Witch Fingers Pâte sablée (French short pastry crusts)

Pâte sablée is the richest of the French short pastry crusts. It's the best pastry to use for making little fruit tarts, lemon tarts and custard tarts. It's a little tricky to make and handle. It does makes gorgeous cookies, not completely similar to shortbread cookies. It's finer and more delicate.

Happy belated Halloween! Made this on the 30th Oct with a twist to suit the mood. Witch Fingers it is!


Approx 20 cookies (depends on the size of the fingers you're moulding)

Ingredients:
125g All Purpose Flour
50g Icing Sugar
1 pinch of Salt
1 Egg Yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
100g Butter
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
50g melted Chocolate
20 Almonds (removed almond brown skin, by blenching the almonds in hot boiling water for 2 mins)

Step By Step
1. Mix Egg Yolk, Vanilla Essence and set aside.
2. Mix All Purpose Flour, Icing Sugar, Salt and make a well in the middle. Put in the butter in the middle and rub the butter in until well combined.
3. Add the Egg Yolk mixture and mix until you have a homogenous dough or until it is completely smooth.
3. Roll it into a ball, wrap in kitchen clingfilm and refrigerate for about an hour.
4. Pre-heat the oven at 200°C.
5. Shape the shortbread to fingers and press in the Almond as fingernails.
6. Bake in the over for 15mins or until it is slightly brown at the edges.
7. Remove and while it cool thinly coat the inner fingernails with melted chocolate.

Picture without the outline with melted chocolate.

After edding on the melted chocolate outline of the fingernails. Mmmm... i'll add some sticky thicken strawberry jam at the end of the finger to make it more scary, that will be next time.

Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Deliciously Rich Tasty French Onion Soup

This is a super easy soup to make aside from the length of cooking time of needed and some stirring needed in the middle. Bringing all of you with the detail steps of the cooking process and also to keep this as a record for me to recreate this dish again.


Ingredients
Ceramic Pot with lid
900g Yellow Onions
1.5 tablespoons Butter
0.25 cup of Sherry / White Wine
3 cups of Chicken Broth
1 cup of Beef Broth
1 Bay Leaf
1 spring of Thyme
3 cup of Water
1 teaspoon of Salt
Pepper
2 slices of Baguette (Using normal bread like me is not really a good idea but it's fine)
Grated or 2 slices of Cheese (Best selections as ranked: Gruyere - classic preference, Swiss, Jarlsbeg, Parmesan)

Step 1 Pre-heat oven to 250°C.
Step 2 Cut the onions in half through the root end, and slice into 1/4 inch thick slices from pole to pole.
Step 3 Spray the Ceramic Pot with cooking spray or pour some oil into the bottom and spread it all around with a kitchen towel.
Step 4 Cut the butter into cubes and scatter it around the Ceramic Pot.
Step 5 Put the slices of onion into the Ceramic Pot and loosen them up. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt over the top.
Step 6 Cover the Ceramic Pot and place it into the oven for 30mins.
Step 7 Remove the Ceramic Pot after 30mins and take off the cover (Remember to use oven mitts!), stirring the onions and scraping down the sides. Repeat this one more time.
Step 8 The onions should just be starting to brown. Replace the cover on the Ceramic Pot but leave it slightly ajar cook for another hour.
Step 9 Remove the pot and place it on the stove over a medium high heat. Stir frequently and scrape down the sides.
Step 10 After 10-15 minutes, a dark crust should form at the bottom of the Ceramic Pot. Don’t be worried, this is fond, and it’s full of flavor. Your house would be fill with sweet onion aroma at this stage.
Step 11 After the fond is formed, pour in 1/4 cup of water and scrape the fond up from the bottom, stirring it into the onions. Repeat this 3 more times. At the end of the 4 times over the stove. The onions will be very brown and soft at this point – that’s a good sign!
Step 12 After the fourth scraping, let the fond develop one more time, then deglaze with 1/2 cup of sherry. Scrape up all the brown bits and mix it with the onions. At this point the onions should be a very dark, deep brown color.
Step 12 Pour in 2 cups of water and both the chicken and beef broths. Add in the bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. Stir to combine, then turn the heat up to high.
Step 13 When the soup starts to boil, cover the Ceramic Pot and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Preparation for Storage.
- Let it cool in the pot. Transfer to your storage box by consumption portion.
- Place in fridge if you're consuming in 1-2days
- Place in freezer if you're consuming in a week or 2.

Preparation before serving.
Step 1 To prepare the soup for serving, toast slices of baguette most suitable but plain bread is fine.
***Just 1 slice per bowl is sufficient I'm just too greedy maybe cause I'm hungry after work.
Step 2 Ladle some hot soup into an oven safe bowl to warm up the soup.
Step 3 Cover the top of the soup with the toasted baguette and top the baguette slices with cheese.
Step 4 Place the bowls under the broiler. Watch it very carefully as the cheese bubbles and browns very quickly.
Step 5 Once the cheese has slightly brown take it out and serve. (Remember to use oven mitts!)


The broth is rich and deep, and the onion flavor really shines through. If you love French onion soup like deary do, do give this recipe a try.

Enjoy sipping every spoon of it~

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Learn to make Macarons and more at Taylor's University!

"More and more bakeries are introducing the macaron in their menus as this sweet sensation sweeps through the Klang Valley," says a leading local English newspaper, in opening up a fluff story about macarons. While the terms 'sweep' and 'sensation' are perhaps open to personal interpretation, it's clear that Macarons have been getting more attention in Kay-El of late. And what's not to love? Macarons combine fuss-free finger eating with a myriad of colours and flavours limited only by the baker's imagination. The only criticism, perhaps, is that it might be too sweet for some taste buds.

Anyways, the darling and I find ourselves on a Sunday afternoon, in Taylor's University's Pastry Kitchen with award winning Chef Karam for a quick and easy class on how to bake Macarons. Chef Karam has over 20 years of kitchen experience prior to joining the academic field, so we know we're in good hands!


After a quick demonstration by the Chef, we're let loose into the kitchen to whip up our own batch of Macarons!

Step 1: Mix crushed almonds, sugar, and egg whites.


Step 2: Boil some sugar.


Step 3: Add the boiling sugar to more egg whites and whisk.


Step 4: Fold in the crushed almond mixture.


Step 5: Mix in the food colouring of your choice.


Step 6: Spoon the mixture into a icing bag.


Step 7: Pipe the mixture onto baking sheets (yes, I know, I badly needed a haircut months ago).


Step 8: Admire your handiwork. Or as in my case, lack thereof.


Step 9: Bake!


Step 10: Leave your macarons to cool while you work on the filling.


Step 11: Use more icing bags to pipe jam, butter cream, chocolate ganache, or whatever you fancy, and sandwich the macarons.


Done!


You'll have noticed that we haven't provided any actual measurements or detailed steps - we're holding off for now because we want to try again in our own home kitchen. Because, you know, how many of us have industrial strength ovens and food service-style baking trays sitting in our kitchens? We'll cook up a batch in our home and will give you the recipe soon, promise!

For me, the hardest part of making the Macarons was probably the process of piping the unbaked mixture onto the baking sheets/trays. I guess I lack the skill and dexterity to get them round and uniform. Nothing a little practice can't change, of course :)

And if you're interested in learning more, Taylor's University offers weekend classes - typically over 2 months - covering cooking, baking and pastry making, both basic and intermediate levels. For details, please contact Ms. Anne Tay at 014-633 5114 / 603-5629 5000 (Ext: 5780) or email cpe@taylors.edu.my.