Portugese Egg Tarts.....for the first time

On Monday, my eldest son , Ian is sitting for his SPM. Gosh! I have a 17 year old son sitting for SPM, does that reminds me that I'm quite elderly already? LOL Kidding, I admit I'm in my mid 40s, but what's more important is I'm living my life to the fullest with no regrets!! Hope you all are the same too!

I'm sending my best wishes to all Malaysian Form 5 students who are sitting for their SPM, may you all score with flying colors and best of luck!!

As I haven't try making Portugese Egg Tarts before, I came across this recipe that I saw in Youtube under the blogger name Kitchen Tigress. She made it look so simple in the YouTube video on how she made these "Macau Style Portugese Egg Tarts" , and that caught my immediate attention, and I said , "Let's do it", since I have all the ingredients in my pantry. And another good thing is that her recipe only makes 9 tarts, and since this is my first time making Portugese Egg Tarts, 9 tarts is good enough to feed everyone in the house to try test and give comments, LOL
Btw, I do wish to thank this Kitchen Tigress on her generosity in sharing her recipe online in Youtube and in her blog, but somehow, I felt that she wouldn't care less if I make a comment in her blog or video saying my Thank you. Those of you who knows her, should know what I meant. She is a not so 'friendly' blogger I would be politely say, pretty short tempered too, eventhough I can't see her face, but from her reply to her followers, she doesn't seem to be helpful in teaching, and explaining , but more to critizing and mocking on people's ability in baking. Well, maybe her main intention is posting is to show her credibility instead of really friendly "sharing' and 'teaching' and she does thinks that she knows it all. Anyway, I'll say my Thank you here, ......if she'll see it, LOL

So here are the recipe and ingredients called for:

PORTUGESE EGG TARTS 
Recipe adapted from Kitchen Tigress
Makes 9 tarts

Ingredients
60gm thickened cream / heavy cream
60gm castor sugar
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp cornflour
260gm Full cream milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
9 frozen puff Pastry shells, cut to fit your tart shell pan

 Method

1. Custard Filling : Whisk cream, sugar egg yolks , milk and cornflour until smooth. Place pot in a water bath, stir over medium low heat until thick enough to coat the back of your wooden spoon.
2. Add vanilla essence and stir mixture until is half cool and leave it to cool completely.
3. Preheat oven to 250 C , line the baking tray with aluminum foil. This is to prevent the custard from overflowing while baking onto the tray.
4. Roll out your puff pastry from the freezer and cut according to the size of your tart pan / tin and place slightly apart on the baking tray.
5. Fill shells with the custard to 5mm from the rim.
6. Bake until the crust is brown, and the custard is burnt and stop bubbling. This may take about 30 to 35 minutes , depending on individual oven. It is advisable to check every 10 minutes and rotate the tray as required so that all egg tarts will brown evenly.
7. Remove egg tarts from the oven to place on the wire rack to cool. Serve within hours while the pastry are still warm and crispy. 

Happy Baking!

White Chips Dark Chocolate Cookies

When it comes to cookies, I never have to worry if there will be anyone in the house to eat it or not, as I can tell you, I have a few Cookie Monsters in the house, yeah, and they rock!! Hahaha.....kidding!

But, well, it's true that they are Cookie Monster alright, as every cookie jars filled will be emptied in a week. So, I never have to worry baking cookies as they will always be supporters to ate them all up, before I start baking the next recipe on my cookie baking list.

Last week I went into a baking shop and saw this 'Black Chocolate Powder' and instantly I scooped it up and head to the counter. I have been looking for this Black Chocolate Powder for quite some time now after having a cookie recipe that calls for it. Normally, they only have like Chocolate Powder (the brown ones) or Cocoa Powder, even the Hershey's brand here in KK are basically the 'Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder' ones that you can find and no others. Oh, and to make my cookie more contrasting with its companion, I chosed the Milk White Chocolate chips instead. As you can form my pic above, it's really 'B&W' combination there, haha

This recipe yields me a 2 full big cookie jars and the kiddos at home were so delighted to see it all filled up again, yea....I'm the Best Mom in the world eh, ok I know, tsk tsk

 White Chips Dark Chocolate Cookies 

Ingredients
2-1/4 cups (282gm) all purpose flour
2/3 cup (78gm) Black Chocolate Powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter (227gm) , room temperature
3/4 cup (150gm) castor sugar
2/3 cup (133gm) packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups White Chocolate Chips

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 175C.
2. Combine flour, dark chocolate powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat butter and the 2 types of sugar (castor and brown) in a mixing bowl using a mixer until creamy. 
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add the flour mixture in 2 to 3 batch. Add in the White chocolate chips and using a spatula to mix it well and evenly with the dough.
5. Using a teaspoon, scoop a dollop and drop it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, leaving about 1 inch apart.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set. Do rotate the baking tray half way through your baking to evenly bake the cookies.
7. Cool on the baking tray for about 2 to 3 minutes before removing it to the wire rack to cool completely. Once completely cool, you may store them in your cookie jars, airtight and it can store up to 2 weeks.

Note : These cookies are so yummy because it's the bittersweet from the black chocolate powder blends in so well with the milk choc chips.

Till then, Happy baking and have a good weekend!

 

 

I'm Back with a Lemon Meringue Pie

Hi everyone! It's been 4 years since I last posted in my blog, and I've checked it back, it was right after Mooncake Festival in 2012. That was really a blink of an eye, and it's 4 years. I remembered that 4 years ago, I was really tied up with the kids having a transition from primary school to secondary, and mind you, it was a handful, really!!
Anyway, now that my eldest son is completing Form 5 this year, and my youngest girl is completing Primary 6, and if you are my followers, you do know that I have a pair of twin boys, and they are in Form 4, heading to Form 5 next year. 
Oh by the way, I'm happy to introduce to you all the new addition to my family, I have a Tiny Toy Poodle, and she is the apple of the family now, her name is Pixel, and she turned 1 year old in July (same birthday month with me, hehe, in fact one day after my birthday).

  Isn't she a jewel? LOL

Well, I did not stop baking over the 4 years, but just that it was not so much for the family consumption, but more to orders from my other part-time biz - Cupcakes Fairytale. Well, of course, now that I'm back, I will upload and post as much as I can and share with you all just like the olden days.

To start of this first comeback post, I want to share with you the Lemon Meringue Pie that I made over the weekend. It was my first Lemon Meringue Pie, and I must, it was not bad, and in fact, it's good, cos I ate half the pie myself....hehe
As I am a crazy fan of anything zesty, citrus-sy (is there such word), lemon, orange, lime are all my favourite. I never doubt them if I saw them in the bakery shelf. Oh, and the recipe even teaches you to make your homemade version of the Lemon Curd. It was so good, nothing beats homemade, I always says this. Trust me, the curd was not sweet and it has the lemony citrus flavor that makes you just wanna dig the curd from the jar (the leftover one) and eat it on its own. LOL
The sweet shortcrust pastry for the crust base was perfect density, doesn't goes soggy even after pouring in the lemon curd, and even after 3 days in the fridge, it was still crumbly like a cookie and my daughter loves it!

Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes a 9" inch pie 


For the Crust
1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, diced and chilled until ready to use
1 egg (large)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
*A bit of egg white for brushing the shell
  
Lemon Curd
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
1 1/2 cup water
5 Tbsp Cornstarch
5 large egg yolks
A dash of salt
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Meringue
5 large egg whites 
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
5 Tbsp castor sugar
1 Tbsp Cornstarch

Method: 
For Crust

1. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in chilled butter until a rough crumbly texture and bits of butter still visible. You can use a pastry cutter or your fingers to do this.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and lemon juice together, then pour all into the flour mixture and combine it well, until it comes together into a dough. 
3. Shape it into a disc and cling wrap it , store in the fridge to chill for an hour. 
4. Preheat oven to 200C / 400F. On a lightly flour surface, roll out the dough to just about 1/4 inch thick. 
5. Sprinkle the 9-inch pie pan with flour so that it won't stick, and line it with the rolled out dough.Tuck in the edges and let it go up to slightly over the rim, roll out using a rolling pin to cut off the edges.
6. Put the pie shell back to the fridge to rest and firm up for 10 minutes.
7. Once chilled and rested, line the pastry with aluminum foil and let it cover the edges so it won't be burn when bake. Weigh down the pastry with baking beans / dried beans and bake for 10 minutes.
8. Reduce to 190C / 375F and bake for another 15 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil and the baking beans , and further bake for another 10 minutes to dry our the center of the shell.
9. Useful tip: Once you take the shell out of the oven, lightly brush the base of the tart shell with egg white. This is so that the shell will have a shield against the liquid/ curd that we are going to fill in, it will not turn soggy. Cool completely before filling in with the lemon curd.

For Lemon Curd

1. Whisk sugar, water and cornstarch together in a heavy bottomed saucepot. 
2. Whisk in egg yolks and salt and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Increase heat to medium and still continue to whisk, cook until the filling becomes glossy and thick. You should be able to feel it as it thickens and coat the spatula / spoon that you are using. 
3. Remove from heat immediately and stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and then the butter until it dissolves. Pour immediately into the cooled pie shell and let it cool for 15 minutes. Chill completely before finishing with the meringue, about 4 hours later.

 For Meringue

1.  Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. While whisking, gradually add in the sugar and whisk on one speed below high until whites hold a stiff peak (meringue will stand upright when the whisk is lifted).
3. Whisk in cornstarch until fully combine.
4. Generously dollop over the chilled lemon filling. Use a sweeping motion with your spatula to evenly spread the meringue, let it touched the edge of the curd at the rim, and create your swirl and peaks that look so enticing once browned.
5. Bake the pie for 10 minutes , or just until you see the meringue browns lightly. Let pie cool or chill until you are ready to slice and eat.

 Happy Baking and Bon Appetit!