MANDARIN ORANGE CROSTATA

One of my favorite citrus fruits is mandarin orange.  They are so popular during Lunar New Year celebration that bring luck and wealth.  Since I have them in stock,  decided to bake  this Mandarin Orange Crostata  or free form tart.

If you find baking a tart  a little intimidating, you can check  my tips  here. .

First of all, prepare the crust  as per the recipe below. While waiting for the crust to be chilled, peel the mandarin oranges, remove the white thread on the outer segment.  Using a sharp knife, cut crosswise into 1/4 in thick slices.  Remove  the seeds, carefully transfer onto a plate, sprinkle with some sugar. Refrigerate.

After rolling and filling, you suppose to brush the mandarin orange with apricot preserves but  omit this step since I don't have it.  Alternately, just sprinkle more sugar over the mandarin orange just before baking.

You can always buy a ready made pie crust  but nothing  beats a homemade one!

FRESH APPLE CAKE

Looking for a cake with fresh fruit?   Well  I  have just baked a  moist  and no-fail Fresh Apple Cake with perfect amount of sweetness plus large chunks of apple, this adds a great flavor and texture to this cake..

This Fresh Apple Cake uses fresh apple.  Mine is made of  granny smith but other varieties  such as gala, red delicious,  McIntosh or  combination of them  should  work too.   Don't use a food processor  to chop  the apples. It should be roughly chopped into 1/2 in chunk.

Use a simple drizzled glaze or  serve  it plain.  Prefer to omit the glaze since it  it well sweetened. already. You can also dust the cake with icing sugar.

Not only  is this Fresh Apple cake really yummy but it is also very easy to prepare.  So give this recipe a try and let us know if you think  this  cake is the best!

BRAIDED NUTELLA BRIOCHE

This is my first post for the year 2015 so I have chosen to bake a yeast bread.  It is a buttery bread called  Braided  Nutella  Brioche.

The dough was so soft like a baby's cheek and bit difficult to handle. I  made mine by hand.  There is a sense of satisfaction in working the dough  by hand and crafting such an attractive bread and it certainly will impress your guests.I didn't add any flour while shaping but if needed add one or two tablespoon  to the dough.

Braided Nutella Brioche requires double proofing but it worth the effort since bread turns amazingly soft and beautiful.  When I took my first bite,  feel like am eating a cake and not a bread!

Made this bread into a braid but you could shape it according to your liking. This is the softest and butteriest  bread I  have ever baked!

TOP 10 FAVORITE POST OF 2014

While embarking to a new year, this is a look back to my blogging activities for the past year.

These are the posts that gained the most attention chosen by my lovely readers.

Perhaps you  missed some of these posts or maybe you just want to have another look since it has been awhile.  Feel free of course to share them with your friends because each click tells me that you'd liked me to keep posting these sorts of recipe.

The first most viewed post of 2014 is actually one that I have posted way back in 2012.  Actually you just click on the title of each photo  to view full post.


10. Baked Yeast Doughnuts.

9.   Sotong Masak Hitam (Squid in Black Ink)l

SWEET CORN CAKE

It is a habit to check my pantry before any baking project.  From there,  will plan what I  want to bake next.  I found a can of whole kernel corn sitting in my cabinet.  So I have to make something out of this canned sweet corn.

Today I want share this  perfect Sweet Corn I have baked.  It turned  out great  with lovely texture and right amount of sweetness. Add about 1/4 cup more sugar if you like it sweeter.

Rinsed and drained well the corn before adding it to the batter. I squeezed out the water after putting it in a colander.

Turn this into muffin by baking them in a muffin pan but do not level the top.  Bake for  15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Actual baking time varies with each oven so watch closely.