Another Baking Weekend!

Quick notes for the stuff that I baked today: 2 lemon-related sweets and a yeast muffin.

 I feel I had to use up at least a few lemons from a bag that I bought early this week at Costco. Recently, 23 pcs pack cost 2500KRW nearby but I spotted this bag with roughly about a dozen pieces for 8000k. It's was time to make one of my dream pies and make some lemonade too!

1. Lemon Pie (originally a Lemon Meringue recipe)

 

This is a recipe from one of my fave blogger Jenny Can Cook who hardly uses butter for baking.
Her apple pie is my go-to recipe for anything pie crust related. The lemon pie included a meringue recipe but as usual, the amount of sugar already in it made me skip that part. The filling itself needed 1.25 C to 1/3 C of cornstarch which I understand since we're dealing with the 1/2 C sour lemon juice. That is my limit. I know I can very well cut down the sugars and it will still be good.

Result: It was a bit on the sour side but the crust made up for it. I've rolled the crust a little bit too thinly and unevenly so there was a bit of extra that I had to trim off the edges which I baked separately used to scrape off the leftover filling from the saucepan. That is how I roll. ;)

I've also attempted on the 3-finger scrimping but it's still far from satisfactory. And I also tried to remove wax from the lemons in the microwave so I can zest it. It was magical. I know that nuking something can have some micro reaction invisible to the eyes but boy, I was able to get a lot more juice easier than by just rolling it before squeezing. That was a cool hack that I learned from experience today.

2. Lemon Squares

 

I don't understand exactly why Jenny Jones' called it Lemon Brownies on her site but I'll stick with simple squares even if I didn't end up cutting them into squares. :D As usual, the amount of sugar it requires really put me off and I cut down the 24 T to 20 T. (I doubled the recipe to fit the only available pan I had which is a rectangle one.) I also skipped the glaze and good thing I did because it was already too sweet even with all the sugar adjustments I've made. Imagine, 2 C of flour to 1.5 c of sugar and only used 2 T of lemon juice? I didn't see that coming but I do have an idea now. The west really uses more sugar than I can imagine and I've gotten used to adjusting the amount of sugar in these recipes. Nonetheless, I am thankful that a site like hers exist. It makes me realize some personal baking goals that might otherwise have been harder for me to tweak.

Now for the notes:
I can possibly triple the recipe to fill up my rectangle pan. (I might really consider getting a square pan in the future, along with a pie ring for my pies. My baking hobby can really be making  on my budget.)

This is a fairly easy one to put together especially since I skipped the glaze part. It only needed 20 minutes in the 180 C oven.

As I've already mentioned, I need to adjust the sugar more next time. We used Nutella (yes, I bought it as a treat this month but it's a once in a blue moon thing) as a spread on it as if it wasn't sweet enough still. I do believe that lemon and chocolate will not be that bad. lol

3. Yeast  Muffin

This is nothing new in my regulars but I've doubled the recipe since I accidentally bought a taller muffin liner a week ago when I finally got a 12C muffin pan. (Can you even breathe though that sentence? Whew!) The original recipe filled the 6C pan with a bit more for another or two when I used the smaller liners. After my initial trial last weekend, I figured out that doubling the recipe (but not the yeast: 2.25 t to 3t) and using the tall liners will fill the whole 12C pan. Not so bad as I have a 200pc pack of liners that I had to use up. They're really big and filling.

I did half cinnamon and Nutella to jazz things up today. My son is pretty happy with the latter. It's a bit step up from the cocoa mix I used last week which he liked as well. But boy, cocoa powder can be pretty pricey if I use it that often. :D I made 12 cinnamon muffins but I added a dollop of N spread on the 6. Half and a half to even it up. If given a chance, I'll try the cheese next time. And raisins and nuts. If only not for my son... *sigh

The 6 cups of flour that I had to mix today fit perfectly in the 30cm stainless wok and the silicon pastry mat worked well as a cover while the dough rises.

It's almost 12 midnight and I have a smile on my face as I stare on the 4 containers filled with the baked goodies sitting on the table even though I still have to wash the remaining dishes and stuff before bed. So off I go now!

P.S.
Recently learned about free Alexa Music by decade and it has been good keeping me company at home even if I have to be doing some Korean stuff instead. THAT is for another post. ;)
Currently listening to the 60's now as it is already late night and I just feel a strong affinity to that era somehow. Late-night rambling effects.

Blog Overhaul

Here I go again with an idea to try polishing this blog.
It isn't just a place to dumb my brain anymore. It has become an outlet with added purpose. I noticed that I had been baking quite a bit and every adventure and misadventure somehow makes it here that I had to clear up my notes somehow.

Scrolling down to the previous entries under the baking label made me look back on what I've tried to bake and all the editing failures I made. *shameful grin. You see, I hardly edit my post before since it's not meant for other people's eyes usually or I just wanted to dump my words somewhere. (Oops! I'm using that word a bit too often.) I might do a quick once over after I've written it but it's different if you left it for a while and return to it with a fresher eye.

Now, there's some parallelism between writing and baking, especially yeast bread. You have to leave for a while and come back to get better results. Of course, there are specific durations on when you should revisit your written output and rework your dough but the idea is there.

Another one is, of course, they both needs my fingers. Even with the latest voice-to-text technological advancement, I still get more satisfaction in typing or handwriting. It can be more of a personal or psychological thing but I've tried the google text feature and it didn't match my needs just yet. I tried dictation but the text output was not that perfect and it's easy to lose my train of thoughts as speak and check what is being transcribed on the document. No wonder transcriptionist jobs still exist. This also made me realize why I was never a fan of tablet computers. There are no keyboards to feel, touch and find every letter as to let my mind wander on what my next word will be.  This is why I sometimes miss some words when my fingers cannot catch up with the thoughts in my brain. Isn't the brain just an amazing thing?

Which reminds me that I should really get back to studying or starting another batch of bread. But here I am still pecking away on my keyboard.  Another one on my to-do list in the near future is to get on that category list. Adios for now..until the next irresistible urge.

Novice Homebaker Series: Ciabatta

Wet dough. That's what makes this intimidating. I've tried no-knead bread before but nothing with a fancy name that I can possibly buy at a local bakery here except baguette. Even with that, it's been a while since I got some personal satisfaction of being able to make one.

I started with this recipe from Jenny Can Cook but ended up cutting them up into smaller one by watching this video on the tube since that I thought it might easier and faster to bake and eat. I haven't exactly proven that but I only managed to make it into 4 and it was already tricky to make it hold a shape and not spread out on the tray.
It took me at least 4 hours to get it in the oven, being the slow and novice baker that I am. Then, the final result came past midnight after it has been cooled. It took a little bit self-restraint to just tear it up while it was still warm. If I had done so, I might have found it still raw inside, I think.

*
The long wait is over and I was actually munching on my ciabatta sometime between 2-3 am. It was crusty but pillow-soft inside. It's such a contrast with my usual bread choices for baking which are usually pretty solid and filled inside unless I use an egg. I ended up peeling one piece naked for the crust and trying to decide if I should bring out my homemade yogurt cheese or just stick with my latest experiment called no-tahini hummus. That, itself, is another possible post to write about later.

Happiness is when you bite into a bread you just made yourself in the wee hours of the morning. I can't wait for my son to try this possibly add this to our "fave bread list."

Future experiments.  More from reddit.

Novice Home Baker Series: No Knead Bread

This is my 3rd attempt at trying this seemingly-easy no-knead bread but I haven't been successful so far. Well, the verdict for the third one is still up as it is still in the oven right now.

I first tried this when I first got a medium-sized ceramic pot but it didn't go well. The pot was too small and the bread didn't rise quite well. I had to forgo this bread for a while.

Late last year, when I was able to score a decent Lodge Dutch oven but it was too big for my old oven. Now that I have a newer and bigger I oven, I determined to give it another try. The thing is, I forgot that the Dutch oven won't fit with the lid on. I have to improvise with the flexible foil and I'm waiting how it will turn out.

My second attempt was yesterday but it didn't rise well I think so I had to "rescue" the dough and turned it into bahn-mi bread instead. I had to add more yeast, flour, and water but it turned out good enough for my son to consume. :D

The Dutch oven is still waiting to be used so I tried another attempt and mixed the dough. I used a recipe from Jenny Can Cook but she mixes the yeast with flour which I did the first time. I wasn't sure if I killed the yeast with the hot water but I had to make sure that the yeast is alive and "kicking" this time. I mixed it with the water first to see. It might not be how it was done from the recipe but there's a way around it. And it did rise beautifully!

I mixed it all up and let it rise for at least three hours. Fortunately, it went up to the rim of my wide yellow aluminum bowl. Then, I put it on a lightly floured surface as per instructions to fold it over a few times before moving it again into the smaller glass bowl for another 35-minute rise. It is a no-knead bread but it still needed to rise twice. Oh, well. That is a yeast bread, indeed.

Now comes the tricky part of putting the parchment bottomed dough in the HOT pot. The pot is big and hot. The lid doesn't fit. Boy! This seemed to be a complicated first time in baking this simple bread.

I've just removed the foil from the top and it looks promising. It rose beautifully but I have yet to see it browned well not to mention if it's totally baked. Chances are it will be baked, yes. I mean, even if I set the temperature at 230 instead of 235 C, there should be enough heat from the oven to the pot to bake it.

Fifteen minutes. I am just waiting for it now to see the final result of this 3rd attempt.

10 minutes later:
                                          

It browned well and a little bit on the bottom since I forgot to remove the paper for the last 15 minutes. I still need to wait a few more minutes for it to cool and hopefully, it is well-baked as well.

6PM

Waiting...( I'm tempted to put it out in the "veranda" to cool it faster in this winter cold of Korea.)

Baking Bliss (voice-to-text on Google but total fail)

I like baking. I think I've been using the oven at least twice a week lately.

I usually bake two batches of bread in a week: at least one in the weekend

and another one sometime during the weekdays. Since I usually bake yeast bread,

it spoils faster and can only last for 3 to 4 days. It’s either because of that or it's all been consumed or eaten. My son eats it for breakfast and sometimes snacks as well.   

We rarely buy bread ever since I got the oven coupled with the time to bake.  Sometimes, I would still buy some bread on a whim or when I don't have time to prepare something for breakfast the next day.  But it seldom happens nowadays. It's either homemade bread or cereal for breakfast. And when I buy bread, I would usually go for the Roman wheat bread with nuts and stuff. Or I would pick up some sweet bread when I feel like eating one but don't want to be troubled to use of all of those butter. I do feel guilty when I see how much sugar and butter go into those bread. So in the spirit of “ignorance is bliss,” I just trying to buy a bit of this and that just to satisfy my cravings with lesser guilt.

I usually bake a loaf of bread or Pinoy bread rolls. Most of these, if not all, have yeast, water, oil, bread, and sugar --- just the basic ones for baking. It doesn't even need oil sometimes which is quite surprising. Sometimes, I would also try quick bread that uses baking soda or baking powder instead of yeast. These would usually be a muffin, some rolled bread or a cookie. Quick bread usually needs more sugar and maybe even butter so I tend to baked things like that rarely. Not only that it's not healthy with all the sugar and butter it needs, but it's also expensive because of the butter so I seldom bake sweet quick bread.

I found myself baking and kneading quite often nowadays and I feel like kneading by hand takes so much time for me that I really wish that I have a stand mixer. I mean, I like the kneading part especially if I am watching something interesting that I would hardly notice the time passing while my hands are busy but “people” in the house are complaining how much time I spend baking. Don’t they know….? They clearly have no idea!

Now, I really wish to be able to buy that stand mixer! 180k grand. I need to save up for that first after I’ve paid my husband for my car. Yes, that was the deal. Instead of me being able to send my annual savings to put in some funds and stocks, I will have to shell it out for the car this year.

My big ticket purchases last year, aside from the trip home and the car, were the oven, Lodge cast iron skillet, Dutch oven, and a Pyrex loaf pan. I still have to complete the car thing with some car tire changes and brake pads sometime until the middle of this year, I hope.

Going back to baking. I will get a stand mixer this year. I’ll have to keep an eye on some sale soon. It will fall into place. :)

(composed using Google docs voice typing tool, Gradeproof add-on, and good old manual editing)

Novice Home Baker Series: Combi Oven Trial -- First Week

Scored an almost-new oven through the Carrot App recently so I'm excited to figure out how it works. It cost a bit more than what I planned to spend on a new oven but this one was way fancier at less than half of the original price if bought brand new online. The catch is it didn't come with a manual at all so I just had to try out if it actually works in the first place like simply setting the oven temperature and time. The lady who sold it only showed me the preset functions and almost clueless on how to use it so that was probably the reason why she decided to sell it at that price. The good thing was that my hubby was game enough to foot the bill and help me bring it home.

My first order of trial food was the grilled fish that I had been hankering to eat - my last frozen boneless bangus or milkfish --- or chanos chanos as we had called it back in my university days. I tried out the function for defrosting and grilling. All guesswork but it turned out well-cooked and edible.
 



Now, since this oven is heavier and bigger than the old one, an idea to try the cast iron pan inside came to me. And it does fit! I can try baking some sweet potatoes later on.



But for snacks, I can't resist giving my 10.5(?) cast iron pan a try for baking a pizza in the oven. It can finally fit in this new one unlike in the smaller one I previously had. It looked delish.



Looks like I got a gem with this one. It is multi-function: oven, grill, defrost, dehydrator, odor-removal, and microwave. The only missing one that I haven't seen here is the steam and roundtable features which I've seen in other current ovens of similar style. I wasn't really sold on the steam features of newer ovens but now that I think about it, it would be nice. The thing is those I've seen usually come with the typical "turntable" of microwaves. I just can't imagine how my pans will fit on a limited space like that. Still, I am happy with my new one...with the versatility and at that price! Happy baking days are on the horizon again.

posted from Bloggeroid

Skillet Pizza for d Holidays err..Coming Days

We tried making a quick pizza on the stove using my first cast iron skillet recently and my son is finally eating homemade pizza again.

It's his own style of toppings though...onion and cheese and nothing more. I try to squeeze in a bit of minced garlic if I can. We have this like once or twice a week especially when it's just us for dinner. So since I got my whole wheat flour delivery this week, I got into making dough mode. My oven is partly broken so I cannot bake a decent loaf for almost a few weeks now so I make pizza dough instead. I really like playing around with dough. Its like I never had enough playdough when I was younger so I am just enjoying it now. It used to intimidate me before but now..I'm on a roll when I'm in the mood.



And since the pizza sauce being sold in the local nearest mart is pretty small and pricey...I insisted on going back to making one from scratch again. It's all trial and error though. I only got oregano and basil for herbs so not sure about the consistency of the taste. I also try to add onion powder and garlic with olive oil plus pink salt and pepper now.


The 7 pieces of thin crust I made tonight will only last for like two meals. P eats at least 2 rounds and one for me. Let's see.

I still got a few doughs planned up my sleeve...the burrito wraps. I know I can buy tortilla at the store for a pretty price but I think I can save a bit if I make my own plus it's not gonna be all white flour. I can make a mixed one with more fiber tucked in it. Then I'll also freeze it so it will be handy when I have the fillings already.

Oh..I also tried my third attempt at gluten meat today..using room temp water instead of the hot water initially found in the recipe I got. It was way softer. I will have to marinade it soon as I wasn't able to do it today. A friend has inspired me to look more into it earlier today.

posted from Bloggeroid

Battling the Rainy Days

"Not a fan of cloudy days coz I'm a solar-powered person by day and moon-powered person by night. #earthfriendly#ecoperson"

This was my facebook status on a cloudy day last week. This week, however, I knew about how depressing rainy days can be so I had mentally prepared my mind on how to combat the sunless day. 

I went out for a walk after my boys left. It was raining, and a little bit windy but I uncharacteristically went ahead with it. Just a short 20 to 30 minutes around the block and I even broke a few sweats. I guess because I was swearing a windbreaker since it was raining. I even had an umbrella on my hand as I trudge through the rainwater cover sidewalk. The route isn't exactly that fancy but a part of it is a small farming field filled with different crops that are being grown in the "illegal" farm area. There were peanuts, green peppers, sweet potatoes, lettuces, and I even spotted a small row of beets. It was really good feeling walking around these things and always makes me wish to be able to secure a small plot for myself one day. I have no idea how though. For the meantime, let me savor the good feeling even just looking at them every step of my morning walk. 

My other plan for the day to combat the gloomy weather is to bake! I got some beets and carrots that are waiting to be used up so my list of kitchen stuff is pretty full now. How am I going to finish all of these, on top of other house chores and teaching on side, not to mention the supposedly prepping for my other goals, I don't know. Well, at least I've got some bread to eat now. And pink at that!

I'll just have to figure out what to prepare for dinner tonight. Sigh*

Novice Home Baker Series: Late Nite Loaf

Just had to write down the recipe before I forget.
It started raining late this afternoon and the temperature has dropped a bit for me so I just had to bake some bread. I haven't exactly baked for more than two weeks I think. This is all rough from my head.

2 C bread flour

1/2 C whole wheat

1/2 C ground and boiled oat groats

3-4 t sugar

2.25 t yeast

1 t salt

1/2 C water

1/4 C milk (was running out of milk)

3 T canola oil

Used the bread machine to make the dough. Putting the flour first before adding the rest. Did the whole dough process on the machine.

Then I transferred it to the 9x5 loaf pan for the final rise until it was half an inch above the pan. 

Baked it for about 30-35 minutes. 

I am now waiting for it to cool so I can find out if it is not very grainy that it will fall apart when sliced for a sandwich. 

Breadmaker...Yahoo!

A bread machine! Yay!

My dear K SIL has decided to give me her old-but-seldom used bread machine yesterday! 

I just had to try it last night after we got home and set the timer in advance to be finished baking by the next day. It went off splendidly, albeit a bit dark coz I didn't take it out right away for about 10 minutes. 

Since it's an older model,  the loaf shape is almost a cube and not a horizontal one.
I had to slice it upwards (from the bottom) at first before running it crosswise. This first one was a pre-mix from a box so it's almost like the one from the store. Nothing fancy and almost airy. I actually prefer more bulk than air.

I have to try my pandesal dough with oats soon. But first, I had to check some more next time how much flour can it handle. I couldn't resist it today so I tried a plain bread flour one which used 3 C but perhaps I put lesser water than it should be so it ended up a little dry. I should have just put 2.5 C of flour and 1 C water. But I did 3 and less water. I even just shaped them into 10 pcs when I should have done 20.

I've just tried the dough setting but it was pretty noisy after it has been mixed initially that my husband had to stop it. Which was alright, as long as it was well mixed and all it needs is to rise. I let it rise for more than an hour. Then, I removed it from the machine and shaped it to bake in the oven.

Managed to shape it out after that and baked it for almost 30 minutes with the first 20 minutes covered with foil. I figured it's pretty big so it would need longer time and it might burn. But alas, it still turned out with a crunchy bottom and top. Still soft inside, to my relief. Our breakfast is ready for tomorrow!

But that is not all! I still have another baking post for today...

Novice Home Baker Series: Persimmon Bread

So I was woken up with the bread maker machine finishing the bread this morning. Exactly on time as it should be. My menu manipulations worked!

Midday, I started to try out the dough feature and produced this. 

But wait! My baking day isn't over yet. I still have some over ripe frozen persimmons rescued from the bin waiting for me to be used in..what else but..Hachiya Persimmon Bread.



My SIL asked me to throw out a box of frozen Hachiya persimmon but when I saw it, I found some decent looking ones that I thought can be saved and made into a quick bread. Even though I haven't got any recipe on hand, I have found a few after searching online.

a. 1:1:1 (flour, sugar and puree) and orange juice
b. backtoherroots uses 2 C whole wheat and 1.5 C AP + bourbon
c. bonappetit.com uses 3/4 each of whole wheat and AP flour, and orange zest

Narrowing it down to two or three recipes, it came down to this ubiquitous recipe that kept showing up in more than two blogs. I just had to try it for myself. This one is from an old book "Beard on Bread" by James Beard. The recipe was shared on a blog here by David le Bovitz.

Here are the basic ingredients but not everything. Better head out to the link above for the rest.

2 C persimmon puree
3.5 C flour AP
2 C sugar
2 t b. soda
1 t nutmeg

1 C butter
4 L eggs
2/3 C Cognac 

I followed most of the recipe except for sugar which I cut down to 1 C brown and 1/2 white, canola oil instead of butter, and only half and half of sunflower seeds and raisins. It was able to fill up 4 mini-pans each with 1.5 C (Korean cup, this time) and some more enough to fill the small glass container that I got from the dollar store. 

I gave a loaf to my SIL and I still have to find out how it taste from her tomorrow. There are two surprise ingredients for here: the persimmons that she asked me to throw this morning and Cognac (which I took out from my crowded door fridge.) 

Well see tomorrow how it goes! 

Kitchen Today

Cooking mode in the kitchen today starting with a Baesuk (steamed Korean pear) after lunch and Deok Guk (Rice Cake Soup) for dinner, both from Maangchi's site. 

P's cough had been more than a week already so I let him choose which one he would go for, the pear or the doctor. He chose the pear and we had a couple left still and most of the ingredients so I thought to give a try. 

what's left of the pear...

While the pear was steaming, I started the stock for the deokk guk in the slow cooker. Five hours on high should be enough to get the anchovy, leeks, and seaweed stock going. 

After that, I moved on to the bread. It's my first time to do this recipe from Laura Vitale's youtube and web site. The video mentioned of AP flour but the website has bread flour. I went for the bread flour. I used 1 1/4 C liquid milk instead of powder and water. Most of it was alright except that the dough a bit too dry when I was mixing. I ended up using only 3.5 C of flour since it it seems to be too dry and it was hard to knead it. Probably because the air is pretty dry in my area today? 

Since I don't have a big loaf pan, I used my 4 mini-pans so I divided the dough into four. Two of which, I added raisin while the other two has only cinnamon and sugar. My son doesn't like raisin, among a hundred other things. (Come to think of it, I should make a list of those things.)  From the top of my head: raisin, mushrooms, beans, peas, squash and it's family, ginger, pine nuts, sweet potato...and more. I'll have to have that list up somewhere so that he'll realize how ridiculous to have a long list of this.

Going back to the bread, I let the dough rise twice and it was pretty fluffy and soft. Too soft for my taste. I like my bread with more bite. I should try to do a grain mix next time. I don't like the texture of pure flour anymore.

I still have to try a cinnamon roll in the future once I get a decent pan that can hold the dough and not stick to the wall of my tiny oven like how it does in my pandesal.

Baked it for 30 mins. at 175 C but had to tent it with foil after the top turned brown in just 10 minutes. I then lowered it to 150 for the remaining 20 minutes, and left it another 5 inside after the oven turned off.

Notes for the cinnamon loaf:
a. mix grain next time.
b. use more butter, sugar and cinnamon inside
c. watch out for the flour and liquid mixture
d. brush the top with milk n egg AFTER it has risen for the final one

Now for the rice cake soup, I made an effort to put some egg strips and green onion/leeks for toppings and it upped the dish. Not only that, I also used a homemade fish sauce from my SIL and the stock turned out good.

I can totally have more confidence in making that soup more next time. It's a very simple dish but quite filling specially with regular rice.

Notes for the soup:
(good for 3)
2 heaping C of deokk
1 L of stock
1 T of homemade fish sauce
4 inches of leeks, diagonally chopped
<1 nbsp="" of="" p="" salt="" t="">n pepper

Time for a final clean up now since I still have to put away the roasted chicken I picked up last night.

Hmm! An idea just hit me now! I can make the bread dough, shape it in the pan and freeze it there in advance. Then, I can just do the final rise next time before popping it in the oven. I think I tried this one before but it lost it's shape because I didn't freeze it in the loaf to start with. I should try the quick freeze to shape before long-term freeze in a zippy. I want to do baguettes next time. Missing baguettes since I've been doing a lot of pandesal lately and some pizza dough as well. I just love working with yeast better than quick breads.

Real sign off this time!

Novice Home Baker Series:Homemade Oat Pandesal

Double batch of pandesal for tonight! 

This time it was a success even if I tweaked the flour content and added oat grains. There was a bigger mixing bowl on hand (Glasslock MBCB-400) so I managed to mix roughly about 5 cups of bread flour 1/2 C soaked and ground wet whole oat grains. I had to halved it though when I started kneading. My arm power is only for 3 cups capacity. 

So for future reference, here is basically what went in this batch.

(adapted from my fave recipe from another fil blogger)

5 C of bread flour + 1/2 C when shaping and kneading

1.5 t salt

1/2 C whole oat grains (soaked and grounded or blended)

1 2/3 - 2 C water (including the one with soaked oats after draining roughly)

4 t yeast (original was 2 1/4 t, I didn't exactly double it coz I think yeast can be forgiving, I don't want very yeasty taste, plus I was really running out of yeast)

2 t sugar (to feed the yeast well as starter)

+ 8 T sugar

4 T oil (I usually use canola)

Did the yeast starter. Luckily, my last batch of yeast didn't die.

Mixed the dry. Added the liquid to the dry one and patiently mixed them well.

Halved it and started kneading each one at a time.

Let it rise for about an hour beside the stove while I heat up some dinner.

Then I carefully dumped it on my glass board without punching it out much. Flattened, rolled and started cutting into one-inch thick pieces.

Rolled it in bread crumbs and placed on the pan.

Ready to pop them in the preheated oven at 190 C.

I accidentally took a shortcut here coz I didn't let them rise for a second time for long. Maybe just about ten minutes while I was preheating the oven.

After 10 minutes in the oven, I turned the pan around just to make sure the inner ones will not be burned since my oven has this crazy thing sometimes.

Total oven time was 30 minutes, including the preheating.

Pretty much a decent size of two dozen pandesal was the result. This is way better than my previous week attempt of adding the oats which resulted to a soggy dough and a flat-bread-looking pandesal. Tasty nonetheless.

I sit here staring at the leftover for tomorrow's breakfast with my belly full of pandesal. Happiness!

All in a Day : Knitting and Take 2 for an Apple Pie

There was a meeting downtown that I had to attend even though I had no exact idea about it. The time kept on changing and from 1 to 2:50. I got there around 2 so ended up having to kill 50 minutes.

Heading out of the parking lot, I found myself in front of the knitting shop. I've been there once to check out things but had to hurry out. This time, I had extra time and a little cash with me to buy something under 10K just to get started. It helped that the store owner was willing to teach me to get started. The time just flew by until I realized that it was already three o'clock. Off to the meeting I went.

It took an hour or so to finish the meeting which has dawned upon me to be an internal and complicated one. A little at least for me. I honestly don't want to write much about this except I was surprised to see another fellow pinoy as sort of a guest. I totally had no idea.

I had to stop by at Daiso, my favorite place, to pick put some kitchen things. I impulsively bought an apple corer which did not work as it should be when I tried it out. I ended up peeling two apples that I had to eat or really make into an apple pie finally so I can try out the pan.

This I started before 7 o'clock with only about an hour before my Korean class starts. Surprisingly, I manage except for the clean up. I was able to pop the pie in the oven and had it smelling good before we hit out 10 minute break. Awesomeness. Never had such an exciting 10 minute break. Yet, I had another hour at least to cool it and a Korean lesson to finish. Once we finished, I had no other thought but to attack the pie.

The top crust didn't turn out that well coz I forgot to brush it with milk or sugar in my hurry. I also didn't have enough foil at hand so some part was slightly burned. However, I think it baked well compare to before when I used another pan. Moreover, it didn't turn out to be very sweet this time. I'd say, it turned out better. I ended up eating 1/4 of the whole thing.

I went back to learning knitting before bed with some youtube vid. I hope my interest will be sustained to finish an infinity scarf at least until this winter. I'll go back to gardening next springtime. My husband had been teasing me about my all-the-time changing interests. One thing that might stay around is baking specially this coming winter. It will warm the house with good-smelling edibles to boot. As for knitting, that might be another possibility specially if my sweaty hands will not act out a lot.

My Monday has been an interesting one to say the least. Now, off to finish my apple pie! (I'll have to make another one for P tomorrow afternoon when he gets back from the 3-day camp.

NHBS: Judy's Choco Chip Cookie (Canola Oil) and Maangchi's Milk Bread

Sept. 18
Tried the Judy's choco chip cookie today. Either the recipe is actually a bit dry to start with or I over baked it. It's pretty crunchy and not that sweet coz I didn't totally filled up the sugar to the brim.

I started trying out Maangchi's milk bread tonight with the first proofing. It should only be an hour but I'm planning to leave it overnight. Then do the next proofing tomorrow morning for the 2nd round for 30 mins. Divide into six and shape it. Then wait another 1 hour proofing before popping it in the oven.

180 C for 15-17 pre-heated oven. Milk wash + 1 more minute bake.
Her recipe steps seems a bit strange but we'll see how it works tomorrow. I will have 1.5 hours waiting before tasting it.

Update: Sept. 19
Finished baking the Maangchi's recipe for milk bread this morning. It wasn't very sweet. We needed to put strawberry jam on it. (I think I will let P eat all the cookies now. He will REALLY like it.)
I just proofed it for another 30 minutes after shaping it in the pan. Then baked at 180 C for 15-20, plus the remaining heat in the oven. I like the crust crunchy. 

Mini Loaf Pans

What makes me happy? Something that puts a smile on my face even though it's not smooth-sailing all the time? Baking. Teaching. Small scale gardening.

Atm. 5pm. Waiting for my mini-loaves to cool.
My new mini-loaf pan arrived today! Four of them and it fits well in the oven. I had a basic bread proofed and ready by the time pans got here.

The first kind of bread I proofed was 3 C of AP flour. I halved it, then divided the second one into two to check how much it will rise. I ended up freezing up 1/4 of the whole thing. Why? Because I also decided to try out the a banana bread loaf. The 3 C filled the two mini pans. It was just perfect after its final rise during baking.

Only two made it in the oven. One of the smaller ones went in the freezer. 

The yeast bread, on the other hand, also filled the pan pretty well. So basically, 1.3 C is enough to fill the pan. It crusted well. I had to stop myself from cracking it open while cooling because I was afraid inside will still need the extra heat to finish.

After dinner, I decided to make another batch which I can bake tomorrow or the next day. I decided to double the recipe ending up with 6 C, 2 C ground oats and 4 C AP. It wasn't that easy mixing and kneading it.

I'll let it rise overnight and see how much it would have risen by tomorrow since I also changed the margarine into canola oil and did not double the 3 t of yeast. A lil bit too much in the substitution but we'll see. It's time to sleep and wait for the result.

(Note that they have almost the same baking time and temperature so I had no problem baking them together.)

Here is the original recipe from instructables.
10 mins rise, 350 degrees F for 30 mins

For the Banana Bread (from the freshloaf.com)
Makes 1 full-sized loaf or 2 small loaves
Preheated oven to 350 F or 180 C.

I mashed the bananas inside a ziploc bag. 

Bowl 1: 

2 or 3 very ripe bananas (roughly 1 C mashed bananas in a ziploc bag)

1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened

2 eggs
2/3 C sugar (this was too sweet so I reduced to 1/2 C on my next try)

Bowl 2:
1 1/3 C all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon (optional)

1. Prep the 2 Bowls.
2. Mix Bowl 1 into Bowl 2. Optional to add: chopped walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or apricots, or chocolate chips. A handful (about a half a cup) is about right.
3. Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Small loaves: 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf: 50 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven. This bread is great warm, but it is excellent cold too.  
5. After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.

Left one was 1/4 of the dough, which I added some cinnamon.
Right one is 1/2 of the dough, almost plain. 

A decent loaf at last! After 14K worth of 2 sets of mini-loaf pans, hours of proofing and mixing, I have finally tasted a decent loaf of bread I had made myself. 

The plain bread turned out okay, but the banana bread was a bit too sweet for our taste. I'll have to decrease the sugar content from 3/4 C to 1/2 next time since the banana, specially over ripe ones, can be sweet enough. I decided to freeze the other banana loaf to be used on the following weekday when I'm a bit too busy to do some real baking.  

***Currently watching "the Healer."
1 AM.

Novice Home Baker Series: A Little Girl's Dream -- My First Apple Pie

Oven + apples = apple pie.

When I was a bit younger I dreamed about having an oven coz we didn't have any in our house growing up. I'd save interesting recipes that need some baking in hopes that I'll be able to do it someday. 

Macaroons, bread, and pies, especially apple pie, were on my list. When I finally had an oven, I was able to try buko (young coconut) and mango pie. But not an apple pie because it was a tad expensive plus I wasn't sure if it was fresh and good enough for one.

Last year, we got a lot of apples but didn't have an oven yet. I only ended up making an apple bread. 

This year is the chance since I finally got an oven and the apple season is starting. We picked up a bag of green apples more than a week ago and it's about time.

One of my little dreams came into reality today. I got home and started it. Everything seemed okay until it's done coz I saw that it was runny. Later, I found out that I should have used some tapioca and wait for it to set at least more than an hour before eating.

Impossible! We were all excited to taste it. I'll have to hunt for tapioca flour next time before the apple season rolls in. 

Novice Home Baker Series: Pandesal, Potato in the Oven

P birthday's done. It's a bit chilly and makes me want to bake some more.

I want to bake an apple pie, and hubs suggested for me to have another crack at pandesal. And so I did. It's my third time and I used the recipe from casa this time. I got lost in measuring the water content at some point but just got on with it. I probably used less than the 1 C required water. Nonetheless, I used up the 3 C of flour and produced a decent bread. Roughly 75% of the original one perhaps.(?)

We had some of it for dinner, along with some roasted potatoes. I used spaghetti sauce to dip and fill the bread too. While googling for the kinds of flours available in Korean marts, I found another pandesal recipe from buhayinkorea.com blogger. It's closer to what's available here so I may try that next time.

Now, I just have to look for a decent apple pie recipe. No such luck for that yet coz the one that I was eyeing last time from fb group is a bit tricky. Anyway, I'll try to check it out again. 

Novice Home Baker Series: Pandesal Day!

Another one off the list! I got my running list of stuff to bake and I finally got this one off to a success! I can finally eat something akin to pandesal whenever I want. 

It's pretty simple as I've guessed but it does take time to rise. Proofing is really needed with it that's why the bakers really had to wake up early in order to produce their freshly-baked pandesal every morning. They are usually available starting around 5 AM even. 

This is usually one of the few things that my KH, my son and me unanimously like for breakfast when we live in Ph. Other times would be Ima's bread, pancakes, cereals, or sweet potato. I'm usually the only one who go for oats. 

My son have memories of going out in the morning to buy this. He clearly remembers the dogs that he has to brave whenever he pass by the neighbor just to get the pandesal for the day. We would usually buy 30 peso worth or sometimes, even 50! Roughly a dollar and we get 25 pieces. 

Now, I have to, and I can, make one even if we are not in Ph. In little batches, that is, coz of my tiny oven.