mixture may become grainy.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add rum soaked raisins to the cooled ganache. Next, add in 1-3 tsp of dark rum to taste. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache untill firm.

Shaping chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a 3/4 inch melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or untill firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the chilled portions into round balls. Refrigerate these round balls for another 10 minutes or till firm. Melt remaining 120g dark chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat.

Coating ganache balls with dark chocolate: Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted dark chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball away from the melted dark chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. Allow the dark chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles in a single layer in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator.

 
Notes:

1) For Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Follow the above method as stated.

2) For Liqueur Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Add 1-3 tsp of desired liqueur to taste. (Bailey's is a

good choice)  

3) Chocolate truffles are best eaten at room temperature. When eaten chilled, the chocolate flavour is 'trapped'.

4) It takes some practice to melt dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is easier to melt as compared to white chocolate. The best is to use low heat. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the dark chocolate to burn. Burnt dark chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore.

5) Do not allow even a drop of water to come into contact with the melted dark chocolate. The dark chocolate will seize and will be unusable. If this happens and you still want to salvage the dark chocolate, add in more water instead and stir constantly. The melted dark chocolate will become smooth but end up being watery, affecting the taste and texture. Use it as a chocolate sauce instead.

Breadmaking - Not a Success Story

A book titled - Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft caught my attention recently. After reading reviews on it from Amazon, I decided to place a reservation for this book from the National Library. Having done some research on the price, I knew that I have to make that the book is worth its heavy price tag before getting it. This book easily costs above a 100 bucks in local bookstores and being an observant bakebook shopper myself, I know cookbooks and bakebooks hardly ever cross this mark.

I could not contain my excitement and eagerly flipped through the book the day I loaned it from the library. 'Wow' was the first thing that came to mind. The book spans over 900 pages and covers almost everything a baker needs to know, including bread, cakes, cookies, tarts, pastries, icings, chocolates even plated desserts, frozen desserts and savoury bakes. At the forefront of the book was an introduction to career opportunites for baking and pastry professionals, followed by introduction to ingredients and equipment, baking principles and food safety.

There are, however, some minor drawbacks. The section of  baking principles could be explained in further details and the recipes need to be scaled down when intended for home use. Overall, the book would make a very comprehensive textbook or homebaking reference for inspiring bakers. So far, I have been impressed by the content  and hopefully it will make its way into my library of bakebooks soon.  

Back to the main intention of this post, I tried my hands at bread-making a second time today: raisins plaited ring bread from I Can Bake by Agnes Chang. The entire kneading process took me like 40 minutes, both using my hands and the dough hook. Compared to baking cakes and cookies, this is certainly a chore for me. I have always been less inclined towards bread making and this provided a good reason as to why I should stay away.

I managed to get the dough to the window pane stage by stretching the dough gently and slowly to reveal a transulent membrane like appearance. The plaiting, however, turned out to be nightmarish. For the first half of the dough, I separated it into two equal portions instead of three as indicated and rolled the portions out to about 35cm long and plaited them.When the plaited ring was proofed a second time, it went out of shape. To make matters worst, I overbaked the dough and ended with a hideous stiff-crust dark brown ring bread. 

The second plaited dough turned out slightly better after baking. To prevent the dough from over-browning, I covered the top with aluminium foil halfway through the required baking time. In all, this bread making experience is not quite a success. I have no complaints regarding the taste but the bread turned out dry with a tough crust when cooled, not fluffy as seen on the pictures on the book. Wonder what went wrong...

Post Baking Analysis:

1) Possibility of underproofing as suggested by Wendy. Will do my 1st  and 2nd proofing longer. Both took me more slightly more than an hour.

2) Baking temperature too high. I used 200 degrees C. Perhaps I will reduce it to 190 degrees C next time.

3) Baking time too long. I baked at 20 minutes at 200 Degrees C. Will reduce it in future.

4) I realised that my second proofing does'nt seem to be effective. Perhaps next time I might omit the second proofing. Need to do some research on this...  

5) (Latest) Just realised that I added more flour than asked for due to a mistake. Oops! This should be the main culprit for the dry and tough texture.

When the Tastes Combine

Sometimes, it would be nice to combine two of your favourite flavours. What I did was to dig out this Chocolate Rum and Raisin Cupcakes recipe from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw. This is the 2nd time I have done this recipe. The 1st time I tried it out after borrowing the book from the library, I knew I had to re-cake this recipe once again.

Thankfully, I got hold of a copy of the book on offer at more than 60% off from the original price. What a great bargain man! And to think that I would actually find it to be in a place like NTUC Fairprice Extra..

This time round, I increased the proportion and added more raisins which is to my liking. I also upped the amount of rum to give it a stronger kick. The alterations did not fail me and there it was - moist chocolatey cupcakes with a the right blend of rum - not too subtle not too overpowering. When the tastes of rum and chocolate combines, it is just amazing!

The cupcakes are so moist that the top layer remains slightly fudgy, as can be seen in the pictures above.

Chocolate Rum and Raisins Cupcakes ( Recipe adapted from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw)

Equipment: Muffin tin with holes 5cm in diamter measured from the base, cupcake liners/paper

Ingredients:

105g raisins, chopped

60ml dark rum

130g unsalted butter, softened

110g caster sugar

3 eggs (60g each) , separated and at room temperature

150g dark chocolate ( I used 60%), melted

110g self raising flour, sifted

1 tbs dark rum

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C and line muffin tin with cupcake liners/paper.

2) Combine rum and raisins and allow to soak for 3 hours.

3) Cream butter and 55g sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one by one until combined

4) Add one tbs rum to the rum soaked raisins. The rum should have evapoarated after 3 hours. Stir in rum raisins mixture and melted chocolate to combine. Next fold in the flour until well combined.

5) In a separate clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add remaining 55g sugar gradually and beat until egg whites are almost stiff. The egg whites should be moist and creamy and not chunky.

6) Fold one third of beaten egg white to the mixture in 3) to lighten. Fold in remaining egg whites until combined using a whisk.

7) Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Notes:

1) Recipe makes about 14 cupcakes

2) Taste of cupcake matures as day passes

3) Use a clean metal (preferably) bowl and beater to beat egg whites.

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.

Sultana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Whew! It had been a busy period for me during Xmas and New Year. This post should have came up much earlier.

I wasnt satisfied with my maiden attempt on muffin baking. It turned out slightly stiff and kueh like in texture. The taste was bland and the muffin stucked to the paper liners. I guess i slightly overmixed the batter. The ideal batter should be lumpy while i tried to break up the lumps.

On my second attempt, the muffins did not turned out good either. The batter was very watery which i though was because i had added too much orange juice.

With some perseverance, i managed to get decent muffins on my 3rd attempt. This time round i mixed the liquid and dry ingredients until they were just nicely combined. The muffins came out to be soft, fluffy and kueh-like. Hmm... I wonder if authentic muffins are supposed to be like this.

After having done some reading on muffins, my understanding is that there is generally 2 kinds of muffins. One is by using melted butter while the other is by the creaming butter method. The muffins derived from these two methods are totally different in texture. Muffins yielded by the previous method would be slightly kueh-like while the latter kind of muffins are more cake-like. The muffins that i attempted belongs to the first category. In my opinion, muffins done by the creaming butter method are no different from cupcakes. In actual fact, i feel that majority of muffins you find in stores are fluffy and cake-like. Tastewise, i think that cake-like muffins seem to be more agreeable with my palate.

The original recipe that i followed called for blueberries. Thinking that fresh blueberries would not be so easily available in supermarkets, i substituted them with sultanas and choc chips that i had in hand. The amount of sugar used in this recipe is on the low side hence the resulting taste of the muffin is light. This is compensated by the sweetness and aroma of the sultanas and chocolate chips.