An Afternoon with Daniel Tay

Hubby likes to tease me for my unsatiable appetite for cooking books and cooking classes. Alas, the number of man hours I actually spend in my kitchen is dismal.

Last Sunday, I attended yet another cooking class again. This time, it was a baking class conducted by Daniel Tay (owner of Bakerzin) titled "Japanese-French pastries" The class was fully subscribed with more than 40 participants.

Daniel Tay hard at work (in the classroom)

We learnt how to make green tea macarons, Japanese cheesecake, Japanese chiffon cake and the yummiest choux puffs ever- all within a short time span of 3.5 hours. Daniel Tay is a spritely personality with a wealth of knowledge to share. Whilst his teaching method is a little haphazard at times, I tried to catch up as much as I could by furiously scribbling notes. Oh, did I also mention that Daniel Tay has a legion of cheena auntie fans who ask the cutest of questions?

Japanese cheesecake...a little under-done but otherwise light and fluffy

Cutesy chiffon cakes..the use of smaller cake tins ensures better heat distribution

Macarons and choux puffs...my favorite of the lot, insanely tedious to make but highly addictive

Check out the precise piping of the choux pastry

emerald green macaron shells...don't these look like pretty little buttons?

Here are some things I learnt during the class:

1. Don't buy icing sugar from the supermarket. Make your own by blitzing fine sugar in your blender and sieving it.
2. Almonds bought in Singapore are excessively oily. To get around this, leave the almonds on a piece of newspaper to soak up the oil a few days prior to baking.
3. Good quality flour plays an important role in the taste and texture of the final product. Daniel recommended a special cake flour from Japan which can be purchased from Meidi-ya supermarket.
4. Technique and timing is of great importance. Once a batter is overbeaten, it cannot be salvaged.

After class, we got to take home a box of the baked goodies to share with our loved ones. Hubby particularly enjoyed the choux puffs and pronounced them "the best he has eaten in his entire life". (Unfortunately they don't sell choux puffs in Bakerzin outlets)

I think I should really start cutting down on cooking classes and focus my energies towards making the perfect choux puff.

Char Siew Pau Woes

A couple of weeks back, I attended a char siew pau making class.

I had paid SGD80 per head for the class and taken a day off from work just to learn the art of char siew pau making. I was really looking forward to it.

There are generally 2 kinds of char siew pau- the fluffy melt in the mouth ones which you typically find at cha chan tengs and the inferior tough ones which you grab off a convenience store when you are too hard-pressed for time.

To my disappointment, the teacher started the class by explaining that she wasn't going to teach the fluffy version (since it requires a few days prior preparation). She then proceeded to introduce us to 2 "essential ingredients" which she would be using for the class- a bottle of Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Marinade and a packet of pau flour from Sheng Siong (kind of like a readymix flour with straightforward instructions written at the back). This was starting to sound like a quick fix recipe to me.

the pau flour

The next 3 hours just comprised of marinating the pork, simmering it in a wok, cutting it into small cubes and encasing it in the pau dough before steaming it.

diced char siew with minced garlic..a little too salty for my liking

The fun part was learning how to fold the dough nicely around the meat to form a nice "pau "shape.

Before...

After steaming for 15 mins...

Some participants in the class were Caucasian. Being new to Asian cooking, they were easily enthralled by every little step. I felt a little tickled when the teacher proudly pierced a toothpick through a piece of char siew and green apple and introduced it as an "pre-dinner snack" which they could serve to guests.

it didn't taste particularly nice...

Don't get me wrong. I love this teacher. Some of her dishes are downright delicious and her funny little antecodes can really crack me up at times.

In this instance however, I felt that that the amount of research spent developing this relatively straightforward recipe did not quite justify the hefty price tag.

Cooking Craze

With the Good Friday long weekend just around the corner, I couldn't resist but sign myself up for a cooking class conducted by a distinguished French chef.

Here's what we will be learning (and I'm drooling as I am typing):

1) Moules Marinieres
Steamed mussels in white wine, cream & fresh herbs

2) Confit de Carnard
Crispy duck leg confit with de puy lentils

3) Coq Au Vin
Chicken braised in casserole with garden vegetables & wine

4) Ratatouille
A healthy & easy stew made with garden vegetables

5) Escargot in vol au vents
Snails cooked in garlic, butter and fresh herbs in a savoury puff pastry case

With the exception of the escargots (which I still lack the guts to try), all the other dishes sound darn good to me! Better still, there will be complimentary wine served during the class.

I can't wait!

The PPT (Perfect Pineapple Tart)

Every year, when it is approaching Chinese New Year, my mouth starts itching for pineapple tarts. I love the open faced versions because they somehow seem to contain more pineapple filling (then again, maybe its just an optical illusion).

Determined to come up with the perfect pineapple tart, I have been dutifully attending classes conducted by seasoned cooks, baking schools and homemakers for the past 3 years. This year is no exception. I attended one conducted by Anna Chan of Sugar Inc yesterday.


Anna's a bubbly young lady with an infectious laugh and a voracious passion for baking. Although her pineapple tarts still fall short of my impossibly high standards, I had a good time and consider her recipe one of the better ones I have tried so far.

Makes 50 regular sized tarts

Part (1): Making the Pastry
Part (2): Making the Filling
Part (3): Assembling the Tart

Part (1) - Making the Pastry

Ingredients A
315g Bake King brand Top Flour (Top flour is supposed to be lighter than normal plain flour)
60g Milk powder (she used Nespray but I guess any other brand will work fine)
30g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients B
227g SCS unsalted pure creamery butter, cold and cubed

Thoroughly combine Ingredients A together. Thereafter, rub in Ingredients B into Ingredients A with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Try to work in a cool environment as heat will affect the texture and taste of the final product. Use plastic gloves if you have warm hands.

Ingredients C
30g egg yolks (about 2 medium yolks)
1 tbsp ice water

Mix Ingredients C together and stir thoroughly. Add the mixture into Ingredients A and B and stir gently with a spoon till well combined. Squish all the contents together with your hands and knead briefly till a dough comes together. Wrap in clingwrap and chill for 30 mins.

After 30 mins, dust rolling pin and work surface lightly with flour. Flatten dough and place 2 chopsticks on either side. With the rolling pin, roll the dough to the thickness of the chopsticks.

Dip the tart cutter (can be bought from Phoon Huat) in flour and shake off the excess. Press cutter down firmly onto dough, then press gently down the removable piece to make an indent in the tart. Lift up the cutter and remove the tart gently.

Arrange the unfilled tarts on a baking tray lined with either aluminium foil or baking parchment.

Make an eggwash (comprising 1 part of egg yolk and 1 part of water) and brush the unfilled tarts with the eggwash so that it will brown nicely in the oven later.

Part (II) - Making the filling

Ingredients A
500g Bake King pineapple paste (can buy from Giant supermarket. This brand of pineapple paste works best)
2 tbsp hot water
55g Bacardi Rum

Mash pineapple paste and hot water first using the back of a pestle or rolling pin. Then add rum and continue mashing till well blended.

Measure 1/2 tsp of pineapple paste and roll into balls using wet hands. Set the balls aside.

Part (III)- Assembling the tart

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (non fan oven) for at least 15 mins.

Place the balls of pineapple into the hollows of the pineapple tart bases.

Bake for 12-15 mins until the tarts are light golden around the edges. Always bake the same sized tarts together so they will take the same amount of time to cook. Allow the tarts to cool completely before storing.

Bon Appetit!

Note: If you are too lazy too make your own tarts, you can order your stash from the below "tried and test" confectioners.

Joyous Pastries
B1-05, Tanjong Pagar Exchange
Big and luscious open faced pineapple tarts. Owners are very generous with the filling, which is not overly sweet. The CBD crowd loves these tarts so much that the owners have set up a pushcart shop at Raffles Exchange this CNY to cater for increased demand.

Glory Catering
139 East Coast Road
Tel: 6344 1749
Traditional open faced Nonya style pineapple tarts which come in all shapes and sizes. (Apple shaped, jambu shaped, pineapple shaped- you name it, they have it!) Go for the biggest and most expensive ones- they taste exemplary.

Le Cafe Confectionery
264 Middle Road, Elias Building
Tel: 6337 2417
The ubiquitous golf ball pineapple tarts. Some folks swear by these and its not hard to see why! The beancurd tarts are worth a try too.