Lemon Blueberry Bread

As simple as the title, this is a simple lemon blueberry quickbread. Never underestimate the power of citrus zest (in this recipe, lemon zest) which can enhance the flavour much more than any artificial flavours.

This bread is slightly chewy and sticky due to the bursting of blueberries, with soft and fine crumbs. Recipe was taken and slightly modified from Baking Bite's blog. Try this if you have all the ingredients on hand. :)

Kreativ Blogger Award

I was passed a Kreativ Blogger award from tracieMoo of Bitter Sweet Flavours tsome time back. Nope I have not forgotten about it. ;) Just back from a short Bangkok trip. A total shopping paradise especially for ladies!! I spent most of the time shopping and got myself some really good bargains. :D I shall blog about it if I have the time ;)

Back to this award, I was elated and honoured to be able to receive an award even though I felt i've not been posting as regular as before :( I do not know about others but for me, it can really be time consuming especially if I'm doing up a decent post with recipes and photos. Small small baker has recently posted a poll on: How long do you take to take to write a blog post. It's pretty interesting, hop over to have a look!

Thanks tracieMoo for the award! I like the award badge cos' the colour combination and design looks sooo sweet. :)

The Kreativ Blogger Award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

This is not the first time I have post something about myself and since i can't think of anything interesting about myself to share with others, I'd post 7 baking disasters I've experienced in the kitchen!

1. Forgotten to put in the sugar. What do you think can happen? :P

2. Open the oven door to tent the cake (usually chiffon cake) and the whole cake deflated *heart sinking*

3. Accidently knocked the final proofed bread just before putting into the oven and I see with my own eyes the bread dough shrinking! Argghh..

4. Supposed to half the recipe but forgotten to half some of the ingredients, hence the proportion was totally off.

5. Careless me burnt my hands several times. :P

6. Forgotten to switch back the oven mode from grilled mode to baking mode and got all my cookies burnt.

7. I was using my bread maker to beat the dough when I realised I forgotten to attach the hook before pouring the ingredients! Not wanting to waste the ingredients, I had to clumsily put on a plastic glove, and sneaked my hand through the flour and liquid to attach the hook on. Can you imagine the unsightly scene. :P

There are many food bloggers out there whom I greatly admired and would like to pass the award to, However, since I can only choose seven, I would pass to:

Missy of Sweet Crumbs for her excellent photoshots and simple yet tempting bakes.

Kitchen Corner for sharing her numerous bread recipes and churning out perfect chiffons.

My Kitchen Snippets's homely dishes and bakes always tempts me to wish to have my own kitchen asap!

Daphne's More Than Words's daily home dishes and forever churning new pasta ideas.

I know Happy Home Baker has already received this award but still I would not want to miss this award for her. Her posts and recipes never fails to interest me.

I admire Ovenhaven for her love for baking and i'm always drooling over her yummilicious bakes. :P

Piggy's Cooking Journal is a reading and viewing pleasure for me.

No obligation to those who have received the award to have to pass it on. Just blog-hop, read and enjoy! :)

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