Sunday, July 21, 2013

Focaccia bread

 
 
Kuali from The Star has collaborated with MIB (Malaysian Institute of Baking) for the past 2 years in which various baking classes has been held. Due to overwhelming responses, participants can only register for the baking class on a specific day at a specific given time. I wasn't very lucky in getting myself registered but I got lucky last week. I managed to get a place for the Saturday morning class which also happens to be the last baking class for year 2013. The remaining classes for year 2013 will be cooking class instead.
 
 
 
I'm not a great fan of focaccia bread as I'm more towards a sweet bread person. However this class will be teaching 2 other recipes and I thought to myself, why the hell not! I enjoyed the class tremendously. Don Yong himself, the founder of MIB, conducted the class. We spent first an hour or so on introduction and theory. The theoretical knowledge in baking is what I currently lack but of course, the next thing I lack is patience.
 
 
 
I find that bread baking is a splendid way to nurture one's patience. I still have a long road ahead to learn on this. This is the 1st time I made bread using a mixer instead of a bread machine or kneading  with my own hands. He taught us using the 'sponge' method, which is something pretty new to me. Bread came out looking great and tasted great as well. But like I said, I'm not much of a fan for savory bread so... I guess I won't be making this bread very often in the later days.
 
 
 
A friend of mine knew I was going for the class and asked the share the recipe. Well.. here it is..

Ingredients for sponge :
Bread flour  420g
Instant Yeast  4g
Cold Water  244g

Ingredients for dough :
Bread flour  180g
Instant dry yeast  6g
Malt Flour  24g
Oregano  4g
Rosemary  2g
Black pepper  2g
Salt  9g
Bread Improver (optional)  9g
Cold water  132g
Oven dried tomatoes  60g
Olive oil  48g
 
 
Method:
  1. Prepare the sponge and ferment for 3 hours at room temperature, which is about 27C.
  2. In an electric mixer, using a dough hook at slow speed, blend all the dry ingredients together for 1 minute.
  3. Add water, dried tomatoes and sponge on slow speed for 2 minutes. Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes and add olive oil. Mix for another 10- minutes on medium speed until dough is fully developed.
  4. Place dough on floured bench and cover with a plastic sheet for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 6 pieces, each 190g.
  5. Roll out the dough to 6mm thick and place in a tray.
  6. Proof dough for 30 minutes and make shallo9w indentations all over dough with your fingertips, then brush with olive oil, letting it pool in indentations.
  7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 220C. Once baked, brush with olive oil.
 
 
 

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Sausage galore !!

 
 
It's a cool lazy Saturday evening and I'd like to have a simple dinner at home. Afterall, I have zero idea what to eat out. Sausages and salad should be a rather quick fix for dinner. I took out my Happycall pan lookalike which I bought from Amway six months ago. The pan finally made its first "debut" to my old stove.

 
 
 
See the oil splattered all over the top of the pan? Well well well... it sure saved me the trouble of wiping the walls and mopping the floor. Besides, it was kinda fun turning the pan every now and then. My 3 variants of sausages : chorizo, Italian sausage and wine sausage were cooked to perfection and all done in less than 15 mins. I've steamed a sweet potato to replace corn on cob. Fresh vegetables are inevitable if one is having sausages.
 


Diner's done and now dishes are in the sink, waiting to be washed.... by someone. Who do you think it would be, huh??