peanut butter bread

All who know me will tell you that I love peanut butter.

One of my friends shakes her head whenever I order toasted bread with peanut butter and kaya.  The traditional way to eat toasted bread with peanut butter is with... well... butter.  But I simply love the peanut butter and kaya combination although I will be the first to admit that it is a tad too sweet.

This recipe yields a lovely loaf with a wonderful peanuty aroma.  Be sure to use crunchy peanut butter (instead of creamy peanut butter) so that you get the crunchy bits when you eat the bread.

INGREDIENTS

1 3/8 cups water

3 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp oil

11/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp milk powder

3 cups bread flour

2 tsp instant yeast

METHOD

1. Add the ingredients to the bucket of the breadmaker in the order in which you see above.

2. Insert the bucket in the breadmaker.  Set to dough function and start the cycle.

3. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board.

4. Using floured hands, knead the dough a few times.

5. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.   Spread out the dough in the loaf pan.

6. Cover the loaf pan with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour.  The dough will continue its proofing process and rise further.

7. Bake the bread in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for about 30 to 35 minutes.

TIPS

1. I use crunchy peanut butter.  Yums!

2. For the oil, I use a mixture of sunflower and canola oil.  You can substitute this with any other type of vegetable oil.

3. Da and I do not have a habit of drinking milk made using milk powder.  As such, we usually only have formula milk at home.  I use the formula milk powder when I do not have regular milk powder available.

soft dinner rolls

I love bread.  I love to bake bread and I love to eat freshly baked bread!

I have always liked soft dinner rolls because they are so versatile. You can eat them on their own, dip them into stew, spread butter on warmed dinner rolls... the list is endless. I have even sliced a dinner roll into two (cross-section horizontally) and added a small slice of bak kwa (barbecued pork) in between. Yummy!

Here is a simple recipe that yields a large batch of soft dinner rolls. You can either use a bread maker to make the dough (which is my preference) or you can prepare it using a cake mixer with dough hooks.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups low fat milk (warm)
3 tbsp butter (melted and cooled)
1 egg (beaten)
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp castor sugar
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Set aside.

2. Place all the ingredients in the bucket of the breadmaker, in the order in which they appear in the ingredient list above.

3. Place the bucket in the breadmaker and select the dough function. Start the cycle.

4. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough a few times.

5. Separate the dough into several small balls. The number of balls would depend on the size of your baking tray.

6. Place the balls about 2" apart on the baking tray.

7. Cover the baking tray with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has increased in size and the balls are touching each other.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes. 

TIP

1. The yeast should not touch the liquid before the dough cycle starts. As such, do make sure that the bread flour has covered all the liquid before you add the yeast last.

2. I place the baking tray in the middle rack of my under-the-stove oven.

butter bread

There's something about the smell of butter bread baking in the oven that makes one can't wait for the bread to be baked.

This is a simple recipe and yet, the bread rises so well, as you can see from the photographs.  I normally hesitate to bake bread that uses eggs in the recipe as often, the bread becomes dense but I love this loaf!

INGREDIENTS

50 ml low fat milk
50g butter (softened)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
3 tbsp castor sugar
1 tsp salt
250g bread flour
2 tsp instant yeast

METHOD

1. Ad all the ingredients to the bucket of the breadmaker in the order in which the ingredients appear in the list above.

2. Place the bucket in the breadmaker and set to dough function.  Start the breadmaker.

3. When the dough is ready, turn the dough onto a floured board.

4. Using floured hands, knead the dough a few times.

5. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.

6. Spread out the dough using your hands.

7. Cover the loaf pan with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour to rise further.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

cranberry loaf

There is a ZTP Ginseng outlet near my office.  Other than medicinal and health products, they also sell other items that are perfect for baking, such as dried cranberries.  Yums!

The packet of dried cranberries that I bought from ZTP Ginseng came in handy when I baked this cranberry loaf.

INGREDIENTS

50g butter (softened)
50ml low fat milk
2 eggs
3 tbsp castor sugar
1 tsp salt
250g bread flour
2 tsp instant yeast
1/3 cup dried cranberries

METHOD

1. Add all the ingredients (other than the dried cranberries) to the bucket of the breadmaker.  Make sure that the bread flour is added before the yeast (ie. the yeast should not touch the wet ingredients).

2. Insert the bucket in the breadmaker machine and select dough function.

3. After 5 minutes, add the dried cranberries.

4. When the dough function has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board.

5. Using floured hands, knead the dough for about 10 times.

6. Transfer the dough onto a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.  Spread out the dough such that it touches the sides of the loaf pan.

7. Cover the pan with a dry cloth and leave for one hour.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

sausage and cheese pizza

Many thanks to my SIL for this lovely recipe for pizza dough.  With one portion of the dough, we were able to make 4 small pizzas!

I am thankful that when I got married in 1998, my mother bought us a Hitachi breadmaker as one of several wedding presents.  15 years later, my breadmaker is still performing very well although nowadays, I tend to use it to make bread dough or bread and I use it less frequently to bake cake or make jam.  What I also love about it is the size - many breadmakers that I see sold nowadays are much smaller.

INGREDIENTS

2 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast
pasta sauce
cheese sausages (sliced cross-section)
grated mozzarella cheese

METHOD

1. Add the salt, honey, warm water and olive oil into the bucket of the breadmaker.  Add the bread flour, making sure that the flour covers the wet ingredients.  Add the yeast.

2. Place the bucket in the breadmaker and select dough function.

3. When the dough cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board.  Using floured hands, knead the dough several times.

4. Divide the dough into several portions (if your oven is small, you can probably make 4 small pizzas.  If your oven is larger, you can make about 2 to 3 large pizzas) and roll out the dough or stretch them by hand.

5. Place the pizza base onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

6. Spread the pasta sauce onto the pizza base.

7. Add the sausages liberally to the base.

8. Top with generous portion of grated mozarella cheese.

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 250 degrees celsius for 12 to 15 minutes.

Mixed fruit loaf

Here's a simple bread recipe that you may want to try if you have a breadmaker.

I prefer to use the breadmaker to make the dough only.. leaving the bread to bake in a convection oven.

For the mixed fruit, you can buy the ready-mixed ones that are available at the baking section of supermarkets (for baking fruit cake).

Years ago, I stopped adding bread improver when baking bread.  I was told that it is not healthy.  As bread improver is not added, I do not expect the bread to remain soft for too many days.  Not to worry - the bread tastes just as yummy when toasted.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup low fat milk
2 tbsp butter (softened)
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup castor sugar
4 cups bread flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup instant oats
1/2 pkt mixed dried fruit

METHOD

1. Add all the ingredients to the bucket of the breadmaker (other than the mixed fruit) in the order in which it appears on the list of ingredients above.

2. Place the bucket in the breadmaker and select "dough" function.  Start the breadmaker.

3. When the beep sounds, open the lid of the breadmaker and add the instant oats and mixed fruit.

4. When the dough function is finished, turn the dough onto a floured board.  Using floured hands, knead the dough a few times.

5. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined and spread out the dough until it touches the side of the loaf pan.

6. Cover the loaf pan with a dry cloth and leave the dough to rise for another hour.

7. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

8. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.

pumpkin seed and banana bread

When I made this loaf of pumpkin seed and banana bread, the dough rose so much that I had to use a 10" x 7" loaf pan instead of my usual 8" x 5" loaf pan. Alternatively, you may like to use two smaller loaf pans (eg. two 8" x 4" loaf pans) if you do not want a large loaf of bread.

Due to the inclusion of yoghurt in the dough, the bread remained soft even on the 3rd day without refrigeration.

INGREDIENTS

200g plain yoghurt
1/2 cup low fat milk
2 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (lightly beaten)
2 tbsp butter (softened)
1 large overripe banana (mashed)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (crushed)
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and the yeast) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough about 5 times.

6. Place the dough in a 10" x 7" loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper. Spread out the dough.

7. Cover the loaf pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 35 minutes.

peanut butter loaf

The recipe in this post is a modification of a recipe that I came across in HHB's blog.

It may be due to the age of my breadmaker but I have noticed that when I use the breadmaker to make the bread from start to finish, the texture of the bread is not as soft as when I use only the "dough" cycle of the breadmaker machine and bake the bake in the oven. As such, nowadays I prefer to bake the bread in the oven after using my breadmaker to make the dough.

The other thing that you have to take note of when making bread is the yeast. I used to be unsuccessful with almost every loaf of bread that I made (regardless whether I used the breadmaker or not). When I switched to another brand of yeast, every loaf of bread was successfully made (except for the times when I got too carried away with modifying recipes or creating recipes and went overboard with the ingredients). I am not certain whether the problem lies with the brand of yeast that I used to use or the fact that the yeast was not fresh.

INGDEDIENTS

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 3/8 cups water
3 tbsp chunky peanut butter
1 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp dried milk powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and yeast) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the cycle has been completed, place the dough in an 8" x 5" loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper. Spread out the dough in the loaf pan.

6. Cover the loaf pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

7. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 45 minutes.

slow cooker bread pudding

When Da and I got married in 1998, my mother gave us (among many other wonderful gifts) a large slow cooker. I have used it many times since. It is perfect for lazy days when I am not inclined to slave over a stove top to cook my pasta sauce.

As time went by, I realised that it would be useful to have a small slow cooker as well. Not only could we use it to brew herbs for one-time consumption, we could also use it to cook small portions of meals, just for the two of us. I happened to mention to my mother my desire for a small slow cooker and, bless my wonderful mother, she was so thoughtful that she bought us a small slow cooker as a gift.

Recently, I decided to get adventurous and cook bread pudding using my small slow cooker. I have made bread pudding before but always using my convection oven.

The bread pudding that I made using my slow cooker is sufficient to serve 3 persons (unless you are my little sister, LSD who is a very small eater, in which case the bread pudding is enough to serve 4 persons).

INGREDIENTS

4 cups bread (cubed)
1 cup low fat milk
2 eggs
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup butter (softened)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1/8 tsp ground mixed spice
1/2 cup longan meat (cut into small pieces)

METHOD

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the milk, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla essence and ground mixed spice. Beat using a manual whisk until smooth.

2. Add the longan meat and stir.

3. Add the cubed bread and mix thoroughly.

4. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker.

5. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 hours.

TIPS

1. When I made the bread pudding, I used a mixture of chocolate bread and fruit & nut bread. As such, I added brown sugar instead of white sugar as the bread is already sweet. If you are using plain bread, you can add white sugar instead.

2. If you do not have longan meat, you can substitute with raisins.

Japanese pizza

There are several ways of making pizzas at home. The easiest would be to buy a ready-made pizza base and add your own toppings. Alternatively, you can make the pizza base from scratch (for this, I would recommend SC's recipe for home-made pizza). If, however, you have a breadmaker machine, then let the machine do the work of making the dough.

The pizza base that you see in the photographs in this post were made using my breadmaker machine. As I wanted to make a large rectangular-shaped pizza, I did not separate the dough into smaller portions. If you prefer, you can separate the dough into two and shape them into round shape to make regular pizzas. The dough will rise quite a lot after you have shaped them, so if you prefer thinner crust pizzas, I would recommend that you separate the dough into four portions instead.

Whenever I make Japanese pizza, I would usually also cook miso soup and fry yaki udon. This is because I use the miso soup to cook the ingredients for the Japanese pizza. Also, I use the same ingredients as that of the yaki udon for the Japanese pizza. So, at one go, I end up with three dishes. It is convenient and a time-saver.

INGREDIENTS (pizza base)

1 cup + 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp castor sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp mixed Italian herbs
2 tsp grated parmesan cheese
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast


INGREDIENTS (toppings)

assorted vegetables and some sausages (cut into small pieces)
miso soup
tonkatsu sauce
mayonnaise
seasoned dried seaweed (cut into strips)

METHOD (pizza base)

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and the yeast) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that all the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the dough cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

6. Place the dough on a 11 " x 9" baking tray that has been lined with baking paper. Spread out the dough such that it fills up the entire baking tray.

7. Cover the tray with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

METHOD (toppings)

1. Cut the vegetables and sausages into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a microwaveable container and add enough miso soup to cover the ingredients. Cover the container with the lid and microwave on HIGH for 10 minutes.

2. Drain off the miso soup. (I would usually add the drained miso soup back to the pot of miso soup that I have cooked. The cooked vegetables add more flavour to the miso soup.)

3. Spread the tonkatsu sauce over the pizza base. Add the vegetables and sausages. Spread the mayonnaise on top and sprinkle liberally with the seaweed.

4. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.

banana nut bread #1

When Da and I went to SIL's home in Punggol for dinner sometime in April 2009, SIL requested if I could bake a loaf of fruit and nut bread. One of my favourite fruit and nut bread is the Gardenia fruit and nut loaf. It is full of ingredients. I got interested and started researching the internet for fruit and nut bread recipes. I was not very satisfied with the recipes that I found on the internet (most of the recipes suggest including dried mixed fruits and sunflower seeds only). I had in mind to bake a loaf of bread that was rich with fruits and nuts.

In the meantime, I started paying more attention to nuts that I found in the baking section and organic section of the supermarkets.

Sometimes, I do some research before I attempt cooking or baking a new item. Sometimes, when the fancy takes me, I create a recipe on the spot.

When I baked the banana nut bread shown in this post, it was one of those "recipe created on the spur of the moment" situation. I have recently become more adventurous with experimenting with bread recipes. When I first started baking bread, most of the time my bread dough would not rise. Later, I found out that it was the brand of yeast that I bought that was the problem because when I changed to another brand, the problem went away. I am little disappointed because the brand of yeast that I bought previously is a popular brand and I have bought other products of that brand without problems. I was discussing the bread problem with Hamtaro one day and I found out that she also had the same problem when she used that brand of yeast. When I started experiencing success in baking bread, I decided that as I was a "newbie" (or "noob", as Supercute and Tau Suan would say) when it comes to the art of baking bread, I would follow recipes totally and not vary them until I was comfortable enough with the baking process and ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

1/8 cup low fat milk

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

1/3 cup butter (softened)

2 overripe large bananas (mashed)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1 1/3 cup bread flour

2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and yeast) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the dough cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.

6. Cover the loaf pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

7. Bake at 165 degrees celsius for 50 minutes.