doooo-nuts

Man, has it been forever since I was here? I do apologise, because my sister (whose camera I used to take food pictures) started loading the pics onto her computer, which I can't access from here. I'm now using my dad's digital camera, but I'm not complaining.

Short post today, because I really shouldn't be online at all, and should be studying for exams next week. But I think this deserves a post. =)

My mother made doughnuts today; those cinnamon and sugar coated, deep-fried beauties. They came out amazingly soft, and crunchy and fluffy and indescribably fantastic freshly made. I seriously recommend everyone to go home and make some right now. You'll be doing yourself a favour, I promise you.

 These are for the kids at my training today. The glace is just some chocolate spread, not Nutella though.

The recipe for these lovelies comes from Tandaco Dry Yeast booklet, and it's proven to have quite a few good recipes to try.

Doughnuts
Makes 20.

Ingredients:
2 sachets (14g) Tandaco Dry Yeast
4 C plain flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 C sugar
1 1/3 C warm milk
90g melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
oil for frying

Method:
1. Mix dry ingredients including yeast in a large bowl. Add milk, butter and egg. Mix well to form a soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
2. Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise until double in volume. Approx 40-45 mins.
3. Knock down the dough (punch fist once into the centre). Knead for 1 minute. Rest dough for 5 minutes.
4. Roll dough to 5mm thickness. Cut circles with an 8cm round cutter and remove centres with a 4cm round cutter. the centers can be kneaded together and rolled out again. Place circles on floured baking trays. Leave in a warm place to rise for 20-25 mins.
5. Deep fry at 190 C for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden.
6. Toss in cinnamon sugar (made of 1/2 C castor sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon). Allow to cool.

I know the whole process seems quite long and tedious, but my mother was done with it in about 4 hours. Try it and you won't regret it!

first and best

Don't you just love starting the day right? Having a good breakfast just sets me on a happy and fulfilling path for the rest of my day. I have all kinds of healthy things for this important meal; fresh fruit and yoghurt, oat porridge with sultanas and honey, boiled or scrambled eggs and a hot cup of black tea. I feel terrible and crabby if I miss this one crucial meal, and it generally results in my stomach protesting loudly through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th session of school.

These would be my third batch of granola, and although the recipes are different, the end result is still satisfactory, no matter what ingredients you put in.

Granola 
Adapted from smitten kitchen

Ingredients:
2 C rolled oats
1 C crushed almonds
3/4 C crushed cashews
1 C shredded coconut -I used dessicated coconut, and used 3/4 C-
1/2 C honey
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 C dried fruit of your choice -I used sultanas-

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a shallow baking dish with baking paper. Mix together the rolled oats, almonds, cashews and coconut and spread out on the baking dish, bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. 
Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the honey, vanilla and fruits while it's still warm. Spread out mixture into the baking dish again and bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it's golden brown. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before breaking up and storing into a container.
This can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks, but to keep its crispness, store granola in the fridge. 

I really like granola mixes because they are so versatile, so it's impossible for me to choose a favourite. These ingredients were just the ones I had lying around, but I really want to try using sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, peanuts and all sorts of different dried fruits. Maybe I'll have this stuff sprinkled generously over some homemade natural yoghurt (I made it from Easiyo... anyone else know of it?), with a little dollop of honey to sweeten it up and garnished with some blueberries and strawberries? Oh gosh, I can't wait until tomorrow morning's breakfast.

Vancouver post cont.

Continuing on from the previous post, this was on a day when my sister and I went out to Metrotown by ourselves. She got a traditional asian meal while I decided to go with what I think is a classic italian sandwich, however I can't remember the name of the shop. I thought that it was delicious and very filling; I was already full on the first half.

I then continued to buy an ice cream from the shop nearby...again, the name has deserted me, but I'm sure if any Canadians saw it they'd recognize it immediately, since it's quite unique. Well, I'd never seen anything like it in Australia, so why not? As I've said before, I'm quite easily amused.

Me showing how surprised I was by the size. I believe that was a medium.

My sis also picked up some mouth-watering fruit yoghurt from yogen fruz. This one was strawberry and other berries I believe.

And finally, breakfast; the most important meal of the day. This particular one was quite important because it was our last day in Vancouver. The bacon ended up smelling like fresh sugary waffles, but maybe it was because the brand had something to do with maple. It tasted normal though. :)

I've done a bit since getting back to Australia, including baking and icing some vanilla satins. I finally got to use the icing tools my cousins lent to me, but only to spread the icing on top. I think they ended up quite cute, if I dare say so myself.

Granola Crumble/Museli

Well this was meant to be my New Years post for 2010 but since I was delayed trying to find my pictures it only comes out now; but nevermind. I'd written up a paragraph about my resolutions but I think I'll simply summarize it. 2009 was a year that I discovered my obsession with food, but I didn't achieve much with it; this year however I will aim to cook and bake and post as much as I possible can (I'm hoping at least once a month) and to constantly try to challenge myself. I don't know how far I can go, but I'll put my everything into it that's for sure. :)

Anyway, enough with the boring stuff, continuing on to the food (since that's why we're all here right?). I used this recipe from Eat and Be Happy to make some Crunchy Granola Bars. Previously I've never even eaten rolled oats before, but I was sure that I'd love them like all other healthy yummy foods out there. When I took it out of the oven and the warm aroma of cinnamon and honey overwhelmed me... the thing I love just as much as cooking is the smell of what I'm making~

Crunchy Granola Bars - from Eat and Be Happy

Ingredients:
3 1/2 C rolled oats
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C mixture of nuts -I used walnuts and cashews because they're my favourite-
1/2 C dried cranberries -substituted with sultanas, or are they the same thing?-
1/2 C pineapple juice -I omitted this-
1/4 C honey -reduced the amount-
1/4 C packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven at 175C. Line an 8″ square pan with aluminium foil and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, salt and oil together. Mix well and tip the oat mixture into the prepared pan.
3. Bake it for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until the oat mixture is lightly toasted and golden brown. Remove the pan from oven and tip the oat mixture back into the large bowl. Turn the oven temperature down to 150C.
4. -I only soaked the sultanas in water before using them- Combine the dried cranberries and pineapple juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove the pan from heat and set aside.
5. Toast the mixed nuts in a pan until fragrant. Remove from pan. Coarsely chop half of the nut mixture and using a food processor, grind the rest of the nut mixture till finely ground. Add both the coarsely chopped and finely ground nuts to the oat mixture.
6. Drain the dried cranberries and add it to the oat mixture as well.
7. Combine the honey and brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and stir the cinnamon and vanilla extract in. Pour the honey mixture into the bowl of oat mixture.
8. Mix the oats, mixed nuts mixture and honey mixture really well. Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and press the oat mixture into the pan.
9. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the granola bars are golden brown.
10. Remove the pan from the oven, let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing the bars from the pan. Slice into 8 bars, wrap each bar individually in plastic wrap and store them in an airtight container. Makes 8 bars

They turned out as crumble since I used too big of a pan that the mixture wasn't packed enough, but nevermind.I ended up eating it with natural yoghurt and drizzled with honey... the most delicious and filling breakfast I've had with a long time.

Ready to be consumed solely by me.