Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream and Strawberry Filling

Swiss roll cake is always one of our family favorites. I usually try, if I have enough time to prepare, to make cake for a birthday celebration in our house. This year, my youngest requested for a Swiss roll cake for his birthday. He requested for a coffee roll cake and other variant of roll cake. However, since his birthday this year fell on the busy period of Easter celebration, and also an appointment with family friends, I negotiated with him to make 2 chocolate Swiss roll cake filled with fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

At the beginning, he was dissapointed. However, when the cake was being made, he started to get enthusiastic and started to help around with the cake. And when we could cut and try the cake, he was completely happy. I was also happy with the results. 

Let's get directly to the recipe of the cake, so you can try to make it at home. 

Ingredients

(A)

4 egg yolks
20 gr fine sugar
25 gr vegetable oil
50 gr milk
50 gr cake flour

(B)

4 egg whites
0.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
45 gr fine sugar

Ingredients of the Filling

300 ml cream (minimum 35%, the one we use for making whipped cream)

20 gram powder sugar

Fresh strawberry - washed and dried with paper napkin

How to make the cake:

1. Preparation: Line the pan with baking sheet. Make sure the baking sheet is bigger than the baking pan/tray, so that we can take out the cake easier. This time, I used a rectangular tray from IKEA. 

2. Mix all (A) ingredients except the flour. Sift the cake flour in, and mix it until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar, mix until it becomes soft peak.

4. In the mean time, preheat the oven, upper-and-lower heat at 160 degree Celcius.

5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (B) into the egg-flour mixture (A). After it is well incoporated, add every time 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (A) into the mixture gradually and fold it in well. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.

6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan lined with baking paper and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Note that the mixture is not really flowing, so you have to help the mixture to spread itself evenly.

7. Bake the cake at 160 degree Celcius, for around 20 minutes or until the tooth pick test comes out clean.

8. Let it cool in the oven with the oven door a little bit open for around 5 minutes.

9. Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool further on the cake rack. When it is still warm but cool enough to touch, roll the cake and let it sit in a roll shape. 

10. When the cake is already cool, unroll it, spread the cream filling (see below on how to make it) and then add 1 line of strawberries. 

11. Roll the cake and wrap it with the baking paper. Store it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving it, to make sure that the shape will hold.

How to make the filling:

Beat the fresh whipped cream and powder sugar until they are incorporated and forming a smooth whipped cream consistency.

Enjoy the cake!

Durian Mille Crepe

During my husband's birthday gathering last year, my youngest son and I planned a different "cake". We usually baked either Lapis Surabaya cake (spiku) or Japanese cheese cake. But this time, inspired by the Durian Mille crepe that our aunt bought for us during our visit to her warm home in LA, USA, we exchanged our usual cakes with this one. 

My sons love durian. While some hate the taste or sometimes even only the smell of durian, my children love durian. When they were younger, they also hated it. It smells, mommy. However, after a visit to Medan (a city in Indonesia), where they got their share of tasty local durian, they started to love it. My youngest favorite is when the durian is processed into other delicious food, such as, mille crepe or just a simple durian ice dessert (Ice durian with crushed ice and flavored condensed milk).

This time, I made two durian crepe using the below recipe. I made it into two smaller size because it is easier to handle than bigger diameter crepe. Also, with the heavy durian filling, I think smaller size crepe is already filling enough for a portion of dessert.

For the durian, I used durian Palu. Frozen of course, because I could not find a cheaper fresh one here with guaranteed quality. But durian Palu is delicious and in this case, I would mix it with fresh whipped cream.

We have had quite a feast with this durian dessert during the gathering and I was happy with the happy faces after they ate the dessert.   

Ingredients of the Crepe
75 gr butter (melted)
200 gr all-purpose flour
6 eggs
800 ml warm milk (I used pasteurized full milk - be careful not to use hot milk since it will cook the eggs)
80 grams of sugar (around 6 tbsp sugar - for less sweet crepe)
1 pinch of salt

Method (Crepe)

1. Mix the flour, eggs, sugar and the salt in a bowl.
2. Warm the butter and milk. Put aside when it starts steaming.

3. Slowly add the milk mixture into the egg mixture while keep mixing the batter.

4. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours. (I left it overnight, to divide my work load.)
5. Prepare 2 non-stick frying pans (I used two small non-stick pans, one is a bit bigger than the other). Heat the smaller pan and add a bit of butter. Melt the butter and spread the butter evenly.
6. Using a soup ladle pour 1 portion of the mixture to the pan and swirl the pan a few times to ensure that the mixture is spread evenly. Cook until the upper side of the crepe is not wet anymore and the colour change to light brown.

7. Slowly flip the crepe into the other (bigger) pan. This is the trick I used, so I do not have to flip it using spatula. Cook the other side for around 10 seconds, than flip it again to a tray lined with baking paper for cooling.

8. repeat steps 5-7 until all mixture is finished. I made around 40-50 crepes from the batter.

11. Let all crepes cool before arranging the crepes.

Ingredients of the Cream
900 ml fresh whipped cream + 3 tbsp sugar
300-500 grams durian without seed

Method (Cream)

1. Beat the durian until it becomes soft, put aside.
2. Beat the fresh whipped cream and sugar until it becomes fluffy. Tips: Remember the whipped cream has to be cold and also the mixer should not be warm.
3. Add the durian into the whipped cream and fold it.

How to arrange: 
Additional ingredient: Ready to use Azuki bean paste (red bean paste)

1. Prepare a big plate covered by baking paper.
2. Put 1 crepe on the plate.

3. Spread a part of durian whipped cream sporadically.

4. Cover with 1 crepe.

5. Read steps 3 and 4 until the last crepe.

Enjoy the durian mille crepe!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

One of our favorite cake is pandan chiffon cake. I have difficulty to make a good pandan chiffon cake. Despites my effort to do some trial and error or trying out several recipes, it seems that my pandan chiffon cake was always somehow shrink or not big enough for my cake form.

Some time ago, I posted about how I tried to modify the recipe using design of experiment (DOE) principles by changing 2 different variables. After some trials, I seems to get the correct amount to fill in my cake form. So this time, I got a big enough cake compared to my cake form. 

For the cooling of the cake, I made use of a bottle and a couple of mugs. The bottle was used to hang the cake form upside down, while the mugs were used to hold the sides of the cake form, just as an extra support. After the cake was cool enough, I turned the cake form back.

Luckily this time, the cake turned out quite nice. The texture was soft, airy and the shrinkage was also minimal. I was quite happy with the results. I  used no fan-forced method when I put the cake batter in the oven. 

As usual, despites the imperfectness, we still enjoyed this cake.

Ingredients:

A

9 egg yolks

25 grams fine granulated sugar

180 grams cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

150 ml coconut milk

a few drops of pandan paste (you can also use fresh pandan leaves - obtain first the juice to use)

B

9 egg whites

100 grams fine granulated sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar or 1 tbsp lemon juice

How to make:

1. Shift the flour. Put aside.
2. Mix the ingredients (A) except the dry ingredients and pandan paste until it mixed well.
3. Add the dry ingredients step-by-step while mixing the ingredients. After all the dry ingredients are mixed add the pandan paste, mix everything until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside the egg-flour mixture.
4. In another bowl, mix (ingredients B) the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar until it becomes medium peak (peaks hold their shape pretty well, except that the tip of the peak curls over on itself when the beaters are lifted).
5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in the egg-flour mixture into the egg whites mixture (B) in three batches. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.
6. Preheat the oven (160 degree Celcius). I used fan forced to preheat the oven but switch to lower heat only when baking the cake.
7. Pour the mixture into a chiffon cake pan (I used 25 cm cake pan). Baked the cake using lower heat (160 degree Celcius) for around 30 minutes and then switch to upper and lower heat for the last 20 minutes to get a nice brown surface. 
8. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
9. When it is done, turn off the oven. Let it cool down in the oven for around 5 minutes. 
10. Remove the cake pan from the oven, invert it upside down using bottle to hold the center of the cake pan. Or you can also use mugs to support the sides of the cake pan, while inverting it and during the cooling down.
11. After the cake is cooled, remove the cake from the cake pan. Serve the cake. 

Pork Bread with Fresh Cream

Having lived most of my early life in South East Asia, I was pampered with varieties of good food. One of my favorite snacks is Asian type sweet soft bread filled with varieties of filling. The filling can be sweet or salty. 

One of my sweet childhood memories is when my parents brought me to buy baked filled bread from Teck Kee Tanglin Pau. I loved the smell of the freshly baked bread, the taste of sweet meat filling of the bread and the trips to the shop with my parents. 

Although we lived in other continent now, we also introduce our kids to varieties of food, including Asian food and snacks. The baked bread filled with sweet meat has also become one of the children favorite snacks or to-go-lunch options. I sometimes fill their lunch box with this type of bread. 

Usually, I used tangzhong bread recipe to make this bread. However, I felt that it was sometimes quite troublesome to prepare the tangzhong in advance. Therefore, I searched the internet for the possible replacement for the tangzhong. An idea for that is using either sour cream or fresh cream with minimal 25% fat content. I saw some bread recipe in the internet using either sour cream or other thick cream.

I tried to incorporate the cream as replacement of tangzhong in my to-go filled bread recipe. The result was satisfying. It was soft and as airy as the one using tangzhong. The advantage of using cream is that we do not have to make the tangzhong in advance. But, of course the use of cream increases the content of fat in the bread. If you don't mind the fat content, you can use this recipe instead of the recipe with tangzhong method.

My family, who always acted as my tester, found this recipe was also a keeper. 

For the filling, you can also refer to my previous recipe hier.

Ingredients:

125 grams fresh cream

250 ml milk

1 egg

500 grams bread flour

65 grams sugar 

7 grams yeast

50 grams butter

1 egg for brushing the bread

roasted black sesame seed

How to make:

1. To make the dough, combine all dough ingredient (note: this can be done because the yeast used here is instant yeast) except the fresh cream and butter in the stand mixer bowl.  Using the hook attachment, knead the ingredients until you get a dough form and the gluten begins to develop.
2. Knead in the cream and butter until the dough is smooth and does not stick to the wall of the bowl and to your hand. To double check if the gluten has developed enough, you can stretch the dough. If the dough can be stretched easily to form a thin membrane, and you can light through the membrane, then the dough is ready.
3. Shape the dough into a ball shape. Put it back into the bowl, cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and place it in the refrigerator to proof until the next day or put it somewhere warm until it's doubled in size. As an alternative, proof it in a warm environment (the best is 28 degree Celcius) for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in size.
4. After the dough rise double in size, punch down the dough and roll into a long shape. Cut into 16 equal size pieces (around 55-60 grams per piece).
5. Roll the dough into a thin layer and fill in the dough with filling. 
6. Cover the filling with the dough and pinch the edges and press it to make sure that the filling will not leak out.
7. Carefully pinch up the edges and press together, ensuring the filling is well sealed.
8. Place the pressed side down onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Cover them with damp tea towel and let them rest for around 1 hour for last proving. (I sometimes use cling wrap to cover them and keep them in a warm cabinet. At least that method works for me).
9. Preheat oven to 180°C.
10. Brush the top of the bread with beaten egg, sprinkle the bread with roasted black sesame seed and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. I usually bake two trays with upper and below heat sources and exchange the positions of the trays halfway the baking time.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

One of our favorite cake is pandan chiffon cake. I have difficulty to make a good pandan chiffon cake. Despites my effort to do some trial and error or trying out several recipes, it seems that my pandan chiffon cake was always somehow shrink. 

A few weeks ago, I discussed this with an old school friend. She gave me idea to let the cake cool in the oven instead of letting it cool outside the oven. 

So, this time I tried a modified recipe while also cooling the cake in the oven. I know, I know. According to design of experiment (DOE) principles, it was a wrong thing to do: Changing 2 different variables at a time without making the DOE table first. I am lazy, hahaha.... Anyway, I did modify the recipe because my cake pan was actually bigger than the recipes I had. 

The chiffon cake I made this time is not our usual pandan chiffon cake but chocolate chiffon cake. I seldom made chocolate cake since I found that chocolate cake, in general, is difficult to handle. It tends to be wetter (literally) than vanilla or pandan cake. And usually it is quite sticky, difficult to roll (in the case of roll cake). This time I encouraged myself to make the chocolate variant because my husband asked for chocolate instead of pandan.

Luckily this time, the cake turned out quite nice. The texture was soft and the shrinkage was also minimal. I was quite happy with the results. What I think I need to improve next is minimizing the crack at the surface of the cake. I have decreased the oven temperature and also used no fan-forced method, but the cake still had cracks at the surface. 

Despites the imperfectness, we still enjoyed this cake.

Ingredients:

A

8 egg yolks

20 grams fine granulated sugar

40 grams chocolate powder (without sugar)

150 grams cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

150 ml milk

B

8 egg whites

100 grams fine granulated sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar or 1 tbsp lemon juice

How to make:

1. Shift the flour and chocolate powder. Put aside.
2. Mix the ingredients (A) except the dry ingredients until it mixed well.
3. Add the dry ingredients step-by-step while mixing the ingredients. After all the dry ingredients are mixed, mix everything until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside the egg-flour mixture.
4. In another bowl, mix (ingredients B) the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar until it becomes medium peak (peaks hold their shape pretty well, except that the tip of the peak curls over on itself when the beaters are lifted).
5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in the egg-flour mixture into the egg whites mixture (B) in three batches. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.
6. Preheat the oven (150/160 degree Celcius). I used fan forced to preheat the oven but switch to lower heat when baking the cake.
7. Pour the mixture into a chiffon cake pan (I used 25 cm cake pan). Baked the cake using lower heat (150 degree Celcius) for around 30 minutes and then switch to upper and lower heat for the last 20 minutes. 
8. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
9. When it is done, turn off the oven. Invert the cake pan inside the oven. Let it cool down in the oven. 
10. Remove the cake from the oven and from the cake pan. Serve the cake.

Chocolate chiffon cake - just out from the oven

Chocolate chiffon cake - ready to serve

Aubergine in Garlic Sauce

My children love having aubergine dishes. I also find it delicious as Indonesian dish, e.g. cooked as lodeh. However, the kids usually ask for aubergine in balado sauce (cooked in Indonesian tomato sauce with a tint of chili). I also find it delicious but too tedious to cook. It is because we need to fry the aubergine first. 

Another favorite style of cooking aubergine for us, is aubergine in (spicy) garlic sauce. I usually buy the instant sauce (Singapore brand) to make it. This aubergine dish also needs us to fry the aubergine first before making the sauce. 

Last week, I wanted to cook aubergine we had but I did not have other ingredients either for aubergine balado or lodeh. After browsing for the possible alternatives, I decided to try making the non-spicy variant of the aubergine in garlic sauce. I did not have the instant sauce, but I had the ingredients to make the sauce.

It turned out to be quite nice and the whole family loved it. Although it still involved frying, I found this dish quite refreshing. I did plan to slowly add some chili so that my children can learn to appreciate spicy food also.

Below is the recipe of this dish.

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, cut into medium strips

oil to fry

corn flour

2 stalks spring onion, cut into small pieces

6-7 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced

3 tbsp (light) soy sauce

1 tbsp black vinegar

1 tsp white pepper

1-2 tsp white sugar

How to:

1. Dust the aubergine strips in corn flour, put aside.
2. Heat the oil. Not too much, just enough to fry the aubergine, but not deep frying it. Fry one side for around 3 minutes or until it is brown. Then, fry the other side also until it is brown. Drain the excess oil and put aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil. Brown the minced garlic for 1 minute.
4. Add the minced ginger until fragrant.
5. Add the aubergine.
6. Add the soy sauce, black vinegar. Mix until the soy sauce and vinegar well incorporated with the aubergine.
7. Add a bit of pepper and sprinkle the sugar on the aubergine. Mix them well.
8. Add the spring onion.
9. Add a bit of chili powder or cut chili if you want something spicy.
10. Taste it. If needed adjust the taste with salt/pepper/sugar. 
11.  Serve the dish with warm steamed rice.

Enjoy it with warm steamed rice.

Cheesecake Brownies

Chocolate cake is one of everybody's fave. OK, almost everybody.

I usually bought either supermarket or bakery brownies since it is convenient. But, having 2 young boys who start to appreciate the difference of ingredients' quality, I looked to some alternatives. I was actually quite amazed, how they could detect which brand of ingredients I used for some cases. So, for certain ingredients, when possible, I bought the higher quality ones to avoid arguments with these young boys at home.

Not long ago, I saw a cheesecake brownies recipe from Sara (www.dinneratthezoo.com) and thought that it looked good. Accidentally, a few days after that, a friend of mine made her cheesecake brownies using Sara's recipe. Based on my friend's comment, I was motivated to find a time to try the recipe out. Especially since I needed to provide more snacks for the boys during that (Covid-19) lockdown period. 

Since I used different size of baking pan than Sara's and some of the ingredients were not quite easy to find here, I modified her recipe a bit to cater to our situation. The recipe is easy to follow and the result is also delicious. It was quite a heavy cake, so I cut the cake into 16 squares. The baking pan I used was the baking pan for the Lapis Surabaya cake 22 x 22 x 4 cm. 

Ingredients:

Brownies layer 

170 gr butter

125 gr dark cooking chocolate (I used 74% choc content)

150 gr fine sugar

3 eggs (medium size)

2 tsp vanilla

125 gr all-purpose flour

4 tbs cocoa powder 

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs of hot water

Cheesecake layer

300 gr cream cheese

50 gr fine sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

How to make:

Brownies batter

1. Melt the butter and the dark cooking chocolate. It can be microwaved at 800 Watt for 30 sec (you may sometimes need longer) and stir the mixture until smooth. Or alternatively melt it using double boiler. Let it cool.
2. After the chocolate mixture is cool enough, add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, mix until the ingredients are incorporated.
3. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and mix until it is well combined.
4. Put aside 1/4 of the brownies batter (for the decoration).

Cheesecake batter

1. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese and sugar. Beat it for a couple of minutes before adding the egg and vanilla. Mix again until it is well combined and smooth.

Baking the cake:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C using upper and bottom heat.
2. Prepare the cake pan, line the bottom and sides with baking paper. 
3. Pour 3/4 of the brownies batter into the baking pan, level the batter.
4. Pour the cheesecake batter on top of the brownies batter.
5. Mix the brownies batter (1/4 of the batter) that we put aside with 1 tbs of hot water, mix to get a smooth mixture. Spoon this on top of the cheesecake layer.
6. Using skewer or a knife or fork (whatever you can find), make a pattern for a decoration purpose.
7. Baked the cake for around 30-35 minute or until the do the prick test, by pricking a skewer into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
8. Let it cool before cutting the cake.

If you do not want to finish everything at once, you can freeze the cut cakes. Leave it in room temperature for a few hours before serving it or alternatively you can microwave it if you prefer a warm cake.
Enjoy the cake!

Serabi Saus Kinca

One of my favorites things to do in Indonesia and Singapore, or if I can say in most of Asian countries I have visited or lived, is getting delicious snacks almost all day long. I love going to the traditional market, looking for local snacks. In Indonesia, we call them: jajan pasar. Jajan means snacks, while pasar means market.

There are different types and styles of jajan pasar. For the same jajan, there could be different styles to prepare it. Why? There are several reasons. One of the reasons is adaptation of the taste to the preference of certain region. Sometimes, it can also be difficult to trace the real origin and history of the jajan.

One of the jajan pasar I like is serabi. In other place, it is also called surabi. The main theme of this jajan is the combination of coconut milk and palm sugar/javanese sugar.

There are a few variants of the palm sugar. I prefer gula jawa/javanese sugar. It is usually darker, and the taste is a bit different than other variants. I have difficulty to describe the taste in words.

Serabi consists of a pancake like snack and the sauce. Both the pancake and sauce are made with coconut milk. The difficult part of making the pancake is to make the holes of the pancake appear. It is actually similar with the trick to make martabak manis, another Indonesian favorite street snack. What I have done to make the holes appear on the pancake is: by beating the batter a few times using the ladle before pouring the batter to the pan. After a few serabis, sometimes we need to add a bit extra baking powder to initiate again the making of the holes on the serabi. It surely needs practice. I still make mistakes that prevent the holes to appear on the serabi.

Nevertheless, we did enjoy eating this during the lockdown time (Covid-19 related lockdown) in our region.

For the kids, since they are not as a big fan of coconut milk and gula jawa (palm sugar) as I am, I modified the serabi. Instead of eating it with the coconut milk/gula jawa sauce, I put different toppings, such as: slice of ham or slice cheese or chocolate, on top of the serabi while cooking the serabi.


Ingredients:
For the Serabi
150 gram all purpose flour
50 gram rice flour
25 gram sugar
1 tsp salt
3.5 gram instant yeast
1 tsp baking powder
250-300 ml coconut milk

For the sauce/kuah Kinca
250 ml santan (coconut milk)
1/2 tsp salt
70 gram palm sugar
2 pandan leaves (you can skip it if you don't have)

Alternative topping: cheese, ham, chocolate sprinkle.

How to make:

1. Mixed all the serabi's ingredients in a bowl until everything the mixture is smooth,
2. Set aside the serabi's mixture and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes,
3. Warm a non-stick pan (I used a small teflon pan) without oil/butter,
4. Beat the batter with ladle and pour around 1 ladle of batter into the pan,
5. Wait until holes appear on the serabi, then colse the pan using the lid of the pan. 
6. There are two variants:
• If you eat them with the coconut sauce: check until the bottom of the serabi golden brown before putting it aside.
• If you want to add topping: before you close the lid of the pan, add slices of ham or cheese or chocolate sprinkle. Close the lid of the pan for a while (not too long), check if the bottom of the serabi is already golden brown, then put it aside.
7. Continue with the rest of the batter. 
8. To make the sauce:
• Mix all the ingredients for the sauce,
• Boil the mixture 
9. Serve the serabi with the sauce. If you make the modified ones (with slice ham/slice cheese), serve them without the coconut/palm sugar sauce.

I hope you enjoy them!

Serabi with kinca (coconut milk/palm sugar) sauce

Serabi with cheese topping

Marble Cake

Marble cake is a classic cake. It is easy to find in local supermarkets and bakery. The advantage of this cake is that it is easy to make and does not need special skills to make.

Since we have been staying at home for almost 2 months now because of the Covid-19 limitation of movement, I thought that it may be a good idea to let my children learn to make a cake. This cake is good choice to start learning to bake.

My youngest boy was interested to make something. Since it is his first time making cake by himself, I helped him a bit with preparing the ingredients and when he needs extra help in handling the tools and mixing the ingredients.

In this recipe, I used cream fraiche. The addition of cream fraiche will make the cake moist.

Ingredients:
200 gram all-purpose-flour
200 gram butter (room temperature)
150 gram sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp cream fraiche
3 tbsp chocolate powder (if you do not like stronger chocolate taste, you can reduce it to two tbsp)

How to make:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Celcius,
2. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until we have an almost white mixture,
3. While waiting for the mixing of the butter and sugar, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Put aside,
4. Add the eggs one by one to the butter and sugar mixture, and mix until it is fully incorporated. Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl regularly,
5. Add the cream fraiche and mix until it is fully incorporated,
6. Divide the batter into two portion. Add the chocolate powder into one of the portion and mix it using spoon until it has a smooth texture and the chocolate is fully incorporated into the batter,
7. Prepare the cake form. Pour the white batter first. Then, pour the chocolate batter in the middle of the white batter. Using a knife or spoon or fork, make a zigzag movement a few times,
8. Bake the cake for around 30-40 minutes or until it is golden brown. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer,
9. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack before serving.

My children found the cake delicious, but still thinks that the chocolate was not strong enough. They are pure chocolate lovers. That is why, if your taste is in the sweeter side, you can also increase the sugar content to around 175-200 grams. 

Let me know if you also love classic cakes and if you have other ideas of baking to fill in this stay-at-home period with family.

Oven Baked Honey Lemon Chicken with A Hint of Rosemary

Stay-at-home order, related to Covid-19 rules, has been in place (in our area) for more than 40 days. I know that this stay-at-home period is quite stressful for everyone. Everybody has to restrict their movement: no school, working-at-home arrangement, no dining out, no playing outside. But, that is surely the more reasons for us to be nicer to others. I was very surprised to encountered, during my groceries shopping, few not-very-friendly people. Last week, a senior lady pushed me with her bicycle while I was standing in front of the table of a vegetable seller (waiting for my vegetable being wrapped for me).  I did not understand why she pushed me with her bicycle and then just stood there next to me and not waiting in the correct waiting line. The effort I made to avoid being angry and avoid making argument with people in public spaces, surely giving me more stress.

To avoid more stress, I also tried from time-to-time to prepare simple dishes for the family.  Since everybody is at home during this period, we have to plan all meals and snack for the whole family. I am struggling with daily menu. I find that preparing healthy but not boring menu is difficult. I frequently ran out of ideas and energy to plan and execute the food preparation. That is why, simple dishes are from time to time are my life saviour. Because simple dishes mean less stress. 

Last week, I ran out of ideas. It was almost dinner time, but I have not cooked anything. I opened the refrigerator and saw chicken legs and lemon. Then I looked at my garden and I saw that it was time for me to trim my rosemary. I remembered that I saw somewhere recipes for honey lemon chicken. However, I was too lazy to browse for the exact recipe and just made my own version of oven baked honey lemon chicken and served it with home made cream white asparagus soup.

The boys (both the young boys and the adult) at home love it. 

This chicken dish is easy to prepare and we just need to put it in the oven and wait. The taste is not strong, but that is why it was perfect companion for the cream white asparagus soup. 

Do you also love to cook a simple dish once in a while to reduce your stress level?

Ingredients

1+ kg chicken legs (cut into smaller pieces)

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

20 cm long fresh rosemary branch (release the rosemary from the branch, discard the stalk, and chop the rosemary leaves)

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp lemon

1-2 tbsp olive oil

How to make:

1. Clean the chicken and place it in a big bowl,
2. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add the honey, lemon, and olive oil. Mixed well,
3. Use the mixed ingredients to marinate the chicken for around 30 minutes or more,
4. Warm the oven (I use convection oven) at 180 Celsius,
5. Put the chicken in a roasting rack and keep the rest of the marinate in a small bowl,
6. Bake the chicken for around 15 minutes and apply the rest of the marinate to the chicken using brush,
7. Return the chicken to the oven and continue baking for another 15-30 minutes, or until the it is cooked thoroughly. To check if the chicken is done, pierce the chicken and check if the meat is already white, not pink anymore and the juice is also not pink in colour.

The chicken is also delicious to eat with steamed rice. I may be biased, but as Asian I love eating many things with rice and sambal (Indonesian chilli paste).

Spare Ribs with Sweet Coriander Sauce

Our family love to have, once in a while, BBQ or grilled food. One of our favorites is spare ribs in sweet coriander sauce. Since I am quite lazy, I frequently make things using oven instead of the real deal: grilling over coals. It is easier for me to clean up, and I do not have to stand quite long outside the house. 

When I moved to Europe, I noticed that western style grill food mostly seasoned with only salt and pepper. The sauce they use for dips usually mayonnaise, mustard, BBQ sauce, garlic sauce, or similar. However, in Indonesia we usually have grilled food with variety of rich sauces. One of my favorites is sweet coriander sauce. It is typical Indonesian.

Here is the recipe I usually use.

Ingredients

1 kg Spare ribs

2 tbs oil (vegetable oil)
1 tbs finely chopped garlic

1 tbs coriander seeds (ground)

3 tbs (Indonesian) sweet soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

(for dips and extra)
sweet soy sauce
2-3 shallot (chopped)
bird eye chili 
lime
tomatoes (cut)

How to make:

1. Clean the ribs,
2. In a bowl, mix the vegetable oil, chopped garlic, grounded coriander seeds, sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper,
3. Marinate the ribs with the mixed sauce. Keep it in the refrigerator until you want to bake it,
4. Warm the oven (I used fan forced) at 200º Celcius,
5. Bake the marinated spare ribs for 30 menit,
6. Change the oven to grill mode, and  continue to bake for 15 minutes,
7. Prepare the sauce: mix the sweet soy sauce, chili (if you like), cut tomatoes and chopped shallot. Sprinkle the sauce with lime juice to taste.
8. Serve it with lontong (Indonesian rice cake) or white steamed rice.

Talam Labu Kuning (Pumpkin talam)

Last year, in October, my youngest son (Tim) was busy with writing a letter for Sint Nicholas (i.e. Sinterklaas) and putting the letter in his shoes behind the front door. Suddenly, we heard the door bell rang. My children were screaming so hard, because the lil' brother just put a letter in his shoes for Sinterklaas just a few seconds before that. It turned out that it was a girl friend of mine who also lives near us, stopping by to  give us a delicious pumpkin. The children (and us) are very happy with the present. It was really a good timing.

Back about the pumpkin. Yes, October is the time again for pumpkin harvest. In general, I do not favor the wind and rain during the Fall. However, I love the vegetable products that we could enjoy during this season. Pumpkin and its family is one of them.

My family loves enjoying pumpkin vegetable soup. You can find my pumpkin soup recipe here. I made a big pot of pumpkin vegetable soup with half of the pumpkin. The rest, I steamed the pumpkin and process it into an Indonesian snack, called Talam Labu Kuning. Labu kuning is the Indonesian translation of pumpkin. Talam is a traditional steamed cake usually made from rice flour or tapioca flour, or the combination of the two. One of the main ingredients is coconut milk. There are many variaties of kue Talam. Talam labu kuning, or pumpkin talam is one of the variations.

I was excited to try making this. However, I was a bit disappointed to find out that my oldest boy did not like it, while my youngest said he loved it but he did not want it. Apparently, the taste was not a familiar taste for them and I should give them a try more often before they would find the taste is acceptable. Anyway, I am glad that I have tried making this and introduced a new taste to the kids. The talam ended up in our (read: the adults) stomach.


Ingredients
Bottom layer
200 gr (mashed) steamed pumpkin
200 ml coconut milk
50 gr rice flour
25 gr tapioca flour
90 gr sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

Top layer
200 ml coconut milk
40 gr rice flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
1. Bottom layer: Mix all ingredients for the bottom layer in a bowl until a smooth mixture is obtained. I use electric mixer to produce that. Set aside.
2. Top layer: Mix all the top layer ingredients in a bowl until smooth mixture is obtained. Set aside.
3. Prepare a steamer and start boiling the water.
4. Prepare cupcake or muffin cups, fill it in with the bottom layer mixture until around 2/3 of the height. Steam it for around 15 minutes.
5. Pour in the top layer, until almost the top of the cups and steam it again for around 10-15 minutes.
6. Turn off the stove, and let it cool before serving it.

Nastar (Ananas Taart)

UPDATED: 20 May 2019

Ananas Taart is a type of cookie with pineapple jam filling that is usually served during some religious celebrations (e.g. Christmas, Idul Fitri) or New Year (both International and Chinese New Year) celebrations. The price of the good ones, is usually quite expensive since it usually involves good quality of home made pineapple jam and the process of making the cookie is quite laborious.

When I still lived in Indonesia and Singapore, I did not bother to make any. It is quite easy to order, and there are a lot of choices. My mother also used to make some, mostly for our own consumption.  She does not make it anymore, but will buy some when she wants one now. So, although I never really made my own before, I knew how much time and energy is needed to produce a good and delicious ananas taart cookie.

Now, although my children are living in Europe and we do not have the same custom here, we have introduced this cookie to them. My oldest son, who does not like fresh pineapple, surprisingly LOVES the ananas taart cookie so much. I think, the combination of the melted in the mouth cookie and the tanginess of the pineapple is an irresistible combination.

During last 2018 New Year holidays, I bought 2 fresh pineapples and used a couple of days to prepare the cookie for the children during the holidays.  My husband and children loved it! We shared some of the cookie with some friends. Happiness is sharing!

That is why, I am sharing the recipe here. The recipe of the cookie is from my mother's. I have tried other recipes I found in the internet, but so far, according to my family (especially my husband), this one is the best.

Ingredients
Pineapple Jam:
2 Fresh pineapples
200 gram sugar (or to taste): I used 100 gr white sugar + 100 gr brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice (fresh)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Cookie
500 grams low gluten flour
1 tsp baking powder
300 grams butter
100 grams sugar powder
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 tsp vanilla



How to make
Pineapple Jam:
1. Cut the pineapples, process with hand blender, or similar tools. Warning: we are not making a juice, but we just want to have really small pieces of the pineapple.
2. Cook the pineapple and lemon juice and eventually the cinnamon stick (if you use it) until the color changes, becomes darker and almost dry. Stir it regularly so it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
3. Add the sugar, stir occasionally.
4. Cook until we have a drier pineapple jam.
5. Set aside until cool.
6. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for one day. Take it out and weight it to around 9 gram balls. Store it again in the refrigerator.

TIPS: if the jam turns out to be still a bit wet when we want to use it, put the jam that is already in the form of balls in the oven. I use the fan forced oven at around 150/170 Celcius for around 15-30 minutes, depends on the conditions of the jam.

Cookie:
1. Cut the butter to small cubes (room temperature)
2. Mix the butter and sugar until we have an almost white mixture.
3. Add the vanilla and the eggs one by one, mix well using the mixer.
4. Add the flour and baking powder, mix well until the dough is not sticky anymore and can be formed.
5. Put aside the dough in the refrigerator while we prepare the cookie.

How to assemble the cookie:
1. Take a part of the cookie dough, weigh the dough around 12 grams per piece. Keep the rest of the dough in the refrigerator to avoid the butter melts.
2. Roll the dough, make a big coin like sheet.

3. Fill the dough with 1 piece of the pineapple jam, roll it make a small ball.
4. Put aside on the baking tray lined with baking paper.
5. Continue until all the dough and jam are used up.
6. Preheat the oven (upper and bottom heat source) 160 Celcius.
7. Apply egg wash on top of the cookies.
8. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
9. Take out the cookies, apply the egg wash again and bake them until they are golden brown (around another 10-15 minutes).
10. Let them completely cool down before storing them in an airtight container.

For longer freshness, you can store it also in the refrigerator.

Steamed "Chicken and egg" Bun

Steamed bun is always a luxury breakfast treat for me. When I was a small girl, my parents sometimes brought me to eat dimsum. I loved the steamed bun they served at the dimsum place. Sometimes, my father would also bring home different types of steamed bun, just for a treat. Yummy!

When I was a student in National University of Singapore, there was a food stall at the Engineering canteen selling steamed buns. My favourite filling was chicken and egg. It was delicious and could nicely fill my empty stomach when I had to work overtime for my thesis or when I had to run to the gamelan room for jamming session with my friends in the evening.  I just needed to go downstairs, heading to the canteen whenver I needed an energy boost.

Now, living in a European country, steamed bun is not a snack that you can easily find in a shop just around the corner. Yes, you can find the frozen ones at the supermarkets or at the Chinese restaurants. But that means, making a special trip just for a piece of bun. And still, it is not from a small shop around the corner selling many variety of Asian snacks. Buying it from a small snack stall gave a different filling and taste.

We finally had the real winter weather for a couple of weeks after the new year, meaning that the temperature was below zero.  This kind of weather makes me thinking of nice, warm, delicious Asian snacks. It would be perfect, if we could sit together, sipping warm tea and eating delicious snacks. I could not stop thinking about that, especially because I wanted to give a special treat for the boys (big boy and small boys). I found a package of HongKong flour (the flour for steamed bun), and I remembered that I still had some chicken thigh fillet and dried mushroom. So, while the kids were at school and my husband was at work, I started to prepare the bun.

My boys love the buns. They could finish a few pieces in no-time. After the steamed buns are finished, they kept asking me when I would make one again.


Ingredients Filling
400 gr chicken (thigh) fillet - cut into cubes around 0.5cm x 0.5cm
a handfull of dried shitake mushroom - soaked for at least 30 minutes in hot water
yellow onion
5 hard boiled eggs

Marinade for the filling
3 tbsp oyster sause
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
a dash of sesame oil


Ingredients for the Steamed Bun -Yield around 17 pieces depends on the size
500 gram bun flour (Hongkong flour)
7 gram instant yeast
2 tsp baking powder
70 gram fine sugar
250ml water
50 gr vegetable shortening/around 5 tsp (I used Crisco) - this can be subtituted with vegetable oil


How to make the filling (The filling can be made 1 day in advance)
1. Cut the meat and the onion.
2. Marinate the meat with marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes 
3. Heat the wok and stir fry the onion
4. Add the marinated meat, mushroom and the sauce. Cook until it is well done.
5. Put aside


How to make the steamed buns
1. Mix the warm water, yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar. Let it rest until the buble rise, around 15-30 minutes.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients in the bowl using low speed. Add the yeast mixture. Knead the dough.  The important thing is the dough should be kneaded into a smooth dough and does not stick to your hand or the wall of your mixer bowl.
3. Let the dough rest in the bowl, and cover the bowl either with wet clean cloth/napkin or with cling film. Let it rest around 1 hour until it rises at least twice the initial volume.
4. Remove the cling film and punch the dough in the middle.
5. Cut the dough into portions, around 50 grams or to your liking.
6. Shape each portion into a ball shape and with rolling pin, roll the dough. The edges should be thinner than the middle part. Fill the rolled dough with the filling (chicken meat and a quarter of hard boiled egg) and pinch the sides thightly to hold the filling. Put it on top of a piece of baking paper.
7. Let the bun rest for at least 30 minutes.
8. Prepare steamer and when it starts to boil, put the buns in the steamer and steam the buns for around 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving them.


You can freeze the buns after they cool down. When you want to eat it, defrost the buns and warm them up either using microwave (covered) or steamer.

Lapis Tapioca-Rice Pandan Chocolate Flavour

It seems to me that Indonesian people love layers thing. We have different traditional layer cakes. From the Kue Lapis Legit (this one is using at least 30 eggs), to non-dairy non-animal product kue Lapis.

This time, I made the non-diary and non-animal-product kue Lapis. This is one of our traditional kue/snack. We do not need to bake it, but we need steamer. The savoury taste of this kue, comes from the coconut milk. There are different versions and I have tried a few recipes. So far, this combination is the one I love most. It gives better texture and the texture stays even after a couple of days in the refrigerator. However, it is still best to eat it warm. That is why, I always pop it up for a few second in the microwave before I serve it.

Ingredients
200 gram tapioca flour
100 gram (white) rice flour
250 gram fine sugar
850 ml coconut milk mixture (*)
1 tsp salt
a few drops of pandan extract
25 gram chocolate powder

* The coconut milk mixture can be made in 2 ways:
   1. by mixing 250 ml thick coconut cream with water, or
   2. by mixing 450 ml coconut milk with water.


How to make it
1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, except the chocolate powder and the pandan extract until it forms smooth mixture
2. Grease the pan that will be used. I usually also line the bottom of the pan to ensure that the kue Lapis will not stick to the bottom of the pan (I used spring form pan)
3. Prepare the steamer and put the pan in the steamer
4. Divide the mixture into two part (A) and (B)
5. Add pandan extract to part (A) mixture, set aside
6. Add the chocolate powder to part (B) mixture, and stir it until we get a smooth mixture
7. Pour around 1-2 scoop ladle of mixture A into the pan. Steam for 7 minute
8. Pour around 1-2 scoop ladle of mixture B into the pan. Steam for around 5 minute
9. Do step 8 again, alternately between mixture A and B, until everything is used.
10. Steam the last layer for 15 minute to ensure that all layers are well cooked.

To cut the kue Lapis, use plastic knife to avoid the kue to stick onto the metal knife.

The kue Lapis is better to be eaten when it is still warm. However, if you cannot finish the whole pan, you can freeze the rest of the kue. Just cut it into portions and warp each portion with plastic wrap before you freeze it. Take it out from the freezer, and thaw it to room temperature. After it is reaching the room temperature, you can warm it a bit using microwave for a few second before eating it.

My boys, especially my youngest love it. You can also try different combination of flavours. Use your own imagination and explore the possibilities.

Pandan Cheese Swiss Roll

When I was still living in Singapore, one of my favourite snack was Pandan Cheese swiss roll from Bengawan Solo Bakery. For a, at-that-time, scholarship student, it was a luxury. However, I still bought it regularly, among my other favourite foods.  This roll cake, has a tint of coconut milk taste and the smell of pandan leave. Combined with the sharp taste of cheese, it was heavenly for me.

Fast forward to now. I am now living in the Netherlands, in a city also known as Brainport. The city is known as a city with the highest patent density in the world. So, we are not of bright people here. HOWEVER, although we have the highest density of patent, we do not have the highest density of delicious soft cake and soft bread shops in this city, which are typically found in most Asian cities. That is why my baking and cooking adventure at home.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking of this swiss roll and since I could not stop thinking of it, I browsed for recipe. Finally, I found this recipe from a food blogger who share the same name as I have. I really love the result since it is moist and soft. I rewrite the recipe here and adjust it to my convinient, only as a note to myself so I can easily find the recipe when I am going to make one again. This recipe is using water bath method, but the easier way. Just add a pan filled with water under the cake pan shelf in the oven.

For the filling, I am using cream cheese filling with sprinkle of grated cheese. The result is an explosion of flavour in the mouth. At least, according to mine.


Ingredients of the Swiss Roll
(A)
4 egg yolks
20 gr fine sugar
25 gr vegetable oil
*50 gr pandan mixture (from coconut cream) -  see below how to make the pandan juice.
50 gr cake flour

(B)
4 egg whites
0.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
45 gr fine sugar

Ingredients of the Filling
100 gram cream cheese
30 gram soft butter
50 gram powder sugar
Grated cheese (I am using old gouda cheese)

*Pandan Mixture
3 pandan leaves, cut into pieces and process it in the blender
30 gram coconut cream (thick consistency) 
Run the coconut cream over the blended pandan leaves and sieve the mixture.
If you do not want the trouble, you can also use 1/4 teaspoon pandan extract added into the coconut cream. After that add around 20 gram water.


How to make the cake:
1. Preparation: Wash the pandan leaves and cut it into small pieces. Blend the leaves until we have very small pieces of leaves. Put the leaves in a sieve and run the coconut cream through the leaves. Squeze the juice out and put aside 30 gram of the pandan-coconut cream mixture.

In the mean time, line the pan with baking sheet. I am using a bigger size lapis Surabaya pan.

2. Mix all (A) ingredients except the flour. Sift the cake flour in, and mix it until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar, mix until it becomes soft peak.

4. In the mean time, preheat the oven, upper-and-lower heat at 160 degree Celcius together with the pan of water (at the bottom of the oven). Line also the cake pan to make it easier to take the cake out.

5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in the egg-flour mixture into the egg whites mixture (B). Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.

6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan lined with baking paper and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Note that the mixture is not really flowing, so you have to help the mixture to spread itself evenly.

7. Bake the cake at 160 degree Celcius, for around 30 minutes or until the tooth pick test comes out clean.

8. Let it cool in the oven with the oven door a little bit open for around 10 minutes.

9. Take the cake out of the pan and spread the cream cheese filling and then sprinkle it with the grated cheese.

10. Roll the cake and wrap it with the baking paper. Store it in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving it, to make sure that the shape will hold.


How to make the filling:
Mix the cream cheese, soft butter and powder sugar until they are incorporated and forming a smooth butter cream consistency


My family loves this roll cake. It is soft and the combination of coconut pandan cream sweetnes and sharp taste of cheese is just perfect for our taste. My boys cannot have enough of the roll cake.

Double Crusted Apple Taart

It is autumn and it is the time for apple pie. Yes, apple taart is apple pie. Last month, we went to a an apple picking day at Philips Fruituin, a fruit orchard nearby. They had 3 apple and pear picking days for the public per year. We brought the children for the first time there this year and they loved it. The weather was also good and that was why, to avoid the parking trouble, we went by bicycle. We placed the kids in the carriage behind my husband's bike. This way, we would be able to carry our bags and fruit later easily. 

The fruit orchard carries several types of apples and pears. Besides the fruit orchard, they also have a pancake house and a nature product shop in the area. Since it was one of the open days for public, the pancake house was full of people. It was difficult to find a table, and the waiting time was also quite long. However, we love the pancake and my husband loved the apple syrup they used for the pancake. Something that we do not usually put in our shopping basket when we go to the supermarket. Usually, we only buy simple pancake syrup or maple syrup.

I used to be an apple/pear eater, but since my first pregnancy, I got apple&pear allergy. So, altough apple and pear are always in my shopping list, I am not participated in eating them at home. At least not fresh. I can only eat them, cooked.

One of the children favorites is apple taart. This time, I made them from scratched using different recipe for the skin. Instead of the usual Dutch's apple taart, I made taart with double crusted skin. As an alternative to the home made crusted skin, you can also use the ready to use pastry skin from the deep freeze area of the supermarket.

When I served this to the children and husband, they found the skin tastier than usual, and they also loved the apple that they picked themselves during the apple picking day. Too bad that a couple of hours of baking effort moved to the stomach only in a few minutes. After all, I loved to see their happy face while eating the apple taart.

Ingredients

For the double crusted skin

300 gram of all purpose flour

5 gram (around 1/2 tsp) salt

285 gram butter

80 ml ice water

For the filling

Around 1 kg apple, thinly sliced

110 gram brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/2  tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3 tbsp butter, cut in small cubes

1 tsp ginger powder

2 tbsp tapioca flour

How to make

1. To prepare the pastry: Stir the flour and salt using the bread knead hook. Add the butter (cut into small cubes), while mixing it with the flour. After we get a consistency like coarse sand, add the water gradually while still mixing the flour. You may not need all the water. You should get moist dough, but not wet. Divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3 portions, roll it a bit into a round shape and cover both dough portions with the plastic wrap. Keep it refrigerated until you use them (at least 30 minutes)

2.  In a big bowl, combine the apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and tapioca flour. Fold in the butter. Put aside.

3. Take out the pastry from the refrigerator. Roll the bigger portion into bigger circle and arrange it in the mold to cover the bottom and sides of the mold. 

4. Fill in the pastry with the apple mixture.

5. Roll the smaller portion into bigger circle and cover the top of the apple tart with the rolled dough. Pressed the edges of the dough to the mold to avoid the filling sipping out of the apple taart. You may cut a pattern on the pastry to let the steam out of the taart while baking, or just to make a nice pattern.

6. While arranging the dough and apple, preheat the oven 200 degree Celcius. 

7. Brush the top of the taart with milk. Bake the taart for 15 minutes in 200 degree C, and after that continue baking the taart for another 30 minutes at 180 degree Celcius, or until it is golden brown. Let it cool before serving it.

And here is one of my dearest boy, waiting for the permission to eat the apple taart. Earlier that day, one of his finger got caught between the door during morning rush to the school. So the taart is his "medicine" that day.