CINNAMON PULL-APART BREAD

12/6/2011


I have baked Cinnamon Rolls from my book - The Pioneer Woman.
I fell in love with Cinnamon Rolls since then.
When I saw another blog on making Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread, I am sold.
I had to make it.
I made the dough the night before and left it in the fridge overnight for a slow fermentation.


Roll out the dough into 2 rectangles
Brush with brown melted butter and sprinkle with filling of cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar. Cut them into 3 long strips and place on top of each other.
Cut them into 4 squares and stack them together

Place into greased loaf tin, cover and let rest for around 30-40 minutes.

After resting, you can see that it has double in size

Bake them for around 30 minutes till top is brown. Wonderful aroma when baking.

Turn them onto the wire tray to cool. The top is crispy.

While the inside is soft and fluffy and the cinnamon and sugar- yummy.

These are 2 loaves of Mixed Grains Bread which I also baked. The dough is yeast, water and mixed grains and flour. Again it has been left in the fridge to ferment overnight. Its crust is crunchy and the inside is chewy. Definitely healthy bread- no other chemical or preservatives.

Best serve -toasted with butter.

LET'S HAVE A JAPANESE DINNER

The weather has been scorching hot these days. I am drenched by the time I finish cooking dinner every night. Just for tonight, to minimise the cooking, I tried my hand at making Japanese gyoza and cold soba.

I have adapted the recipe from Cooking Gallery.
The meat/vegetables are moist and juicy and flavourful with the additonal of sake.
Trying my darnest to get the perfect pleats but failing miserably.

Lining them on the pan before steam/boil. When the water has evaporated, its time to add oil and lightly pan fried till the bottoms are lightly brown.

They are then dished up and served upside down with nicely browned bottom.

Hum.... I think I have got it wrong somewhere. I used the Sui Kow wrappers and they are much too thin and ended up "bottomless" as they have stuck to the pan! So I served them this way.

Great contrast of taste here with cold soba and hot Miso soup.

A healthy and appetising low fat meal.

DUAN WU FESTIVAL

7/6/2011

Duan Wu Festival was being celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th Lunar Month which was on 6/6/2011. We had already been making and eating the dumpling 2 weeks before.

We all came together for this festival at my brother's house. My contribution towards gathering was usual for the dessert.

So, I bake some Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

And I also baked a Peanut Butter Cake with chocolate ganache and walnuts

These cakes have nothing related to the festival. However they were finished off by the end of the night.

31/5/2011

WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE DECORATED WITH MARSHMALLOW

One of the joys of having a big family is that there are birthday celebration(s) every month of the year. I always looked forward to the chance of getting together for:-

1. Food of course top the list- sometimes we get creative to bring new dishes or it would be food that we have misses for so long
2. fellowship and bonding- each of us with our busy lifestyle, its difficult to get together and days certainly pass too fast.
3. catching up on news of those who are overseas
4. chance for me to try out different cakes and to polish my skill on the decoration



Today is my sister-in-law, Evon's birthday. She is the most helpful and obliging person. She has been cooking dinners for my daughters since they were small and taking care of them. She is creative and resourceful sending her kids for contests or workshops.

So for this lovely young, petite and feminine lady, a cake befitting for her:).


It's a white Chocolate cake with cranberry filling. I used some pretty marshmallow flowers for decoration.
Roll the marshmallow to flatten them.

I have used the dusting powder to decorate the sides of the cake and also lightly dusted the top as well to give it a pinkish hue.

WALNUT SPONGE WITH MOCHA CREAM FROSTING

28/5/2011
According to Chinese culture, for the first year of marriage, the bride's mother will have to give a birthday celebration for the son-in-law. She will give him a pair of new trouser ("fu") which in Chinese means "prosperity" and also a new wallet to wish him prosperity and wealth throughout their marriage. My niece's husband, Mr. Lim celebrated his birthday on Saturday. The young Mother-in-law did what was required of her and besides she also invited us along for a buffet dinner at the newly opened Hotel Central in Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur.

The camera shy Mr. Lim

The happy family- Mr. Lim, my niece Ing, Ging, the young Mother-in-law Serena and my brother KK.

My sister-in-law ordered a birthday cake from me and I baked for him a Walnut Cake with Mocha Irish Cream Frosting. Its a Walnut Sponge layer cake. I brushed the layers with Bailey's Irish Cream liquer and more Irish Cream were added to the Mocha Frosting too. The cake is then topped with chocolate ganache and Hershey's Irish Cream Kisses and hearts-shaped sprinkles were added as decoration. Keeping with the theme of Hershey's kisses, white chocolate is used to write the words:

"Lots of Hearts and Kisses from Ing"

May they both have many more birthdays togethers till old.

(No, that's not their baby- but my grand niece- Chloe in the picture with them)

Happy invited guests for the evening.

Cross section of the cake.

SPRING ROLL NIAN GO

2/5/2011

My sister-in-law gave me some "nian go" from the Chinese New Year.

My favourite of way of cooking them is to sandwich a piece of nian go with a piece of yam and sweet potato before dipping into thick batter and then deep fry. I remember my late Mother cooking this Chinese snack for us. She used to dip it with just batter and pan fried them till they are melting soft and slightly burnt. She would also steamed them and then rolled them into a soft ball in grated coconut (which we picked from the Indian Temple down the road).

Sarah's friend gave her some wrapped like spring roll.

I know that I had to try this way myself.


The yam and sweet potato are cut into square pieces and then steamed till soft.



Using the spring roll wrapper is much easier work. I had bought the small size, so I had to make use of 2 pieces of the wrapper instead of one.

Place the nian go between the yam and sweet potato and wrap them up neatly
Secure the ends with a bit of cornstarch solution or egg white.

Fry them on medium-low heat till brown.

Whatever it is cooked, I like them melted and gooey. Now even though this does not look gooey enough, it tasted delicious.

GOLDEN RAISIN BISCUIT

15/5/2011



My son has gone back to Australia for a short holiday and I misses him.

So, I baked this biscuit for him

If I am not mistaken, he liked this variety of biscuit when he was small.
These biscuit were a bit more expensive than the usual commercial biscuit on the market then. The commercial biscuit are also much thinner.



The biscuit dough or shall I call it pastry- is easy to handle. The texture is a cross between pastry and cake. After resting the dough, its then rolled out and brushed with beaten egg and then raisins (well you can chopped it up, but I prefer it whole) are scattered. Top with another piece of the dough. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle some brown sugar on top.
The addition of the coarse brown sugar top adds a crunchy top but it does not make the biscuit too sweet.

Sarah and Esther like them too.