Oreo bread

Beside the brown sugar butter bread 黑糖黄糖牛油面包, i also saw this Oreo bread published in the same newspaper. I like to try new things, so i also try out this bread..

This is how i test for doneness of bread dough after 1st proof, use the finger method: Poke it with one finger, if it holds the indentation, then it's ready. (this picture was taken from the brown sugar bread but not this Oreo bread)

2nd proof after divided and shape into small balls..

Love the crunchy and fragrant Oreo toppings..

Updated on 1st March,as feedback from a reader, the real Oreo bread have filling inside. I think is good idea to add filling since the bun itself is quite plain, maybe you can use the sugar paste from Oreo or butter and sugar filling..Do try out and let me know...Thanks.

Oreo bread
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)
*makes 10 buns


Ingredients
200g bread flour / High protein flour
50g cake flour / low protein flour
40g sugar
1 egg (large)
80g milk
30g corn oil / vegetable oil
1tsp instant dry yeast
A pinch of salt
20g crushed Oreo biscuit (without the sugar paste)


For topping
Egg wash
Add 1tbsp butter with 50g crushed Oreo biscuit (with sugar paste)


Method
1. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl, mix until well blended to form dough, continue to knead till form elastic dough, add in 20g crushed Oreo biscuit, knead till well incorporate into dough, set aside to proof until double in size. (I use KA mixer with speed 2-3 knead for 30mins)
2. Equally divide the dough and mould it round. Let it rest for 15mins to loosen gluten.
3. Roll the dough into ball and slightly flatten and place it onto greased pan or lined with baking paper. Place a sheet of baking paper on top and followed by another an empty baking pan, let it proof for another 30-45mins.
4. Egg wash the surface and sprinkle Oreo topping on top of each dough.
5. Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper on top and followed by an empty baking pan (to have flatten shape). Bake at pre-heated oven at 170c (with fan) for 20mins (at middle rack).

Vegetarian pumpkin dumplings (素煎餃/ 鍋貼)

Last Saturday, my sister brought me to a vegetarian food party which organized by Tzu Chi Malaysia 慈濟 (Tzu Chi Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 by Dharma Master Cheng Yen in the impoverished east coast of Taiwan. The Foundation has been contributing to better social and community services, medical care, education and humanism in Taiwan for nearly forty years). My sister is now one of the volunteer in this center. I was truly enjoyed all the yummy vegetarian foods prepared by their members. Also I learnt this vegetarian dumplings from them..

All yummy vegetarian foods served in this party...素食也可以很好吃！

They also talk about the benefit of eating vegetarian foods and encourage us to eat less meat and oily foods (cheese, butter and etc) to have a better and healthy life..I was inspired by this talk and I will start to cook at least one vegetarian meal once in a week..

They also do recycle activities in this center..

This Taiwan lady taught us how to make dumplings from the scratch..(taken by phone, sorry for the poor quality)

One tip from her, make this flour water to get a cripsy bottom of dumplings..

Adding the flour water, you can see a thin layer of cripsy cooked flour at the bottom..

This is the filling, they suggested to use the mushroom stem (not to waste by throwing away and the stem actually has nice texture)..

Nice dipping sauce-light soy sauce, water, sesame oil and Basil

To make round dumpling wrapper, use the end of the rolling pin and roll by turning the dough in circle..Since this is homemade, do not force yourself to get a perfect round wrapper..Even is uneven, after wrapped, you will still see nice dumpling shape..

Too bad, I'm not able to take the video to show you how i wrap the dumplings. Let me show you the pictures as per below, the steps actually start from pull, fold, press and seal the wrapper..

Pan fry the dumplings...

Vegetarian Pumpkin dumplings (素煎餃/ 鍋貼)
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)
*makes around 80 mini dumplings

Dumpling wrapper
300g plain flour
150g pumpkin puree with water, mix 100g pumpkin puree (after steamed) and water

Filling
250g cabbage, chopped finely
50g carrot, chopped finely
20g Chinese chives, chopped finely
100g cooked Chinese Shiitake mushroom stems, chopped finely (you may replace with just mushroom but not the mushroom stem)
Seasonings
1tbsp light soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
1tsp sesame oil
A dash of pepper

Cooking dumplings
Flour water – add 1 cup water with 1tbsp plain flour

Method
1. Soak dried Shiitake mushroom stems for overnight. Braise with water (season with light soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce) for 1-2 hours (I use pressure cook to cook for 20mins).
2. To prepare dumpling wrapper, mix flour with pumpkin water, knead till smooth dough, set aside to rest for 1hour.
3. To prepare the filling, squeeze as much of water from cabbage, mix with carrot, chives and mushroom. Add in seasonings, mix till combine well.
4. Dust worktop with flour, divide dough into small pieces, use rolling pin to roll dough into round and thin. Place a small spoonful of filing on the dumpling skin, fold it accordingly.
5. Add little cooking oil in a non-stick frying pan, fry dumplings over medium heat.
6. Once dumplings bottom turned golden brown, add some flour water and cover with lid immediately, cook over high heat.
7. Cook for about 2-3 minutes till water has evaporated.
8. Dish out and serve with dipping sauce (Light soy sauce, sesame oil, water and basil).

Impromtu Valentine's meal- grilled lamb, mushroom, mashed potato

After i married and have kids, no more celebration of Valentine..On the recent Valentine's day, i still plan to cook as per normal Chinese meal. But my daughter requested me to cook Western meal after she came back from shool..She said we should also celebrate this day this time. I also sick of everyday Chinese meal, so i agreed with her, and i rushed to the nearby supermarket to make my last minutes marketing..

While i driving to the supermarket, i still not decided what to cook..I start to think which of my blogger friend cook a good Western meal. I recalled i have seen many yummy Western meals in Elin's blog-Elinluv's Tidbits Corner (Thanks Elin). I have never cook lamb at home, so I decided to make some grill lamb chops..
This Valentine meal cost me less than RM 100, very economy and delicious..



Grilled Lamb shoulder

I supposed to prepare Portobello but i could not find it, i replaced with this giant button mushroom, taste nice too..

Our all time favourite Japanese mashed potato, this time i added chopped bacon..Yummy!

Since this is a last minutes meal and impromtu meal, so i did not manage to record down the exact amount of each ingredients..Anyway, this recipe is simple and easy to prepare..

Recipe source: Adapted from Elinluv's Tidbits Corner here and here with minor changes

Grilled Lamb shoulders

Lamp chop (shoulder)
Freshly crushed black pepper
Salt
• washed clean and tenderized , marinate with a pinch of salt and pepper for 30 minutes.
• grill at 200c for 10mins each side, 240c for 5mins one side

Black pepper sauce for grilled lamb
gravy from roasted lamb chops
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Water
Oyster sauce
Tomato ketchup
Worcestershire sauce
Red wine (optional, but worth to add)
Freshly ground black pepper
Flour mix with water, to thicken
.
• Mix all seasonings and ingredients in a pot, cooked for 5-10mins, thicken the sauce by flour mixture.


Grilled stuffed button mushrooms

Big button mushroom or portobello
Green pepper, chopped
Bacon, chopped
Chicken meat, chopped
Carrot, chopped
Parmesan cheese or mozzarella cheese

Bread crumbs
Olive oil

• Mix pepper, bacon,cheese, chicken meat and carrot in a mixing bowl.
• Season with salt and pepper, stir till sticky paste.
• Stuff the mushrooms with the paste
• Greased the baking sheet with olive oil, place the stuffed mushrooms on it and sprinkle extra bread crumbs on the surface and baked in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes or till crispy brown and cooked

Japanese mashed potato

US russet potato, boiled till soft and mashed fine
Japanese cucumber, chopped
Carrot, chopped
Bacon, chopped and pan fried
Japanese mayonnaise

Refer to recipe here

Castella (Kasutera) cake长崎蛋糕(カステラ)

I feel myself still have long way to master in baking, like this an example of Castella cake, I only success on the 4th attempt (thought still not a perfect one!) even i have the recipe and resources for reference.

Earlier i was too confident because I thought i have this wooden box that specially to make Castella cake, sure i have no problem to make this cake. And i even has more confident as there is a cake stabilizer added in..This is cake stabilizer or so called Ovalette / SP, widely used in Asian baking but don't think can be found in Western countries..Actually this is not good when consume frequently and i also dislike the plastic smell. I just tried this time specially for this cake...

These were the 3 failed attempts! A layer of uncooked flour formed at the bottom..

1st failed attempt - I bake at the lower rack, the heat could not flow fast to the bottom and resulted a layer of uncooked flour...

2nd failed attempt- This time i bake at the middle rack, but still a thin uncooked flour layer formed but better than 1st time, maybe i underbeat the batter..

3rd failed attempt- still at the middle rack, increase the temperature but still formed a thin uncooked flour layer

I almost give up after the 3rd failed attempts..I sent an SOS email to Castella cake master sifu Jane and got some advice from her. I rememberd Jane asked me to take it easy (平常心 ) to make this cake. But I could not do that because I already failed 3 times, hahaha.. So I cracked my head to find out the reason..At last, i concluded that I should remove the layer of foil wrapped outside of the box (more heat contact from the bottom since four size of the box is thick wood) and only line with paper and also change the cake pan.

I also came out with my own paper layout that suit and perfect fit in this wooden box.

You need to beat the batter till stable and creamy..

Also inverted the cake after bake..(next time i will try not to invert to see any ifference)

Thought my 4th attempted still not perfect, the bottom shrunk a bit..(I suspected i bake at a bit high temperature of 170c instead of 160c as suggested, cake rise too fast and tall, resulted rapidly shrunk once contact with cool air)..

With my failed experinces as per above, i hope it will help you to success making this cake for the 1st time...
The taste of this cake is just ok, something like Egg sponge cake (Ji Dan Kou) with honey aroma but the texture more firm if compare with normal cake, between cake and bread. If i have opportunity, I must taste the real Castella cake in Japan.

Updated on 25th February 2012- I would like to reiterate that this is actually a good recipe, just my poor skill resulted these failed attempts..In fact, i got a very nice smooth and not wrinkle top cake surface, and the surface also not sticky once cake is cooled down.

Castella (Kasutera) cake长崎蛋糕(カステラ)
(recipe source: adapted from Jane’s corner, original recipe by周老師)
*makes one wooden size of cake

250g eggs (at room temperature)
80g fine sugar
50g honey
75g milk
10g cake emulsifier/Ovalette/Cake stabilizer
55g high protein flour / bread flour
90g low protein flour / cake flour
a pinch of salt
50g melted butter
10g Mirin

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c.
2. Line wooden box with parchment paper and place on a large baking pan.
3. Warm milk, honey and cake emulsifier and mix through over simmering water.
4. Pour all ingredients into mixing bowl except melted butter and mirin. Beat with medium speed (KA mixer speed 4) until batter is thick and creamy white (about 8-10 mins), scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl from time to time. When you are done the batter will be thick enough to form soft peaks when you draw up your whisk. If you write a “O” on the surface with the whisk, it should stay there long enough for you to read it before it disappears.
5. Combined melted butter and Mirin together, slowly add into the batter and beat over low speed (KA mixer speed 1), scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure blend well.
6. Pour batter in the lined wooden cake box (I also warm the cake box in the pre-heated oven). Put cake into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 160c. Bake for 55-60mins at middle rack of the oven.
7. Remove cake from oven, place a non-stick parchment paper on top of the cake and follow by another cake pan, turn up side down the cake. Cool on a wire rack.
8. When the cake is cool enough to handle but still warm (~15mins), invert the cake again, remove the pan and wooden box. Continue to cool on a wire rack.
9. Cool slightly and wrap the cake nicely. Chill in the fridge overnight before serving (This step is critical to ensure the Castella has a moist texture).