Egg Tarts

My craving for egg tarts started when I found out that the KFCs in Matsumoto were unable to obtain the stock from HQ due to over popularity. This afternoon, I went through my recipe book and decided to bake since I had all the ingredients required in my fridge.


INGREDIENTS: (8 tarts)
Pastry:
110g flour
50g non salted butter
20g sugar
2 tablespoon of egg mixture

Custard Filling:
3 egg yolks
110cc water
15cc evaporated milk
20g fine sugar

Pastry : Rub in butter into the sifted flour,sugar,egg mixture until it forms into a dough. Roll the dough into a large ball, cover with wax paper and refrigerate while preparing the custard filling.

Custard : Heat 100cc water in saucepan and add the fine sugar. Cook until the sugar has melted and allow to cool. Lightly beat in the eggs and stir in the evaporated milk.

Roll out the dough and cut out circles. Fit the circles into the tart shells.
Pour the custard filling into the greased shells.

Bake at 220 degrees in preheated oven for 8-9 mins until the crust turns slightly brown. Cover the tarts with aluminium foil and continue baking for another 5-6 mins. Cool before removing the tarts from the shells else the custard will sink. ENJOY!

Lesson #4,5,6

I have completed all the 6 lessons in Stage 1 bread baking. Most of my classmates will be continuing with Stage 2 but I`ve decided to take a break as I probably won`t have enough time to complete all the lessons before my baby`s due date. Here`s an update of what we baked.

#4 Pizza & Wholemeal bread

Wholemeal breads are healthy but I don`t really fancy the texture.

#5 Pullman Loafs

The pullman loaf is a square-edged loaf also known as the "sandwich loaf". According to Wikipedia, the name is derived from a resemblance between the loaf (or its pan) and the Pullman railway car.

#6 Butter Rolls

We also made some egg mayo salad to go with the rolls. Had 3 of these for my lunch after the lesson.

Dinner and a not so successful chiffon

I had two pieces of pork tenderloin and some leftover mini tomatoes in my fridge.

I marinated the pork with salt, pepper and coated it with bread crumbs for frying. Then, I decided to whip a quick tomato sauce to go with the pork. Diced half an onion and stir fried with olive oil till golden brown. Added in the tomatoes,1 tbs of ketchup, a pinch of salt, a dash of black pepper and dried basil, 1 tsp of mayo and worcestershire sauce. No exact recipe here.


Earlier in the afternoon, I baked an orange chiffon cake.
The taste was light with a citrus smell, good enough to call it an orange chiffon.

Unfortunately, I made some regretful mistakes. The recipe stated that I should add in 2 tablespoons of grated orange peel but greedy me didn`t want to throw away the rest and threw in double the amount of peels actually needed. The result is a cake full of orange peels causing a big hindrance to my lovely cake. Sigh..I need to perfect this chiffon because I want to serve it to my guests someday. Gotta find another day to practise baking it again.

Exact measurements are very important in baking unlike cooking. A little too much or too little will cause stupid mistakes. From now on, I will follow my baking recipes religiously.

Dessert Cravings

I have developed a craving for sweet stuffs compared to pre-pregnancy days. Other bizzare cravings include oranges, watermelons, chocolate, soda and coke ! These are foods that I don`t usually consume. I am wary of the extra calories intake but I guess its okay to indulge moderately once in a while.

Here are some of the delicious desserts that I have savoured in the past few months.


Entree 1
I shared this mini dessert platter with my husband last Saturday. Can`t remember exactly what we ate but we had mini chiffon cakes, green tea mousse, apple and grape sorbet etc.

The mini desserts are served in small sake cups and the whole presentation looks like a lovely piece of artwork.


Entree 2 - Santa Cafe

We had the vanilla ice cream in a puff pastry and pumpkin mousse cake.

The pumpkin cake was delicious! It had a light texture with a pudding like consistency .

This cafe also serves the best strawberry shortcakes that I have ever tried.


Entree 3

Fresh whipped cream parfait with chocolate ice cream and bananas.

This restaurant never fails to surprise us with their creative parfait decorations.

However, there was too much whipped cream. It took a while for us to reach the chocolate ice-cream.