Cherry Almond Lattice Pie

Havn't had the time to bake much lately since I came back from my Melbourne trip. Fathers' Day is coming soon, I'm thinking a cake is in order. Now, to decide between the Dad's perennial favourites -mango, or rum and raisin?

 Cherry Almond Lattice Pie

Nutty granola

Been having a bit of a granola/bircher muesli addiction lately.

 Nutty almond butter granola

Cherry galette with almond cream

I swore that this year, when cherry season strikes, besides stuffing myself crazy with fresh cherries, I would actually set aside some for baking. And I did!

Cherry galette with almond cream

Moscato poached pear tart with chai spiced custard and almond crust

About a month ago, I wanted to make something fruity. So I bought some pears. Sugar pears from New Zealand to be exact. Sometimes, I buy the fruit before I know what I want to make with them, while sometimes, I buy them with an idea on what to do with them. It so happens that I did have a recipe in mind...

Moscato poached pear tart with chai spiced custard and almond crust

Lemon almond cake with vanilla buttermilk panna cotta and lemon curd

Before I do my little prelude into my baking post, I must say that I'm currently in a major phase of my life. I'm gonna be moving. And that's from the place that I've stayed for as long as I can remember (say, perhaps a good 17, 18 years?). There are certain reasons for the move, but all I can say is, while on one hand I'm excited about planning a new room, on the other hand, I'm a bit sad cos I've grown up here and I've never actually thought about the possibility of myself ever moving out of this home of mine cos we've just been rooted here for ages. Oh well, guess that's about to change.

And since I'm currently deep in the midst of packing/moving (it's sorta a last minute rush thing going on here that's quite hard to explain), I'll not be able to bake much in the coming few weeks! Reasons being - no time and I don't think the oven's gonna be set up so soon yet anyway. But it's okay, I have quite a few backlog posts, so by the time I get baking, perhaps I'll actually be more up to date with the posts? ^^

Lemon almond cake with vanilla buttermilk panna cotta and lemon curd

Chocolate cherry coconut almond granola

As I mentioned in my last granola post, I like having granola for breakfast. I mean, it's oats, and oats are supposedly good for the body isn't it?

What I have here today, is admittedly, not a healthy granola, but heck, we should all ease up a little bit, enjoy a little treat now and then (okay, almost all the time...) and just hit the gym more often to make up for the sinful stuff we consume...

Anyway, the granola I'm talking about is no other than this chocolate cherry coconut almond granola. Yeps, that's certainly a mouthful to say. You can always refer to it as the chocolate granola, ah then again, who cares what you call it, when everyone is more concerned with other pressing issues - such as fighting for the last bowl of it.

Chocolate cherry coconut almond granola

Cherry crisps and a new book

It's cherries season now. Hooray for that. I simply love popping those bright chirpy looking fruits into my mouth. The taste of exploding cherry juice on your tongue - priceless. Pity about the pits though. Someone should just cultivate seedless cherries already...(think seedless grapes). ;)

Rainier cherries

Salted caramel ice cream with caramelised cocoa nibs and roasted almonds

I think I need to buy an ice cream maker. Soon. I've been making my own ice creams so often lately that it's a bit scary. Hand churning ice cream every half an hour for a few hours is no fun. Not to mention time-consuming. I can think of several things to do in the meantime of having to set the alarm to remind myself to churn the ice cream when the time is up. Imagine if I had an ice cream maker...oh gosh. Okay, on second though, scrap that thought. That'll probaby result in me making ice cream like once every week. Or something. ;)

The weather was hot (a few months back, now, it's just rain and rain and more rain), so I was thinking of a cold dessert. Something that doesn't require me cranking up the hot oven. Salted caramel sounds like a good idea. The Sis loves salted caramel. I decided to make a salted caramel ice cream. But plain ol' salted caramel is just not good enough for me...I like my ice creams to have add ins. I was contemplating what I should add in, and browsing random websites for inspiration. In the end, I settled on adding caramelised cocoa nibs and roasted almonds.

Salted caramel ice cream with caramelised cocoa nibs and roasted almonds

Scraps from here and there

An avid baker would most likely have leftovers scraps from all over the place. You know what I'm talking about...those scraps of extra dough, the bits of chopped nuts and chocolates, the wee portion of creams or frangipanes or buttercreams, etc etc. That is when the baker's best friend would be, the freezer. The bigger the better I say, to store not only the leftovers, but also prepared goods that can be frozen (think muffins, homemade cookie doughs, freshly churned ice-creams).

I had leftover poached pears in the week I made the Poire D'Eve, I was thinking what should I do with them. So I opened up my freezer, poked around a bit for inspiration, and came up with my own concoction. I used leftover almond tart dough, I made up a fresh batch of almond frangipane (just because the only other frangipane in the fridge was pistachio, and I have doubts that it will mesh with the flavours I had in mind), topped it with sliced poached pears and chopped up some leftover pistachios for some colour. There, I had a dessert ready.

 Almond frangipane poached pears tart

Cocoa nibs almond cookies

Ever since I started baking regularly, I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting ingredients. Before I started following food blogs online, I've never heard of so many stuff and I'm amazed by all the loot. Meyer lemons, rose water,Valrhona chocolate, pecans (yes, how can I not know what a nut is?), graham flour, oat flour, feuilletine, flax seed, cocoa nibs. The list is extensive and I'm always discovering something new in the food community out there.

I get those urges (you know, those that hit you straight "WHAM BAM" that you MUST lay your hands on XXX or else you'll be, I don't know, super sad or something. Haha.) constantly whenever I read about something interesting. It's good if I can find it in Singapore, I'll be like, HOHO! That is definitely going into my grocery bag! Just like how when I saw the bag of cocoa nibs, I felt like I was in heaven.

Cocoa nibs almond cookies

Plum almond frangipane tart

It's in the midst of CNY now, and I've currently joined the ranks of the unemployed. My internship ended on the Friday before CNY as I've decided not to continue with the position due to several reasons. So it means I'm currently very available while seeking job opportunities. I've been catching up loads with several friends and it's great to meet up with them when I've not had the chance to see them for quite some time.

Been doing loads of other misc stuff, like watching dramas (finally finished my GG season 1, yes I know, how lag can I be) and Hi My Sweetheart. Lala. It's been a while since my last taiwanese drama.

Oh oh, and I got so sick on the first day of CNY I didn't enjoy anything. :( Was having a tummy upset (probably caused by oyster buffet on Friday) and I vomitted in the morning of CNY day one. Bah. New year visiting was not a joy when all I did was show my face to the both granny's places and then spent majority of my time lying on cousins' beds. Lol. Well, an upside to it is that while people are busy gorging themselves silly on new year goodies (and ahem gaining weight), I'm not! Hahahahha. All I could stomach for the next few days was porridge and other bland stuff. It didn't help that I had abalone and shark fins for reunion dinner and with my upset tummy, it made me nauseated to think of most foods. Bleah.

Anyway, here's my final post for 2009 - plum almond frangipane tart. I must say the tart was damn awesome. At least the tart shell was. The method for making it is slightly different, as it uses melted butter instead of butter at room temp. The almond tart dough combines almond essence and a small quantity of almond flour and the flavour was amazing. (:

Plum almond frangipane tart

Care for a slice?

I had snagged a whole container of plums at the supermart just because I couldn't resist fruits. But then, the plums were slightly tart on its own, and I couldn't imagine eating the whole lot by itself. Since I had leftover frangipane in the freezer, I thought I should just make a tart with the plums. So I dug out tart recipes and found this amazing almond tart recipe in the midst of my list. Total keeper I tell you.

Off to more CNY visiting today. Heading to my ex-colleague's place as she's invited us over for lunch, and then will be having a potluck tonight at Jia's place. I've not seen her for too damn long! Can't wait.