Christmas Gift

  

Is time for Christmas party again~ 

I'm a bit lazy to go for Christmas shopping this year, 

so I decided to make  my own Christmas gift.

Let see who will be the lucky one to get this special handmade gift this year.^^

Merry Christmas!!!!! 

Have a  great year end party and Happy New Year!!!!!

Kimchi bokkeumbap

Kimchi is always a "must have" dish in my kitchen. Since I'm going to make a new 

batch of kimchi, I decided to clear the stock by making kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice)

This is a very simple dish, you can either use the store 

bought kimchi or use  homemade kimchi like me.

Please visit maangachi's page for recipe.

 Enjoy~

Red wine cranberry walnut bread

This is one of my favorite recipe so far. Look at the crust..yum~ 

I just can't resist to make it over and over again. 

Here's the recipe from Caroleasylife

Since it's  in chinese, I'll try my best to translate it into english.

Main ingredients:

Old dough 50g (see below for recipe), Bread flour 200g, Wholewheat flour 50g, water 90g (I used 100g), 

cranberry 40g, red wine 100g , chopped walnut 40g, salt 3/4 teaspoon, instant yeast 1/2 teaspoon.

Preparation:

1. Soak cranberry in 50 g red wine(from the 100g red wine) and keep in fridge for 2 days. 

Drain and gently pat dry with kitchen paper towel before use.  

2. Toast the walnut in oven for 7-8 minutes, 150c.

3. Boil the red wine before use, if not it will affect the dough fermentation process. 

Old dough:

Bread flour 125g, water 75g, instant yeast 1/4 teaspoon, salt 1/4 teaspoon.

1.Mix all the ingredients and cover to rise in room temperature 

for 4 hours or leave it in fridge to rise overnight.

2 Cut the fermented dough into 50g each. Freeze it if you can't finish it in 3 days.

Let's start:

1. Mix all the main ingredients except walnut and cranberry.

2. Knead the dough until smooth and past the windowpane test. 

3. If the dough is too dry, just add a bit more water. 

The dough should feel smooth and supple.

4. Knead in walnut and cranberry. Be gentle, not to break the cranberry.

5. Cover with kitchen towel for 60 minutes.

6. After the dough double its size, gently punch down the dough, lightly floured the dough and transfer to a proofing basket .If you don't have one is ok, just leave it on a baking pan for second rise, about 60 minutes.

7. When the dough is ready, remove from the basket and put it in a baking pan. 

Use a shape knife to cut a cross and brush some olive oil on it. 

8. Spray enough water on the dough  surface and bake for 20 -25 minutes, 210c.

9. In order to make a great, crispy and caramelized crust, place a glass of water 

on the baking pan to create steam into the oven.

Happy Halloween

Love Under The Sea

This is a custom made wedding gift for a couple who love diving. 

The design was mostly base on ocean concept while the blue and white combination 

was inspired by a colleague's trip to Santorini, Greece.

All the building there are in blue and white. So beautiful~

Wish the couple live happily ever after~

Miniature village

This miniature village was made with paper clay and painted with acrylic colour.

Size of each house is about 1.5-2cm.

Interested to make one? 

Here's the tutorial.

Mr. Wabbit Deco Roll

Aww...it's so cute~~

This is what I felt when I first saw this cute little deco roll online. 

Why it is known as deco roll instead of swiss roll? 

Simple, because it has decoration on it. Haha..I guess so....

It is originated from Japan by a creative baker ~ Junko.

You can go to her blog to know more about deco roll but it's in Japanese. 

 Here's my Chocolate Mint Deco Roll

I don't have the silicon mat pattern like Junko. So I just draw by own wabbit..haha. Not too bad huh...^^
 Going to try out other pattern next time. XD

Recipe adapted from neyeeloh

10x10 inch square pan

A: (cake base)

egg yolk 4

sugar 15g

water/milk 60ml

canola oil 40 ml

vanilla essence 1 tsp

cake flour 70g

cocoa powder 10g

egg white 3

sugar 50g

B:(pattern)

egg white 1

sugar 2 tsp

egg yolk batter 2 tbsp

cake flour 1 tsp

brown colouring (I used cocoa powder)

C:(Filling)

non-dairy whipping cream 150g

powdered sugar 1 tbsp

peppermint extract a few drops

D:( for drawing)

water 1/2 tsp

cocoa powder 1/4 tsp

Preparation

1.Whisk the whipping cream until firm peak and keep in refrigerator. TIPS: Chill the whipping cream by placing a bowl filled with ice under the bowl you used to whisk the cream. It helps to make a firm and stable cream filling.
2. Place a parchment paper on top of your pattern and lightly grease with butter/oil. This is to prevent the pattern from sticking on your parchment paper.

Egg yolk batter

Whisk the egg yolk and  15g sugar until pale yellow, add in oil, water/milk, vanilla essence and cake flour.

For the pattern 

1.Scoop 2 tbsp egg yolk batter , add 1tsp cake flour .

2. Whisk the egg white and sugar until firm peak.

3. Add 2 tsp meringue to the yolk batter and mix well. 

4. Scoop out 1tbsp and add a bit of cocoa powder. 

5. Use a piping bag to pipe out the rabbit nose area with cocoa meringue. Bake for 1 minutes at 180C.

6. Continue with the plain meringue for the rest of the pattern. Bake for 1 minutes. TIPS: ONLY 1 minutes. 

Back to the cake base

1. Add 10 g cocoa powder to the egg yolk batter.Mix well.

2.Whisk the egg white and sugar until firm peak Mix with the cocoa batter until combined. Fold in the leftover meringue from pattern ,if any.TIPS: Fold gently.

3. Pour the batter evenly in the pan with pattern on it. Drop the pan a few time on the table to get rid of trapped bubble.

4. Bake for 10 -12 minutes at 180C. 

5. Roll the cake while it is still warm together with parchment paper to prevent crack on the surface.

6. When the cake cool down, unroll the cake and spread with whipping cream.

7. Keep in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Use a fine brush to draw the eyes and nose. Done~

   

Photo Editor

I love to edit photo and create some special effect to my photo. 

But I'm not good in using those professional software like Photoshop. 

So I always look for photo editor that easy and convenient to use.

Recently I found this photo editor, Pixlr which is so easy to use. It has a lot of features in there which I think is sufficient for a non-pro user like me ^^.

Below are some effects you can create by using the photo editor.

This photo was taken at Mount Matha beach, Melbourne.

Korean side dish: Kongjaban

This is one of my favorite korean side dish and it's very easy to make too.

What you need is:

1 1/2 cups black beans

3 cups water

1/2 cup soy sauce 

4 tbsp honey (original recipe use corn syrup)

2 tbsp sugar (original recipe use 4 tbsp)

1/2 tbsp  sesame seeds

Let's start~

1. Soak the beans for 8 hours or overnight.

2. Put the beans in a deep pan with 3 cups of water.

3. Turn on high heat and boil for 20-25 minutes or until water reduce to half.

4. Add soy sauce, honey and sugar.

5. Reduce the heat to medium high and continue to cook until the water dries up. Be careful don't burn your your bean!

6. Add sesame seeds and cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. 

7. Done! Keep in refrigerator once it cool down.

Recipe adapted from: Aeri's Kitchen

Wholemeal Cinnamon Cranberry Bagel

Here's my all time favorite~Bagel. 

It's not a common bread that you can get in Malaysia bakery. 

That's why I decided to bake my own bagel.

This is my 3rd attempt and I'm still not satisfy with the bagel shape. 

I'll keep trying until I get a smooth and round bagel!!

Here's the recipe (adapted from Barbara bakes)

Note: If you like wholemeal bread, just substitute half of the bread flour with wholemeal flour.

You will notice the recipe requested to retard the bagel dough in refrigerator but I skipped the step (too lazy to do so). I just straight away bake and eat it..YUM!!!

Clay experiment

I bought this plate mould some time ago. Today I'm going to test out which clay 

work best with this mould.

Clay used: Resin clay, Luna clay and Paper clay.

 For luna clay, it looks translucent after dry. Medium hard and form a nice plate shape.

 For resin clay, after the clay dried it feels like a plastic plate. Can be bended easily. It also form a nice shape.

 For paper clay, it dried hard. It feels like a porcelain plate. But have to try a few times to get a perfect plate shape.

Ooppss...never ever bend your paper clay plate. Handle with care. XD.

Experiment conclusion: If you want to make the effect of porcelain plate, paper clay is the best choice. Luna and resin clay will give the effect of plastic plate.

Hokkaido milk loaf

Recently, I came across this bread recipe using Tang zhong method.(water roux starter)

As per the recipe, this is the most reliable method to get a soft and fluffy bread . 

As a beginner of bread making, I'm  really attracted to the word "soft and fluffy". 

Must give it a try!

My milk loaf before bake.

It suppose to yield 2 milk  loafs but I don't have a proper bread

 loaf tin so I just squeezed in a cake loaf tin.. So as you can see it's a bit overcrowded. XD.

 Seriously, I was impressed by the result!!

Tang zhong method really guaranteed for a soft and fluffy bread which can last for at least 3 days.

For all beginners, please do try out this recipe and 

I'am sure you will get addicted to tang zhong method like I do.

Here's the recipe from Christine recipes

Happy trying~