Cuire à la fin de la nuit! - Late night bake down!

bienvenue à la nouvelle année

Happy new year everyone!!! First post of 2009.. actually I'm quite late ain't I. 7 days into 2009 and I've already been drunk on so many occassions. What a good way to start the year by being an alcoholic! Yay, hi-5 anyone? Tried to stay sober aslong as possible but that only lasted 1 day... failed at commitments :(

Anyway back to the post, on a random night that Andrew(Lengzai) happened to come over for dinner. Grace called us up for a bake down at Alvin's house where Andrew lives. It was a challenge I couldn't refuse(obviously I will be the victor harharhar, gives me another chance to bake). Headed back to destination and met up with Alvin, Grace and Winnie. We decided what recipe to bake and went to buy ingredients. Alvin decided the fruit flan for me from Le Cordon Bleu, Grace decided to try her diabetes giving double choc-chip cookies (which were really nice) and Winnie wanted to join the wagon and just did another batch of choc-chip cookies.. what's with them and cookies (too simple, why am I the only one doing something with more effort!?) I think we overkilled with the fruits as we spent $20~ for the whole lot. Berries are so expensive :( but since this was going to be used for the get-together next day, a good cause it was for.

pour lengzai, mon love heart shape tarte

So us 6 spent hours into the night, while baking, chatting, singing along to alot of songs from Ella Enchanted songs which drove me lunatic! I'm not a big fan of High School Musical, sorry to anyone out there. None the less, I very much enjoy the company of others when in the kitchen. With some left over pastry, I made a loveheart tart and a sumo which everyone killed :(, then engulfed the leftover berries (get in my belllllyyyy).

A nice start to 2009, I hope everyone has also enjoyed the start of the new year.

Tarte aux fruits
(For 6 tartlets)

You need

for sweet pastry:

• 200 g plain flour
• large pinch of salt
• 70 g unsalted butter, chilled
• 80 g caster sugar
• 1 egg, light beaten
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract or essense

for pastry cream:

• 315 ml milk
• 90 ml lemon juice
• graced rind of 2 lemons
• 4 egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp cornflour

for topping:

• 400 g mixed berries (I like to overkill mine)
• 100 g apricot jam (or whatever jam)

For pastry, sift together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Dice the butter and place in the flour. Rub the butter into flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Pour in the combination off egg and vanilla and slowly incorporate the mixture using a palette knife or pastry scraper. If the dough is too dry, sprinkle it with a little water until it jut holds together. On lightly floured surface, remove the dough and using the palm of your hand, smear the dough away from you until it is smooth. Gather the dough into a bowl, flatten it slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes before using. (Tip: this quantity of pastry is sufficient to line two shall 18-20 cm flat tins. If only making one flan or tart, divide the pastry into two and wrap separateely. Can be frozen for a month.)

Grease the loose-bottomed tartlet tins with melted butter. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 200°C.

For pastry cream, place the milk, lemon juice and rind in a pan and bring slowly to the boil. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with sugar until light in colour. Sift in the flour and cornflour and whisk until well incorporated. Pour half the boiling milk into the yolk mixture, whisk well and return to the pan with the remaining milk. Bring to the boil, stir constantly, and boil for 1 minute to completely cook the flour. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. When cool, whisk until smooth (if you want, cover surface with baking paper to prevent a skin forming).

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to 3 mm thickness, cut around 5 cm larger than the tin(s) that you are using, then ease into the tins, prick the bases with a fork and chill for 20 minutes. Cut a circle of baking paper and place into pastry cases. Fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove the weights and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes, or until golden. Remove the tartlets from the oven, rest for 2 minutes, remove from their tins and place on a wire rack to cool.

Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the pastry cases to three quarters-full, here comes the fun part, pile the berries on top so that the tarts look generously filled. (or overkilled like mine :))

In a small pan, heat the apricot jam with 3 tbsp water. When mixture beings to boil, sieve into a bowl and, while still hot, brush a thin layer of glaze over the cooled tartlets. Serve warm or at room temperature.