My little boy requested for a siren head birthday cake. Not sure why he likes this scary thing but he's very happy to see it. The siren head is made out of fondant and of course I made one not too scary...lol. All the other decorations are meringue cookies.
We have a lot of ham left from Thanksgiving so I've been baking ham corn and cheese buns for the past three days. These are just so delicious we're not tired of eating them yet. Today I also baked some hot dog buns too since kids loves hot dogs. Used the same dough for both.
Dough:
830 g bread flour
130 g sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
410 ml whole milk
3 tsp instant yeast
113 g unsalted butter room temperature
1. Place all dry ingredients into mixer bowl first then add in the milk and yeast last.
2. Knead in mixer for 18-20 minutes on speed 2 and 4 until smooth and window panel.
3. Cover, rest dough for 1 to 1.5 hr until double.
4. Divide dough into 77g for ham corn cheese buns (10 buns). Divide 95g for hot dog buns (8 bun)
Ham Corn Cheese: 10 buns
About 1 cup chopped ham
About 1 cup yellow corn
4 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 cup scallions (optional)
Divide dough into 10, about 77g each. Each dough then divide into 3 strands to braid. Proof for 30-40 minutes or until almost double. Use a sharp scissor to cut the center. Egg wash dough before placing fillings (mix all above ingredients together). Top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake in preheated oven 355F for 17-22 minutes and then broil for 1-2 minutes to get cheese golden.
* Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water).
Hot Dog Buns: 8
8 hot dogs
Lightly pan fry hot dog with some oil for few minutes. Remove to paper towel to wipe off oil and cool.
Divide dough into 8 about 95 grams each. Roll dough into an long strain and then wrap the hot dog. Proof for about 30 until double.
Brush egg wash on dough and bake in preheated oven at 355F for 17-20 minutes until golden.
Soft and delicious! Next day just heat in microwave. Super delicious when hot 🔥
I planted lotus a few months ago but due to neglect, , the algae killed them. So when I went to Lowes and saw the water lily on clearance for $3, I bought one home. This time to prevent the growth of algae, I clean my old fish tank to grow it indoor during winter. Then when my kids saw the fish tank, they asked where's the fish? Hmm...so I went and bought just one female guppy. I bought the one that looks pregnant since it'll be surprising if we get fry, plus I have not grow fish for so long it's safe to just get one fish to try first.
Surprisingly, just after two days the guppy gave birth to 11 frys.🥳 We were pretty excited! Now it's already a couple weeks and the frys are larger. However, not sure what happened to two of the frys, maybe the mother ate them or they got sucked up into the pump.🤷♀️ So far the fishes and water lily all growing happily in my small fish tank.
Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving we spent it at my brother's house. We all made something and eat together. So much food, going to take a few days to finish. There are also desserts like Japanese cheese cake, pecan pie, and mung bean coconut pudding. I'm so full!!!🤰
I planted three persimmon trees over 10 years ago. Only last year I harvested a lot of fruits from them. This year still have a lot on one of the tree but not as good as last year. I read this is normal for persimmon tree where one year good while another year fruits dropping. I remember I ordered one Ichi-ki-kei-jiro and Hachiya. However, I believe the company sent me a wrong tree because the other fruit looks like a Fuyu, which is even better because the fruit is sweeter and fruit is larger. Ichi-ki-kei-jiro is good too, sweet and crispy but we like the fuyu more. I ordered both trees from Starkbros and they were barefooted which I planted during late fall. Sadly they didn't survive the winter but company is good to replace them with their 1 year warranty. I get mostly Jiro fruits this year as Fuyu dropped most fruits since it was fruiting a lot last year.
jiro
Picked some still a bit green because there was a frost warning one night so I got scared. I didn't pick all since some still very green. Even though the leaves gotten a bit damaged but the fruits were still okay. So I learn not to panic again and just leave the fruits on until orange all around before picking to get the super sweet flavor. So far fruits on tree survived the 30F temperature.
Everytime I watch Chinese drama, they're always eating some kind of pastry or biscuit. I couldn't stand it anymore so I got up and start making some tau sa pia to try. This biscuit have the fragrance of fried shallots, sweet and savory mung bean. The crust is super flaky! I mean my mouth was watery seeing those crumbs falling off of the actress's mouth...so I must try.😆
Now the savory part is not for everyone. My husband who love all thing mung bean doesn't like it sweet and savory at the same time.😬 He says it either sweet or savory alone and no shallot because he couldn't smell or taste the mung bean.🙄 Guess I'll be eating these flaky delicious pia by myself. 😋
The recipe I used this time is from mykitchen101en. Instead of making 12 small, I made a little larger 10. I also like them a little flatter and add a flower stamp using a mini flower cutter dip into red food color with some water to create the stamp. After stamping, bake stamped side facing down for 16-17 minutes at 390F. Take tray out, flip biscuits over and *eggwash twice for darker color. Then return to oven and bake another 7-8 minutes. Let cool before serving.
NOTE: *Eggwash using brown egg will give it a deeper color compare to white egg. 1 egg beat with 1 tsp water. Strain before using. Eggwash once and let dry for a minute before applying second wash. Let dry for a minute before baking again to get the glossy look.
*Lazy to cook mung bean on stove so always cook in rice cooker. Lazy to bring out blender so I just press it through a strainer while still hot.
I went to Paris a year ago with my sister and we tried some desserts there. I told my family I'll make some for them. Which I did baked some last year but never finish my list. On my list is the opera cake. Hihi...so after a year I'm in the mood to try to make it. It's not perfect but it tastes good and not overly sweet at all. 😋
I used Joconde's Baking recipe.
I saw pictures of croissant tarts by Chef Antonio Bachour and it totally caught my attention! So beautifully done. I want to try but there is no recipe or instruction on how to create a shell out of croissant dough. So I just use one of the croissant dough and experiment. I totally fail...😅 The shape and crispiness didn't look like picture at all. I only experiment on 4 shells. Instead of continuing with all tarts, I turned the rest of croissant dough into cronuts. Wow..so crispy and yummy with the mascarpone cremeux and lemon icing. Anyhow, experiment fail but we still love the tarts and cronuts.😋
Have not bake these raisin bread for a long while and my raisins expiring soon. Making croissant dough is not easy and I kinda lost track during folding.😅 Anyhow...still turn out delicious!😋
Followed recipe from Bruno's Kitchen. After 20 minutes baking still not golden enough so I took out the rings and bake until crispy on the outside yet still soft inside. Delicious!
I bought two pawpaw trees many years ago. One from Starbros and another from Trees of joy. The one I bought from Starbros is the PA Golden. The tree is growing nicely and produces a lot of pawpaw. The fruit rippen mid September.
The other tree Sunflower I bought from Trees of Joy. Maybe it's the location but the tree is growing a lot slower than the PA Golden. Fruit is not rip yet and probably rippen late September.
Here are some pictures of my PA Golden pawpaws. Last picture is my mom trying to pick the fruits.😁
