Soft Pretzel Bread Buns

中文菜谱：PRETZEL小面包

We love soft pretzel bread, and I also loving making them from scratch in my own kitchen.  I love seeing those little cute buns turning out dark golden brown in the oven, smelling the freshly baked bread aroma and tearing apart the soft and a bit chewy bread buns and they taste so good and satisfying! 

Ingredients：

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
egg wash (for brushing the bread)
white sesame seeds

 

For boiling water：

2 quarts water
1/4 cup baking soda

 

Directions：

Microwave the milk on high for 20 to 30 seconds until the milk is lukewarm but not too hot to touch.

Add the milk to bread machine.  Sprinkle with dry yeast. 

Add flour, salt, butter and sugar 

Start dough proces

I like to restart the dough process right after the machine finishes the kneading and about to proof the bread.   Twice knead bread will have slight better and finer texture which I like. 

The dough doubles in siz

Transfer the dough to a well-floured board.

Equally divide it into 8 pieces and knead each piece into a small round dough ball.

 

Place them onto a half sheet baking pan lined with baking mat, 2 to 3 inches apart. 

Cover with greased plastic wrap and proof under room temperature for about another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425F/218

Bring the water to boil.   Add baking soda.

Add bread dough.  Cook each for 20 to 30 seconds. 

Drain well and put them back onto the baking mat.

With a sharp knife, make some cuts on top.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with white sesame seeds.  The cuts I make here are a bit too shallow.  I should have cut a little bit deeper. 

Bake in the oven for 16 to 20 minutes or until they are dark golden brown

Aren’t they beautiful? 

They are soft and a little bit chewy.  Smell great too.  I love everything about these tiny cute pretzel buns. 

You can eat them plain, or with jam, cream cheese, peanut butter; or you can do what I do: I make fire grilled cheese burger sliders with them.  Please stay tune for the next new recipe! O(∩_∩)O~ 

Asian Style Boiled Peanuts

中文菜谱：五香水煮花生

You are still eating popcorns when watching movies or having beers with friends?  Try boiled peanuts which are tastier, healthier and so much more fun to eat! O(∩_∩)O~ 

Ingredients：

2 to 3 pounds raw peanuts with shells
3 star anises
2 to 3 teaspoons five spice powder
black cardamom pot
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 handful dried chili peppers
1 small cinnamon stick
3 to 4 bay leaves
2 to 3 cloves
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
salt to taste*
water for boiling peanuts

* Add a little more salt than how you usually season your food.  Otherwise the peanuts in the shells might not be well seasoned.   

Directions：

Clean and rinse well the peanuts under running water.

Add peanuts along with all the spices and seasonings to a medium stainless steel boiling pot .  Add twice or three times as much water as peanuts.

Heat the pot over high heat until it boils.  Cover with lid and reduce the heat to simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours.

 

Stir occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom.  Stirring also helps peanuts to be better seasoned. 

All we need is a couple cold beers! O(∩_∩)O~

Caramel Popcorns

I love popcorns; I also love caramel sauce.  When I combine both of them together, boom, a new favorite!

I posted sea salt caramel popcorns before, but this one is totally different from that one not only in the process but also in the flavors and textures O(∩_∩)O~

ngredients：

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 cup sugar
1/2 heavy cream
1 tablespoon oil
2 to 3 tablespoons water

Directions：

In a sauce pan, add sugar and water.  Heat over medium high heat until it boils.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the syrup turns golden brown.  Whisk occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom.

Slowly add heavy cream while whisking.  It will surely splatter everywhere, so please be careful not to burn yourself. 

Continue to cook for about 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

 The caramel sauce is ready to go.

Preheat oven to 250F/121C

Heat the popcorn pan over medium high heat.

Add oil and popcorn kernels. Cover with lid

Swirl the handle on top when corn kernel s are popping.  It will help them to heat and pop more evenly.

Pour the caramel sauce into popped corns. Swirl the hand on top so that the caramel sauce can evenly coat the popcorns.

Line a large cookie pan with baking mat  

Spread the popcorns to the pan evenly.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes.  Take it out of oven; cool down; and eat! O(∩_∩)O~

Pan-fried buns with Pork and Zucchini Filling

It is zucchini season!  There are zucchinis everywhere in the farmer’s market.  They are fresh, they are cheap, and the most important thing is that they go well with almost everything. 

Next time you don’t know what to do with your zucchinis, try this pan-fried version.  They are pretty awesome! O(∩_∩)O~

For pork and zucchini filling：

5 large zucchinis
350 to 400g ground pork
3 to 4 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger / ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 stalk of green onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup of chicken stock
1 to 2 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

For the buns：

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 to 3/4 cup of water
oil (for pan frying)

 

Directions：

 I posted zucchini dumplings before

Zucchini is a high water content vegetable.  Adding zucchini directly to the filling might turn the filling into a mushy mess.  So I use half-dried zucchinis in both dumplings and buns.   The flavor is more intense and texture is better too.

Slice the zucchinis and dry them under the sun or in a food dehydrator until the volume reduce to half or one third. 

Add to a food processor

Finely chopped

 In a large bowl, add ground pork, soy sauce, rice cooking wine, oyster sauce, ground ginger, ground white pepper, green onion, sesame oil, chicken stock, oil and salt.  With a pair of chopsticks, whisk the pork and seasonings until everything is well combined. 

Add chopped zucchini

Mix well again. 

Whiling preparing the filling, I use a bread machine to make the dough.

Add flour, water, salt and oil to the bread machine.  Start dough process.

After the dough is done, leave it to rest in the bread machine for 10 minutes. 

Transfer the dough to a well dusted wooden board

Equally divide into 8 pieces 

With a small rolling pin, roll each piece thin and flat.

Add pork filling

Wrap them up

Cover with oiled plastic wrap and allow them to rest for another 10 minutes.

Use a small rolling pin to gently roll the bun into 1/3 or 1/2 inch thic

Heat a small cast iron pan over medium low heat.

Add oil and then buns.  Cover with lid.  Pan fry the bun until both sides are golden brown.  It takes about 4 to 6 minutes each side. 

Serve immediately. 

You don’t need fork and knife.  Our traditional way is hold it in hand like this. 

Bon Appétit!  O(∩_∩)O~

Bacon and Mac and Cheese

What can beat homemade creamy and cheesy mac and cheese?  Absolutely nothing!  O(∩_∩)O~ 

 Since a pasta machine was given to me as a holiday gift last year, I became obsessed with making all kinds of noodles and pasta at home.

For the pasta：

250 g all purpose flour
95 liquid including 1 large egg + water

 

Directions：

There are different discs for making different pasta.  I am using the penny disc. 

Although the pasta machine  comes with a couple measuring cups, I still strong recommend weigh the ingredients with a digital kitchen scale.  Measuring ingredients by volume and by weights could end with different results. 

 

Add 250 g all purpose flour to the pasta machine

Whisk egg and water together

Start the machine and choose 300g and then press “start”

Add liquid from top

The dough is being mixed

When the kneading is finished, I usually pause the machine for 10 minutes so that the dough can rest.  The pasta will taste better with extra resting time.

With a dough scraper, cut the pasta they way you like it.  The machine comes with a plastic one which I don’t like. 

Freshly homemade penn

Now it is time to boil some penne!

Ingredients：

300 g freshly made penne
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 cloves of garlic, peel and minced
1/4  teaspoon onion powder
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt to taste
bacon crumbles
panko bread crumbs

 

Directions：

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add salt and penne.  Cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until al dente.  Drain and rinse under cold running water for a few seconds.  Drain well.

Preheat a toaster oven to 425F/218 C

Dice the cheese.

Heat a medium cast iron pan  over medium heat.  Add butter and minced garlic.  Cook for about 1 minute. 

Add flour, onion powder and black pepper.  Cook until the flour turns slightly yellow.  Add milk.

When the milk is heated but not boils yet, add diced cheddar cheese and pepper jack cheese. 

Whisk and cook until the cheese is completely melted.

Add cooked penne and parmesan chees

With a wooden spoon, mix everything together; divide into two small cast iron pans; and top with bacon and bread crumbs. 

Bake them in the toaster oven  for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. 

Serve immediately.