Mini Fruit Tarts

Fruit tarts are one of my all time fav desert and i've finally decided to experiment on them. I am bringing them for potluck tmr!!I've always thought that it is rly complicated to make one. Come to think of it now, it's actually not too difficult. Well, it cld be a little troublesome but it's rly worth it because they taste marvellous! There are three stages to bake fruit tarts. 1: The crust, 2: the pastry cream, 3: fruits topping. I got my recipe from a few sources [ Joy of baking etc... ]



1:Sweet Pastry Crust
Ingredients: (makes about 24 mini tarts)

195g of All purpose flour
1/8 tsp Salt
113g unsalted butter
50g of white sugar
1 large egg

Steps:
1. Whisk flour and salt in a bowl
2. Using an electric mixer/hand mixer, beat butter until soften. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Gradually add the beaten egg until just incorporated.
4. Add flour mixture all at once and mix ntil it forms a ball
5. flatten pastry into a disk and cover with cling wrap
6. Refrigerate for 15-30mins/ Put in freezer for about 10-15mins
7. Lightly butter/ spray with non stuck cooking spray onto the mini tart liners.
8. Evenly pat the chilled pastry onto the bottom n up the sides of each tart liner.
9. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the frezer for about 15 mins. Meanwhile preheat oven to 205degree celcius. Lightly prick botoom of pastry crust with the times of a fork. ( Prevent dough from puffing up.)
10. Pop the tartpan into the Oven. Bake for about 5 mins. Reduce temperature to 180 degreeC. Continue to bake the crust until lightly golden brown.
11. Lightly coat the crust with egg white to prevent the crust from turning soggy by the pastry cream.

Tip: Because we are baking mini fruit tarts, we have to check on them frequently to ensure they dont overbake and turn too brown. Mine were cooked for an additional 5 mins when the temperature was reduced.


2: Pastry Cream
Ingredients:

200 ml of milk
2tbsp Corn flour
5 tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp Vanilla essence

Steps:
1: Whisk the egg in a bowl. Add sugar and corn flour and beat until smooth and creamy. ( Dont let mixture sit for too long)
2. Meanwhile, bring the milk and add 2 tsp of vanilla essence just to boiling/ until milk starts to foam up. Remove from heat and slowly add to egg mixture.
3. Whisk constantly to prevent egg from curdling.
4. Transfer mixtured to a double boiler and whisk constantly until mixtre becomes thick.
5. Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover with a cling wrap with the cling wrap touching the pastry cream and leave it to cool to room temperature/refrigerate it. Beat/whisk before using to avoid lumps.

Tip: Step 4 is a v important and tricky step. Make sure you use a double boiler. It prevents the mixture from curdling. Double boiler prevents the mixture from having direct contact with the heat. I did not use a double boiler for my 1st attempt and my pastry cream turnedut to be harder and it feels a little liike scramble eggs. It is important that when the mixture starts to thicken, remove the mixture away rom the double boiler immediately and continue whisking until it has a constant consistency.

3: Assembling
Ingredients: Fruits ( Strawberry, kiwi, peach, grapes etc...)

Steps:
1. Apply the pastry cream onto the empty tartlet and assemble the fruits on the tartlet.

Wholemeal Banana Cake

Hi guys! I am into bananas these days and stumbled upon this guilt-free banana cake recipe from HHB. This is a healthy version of banana cake because the recipe calls for less butter andd wholemeal flour. However, the texture of the cake may be a little dry. The Wholemeal flour absorb moisture.





140g unsalted butter
60g brown sugar
2 large egg, lightly beaten
400g mashed banana (2 large bananas)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
180 wholemeal flour
180 plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda

1.Grease the sides of a pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Sift together plain flour, baking powder and baking soda, set aside.
2.Pre-heat oven to 180 degC.
3.With an electric mixer, whisk butter and sugar at low speed till the mixture turns pale and fluffy.
4.Dribble in beaten egg while whisking at low speed. (Add a little flour to the mixture if it appears to curdle.)
5.Stir in mashed banana and vanilla extract with a spatula.
6.Fold in wholemeal flour and the flour mixture and mix with spatula.
7.Spoon mixture into prepared pan, smooth surface with spatula.
8.Arrange banana slices on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon powder.
9.Bake for 45 mins until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (Cover the top with foil if it start to get overly brown before the baking time is up.) Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes, unmold and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you prefer moist and dense banana cake, then this recipe may not be suitable too..

Oreo Truffles

What have you been baking this christmas? I just ended my class potluck last Friday and i attempted to make some Oreo truffles as simple christmas gifts. So sorry about it. think they look horrible. But the taste is great. I got my recipe from kraft. Oh well, almost everywhere has similar recipe. The challenge of making Oreo truffles is the last step which you coat oreo balls with melted chocolat. This can be a little tricky and you gotta do it fast because the melted chocolate may cool easily and solidfy.




Ingredients:
35 oreo cookies
1 pkg of Cream cheese ( soft: at room temperatre)
2 bars of semi-sweet baking chocolate
9 Oreo cookies ( topping)

Steps:
1. Crush 35 Oreo cookies + 9 cookies ( topping). Either you can pop them into a food processor or put them into a zip lock n hammer them w a hard n heavy object.
2. Using hands, mix the crushed cookies n the soft cream cheese together until incorporated.
3. Roll them into 1 inch balls.
4. Melt the baking chocolate with a double boiler or a microwave.
5. Coat these chocolate balls with the melted chocolate and place them on the parchment paper ( sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or lighly greased with butter)
6. Sprinkle the remaining crushed oreo cookies or any of your favourite topping ( nuts, coloured balls etc...
7. Chill it in the refrigerator for about 1-2 hours before serving.

Tip: You can vary the oreo cookies. If you prefer your oreo truffles to have a stronger cream cheese flavour, you might want to consider cutting down a few oreo cookies. Vice versa if you are going for a lighter flavour. However, too much of Oreo cookies in your mixtre may result in your oreo truffle dough to be very flaky and you are gonna have a hard time coating them w melted chocolate.

Blueberry Muffin

I'm a fan of muffins especially blueberry muffin and i got this recipe from Laura Vitale. The muffins are pretty moist. Just that i personally prefer muffins to have a crustier and a little harder at the top. Well, I'm not sure how to put it either. But they still taste awesome. I had three of them in one day!!






Ingredients:
6 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
¾ of a cup of Sugar
2 Eggs
½ Cup of Sour Cream
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
½ tsp of Fresh Grated Orange Zest
1 ¼ cup of Self Rising Flour
1 cup of Fresh Blueberries

Steps:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream and orange zest, whisk until the mixture is creamy and thick.
3. In a small bowl, toss together the blueberries with about 2 tbsp of the self rising flour. Set aside.
4. Add the remaining flour to the butter mixture and just mix until the flour is mixed through but don’t over mix.
5. sing a spatula, fold in the blueberries making sure not to burst them.
6. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop even amounts in your prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Jam Drops

I've been wanting to make jam drops. They look so pretty. Well, i intended to make these as christmas food gifts for my potluck this weekend. But, i guess i will do sth else instead. This is because i realise such cookies easily become v soft ( lou feng) when they are exposed to open air for a long time. They are best kept in a tupperware as soon as they are almost cooled after taking them out from the hot oven. Nevertheless, they still taste fabulous! Give this a try!



Ingredients:
125g butter (room temperature)
100g caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 egg
190g self raising flour
Jam
Confectionary / powdered sugar ( topping)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar until smooth.
2. Add Vanilla essence and egg. Continue to beat until smooth.
3. sieve the flour over butter mixture until uniform consistency.
4. Roll teaspoon full of mixture into balls
5. Place on the prepared tray. gently press the centre of each ball with your fingers/ the back of a spoon to form a hole.
6. Fill these holes with Jam and pop them into the oven. They are ready when they are lighly browned.
7. sprinkle some powdered sugar on the top of the cookies.

Tip: Do not fill the Jam to the brim of the hole as it may overflow during baking. Avoid adding the watery portion of the jam onto the cookie as it may cause the cookie to turn soggy at the centre. Add the custard like portion of the jam.

Traditional Shortbread

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients. Really easy to bake. A desert for any occasion. Be it Christmas or any ordinary day. Perfect for a snack in the late afternoon, accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Of course, you could also bake them in squares or any other shapes you want. I drizzled some melted chocolate onto my shortbread and it's delicious. Alternatively, they are ideal for Apple Crumble's crust too!



Ingredients:
3/4 cup of unsalted butter.
1 ¾ cup of All Purpose Flour
¾ cup of Confectioner Sugar
½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; line an baking tin with parchment paper coming up the sides of the pan, spray with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
2)Using an electric mixer, mix together the confectionary sugar and butter until very creamy.
3) Add the flour and salt and mix for 1 minute.
4) Press the dough into the parchment paper lined pan and press it all to make sure it’s even. Using a butter knife or a bench knife, cut the dough.
5) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly golden. As soon as you take them out of the oven, run your knife through all the cuts and let them cool completely.

*Remove from the pan and dip them in melted chocolate if you chose or sprinkle some granulated sugar while it is still hot.

Tomato and Avocado Salad

This salad is super healthy. Those who love Avocado'll adore this dish. Well, i think this is too strong to be a main dish itself. But it is perfect as a side dish. You can serve it at room tempt or put it into the fridge for a while before serving. I like to eat it chilled!




Ingredients:
3 Tomatoes
2 Avocados
1 red oniion
1-1.5 lime juice
1 bunch/handful of cilantro leaves
Salt n Pepper
Olive Oil

Procedure
1. Prepare the dresssing: Chop the cilantro and add them to lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the Avocados into cubes.
3. Drizzle the dressing onto Avocado. ( The acid in the lime juice prevents Avocados from turning brown)
4. Chop tomatoes into chunks and Onions into strips.
5. Add both tomatoes and onions to Avocado.
6. Drizzle a little olive oil.
7. Serve it immediately or chilled.

* Do not add too much Olive oil as Avocado has high fat content.