Playing with sushi

I know nothing about making sushi and I have never thought of making it too.

It happens that my mother is making sushi today and there are some leftover sushi rice. So I thought why not try it. An impromptu decision and without any knowledge or any ingredients, I just jump in for the fun of playing around with sushi.


You know what's the quickest way to learn how to make a Tamago Sushi? Search the YouTube! I type in "Tamago Sushi" and several videos are found and I just learn how to make the japanese type of omelette from there.

It's neither nice-looking nor delicious (cos I don't even have some of the ingredients), but it's just for fun! :)

Golden Crown Bread

This recipe is taken from Alex Goh's latest book - Baking Code. The breads in this book are made using the Overnight Sponge Dough method. Because the recipe seems to be too much for my family, I halved the recipe. I omitted the raisins from the recipe too, thus the I leave out the word "raisin" from the name of the bread. Haha! (Its original name is Golden Crown Raisin Bread).


I got about 60g of the overnight sponge dough using half the recipe. The method of making the bread is slightly different from the book as I have used my bread machine to do the kneading part. I put in the water and egg first, followed by the overnight sponge dough, and lastly all the dry ingredients. Then made the machine to knead for 30 minutes, adding the butter after the first 10 minutes of kneading. The rest of the method remains the same.


As I'm using a small 15cm round pan, I divide the dough into 30g each for the sides and 40g for the dough in the centre. The result of this arrangement looks quite pleasing. It does have the shape of a crown, no wonder it gets its name as a Golden Crown. I'm happy with the texture of the bread too. It's very soft and fluffy and still remains quite good on the next day. Gonna try more recipes from this book. :)


Here are the original recipes from the book.

Overnight Sponge Dough (From Baking Code by Alex Goh)

Ingredients
100g bread flour
60g water (room temperature)
1/4 tsp instant yeast

Method
1. Mix the instant yeast with 20g of water until well-blended.
2. Add in the remaining ingredients and knead to form a dough.
3. Let it proof for 30 minutes.
4. Wrap with cling film and keep in the refrigerator overnight or up to 48 hours.

Golden Crown Raisin Bread (From Baking Code by Alex Goh)

Ingredients
Ingredients A:
400g bread flour
100g plain flour
20g milk powder
65g sugar
6g salt
10g instant yeast

Ingredients B:
100g overnight sponge dough

Ingredients C:
2 cold eggs
180g cold water

Ingredients D:
90g butter

Ingredients E:
220g raisins

Method
1. Mix ingredients A until well-blended. Add in ingredients B and ingredients C, mix to form a dough.
2. Add in ingredients D, mix to form a smooth and elastic dough.
3. Add in ingredients E, mix until well-blended.
4. Cover it with cling film. Allow it to proof for 50 minutes.
5. Divide it into 40g each. Mould it round. Place 8 pieces of dough around the side of a greased 20cm round pan, place a 60g dough in the centre. Allow it to proof for 50 minutes.
6. Egg wash the surface and bake it at 180 deg C for 20 minutes.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

This Banana Oatmeal Cookies recipe from Baking Cottage is definitely a keeper. I like its soft interior, which makes it different from other cookies. My only complaint is that I have added only 1 small banana which is not enough to bring out any taste of banana in it. I should have added more. :)

A brand new look!

Remember that in my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to change the layout of my blog?
I did it! Here's a brand new look for my blog!

I got the blog template from this website eBlogTemplates. There are many free blog templates for Blogger and Wordpress users. Yes, they are FREE. And many of them look very cool and professional too. If you are going to give your blog a makeover, you can try this out.

I had a hard time deciding which blog template to use. I love the template that I'm using now. Especially the "Recent Articles" box that display the 10 most recent posts and the "Calendar style date" on each individual post. And there are 2 columns of side bars, so that I can place more links to my favourite blogs.

They also offer plenty of money making tools by placing blog ads in your blog. I have yet to try any of them, except Google AdSense. So currently, they are just "dummy ads".

* If you want to try these templates, do create a new blog to try it out first.
* Before replacing your blog, please do a backup of your current template.
Click "Layout" > "Edit HTML" > "Download Full Template".
This helps you to restore your blog if you want to change it back. Because almost all the codes and links and whatever new things you have added to your blog will be gone.
* I copied all the codes for flickr and stats counter, all the links that I have added, and save them.

I'm still trying to complete some of the configuration. As for all the links that are gone, will have update them one by one. :)