Quiche Lorraine, Minestrone and Cassata Gateau

Quiche Lorraine

Minestrone

Cassata Gateau

Fruit Tarts – 2nd Attempt

Yesterday, Pamela And Li Fang came over to my place to make fruit tarts. I am pretty satisfied with the result, just that the crust is a bit thin thus it breaks easily. Overall, Dad loves it and we had a great time in the kitchen *grins*

Rich Shortcrust Pastry

100g butter (room temperature)

100 icing sugar (sieved)

2 egg yolks

240g plain flour (sieved)

1 pinch of salt

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till fluffy.

2. Add in egg yolks and a pinch of salt and stir well .

3. Pour in about 1/3 of the sifted flour into the mixture and stir.

4. Continue pouring the flour and stir well until you get a texture which is not too sticky or dry. (*Don’t overwork or pastry will be harden when baked).

5. Wrap the dough with a cling wrap/plastic bag and refrigerate for 20 minutes until firm.

6. Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and grease tartlet shells.

7. Remove dough from refrigerator and divide it into a few small dough.

8. Press dough onto tartlet shells. (*Make sure the sides are even).

9. Prick with a fork to ensure the base is flat after baking.

10. Bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes.

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Custard Filling

50g instant custard powder

100g water

Method

1. Whisk instant custard powder and water in a mixing bowl until a little fluffy.

2. Cover up the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent crust forming. (*Refrigerate if you are not using it right away).

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To assemble tarts

1. Spread a thin layer of jam on the bottom and sides of the crust to prevent it from getting soggy.

2. Using a pipping tube, pipe the custard filling into the crust about 3/4 full.

3. Arrange any fresh fruits or canned fruits of your choice. If not serving immediately, refrigerate.

Baking with Kim and Xian

It’s Raya holiday! I was back home on Tuesday night and Kim came along with me to stay over at my place. We planned to bake on the following day. I have prepared chocolate pastry and placed it in the freezer a few days ago. But before that, I made pancakes for breakfast. Instead of normal pancakes, I added some flavours to them. Here’s what we’ve got:

From top: Cappuccino, green tea & strawberry pancakes

Let me share with you this easy pancake recipe.

Pancake Ingredients

150g plain flour

1 1/2 baking powder

70g caster sugar

200ml water

1 egg

1 tsp flavouring/essence of your choice

1/4 tsp colouring (optional)

Method

1. Sift flour and baking powder in to a mixing bowl. Add in sugar and stir it.

2. Make a hollow in the center, add egg and half of the water.

3. Stir until mixture is smooth.

4. Add in flavouring/essence and colouring.

5. While stirring, gradually add in the remaining water and beat with a whisk into a smooth batter.

6. Set aside the batter for 20 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, heat a drop of oil in a small non-stick frying pan.

8. Wipe off the oil from the pan lightly with a paper kitchen towel.

9. When pan is just hot, pour a spoonful of batter on the pan.

10. Cook over medium heat until the upper half of the pancake starts to dry.

11. Flip over and cook the other side.

12. Remove pancake onto a plate.

*You can serve your pancake with jam, honey or golden syrup with a scoop of ice-cream.

After breakfast, we rolled out and baked the chocolate pastry. Sadly, the crust didn’t turn to good. There were ‘air bubbles’ on the inner side of the crust which caused an uneven surface and they didn’t look pretty. Apart from that, they were as hard as rock! Kim couldn’t bite them coz she wears braces. Oh dear, I think I’d just stick to my old recipe and substitute some of the flour with some cocoa powder if I want to make chocolate pastry again. Anyway, we didn’t want to waste them so I came up with lemon meringue tarts and Xian made her cream cheese tarts. I failed my meringue too. I guess we over beat the egg white and sugar thus it’s foamy and coarse. However the lemon custard was good.

Cream cheese tart & lemon meringue tart

Coconut Tarts

Coconut Tarts

Coconut Tart Recipe

For the crust, click here for the recipe.

For the coconut filling (makes about 7 tarts):

50g butter

50g sugar

1 egg

25g plain flour (sift)

25g desiccated coconut

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar.

2. Add in egg and vanilla essence. Stir well.

3. Add in sifted flour and desiccated coconut. Mix well.

4. Scoop mixture into pastry case.

5. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Tuna And Banana Filling Tarts

I still have some left over baked tart crust which I made 2 weeks ago and I do not know what to do with them. I brought them to my colleague’s house last night for potluck and I added tuna, sliced banana and hard-boiled egg as the filling. Frankly, I have no idea what to use for the filling. I felt savoury tarts would be a great idea for potluck. When I arranged the sliced banana on the tuna fillings, dear was like “Banana and tuna?”, “Are you sure?”. “Yeah” I said confidently. “Aiyo, so healthy” he added. “Of course!” Haha. And this is how they look like.

Tuna & banana filling tarts

I was eager to try one. As I have expected, it tasted a bit salty and sweet (that’s what I wanted) but the banana taste seems to cover the tuna taste. I will experiment with other fillings next time *grins*

Grape Tarts and Ginger Cookies

Baking at home is fun. You get to experience doing everything on your own and this is where you learn. Before I entered culinary school, I was quite afraid to bake because whenever I attempt to do something, the thing ruins either in the midst or at the end result. But for now, I guess no matter what the outcome is, I just want to continue doing it till I achieve it. Patience is the key to success and never ever give up!

This week, I made ginger cookies and fruit tart. I was keen in making egg tart actually but I ended up with grape tarts coz I saw some leftover grapes in the fridge. And seriously, the ginger cookies are made from a ginger cake recipe but I don’t know why it’s crispy and it’s more like a cookie. So, I might as well call them cookies. Haha.

Grape tarts

Ginger cookies

Crispy texture

Tarts and Pie

Coconut Tart by Group A1

The soft and fluffy texture of coconut tart

Apple Tart by Group Best

Lemon Meringue Pie by Group Delicious

Delicious Lemon Meringue Pie

Fruit Tarts

Everyone loves fruit tart. No one can resist the beauty of it. The most important thing about making fruit tarts is the rich pastry crust. If the crust is good, the tart will be good too.

To make the crust, all you need is:

100g butter

100g icing sugar (sieved)

240g flour (sieved)

2 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

(this recipe can make 10 to 12 tarts)

METHOD

First of all, cream the butter and icing sugar.

Then add in the egg yolks, a pinch of salt and stir well.

Next, pour about 1/3 of the sifted flour into the mixture and stir.

Continue pouring the flour and stir well until you get a texture which is not too sticky or dry. It is not necessary to use all of the flour.

Don’t overwork or pastry will be harden when baked.

Once the dough is ready, cover it with a plastic bag and refrigerate for 20 minutes until firm.

Meanwhile, get ready 12 tart cups (app. 6cm length) and grease them. Put aside.

Remove dough from the refrigerator. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle until it forms about 3mm thickness.

Cut it into pieces using a cookie/pastry cutter.

Gently lay it on a tart cup. Twist/turn the cup with your palms until the pastry sets nicely.

Poke holes on the surface of each pastry to prevent bubbles when baking.

Preheat oven to 180 degress C and place tray in the center of oven.

Bake crust for 20 minutes until it is golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool it on wire rack before filling.

To prepare the custard filling, you need:

50g instant custard powder

100g water

METHOD

Whisk instant custard powder and water in a mixing bowl until a little fluffy.

Cover up the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent crust forming (refrigerate if you are not using it right away).

To assemble tarts:

Spread a thin layer of melted chocolate over the bottom and sides of the tart to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Set aside for a while.

Using a pipping tube, pump the custard filling into the tart about 3/4 full.

To decorate the tarts, arrange any fresh fruits or canned fruits of your choice. You can arrange it randomly or in a concentric overlapping circles. Try to cover all the custard filling with fruits so none of the cream is shown.

Gently brush a light coat of agar-agar on the fruits to make it shiny. If not serving immediately, refrigerate.

It is best eaten on the same day.

Notice that I did not cover the tarts with enough fruits so the custard filling is shown. Hence, not so nice.

Fruit Tarts