Japanese Curry Bread

Last weekend I made these very Japanesey bread buns, Curry bread (we call it カレーパン, Karē Pan.) As it's quite obvious from the name, it's bread with curry sauce inside. It's normally deep fried like a doughnut but I baked mine to make it healthier.

Not only did I put the curry in the middle but also I infused the bread with the sauce in order to get the curry flavour with every mouthful. I used Medium Hot curry sauce and covered the buns with homemade breadcrumbs (by the way, the word 'Panko Breadcrumbs' always makes me chuckle because it's basically saying breadcrumbs breadcrumbs...).

They filled the Japanese hole in my stomach very well. I baked some with mild kids curry for Lana's lunch;) She seemed to like it. :D

Matcha danish pastry with Rum raisin

I love adding a bit of Japan into my breads and pastries. As I was making the pastry dough, I thought why not add a bit of green tea in it... so here we have Matcha Danish pastry!

It worked nicely. The flavour of green tea was there but not overpowering, and it went well with rum raisins.

I tried to reduce as much butter as I could to make it healthier, which worked pretty ok as a Danish pastry. I've made some croissants with the same dough that haven't been baked yet. We'll see how they will come out! I'll share the recipe soon. ;)

Strawberry yeast bread

For me there is no doubt that home baked bread is the best, and specially, the one baked with your own starter is better than best...

As some of you might already know, I'm very passionate about sourdough starters and naturally occurred yeast. I've so far tried making starters with raisins, bananas, lemons, coconuts, pineapples, apples, whatever is available at the time...

Currently I'm currently looking after (yes, I care them like pets...;D) strawberry yeast. And it's probably one of the most successful starters ever! To start the yeast, I cut the top bits of the strawberries (eat the actual fruits, of course!) and do the same way as the raisin yeast.

Although I don't put the fruits in the bread dough, there is still a hint of strawberry flavour and sweetness in the bread. And also unlike many sourdough breads, this bread doesn't taste sour and is nice and soft, which is great for my daughter. ;)

A strawberry on top to make it look like a cake.

Waffle maker sandwich with banana bread

 This morning I made banana bread again. This time I just baked it in a loaf tin. Since it didn't make it to breakfast, I decided that we were having sandwiches with the banana loaf for lunch. :)

I made tuna and cheese sandwiches and I used the waffle maker to press them. (I couldn't find the hot sandwich maker...) Look, it worked pretty cool!

The extra thick slices were real treats after a swim! Yum yum yum..., and being tired from the swim and belly full, Lana went to a deep deep nap while I was pushing the pram back home...;D

Frog (?) Loaf

So..., it was supposed to be a frog face... does that look so? I think it's looking more like an alien cat...

Anyway, I've seen this kind of loaf before on Japanese website (I don't know what it's called. Maybe a 'Loaf art'...) and I've been wanting to try it out for ages. So..., here we are, my first attempt for a loaf art... Mr Frog.. ;D

First I pictured what 'face' I want in my loaf, then thought about the pieces and ratios of dough I was going to need. I used green tea for the green dough and raisins for the eyes.As I started to assemble, I realised that the piece for the outer shell was a bit thin, but I stretched it out and managed to wrap the whole thing up... Now, all I could do was to wait for Mr Frog to prove.

It was so exciting when I cut into the loaf because you just don't know how it will come out until you actually see the inside! Ok..., to be honest, the face inside wasn't what I expected... but, humm, it still looked like a face of some sort... So, I say my first attempt wasn't too bad, and more importantly it tasted good and was a great fun. :)

I might get addicted to this...

Mango & Coconut macaron

A sequel to Matcha macaton...

Another macaron, mango and coconut this time. I added mango flavouring to the biscuit and put coconut icing in the middle. It was like a tropical taste explosion in my mouth. I liked it. ;)

Because I added a liquid flavouring in the meringue the biscuit batter was slightly wetter than normal which made the biscuit a tiny bit softer than I would have liked... But all in all it was another successful bake!

The coconut icing was nice too. After resting the macarons in the fridge, the filling sort of soaked in the biscuit a little, which was well tasty!

Matcha Macaron

Macarons are one of my favourite sweets. When I visit a bakery or cafe and they have macarons, I cannot walk out without trying their macarons...

Although I love macarons, I find them pretty hard to bake. I've been practicing and modifying the recipe for 'feels-like-forever' time. However, I think (touch wood!) I've finally got it right this time!

I made matcha macarons. And they came out.... simply perfect! They had nice feet on the bottom and crisp outer shells. The inside was soft and chewy. I put matcha jam in the middle. The flavour of matcha was just heavenly...

These perfect looking sweet treats certainly put a big smile on my face... :D