Almond Pistachio Loaf using Almond Meal

I was craving pistachio and decided this is how I can have my cake and eat it. Once all the ingredients are lined up and if you have a kitchen Aid or mixer, it becomes a very easy project. Verdict : Moist,soft cake with a soft crumb. Probably because I left the mixer to do its job at every stage while I zoned out. It is mildly sweet because I prefer it that way. If I were to do it again, I would add 1 tablespoon of matcha powder for the green color to show out.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

loaf tin 9x3x3 inch, lined

Butter, softened 170 g

Caster sugar 100g

4 eggs, about 60g each

Finely ground almond 120 g

Coarsely ground pistachios 85 g

80g self raising flour + 1 teaspoon match powder for color

teaspoon baking powder 1.5 tsp

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and pale.

Add eggs gradually and whisk.

Add ground almond meal.

Add ground pistachios.

Add flour, matcha powder, baking powder.

The mixture will be loose and not very viscous. 

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180C for 45 min or until the skewer comes out clean.

As the mixture is not very thick,  the loaf does not dome very much, with uniform height.

Cool, cut, enjoy!

To keep, precut the load and freeze. Bring it to room temperature or heat up according to your preference.

Almond flour brownie

This week, I had one of the most amazing, warm brownies filled with chocolate lava goodness. The memory of those gooey brownie morsels became constant food noise in my mind, refusing to fade. It is not cheap to make them with high-quality chocolate and fine almond meal, but it will fix that 口寂しい (kuchisabishii), or as the Japanese say, "mouth loneliness," for a while.

Ingredients:

1 cup blanched almond flour

1 cup molasse  

⅓ cup cacao powder

2 large eggs

50g melted butter

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

⅓ cup  high fat content cocoa chips, non sugar

Makes a 8x8 inch brownie block. Credits: here with modifications.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Scrunch a wet baking sheet and line a 8x8 tray.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Pour into the prepared tray. 

Bake at 180C for 20-23 min. 

Cool well before cutting out 16 squares.

Verdict:

So good. I trimmed off the sides and snacked on them while hot. Not advisable but, I don't care.

Pistachio muffins (with almond meal)

Ever since I had this pistachio cake in Cedele, I did at least 3 bakes with my favorite nut to feed my food noise. 

It so happens that I have a coffee mill, so it was put to work transforming the nuts to fine power.

Pistachio does not really yield a green hue when baked. Luckily for me, I have top grade matcha powder which comes in handy as a food color.

Verdict: The batter is dense and wet. Usually it takes about 20 minutes to bake, but I had to extend baking time by another 5 minutes (ie. 25 minutes in total) . Had it not been  for the skewer test,  the soggy muffins would have fed the bins.

Makes 4 muffins

Credits: here, with modifications

Dry:

100g almond meal

30g wholemeal flour

80g pistachio, finely milled

1 tbsp matcha powder (optional)

60g fine sugar

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Wet:

60ml canola oil

80ml full cream milk

1 egg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Mix all the dry ingredients.

Mix the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Spoon the batter into 4 muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven at 200C for 25 minutes.

Test doneness with a skewer.

Cool, Eat. Bake again.

Japanese milk anpan

It's been a while since I made buns. I made this on a whim and was so pleased I did. It became lunch for 2 days for hubby and snacks for me. That makes it a personal record to eat so many anpan in 2 days.

credits: recipe here , with slight modifications.

Makes 8 buns.

Roux (tangzong) : 

43 g water

43g milk

14g bread flour

Mix and cook at 65C heat until the mixture just about thickens like a roux. Cover to cool.

The rest of the milk bread:

300g bread flour

20g dry milk powder

50g caster sugar

6g salt

1 TBSP instant yeast

113g milk

1 egg

60g butter, softened

Additional:

red bean paste (from Daiso)

Toasted sesame seeds

Method:

Mix roux and the rest of the ingredients until it forms a ball (in the mixer).

In an oiled bowl, let it rise to almost 2 times the volume.

Transfer the risen dough to a lightly floured worktop. Cut out 8 portions. 

Wrap a tablespoon of red bean paste with the dough.

Smoothen to a ball, let rise for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile,preheat the oven to 180C.

Mist spray the buns. Sprinkle the sesame seeds.

Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.

Cool well before storing.

Note: I ate it while piping hot, with a pair of chopstick. It was steaming hot but tasted amazing. I don't recommend doing that for safety reasons.

Jumping onto the shio pan

Shio pan (塩パン) has been the rage recently. For an unadorned bread roll, there’s sure a lot of interest and I have to check it out.

This bread roll needs an overnight sponge, using yogurt. Salt or ‘shio’ in Japanese is the key to giving it its identity, so make sure to get some fancy salt  instead of the usual table salt.

I usually do a 3 fold type of low-maintenance ciabatta but this requires long kneading to reach the window-pane stage (high stretch). Thankful for my Kitchen Aid doing the hard work.

OK. Let’s get on with it, otherwise I am going to tell you about my long Japanese journey. 

Makes 10 Shio-pan

Credit with adaptations : cookinginchinglish 

Overnight sponge:

100g water (I used full cream milk)

45g yogurt (I used Greek)

¾ tsp instant yeast

150g bread flour

• Mix all the above together.

• Set aside for 1 hour. 

• Stick it in the fridge to form a sponge.

Next day, prepare : (takes about 6 hours, depending on ambient temperature)

150g bread flour

40g cold water

20g sugar

10g softened butter

6 g salt (Cornish) - to be added after the 1st set of kneading.

(1 dish of salt for garnish pre-baking)

Final stage : 

• Remove the overnight sponge. If it has not bulked up at least twice the volume, leave it at room temperature until so.

• Add all the sponge into the ingredients. 

• Do not add the salt yet. 

• Knead until contents come together.

• Now, add the salt.

• Knead the dough for 15 min (I did at low for about 20 min)

• The dough should be able to be  stretched making a thin window-pane. Otherwise knead until so. (I know, it is tedious but necessary because you need a long stretched out dough that does break later)

Don't mind the missing roll. This pic was taken before all were completed

Leave to rise until it doubles in bulk.

Meanwhile, cut out 10 sticks of butter, about 5g each.

FREEZE the butter sticks.

Assembly time!

• On a lightly oiled surface, remove the proofed dough. Cut out 10 equal pieces, about 50g each.

• Fold each portion to a ball.

• Roll out the ball to make a tear shaped dough.

• Flatten the dough and roll it into a ‘long isosceles triangle’, at least 10 cm long. The longer, the better.

• On the wide side, place a frozen butter stick.

• Fold over the dough to cover the butter. Press down the edges to encase the butter.

• Roll to form a mini croissant roll.

• Repeat for all other 9 dough balls.

• Mist the rolls with a spray. 

• Garnish with a scant amount of salt.

Leave to proof until the roll is fluffed up.  

Baking time!

• Place a heatproof container below the baking rack in the oven.

• Preheat the oven to 230C.

• Mist the rolls just before baking.

• Place the rolls in the baking rack.

• Pour water on the tray to create steam. Be careful of the steam.

• Bake at 230C for 12-13min.

Just before you eat:

Remove the buns to cool.

If you fancy a glossier surface, brush with softened butter.