Valentine's Breakfast

Rise and Shine!

Blueberry Pie

I honestly do not remember where I got this recipe from =( I've searched high and low for it and hate to paste a recipe without knowing its source. Feels like "plagiarism" to me =P

But it was a good pie. As usual I cut down the recipe and cut down the sugar to half. It's rather sweet if you read the recipe and used frozen blueberries instead. I remember baking this the day before my family arrives from Malaysia!



Blueberry Pie
Ingredients:
(A)
435 g fresh blueberries
1 pie crust
200 g white sugar - used brown sugar and lessen the amount
40 g flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
115 g sour cream - added a little extra
I also added 1 tsp of vanilla extract
(B)
100 g white sugar - used brown sugar and lessen the amount
60 g flour
55 g butter
I added few dashes of cinnamon powder

How to make:
Combine dry (sugar, flour and salt ) and wet (eggs and sour cream) in ingredients (A) together. The mix wet to dry ingredients.
Put your blueberries in the pie crust and pour the mixture over.

Combine ingerdients (B) to resemble course grainy breadcrumbs-like texture and sprinkle over the pie mixture in shell.

Bake 180c for 50-55 minutes or til golden and browned.

Shortbread Cookies and Pound Cake

Yep! Shortbread Cookies this time. Few weeks back we ran out of cookies in the house and hubby loves shortbread cookies so he actually google-ed around for the basic recipe. I got my tools and oven ready, and.. a way we go!

Recipe can be found here

I wouldn't bother putting the recipe here since I didn't make any changes to the recipe and they're very basic cookies. I bet if you tweaked the recipe a bit here and there or simply by substituting white sugar to brown sugar, they'll taste brilliant =)


before going into the oven =)


into the cookie jar, quick!!

Though they're plain cookies, for a shortbread cookies lover, they sure are irresistible

Few days later I felt like having pound cake. Remember Sara Lee's Marbled Pound cake? They were my favourite! Frozen! I used to absolutely love eating them frozen. Yep, you read that right =p I know, my tastebuds are crazy like that!

So after scouting around for a basic pound cake recipe, I found one here

Of course I've made some changes and cut the recipe in half =P
Here's my version.

Ingredients:
100 g shortening - i used all butter
225 g butter
500 g white sugar
5 eggs
10 ml almond extract - used vanilla bean paste
235 ml milk
2 g baking powder
430 g cake flour - plain flour

How to make:
Preheat oven at 150c
Grease your cake pan. I sprayed mine with olive oil spray.
Cream butter and sugar til they turn pale and creamy. May take a bit of time. I used a normal hand mixer.
Add your eggs, one at a time. Ensure each addition is well incorporated.
Add the almond (or vanilla) extract.
Mix well.
In another bowl, combine the baking powder and flour.
Alternate flour and milk into the egg mixture, by starting and ending with flour.
Mix well on each addition.


The luscious batter

Pour batter into your cake pan and bake for 45 mins to an hour. Or until top turn golden and appears dry. You may insert a toothpick to check if middle is cooked.

Tips: My only tip to this recipe is to make sure the butter and sugar is well-creamed. And each addition to the mixture is well incorporated. Pound cake is a very traditional cake and can be delicate too. Ensure everything is well mixed and you'll have a very moist, dense cake in your home =)

This cake suits any occassion. Make some icing and ice them for a great birthday cake. Or layer it for that special someone. This cake can also be kept for days covered in the fridge or frozen in the freezer. We kept our cake in the fridge for more than 3 days and it still remains dense, soft and moist. Delicious! =D

Honey Oat Bread

I have lots of leftover oats from crumbing our fish fillets the other night. Somehow eating oats by itself for breakfast doesn't seem very appealing to me. So there sit my oats in the cupboard for few days untouched.

With many success baking sweet and savoury buns and rolls, believe it or not I always fail making a normal loaf bread. It somehow rose too much or burnt on top or decide to just collapse on me. Very frustrating.

So tonight I decided to give it another try. Rather nervous, I'd try with oats in them. To make it my own, I tweaked the recipe by substituting the sugar with honey. Here's the original recipe and my version of it.

Light Oat Bread

Ingredients:
295 ml water
25 g margarine - olive oil
6 g salt
375 g bread flour
40 g rolled oats
25 g brown sugar - blue gum honey
6 g active dry yeast
few dashes of cinnamon powder

How to make:
Preheat oven 175C/350F
Combine dry ingredients.
Make a well in the centre.
Combine yeast, suger (or honey), butter and warm water in a separate bowl. Leave for few minutes til frothy and creamy. Add yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and mix.
Knead 10-15 mins. Proove for an hour or til doubled in size.
Punch dough with your fist. Shape and place dough into prepared loaf pan.
Leave to rise again for 30-45 mins.

Bake 30 mins.



Tips: The recipe calls for bread maker but I don't have one so I knead the bread by hand about 8-10 mins. The dough was a bit sticky so while kneading I kept adding flour (up to 1/4c more, maybe?) to my workbench and hands til I get a smooth dough. The oats didn't completely disappear, it was still there only I think the amount of oats are not enough to show in the bread too much, which is great for hubby (whom would freak out if he sees them!) and for fussy little eaters. The entire house smelled of bread and honey when it was in the oven. Beautiful!

Savoury Crepes (Dadar Berlauk) and Sausage Buns

Made these few days ago. I miss my mom's version of dadar berlauk. I know some may call these differently but this is what she calls them. I remember she used to make them for breaking fast during the holy month of Ramadhan.

I'm not entirely sure of her recipe but this one tastes quite the same. She added sesame oil and spring onions to the batter. A Chinese friend taught her to make them. She doesn't fry them, just roll them up and ready to eat.

This recipe I got from a website and it's pretty much the same how you'd make a crepe batter. Only add splashes of sesame oil and finely chopped spring onions. For the filling, any type of filling suits those delicate, soft crepes :D

I'll put the recipe up here anyway.



Ingredients:
For fillings: - there are many variations to fillings. I made a curry based for this one.
Onions
Garlic
Minced meat (beef/chicken/lamb)
Curry powder
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Celeries
Mixed veges
Salt and pepper

How to make:
Saute onions and garlic. Add mince and curry powder. Add potatoes, tomatoes, celeries and mixed veges. Fry til dry, season to taste. Let cool.

Meanwhile, you can work on your crepes.

Ingredients:
For crepes:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
salt
splash of sesame oil
spring onions, thin strips

How to make:
Blend all ingredients in your food processor or whisk vigorously. Batter works better when left for 30 minutes before use. Wipe oil on your pan with a kitchen towel. Spoon batter onto pan and swirl to make thin crepes. Once top dries and cooks, remove from pan.

To assemble, pile a tablespoon of filling onto a crepe and roll it up as you would making spring rolls.



If you want to try the fried version, prepare:
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs

Dip the rolled crepes into egg mixture and roll onto breadcrumbs. Leave on a rack to sit and continue with the rest of the batter. I find resting the crumbed crepes before frying makes them set properly.
Tips: Ensure the spring onions are thinly sliced as possible. Crepes are very delicate. Be extra careful when handling or it may tear. And I mean, extra careful ;)


Then, I made these!
It was a long weekend with Australia Day last Monday so the shops were having massive sale on barbecued meats (steaks, sausages, patties, etc). We bought a 2kg rack of thin sausages for 6 dollars! :-D
So after dropping by the supermarket and bought some yeast, I started this project. Sausage buns! YUM!

The buns are pretty much a simple, basic bread bun recipe.
Ingredients:
400g bread flour
1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
250ml warm water
3 tbsp butter/oil

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix til well combined. Knead by hand 10-15 minutes til smooth. Roll up to a ball. Brush bowl with a little olive oil, tip ball of dough into bowl so all ball surface covered thinly with oil. Cover bowl with cling wrap and place bowl at a warm, dry spot til doubled in size. I usually wait 45-60 minutes to prove it.

Punch dough with fist to let air out. Tip dough onto your working bench - floured. Knead for 1 minute til dough returns to its original size and shape your dough as you like. Once shaped, place them onto your greased baking tray and prove again til it doubles in size. Approximately 30-45 minutes.

Place your lovely looking buns into a pre-heated oven of 200c and bake for 20 minutes or buns browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Variations: Some dough I had rolled them with curry powder and breadcrumbs. I've also spread some chilli sauce and mayo into others before enveloping the dough with my sausages. If you like, you can turn them into pizza wheels, adding you favourite pizza sauces or mix cubed cheeses into the dough to make yummy sausage and cheese buns. Options and variations are endless :D :D