Honey Wheat Bread

Photo courtesy of my friend Noelle, who is in my group. 

I love the smell of freshly baked bread. The aroma just makes my mouth water. Don't you feel that way when you walk into a bakery?

I know I do. That's why I started to get hungry once my group baked our honey wheat bread yesterday. Yes, we made bread in our food preparation (culinary) class. The bread was delicious! It tasted delicious with some honey cinnamon syrup and jam.

I'm making you guy's mouth water now, right? Well, don't worry. You can make this yourself. Our whole kitchen was filled with the smell of all types of bread, including cinnamon rolls! It's quite simple to make bread. Well, it is once you get used to the technique. Me and Noelle did most of the kneading, which is the fun part. It just gets your hands dirty. But, it is worth it. It has a few simple ingredients and you know what's it in it, unlike store bought bread. There are so many things you have to remember when making bread. Those tips will be at the end of this post. For right now, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingedients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 package of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease the bottom and sides of a bread loaf pan. Set aside. 
2. In a bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Stir in the dry milk, oil, sugar, salt and two cups of the flour. Beat vigorously with a spoon. Stir in an additional 1 cup of flour. Do this until it holds most of the flour and does not look to stick or moist. 
3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Add in additional flour as needed to prevent the dough from being sticky. This should take about 10 minutes. 
4. Let it rise in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, until double in volume. 
5. Punch down the dough to redistribute ingredients and expel excess CO2. 
6. Remove dough from the bowl and shape the dough in a loaf to fit into the loaf pan. 
7. Brush the surface of the bread with melted butter. 
8. Bake in a preheated 400 F oven for 10-15 minutes. Then, lower the temperature to 350 F or the next 30 minutes. 
9. The bread is done when the finished loaf can be inverted out of its pan and sounds "hallow" when tapped on the underside. 
10. Enjoy your bread! 

Photo from my class/groupmate, Ka. Thanks for sharing our bread making skills. =)

What each ingredient does in bread making.

• Bread flour contains more gluten than all-purpose flour. The gluten gives the bread its structure. 
• Yeast produces CO2 and alcohol during fermentation. CO2 is what leavens the bread (making it grow). Alcohol is evaporated during baking .The temperature of the water should be between 100-115 F when you are re-hydrating the yeast. 
• Sugar is a sweetener and is a food source for the yeast. However, flour has natural sugars yeast feed on too.
• Salt controls the growth of the yeast. 
• Liquid is used for hydration and gluten development. If you are using dairy milk, scald the milk (heat it up). It will kill (denature) the enzymes/proteins that milk has, which can affect the development of gluten. 
• Fat tenderizes and affects flavor. 

Other fun facts:

• Kneading the dough allows for gluten formation to occur, giving bread its structure. 
• The optimal environment for proofing the dough is a humid one. Generally speaking, 80-85 F is best. However, 68-100 F is okay. Avoid over proofing or else the gluten strands will break, causing your dough to fall and lose its structure and volume. 
• Punching down the dough releases excess CO2 and redistributes the ingredients as well as temperature. You will notice that some places in the dough are warmer than others. 
• The "oven spring" method of baking is when the bread is baked at a high temperature for the first 10-15 minutes and then lowered 50 F for the remainder of the baking time. The high temperature allows for quick expansion of the bread from the gas (CO2) produced from the yeast before it dies. The lowering of the temperature allows the bread to cook without over baking the outside and under baking the inside. 

Well, I guess that's a quick culinary lesson for you guys! 

Do you guys love bread? 

• Bread is delicious.

What's your favorite type of bread? 

• My favorite type is either honey whole wheat bread or cinnamon rolls. I love cinnamon rolls. 

Fudgy Meringue Cookies

I love fudgy cookies. Don't you? I love the deep chocolate flavor.
Well, these fudgy meringue cookies are very fudgy and have a lot of chocolate flavor in them If you love chocolate, you will love these cookies. My group made it in class the other day and they were delicious but really rich. You can only eat so many of these. They were a bit dry, so we do suggest adding another egg white if you like them less dry.
These cookies are also low in fat due to no fat being used. The egg yolks are taken away from the egg whites, so, this is a fat free dessert (except for the chocolate chips).
I hope you guys enjoy these cookies. Be sure to have a glass of milk along with these!

 Ingredients:

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray 
• ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips, divided 
• ¾ cup powdered sugar, divided 
• ¼ cup + 1 ½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoons cornstarch 
• 1 large egg white, room temperature 
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 small pinch cream of tartar 

 Directions:

1.                   Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.                   Coat 1 large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray.

3.                   Place ¼ cup chocolate chips in small microwave-safe bowl. Cook in 15-second intervals until chocolate softens; stir until melted and smooth.

4.                   Cool chocolate to lukewarm, about 10 minutes. Whisk ¼ cup sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch in small bowl to blend.

5.                   Using an electric mixer, beat room-temperature egg white, vanilla, 1 small pinch of salt and cream of tartar in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.

6.                   Add remaining ½ cup sugar in 4 additions, beating just to blend after each addition.

7.                   Continue to beat until the meringue is thick and glossy like marshmallow crème (about 2 minutes longer).

8.                   Beat in cocoa mixture. Fold in melted chocolate, then the remaining chocolate chips.

9.                   Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing 3 inches apart.

10.                Bake cookies 12-13 minutes on center rack of oven.

11.                When cookies are done, they will appear dry-looking and cracked.

12.                Cool cookies on sheets 5 minutes.

13.                Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

14.                These are best consumed the same day they are made.

Do you like fudgy cookies?
What kind of cookies do you guys like?

P.S Be on the lookout for the honey wheat bread recipe!

Whole Wheat Flax seed Bread

Hey hey everyone. Happy Memorial Day. It's a day to honor those that served our country. I hope you guys are having a great Memorial Day Weekend.
So, I made Whole Wheat Flax seed Bread during the weekend and I thought that it'd be best to share the recipe with you guys. It tastes really good, especially with peanut butter or nutella. I know, it looks kind of small but it tastes great! It takes a while to make though, as bread always takes a while to make. At least it's faster than making the Chinese buns I usually bake. This is also a lot healthier. So, here's the recipe and I hope you guys enjoy it. It takes a total about 4 hours from start to finish. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• about 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup whole flax seeds
• 1 tsp salt (optional) 
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup warm milk 
• 1/2 cup honey (I used raw honey) 
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together the water, milk and honey. Then, add in the yeast. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes to let the yeast begin its work. 
2. While waiting, mix together the flour, flax seeds and salt. 
3. Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture. 
4. Then, pour the flour mixture into the yeast mixture. 
5. Knead it until a dough forms. If it's too sticky, add more flour. 
6. Put the dough in a bowl and cover it. Let the dough rise for an hour or until it doubles in size. 
7. After an hour, punch the dough down and put it into a loaf pan. Let it rise for another hour or so until it doubles in size. 
8. Preheat the oven to 375 F. 
9. Bake it at 375 F for 15 minutes and then lower it to 325 F. Bake the bread for another 20 minutes. 
10. Take it out, let it cool and then enjoy! 

This weekend was a busy one. We still did a lot of things, even though my mom isn't feeling that well. I hope she gets better soon. 

So, I went to my cousins graduation. He graduated from Sac State. Congrats, primo! I'm so proud of him.  He helped me so much through my first year of college. Thank you so much, primo. You're the best! I can't believe it went by so quickly! I'll write about my thoughts of the first year of college in another post. 

Then, yesterday was another cousin's birthday party. So fun. I also organized some of my shoes yesterday and guess what. I have like 22 pairs of shoes collected from over the past 6 years. I don't even like shoe shopping. 

I also bought dumb bells since I won't be able to use the school gym until the fall semester. I don't want to lose the muscle I gained. I didn't buy the heavy ones I wanted but what I have will do. 

Last week, I bought some food from Big Lots. I bought the Brown Rice with Red Beans Roasted Red Pepper Triscuit, Kashi Simply Maize cereal, and a nutella knockoff called Cocoa Hazelnut Spread. There's also a single serving Kashi cereal too. I can't wait to try the Triscuits.

 I also bought the Jamba Juice  thai-style chicken & sweet chili protein wrap. It was so small but hey, it was only 250 calories. It tasted pretty good though.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Have a great Memorial Day!

What's your favorite type of bread?

Do you like shoe shopping? I don't but I ended having a lot of shoes.

Have you tried making home-made bread?

Cinnamon French Toast

Hello, everyone. I know I already posted a recipe earlier, but I still have to fulfill my goal of catching up with the recipes that are suppose to be made each week. Please bear with me.  Also, as an update on my life, I did some job shadowing (a dietitian) and volunteer work the past two days. Quite fun and interesting. Anyways, this morning, I made cinnamon french toast. I haven't eaten it in such a long time, and I love cinnamon. Especially the cinnamon rolls I've made before. We also had some leftover bread that we needed to eat because we didn't want to make any more sandwiches. I should have made it healthier though. Use 100% whole wheat bread, egg beaters (egg whites), low calorie sweetenerand skim milk (or soymilk). It's just an idea, but my recipe does not use the healthy ingredients, just regular ingredients. Enjoy. :)


Ingredients

• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• bread slices

Directions

1. Whisk together the eggs and milk and mix in the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. 
2. Heat a skillet or non stick cooking pan to medium heat. Spray with butter flavored cooking spray, such as PAM.
3. Dip both sides of the  bread slices into the mixture and put into the pan. Cook until golden brown on both sides. 
4. Covering the lid helps, when cooking these. 
5. Serve with either syrup, sugar or fruit. Your choice. Enjoy. :)

Chinese Hot Dog buns and Bolo Bao (菠蘿包)

您们好！ How are you guys today? Yesterday, I said I would post how to make the hot dog buns and Bolo Bao. This recipe has no filling for the Bolo Bao (菠蘿包), but I will explain the instructions on how to add the filling to the buns, though there won't be any pictures. It would take longer until the bread is done if you want to add the filling. Anyways, don't these bread look delicious? I think they do. I love baking bread. It takes at least 3 to 4 hours though, but it is worth it. Anyways, for the bolo bao topping, I used brown sugar instead of the usual granulated sugar because I had run out of granulated sugar. That's why the cookie topping looks a bit different. Here's the link to the other bread recipe, where my cookie topping for the bolo bao has white granulated sugar instead of brown sugar. It still tastes pretty good though. The cookie topping recipe is at the end of this post. The hot dog buns are yummy too. My brother loves these chinese breads, and they're quite delicious. So, here's the recipe for the bread. The recipe for the dough is a bit different from the other recipe, in that, oil is used instead of butter. If you like a more buttery bread, use butter. I believe it's a bit unhealthier though, so I decided to make a bread recipe using oil. Have fun making the bread. Enjoy. :)

Ingredients: 

Dough:

• 3 3/4 cup bread flour
• 3/4  cup sugar
• 1/2  cup warm milk
• 1/2  cup warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1/4  cup oil

Fillling Options:

• red bean paste
• BBQ Pork 
• hot dog
• lotus seed paste

Instructions

1. In a bowl pour in the warm water and warm milk. Mix in the sugar. 
2. Add in the active dry yeast and let it poof for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the egg and oil. 
4. Slowly add in the flour, cup by cup,  until a dough has formed. Knead the dough. It should be elastic, but it shouldn't stick to the bowl. 
5. Cover it with plastic, and let it rise for about an hour in a warm place. 
6. Push the dough down to let out the air.
7. Divide the dough into 15 pieces, and let them rise for an hour.
8. For the hot dog buns. roll out the dough like play dough until it's long, and then wrap it around the hot dog. There are pictures for this step, if you are confused. Let it rise for 30 min to and hour.
9. If you are making the bolo bao and are adding the red bean filling, flatten the dough with your hand and stretch it out just a tiny bit. Add the filling, and then fold in the edges together. Roll it into a ball and let it rise for 30 min to an 1hr. One hour is more ideal, so that the bread would be bigger. 
10. If you are making the bolo bao without the filling, it's time to bake them. Take a piece of cookie dough. flatten it out, make tiny criss cross marks, and but the cookie on the bread dough. Preheat the oven to 350 F and bake for about 20 minutes.
11. For the hot dog bread, and bolo bao with the filling, after it's done rising, it is time to bake them. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Add the cookie topping to the bolo bao. Bake the hot dog buns for 15 to 20 minutes. The bolo bao would take about 20 minutes. Use your eye and judgement. The bread grows and rises while it's still in the oven. Enjoy your bread. :)

 

 

 

 

The Pineapple Bun Topping recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar (or a little bit more)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

                                                                 Directions: 

1. Beat the egg and sugar too. Add the egg yolk, baking soda, and the milk. Combine the flour and baking powder and then add it to the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate for an hour before use.