Garlic Butter Fan Tan Rolls: Simple Bread for every meal

My dad really like garlic bread, most of the time I make the garlic bread using French bread. But I still want a soft bread with a garlic and butter flavor, which I can munching without hurting my gum (I really feel my mouth hurt after eating a lot of that bread, haha).
I saw this recipe in: ...............(my favorite book, I have a feeling that I might use all the recipe in this book in real soon, ^ ^), and it's the answer to my prayer. The bread is soft and flavorful, the only problem for me is the garlic in the original recipe is too little (if you like the taste to be less hash, use only 2 cloves, but my dad, he just roast a lot of garlic and add it to his bread, haha).
The bread is very easy to make and the appearance is great, when eating I like to take tear it pieces by pieces. Even the outside is a bit crunchy, the inside is soft and addictive. Yesterday I have these breads with roasted sausage in balsamic vinegar and tomatoes, and I admit that this bread is so good to accompany the tasty meal. So, this bread is great for both snacking and for your meal too.
Note: I suggest roll the dough into the right size before cutting, because the shape of the bread is depending on it.

Garlic Butter Fan Tan Rolls

MAKES 16

225 ml	milk
15 g	fresh yeast* (or 5 g instant yeast)
2 teaspoons	caster sugar
450 g	strong white flour
2 teaspoons	salt
30 g	vegetable shortening or lard
1	egg, beaten
55 g	salted butter, softened
4	cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons	chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 Scald the milk and set aside to cool to blood temperature. Skim.

2 Mix the yeast with the caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of the milk. (if using instant yeast, mix the instant yeast with all the milk and the sugar)

3 Sift the flour with the salt into a large bowl. Cut the vegetable shortening into small pieces and rub into the flour.

4 Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture, egg and most of the remaining milk. Mix to a soft but not sticky dough, adding more milk (I add about 2 tbsp of milk) or flour as necessary.

5 Knead for 6 minutes by machine or 10 minutes by hand until satiny.

6 Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat it in a thin film of oil. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.

Mix the garlic and parsley with the butter.

7 Heat the oven to 190°C. Lightly butter 16 muffin tins.

8 Knock back the risen dough by kneading for 30 seconds then roll it into a rectangular measuring 80 X 30cm.

9 spread the garlic mixture over the dough. Cut the dough length ways into 6 strips.

Stack the strips then cut them into 16 (5 cm) pieces. Place the pieces in the muffin tins and cover with oiled cling film. Leave to prove until soft and pillowy, about 30 minutes.

10 Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes or until golden-brown. Serve warm.

11 To reheat, place the rolls on a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 180°C for 10 minutes.

Garlic Butter Fan Tan Rolls

Honey Lemon Madeleine: Lovely Tea Time Treats

I make madeleine again, and if you love the taste of butter and egg, you might make it again and again, like me. This time the madeleine comes in little cup so even you don't have the traditional pans, you can make the madeleine too.

This time the recipe is coming from the cute little book name: SNOOPY お菓子はじめてBOOK (Start making the sweet thing). Actually I got this book for almost 4 years now, the book is a supplement book from the Japanese magazine name: レタスクラブ.

I always want to to try any madeleine recipe which I come across in any books. Some are good, some are terrible (really, I have to use this word, and don't worry you don't have a chance to see it in my blog, haha).
But for this time, this little madeleine is good. The honey and lemon zest give this little cake great fragrance. It's very easy to make. You will find it easy to prepare the batter a head and keep it in the fridge for up to 1 day before baking the madeleine.
For the pans, I suggest put them in the refrigerator before baking too. So, the batter will pop up nicely when you put the batter into the oven. And don't forget to butter and flour the pan heavily, because the batter will be very sticky.

Honey and Lemon Madeleine

Make 15 pieces (5cm sizes) Madeleine

100 g	unsalted butter
100 g	cake flour
½ tsp	baking powder
1tsp	Lemon zest
2	eggs, at room temperature
60 g	superfine white sugar
2 tbsp	Honey

Melt the butter and allow it to cool while making the batter.

Sift the flour and baking powder together in to a medium bowl and set aside.

Put egg in a bowl, beat the eggs at medium-high speed and gradually add the sugar until the mixture has tripled in volume and forms a thick ribbon when lifting the beaters. Add the honey and beat to combine.

Add the lemon zest and whisk to combine.Pour the flour and, using a large whisk, mix the flour mixture and egg together, the mixture will be crumble.

Add melted butter into the flour mixture (little by little 5-6 times) mix until smooth do not overmix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously butter 15-small pans (5 cm). Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. (Make sure the pans are well greased, the Madeleine will stick like crazy and hard to remove.)

Drop a generous tablespoonful of the batter into the center of each prepared mold.

Bake the madeleines for 18-20 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers spring back when lightly touched. Do not overbake, or they will be dry.

Remove the pans from the oven and release the madeleines. Transfer the madeleines to wire racks to cool.

Honey Lemon Madeleine

October 2008 Daring Bakers Challenge #23: Bake Your Pizzas Like A Real Pizzaiolo

I made this recipe many times before, and I really love this recipe. So, when I see the challenge for this month, I feel happy.
I rarely buy pizza from the store lately (except for the very lazy days ^ ^"). Home made pizza is very pleasing, the crust is up to your taste and the topping is excellence. You can choose everything that you like, any kinds of ham and cheese, even the book suggests less topping is more delicious, I still believe it's up to your taste.
For this time I made full recipe, but I kept the other half for simple foccacia (I didn't take the photograph). The topping for my pizza is so easy, it's a tomato pasata with a bit of Italian seasoning, then top up with pepperoni and cheese. But as I always say I love creation, so I don't think you have to follow me. There are many variation which you can make, just try and taste, but I believe that you will find it easy to make and you will do it again.
This recipe is very easy esp. when you use the stand mixer, because all you have to do is mix and put it in the fridge, and the next day you will have a tasty pizza dough waiting for you.

~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter)

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH -Ingredients:

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/574 g)	bread flour
1 3/4 Tsp	Salt
1 Tsp	Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g)	Olive oil or vegetable oil
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml)	Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb	sugar

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.


DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.


NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.
During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

October 2008 Daring Bakers Challenge #23:
Bake Your Pizzas Like A Real Pizzaiolo

Caramel Nut Muffin: Great pairing every time!

I really want to try the hot-cake mix variation, I saw a lot of interesting recipe fromホットケーキミックスのお菓子スペシャル!―クリスマス、バレンタイン、バースデーetc.きっと誰かに贈りたくなる (Gakken hit mook), so I bought a box of it. There are many variations, this little box hence the name hot-cake; you can make muffins, cookies, steam cake, crapes and etc.

First I made this muffin using the hot-cake mix, but I after tasting the muffin and it’s very good but I thought I need a real thing. There are no problems about the taste of the hot-cake mix, but I want a recipe that everyone can make it at home using simple ingredients which most of us always have them, like plain flour, baking powder and egg, without going out to buy a box of hot cake mix. So, I create this recipe.

Caramel and nut are good pairing, the flavor of them are enhanced by each other. The recipe turned out good or may I say better. Because the taste of the muffin is fresher, richer and the texture is great. And you can try this recipe right now without going to buy a box of the hot cake mix.

Caramel Nut Muffin

Makes 5 (standard muffin size)

Cake Batter
100 g	Cake flour
½ tsp	Baking powder
35 g	Sugar
50 g	Butter
1	Egg
1	Egg yolk
40 g	Pecan nut (chopped)
Caramel Cream
50 g	Sugar
60 g	Whipping cream

First prepare the caramel cream:

Put sugar in a heavy saucepan. Put the cream in the microwave proved measuring cup. Place the sugar pan on medium heat and cook undisturbed until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize-you’ll see a few wisps of smoke coming out of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally so that the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. Put the whipping cream cup in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds, add it to the caramel, averting your face-the caramel will boil up and may splatter out of the pan. Pour the diluted caramel into a medium bowl and cool it to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 170 °C.

Sift the flour and baking powder together, set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and yolk, mixing well.

Add the dry ingredients and mixing well then add 30 g of pecan nut and 50 g of caramel cream, fold to combine.

Pour the batter into the muffin pan, and scatter the nut over the top then spoon the caramel cream over it.

Use the bamboo stick to create a marble look.

Put the muffin in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes of until the top is golden.

Caramel Nut Muffin

Macadamia Shortbreads: Real Time Saving Cookies

Well, another shortbread recipe in my blog. I’m still testing the recipe from ...................... and I must say this recipe is very very good, and uses very little time to make too (real time saving, ^ ^). All you have to do is put the ingredient into the bowl of the food processor and that is. But I have to adapt the recipe a little bit, because the nut without the salt, esp. the macadamia is too rich. Little amount of salt helps by balancing the flavor and keep the cookie from too rich (imagine this, the macadamia is quite high in fat and when combine with the butter, double fat!). I made only half of the original recipe, and you can double the recipe easily and use 9X13 –inches pan instead (the baking time will be 30 minutes). I use the food processor to chop the nut for the topping too, but remember to pulse just to chop the nut or it will be too powdery.

Recipe: Macadamia shortbreads 
สูตรภาษาไทย:  ช็อตเบรดแมคคาเดเมีย

日本語のレシピ： マカダミアショートブレッド
Youtube: ช็อตเบรดแมคคาเดเมีย, Macadamia shortbreads,  マカダミアショートブレッド

Macadamia Shortbreads

Makes about 16(2-inch (5-cm) square cookies)

COOKIE DOUGH
50g	sugar
25g	unsalted macadamia nuts, crushed with the bottom of a pan
140g	all-purpose flour
¼ tsp	baking powder
90 g	cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I weigh and put it in the freezer when prepare other ingredients)
	A dash of salt
TOPPING
40g	unsalted macadamia nuts
30g	sugar
	A dash of salt

One 8-inch (20-cm) pan lined with buttered foil

1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 160°C.

2. For the dough, combine the sugar and macadamia nuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse to grind finely. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse several times to mix.

Add the butter and pulse until the butter is finely mixed in. The mixture should be powdery (but mine seen a bit like breadcrumb).

Remove the blade of the food processor and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Distribute it evenly all over the bottom of the pan and use the palm of one hand to press it in.

4. Use a brush to sprinkle the top of the dough generously with water.

For the topping, combine the sugar and macadamia nuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse 2-3 times, to mix and the nut crushed and finely chopped, but not ground. Scatter the chopped nuts and sugar evenly on the dough and use the palm of your hand to press them in.

Bake the cookies until they are golden and firm, about 25 minutes.

6. As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, grip the opposite ends of the foil and lift the slab of baked dough onto a cutting board. While the dough is still hot, use a long sharp knife to cut the slab into 2-inch (5-cm) squares. Let the cookies cool and they’ll become crisp.

7. If you find the cookies are not crisp, return them to the pan and a 150°C oven and bake them for another 10 to 15 minutes, then cool the pan on a rack.
Note (9/07/2018) Double baked this cookie, make it more delicious, so I added the method in my Video. Well, it's no longer time saving, but it's very YUMMY!!

STORAGE: Keep the cookies between sheets of wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight- fitting lid.

Macadamia Shortbreads

Chicken Farm Bakers’ Project #3: Let's go BANANA !

Macaron au mocha avec caramel de banane: Mocha Macaron with Caramel Banana filling

Banana, banana, I love banana. This month Chicken farm bakers’ host selects banana to be the star. Actually I want to follow the host’s recipe too (she gives us the banana cake recipe), but I still have a mocaron mission, Haha. My mission began last month when I ordered the book from Amazon fr. I just wanted to have more books about macaron, but I couldn’t find it in English language. I’m lucky enough that I had a chance to learn French when I was in high school (but that time I thought it’s curse, it’s not easy for me). Anyway when my sister saw the books she said that I must make something from the books because she wants to try them. So, I choose this recipe. But I had to change the recipe a bit, because I still not good at making the macaron. My first macaron from new book was a mass, because I didn’t know that my thermometer was broken. I lost 2 batch of Italian meringue before I noticed the problem and I lost 1 batch of macaron because I was too tried to make (The recipe uses very little water and I couldn’t melt the sugar so I put a spoonful of water into the pan, so the ingredient was out of balance). So I used the macaron recipe from:  ............ and the filling from ...................

The recipe from ................. book is very good; I don’t have to keep the door ajar when baking the macaron now. But the key is the egg white had to separate from the yolk and keep in a box for 1 week in the refrigerator, (or leave the box in room temperature for 2-3 days). So, the egg white will liquidize and the macaron won’t crack easily when bake, and you have to let the macorons dry for 30 minutes before baking. And I have to accept that this is the most reliable macaron recipe for me.

Macaron au mocha avec caramel de banane: Mocha Macaron with Caramel Banana filling

Makes about 30

Mocha Italian Meringue Macaron
For the macaron base
68 g	almond powder
68 g	icing sugar
25 g	egg whites
2 tsp	Kahlúa (or other coffee-flavored liqueur.)
1 tsp	Instant coffee
	Yellow food coloring
	Cocoa powder for sprinkle
For Italian Meringue
68 g	caster sugar
15 g	water
25 g	egg whites
Caramel banana filling
70 g	Banana
¾ tsp	Lemon juice
¾ tsp	Dark rum
95 g	White chocolate
30 g	Caster sugar
1 tbsp	Cream
15 g	Butter cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Mix the macaron base:

Mix Kahlúa and instant coffee together, stir to combine. Sift together almond powder and icing sugar into a bowl, put the color, Kahlúa mixture and egg white into the bowl. Use a pastry scrap to bring everything together. Set aside.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 114°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 120°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

Make the macaron:

Mix together the base and Italian meringue.

The mixture should be softer and very glossy, a little stiffer then cake batter.

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe or spoon mixture into 3 cm rounds onto baking paper-lined (or Silpat) oven trays. When you’ve pipe out all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter). Let the macarons rest for 30 minutes, and sprinkle with the cocoa powder before baking.

Bake for 9 minutes to 15 minutes depend on your oven. Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaron to release.

Make caramel banana filling:

Put banana, rum and lemon juice in a bowl of the food processor and process until smooth.

Chop white chocolate into small pieces and put in a medium bowl, set aside.

Put the sugar in a heavy saucepan, place the pan on medium heat and cook undisturbed until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize-you’ll see a few wisps of smoke coming out of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally so that the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. While the caramel is still very pale add cream to the caramel at arm’s length, averting your face—the caramel will boil up and may splatter out of the pan. Pour the banana mixture into the caramel stir to combine then add the butter, and stir until smooth.

Pour the hot caramel into the white chocolate bowl, stir to melt the chocolate.

Let the filling cool until thick enough (you can put the filling into the fridge to quicken this step).

Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe the filling into the macorons

Sandwich macarons together.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for filling to firm.

Macaron au mocha avec caramel de banane: Mocha Macaron with Caramel Banana filling