Banana Cream Pie

If you have been following my blog, you know I don't bake cookies and tarts/pies that often. I find it very time consuming to bake a tart/pie, ie prepare the crust, chill the dough, blind-baking, leave to cool, prepare fillings and bake again. Since I have another bunch of bananas untouched, I attempted Annie's Banana Cream Pie since there's only one baking to be done.

I do not have shortening so I used butter instead. The dough was relatively soft and sticky, which was quite difficult to work with but after chilling in the fridge for an hour, it was manageable.

Cooking of the pudding was relatively easy too, just remember not to overheat the milk mixture, else you will end up with curdled eggs. Also, I added 1 tsp of lemon juice into the pudding, hoping that it will help to keep the bananas from turning brown (oxidation).

The crust was flaking despite the usage of butter, but after chilling in the fridge overnight, the crust turned soft. I thought the pudding compliments the bananas but unfortunately no one except me like this pie so I won't be making this again for my family. Do give this recipe a try if you like pies/tarts.

Banana Cream Pie

Check out Annie's blog for step-by-step pictures.

(makes 2 x 9"pies)
Pie Crust Ingredients

(A)

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

220g butter

(B)

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

Pie Crust Method

1. Rub ingredients A together to form a shaggy dough in a medium bowl.
2. Mix ingredients B together to form a paste in another bowl.
3. Add B to A and mix gently with a spatula until it forms a dough. If it’s too wet, add more flour to the dough to get a nice soft dough. Do not overwork the dough.
4. Form two balls, cover them in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 400 F (210 C).
6. Roll out your dough into a round, about 1/8 inch thick, dusting with flour to keep it from sticking. Place dough rounds on your pie pan and press into pan and crimp edges to the side of the pan. Dock with a fork all around the crust.
7. Cover with foil or parchment paper and cover with pie weights. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
8. Remove foil/parchment paper and bake for another 10-12 minutes till golden brown.
9. Cool pie crust.

Pudding ingredients

4 cups milk

100g butter

1 cup sugar

6 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

6 egg yolks

Pudding method

1. Heat on stove 4 cups milk and 1/2 cup butter over med-low heat in large sauce pan.
2. Mix in another bowl the sugar, flour, salt and yolks. Add to this mixture enough milk from the sauce pan to make a paste.
3. Add paste to milk/butter mixture on stove. Make sure the milk mixture is not too hot when adding the paste or the eggs will curdle. Whisk mixture constantly over med-low heat until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil.
4. Remove from heat immediately and stir in vanilla essence. Let it cool slightly. If you want a smoother pudding, strain it so that the bits of cooked egg will be strained out.

To assemble banana cream pie

1. Slice 5-8 bananas (depending on size of bananas) in half length-wise. You can choose to slice them into rounds but I find that the pie slices hold better when you slice in half and lay them in circles around the crust. Cut as needed to fit all the bananas into the bottom of the pie crust.
2. Pour warm pudding over bananas until the bananas are covered and the pudding is almost at the top of the crust.
3. Cool in refrigerator until set, about 2-3 hours.
4. Just before serving, whip some heavy cream (about 1/2-1 cup depending on how much whipped cream you like), with 2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Spread whipped cream over pie. (I omit this)
5. Slice into wedges and enjoy!

Blueberry Tart

With a frozen dough sitting in my freezer since June, I need to quickly utilise it before it gets out of sight, out of mind :P


Shortlisted HHB's Peach Tart and went ahead to blind bake the pastry. But blur me, I forgot to blind bake with some beans/rice on top. The pastry rose up to the brim of the pan and I had to scoop it out to create a hole to hold the fillings.

I don't usually stock up on canned peaches as DH is not a big fan of them, so I used my frozen blueberries instead.

I'm supposed to sift the grounded almond powder but they are way too chucky so I didn't bother with the sifting. You can taste the almond bits when biting into it and I thought it tasted more like coconut :P

DD1 loves this! She had a slice for breakfast and another 3 slices for our afternoon tea yesterday. This tart goes well with a cup of hot earl grey tea :-)

Blueberry Tart Recipe

Ingredients for fillings

10g cake flour (or plain flour)

80g grounded almond powder

50g brown sugar

60g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature

1 egg, lightly beaten

some frozen blueberries

Method

1. With a whisk, cream butter and brown sugar till the mixture turns fluffy. Add in the egg gradually, mix well each time the egg is added.
2. Add in grounded almond powder. Fold with a spatula till well incorporated. Sieve over the flour onto the mixture. Mix with a spatula.
3. Spread the filling onto the cooled pastry base. Ensure that the edges are filled up. Line with frozen blueberries and bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 30 ~ 35 mins, until the edges and filling turn golden brown.

Apple Tart (Crostata di mele)

Sis C came over with her twins so the children can get to mingle and play together. I've always wanted to bake an apple tart but was afraid it will be too much for us. Since we have visitors today and I've got all the ingredients, why not give it a shot?

I love tarts but I hate blind-baking as it takes up too much time. When I saw this recipe from she bakes & she cooks, I had it on my To-Do list as this recipe does not require blind-baking :)

After kneading the pastry, I cooked the apples. The apples need to be cooled before spooning into the pastry. As it was running late, I had to prepare dinner and didn't have time to follow up on this tart. After dinner, I made Apple & Celery Juice for them and was busy washing up the kitchen. Next, it's time for kids to sleep... I only started rolling out the dough at 10ish at night. By the time the tart is baked, it's almost midnight... This shall be our breakfast then.

The recipe for the pastry seems too much so I froze 1/2 the portion. But as I was rolling out the dough, I realised it's only enough for my 18cm pan, there's nothing much left for the lattice. And to bring out a portion of the pastry dough from the freezer to thaw takes some time. I didn't want to waste time waiting so decided to bake it "naked".

Crostata di mele (apple tart)
Country cooking by stefano de pieri, pg 3, delicious Mar 05 issue
Serves 8-10

Ingredients
5 golden delicious or granny smith apples

50g unsalted butter

4 tbs honey

1 pinch cinnamon

Icing sugar, to dust

Shortcrust pastry

1 and ½ cups (225g) plain flour

2/3 cup (100g) self-raising flour

2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar

150g unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup (60ml) full-fat milk

2 egg yolks

Method

1. For the pastry, process the flours, sugar and butter in a food processor, then mix in the milk and egg yolks. If dough is too wet, add a little more flour. On a lightly floured surface, bring dough together, then knead until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples, then cut into quarters. Melt the butter in a frypan over medium heat, and when it begins to froth and brown, add the apple and cook until brown and softened; about 5-10 minutes depending on the ripeness of the apples. Add the honey and cinnamon, reduce heat to medium-low and stir continuously for about 10-15 minutes or until the apples are golden and caramelized. Cool to room temperature.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius. Grease a 24cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Once pastry has rested, roll out on a lightly floured surface to 5 mm thick and line pan with pastry.
4. Place cooled apples into pastry shell. With any remaining pastry, use a crinkled pastry cutter to cut 1cm-wide strips to make a lattice to place over top. Bake 30-35 minutes. Dust with icing sugar before serving with ice cream or cream.

Crabstick and Cheese Quiche

I'll never expect myself to prepare such a dish for I'm not a quiche lover. In addition, I don't like to spend too much time preparing something so "complicated". When I say complicated, I'm actually referring to the time incurred to prepare this dish. Making the pastry, resting it in the fridge, rolling out the pastry and rest in fridge again, blind-baking, cooling it before adding fillings etc... For a homemaker with 3 kids in tow and home alone, this is definitely one challenging task. I have totally no idea what to prepare for dinner and I hope to try out new recipes for my family, so I decided to bake a quiche.


The recipe for this pastry is too much for my 18cm tart pan so I made another smaller one. I'm still a novice where rolling pastry is concern. The side of this smaller quiche somehow "shrunk" while baking. I guess I didn't lay it properly prior to baking.

This pastry recipe was shared by Hugbear in M4M but I later found out that My Culinary Journal has a similar recipe too.

Recipe
Pastry

175g flour

pinch of salt

90g cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg yolk, beat lightly

2-3 tbsp iced water

Fillings

7 crabsticks, sliced thinly

60g grated cheese

2 eggs

1 cup milk
some spinach, chopped

Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Make a well in the centre and add in beaten egg yolk and water until the pastry draws together.
3. Roll out pastry to fit 23cm (9") fluted flan tin. Chill for 30 mins.
4. Preheat oven 200°C. Line pastry with a sheet of greaseproof paper. Pour in some beans and bake 15 mins. Remove the paper and beans. Return the pastry to the oven for another 10 mins. or until the base looks dry.
5. Cool pastry before filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C.
6. Scatter sliced crabsticks all over the base of pastry. Sprinkle the cheese over crabsticks.
7. In a jug, whisk together the eggs and milk. Put the flan tin on a baking tray, and pour the egg mixture into the pastry shell.
8. Bake for 35-45 mins. or until set and golden.