Home from Hyde Park

What a week! Even though I was home alone at my b/f's house all day while he went to school for 8 hours, I was very productive. I feel less bored there than I do at home. I feel so restricted at home because of my parents.

Here is what I have made during my stay upstate.

Chinese Steamed Buns
Had to try twice.
My first attempt...A tumorous kitty with sweet potato maple syrup filling.


2nd attempt back home...A normal looking kitty with some peanut butter and black sesame filling


I've learned from my mistake. DON'T OVER STUFF YOUR BUNS or they'll turn into fat tumorous buns.

Bun Recipe Yields 16 Buns 125 Cal/Bun

Yeast Mixture
60 mL || 1/4 Cup Water, 110F Warm Water
1 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/2 Tsp Active Yeast

Dough Mixture
150g || 1 1/4 Cup Bread Flour**
150g || 1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
28g || 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
113mL Water, Warm
2 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

Filling

46g || 1/3 Cup Black Sesame Seed, Toasted*
32g || 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter, Creamy
25g || 2 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
30mL || 2 Tbsp of Water

• Mix the sugar into the warm water and dissolve the yeast into the liquid.
• Let it stand for 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile mix all the flour sugar and salt together.
• Make a well in the middle and slowly add in the yeast mixture.
• Then slowly add in the oil while mixing with a spoon or spatula.
• After you add the oil slowly add in the water when all the flour are crumbly start mixing the dough with your hand.
• Continue adding the water until the dough becomes smooth and soft. (May need more or less water depending on the flour.)
• Knead the dough for 8 minutes.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap. Let it double for 45 minutes in a warm place or until it passes the indentation test.
• While the dough is doubling make your filling by toasting your sesame seed @ 350F for 5 minutes stir it a bit and return to the oven or another 5 minutes.
• Blend the sesame seeds in a blender or processor until it becomes pasty. Then add in the water and blend until it is combined.
• Then add in the peanut butter and sugar and blend until everything forms a thick paste.
• Split the dough and filling into 16 even portion.
• Assemble by rounding one portion of the dough and flattening it. Be sure to make the edge much thinner than the middle.
• Put a dollop of the filling and pull the edge of the dough towards the middle and pinch to seal the end.
  
• Put the bun on a tiny piece of parchment paper. Continue to do that to all the portion of dough and filling.
  
• Cover it with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap to let it rest and go through it's last rise for about 30 minutes or until the dough had double.
• After it has double use a scissor to snip the dough to give it the buns point ears or spikes.
• Boil enough water in a big wok or large pot on med-high heat. When it is boiling put the buns in a dish over a steaming rack or you can put the buns in a steamer.
• Let it steam for 20 minutes and it will be throughly cooked.

Banana Mango Sherbet


I like the strawberry although it has nothing to do with the ice cream.

Spinach Broccoli Mushroom Soup


I like soup but I'm sick and tired of the creamy one. I need some soup that reminds me of my mom since I haven't had my mom's soup in so long since they're not VEGAN. My mom loves making broth soup, since he has never heard of creamy soup so I made this soup to remind myself of my mom's broth soup.

MErry Xmas

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years. Holiday is the best LOTS OF FOOD!! weight gaining time awesome!! No more school thank goodness but the vacation is passing by so quickly!!

Spicy gingerbread cookies


Vegan cookies delicious!! I'm sick and tired mild tasting or just sugary tasting gingerbread cookies. Need the spiciness of all the herbs, so here's my recipe of these very spiced up ginger cookies.

Dry Ingredients
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Ginger, Grounded
1 Tbsp Cinnamon, Grounded
2 Tsp Allspice, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Clove, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Baking soda
1/4 Tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
113g or 1/4 lb 1/2 Cup Butter, Soften
6 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
6 Tbsp Molasses, Regular
1 Egg Replacer

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Sift the dried ingredients and the dried portion of the egg replacer into a bowl.
• In a larger bowl cream together the butter and the sugar*. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and combine well.
• Then gradually add in the dried ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  
• If you are making medium size gingerbread houses (around 4x8), bake the cookies for 18 - 20 minutes. It's better to over bake them a bit rather then under bake them like you usually would since you need a sturdy base for the gingerbread house.
  
• If you are making small tiny cookies for decoration (around 1 1/2- 2 cm) like the one in the picture bake them no longer than 5 minutes.
  
• If you are making regular cookies bake them for 10-12 minutes or until the top is slightly brown.

*Cookie Tip : Never over beat the sugar and the butter because your cookies will raise to much in the oven and deflate, resulting in a thin oily cookie because of all the extra air that is trapped in the butter.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Raisin Bread
The key to make great chewy artisan like bread is by creating a wet dough and letting time do all the work.

• Bread Tip #1: To get a better tasting bread let the bread rise slowly for a long period of time. So if you plan on eating bread tomorrow, you should make the dough and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator but the longer the dough rises, the yeastier it will taste so reduce the yeast a bit.
• Bread Tip #2: Normally flour requires a lot of water. They have bread dough with up to 75% hydration and some even higher which will result in a very sticky dough. IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH, but this is where the next several tricks will come in handy!!
• Bread Tip #3: If you are preparing a wet bread dough mix all the dry and wet ingredients together. Don't knead it cause you wont be able to anyways. Just let it sit for 45 minutes. (Longer if you want but reduce the yeast, same principle as Bread Tip #1). This method is called autolysis. This allows the flour to absorb all the water and it helps develop good fibers between the gluten and starch.
  
• Bread Tip #4: Since the wet bread dough is too sticky to knead, just use the stretch and fold method. No need for kneading. After the autolysis or if you are skipping that step, put a bit of flour on your work area, stretch out the dough into a huge rectangle. Just fold the right side towards the middle, the left side towards the middle, the bottom side towards the middle and the top towards the middle. It's kinda like folding a envelope. Turn it over so that the smooth sides face you and fold it two more times. Let your dough rest for another 45 minutes or until double and fold it once more and let it rest before shaping, go through it's final rise and baking it.
• Bread Tip #5: Getting a hard crust by steaming the bread in addition to preheating the oven at the highest setting. You should steam the bread the first 5-10 minutes of baking since that is when the crust develops. To steam just preheat a metal pan in the rack below where you intend to bake the bread. When the oven finish preheating, put your bread in and pour a cup of water into the metal pan below the bread BUT newer ovens can't handle steam so it might break. If you have a cruddy oven like mine, I don't think you would mind as much but do this at your own risk. You should lower the temperature of the oven after 5-10 minutes.
  

Sponge Starter
118g 6/7 Cup Bread Flour
118 mL 1/2 Cup Water, Warm
1/4 Tsp Active Dried Yeast

Main Dough
53g 2/5 Cup Bread Flour
163g 1 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
180g 3/4 Cup Water
1 1/2 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Salt
2 oz Cranberries, Dried
2 oz Raisins

• The night before mix the yeast into the water until all the yeast dissolves.
  
• Then mix the water with the bread flour until everything is combined.
  
• Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise for 24 hours. My house was 63F if it's warmer let it rise for a shorter period of time.
  
• When the 24 hours is up start by soaking the dried fruits in warm water.
• Then combine the flours, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix in the water into the dried ingredients slowly. Mix with a plastic or wooden spoon.
• After the main dough is combined mix the sponge starter into the main dough. Make sure everything is well incorporated.
• Then drain and fold in the raisins and cranberries.
• Let the dough sit for at least 45 minutes for autolysis.
• Fold the dough like I have described in bread tip #4.
  
• Let it rest again for 45 minutes or until it doubles and passes the finger test.
• Punch down, fold once more and shape into your loaf.
• Preheat your oven to the highest setting.
• After your shaped bread has rised for 45 or until it passes the finger test, put it into the oven and bake it for 8 minutes.
  
• Then lower it down to 350 F and bake it for another 45 minutes or until the toothpick slides into the deepest part of the bread easily and comes out clean.

First week of School

College sucks butt. This semester is more hectic than my previous semesters. Despite all the load I want to start a a vegan/vegetarian club at my school I need to recruit some vegan/vegetarians first. I know no one there let alone any vegan/vegetarians. I need to devise some things to do and plant out each meeting. I'm at a total lose. Some suggestions would be nice :3

I didn't cook much either. I have no idea what I've been eating this whole week...I've been eating Energy bars. Hahah a lot of luna bars, organic food bar. Oofz those are so gritty but it doesn't taste that bad after a while. They do have 22g of protein AWESOME. I've been eating a lot of durians too. Yayyy durians everyday. It's my fucking life.

Calcium Enriched Banana Raspberry Shake
It sucks that I have to go to work right after class so I don't get a chance to eat lunch and I start work at 1. I don't want to go to work and work for only 5 minutes and take my lunch break. I decided to make shakes so I can type as I chug down my shake. Sorry no picture because I had to rush to work. This shake is also calcium fortified since it's quite important for women to get a sufficient amount of calcium or else by the time we're 40, we're screwed.

Recipe Yields 2 Cup/ 198 Cal/cup

1 Large Banana, Chunks
1/2 Cup Frozen Raspberry
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Tsp Citrate Calcium (I used NOW brand since it's Vegan)

• Place the frozen raspberries in the blender first then put in the chunks of banana on top of the raspberries
  
• Pour in the soymilk and put in the calcium and the agave nectar.
• Blend it on high speed.
  

ed Bean/Green Bean Buns
Buns buns buns!! Sorry didn't measure out the amount for the filling so I only have the calorie intake for the buns not the filling

Portuguese Sweet Bread

Recipe Yields 8 Buns/262 Cal/Buns
1/6 Cup/8 Tsp Warm Water (105- 115 F)
2 1/2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Tsp and 3/8 Cup/6 Tbsp Sugar
1/6 Cup/ 8 Tsp and 1 Tbsp Warm Milk
3/8 Cup/ 6 Tbsp Margarine, Warm (Soy Garden)
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Flax Egg ( I used 1 1/2 Flax Egg and 1 1/2 Rice Egg)
2 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

Red Bean/Mung Bean Filling

Recipe
Red Bean/Mung Beans
Water
Sugar
Oil

or you can use canned red bean or mung bean at the asian markets.

To make the filling

• Prepare the filling first if you are making your own by soaking the red beans in one bowl and the mung beans in another bowl for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  
• Boil the red beans until the beans are cooked and soft.
  
• Drain out all the water and blend the beans in the blender until it becomes a paste.
  
• Then put the paste in a sauce pan and pour a small amount of oil (same amount you would for sauteing that much vegetables) and enough sugar for you to sweeten that batch of red bean.
  
• Cook it on med to high heat until it reaches the consistency of a thick paste. (around 5 minutes)
  
• Follow the same instructions above to make the mung bean paste.
  

To make the bread

• Combine the warm water, active dry yeast and 1/2 tsp of sugar together. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the liquid mixture starts to bubble and rises to about double the size.
• Then combine in the sugar, warm milk, butter and salt.
  
• Then pour the "eggs" and 2 cup of the flour and mix it until it forms into a dough.
  
• Knead the dough and add in the remaining flour. If the dough is a bit too wet add a bit more flour.
• Knead it for 10 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about and hour or until it has double in sized and the dough retains the punctures of your fingers when you poke at the dough.
  
• Punch down the dough and separate the dough into 8 balls.
  
• Fill each ball of dough with the bean fillings.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Let the shaped buns rise for about 35 minutes or until it has double and the passes the finger test. (Same test you would use to test for the first rising)
• Brush the buns with the remaining soy milk and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

NOW Food
You have to love NOW food. They have an awesome amount of vegan/vegetarian supplements. I just go the calcium citrate and the soy protein powder from them and I already had the calcium citrate + vitamin D pills. Awesome. Hm... I would consider these items a staple we need protein to survive and calcium too especially for women. Women tend to lack calcium so by the time they reach their middle ages, their bone mass has decrease to half it's original bone mass. Osteoporosis, slouching and fracture limbs are some of the symptoms of low bone mass. Watch out women!! BUILD EM BONES!!



Calcium Citrate
1 Tsp = 700mg = 70% of our DV (DV is 1000mg)
Although it says powder, it's not as fine as powder sugar. It's a bit gritty like cornmeal. It also has a tint of sourness towards it since it is derived from citrus items. It's great for sprinkling it on food items. The sour taste can easily be covered up by salt, sugar or anything.

Soy Protein
1/4 Cup = 21g =40% of our DV (DV is aorund 52g-53g)
NOW food brand soy protein powder is unflavored. Unlike the flavored soy protein drinks, it does not contain sugar so you can sprinkle your soy protein powder into salty food as well yay!
It taste like soy so it's not so hard masking the taste. Create a sauce for your tofu dish. Whatever you want! Make your own soy protein shake. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Use your imagination. You are not limited to the vanilla flavor or chocolate flavor that they have at the health food stores.

Follow Up on the Egg Replacer...

Busy week indeed...

All right follow up on the Egg Replacer experiment from the previous post.

What happen to them a day after?
I stored it in a plastic air tight container in room temperature.

Appearance/Texture before warming it up
**General note:: They all became denser including the egg one.
Flaxseed - No difference in appearance/texture before warming up except for being denser.
Ener-G - It was much denser and a bit crumbly looking
Tofu - This is still the softest out of all of the muffins even after becoming denser. The indentation disappears slowly when i poke at it.
Egg - It retains it originality the most out of all the egg replacers. It became dense but not much as the other replacrse

Appearance/Texture after warming up on high in the microwave for 30
Flaxseed - It became softer (quite obvious hahah) It was very gloopy and sticky like fudge. When my teeth sliced through the cupcake it clung onto my teeth :3 A bit like sticky rice cake if you have ever tried.
Ener-G - It also became softer but it was quite dry. When I was peeling the cupcake liner off of the muffin, pieces crumbled off. The good thing is that it resembled the egg's texture. Note that in the previous post the flaxseed's texture resembled the egg's texture the most on the first day.
Tofu - It became very soft as well, the crust was very much like the one from the muffin with the egg but, when I got into the middle, oh dear...It was very mushy and soft.
Egg - Became soft and it was dry as well but not as dry as the Ener-G where it started crumbling off.
Egg Replacer Experiment #2 Lemon Pound Cake


This Lemon Pound Cake recipe was found on Epicurious.com
It originally called for 3 eggs but to make my life easier I made changed the recipe proportionally to make it 4 eggs since I've tested 4 different type of egg replacers and what not. It is like the previous experiment. I used Flaxseed, Ener-G, Tofu and Egg.

Here's the recipe
Yields 16 medium cupcakes 193 Cal/Serving

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/3 Cup (183 g) Cake Flour
2/3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/3 Tsp Salt
2 2/3 Tbsp Freshly Grated Lemon Zest


Wet Ingredients:
1 1/3 Stick (369 g) Softened, Butter ( 2/3 Cup)
1 1/3 Cup (267 g) Granulated Sugar
1 Tsp (5 mL) Vanilla Extract (1/4 Tsp for each bowl if you are trying the experiment)
2 2/3 Tbsp (40 mL) tbsp SoyMilk (2 Tsp for each bowl if you are doing the experiment)
2 2/3 Tbsp (40 mL) Fresh Lemon Juice (2 Tsp for each bowl if you are doing the experiment)

Egg Substitute:
4 eggs or egg replacer (If you are trying to do th experiment follow the four different type of eggs below)

1 Tbsp Flaxseed + 3 Tbsp Water
1 1/2 Tsp Ener-G Mix + 2 Tbsp Water
1/4 Cup smoothed Silken Tofu
1 Egg

• Preheat oven to 325 F and grease a 1 lb loaf pan, muffin pan or a 1 quart kugelhopf pan.
  
• In a bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and zest together. Weigh the batter and split batter into 4 equal proportions. It's best if you label the bowls so you know which bowl belongs to which egg replacer. (Or if you just want to make lemon pound cake, you needn't split it into four portions) I labeled mine A-D.
  
• In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Weigh the wet batter as well and split it into 4 equal portions.
  
• Microwave the flaxseed mixture until it becomes a gloopy consistency and cream it into the the wet batter Bowl A. Mix the Ener-G Mix into the dry ingredients Bowl B and the water into wet ingredients Bowl B. Blend the tofu in the blender and cream it into wet mixture Bowl C. Cream the egg into wet mixture Bowl D.
  
• Then beat in the vanilla extract and half of the Dry mixture for each bowl.
  
• Beat in the milk and lemon juice for each bowl until they are combined.
  
• Beat in the rest of the dry mixture.
  
• Pour the batter into your pan and bake 45 min or until the toothpick test comes out clean.

Sorry I do not have pictures for the egg pound cake and Sorry for the poor quality.

Appearance/Texture
I received help from the my boyfriend as well.
Flaxseed - Very oily looking. There is a shiny sheen coating the pound cake. It's somewhat so oily that the pound cake looks transparent! When we poked at it, it a soggy sponge. It feels somewhat like those temprpedic beds hahah. The response to the poke was very slow.
Ener-G - There are no air pockets or bubbles. The surface also looks quite smooth. We would have to say it looks like your regular pound cake except a bit pale...When we poked at the cake, it was quite soft and responded quickly to the poke.
Silken Tofu - The surface was quite lumpy, a bit like a muffin's surface. It also had several cracks. When we placed the batter into the muffin pans, it refused to level out. The pod cake was also very firm and soft. It was bouncy. If i were a kid again, I would love to jump on a something like this.
Egg - It's actually yellow!! The surface had pores and holes on it. It also domed in the middle unlike the other muffins. When we touched it, it was very dense and bouncy It was the firmest out of all of them.

Taste/Texture
Flaxseed - It's very soft, actually it's the softest of all of them since there is so much oil in it. Not only are there oil from the butter but as well as the flax seed. It was so wet and moisty that it had a pasty consistency but also a crunchy texture from the flax seeds. I love the taste though :3 Look at the picture, the whole thing is paste hahah!
Ener-G - It was soft, moisty, spongy but also crumbly.
Silken Tofu - It was very moist and heavy. It was very pasty like fudge/brownie. My boyfriend made a comment of the paste coating his tongue and it would be great with wine hahah. Look at the picture!! The inside looks like paste!!!
Egg - It's spongey/springy. What more is there to say?


Sweet Cucumber Relish (vegan)
Damn you natural flavors!! Couldn't find sweet relish anywhere so I made my own. I modified a recipe I found in cooks.com. Now I can make mock tuna =X

Recipe: Yields 1 4.5 in Jar 1820cal/Jar
Ingredients
1 1/2 (454 g/1 lb) Large Grated Cucumbers
2 Large (440 g) Grated Yellow Onions
1 (164 g) Large Grated Sweet Green Pepper
2 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup (237 mL) Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Cup (400 g) Sugar
1 Tsp Tumeric
3 g Mustard Powder or 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds

Tools (If you want to can and save it for several months)
A Glass Jar
Big pot (Big enough to cover your jars)
Thongs or jar lifter

• Grate all of your vegetables and mix them together.
• Combine the salt in make sure you mix it well!! Let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
• Prepare your jars for sterilization by submerging your jars in the water in your big pot and boiling the water along with the lid to the jars.
  
• Then strain all the water out of the vegetables and place them into a pot and pour in the apple cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric and mustard.
• Let it simmer for 10 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. You can either reduce the liquid by simmering it or you can drain some of the liquid out of your relish before canning.
  
• By the time you finish cooking your relish, your canning equipment should be ready unless you are evaporating your liquid. You are suppose to boil your equipments for 15 minutes.
• Dip your thongs or jar lifter in the boiling water for a minute or two to sterilize it.
• Empty the waters in the jar and place it on a clean surface. Quickly poor in the relish with a sterilized funnel (by boiling as well) but I didn't use one so just poor the relish in and quickly set your lid with thongs or the lid lifter and quickly closing it.
  
• Wait a while and your protection caps on your jar lids should be sucked in. When you press on the lid, you shouldn't be able to hear the clicky noise.

Apple Filled Coffee Cake Wreath Bread (Vegan)
I got this recipe from my new Good HouseKeeping Great Baking book. I made a vegan version as well as the lacto-ovo Vegetarian Version for my boyfriend. I wont be posting the vegetarian one because I used the recipe from the book as it was. I didn't modify it at all or anything. I'll post pictures though

Yields 16 pieces (depending on how you cut it) 197 cal/Piece

Yeast
1/2 cup (118 mL) Warm Water (108-115 F)
2 Pkg (14 g) of Active Dry Yeast
1 Tsp (4 g) Granulated Sugar

Dough 2320 cal/Dough+ Yeast
1/2 Cup (100 g) Granulated Sugar
4 Tbsp (64 g) Oatmeal Apple Banana Baby Food (You can use sweetened Apple Sauce)
4 Tbsp (69 g) Soy Butter [you can use 1/2 Cup (139 g) Butter instead of the applesauce and the 4 Tbsp Butter]
1 Tbsp Grounded Flax Seed
3 Tbsp (44 mL) Water
+ - 3 1/4 cup (1381 g) All Purpose Flour

Filling 800 cal/Filling
1 1/4 lb (567 g ) Finely Chopped All Purpose Apples
2 Tbsp (35 g) Soy Butter
1/4 cup Seedless Raisins
1/4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

Soy Milk Wash 24 Cal/Wash
1 Tbsp Soy Milk
1 Tsp Granulated Sugar

• In a large cup dissolve the yeast and sugar into the warm water. Let it sit for five minutes.
• Warm the flax seed and the water until it becomes gloopy and let it cool down. (Don't want to kill the yeast later now do we ;D)
  
• While the dough is sitting and the flax seed is cooling, cream together the sugar, baby food and butter (or just butter).
• Combine the flax seed mixture into the wet mixture.
  
• Then beat in the yeast, salt and a sixth of the flour (1/2 cup) until it's well combined.
  
• Then stir in the rest of the flour with a wooden spatula or spoon. ( You will require more or less flour)
  
• When the dough becomes tacky and not sticky to hand by hand, knead the dough for about 8 minutes or until it feels like a baby's bottom.
• Let the dough rise for about 3 hours (depending on the temperature and humidity of the room, you will require more or less time. Use the finger test on the dough to see if it rised enough. Just press your index finger and middle finger into the dough if the indentation remains, it means the dough has double. If the indentation disappears, you need to let the dough rise some more.

• In the mean time make the apple filling by melting the butter in a sauce pan.
  
• Add in the finely chopped apples, cinnamon, raisins and sugar.
  
• Cook the filling until it is tender about 15 minutes.
  

• When the dough has double, punch the dough down and roll it out on a greased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
• Roll it out into a 18" by 12" rectangle (I rolled it out to be much thinner and got a bigger rectangle) Make sure the width is not that wide since you don't want to roll your dough up to be too huge of a log. What matter the most is the length since you will be forming it into a round wheel later.
  
• Spread the apple filling over the dough leave about 1/2 in uncovered around the edge.
• Roll the dough as if you are rolling a jelly roll sponge (Roll up the longer side)
• Then shape the long log into a circular ring and pressing the inner edge together.
  
• Using a clean scissor cut the side of the dough every 1 1/2 in. If you want a thicker piece you can cut it thicker or thinner, if you want more pieces/ "leaves" cut it at a smaller interval.
• You can tilt the "leaves" to make it look nicer.
• Cover the dough and let it go through it's final rise. (Use the finger test as well)
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Dissolve the sugar into the soy milk to create the soy milk wash and brush it onto the surface of the dough
  
• When the dough finally finish it's last rising bake the dough for 30-35 minutes.

I dont have a picture of the finished product since I baked my b/f two bread and my first rack does not fit all 3 of the bread so I placed the vegan one on the bottom rack and guess what happen...It got burnt but the top inside was very delicious. It's great for breakfast, it's sweet but not too sweet.


Vegetarian Apple filled Coffee Cake Wreath Bread
I intended to give this to my b/f and keep the vegan one to myself but my b/f gladly accepted the burnt one since I was going to give the vegan one to my father for Father's day. Eh...so I didn't eat this one =/ I like the golden crust though, but then again I gave it an egg wash...



Vegetarian Cheese Filled Coffee Cake Braid
Another coffee bread i made for my b/f since he loves his cheese. Dont worry I used vegetarian cottage cheese and cream cheese ;3 It was suppose to be a braid but I kinda messed up with the length of the strips so I ended up doing a criss cross =/



Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
It's this month!! It's such a bore though watching the dragon boat race at Corona park. It's just a big fair with many Asian people, stalls, ice cream trucks and raffles. It's mainly huge Asian companies advertising themselves since most of these companies sponsors a specific dragon boat team and the team races for them in their names. Most of the dragon boat paddlers are teenagers, if not all of them. Two years ago, some of my friends were part of the dragon boat race. I was also going to participate but I had to go to China during their training days hahah.

Anyways the point I was trying to get to is that during the dragon boat festival, we feast on these lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice dumpling. The Salted ones are normally filled with obviously glutinous rice (sticky rice, not the Japaneses sushi rice. It's the Thai sticky rice.), peeled mung beans, fat pork, marinated mushrooms, salted egg yolks and dried baby shrimps. There is also another type of glutinous rice dumpling which only consist of glutinous rice soaked in lye water. These are the plain one where you need to dip it in either sugar or soy sauce. Sometimes if you are lucky you can come across lye dumpling that are filled with red bean paste but not this year...I was begging my mother to buy me some vegetarian ones but there were none so my mom made some especially for me. Yay. I also helped though. We made both the salted one and the lye one. We didnt put anything in the salted one except the mung beans but it still tasted like the original...except without the meat xD

I don't really have an actual measured out ingredients since we've always made it by eying everything and using what we have.

Salted Sticky Rice Dumpling Wrapped in Lotus Leaves
Glutinous Rice
Peeled Mung bean (You need much less, like around 1/3 of the glutinous rice)
Salt
Vegetable Oil
Lotus Leaves (Banana leaves will do or any other huge leaves)

• You need to soak both the glutinous rice and peeled mung beans in separate bowls for at least 3 hours. Dont forget to pick out all the bad mung beans.
  
• When you are ready to make the dumplings drain out all the water from both the glutinous rice and mung bean.
• You season the rice and mung beans with the salt and oil. Just enough oil to lightly coat the rice/mung beans and enough salt for your taste.
  
• Alright here comes the tricky part, My grandmother wraps the best dumplings. I use one bamboo leaf but others use 3 or 4 depending on how your want to wrap it. You can wrap it into a rectangle, triangle or pyramid. Traditionally, they are wrapped in a pyramid but it's too hard to explain without any pictures. I'll explain my method.
  
• I used one bamboo leaf and formed a cone with it like you would when you make a dunce hat. Spoon in a tablespoon or two of the glutinous rice then layer another spoonful of the mung bean and to top it off, add anther spoonful of glutinous rice. Depending on the size of your dumpling and leaf, you would add more or less glutinous rice and mung bean.
  
• Fold in the sides and the top. Wrap the leaf tightly around all the cracks and nannies. Make sure there is no rice or mung bean coming out!!
  
• Wrap it tightly with string but not too tightly because the lotus leave can tear.
  
• When you finish wrapping all of them take a huge pot fill it with the dumplings and cover them all with water.
  
• Boil the dumplings for at least 3 hours because you need to fully cook all the rice!! You don't want to bite into raw rice now do you?
  

Lye Water Glutinous Rice Dumpling filled with Wrapped in Lotus Leaves
Glutinous Rice
Lye Water
Canned Red Bean Paste (or you can make your own)
Canned Mung Bean Paste (homemade is also fine)
Vegetable Oil
Lotus Leaves

• You need to soak the glutinous rice for at least 3 hours as well. If you want to make the salt one as well just soak the glutinous rice for the salt dumpling and later split it.
  
• Drain the water from the glutinous rice and add in some oil and mix it well.
  
• Then add in the lye water a tsp at a time and mix it until all the rice turn to a pale yellow. When the lye water touches the glutinous rice it quickly turns it yellow. Make sure you don't add too much lye water!
• Basically it's the same as the method above. Use the lotus leave or and form a cone.
• Fill it up with the glutinous rice, add in the red bean paste and top it off with the glutinous rice again.
  
• To make the mung bean one just fill it up with the mung bean paste instead of the red bean paste.
• Fold in the sides and top part and tie it tightly with the string.
  
• Boil All the dumplings in a big pot with water covering the dumplings for atleast 3 hours

You store them in the refrigerators after they have cooled down. When you want to eat one just warm it up by boiling it or steaming it for 20 minutes. Then you cut the strings and unwrap your dumplings.

Suggestions:
- Eat the lye water dumpling with sugar. Just dip the pieces into granulated sugar. You can also use soy sauce but it's not so great. The lye water taste funky!!
- Eat the salted dumpling with soy sauce or miso paste. Hmm hm good. It's delicious!!


Yay Knitting
Sorry pointless rambling. I knitted myself an oven mitten since we only have one. Great cheap mother! hahah. I just knitted it in garter stitches. I made it 7" x 7" but it's way to big so I sewed the sides up and now it fits!! i think it would be best if the width is 5" if not a bit less. Hahah well now I have a cute little border and when I'm not using it, I can stick little chopsticks or spatulas on the side of the oven mittens. It can keep my chopsticks warm!! Hahah damn I'm such a retart.

Lots of Baking!!!!

Por Lor Bao

hmmm...Por Lor Bao...Now that I'm vegetarian, I can't eat any more of those delicious chinese bakery buns. I miss them so much. I got a recipe from Jo's Deli - Polo Pau My attempt to make it vegetarian was not so great...I didn't have soy milk powder so I used soy milk. That was a poor substitute. It didnt taste like the por lor bao from the chinese bakery but my mom liked it. I'll post the recipe when I find a better way of substituting.

Green Tea Cupcake

My boyfriend and I made these last Saturday. We used Chockylit's Green Tea Bubble Cream Filled Cupcake recipe.

What we did:

• We added green tea powder to the cupcake batter.
  
• We substituted the regular milk with the soy milk.
• We used granulated sugar instead of the powder sugar.
• We didn't fill the cupcakes with the filling, instead we ate it!!

What went wrong: It didn't say until the end that we were suppose to fill it with the bubble tea cream so we were like ... we already ate the filling.

• The frosting came out a bit too grainy, sweet and the consistency of the frosting was to watery.
  
• The granulated sugar didn't absorb enough water and granulated sugar is sweeter than powder sugar.
  

What went well:

• Despite the problems, the cupcake came out great.
  
• The bubble tea filling tasted pretty good too.
  
• Yay. Next time we'll know what to do!

Yogurt Bread

I was inspired by Yochana's Mixed Berries Bun so I've decided to make some plain yogurt buns.
I've made some modification to her recipe. Here is the recipe I've used.

Yields: 1 5" x 8" loaf [930 cal/loaf]

1 tbsp (12 g) sugar
1 7/8 tsp (6.25 g) Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup (60 g) warm water (100 - 115F)

+ or - 1 2/5 cup (175 g) All purpose flour
1 1/5 tbsp (21 g) Honey
1/4 tsp salt
A little less than 1/3 cup Plain unsweetened Yogurt (78 g)
1 2/5 tbsp melted butter

To active the yeast:

• Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add in the active dry yeast.
  
• Mix until its combined and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Dough:

• Mix the honey with plain yogurt and warm it up in the microwave until it's 100 - 115F. Make sure you don't burn it or warm it up too much that the yogurt will coagulate.
  
• Combine the yogurt mixture with the yeast mixture.
• In a separate bowl combine the salt with the flour.
  
• Gradually add the flour into the liquid mixture, little by little while mixing it with your hand or a spatula. When it gets to a thick enough consistency, starting kneading it with your hands.
  
• When the dough becomes smooth, add in the melted a tsp at a time. Continue kneading the dough until it becomes as firm as a baby's bottom.
• 
  
• Put it in a greased bowl and cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for it to rise overnight to develop it's flavor. When morning comes take out the dough and let it sit out until it's room temperature. Make sure it doesn't over rise.
  
• If you want to make the bread now, let it rise in a warm place until it double in size. (2 hours in a warm place or you can test it by pressing the dough with your index and middle finger. If it leaves an indentation it's ready to be shaped. If doesn't leave an indentation let it continue to rise.
  
• Punch does down dough and shape the bread into little buns or a loaf and place it into the pan.
• Let the dough go into the second rising for about 45 minutes or until an indentation is left on the dough.
• Bake for 375F for about 20 minutes or until it's golden brown and cooked.

Spinach, Broccoli and Cheese Tart

My b/f and I got the recipe from the Vegetarian book from the Barnes & Noble Books. The recipe is called Cheese and Spinach Tart but me made some adjustments. For the cheese you can use low fat or nonfat cheese.

Recipe: Yields 1 9" tart [3126 cal/tart]
8 slices [391 cal/slice]

Crust [2121 cal/crust]
8 Tbsp (138 g) Butter
2 Cups (250 g) All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Chinese Mustard Powder (or 1/2 tsp Regular Mustard Powder)
Large Pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 cup (4 oz) Finely Grated Cheddar Cheese [used Cabot brand]

Filling [1005 cal/filling]
1/2 lb Fresh Spinach
1/2 lb Fresh Broccoli
1 med Onion or 1/2 Large Onion
pinch of Nutmeg
1 cup (8 oz) Large Chunk Cottage Cheese (you can use regular)
2 Large Beaten Eggs
1/2 cup (2 oz) Shredded Mozzarella [Sorrento brand]
2/3 cup (158 mL) Light Cream
Salt and Pepper for taste

Glaze
Beaten egg

Crust

• In a bowl rub the butter into the flour until the flour looks like bread crumbs.
• Add and combine the mustard powder, paprika, salt and cheddar cheese.
• Add 2-3 tbsp of water or enough water to form dough.
  
• Knead until the dough is smooth.
• Put it in a bowl wrapped with plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator.

Filling

• Chop the onions, spinach and broccoli.
  
• Put the onions, spinach and broccoli in a wok or pan seasoned with the nutmeg, salt and pepper.
  Cook it until they are tender.
• Add and combine the cottage cheese, beaten eggs, parmesan cheese and light cream.

Crust

• Take 2/3 of the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it fits a 9 inch pan.
  
• Line the 9 inch pan with the crust and cut off the excessive dough.
  
• Preheat the oven to 400F.
  
• Spoon the filling into the pan with the crust.
• Roll out the remaining into a 9 inch circle and cover the pie with the crust and press in the edges. (You can also cut the crust with a decorative pie crust cutter like the lattice pastry cutter.
• Glaze the top of the crust with a beaten egg.
• Put the tart into the oven and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Sicilian Filled Cannoli Cake

It's a 3 layer sponge cake with Sicilian cannoli filling. I've searched far and wide for the best recipe online. It looks like it was slumping because the commercial type of ricotta cheese needs to be drained, which I didn't do and it was such a hot, warm day. It made the cannoli fillng melt as soon as I took it out of the fridge but the cannoli filling tasted very good. I was stealing bits and pieces here and there. I hope my boyfriend don't mind . The frosting was not good for decorating though. Not only was it too soft and wont retain the decorative detail, it had huge chunks of orange peels/zest and chocolate. I've should've made the cake with regular cannoli filling. My boyfriend liked it but the consistency of the filling was not the same as the regular cannoli filling. He said it was too grainy. I should've placed it in the blender. Eh...it's good to learn from mistake. By the way...I used Key Food - Part Skim Ricotta Cheese. It's Kosher but it does contain whey. Use your own judgment whether or not you want to use it.

Ricotta Cheese

Key Food Brand
Ricotta Cheese - Part Skim [any size] (veg)
*Does contain Whey

This was the type of ricotta cheese used in the cannoli frosted cake. It does contain whey but it is Kosher. I'm also pretty sure the whole ricotta cheese are also vegetarian.