All posts filed under: Baking

Quick Pastry Finger Food

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Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all have a great start of the week. Today, I have a simple easy quick recipe to share with you. I love making this recipe because the biscuits are great as snacks or party food. You only need few minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to bake. It tastes great and goes well with cocktails, wine or just beer.  One sheet of puff pastry can make tons of it. If you cannot finish it, you can always store them in an airtight container for later. I make these savoury biscuits for myself very often. It’s my perfect afternoon snacks, light and crisp with heaps of sesame seeds and poppy seeds. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. xoxo INGREDIENTS Puff pastry – 1 sheet Paprika Poppy seeds Black sesame seeds White sesame seeds Salt Egg – for egg wash INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 180°C. Let the puff pastry sit at room temperature until it softens a bit. Use a sharp knife to cut the pastry to the size …

Banitsa with Spinch

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When I visited Bulgaria with my husband, I tried banitsa for the first time. It’s a traditional breakfast in Bulgaria. I have heard there are more than 50 versions of banitsa. It could be savoury or sweet. It could be meaty or vegetarian. However, the basic one is made from fillo pastry, feta and eggs. Normally, there are two ways of making it. The easiest way is to layer the fillo pastry and the filling. The alternative is to wrap the filling inside of the fillo and arrange the pastry in a circular pattern. Either way, the result is always good. The banitsa I had in Bulgaria was always very oily. It was way too much oil for my liking. Traditionally, it is made from butter which makes it so delicious. However, I am trying not to have too much butter at the moment. This time, I chose an olive oil only version with spinach and mint. I love the extra flavour from the spinach. Together with feta, it tastes so good. Also, I made it with …

Olive Bread

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Do you love olives? I am a big fan. I never miss my opportunity to add olives in my cooking or baking. I love olive bread (since it has olives in it!). It always smells so good. The aroma is so alluring that I can’t stop eating it. I made this one in a quiet afternoon. Sipping my coffee while I was cutting the onion and frying it to soften it. When I was waiting for the onions to cool down, I chopped the coriander, parsley, and olives. The rest is easy peasy. Combine all the ingredients together and make a dough in a mixing bowl. Then, knead for a while. Let it rise, and bake! When the bread is baked and cooled. I served the slices with some fresh salad and prosciutto. It goes well with fish dip too. Yum…  🙂 INGREDIENTS Red onion – 1, sliced Olive oil – 1 tbsp, to cook the onion Bread flour – 440-450 g Pitted black olives – 80 g Baby caper – 20 g Salt – 1 tsp Dried …

Baklava

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Sorry, guys. I somehow injured my right hand thumb about over a week ago. I haven’t really cooked much ever since, although I have many cooking plans for this month. Anyway, I like Baklava. The only thing stops me from having it is that the traditional one is super sweet. I still remember the one I tried when we visited Istanbul years ago. Super super sweet! Apart from that, I totally fell in love with the buttery and nutty flavor. When I got home from the holiday, I started making my own version of baklava. The homemade baklava suits me and my friends better. It’s not so sweet, but with more nuts mixture and different flavour. I know some may think the process of making baklava is a little bit of tedious. However, for me, it’s like a process of meditation. I would put on some music as well. By the time I finish baking the baklava, the second when I open the oven door, the smell is just sooo amazing. Nothing can compare with that. When you garnish …

Mushroom pies

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Mushroom is one of my favorite food. I love the earthy flavor.The results are always wonderful. I like to stir fry the oyster mushroom with onions or pork. The Swiss brown is great for just baking in the oven with butter, cheese and soy sauce. Button mushrooms are also great for making a sauce or soup. Sometimes, I like to use more than one type of mushroom in one recipe, like this one. However, you don’t have too. My love to pie is certainly growing. A nice quick way to make a weekday dinner.Whenever we are too busy or tired or lazy to cook a proper dinner during the week, I find myself quite often to make a pie with some fresh salads. INGREDIENTS puff pastry sheets – 4 (depends on the size of your pie plate) mushroom – 200g, sliced bacon – 170g, chopped finely onion – 1, diced Leek – 1/2 – 1, sliced grated Parmesan cheese – 2 tablespoon oyster sauce and black pepper to taste olive oil – 1 tablespoon egg – 1, to make egg …

Cucumber muffins

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What do you do when you stress out? How do you deal with all the stress? Exercises, music, reading, eating comfort food? I know what I do. Whenever I am in a stressful situation, I typically would either loss my appetite or eat more food with high sugar content, like cookies, cereals and ice cream. I know, I know. It is really bad. I have done that so many times. I normally end up put on extra kilos. For the past few weeks, I have had a super busy time. Since I was fully aware of my bad habit, I took an action to prevent me from overeating sugar this time. I made some cucumber muffins to be my quick breakfast/snack solution. I wanted something with less sugar and oil, but it had to be nice enough that I was happy to eat. Here we go. These cucumber muffins did help me to go through the stressful time without gaining any extra weight. It has very little oil and sugar. It’s not the normal buttery type of muffin obviously. …

Savoury white sesame flatbread (Shaobing)

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I am not 100% certain flatbread is the appropriate name for Shaobing because it’s not exactly flat and also has round shape. Anyway, it will do for now. It’s one of my favorite breakfast food when I was a kid. My mum made it quite often. It can be sweet or savoury, with filling or without. It has so many layers, crispy outside and soft inside. When you bite, you get a mouthful of sesame aroma. It’s a perfect afternoon snack too with some green tea. Cut it into 4 pieces and share with friends. This recipe is for savoury white sesame Shaobing (flatbread) without filling. You can use black sesame as well. Try it to make sandwiches with ham. 🙂 Makes 10 INGREDIENTS Dough: plain flour – 380g dry yeast – 3/4 teaspoon caster sugar – 15g salt – a pinch olive oil – 40 ml lukewarm water – 205g Savoury Sesame paste: tahini – 95g sesame oil – 10g salt – 1 teaspoon plain flour – 45g paprika – 1 teaspoon five spice powder …

Baked custard mooncake

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With the Mid-Autumn festival (Moon festival) approaching, I set the mood to make mooncakes since last week. Last year, I didn’t make any mooncakes. Why? I can’t really remember. I could come up with some excuses, but I bet you don’t want to hear it. 😛 The Mid-Autumn festival is really a family holiday. It’s the occasion we celebrate family reunion. When I was a little girl, I remember we would have all family members gathering together for the day and have a big dinner. After dinner, my parents normally would take us out to a fire cracker show and a lantern event to do the lantern riddles. My dad always made a lantern for me for the moon festival, either the traditional type (red and round) or the rabbit shape lantern. Writing all this just brings all my childhood memories back. So much fun we had. I even won a riddle reward one year. Sharing a mooncake is a tradition in our family. My mum would always cut one mooncake into four pieces. Then, we …

Mini Maltese pastizzi

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We had a trip to Malta last year. Although at the end we had to cut our stay short because of a family emergency, I will never forget the beautiful country and the yummy pastizzi. Traditionally, it has ricotta or pea flavors. You can find it everywhere in Malta. I remembered we went to Mr. Maxims Pastizzeria to try it out for the first time because it has good reviews on tripadvisor. The truth is I think you can buy a tasty pastizz in any pastry shop or cafes. I can’t remember how many pastizzi I had during our stay, and I have never had so much pastry in such a short time. I created a mini version here because my biggest cookie cutter is only 8 cm. Hope you enjoy it. 🙂 Makes 27 INGREDIENTS 130g dried split peas 1 onion, finely chopped 1 teaspoon curry powder 3 sheets of puff pastry salt and pepper 1 egg to make the egg wash salt and pepper Olive oil round cookie cutter INSTRUCTIONS Soak the dried …

Strawberry Pie with love :)

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Hubby brought back some strawberries from the local fruit shop yesterday. They are so lovely. I can never resist the pink cute pretty fruit. Then, Tuesday was the Chinese Valentine’s day (Qi Xi). I totally forgot about it. Although he wouldn’t know anything about the Chinese Valentine’s day, I  still think I should give him a pleasant surprise. The problem is that today is Saturday and we have a lot of plans as always. If I decide to do it, it has to be simple and quick, sweet too. Here comes the strawberry heart pie. Easy, simple, quick and lovely. It only takes about an hour to prepare and bake it (well, I have the store bought pastry).  It’s not very sweet, but with soft strawberry flavor. You can serve it very a scoop of ice cream or yogurt. INGREDIENTS strawberry – 500g Sugar – 40g Cornstarch – 25g 1 lemon zest 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon rosewater 3 sheets of pre-made puff pastry 1 egg, beaten icing sugar Heart shape cookie cut INSTRUCTIONS Preheat the …