Bread and Batter – Page 2 – The Occasional Cook

Homemade Pizza: (new technique learned!)

September 20, 2020March 3, 2021 7shasha7

So I learned a new way to cook pizza at home by Dr Leslie Tay, Singapore’s food guru. He is a legit doctor, by the way, but he’s more well known as a foodie with a very popular blogsite.

Anyway, he had a video promoting the Tefal Ingenio pan and it is from here that I learnt his techniques and applied them. However, 1. I did not buy the Tefal pan. I used my go to WMF steel pan, and 2. I did not blowtorch my pizza 😌

Here’s the link to his site and here’s my end product!

I must say, his technique really works so I’ll be making my pizzas like this from now on.

See how crispy and well cooked the bottom is? No more soggy bottoms! 😂

And here’s my video on YouTube. Subscribe to my channel at Shasha Cooks

Bread and Batter

No Knead Focaccia

July 14, 2020 7shasha7

Ok, I love love love this recipe and Marion Grasby. If you’ve not been following her on YouTube then you don’t know what you’ve been missing. Half Thai and half Aussie, she’s a brainchild of Asian and Western cooking.

Her latest post on making focaccia is amazing. I followed her recipe and it worked perfectly. However, because of the Super hot and humid weather here, I need to cut down on the water and the hours to be kept overnight. For example, a one hour wait for the yeast mixture to bloom only takes less than 10 minutes here!

Some of her tips and tricks like mixing an olive oil and water mixture and pouring it all over the dough before baking also works.

The yeast mixed with a quarter cup of semolina and 80g of lukewarm water. Wait for it to bloom and thicken.

Pour some olive oil and cover with a cloth overnight.

Is there such a thing as over rising? I did the dough at around 11 plus at night and by 6 am it’s so huge! The humidity here does affect baking recipes.

Deflate the dough and make 4 turns from underneath the dough till a smooth ball is formed.

Spread the dough on a lined and greased baking sheet, and add more olive oil all over the dimpled and creased Top that you’ve created from pressing and forming the dough to fit the pan. Add topping of choice. Here, 1/3 of the dough is given the Marion’s topping of fried shallots and chilli flakes. For the rest, I grated parmesan cheese and over the entire thing sprinkled Maldon sea salt flakes.

Bake in a 230 Celsius oven till golden and crispy. Sprinkle with fresh thyme while the bread is still hot.

Crispy with a light and slightly chewy interior. I love this so much! I’m going to bake again this coming weekend but will use a different topping.

For the full recipe, visit her website here.

Bread and Batter, Cakes and Cookies, Japanese/Korean

Matcha Mille Crepe

July 11, 2020March 3, 2021 7shasha7

I’ve been wanting to make this for the longest time after watching it on YouTube by JOC – Just One Cookbook. I just love the easy way she presents recipes.

And so I did. A few problems though for the novice-ish cook.

1. I couldn’t flip the crepes. They would tend to tear so in the end I decided to cook just one side of it

2. I did the paper cross thing she did to life the entire cake. Excel that…once you lift and place it into the cling film bowl, I couldn’t seem to take out the paper underneath! It was a two person job lifting and manipulating the cake so the papers would come off

3. Our heat and humidity. By the time I finished assembling the cake, the cream has melted and they all kind of slipped off. And the more I tried to remove the paper underneath, the messier it got!

But all went well after I managed to put it in the fridge for two hours. After that, the shape held well and the cut was beautiful. And I could cover slight tears with the powdered matcha!

Here is the recipe I followed: Matcha Mille Crepe Recipe: JOC

Can you see that huge tear? That came about as I was trying to remove the Crepe from the pan . That’s the paper which I had difficulty removing afterwards!

This picture has a filter because I realise I didn’t take several good photos of the whole cake. Notice the lopsided shape? This happened because of our hot and humid weather which made the entire cake drop as I was trying to get it into shape in the cling film

But all’s well that ends well and I love this cake! Not sweet, just the way I like my desserts, actually.

Bread and Batter, Salads and Vegetables, Sides, Snack

Vegetable Tart

June 27, 2020 7shasha7

This is not a cooking recipe. It’s really a matter of assembling but it works so well! I learnt it from my sister who said she learnt it from Nadia Hussein, the British celebrity Bake Off winner.

It’s too simple but so elegant looking. I used store bought ready rolled puff pastry and scored the edges. Using a fork, poke the base. Spread store bought basil pesto. Sprinkle cheese and later vegetables of choice.

For the vegetables, I used pan fried thinly sliced brinjals. I used up the left over thinly sliced capsicums from the focaccia as well as mushrooms. Once baked, I sprinkled Parmesan cheese and baby salad leaves. Make sure the bottom of the pastry is well cooked. No soggy bottoms!

Rosemary leaves add that fragrant touch too.

Olive oil, grated Parmesan and salad leaves for the finishing touches.

Bread and Batter

Focaccia Art

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 7shasha7

Been wanting to make this for the longest time. I used Jamie Oliver’s easy focaccia recipe and it works. Not exactly the tastiest recipe out there but it’s quick, basic and perfect for Everyday baking.

Click here to go to his recipe.