Pinchofglamor

Brown Butter Banana Cake with Walnut Toppings

May 30, 2020

I have been thinking about brown butter since the last time I used it for the miso chocolate chip cookies. It has a nutty flavor and the aroma is simply out of the world. It is pretty versatile and adds nutty and toasted flavours to sweet and savoury dishes. This is my second time using brown butter and I am definitely going to explore more recipes with this secret ingredient!

Found a really simple banana cake recipe from WendyinKK. This recipe separates the dry (sugar and flour) and wet ingredients first before combining them together. This is the first time I come across a recipe that combines sugar with flour before adding them to the wet ingredients. I also replaced oil with brown butter and I love how it complements the toasted walnuts. I made 1/3 of the original recipe to fit my small loaf pan. You don't have to reduce the amount of sugar as it isn't too sweet. Replace sugar entirely with brown sugar if you prefer a darker / "browner" cake. Please refer to the Wendy's blog for the original measurements if you are making a normal loaf cake.

If you are able to resist diving into a slice after baking, this cake tastes even better the next day! Only cut it when it is fully cooled (a good 4-6 hours will be great).

Ingredients:

100g All Purpose Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

26g Brown sugar

40g Caster sugar

1 Egg

100g Mashed banana

60g Butter

60g milk + 1 tsp lemon juice

15g toasted walnuts

1. Toast walnuts at 175 degrees celcius for 10-12 mins

2. Prepare the brown butter. Melt butter over the stove over medium heat. It is ready when butter starts turning amber and you are able to smell the nutty aroma. Pour it in the mixing bowl and let it cool.

2. Add mashed banana, egg and milk to the brown butter and mix well.

3. Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl and mix well with sugar.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix well and pour batter in a greased loaf pan. Add walnut toppings

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees celcius for 40-45 mins.

Super soft killer toast - Tang Zhong Method

May 28, 2020

Glad that circuit breaker is coming to an end. The last two months whizzed past quickly as I have been spending every weekend baking and cooking away. Half of my bakes during this circuit breaker are bread. Even though they are really time consuming, the amount of satisfaction you get from seeing a well risen loaf of bread is incredible!

Recently, I have been experimenting bread recipes with the Tang Zhong method. It is basically an asian technique of making bread softer longer. It requires cooking flour in liquid (water/milk) over the fire until the mixture becomes thick and sticks to the back of your spatula. Ratio of flour to liquid is 1:5. Tang zhong usually constitutes about 5-7% of your total flour recipe.

Got the original recipe from Victoriabakes. I have baked using this recipe several times and I find that incorporating tang zhong yields a fluffier texture. I have also increased hydration to 75%. Hence, it may be easier to machine knead as the dough can be quite sticky.

Look at how light and fluffy it is! Keep them in a ziplock bag or air tight container and this bread stays soft the next 2 days too. If it turns stale, simply toast it and it tastes light and fluffy again.

Tang Zhong:

13g flour

65g Water

Main Dough:

247g Bread flour

3g Dry yeast

30g Sugar

130g of liquid ( 1 egg + 24g heavy cream + remaining amount of full cream milk)

30g Butter

2g Salt

1. Prepare Tang Zhong and let it cool to room temperature. Cook flour in water until mixture becomes thick and gluey.

2. Mix all dry ingredients. Add liquid ingredients and tangzhong and knead till well combined. The total amount of liquid ingredients added here should be 130g.

3. Add butter and salt. Knead till window pane stage.

4. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Let it rest for 20-30 mins

5. Punch out the air and reshape each portion - flatten and stretch to about 20cm and swiss roll each dough. Seal the seams and place them in a well greased pan.

6. Let it proof until height of dough reaches 90% of the loaf pan (~1 hour, depends on the humidity).

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees celcius for about 35-40 mins. I covered my loaf with an aluminium foil after 15 mins as it was browning too quickly

Miso Banana Cake

May 25, 2020

Last week, I made a batch of Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies and brought them to the office and they were very well received among my colleagues! Miso is savoury. And it is indeed its funky, fermented and complex saltiness that brings the dessert to a whole new level. Since I have two tubs of miso (brown and shiro) sitting in my fridge right now, I decided to experiment more desserts with miso. Stay tune!

I turned to google for ideas. Miso is labeled as a secret weapon in sweet recipes. That umami flavour adds depth and nuance to desserts. Think of Miso Chocolate, Miso Caramel, Miso Cheesecake, Miso Butter Scotch etc... How do they sound? Not convinced yet? Perhaps you should be like me, buy a tub of miso and try it for yourself!

After looking up the web for a while, I decided to go with the all time classic humble banana bread as for one of my first few miso dessert experiments. Original recipe is adapted from Food52. I halved the recipe and baked a small loaf. I will also probably reduce the amount of miso to 25-30g. I will only recommend you to use shiro (white) miso as the other types of miso will be too salty for this recipe. I usually cut down the amount of sugar from original recipe. For this recipe, with the addition of miso, there is no need to cut the sugar for this recipe.

I can imagine it as a house dessert in any restaurant. The banana bread is savoury and it is best served warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Yums.

Ingredients: (Makes 1 small loaf)

120g Riped bananas + 1 banana

50g Butter

40g Brown sugar

40g Caster sugar

35g Shiro Miso (Reduce to 25-30g)

100g All purpose flour

1/2 tbsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/4 tsp Cinnamon powder

1 Egg

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celcius

2. Mash 120g of bananas

3. Beat butter, miso and sugar till fluffy

4. Add egg, mashed bananas and vanilla extract to butter mixture and mix till well combined.

5. Mix all dry ingredients into the batter. I used a balloon whisk to fold the dry ingredients into the mixture.

6. Pour batter into a greased pan (or line with baking paper). Slice the banana into half and place the banana on top of the batter (cut-side up)

7. Bake it for about 45-50 mins. I covered the cake with an aluminium foil after 30 mins as it was browning too much.

Miso Ramen

May 16, 2020

While I am saddened by the fact that we can't dine outside during this period, the circuit breaker enables me to reconnect with my favourite past time activity at home again! Never found the opportunity to spend so much time in the kitchen especially after I have started working.

The one thing I miss the most during this global pandemic is traveling! Scrolling through the thousands of photos on my phone brought me back to the end of 2018 where I spent 2 weeks in Japan! Can't believe it took me 25 years to visit Japan and I absolutely love everything about Japan - especially the food! No doubt, the ramen in Japan beat any bowl I have had in Singapore hands down. I remembered having ramen 4 times in 2 weeks - Ichiran, Gogyo and Ippudo. Ichiran is my favourite!!

My mum loves ramen too. So, I decided to attempt making ramen from scratch at home. I know you could actually get instant ramen from Japanese supermarkets but... since we are all cooped up at home during circuit breaker... why not? It's exactly because I tried to make it on my own, I think I will appreciate ramen better from now on. There is immense amount of work, time and effort behind that unassuming piping bowl of noodles - from preparing the toppings (Char Siew & egg) to the broth and noodles. Noodles were the easiest and Char Siew was the hardest!

Adapted the recipe from Just One Cookbook. Please click on the link for the original recipe.

Here are my notes:
As miso and dou ban jiang are salty to begin with, be mindful of the chicken stock you add to your broth especially if you are using store bought chicken stock. Choose low sodium chicken stock if there is. If you are unable to find low sodium chicken stock, you may mix water and chicken stock and adjust according to your preference. I used store bought chicken stock this time. If you have the time, I'll definitely recommend you to make your own stock (healthier and cleaner) - which is what I am going to do the next time!

You may make the broth, char siew and egg one day before. Reheat everything the next day and assemble them!

I quite like the addition of minced pork from this recipe. May not be authentic of course but it adds texture to it. Overall, its a very hearty and satisfying bowl of home-made ramen!

Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake

May 06, 2020

One of my favourite cakes are chiffon cakes because they are so light and fluffy. Perfect for a snack / breakfast. I got this recipe from my cousin. Although I only managed to succeed after three attempts, this is by far the best Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake I have tried and I will bake it again and again. Definitely a keeper. Here are some notes from my failed attempts:

1. Do not substitute rice bran oil with any other type of oil. I tried substituting with canola / vegetable oil and it doesn't give the same taste.

2. Chill mixing bowl and egg whites in the fridge at least 15 mins before you beat the egg whites away. Chilled egg whites enable the batter to rise higher and fluffier in the oven. Whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks with a tip that folds over. Over beating the egg whites will cause the mixture to separate and cause the cake to collapse.

3. Instead of using a spatula to fold egg whites and flour into the mixture, use a whisk! This will give you a more consistent mixture. I was hesitant to use a whisk initially as I was afraid of deflating the egg whites and over beating the mixture... and this is what happened.

Look at the disgusting 2 tone and a lumpy consistency. I found it difficult to fold the egg whites and flour into the batter thoroughly with a spatula. An inconsistent mixture may create large air pockets and white streaks in your batter. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three batches. Do it gently, carefully with bigger strokes.

4. Bang the chiffon cake pan really hard against a hard surface to release the air bubbles. Use a satay stick to gently stir the mixture. This helps to releases the air bubbles too.

Ingredients:

95g Gula melaka

75g Coconut milk

Pandan leaves

4 Egg yolks

50g Rice bran oil

1/4 tsp Salt

95g Cake flour

3/4 tsp Baking powder

5 Egg whites

30g Caster sugar

1. Melt gula melaka and pandan leaves in coconut milk. Stir till all the gula melaka has melted and set aside to cool

2. Whisk egg yolks till light. Add salt and continue to whisk

3. Add oil & whisk to get a thick mixture

4. Add cooled gula melaka

5. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder ( I used a whisk)

6. Whisk egg whites and sugar in 3 additions till firm peak.

7. Fold meringue into the mixture in 3 batches till there is no white streak.

Sea Salt Chocolate Brownies

October 07, 2018

Melbourne 2017

January 03, 2018

Taiwan 2017 - 九份 & 十份

July 30, 2017

Paris & Barcelona

March 28, 2017

Europe trippin to Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Italy and

July 25, 2016

Ham and Mushroom Baked Rice

July 25, 2016

Baked rice was my favourite dish when I was a kid. My favourite baked rice is from NYDC even though I haven been there for years. In fact, I can’t even remember how it tasted now but I remember it used to be my favourite. Baked rice is a typical dish on food menus. In my opinion, a satisfying baked rice should have the flavour of all its ingredients well blended together (especially the rice and sauce). Instead of merely pouring the sauce and adding the toppings to the white rice, the way to infuse the flavour into the rice is simply to cook the rice with the broth or sauce which you intend to use. This is similar to how we cook risotto. The ham and mushroom baked rice which i prepared for my family was creamy and flavorful and I am certainly going to cook this again. If you are feeling lazy, you can always substitute the sauce with campbell soup but I would definitely recommend you to make the sauce from scratch. Enjoy (:

Recipe: (serves 3 to 4)

1.5 tbsp of butter

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/3 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups of rice

2 1/4 cups of chicken broth

3/4 cup of cooking cream or heavy cream

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup of mixed shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese

6 slices of picnic ham

250g of brown button mushrooms, sliced or quartered

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and coat prepared dish with butter.

2. Melt butter in a drying pan over medium heat. Add onions, and garlic, some salt and pepper when butter starts foaming.

3. Add mushrooms and ham to the pan and cook till mushrooms are tender. About 5-6 mins.

4. Add rice and stir to coat in butter and the ingredients in the pan. Add broth and cream. Stir, taste and slightly season with more salt if required.

5. Bring to simmer and stirring frequently for about 10 - 15 mins. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Pour into prepared dish and spread evenly.

6. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for another 15 mins, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is almost cooked. Check frequently and make sure you don’t over cook your rice.

7. Uncover and evenly sprinkle a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese on top of the rice and continue baking till rice is tender and cheese is golden. About 10-15 mins more.