No-yeast Homemade Thin-crust Pizza

- zaty.

I was feeling bored so decided to make pizza for dinner. I've made it twice so far, and I think I've somewhat figured out what to (not) do if I wanted to make it again in the future.

I used the no-yeast pizza recipe from here, but because my family likes thin-crust pizza, I had it in the oven for about 15mins at 180degC. Make sure not to knead too much with your hands (the heat of your hands can affect the dough), don't use too much flour (it'll make the bread hard) or use butter to 'coat' the pizza pan/dish to prevent the dough from sticking to it (use a bit of oil and smear evenly... using butter makes the pizza bread too crispy).

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 Tbsp baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 2/3 cup water
5. 1 Tbsp cooking oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180degC.
2. Line the pizza pan/dish with baking paper, or smear a thin layer of cooking oil evenly (to prevent the pizza bread from sticking to the pan later).
3. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Add the liquids into the bowl, and, using a wooden spoon, combine everything to make a rather solid dough.
5. Sprinkle some flour on a clean, flat surface, and place the dough on it. 
6. Knead the dough about 6 times to make sure all the ingredients are evenly combined.
7. Place the dough on the prepared pan/dish and flatten it to make a nice thin-crust bread (I use a small plastic roller to flatten the dough, super handy).
8. Once the dough looks good, smear a thin layer of cooking oil on the top surface of the dough (to prevent the tomato sauce base and/or toppings from making the pizza base soggy).
9. Scoop on and spread the tomato sauce base*** on the dough evenly
10. Scatter toppings^^^ onto the tomato base, and add herbs if desired (I love using basil, I just sprinkle it all over).
11. Scatter cheese (sprinkles, shreds, squares, chunks, whatever) to moderately cover the toppings. 
12. Place the pizza in the oven for about 15mins, until the topping becomes slightly brown. 
13. After it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for a minute or two, then cut into desired way/size. Serve hot :D 

 *** I used a medium-sized can of pasta (tomato) sauce and a small can of tomato puree
^^^ I used chicken sausage cut into really thin slices, a handful of minced beef, crushed garlic, diced onions, diced tomatoes and crushed black pepper. I wish I had capsicum :T

 Will post up pic later Cheerios!

Cheese scones (using cheese slices)

- Zaty.

So I've returned to Malaysia and upon my mother's request, I made cheese scones today. She asked me to bake about 20 scones, and since one batch makes about 6 I had to multiply the ingredients by 4 to make 24. I ended up making 25 tho, because I didn't cut up the portions evenly lol.

I generally used the ingredients from the cheese scone recipe I posted before, but I had to improvise a lil bit because I only had cheddar cheese slices instead of a block of edam, which I normally used back in NZ (edam cheese is much more creamy than cheddar). The scones still tasted pretty good tho, so I guess it wasn't a bad substitute. :)

I'm a bit sad that I wasn't equipped with my trusty measuring cups+spoons during the prepping process...I already gave them away because I thought I wouldn't need them. I felt so handicapped because Ma doesn't have the complete cup+spoons sets. :( Sigh.

Anyway, here's what I did, before I get all nostalgic and ramble further:

Prep time: 20-40 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Servings: 6 scones per batch

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C self-raising flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 25g butter, diced
• Cheese: 
• for dough: 5 cheese slices, torn into smaller/thinner strips (C-D)
• for topping: 1 1/2 cheese slices, cut to make 6 squares = 1/4 slice per scone (C-T)
• Milk:
• for dough: 1/2 cup (M-D)
• for coating: 1/4 cup (M-C)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220 deg C.
2. In a bowl (stir using wooden spatula - not hands!):
1. Sift in dry ingredients.
2. Add diced butter by 'massaging' it in - should look like fine breadcrumbs in the end.
3. Add cheese for dough (C-D). Mix evenly.
4. Make a pit in the middle of the mixture, then add milk (M-D) while mixing quickly.
3. Cover your hands with flour and sprinkle some on the tabletop/board to prevent dough from sticking to it.
4. Turn out dough and place on the tabletop/board. Knead dough lightly; if it's too sticky, add flour, bit by bit.
5. Roll out dough on board until about 2cm thick, then cut into 6 equal portions. (I like shaping the portions to make them slightly rounder).
6. Roll around each scone in milk (M-C), then place each on a greased/lined oven tray. Make sure to leave at least 2cm gaps between them.
7. Top each scone with 1/4 slice of cheese (C-T)
8. Bake for about 9-10 minutes, or depending on how brown you want them.
9. Set aside for about 5 minutes before munching on them :D

My mom says it's the best batch of scones she's ever had in Malaysia. Clearly that's an exaggeration lol, but it's nice watching my family members eat the things I bake.

So... yup! Cheerios and till next time. :)

Honey Tomato Chicken

- Zaty.

I'm just so sick of my own cooking (and I'm sure Mr. M feels the same way) so yesterday I tried to make a modified version of "ayam masak merah" (ie. tomato chicken). This was inspired by this recipe; I adapted it to suit what I had around the house (I didn't have tomatoes and ginger, most importantly).

The taste was bit different from what I expected, I'm guessing 1/2 can of tomato puree was too much, so next time I use this recipe I'll use only a 1/3 or less. I had to add in a bit of boiling hot water to make the gravy less thick, and added in honey and soy sauce for extra flavor.

Anyway, here's the (fixed) version of what I made yesterday:

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Group A - to 3/4 fry:
• 4 pieces of chicken nibbles
• turmeric powder
• Group B - to blend:
• 2 shallots
• 3 Tbsp dried chilli blend
• 1cm ginger (I was out of this so I used galanghal, but next time I'll make sure to use ginger)
• 3 pcs garlic
• 1 medium onion
• Group C - other stuff:
• 1/3 tin tomato puree
• 1 large Tbsp-full of honey
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1/2 tin of button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small onion, cut into rings
• 1 cup frozen vege (peas, carrots, corn).
• sugar
• salt Optional: 1 cup boiled water
• Optional: 1 cup boiled water

Instructions

1. Clean and prepare chicken as appropriate (small pieces is easiest and fastest to cook). Toss the chicken pieces in a bowl and cover them completely with turmeric powder.
2. Heat up some oil in a pot, and fry turmeric-covered chicken until about 3/4 done. While waiting for this, blend everything in Group B - it doesn't have to be finely blended.
3. Take chicken pieces out and sautee the blended Group B ingredients till a fragrant smell rises.
4. Add in tomato puree, mixing well. Wait for a few minutes so that everything heats up well and the paste produces some oil (ie. until 'pecah minyak').
5. Add in soy sauce and honey as desired.
6. Add in sliced mushrooms, stir for a few minutes.
7. Place the previous chicken pieces back into the pot, stir well. 
8. Wait for the gravy to thicken, stirring the pot content every half a minute. Continue until sure that meat is cooked.
9. When gravy has thickened (might take about 10 mins), add in sugar, salt, peas etc. Wait for a few minutes, stirring constantly. 
10. When done, serve with rice (preferably tomato rice, but I ate it with plain rice).

Result

Will update with picture when my internet's not being annoying. :P

Have a nice day!

Super-easy Yoghurt Cake

- Zaty.

Today's baking is a a result of Carlo's story about his friend's mom who makes yoghurt cake (which is apparently one of the best cakes he's eaten), and a M'sian potluck thing (masquerading as a 'natural disaster' meeting). After much debate on what to bake, I surrendered and googled up 'yoghurt cake', and was pleasantly surprised by how easy the recipe seemed. It really is easy to make, just like how this recipe looks - no electric mixers, melting butters, kneading etc. Easy peasy. Just the way I like it. :P

Anyway, I got the recipe from here, but with a simple adjustment - I used the (150g) cup for single-serve yoghurts as the measuring tool. In other words, every ingredient is measured using this cup (aside from the eggs, of course... although 3 eggs do fill up the yoghurt cup nicely). :)

I made 2 cakes: one with raspberry+cream yoghurt, and the other was peach+cream yoghurt.

Will post up more pics later.

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This recipe makes a medium-sized cake.

Note: cup* = single-serve yoghurt cup

Ingredients 

• 1 cup* of yoghurt (fruity flavored is yumm)
• 1 cup* oil (I used my canola cooking oil)
• 2 cups* white sugar
• 3 cups* self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
  Optional: raspberry (or other) jam.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160degC.
2. In a bowl, beat the ingredients one-by-one with a wooden spatula until smooth and creamy. This might take a few minutes.
3. Pour smooth mixture into a greased/baking-paper lined pan. 
• Optional: Scoop some jam and slowly place it at the top of the batter. Use a chopstick or something long to squiggle or swirl the jam to give the cake extra flavour.
4. Bake for 1 hour or till golden brown (the fork should come out clean when poked).
5. Give about 10 mins to cool down, then cut and serve.
• Optional: After the cake has cooled down a bit, turn the cake out of the pan, and let it stand on its side. Cut the cake in the middle lengthways, and place both sides down. Spread some jam onto the 'fluffy' side of both halves, then enjoin the two parts the way it was before -- it should look like a 'jam sandwich' cake in the end.

Result?

Raspberry+cream yoghurt cake (see the swirley bit at the top? Hee ^_^)
Note: This is before I turned it into a sandwich cake.


I have some extra slices left, so I'll post some pics of what it looks like later.

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It's so easy to make, and it tastes nice if I do say so myself. Do try it! Have fun baking! :)