Pan De Muerto

Hola! Hice pan de muerto. El día de los muertos son el primer día de noviembre y el segundo día de noviembre. Es mi primer vez haciendo pan de muerto, pero, pienso que son muy ricos. Estoy enseñando español en la escuela primaria y voy traer el pan para los niños, por que el 1 y 2 de noviembre son los Días de los Muertos. Aquí es la receta de los pan de muertos. 

Los Ingredientes

• 5 1/2 tazas de harina
• 1 taza azúcar
• 1 taza leche caliente
• ¾ barra de mantequilla
• 5-6 huevos
• 2 cucharadas de levadura
• 1 ½ cucharaditas extracto de vanailla
• 1 cucharadita canela en polvo
• 1 cucharadita sal
• 1 huevo para barnizar (o ½ barra de mantequilla)
• azúcar para espolvorear

Preparación

1. Deshaga la levadura en 1 taza de leche y azúcar. Agregue 1 ½ tazas de harina. Forme una pequeña bola de masa.
2. Cierna juntos la harina, sal, y canela. Haz un volcán con ellos. Coloca en el centro la masa (con leche, azúcar, y 1 ½ tazas harina), los huevos, extracto de vanailla y la mantequilla. Amase bien hasta obtener una masa suave.
3. Deje reposar en un lugar tibio durante una hora. La masa deberá aumentar su tamaño casi al doble.
4. Retire ¼ de la masa y dejar de lado en un recipiente para su uso posterior.
5. Divide el resto de ¾ de la masa en 25 bolas.
6. Deje reposar en un lugar tibio durante una hora.
7. Tome el resto de ¼ de la masa de bola y adorne con formas de huesos y lágrimas hechas de la misma masa y páguelas con huevo batido (o mantequilla). Barnice el pan con huevo (o mantequilla) y espolvoree con azúcar. Puede espolvorear con azúcar después de hornear.
8. Hornee a 350°F en una bandeja engrasada hasta que doren. 20- 30 minutos. 
   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   
   

   
   
   

Chocolate Pancakes

您们好! How are you guys today? I decided to start off with typing a different language, which I hope is okay. Another exciting thing is that, there are British exchange students here at my school! It's so exciting. I'm going to try to get a recipe from them, and possibly have them guest post. We'll see how that goes. It'd be nice to have some British food to try.

Anyways, I promised you guys a chocolate pancake recipe. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures for them. They were all eaten up before I had a chance to take pictures.* I found one picture of these pancakes. These pancakes are really chocolaty and are really rich. I love eating these with dulce de leche. You can eat them with whipped cream and strawberries if you like. It's your choice. Next post will be my attempt at making pan de muerto, since Día de Los Muertos is coming up next week. Anyways, enjoy these chocolate pancakes and I really hope that I can post a British food recipe from actual British people. Enjoy these chocolate pancakes in the meantime. :)

*I got a recipe of the Victorian sponge cake from them, but I have yet to make it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (can be 1/3 cup instead) 
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. In a bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, and baking and cocoa powder. 
2. Mix in the milk, oil and egg. 
3. Heat a skillet or non stick pan to medium heat. 
4. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter and wait until it starts bubbling. Then flip and let it cook for another minute or so. 
5. Do this with the remaining batter. Serve warm with whatever toppings you want. Enjoy. :)

馒头 Mantou

 Hey everyone. Today has been a very slow day. I got my flu vaccine, and I had a dentist appointment. They went okay, but it took some time off of some other things I wanted to do. I have to plan stuff for the Spanish class I am teaching, and I still have to write a few articles for my school paper. Busy Busy.
Anyways, today, I made 2 things. I made chocolate pancakes (which I will post tomorrow), and I made these, 馒头. They are really good, for my first time making them. I'm used to baking breads like bolo bao, red bean bao and chau siu bao. The only reason why I decided to make these was because my mom's friend made whole wheat mantou, and gave us some to try. Then, I decided to try to make my own, the regular kind. Not the whole wheat kind because family doesn't like whole wheat things. So, here's the recipe for 馒头. I'm getting pretty obsessed with bread making. I may make Pan de Muerto next week. :) Anyways, 馒头 this time. Enjoy. I may do some things differently next time I make it though. I may add a bit more liquid, since the dough was a bit dry. I might also experiment add fillings or adding a chocolate dough to it too. We'll see. 
Ingredients: 

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar ( it wasn't sweet enough for my taste, so I will up to 1/2 to 3/4 cup next time)
• 1 cup warm milk (I will up to 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup next time)
• 2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions: 

1. Make sure the milk is warm. Put the warm milk in a bowl, and mix in the sugar (you can add up to 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar). Add in the yeast, and let it poof for about 10 minutes.
2. In another bowl, mix together the flours and baking powder.
3. Slowly pour in the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Then, knead it to make a dough. If the dough needs more liquid, add  more liquid.
4. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
5. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle. Then, fold one side into the middle, and then fold in the other side to the middle. Roll it out again.
6. Brush water onto the surface of the rectangle and then roll it into a log.
7. Cut the bread into about 10 to 12 pieces.
8. Let the dough rise for about 30 min to an hour.
9. Steam for about 20 minutes. Once it's done steaming, leave it covered for about 5 minutes. You can slightly uncover it, but do not uncover completely, for if there is a sudden temperature change, the bread will deflate. 

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Hey everyone! Man, have things been crazy around here. I've been so busy with school. The past week has been Spirit Week at my school, and, I can say, many of my classmates go crazy dressing up. I wish I had taken pictures.
I may start posting more random things about my day, like the healthy foods/snacks, exercise, all of that. I will also try to add recipes or link you guys to healthy recipes I've found. There are quite a lot, to tell you the truth. I just haven't gotten around to try them out, because my family doesn't like me trying to make foods healthy.
Anyway, here I am. It's time for a new recipe today. So, as you guys know, it's my new mission to try to make foods a bit more healthy. So, I decided to make Whole Wheat pancakes. For being healthy, these are quite delicious. My father even likes them, even though he hates whole wheat items. He ate them during the week. :) Just freeze the leftovers, and heat them up in the toaster or toaster oven and they are ready to go. So, here is the recipe for the pancakes.

This makes around 10 pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4  cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2-3 tablespoon honey
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1  1/2 cup milk
• 1  tablespoon canola or olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and salt. You can add cinnamon if you want to. 1 tsp ground cinnamon, if wanted. 
2. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, honey, milk, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. 
3. Slowly mix in the the dry ingredients INTO the wet ingredients. Mix until combined. 
4. Let it rest for a few minutes. 
5. Pour about 1/4 cup onto a medium heated griddle/skillet and wait until it bubbles or lightly browned. Then, flip and cook for another minute or so. Make sure both sides are browned. 
6. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, or eat with bananas, nutella, strawberries, or whipped cream. It's your choice. I sometimes eat it with dulce de leche, but that's just my personal preferance. Enjoy. :)