Sticky Biscuits

If you fancy something like cinnamon rolls but don't have time or couldn't be bothered to make a proper yeasted dough, then this recipe is an ideal solution... And in my case (and opinion)what made these biscuits fantastic is the glaze which partly absorbed into the biscuits and provided such a beautiful taste ! Heaven...hhhmmmm

The recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients

For the Glaze

1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind

For the Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup whole milk

For the Filling
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

MAKE THE GLAZE

1. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. In a small, heavy saucepan, bring the glaze ingredients to a boil, spoon the mixture into the prepared pan so it completely covers the bottom, and set aside.

MAKE THE BISCUITS

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).

2. To make the biscuits, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the oil and milk till well blended, pour into the well, and stir just till a soft dough forms.

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and roll into an 18 x 10-inch rectangle.

MAKE THE FILLING AND ARRANGE

1. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the filling ingredients, then sprinkle evenly over the rectangle. Starting from the short side, roll up the rectangle jelly-roll style into an 18-inch-long log, slice into 9 biscuits 2-inches thick, arrange the biscuits cut side down in 3 rows in the glazed pan, and bake till puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

2. Invert the pan immediately onto a large platter so the glaze runs down over the biscuits and serve hot/warm.

Marmalade Muffins

It's dead easy to make these muffins! The recipe is from thepioneerwoman site where lots of excellent recipes and great photos could be found..

Although the original recipe is called 'good morning muffin' but I thought it could be good at anytime of the day..so I respectfully decided to call it different from the original as seen. As for the result, I could say that sometimes you don't have to make much effort to get such a wonderful thing out of the oven !


Here is my adapted recipe (makes 12 muffins)

2 cups self-raising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
2 tbsp butter
1 cups orange marmalade
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 eggs

Topping:

5 tbsp demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
10 g melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together the flour,salt and baking powder. Place in a mixing bowl.
Use a pastry cutter to mix in the shortening and butter.
Mix marmalade, orange juice, egg and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour into dry ingredients.
Mix all ingredients together gently, using fewer than 10 large strokes.
In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients.
Fill muffin pans with batter. Sprinkle topping ingredients over each muffin.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until done. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.

Olive and Onion Bread

I meant to make 'Olive Pie' that I've seen the recipe on Culinary Saint but I failed to handle with a dough done according to the original recipe which was far too dry and stiff to gather and knead on the early step..so I ended up adding more water and made the dough look rather like bread than pie. Anyway, I stuck to the original recipe for the remaining steps !

As expected, the outcome looked nothing close to the original one ( which called 'pie' ) but I was still pleased with my work and prefer to call it bread, not pie...

Ingredients:

240 g bread flour
60 g whole wheat flour
1+1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
180-200 ml lukewarm water
1/4 cup black olives
dried mint
dries parsley
1/4 onion, chopped

Method

1. Mix 1/2 cup of water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl, leave until bubbles appear on surface for 10 minutes. Stir the flours and salt in a mixing bowl, add the yeast mixture, olive oil and the remaining water to form a ball , then knead very well for about 15 minutes until you have a very elastic, not too thick dough. Let it stand for about one hour. Add the herbs, chopped onion and olives. Knead again to make everything incorperated, gather the dough into a ball and shape it into an oval shape. Place it on a baking tray, cover and let it rise for 20-30 minutes.

2.Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius, when the dough is ready, brush the top with olive oil and make 3 slashed on top, then bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180 Celsius and bake for another 15-20 minutes until you get a golden , brownish color. Cool on a wire rack before slicing and serve.







































PS. This bread will also be posted to yeastspotting hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast..

Sesame Wine Cookies

I've seen these cookies posted on Culinary Saint's blog which the word 'wine' simply got my attention.. Since the post doesn't have much of explaination,so I kind of followed through the recipe using my own common sense..

The method is dead simple while the taste appeared to be interesting ! It's slightly sweet and crispy, yet there's something about it that couldn't be explained.. And I decided to call it differently from the original,'sesame wine rusks' because I found the texture ( of what I got) is more like a cookie than a rusk..

In my opinion, this is another interesting recipe worth your try !

Ingredients:

300 g self raising flour
75 ml red wine
75 ml canola oil
5 tbsp vegetable shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1 scant tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sesame seeds

Method

Mix all ingredients but the sesame seeds in a bowl, knead the dough very well and then make dough into small rings (6 -7 cm diameter) or any other shape or size you like and finally dip them into the sesame seeds (on one side only).
Then place them onto a baking tray and bake them in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes.Remove from the oven, let them cool on wire rack.

Orange-scented Raisin Cardamom Pastry Rolls

It took me a while to overcome many distractions and laziness and get back to blogging..so many things so little time !

Now talking about these pastry rolls, I got inspired by this post from Kelly of Sass&Veracity which is interesting that having cardamom as an ingredient for the dough.. anyway,I chose to make it in a different shape with a different filling since I was not in the mood to play with chocolate !

As a first try of making a pastry dough, although it's not as good as Delifrance's ones but I thought it was considerably good and the filling was a real satisfaction !

The recipe

For the pastry…

1 lg. eggs
6 tbsp. warm water
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 heaped tsp. salt
2 tsp sugar
1 c. unsalted butter, divided
3/4 tsp ground cardamom

For the filling…

50 g sugar
2-3 tbsp orange zest
handfuls of raisins

1 egg+milk for egg wash

In a small bowl, beat the eggs well. Add the warm water (105-115 degrees F) and sprinkle over the yeast. Stir to dissolve the yeast and set aside for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift the flour and add the salt, sugar, and cardamom. Cut 1/4 c. of the cold butter into small cubes and mix it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, or with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the yeast liquid. With a wooden spoon, working from the center and circling outward, incorporate the flour gradually until it is all combined. With a floured hand, knead the mixture in the bowl into a smooth dough, about 2 minutes. Form a ball and cover, allowing it to rest int the fridge about 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, with a rolling pin, beat the remaining cold butter between sheets of plastic wrap until it is soft and creamy and set aside.

On a very lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a loose rectangle, about 3/8″ thick. With an offset spatula, spread butter over 2/3’s of the rectangle. Fold the unbuttered third of the rectangle over the center third. Then fold the remaining buttered third over the other two. You now have three layers of dough with butter in between two of them.Turn the dough so that the long side is perpendicular to you. This is a quarter turn. Roll it into another rectangle, about 1/4″ thick. Fold it into thirds exactly as before but no butter is added this time. Complete 3 more turns. Sprinkle it very lightly with flour, wrap well in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours.


Toward the end of the chilling time, make the filling by rubbing sugar and zest together with fingertips.Set aside.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll the chilled dough to 3/8″ thickness and a rectangle about 25″ x 10″. Spread the filling over the dough. Sprinkle the raisins over the filling.Beginning at the nearest long end, tightly roll the dough away, creating a cyliner. Cut the dough with a pastry cutter into 1-1.5 inches pieces, Place the pieces ( cut-side up) on a parchment covered baking sheet. Cover and let it rise for 45 minutes. Brush with egg wash and bake for 15-18 minutes, turning the pastry once in the middle of the baking time. It should be well-puffed and very deep brown when it is done. Allow it to cool for few minutes on the baking sheet before moving it to a rack to cool a bit more before serving.































PS. This will also be posted to yeastspottng, a bread making event run by Susan of Wild Yeast which this week specially hosted by Zorra of kochtopf