Pizza - No Knead Pizza

I just ate the best pizza crust that I've ever made. I used Jim Lahey's recipe from his book called My Pizza.

Jim Lahey is well known in the bread making world for his adaptation of no knead bread at his bakery in New York, Sullivan Street Bakery.

I made his recipe though I didn't document it because of the blog app that I'm using which only allows pictures at the end of the blog and not at each step.

Anyways it's a very easy recipe!! It's just flour, salt, yeast and water. Let it sit for 18 hours and voilà!!

It's so good!!! It tastes very similar to Grimaldi Pizzeria in Brooklyn. Of course it's not 100% the same but it's close enough north of the border. Trust me, after the pizza in Brooklyn, I can't stop obsessing finding the ultimate homemade pizza crust that tastes similar to that. This dough by Jim Lahey is very close plus it so easy to make.

Here is my pizza with Jim's tomato sauce. I fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and spinach.

Banana Bread

There's really nothing to post on a banana bread since it's just banana bread which is a common baking. But I'm showing this since it's a bit different since I have a strudel topping and bananas. I think it looks very nice. What do you think???

Candy Cane Sweet Bread Braid

I borrowed Debbie Macomber's Christmas Cookbook from the library because it was a new cookbook. I don't know who she is but as I was looking for a picture of the cookbook cover to put on this blog, I realized that she is an author.





I decided to try two of the recipes in the book and this is one of them.

Cake Pops 2

I decided to make more cake pops since I had some store bought icing left from last time. I thought it was suppose to last 3 months but read the label again and it said 30 days. Darn! Had to throw it out.

Luckily the cake was kinda moist that it held together as a ball so I didn't use any icing. I didn't go out to buy because the icing would be wasted since I'd use less than 1/3 of the icing.

I crumbled a cake that I froze previously and made into balls. I put them in the freezer to firm up.

Why is Christmas Pudding Considered Rich?

I was just talking with a co-worker and she said her husband makes the most awesome and rich Christmas pudding. I love Christmas pudding. Every Christmas, it is a treat that my dad heats up (no he does not make his own) and makes a custard sauce to go with it.

My co-worker described it as "rich". Many people have described it the same. I have always wondered how or why it was considered rich? It's filled with dried fruits, shouldn't it be health? Is dried fruit rich or unhealthy?

I tried looking at recipes to see why it was rich. Is it because it uses a lot of butter? I've seen variations of 1/2 cup butter to 1 cup butter. But cakes also use that much better. OR because of the eggs? But the recipes I looked at required 2 to 4 eggs. Cakes and creme brulees use way more eggs. Some traditional recipes use suet which is beef or lamb fat. Not many recipes I saw used it. But if it did, I guess that would make it rich, right?


OR is because it is typically served with a custard or hard sauce? That is rich. My coworker's husband serves with an alcohol-spiked butter sauce. That would also be very rich! Is this why Christmas pudding is rich, because of the serving sauce?


Why is Christmas pudding considered rich? Does anyone know the answer?

Just a rambling from the mind. (ps. It's so much nicer to blog using a computer than an iPhone!)

Cake Pops

I bought Cake Pop recipe book over a year ago (before my New Year's resolution). I've been wanting to try it but timing didn't work. It's got great pictures that I love looking at the pictures.

Fall Bavarian Apple Cheesecake

After posting on my Facebook that I was willing to bake anything for anyone, as long as they pick it up or it's on my way to where I'm going, my coworker requested a cheesecake.

I decided to make this cheesecake as it's easy and one of my favourites. I've made this many times for potluck. One person commented that she's never liked cheesecake but she really enjoyed this one. I believe her because I've seen her decline cheesecakes before at other parties.

This recipe is from Kraft recipes from their website. Here is their picture of how it should look like.

Thermomix

I had a Thermomix class with Agnes to make some Exotic Snacks. It was a very good class as it demonstrates what the Thermomix is a capable of.



Background of Thermomix

The Thermomix is a German designed and French produced kitchen appliance. It was initially designed to make baby food, as it was healthy, safe and quick/easy to use. However, others decided to apply it in other parts of their cooking and have een very successful. Chinese have now used it to stir-fry, steam and make soups. Even professional chefs are using it to make mousse, puddings and other difficult dishes.

The Thermomix replaces many applicances including blender, grinder, blender, food processor, stand mixer, ice shavers, juicers, slow cookers and probably a lot more. The only thing that it cannot do is deep fry and bake. Actually, that's not the only downside. The downside is the price...however if you do not have a lot of kitchen appliances, and plan to buy, this will be perfect since you will only need ONE machine and it will take up less space than owning 2 appliances. Plus many of my classmates who have bought this machine have started to use it regularly and all vouch that it's a great appliance to have at home.

Here are some links praising it. Honestly, the only negative feedback with this machine is price.

http://www.superkitchenmachine.com/2010/4904/buy-thermomix-in-canada.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/412015

Globe and Mail's view on Thermomix

This last link is from Anna and Kristina's Grocery bag. It's a blog so was not on their show.

Anna and Kristina's view of Thermomix

It cannot be bought at the store but by a dealer directly. It is a very popular applicance in Australia. If you do any search on it in English, you will find many users in Australia and ways they have learned to apply in their daily lives.

Here's a picture of Thermomix:



So back to the main topic Exotic Snacks using Thermomix:

As with all my classses, I do not take pictures of each steps since I'm learning in the class and also it's hard because there are other students around. I only take the final product. However, when I do replicate the recipe at home, I will definately show you my steps. In the case of Thermomix, I can only do that when I have access to a Thermomix.

We made three items in this class.

The first item was Green Tea Pudding. It was very nice and smooth pudding. The flavour was subtle but you can play around that by adding more sugar or green tea powder. Thermomix was used because when heating milk, this machine will keep the temperature constant so you don't need to have a thermometer. If you have ever made pudding, it's not always easy because you have to constantly stir to prevent burning and two you have to control temperature so the milk and cream doesn't boil over. With Thermomix, just put your ingredients in, close the lid and turn on the setting and after 15 minutes, your mixture is ready to be put in the fridge.

I liked it but I don't know if I'll make it again. I'm not a pudding person and if I had to eat extra calories that pudding has, I would probably prefer a different dessert. Here's a picture with Japanese red bean topping.




We then made Spinach Corn Muffin. It was so easy to make this. Just put spinach and grind. Then add other ingredients and done. If you look at my blog, I recently made this with a blender and a mixer. It was such a mess, even though the recipe is great. I green liquid from the spinach spilling out plus i had to pulverize my spinach numerous times because the blender blades were not as powerful as Thermomix's blades. I really like the muffin because of the green colour which would be great for Halloween but also because it was healthy!! It tasted good as well.




Lastly, we made a traditional Chinesse dessert called Chinese Birthday Steamed Cake (賀蕁紅粿) Wow! I loved this. I really loved the filling. It was amazing!!! I know that there is NO way I can make this without Thermomix. If I had to make this without Thermomix, I would probably not bother. As well, to make the red colour, we grounded up a beetroot, so the colour is natural plus you get the nutrients of the beet.

Without Thermomix, you can probaly use a food processor and a pot afterwards to cook the beetroot. In this case, I didn't need to use another equipment, just Thermomix mixing bowl.

Here are some pictures.







Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this class. It was a great way for me to see even more the potential of Thermomix. I am planning to buy one for myself, as I can see myself using this for at least 2 of the above items. Also, many of my classmates who already have this machine say that they often cook their rice, soup and steam veggies/fish all at the same time so they are able to have a full meal within 15 minutes. How great is that for someone who doesn't like cooking like me?

I tried the spinach corn muffin at home and it worked really well. It was harder to make without the Thermomix but doable. The Chinese Birthday steam Cake might be a challenge without the right equipment. I will make this though!! The pudding was good but not my thing.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Muffin, Cake and Brownie

Tonight I felt like baking so I baked. If I had a big freezer and ingredients at home, I'd bake more things. Actually ingredients is no problem since Safeway is opened til 12am so my problem is storage. I don't like wasting food, that unless it is eaten, I can't make more.

Tonight I made three items but will only blog on two of them. I made a pound cake, spinach corn muffin and brownies.

Traditional Chinese Pastries Class

I took another class with Agnes Chiu (趙太). Her class was a Traditional Chinese Pastry (中式糕餅班). It was a good class since I had the chance to learn pastry techniques, which I've been wanting to learn.

We made Almond Tofu (杏仁豆腐) using Chinese almond (南杏). I always thought the almond that we snack on is used to make this. As well in other recipes that I've seen, they used almond extract only. This almond tofu was quite refreshing.

Steamed BBQ Pork (Char Siu) Bun (叉燒飽)

I had extra BBQ pork this weekend and it was way too much food to eat as leftovers plus it was pretty fatty. So I decided to make steamed BBQ pork buns. The best recipe is the one my mom used to make using Bisquick. It was a "cakey" dough. Unfortunately that recipe has been missing since 1990s and could not be found. My mom asked my grandmother and my aunt but no avail. (To my relatives in SA, if you read my blog, please ask your mom if she has a BBQ bun recipe. It's important because it came from our grandmother and don't want to lose that recipe).

Anyways, I was going to use the recipe I got from my cooking teacher but I couldn't find it either, so I used this book's recipe.



This book was a gift from a good friend many many years ago. She stated that it was pretty authentic. I agree. I haven't tried a lot of recipes because many are from other parts of China, I have so many recipes from my mom and grandmother to perfect plus I'm taking cooking classes that it's hard to try so many recipes.

Pop Bakery

I don't usually review books without testing recipes. It really annoys me to read book reviews of recipe books where the reviewer has NOT tried any recipe and just reviews the pictures. I can do that myself by visiting bookstores or libraries!!! So I don't review recipe books without trying it.

However, this is one review where I'm going to review without testing the book. I'm talking about Pop Bakery


I borrowed this book from the library. I was curious to see how this booked compared to the Cake Pop recipe book that I bought. I really like Cake Pop but have not reviewed it yet since I haven't tried the recipes.

To view a sample of Cake Pops, go to the author's blog, Bakerella. I love her stuff!!

Back to Pop Bakery...

The book had a great cover. That's why I borrowed the book.

However when I looked at the pictures in the book, I was disappointed with the designs. The designs were things that I would not make and would not impress others, if I made it. What made the book worse, the quality of the designs looks very amateurish. For example, the tiger pop's lines look like what I would do and I have a very shaky hand.

Final Thoughts:

Though I haven't tried the recipes, I was disappointed with the pictures and the quality of work shown. Because of that, I would not purchase this book. I know that Pop Bakery is a bakery in UK so it might taste amazing. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't attract me to make anything.

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Yorkshire Pudding

Today I was in the mood to make roast the way my mom does. Many who visited my house and tried my mom's food has often said that her cooking is really good. And those who stay longer than one meal have often said that they gain weight.

Anyways since I was making roast, I decided to try to make Yorkshire pudding. I was going to use one of my recipe book's recipe. However, it said to put the batter in a 8"x8" pan. Wouldn't that make it a huge square Yorkshire pudding??? I've never seen that so I decided to go on the Internet and use a recipe there.

I found an easy one by Jaime Oliver. It was stated in a forum that it was a fool-proof Yorkshire pudding. That sound promising, as I've heard it easy to make but hard to be successful.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I really needed to make something for breakfast. Last little while, I guiltily went to Starbucks to buy their "baking." I feel guilty cos 1) I can make them 2) it costs unnecessary spending 3) I know what I put in and control the ingredients whereas with them, I don't.

Anyways so Saturday, I decided to bake something with cinnamon with some old Digweed CDs. I wanted something cinnamon not because I crave it but because the last time I baked I accidentally mixed flour and sugar with my cinnamon and it's bothered me since!!!! I felt I had to use it up.

I wanted cinnamon buns but the recipe I had needed buttermilk and I didn't want to go out and buy. So I had a choice of stacked cinnamon bread (from my Wooden Spoon Bread book) or Cinnamon Raisin Bread (from the Kitchen Aid Baking Companion). Since I never used the Kitchen Aid book, I decided to try it's recipe.



I bought this book a long time ago. It's actually one of the reason why I decided to have a New Year's resolution of not buying a recipe book unless I finish making everything in one recipe book (that New Year resolution is partially successful in that I haven't bought any recipe books but failure because I'm not going to complete 1 recipe book by the end of this year. By 2012, I'm gonna be buying!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a craze for cookies and making cookies. Right after university exams and before Christmas, I'd make three or four types of cookies. My dad said it's because after studying and writing exams, holidays were anti-climax and so I would bake to not be bored. I just kinda thought it was for sentimental reasons when my mom liked to bake for the Holidays so I was recreating that. Or simple I loved cookies that I wanted to eat them. Mine friends used to call me Cookie Monster cos I would be willing to be late for class just to buy a cookie (from Cookies by George).

Anyways, I stopped baking cookies so regularly because I experienced baking other things and really enjoyed making those other things eg bread and cakes.

Today I wanted to send some baking by mail as a gift to my brother for his birthday. Cookies were the easiest to send so decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookies from my favourite book.



I made their chocolate chip cookies before and thought it was good but too sweet. I decided to try again to see how it taste.

First I mixed flour, salt and baking soda.



Then in another bowl I mixed melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar. I reduced the white sugar by 1/4 cup.

The recipe said that the trick to successful chewy cookie is melted butter. The cool thing about America Test Kitchen is that they test ideas and recipes in order to give the best baking or cooking advice!!!

Again, I don't like how butter is measured by sticks in this book. I don't use sticks or tablespoon when measuring my butter!!!

Anyways, I also added vanilla extract. The vanilla extract I used was a vanilla bean infused vodka.
See the vanilla pods?



Put all the ingredients together.


Then mix until it becomes thick which takes about 1 to 2 minute.




Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and mix for 30 seconds.




Then add flour and mix for 30 seconds again.



Then add chocolate chip. I should have used semi-sweet but instead I used milk chocolate chips. I like milk chocolate more but was worried it might be too sweet so wanted to use semi-sweet. However had no choice because Urban Fare sold a big bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips for $5.99 and a small bag of milk chocolate for $3.99 and I only had $5 with me. So had to buy milk chocolate chips.

This recipe instructs that you roll 2 tablespoon of dough into a ball. Their rationale is that the edge of the cookie will be smooth and even. I personally prefer dropped cookies rather than rolled so next time, I'll just drop the dough onto the baking sheet.



After baking, let it sit on the pan for 10minutes.



Then enjoy eating or let it cool on a wire rack.



Final Thoughts:
The cookies were crispy outside and moist/chewy inside. The chocolate chips were slightly melted. Yum-mee!!!

They were really good cookies. I would still reduce sugar a little more because it's still a little too sweet for me but would make it again!!

This is a recipe you have to share because it uses a lot of butter. I guess butter is necessary to make the cookie crispy.

The book stated is if you want to freshen your cookies to make it crisp, put it in the oven for about 3 minutes.

Well, gonna enjoy my cookies!! Mmmmmmm...

Blueberry Crumble Tart

Yesterday I made a Blueberry Crumble Tart (yes I bought sugar!). It was from a recipe book I borrowed from the library called In a Small Kitchen.

The authors' name is Cara Eisenpress and Phobe Lapine. It just came out this summer. This book is designed for people living and small kitchens and don't cook very often.



I read reviews and people seem to like the simplicity and the taste of the food, though one reviewer felt the book would have been more suitable for her 10 years ago. Another comment more for those in their 20s and just starting to cook.

Pizza

While baking hearty rolls, I also made pizza. I made dough from my favourite recipe book, The American Test Kitchen.

Hearty Rolls

I'm out of sugar but wanted to bake so could only make bread and pizza dough. They don't require sugar. This post will be on my bread.

I've been wanting to make bread rolls because I can freeze and use as needed. With loaves of bread, I have a hard time finishing it. Often I have to eat it for lunch and breakfast and throw away the last piece cos it's too old and hard to even toast.

The bread roll I made came from my favourite book (and my fave cooking show on PBS). It's from America's Test Kitchen.

Shrewsbury Cakes

I borrowed a cookbook by Richard Sax called Classic Home Desserts. It interested me because I like old recipes from pioneers and Victorian Era. I find their food very interesting both from survival perspective (pioneers and homesteaders) and extravagance (Victorian house management).

This book is quite extensive. I wouldn't say the recipes are the original recipes from way back when. Rather they are recipes that have been modernized and from hotels or chefs that the author has tried the dishes and begged for their recipes. This book has won the Beard Award, if it means anything to you.

Blueberry Muffin

I needed to make breakfast because I have nothing quick to eat in the morning. Since I'm not a morning person, I need a breakfast on the go. Also, I don't want to buy breakfast because it's usually not healthy.

I used a recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. As I said in a previous post, it's my favourite recipe book. I've made at least over 6 recipes and they have all been great.



Anyways, back to my muffin. First I greased my muffin pan. I usually use the butter wrap to grease. I guess it would be easier to buy spray...


I bought a big bucket of blueberries from Costco. I dunno...every summer I buy lots of blueberries but I tend to bake with them than eat them fresh.




The America's Test Kitchen suggest to coat the blueberries with flour. This is to prevent the blueberry juice turning the muffin purple and having the blueberries sink to the bottom of the muffin.



To prevent gluten from forming, mix dry ingredients separately from wet ingredients. Gluten forms when flour is over mixed with wet ingredients. The bad thing about gluten forming is that you have bread like texture or tough muffins.

The dry ingredients include flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.


The wet ingredients include yogurt. However I have no yogurt so I replaced it with sour cream. Yogurt/sour cream is suppose to make baked goods moist. I was also suppose to add lemon zest but the lemon I saw at Urban Fare looked terrible so I had no choice but to use lemon juice.



Add 2 eggs to the sour cream...



And mix...



Now this is the part I often fail, the folding of wet ingredients into dry ingredients without over mixing.


I'm used to a more wet batter for muffins so when folding, it seem like there wasn't enough liquid to properly mix so I think I might of over mixed.

After mixing, add melted butter and folded again.


Because I've already mixed so much, it made it worse when I added blueberries since it required folding AGAIN just to evenly distribute the blueberries in the batter.



After I put 1/3 cup of batter in the muffin tin.



And bake....Let it cool in pan, remove from pan and cool.



Final Thoughts:
Hmm...I finally realize why some muffin recipes don't impress me because rather than a muffin texture, I get a cakey texture. It's because I overmix and gluten is formed.

In this case, the same thing happened. The muffin wasn't very "muffiny" texture but cakey. I think I over mixed. I actually knew that when I was folding the wet and dry ingredients and blueberries because it started to feel stiff.

I will try this recipe one more time but at this time, I'm just ok with this recipe. I think it's the first recipe in this book that hasn't impressed me but then again, the fault may lie with me and not the recipe.

Also this recipe used 1/2 cup of butter. Yes, this recipe makes 16 muffins, so 1/2cup butter for 16 muffins isn't too bad but 1/2cup is still 1/2 cup and that's still too much.


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