Pork Floss Loaf

These past few days I have been deliberating on what I should bake. I was torn between baking lemon-scented pull-apart coffee cake, cream cheese cinnamon rolls and....a pork floss loaf. I chose to make the loaf, only because it was the healthier one out of all three. I'm glad that I made it because the loaf tasted spectacular. Really soft and yummy, just like the ham and cheese loaf my mom buys from the bakery to pack as a lunch for me. I got the recipe from Happy Homebaker.

Pork Floss Loaf
From Happy Homebaker who adapted it from Bread Magic

Ingredients
330g bread flour
30g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (I omitted and used salted butter)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
190ml fresh milk (I ran out of milk at 120 ml, so I had to substitute the rest with half evaporated milk and half water)
25g butter, room temperature
some pork floss (I also used some red bean paste, separately)

I made this bread through the hand kneading process. Please refer to Happy Homebaker's blog for the bread machine method.

Mix bread flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add in the milk and start kneading. I used a dough scraper to mix the milk and dry ingredients together so my hands wouldn't get too sticky. Then, start kneading with your hands. Keep kneading until the dough comes together and is pretty smooth. Now, add in the butter and knead it in. That's all you have to do. Knead it until it is smooth and elastic, passing the window pane test.

Leave to proof for around 1 hour or double in size. To be certain that it is done proofing, use two fingers and quickly press the dough around a 1/2 inch deep, if the indent stays, it's done. If it puffs back up, leave to proof for a longer time.

Punch down the dough and then let it rest for 10 minutes. Roll it out into a 15 inch by 18 inch rectangle after 10 minutes pass. Spread pork floss or a filling of your choice onto the rectangle. Be sure to leave a 1/2 inch border around the whole rectangle.

Roll it up like you would a swiss roll. Seal the ends.




Place the "seam side" face down in a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan and cover with a damp cloth/ plastic wrap. Leave to rise until it fills up the pan 80%, around 30 minutes. Bake at 355*F for 25-30 minutes. Take it out from the oven and cool on wire rack immediately. Wait until it is cool before slicing and serving.



The cross section of the bread reminded me a bit of tangzhong bread.

Notes: I used red bean too because I didn't want to use up too much pork floss.
Roll up the roll tightly to prevent the gap you see in my bread. (or maybe it's b/c there is a lot fillings=harder for bread to stick together?)
If left overnight, make sure to rebake for a nice and soft texture, otherwise it will be a bit dense and chewy as noted by Happy Homebaker.

This recipe was really good! You should try it out.

Variations: Red Bean
Ham and Cheese
Coconut Shreds

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

So during the summer, I had to take Economics and Government for credits in order to graduate from high school. I didn't enjoy taking Govt, but I did like Econ, especially when we had a project where we had to become entrepreneurs and create our own product. Upon hearing about this project, I wondered if I could bake something and "sell" it. I asked my teacher and he said that I could do it. So the product was chocolate crinkle cookies. I made around 37 of them. They were the size of the circle you make with your pointer finger and thumb. After I presented my project, the cookies were passed around the class and not many people ate them. I was still left with around half the cookies when they were passed back to me. However, out of the people who did eat the cookies, many people were saying that they liked the cookies very much and others even asked for more. :) Personally though, after I tasted a cookie, I thought they were ok, but who knows, you might like them too.

So I got the recipe from joy of baking, you can find it here.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Melt the butter and chocolate chips together.


Add in chocolate mixture to the sugar and eggs.

Keep on mixing.

It will soon become uniform in mixture.

Add in the flour mixture.

Mix and then refrigerate.

Roll into tbsp sized balls and dip in powdered sugar.


Set on parchment paper lined baking sheet.


Note:
I found that coating the cookie with more sugar will let it have a prettier crinkle.

Double Chocolate Cookies

These cookies have a nice flaky skin on the surface and a chewy interior, very nice for parties or any other event. I made them using the recipe from my Williams Sonoma Sweet Treats book.

Double Chocolate Cookies
Recipe from Williams Sonoma Sweet Treats book

Ingredients
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (Recipe called for bar chocolate, but I didn't have any)
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup or less sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature (I used extra large)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


First, melt the chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Let the butter melt and be careful to keep the chocolate from becoming too hot. After the butter melts, turn off the heat and stir with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is totally melted.




Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.


Stir the sugar and eggs together so that it is uniformly mixed. Add in the chocolate mixture and keep stirring until it all comes together.




Add in half of the flour mixture and stir until there are no traces of flour and continue with the rest of the flour mixture. Add in the chocolate chips and stir again.







The dough needs to be firm, so leave alone for one hour.


Line baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop dough out with a tablespoon after an hour has passed or the dough has firmed up.

The tablespoons of cookie dough should be around 2 inches apart. Flatten the dough with wet fingers so it won't stick to you.



Bake the cookies at 350*F for 15 minutes. If you bake it too long, it will be dry.

Cool cookies on wire rack, around ten minutes.

Bake cookies a sheet at a time.

Makes 24.

Almond Biscotti

These biscotti were nice and crispy. They weren’t super hard and they make a nice snack or dessert. The almond smell is really nice and the smell of biscotti pervades the house while it is baking. The recipe makes around 30 cookies or so. On the day that I made them, my great aunt happened to come over with some ice cream and I was able to give her some. My aunt also came over and I gave her some as well. :) I went over to my aunt’s house later on that day and my aunt and her family said that they liked the biscotti very much. My little cousin even wanted to eat more! These biscotti are cute, so they make good gifts too.

Oh yea, I almost forgot. You have to toast some nuts for the biscotti. To toast nuts all you have to do is put them in a pan on medium heat making sure to shake the pan every once in a while so the nuts won’t burn. This will take around 3 to 6 minutes. When the nut's aroma wafts up, the nuts are done toasting, or just taste one to make sure. It’s supposed to be crunchy and tastier too.


Almond Biscotti

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp butter, room temperature (I used salted, if using unsalted add ¼ tsp salt)
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs (I always use extra large eggs)
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp almond extract
¾ cup almonds or less, toasted and then coarsely chopped



This was how coarsely the almonds were chopped.

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt (if using).

Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until it all comes together, uniform in mixture. Add the eggs one by one, beating them in. After the eggs are mixed in, add the vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix until the extracts are evenly distributed.

Add in the flour mixture slowly while mixing. Keep on mixing until it forms a dough. Then, add in the almonds and your own choices (cranberries, chocolate chips, etc.) if you want and mix until the “toppings” are evenly distributed. The dough will be a bit tough to mix so use a spatula.



Then, divide the dough into two and mold them into 13 by 2 inch rectangles on parchment paper. Lightly flour your hands to do this, so that the dough won’t stick. Make sure to keep some space between the 2 rectangles so that they won’t bake into one piece. Bake at 350 degrees for around 35 minutes. The top should look done and a little bit cracked. Rotate the tray after 15 minutes into baking the biscotti.



Take out the tray with the baked biscotti logs and cool on tray for 10 minutes. After that, use a serrated knife to cut across the log so that each biscotti piece will be a ½ inch thick.

Bake the pieces on their sides at 325 degrees for around 15 minutes. Make sure to flip the pieces over after baking for around 7 minutes, that way both sides of the biscotti will be nice and crunchy, but not rock hard. Take the biscotti out of the oven and cool them on a wire rack for about one hour. I just ate them right out of the oven.

The biscotti are this big.

Chicken Quesadillas

The first time I ever made quesadillas was during the summer before freshmen year in high school. I was taking a cooking class at my high school for summer school. In that class, I learned how to make several new things and I discovered a new food that I had never heard of before and that food is one of my favorites now (spam musubi). I'll share the recipe another time, when I get to make it. But today, I have the quesadilla recipe. Actually, my brother made these for Father's Day and I helped (to his annoyance b/c I became too bossy). He's currently taking the cooking class and I think he enjoys it.


Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado & Pico de Gallo (fresh salsa)


Quesadillas

Serves 4, 2 each
Ingredients
8 tortillas
around 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese
around 2 cups of cooked chicken cubes
1/4 avocado, sliced (optional)
butter, to spread on the tortillas (optional)

Directions
Cube chicken and just cook it.
Butter one side of each tortilla, if you don't want too much fat, just don't butter the tortilla.
Prepare the avocado by cutting it in half, twisting the 2 halves to separate them, using the knife technique to extract the seed, then quartering it lengthwise. Lightly slice each quarter into lengthwise strips.

Now, heat the pan. If you like using butter, butter the pan, if not, use something like vegetable oil. Personally, I dislike using to much butter, so I just use vegetable oil to oil the pan and I do not butter any of the tortillas at all. Put one of the tortillas on the pan, once the pan is heated up.

Start adding cheese to one side of the tortilla. The amount of cheese you put is actually up to your own tastes, that's the good thing about making these yourself. If you like cheesy food, add a lot of cheese, if you just like a little, put a little. After a few seconds or so, the cheese will start melting and then you can add a portion of chicken onto the quesadilla. Fold the quesadilla in half and you're basically done.

When the tortilla is crispy and the cheese is all melted, the quesadilla will taste really good. They are really easy to make and you can give the recipe a twist by adding chunks of pineapple with bbq chicken, or steak with cheese, it basically works with anything. :) Serving them with salsa will make this a very delicious and easy meal.

Pico de Gallo

Ingredients
1 tomato
1/4 onion
1/3 bunch of cilantro
[1 jalapeno chili]
1 lime
a pinch of salt

Directions

Dice the tomato and onion, put in a small bowl. Add in the coarsely chopped cilantro leaves to the bowl. Add in chopped up jalapeno if you like spicy stuff. First slice it lengthwise and remove the stem, membranes and seeds. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the bowl and add one pinch of salt. Mix around and you're done.

Tip: Rolling the lime around on the table top while pressing down will make it easier to squeeze out the juice because the cells of the lemon will break down.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Wow! I haven't posted a new post in such a long time. Well, it's actually because my internet didn't work for two whole weeks. I couldn't do my summer school homework or anything else that needed to be done on the internet for that matter. It all started from a phone call home. I was calling my mom and this random person answered the phone. I was so confused. I was like, "Oh, I'm sorry I think I got the wrong phone number". I redialed with the area code and found out I called the same person again. She explained to me that she recently got this phone number; I was so freaked out. Turns out that something happened to my phone service that caused no one to be able to call my house and the internet was also disconnected. But now I'm back! Yay!

I just made these soft pretzels yesterday and they were perfect. I first saw the recipe on Lick the Bowl Good, but it's originally from Alton Brown. The pretzels were soft and chewy, with the distinct pretzel taste that tastes just like the ones from Auntie Anne's. The weather was perfect when I made them yesterday, it only took around 30 minutes for the dough to double in size!

Homemade Soft Pretzels
Recipe by Alton Brown

The dough is very easy to knead. It only took me a few minutes to get the dough smooth.


After it doubles in size, punch it down and divide into eight pieces. Roll each piece out to 24 inches or so. I just estimated the length. I think that if the dough is rolled into a thinner rope, it will taste better.



The instructions of forming the pretzel shape is pretty self-explanatory. Other shapes you can make with this dough are pretzel sticks, pretzel hot dogs and just anything you want.

Cook the pretzel in boiling baking soda water and put it on a tray.

There's egg wash that needs to be painted on. After I cooked it in the water, the pretzel would have long lines running down it's "arms". What I would do the next time I make these pretzels would be to decrease the amount of water to around 5 cups and adjust the amount of baking soda accordingly. When I was cooking it, I realized that 10 cups of water was just a waste because it's not like the pretzels soak it up or anything. It doesn't make a big difference. I thought that it was really fun to put the pretzel in the water and see it float. :) Take it out after 30 seconds using maybe 2 spatulas. That's what I did.

Bake it until the top is golden brown, it becomes cooked fairly quickly, but the golden brown color on the pretzel will not only make it prettier, but also tastier. I had fun with this recipe.