Bread Pizza Base (Extremely easy)

This is for those who are lazy to make pizza base from scratch (including myself). This one uses a few days old bread. There are so many things that you can make using left over bread, I usually use it to make fritters, french toast, bread pudding, croutons, toasts with toppings, garlic bread and many many more. The only thing I have not tried is to use it to make a pizza base, I mean shape it into a round pizza base. This is also partly inspired by an online friend's quest (jq) for an easy, shortcut pizza base 8-)

A slice of the pizza

Ingredients
6 or more slices of bread, sides removed (amount based on the size of the pizza pan)
water or milk (UHT or fresh)
pizza sauce
your favourite toppings
olive oil
* can throw in some dried herbs to make the base more flavourful

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190c
2. Tear bread into small pieces
3. Pour water/milk bit by bit just enough to soak the bread pieces
4. Using your hands, mash the bread pieces until you can form a ball. This is to ensure that the bread is moist enough, the mashed bread should not be too wet
5. Press the mashed bread into the pizza pan, make sure that you press hard so that the base will not break when you slice it later
6. Brush the base with olive oil and put your favourite pizza sauce and toppings
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes till the sides are crispy and the toppings are golden brown. If you find the base a little wet, use the low grill and grill it for about 5-10mins

Egg-less Fruit Cake

I have never tried an eggless fruit cake before and last weekend I stumbled upon this recipe from an old magazine. I love fruit cake but I hate the idea of having to either steam it for hours or bake it for 2 hrs 8-<>

This cake uses quite alot of condensed milk so the top and sides tend to brown fast. Ensure that you check the doneness using a satay stick or skewer. This is a very moist cake, if you don't like it too moist, you may want to add a little bit more of the flour.

For the mixed fruit, you may want to add a little bit more as I don't find it enough for a rather big cake.

Ingredients
150g butter
200g mixed fruit
2 tbsps sugar
500ml condensed milk (original was 515ml)
250ml water (original was 1/2 can of 515ml)
230g self raising flour, sifted
(original uses 230g flour, 1 tsp baking powder,1 tsp sodium bicarbonate,sifted together)

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients except flour and cook for 10-15minutes or until the mixed fruits are plumped over low heat, stirring occasionally
2. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature then stir in sifted flour
3. Preheat oven to 160c
4. Pour mixture into a lined, greased 20cm baking tin and allow to stand for 15 minutes
5. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour or till skewer comes out clean

Easy Sweet & Sour Sauce

There are many ways to make sweet and sour sauce and most of the time, I use ketchup and chilli sauce as the sauce base. Occasionally I will use tomato paste or sauce if I ran out of my favourite ketchup. I had some left over tomato juice that I used for my chicky pops and decided to whip up an extremely simple sweet & sour sauce for my left over fish. Surprisingly, it tastes better than my other recipe. Looks like I will be sticking to this for my sweet and sour sauce.

Ingredients
1/2 can tomato juice
3-5 tbsp chilli sauce, more if you like it spicy
1 large onion, sliced thick
2 cloves garlic, chopped
half green pepper, cubed
2-3 slices pineapple rings, cut into small pieces
1-2 splashes of sesame oil
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Mix tomato juice and chilli sauce and set aside
2. Heat oil in a pot or wok
3. Stir fry onions till translucent, then add chopped garlic
4. Continue frying till fragrant, add green peppers
5. Stir for 3 mins, add tomato & chilli mixture and pineapple pieces
6. Add sesame oil and salt to taste
7. Let the sauce simmer for another 5 min and pour over fried fish, prawns or chicken
8. Add a bit of the pineapple juice or water if it gets a bit dry
9. Serve hot with chinese parsley for garnishing

Tomato & Oregano Chicky Pops

This is a simple and very kids friendly dish which is adapted from The Occasional Cook. Pretty hassle free and you can add whatever herbs that you like. For this dish, you need to use the wing ends or the chicken drummettes. You can either make it into pops like what I did or just cook it as per normal.

The ingredients are just an estimate. You can add more or less of the ingredients to suit your taste. To make it slightly spicy, you can add chilli powder or paste.

Ingredients
10-15 pcs drummettes
1/2 - 3/4 can tomato juice
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup honey
salt to taste

Method
1. Mix all the above and marinade the chicken for at least 1 hour or overnite
2. Preheat oven to about 200 degree celsius
3. Arrange drummettes on a lined baking tray
4. Bake it for about 20mins, turn over and bake for another 20mins
5. Serve hot

Sweet Bread (Pai Pau)

This bread is my all time favourite since young. You know the kind of bread you get from the shops or confectionary shops with sugar sprinkled on it and tastes great dipping it into hot coffee or tea .. yummy

I have to thank Giselle from KC for sharing this recipe. My first attempt was a total failure because I did not have enough time to proof the dough - result was a pretty dense bread :-( My second attempt was fantastic and we finished it that night itself *LOL* talking about greedy ..

If you want to get a soft and fluffy bread minus the preservatives, please don't rush it.

I modified the original recipe slightly by increasing the amount of butter used. I used my breadmachine to knead the dough.

Ingredients
2.5 tsp instant yeast
3-5 tbsp lukewarm water
375g bread flour
105g sugar
1 egg, room temp
1 egg yolk, room temp
3 tbps butter, melted
1/2 cup milk, room temp.

egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten
syrup (optional : to brush on the bread right after baked, but I haven't tried this)


Method
By Breadmachine
1. Put all the ingredients into the breadmachine pan according to the machine's instruction
2. Select dough cycle
3. Once cycle is completed, take dough out and punch it out to release some air and knead it for a few minutes
4. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap and leave it to proof for another 45 mins or till double in size
5. Divide dough into sizes that you like and let it rest for 20mins
6. Shape the dough and put it in a greased tray
7. Cover dough and let it proof till double in size
8. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the egg wash on top, bake for 20 - 25 mins. Brush syrup when it just comes right out from the oven.

By mixer/hand
1. Dissolve dry yeast in lukewarm water, wait 5 - 10 mins.
2. Mix the yeast liquid with the rest of the ingredients except egg wash and syrup
3. Knead until smooth and elastic - dough supposes to be wet but not sticky.
4. Let the dough sit in a geased large bowl and cover with plastic wrap proving it for about 45 mins
5. Punch the dough to release some air, knead a few times, put back in the bowl, covered and leave it to proof again for 45 mins or double the volume
6. Divide dough into sizes that you like and let it rest for 20mins
7. Shape the dough and put it in a greased tray
8. Cover dough and let it proof till double in size
9. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the egg wash on top, bake for 20 - 25 mins.
10. Brush syrup when it just comes right out from the oven.

Note: You can also brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle sugar before baking

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffin

This is Ainsley Harriott from Ainsley's Gourmet Express's recipe. I could not get my mind of this great tasting and smelling muffin after watching his program .. heh. I was very determined to get fresh raspberry and I was surprised that I could it get it easily at Cold Storage, United Square ... hehehe So with all the ingredients in hand, the result 8-D

Ingredients
300g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
50g butter, melted
100g fresh raspberries
90g chopped white chocolate

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar
3. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter
4. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients with the raspberries and chocolate, taking care not to over-mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases or trays and bake for 30 minutes or so until well risen and just firm.

Chocolate Cheese Cake

This is a simple cake really. If you like chocolate and cream cheese combination, then give this a try. Thanks to Kirsten for sharing this recipe at Jodeli's 8-)

Ingredients

Mixture ‘A’
250g cream cheese, softened
60g castor sugar
1 egg

1. Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy
2. Beat in egg until well incorporated and set it aside

Mixture ‘B’
180g butter, softened
150g sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa together and put aside
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add egg, one at a time and beat until well incorporated into mixture
4. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture.
5. To assemble, pour half of mixture ‘B’, then all of mixture ‘A’, then followed by the remaining mixture ‘B’.
6. Bake in preheat oven at 180C for 45-50 min or until skewer comes out clean.

Baking projects

I like to apologize that I am not able to update any recipes right now since I am out of town till end of the week. So for viewing pleasure again, these are my baking projects that I did last week.

Once I am back, I will update the respective recipes.

For Chocolate Lovers ;-)

For the last couple of weeks, I have been baking different types of chocolate cake in preparation for my sil's wedding. I promised her to bake her a chocolate cake as a gift for her wedding and have been pretty hardworking in getting the best one for her *wink*.

One of the cake that was tested Chocolate Cheese Cake.

A nice combination, chocolate and cream cheese :)

After trying a couple of recipes, finally baked this for my dear sil.

Well, the cake still look pretty amateurish, but nevertheless, it tasted heavenly .. heh

Non-Veg Shakshuka

I made this dish about 1.5 mths back. An easy dish indeed that uses mince meat. But if you are lazy to buy mince meat, can use corned beef also *wink*. If I am not wrong, shakshukah is actually a middle eastern vegetarian dish. You can also make the vegetarian version by omitting the meat and replace with more vege and potatoes.

Ingredients
300gm mince meat
100-200gm mixed vegetable
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 small can tomato puree
3-5 tbsp chilli paste, more if you like it spicy
1 tbsp meat curry
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
5 tbsp oil
salt to taste
4-5 large eggs
1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
1 fresh green chilli, thinly sliced
scallions and chinese parsley, finely chopped

Method
1. Mix mince meat, garlic, ginger paste and curry powder and leave it to marinade for 20mins
2. Heat oil in the wok
3. Add chilli paste and fry it till oil separates
4. Add chopped onions and fry till it turns translucent
5. Add tomato puree, tomato ketchup, mince meat mixture and salt
6. Mix them well and let it simmer till the meat is cooked
7. Add chopped tomatoes, mixed vegetables, fresh chillies, scallions and parsley
8. Let it simmer and add a bit of water if the mixture gets too dry
9. Prepare a casserole dish, transfer cooked meat into the dish and pour eggs onto the meat mixture
10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10minutes or until the eggs are cooked.
11. Serve hot and eat it with bread or rice