Fruits Pie

Don't be surprise, you will find more and more recipes in my blog mostly fruits cake, fruits pie.. everything with fruits . Well, summer is almost come .. fresh fruits is everywhere ^_^

For base tartlet :
175 gr all purpose flour
50 gr un-salted butter
25 gr white vegetable fat (shortening)
50 gr caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cold water
115 gr apricot jam, strained and warmed

For the filling :
150 ml double (heavy) cream
250 mascarpone cheese or regular cream cheese
grated rind of 1 orange
450 gr mixed prepared fruits, such : kiwi, fruit, blackberries
90 ml apricot jam, strained
15 ml orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter and white vegetable fat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the caster sugar, add the egg yolks and enough cold water to make a soft dough.Put the pastry into the clear film (plastic wrap) , chill for 30 minutes .Thinly roll out the pastry to line a 35x12 cm fluted tranche tin or use any size of pie pan. Trim off the excess pastry . Prick the base of the pastry case and line with baking parchment and baking beans .

Bake for 15 minutes Lift out the paper and beans return the pastry case to the oven for 5 minute.

Brush the inside of the case with the warmed apricot jam to form the seal. Cool on a wire rack.

Make Filling :
Whip the cream to soft peak, the stir it into the cheese with the icing sugar and orange rind. Spread in the cooled pastry case and top with the prepared fruits.

Warm the apricot jam with the orange juice and drizzle or brush over the fruits to make a glaze.

Strawberry Bar

"One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste"

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe-

Yeaaay, finally the great weather is coming, less rain, birds singing, flowers blooms, . No more complaint for spending much money for unreasonable fruits price LOL. Off course this year we already planting some of vegetable and spices in our own yard, but sometime I still get from local farmer market.

One of my favorites dessert for today, is : strawberries bar .. easy to bake, and delicious.. For the base can be made ahead and frozen, so you don't have to worry spend much time in the kitchen while the weather so great.

Fresh Strawberries Bars

Source : Better Home & Gardens

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup strawberry jam

4 cups small whole strawberries, halved or quarted

Heat oven 350 F, line 13x9x2 inch baking pan with foil. And next if you like , cut with cookie cutter for single portion.

In large mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter on medium to high for 30 second. Beat in sugars, baking powder and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

Spread dough in prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and toothpick inserted comes out clean

Cool completely on rack. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries.

Roller Coaster ..

I feel my life is mostly like a roller coaster, especially last week .. in a middle of week I felt so mad, upset, when I found that someone out there stealing my food picture for their cook book and not only me, but others beloved friends become a victim too. This is absolutely wrong, how come you take benefit from our works ? How people are take a short cut to become a famous person ?

For me, no room for stealer, no room for cheater.. That is hurting me, It doesn't matter my picture look ugly, or best .. stealing is not right.. we need to STOP people like them. Yes, I will take some action , but I can't work alone.. I need work together with others , and I still thinking the best action that we can do to STOP them.

That was one bad news I've got for last week, another one (if you consider) got ticket for speeding and must to spend $100,- as a bad news too LOL . GOSH .. !! what a mess, Well, I hope no more bad news . ^_^

Anyway, as like I said, life is like a roller coaster - there's always 2 different part in life, bad-good, black-white, happy-sad , and you see.. life need balancing :-) . And after sad news, let me tell you about the good news, this week, my beloved daughter, Annisa turn 3 years old. We just came back from hospital for regular check up this afternoon.. and doctor said everything just perfect .. what else every parents expect others than knowing that kids always stay healthy.

We celebrated her's birthdays last sunday, we invited several friends for barbecue :-) and even I tried hard to make her's birthday cake look good, honest to GOD, that was the first time for me to make figurine fondant, she gave me an idea what should I do for her's happy cake *as like she said* , I need 2 days ahead to executed her's idea.. and the result ? not bad at all for beginner like me LOL. She was happy with the cake and presents off course :-)

Upss.. before I forget there is another good news I got today from Bee & Jai, that I won 3rd place for category SPECTRA that is so awesome. Thank you to the judges and voters for all your kindness.

After all, the good news about my daugther's healthy reports , and about my winning can healing my pain little bit.