Honey-Tamari Roasted Almonds

  

Treat yourself to these sticky, sweet and salty roasted almonds with a mix of crunch and flavour to satisfy your hunger for munch.   They are easy to make and also a great alternative to potato chips.  

Ingredients:

225 g raw almonds
1 tbsp Tamari
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp olive oil
sea salt, to taste
freshly cracked black pepper

• Preheat oven to 165 deg C.  
• Spread almonds on a lined shallow tray in a single layer.  Bake for about 15 minutes, until fragrant.
• Meanwhile, stir to combine Tamari, honey and olive oil in a small bowl.
• Remove almonds from the oven and pour Tamari mixture onto the almonds and toss to coat evenly.  Sprinkle sea salt and black pepper over the almonds and return to the oven to bake for a further 12 minutes, tossing one more time during baking.
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle a little more salt over the almonds.  Separate any almonds that have clumped together.
• Cool and store in an air tight container.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you Victoria for nominating 'The Versatile Blogger Award' to Minty's Kitchen.  I am truly happy and honoured, especially when this nomination comes from one of my favourite bloggers. Victoria is the awesome and talented blogger behind Victoria Bakes, a really amazing blog which is inspiring and worth reading.  If you haven't come across Victoria's website (which I highly doubt so), please check it out now!  

According to VBA rules (VBA website), after you have been nominated, briefly thank the person who had nominated you; post the award badge on your blog; disclose seven facts about yourself; and nominate 15 blogs who deserve the award and inform them.

A few facts about myself ....

I am a Malaysian auntie living in Melbourne, I love cooking and baking (of course I do since I blog about food :P), Unfortunately my children are not very fond of most of my cakes and bread as they claimed they are 'sick' of them (sob, sob), I love collecting bake wares (but not the expensive ones), My favourite shopping place when I am back in Malaysia are the baking supplies stores, Feasting my eyes on the delicious food created by my fellow bloggers has become my favourite pastime; and Bookmarking interesting recipes has become my hobby.

As part of the rules, I would like to nominate the Versatile Blogger Award to the following blogs, please hop over to visit them:

Tested & Tasted by DG
No-Frills Recipes by Sokehah Cheah
Cooking Pleasure by Kimmy
My Mind Patch by Goh NgaiLeng
u Try.it by Amy
Bunny's Warm Oven by Bunny (Mary)
Butter, Flour & Me by Joceline Lyn
Coco's Sweet Tooth by Coco
WSM @ Kitchen by Jaseline Wai
Copycake Kitchen by Esther Lau
Yummy Bakes by Chris
Angie's Recipes by Angie
Lisa's Lemony Kitchen by Lisa
Phong Hong Bakes & Cooks by Phong Hong 
Kitchen Corner by Grace


Congratulations to these deserving nominees!  

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my blog followers and those who drop by and leaving valuable comments and encouraging words.  Thank you!

Sweet Corn Buns

The versatile sweet corn kernels blended with a few blades of screwpine/pandan leaves gives a great aroma to these otherwise plain buns. Thank you to My Mind Patch for sharing her Sugar Corn Butter Buns recipe. However, I didn't have the patience to shape the buns according to the recipe, so I just made them round with a sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds. Oh, they tasted so good ... and soft too! 

Ingredients: (Makes 9 buns in a 7"x7" pan)
80g cold milk
3 blade of pandan leaves, cut into small pieces
60g steamed corn kernels
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
15g condensed milk
30g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
30g butter
195g bread flour
3/4 tsp dried instant yeast

• Blend pandan leaves with milk.  Strain, add more milk to make up to 80g.  Then return pandan-milk into blender, add in steamed corn kernels and blend until creamy.  Stir in condensed milk and egg yolk.  Set aside.
• Mix bread flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Add in yeast, stir well to combine. Pour in corn mixture and knead until well combined.  Then add in butter and continue kneading until dough is smooth and elastic.  Conduct a Window Pane Test to determine if dough is fully developed.
• Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until double in size.
• Punch down the dough to release trapped air.  Divide dough into 9 equal portions.  Rest for 10 minutes.
• Shape dough into balls and place onto a greased baking tray.  Cover and proof until almost double in size.
• Preheat oven to 175 deg C.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove  from oven and brush buns with softened butter.  Cool buns on a wire rack.

Pandan Kaya Sponge Cake

Inspired by Victoria's Pandan Kaya Sponge Sandwiches

Ingredients:

4 whole eggs, room temperature

1 egg yolk, room temperature
70g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
20g honey
110g plain flour
5g corn flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
20g coconut milk
1/4 tsp pandan paste
60g coconut oil, melted

pandan kaya, for the filling

• Preheat oven to 170 deg C.  Line the base of a 17.5 cm square pan.
• Sift plain flour, corn flour and baking soda together three times to aerate. 
• Mix pandan paste into coconut milk, set aside.
• Using an electric mixer, beat whole eggs, egg yolk, sugar and salt together on medium-high speed for 4 minutes.  Add in honey and continue beating for another 4 minutes, until pale and thick ("ribbon" stage). Reduce speed to low and beat for 4 minutes to break up larger air bubbles.
• Sift in flour mixture in 3 batches  and add in coconut milk, beginning and ending with flour.  Fold gently.
• Drizzle in the cooled melted coconut oil around the edges of the mixing bowl. Fold gently to combine.
• Pour batter into the prepared pan and drop the pan on the benchtop twice to eliminate any large air bubbles.
• Bake (on the lowest bottom rack of the oven) for 40 minutes. The cake should feel spongy when it's done.
• Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, drop the pan from a height of about 20cm (this is to prevent the cake from shrinking).
• Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove from the pan. 
• When the cake is completely cooled, slice into two layers before sandwiching them together with pandan kaya.  Dust with icing sugar.

Hong Kong Sweet Bread Rolls (Pai Bao / 排包 )

Recipe Source from Christine's Recipes (with some slight changes)


Tangzhong: *  (Refer here for instructions on how to make tangzhong)
25g high protein flour
125ml water

Main Bread Dough:
370g high protein flour
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
12g milk powder
6g instant dry yeast
1 egg yolk
30g egg (whisked lightly)
125g fresh milk
28g condensed milk
75ml thickened cream
tangzhong *
35g unsalted butter, softened

• In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all the main dough ingredients, except butter. Add in all the tangzhong, knead until well combined.  Then add in butter and continue kneading until dough is smooth and elastic and leaves the sides of the bowl.
• Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingwrap.  Allow it to rise until double in volume.
• Punch down the dough to release trapped air.  Divide dough into 6 equal portions.  Cover and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll out each portion of the dough into an oval shape.  (Please refer to Christine's recipe for pictorial instructions on how to shape the rolls).  Place rolls into loaf pans.  Cover and leave to rise until almost doubled.
• Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
• Brush the rolls with egg wash and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove from oven and transfer onto a wire rack to cool.