Back to Baking

Gee, I can't believe I've not been baking for two weeks! The past weekends were busy going out or doing some other non-baking-related things. So on Saturday, I decided to invite my parents and my sisters with their families, over for dinner. It will give me an excuse to do some baking, otherwise, I'm going to lose touch with my appliances and ingredients soon!

The morning started with me steaming a Radish Cake from Florence's website. Doris had previously recommended this Radish Cake to me and I hadn't had the chance to try it. I took the opportunity to do it early in the morning on Saturday. It wasn't too difficult. I didn't use as much radish as in the recipe. I only used about 650g of radish. I followed the rest of the ingredients from the recipe.

Then I proceeded to prepare a Chocolate Praline Tart from "The Pie & Pastry Bible" by Rose. The tart base was made from grinding walnut and keep in the chiller for a couple of hours. The base was very very soft. It just wasn't possible to mould it without it being hard! I had a difficult time trying to put it in the mould. After moulding, it had to be placed in the freezer for about 15mins before baking. Very tricky.

I made the chocolate fillings after the tart base has cooled. I realised that my base was rather thick and it wasn't possible to make a full recipe of the fillings, so I halved it. The fillings were just right for the depth of the tart base. I baked it for a further 10mins to let it set, then let it cooled.

Next, I prepared my chicken pie. I rolled out the pie dough first, then cooked the fillings for the chicken. Filled up the dough with the fillings, then covered the top with a puff pastry, and off to baking it went!

While leaving the pie to bake, I prepared the salads. Two types of salads were planned for-greens and tomatoes. For the greens, I added butterhead lettuce, coral lettuce (both from Jusco supermarket), capsicum, onions, olives, raisins & nibbed almonds. Add a dash of black pepper and some vinegrette dressings.

For the tomatoes salad, here is the recipe.

Recipe for Tomatoes Salad
Ingredients:
6 Kumato Tomatoes
1 packet of Baby Romas Tomatoes
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Mixed herbs (better if use fresh basil leaves)
A dash of black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Method:
1. Slice Roma into half, Kumato into quarters.
2. Put all the seasonings into the tomatoes and marinate well.
3. Let it sit for at least 30-45mins before serving.

The chocolate praline tart was served with a dope of whipping cream, an applemint leaf (bought from Jusco) and a walnut at the side. It received very good comments from my family.