Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

I took a short 3 weeks break from bread making because I was kind of on a roll cake craze. 

Back with buns for breakfast. Wanting to clear those hotdogs lying in my freezer, I used them in my buns and made them into mini sized buns.

Love how these mini buns turned out. Soft, fluffy and cute looking. Gonna make more mini buns from now on! Plus more varieties in one batch bake too :)

Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

Gelatinized dough

50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough

(Yield roughly 490g dough)

150g bread flour
50g wholemeal flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
4g instant yeast
1/4 tsp or 3g salt
87ml cold water
30g cold egg
30g butter, room temperature

7 chicken franks (hotdogs), sliced into half to make 14 pcs 

Buns

1. Tear gelatinized dough into smaller pieces into the bread machine. Add water, beaten egg and top with flour And milk powder. Place salt and sugar on opposite corners of bread machine, make a small deep hole in centre of flour and spoon in instant yeast. Gently cover yeast with some flour and set BM to work. I use Function 8 fory Kenwood BM250 for this step. 

2. When dough has come together and is more or less a smooth dough, add in softened butter. I restarted my BM on Function 8 again and let BM mix till well incorporated with dough and is smooth and soft. I then remove dough and hand knead till dough reaches window pane stage, where you get a thin translucent membrane when dough is stretched. (This more or less tells you that you will get soft and fluffy bread and buns!)

3. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled. 

4. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 14 equal portions at 35g each and roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling. Slightly shape round dough into a tear drop shape and roll it flat and long.

5. Place half a hot dog on wide side of flattened dough and roll up. Repeat for the remaining dough. Place each dough about 1.5cm apart on a greased baking tin.


6. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min or till doubled in size. 

7. Brush bun tops with whisked egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water, sprinkle some white sesame on centre of each dough and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 12 to 15min or till slightly golden brown. 

8. Cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Fragrance of freshly baked buns filled my kitchen

Mini wholemeal hotdog buns with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Simple. Pure bliss :)

Salmon with Salted Soy Bean Paste

Hubby and I have been eating lots of salmon and cod fish recently. We buy a whole salmon fish which is much cheaper this way. Cod fish wise, we buy it in slices. Not a wise choice but let's just say at least I am picking up on eating more fish and it is way healthier than consuming seafood :P

Flipping through the stack of recipe books, I realised I have many salmon fish recipes to try my hands on. More to come!!!

For this salmon with salted soy bean paste, I paired it with plain porridge as the soy bean paste was salty and the plain porridge could take away part of the saltiness. A different taste of pairing soy bean paste with salmon, not too bad if you are not into cooked salmon because soy bean paste helps mask the cooked salmon smell.

Salmon with Salted Soy Bean Paste
Recipe adapted from the asian oven by Jo Marion Seow with slight adjustments made

*Original recipe uses Halibut fillet but I replaced it with salmon fish

4 Halibut fillets, about 150g each (I replaced it with 2 salmon fillets)
3 tbsp salted soy beans (tau cheo) (I used just 1.5 tbsp soy beans)
1 clove garlic , peeled and grated
1 thumb-size knob ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cooking oil
1 spring onion (scallion), sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 200deg C.  Line a baking dish with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place halibut fillets in the baking dish in a single layer.

3.  Mash salted soy beans with the back of a spoon.  Mix garlic, ginger, mashed salted soy beans, sugar and oil.  Spread this mixture in an even layer on the halibut fillets.  Bake in the oven for 6-8 min.

4. To check if the fish is cooked, insert a fork into the thickest part of the fillet.  If the fish breaks up easily, it is done. Otherwise, bake for a further 1-2 min.
5. Once the fish is cooked, sprinkle spring onion on top and serve immediately.

Sharp leaves Spinach Pork Ribs Soup

I miss cooking soup because they are just so simple, and the benefits we get from consuming soup are too many to be mentioned.

Hubby and I do not eat lavishly. Simple meals work better for us. So, one soup one dish is more than enough for us 2. Good for me too hehe! I need not rack brain to cook up a feast.

Short posts nowadays. With the new job coming, I hope I will get time to blog still!

Be right back!

Sharp leaves Spinach Pork Ribs Soup

280g pork rib or lean pork

2 dried scallops (big) or a handful of small dried scallops, rinsed

2 dried fig, rinsed

1 honey date

1 medium sized carrot, peeled and cut into 3 big chunks

1 bunch of sharp leaves spinach, picked and washed

Salt to taste

1.Rinse pork ribs or lean meat. Blanch in a pot of boiling water to remove scums and oil. Rinse well and leave aside.

2. Put all ingredients (except spinach and salt) into boiling water.  Bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. 

3. When ready to consume, bring soup base to boil, add in spinach, add salt to taste.  Serve.

Pandan Roll Cake with Pandan Kaya Jam

Some time back a lovely lady got me a yummy kaya swiss roll from the famous Rich & Good Cake from Kandahar Street, and I was so so in love with their roll cakes from then on. 

I had always been wanting to replicate a roll cake similar to that kaya swiss roll, I thought why not try using the kaya custard we use for pandan kaya sponge cake as filling for my pandan roll cake, and so I did. 

I rolled the cake with the cake skin layer on the outside (外捲法), but did not do a good job there and a portion of the cake skin came off after I unwrapped it after refrigerating it. Looks aside, the cake was good. The pandan kaya jam filling was good when paired with the chiffon roll cake. This cake is not like the kaya swiss roll from Rich and Good Cake shop but it was okay enough for me when my crave for roll cakes come on.

Filling is a custard like kaya jam that is used for pandan kaya sponge cake, except that I spread it and rolled it inside.

This cake was made for mum since she is a pandan and kaya fan.  I am quite like mum, so I will surely make this cake again!

Oh one last note, do use fresh pandan juice for this if it is available within your country. Fresh pandan juice does make a whole lot of difference compared to using pandan essence.

Pandan Roll Cake
Recipe adapted from Copy Cake Kitchen 

A
60ml homemade pandan juice
50ml corn oil
10g sugar
pinch of salt
50g cake flour (sifted)
10g corn flour
3 eggs yolk

B
3 eggs white
35g sugar
1 tsp lemon juice (I did not use it)

1. Whisk ingredients A- pandan juice, corn oil, sugar and salt until sugar dissolve.
2. Add in sifted flour, continue to whisk. Then, add egg yolks, stir to combine. 
3. In other bowl, beat egg white,sugar and lemon juice until soft peak form.
4. Take 1/3 of egg white and use a hand whisk to mix into egg yolk batter.
5. Fold in the balance egg white with a spatula till well combine.
6. Gently pour the batter into lined baking tin (10"x10"x3"). 7. Smooth out to the corners with a scraper.

8. Bake in preheated oven at 170c for 25 minutes.
9. Once the cake done, transfer the cake to wire rack.

10. Invert the cake and gently remove the baking paper.
11. Spread Pandan Kaya filling evenly onto cake.

12. Roll it up gently and tightly, wrap and chill for 30-60 minutes.

After all the above is done, slice and nom rightaway!

Pandan Kaya filling:

Recipe adapted from Fong's Kitchen Journal with slight adjustments made

50g sugar (I used 35g sugar)

200ml water (I replaced this with 200ml fresh pandan juice)

3g agar agar powder

25g hoon kueh flour (green bean flour)

150ml coconut milk

1/2 tsp pandan paste (I skipped pandan paste and used 3 drops of green food colouring instead)

Pinch of salt

1. Boil water (replaced by pandan juice) and sugar in a small pot on medium heat till the sugar dissolves.  

2. Mix together the agar agar powder, hoon kueh flour, coconut milk, pandan paste ( replaced by green food colouring) and salt.  Pour this mixture into the pot and keep stirring till the mixture thickens.  

3. Remove from heat and continue to stir the mixture for another minute to cool down the filling.  Let it cool slightly before using.


Notes:
I blended 8 pcs of pandan leaves with 270ml water for use with the cake and filling. Squeeze the blended pandan leaves to get the excess juice. Pour the juice through a sieve to remove pandan pulps.

Oreo Cookie Chiffon Cake

Seems like the season for cake baking recently. This was kind of an impromptu one and I had it shared with some lovely peeps. Share the calories. I can then have more excuses to bake more often keke!

This is my first time baking an oreo chiffon cake. I did not get to eat it though but had feedbacks that it was soft and yummy, while some said the cake had not much flavour except for the crushed oreo bites. Okay.... not too bad, apart from the cake being quite flavourless, other feedbacks werr positive. Let's try choco oreo chiffon the next round!! Gotta bring this cake flavour a level up :)

I am still gonna share this recipe because of the soft and pillowy feel it has.

Oreo Cookie Chiffon Cake
Recipe adapted from Cherry Potato

(A).
5 Egg yolks
4 tbsp Corn oil
60 ml Milk

(B).
100 gm Cake flour, sifted (I used Hong Kong Flour)
50 gm Sugar (I used 40g)

(C).
60 gm Oreo biscuit, crushed (I removed Oreo cookie cream)

(D).
5 Egg whites
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
50 gm Sugar

1. Mix (A) together into a bowl until well.
2. Add in (B) and mix until well combined & smooth.
3. Whisk (D) into a mixing bowl until stiff.
4. Fold egg yolks mixture into Step (3) & mix well.

5. Slowly add in (C), mix well.
6. Pour mixture into a 9' ungreased chiffon tube pan.
7. Bake in preheat oven at 160'C for about 1 hour.

8. Invert the cake to cool after take out from the oven.

Cod Fish with Ginger-Garlic Sauce

A simple and delish cod fish dish that requires no effort at all.  Steam the fish, prep the sauce, drizzle the sauce onto the fish and voila! a dish is cooked and done!

The big box sale by Marshall Cavendish some 2 months back or so got me crazy and I lugged back a huge amount of recipe books, and I have got no reasons to not try out recipes from the stack of books lying in my study room. So yeah, start of the recipe book cooking from now.

Cod Fish with Ginger-Garlic Sauce
Recipe adapted from the asian oven book by Jo Marion Seow

*Original recipe snapper fillet but I replaced it with cod fish

1 thumb-size knob ginger
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1, spring onion (scallion), diced
2 tbsp cooking oil (I used 1.5 tbsp)
2 tbsp light soy sauce (I used 1.5 tbsp)
4 Snapper fillets, about 150g each (I used 1 cod fish fillet, roughly 300g)


1. Scrape the skin off the ginger using a spoon. The rounded edge of the spoon is able to navigate the curved surfaces of the ginger and remove just the skin.
2. Finely grate the ginger and the garlic.  Put the grated ingredients and spring onion into a small bowl. 

3. Heat oil in a small saucepan until it is smoking hot.  Pour the oil onto the ingredients in the bowl and give everything a stir.  Now add light soy sauce and stir to combine.  The sauce is done.
4. Preheat the oven to 200deg C.  (I put the cod fish to steam instead of baking it)
5. Place fish in a casserole dish.  Cover tightly with foil and bake for 6-8min.  (Put a steamer to boil, place cod fish on a steam plate and put to steam for about 8min, or till done.)
6.. Remove the cooked fish from the oven.  Discard the foil.   

7. Spoon the ginger-garlic sauce over the steamed cod fish and serve immediately.

Note:
I did not add the diced spring onions with the ginger-garlic.
I sliced the spring onions sideways, thinly and about 2-inches long and placed them into a bowl of iced water.  Let it stay in for about 45min and the spring onions will curl.
Remove spring onions and drip off remaining water.  Spring onion garnish is ready for use!

Thin Crust Hawaiian Pizza (Encore!)

I guess this pizza recipe needs no introduction again because this is my 2nd attempt. Had no idea what to cook for dinner last weekend Saturday, and I had Hubby to propose. And yes, pizza was his choice of dinner for that night. So... I got together all the ready ingredients I have at home and got the pizza baking away in the oven in no time.

No proofing needed and so it was just a mix, knead and go pizza recipe. I know I should go hunting for another thin crust recipe to try but well, this recipe is currently my fave so let's leaving the thin crust recipe research till another time keke!

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.

Espresso Roll Cake

I have kept away from 3-in-1 instant coffee for a long time. Somehow those coffee taste too artificial for me. I prefer coffee from my Nespresso machine.

Being quite a coffee addict, I decided it is time to settle with a roll cake, since I have not been baking much coffee stuff for a long time. And so, I used my Nespresso machine brewed espresso coffee in my roll cake. Made espresso buttercream too. Everything coffee!  Hubby's No. 1 choice too when I asked if he prefers a chocolate or coffee roll cake.

If you are a coffee lover like us, this roll cake should be your cup of tea.

Espresso Roll Cake

Makes one 31cm x 21cm cake

80g egg yolks (about 4 eggs)
20g castor Sugar
30g olive oil
3 tbsp Espresso coffee, cooled (I used a Nespresso Coffee Machine Espresso (Kazaar) capsule, mixed with 1/2 tsp sugar, balance for buttercream)
65gm plain flour

150g egg whites (about 4 eggs)
70gm castor sugar


Espresso Buttercream

80gm softened Butter
40gm Icing Sugar 
40gm Espresso coffee, cooled

(I normally prepare cake fillings before doing the sponge cake.  Leave the cream into fridge for later use till cake is baked & cooled for use.)

1. Sift in icing sugar into softened butter and mix well with a spatula first before beating under high speed till fluffy and creamy.

2. Pour Espresso coffee into butter mixture over 4 additions, making sure to beat well before adding more coffee, to prevent curdling. Beating of this stage has to be on high speed, with room temperature coffee (applies to other liquid as well).
3. Beat to combine well and it is ready for use.


Espresso Roll Cake Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Line baking tray with baking paper, leaving about an inch of extra baking paper up the sides of the baking tray.

2. Beat egg yolks and sugar till well mixed and sugar has dissolved. Add in oil, cooled Espresso coffee and mix well.

3. Sift in flour and mix well. Set aside.

4. Beat egg whites using an electric mixer under low speed till whites turn foamy. Add in sugar gradually in 3 additions and beat till slightly stiff peaks are formed.

5. Beat whites under low speed for one minute to get a smooth and fine egg white mixture.

6. Fold in the 1/3 of whites into the yolks mixture. Mix well with a hand whisk. - this is done to allow easier incorporation of the remaining egg whites when you fold in later.

7. Pour the mixture into the remaining whites and fold well using a spatula.

8. Pour into the lined baking tray and even out batter top.

9. Bake at 170 deg C for 15 minutes. (For my Rowenta oven, I baked it at 180 deg C for 22min, no preheating needs to be done.) Cake is done when the surface turn brown and springs back when pressed lightly with finger.

10. Remove lined baked cake from baking tray to cool on cooling rack with a sheet of baking paper on top.  After about 5 minutes, invert cake over and carefully peel off baking paper from cake bottom.

11.  Place a new piece of baking paper over cake and invert.  Peel off top piece of baking paper, make about 3 slits 1/3 down start of cake to allow easier rolling.  

12.  Spread Espresso coffee buttercream evenly over cake with a spatula and roll up cake tightly.  Twist both ends of baking paper to secure roll cake, leave in fridge for an hour before cutting.

Here I leave you with a last photo of my Espresso roll cake I snapped.  I am glad i got the outer roll cake skin all nicely baked and no cracks from the rolling.