Garlic Butter Bread

Since my first experienced with Basic No-Knead Bread we have stopped buying commercial breads. 

Basic No-Knead Bread

I have also tried different version of breads and getting all thumbs up from my family members!   Honestly speaking, since then, I take great pleasure in bread making and practically have been baking it daily. Baking your own bread gives you a very unique self-satisfaction and it's even so when seeing your loved ones smiling from east to west while eating the bread that you have personally baked!  What's more when the aroma of the freshly oven baked bread filled the entire house.... its so tempting, comforting and warm...

Garlic Butter Bread (which is adapted from Zoe's with some minor modifications) is one of the many breads I have tried and we love them all.  Thanks Zoe for your Garlic Butter Bread recipe.  Very yummy...  There are still quite a number of breads pics sitting in my folder waiting to say hi to you all.  Never mind, they can wait as I am still taking my time to select which are the ones to make their appearance here, hehehe...

Ingredients :
- 250g bread flour
- 50g all-purpose flour
- 25g sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp butter (soften at room temperature)
- 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 200ml milk (lukewarm)

Roasted garlic butter:
- 1 head garlic, unpeeled
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- 1/2 tsp salt

1) Cut the top part of garlic head and place on a piece of aluminum foil; drizzle with olive oil. Fold edges together to seal. Bake at pre-heated oven at 200°c  for 30 mins and allow garlic to cool completely.

2) Squeeze cooked garlic into a medium bowl. Add butter, dried herbs, salt and stir to combine. Set aside.

Egg wash : (Beat roughly until combined)

- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk

Method :
1) For kneading, I mixed all dough ingredients into a breadmaker machine and let it prove in the machine. It takes 1.30 hours for the dough to be ready.

2) Divide dough into 6 equal portions and allow it to rest for another 15 minutes.

3) Flatten each portion of dough and spread a thin layer of softened garlic butter. Chill the left-over garlic butter in the freezer for later use.

4) Roll it into oblong shape. Repeat the same method with the rest of the dough.

5) Place them on a greased baking tray or lined with baking paper. Allow them to rise for another 1 hr or until doubled in size.

6) Apply egg wash on the surfaces of the dough. Slit the center of each dough with a sharp knife and place 1/6 of the frozen or semi-softened garlic butter onto the slit of each dough.

7) Bake at pre-heated oven at 180°c for 17 mins or until golden brown. Transfer the breads immediately onto a wire rack to cool. Serve when they are slightly warm or at room temperature.

~This Garlic Butter Bread is so soft and fluffy ~

Serve it warm or at room temperture

Do enjoy and cheers :)

This Post Is Linked To : Treasure Box Tuesday

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Ginger Chicken Wine

Ginger Chicken Wine is usually labelled as confinement food for ladies during confinement period due to its efficiency in expelling wind and helps to strengthen the body.  There are a few versions of ginger chicken wine and for those who have yet to try the other version, do click at the links below for the recipe :

Kajang Claypot Chicken Wine

Sitiawan Ang Jiu Mee Suah

As I have been under the weather for few weeks due to bloated stomach and wind in my body, I decided to cook Ginger Chicken Wine.  Moreover, it's our family comfort food too.  This Ginger Chicken Wine is very easy to prepare and delectable too!  And yes, felt so much better after taking this but in addition, I too, boiled Ginger Lemongrass Tea.  It helps a lot too!

Ginger  Chicken Wine 
(adapted from Boon's Secret Recipe 2 with some minor modifications in red)

Ingredients :
- half free ranged chicken (chopped into bite pieces and marinated for one hour)
- 1 bowl of old Bentong ginger (sliced)
- 2 whole bulbs of garlic (peeled and leave as whole)
- 300ml water (or more if you prefer extra gravy)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil

Marinade :
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp cornflour

Seasoning A :
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce

Seasoning B :
- 4 tbsp of Chinese cooking Wine (I used Hua Tiao Chiew)
- 4 tbsp of Ginger Wine (I used Eu Yang Sang)

Method  :
1)  Heat wok with one tablespoon of sesame oil.  Saute ginger and garlic till aromatic.
2)  Stir in marinated chicken and stir fry till chicken meat has turned whitish.
3)  Add water and seasoning (A).  Bring to boil and turn to low heat.  Simmer for 25 minutes or until the chicken meat is tender and cooked.
4)  Add in seasoning (B). Stir and mix well.  
5)  Dish up and serve with hot steamed rice.

 Serve with hot steamed rice

Hope you all have a wonderful and healthy week ahead :)

I'm linking this post with Cook-Your-Books #16 @ kitchen flavours

                                                       

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Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and Simple and Easy Red Bean Paste Snow Skin Mooncake

First of all, to all Chinese, HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL and happy family reunion.  

Today is Mid-autumn festival but I had already celebrated it yesterday as it was a Sunday and it was also my eldest girl's birthday.  So, to make things easier and convenient for everyone, we had a double celebration yesterday.

   For my darling girl's birthday, I baked Canadian Lemon Pound Cake  (<-- click  here for the recipe) for her.

In fact it was my first time baking a birthday cake for my girl.  In order to give her a surprise, I baked it when she was away for her ballet lesson.  By the time she arrived home, the cake was ready and of course, she was thrilled to see her first home baked birthday cake from her mum!!

Not only that, I had also made my first snow skin mooncake when the lady boss of the bakery supplier shop taught me how to do it.  So, with her ready recipe, I gave this a try, and I am glad I did it! Never know it's so easy to make snow skin mooncake.  

Ingredients for snow skin :  (I made 16 minis and 2 big snow skin mooncakes)

- 100gm kaofen (sifted)

- 80gm icing sugar (sifted)

- 30gm shortening

- 150ml iced water

Filling :

- 500gm red bean paste (store bought)

(divide into 16 portions of 25gm each and 2 portions of 50gm each.  Shape into balls)

Method :

1)  Mix kaofen, icing sugar and shortening until well combined.

2)  Add iced water and use a spatula to combine the mixture until dough is formed.

3)  Divide dough into 16 portions of 15gm each (for minis mooncakes) and 2 portions of 30gm each of dough (for big mooncakes).

4)  Flatten each dough with rolling pin and wrap it around 1 piece of filling.

5)  Lightly dust the ball of dough with kaofen and press the ball into a mooncake mould.  Press out.

6)  Keep mooncakes in an air-tight container and chill in the fridge before serving.

Happy Mooncake Festival and Have a wonderful Family Reunion :)

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Fragrant Pork Belly with Thai Basil

My mini garden has been growing weeds....!!! Hubby wanted to throw away all my plants especially those inedible plants and keep those edible ones. What should I do??? I still want to keep my plants especially those herbs which I need it every now and then. At the end, we decided to keep only the edible plants and concentrate on edible garden which we think is more practical. Thai basil is in abundance and they are in fact too matured. So, what I did was to harvest all the herbs and replant them for another new batch of herbs garden.
Since Thai Basil is in abundance, I decided to fully utilize it. Hence, stewing pork belly with it is one of the many dishes I have cooked.

For your info, when I was young, I never like or would not touch pork belly. Even when I ever did eat it, I would always throw away the fat and take the lean meat. However, these few years, I don't know what has gotten into me. I LIKE pork belly especially the FAT!!! I know it's unhealthy but ah..... eat first health later... hahahaha.... The gravy is especially yummy and when mixed with rice, we can easily go for 2nd helping of rice! The recipe for this is taken from my previous posting on Stewed Pork Belly with Fried Tofu.

Ingredients :
- 1 strip of pork belly (blanched and cut)
- 1 bunch of Thai Basil
- 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean paste/tau cheong (for frying)
- 1 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean paste/tau cheong (to taste)
- 1 bulb of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 thumbsized ginger (sliced and crushed)
- water (enough for stewing)

Seasonings : (to taste)
- a dash of salt
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp caramel sauce (reduce the amount if you don't like your dish to be in dark colour)
- 1 tsp sugar

Method :
1) Heat some oil in a wok and saute garlic, ginger and 1/2 tbsp of fermented soy bean paste until aromatic.

2) Add pork belly and stir fry for a while. Mix well.

3) Add water, the remaining fermented bean paste and caramel sauce. Stir and mix well.

4) Cover and let it boil at high heat for about 5 minutes. Then, lower the heat and let it simmer until the gravy is thickened and/or the meat is cooked and tender. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the fire and pot/wok used. Add water if you want more gravy.

5) Lastly, add in Thai Basil and the remaining seasonings. Bring it to a boil again for 1 or 2 minutes.

6) Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

If you like pork belly, this is a very flavorful dish

Hope you like this homey dish. It's also great to serve it with plain bread instead of steamed rice. Do enjoy.

I am linking this to TheWeekendSocial- Recipe & DIY Link Party

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Zucchini Carrot Loaf

When I first saw Phong Hong's Zucchini bread, I told myself, wow, this is great! Why???? Well, I like zucchini and another main reason is that this recipe is healthy and so easy to make. Being so excited, I baked it the following day and I am glad that I did it without any procrastination. We like the bread/cake so much that I baked it again for a karaoke session with a group of childhood friends.

However, for this get-together, instead of a loaf, I baked it into 'cupcakes'; reason was for easy handling and besides, this is also great as party food.

The loaf is soft and moist and taste like a cake

However, the 'cupcake' is not too moist and soft and taste more like bread

Which one do you like?

Zucchine Bread
Recipe source : adapted from Phong Hong (with some minor modification)

Ingredients :
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 200g self-raising flour
- 50g sugar (due to the addition of raisins, I reduced the sugar)
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1 cup grated carrot
- 1 cup of mixed raisins

Method :
1. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
2. Stir in the grated zucchini and carrot. Then followed by the oil. Mix till well blended.
3. Sift in flour 1/3 at a time over no. 2 and mix well.
4. Add raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix well.
5. Pour batter into a lined or greased 4" x 9" x 3" loaf pan or cupcake/muffin cups.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 40 to 45 minutes (for loaf) or 180C for 20 minutes (for muffin or cupcake cups) or until cooked; depending on individual oven temperature.
7. Let cool in pan for about 10 mins before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Do head over to Phong Hong's Bake for her original recipe. Do give this a try and you will love it.

The loaf tasted like fruit cake

Whereas the 'cupcakes' is more towards like bread

It tastes even better after one or two days

Do have a great week ahead and cheers :)

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Basic No-Knead Bread (Grant Loaf)

This basic no-knead bread is called Grant Loaf and can be made in less than 2 hours!
This is my very first home baked bread. It's very easy and fuss-free. Why I like this is that I just have to dump all the ingredients into a mixer and when the dough mixture is ready, just let it proof for about an hour and straight into the oven it goes!

After, 35 minutes or so, you have freshly baked bread ready for you.

It's so easy and simple and suitable for those busy housewives who want a quick simple bread for the family.                            

Basic No-Knead Bread

Recipe source : Bread Kitchen (with minor modifications in red)

Ingredients :

- 450 g wholemeal or white bread flour (high protein flour)

- 385 g lukewarm water or milk (350ml = 3 tbsp milk powder + warm water)

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp dried yeast

- 1 tsp sugar

Instructions :

1)  Add sugar and yeast into water or milk and leave it for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.

2)  Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.  

3)  Then add the activated yeast mixture into no. (2).

4)  Mix well to achieve a smooth and sticky dough.  I used electric mixer.

5)  Lightly grease a 21cm x 11cm loaf pan and pour the dough mixture in.  Spread the dough evenly.  Cover and leave in a warm place for about an hour.

6)  Once the dough starts to rise above the level of the loaf tin, bake at pre-heated oven at 200°C for 35 minutes depending on individual oven temperature.  I baked at 190°C for 40 minutes.

7)  Remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Note :  The loaves freeze well so you can bake several at once if you have enough loaf pans.

This simple bread is suitable for those who don't have any knowledge of bread baking ~ like me

If you are not a fussy eater, overall, this bread is great with a cup of hot coffee

Have fun baking your home baked bread with your children :)

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