Tartes aux pommes Parisienne

(Paris style apple tart)

 

 

These apple tarts are usually made without the custard filling. 

A layer of applesauce is first applied to the pastry shell and then cover with a neat, closely overlapping layer of sliced apples.

Recipe is taken from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

 

Apricot glaze adds shine to the baked tarte.

Happy mother's day !!!!

Baked a tray of peanut butter cookies for the occasion.
I prepared my own peanut butter for the cookie dough, and

cut the cookies into various shapes. I kept the heart shaped ones for all the mums in my family.

Poached pears in red wine

After watching Chef Raymond Blanc poached winter fruits, 
I decided to poach some pears in red wine.I bought some Bosc pears.
Besides Bosc, Anjou is also a good choice.
I chose Merlot red wine.

 

Here is my recipe adapted from Dan Lepard's poached pears in red wine recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 Peeled and cored pears
• 1 1/2 cups of Merlot red wine
• 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 lemon peels
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extracts
• 1 stick of cinnamon 
• 4-6 cloves

Preparation:

1.Combine all ingredients, except for the pears.
2.Bring the wine mixture to a boil.
3.Once the mixture is boiling, turn heat down to a simmer.
4.Add the pears into mixture.
5.Simmer the pears for at least 30 minutes and until they are tender and
   are easily  poked through with a fork.
6.Remove the pears and let them cool.
7.Boil wine mixture until the liquid has been reduced by half.
   Pour sauce over the pears and serve.
8.Wine sauce can also be made into red wine jelly or freeze it and make 
    slushy ice to go with the pears. 

Poached pears in red wine sauce.

My dessert:Poached pear served with awfully chocolate ice-cream and Mrs Bridges' toffee cookie

Guinness Beef Pies

Recipe was from Australia Masterchef Gary Mehigan's Beef onion and Guinness pie.

Freshly baked from the oven

Dinner Time

Sour cream scones with a twist of Kaffir lime leaves

This recipe was adapted from the scone recipe by Joythebaker.com.
I used whole wheat flour and flavoured my scones with kaffir leaves. 

Champagne bottle fondant cake

Happy Birthday.......Cheers! Dad !

To celebrate my dad's 89th year old birthday, I prepared a Champagne bottle fondant cake.
The most challenging part of the preparation is to create the glass-like bottle. I mixed green lustre with gel and alcohol and painted the bottle layer by layer.
When the alcohol evaporates, it will leave a layer of glossy shine on the surface of the bottle.

新年快乐！
Happy Lunar New Year
Time for pineapple tarts and....Kueh lapis

19 layer lapis

新年快乐
Happy Lunar New year
Time for pineapple tarts...


                                     Pineapple tarts without egg wash

                                     Pineapple tarts with egg wash

                                     Pineapple tarts with floral base

                                     Big pineapple tarts with cloves

Kueh Lapis Petits fours:
Kueh Lapis for Chinese New Year
(in the style of petits fours)


I have made the traditional kueh lapis for dessert for my family early reunion dinner.
Instead of serving the usual thin slices, I made them into petitsfours; bite size kueh lapis.
I prepared the layers of batter to just about half height of  a 8"x8"x3"square tin.
After baking, I cut them into shapes with the petitsfours cutters.

Kueh lapis petits fours

Kueh lapis petits fours of different shapes

Pizza fun step by step

                                   

Ready; On your marks; Get set; Start.....

Step 1-Get ready base dough

Step 2- Spread pizza sauce .

Step 3- Add fresh onion rings

Step 4- Add Capsicum strips

Step 5- Add Parmesan cheese

Step 6- Add chopped olives

Step 7-Add pepperoni

Step 8- Add strips of ham

Step 9- Add mozzarella balls

Step 10- Add extra shredded mozarella cheese

Step 11- For herbs, fresh tarragon from the garden

Step 12- Baked in oven

 Bon appetit!

Cherry Clafoutis

Cherry Clafoutis is a French baked dessert.
The recipe used is taken from this wonderful book called French Food Safari .
It is also a SBS TV show(of the same name)hosted by Maeve O'Meara with chef Guillaume Brahimi.
In this recipe,chef Guillaume added almond meal in the batter.

Fresh from oven

I sprinkled the top with fine grains of sugar instead of
dusting with icing sugar.