あんぱん - Ann Pan

あんぱん (Ann Pan) is one of my ultimate soul foods... It's a bread with sweet azuki bean paste called あんこ (Annko) inside. Every now and then, I... or my body and soul craves these comfort foods from home...


So..., I made Ann Pan! This time I used Yoghurt and Kinako bread to make it even more Japanesey, and it worked great. ;)

As you see..., Lana loved it! She seems to be a fan of Annko too, she was picking the very last piece on her plate. ;D

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako bread and Annko.

The inside burst out but I actually like the way they look! 

Andy said it tasted like chocolate bread even though there is no chocolate in it... Maybe because I cooked the azuki beans with brown sugar and vanilla? It was very nice anyway. :)

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako bread and Annko.

Plum Tart

I love this time of year because there are so many fruits available and they look nice and fresh, and also cheap!

So, I bought quite a few plums from a market, and as they were getting softer and softer each day, I decided to make a Plum Tart with them. I used the classic sweet pastry and almond cheese cream as a filling.

I haven't made tart for a little while but making a tart case reminded me of how much I like making tart...
It is very therapeutic;)

The smooth filling, sweet plums and the crusty pastry is nice as is but even better when you add a scoop or two of ice cream on the side. ;D

More tarts?
• Lemon Meringue Tart
• Nut About Nut Tart
• Chestnut Tart
• Pumpkin Tart
• Apple Almond Cheese Tartlet

Banoffee Pan

I turned an all time classic dessert into bread... It's not Banoffee pie, but Banoffee 'Pan'. ;D

I used my banana buns as the base and added a couple of spoonfuls of caramel in the dough. When it came to shaping, I rolled in the caramel and twisted the dough so that the sauce spreads evenly.

They were indeed really nice sweet buns. The sticky and sweet caramel was a great combo with not-so-sweet banana bun. Those oozed out caramel was simply awesome....

I prepared the caramel too... it's actually super easy! Just cook the tinned condensed milk in a boiling water for 2 hours, cool it down (don't open it while it's hot or it'll explode!), and pop it open, you will see a nice caramel inside;)

Recipe for Banana Buns.

Last Friday night ~ ♫

Time flies...they say... I forgot to post this last Friday's Curry Night photo, and now another Friday is approaching!

Anyway, so, this was what we had last curry night. Curry in a bread! This idea kind of happened as I was baking...

I thought.., 'we need freshly baked bread for the curry night.' so I baked my usual milk loaf in a cube tin. When I took the bread out of the tin after the bake, I thought... 'Um, this is actually a good container for curry...' then, I cut the middle out, grilled the bread further 10 minutes or so, poured the curry in it, and served!

Not only does it look fun and unique but also it's quite practical. You pull a bit and dip, and pull a bit more and dip again...

If you've got a cube tin or even a loaf tin, try it next time you have curry. That curry soaked bread is dangerously addictive... ;)

Orange & Chocolate pound cake

I made this Orange and Chocolate pound cake for Lana's nursery teachers who have been very nice to Lana (and me) since she started going there in April.

It's a variation of vanilla pound cake. The basic ingredient for a pound cake is equal amount of eggs, sugar, flour and butter (I usually weigh the eggs so that I know exactly how many grams of other ingredients I need), and you can vary it by adding chocolate, jams or flavourings whatever you fancy.

For this cake, I divided the batter into two potions and added orange juice to one, and chocolate to the other. For the butter cream, I added orange marmalade and also poured marmalade syrup over the cake before I sprinkled it with bits of dark chocolate and white chocolate.

I had a slice to taste it. It was lovely. Nice and moist, the refreshing flavour of orange went really well with the chocolate and the sweet butter cream.

The nursery teachers loved the cake too. They told me more cakes are welcome any time...;)

Banana yoghurt pancake

Because I love bread, and so does Lana, and there is nothing better than freshly baked bread, sometimes we end up eating all the bread I baked that was meant to be for the following morning.

So, one of those mornings, pancakes come out to help me. ;) My recent favourite is this yoghurt pancake. It's very simple and goes well with any fruits. I added bananas this time. Banana is an awesome choice for a natural sweetness and it keeps you full through out the morning. But be careful, it gets super hot when cooked!

Recipe for Basic Yoghurt Pancake.

Have you tried Sweet Corn Pancake?

Naan Bread

Since last week, Fridays have become 'Curry Friday', and me being Japanese, Andy being a big fan of Japanese curry, curry home means Japanese curry. And I thought I would treat Mr with freshly made naan breads after a long week away from home...

These naan breads are very easy to make, and they take much less time than most of other breads because there is only one proving stage.

Recipe for Naan Bread.

I add yoghurt and honey (these two ingredients are my recent favourites!) in the dough to get nice chewy but soft texture. Honey also gives a hint of sweetness which goes super well with spicy curry!

The basic dough is so simple and versatile that you can add cheese, seeds, nuts, whatever you like in it to spice it up. I'd even put cinnamon sugar or coconuts to make it a sweet treat ;)

Recipe for Naan Bread.

Have you seen my Japanese curry bread?

Yoghurt & Kinako wholemeal bread

There are two secret ingredients in these super soft loaves of bread..., Yoghurt and Honey...

Try using yoghurt instead of butter and honey instead of sugar, and you'll find that the bread becomes amazingly soft. And even better, on the following day the bread will stay as soft as when it was freshly bake.

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako Bread.

I added kinako (soya powder, my one from Japan had black sesame in it) in the dough which gave the loaf a nice bit of nutty flavour. Apparently, kinako is a good source of iron and calcium. That's good for my growing little lady;)

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako Bread.

I love the way she eats...

Real Bread Maker Week!

Everyone, Real Bread Maker Week starts from today until 17th May, so, get involved to raise dough to do good! Go to your local Real Bread bakery, or get your hand into the dough and bake!





During this week, the sales from 'Bread Badge from Pan Au Accessory' are going to be donated to Real Bread Campaign!

Not only that, the shipping fee is FREE in the UK and Worldwide! Get one for yourself to show your love for real bread and give one for your family and friends to spread the love!

Shop here - Pan Au Accessory on Esty!

See here for more about Real Bread Campaign!

Two chocolate cakes

Some people might have already noticed that there are considerably small amounts of chocolate things on my blog... It's because neither of us eat it (unfortunately it gives us a great headache..;(...)

However, that doesn't stop me from using it for cakes and breads. In fact, I quite like working with it! I think chocolate gives cakes and breads just a touch of special indulgent feeling to them. :)

So so so..., at the weekend I made two different chocolate cakes.

One was an ultimate chocolate birthday cake for Brian, who as far as I know loves chocolate. The cake had cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate in it and drizzle of white chocolate, bits of milk chocolate and chocolate cake, and 'Happy Birthday' written with raspberry flavoured white chocolate (which kind of got pressed when I wrapped it...). Hope the cake filled the birthday boy's chocolate hole. ;)

The other one was white chocolate bundt cakelets for Andy to take to the office. Oh see, these mini bundt cake tins are so cute! When I saw it, I had to get it. ;D I added bits of chocolate cake from the cut of Brian's cake in the batter and filled the middle with chocolate sauce.

That was fun doing chocolate cakes, and these are the times that I wish I ate chocolate...

Strawberry yeast bread - 2.

Strawberry Yeast Bread - 1.

How to make Strawberry Yeast.

Two weeks ago I posted about my strawberry yeast bread, which I made by using the straight method. Last weekend, I made a lovely crusty loaf with my strawberry yeast again but by using a different method.

This time, I made a starter from strawberry yeast liquid, which obviously took more time to prepare, but watching my starter grow is one of the things I love about bread making (of course, eating is the best!). I honesty believe 'patience' is the key to a good baker. ;) Anyway, to bake this loaf, it took me about one week from start to finish.

I baked the loaf in a cast iron pot in order to get a crusty outside. It worked pretty well. The out side was nice and crusty but inside was still soft and springy thanks to the milk I added to the dough.

I baked the bread in the morning, went off to work, came back after a whole day in the kitchen, went straight to my loaf, and quite literally destroyed the whole thing. I was that hungry and the loaf was that nice...

I had some with cheese... Simple is the best. ;)

Fish in the middle for Andy. :)

Here, I shared on BON APPETIT. how to make Strawberry yeast starter.

and

Recipe for Strawberry Yeast Bread.

Enjoy watching your starter grow!

こどもの日パン。Children's Day bread.

Today is こどもの日 (Children's day) in Japan, so I made these fish shaped buns for Lana (I've explained the reason for the fish shape here a few years ago.)

These buns are what I call 'super soft' white rolls made with my banana yeast starter. By adding a whole ripe banana and two egg yolks, the buns become really soft and lovely which I like and is very different from the hard crusty sourdough breads (Oh, don't get me wrong, I love them too!)

They are so simple, nice as is or go very well with cheese, jam, and also great as BBQ sausage or burgers... They very versatile;)

Anyway, Happy Children's Day to all the little kids and big kids out there!

Pineapple yeast vanilla cake

Recently I've been using less and less dried yeast and more of my own starter for baking breads. Then I thought... why not use it for my cakes too... so, I did. ;)

I made a simple buttery vanilla cake with my pineapple starter. And and..., it was a great success! I think the pineapple yeast was a good choice for a cake because it has a very sweet fruity flavour to it.

Andy took the round cake to work (I put ginger pear jam and butter icing in the middle) and apparently it was gone in 5 minutes! That's to me the best compliment I could get as a baker. :D

One thing with using the starter for a cake is that it's a much longer process than an ordinary cake because you need to wait for the cake to rise before you put it in the oven, and it could be more than a few hours depending on the size of the cake and the condition of the starter. So, plan your baking time! Don't start it late in the evening because you might end up waiting and waiting and won't be able to go to bed until midnight... (that was my case...silly me...).