Mao Shan Wang Durian Puffs II

And so I made durian puffs again. This time I used Noobcook's Durian cream puffs recipe, and I must say I personally prefer this recipe slightly more than mydeartummy's.  Somehow the consistency I got for the puff mixture with this recipe was slightly thicker and each puffs rose better and had more puff space for durian pures and cream. Hehe... and so I spoon lots of durian puree in them hehe!

Gave a box of the puffs to my parents and sister, and had good feedbacks!  I finally mastered Choux method puffs making :)

Durian Puffs
Recipe by Noobcook

Water or 1 lightly beaten egg
icing sugar for dusting; optional

Choux Pastry (Cream Puff Shells)
2 large eggs lightly beaten

(A) Dry mixture
1/2 cup (65 grams) plain or all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp white sugar
1/4 tsp salt

(B) Butter mixture
57 grams unsalted butter cubed
1/2 cup (120 ml) water

Durian Cream Filling
450 grams durian flesh
150 ml whipping cream (I used milk instead)

Choux Pastry (Cream Puff Shells)
1. In a large bowl, sift or whisk (A). Set aside.
2. In a heavy saucepan, add (B). Bring to a boil over medium heat, then once the butter has fully melted, take the pan off the heat. Add the flour (A) and stir with a spatula until the dough is well combined.
3. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly with a spatula until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball, about 1-2 minutes.
4. Let the dough cool to lukewarm temperature, then using a mixer or hand blender, start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon).
5. On each baking tray, spoon or pipe 12 small mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing about 5 cm (2 inch) apart. Moisten your fingers with water and dab the tops to flatten the tip of each dough. Alternatively, with a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the dough with a lightly beaten egg (for a golden glazed finish). (I just dab the tops with some water)
6. Bake for 15 minutes at preheated oven of 200°C (400° F) and then reduce the oven temperature to 180° C (350° F). Continue to bake for a further 20-30 minutes (mine took 20 minutes) or until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are almost dry inside.

I can bake them, so can you!

Durian Cream
1. In a mixer, add whipping cream and beat just until stiff peaks form.
2. Stir in the durian flesh and continue beating a medium speed until the paste is smooth.
(I used pure durian puree mixed with some tbsp of milk, mix to form a consistency easy enough to spoon into each puffs)

To Assemble
1.Cut the pastry shells in half and fill or pipe with durian cream.
2. Dust with icing sugar before serving, if preferred.
Keep durian puffs in the fridge for up to a day. Freeze extras in a tightly sealed ziplock bag or container and when ready to consume, thaw the puffs on a plate at room temperature for about 5-10minutes before eating.

Button Mushroom-shaped Blueberry bread

Keeping up with my purple colour bakes, I made a purple tone bread. It is a button mushroom shaped bread. I wanted it cute so I left it in a slightly narrower tin to proof so it will hang over the sides when proofed.  Soft, fluffy bread to die for. I love how the loaf shape was. Love the colour tone. Nom... nom... nom... yums~

I had always wanted to do a purple loaf. And I wanted one with no artificial colourings added, so I adapted Kimmy cooking Pleasure's coffee loaf bread, made slight changes to it and came up with a loaf I longed for.

Homemade bread works best for me.

Button Mushroom-shaped Blueberry Bread with Chia seeds

Ingredients for Sponge Dough
75m bread flour
75 gm plain flour
2 tsp instant yeast
100ml water
Mix all ingredients into a soft rough dough.  Cover and leave to proof for at least 1-2 hours or put in plastic bag, tied up without proofing and keep in fridge for at least 4 hours.  Thaw for 15 minutes before adding bread dough ingredients.

Ingredients for Bread Dough
150 bread flour
1.5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 egg (keep the balance for egg brushing)
50g blueberry sauce
25ml water
30g butter
2 tbsp chia seeds (optional)

1. Blueberry sauce was made with 100g fresh blueberries, splash of water, 1/4 of lemon juice and a 1.5 tsp of caster sugar. Cook all the ingredients in a medium low heat until it become a not too thick consistency. Cool and ready to use. You can run it through a sieve and use just the sauce. (I used the sauce with blueberry pulps) - weigh out 50g before use.
2. Add all the ingredients [except butter] to the sponge dough.  Knead until well combined and dough is soft for about 10 minutes then add in butter.  Continue kneading until soft, smooth and elastic.   Knead a further 10  minutes and dough does not stick to the fingers.
3. Shape into a ball and cover with a clean cloth to proof for 15 minutes or until double in size.  

4. Punch down dough. Divide dough into 2 equal portions.  Roll and fold each portion into thirds, then roll from 2 ends of the dough into the centre.  Place in baking tin [Pullman's tin] and leave to proof in oven for more than an hour or until double in size.

5. Add some drops of water to the balance half of egg, mix it well and egg brush the dough.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes.  Remove to cool on rack immediately after baking.

The loaf on the left looked ugly to me! Fortunately, it was a happy ending when sliced :)

Blueberry Chiffon cake

 Love the purple hue I got from incorporating blueberries into my chiffon cake.

Okay, I was real happy to see nice and pretty insides of the cake when I cut them into slices.  Hubby had it first in the morning for breakfast and gave a thumbs up sign when he saw me.  Another nice chiffon cake added to my chiffon bakes list! 

Blueberry Chiffon Cake (20cm tube pan)

Recipe by Grace Kitchen Corner

Egg white mixture

Egg whites 180g

Caster sugar  90g

Corn flour 10g

Egg yolk mixture

Egg yolk 70g

Water 20g

Vegetable oil 60g

Blueberry sauce 80g

Lemon juice 10g

plain flour 90g

Caster sugar 20g

1. Blueberry sauce was made with 125g fresh blueberries, splash of water, half of lemon juice and a tablespoon of caster sugar. Cook all the ingredients in a medium low heat until it become a not too thick consistency. Cool and ready to use.

2. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.

3. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.

4. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. 

5. Pour the well mix mixture into a 20cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160-170'C preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmolding it.

Thin Crust Hawaiian Pizza

My first time trying out a thin crust pizza and it was a success! All thanks to hubby who urged me to make this for dinner while a friend was over.

I searched the internet and found this recipe. Looking at how straightforward and easy this method was, I knew I had to try this recipe out! Needs no proofing time, just mix, roll, spread sauce, cheese and ingredients and off it goes into the oven. All these in less than an hour and you get the thin crispy pizza. Easy peasy and yummy. No more thick base pizza for me from now hehe!

Crispy Thin Crust Pizza dough
Recipe by Jacqueline Liu
(Makes 2 12-inch pizza dough)

1 pkg (.25 oz) Active Dry Yeast (7g)
¼ tsp Sugar
¾ Cup Warm Water (170g)
1 ¾ Cups All Purpose Flour (224g)
½ tsp Salt
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*tomato pasta sauce or tomato puree

**3 pcs ham, cut to small pcs
**5 slices of canned pineapples, cut to small pcs
**8 to 10 pcs of button mushrooms, sliced thinly
(Squeeze out the excess pineapple water and mix all ingredients together.)

***Shredded Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 8 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine all purpose flour, salt, olive oil.
3. Add the yeast mixture.
4. Add well.
5. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes.
6. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12” circle.
8. Slice ham, shredded cheese or any ingredients you like. (Spread a layer of pasta sauce over bread dough, leaving about 1.5cm of sides plain, spread cheese followed by ingredients, and final toppings with cheese again)
9. Place dough on pizza pan. Cover with your pizza sauce and toppings.
10. Bake at 500 Degree F (I baked at 230deg C for 25min) for 10 - 15 minutes.

Oven-baked Tonkatsu

Weekends nowadays are mostly spent at home or back at my parents' place.  With enough of eating-out days, I prefer cooking at home. Doesn't matter even if I cook only simple fuss free meals, hubby eats it anyway.

Before this, I made some japanese potato salad, and I made them enough for a 2nd serving on the next day, so that I could make some tonkatsu (japanese pork cutlet) to go along with. Call me a lazy wife. :P

These tonkatsu I made were oven baked and recipe was adapted from Justonecookbook.  No need for deep frying. Did not use my airfryer this round.  Verdict?  Not too bad considering they were oven baked.  It definitely cannot fight deep-fried ones but I will still use this method again. And again.

Baked Tonkatsu
(Serve 2)
Recipe by Justonecookbook

¾ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 pieces pork loin (1/2 lb ,226 g), ½ inch (1.2 cm) thickness
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 large egg
Tonkatsu Sauce (or Make homemade Tonkatsu Sauce)
1 Tbsp. black and/or white sesame seeds

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine the panko and oil in a frying pan and toast over medium heat until golden brown. Transfer panko into a shallow dish and allow to cool.

3. Get rid of the extra fat and make a couple of slits on the copnnective tissue between the meat and fat. The reason why you do this is that red meat and fat have different elasticity, and when they are cooked they will shrink and expand at different rates. This will allow Tonkatu to stay nice and flat and prevent Tonkatsu from curling up.

4. Pound the meat with a meat pounder, or if you don’t have one then just use the back of knife to pound. Mold the extended meat back into original shape with your hands.

5. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper.

6. Dredge each pork piece in the flour to coat completely and pat off the excess flour. Then dip into the beaten egg and finally coat with the toasted panko. Press on the panko flakes to make sure they adhere to the pork.

7. Place the pork on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the pork is no longer pink inside, about 20 minutes.

8. Cut Tonkatsu into 1 inch pieces (so you can eat with chopsticks) by pressing the knife directly down instead of moving back and forth. This way the panko will not come off. Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.

9. To make special sesame tonkatsu sauce, grind black and white sesame seeds in a mortor and add tonkatsu sauce. Mix all together.

Japanese Potato Salad

Okay... this is one of the few things that I have always been wanting to do but kept procrastinating. Why? Because I have got enough bottled condiments lying in my fridge and they are seriously filling up the sides of my fridge!!

So I still fell for it in the end and bought a medium bottle of japanese mayo for this. Because I craved for it. Excuses. Anyway, it was yummy. And simple. 

Japanese Potato Salad

Recipe by Noob Cook

1/2 Japanese cucumber cut to thin, semi-circle slices

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 carrot peeled and cut to thin, semi-circle slices

2 russett potatoes peeled and quartered

water (enough water to submerge the potatoes)

3 tbsp cooked corn nibblets usually tetra-pak or canned (I did not add)

1/2 small onions chopped till fine bits

3/4 cup Japanese mayonnaise

salt and black pepper to taste

1. Rub cucumber slices with salt and allow to 'sweat' for about 30 minutes. This will make the cucumbers more crunchy. Rinse, drain and squeeze dry.

2.In a pot, bring water to boil. Add carrots and potatoes. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain.

3. Transfer boiled potatoes to a bowl. Use a fork to mash the potatoes, leaving some small chunks behind.

4. Add corn, carrot, cucumber, onion, and Japanese mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill in fridge before serving.

Note: Feel free to spice up this potato salad with more flavour such as chopped ham, karashi (Japanese mustard) and chopped hard boiled egg.

Yoghurt Wholemeal loaf with Chia seeds & Raisins (Straight dough method)

Yet another loaf of bread. Baked 2 loaves and delivered one to my parents. 

Love how soft this loaf is even when it was made using the straight dough method.  I made this yoghurt loaf before and did this again, with some changes to the recipe.  Added a tablespoon of wholemeal flour, threw in chia seeds and raisins to give it some bite. Yummy!

Had it on the 3rd day and it was still soft.  I love pairing it with coffee and jam :)

Yoghurt Wholemeal loaf with Chia seeds & Raisins 

(Straight dough method)

240gm bread flour 

60gm + 1 tbsp wholemeal flour 

4.5 tsp skimmed milk powder 

1.5 tbsp castor sugar 

3/4 tsp salt 

2 tsp [12gm] instant yeast 

2 tbsp chia seed

raisins (as desired)

125ml warm water 

70ml yoghurt 

1 tbsp [15gm] butter

1. Using a food processor or mixer, pour in water and add in yeast in the mixing bowl.  Leave for about 5 minutes to froth.  Then add sifted flour, milk powder, salt and sugar.  Start machine to knead ingredients on medium speed into a soft dough [about 5 minutes].  Add in yoghurt, continue kneading for another 5 minutes.

2. Then add in the butter.  Continue kneading till dough is soft and smooth [takes about 20 minutes].  Remove mixing bowl and cover to proof for about 20 minutes or until double in size.

3. Punch down dough and roll into a ball.  Roll flat in rectangular shape, fold to centre from left and right, then roll flat into a long rectangular shape.  Roll up swiss roll, seal the edges and put into a greased Pullman's tin.  Leave to proof for 40-50 minutes [or until it rises to 80% of the tin]. 

4. Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and bake bread on lower rack for about 25-30 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and baking tin immediately to cool on rack before storing.

Off it goes to my parents!

Pumpkin Croquette and Soupy Udon

July is over and we are well into mid of August. Mum's doing real well and our family is happy! Family support is very important indeed.

I have a thing for pumpkin croquettes and would definitely order them when Im in a Japanese restaurant.  Now with airfryer, I made them. Not too much like what we eat in the restaurants though. Would be better if they were crispier! Nevertheless, I have the never-say-die attitude and will improve on them again! Jiayou! Oh okay, and I have to admit that I used the normal pumpkins and not Japanese Kabocha. Next round then!

I cooked some udon to along with the croquettes as well.  Simple stock made from dashi stock packs I bought from NTUC.

Beware. Long read ahead. Hehe.

Quick Dashi Stock
Serves: Makes 3 Cups
Recipe by Justonecookbook

3 cups water
1 (9g) Awase (kombu & katsuobushi), Katsuo, or Iriko dashi packet

In a medium saucepan, add water and dashi packet (some brand may ask you to add the packet after boiling). Start cooking covered over medium high heat. After boiling, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Discard the packet and dashi stock is ready to use.


Udon Soup
(Serves 2)
Recipe by Justonecookbook

4 cups dashi (I used just 3 cups) 
2 packages udon
2 inariage (seasoned fried tofu pouch), cut in half (I left this out)
1 green onion/scallion, finely sliced

Seasonings
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I used only 1 tbsp)
2 Tbsp mirin (I used only 1 tbsp)
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt

Toppings (optional) - I left these toppings out and made it plain
Narutomaki (fish cake), thinly sliced
Blanched spinach, cut into 2" (5 cm) pieces

1. In a medium saucepan, add dashi and the seasonings and bring to a boil.
2. Add the udon and cook for 3-5 minutes.
3. Serve udon and soup in bowls and top with inari age, green onion and additional toppings of your choice.

Kabocha Croquette (Pumpkin Croquette)
Recipe by maa1012

1/4 Kabocha squash (I used those normal pumpkins)
2tsp Honey
2 tsp Butter
a pinch of Salt
1/4 onion, minced
1 tbsp sweet corn

For coating
Flour (as needed)
1 Egg
Panko (as needed)

Tonkatsu sauce for dipping (optional) (I bought the Bull-Dog brand)

1. Peel the kabocha squash. Remove the seeds and cut into 3 cm cubes.
2. Put kabocha squash onto a heatproof dish lined with paper towels. Microwave for 5 minutes.

3. Mash the squash while it's hot. Combine with the ingredients and mix. Coat with flour, egg, and panko in this order. Deep-fry until golden brown. (If using airfryer, preheat it at 200deg for 3 to 5 min and airfry it for 7min. I turned the croquettes over after the 7min is up and airfried it further for another 1min.

Note: Add a little honey to bring out the natural sweetness of kabocha. When you microwave the kabocha over paper towels, it'll absorb the excess water, and make it fluffy. Leave the mashed kabocha aside and let cool slightly before forming patties.

Stir fry Marrow Green & Vermicelli

I am a vege person, if you get what I mean hehe. I can do with no meat and just munch on vegetable dishes, so, give me a vegetable dish with chinese mushrooms and I can eat it anyway.

I normally like to load my stir-fries dishes with loads of other ingredients so that I can cut down cooking more dishes.  Okay, this is how I cheat on having to do tedious cooking and having lesser dishes to wash :P

Now who says cooking is difficult?

This is a simple stir fry dish which I personally like alot.

Stir fry Marrow Green with Vermicelli

1 marrow green (deskin and cut into slices)
1 handful of Vermicelli (soaked in water till softened)
1.5 tbsp minced dried shrimps (wash and soak dried shrimps, rinsed, drained and pulse till fine)
3 pcs of garlic, minced
3 pcs of dried chinese mushrooms (rinsed and soak till softened, remove steam and cut strips) -OPTIONAL
4 pcs of black fungus (rinse, wash and soak till softened, remove the hard centre portion and tear into smaller pcs) -OPTIONAL
100ml water (use the water which was used to soak the mushrooms)
Enough cooking oil
1.5 tbsp of abalone sauce /oyster sauce (more if desired)

1. Heat up cooking oil in a frying pan.
2. Add in minced garlic and dried shrimp. Stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in chinese mushrooms and black fungus and toss till well mixed.
4. Add in marrow green and abalone / oyster sauce, stir fry to mix well.  Add in mushroom water and stir well.
5. Lower heat, cover and let it simmer till almost cooked.
6. Stir in softened and drained vermicelli and mix well for 2min. Serve.

Mao Shan Wang Durian Puffs

Hubby and I love, love, LOVE eating durians!  Glad we are both aligned on this, otherwise it would be a real torture for me hehe! Anyway, it is the durian season again. This year, it started late in end July. We had some in June and they weren't good. Now is the durian feasting period!

Had a few good rounds of Mao Shan Wang feasting. Hubby bought a few packs of durian purees and boy, elated was I! I could do so much with these yummy purees! Think durian cheesecakes, durian puffs, durian pancakes, durian ice cream, durian crepes and so many more.

All these durian talks, and now the pics. Yeah, I made durian puffs. Used up a quarter of the MSW puree to make this babies.  These puffs aren't looking professionally done at all but I kinda got the hang of it. Hehehe... more practice! Pastry making is no longer daunting :)

I used mydeartummy's recipe for the puff portion. I prefer my filling to be pure durian with no whipping cream so I merely mixed in some sugar and milk for it.

Mao Shan Wang Durian Puffs
(Makes about 20+ per batch)

50g butter (salted) =~3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup water (about 80g)
1/3 cup plain flour (about 70g)
1 1/2 – 2 eggs
1/2 tsp sugar

1. Heat up a saucepan of butter and water till it melts and boils. Add in the salt and sugar too. This takes around 5min. And you will be greeted with a puddle of yellow shiny buttery-smelling oil in the saucepan.

2. Sift the flour while the butter-water mixture is melting. Turn off the flame. Pour all the sifted flour into the pan of oily mixture and mix. Mix till it clumps up and to the point that the sides of the pan are clean when you roll around this ball of dough in the pan.

3.  Once again, put the pan back on the flame and heat it up for around 2-3 mins, but be sure to keep stirring well so it won’t fry.

4. Turn off flame and leave pan to cool for a while. Once cooled after a few minutes, pour in the egg mixture to the dough, bit by bit. Stir well. This part is the most tedious and hand-aching, so keep your cool and stir on. Stir till it looks like these swirly ribbons of soft caramel that drop into folds when you lift up the spoon. And that’s when you know your dough is ready.

5. Ok, now comes preparing the batter dough to be piped onto the baking tray. Some say wet the baking sheet before piping but I do the other way. I lay a baking sheet on the tray and just pipe out the dough straight onto the clean sheet.

Before baking, wet your fingers with water and dab the top surface of each puff to wet it slightly. To kind of even out the surface so it won’t bake with pointed tops and the water apparently works as steam while baking to help in the rising of the puff.

Bake at 200 degree C for about 15min then turn down the oven temperature to 170 degree C and bake for about 3min more.

After taking them out of the oven, leave to cool and poke 2 holes into the puffs to serve as convection holes.

Cut slits into the puffs to create the hollow caves.


Durian fillings

450g durian pulp or puree
3 to 4 tbsp fresh milk
1/2 tbsp of sugar (preservative to keep durians well)

1. Mix durian with sugar and enough milk to form a paste. Mix well till sugar is dissolved.
2. Scoop durian cream into pastry puffs and dust them off with icing sugar.

Pumpkin Wholemeal Bread with Chia Seeds and Rolled Oats

These loaves of bread were done and baked and sent over to my Dad. Trying to get them to eat healthier bread and lesser of store bought white bread. We all know how bad white bread are to health if consumed long term right? So start influencing your loved ones on eating healthier bread!

Chia seeds are great source of Omega-3 fats and fibre. At the same time, it stabilizes blood sugar, combats diabetes and lower cholesterol. Many more benefits to consuming chia seeds, so go read up and then start incorporating them into your daily diet.

I add these goodies into my oats and bread. Hubby who did not used to be into such health food is now gradually accepting these positively :) I share what I read about these good stuff and let him know what I'm feeding him.  We are what we eat, so let's start being healthy together!

I made these Pumpkin Bread using the scalded method (Recipe by Alex Goh), but I substituted part of the recipe with wholemeal flour, added chia seeds and topped it off with a layer of rolled oats.

Pumpkin bread (Scalded method)

(A)
100g bread flour
85g boiling water

(B)
400g bread flour (I used 80g wholemeal flour and 320g bread flour)
40g sugar
1 tsp salt
15g milk powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder (I left this out)
8g instant yeast

2 tbsp chia seeds

(C)
120g pumpkin (cooked and mashed)

(D)
150g cold water

(E)
60g butter

(F)
80g pumpkin seeds (I used rolled oats instead, just enough to top the loaf)

1. Add the boiling water from A into bag flour, mix until well-blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool.  Keep in refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. Mix B until well-blended. Add in C and D, knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well-blended.
3. Add in E, mix to form a smooth and elastic dough. Add in F, mix until well combined. (I left out F for filling and used it as topping instead.)
4. Cover it and let it proof for 40 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and mould it round. Place 6 pieces of dough into a 24 x 13 x 7cm pan. Makes 2 loaves. (I divided dough into 6 equal pieces instead to make 2 loaves, with 3 pieces of dough in 1 tin). Let it proof for 45 minutes or until double in size.

6. Egg wash the surface and sprinkle some rolled oats on top. Bake at 180 degree for 30 minutes.

Soft healthy bread for breakfast!

Korean Mochi Bread

I am really slow in the bake craze.  Where was I when these Korean mochi buns were so popular among bakers in the blogsphere???  Well, not sure if these buns are now well forgotten, I am still gonna bake it anyway. When the craving attacks come, no one and nothing can stop me, hehe!

Bought a pack of this bread premix when out for dinner with my sis and bro at Bedok Mall.  2 packs of premix in a box, and so I can bake them twice in different flavours!

These QQ babies are actually not your usual soft and fluffy buns. These babies have chewy bites to them, and I guess that's about it, unless you inject some 'life' into them by turning them into cheesy mochi buns, adding matcha, cocoa or any other ingredients that you can think of.  I like it most when these mochi buns are served soon when out of the oven while still warm, over a cup of coffee.  Yums!

Korean Mochi Buns
Recipe by Happy Home Baking

250g (1 packet) mochi bread flour mix
1 egg
70ml water (you may use milk if preferred)

1. Mix flour, egg and water in a mixing bowl. Gather to form a soft dough.
2. Divide dough into 8 to 10 equal portions. Shape into round balls.
3. Place doughs on baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover with cling wrap or a damp cloth, leave to rest for about 15min.
4. Spray the doughs with some water.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 30~35min or until golden brown.

Note: These rolls taste best on the day they are made.

Ajitsuke Tamago (Ramen Egg)

No ramen is complete without a nicely done marinated soft-boiled ramen egg! To me, however yummy the soup broth may be, the egg has to be done right too. So, I procrastinated no further and tried my hand at an eggs-periment - ajitsuke tamago.

Casually cooked a bowl of Korean ramen and had it with the ramen egg. 

Ajitsuke Tamago (Ramen Eggs)
Recipe by Meemalee with slight changes made

6 eggs
3 tbsp light soy sauce (I used only 2 tbsp)
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin or dry sherry
1 tsp caster sugar
Pinch of instant dashi/MSG (optional) - I did not use this
1/2 tsp vinegar

1. Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl or jug and set to one side.

2. Bring a pot of water mixed with 1/2 tsp vinegar to a soft boil. (By adding vinegar to the water, it makes it easier to remove the egg shells when cooled.) Put the eggs gently into the soft boiling water and let it boil for 6 minutes exactly.

3. Remove eggs and put them into a bowl of ice water to cool the eggs.  This is done to stop the cooking further, which will cause the yolks to be hardened. As soon as they are cool enough to touch, peel them very carefully, making sure you don't split the whites.

4. Place the peeled eggs in a large ziplock bag and pour the marinade on top.

5. Roll the eggs around in the marinade, and then tie the bag tightly to prevent leakage.

6. Place the bag of eggs in a bowl and leave in the fridge overnight (turn them once though for even coverage).

7. The next day, when you're ready to eat them - on noodles, on rice, in a sandwich, in a ramen burger - slice your ramen eggs in half and enjoy.

I left it for longer than 12 hours and the egg exterior turned darker than the usual ramen eggs, but it was still yummy. 

Pumpkin Bread (Scalded Method)

Past weeks were hectic ones for me and my family. Mum had an op 2 weeks back and my family juggled between home, hospital and work.  it might have been tiring for us, but with Mum's speedy recovery, nothing else matters!  This explains the lack of updates and yes, I have alot to follow up on and I will need to put in extra effort to blog soon.

Have been into anything pumpkin some 1 month back (yeah, I am still stuck at makan cooked and baked that long back hehe!). So, allow me to present this loaf of pumpkin loaf using the scalded method, adapted from Alex Goh's Magic Bread book. Bread is a staple for me and hubby. Simple to do, easy to eat. No fuss.

Pumpkin bread (Scalded method)

(A)
100g bread flour
85g boiling water

(B)
400g bread flour
40g sugar
1 tsp salt
15g milk powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
8g instant yeast

(C)
120g pumpkin (cooked and mashed)

(D)
150g cold water

(E)
60g butter

(F)
80g pumpkin seeds

1. Add the boiling water from A into bag flour, mix until well-blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool.  Keep in refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. Mix B until well-blended. Add in C and D, knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well-blended.
3. Add in E, mix to form a smooth and elastic dough. Add in F, mix until well combined. (I left out F for filling and used it as topping instead.)
4. Cover it and let it proof for 40 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and mould it round. Place 6 pieces of dough into a 24 x 13 x 7cm pan. Makes 2 loaves. (I divided dough into 8 equal pieces instead to make 2 loaves, with 4 pieces of dough in 1 tin). Let it proof for 45 minutes or until double in size.

6. Egg wash the surface and sprinkle some pumpkin seeds on top. Bake at 180 degree for 30 minutes.

Scalded dough produces a soft and fluffy loaf that has a little QQ bite to it. I like!