Peach Tarts

I found this recipe (from Happy Home Baking) quite interesting and pretty with the peaches on it. Though it took some time getting the base done first and then wait for it to cool before adding the fillings, looking at the finished tart was all worth. 

I did not notice the tart pan mentioned in the recipe was 18cm and by the time I was about to place the dough onto my tart pan, then I realised my pan was 24cm. Too late to do anything, so I went ahead to mould it with whatever dough I had and I managed to spread it out thinly and evenly. 

   
The tart base was indeed very crusty and the almond filling tasted nice too. However, there was a down side with this tart-it was not easy to remove the pastry from the base of the pan even though I have greased it thoroughly. I guess I will need to place parchment paper on the base the next time I bake.

Ingredients

Pastry :
80g cake flour / plain flour
20g ground almond powder
30g caster sugar
40g butter (softened)
1 tbsp (15g) lightly beaten egg

Filling:
10g cake flour / plain flour
80g ground almond
50g brown sugar
60g butter (softened)
1 egg (lightly beaten)

Some canned peach slices (drained)
Icing sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Grease tart pan (18cm).
2. Toast ground almond (20g & 80g) at 100 deg C, stiring in between and let it cool.
3. Sift flour and add ground almond to flour.
4. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Add in the egg very gradually, whisking the batter till well mixed each time egg is added.
6. Add flour & almond mixture in 2 to 3 addition into the batter until just well combined.
7. Place dough in tart pan and spread out the dough all over the pan, smoothing the edge and rim.
8. Chill pastry in fridge for 20mins.
9. Use a fork to poke holes on the pantry and brush top of rim with egg wash. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 10-15mins until the edges are slightly browned. Let cool completely.
10. For filling: cream butter and brown sugar till mixture turns fluffy. Add in egg gradually, mix well each time the egg is added.
11. Add in ground almond and flour, mix well.
12. Spread the filling onto the cooled pastry base. Line with peach slices and baked at 170 deg C for 35-40mins until edges and filing turn golden brown. Let cool and dust with icing sugar.

Blueberry Lemon Friands

I really have to thank my colleague, Rachel for spotting this recipe (from Anncoo Journal) for me as she was very sure that my son will like these friands and true enough he really did, so did my girl, MIL and maid too! They all cannot stop with 1 pc and ended up eating many more. I actually tried out with 1/2 of the recipe only, using my mini muffin pans and it yield 30pcs. 

I was pondering why I could not pour the batter directly into the fillers (just like cupcakes), so I tested a few pcs with the batter poured into the fillers and I got the answer after baking - I am not able to separate the friands from the fillers haha...

These friands were really fantastic, not greasy, tasted great with the blueberry and had a refreshing taste from the lemon zest. They tasted even better the next day.  

Ingredients

30g Plain flour
45g Icing sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
75g Ground almond
100g butter (melted & cooled)
75g Blueberries
3 (100g) Egg whites (lightly beaten)
Extra icing sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190 deg C. Grease mini muffins pan with butter.
2. Sift flour and icing sugar into a large bowl and add lemon zest and ground almond. Stir to combine evenly and make a well in the centre.
3. Add the egg whites and butter to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined with a hand whisk, do not overbeat. Then flold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and bake for 30mins until well risen and golden.
5. Leave the friands in the pan for 5 mins before lifting out onto a wire rack to cool.
6. Serve friands dusted with icing sugar.

Fun Egg Toast

I was contemplating what meatless meal I could cook on Good Friday, and when I saw this recipe from Happy Home Baking, I knew that this would definitely be the perfect dish! Same with Happy Homebaker, my youngest daughter also did not like the egg yolk in sunny-side-up, so I lightly beaten the egg and pour it over the cheese and indeed she loves it. Everyone enjoyed the wonderful meatless lunch today, yippee!

Ingredients

Bread
Egg
Cheese
Black pepper

Oregano flakes (I don't have dried parsley)
Some butter to spread

Directions

1. Place a slice of bread on a tray and place a slice of cheese on top of bread. Cut along 4 sides of cheese (but don't cut through) to get a square in the middle. With the back of spoon, press and flatten the bread.
2. Spread some butter along the sides of bread (to prevent the sides of toast from getting brown faster than the egg). Place a slice of cheese, press it down a little and then place an egg top of it.
3. Bake at 180 deg C for 20mins or until the egg is set.
4. Sprinkle with some pepper and oregano flakes and ready to serve.

Butterflied Prawns in Garlic-Parsley Butter

This is my last submission for this month from Delia Smith-Butterflied Prawns in Garlic-Parsley Butter. These prawns really tasted great with the seasoning of butter, garlic, parsley and lemon.  Though the preparation did take a bit of time but the effort was worth with the smile on everyone faces at the dinner table. 

I am submitting this post to "Cook like a Star" with this month featured chef Delia Smith, organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

I want to say that I have learnt a lot from Delia Smith on the various recipes that I have experimented and there are many more recipes I could learn. Also, many thanks to Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Mich from Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out for selecting such a good chef, Delia Smith, for this event.

This recipe is listed on Very Good Recipes.

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith

(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients

10pcs large prawn (I used 10 large prawns)
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 handful of Italian parsley

50g salted butter
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Using a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, snip off the sharp, pointy spike and trim off the prawn legs. Cut the prawns shell along the middle of its back all the way to the end of tail to get an incision. Slice the prawn to make a deeper incision, taking care not to cut all the way through the shell.  Rinse the prawn and remove the intestinal track. Open the prawn up like a butterfly and press it down gently so that it stays open. Lay the prawn on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
2. Pound the garlic cloves, parsley and salt into a paste form. Combine the paste with softened butter and season with black pepper. Add in lemon juice and spread the butter mixture onto the prawns.
3. Preheat the oven at 230 deg C and bake prawn for 25mins* until the prawns are pink and opaque. Serve garnished with chopped parsley and lemon wedges on the side.
* I tried baking for 5-7 mins as stated in Delia's instruction but the prawns were not fully cooked, so I continued to bake for another 20mins till it was completely done.

Coffee and Walnut Sponge Mini Cupcakes

Another amazing recipe from Delia Smith. I liked this straight forward recipe using sponge cake method for coffee & walnut. I have made a few modification to this recipe : replacing the topping with cream cheese instead of mascarpone and made into mini cupcakes instead of a whole cake. The result was fantastic! The cream cheese blended well with the cakes, just that the coffee taste wasn't strong enough. I enjoyed creating the decorative toppings and my kids love them. 

I am submitting this post to "Cook like a Star" with this month featured chef Delia Smith, organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

This recipe is also listed on Very Good Recipes and adding this to Bake-Along #44-Celebration Cupcakes for Bake-Along 2nd Anniversary.

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith :
(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients

115g self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
115g butter (softened)
2 large eggs
100g golden caster sugar (I reduced from 115g)
1 tsp instant espresso coffee powder (can increase to 2tsp)
50g walnuts, chopped finely

Cream Cheese Frosting:
125g cream cheese (room temp)
50g butter (room temp)
50g icing sugar (sifted)
few drops of lemon juice

Directions

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a roomy mixing bowl, holding the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.

2. Add the butter, eggs, caster sugar, and coffee powder. Now, using a electric hand whisk, mix to a smooth, creamy consistency for about 1 minute. 

3. Fold in the chopped nuts into the mixture and scoop into fillers. Bake at 170 deg C for 20-25mins or when toothpick comes out clean..

4. To make cream cheese frosting: Mix all the ingredients and beat till well blended (add coloring if desired). Pipe frosting on top of cool cake and add decorative.

Little Croustades filled with chicken mushroom

When I saw this recipe from Delia Smith, I was so amazed with the base using bread and the simplicity of making it. So I give it a shot but I have modified it with chicken mushroom fillings instead. The taste was awesome, with the base crusty and the fillings tasted so well with it. Even my hubby complimented it as a yummy bites. 

The next time, I would love to try using ready available canned Seafood spread or Salmon Mayonnaise for the fillings and I am sure it will be a quick snacks to prepare for the kids.

I am submitting this post to "Cook like a Star" with this month featured chef Delia Smith, organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

This recipe is also listed on Very Good Recipes.

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith
(with my modification in blue) 

Ingredients

For the croustades:
6 slices bread (can made 24pcs)
50g butter
1 tsp chopped garlic
salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the fillings:
2 pcs chicken breast (diced)
2 pcs shitake mushroom (diced)
1/2 pcs carrot (diced)
1/2 onion (diced)
Seasoning
Parsley  

Directions

1. Place the slices of bread on a flat surface and press them with a rolling pin to make them as thin as possible. Stamp out rounds using 5.5cm cutter (I used flower cutter).
2. Melt the butter containing the garlic and a seasoning of salt and freshly milled black pepper in microwave.
3. Coat the little bread rounds on both sides with melted butter and then press them into the tartlet tins firmly.
4. Bake them for about 20-25 mins or until crisp and brown. Cool them on a wire rack. (You can store them in a airtight tin for up to 2 weeks)
5. Heat pan with a little oil, fry onion till lightly brown and add carrots, mushroom and chicken. Add water and simmer for a while. Add corn starch to thicken the gravy. 
6. Fill the croustades with chicken mushroom fillings and topped with parsley.

Slimmers' Scrambled Eggs

I decided to make this Slimmers' scrambled eggs for breakfast today and I can also submit this post to "Cook like a Star" with this month featured chef Delia Smith, organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

Since I have some mozzarella cheese in my fridge, I decided to replace the cottage cheese  that Delia's used in her recipe with the mozzarella cheese . I am not able to find chives as well and I have replaced it with spring onion. Overall, it tasted creamy but not cheesy and it has a special taste from the scramble eggs I used to make. 

This recipe is listed on Very Good Recipes.

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith
(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients

5 Large eggs (for 6 pax)
2 tbsp milk
2 heaped tbsp of cheese (I used mozzarella cheese)
1 tbsp chives (I used spring onion)
salt & pepper

Directions

1.Beat eggs in a bowl with a good seasoning of salt and pepper.
2.Add milk to moisten the pan, whirling it around the pan.
3.Add the eggs, using a wooden spatula, briskly stir backward and forward through the liquid eggs.
4.Keep on scrambling until 3/4 of the egg is a creamy solid mass and 1/4 still liquid.
5.Add in cheese and spring onion, continue to scramble, then remove the pan from the heat and continue scrambling until no liquid egg is left.
6.Serve immediately as the egg will continue to harden.

Classic Sponge Cake

I was amazed with this recipe when I watched the video demo from Delia Smith. I just need to simply add all the ingredients together and mix it well. I have also learnt that we should sieve the flour at a higher level in order to give the flour a good airing as it goes down. Really benefit from her coaching.

I decided to give it a try but making it into cupcakes instead of a large cake as in Delia's recipe. I have also added green tea powder and cocoa powder to create another 2 more flavours. The only thing to note is to fill the cupcake fillers 1/2 full,  otherwise it will rise alot and overflow.

I am submitting this post to "Cook like a Star" with this month featured chef Delia Smith, organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

Classic Sponge Cake recipe is listed on Very Good Recipes.

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith :
(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients

115g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
115g butter (softened)
100g sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp green tea powder - additional ingredient
1 tsp cocoa powder - additional ingredient

Directions

1.Preheat oven 180 deg C.
2.Sift flour and baking powder, lifting the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down. Then add all the other ingredients.
3.Now using an electric mixer, combine them for about 1 min until you have a creamy consistency.
4.Divide the batter into 3 portions. Scoop the plain batter into cup fillers till 1/2 full. 
5.Then add 1 tsp of green tea powder to the 2nd portion and cocoa powder to the 3rd portion. Scoop the batter into cup fillers till 1/2 full.
6.Baked at 180 deg C for 30mins or when toothpick comes out clean.

Pasta with Tomato & Mozzarella

Many thanks to Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids for visiting my blog and joined as my friend. It was through her bog that I learnt about "Cook like a Star" and I am very keen to participate in this event. 

I love this recipe but I have made a little modification  to suit my family preference. The sauce is quite different from the usual tomato sauce that we used to eat with spaghetti and everyone likes the newly introduced sauce.

This post is linked to Cook Like A Star where this month's featured chef is Delia Smith, an event organised by Bake for Happy Kids, Piece of Cake and Eat your heart out. 

Also submitting to Little Thumbs Up by my little favourite DIY and Bake for Happy Kids.

Pasta with Tomato & Mozzarella recipe is listed on Very Good Recipes.

Here the recipe adapted from Delia Smith
(with some modification in blue)

Ingredients

Tomato Sauce

5 large Tomatoes 

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 large onion (chopped finely)

1 large garlic (chopped finely)

A bunch of Parsley (chopped finely) - replaced of Basil leaves

4 tbsp sugar - additional ingredient

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pkt penne

1/2 pkt Mozzarella cheese 

few whole pasley (for garnish) - replaced of Basil leaves

Directions

1.Tomatoes sauce : Put tomatoes in a pot and bring water to boil. Drain off water and slip off the skins and chopped tomatoes finely.
2. Heat oil in saucepan, add onion and garlic and cook until they are softened and pale gold in colour.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and parsley. Then add salt, pepper and sugar. Simmer on low heat without lid until all the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes reduced to thick consistency, stirring now and then.
4.Boil pasta in a pot, add a little olive oil and salt. Drain pasta and place on plate.
5. When ready to eat, add mozzarella cheese to the tomato sauce and stir until cheese softened.
6. Serve the sauce over the pasta and add a few parsley as garnish.

Chewy Brownies

I got this recipe from my friend, Josephine as I like the neat cut and small bite sizes, perfect for party. 

I felt that these brownies were a little dryer, perhaps I should only bake for 30mins instead of 40mins as in the original recipe. I have also reduced the sugar to 130g, worried that it might be too sweet but it was not, so good to stick to 140g. The most satisfying part is I am able to cut them into very neat squares without all the crumbs dropping :) Indeed a good recipe for chocolate lovers!

Ingredients

114g butter
120g chocolate converture dark droplets (55.5%)
140g sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
128g plain flour
2 tbps cocoa powder

Directions

1.Preheat oven 170 deg C. Line an 20cm X 20cm square pan with parchment paper and greased the pan.
2.Melt sugar, butter and chocolate in microwave and cool slightly. Pour batter into large mixing bowl.
3.Stir in vanilla extract. Mix in eggs, one at a time, stirring each time until blended.
4.Add flour and cocoa powder, mix until incorporated and mixture is smooth.
5.Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 mins until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it.
6.Remove brownies and cool completely before cutting into squares with a sharp knife.

Crumble Peach Cheesecake

I got this recipe from my friend's recipe book and I am so sure my kids will love this. True enough, they kept asking for more after every piece. It was a great cheesecake with a well blend of sliced peach, cream cheese and crunchy walnut topping. 

The original recipe used a springform pan but I did not as I wanted to be able to see the layers with this pyrex tray. However, I have some difficulty cutting it into neat squares but even with the messy cut, all enjoy the cheesecake with a thumbs up!

Ingredients

Biscuit Base (A)
180g plain flour (sifted)
125g butter (softened)
60g castor sugar

Cheese filing (B)
500g cream cheese (softened)
90g icing sugar (sifted)
20g cornflour

(C)
3 eggs
100g whipping cream (emborg)
2 tbsp lemon juice

(D)
1 can sliced peach

Crumble topping (E)
100g plain flour (sifted)
100g walnut (chopped)
65g butter (softened)
50g caster sugar

Directions

1.Biscuit Base : Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Mix (A) into dough and pour into a 9" square baking pan, press dough evenly. Poke with fork and bake for 20 mins.
2.Cheese filing : Whisk (B) till fluffy, add in (C) and mix well, pour onto baked biscuit base and arrange (D) onto it.
3.Crumble topping : Use finger to mix (E) till crumble and sprinkle on the top of cake, then bake at 150 deg C for 60 mins.