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

Cake Project - Awfully Chocolate Banana Cake!

It was a major cake making project that required several hours of committment which served one purpose - a birthday cake for my younger brother. As the name suggests, there is an awful lot of chocolate present in this cake. Layers of chocolate sponge sandwiched with chocolate mousse and fresh bananas finally glazed on the exterior with a lava of chocolate ganache. Awfully sinful indeed!

Once again, credit goes to aunty yochana whose blog I referred to for the wonderful recipe. My previous attempts on egg tarts and pandan kaya cake which came from her library of recipes churned out delicious treats and I was so looking forward to this recipe.

The process of making the cake was a tedious and a not-so-smooth-sailing one. I had some problems making the mousse and the chocolate ganache. The mousse turned out lumpy on the first attempt and I had to chuck the whole thing in the bin. As for the chocolate ganache, everything turned grainy and yucky. Once again, the bin was revisted a second time. There goes my cocoa powder! In the end, I settled for a chocolate butter glaze found on allrecipe as I had ran out of cream.

Decorating the whole cake wasn't an easy affair either. The standing chocolate pieces that circle the cake's perimeter are known as cat's toungue. It was an idea borrowed from a chocolate book that I came across in the library. To do the cat's toungue, I melted chocolate and smeared them onto a piece of greaseproof paper into oblong shapes slightly longer than the height of the cake using a spatula. The melted choclate is then left to harden. I then placed the cat's tongue in my room with the air-conditioner on to set them faster. When left in warm humid conditions, the chocolate pieces will soften and will not hold their shape well. My cat's tongue actually softened and curved outwards from the cake instead of staying upright when I left it on the dining table!

On top of the cake is six piece of square wafer biscuit truffles. Instead of the usual truffles with molten ganache centers, I bought a pack of loackers square chocolate wafers and dipped them in white chocolate. The sqaures were then piped with dark chocolate to give the truffles a finishing touch. The easiest part of all was the piping of words using white chocolate. Tada! My chocolate banana cake was completed.

My family was pretty supportive of the cake. Everyone had a huge slice. Six of us took more than half the cake and it was disappeared without a trace just the next day! Next time I shall double the volume of the chocolate mousse and use a sweeter ganache to coat the entire cake. Yummy!

The recipe can be found from Aunty Yochana's blog:
Awfully chocolate banana cake recipe

Looking For A Baking Buddy..

Its been a long long while since I blog. I have'nt given up on baking. Been reading bake books and trying out recipes in the meanwhile. Sometimes the goods turn out fine but sometimes it doesnt. Nevertheless, I feel that I have gained more experience, confidence and knowledge. It feels like playing video games and levelling up after picking up experience.

A thought struck me suddenly few weeks back. I thought it will be cool to find a baking buddy to share our experience, knowledge, tools and passion for baking. We can meet up for baking sessions and share our bake goods. Hope I can find one, preferably near my area so that I do not have to travel far.

Taking A Hiatus..

Whew, feel rather bogged down with my committments in sch during this period of time. Currently, I am having my exams and do not have much mood blogging. Hope I can settle down and recover from my committments and resume blogging and sharing my baking experience soon..

The Baking Dream

Its been slightly more than half a year since I took up baking. I could still remember my first few attempts ending up in disaster. Being a novice i did not know how to plan my baking schedule and had tons of stuff to learn regarding baking. After trying 4 attempts i managed to get my very 1st oven baked cake done - a pandan chiffon cake. That took me quite some persistence and each time i failed, i would review my mistakes and do more research on the net.

Having gone through a not-so-smooth-sailing time on baking a chiffon cake, I gained much valuable experience, knowledge and confidence. Ever since then, I have never failed in chiffon cake making. Looking back, I think maybe I should have started out baking cookies which are much easier.

The reason why I wanted to pick up baking was because it seemed fun being able to produce mouth-watering treats. Its such a rewarding feeling when you see your loved ones enjoying the fruits of your labour. A simple compliment or word of encouragement would make you feel that all that hard work is worth it.

Soon, I realise I actually bothered to do 'researches' on the blog for recipes and baking tips and even visiting the library where i hardly step into. Never knew that the addiction would grow on me so much to and extent that I would consider making it my career. I think i found my 2nd love in life after Stefanie Sun.

Someday, I hope to become a pastry chef and spread my joy of baking to others. It is a long road for me to take, for now I have to complete my studies, clear my tuition loan and save up before enrolling in a baking school. In the meantime, I will just continue to do self-learning on baking. Look forward to the day when i don the white uniform. Wish me luck!

Chocolate Truffles For Samuel's Farewell

Made these chocolate truffles with Bailey's irish cream chocolate ganache centre for my best friend Samuel who flew to Shanghai earlier this month. I was very excited when i was reading up recipes for chocolate truffles. It seemed to be easy to make these truffles, but in actual fact one has to be familiar with the characteristics of chocolate before doing these chocolate confections.

I learnt that there is a great deal of knowledge when it comes to handling and storing chocolates. When subjected to sudden temperature changes, white streaks will appear on the surface. This would not affect the taste of the chocolates though. What alarms me is that chocolates should not be stored in the fridge. They should be stored in cool places wrapped in layers of foil.

When melting chocolates and setting them, one may want to considering tempering the chocolates to ensure the chocolates set well with glossy appearances. Dark chocolate and couverture chocolates are easier to melt as compared to milk chocolates and white chocolates. For dark chocolates, i use a double boiler to melt them. As for milk and white chocolates, it is easier to use the microwave oven to melt them without causing them to burn.

The taste of these truffles turned out pretty good. One thing i learnt is that these truffles taste best when they are left standing for 30 mins after taking out of the refrigerator. When eating straight from the refrigerator, the chocolate confections will not develop their full flavour. The irritating thing about making these lovely confections is our humid and warm weather. The truffles soften easily when subjected to room temperature and it is unwise to stack them as they might end up in a dark brown mess. I had to rack my brains to wrap these truffles and ended up wrapping them in translucent plastic wrappers and place them in a circular box.

It certainly is a good idea to present these delicate treats as gifts. Hmm maybe i will attempt make truffles for gifts for Xmas.

Here is a great book to read on chocolate truffle making- Truffles, candies & confections by Carole Bloom. Loaned this neat read from the National Library.