Cherry coconut bakewell tarts

I had leftover cherry compote from here, and wanted to finish it up. I decided to use it in a tart crust recipe that I wanted to try out. The Sister (and I) has always been in love with Delifrance's fruit tarts crusty crusts. And everytime I bake fruit tarts, she's bound to compare it to the Delifrance's version. So I decided to Google for "Delifrance tart crust recipe". While I didn't found the exact version, I found one that the blogger said tasted similar to Delifrance.

Cherry coconut bakewell tarts

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

Peach pistachio frangipane tarts

I'm heading out for a litle shopping soon in town with my girlfriend later, so let's make this entry short and simple shall we?

Following the success of the previous tart I made,  I used the same recipe for the tart base for these tarts. Lovely luscious peaches, with their seductive pink hues and tantalising aroma, how do I resist them?

Peach pistachio frangipane tarts

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.

Seckel Pear Tarts

Upon looking at this, I was so tempted to make something similar straight away. However, there was just this one tiny little problem. I couldnt find special pears in the supermart. All I could see were the normal plain old green Bartletts and the brown Korean/China pears.

Well. I was not that out of luck. It so happens that pears are seasonal (so are most fruits actually, you would say, and yes I know), and they are in season during the later part of the year. So when I actually saw a variety of USA pears in the supermart a month ago, boy was I delighted.

I was debating on which type to get, the Bosc? Green Anjou? Red Anjou? There was just no competition when my eyes found these...

Seckel pears