Chocolate Chip Scones

I really love this chocolate chip scone recipe of mine. You can switch it up with anything you want, i’ve tried reese chips and blueberries. It only takes up about 20mins including baking time ((:

Chocolate chip sones

Ingredients:
1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; stir to combine.  Toss in the chocolate chips and stir to blend.  Add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, stirring just until a dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.  Knead the dough very briefly to ensure even mixing. Guesstimate and separate the dough into 6 equal pieces and pat them down on the baking sheet. Brush lightly with melted butter and sprinkle with additional sugar/heavy cream (if using).  Bake 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned.

Hokkaido Milk Bread

Doesn’t it look so soft and fluffy?! It tasted so good! Everyone should try this recipe (if you have a stand mixer because it’ll take serious muscle to knead for half an hour).

adapted from kirbiecravings

Ingredients:

2½ cups bread flour

3tbsp+2tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup milk
120g tangzhong (recipe below)
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Directions

For Tangzhong – mix 1/3 cup bread flour with 1 cup water. Whisk it until there are no more lumps. Pour it into a saucepan and place it over medium heat. Keep stirring until you see that it becomes gravy like (or if you want to be more precise, when it reaches 65degree celcius)

1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading.  Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary. When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle.

2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil.  Place dough into  greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

3. Transfer to a clean surface. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into balls.  Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.

4. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape.  Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top.

5. Flip dough over with the folds facing down,and flatten dough with rolling pin.

6. Flip dough over so the folds face up. Now roll the dough up. Place each of the rolls into the bread pan and put a piece of plastic wrap over the rolls. Let them rise until double the size, approximately another 40 minutes.

 

7. Beat an egg and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny eggwash finish (I didn’t bother since it’s just for us)

8. Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

Eclair recipe

made eclairs a week or 2 ago. ((: I think it was pretty good. The guys finished them in a day. O.o And a found a new metric for my baked goods. If tk brings some up at night for breakfast tomorrow. It means they are good (I realized because he loves the cupcakes I baked and he brought everything up just now). I think he brought the eclairs up after the other guys had a few too. So kiasu, must chope. ((: 

Chocolate Eclair Recipe

adapted from Joy of Baking

makes 12 (i think you should double the amount since you already went through so much effort to make it)

Ingredients

Choux Pastry:

1/2 cup (65 grams) all purposeflour

1/2 teaspoon granulated whitesugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsaltedbutter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

2 largeeggs, lightly beaten

Glaze: (optional)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Pastry Cream:

1 1/4 cups (300 ml) whole milk

3 largeeggyolks

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated whitesugar

2 tablespoons (20 grams) all-purposeflour

2 scant tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch(corn flour)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze:

2 ounces (55 grams) semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy “whipping” cream (cream with 35% butterfat content)

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup (or golden syrup or glucose)

Directions

Choux Pastry:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. In a bowl whisk the flour with the sugar and salt. Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, add the flour mixture, all at once, and stir until combined. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 1-2 minutes). Transfer the dough to your electric mixer, and beat on low speed to release the steam from the dough (about 1 minute). Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon). Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip and pipe 12 oblongs of dough (about 3/4 inch (2 cm) wide) onto the baking sheet. (When piping have the bag at a 45 degree angle.) If desired, with a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the dough with a lightly beaten egg.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Continue to bake for a further 25 minutes or until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are almost dry inside. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Pastry Cream:

In a heatproof bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together. Whisk the flour with the cornstarch and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Meanwhile, in a saucepan bring the milk just to a boil. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Then pour the egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, keep whisking constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until the pastry cream becomes thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour the pastry cream into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool to room temperature then refrigerate until firm. Whisk or stir before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Chocolate Glaze:

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream just until boiling and immediately pour it over the chocolate. Gently stir until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the vanilla extract and corn syrup.

Custard Bun

Custard Bun Recipe

makes 8

Ingredients

For the bun:

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup warm water (105°F)
2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon lard or shortening
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk, warm (105°F)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon baking powder mixed with 1 ½ tablespoon water

For the filling:

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
About 1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup coconut milk (can replace with normal milk)
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 or 4 pieces
2 large egg yolks
1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the bun

Dissolve sugar in warm water, sprinkle yeast over; let stand 2-3 minutes, and then stir to mix well. Let set until it starts to foam, 10 minutes. Sift flour and make well in the center. Whisk together the lard/ shortening, sugar, yeast mixture, and milk. The fat will not completely dissolve into the liquid. Combine liquid mixture with the flour; gradually incorporate the flour with the liquid to make dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes (or leave it with your stand mixer and dough hook and mix for 5 minutes. Do not go over a 2 on a stand mixer when kneading dough), sprinkling with flour as necessary. Use the oil to grease the outside of the dough; cover and let rest in warm area 1 ½ hours or until double in size.

Punch dough down and flatten out to about ¾ inch thick. Spread the baking powder mixture evenly on the dough (this acts as a stabilizer). Roll dough up and knead about 10 minutes, or until smooth and satiny. The dough should be firmer than regular white bread dough. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into four equal parts. Roll one part by hand to form a rope approximately 9 inches long and 1¼ inch in diameter. Mark into 6 equal parts, 1 ½ inch long. Holding the dough with one hand, grip at the first mark with the thumb and index finger of the other hand and tear away briskly to break off a small dough piece. Continue breaking until you have 8 pieces.

Flatten each piece of dough with your palm. Using a rolling pin, roll each into a round disk, making quarter turn with each roll. Roll to leave the center thick; thinner edges are easier to pleat.

For the filling:

In a saucepan, whisk together the salt, custard powder, sugar, and cornstarch. Whisk in the coconut milk and condensed milk. Heat over medium heat, stir until smooth. Add the butter and continue stirring until the butter has melted. Keep stirring for about 6 minutes, until the mixture has thickens. As the mixture stiffens there may be lumps -> just stir more vigorously to get a smooth texture.

When the mixture is thick enough to stick to the whisk and form a soft peak, move the pan off the heat and whisk in the egg yolks. Put the pan to back on the stove and keep whisking to ensure that the yolks are well incorporated. Continue vigorously stirring for 1 to 2 minutes more, until the mixture thickens to the point where it cleans the sides of the pan and easily comes together as one smooth mass. If you have ever made dough for cream puffs, this is very similar. Stir in the vanilla, then take the pan off the heat. Stir it occasionally for a few minutes to quickly cool it.

At the end, stir the mixture off the heat for a minute and taste it. Make any changes you like at this point, as I suggest above. When you’re satisfied, transfer the filling to a bowl, spreading it out. After the filling has cooled, form it into balls (8 equal portions).

Assembling & cooking

Gather the edges by first pleating counterclockwise. Place the bun seam side down on a parchment paper. Let buns rest, covered for at least 30 minutes. Steam on high heat for 10 minutes.

 

Oreo Nutella Macaron

He bought me a kitchenaid mixer! ((: Early anniversary present. <33 Wanted it for hte longest time ever. I think he got sick of me blaming the weather, my mixer and the oven for my failed macarons and decided to buy me the mixer. Well, MY MACARON HAS FOOT NOW ((: So it’s a worthy investment. 300+ bucks for nice macarons ((: A little more pressure to make nicer/better/prettier desserts now, but its all going well ((:

Have been baking a little more, but work has been piling up too. But i’m happy with my mixer! ((: Look at my oreo nutella macaron with FOOT! ((: Some at the sides are cracked/footless, i think its just that the oven doesn’t have the same temperature at the sides. Its a really primitive oven & stove they have here at the “Malaysian” house, so… But heres the oreo nutella macaron recipe!

I always use the macaron recipe from bravetart and I guess I wanted a kitchenaid mixer because her directions were based on a kitchenaid mixer. The macaron shell recipe is basically bravetart’s recipe + oreo. But I adapted nutella filling recipe from batterbaker ((: They tasted so great the guys finished them in 2 days

makes about 40 macaron shells (20 macarons total)

115g blanched almonds or almond flour, or whatever nut you like
230g powdered/caster/confectionary sugar
144g egg white, temperature and age not important
24g oreo cookie crumb
72g sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp (2g) kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300° and prepare two parchment lined sheet pans ready. If you use almond flour, just sift it with the powdered sugar and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites, sugar and salt and turn the mixer to medium (4 on a Kitchen Aid). Whip for 3 minutes. They will not seem especially foamy at that point.

Increase the speed to medium-high (7 on a Kitchen Aid) and whip another 3 minutes, then crank the speed to 8 for go another 3 minutes. At that point, turn the mixer off and add in any extracts/flavor/color and whip for a final minute on the highest speed. At the end of this minute, you should have a very stiff, dry meringue. If the meringue has not become stiff enough to clump inside the whisk, continue beating for another minute, or until it does so.

Now dump in the dry ingredients all at once and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Use both a folding motion (to incorporate the dry ingredients) and a rubbing/smearing motion, to deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl. Just do about 40 folds (REALLY, just count, it’ll work by the end of 40 folds you have a “lava” like batter).

Transfer about half the batter to a piping bag. Pipe the batter on the baking sheet. After piping your macarons, take hold of the sheet pan and hit it hard against your counter. Rotate the pan ninety degrees and rap two more times. This will dislodge any large air bubbles that might cause your macarons to crack. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until you can cleanly peel the parchment paper away from a macaron. If, when you try to pick up a macaron, the top comes off in your hand, it’s not done.

 

 

For the nutella fililng, just use the cream from the oreos from the previous step, add in 3tablespoons of nutella, and add in heavy whipping cream (as much as you deem fit). Whisk until you get a stiff peak.

Assemble the macaron and TADAAAAA.

Banana, Espresso, and Chocolate Chip Scones

I have been baking for breakfast for the past few months and i realized that scones are the easiest and fastest baked goods for breakfast ((:

Found this recipe for banana, coffee and chocolate chip scone that tasted so great that the guys finished everything within 2 days. You can kinda gauge how good the breakfast is by how fast the guys finish everything. :p

makes 8

adapted from yummly

1/3cup heavy cream
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon coffee powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 cup very ripe mashed bananas
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place oven racks in top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a small bowl, whisk cream and egg; set aside. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, coffee powder, and cinnamon. Add chilled butter, and mix with a pastry blender or fork until a coarse meal forms with tiny pea-sized butter pieces. Mix in bananas and chocolate chips. Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and, using a spoon, mix until just combined. Do not over mix, or the dough will become leaden. 

Place scones (just divide the dough into 8 approximately equal parts) on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake scones for 20-22 minutes, rotating pans mid-way through. Bake until puffed and golden; transfer to a rack to cool.

Chocolate Banana Cupcake

Chooyang’s birthday surprise on sunday and wc’s birthday surprise just now. Its been a busy week! made chocolate banana cupcakes for cy’s birthday surprise + potluck thingy because tk was too lazy to make anything. The problem is that 4615 Filmore has all the guys and they make just 1 dish. And then the rest of the houses are mainly girls and they each make a dish. So we always end up with 1 main dish and 3-4 desserts. >< That was why I wanted tk to make his duck fat potato hash except that he was too lazy. ><

Here’s the recipe anyways ((:

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

(makes 12) adapted from joyofbaking

1 cup (200 g) granulated white sugar

1 cup (130g) All-purpose flour

1/3 cup (35 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium sized banana)

1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

1/3 cup (60ml) canola oil

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

90g unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (120 g) confectioners sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with a non stick vegetable spray.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, mashed banana, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. (The batter is quite thin.) Pour or scoop the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for about20 minutesor until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Then you can start on your chocolate frosting!

Chocolate Frosting: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes).

before I added the sliced banana as decoration! ((:

You can either pipe the frosting or just use a knife to add it on. I did both because some friends love sweet desserts and some want it to be healthier ((:

Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies! ((:

was bored and hungry, so i made chocolate chip nutella cookies! Based one of my homework (which was to design a website) on nutella. So I had cravings for nutella for a while 😛 yums

Here’s the recipe ((:

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

adapted from ambitious kitchen

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Whisk the butter once in a while during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.

Chill your dough for an hour in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball. Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand gently (just a little because the dough will spread out by itself in the oven).

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

  

Lemon Mascarpone Cream Puffs & Swiss Roll

Wanted to make lemon mascarpone cream puffs and made way too much lemon mascarpone cream filling, so i made swiss roll with it as well ((: oops! Adapted the cream puff recipe from here and the swiss roll recipe from my past recipe Strawberry Cream Swiss Roll

Lemon Mascarpone Cream Puffs

Directions

Makes about 20

Cream Puffs

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (4 ounces)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs

Lemon Mascarpone Filling

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
8 ounces mascarpone
5 ounces lemon curd

Directions

Cream puffs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Bring the water to a boil in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the butter.  When the butter has melted, add the flour mixture all at once and stir vigorously.  Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball that doesn’t separate (like really. Don’t try to mash them together and tell yourself that its done, because thats why i used to do :p). Remove from the heat and cool slightly (about 1 minute).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one until the dough is smooth. Pipe dough about 2-inches apart onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake the puffs for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown and puffy.  If the puffs are medium-size, bake for about 22 — 25 minutes, and if the puffs are mini-size, bake for about 17 — 20 minutes.  Remove the cream puffs from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.

Lemon Mascarpone Filling

In a mixing bowl beat the cream and sugar until soft peaks form.  Place the bowl in the refrigerator. In another mixing bowl stir together the mascarpone and the lemon curd until they are well blended. Remove the whipped cream from the refrigerator and gently fold it into the lemon curd mixture until it is smooth and incorporated.  If you accidentally overwork the mixture it will look grainy or like it is separating.  To fix the filling, just stir in about 1 tablespoon of cream with a rubber spatula, and stir just until the mixture has smoothed out again.  Place the finished cream in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill slightly.

Assembly

When you are ready to serve the cream puffs, transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip.  Insert the tip of the pastry bag into the base of each puff and fill.

Lemon Mascarpone Swiss Roll

 

Ingredients for the cake:
5 egg whites
5/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup tablespoon caster sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup cake flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degree F.  Grease a 10 by 15-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Then, line the pan with parchment paper.  Make sure the parchment pager is large enough to have at least 2-inch excess on all sides for easy removal when the cake is done. Next, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until frothy. Then slowly add in around 1/2 of the sugar and beat until stiff peak forms. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until light and pale yellow. Then add the vanilla, melted butter and heavy cream until incorporated. Sift the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and fold until all ingredients are just combined.

Fold egg whites into the egg yolk mixture in three batches.  Be careful not to deflate the egg whites too much. Gently spread the cake batter evenly onto the prepared cake pan.  Bake at 375 degree F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the cake and comes out clean.  Place on a wiring rack until completely cooled. **what i read from other recipes was to cover the cake in plastic wrap while it cools so that it maintains the moisture. I think it works ((: mine came out moist and soft!

*I basically just copied my recipe from the strawberry cream swiss roll recipe

Look at the Lemon Mascarpone recipe above to make the filling

Spread the whipped cream evenly onto the cooled cake. Roll the cake up, from the shorter end. I trim off 1/2-inch of the cake on both ends for a prettier presentation.   It is ready to be served , or, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

lemon mascarpone swiss roll

Portuguese Egg Tarts

With 1000+ midterms over (but with 9000+ next week), i found some time to make some portuguese egg tarts ((: they’re really easy to make! the puff pastry took an hour with all the freezing etc and the custard took about an hour too. but you see, you can do the custard when you’re freezing your puff pastry, just make sure you don’t get impatient like i did and burn your custard )): but heres the recipe! 

Adapted from pleasuremonger

Portuguese Egg Tart

makes 12!

Ingredients

Puff Pastry

165g all purpose flour

Pinch of salt

165g unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 cm slices, cold

7-8 tablespoons iced water

Custard

150ml milk

150ml heavy whipping cream

Pinch of salt

60g caster sugar

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1 tsp condensed milk (optional)

Directions

Puff Pastry

Weigh the flour and cut the butter while weighing it. Add in the salt. Use a knife (or a fork) and cut up the butter into small pieces (the biggest should be about the size of a pea). Add in water a tablespoon at a time. For the first few (perhaps up till 4), you could just use your knife to mix it, for the last few tablespoons, use your hand. Add just enough water to bind the dough (the butter should still be in visible chunks). Cling wrap the dough and freeze it for 15minutes (here you can prepare the ingredients you need for the custard).

After you take out the dough, roll it out into a square shape on a surface dusted with flour. I didn’t have a rolling pin so i used my palms and my biceps! After you get the dough into a square shape, fold the dough in 1/3 sections (which means top to 2/3 point, then bottom to 1/3 point) so that you get 3 layers each time you fold it! Roll it out again, and then fold again (doesn’t matter which direction you fold btw, you can do right and left if you like). Do it at least 3 times. I did about 5 times before I felt the butter was going to melt (YOU DON’T WANT IT TO MELT!). The folded layers of butter will help create separate layers of pastry when you put it in the oven. Then roll the dough up length wise into until it looks like a swiss roll. Freeze it for another 15 minutes (maybe you could start heating up the milk/cream while waiting here.. i know im super efficient :p).

Grease the holes in the muffin tray with butter. Cut the roll (like how you will cut a swiss roll) into about 30g portions (depends how thick you like you egg tart pastry). Face the cut portion down, so that you have a circle (with a swirl pattern) on top facing you. Roll it out until it fits into the muffin tray hole and perhaps even slightly over the edge of the hole. Place the muffin tray into the freezer for another 15mins (or however long you take for the rest of the custard, here is when you should preheat your oven to 410F as well).

Custard

Lightly beat the eggs egg yolks together and set aside. In a saucepan, dissolve sugar in milk and cream. Do not bring this to boil. Add the beaten eggs. Keep stirring while cooking on low for about 5 minutes, you should be able to feel the heat when you place your hand above the pan. Make sure the pan isn’t too hot as the eggs might scramble. Set it aside to cool.

Assemble

Spoon about 2 tablespoon of the custard into each of the pastry-covered holes in the muffin tray (each should be 2/3 full). Put them into the oven and bake at 410F for about 18mins (i let it bake for 20 in my oven) and then use the broiler function for 2 more minutes (5minutes for mine because it only browned slightly after 2 minutes). Remove the tarts from the oven and let cool slightly (1min). Then take them out of the muffin tray so the pastry can cool properly as well! Then EAT THEM UP!