Yummy Egg Tarts ～ Rice Cooker or Oven Bake

Ever since I learnt how to bake cake using a rice cooker, I am very intrigued by what other things that a rice cooker can make. So I asked my best 'know～in～all' friend, Mr Google and one recipe shouted out at me: Egg Tarts!

Eggs tart is a very good candidate for testing of recipe since my family members love egg tarts.

During my first attempt, I tried to act smart and grease my moulds. End up I had a hard time getting the tarts out of the moulds. After reading up more tart baking, I realise that the trick to get them out easily is NOT to grease the moulds. The 2nd time, I did not grease the moulds and the egg tarts come out nicely with a gentle knock.

Recipe adapted from My Mind Patch.

Made about 4 tarts. Can double or triple the recipe for more tarts.

These tarts are baked both in my Toshiba Rice Cooker and Morris tabletop oven.

Ingredients: 

For the Crust

30g unsalted butter, softened

15g icing sugar

10g beaten egg* 

60g all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

For the Egg Custard Filling 

30g beaten egg*

15g fine sugar (reduced sugar from original recipe because my family like it less sweet)

50g milk

Pinch of salt

* I used one medium sized egg and weigh 10g for the crust. The rest are used for egg custard filling.

How to do:

1. Beat the egg and strain through the sieve. Weigh out 10g and set both portion aside for later use.

2. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside for later use.

3. Cream the soften butter till it is smooth and pale yellow. I used hand whisk.

4. Add icing sugar and continue to cream till light and fluffy.

5. Add in the 10g egg and continue to mix till well combined.

6. Fold in the flour in 3 installments using a spatula till the mixture becomes a soft dough.

7. Shape the dough into a cylinder shape, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for about 15 - 20min.

8. While the dough is in the fridge, start preparing the egg filling.

9. Gently stir the ingredients for the egg filling together till well combined. 

10. Put the egg filling mixture through the sift to remove lumps and bubbles.

*******

11. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut the dough into 4 equal portion.

12. Shape them into a ball and placed in the egg tart mould.

13. Press the dough ball in the center against the mould and push it up against the wall till its full height. After baking, the crust will expand slight above the mould and it is easier to remove from the mould.

14. Pour the egg custard into the shaped tart shells.

15. Place them in the rice cooker and select bake function and set for 60min.

16. After 60min, check if the tarts are cooked. They are cooked if the crust slightly shrink from the wall and the custard is firmed. If not ready, press bake function and set for another 5 or 10 min and check for its doneness. My tarts took about 70 min in my rice cooker.

The tarts can also be baked in my oven for 20min at 160 degree. Do watch closely the tarts at about 12 - 15min, if the custard begins to balloon up, it means the oven temperature is too hot. Leave the oven door ajar so that the balloon subsides. If the custard balloons up too much, it will sink down in the center part when cool.

:: Egg Tarts Baked in Rice Cooker ::

So what is the main difference between baking in oven and rice cooker? Those baked in the oven have more browning, firmer and crisp. Those using rice cooker will not achieve the browning and the crust is softer. I also don't have the issue of ballooning custard for the tarts in rice cooker.

:: Egg Tarts Baked in Oven ::

Merry Christmas!! Fruit Cake in the House!

I have to admit...
I was never a big fan of fruit cake...

Most probably because my first encounter with fruit cake was not very pleasant. I vaguely remembered eating some fruit cake that my mom bought from neighborhood bakery. The fruit bits tasted so artificial and almost plastic-y. I have never touched a fruit cake since then..

Now that I started baking and chanced upon a  recipe that look easy enough, I thought it will be a good chance to change my perception of fruit cakes since I can control what to put into the fruit cake.

Recipe adapted from   Everybody Eats Well in Flanders

This cake is baked using my Toshiba Rice Cooker.

Ingredients:

Group A:
180g light brown sugar
240ml water
55g butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves  (I used 1/2 tsp ground spice because I can't find ground cloves)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
300g raisins  (I used mixed of Silver Bird Sultanas & Sunmaid Raisins)

Group B:
2 eggs, lighted beaten  (my eggs are approx. 50g each w/o shell)
195g multi-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
50g dried cranberries
50g dried apricots  (cut to approx size of cranberries/raisins)
50g candied orange peels* (cut to approx size of cranberries/raisins)

*Click here on instructions on how to make candied orange peels.



How to do:

1. Pour all the ingredients under Group A except for raisins into a saucepan.
2. Use medium heat to stir till butter melted and everything well mixed.
3. Add in the raisins and bring to a boil.
4. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 5min.
5. After that, off the heat and set aside until it is lukewarm.

*******

6. Pour the Group A mixture into a mixing bowl.
7. Add in the ingredients in Group B and mixed well with a wooden spoon or spatula.
8. Grease the rice cooker inner pot with vegetable oil or butter and pour the mixture in.
9. This cake cooks in my Toshiba rice cooker for about 1.5 hours.
10. Once it's done, turn it out from the rice cooker and let it cool.

For storage, I wrapped in cling wrap, followed by aluminum foil and stored in the fridge.

:: Fruit Cake using Rice Cooker ::

I thought the fruit cake turned out beautifully. I had to wait for 1 day before cutting open it as the taste was supposed to be more settled after 1 day.

:: Beautiful Fruit Cake Slices ::

The fruit cake looked so beautiful, esp with the bits of orange colored peels and apricots. And the best part is, it tasted very moist and yummy! I am absolutely in love with fruit cakes now! I love it so much that I baked a few other batches to give to my friends.

:: Fruit Cakes using Oven ::

The above batch are done in petite loaf baking cups using oven. The recipe works well too! 

These petite loaf baking cups are 8cm by 4cm, 4.5cm height. I only have them filled to 1/3 and baked in the preheated oven at 180 degree for 15 min.

How It All Started...

It all started with me giving birth to my little sunshine and becoming a SAHM.

Apart from looking after my little one and of coz online shopping, I need to find more interesting to do while at home.. And so.. I started to toy with the idea of baking..

And so.. for the longest time, my mom has been telling me that our rice cooker can bake cakes. We have the same rice cooker. I have never thought of trying it before because in my reality, cakes are supposed to be bake in oven.

But since I am looking for something interesting to do and also to prove my mom's point, I started to search for recipes to bake cakes with rice cooker. And that is when I stumbled Miss B's blog: Everybody Eats Well in Flanders. 

I am very intrigued by her recipes especially those that can be done without a mixer. Sounds like just dump and bake,  very low risk for failure.. And so I tried her recipe for Rice Cooker Moist Chocolate Cake. I followed everything on her recipe and it really helps that I have the similar rice cooker as Miss B (mine is a Toshiba RC-10NMF) .

The cake was a great success and an instant hit with my family!

:: My 1st Rice Cooker Cake - Moist Chocolate Cake ::

After that a couple of days later, I tried another of her no brainer recipe: Rice Cooker Banana Cake. Again it was a success and my family loved it! 

:: Rice Cooker Banana Cake :: 

And so.. I started to look for more rice cooker baking recipes. A few weeks later, my mom bought a breadmaker and I started to experiment baking with the breadmaker (Song-Cho) & as well as my underutilized table top oven (Morries).

As I am still a newbie baker, one things I find very tiresome is that due to different appliances, the results of the baking could vary. So I have decided to start this blog 1) to document the recipes that I have tested & 2) to share with fellow newbies who could be using the same appliances as me and hope they find the info useful. 

That's all for my 1st post on my intention of this blog.

So happy baking, everyone!