Portuguese Egg Tarts

I wanted to make something simple tonight and also something to welcome my daughter back home from her 2 days school camp.  She likes egg tarts I have some frozen tart case in the fridge, so here it goes :)

This is really easy to make, barely any hassle and within 10mins in preparation! :)

Ingredients

*yields 6 tarts

15g castor sugar

60ml milk

60ml all purpose cream (i used Nestle)

1 egg

6 tarts case/shells

Method

1. Preheat oven at 220C.

2. Put all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and mix till the mixture is smooth.

3. Fill each tart with the mixture, about 70% or 80% full.

4. Send to bake for 25min.  The finished bake should have brown crust and dark brown tops.  If you preferred the tarts to go darker, bake for another 5mins.

Banana muffins with chocolate chips and walnuts

I thought I have neglected this little baby because the last time I made cupcakes was more than a year ago.  But when I tried to make them recently, all either collapsed or shrunk!  Trust me, I was really really upset and almost swore that I won't make these again..

But I just feel that I should not give up, so I googled and youtubed and finally decided to give it another try, and TADA!!!

Recipes adapted from Jeannie's blog. I modified by replacing the butterscotch with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips, also reducing the amount of banana used.  I used 180C instead as the temperature and baked for 20min.

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas
125ml oil (I used canola oil)
2 eggs
250g plain flour - sieved
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
1tsp baking powder
100g walnuts - chopped into small uneven pieces
100g chocolate chips (i used the mini-sized version)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12pieces muffin tin with muffin liners.
2. Mashed bananas with a fork.  Set aside.
3. Beat the oil with eggs, until it is thoroughly combined.
4. In another mixing bowl, put flour, sugar, bicarbinate soda & baking powder together.  Mixed well with hand whisk/spatula, then beat in the wet mixture, follow by the mashed bananas.
5. Fold in the walnuts & chocolate chips.
6. Fill each muffin liner with the batter.  Each liner should be 3/4 filled.
7. Send to bake for 20min.

Ogura Cake

Finally, I did it :)

The first attempt resulted in a collapsed cake and I was really upset & discouraged.  However, i somehow just felt that I need to give it another try, and TADA :)

Love how soft the cake is, and also the texture and fragrance of it!  I'm so going to do this again and again! :)

Recipe adapted and modified from Jeannie's blog:

Ingredients
(A)
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp salt
40g canola oil
90g milk
90g plain flour

(B)
5egg whites
100g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Preaheat oven at 160C
2. Lined the bottom of a 7; square tine or 8" round tin. *will be using waterbath method , so do not use a tin with removable base!
   For (A): 
3. Beat egg yolks, whole egg, salt, oil & milk with hand whisk, until fluffy.
4. Sieve in flour then mix it up until well combined.
   For (B):
5. Beat egg white, cream of tartar & castor sugar until firm peaks form.
6. Using a hand whisk, mix 1/3 of (B) mixture at a time, into mixture (A).
7. Switch to a spatula to lift batter from bottom to fold.  Be sure the mixture is well combined & smooth.
8. Pour the mixture into the baking tin, shaking it left to right to even out the top.  Then tap the tin on the table top few times to release air bubbles.
9. Put the baking pan into another larger pan, then fill the latter up with hot water (1/3 of the tin with batter).
10. Send to bake at 160C for 30min, then bake for another 20min at 150C.
11. Once baked, remove from oven and invert the cake immediately on a cooling rack to cool.  If you want a soft surface, invert on a non stick frying pan.

Oreo Cheesecake in Mason Jar

I'm a sucker for zakka-themed stuffs, they never fail to get me all excited!  Have always seen on the internet on the desserts made in mason jar, and I think they looked really pretty!  I ordered some mini jars from Taobao, and finally put them to good use! :)

This recipe originates from The Baking Biatch.

Ingredients

• (A) 300g oreo biscuits → pound into fine grains
• (B) 100g oreo biscuits → pounded into smaller uneven pieces
• 80g unsalted butter 
• 75g castor sugar
• 250g plain yoghurt
• 250g cream cheese → room temperature
• 2.5 tablespoon gelatin -> → to be dissolve with 100ml water

Method

1. Remove filing from oreo biscuits and pound the biscuit into fine grains.
2. Take 50g of pounded biscuits, side aside.
3. Double boil butter, leave to cool.  Pour and mix into the balance biscuit grains. Leave aside.
4. Whisk cream cheese with sugar till smooth, add in dissolved & cooled gelatin, continue whisking.
5. Add yoghurt, then lastly, the 50g pounded biscuit crumbs.
   
   Filling up the jar :)
6. Spoon in 1.5 tbsp of (A) mixture, shake them to balance it out.
7. Spoon in 1.5 tbsp of the cheese mixture, shake them to balance it out.
8. Spoon in 1.5 tbsp of (B) mixture, shake them to balance it out.
9. Spoon in 1.5 tbsp of the cheese mixture, shake them to balance it out.
10. Spoon in 1.5 tbsp of (A)+(B) mixture, shake them to balance it out.
11. Leave to set in fridge for 1hr.

Almond Florentines

These florentines were amazingly easy to make, and they turned out really fragrant and crispy!  I already ate quite some pieces myself :)

Ingredients:

130g almond flakes

25g icing sugar

1 egg white

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.  And lined baking sheet on baking tray.

2. Mix all ingredients together.

3. Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet.

4. Dip a fork with some water, using the back of the fork, flatten the mixture thin, without leaving too much gaps in between.

5.  Bake for 15-20min or until the almonds turn light brown.

6. When the florentines have cooled down, lift them up with a palette knife, then snap them into smaller pieces and store in airtight containers.

  

Rich Yeast Dough - Hotdog Buns

This is a simple rich yeast dough mixture that I learnt in the Home Economics lessons during my secondary school days.  It is basically a 'basic' dough, in which you could add other variations/fillings, such as red bean, curry, etc...  And I decided to add hotdog to the one I made this evening :)

Ingredients

250g bread flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 packet yeast

1 rounded tsp sugar

1/2 egg (beaten and leave the balance for glazing)

20g butter

125ml milk

2 hotdogs (cut into smaller rolls)

Method

1. Sieve flour and make a well in the center.

2. Warm milk and butter in saucepan over small fire (the mixture should not boil), then mix with salt, sugar, yeast and egg.

3. Pour this mixture gradually into the well of the flour, and mix it into a semi-stiff dough.

4. Set oven at about 100C, cover the dough with a damp cloth.  Leave dough in the oven with the door open for about 30min to proof.

5. After the dough proof to double of the original size, punch the dough to get rid of the cardon monoxide that was built up inside, and knead the dough to a pliable consistency.

6.  Floured a board and your hand.  Cut the dough into 6 portions.

7. Shape into a long oval shape, and roll around the hotdog.

8. Placed the sealed side facing down to the baking tray.

9. Leave to prove for another 10min.

10. Preheat oven to 200'C.

11. After the dough has been proof, glaze the top with beaten egg and bake for 20min.

Easy Cornflakes Cookies

I've tons of cornflakes left, in which my son lost interest in.  So I decided to make good use of them instead if throwing it away :)  This is a really easy to make cookie!  Parents can include kiddos to join them in the making, a good way of family bonding :)

Ingredients

90g butter

40g castor sugar

1 tbsp honey

4 cups of cornflakes

Method

*preheat oven to 150C

1. Melt butter, sugar and honey over saucepan, untill the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns frothy.

2. Pour the mixture over the cornfakes, make sure the mixture coats over each cornflake.

3. Place small cupcake cups on a baking tray and spoon the mixture into each cup.

4. Bake in oven for 12min, or till the cornflakes turn slightly brown.

5.  Once out of the oven, leave the cornflakes to cool in the cups and hardened.  Once cool, you may keep them in airtight containers!

Almond Flakes Choco-based Yoghurt Cake

This is a new recipe that came to my mind... Really just an impromptu creation :)  Hence, even the name of it is 'anyhow'!!  Nevertheless, it came out really nice, moist on the inside and cruncy on the top!

In this recipe, I used the small round cake mould that sold in Daiso.  It has a removable base that helps to removes the cake from the tin easily :)

Ingredient

*This recipe yields a 4" cake.

For the base:

200g chocolate biscuits (i used Hershey's, but I think you can use other brands or even oreo!)

50g butter

For the cake:

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

100g castor sugar

100g butter

2 small eggs

1/4 tsp vanilla essense

3/4 cup Marigold yoghurt (take any flavour you fancy!)

4 tbsp milk

Almond flakes

Method

*preheat oven at 180'C

1. Double boil50g butter, send aside to cool.

2. Pound biscuit (remove cream if there's any sandwiched between) till fine.

3. Mix the melted butter with biscuits then press it with the back of the spoon against the base of the baking tin.  Set aside.

4. Cream butter and sugar till creamy.

5. Add in beaten eggs with vanilla essense, gradually into the mixture.

6. Add in yoghurt.

7. Fold in sifted flour.

8. Add milk to the mixture untill it has a soft dropping consitency.

9. Pour mixture into the baking tin that we 'lined' with the biscuit mixture.

10. Sprinkle almond flakes on top of the mixture.

12. IMPORTANT NOTE: put the cake tin on top of another baking tray.  This is because you should be expecting some oil to leak out of the tin, these comes from the butter that we used in the biscuit mixture.  But if you are not using a removeable based tin, then you can ignore this step.

11. Bake for 35min. 

PS: Test if the cake is well-baked by poking a skewer at the center of the cake.  It should come out clean ☺️