My Culinary Adventures: Pineapple Pie

I'm not sure what it is about pies which makes me want to keep eating...maybe its the rich buttery and oh-so-tasty crust or the moist, sweet filling. Well whatever the reason is, I felt like I needed to try my hand at making one and since I'm quite free at home these days, decided to go ahead with it yesterday.

The recipe was for an apple pie, but since apples are not exactly the filling of choice for me or my family, I followed my mum's advise and went with pineapples instead. Cooking the pineapples were easy enough to do, but I nearly got them burnt! Guess that's why rookies should never be left unsupervised in the kitchen...

(But the slightly burnt pineapples gave that wonderfully sweet and indescribable aroma that added more flavour to the pie...)

Another mistake I made was not to have measured the pie dish and checked it against the recipe in the first place. That meant that the dough for the crust couldn't even come up to half the sides the pie dish. Luckily my mum had some foil dishes which could be used in this instance, although the dough was still not enough. Ideally, the crust should be a little higher than the dish itself so as to give the pie its characteristic shape. Another lesson learnt the hard way :/

The dough was too soft when I was kneading and as expected, crumbled too easily after baking. So the pineapple pie became more of a pineapple crumble in the end. Seems the butter should have been reduced...

Well, in the end, I think it was a good first attempt, although it could have been better. I guess its alright to make mistakes the first time round, and I can't wait to try again!

Nothing beats having a scrumptious slice of pie for tea on Sunday :)

My Culinary Adventures: Banana Shortbread

It's been such a long time since I baked or made something so I was obviously glad when my Mum told me that the flour in the fridge was expiring soon...that was the cue to finally crank up the ol' oven!

I decided on an all time favourite of mine: Banana Shortbread. I'm nuts about bananas and everything else that has bananas in them...so I couldn't wait to get started.

I managed to get the recipe from one of my Mum's numerous cookbooks called The World Of Bread by Alex Goh. It's chockful of very-easy-to-make bread recipes with accompanying great colourful pictures so you know what to expect when you open that oven!

I don't know if its alright to put up the recipe here so I'll resist doing that...instead you can view an alternative one which looks just as yummy at the Joy Of Baking webby.

Made a few modifications as usual to the recipe - I love adding that personal touch! - by adding almond slivers together with the chopped roasted walnuts, and a little vanilla essence which I thought really brought out the aroma of the bananas.

My house was filled with the a bevy of mouth watering aromas of roasted walnuts, almonds and bananas together with the smell of freshly baked bread....I simply couldn't wait to sink my teeth into a slice!

I had to extend the baking time by as much as 10 minutes because it was still a little uncooked right down the middle...but this is normal as every oven will have it's own timing...you just have to fiddle around with it to get yours figured out.

I felt it was abit too sweet in the end, but that was kind of expected because the bananas that I used were sweeter than usual. I had already reduced the sugar used by about 50 grams, but apparently there still is room for more reduction. I guess it all depends on the bananas that you use. Also, it being a shortbread, the final texture is more cake-like than bread.

But it felt good all the same to munch on a slice!

My Culinary Adventures: Cranberry Oat Scones

I finally tried my hand at this cookie/bread/pastry(i'm not too sure what it is!), which is one of my favourite tea-time munchies. Used to buy them from bakeries previously but i decided that with the amount of free time i have, i might as well try doing them.

I wanted to follow the recipe on the Net but my mom told me to try one of her cookbook recipes instead. I don't think there would be too much of difference in the taste or texture of both recipes...but the one on the Net was slightly more tedious so i went along with the cookbook haha!

Cranberry-Oat Scone Recipe

Decided to try a few modifications to the recipe by adding a little lemon zest and vanilla essence and took out the salt coz i was using salted butter. I think it turned out pretty well..but one think about the scone dough is that made it too tough by over mixing and over kneading..should try to keep those to a minimum.

I thought the scones could be a little more sweeter but i think this is up to the individual taste. Overall i think its quite a simple recipe to try and shouldn't take you more than an hour or two to get this done. Its pretty versertile too in that you can add raisins or almonds or choc chips or even plain scones to be eaten with jam. Makes a delightful accompaniment for tea! Bon Appetit!

My Culinary Adventures: Rice Pudding

One of my passions has always been cooking. It could be desserts, cakes, preparing different types of drinks, or any sort of dishes. When i was young(and i still do this but not so often!) i will always be in the kitchen when my mum or dad is doing the cooking. I guess that's where i developed my passion. For me, the allure of cooking has always been in the ability to toss some seemingly random ingredients together to make something wonderfully yummy and satiating.

I was home alone to today; my mum and dad went out in the morning. One of those cravings for something sweet came over me and i was trawling the net for easy to prepare desserts when i stumbled upon this recipe for a delicious rice pudding. The recipe was so straightforward even a kid could do it haha!

Rice Pudding Recipe

Prep Time: 40 mins

I had to cut the amount of ingredients by half; i was making it only for myself coz i wasn't too sure how it would turn out. Luckily it turned out quite well though i wasn't too sure how it was supposed to be coz i had never had a rice pudding before! =)

It was quite dry and the rice was still chewy as stated in the recipe coz i used the long grain white rice...i think the pudding would be a little mushier and a little more gooey if i had used the short grain white rice. I added a little yellow colouring the pudding coz i thought it makes the pudding slightly more appealing rather than the stark white colour that it had. The recipe called for raisins and whipped cream as garnish but i decided to skip both; the pudding was good enough on its own!

One sticking point that i had was that i felt the pudding was too sweet. Bear in mind that i had to half the recipe so maybe the proportions weren't right..but i would say maybe take off another 10 grammes off the sugar if you don't like your desserts too sweet. Also you have to ensure that you keep stirring frequently as per the recipe, unless you want to have a hard time cleaning up later coz the rice tends to stick to the saucepan if you don't.

Overall i think its a wonderful dessert and you can have it as a meal on its own too. Besides other than the sugar, its got good ingredients like milk and rice. You can up the nutrient value by adding the raisins or perhaps some almond flakes. You can eat this hot or cold although i prefer it hot coz i think it makes great comfort food! Bon Appetit!