Homemade Ciabatta

I made ciabatta twice so far. The first, I split the dough into two loaves, and sprinkled them with some herbs. They weren't very well  baked, but after a re-bake the next day, the crust was delicious.

This second time, I made a single loaf. I can't say the inside is as I wished (it's more of a cake-like texture), but the crust is good =D. I also added a tablespoon of olive oil in the dough because I read that it would improve the breadcrumb's texture... I am not sure if it was enough...

Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 500 g (4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 1/4 tsp yeast
- 1 tsp salt

Tip: Water shouldn't be too hot. If it feels about the same temperature as your body, or comfortable on your wrist, it's fine.
1. In a bowl, mix water and yeast.
2. Add flour and salt. Mix well.
3. Cover and let rise for 8-12 hours. It will double in size.
4. Put a baking sheet on a pan, and add flour to it.
5. Carefully drop dough onto pan, and roughly give it a slipper shape.
6. Bake at 200°C with a pan of water underneath for steam. I baked for about 30 mins, but bake until the top looks browned.

Enjoy~

Vegan Matcha Cupcakes and Cake

I had this urge to bake something, yesterday... So I went online and looked for a good vegan cake recipe, seeing how my last few batches of cupcakes were too dense. I came across a Very Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes recipe from Whipped Baking, and I knew I just had to try it.

Due to the necessity for speed when dealing with recipes using the chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda, I couldn't just stand there and wait for my first batch of cupcakes to be done before finishing the batter, so I poured it all into a small cake tin.

Recipe~
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsweetened plain soymilk
- 1/2 cup neutral oil
- 2 tbs vanilla extract (I didn't have extract, so I used a vanilla syrup... 2 tbs is fine, and not too strong)
- 1 tbs white or apple cider vinegar (I used white so that it didn't interfere with the matcha)
- matcha powder

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven 180°C
2. Line tin(s)
3. In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
5. Pour the wet into the dry and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
6. Pour into tin(s) and bake around 15 mins for cupcakes, or 25 mins for a cake, or until a toothpick comes out dry.

I used around 30g matcha powder, but the flavor was very subtle... So I'll have to test some more to find the right proportions.

The only non-vegan aspect is in the frosting.

Frosting recipe~
Ingredients:
- 5 tbs flour
- 1 cup milk (I used soymilk)
- vanilla extract
- 1 cup softened butter
- sugar

Procedure:
1. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk. Place on stovetop and heat until thickened. Let cool to room temperature.
2. Add in some vanilla.
3. In a bowl, whip butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
Note: I tend to estimate the amount of sugar differently each time, to ensure it's not too sweet. This time, I made a quarter of a batch of frosting, with about 2 tsp of sugar.
4. Add the completely cooled milk-flour mix and beat until it reaches the consistency of whipped cream.
5. Spread or pipe on cupcakes of choice.

Mug cake

I've been seeing a lot of recipes online for mug cakes, but most of them contained an egg. Then, I came across a couple of blogs (Made from Scratch and Novice Chef) where it was mentioned that it doesn't make sense to put a whole egg into a mug cake when a whole egg is enough for a whole tray of cupcakes. Yay for me, since I didn't want to use egg in the first place.

This picture is from my very first try. I've made it a couple of times afterwards, but they all look the same anyways.

I've tried changing it by using 2 tsp of matcha instead of cocoa powder, but the flavor didn't come out much, so it will be to try for another time.

Mug cake
Ingredients:
- 2 tbs flour
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbs milk
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbs peanut butter or any such substance (others have used nutella. I used speculoos spread)

1. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with a fork, in a mug (make sure the mug is microwaveable).
2. Add the wet ingredients, and mix well, making sure to leave no dry pockets of flour.
3. Drop in the peanut butter (or whichever you're using) and push gently to submerge it in the batter.
4. Microwave for about 1 minute on high (you'll have to test with your microwave...)
5. Enjoy~ (also delicious with a scoop of ice cream)

Cooking spamming~

I've been cooking and baking a lot of late, but never got a chance to post it all up. So this post will be a spam of all I've done lately (dates included)!

March 30, 2013
Chocolate chips and walnut cookie~ Some of the cookies were without chocolate by request. I made a good 100 of them, so that I could share them with a lot of people.

April 1, 2013
Pasta salad~ Macaroni mixed with an avocado-yogurt sauce, topped with minced endives, tomatoes, kidney beans, feta cheese, walnuts, and rucola.

April 2, 2013
Veggie patty~ Made with broccoli, corn, tofu, and a flour-water mix to hold it all together. Coated in breadcrumbs before frying.

April 3, 2013
Apple tart

April 4, 2013
Plateful of snacks... Blood orange, apple, and banana, along with some walnuts and almonds, and some toasted spelt bread with cream cheese.

Had some tortilla wraps for dinner. I made two very frequently eaten dishes in our house: sautéed crumbled tofu and oven-baked zucchini. Put them out with some shredded iceberg lettuce, a can of corn, and a variety of sauces (mayonnaise, honey mustard, and ketchup), and everyone could make their tortilla wraps as they chose to.

Oven-baked zucchini:
Dice or slice your zucchini. Toss with a spoonful of olive oil or oil of choice. If desired, add some Italian seasoning. Bake until desired texture.

Crumbled tofu:
Crumble the tofu in your hands, then drop onto a frying pan with a bit of hot oil. Sauté until colored and dryer. Add some salt or any other seasoning of choice.

April 12, 2013
Cheesecake time! This time, I tried my best to take some progress pictures, but -- as you will be able to tell -- I couldn't snap a shot of each step.

Tiramisu cheesecake
1. Take speculoos cookies, put them in a bag, and crush the bag with a rolling pin until the cookies are crumbs. Add melted butter.

2. Mix until all the crumbs are wet.

3. Press into bottom of a pan covered with a baking sheet. If necessary, use the flat bottom of a glass to help.

4. Next, mix your cheesecake ingredients together. (I would say about 375 g sour cream for 600 g cream chesse)

I flavored this cheesecake with some decaf and a lot of sugar. Also added small pieces of speculoos throughout.

5. Bake.

I used the leftover sour cream as a sweet sour cream topping. Result:

6. Decorate. I have a new decorating syringe, so I tried it out with some whipped cream, and put powdered cocoa on it all.

I made another cheesecake, this one with an almond cookie crust and a vanilla flavor. Topped with whipped cream, caramelized cookie crumbs, sliced almonds, and strawberries.

 And with candles, because it was my birthday cheesecake =D