Orange Sugar Buns

I love orange flavoured bakes. It has a wake me up effect.

My kids love butter sugar buns, so I made the usual butter sugar bun into an orange sugar bun.
You can use your favourite basic bun recipe and mix the sugar with some orange zest to get the same effect.

Gone in a day.

Charcoal Mung Bean Buns 竹炭豆蓉包子

Recipe created in 2013

Few years back, baking with bamboo charcoal was popular. A lot of people were baking bread with bamboo charcoal powder, creating black loaves or zebra looking loaves. Bamboo charcoal does not impart flavour to the bake, but there is a mild difference in texture. I have no idea whether this is activated or non activated bamboo charcoal powder because it's not stated on the bottle it came with.

White Pita Bread

I used to be scared of baking pita. I was worried it won't puff.
When I made my Bhatura, only one puffed up nicely. Very discouraging.

One day, I invited my brother over for dinner, and I asked him what did he want me to cook? He wanted Middle Eastern fare, served with Pita Bread. Aduuuiiii!!!! Where can I get Middle Eastern Style Pita that is thin and fluffy? I'm not in KL.

He asked me if I can make pita bread, I said no!

Soft Fluffy Doughnuts

It was a holiday project with the kids.

I promised them to make doughnuts for a long long time, just that it never came around.
Bad mother, haha! I still owe them croissants, homemade ones. Hopefully I'll make them by this year.

I manually kneaded these and the result was good enough for us.

Strawberry Crumble Buns

I miss the smell of fresh bread from the oven, but kneading bread made from bread flour takes too much of my time. I was googling for some recipe and this image caught my attention. It was an image from a bakery in Poland, .. and the strawberry and the crumble and the icing, so yum looking.......but no recipe. So, I used the name and googled for a recipe.  And settled with this recipe. My mind just kept thinking about it for days until I finally got my strawberries and turned my thoughts into reality.

Bhatura - AFF Indian Subcontinent #6

Bhatura or Bhatoora is a deep fried flat bread leavened with baking soda, originating from North India.

It is similar to Poori, something that we are more common with. Poori is made with whole wheat flour or atta flour, whereas bhatura is generally made with plain flour.

Nutella Bread Pudding - Nutella Week #3

Rarely, the man remembers what I bake.
He tends to not know what food is in the house and eats what I serve him.

He knows I'm baking when he sees me doing it, but doesn't remember, won't go looking, won't bother until I asks him if he wants a serving, of which the usual answer will be yes.

Light Rye Bread - Loaves #3

My first bread with the crippled mixer. I was so happy when I made this. My first pullman loaf!

The bread is not light, but kind of heavy, like how rye bread should be. But the texture is tender and spongy, with a bouncy mouth feel. I don't know how to describe it the best, but it's quite unique. This recipe is inspired from KitchenAid's cookbook, but I twisted it as I didn't have quite a few of the ingredients.

Wholemeal Cream Bread - Loaves #2

I've  been chatting with my friends on FB  about getting a Made in China mixer known called B5 or B7. Still thinking thinking.. another US KA or China B5/7. Decisions decisions.

If not bread baking will retire in my home. Or maybe partially retire because bread made with all purpose flour could still be managed with manual kneading

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread - Loaves #1

The texture was  better after some tweaking with the yeast

I made this almost 2 years ago. I never posted this as I was still looking for the perfect shot, but after  6 months with the new mixer (that time), my mojo for baking bread loaves fizzzled. The shots weren't as nice  as I wished because I just moved in the house that time. I wasn't very sure of the  lighting spots and my use of the camera is very different than now.

Sweet Potato and Feta Quickbread - Sweet Potato #1

A good and nutritious breakfast item. One that you can can prepare the day before, combine the batter and bake the next day for breakie.

I have achieved 4 Firsts with this simple quickbread. Sage, feta, sweet potato and nutmeg.

I’ve cooked with sage before, but never baked with it. I was totally taken by this recipe due to the use of sage in this. I have a huge sage plant in my garden. Almost 3 ft high now! I was glad the recipe called for amount of sage leaves, not counted in sprigs and that makes it easier to get the right amount. The fragrance is there, but not overpowering. It complements the bread very well.

The original recipe called for chevre, of which is a type of soft goat’s cheese. I can’t get that here and had to settle for feta, and even that is not real feta. It’s cow’s feta. Real feta is made with goat’s milk. I have never had feta before. I purposely went to buy some feta because I really wanted to try out this cake. The feta is really yummy and soft, but also salty. I might have broken up the cheese too much so can’t really get them in chunks in the bread.