RED BEAN FLOWER BUN

Am really hooked on bread baking and quite some time  did not share any new project using yeast.  I have found baking your own bread so easy and addictive.   The smell alone was enough to make me salivate.

Although I like  buying Red Bun Flower Bun from bakeries,  I love baking them even more.  So decided to make them at home. They tasted better than bakeries and turned out warm. and super fresh.

These Red Bean Flower Bun are so appetizing that you will eat at least a couple of them in one sitting.  The soft and fluffy bun tastes so delicious, it  can be eaten  as it is.  It is so rewarding to sit down, sip a cup of coffee and devour them freshly baked.

You can shape these into a round ball instead  if you find shaping them to look like a flower a bit tedious.   Anyway what shape you make, they still taste awesome.

POMEGRANATE & MANGO BAKED OATMEAL

I was gifted with mango and pomegranate last week by one of my relatives.  So I need to make use of these fruit for my baking project.

After much consideration,  settled on this fiber packed and loaded with fresh fruits  Pomegranate & Mango Baked Oatmeal.  I think this recipe was an ideal choice for clearing up my mango and pomegranate.

Used mango juice instead of milk as well as mango slices for topping.   Although I live this version, feel free to substitute  your favorite in season berries or any other fruits  like blueberries, strawberries, apple, chocolate chips, dried fruit or banana.

This is such a delicious dish and  though it was mildly sweetened, my family enjoyed it so much without adding any sauce or syrup. Our family are in a verge of  reducing our intake of sugar in our diet,

Have you ever made baked oatmeal?  What  goodies do you like to put in  yours?

CORN PEAS PULAO

Corn Peas Pulao is a colorful and delicious meal  using basmati rice, whole kernel corn and  peas.  It was mildly spiced and fragrant.   Best serve with a spicy gravy either vegetarian or non vegetarian for your family and friends..

This rice can be prepared  in rice cooker or pressure cooker but mine cooked on stove stop from start to finish. Be caution if you're choosing this method especially after the water has evaporated. you need to  turn your stove to the  lowest setting. Placing a flat pot lid before putting the rice pot was a safest way to get rid of burnt rice..

Have added   3 cups of water for this Corn Peas Pulao recipe ,  on ratio of 1 : 1.5. Too much water, your rice will turn mushy and less water  your rice would turn chewy.

LIGHT FRUIT CAKE

Fruit Cake made their appearance during festive celebrations such as Christmas, Hari Raya  and even Chinese New Year.  There are few types of fruit cake either steamed or baked and the dry fruit used varies in quantity, some soaked in brandy/orange juice or without soaking -  the fruit is coated with flour before adding to the  butter mixture.

I always love  Fruit Cake that uses less dry fruit in the recipe.  This Light Fruit Cake require you to soak the dry fruit in  orange juice or brandy overnight.   Next day you can proceed to bake the cake.

It took more than an hour to bake mine.   In case the top  of this Light Fruit Cake  becoming too brown, cover with aluminium foil  crimped around the edges of your baking pan.

On the occasion of this lovely festival of Eid, wishing you Eid Mubarak, may the blessings of Allah be with you always!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Every time I bought a pack of chocolate chip cookies, had a guilty feeling for not trying to make my own.  Another reason for this excuse was due to my forgetfulness  to purchase the essential ingredient for this cookie, chocolate chip.

This is my first time baking this famous Chocolate Chip Cookies with much reduced sugar and without the mixer.  Use a whisk to whip up butter and sugar.

Really happy with the result,  this Chocolate Chip Cookies turned out soft and chewy.  When break open it, it was full of chocolate chip. with buttery flavor. This Chocolate Chip is the best recipe for making the incredible  cookies you'll ever eat!

OKRA MASALA /BHINDI MASALA

Okra Masala is a perfect dish for a vegetarian meal with rice or flat bread.  This lightly spiced Okra Masala is great on its own.

If you never cooked Indian food before, this is a nice recipe to start with.  It comes together quickly, leave room for slight adaptations and taste absolutely delicious.

Spices are always a matter of individual taste.  Start with the ones in this recipe and adapt to suit yourselves especially the chili powder.

If you are lucky to find this versatile vegetable fresh, make sure to select the smallest and firmest pods.  If okra pod gets too long, it often becomes hard to eat.

MOIST BANANA CAKE

Moist Banana cake may be perfect with a cup of morning coffee but for a delicious weekday dessert too.   This Banana Cake is moist and flavorful with the sweetness of mashed banana..

I usually bake this cake in loaf pan but decided this time to  use 7 in round cake pan. This cake is simple to make, it comes together  in a short time.

Store bough banana cake is readily available in bakery shop or supermarket but it was way too sweet and lacks real banana flavors..

Let gives this recipe a try, may be you would like it as much as we did.

APPLE OATMEAL BARS

I  immensely wanted to eat nutritious bars that was not so sweet yet tasty.  The blend of  rolled oat and apple  makes this  Apple Oatmeal Bars  a perfect treat..

It was super easy and pretty quick to prepare.  Apple Oatmeal Bars are excellent for on the go breakfast or quick snack anytime of the day. Had used palm sugar (gula Melaka) to make these bars and it smells wonderful while baking.

Packed full of vitamin C, apple provides all sorts  of great health benefits. The phytonutrients in apples can help you regulate your blood sugar, for fighting off a cold and  to giving you smooth skin so there is even more reason to eat them up.  Whole apples are richer in dietary fiber so they are better nutritional choice than apple juice.

They are great alternative to granola bars minus the extra sugar.  Kids love them and they are almost like a cake

This recipe makes one pan so share the goodness with your friends or pack them in your lunches all week.

BANANA UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

I have baked  plenty of banana cakes but like to try this  cake with caramel topping.  This Banana Upside Down Cake brings banana cake to a whole new level..

Banana Upside  Down Cake has 2 parts consisting the cake and its topping.  You know that a bunch of banana that has been hanging out in your pantry?  We found the perfect use for it. This recipe allows you to clear up those blackened banana, 2 for cake and 3 for the topping.  Have cut the banana lengthwise for topping but you can also slice  it into rounds.

Am using a loaf pan but you could also use an 8 in round pan and arrange the banana the way you like it.

In case you ever wondered, what  could be better than bananas, well here it is, Banana Upside Down Cake. Meet your new  fave way to enjoy the fruit

APAM NASI (STEAMED RICE CAKE)

After a long time, I cooked any traditional treats or kuih (bite size dessert or snack)  for my family. This Apam Nasi was my late mum's favorite.  She used to prepare it when she had leftover rice for our  breakfast. My mum mix the flour just before going to bed and first thing in the morning, steamed these Apam Nasi.

What I noticed, most of our traditional kuih were mostly steamed since at that time an oven was not available even baking was  done using charcoal.

Added only half a cup of sugar but if you want it sweeter use 3/4 cup instead.  Used  red food coloring and the balance as it is but this is entirely up to you.  If you don't have that small plastic molds, use 7 in round pan and steam it for 30-40 minutes.

We enjoyed our Apam Nasi without coconut.   Halve the recipe if you have a small family, my recipe below yield 25 apam.

SOFT & FLUFFY DINNER ROLLS

Bread rolls were always be an essential part of our meal  Everyone had their favorite bread rolls but mine was a dinner roll.   From this Soft & Fluffy Dinner Rolls, you can create a lot more variations either sweet, savory or stuffed.   Am going to show you,  how to bake these fantastic rolls..

You will find Soft & Fluffy Dinner Rolls  recipe looks similar to other bread you've baked but the method are a way simpler but turned out fantastic.

It begins with melting the butter using microwave or stove top then adding milk to bring down the temperature.  This is a important step before adding yeast, it should be warm to touch and not hot if not you would kill the yeast. Stir and keep covered for 5-10 minutes  if you're using  active dry yeast until it becomes frothy but if using instant yeast, you can skip the waiting time.

After combining the flour and milk mixture, stir with wooden spoon until well  incorporated.  At this point, it becomes sticky so cover the bowl and let rise for one hour.

Punch the dough down, knead the dough, scraping clean the bowl until smooth.  Add  one or two tablespoons of flour if it was sticky. Cover and let sit for another 30 minutes. Now they're ready to be shaped  and leave to rise again for 1 hour. before baking.

Don't mind to wait for more than 2 hours, in return I was rewarded with perfect, tender and gorgeous rolls! .

APPLE & RAISIN SCONES

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I love scones.  They are so versatile, you can choose from sweet with variety of fruits or  cheese ones and not to mention extremely easy.  This time, I had plenty of granny smith apples.  So this apple is going to be my baking project this week.

Always prefer to make a small batch so just used one and quarter cup of flour.  With this recipe  you could get  9 x 2.5 in  scones, just  sufficient for the small family.

Making scone is almost  the same as  baking pie or tart.  This requires you to blend dry ingredients with cold butter using your finger tips until it resembles  bread crumbs. The secret of good scones are not to handle the dough too much before baking.  It should be sticky and not too dry. Dip your cutter in flour each time before cutting out the dough.

Despite  containing  no eggs in the recipe, the scones are well risen, feather light, soft and utterly delicious.

My family enjoyed them fresh from the oven without any preserves or butter but prefer to add one more apple next time I bake them.

10 MINUTE MW CHOCOLATE CAKE

This 10 Minute Microwave Chocolate Cake is  the ultimate choice  to  satisfy your sweet cravings. quickly.  Made with all the ingredients you might already have in your pantry without an oven.

Some of you might think that microwave cake yields a dry and weird taste but this is not the case for this 10 Minute Microwave Chocolate Cake. It was soft  and insanely delicious.

Make sure you grease your microwave save bowl  generously and line with baking paper especially if you're using glass ones.  Your microwave safe dish should be deep enough to let the cake rise,  fill up only  1/2  of the cake batter into greased bowl..  Mine stick to the bottom of my Arcoflam bowl but I manage to remove it.

Baked the cake using High Power (1000 W) for 5 minutes then switch to Medium for another 1 minutes.  Do check out your wattage power, if you have a lower wattage you need a longer bake time. Always cook it for the shortest time first, you can add another minute once you check it but you can't take away time when you've overcooked something.

BREAD VADA

These are cubed bread slices, spiced with green chili, onion, cumin and cilantro together with rice flour, semolina and yogurt as a binder.  They are combined to shape like a doughnut.

After shaping with greased hands, Bread Vada are fried in oil till golden brown, I did mine by shallow fryingcan also be deep fried.

Adjust the heat according to your tolerance. These tasted heavenly for breakfast or as a snack immediately after you've fried them.

Serve them as it is or dip with your favorite chutney

OREO BUTTER CAKE

I always love simple butter cake without  any frosting.  But will experiment with different flavors or add ins for a little "twist".   So here is my first attempt on making Oreo Butter Cake

Actually you can use any of your favorite butter cake  recipe.  Make it different by adding quartered oreo in the batter.  If you want, you can also  crush the cookies.   Have seen some bakers sandwiched whole oreo in between of the cake batter.  Either way, they still turned out delicious.

High in fat, Oreo Butter Cake will keep well for several days.  Un-iced,  a well wrapped baked cake will keep well in the freezer for 1-2 months.

BLACKCURRANT OAT BARS

It's a time for my weekend baking and am craving for a quick but tasty dessert that can be put together  in  less than 15  minutes.    Any guess?

Definitely my choice  goes to  Blackcurrant Oatmeal Bars  reason  being I am able to make use of fruit jam  that sits idle in my pantry for quite some time.

Oats are a favorite of my diet and often incorporated into bars and desserts.  Not only oats are versatile and inexpensive but they offer a host of health benefits. The oatmeal gives  a nice chewiness to these  bars.

Spread dough onto bottom of baking pan coated with butter.  Spreading dough with wet hands is the easiest method before topping it with fruit jam. I used blackcurrant jam but any jam you have on hand will do preferably a  quality and not too sugary ones.

Blackcurrant Oat Bars  are easy to make and fantastically delicious! Have given some to my friends, they love them and keep asking for more...

BUTTER CAKE W/ CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES

This Butter Cake with Chocolate Sprinkles is not an overly sweet cake. Importantly it was super easy to make, This butter cake is for a moist, light cake that's wonderful as it is but can be used as the basic recipe for 3 other good cake - orange, walnut and chocolate cake with slight adjustments.

If you're not a fan of sprinkles, you can leave that out and still it turned out great.  Use a mixer to blend the batter well but  I  used my hand held beater to do the job.

Did you notice that this Butter Cake with Chocolate Sprinkles is baked using slow temperature (160 C) and baked at longer time (40-45 minutes),  When you used high heat it tends to crack on top

RAISIN BREAD PUDDING

Raisin Bread Pudding is one of the easiest ways to save leftover stale bread from wastage.  In fact those stale bread  can be transformed into interesting and filling meal. .

Below are  4  recipes to try out at home and these make a great breakfast/snack:

Microwave Bread Pudding

Egg Free French Toast

Roti John (Asian French Toast)

Bread Paratha

This  Raisin Bread Pudding is a dish you can make again and again, as it's versatile enough so you can be a bit creative with it each time.

Could not do more than one layer since my baking dish is 9 x 13 in but a smaller dish allows you to get more layers.

Also added sliced bananas, this is entirely up to you.  Other fruits can be added for flavor and to enhance the look of the pudding.

There are many recipes for bread pudding and several are served with a sauce.  As the pudding itself is delicious on its own, the sauce is something not used.  This recipe is wonderful without the sauce but the sauce made it absolutely delectable.

DARK & SOFT DINNER ROLLS

Making your own dinner rolls are surprisingly easy and when you taste these  soft rolls, you'll agree they are superior to any store bought ones.

Baking bread is a complete joy for me and I had a lot of fun experimenting classic recipes with a new twist.  How about baking this Dark & Soft Dinner Rolls for breakfast or snack?   These rolls get its color from cocoa powder and instant coffee.

The dough for these  Dark & Soft Dinner Rolls  have a nice texture and is simple to shape.  One of the important elements in getting a perfect roll is the liquid.  It should be lukewarm  rather than  hot. Small difference in the amount of water can make a big difference to your finished loaf. Too little liquid creates a dense and dry loaf.

When you make bread by hand, kneading and shaping it lets you get a good feel for the dough and its elasticity. If it is too sticky, leaving it for 10 minutes after mixing can help.  Remember, you will get better as time goes on.

CHOCOLATE ALMOND (COKDAM) COOKIES

Chocolate Almond (Cokdam)  Cookies  are deliciously simple to  make yet elegant and tasty dessert or snack  You might wonder what :cokdam" stand for.  It's a short form for chocolate and badam (almond).

Some cookie dough needs minimal chill time in the  fridge but these cookies are not required.

Highly  recommended  not making these  Chocolate Almond (Cokdam) Cookies too thick  and  if possible make them almost the same size to ensure even cooking time.   I used small cookie cutter and pleased with the result. I got about 100 cookies  for the following recipe. Each time you use the cookie cutter, dip it first in flour so you will get beautifully shaped cookies without sticking.

Make sure the almond is finely chopped in order to get beautiful shape otherwise the dough tends to break when cutting them.