Portuguese Short Crust Egg Tarts

Egg tarts are lovely to look at and needless to say, delicious when they are fresh out of the oven. I remember when I went back to Malaysia 2 years ago and when my kids were still very particular and unfamiliar with the food there, my mom would always insist on buying some egg tarts for them. According to her, it kind of gave her a peace of mind knowing that at least the kids are getting some nutrition in the form of high protein! And the hilarious thing about my kids then was that Missy E only ate the crust while Prince D only scooped out the custard part. Talk about picky eaters.

Forward 2 years later, both the kids have learned to take the egg tarts wholly and always welcome egg tarts when we patronize the Dim Sum restaurants. The one that we usually get is the Hong Kong style egg tarts, with short crust tart shells and firm and smooth egg custard filling, of which custard powder or corn starch is usually added. The other version which is more rare to come by in the neck of my woods is the Portuguese egg tart, with flaky puff crust and a more softer filling resembling creme brulee. The burnt spots on the custard part is a result of baking in a very hot oven and when they come out from the oven, the custard is still bubbly and releasing steam which eventually will harden on the surface layer while maintaining the soft curd inside. I like the rustic look of these tarts with its wobbly and sunken custard.

I could have used the pack of filo pastry in my freezer but I was curious on how to make a flaky crust. Half way, I decided to reduce the butter quantity required to be folded in with the dough, as in puff pastry dough and the crust turned out firm on the outside and flaky inside after the baking! So, I believe this is more like short crust rather than the original flaky puff crust of the Portuguese tart. Making the pastry part is alot of work and I don't think I will make it from scratch next time and making the custard part required constant attention and stirring when the eggs starts to thicken the cream and milk on the stove. As soon as the custard thickens to the stage that it coats the stirring spoon, it must be removed from the heat immediately and let cool before filling it into the unbaked crust cases. Initially I baked the tarts at 400F and increased it to 425F at the last 10 mins to get the burnt effect. As this tart is loaded with a rich filling made of cream, milk, eggs and sugar, I recommend that smaller or medium sized tart tins to be used instead of the large ones like these and a cup of strong coffee or tea is lovely with these tarts.

Recipe :

Pastry:

300gm Cake Flour

50gm All Purpose Flour

75 gm butter (room temperature)

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 tbsp sugar

165ml cold water

75gm butter (slightly cold)

Filling :

125gm sugar

250ml milk

200ml heavy cream

1 egg & 3 egg yolks

Method:

1)Sift the cake flour, all purpose flour and salt together. Stir in the sugar.

2)Cut the butter into the flour mixture and use fingers to coat and rub into the flour thoroughly till resemble soft crumbs.

3)Slowly pour in the cold water to make a dough. The dough will feel heavy and cold to the hands. Knead into a dough ball and cover in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for 45 mins.

4)Take out the dough and roll out to a rectangle of 1 inch thick on a floured surface.

5)Take pieces of the remaining cold butter and smudge roughly all over the surface of the dough. Fold the rectangle dough in 3 folds from left to right.

6)Turn it around where the joining edge is nearest to you. Roll out to a rectangle again and fold again in 3 folds from left to right. Put into a plastic bag and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

7)Make custard: Put all the ingredients except the egg and egg yolks in a pot and slowly bring to a boil. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs.

8)Once the milk, cream and sugar mixture starts to boil, remove from heat and slowly pour some of the mixture into the eggs while continuing to beat the eggs with one hand. This must be done to prevent curdling. Pour the egg mixture back into the pot mixture and cook by stirring continuously on slow heat till the custard thickens to coat the stirring spoon. Remove from heat and let cool.

9)Preheat oven to 400F. Grease the tart/muffin tins.

10)Take out the dough and roll out to 1 inch thick. Using the right size cookie cutter, cut the dough to fit the size of the tart/muffin tins of choice. Divide and pour the custard to fill up the tart cases.

11)Bake for 20 mins at 400F and increase to 425F and bake for 10 mins, till the custard is bubbly with slight browning on its surface. Remove from oven and let cool in the tins itself for 10 mins before removing them to the rack to cool.

Makes : 8 large tarts; 12 medium tarts; 24 mini tarts

Glutinous Sesame Balls

It started gloomy this morning and the rain came back after a hiatus of 5 days. This summer has been wet and cool during the evenings, making me feel that autumn couldn't wait any longer and overtaken summer once and for all! The summer fruits fields must have suffered from this excessive moisture as I have witnessed spoiled cherries on the trees and mushed strawberries on the ground.

After a straight 2 weeks consumption of buttery and sweet cakes, I took a leave from baking and proceeded to deep frying instead. I have always wanted to make these sesame balls, which is a staple in the Dim Sum menus everywhere and knowing that it takes alot of effort to make, I procrastinated till today when the rain cooped me at home and I had nothing better to do than get messy and standing in front of the hot pot of frying oil!

The most popular filling for this glutinous sesame ball is lotus nut paste and I had a can sitting in the kitchen pantry, which I had intended to use for last year's mooncake making. After I discovered the way to make fresh fillings paste, I never bothered to turn back to canned ones anymore. Still, canned ones are good for lazy days like today. And I almost went nuts when I amended a recipe from the book and the batter came out so watery and I was all out of glutinous rice flour. To save the day, I added the Japanese Mochiko flour to make up and luckily it worked!

As with all deep frying, all you need is a right temperature of the cooking oil and all the patience in the world to see the glutinous balls slowly sizzle and churn around in the hot oil bath while you eagerly anticipate the gooey inside and crispy on the outside end product. I heated the oil slowly till boiling point and turned it down a little before I started the frying. To ensure that the glutinous balls do not stick to the bottom of the pan during the cooking, I used tongs to clasp one ball at a time and lower each ball into the hot oil, holding it for 5 seconds when it starts to sizzle and drop it in. It is a chemical reaction when the outer part seems to have coagulated perfectly and holds the inner part and this way, I had no sticky balls situation and no oozing of the lotus nut paste. The balls were first totally immersed in the oil and when it is almost cooked, they floated up to the surface. However, extra time is required to leave the balls in the oil to get an even browning and continuous turning with the tongs or chopstick of each ball is needed. These balls is best consumed while still warm and one is never enough if you are a deep fried food lover.

Recipe:

450gm glutinous rice flour

50gm wheat starch ("HK Tang Min Flour')

2 tsp Baking Powder

30gm/3 tbsp vegetable shortening

180gm sugar

1-1/2 cup water

400gm lotus nut paste or any other paste of your choice

2 tbsp white sesame seeds plus 1 tbsp black sesame seeds (or just use 2 tbsp white sesame seeds)

Vegetable oil or peanut oil for deep frying (around 4 to 6 cups)

Method:

1) Put the glutinous flour, sugar, wheat starch and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

2) Using hands, rub the vegetable shortening into the flour mixture, coating the dry ingredients thoroughly. Make a well in the centre.

3)Slowly add in the water to make a soft dough. Knead gently for 5 mins. Divide the dough to small balls, weighing 40gm each. This recipe yields almost 22 balls.

4)Divide the lotus nut paste into balls weighing 25 gm each.

5)If using 2 types of sesame seeds, combine them evenly and lay out on a flat plate.

6)Take one dough ball, gently flatten it on your palm, thinner towards the edges. Place a ball of the lotus nut paste in the middle of the dough and wrap up and join the edges. Roll the ball gently and put on your palm and sprinkle with the sesame seeds to coat. Continue with the rest of the dough balls and lotus nut paste.

7)Heat oil to rolling boil temperature. Test with one ball first and using a tong, clasp one ball and submerge into the oil without letting go. If the ball sizzles, the oil is ready. Hold each ball with the tong for 5 seconds each before completely dropping them into the oil.

8)Cook in batches of 4 each time and when the balls float to the surface, keep turning them around to get an even browning, about 3 min to 5 mins. When the balls are golden brown, lift them up and drain on kitchen paper towel. Serve warm.

Makes: 20 to 22 balls

Missy E's day

What day is more important than Independence Day? My daughter Missy E's birthday of course! She was born exactly at 12.30am on this date 5 years ago, which was one day before Independence Day then. I remember looking out from the hospital bed to a wide array of fireworks display and wondered what this first kid of mine will bring to me.

After a whole year of late nights feedings, countless diapers mess and alot of baby babbling, Missy E suddenly sprouted in her first year. She picked up everything quickly from speech to feeding herself and went on the airplane for 7 hours to attend her dad's annual work conference in California just 3 weeks before her first birthday and I never had a single worry about a difficult baby as she did very well. And came the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and now the 5th birthday! Sigh, she has completed all the fingers on my one hand and I cannot comprehend on how fast it will go before she hits 10. With the kids going into Kindergarten level, time passes as if it was a blowing wind and will not stop for anything.

The same can be said about Missy E. Everytime I look back to the old photos and what she has learned throughout, it just amazes me. This year she obviously shine in her piano playing, expanding vocabulary, self awareness of everything and last night, she learned her first game of chess. I, myself being a mother sometimes get really lazy but because of Missy E's determination in learning everything and wanting to know everything keeps me on my feet all the time. I seriously have to thank her for opening up my own world as I hardly remember my own childhood filled with so much opportunities of learning, fun and play and to see my own child having such privileges and learning the qualities of winning, losing and playing fair under my watchful eyes and guidance makes me proud of myself. All I can say is my daughter is a remarkable little girl and although I would like to practise modesty, praising her on her birthday is a right on its own! Happy Birthday Missy E, mommy wishing you the best in your 5th year and love you always!

July Bento Days (1)

After a whole week on the road ingesting fast food, greasy take outs and mindless binging, I was glad to be back home and detoxing my stomach system. Nothing is like a home cooked meal, warm and content.

We got fresh shiitake and abalone mushrooms from Pennsylvannia, courtesy of my dear cousin who is herself a food enthusiast. We feasted on all of them throughout this week and they were delicious. And also healthy.

For Curry's Bento today, I stir fried some shiitake with onion and soy sauce. Fresh mushrooms are more succulent in bite than their dehydrated form and if we had a mushroom plant here like that at my cousin's place, I would buy by the boxes every week.

Contents of Curry's Bento Box:

Pan fried Panko pork patties with Japanese sauce; omelette and green beans; Edamame beans; flavored rice (furikake); stir fried shiitake with onion and soy sauce.

My Day/Pistachio & Cherry Cream Cake

It is that day of the year again, where I wake up and run to the mirror to see a year older face staring back at me. I love my birthdate as it is exactly the middle of the calendar year when everyone else takes notice whether they are reviewing what they have done for the past 1/2 year and make new plans for the remaining 1/2 year of the calendar months.

It is like a determining time factor to recap, review and resolve and true enough for me, I plan and set goals for myself to achieve before the next year's birthday.

I would like to thank my family, far and near and also all my friends who have sent their greetings. Watching the news reporting bizarre deaths and passings of well known celebrities these past 2 weeks reminds me life is very unpredictable and I am thankful to be able to celebrate today with my family and although no fancy celebration, the thought that I can rule the whole day my way makes this one day a very good one!

This year I made my own birthday cake. Part of the reason is Missy E's birthday is just 3 days after mine and buying 2 cakes will be asking for trouble and I don't like the idea of sharing birthdays as I truly believe that particular whole day should belong to the birthday person only. Afterall, I will find any excuse to make a cake and at least for my own birthday, I dare to attempt my own cake and I only can blame myself if it doesn't turn out good!

I opted for a chiffon cake and perked it up a little with whipped cream frosting, infused with pureed cherries and added chopped pistachio to the cake itself. Fresh cherries are in abundance now and I love its deep dark red that exudes the juiciness that the fruit itself contains. I pureed almost 40 cherries to yield 1 cup of its flesh and liquid. I was hoping that the frosting would turn out more darker in hue but I only managed to get a lilac pinkish after adding almost 3/4 cup of the puree. I didn't strain nor pass the puree through a sieve as I love the bits and pieces of the cherries to be blended into the cake itself.

As for the cake itself, making chiffon cake was my first time and I was quite taken aback on the amount of eggs and sugar in the recipe. I am not sure on how the marbled effect turns out inside the cake when I scooped and swirled a few tablespoon of the remaining cherry puree onto the cake batter inside the cake pan prior to putting it into the oven. The texture of the cake came out fine, although not very smooth on the outer surface as those commercial chiffon cakes. I guess that was why frosting was created, to cover up uneven spots on cakes.

I guess my fear of making birthday cakes is when the frosting and decorating parts are concerned. Although I would love to practise piping and frosting everyday, there is just no reason to whip up a big pile of buttercream or whipped cream to do that. Another reason why I always make mousse cakes, just mold and no hand controls with piping bags. The cherries decorated the cake nicely, with their little individual stalks resembling candles and the plain round piping tips are always useful when I need to hide my non-perfect frosting on the sides of the cake. Can't wait to cut it and have a big slice!

End of Spring

Strawberry Cheese Cake

Strawberry is the fruit of the season and everywhere I go, I see the pretty red fruit. It is very easy to discern from my blog that I love red and strawberry is the fruit that I wish I can pick all year long as its color is simply stunning to my senses and its abundance during this summer time makes me want to whip up any possible cakes, cookies or desserts just to incorporate the loveliness of this fruit.

After a week of rain, we finally went strawberry picking yesterday. And like a kid lost in a candy store, we always go overboard in picking and end up with more than we can consume. I prefer to pick smaller sized ones as they tend to be sweeter and the juice is more concentrated. And of course when I have a dessert in mind, I want all the berries to be all uniform for a better presentation.

Frankly speaking, I didn't have a clue on what to make with them and the idea of having to munch on almost 8lbs of strawberries for the entire week daunts on me after the picking! I am not going to make another tart and it must be either cake or cookies this time and I simply came across the Strawberry Shortcake character at the bookstore before we went on our weekly daily grocery shopping. Yes, inspirations come from everywhere and certainly that cute little girl character with the big strawberry patterned hat got me thinking! Strawberry cheesecake came to mind and off I went to get a pack of cream cheese.

Cheesecake was once my favorite cake and of course, during those times in Malaysia, it was a luxury to have a cheesecake. The richness of the cream cheese with additional added eggs and egg yolks and sugar, slowly baked in a water bath just makes the whole cake so decadent. Like they said, when you are young, you go for everything and now in my more conscious mind and not so ideal mass body index, those rich cheesecakes will remain a luxury treat to me but at least the yearning for it has subsided and I can take a lighter substitute without any regrets of letting go a damn good cheesecake!

Terri, a fellow blogger from my hometown in Malaysia who never fails to awe me with her kitchen repertoires and whatever she writes in that feisty blog of hers, had a very good recipe for Mango Cheesecake and I followed her recipe through, substituting strawberries in place of the luscious mangoes. For this cake, I used a lot of strawberries! Firstly, I pureed around 300gm/8oz/half lb of the strawberries and passed them through a sieve before adding it to the beaten cream cheese with sugar. And then, I baked a plain genoise cake for the base and this time, the cake really turned out a perfect sponge cake, all spongy and yet firm enough to contain a total of 38 strawberries that I placed on top of it prior to making the mousse part of the cake.

I like the idea that the combination of the cream cheese with yogurt and whipped cream yield a very light in the mouth mousse. Calories counting wise, I can't be bothered as the cholesterol level had been reduced with the non existence of eggs. Mousse cakes are usually very time consuming to make but this one was very quick, from the baking to the assembly, it took me only 2 hours. The strawberries themselves already created lovely patterns inside and outside the cake and I only shaved some white chocolate to mimic the straws that lies on the ground of the strawberry fields. My only regret is that I didn't leave any mousse for extra coating on the cake after I removed it from the springform cake pan, leaving noticeable patches here and there on an otherwise very good cake. The taste of cheese is very subtle, the cake was easy to cut into despite the presence of many strawberries inside as they too firmed up a little together with the mousse while in the fridge. After all that strawberries, I still have perhaps 4lbs of them sitting in the fridge. Time to think of the next baking!

June Bento Days (2,3,4,5,6)

The on and off of the June showers with cooler temperature has given me lazy bones the whole week. Still overjoyed with Missy E's brilliant performance in her first piano recital and excited with the upcoming trip to Washington DC, it looks like June will be the month that I just wonder around and not do anything in the kitchen. There were a few days that I thought blogging is starting to die down in me already! Still , as long as there are Bento to be made, cakes to drool over and interests in baking and cooking not lost nor forgotten, I believe my blogs will survive for some time!

Throughout the whole week, I have been getting up early and preparing Missy E's Bento lunches for her camp week at school. Of all my Bento gears, I love the small picks the most. They just can brighten up any boring looking meal and these Bento were much more simpler than some of the previous ones that I made for my kids. I didn't make many cute characters this time and used the punches and picks to maintain the children Bento character.