Monkey Bubble Bread

I came across this interesting bread recipe in one of the books I bought online last year. In fact it was the name, "Monkey Bubble Bread"  that intrigued me. I googled to find out about the origin of the term but there wasn't any . It is also known by a string of names - sticky bread, African Coffee cake(there's no coffee used), golden crown, pinch-me-cake, bubble loaf and monkey brains! This bread is sticky, gooey and sweet and is eaten in the United States for breakfast. In fact one does not eat it in slices but pinch off from the whole loaf, hence one of the terms - 'pinch-me-cake'.

Ingredients (Adapted from Baked Explorations)

For bread dough:

1 1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast

4 cups plain flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
70g unsalted butter, melted

For the Cinnamon sugar coating:

1  cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
125g unsalted butter, melted


1. Grease a 10-inch bundt pan. Set aside.

2. Warm milk to slightly room temperature and add yeast and whisk to mix well.

3. Place flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and use a paddle to mix well.

4. At low speed, mix in beaten egg till combined.

5. Slowly stream in milk and mix till combined. Then add melted butter.

6. Replace paddle with dough hook and continue to mix on medium speed for about ten minutes. if dough is too wet, add a little flour. If it's too dry, add a little water.

7. Remove dough, roll into a ball and place it in a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap. Let it prove for an hour or till dough double its size.

8. Prepare sugar coating by mixing cinnamon powder and sugar in a bowl. Melt butter and let it cool.

9. After proving, remove dough and punch out air. Pinch or cut with scissors the dough to roll into  4cm diameter balls. Balls need not be perfectly round. There should be about 50 to 60 dough balls depending on the size.

10. Dip each dough ball into the melted butter, drain excess butter and roll into the sugar mixture.
Place balls in the bundt pan in the manner of building a wall.

11.Cover the bundt pan with plastic wrap and prove for one hour or till dough balls have doubled in size.

12. Bake in preheated oven 180 deg C for about 30 minutes.

13. Cool bread for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a serving platter and serve warm.

Cinnamon sugar

Proving in progress in the bundt!

Out of the oven!

What a crown??

Pinch me now!

Thai Green Curry Prawns and Salted Egg Spinach

These were part of Saturday's dinner with my daughter's family.
I cooked braised belly pork in dark soya sauce, fried chicken wings in sweet sauce, green curry prawns and salted egg spinach.

I have a container of green curry paste prepared some time ago. I always make huge batches of different types of spices and freeze them. It makes cooking easy and convenient. I don't have to 'crack my head' as to what to cook as the various spices are ready at hand. Just thaw and cook - sambal, assam, curry, lemak and what have you!


Spices for Thai Green Curry: (approximately 1 1/2 rice bowl)

1 tablespoon coriander seeds (ketumbar), roasted
2 teaspoons cumin seeds (jintan puteh), roasted
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons blachan
8 large green chillies
1 cup shallots
5 cm galangal (lengkwas)
12 cloves garlic
1 cup coriander leaves including roots
6 kaffir lime leaves
3 stalks lemon grass (serai)
2 teaspoons grated lime rind
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoon oil

Just place all the ingredients and blend. Store and freeze.

For the prawns, I use 3 tablespoons of the paste and saute in a little oil before adding the prawns and stir fry a little before adding some coconut milk and sliced chilli padi. There is little gravy, so the prawns are cover with the paste. I didn't use salt as the stock is already flavoured.






Salted Egg Spinach

3 salted egg
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
600g spinach, use more leaves with the thinner stalks


Boil garlic in stock. Add 3 yolks and drizzle a little egg white. Do not use all the egg whites or it will be too salty. When the yolks are about to cook, add the spinach and boil till just cooked.

Aparagus Soup

This was my lunch a few days ago - Asparagus soup!
I bought twenty asparagus shoots from the market. They were fresh and thick.
Here is my bowl of soup!

20 asparagus shoots (thick ones)
4 shallots
1 stalk celery
100ml chicken stock
150ml light cooking cream
150ml milk
15g butter
salt to taste


1. Chop up asparagus, celery and onions and blend them together till fine. (I did mine a little coarse as I like to bite on the asparagus bits.)

2. Melt butter in a saucepan and pour in the blended veggies and stock. Cook over medium low heat and stir.

3. When it is about to bubble, add cream and milk and salt to taste and cook till it bubbles and then it is done.

4. Serve hot with plain toast or toasted garlic bread.

I don't use any flour to thicken the soup as the amount of asparagus used make up for the thick consistency.

Jello Roll

Calling all sweet tooth people! This is the stuff for you!
I bet all the kiddos will respond to this call!

This is a very easy gummy roll to do. All it takes is 10 minutes!
I chanced upon the recipe when I browsing some blogs. As usual I forget to note the blog, hence I am unable to credit the blogger. My apologies!

Ingredients:

1 pkt Jello, any flavour (I used Tortally, raspberry flavour)
1/2 cup warm water
12 large plain marshmallow


Method:

1. Dissolve jello and warm water in a bowl.

2. Microwave for a minute.

3. Add marshmallow and stir to coat and microwave for about one and a half minutes until the marshmallows are puffed up and melty.

4. Whisk marshmallow mixture till well mixed with a hand whisk.

5. Pour into a greased 8-in square pan with non-stick cooking spray.

6. Refrigerate till the mixture is well set and firm.

7. Remove by loosening the edge. Roll like a swiss roll with lighter shade inside.
Slice to thickness.

8. Pop one into your mouth!

A lesson to learn from the picture - Use a sharp knife to cut!

Great for children's party!

Award Thrill and Healthy Banana Cupcake

I must apologise to Eelin and Chris for the late, late response in accepting the awards!
Thank you very much my friends. I'm indeed honoured!
This is indeed double joy which I ought to share with others.

I would like to pass this award to:

Baking Library
Blessed Homemaker
Keep Learning Keep Smiling
No Frills Recipes
Table for 2 or more
Wen's Delight
Honey Bee Sweets
Baking on Cloud 9


From Eelin


From Chris





HEALTHY BANANA CUPCAKE

Something happened while I was out yesterday. My whole comb of "ang bak chio" dropped from the hook which I use to hang the comb of bananas. How it happened, I had no idea. Anyway, whenever a banana or any fruit that has been knocked or bruised, it turns brown or black.
Sob! Out of ten bananas, I could salvage about seven of them. They weren't that pretty to eat and so they ended up in the oven and emerged in cupcakes!


Ingredients: ( adapted from Anncoo's )

50g Cake flour
75g Plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 1/2 medium- sized eggs
60g caster sugar
100ml oil
30ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

5 medium-sized bananas, coarsely mashed


Method:

1. Preheat oven at 175 deg C.

2. Sift dry ingredients together.

3. Whisk egg and sugar till thick and creamy.

4. Add in milk, oil and vanilla and mix well.

5. Mix in mashed bananas and finally fold in the sifted flour.

6. Fill up cup 2/3 full and bake for 20 to 25 minutes depending on the size of cups.

These are moist and soft!