Monkey Bread

The first time I made monkey bread was in a summer school cooking class.  Mr. I. introduced the recipe to the students and we made the easy version of monkey bread.  We used canned biscuit dough and cut each piece of dough into four pieces and rolled them into balls.  Then, we dipped the dough balls in butter and cinnamon sugar.  This was such a fun recipe.  My family enjoyed what I brought home so much that we made monkey bread several times at home.

While surfing the web, looking at recipes, I found this monkey bread recipe that starts from scratch.  I didn't actually make the monkey bread until a year later.  The recipe was really simple and the bread was very soft and fluffy. It also wasn't too sweet. (I didn't make a glaze.  Actually, I kind of forgot about...but the bread was sweet enough already so it didn't matter.)  This is definitely a must make recipe.  Monkey bread is like the best part of cinnamon rolls - the gooey, yummy centers.

Monkey Bread
Recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker, very slightly adapted.

Garlic Knots

One day, after eating at a restaurant called Mama...cita?, (I'm not sure if that's the right name.) That place was a pizzeria.  I really wanted to try making some garlic knots.  I tried theirs and it was delicious.  So in hopes that I would be able to reproduce something similar, I tried this recipe posted by Brown Eyed Baker.

The recipe was fairly simple and the bread was really fun to make.  However, it is the type of bread that becomes chewy and hard to eat after only one day.  It doesn't taste that bad the next day, but it's better to eat it the day of.  Also, there ended up being too much sauce leftover for me.

Garlic Knots
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Green Onion Pancakes 蔥油餅

From when I was small my grandma would occasionally make green onion pancakes, otherwise known as scallion pancakes 蔥油餅.  I really enjoyed eating the pancakes.
 
I was always interested in trying out this recipe and I got the chance when there was a potluck at my youth fellowship.  This is a post from a really long time ago, by the way.  I'm going to post about 11 items soon, but I'm getting this out of the way first.

My best friend was there when I made it and she really liked the end result.  I honestly don't remember too much about the tastes, but I think this recipe is worth making.  The only adjustment I would make is not use as much oil.

Green Onion Pancakes 蔥油餅 

Pan Pizza

After a long time of having this pizza in my to-do list, I can finally cross it off.  I have always wanted to try making some pizza, but I never got the chance until my mom's off day (the day she takes a break from cooking).  

The pizza was really easy to make and it reminded me of Pizza Hut's pizza. It had a nice crispy crust that tasted just right, due to the generously greased pans.   If you had a tiring day, you can make this pizza for an easy dinner.  I actually got the recipe from my book, America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  The recipe also happens to be the same one that Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures used.


Pepperoni Pan Pizza

 

Hoddeok 호떡 - Sweet Korean Pancakes

Recently last year, I got into K-pop and Korean dramas.  It all started with Personal Taste, a drama that my aunt recommended to me.  Ever since that drama, I have been watching many other Korean dramas.  My addiction led to an interest in Korean food and desserts, so as I was watching Maangchi's videos on cooking, I discovered this recipe for hoddeok 호떡.  When I found this recipe though, I was still at my college dorm.  So once I got home, I was catching up on the posts of people I follow and I saw the same recipe on Lena's blog. :)   This spurred me into action and I decided to make the pancakes in a couple of days.

The pancakes were easy to make and they turned out okay.  I really liked how the brown sugar melted in the pancakes, giving a nice caramelly filling.  The walnuts also gave the pancakes a bit of a crunch, in contrast to the soft texture of the pancake.  However, something I was unsatisfied with was the texture of the pancake.  The pancake was supposed to be soft and fluffy, but some of mine turned out chewy.  I'm guessing it's because of the squishing during the frying process, but I'm not sure, so I plan to try out this recipe soon again.  I just looked at reviews of this pancake and it turns out it is supposed to be a little chewy.  Anyhow, this recipe is really easy and the end result is tasty. 

Hoddeok
호떡




Recipe from Maangchi 

Steamed Peach Buns 寿桃 II

Recently, I just started college!!  It's definitely a new, exciting experience to go through.  College is somewhere that people have to become more independent.  The teachers now don't remind you to do your homework and things like that.  They now expect you to do everything and if you don't do it, a bad result on a test is what you get.  So after starting school back in September 22, I was "busy" with other things like getting used to college, dorm life, and making friends.  School isn't that hard, at least not as hard as I expected.  I'm enjoying school life I guess.  I'm dorming and I have two other roommates.  We get along really well. :)  I'm have lots of fun with them; they always make me laugh.  Also, my hall activities are pretty fun too.  Since I'm in an all-girls hall, the only all-girls hall in my school, my whole hall is pretty close.  We even had a hair and nail polish night where we just had fun.  Oh!  I also got a new job, at the Student Center.  Yesterday was the first day I worked and it was pretty interesting.  I think I like my new job. :D  Anyway, that's basically what has been happening recently, just wanted to keep my readers updated.  Now....on to the recipe. This is the one that is a continuation from my red bean paste post.

On September 9, I decided to make steamed peach buns, aka 寿桃, again because it was going to be my boss' and grandma's birthday.  Last time I made them, I messed up because it was too cold, so I didn't let the buns rise for a sufficient amount of time.  However, this time they were successful!  Both recipes are for sure very reliable.  Feel free to try both of them out.

Steamed Peach Buns 寿桃 II
Recipe from Vivian Pang's Kitchen.
 
 

Steamed Peach Buns 寿桃

Peach buns (寿桃), Sou Tao, are my favorite things to eat at Chinese buffets. I always love going to the buffets and stocking my plate up with these cute little peach buns, usually filled with lotus paste or red bean paste. When you bite into them, your teeth sink into a fluffy piece of bread and then you taste the sweet paste located in the center of these buns, what a nice surprise. These buns are also known as birthday buns because in the Chinese culture, these buns are eaten for longevity.

So I made these buns for my aunt's birthday and it took me two hours. I was very disappointed with the results because it was cold that day and I didn't let the bread rise long enough. The skin became really tough after steaming and I felt so let down. Next time, I'll let it rise longer...or at least let the dough double in size. I encourage you to try out the recipe though! :)

Steamed Peach Buns

Recipe from My Little Space.

Whole Wheat Loaf Bread

I've had this recipe bookmarked for the longest time! I didn't want to make the bread because the long proofing times made me a bit impatient. I don't like waiting for bread to proof because I want to know how the bread turns out as soon as possible. But after making the steamed buns and having to wait for 5-6 hours total, I realized that 1 and a half hours isn't too long. So on a school day, I made this wheat bread and some Boston cream cupcakes. Wow, I'm writing the post on August 3 August 13 and that seems like such a long, long time ago.

I liked how the wheat bread turned out. It was soft and it made a very good sandwich bread. The only con was that the bread gets soggy easily. However, this bread recipe is worth keeping. It's a very simple recipe with very good results.


Whole Wheat Loaf Bread
Recipe from Lena of Frozen Wings



My changes in pink.

Croissants

Notice: Since blogger went down recently, I discovered that some of my comments have disappeared. I'll reply to your comments again when I feel like retyping what I said. Also, sorry if your comments disappeared from my previous post. I didn't delete them. :( I appreciate that you left comments though.

When I first started getting serious in baking, I shared some of the goods with my Uncle's family. One day, he came over to my house, saw some croissants on the table, and asked my mom if I made them. I didn't. The croissants were from Costco, but after hearing that, I always wanted to try making croissants. I wanted to learn how to make something new and complicated like croissants. However, I never felt compelled to do so because of all the time needed to make croissants.

After taking on my senior project, it was necessary for me to make croissants because it was one of my goals. The whole process took around a day. Soooo complicated! Pounding out the butter took me a while and rolling out the dough did too. I guess I need more muscle? I had to finish this late at night because I started making the dough and such in the afternoon, after Chinese school and work. I didn't even bake it until the next day because I had to leave it in the fridge as instructed.

I was pretty happy with the results, however for some reason lots of the butter leaked out. While that's a good thing calorie wise, it's also a bad thing because I don't think that's supposed to happen. I asked my brother to evaluate the taste and he said it tasted normal...which I guess is good. My friends on the other hand, really enjoyed it. One of them even thought that I bought the croissants and was only saying that I made them, haha. I think that's all I have to say about these croissants. I'll tell you if I think of anything else.

Croissants
Recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
It can also be found here.
(Recently, I have been making a lot of things from that book.)

Rotiboys

I wanted to make these buns after having my first taste of them from Oh My Buns! My grandma's brother's wife bought a few boxes of rotiboys and distributed it to each family. The bakery specialized in making these buns and once I saw how soft these buns were I really wanted to try making them myself. Whenever I see a delicious bread, I always want to hunt down the recipe and try it out.

As I was making this bread, I found it really difficult to knead the dough. It was very sticky, so I had to add a bit more flour. I also happened to use 220 gm of egg and milk. When the dough was rising, I was a bit apprehensive of the results because compared to the pictures on Hearty Bakes, my dough was toooo wet.

I started wondering whether I should make a topping or not. Doubt crept into me as I wondered if this bread would turn out successfully or not. In the end, I decided to make the topping because how can a rotiboy be a rotiboy without a coffee topping? I halved the topping recipe and found out that it was just right for all 10 buns I had. However, after baking them, the topping was too watery for me and slid off the bread too much. I think it's because of the egg I used; I used an extra large egg. I was a bit disappointed with how the bread looked. Maybe disappointed is an understatement.

Then my mom, dad and brother tried out the bread and they all liked it. My brother even rated it a 9, saying that it would be better if the topping had more flavor. I agree, the topping should have more coffee (I omitted the coffee paste). My dad said that it should be sweeter (I second that because I have a sweet tooth). My mom really enjoyed it. All in all, although the looks of this bread, for me, was not too appealing, you will enjoy this bread.

Note: It's soft because of the honey.


Rotiboys
Recipe from Hearty Bakes,
"Sweet Buns Recipe reference: 简单又好做小烤箱面包"

Steamed Buns 饅頭 (Mantou)

I wanted to share this the day I made it, which was some time this past week. I've made it several times since then and even tried the wheat version. I'll share those tips in a separate post. The post below is what I wrote a few days ago. If I don't post this post now, I don't know when I'll get around to posting it. So here it is! I'll continue adding pictures until there is the usual step-by-step pictures. I highly recommend this recipe!

I've always wanted to try making the mantou my dad made. It was always a treat whenever he made them. When he hasn't made them for a long time, I would request for them, dropping hints. :D One day I tried learning from him. Except, my family usually cooks without measuring. So I tried the best that I could to get the recipe and below is my sad attempt of remembering his recipe...

Well before that, I decided to try out Angie's recipe in the meantime because I was craving mantou. I feel like I would be able to eat mantou for breakfast, lunch and dinner, without getting sick of it. As I mentioned many times before, I love eating carbs! :D I really would eat that much mantou if it was healthy for you, but it isn't....too much processed flour. Ok, anyway, I found her recipe a long time ago, before I even started blogging. Back then, I did not know much about breads. If you asked me to make mantou last year, I would be confounded.

The bread turned out sooo soft! And it had skin! You can tell how excited I was. lol That type of mantou is my favorite. Now, next step is to make this wheat mantou, but still keep this nice texture. The only downfall was my baking soda not being mixed well enough....leading to these brown splotches. I also learned that adding sugar and yeast creates alcohol and mixing baking soda with this alcohol may cause brown spots. In my case it was brown swirls. Maybe next time I won't add sugar to my starter to see if the brown splotches still happen.

Chinese Steamed Buns with Starter
Adapted from Angie's Recipes



Uploaded with ImageShack.us Photobucket is maintaining their website now, so I'll just use imageshack for the time being.

Wheat Mantou II and Ham and Cheese Bread

I haven't felt like blogging recently, but I still bake a lot. So now I have lots of posts that I still need to write. Anyway....

I wanted to try replicating this Chinese supermarket's mantou because I really like their mantou's texture. It's soft and you can eat it layer by layer. I always love peeling off the mantou skin and eating that first before peeling off layers of the mantou and eating it bit by bit. Is that weird? :D So because I wanted soft, layered mantou, I tried making wheat mantou again by adapting the recipe I previously used.

Sorry the picture is a bit washed out.



My bread tin has some grooves, so the bread has these cool looking lines.

Braided Hot Dog Bread

I got this recipe from Daily Delicious. I believe that this is the first time I tried a recipe from her blog. I always see her updates and everything she bakes looks so professional, like it's from a bakery.

I enjoy baking bread more sometimes because it's healthier than cookies and cakes. But, I also despise how the temperature needs to be warm for the bread to rise quickly. I have to rely on my preheated oven, but I'm afraid of drying the dough out. I can't wait until the weather here is warmer.

I made this bread with packing it as lunch for my brother in mind, but he gets hungry easily eating the bread I make, so he prefers bakery bread. Also, my dad has a sweet tooth; so unless the bread I make is sweet, then I end up with bread stuck in the freezer. So I guess I'll be trying more sweet breads from now on.

Fresh from the oven, the bread tastes so soft and bakery-like. After one day, they still maintain the same freshness, although they become a bit drier. To resolve that, all you have to do is re-bake the bread for a few minutes. I only made 7 pieces of bread with this recipe because I wanted larger sized bread.


Braided Hot Dog Bread

Wheat Mantou 麥饅頭

I finally got my courage up a few weeks ago to make these wheat steamed buns. My dad always makes regular steamed buns and they are so good that I can eat 3 at a time and they're the size of my palm! I told you I like my carbs. :)

Wheat steamed buns are basically dough molded into pieces and steamed for around 20 minutes. They are also known as mantou,饅頭, and they have a nice "spongy" texture. Some steamed buns may be denser, while others are as fluffy as a cloud. There are a variety of these buns: sweet, savory, wheat, filled and possibly even more. My mom always go to the Chinese supermarket to get these soft wheat mantou and I've always wanted to try making it myself.

After making it, I'm pretty happy with the results. Next time, however, I will replace some of the whole wheat flour with all purpose flour because it had an overly strong wheaty/earthy flavor. The texture was not as soft and fluffy as the store bought mantou, but I'm sure that can be changed the next time I make it. I had to add a bit more whole wheat flour because my dough was a bit sticky.

Wheat Mantou 麥饅頭
Slightly Adapted from from Rasa Malaysia
Makes 12

Chocolate Chip Swirl Marble Bread

A while ago, I saw this recipe on Kitchen Corner, then I saw it again on Honey Bee Sweets and Happy Home Baking. I didn't make it before because I didn't have a pullman loaf tin, but now I do. I got a pullman loaf tin on Amazon for only $23! I think that it is a really good deal in the US because usually these loaf tins cost around $60 or more, what a rip off! Well, I'm really happy that I was able to get this loaf tin at $23 because now it went back up to $30. The first bread I made using this loaf tin was none other than then chocolate chip swirl marble bread.

The first time making this, I thought it was pretty successful. It took quite a while to proof the bread, but it was worth it. It turned out as soft as bakery bread and I was pretty happy with the results. Because the original recipe was made for a smaller loaf tin, I will increase the ingredients next time so I can get a taller loaf. Also, I will work on my dough shaping skills because my swirl was a mess. In fact, some slices didn't even have a swirl.

For the recipe, please refer to the links I posted above.
Chocolate Chip Swirl Marble Bread

2nd Time Cinnamon Rolls

Packaged and ready to be given away to my teachers as their Christmas gift

I originally wanted to give them to my friends too, but I ran out.


I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls again. The last time I made them, they were sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces. This time they were sliced into 1 inch rolls, so I was able to make many more rolls. I had extra rolls that I didn't know where to put, so I put them into cupcake liners.

Caterpillar Bread

I have been so busy with school and college apps recently, but now it's Thanksgiving break! I plan to turn in my college apps on Friday and from then on I will be blogging much more often. Also, marching band has come to an end...forever. No more high school marching band! I'll miss it so much. However, there are some advantages of that: sleeping in one hour and having more time to do homework.

I have always wanted to try baking the savory bakery breads for lunch and I finally got around to it. (11/7) I found the recipe on Sugar & Everything Nice. Looking at the beautifully twisted hot dog bread made me want to bake this bread really much. The only problem was that I didn't have any hotdogs. Well, that problem was soon solved after I went to the market to buy some. I always knew hot dogs were bad for you, but after seeing the nutrition facts I am so shocked and disgusted. One hot dog has around 30% dv of fat! That's terrible, however, moderation is key.

I was able to make this bread while overcoming a few minor problems. One of them was the temperature in my house was too cold. I thought I killed the yeast because the dough hadn't risen even after 1 hour. With the dough, I made 8 big buns instead of the suggested 22. They turned out as big as my hand. In terms of texture, they were really good fresh from the oven. However, after freezing it, you can't just unfreeze it and eat it, you have to rebake it in order to get a good texture, otherwise the bread will taste really dry and icky. (I think this is the case with all bread, but still.) I thought the bread was a bit too salty, so next time I will adjust the salt content. Everything else was fine I think.

Caterpillar Bread
Recipe adapted from Sugar&Everything Nice.
I made 8 pieces of bread.

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls on 10/10/10. :) So "today", I decided to make cinnamon rolls after setting my eyes on a particular recipe by Pioneer Woman. I actually wanted to make this a few weeks ago, but I didn't feel brave enough, didn't have the time, and didn't want to make something so rich.

Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe from Pioneer Woman
halved, makes around 20 rolls depending on width

Ingredients
2 cups milk
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1.8 tsp instant yeast
4 cups of flour
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I used a bit less)
1/2 cup butter, use enough to spread over the whole rectangle and reserve the rest for the glaze
1/8 cup cinnamon
sugar, I directly sprinkled it onto the dough

So I halved the recipe and made 17 rolls, each were 1 1/2 inches thick.

First, I scalded the 2 cups milk, 1/2 cup oil, and 1/2 cup sugar. I mixed it together on medium fire and let it cook up until just before it boiled. By then, the milk started to look a little foamy. The oil isn't supposed to meld together with the milk even after you stir it, so if you see a layer of oil don't worry.

I had to let the mixture cool for around 1 hour or so, it was pretty hot today too.

I used instant yeast, also known as bread machine yeast, instead of using active dry yeast. I only used 1.8 tsp of the instant yeast which is around 1 tsp+ 3/4 tsp+ 1/8 tsp because instant yeast is more "concentrated" than active dry yeast.

Instead of letting the yeast sit in the milk mixture for 1 minute, I just dumped the yeast into the mixture and proceeded to mix in the 4 cups of flour without waiting. I think I might have miscounted the cups of flour, but I'm not sure. I used a 1/3 cup to measure out the flour and I wasn't 100% paying attention. I stirred it until the dough just came together.

Then I set it aside for 45 minutes because something came up and I had to leave the house. I was worried that the rising time wouldn't be long enough, but I had no choice but to quickly mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and the salt. After I quickly mixed/kneaded it in, I put it in the fridge to rise. I came back home after around 30 minutes or so and the dough was looking nice and soft. The texture of the dough actually reminded me of pretzel dough.

Then I punched the dough down a bit and started to roll it out into a 30x10 inch rectangle.

After that, I melted around a 1/2 cup of butter when the recipe called for around 1 cup, but 1 whole cup would be way too much. After it was semi melted, I commenced brushing it on the rectangle. Note: if you don't want the rolls to be too messy, don't totally melt the butter, just melt it enough so that it's semi solid but still easily spreadable and then I used a pastry brush to spread it.

Sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon. I first added the cinnamon and then I added the sugar. Actually, it doesn't even need to be measured out. I definitely didn't use one whole cup of sugar. After that, start rolling it up from the side that is farthest away from you. Roll it up tightly and then cut the roll into 3/4-1 1/2 inch pieces. I cut them into 1 1/2 inch pieces, so I had to bake them longer than the called for time.

Put the rolls into a buttered pan and then let them rise for 20-30 minutes. I accidentally skipped that part because I wasn't looking at the original recipe, but my rolls still turned out. During the time they were baking, I was freaking out because I realized right then that I needed to let them rise when they were already baked for around 5 minutes.




Anyways, they turned out alright even though I forgot to let them rise more. I also prepared the glaze by using up the butter that came from my original 1/2 cup that I didn't use up. I added a little less than 1/4 cup of milk and a whole bunch of confectioner's sugar. I didn't measure it, I just mixed and kept adding until I got the consistency I wanted.

I baked the rolls until they were golden light in color and took them out of the oven and cooled them and poured the icing on top. Let the icing set and tada, it's done.

Review: my brother rated it a 9.5/10 which is very, very good. He said to improve it I should make them bigger. =) My dad couldn't stop eating it and I was a bit worried for his health and I felt guilty, but I just can't stop baking when I have the time.

I baked them in a 9 inch pans btw.


The texture was very good. Nice and soft. The icing was nice. Together, it tastes fantastic. It actually kind of reminded me of a donut.


More tips from:
1 Pioneer Woman
2 Bakerella

Variations:
Orange-Marmalade Rolls
Caramel Apple Sticky Buns
Chocolate Chip Cookie Sweet Rolls