Pineapple Tarts

I bought a large pineapple which looks fine from the outside but inside was already soft from freezing temperature. Sometimes store keeps the unripe pineapple in a cold refrigerator which can demage the fruit. I did a taste test and still taste fine except texture is too soft for eating fresh. So instead of trashing it, I blended it up to make pineapple paste. Using same recipe as my previous posts and baking at 355F for 15 minutes then cool 10-15 minutes and bake again for another 12-15 minutes. Very happy with the taste.😋

Swiss Method Macarons #2 Coconut Ganache Macarons

Second time using swiss method for these macarons. I think they are better than last time. However,  I still need to work on time and temperature. This time I baked them at 315F for 11 minutes but they are not done on the bottom so have to bake longer. Needed to tent top to prevent browning. Happy they are still white this time.🥳
Still need to work on piping skill too. They are not uniform...lol😂

Swiss method macarons recipe by Joconde's Baking ➡️Video

Coconut Ganache
100 g white coconut chocolate (can replace with white chocolate, but add in 2 tsp desiccated coconut and coconut flavor)
50 g white chocolate
45 g coconut cream
30 g butter

1. Bring coconut cream to simmer. Add in chocolate.  Remove from heat. Wait a minute before stirring.

2. Stir until until smooth. Let cool. Can refrigerate for faster cooling.

3. Whisk butter until fluffy.  Add in cooled chocolate and continue to whisk until fluffy.

4. Refrigerate until set but not hard, only firm enough to pipe. Fill in piping bag and pipe on macarons. 

5. Refrigerate macarons until firm. Leave macarons out for about 10-20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

My Failed Swiss Macarons

I usually use French method for macarons.  Thought maybe I'll get better result trying Italian or Swiss methods.  I feel Italian might be harder so I'm trying swiss method first. Here is my result...failed..lol. The shell is slightly hollow and very thin top. It's so fragile and cracks easily. It's very very chewy. I also need to work on the temperature and time too. My white sheeps turned brown sheeps after baking so long. Will try again one more time.🤣

Before baking.

Pipe face first, then head and body. Then ears, feet and hands.
Then hair. Let dry a bit before doing bow or flower

Mango Pineapple Tarts

I was not planning to make pineapple tarts again so soon but pineapples were on sale and they were huge over 6 lbs each! Couldn't resist and bought four huge pineapples. Gave two to mom to eat and two to make regular and mango pineapple tarts. Since a lot of mango puree used, the filling is not as chewy compared to regular pineapple tart. However, the mango taste in pineapple tart is very yummy!

Check on tarts if brown evenly on both sides or not. If not bake another few minutes.  More brown more crisp.

Baking after 10 mins. Top not dry, bake another 5 minutes. Take out and flip , bake another 6-8 minutes

Shape into mold. Try to do oblong shape, then place into mold and use stamp to press

Wrapping fillings. Total dough is about 600g so divide into 20 g each and fillings 10 g each

Using food processor to blend dough ingredients into dough 

Mango pineapple paste after cooking

Mango Pineapple Paste
Yield 40 --10 g (so can reduce pineapple/ mango a little to get 30.)

1000 g peeled pineapple
800 g champagne mango puree(3 large)
1/2 cup sugar + 1 tbsp 
3 tbsp light corn syrup or maltose
pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Use food processor to blend pineapple. Strain the extra juice for faster cooking. (Can save juice for drinking)

2. Use food processor to puree mango.

3. Place all ingredients except corn syrup to a non-stick pan. Stir and cook until mixture is sticky. Add in corn syrup and continue to stir and cook until dry. (Took about 1.5 hr. Start with medium high heat then lower heat when sticky to prevent burning bottom. Stirring the whole cooking time.)

4. Cool jam and refrigerate until ready to use. (Paste good in refrigerator for few weeks. Left mine in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks one time.)

Pastry dough: by Linda A. 
Yield 30- 20g dough

200 g cake flour
50 g cornstarch
75 g powder sugar
1/4 cup milk powder
1/4 cup custard powder (optional)
180 g cold butter cut in cubes
2 egg yolks 40 g total
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix dry ingredients together and place in food processor along with butter, yolks, and vanilla.  Blend until form into dough. (best sift all flour, powder, and sugar first)

2. Cover while dividing pineapple paste into 10 g each.

3. Now divide dough to 30 pieces about 20 g each. (Original is 12 g filling+18 g dough=30 g for these molds)

4. Wrap filling with dough and place into mold and use stamp to press. Repeat until done. (Best use parchment paper)

5. Refrigerate whole tray while waiting for oven to preheat. Preheat oven 165C (330F). Bake for 10-15 minutes and flip over and bake another 6-8 minutes until desired browning. (Watch last minutes do not let filling explode. If start seeing cracks, take tray out, cool few minutes then bake again)

6. Leave to cool before unmold.

Enjoy!

Tiramisu Macarons

One of the first macarons I baked for family is the tiramisu macarons.  Our family love tiramisu cake and macarons. I have not bake both for almost a year now. I decided to bake some with the extra egg white from caneles. I still have not perfect the shape but taste is awesome! The shells is coffee flavor. Filling is made of coffee, mascarpone cheese, kahlua liqueur, sugar and butter.  😋😋😋

Pack for brother since he loves them so much

Crispy outside and chewy inside

Pineapple Tart Crusty Type

I finally get to try out my molds for pineapple tarts. Plus I get to try out Linda A's dough recipe which is the crusty type and it's very yummy. This time I grated the pineapple so it's more chewy, which I love but cutting is a bit messy...lol😋😋😋

Pineapple paste: 25 --10 g balls

1 large pineapple
About 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt optional

1. Grate or blend in food processor.  Place in strainer to drain off juice. (Save juice for drinking)

2. Place grated pineapple, sugar, and salt in non stick pan. Turn on heat and continuously stir until dry and sticky. Cool

Pineapple pastry dough: by Linda Ang(with her permission)

200 g cake flour
50 g cornstarch
75 g powder sugar
1/4 cup milk powder
1/4 cup custard powder (optional as I was out so didn't use)
180 g cold butter cut in cubes
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix dry ingredients together and place in food processor along with butter, yolks, and vanilla.  Blend until form into dough.

2. Cover and refrigerate while dividing pineapple paste into 10 g each.

3. Now divide dough to 25-30 pieces about 20 g each. (Original is 12 g filling+18 g dough=30 g for these molds)

4. Wrap filling with dough and place into mold and use stamp to press. Repeat until done. (Originally I used silicone mat but took longer to get brown surfaces. So switched to parchment paper.)

5. Refrigerate whole tray while waiting for oven to preheat. Preheat oven 165C (330F). Bake for 10 minutes and flip over and bake another 6-10 minutes until desired browning.

6. Leave to cool

Enjoy!

Wife Biscuits/Lao Po Bing

Today I am baking one of my love, wife biscuits, lao po bing. This is a Chinese pastry with a combination of crispy flaky crust and sweet chewy filling. There are a few stories about this pastry so I'm not sure which is real except this pastry is for the "wife".🤣 The husband bought it for the wife? Made it for the wife? Or the wife made it?🤔🤣🤣

I am trying out a new recipe I found on YouTube again speaking in Mandarin but lucky there is subtitles. 😅

I think I did pretty good as the pastry is very flaky and yummy. I love candied winter melon in the biscuit so I added extra!😋 I will definitely use this recipe again and add in more fillings next time!

Makes 15-16 biscuits
Recipe by Chef Zhu Limi Foodvideo

Water Dough:

200g all purpose flour
10g maltose
60g lard
110g hot water (used boiling hot)

Use flour make a well, place lard and maltose in center. Slowly add in the hot water and knead together.  Hot water helps melt maltose and lard into flour. Use rub and pull method to make dough elastic. Throw dough on counter a couple times to help develop gluten. Cover let it rest

Oil Dough:

120g all purpose flour
60g lard

Use hand knead flour and lard into dough.

Filling:

80g fried glutinous rice flour gaofun
30g sugar
110g water
13g lard (can sub with 1 tbsp vegetable oil)
85g candied winter melon chopped (or 100g)
30g sesame seeds (lightly roast)
15g desiccated coconut

Heat a pan. Add in water, sugar and oil. Turn on low once it boiled. Add in flour and mix well with the water. (Add in little more water if too dry) Then add in sesame, coconut and chopped candied melon. Mix well. Leave to cool and divide into 15-16 about 20g each.

Method:

Use water dough and wrap the oil dough. Flatten. Roll it thin and evenly into a rectangular shape about 11x20 inches. Then roll it up from long side to the other end. By rolling it will give layers for crust. (See video)

Flatten each piece and wrap in filling. Then use rolling pin to flatten into round shape biscuit.

Brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten+1 tsp milk). Use sharp knife to cut 2-3 lines in center all the way through. Sprinkle sesame seeds.

Bake in preheated oven at 390F or 200C for about 20 minutes until golden.

Let cool before serving. Extremely crispy crumbly when hot!

Pandan Madeleine ( Banh Con So La Dua)

Turning French madeleine to Asian by adding pandan and coconut milk.🤣 This time I want a more gentle cookie so I reduced baking powder and temperature.
Testing to see how I should add pandan. Tried one by blending pandan leaves with melted butter another just by pandan paste. Asked family and they couldn't tell the difference. So to make it easy, just use pandan paste...haha. However, I do like the pandan leaves better as the color and smell is nicer.

Below show pictures of both natural and paste. See which one you like better.😉

 Pandan leaves

 Pandan paste

Recipe adapted from Brunoskitchen

Ingredients for 12 cookies

2 large eggs

1/4 cup +1 tbsp granulated sugar (already reduced)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp coconut cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp pandan paste or 1/2 tsp for lighter color

If you want natural do this instead of paste:

***optional: (4 pandan leaves chopped blended with melted butter, strained, mix in coconut cream +1/4 tsp paste)

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar until combine. Add in vanilla and pandan paste.

3. Whisk in sifted flour mix. Batter should be sticky at this point. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hr or overnight.

4. Using some soften butter and coat Madeleine pan for 10 mins. Refrigerate pan.

5. Preheat over at 350F.

6. Melt butter in microwave at 30, 20 second until melted. Leave to cool/warm before adding to dough. Use a spatula to mix butter and dough until combine.***

7. Use a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon to scoop batter on center of well and do not touch it. Batter will distribute evenly during baking. 

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake or your cookies will be hard! (Mine was a bit big as didn't want to waste batter so baked 10 mins...🤣)

9. Leave cookies in tin for 2-3 minutes before turning to cool.

Enjoy!

*Best eaten same day or microwave 5-10 seconds to soften.

Blended pandan leaves with melted butter

French Buttery Madeleine Cookie (Banh Con So)

In the mood for some buttery cake like cookie. I have not bake Madeleine for over a year now so thought I should bake them again for my kids. I must say I've never baked Madeleine with this explosive result before!😜 The trick here is to chill your dough for at least 1 hr. before adding in the melted butter. Also the high temperature helps with the huge humps on the cookies too.

Recipe adapted from Brunoskitchen

Ingredients for 24 cookies

4 large eggs

150g granulated sugar

280g all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks (230g) unsalted butter, melted 

1 tsp vanilla or orange/lemon zest

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar until combine. Add in vanilla. 

3. Whisk in sifted flour mix. Batter should be sticky at this point. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hr or overnight.

4. Using some soften butter and coat Madeleine pan. Refrigerate pan.

5. Preheat over at 500F with a cookie sheet on middle rack.

6. Melt butter in microwave at 30, 20, 10 second until melted. Leave to cool/warm before adding to dough. Use a spatula to mix butter and dough until combine.

7. Use a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon to scoop batter on center of well and do not touch it. Batter will distribute evenly during baking.

8. Place Madeleine pan on top of cookie sheet and bake for 4 minutes.

9. Lower heat to 350F and continue to bake for about 4-6 minutes until edge slightly golden. Do not over bake or your cookies will be burnt!

10. Leave cookies in tin for 3 minutes before removing to cool.

11. Repeat for leftover batter. Chill greased pan each time before using.

Enjoy!

Almond Pumpkin Seeds Tuiles/Brittles/Biscuits/Crisps

First time making these almond pumpkin seeds tuiles and they are so addictive! I love the crispy crunchy and full of aroma while chewing. I made more to test out my recipe and to give some to family and friends.

Ingredients:

150gr sliced almond
105gr lightly salted roasted pumkin seeds
10gr ground almond
50gr unsalted butter
100gr sugar
30gr all purpose flour
2 large egg white (70 gr)
1/4 tsp salt( no salt if use salted seeds)
1/4 tsp almond extract or 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

1. Melt butter in double boiler or microwave. Leave to cool.
2. Use double boiler method. Once water boiling, turn off and place bowl on top without touching water. Whisk egg white and sugar until melt. Keep stirring to prevent egg cooking.
3. Take out whisk until foamy with fine bubbles and whisk in butter, then all purpose flour and then almond flour. Then add in vanilla.
4. Use spatula mix in almond/pumkin mixture until combine.
5. Preheat oven 335F.
6. Spread mixture into parchment paper to even and thin layer.
7. Bake 10 minutes then lower temperature to 320F. Bake until 17-20 minutes.
8. Cut into desired sizes right after taking out of oven as it will shatter easily once cooled. (Now if color is not golden then place in oven for few more minutes.)

Note: Some part might brown faster due to uneven heating so will need to take out and cut to desire pieces then place back into oven for few more minutes until all golden. Leave to cool before storing in airtight container.
Optional: toast sliced almonds for few minutes at 250F. Let cool before using.