Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Simple English Scone

P1090711It must has been a much awaited update and finally it’s here! My apology for all the delay as it has been a roller coaster ride for me and hubby for the past few months. Anyhow, let’s bygone be bygone. Let’s be happy now and live every moment to the fullest.

For this time round, I am planning to bake the English scone which is different from the previous Cranberry Scone (American biscuit) that I made previously in terms of the following:

  • Shape - the English scone is round while the  American biscuit is triangular.
  • Texture - the English scone is denser while the American biscuit is lighter and fluffier especially when it is hot.

The English scone recipe is introduced to me by my dearest sister and the recipe is as shown below. In addition, my sister also introduced me to clotted cream which is a perfect match for scone. Clotted cream can be found easily in UK but not in Canada. After some search, I finally manage to get it from Pete's (our favourite grocery store in Halifax).

The scone turns out perfect in terms of taste but not the shape as I wasn’t able to shape it nicely with my hand. Anyhow, I have learnt the right way now by watching How_To_Make_English_Scone in YouTube. I would recommend anyone who wants to try this recipe to watch the video before trying it out. It will give you a better idea on what to expect. Oh ya, the clotted cream tastes good too. I find the uniqueness of the cream in the sense that it gives a nice blend to the scone without overpowering the taste of scone. For those of you who are unable to find the clotted cream, you can always eat it with butter. Enjoy!

Simple scones recipe

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Banana Cake

In the previous blog, I made some banana muffins and hubby suggested that we can make it in the form of banana cake (those just like back home). Today, I have decided to try it out and it turned out good. We just the same recipe as Awesome Banana Muffin with the exception of replacing half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. In addition, I have increased the baking time to 35 minutes. Do try it out and bake it in the shape that you would enjoy. Have fun!

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Awesome Banana Muffin

It has been quite a while since I last posted any new recipes as we were away for summer holidays. Not to worry, we are back to our home sweet home and lovely kitchen. We will slowly catch up in our cooking and baking.

For a start, we have decided to bake some banana muffins and found the Awesome Banana Muffin from catcancook.com. The photo looks great and the recipe seems easy to follow.

Awesome Banana Muffin

The muffins turned out great and we truly savour every bite of it. It reminds us of our banana cake back home. Hubby suggested that next time we shall bake it as a rectangular cake rather than as muffins. That’s a brilliant idea. I shall try it the next time round.

Ingredients:

  • 3 or 4 Large bananas, mashed (the more bananas the moister, so I used 4)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 slightly beaten egg
  • 1/3 cup melted margarine or butter
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup walnuts/chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

  1. Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and margarine together. Set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour.
  3. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together.
  4. Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees F oven for approximately 20 minutes.

The recipe yields about 12 large muffins. The muffins are soft and flavourful even after 3 days.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

My New Baking Gadget – Scooper Dooper

I have always like to shop for new kitchen tools or baking gadget. While we were watching the Canadian Best Recipes Ever, the chef was using a scooper dooper all the time. It seems to be a super convenient tool. However, we were unable to find it in Halifax. Thankfully, I found it in Seattle University District last week. I stated using it and found it to be really useful especially in cutting my cookie dough and biscotti dough. For those bakers out there, this is definitely a good tool to have!

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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Cinnamon Raisin Scone

 

Finally, I have gotten back into my baking mood. I am inspired to bake some goodies for my sisters and nephews. I have been baking Chocolate Chip Cookie , Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti and Cranberry Scone for the past 2 days. However, as I am running out of cranberry, I have replaced the cranberry in the scone with 1/2 cup raisin and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. The texture and taste is just as great. Check it out!

Cinnamon Raisin Scone

Baking is so inspiring and my whole house is filled with the aroma of baking. Above all, baking for your loved ones made it even more fulfilling. Hope they will love it as much as I did baking for them.Baking for Family

Friday, April 16, 2010

Cinnamon Rolls

 

 Cinnamon Roll-b4 Cinnamon Roll-after

                   BEFORE                                                       AFTER

It has been a long long time since we last did any baking. Baking is not fun when you have no one to share the joy with. Hubby was down for few weeks after his dental surgery. It wasn’t a good experience and hope he will be fully recovered real soon.

I actually baked this cinnamon roll few weeks back when hubby was sick.  I had some and kept some in the freezer. The taste was good but the outlook could had been better. We decided to give the recipe another try this time but using a different method for folding and placing the dough on the tray. Make sure you roll out the dough till it is really thin and remember to place the rolls on the tray with minimum space in between the rolls. Most importantly, remember to press the dough down to compact it as you do not want your cinnamon roll to spiral upway in the center.

I found the Ninety Minute Cinnamon Rolls recipe from allrecipes.com. The recipe is definitely a keeper as it’s just the perfect recipe for a cinnamon roll. You just can’t get enough with one…….

Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup margarine, softened
  • 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup margarine, softened
  • 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
Directions
  1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water, egg and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
  3. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon.
  4. Roll out dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Spread dough with margarine and then the sugar mixture. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in 12 lightly greased muffin cups. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until browned. Remove from muffin cups to cool. Serve warm

We love the cinnamon roll much more than those outside as we know what is inside it. Despite those bought from bakery may be slightly tastier, the amount of sugar and butter is much much more. Trust me…you never know how much calories in one cinnamon roll out there until you start baking your own one!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Burger Bun

 

We bought some burger patties some time backHamburger Bun and they are still sitting in the freezer. Hubby has always wanted to make our very own burger bun to go with it. We really enjoy DIY everything nowadays as it is healthier and tastier (may be not!). Last night, we made our own pork chop with Parsley-Garlic Chimichurri Sauce. It turns out very delicious.

I found this beautiful burger buns recipe from Beautiful Burger Bun. For the toppings, instead of using plain sesame seeds, I used a mixture of sesame seeds, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds.

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Steps:

  1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a soft, smooth dough.
  2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in bulk.
  3. Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 6 pieces. Shape each piece into a round 1" thick (more or less); flatten to about 3" across. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until very puffy.
  4. If desired, brush buns with melted butter. Or brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  5. Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, till golden. Cool on a rack.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Walnut Brownies

 

It has been a while since I last bake any cakWalnut Browniese. Since walnut brownie is our favourite cake, I have decided to bake it from scratch rather than using any cake mix. After browsing through some recipe sites, I have finally come to the conclusion to try the “Absolutely Best Brownies” recipe by CountryDayz in allrecipes.com. 

According to the recipe contributor "These are the easiest and most delicious brownies that I have ever eaten. They are so moist and super quick and easy to make. For best results, use a Dutch processed cocoa. For less cake-like brownies, use all-purpose flour instead of self rising."

Since I only have all purpose flour, I am using all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder instead of the self-rising flour.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the vanilla and stir in walnuts if desired. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
  3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are firm. Cool before cutting into squares.

I couldn’t believe how easy it was to bake walnut brownies from scratch. Above all, this recipe is much less fattening than any other brownies recipes out there. The brownies came our nice and fudgy. They also had a nice crisp outside and moist center. Super yummy delicious!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

100% Stoneground Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is adapted from Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods and make 2 loaves of bread.100% Stoneground Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tb Yeast, Active Dry
  • 1/4 cup Warm Water (110 degrees) 
  • 1/4 cup + 2 Tb Honey 
  • 1-1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • 3 Tb Vegetable Oil 
  • 1-3/4 cups Warm Water (110 degrees) 
  • 5-6 cups Whole Wheat Bread Flour

Steps:

  1. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water.
  2. Allow to proof 3-5 minutes.
  3. Combine next 4 ingredients and add to yeast mixture.
  4. Stir in flour, mix well. Knead 10 minutes.
  5. Let rise 1 hour and 45 minutes. Punch down. Let rise 40-60 minutes until double.
  6. Punch down and let rise a third time until double.
  7. Shape into 2 loaves and let rise until double.
  8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 45 minutes.

Optional: If you like sesame seeds or poppy seeds, roll dough on damp towel and in seeds before putting in pans.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Cranberry Pistachio Biscoti

Biscotti have always been our favourite tea time snack to go with our favourite cup of coffee. Another reason for loving biscotti is that these biscotti are lower in fat than other cookies/ muffins as they do not contain butter/oil. Hubby just loves the eggy taste in the biscotti.

Back in January, I baked Cranberry Walnut Biscotti. In February, I baked Cranberry Cashew Biscotti. Baking biscotti seems to become a monthly affair for me.

For this month, I am going to bake Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I just found out from a Canadian friend that they love to bake biscotti as an alternative to all other rich baked goods during the Christmas season. For Christmas, bakers love to use cranberry and pistachio in their biscotti for the nice colour combination. For hubby and I, we do not mind the type of nuts that go into the biscotti as we enjoy the texture of biscotti, crispy and crunchy.

Despite some biscotti recipes use oil/butter, the true original Italian biscotti do not consist this ingredient. The binding factor should come from eggs instead!

The recipe for this biscotti comes from Joy Of Baking.

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (60 grams) shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup (75 grams) dried cranberries or cherries

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Combine sugar and eggs and mix until thick, pale and fluffy texture is obtained. (When you slowly raise the spoon, the batter will fall back into the blow in slow ribbons). At this point beat in vanilla extract.
  3. In a separate bowl, whish together flour, baking powder and salt.
  4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
  5. Fold in the chopped pistachios and cranberries.
  6. Turn out dough onto parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log about 12 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide.
  7. You may have to dampen your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky.
  8. Put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden firm to touch.
  9. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
  10. Cut on diagonal with serrated knife into 3/4 inch thick slices. Never use a bread knife to cut.
  11. Place the biscotti, cut side down on the baking sheet.
  12. Bake for another 10 minutes, turn slices over and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.
  13. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

This recipe makes about 16-20 biscotti. Overall, the biscotti texture is good and still taste eggy. However, between the 3 biscotti recipes that I have tried, I still prefer the Cranberry Cashew Biscotti recipe for the lemony taste as well as the texture of it.

Biscotti have a long shelf life and thus, it can be made well ahead of time for any occasions. It can be a perfect Christmas gift as well.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

 

I just feel like baking something todLemon Poppy Seed Muffinay since it’s Friday. I have always enjoyed staring at all the pretty muffins at the cafe and studying the types of muffin available. Lemon and poppy seed seems to be a perfect combination in baking.

Since I have a pack of poppy seeds sitting in my baking cabinet for weeks waiting to be opened, I just thought of trying to bake some lemon poppy seed muffins today. If it turns out well, I shall bake it next week for my friend’s bridal shower.

This recipe is extracted from allrecipes.com and it yields 15 medium muffins. Instead of using 2 cups all purpose flour, I substituted 1 cup of all purpose flour with 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour. I am always a fan of whole wheat rather than white flour. As for the lemon juice and lemon zest, one standard size lemon is sufficient for this recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup poppy seeds
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plain/lemon flavoured yogurt
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest 
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a muffin tin.
  2. Combine the flour, 3/4 cup white sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl mix the eggs, yogurt, vegetable oil and lemon zest. Blend well and pour over the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do no overmix!
  4. Spoon batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18 minutes.
  5. Combine the lemon juice with the remaining 3 tablespoons white sugar. Stir into sugar dissolves.
  6. Once the muffins are baked pierce the tops several times with a toothpick. Slowly brush the lemon juice and sugar mixture over the tops of each muffin. Let muffins cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing them from the tin.

At first, I was kind of worried when checking through the oven window as the muffins look pretty plain and dull. However, the lemon juice and sugar mixture was a real saviour. It gives the muffin a nice glaze. I also read from some websites mentioning that the sugar mixture actually helps to extend the life span of the muffin too.

The final muffins are moist and refreshing. Most probably I will be baking these muffins next weekend for my friend’s bridal shower. One more good thing about this recipe is that it uses less oil and incorporates some healthy yogurt for more calcium.

TIPS:

To get the most juice from a lemon, it should be allowed to reach room temperature, or microwaved for a few seconds prior to juicing. Using your palm to roll the lemon on a hard surface can also help improve juice yields. If you only need a little juice, some people pierce the end with a fork, squeeze the amount needed, cover the holes with tape and then store in the fridge.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

 

It has been a while since we lastBig Fat Chewy Cookie baked these  cookies. It was our favourite when we first arrived here and we used to get the Mrs. Field Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. However, we stopped buying it ever since we found this recipe from allrecipes.com.

The contributor of this recipe mentioned that “these cookies are the pinnacles of perfection! If you want a big, fat, chewy cookie like the kind you see at bakeries and specialty shops, then these are the cookies for you”!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Steps:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F  and grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
  4. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
  5. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.
  6. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe is definitely for keep. It has never failed me so far. We really love the cookies as it is crunchy in the outside and chewy in the outside. A perfect snack for us while watching the 2010 Olympic Men’s Gold Medal Game (Canada vs US). Go Maple!!!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Baking Conversion Table

 

As different countries use different kind of measurement units, different recipes tend to come with different unit of measurement as well. For myself, I am more familiar with using cups and spoons  nowadays to measure my baking ingredients. However, back in my home country in Malaysia, I was more familiar with grams and ml.

To make life simpler, we just need to stick with one type of measurement unit and simply let the conversion chart do the work for us. Despite there are many conversion charts available online, I prefer to use conversion charts that are specific to baking as I find them to be more accurate.

Here are my compilation of useful conversion charts:

  1. Cups to grams conversion specific to each baking ingredient
  2. Cups, grams and ounces conversion specific to each baking ingredient
  3. Cookie Baking Conversion Charts and Equivalents
  4. Complete Measurement Conversion Table (Oz, grams, oz., ml, cup, tbsp., tsp.)

So, it really depends on what kind of conversions that you are looking for. Hope the links above help and solve your headache!

convert

Baking Ingredient Substitution Table

 

I am pretty sure that many bakers out there often face with the same problem like me of not having certain specific ingredients as required by the recipes from time to time. It can be frustrating especially when you have all the ingredients that the recipe called for but ONE is gone missing.

Not to worry. I have faced with this situation many times and what I usually do is to substitute the missing ingredients with ingredients on hand. But how?

I would usually Google online for it but I found this method to be very inefficient. Thus, I have always wanted to compile a list of all substitution for baking ingredients. However, there is no point to reinvent the wheel when similar work has already been done.

To keep long story short, I would use this site Baking Ingredient Substitution Table as my main reference. As the author of the table mentioned, using a different ingredient may change both the taste and texture of your baking, so it is a good idea before substituting to understand the role that ingredient plays in the recipe.  Do use the table as a guideline only.

images

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Whole Grain Mixed Berries Muffins

Whole Grain Mixed Berries Muffin Muffins have always been my favourite as the recipe is simple to whip up. Since I  have some leftover fresh blueberries, it’s a shame if I don’t put it to good use and let it rotten.

For this time, I would prefer some healthy muffins. I made some modification to the original recipe on Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins by substituting the frozen blueberries with half cup fresh blueberries and half cup frozen cranberries.

The original baker described the muffins as “nice juicy blueberries with a subtle muffin background, and the blueberries were the start of the show…..”

Ingredients:

  • 1/8 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup AP flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup frozen cranberries

Steps:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Mix the sugar, honey, egg, milk, butter and vanilla together until smooth.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
  4. Add the dry ingredients and fold lightly until just combined (don't over mix or the muffins will toughen). Fold in the mixed berries.
  5. Spoon the mixture evenly into 6 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

The texture of the muffin is great but it is just too sour to hubby’s liking. I am fine with it. Probably I shall add more sugar if cranberry is used to replace blueberry. I would think the recipe is good if I would have used blueberries only. Anyhow, I will leave that for the next time.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Honey Wheat Bread

 

From the blog history, I noted that we have stopped baking bread for the month of February. Probably we were too caught up with preparing food for CNY and Valentine’s Day. Guess it’s time to get back to our weekly bread baking in addition to other baking. We have just gotten ourselves a food processor that comes with a dough blade few days ago. In addition, we also bought another large loaf pan ( 9 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 2 3/4) with bonus recipe on honey wheat bread. The recipe looks good and easy to do. I decided to give it a try using the new food processor and the new loaf pan. Despite the food processor came with a plastic dough blade, we decided to use the normal stainless steel blade that came with the processor. From our online search, we found out that there are many complaints on the plastic dough blade. Anyhow, the dough came off well with the normal blade. Making bread is more simpler now with a kitchen helper :-).Honey Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, divided
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups whole wheat bread flour

Steps:

  1. Combine 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Heat milk, honey, water and oil until hot to touch (125 degrees F).
  3. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes using medium speed. Scraping bowl occasionally.
  4. Add 1/2 cup all purpose flour and beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Scraping bowl occasionally.
  5. Stir in whole wheat flour and enough additional all purpose flour into processor until dough is stiff. Beat at medium speed and scraping bowl occasionally.
  6. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic for about 4-6 minutes.
  7. On another large bowl, grease the bowl with a small amount of oil. Place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough to cover the dough with oil.
  8. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for 10 minutes.
  9. After 10 minutes, remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Punch down in the dough to release the air from the bread and knead out bubbles for 5 minutes.
  10. Shape the dough into a 8 inches log and place seamed side down into a lightly grease loaf pan.
  11. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
  12. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and place the loaf pan in center of oven for 35 minutes.
  13. You can test if the bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread and it should sound hollow.
  14. Let the bread cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before slicing it

The recipe is good and the bread turns out well. It’s crusty in the outside and soft in the inside – a perfect loaf for sandwich bread or toast bread. I like this recipe for it’s short proofing time yet yields a good result. A loaf of bread like this provides us with about 13 –14 slices of bread which come up to 3 meals. Probably I should bake 2 loaves in the future to save time and minimize the washing. The bread can last for 4-5 days.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Blueberry Muffin

 

During last week grocery shopping, we got ourselves some fresh blueberries. Apparently, blueberries are good for health and help in promoting alertness. I got this “To Die For BluBlueberry Muffineberry Muffin” recipe by Colleen from allrecipes.com. There were thousands of good reviews for this recipe.

The author herself described that "These muffins are extra large and yummy with the sugary-cinnamon crumb topping. I usually double the recipe and fill the muffin cups just to the top edge for a wonderful extra-generously-sized deli style muffin. Add extra blueberries too, if you want!"

The recipe is very simple and I got it all done in half an hour. The modifications that I made to the original recipe based on other bakers’ comments are adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and reducing the crumb topping to half.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/6 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 cup butter, cubed
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
  2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla extract and fold in blueberries.
  3. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

To Make Crumb Topping:

  1. Mix together 1/4 cup sugar, 1/6 cup flour, 1/8 cup butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

The muffins smell good,delicate, moist and yummy delicious. In addition, you will get refreshing cinnamon aroma all over your house. Hubby said this is the best muffin so far. We especially love the crumb topping. It’s crunchy in the outside and soft in the inside. I will definitely bake this muffin again probably with different types of berries. If you want, you can even use dried apricots and walnuts. Overall, this is an awesome recipe!

Tips: For beginner muffin makers, it is crucial to know not to mix the batter too long or else, you will end up with tough, poorly risen muffins.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Vanilla Cupcake

Vanilla Cupcake

 

For Valentine’s Day this year, we decided to prepare our very own home fine dining at the comfort of our own home. We have gotten ourselves some sort of wine, wine glasses and napkin way before the V day. Hubby never really like V day as he feels it’s too commercialize. As he is more of an expressive and emotional person, he prefers to celebrate love when he feels like it rather than on a fixed date. Adding on, he always like to be different. On the other hand, being myself, just like every other woman out there who enjoys being showered with love on the V Day, hubby still makes every effort he can to celebrate it with me. Dear, if you are reading this blog, thanks for all the little things you do as well as for a memorable 2010 Valentine’s Day. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I do.

Guess I am getting too much into telling our own stories. Let’s move on to stories on baking for the week. As it was V Day, I wanted to bake some sweet stuff for the desert and at the same time, I want to apply some icing/deco. Cupcakes have been something that I always wanted to give a try but keep postponing it. Probably I was put off by the fact that it’s not unique as everyone is hyped over cupcakes over the past few years. Like hubby, I always like to be different too! Anyhow, I see things from a different perspective this time. The challenge with cupcakes can come from successfully decorating the cupcakes with an evenly smooth icing and nice deco. I love all the cute and lovely cupcakes that are decorated for all different occasions. Since it’s V Day, I thought of using some homemade vanilla butter cream frosting and decorating the cupcakes with some heart-shaped candies and chocolates.

While browsing for recipes, I came across this simple vanilla cupcake recipe from Cupcake Creation that came along with the recipe for frosting. I couldn’t believe that it was so simple to make cupcake. Basically, you just need a few ingredients. As I do not have self raising flour on hand, I substituted it with all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup  butter – softened
  • 2/3 cup  superfine (castor) sugar
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Line a 8 medium cup cake pan, with cup cake papers.
  3. Crack the eggs into a cup and beat lightly with a fork.
  4. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until light and creamy.
  5. Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes until risen and firm to touch.
  7. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
  8. Allow to cool fully before icing.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 butter – softened 
  • 1/2 cup confectioners (icing) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for vanilla frosting) or 1 tablespoons cocoa powder (for chocolate frosting)
  • 2 teaspoons very hot water

Steps:

  1. Beat together the butter and sugar until well mixed.
  2. Once well combined, add the combined cocoa powder and water. Beat until smooth and creamy.

The cupcakes turn out well and hubby loves it. I love it too as the texture resembles my favourite “ma lai koh” (standard steam egg cake). Probably I should replace the white sugar with brown sugar in the future to turn this recipe into the “ma lai koh” recipe. Overall, I am very satisfied with the cupcakes and will definitely bake it again. I should be more adventurous with the icing decoration next time. Hmm…next on my shopping list is a set of equipments for making icing :-)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Peanut Butter and Banana Muffin

 

I just can’t wait to try this recipe from the book Muffin Galore as darling really loves peanut butter and I love banana. Thus, this is a perfect combination from us. In the book, the author mentioned that “the combination of peanut butter and banana is a popular sandwich filling, used in this recipe to create the delicious muffins”.Peanut Butter and Banana Muffin

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Mix the flour and oats in a large bowl, then stir in brown sugar. Add the baking powder and salt and stir to mix.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together the peanut butter, milk maple syrup and mashed banana until well blended. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients mixing until just combined.
  4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon then sprinkle this mixture over the tops of muffins.
  5. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until risen and golden. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto wire rack.
  6. Serve warm or cool.

The muffins turn out right.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Sesame Sausage Bun

Having left home for about a year, we truly miss the type of buns that we used to have back in our home country. I have noticed the trend of my baking is more towards the Western type of baking. However, in order to be a good baker, I should have an inquisitive mind and willing to explore all kind of breads from from all over the world.Sausage Bun

For this week, I would like to bake something different - the sesame sausage bun. The recipe is adapted from visualrecipes.com. 

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, soften
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • 1 egg
  • 100 ml milk
  • 5 sausages, cut into half
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • pinch of salt

Steps:

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, butter, yeast, egg, sugar, salt and milk.
  2. Combine until all the ingredients finely mix together.
  3. Knead the dough until the surface turns smooth and bright.
  4. Dust some flour, cover with cling wrap and leave it at a warm place for an hour for the size to double.
  5. While waiting for the dough to grow, prepare the sausages. Lightly fry the sausages.
  6. After an hour, punch the dough to release the air.
  7. Divide the dough into 10 small pieces.
  8. Roll the dough into long shape.
  9. Wrap it over the sausages and place into a baking tray laid with parchment paper. Cover with a cling wrap and leave it for 20 minutes
  10. After 20 minutes, brush the bun with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  11. Place in preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden in colour.

The sausage buns are just fresh from the oven. It resembles those we used to have back home. It’s crusty in the inside and soft in the inside. Only setback is that the amount of bun is more than the sausage. Hubby complaining the bread is a bit bland. Probably next time I shall use the whole sausage rather than half a sausage for each bun.

Coffee and Cookie Session

Today, we invited a Vietnamese couple over to our place to have a coffee and cookie session. In conjunction with this event, I have baked some vanilla chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal cookies and cranberry cashew biscotti. We had good time catching up and sharing our cultures. Most of all, I just simply ensure the pleasure of sharing our coffee and cookies  with others.

Cookie and Coffee Platter

Looking forward to more session like this and watch out for more upcoming new recipes. From the photo above, the cranberry cashew biscotti is in the center. Surrounding it is the seedless red grapes,apple cinnamon cookies, grape tomatoes and almond chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Muffin

I have been looking for a muffin recipe that has chocolate chips in it as I have a friend who is a lover of chocolate chip. Not to mention that chocolate chip is also my hubby’s favourite.

While browsing through the book Muffins Galore by Catherine Atkinson that we borrowed from the public library few days ago, I am attracted to the simple recipe of vanilla chocolate chip muffin. It will be a perfect serving for my coffee and cookie session today. Vanilla Chocolate Chip Muffin

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/3 cup superfine sugar
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Line 12 cups of medium muffin pan with paper muffin cups.
  3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
  4. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and chocolate chips.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Then, pour the milk mixture all at once into the dry ingredients. Mix briefly until just combined.
  6. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups,  dividing it evenly.
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until well risen, golden and firm to the touch.
  8. Cool in the baking tray for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
  9. Serve warm or cold.

Overall the muffin turns out good. Hubby commented that this muffin brings out the flavour of chocolate chip better in comparison to banana chocolate chip muffin. I fully agree with him. This muffin is not as moist as banana muffin and it’s ideal for people who prefer it this way.

Cranberry Cashew Biscotti

Last week, we got ourselves some baking books from the public library. I was very much attracted to one of the books which has biscotti recipe. From my last baking of biscotti, I found out that a real Italian biscotti should not consist of butter/oil. Egg should be the one and the only one binding factor. Coincidently, the recipe that is featured in this book fits perfectly the description of real Italian biscotti.

Cranberry Cashew Biscoti

As we are inviting some friends over for coffee and cookies session this afternoon, I have decided to try out the cranberry cashew biscotti as can be found in the book “Baking Simple to Sensational” by Jean Pare. We would like to introduce to our Asian friends the art of drinking coffee and having biscotti.

The author described the biscotti as crunchy biscotti that are perfect for dunking. Lively flavours of cranberry and lemon delight the taste buds.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 large eggs, fork beaten
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 2/3 cup chopped toasted cashew
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Steps:

  1. Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
  2. Add in beaten eggs and mix until stiff dough forms.
  3. Stir in remaining 3 ingredients until all well blended.
  4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough in half.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  6. Shape each half into an oblong 8 inch roll, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Flatten slightly.
  7. Place the dough onto a parchment paper in the baking tray.
  8. Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and crusty.
  9. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 1 1/2 hour until cool.
  10. Remove to cutting board and cut on diagonal with serrated knife into 1/2 inch thick slices. Never use a bread knife to cut.
  11. Bake for another 20 minutes until dry and browned on bottom.

This recipe makes about 2 dozen biscotti. This is definitely a recipe to keep. Healthier, tastier and perfect to go with a cup of our favourite coffee.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Rye Muffin with Raisins

 

This is the season of rye for us as we still have lots of leftover rye Rye Raisin Muffinflour. As it was a week day and we were too lazy to bake bread, we have decided to bake something quick for our next few days' breakfast. Something that came to mind was wholesome muffin. Thus, we started surfing for some rye muffin but apparently it was not a common thing. In the end, we managed to find a recipe from allrecipe.com. The recipe below will give you 4 large muffins.


Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rye flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1/3  cup raisins

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the water, honey and oil.
  4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raisins.
  5. Place dough into muffin trays until two-thirds full as this muffin doesn’t rise much. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Overall, we find the muffin is wholesome and something different from your ordinary muffin. It’s a good switch once in a while when you had had enough of white flour muffin. This muffin is also not as crumbly as other muffin. Another good point about this muffin is that it used simple ingredients and suitable for full vegetarian folks as where as folks that have allergy to egg, wheat or milk.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Banana Rye Yeast Bread

As it has been a while since we last bake a loaf of yeast bread. Today, we decide to bake a loaf of banana rye yeast bread so that it can be used as our sandwich bread for the coming week. The recipe is adapted from About.com: Bread Baking. We like this recipe as we find it to have certain elements of nutrition and at the same time it is versatile.

Ingredients:
  • 3 medium bananas (mashed into 1 cup)
  • 1/2 cup warm milk
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1 cup rye flour
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 cups all purposed flour
Steps:
  1. Combine yeast, warm water and milk in a small bowl. Stir until all well mixed and leave for 5 minutes.
  2. Place a cup of mashed potatoes into a large bowl and stir in the yeast solution.
  3. Then, add in rye flour, brown sugar, oil, and salt.
  4. Gradually, mix in the all purpose flour to make a thick dough that can be kneaded by hand.
  5. Place the dough out onto board and knead for 5 minutes.
  6. On another large bowl, grease the bowl with a small amount of oil. Place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough to cover the dough with oil.
  7. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for an hour and half in a warm place until it has doubled.
  8. After an hour and a half, remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Punch down in the dough to release the air from the bread and knead out bubbles for 5 minutes.
  9. Shape the dough into a 8 inches log and place into a lightly 9 x 5 grease loaf pan.
  10. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 50 minutes.
  11. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and place the loaf pan in center of oven for 10 minutes, then at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes. For the last 15 minutes of baking, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil.
  12. You can test if the bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread and it should sound hollow.
  13. Let the bread cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before slicing it
The bread is just out from the oven and it is looking great. Let it cool down a bit and we will post some photos. Can't wait to try it!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

For this week, we are thinking of exploring something different from the ordinary kind of bread. On top of that, we are looking for a bread recipe with simple ingredients and at the same time it can be prepared in a very short time. This lead us to discovering the whole wheat beer bread from allrecipe.com. Since we have some beer in the fridge in preparation for the cold winter, we do not mind using a can for this recipe. It sounds interesting and best of all it can be ready in less than an hour.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 (355 ml) can or bottle beer
Steps:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.
  3. Pour in beer, stir until a stiff batter is formed. It may be necessary to mix dough with your hands.
  4. Place dough into prepared greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
  5. Put in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
Overall, the bread turns out good. We guess the use of beer kind of substitute the yeast that usually exists in bread. However, the size of the bread may not be suitable to be used as a sandwich bread. Anyhow , it is good to go on its own.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mashed Potato Savoury Muffin

Potatoes....potatoes...potatoes....what else can we do with you! We have tried baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, tuna potato fishcake, potato bread and potato biscuit. While we were surfing for some recipes that have potatoes as one of the ingredient, hubby came across some recipes for potato muffin. That sounds pretty interesting.

Back in our home country, we are familiar with desert muffin such as chocolate chip muffin, banana muffin, etc. I have never imagined a savoury kind of muffin. Apparently, savoury muffin is common here in Canada. Since Canadians seem to love their potatoes, of course they will bake mashed potato savoury muffin. Savoury muffins are a colourful accompaniment to soup, stew or chili.

Ingredients:
  • 1/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup mashed potatoes
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped cheddar cheese
Steps:
  1. In large bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper and oregano.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, potatoes and milk.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.
  4. Stir in parsley, red pepper, cheese and onion using wooden spoon and mix until all combined.
  5. Spoon into 6 giant muffin cups.
  6. Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F and bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until bamboo stick inserted in centre comes out clean.
  7. Transfer to rack and let it cool for 10 minutes.
Source:
Canadian Living Magazine October 2006

Overall, the muffins turn out nice and colourful. It tastes very different from our conventional muffin and hubby called it "western vadai". I would say it's a healthy version of vadai since no oil/butter was involved in the whole process. Guess we need some time to get use to the Canadian taste bud. On the other hand, we truly hope that we have not forgotten how tasty food were back home. Our biggest fear is that we are not able to enjoy all the yummy hot & spicy food back at home after being deprived of the real hot stuff all this while.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Flaky Potato Biscuit

This week seems like a potato bread. Since we have some leftover mashed potatoes sitting in the refrigerator and we have had enough of mash potatoes, we were thinking of doing some baking with the mash potatoes. Finally, we decided to try an all time Canadian favorite food- the potato biscuit. I would it is something like scone but with a crusty skin. It is great for breakfast/tea serve with butter/jam. Alternatively, it can also be served as a side dish for your lunch/dinner.

Ingredients:
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/4 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • extra milk for brushing the tops
Steps:
  1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
  2. Gradually stir in melted butter.
  3. Next, mix the mashed potatoes into the dry ingredients and it's fine that you have some chunks of potatoes in the mix.
  4. Make a well in the mixture, and stir in egg, water and milk using a wooden spoon until you get a loose dough.
  5. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 6-8 minutes until the dough holds together. Along the way, you may add some flour to reduce the stickiness.
  6. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  7. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape the dough into a ball.
  8. Place the dough onto a baking sheet with parchment paper and flatten the dough into a 3/4 inch circle.Brush the tops with a bit of milk.
  9. Bake for 18- 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bottoms are golden.
I would say this is a great way to use up the leftover mashed potatoes and above all, it can be used for breakfast, lunch, tea or dinner.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Crusty Potato Bread

This week's theme revolves around potatoes as we bought 10lb of Russet potatoes last week. Thus, we are baking crusty potato bread this week.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup mashed potatoes
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dried yeast
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter
Steps:
  1. Boil peeled potatoes in boiling water for 20-30 minutes. Mash the potatoes.
  2. Place milk and water in a microwave and heat to lukewarm in a bowl.
  3. Stir in sugar and yeast and set aside for 5 minutes.
  4. On a separate bowl, sift bread flour, whole wheat flour and salt.
  5. Mix butter and mashed potato into flour using hand.
  6. Pour wet ingredient into dry ingredient and mix until all well blended.
  7. Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 - 10 minutes until dough becomes smooth.
  8. Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with cling wrap till double in size for about an hour.
  9. Punch dough down and place into a greased bread pan.
  10. Cover and leave in a warm place until dough is level with top of pan.
  11. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes and cool on a wire rack.
Overall, we find the bread is soft in the inside and crusty on the outside. However, the bread is lacking in potato flavor. Probably we should increase the amount of potatoes in the future.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Cranberry Scone

During a dinner gathering with our Canadian friends end of last year, we were served with some wonderful home made scones. However, our Canadian friends later told us that it is called biscuit and not scone. We were pretty confused then.

Anyhow, after some research, we realized that round-shaped British scones can resemble North American biscuits in appearance. The differences are scones rely on cold butter for their delicate and flaky structure while biscuits are more often made with softening and are crumbly. Scones are normally served with coffee and tea whereas biscuits are served more as side bread with other dishes. Our Canadian friend served it with Indonesian chicken with peanut sauce. It was delicious.

Since we are lacking of some ingredients for the biscuit, we have decided to make scone today. We are just in the mood of baking after receiving a number of good news today. Baking is good at all time either when you are feeling happy or stress. It just gives you happiness....

Ingredients:
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup dried cranberry
Steps:
  1. Preaheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Add in butter and blend well.
  4. On a separate bowl, mix egg and milk.
  5. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients gradually.
  6. Stir in the dried cranberry and mix well.
  7. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
  8. Split the dough to half and roll the dough into an half inch thick oblong.
  9. Cut the dough using pizza cutter into 4 pieces and further divide each piece diagonally to get 2 triangle shaped dough.
  10. Do the same for the remaining half of the dough.
  11. Place the dough triangles onto a greased baking sheet and put into the oven to bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown.
This recipe makes about 16 scones.

We really love scones and it will be perfect to go with a cup of coffee. The scone itself tastes good even without the cranberry.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Cranberry Walnut Biscotti

Since both of us are coffee lovers and biscotti is definitely the food to go with a good cup of coffee, I have decided to try baking biscotti today despite it is not our baking day. I just can't resist the temptation to try something new. I started my online search for biscotti recipe and decided to go for the type of biscotti which require the ingredients that I already have on hand. In case some of you may not know what biscotti are, let me give you a brief description here:

Biscotti are traditional Italian cookies that are very crunchy and ideal for dunking into coffee or wine. In another word, think of them as adults' teething biscuits.

Today, we have decided to bake cranberry walnut biscotti despite the norm is pistachio cranberry biscotti. Anyhow, it was really simple to make biscotti and it took us less than half an hour. We will definitely explore various types of biscotti in the near future.

Ingredients:
  • 2 tablespoons light olive oil
  • 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 eggs
  • 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 3/4 cup walnuts/pecans/almonds/pistachios
  • 1 orange rind
Steps:
  1. First, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Stir in the vanilla, almond extracts and orange rind.
  3. Next, beat in the eggs.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.
  5. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  6. Mix in cranberries and walnuts by hand.
  7. Form a log (10 x 2.5 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough may be very sticky; use some flour to handle dough more easily.
  8. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown.
  9. After 35 minutes, remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F.
  10. Cut logs on diagonal into 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for another 10 minutes.
And there you go, biscotti to go with your favourite cup of coffee. Thinking of biscotti, I really miss those wonderful almond biscotti from Dome Cafe back home. I shall try almond biscotti the next time when I want to bake something simple, delicious and fast.




Friday, January 8, 2010

Light Rye Bread

Since we are running out of all purpose flour and on the other hand, having lots of rye flour, we have decided to bake some rye bread this week. Rye is a cereal grain and is closely related to barley and wheat. It is definitely much more healthier than all purpose flour. As human usually associate healthy food with bad taste and vice versa, surprisingly this healthy bread tastes good. It is wonderfully light, soft inside with a crusty crust. A perfect bread for any sandwich or you can just enjoy the bread by itself.

While searching for some rye bread recipe, we have noticed that some unique ingredients required for any rye bread are molasses and cocoa powder.

Ingredients:
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 cup of warm water
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 2 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 1 cup rye flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1/8 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/8 cup cocoa powder
Steps:
  1. Combine yeast, warm water and molasses in a large bowl. Stir until all well mixed.
  2. Stir in salt, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, rye flour and then 1 cup of bread flour. Blend well.
  3. Gradually add the remaining bread flour until the dough is not so sticky and not too hard to mix.
  4. Place the dough on a lightly flour surface and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough become smooth and elastic. Add flour as needed to make the dough less sticky.
  5. On another large bowl, grease the bowl with a small amount of oil. Place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough to cover the dough with oil.
  6. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap/damp cloth and allow the dough to rise for an hour and half in a warm place until it has doubled.
  7. After an hour and a half, remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Gently press down in the dough to release the air from the bread.
  8. Shape the dough into a 8 inches log and place into a lightly 9 x 5 grease loaf pan.
  9. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 45 minutes or until the dough raises approximately 1 inch above the pan.
  10. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the loaf pan in center of oven for about 45 minutes. After 20 minutes of baking, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil.
  11. You can test if the bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread and it should sound hollow.
  12. Let the bread cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before slicing it.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

As both of us are sandwich lovers and we especially love our sandwich to go with whole wheat bread/whole grain bread, we have decided to try baking some whole wheat sandwich bread this week. Hubby being daring and adventurous decided to use molasses instead of honey as called for by the original recipe. I would say it's a two-edged sword using the molasses. On one hand it gives a more chewy texture to the bread, on another hand it makes kneading much more difficult as it was just too sticky to the hand. We have to add about 3/4 cup of white flour during kneading to get the perfect dough. Anyhow, the sleepless night, sweat and effort are all paid off when we had our first homemade whole wheat sandwich bread for breakfast this morning.

Ingredients:
  • 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
Steps:
  1. Combine a cup of warm water with the salt, the molasses, the yeast, the oil and the milk in a large bowl. Stir until all well mixed.
  2. Mix in the flour and stir until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl.
  3. Place the dough on a lightly flour surface and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough become smooth. Add flour as needed to make the dough less sticky.
  4. On another large bowl, grease the bowl with a small amount of oil. Place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough to cover the dough with oil.
  5. Cover the bowl with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour in a warm place.
  6. After an hour, remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a 8 inches log and place into a lightly 9 x 5 grease loaf pan.
  7. Cover the loaf pan with lightly oil plastic wrap and let it rise for another hour or until the dough raises approximately 1 inch above the pan.
  8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the loaf pan in center of oven for about 40 minutes. After 20 minutes of baking, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil.
  9. You can test if the bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread and it should sound hollow.
  10. Let the bread cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before slicing it.
Enjoy a healthy wholesome bread. In the coming weeks, we will definitely try baking this bread again but will try using honey then. We will let you know the difference then. Stay tune!