Pineapple Tarts II

Without glaze.
Due to the lighting, these tarts look abit 'pale', but in actual fact, they are nicely 'tanned'.

 

Over here, the tarts has a 'bruised' look after glazing them with egg wash. (O_O)||||

The pineapple tart in the pink papercup is unglaze. (odd ball out!  5g dough)

Pineapple Tarts - Anncoo Journal

Here is the recipe

180g Plain flour
20g Corn flour
40g Icing sugar
1 Egg yolk (lightly beaten with 1 tbsp ice water, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract plus a drop of egg yellow coloring)
150g Cold butter
1/2 tsp Salt

500g Pineapple Jam (store bought) ~ roll into a small ball about 8g each

Method:

• In a large bowl, sift in plain flour, corn flour and icing sugar, mix well. Cut in butter and rub with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

• Make a well in a center, pour in beaten egg yolk with water and vanilla extract and bind the ingredients to a soft dough. (do not over knead) Add a little extra flour if dough is too soft. Put dough in the fridge for 20-30 mins to firm up.

• Remove pastry from fridge. Roll pastry between two plastic sheets to about 5mm thickness, cut into shape with a pineapple tart mold and place in a greased lined baking tray and bake for 10 mins.

• Remove tray from oven, fill the center of tart with pineapple jam. Cut small strips from from remaining dough to form a criss-cross pattern on top of the tarts.

• Return tarts to oven and bake for another 10 mins or pastry until golden brown. (else the jam will be too dry)

• Cool tarts on wire rack and store in an airtight container.

My notes: Bake at 180C for 25mins or till tarts are slightly browned at the top. Do not glaze the tarts. The tarts look nicer without the glaze. Dough weighs 12g and pineapple jam 8g.(Tangerine style)

Texture: This recipe yields more butter than the previous recipe, hence, it is more crumbly and the butter fragrance is more prominent. 

Pineapple Tarts I

Pineapple Tarts-little teochew

Recipe for Pastry
(adapted mainly from Delicious Asian Food)
- 400g plain flour*
- 50g corn flour
- 1/4 (heaped) tsp salt
- 280g cold, unsalted butter (do not allow it to soften)
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 3 tbsp cold water (or iced water)
- 6 tbsp icing sugar**
- 1/2 tsp cognac or pure vanilla extract
- For glaze, mix 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water* Note that the original recipe called for 450g plain flour. I changed it to 400g plain flour + 50g corn flour to make the dough more "melty".

** The recipe called for 4 tsp castor sugar. I used 6 tbsp icing sugar in its stead. I read somewhere that icing sugar helps soft pastry dough keep their shape during baking.

1. Sift the flours and icing sugar.

2. Using the pointed ends of a fork, rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine bread crumbs. If necessary, use fingertips to continue rubbing lightly the bigger pieces into finer pieces. Basically, just scrape / flake the butter with your forks. You essentially want to coat the butter crumbs in flour. Using forks prevents the cold butter from melting since there is no contact with heat. If you want to rub the butter into the flour using your hands, make sure you use only your fingertips.

3. Beat together egg yolks, cold water and cognac (or vanilla extract). Add it into the butter-flour mixture. Using your finger tips, gently coax all the crumbs into one large dough ball. Do not knead. As long as all the crumbs come together, stop. Chill in the fridge for about 10mins, covered.

4. Roll out to desired thickness (mine was about 8mm thick). Cut out dough using cutter. Arrange neatly onto baking tray, with at least 1.5cm apart. Since this is a very buttery, oily pastry, it would be good to use a small portion at a time. Keep the rest covered in the fridge, otherwise it will ooze oil.

5. Once you have arranged the tart shells on your tray, glaze them (the entire surface, not just the rims).

6. Place the pre-rolled pineapple jam balls onto the centre of each tart shell.

7. Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 20 minutes, turning the tray halfway through baking. According to the original recipe, when placing jam onto the pastry, take caution not to smear jam onto the sides as this will easily “burn” and render the sides of the pastry (the flowery design) darker. I did not have a problem with this because I used a very sticky, dry jam.

More notes from The Little Teochew:
~ This recipe yields about 96 tarts.

~ I tried baking 2 batches - one using cognac, the other using pure vanilla extract. They were both equally aromatic. So, no real need to use cognac. But do use a good quality vanilla extract.

~ I decided to be hardworking and glazed all the tarts. The egg wash helped make the pastry "studier" during baking. This pastry has a tendency to puff and expand a little. Also, glazing makes the colour a little more golden, a little more festive. ;)
~ Always pre-roll your pineapple jam before making the pastry.

My notes: Bake at 180C for 20mins do a 2nd glaze and back into the oven for another 5-7mins. Dough weighs 12g each and 8g for the pineapple jam. (Tangerine style)

Texture: Pastry just nice for me, not to crumbly.

Matcha Swiss Roll

Recipe: Happy Flour

Texture: Soft and yummy with nice green tea fragrance ;)

Remarks: Abit worried that the swiss roll will crack cos it's a common mishap, but, fortunately it turn out well (^o^)// yeh! so happy!

Happy Flour's recipe calls for red beans which I have omitted cos too lazy to cook them, besides, I was afraid everything will go to waste if the swiss roll cracked (this my 1st attempt baking swiss roll)

Note: 1. whipped cream was too little not spread out evenly.
2. green tea powder wasn't totally dissolved, hence, there were tiny 'dots' on the roll.

Green Tea Swiss Roll

Ingredients
3 eggs
60g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
65g cake flour
1/4tsp baking powder
1tsp green tea powder
1tbsp hot milk
35g veg. oil
few drops of green food colouring (omitted)
150g whipping cream (whipped)
100g cooked red bean (boil with water and sugar until soften)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. (190C for my micro/conv oven)
2. Dissolve green tea powder with hot milk, add in few drops of green food colouring and leave it aside.
3. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Shift the cake flour and baking powder into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in.
5. Mix milk mixture and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined.
7. Spread batter in a lined and greased 10" x 13" tray.
8. Bake in a preheated oven for 10mins.
9. Remove cake from tray immediately and cool on a rack.

Assemble the cake:
1. Carefully transfer the cake onto a greaseproof paper with the skin facing up.
2. Spread whipped cream on the cake and sprinkle with cooked red bean.
3. Gently roll the cake by using the paper to lift the cake and guide roll.
4. Rest the roll in the fridge to stabilize it shape.
5. Remove, slice and serve.

Matcha Chiffon (Green Tea Chiffon)

Recipe:  福田淳子(Junko Fukuda)

Texture: Light and spongy with mild green tea fragrance.
Remarks: Bake this with a 6" chiffon pan and got some left overs for cupcakes ^^

Green Tea Chiffon Cake(make 1   17cm chiffon cake)

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks (large)

80g sugar  (1/3 sugar for yolks and balance for the whites)
50ml salad oil

60ml water

80g cake flour

10g green tea powder

4 egg whites (large)

Preheat over at 180 deg cel for about 15mins (every oven is different so adjust accordingly, mine is set at 170 deg cel)

Method:

1.Sift flour and green tea powder, set aside.

2.With a hand whisk, combine egg yolks, 1/3 sugar, oil and water.

3. Add in the sifted cake flour and green tea powder into egg yolk mixture.   Mix till it is lump free.

4.In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg whites till frothy. Add in sugar gradually and beat on high speed till stiff peak formed.

5.Fold in 1/3 egg whites mixture into egg yolk batter and mix evenly. Pour batter into balance egg whites mixture and mix till combined.

6.Pour into a ungreased 17cm chiffon pan, tap cake pan on hard surface to release trapped air bubbles.

7.Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 35mins. Invert cake pan immediately onto cooling rack to cool completely before unmoulding.

Yuja Cha Chiffon

Recipe: HHB

Texture: Cottony and airy with a tinge of honey citron tea fragrance. I reduce the ingredients and bake this chiffon in a 6" chiffon pan =)

Ingredient A:(makes one 18cm cake)

3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
50g yuzu syrup/jam (mashed the rinds)
50ml hot water
40ml vegetable oil
70g plain flour (cake flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredient B:
3 egg whites (original recipe calls for 4 egg whites)
50g caster sugar
8g corn flour (not indicated in HHB's recipe)

Method:

1.Dissolve yuzu syrup with the hot water. Leave to cool.

2.Sieve flour, baking powder together, set aside.

3.Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature. (It is easier to separate eggs when they are  cold.)

4.Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes very sticky and turn pale.

5.Drizzle in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the Yuzu mixture. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter.

6.In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.
    Beat in the sugar in 3 separate additions on high speed until just before stiff peaks form.

7.Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.

8.Pour batter into a 18cm (7 inch) tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

9.Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 30 ~ 35mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

10.Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Black Forest Cake

Recipe for sponge cake: 美食之家 FoodHouse8's Channel
Fillings: Non-dairy whipping cream, can dark pitted cherry

Texture: Soft, moist and spongy.

Remarks: Cake texture would be better if using the egg separation method.

Tofu Cheesecake (non-bake)

Recipe: 西點go烘-豆腐乳酪凍蛋糕

Texture: This light cheesecake was abit grainy with a tinge of lemon fragrance.

Remarks: Next round  will use silken tofu instead of the chinese tofu (softer than those sold in wet market)

2nd attempt using silken tofu: Texture was smoother than the lst attempt, but it is  'weepy'! Not sure if its due to the usage of silken tofu or I didn't drained it for a longer period of time. 

Note: The grainy texture in the lst attempt was due to the fact that the gelatine wasn't totally dissovled.