Milk and Milo agar-agar

If there is one dessert my girls can eat every single day, I think it would be this. I love this too, it's a simple dessert I grew up with. Cool and sweet, it is the perfect pencuci mulut at kenduri or family gatherings.

It is really simple to make too, and requires minimal ingredients.

Here's my recipe for this:

Milk and Milo Agar-Agar

I packet of string agar-agar (the traditional type)
5 cups of water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 can of evaporated milk
1 egg yolk (optional)

Method:

Place water in a heavy-bottomed pan, as soon as it is boiling, place agar-agar and water and let boil until agar-agar dissolves. Add evaporated milk and let boil. While the mixture is boiling, whisk the yolk in a small owl and add 1/2 cup of the mixture and whisk rapidly until mixed well. Pour the yolk mixture into the rest of the mixture and boil again until the mixture becomes a thick liquid. Remove from heat.

Pour the entire mixture into a dish or cake/bundt pan through a strainer, leaving 1/3 of a cup behind. In a small bowl, mix the 1/3 cup of mixture with 3-4 tablespoons of Milo. Pour into the mixture through a dish (the Milo mixture will sink). Let cool and chill in the refrigerator.

Penne in tomatoes and olive oil

I know all Malaysians are at this moment full of anticipation of the results of the election. I, together with million others cast our votes today. I pray that my Malaysia will be victorious. Insha' Allah.

Waiting in line for your turn at the ballots does make one hungry. I quickly prepared this simple pasta dish after I got home this morning. The long wait in the sun made me longed for something fresh. Here's the recipe which I put together with limited ingredients in the pantry.

Penne in Tomatoes and Olive Oil

Ingredients

300 grams penne, boiled in water and a teaspoon of salt. Drain.

4 cloves of garlic, chopped (I used my garlic press)

1/2 onion, diced really small

2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed and diced

1/2 green bell pepper, seeds removed and diced

2 palm-sized chicken breast, cut into small strips

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1 teaspoon powdered chicken stock (I used Knorr)

Method

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in pan, sautee garlic and onion until golden. Add tomatoes and stir. When tomatoes become soft, add chicken, salt and powdered chicken stock, and stir until coooked. Turn down heat and add pasta and remainder of olive oil. Keep on stirring until all ingredients come together. Add pepper and dried mixed herb, stir one last time and turn off heat and it's ready to be served!

Chubby mini cinnamon sugar donuts

Donuts make it to the list of comfort food for me. It reminds me of my childhood; standing in line at the school canteen, with a 20sen coin in my hand, eager-eyed waiting to purchase a piece of donut to sink my teeth into during the 10am recess.

My girls love donuts too. In fact, they learned to make their own donuts when they were nine and seven respectively, using the recipe at the back of the yeast box.

Well, this recipe isn't from the back of the box of yeast, but instead adapted from Rima of Bisous A' Toi. We love our donuts simple, so these ones were coated with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Here's the basic recipe from Rima. 

Ingredients :

(A)

500g high protein flour - bread flour

100g sugar

11g instant yeast

4 egg yolks

200 ml water

(B)

100g butter / margarine

1 tsp salt

This was what I did with the ingredients: Dump ingredients A into your stand mixer with hook attachment or breadmaker (I used the former). Start the machine at medium speed. After about 5 mins, when the ingredients have come together, add butter and salt. Work it for another 15-20 mins.

Let the dough rest for 10 mins, and then divide the dough into half and make them into a ball. Using your rolling pin, roll dough to about two thirds of an inch and  use a donut cutter. Place cut donuts onto a floured tray and let rise for 30-40 mins. Then, they are ready to be deep fried in cooking oil (medium heat).

Immediately after you scoop the donuts from the frying pan, place them into a bowl of your cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.

Cinnamon sugar mixture: mix 3/4 cups sugar wth 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.

Enjoy 'em donuts!

I'm into yeasty goods at the moment!

I'm a carbo addict and I can eat bread every day. No kidding! Aaahhhh...all the white stuff ain't necessarily good for you, but when taken in moderation, it should be ok, no? (I'm still working on the meaning of moderation, though hehehe).

These couple of months, I've been baking bread; mostly sweet Asian style buns like these ones, red bean buns, pizza bread and Mexican buns aka rotiboy! I bake them mostly on weeknights, for work/school the next day.

After trying numerous recipes, I found this recipe to be the best; Wonderfully Soft Bread from Mamafami's blog. I've since adapted this recipe for most all the sweet buns that I bake; just add different filliings or topping to this basic recipe.

You can bake them as rolls, or be more adventurous and tie them into knots or braids. The shaping part is fun! Feels like a little child again, fooling around with play-dough!

Here's the recipe, originally posted here and translated by Florence.

*update* I forgot to include that I use my KA stand mixer (with hook attachment) or breadmaker for kneading, thus I don't actually do any kneading! Just dump the ingredients listed from first to last (except butter) and let the machines do their work. Just as the dough comes together, add the butter. If you're using a stand mixer, this process takes about 25 mins. 

Wonderfully Soft Bread

Ingredients:
310g bread flour
60g cake flour
40g Nestle CoffeeMate
115ml skim milk
20g condensed milk
55g castor sugar
3g salt
7g instant yeast
1 egg + 2 egg yolks
40g butter (room temperature)

Egg Glace: 1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:
1. Sieve flour mixture into a large mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the middle of flour mixture and add in all the rest of ingredients except butter.
3. Mix till a dough is formed and knead in the butter till you get a smooth dough.
4. Prove dough for 50 minutes or till double in size.
5. Divide dough into 12 portions of 60g each and shape it or wrap in the filling. Prove for another 50 minutes or till double in size.
6. Brush with egg wash and bake at 190C for 15 minutes or till cooked.

Happy breading!

I miss blogging...hope to be back!

It's been about a year and a half since I last blogged and I don't know what hit me, but I think I want to blog again!

It's been a long time and I hope I still remember how to do this LOL.

Well, I am still very much into baking (the reason why this blog was created), but I guess when I got down at the blogging train station months ago, I forgot to get back on. But I am here now, let's see how long this journey will take ;)

The photo above is a photo of the shortcake I made last weekend, I figure it looks cheerful enough to be on this page; as a pretty picture to grace the comeback so to speak. LOL

I will be sharing recipes too, so many peeps have asked for recipes of this and that on my Instagram account (check out ms_tinaz if you're interested), and I don't type so well on the Android, and I believe lots more can be shared via this blog, so...

As for this one, it is a recipe by none other than my fav book author Dorie Greenspan. I've made this countless times before, it really is so simple and requires less than 10 mins of your time to prepare and about 15-18 mins to bake. In fact, I've blogged about it before here; hehe... I must like the plate very much, I used the same one last time too!

 Here, give it a try!

Tender shortcakes
(recipe by Dorie Greenspan)

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 ½ sticks (12 Tbsp.) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups cold heavy cream

Center a rack in the oven, and preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips, pinch and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. Some pieces of butter will be about the size of peas, while other will be more like flakes of oatmeal.

Pour the cream over the dry ingredients, and toss and gently turn the ingredients with a fork until you’ve got a very soft dough. You’ll probably still have some flour at the bottom of the bowl, so reach in and use your hand to mix and gently knead the dough until it’s evenly blended. But don’t get overzealous: it’s better to have a few dry spots than an overworked dough. The dough should be soft and sticky.

Cut the dough into 10 roughly equal portions (each will be about 1/3 cup), and put 5 or 6 of them on the baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches of space between them. Pat each portion down until it’s about 1 inch high. [The shortcakes can be made to this point, wrapped in plastic wrap, and stashed in the freezer. Bake without defrosting – just add 5+ minutes to the baking time.]

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheet from front to back midway through, until the shortcakes are puffed and give just a little when poked with a fingertip. Pull the pan from the oven, and carefully transfer the shortcakes to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheet first.

Serve the shortcakes slightly warm or at room temperature. To serve, use a serrated knife to gently cut each cake in half horizontally. (They’re fragile, so go easy.) Put the bottom halves on plates, top with berries and whipped cream, and then cap with the top halves.