{Healthy Choice} Zespri Kiwifruit Tarts

If you follow my posts you would noticed that I have some collections of kiwifruit recipes which I did recently for this year's "Zespri® 14 days Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge (#14daysofZespri)". And last week when I was approached by ZESPRI's PR to bake a Zespri Kiwifruit Tart to feature their recipe on a local health magazine,  I was happy to take up the task but on the other hand I am also worry that my tart making skill might not be good enough for their photoshoot.

So before the actually baking, I did a trial-bake to make four 10cm size individual tart because I am also curious about the texture and taste of this tart which used less butter for the pastry and no custard filling at all.

Magic Of BOSCH MCM4100 Food Processor - Part I

I love to experiment with new Kitchen Gadget and this set of "lemon" pastry plus juice is whipped up using my new toy - BOSCH MCM4100 Food Processor(more detail of this product HERE). This food processor comes with multiple functions such as; juice blender, meat grinder, dough maker, making meringue, sorbet, mayonnaise and etc.

In this post I would be sharing 2 recipes using this food processor such as ABC Detox Juice and Lemon Berry Tarts. And as for part 2 post, I would be sharing a recipe on Baked Lemon Cheesecake.

{Quick Version} French Apple Tart

I have some extra Green Apples left in the fridge after making the "Pork Schnitzel And Apple Salad" so after gathering a few related ingredients from the pantry I decided to make this quick and simple French Apple Tart for afternoon tea snack. And in order to shorten the preparation time I decided to use our favourite frozen puff pastry(i always keep a pack in the freezer) as we love that buttery flaky base.

Most of the French Apple Tart use two different layers of fillings such as cooked apple cubes top with apple slices. But since this is a quick version I have omitted the cooking process and replaced it by layers sliced apple.

FRENCH APPLE TART

(serves: 4-6 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients: 
1 Sheet frozen Butter Puff Pastry, partially thawed
Knot of Butter, to grease
1/4 Cup Ground Almond Meal
2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Egg White, lightly beaten
2 Granny Smith Apples, halved, cored, thinly sliced
1/2 Tablespoon Brown Sugar, optional
2 Tablespoons Apricot Jam/Marmalade

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 220 Degree Celsius. Lightly grease a baking tray with butter and place pastry sheet onto greased tray.

2. Using the tip of a sharp knife, score pastry by only cutting half way through, 2cm from edge.

3. Combine almond meal, sugar, cinnamon and egg white together. Spread over pastry within the inner border.

4. Top with apples, overlapping slightly, sprinkle some brown sugar evenly on the apples and bake in preheated oven for about 18 - 20 minutes or until apples are tender and pastry is golden.

5. Mix jam with 2 tablespoon boiling water in a small bowl until spreadable. Brush over cooked tart, cut into pieces and serve. (you can serve it plain with pair with vanilla ice-cream or custard)

The end result was great and addicting as you can have different layers of texture range from moist fragrant apple, cinnamon and flake spread on top of those flaky buttery base. This is definitely a quick and easy tea snack with a cup of decent tea with a couples of friends.

To make your tart look more attractive with that shinning outlook you can also glazed it with some apricot preserves that is dilute with hot water and in a way it also enhance the apples with a moist texture too.

Quick & Easy Egg Tarts

Talking about Egg Tart(蛋挞) or Egg Custard Tart I am sure most of us will link it up with "Dim Sum", "Yum Cha" or Hong Kong famous Tai Cheong Bakery(泰昌餅家) Egg Tart where the filling is extremely soft and flows into your mouth when bite.

Basically egg tarts come with two main types of crusts which is either “Shortcrust” or “Puff” pastry with Egg Custard as traditional fillings. But now with wider customers range from different countries and age group, newer fillings like Chocolate, Green-tea, Orange and even Bird Nest is available during different occasions.

Recently I have come across two egg tart posts from to lovely ladies that stir-up my thoughts of making these lovely tea-snack to serve my guests during Chinese New Year. For your interest you can also read up their post at "Egg Tarts (Dan Tat)" from Tale of Crumbs and "Tai Cheong Bakery Egg Tarts - Not!" from Ju's of Little Teochew blog.

Ingredients for Egg Custard: (makes 6, 3" Tarts)

15g Caster Sugar
40ml Water
1 Large Egg
20ml Fresh Milk
1 Teaspoon Condensed Milk

Method:

1. Boil water with sugar till melted and keep aside till cool. (you can dissolved the sugar in hot boiling water too)
2. Crack the egg in a small mixing bowl, add in fresh milk and condensed milk then gently stir with a whisk till well mixed.(becareful not to over whisk)
3. Add in cooled sugar syrup and stir well.
4. Sift the entire mixture through finest sieve twice to get ride of any egg clusters.
5. Carefully fill the prepared tart shells with egg mixture till the rim.
6. Bake in preheat 140 degree oven for about 20 minutes or till egg custard achieve the pudding like texture.

Note:

~ The Egg Custard recipe is adapted and modify from Tale of Crumbs, original recipe HERE.

~ You can use any Shortcrust Dough recipe for this egg tart shells. I use the remanding dough from my pineapple tarts dough.

Ingredients Pastry Dough:

150g Plain Flour
20g Milk Powder
1/2 Tablespoon Icing Sugar
125g Cold Butter, cubed
1/2 Egg Yolk, lightly beaten
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method:

1. Sieve flour, milk powder and icing sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (must be fast or else the butter will melt and the dough will became very soft)
3. Beat in the egg yolk and essence.
4. Mix well to form a dough. Place in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Roll pastry out to 0.5 cm thickness on a lightly-floured tabletop and cut out rounds to fix the tart cases.
6. Gently press the dough into the tart case and trim away any excess, chilled the prepared cases for another 5 minutes in the fridge.
7. Use a fork to prick some holes on the pastry shell before putting the tart case into the preheated 160 degree oven.
8. Bake tart shells on middle rack for 10 minutes or till slightly brown, remove and cool the shells for about 10 minutes before filling it with the prepared egg custard.


If you prefer to make these egg tarts in a much hassle free way, you can always purchase those ready-made shortcrust pastry from any local supermarket. Cut and fix them into the tart cases and go ahead with the egg custard preparation and you would enjoy fresh and pipping hot delicious egg tarts in less than 30 minutes. 

Quick and Easy Egg Tarts

Sweet Secret

Made some of the Custard Cream Puff upon request for afternoon gathering. So rather then the usual cream puff that is filled with egg custard, I decide to decorate it with some extra topping to make it more presentable and add on some extra crunch.

I dipped the filled puffs with some dark chocolate coating then decorate with some ground oreo, toasted peanuts bits and chocolate rice. Does these look wonderful compare to the usual cream puff. It's pretty easy, just coat the top with some dark or white chocolate then sprinkle whatever toppings that you prefer.


Em.......after tasting the western tea snacks. Let's get back to this famous Thai-style dessert which is a must HAVE when you visit any part of Thailand. Usually this Sticky Rice dessert is either sever with Mango slices or Durian. And our family prefer Durian compare to Mango. This dessert is done by my Mum, with the recipe provided by me :p and using the Authentic glutinous rice that is air-flown from Bangkok during brother's trip over there.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
100g Glutinous Rice
80ml Water
4 Tablespoons Of Sugar
200ml Coconut Milk/Cream (non-chilled packet)
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Tablespoon Cornflour Solution
A Few Seeds Of Durian or 2 Mangoes

Methods:
1. Soak the glutinous rice in some water that is enough to cover it for about 3 hours.
2. Wash till water is not cloudy and drain away the water.
3. Steam the rice on bamboo steamer for about 30 minutes or more until it is cook through, set aside.
4. In a small saucepan, add in water, coconut milk, salt and sugar.
5. Stir over low heat till sugar dissolves then thicken with cornflour solution. Remove it from heat.
6. Reserve about 1/4 cup of coconut syrup to drizzle on the rice before serving.
7. Pour the rest of the syrup onto the hot glutinous rice, cover and let it soak for about 5 - 8 minutes, remove the cover then stir and mix well.
8. To serve, put a portion of the coconut sticky rice on a plate, followed by a layer of Durian meat or mango slices, drizzle some of the coconut syrup over the top.

Green-Tea Cream Puffs

The original recipe comes from Evan's Macha Eclairs. But instead of making an Eclairs which I am not good a piping the pastry. I had change the recipe slightly a bit to make these cute little Cream Puffs. And most important it's easier for Reyon to eat and more addictive to pop one puff at time.


You can refer the Eclairs recipe from Evan's blog. But this cream puff recipe that I used is different from her Eclair, if you prefer you can also use this recipe to pip the Eclair. As for the Green-Tea Creme Patissiere(just follow the creme recipe and add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of green-tea powder as your preference), I follow what is given by Evan's on her blog.

Overall this Green-Tea Cream Puff/Macha Eclairs has a very special and unique taste. It's very fragrant because of the green-tea powder and the cream is smooth just having the right texture. If you do like cream puff or eclair, give this recipe a try. You can even change the cream to Mocha, chocolate, mango or etc depend on what you prefer.

Ingredients For Choux Pastry:
120g Butter
120g Flour
185ml Water
3 - 4 Eggs

Methods:
1. Chop the butter and put in a pan with the water. Stir over low heat until melted, then bring to the boil.
2. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once, beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Return to the heat and continue to beat for about 2 minutes until the mixture forms a mass, thicken and leaves the side of the pan.
4. Remove from the heat and transfer to the bowl of electric beater; leave to cool for about 5 minutes.
5. Add one egg at a time, beat well between each addition at medium speed until the mixture form a thick, smooth and glossy paste. You may not need to add the egg.(for this recipe i used 3 1/2 eggs, each egg about 55g)
6. Spoon 2 heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the tray at 5cm interval.
7. Sprinkle with water and bake at a preheat 210 degree oven for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 180 degree and bake for another 12 - 15 minutes or until the dough is puffed and golden brown.
8. Remove from the oven, cut a slit in the base of each puff and leave it to cool to room temperature before filling it with creme.
9. Spoon the green-tea creme into the piping bag and cut off 1 cm from the end and fill the puff.

Fondant Glaze:
4 Tablespoons Of Icing Sugar
Dash Of Green-Tea Powder
1/2 - 1 Tablespoon Of Water
1 Teaspoon Of Lemon Juice

Methods:
1. Mix the icing sugar, green-tea powder(add more if u want a darker colour) and lemon juice together then slowly stir in the water until you get a thick and spreading consistency.(you may want to add more lemon juice if you don't prefer a too sweet glaze.

Bacon, Mushroom & Cheese Tart

Make this Bacon, Mushroom and Cheese Tarts for my guest yesterday night dinner and everyone love it very much. The taste of the filling is just right and the case is very crisp and yummy. Thank Tazz for sharing this wonderful recipe.... Another test proof recipe from Tazz's kitchen.....

For my version, I actually pan-fry the chopped bacon in some olive oil for a while till fragrant then I spread it evenly onto the tart case itself. As I thought this might make the bacon more fragrant when bake.....

Pear Tarts

This is the bake Pear Tarts that I invented together with my neighbour Taron during our stay in Australia. The tart itself was made using sweet shortcrust pastry and the filling inside was made using split green beans (mung bean) pastes. Although it was hard to shape each pastry into the same size but we still managed to do it in the end.