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. 

Sometimes,

when I start getting the blues

I make 

colourful drinks

bright green food

have some strawberries

buy something from ottolenghi

look at fans spin

let my mind go blank.

What do you do?

I'm 31.

D made this cake all by himself, with me watching anxiously 1 metre away by the sofa. It's quite good considering that's his first try.

at St John's Bread and Wine. There was alot more but we were too busy eating.

Tommy stuffing herself right after she says the usual

 " i'm not hungry but i can eat a little "

and ends up helping you finish your food as well.

Lunch at Food For Thought 

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.

Juju.

hello

*stretch and pose*

This is Juju and she's from Santa Monica, I've had her for 10 years now. She spends her retirement in Singapore now.

On Holiday at home!

I WILL be back soon.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

_

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

.

.

.

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 !

Roast dinner.

My plate. I do not like Yorkshire Pudding.

His Plate.

We had roast dinner on Easter Sunday. It is something that D takes very seriously, for which I am never allowed to take participate in, from prep to cooking, in case "something goes wrong".

I am back!

 

more to come.

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!

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Lucy Knisley spends a month in Paris with her mother to celebrate their birthdays. I have not finished the book yet but it's a charming and funny, great for people who want to read but not too much.

The giraffe at our backyard.

D rescued him from the street on the way home before christmas. He's been living with us since.

It's too late to bake

so i make some pretzel knobblies.

On rare occasions,

d helps with cooking.