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.

Roasted Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

Vegetable is one of the important food that we need to prepare for our family. Although we are not vegetarian, I always love to prepare vegetable based food. Especially, made from fresh seasonal vegetables. The taste and freshness and especially the feast of colour, always excite me.

My children always love different type of fruits and vegetables. Last weekend, we went to apple picking day. It was a nice sunny autumn day and at the gate of the orchard, we saw a man selling bio pumpkin. I did try to grow my own, but we did not get any pumpkin until now. And since my first born boy loves pumpkin soup so much, we decided to buy one. More than enough for a big pot of soup.

He was very happy early this week, when I finally cooked the pumpkin. He even refused to eat the rice that I also served that day. His brother, also loved the soup but not as much as him.

The making process is surely not fast, but it is quite easy. But despites the process and time required, I think the taste worth the effort. It is also quite healthy and promotes eating more vegetable.

Ingredients
Around 600 gram pumpkin
1 medium orange colour sweet potato
1 medium potato (you can subtitute this with sweet potato)
A handfull of cauliflower floret
3-4 carrot
1 onion
300 ml chicken stock diluted into around 2-2.5 litre
125-150 ml creme fraiche/heavy cream for cooking
1 -1.5 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper (I used aromatic pepper with orange)
a dash of lemon juice
Basillicum leaves

How to make
1. Cut the pumpkin, clean from the seeds, wash and cut. If it is a bio pumpkin, you do not need to cut the outer skin, just scrap it clean when you wash it.
2. Peel the skin of the sweet potato, wash and cut.
3. Roast the pumpkin and sweet potato in the oven for around 40 minutes or until it is soft enough.
You will cook it again with the soup later.

4. Meanwhile, peel the potato, carrot and onion and cut them. Cut also the cauliflower.
5. Boil the chicken stock and water (2-2.5ltr)
6. Add into soup the onion, carrot, potato, cauliflower, sweet potato, pumpkin.
7. Boil until the vegetables become softer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let it cool.
8. Using the hand blender, blend the soup until smooth.
9. Take a spoonful of the soup and mix it with the creme fraiche to make a smooth mixture. Add the mixture into the soup and blend it again a bit with the hand blender.
10. Boil it again a bit before serving. Serve it with basillicum leaves and a dash of lemon juice, if you like.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

When my grandmother was still around, everytime I went back home, she would surely prepare many good and delicious home cooked food. From delicious red (tomato) soup - her signature, pastel tutup (potato pie), to comfort food like the stuffed cabbage soup.

This savoury soup is actually not difficult to make, but it takes some effort to make it. We need to soften the cabbage leave, so we can fold it without tearing the leave. Two weeks ago, I have no more idea what to cook, especially after almost 5 months jobless (read: without paying job outside home). These few months, I have "tortured" my family with food, a lot of them. From lapis Surabaya cake, kue lumpang, fried pastel, to fried meat ball.

While looking at the ingredients I had and the supermarket promotion of the week, I stumbled to the potatoes I had in the kitchen and suddenly (ehem, after inspired by a Japanese drama series) thought of my grandmother and her soup. So, we went to buy cabbage and immediately cooked this for our weekend dinner.

My children liked it so much and my oldest even ate it without the rice, just like that. He said it tasted much better without the intrusion of the "rice" taste. We let them eat as much as they want. My youngest also loved it, but he prefers it with rice. He is really a "carbohydrate" guy. And my husband? He also found it delicious although at first he thought that I was going to make the Polish's stuffed cabbage, eaten with tomato based sauce.

This soup is nice to be eaten when the weather is getting colder. It is for me, a comfort food and will always remind me of my grandmother. So, based on my experience, I think it worths to go an extra mile, serving home cooked food for the children. It will definitely give them a homy feeling, and also loving feeling. Food is one of the way getting to somebody's heart. Share your love with your family, cook something for them. It does not have to be a Michelin star level food, but when it is loved by the family and brings the family together, it will be a long lasting memory and a good support for our children.

Ingredients
Potato (around 3-4 medium to big size)
3 cloves garlic
1 onion, cut
300 gram minced meat (for this one I used a mixed beef - pork minced meat)
1 cabbage (I used spitskool - the one with pyramid shape)
3-4 carrot (for in the soup - cut into bite size)
a handfull mushroom (for in the soup - cut into bite size)
300 ml chicken stock - plus extra water to make it into around 2,5 ltr soup
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
extra: food grade tie/rope


How to make it
1. In a big pot or wok, boil some water. When the water is getting warm, put inside a piece of the cabbage leave and turn in around until it is soft enough to fold. Use low heat! Repeat this steps until you have enough leaves to wrap the stuffed cabbage. Put them aside.
2. Meanwhile, boil the peeled potatoes. After it is soft and a bit cooler, mash the potatoes.
3. Mince the garlic and the onion.
4. Mixed the mashed potato, garlic, onion, minced meat. Add salt and pepper.
5. Add the eggs.
6. Mixed the mixture until it is well mixed. You do not need to use any mixer, just use your wooden spoon and mash potato tool.
7. Take 1 cabbage leave, fill it with 1-2 tablespoon filling mixture. Wrap it and tie it with food grade tie/rope that we can use for cooking. Repeat it until all filling mixture and/or cabbage leaves are used.
8. In the meantime, prepare the soup. Boil the chicken stock and water, add the carrot and mushroom. Add salt and pepper as needed.
9. Put in the stuffed cabbage in the soup and boil them together with the soup until the filling is cooked.

Enjoy the food and don't forget to cook for your family whenever you have time. Or, you can also make it as a family activity together with all family member.