Cinnamon Waffles

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Use cinnamon in your recipes to add christmasy taste!

Cinnamon bark is widely used as a spice. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavoring material. It is used in the preparation of chocolate, especially in Mexico, which is the main importer of true cinnamon. It is also used in many desserts recipes, such as apple pie, donuts, and cinnamon buns as well as spicy candies, tea, hot cocoa, and liqueurs. True cinnamon, rather than cassia, is more suitable for use in sweet dishes. In the Middle East, it is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb. In the United States, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereals, bread-based dishes, and fruits, especially apples; a cinnamon-sugar mixture is even sold separately for such purposes. Cinnamon can also be used in pickling. Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly. Cinnamon powder has long been an important spice in Persian cuisine, used in a variety of thick soups, drinks, and sweets. It is often mixed with rosewater or other spices to make a cinnamon-based curry powder for stews or just sprinkled on sweet treats. It is also used in Sambar powder or BisiBelebath powder in Karnataka, which gives it a rich aroma and tastes unique.

Ingredients:

125 g margarine or butter

3 eggs

50 g sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar

250 g flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. baking powder

1/8 litre lukewarm water

Procedure:

1. Beat the butter (or margarine), sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a t time.

2. Then stir in the sieved flour (mixed with baking powder) and lukewarm water, add the cinnamon.

3. Cook the mixture straight away on the waffle iron.

4. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar onto the finished waffles and serve hot.

Boat Tart

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A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard.

The categories of 'tart', 'flan', and 'pie' overlap, with no sharp distinctions, though 'pie' is the more common term in the United States.

Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often based on fruit and custard.

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart, of apples, other fruit, or onions.

Savoury tarts include quiche, a family of savoury tarts with a mostly custard filling; German zwiebelkuchen 'onion tart', and Swiss cheese tart made from Gruyere

Here is a recipe unearthed from a long list of favorites due to a query made by a friend. Boat tarts are small pies I remember buying when I was in highschool. It is shaped like a boat thus the name.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 

1 tbl plus 1 teaspoon sugar 

8 tbl (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pea-sized bits 

1 piece egg beaten with 1 cup iced water 

Egg Wash: 

2 tablespoon water 

1 tablespoon flour 

1 egg yolk 

Cashew Filling: 

3/4 cup sugar 

4 eggs 

1 cup dark corn syrup 

2 tablespoon dark rum 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

4 tablespoon melted unsalted butter

2 cups (10 ounces) roasted unsalted cashews 

Procedure:

1. This is basically the same procedure as blind baking for pies.

Shaped pie crust ready for baking blind. Photo by missbossy

• In a large bowl, sift the flour and sugar together. 
• Using a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips, work the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. 
• Sprinkle on 3 to 4 tablespoons of the egg-water mixture, and mix it in with your fingers until the dough comes together into a ball. 
• Working on a lightly floured surface, take egg-sized pieces of the dough and smear them away from you with the heel of your hand into 6-inch streaks. 
• Scrape up all the streaks of dough and pile them on top of one another to form a disc. 
• Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. 
• Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. 
• Lightly butter your boat tart pans (Muffin cup molds will also do)
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough. Use a bowl bigger than your tart pan as a pattern. Press on the dough and get the cut circle.
• Fit the dough into the prepared tart pans.
• Trim the excess dough to a 1-inch overhang and double the dough over itself to reinforce the sides (save the trimmings for any emergency patchwork). 
• Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Line the tart shell with aluminum foil and weight down with dried beans or pie weights. 
• Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 5 minutes longer or until lightly browned. 
• Patch any visible holes in the shell with the reserved dough scraps. 
• Brush the shell with Egg Wash and return to the oven for 5 more minutes, until the wash is shiny and no longer runny. 
• Transfer to a rack to cool and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F or 160deg C.

2. Spread the cashews in the partially baked shell and cover with the Cashew Filling, making sure the nuts are covered.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until little bubbles appear around the edges of the tart and the center looks barely set. 

4. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Egg Wash Procedure:

1. In a small bowl and with use of a fork, mix together the water, flour, and egg yolk. Cover and refrigerate.

Cashew Filling Procedure:

1. In a large bowl, lightly beat the sugar and eggs together. Add the corn syrup, rum, and vanilla and beat just to a blend. Mix in the melted butter.

Tips:

You can make your own homemade light corn syrup as substitute for the market brand. For this easy light corn syrup substitute, click here.

To learn the step by step baking blind procedure, click here.

Egg pie is also known as custard pie. Both the pie and filling for egg pie can be used for this boat tart recipe. For egg pie recipe, click here.

I myself find the idea of putting foil and baking beans on each boat tart pan so  tasking. What I do is I stack them all over each other. This works best also for silicon muffin molds. The top most dough is the only one in need of baking beans. Economical and practical.


Here is a video of how to make blueberry lemon tartlets (also known as mini tarts).

Egg Pie

                              Photos by Sheryll Ann Deluz


Egg Pie is a sweet Filipino dessert that resembles an egg custard. Though famous in the Philippines and can be seen even in local bakeries, this delicious dessert has not made its own identity outside of the Filipino circle. Basically, it is a custard as based on its definition. Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce (crème anglaise), to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla. Custard bases may also be used for quiches and other savoury foods. Sometimes flour, corn starch, or gelatin is added.

For all of us outside the country who misses this sweet soft pie that could only be called our very own, here is a simple recipe that you can easily prepare at home.

PIE CRUST

1/2 cup butter (cold and cut in cubes)

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

1 2/3 cup flour

1 egg beaten

1 tsp salt

1/8 cup cold water

Procedure:

1. Mix with fork (or pastry knife) butter, sugar and flour. Add beaten egg and continue mixing. Add 1 tbsp at a time of cold water until lumpy. Form into a ball with your hands and wrap with clingwrap. Refrigerate for 30 mins. 

2. After 30 mins, dust mixing table and rolling pin with flour. Flatten the dough starting at the middle til the end. Do quarter turns till the whole dough has been rolled flat (at least 1/4 inch thick). 

3. Roll the dough on the rolling pin so as to carry it over the pie pan. Unroll and fit the dough making sure not to tear it. Leave 2 inches on all sides. Use kitchen shears or a paring knife to trim the dough to about a half-inch overhang. Save the scraps; you can use those to bulk up thin areas of the crust when you're fluting the edges.

4. Fold the dough under itself onto the flat rim of the pie plate. One of the advantages to making your own crust is that you can build up a higher edge of crust, to better contain the filling (or to hold more filling). Prepackaged crusts are flattened to the edges of the pan, so they don't break in transport. (See topic on how to flute the pan). Put back in fridge for 30 mins to settle the butter within the mixture. 

5. Do blind baking (there are some good tips in youtube). Prick sides of dough with fork to prevent bubbles. Put parchment paper on top then the baking beans. Bake for 200deg C for 15 mins. Remove baking beans and bake for 5 mins more. 

EGG PIE FILLING

2 1/3 cup evap milk

4 eggs separated

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbsp cornflour

Procedure:

1.Mix flour, sugar, egg yolks and slowly add in milk.

2. On a separate bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Add this to the flour/milk/yolk mixture using cut and fold technique. Make sure there are no bubbles. 

3. Bake for 180deg C for 20 mins then lower temp to 110deg C for 1 hr. Ready once inserted toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

**Tip: Never use plastic mixing bowl in whipping egg whites for there is always a chance of oil residue left in the bowl. any oil, liquid or yolk will diminish chance of having a nicely whipped whites. ceramic / glass or aluminum mixing bowl is recommended.

Guten Apetit!

Thanks Shirley C-R for the recipe. ;-)