Pie crust (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 (315g) cup flour
• 1 tbsp (15g) sugar
• 1 tsp table salt
• 2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter, very cold

For detailed steps do refer to Smitten Kitchen. Here is my short-cut steps.

Methods:

1. Mix together flour, sugar and salt.
2. Put chopped cold butter into flour and mix together using fork or pastry blender.
3. Mix until the butter is the size of peas. Doesn't have to mix so thoroughly. It's ok if there is still small chunks of butter.
4. Pour a little cold ice water into the dough until the a ball is formed. 
5. Divide the dough into two, flatten and chill in the fridge at least an hour. 

Apple Pie Fillings

Ingredients:

• 4 apples (sliced)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together.

Assemble the pie

1. Take out half of the chilled from the fridge and let it sit in room temperature for a while.
2. Roll the dough to the size of your skillet or pie pan. Put the dough into the skillet.
3. Use a fork and go all over the pie crust.
4. Pour in apple pie fillings. Put a few cubes of cold butter on top of the fillings.
5. Wrap the sides of the crust inwards.
6. Brush the sides with egg wash or milk. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180C until the crust turns golden, about 30-40 mins.

Was on a baking frenzy yesterday. Since the night before I had envisioned the gorgeous pizza puff by The Pioneer Woman and danish with jam for brunch. But that didn't go so well. Pizza puff turned out to be flat-chewy-pizza-no-puff and strawberry jam danish turned out to be strawberry-jam-spilled-everywhere-no-puff-danish. Sigh.

That didn't stop me though. I quickly whipped up this muffins when my girl was napping. I knew I can count on this recipe. Still taste as good as I remember it, if not better. Nobody needs to know how simple is this.

Cheddar Cheese Muffins

Source: Chef Noraini Zakaria

Yield: 22-24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 150g milk
• 150g castor sugar
• 150g vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt

• 250g flour
• 13g baking powder
• 70g grated cheddar cheese
• 50g grated cheddar cheese for topping

Methods:

1. Mix all wet ingredients with a spoon/ spatula.
2. Sift in flour and baking powder. Add in grated cheddar cheese.
3. Mix with a spoon/ spatula until just combined. The batter should be lumpy and thick. Do not overmix it!
4. Pour into muffin cups and sprinkle grated cheddar cheese for topping.
5. Bake at 200C for 20 mins or until skewer comes out come.