Fruit Tart

Recipe Courtesy: Joy of Baking


Sweet Pastry Crust:

all purpose flour 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) 

salt 1/8 teaspoon 

unsalted butter 1/2 cup (113 grams) 

Sugar 1/4 cup (50 grams) 

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Pastry Cream:

1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk

1/2 Vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Large Egg Yolks 3

Sugar 1/4 cup (50 grams) 

All purpose flour 1/8 cup (20 grams) 

cornstarch(corn flour) 2 tablespoons (20 grams) 

Apricot Glaze: (optional)

1/2 cup (120 grams) apricot jam or preserves

Water 1 tbsp

Topping:

2 - 3 cups mixed fruit, such as raspberries,blackberries,strawberries, kiwifruit, bananas, plums, pineapple, melon, etc.

Sweet Pastry Crust: 


 In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Keep it aside.


Place the butter in your mixer and beat until softened.


 Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.


 Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated. 


Add the flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. (Do not over mix or the pastry will be hard when baked.)


 Flatten the pastry into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.


Have ready an 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) tart pan with removable bottom. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into an 11 - 12 inch (28 - 30 cm) circle that is about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). To make sure it is the right size, take your tart pan, flip it over, and place it on the rolled out pastry. The pastry should be about an inch larger than pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, lightly roll pastry around your rolling pin, dusting off any excess flour as you roll. Unroll onto top of tart pan. Never pull pastry or you will get shrinkage (shrinkage is caused by too much pulling of the pastry when placing it in the pan). Gently lay in pan and with a small floured piece of pastry, lightly press pastry into bottom and up sides of pan. Roll your rolling pin over top of pan to get rid of excess pastry. Prick bottom of dough with a fork(this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights, rice or beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface. Bake crust for 20 to25 minutesuntil crust is dry and lightly golden brown. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack before filling.

Pastry Cream:  Ina medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) 


Sift the flour and cornstarch (corn flour) together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling.


) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor. 

Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.

Remove from heat . Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool & refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Apricot Glaze:  Heat the apricot jam or preserves and water (if using) in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted). Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps.   Let cool until it is only slightly warm.

Variation: If glazing strawberries, raspberries or any other red fruit you can make a red currant glaze. Gently whisk 1/2 cup (125 grams) of red currant jelly over medium heat until melted. Let cool slightly and then lightly glaze the fruit using a pastry brush.

To Assemble Tart:

Remove the tart from the pan.


Spread a thin layer of apricot glaze or melted chocolate over the bottom and sides of the baked tart shell to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry between 20 - 30 minutes. Spread thePastry Cream onto the bottom of the baked tart shell , filling about 3/4 full.

To decorate the tart you will need 2 to 3 cups (480 - 620 ml) of mixed fresh fruit (such as berries, bananas, oranges, kiwifruit, plums, pineapple, and melon). Prepare the fruit by gently washing and drying. Peel and slice the bananas, plums and kiwifruit. The strawberries will need to be sliced also. Arranging the fruit on the tart can be done either randomly or in concentric overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge. Try to cover all the pastry cream with fruit so that no pastry cream is showing through.

After arranging the fruit, rewarm the glaze, if using, and gently brush a light coat on the fruit. Do not put it on too thick or it will look like Jell-O. Try not to get any glaze on the tart shell. The idea is to make the fruit look shiny.  If not serving immediately, refrigerate. Take out about 30 minutes before serving to give the fruit and cream a chance to warm to room temperature.

This fruit tart is best eaten the same day as it is assembled. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Serves about 8 - 10 people.

Chocolate Pretzels

Ingredients (Makes 28)

Plain Flour 140g (5oz)
Salt 1/8tsp
Unsweetened Cocoa powder 25g (3/4oz)
Butter 115g (4 oz), at room temperature
Sugar 125g (4 1/2oz)
Egg 1
Egg white 1, lightly beaten, for glazing
Sugar crystals for sprinkling

Method:

1.Sift together the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside. Grease 2 baking sheets.

2.With an electric mixer, cream the butter until light.

3.Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.

4.Beat in the egg.

5.Add the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Gather the dough into a bowl, wrap in clear film and refrigerate for 1 hr or freeze for 30 minutes.

6.Roll the dough into 28 small balls. Refrigerate the balls until needed. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/Gas 5.

7.Roll each ball into a rope about 10 in (25cm) long. With each rope, form a loop with the two ends facing you. Twist the ends and fold back on to the circle, pressing in to make a pretzel shape. Place on the sheets.

8. Brush the pretzels with the egg white. Sprinkle sugar crystals over the tops and bake until firm, 10-12 mts. Transfer to a rack to cool.

** Take the dough balls out from the refrigerator just before rolling them. Let the all other balls remain ther in the refrigerator till next batch. If you feel the ball is sticky again, refrigerate again for 10-15 mts.

Gulab Jamun (with or without egg)

A traditional dessert that is ready in a jiffy.

Gulab Jamuns, as u all know are made with so much of efforts with paneer & khoya before; but nowadays all make these instantly with milk powders. I used to make them without egg usually, but recently I got this recipe from fb (with egg) from Fatii Naz.. This tastes better than those made without egg. Anyways I've given both the recipes here.. but these in the pictures are made with egg.

INGREDIENTS(without egg) Milk Powder 1 cup + 2 tbsp Refined flour/Maida 1 tbsp Baking Soda 1/4 tsp Green cardamom powder 1/2 tsp Ghee 4 tsp Sugar 1 cup Lemon juice 1 tsp

METHOD Heat sugar and one cup of water in a pan and cook to make a syrup. Add lemon juice to clarify the syrup. Remove the scum. Transfer the syrup into a serving dish. You should make thin syrup for instant jamuns. Let it boil for 1 or 2 minutes. Heat sufficient ghee/oil in a kadai. Take milk powder, refined flour, soda bicarbonate, green cardamom powder and four teaspoons of ghee in a bowl and mix. Add sufficient water to the milk powder mixture and knead into a soft dough. Divide the dough into small balls. Deep fry these in the heated ghee on low heat.The inner portion will remain uncooked if it is not fried in low heat.  When the gulab jamuns are golden brown, drain them and add to the hot syrup. Serve hot or at room temperature. Gulab Jamun (with egg) Milk powder 2 cups maida 4 tbsp Semolina/Rava 2 tsp Baking powder 2tsp Cardamom powder a pinch Egg 2  Ghee 2tbsp Mix all these ingredients and knead into a dough. If the dough luks dry, you can add water ;but one tsp at a time. Make balls & deepfry them in low flame. Make syrup(the method is mentioned above). When the syrup is still boiling, put the jamuns in it ,cover it & switch off the flame. Let it remain ther for some time. Serve it hot or at room temperature. Sending this to Every Tuesday Event

Eggless Almond Wheat Cookies

This is ma first ever post to Sweet Punch.. bt may be the last one to post this month's punch... I wanted to make this for ma kids' school party and so dragged d baking!!. .. This is delicious, crunchy & also guilty free as we used wheat instead of white flour. This recipe was chosen by Ria of Sweet Punch ;but originally adapted from Manjula.

All ingredients are readily available in our kitchen & anyone can attempt this even if they dont know the basics of baking.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour/Atta 1 cup

Castor Sugar 1/2 cup

Salt 1/4 tsp

Cardamom/elaichi powder 1/2 tsp

Butter 1/2 cup

Milk 2 tbsp

Almonds 1/4 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 360 F/160C.

Mix flour,sugar,salt,sliced almonds and cardamom powder in a bowl.

Add soft butter and milk  to the mix and knead it into a soft dough. If u want, u can add more milk, but only one tsp at a time.

Divide the dough into  equal parts and roll them into balls.

Press each ball between palms  half inch thickness(u can use a fork too) and place them on cookie sheets about an inch apart. Press some almond slices to garnish the top of the cookies.

Bake for 15 -18 mins till light brown.

Let cookies cool for about 2 to 3 mins before taking them off the cookie sheets

Candy Cane Cookies

I was thinking of making this since last X Mas ...but haa...its too late!! This one like any other cookies is so easy to make & kids would defenitely love this shape and color combo...so moms,,wat are u waiting for?? Give it a try..

Ingredients:

Butter (2 sticks) 1 cup, softened

Sugar 1 cup

Egg 1

Vanilla Essence 1 1/2tsp

Almond Essence 1/2 tsp

All purpose flour (Maida)3 cups

Red icing color

White sparkling sugar (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F/190 degrees.. (170C in ma oven)

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts.

Add Flour, 1cup at a time to butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. If dough becomes too stiff, add water, a teaspoon at a time. Do not chill dough. 

Divide dough into 2 balls. Tint one ball of dough with icing color. Clean your palms thoroughly.

 Pinch off a 1 inch ball of each color dough. On flat surface, roll ball into 3 inch long strips. Place red and white strips side by side; roll them together until the two colors have wrapped around one another and are twister togeter . Roll smoothly so that both colored strips merge nicely.Curve the strip at the top to the shape of a candy cane and place on ungreased cookie sheet; sprinkle with sparkling sugar(optional) and gently press into dough. 

Bake 8-10 mts or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on sheet 2 minutes;remove to cooling grid and cool completely.

Sending this to Kids Delight