Classic French Apple Tart

Sometimes, all you need are good ol' classics.

Classic French Apple Tart

Apple Crumble Trifles

For my birthday last November, I decided to have a small tea party at home one of the days during the week (it was a public holiday).

The theme of the day was floral and the girlfriends were game enough to turn up in floral dresses for the occasion. I woke up really early that day and I spent at least four hours in the kitchen preparing the stuff. To say that I was tired at the end of it all was an understatement indeed...

Apple crumble trifles

Apple milk tea entremet

I've not made any entremets for some time now and my hands were just itching to have a go at it. I think perhaps I was just a little too ambitious cos my project turned out to be a nine-components (!) entremet that wrecked havoc in my now tiny kitchen...

 Apple milk tea entremet

Baked applesauce and healthy muffins

I've made applesauce a few times already. Baked applesauce to be exact. The flavour of it was really delicious and I find myself gravitating towards this recipe always, whenever I require the use of applesauce. I realise I've never actually posted the recipe prior, so I decided to make it again recently.

Baked applesauce

Apple cranberry walnut oat crumble for a picnic

I went for a picnic a couple weeks back with some of my girlfriends. They requested that I make the dessert, and I was okay since you know, I love to bake. And the girl pals are not a big fan of sweet, so they requested something fruity, preferably a fruit crumble. So, I decided to make an apple crumble. And add in frozen cranberries(which are tart) that I had frozen when they were in season  to make the dessert less sweet.

Apples, cranberries, walnuts and oats.

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Well, my buddies and I, we were supposed to have a Halloween themed party. We planned that like a month ago. I know, we work fast. We were going all out for it - a full orange and black party with our food and decorations all centred around the party colours. Anyway, just a few days before the party, one of the mates then stated that he can't make it as he's bogged down with school work. We were all pretty bummed and the remaining four of us then decided to scrap the party and just do a potluck instead. Then the very next day, somehow or rather, I don't know how, but the party was back on. We say onward - who cares about the $^$#%&%#!# who decided to jump plane (okay, kiddin' in case that bugger reads this...you know you'll be missed by us! Haha.)

So, I was in charge of caramel apples, pizza muffin-lets and drinks. As it was only the four of us, we didn't want to prepare too much food (like we always do) and stuff ourselves silly trying to finish the food. So it's mini everything! At least in my case. I decided to make a little extra pumpkin tartlets (more on it when I post about the party pictures!) and some mini chocolate muffins I happened to bake the day before.

I'm going to talk about the exciting part in this post - caramel apples! And this is actually a post-on-the-actual-day-I-bake entry (what a rare case ;) indeed.)

Homemade chewy caramel candies

Applesauce muffins with walnuts and goji berries

Muffins. Warm muffins straight out of the oven. Mmmmmm. It conjures to mind a country style kitchen, where a red-cheeked cook pulls out a whole tray full of these lovely babies outta the oven with a pair of worn frayed kitchen gloves. In my dictionary, muffins are homely creatures.

Applesauce muffins with walnuts and goji berries

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

For every great macaron, behind lies a supportive ice-cream. Whenever macarons make an appearance on the blog, 90% of the time is because I had made ice-cream and have lots of leftover eggwhites. I made black sesame ice-cream (for another post when I retrieve my currently lost pictures from my 'gone case' laptop) and was debating on what flavour macarons I should make.

I tossed some ideas around and posted on Facebook to get votes on what flavours I should make. I had like five eggwhites and I wanted to make two flavours cos I like variety. (: I didn't end up making the perennial favourite, the Ferraro Rocher, but I did the Hazelnut one (here) which was kinda similar since Ferraro Rocher = chocolate + hazelnut yes? I was very interested in making a matcha one, but then I wanted to sandwich something red bean-y in between and we had no red beans at home. That flavour combo shall be next on my list (I've since bought a bag of azuki beans). In the end, I decided on a making a plain macaron filled with salted caramel filling and apples. But what I first came up with was only the beginning of my flavour experiment...

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

Apple tarts

In my three years in Brisbane, I've stayed in the same place throughout. Together with my girls Woo Aa and Pamela. Time flew by and from strangers to friends, we've been together for two to three years. My last dessert, the apple tarts, were baked for our last Korean BBQ session at home after the exams. I'll miss them.