What I’ve learnt recently

This is the January 16th edition of “What I’ve learnt recently”:

1. I learnt how to use a mill and can now do some basic metalworking
2. Saying I can work metal makes me feel proud and manly
3. I have also learnt to make the most simple, yet profoundly delicious dish of pulled chicken. All you need are chicken breasts, which you then stick in a pot. Add barbecue sauce and about half that amount of ranch dressing (mayo also works well!). Then turn on a medium heat and cook until the chicken’s done. Pull apart with forks, mix back into sauce and serve with Kaiser buns, cheese and tomatoes. Yum! I’ll probably recycle this into another post when I get round to taking photos

Okay not quite this kind of metalworking, but isn't this a cool picture?

On the flipside, “What I haven’t yet learnt to do” is stop talking about my co-workers. You know, in that behind their backs kind of way. I wish I could also say that I don’t always mean what I say, but I do sometimes. We have personality clashes. But I really want to stop talking and complaining about them, especially when other people are doing the same. If you know how, leave me a comment because I would really love to know!

Oh, I’ve also started to add some BHAC’s and a “books I’ve read this year” list as pages here on the blog.

Hope you’re all well!

Next Post

Just a little follow-up on the previous post. So I shared the cookies with my work mates and… Verdict: they LOVED them! I’ve still people commenting on how good they were. Wow! For a humble cookie they have certainly scored me a ton of… brownie points (I’m so sorry but I had to say it).

More holiday baking! Fruitcake cookies

I don’t know about you, but I am one of those weird people who enjoy fruitcake. I love the taste of it, the sweetness of the fruit and the denseness of the cake. It goes very well paired with a good tea such as earl grey (but then again everything goes well with tea!).

Anyway I wanted to bake some treats to give away to a couple of people who had really helped me out the last few months. These guys are seriously awesome – they went out of their way to help me move and show me around town. Let me tell you, a little hospitality makes a huge difference when you’re in a new place! But I was a little hesitant to make fruitcake in case they didn’t like it… and then I chanced upon a fellow St Louisian blogger who posted a recipe for fruitcake cookies! Imagine my delight as the quandary (that’s my word of the day for ya) was solved.

So I pretty much used the recipe in Jess’ blog, but I substituted a couple of things mostly because I didn’t have or couldn’t find it in store: 1 tsp of baking soda for the cream of tartar, 1 1/2 cups of candied “fancy” fruit cake mix for the cherries and pineapple and I left out the rum flavour in case people didn’t like it.

Cutting the cookies in preparation for baking

 

A happy tray full of fruitcake cookies!

The result? Delicious! I literally had to stop myself from finishing the whole lot myself. It’s like fruitcake, but in a less dense form – almost like a shortbread but not quite. Yum! Now let’s hope the others like it as much as me, although if they don’t I know how to get rid of them…

p/s: This doesn’t have ANYTHING whatsoever to do with the post above except that I cooked my dinner at the same time as the cookies were baking. Turns out, mole is delicious!

Uh... not fruitcake

Weekend baking: Cinnamon buns

Bonus post! Ever since I read his post, I’d wanted to try Ol’ Bill’s cinnamon buns. I had to borrow a rolling pin but I managed to whip up a batch in the oven. I liked the recipe because it was very simple and didn’t require any yeast. This meant that the buns were in the oven in about 15 minuts and were ready to eat in less than an hour. However the texture was less bread like and more cake-y.

The post was a bit light on the details, but you can find the full list of ingredients there if you want to try it yourself. I just have a few things to add. When making the dough, remember the first rule of baking: mix the dry stuff first, before putting the wet stuff in. The dough turned out to be quite wet and sticky, but Ol’ Bill did warn about that! Make sure you flour the surface you are working on quite liberally. And forget about keeping your hands clean, this is sticky, messy work!

Once you’ve got the dough, just roll it out into a rectangular shape. Spread butter, sprinkle the filling (I mixed the sugar and cinnamon together first), then roll the dough up like a cigar. Cut the dough with a sharp knife into about 1-1.5 inch thick pieces, pop them in a pan and bake. I also spread more cinnamon sugar on top once the buns were done.

While the buns were yummy, I’m not sure I like them as much since the pastry was a bit cake-y. I might try a similar recipe but with a yeast-based dough next time. On the big plus side, my room now smells like Christmas!

My favourite weekend tradition: Pancakes!

My favourite way of eating pancakes: with bacon, sausages and fried bananas, smothered in syrup.

To me, nothing screams out weekend more than the joy of devouring pancakes. I don’t know why, pancakes were not something I had often as a child, but I just love the indulgence, flavour and (most-importantly) the fluffy goodness of a pancake breakfast. So for something a little different today, I thought I would share my trusty, sure-fire pancake recipe!

This is a fairly flexible recipe. If you want to, you can replace the milk with buttermilk. You can also leave out the vanilla essence (it still tastes delicious) or replace it with almond essence. You can also add chocolate chips or blueberries to the batter after mixing. Or if you want to make savoury pancakes, then reduce the sugar (I’d still use a little) and add chopped bacon and cheese.

Jian’s Simple Pancakes

Ingredients (makes enough for two, about 4-5 pancakes each):

1 cup standard flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp melted butter or vegetable oil

1 medium-large egg

Approx. 1 to 1 1/2 cups of milk

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

1-2 tbsp sugar

Note: You don’t really need to measure the ingredients very precisely. It will still work as long as the proportions are approximately correct. This is very useful when you want to whip up a quick breakfast, but can’t be bothered getting out the measuring cups.

Instructions:

1. Combine the dry stuff: flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Mix well in a bowl, leaving a small well in the middle.

2. Add the liquids: egg, butter, vanilla essence and about a cup of milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until the batter is even. The mixture should be thick, but still flow off the spoon. If it seems too thick, add more milk to dilute it. If you have gone the other way, add a bit more flour until the batter thickens. Let the mixture stand while you heat up your pan.

3. Pour about half a ladle-full of batter into the pan. Let it cook gently until you see bubbles appearing on the top of the pancake. Once the hole the bubbles make stay (as opposed to being filled by more liquid batter), it is time to flip the pancake. You can either use a spatula or, if you’re feeling adventurous, a lá Julia Child.

4. Let the other side brown, then lift off and serve. Try to exercise self restraint not to immediately eat the pancake until you finish the stack.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until the batter is gone.

Other random tips and observations:

Then heat the pan, I prefer a medium-low heat. I find that on an electric range a setting between 4-5 works well or on gas stove about mark 3-4. The best heat setting is when you get bubbles forming on the top within 20 seconds of pouring, and without burning the bottom of the pancake.

Also grease the pan with some butter or vegetable oil between every three pancakes or so. This not only helps the pancakes slide off, but also helps give it a more even colour.

Finally, especially if you are making these for your family, partner or flatmates who drop by and steal pancakes off the plate (and who can blame them?), I suggest a “chef’s cut”. This means that every third pancake or so is consumed immediately by the chef while still preparing the rest.