Archive for the ‘5 Recipes’ Category

I bought 3 Nigella Lawson Cookbooks for $20!

May 26th, 2012 365days2play

In total that is! At the Singapore Book Fair held at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre. It’s ongoing from 25 May 2012  – 3 June 2012.

Incredible right? If you know who Nigella Lawson is and if you follow her cooking shows on Starhub’s Asian Food Channel, you’d know that her cookbooks don’t come cheap! Each alone I believe would have cost in excess of $50 I believe. Yet I got them for a total of $20! It’s crazy! I mean I’ve been wanting her cookbooks for so long but the prices always put me off. Jamie Oliver’s too.

If you want to get cookbooks at massive discounts, you can check out the Singapore Book Fair. I bought mine at the Times Bookstore booth, and it’s just 2 shelves worth of cook books. The rest of the booths are mostly Chinese books or Educational booths.

Suntec Book Fair

  See, I’m not lying!!!

Some books don’t have stickers, so they are sold at the sticker price, which is about $10 – $15. Still damn cheap! I said I would swear off buying cook books until I’ve cooked/baked a significant amount of dishes from the books I’ve bought, but this is an exception right??? Don’t buy sure regret right????? Even my mother SMILED when I brought back the 3 books. Only the Partner frowned, because he had to carry them. :) :) :)

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Free Banana Cake contest!

April 12th, 2012 365days2play

As you know, I’ve been baking so much lately. It’s fun to bake but a huge problem always crops up after the baking’s done. WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THOSE CAKES??? Well most of them actually get devoured by my parents’ colleagues, or offloaded to friends who happen to be in the vicinity. You know what, I thought I should spread the love by sharing my baked goods with my loyal readers!

This is what I baked today.

Banana cake

It’s a Banana Cake in loaf form

Banana Cake (3)

I made a small muffin for myself as well so here’s what the inside looks like.

Here’s the deal. I’m giving this banana cake for free to a random lucky winner. I have TWO banana cakes to give away! All you have to do is this:-

1. Go to my Facebook and SHARE or TAG the Banana Cake post. Also leave a comment in my Facebook that you’ve already done so. (You need to LIKE 365days2play Food & Travel Blog Facebook Page first, if you haven’t already done so.)

2. At 6pm today, that’s 6pm 12 April 2012, I will stop collecting names and do a random draw for a lucky winner.

3. AGAIN at 12 midnight today, that’s 12 April 2012 11.599999pm, I will stop collecting names and do a random draw for another lucky winner.

4. Those whose names have been entered for the 6pm draw will also be submitted for the 2nd draw so get your A into G and get cracking!

5. Participants must be able to collect the banana cake from me at either Bedok MRT at 9pm tonight or Bedok MRT / City Hall MRT / Raffles Place MRT tomorrow around 3 – 6pm (timing to be reconfirmed)

6. Most importantly, don’t sue me if you don’t like the cake!! I’ve tried it already and it’s good lah.

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Focaccia Bread Loaf Style

March 19th, 2012 365days2play

Who would have known that I would enjoy bread baking so much? I know I might have once mentioned that Bread was not sexy. Well I’ll have to eat my words, haven’t I. Or can I substitute the words with bread?

It’s not that easy to make perfect bread at home. I know lots of people do it to great success. What I’m saying is that it is far easier to make bread in a commercial setting, where the ovens are huge and come with steam injection functions. Then there’s the stand up proofer or the large tables for you to knead to your heart’s content. Nevertheless, you make do and it’s definitely worth the effort.

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been baking loaves of baguettes. I don’t have a Pullman tin yet so I can’t make sandwich bread and actually, I much prefer the taste of a well-made baguette! Absolutely love the crispy crust and the soft insides. Smear a little salted butter and you’re instantly in heaven. I henceforth proclaim Bread as simple yet seductive!

A few months back, a colleague from work gave me this wonderful cookbook Dinner with The Baker. At that time, I marvelled at the pictures but privately lamented the difficulty in making the sweet treats. I’m glad to say that after 3 months of intensive baking classes, when I flipped the book a few days ago, I could say “yep, I know how to do this, and this as well, and that”. Perfecting them is another story, but at least they don’t seem so daunting!

In any case, the 1st recipe I tried out was the Focaccia Bread. Interestingly, we never did cover Focaccia Bread in Baking School. I wonder why, considering it’s so popular in Singapore! The dough was ultra sticky for me, thanks to the amount of oil used. I don’t know if it ought to be this sticky, but the Focaccia turned out fine.

Focaccia Bread Loaf Style

If this doesn’t look like Focaccia to you, that’s because it’s in a loaf shape and not flat and rectangular like it usually is. The recipe book calls for putting the dough in a flat pan, but it being 12 midnight the 1st time I did it, I absentmindedly put it into a loaf tin like how I usually do at school! Anyway nobody ever said that Focaccia cannot be loaf shape right????

Speaking of shape, I think there’s much to be improved. The edges are rounded, instead of the angular look of a sandwich bread. I guess it’s due to the amount of oil used. Also, the break and shred is totally uneven. Most importantly, and the bane of all my breads so far, are the idiotic tiny round spots on the crust! I think they’re tiny pockets of air but what can I do to get rid of them? They don’t seem to affect the taste though, and the crust is still crisp.

Anyway, if you want the recipe for the Focaccia loaf style, just scroll down….

Focaccia Bread Loaf Style Sliced Focaccia bread disguised as open-top bread. Tee hee hee….

Recipe (Adapted from Dinner with The Baker cookbook by Pino Locantro. OMG the book even has a Facebook page)

500g    Bread Flour

6g        Dry Yeast

Pinch Oregano (if desired)

10g      Salt

300g    Cold Water

50g      Olive Oil

1          Egg

 

Work Process :

1. Using an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix flour, yeast, oregano and salt.

2. Slowly add oil, egg and water and continue mixing until well combined. Increase speed of your mixer and mix the dough until it looks smooth. The book says to mix until shiny and smooth, but I never did mix it till the shiny stage.

3. The dough may be sticky so dust some flour on your hands and board to help you.

4. Rest the dough for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. Keep it covered and in a cool area.

5. After 1 hour, heavily oil a baking tray. Deflate the dough to remove air bubbles and roll the dough to fit the tray. Or you could cut the dough into 4 pieces and make 4 small loaves of Focaccia, just like I did.

6. Proof in a warm area for about 1 hr or until it has doubled in size again.

7. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with salt if desired. I omitted this step totally.

8. Bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees celcius for the flat Focaccia, and 30 minutes at 200 degrees celcius for the loaf Focaccia.

9. Remove from tray/tin immediately and let cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!!!

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Baking Industry Training Centre – Bread Class Part 1

March 12th, 2012 365days2play

I told my Bread Chef that I’d write something about the Bread Class. That was 2 weeks ago. The post is still pending, no thanks to the 326 photos I took during the class itself. Ploughing through them would probably take longer than making a sponge and dough bread. But a promise is a promise, so I guess I’ll post some pictures of our beloved Bread Chef first. And also to check if anyone else in the school is reading this…..

BITC Bread Chef (5)

This is our hardworking Bread Chef Mr Lim. Hardworking because he has to constantly watch over all our products, lest they burn, deflate, over proof, over beat or get themselves into some calamitous situation.

BITC Bread Chef (6)

He has to cook curry for us (okay for the curry buns), cuz I mean we don’t know how to cook curry right? This is a baking class wat.

BITC Bread Chef

He even has to slice our cinnamon buns for us because we are busy taking photos. :)

BITC Bread Chef (2)

But it’s pay back time during the exams lah. This was taken during our mid-term bread practical exam. Mr Lim is giving me the WTF, can you be serious for once, your bread sux look.

BITC Bread Chef (3)

Calm before the storm….

BITC Bread Chef (4)

Oh oooo…he spotted an error. So much for the smiley face on the bun. Didn’t fool him.

To be continued……

To read more about my baking school exploits, click here.

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Triple Chiffon Cake weekend

November 21st, 2011 365days2play

I have been in a baking mood ever since I returned from Norway. I have this desperate desire to replicate the lovely croissants I had there, but you know croissants, they aren’t exactly the easiest things to make. I did try once, half-heartedly with numerous short cuts and obtained croissant-shaped stones as a result.

I am heartened to know that 2 French bakeries are opening in Singapore very soon. One is Paul Bakery and the other is Maison Kayser. Maison Kayser is to open by end of November 2011 at the new Scotts Square, while Paul Bakery is slated to open by Christmas 2011 and is located on the 3rd floor of Takashimaya, where the old Coffee Club used to be. It seems like just when I am craving so badly for these French/Danish pastries, out pops all these European bakeries. BreadTalk will have to pull something out of its sleeves if it wants to keep its market share!

Anyway, not being able to bake croissants (for now) doesn’t stop me from baking something else. I was perusing one of my favourite baking blogs and I decided to bake this Earl Grey Chiffon Cake. It turned out pretty okay considering that this is my 1st Chiffon cake. The Earl Grey taste was faint, the cake wasn’t sweet enough, but the texture was light and airy, which is what a Chiffon cake ought to be. There were splotches of white, which meant that I hadn’t incorporated the egg whites in properly. It’s always a difficult decision between wanting to be as as quick as possible so as not to over-deflate the egg whites, and yet having to thoroughly mix them so that there are no detectable clumps of egg white in the cake.

Flush with “success”, I decided to bake a 2nd cake, a Milo Chiffon cake! I got bolder and made some tweaks to the recipe even though everyone knows that for baked goods, recipes have to be followed to a T. I know that, but I just CAN’T! Anyway, I paid the price for omitting the baking powder and putting in more Milo powder than called for. The cake had a distinctive Milo taste, but was denser than the Earl Grey Chiffon cake. In fact, it kind of had the texture of kueh.

The perfectionist in me said, TRY AGAIN. So I did. I baked a Third cake. An Orange and Chocolate Chiffon cake. I dutifully included the Baking Powder again and I whipped the egg whites stiffer than the 2nd try. I even added chocolate chips into the batter although I had this feeling that they would sink to the bottom. True enough, the cake emerged with a chocolaty bottom. Because of that, it was sticky and I had a hard time scraping the cake out of the baking tin. Texture-wise, it was also light and airy, but somewhat crumbly. I have no idea why it is so and I can only think of baking it longer the next time. I liked the taste of this cake the most, and if given the time I would even make an orange syrup to go with it. Ah well, next week then.

Now what do I do with all those cakes???

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