Category Archives: Cooking

Making Steamed Buns (Baozi)

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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

Flour for steamed buns

Yeast mix for steamed buns

Yeast mix for steamed buns

Kneading dough for steamed buns

Kneading the dough

Dough after kneading

Dough after kneading

Leaving the dough to rise

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

Steamed bun dough after rising

Adding baking powder to dough

Adding baking powder to dough

Steamed bun dough after kneading in baking powder

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

Rolling out dough for steamed buns

Preparing to add filling

Preparing to add filling

Adding red bean paste

Adding red bean paste

Steamed bun dough with red bean paste

Steamed bun dough with red bean paste

Folding in the dough to close the bun

Folding in the dough to close the bun

Steamed bun dough with all edges folded in

Steamed bun dough with all edges folded in

Sealing a steamed bun by twisting the top off

Sealing a steamed bun by twisting the top off

Sealed steamed bun

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

Sealed steamed bun left to rise

Steamed buns after rising

Steamed buns after rising

Steamed buns in the steamer ready for cooking

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.

Making Better Yoghurt

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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

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.

My Basic Yoghurt Recipe

  • almost 1 litre UHT skim milk
  • 1/2 cup powdered full cream milk
  • 2 tablespoons plain Easiyo sachet
  1. Mix all the ingredients in the yoghurt jar and shake well.
  2. Put the yoghurt jar in the Easiyo thermos with hot water.
  3. Leave for 8-14 hours.

Making Croissants: The Finished Product

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Our croissants are out of the oven, and smell delicious.

We will, of course, enjoy one fresh from the oven, and the rest will go in the freezer for many wonderful weekend breakfasts.

Cooked croissants

Cooked croissants

The Recipe

If you want to make your own croissants, I used a recipe by Pino Ficara. I recommend watching the video before you start.

The Rest of the Series

This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:

  1. Rolling Butter;
  2. Preparing the Dough;
  3. Layering the Butter;
  4. Shaping and Baking;
  5. The Finished Product.

Making Croissants: Shaping and Baking

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Our first batch of croissants have just gone into the oven.

The warm weather delayed us. The morning sun streaming through the window made it too hot to handle the dough. It was melting in our hands thanks to the high butter content. This afternoon, we have had more luck.

Layered croissant dough

Layered croissant dough

We rolled out the parcels dough, shaped it into croissants and pain aux chocolat, and left it for the final rise. Croissants start out as long triangles of dough, which are rolled up and tucked into their crescent shape. Pain aux chocolat are simple rectangles with a piece of dark chocolate rolled in the middle.

Rolled and cut croissant dough

Rolled and cut croissant dough

The warm weather has at least been helpful with the rising; by the time we finished shaping our last batch of dough, the first croissants we made were nicely risen. We gave them a final coating of egg wash before going in the oven.

Shaped croissants and pain aux chocolat

Shaped croissants and pain aux chocolat

The Rest of the Series

This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:

  1. Rolling Butter;
  2. Preparing the Dough;
  3. Layering the Butter;
  4. Shaping and Baking;
  5. The Finished Product.

Making Croissants: Layering the Butter

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The yeast in the dough has spent the day working away, and turned the cling film parcel into a balloon.

Risen croissant dough

Risen croissant dough

The next step is layering the dough and butter. This is how all those wonderfully flaky layers are created in the finished croissants.

Rolled butter layed on croissant dough

Rolled butter layed on croissant dough

We divided our dough into four portions to make it easier to work with. Using a lot of flour, we rolled it out into a large rectangle, then layered the butter sheets on top, and folded it up like a letter. Another round of rolling and folding, and it’s wrapped up in cling film again, and put in the fridge overnight.

Rolled and layered croissant dough

Rolled and layered croissant dough

We have four parcels in the fridge ready to be turned into croissants tomorrow morning.

Rolled and layered croissant dough in fridge

Rolled and layered croissant dough in fridge

The Rest of the Series

This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:

  1. Rolling Butter;
  2. Preparing the Dough;
  3. Layering the Butter;
  4. Shaping and Baking;
  5. The Finished Product.

Making Croissants: Preparing the Dough

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The first thing on the agenda this morning was making the croissant dough.

Bowls of milk and yeast; flour, sugar, and salt

Bowls of milk and yeast; flour, sugar, and salt

The dough is a simple mix of warm milk, yeast, flour, sugar, and salt. After letting the yeast dissolve in the milk, everything is mixed together until it becomes a very sticky, elastic dough.

Adding yeast to warm milk

Adding yeast to warm milk

Then is the fun part; wrapping it all up in lots of cling film. The cling film is the only thing preventing a great dough explosion in your fridge, so you don’t want to skimp.

Croissant dough

Croissant dough

Croissant dough wrapped in cling film

Croissant dough wrapped in cling film

Our dough will now spend eight hours in the fridge while the yeast  does its thing. I’ll be back later when we layer the butter with the dough.

The Rest of the Series

This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:

  1. Rolling Butter;
  2. Preparing the Dough;
  3. Layering the Butter;
  4. Shaping and Baking;
  5. The Finished Product.

Making Croissants: Rolling Butter

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This evening we started the three-day process of making croissants.

Croissants were a regular weekend breakfast treat when we lived in France. We are yet to find any locally that compare, so we started making our own. This will be our second batch, and I invite you join us on this croissant-making adventure.

Rolling the Butter

Sheets of rolled butter

Sheets of rolled butter

We have started by rolling out the butter. You take blocks of butter and roll it out into thin sheets. I was absolutely amazed the first time we managed to roll out a sheet of butter; I didn’t expect it to go well. Graham has mastered the art of butter rolling, and we have 12 sheets of butter in the fridge chilling for tomorrow.

Block of butter

Block of butter

Sheets of rolled butter

Sheets of rolled butter

The Rest of the Series

This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:

  1. Rolling Butter;
  2. Preparing the Dough;
  3. Layering the Butter;
  4. Shaping and Baking;
  5. The Finished Product.

Lemon Frozen Yoghurt

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We have finished eating the delicious lemon frozen yoghurt we made recently. This was my second frozen yoghurt attempt. My first attempt was vanilla, and while nice, it was nowhere near as exciting as the lemon.

Home made frozen yoghurt

Home made frozen yoghurt

I used this recipe from David Lebovitz for my lemon frozen yoghurt, without the citric acid. I used 1kg of my home made full cream yoghurt, which I drained for a couple of hours to make it thicker.

We don’t have an ice-cream machine. I pour the yoghurt mixture into a plastic container with a lid, and put it in the freezer. Once it starts to freeze, I get it out every hour or so and mix it with a stick blender. The texture is a little icy, not as smooth and creamy as ice-cream, but still soft enough to scoop easily.

Home Made Yoghurt

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I’ve spent a few weeks experimenting with home made yoghurt. Yoghurt is not something I imagined you could make at home. I assumed you needed all sorts of special industrial equipment. I bought an Easiyo yoghurt maker, which is incredibly simple. It is basically a big thermos, which uses hot water to culture the yoghurt.

I have tried a few different starter cultures for my yoghurt, and so far they’ve all been successful, but with slight variations in flavour and consistency. I’ve been surprised to notice pockets of liquid in some batches, but this doesn’t seem to impair the yoghurt.

Experiment 1: Easiyo sachet

Being new to yoghurt making, I decided to start with an Easiyo sachet. It couldn’t be easier. I mixed the sachet with water, in the yoghurt jar, and put the jar in the yoghurt maker. Seven hours later I had yoghurt.

Experiment 2: Using previous yoghurt as starter

  • almost 1 litre UHT skim milk at room temperature;
  • 2/3 cup skim milk powder;
  • 2 Tbs of plain yoghurt.

This is the method I use most often. I use some yoghurt from my previous batch as the starter for the next batch. Apparently the yoghurt cultures weaken over time, so I use new starter every four batches or so. For my new starter I use some of the Easiyo powder (see experiment 3 below).

Experiment 3: Using Easiyo powder as a starter

  • almost 1 litre UHT skim milk at room temperature;
  • 2/3 cup skim milk powder;
  • 2 Tbs of plain Easiyo powder.

I keep the left over Easiyo powder sealed in the fridge. I have used it twice now, and both times have worked.

Experiment 4: Full cream yoghurt

  • almost 1 litre UHT milk at room temperature;
  • 2/3 cup skim milk powder;
  • 2 Tbs of plain Easiyo powder.

I like skim yoghurt with my breakfast, but I made a batch of full cream yoghurt to turn into frozen yoghurt (it’s in the freezer now, so more on that later). The full cream yoghurt came out much thicker and creamier than my usual skim variety. I think I’ll buy full cream milk powder next time and see how that affects my skim yoghurt.

Yoghurt making process

The general process for making yoghurt is the same regardless of the method you choose:

  1. Half fill the yoghurt jar with milk.
  2. Add the other ingredients and stir well. Don’t shake it at this stage, or you will end up with lots of foam.
  3. Fill the jar to the top with milk, and shake well.
  4. Place the jar in the yoghurt maker with hot water.
  5. Leave for 6-24 hours, until set. I tend to make my yoghurt overnight, so I leave it for 10-12 hours .
  6. Refrigerate.

Getting started

I did lots of research before I started making yoghurt. There are a range of yoghurt makers available, and lots of different methods for making yoghurt. I was keen to avoid yoghurt makers that needed electricity, and methods that required heating the milk to certain temperatures.

I found the following forums helpful in getting started:

My Mille Feuille Experiment (and Recipe)

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Our French dessert for this weekend was mille feuille. Mille feuille is a French version of vanilla slice, made with layers of pastry and crème pâtissière. It was one of our regular favourites in France.

My search for a recipe turned up all sorts of sweet and savoury treats involving layers of pastry. I couldn’t find a recipe that resembled the mille feuille I remembered from France, so I cobbled one together, with tasty results.

Assembling mille feuille

Assembling mille feuille

The Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ sheets of rolled frozen puff pastry
  • 1 ¼ cups of milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • ¼ cup caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoon plain flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornflour
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

The Pastry

  1. Cut the whole sheet of pastry in half so there are three equal rectangles.
  2. Put the pastry sheets on a baking tray covered in baking paper.
  3. Bake at 200°C until they are brown.
  4. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

I have never used puff pastry before, so I followed the cooking directions on the back of the packet.

I had read that pricking the pastry all over with a fork prevented it from rising too much. I tried this, but my pastry sheets puffed up like balloons. Not a problem, I just squashed them flat once they were cool.

The Crème Pâtissière

  1. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornflour. I use the whisk attachment on my stick mixer for this.
  2. Heat the milk in saucepan until it is just boiling.
  3. With the whisk on, slowly add the hot milk and vanilla to the egg mixture until it is all mixed in.
  4. Put the mixture back in the saucepan. Heat it, stiring constantly, until it boils and thickens. Continue to stir it over the heat until it seems to have stopped thickening. This can take a minute or two.
  5. Remove it from the heat, and leave it to cool.

If you are not familiar with crème pâtissière, or pastry cream, it is basically custard. I made crème pâtissière a couple of weeks ago for profiteroles, and it remained quite liquid. The crème pâtissière for mille feuille needs to be thick so it doesn’t all ooze out. I thought a recipe with more flour would make a thicker crème pâtissière, and it seemed to work. But I also cooked this version for longer, so perhaps that made a difference too.

Assembling the Mille Feuille

  1. Put one sheet of pastry on a tray.
  2. Spread the pastry with half of the crème pâtissière.
  3. Top with the second sheet of pastry, and spread with the remaining crème pâtissière.
  4. Top with the final sheet of pastry.
  5. Dust with icing sugar, or ice with plain icing.
  6. Cut into four pieces and enjoy.

Thanks

Thank you to Sarah Cooks and Joy of Baking for getting me started with my mille feuille recipe.