Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Millet

Wanting to add more varieties of grains in our diet, I decided to check out quinoa at the bio (organic) foods section of my local supermart. But I didn't find any and so I bought a pack of millet instead. Later, I read that it is also a good substitute for rice and it is gluten free!

The taste was neutral , at least we didn't dislike it :D I can see myself cooking it again and substitute it for rice once in a while.

How to cook millet from goodness.com


P1170961

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Simple Milk Buns

Snaps of my first successful batch of bread were posted on my flickr but somehow I didn't write about it here. The recipe was through the food blog The cocoanut . Since the link to the blog is inactive currently, I've pasted the recipe below for anyone interested in trying out this lovely loaf (made into buns).

Simple Milk Buns
Source : The cocoanut

500 g plain white flour*
350g milk (I used skim milk)
20 g honey, about a tablespoon-and-a-bit’s worth
25g warm melted butter
1 x 7g sachet instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, whisk the yeast with the milk and honey. Add the flour and salt, and combine until you get a soft, sticky dough. Pour over the warm melted butter, and mix this into the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or if you have an electric mixer like me, you can use that instead. Simply attach a dough hook and let it do all the work for you, around 7-10 minutes.

Leave the dough in the bowl for an hour to proof. After an hour has passed, punch down the dough to release all the carbon dioxide. Transfer the dough to a loaf tin, and let it proof for another hour. The dough will rise again to about twice its size, and this time you want all that gas inside to remain. At this stage, I like to brush the top of the dough with water and sprinkle poppy seeds. This is entirely optional, and I only did it because I happen to have a jar of poppy seeds in the pantry.

Set the oven to 210oC, and when hot enough carefully place the dough into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 180oC and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the top of the loaf is dark brown. Remove from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

*I used all purpose flour, because that’s what I had at home. However, you might want to try using strong white flour or bread flour, which are more glutinous and will ‘jump’ over the top of the tin much more than normal flour.
I filled some buns with homemade red bean paste. Yum!
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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Basic sponge cake

Variation from this recipe . The result is very fluffy sponge cake!

Ingredients
4 eggs, separated
4 tbsp sugar, combine with a bit of vanilla sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
pince of salt

Fillings
Hazelnut cream spread (example nutella)

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at gas mark 3.
2) Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt. Beat until stiff. Set aside
3) Beat egg yolks with sugar (including vanilla sugar) until creammy. Combine flour and baking powder into egg yolks -sugar mixture and mix well. Next, fold in the egg white (beaten earlier) carefully into the until well integrated.
4) Pour cake batter into lined baking tin and bake for 15 mins.
5) Spread hazelnut cream spread or any other fillings you like when cake is completely cooled.


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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Millet

Wanting to add more varieties of grains in our diet, I decided to check out quinoa at the bio (organic) foods section of my local supermart. But I didn't find any and so I bought a pack of millet instead. Later, I read that it is also a good substitute for rice and it is gluten free!

The taste was neutral , at least we didn't dislike it :D I can see myself cooking it again and substitute it for rice once in a while.

How to cook millet from goodness.com


P1170961

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Friday, January 22, 2010

Simple Milk Buns

Snaps of my first successful batch of bread were posted on my flickr but somehow I didn't write about it here. The recipe was through the food blog The cocoanut . Since the link to the blog is inactive currently, I've pasted the recipe below for anyone interested in trying out this lovely loaf (made into buns).

Simple Milk Buns
Source : The cocoanut

500 g plain white flour*
350g milk (I used skim milk)
20 g honey, about a tablespoon-and-a-bit’s worth
25g warm melted butter
1 x 7g sachet instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt

In a large bowl, whisk the yeast with the milk and honey. Add the flour and salt, and combine until you get a soft, sticky dough. Pour over the warm melted butter, and mix this into the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or if you have an electric mixer like me, you can use that instead. Simply attach a dough hook and let it do all the work for you, around 7-10 minutes.

Leave the dough in the bowl for an hour to proof. After an hour has passed, punch down the dough to release all the carbon dioxide. Transfer the dough to a loaf tin, and let it proof for another hour. The dough will rise again to about twice its size, and this time you want all that gas inside to remain. At this stage, I like to brush the top of the dough with water and sprinkle poppy seeds. This is entirely optional, and I only did it because I happen to have a jar of poppy seeds in the pantry.

Set the oven to 210oC, and when hot enough carefully place the dough into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 180oC and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the top of the loaf is dark brown. Remove from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

*I used all purpose flour, because that’s what I had at home. However, you might want to try using strong white flour or bread flour, which are more glutinous and will ‘jump’ over the top of the tin much more than normal flour.
I filled some buns with homemade red bean paste. Yum!
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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Basic sponge cake

Variation from this recipe . The result is very fluffy sponge cake!

Ingredients
4 eggs, separated
4 tbsp sugar, combine with a bit of vanilla sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
pince of salt

Fillings
Hazelnut cream spread (example nutella)

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at gas mark 3.
2) Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt. Beat until stiff. Set aside
3) Beat egg yolks with sugar (including vanilla sugar) until creammy. Combine flour and baking powder into egg yolks -sugar mixture and mix well. Next, fold in the egg white (beaten earlier) carefully into the until well integrated.
4) Pour cake batter into lined baking tin and bake for 15 mins.
5) Spread hazelnut cream spread or any other fillings you like when cake is completely cooled.


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