Pretend monkey brioche

Its a pretend monkey brioche because there is much less butter than a real brioche recipe, it is not as complex as monkey bread.

Recipe 

Oven temperature 185 degrees c. Baking time 25-30 minutes.

Ingredients ;

300g bread flour

7g instant yeast

5g salt

25g sugar

3 eggs

50g milk

100g butter ( cut into slabs ) Chilled in fridge until needed

Optional - 80g raisins. ( add the raisins together with eggs and flour )

Mix all the dry ingredients, flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook. 

* the only time i ever made bread by hand was when my hand mixer broke midway through. I rely on machines alot especially while making bread. Do not attempt to mix dough with a hand mixer because you will break it. Especially brioche. It was one big sticky and greasy mistake for me.

Add eggs and milk into dry ingredients.

Start mixing with a medium speed for 15-20 minutes until gluten form. 5 minutes before you add the butter, remove butter from fridge. 

Once gluten has form on the dough, add butter to dough in 3s, it will be quite greasy at first but it will soon be smooth and shiny. After adding all the butter, mix dough at low speed for another 5 minutes.

Flatten dough on a tray and fridge for at least 1 hr to cool butter down. 

Remove dough from fridge and let it warm up for 10 minutes before shaping dough.

Cut dough into 10-12 pieces and shape it into small little balls. *I used a 9" baking tin.

Arrange balls on the baking tin, cover them loosely with a clingfilm and let them double in size.

Bake them at 185c for 25 minutes. 

* this recipe is 50% less rich than a normal brioche. 

Thin Chocolate Tart

I like chocolate tarts but they are usually too rich for my taste. I found this recipe on 

I usually use the food processor for doughs. You may want to invest in one if you don't have one. No more buttery hands!

Try not to overwork dough, this is a crumbly dough, just squeeze everything together.

I like rolling tart doughs on parchment or cling film, it's less messy this way.

There is no need to cut the dough, it was my mistake. You won't be able to see it when the chocolate is on the top anyway. ( What was i thinking ?? )

I used the remaining pastry dough to make forks and spoons.

Recipe ( Adapted from 365 good reasons to sit down and eat )

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Pastry 

200g plain flour, 50g ground almond

100g caster sugar

pinch of salt

120g butter cubed.

1 egg yolk

Preheat oven at 180c 

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients, rub cold butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and form a dough, add a little water if it seems too dry. 

Pastry will be quite crumbly. 

Flatten dough and fridge it for 30 minutes. 

Remove from fridge and roll it out to a large circle and bake it for 12 mins at 180c

Chocolate Topping

1 orange

50g butter 

150g whipping cream 

140g dark chocolate

Zest & juice the orange,

Melt all the ingredients over a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Mix well and fridge it for about 15 minutes.

Coat the tart and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

* I only needed half of what the recipe stated.

Japanese Buttery Roll

the dough

finished dough

Make a round ball

place dough in a bowl until double in size (1-1.5 hrs at 26c )

shaping instructions

Done.

Flatten.

Make little balls then roll flat and form a triangle shape.

Roll the long shape flat with a rolling pin again

roll it around a frankfurter/hotdog

or not. leave it to rise, cover with clingfilm.

and now its done.

Recipe

Oven temperature for baking 180c.

Butter rolls

Ingredients 240g bread flour, 60g plain flour, 5g dry yeast, 24g sugar, 5g salt
1 egg yolk, 50g milk, 115g water
24g butter ( cut into cubes )

Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Add yolk, milk and water into the dry ingredients.
Mix by hand or machine with dough hook and mix for about 15 minutes until smooth.
Do the window pane test, here's the link
Add butter slowly while still mixing the dough until its well mixed and there are no traces of butter.
When that's done, place dough on a table sprinkled with flour to shape it into a ball.
Place dough into a bowl to rest it until it doubles in size.
When that happens, split dough into about 11-12 pieces and follow the instructions on pictures.

Enjoy!

Make your own granola.

it's easy to make, good for you and very delicious.

and if you store it well, you can make a lot and keep it for months.

Here's the recipe.

Oven temperature 155c

Ingredients

400g jumbo oats
100g whole almonds ( blanched or with skin on )
100g walnut halves
25g sesame seeds
25g wheatgerm
100g flaked almonds

175g butter melted
25g golden syrup

1. Preheat oven at 155 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients.
2. Prepare a large baking tray and cut parchment paper to fit tray, make sure the paper pokes out, an inch longer on all sides.  
3. Melt butter on a low heat, add golden syrup. 
4. Pour melted butter on oat mixture, and stir well. Let it stand for 30 minutes.
5. Bake oat mixture in the hour for 45 minutes until golden brown. Check granola every 10-15 minutes and stir it so it doesn't burn on the sides.

Serve it with milk, or yogurt! I eat mine with strawberry yogurt and bananas!

The Story of the search for Almond & Apricot Bars

2 years ago, I went to Fernandez & Wells with Tommy, we had a sit down drink, she ordered a drink and something sweet, like she always does. We sat and she exclaimed that the raspberry jam bar that she just bit into was the best thing ever. ( like she always does ) and wanted me to try it. I refused. I just started baking and was gaining alot of post pastry chef weight. Of course, she would insist until I give up and take a pretend bite and with that tiny bite, I also thought IT IS the BEST THING EVER. Of course I had to have the recipe. I went home and started going online, flipped through all my books. No recipes for Almond & Raspberry bars.

I JUST COULDN'T find it!!!

I went to another shop in North West London ( who I will not name ) and there it was, another almond & raspberry bar! I was SUPER excited and was in between jobs so I applied for a part time position at that shop just so I could have the recipe. I got the job and was even More excited. I didn't get to do anything the first week except cutting butter and rolling pastry dough. But I was hopeful, that eventually they will let me make almond and raspberry bars. After 3 weeks, I still did not get to do it. I had to leave the job because it was only part time and i needed a full time job.

A few weeks later, I bought Bill Granger Holiday book and THERE IT WAS! Apricot and raspberry bars! Before you start yawning, here it is.

Recipe adapted from Bill Granger Holiday.

Preheat Oven at 180c

You will need a 8" Square Tin

Base - 

150g Butter ( soften but not too soft )

115g sugar 

2 Tsp vanilla essence

225g Flour

40g Cornflour

Filling -

250g Apricot Jam - I use bonne maman

Topping - 60g Butter 55g Sugar 200g Flaked Almond 2 Tsp milk.

Make the base first.

Beat butter and sugar until soft and fluffy, add vanilla essence.

Add in dry ingredients all at once until its semi combined, still abit crumbly.

Line the crumbs on the tin and flatten it with your fingers.

Bake in the oven until golden brown. It will take about 10-12 minutes. It doesn't have to be fully baked, just slightly golden brown on the top. Remove from Oven and let it cool for 7 minutes.

While the base is being baked in the oven, prepare the topping.

Melt butter on a pan and add sugar, flaked almond and milk. 

On low heat, keep stirring the mixture carefully until it looks glossy. ( about 2-3 minutes )

Take pan off heat and let it sit. 

Spread jam evenly on base and scatter almond mixture on the top. 

Bake in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until flaked almond looks golden brown. 

Thursday rainy day muffin and green bean mush.

I had some old apples i wanted to use up.

Crumble Muffins are great for rainy days

Apple Crumb Muffins


Recipe ( makes 12 )


120g butter, 165g caster sugar
2 eggs, 140ml double cream
250g plain flour 2 teaspoon baking powder 1teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt 
200g apples peeled and cubed ( i used pink lady )


Preheat oven at 175c.


1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Whisk in eggs.
2. whisk in double cream
3. Fold in sifted flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt. 
4. Fold in chopped apples. Spoon batter into muffin tins.


Bake muffins for about 20-25 minutes. Until golden brown. 


To make the crumble :


100g flour 80g butter 80g sugar


Mix flour and sugar, rube in cubed butter until mixture resembles bread crumbs.

green bean mush for green bean and white chocolate cake.

A banana bread for Yae.

I buy alot of bananas and they always go too brown before I have time to eat them, so I make alot of bananan bread. They are good for gifting, most people like them, even the picky ones.

One of my earliest memory of banana bread was in college, I did not like baking nor did i know how to use a home oven. I had a friend Yae, whom I met in college who loved baking, and I remember her talking about baking quite alot. One time she stayed over and before she left for college, she woke me up and said that she had left a piece of banana bread that she had made in the fridge and told me to try it. ( I wasn't very interested still and just said yes to be polite of course, I was 19, I was still at a post rebellion age where i just couldn't be bothered with anything )  After a day or two, I saw a cake wrapped in a plastic bag looking abit sorry and squishy. I opened it and gave it a sniff and was not sure whether to take a bite or bin it. I took a bite after looking at it suspiciously and it was creamy, and soft and moist, it still had small bits of bananas in it and til this day, i still think it is the best one i've ever eaten. I never said anyting to Yae, but if you are reading this and you probably forgot about it. Thank you!

Yae also took me at my first ever farmers market in Santa Monica and introduced me to Trader's Joe. :)

This recipe is given to me by someone at work. The origins of the recipe comes from The Bread Bible by Rose Beranbaum. Dried cranberries have been replaced by fresh blueberries.

Banana Blueberry Walnut Bread

Ingredients

Will fit a 900g loaf tin.

113g butter, 200g sugar

2 eggs, 1 very ripe banana mashed, 1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup walnut ( toasted ) 2 cup + 1 tbsp plain flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt

2 cup blueberries

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs.

Beat in bananas, vanilla essence.

Add flour, baking soda, salt and mix well.

Fold in Walnuts & blueberries. Be gentle while folding in blueberries so they are not broken.

Bake for 40 mins at 170c.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

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Recipe - makes 2 8" tin

Ingredients.

Cake.

175g butter, 195g sugar

4 eggs, zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lemon

100g ground almond, 125g flour, 30g poppy seed

Icing.

3 oz soften butter, 6 oz cream cheese ( at room temperature ), 2.5 cup of icing sugar.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Fully line your 8" tin with parchment paper, this will stick!

To make the cake,

Beat butter and sugar until soft and fluffy, add eggs one at a time.

Mixture will curdle but it is okay.

Add flour, poppy seed and ground almond in 2s. Add lemon juice.

Mix well.

Bake cake at 170c for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

To make the icing,

beat butter until soft and fluffy.

Add cream cheese, and beat until smooth.

Add icing sugar and lemon juice and beat well.

I store my cream cheese icing in the fridge as i like it slightly firm when i do the icing.

Enjoy!

Cookies ++ recipe

tommy ordered some cookies last week

I made extra.

For myself.

And D.

who

is

a

Anyway, heres the

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Recipe

for

Vanilla Cookies

Makes 30 very soft and crumbly cookies.

Ingredients

215g flour, 60 cornflour, pinch of salt, 70g icing sugar, 215g butter 1 teaspoon vanilla essence Or 1 vanilla bean. ( I used vanilla bean )

You will need very soft butter for this. Make sure butter has been left out in room temperature in advance.

Preheat oven at 170c.

Baking time 17 minutes.

1. 
   
   Combine flour, cornflour, salt, icing sugar and sift.
2. 
   
   Beat butter until very soft and fluffy ( 1 minute )
3. 
   
   Add vanilla essence or vanilla seeds
4. 
   
   Add dry ingredients all at once. Mix until combined
5. 
   
   Pipe cookies onto baking tray if you have piping bags / star nozzle, if not roll cookies into 20g balls.
6. 
   
   Fridge cookie dough for 30 minutes in the fridge before baking.

Try !

Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Loaf

makes 900g loaf tin or 12 mini loaf tins

175c. 50 Minutes.

135g butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

4 bananas (cut & mash )

2 tsp vanilla essence

180g self raising flour, 50g whole wheat self raising flour

You can add 70g chocolate chips/70g dessicated coconut.

Beat butter & sugar til white and fluffy.

Mix in eggs, bananas, vanilla essence all at the same time. ( mixture might look slightly curdle but that is okay )

Fold in both flours.

Done!

Pecan Puffs!

Pecan puffs

These biscuits are very easy to make and they will store well in a container for up to 10 days.

110g Pecans

110g Unsalted butter, soft
2 tbsp Caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
150g Plain flour
Icing sugar, to coat

Blitz pecan in a food procesor or mini chopper. If you don't have one, break it in a bag with a rolling pin til its quite sandy but with abit of lumps.

Beat butter and sugar til fluffy, add vanilla essence, ground pecan and flour. Chill in fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll biscuit dough into 15 grams each and if you have time, put it back into fridge and chill for another 20-30 minutes. It will help retain the shape.

Bake at 150c for 29 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes and coat it with icing sugar.

Earl Grey Loaf Cake

This is a very simple loaf cake for occasions when you want something sweet but nothing too decadent. This recipe is adapted from one that a colleague gave me.

Earl Grey Loaf Cake

Preheat oven 175c.

Recipe

3 bags of earl grey tea ( leaves removed from bag )

60 ml boiling water

80ml milk

150g butter

160g sugar

2 eggs

200g Self Raising flour

Icing ( optional )

230g icing sugar

1.5 tbsp marmalade

3 tbsp orange juice - ( u can use water if you don't have any oranges )\

Beat butter and sugar til soft and fluffy. Seep tea leaves in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Add cold milk to tea. Add eggs to butter mixture. Fold in 1/2 the flour , then 1/2 the milk into the butter mixture. Repeat. Spoon mixture into a 900lb loaf tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.

To make icing-

Stir in orange juice and marmalade into icing sugar to make a slight sticky but runny icing and pour onto cake when its cooled down. The icing will help seal in the flavour of the cake.

Done!