An apple tart with some appreciation

I written and re-written the start of this post, yet I still couldn't find the best way to start. It feels like I've lost my writing and communicating skills after retreating into the moutains and living in the caves for too long a time.

Anyhow, I got inspired to bake with apples by bakertan who very kindly shared a little knowledge on the various apple types. As stupid as it sounds, I've never really baked with apples before. And even if I did, they were playing much of the supporting role or just being a fill'in when I was lazy to prepare something more elaborate. Well, a perfect example would be when I first started out trying to make my own puff pastry. The easiest filling I could think of and whip up in a jiffy would be, chopped apples with some butter, sugar and cinnammon. What's more, my helper did it all. I just took the credit of that glorious moment when the freshly bubbling hot apple turnovers came out of the oven. Ashamed I was not, but now, yea, well, a little.

As if that wasn't enough, I soon found my really close friend, someone who journeyed her junior college and university life with me, asking me to bake apple pies. I always told her with a mark of confidence that it would be as easy as a pie (pun not intended). While the truth was, I never really did bake a proper one, ever.

For some odd reason, pursuing the basics and fundamentals was not in my book of interests and it wasn't till bakertan's post that jolted me to my senses. The way he described his knowledge on the different apple types made me really curious about apple baking, I mean, baking with apples.

So, the word "golden delicious" was somehow stucked with me pretty much the whole day. Just that fateful day, I happened to be at Carrefour and decided to look out for these "infamous Golden Delicious apples". Lo and behold, there were right in front of me, sparkling in their pretty packaging. I hesitated, thinking, if I would ever cave into procrastination and end up having to toss these apples into the bin. Alas, the greedy me won over the battle of the apples and I grabbed, not one, but TWO packets and marched to the cashier.

And so, as if I could read my own future, the procrastination queen reigned and the apples laid in the fridge, untouched, for 2 days. Finally, I decided that the apples wouldn't and couldn't wait any longer for Her majesty so I decided it's time I got some apples going baking. While in between the procrastination, I gained much encouragement and regained my determination from everyone who left comments on my previous post. I'd like to take the chance to say a BIG THANK YOU to all have been ever so supportive and encouraging! =D 

I had been reading up a little. As a I stared at the bookshelf of baking books, I can't help but notice one of the heaviest and thickest ones, Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan. Several pages later, I decided that there were TOO many apple tart recipes in the book to choose from. So, being the lazy me, I chose one with: 1. The simplest ingredients needed, 2. all the ingredients I already had.

And of course, one that specified for the use for my oh-so-precious "Golden Delicious". I had only made one tart prior to this apple tart, which was the chocolate tart. So my tart-experience isn't that much and I vaguely recalled a mini frenzy then.

As simple as the recipe had stated its steps and so it was, minus the estimation I had to make as I baked mine in a smaller tart pan. If there was anything I would warn anyone about tart-making, it would be TIME.

Though armed with simple ingredients, simple steps but it sure took a LONG time to bake, and cool, and bake again. But that of course, are the ramblings of a not-so-freuqent tart baker. Don't get me wrong, the recipe was a crazily simple one. I didn't even have to cook the apples in butter,sugar and cinammon. Yet, the end results was a tart that was Mmmm, yummy. 

All I had to do was slice the apples, arrange them prettily, prepare the custard and pour it over. And...there you have it! As unappetizing as it may seem, the taste was simple, yet delicious. Something rich, yet not overpowering. Perfect for a lazy afternoon, with a steaming cup of tea. The tart had cooled completely by the time I could "stomach" it so I re-heated the slice in the microwave and my! it was bursting with flavour! And the thing which amazed me the most - the apples retained their crunch! It was soft yet textured, sweet yet with a slight tang which complimented the sweet custard so well. YUMS!


Verdict: The "Golden Delicious Apples" certainly lived up to its name. Delicious it is!

I don't think I'm at liberty to share the recipe, but if you're interested, and if you have the book, refer to page 314 "Alsatian Apple Tart".

Chinese New Year Chronicles: Part II

If there's Part I, there ought to be at least a Part II right?

So, here it is, pineapple tarts, nastar style. I was really excited to try out this new style of pineapple tarts. And I must say, I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out, especially since it is my maiden attempt.

For some reason, it seems like many people are attempting this style of pineapple tarts this new year which really made me geared up to try these little rolls.

Some time last year, I came across a biscuit pump and I just had to buy it. I told myself I would I want to get the biscuit pump, so when the time comes, I'd have no excuse not to try. Right? Wrong. I nearly gave up the chance of opening my brand new biscuit pump especially since after a full week of pineapple tart making. 

What made me press on (pun intended) was the remaining balls of pineapple filling and that I was tasked to bake at least one bottle of tarts for ourselves. 

 

 I was reluctant to search for a new recipe and so I decided to modify my previous pastry recipe to hopefully, make it work for the nastar type. Since I knew that the pastry had to be soft enough to be piped out, yet firm enough to retain its shape and pattern during the baking process, I simply added more yolk to the pastry dough.

Although the tarts turned out acceptable, it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. The pastry had a little melt down and the patterns were not as visible =( However, my mum's friend loved it and said it was simply "melt-in-the-mouth".

With the amout of hard work involved, it is no wonder why these type of pienapple tarts are a tad pricey. The laborious action of having to pipe the dough, roll it up and cutting off the excess is jus simply time-consuming. My mum took a liking to how pretty each one looked when lined up on the baking tray and asked why didn't I sell these instead. Well, I guess it is pretty obvious, because of the amount of time spend laboring over each and every single tart, this is an absolute no-no for large scale productions, in a home kitchen.

Without further ado, here goes the recipe! With step-by-step pictures which I hope will inspire some to try this out. Next CNY perhaps? =p

Pineapple Tarts - Nastar Style

makes ~150 or more

Ingredients:

A:

360g Unsalted Butter, cold and cubed

B:

480g Plain Flour, sifted

100g Icing Sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp Custard Powder

4 Tbsp Milk Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

*mix well*

C:

3 Egg yolks

1-1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

*mix well*

Method:

1. Rub A into B until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

2. Add in C until a soft dough forms.

3. Using a biscuit pump, attached with the desired pattern, fill the pump with pastry dough. do not attempt to fill it to the brim as you will encounter difficulty pumping the dough out. Fill it just 1/2 full.

4. Pipe out a strip of dough approximately 10-12cm long. It's better to have it longer than shorter, as the excess could always be cut away.

5. Roll 1 level teaspoon of pineapple filling into a small sausage. approximately the width of the piped dough. And place the filling on one end of the piped dough.

6. Starting from the end with the filling, roll up the dough swiss roll style.

7. Cut away the excess dough with a knife. The excess dough can be gathered and used again and again until all the dough has been used up.

8. Place it on a baking tray. Pre-heat the oven to 190C and bake for 12 min.

9. Remove the baked tarts from the oven and allow it to cool on the baking tray. Store it only when they have cooled completely.

Enjoy!!

Chinese New Year Chronicles: Part I

FINALLY! After some 70 pineapples, 13 blocks of unsalted butter, 4 packets of plain flour, some custard powder and milk powder, D and I finally managed to finish the daunting task of baking close to 1000 pineapple tarts, tangerine style.

I intended to and was supposed to open the new year goodies for sale officially. However, the 3 orders that came along the way proved impossible to take on anymore additional orders. You see, I had previously baked a batch for D to bring to office as a sample, for his colleagues to taste test. I don't know if it was good or bad, but news travelled quite far and some colleagues whom never tasted it actually daringly place an order. So, there was a total of 13 tubs of pineapple tarts, 48 tarts in each tub.

Additionally, the sight of us making pineapple tarts day in day out, night in night out probably tempted my mum to actually order 10 small tubs (24 tarts each) and 2 tubs. Yes, my mum actually did order it from me. She actually paid me.

Baking non-stop for a week after work was no easy task. Especially since, yours truly, needs sleep the most. I ended up sleeping at 1plus, 2 in the morning for almost the whole of January and I'm truly hoping for some good rest during this CNY break!

I tried using ready made paste for the taste-test batch, but the ready made filling only proved too dry and a serious lack of real pineapple taste. Oh! and did I mentione, it was a tad too sweet. Sweet + no pineapple tang = no-go.

I nearly fainted at the thought of having to slave over the hot stove cooking pineapple filling enough for 1000 pineapple tarts! That was just insane. BUT,thank God for microwave invention. I vaguely recalled coming across SeaDragon's blog which showed a way to microwave pineapple filling. And boy! I immediately jumped at doing so! *click here*

I only used his guide for the first time I was doing it, but after getting used to the microwave, I changed the timing and learnt how to judge the doneness and knowing how much longer to cook it for.

As a rough guide, to be on the safe side, microwave your grate/blended pineapples on HIGH for 10 min first, take it out and give it a stir. Pop it back in for another 10 min and thereafter only go at 5min intervals. The doneness of the pineapple filling depends on how moist/dry you like your filling to be. Of course, the moister it is, the shorter the shelf life. The drier is it, well you know, the less tasty it is. But whatever it is, homemade filling is definitely better especially since you could control the amount of sugar!

For me, I added ~45-55g of sugar per pineapple depending on sweet or sour the pineapple began with. Oh! and be sure to drain the pineapple of the juice, this helps ALOT in speeding up the cooking process. OF course, you could leave the juice ALL in, but it'd just take a much longer time to cook, a much long time for the juice to evaporate and dry up the paste.

I have modified the recipe I used for last year's pineapple tarts and found that the addition of milk powder gave the tarts an exceptional fragrance and the addition of custard powder gave the pastry a nice yellow colour. I'm not sure if it contributed to the pastry's texture, but they sure were melt-in-the-mouth. YUMS!

So, without further a-do, here's my version of pineapple tarts - tangerine style for this year! =) Enjoy!

Pineapple Tarts - Tangerine Style

Makes approx. 60 tarts

Ingredients:

A:

180g Unsalted butter, cold and cubed

B:

240g Plain Flour, sifted

100g Icing Sugar, sifted

1 Tbsp Custard Powder

2 Tbsp Milk Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

*Mix well*

C:

1 Egg yolk

1/4 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

*mix well*

Egg Glaze:

1 egg yolk + some water to dilute

Method:

1. Rub A into B until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Add in C and mix until a soft dough forms.

3. Measure out leveled 1/2 tablespoonefuls of dough and roll them into balls and set aside.

4. Measure out 1 leveled teaspoon of pineapple filling, rolled into balls and set aside.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 190C.

6. Flatten the prepared dough and wrap the pineapple filling in. Place the completed tart into small paper cases (or directly onto baking tray).

7. Bake in pre-heated oven for 6 min. Take out tray and brush on egg glaze and return to the oven for a further 6 min.

8. Allow the tarts to cool completely before storing.

Mmmm...

fellow flickr friend, now turned good msn buddies, Pei Lin made me feel guilty for not trying out the recipes in the book "Paris Sweets" by Dorie Greenspan.. Since making tarts were always on my mind which I somehow never got around to do it, which I blame on the dazzling list of distracting recipes to try, I finally plucked up some courage and tried a really simple chocolate tart.

Sad to say, I don't think I've quite succeeded in ti as the chocolate filling seemed a little separated and..oily?? I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to wait till the chocolate as fully blended with the cream before adding the yolks..and the moment I did, the mixture looked separated, my heart ached for the expensive Valrhona. Heck! I shall continue and not waste my good chocolate. Turns out, the chocolate became smooth in the end, BUT was a little..oily..not like ganache at all! Felt like some water made its way in there and spoilt my chocolate mixture! argh!

Despite that, the chocolate took super long to set. Even after basking in the fridge for more than half an hour, the chocolate still remain pretty soft. Check out the picture above and you'll see what I mean.

Maybe I was too anxious to take a peak and taste how it was leading to this very unsightly slice of tart, but mind you! This is definitely a tart you can't have in chunks! You'd probably DIE of chocolate over-dose and lose your voice the next day. *ah hem* if you know what I mean. The tart was buttery and fragrant but I'm not sure if it was supposed to taste that way as I haven't really had a tart? or made one?

Probably not THE best, but defnitely good enough for me. =D

120 pineapple tarts

Managed to finish baking 120 pineapple tarts, tangerine-style today in a few hours. From rolling the pineapple filling, to measuring and weighing out the ingredients for the dough, combining them to form the dough and shaping each and single one of them and finally, sent them off for baking.

It was a little tedious at first, but when i got used to things, things speeded up a little, though i think i should work even faster in future. packed them into the quantity my friends requested for and put on some nice ribbons and gift tags.

I really hope they like it =)

pineapple tarts...again!

Sometime back, i attempted some pineapple tarts which i felt were too soft for my liking. Hence, i'm experimenting some recipes to yield some tarts with more "structure" and a little "crunch".

These tarts i made today are a little less soft than the previous time but somehow lost that buttery fragrance which i quite like. Probably because of the less amount of butter used. I'd start on another pineapple tart experiment soon on how i can increase that buttery aroma and yet retain that slight structure.

The pineapple tarts weren't crunchy per say, but were a little be firmer than the previous ones. However, the melt-in-the-mouth recipe is more suitable for tangerine styled ones as they are muchhh easier handle when wrapping the pineapple jam.

Today, both my sisters helped me out with the pineapple tarts, one rolling the pineapple jam and the other working on the tangerine styled ones. We were bored after a while of the same old pineapple tarts and decided to use whatever we have and try out different styles. Here you see rectangular ones, triangular ones and one even made to mimmick a real pineapple with all the cuts in the dough =p

I tried out 2 different recipes. The one with the wet dough is something i sorta pieced and put together and based on my knowledge of each ingredient i attempted to turn it into a recipe that i THINK i'll like. However, I did not read the recipe properly (as i halved it) and put the whole egg in instead of 1/2 egg. As a result, the dough became really wet and i had to just chill it before using it. Surprisingly, despite the 'wet' dough, i was able to roll it without flouring the work surface or rolling pin. cutting out the shapes were easier too just that transferring them to the baking tray got it a little distorted. =X

i have a feeling things would be pretty much alright if i added in only 1/2 egg instead. Oh well, more experiments coming my way!

Here are more 'crazy' designs we did. Instead of the usual dot or cross or 'tic tac toe' pattern etc, we started trying to make "faces" out of it. It was really tedious though as we had to cut and trim and place them carefully on top. But it was sure nice, looking at these pineapple tarts that looked different from usual. A really nice fun family activity i suppose?

I'm glad i asked one of my sisters to help out and she was the one who started making these faces. She was pretty troubled with certain things and i thought this would probably keep her occupied for a while and i'm really glad she had so much fun with making these.

I hope i'll see her just like this smilely pineapple tart very soon again! Cheer up yea?

my first pineapple tart order..

I have just receive an order for 60pcs of open top pineapple tarts, 60pcs of wrapped up ones and 1 6" by 6" kueh lapis. I am really really thankful and grateful to have receive quite a "huge" first order.

I'm not sure how many have been reading my blog. I mentioned somewhere in my kueh bangkit post that a friend of mine requested that i make some pineapple tarts this cny. this is also largely why i baked those pineapple tarts, just so i could let her taste some.

I am really thankful and grateful to her for placing her cny goodies orders with me which makes me a little apprehensive as well. After all, this is my very FIRST order. I have baked many many things and given them away. Although many people commented that i should sell some stuff, but i guess that wasn't really my intention. I just really enjoy the process of baking and seeing that my friends and relatives enjoy the bakes makes me really happy =)

She turned down my request for me to turn her orders into my gifts to her instead and insisted that she does it as a proper business transaction. I just want to let her know how much i appreciate and thank her for her kind gesture. thank you sally! =DD

I am somewhat glad to have receive this order in that i hope that i will have learnt something from this process. i.e. managing my time, packaging the bakes and etc.

wish me luck! and once again, a BIG thank you to sally! =D

pineapple tarts - recipe included

In my previous post, I did 2 kinds of pineapple tarts: wrapped up ones and open tart ones

As I used recipes from a published book (Delicious Asian Sweet Treats by Oi Lin), it would be inconvenient for me to post it up on the net. The 2 kinds of tarts differed not only in its appearence but it's recipe as well. The wrapped up ones contains eggs, while the open tart ones are eggless (i.e. suitable for vegetarians)

I somewhat remembered that the vegetarian version was up on the web as a 'free' recipe to try for those interested to buy the book. This means, i should be able to post this recipe up =)

This recipe yields tarts that are soft and buttery. So, if you're the sort who loves the soft, buttery and melt-in-the-mouth kind, you're in for a treat. I am also including the recipe for making your own pineapple paste. There are many others out there, but i'm satisfied with how my pineapple paste turns out, so i'd just stick with this. Those who find it troublesome can always ready-made ones from phoon huat or sun lik.

Pineapple Paste/Jam makes about 150g

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe medium sized pineapple
• 70g caster or fine granulated sugar (adjust to your own taste - i used about 55g)

Method:

1. Slice of crown and base of the pineapple. Remove pineapple skin and the dark brown spots.
2. Slice pineapple vertically into 4 pieces and remove the core. It is hard and may taste bitter.
3. Grate the pineapple or use a food processor to puree it. (I blend it using a blender till puree like)
4. Place puree in a non-stick pot and cook under medium heat. Stir occasionally.
5. When the pineapple puree has thickened (about 1 hour), add sugar.
6. Cook on low heat till the puree becomes a very thick paste.
7. Let the pineapple filling cool. wrap and chill overnight to further thicken it. This makes it easier to roll into small balls for use in a recipe.
8. Freeze filling to make it last for a month. Thaw at room temperature before use.

notes:

• there's no right or wrong way in cooking the pineapple paste. much depends on the pineapple itself.
• if the pineapple is ripe/sweet, less sugar is required to sweeten it. If you prefer a more tangy paste, reduce the sugar. Do not add in all the sugar at once, add in some and do a taste test to see whether to add more.
• The timings (1 hour) are just a rough estimate. It also depends on how 'dry' the puree has become. Cook till semi-dry i.e. not much juice left before adding in the sugar. (I cooked for about 1hr15mins)
• The duration of cooking also depends on how moist or dry you like your paste to be. Do remember though that the paste dries out a little further when being baked in the oven.
• amount of pineapple paste at the end also depends on how big the pineapple was.
• [updated]: it does not matter if you grate or blend the pineapple. Grating the pineapple results in more "fibres" while blending is results in a jam that is "smoother".

adapted from Delicious Asian Sweet Treats by Oi Lin

Vegetarian Pineapple Tarts

Ingredients:

• 3 portions (450g) pineapple filling (see above)
• 360g plain flour plus extra for dusting
• 60g icing sugar
• 300g cold unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 tsp yellow food colouring (optional)

Method:

1. Sift flour and sugar. Mix Well. Cut butter into small cubes and add to flour mixture. Use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour. Add vanilla essence and colouring and combine to form a dough. Wrap and chill the dough for an hour to firm it up.
2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
3. Divide dough into two portions. Keep one portion chilled. Roll the other portion (on a floured surface) to a thickness of about 7mm. Dip a cookie cutter in flour and cut out shapes. Use a scraper (or knife) to lift the shapes and place on the tray. Brush egg yolk over the shapes if you're baking non-vegetarian tarts.
4. Preheat oven to 190C
5. Roll pineapple filling into small balls and place on shapes.
6. Bake for 12 mins. Allow tarts to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

notes:

• rubbing in-method: you will not get to the 'breadcrumbs' stage as the propotion of butter to flour is simply too high and impossible. before you know it, a dough is forming. That is ok. Just rub in to form a dough.
• you dont have to chill the dough for up till 1 hour. it all depends on whether you're comfortable with the softness of the dough to roll out. of course, a firmer dough would be easier to roll.
• As a rough guide, i used 1 level tsp of pineapple paste for each tart. More or less can use used, adjust according to your own taste and preference. This is why i like making my own tarts. =)

adapted from Delicious Asian Sweet Treat by Oi Lin

I personally prefer tarts with more structure and not so soft. Will experiment and see if i can come up with something i like better..

pineapple tarts!!

nope! my laziness didn't get the better of me :) Although i did procrastinate at one point in time, i managed to overcome my laziness and churned out some wonderful smelling pineapple tarts.

Here's some pictures illustrating the rough process of making pineapple tarts:

I started off by preparing the pineapple paste (filling). I avoid using commercial, ready-made ones as they often tend to be too sweet and a little on the 'dry' side. It's my second time preparing the pineapple filling, but the first try was so long ago! Nevertheless, it turned out pretty alright and not too sweet, just the way i like it. =)
I'm trying out 2 different styles of pineapple tart here, both of which, i believe, are familiar to many.
1. wrapped up style/tangerine style
2. open top (which we're most familiar with)

For the wrapped up style, no rolling/cutting of dough is required. I measured out equal quantities of pineapple filling and dough which ensures that each tart is of equal size. I somehow prefer making this as there's less clean up and not rolling and cutting of dough =p

For the open top style, first you gotta roll out the dough and cut it with a pineapple tart cutter (or any other cookie cutter) and then place the rolled pineapple paste on the cut out dough. The only thing i don't really like is imprinting the pattern on the dough.

Guess i'll try figure out an easier way to imprint the patterns fast and clearly. What i did was to cut out the dough and place them on the baking tray and use the other part of the cutter (it comes together) to make the patterns. I discovered that the dough increased in diameter as i tried to push and create the pattern, which probably made it look bigger and 'thinner'.

Nevertheless, it still turned out acceptable looking, though not the prettiest you may have seen.

If you've read my previous posts, you'd realise that a friend asked if i do bake pineapple tarts and expressed interest in getting some from me this chinese new year. I would love to bake some for her but i gotta make sure she's satisfied with the product.

So here it is, all packed in one bottle for a taste test before i confirm with her if she really wants to order some tarts from me. I've also put in some of the kueh bangkit i made previously and if she likes it, i'd be more than willing to make some for her as well =)

Hope she likes it!

It's my second try at making pineapple tarts and for some odd reason, i find it much easier to do it this time round. Is it because of the famliarity? or, it is because i've been baking much more and gain more 'experience'? Whatever it is, i'm happy i made this small small batch of pineapple tarts. Btw, both had a soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture with a buttery taste =) Although, i feel i might use another brand of butter to increase this wonderfull buttery aroma..hmmm

till then..

recipe here