Organic Oatmeal Bread

I am not a fan of oats and wholemeal breads. I prefer white breads, probably I prefer not having foods which will drop crumbs all over the place. Somehow, they make me feel very dry, and together with cereals drinks, they fall into my category of "unpreferred foods".

So last week, when I baked wholemeal bread, it was not for me. It was mainly for my dad. I know he likes them. He buys 1 or 2 loaves every week. But I told him I would bake a loaf last week, so he did not need to buy.

This bread is partly organic. Why partly? Which part? Only the flour part. Not all other parts.Organic foodstuff are much more expensive, everyone knows. For our own consumption, it is fine. I hope my diet will eventually be at least 50% organic one day. I do not really like my foods processed extensively, and full of pesticides etc.

Does this contradict my love for baking? Baking is not really the healthiest sometimes. Hmmm.....but what's life without some sinful stuff sometime? Besides, I've got a sweet tooth :P

In any case, I usually try to reduce the "chemicals" in my baking. I tend to add less baking powder, baking soda and less colouring than what is required. I shun recipes which calls for emulsifiers and stabilisers. My theory is, if I have to add all these stuff to my food, then I might as well go to the shops to buy them, what will then be the purpose of homebaked?

Oops, sorry I've digressed, back to my bread. This recipe did not require very long proving times, and like all breads, they are best eaten fresh from the oven. I do not know of anyone who can resist the aroma of freshly baked, warm bread. Verdict of this wholemeal bread? It's superdelicious...just because it's baked by me, hahaha! Don't you just feel so happy when you know your family is eating bread without excess chemicals and preservatives? I do.

Check out the recipe here.

My Daily Bread

If you want to see a different side of me, just throw me in front of a lizard, or throw a lizard in front of me and you will see a side of me you have never seen before. Beware though, for if you do either of it, I will know you are not a friend. Don't start telling me how good these creatures are, that they eat mosquitoes etc. I can give you many reasons why they should be extinct, and moreover, I can kill mosquitos between my fingers.

It is a fear I have, that I myself do not understand. I become the most paranoid, most irrational, most jumpy, probably most irritating (since I will keep calling out to you for help) person you will see. The fear gets into me more as I age by the day. By next year, I predict I probably would have quit my job to live in a vacuum. I wonder what's with me..it seems I encounter these creatures more than anyone else. Perhaps I'm always on the lookout for them, that's why.

Once, I was home and met my neighbours who were about to go out. I saw a creature (I'm not even spelling it! It makes my hair stand) on my door and no matter how I stamped my feet, it would not go. I must have looked like a moron, standing a meter from the door, stamping my feet and not daring to open the door. I smiled sheepishly to my neighbour and said there is a creature and I am afraid. Without another word, the kind uncle went to my door, and tried to catch it! It ran and so did his hands! I have never seen such quick hands! He grabbed it in his hands and threw it down the chute! Oh my hero!

My mum is a great woman, she is the one who catches these awful creatures for me, before I start screaming and losing sleep over them. 2 weeks ago, she went on vacation. I happen to go to the bathroom one day and saw 1 squashed between the sliding doors in the bathroom. I ran out immediately. What I had intended to do in the bathroom was no longer important. I did not think my dad would entertain me like my mum, so I did not tell him. I simply asked him if he was ready, so that we could leave for work together. I thought I acted like normal, but he saw something in my face (perhaps I turned pale!) and asked me what it was. He picked it up that night and threw it away. Phew!

My husband is another hero. We had 2 encounters in our home with these creatures. On both occasions, he swiftly came to my rescue. Last week was the worse. One morning, I saw the poo of the creature on the plastic bag which contains my breakfast....and the bag was tied in a knot! The poo was small, but it could not escape my eyes. I threw it away, I'd rather go hungry without breakfast. I had the nightmarish encounter a few years back when a creature was sharing my bread. The next morning, I had a bad feeling and did not touch the bread at all...second day without breakfast. My hubby woke up, ate his breakfast and found a creature sharing his breakfast...though the bag was again tied in a knot! Good thing for my intuition. Third morning, I went without breakfast again...I switched more lights than usual and did not even dared go near the dining table. Fourth morning, I had a pleasant surprise. As I was brushing my teeth in the morning, my hubby woke up (he usually wakes up a few hours later than me), made me a hot drink and made me breakfast! I was so touched I almost did not want to go for work haha! For the past few mornings, he did the same! If he were to say our wedding vows again, it probably should go like this.

I, Bimmer Saviour, vow to take you, Bimmer, as my lawfully wedded wife, even when you turn into the most irrational human being on earth when you see a lizard. I will try not to laugh at your expression whenever you spray cans and cans of insecticide, lizard repellent, lizard exterminator and whatever anti-lizard products. I promise not to stop you, not to scold you, even if it means I need an oxygen mask. I promise that I will protect you whether in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, in joy or sorrow and to comfort you, which includes chasing away, killing, or by any other means, getting lizards out of your world. With this ring (and ten boxes of lizard traps), I wed you.

Now, for in celebration of these 3 important, heroes in my life, I made these bread. My dad and hubby love them. I don't know about my neighbour since I did not give him any, oops.

Doesn't see any link? Bread is the most important food in my life. Almost 365 days a year, I eat bread for breakfast. They give me the energy to start my day. I only need a slice with margarine on weekdays, and probably slightly more interesting on weekends. I can eat them everyday, and still think they are nicest thing around. I can eat bread for lunch and dinner. It is my comfort food.

My heroes are equally important to me. They literally helped me to move on (otherwise I would have stay rooted to the ground until the lizard finally crawls away). I may seem silly, but their small gestures have really meant a lot to me! To my heroes, these are for you!

P.S. Oh man, what a lengthy way of showing what I have baked. I'm not posting the recipe again since this is not the first time I made these breads.

Banana Chocolate Bread

After missing out on the previous 2 bakes from Sweet and Simple Bake, I'm back in action for January's bake! What a better way to start the year with the most wonderful combination - banana and chocolate?

I almost forgot about the bananas I bought...and in the end, I could only use half of them, as the other half of the bunch had began to rot.

As I went through this recipe, I was a bit unsure...at the part on adding the butter and rubbing it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Maybe I am too narrow in my knowledge, isn't this supposed to be for pastry making? Nevertheless, I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to half the portion (since I did not have enough bananas). The other change I made was to add extra chocolate chips.

The fragrance of the banana filled the kitchen after half an hour, and by the time it was almost cooled, we just had to take a slice.

Mine turned out a little too moist and crumbly, other than that, the taste was definitely awesome.

Go on, give yourself a little banana treat today, the recipe is here.

Ham and cheese mini buns

The past weekend was a wet one.... I mean the weather. It was raining on and off. I was watching the reruns of one of my favourite shows, intending to go out for window shopping/strolling/aimless loitering with dear at Vivocity after that. Just as the program was about to finish, it began to pour again. What better thing to do than to stay indoors?

I stood at the window watching the rain. I love to watch the rain. I could have pulled up a chair and sat by the window whole day, enjoying the cool wind, saying out the brand and model of every car that went by (it was tough! It's an expressway and the cars were continuous!) and watching the wipers of the cars below doing their left-right-left-right routine. When I was young, I would stretch out my legs and move my feet left and right, imagining they were the wipers of cars. For what? I do not know. It's this crazy, I-love-cars thingy in me, that exists till today.

But I decided I did want to spend the whole Saturday imagining my feet were wipers. So, I picked up one of my recipe books on breads, and chose to make a sweet dough. I love breads. Whenever I pass by the local bakeries, I would stop and look and always could not resist the temptation to buy a few, especially when in recent years, many of them came up with mini versions. For about $2.80, I could choose 5 different buns, and that totally satisfy me.

I happen to have ham and cheese in the fridge and they came in handy. It was also a good decision to make bread, as I could make use of the milk powder and remaining bread flour, which were reaching their expiry dates soon.

This is only the second time I am making bread, but I remember when I used this recipe the first time, I ended up with so many sausage and tuna buns! I remember being so amused at the proving of the dough, when it just grew and grew non-stop, like Jack and the Beanstalk (hey! it rhymes!). But silly me, I forgot to use my Kitchenaid to knead the dough...yes, I knead it by hand! How silly, no wonder my arms ache.

This time, I halved the recipe and made each bun smaller. For some reason, the dough did not grow that much too. At least it did stop growing. I ended up with 6 mini ham buns, 4 cheese buns, 2 plain ones (for my mum who eats neither ham or cheese). My guinea pigs gave it a thumbs up.

Click here for recipe of sweet dough and add filling as you like.

my buns

haha! this is the first time i try to make bread. i always thought it is nice to make my own breakfast, so this is what i did exactly. last week i bought a cookbook on breads, so this week, i worked on it.

i remember making hotdog bun back in secondary school during home econs class, and i remember it was quite nice. i even ask my niece if the same recipe is still in the home econs textbook that she is using now, and of course it is not.

anyway, the preparation of the dough took quite a long time, because bread dough needs time to 'prove' or rather to let it expand and grow itself. i left the dough for more than an hour, it was supposed to expand to twice its size. the picture below was only when it was about 70% expanded. when the dough touched the surface of the clingwrap that covered the bowl, i opened it and started to work on it....but it continued to grow and grow and grow....

it was amusing. the dough never seemed to end. i was laughing a lot. i rolled the dough into small balls of less than my palm size and put them aside. but they just grew and grew....the dough in the bowl never seemed to get any lesser. it kept getting more and more and i wondered if i would ever finish my dough! i looked at the 'small' hotdog buns i had put on the tray, waiting to put them into the oven -- they had grown to look like a bandaged thumb! hahahahaha, i was really laughing so much it was so funny.

when the first batch was ready, as usual my mum and sis were the testers. mmm, it was nice. i took a bite, i must say it was quite decent for a first attempt. i am glad i tried something i never tried making before. i tried to replicate my fav Breadtalk 'porkrib' bread, and the pic below is my result. i only made 2 of this pattern...i tried to make them into diff shapes, and tried to make them quickly before the ever-growing dough grew bigger and bigger. my mum seemed excited at the task i assigned to her eventually -- coating a layer of eggwash on the dough. however, she was so much more generous than me at it, she coated the entire bun with eggwash, and they looked glisteningly wet. the result, the egg hardened and it stuck to the tray a bit.

i made 36 small tuna and hotdog buns, and there were 3 big ones. imagine...600g of flour, a bit of butter, sugar, yeast, salt, and i have so many buns!! it's a good thing my sis took 10 buns home for herself and her colleagues, my mum is taking some to her office for dad and her friends, i am taking some to office too....otherwise i will be left with the buns for BLD (breakfast lunch dinner) for the rest of the week..

banana and chocolate chip bread

i missed my oven. the day after i came back, i took a good rest at home, then i realised that i had no bread for breakfast for the next day. so i decided to bake myself some bread.

i found a receipe for banana and choc chip bread on the net and gave it a try. it was very nice, although it tasted more like cake than bread. there was 12 slices in a loaf, and they disappeared very quickly because my family liked it. i felt flattered of course. i myself only had half a slice.

the hershey's choc chips were great, and so were the bananas. hmmm....i really could imagine the smell of it now. but i have to keep some for my sis to try...so too bad, half slice is all i can have.