The fourth of ten children, I guess that makes me fourth in line.
There are many stories to tell, lots of pictures to show, and much love to be shared.
We have a long weekend due to the Christmas Day and Boxing Day holidays. I brought out my sourdough starter on Friday, mixed up the dough on Saturday, and baked the loaf on Sunday. I have to admit that my sourdough bread does not have the best batting average. There are days that the loaf does not rise and the bread ends up quite dense. I am happy to report that today's loaf was awesome.
When I pulled the bread out of the oven, I was momentarily transported to the dining room at Cebu Avenue. I remember Father bringing home sourdough bread from his US trips. San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf Sourdough bread. That was always a treat. We would take a slice of the bread, moisten the crust, toast the slice, then eat it with butter. Oh, the joy! (Let's just not count the calories.)
Sourdough bread always brings Father back even if my homemade version isn't quite the same.
When I got a cash reward at work last September, I decided to use some of the money to get something I really wanted, even if I really did not need it. I had been looking at getting embossed rolling pin but could never really justify the acquisition. However, the unexpected cash (plus the tax rebate), gave me the flexibility to splurge.
Etsy has a great selection of embossed rolling pins. There were several stores with interesting designs. I settled on the one from Funny-Baker that offered free delivery for a set of four. It was hard to decide on the four designs because I was drawn to so many of the designs.
4 Oct -- I identified the ones I wanted -- ladybugs, honeycomb, birds signing, and hearts
7 Oct -- MacGyver helped me with the order and the payment
16 Oct -- the Fedex delivery tracker showed that the rolling pins were already in Australia.
17 Oct - I mixed up a batch of cookie dough in anticipation of the delivery.
18 Oct -- the rolling pins arrived at about noon
It was an extra special day because aside from the rolling pins arriving at our doorstep, the lockdown restrictions eased and I was able to go to attend mass in the church that Monday morning,
Sugar cookies rolled out while watching Mother's speech therapy on Zoom today.
She managed to drink over 800ml this morning.
Eldest Sis, Sister Deer and I were cheered in the background.
First batch rolled out on the day the rolling pins arrived.
Cookies fresh out of the oven
Super cute cookies in the cookie jar (with matching allocation).
Over the weekend, I caught up with my baking experiments. I was able to try out recipes for pizza and focaccia that I had found in the internet. Both of these are from natashaskitchen.com.
MacGyver took this photo of the pizza while we were still putting on the toppings.
I took this photo of the focaccia after I transferred them to the rack to cool.
At the time, MyGirl was checking the internet for the correct pronunciation of "focaccia."
It had been stressful at work so I decided it was time to start another puzzle.
Whenever we are working on puzzles, I try to log off early so that I can get some pieces connected.
We started the puzzle after dinner on the 25th. That was a Saturday.
We managed to complete the edges and the phone booth before 11PM. That left us with a whole lot of grey pieces.
We worked on Big Ben, the other buildings and structures on Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday, all that was left were several shades of grey.
RD did most of the clouds. MyGirl came a close second in terms of connecting pieces.
My contribution was mainly "ooh's" and "aah's" as the puzzle continued to take shape. Apparently the "work on a puzzle to log off early" trick did not work this time.
Unlike our other puzzles that would get disassembled or packed away, I wanted to frame Big Ben. We took down the other puzzle and set up yet another clock on the wall.
Last year, as I walked around the block, the nearby day care was handing out cookies to people passing by. I was hoping that there would be cookies this year as well. However with the lockdown situation here in Sydney, I should not have been surprised when there were no cookies begin handed out this year.
All I encountered during my walk were these words of encouragement.
I think it was our neighbour was the one that was trying to brighten up people's day because I noticed their driveway looking like this on my way home today.
My friend GeeZee gave me some sourdough starter in 2018. I was making decent batches of bread and managed to keep the starter alive for almost two years until I accidentally knocked over the container in the fridge. The whole batch spilled and by the time I discovered what happened, the starter had solidified. I was told I could have still revived the starter but by then I had already thrown the starter bits in the bin. Besides, I don't think I would have wanted to bake bread with fridge germs. Fortunately, when I mentioned my starter's demise to GeeZee last year before the lockdown, she offered to give me a fresh batch.
I wanted to try a new sourdough bread recipe I had chanced upon on YouTube. I had written out the recipe on a notebook last weekend and I asked MyGirl to mix up the initial batch of dough while I was getting some grocery on Saturday. When I got back, she said that the dough seemed a bit dry so she had added some water to the recipe. I told her not to worry and that I was sure it would turn out fine.
The next part of the breadmaking process was mostly waiting for the dough to double in size. (In other words, MyGirl had done most of the hard work.) I found the dough easy to handle. When I got to the baking part of the bread on Sunday, I was happy to see that the oven spring was pretty good.
The bread was pretty good although we could definitely tell that there was salt in the recipe. In fact, I had specifically bought non-iodized salt which The Ultimate Food Geek shared as one of the tips in his sourdough bread video. The texture and the smell of the newly baked loaf reminded me of the sourdough bread that Father used to bring home when we were younger.
I had compared the usual recipe I used with this new one. The basic ingredient amounts were not significantly different so perhaps the secret of a great sourdough loaf is the use of non-iodized salt.
Sunday 29 Aug 2021.
Thursday 02 Sep 2021
Ingredients:
4 oz (113 g) starter
12 oz (340 g) filtered water; not warm
1 lb 4 oz (567 g) flour; if using 8 oz whole wheat flour, add 10oz water
3/4 oz (21 g) salt; not iodized
Combine starter and water in a big bowl
Add flour and salt and mix until all moist
Cover and let rise until double in size (12 - 24 hours)
Turn out dough on lightly floured surface (do not punch down)
Shape the loaf by using lightly floured hands and tucking the edges of the loaf underneath the loaf to get a smooth surface.
Generously flour the surface of the dough.
Cover and let rise until double in size (2 - 4 hours).
a) If using loaf pan, form into loaf and let dough rise in oiled loaf pan.
Then bake 40 minutes in preheated 500F oven.
b) If using dutch oven, let dough rise in separate bowl covered with heavily floured cloth.
Place dutch oven inside oven then preheat oven to 500F.
Carefully place dough inside the dutch oven then score top.
Reduce oven temperature to 425F. Cover dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes.
I had intended to try another ensaymada recipe this morning. I measured half a cup of water, warmed it up and added the sugar and yeast. When I reviewed the ensaymada recipe I wanted to try, I realised it needed softened butter and the butter was definitely not soft since it was still sitting in the fridge.
I looked at the measuring cup on the counter and I could see that the yeast was active. I wasn't sure if the yeast would remain active if I waited for the butter to soften, so I looked for another recipe to try.
I settled on a cinnamon roll recipe I had saved a couple of months back and adapted it accordingly.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 T yeast
1 1/2 cup warm milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cardamom, freshly ground
1 egg for the dough
1 egg for the eggwash
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Filling :
2 T ground cinnamon
1/2 to 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 c melted butter
Instructions :
1. In a small bowl, combine warm water, 1 T of sugar, and 1 T yeast. Allow to rise for 10 minutes or until bubbly.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine 4 cups of flour, rest of the sugar, salt, cardamom. Stir to combine.
3. Add yeast mixture, milk, butter, and 1 beaten egg into the flour mixture.
4. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth and shiny, add flour if dough is too sticky.
5. Place dough in oiled bowl, cover and let rise until double in size (about 1 hour).
6. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. When dough has risen, punch down and divide into equal halves.
8. Using a rolling pin, roll each half into 8 x 14 inch rectangle.
9. Brush the melted butter over each half of the dough and sprinkle cinnamon sugar.
10. Roll the pastry up from the small side then cut 7 x 2-inch triangles from each log.
11. Grease a cookie sheet lightly and place the cinnamon rolls on the sheet (seam side down).
12. Press the centre of the roll so the sides bulge out.
13. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for another hour until double in size.
14. Preheat oven to 400F.
15. Once risen, whisk egg in small bowl and brush tops of the cinnamon rolls.
16. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve plain or with icing.
Sister Deer is in Manila to be with Mother. During one of our video chats, I had mentioned baking bread, and she said she had a recipe she uses all the time in HK. According to her, she uses it for a variety of baked goodies. I asked her to share it with me and started rattling off ingredients.
Whoa! Slow down, girl. Please send it via email. My brain can only take so much information.
She sent me this recipe which I decided to test as cinnamon rolls because I wanted to use up some raisins I had in the pantry. I had plumped up the raisins and parked them in the fridge while waiting for the dough to rise. In the end, I forgot to put in the raisins but the cinnamon rolls turned out quite well.
Thanks for the recipe, Sister Deer.
3 cups flour
1 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 cup butter
Add the yeast to the warm milk.
Add mixture to the flour.
Add egg and salt. Beat for around 4 minutes then add the butter.
Continue kneading until dough is smooth
Let rise for around 1 hour.
Shape into desired shape and let rise for around 45 minutes..
Facebook flashes MEMORIES of pictures or posts people have posted from years back. We managed to recreate two of these photos.
First one was one of MacGyver and the two younger kids. The picture came up as a memory in May. When I posted the 2010 photo on my FB feed, I added the caption was "I want to recreate this picture!" Luckily the kids and MacGyver were willing to pose and it turned out great. (RD even changed his clothes to match the original photo. MyGirl is now holding on to an iPad.)
2010 and 2021
Then June came around and FB flashed a picture of the two of us taken at Hungry Jack's during his birthday ten years ago. HJ is MacGyver's favourite fast food place. So HJ is where we ended up this month to celebrate MacGyver's birthday when the restaurants at the nearby mall were jam packed.
When I visited Slash-M in Sweden in 2018, he bought some brioche moulds for me when we visited a small store selling cooking and baking tools and gadgets. Admittedly brioche moulds are merely containers that hold and shape the pieces of dough. The moulds do not enhance the flavour of the bread but they certainly make the ensaymada pretty. Slash-M did not HAVE to get them for me, but I am certainly glad that he did. These moulds will always be special to me.
At the time, I had tried several ensaymada recipes with varying success. I had made some revisions to my grandmother's ensaymada recipe and was pretty pleased with the results. My main issue was that the recipe uses eight egg yolks, leaving me with egg whites that usually end up as meringue or some other sweet dessert. Last year, my sister-in-law SI shared her recipe with me and they turned out great. I would have made ensaymada using her recipe more often but the recipe requires some boiled potatoes and is quite involved. I don't always have potatoes on hand plus this ensaymada baker rookie could spend the whole day trying to come up with the ensaymada.
The other week, I chanced upon this link in youtube. The recipe seemed straight-forward enough and the comments were quire encouraging. The plus side to this recipe is that is uses 4 eggs and an egg yolk, which in my mind leaves me with a single odd egg white that can easily be added to someone's fried egg or scrambled egg for breakfast.
They turned out nice and soft. It was a "choose your own (toppings) adventure" because I was not able to prepare the usual ensaymada toppings ahead. MyGirl put some butter and sugar over hers. RD placed some grated cheese. When I got around to serving some to MacGyver's friends that came over, they got the full experience of both butter/sugar mixture plus grated cheese.
Thank you, Kuya Gil for this wonderful ensaymada recipe. I will try your other recipes soon.
Hey, Slash-M, I think this recipe will give more oven time to the brioche moulds. Thanks again!
Classic Ensaymada Recipe
Ingredients:
480 g all-purpose flour ( 3 1/2 c)
11 g instant yeast (1 T)
77 g granulated sugar (7 T)
10 g fine sea salt (1/2 T)
4 whole eggs, cold
1 egg yolk, cold
82 g cold whole milk
216 g unsalted butter, cut into ½ in cubes, room temp for 15-20 min
Ensaymada Buttercream Frosting
4 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
Add eggs and milk.
Mix 5-6 mins on low
Add butter pieces a few pieces at a time, allowing butter to get incorporated into the dough.
Stop and scrape down several times.
Continue mixing for about 15 minutes, scraping down sides every so often.
Do several stretch and folds on the dough.
(I did this inside the bowl, though instructions indicated pat, stretch and fold on worksurface.)
Cover and let rise 1 hour or until double in size.
Do another set of pat, stretch and fold.
Refrigerate overnight.
Transfer to lightly floured surface.
Flatten and roll into a baton shape.
Divide into 12 equal pieces.
Shape dough (roll into long strip then shape into coil)
Place on lightly buttered mould.
Cover and allow to rise 1 1/2 hours or until double in size.
Place on baking tray.
Bake in preheated 325 oven for 17-18 minutes.
Immediately brush with melted butter.
Remove ensaymada from moulds and allow to cool on rack.
Mix together 4T butter, 3T sugar and 1/2 t vanilla extract.
Frost cooled ensaymada.
Top with grated cheese.
GI stayed over last night. We went to the mall at about noon to get chicken and vegetables. In the afternoon, he roasted the vegetables and baked the chicken for his meals for the coming week.
After the food cooled, he packed them up and prepared to leave. He realised it was still raining and found himself without an umbrella.
When he said he wanted to borrow an umbrella, I assumed he did not want one of the big umbrellas because it would be difficult to handle considering he would also be carrying his food. I gave him two choices -- a small compact umbrella and a brand new Kathmandu commuter umbrella.
Thinking that a smaller umbrella would be easier for him to handle, I held up the compact umbrella and said, "This one is small."
"OK, I'll take this one," GI replied, opting for the compact one after seeing that the Kathmandu umbrella still had the tag attached.
He opens the umbrella then gasps, "Oh! It IS small. This is for ants, Mom!"
"This is for ants," I chuckled and whacked his butt with the small umbrella after we had swapped.
I had never heard of such a thing and GI must've realised that because he sent me this youtube link soon after he left.
When we were doing puzzles back in May last year, I saw one on MarketPlace that I really liked. It was called a gradient puzzle. I was tempted to get it but held back because the kids seemed to prefer the puzzles that had actual designs. In fact MyGirl left most of the shark puzzle to me and RD because the sea of blue did not really appeal to her.
Fast forward to December 2020. During one of my trips to the mall, I spotted the same gradient puzzle on sale. At the time, we were desperate to get something for MyGirl and although I knew her Christmas wish list had indicated 1000-piece Ravensburger puzzles, I felt she MIGHT like this design despite it not being the brand that she had specified so I purchased the puzzle. In the end, she asked for the 23andme test, so the puzzle was tucked away as a potential birthday gift for her in January.
As her birthday approached, I hesitated to give her the puzzle because in my heart I knew that I was the one that had fallen in love with the design and that I did not want to project my bias for the puzzle upon her. I was not 100% sure that it would be a puzzle design she would have wanted or chosen for herself.
When her birthday arrived, I did not end up giving her the puzzle but I decided to bring it out of the closet anyway and suggested we work on it. I was elated to find that the two kids liked the design and were happy to work on the puzzle with me.
The edges were easy to finish.
We each worked on different corner colours.
The violet corner moved ahead.
School had not yet started but MyGirl had an internship at the city so RD and I refrained from working on the puzzle during the day to allow the three of us more time to work on it together at night.
We had finished more than a quarter by the 27th.
We had bridged the middle gap.
And by the 28th we were half done.
This was from RD on the 29th as we were approached the completion of the puzzle.
Another beautiful puzzle completed.
It was then that I remembered that one of the reasons I had not started work on a new puzzle was because we did not have a working frame. As you may know, we were able to put up the world map puzzle in December as mentioned in Still a Bit Puzzled. What you may not know is that the adhesive hooks on the back of the frame gave way and the frame fell down in early January. The corner of the plastic acrylic sheet got ripped so we could not put the puzzle back onto the frame and had to pack up the World Map puzzle.
MacGyver and I took a trip to IKEA and got ourselves a couple of frames last weekend.
Given the number of fallen frames we've had, we bit the bullet and MacGyver drilled holes on the wall and placed nails to secure the puzzle frame.
This will hang on the wall until we decide to work on a new puzzle.
The mother of three wonderful angels. The other half of God's chosen one for me. The child of two extraordinary people. The sister of my closest allies. The friend to many in this journey we call life.
