Apple Pie served with Ice Cream

My Aunt Connie taught me how to make apple pie. The 1st time I tried her apple pie, I fell in love with the combination of warm crust with apple, raisins and cinnamon filling, topped with vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmm.... I am so drooling as I reminisce upon the delicious apple pie I had after a sumptuous steamboat dinner.

I attempted to bake a pastry for the 1st time and I have to say, after doing this more than 5 times, it just get easier every time. It's not easy to make the crust but practice makes perfect! :)

 Accessories
* 23cm pyrex plate
* Transparent plastic wrapper (those used to wrap text books)
* Cookie shaper (Mine is a flower shape)
* Weighing scale
* Rolling pin
* Plastic knife
* Measuring spoon
* Measuring cup
* Mixing bowl
* Brush (to glaze egg yolk)

Ingredients
Short Crust mixture (Mixture 1)
1 250g plain flour
2 30g castor sugar
3 120g butter
4 50ml fresh milk (don't have to pour all, just enough for dough to shape)
5 Egg yolk x 1

Short Crust instruction
1 Mix flour & butter - use plastic knife to cut butter with flour into smaller pcs
2 Use finger tips to mix flour gently until it becomes bread crumbs
3 Put sugar into pastry
4 Put milk portion by portion & knead dough accordingly till shape is formed
5 Wrap your pie crust in a transparent plastic wrapper. Then place in the fridge for 20 minutes, while you make the pie filling

Pie filling
1 6 granny smith apples - cut apples into half & sliced thinly
2 5g cinnamon powder
3 150g castor sugar
4 100g raisins (or slightly less 70-80g depending on preference)

Cooking instruction for pie filling
1 Boil sliced apples
2 Once apples boil, turn off off fire & remove excess water
3 Turn on fire, add sugar, raisin & cinnamon powder. Stir.
4 Remove once done & cool for about 20 - 30 minutes

How to combine crust and pie filling
1 Take half of pie crust. Place in between transparent plastic wrapper & use rolling pin to shape according to plate size (must be slightly bigger than plate to ensure you are able to cover the whole base)
Put 1st layer on plate's base ((use plastic knife to remove excess edges)
*Tip: Sprinkle some flour on plastic wrapper & pie crust before rolling. Make sure all cracks are mended.
2 Place cooled pie filling mixture onto base. Roll remaining dough for top layer.
3 Use fork to decor edges. If got balance dough, make floral decor.
4 Glaze top layer with egg yolk.
5 Bake in oven at 180 degree for 25 minutes. Approx. 5 minutes before removing from oven, glaze with another layer of egg yolk.
*Tip: To pre-heat oven at 180 degree for 20 minutes before baking.
6 Serve with ice cream

Garlic Toast

Jo jo absolutely adores garlic toast. This particular recipe that I got from the internet has been slightly tweaked to have the right amount of salt and garlic. I do believe you can easily get a garlic toast mix from the supermarket  but if you're feeling a little adventurous and you want to try a recipe that's a little tastier (at least that's what some of my friends told me), have a go at this recipe.

Ingredients
* 1 loaf of french loaf
Mixture A (to mix thoroughly)
* 115gm butter
* 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
* 1/4 tsp oregano
* 1/ tsp chives
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp garlic (chopped till very fine)

Toasting instruction
1 Cut bread about 1/2 to 1 inch thickness
2 Spread mixture A on both sides of bread
3 Put on cookie sheet (optional)
4 Bake at 175 cel until toasted (abt 8-10 minutes)

Rosemary Roasted Chicken - 1st time roasting chicken

Seems like there is a lot of "first" for me :) That's because I've only been actively cooking when my son started to eat solid food. So, for a true amateur like myself, I never imagined that I would be able to roast a chicken cos neither my mum nor my mother in law has done it before!

And that my friend would mean that if I can do it, anyone can :)

So, for my 1st attempt to roast a chicken and prepare a 3-course western dinner, I'm delighted to have purchased an electric oven just over 6 months ago which has been used pretty efficiently thus far. I knew nuts about purchasing an electric oven. So, I'm grateful for my hubby's input when we went shopping for one. Not that he's any better than me *winks* We finally decided on a Faber Electric Oven Model No. FEO40. Good size with a good list of components available and definitely user-friendly.

I have to admit I was a little jittery during my 1st attempt to roast one whole chicken and complement it with a garlic toast recipe I learnt online but I soon discovered how easy it was and got all excited to try it again! Special thanks to Pek Kuan for the recipe :)

Ingredients
* 1 chicken, trimmed, washed, patted dry
* 3 large onions quartered
* 4-5 potatoes quartered
* 2 carrots cube into cubes

Marinate ingredients (A)
* 1/2 bowl of olive oil (or slightly less)
* 1/4 bowl of chopped garlic
* 1/8 bowl of rosemary
Note - Bowl measurement is based on the small Chinese soup bowl

Preparation
* Mariante chicken with 1 tbsp of salt and marinate (A) for at least 1 hour. Make sure marinate is applied thoroughly

Baking instructions
1 Preheat oven to 180 degress
2 Place chicken on a rack in a large baking pan. Marinate the rest of the ingredients in the leftover of mariante (A) and sprinkle some salt for taste. Place the rest of the ingredients on a rack right under the chicken.
3 Bake for 45 mins to 1 hr (till chicken is cooked)