Panda-monium Pand Bread

This was an utterly cute bread-making project!

The bread was soft and yummy, but what made the entire project special was cutting into the loaf to reveal a Panda looking out at you, from a field of green.  And no two Panda bread look the same (nor does each slice for that matter!) - after all, the proving of the bread is organic, and there's no guarantee that during the proving the Panda would look like what it would. :)

The method for making Panda bread can be very easily picked up here:

The video is in Cantonese, but the video is well-made and breezy... it was clear that the ladies had lots of fun making this bread. :)  No bread machines were used, so do try it out.

If you'd like to try making this bread, I'm posting the recipe below, with my modifications in brackets:

Panda Bread

Ingredients
300g Bread Flour (I used mix of atta flour and plain flour to get 300g on the kitchen scale... that's why my Panda's a little more brown than white. ;) )
30g Sugar
Milk + 1 egg yolk = 210g
3/4 tbsp salt
18g unsalted butter, softened (I used salted butter.)
1 tbsp green tea powder mixed with 2 tsp hot water (I used 2 tsp of Chlorophyll powder because that was the only green colouring I had on hand; you could use green food colouring instead if you have them on-hand)
8g cocoa powder
1/2 sachet active dried yeast

Method:

1. Beat the egg-milk mixture lightly, and then microwave it for about 30 sec.  Add sugar and yeast and leave the liquid for 10 minutes to froth.  If the mixture doesn't froth after 15 minutes, your liquid is probably too hot, which killed the yeast, or the yeast has expired.  If there's froth, your dough will definitely rise. ;)
2. In a bowl, mix the flour and salt.  Add in the liquid and butter, and stir everything until it comes together.
3. Knead into dough ball in bowl and then pour out onto a floured countertop and knead for at least 8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
4. Divide dough into 3 portions: One portion is a half; then from the leftover half, divide into thirds, and cut out a third.  You should get 1/2 (big), 1/3 (medium), 1/6 (small) pieces.
5. The Big portion, colour it green.  I used Chlorophyll powder, but you could use green tea powder or even green food colouring. Once the colour is kneaded through, roll it into a ball, grease it and then cover it to rest.
6. The medium portion, leave it plain - this would be the white face of the Panda.  Just roll it into a ball, cover and rest.
7. The smallest portion, colour it with the cocoa powder.  If you're out of cocoa powder, you could use black food colouring.  There are those who would use charcoal powder too, which is available in the baking shops here.  Once kneaded through, roll it into a ball, cover it and rest.
8. Place all 3 doughs in a warm place to rise until they are doubled it size.  I usually put my doughs to prove in the oven with a bowl of warm water to create a warm atmosphere.  This first proving takes about 30mins to 2 hours - but essentially, you're waiting for the dough to double in size.
9. After the dough has risen, cut the black dough into 4 equal pieces, green dough into 2 pieces (1/3 and 2/3), and the plain dough into 2 pieces (3/5 + 2/5).
10. Begin with the largest green dough piece. (See Video, about 4.21min mark.) Roll it out into a rectangle that would fit into your loaf pan, and then place the longish green dough piece in the centre, followed by 2 of the black pieces by its side.  In the video, the lady rolled out the 2 black doughs, then sliced off a bit of the green dough and put that piece in the centre.)  The first layer is essentially the same idea.
11. Next, roll out the larger white piece in a rectangle and place this over the first layer.  Then roll the other white piece and place it in the middle of the white dough like this:
12. Place 2 long rolls of black dough at the sides of the middle piece, and then seal up this portion with the larger rectangle piece along the top.
13. Finally, seal the entire loaf with the green dough in like manner.  (See the video.) Make sure the dough seals in everything.
14. Prove the loaf until it is doubled in size, then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200deg C, for about 25 to 30 mins.

Ta-da!

Into lunch bags...

No two Pandas alike!

Happy Panda-fun!

DIY Pizza Party!

Individual DIY Pizzas made by my guests

DIY Pizza Party is easy to do... and when you've got a perfect recipe for homemade pizza dough, things are so much simpler! =)

Brenda's Pizza Dough:

Ingredients:

500g Plain Flour, sifted

1 sachet Instant Yeast

300ml Lukewarm Water

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp dried Oregano

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Olive Oil

Method:

1. Mix the yeast in the water with 3 tablespoons of the sifted flour. Set it aside for 15 minutes for the yeast to activate.
2. In a bowl add the oregano, garlic powder and salt to the flour. Make a well in the flour and pour the activated yeast mixture in.  The activated yeast mixture should smell yeasty and look foamy.  Use a spoon to mix the flour with the liquid so that it comes together as a dough.
3. Turn it out onto a floured table, and knead the dough for 10 minutes. This part is an excellent arm workout! ;)
4. Shape it into a ball and coat it *thinly* with olive oil. I pour out about a teaspoon of the olive oil in my hand, and then lightly cover the dough with it.
5. Leave the dough in a bowl to double its size. Cover the bowl with a towel and put it aside for about 1 hour.
6. Punch down the dough, and weigh out about 110g of dough for each serving. Roll out circles (or something like circles ;)) on cut-out baking paper, so that each person can have their own pizza to put their favourite toppings on. =)  Each dough recipe should make about 7 or 8 smaller pieces.

Brenda's Homemade Pizza Sauce:

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes

1 large onion

a handful of fresh basil leaves

3 cloves of garlic

a little pepper

1 small can of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of olive oil for frying

Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients together, except for the tomato paste.
2. In a saucepan, heat up the olive oil.  Add in the blended ingredients to the oil and fry until some of the fragrance is released.  Add in the tomato paste and heat it up until it bubbles and come together.
3. Allow the sauce to cool before use.

Pizza Sauce, and other favourite toppings: Ham, pastrami, onions, capsicums, egg, basil...

...baby spinach, olives, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, pineapple slices, mozzarella and cheddar cheese... 

Adding a raw egg on the pizza is Pizza alla Bismark. 

Into a preheated oven set at 220 deg C for 15 minutes

DIY pizza parties tend to get my guests excited because for some of them, it's a fun way for some creative cooking expression.  For others, it's a good way to avoid foods they don't enjoy, but don't have to worry about whether their avoidance of certain items might lessen another person's enjoyment of it.  For kids, they pile on their favourites with no worries about that yucky stray pineapple slice that seems to hide under a mozzarella because they can simply not put that in! :)


Of course, among my guests, many were only too happy to share a slice of their pizza version with another, and it certainly adds to the overall conversation and atmosphere.


Along with the pizzas, I also serve a cream soup; in this case, my cream of mushroom soup.


Have fun at your own pizza party! =)

Another Bread Post: Roti John

Roti John has a very interesting history. It was invented in Singapore in 1976 by an enterprising Muslim hawker named Shukor, whose Caucasian expatriate clientéle frequenting his stall at the Taman Serasi Hawker Centre beside the Botanic Gardens, always ask him to fry up an onion omelette to eat with a side order of french loaf. Shukor decided one day to fuse the onion omelette together with the bread that voilá! Roti John was born.

Why Roti John? Well, roti is Malay for bread... and John? Well, at the time, all Caucasians were generically called John. *grins* So in honour of Shukor's clients, he named them Roti John.

The added minced/slices of beef/mutton came slightly later, but you'll be hard-pressed now if you were to find any hawker selling Roti John sans meat.

So here's the recipe:

Roti John
Ingredients:
100g minced beef
1 large onion, chopped
3 eggs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 loaf crusty french bread, sliced like a subway sandwich, then cut to fit into frying pan

Method:
1. Mix the minced beef, chopped onion, eggs, salt and pepper together.
2. Heat up a frying pan with about a tablespoon of cooking oil.
3. Scoop the beef mix onto a piece of bread.
4. Quickly press the bread, beef-side into the hot oil. Hear the pan sizzle. Smell the aroma of the oil meeting the egg and onions. Use a spatula and give the bread a good press down and then flip it over to make the crust crispy.
5. Remove from the pan and slice the bread smaller if needed.

Serve with Sweet Chili Sauce.

Sweet Chili Sauce
Ingredients:
About 3 tablespoons of Chili Sauce
About 1 tablespoon of Ketchup
About 1 tablespoon of Sugar
About 3 table spoons of Water

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients together. The mix should be a bit runny rather than thick.

We made Roti John for Edna's first Birthday party last week, and it was a favourite with our guests. We made chicken curry to accompany the Roti John.

The Bread Post: Garlic Bread

Garlic Bread

We make our own Garlic Spread - it's not difficult at all, and it jazzes up plain bread so easily.

Garlic Spread

Ingredients
100g Butter (left out for a while so that it softens)
5 pieces Garlic (or more if you really like the garlic)
1/4 tsp Dried Oregano Flakes
1/4 tsp Dried Basil Flakes
Salt to taste
A dash of Paprika (optional - and any other herbs or spices you enjoy)

1. Put all the ingredients into a chopper or blender and hit the switch.
2. Once the garlic pieces are pluverised, use a spoon and mix the spread more evenly.
3. Spread the Garlic Butter on any bread and pop it into an oven until you can smell the garlic aroma.
4. Serve the Garlic Bread with soup.

The Garlic Spread can be made beforehand and kept in the fridge until needed. While the spread can go on any bread, we love it on crusty French loaves.