Rosemary Crescents (迷迭香酥)
Making something for breakfast on Sat morning!
Serving size: 18 pieces (puff pastry of 24cm x 24cm)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Ingredients:
1 puff pastry (24cm x 24cm or 250g roll into 2mm thickness)
100g softened butter
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried rosemary (or try other herbs like thyme)
salt & pepper
Steps:
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry, or just do it directly on your baking tray / cookie sheet.
- Cut the pastry into long triangular shape. Mine is about 6cm base x 9cm height per piece.
- In a bowl, mix the softened butter, garlic clove, lemon juice and dried rosemary together until soft. Season with salt and pepper to adjust the taste.
- Spread the mixture on the surface of each of the pastry. Gently roll each piece of pastry from the triangle base towards the far end of the tip.
- Arrange the crescents on the baking tray / cookie sheet and leave at least 5cm in between to allow them to increase in size. Chill for 30 minutes.
- Dampen the baking tray / cookie sheet with cold water to create steamy atmosphere during baking. This can help the crescents to rise.
- Pre-heat the oven, bake with 200C/400F for 10-15 minutes, until you see the crescents turned into golden and risen.
My Tips:
- Can brush a bit thicker layer of the mixture on the pastry to give more flavor.
- Need to pinch the crescents slightly so the crescents will not unroll during baking.
My comments: I could have add stronger flavor or brush thicker layer of the mixture on the pastry before rolling into crescents. Also I did not pinch the crescents tight, so some of them unrolled a bit when baking.
Palmiers (蝴蝶酥) [modified version]
First time making palmiers, is easy and fun! Second time making the taste is even better!
Serving size: 18 pieces (puff pastry of 24cm x 24cm)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 puff pastry (24cm x 24cm)
1/4 cup Caster sugar (or vanilla sugar)
3 tsp Melted butter (unsalted)
generous cinnamon powder if want to add variety to original flavor
Steps:
- Sift or sprinkle half of the caster sugar on your working table surface.
- Place the puff pastry on top of the sugar and brush the melted butter on the pastry lightly.
- Sprinkle the remaining half of the sugar over the pastry.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon powder if you want to create different flavor.
- Imagine you need to divide the pastry into 6 equal parts, then start from the left side fold 1/6 towards the center, then fold another 1/6 towards the center, now you should have 3 layers of pastry on the left. Do the same for the right side of the pastry.
- Then fold the left and right side together and you should have 6 layers of pastry now. Press on the pastry gently, so both sides will stick together.
- Let the pastry chill in fridge for at least half an hour or in freezer for about 20 minutes.
- Take out the pastry and cut into strips of 1.25cm each in thickness.
- Brush the melted butter on both sides of the pastry lightly.
- Pinch and press both sides of the strip to ensure they stick together, to avoid both sides unroll during baking.
- Place the strips on baking paper. Leave at least 5cm between each strip, as they will expand during baking.
- Spread the top part of both sides like a "T"-shape.
- Preheat oven to 200C/395F or 180C/356F if use fan-forced mode.
- Place the tray in the middle of the oven. Total bake for 20 minutes, monitor first 10 minutes and bake until sugar has caramelized and pastry turns golden brown. Then turn the pastry to the other side and continue to bake until this side also turns golden brown.
- Allow palmiers to cool on rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.
My Tips:
- Avoid brushing too much butter, otherwise the palmiers may become too salty. Use unsalted butter can avoid this problem.
- can also sprinkle a bit of sugar on the surface when palmiers just taken out from over to increase the sweetness.
My comments: Singapore weather is too hot, so palmiers may feel a bit sticky when holding in hand.
Basic beauty tips
#6 Nail - Manicure & Pedicure
Please change or remove your manicure / pedicure if they are outgrown for more than 2mm!
I always observe people on the train and very often I saw ladies with manicure or pedicure that serious need to be fixed! If I were them, I prefer not to wear sandals or open toe shoes to show people that they don't maintain their pedicure.
Manicure or pedicure are suppose to make you look more attractive and special, but lack of maintenance will make the negative effect.
To be honest, I think most of the guys prefer girls with either no manicure or simple ones.
