Baking Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Eat Your Broccoli!

March 15, 2014

Coconut Pandan Muffins

Saint Patrick’s day is coming up. I’m thinking shades of green, or what do to with that pandan paste that has been sitting in my freezer. My first experiment, pandan coconut muffins. To be honest, I don’t really know what pandanus leaves taste like. It has a prominent odour, after cooking it reminds me of steaming rice. I’ll have to admit the muffins tasted mostly of coconut with a nice, chewy texture and a ton of green. Tasty.

Pandanus leaves are very popular in southeast Asia. They are used in both savoury and sweet dishes. I thought they were hard to find, until I saw them in the freezer section of Lambda Supermarket. I bought the frozen leaves and blended them into a paste.

For this recipe, I found the amount of pandan paste insufficient. Since I made my own, I kept on adding until the batter turned a nice green colour. I’m guessing it was almost a cup when all was said and done.

The aroma of pandan permeated the house so much, that even hours later, it still smelled like the rice cooker was on all day.

I used the recipe from Rice and Coconut blog and the following conversion for self raising flour.

March 9, 2014

Century Egg Pastry

Sometimes I just want to make something that I haven’t had in a really long time. When we took our summer trips to Toronto in my younger days, we always went to the Chinese bakeries. We always ordered the same things, a box full of salty and one of sweet. The salty included curry beef buns, BBQ pork buns, chicken buns and the occasional chicken pot pie. The sweet box was my favorite. Cocktail buns, pineapple buns, coconut tarts, egg tarts, wife cake, almond cookies and my Dad’s favorite, century egg pastry, or pai dan so. I think I was the only kid that ate it.

I haven’t been able to find these in Calgary, but then I haven’t looked really hard. What I can’t find, I make at home.

This version is not the traditional one that I’ve seen. It is usually made with lotus seed paste but I was too lazy to go to T&T. It tastes just as good with red bean paste. I need to improve my sweetcrust pastry technique, though.

Recipe courtesy of Angie’s Recipes.

Steaming the eggs with Chinese cooking wine

February 25, 2014

Maple Bacon Pumpkin Cheesecake

My latest endeavour is to make things that reflect the Gastropost mission of the week. Last week’s was Canadian food, to show our Canadian pride for the Olympics. What is more Canadian then Maple syrup and bacon? I was looking for a creative recipe that would include these two wonderful breakfast ingredients. The pumpkin just came along for the ride, and it masqueraded as dessert. But I’m sure it would taste equally good for a 5am hockey final.

Introducing, the maple bacon and pumpkin cheesecake, courtesy of Mr. Baconpants blog.

Since I was so concerned about the caloric potential of this mind boggling dessert, I declined to make the glaze that went on top. I meekly tried to get away with a dab of plain Greek yogurt and a slice of bacon for decoration. This cheesecake is that good, that it doesn’t need a topping. Prepare to go on a diet after a slice.

20140221_230453 — Maple Bacon Pumpkin Cheesecake

20140223_100954 — Bacon for dessert? Yes, please!

February 15, 2014

Baking Bao Revisited

I decided to try a new bao recipe today. This one has an interesting ingredient, water roux. It made my buns lighter and I like the addition of an egg to the recipe. I made some with red bean paste and some with curry beef. Recipe is courtesy of Honey and Spice blog.

Here is the previous recipe for reference.

Red bean paste (poppy seeds) and curry beef bao

February 9, 2014

Pita and Falafel

I’m in the mood for something healthy and vegetarian. After a visit to Calgary Shawarma, I wondered if I could make a decent falafel wrap at home.

Kudos to the authors for the pita and falafel recipes.

I was generous with the parsley so I ended up with green falafel! Dried and reconstituted chickpeas give a nice texture.

I tried the flatten and roll as opposed to my pizza technique which did not require a rolling pin. Rolling pin wins, as the texture is more even.

I liked the way some of my creations puffed up. Some of them didn’t. And some of them were a little charred.

Fried is definitely tastier, but baked is healthier! Fried in a cast iron pan.

My pitas were so small that the falafel didn’t fit inside. Topped with: lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olives, cucumber, Greek yogurt and tahini. Tasted good, though.

Falafel sandwiches, left is fried, right is baked

February 2, 2014

Orange Flax Seed Muffins

I was looking for something different to do with muffins. I have a bunch of oranges in the fridge, and voila! These are light and healthy.

Orange Flax Muffins

1 ½ C all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
½ C raw wheat germ
2 tbs ground flax seed
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
¾ C packed brown sugar
¼ C canola oil
½ C orange puree
1 tsp grated orange rind
¼ cup fresh orange juice
2 large eggs
12 muffin liners
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 8 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine brown sugar, oil, rind, juice, and eggs; stir with a whisk. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Arrange liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake at 375° for 17 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched in center.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

November 17, 2013

French Bread

I was looking for something to go with my chili, so I thought some good quality bread would be nice. I bought a baguette pan a while ago, so now is the time to use it. Disclosure: I don’t have a bread maker and see no need to buy one. I like my 800 watt Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine as I’ve already smoked one KitchenAid stand mixer.

My first effort was tasty. I tried using a high altitude bread recipe. I found the dough a little dry, but it seemed to proof ok. The oven was too hot, so I reduced the cooking time by 5 minutes. Next time, I will try 360F, the temperature that I use for my Chinese bao. The bread is sturdy and chewy.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on the baked goods at Safeway? I will buy their bread in a pinch (I make an exception for their bagels) but there is an awful lot of polysyllabic words in there. So if I want bread, I’ll just bake it myself or buy from a local bakery.

November 10, 2013

Matcha Thumbprint Cookies with Red Bean Paste

I’m looking for something a little different for my Christmas cookie exchange this year. These cookies are the colours of the season, red and green. The original recipe ended up too dry, so I added egg white and water. I took out some of the sugar as the matcha was sweetened. It seemed affordable at $18 a bag, as the pure fetched $30 for a Chinese teacup sized amount. These turned out surprisingly well. For the cookie exchange, I will probably omit the red bean paste it it makes it a little messy to store.

Matcha Thumbprint Cookies With Red Bean Paste

Makes 15- 17 cookies

1 cup             all-purpose flour
¼ cup             brown rice flour (can be substituted with all-purpose)
2 tsp              pure or sweetened matcha powder
¼ tsp              baking soda
¼ tsp              salt
¼ C                unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ C + 2 tbs    sugar, if using sweetened matcha, reduce to 6 tbs
1                      large egg
½ tsp              vanilla extract
¼ C                  water

A little red bean paste

In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, matcha and salt.
Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for another 30 seconds.
On low speed, add the flour/matcha mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Add water if too dry.
Form into a ball or disc and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Position rack in the middle of the oven.
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and bake them for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and make a dent in each cookie (you can use your thumb but I don’t like a burnt thumb so I used the back of a ½ tsp measure).
Fill cookies with red bean paste.
Place the cookies back into the oven for 8 more minutes .
If you like your cookies crisper you can go for more time. These are still chewy in the middle.
Remove cookies from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

This recipe was modified and inspired from:

http://www.5thseasondesigns.com/2011/04/11/matcha-tea-always-makes-me-smile/

http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2009/01/28/thanks-for-caring/

October 6, 2013

Tortilla Press

I got a tortilla press and warmer for my birthday. I can now have perfectly formed tortillas. There are a couple of differences between this and my hand rolled tortillas. These have a more even thickness, and they are thicker. I would almost call them roti. My hand rolled ones are thinner but obviously not round. I might use these for roti…