I had leftover natural yoghurt in the fridge I’d like to clear out before it goes bad. Looking through the recipe book that came with my Kenwood BM450 machine I saw this recipe, and I had all the ingredients (or their substitutes) on hand, so here we are.
Read MoreAfter years of using my trusty Kenwood BM250 breadmaker, I did the stupidest thing. I let the breadpan sit in a sink filled with just a couple of inches of water. It wasn’t that much water, but it was enough for rust to build around the paddle rotator, and it became stuck. No amount of WD-40 could un-stick it, so I had a few options: 1) Keep up the WD-40 treatment and pray; 2) buy a new breadpan; or 3) buy a new breadmaker.
I chose option 1 at first. Then I had itchy fingers and checked out the Kenwood BM450 on Lazada. Payday Sale was on, and it was on sale at a 20% discount. Needless to say, I caved. I’ll still do Option 1 and figure out what to do with the old breadmaker if I did manage to fix the breadpan.
I love the Kenwood BM450. It is supposed to be better than the basic BM250, and best of all, it is gorgeous. Finally a winning combination of form and function.
I looked at the recipe book which came with the machine, and there were quite a few I’d like to try. This here though is something I found online on Genius Kitchen, which uses ingredients readily available in my pantry. My first loaf using my new machine!
I activated the yeast first because I wasn’t sure if it was still usable. You can skip this step if you like, as it is completely unnecessary for breadmaker recipes and when using instant yeast.
Read MoreIt’s so hard to find good bagels in KL. I can name a couple of bakeries selling it, but can’t say they are particularly spectacular. One day I had a major craving for bagels, so I looked up a few recipes and picked up the one by Sophisticated Gourmet, which didn’t seem too complicated compared to others.
My first try making this, I completely messed up the water-to-flour ratio and the dough resembled alien goo. The second time around, I went back to my learnings in the science of breadmaking, and got the ratios spot on. However I also had some problems with my breadmaker during the second try, and had to knead the dough by hand. Such a good workout, lol.
Verdict: absolutely loved it. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for bagels – simple, no frills, and absolutely delicious straight out of the oven.
Read MoreTo me, cooking is a way to destress after a long week slogging at the office. Making bread, however, is what I find most enjoyable. When a bread recipe appeared in Saudi Food Eman’s Facebook feed, I knew I had to try it ASAP. I mean, bread stuffed with cream cheese and drizzled with syrup? Sign me up!
Because I was adamant about using my breadmaker for this, I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe. I didn’t notice that the recipe uses a lot more yeast relative to the flour (which was really silly in retrospect, but ah well that’s how we learn), so after letting the Dough cycle run its full course, my dough literally looked like foam. While I managed to save the dough by adding more flour, the bread turned out heavy and had a strong yeasty taste. At this point, I still didn’t realize that the cause was my overproofing the dough. I instead blamed it on the plain flour I used, and switched to bread flour for my second attempt.
While the dough was a lot less wet this time around, and the bread was a lot fluffier, the yeasty flavor remained. Finally it dawned on me that I was using the same amount of yeast but a little more than half of the flour compared to my roti paung recipe. Since the whole point of using a ton of yeast is to cut down prep time, I must have been letting the dough sit for far too long. I then realized waiting for my normal breadmaker Dough cycle to fully finish isn’t suitable for this recipe, so I simply let the machine do just the kneading and took it out right after, without resting the dough. True enough, this dough rises so fast, the earlier rolls doubled in size by the time I finished working on the last few.
The results? Lovely rolls which were bite sized and fluffy, with no unpleasant yeasty taste. I also loved the amazing combination of exotic flavors and textures. Creamy cheese inside fluffy bread, topped with crunchy, herby black seeds (habbatus sauda) then drizzled with sweet syrup infused with the distinct flavor of saffron. I just couldn’t stop eating this.
Try it out!
Read MoreI saw this recipe on Facebook some time back. Apparently it was something that was going viral here in Malaysia. Looking through the ingredients it did seem quite yummy, so I started writing this post, with some small adjustments and notes.
It took me two tries to get this right, using my trusty old Kenwood BM250 breadmaker. One of the recipes I found online asked for a lot of yeast (3 tablespoons!), and even though I cut it down to 2 packages (slightly over 2 tablespoons), the dough doubled up really fast and practically exploded in my breadmaker by the end of the dough cycle. The given oven temperature was also way too hot, and my first batch turned out too brown and really crusty. Even after adjusting the temperature down by 20 degrees, the second batch still turned out quite brown. I think because there was too much yeast and I left the dough to rise for too long, the yeast consumed all the sugar and the rolls turned out rather tasteless, and not to mention smelled really yeasty. Even though they softened a bit after they were completely cool, the texture was really dry and rough. So, in short, my first try was a bust.
For my second attempt, I halved the amount of yeast, and added some salt in hopes that the rolls retain their moisture better and stay soft. I also reduced the oven temperature to 150 degrees and baked for only 20 minutes. The results were wonderful! The bread was beautifully soft and moist, and the flavor was just nice. Success!
Read MoreWhen making my Pull-apart Stuffing Rolls, I originally just wanted to use ready-made pizza dough, and bought some from the store. I thought nothing of it, but when I finally took the dough out from the fridge, to my horror the stuff I bought turned out to be pre-baked pizza crust, and was therefore unusable. Trying to find other store-bought options led to more disappointment, and finally I caved in and decided to make my own pizza dough. This small crisis disrupted my cooking schedule a bit for that day, but luckily I discovered this problem in the morning, and so had enough time to still make things happen.
I’ve used this recipe for all my home-made pizzas, based on the recipe from the book, 500 Pizzas & Flatbreads. This makes about 450 grams/1 pound of dough, enough for two 9-inch round pizzas, or one 11- by 15-inch rectangle pizza.
Read MoreThis wasn’t originally on the menu for our first Dinner Club meet scheduled for tomorrow. But I was digging through my freezer and found some turkey ham and, since breadsticks usually get included in pizza meal sets, I decided to make these as well.
They keep well for a couple of days, so I made these a day ahead of the meet. Man oh man they’re good; simple yet addictive, I had to stop myself from eating them all before tomorrow. Just be warned that if you don’t have much patience, rolling them out and stuffing them one by one might drive you nuts.
Based on the recipe by Emeril Lagasse.
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