A Special Tart

My Godma's birthday falls on a weekend, so that gives me enough time to bake something for her. I decided on an unconventional cake again, this time, a cherries and strawberries tart. Happy birthday, Godma, someone who introduces me to my greatest gift in life, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. She gave me my very first bible at a very young age and there's no turning back since.

(Makes 23 cm tart)

1 recipe Pate Sablee

1 recipe Pastry Cream

2 tbsp jam for glazing (I used quince jam)

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Roll the pate Sablee between 2 sheets of baking paper.

2. Line the tart case with the crust pastry and press the sides into the case with your fingers. 

3. Line the top with baking paper, weigh down the pastry with baking beans or rice or beans if you do not have baking beans. 

4. Bake for about 25 minutes. For the last 5 minutes, I remove the baking beans and brown the pastry. 

5. Once baked, leave to cool completely and fill with pastry cream. 

6. Decorate with fruits of your choice. I couldn't resist cherries which I pitted and strawberries. 

7. Heat the jam over low heat to melt it. Brush the fruits with melted jam.

Lovely lovely tart. I hope my Godma and Godpa love it! 

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14 NIV)

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3 NIV)

(Forgive...)

There are many leeches in this world and to celebrate the leeches of the world that they build resilience in their victims, I'm posting this that is not related to sucre haven at all. Pardon me, but I just need to rant. 

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. (Psalm 118:8 NIV)

Choux Buns

So I made pastry cream the other day, in 3 flavours, no less. Chocolate, vanilla and coffee. I wanted to try it in all 3 cream, but just as I have guessed, I could only use 1 flavour and still couldn't finish using up the cream. I chose the coffee cream and vanilla cream to fill my choux buns because I love coffee and I think they'll score well with the majority too.

(Makes about twelve 6cm puffs)

To make the topping

75g cake flour

70g sugar

60g unsalted butter

A pinch of salt

To make the choux buns 

200g milk

120g cake flour

90g unsalted butter

3 eggs

A pinch of salt

To make whipping cream

100 ml whipping cream

1 tbsp Icing sugar

To make Pastry cream

Pastry Cream

1. Preheat the oven at 220 degrees and line baking trays with baking paper. 

2. Beat the sugar, butter and salt together. 

3. Sift the flour over the mixture and fold to combine.

4. Roll the dough in between 2 baking paper.

5. Fridge for about 20 minutes. 

6. In the meantime, prepare the choux buns. Heat the butter, milk and salt over medium heat till the liquid boil.

7. Turn the heat to low and pour the flour all at once into the boiling mixture and cook for about 2-3 minutes more until the dough does not stick to the sides of the pan anymore.

8. Transfer to a mixer fitted with a paddle and beat for about a minute or 2.

9. Beat the eggs briefly and slowly add the eggs till you get a sticky mixture. 

10. Pipe into 6cm rounds.

11. Cut the topping using a 5cm cutter and place them on top of the choux paste.

12. Place the trays in the oven, turning the oven down to 200 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. 

13. Then turn the oven down to 160 and bake for another 20 minutes. 6 minutes before the 20 minutes is up, take buns out of the oven and poke with a skewer to release some steam and return the buns to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. 

14. Leave them to cook on a rack.

15. Whip the cream with the icing sugar till medium peak. 

16. Cut the buns in half and fill the buns with pastry cream, then pipe whipping cream on top.

There you go, choux buns.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14 NIV)

Almond biscuits

Chants.. It's just work. It's just work. It's just work. I've always had a love hate relationship with my job and many times I just feel like throwing in the towel and call it quits, go do something less stressful and enjoy my weekends a bit more. I don't know why, somehow, I feel it's not time yet and God has plans for me, though I really don't know what tomorrow holds, I know He holds my future and He holds my hands.

And so, to destress, I bake! Chinese New Year is just round the corner, how does almond biscuits sound? 

(About 32 almond biscuits)

240g cake flour

100g ground almond

80g caster sugar

100g unsalted cold butter cubed

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

Icing sugar for dusting 

1. Preheat the oven at 160 degrees and line baking trays with baking paper. 

2. Put flour, ground almond, sugar, salt and butter in a processor. 

3. Pulse for about 15 seconds till the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

4. Add the vanilla extract and bring the dough together by hand.

5. Squeeze the dough together to form 15g rounds. I used a weighing scale for consistency.

6. Use your palm to roll each round into shape.

7. Bake in preheated oven of 160 degrees for about 18 minutes. 

8. When baked and cooled,  dust icing sugar over and store in airtight container.

It's nice and buttery.

And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:21 NIV)

(As much as I think it is really really difficult in a world like ours, I made a commitment that I will try very hard. God help me.)

Basic Pastry Cream

Pastry cream is very versatile, they can be filling for tarts, choux buns and the list goes on. The flavours can also be easily modified from one basic cream. So here you go, pastry cream or Creme patisserie  for that special tart or that choux bun.

240ml full cream milk

60g sugar

30g unsalted butter

15g corn starch

1 egg

1tsp vanilla bean paste

a pinch of salt

1. Heat the milk over medium heat until almost boiling. 

2. Whisk the egg, starch, sugar, vanilla bean paste and salt in a heavy stainless steel pan. 

3. Pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking all the time until combined.

4. Return the mixture to low heat, whisking all the time.

5. Continue to heat till the mixture becomes thicker and difficult to stir.

6. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

7. Place a cling foil over the surface of the cream and fridge for about 30 minutes before use. 

8. You can add flavours to the basic cream like coffee or chocolate.

I added coffee emulco and it tasted great! 

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:9-10 NIV)

Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Curd Core

I have the tendency to go overboard with my bakes because I reckoned I might as well bake more since I already made the effort to bake. I really should exercise some prudence. I have used the lemon curd cooked earlier in 2 types of tarts and some cookies and still have quite a bit left, vanilla cupcakes with lemon curd core it shall be.

(Makes 12 standard muffin sizes)

To make the vanilla cupcakes

125g self-raising flour

125g caster sugar

125g unsalted butter at room temperature

2 eggs

0.5 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp plain yogurt

Zest of 1 lemon

a pinch of salt

To make the frosting

125g cream cheese

75ml whipping cream

50g icing sugar

(For me, I needed to use up buttercream, whipped cream and a bit of cream cheese, so I only used 60g cream cheese) I'm proud to say I used up all the buttercream, cream cheese and whipped cream, no wastage! Yea! 

To assemble

Lemon Curd

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees and line the muffin tray.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside.

3. Beat the butter, salt and sugar together till light and fluffy. 

2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture till combined. 

3. Add the yogurt and beat again till combined. 

4. Add the zest and the sifted flour mix, fold to combine.

5. Spoon the mix into the lines tray, filling three quarter of each cup. 

6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes. Insert a skewer into a muffin to check if they are ready. The muffins are ready if the skewer comes out clean. 

7. While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. Cream the cheese and icing sugar till soft and smooth. 

8. Whisk the whipping cream till soft peak. 

9. Fold the whipped cream into the cheese mixture till smooth. 

10. Core the center of the muffin using a corer or a knife. I bought a cupcake corer, yes, I'm a bit obessed with baking equipments. 

11. Pipe lemon curd into the center. 

12. Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes using a star nozzle. 

You see different colours because mine has cheese frosting, buttercream frosting and even whipped cream. Reduce wastage! 

And because I really really am convicted to reduce wastage, I assembled another dessert using the cored centre from the cake, some lemon curd and whipped cream. I used up ALL the leftover! :)

There, the completed cupcakes with the lemon curd surprise when you cut through the center. 

谢谢祢用生命将我赎回, 我是天父永远最爱宝贝

Dark Chocolate Cookies

It was Friday night and I really wanted to bake, I decided on trying a cookies revipe from Mary Berry's book. I tried it before and it didn't turn out like hers, I thought it could be the light brown sugar I used instead of the caster sugar, so I tried again. The dough was still very wet, however, the taste was good. It was better to let the dough rest in the fridge before cutting them into rounds and then again before they are placed in the oven.

(Makes about twenty 6.5 cm rounds)

Ingredients 

140g plain flour

75g semolina

75g caster sugar

25g Cocoa powder

100g dark chocolate chips

175g cold unsalted butter cubed 

1. Preheat the oven at 160 degrees fan. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and mix in the sugar and semolina till combined. 

2. Add the cold cubed unsalted butter and use your finger tips to run the butter into the dry mix. 

3. Once the soft dough comes together, stir in the chocolate chips. 

4. Roll the dough into a round disc and wrap in cling foil and fridge for about 30 minutes. 

5. Once chilled, roll the dough to 0.5 cm in between 2 baking papers and chill in fridge for about 30 minutes before cutting into 6.5 cm rounds.

6. Cut the dough into 6.5 cm rounds and leave to rest in fridge for about another 30 minutes.

7. Bake in preheated oven of 160 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. 

There, dark chocolate cookies. 

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28 NIV)