Frangipane Tarts

Frangipane...sounds like a word from fairyland... Actually frangipane is a filling made from almonds.  I never made frangipane tarts before but I must say that its one tart which I will make again. Its just plain delicious. Even Junior Master Chef here has a recipe for it....ha!ha! 

Its quite easy to do...
Firstly, make the pastry - add in flour, sugar and butter until resembles breadcrumbs.  Add in egg. Do not over mix the dough. Cling wrap it and let it rest in the fridge.
Secondly, make the frangipane - cream the butter and sugar, add in eggs and lastly the almond meal and a little bit of rum.
Next, take out the dough and line the moulds. Brush some strawberry jam onto the bottom of the tart and pour in 3/4 of the frangipane.  Do not fill it to the top as the frangipane will raise up. Scatter almonds on top of the frangipane and bake @ 180 degrees C till golden brown.
Some people will brush some apricot jam after post baking it.  Other will just sprinkle icing sugar on top before serving it.
For us...not time for all that....just waiting to eat it...ha!ha!

Managed to take a few photos before the whole batch entered our tummy...

Fresh from the oven...

From the plate and soon into our tummies....

Babas & Savarins

We made babas and savarins in our yeast product class the other day.  It seems that some people calls babas as savarins  and vise-versa. Oh well...I guess to each its own...

For my lecturer, babas are baked in a tall baba cylindrical moulds and have raisins in it. Savarins on the other hand looks like a donuts. Once its baked, it will be soaked into a syrup solution and the centre will be piped with whipped cream and decorate with fresh fruits.

Here's a photo of the babas that we made in school. It taste pretty nice, actually.

 Now, for the savarins...here's how we did it.

We piped it into the savarins donut moulds and baked it.

Here's a photo of our savarins after its baked.

The next step is to submerge it into a pot of syrup solution.

Let the syrup solution drip dry.

To finish it off, pipe whipped cream in the centre and decorate it with glazed fresh fruits.

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice)

Nasi lemak is a dish which is another favourite in my family...even my prince and princess love eating nasi lemak ( of course with the sambal as its pretty hot).  Some of my friends eat nasi lemak for breakfast, other will eat it for lunch or dinner. For us, its normally dinner.  Yeah...I know, it pretty fattening....

When I was young, my Grandaunt would steam the rice on a layer of banana leaves in a steamer slowly and flake it with chopsticks. Today, I just boil the rice in the rice cooker....lazy, huh?!  However, I still do my own sambal (hot spicy sauce).  This is a MUST!!! With the sambal, nasi lemak is NOT nasi lemak.  I also fried some turmeric chicken, fried anchovies (ikan bilis), slice some cucumber, deep fry the egg, etc.  Here's a plate of nasi lemak which I plated for my other half...he ate 2 plates of it....its good that he loves it.  As everyone tells me...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach...is that really true?

Nasi Lemak....

Sausage Rolls

In our pastry class, we made sausage rolls out of puff pastry.  Its a common pastry here. Sometimes you will find just a sausage being rolled with a sheet of puff pastry. However, in school, we made the sausage itself using minced beef. Seriously...its just plain delicious. So much better than the commercial sausages....yum!!!

Sausage Rolls with freshly made minced beef rolls before we popped it into the oven.

Freshly out of the oven and we were drooling.....yum!!!

We also made apple strudel too on the same day. We had lots of fun making the Filo Dough. We had to stretch and stretch the dough till its paper thin but it was so fun.... we looked like Mohammad Ali...ha!ha!

Apple strudels before these babies goes into the oven...

Yummylicious apple strudels....delicious!!!

Marble Cake

My other half was complaining that I don't make enough cakes for him to accompany his tea time with.  Therefore, I decided to try and bake another marble cake. This time around, I tried to drop a few spoonfuls of batter mixed with cocoa powder in a circle in the middle of the cake and just went round and round with a knife.  Here's the effect of it... Did not expect any visitors but ta-daa....my other half's buddies came for a visit.  Thank goodness I made this cake....ha!ha!

Donuts, Donuts, Donuts

It has been awhile since I last posted....
Been so busy....work, school, etc...
A little catch-up...
Over the last few weeks, we made donuts...yup, donuts in school. This was the very first time that I used "pork fat" for the donuts. You heard it right...its fat from the little piggy (some calls it lard).  It does smell a little but boy oh boy was it fantastically nice after its done-do....We made jelly donuts, ring donuts, long johns, etc.  Here's some photos which I took at school.

Assorted Donuts Ready To Be Brought Home

Assorted Donuts

Assorted Donuts

Plaits Became Wreaths....

I know, I know...its Halloween but since we do not celebrate it in our family, we still went for a family outing. I was surprised to see brochures, leaflets and other promo about Christmas. Yup, you heard it right...its about Christmas. That got me thinking...bread wreaths on dining table for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a nice decor and a yummy bread for my family, relatives and friends last Christmas.

So..I decided to make some today. Got to get the plaits right to make the wreaths stand out during Christmas, you know? :) Well, after I plaited it like I would do for my Princess, I just pinched the ends and it becomes a wreath. My other half had other ideas though....gloss it with jam and sprinkle A1 sugar after baking it. So...here's the outcome of our breadmaking...