#coconut sugar shiroan

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Corn and coconuts: week of 3/1/21

A prolific week despite business at work. Cornmeal and coconut flour experimentation galore. Successfully avoiding the usage of butter. Figured out that the key to not using eggs for coconut flour is Greek yogurt. Participating in King Arthur’s baking contest.

Sourdough mung bean paste braided bread

Grade: A-

Made this for the #extraordinarybread contest. Conversion to sourdough isn’t perfect and affected the rise, just like the condensed milk bread rolls. I thought I was using coconut filling, but I actually ended up using (unsweetened) mung bean paste that I squeezed some honey onto last minute.

The braiding was a mess too because the braids were too short for the center section. On the bright side, the taste of the bread was nice: a bit gummy because the rise wasn’t great (next time I’ll add a bit of yeast for my crazy conversions) but a subtly sweet flavor.

Recipe: braided lemon bread from King Arthur Baking Company

Modification: sourdough starter instead of sponge (had to adjust hydration); coconut oil instead of butter

Sourdough healthy cornbread

Grade: B+

Made this to use up some sourdough starter. Messed up proportions and added flour even though Puffy should’ve taken care of it. Tasted fine though, undertone of Puffy, but not overpowering.

Recipe: the ultimate healthy cornbread from Amy’s Healthy Baking

Sourdough shrimp chives buns

Grade: B+

I bought frozen shrimps so I wanted some chives as I like the flavor combination. Tasted okay, but the dough wasn’t good - too wet and not extensible. Almost all the buns broke open despite my attempts to seal, and my wonton wrappers that I used for the leftover filling were ripping all over the place. Kind of looks like a cute savory tart.

Chocolate coconut raspberry quickbread

Grade: B+

Used up the last of coconut flour and the freeze-dried raspberries with this recipe. The batter turned a bit lumpy so the resulting cakes aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing, but wow, they tasted amazing after some chilling in the refrigerator.

I kind of wish I experimented more with coconut flour, because I think there is much potential. Maybe I’ll actually buy it again. 

Recipe: chocolate coconut quick bread from King Arthur Baking Company

Modification: 300g of Greek yogurt + applesauce in place of eggs for a 3/4 recipe

Spider cake

Grade: B

I find the idea of a custard cornbread without heavy cream to be fascinating. Way too liquidy thanks to imperfect buttermilk powder conversion and too much buttermilk powder that burned but surprisingly baked up into nice cornbread with custard. Might try this again with kefir.

Recipe: spider cake from Serious Eats

Coconut flour vanilla cake

Grade: A-

Olive oil taste but otherwise the best tasting coconut flour cake I’ve made. Slight grittiness from the flour but a lovely taste with the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Much better than the eggy coconut flour cake I made in the past and something I want to try again..

Recipe: fluffy coconut flour cake from Detoxinista

Modification: 1/3 cup Greek yogurt for 1 of the 2 eggs (half recipe)

Cornmeal Greek yogurt cookies

Grade: B+

Puffy and texture soft from the Greek yogurt but nice subtle sweetness. More adventures in me trying to use up (past best by date) cornmeal. I’m sure it will taste a lot nicer with butter.

Recipe: perfect cornmeal cookies from Sweetest Menu

Sourdough beef tallow cornmeal biscuits

Grade: A

One thing that I’m grateful to cornmeal for is that I discovered this recipe. The subtle corn taste just pairs so well with the biscuits. Maybe a bit more salt again (and I still end up burning the botoms) but so good. Smells like oxtail soup from the beef tallow. And Martin Philip actually responded to my story tag.

Recipe: cornmeal drop biscuits from Baking Bread by Martin Philip

Modification: beef tallow instead of butter; 50g sourdough starter in a half recipe; kefir instead of buttermilk

Flour Bakery banana bread

Grade: A-

A famous banana bread recipe. I didn’t have enough Puffy discard for a sourdough recipe so I thought, why not try this one? Used applesauce and reduced sugar per my usual, which might’ve made it less tasty. Also didn’t mash up the bananas too smoothly and left lumps. Burned it a bit while baking too I think. But it does taste nice and would be a nice base recipe for experimentation.

Recipe: Flour’s famous banana bread from Flour by Joanne Chang

Modification: applesauce for oil; 2 bananas instead of 1.75 for a half recipe; reduced sugar and Greek yogurt for sour cream; no add-ins

Mung bean paste black sesame peanut cookies

Grade: B+

Now that I found mung bean paste, I figured I’d try to use up to wrap up tang yuan filling as I’m too lazy to make the mochi wrappers. Then steamed them. Dough and filling tasted okay but not amazing together. I’m crazy for saying this but we need more sugar.

Coconut sugar shiroan

Grade: A-

Used coconut sugar instead of granulated sugar on a whim. I guess I won’t be able to make it matcha flavored but it does have a nice caramel undertone.

Recipe: white bean paste from Just One Cookbook

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Rye and spices: week of 3/15/21

Rye stars this week where I finally used up the bag that I bought from Walmart last year and started using the organic rye flour that I bought from Whole Foods that will expire in July.

Sourdough shiroan and anko potica

Grade: B+

Another conversion for #extraordinarybread, another bad proofing. I used a combination of shiroan and anko paste as the filling, and sesame seeds sprinkled above. The bread didn’t taste bad, but it was gummy inside and a bit heavy.

I opted not to enter this bread. I feel like it would be going against the spirit of the contest. But the potica shape was fun to do and I’d do it agian, hopefully with better proofing and shaping.

Recipe: potica by King Arthur Baking Company

Modifications: used shiroan and Mom’s anko for filling; dusted with sesame seeds

Sweet potato black sesame peanut tang yuan

Grade: A

Used up the sweet potato and black sesame peanut fillings. It’s pretty good actually. I think my ratio of glutinous rice flour and sweet potato was a bit off because it was too dry using the recipe’s proportions, so I would use less glutinous rice flour next time or add it as I mix.

Recipe: pumpkin black sesame tang yuan from What to Cook Today

Modifications: Silk instead of canned coconut milk; maple syrup (in reduced amount) instead of brown sugar for broth; no salt or screwpine leaves

Variation: leftover dough used to make shiroan buns

Pork floss furikake cookies

Grade: A+

Nutrition: 100 calories

Is this my first A+? Just so good. Think would be better with a less strong tasting animal fat. But it was so good especially warm from the oven, salty and sweet and delicious.

Recipe: melt-in-your-mouth pork floss seaweed cookies from What to Cook Today

Modifications: beef tallow for 2/3 of the butter (and accidentally used 5g less butter than I should in a half recipe); salmon furikake for seaweed

Sweet potato yeasted fa gao

Grade: B

Nutrition: 185 calories

Did not blossom - not enough yeast I think or not enough proofing, as my second batch came closer to blossoming. I think I also had less sweet potato left because i used extra for tang yuan, so maybe the consistency of the batter was off. Not the best looking buns, but quite yummy.

Recipe: sweet potato moho kuih (with yeast) from What to Cook Today

Modification: less sweet potato because I ran out (150g instead of 250g); less coconut sugar (75g instead of 150g); less yeast and 60g of Puffy for a half-recipe.

Warabimochi with tapioca flour and kinako

Grade: B+

A bit denser but still delicious. Glad to find a quick way to use up tapioca starch.

Recipe: warabimochi with tapioca flour from Craving Nomz

Modification: Silk coconut milk instead of water; maple syrup instead of brown sugar syrup; microwave instead of stovetop

Sourdough applesauce choco stick cookies

Grade: B

Too healthy tasting because of the applesauce, although the choco sticks exceeded my expectations as mix-ins since I was worried they wouldn’t be chocolatey enough.

Recipe: sourdough chocolate chip cookies from Eat the Love

Modification: applesauce for butter; reduced sugar and increased nutmeg; choco stick pieces for chocolate chips at reduced amount

Rye gingerbread pudding frosting birthday cake

Grade: A-

Still a messy cake, although the Saran wrap and freezing helped to keep the cake together until I could transport it to my friend who had the birthday. The crushed choco sticks also helped to add flavor and texture. She cut herself seconds and thirds so I think it was a successful cake overall.

The rye gingerbread cake base was something I wanted to try for a while because of the usage of the rye. The flavor of the rye didn’t really come through but it was a nice robust gingerbread taste.

Recipes:

Cake from rye gingerbread from King Arthur Baking Company (less sugar, although still a bit on the sweet side)

Frosting: whipped cream + tea pudding mix + some powdered sugar

Spiced rye ginger cookies

Grade: A-

Hard to go wrong with gingerbread cookies. They blossomed nicely and I wish I didn’t drop one on the floor in front of others as I couldn’t rescue it.

Recipe: spiced rye ginger cookie from King Arthur Baking Company