Sticky Buns

I love cinnamon pecan bread and brioche bread.  So I combine both of them into this perfect sticky buns recipe.  It is so much better than the tough chewy sticky buns bought from stores. I like to pair it with a cup of freshly brewed black coffee. And that is my idea of perfect afternoon tea. O(∩_∩)O~

You also need to know the calorie is sky high for this bread before indulging in.  Well, that seems to be true for most tasty comfort food. Although I am not the person who counts calories in every single meal, I know this is guilty pleasure will cost me extra hours on treadmill.  It is well worthy. 

Brioche and caramel make everything better! 

Brioche bread ingredients：

320 g bread flour
2 tablespoons honey
40 g butter, softened and diced
2 large eggs
130 g whole milk
40 g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/8 teaspoon salt
brown sugar
ground cinnamon

Goo/ pecan caramel topping：

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
1 cup pecan

Directions：

Heat the milk in microwave for 30 seconds; add the milk to bread machine container; dissolve yeast into the warm milk; and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, flour, sugar, salt and honey. 

Start dough cycle.  

The dough is still rough.

When the first kneading cycle is done, the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

My bread machine will knead the dough for 20 minutes and proof for an hour.  When kneading is done, abort the cycle; add diced butter; and start the dough cycle again. It will knead for another 20 minutes. 

It should be able to get the dough past window panel test now.

 

When the bread machine kneads and proofs the bread, we can prepare the goo/ pecan caramel topping.

Toast pecan in a preheated 350F oven for 8 to 10 minutes; remove from oven and let them cool completely.

Chop them up.

In a medium sauce pan, add brown sugar and water.  Heat the pan over medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles.  Stir from time to time to prevent burning at the bottom. 

Gradually add heavy cream while whisking.  The mixture may splatter.  You have to be extra careful not to burn yourself.  

Add butter and cook for another couple minutes.  Remove from heat and allow the caramel sauce to cool down. 

The dough is perfect from bread machine.

 

When the dough is doubled in size, transfer it to a well dusted wooden board.  Gently press down and knead for a minutes; cover and let it sit for 10 minutes. 

Roll it out into 1/4 inch thickness; sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon; and then roll it up from one end into a log. 

Cut into 2/3 inch pieces.

Spray a 12 inch cast iron skillet with oil spray.  Add caramel sauce that has been cooled down.  Sprinkle chopped pecan on top. 

Add rolled dough pieces.

Cover and proof for another 25 to 35 minutes.  

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.

Bake the bread for 22 to 28 minutes.

After the bread is done, cool the bread in cast iron skilled for 5 minutes.  And then flip over.

That is how you bake a batch of gorgeous sticky buns at home!

The brioche bread has this rich, eggy and sweet and soft texture which I love so much. 

Coffee and sticky buns, it is so irresistible! 

Spicy Fava Beans

中文：辣拌蚕豆

Fava beans don’t seem to be popular in America.  My local grocery stores don’t sell them at all.  I bought some from a Mexico grocery store last time I went to Westland area. 

When cooked, they taste a lot like lima beans, with a mild nutty flavor and smooth texture. There were no fava beans where I grew up.  But they are grown everywhere in my husband’s hometown.  It is a widely popular ingredient in Sichuan local cuisine.  So he taught me how to cook them.

How cute they are!  

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fava beans
3 tablespoon chili sauce (available in any Asian grocery store)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
chopped green onion
chopped cilantro
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
water

Directions:

Bring a medium pot of water to boil.  Add fava beans and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

 Drain the beans. 

In a large glass bowl, mix well together cooked fava beans, chili sauce, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt, green onion and cilantro.

Cover and let it sit at least 2 hours.  The longer it sits, the better all flavors combine better.  

Grilled Burger

One of the reasons we love summer is that we love grilling! We grill all kinds of stuff.  Chicken wings, kebabs, steak, fish, you name it.  We haven’t grilled burgers before.  So we had our first during the past weekend.

I make the beef patties from scratch because I always prefer grind meat needed for cooking at home. 

Beef patties ingredients：

1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup bread crumbs
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
a pinch of garlic powder
salt to taste

 

Burger ingredients：

4 burger buns
8 slices of bacon
cheese (I use bacon cheese from trader joe’s which is pretty awesome.)
thinly sliced onion
lettuce
mayonnaise

 

Directions：

I bought a big package of chuckeye.  It is about 4 pounds.  I grind it all and save the rest in a couple Ziploc bags and freeze them for later use. 

Cut the chuckeye beef into small pieces and run through a meat grinder.  

I use a heavy duty meat grinder like this one: 

 

In a large bowl, add ground beef, egg, chopped onion, bread crumbs, black pepper, sugar, paprika, garlic powder and salt.  

Mix with hands just until everything combines and mixes evenly.

Divide the beef into four parts.  Make each part into a big ball with hands and then pat them down into beef patties.

With a thumb, make a dent in the center of each patty so that the whole patty will grill evenly on the grill.

Preheat the grill to 450F/232°C.  Wish a cloth brush, brush some oil to the griddle.

Grill the patties for 2 minutes. Someone decides to switch to hot dog.  So we grill three patties instead of four. 

2 minutes later

Flip them over.  Well, it looks like someone needs more practice. 

Top the patties with bacon cheese and grill for another 2 minutes.

Another 2 minutes later, the cheese melts.  It smells and looks so good.

Transfer the patties to the other end of the grill where temperature is much lower. Let them sit for a couple minutes.

Heat the buns on grill.

They just get more beautiful, don’t they?  The bacon cheese from Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite cheeses.  It goes well with sandwiches, salad or wine. 

With a spatula, spread the mayonnaise to the bread buns, top with a beef patty, bacon, onion and lettuce.  

Ok, now the burgers are done.  Time to enjoy them!

Feels pretty good to eat a burger you make from scratch 。。。

Take a big bite. 

It is really tender and juice.  The bacon cheese adds ton of great flavor to the burger.  And it is priceless to enjoy a summer evening in the yard with your loved ones. O(∩_∩)O~

Spicy Noodle with pickled Vegetable and Ground Pork

 中文： 雪菜肉碎拌面

Noodle to Chinese people is just like pasta to Italians. We are obsessed with it and devoted to create many, many, many varieties.

I, too, love to make noodle from scratch at home.  They are mostly for breakfast.  I usually make dough and toppings ahead of time so that I can make noodle soup fast in the morning. 

Ingredients：

1 cup bread flour
1/4 cup of water
a pinch of salt

 

Pickled vegetable and ground pork toppings：

1/2 package of chopped pickled vegetable (available in any Asian grocery store)
1 cup ground pork
2 gloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 slice of ginger root, minced
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4  to 1/2 cup chicken stock, hot
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon garlic water (minced garlic in water)
1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper corns
2 to 3 tablespoon chili oil sauce (available in any Chinese grocery store. I use homemade version.)
1/2  teaspoon sugar
chopped cilantro
roasted soy beans
chopped green onion
salt to taste
2 tablespoons oil for cooking ground pork

 

Directions：

In a medium bowl, combine bread flour, salt and water.  Mix them together and then knead into a smooth dough ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for at least 1 hour.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Add oil to the wok, along with garlic and ginger.  Add ground pork and salt, black pepper and oyster sauce.  Stir fry the ground pork on high heat until the pork is golden brown.  Add chopped pickled vegetable.  Stir fry for a couple more minutes.  Remove from heat.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Run the dough through kitchenaid pasta roller several times until the dough is smooth out.  Set the thickness to 3 and run it through one more time.

Use the pasta cutter attachment to cut it into spaghetti size noodle.

Isn’t it beautiful? O(∩_∩)O~

 

Cook the noodle in boiling water for 30 to 45 seconds.  Drain and transfer to a bowl.

Add cooked ground pork, chicken stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic water, ground Sichuan pepper corns, chili oil sauce, sugar, salt, cilantro, green onion and roasted soy beans.

Mix well with a pair of chopsticks.  Now it is time to enjoy a bowl of tasty noodle!

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

 中文： 树莓酸奶冰激凌

Well, I was actually planning on making ice cream.  But there was no eggs left in my refrigerator, so I changed to frozen yogurt, which turned out to be a great sweet surprise too.

When making ice cream or frozen yogurt, I always go with fruit jam instead of fresh fruits. Jams contain less water and are packed with more intense flavor.  They usually contain more sugar too.  All these help ice cream and frozen yogurt freeze beautifully without getting too much ice particles in them.

I use homemade yogurt and homemade raspberry jam and blueberry jam.  Store bought ones would work fine too.

For homemade yogurt:

 http://www.yankitchen.com/english-blog/homemade-blueberry-yogurt

 

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of plain yogurt
4 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup blueberry jam

 

Directions：

Freeze the ice cream for at least 24 hours before ice cream process.  Refrigerate both yogurt and jams for at 4 hours or overnight.   

Homemade version yogurt

Start the ice cream machine.  Add yogurt and honey.  Let the machine run for 15 minutes.

Add raspberry jam and blueberry jam.  Run the machine for another 5 to 10 minutes. 

Transfer the frozen yogurt to a glass container with lid.  Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.  You can also serve it as soft served frozen yogurt right out of ice cream machine.  It is very good too. 

 

Thanks to the raspberry jam and blueberry jam, the frozen yogurt has this beautiful bright purple color and very intense berry flavors.  O(∩_∩)O~。。。

Enjoy!