Blackcurrant Cheese Tarts

Hello everyone, in case you might be wondering if I made a mistake in the title, that I typed blackcurrant instead of blueberry (blueberry cheese tarts are the more commonly found ones). Nope, I did not! Reason why I tweaked this recipe from blueberry to blackcurrant is because I only have blackcurrant jam at home! :P Thus, you can do the same too if you do not have blueberry/blackcurrant jam. Just use whatever jam that you like! Hopefully it turns out as nice as mine :D


Adapted from ReeseKitchen.

(This recipe yields about 16 middle sized tarts)

Pastry:
125g butter
60g fine granulated sugar
250g all purpose flour (plain flour)
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp COLD water (may need more than that)

Method:
1. Sift flour and sugar into mixing bowl
2. Rub butter into flour until resembles coarse crumbs (rubbing method)

this method is similar to pineapple tarts!3. Add in egg yolk, vanilla and water
4. Shape dough into ball and refrigerate (20-30 minutes) before using
** (before using, take out fr fridge, wait for awhile until dough soften)
5. Place dough onto tart shells, and poke the base with fork (this is to let the air comes out while baking)
6. Bake at 160-170'C for 10-15 minutes or until brown

Filling:
250g cream cheese
20g butter
60g fine granulated sugar
1 egg

Method:
1. Beat cheese, butter and sugar together until fluffy
2. Add in egg and beat till well mix
3. Spoon some jam on the baked tart shells then fill it up with cream cheese mixture. Use toothpick or fork to create swirl effect!
4. Bake at 170-180'C for 10 minutes


Used a diabetic-friendly jam!

The inside of my tart and look at my cute minion nails! :D :D
Additional notes:
- Of course, I reduced the amount of sugar in both tart and filling! Reduced each by about 20g.
- I extended both baking durations by 10 min (not sure if it is the problem of my oven or what)

Best Pineapple Tarts

[UPDATED}


DA JIA HAO! (Hello everyone!) Chinese New Year is around the corner again~ Speaking about Chinese New Year, which part of it do you look forward to most? Is it buying new clothes, receiving red packets (definitely not giving out right?), gatherings with friends and relatives or... THE FOOD PART?? Personally, I definitely love buying new clothes for chinese new year as this is the only time that is justified for me to buy new clothes without getting nagged by parents for splurging money. However, I truly adore the food part as well! Whenever it comes to CNY there would be a table set up in my living room to store all the CNY goodies. Yes, that is the most sinful table ever. Filled with goodies like nuts, chocolates, bakgua and my absolute favourite... PINEAPPLE TARTS! I love pineapple tarts!!!!!! I love those with crust that melts in your mouth. That kind of feeling is truly bliss~

The are many types of pineapple tarts, but my favourite are those that pineapple filling are wrapped in the pastry. Pineapple tarts can be found easily in the supermarkets, bakeries and many other stores. However, I find many of them not up to my standard. Some are too sweet, some just lack the buttery taste and some simply awful. Hence, last year while I was free I went to research on pineapple tart recipes and lucky me found an awesome one. Baked according to the recipes and the outcome was a great success! :) Hence today I would like to share with all of you this wonderful recipe that gives you the best melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts. *thumbs up*


Recipe adopted from littleteochew

Ingredients:
400g plain flour
50g corn flour
1/4 (heaped) tsp salt
280g cold, unsalted butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
3 tsp cold/iced water
6 tsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water (for glazing)

Instructions:
1. Sift flour, icing sugar and salt. Mix well to combine.

2. Using the tip of fork, rub butter into flour until it looks like fine bread crumbs If necessary, use fingertips to continue to rub lightly the bigger pieces into finer pieces.

3. Beat together egg yolks, cold water and vanilla extract. Add it int the butter flour mixture. Using fingertips, gently coax all the crumbs into one large dough ball. Do no knead. As long as all the crumbs come together, stop. Chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes, covered.
4. Use dough as desired. Glaze.
5. Bake at 160 deg cel for 20 minutes.


I'm sorry you might need to go somewhere else to look for the pineapple jam recipe if you are determined to make it yourself. I bought the ready made pineapple filling as I do not have the time nor courage to make my own. ): Would probably try doing that only when I am super free.

Trust my words, bake this recipe and make all your relatives and friends love you more (and probably get more angpows? :D)

Here are some photos of what I baked last year. Sorry my lousy old phone camera doesn't do any justice to the yumminess of the pineapple tarts.

Easy and delicious egg tarts

I love eggs! I love to cook eggs in all sorts of method, steamed, boiled, fried and etc. No matter what's the cooking method, most of the time eggs just turn out yummy.

Yesterday I came back from school after lecture and it was raining, and boring. Thus, I decided to bake to kick away the boredom. Wanted to bake something not too time consuming, and egg tart is the one!

Bookmarked this recipe for quite a period of time and finally got into baking it. Initially I was skeptical of the recipe as I couldn't believe that it is so easy to make delicious egg tarts. I was totally wrong! The egg tarts turned out awesome, and i would definitely bake these egg tarts again for friends who didn't have the chance to try it before it was wiped out. Few of my friends tried them and they all gave me compliments! Thank you egg tarts for making today such a happy day for me.




the tarts sitting in the oven


Egg custard filling that is smooth and silky~

Pretty or not?

Adapted from bakingoncloud9

Recipe

Pastry
300g plain flour
2 tbsp custard powder
2 tbsp milk powder (I omitted this as I did not have it)
1 tbsp sugar (I used icing sugar)
50-60g egg (1 egg)
200g butter

Rub-in Method (cold butter)
1. Cut cold butter into small cubes.
2. Combine flour, custard powder and milk powder and mix well.
3. With fingertip, rub in the cold butter, add sugar, mix well. (until they combine and look like bread crumbs)
4. Add beaten egg, mix to form a soft dough (do not knead).
5. Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate before use.

Filling
280g water
120-140g sugar
200g beaten eggs (3 large eggs or 4 medium eggs)
80g evaporated milk
Few drops pure vanilla extract (optional)

1. Heat up water and sugar till sugar dissolved. Let cool.
2. Add beaten egg, evaporated milk and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Sieve 3 times. (Or more if you like)

Assembly
1. Roll into ball and press the dough into tart moulds.
2. Pour in the fillings till 80% full.
3. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 mins, until tarts turn golden brown.

Additional notes:

1. I omitted the milk powder as I didn't have any milk powder at home. Wanted to find substitutes but because the recipe doesn't call for any water, I couldn't substitutes. (Milk powder + water can be substituted by milk, but I'm not sure how too) Furthermore, I was afraid that the milk taste would too be strong (which some people dislike it) hence i decided to remove it totally, praying hard that it's omission will not do any harm to the recipe. Thank god it works! Guess that milk powder is only added for the taste so it's alright to be removed.

2. Since milk powder was removed I tried to act smart and increased the amount of sugar for the pastry (I was thinking that milk powder is sweet), but it turned out to be a mistake and the tarts were a little too sweet for my family's preference. I would suggest that the sugar level in both the pastry and filling can be reduced. Well, that would lower down the amount of calories as well right? :)

3. I added in approx 1/2tsp of vanilla essence even though it is stated as optional. I like the smell of vanilla! I think it complements well with the egg custard.

4. I sieved the filling for... 5 or 6 times? More is better than less and does no harm right? Just wanted to make sure that the filling will turn out smooth and silky.

5. As originally the recipe is for MINI tarts, the baking duration is shorter. In my case, I baked in regular aluminium tart cases, hence the duration was slightly longer and maybe because the depth of the filling is deeper as well, the filling took longer to be cooked. I used a toothpick to poke into the filling and test if it is cooked.

6. There is another melted-butter method for the pastry (you can refer to bakingoncloud9's for instructions. I prefer the rub-in method :) Not very sure of the difference between the 2 methods.

7. This recipe yields 23 tarts.

Go try baking it yourself and you will taste its awesomeness!




Enjoy!