Flaky Portuguese Egg Tarts

I am not a dessert person nor do I have sweet tooth though I love to bake and decorate cakes! I just love looking at pretty cakes and dessert especially petite four. However, once in a while I do crave for some sweet delights. Like today.

Have been wanting to eat egg tarts for so long so I went around the net and try looking for the simplest recipe to start off with. Also, I need to check the ingredients I have on hand and looking through Su's site, I got one which is extreme simple with minimal ingredients involved! Yippee! :D

I just love how flaky these tarts were and they are not the least sweet! The only down side was... the recipe only yields 6 tarts...

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Ingredients

• ¼ cup Full cream milk


• ¼ cup Whipping cream


• 4 tbsp Castor sugar


• 3 Egg yolks beaten


• 300g Puff pastry

Methods

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C (depending on your oven)


2. Pour full cream milk and whipping cream into a glass bowl and put into microwave oven for 2 minutes.


3. Once boil, remove from microwave and add in the sugar, mix till dissolved. Heat in the microwave for another 45 seconds.


4. Take out and add in the beaten egg yolks in a thin stream with a balloon whisk.


5. Cut out the puff pastry using the biggest circle (which can line your cupcake tray mould). Line the mould with at least 2 layers of the biggest circle and another one smaller circle (1cm smaller) and lightly press the pastry to fill up the mould.


6. Slowly pour in the mixture into all the shells and pop into oven for 30mins or until you see the centre pop up with brownish sides...

Japanese Steamed Cake (Mushipan)

Oh dear! It has been ages since I posted here!! Not that I have stopped cooking, just that I really don't have much time to edit the photos and making the effort to post. However, I have tried posting more on my bento creations as that has been an integral part of my daily must do since my boy goes to formal school now.

Also, we are adjusting to our new life here in Melbourne (we've just migrated here 2 months ago) so there are so much to do since a couples of months back. Not to mention I was down with severe morning sickness (yeah, it is my 3rd one!) since last August... which explained my disappearance.

Ever since moving here, I have been cooking quite a fair bit as eating out is expensive here but I kept to the favorite few recipes which are fool proof with the family.

With the kids getting older, they knew how to make requests and sometimes I just feel I need to do my bit as a mommy and give them the treats they deserved. Lately, they have been asking for cakes (and cakes sold at the supermarts are so darn sweet!) so I tried looking for simple recipes which is fast, yummy and healthy. Electricity is expensive here so I try to avoid baking with oven so steaming is the best option!

Previously, I tried making the Steamed Banana Cupcakes but that recipes is not totally fool proof (it can be quite hard sometimes) so I tried to search for another and was glad I found one which is healthy and with minimal ingredients too! You can find the original recipe here as I've twisted the ingredients a little to suit our taste buds (you can get creative and come up with various ingredients that you like!). It is actually a type of Japanese tea-cake which is called mushipan. I just love the light and fluffy texture when it is fresh out of the steamer!

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Ingredients (Yields 8-9 medium sized cupcakes)

• 200g Plain flour


• 2tsp Baking powder (I used double action)


• 2 Eggs (60g each)


• 50g Castor sugar (I used brown sugar)


• 100ml Water


• 2tbsp Vegetable oil


• 2 Bananas (Diced and kept some for topping)

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Methods

1. Sieve flour and baking powder in a big bowl. Set aside.


2. Beat eggs and sugar till fluffy and add in the vegetable oil and beat till well mixed.


3. Mix the water and egg mixture alternately into flour until you get a thick batter.


4. Heat up steamer/wok with water.


5. Lined moulds with cupcake cups while you add in the diced banana into the batter before filling the cupcake cups to 2/3 full. Sprinkle some diced banana on top before sending them into the steamer.


6. Depending on size of your cupcake mould... it should takes about 10-12 minutes to cook...