Lemon and Jam slices

Pucker up, honey. No, no, no, no, no ... this isn't a Valentine's Day post. In fact, when I offered R a piece of these lemon bars, he puckered, grimaced and recoiled after taking an itty-bitty bite. 

"You know I don't like these kind of lemon desserts. It's too sour," he said, amidst more grimacing, pushing the plate as far away as his spindly arms could reach.

I rushed over to his side ... to take a bite for myself.  They tasted fine last night when I baked them. (But then again, maybe I was too inebriated or too sleepy (or both) to actually discern. I grabbed the fork and cut into the slice.)

"Dude. What are you talking about?" I asked him. "It's fine. Not sour. It just tastes of lemon," I said.

"Well, I can't eat anymore," he said. "It has too much lemon in it. It's too sour."

So you see why this will never pass for a Valentine's dessert in my house. 

Perhaps there should be a caveat: these bars are not for non-fans of lemons. It is by no means sour (I swear men exaggerate soooo much more than women) but the taste of lemon is distinct. Eaten with the base (which is buttery like shortbread with toasted almonds to add texture) and the jammy center, it's really good. Fresh and tangy. Creamy. 

Lemon and Jam Bars

Lemon Curd

2 eggs

3 egg yolks

75g (1/3 cup) castor sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (reduce this a little if you're not fond of the tanginess of a lemon)

Zest of 1 lemon

85g butter, cold and cut into cubes

pinch of salt

For later

1/4 cup jam (I used some leftover Ligonberry jam I had but you can use strawberry, raspberry or cranberry )

In a stainless steel/glass or ceramic (non-reactive) saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks, milk, sugar and salt until just incorporated. Add the lemon zest and juice and beat to mix. Add the butter and put the saucepan on the fire (low heat) and heat the mixture, stirring constantly (or else it might curdle), until it thickens and can coat the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat and continue whisking the curd until it cools somewhat. Cover the surface with clingfilm (so a crust doesn't form on the surface) and let it cool to room temperature.

Crust
125 g all purpose flour
50g icing sugar
pinch of salt
130 g butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup toasted, chopped almonds

Whisk together the flour, sugar, almonds and salt. Add the butter and using your finger tips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it becomes like coarse breadcrumbs, clumping together here and there.

Press the buttery, crumbly mixture into a parchment-lined square or rectangular baking tray (about  15cm or 6-inch tray with a 5cm or 2-inch rim should be fine).

Bake in a preheated oven (180C) for about 20 mins or until the edges start to brown. Remove the crust from the oven and spread on the layers of jam and curd: jam first and then the curd.

Pop the tray back in the oven and bake for 20 min or so, until the curd has set and springs back a little when touched.

Remove and cool. The curd will still be a little soft when it comes out of the oven but will set further as it cools. Once cooled, chill for at least an hour before serving. A light dusting of icing sugar before serving is the final touch.

Homemade Jam and Tarts

As a child, I loved, loved, loved jam tarts. Mum didn't make them but once in a while, she'd buy a dozen or so from English Hotbreads, our go-to bakery for birthday cakes and tea time snacks. They sold the most delicious pineapple jam tarts I'd ever tasted and I could wolf down three or four jumbo tarts at one go. Yeah! I'd finish them so quick m mum had to ration the tarts: four each for the three of us kids. Sometimes, I'd steal one (or two) of my sister's share: she wasn't as greedy as me and more generous.

I still love tarts. The combination of tasty, crispy pastry against a sweet, gooey, jam filling is just soooo good. Though I love the pineapple tarts Malaysians have become quite renowned for (I've come to think our Nyonya tarts are among the best in the world), I also like other fruit-jam tarts too. Strawberry, lemon-curd, apple ... comfort food, for sure.

So when I read Dan Lepard's recent post on jam tarts in the Guardian, I was inspired to make some of my own. Lepard uses leftover jam for his tarts but as I don't usually store much jam at home, I had to make my own jam instead. My two favourite jam flavours are apple and strawberry and wouldn't you know it, I had both fruits at home. What luck!

Making jam is really quite simple; definitely easier than it sounds. You dice your fruit and cook it in a little water and some sugar (depending on how sweet your fruit is and how sweet you want your jam) and just let it cook until the fruit softens and the mixture thickens. You can add some corn flour (or pectin) to help thicken the mixture too.

That's a basic recipe/method for jam but you can also add to your flavours by combining ingredients (strawberry and raspberry, apple and citrus...) in a jam compound or you could spice up your jam with ... well, spice. I added some roughly crushed pink peppercorns into my strawberry jam and cinnamon into my apple jam.

I used Lepard's recipe for the crust which I must say produced the best tart crust I have ever made or maybe even tasted. I had to adjust the measurements a little -- a little less water and a little more flour. The pastry was soft but sturdy enough not to crumble en route to your mouth. It has a small measure of icing sugar in it but it's not at all sweet; there is a great balance between the sweetness of the sugar and the saltiness of the butter and the added salt. It was the perfect casing for my mini tarts so, "Thank you, Mr Lepard".

Strawberry and Apple Tarts

For the pastry recipe, refer to Dan Lepard's post in the Guardian.Here's the link.

Strawberry Jam 

24 strawberries, hulled and diced 

1/4 cup sugar (adjust according to taste)

1/2 cup water 

1-2 tsp pink peppercorns, roughly crushed

1 tsp cornflour, diluted in 1 tbsp water 

Put the strawberries, sugar, water and peppercorns in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally. As the mixture begins to boil, cover and leave to simmer, continue to stir from time to time, until the strawberries get really soft and mushy. Using a wooden spoon or a potato masher, roughly mash the softened fruit (you may want to leave some chunky pieces in for texture). Taste for sweetness (add more sugar if you want) and then, just before you're ready to take it off the heat, add the cornflour and stir until the jam thickens. 

Remove and allow to cool.

Apple Jam

2 large apples, skinned, cored and diced

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar (approximate, to taste)

1/2 cup water

Add all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook until the apples soften and can be mashed. Keep stirring until the jam thickens.

Muffin? Doughnut? Does it matter?

Its about time I explain myself. I mean, for a blog that's called No Desserts, I sure have been making a heck of a lot of desserts of late. 

I don't know why but I guess I've been bitten by the baking bug and the feeling is sweeeeet. And, I have a feeling this bug is gonna be a stubborn one, hanging on for a while longer...!

So the latest thing that caught my fancy was a jam-filled doughnut muffin that I saw on Dujour, a really cool indie mag online. Check it out, will ya?

So the recipe was adapted from dessert queen. Nigella Lawson (How To Be A Domestic Goddess). Needless to say, this is one helluva tasty treat and, believe you me, ridiculously easy to make. Don't doubt me... read on.

I've made doughnuts once before and it wasn't as easy as ABC. Well, it wasn't brain surgery but it took time. First I had to make a sponge (yeast+flour+water+egg),keep it in the fridge overnight before proceeding with the actually making the doughnuts the next day.

This doughnut muffin was just so easy. You could have it in the oven in less than 20 mins. 15 if you don't waste time sipping on tea and munching on pretzels.

Here's what you need:

1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour, sifted

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup milk

7 tablespoons corn or vegetable oil

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

12 teaspoons strawberry jam

For the topping

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180C

Beat the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract with a fork just until it's well incorporated.

Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl and pour in the egg mixture. Stir to combine. It doesn't matter if its a little lumpy. What's more important is that you don't over beat the batter or you'll end up with some hard muffins.

Spoon the mixture into each muffin cup: just enough to fill 1/3 of the cup. Next, add a teaspoon of strawberry jam in the centre and top it up with more of the batter so that the cups are 3/4 full.

Put them in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and the muffins have risen. 

While the muffins are baking, melt the butter in a pan and spread the sugar and cinnamon (mix them together) in a wide, shallow bowl.

As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their cups, dip them in the butter, and roll them in the sugar. 

DELICIOUS. 

Do they taste like doughnuts? Not really. Do they look like doughnuts? Well, yeah except that my muffins cracked on top. Perhaps the oven was a little too hot. Or perhaps, as my friend Marty suggested, I should have used plain flour+baking powder instead of the self-raising flour. Oh well. Next time!

I wanna jam it wid you ...

I've been going jam crazy over the last couple of weeks. Mango, apricot, apple, blueberry ... I have more jam in my fridge than I know what to do with. It's easy to get carried away because it's really so easy to make jam and, trust me, homemade jams taste undescribably better than store bought ones. Check out the recipe for the mango jam I made HERE. The picture above is an apricot jam I made using organic apricots: an indulgence surely, but organic fruit (or food for that matter) is much tastier and better and I was in the mood for some superior goodness.  I used just 4 smallish apricots which yielded slightly more jam to filla 30 ml jar with. I included the recipe for the apricot Jam in this month's Don't Call Me Chef column which focused on preserved food. Click HERE for the article/recipe.

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I've found numerous sites on jam making online that are quite  interesting. My next jam project is with tomatoes. I haven't quite completed my research on tomato jam (I kinda go crazy with "research") yet but  you could check out THIS link for a Tomato Jam which looks quite fun to make.

For simple, basic tips on making your own jam check THIS site which gives you ten tips for making the perfect jam, jelly or marmalade. It's really all you need to know if you aren't keen on trawling the net for 100 different ways to make a simple bottle of jam.

If you too, like me, have gone J-amok and have too much jam on your hands, you may want to consider baking with Jam.  I made some PEANUT BUTTER AND JAM COOKIES last week and they were an easy and tasty alternative to your standard PBJ sandwich. HERE's another pretty cookie I want to try sometime soon: Almond Linzer star cookies, they're called.

Pies and tarts are also a wonderful way of utilising your jam. I like this recipe for Italian Jam tart on The Fresh Loaf:  just click here.

If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear them and try them too. Let's all jam together, shall we?

PBJ cookies

What's better than PBJ sandwiches? How about PBJ cookies? They're flourless (yes, you read right), have practically no sugar and takes just about 30 mins to make from start to finish.

This recipe was screaming my name when I skimmed it on the Internet. I have a jar of homemade peanut butter and another of homemade jam and I've been stuffing myself silly with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and it was getting a little stale.

So I begin surfing for ideas and came upon two great recipes, both of which were twists to the classic PBJ. The first uses peanut butter in a loaf cake; the loaf cake is then sliced and sandwiched with jam. Oh, my. I so wanted to try this.

The second was a recipe was for this flourless PBJ thumbprint cookies on a blog Healthy Food for Living. Say what? A flourless peanut butter cookie?  I just had to try this one too.

I settled on the cookies simply because I had to leave for the gym in an hour and a half which didn't leave much time to bake a cake. With the cookies, I had plenty of time to not just bake them but also photograph them and eat a couple: heck, I was going to exercise my butt off, I might as well make it worth my effort! :P

What you need

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg white, lightly whisked

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Jam

Preheat the over to 180C. Mix the peanut butter, egg white, sugar, baking soda and vanilla extract in a bowl till everything is well incorporated.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Using a spoon, scoop the cookie dough and shape it into a ball. Using your thumb or finger, make an indentation in the center. Cool, crater cookies :) Repeat the same process with the rest of the cookie dough. You should get about 8 cookies. Make sure you leave about an inch between the cookies.

Now, use a teaspoon to fill the craters with jam.

Bake for 10-15 mins or till the cookies start to get golden. They will be crispy on the outside but a little soft inside. Allow to cool (and harden a little) before gobbling them down!

That's it.

Jam packed goodness

When I told my friend Shirley  I would be making jam, she asked if I'd been watching re-runs of Freinds a lot recently. You remember the episode when Monica goes mad over jam making and ends up making and bottling jars and jars  of homemade jam (and joey dipping his fingers in the mix and contaminating a couple of batches?). I wish I were Monica: that woman can cook up a storm and still look gorgeous.

Well, actually it wasn't Monica I was channeling.  Our  theme for next month's (July's) Don't Call Me Chef (a monthly column in The Star) is preserved food. Not cooking with preserved food but preserving food: it can be pickles, jam, preserved fruit ... the choices were open.  Thing is, I've never really done it before so it required quite a bit of legwork: I'm  a bit anal that way.

I decided to start my research by making a simple jam. Actually, I 've had jam on my "things I have to make)  list for quite a few years now. But though poeple say lists help you focus and achieve your goals, my lists just keep on growing ... they grow at a rate I doubt I'll ever be able to catch up. Don't believe it? I have 150 items on my "things I have to make" list!

So anyway, I did a lot of reading up on jam making and turns out it isn't complicated. Traditional jam is fruit cooked, usually to a pulp, with sugar to set. That's it. What you would need is fruit (basically any fruit you fancy though I would be wary of durian for jam!), sugar and lime/lemon juice or vinegar). Some add pectin (to set the jam and get the right consistency) but this really depends as the natural pectin from the fruit is usually quite sufficient for the jam to set.

The sugar content is usually quite high and though you, like me, may consider cutting down on the sugar (fruit is sweet, after all) you may not want to be overzealous in doing so as the sugar actually helps preserve fruit. Reducing the sugar may result in reducing the preserving power of your jam.

I chose to make mango jam simply because I love mangoes are they are in season at the moment and easily available.

Mango Jam

1 kg ripe, sweet mangoes

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Peel and cube mango. Blend 3/4 of the cubed fruit to a puree. I didn't blend all the fruit as I wanted the jam a little chunky. Mix the pureed+cubed jam with the sugar in a stainless steel bowl and let it stand for 30 mins or longer (to allow the flavours to mix).

Using a heavy bottomed pan (cast iron, anodized aluminium, copper are good) so that the heat is distributed evenly and the sugar does not burn. Add the mango+sugar and cook (med to high heat), stirring ocassionally so that the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom.

The mixture will soon bubble up: big, rolling bubbles that rise up the sides of the pot. Should there be a light-coloured foam on the surface, skin it off gently. Stir every now and then. The almost jam should start to  boil down and smaller, thicker bubbles will replace the boisterous ones.  bubbles.

How long to boil? Well once it boils down and the jam starts to leave the sides of the pan, you can test the consistency  by putting a teaspoonful of the hot mixture on to a cold plate. It should set almost immediately. If it's the consistency you like, it's almost ready. If not, continue boiling for a bit.

When it reaches the consistency you like, add the lemon juice and stir it in. Turn  off the heat and  ladle the jam into the sterilised jars – douse the jars and the lid with boiling hot water. Seal the jars tight, place them upside down in about 4 inches of hot water for a few minutes to seal shut. When the jam is cool, store in a cool, dark place or in the refrigerator. The jam  should last for about 6 months  if properly sealed. Once opened it has to be refrigerated.