Focaccia Sandwich

Focaccia bread is just nice to serve with a bowl of warm creamy soup, that's what I normally do. However, I found another way of eating it. Yes, I know some of you already knew a better way of eating it but that's just what I've discovered few days ago. It's a bit shame that I only knew it recently but nothing is too late right?!

I like to use the focaccia recipe from 孟老师的100道面包. It's just so simple to make that I don't have to knead too long for the dough. This time, I made something extra for the recipe which is sandwiched some ham and mozzarella cheese with onion, garlic, herbs and cheddar cheese for toppings.

The result ended up very yummy that I can just eat it straight a way without a bowl of soup. It's a softness and crusty combination from the inside to outside. The topping enhance the flavour which the onion and garlic almost caramelized and the herbs bring out a fantastic aroma together with the cheddar cheese. I like it very much! Hope you'll like it too!

Recipe (I used half the recipe for two):

300g bread

10g sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon yeast

170g water

10g olive oil

onion, sliced

garlic, sliced

oregano and parsley

cheddar cheese

Mix all the ingredients together then gradually add in the olive oil and continue the kneading process until it become a smooth dough. You don't have to knead the dough like making a loaf of bread. Let it proof for 60 minutes.

Divide the dough into a few small portions, it's very depends on your whether you want to make two sandwiches or more or just leave it as a big portion of serving size then give it a rest for ten minutes. As for me, I divide the dough into two portions because I want to make a sandwich. After ten minutes of resting, roll out the dough in any shape you like and place it on a baking tray, I made it into rectangular shape. Then place a few slices of ham and mozzarella cheese on top of the roll out dough and don't forget to leave a space at the edges. Roll out another dough into the same shape and place it the on top and seal the edges tightly. Let it proof for 20 minutes. Egg wash the dough then put the onion, garlic, cheddar cheese and some herbs. Bake at 190'C preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown with a crusty texture. Enjoy!

Bread Corner | HT | 12:15 AM No comments Read More

Chestnut Chiffon Cake

You might be frighten by these alien. It might gives you an uncomfortable feeling. Don't worry it's not worm or insect or rope. My other half thought it's noodles at his first sight. There are non of them. It's just a chestnut cream that was decorated from piping bag.

Well, if you've seen this from the front page of a chiffon recipe book with this similar picture and this is the recipe book that I've been reading 戚枫蛋糕秘方传授. I think the taste of this chiffon might not be so popular, unlike chocolate, coffee or banana chiffon.

The sponge texture is really light, soft and fluffy whereas the taste is not very sweet as I pureed some unsweetened peeled chestnut which I bought from DAISO and mix it with the canned chestnut paste. The topping of the chestnut cream enhance the flavour that is just nice to eat with a bite of sponge and some cream. If you like it, you'll ask for more, but if you don't, you don't even feel to have a second bite. A piece is definitely not enough for me as its lightness really fascinated me.

Recipe:
Egg white mixture:

110g egg whites

55g sugar

5g corn flour

Egg yolk mixture:

40g egg yolks

50g water

40g vegetable oil

50g passion fruit

55g plain flour

35g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

35g chestnut paste in can

90g unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

Decoration:

250ml whipping cream

60g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

60g chestnut paste in can

30g milk

few unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

How I made it:

1. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.
2. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)
4. Fold in the unsweetened whole chestnut.
5. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160'C preheated oven for 40 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling. Cling wrap the entire chiffon cake with the tin and refrigerated for over night. This will make the texture much nicer.
6. Unmold the chiffon cake. Whip the cream until thicken. In another bowl, mix the pureed unsweetened whole chestnut, chestnut paste and warm milk until smooth. Fold in 25g of the whipped cream until well mix. Place this chestnut cream into a piping bag.
7. Spread the chiffon cake with whipping cream then pipe out the chestnut cream on top of the cake and place a few chunky chestnut for garnishment.
8. Keep the cake in the fridge it could last for 4 days.

Chiffon Corner | HT | 9:02 PM No comments Read More

Fig & Brown Sugar Cake

I bought a pack of organic dried fig from Cold Storage long time ago, due to my sickness, concert and so on, the dried fig has been hibernating in the fridge for sometime. I think I've to use it before it goes expired. This fig and brown sugar cake recipe from the book of "Luscious Healthy Desserts 搞纤低卡烘培" taste quite special for me.

This cake is light and the sweetness from the dried fig is quite special. I reduced some sugar from the cake recipe as I find the fig is very sweet. The cake suppose to be spread with whipped cream but I don't have whipping cream on hand so I decided to make some buttercream to go with it. I think the cake would be much softer and lighter if I rolled it with whipped cream. The method of this recipe is quite similar to chiffon cake unlike some swiss roll recipe which is beat the whole eggs until fluffy then add add the flour. Anyway, it's not very difficult to make and I would like try to replace the fig to prunes, cherry or other dried fruits on my next attempt.

I tried a mango yogurt ice cream recipe from Small Small Baker and it's fantastic! It's very smooth and refreshing, and just so great to have a few scoops in this hot weather.

After my the first attempt on the potato buns for hotdog, I tried to make it again filled with some azuki redbean. Again, it's still not nicely shaped but the bun really soft like the one I bought from the stall.

Recipe for Fig & Brown Sugar Cake @ 60cm x 39cm baking pan.

(I used 2/5 from the below recipe to fit my smaller baking pan @ 27.5cm x 34.5cm)

(A) 150g dried fig / 20g sugar / 60g water / 20g honey / 80g rum
(B) 180g egg yolks / 100g water / 11og dark brown sugar / 150g olive oil / 30g rum / 210g plain flour
(C) 370g egg whites / 140g sugar (I used half of the sugar only) / 15g corn flour
(D) some whipping cream or butter cream (1/2 cup icing sugar / 1/2 cup butter / 1/2 tsp vanilla extract / 1/2 to 1 tbsp milk)

Methods:

1. Cook ingredients (A) at low heat until the fig soften and flavored. Chopped it into big chunk.
2. Mix water, oil and brown sugar, bring the bowl on the hob at low heat keep stirring until the brown sugar melted.
3. Mix in the egg yolks and rum then the plain flour. Add in the softened fig.
4. In another bowl, whisk ingredients (C) until soft peak then fold half of the egg whites into the fig mixture until combine. Add the remaining egg whites into the mixture until everything well incorporated.
5. Pour into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 190'C preheated oven.
6. Let the cake cool down before spreading the butter cream or whipping cream and roll up into a swiss roll.

Bread Corner, Cakes Corner, Craving Corner | HT | 7:30 PM No comments Read More

Braided Hotdog Bun

These are the real soft buns which the recipe from "孟老师的100道面包". I guess it would be the mashed potato make it so soft. But, I've probloem in shaping the dough nicely. The dough was a bit wet whereas I need to slightly oiled my hand to handle the dough. I think I'll shape it in a simple way next time rather than braiding the dough.
Anyway, the soft buns are really good to eat with some cheddar cheese topping and dried parsley for garnishment. I think this potato dough would be good for making others savory buns too!

Recipe (makes 5 buns):

(A)

110g bread flour

40g plain flour

15g caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

70g cold water

2g yeast (1/2 teaspoon)

30g mashed potato

1 egg yolk

(B)

15g butter

(C)

5 pieces hotdog

some shredded cheddar

some dried pasley

1. 
   Mix ingredients (A) at low speed using a dough hook mixer follow by the mashed potato. Turn to medium speed continue kneading until it become a smooth dough. Add in the (B) unsalted butter and knead with low speed until the butter combine with the dough. Turn to medium speed continue the kneading process until it become a smooth and elastic dough. (the dough will slightly wet, I oiled my hand then...) place the dough into a lightly grease bowl and cover with cling wrap to proof for 80 minutes.
   
   


2. 
   Divide the dough into 5 portions and round them into small balls. Let them rest for 10 minutes.
   
   


3. 
   Wrap the hotdog into each doughs and proof for 25 minutes.
   
   


4. 
   Egg wash the dough and sprinkle some shredder cheddar cheese and dried parsley. Bake at 190'c for 18 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!
   
   

Bread Corner | HT | 10:58 PM No comments Read More

Polo Bun 菠萝包 (2)

I made this polo bun quite often but there is a difficulty in handling the pastry as the butter melt very fast and cause it sticking on my hand while I'm trying to gather the dough with the pastry. Recently, I found another solution which would be much easier to handle. The original recipe asked to beat the butter until pale and fluffy then gradually add in sugar powder, salt and milk powder and beaten egg till everything combine. With this method you would get a wet pastry paste which you may need to store in the fridge for some time to harden before use (but it'll melt very fast in this hot weather, so it's not easy to handle).

For the new method, cut the cold butter into 1cm pieces (store them in the fridge if there start melting). With the same method as shortcrust pastry, process the flour, sugar powder, cold butter in a food processor till the butter mix thoroughly with the flour like the fine breadcrumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of beaten egg then pulse several times until its become a chunky breadcrumbs but not a dough (don't over process). Turn the pastry out onto a clean, floured work surface and, with floured hands, bring together to make a dough, but don't knead. Shape into a flattened ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Divide the pastry into pieces and it's ready to use. I found that the texture is much better and most wonderful thing is, it's easily to put together the dough with the pastry.

Bread Corner | HT | 10:13 PM No comments Read More

Biscotti

Biscotti is my daily snack, I have it in my kitchen at all time for my craving teeth. I know many of you know how to made it but it's just a sharing as I didn't bake and blog much recently. This is a recipe from James Martin. I've been using his recipe for many years as my snack or gift for friends. I find homemade biscotti is always richer because we could add any nuts as we like and the quantity of nuts added will not stingy at all. The nuts I like the most is Almond, Hazelnut and Pistachio. Other than nuts, I find that adding some lemon zest into the mixture taste really good. I used food processor to make the mixture, it's really a simple snack to make and nice to crave!

Recipe of James Martin (Desserts):

250g plain flour
125g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 lemon zest
75g shelled pistachio nuts
50g whole blanched almonds
50g shelled hazelnut

1. Toast the shelled nuts in the preheated oven at 100'C for about 15 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and baking powder in a large bowl (I mix the ingredients in a food processor). Add half the beaten eggs and mix well, then add half of what's left and mix again. Now add the last quarter a little bit at a time until the dough takes shape but isn't too wet (you may not need to use all of the eggs). Add the toasted nuts and mix well.
3. Divide the dough into six, roll into sausage shapes and place on the lined baking tray (wetting your hands before rolling these cut helps to prevent the dough sticking). Lightly flatten the doughs.
4. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to cool and firm up.
5. Using a serrated knife, cut the biscotti on an angle into slice. Lay the slices on the baking trays. Return to the oven and cook for 8 minutes, then turn the slices over and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until a pale golden colour. Cool on wire racks, then store in airtight jars.

Craving Corner | HT | 4:37 AM No comments Read More

Passion Fruit Chiffon

I bought five passion fruits week ago then left it at the room temperature to ripe. The passion fruits filling could fill up 250ml of glass. It's great!

I used them to make some chiffon cake. This is my first attempt on making chiffon cake by using the passion fruits, and it's really refreshing.

I made two of 17cm chiffon. One for myself and another for my friend who taking care of me very much during my sickness.

I made simple decoration with some passion fruits for topping. If you don't mind to eat the seeds, it's really refreshing dessert and smell so good!

Recipe:

Egg white mixture:
110g egg whites
55g sugar
5g corn flour

Egg yolk mixture:
40g egg yolks
36g vegetable oil
50g passion fruit
55g plain flour
Decoration:
200ml whipping cream
20g sugar powder
some passion fruit juice without seeds
some left over passion fruit

Method:

1. Scoop out 50g of passion fruits and set aside.
   
2. For the chiffon cake, mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.


3. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.


4. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)


5. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160'C preheated oven for 40 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it. .
   
6. Whip the cream with sugar powder until thicken, then mix in some passion fruit juice without the seeds.


7. Cream the chiffon cake then deco with some leftover passion fruits on top of the cake.
   Keep the cake in the fridge it could last for 4 days. Best serve in 3 days.

Chiffon Corner | HT | 11:03 PM No comments Read More