Pumpkin chiffon cake

           A very moist, not overly sweet, very light and healthy tasty cake.
           What else can I ask for?

        Recipe from: The Kitchen ( slight alteration)
     Ingredients (9" chiffon pan)

     Yolk batter
    120g pumpkin ( steamed and mashed)
     50g vegetable oil
     50g milk
     1/4 teaspoon salt
     6 egg yolks (130g)
     120g cake flour
     1 tablespoon baking powder
     1 teaspoon vanilla extract



     Meringue batter
     6 egg whites (240g)
     2 teaspoon of lemon juice
     120g castor sugar

I took one small portion out from the yolk batter, mixed with one tablespoon cocoa powder.

     Method

     1.  In a mixing bowl, beat together egg yolks, oil, milk, salt until light and pale.  Add in baking powder, mashed pumpkin , flour and vanilla extract until all well combined.   Set aside.

     2.  In a clean mixing bowl of egg whites, add in lemon juice and beat with sugar in 3 batches. Beat until it reaches stiff peak.

     3.  Use 1/3 portion of beaten whites, mix to lighten the yolk batter.  Fold in 2 more batches of whites to the yolk batter until all is done.

     4.  Pour batter in the pan and bake at pre-heated oven 170C for 35 t0 40 minutes.  Insert a skewer to see that it comes out clean, it's done.

     5.  Invert the cake and let it cool completely.  Run through the edges round the pan, slowly release it from the pan.

Goji Berry Walnut artisan bread ( sunflower seeds)

People here loves Artisan breads,  local supermarket bakeries were selling all kinds of Artisan styles.  It is easy to make, just to make sure you get the dough well fermented for 12 to 18 hours.  I made some 'No knead crusty bread', 'No knead pumpkin seeds crusty rolls, No knead Onion and poppyseed crusty bread, now I am using the recipe and method again to make this Goji berry walnut bread.  This is so good, good enough to eat on its own without anything, or just a bit of light butter good enough to go with your coffee.


I have always loved goji berries, it is packed with lots of antioxidants.  Plump good quality types does deliver a sweeter juicy taste.

Oh yes, don't forget to use all kinds of healthy raw seeds for toppings!

Lots of good toppings here.., moist inside, crusty outside.

     Steps

Walnut and gojiberries added in the dough 

Leave it to ferment overnight

Overnight 18 hours fermented dough 

Yumm!

   Ingredients
   For the dough (refer links above)



    Filling
    Gojiberries  100g ( rinsed with boiling water and soaked with a few tablespoons of red wine, just enough to cover it)
    Walnuts  80g ( break into bite size)

Just warm it up a bit and it is still good even after a few days.

Pumpkin Crepes

My daughter decorated hers

These Crepes are good, not overly sweet and I like the idea of adding a bit of cornstarch,  gives a very nice texture in the end.

Bread pudding

I have learnt not to waste food, with the leftover bread, I made this simple yet delicious bread pudding.

Dan Lepard's Peanut and rosemary cookies

Very yummy cookies, you just keep on eating non stop, the rosemary...peanuts, oh my!
Loving it.

Onion poppyseed crusty bread

I have been making artisan bread quite a bit lately, they loved it so much.  To prepare the dough, you may like to go to my Crusty bread-Amazing bread,  No-knead Pumpkin seeds crusty rolls,  I just add in poppy seeds and onions for filling this time. Really good tasty bread.

For filling (inspiration from Artisan 5 minutes):

I used 3 medium size of onions, cut them into very small pieces, using 2 tablespoons oil, fried them until they turned brown and fragrant.  Let it cool, mix with lots of poppyseeds.  Set aside.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 230C. I used a baking stone, keeping a pan filled with hot water underneath the oven.

2.  Spread generous flour on the working surface, oil your hands and scraper.  Get ready parchment paper with lots of cornmeal on top of it, large enough to sit the dough on. 

3.  Avoid deflating gas too much, roll the dough out.  Spread the ingredients evenly. Roll it like the way you would do to a swiss roll.  Now, cut the long dough into half, plait them fully, make a ring, seal the 2 ends in nicely. Transfer to the prepared parchement paper ( refer first picture below here). Let it rise, it usually takes 30 minutes.  

4. Bring the dough to the oven, quick water spray, bake for 30 minutes ( quick water spray again after first 5 minutes again). 

Steps:

Spread ingredients evenly.
 Get prepared the parchment paper spread with lots of cornmeal.

Baked on baking stone.

The aroma of onions...., crusty outside, moist springy inside.

Dan Lepard's Simple Walnut Tin Loaf ( red wine)

This is an interesting bread, it has a lot of walnuts, I also loved the red wine aroma...
So beautiful, I took one look after I sliced it....I just did not want to ruin it by eating it, hahaha.

I have adapted Dan's amazing kneading technique for most of my dough now, my food processor, Bread machine and Mixer are sitting there untouched.  It is so easy and relaxing, 10 seconds gentle manipulation of the dough and 10 minutes rest and do that for 3 times. Basic Technique Would you believe it or not? Thanks Dan!




Recipe from: Dan Lepard ( The Guardian)
Ingredients:
200g strong white flour
100g strong wholemeal flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 sachet easy- blend yeast
1 glass red wine (125ml), plus water to make 200ml
50g whole walnuts, plus 100g coarsely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1.  Mix flours, salt and yeast in mixing bowl. Blend wine, water, whole walnuts and oil until smooth, pour onto the flour. Add in chopped walnuts, stir and mix to form soft sticky dough.  Cover and rest for 10 minutes.
2.  With oiled hands, remove dough and knead on oiled surface for 10 to 15 seconds.  Return to bowl, cover to rest for 10 minutes.  Last, repeat the light knead, return dough back to bowl and let it rest for 45 minutes or until it ias doubled it's size.
3.  Oil and flour the 1 lb loaf tin. Roll the dough tightly ( roughly 15cm to 20cm) and fit into the pan.  Press down firmly, cover, let it rise for an hour until doubled it's height.
4.  Lightly dust the surface top with flour and make a criss cross cuts in it with a knife.  Bake at pre-heated oven 200C/400F for 40 minutes until it turns brown colour and the loaf pulls away from the tin. ( I normally insert a skewer deep down, if it comes out clean, it's done).  Remove from the tin and cool on a rack.

A very good bread !