Egg tart cake flour pastry version

Adapted from:

http://themissinglokness.com/2012/03/12/egg-tarts/

Another take of the egg tart recipe, custard taste the same but pastry is lighter as it is made with all cake flour. Will be good if you need to use up cake flour

My version:

–    I used 15 tart tins

Ingredients:

Egg Custard:

–   2 large eggs (room temperature)

–   45g sugar

–   40g evaporated milk

–   145ml water

Pastry Crust:

–   230g cake flour (sifted)

–   140g butter (room temperature)

–   40g powdered sugar

–   20g evaporated milk

–  1 large egg yolk (room temperature)

Directions:

1. For the pastry crust, in a large mixing bowl with an electronic mixer, beat the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add ½ egg yolk and mix together. Add the evaporated milk and beat well. Slowly add the flour. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Form the dough into a round disk with hands. Wrap it in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C
3. Meanwhile, for the egg custard, in a small saucepan over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium, add the sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.
4. Back to the crust, divide the dough into 15portions. My pastry weighs 450g I weigh 25-30g for each tart tin. Roll each portion into a round ball. Flatten each ball into flat disks with hands. Place a flat disk into a tart tin and mold the dough into a tart shape. The dough should be about a ¼-inch below the top of the tart tin edge. Poke at few holes at the bottom of the tart with a fork. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs with a hand whisk. Add evaporated milk and beat until combined. Stir in the syrup. Strain the mixture and remove bubbles with a spoon.
6. Line the prepared tart tins on a baking sheet. Fill the tarts 80% full with the egg mixture. Bake for 18 – 22 minutes until the egg custard is puffed up a little, and the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 – 10 minutes. Tap the tart tin bottom lightly on the table. Turn the tart tin over and remove the egg tarts carefully. Serve immediately for best taste.

Pear tart Recipe

Forgot to keep this keeper recipe in my favourite things to cook. adapted from:
http://tinytearoom.com/pear-tart/

No Pastry Pear Tarts
Recipe adapted from Faking It
Makes 6 small tarts

180g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
180g pure icing sugar
100g almond meal
3 large free-range eggs, beaten
3 small pears, thinly sliced
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Lightly butter six 8cm round tart tins. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until golden brown, do not allow it to burn. Set it aside to cool. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and gently stir in the almond meal, melted butter and eggs. Divide among the tart tins and place pear on top. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 170°C and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve with a cup of tea.

Lemon Tart

Adapted from:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/27824/baked+lemon+tart

Pastry
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/3 cup icing sugar mixture
175g butter, chilled, chopped
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons chilled water
Whipped cream and strawberries, to serve
 
Filling


5 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup caster sugar
300ml double thick cream
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

Method:

1. Step 1
   Place flour, almond meal, icing sugar mixture and butter in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolks and water. Process until dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Step 2
   Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Grease a 4cm-deep, 23.5cm (base) round, loose-based fluted flan tin. Roll out pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm-thick. Line tin with pastry. Trim excess. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. Step 3
   Place prepared tin on a baking tray. Line pastry case with baking paper. Fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove weights or rice and baking paper. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden. Cool pastry case. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.
4. Step 4
   Make lemon filling Whisk eggs, sugar, cream, lemon rind and lemon juice in a bowl. Stand 5 minutes. Pour mixture into pastry case. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until filling has just set. Cool for 15 minutes. Refrigerate overnight or until chilled. Serve with whipped cream and strawberries.

Pineapple Tart Jam

 

This is the season of pineapple tart making and I never find more love for the Thermomix than this time.

Pineapple tarts are laborious and tiring via the traditional method as it requires hours of cooking the jam down to a nice thick jam-like consistency. I have been making pineapple tarts using the Thermomix for 2 years now and it has never been easier.

This time I did it in bulk as I am very familiar with the process. We bought 4 medium size fresh pineapple and cut down into rough sizes. I added a tin of store bought pineapple slices just to increase the volume.

Ingredients:
- 2.5 kg of pineapple flesh. Cut and cored (~ 4 medium size pineapples)
- 1 tin of pineapple slices (optional)
- 500gms of sugar
- 8 cloves

Method:
1. Chop the pineapple via Thermomix Speed 6 for a few seconds. You want a puree consistency
2. I did this is batches and then I sieve the pineapple through a strainer to get rid of as much juice possible
3. Save the juice for consumption or cooking
4. After sieving all the pineapple, it will easily fit into the Thermomix. I cooked this for 30 minutes, Varoma, Speed 1. I need to place the Varoma tray on top to get most of the steam out and to avoid a messy splatter
5. Look out for a nice jam-like consistency and a lightly brown colour. I like my jam abit soft so it just melts into your mouth.

 Weighing the pineapples with the Thermomix.

 The amount of juice extracted from the pineapples.

 The flesh that will be cooking in the Thermomix

the final product.

Now to get a spot on shortcrust pastry to go with it

Greentea Cheesecake Tart

Adapted from :http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/matcha-cheesecake-tart.html

Ingredients (makes a 22cm tart and extra dough for 3 small tarts):

for the tart crust:
150g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, softened at room temperature
80g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten (about 55g without shell, use room temperature egg)
250g cake flour
60g ground almond (almond powder)


for the filling:
 2 teaspoon gelatine powder
30 ml water
250g cream cheese, leave to soften at room temperature
80g caster sugar
80g plain yogurt
4 teaspoon lemon juice
320g whipping cream (I used non dairy whipping cream)
 4 teaspoons matcha/green tea powder

Method:

to make the tart crust:

• Lightly grease an 22cm tart pan (with removable base) with butter, set aside. 
• Toast almond powder at 100 degC for 10 mins. Stirring in between. Let cool.
• I used the thermomix to beat sugar and butter on Speed 4 for 15-20 seconds. The mixture should look pale. I then add in the eggs and the ground almond and give it a good mix.
• Sieve the  flour into the bowl and then use the Turbo function to mix it up till it resembles crumbly breadcrumbs.
• Gather the mixture into a bowl and start to bring them together into a ball. After it is nicely combined, flattened the ball into a flat disc and use plastic cling to wrap the disc.
• Store in freezer for 15 minutes.
• Remove dough and roll it between 2 sheets of baking paper. I rolled it into a big sheet and gently put it over the tart tin..
• Use the dough that is broken off to mend parts of the tart tin that is broken.
• Prick the dough surface with a fork (this helps to prevent the pastry from puffing up when baking). Cover and chill the tart crust in the fridge for 20mins (this helps to prevent the pastry from shrinking too much after baking.) 
• Line a sheet of parchment paper over the tart base. Place baking beads/weights on the parchment paper (I used rice as baking weights), enough to cover the tart base. 
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 20 mins. Remove the baking beads and parchment paper. Put it back into the oven and continue to bake for another 15~20mins until the crust is golden browned. Let cool completely. Leave the crust inside the tart pan, do not unmould.

 The picture on the top left is the dough after bringing all the mixture together. It should come together nicely without being too dry or wet.
The next picture is the weights on the pie for blind baking.
Bottom left are the ingredients ready for making the filling.
Last pic is how the crust looks like after baking. Mine was abit over brown on the edges so might want to reduce baking time in the future

to make the filling:

• Dissolve the gelatine in water and set aside for 10min. 
• Combine the sugar and yogurt in a pot over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the gelatine solution until it’s dissolved. Remove from heat.
• Place cream cheese and mix on Speed 5 for 10-20 seconds till it is nice and smooth. Add in the cooled yoghurt-gelatin mixture and then mix it again for 5 second. 
• Add in lemon juice and mix on Speed 4 for 3 second
• Whipped the cream till soft peaks form. With a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the whipping cream to the cream cheese mixture. Fold in the remaining whipping cream to the cream cheese mixture. **I tried to use the thermomix for this but somehow it did not turn out nice. I think i may have my cream on the bench for too long as it needs to be really cold before whipping. My turned into large clumps and in the end i had to add to the cream cheese and use the Thermomix to blend the entire mixture up.
• Add in the matcha powder and mix until blended. 
• Pour the mixture into the tart pan until it is full.
• Chill the tart for at least 2 hours until it is firm. Unmould before serving  

 This is the tart after chilling for more than 2 hours. it was nice and firm, abit tricky to cut as pastry is hard. I used a steak knife with jagged end to slowly dissect the tart.

 the pastry was slightly crumbly but the taste is good. I will definitely incorporate almond meal in my shortcrust pastry next time.

I did not do the motive as per the original recipe as i was so tired. This recipe has alot of steps and planning to do before getting to the final outcome. The pastry needs to be chilled and baked and cooled. The filling itself has so many sub steps too.

I will definitely not attempt this with green tea but will definitely do another version of cheesecake with this crust.

Apple Crumble

I love tart desserts and love anything with apples and nuts.

We had some friends over on Melbourne Cup Day and i wanted to make something refreshing. I put together this recipe from the internet and just modified it to suit my taste. It was abit too tart but i love it that way. Not such a hit with the kids but the adults like it. Healthy, refreshing and in my opinion yummy. Please do try it.

Ingredients (crumble):

- 75gms walnuts

-100gms almonds (with skin on)

- 100gms flour

- 85gms butter

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 40gms raw sugar (adjust to suit taste)

Ingredients (fillings):

- 3 large green apples (skin peeled and cored)

- 2 large pears (skin peeled and cored)

- 1 bunch of Rhubarb (pick the nice red parts and chopped to 2 cm sizes)

- grated ginger (just a small piece)

- good squeeze of lemon juice (half a lemon)

- 35gms honey

- 10 gms of brown sugar

Method:

- I cooked the filling first. Chopped and core all the fruits. I squeeze a whole lemon in which is why it is so tart. I think half a lemon will be good enough for this recipe.

- All the fruits total to 1kg in the Thermomix and place all ingredients in the bowl

- Cooked it for 8 mins/100degress/Speed 1

- Place the cooked filling in the baking dish. I let it set for a while and baked it only when it is ready to be serve.

- while the filling is cooling down, i proceed with the crumble. 

- I pre toasted (7 mins at 175C) the walnuts and almonds to give it an extra crunch. I also saved some chopped walnuts to sprinkle on top of the crumble before the baking process.

- Place all the crumble ingredients in the bowl. I used the turbo button to slowly get the consistency i like. I prefer by crumble with a slight texture, if you like it really fine, then you can get it to mix longer in the processor.

- As my filling was too tart i had to add more sugar for the crumble. Feel free to adjust as you go.

- I set the crumble aside and just spread it on top of the filling when ready to bake. Remember to sprinkle with more nuts.

- Bake for 20 minutes or golden brown on a 180C oven.

- You can substitute with any nuts.

 The filling getting ready to be cooked in the Thermomix

Pre toasted nuts.

The beautiful colour of Rhubarb. I have never used them in any cooking but they taste delightful. Nice tart taste which combines nicely with the apples and pears. I serve the apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and yet it was still tasting way too tart. :) cool it on the lemon next time ..

I did not have a chance to take a picture of the final product as everyone was digging into it way too fast. But definitely a keeper for hot summer dessert.

Lemon Curt Tart

Pastry method adapted from:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/SweetPastryCrust.html


We are having some guest over and i just thought of my homemade lemon curd in the fridge, getting very near to be thrown in the bin.

I decided to make a sweet shortcrust pastry from my old time favourite site. Joy of baking is the site i always go to when i started baking. It has clear instructions and video which really helped alot.

These are the ingredients:

Sweet Pastry Crust:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten



 

I used the Thermomix to cream the butter and sugar. Speed 5 is all i needed.  I then add the dry ingredients and pulse it till it resembles crumbs.

 

 

 Transfer to a bowl and started bringing it together into a ball.

 Wrapped it in cling wrap as per recipe and in the fridge it went. For a good hour or so as I was busy with other chores.

 The pastry is nice and hard when i got to it. It is very difficult to roll this one as it cracks easily. I followed the video on how to get the pastry to the tin.

It was not hard at all. Hard part is fitting it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

 

I poke alot of holes in the pastry and then got it in the oven to bake.

 

 

the finished product. the curd is great. pastry was abit hard to cut through but all good.





Cantonese Egg Tart

Adapted from Christine's Recipe: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/03/cantonese-egg-tarts-recipe.html

Cantonese Egg Tarts
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: Makes about 14-16 egg tarts (i used my muffin tray as i do not have the mold)

Ingredients of crust:

• 225 gm plain flour
• 125 gm butter
• 55 gm icing sugar
• 1 egg, whisked
• a dash vanilla extract

Ingredients of custard::

• 3 eggs
• 110 gm caster sugar
• 225 gm hot water
• 85 gm evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 

I used the Thermomix for the dough. Did not turn out as expected but i managed to troubleshoot it in time.

I cream the butter and sugar in the bowl at Speed 5 for 6-7 second.
Added half the whisked egg and beat at Speed 1 for just a few second.

Added the other half and a dash of vanilla extract. My dash was a bit too much as i accidentally top too much in the bowl. That might explain the extra soft dough.

After that add in the sifted flour in a single go and give another mix at Speed 5 for a few second until well mixed.

Took the dough out it was way too soft. I had to put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to let it harden.

After 15 minutes, dough was still soft but more manageable. Added flour to the surface and started rolling it.

 

 I am not very good with rolling pastry, hence the inconsistency in the shape and thickness. I was also missing the proper egg tart mold that gives it a nice curvy pattern on the sides. But the normal muffin serves the purpose well too. No need to line the tray or even oil it. The tart will come out nicely after it is baked.

The custard is so easy to make. Followed Christine's recipe to the dot. I made the sugar water in advance cause i need it to completely cool before adding the egg and evaporated milk mixture.

Method (making custard):

• Add sugar into hot water, mix until completely dissolved.
• Whisk egg with evaporated milk. Pour in sugar water. Mix well.
• Sift egg mixture to get rid of any foam into a tea pot. Carefully pour egg mixture into each tart shell.

you can see how thin the dough is as it was just too soft for me to handle. The recipe say use a cookie cutter smaller than the size of the egg tart mold but i just can't find enough pastry to press the sides to the top. So i cut a bigger piece of dough and just press it lightly against the sides. It was already thinning on some sides.

Next in the oven it goes. I did follow the recipe instructions but because my pastry is not so thick i only did 10 minutes at 200C in the oven bottom rack. I then turn it down to 180C for the next 5 minutes. Once i see a slight puff in the custard, open the oven rack to continue cooking for next 12 minutes. The custard cook pretty fast so you really need to keep and eye on them

Did the toothpick test and the custard was perfect.

 

 They look so shiny and nice. Hubs and the boys tasted it and it was good for them.

I am on a diet but just need to try one. It was very nice. The custard was smooth and soft. Pastry was just nice and crispy. 

This recipe is a keeper. A tad sweet as the pastry already has some sugar. Will cut down the sugar next time.