All Entries Tagged With: "Bread"
Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Under normal circumstances, I will end a series of the community kitchen meet up with the dessert but for this week’s South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors, I will start with dessert. The reason is, Charlene started off the day’s cooking with a quick briefing on baking. Charlene observed some very common mistakes in her several seniors kitchens and she decided to share them with this kitchen.
Baking is unlike other cooking that you can estimate the ingredients and more or less in fine. Baking is science as the right amount of ingredients are crucial for the reaction of the of the processes to achieve the right texture in the baking goods. Here is a summary of the briefing.
- One must use a dry ingredient measuring cup to measure dry ingredients. To measure flour, use a spoon to scoop flour into the measuring cup until it overflows. Then, use a knife or spatula to level the flour. Do not tap the measurement cup as this will compact the flour and yield more flour than needed. Do not scoop the floor directly into the measuring cup and try to level the flour by pressing against the wall of the flour container as this will also compact the flour.
- One exception in measuring dry ingredient is measuring brown sugar. You have to pack the brown sugar and the brown sugar should take on the shape of the measuring cup when you turn it out.
- When measuring liquid, place the cup on a flat surface and check the liquid amount at eye level.
So, with the above fresh in mind, Ken and Frank started working on the Spiced Pumpkin Bread recipe.
This Pumpkin Bread recipe is adapted from Vern Bertana and it makes 2 loaves. This bread freezes well. Wrap the loaf with saran wrap and place in a ziplock back and store it in the freezer until you have company.
Ham and Cheese Muffins
Minoo prepared two recipes for the first meeting of Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen for this fall season. The first recipe is a hand held breakfast or lunch item which is perfect for families on the go. These Ham and Cheese Muffins are savory instead of the regular sweet muffins.
These Ham and Cheese Muffins taste like quiche but they are easier to make. You can even make them ahead and they can be reheated quickly. It is also a good recipe to use your leftover bread.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon honey mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon each, salt and pepper
- 5 cups cubed whole grain bread (about 5 slices, trim off crust)
- 1 cup shredded Canadian Cheddar, Swiss or Colby cheese
- 1/2 cup diced deli ham
- 12 cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise or quarters if they are large.
Roti
The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors made Roti to serve with the Butter Chicken. It’s a perfect match. I had blogged about Roti here but the earlier post did not have the recipe as the demonstrator prepared the dough from her home.
Joyce made the dough for the Roti as she had many years experience in making bread. The rest of group helped out in rolling out the dough.
The Roti is great to use as a wrap too as it is very thin. We tore the Roti into smaller pieces and scooped the Butter Chicken or Samosa style Potatoes and Peas side dish onto the Roti and wrapped it up to enjoy. You have to eat with your hands to enjoy this meal.
Ingredients
- 3 cups roti flour (look for ‘durum atta’) flour at any Indian grocer)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flor for dusting
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
Flours may vary, so adjust the amounts according to the consistency of the dough. You can add extra slour to a dough that is too soft, but a stiff dough cannot be fixed!. This recipe is from Satta Lal.
Breadstick
Carol, June and Karen were in-charged of making the anyway you like breadsticks for the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors. It is call any way you like breadsticks because you can vary the toppings to create breadsticks that could go with any sort of meal, from Italian to Mexican to Indian.
The Breadsticks were very crispy and Charlene just cant stop munching on them. We made the breadsticks with parmesan and black pepper, dried rosemary, onion seeds and a pepper mix which Charlene brought fromher home. The pepper mix was from her friend who brought it back from overseas. I cant recall from which country.
The baked breadsticks may be frozen, in sealable plastic bags for 1 week. Reheat in a 350F oven until crisp.
Ingredients
- 1 batch Pizza dough, kneaded and risen
- cornmeal for sprinkling, optional
- 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoons seeds or herbs of your choice
The toppings might include:
- sesame seeds
- chopped fresh or dried rosemary
- fresh or dried thyme
- nigella seeds (also called onion seeds)
- poppy seeds
- coarsely ground black peppers
- cumin seeds
Sunday Morning in Stanley Park
This post had been lying on my draft folder for ages. It must had been 3-4 months already. I am digging up all these old posts which I neglected to blog earlier because, well, I need to stock up on posts before we leave for our 2 week vacation next week. I want to make sure you all have something to read everyday … LOL!
It was a spring weekend when we decided to go to the Stanley Park for a morning walk. It had been ages since we were there.
Of all the urban parks in the world, Stanley Park surely must rank as one of the most beautiful in the world. All visitors to Vancouver MUST make a visit to this park and take a picture of downtown from here. I always tell visitors that their visit is not complete if they did not take a picture from here.
We woke up real early and brought along some Chinese buns to eat at the park. We bought the buns from the Osaka Supermarket the day before. For sheer variety and freshness, not many places can beat Osaka. (Osaka is located in the Yaohan Mall along No 3 Road in Richmond).
Their Pineapple Bun is really good. Known as Bo Lo Bau in Cantonese, this is one of the most popular Cantonese pastry and is available in almost any Cantonese bakery. Suanne makes it at home but had never quite achieved the same level of quality (or even look!) as those we bought from the stores. Here is the recipe for those who are interested.
The one above is good. Osaka called it Cake Roll with Dried Pork. It is a fluffy cake with cream and pork floss. It gives a very delicate balance of sweetness from the cream and a tinge of saltiness from the pork floss.
I still have not quite figured out why white people can’t stand the thought of eating pork floss. LOL! It is one of the best topping and fillings that one can use on almost anything (rice, noodles, pastry, sandwiches or even eaten by itself). One theory is that it looks like fur, while others says that the name, pork floss, is absolutely gross.
Suanne made it once at home … it was a very laborious process. Here is the recipe if you want to know how it is made. We normally buy pork floss from the stores.
Tim Horton’s coffee is our favourite. We like it over Starbucks anytime. We always had the same … “double double”. For those who are not familiar with Tim Hortons, double-double is Timmy Ho speak for two sugar and two cream.
We had a good walk around the park and covered 14 kilometers the whole morning. Enjoy the rest of the pictures we took below.
Apple Banana Muffin
Stella made this Apple Banana Muffin for last year’s Caring Place Potluck. She demonstrated this recipe in the Caring Place Community Kitchen upon Minoo’s request.
The Apple Banana Muffin is moist and the walnuts give it the crunch. This muffin is good for after school snack or breakfast. It can also be made into a loaf.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil or melted margarine
- 1 cup brown sugar (less if bananas are very ripe)
- 2 to 3 bananas
- 1 large apple
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Pineapple Bun (Polo Bun)
Arkensen and Nanzaro love Pineapple Bun, particularly from Lido Restaurant. I got this Pineapple Bun recipe from Helen. Helen has not attempt to make it because the recipe is in grams and cc which is a bit tedious to measure. Morever, Helen said it involves quite a bit of steps which seem quite complicated to her. Anyway, this is my first attempt making it and it turned out quite ok.
The Pineapple Bun (or Polo Bun) turned out quite soft and I think the dough recipe is good for any other bun. The bun remains soft even after two days.
Now, I know why it’s called Pineapple Bun. The name came from the look of the topping which resembles the pineapple skin.
It took me quite long to make it as I was trying to convert the measuring into cups and spoons as far as possible so that it’s easier for me to make it again.
Ingredients
Dough:
- 240g bread flour (2 cups less 3 tablespoons), I used all-purpose flour
- 60g cake flour (8 tablespoons)
- 45g sugar (3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)
- 5g yeast (1 1/2 teaspoons)
- 30cc egg (1 medium egg)
- 135g water (125ml)
- 3g salt (1/2 teaspoon)
- 9g milk powder (2 tablespoons)
- 30cc warm water
- 45g butter (3 tablespoons)
Topping:
- 80g butter (6 tablespoons)
- 50cc egg
- 1 g salt (a pinch)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 50g icing sugar (1/2 cup)
- 5g milk powder (1 tablespoon)
- 150g cake flour (1 1/4 cups)
- another egg for egg wash
Click on the link below for the instructions.
