Pita Bread

¡Hola! ¿Cómo están ustedes? Hoy, yo hice pan. Pita Bread. I wanted to make healthier bread to eat, since most store bought bread is quite unhealthy, and has a lot of preservatives. It was my first attempt making these, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I searched all online for a recipe, but, I ended up messing up the recipe and had to make up my own while actually making it. While adding flour to the dough, I miscounted at first, but then I realized my mistake. So, I had to fix it, and I remember the measurements to which I have fixed it. It still tasted quite good, and I was really surprised that a pocket actually formed with the bread, since some people have not had luck making the bread puff up like a balloon to make a pocket. Anyways, here's my recipe. Next time, I might try to make it healthier by using whole wheat flour, and using honey as a sweetener instead. It'd give it a nice flavor. Anyways, I like pita bread because you can use it for so many things. Pizza, chips, sandwiches, dip it in hummus. Hummus is yummy, especially with baked pita chips. Now that I think about it, baked pita chips will be my next post. Anyways, you need this pita bread recipe before baking pita chips. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon warm water
  
• 2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions: 

 

1. In a bowl, combine the water, sugar, and active dry yeast. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Gradually add in the flour, 1 cup at a time. After adding in the first cup, mix in the salt and the oil.
3. Once all the flour has been incorporated, knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
4. Let the dough rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
5. Divide the dough into about 10 to 15 balls, depending on how you want the size of the pita bread. I made mines smaller, making 22 pita breads.
6. Let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until about 1/4 inch thick. Cover the disks as you roll them
8 Preheat the oven to 500 F and bake them two at a time for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bread puffs up like a balloon and is pale golden.
9. Wrap them in a large kitchen towel to keep them soft.
10. Enjoy with some hummus or make a sandwich with it. You can also make pita chips or a pita pizza. It's your choice. Enjoy.

 

Enjoy your pita bread! My next post will be pita chips.

Gluten Free Pancakes (Rice Flour Pancakes)

Hey everyone. What's up? Well, today, seems to be an off day for me. I've had a weird day. I have no clue why it feels that way. I hate feeling like this. Anyways, I made pancakes today, because my brother loves pancakes, and he wanted some. The only thing is that, we ran out of regular all purpose flour to make these pancakes. So, I looked online and searched for a gluten free pancake recipe, the one that doesn't use flour. Well, the one I found uses rice flour. I edited it a little bit. However, these pancakes taste yummy. I was quite surprised. However, this pancake doesn't look good, huh? Well, it's because I found out that the batter is really funny. I was unable to make perfect circles with it like I do with my regular pancake recipe, which is here. At least they taste good. Well, here's the recipe. Enjoy. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup  milk ( I would reduce it, since it was really runny with the full amount)
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: 

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. 
2. Gradually pour in the milk, while mixing. 
3. Mix in the egg, oil and vanilla extract.
4. Let it sit for 20 minutes and then cook both sides until golden. 
5. Enjoy. You can add chocolate chips, syrup, fruit, powdered sugar, or whatever toppings you guys like. 

I'll be making pita bread the next post. Keep updated. :) Pita bread is yummy. Especially with hummus.

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. :)

白糖糕 Chinese Steamed White Sugar Cake

Hey everyone. What's up? Well, I made 白糖糕  a couple days ago, and I finally remembered to post the recipe today. These are yummy. They are usually served when eating dim sum. I always get them, whey they pass by with the carts. It's just too delicious. That's why I wanted to learn how to make them. They are quite different from other cakes, since they are fermented with yeast. It gives it a distinct flavor. The ones I made are actually quite good. They nearly taste the same as the ones served in restaurants. However, next time I make them, I prefer mines to be a bit thicker, so I'll do that next time. Most recipes out there are usually in metrics, but mines uses the US measurements. I hope this helps with the measuring. Good luck and enjoy.

Ingredients

• 2  cups rice flour 米粉  
• 1  1/2 cup sugar
• 600 mL water (a little less than 3 cups)
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoon warm water
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Sift the rice flour into a bowl. Mix in the sugar.
2. Slowly mix in the water. 
3. Pour into a saucepan and heat over low heat until the mixture has thickened, but still a bit runny. Stir to make sure lumps don't form. 
4. Press the mixture through a sieve. 
5. In another bowl, mix together the yeast and water. Mix it into the rice flour mixture along with the baking powder. 
6. Let it sit there for 6 to 8 hours. 
7. Pour into a pan and steam for 20 to 30 minutes.
8. Enjoy. :)

Chocolate Chip Scones

  Hello. How are you guys today? I'm getting pretty bored, and school is just around the corner. All my summer work is done too, so I have nothing else to do. I have been reading the Harry Potter books and I have been baking a lot lately. Today, I baked chocolate chip scones, and some banana muffins. I haven't eaten scones in such a long time. I didn't want to buy one either. fearing how many calories one could have in a bakery. These scones are pretty good, if I say so myself. It was my first time baking them too. My brother loves these. I didn't know what to expect from the dough, and it was a bit stickier than I thought it would be, but it all worked out. Don't these look delicious? They're around 200 calories, instead of the usual 300 or 400 calories scones usually have. So, here's my recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2   1/4 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 cup salted butter                                         
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder.
2. Cut up the butter and mix it in with the flour mixture with your hands. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream and vanilla.
4. Slow mix in the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, until a dough forms.
5. Roll out the dough until about 3/4 inch thick, and cut into 14 to 15 triangles. 8 triangles, if you want huge scones.
6. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
8. Take out, and enjoy. If you want, you can also add a vanilla glaze on top.