Weekend Blogging

I have some tangzhong left from Sunday so I made some coconut custard buns which I have been craving for some time.

The buns are ready for baking. I used a pan which was too small.

The buns after some syrup is brushed on top and bake again for 10 mins.

Its very good but the recipe called for only 30gm coconut for filling which was not enough to fill 6 buns. Next time I will adjust the coconut filling.

I always tweek all recipes, sometimes it turns out good and sometimes not.

My first time making bread using the Tangzhong Method which was suggested to me by my sister. I searched the internet and found this recipe from http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/03/japanese-style-bacon-and-cheese-bread.html. I omitted the bacon and cheese and just make the bread plain.

Flour and milk to make the tangzhong. I used milk instead of water.


The Tangzhong is ready when some lines formed.


The tangzhong ready to use



Active Dry Yeast after it was proved for 10 mins. I used active Dry Yeast instead of Instant Yeast.



The dough is ready for its first rise for 1hour


After the first rise.


Rested for 10 mins and ready to roll into a loaf and let it rise for 45 minutes in a loaf pan


After the 45 minutes rise and ready for baking.


The Bread


The bread is moist and soft.



It is a long process but most of it is waiting. I used my mixer with the dough hook to combine the dry and wet ingreadients together to knead it and then knead it by hand for 10 mins.

Recipe from Secrets of a Restaurant Chef from FoodNetWork Channel. I always like to make scones as they are very easy to make and taste very good. The scones from this recipe are not dry but very flaky.




Dried Cherry Almond Scones

Recipe courtesy Anne Burrell


Ingredients
•3 cups all-purpose flour
•1 cup sugar
•1 tablespoon baking powder
•1 lemon, zested
•Pinch salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into pea size pieces
•1 cup dried cherries
•1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
•1/2 cup heavy cream
•Turbinado sugar, for garnishing
•Honey Butter, recipe follows

Directions


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, salt and cinnamon. Add in the butter and rub with your fingers (I cut the butter with a dough cutter) into the dry ingredients until a coarse meal forms. Add in the cherries and almonds(omitted by me). Add the heavy cream (I add more as 1/2 cup is not enough)and combine it into the butter flour mixture.

Form the dough into a 1-inch thick disk and cut it into 6 wedges (instead of cutting into wedges, you can cut with a cookie cutter). Sprinkle each wedge generously with the turbinado sugar. Transfer the wedges to a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven for 17 to 18 minutes, turning the pan halfway through. Serve warm with Honey Butter.



Honey Butter:
•1/2 pint cold heavy cream
•2 tablespoons honey
•1 orange, zested

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add all ingredients and whip on high speed until the cream starts to clump and turn light yellow. Continue mixing as butter forms and the buttermilk begins to separate out. Scrape sides and continue mixing until mixture is one lump of butter. Place butter into a clean container or serving dish and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

I baked some Popovers for Friday's dinner and baked another Cranberry Apple Sour Cream Cobbler.

Cranberry Apple Sour Cream Cobbler recipe from the Crisco Delicious Desserts for All Occasions


Popovers with Chicken Pot Pie

That is a Frangipani tree (in the 3rd Square) given to me by a co-worker

The Nasturtium planted from seeds

The vegetable patch is thriving and doing very well.

These are the potato plants.

The two tomato plants
This is the cherry tomato

Not sure the type for this tomato plant


The sweet banana peppers

Growing corn(maize) for the first time and also started another row of daikons


The daikons planted some months ago have started to flower and we hope they were seed.

The collard greens and onions growing side by side.

These are the carrots

I found this Crisco Delicious Desserts for All Occasions recipe book in the Thriftstore this weekend. I bought it because I wanted the Cherry Cheese Bars recipe. From the photo, the bars looked very inviting and delicious. So here is mine, does not look like the photo in the book but it taste just as good.

Bake two loaves of white bread today. Found the recipe in my Complete Step-By-Step Cook Book which was published in 1979.