Blueberry Muffin

Ingredients:

200 g flour
80 g of caster sugar
20 g of brown sugar
125 ml low-fat milk
60 ml of canola oil
1/2 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 medium egg
2/3 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

1. Whisk the egg in a large bowl for ~1 minute. Add in milk+lemon juice and oil and whisk until combined.
2. Add in the sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Then, add salt and baking soda and whisk until there are no apparent foaming.
3. Sift and add flour into the wet mixture and mix thoroughly just until there are no apparent chunks of flour. DO NOT OVER MIX (this will make your muffin tough)
4. Line your baking tray with muffin cups and add a tablespoon of your batter into each cup. Add few of your blue berries and add another 2-3 tablespoons of batter until the blueberries are all covered. Then add a few more berries on the top and fill the rest of the cups until 2/3 way full.
5. Preheat the oven at 200 C and bake about 20-25 minutes. Turn your baking tray after 15 minutes of baking to get even baking.

[Bread] Braided-Pesto Bread

Dear Bakers,

Pastry vs. Bread. I think people are often put off by baking bread than pastry...at least I was. Especially as a poor student with a limited budget on buying baking supplies (ahem...stand mixer), kneading by hand did not seem to be worth the energy.  

Ingredients: 

1 large egg

2 Tbs of melted butter

3/4 cup of warm milk

2 3/4 cup of flour

2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast

1 Tbs of sugar

1 Tbs of salt

1/4 cup of pesto*

*you can make your own basil pesto, but I just bought mine off the shelf. 

1. In a large bowl, put the flour and salt together and stir with a silicon spatula.

2. In a microwavable cup, pour 3/4 cup of milk and microwave for 30-45 secs until the milk feels lukewarm.

3. Add the sugar and yeast in the milk and stir until thoroughly dissolved.

4. Add the egg* into the milk mixture and stir until incorporated.  
*Make sure to leave you egg at room temperature before use.

5. Add 2 Tbs of melted butter into the wet mixture and stir.

6. Make a crater in the middle of the bowl with your mixture of flour and salt. Pour your wet mixture into the bowl. Stir with a silicon spatula to scrape off all the flour from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, add 1-2 more Tbs of flour and knead until the sides of your bowl are clean.

7. Gently knead your dough (press on the flour-milk mixture until it comes together into a ball of dough) and grease the surface of the dough with olive oil or vegetable oil to prevent crust formation.

8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and poke few holes to get the pressure out. Place a wet towel over the plastic-wrapped bowl and keep the bowl in a relatively warm place for an hour. (Yeast will be activated and start to rise the dough at this time ^^)
Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) during this waiting time.

9. After an hour, your dough should have doubled in size. Poke a hole in the middle of the dough. If the indentation remains in the dough, it's ready for kneading and baking!
10. Punch your dough to get the gas out. Flour your working board and take the dough out of the board.

11. Gently knead the ball of dough for 3-5 minutes. To knead, fold your dough ball in half, press and push the folded-dough with the heel of your hand. Repeat for about 15-20 times.

12. Flour your roller and roll your kneaded dough into a rectangle about 12'' x 20'' (30cm x 50cm), about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.  If you want more layers to your braid, you get cut the dough-ball in half and roll our the dough thinner. I wanted mine to have more body so I used the entire dough.

13. Spread your pesto to cover surface of the rolled out dough. Leave about an inch at the end so it will be easier to close the dough roll. Tightly roll the dough from the length (longer side) of the rectangle and close the dough.

14. Leaving an inch at the end, vertically split the rolled dough into half by cutting through the dough with a serrated . Braid the split dough by sequentially tucking in the halfs under each other until you hit the end of the splited halves.

15. You can bake your braid in this long, braided form OR you can close it up into a wreath like I did. To close the bread into a ring, just put the two ends together.

16. On a baking pan lined with aluminum foil, baking sheet, or greased with oil/butter, bake at 180 C (350 F) for ~20-25 minutes until golden brown.


This bread was so moist, chewy and aromatic. This braided-bread recipe can also be applied to making a dessert, with cinnamon sugar filling instead of pesto. 

Hope you all can break out of your fear of baking bread with yeast with this recipe! If I can do it...you can to. ;)

Happy Baking!


2016.01.18

Savory Pine-Nut Butter

Ingredients:

8 oz of pine-nuts (1 1/2 cup of pine nuts)
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar

* NEED A FOOD PROCESSOR OR BLENDER OF SOME SORT!*

Add all the ingredients together and blend at highest speed for 3-5 minutes until you see a paste.

*picture coming soon....*

Green Tea Macaron with Dark Chocolate Ganache (CRACK PROOF)

Dear Bakers,

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas time calls for Christmas treats :)

To me, it's not time for fruitcake, but for green tea french macaron~

Ingredients:

Green Tea Macaron Cookies:

1 cup of almond flour

1 cup of confectioners sugar

2 egg whites

2 TBS of granulated sugar

1 TBS of green tea (matcha) powder

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips

*Meringue Cookies*

1. Leave your eggs in room temperature for ~30 minutes. A fuller, fluffier meringue forms when the eggs whites are at room termperature.
2. Preheat your oven to 275-300 F.
3. Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together into a separate bowl. Mix the sifted dry ingredients together so the two ingredients are evenly mixed together.
4. Whisk the egg whites until foam starts to form. Then, add 1 TBS of granulated sugar. Continue to whisk until a firmer meringue forms. Add the rest of the sugar and whisk until the meringue forms peaks.
5. Add 1 TBS of green tea powder and whisk until its homogeneously incorporated into the meringue.
6. Take about 1/2 of the meringue and fold it in with the dry ingredients. Once it forms an even, thick paste, fold the rest of the meringue until all the ingredients are evenly mixed into a thick dough.
7. Fill a piping bag with this mixture and pipe out evenly shaped circles on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.
8. Dry the piped dough for 30 minutes to an hour until the outside shell has formed. When you gently touch the top of the piped dough, your fingers should stay clean.
9. Bake at 275-300 F for 16-20 minutes on the 2nd last rack. 
10. Let the cookies cool before taking them off!

*Dark Chocolate Ganache*

1. Boil the heavy cream on low heat until it comes to a simmer.
2. In a heat-proof bowl, add your chocolate chip. Pour the hot heavy cream over the chocolate and leave the chocolate to melt for about 30 seconds to a minute.
3. Stir gently until the liquid has evenly incorporated with the chocolate. Cool until it thickens enough to pipe.

Let me know how it work!~ It gives me result everytime with no cracks :)

Happy Baking,

Steen

2014.12.20

Green Tea Cream Puffs (profiteroles)

Dear Fellow Bakers,

It's been a while...it has been a while indeed.

Since Christmas season is coming up, thought I'd make something that reminded me off fluffy snow... something like profiterole?

To add that Asian twist, I have used green tea whipped cream instead of the original vanilla custard filling. 

Ingredients:

Choux:

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup water 

40g of butter (3 TBS)

2 eggs

Cream:

1/2 heavy cream

1 Tbs of granulated sugar

1.5-2 Tbs of matcha powder

Let's go ahead and make light Choux pastry first.

1. Preheat your oven to 200 C or ~395/ 400 F.
2. Put water and butter in a pot and heat until it just comes to a boil. (Tip: Cubing the butter makes the melting process faster!)
3. Add all of the sifted flour in the pot with water and butter. (*Flour must all be added at once for even cooking.)
4. Stir the flour, butter, water mixture on low heat until the dough comes into a ball.
5. Leave the pot with the dough off the stove for ~5 mins until the dough slightly cools. (*The pot and the dough must not be too hot  for it can cook the egg instantly when added.)
6.  Whisk the eggs into a separate bowl. Add about 1-egg volume into the dough and stir until the dough comes into a homogeneous mixture.  Add the rest of the egg and stir. 
7. Fill a pastry bag (or a ziploc bag) and pipe out the dough to be about 1-inch in diameter and 3/4-1 inch in height. (*If you don't have neither a pastry bag or a ziploc bag, you can just spoon out the dough) Make sure you give about 1-inch gap in between piped dough.
8. Bake at 200 C or 395/400 F for ~25-30 mins. 
9. Take the chioux out of the oven and poke a hole on the top of each chioux to let the steam out. Then, stick it back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes. (*If you skip this step, your beautifully puffed up chioux might collapse and lose its form!)
10. Let them chill before piping in the filling.

While the choux is in the oven, go ahead and make the filling. ;) Efficient time use~

1. Add heavy cream and granulated sugar in a large bowl. 
2. Whisk vigourously until peaks start to form. 
3. Add 1.5-2 TBS of matcha powder ( or any other flavoring spice to your choice) and continue to whisk until the cream is firm.
4. Fill a piping bag with a piping tip with the filling. (*You need a sturdy piping tip to make the entry hole and to make sure the cream doesn't get everywhere.

 

Easy and quick, ay?

Happy 1st day of the last month!

-Steen

Quick Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of chocolate chip
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1/2 tsp of sea salt
1/4 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of bakjng powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1. Leave the butter at room temp.
2. Measure out flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and mix with a whisk.
3. Add the sugar into the butter. Add egg & vanilla and stir until it looks creamy.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix.
5. Add chocolate chips and fold into the dough.
6. Refriferate for 15-20 mins. Heat the oven to 350 F or 180 C during this time.
7. Bake for 9-12 minutes.

VOILA!~

HOPE YALL ENJOY ;)

달달한 향의 바나나 호두 머핀_[KOREAN_한국어]

가을 타는 홈베이커분들께,

베이킹 한지 정말 오래 됬네여 ㅠ
최근까지 날씨가 너무 습하고, 더워서 사실 오븐을 켜기가 두려웠어여 ㅋㅋㅋ
9월중순쯤 되니 아침 저녁으로는 선선해진 날씨~ 가을 냄새도 좀 나는거 같지 않나요?~
이런 다가오는 가을 날씨의 분위기를 타서 가을에 어울리는 달달한 바나나 호두 머핀을 만들어 봤어요 ♡ 

절대 실패없는 레시피....시작해 볼게용^^

필요한 재료:

잘 익은 바나나 3~4개

설탕 3/4 컵

호두 분태 1/4 컵

박력분 2 컵

계란 1개

베이킹 소다 1/2 티스푼

소금 1/4 티스푼 

계피 한 꼬집

*이 레시피는 [보통 머핀 12구] 로 한 번 구울 수 있는 양의 레시피 입니다. 

1. 시작하기 전 오븐을 170-180도로 예열해 주세요.
2. 비닐봉지에 껍질을 벋긴 바나나를 넣고 손으로 주물럭~주물럭 으깨주세요.
3. 미리 정량한 계란, 설탕, 기름을 부드러운 크림 형태가 될때까지 섞어주세요. 그 다음 으깬 바나나를 넣어 젛어 주세요.
4. 이제 드라이 ingredient를 더할 차례! 밀가루를 바나나, 계란, 기름, 설탕 믹스쳐에 넣어 섞어 주세요. 좋은점은 밀가루를 채치지 않아도 된나는~
5. 호두, 베이킹 소다, 소금, 그리고 시나몬을 순서대로 넣어주세요. (사실 시나몬은 저 만의 팁! 쪼금 넣어주니까 바나나 향이 더 풍부하게 나더라고여. :))

6. 머핀팬 머핀용 컵을 넣어 준비한 뒤 1/2에서 3/4쯤 반죽을로 채워주세요. 전 3/4정도 채우니까 머핀의 특유의 muffin-top이 생기더라고여.
7. 예열한 오븐에 20분~25분 정도 오븐의 맨 위칸에서 구워 주세요.
*안에까지 다 구워졌나 체크하는 방법: 쇠 젓가락으로 제일 두꺼운 부분을 끝까지 찔러주세요. 젓가락에 반죽이 묻어 나오지 않으면 다 구워졌다는거!



정말 간단하져? ^^ 하지만 맛도 좋고 먹으면 기분도 좋아지는 바나나 머핀~ 바나나 특유의 그 달달함/ 고소함이 시나몬과 어울러져 "가을"을 외치는거 같아요. 베이커님들은 어떤가요?

질문이나 성공글은 댓글에 써주세요~~

고럼 전 이만 ;)

행복한 베이킹을 바라며,
Steen

9/13/14