Blueberry Bakewell Tart

I guess it's blueberry season now as I realized there are many bloggers had posted their bakes with blueberry which had given me lots of inspiration. I didn't think much and took two punnets of fresh blueberries when I saw it in the supermarket. At first, there are many ideas came to my mind whether to make muffins, pancake, juice or crumble etc but I don't really have the appetite to eat what is in my mind so ended up I choose to make a rustic yet with country feel of bakewell tart which will top with my fresh and juicy blueberries. I like bakewell tart because the almond bring lots of flavor with the combination of butter together with the shortcrust pasty. Normally I would like to make bakewell tart with plum or apple and here I found blueberry goes well well with it too! A piece of this nutty and buttery flavor tart for an afternoon tea,  simplicity is my biggest satisfaction. 

Recipe for 8 inches baking pan

For the pastry:

220g plain flour

110g unsalted butter

20g sugar powder

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks + 2 tbsp water

For the fillings:

95g ground almond

27g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

83g unsalted butter

55g caster sugar

1 egg

some blueberry jam

Method:

1. For the pastry, add the cold water to the egg yolks and stir with a fork.
2. Place the flour into the bowl of a food processor, followed by the cold butter, sugar powder and the salt.
3. Turn the processor on and pulse several times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Add two-thirds of the egg yolk/water mixture and pulse again. If the mixture is still too dry, add the remaining egg and water mixture (you may not need to use all of it). Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Stop pulsing when the mixture has the consistency of chunky breadcrumbs.
5. Turn the pastry out onto a clean, floured work surface and, with floured hands, bring together to make a smooth dough, but don't knead.
6. Shape into a flattened ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes. You can keep the pastry at this stage for 2-3 days if not using it immediately.
7. Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a clean, floured work surface, roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it's slightly larger than the flan ring. Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry and lay it over the flan ring.
8. With your fingers, lightly press the pastry into the sides of the ring. Run a rolling pin over the top of the ring and pull away the excess pastry at the edges. Using your fingers, gently press the pastry up to slightly build up the height of the pastry at the edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.
9. For the fillings, blitz the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a food processor until light and creamy.
10. Add in the ground almond, plain flour and beaten eggs and whiz until completely mixed and smooth.
11. Place in the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour.
12. Spoon some blueberry jam into the pastry case then spread the almond batter over the blueberry jam.
13. Arrange the blueberries on the surface of the almond batter, pressing them in lightly.
14. Bake the tart in the 180'C preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Remove tarts from the oven and leave it to cool.

Milky Square Loaf

I've received quite a few comments from previous bread post recently. Many of them having some problems just like I do, either the dough couldn't rise to the perfect square or the texture was not right etc. I must said I'm not a perfect baker and sometimes I do have problems with my dough too especially my first year of learning bread making, it's really a struggling. I think the problems could be the room temperature, humidity, yeast and all other ingredients that cause a failure. However, we all learn from mistakes. The more you practice and the more you could figure out the solution. I've been long time didn't bake a square loaf because I was crazy about the wholesome blacky bread recently, the texture and taste is just so good for me. This milky wholemeal bread is the one I did it quite often at my earlier bread learning journey and it become my almost daily bread. As some of the bloggers had problem making it, so I decided to give this a try again since I quite miss it too! 

I'm quite happy with the result this time, it's a square loaf and the texture is soft and light. I hope people who face the failure please don't be dishearten and give up. Do it again until you get it. I'll not shame to tell you that I've feed the bin with my failure doughs many times which I couldn't remember how many. Again, thanks for everyone dropping at my blog for leaving your words! Let's face the problem and solve it. You'll get a right bread soon!

Recipe for the bread:

Bread flour 270g

Wholemeal flour 30g

Yeast 3g (this time I used 4g for a square loaf)

Sugar 6g

Salt 5g

Cold milk 240g

Unsalted butter 12g

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a kneading bowl with 240ml cool milk except butter. Knead until everything combine.
2. Gradually add in the butter continue the kneading process until it become smooth and elastic. (the dough might have a bit wet but not sticky, you might need longer time to knead it)
3. Shape it into a smooth round dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 80 minutes. (This time I proof for 60 minutes)
4. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and roll to form 'ball' shapes.
5. Flatten each dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough like a swiss-roll. Place the rolled doughs on a baking pan proof for 60 minute. (I forgot to set the time, and almost proof until 95% full of the tin about 80 minutes)
6. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown at 190'C preheated oven. (For a square loaf I baked at 200C about 35 minutes)

Durian Soft Cheesecake

I know the weather has been extremely hot and it's not good to eat durian at this time but when I see some durian selling in the market, I just can't help myself to buy some for baking. So, here I made a light version of durian cheesecake that called for only a little amount of durian flesh which yield a light version of durian cheesecake. The texture is similar to Japanese cotton cheesecake, quite moist and soft. 

One thing that I always worry on making soft cheesecake is the cake might crack on the surface and shrink terribly. This time the top still have a bit of crack but not too much. Perhaps I could still turn the heat slightly lower. As I know it's definitely going to be shrank, so what I do is to help it shrink nicely. Grease the side of the pan with butter and coated with bread flour. I find this method quite good. Although the weather is quite hot, this light and moist durian cheesecake quite a refreshing dessert. Just to make sure it's cool enough to serve.

Recipe from Chef Alan Kok

1 slice 7" sponge cake (I used 8")

250g cream cheese

3 egg yolks

150ml fresh milk

150g durian flesh

3 egg whites

60g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 7" round cake tin (I used 8" , serves 9) with grease proof paper and put in a slice of prepared sponge cake (I greased the side of the pan with butter and coated with bread flour) 
2. Beat cream cheese, egg yolks at low speed until well mixed. Add fresh milk, durian flesh and mix well.
3. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk egg white and caster sugar at high speed until soft peak is formed. Mix in mixture (2) in 3 batches.
4. Pour mixture onto sponge cake.
5. Steam bake the cheesecake at 180C for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 140C and bake for another 1 1/2 hours.
6. Leave cake to cool in the oven with door ajar 1 hour. Chill in the fridge for overnight. 

Ingredients for the plain sponge cake:
(Please follow the video clip)
140g plain flour / 4 eggs / 30g milk / 180g sugar / 4g salt / 30g oil