Monet Garden 3.5-6.5.2011

I have been to visit Taipei International Flora Exposition twice but never have chance to visit pavilion of dreams so I decided to go to Flora Expo. along this Friday. I prepared 100 piece of invoice and just want to get reservation ticket to the Pavilion of Dreams. When I arrived the entrance of Xinsheng Park Area, I though I might have chance to get the reservation ticket. I run to the Flora Expo. but I didn’t get the ticket.
What a pity! Due to people in the expo are crowdedm I walked to Fine Arts Part Area and visited Monet Garden, the exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum showcases Monet’s famous paintings of scenery and flowers created in his garden in Giverny. He is famous for his series of paintings depicting cathedrals, haystacks, and water lilies, among others. This exhibition is focus on the water lily. Some phases quoted from http://www.tfam.museum/TFAM_Exhibition/default.aspx?Pmn=1

I rented Chinese audio guided set and saw about 30 wonderful and remarkable paintings in the museum. I loved one sentence especially that marked on the wall, “I have been painting nonstop, so I can capture as much as possible before my world goes completely dark.” –Claude Monet
Here is the Chinese translation: 我拼命創作,想在看不見之前,把一切都畫出來. The Chinese translation is so perfect.

Monet was born in 1840 and died in 1926 and he was a founder of French impressionist painting. He is one of great artist in the world and most of his art works are collect in the museum in Paris. It’s a good opportunity to see the great master of impressionist‘s paintings in Taipei and you can’t miss it. I personally recommend you to visit “Monet Garden”.

Cranberry Cheese Cake

Procedure：　

1. Cut dried cranberries into small pieces and soak them in the cranberry juice. Keep this aside and will need it later.

2. Combine cream cheese and sugar and mix by eggbeater until big chunks disappear.
3. Add cornstarch into “2” and beat and add egg yolks one by one into the mixture as well. Sift to make sure there are no more chunks in the mixture.

4. I use the peanut butter cookies as the bottom, so I skip this part. See the detail about the dough of peanut butter cookies You can put this peanut dough in the bottom of the 6” round pan. Then bake for about 10-15 mins. When the cookie is ready just then it cool.

5. Add wet cranberries and cranberry juice into the batter and stir with a spatula. Preheat oven to 130 C.

6. Use a clean and grease-free mixing bowl to beat cream until can form a peak.

7. Scoop 1/3 of the whipping cream foam to mix with the batter, and then transfer into the rest whipping cream foam and stir with a spatula. (be careful not to over-mix)

8. Pour the batter into the 6” round pan. Add some water in a baking tray and put them in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes by 130 C. Let cool; transfer to refrigerator and stand for one night. It tastes great after keeping in fridge for at least one night.

White bread

Since I fascinated in baking, I always want to bake a white bread. One day I bought a loaf pan and try to make bread. My first bread was fault but the taste is not bad. See!!! How ugly the bread is!!! Last time I use half ingredient to toast so the size is very small. I try to bake again and use the 100% original recipe. It looks much better but the middle of the toast is still raw. I think the dough was too big to bake. Next time I should try 80% of the material.

Ingredients:
A: 500g Bread flour + Sugar 20g + Salt 3g
B: Water 120g + Fresh milk 160g
+ sweet cooking rice seasoning 30g (味霖)
C: Instant yeast 3g
D: Olive oil 28g

Direction:

1. Put A,B,C into the bread baker and set to knead until the surface become smooth.

2. After machine finish the knead process and add olive oil and knead again.

3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest about 1-1.5 hrs.

When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size.

4. Slice the dough into 4 pieces and knead for a few minutes. Shape them into the loaf pan and allow it to rise for another 1.5 hrs or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans..

5. Bake at 200 degrees C for 25-30mins

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

I bought a large peanut butter from Costco last month due to the Costco coupon.

See how huge this can is!
Because it’s really a big volume and I have to consume it ASAP, otherwise the peanut butter will store at the refrigerator for a long time until it expired. I searched some recipes from the Internet and found a perfect one. Here is the website. http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/phoebe-tajwanka/article?mid=5393

P.S. The percentage of sugar and brown sugar should be half and half but I put 50:100. So the cookie I made looks very brown and you can see some dark spots on the surface. These dark spots are brown sugar. I also put an almond on the top of the cookie and it matches perfectly.

Ingredients
A: 270g Baking flour +30g Plain flour + 1/2 tsp salt
B: 180g Butter + 70g Sugar ( I add 50g)+ 80g Brown sugar ( I add 100g)
C: 1Egg + 100g Crunchy Peanut Butter

How to do:

1. Combine A (the flour and salt) and mix them well.

2. Put the butter and both sugars into a bowl and mix by electric mixer. Until they're light and creamy then add C (egg and Peanut Butter) the mixture may look a bit curdled, but it will be fine once the flour is added.

3. Add the flour mixture to 2 and mix until it just forms a thick soft dough (Don't overdo the mixing in of the flour)

4. Scrape the dough from the bowl and divide it in half.

5. Gently knead one piece of the dough briefly to bring it together, then roll it into a log or square about 3-5 cm in diameter. Repeat with the remaining dough then put the dough into the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

6. Until they're firm enough to slice, at this stage, you can freeze the logs until you need them (they keep well in the freezer for about 5 weeks; just defrost them in the fridge before slicing them.)

7. Preheat your oven to 150C. Unwrap the log and cut into 6-7 mm-thick slices.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the biscuits are light golden-brown and feel crisp to touch. If your oven cooks a bit unevenly, turn the trays back to front and swap the shelves halfway through the baking time. Remove the trays from the oven and leave the biscuits to cool completely on them. Store the biscuits in an airtight container, where they will keep well for 5-6 days, or freeze them for up to 2 weeks, and when you want, defrost them at room temperature.

Japanese Light Cheese Cake

It has been a long time to bake a cheese cake. I think 10 years at least. I baked cheese cake before and this is the first time to do Japanese light cheese cake. The recipe is from a blogebrity call Ellen and she make this cake when she studied aboard. This is a Japanese-style cheese cake and it’s  not really the “cheese cake” we normally refer to. It's not so cheese and taste not so strong. Just like a cheese-flavored sponge cake. The texture is moist and soft, so you won’t feel too much to have more!! You must try to do this once or you can ask me to bake one for you.

Ingredients：　(about 8" round)

A:
Plain cream cheese (softened) 250g
Milk 170 ml
Butter (softened) 60g

B:
Egg yolks 3 pieces
Cake flour 30g
Milk 20ml

C:
Egg white 3 pieces
5ml of rice vinegar/ lemon juice/ cream of tartar
(Just choose one of them)
Cornstarch 20g (I didn’t add vinegar and cornstarch this time)
Sugar 100g

Procedure：　

1. Combine A. and heat in a double boiler (with simmering water). Stir occasionally while heating until big chunks disappear.

2. Mix B. and pour into A. Beat and add egg yolks into the mixture as well. You may sift to make sure there are no more chunks in the mixture. Preheat oven to 150 C.

3. Use a clean and grease-free mixing bowl to beat egg white and vinegar (material C.). Add sugar and cornstarch in small portions while beating until can form a peak.

4. Scoop 1/3 of the egg white foam to mix with the batter, and then transfer into the rest egg white foam and stir with a spatula. (be careful not to over-mix)

5. Pour the batter into the 8” round pan (I use a square baker). Add warm water in a baking tray and put them in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. Insert a stick to test if it’s done inside. Let cool; transfer to refrigerator and stand for one night. (It tastes great after keeping in fridge for at least one night.)

Bath baking can prevent the cake from heating quickly and thus have cracks on surface, so please do not skip this.

Make a No-knead Bread

Recip:
• Bread flour 330g
• Salt ¼ teaspoon
• Instant yeast ¼ teaspoon
• Sugar 20g
• Water 300-320ml
• Cranberries 30g
• Walnuts 60g

1. Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
Add 300ml water, Don’t add all the water at once and keep 20ml water when the dough is not wet enough.
Stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Add cranberries and walnuts into the dough.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.

Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least 1.5 hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 220℃. Put a covered pot (cast iron) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 8-10 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned.

5.Cool the bread on a rack and enjoy your bread.

Recipe quoted from http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/carol-jay/article?mid=30806  and http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?ex=1320642000&en=d5976d62a4577548&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

My First Bread!!!

This is the first bread made by myself. It's kind of European bread and with crusty surface. The bread tastes a springy but firm texture and it’s really yummy. Sometimes I will add some dregs from soybean milk in the bread, so it’s very nutritional. Unfortunately my daughters don’t like it because it’s not sweet and hard to chew. They prefer tender bread much more. Anyway it’s very easy and you don’t need any special tools except oven. It's a pity that the bread I made can be stored about 1-2 days only. I guess that’s because I don’t add any chemical additive. This home-made bread is not only easy to bake but also good for your health. I made several breads last month and I did enjoy baking since I stared to make the bread. I also make some cookies for my kids and they just love it. Look this picture, don’t you think it’s yummy.
I will show you how to do step by step on next article.