Deli - cious

Missy over at Sweet Crumbs made herself an awesome SPAM sandwich for her dinner. I was so inspired that I made it almost right away!

I was glad that I did not just bookmark her recipe and put it aside, otherwise I wouldn't believe that I could actually create a deli-style sandwich at home :)

No, I didn't make the bread, just like Missy, I bought a loaf of Gardenia focaccia, which happens to me my favourite bread before I started baking bread at home.

I really like her idea of pairing luncheon meat with mushrooms. Even though we all know that we should cut down on processed food, I just can't resist the temptation of a SPAM sandwich. I believe as long as we eat everything in moderation, we should be fine...and it is not as though we have luncheon meat every other week, I couldn't even remember when was the last time we had luncheon meat in our meals, it must be many moons ago. And, I bought SPAM Lite, which claims to contain less fat and less sodium (well, it still taste loaded with sodium!) Yes, yes, I am trying hard to justify that I am not a bad mom because I feed my kids with junk food ;')

I sliced the loaf into half, spread some butter on the cut-side, arranged slices of cheese on one side of the loaf and toasted them in the oven for a couple of minutes. This step does wonder to the bread, the crust is slightly crisp and the bread tasted freshly braked. I then layered it with lettuce, tomatoes, sauteed fresh button mushrooms (seasoned with some pepper) and pan-fried-till-golden SPAM slices.

I have never been a good cook, but I was so proud to be able to put together a foot-long sandwich. During the preparation, I felt as though I was a sandwich artist ^_^"

So here's another quick-fix meal, the kids were all bright eyed and bushy tailed when they saw their yummy 'deli-style' lunch.

Thanks Missy for sharing such a great meal idea!

Chocolate Ring Loaf Bread

I made this bread by hand.

Yes it is a loaf bread not a chiffon cake. It is baked in a chiffon cake pan instead of a loaf tin or a round baking pan.

I had to made this bread from scratch by hand as my bread machine has finally decided to call it quits after being subject to three years of abuse ^_^' After I had placed all the ingredients in the bread pan, the kneading blade just refused to move. I thought I had merely over heated the machine while trying to bake that corn flakes loaf a week ago. I left the machine alone for a few days, thinking it should get its act together in no time. I have no luck.

From now on, I will have to knead bread by hand :'( I won't be getting a replacement since the Dough function is the only function I have been using. I do not own a standing mixer and I don't have any intention to get one, yet. A standing mixer has never been in my wish list. A good one will burnt my pocket (which is in fact empty all the time); and I know myself very well, it would probably turn into a white elephant. Even with my frequent baking, I hardly use my old and trusted hand-held mixer (which is already in its late 20s). I convinced myself with a list of advantages of making bread by hand while I was kneading this bread:

• there will be one less item (machine's bread pan) to clean up;
• wrestling continuously for 20 to 30mins with a bread dough is an excellent work out, and it's free;
  
• I will be able to 'connect' to the dough, whether the recipe yields very wet and sticky dough or one that is easier to handle;
  
• I will be able tell when the dough has sufficiently be kneaded...whether it has reached the required smoothness and elasticity;
  
• there will never ever be a danger of over-kneading the dough by hand;
• sinking my hands into a lump of dough is not very much different from squeezing a stress-relieve ball...soothing and therapeutic; not forgetting the frequent slapping of the dough down on the table...a great avenue to drive away any bad memories;
  
• it's a labour of love...I will like to make myself believe that I will be able to impart a better flavour to the bread;
• without using the machine, maybe I could help reduce the tonnes of carbon footprint I leave behind every year.

Let me know if I have left out any other points. Having said that, I think I may have to start looking at making no-knead breads, in fact, I just borrowed a book "Kneadlessly Simple", I hope I will be able to get something out of it :)

Ok, back to this 'ring' loaf bread. It is a cocoa flavoured bread. The inside is supposed to be filled with chocolate paste, but I was too lazy to make it from scratch, so I used chocolate-peanut butter, if I have nutella on hand, I think it will work just as fine. After spreading the chocolate paste, the bread is covered with chocolate flavoured corn flakes before it is being rolled up.

The loaf rose beautifully while baking in the oven. How I wish my chiffon cakes would rise as high! Unmolding the loaf was quite tricky, unlike a chiffon cake, this loaf has to be removed immediately when it is still hot.

This bread was really good when it had just cooled off. The texture was very soft and fluffy, the three of us finished one quarter of it during tea time. However, it aged quite fast...by the next morning, it had turn a little hard and dry even though I have kept it in an airtight container. Maybe because there is no egg in it? and I notice the amount of butter in the recipe is also very little. To get around with it, I wrapped the bread with foil and warm it in the oven before serving, and it tasted freshly baked. The corn flakes filling was a great disappointment. It became soft and chewy after between sandwiched insides the loaf :'( The next time I were to make this, I will skip the corn flakes.

Chocolate Ring Loaf Bread

Ingredients
(makes one 7" round loaf)

300g bread flour
6g instant yeast
20g caster sugar
10g cocoa powder
6g salt
165g lukewarm water
45g fresh milk
15g unsalted butter
some chocolate peanut butter or nutella spread
some chocolate corn flakes
some icing sugar



Method:

1. Stir bread flour, caster sugar, salt, cocoa powder and instant yeast in a mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and add in water and milk. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a dough.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough comes together and becomes smooth, about 10mins. (The dough will be quite wet and sticky initially.)
4. Knead the butter into the dough. The dough will become greasy, wet and sticky again. Continue to knead for about 10 - 20 mins until the dough no longer sticks to your hand, becomes smooth and elastic. Do the window pane test: pinch a small portion of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. Roll into a round ball. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let the doughs rest for 10mins.
7. Flatten the dough into a disc and roll into a rectangular shape, about 25cm x 30cm. Spread the dough surface with chocolate peanut butter or nutella. Leave about a 1cm gap on each side. Sprinkle with chocolate cornflakes. Fold in about 1 inch for each of the four sides.
8. Roll up from the shorter side swiss-roll style to form a log, pinch and seal the seam. Carefully roll the log on the table to lengthen it to about 40cm in length.
9. Place doughs in a greased chiffon pan (7"). Seal and pinch the ends. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave dough to proof for the second time for about 30mins, or until the doughs almost reach the rim of the chiffon pan.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 20 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Leave it to cool for 3mins and sieve over some icing sugar. Let cool completely before slicing. To help the bread stay fresh store in airtight container.

Recipe source: adapted from 做面包真简单, 太 田ひとみ

Weekend Breakfast

Saturday morning is the only day in the week that we can afford to have a little extra time to eat our breakfast.

Since we do not have to leave house before ten, I would make it a point to prepare something special...as in not the usual toasts and buns! This is especially important as the three of us have developed this bad habit of reading late past mid-night on  every Friday night.  A delicious breakfast is what we need to kick-start our weekend. 

We are not looking at a full spread scrumptious breakfast with sausages, bacons, hams and eggs. We save this for special occasions since both my kids have rather small appetite. Whenever I try to get my younger child to eat more, he will always extend his little fist and declared that his stomach is only that small, and, it is not expandable!  So I keep our weekend breakfast  simple. It would either be waffles or pancakes, or a batch of freshly baked muffins. It is also easy to please my kids with just a simple sunny-side-up or scramble eggs.

I am usually not alone in the kitchen when I go about preparing our weekend breakfast. My tween is always eager to lend a helping hand...he has since learned how to fry a scramble egg, and is doing quite well with a sunny-side up, although he almost burnt his first prata. I can't blame him as it takes time (and probably many failed attempts) to acquire the skills of adjusting the heat on the stove top. 

I can't remember since when I started keeping stocks of frozen roti prata in my freezer. I have tried several brands, so far I prefer the NTUC house brand.  I like the way it puffs up creating a nice flaky crust.

Two summers ago, I was introduced by a close one to this 蔥油蛋饼, Taiwanese egg pancake, a popular breakfast item in Taiwan. The one I had was made with frozen 蛋饼皮 (pancake/crepe) that came with spring onions in it. I was also taught how to make this simple and yet very tasty dish. Since then, I have been searching for this frozen 蛋饼皮 in the local supermarket shelves, but apparently it is not available here. Although I do have cravings for this Taiwanese-style egg pancake, but I won't go to the extend to made the skin from scratch. I trust my skills, I am sure it won't taste good ;)

As the 蛋饼皮(pancake/crepe) is quite similar to our roti prata, I tried to replicate this meal with frozen prata skin. Even though it is not the real McCoy, I was quite satisfied with how it turned out :D You can have it with your regular breakfast coffee or tea, but it certainly goes very well with a cup of hot soya bean milk (豆漿 aka 豆花水).

While I was writing up this post, I was surprised to learn that there are several other possible variations of this 蛋饼. Besides egg, you can also roll it up with ham, cheese or even pork floss.

I can't for the weekend to arrive!!



Preparation:

• In a non-stick frying pan, lightly grease the pan and pan fry one frozen prata skin (do not thaw) on medium heat till golden brown. Remove and set aside. 
• Heat up a little bit of oil in the pan and pour in a lightly beaten egg (add some spring onions and a pinch of salt). Immediately place the cooked prata over the egg (before the egg mixture starts to set).
• When the egg is set, flip the prata over so that the egg-side is facing up. Turn off the heat. With a spatula, roll up the prata, flatten the prata with the spatual as you roll. This will make a slightly flatten roll. For a "scroll-like' roll, roll it up with a pair of chopsticks.
  
• Cut into bite size (or serve as a roll) and serve immediately.
  

Note: Pan fry this prata and egg combination one serving at a time. Do not pan fry several pratas in one go and let them sit waiting as they may turn soggy.

做面包真简单, Really?!!

One thing leads to another.

During our stay at the service apartment in Beijing, we had our complimentary breakfast at the lobby every morning. The spread was not fantastic but I was quite happy with it since my usual breakfast at home is nothing more than 2 slices of bread and a cup of coffee. Two weeks down the road, I got tired of the ham, sausages, hard boil eggs and porridge. So I went for the cereals. I have never liked cereals, especially muesli. But those available at the breakfast counter were quite 'kids-friendly', ie cereals for kids. Since I have not had any corn flakes for ages, it was a nice surprise to find them so crunchy and tasty! I like it so much that I had to get a box of corn flakes right after we got back to Singapore.

Since it is the start of the school term, I found myself wondering into the local bookstore...to get some assessment books for the kids. As usual, before heading to the assessment book section, I spent some time browsing the cookbooks on the shelves. There were quite a number of new books, and I was able to pick up 4 books within a few minutes. One was on bread making, one on sushi making, one on Chinese buns and dim sum, and another on everyday simple meals. I wanted to buy all four, but in the end, I bought only one...and it is no surprise that I chose the one on bread making. Every single recipe in this book, 做面包真简单  (making bread is easy), looks good to me!

By the time I got home, I have already decided that the first recipe I would try from this cookbook would be the loaf bread covered with corn flakes! However, after reading through the ingredients, I realised that it is made with this drink "Calpico". I googled and learned that it is quite similar to Yakult or Vitagen. Since I hardly see this product on the local supermarket shelves,  I would made do with Vitagen.

Just when I was almost ready to give the recipe a go, I received an email with links to video clips showing how iron powder can be extracted from fortified corn flakes (see here). It certainly makes me think twice about having corn flakes! Nevertheless, I still went ahead with my bread making ;)

Little did I know that it took me three attempts to get the bread right! On my first attempt, I used my bread machine to do the kneading, the dough was still very sticky after 30mins of kneading. I made a 'clever' decision to add a tablespoon of flour to the dough and let the machine run for another 10mins. The dough was still sticky and very soft. Since I was rushing to get my other chores done, I took the dough out and left it to proof. After 30mins there was still no 'activity'. The dough didn't rise and it became a sticky, slacken mess. It was then that I realised I could have let the machine over-knead the dough. I was left with no choice but to dump it into the thrash bin. Undeterred by the failure, I went on to prepare another portion right after. I placed all the necessary ingredients into the bread machine, but the kneading blade couldn't move. The machine must have been over-heated and it had refused to start work again. The only way to get around was to knead it by hand. My next half an hour was then spent working hard on the dough. It was quite a wet dough indeed, but soon it became smooth and elastic and no long sticks to my hand. My hard work didn't really paid off though :( The yeast didn't work this time! The first rise took more than 2hrs, and the second proofing took another 2hrs, and yet the dough didn't even come up near the rim. Despite a 'shorter' loaf, the bread tasted quite good.

Two days later, I made another attempt. I bought a fresh bottle of yeast and I made the dough by hand again. This time, the yeast was working so well that within 30mins, the dough had already doubled in size.

The second proofing took no longer than 30mins as well. While waiting for the oven to preheat, the dough had rose over the rim!

Here's a comparison of the two loaves...the one on the left didn't proof well...

look at the vast difference in height between the two!

Although this bread does not have super soft and cottony texture, it is very delicious and smells good especially when it was baking in the oven, I could smell corn flakes! My kids love the bread, it has a slight sweet taste and the corn flakes gave an interesting texture to the crust.

I am sharing the recipe with all of you who loves making and eating bread. I hope this recipe will not disappoint anyone of you who are keen to give it a try. Happy baking!




Corn Flakes Bread Loaf

Ingredients
(makes one 7" x 4" x 4" loaf)

300g bread flour
6g instant yeast
18g caster sugar
6g salt
9g milk powder
150g lukewarm water
35g vitagen
20g egg
30g unsalted butter
some corn flakes, crushed
egg wash (mix 1 tbs egg with 1 tbs water)


Method:

1. Stir bread flour, caster sugar, salt, milk powder and instant yeast in a mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and add in water, egg and vitagen. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a dough.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough comes together and becomes smooth, about 10mins. (The dough will be quite wet and sticky initially.)
4. Knead the butter into the dough. The dough will become greasy, wet and sticky again. Continue to knead for about 10 - 20 mins until the dough no longer sticks to your hand, becomes smooth and elastic. Do the window pane test: pinch a small portion of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. Divide into 2 equal portion, about 290g each. Roll into rounds. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let the doughs rest for 10mins.
7. Flatten each dough into a small disc and roll each into a rectangular shape, about 12" x 7". Roll up from the shorter side (7') swiss-roll style to form a log, pinch and seal the seam.
8. Place crushed corn flakes on a tray. Brush the top of the doughs with the egg wash and roll it over the crushed corn flakes.
9. Place doughs in a greased loaf pan (7" x 4" x 4"). Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave doughs to proof for the second time for about 30mins, or until the doughs almost reach the rim of the loaf pan.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 35 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing. To help the bread stay fresh store in airtight container.

Recipe source: adapted from 做面包真简单, 太 田ひとみ

Rocky Road Ahead

It has been a week since the start of the new year. We are happy to be back home and we even welcomed the heat. The kids are back to school and we are all busy adjusting to the new school term and getting ourselves familiar with the new set of routines.

My tween begins the new school term with a great hurdle in front of him. Like all his peers, to mark the end of their sixth year in primary school, he will be taking the national exam later part of this year. Whether a student gets to be posted to the secondary school of his choice would mainly depend on how well he performs at this nationwide examination. It is definitely going to be a tough year, judging from the amount of homework my child had to do on the very first week of school.

I bought a box of brownies mix when we were in Beijing. I had intended to bake a batch of rocky road brownies on Christmas day. However, I didn't had time to do any baking after a day trip to Simatai, (a section of the Great Wall). So, I brought the ready-mix, together with the marshmallows and M&Ms, all the way home, and now these rainbow brownies became my 1st bake for the year! What a sweet start!

As with all ready-mix, baking out of a box is simple, fast and everything is done in a bowl. Like an obedient student, I followed the instructions to a T...including the part on stirring the ingredients together...with a spoon for about 50 times. I couldn't believe myself that I actually counted the number of strokes! Well at least I proved that the instruction is accurate, by the 50th stroke, the batter was well mixed with no traces of any of the flour mixture.

The brownies was done after 25mins in the oven, I took it out and dotted it with lots of marshmallows (I didn't have mini ones, so I used a kitchen shear to cut them into smaller chunks), followed by a shower of chopped peanuts and a light sprinkling of mini-M&Ms. I popped the pan back into the oven and waited patiently for the marshmallow to melt. I removed the brownies once the marshmallow started to brown.

These brownies are terribly fudgy...dense, moist, gooey and a little chewy! My kids love it! I prefer the texture to be firmer so I kept them chilled in the fridge. The chocolate-nuts-marshmallow is a perfect combination of flavours and texture...you get sticky, crunchy, chewy all in one mouthful!

Even though it is going to be a rocky road ahead for me as well...as I would likely be operating like a single parent for most part of the year...I will be holding on to my boys hands and hopefully we are able to cross or maneuver whatever obstacles along the way.