Spinach Quiche

I always did like quiche, and I did try to make one long, long time ago. Decided to go meatless this time round and make something a little healthier - quiche with spinach, tomatoes and brie cheese.

The problem with my baking is that I am using the convection function of the microwave oven. The heat source emanates from one side, which usually results in the center of my cake/pie taking longer to cook, and when it does the sides may be a little over-done. A conventional oven would probably fare better since its heat source is either from the top or bottom.

I think this turned out to be pretty alright; just that I did not put enough salt, so it was slightly bland. You can taste the spinach and on the whole, it was not over-baked. However, I think I can actually bake it on lesser time so that it comes out a little more moist and soft.

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Recipe
Printable Recipe

Pastry Base
Flour 250g
Unsalted Butter 150g
Salt 1tsp
Milk 1tbsp
Egg 1

1. In a bowl, mix the flour and salt together.
2. Cut the butter into cubes and rub the flour into the butter cubes until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour/butter mixture, and mix well until you form a dough.
5. Roll the dough into a ball or disc shape and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.
6. Roll onto your pie tin. Using a fork, make a couple of holes at the base of the crust and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Filling
Onion 1
Olive oil 1tsp
Spinach 280g
Tomato 1
Eggs 3
Heavy cream 1cup
Milk 1/2cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheese of your choice

1. Dice the onions and sauteed it.
2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper and whisk lightly.
3. Dice the tomato, then add it together with the spinach (squeezed dry of water) and sauteed onions into the egg mixture.

Assembly
1. After baking the pie crust, allow it to cool.
2. Place cheese of your choice at the base of the crust.
3. Pour your filling in, and bake at 180 degrees C for about 30-35 minutes.

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Chocolate Eclairs

Realised it's been a long time since I ate eclairs, so I decided to make some. It was also time for a change to some sweet baking as well.

Made all chocolate, then realised I should have made some as normal cream. Anyway, I think they were quite successful - pastry cream was full of chocolate flavour but not too sweet. I hate eclairs which are simply filled with whipped cream that are sometimes sold in our local bakeries, so this came up to my expectations.

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Recipe (makes about 20 7-cm long eclairs)

Choux Pastry
Whole milk 1/2cup
Water 1/2cup
Unsalted butter 100g
Sugar 1tsp
Salt 1/2tsp
Flour 1 1/4cup
Eggs 4

1. Mix the milk, water, sugar and butter in a pot. Heat until all the butter has melted.
2. Lower the heat and pour all the flour in.

You will get a paste-y looking dough at first. Continue stirring over low heat for another 2 mins or so until you get a smooth looking texture similar to the pic on the right.

3. Beat the eggs together in a separate bowl.
4. Remove the pot from heat. Using a hand-mixer, mix the dough for about 1 min.
5. Slowly add the egg in in batches while whisking at the same time.

The end result would be a glossy, thick, stretchy dough that stretches a little before breaking when you lift it. If it does not stretch, add a little more egg white bit by bit.

6. Pipe onto the tray of about 1 cm wide and 4-5 cm long.
(The pastry will expand a lot while baking, hence there is no need to pipe it too large if you want small to medium sized eclairs. 1 row of piped dough should be enough. More importantly, pipe it such that it fairly high in height, or it will come out pretty flat. Use the back of a teaspoon dipped in cold water to smooth the piped dough)

7. Bake at 200 degrees C for 20-25 mins or until brown and slightly hard on the top.


Chocolate Pastry Cream
Whole Milk 2cups
Egg yolks 4
Sugar 6tbsp
Cornstarch 3tbsp
Salt 1/4tsp
70% Dark Chocolate 190g

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at high for about 1 minute.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar and corn starch together.
3. In a pot, heat the milk and salt together until boiling.
4. Pour half of the milk into the yolk mixture in a small stream to temper the yolks, while whisking all the time.
5. Pour the yolk mixture back into the pot of remaining milk and return to the stove.
6. Heat while whisking until the mixture thickens a little and starts to bubble.
7. Pour into the melted chocolate and mix well.
8. Press cling wrap directly onto the surface to prevent skin from forming. Allow to cool or refrigerate if not using on same day.


Chocolate Glaze
Semi-sweet chocolate 150g
Unsalted Butter 30g

1. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave until melted. Mix well and allow to cool.


Assembly:
1. Slice off the top third of the choux pastry.
2. Dip the upper piece in the chocolate glaze and allow it set. Freeze it for faster setting.
3. Using a spoon, fill the bottom piece with desired amount of pastry cream.
4. Cover with the top piece and enjoy!

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Egg Tart

Attempted egg tarts which was a failure by my standards.

Instructions called for baking at 300 degrees C, so that the pastry will be cooked but the custard will not curdle too much. But my oven could only reach 250.

As it turns out, the custard was a little too sweet for my liking as well. I have never had much success with pastries, so the recipe is not worth chronicling here. I think I should just stick to my cakes.

Egg Tarts

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Berry Tart

Been baking dull colour things, so here's a colourful entry! Berry Tart!!! Specifically, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, and pastry cream under it all, which is actually custard cream with flour added in and cooked at high heat.

Guess the addition of flour made the custard cream more gelatinous. In any case, I almost burnt the pastry cream, but it tasted real good, probably because I was added full-cream milk powder and was a little more generous with the vanilla essence.

Actually it was pretty easy to make - took less than 2 hours although I did make the dough overnight. Cost price: ~$20 and that's because raspberries are a little more expensive. Come to think of it, I could divide this into 6 slices, and each could probably sell about $5 at restaurants/cafes, which makes this worth ~$30, and giving me a $10 profit!

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Recipe:

Short Crust Pastry ingredients:
Cold Unsalted Butter 60g
Pastry Flour 100g
Sugar 1/4 tsp
Salt 1/8 tsp
Cold watrer 50g
1. Place flour, sugar and salt together and rub into the butter using fingertips, until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add in water and mix until you get a smooth dough.
2. Roll out dough to about 5mm thickness and cover a 20cm tin tart.
3. Bake at 200 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Pastry Cream ingredients:
Whole milk 200g
Vanilla essence 1tsp
Egg yolks 3
Castor sugar 50g
Pastry flour 20g

1. Boil milk and vanilla essence.
2. Seperately, beat egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow in colour. Add in flour and mix well.
3. Stream hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture.
4. Bring the combined mixture back to heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until mixture is thick and glossy.

Assembly:
1. Gently beat the pastry cream so that it is light and creamy.
2. Spread cream into the tart. Place desired fruits on the top.
3. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

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シュークリーム (Choux Cream)

Attempted シュークリーム (Choux Cream); otherwise known as cream/custard puff. Went for the hard crust type, but somehow the dough did not rise as much as I hoped. I had wanted a more rounded ball shape, but it came out a little flat. Custard cream was ok; I think the viscosity of it was what I wanted.

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