City Harvest Hospitality Department’s Yong Te Chong and Joanna Yap generously share the recipes for their beloved Christmas treats.
By Yong Te Chong and Joanna Yap
PASTOR YONG’S APPLE OR MIXED FRUIT CRUMBLE
PHOTOS: Yong Te-Chong & Joanna Yap.
For the crumble:
500gm plain flour
180gm coarse sugar
Pinch of salt
200gm unsalted butter (softened)
For the filling:
6-8 Gala apples
OR
3-4 Gala apples plus
3-4 Granny Smith green apples
OR (this is the chef’s recommendation)
3 Gala apples
2 Granny Smith apples
2-3 Packham pears
Cinnamon powder to taste
6-8 tbsp brown sugar
4-6 tbsp caster sugar
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 190°C.
2. Make the crumble topping. Work the flour in a bowl with softened butter. Mix it well with your fingertips till mixture starts to form small lumps and stops sticking to your fingers. Add sugar and salt. Mix well with fingertips.
3. Prepare the filling. Core the apples and de-skin and de-seed whatever fruits you are using, then cut into rough chunks (you should get about 8 to 12 chunks per fruit).
4. Sprinkle as much cinnamon powder as you like (my son and I love every chunk covered completely, which would be about 2 tablespoonfuls).
5. In a deep baking dish about 11″ x 6″, place fruit mixture about 3 inches deep. (I like to use a glass baking for visual effect).
6. Level the mixture. Sprinkle the buttered crumbs evenly on top of the fruit mixture. Shake the dish slightly to make sure the chunks of fruit fill the gaps in between.
7. Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes, or till the top of crumble turns golden brown.
Serve hot or cooled. I like it cooled down, refrigerated overnight, and with the butter crumble sticking together like crunchy cookies with the sweet fruits.
*Chef’s notes: This is the perfect way to prevent your overripe fruits from going to waste- just throw it into the mix! If you are using sweet fruits like banana, be sure to add in lemon juice and/ or zest to give balance to the flavors. Also, bake and store fruit and crumble separately if you do not like the underside of your crumble soggy.
JOANNA’S CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE
Ingredients:
2500gm marinated mixed fruit (This should be prepared between one week to two months before baking. Cut and put mixed dried fruit into an airtight container together with the zest and juice of 4 oranges. Add 300ml of brandy/rum/whisky and mix well. Stir the mixture daily to ensure the alcohol and zest are well-absorbed).
500 gm butter
360 gm brown sugar
9 chilled eggs
560 plain flour, sifted
2 heaped tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp molasses
100 ml fresh milk
1 can (170g) Nestlé cream
Method:
- Prepare oven with top and bottom heat at 170°C.
- Prepare a 30 x 30 x 8 cm square baking tin lined with two layers of greaseproof paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale.
- Add the eggs one by one—blend into butter mix before adding the next egg.
- Put the marinated fruits in a basin three times bigger than the fruits. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, over the fruits.
- Mix the flour mix with the marinated fruits, coating it with the flour.
- Scrape all the creamed butter, sugar and egg mix into the big basin of fruits. Mix it by hand.
- Halfway through , add the remaining fresh milk and Nestlé cream and vanilla extract.
- Mix well and pour mixture into the baking tin. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until cooked.
- Test for done-ness by poking a satay stick into the center. It should come out clean (the center part of the cake should feel firm but not hard.)
- Turn out the cake to cool, sprinkle brandy generously over the surface of cake, leaving it to cool off completely.
