Megan Miln

Cooking — Comments Off
04
Apr 10

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. I hope you are enjoying the Easter long weekend.

Homemade hot cross buns.

Europe — Comments Off
13
Mar 10

Applying EU Energy Star Requirements to an iMac

My latest European Union (EU) post is available on the DssW blog.

This week, I looked how the EU Energy Star specifications apply to an Apple iMac. I walked through the calculations used to determine whether a computer meets the Energy Star requirements, and compared my results to the Energy Star database.

Cooking — Comments Off
07
Mar 10

Making Steamed Buns (Baozi)

Yesterday, while the rain poured down, I decided to make a batch of Chinese steamed buns, or Baozi. Our favourite variety are filled with sweet red bean paste. The buns are like fluffy white clouds with a gooey sweet centre.

The first step is making the dough. The dough is a simple mix of flour, water, yeast, sugar, and salt.

Flour for steamed buns

Yeast mix for steamed buns

Kneading the dough

Dough after kneading

Leaving the dough to rise

After leaving the dough to rise, you add baking powder to it before shaping the buns.

Steamed bun dough after rising

Adding baking powder to dough

Steamed bun dough after kneading in baking powder

The dough is rolled out into small circles. You put some filling in the centre (in this case, some red bean paste I picked up from our local Asian supermarket), and then fold the edges together to seal the filling inside the dough. Twisting a piece of dough off the top of the bun makes sure it is well sealed.

Rolling out dough for steamed buns

Preparing to add filling

Adding red bean paste

Steamed bun dough with red bean paste

Folding in the dough to close the bun

Steamed bun dough with all edges folded in

Sealing a steamed bun by twisting the top off

Sealed steamed bun

The buns are placed on squares of baking paper and left the rise again before steaming them. The baking paper stops the buns from sticking to the steamer.

Sealed steamed bun left to rise

Steamed buns after rising

Steamed buns in the steamer ready for cooking

We keep our left over buns in the freezer and reheat them in the microwave as we want them.

You can find the recipe I used here.

Cooking — Comments Off
06
Mar 10

Making Better Yoghurt

I have been experimenting with my home made yogurt for a few months now, and thought I would share some of the improvements I have discovered. I use an Easiyo yoghurt maker.

Yoghurt maker

Adding Milk Powder

I add half a cup of full cream milk powder to almost 1 litre of skim milk for my yoghurt. I was originally using skim milk powder, but the full cream milk powder gives consistently thicker yoghurt.

Using Powdered Starter

My preferred starter is the Easiyo sachets. The sachets are designed to be used with water, but I use two generous tablespoons of the sachet with skim milk.

I was originally using some yoghurt from my previous batch to make each new batch. I found the results highly variable; sometimes the yoghurt wouldn’t set properly, and sometimes it had hidden pockets of liquid in it.

Using the powdered starter gives more consistent results. I have also had success freezing some of the yogurt from good batches and using the yoghurt ice cubes as starter.