a peek into my life: snippets of joy

… my first bake in 2012 with Meifern.

I thought I can give up baking for good since last year after the Sept incident. I still love to bake. So there my mood came back when I saw pineapple tarts outside.

This year I decided to bake the melt in the mouth type pineapple tarts with Meifern. Earlier on, we have been searching for recipes to use. We baked two types, the melt-in-the-mouth pineapple tarts and horlick doggie cookies.

…. getting ready.
( I thought Meifern fly aeroplane on me when she was late)

While rubbing in the butter into the flour, my right hand ached after that.

(Rubbing method was used to achieve the breadcrumb effects)

We used up 1kg of pineapple jam for the open and closed version.

Meifern helped to roll the jam into balls. It’s difficult to estimate the size cos we were so afraid not enough to fill up the dough. And true enough, we did not have enough jam for the 2nd batch of closed version.

Getting ready to coat the pastry with egg yolk.

2nd batch of the closed version.

Both of us love the closed version types cos it’s very soft except for the fillings. Not enough of the pineapple jams.

Making my Horlick  Doggie cookies.

I stopped after making 20 pieces. The more I make, the size became bigger and out of shape. Meifern’s set was much cuter.

Supposed to be Horlick cookies, but the taste more like chocolate cookies. I guess we added in too much chocolate chips inside. The kids will like it? Zann doesn’t like chocolate though she commented the cookies are cute.

Anyway not really fantastic. Lucky only make a few.

We spent 8 hours baking two sets of cookies. Tired but enjoyable.

(Daddy loves the open version pineapple tarts. He commented that this year’s bakes are so much better than last year. Great improvement)

… in a cup.

( For Zann’s teachers. )

Happy Teachers’ Day !

Mooncake making, like anything, needs tons of practice before getting them right. Especially the baked ones. Still, we enjoy the baking (bonding) session.

Green tea flavour, made by Zann.

(I love the green tea flavour. Because only made 5 mini ones, so I decided to keep for myself first.  Shall make again to give Zann’s teacher. )

The day ended with Zann and I making mooncakes for everyone. I love the cartoon characters moulds I got from ShopnBake. It’s so conveniently easy to use. I am totally set on making different flavours again.

From sifting the flour mixture to kneading the dough and pressing into the moulds, the girl did everything by herself. (I guess kids will like this). She really loves making her own favourite snowskin mooncakes. ^_^

After so many times of requests from Zann, I am back to baking again.

So, a basic sponge cake this time, with my little helper helping to  spread the whipped cream over the cake. Yes, it was messy but fun. The girl enjoyed the cake, even though she asked why I didn’t get  her favourite strawberries and other topping.  I did but she didn’t want the chocolate chips.

A thoroughly enjoyable bonding session.

Well, just make do with what I have on my stocklist first. I will plan a serious deco next time.

(I will be bring the remaining half to my mum’s place tomorrow. Hopefully can hear good comments from her)

Altogether, 105 pieces of pineapple tarts.

Everyone in the family except me has finished the first batch.
(this year’s chinese new year, I have not eaten any of my baked stuff all because of the COUGH)

So, this time another tub for mum’s side and ourselves.

(All were finished by Daddy and given away to mum and relatives! )

This year I didn’t prepare the pineapple jam from scratch. I bought the paste from Sun-Lik, which tasted abit sour.

Daddy said my pineapple tarts have improved. But of course cannot compared to the ones we bought from sweet-mate confectionery. Those melt in the mouth types. We have finished the whole tub too fast.

因为贵，所以就没买。
因为想吃，所以就决定自己做。

我们成功了!

味道还不错。Daddy 说还要再做多一次。

The decision to bake this apple crumble pie was unplanned and a last minute one.  I wasn’t the one who want to bake. It’s Daddy. His cravings for apple crumble resulted a google-searched Jamie Oliver’s recipe instead.

His determination caught me off guard when he bought all the ingredients back!

Does this look like apple crumble pie to you ???

I told Daddy his google-searched recipe was a wrong one to follow! In the end, I took over the baking task , from the recipe taken from Kitchen Capers forum.

My idea of apple crumble pie should look like this. Lucky thing is I have all the ingredients at home. And the finished result turned out good.

I seldom bake pie/ tarts cos it required alot of work. I am so glad to have Daddy and Zann’s help.

We couldn’t finish the whole pie so we gave some to my Mum. As for me, I seldom eat what I baked. I love to bake and give away to those who appreciate my effort. (I always believe that it’s important to share the baking love with the correct people)

Recipe

Ingredients (bake in 8 inch tart pan)
Crust:
100g butter
180g plain flour
one small egg

Apple filling:
3 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
2 tbsp brown sugar
1tbsp cinnamon powder
some water
1/2 tbsp corn flour

Crumble:
60g butter
100g self-raising flour
4 tbsp sugar

Method
To make the crust, sift the plain flour into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until small crumbs are formed. Add in beaten egg and knead to form a dough. Roll and press dough onto the tart pan. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for about 8 minutes (or till the base is dry).To make the filling, cook the apples with the rest of the ingredients with some water for about 10 minutes or more. Add cornflour to thicken. To make the crumble, gently rub the butter and flour to form into crumbs and add sugar. Mix well. After crust is baked, pour in the apple filling and sprinkle top with the crumble. Bake at 200C for about 25 minutes till the top is nice golden brown.