A Moment of Thanks

Someone sent this to me by email and found it rather encouraging thought I share it here. Like all email chain-mail, I am unable to confirm the author or source. If anyone can shed some light here, I will update accordingly.

Life is hard, and every day is challenging.

You may be wondering just now if you can go on. Perhaps another person is vexing you. Perhaps you've been maligned or criticized. You're discouraged with unanswered prayer. Maybe you're feeling like Elijah under the broom tree, wanting to die.

Try praying with thanksgiving.

A thankful attitude is the cure for many emotional ailments.

Take depression, for example. What is depression or discouragement except the total collapse of thanksgiving in our lives?

Thanksgiving is also the opposite of discontent. It's easy for us to become disgruntled with various factors in our lives; but let's be like one man who was thankful...

• For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
• For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means that I have freedom of speech.
• For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am alive.
• For the teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV because that means he is at home and not on the streets.
• For the taxes that I pay because it means that I'm employed.
• For the lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
• For weariness at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.
• For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.

Thanksgiving is the opposite of anxiety.

Philippians 4:6: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,let your requests be made known to God." Worship and worry cannot live in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive, according to Ruth Graham.

Thanksgiving is also the corrective for sadness and even grief.

While working on a message from Psalm 100, my phone rang. It was from a family dear to me. Our children were about the same age and had played together growing up. The caller told me there had been an accident in the woods, and a portion of a tree had fallen on one of the boys. He'd been pinned for over an hour before the ambulance arrived, and it appeared the young man would be paralyzed from the waist down. His spinal cord had been crushed.

Well, that just destroyed my afternoon. I couldn't get it out of my mind.This was a blond-headed kid, very athletic, full of life; and in one moment,his life was shattered and changed. I wrestled with my own thoughts and emotions until evening, then I placed a call to the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Frankly, I didn't know what to say; but I didn't have to say much at all.

The boy's father ended up comforting me. He said, "Pastor, I want you to know that my wife and I are, first of all,thankful that our son is alive. Second, we're thanking God that it wasn't the upper part of his body that was paralyzed. And thirdly, though we don't understand why, we know God is good and that somehow in the midst of this, He has a plan for our son's life that must go beyond anything we can imagine. Though it's hard and we wish it hadn't happened, we have committed it to our God, for He is good."

Is the race of life wearing you down?

Try a moment of thanks.

Steamed Chocolate Cake

Do you like chocolate? Power Ranger fan? Decided to make a double action pack combo specially for MP and friend, Lukas.

The edible icing deco (my first time using this) which really makes this cake look totally professional! Very easy too, just bake the cake, ice it and lay the edible icing on top. Btw, the icing as you may have guessed, is not tasty at all!

Saw this recipe a long time ago but just never got around to trying it. Guess the main reason is that I am not good at steaming stuff. There are 'tricks' to handle the water vapour but if I can manage this, so can you!

Unless you have a 6 or 7 inch cake tin, please note that this recipe recipe yields a fairly low cake. So if you don't mind short cakes, I would recommend doubling the amount for a taller cake using 7 or 8 inch cake tin.

Used recipe shared by Happy Flour

Ingredients
95g unsalted butter, room temperature
30g dark brown sugar
20g caster sugar (note that original recipe stated 110g)
2 eggs
110g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
30g cocoa powder
60g evaporated milk + 20g water (original recipe requested for 80g evaporated milk)
24g Horlicks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Method

1. Prepare steamer and grease 6 or 7 inch cake tin.
2. Sift dry ingredients together.
3. Mix evaporated milk, horlicks and vanilla extract together, set aside.
4. Cream butter for 2 min, then add salt and sugar and continue to cream mixture until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in eggs slowly.
6. Fold in flour and liquid alternatively until well combine. Do not overmix.
7. Cover cake tin with aluminium foil and steam for 40-50 min or until skewer in middle comes out clean.
8. Tap cake tin light on counter two or three times to settle the bubbles.
9. Cool cake in tin for 10 min and then remove and cool completely on wire rack.
   

For the ganache, I used:
100g dark chocolate
20g unsalted butter

1. Melt the above and stir until smooth.
2. Spread onto cooled cake and decorate.

What did I think of the cake? I'm glad to have tried it and satisfied my curiosity. It is a soft cake but in terms of taste, I still prefer a slice of American Choc Cake.

Roasted Garlic Hummus

This is an easy dip to prepare, especially if you use canned chickpeas. Don't know what took me so long to try this out!!
Note that if you use fresh peas, remember that you'll need to pre-soak the peas before cooking them, so plan accordingly.

Recipe adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients
250g can chickpeas, drained
2 cloves garlic, roasted. You can use fresh but the garlic taste will be sharper!
1/2 lemon (zest and juice)
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Puree everything in a food processor until smooth.
2. Add some water (or more olive oil) to bring it to the consistency that you like.
3. Garnish with a little chopped parsley.

Served the hummus with crunchy toasted slices of ciabatta and some wine! Yummy.

Healthy 'Hulky' Green

This month’s bread baking day (BBD#14) is hosted by Boaz from Grain Power with coloured bread as the theme.

Coloured bread, sounds fun!! Even better that only natural colouring are allowed.

Thought I join in the fun.

My focus was something that was easily available locally. Immediately I thought of blue bread, now that would definitely different. The blue natural colouring would derive from bunga telang (aka blue pea flower). But I had trouble getting my hands on some. And so I abandoned that idea and opted for the second alternative of using screwpine leaves (aka pandan leaf or pandanus). These green leaves are easily available everywhere, even in my garden!! Like all low maintenance plants, they seem to multiply like weeds so we have cut back and only just maintain one bush.

Pandan leaves are popular in Asian dishes and bakes. Not only does it give a lovely aromatic fragrance, their intense green hue also makes them useful as a natural food colouring. Btw, for those overseas, I understand that you can also get these leaves in the frozen section of Asian Supermarkets.

Since coconut is also widely available and used in Asian cooking, I decided to add this to the bread too.

Pandan shot anyone??
Left with low fat coconut milk and right just plain milk.

So here is my contribution, an easy and everyday Pandan and Coconut Milk Bread

Ingredients (Yields 1 loaf)
250g bread flour
30g cake flour
3g salt
3g instant yeast
1 egg (52g)
48g coconut milk
132g milk (blended with 4 leaves of screwpine leaves or pandan leaves and strain the liquid)
20g butter, room temperature

Method

1. Knead all the ingredients together for 10 -15 min, except for the butter which you add after 4 minutes.
   
2. Rest the dough for 1 hour.
   
3. Remove dough and lightly knead it on a lightly floured surface if required. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and rest for 5 min.
   
4. Shape into long thick ropes and braid. Alternatively roll into a round or swiss roll shape.
   
   
5. Place the dough into a greased tin, cover and prove for 1 - 1.5 hours until double in size.
   
   
6. Brush the surface of the dough with some egg glace mixed with 2 tsp of water.


7. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degrees for about 30min. If top browns too quickly, don a tent to avoid burning.
   
8. Rest baked bread in tin for 5 min before removing and completely cooling it on a wire rack.

Needless to say, the bread smelled fantastic - pandan and coconut are a classic combination! Taste wise, the bread was very soft and fluffy, with only a slight hint of coconut and pandan.

So if you are looking for a great scenting bread and like green, this is a good choice!

Finally, a holey slipper worth posting

Going on a roll with failures, I wish to tell you about this challenging courtship. It was disaster 1st then slightly lukewarm before I got even a brief glance. But then the 'brief' moment could translate to a possible chance right???

I’ve had sleepless nights pondering whether it was meant to be….or perhaps not? I mean, how many times would you try and keep trying and keep going, despite the 'cold shoulder' before calling it quits?

I was still determined and probably tipped into an insane obsession!! Ha ha...I could have probably passed as a 'stalker'!!

I couldn’t understand why this above the others? Was it because with the others, they were or became too easy? Had I finally met my match? For a while, I thought so too.

But I didn’t give up, so after 6 attempts in total so far in less than 2 months, despite disappointments, struggle and heartaches, finally, FINALLY large holes in my ciabatta (otherwise known as Italian slipper).

Here is the journey in transition:

1st: Was very flat, more like schnitzel, had large holes! Added too much water. It was quite tough, like a Croc in all sense of the word! *blush*

2nd: Using Bertinet's recipe, I ended up with 'fat' clogs as I was afraid to 'stretch' it. Got some holes but not airy enough. Wasn't satisfied.

3rd: This time, dared to stretch but ended up de-gassing it *darn*!
In my struggle, I knew that it was probably the stretching of the dough into a slipper that let me down. *heavy hands, can’t help it. I searched for tips on how to 'stretch' the dough properly and without U tube but just word instructions to 'stretch it' which probably resulted in me over stretching the dough in a few of my attempts, thus de-gassing it and well, the rest you can guess :(

4th: Stretch it a little but the hole crumbs were rather shy!



5th: Success finally, large airy holes found!! *skips for joy*
Actually I felt that I kind-na fiddled with the dough too much and was afraid it would be another trash feed but thankfully and surprisingly, it turned out well!

6th: To ensure the last try wasn't a once off 'fluke', I decided to have another go. Got airy holes but forgot to turn it over so large holes concentrated at the top. Still good enough for me. *ok, will be giving this bread & me a well earned rest now* :)

Yes, I can finally breadth a sigh, let go and move on. But not without thanking Lisa first for her useful tips and beautiful pictures. Without them, who knows, I could still be stuck in my clueless and very desperate rut? Ha ha

Here are my bench-notes for those who are interested:

• Compared to other bread mixture, this is a highly hydrated (aka ‘wet’) dough so best to use a scrapper to help fold the dough. Folding helps strengthen the structure to the delicate dough.
• No knocking-back with this bread after initial rest – just a few quick folds and rest.
• Do not be afraid to dust the table-top liberally with flour. Can’t be help since dough is rather ‘wet’.
• Oil container before putting in the dough to rest. If you forgot like I did in my 1st successful attempt, its ok it came together in the end.
• Treat it gently to avoid de-gassing.
• After the initial rest, I folded the dough gently on the counter and continued there with the 2nd and 3rd fold & rest (covered under a bowl or food cover) before transferring it to a parchment paper dusted liberally with semolina flour for the final proof.
• Don’t rush the resting period.
• Don’t fiddle with the dough for the 'perfect' look. Its meant to be a little rustic. If possible, try to fold it lengthwise or rectangular in shape.
• The bread dough will look a little flat before going into the oven. Don’t fret, it will ‘bloom’ in the oven!
• Very Important: Just before the final proof, flip the dough to the other side (i.e. top facing down) onto the semolina floured tray or parchment paper, slowly and gently stretching it a little using the scrapper for some back support (do not use rolling pin for this). Dimple all over the top of the dough gently using fingertips. Once in the oven, the dimples will disappear as the bread ‘puffs out’ aka oven spring’. Lisa shares that the “dimpling actually GIVES you more chewy, airy holes in your final loaf.” I think this make sense as the dough has been resting on one side for a while. Turning it over will ensure more equal distribution of large airy and open holes through out the bread instead of them being concentrated at the top.
  

It would have been great to follow the ciabatta recipe used by Lisa but since she only shared her tips, I used Jude's recipe instead.

Here is what I adapted which yields 1 loaf of ciabatta.

Dough Ingredients
60g Liquid levain (100% hydration)
150g All-purpose flour
50g Bread flour
140g Water
2 pinches of instant yeast
5g sea salt

Method, timing and baking as per Jude's blog.
Tips and handling, as per above bench notes.

Good luck!
May you always have lots of large holes in your slipper! :)

To celebrate, I'll be submitting this together with all the slipper-holes for yeast sporting hosted by Susan of WildYeast.

No knead Walnut & Cranberry Bread

It must be the Monday blues that I am finally posting this trial and error.

Since I started experimenting with baking bread about 3 months ago, I’ve had my fair share of ‘failures’. Well actually, more success (otherwise I think I would have probably given up with bread baking) than failures but I suppose the latter keeps me humble!! Ha ha I know that some people would probably rather avoid mentioning such lows but I decided otherwise. With failures you gain knowledge, understanding, how to avoid repeating them in the future and confidence (hm, but what would you do with a bruised ego??! Lolz).

I confess, I tried this bread because it was labelled 'easy'. No knead, what more can you say to that! My earlier no-knead focacia came out well so thought this would work out just fine too.

This No-knead bread looks ok right? But looks can be deceiving. In fact it was barely edible. I've even scribbled under my notes, 'exterior is hard as rocks'!!! The interior was softer (but only slightly) but was rather dry and well just not worth the carbs!! Ha ha

Least to say, it got buried in trash, but not before taking some pictures, serving as a reminder that I need to try this again. Not sure where I went wrong other than a few minutes into kneading it in the BM, the dough went surly. I knew something was a-missed so I stopped the machine immediately. Nevertheless I scooped up the dough and persisted after all it would be a shame since I had already added in the fruits and nuts. Even after resting and proofing it, unfortunately it didn't fair any better.

I used the recipe shared by Marie but it looks like I'll need to go back to try this again. Probably this time, bake it in a dutch pan first then without it.

All in the week for MP

Master Prince will be in Grade/Primary 1 next year.

In transition from pre-school/kindergarten, he has orientation this week. As you could have guessed, he was very excited with the entire experience - going to a bigger school, being a bigger boy (yep, no baby anymore!), etc. Couldn't believe to learn that his classrooms are equipped with air-conditioners! Talk about children being pampered and studying in comfort. Wonder and worry about the future generation double XYZ!

At first he was a little quiet as we were locating his classroom. But once he saw a few familiar faces and friends, he literary lit up and started his 'nonsense' of grappling, kungfu moves, air punching and kicking - probably a boy thing? Needless to say, we were rather disappointed that he got into 'trouble' with the teacher on the first day, only an hour into class!! *eyes roll and head shake*

The other highlight of the week was D misplacing or losing his school folder containing all his books which led to the possibility of having them re-purchased! D spending many hours frantically retracing his steps and questioning his memory in search of the missing pink folder as he thought it was his fault the folder dropped out of MP's bag. Only to discover the next morning that MP had in fact left his folder behind in his desk drawer!!! Poor D. MP got told off for being so forgetful in the first place!

MP's favourite is recess, canteen shop/food and money to buy stuff from there. Well, I've informed Master Prince that he will not be allowed to take money to school as he will be bringing snacks from home (so as to ensure that he eats healthily). Not sure how long this will last, perhaps for the first year??? A far contrast to my primary years when I had pocket money to splurge at canteen junk food! ;p I can still recall the 40cents small bowl of over salted and highly spiked MSG noodles!! Definitely not healthy but its deeply etched in my childhood memory.

A friend told me that some school canteen operators are CROOKS. Why? Because they cheat from unsuspecting Std 1 pupils who are still quite unfamiliar with money and will either conveniently forget about the change or give less!!! Unbelievable!?

Gingersnaps – Totally wicked

My family and I have a soft spot for ginger and molasses. We just love these stuff, as a cookie of course :)

Browsing, I chanced upon Ari’s blogsite in support and review of fellow blogger Anita Chu’s new book, the Field Guide to Cookies (reminds me of Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, the movie of course). Ha ha I was immediately taken by the lovely crackled snaps. They look so good and inviting I could just taste it off the webpage!

I have my own version but Anita’s recipe looked very good. In fact, its pretty similar to the one I usually bake.

I just knew I had to try especially since it is an easy mix and dump type of cookie.

Within minutes, the kitchen was filled with aromatic smell of molasses infused with spices. Couldn’t wait for the cookies rest before sinking my teeth into one.

All yum, passed our taste test. I sprinkled some orange coloured sugar. Wished I had some red and green coloured sugar, I'm sure they'll add a nice touch to the up and coming festive xmas season!! :)

There's something alluring about a tall stack of cookies.

Um, somehow I didn't get the nice wide signature cracks a gingersnap should have. Couldn't help but wonder where I went astray. Hope Anita or any expert or gingersnap baker/lover would be able to clarify. Was the reason contributed to the use of a cookie scoop instead of rolling them into balls??

A great 'kick' to start to the day - coffee and cookies. You simply can't stop at just one!
*Oh dear, now I have none left for teatime snack :p*

Recipe from Anita Chu's Field Guide to Cookies, adapted a little by me
(Yields 62 cookies using a small cookies scoop)

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (Used 290g)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (added extra 1/4 tsp)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger (added extra 3/4 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (scant 1/4 tsp)
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (used 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
3/4 cup softened unsalted butter (used 170g)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (used 90g)
1/2 cup sugar (used 30g soft brown sugar and 30g caster)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark molasses (that’s about 170g but used 140g treacle. Apparently, molasses and treacle is the same. Difference is that the former term is used in the US, while the latter in UK!)
Extra sugar for rolling

1. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and spices into a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla followed by molasses. Mix until combined.
4. Add flour mixture and mix on low just until incorporated.
5. Cover and refrigerate for 30-40 min.
6. In meantime, oven to 160 degrees.
7. Roll 1 1/2 inch balls of dough in the reserved sugar. Place cookies on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating cookie sheets halfway through. For crispy cookies, leave them in for another minute or two. Cool sheets on wire racks for about 5 minutes before transferring cookies directly onto wire racks with a spatula to finish cooling.

Bench notes - Overall this is a great cookie but felt the treacle overpowered the flavour of the spices. Will reduce more next time.

H2H - Going 'Dutch' with a German Sunflower Seed Bread

What do I mean? Let me explain - the brief snippit.

I used two versions of the 'Dutch Crunch' on the same German Bread.

For the 'longer' version...
A friend invited me over to her new house for tea. Since I couldn't come empty handed *for Asians, it can be considered rude visiting a friend without bringing something* or rather I wanted an excuse to try something new I decided on bread since I had most of the ingredients in the pantry.

Decided on the beautiful Sonnenblumenbrot generously shared by Jude.

For the Pâte Fermentée (Pre-fermented Dough)
60g bread flour
40g water
Pinch instant yeast
Pinch salt

For Final Dough
all of the soaker
242g bread flour
124g water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
15g light golden syrup
25g sunflower seeds

Method as described in Jude’s post. Note that I didn't have any cracked rye so I just omitted this and instead added the sunflower seeds into the bread mixture.

Enchanted by the crunch topping contributed by Karen of BakeMyDay and just waiting for the opportune time to use it. This is the ratio I used in orange:

100 gr rice flour (used 25g)
1/4 tsp salt (used a pinch)
1 tsp sugar (used
1/4 tsp)
1/2 tsp yeast (used a pinch)
400 gr boiling water (used about 80g as it was getting a
little watery)
[1 tsp oil] (used a drop or two)

Mix everything to a paste, adding the boiling water while
stirring vigorously (you don't want clumps like I had) and let cool to lukewarm.
Right before you're ready to apply, mix in the oil. Spread your shaped but not
risen bread with the paste, using your fingers or a brush. It will look and feel
like wall paper glue, thick and white opaque.

Cover your shaped loaves and let rest for their second rise and bake off as usual. Depending on how thick your layer it on your bread will get stark or less defined crunchy spots.

To be honest, until I downloaded the pictures I thought the bread may be a little burnt (on the dark side). But viewing the pictures now, I really like the cool golden dark streaks!!
Side note - covered the bread with a tent after 20 min as it was getting too dark.

All the way to my friend's place, the aroma from the bread was just intoxicating. Regretted not making another for the family.

Well since I didn't have an opportunity to try it, I decided to bake one for our house the next day. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the earlier surly Dutch crunch as I thought it was suppose to be a little more 'pasty' - I mean after all I did want to achieve some spots stripes. So for the second bread, I used less water and ended up with a slightly thicker paste, just enough to dilute the rice flour into a smooth mixture.

Version 2 (still had leftovers for another loaf or two)
18g g rice flour
pinch of salt
4 pinches of sugar
pinch of yeast
2 tbsp boiling water (or a little more, sufficient to mix the flour to a smooth paste)
[A drop or two of olive oil]

Yep, got my spotted wish!

The final bake. Hm, interesting look but thought the 'spots' were not dark enough. Reason was that the top of the bread was browning too quickly and so I don on a tent after 10min in the oven.

I liked the bread, the centre was soft and tasty with bits of sunflower seeds. Somehow for the edges, I kept on thinking that it tasted slightly nutty, a bit like 'peanut butter'!! M said I was lucky. Ha ha

The MOST exciting part of this bake was the bread 'singing' as it was cooling - snap and crackle....definitely music to my years! Ha ha, can't blame me for my excitement as this is my first 'musical' bread!

For that reason, I'll be submitting these streaky swingers for yeast sporting by Susan of WildYeast.

One final question....

From Marty (Zebra) of Madagascar: Am I black with white spots stripes or white with black stripes? Lolz

Sweet potato gnocchi

Susan of WildYeast’s post on sweet potato gnocchi looked very tempting. Personally, I haven’t developed much appreciation for this dish. Over the years, I’ve probably tried this dish twice and didn’t think too much of it other than:
- it was very stodgy,
- shouldn't be ordered as a main. Entree is just nice (for me), and
- should always be shared!

Even though Susan's plated morsel looked very tasty, I didn’t plan to make any….or so I thought!

As I was coming back from lunch, I stopped by the organic vegetable seller stall and without thinking, I picked up and paid for a bag of sweet potatoes. I think subconsciously I wanted to give gnocchi another go, after all nothing beats homemade fresh pasta right?

The other main ingredient required is ricotta cheese. Now only certain selected supermarkets stock these. Yes, over here ricotta is not a common product easily found in most supermarkets and you can almost rule out getting fresh ricotta! And so you can imagine how much it would cost just to get a tub! I was pretty shocked too but since I had totally psyched myself on making the gnocchi, I sucked it in and paid almost RM30 for 250g! Disgustingly shocking price isn’t it??? Wouldn't recommend it especially in light of the current financial worldwide crisis.

I did contemplate less costly alternatives of substituting with sour cream or yogurt but since the recipe (and also various others found in the internet) swear by it, how could I refuse? Perhaps someone can share whether they have used other substitutes and got good results?

(Updated - for homemade ricotta, click here. Looks 'simple' but have yet to test it. Hm, wondering whether the same results can be achieved in a humid country? Worried it may go bad as need to hang ricotta out to dry overnight.)

To save some time, I nuked or MW the potatoes for a few minutes before baking them in the oven. The advantage of baking the potatoes cut in half is 2 fold, firstly it cooks faster and secondly it helps to dry out the moisture a little from the potatoes.

The dough came together very nicely and I didn't need additional flour while rolling them out or shaping them! Which is a good thing for a 'light' gnocchi.

Got Master Prince to help me. In fact he really enjoyed rolling the dough into 'snakes' and also 'flattening' them into gnocchi!!

I wasn't sure how original gnocchi are rolled off the fork so here's my adaptation after surfing the net on what to do! After doing a few, I found it was easier rolling them backwards to the stem of the fork rather than forwards. I felt it left a nicer and deeper impression on the gnocchi.


Making gnocchi is a process - I created quite an assembly line to get over the tedious process. Cutting, shaping, boiling and finally setting them aside after they are cooked. Of course, in any production line, it'll be less stressful with extra pair hands so grab any volunteer you can - willing or unwilling!! Ha ha


As for the sauce, I didn’t have any sage so I substituted with some sweet basil. And also used maple syrup and a few dashes of cinnamon. I adapted the recipe here.


Serve it with some parmesan (if required) and a few turns on the pepper mill.

Objectively, the gnocchi was nice - soft and pillowy. However I much prefer the longer cousin savoury versions. But as a change, why not. Confession time - I really enjoyed the cold leftovers more than the warm version, funny tastebuds huh? ;p

For more read on other food bloggers who have made similar recipes:
Erika
KitchenWitch

Spiced Pumpkin Pie

The anchor of the orange week! I originally planned to have a decorative crust centre but it didn't materialize as I didn't have dough :9


A slice of orange heaven served with whipped maple cream! Just delicious (if I say so myself).

I've tried making pumpkin pie before, many years ago. It didn't leave a big impression on my palette, brushing it off to my poor baking skills. Being slightly adventurous this time (and also probably my memory was a little fuzzed up with the passing of time other than recalling vividly that this was YY's favourite type of pie), I decided to give it another go using the same recipe from joyofbaking but updated to include Rose Levy Berenbaum's tip of adding a layer of crushed pecans and gingersnap biscuits onto the unbaked pie crust. The reason for it is not only does it add flavour but also prevents the crust from being soggy.

It proved to be a wise decision to follow (for once) the entire recipe without any of my impromptu improvisation! *blush, erm I tend to get carried away sometimes :)*

The hardest part for me was getting my hands on some gingersnaps - people overseas might be amazed by this statement but it is true - I went to 4 supermarkets before spying a tube of gingersnaps (wondering whether it could it be due to the melamine scare?), even then it was centre filled (not what I wanted) but grabbed it anyway as I didn't want to comb the entire city just for a few pieces of gingersnaps. It would be unwise, even with the drop in fuel price! Besides, running around without guarantee for the final ingredient would be a true distraction if not a major letdown!

The only drama from this bake was D suddenly commenting "What is that strong smell coming from the kitchen?"!! Thinking of the worst - burnt crust aka ruined pie, I ran like a mad woman to the oven. Upon checking and with a breadth of relieve, there were no burnt signs/signals. As I walked back to the living area, D qualified his statement by stating he meant, "What is that wonderful smell wafting from the kitchen?" *shake head, well got my blood pumping for a few seconds!!* Lolz

If you are interested to have a slice or taste, pls click here.

Pumpkin Zuup!

Another easy way to consume pumpkin other than to bake/grill them (with a little butter/olive oil, honey and salt) in the oven is to make some lovely warm soup.

I used the recipe from Jude's blog. After studying the ingredients required, the affair promises to be a fairly simple and straightforward one (well except if you are a nob-cook like me, he he):
- pumpkin puree
- cream
- water (or stock)
- sugar
- salt and pepper (to taste)

Only thing I must say is to hold back the sugar while cooking the soup until almost done, have a taste then add a sprinkling accordingly to your taste. Also you may wish to consider using chicken or vegetable stock for a deeper flavour. But I thought the water worked just fine (didn't want to over power the pumpkin flavour).

Drizzle a little cream just before serving and swirl it around for some 'interesting' patterns.

I like the heart-shape ones :) *roll-eyes, I know*

I suppose there are more creative ways of dressing up soup, but I'll leave that for another day.

Soup was good but I got a little heavy handed with the sugar (Opps) and unfortunately the soup ended on the sweet side which was fine with me but DH and MP were not used to it. I could have added more water but then I didn't want to dilute it too much. Next time (yes, I'll make this again) I might experiment by adding some lemongrass to the pot and maybe coconut milk instead of cream!! Talk about fusion huh? Too much you think? Lolz

Easy Walnut & Pumpkin Bread

Best thing about this recipe is that it is a 'Mix & Dump' type, with little mess or fuss. Music to my ears especially since there's no waiting time involved. The most time consuming part would be to prepare the pumpkin puree. But if you were like me and had some handy tucked away (or if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on canned pumpkin puree (but don't use the pre-seasoned pumpkin pie filling ok), then this recipe will be a breeze, at most 25 min tops, even at a gingerly pace!! Barely time for the oven to warm up, huh!!!

A healthy and wholesome slice of teabread, the flavors came together perfectly.

Ingredients
Adapted from J.Shapter

275g pumpkin puree
75g caster sugar (used brown sugar instead)
1 tsp grated nutmeg (also added a few dashes of cinnamon)
50g butter, melted
3 eggs, lightly beaten
350g bread flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
75g lightly toasted walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Method
Pre-heat oven to 170C.
Mix all the wet ingredients together. Slowly mix in dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
Pour into a prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour, or until golden and starting to shrink from the sides of the tin.
Turn out and cool onto wire rack.

Best savoured in thin slices as it is a moist and dense quick bread. You will certainly enjoy every mouthful - crunchy bits of walnuts, slightly tangy with the spices and of course, lots of pumpkin.

You really can ask for more!! :) They are a great snack and very addictive. Best to keep it far from reach otherwise you could end up finishing the entire loaf in one sitting (hence why I suggested that you slice them up thinly)!!