Soft Wrap Flatbread Sandwich

Flatbread fresh from the skillet

I've always wished I could bake at the apartment but alas, I do not have an oven. However, my wish came true when I found this recipe at a blog. It was a flatbread that could be baked on a skillet. After some investigation, I found out it came from none other than the KA baking site! However, the blog poster mentioned that she used whole wheat flour instead of the original AP flour, so I decided to use WW flour as well. And what else did I use but the very nice White Whole Wheat Flour (Bob's Red Mill) that I found (finally!) at Healthy Options in Greenbelt. It was quite expensive (they only had organic WWW), but the sight of organic white whole wheat flour was quite exciting. It looked a lot like whole wheat pastry flour.

The first time, I did the recipe to the letter, but halving the ingredients so I came up with 4 flat breads. Putting boiling water at the start made a big difference in the manageability of the dough. It was very easy to knead and work with, I hardly needed to knead at all! I had to add more water (about 1 cup), though and a little bit more after I added the other dry ingredients. I dry-fried them on the wok soon after the 2nd proofing and they turned out great! I thought they were a bit on the salty side, though (I used a bit more than 1/2 tsp of salt), but I didn't find the breads salty the next day. Weird.

Tuna soft wrap sandwich with a dash of vinegar and pepper. It was quite good...

The next time (this morning, actually), I decided to be smart-ass and do my own variation. I wanted something creamy like naan, so I decided to put in some yogurt. And I wanted to freeze the doughs so I would always have fresh baked flat breads. The initial variations I made were:

Half-recipe:
1. 1/2 tsp of salt
2. 1 tsp of sugar
3. slightly heaping 1/2 tsp of yeast (for freezing)
4. a pack of yogurt (1/2 cup)
5. divided the dough into 5 pcs instead of 4

Unfortunately for me I may have made a recipe for disaster right from the start. Looking back, the answers are obvious: I didn't thoroughly read the recipe because I thought I already knew what it was about. I was a stingy with the boiling water because I wanted the yogurt to take center stage (I was planning to mix it after adding the dry ingredients). I didn't mix the boiling water and flour until it was smooth (a major oversight)!

I was wondering why the water-and-flour mixture was still sticky after the 30 minute rest, but thought it was just a quirk and proceeded to add the 2nd dry ingredients. Here is where another bumble took place. The dough seemed too stiff so I kept adding more yogurt, until the whole pack was gone! Really, I don't think that 1 1/2 cups of flour would need that much yogurt. Everything was a sticky mess that wouldn't come together. The previous dough was a dream to knead, but the new dough variation was a nightmare! I struggled and struggled until I ended up adding about 1/4 cup more flour and more potato flakes. I relented after many long minutes of kneading and let it rise for about half the time for the first rise, cut it up into 5 pcs (I could've made it 6), and tossed the shaped dough into the freezer. Here's hoping that the dough could be saved. I hate to throw away perfectly good ingredients.

Update:
I baked the frozen-and-thawed dough. The dough was very sticky so I had to roll it between 2 pieces of cling wrap. Baking took considerably longer. The bread also did not develop wrinkles and bubbles. When I fished it out of the pan, it was very soft - extremely so. Still, I used it for my standard soft-wrap. It was passable, considering that the taste is mostly from the filling, but the taste and texture of the bread itself was a disappointment. Obviously, adding all that yogurt did not affect the taste at all (it was bland), and the texture is shot. It was too mushy and squishy. I'll be sticking to the original recipe next time, adding just a tsp. of sugar.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

This week, I decided to try out recipes using simple and easily available ingredients, so I tried out this Condensed Milk Pound Cake recipe. The recipe came from here.

tight crumb, simple but delicious flavor.

My variations are as follows:
1. I lessened the sugar from 45g to 30g, and increased the condensed milk a tad (about 1 tbsp to account for the whole wheat flour).
2. The original recipe called for cake flour. I used my Whole Wheat Pastry flour.

Doubling the recipe makes 3 mini loaves. I put a lot of vanilla extract (1 1/2 tbsp) the first time, and I thought the vanilla flavor was slightly overpowering. So next time (for 2 loaves) I put in only 1 tbsp but this time I miss the vanilla flavor!

For the bigger pound cakes, I had to tent them with foil (20 minutes in for lesser browning). The top of my oven really is too hot.


Nyan said it was too buttery(!?) Never mind, I don't trust her judgment much. The cake did taste better and was moister the next day. I find it a tad too dry, though. It wasn't as soft-looking as the original blog pic. But it's not bad either, (tastes quite good out of the oven actually), so I'll definitely be making this again next time I need a simple pound cake recipe.

Honey Wheat Rolls

Today marks my first foray in the land of yeast breads. The honorary recipe? Honey Wheat Bread from the King Arthur website.

That's about as close to "round and smooth" as I could knead it...

This was one of the times that I sorely wished I had a teacher to teach me the basics of bread making. I made do with the knowledge I stocked up from reading and watching online videos. Kneading the dough was a big challenge. In a rare show of masochism, I decided to do everything by hand (I figured it would help to have a 'feel' for the dough). The dough was wet and sticky and unwieldy for a looong time. I set the timer and even after 20 minutes, the dough was nowhere near "round and smooth." But I'm glad I persevered because at about the 40 minute mark, the dough started coming together. Then I started scraping the sides and I think that messed up the consistency of the dough and it started getting sticky again. I must've been kneading for about an hour when I gave up and told myself "that's the best I could do." The dough wasn't a perfect ball, but at least it could hold itself together.

On the tray for the 2nd rise.

Since the original recipe called for 1 cup King Arthur AP flour which I knew had a high protein percentage, I approximated that with 1/2 Gold Medal AP flour and 1/2 Bread Flour.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to take a photo of the first rise. I fell asleep and even though I set the alarm for 1 hour, I overslept..not sure how many minutes more but when I checked, the dough had indeed doubled in size. I deflated it slowly. The dough consistency was surprisingly very soft and airy. But at least it wasn't falling apart and I could cut it up and shape it into balls for the 2nd rise.

After the 2nd rise.

About halfway through shaping the dough, I figured I should vigorously roll the dough with medium pressure using the heel of my hand to get a good round shape. The later rolls definitely had better shape and form than the first ones.

Close-up of the risen dough.

I put egg wash and oatmeal on top to create interest. Unfortunately, I think my silicone brush is too rough on the doughs and they did deflate a little after I put the egg wash on them. I think I'll invest in a better (softer) pastry brush next time.

Into the oven they go...

When they were done, I brushed some butter on top to keep them moist. They were definitely best freshly-baked. Nice and soft and chewy. I ate a piece with strawberry jam ane one with peanut butter. It doesn't have the deep flavor of sourdough, but it was much better than what I expected for my first try. With strawberry jam, I found the taste strongly wheaty, but the funny thing is, I like the taste better when eaten by itself. I think I'll use proper orange juice next time (the one on the box). I have a hunch the natural OJ I used (from Navel Oranges) lacked tartness that could hide the tannic flavor of whole wheat.

Done!

All in all, I'm very happy with my first attempt at bread. The dough smelled wonderful throughout, from the time I was mixing it to when I was proofing it, and especially when they were baking. Daddy asked me to make the same recipe next time. I'm not sure if it's what I'll bake next time, but I'll definitely be making these Honey Wheat Rolls again. They make great wholesome dinner rolls.

The rolls were kept warm using kitchen paper and a towel.

Now the question is if they'll still taste great after they cool down the next day. I'm looking forward to eating some for breakfast!

Souffle Cheesecake

I challenged myself to another recipe from my Japanese Cheesecake Book - this time, a souffle cheesecake. Since the instructions are impeccable, I had no trouble following. The only problem was my own clumsiness and stupidity.

The book uses M size eggs. I thought this was a boon, until Mommy started stocking up on Jumbo size eggs that have 2 yolks in them! I was happy at first, but it started getting to be a problem, especially with the souffle, which relies a lot on eggs for body. My mistake was that I just haphazardly guesstimated the amount of eggs to use. The next day, I weighed the eggs, and found out that the jumbo eggs weighed 77g with shells on! L size eggs are about 60g, and M size ones about 50g. Thankfully, it didn't ruin my cheesecake, but it did have an eggy taste. My taste testers still loved it, though.

Most of my post-baking disasters are due to my impatience and stupidity :(

Personally, I consider this a semi-disaster. The cheesecake was baked in a water bath, and I placed two layers of foil on the bigger pan (6 inch instead of 7 inches because of my stupidity). Nothing seeped through, but the smaller 4-inch pan didn't fare as well. It was very soggy because I didn't take enough care to seal the bottom with foil. I was actually confident nothing would seep through. This little experiment proved me wrong.

On hindsight, I should've filled up the pan with more hot water, but I had to keep the water level low due to the smaller pan. I took the cheesecake out a few minutes before the allotted time because the top was starting to look dark. It looked baked on the outside and on top, but when I cut through it, I realized that the bottom was still underbaked! It was the part that was submerged in water. I should've known - next time, I'll fill the water halfway up, and do the toothpick test (I skipped that).

I also had a disaster unmolding the cake. It was still hot as I handled it and placed it upside down on a plate. The nice baked top skin peeled right off. Really, someone needs to hammer patience into me....

Chocolate Pound Cake

I've been working almost exclusively with chocolate these past two weekends. Making chocolate cakes and treats has always been one of my goals. It surprises me that I haven't started working on chocolate sooner! Or maybe not, because of the Whole Wheat Brownies disaster previously...

The batter is best filled up to near the brim. They do puff up a lot.

Since I wasn't keen on another chocolate disaster, I decided to try out a simple chocolate pound cake recipe. It was also an excuse to try out my new fancy baking pan that I bought for cheap from Living Well at the Podium. The pound cake is mostly made from whole wheat pastry flour (plus a bit of bread flour), straight from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book. I followed the recipe to the letter the first time I tried it out, except that I slightly reduced the sugar (about 1/4 or 1/3 - I'm not sure anymore). I converted most of the units to grams, since I halved the original recipe and working with volume measurements was getting unwieldy. I wanted to use good quality Dutch Cocoa so I settled for using the Ghirardelli Sweet Chocolate one, so I had to adjust the sugar quantities too. I think it made a difference. I wish I could find some good quality Dutch-process cocoa soon. I find it strange that Dutche brand Dutch cocoa isn't dark at all!

Beautifully formed pound cakes

The cakes formed beautifully. I dusted powdered sugar on them, only to find out later that powdered sugar is best put immediately before serving since a few hours later, the powdered sugar absorbed some of the liquid and turned into an appetizing mess on the cakes. I don't know if it was also responsible for the much drier cake I ate just a few hours later. It was a disappointment because the cakes were wonderfully moist and chocolaty when they were fresh out of the oven. Somehow, the taste and texture changed after just a few hours!

The first batch was moist and soft and chocolaty a few hours after coming out of the oven.

I decided to rectify the dryness issue the 2nd time around (this weekend) by adding about 45g or nearly 1/4 cup of sour cream. The sour cream considerably changed the consistency of the cakes. They were much softer so the mold wasn't as well-defined. I brought some for Nyan on the same day and she said she couldn't taste the chocolate, and that they were too greasy. I really don't know why theses pound cakes quickly lose their chocolate flavor... :( They were really great about an hour from the oven. But they were indeed a bit greasy, since the next day, I tasted them and they did remain moist but had this grease-like film. Maybe I overdid it with the sour cream. I should probably only put in a couple of tablespoons next time.

Another breakthrough I had the 2nd time around was with creaming the butter and sugar. I still don't know if I indeed did it right, but this time, I used butter straight from the fridge and creamed with a hand mixer it until it was as fluffy as I thought it would go without falling apart. The butter did change color - it was lighter looking. The batter was also less fluid when I put it into the pans. I filled the pans near the brim and succeeded in filling the whole pan without any leftovers. Hooray! Half the recipe is just right.

I was going to declare this pound cake recipe a keeper, but the disappearing chocolate flavor is very disturbing. Maybe it's not the recipe's fault but rather the cocoa I'm using? I have to get hold of better cocoa (the Ghirardelli can is nearly empty, anyway). So for the meantime, I'm still on the lookout for another chocolate pound cake recipe.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

I know I said previously that I just can't fall in love with Banana Bread, but there's a banana combination that I absolutely adore - Banana and Chocolate! It's all because of this wonderful cake that I shed 200 yen for in Jusco long ago - a whole banana wrapped in whipped cream and chocolate sponge cake . It was heaven, and it took all of my willpower not to succumb to the 200 yen temptation every time I was at the grocery store.

Well this recipe is far from that heavenly memory from long ago, but it combines two good things - banana and chocolate. I got the recipe from this thread in ChowHound.

The muffins were so dense they didn't rise much

The recipe had banana, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Sounds really good, right? I cut the sugar in the recipe to half, but the muffins still tasted sweet due to all the bananas in there. Speaking of bananas, I'm pretty sure I went overboard with the mashed banana, because I was desperate to keep them moist for more than a day. The result wasn't bad, but the muffins didn't rise much and they were very heavy, as commented by my co-worker, Ma'am Ruth.


Ma'am Jeng liked them, and I got comments that said they were full of flavor and had just the right sweetness (I thought they were too sweet). They weren't bad, but I think they were missing complexity of flavor. They didn't taste very chocolaty to me too :( If I'll make these again, I'll add some coffee powder, vanilla, and use the correct amount of mashed bananas!

Baking Without An Oven. Or, the Japanese find ways for almost *anything*

I notice a lot of people want to try baking but don't have an oven. I feel their plight as for many years, I didn't have a one myself. When I got a boyfriend, I wanted to make goodies for him and searched for ways to bake even without an oven. Fortunately for me, I was in Japan at the time and the Japanese have a how-to book for every need you can possibly think of. Here are some of the things I've tried.

BAKING WITH A FRY PAN
The first baking book I bought had the title "Baking Cakes and Breads with a Fry Pan." The photos in the book looked all so wonderfully delicious, and they were all made with equipment I already had on hand - a frying pan! I tried the easiest but most scrumptious looking recipe, a cookie. Unfortunately, it did not turn out well at all. Even my American friend told me "I don't believe there is such a thing as a bad cookie, but that cookie is BAD." That discouraged me from baking with frying pans and I shelved the book. Though now that I know a bit more about baking, I might try another recipe from there again. After all, that time I could not properly control the heat of the electric range and didn't know how to properly measure and handle ingredients.


BAKING WITH A MICROWAVE OVEN
The second book I bought was "Making Pastries Using A Microwave Oven." The one recipe I tried from there was such a disaster I got discouraged from baking anything at all, period. The recipe was looked very simple and straightforward (peanut butter cookies - do I see a pattern here?) and I even checked that our microwave had the specified wattage, but the end result was so bad I threw everything into the trash. I should've trusted my instincts when I looked at the instructions to zap for 8 minutes and thought "whoa, that's way too long." I didn't even reach that long as I could smell something burning not even halfway through. I ended up with hard, crumbly pucks with sugar granules still clearly visible in them. Yecchh.


BAKING WITH A RICE COOKER
My third book was "Cakes and Breads with a Rice Cooker." As the saying goes, the third time's the charm. I initially baked my first ever chocolate cake in a regular rice cooker and came up with something edible, but with a burnt bottom. Upon careful rereading, I discovered that the rice cooker to use was was an IH model (Induction Heating). Yes, they are much more expensive than the regular kind but make very delicious rice. Since I was itching to bake something and sick of looking for the disappearing rice cooker (it was a shared dorm appliance), I bit the bullet and bought one. I came up with passable results and a splendid Pumpkin Cheesecake, despite the fact that at the time, my measurement and mixing methods were probably a disaster. I'd make cakes with my rice cooker again, but sadly, I can't use it here because its a 110v appliance


BAKING WITH A KALDERA (STOCKPOT)
I haven't actually tried this, but a cousin of mine bakes cakes and cupcakes using a big kaldera with soil padded at the bottom on the stovetop. She learned of this technique from a local baking class.


Funny enough, the books mentioned above actually got good reviews from Amazon Japan. So maybe there was just something wrong with me/my microwave/my baking karma for the day. I think I'll dig up my books and try baking with them again (though I am still wary of the microwave book).

Like Pancake in a Muffin ⇒ Sour Cream Muffins

Early this morning while I was between dreaming and being woken up by the blast from the TV morning mass, my mind was in overdrive thinking what to do with the leftover Nestle cream from the cheesecake I made the previous night. Use it as ganache for the whole wheat chocolate cake I've been meaning to try? Cookies? I'm sure about half a dozen possibilities came to me, but just before we set out to go for the mass (the real one), I settled on making the Sour Cream Muffins from my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book.


So I removed the cream and the eggs from the fridge right before we went out, so when I came back, the cream was no longer thick and both the eggs and cream were in room temperature. Then I decided to do the cream + lemon juice = sour cream substitute trick in earnest. I didn't think I did it well enough last time, but the conditions were perfect this morning because I had lots of time, the cream was room temperature, and it was very warm in the kitchen. I squeezed in about 5 pieces of calamansi juice, stirred the mixture, and left it alone... after about 20 minutes or so, I was surprised that the cream actually curdled!! I'm not sure if it's real curdling I saw, but the cream did get thick, and it smelled sour. I was very pleased with the result. However, I was not pleased at all when I noticed halfway through sifting the flour that I only had 1/2 cup of sour cream! I needed 1 cup, especially after I had already measured and mixed the required amounts of flour and baking soda! This was my fault for being a dummy and not preparing ingredients in advance.

Already my mind was in overdrive, but thankfully all the baking blog reading paid off - because I found the good sense to substitute instead the pack of yogurt I had left in the fridge (thank goodness I bought 2 yesterday!), then to increase the butter to compensate for the lost fat. Well originally I was planning to use 1/3 cup of butter instead of 1/2 cup (basically what I had left of a package after the PB muffins and cheesecake) but I didn't want to risk it so I used up part of an unopened package of butter to come up with roughly 1/2 cup of butter. Not too bad; it still has less fat than the original. I also subbed Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead of White Whole Wheat, and I can't say the change had a negative impact.

the first batch didn't puff up much

The original recipe called for mixing in berries or chopped stone fruits, such as peaches. Well, no berries here, and I didn't want to open the can of peaches in light syrup I bought 'cause I'm reserving that for peach pie. We, however, had bananas, grapes, oranges, one Granny Smith, and a bunch of Fuji(?) apples in the house. Apples aren't stone fruits after all, but I decided to try my luck with a chopped Fuji and Granny Smith, then tossed in some nuts for good measure. I made sure to toss them in a bit of flour before mixing into the batter.

I creamed the still-cold butter and sugar (2/3 cup) using my hand mixer, and I think it went well, even though I did the creaming in the warm kitchen. Everything went smoothly from there, except that at the VERY END, I found out that the batter had to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes - the one time I've preheated the oven for good measure, it wasn't needed at all! Arggh! Well I wasn't about to let the electricity get wasted more than it already was, so I popped in the muffins without the fridge rest. I don't mind the texture of bran, anyway. There was quite a lot of leftover batter that made 4 big muffins with my extra muffin pan, and that went chilling in the fridge.

I was hoping for the best, even though I was concerned that the recipe called for only 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, so the chilling might affect the rise. In fact, I think it did, because my first batch of muffins didn't get a nice high mound on top unlike my 2nd batch, though I'm suspecting the nonstick pan might also have a part, because I always get ridiculously high rises and mounds when using that pan.

The taste, however, was heavenly. They smelled really nice coming right out of the oven, and when Daddy and I digged into the first one, oh, it was heaven! Moist and creamy and delicious! Didn't taste sour at all, despite being made from sour cream. Hands down the best muffin I've made to date. It kinda smelled and tasted like pancakes, and the apples carried themselves quite well, considering. They also got the thumbs up from my Mom, because they were not too sweet. The batter really is versatile - you could probably toss in just about anything in there and it would still be delicious. This muffin is a certified BAKING SUCCESS!! :D No wonder the King Arthur Flour bakers placed the recipe first, and were singing praises about it!

big brother muffin with puffed tops, and little sister muffins

Of course, there are always a few notes to consider when baking next time:

1) Prepare all ingredients beforehand!
2) DO NOT preheat the oven.
3) Make sure the cream and eggs are at room temperature before starting, or curdle the cream in advance.
4) Make sure to prepare 1 cup of sour cream + juice of about 8 calamansi
5) Fill the muffins almost to the brim (but not too densely) to get a nice high top.
6) Should I consider getting an ice cream scoop to put the batter in? It's getting to be a pain...
7) Brush the muffin liners with vegetable oil way in advance, or maybe while the batter is chilling. It does help keep the muffins intact.

All in all, this muffin recipe is definitely a keeper!!! :)

soft, creamy, moist crumb

Basic Baked Cheesecake can't be more basic than this

messy-looking, but utterly creamy and delicious

Making cheesecakes was one of my first goals when I started baking (don't know how it devolved to making dozens of muffins instead -_-; ). But since cream cheese is expensive, I didn't want to risk my money on dud recipes so I patiently waited for my Cheesecake Book from Amazon to arrive. And it did, before Holy Week, so I had the pleasure to peruse a number of cheesecake recipes during the holidays, all unique and very informative. The Japanese are genius at making recipe books - even the best English ones are only half as comprehensive and easy to use. There are pictures of each little step, complete with commentary, so even a total idiot would be hard-pressed to totally mess up a recipe. Add to that the Japanese palate which does not fancy overly sweet and sugar bombarded foods, and I don't even have to mess around the sugar proportions! How convenient is that! :)


One thing I was initially stymied about was the sour cream required in almost all recipes. I didn't want to spend a fortune on the refrigerated heavy cream, so I decided to try out the Nestle Cream in can - not the all-purpose one, but rather the Premium Quality labeled one. I figured that since it'll turn out to be more like a custard, canned cream wouldn't matter. I squeezed in the juice from one calamansi over the still-cold cream. On hindsight, this was a mistake, since I found out later that it takes much more than one calamansi to make a tablespoon, and that the cream was too cold to curdle! Well never mind, since the recipe called for a teaspoon of lemon juice, I just added in a bit more juice than called for.

I was totally disgusted at SM Supermarket Clark when I went and found out that not only was there no President French Butter (unsalted OR salted), they didn't even have any Philadelphia Cream Cheese! And to think I thought I had a good chance because SM Lipa even carries Neufchatel! Arghhh!! They only have Anchor whipping cream by the way, while SM Lipa has half a dozen varieties. What a totally useless supermarket. I think I'll be buying exclusively from Marquee next time. So, despite feeling blasphemous, I went ahead and bought a single package of Magnolia Cream Cheese. I would've bought more, but I didn't want to risk it if the cream cheese turned out horrible!

My fears were unfounded, though, since the Basic Baked Cheesecake turned out surprisingly well. I broke into a cold sweat when my mom, right before taking the first bite, said "Let's see if it tastes like Holiday Inn's cheesecake." I was about to tell her that it's too tough of an act to follow, but kept my mouth shut. I love Holiday Inn's cheesecake. In fact, last year, I asked my Daddy to buy me a cheesecake instead of a birthday cake for my birthday :)

Imagine my delight when my mom said, "Yes, it does taste like Holiday Inn's." WOW. I took a bite as well, and yes, it was quite good. I actually like it a bit better than the cheesecake at Conti's. It wasn't as dense as Holiday Inn's - more creamy but that may be because I didn't bake the 6-inch pan long enough. It wasn't undercooked though. I thought it was a little tart when I ate it last night, but the tartness mellowed by morning.But Mommy never noticed anything about the mellowing. The book did mention that the cheesecake develops the flavor overnight, and I think this was true.

Here are the adjustments:

1) Used 225g pkg. Magnolia cream cheese instead of 250g
2) adjusted liquids downward to about 90g sour cream and 90g yogurt
3) Used 6-inch regular pan with parchment and 4-inch springform pan. Springform pan is much better, or devise ways to make a cleaner edge from regular pan with parchment.
4) Using pre-crushed graham crackers saves prep time.
5) Make sure to curdle the sour cream in advance next time.
6) Baked 4 inch pan @ 40 minutes, 6-inch pan @ 45 mins. The 4 inch pan may be better off at 30-35 mins to prevent creacking, the 6-inch pan may be better off at 45-50 mins.
7) The cheesecakes take a while to cool on the rack, then they take at least 3 hours to refrigerate - must be made a day in advance.
8) Since sifting the cheesecake mixture through a sieve is a must and the bottom of the sieve touching the batter is a royal pain, I'm considering sifting the batter first before pouring into the pan. The brown spots are also the left over bits from sifting - what to do with those? Press them more into the sieve so they become fine enough?
9) The batter does rise about 1/3, so take that into account. It shrinks while cooling, though.


I am very pleased with my 2nd ever cheesecake. The basic baked cheesecake is so easy to make and so delicious, it's almost unbelievable. Is this recipe a keeper? Definitely yes! I'm looking forward to working through all the cheesecake recipes in the book :D This is another of those times that I'm so thankful I can read Japanese.

Taking over REESE ⇒ Peanut Butter Muffins

Last Friday, I was seriously itching to bake something to bring to Nyan's house. I don't know how it happened that I have a ton of ingredients at home and NOTHING to bake - there was always some stray ingredient or so that prevented me from trying out the recipe. I consulted my numerous books and finally decided on a recipe that could be cobbled up pretty quickly and whose ingredients I already had in the pantry or could be bought quickly at the local supermarket. The recipe was PEANUT BUTTER MUFFINS, courtesy of the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book.


The recipe called for buttermilk, and I had just bought a bag powdered buttermilk from Chocolate Lover so I was eager to use it. But I was a bit dismayed after I mixed in the powder and tasted it - it tasted just like regular, cheap skimmed milk!! What's the the difference between the buttermilk powder and Bear Brand? It didn't even taste sour. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt so even if I was dubious, I poured it in.

I had leftover chocolate chips in the fridge and a can of honey-roasted peanuts and cashews lying around the house, so I crushed those and tossed them in the batter (lightly floured, of course).

The recipe said that the muffins were supposed to be moist and crumbly-ethereal from the buttermilk and whole wheat pastry flour, but they didn't seem that moist to me. They were crumbly, though. Not dry, but not my idea of moist, either. Surprisingly, even after all the peanut butter, it wasn't so sweet (I used half the amount of sugar required). Must be the brand of PB I was using. I was worried picky eaters who need their sugar high won't like them, so I quickly whipped up the accompanying peanut butter glaze, but using only 2 tsp of confectioner's sugar instead of 3 tsp. The glaze was sweet enough, and I drizzled that over the muffin tops as decoratively as I could.


Nyan said that it was like biting into a Reese peanut butter muffin. She asked if I made the glaze myself. Ate Nhor said it was ok and not too sweet, but she could taste the baking soda. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I've mixed up 1 tbsp of baking soda for 1 tsp... gotta be careful, though my palate isn't sophisticated enough to detect the baking soda?

Will I be making these again? Probably, if I find myself with an abundance of peanut butter. But next time, I'll probably just use the milk + calamansi juice = curdled milk sub, instead of the dubious buttermilk powder. Or maybe it's time to look for the PROPER buttermilk powder manufactured by SACO.

crumbly crumb

Decadent Banana Bread

Right after the disaster with the whole grain brownies, something good DID happen. The very next day, I tried the banana bread recipe again, with a few adjustments based on my parents' suggestions. My dad thought the banana bread before didn't taste much like banana and told me to add more banana next time. My Mom wanted it less sweet. She also gave me a pack of honeyed walnuts from HK, which was great so I didn't have to buy any walnuts. There was still some more of the leftover cheap chocolate from the WW brownies, so I tossed those in as well.


Tita Kulet helped me with the preparations. I used a bunch of overripe bananas (conveniently and cheaply obtained from Marquee Metro supermarket, my favorite supermarket recently. I'll explain why in a future post). I wanted her to mash only 6, but she ended up mashing the whole bunch (about 7, I think), and that frazzled me up a bit 'cause it wasn't part of the plan, but she convinced me to go ahead and use up all of it anyway. What a great suggestion, because I came up with a very moist and banana-ey bread that stayed moist for a whole week!

I was still using the Pillsbury Healthy Baking recipe, except I substituted half AP, half WW flour. Actually, I think 100% WW flour would do nicely since the bananas keep everything very moist.

Here are the tweaks I made:

Used 7 medium bananas instead of 3
Used only 1/2 cup sugar (still sweet due to moist bananas. I may actually get away with less!)
1 tsp of vanilla
almost 1/2 cup of butter (could probably use less - about 1/3 cup next time due to moist and very ripe bananas)
chocolate chips
walnuts
1 tsp vanilla flavor
added cinnamon streusel on top

Baked for 23 mins at 325F (due to using nonstick pans).

Yield: 3 mini loaf pans (5 3/4" x 3" x 2") or (15 x 7.6 x 5.4 cm)\\

Cinnamon streusel recipe from About.com:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

half of 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 stick unsalted butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

I won't be using this recipe next time. Probably due to the tropical temperature,the butter became too soft and became more like a paste. I also found it too sweet,despite halving the brown sugar. I'm planning to use a more interesting and less sugar-laden oatmeal streusel topping next time.

All in all, Tita Kulet and I declared it the "best Banana Bread Ever!" My Mom even took hers (sans the streusel topping) to the office and her coworkers said it was 'not too sweet.' And, I gave Nyan a piece and she liked it so much I gave my loaf to her. Ahhh, sweet success :)

P.S. I like eating fresh banana bread, but I realized quickly that I can never fall in love with the taste of banana bread! There's just...something...about it that doesn't give me the smiles and fuzzies :( What a pity...

YE OLDE APPLE PIE for the 1st time

Today (Mar 28), I made pie for the first time in my life. I was hesitant about pies at first because of all the apprehensive pie bakers I've read about online that talk as if pie crust is the Holy Grail of baking. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I LOVE PIE MORE THAN CAKE, so I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO MAKE PIE (it was an intense itch), so I kept on reading a lot and absorbing information, took a deep breath, bought myself a baking mat and a rolling pin, and WENT OFF TO MAKE SOME PIES!!! :D

adorable mini apple pies

Originally I wanted to make Pumpkin Pie, which I believed to be the Best Pie Ever the first and last time I had a taste of it at the International Students' Pot Luck Christmas Party. But due to wanting to make my own pumpkin puree and not the canned kind and thus needing more time and effort for it, I decided to try instead another American favorite, Apple Pie.

The base pie crust I used is the All Butter, Real Flaky Pie Dough from SmittenKitchen. I wanted an all-butter crust and didn't want to mess around with shortening. Assembling the pie dough itself was easier than I expected (but this was probably also due to my extensive reading on the subject, I was prepared for everything). The real challenge, however, was in the ROLLING part, and then the actual BAKING part. Here are my notes:

A definite flake on the top crust - even though I was almost sure it was overworked!

PUTTING THE PIE DOUGH TOGETHER
1. I used 1 cup whole wheat flour plus 1 1/2 cup all-purpose. Taste was excellent. It was also easy to work with.
2. All utensils should be placed in the freezer/fridge beforehand. Premeasure the flour and chill in the freezer. Butter MUST be be frozen. The baking mat (which I use for rolling) should also be chilled.
3. I used the more expensive President brand of French butter and I believe it made a difference. The butter was a dream to work with, and had a pleasant buttery smell and pale butter color unlike local brands.
4. I was planning on grating the butter, but the grater I had was useless so at the last minute I cubed the butter. I had no pastry blender so I tried the fork method but found using my fingers the most efficient. It was pleasant doing this, actually. Only the fingers/tips should be used. The palms are warm enough to melt the butter. Again, COLD is the key.
5. I had slight troubles in putting together little mounds of dough for my mini pies, but that was because I wasn't sure how much dough I needed to fill each muffin pan.

ROLLING OUT THE PIE DOUGH
1. Pie dough straight from the freezer is too hard. From the fridge is best.
2. Again, chill the baking mat.
3. Our kitchen is too hot. The pie dough becomes warm in about 2 minutes. It really is best to work in an AC room.
4. It's better to place plastic wrap sheets between the dough - makes the dough MUCH easier to move and roll. It also saves the rolling pin from getting gunky and dirty.
5. Roll pie dough by turning the dough clockwise with each roll.
6. Don't roll out the dough too thin, as the filling may leak.
7. Do not overwork the pie dough. Handle it as little as possible.

ASSEMBLING THE PIE
1. Poke holes with a fork at the bottom of the crust to prevent it from bubbling up.
2. Apply a layer of egg white wash to prevent sogginess.
3. Hot temperatures make a lattice top virtually impossible. If I want a lattice top, I think I may have to freeze strips in the freezer beforehand.
4. Always make sure to chill the assembled pie beforehand, top crust and all. This prevents shrinking.
5. Make the top crust bigger than called for to make room for folding in the sides. Alternatively, I'm thinking of making a decorative braided edge.
6. Paint with egg wash (+ milk next time) for a shiny top.
7. Make sure there are no cracks at the sides.

fruit juices bubbling on top

BAKING THE PIE
1. Fruit pie filling bubbles up and releases juices, so it's best to bake with another pan underneath.
2. The top crust really does bake much faster than the undersides. I have to tent the pie with aluminum foil about 10 or 15 minutes into baking, (as soon as I see the top browning),
3. then I have to increase baking time to probably about 40 to 45 minutes. I used the #7 setting in the oven.

Shrunken top crust, because I didn't chill the top enough.

Underbaked crust, but I think this is deliciously tender!

CONCLUSION:

For my first pie, I must say...the taste is superb!!! I am crust-lover (as long as the crust is worth it), and the crust was very flavorful indeed. It was sweet, but just the right sweetness. Even though the bottoms were undercooked and such weren't as flaky, the tops did show signs of flakiness. I'm expecting to get better and get good flakiness next time (though I think most people here, including myself, actually like the tenderness of underbaked crusts much better). But I want to try the 'classic' flaky way first.

For the filling, I used the recipe Apple Pie by Grandma Ople from Allrecipes since it has such rave reviews. I added a teaspoon of cinnamon, but McCormick cinnamon is so weak I couldn't even detect it! I'm thinking of investing in the more expensive organic cinnamon next time. Since I used muscovado sugar instead of brown (no decent brown sugar here), the filling was an intense dark brown and had a strong brown sugar taste. But still good, though my mom wanted it less sweet (I simply had too much syrup). Personally, I was surprised that the sugar mixture was not as sweet as I expected. I didn't think it was tooo sweet at all. But next time I'm definitely going to use a lesser ratio of syrup to filling! The filling wasn't liquidy (maybe because I frantically added a teaspoon more of flour than called for?) so I mixed the apples in them instead - not a bad strategy, actually. The Granny Smith apples were pleasantly tart, in contrast to the syrup. I'm thinking that next time I could reduce the butter as well, maybe to 1/3 cup.

These mini apple pies are definitely better than McDonald's Apple *cough* Chayote Pie *cough*. However, I am still on the lookout for the perfect Apple Pie filling. I am also going to add nutmeg next time.

Second Bake: Whole Grain Double Fudge Brownies

So today is another weekend, which meant that I was baking yet another project. This time a King Arthur Flour recipe. It's included in the Whole Grain Baking book and also in the website so I tried it out. I have to say, though I followed almost everything to a T, the result was a semi-disaster :(


First of all, the Whole Wheat Double Fudge Brownies were...okay. Okay, which means they're passable but not great. I realize now that my tastebuds have become so demanding that almost anything I would come up with would not meet my expectations. I'm starting to think now that the reason I thought I was an OK cook back in Japan was that back then, my standards were quite low - as long as it's edible, I could live with it. But not anymore. So, I have my work cut out for me.

I did some modifications, some to suit my tastes and some because I had no choice. Here are the changes:

1. Used 1 cup + 1/4 muscovado sugar vs. 2 cups of dark/light brown sugar. I originally was planning only 1 cup because I was putting in honeyed walnuts, but I tasted the mixed liquid ingredients and thought they were too bitter so I added some more.
2. Used 2 tsps. First Pick Nescafe Instant Coffee Powder instead of 1 tsp espresso powder. The result wasn't bad, but I think I'll stick with the recommended 1 tsp next time so the brownies wouldn't taste as dark.
3. McCormick Vanilla Flavor, as I couldn't find Vanilla extract anywhere! *sigh*
4. 5 eggs instead of 4 large eggs, since eggs here are puny. I used the conversion guide here.
5. Added honeyed walnuts.

COMMENTARY:

I used a 500-gram bar of the Tulip brand of semisweet chocolate that I chopped up into morsels - bought at SweetCraft because it was ultra cheap (about Php 80). I tasted it a bit while I was chopping. It tasted like cheapo chocolate. Personally, I wouldn't eat it even if I was paid, but I guess it was OK for trying out baking with chocolate. I was hoping the cocoa and other stuff would cancel the horrible stuff out - and yes, that was what happened. It didn't taste horrible in the final product, but I'm going to buy something better (even if it was more expensive) next time!

The book recipe, which is what I followed, called for mixing the baking powder with the liquid ingredients, while the online version called for mixing the baking powder with the flour. I think I'll stick with mixing the baking powder with the flour as an extra protection against activating the baking powder.

I think I may have overmixed the batter a tad, but nothing so major. The BIGGEST BLUNDER I did, however, was that after I had the batter and the greased pan with parchment all ready, was that I realized I didn't have the oven preheated!! What a terrible mistake!! I'm afraid the extra time waiting for the oven to heat up may have negatively affected the batter. And not only that, I think I had some oven temperature problems. Because I was in a hurry, I may not have set the oven temperature right. Due to space constraints, the thermometer was in front of the oven door, and the temperature reading may have been lower than it really was at the middle. I set the temperature at 325F (25F lower due to a darker, nonstick pan), and according to the oven thermometer, the optimum setting was between 6 and 7. However, I'm thinking I may have had better results if I set the correct temperature during preheating in the first place, and not have to bother with constant readjusting, which may have had a negative effect. I set the timer at 24 minutes (5 minutes less than the recommended time), but the edges weren't shrinking so I set it another 8 minutes. I remember that I was smelling a slightly burnt chocolate smell about 15 - 20 minutes in. After 32 minutes, I realized the edges weren't shrinking at all, and when I pulled out the pan and checked the center with a toothpick, it came out totally clean - UH-OH. I didn't care anymore about letting the brownie rest in the pan overnight. I cut it immediately as soon as the pan would allow, and my fears were confirmed - overcooked brownies with very hard edges, no thanks to the nonstick dark pans.

So now I'm stuck with brownies with very hard tops and a dense cake-like texture, kinda like a cake that has gone hard. I'm very disappointed, but I'd like to try the recipe again with new strategies. Here are the modifications I'll do next time:

Planned Modifications:
1. Mix the baking powder with dry ingredients.
2. Use better chocolate
3. Use an aluminum pan - IMPORTANT!
4. Scale the recipe for a smaller pan - the yield is too high.
5. Check the cooking time very early - maybe as early as 15 mins. Laura did say that she takes out brownies early because they continue cooking while in the pan.

First Bake: Whole Wheat Banana Bread

When I came home this weekend, I had a lot of pleasant surprises waiting for me. I had 5 packages in! One was from Chad Lawson, who generously gave me his CD, "Set on a Hill". It's an album full of beautiful and soothing solo piano music. I'm really happy that he remembered. I wish I could give back to him in some way, but I don't know how!

My other packages were from Betterworld Books and Amazon. One of the Betterworld package came with a nice milk chocolate bar with rice crispies (Divine, a fair trade chocolate company). I munched on it while browsing my new books - it was quite good, considering that I don't really like milk chocolate anymore nowadays. Even better the next day after I put it in the fridge.

My new books were a couple of cardmaking books, Nyan's origami book, and the stars of the show, my TWO new baking books dedicated to healthier baking. One was the 2nd hand Pillsbury Healthy Baking Book, and the other one was my much-awaited King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book. I love them both, though I think the KAF book might be more practical considering that the information about whole grain baking is newer and if focuses solely on whole grains (the Pillsbury book dates from 1994), but at least the Pillsbury book has a lot of reduced fat and half-whole wheat recipes.

So I decided that after all the research and dreaming, it was time to do some BAKING! But before that, I went to Marquee Mall and shopped for MORE supplies - I have a knack for hoarding all sorts of kitchen stuff as though I was a pro and racking up huge charges in the process, since my "perfectionist" streak always gets the better of me. However, I did chance upon a lot of useful stuff, such as a silicone spatula, a nice wooden spoon, lots of Baker's Secret Pans that are affordable considering the bump in quality, and wonder of wonders - an oven thermometer! I never dreamed I'd find one in Angeles. I ended up with 800+ PHP measuring cup and spoon set, though. These babies better be worth it!

So for my first try, I chose Whole Wheat Banana Bread from the Pillsbury book, since it's a quick bread and is supposedly very forgiving. I checked the recipe vs. Laura's and the only differences are the half whole wheat flour and the salt so I went ahead and did the Pillsbury version. I have to say, I think I chose the right recipe - it is indeed very forgiving, despite the numerous blunders I made along the way.

List of blunders:
1. I melted the butter in the preheated oven. The common way to melt it is through stovetop or microwave. Still, can't the oven suffice? I was scared I might do something to the butter so I removed it while it still had a few lumps, but I don't see any adverse effect.
2. I immediately put in the sugar together with the flours. It was supposed to be mixed into the butter. I was praying it wouldn't spell disaster. Fortunately, it didn't (thanks to the forgiving recipe).
3. The butter clumped up when I put in the water into the egg-mashed bananas-butter mixture. I briefly placed it in the oven so the butter will melt a little. Thankfully, I don't notice any ill effects (see how forgiving it is?)
4. The last 1/2 banana I put in wasn't mashed properly, and as a result I see some banana bits in the bread.

List of changes made:
1. Used approx. 2/3 cup sugar instead of 1 cup.
2. Baked approximately 35 minutes at 350F instead of 55 to 65 minutes
3. Used 1 mini loaf nonstick pan and 1 7" aluminum loaf pan.
4. Used 4 bananas (the lakatan were a bit on the small side; instead of 2 or 3)

I was scared I was overmixing the batter, so I tried as much as possible not to move it around too much. The banana bread wasn't dense, so maybe I did the mixing right or it was just the baking soda or the 2-time sifting. It was very nice watching the bread puff up in the oven. My oven thermometer is heaven-sent. I immediately found out that our oven is 25F off, so I adjusted the temperature - achieved a perfect 350F. However, I just couldn't make up my mind whether the bread was done or not (the crust was puffy, brown and developed early on which scared me) so I ended up bringing out and putting back the mini loaf pan into the oven. I set my timer at 45 minutes, but in the end I think I only managed barely 35 minutes due to my impatience and paranoia. But still it's a good thing, because I learned a few things:

1. Nonstick bakeware develop an nice brown crust and cook faster. According to the Baking 911 site, when cooking with glassware or darker nonstick pans, one should lower the temperature by 25F.
2. The aluminum pan loaf, though cooked a bit longer (due to not having been brought out), did not develop a crust at the sides and could have stood baking a few more minutes (maybe 45 mins. or more).
3. Nonstick bakeware are great for pound cakes due to the nice even crust. Aluminum pans are good for achivieng no-crusts.
4. Both of the cakes were easy to remove, the nonstick one a bit more so. I butter-greased the bottoms only.


Suggestions for next baking:
1. Cut the sugar to 1/2 cup, Mommy's request
2. Add more bananas (2 more, or 6 bananas total).
4. Add nuts (walnuts!)
5. Lower the temperature by 25F, increase baking time to at least 45 mins (though checking carefully after 35 mins).
6. Invest in 2 more mini loaf pans. They are a great size!
7. Thoroughly melt the butter.
8. Consider adding lukewarm water next time (prepare in advance, and not from the tap!)

Others:
1. Buy some baking gloves
2. Get a flour sifter, so the flour doesn't fly all over while sifting.

All in all, I'm still very pleased with my first try. The gods (or GOD), must be smiling down on me today :) I can't wait to bake more next week! :D