New Banneton & Knife

I've been looking for a good Banneton, a bread proving basket, for a while, and I finally found the one that I love!! It's from Suffolk Food Hall's kitchen shop. They have different sizes and shape baskets there.

I got a medium size round one, and this basket is simply amazing! I dust it with only a small amount of rye flour when I prove the bread, and the dough comes out so perfectly!

No more 'dough stuck' accidents...;)

I also got a baker's knife, Grignette, from Andy's mum and dad at Christmas. Honestly, I was so happy when I opened the present. I love my new knife. It cuts the dough ever so cleanly.

No more 'dough tearing accidents... ;)

Strawberry yeast bread 

and

banana yeast bread...

both baked perfectly with my new basket and knife;D

Always..., good bread needs butter! ;D

Carrot Castella - 人参カステラ -

Carrots, carrots, carrots.... I had a lot of carrots in the fridge that needed to be dealt with, and you know what that meant... Carrot cake... ;)

This time I used the same method as the popular Japanese cake カステラ (Castella), but I replaced the strong white flour with wholemeal flour to make it feel more..."healthy", and added quite a bit of carrot.

This cake has two stages to enjoy. Day one, it's light and you might feel like you want to call it a 'loaf' rather than a 'cake'. Then, when you rest it for a day or two, it gets more moist and juicy, which makes the cake more 'cake'-like. Two in one, sounds good right? ;D

Ingredients:

Wholemeal flour 100g

Dark brown sugar 100g

Mixed spice 1-2 tsp

Egg 4

Honey 3tbsp

Shredded carrots 100g

Hot water 1 tbsp

More carrots cake?

Carrot cake with homemade carrot jam

Carrot brownie

Happy New Year! -2014-

Happy New Year, every one! Wishing you all an awesome year ahead!

Are you a sort of person who makes New Year's resolutions? I don't really do a massive 'to do list' but there are some new thing that I want to try as well as things that I am determined to improve this year! And one of them is to learn a traditional Japanese confectionery called "和菓子 (Wagashi)", which is a very delicate and pretty looking sweet, and most importantly it's delicious and I love it!

So, I made my first attempt on making Wagashi for New Year's treats. I made mini "鏡餅 (Kagami mochi)" which is one of the traditional Japanese New Year's decorations.

I probably didn't do this in a traditional way but I was quite pleased with my first Wagashi attempt;) It looked super cute;D

I also made some flowers. The inside is white so it's 'Red and White' which is a colour combination used for celebrations in Japan. Good choice for New Year, I thought...

I put my New Year's treats in おせち(Osechi), which is a traditional Japanese New Year's food. Usually you don't have any desserts in Osechi but I couldn't help it...

In one of the boxes there are my wagashi flowers, super light green tea cakes and rum soaked sweet chestnuts... They all went down so well.

2014 is going to be more breads and cake in the WOS kitchen, and I will be sharing more recipes too!