Wedding Bliss

Less is more, they say. So, this blog post will not be about words, as I can't seem to have many to offer. Just enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed making these wedding mini cake and cupcakes recently.

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.

Hello I'm back!

Hello there! Those of you reading...I'm back after a hiatus. Things happen... life got in the way, so blogging took a back seat! Can't say I don't miss blogging though!

I leave you with some photos taken since the last time I was here. There are many more bakes which did not have the opportunity to pose for the camera...there just wasn't enough time for photo shoots! And then I thought I had misplaced my micro lens...but recently found it in my daughter's handbag!!

So I shall leave you with these - the macaron tower above was for a hantaran. A customer liked it so much that she asked me to replicate it for her Eid open house (below).

Macarons and more macarons...these photos are the decent ones. Most of the time I bake at night and the lighting is terrible, so I chose not to post them here hehe...

These ones below were taken in the afternoon. Natural light is always the best!

I received quite a lot of carrot cake orders for Eid..here are two of them...

And below, macarons photos taken in the evening. No amount of photoshopping will rectify the bad lighting! arrrghhh...

Till then... write you soon!

Baking with Dorie: Cream Puff Rings

Hello October! And hello to blog readers whom I've not written for, for what seemed like ages! I wouldn't have known this blog actually has a follower until I receive smses and emails asking me about my silence! Thanks for reading My Domestic Bliss!

This month it's my turn to host Baking with Dorie where a group of us bake a recipe chosen by the host from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours. And I have chosen Peppermint Cream Puff Ring from page 290-292. But I ommitted the peppermint as I couldn't find any!

I also did not have sliced almonds on hand, so I used hundreds and thousands!

Here's my Cream Puff Ring with the recipe below. Also check out my fellow BWDs here!

Peppermint Cream Puff Ring
By Dorie Greenspan

For the Pastry
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For the Cream
About 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
40 fresh mint leaves
6 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup cold creme fraiche or sour cream
Peppermint extract (optional)

For the Glaze
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp light corn syrup
3 tbsp sliced almonds, toasted

Getting ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Draw a 7- to 8-inch circle on a piece of parchment paper, turn the paper over and use it to line a baking sheet. Fit a large pastry bag with a 3/4-inch diameter plain piping tip.

To make the pastry:

Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour all at once and mix it in with a a wooden spoon, then keep stirring energetically until the dough comes together in a shiny mass. The bottom of the pan will be covered with a thin film of flour. Cook the dough for another 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then transfer the hot dough to the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat in 3 of the eggs on at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated beore adding the next. Whisk the remaining egg in a small bowl and very gradually add enough of the beaten egg to form a dough that is thick, shiny and silky.

Spoon the warm dough into the pastry bag, position the tip above the outline of the circle and pipe a ring of dough about 1-inch thick. Pipe a second ring of dough inside the first ring and just touching it. Pipe a third ring of dough on top of the circle where the first and second rings of dough meet If you have any extra dough, pipe out as many cream puffs as you can or use the dough to make a few eclairs. (The cream puff dough must be piped out as soon as it is mixed. However, if you'd life, you can pipe out the ring and freeze it for up to 2 months beore baking it; don't defrost it, just add about 10 minutes to the baking time.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Bake the ring for another 20 to 25 minutes (total baking time is 35 to 40 minutes), or until it is puffed, brown and firm. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let the ring cool completely.

To make the cream:

Bring 1 1/3 cups cream and the mint leaves to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pull the pan from the heat, cover and let steep for 1 hour, then pour into a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours.

Strain the cream into a measuring cup and add as much additional chilled cream as needed to measure 1 1/3 cups.

Use a serrated knife and a very gentle sawing motion to slice off the top of the pastry ring in one piece pull out and discard any soft dough from the inside of the base. Carefully place the pastry ring base on a platter.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a medium bowl, whip the cream and 1/4 cup of the sugar until the cream holds firm peaks. Stir the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar into the creme fraiche and, using a rubber spatulat, gently fold the creme fraiche into the mint whipped cream. Taste the cream, and if you'd like a stronger mint flavor, add a drop or two of extract.

Spoon the mint cream into a clean pastry bag and pipe large rosettes into the base, keeping the rosettes close to one another. Pipe a second row of rosettes on top of the first row, piping the top rosettes between the bottom rosettes. Refrigerate the base while you make the glaze.

To make the glaze:

Melt the chocolate with the cream and corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until the glaze is melted and smooth.

Using a small icing spatula, spread the glaze over the top circle of pastry. Sprinkle the toasted nuts over the glaze, and press them down gently. Carefully set the rign on top of the base - don't press down, you want to top to rest light on the whipped cream - and refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour before serving. Covered lightly and kept away from food with strong odors, the ring can be refrigerated for up to 8 hours.)

Makes 12 servings

Pure Magic at Pantry Magic Kuala Lumpur!

 Have I managed to get your attention yet? And oh... wipe that drool off your mouth now... haha!!

If you're like me, you'll be mesmerised at what's in store at Pantry Magic Kuala Lumpur, located in Jalan Telawi, Bangsar which opened its door just over 2 weeks ago. I am so so glad Pantry Magic is here in Kuala Lumpur! It is definitely a first of its kind here in town.

Entering the store, I didn't quite know where to start looking..everything looked so good and each utensil, each pot, each spatula was calling my name to give them some attention! It was as though I was lost in my fantasy world! Honestly, it was a bit embarrassing... I think my mouth was wide open gawking at the items in the store!

Thank God the ladies of Pantry Magic did not mind! Meet the three lovely ladies behind Pantry Magic Kuala Lumpur - sisters Farah and Tania, and their childhood friend Eisya. They were all so nice and welcoming and did not mind when I asked if I could take photos for this blog.

The trio at work - Eisya baking some cookies; they were for the customers! Farah behind the counter and Tania stacking  a set of colourful porcelain mixing bowls (which yours truly got a set for herself!)

Tania and Farah described themselves as passionate cooks whose project three years ago was to convert their childhood friend, Eisya into one! And that they did successfully!

The three of them then decided to share a business together, and after looking around, applied to be a Pantry Magic franchisee about a year ago.

Tania said, "We generally love cooking and meeting people and want to share our passion and spread the love!" Believe it or not, the trio uprooted themselves from Perlis to Kuala Lumpur to live out their dreams.

"If you want to be successful, you have to take risks and have to make sacrifices," said Tania.

Well, one thing is for sure - I really felt their genuine love for the art of cooking and baking at the store! I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Enjoy!

tea towels in various gorgeous designs

Red Velvet and Double Chocolate Macarons

I love the stark contrast of the bright red and white of these Red Relvet macarons. Don't you?

With just a hint of cocoa and deep red colouring for the shells, with luscious cream cheese filling, these red velvet macarons are a show-stopper!! Definitely not for the faint-hearted!

Below are some Double Chocolate macarons, a favourite among many (my fav too!)

Macs oh! macs... can't live with them, can't live without them! :D

Pavlova

I listed Pavlova as one of my to-do bakes for 2011 earlier this year, but I never got around to baking it... until I received an order from my favourite customer (ehem ehem tersedak tak you!) for a Pavlova for her hubby's birthday! I was excited but scared at the same time!

I did not have a recipe for Pavlova, so I went to my to-go site when looking for recipes or simply inspiration for bakes - Joy of Baking. It looked simply enough and I whipped it up while waiting for another customer to come collect her Red Velvet cake.

Click here for the recipe.

The recipe says to spread the meringue on the baking paper, but I knew mine was going to be a mess if I did that... so I cut a huge hole in my plastic piping bag and piped the meringue around the earlier drawn circle. I filled up the circle with the remainder of the meringue and tidied it with more piped meringue... they looked like clouds in my dreams!

photo below of the piped meringue before it went in the oven...

After about 70 minutes in the oven, it was done... but I kept it in the oven with the door ajar until it was ready to be garnished a few hours later.

Below is the final product, with dollops of whipped cream and fresh strawberries and kiwis. Thanks for the order, Soraya!

Baking with Dorie: Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée is French, and any French dessert must be good, oui?

These are absolument renversant - absolutely amazing!



Cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and egg yolk makes one creamy and satisfying dessert!

This month's Baking with Dorie bake was chosen by BWD founder Grapefruit. Take a peek at her beautiful Crème Brûlée, recipe included here.

For me personally, Crème Brûlée is an icon for desserts! It's been on my to-do list for ages and I'm glad Grapefruit chose this recipe for BWD.

I wish I had a blow torch to play around with, but I didn't - so I used my broiler to caramelise the sugar. I didn't get a thick layer of burnt sugar but the crunch was there!

I wish I took better photos, but these were shot at 5am this morning and I don't have good lighting in the house! Can't wait to have some for iftar later!

Say...Korova!!

Kueh Raya? Heheheh... we've only been fasting for a day and here I am presenting you with an Eid cookie nominee!!

I love these cookies, or more aptly, sables. They have a deep chocolatey flavour and sandy in texture. I make them all year round - kids absolutely adore them and I dare you to stop at just one!

As in the previous year, I am taking (small) orders for this cookies, but I think your family will appreciate it more if you make them yourself to bawak balik kampung! Go here for the recipe. They are also known as World Peace Cookies - I wrote about them here.

So, what are you waiting for? Go make some today!