Jam/Nutella Crostata (Baked Dessert Tart)

Ingredients:

300 g all purpose flour
150 g butter, chopped
100 - 120 g sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract or lemon zest (optional)
150 - 200 g of fruit Jam or Nutella chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 °C.

Lightly grease a 22 cm cake pan, dust bottom and side of pan with flour and tapping out excess; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking power, salt and butter pieces.

Mix with fingertip to form crumbs.

Add-in egg yolks and knead lightly into combined dough.

Flatten the dough into disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

With fingertips, press 2/3 of the dough into the prepared pan with slightly height on all edges as wall.

Spread-on enough Jam and fill-in all over the curved surface.

Roll the remaining dough into 1 cm wide strips and arranges them in a crisscross pattern or any of your preference pattern over the Jam.

Bake the crostata for about 40 minutes or until fragrant and golden.

Pineapple Filled Chocolate Tart

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water
110 g all purpose flour
55 g butter
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp salt

Filling:

80 g dark chocolate
2 ½ tbsp (40 g) butter
2 eggs
3 ⅓ tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp brown sugar (4 tbsp if using plain chocolate)
1/2 cup cubed ripe fresh pineapple or canned pineapple

Method:

To prepare the pastry:

Mix yolk with cold water; set aside.

In another bowl, mix flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest and salt till fine breadcrumbs.

Add-in yolk mixture and continue mixing till chunky breadcrumbs.

With floured hand, form the mixture into dough (not to knead).

Wrap dough with plastic wrapper and chill for at least 30 minutes or till use.

To prepare the filling:

Over a double boiler, melt chocolate with butter.

Gradually, incorporate-in eggs.

Add-in flour and sugar, stir to homogeneous batter.

To assembly:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

With rolling pin, roll out dough between two plastic sheets into the thickness of about 1/4 inches.

Carefully transfer the pastry into a 18 cm cake or tart pan and line up side to about 3 cm height.

Layer-on a large parchment paper and fill with raw rice as a weight.

Bake blind in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove paper and weight and bake again for another 10 minutes.

Line-in pineapples cubes and pour-in filling.

Bake for 20 minutes or till just set.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely (may dust surface with cocoa powder).

Cinnamon Buns (Sticky Bread)

Ingredients:

Bread:

200 mL lukewarm milk
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 ½ tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp butter (30g) butter
1 ½ tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp salt
3 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Sugar Filling:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon powder

Surface Brushing:

3 tbsp apricot preserves/jam (I use cherry preserves), melted or softened

Glaze:

1/2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp milk

Method:

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm milk, leave for 8 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till creamy, pale and glossy.

Add-in yolk and salt, mix to homogeneous mixture.

Pour-in yeast solution, stir to incorporate.

Gradually, add-in flour and combine till soft dough.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured working surface, knead dough till smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).

Transfer dough into a lightly oiled container and turn the dough to coat lightly with oil; set aside covered to rise until doubled in volume (about 2 hours).

Lightly grease a 18 cm springform cake pan; set aside.

With oily hand, punch down the dough and leave to rest for another 5 minutes.

With a well-floured rolling pin and working surface, roll out dough flat into about 36 x 18 cm rectangle with the thickness of 0.5 cm.

Spread-on cinnamon-sugar mixture and leaving a 1 cm border.

Roll up dough sheet tightly (like assembly sushi or swiss roll).

Press roll firmly to eliminate internal air trap.

Pinch seams and ends to seal.

Cut dough roll into 8 pieces, transfer to the prepared pan with cut side up and set aside covered to rise till double in volume for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 °C.

Bake cinnamon rolls for 35 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Remove buns from oven, and leave to cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan onto wire rack, brush-on apricot preserves and leave to cool completely.

Spread-on glaze mixture.

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich with Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Filling:

3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
80 g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks

Cookies Dough:

2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
50 g bittersweet chocolate, cut into chunks

Method:

To prepare the ice cream:

In a saucepan or small pot, heat milk, butter and cocoa powder over medium heat till smooth and bubbling at edges.

Remove from heat and add-in chocolate, stir well still smooth paste, set aside.

In another small pot, bring milk, sugar and salt to boil over medium heat.

Remove milk mixture from heat and whisk-in yolks till smooth paste.

Return milk-yolks mixture to heat and stir for the entire time to thicken a bit.

Remove from heat and pour into chocolate mixture, stir to smooth paste.

Pour cream mixture into a container and freeze covered still set (whisk mixture occasionally for every 1 hour to enhance the lightness and fluffiness).

Alternatively, refrigerate cream mixture in a container covered for at least 6 hours then prepare according to ice cream maker's instructions.

To prepare the cookies dough:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till pale and glossy.

Add-in egg and whisk well to incorporate.

Add-in flours mixture, and mix to homogeneous mixture.

Stir-in chocolate chunk.

Shape dough into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap with plastic wrapper and chill for at least 30 minutes.

In between two pieces of plastic wrapper, roll out dough flat by using rolling pin to thickness of about 1/3 inch.

Cut dough into circular shape by using opening part of glass.

Transfer cookies onto the prepared tray and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until aroma and cooked through.

Remove from oven, leave cookies to stand on tray for 5 minutes, transfer cookies onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely.

To assemble:

Remove ice cream from freezer and set aside at room temperature for 3o minutes just to soften.

Place enough ice cream in between two cooled cookies and press lightly to firm the assembly.

Wrap individual ice cream with plastic wrapper and return to freezer till serve.

Best serve after remove sandwiches from freezer to room temperature for about 10 minutes.

Yield 15 sandwiches.

Lemon Cream Strippers

Ingredients:

Lemon Cream Filling:

250 mL milk
1 ½ tsp lemon zest (from half lemon)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cake flour

Dough:

1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup granulated/caster sugar
5 tbsp butter
1 large egg white

Chocolate Glaze:

30 g bittersweet/dark chocolate
1 ½ tbsp milk

Method:

To prepare the filling:

In a saucepan or small pot, bring milk together with lemon zest to boil over medium heat.

Meanwhile in a bowl, whisk egg yolks with sugar till pale and glossy, stir-in flour.

Pour-in hot boiling milk mixture, and stir to incorporate.

Return mixture to heat, simmer with consistent stirring for another 15 minutes or till thicken.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

To prepare the dough:

Preheat oven to 190 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till pale and glossy.

Add-in egg white and whisk well.

Add-in flours mixture, knead to smooth and stiff dough.

Over lightly floured surface, divide dough into 2 portions.

Roll each portions to long log.

Transfer logs onto the prepared tray.

Create about 1/2 inch deep indentation lengthwise over the center of each logs with finger or spoon.

Fill-in enough lemon cream and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till lightly browned.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate over double boiler, pour-in milk and stir to homogeneous paste; set aside (keep warm).

Remove strippers from oven, immediately drizzle-on chocolate glaze, slice logs diagonally and leave on tray to stand for 10 minutes.

Transfer strippers to wire rack and let cool completely.

Yield 18 strippers.

Roti Maryam

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour mixed with 1 cup bread flour)
1 tbsp (15 g) butter
1/2 cup lukewarm water
butter for brushing (about 3 g or more for each roti)
vegetable oil for pan-frying

Method:

In a bowl, beat egg and egg yolk together with salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, add-in flour and make a hole in center of the flour pile.

Pour-in eggs mixture, gradually covered with side flour and stir to incorporate.

Add-in butter and knead to mix fully.

Gradually, pour-in water, knead to smooth and non-sticky dough.

Lightly coat dough with oil and set aside covered to rest for about 3 hours.

Divide dough into 8 portions.

Over a lightly oiled flat surface, via rolling pin roll out each portions covered with lightly greased plastic to very thin and transparent oval sheets.

Brush-on butter all over on the exposing surface.

Gently, pick-up two ends, twist ends in co-current(opposite) direction into a thin log and form to spiral shape on greased working surface (overlap a bit while spiraling to prevent holey roti).

Covered with lightly greased plastic again and flatted spiral doughs with rolling pin to about 0.2 cm thick.

Carefully, transfer sheeted doughs onto a preheated flat pan (over medium flame)/griddle, pan-fry/grill till both surfaces are golden brown (flip occasionally for even browning).

Remove from griddle/heat, brush-on some butter and best serve with curries.

Chinese Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rice flour
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely coarse
1 egg
60 mL almond oil

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk
1/2 tbsp water

Garnish:

12 blanched almonds, split into half.

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix-in all ingredients and knead to smooth and soft dough, divide dough into 25 pieces of dough balls (about a walnut size); set aside covered.

Lightly greased or flour a cookies mold, press a smooth dough ball into mold and tilt out cookies carefully (I use jelly/pudding plastic mold).

Alternatively, roll out dough flat to about quarter inch thick and cut accordingly with cookies cutter.

Place shaped cookies onto the prepared tray, brush-on egg wash and press a piece of half almond onto center.

Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.

Remove from oven, transfer onto wire rack and set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container.

Yields 25 cookies.

Pineapple Rolls/Tarts

Ingredients:

Fresh Pineapple Filling:

2 cups grated ripped or half ripped pineapple (from 1 medium pineapple; hard skin and core removed)
1 ½ cups sugar or to taste
3 tbsp lemon juice

Pastry:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water

Method:

To prepare the pineapple filling:

In a wok or pot, boil together grated pineapple, sugar and lemon juice over medium heat till sugar dissolves; let simmer for 30 minutes (stir occasionally); continue stirring for about another 10 minutes to thicken the filling; remove from heat and set aside to cool completely; divide into 20 portions.

To prepare the pastry:

In a bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter together with sugar till creamy, pale and fluffy.

Add-in egg yolk, whisk to incorporate fully.

Gradually, stir-in flours mixture and knead into smooth and soft dough.

Divide dough into 10 portions.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Line a big baking tray with parchment paper; set aside.

With greased hand palms, roll each pineapple portions into smooth balls; set aside.

Form each pastry dough portions into balls, flatten length-wide in between wax plastic papers by using rolling pin (thickness about 1/2 cm).

With a knives, gently gashes pastry surface diagonally.

Carefully, lift-up gashed pastry and transfer onto greased hand palm via spatula (gashed side down).

Place-on a portion of filling at one end and roll-up pastry to the other end; press gently to join both ends.

Place filled rolls onto the prepared tray.

Brush-on egg wash and bake rolls in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Remove from oven, set aside to cool completely before storing into an airtight container..

Yields 10 pineapple rolls (To finish the remaining filling, just repeat the pastry).

Cinnamon Yule Log (Buche de Noel) with Besan Chocolate Paste Filling

Ingredients:

Chickpeas Chocolate Paste Filling:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup besan/gram/chickpeas flour
1 cup ghee or butter

1/2 cup whipping cream
80 g bittersweet chocolate
25 g butter
20 ml milk
1 egg, separated
1 tbsp sugar

Genoise Cake:

2 eggs and 4 egg yolks (or use 3 eggs in total)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 cup cake flour
1/4 cup cornstarch

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup (55 g) butter
1 ½ cups icing sugar
4 tbsp milk

Method:

To prepare the chickpeas chocolate paste filling:

In a deep bowl, whisk whip cream until stiff; set aside.

Over a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter.

Remove from heat, pour-in milk, stir to incorporate.

Add-in egg yolk to the chocolate mixture one at a time, beat to mix.

In another deep bowl over a double boiler, whisk egg white with sugar till stiff, set aside.

Gently stir-in one-third of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture, fold-in half of egg white, stir to just incorporate, fold-in the remaining white then whipped cream and stir to incorporate well, leave in refrigerator for at least 3o minutes.

In a nonstick pan, boil sugar in water till becomes a thick syrup.

Gradually, stir-in chickpeas flour.

Add-in 1/2 cup ghee, keep stirring the mixture till thicken and dry.

Scramble the paste into powder form.

Add-in the remaining ghee, continue toasting till fragrant and golden brown.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Stir-in this fragrant chickpeas powder into the chocolate paste to incorporate fully; set aside in refrigerator if not use shortly.

To prepare the chocolate buttercream frosting:

In a large bowl, cream cocoa and butter over double boiler.

Add-in sugar and continue whisking till fully incorporated.

Add-in milk, whisk till frosting is smooth and spreadable.

Remove from heat and set aside.

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 200 °C.

Line a 10 x 10 inch pan (or also 10 x 15 inch for thinner cake) with parchment paper and grease the paper surface with butter; set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flours; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together eggs, egg yolks, sugar, salt and cinnamon powder, whisk the mixture over double boiler till pale, creamy and glossy (about 5 minutes).

Remove from double boiler and continue whisking till cool completely (about another 2 minutes).

Gradually, fold-in flours mixture and stir well till homogeneous batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with spoon or spatula.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean (do the check by 1o minutes).

Remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack together with parchment paper.

Run a spatula or knife all around the edges and bottom of the cake.

Inverse cake on to a large plastic wrapper (upside down) and peel off the parchment paper.

Spread-on chickpeas chocolate paste and roll cake up by the help of the plastic support into tight cylinder.

Wrap up properly with the plastic support and keep in refrigerator till set (several hours).

Carefully, unwrap the cake.

Trim both ends and cut one end out diagonally with the size about 2 inches as the branch.

Join two pieces of cakes together on a cake plate to form yule log and frost the prepared chocolate buttercream all over the surface.

Streak the surface with fork to resemble bark and decorate accordingly with meringue mushrooms.

DONE !

Pandolce Genovese (Genoese Sweet Christmas Bread)

Pandolce Genovese is a Genoese sweet bread, very similar to Panettone Milanese but heavier, denser, not as risen and circular in shape while Panettone is very well-known of it fluffy lightness texture and tall dome in shape, in which it dough raised three times over a twenty-hours period or more. Like Panettone, Pandolce is a traditional Christmas dessert.



















Thanks to Diego and Moreno for this cute Christmas reindeer soft toy that bought from Finland. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp dry instant yeast or 15 g fresh yeast
60 g butter
1 egg (additional 3 egg yolks will soften the bread texture and reduce the dryness)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon zest
2 cups all purpose flour (tipo o)
1/4 cup cake flour
8 tbsp raisin, soaked
4 tbsp diced dried mango (original recipe calls for citron and candied orange)
4 tbsp diced dried plums
20 g pine nuts

Method:

Grease a cake pan (18 cm in diameter) with butter; set aside (for hemisphere shape Pandolce, simply use smaller cake pan or double up the recipe).

Dissolve yeast in warm milk, leave for 10 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar, salt and lemon zest till pale, thick and glossy.

Add-in egg and whisk till completely incorporated.

In another large bowl, mix together flours, make a hole in the center of flours mixture, pour-in slowly the yeast solution, gradually add-in the butter mixture.

Knead the mixture for 10 minutes to form a homogeneous dough.

Add-in raisins, dried mango, dried plums and nuts, gently knead the dough to well-spread the fillers.

Transfer dough to the prepared pan, form dough into circular shape and leave dough at warm corner covered to rise for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 200 °C.

With a knife, make a triangle cut on top of dough.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven, and set aside to cool completely.