a day long recipe

do not read this post if your sense of sight is easily overwhelmed by the sight of good food. do not make this dessert if you don't have much time, or bad at multitasking. seriously, i made this dessert for 6 hours! well not entirely 6 hours were spent on this thing, i mean i went to eat at ayam penyet bu kris first before resuming my cooking thingy. i even had to change my camera during cooking because the first camera i used ran out of battery haha i will probably complete this in 1,5 hours if not for the following things that happened during cooking : 1) bu kris for lunch (uh i mean the chicken bu kris made, not the bu kris.) 2) i made the pastry cream with the ingredients that they call for. (i made it half recipe, just because the last time *and first time* i made pastry cream, they were curdling and burnt!) so i'm pretty glad when the pastry cream i made is not curdled nor it burnt. stop wasting more time, i need to sleep, tomorrow is cfd!

but really, i was kidding. you SHOULD MUST (fuck grammar) make this dessert! rule of the universe no. 9678457614230 = make fruit tart.

here we go!

now, we're going to make the sweet pastry crust first. well at least, i did it first, but you can make the cream before the crust, it's all up to you. gather and measure the following ingredients
185 gr flour
50 gr sugar

120 gr butter ROOM TEMP
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
you'll also need some cling wrap

pardon me for not taking pictures from the beginning, but all you have to do is beat the butter. add sugar, beat some more until it's fluffy (like ruth's dawg haha bener kan ruth namanya fluffy?) and add egg, beat more until it's incorporated. now now, put in the flour. all of them? all of them! yes it's a lot, but i made 11 mini tarts out of it. and it can be kept in fridge up to a week. what's not to love? okay okay back to the crust, after you put in the flour, beat it until it's crumbly and looks like the picture above! don't panic it's all good.

gather the crust together,yo. prepare your cling wrap.

flatten into a disk or in my case, some abstract asymetrical shape haha.

put it in a fridge or a freezer. i put mine in a freezer just because my fridge is full! some tips for you : do not knead the crust too big because mine fell off when i took it out of the fridge.

forget the crust and its shape or how it will taste for a moment. now let's get down to the pastry cream! pastry cream, is actually vla. you know, the filling for kue sus. okay so what you need is
300 ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
50 gr sugar
2 tbs flour
2 tbs cornstarch (tepung maizena is more common term)
sift both flour and cornstarch
1 tbs rum (you can also use kahlua/tia maria/cognac. i used kahlua and cognac)

you see the problem here is i made the pastry cream half the recipe i've written above. i used the first one with cognac as substitution for the rum, and my sister said she couldn't really taste the rum, so my mom suggested using tia maria/kahlua on the 2nd pastry cream. worked for me.

heat the milk in a sauce pan. just to boil. remember to stir!

this is where you have to multitask (if you made this by yourself) or decide whose job is whom (if you made this with your friend/s). when the milk starts to warm up, quickly crack and divide 2 egg yolks. add sugar to it.

stir, forming a paste like this. the color is so vibrant don't you think?

put in the sifted flour and cornstarch

stir again, turning the vibrant colored paste into this pale coloured paste.

yes, i am sorry to tell that you have to do few simple steps above, with looking at the milk every 15 seconds, stirring it, and going back to the egg mixture. repeated few times. now when the milk has boiled a little, remove it from heat. immediately pour it on the egg mixture slowly and gradually. stir the egg mixture so fast, you don't want the egg to curdle. pour it back into the pot, turn the stove on, stir the cream frantically for about half a minute, don't take your eyes off it just to look at your bbm because before you know it, it will thicken soo fast and go burn.
put it into a bowl, add vanilla extract and rum then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

cream's done! now prepare your tart tins, brush some butter on it!

take your cold but good-looking crust out of the fridge. uh i hate how i describe the crust like some guys, you know good looking but cold. uh jayus

flatten it with a rolling pin and shape it to the tart tins. my first try was a little thin, but then i found a way to do it without rolling pin and easier. take some chunks of crust to your palm. shape a ball, now press it until it's flat and you reach the thickness you want. remember, not too thick or thin.
and dock it. i mean, prick it with a fork. the technique is called "docking"
.
put it in the oven. let's move on.

the fruits! choose the best fruits you can get your hands (and money) on! i chose grapes, strawberries and canned orange. why? 1) my sister used to make fruit tarts using these fruits. 2) you don't want the fruits to be sweet too, while the cream and the crust are already sweet.

cut it in half, except the orange. because it's amazing just the way it is #brunomarsstyle

do you notice the way fruit tarts in the bakery/cake store shine and make it looks really good? the secret is in this simple thing. when i made the fruit tart on my cooking lesson, the cook used something called paletta. you can buy it on a cake application and ingredients store. and for the base of the tart (supaya vla gak merembes ke tart nya), she used melted chocolate. but i used knotts' strawberry jam with 1 tbs of water. just boil it and try to crush the strawberry (it's fun *shrug), put it through a strain. there you go, your own 2 in 1 paletta+chocolate

it's time. the moment of truth. get your pie out of the oven when it's golden brown. prick it a little, is it done? now brush your strawberry jam/paletta (you can actually use any other jam/fruit preserves) to the tart. get your crust out of the tin, and start filling it with some cold pastry cream. when you're done, put the halved fruit on top of the cream. dab some more paletta to make it extra shiny!

here we go! i'm really bad at presentation guys, but hey at least they taste really good!!!!!

it took me so long, so much mess, but i finally made it. got positive feedbacks from my family, and i hope my friends like it too. i know it's a really loong post but i have to make it up to you because i haven't put up any food posts lately. i'm feeling really good today, i hope it continues tomorrow and lalala hahaha catching some sleep soon. goodbye fellas!