Savoury Bread Pudding

My mom said that savoury bread pudding reminds her to her deceased sister. My aunt was really good with cooking and I guess a lot of people kinda miss her cooking. I decided to try making the savoury bread pudding. How difficult can it be to prepare a bread pudding? I googled and studied some recipes and came out with this. I never remember the taste of my aunt's bread pudding, but I do remember there's minced beef and garnished with chilies and some leaves I don't recall from my childhood.

Savoury Bread Pudding

3 nos. potato, cut into small cube
400gm minced beef
1 no. onion, large
2 clove garlic
2-3 tbsp curry powder
1 loaf bread
400ml fresh milk or condensed milk
3 eggs,large
salt to taste
vegetable oil
butter
2 chillies, cut brunois for garnish
celery leaf, sliced
fried shallot

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease rectangle/square cake pan with butter/ oven proof dish.
• Blend onion and garlic.Heat a little bit oil in the frying pan and add in blended ingredients. Add in curry powder and fry until fragrant.
• Add in minced meat and potato. Season with some salt. Set aside.
• Beat milk and eggs in a bowl. 
• Soak bread into the milk batter and make a layer in the cake pan. 
• Spread some curry minced beef filling on the bread. Repeat the process with another layer of bread just like preparing a lasagna. 
• Sprinkle some red chillies, celery leaf (or coriander if you prefer) on top. 
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. 
• Garnish with some fried shallot before serving.

Cinnamon Rolls

Mmm... Cinnamon rolls~

I made this delicious cinnamon rolls bun for my brother sometimes ago. And I only had the time to update this now! So, I was procrastinating...

I learned this recipe during my first year in Culinary school. I love that not too sweet, buttery and cinnamon taste from this rolls. And I love the cinnamon smell, spreading across the kitchen.

Preparing this cinnamon rolls bun is easy. All you need is a dough for soft roll. Roll them flat into square, spread some melted butter and sprinkle some sugar, or brown sugar if you like, and a whole lot of ground cinnamon. But of course, if you didn't like your cinnamon rolls taste too cinnamony, you could sprinkle them moderately.

Roll them up, cut into desired size, and bake them at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. You could bake them in a baking pan, or in a muffin tin. I think, it looks cuter in a muffin tin. 

You could have your cinnamon rolls just the way it is. If you like it sweeter, you could drizzle some powdered sugar glaze. In my case, I ran out of powdered sugar. So, I decided to drizzle my cinnamon rolls with coffee flavored syrup instead. It's perfect for breakfast ;)

A recipe of this cinnamon rolls was posted by cookingvarieties. Please visit her blog too :)

Soft Rolls

I used to prepare soft rolls a lot during my diploma. It is something which me and my classmates prepared for our commercial cooking class. Cut the roll into two, and spread some butter- it taste really good, fresh from the oven. I remember that I used to pack some leftovers soft rolls, and save the cute rolls for breakfast! The recipe is pretty simple too! 

Soft Roll

250g Flour
1 egg
100ml water
25g butter
35g castor sugar
5g dried yeast
10g salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixer with salt and yeast added separately.
2. Mix for 20 minutes in medium speed.
3. Knead the dough. (I added in chopped basil at this step. You may add some other chopped herbs, or leave it as it is.)
4. Rest for 20 minutes. Cover the dough with damp towel.
5. Knock the dough.
6. Roll the dough into a ball. 20g per ball. (You may sprinkle some sesame seeds, almond nibs, etc on top of bread)
7. Bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius

Experimenting: English Muffins

I've always wanted to try making English Muffins. When I found a recipe of English Muffin from Corner Loaf, I decided to give it a try. I mean, Corner Loaf's English Muffins looks really good!

Don't let your eyes deceive you, though. My muffins turn out to be under cook in the inside (I wish I snap a picture of how the inside to show you how it looks like, but I didn't). I was disappointed! But, I decided that I shouldn't give up. Maybe I should try and make them again... since there's a lot of cornmeal left :D

Yellow River

April was a cupcake month. I've been baking lots of cupcakes apparently. I decided to try something else and was glad when I found a couple packets of yeast. I decided to make some bread.

I've learn the Yellow River recipe when I was in my first year in culinary arts school. However, I never had the chance to try making them. I was in a different group, and my group was assigned to do something else.

I've tried to google for more information on this bread, as I didn't quite remember the shape of this bread. But I found none. So, I decided to do some experimenting with this bread.

Yellow River

125ml milk

25g compressed yeast

75g sugar

pinch of salt

1# egg

412g strong flour

raisins/mixed fruit

yellow coloring

sugar for sprinkle

1. Combine all ingredients, except for raisins.

2. Mix until well.

3. Rest the dough for 15 - 20 minutes.

4. Knock the dough, and sprinkle the raisins into it

5. Divide the dough into six, and shape the dough - roll them into a long rope, and braids them (I'm not really sure how to explain them).

6. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.

7. Glaze bread with butter, and sprinkle some coarse sugar

Caramelized Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is one of the simplest treat I know. When I was making bread pudding, I've always love to sprinkle some raisins and cinnamon in them. The combination was good. My mom loved that too. I've always omitted brushing the butter on bread. I like it that way. How do you like your bread pudding?

I'm not really sure what I was doing. But I was making some caramelized sugar when I was supposed to prepare a bread pudding. So, I decided to pour some caramelized sugar on top of the pudding just before I popped them into the oven.

Caramelized Bread Pudding

150 ml Cream

150 Milk

1# Egg

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

20g Raisins

20 g Castor Sugar

5 slice Bread

generous amount of Cinnamon Powder

Caramelized Sugar

Vanilla Ice Cream - to garnish

1. Arrange 1/2 bread on mold. Sprinkle raisins and Cinnamon powder.

2. Make another layer of bread on top. Sprinkle more raisins and Cinnamon powder.

3. Mix together cream, milk, sugar, egg and vanilla essence.

4. Pour in batter on top of bread and soak the bread well.

5. Pour the caramelized sugar on top.

6. Bake 180 degrees Celsius at 25 minutes.

7. Serve them warm topped with some vanilla ice cream.

Mexican Bun

 

While I was out shopping with my mother a months ago, she mentioned her cravings for this Mexican bun. When I went home, I googled on the internet and find a recipe. I've been planning to make this bun for her. Of course, experimenting is a new recipe is part of my hobby too :) 

However, while planning to experimenting this recipe, I had a few problems with ingredients. So, I haven't had the chance to experimenting until recently. This bun consist of three parts - dough, filling, and topping which you had to pipe spirally on top of the bun.

 Yes, I know that my piping is sloppy.

 But, once they're in the oven, they look pretty okay~ Well, the fillings melted.

These are the delicious buns! Okay, so I put on too much toppings on top.

But the result is so worth it. Crusty toppings with soft bun and a hint of coffee combined with the melted butter on the center/filling. They are soo good!

Mexican Bun Filling

200g butter

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

70g brown sugar

1. Beat butter with medium speed for 3 minutes. 

2. Add in vanilla essence and brown sugar.

3. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Mexican Bun Topping

200g butter

160g icing sugar

3nos eggs - beaten lightly

2 tbsp instant coffee + 1 tbsp hot water or coffee flavoring

200g flour

1. Beat butter with medium speed for 5 minutes.

2. Carefully beat in icing sugar, eggs and coffee flavoring.

3. Sieve flour into the mixture, and beat until it is mixed well.

4. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Mexican Bun Dough

500g flour - sieved

2 tsp bread improver + 2 tsp bread softener (optional)

75g castor sugar

3 tsp dried yeast

1 tsp salt

1 # egg

250ml milk

60g butter - soften

1. Preheat the oven over 170°Celsius.

2. Sieve flour, sugar and salt with a whisk. Add in yeast, bread improver and bread softener.

3. Add in egg and milk.

4. Knead the dough and add in butter. Knead the dough until soft for about 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Divide the dough to 15 small ball, and cover with plastic food wrap for 10 minutes.

6. Flatten the dough on palm and scoop the filling and put it on the center of dough. Seal the dough tightly so that the filling didn't burst out of bun.

7. Arrange bun in the non sticking baking pan. Let the dough rest for 45 minutes.

8. Pipe the topping on top of bun spirally from top center.

9. Bake bun in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Congratulation me!

I haven't visit my blogs for a while. Last week, I was away attending my cousin wedding and visiting relatives. I went back home two days ago and had my convocation yesterday (Yes, I had bachelor degrees in culinary arts now :D).

Mini Pizza

My brother said that he had a project for me. He wanted me to make something for giveaway to our neighbors. He didn't want anything sweet like cupcakes as most of our neighbors is elderly (and of course, most men didn't like to eat sweet stuff). So, I suggest that I could make him some mini pizza.

I made the dough using the same recipe I used for my Focaccia Pizza. Each of the dough in the paper cup weight about 9 to 11 grams. Then, I spread some tomato basil paste on top of those mini pizza, and sprinkle some sausages and mixed vegetables. Next, I piped some mayonnaise on top of the toppings (It was really fun piping those mayonnaise!) 

Bake them at 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, and it's all done!  I love this mini pizza. Well, it's cute, the cost is much cheaper than making cupcakes, and it's in bite size! It's perfect for giveaways!

I'm going Bananas!

My aunts gave us lots of bananas when we visited her in JB. Well, I think that there were about 3 kilos of bananas. My mom thought that it would be better to give away those bananas to our neighbors and friends. After all, we couldn't possibly eat them all! So, she asked me to use those bananas, and turn them into these delicious looking muffins! I made three different types of muffins: -

Raisins and Banana Muffins!

Chocolate Chips and Banana Muffins (My favorite!)

Chocolate Banana Muffins! I cut the bananas into cube, and sprinkle them on top.

All muffins were given away to neighbors, family and friends! They loved it of course!

Focaccia Pizza

I haven't made bread for quite sometimes. I really wanted to try to make focaccia - the one which  the herbs blended with the dough, and some olives on top. While shopping for the ingredients, I saw that (slightly cheaper) mozzarella cheese in the bakery, and I thought of making pizza. A focaccia pizza!

I added some thyme in the focaccia dough. The pizza was topped with some sliced tomatoes, olives, and sausages. Then, sprinkled with some mozzarella, Parmesan and cheddar cheese.

Look at the focaccia topped with onions!

Now, for the recipe!

Focaccia dough: 

250g  Flour

1 no. Egg

100ml Water

25g Butter

35g Castor Sugar

5g Dried Yeast

5g Thyme

1 tbsp Honey

a pinch of salt.

Method:

1. Mix water and honey.

2. Combine all ingredients. Add salt and water seperately.

3. Mix the dough for 20 minutes, and knead the dough. Then, let it rest for 20 minutes.

4. Knock the dough, roll them into a baking tray. Spread some onions on top, and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

I had some extra dough from the focaccia. I decided to roll them with some pizza sauce and sausages! It taste really good, although it didn't look as good.