Plum Tartlets

It's been a long time since I last took part in the Bake Along event...... So I thought I should take a break from posting my Hari Raya bakes (I still have a few!) & bake some plum tartlets for its 67th event. 

These tartlets are not the typical tarts that we've all come across because the base used is not pastry but closer to a cake. A few bloggers describe them as having cakey texture. The ones made by some of them do look like the texture is a cross between a cake & a pastry. Mine turned out to be more like a cake, moist  & just slightly crumbly.

Cake or pastry, I still like these tartlets.... very buttery with a tinge of lemon flavour, & the slight tang of  the plums is a good thing for an otherwise sweet dessert. Besides that, they are so pretty! I couldn't stop looking at them! 

Plum Tartlets

Ingredients:
120g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  ground cardamom (I used a pinch.)
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
100g granulated sugar (I used 90g.)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used pure vanilla paste.)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3 plums, pitted and sliced
2 tbsp turbinado sugar (I used demerara.)
confectioners' sugar for dusting
ice-cream for serving (optional)
three 4-inch ramekins (I used mini tart pans with removable base - 1 rectangular & 3 heart shape.)

Method:

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Lightly butter the ramekins and place them on a baking sheet.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt; sift & set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a medium mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer), cream the butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolk, granulated sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to beat until the mixture is light in colour. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in thirds, mixing just until incorporated; be careful not to overmix.
4. Divide the dough evenly among the ramekins. Fan plum slices in each ramekin, lightly pressing the slices into the dough with your fingers. Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tartlets look set and the tops are golden brown. These are best served warm, but they can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
6. Serve the tarts with a light dusting of confectioners' sugar and a scoop of your favourite ice cream, if desired.

**The recipe above is only half the original recipe & I converted the measurement into metric.

Recipe from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day & Griffith Day.

Source: Frontier Co-op.

I am submitting this post to Bake Along, an event organised by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, Lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of  Bake For Happy Kids.

I'm also linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up August (flour) event, organised by Bake for Happy Kids & My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Quiche Toast

I made beef quiches for breakfast this morning. It was quite fast to prepare them as I used sandwich bread for the cups instead of making the pastry base from scratch. It's so much easier but still very delicious. I highly recommend you to make these quiche toasts... I can guarantee your family will like them!

Quiche Toast

Ingredients:
150g ground beef
1 medium onion, finely diced
pinch of salt & pepper
1 tsp oil
12 slices sandwich bread (I used wholemeal.)
2 eggs
⅔ cups milk

a pinch of salt and pepper

⅓ cup cheese, grated (tasty, gruyere, cheddar - any good melting cheese) - I used mozzarella.
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves,
oil spray / oil / butter for greasing pan

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
2. Heat 1 tsp oil in small pan over high heat. Add onion & sauté until soften & slightly caramelised. Add in ground beef & continue cooking until meat turns brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Cut bread into rounds or just cut crusts off. Use a rolling pin to flatten the bread.
4. Grease 12 muffin tin holes (I used butter.), then press the bread into the muffin tin.
5. Place in oven for 3-5 minutes until the toasts are just a bit dry. (The toast cups should not be browned.) Remove from oven and set aside.
6. Whisk together the egg, milk & a pinch of salt & pepper.
7. Divide the cooked beef  between the 12 toast cups, then top them with the cheese.
8. Pour the egg mixture into each cup, almost to the rim, & sprinkle the coriander leaves. Then immediately place the muffin pan in the oven. If you take too long between pouring the egg mixture into the toast cups and putting it in the oven, the egg will start soaking into the bread.
9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is set.
10. Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes before serving. The filling will be puffed up but it will deflate while resting.
11. Garnish with extra coriander leaves if desired. Serve warm.

Makes 12 toast cups.

Recipe adapted from  Recipe Tin Eats.

Notes:

1. Instead of beef, you may use any other filling like seafood, ham, mushroom, etc but there's no need to precook the seafood or ham.
2. Do not use stale bread as it would be difficult to flatten & press it into the muffin hole.
3. Toasting the bread until it's dry before adding the filling is an important step as it prevents the egg mixture from soaking into the bread.
4. You need to grease the muffin holes generously as the egg mixture may overflow onto the holes & it then may be difficult to remove the quiche toast.

Lapis Pisang

I baked another lapis cake for this raya..... This time, it's one that uses bananas for its flavour.  I've been meaning to bake this lapis for the longest time, after browsing through Asmah Laili's Goodness Gracious Absolutely Delicious. I'm glad I took the risk of baking it for the first time for hari raya.... the cake is super moist & has very good flavour, something that bananas will never fail us....

Lapis Pisang

Ingredients:
110g plain flour (I used cake flour.)
200g vanilla ice-cream powder (I replaced this with Nespray full-cream milk powder.)

1 tsp rounded baking powder (I used 1 tsp (level) double-acting baking powder.)

4 egg whites

12 egg yolks
230g castor sugar
400g butter
200g Delmonte bananas, mashed (I  used pisang berangan.) - use ripe bananas for sweeter banana flavour

a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

1 tsp banana essence

Method:

1. Line & grease the bottom of 10x7 or 8x8-inch pan. Preheat the grill (top heat only) on medium high heat, about 180 deg C.
2. Combine flour, milk powder & baking powder & sift. Leave aside.
3. Cream butter until creamy white. Add in mashed banana & banana essence & mix until well blended. Keep aside.
4. In a clean & dry bowl, beat egg whites till soft peak, add in sugar gradually & continue to beat until sugar has dissolved. Then add in yolks one at a time till finished.
5. Reduce speed of machine to the slowest possible & slowly add flour mixture a little at a time. Stop the machine. Add butter mixture, yellow colouring & gently fold batter with a wooden spoon to combine well.
6. Pour 90g of  batter into a  lined & greased pan. Grill until cooked & the top of cake turns brown. Remove pan from the oven & press the top of cake using a lapis presser. Pour in another 90g of batter & bake. Repeat the process until finished.
7. Finally after the final layer, turn off grill & heat oven (top & bottom heat) to 150 deg C & bake the cake for 10-15 minutes. (This step is required for this lapis because the cake is very moist, so baking the whole cake after baking the last layer ensures that the cake, especially its sides, is not so wet.) *For more tips on baking lapis cake, refer to my post here.

Recipe by Azizah Mohd Ismail from Goodness Gracious Absolutely Delicious by Asmah Laili. (with some minor changes to the method)

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up August (flour) event, organised by Bake for Happy Kids & My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

I'm also linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books event hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

Lapis Legit

Many of you may find baking lapis cakes not your cup of tea.. I know....... the thought of baking layer by layer & sitting in front of the hot oven for an hour or so may be just too daunting. I, on the other hand, love the challenge of baking lapis cakes, especially if the cakes come out right! 

After many years & numerous lapis cakes, I've gotten the hang of baking them. But the journey had not been smooth sailing, especially the initial stage. I started baking lapis cakes when I was still a teenager when I helped my mum to bake for hari raya. I remember we would spend hours & hours baking just one lapis lengit! It was a labourious  undertaking! Surprisingly, I didn't give up. Instead, I was determined to find out if we had done the right way. So I decided to attend a lapis baking class conducted by Kak Wannah. Then I realised that my mum & I had baked the wrong way..... same recipe, but totally the wrong way of baking. Since then, I've gained more confidence, my lapis cakes have improved a lot & the rest is history.....

I decided to bake this lapis lengit after reading Rima's positive feedback. I was confident the recipe is a good one because if the queen of lapis said it's very good, then it must be very good! Totally agree with her.... the cake is very moist & delicious! So if you are game with baking a lapis cake, this is one recipe you must try. But please read the notes below as I made some modifications to the original recipe.

Notes & modifications:

1. If you're wondering if there's any typo, the answer is no! All the numbers in the recipe are correct.... 30 egg yolks....53g flour.... etc, etc. :D
2. The original name of the cake is Lapis Lengit Mini, mini because the cake is quite low, just about 10 layers. I wanted my cake to be taller, so I used 1 & 1/2 times the original recipe to get my 15-layer cake. 
3. The original recipe also has mix fruits added to the last layer.  I omitted the fruits totally.

                          

Lapis Legit

Ingredients:
450g salted butter
38g sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla paste / essence
30 egg yolks
300g caster sugar
53g plain flour (I used cake flour.)
38g milk powder
a few drops of green colouring
1/4 tsp pandan essence (I'll add more next time.)
2 tsp spekkoek powder (aka lapis spice powder or rempah kek lapis)

Method:

1. Combine butter, condensed milk & vanilla paste/essence in a mixing bowl & cream until pale.
2. In another bowl, beat egg yolks & sugar until thick & fluffy. Add in sifted flour & powder milk & mix till well blended. Then add in creamed butter & continue mixing until well combined.
3. Divide the batter into 3 parts. Add green colouring & pandan essence into 1 part & mix well. Add spekkoek powder into the other two parts & mix well. (I combined the two parts before adding in the spekkoek powder.)
4. Pour 90g of spekkoek batter into a 10x7 or 8x8-inch lined & greased pan. Grill in a preheated oven using top fire only until cooked & the top turns slightly brown. Remove pan from the oven & press the top of cake using a lapis presser. Repeat the same process for the second layer.
5. For the third layer, pour 90g of pandan batter & grill. Then continue with 2 layers of spekkoek & 1 layer of pandan until finish.

*For more tips on baking lapis cake, refer to my post here.

Adapted recipe from Sedap, Sedap, Cantiknya Kue-kue Mungil.....

Source: Enjoyable Baking.

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up August (flour) event, organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Pierre Herme's Vienesse Chocolate Sables

I managed to try a few new recipes for my raya bakings. One of them was Pierre Herme's Vienesse Chocolate Sables. I must admit that the main reason I chose this cookie was because it's so simple & fast to bake. I also wanted something chocolaty but without having to dip the cookies into melted chocolate. This one just needed cocoa powder in the dough... So it made perfect cookies to bake for a busy me!

Pierre Herme's Vienesse Chocolate Sables

Ingredients:

260g all purpose flour
30g Dutch processed cocoa powder (I used Valrhona.)
250g butter
100g powder sugar, sifted
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp egg white

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk together, flour and cocoa powder and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk butter until creamy. To ensure that the recipe succeeds, the butter needs to be very soft. 
4. Add in powder sugar and salt to butter and continue to whisk until light and creamy.
5. Whisk in egg white until it is well combined with butter cream.
6. Add in flour & cocoa powder, mix until well combined.
7. Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe dough into W shaped cookies. (I just piped into a star, just like Dahlia cookies.)
8. Bake cookies at 180C for 10-12 mins - no more. The cookies will be delicate - transfer carefully into cookie jar after cooled.

Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dori Greenpan.

Source: atkokken.

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up August (flour) event, organised by Bake for Happy Kids & My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Lapis Nutella Cake

Let me start this entry by wishing all my Muslim readers Eid Mubarak & Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri. How was your celebration so far? Hope it has gone well.... Alhamdulillah, mine has been good so far. We only went visiting on the first day since that was the only public/school holiday. So the visiting will have to continue this weekend.

Tonight's sharing will be the recipe for the Nutella Lapis which I made for the two mothers. As I've mentioned before, I usually prefer to bake 2 lapis cakes together, so I decided to bake the same cake for my mum & mum-in-law. 

I don't think you would be wondering if this cake tasted good.... it's Nutella cake! It can't go wrong, right? Besides, there're condensed milk & Horlicks too, & from my experience, any cakes that have any of these three ingredients will not disappoint me. However, this cake did take up more than the usual time to finish baking. It took me 2 & a half hours to complete baking the two cakes, almost an hour more than baking other types of lapis cakes. So you do need more patience if you wish to bake this Nutella lapis cake.

Lapis Nutella
(Makes 1 cake.)

Ingredients:
500 gm butter
180 gm caster sugar
1tsp ovelette
1 tsp vanilla paste (I added.)

10 eggs (large)
1 tin (397gm) sweetened condensed milk

260 gm Hong Kong flour (I used cake flour.)
100 gm Horlicks powder (malted milk powder)
220 gm Nutella spread

180 – 200gm Nutella spread (to top the Nutella layers)

Method:

1. Preheat oven (grill or top heat only) at about 180 deg C. (Refer to my post here for more tips on baking lapis cakes.)
2. Grease & line the bottom of a baking pan. (10x7 inch or 8x8 inch.) 
3. Combine butter, sugar & ovelette in a mixing bowl & cream until fluffy, about 10 minutes.
4. Add in eggs, one at a time, & continue mixing until well blended.
5. Reduce the speed of beater & add in condensed milk, continue mixing.
6. Reduce speed to the lowest possible & add in flour & Horlicks in 3 parts. Mix until well blended.
7. Divide batter into 2 parts. Leave 1 part  plain & add Nutella to the other part.  (I weighed 1 part 220g lesser than the other & added Nutella to the lighter part. In this way, I would not end up with too much excess Nutella batter.)
8. Pour 90g of plain batter into baking pan. Spread  the batter evenly & bake for about 3-5 minutes or until the layer turns golden brown. Remove the pan & press the layer with a lapis cake presser to even out the layer & pop any bubbles. 

   

   .... a lapis presser.

9. Next, pour 90g of Nutella batter & spread it out. Then spoon Nutella spread onto the batter (as shown in the above picture). Bake until cooked. 
10. Continue with plain & then Nutella batter, until finish.
11. When finished, turn the cake onto a wire rack & leave to cool before slicing & serving.

Recipe by Rozzan.

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up  August (flour) event,  organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY  and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.