Busy Bee Cafe

Little Bee loves spending in the kitchen with me and obviously wants to do everything that I do. Sometimes, she is able to help me with things sometimes I’d rather her not help but of course she then feels sad when I tell her that I don’t want her to help me… like I’m kneading dough for bread and she wants to knead too.

During those times, I make a batch of play dough for her so she can do her stuff and I can get on with mine.

Ingredients:

125g plain flour
25g salt
1tbsp cooking oil
70ml water
colouring of your choice.

1. Dump everything in a bowl and start mixing and kneading until it is well mixed and feel quite elastic.
2. Put it in a tupperware, cover and chill. I tend to omit the chilling and Little Bee wants it straight away, but after she finish playing, we do put it in a tupperware and into the fridge for use for another day.

I tend to keep it in the fridge for a week’s worth of play and come the weekend I make a new batch for her… it’s not that hard… and it is kind of our weekend routine now.

And below is what she’s busy making at the moment.

Some people say that sliced bread is one of the best inventions. But I’m sure they’re talking about the bread slice machine that thinking that sliced bread itself is an invention.

But, who knows… maybe those who think that chickens come as they are in the supermarket and not a living breathing feathery animal, they might think that bread comes out sliced from the oven instead of looking like this.

OK… seriously, I am just joking and not trying to offend anyone.

Anyway, I was doing my daily browsing on pinterest and came across this. Saw the recipe for American sandwich bread and thought it look like any other bread on the shelf at the supermarket… apart from being unsliced… so how hard can it be? So I just have to convert the recipe to metric as I don’t do imperial!

So… if you want to make this:

into this:

Here is how you do it

Ingredients:

500g flour
1 tsp salt
250ml warm milk
80ml warm water
30g unsalted butter, melted in the microwave for 20 seconds
3tbsp honey
1 packet of 7g dried yeast

1. Add the warm milk, warm water, melted butter, honey and yeast in a bowl, mix and set aside.
2. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mix. Stir in the flour and liquid together and start kneading for about 5 minutes until the dough feels smooth and bouncy (that’s how I describe it). Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it for about an hour until the dough has double in size.
3. On a floured surface, press the dough into a rectangular shape about 3cm thick. Roll the dough into a cylinder, pressing it down to make sure the dough sticks. Seal the ends of the dough by folding them in and pinching them closed. Place it in a well greased loaf tin, cover with a cling film and leave it for another 30 minutes, until it almost double in size.
4. In the meantime, preheat the oven, 200C or gas mark 4. Place an oven rack at the lowest position and another one at the middle of the oven. Pour two cups of boiling water in a pan and place it at the bottom rack and the pan with the dough on the middle rack.
5. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove bread from pan onto a wire rack and leave it to cool. Slice to your desired thickness

I get really annoyed when I buy bread only for it to sit in the breadbin and get mouldy. I don’t know why buy I just feel that I need to buy bread in case I’m too lazy to cook dinner so Jules could just make a sandwich or something.

But seldom does that happen.

So this weekend, as I was too lazy to leave the house due to the weather forecast being unpredictable, I made my own bread… and I thought… what was all my grief about? If I need bread, I should just make it!

It’s really easy! OK, it takes ages to wait for the dough to be ready… but once all the waiting is done and you bang it in the oven… the smell and the taste of nice warm bread… heaven…

Ingredients:

500g strong white bread flour
1tsp salt
1 sachet of 7g quick action yeast
300ml warm water
1tbsp olive oil

> Stir in the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the warm water and olive oil.

> Mix them together and tip the dough out on a lightly floured worktop and knead the dough for five minutes until smooth,

> Shape the dough into an oval shape and place it on a lightly oiled baking tray. Cover and leave it for 40 minutes or until it double in size.

> Preheat the oven to 220C or gas mark 7.

> Lightly punch the dough to let the air out and reshape the dough. Allow to prove for 30 minutes. Use a sharp knife to make five slashes on top of the dough, dust with flour and bake it for 25 minutes – until the loaf has risen and it sounds hollow when you tap the bottom of the loaf.

> Let it cool on a rack before slicing.

Nothing beats the taste and smell of freshly baked bread… errm… apart from the smell of rendang simmering away… or ayam percik on the BBQ… or Nasi Lemak cooking away…

OK… I’ll stop now.

Oh… here’s Bubba Bee enjoying a slice of my bread

A couple of months ago when Nora started teething, I started thinking of teething biscuits. Nora was a bit tired of carrot sticks and needed a bit of food variety. At this point I prefer making things myself rather than buying because at least I know what goes into the food that I give my child. I am starting to buy biscuits here and there but I think I might as well stop because it’s not that hard making them and most of the time preparing doesn’t take more than 15 minutes; it’s the baking that takes time.

Anyway, this is my first ‘biscuit’ I baked for Nora. And the best thing about it, I only use half of the loaf to make the bread sticks and the other half I keep so I can have a slice with my tea

Ingredients

1/8 cup molasses or 50g unrefined caster sugar
120ml cup corn oil
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
225g cups flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp vanilla essence
a dash of ground cinammon

Instructions

Preheat oven at gas mark 4. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. If the molasses are a bit sticky, it might be a good idea to mix it first with egss and bananas to disolve it; or you don’t have to include it because the banana is sweet enough.

Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and put it in the middle of the over for an hour or the skewer is dry when you poke the middle of the loaf. Let it cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes and then transfer it on to a wire rack to cool it down further.

Cut the loaf into sticks of your preferred size and lay them on a baking tray. Put it back in the oven at really low heat for more or less another hour. It all depends on how crunchy you want the bread sticks to be.

Voila! Bread sticks for the baby and a slice of cake for the mama. Isn’t life perfect?