Anyway, the homestays have been pestering me to cook these again.
Was feeling rather whimsical when I got home last night. I set up Mummy Lim's present in the kitchen (a deLux 45cm fan - hahah probbly not too appropriate for winter) which Dot topped off with a bowtie and a reflective card. The artsiness of positioning the present perfectly in the kitchen(hahaha) resulted in a total overrunning of my creative juices and I began to think about some of the recipees I've been meaning to improve upon - prime among them, my delectable tarts.
So this is how I changed the recipee from last time...
. 1 cup of self-raising flour (changed from normal flour)
. 4 tbspn margarine (up from 2 1/2 - give more fragrance)
. 1 400g can sweetened condensed milk
. 2 cups milk
. 1 cup brown sugar (from white sugar)
. 3 eggs (up from 2, I wanted a more custardy inner)
. 1 tbspn cinnamon (wanted to see if it would make the tart more appealing)
. 2 tbspn almond essence (confused with bee-sting cake, this did nothing)
Mix all the ingredients together; there's nothing hard to it. Melt the margarine beforehand. I tend to use a manual egg-beater but if you feel lazy go with the electronic mixers. The original recipe recommends straining the flour to achieve a smoother texture, but I did that in previous iterations and it didn't make an iota of diference. Once the mixture is smooth, spoon it into a greased muffin tray. See below:
I find that the optimum height of the tart (for my oven (gas-fired) seems to be between 1-1.5 cm. Under that and you're making crispy coinage, over that and you get these bloated entities that collapse on themselves once all the hot air moves out of them.
Bake for 20 minutes at 200C. Without opening the door (just use a torch to shine in if you're curious about the colour) lower the heat to 180C and let it sit for another 15 minutes.
The final result should look something like that. The picture was taken 1-minute post-removal, no photoshopping (hah!) Use a fork to scrape out the tart from the sides of its enclosure, lever it out and turn it upside down to cool.
It can be eaten hot or at room temp, I normally do room temperature but it also works well being toasted for a minute or two and then being served with vanilla ice-cream.
Then, just for fun, I tried to do an edible impression of the Sydney Opera house. Supplement sails with tarty circumferences and I'm almost there, right?
Eat it... and be prepared for the tart-shaped tummy that will come soon after! There's enough sugar in one of these things to make your teeth rot on the spot ^^.
EVALUATION
The taste was good, first batch (brown ones) achieved a good layer of chewy crust with a creamy and firm inner. However, I think due to the extensive baking it ended up visually unorgasmic and didn't smell as nice as I hoped (yes I did smell all of them...)The second batch, on the other hand, was slightly underdone, probably because they were thicker and I used less time to cook them (it was 2am, puh-lease) Colour was nicer, but... well, rather too pallid for my taste. The inner was soft and steamy when cracked open but had some trouble holding its shape.
The two colours and sizes was me experimenting with tart depth and cooking time. But I reasoned that the dark ones were from South Africa, and the yellow ones from China O.o. I liked the darker ones, although they were a tad (hah! more like 10 minutes) overcooked because I was wasting time on Facebook.
Baking is so therapeutic. So fun! I don't think I could go out with a girl who doesn't like cooking. They're missing out ^^. Oops, there I go again, thinking about relationships. The bug is back. =_=.
In Faith, Hope and Love!
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