Pumpkin and Cheese Cream Pull Apart Bread

Hi!

I always curious how can I work on pumpkin. Pumpkin seems to be easily found in supermarket. So, I saw these two recipes, this and that. I thought why not making the pumpkin cheese cream bread into real bread instead of quick bread?

I combined the two recipes above yesterday. In the pull apart bread recipe it calls for 425 grams of pumpkin. Since I used fresh pumpkin, it is a little bit unpredictable how many grams of flesh you can scoop out of the fresh pumpkin, and I decided not to waste anything, so I put them all 460 grams. It results the dough really wet and sticky, so I add 1/4 cup flour, and then another 1/4 cup again. I totally added 1/2 cup flour more than the original recipe. The dough is not as 'dry' as usual bread dough I know. It was still a bit wet and sticky. I try to avoid the stickiness by covering my hands with flour, then water, then oil. Oil is probably the best one, just a drop or two of oil on your hands and shape the dough round. That's it and say bismillah :)

peek-a-boo cheese!


My pumpkin was not a perfectly smooth mashed, but it is alright. My cinnamon was grated freshly, but the ground nutmeg was coming from the box. I used oil instead of butter, so it could be dairy-free bread if you make it without cream cheese. Oh, I also used mix of white flour and wholemeal flour, just whatever I had at home.

I sit the dough overnight with cream cheese filling in it, just because I want it as breakfast the next morning. I was so glad that it came out well, moist and raised. It also has nice natural orange-brownish color.

Have a pumpkin bread :)

closer..

Pumpkin and Cheese Cream Pull Apart Bread


Ingredients:

Bread
3 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/3 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/3 sunflower oil
460 grams steamed pumpkin
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground or grated cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2-4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp raw sugar

Filling
250 gram cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 white sugar

Directions:

Bread
- In a mixing bowl add the water and sprinkle the yeast. Leave until the yeast dissolves and bubly, about 5 minutes.
- Add the 1/3 cup of oil, the pumpkin, spices, salt, sugar, and the flour.
- Knead the dough with your hand until it is not so sticky and can be shaped into a ball. Oil your palms with a little drop of oil when shaping the dough.
- The dough is sticky but still be able to be shaped into a ball.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic foil and leave at room temperature until doubled in volume.
- Meanwhile, make the cream cheese filling (see bellow).
- When risen, divide the dough in 16 pieces, flatten each piece, spoon about one tablespoon of cheese cream filling in the center and gently fold the buns completely covering the cream cheese.
- Place the filled buns in a greased or lined baking pan (I used one 20x20cm baking pans).
- Cover again with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 30 more minutes. I left it overnight because I want it for breakfast.
- Heat the oven to 180C.
- Just before putting the dough in the oven, brush carefully the oil on top of filled buns. Sprinkle some raw sugar on top and bake for 35 minutes.
- Cool slightly in the pan before removing it.

Filling
- Mix sugar and egg with low speed until just mix.
- Add in cream cheese and mix until smooth.
- Set aside.

Enjoy :)

say 'cheese' :)

Misro

Misro is abbreviation of aMIS di jeRO, which is from Sundanese(West Java ethnic) language that means "sweet inside". Misro one of the old Indonesian snacks. Probably long before donut and burger came imperialized the taste of Indonesian people...just kidding, it is not that meanful. I think. Nevermind.
Misro is so 'Indonesia'. If you see the ingredients bellow, they are all so tropical; cassava, coconut, tapioca and gula Jawa. Have I told you about gula Jawa before? I will tell you about it in another post about this palm sugar that so sweet, chewy and make Indonesian food so different.

First batch



Everytime I cook from the recipe of old times, I can not help but remembering my childhood when my grandma always supply us, my brothers and me with simple and traditional snacks. I loooove her dearly and miss her so much. I miss my Mum too. Oh.

If you never taste Misro before, it is supposed to be crunchy outside and a bit chewy on the inside. As the name is "sweet inside", it filled with gula Jawa or Javanese palm sugar. Misro, have a 'sibling' named Comro or Combro which means onCom di jeRO or oncom inside. Oncom is a bit like Tempe. I will try to make Comro someday, but it might be hard because I still do not know where to find oncom in Auckland. I might substitute it with Tempe.

It is glutenfree, dairyfree, nutfree snack. Almost sounds healthy, eh? Unfortunately to anyone who is on diet, it is deep-fried. Well, I think still quite slimmer than donuts ;)

This is so easy, and you know I never make difficult recipe, right?

Bunch of them




Misro

Ingredients:
450 gram finely shredded cassava (I used 1 package of 454gram frozen shredded cassava)
100 gram fresh or frozen shredded coconut
1 heap tbsp tapioca flour
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
gula Jawa, chopped with knife, for filling

Directions:
- Mix together in a bowl all ingredients except gula Jawa.
- Mould the cassava mix with your hands into golf ball shape.
- Flat each ball in your palm and fill with about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon gula Jawa. Cover the filling by closing your hands with your fingers and try to cover the gaps. It is a bit tricky maybe, it is not like bread dough and a bit crumbly. Press a bit and shape it like a flat ball.
- Heat oil on medium heat.
- Deep fry all the dough until golden brown and crisp on the outside.
- Drain the excess oil with strainer or paper towel.
- Serve while it's hot. Bon apetite!

Melted gula Jawa inside, nom!

Crumb Banana Bread

Holla!
I think I had posted banana bread recipe before? Oh right, here it is. I am sooo often making banana bread. You know, ugly skinned bananas could easily found in our home when my hubby missed to eat the banana, or if we buy them too much for a week. Yea, my hubby is the prime banana-eater at home, and yes, we buy banana once a week.
Anyway, banana is easy snack or breakfast menu. So today I'm going to post another banana bread. The different from the previous one is the crumbs and the chocolate chip.

This is not really from scratch crumbe...well, not almost. Hm, not it's confusing how to explain this.
Anyway this crumbs is made from leftover Oatmeal Lace Cookies. There.
I put the crumbs after 10 minutes bake, and they come out not to sticky to the dough. Maybe next time I put the crumbs before baking.
It is spring school holiday and the boys need snacks. If the boys at home, I need something quick to make. You know what I mean?

This is easy recipe. The source is from Elise.com,unfortunately, I no longer have the link. However, I made some changes somewhere.

Here it is.

Crumb Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3-4 bananas
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
a handful of chocolate chips(or more if you please!)
some Oatmeal Lace Cookies, mashed coarsely


Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180 C.
- Mash banana with fork in a bowl.
- Mix in sugar, salt, oil and egg.
- In another bowl mix flour, baking soda and chocolate chips.
- Mix them all together with spatula and do ot over mix it.
- Pour in lined loaf tin.
- Spread the crumbles to cover the top of dough, or you can spread it after 10 minutes bake just ike I did, but it would not be to sticky to the dough.
- Bake it about 50-60 minutes.

Make Your Own Fabric Boxes

The most expensive thing (non-living things!) I wish to have is probably a house. I do not really keen on gold, diamonds or cars. Unfortunately, last year we found that we cannot buy a house in near future, and still uncertain about in faaarrrr future either. It shocked me at first, but eventually I can accept that. It's about following what Allah's command. Eventually I believe that if we follow Him, He must have something better for us, more than what we could ever think of. Could it be house in Jannah? Inshaa Allah.

So, back to mortal world :) If we still cannot have our own house, it does not mean we could not create home, right? I told this to myself actually. Our house is a mess. With two boys hanging around and never stop moving, it's not easy to keep the house tidy and clean. I rrrrreallly need to organize this house. Maybe I need a system, I thought. I don't know, something!

Google is my clever friend. I started to google about how to organizing house...with limited budget, of course. I do not know where to start, so I start anywhere :D Well, first, I sorted unused stuffs by throw them away or donate them. Then I made 'sketches' of what things need to be organized. I'm probably not a perect planner, so my plan and sketches are quite a mess too. I do not have time limit, which probably a wrong move.

Anyway!
My sons' bedroom have quite limited clothes storage. Everytime they pull clothes, it usually cause some mess. So, I thought I need boxes and try to fold clothes differently. I got cardboard boxes freely from Pak'n'Save and with some fabric and old bedsheet I made some boxes. I made them only with glue gun and scissor, and hope it stay firm quite long. I planned to make some more boxes for our clothes and some other stuffs. However, until I type this post I still haven make another single box yet.

Oh, this organizing thing probably need more (and more) time. If possible, I hope I can finish it before October. Why October? Just because I need this house well-organized, pronto!

I thought I was going to give you the 'how to' to make the boxes, but there are a lot of great 'how to'-videos you can check out. So I will just give you before and after the cardboard boxes got makeover.

Here is the 'before'

And here is 'almost-after'. Ha ha, I know, just a little bit better. At least I feel better :)

Well, I hope this post usefull or inspiring. Otherwise, oh what a heck :D !

Simplicity in Eid

Assalaammualikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh sisters and brothers in Islam,

I know it is weeks after Eid Fitr day, but this posting is especially to say Eid Mubarak to you all. Taqaballahu minna wa minkum, may Allah Ta’ala accept our and your efforts and good deeds.

In the place where we far away from big family, my little family of me, hubby, and two sons had celebrate Eid very moderately. As our second Eid Fitr in NZ, these Eid days were very quiet compare to previous ones. No big family, no big bunch of friends :)
Last year was even more quiet. I didn't bake any cookies, as the tradition food in Indonesia. Last year we just went to Eid prayer, ate at home, and off we went for vacation out of town.

However, I realize my kids grown bigger and as we live as minority here, there are lots of celebrations that we have to meet with, which is not related to our faith. By that, my kids so close to influences that can pull them away from our faith, Islam. As parents, especially as a mum, I realize how huge my responsibility to keep my sons in track in our faith, especially in this non muslim country.

I realized I have to make our sons recognize that Eid days are more important than any other celebration days that they could meet here. The Eid day have to be special, therefore I could not let Ramadhan month and Eid days passing by without our sons missing them after.

This year, my sons tried to fast a few days in Ramadhan. They woke for sahoor for a few days. They recognize Eid day. I made more effort to make cookies and meals. I made a little decoration and tidy up our home a bit. We gave the boys some gifts because they have tried fasting. We went to Eid prayer in ASB Showground, where a lot of muslims from all over the world, so our son can see that they're not the only muslim here in Auckland, and muslims are not only from Indonesia. In that place, there are festive of food stalls and children's play area. I hope, I really hope, that they remember that day, and wanting it some more. This might be a small clue, but when my youngest son said to me, "Bunda, I want to go there again", I feel cool water flow in my chest, feeling that we've probably started something good here.

We probably away from the very merry Eid day that we used to have, but a little simplicity is better than none. It's just a little effort, I know, but it's one pavement of a good path, inshaaAllah.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

We all love moist cake. I always imagine that fudge cake is moist and chocolaty. I never had chance to eat the store-bought one though. However, moist cake might involve too much butter sometimes.

Few weeks ago I found this recipe that use cocoa instead of chocolate, and oil instead of butter. Sounds better, I thought. So I made it, with a little bit my own way, which is skipping out the baking soda and baking powder, cut off sugar a bit, replace half of oil with yogurt. Unfortunately, by skipped out the food additives, I need something to rise the cake, which is egg. Yea, I know, not totally fat free. At least egg is a natural ingredient :p I also took the long way by whipping up eggs and sugar first until fluffy, rather than just stir and stir.

The original recipe has a very interesting icing that made of coconut cream instead of regular cream. I really, really wanted to make the icing, really. It didn't happen. Two reasons, my boys wouldn't be patient enough to wait for icing, and I was happy enough to have it without icing. Maybe someday, someday, I will ice a cake. Someday. Yup.

This cake satisfied me, my hubby and our two boys. It is moist, that you can eat it straight away after you put in the fridge. Yes, it didn't get dry after I put it in the fridge over night. I will definitely make it again, and again.

So here it is, if you like to try, our humble, moist Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup of plain flour
¼ cup of cocoa
3/4 cup of sugar
3 eggs
½ teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of oil (I used sunflower oil)
1/2 cup of yogurt
1/4 cup chocolate chip (optional)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped roasted cashew (optional)

Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 180C.
- Line a 20x20cm cake tin with baking paper.
- Sift flour and cocoa in a bowl and stir to combine.
- Stir together in other bowl salt, oil and yogurt until blend.
- Whisk eggs and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy.
- Fold in the flour mixture and the yogurt mixture alternately with spatula until well combined.
- Put in the oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes. The time will vary depending on your oven.
- Cook until bamboo skewer comes out clean.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Get a fork! :)

Oseng-oseng Daun Silverbeet

Oseng-oseng=tumis=stir fy.
I've always seen silverbeet in the grocery stores, but I never eat or cook them before. The leaves are big-thick dark green with white stalk. I was curious about it, but never bought it until one day, one good friend mbak Jeanne posted a picture of Silverbeet dan Udang Masak Santan (silverbeet and shrimp in coconut milk) in facebook. So I asked her about the leaves' taste and how to cook it. It seemed this leaf is just like I thought it was, reminds me of papaya leaves when it cooked.

I finally bought just a bunch, to see how it goes. I was about to cook just like mbak Jeanne did with coconut milk, but I just cooked Opor Ayam (with coconut milk too) a day before. I thought, this could be too much coconut milk in 2 days. So I decided to make something easy, stir fry, as my grandma and my mum used to make. As their old way, I also added fried white bait. Their crunchiness just make it more complete. If you are not familiar with silver beet and white bait(Teri in Indonesian, and I think other part of the world call it anchovy?), I'll post photos of them when I buy them again. Otherwise, just google it please :P

It turn up lovely, almost like papaya leaves but without the bitter taste. Even better, right? My husband ate it too! The best way to eat it is with warm white rice and Sambal Terasi. Sambal is Indonesian condiment made of chilli and it's hoottt!

The recipe I wrote bellow is a very small portion, maybe enough for one or two adult.

Oseng-oseng Daun Silverbeet

Ingredients:
1 bunch silverbeet, leave out the white stalk
1 salam leaf (Indonesian bayleaf)
1 small package of white bait, fried and drained
salt

Spices, chopped:
1 big clove garlic
3 shallot
1 big red chilli (take out the seeds if you don't want it hot)
optionally, some cabe rawit (bird's eye chilli) cut in two

Directions:
- Cut the silverbeet into chunk pieces
- Heat some oil (about 2 tablespoon) in a pan over medium heat.
- Stir in garlic, shallot and chilli until golden.
- Stir in the silverbeat.
- Add some salt
- Add a little water if necessary. Cook until done but not too tender or mushy.
- Turn off the heat off.
- Sprinkle and stir the fried white bait when it's time to eat, to keep the white bait still crunchy.
- Enjoy with white rice and sambal is the best :D