Barley Dessert Soup with Dried Bean Curd Sheet and Egg

A simple dessert, which is easy to make and all time favorite.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
1 packet of barley (about 100 gm)
1 piece of dried bean curd sheet
1 egg
1.4 liter of hot water
Sugar to taste

Steps
1. Wash and rinse the barley.
2. Clean the dried bean curd sheet and tear into pieces
3. Put the barley and dried bean curd sheet into the slow cooker pot.

4. Add the hot water into the slow cooker pot.
5. Boil for about 2.5 hours.
6. Beat the egg and add to the slow cooker pot. Stir the mixture to make flower egg.
7. Boil another 30 minutes.
8. Add sugar to taste and serve.

Mini Sausage Roll

Sausage roll is an all time favourite. May it be for kids or adults, everyone has tried them at least once and craving for more.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (excluding waiting time for dough to rise)
Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of fresh milk
1 cup of all purpose flour
50 gm of butter
1 teaspoon of yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoon of honey
1 egg

1/2 cup of all purpose flour for kneading
10 sausages (cut into 1/3 to make 30 mini sausages)
1/4 eff for eggwash 
Some black sesame for decoration

Steps
1. Using the steps in an earlier post for Chocolate Bread, mix and knead to form the dough until 1st rising process. Proceed to knead the dough for 5 minutes before shaping the dough.
2. To shape the dough, flatten out the dough. Cut a strip out and roll to form a long shaped dough. The length will be around 8-10 cm.

3. Wrap the long shaped dough around the sausage and place on the baking sheet. Ensure that there are sufficient space between the sausage rolls to allow the rolls to grow.
4. Cover the sausage rolls with cling wrap and let it sit for 15 minutes.

5. Coat the sausage rolls with eggwash. 
6. Sprinkle some dark sesame on top.

7. Bake the sausage roll in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celcius for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Simple and Moist White Bread

Part of my continuous experiments in baking the moist and soft bread, I altered slightly the recipe that I used to make Chocolate Bread. The methods is still the same, except that I used honey instead of sugar and increased the amount of butter.

The bread turned out softer and moist. What a delightful experiments !

Preparation Time: 30 mins (excluding waiting time)

Cooking Time: 25 mins

Serving Size: 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of milk

1 egg

2 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoon of honey

1 teaspoon of yeast

2 cups of bread flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of bread flour for kneading (try not to use more than that)

Steps:
Follow the steps as in Easy Chocolate Bread Recipe

Easy Chinese Old Cucumber Soup ~ Slow Cooker Style

It's another soup day.. and it's Chinese Old Cucumber Soup this round. It's another quick and simple recipe that can be prepared easily.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 4 hours
Serving Size: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 piece of chicken breast with bone (you can opt for chicken bones)
1 old cucumber
1.4 liter of hot water
7 red dates
Optional : 1 medium sized dried scallop for extra taste
A dash of salt for taste

Pre-Steps
1. Wash and clean the chicken
2. Boil the chicken in a pot of hot water for about 5 minutes to remove scums.

3. Remove the chicken and pour the water away.

Steps
1. Wash the old cucumber. Note: we will keep the skin

2. Cut the old cucumber into half length-wise. Then using a spoon, remove the seeds.

3. Cut the cucumber into pieces, about 2 cm thickness.

4. Put the chicken, red dates, old cucumber into a slow cooker pot. Add hot water.

5. Turn on the slow cooker in "Auto" mode and cook for 4 hours.

6. Once done, add some salt to taste. Serve while hot.

Easy Chocolate Bread

We see white bread everywhere, but we seldom come by chocolate bread. Hence, why not make our own. 

Preparation Time: 30 mins (excluding waiting time for the dough to rise)
Cooking Time: 25 mins
Serving Size: 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients
3/4 cup of milk (I used Farmhouse fresh milk)
1 whole egg
3/4 tablepoon of butter at room temperature
1 1/4 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of yeast
1/4 tablespoon of salt
1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of all purpose flour
additional 1 cup of all purpose flour to be used when kneading
1/5 cup of cocoa powder

Steps
1. Add milk and sugar in a mixing bowl. Warm it up in a microwave for 30 seconds until warm to touch.
2. Add yeast and stir the mixture. Let is stay for about 5 minutes.
3. Add butter, salt and egg into the mixture and continue to stir.
4. Add in the bread flour. Stir until it is mixed well. 
5. Continue to add a cup of all purpose flour and cocoa powder and mix.

6. Once the dough the thick, sprinkle some flour for kneading into the working area. Pour the mixture out onto the working area and start kneading, while continuously adding some flour along the way.

7. Knead for about 5 minutes until it is no longer sticky, yet feels elastic.
8. Move the dough into the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and allow the dough to rise. This will take about 1 hour.

9. Once the dough has doubled in size, move the dough onto the working bench again. (Remember to sprinkle some flour on the working bench first)

10. Continue to knead the dough. Add some flour if the dough turns too sticky. Knead for about 5 minutes.
11. Grease the loaf pan well. Flatten the dough and then roll the dough into the length of the loaf pan. 

12. Put the dough into the loaf pan and cover it with cling wrap to allow the dough to rise again. This will take about 1 hour.

13. At this time, preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius. 
14. Once the dough has risen, remove the cling wrap and put the loaf pan into the oven to start baking. This will bake for 25 minutes.

15. Once done, remove the bread from oven and allow to cool (about 15-20 minutes)

16. Once cool, move onto the cutting board. Slice the bread and serve with your favorite bread filling.. butter, peanut butter, the list just goes on and on and on ..