Sourdough English Muffins

Sourdough English Muffins (No-fat & refined sugar)

Here I’m back again! 🙂 Wondering why? My computer broke down again, no one can fix it for me and it has to be certified this time… 😦

I have to work on my kid’s computer from now on, but it needs more time to get on with it. Truely, I still love my old one. 

Vegan Banana & Walnut Cake (No refined-sugar, Butter)

Vegan Banana & Walnut Cake (No refined-sugar, Butter)

 

How wonderful weather recently! I wish you all enjoy it but remember to keep a distance from others for safety.

This is moist and full of ripened banana fragrant cake that I made during the past weekend.

Vegan Fudgy Chocolate Brownie with Dates

Vegan Fudgy Chocolate Brownie with Dates

Happy Weekend all! Wish everyone safe and healthy to stay at home to help our NHS!

Slowly pick up my mood and keep up all my cooking & baking hobby recently!

Classic Sourdough Bread

Classic Sourdough Bread

Here I come, my classic sourdough baby, a flavoursome loaf of bread.

I know it is a time-consuming stay-at-home endeavor, but I can tell you it worth it when you enjoying your bread and smell the aroma. Afterward, the process wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

Here have a few golden steps:

Step 1, After you have fed your starter, once it’s bubbly and active, pour some out of the jar to weigh or measure, you can mix the dough.

Step 2, Let the dough rest or called ‘autolyse’. This will make the dough much easier to handle and shape.

Step 3, Now it’s ready to rise, or called ‘bulk fermentation’.

Step 4, Cut, shape the dough. Step 5, prepare a baking pan, like a cast iron pan or baking tray.

Step 6, Let it has second rise. Step 7, Bake your bread.

I am not going to say too much, you just go through all the steps to get the details. Any questions can discuss with me! Enjoy!

Classic Sourdough Bread

Ingredient:

1. 300g Strong bread flour
2. 75g Rye Flour
3. 250g Sourdough starter
4. 6g Sea salt
5. 150ml-175ml Lukewarm water
6. Semolina and Plain flour for dusting

Method:

1. Combine the bread flour, rye flour, salt, and sourdough starter in a large mixing bowl. Add 150ml of water gradually and mix it roughly into the flour mixture with hand. Then mix in as much of the remaining water as you can to get a soft dough. The amount of water to add will vary according to your flour and the starter that’s you made, so judge by yourself.
2. Spread a little bit oil onto a work table, tip the dough onto it. Knead for around 10-15 minutes or until the dough is elastic and smooth. Or you can tip all thing in the bread machine, so you can enjoy a cup of coffee when the machine does the rest of the elbow work for you. (In my own way, I like the machine works the kneading for me only.)
3. Transfer the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with cling film, top with a big plate. Leave to proof for at least 5 or 6 hours until doubled in size, it depends on your room’s temperature truly. If the weather is cold, you can leave it overnight.
4. Now, prepare a bowl of equal portions of semolina and plain flour together for dusting.
5. Tip the risen dough onto the board with lots of dusting flour. Deflate the dough down with knuckles to knock out the air. Fold the dough into itself several times to strengthen the structure.
6. Flatten the dough down into a large rectangle shape. Fold the two sides end in towards the center and press down. Turn it over so that the join is underneath.
7. Shape the dough into a ball, cup it with hands on either side and turn it round and round, tucking the dough in slightly underneath as you go and pulling it in to create a smooth ball.
8. Dust the top with the dusting flour mix. Meanwhile, make sure dust thoroughly a round 500g banneton. Use a banneton will give a good appearance to the end loaf. Tip the dough smooth side down into the banneton.
9. Cover with a large, roomy plastic bag, making sure there is plenty of space above when it rises. Leave the dough to rise for 6-8 hours, or until doubled in size. Don’t rush the proving, it’s an important stage for the development of the flavour and structure of the loaf.
10. Preheat the oven to 450°F/220°C, or 190°C in a fan oven. Now dust a cast iron pan heavily with the dusting flour mix. Very gently tip the loaf onto the iron pan, slash the top with a sharp knife with a pattern.
11. Bake the loaf for the first 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 400°F/ 200°C/ or 170°C in a fan oven and bake for a further 15-20minutes until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it on the base. (*Better to keep an eye after 15 minutes.) Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

This recipe was adapted from Paul Hollywood sourdough bread.

Extra tips:

• If you haven’t got banneton, use a Dutch oven to proof and bake in the oven straight away. That will save you the last tip over as well.

Challenge Sourdough Starter Again

Challenge Sourdough Starter Again

I got hooked by the inspiration of Paul Hollywood’s sourdough bread again when I have time to read more books.

During it started to have nice warm weather in the mid of April, I think it is good to get another batch of sourdough starter again for good.

But I decided to make a small batch instead of a large quantity, maybe you can increase the amount of my recipe if you like.

First of all, I need to prepare a large sterilised clean jar with lid, a scale, 100g all-purpose flour, two slices of lemon (or you can use green apple, lemon, or grapes), and 100ml lukewarm water, about 40C.

Now, put the flour in a mixing bowl, add the sliced lemons, then follow the lukewarm water and mix to well combine.

Pour the mixture into the sterilised jar with the lid on (just loose cover). Leave to ferment at warm room temperature (ideally 20-24C) for 3 days, I leave my jar next to the kitchen window. And I put an elastic band around the jar to mark the dough rises and fall.

After 2 days, the top of the mixture seems to haven’t activated yet,  only little bubbles but not much and I can’t see any rises mark from the jar. Then wait for another day to see what happen.

In the 3 days, it still the same situation, not much change. So I think it is the temperature that hasn’t warm enough (it was 15C during the day and dropped down to 10 at night). So, I leave it for another day.

On the 4th day morning, I saw the mark rose up and fall down again. When I open the lid, I could see the top appear some bubbles and the smell was sour. This is a good sign of my starter is undergoing a lactic fermentation and is active. If yours not, you can discard half of the mixture, then add 50g flour, 50ml of water, and 2 slices of lemon and leave it for another day or two to see what happens.

So, once the starter is ready to feed, I discard the lemon slices and add 50g of flour and 50ml of water and stir thoroughly. It needs to be done at least every few days to keep the starter alive. I have to feed it for 3 days since.

Leave the refreshed starter for at least 24 hours, it should bubble up and gets thicker and the texture looks like jelly.  I think it is ready to use to make my own sourdough now.

Keep watching, I will put my 1st sourdough bread on post ASAP.

Vegan Hot-Cross Buns For 2020 Easter

Vegan Hot-Cross Buns For Easter 2020

I bless all you guys are safe and healthy in this critical moment!

The past few months seems going so slow, I been through so stressed and panic since January. That’s why I haven’t put up any blog posts or news.

But I had many friends to support me luckily, and they tried to talk to me and I started to learn to release my negative emotion.

Ok, let’s talk about you all, how can you cope with this situation. I hope you can share it with me!

Today is Easter Friday, the weather is super sunny and warm, suppose everyone enjoys this bank holiday and goes outside to make the most. But we ought to stay at home for our own safety. So I decided to make my own hot-cross buns for my family.

This was from my 2018 recipe, once again it still so fluffy and soft. And the aroma was fulfilling my small kitchen when it came out from the oven.

Wish you all like it and enjoy it!

Vegan Banana Pancake ~ Happy Pancake Day

Vegan Banana Pancake ~ Happy Pancake Day

This pancake is one of the super easy to make. If I can that means you too of course!

Simple ingredients and the easiest method, I think you should jump up and roll up your sleeves, get ready?

Get your food processor out, pour one cup of nut milk of your choice (I chose the almond milk), slice up one spotty banana and blend to smooth.

Then add one cup of gluten-free flour of your choice or the all-purpose flour if you don’t mind and with 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder, two tablespoons of coconut sugar, a pinch of pink salt, and 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon if you like (optional). Blend all together until well combined. Set aside for a half-hour.

Fry as a usual pancake, then serve with your favourite fillings or just a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a squirt of maple syrup or agave nectar.

Vegan Lemon & Poppyseed Cake

Vegan Lemon & Poppyseed Cake

Have you noticed that I haven’t been making any baking for a few months since? That’s because my oven was on strike, not working for me anymore. And I need to do is looking for a good price to suit my pocket. Then wait for a few months, all I can remember was no homemade cake, no baking meal. Lost of the passion for cooking in the past few months.

Stir-fry Vegan ‘Beef’, Mixed Peppers with BBQ Sauce 沙茶醬

Stir-fry Vegan ‘Beef’, Mixed Peppers with BBQ Sauce 沙茶醬

Don’t worry about the beef, it is 100% vegan!

It is a kind of (TVP) that needs to first soak in water for about 20 minutes to rehydrate. TVP means Textured Vegetable Protein, also knowns as textured soy protein (TSP), soy meat, or soya chunks is a defatted soy flour product, a by-product of extracting soybean oil. It is a dry product that comes in many different shapes like cutlets, chunks, etc. It first needs to be rehydrated before being used as ‘meat’, It is quick to cook, with protein content comparable to certain meats.

Pan-fried Vegan Chinese Radish Buns

Pan-fried Vegan Chinese Radish Buns

I missed all my friends for nearly two months, such a long time! I caught serious flu and a bad cough. All I have to do was stay at home to rest more and drink lots of fluids. It took me two months to cure my stubborn cough away, but not 100% stop yet! 😦

During this period, I lost my taste-bud, everything was tasteless. Anyway, I haven’t got the energy to cook at all! It was a shame for a food-lover like me!