Tag: easy

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Bagelen

I haven’t seen any bagelen sold in Sydney, unless in some Indonesian grocery shops, so I guess it is one of Indonesian snack (do correct me if I am mistaken). Basically, bagelen is made up sweet bread bun, halved, spread with some butter cream icing, and baked until dry and crispy. The butter icing is what really makes this snack tasty, it is sweet and slight hint of salty and most of all is buttery. Combined with the crispy sweet bun, just makes it perfect snack to accompany coffee or tea. Some people dip the bagelen to their hot coffee or tea to soften it, but I prefer it crispy (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

To be honest, I am attempting this mainly because of leftovers from this bread. Because the bread texture is not soft and even more so the next day, so hopefully it will save them by turning to bagelen. And here is the ingredient for the butter cream icing (I only made half batch for 8 sweet buns):

  • 50 grams sweetened condensed milk
  • 125 grams icing sugar
  • 250 grams margarine
  • 250 grams butter (if unsalted, add a tiny pinch of salt)

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined.

To make bagelen, halve sweet buns and lay on baking pan. Preferably leave them overnight so that they are dry. Since I am doing it kind of at last minute, I refrigerate my halved buns for about 3 hours.

Spread the butter cream icing generously to surface of each sweet buns.

Bake them on 120C for 40-60 minutes until they are crispy. Make sure to use lower temperature to avoid burning the sweet butter cream.

Once cool to room temperature, store them in airtight container to keep the crisp for longer.

Butter cream topping
That nutella filling of the buns actually added more kick to the buttery bagelen

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos after baking. Hubby went after them too quickly! No, actually I had some as well and kept thinking I will take picture the next day when lighting is better, and never ended up doing it

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Bear Wannabe (ᵔᴥᵔ) Pull Apart Bread

In the recent months, there have been so many videos on pull apart bread in Youtube. And the way it shows, it seems really easy to decorate those bread with animal or cartoon character faces – there is bear, cat, Winnie the pooh, keroppi, and many more. It looks so cute and fun for everyone to enjoy.

Thinking that it would be as easy as those videos show, I had my first attempt on making bear version. It turned out not so easy and simple at all. Decorating is difficult! Or maybe it is just me not having much of art talent at all that finds it so challenging. And to make those ears stick in the right place is not easy, as they expand, they will just glide off from its original intended location. The combination of bad shapes and terrible chocolate decorating result in bear wannabe instead of cute bears (ᵔᴥᵔ)

I use the Kitchen Aid mixer to do the mixing and kneading for this bread, and it did a great job. I don’t need to manually knead the dough at all. But, we all agree that the tangzhong version is so so much better. This recipe results in a soft bread while it is warm only, then it will get harder and dryer as it gets cold. The trick would be to warm it up on the microwave for few seconds, but even so, it will not be as fluffy as the tangzhong version. Anyway, this is the bread recipe I used on this batch:

  • 250 bread flour
  • Mix together and set aside: 1 teaspoon yeast + 1 teaspoon sugar + 150 ml warm milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 30 gram butter at room temperature
  • Filling: anything to your liking (chocolate rices, choc chips, cheese, etc)

Add all the ingredients, except butter in mixing bowl.

Using dough hook to mix all ingredients until it forms a ball then add in the butter. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Let is rest for about 1 hour in a warm place until it doubles in size.

Divide the dough into 9 equal portions. For each portion, take out a small part to shape as the ears. Flatten the dough, fill with your preferred filling, close and shape as a ball, place in a square baking pan of 20 x 20 cm. Make a 2 small balls for the ears and attach to the top sides of the big ball. Continue for the rest of the dough portions.

Let the dough rest again for about 30 minutes.

Gently brush the top of the bread rolls with egg wash then bake in preheated oven at 180C for about 20 minutes.

Once it is cooked, take out of oven and spread with butter generously on the surface and side of the bread.

Enjoy while it is warm! 😀

pull apart bread
Badly shaped bears (~_^)

 

 

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Es Campur aka Indonesian Fruit Punch

Es campur is something we always long for on those scorching hot and humid days, and last weekend just happened to be that kind of days. Therefore we stocked up on various tinned fruits and sweet condensed milk to make our es campur concoction 🙂 It is basically various fruits served on shaved ice with condensed milk and/or extra syrup.

It is a very common dessert to be found in Indonesia, so common that you can find them from street vendors to restaurants, who of course serve them in more fancy ways. There was one street vendor located just outside our high school building and he sells a very nice es campur. He has the ordinary es campur and you can also opt for an extra orange juice to the es campur for extra kick of citrusy freshness, very yummy and refreshing.

Since we don’t have the ice shaving machine, I will just use iced water instead of shaved ice so it is kind of soupy. The fruits mix used in my es campur is fairly seasonal, whatever I can find in store, but I always try to have avocado, coconut meat and jackfruit in my es campur. And let’s not forget the grass jelly (in Indonesia, we use cincau) – this time I used green jelly instead of the normal black herbal jelly. Then topped with generous drizzle of sweet condensed milk, which in this occasion I also use some chocolate flavored condensed milk – yummm (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

And the final product is a big batch of sweet yummy and refreshing dessert. This can last for couple days while kept on the fridge. Es campur is one thing that never ever absent from our kitchen during summer every year 🙂 Although, I think next time we make this dessert again, we might want to substitute the iced water to iced coconut water for extra hydration and minerals benefit, right?

 

 

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Kue Putri Salju aka Snow White Cookies

This type of cookies is one the most popular delicacy during the festive seasons in Indonesia, be it Christmas, Eid Mubarak, or Chinese New Year. Towards those festive seasons, people will bake or buy various cookies and cakes to serve their guests, putri salju is usually one that always make appearance in many households during these times.

It is called putri salju or snow white because it is generously dusted with icing sugar. The texture is similar to butter shortbread, which it melts in your mouth. However, it has that distinct nutty flavor, which comes from the ground toasted cashew. There are so many variations of this crescent-shaped cookies recipes, ranging from the traditional using cashew to other nuts substitutes and even without any nuts at all. This version is the one we love most.

The recipe is copied from a fellow blogger’s (click here for the original recipe):

  • 200 grams of butter at room temperature (I use unsalted butter with a tiny pinch of salt)
  • 100 grams of castor sugar
  • 250 grams of lightly toasted cashew, then finely ground
  • 200 grams of flour
  • 1 tablespoon of milk powder (I used two heaped tablespoons and reduced the amount of flour used)
  • Icing sugar for dusting

Mix the butter and sugar with a whisk until all combined then add in the ground cashew. Combine well with a spatula before adding the flour and milk powder. Mix until everything is well combined then wrap the cookie dough in a piece of cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes rest, the dough should be easy to be rolled and cut with cookie cutter. Traditionally, a crescent-shaped cookie cutter is used, but I used a heart-shaped instead as that is all I can find at home.

Bake in a preheated oven at 140 C for approximately 20 minutes. (I baked mine at 150 C for 20-25 minutes).

Once they are out of oven, let them rest for about 5 minutes then dust them generously with icing sugar. Let the cookies to be completely cool on the pan before transferring to cookie jar.

putri salju mede2

Some tips:

  • The cashew needs to be lightly toasted to prolong the cookies life and prevent them turn rancid too quick
  • Do not over mix the butter and sugar
  • Do not over bake the cookies until golden brown. Once they are easily moved when the baking pan is tapped, they are ready. They may feel too soft to touch, just let them cool in the pan before moving them and they will harden
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Healthy Green Salad

December is usually a month where most of us tend to indulge too much (in term of food), or at least I do! 😀 There are always a catch-up dinner, office functions, then all those festivities celebrations, it is just too hard to resist the temptations. But now that we are in the new year already, I truly think my body is in need of a simple green salad to cleanse out toxins from all the “naughty” eating and drinking.

These are the goodies that I put in my salad bowl:

  • Butter lettuce, also known as butter head. This soft leaves lettuce have very subtle buttery sweet flavor and naturally low in calories/fat/sugar.
  • Iceberg lettuce, these are great addition to salad for it has high water content and sodium then other lettuce families. It also gives a nice crisp texture to the salad, something different to the butter lettuce leaves.
  • Green apple. We all know how apple is great fruit, loaded with dietary fibers and vitamins(especially vitamin C) thus the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” 🙂 I used green apple in the salad for extra tangy, sweetness, and crunch.
  • Cherry tomatoes. Apart from giving the bright red color in the green salad, they are also loaded with vitamin C and lycopene, an antioxidant that lowers your risk of certain diseases caused by cellular damage.
  • Cucumber, which is a well-known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits. They are naturally low in calories, carbohydrates, sodium, fat and cholesterol. Because of their high water content, cucumbers can help supports hydration, especially during summer months.
  • Avocado. Another food that is loaded with vitamins and minerals, also high “heart-healthy fat” content as well as dietary fibers. On top of that, avocado contains even higher level of potassium than bananas, which help to support healthy blood pressure level.
  • Lemon juice and olive oil dressing. A very simple salad dressing that is not just tastes great, but also good for your body.
  • Cracked black pepper to taste

And last but not least, a mug of green tea to wash it all down!

green salad