Recently I've been hooked on cookbooks. Jamie's Everyday Superfood (bought the book!!), Michael Pollan's Cooked (which is this huge book divided into 4 sections about fire, water, air and earth), Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin (which I discovered watching Simply Nigella) and Made in India by Meera Sodha. Oh and I've read lovely bread books by Tartine and Josey Baker and another fav called Culinary Intelligence by Peter Kaminsky. I've loved reading since I was a kid and I remember sitting by the dining table glued to Nancy Drew and Enid Blyton and it was as if I was in a whole different world. 

As I grew a little older reading didn't seem so important to me- so I stopped. I stopped going to the library, stopped reading books and flipping through the newspapers, and stopped indulging in the joy of reading. Reading, at some point of my childhood, seemed useless and a waste of time- I only got back to reading a year ago when I had a good long holiday and made trips to the nearby library where I could just sit cozied up in a comfy chair in a corner and flip through cookbooks and magazines. It was so fun. 

I love reading and I love baking. To tie my two favourites together - I love reading books about food. I don't know if you do that too but I don't just flip a book to see the recipes. I actually read them like a book- which is quite fun and satisfying. I keep a cookbook by my bed and spent 20-30 min most nights reading a few pages- and then fall asleep with the thought of food in my mind. Which is never a bad thing. Reading helps me to unwind, and reading about food keeps me inspired to think of new ways to cook. There's really nothing quite like reading a good cookbook.

So here's a recipe for Portugese egg tarts- a flaky pastry with sweet, wobbly custard and a dark blistered top. The original recipe uses heavy cream- I've replaced it with whole milk, making the filling a little lighter, but still very delicious. Fill free to make your own variations- steeping tea and spices into the milk before making the custard, adding extracts and blossom water, or chocolate chips- experiment and decide on your favourite flavours! 

Portuguese Egg Tarts

Recipe from Lady and Pups 

Custard: 

300g whole milk 

45g sugar 

12g plain flour 

3 egg yolks 

57g sweetened condensed milk 

1 tsp vanilla 

Pastry: 

113g + 7g unsalted butter, at room temperature 

146g plain flour 

3/4 tsp salt 

76g water 

For the custard: Combine milk, sugar and flour in a saucepan over low heat, whisking constantly till in thickens slightly. Pour over the egg yolks, condensed milk and vanilla, and whisk to combine. Let cool completely. 

For the pastry: Combine the 7g butter, flour, salt and water and mix to form a stiff dough. Wrap in plastic, chill for one hour. Divide the dough in half, flatten one half into the width of your pasta machine using a rolling pin. Roll through the thickest setting, gradually decreasing the setting till the thinnest one. Divide the dough in half. Spread each half with 1/4 of the softened butter. 

Roll up the butter-topped dough Swiss roll style, starting from the shorter end. Then roll the log of pastry in the other butter-topped dough Swiss roll style, such that you get one large log of pastry with swirls of butter. 

Repeat for the other half of the pastry to form one large log of pastry swirled with butter. Let the pastry chill in the fridge/ freezer till firm. 

Once firm, cut the pastry into 12 discs and place in muffin cups/ greased muffin tin. Let soften slightly before pressing into tin, with the sides slightly thicker than the base. Let the pastry cases chill till firm. 

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius, or to the highest possible temperature setting on your oven. Pour the custard into the pastry cases, and bake for 15-20 minutes on the middle rack until the pastry is golden brown and the filling has dark brown blistered spots on top. Serve warm. 

Flaky, buttery homemade layered pastry and a creamy custard filling. Oh so good.  Recently I've been hooked on cookbooks. Jamie's Ev...

Okay so this came about because 

1) I couldn't resist buying a bag of frozen mixed summer berries at the baking shop 

2) I went to the library and read a couple of cookbooks and saw almond frangipane. Twice.

3) I turned on the TV and saw my favourite pastry chef (Anna Olson!) making raspberry frangipane tart

And I knew I had to make this. At least try. 

I've never tasted frangipane before, but the thought of moist, sweet, vanilla and almonds is just so so tempting. It's just buttery and delicious and everything I want to put in a cake. I feel like eating a huge slice of pound cake with lots of that frangipane sandwiched in between and an almond crossaint with those crisp, toasted flaked almonds and brioche smothered with frangipane and more toasted almonds. That delicious bostock would be my dream breakfast. Everyday. 

You could very easily make a couple of changes to this frangipane to suit your needs and make it your very own. I think some lemon zest and orange zest would go beautifully in here, or you swap out some of the almonds for ground hazelnuts and add in some cocoa or melted chocolate or coffee powder. And oh that with some bananas and salted caramel and Nutella with that would be so so good. 

Anyway I'm leaving you with this recipe for frangipane. The tart base I used was some leftover pine nut pastry I had in the freezer, though I would recommend you use just any regular shortcrust pastry (the pine nuts in the pastry overpowered the subtle almond flavour). 

Happy baking!! 

Almond Frangipane Tarts

Makes about 6 tartlets 

Enough short crust pastry to line 6 tart pans 

Frangipane (adapted from Will Torrent's Pâtissiére at Home) 

100g softened butter 

100g caster sugar 

3 eggs 

100g ground almonds 

2 1/2 tbsp plain flour 

Handful of raspberries 

Line 6 tartlet pans with pastry, let chill till firm (preferably overnight) 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Beat butter and sugar on high for 4 min, till fluffy. Best in the eggs, one at a time, stirring till smooth. 

Fold in ground almonds and flour. 

Divide the frangipane evenly between the chilled tart pans, and lightly press a few raspberries into the frangipane. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the frangipane is puffed and golden, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Crisp, buttery pastry with sweet vanilla almond frangipane, topped with tart raspberries. Okay so this came about because  1) I couldn't...

Tender, crumbly crust wrapped around a homemade pineapple filling. My all-time-favourite thing ever!!!  I've never been to someone's...

I thought of using these mighty flavourful seeds in my Cempedak Chiffon a Cakes again, but why not try something else? 

So these egg tarts were born. 

I have to say the flavour of these tarts is unbeatable, though I must say I had some trouble making the egg batter. The cempedak flesh was really hard to seive to get it nice and smooth, so I spent almost an hour working my arm muscles and trying to get as much of the precious cempedak flesh as possible through the sieve. I must say that I've had a great workout doing this. 

Nevertheless, these egg tarts smell amazing and they taste even better! A great way to use these fruit in breakfast and desert recipes :) 

Cempedak Egg Tarts 

Makes 12 muffin sized tarts

Crust:

125g softened butter 

1/2 an egg 

1 tbsp sugar 

200g flour

Mix all the ingredients together and press into muffin pan. Chill until the tart firms up. 

Cempedak Custard Filling 

250g cempedak flesh 

250g water 

3 1/2 eggs 

125g sugar 

125g milk 

Pinch of salt 

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius. 

Blend the cempedak flesh and water until smooth, and strain. 

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, salt and cempedak flesh and water mixture until combined. 

Strain the mixture twice to remove air bubbles and lumps. 

Pour the custard mixture into the tart shells until 3/4 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes until the centre is set but jiggly and the crust is golden brown. 

Cool to room temperature before removing from the pan. 

Smooth egg custard with the fragrance of cempedak in a buttery, tender shell. Yesterday was one of the longest times I queued to buy food. I...

Eggy egg tarts with a crunchy pie crust and a smooth, velvety egg custard that almost melts in your mouth. 

There always comes a time when I crave something sweet that reminds me of childhood days. Egg tarts are my absolute favourite thing to eat in Hong kong. There is nothing more comforting than the crumbly crust and that smooth warm egg custard. And these egg tarts are so easy to do at home.

The pie crust is a classic recipe- creaming in butter and icing sugar, adding an extra yolk for extra richness and a better crumb, and adding plain flour, before chilling and rolling out. 

The egg custard is even simpler. Just mix sugar with hot water, then add eggs, milk and vanilla extract. 

These egg tarts are best baked in individual tart moulds because the egg custard is soft and won't look just as nice when they are sliced from a large pie. 

Eat this warm with a cuppa coffee. Morning in a bliss. 

Cantonese Egg Tarts </strong>

Ingredients 

Adapted from http://annieliciousfood.blogspot.sg/2014/01/hong-kong-egg-tart-aff-hk-macau-1.html

(Makes 6 Egg Tarts)

for Pastry

140g Plain Flour

1 tbsp Icing Sugar

1 Egg Yolk

½ Egg White

75g Salted Butter

for Filling

75g Castor Sugar or fine sugar

75g Hot Water

2 Whole Eggs

125ml Fresh Milk

¼ tsp Vanilla Extract

a pinch of fine salt

Method (for Pastry)

1. Cream butter with icing sugar, egg yolk and egg white. 

2. Add in flour and mix well. Once it is well mixed, using hand, press the mixture together and form a dough. If the dough is too wet or oily, knead in some flour. Wrap the dough in a clingwrap and put it into the fridge for at least 10 to 15mins to let it cool.

3. Take the dough out of the fridge. Cut pastries into 6 equal portion. The individual dough should weight about 38 grams each. 

4. Roll individual dough into a ball. Using your palm, press the pastry ball into a flat piece. Line dough in the middle of tart cases, lightly press the dough into the greased tart cases. 

5. Refrigerate the tart cases for 30mins, and it is ready to use. 

Method (for Filling)

1. Add castor sugar into hot water, mix until sugar completely dissolved. Set aside and let it cool. 

2. Beat eggs with milk, vanilla essence and salt. Pour in sugar water. Mix well. 

3. Sift egg mixture TWICE to achieve smooth egg mixture.

4. Carefully pour egg mixture into each tart shells. 

5. Bake tarts for 20-25mins at 180 degrees until the crust is golden brown and the egg is still slightly jiggly.

Eggy egg tarts with a crunchy pie crust and a smooth, velvety egg custard that almost melts in your mouth.  There always comes a time whe...