Bread and Kaki no tane! ^ ^

Woah! :D  Isn't this bread so cool? It's one of the sweet breads from Bakery Manoa. The first time we came we tried the English bread (sorry, no picture). It was pretty good, but this bread was waayyy better. Plus, who doesn't love eating round bread? It reminds me of smuckers sandwiches. But, it so does not taste like their bread, at all (which is good!).

The bread was slightly sweet and super fluffy and soft. I loved eating it plain or with a little lilikoi jam, or both. Oh, and the ridges make the perfect guidelines for slicing. Hehe, since I'm pretty bad at cutting bread ...

Oh, and I forgot to show you guys these cute little boxes. Inside is Kaki no tane (Japanese rice snack that's similar to osenbei). Typically kaki no tane is just spicy/shoyu flavored, but these ones are all different (and very strange) flavors. Cheese or curry flavor, anyone? Haha! Some were surprisingly good (wasabi, maple sugar) other were, well uh, interesting (cheese....).

Brownies with a Chocolate Drizze

Chocolate drizzled brownies. Chocolate + Chocolate + Brownies... Need I say more? Okay, well maybe. These were amazing! I didn't overbake the brownies, so they were fudgy, moist, chocolatey, and delicious!

I used the fat witch brownie recipe (but didn't over bake it this time!) and made a simple chocolate drizzle.

Chocolate drizzle recipe:
Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, (small amount!) water
In a small bowl combine powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and water. Mix. Drizzle over brownies.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gosh, it's been quite a while since I posted a recipe. It's a good thing I have a recipe to share today! Actually it's not my recipe, but the recipe from the back of the Andes mint baking chip bag (hehehe :D ). They were amazing! Minty, refreshing, chocolatey! If you like soft batch cookies, you're sure going to like these :) (They looked and felt like soft batch, except for the part about them being minty fresh :P

Andes Mint CookiesFrom the back of the package
Ingredients

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 package (10 oz) Andes Mint Baking Chips

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg and vanilla extract

2. Sift together baking soda, baking powder, flour. Mix into butter egg mixture.

3. Stir in Andes baking chips

4. Chill for at least one hour

5. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Use a cookie scoop to spoon tablespoon sized pieces of dough on to a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

6. Enjoy!

Creme Brulee

Hehe, when I looked back at the other post, I realized I spelled "Creme Brulee" incorrectly. I'm not much of a speller anyways...but at least I can Make creme brulee. Hah! So anyways, remember when I told you guys about those eggs my parents bought?! I actually only eat egg whites (no, I'm not trying to be healthy, I just like the taste of the egg white part) so we often have several leftover egg yolks in the fridge. I've been trying to think of ways to get rid of them (do you guys have any ideas?!?!) and one of the first was creme brulee!

I used the recipe found in the Flour bakery cookbook, but probably used like double the egg yolks! Hehe, super rich and creamy. YUM :P. The container in the picture is looks super tiny (it is so I ate several of them at a time!), but I actually baked the majority in small ramekins. The creme brulee was rich and creamy, with a perfect crunchy topping!

Tartine Bread

Gosh, it's been such a long time since I last posted. I didn't even post during Thanksgiving!! Which reminds me, how was everyone's Thanksgiving?? Even though I haven't been blogging lately, I've still been baking :) For Thanksgiving dinner, I made a pumpkin crunch cake and chocolate cream pie. I don't have a recipe for you guys today, but I realized I never posted about the bread I made waaayyyy long ago. Oops. Hehe.

This was my first attempt at the Tartine bread recipe, and if I may say, it turned out pretty good. Rustic, chewy, crackly exterior. The recipe calls for a starter, and then a small portion of that starter is used in the actual dough for the bread. Oh, and the recipe make two loaves. Hehe, one turned out well not so well (scroll down for a picture...). Turns out that even if a company says their pot can go in to an oven up to 450˚F, don't trust them! I initially put one of the loaves in said pot and the handles (which were rubber, I think?) started to burn! So I ended up just place the bread on a pizza stone, which worked pretty well.

Tartine Bread

What happens when you put bread in a hot pot, bake it for a little bit, then decide it was supposed to be the other side and end up flipping the cooked side on top! Oops!

hey guys! :D

hey guys! so here's what I've been up to lately...

Tartine Bread

Creme Brule

Andies Mint Chip Cookies

Chocolate Drizzeled Brownies

Sweet Bread from Bakery of Manoa

Kakinotane from Japan

My dad makes a blueberry tart!

Marunouchi Roll Cake from Shirokiya

Homemade twix <3