My Sugar Paste or Gum Paste Work

These four photos are my sugar paste or gum past work which I had been practicing though It was only second times which I made these roses but I was very pleased about the outcome. Thank you so much to my teacher online "Teacher Ice" and my lovely friend "P' Mon" who gave me the knowledge and helped me practice how to make a rose with gum paste.

There're still more flowers which I'm interested to make with gum paste and hope to post more photos of my work here :) Looking forward to share with you!

Healthy Black Sesame Milk Bread

I am a bread lover and rather make homemade bread than buy the commercial bread. One preference when I make my bread, I like to mix bread flour with some organic wholemeal flour also adding either white or black sesame seeds as well. Just to make it's more healthier bread than normal or different from those mass production breads in the market.

Baked this recipe for a few times and just got chance to take photos to upload here. The recipe is very simple and easy to make furthermore the result is very good. The bread can keep the softness of itself for 3 days which no use of any artificial ingredients. It became another my favorite bread loaf recipe when I do not have much time and no whipping cream. In this photos what I added in the recipe were black sesame seeds and a bit of quick cooking oats. The bread came out quite good though the texture not too fine I guess it must be the quick cooking oats which I added. I could not resist to eat once it came out from the oven :) There is the original recipe below together with what I changed to make my own style bread and my method.

Healthy Black Sesame Milk Bread

Bread flour 250 g. (I used bread flour 230 g. + organic wholemeal flour 20 g.)
Dry yeast 4 g.
Salt 5 g.
Sugar 25 g.
Egg 35 g.
Fresh milk 143 g.
Unsalted butter 38 g.
*Additional from the original recipe: black sesame seed 10 g. and quick cooking oat 2-3 Tbsp.

1. Mix bread flour (and organic wholemeal flour), yeast, sugar and salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Mix egg and milk then pour into the dry ingredients and start to knead till it comes together likes a dough.
3. Add in butter and continue kneading till it becomes smooth and erastic dough (then add in black sesame seeds and quick cooking oat and knead to mix well).
4. Rest the dough for 1 hour by wrapping the bowl with cling film and place it at the warm place.
5. Punch down the dough and shape in a ball form and rest the dough another 15 mins. Roll out into rectangle shape and roll out the dough like swiss roll to make a loaf form. Place the dough in the greased loaf pan (I used silicon type) and wrap with cling film or cover with damp cloth. Set aside for the dough to double rise. Brush the top with egg wash.
6. Bake in preheat oven 180C for 25-30 mins.

Special Thanks: Happy Home Baking Blog for sharing the milk loaf recipe.

Savory Sausage & Cheese Scones

This is one of my favorite bakery which goes well with a cup of tea or coffee especially for your afternoon tea time. DH and I are fan of biscuit & scone so I often bake both of them for either breakfast or afternoon tea. I posted the scone recipe in my blog long time back and I still like the recipe coz the scones are very nice, easy to make and good taste.

My previous post, I baked Ham & Cheese Scones http://thesweetmaison.blogspot.com/2010/11/ham-cheese-scone.html but today I wanted to use sausages instead and nother one ingredient which I added in the recipe this time, it was black pepper coz I wanted to make tasty savory scones I guessed It would work well and here is the recipe:

Savory Sausage & Cheese Scones

All purpose flour 250 g.
Baking powder 13 g.
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 20 g.
Unsalted butter 65 g. (cold)
Milk 75 g. (cold)
Egg 1
Grated cheddar cheese 40 g. (Cold)
Sausages 60 g. (cut into small pieces)
Black pepper (as you prefer)

1. Put grated cheese & sausages in the fridge. Mix egg with buttermilk and put in the fridge (we need all these ingredients to be cold)
2. Cut the butter into cube size and put in the freezer.
3. Shift flour, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl and add in sugar & black pepper then stir to combine.
4. Add in cold butter and use pastry blender to cut flour and butter till get pea-sized pieces then pour the cold wet ingredient (1) and mix by using fork to combine and add in cheese & sausages.
5. Put cling film* on the counter top and put the mixture on top of cling film then use cling film try to wrap the mixture till get a dough (Do not knead the mixture).
6. Remove the cling film and dust some flour on the counter top then place the dough. Shape the dough into flat circle with 1-1.5 inch thick and use round biscuit cutter which has been dipped in flour to cut the scones. Place the scones on the greased baking sheet.
7. Brush the scones on top with egg wash and bake in preheat oven at 180-190C for 15-25 mins

*Remarks: You can just dust the counter top with flour (no cling film) and try to combine the mixture to get a dough but must remember not to knead the dough.

The final outcome was great as I wanted my savory scone to be. Though the black pepper taste was not as much as I expected but I found it was not bad to add herbs or spices to make your own favorite scones.

Valentine's Day 2012 "BLUE-RIBBON CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES"

I was thinking what to bake for DH on this Valentine's Day.... this cookie came across my mind when I looked back to the photos what I baked for him the whole last year. The blue-ribbon chocolate chip cookies from Mrs. Fields was the first bake item I baked for him since we were just boyfriend and girlfriend. I baked them for him to bring back to eat in Singapore when he was visiting me in Bangkok 4 years ago and he loved these cookies very much. I only baked them again the first year I started baking here and quite wondered how I forgot about this recipe! I guessed it would be a good choice to remind him of our special memory with this cookies also I have not shared this recipe on my blog. For these two reasons were enough for me to prepare ingredients and started baking.

Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies by Mrs. Fields

All-purpose flour 2 1/2 cups
Baking soda 1/2 tsp.
Salt 1/4 tsp.
Dark brown sugar 1 cup (packed)
Granulated sugar 1/2 cup
Salted butter 1 cup
Large eggs 2
Vanilla extract 2 tsp.
Semi-sweet chocolate chips 12 ounces

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees (150C). In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix well with wire whisk. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla extract, and mix at medium speed until just blended. Do not overmix. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed until just mixed. (Again, do not overmix.)
3. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto an un-greased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake low and slow for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer cookies immediately to a baking rack or cool surface.

Note: For our preference, we love crispy cookies than soft & chewy type so I bake the cookies a bit longer to get them crispier.

*********Happy Valentine's Day 2012*********

Fudgy Chocolate Brownie.... for Chocolate Lover

Got back to start my baking after my holiday in Thailand... I chose this brownie recipe coz I have lots of dark chocolate in my store and this recipe was created by one famous food blogger in Thailand "Maesalim". I tried quite many of her recipes and methods which she always describe clearly and for this recipe it was a good choice when I was craving for something chocolate :)

The brownie is good taste not too sweet and very chocolaty. It's really suitable for people who is "Chocolate Lover". Let's see the recipe....

Fudgy Chocolate Brownie
Yield 1 tray size 7x7" (you can use 8x8" as the original recipe)

Unsalted butter 150 g.
Dark chocolate 150 g.
Chocolate chips 35 g.
All purpose flour 125 g.
Cocoa powder 30 g.
Eggs 3
Sugar 260 g.
Vanilla

1. Prepare the square baking tray 7x7" with parchment paper.
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder then set aside. Put butter and dark chocolate in the bowl and melt the in the microwave till the butter is boiling but be careful of burning chocolate. Bring the bowl out from the microwave and put in chocolate chips then leave it for 30 seconds then stir to mix well and set aside till it's warm.
3. Beat eggs and sugar till fluffy then slowly add chocolate mixture and vanilla. Stir to incorporate.
4. Add in sifted flour and cocoa powder then use spatula to mix in all together. Pour the batter into baking tray.
5. Bake at 180C for 25-30 mins.

Steamed Sticky Rice with Savory Pork

I made this dish for DH as dinner last Friday and it was his first time eating the Savory Pork (Fried Sun-Dried Sweet Slice Pork) which is not Bak Kwa (Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky). I bought the savory pork in Bangkok and it's one of my favorite food. I'm not going to put the recipe of making the savory pork as I never made and always rather buy coz it's a bit complicated with the process and ingredients but I would like to share with you how I made "Steamed Sticky Rice" with very easy and fast to make. I do like to eat steamed sticky rice with grilled chicken or deep-fried chicken. This is a typical food which you can see in Thailand and Thai people also like to eat sticky rice as well as jasmine rice.

The method below will save your time of cooking also it's suitable when you feel like cooking a small portion.

Steamed Sticky Rice (by microwave method)
Yield 1 portion

Sticky rice 1/2 cup
Water

1. Wash sticky rice 2-3 times and fill up the water over sticky rice. Set aside for 20 mins.
2. Pour out some water and just left enough to cover sticky rice. Wrap the bowl with cling film and put into the microwave with high power for 2 mins.
3. Bring the bowl out and open the cling film. Use fork to stir the sticky rice over and wrap with cling film again. Put into the microwave with high power for 2 mins. You might want to check is it done when 1 minute pass.

Chinese New Year 2012 "Pineapple Tart Project"

I was in Thailand to celebrate Chinese New Year with my own family this year... it was a great time to enjoy every activities with them since I had never been there during CNY for few years :)

The above photos were my orders which I made before I left .... it was a tiring week for me coz I had to rush baking especially the first order (in the first photo) I managed to finished the big order in 3 days and baked day till night! Nothing will make me happy beside I got compliment from people who try my pineapple tarts and more order following :) It was a good experience of baking this year and I felt I worked so hard though.

My type of pineapple tarts took me so much time to complete my work. It's not those just cut the dough or roll like a ball but I'm glad to do in this form as they look nice also represent how difficult to make into nice shape as well. Due to I had to fly away 1 week before CNY I had to close my order early so I could not bake more when people called to order. Hopefully next year I can start the project early and I wish I can bake as many as I can to let more people try my secret pineapple tarts.