Apple & Sultana Puffs

This is something I improvised from an apple turnover recipe.

3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

400g can apples, diced

1/3 cup sultanas

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten

icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 200C. Cut the squares sheet of puff pastry into 16 small squares per sheet.

In a bowl, combine apples, sultanas, sugar and cinnamon. Place about 1/2 to 1 tsp of the apple filling onto one small square and cover it with another small square pastry sheet. Press the edges together to seal the filling in between 2 small square pastry cut-outs. Using a fork, press it around the edges of the puff.

Place the puffs onto a tray lined with baking paper. Brush them lightly with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Dust the puffs and serve warm or at room temperature.

More on Ondeh Ondeh

I made some ondeh ondeh some time back. Poh (Masterchef Australia 2009 finalist) showed us how to make them on her tv program.

But I am not sure I will try all the other flavours, even though the peanut one sounds appealing to me. I think, like Emmanuel Mollois, I still prefer the original pandan ball with palm sugar filling :)

Garlic Bread

Garlic bread is one of the easiest things to make. It is not worthwhile to pay and buy frozen garlic bread when you can easily make your own.

dinner rolls (or any other bread that you like)
butter
minced garlic (I have readily minced garlic in a jar in my fridge)
dried parsley (optional)

Prepare the bread so that you will be able to spread the butter and garlic. I like to use wholemeal dinner rolls (slice deep into the centre, lengthwise of the roll) or sour dough crusty bread (sliced into 2 of each slice or leave it as whole slice).

Spread butter generously on the bread (if you use a dinner roll, spread butter on the inside walls of the sliced roll). Smear a small quantity of garlic on the buttered surface and sprinkle a tiny bit of dried parsley. Toast the bread in a 180C preheated oven for about 10 mins or until crisp-looking and golden brown.

Garlic bread is great to be eaten on its own, or served as a side, or served with soups, etc. Are you convinced to make your own garlic bread yet? They taste much better than the frozen ones :)

Also read "How to make garlic bread with a twist".

Egg Tarts

I LOVE egg tarts - especially the ones with buttery pastry. I have been afraid to make them myself, thinking that it is difficult to make. I have had a recipe that I printed off from somewhere a long time ago but I had not gotten around to trying it. Recently I saw this recipe online and decided to seize a good opportunity to try making it for a family lunch gathering.

I am rather pleased with the result :) I made my first 4 tarts on Saturday and brought them to a dinner gathering as a sampler. I made extra pastry and left it in the fridge. I also stored the excess egg mixture in the fridge. 2 days later, I made another 16 tarts for a family lunch.

Recipe taken from here.

Notes:
- the pastry dough I made turned out too moist and sticky so that it was difficult for me to roll the dough out nicely. I added another 1/2 cup of flour but it did not improve a lot. I resorted to just pinching off bits of the dough and using my fingers to press it into the small tart tins (with loose bottom). The end result was not far from what I wanted. I received comments that the buttery, biscuit-like pastry was nice.

- if you like a less sweetened version, reduce the amount of sugar. Personally, I prefer the tart to be sweeter.

- if you do not have a tart tin with loose bottom, I think you can use muffin trays lined with baking cases. However, you might face a small amount of difficulty trying to press the pastry into the mould lined with paper baking cases.


During this past long weekend, I made double the portions of the recipe and served them at 3 different gatherings. Everyone loved them :)

Anzac Cookies

We spent Anzac Day in church camp up at Mount Tambourine. I heard that Anzac cookies are what people in the war days baked and gave to the soldiers so that they were able to have sustainable food to eat in the war zone.

This recipe is fairly easy and I made 2 batches and brought them to share with friends on Anzac Day. I must reveal to you that homemade ones taste so much better than store-bought ones. Try it for yourself and I am certain you will agree with me.

(Makes about 16 cookies) Adapted from Taste's recipe

1 1/4 cups sifted plain flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 desiccated coconut

2 tbsp golden syrup or treacle (if you don't have this, replace with honey. Instead of 1/2 cup of white sugar, add 1/2 cup of brown sugar)

125g unsalted butter, chopped

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1 1/2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 170C. Place flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a large bowl and stir to combine.

In a small saucepan, place golden syrup and butter and stir over low heat until the butter has fully melted. Remove from heat. Mix the bicarb soda with water and add to the golden syrup mixture. It will fizzle as you pour into the mixture. Stir to combine.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a large metal spoon until fully combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Press down on the top to flatten slightly. Bake for 12 mins or until golden brown.

PS: Everyone who tried this liked it :)

Tuna Sandwich & A Lovely Afternoon Tea

Mini tuna sandwiches

I invited 2 girl friends to afternoon tea today. I made 2 sweet and 2 savoury finger foods for us to enjoy - scones, chocolate cake, cheese and tomato muffins and tuna sandwich.

(makes 12 mini round sandwiches)
12 slices of white or wholemeal bread (I love wholemeal bread)
1 x 90g can tuna
1/2 lebanese cucumber, sliced (round shapes)
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
butter

Using a 4cm round cookie cutter, cut out round discs of bread. Lightly spread one side of the round slices with butter.

Drain tuna to remove the brine or oil that it comes with. Place it in a bowl and add mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and mix well, using a mashing action to break up the tuna at the same time. If you like, you may add a bit more mayonnaise.

To assemble, place 1 slice of cucumber on 1 slice of round bread (buttered side). Top with a small amount of tuna mayonnaise mixture, just enough to cover the cucumber slice. Top it with another slice of round bread (buttered side down). Display on platter and serve.

Served in a really nice 2-tier stand,which was kindly given to me by a friend

Top platter - chocolate cake and scones. Bottom platter - mini tuna sandwiches and savoury muffins

My friends and I really enjoyed the afternoon tea with such a sumptuous spread. I could do this again with other friends!

Simple & Perfect Scones

These are the best and fluffiest scones that I have eaten and this was at "Tea and Niceties". I recalled that 'RM' (a lovely old lady that I know from work) makes really nice scones and so I asked her for her recipe when I got the chance to speak with her on the phone.

To my big surprise, there are only 3 ingredients to her recipe! I finally had a chance to give it a try with 'E' and 'G' today when they came over for afternoon tea. These scones and the recipe are rather different from the ones that I have tried or those that you typically find.

1 cup cream (or light thickened cream)
1 cup lemonade
3 cups self-raising flour

Sieve flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add lemonade and cream. Fold in the flour gently until the mixture is just combined. The mixture will be quite sticky and moist. I tried to put the batter onto a lightly floured benchtop but it was too moist for me to knead. Instead of using a round cutter to cut out the scone, I placed about 1 heaped teaspoon of batter into mini muffin trays. Alternatively I think you could scoop 1 Tbsp of batter and place it on a tray lined with baking paper or put the batter into lightly greased muffin trays. This recipe makes about 20 mini-muffin-sized scones.

Bake at 230C (or 210C fan forced oven) for 10-12 mins. Serve warm. Dust with icing sugar (optional). Serve with strawberry jam and whipped cream (whip thickened cream until light and fluffy). Have it with your favourite tea. Hmm.... that is an afternoon tea to enjoy!

Apparently the secret to fluffy scones is lemonade (I have been advised that Schweppes brand is preferred but I have Kirks in my pantry)! These scones are quite close in taste and texture to the ones we ate at T&N. The exterior of this scone has just a slight crust and the interior is soft. Break it into 2 and have it with strawberry jam and whipped cream. It almost melts in your mouth... yum yum!

'RM' also shared that you could add some chopped pitted dried dates and add ginger ale instead of lemonade.

I don't know about you but I cannot get enough of this and I shall make another batch tomorrow!

I think these scones will freeze well too. If you decide to make some ahead of time, you may freeze them in zip-lock bags. Just ensure that the scones are not squashed before they are frozen so that they can be frozen 'whole'. To enjoy, simply warm it up in the microwave.

Cheese & Tomato Savoury Muffins

Some weeks ago, some girls and I went to 'Tea and Niceties' for a high tea to celebrate with 'F', our bride-to-be. The food and ambience were both great. The two items that impressed me were a little savoury muffin and the little fluffy scones. They were the best that I have ever had!

I thought of trying to duplicate the savoury muffin, which everyone guessed had sun-dried tomatoes, and found this recipe from Taste. It looked good and I gave it a try. It worked out really well and best of all, it was very simple to make :)

(makes 36 mini muffins)

2.5 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 and 1/4 cups milk

90g butter, melted (or 3 Tbsp olive oil)

1 cup grated tasty cheese (use light low-fat variety if you like)

1/2 cup marinated sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped

Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and add egg, milk and melted butter. Using a large metal spoon, stir until just combined. Add tomatoes and cheese and mix well.

Spoon about 2 tsp of batter into each hole of a lightly greased mini muffin tray. Bake at 180C for 15 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream (thickened cream whipped into soft peaks).

You may add basil pesto and/or defrosted frozen spinach (drained after thawing) into the batter for variety.

These muffins freeze well. I baked a batch yesterday and another today. Now I have 2 bags (40 altogether) in the freezer, in storage for future consumption :) To eat, simply thaw them in the fridge or on your kitchen bench then heat them up in the microwave oven.

Try not to overcook it otherwise the exterior of the muffin will be golden brown and hard while the inside of the muffin is soft. You want the entire muffin to be soft and moist. I overcooked my last 12 muffins and they were not the texture that I wanted.

'F' had a try tonight and confirmed that these (the soft ones) taste and look like the ones we had at 'Tea and Niceties'! Yum!

Platter of savouries at high tea. I was trying to copy the muffin on the right

Healthy Mixed Berries and Yoghurt Muffins

Shteppi shared that she was making these muffins. I recalled that I have some near-expiring greek yoghurt in the fridge. Hence I asked Shteppi for this recipe to use up my greek yoghurt in my fridge.

Greek yoghurt tends to be a little more sour so I compensated it by adding a tad more sugar. Anyway if the end result is not sweet enough (like Shteppi said of hers because she usually tend to put in lesser amount of sugar than require), you may have the muffins with your favourite jam.

I have all of these ready in my pantry/freezer already:

1.5 cups self raising flour (I used wholemeal ones for a healthier version)
3/4 firmly packed or 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar (I reckon 3/4 cup white sugar can be used instead)
1/3 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
100g frozen mixed berries (I used frozen blueberries which I bought when they were on sale)
3 eggs

In a mixing bowl, mix well flour, sugar, rolled oats and hazelnut. Then add eggs, oil and yoghurt and whisk them in. Lastly fold in the berries. Place them into prepared muffin trays and bake 180C for 15 minutes or until cooked through.

I haven't tried if mine were sweet enough or tasty but they looked really good. The portions above yields 12 standard muffins. I froze them in 3 packets of 4 for Quop and my breakfasts. This is an easy and really healthy option for a quick snack or brekky!

Passionfruit Slice

I kid you not when I say that this dessert is easy to make. I had all the ingredients at home, including the passionfruit pulp. My in-laws grows passionfruit (we too, but waiting for our plant to bear fruit) and they often have too much and would freeze the pulp for future use. I had a little freezed portion which was probably from 3 passionfruits and I used that for this recipe.

Of course mine did not look as nice as that in the recipe. But I tell you, it tastes really good!

How my baked slice looks like. My oven is unevenly hot, hence those brown parts in the foreground

The recipe is found here.

However I did not bother about mixing the passionfruit pulp and juice proportion. I just used the entire pulp of about 3 passionfruits. It turned out well and I love the punch of the taste of passionfruit. And as for lemon juice, you may also use the one which I recommended the last time.

Healthy Snacking

Snacking is common to students when you study... snacking is often unhealthy because we end up eating junk food - chips, cakes, convenient processed foods. The amount of fat and salt in chips is often high. If you want to snack on chips, choose the original flavours. They may be less tasty than other bbq, sweet chilli, sour cream ones but they are definitely lower in fat and salt (compare them if you don't believe).

Otherwise, join me in snacking on fruits and nuts. This pack of 750g only cost me A$5 from Aldi and it will last me for a while... Some think that nuts are fattening. But little do they understand that they contain good and essential fatty acids. You need some appropriate amount of fatty acids otherwise your brains cannot function (I am not kidding). This fruit and nut pack is high in fibre and cholesterol free. 100g of it contains 3.1g of fat (which is low. 100g of normal fat ice cream contains at least 10g). There is 18.7g of dietary fibre which is great. However because of the fruits, the sugar content is not low, at 29.1g.

Unless you are allergic to nuts or dislike sultanas, this is a great snacking option!

Dim Sim... Siew Mai...

The Aussies call them dim sim but I call them siew mai. Call it whatever you want, so long as they taste good :)

Recipe can be found here.

Citrus Tartlets

Yet another mini series of tarts, aka tartlets. This is also quite simple if you like your lemons and limes. Try them when the lemons (~A$2+ /kg) and limes (30cents or less each) are cheap at your local supermarkets.

Recipe can be found here.

Mini Quiches

Smoked salmon mini quiche

I just made 60 little quiches like these yesterday. However I did not use smoked salmon. I had some shoulder bacon (leaner version of normal bacon. I bought it for under A$7 for 1kg from Aldi) and heaps of cherry tomatoes from my in-law's garden and decided to make these to freeze away for future use.

The simplified recipe I used yesterday:

2 pieces of shoulder bacon (long piece), cut into small squares

30 cherry tomatoes, cut into halves

3 frozen puff pastry sheets, defrosted

~50g light cream cheese (substitute this with other cheese if you like)

3 eggs

200ml light thickened cream

The method is exactly the same as the original smoked salmon quiche. You may add some herbs like chives or parsley if you like. I was just lazy :p

When they all cooled down, I stored them them into freezer bags with about 20+ in each bag (A friend popped by yesterday and we ate some while chatting :p). Should I need to dish out some nibbles for guests (or myself), just remove a bag from the freezer and immediately put them in the oven to warm and crisp up the tarts. You do not need to defrost :)

White Chocolate Tartlets with Blueberries

Kid you not, this is a easy to make and yummy dessert/finger food.

You probably don't have a pastry cutter, but do not fret. Just use something round of the similar size to cut out the pastry rounds. If you don't have the min-muffin moulds/trays, ask around and borrow. I have 2 moulds that are able to make 24 at one go. You can make the tart shells up to 1 week in advance. Store the cooled shells in a airtight container in room temperature or in the fridge.

Recipe is found here. The recipe portions are for normal muffin sized tarts. I like the mini ones which are easier for people to pick up and pop it in their mouths. Just as a guide, if you are making the mini sizes, each pastry sheet is able to produce up to 20 shells (if you know how to cut it properly).

Beetroot Dip with Doritos

A friend taught me how to make this. Very simple, just 5 ingredients - canned beetroot (much cheaper here than Asian countries), lemon juice, chives, cream cheese and Doritos.

See recipe here.

Great for gatherings, parties or study snack (substitute with light cream cheese for a healthier option).