Healthy Banana Walnut Cake

If you have no oven to bake? There is another option if you owe a bread maker. You can bake a cake with less trouble and have the cake and eat it. I have 2 over ripe bananas in my kitchen. I have all the ingredients for bananas cake. As I was roster to take care of yesterday refreshment. Why not use the bananas for cake? 

This cake is very flavourful because of the coconut oil and cinnamon powder combination. My cell members  like the banana cake especially my leader who kept telling others that it tastes so good. They commented it tastes good and they finished them all. Daughter also love the cake.

Ingredients :

1/3 cup cold pressed coconut oil

1/3 cup packed soft dark brown sugar(you can add 1/2 cup if u like it very sweet)

2 big eggs(each without shell is about 62- 67g)

2 very ripe bananas (about 10-12cm length. Mashed)

1 1/2cup of top flour(if you replace plain flour. If use self raising flour,  then omit baking powder)

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup of chopped walnut(optional)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 cinnamon powder(optional)

Method:

1. Put coconut oil in a large bowl, add sugar and whisk until combine.  In topical country coconut oil will not solidified. However, if it solidified, melt it in a sauce pan over stove on low fire. 

2. Add eggs and beat until combine. Then add mashed banana and vanilla essence and mix them well.  All step 1 and 2 take only few minutes. 

Note: You may use a blender to do this task. But for me to cut down washing, I use a whisk and a bowl.😊

3. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder(if using plain/cake flour). Add into the mixture. Combine them with a whisk or a large spoon. Add chopped walnut and cinnamon powder and very quickly stir them to combine. Do not over stir. All these will take only few min. 

4. Pour the batter into baking pan and bake in pre-heat oven 165°C for 55min or when the satay stick or toothpick inserted into the centre  comes out clean.

Note: If you are using a bread maker with cake function,  pour the batter into the bread maker tin and set cake function without paddle. The program cycle is 60min for my BM. There will be a continuous beeping when the program is completed. Remove tin and shake out the cake onto a wire rack to cool. 

5.  Remove from oven. Let the cake cool in the baking pan for 10min then transfer into a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve. 

Cinnamon Bread by Bread Maker

Ingredients

250g water with 1 egg included (can replace water with milk)

1 tsp Sea salt 

40g sugar

3 tbsp vegetable oil or 30g soft butter

280g Bread flour 

50g Wholemeal flour(can replace with bread flour)

1 tsp instant yeast

Cinnamon sugar:

1 tsp cinnamon powder

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

Mix both sugar and cinnamon well.

Method:

1. In the BM baking tin, add egg,  water/milk,  salt, sugar, oil and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2. Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 500g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min.

3. When the BM timer beep at 1:30(2nd beep) paused the BM by pressing on start/stop button. Take out the dough and remove the paddle. Cut the dough into half and rolled them flat. Spread cinnamon sugar onto dough. Roll them up into 2 rolls and put them back into the BM. Press start/stop button to continue the function.

4. When the program completed, there will be a long beep sound. Off BM and remove tin and shake out the bread. Leave it to cool before cut, approx an hour. Serve with butter or peanut butter or eat it on its own. 


You may like to try this recipe :

Gula-melaka-purple-sweet-potato-bread

White Bee Hoon

If you find it is too far to travel to sembawang to order the white bee hoon, D.I.Y.  I like to make things. Time like this when it is too far to travel there to eat, I will cook it myself. Save time to travel and save trouble to queue up. Most important is you know what you put into a dish and also you can add or substract any ingredients. 

Ingredients:

Bee Hoon enough for 2 persons

Your choice of seafood( I used 6 prawns, 1squid)

100g lean pork thinly sliced

1/4 carrots - cut into strips

4 stalks of Cai Xin or Shanghai green

3 shallots finely chopped

1 garlic minced

1-2 tbsp cooking oil

1 egg

1.5 - 2cups Water

Seasoning:

Fish sauce

Light sauce

Oyster sauce

Chicken stock powder

Shao Xing wine

White pepper

Sesame oil

Corn / Potatoes flour

Method:

1. Soak bee hoon in cold water until soft. Do not over soaked. Remove from water and set aside for use.

2. Seasoned the seafood with some sea salt, shao xing wine and pepper.  Set aside. Seasoned the sliced pork with some light soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and cornflour. Set aside.

3. Add oil in the wok and fry garlic and shallots until golden and fragrance. Fry the seafoods and pork. Remove from wok when it is cooked and set aside for use.

4. In the same wok, fry the carrots for few seconds. Add 1.5 to 2cups water. Add the seasoning, that is light soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and chicken stock powder to your taste and bring to boil. 

5. Add bee hoon once the stock is boiled. Add also cai xin. Let it boil until cai xin is cooked, aprox. few min. Add in cooked seafoods and meat. While it is still boiling beat egg and stir into Bee Hoon. Add 1 tbsp of shao xing wine. Off the fire. Serve.

Note: The amount of seasoning is not indicated here as I usually do not measure but just add to the taste I desire.

Happy cooking!

😊

Dumplings (Shui Jiao/Guo Tie)

Ingredients:

220g minced meat

2 leaves of nappa cabbages

4 black mushroom - chopped finely

2 stalks spring onion - chopped

1/2 thumb size ginger - minced

1 tbsp shao xing wine

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cornflour

1/4 black pepper

1 packet of ready made dumpling/guotie skin

Method :

1. Blanch cabbages in boiling water for about 2min. Remove from water and squeeze out as much water as possible. Finely chopped.

2. Put all ingredients together. Mix well.

3. Use wrapper and wrap into shiu jiao/guo tie

4. Boil water in a pot. Place the shui jiao in once the water is boiling. It is cooked when it float on the water. Let it boil for another 1 minutes. Remove from water and serve.
I serve it with kimchi soup. 😊

For Guotie/panfry dumplings:
1. Heat up some oil in a flat-bottom pan. Prefer non-stick pan. Arrange dumplings on the pan and pan fry until one side is lightly golden brown.

2. Add in some water. Cover the pan with the lid and let it simmer until the water dry up and dumpling is fully cooked. Remove from pan and serve with shredded ginger and black vinegar dip.

Palm Sugar(Gula Melaka) Sweet Potatoes Bread

Ingredients:
110g Cooked Japanese Sweet Potato(room temperature)
176g Pandan water + 1 egg, I use the water from boiling the potato
3/4 tsp salt
35g Gula Melaka
2 tbsp coconut oil
240g Bread flour
40g Wholemeal flour

1 Tsp Instant yeast

Soft bread mode 1 light crust 750g. 2.55hr

Method:
1. Cut sweet potato into small pieces 3x2x1cm..or any sizes (purpose is to enable potatoes to soften faster). Put water enough to cover the sweet potatoes and put also pandan leave and cook approx. 5-10min or until it is soft. Once potatoes is soften . Off fire. Remove potatoes from water. Keep the water. Use a fork to smash potatoes while it is hot. Set aside to cool.

2. Blend 1-2 pandan leaves with half cup water. Filter the fibre or squeeze out the pandan water and set aside. (This round I did not use pandan water. Instead, I use the water which I used to boil the sweet potato from above item 1)

3. In the BM baking tin, add egg, pandan water, mashed sweet potatoes, salt, gula melaka, coconut oil and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

4. Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 750g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min. When the timing is at 1:30 after 2nd beep. I paused the BM and took out the dough and paddle. Flatten the dough on a floured surface. Spread some mashed sweet potatoes onto the dough and rolled it up. Place it back into BM. Continue the program.
However, today I have accidental hold onto the Start/Stop button too long. Instead of continue program. I actually stop the program. So, I let the dough continue proof in the BM for 40min manually at off mode. Then set cake function and bake this bread. It turn out very tall and nice too.

5. When the bread is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. 1-2 hour. Slice it and serve.

Miso Stew Beef

Ingredients :

1kg short rib beef or beef brisket  cut into cubes

1 raddish/ daikon into cubes

1 carrot cut into cubes

1 big yellow onion cut into 8 pieces

3-4 garlic remove skin (no cutting)

1 thumb size ginger sliced into pieces

Some fresh swiss brown mushroom

Seasoning:

2 tbsp miso + 2tsp korean honey critron tea + 1tsp dried garlic mixed together

1 tbsp light soy sauce 

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp shao xing wine

1 tbsp rock sugar(roughly 5 or 6 pieces)

1/4 five spices powder

a dash of pepper

10 black pepper corn

1 star anise seed

2 bayleaf (optional)

2 tbsp oil

1 litre of water

1-2 tbsp of cornflour / potato flour + 2tbsp water

Method :

1. Sear beef brisket in the wok with 1 tbsp of oil. Once it is slightly brown, transfer into pressure cooker.

2. In the same wok, add another 1 tbsp of oil, put in the big onion, garlic, sliced ginger, peppercorn, bay leaf and star anise and fry till it is fragrance. Transfer them into the pressure cooker.

3 Add all the rest of seasoning into the pressure cooker except cornflour. Add water that cover the meat.

4. Close and lock the pressure cooker and set to cook for 15min.  After min 15, off the pressure cooker and  release the pressure.  Unlock, add raddish and carrots and mushroom into pressure cooker. Close and lock the pressure cooker and set to cook for another 25-30mins. 

5. Once it is cooked. Switch off pressure cooker. Release the pressure. Unlock,  add the cornflour water. Stir well. Serve with rice.

You may adjust the seasoning accordingly.

This is another way of cooking  Stew beef over stove. 

Sundried Tomatoes and Black Olive Rye Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients:

200g Water * + 1 tbsp water

1 Egg approx 50g*

3/4 tsp Sea salt 

1 2/3 tbsp Dark brown sugar

1 1/2tbsp Olive oil 

240g Bread flour 

50g Wholemeal flour

40g Rye flour

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp instant yeast

1-2 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes

1-2 tbsp chopped black olive

*Note: total egg and water to be 250g. 

Method:

Directions using Bread Maker:

1)Place water, egg, sugar, salt, oil, breadflour, wholemeal flour and rye flour and herbs into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Soft Bread"  "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press start button to run the program. My BM indicated it take 2hrs 55mins for soft bread to complete the whole cycle.

When the dough started to form, I added 1tbsp water as I saw the dough seems a little dryer than usual. As rye and wholemeal flour require little more water.

3)After 2nd beep when the timer indicate 1:30, gently press start/stop function to pause the function. Remove dough from tin. Remove also the paddle. On a clean and dry board, sprinkle some bread flour(not too much). Place dough on the floured board. With oiled or floured hand, flatten and spread the dough just like you are working on a prata or pizza dough on the board.  Spread the chopped tomatoes and olive onto the dough. Roll up the dough and fold into half. Place the dough back into the BM tin without paddle. Press start/stop button to continue the process.

Note: if you do not wish to do this step, you can omit it by putting in chopped tomatoes and olive into the BM after the BM has started for approx 20min.  I do this sometime. 

4) When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve.

31Oct2016:
Today I made some changes in the sequence. Ingredients are the same. But I put in the sundried tomatoes and olive earlier. Instead of after 2nd beep, I changed to just before 1st beep at timing 2:30. The bread is a little light tomatoes colour and it is very flavourful. Full of tomatoes flavour...yum.

2Nov2016 Notes :
Adding the sundried tomatoes and olives before the 1st beep made very flavourful bread.The bread remain soft on the 1st 2days. But the bread become hard on the 3rd day. So, would suggest to spread the tomatoes and olive after 2nd beep if you are keeping the bread more than 2days. 

Gula Melaka Purple Sweet Potato Bread

I was at a shopping mall on last sunday and a promoter of a departmental store was promoting the gula melaka sweet potato bread. I tried their sample. It tasted good. But it cost $8.90 for a very small loaf. It is too expensive. Because of this, I am inspired to bake a loaf myself. Came home google and hoping to find a recipe. However, unavailable.

By the way, gula melaka is coconut palm sugar.

Today, I used my golden sweet potato recipe to modify and baked this Gula Melaka Purple Sweet Potato Bread. It taste good. The aroma is super! I am happy with this bread.


Ingredients:
100g Cooked Purple Sweet Potato(room temperature)
130g Pandan water + 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, I use the water from boiling the potato
3/4 tsp salt
40g Gula Melaka(Coconut Palm Sugar)
2 tbsp coconut oil
240g Bread flour
40g Wholemeal flour(can replace by bread flour)

1 Tsp Instant yeast

Soft bread mode 1 light crust 750g. 2.55hr

Method:
1. Cut sweet potato into small pieces 3x2x1cm..or any sizes (purpose is to enable potatoes to soften faster). Put water enough to cover the sweet potatoes and put also pandan leave and cook approx. 5-10min or until it is soft. Once potatoes is soften . Off fire. Remove potatoes from water. Keep the water. Use a fork to smash potatoes while it is hot. Set aside to cool.

2. Blend 1-2 pandan leaves with half cup water. Filter the fibre or squeeze out the pandan water and set aside. (This round I did not use pandan water. Instead, I use the water which I used to boil the sweet potato from above item 1)

3. In the BM baking tin, add egg, pandan water, mashed sweet potatoes, salt, gula melaka, coconut oil and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

4. Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 750g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min. In between the dough mixing process, I have added 1 tablespoon of water as I see it was a little dry. It could be I have used the water from boiling the sweet potatoes instead of pandan water. The water from boiling sweet potatoes is a little starchy.

When the BM timer beep at 1.30, paused the BM by pressing on start/stop button. Took out the dough and remove the paddle. Cut the dough into half and rolled them into 2 rolls and put them back into the BM. Press start/stop button to continue the function.

5. Though I used only 280g of flour,but it rise until the top almost touching the cover. When the bread is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. 1-2 hour. Slice it and serve.

This is the texture. It is light pink although I have used purple sweet potatoes. The aroma of the bread is very nice. And most important it tastes real good and it is quite chewy.😊

Enjoy baking!

You may like this too :
Golden-sweet-potato-bread
Soft-bread-with-rolled-oats
Pumpkin-bread
Homemade-pancake

Golden Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients:

55g Cooked Golden Sweet Potato(room temperature)

110g Coconut milk + 1 egg

65g Pandan Water/plain water

3/4 tsp salt

5 tsp Soft brown sugar

240g Bread flour

40g Wholemeal flour

1 Tsp Instant yeast

Soft bread mode 1 light crust  750g. 2.55hr

Method:

1. Cut sweet potato into small pieces 3x2x1cm..or any sizes (purpose is to enable potatoes to soften faster). Put water enough to cover the sweet potatoes and cook  approx. 5-10min or until it is soft. Once potatoes is soften . Off fire. Remove potatoes from water. Use a fork to smash potatoes while it is hot. Set aside to cool.

2. Blend  1-2 pandan leaves with half cup water. Filter the fibre or squeeze out the pandan water and set aside. 

3. In the BM baking tin, add coconut milk,egg, pandan water, mashed sweet potatoes, salt, sugar, and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour. 

4.  Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 750g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min. 

5. When the bread is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. 1-2 hour. Slice it and serve.

You may like to try this too :
Pumpkin Bread
Sundried Tomatoes Bread

Soft Bread

Ingredients:

225gm water included 1egg

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 teaspoon sugar

1.5 tablespoon olive oil

280g bread flour

45g Wholemeal flour

1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Method:

Directions using Bread Maker:

1)Place water, egg,  salt, sugar, oil, breadflour and wholemeal into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Soft Bread"  "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press "Start". My BM soft bread cycle is 2 hrs 55 mins.

4)When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve. 

The above is the leftover bread from yesterday dinner and I used it to make pizza bread for breakfast .

Simple step:

1. Spread tomatoes paste over a slice of bread. Lay some ham on it. Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese.

2. Put into toaster oven for 10mins or when the cheese turn light brown as per the picture. Serve.

Sundried Tomatoes Loaf

The combination of the sundried tomatoes make this bread a very nice and perfect bread in my opinion. Daughter said " tastes like foccacia". You can just eat it on its own without any spread and it still taste good. The aroma of the bread is so good when it was baking  that one would feel like eating it immediately it is out from the BM😊. This is also why I like making bread at home. During the baking process, the whole house is full of the aroma of bread.

Although I have added Rye flour and Wholemeal flour, the bread is soft and light and chewy. The kind of bread that I like.😊 Next round I will add some herbs into the dough. 

Ingredients:

190gm water included 1egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

210g bread flour

20g Rye flour

30g Wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon instant yeast

Some chopped sundried tomatoes

Method:

Directions using Bread Maker:

1)Place water, egg,  salt, sugar, oil, breadflour, rye and wholemeal into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Dough" function and let it knead for 15mins. After 15min press "Stop"  and hold for few seconds to stop the function.(My BM dough function complete cycle is 25min)

3) After 15min dough function, select "Soft Bread" "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press "Start". My BM soft bread cycle is 2hours 55mins.

While the BM is working the dough, use a chop stick place across the opening of BM and close the cover Leave the chopstick there for 15-20mins.  The cover will not close completely and it leave a gap to let out some heat.  You may omit this process. After 15-20mins, remove the chopstick, close the cover completely and let it function as usual.

4) Just before 2nd beep, approximate at 1 hrs 40min,  by now you would see the dough proof till quite high. Remove the dough and place on a floured working board. Gently spread the dough flat with your cleaned hand like you are making roti prata. Remember to oil your hand so that dough will not stick on your hands. Spread some chopped sundried tomatoes on the dough.  Quickly roll the dough and put it back into the BM without the paddle and let it continues to cook  until the loaf is ready.

Note: This process should not take longer than 2 mins. 

Note: Remove also the paddle. 

5)When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve. 

Traditional Mooncake

Pastry Ingredients:
175g Hong Kong Flour
45g 100%Groundnut oil
100g Golden Syrup
1/2 + 1/8 tsp Alkaline water

Eggwash :
1 eggyolk + 2tsp eggwhite + 1 tbsp water + 1/2 tsp groundnut oil. Mixed well and strained.

Filling :
550g Readymade  Lotus Paste
50g Melon Seed
See notes 4 for custard filling

Methods:
Pre heat oven 175°C
Lay parchment paper on a baking tray.

I am using 68g mould. Made 12 small mooncakes.


1. Place syrup in a bowl. Add alkaline water. Stir until combined. Add oil and continue to stir until combine. Set aside.

2. Sift flour into a big bowl. Add the syrup mixture into flour. Using a spatula combine them into a soft dough. Wrap the dough into a plastic bag or cling wrap and let it rest in fridge for at least an hour. I rest mine in fridge for half a day and sometime overnight.

3. Combine lotus paste  with melon seed. Mix them well combined. Divide the lotus paste filling into 47g. Shape into balls and set aside.

4. After the dough has rested, divide the dough into 21g. If you are new to mooncake making, you can use 25g. But the thinner the pastry is, the better the results.

5. Take a pastry ball and flatten it with your palm(please wear glove for hygiene purpose). Place a lotus ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the lotus filling inside the pastry and roll it into smooth ball. See notes 1.

6. Place the mooncake ball onto the baking tray laid with parchment paper. Use the mooncake mould and press over it gently, then release the mooncake on the tray.  Continue the rest until they are all done

7. Bake the mooncakes in 175°C for 10mins until you see the side is lightly brown as shown in the picture as follow. Remove from oven and let the mooncake cool down for 10min to half an hour. I prefer half hour.  See notes 2.

8. After 10mins or  half hour, eggwash the mooncake with a brush. Return to oven and continue to bake for another 10-15mins or until it is golden brown. See notes 3

Some notes:
1. As the dough is only 30% of the filling, so this will need a little patience to slowly move the pastry dough in order to cover the whole lotus filling. Patience will make perfect 😊 and you will be very happy when you see the results.  Making mooncake is a way of training your patience.😊😊😍. Wrapping process is important to prevent "elephant" leg after baked. Pay more attention and you will be rewarded with beautiful mooncakes.

2. I have done spraying water and without before first bake. However, I do not see any different. So, I will do without the water spraying for traditional mooncake. Unlike custard mooncake, spraying water is a MUST. Spraying some water onto mooncake before bake will prevent mooncake from cracking during baking due to the filling expanded.

3.  Be gentle when eggwash. For mooncake, thin eggwash is better than thick. So, for here it is NOT the more the merrier😊. Less is better😊.

This is the result of too generous with eggwash. The pattern was still very clear after 1st bake. However, 2nd bake after eggwash due to generousity of eggwash, the print of the pattern expanded and became blurr. No worries,  the taste of mooncake is not affected. It is only the look is ruin. 😐

4. I have tried wrapping a piece of homemade custard  into the lotus paste. This combination made very perfect mooncake and it tasted really good. The portion is lotus paste 32g and homemade custard 15g. This become the healthier version of salted eggyolk. For alternative and healthier choice 😊.

Enjoy! Share with me if you have use this recipe. I would be happy to see your mooncakes.😊

You may like to try this recipe too :
1. Snow-skin Mooncake