Enjoying homely made pizza

Even though this pizza was made almost two months ago, I had been kiv-ing this post because I wanted to post the recipe of this which I considered quite a good pizza base. Preparing the ingredients, button mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, garlic, tomato paste...

I made this tomato sauce with tomato paste and other seasoning ingredients.

If you like a very cheesy pizza with those "pull out cheese effect", be sure to add lots of cheese!

I don't have a pan pizza pan, so I just shape and rolled into an "off-shape" pizza!

The good thing about making a pizza is you do not have to proof the dough as long as that of a most other bread. This bread base is thin yet it has a soft and light crust. So do not be tempted to spread too much sauce otherwise the base becomes wet and soggy.

Ingredients:

100g bread flour

100g cake flour

10g castor sugar

1/2 tsp yeast (2g)

110g water

10g olive oil

80g mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. Mix bread flour, cake flour, castor sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands or an electric mixer attached with the dough hook, mix to form a dough. Add the olive oil and knead the dough until a smooth and elastic dough is formed. (I used my bread-maker to knead the dough).
2. Let dough proof for 60 minutes.
3. Meanwhile prepare the tomato sauce (you can use store-bought pasta sauce and heat it), and let it cool.
4. After 60 minutes, punch proofed dough and divide into 2 portions. Roll into two 22-cm in diameter each (if you want to stuff the circumference of the crust with cheese, based on original recipe). Otherwise you can roll into 18-20 cm in diameter.
5. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Line circumference of dough with mozzarella cheese and fold the dough inwards (optional step if you do not want to have stuff-crust cheese).
7. Ready to spread the fillings: Spread tomato sauce (not too thick as crust if quite thin) followed by your preferred fillings. I used button mushrooms and it was really wholesome! My dd though it was meat! LOL. Finally top generously with cheese.
8. Bake in the ovwn at 220°C for about 12 minutes. (If you can adjust top and bottom temperature, recipes calls for it to be baked at upper heat: 200°C and lower heat: 250°C.

There you are! Freshly baked pizza! :)

Recipe Source: Recipe Source:孟老师的一百道面包

Wanna have some chocolate chip buns?

Another of Dean Brettschneider's recipe in the book Global Baker - by Dean Brettschneider. This is one of the recipes that attracted me to buy as I was flipping through it. He has modified traditional hot cross buns into chocolate chip version and was a hit in the Chinese market, according to him.



I made it but omitted the hot cross mixture and the result was fabulous! This recipe is definitely a keeper. It satisfied my craving for chocolate when I didn't want anything cakey. :)


Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients for Dough:

300g bread flour
30g cocoa powder
5g salt
25g butter
25g sugar
zest of 1 orange
5g active dried yeast
1 small egg, weight no more than 50g when cracked
150ml water
140g chocolate chips, chilled beforehand

Ingredients for cross mixture:

150g plain flour
50g vegetable oil
150ml water

Ingredients for sugar glaze:

40g sugar
100ml water
zest of 1 orange

Method:

1. Place all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and combine to form a dough.
2. Knead dough for 10-15 minutes, resting for 30 seconds every 2-3 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. The dough will be soft and sticky but do not add more flour. Finally add cold chocolate chips and knead gently until well incoporated into the dough. (For me, I just use my bread maker to knead the dough).
3. Place dough in a lightly oiled large bowl and covered with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place and let it proof for 45-60 minutes.
4. Gently knock back the dough in the bowl by folding it back onto itself. Cover again with plastoc wrap and leave for 30 minutes.
5. Tip dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Shape to form a small ball.
6. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for about 30-45 minutes, depending on temperature.
7. To make the cross mixture, place flour and oil in a bowl and whisk slowly, adding just enough water to make a smooth, lump-free paste.
8. Preheat oven to 190°C.
9. Put the cross mixture into a piping bag fitted with plain 3mm piping nozzle, and pipe crosses onto the buns.
10. Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes, until golden brown.
11. In the meantime, heat the sugar, water and orange zest to boiling and remove from the heat to make the glaze. Remove buns from the oven and brush with the sugar glaze, Place on a wire rack to cool.

Recipe Source: Global Baker - by Dean Brettschneider


Sorry for showing my slightly burnt buns :P Usually I'll remember to tent the buns with a foil but I've forgotten for these chocolate buns as I couldn't see the burnt colour cos' it all black!

Dean Brettschneider

Global Baker - by Dean Brettschneider is a recent book that I acquired when there was this 30% off all books at Borders with a cut-out coupon. I didn't really have any books that I wanted to buy in mind but since it was such a good offer, I hopped down to Borders for a book-shopping.

Call me ignorant, or maybe not, I have not heard of Dean Brettschneider before I have his book but as I was browsing through the many cookbooks, this particular one attracted me as the recipes are not those "old-fashion" or "classic" recipes that you commonly see from American/European bakers. Owing to the fact that he is currently based in Shanghai, some of his recipes are given an Asian twist such as "red bean & sesame ring bread", "chocolate chip hot cross buns" , "chinese flower steam buns", and many other interesting cakes, bread and pastries which somehow appeals to me.This book is accompanied by a dvd showing a snapshot of a day in this baker's life in Shanghai. A little disappointing is that the entire film is probably only about half an hour. This irish soda bread is the first recipe that I tried. I have seen quite a fair bit of such bread in other baker's books such as Martha Steward but this is the first time I try making it. It seems to me an easy quick bread minus the sugar so I often wonder how it taste like. I decided to give this a try as all I wanted for next day's breakfast was a very easy-to-bake healthy quick bread. Overall, it's a nice soft bread that is good when toasted and spread with butter or jam.

Being not a too-picky eater, this bread is fine. I guess in terms of pastries, I still prefer Asian's sweet soft buns, that why I'm not really fond of muffins, but I do like Artisan hard crust bread!

If anyone is interested in the recipe, then drop me a note. :)

Ok, my second recipe here. This is your usual favourite subway cookie - if you love their cookies. Sweet, chewy, giant cookie, but you can't find in Subway, so you gotta make it yourself! White chocolate and pistachio is a good combination, sweet white chocolate pairs with salty pistachio nuts helps to balance the overall sweetness. I made this for my dd's best buddy and his wife who will be staying in Australia for two years. :)

Pistachio & White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

135g butter, softened

100g sugar

100g soft brown sugar (I used 80g each)

1 small egg

10ml milk

few drops of vanilla essence or extract

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

45g rolled oats

55g pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped

140g white chocolate drops, coarsely chopped

60g pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped, for topping

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C
2. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar with electric beater until light and fluffy.
3. Add egg , milk and vanilla essence/extract and mix in.
4. Sieve all the dry ingredients, and add to the creamed mixture along with the rolled oats until well combined and evenly mixed.
5. Add pistachio nuts and white chocolate and mix again until well combined.
6. Using a tablespoon, scoop spoonfuls (about 35g) and roll into round balls using floured hands and place 10cm apart on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. (Do not flatten, otherwise the cookies will spread too much.
7. Sprinkle a few chopped pistachio nuts over the top and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. You can bake for 10-14 minutes for crispier cookies.
8. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Recipe Source: Global Baker - by Dean Brettschneider

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Update: Due to some requests, I have posted the recipe of the irish soda bread here. Enjoy!!

Wholewheat Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

• 215g plain flour
• 10g baking powder
• 5g baking soda
• 5g cream of tartar
• good pinch of salt
• 225g wholewheat or wholemeal flour
• 20g treacle, honey or golden syrup, warmed
• 225ml milk
• 225g natural yoghurt
• rolled oats for decoration

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Sieve the plain flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large mixing bowl, add wholemeal flour and stir together.
3. Add warmed honey, milk and natural yoghurt and use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture together until smooth with a batter-like consistency. Do not be tempted to add more flour.
4. Pour mixture into a greased 21cm by 9cm and level the top so it is smooth. Sprinkle with rolled oats.
5. Brush the bottom edge of a large scraper with oil and push it halfway down into the batter, then remove it. This will create a split as the loaf rises during the first stages of baking.
6. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
7. Remove from oven and tip onto a wire rack to cool.

Recipe Source: Global Baker - by Dean Brettschneider

birthday cake for my ice-cream-lover

Sometimes when we leave a comment at someone's blog, we can have the option to see follow-up comments and this was what I did when I first left a comment in Happy Homebaker's post of an oreo ice-cream cake. Wow... I ended up receiving via my email many many follow-up comments from other bloggers about the ice-cream cake that sets me thinking"hmm... is ice-cream so special? maybe I should try an ice-cream some day."


So, when I thought of making an ice-cream cake for my dd, the first thing I did was to immediately hopped onto her blog! Ice-cream has always been my dd's favourite dessert. So he is always asking whether I want to eat ice-cream whenever we were out but I think he's the one craving for it! LOL! I chose this Tin Loaf Brownie ice-cream with nuts but it was not really that special. It was almost like oreo ice-cream.

I had thought making this no-bake cake would be much easier than baked cakes but definitely it is not. The cake remained soft even after several hours of chilling. It melted and formed a small puddle at the side thus I covered with "Vicenzi" Italian Ladyfingers to hold the heart-shape in shape. It was a good choice as I find this Italian biscuits goes well with not only Tiramisu but ice-cream as well. :)

After this try, my advise is if you need the cake on that particular day, it is best that you make it a day earlier, as it needs a good chill in the freezer before it is good for serving.


I wanted to make some chocolate decorations and pipe wordings so I had fun playing, piping setting and eating the chocolates! :P



The cake was really delicious, I believe no one can go wrong with an ice-cream cake right! The topping can be up to your preferences. :) I'll probably try some fruity flavoured ice-cream if I were to make it again.

I think this is the first time I'm encouraging dd to eat so much ice-cream. Hehe... ok we can rest for 2 months without eating ice-cream ;)

A Special Request

I received a special request a couple of weeks ago from my dear cousin, asking me whether she could come over to my house and teach her how to bake a birthday cake for her boyfriend on his birthday. Having received such a sweet intention to do something that is so close to my heart (baking for loved ones), how can I say no right. ;)

She requested for a chocolate cake, simple and not too complicated in case it fails, and less time-consuming so that she can fly off to meet her boyfriend after that. :D

I shortlisted some butter chocolate cake recipes and thought those should be quite safe. As least, I don't have to be afraid of cake sinking in the middle or uncooked cake as what I've encountered during my past failed attempts in making chiffons or spongecakes. Going through my limited collection of recipe books and photostated recipes, hey I found this velvet chocolate cake in my VCD I'd recently bought at Judy Koh's Creative Culinaire School.

What is special about this recipe is that it does not contain any eggs; instead it uses mayonnaise, the first time I've seen appearing in a cake recipe. This recipe uses a mixed-in method, but when covered with a layer of chocolate glaze, it was immediately transformed to an elegant cake suitable for special occasions. While I am recommending this recipe to her, I have never tried this recipe yet, so she shall be the first to test it out for me. :P

As I'd mentioned, this is a very easy cake as all you need to do is just to mix in and wet and dry ingredient, taking care not to over-mix it. All of a sudden, it felt so different when I actually stood by the side, guiding her along instead of doing it myself, ;) The best part was, there were still quite alot of chocolate glaze leftovers and we had fun eating strawberries coated with chocolate. Yum!

She bought some heart-sugar to decorate and I toasted some almonds for her.

Verdict? I think she likes how the cake turned out but "it was not very soft, but was edible". :D hmmm well, I guess I can only try for myself to know how "not very soft " it was, since it was not a chiffon/sponge cake base.

But I am posting the recipe in case you happen to have no eggs/but mayonnaise and may wish to give it a try. :) Do let me know how it turns out if you happen to try it. :)

Velvet Chocolate Cake

Ingredients A

105g sugar

120g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp bakig soda

Ingredients B

1 tsp vanilla essence

110g mayonnaise

110g buttermilk

Method:

1. Sieve ingredients A (except sugar). Place sieved ingredients and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Mix ingredients B together.
3. Using hand whisk. combine A and B together until just combined and quite smooth.
4. Pour mixture into a 7-inch baking tin (we used 5-inch heart shape tin), bake at 170°C for about 45 minutes or until cooked.
5. Unmould and leave it to cool on the wire rack.
6. Meanwhile, heat 200g dairy whipping cream. Add in 100g couverture chocolate and 200g semi sweet chocolate (chopped) and stir until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth.
7. Remove from the heat. The mixture will still be quite thin. Allow it to cool until thick and of pouring consistency, about 45 minutes.
8. Pour the glaze over the cake and decorate as desired.

Recipe Source: Judy Koh - Delightful Cakes

Strawberry Custard Tart

I am really lagging way behind what I am supposed to be posting by now. As you can see, Mother's Day was two weeks ago but I only have time to put up what I've made that day. Not to mention an ice-cream cake I made for dd for his birthday last week (*smile) and other bakes I've made till now. Whenever I delayed something that I wanted to blog about for too long a period, I'll tend to lose the enthusiasm, as there are new items that I'm excited to share about. How I wish I have more than 24 hours a day! I would then be able to do much more things that I always wanted. Anyway, I'm already thankful that at least I have a stable job that doesn't requires me to work overtime that often, so I can still spare time in doing things that I enjoy, as well as time for this hobby of mine. :) I baked this strawberry tart for dear mummy this Mother's Day. We postponed our family dinner as my brother was in Korea for a holiday. Thus Mum thought that since the cake won't be shared with the whole family, I could bake something smaller as she would not be able to finish a whole cake. So, I decided to bake this 6-inch tart filled with pastry cream and strawberries. I got the recipe from Happy Homebaker's Berry Tart, without modifying any part of the recipe except the topping. I like that the crust uses less butter and was pretty much easy to handle. This was also the first time I succeeded in making the pastry cream without getting it hardened into lumps. It was smooth and the vanilla extract taste was great!

Thanks Happy HomeBaker for sharing this recipe. It has been a long time we have eaten such a yummy homemade tart!

Cranberry Wholemeal Bar

Hello visitors/baking kakis/readers! It has been two long weeks since my last post, and I do miss blogging and posting recipes. So what have I been up to? Nope, I didn't go on a holiday or anywhere, I'm still baking as usual. :) Well, just that I'm rushing to finish a birthday present of a cross stitch pillow case for my dd that I had been at it every night but I still couldn't finish in the end. :P

**dd, although you said there is no rush but I'll get it done very soon ya, ;) I'd do up this quick post of bar cookie that I made a few weeks ago. This is considered a healthy enough snack for me to bring to work when I'm craving to munch something between meals. I now refrain from bringing my favourite snacks such as chocolates and butter cookies too often cos' I'll just not be able to control and finish it off very soon!

This bar cookie uses wholemeal flour and cranberries and lesser amount of butter so I would considered it to be a healthier option. This is the cookie for you if you prefer something nutty , crunchy and not too buttery.
Wholemeal Cranberry Bar

Ingredients:

100g Wholemeal Flour
40g icing sugar
50g unsalted butter
20g raisins and 20g cranberries (I used all cranberries)
20g candied dried fruits (I used chopped peanuts)
20g beaten egg
1 tbsp sesame seeds


Method:

1. Add icing sugar into wholemeal flour and mix well.
2. Rub butter into the flour mixture till evenly mixed.
3. Mix together cranberries, raisins and dried fruits/nuts in a bowl. Add egg into the fruit/nuts mixture and stir lightly until evenly mixed.
4. Add the fruits/nuts mixture (step 3) into step 2, and press the mixture evenly into a 18cm by 18cm square tin.
5. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and press lightly.
6. Bake at 170°C for about 30 minutes. After baking, leave it in the oven for 10 minutes before taking out of the oven to cool.

Baking Source: 孟老师的一百道面包