Mini Tuna Tarts Recipes

We were hit by two snowy days last week. When it snow I like stay at home, curl up near the fireplace with a cup of hot Milo and watch TV. I’ve been watching so much TV especially the Food Channel, TLC and Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) until my head nearly go bonkers. So I decided to take a break from TV and bake something. I made these little mini tarts so we can have it for our afternoon tea.

These quick and flavorful tarts are easy to make. If you don’t feel like making the dough from scratch you can always use store bought short crust pastry or puff pastry. As for the filling, no cooking required. Just used canned tuna and a few other ingredients and you have fresh tarts with you tea. These tarts are great for entertaining too.

Ingredients:

Short crust pastry – refer to the recipe here

Filling:

2 cans of 6 oz tuna in water – drain well
1 tomato – roughly chopped
1 red chili – chopped (optional)
2 spring onions – cut small
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp low fat mayo
1 tsp mustard
2 tbsp ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the filling ingredients together and set it aside.
2. Roll out the dough thinly and cut out into circle using 2” or 2 ½” diameters round cookie cutter. Brush the edge with some egg, fill the center with a tsp of filling and cover the top with another piece of pastry. Seal edge with a fork.

3. Place it in a lined baking pan. With a sharp knife, cut 3 slit on top of the pie. Brush it with egg wash and bake in a pre-heated 375 degree F oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Serve warm or at room temperatures.

Note: We are expecting another round of snow this evening until Wednesday. I will take some pictures and post it here.

Mushroom, Tomato and Camembert Tarts Recipes

Marcus of Ile De France sent me a sample of Camembert to try out. This mild soft and creamy cheese which has a wonderful aromatic mushrooms and nutty undertones is crafted in Normandy from local RBST free pasteurized cow milk. The herds spend most of their time outside, grazing in the fields of Normandy; known for its temperate climate and rich soil.

I made these wonderful tarts with the mushroom and tomato and pair it with the camembert. The combination of flavors is just great and this one is a real winner. Why not try this out for your coming Thanksgiving gathering or Christmas party. I am pretty sure it will be a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients for pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour
10 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 tsp of salt
6 tbsp ice water (more or less)

1. Pulse in a food processor the flour, butter, and salt just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some small (pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Slowly drizzle in the ice-water, one tbsp at a time. Squeeze a small handful of the dough, if it doesn’t hold together; add more ice water. Do not overwork the dough, or the crust will be tough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Gather the all dough together and wrap it up with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

Ingredients for Filling

1 pound of button mushroom – wipes with a wet paper towel and slice thinly
2 shallots – sliced thinly
1 clove garlic – chopped
3 tomatoes – slice thinly
4 slices of roasted turkey - cut small
1 cup milk
3 eggs
4 oz of Camembert cheese – slice and cut into cubes
Salt and pepper to taste
Some chopped parsley for garnish

1. Heat up about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a sauté pan. Add in turkey, shallots and garlic. Sauté until fragrant and lightly brown.
2. Add in the sliced mushrooms and continue to sauté until lightly brown and the mushroom liquid evaporated. Season with some salt and pepper. Dish out and let it cool down slightly.
3. Lightly whisk eggs and milk until combined. Add in some salt and pepper to taste and set it aside.
4. Roll out the pastry and line it on the tart pans. Divide the mushroom equally among the tart shells. Top it with the cheese and slice tomatoes. Pour the custard mixture into the shells.
5. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until brown.

Stone Fruit Tarts Recipes

The last batch of peaches I bought tasted like potato. They were not juicy and tasteless. I was pretty upset with it as I bought it from Wegmans. Normally they sell the top quality produce but I am not sure what happen to this batch. I even went back to Wegmans to complaint about it and they were pretty apologetic about it. Anyway, since we won’t be eating it fresh I decided to make some tarts out of it with some leftovers plump and nectarines. If you are looking for a quick and easy dessert to serve up, this tart is for you. You may use any stone fruit for this recipe like plums, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, etc.

Ingredients for the dough

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
10 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
some ice water

1. Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter by hand or using a mixer with a paddle attachment, leaving some pea-sized chunks.
2. Sprinkle the ice water over the top by the tablespoon and toss it with the flour mixture until you can bring the dough together into a ball. 3. Press it into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for the fruit filling

2 cups of sliced and chopped stone fruits
3 tbsp sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp of cornstarch

1. Mix all the ingredients together and set it aside. Greased the muffin pan or tart shells.
2. Roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick and line it on a muffin pan or tart shells.
3. Put about 1 ½ tbsp of filling in it. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 min until golden brown.
4. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Plum Galette/Plum Crostata Recipes

We’ve got plums coming out in abundance now. I bought a big bag of it the other day and it just cost me $1.98. I left it on the counter to ripen and they were so sweet and juice. With the leftovers I made this free-form crostata or gallette, it is the easiest way to make a pie. You don’t need a pie pan, no elaborate edge crimping, and no lattice weaving. All you have to do is roll out the dough and fold it up over the fruits of your choice. This rustic plum galette is bright, delicious and a great way to finish up all the plums that you has at home.

Ingredients for the pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
10 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
some ice water

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter by hand or using a mixer with a paddle attachment, leaving some pea-sized chunks. Sprinkle the ice water over the top by the tablespoon and toss it with the flour mixture until you can bring the dough together into a ball. Press it into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling it out.

For the filling:

6 plums – core and cut into thin wedges
2 1/2 tbsp of sugar – for sprinkle
1 egg – beaten for egg wash

1. To form a galette, roll it out on a lightly floured counter into a 13” circle about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough into a line baking pan.
2. Arrange the plums all around the dough leaving about 1 ½” away from the border, then sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the fruits.
3. Fold in the edge of the dough to cover the outer rim of the plums. Brush it with some egg wash and sprinkle the remaining ½ tbsp of sugar all over the pastry.
4. Baked in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until fruit is tender and pastry golden brown. Let the galette cool on the baking pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to the cooling rack. Serve warm or cold.

Note: The amount of sugar needed depends on the tartness of the plums.

Coconut Tarts Recipes

When I moved to the USA the first thing I look for was freshly grated coconut. Since growing up in Malaysia coconut play an important part in our cuisine. We use freshly grated coconut or coconut milk in our dessert and curries. Lucky I am able to get the frozen kind from the Vietnamese and Indian grocery store here.

I have some leftover short crust pastry from my savory quiche, I decided to finish it up by making some coconut tarts. You can find this type of tart at every Chinese Bakery but making them is not difficult. The pastry of the tarts is soft and flaky while the coconut filling is moist and buttery with a slightly caramelized flavor. They are the best for afternoon tea.

Pastry:

280 gram flour
50 gram sugar
1 egg
150 gram butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp salt

Filling:

200 gram fresh grated coconut
80 gram melted butter
90 gram sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp custard powder or cornstarch

1. Sift flour and cornstarch together into a mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and salt. Mix well. Rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add in egg. Mix until the pastry begins to form large dough. Press together gently with your fingers to form the pastry into a ball.
3. Chill pastry dough for about 30 minutes.
4. In a bowl, mix all ingredients of filling. Set aside.
5. Press pastry evenly into tart mould. Trim the edges to remove excessive dough. Fill tarts with
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degree F oven for 30-35 minutes until lightly brown.
7. Leave the tarts in moulds for 5 minutes before turning it out onto wire rack to cool.

Note : For the pandan coconut filling just add a few drop of pandan paste to it.

Egg Tarts Recipes

Egg tarts come in many variations .There are egg white tarts, milk tarts, honey-egg tarts, Pandan flavor tarts etc but the traditional one is the egg custard tarts which usually serve at dim sum place or at the Chinese Bakeries. These come in two kind of pastry. One which use the sweet short crust pastry and another one is the puff pastry kind. I made the traditional kind using short crust pastry. The custard filling is made out of eggs, milk, sugar and a bit of vanilla. The custard is soft and silky and it contrasted beautifully with the crispy crust. You can always change the filling to pandan, green tea or citrus flavor.

Ingredients for the Pastry

125 gm. butter
60 gm. icing sugar
1 egg yolk
200 gm. flour

Ingredients for Egg Custard

280 gm. fresh milk
110 gm. sugar
3 nos. eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Beat butter and icing sugar till well mixed. Add in the egg yolk and mix well.
2. Add in vanilla and then the flour and mix into a dough. If the dough mixture is a bit dry add a bit of cold water until the dough comes together. Rest the dough for 30mins. Roll out the dough and line the dough into small tart moulds.
3. Bake the tart shell till half-cooked. This will take about 10 min. The pastry should turn white and slightly brown on the edges. Remove from the oven. Turn the oven heat down to 325 degree F
4. For egg custard, heat sugar and milk together. Once sugar dissolves remove from heat Do not boil the milk.
5. Whisk eggs and pour into the milk mixture. Add in the vanilla.
6. Sift the egg custard and pour into tart shells and bake till egg custard sets.

Note : Check your tarts after 12-15 mins of baking. What you can do is to shake the tray of egg tarts and if the custard wobbles, then it a sign that it's not cook and if it doesn't wobble, then it's set and you can take it out from the oven.

French Apple Tart Recipes

I have so many apples in my fruits compartment and they are all getting wrinkly and drying up. I have to find a quick way to use it up before it goes bad. I made this very simple French Apple Tarts using Ina Garten recipe. As usual her recipe never fails me. The crust came out perfectly flaky, buttery and delicious. I’m sure it would be equally delicious with whipped cream or some really good ice cream on top. I love the simple rustic nature of this tart, and the burned sugar on the top and edges of the crust. This is one of those recipes I'm going to keep in my arsenal for those times when I want to make a great impression without a lot of effort.

For the pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks/170 grm) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

For the apples:

4 Granny Smith apples or any type of apples
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup)
4 tablespoons cold butter - small diced (I used 2 tbsp)
1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam
2 tablespoons rum, or water

1. For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll the dough to about 1/4" thick and place the dough in a tart pan. Refrigerate the dough while you prepare the apples.
3. Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices.
4. Place overlapping slices of apples to top of the pastry until the pastry is covered with apple slices. Sprinkle with the sugar on top and dot with the butter.
5. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking.
6. When the tart's done, heat the apricot jelly together with rum or water and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature

Peach Tarts Recipes

I have tons of peaches from my recent Peach Picking trip with Diana. Besides eating it fresh I have to find ways to finish it up quick as they are getting over ripe and they don’t keep well in the fridge. I gave some to my neighbor Nancy and also some to Diana’s friend and I still have quite a bit of it.

Who can pass an easy to prepare dessert using the fresh peaches and store bought puff pastry? All you need is just a few other ingredients that you can find in your pantry. There is no fuss, no rolling out pastry here. If you don’t have peaches you can use other type of fresh fruits like apples, pears, plumps or mix berries. You can eat the tart as it is or smothered it with vanilla ice cream. Heaven!!

Ingredients:

1 box of puff pastry – 2 sheets
4 fresh peaches
3 tbsp of sugar – more if you like it sweeter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp of apricot jam + 2 tbsp of hot water (for glazing)

1. Thaw the puff pastry for about 30 minutes. Peel and pit the peaches. Slice them into wedges. Toss it lightly with sugar and cinnamon powder and set it aside.
2. Line the baking sheet with some parchment paper. Pre-heat oven to 375 degree F.
3. Cut the puff pastry sheet into third and then half. Lay it out on a baking sheet. Arrange the peach slices on the puff pastry. Bake for 20 minutes or it puff up and golden brown.
4. Take it out of the oven and brush the top with some apricot jam. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.

Note : If you can't find fresh peaches you can replace it with can peaches.

Mini Cottage Pies Recipes

Aren’t these the cutest little pies you’ve ever seen? Believe me; they tasted even better than they look! These savory little pies make great hors d’oeuvres for party or any gatherings and I am sure it will impress your guests. These mini pies are really simple to make and you can prepare them ahead of time before the party. Feel free to make a one large pie if you want to. Either way you will not be disappointed.

Ingredients:
(adapted from Women's Weekly Cookbooks)


Shortcrust pastry – refer to the recipe here (you can use the store bought pastry)

250 grm ground beef
1 medium onion – chopped finely
2 cloves garlic – chopped
2 tomatoes – cut into small cubes
½ cup of beef stock or water
¼ cup frozen peas
1 tbsp of chopped fresh thyme
2 tbsp of chopped parsley
2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste


2 large potatoes or 3 medium size potatoes (500 grm)
¼ cup milk
1 tbsp butter
1 egg yolk
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Lightly greased some muffin pans or tartlets pans. Roll out the dough to about 1/8” thickness. Using a round cutter cut out rounds and places the dough to the pans. Prick the tart shells all over with a fork and blind bake until golden brown. Remove and let it cool.
2. Heat about 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan. Cook onions and garlic until soften and lightly brown. Add in beef, cook, stirring until beef changes color. Add in tomato, water, Worcestershire sauce and thyme. Bring it up to boil. Reduce heat, simmer until liquid has evaporated. Stir in peas and chopped parsley. Check seasoning and remove from heat.
3. Boil potato until soft. Remove and drain. Mash potato in a large bowl. Stir in butter, milk, and egg yolk, salt and pepper until well combined.
4. Spoon potato mixture into piping bag fitted with a large star tips.
5. Put the pastry casing on a baking sheet, fill about 1 tsp of beef mixture, and pipe potato over the beef. Set your oven to boil and broil the tarts until the tops slightly brown.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Seafood Tarts Recipes

I love making tarts. Its can be sweet tarts that glazed with cream, custard and colorful fruits or savory tarts. For savory tarts you can fill it up with just about anything. It can asparagus and peas in spring, to tomatoes and zucchini in summer, to pumpkin, leeks and potatoes in fall and in winter with shrimp, salmon, bacon and even scallops. Some of them are custardy, like a quiche and others are simple fillings held together with a bit of cheese or egg mixture.

I did these seafood tarts for our Christmas brunch. You can always used store bought short crust pastry if you don’t feel like doing it from scratch.

Pastry for the tarts:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup (12 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 tsp of salt
6 tbsp ice water (more or less)

1. Pulse in a food processor the flour, butter, and salt just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some small (pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Drizzle 5 tbsp ice water evenly over the mixture. Pulse until incorporated. Squeeze a small handful of the dough, if it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tbsp at a time, pulsing until combined. Do not overwork the dough, or the crust will be tough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Gather the all dough together then divide it in half. Flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Ingredients for the filling :

2 cup of cooked shrimp – roughly chopped
1/2 cup of artificial crabstick – roughly chopped
1 stalk of celery – cut into tiny cubes
3 spring onions - finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup of low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup of light mayonnaise
1 tsp of chili powder
1/2 tsp of sugar
2 tbsp of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a mixing bowl mix all the filling ingredients together until well combined. Set it aside.
2. Roll about the dough to about 1/8” and line the pastry into little tart moulds.
3. Fill it up with the filling and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F for half an hour or until the crust is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chicken Pot Pie Delicious Recipes

I always like the idea of chicken pie or any kind of savory pies. When you are baking it the whole house just filled with the sweet scent of the pie and when you dig into this dish it never fails to please. This is a very easy recipe which anyone can make. I used the store bought pie crust and you can either use the short crust or puff pastry.

Ingredients :

2 pcs of pie crust
2 cups of cooked chicken meat
2 carrots - cut into small cubes
2 stalk of celery - cut into small cubes
1 cup of green peas
1 potatoes - cut into cubes
1/2 onions - finely diced
1 cloves of garlic
1 can of low sodium cream of chicken or mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg - beaten

1) Heat up the pan and lightly brown the onion and garlic. Then add in the celery and carrots, saute for 2 minutes.
2) Add in cream of chicken or mushroom soup and add in about 2 cups of water. Mixed well and bring to boil and add in the potatoes. Continue to simmer until potatoes soften and add in the chicken and green peas.
3) Stir well, cook until sauce thickens. Check seasoning. Dish out and let it cool.
4) Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Prepare a pie dish. Roll out the pastry 1" larger than the pie dish.
5) Put in the filling and cover the top with another piece of roll out pastry and crimp the edges. Cut a few slits on top of the pastry for venting air.
6) Brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
7) Let it cool down for 10-15 minutes before serving.

A few of you asked how I make the lattice design on top of the pie. Here is my secret :) I used this gadget I bought a few years ago from a kitchen supplies store.

(Front view)

(Back view)
Note : You can add extra water if the filling gets too dry before the potatoes is soft.

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars Delicious Recipes

I have been craving for oatmeal cookies for the past few days now and I don't want to bake the traditional oatmeal cookies. I wanted to bake something healthier or at least that's what I like to think 0f :) So I went through my baking pantry to see what healthy ingredients I can find to make the healthy bars. The outcome was good. The bar wasn’t too sweet and it’s just nice with a cup of coffee or tea.

Ingredients :

1 cup of white wholewheat flour or flour
1 1/4 cups of quick-cooking oats
2 tbsp of honey
1/2 tsp of salt
6 tbsp of melted butter
1 cup of low sugar strawberry preserves (you can used the regular ones)
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut flaked


1) Prepare an 8" x 8" square pan and line it with aluminium foil. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F.
2) In a bowl combine wholewheat flour, oats and salt.
3) Mix the honey into the melted butter and pour it into the flour mixture. Stir until crumbly. Set aside 1/2 cup of the mixture.
4) Press the remaining crumb evenly into the pan. Spread the strawberry preserves over the crust.
5) Combine coconut with the reserved crumb mixture and sprinkle over the preserves.
6) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.

Berries Tarts Delicious Recipes

I bought 2 punnets of beautiful strawberries from the produce place last week and it turns out to be sour. Carlos refused to eat it so it's sitting in the fridge drying away. Since we both love pies I decided to make some berries tarts with it. I especially liked it a lot because is something sweet but definitely on the lighter side as dessert go.

Pastry :

1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar
1 stick (8 tbsp) of cold butter
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp of very cold water

1. In a large bowl mixed together flour, sugar and salt. Using your hand or pastry cutter rub the cold butter into the flour until it resembles coarse cornmeal or breadcrumbs.
2. Add in egg yolk and cold water and mix until dough come together. Form it into a disk and chilled the dough for an hour before using it.

For the filling:

3 cups of berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & blackberries
4 tbsp of sugar
juice of one lemon
2 tbsp of cornflour
1 egg - beaten

1) Mixed all the filling ingredients except the egg and set aside.
2) Roll out the pastry to about 1/8" thick and line the pastry into the tart pan.
3) Put the filling into the tart pan and cover the top with the balance of the pastry.
4) Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle with some sugar on it.
5) Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.