BAKED FINNISH PANCAKES

Sometimes when you dig deep enough you will uncover little jewels in unexpected places ~ like blogresepi and this beautifully simple Finnish pancake that I spied on her blog. It was so smooth and so creamy and buttery. I paired it with slices of orange segments in an orange juice reduction and it became even more refreshing with bursts of orange globules in my mouth.

Imagine ~ I did not need to stand in front of a stove turning pancake after pancake. After pancake........

 ~after pancake ~

The batter is poured into a lined rectangular baking pan, sprinkled with sugar and left to bake for about 20- 25 minutes in a hot oven until it puffed up and became hideously glorious, browned on the top in places (in this case only one place) and looked likely to burst along the edges. Whoa-waaa...

PS: As you can see I need a new oven ........this present one has hot spots like the punctures in our planet's ozone layer :(~

Then I cut it up into squares, dusted it with some cinnamon powder and dribbled the orange segments in an orange juice reduction over the slices. Yes ~

You must ~ try this ~

The recipe ~ From blogresepi ~

500 ml milk ( I used fresh whole milk)

2 eggs

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup melted butter or olive oil ( I used butter)

2 T sugar

a pinch of salt

Extra sugar for sprinkling

Pre-heat oven at 220 C

Line a rectangular baking pan, 10" by 81/2 "

Mix all ingredients except extra sugar in a bowl and mix with a  whisk until a smooth batter.

Pour into lined baking pan, sprinkle with extra sugar and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

Orange reduction ~

3 oranges

1/4 cup sugar

Peel one orange and cut into segments carefully leaving out the fibres and white pith. Keep aside.

Juice the other 2 oranges and put juice into a small pan. Add 1/4 cup sugar and stir and place over medium heat and let simmer until it reduces to thickish syrup, Add the orange segments and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Leave aside or let cool.

Serve pancakes by cutting into squares, dust with cinnamon powder and top with the orange syrup either warm or cold.

BANANA BITES ~ CEKODOK PISANG

I love my Malay cakes even if they are plain toads (kodok). These are authentic. There is no grated coconut meat in it, no baking powder is used and no egg at all....all of which would give these bites airiness, lightness, puffiness and turn them into dainty, too perfectly round, bland, made-over versions of the original toad bites.

Purists, however,  would swear by the original kampung (village) version which is crisp and chewy on the outside and soft, mushy and banana-ey on the inside. And quite toad-like in looks.....irregularly shaped, flat, heavy, ugly and greasy but absolutely to die for. I love my Toad Bites or Kuih Kodok.

Rice flour is added to the batter for a crisp and chewy skin, plain flour to hold the batter together and of course the mashed banana gives the inside the mushy and banana-ey goodness that we die for. I don't see why anyone would not love these. 

Anything greasy has to be good.  Kiddies especially love these.....imagine chubby little fingers pushing toady bites into chubby little mouths filling up those chubby little cheeks and chomping with their tiny teeth. Chomping on toady bites.....hands greasy...hands touching hair, hands touching clothes, hands touching furniture and their mommies.

The recipe ~

297 gm very ripe mashed bananas,  ( I used pisang berangan)

60 - 65 gm granulated sugar
4 T plain flour
3 T rice flour
1/4 tsp salt

Oil for deep frying

Mix mashed bananas and sugar with a wooden spoon. Stir in both flours and salt until combined.


Heat enough oil for deep frying in a pot. When hot or 180 C drop the batter in by teaspoonfuls. Let fry for about two minutes after which time the fritters would lightly golden, puff up and loosen slightly from the bottom of the pot. Agitate it a little so that it releases completely from the bottom of the pot and turn over to brown the other side. When the fritters are a deeper golden colour lift out and drain on two layers of kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. 


Continue to fry the rest in the same way. 


If you eat these hot or warm you will experience the lovely crunchiness and chewiness that the rice flour gives to the fritters. The crunchiness is lost when cold but it is still chewy and deliciously mushy and banana-ey inside.


Great served in paper cups to kiddies. 

Yes those cute animal picks are from Daiso ~

I am submitting this to Muhibbah Malaysia Monday.

Head over to Shaz of Test With Skewer for the round up.

FRESH FRUIT TARTLETS

It's at Daiso where my little insignificant, pointless, niggling and  piddling dreams come true. Thus these tartlets were born.

We all know that there are mama melon ballers but dare we dream that there baby melon ballers? I did. And my melon baller dream came true. Now....dare you tell me that that baby isn't cute!

Because fresh fruit tartlets are prettiest when topped with small dainty fruits like berries (in my book), but which are ridiculously priced if you're living right smack on the equator, I have never bothered to make fresh fruit tartlets. Until I found this baby melon baller. Now I can make my own tropical 'berries' for tartlets anytime. From baby mango balls , baby bright red water melons balls to baby jade honey dew melon balls. 

Angie from Angie's recipe had this Fresh Fruit Tartlets recipe that had a filling of a ground hazelnuts-butter-sugar paste instead of custard. I thought the moist, rich, nutty paste was a brilliant change from the usual custard filling...a filling that I was never inspired to make for fresh fruit tartlets. 

So I am glad I made these because both the subtley sweet, crusty pastry and the moist hazelnut filling is to die for. And the squishy, spurty and juicy mango and baby grapes on the top made a perfect finish. Truly...quite a remarkable recipe. Thanks to Angie. I would make these if I were you. 

True ~

The recipe ~ adapted wholly from Angie's Recipes

Sweet Pastry Crust ~

250n gm pastry flour ( I used AP flour)

60 g castor sugar

1/4 tsp salt

125 g butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

2-3 T cold water

Put everything in one bowl and work in the butter until the mixture resembles corse breadcrumbs. Then bring everything together with your fingers until it becomes a soft dough. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before rolling out to line the baking tart tins. Angie used 4, 12 cm tart moulds. I used 4 egg rings and 2, 12 cm tart moulds. 

I rolled the pastry between two sheets of baking paper for easier lifting of the pastry. The pastry is quite soft and rich. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and line the tart moulds right up to the sides. Prick the base with a fork. Refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling ~

85 gm butter, softened

85 gm icing sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

85 gm ground hazelnuts

Beat butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until thick and creamy and soft. Add egg and beat again until well combined. Add in the ground hazelnuts and fold in. Fill the pastry lined moulds until 3/4 full. Do not fill right up because the filling will puff up a little upon baking. The little space between the top of the baked filling and the rim of the cooked pastry allows the fruits berries or balls of fruit to stay within especially if like me you do not use a whipped cream topping for the fruit to rest on.

Topping ~

8 tsp Chantilly cream (I did not use any kind of cream for the topping)

Small berries or 'berries' melon balled tropical fruits or small seedless grapes

CHOCOLATE CREAM FINGERS

I blog in spurts.

I keep telling myself that I will never blog in spurts again. It's bad. As bad as gorging on chocolate cream filled chocolatey biscuits when you're trying to be healthy. Or trying to walk in a straight line.

Sorry for the an unplanned absence. I have been uninspired and distracted. For many reasons. The heat, mega sales, the heat, friends, the heat and family. And mainly mega sales. And the heat.

Nevertheless, these English chocolate cream filled chocolate biscuits are reminiscent of the chocolate bourbons from Marks and Spencer that I gorged on thirty years ago. So busy was I that I got yelled at by a man with a heavy load on his shoulders. I almost walked into him. I jumped out of his way in the nick of time. I'm sure he would have hit me on my head if he could.

Thank god Mary Berry had a recipe for it. Thank god I bought her Fast Cakes recipe book thirty years ago. And thank god they taste just like my memory of it. The biscuits I mean.

These are very, very chocolatey, and although they are sandwiched with chocolate icing the sweetness is cut down very much by the use of cocoa powder in the recipe. I urge you to try them if you are a chocoholic like me. Best chocolate biscuits ever. Ever, ever, ever. 

No these are not at all like our Asian KGB version of chocolate cream fingers. Never liked those...very very very bland and tasteless.

These are traditionally made in the finger shape with the required ten holes and a filling of simple chocolate butter icing. Like the Oreos they are good for dunking, for taking apart, for scraping the filling off with your two front teeth or just biting into it whole.

These are not short or buttery like shortbread of which you can tire of quickly because of its buttery richness. They are crunchy and doesn't give in as easily because there is no egg in the recipe to give it lightness nor too much butter to make it tender. It's very much like a sugar cookie. But a dark chocolate one. And definitely not as sweet. The most delicious.


The dough may seem a little dry when you mix it in and are trying to bring it together but persevere and don't be tempted to add more butter or an egg. It's meant to be. And once you roll it out it will come together rich, dark, chocolatey and neat.

The recipe ~ by Mary Berry

Makes about 12 chocolate cream fingers



4 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 T cocoa powder
2 oz soft magarine or butter
2 oz castor sugar
1 T golden syrup


Filling


1 oz soft magarine or butter
2 oz icing sugar
2 tsp cocoa
a few drops of vanilla essence


Place all biscuit ingredients together in a bowl and using a wooden spoon first work them together until they are evenly distributed. The mixture will be crumbly and sort of dry. Don't despair. Turn the mixture onto a slightly sugared table and using your hands press and knead gently to warm the butter in the dough and until it just all comes together nicely and is a ball of dough. Press with hands to form into a firmer ball of dough. The dough will still be somewhat loosely held together but once you roll it out it will come together better from the pressure of the rolling pin. If the dough breaks up while rolling out just stop and patch it up and then roll again.


Roll out the dough until about 1/4 inch thickness between 2 sheets of baking paper. Remove the top baking paper and cut the rolled dough into fingers about 1 inch by 21/2 inches. Prick each finger with a fork two or three or four times. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Lift off ot cool on a wire rack.


For the filling, put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. until smooth and creamy. Use to sandwich the biscuits together in pairs.