Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tart is a must in almost every household during festive seasons. For us, we like melt-in-your-mouth pastry and we have been using this recipe for a very very long time :-) The original recipe uses icing sugar, but we omit that as we don't like overly sweet tarts. For the pineapple paste, you can either make it yourself or buy it. When I am too busy or lazy, I usually buy the paste from baking supply store and modify it according to my liking. Cuts short the time.

I would recommend those who wants to do it to stick to 1 recipe. I have tried halving it and honestly, it didn't come out as good. I usually make kuih makmur with the same dough. So 1 recipe gives me 2 kinds of cookie. Hope you enjoy doing it as much as I have.

Ingredients
Pastry
500g butter, softened
700g plain flour
100g milk powder
100g icing sugar (I omit this but you can add if you want)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cream butter, icing sugar if using and eggs till creamy and light
2. Add vanilla essence and yellow colouring (if using) and mix well
3. Add flour, salt and milk powder into butter mixture, using your hand mix it till all the ingredients are well incorporated
4. Shape dough into a big ball, wrap and let it rest for 15min or more in the refrigerator
5. Shape the dough to your liking and top or fill with pineapple jam
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 10-15mins or till the sides turn golden brown

Important Note
* For melt-in-your mouth effect, it is very important that you do not overmix or overwork the dough. Once the ingredients comes together, stop.

This dough is a little sticky, I usually clip it myself instead of using the mold. If you are using mold, make sure that you flour it a little but not too much to prevent sticking.

This is for evie, I got this recipe from the internet but can't remember the site. When I make my own filling, I don't have exact measurement. It's more of estimation but generally it is similar the one below but I omit the clove and star anise because I don't like the filling with spices :-)

Ingredients
Filling
4 sweet fresh pineapples (about 1 kg total weight) or crushed canned pineapple
600 g granulated sugar (you can adjust this according to your level of sweetness)
4 cloves
1 star anise

Method
1. Grate pineapples and squeeze out juice using a muslin cloth or use the strainer to drain the juice, keep aside
2. Chop or blend pineapple meat until fine
3. Combine with sugar, star anise and cloves in a heavy-bottomed pot and cook over low heat until almost dry
4. Stir constantly until mixture is gluey and thick, the consistency of thick jam
5. If too dry, add abit of pineapple juice
6. Cool and store in refrigerator

Savoury Multigrain Porridge

I was in a mood to make a savoury porridge but chose to use mixed grain instead of the regular rice. It adds more fibre and flavour and I am happy to say that it was well received.

I used this mixed grain that I got from the supermarket. It contains oats, barley and different types of rices.

For this recipe, I didn't have any specific measurement. I just sort of estimate the amount of ingredients I needed. Use your own judgement to add how much of each ingredients you need.

Ingredients
1 pack mixed grain
handful of dried scallops and dried shrimp, washed
a knob of ginger
7 clove garlic
1 small can braised peanut
Enough chicken stock
Some milk
salt & pepper to taste

Garnish
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots
Omelette strips

Method
1. Wash mixed grain and pour into a pot with enough water
2. Blend garlic and ginger into paste and pour them into the pot together with the dried scallops and shrimp
3. Let the mixed grain boil, stir to prevent sticking or burning
4. Add chicken stock and water to get the consistency that you like
5. Once the grains are cooked, add braised peanut and milk, stir and let it simmer for another 10-15mins
6. Turn off and serve hot with garnishes

Swedish Thumbprint Cookie (Rosenmunnar)

Still in the process of clearing up my freezer and pantry, I decided to make this very easy but rich and buttery cookies. I used the recipe was shared by Jasmin at KC with slight modification.

I used strawberry jam for this, but you can use any flavour or even nutella :-)

Ingredients
227g butter, softened (original 225g)
100g icing sugar (original uses castor sugar)
250g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (original doesn't use this)
Enough strawberry jam

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add sifted flour and vanilla essence, and mix well
3. Shape dough into 1/2 inch diameter balls and place on a lined cookie sheets
4. Imprint your thumb in the center to make an indentation
5. Fill with your favorite jam or preserves
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges
7. Remove to cool on wire rack

White Chocolate Cream Biscuit (Shiroi Koibito)

This is a popular Japanese biscuit also known as Shiroi Koibito which I think is from Hokkaido. I love this biscuit and it is good even on it's own without the cream.

with the fillings

the template that I used

The recipe is adapted from Alex Goh's 'Temptation of Chocolate' with just minor adjustment to the sugar. I would say the white chocolate cream is also so-so, so you may want to use your own better ganache recipe.

Ingredients and Method
Biscuit
85g sugar (original is 100g)
90g butter
2 egg whites
85g flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Add egg whites and cream until batter is smooth
3. Add flour and mix till well blend
4. Pipe the mixture into rectangular shape or use the template to shape it
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 160C for 10mins or until the edges turned golden brown
6. Leave them to cool
7. Once cool, sandwich 2 biscuits with chocolate cream

White Chocolate Cream
100g shortening
40g icing sugar, sifted
200g white chocolate, melted

1. Beat shortening and icing sugar till light
2. Add melted chocolate and mix till well combine

Apple Raisin Muffin

I had 3 apples that were turning soft and didn't have the heart to throw them out. After going through my fridge, I found some raisins, ground almond and butter left waiting to be used. Since my eldest daughter's tutor is coming tomorrow, I decided to bake something simple and muffins came into my mind. Searched the internet and found Paula Deen's apple raisin muffin recipe. I made some changes and it come out pretty good.

Ingredients
1 C water
1 1/2 C sugar (originally 2C)
3 medium sized apples, finely chopped
2 C raisins
140g butter } originally 1C/2 sticks butter
100g corn oil }
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 C ground almond
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C degrees
2. Combine the water, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, oil, cinnamon and nutmeg in a saucepan and bring to a boil
3. Remove the pan from the heat and cool completely
4. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda and ground almond
5. Add the cooled mixture to the flour mixture and stir until all the dry ingredients are moist
6. Fill greased miniature muffin tins or muffin cups with batter to the top and bake for 20 minutes or till skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre