My Basic Sourdough Bread

It's year end 2021. it's been a weird period for all of us. The pandemic has hit us since 2 years ago and we're still not seeing the end of it yet. Not that it's all bad. One thing's for sure, because of this this situation, there has been a surge in bread baking at home. And more so for sourdough breads.

There is an abundance of sourdough recipes out there, most of them are far superior than mine, I'm sure. But I'd still like to share my version of making bread. I believe it may be suitable for those who'd like a less complicated way of making sourdough bread. For example, I don't autolyse and then add in the salt and starter. I tried this. I found it to be difficult and didn't yield a better result. I don't use expensive flour. I do love using multigrain atta flour though. I usually use the Pillsbury brand. I like that it adds nutrients to my bread while keeping the dough smooth and silky.

I also bake in a hot and humid climate. So my recipe is slightly or very different from European or American ones. Having said that, there are still changes in the weather which will and can change the way the dough behaves. On rainy days, fermentation times are longer. On crazy hot days, I'd even put the dough in the fridge for an hour during the final proofing just to slow things down a bit.

When I first starting making sourdough bread, I had to familiarize myself with uncommon terminologies like autolyse, fermentolyse, hydration levels, lamination, stretch and fold, coil folds, bulk fermentation and etc. Sometimes it still gets confusing so I will not try to explain those terms.

I have a couple of advice though. One, use a sharp blade for scoring. I'm cheap (or poor) so I don't buy a fancy bread lame. I use old fashioned shaving blades and they work splendidly. Secondly, you don't need a Dutch oven if you don't have or can't afford one. Again, I use a cheap simple metal pot, the Indian kind without handles. I just put it in the oven when it's heating up and cover my dough with it during the first part of baking.

So if you managed to grow a starter from scratch and adopted one from a friend but are looking for a not difficult recipe, you may want to try this one. It's suitable for beginner level baking. Keep in mind however that sourdough baking can be unpredictable. So keep watch on how your dough develops and less on the time.

Okay, enough babbling. Here's my easy basic sourdough bread recipe...

Happy baking and Happy Christmas! To everyone who visits this blog post, I wish you all the best! Thank you!

Swirly Whirly Bread

It's great to be back. It has been an eventful week for my country. There is a new sense of patriotism in the air that you just can't miss. And while changes are happening and anticipation is high, I have decided to finally blog again after a long hiatus. 

I have been making bread rather frequently, almost weekly. No, I don't use a bread machine. I think it takes the fun out of it. Besides, as Paul Hollywood says, it takes only about five minutes to mix and knead by hand. So a good old upper body workout (or hardly) and an oven is good enough.

In this post, I'd like to share a recipe that is slightly fancier than the usual knead-wait-knead-bake method. This one is basically simple but it just looks much prettier.

It requires additional effort too since you'll have to prepare two doughs, and then roll them out, stack them, and roll 'em up.

I did find that the green wasn't as green as I hoped it would be. So next time I would use more pandan leaves for the green dough. Actually, you could just leave it plain.  But I like the smell of pandan too (other than just for the colour).

 At first glance, it looks like an ordinary loaf of homemade bread. Mine always have a strange bump in the middle. I don't know why....  Anyway, the magic is revealed only when you slice it.

Remember to let the bread cool off before cutting, especially if you have a toddler taster like mine. 
I usually take the loaf out of the tin straight after it's baked, otherwise it tends to "sweat" and gets soggy.

Chocolatey Swirly Bread.... Mmmmm. Who wants some? Recipe below:

 p.s. - For other bread recipes, you may like to try:
Black Sesame Bread
Pumpkin Bread
Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread

Black Sesame Bread

I finally have the time to update my blog. I've been busy with a new sweet baby girl. Also, I told myself I had to finish my birth story before updating my food blog.

This is a recipe I came up with when I was pregnant. I was told that I was anemic and so I tried several ways to bring my hemoglobin level up. I knew that the iron pills given to me would not do anything than give me constipation. So I took blackstrap molasses, black beans, red beans and black sesame.

I decided to experiment making bread with some of the black sesame seeds. I added oats as well. The results were satisfying.

The dough was grayish looking with a soft texture.

I like the way it looked after baking. It tasted right too. Perhaps next time I could use  more sesame seeds. I don't know when I'll have time to make bread again though. Soon I hope....

One of the good things about sharing my recipes on my blog is that I know where to find them when I need them later! So here goes... 

Take care, folks! I hope to post again soon. Happy baking!

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

It has been way too long since I last posted. Christmas has passed and Chinese New Year is approaching. While I wish I have time to post some recipes for the festive goodies, I just don't have the time, especially to shoot the photos.

So here's something I did sometime last year. I made an orange chiffon cake for after rosary snack but it turned out kind of flat, so I simply had to try again. The second time around, I used a different flavour and wasn't as timid as I was about mixing the beaten egg white with the egg yolk mixture.

Here's how it turned out:

I'm happy with the way it turned out. It was soft and spongy and held its shape at the same time.

Chiffon cakes are normally not decorated, but she just had to...

Here's the recipe. You may change the flavour to whatever you prefer. If using citrus fruits, remember to add the zest as well.

Happy baking!

Teddy Bear Cookies

I've been wanting to make these for ages. I saw them on on Pinterest and other sites and I thought my kid would love to have them (and make them with me).

The ones I saw, however, used icing for the eyes and mouth. I wasn't in the mood of making royal icing. So I thought I'd just use the dough for decoration. That way, I wouldn't have to make any icing and there's no time wasted in waiting for the icing to set. What a splendid idea! (So I thought to myself)

You can invert the colours so that you have some teddies with white face and chocolate ears and some with chocolate face and white ears, as show in the picture below.

This is how they look like before baking:

And out from the oven:

As for the recipe, I adapted it from Sweet Explorations. Here's my version of how to make them Teddy cookies.

 

Here's my Emma enjoying the finished product. I'm sorry my face is in it too. There just wasn't a better picture of her and the cookie. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this post (the blessed few of you who read my blog).   :)

Pumpkin Bread

When we went to the Big Bad Wolf last year, we bought lots of books. However, most of them were for Christmas presents. I told myself I'd buy one cookbook for myself. There were plenty of recipe books with beautiful covers. But I end up choosing one with a rather plain cover, because I thought the recipes inside were great and a little different.
Commonsense Baking, that's the name of the book. And this is the first recipe from the book that I've tried.

My last post was on Pumpkin Muffins, which I guess is pretty common. This this pumpkin recipe however, is great and a just a teeny bit uncommon. It's real yeasty BREAD, not the cake loaf type of 'bread'. The end result is a lovely bread loaf with a nice golden colour when you slice it.

When you see something like this out of your oven, it makes all the hard work worthwhile. Also, when you bake your own bread, you get this lovely bready, yeasty aroma filling your whole house. It beats store bought bread anytime. Besides, I haven't such type of bread sold anywhere.

Here's how it looks like after the dough is risen, before baking:

And here it is, straight from the oven:

Finally, here's the recipe I'd like to share. I've simplified it from the original. I can't wait to try more recipes from the book. I guess what they say is right; don't judge a book by its cover!

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkins. There are so many things you can do with them. I've used them in pilaf, pancakes, loaf cakes, muffins and yeast bread (which will be in my next post). Pumpkin puree also make a wonderful baby food.

Anyway, here I would like to share a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. These are really easy to make. I used steamed fresh pumpkin but you can also use canned pumpkins.



So this is a very short post. Life isn't so great right now. But cooking and baking is always therapeutic. And photography too, if I can get it right.

Here's the recipe.





Traditional Peanut Cookies

The festive seasons is far from over. Christmas may have passed but Chinese New Year is just around the corner and can't seem to wait to burst.

I don't usually make Chinese New Year goodies as most of them require a lot of hot oil and frying. However, these old-fashioned cookies are lovely and are my nephew's favourite. This recipe produces delicious melt-in-the-mouth cookies.

Making these cookies isn't difficult, really. The only tedious part is removing the skin from the roasted peanuts. If you do not live in an apartment, however, you could rub the nuts and blow the skin away. Do this outdoors, or course. That's how my mom used to do it.

Also, if you're roasting the nuts yourself, remember to measure out more than the required quantity and they will lose weight upon roasting.

Another tip: you may add the quantity of the flour or oil to adjust the dough consistency. If it is too wet and soft, add more flour. If it is too dry, add a little more oil. Simple.

Okay, so here's the recipe:

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Christmas Baking

I remember the smell of my mom's kitchen when we were baking cookies for Christmas. Andy Williams, Karen Carpenter or Boney M could be heard while we were rolling and pressing. Those were the good old days.

Nowadays, I have a small kitchen and a tiny oven. But I still love baking for Christmas. And my 3-year-old daughter seems to enjoy it too.

Here are some snapshots of the Christmas goodies I made in my lil' kitchen.

2008

Chocolate Crinkles

Mini Gingerbread Men

Cinnamon Sticks. These really are a favourite among many.

Orange Shortbread

Peanut Butter Cookies



2009

 

2012

I became a busy mummy after giving birth at 2010. So, no baking for Christmas. Or least no photos, until last year. Here's what I made.

Christmas Log

 

2013

These are some of the stuff I made this year. The rest are the same as what I've made before.

Gingerbread people again. This year, they've grown bigger and sexier!

Well, that's all folks. Here's wishing everyone happy baking and a very Merry Christmas!

A Jungle Themed Birthday Party

Earlier in the year, we had already decided to celebrate our daughter's birthday in some jungle or park. This was because our apartment is too small and McDonald's is too urban. A princess theme didn't suit our girl either as she was more the Dora Explorer type. We love nature, so we thought we should have her birthday party outdoors.

 

 

Here's the cake. It's a marble cake with buttercream icing, chocolate butterflies and royal icing flowers. It's a shame that I don't have a good quality picture of it.

 

 

 

And as per Chinese customary practice, I made birthday eggs except I made them more colourful instead of just red.

 

In spite of a few annoying incidents, the event turned out great, especially for the kids.

 

There were party bags, party hats (matching theme of course) and lots of food from everyone.

 

Just to share, the items in the party bags were:

• mini jelly
• sweets
• wafer
• water gun
• bubbles
• stickers

I also painted the kids hands with henna, the girls anyway. 

 
 

 

Here's the birthday girl playing with her water gun:

 

Some of the boys and men attempted fishing. The mummies were mostly just chilling out and watching the kids.

 

Right after the birthday song and candle blowing, the kids immediately ate all the flowers and butterflies from the cake!

 

Looking back, I'd really like to thank everyone for a memorable day. We had lots of fun. Here are more snapshots...

 

Okay, I guess that's enough pictures. Here's the recipe for the cake: