Take 2!

There are many times when I have tried out a recipe and failed (yes! it's true!) or it doesn't turn out quite as expected. There are always room for improvements and so this blog entry is dedicated to my second attempts and 2 particular recipes: the cantonese egg tart and banana bread. If you recall from my previous blog about egg tarts, I didn't have the proper egg tart tins so they didn't turn out so well. The pastry was quite thick and the tarts didn't look very presentable.. BUT thanks to K who bought the egg tart tins for me from Hong Kong~~ we were able to bake them again =)

You can find the recipe for cantonese egg tarts here.

Baking in the oven~~

Ta da~~ done ^_^ they could have been a bit more brown...

but they tasted delicious :D

My first attempt at banana bread did go quite well but it didn't look that great. So when I tried again I decided to decorate the top with sliced bananas and a few oats! Much better :) You can find the recipe for banana bread here.

Cooling in the tin~~

Mmm.. I can smell the banana ~~

sliced up! you can see the chunks of banana goodness ^^

So when you think u have failed.. just try again :) I mean.. that's what baking is about yeh? Experimenting.. trying out new recipes... and improving them!

Egg TARTS :D

Hey guys!! I haven't blogged in ages!! but I have been baking a lot ^^ So hopefully will get round to posting all the recipes!! As I've been baking i've realised there are a lot of baking equipment that I want/need! haha I should write a list! One of them are egg tart cases! you know the silver ones? Coz then it would be a lot easier to bake these egg tarts!! anyways the recipe is GOOOD =D =D I've baked it twice!! but still wanna perfect it~~
Ingredients:

CRUST
225g plain flour
125g butter
55g icing sugar
1 egg, whisked
dash of vanilla extrat

CUSTARD
3 eggs
110g caster sugar
225g hot water
85ml evaporated milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and sguar until smooth, fluffy and light in colour
2. Add whisked egg, half at a time and beat. Add vanilla extract.
3. Sift in flour in two batches and knead into dough *I've found that the dough is a very soft one and I'm not sure if it's meant to be like that or not =S but it still has worked out*
4. Roll out dough to 1/2 cm thickness and cut out circles with cutter *because the dough is so soft you can just grab some and place it into the egg tart tins/muffin tray*. Press dough to line the tins.
5. Add sguar into hot water for custard, till dissolved.
6. Whisk egg with evaporated milk. Pour in sugar water and mix.
7. Sift egg mixture to get rid of any foam. Carefully pour egg mixture into each tart shell making sure not to let it overflow (coz burnt egg tart custard in the oven STINKS!!)
8. Preheat oven to 200oC. Position rack in lower third of oven. Bake tarts for 10-15 minutes until edges lightly brown.
9. Lower heat to 180oC. Once custard puffs up, pull open oven door ~2-3 inches. Bake for anohter 10-15 minutes until custard is cooked through.

If only ours looked like http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/03/cantonese-egg-tarts-recipe.html =_= hahah more practice!!