I make - apple frangipane tart

How can Autumn go without apple tarts? Our neighbors gave us a bagful of apples a week ago. It seems like a perfect excuse (not that I need any) to make one of my favorite dessert combos, apples and frangipane with my favorite dessert tart dough.

Apple frangipane tart

For tart dough:

- 120 g plain flour
- 120 g bread/strong flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- 100 g melted unsalted butter
- 40 g room-temperature water

For apple filling:

- 5 to 6 medium size apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g ground almond
- 100 g melted unsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- melted butter to brush the apple slices
- 1-2 tbsps demerara sugar
- warm apricot jam to glaze the finished tart

Preheat the oven at 180C. Grease and flour a 9x13in tart tin.

To prepare the tart dough, mix both flours, baking powder, sugar, salt together in a bowl. Stir in melted butter, mix lightly with a rubber spatula, and then drizzle in water. Mix until the dough is well combined. Tip the dough out onto a large piece of cling film. Gather four corners to help form a ball.

Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 50p coin (2mm). Transfer the dough onto your prepared tart tin. Ease the dough into all slides and four corners. Pierce the tart base with a fork. Cover the tart tin with a grease-proof paper followed by baking beads. Blind bake for 20 minutes, with the last 10 minutes grease-proof paper and baking beads removed. Remove the tart tin from the oven. Keep the oven heat on.

Prepare the frangipane filling by mixing sugar, ground almond, melted butter, eggs and almond extract together. Spread the frangipane all over the tart shell. Arrange the apple slices in a decorative manner. Brush melted butter on top of apple slices and scatter demerara sugar on the top. Bake the tart at 180C for 40-50 minutes, until the edge of apple slices starts to brown. Turn the tart case 180 degrees halfway through.

When the tart is baked, remove it from the oven. Brush apricot jam all over on top of the apple slices. Cool before serving.

Second week of November 2016

What. a. week.

After what has happened this week, I am beyond sadness. Bewildered, even a bit frustrated, then I played Anthem by Leonard Cohen, over and over again.

I thought it was not possible to bring so much hope with so few words after Leonard Cohen's Anthem

There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

- Leonard Cohen, 1992

But Hilary Clinton did it for me this week.

Many of you are at the beginning of your professional, public, and political careers — you will have successes and setbacks too. 
This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it.
It is worth it.

- Hilary Clinton, 09 November 2016

I will do what Dear Polly Heather Havrilesky suggested, stay away from social media, peer away from newspaper political columns for a while. Just remember what's truly mattered in life and do your bits, even though some may not join, for a world which belongs. to. everyone.

Bonfire night 2016

With firework sound lively at the background, I made us something which tasted pretty amazing tonight. It's worth making a note.

Slow-roasted lamb shoulder

I got a carvery ready lamb shoulder, about 1.2 kg. Seasoned the lamb inside out with a mixture of olive oil, garlic powder. thyme and oregano leaves, black pepper and salt. Put the lamb in a wide and shallow casserole on top of 3 red onions and pour 1 cup of liquid consisting of half sherry and half water. Cover the casserole with a lid and roast the meat at 160C for 4 hours. The lid is on for the first three hours but off for the last one for the meat to crisp up. Before serving, I reduce the pan juice with a tiny amount of sugar and vinegar. Best lamb I've ever had.

Carrot puree

Boil 500g carrots in chunks for 30 minutes (or until they are tender). Drain the carrots (save 1 1/2 cup of water for couscous later) and let them steam dry for 5 minutes. Put 2 tablespoons of butter in and mash the carrots. Adjust the taste with salt and a pinch of sugar. I usually further season the carrot puree depending on what goes with it. For the roast lamb tonight, I added 1/4 teaspoon of homemade Baharat spice (see below). Harissa is a good substitute or just cumin powder. It's a nice and different way to serve carrots as a side dish.

Baharat spice mix by Melissa Clark: combine 2 tablespoons sweet paprika, 1 tablespoon ground coriander, 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon ground turmeric, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground cardamom and 1 teaspoon allspice.

Couscous with raisins and peas

Boil 1 1/2 cup of water (I used the water saved from cooking carrots) in a saucepan. Season the water with 1/4 teaspoon of Baharat spice and a pinch of salt. When the water comes to boil,  add in a handful of raisins and half cup of frozen peas. Bring the pot back to boil and pour in one cup of couscous. Stir, cover and turn the heat off. After 10 minutes, remove the lid and fluff the couscous with a spoon/fork.

Apricot and brioche tart

This dessert makes use of store-bought brioche and canned apricots. The preparation is merely an assembly job, layering the brioche slices, spreading the filling and topping with apricot slices. I added two tablespoons of amaretto to the filling. The brioche remains soft but firm enough to be a tart base. The taste is simple but elegant, a very good dessert indeed.

Basler Leckerli

I discovered this little delight while travelling to the Alps this summer. Tiny little rectangles with light snowy glaze on top, perfumed with warm spices, distinctively Christmassey. The only "official" version I tasted seems to have some hazelnut undertone. I will substitute ground hazelnut for 1/2 cup of flour next time. Nevertheless, the recipe below produces something overall fairly close to what my first taste is like and is a great start-point to play with.

Basler Leckerli (adapted from Luisa Weiss's recipe)

3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cup almond flakes
200 g finely chopped candied citrus peel (or 1/2 cup finely chopped candied orange peel + 1/4 cup finely chopped candied citron peel)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
A generous splash of rum (or kirsch)
1 teaspoon mixed-spice
1/2 teaspoon quartre-epice
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons water

In a small saucepan, combine the honey with the granulated sugar and salt. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the honey and sugar are melted and beginning to simmer, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large heatproof bowl and let cool slightly, about 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 175C and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder. Using a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon, stir the egg into the honey mixture. Stir in the almonds, candied citrus peels, orange and lemon zests, all spice powders, then stir in the sifted flour.
Scrape the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and, with floured hands (or with an off-set spatula), press into a 13-by-9-inch rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until golden and puffy.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the confectioners’ sugar with 2 tablespoons of water and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Boil the syrup until it begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Keep warm.
As soon as the leckerli is done, brush the surface with the hot glaze. While it’s still hot, carefully slide the parchment onto a work surface. Using a sharp knife, trim the edges of the rectangle and cut the leckerli into 2-by-1-inch bars. Let cool before serving.

Note 1: Cutting the glazed leckerli after 10 minutes out of the oven is recommended to avoid cracked top.
Note 2: The baked product has a thickness of 1/2 inch when using 13-by-9-inch baking tin. While the result is still delicious, using a larger baking sheet if you want the authentic 1/4-inch thickness.

I make - cake release spread

It all started when I tried to figure out how to reliably create a muffin dome. The biggest factor, at least for me, is to bake the muffin dough directly into a muffin tin, with no paper case. Yes, I can hear you, baking directly in a muffin tin, how do you get muffins out intact?

First thing first, all non-stick muffin tins only work magically for the first few times in my hand. After the new tin honeymoon period passes, creating a nonstick surface on a nonstick pan is necessary for my peace of mind. There are a number of nonstick baking sprays you can buy and they work well. After that, there is an ancient way of preparing a nonstick surface with oil and flour. You first apply a thin layer of oil all around the inside of a cake tin. Then you light dust flour all over. It works as well, for all kinds of tins, including muffin ones. Then there is something called cake release, a thick paste which you brush it all over a cake tin and bake the dough directly in. That's it. I was intrigued by its ease of use and effect, and almost made a purchase. While I was googling for the product to buy, posts kept coming up mentioning a homemade version. I was hooked.

All posts about the homemade cake release uses the same recipe, mix equal parts (in volume) of flour, vegetable oil and solid shortening. Store in a nice glass jar. That's it. Three ingredients, less than any commercial version, and everyone who makes and uses it raves about it. I was bought.

So here is my cake release with 1/4 cup of all-purpose/plain flour, 1/4 cup of canola oil and 1/4 cup of solid coconut oil. And tonight I tried my cake release the first time. I brushed it all over the muffin tin and baked my muffin dough directly in. After cooling the muffins in the tin for 10 minutes, I tipped the tin side way and the muffins just. fell. out. I felt my bake tin honeymoon started all over again!

September 2016

Finally the temperature feels like autumn with crisp nights and cold mornings. The wind, the falling leaves, the sound and the color of nature slowly going into a hiatus, all is familiarly calming. I think I am an autumn person.

This is my first year of growing tomatoes, probably also the last. I did enjoy my experience but growing fruits/veggies does take more effort than growing ornamental flowers. At this moment, I think I will stick with flowers for some time. Here is how my cherry tomatoes looked like in August.

My first harvest of cherry tomatoes. 

I also learned that tomatoes can still ripen/turn red after they are picked. What a revelation! As evidenced from the second picture, the left bunch is ripened after they were picked (or rather rescued after the branch broken off), and the right bunch is vine ripened. I have to confess that the the vine ripened bunch is so much sweeter than the the ones ripened after being picked. Nevertheless, the less sweet ones can go into cooking. Nothing is wasted in this household.

And finally, my orchid. Can you believe that this orchid of mine has been flowering from February till now? Remarkable. I can see that it's going into its last leg of blooming but what a rewarding plant to have in the house.

This is how it looked like back in February.

 This is how it looks like now in mid-September. The color surely has faded and it is ready to rest before the next year bloom. Thank you my orchid for this year pleasure.

Finally, the muffin dome

For all these years, I've been wanting to create the much desired muffin dome. I think I may have found one or two tricks which may give me this very ticklish-able dome more reliably. One is to bake at higher temperature at the beginning. I found that the dough receives the heat shock much better when baked directly in an oiled/floured muffin tin than a tin lined with paper case. Secondly, the dough needs to have less liquid in proportion (i.e. thicker dough, think spoonable rather than pourable). Therefore, I adapted my trusted muffin recipe to use 1/2 cup of yogurt, instead of 1 cup of milk. By using both tweaks, here is what I got this morning:

I was ecstatic! First proper dome with nice color all around. I will repeat a few times to pose my final recipe in the future.