Making them pie - One fine day, I hope..

I feel like making a PIE. A fruit pie. So having this recipe in my blog as a reminder and also saving the recipes forever fro reference. Recipe was taken from 100 Cafe Street.

Strawberry Pie

Pie Crust (I replaced it with my own crust recipe) :

Original -

1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz box), softened as directed on box.

or

Optional -

1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs (see recipe above)

1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)

75g butter, melted.

Filling :

2/3 cup hot fudge topping

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 pint (2 cups) strawberries, quartered

Strawberry Pie Glaze : 

1 quart fresh strawberries

1 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup whipping (heavy) cream, whipped (if desired)

Directions :

1. Heat oven to 450°F (around 232°C)

2. Spread hot fudge topping in bottom of cooled baked shell. Refrigerate 1 hour.

3. In small bowl, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Carefully spread over chocolate layer in shell.

4. In medium bowl, gently mix strawberries and *pie glaze. Spoon evenly over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

5. Just before serving, pipe or spoon whipped cream around edge of pie. Store in refrigerator.

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*Directions for Strawberry Pie Glaze :

1. Arrange half of strawberries in baked pastry shell with fudge topping & cheese base. Mash remaining berries and combine with sugar in a medium saucepan. 

2. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
 

3. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling strawberry mixture.
 

4. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
 

5. Pour mixture over berries in pastry shell. 

Reminder : Will post photos once I make them.

Project list.

These are some of the recipes that I will make. Make sure you make a point to. - Note to self.

Recipe 1
Lemon Curd. (Recipe taken from Taste)

Makes :1 1/2 cups

Ingredients :
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (80g) chilled unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Method :
Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened. Strain through a sieve into a sterilized jar. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks.

To my beloved Mr. Oven!

I stayed in HK with my husband for 1 year, and in that 1 year, I was craving to BAKE & BAKE & BAKE! I was so frustrated that, the place that was provided for us didn't have an oven. They had microwave, washing machine, fridge & all. But no oven. I think in a home, what one should ALWAYS have (no matter what) is an oven, fridge, washer/dryer or washer & a dryer & microwaves. I guess probably, the size of the apartment that we are staying didn't allow an oven to be built in. *sigh* But nevertheless, I never complained about it. I managed to learn to make cakes & desserts by steaming or freezing. See, creativity kicks in when one thinks out of the box.

1 year have passed and here we are in Bahrain, and I could not thank enough to Allah for the opportunity that is given to my husband & I. Allah must have given us such a great blessing in our lives, as when we were in HK we both accepted and appreciated what was given everyday. And maybe because of that, he gave us a new life in Bahrain. 

As I remembered, arriving here with my husband that night, it was passed midnight, and we were quite excited yet afraid. Heard & saw the news and received some messages from friends/relatives on how politically Bahrain is. Everyday riots. Everyday fights. We were given signs of bad news all the time. But Alhamdulillah, everything and even until today, nothing bad happened. Except that 1 day, when Bahrain was having another huge riot, that my husband wasn't allowed to go home and had to stay in his hotel for 1 night. But... It was fine. :)

Anyways, as usual, me, babbling. Going around the bushes and never came upon what I'm trying to write about. Ok. Where was I? Yes, when we arrived to our apartment, we were greeted by the guard or was he the watchmen? I forgot. All I know is, my husband always call them "The Superman". Cause they do everything here. They help to fix the lights, fix the curtain rail, cabinets, bring us the gallon bottle water, top up credits for the phone and basically... EVERYTHING! LOL! The Superman.. 

As he opens the door to our unit, my jaws dropped. I wanted to say out loud, "You've got to be kidding me!" My husband looked at me, and I looked back and was disbelief. This was the same reaction when I came to my apartment in HK, when I saw our room, but instead of saying "Oh... It's - small...", I can only say in bahasa, "Ubby, besar gila!" LOL!! It's huge. For the 2 of us. It was huge. Imaging having to live in a 500 sqft home in HK and now we were given a 1000 - 1500 sqft!! Alhamdulillah. Ya Allah, thank you.

The apartment has everything. All the list I wanted above (for the kitchen, I mean.) So the story of the oven finally arrives. The Oven. I love my oven. Weel, it's not mine, but I am able to use it anytime I want. And I have been doing so. *grin*

So, it was a Sunday. And my husband was off. Here in Bahrain, Sunday is the first day of the week. So unlike in Malaysia or Hong Kong, our weekends are Saturday & Sunday. Here is, Friday & Saturday. Getting some use to it. So Sunday, my husband was off, so we decided to burn the oven. hehehehe. De-virgin-nise it. Well, maybe it wasn't a virgin, but we decided to turn it on. We had our first Sunday (well, Husband-Off-Day) Project. We made bread.

Well, he is a Baker afterall. I, on the other hand, helped around. (psst... more to cleaning every single mess..) So we did 2 types. The day before, I didn't even realized my husband had already done his  levain (starter). I requested for wholemeal bread. And so he did plain wholemeal bread and the other is prune ciabatta. Have a look at them photos. Sorry it doesn't look so "photo professional" or image drooling picture. We only have our Blackberry to capture the evidences.

*Reminder to put in recipe*