Baking Project

I think this tart is very easy to make and can be whipped up in a jiffy,  to fulfill those last minute sweet cravings .

The recipe for the sweet pastry :

Pastry cream (Creme patissiere)

Method

For the pastry shell, first sieve the flour, icing sugar and salt.  Then mix in the cold butter, which has been cut into small cubes.   Add in the egg yolks and mix until it all just blends in (do not over mix). The batter should look like the picture below.

Roll into a flat disc shape, wrap in plastic clingwrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime, make the pastry cream.  Melt the butter over medium fire, then add the flour and sugar, stirring all the time.   Add the eggs and keep on stirring with your wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth.  Now pour in the milk, keep stirring until the mixture suddenly becomes thick.  At this point, off the fire and whisk until smooth and glossy.  Put back on fire for a minute or so, add the vanilla and let it cool.

Preheat oven at 150C.  Roll out the chilled pastry.  Grease and flour the pan and transfer the pastry into the pan, presssing all the sides so you get the groove shape of the tart pan.  Lightly prick the base of the shell with a fork.  Blind bake for about 15 minutes or so.   Remove from the oven and let  the pastry shell cool.

Stir in the cream and decorate with any fruits you think is suitable.  Glaze with jelly or apricot glaze.  Heaven !!

Alternative : make fuit tartlets using smaller tartlet pans, filled with Cream Cheese.

Recipe for the Cream cheese filling

Now this is really yummy (and wicked !) Enjoy guys ..

After that disastrous episode with the pretzel, I thought I’d play safe and made scones for our teatime.   Scones have always been my favourite, fast and easy to make.  Actually I had just watched the show “River Cottage – Summer’s Here” episode the night before, where the baker Dan bakes some lovely scones for their strawberry festival.  Thank God I had the book with the scone recipe, coz I can never jot down recipes while watching tv.  They talk too fast, don’t you think ?  Here’s one of my most treasured cook book :

Bought it at Borders, RM98.95.  Author – Daniel Stevens.  Go get it, it is superb.   Always being over-ambitious, I bought the book to try and make my own bread using Sourdough starter.   There is a chapter on this, but as always, I have not yet cross this out of my “to-do” list.  Back to the scones, here is the recipe :

We love the taste of it.  Especially when eaten with jam and clotted cream.. the clotted cream was melting away fast as we were eating the scones right out of the oven

In case you are wondering, I bought the cream at Cold Storage, the place where you can find all the western thingies.

This recipe is a keeper, you can easily adapt and make your own version of scone out of this recipe..  just add any dried fruits or nuts you have in hand.  Thank you to the River Cottage team for this wonderful recipe.

Till then, take care and we’ll keep in touch in my Facebook ya.  Cheers !