Fruit Tartlets

Fruit tartlet remains as one of my favorite tarts of all time. That flaky pastry, cooling and sweet custard, and that refreshing fruits on top - it's a perfect combination! I made these tartlets the other day for my mom's best friend. Her son is getting married, and I made these as the dessert for their guest. It's a hit!

All you need to do, is prepare the sugar crust.

Spread some melted chocolate in them - to prevent the pastry from getting soggy.

Fill in custard into the pastry

And arrange your favorite fruits on top - strawberries, kiwis, grapes, apricot, blueberries... And don't forget to spread some apricot glaze on top of fruits to make your fruits.

Sugar Crust (adapted from Professional Cooking)

240g flour

140g butter

100g confectionery sugar

1# egg

15ml milk 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Sift flour and sugar together. Rub in egg yolk and butter into the flour mixture.

3. Turn dough onto work surface and divide them into two balls (base and top crust) and flatten them. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

4. Roll one pastry on a lightly floured surface. Gently transfer them to a pie pan/mold.

5. Trim the edges of pastry to fit the mold.

6. Dock the crust with fork. 

7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for five minutes.

8. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes

Custard

250 ml milk

1/2 egg - beaten

50g sugar

15g corn flour

10g custard powder

2-3 vanilla essence

1. Melt milk, corn flour and custard powder.

2. Add in vanilla essence. Then add in sugar.

3. Add in the egg, and cook until cook.

Fruit Tartlet (Assemble)

Sugar Crust

Custard

Fruits - at least three types

Apricot glaze

1. Spread melted chocolate in the crust.

2. Pipe pastry cream in the crust.

3. Arrange fruits on top of pastry cream. Make sure the fruit completely covered the pastry.

4. Spread apricot  glaze on top of fruits.

Strawberry Cream Pie

When my little brother came back, he asked me to make him some macarons. As macarons used egg white, I was left with some egg yolks. I was planning to make some pies. Furthermore, my brother's birthday was just around the corner. So, I thought this might be a good idea to give away some pies to his friends as well.

I searched for a few pies recipe over the internet, and decided to try the strawberry cream pie which I found from The Cooking Photographer. I mean, the photo looks seriously appetizing! How can I resist the temptation from experimenting them? I decided to mix in some strawberry yogurt into the cream/filling, and they taste really, really good!

Head here for recipe: Strawberry Cream Pie

Anyway, my brother bought the pies to his office, on his birthday and look at how it end up! (He was riding his motorcycle. Can't really blame him! :))

Apple Pie

Apple pie was one of the pastry items I learned in culinary school. Well, my first class in Pastry class was on shortcrust/sugarcrust. Then, it remains as one of my favorites recipes. Sometimes, I would make them for families and friends. They would love this apple pie as the pastry is rich and crumbly. This crust recipe is my favorite. I've tried several different crust recipes, and I'd still like this one. What's your favorite crust recipes?

Apple Pie

Pie

500g Flour

250g Butter

2# Egg Yolk

50g Confectioners Sugar

Filling
3# Apples - peeled, cored, diced
200g Brown Sugar
1# Cinnamon Stick
Cinnamon Powder- as desired
100g Raisins
50g Butter
5g Corn Starch

Crust
1. Sift flour and sugar together.
2. Rub in egg yolk and butter into the flour mixture.
3. Turn dough onto work surface and divide them into two balls (base and top crust) and flatten them. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
4. Roll one pastry on a lightly floured surface. Gently transfer them to a pie pan/mold.
5. Trim the edges of pastry to fit the mold.
6. Dock the crust with fork.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

Filling

1. Sweat diced apple with butter and cinnamon stick.

2. Add in raisins, and sprinkle cinnamon powder to your liking.

3. Sprinkle corn starch, and let the juice thicken.

Assemble

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

2. Spoon the apple filling into the pie crust.

3. Roll half of the pastry, and cover the top of pie.

4.Trim the pastry crust and crimp the edge using your fingers or fork.

5. Dock the top of pie to allow steam to escape.

6. Brush 1# egg yolk on top of each crust.

7. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

8. Let cool for an hour before serving.

Berliner

I had a craving for doughnut. I always loved Dunkin' Donuts' munchkin. They're so cute. However, when I googled for munchkin recipes, I found Berliner instead. According to German Food Guide, Berliner is accredited to Berlin. They are fist-sized pastries, made from a sweet yeast-dough and deep fried. They are filled with jam or vanilla cream and topped with powdered sugar, granulated sugar or icing.

Berliner looks like  munchkin, although I'm not sure if they're the same. They do looked as cute as munchkin, though. So, I thought, I should be experimenting on this recipe. After all the ingredients required is all available in the kitchen. What I love about Berliner (beside being cute) is the faint sweetness of jelly and dough. It seems like one piece of them is never enough (I caught my cousin eating them again and again).

However, I had a little incident while experimenting this recipe. I made a mistakes while writing down the recipe - so I end up using too much butter in this one. I think my Berliner end up crispier than it should be.

You could find the recipe for Berliner here :)