Cranberry Orange Wholewheat breakfast rolls

Tis the season to be baking. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! Haha, somehow I feel it carries more meaning when you bake for someone during Christmas. Well, it is a season of gifting right? Let's start off baking something with breakfast, Cranberry orange wholewheat breakfast rolls, sounds good isn't it? Saw this lovely recipe from Smitten Kitchen awhile back and had KIV it till now. My cranberries which has been sitting in my freezer was perfect for this recipe! Yeah...like FINALLY! Furthermore, with my new Jamie Oliver Terracotta dish from Tangs, I have all the more reason to bake it. :P

I can't imagine what's better then waking up on Christmas morning to this lovely breakfast. :) The amazing smell alone is able to drag you out of bed. Awesome. Cranberries are just so christmassy...I think it brings out the holiday mood!

I did some modifications to Deb's recipe, replacing plain flour to bread flour and also replacing portion of that bread flour to wholewheat flour. I also replaced the store bought buttermilk with homemade version (lemon + milk) and also added more milk to my recipe, which I think helps made the bread softer. 

With that, let's get down to it shall we?

Recipe for Cranberry Orange Wholewheat breakfast rolls (makes 12-14 rolls or 9X5" dish pan)

4 large egg yolks
1 large whole egg
50g caster sugar
85 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus additional to grease pan
175 ml buttermilk (I used 165ml fresh milk and 10ml fresh lemon juice)
100 ml fresh milk
Zest of 1 large Navel orange, finely grated (to be used in dough and filling, below)
350 g bread flour
120g wholewheat flour
7 grams or 2 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse or kosher salt, or more to taste
1 teaspoon butter to grease the baking dish

Filling:
25g salted butter at room temperature 
150g packed light brown sugar (reduced)
130g fresh cranberries
Orange zest leftover from above

Icing: (Optional)
20 ml+/- orange juice (I used part orange, part lemon juice, because I love the tang)
120g powdered sugar
=> Mix everything together till you get a smooth, thick gooey paste

• First, you weighed out the fresh cranberries and zap it in a blender till it resembles a thick chunky paste. Set aside in the fridge for use later.
•  
• Next you place all ingredients for the main dough into your mixer bowl and start to knead the mixture till it all comes together.
• Continue kneading till it is pulling away from the side of the bowl completely and it is very elastic.
• Grease another big bowl and place the dough in to proof for a good 1.5hrs to let it double in size.
• Once proofed, punched out the air and place roll on a lightly floured work area. Roll out into a large rectangle about the 18" by 12" . 
• Use a spreading knife, butter the whole surface leaving about 1" at the edges using the reserved room temperature butter.
•  
• Then sprinkle evenly the light brown sugar on to the surface of the dough. The follow by scattering the cranberry paste all over the surface as well.
• 

• Gently roll up the dough from the longer end and try to make it as "tight" as possible so you will get really nice swirls in the middle. When you rolled to the other end, pinch and seal the edges nicely.
• Use a sharp knife, divide the log into 2 equal halves, then divide the halves into 2 halves. And repeat till you get 12. Grease the baking dish with some oil and place the rolls in, lining them neatly in rows. Rolls in rows, hah! 
•  
•  Again cover the rolls loosely with plastic wrap and let proof for another hour or so till it doubled in size. Alternatively, you can leave them to proof in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning....nice!
• Preheat the oven to 175C. Once the buns have finished proofing, bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 33 minutes till it is golden brown on the top.
• Remove from oven and let cool a little before tearing into it and chomping it all down. Yes...a little self control is required haha.
•  
  

Be still my heart....I know, such a glorious sight isn't it. And it smells and taste incredible too. :) 

Such a genius idea to use cranberries as the filling I have to say. It's tangy, it's sweet, it's fluffy and it's comforting. You can make it a little more sweeter by coating the top with some icing. I opted for partly lemon juice because I find orange juice is not tangy enough to bring out the citrus flavor. Or you can opt not to put any icing at all of course. But again....

Why not?

Anyway....hope you like my rendition of this amazing recipe and give it a try. I am sure those that stuffed this in their mouths are gonna be super happy. :) And one last important note, make sure you have a nice baking dish to bake this...go treat yourself and grab Jamie Oliver's at Tangs haha!

Till my next Christmas bake....stay happy guys!

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Strawbwerry Apricot Oat Cake with Chia Seeds

This is a much delayed post that I had promise many awhile back. Sincere apologies! Anyway, its always the usual story that I'm always on IG and feel free to come say hi when you are there. As I will be posting less here in my blog sphere unless required. :P Anyway, today's recipe Strawberry Apricot Oat cake with Chia Seeds is really an impromptu recipe that I came up so as to clear off those over stocked fruits that I always impulsively buy every time. :P But the outcome was great, think I will bake it again, perhaps with a different fresh fruit topping.

Ingredients for Strawberry Oat Cake: (Makes one 9x5" loaf or two 7x3.5" loaves)

114g unsalted butter, room temperature

90g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g cake flour

40g oat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp non fat Greek yoghurt (or any plain yoghurt)

8 large strawberries, halved

8 ripe apricots, halved and seed removed

1 tbsp Organic Chia Seeds

• Preheat the oven to 170C, grease and line the baking pan with parchment paper.
• In the mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg one at a time and mix after each addition.
• Add in salt and vanilla extract, mix well.
• Add in the Greek yoghurt,and mix again. Lastly shift in the cake flour and mix well.
• Add the oat flour and Chia seeds last and stir till no lumps.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
• Place the strawberry and apricot halves on top of the batter, alternating one fruit after another.
•  
• Bake in the preheated oven for 38-40 minutes or till the cake tester comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove from oven and let cool on rack completely before slicing.

Showing off the moist soft interior with the fruits still soft and juicy. Love the tender crumbs, so delicious! As I mention earlier, you are most welcome to change the fruit topping to any kind of your preference. :)

Also want to take this opportunity to wish Singapore a very Happy 48th Birthday today! Actually made a strawberry yoghurt dessert in lieu of the occasion, haha!

This is just layering of Passion fruit Greek yoghurt and fresh cut strawberries. The red and white is just like our Singapore flag! Yay! Anyway, have a great long weekend peeps! 

Cheers to Singapore and many more great years to come and prosper!

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Strawberry and Cream Oat Muffins with Chia Seeds

Hi everyone! So sorry for my long absence again. Gosh I gotta stop doing this, disappearing and coming back being all apologetic, haha! But I reckon I will be slowing down in my posts here. No worries, I won't abandon it altogether but will still be lurking around, coming back with some awesome recipes to share, especially those that are in quite high "demand" in my Instagram account. I have to say it ain't easy to maintain two accounts....blog and IG. And since IG is a much easier posting, haha, I naturally lean towards that. Nonetheless will not leave my blog as I promised, so no worries!

Today's recipe is actually inspired by Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal. She has this really awesome recipe of strawberry cream cheese muffins which I made quite awhile back (not too sure have I posted it before, haha) But anyways, I decided to remaking it into a much healthier version, adding oat flour and chia seeds. Ok ok, back up you say? Chia what? Haha, it is the next BIG hit in super-food. Read all about its greatness here. Anyway, here is my baked muffin:

Note that all pictures posted on this post are taken using my iphone5...ehh yeah I kinda didn't expect to post this recipe so didn't even bother to whip out my DSLR, haha. So please pardon the slightly not up to standard qualities ya?  

Okay, here is my version of the recipe:
Ingredients for Strawberry & Cream Oat Muffins with Chia Seeds (Makes 16 of 4 oz cuppies)
1 cup buttermilk (I used 2 tsp of fresh lemon juice, combined with 1 cup fresh milk, rest 5 mins)
113g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
180g cake flour
50g oar flour (50g rolled oats, blend till very fine)
140g light brown sugar
1/2 salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp chia seeds (adjust amount to your liking but do not add too much)  

Cream cheese filling
125g cream cheese, room temperature
1 and 1/2 Tbsp. of liquid from one whole egg that's been beaten lightly
1 tbsp of strawberry jam (optional)
3 tbsp confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
 
1 cup fresh ripe strawberries cut into small chunks

• In a small mixing bowl, add in cream cheese, powder sugar, egg, strawberry jam and vanilla. Stir and mix well till everything comes together into a smooth consistency.
• Chill the cream cheese mixture in the fridge till needed. 
• Preheat the oven to 175C.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar till light and creamy. 
• Crack in an egg at a time, making sure it is well combined before adding the next one.
• Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
• Next shift in half the amount of cake flour, baking powder and salt. Combine well.
• Then add in all of the buttermilk and again mix well.
• Add in the oat flour and combine, then lastly shift in the rest of the cake flour and stir well to combine.
• Sprinkle in the Chia seeds at this point if you are using and stir to mix it in evenly.
• Line the muffin cups and scoop about 1/3 amount of the cake batter in cupcake or muffin liners.
• Then scoop about 1 tsp amount of cream cheese mixture right in the middle of that cake batter.
• Then sprinkle a few chunks of cut up strawberries over the cream cheese. Then cover all this with another 1/3 amount of the cake batter.
• Making sure all these does not fill up more then 80% of the cupcake or muffin liner.
• Repeat till all the liners or tray are filled. Sprinkle some coarse brown sugar over the top for a nice sparkle.
• 
•  Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes till the top is golden brown and the cake tester comes out clean.

There you have it guys! For all those that has been bugging....sorry asking me for this recipe, hahaha! Just kidding! Happy baking ya! Oh wait!

How can me miss out this all important picture of how the cake look inside! Crisp on the outside and yet creamy on the inside. Not too sweet, just right with a slight tang from the fresh strawberries inside. You won't taste the Chia seeds at all if you are worried. It just add a tiny bit of crunch to every bite. ;) Hope it has tempt you enough! Thanks for staying with me and let me know how it turned out for you. ;))

Have a good one all! Cheers!

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Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake (revisited)

Frankly speaking, I love simple bakes like butter cakes, pound or loaf cakes. They are easy enough to whip up within a couple hours and usually helps use up that particular ingredient in the pantry that has been sitting there for days. :P I mean who has time to make frosting and what not all the time, simple is the way to go for a quick craving fix. And save those icing (and calories) for special occasions if you ask me. This time round I have a block of cream cheese and some blueberries that I bought during a sale, sitting beautiful in my fridge for almost a week. Not good. Use them to bake cake? Great! And at the back of my mind, I remember I always, yes almost always, bake this Blueberry cream cheese pound cake recipe years back while I was in States. Yes, where blueberries were dirt cheap, so why not! This lovely recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart. :) So simple and yet so delicious! 

I decided to give this recipe I used for years a slight twig, reduce sugar, increase liquid amount. Result was great because using the sweetness of the blueberries itself instead of loading the cake with caster sugar was much better. And replacing the moisture from the sugar removed with none other then my beloved buttermilk. :9

Ingredients for Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake (Makes a 10 cups / 8" bundt)

325 g cake flour

230 g unsalted butter, room temperature

200 g cream cheese, room temperature

4 large eggs

215 g caster sugar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

Zest of a lemon

1 tsp baking powder

150ml shaken buttermilk

1 cup fresh blueberries (frozen ones can be used too)

• Preheat the oven at 180C and grease the bundt pan thoroughly.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese together till smooth.
• Next add in the caster sugar and salt, beat till light and fluffy. It should take about 4 to 5 minutes. 
• Crack in one egg at a time and mix well after each addition.
• Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest, whisk for a minute.

• Next shift in half of the cake flour and baking powder in. Mix till well combined. Then pour in the buttermilk, mix well again. Lastly, shift in the rest of the cake flour and incorporate well.
• Toss the blueberries in 1 tbsp of plain flour, this will prevent the blueberries from clumping together when mixed into the batter. 
• Now add the blueberries into the batter and gently fold in to combine.

• Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes or till the cake tester comes out clean.

• I would suggest turning the baking pan at mid point of the baking time. Just to ensure the cake is evenly baked out.
• Place cake on the rack to cool before slicing. :9
• Cake can be kept at room temperature for 2 days, 3rd day it should be sent into the fridge if there is still any left. :)

Oh glorious cake! I can have a quarter of this! Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves. :P Let's move on to see how the cake turned out inside. 

Check out the creaminess inside...woooooah! :D Taste? Not overly sweet as expected, which is just right for me. But feel free to up another 30-40 g of caster sugar if you like yours sweeter. Creaminess was spot on, melting emakents on every bite. Much love.

Need I say more? Guess not. You seriously have to try this out. If it is some bake that I have used for years and still further improved on it, must be that good! 

So what's stopping you? Try it out! Guarantee no regrets. ;) Yes, blueberries are still abundant now and creamcheese is still on sale!

Happy baking all!

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Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

Not sure about you, but whenever I bought myself a new toy, I mean new masak toy,  I would get all excited to try out new recipes with it. And this time I bought myself quite a fun and dainty little popsicle mold from Zoku. :) Needless to say, I chose an easy recipe to test out this new toy. Plus I have fresh strawberries in the fridge, I made Strawberry Yoghurt mini pops!

These popsicles just reminds me of baby pacifiers haha! Frankly speaking they are the right size for my kids. They come back from school in the afternoon and craving for some cold treats. And what's better then homemade fruit popsicles verses sodas and store bought ice cream. :P These popsicles are so easy to make, even my 10 year old is capable of making them herself! 

The only thing that deters me from making popsicles at home last time was unmolding them. Soaking in warm water, leaving it to stand at room temperature which is such a torture when you are so craving for one. Or like me...pull and pull like no tomorrow, oops. :P Sometimes the holding stick just slides out on its own.. -_-" But NOT anymore with Zuko! Yay! These are so easy to remove, just pushing the silicon base and it pops right out~! Ok ok, I bought it from TANGS Orchard basement where all the bakeware is. I believe Vivo branch carries it too. ;) *Excited!*

Ingredients for Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

90 g fresh strawberries

200g Greek Honey Yogurt

50g Strawberry Jam (I use New Zealand brand Anathoth Farm from Coldstorage)

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

• I had the other ice cream old from Daiso to standby incase I have more to freeze. 
• First you wash and slice up ~90g of the berries and place in the blender container. Leave some thin slices of the strawberries for decorations later but it is optional.

• Next add in the strawberry jam. Got this Anathonth Strawberry jam recently and love the intensive flavour and chunky fuit in it.

• Then now add in the greek yogurt and that fresh lemon juice.
• Blend at high speed for a minute.

• Place the thinly sliced starberries in the cavity of the Zuko mold. Then gently pout the puree into it. If you look carefully, you will see where you should fill the puree to. The right level which the stick will be able to grip it.

• Place the sticks over and cover all of the cavity.

• Since these popsicles are smaller, it also means the freezing time is reduced as well. I left it for 2 hours and it was already good to go!

• After two hours, remove from freezer. Then using your thumb, push up the silicon mold to release thepopsicales. 

• See! Just a push and it just pops out. Easy peasy right?

Perfect treat on warm days or any day yeah? 

Hope you guys like this super easy and healthy popsicle recipe. You cab change the fruit to any kind you fancy, like mango or even orange. :9

Have fun always

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Raspberry Rose Chiffon with Raspberry Buttercream

I remember seeing this recipe from Swee San's blog awhile back, I knew at that point that I will try that recipe out. Just that I didn't know when haha. :D Okay, back up ... I am talking about this lovely recipe, Raspberry Rose Chiffon Cake.

Not only is the taste is so special, it is such a uniquely elegant flavor that even my picky sisters were impressed. Thanks to Swee San of course...quite the pastry chef! You can hope over to her post to see how she create this lovely recipe. 

I made changes to the recipe since I wanted mine to fit into my 21 cm tube pan. And instead of using whipped cream, I made buttercream for the frosting since I needed to transport it out for a gathering, I wanted a more stable topping. And since I use raspberry jam, I presume the raspberry will be more intense verses the fruit puree itself. In turn I reduced the sugar level as well to maintain the proper sweetness of this cake.

Ingredients for Raspberry Rose Chiffon (Makes a 21 or 22cm tube pan)

5 egg yolks

10 g dried rose buds

70 ml fresh full cream milk

40 g homemade raspberry jam (store bought is fine)

50 ml corn oil

40 g caster sugar

pinch of salt

125 g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites

90g caster sugar

Method: 

• First of all, removed the calyxes of the dried rose buds.

• Then places the rose buds into a blender and chop up the rose petals into fine flakes. 

• In a large mixing bowl, add in these blended rose flakes, follow by egg yolks, caster sugar, milk, raspberry jam, vegetable oil and salt.

• Give that mixture a good stir to combine everything together evenly using a whisk.
• Once the mixture is smooth, sift in the cake flour. Again mix well till the mixture is smooth and no lumps.
• Preheat the oven to 170C. Prepare a 21/22cm tube pan. (DO NOT USE non-stick pans)
• In another mixing bowl add in the egg whites in. Start beating it at high speed and gradually add in the caster sugar. Continue beating till the meringue reaches stiff peaks.

• Gently fold in the whites into the egg yolk mixture in 3 separate mixtures till all is well combined and the colour is uniform and no visible white lumps.

• Pour the batter into the tube pan. Then using a tooth pick or chopstick, give the batter a good swirl to remove any air pockets that might be trapped in the batter.

• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till the cake tester comes out clean.
• Remove the tube pan from the oven and invert it to cool. Let cake to cool completely before removing from mould.
• Once baked, let cool and remove from pan. Set aside for now while you work on that raspberry buttercream.

Recipe for Raspberry Buttercream

Basic Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream (makes ~2cups)

2.5 oz egg whites (~120g)
2.5 oz caster sugar (~120g)
1/4 tsp salt
bean scrapings from 1/2 of a vanilla bean

250g unsalted butter, cut into 2” chunks, room temperature

100g homemade raspberry preserve / jam (store bought is fine too)

Method: 

• Prepare a double boiler with a gentle simmer. In a heat proof bowl, combine egg whites, sugar and salt into it. Mix well but no beating is required. Place the bowl over the double boiler and placing a candy theremaketer to monitor the temperature. 
• Stir once in awhile to prevent the egg white from curdling at sides. Aim to to have the temperature reached at least 146F / 63C for food safety reasons. 
• Once the temperature is reached, remove from heat and beat it till it is silky white. Add vanilla extract and mix well. If the mixture is still hot, place it over a bath of ice water to cool it down.

• Add the butter chunks one piece at a time and continue to beat while doing so. Continue to beat till all the butter has been added and the buttercream is smooth and silken. 

• Use about 1 cup for the cake while you can chill the rest in the fridge for use in future.
• Add in the raspberry jam and beat well till smooth. Chill if necessary if the buttercream is a little too soft. 
• Use it to frost on the cooled chiffon cake as desired. And decorate the cake of course. ;))

There you have it. Just like your favourite chiffon cake recipe, this cake ain't as complex as it sounds. :)

Made this cake for a gathering with my sisters. It was so well received, and everyone said it's such a special flavoured cake. It's fruity, it's floral, it's pleasure to both taste and smell. 

My blog post is never complete without having a closer look of the cake...yeah a sliced version please!

Checkout the fluffy soft interior of the cake.And that sweet pinkish colour is love! 

Trust me, the combination of flavours is the in thing right now. And this combo is awesome. I can't wait to try out combos like Earl Grey Lavender or ....Chocolate Chilli? Maybe not. :P

Have a good week ahead all!

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