Bun Recipe

I wanna post this in my blog and served as one of my favorite bun recipe collection. A very good fren of mine, Li Wui, share this with me couple of months ago.

Basic Sweet Bun Dough - Straight Dough method.

This is the basic bun recipe. With this you can use it to make sausage buns, tuna buns, or any other filling. :)

Ingredients
A
480g bread flour
120g plain flour (All purpose flour)
110 sugar
10g salt
20g milk powder
4 tsp instant yeast

B
1 egg
300 ml cold water

C
60g butter

Method:
mix A till well blended. Add B. (Wait 10 minutes - this one is Alton Brown's instruction :) )
Add C, and knead until it forms a smooth elastic dough. You probably have to knead for quite a long time maybe 15 minutes or so... I usually let my stand mixer do the job because I'm too lazy. The dough should be very elastic. If you stretch it into a rectangle, you can stretch it so thin that you can almost see through it....without it breaking. That is how elastic it should be.
Cover the dough with clear film and let it prove for 50-60 minutes or till it doubles in size.

Use a finger to press into the dough. It should show a clear finger tip mark but dough should not sink. It is now ready for making buns.

Spring onion bun
Topping:
60 g butter
1 egg
50g spring onion diced.

Method:
Mix all topping ingredients together till well blended.
Divide dough into 60g pieces and shape into balls
Let it prove (rest) for 10 minutes then shape into ovals
Place on a greased pan. Slash the top portion with a sharp knife and leave to prove for 45 minutes
Brush with egg wash and put the spring onion mixture on top
Bake at 190C (375F) for 12-15 minutes in the middle of the oven.

(egg wash - just beat an egg and use a brush to brush the beaten egg on the unbaked bun)


Cheese sticks

Ingredients

Basic sweet bun dough
grated cheddar cheese
sugar

Divide sweet bun dough into 60g portions and shape into balls
rest 10 minutes
Flatten dough balls and roll out into 30cm long strips
place on greased tray and leave to prove for 45 minutes
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese adn sugar
Bake at 190C(375F) in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes or until golden brown

Apple bun

Ingredients

Basic sweet bun dough

Apple filling
A
400g apple cubed
150g sugar
1/8 tsp salt
110ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice

B
40g cornflour
40ml water

C
20g butter

Prepare apple filling : Cook A till boiling. Add premixed B and continue to cook till mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Add C. Mix till well blended. Cool.

Divide sweet un dough into 70g portions. shape into balls. Put in fridge to rest 15 minutes
Roll dough out flat to make rectangles (14cm by 12cm)
Place apple filling at one end and cut strips at the other end with a sharp knife. Roll them up from the filling end.
Put on baking paper and leave to prove in a warm place for 45 minutes
Brush with egg wash.
Bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes.

Home Made Wontan and Dumplings 自制云吞和水饺

今天我们几个“辣妈”又聚在一起弄点吃的，约好中午十一时半，送了William和Jennifer上学，便浩浩荡荡往艳冰家出发。艳冰来自中国浙江，老公来自黑龙江，都爱在家偶而包包云吞或水饺。所以今天我一定要好好和她学一翻！

I think i gotta post my blog in English...the better, some of my friends dont read and write Chinese language. I was telling, me and my Taiwanese good friend, Shu Jun went to a China Mainland friend house today to learn to make Wantan/dumpling. She and her hubby make good home made dumplings, inclusive the filling and the dumpling skin.The above pic shown is how the filling looks like. It is consist of mince pork meat and fine chopped chinese spinach. The seasoning of the filling are garlic powder, sesame oil and light soy sauce.

I was asking her what is the distinctive difference between Wontan and Dumpling? According to Mainland China people defination, Wontan is something smaller and bite size, while Dumpling is bigger in size and almost double the volume of the filling. In terms of filling, it is not much difference...However, i notice we Malaysian are so used to dumpling which has prawn inside the filling, and Malaysian like to pan fry it till crispy, or we called it 锅贴，or deep fry it until golden brown and dip with sweet chili sauce, which we called it 炸云吞. Malaysian oso favor of eatting noodle with wontan, would it be fried wontan or boiled wontan. I would say, Malaysian chinese food is much influence by Hong Kong cuisine. Wontan noodle, BBQ pork (叉烧), Dim sum, chee cheong fun （猪肠粉) and many many more.

Bck to the topic above, my China Friend, Flora, prepare the wontan skin by putting 3 cups of all purpose flour and 1.5 cups of water inside the bread maker, while let the bread maker knead the dough for 20 minutes.

Flora is busy using a roller pin to flatten the dough and cut it into thin square shape to make the wontan skin.
Flora husband, Alex oso lending a hand in kneading and flattening the dough, he is more expert in making dumpling skin accorindg to Flora. Wonder why Alex is at home during working day!? He is taking leave loh:) to run some errand lah...ha.ha.









This is how the dumpling skin looks like. Round thin and flat shape, about 8cm diameter.

We were helping flora to wrap the wontan and dumpling in 2 different shape. I guess i m the poorest student among them! my wontan and dumplings looks so awful....the shape are all out...too bad. Flora continue to bz in the kicthen, boiling a very hot water in a big pot, when the water is quicking boiling, throw all the wontan and dumpling inside and boil for 5 minutes.Meanwhile, add in some seaweed or napa cabbage to add to taste. The red chili oil is prepared by Flora...lots of tedious steps to prepare this..

I personaly like to dip the wontan and dumpling with some dark vinegar, while add some chili oil inside the broth...The dumpling and wontan taste so nice and sweet when it is served hot!

Learn to know that China Mainland poeple do substitute rice with dumpling once a while. They can finished up 15-20 dumplings at one time as a replacing meal for lunch or dinner!! It is really amazing to us Malaysian..Whereas we only eat dumplings in a small volume at a time, normaly it was served as side dishes when we order Wontan Noodles or Young Tou fu.



All the mama and the little one say "Cheese" and snap a memorable pic!

艳冰，我和淑君吃着你的饺子和紫菜汤真的好开心，好感动，虽然我不擅吃猪肉，但你的饺子馅一点腥味都没，我一下子也吃了好几个，把汤头都喝光了。我剩下在美国的时间不多了，我要好好珍惜和你们相处的每一刻。在美国的日子，总算留下美好的回忆！待我回国后，我们保持联系哦。希望有朝一日你们也有机会到马来西亚来走走，大马美食还真多！

Spending a sunday morning in Toy R Us, Citrus Height store

William favor over this macqueen biscycle.
Ben favor this 3 wheel Thomas & Friend tricycle. But it is for Toddler, so we didnt buy for him.
The cool Macqueen Cars bed are always my sons DREAM BED, but it is too much beyond our budget (USD299.99+tax), so can only snap pic for memory...Dream of their dream car in their sweet dream..

However we paid USD69.99+tax for Mcqueen Cars big kid bicycle, with portable small wheel. William just about to learn riding now. This small wheel shd be able to last him for couple of month.

Enjoy the photo collection from Toy R Us. Double click the respective pic to see a larger view.

Satay and Satay Sauce...so so delicious!!

Satay, ooh...satay, who can resist the Malaysian Satay? i grab an easy satay sauce recipe from a blogger yesterday and decided to make it a try...the recipe is so much simple! if u r interested, pls check this recipe out here. It was truly the authentic taste that we used to "tapau" in those Pasar Malam back in those days....
While for the Satay recipe, pls get it here. I make 3 types of Satay meat today, pork, chicken and beef satay. Marinated overnite in fridge and grill it on a outdoor grill skillet and get all the 30 skews satay done in golden brown color by 20 minutes.

Serve it as dinner with my loving hubby..The satisfaction is 100% guranteed when he non stop eating the satays and finished all the satay sauce in this bowl! I perli him saying that, u r such a lucky man whose wife is so passion in cooking, then u know wat he answered me? "Ok loh, tonite give u a "good treat"!! i say..."apalah!! this is not what i want lah!"..Aiyo.....exchange good food for sex!? *LOL*

Taiwanese Style Crispy-Salty Fried Chicken (台式咸酥鸡）

A Blogger friend requesting for the above recipe, but honestly, this recipe was taught by my good Taiwanese friend, so i m not sure how authentic it is compare to those u search from website one. Anyway, here u go...u basically needed what as shown in the pic:

Ingredients:

1) Basil Leaves for few stalks (only need the leaves, discard the rest)

2) Chicken tigh/chicken breast/chicken drumstick (cut into cubes, need not to de-bone)

3) Soy sauce, fish sauce, pepper powder (black/white), chinese five spice powder, chinese shao-xing wine (绍兴料酒), salt and sugar to taste. wet liquid qty: 1 tbsp, dry spice: in a pinch.

4) cornstarch powder, baking powder, sesame seeds (optional)

5) frying oil

Method:

1) marinate your favorite chicken meat with the ingredient no.3 above and keep in fridge for 1 hour.

2) Take out from fridge, pour in 1-2 tbsp of corn starch and 1 tsp of baking powder into the marinated meat. incorporate well.

3) Heat oil, deep fry the chicken until golden brown, dish out. pet dry in kitchen towel.

4) pour in the basil leaves into the hot oil, fry for 3 minutes, dish out.

5) In a big baking tray, mix all the fried chicken and frid basil well, topped with some roasted sesame will be the best! Serve while hot!

Here shd be how it looks,

The fried basil chicken is aromatic and tasty by itself, u dun required any dipping sauce at all.

Classic Plain Cheese Cake Recipe as per request

Here i provide the recipe required to make this easy cheese cake...The recipe is neither from the web nor cook book, it is taught by a friend through word of mouth, but the result is fabulous! Most importantly, it only use 1 pkt of cream cheese, so it makes us less guilty when we eat it...*LOL*


These are the essential ingredient required: 2 large eggs, 1 pkt (8 oz) of Cream Cheese, 1 small pkt of Whipping Cream (230ml)




















One ready Pie Crust (Graham), 6 oz size.
Sorry, i m such a lazy mom that i dun usually make my own pie crust..if u got to make one for your own, the ingredient is mainly crush soda biscut and butter.

The rest of the ingredients..
1) half cup of fine sugar
2) 2 and a half tbsp cake flour
very simple rite!! it doenst required any baking soda, baking powder, vanila essense...bla..bla..bla..such a long laundry list! ha! ha!

Methods:
1) Softern cream cheese to room temperature by putting into microwave for High, 35 seconds.
2) Eggs, Whipping cream must be in room temperature. (this is as told in most of the cheese cake website, so i just follow loh)
3) Cream the cheese with an electric mixer until it is soft and contains no lumps. If no electric mixer is on hand, use a wooden spoon to cream the cheese. Add in sugar, continue to cream.
4) Add egg, one at a time. The mixer should be on a low speed to limit the amount of air incorporated into the mixture.
5) pour in the cake flour and continue to beat. Ensure no flour lumps are exist during this process.
6) pour in whipping cream, beat in low speed until the batter is fairly incorporated well. Do not over beat!
7) boil hot water, pour into a Baking Tray for about 2" height, then move the pie crust filled with batter into the baking tray. This is called 'water-bath' method for baking a uncrack, smooth surface cheese cake)
8) Transfer the whole baking tray into oven, bake at 375"F for 35 minutes (pls preheat your oven as usual)
9) Shut off the oven temp when reached 35min, do not open the oven door, let the cake sit inside the oven with oven door closed for 45 minutes. (This is to slow cook the cake)
10) Transfer out the cake from oven and let it cool on wire rack for 1 hour under room temperature.
11) Once the cake heat has dropped to room temp, chilled it in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving,preferably overnite.



This is how the cheese cake looks like when it is done:









Cut into triangle shape and ready to serve:













If u still do not understand why baking a cheese cake need such a tedious method called Water-Bath, then i might as well refer you to read and understand more about the rational behind ok! it was not advised by me, but by cheese cake expert! so Believe it or not? Up to u!

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Perfect-Cheesecakes/Detail.aspx

Pls spend some time to read thru this baking tips, trust me, it is worth the time spend to read it if u dun want to hv a crack/burn/lump cake. Share with me your outcome if u hv made the attempt to try it out ok.

Greetings From Germany

See greetings from Germany from my big sister, Joyce...........

"Hi guys, It is middle of the autumn now in Germany. We have some golden October's temperature and sunshine very often and it is a romatic season for me. The colours of the fallen leaves are so rich in various tone. When the sunshine one can enjoy a cup of coffee or a cup of tea at the terrace. Here are some photos unfortunately not shot by me but my friend Grace. Hope you enjoy the photos though..... Big hug from me................."

However, i yet to see such romantic falls scene here in the US, particularly the city i stay right now. Perhaps it is still not in the right season yet. Hope to see one b4 we left next month.

Dixon Pumpkin Farm, Davis, California

Experiencing the very 1st time in our life, visiting a pumpkin farm, in conjunction with celebrating Halloween Day on 31st Oct. People came here to buy huge pumpkin to decorate their home for this great festival. Enjoy the photoset ya:)

Classic Plain Cheese Cake

Here are the photoset of my favorite classic plain cheese cake....ping me for recipe if u r interested to make one for yourself:)

Easy Tiramisu Cheese Pie

I was trying to bake a easy step Tiramisu Cheese Pie on Sunday morning. Resut is not bad, this is the very 1st cheese cake in my life (i mean home-made). Personally i dun favor cheese cake so much, it is a bit too creamy and rich for me. The recipe was adapted from Kraftfoods.com. If u are a preliminary cheese cake baker like me, u can check it out this site, follow the step by step method.

Here also attached the cheese cake baking tips, it is so important to ensure your cake is not crack!http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/bakingtips.cheesecakes/Cheesecakes.cfm

San Francisco China Town

We went to SFO China Town to buy American Ginseng last saturday. We spend some time in China Town wandering around, buy ginseng and eat Dim Sum. The Dim Sum is averagely delicious, very similar to wat we hv in Penang. Kids did enjoy too, especially the Hong Kong style Polo Bun.

American Ginseng is a precious gift for my husband families. We bought both the dry (slice) and fresh one to bring home. I personaly favor those Ginseng Tea sachet. The aroma is simply awesome.

Here are some collections of the trip.