Chocolate based crust Fruit Tarts with apricot glaze

Crust is made with short crust pastry recipe. When baking the crust, baking beans must be placed on the crust to avoid the crust from rising due to trapped air in between the pastry and the baking tin. After baking the crust, I placed a thick layer of melted good quality dark chocolate, followed by custard cream then with the fresh fruits. Apricot glaze is then brushed on the top of the fruits for the shiny effects. I put them in the fridge them for a good 1 hour before serving. It can be kept in the fridge for 2 days only.

Jia Lei Bread Making course Lesson 9

When I went for lesson 9 that day, I realised that Jia Lei was conducting a secondary school puff pastry baking class. I was like sxxt, did I make a mistake or did the teacher made a mistake on my schedule? Anyway, I felt that it was pointless to question who is wrong or right. I just made a quick rescheduling and make my way to the gym. I took my time at the gym, had lunch and while I was shopping for groceries, Jia Lei called me and ask if I can make it for lesson. I was still around that area so I thought why not? I was the only one learning and it felt great! The whole kitchen to myself! HAHAHA!

The picture on the left is bread with yam topped with almonds, bread with butter topped with coffee mexican topping (similar to roti boy) and durian cream coiled bread which I had to redo because I failed the other time. Only days later that I remember making cartoon-face bread but I did not bring back. I think it was inside the proofer. There were so many variations that day, so I guess both my teacher and I forgot about the cartoon-face bread. Hopefully, I can do again in lesson 10 (my last lesson).

The picture on the right is durian strudel. They had a puff pastry baking class before my class and they saved some left over pastry for me. It allows me to practise making the strudel once again. It was a breeze and it felt great!

During my lesson, some of the teachers were practising on some cute cupcakes with 3D designs so that they can teach on future classes. Aren't they sweet!

Jia Lei Bread Making course Lesson 8

Arrgh! I forgot my camera again! In the end, I had to compromise and use my lousy phone camera. Hence, I promise myself to get a new phone which has at least 8 mega pixels. During lesson 8, I made bonito flakes bread, pork floss bread, golden pillow ( cooked curry chicken wrapped in aluminium foil then covered with dough and baked), and french loaf. I did not feature the golden pillow and the french loaf as after the lesson, I was rushing for time to go to the gym with T, so please pardon me.

The breads was super soft and nice as usual. I feel that Singapore style bread (soft bread) are easy to bake and not as time consuming as the french loaf. For french loaf, half the dough needs to proof at least 4 hours and above, and the other half consist of fresh dough. The lesson only last for 4 hours maximum, so my teacher had already done up the first half of the dough the night before. The 2 doughs were then mixed together, moulded, baked and then paired with the leftover curry chicken! Yummy!