Bread Report

After what seems like 20 loaves, I think today's bread made the top. (-->see bread, breakfast and baby) Too bad I can't post the taste and the smell, but here's the face of the champion.

It was divine, soft, fluffy and moist the right way.
Until next time,

Sak

Bread, Breakfast And A Baby

Was totally hooked on freshly-baked bread that I had every morning for breakfast while I was at parents'. Mom baked a loaf every morning with a bread baking machine, and even T, not a big bread eater, tried it when he was staying over, loved it, and thought it was nice to wake up to that warm softness.

So, we were at an electronics shop for printer ink the other day, ended up in the kitchen appliances corner, checked out the baking machines and decided to use a piece of T's summer bonus to buy one.

I ran the first trial last Sunday for breakfast, and here's the aftermath.

The bread could use more "moisture AND fluffiness". T's words. Moist and fluffy? Two adjectives that normally don't go together. But I saw his point. Will work on it, buddy.

Bye the way, it was the first time since A was born that T and I were able to have breakfast together. She has grown less needy of our attention when she is awake. She is able to lay on her back by herself happily enough not to cry her guts out when we leave out of her sight. Mommy's proud.

Until next time,

Sak

Christmas Gatteau Chocolate

Hadn't baked for ages. Too long, indeed, to call myself fond of baking in my profile any more. So, the damage was to be undone in a serious manner, and since I was at my folks', I took advantage of their kitchen -way better equipped for baking than my new apartment, and did some Christmas baking.

A chocolate cake was my hubby's request. Are chocolate cakes Christmas-y? was my question that was popped in my head, but sis was applauding his request, so I thought, what the heck.

And here is my holiday creation. Ta da!

I couldn't shake off the notion that a gatteau chocolate isn't exactly a Christmas cake, so I thought I should at least make it snowy. Traditionally speaking, a Chrismas cake should be of dried fruit of some kind, no?

Anyways, we had a little family Christmas dinner so I thought I should post some photos of sis's creation, too.



I made the soup, by the way.



Merry Christmas!

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! IX

After what seemed like a decade, I baked today. The last time was exactly a year ago, Feb 8th 2010. I baked so little in the year that just passed, I should no longer be qualified to claim "I like to bake in my free time" like I used to.

It was mom's 60th birthday last Saturday, which means a lot to mom, who is retiring in two months. And I wanted to make her something, like a scarf or something at least, which I miserably failed. I AM planning with sis to celebrate once she actually retires in March, though.

So, a baked chocolate cheese cake, it is. I was gonna opt for something with strawberries since they are in season, but sis reported she already made a strawberry cake last Sat and I thought I should do something different.


The crack was a disappointment, but other than that, nicely done.



I am proud of the cherry-blossom effect that I created with mom's geraniums that you see on the top there. The powder-sugar sprinkles that I used were all melted to nothing by the time we ate it, though.

Happy 60th year of your life, mom!

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! VIII

So it's my usual Tuesday day-off.

Somewhere between thinking about the baked cheese cake I made last Tuesday and pondering a plan for a gateau chocolate on Valentine's day come Sunday, I have this sudden crave for a baked chocolate cheesecake. And my PMS has just hit its peak and I can't seem to get sugar out of my mind. Very UN-macrobiotic, indeed, but hey, if macrobiotics is based on the organic, natural food for human body, every single cell in my body is now screaming sugar!! And I shall answer to them respectably.

...but of course, I didn't have my camera with me.

It looks chintzy through the image captured by my cell phone, but tasted great. Another hit among the cream cheese loving family members of mine.

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! VII

Mom's having her 59th birthday on 5th. She had me when she was 30. I am turning 30 in two months. If I try and become a mother this year I will have a kid that has the same age gap with me as the gap between mom and me...

...just a thought.

In the meanwhile, I want to celebrate the big day for mom. She has exactly a year before retirement; she should enjoy paying tax while she can. I can't make it back here (at the parents') on her actual birthday, so I decided to bake a cake today instead while I'm here and do a pre-b-day celebration. I was gonna go with my fool-proof gateau chocolate that I made for dad last year (http://diaryofajapanadian.blogspot.com/2009/10/dads-birthday-cake.html), but with the Valentine's Day nearing and thinking that I might bake something chocolate-y then, I opted for a baked cheesecake this time. And I love the timing since strawberries are now in season!!!

The thing about baking a cheesecake is that it's ridiculously easy. Unless you can't differentiate cream cheese from papier-mache, you can't possibly fail.

I tried and sprinkled some chocolate powder over the cake but that didn't look very pretty, so I had to remove them all. Which made the surface look messier since the chocolate went in the cracks and I couldn't dig them all out.

But oh well, it tasted just fine and sis said it's the best I've ever made.

Happy birthday mom! I love you!

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! VI

I'm at my parents'. And what do I see the first thing when I walk into the living room? A basket full of apples all golden and red and ripe and plump.


How can I possibly pass by the divinity in the fruit form without thinking, "You. In the oven. Now." ?

By the way, here in the land of Japan, an apple comes in a size of a grapefruit. And one fruit costs about, I kid you not, two bucks, though the deliciousness of it certainly makes up for it. Still, no wonder they don't make as much pies here as they do in north America.

So bake them up I did, into cinammon apple muffins. This might be my favorite kind of muffin, but I probably say that about all muffins I bake. The best part of baking this particular kind is the aroma; no question about that. I would gladly bake them solely for the cinammon-y cider-y smell that fills the room any ol' day.


I double the amount of apple to use in the recipe, and that's how i get the moisture and texture to my liking. And since Japanese apples are much sweeter than apples in the states (no offense, granny smith!), I use half as much sugar, too.


A job well done, me!

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! V

Now that bro's mini birthday muffins are gone (http://diaryofajapanadian.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-bro-just-turned-33-on-friday.html), it's dad's 61st birthday tomorrow (28th). I had a day off today, and I decided to bake him a gâteau pre-d'anniversaire.

Sis requested I bake my Gateau Chocolat that I once made on St. Valentine's Day for family. Hmmmm, I'm thinking, it's good but it isn't exactly birthday-cake-y in my opinion. I want festive, not chic. Besides, dad's been under a bit of depression and I wanted something visually more entertaining.

Two hours of pondering and going through my book of collected recipes (yes, I have a recipe book) as well as surfing the net for visual inspiration (and actually ending up on weddingcake.com) later, I decided to try and create something completely new.

Half-granting sis' request, it's a chocolate cake, and I am using my best-ever recipe. I am frosting it with my again best-ever whipped-with-cream-cheese cream and topping it with coconut shreds. And, "borrowing" some of mom's lovely geraniums (hi, mom!), I decorated the face with petals with various colors.


What do you think?

It has a rather tropical feel than is birthday-like, but oh well. Whatever lifts my dad's spirt up.

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! IV

My bro just turned 33 on Friday. Sent him a text message after work wishing him the best possible year of his life so far, and promising that I would be baking something on Sunday (today) for him. I press "send" and I'm thinking, "What a sweet sister am I!? Mhahahaha I'm the better one!" ...not to mean sis and I hold a which-one-of-us-is-the-better-sister competition every year on our beloved brother's birthday (...well we do but she doesn't know! Mhahahahaha!) Then a couple of hours later he replied and said, "Thanks, both of you! The folks called first thing in the morning and sang 'Happy Birthday' on the phone."

-_-

A lesson learned: never can two sisters together beat the doting parents.

Anyways, I do mean what I wrote him in my message, and hope my only brother who is becoming a father in a few months has the best year.

And sorry I left my camera at my flat when I came to my folks' this weekend and had to make do with my cell phone. Here are my promise for bro baked true, chocolate and blueberry mini muffins (I did not plan the blueberry ones but mom wanted me to get rid of the leftover berries from the last time I baked that were taking up much of her freezer space.)


Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! III Part II

I realize that, my previous entry in which I expressed my disappointment (and sometimes in a rather euphemistically affluent manner at times) after a grocery shopping under a rather materialistically challenged circumstance, defeated the purpose of my keeping this blog, elements of happiness. So I do apologize first and foremost to my faithful readers.

I forgot to buy aluminum cups to bake blueberry muffins in. They are essential for my 'ffins because I put in A LOT of berries. When you bake with weighty fruit, they tend to stay at the very bottom, and they are very hard to come off when you take them out of the mold, unless you are using a silicon one.

Nothing in my life has turned silicon or been added silicon just yet...if ever.

So, change of plan: I cut one third of berries, which is actually still more than what the most of the recipes for berry muffins would tell you to use. I am quite an imperative-hater, I tell you.


Aftermath: a tad short of creaminess that I was aiming for, probably because I had to use yogurt instead of sour cream (due to the, again, materialistically challenged circumstance that I am facing).

My family loves them, though. So will S, I hope.

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! III Part I

It's a hazy afternoon. A little chilly out, the ground moist from the morning shower. October has arrived. And it means I start missing the crackling sound of the fireplace back in British Columbia. Ah, the smell of the cedars that got the fire going. Just around this time of year, we would go out to a farm town to make bottles of apple cider full of car trunk, and on the way home, pick up some pumpkins to curve the end of the month. The apple cider would then make a perfect drink on a very cold day in winter, heated with a cinnamon stick or two. Served hot. Your icy hands turning warm from holding the mug.

Japan is not quite endowed with fireplace, apple cider or pumpkin, but I will not let the fact discontinue my proudly playing my part as a Canadian at heart. S requested that I go with muffins the next time I decide to sift and mix, so I immediately had my pumpkin muffins in mind. They are my autumn limited specials in which a non-pumpkin fan friend of mine actually fell in love with. Simply a divinity.

I was so looking forward to make the magic happen... until it failed. At a very early stage of the process, too.

They don't have pumpkin cans at a major supermarket in Japan...

-_-

#('&*@')''$%'&!!! What the flipping hell? Are they crazy?? Wait, wait, wait, let me pull myself together .... (inhale)...ARE THEY FUCKING CRAZY?!??



I thought I was getting somewhat used to the shortage and the sometimes complete lack of my beloved items food-wise (cilantro, turkey, crunchy peanut butter, pastrami, corn bread, sour cream, rice crispy, just to name a few.) But now with no pumpkin cans available in my nearest supermarket, I am seriously considering writing a book titled Tsukiji My Ass -Seriously Behind is Japanese Dining of Today. I shall nicely put it right between my two other books: Unicorns, Goblins and Gentlemen -Mythical Creatures in the Land of Samurai and They Have No Problem Hitting Their Children in Public But They Give Fragile Handshakes. Let me elaborate on the the books sometime when I have the chance. You can pretty much take them literally, though, I assure you.

Aaaaaaaaaaanyways.

No pumpkin cans means no magical pumpkin muffins a la sak. But since I was at the supermarket already, and since I still wanted to bake on my day off the next day, I decided to go with blueberries.

To be continued,

Sak

p.s. Just to give Japan some credit, I did some research after the saddening experience and turns out, pumpkin cans are available, but they are a rarity at a local supermarket. Never thought to see the day when I have to place an order for pumpkin cans on line would come.

Bakin' Time! II

Do you know what I took for granted when I lived in the states? Cookies.

Those who live north America don't realize just how ridiculously available cookies are there. I'm not kidding. Inhale now and read on, whoever reading this that has never gone grocery shopping outside of America, because you are about to gasp a good one. Did you know that, overseas, a supermarket doesn't even have an entire isle dedicated to cookies, especially if they have a deli-counter for baked goodies AND the baker's cabinet with freshly baked cookies by the entrance too?

I never even took a note of them cookies that much while they were all around me, like the road signs or something that I might know are there but not really stand in front of and take a good look at. Only when I left the country de diabétique to live in the land of rice, fish and seaweed, did I start missing some of those Ahoys!


So, I was pondering what to do with the rest of the 85%-cocoa chocolate and baker's butter from two days ago. And I had this sudden craving for soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. ...Wow. I just realized, I haven't even used the word "chewy" as long as I can remember until just now. You know what, I will happily bet my $100 on that 95% of the time when north Americans use the word "chewy" in a sentence, they are referring to cookies, I swear to God. I wouldn't be surprised if they are talking about chocolate chip cookies, too.

Anyways, here are chocolate chip cookies a la Sak fresh out of her oven. Warm, chewy, sweet, melt-y, diabetic as hell, AND heavenly. I say this, and I don't even have the sweet tooth.


The fun of baking is, without a doubt, the aroma. I can almost guarantee this, but had I no sense of smell, I wouldn't have been into baking at all. And when the spoon-dropped dough were a-bakin' in my Japan-made, technologically AND ecologically sophisticated, microscopically tiny microwave/oven, the living room was filled with the air of love that is of cookies. The highlight, and really the whole point of my baking, exactly.

May the chewiness be bringing smiles across North America yet another day.

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! I

We are having a train of national holidays here in the land of Japan. Starting Monday ending on Wednesday, proceeded with a regular weekend, the country of workaholics is now having a 5-day weekend called Silver Week. For a Saturday work bee like myself, it is cut down to 4 days, but for someone who doesn't have the luxury of two consecutive days off on a regular basis (my days off are Sunday and Tuesday), it is a glorious deal nonetheless.

Day 1. And what a beautiful day it is, really! I woke up feeling like baking very, very badly. It's the autumn thing. If love is in the air in the spring as the saying goes, it is in the oven in the autumn, I'd say. Whenever the morning chill starts to linger longer and longer into the daytime, I turn into this crazy baking woman that sees no end of sifting flour and melting butter and pre-heating and re-heating the oven every weekend. And the craziness seems to have arrived this year.

So it beings...

...with banana chocolate chip muffins, a request from my sis (who I know schemes on hawking a few before she goes off for a hike on a mountain with her friend tomorrow).

...into the oven they go!

(23 minutes)

...out with the m'ffins!

Voila!

Yumminess!

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos. My Cybershot was nowhere to be found and I had to make do with my cell phone camera.

I don't have a Stepfordwife friend to exchange recipes with, and I will not post one in my blog (simply because I don't know the measurements by heart and am too lazy to go get the recipe and type here as I read it). Every recipe I come upon, I add something or change the measurements to my liking. And for this particular muffin, I use home-made yogurt instead of milk, melted butter instead of vegetable oil, and chopped-up 85%-cocoa chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips.

I doubled the measurements and made 8 servings instead of 4. But I see a very quick banishment of the baked, the way my family is wolfing them down.

Until next time,

Sak