hungrynez | Home cooking made easy! » breads

Homemade Pizza

Nez — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:36:34 +0000

PIZZA is one of the most loved American food by Pinoys. No wonder pizza stores are growing like mushrooms here in the Philippines. Here in our small and humble city, we have well-known pizza stores like Shakeys, Pizza Hut, Angels Pizza and Yellow Cab. I am always hesistant of doing my own pizza dough. I tried almost all prepared dough from the grocery stores but I do not get that satisfaction of eating Pizza. I believe that the secret to a perfect pizza is in the dough. But I know how difficult it is to make and knead the pizza dough to perfection. I have tons of attempts and I surrendered. But thanks to my younger sister Mylene who used to make some money from this HOMEMADE PIZZA using her own HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH. She previously sells dozens of pizzas to schools and offices and she sells them so fast. But when she got hired, she left me with this very easy do your own PIZZA recipe. Now it is my turn to make gold with this HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

for HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH:

1 1/3 cups warm water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. dry yeast
1 tbsp. cooking oil
2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Measure water into bowl. add sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. sprinkle yeast over water and let stand for 20 minutes. Stir well. Add oil, salt and 3 1/2 cups flour. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough out on floured board and knead in more flour enough to make a stiff dough. Knead until smooth, about ten minutes. Gather dough into a round, put in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until more than double (about 2 hours). Punch down.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and roll and stretch each piece to fit a pizza pan. If dough is very bouncy, let it rest for few minutes until it will roll more easily. If dough isn’t quite the right size when you get in the pan, press and stretch it until you can seal it firmly to the sides of the pan. Roll edges under a little end to make a reaised edge to hold the filling.

Top crust with pizza sauce, mushroom, beef, ham, bell pepper, onion and cheese. Bake immediately in a pre-heated oven to 450 degrees F for 25 minutes or until crust is well browned and filling is bubbling well. Serve your HOMEMADE PIZZA using your HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH while hot!

Carrot Raisin Bread

Nez — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:41:54 +0000

My mom came early this week and I thought it was just a usual visit that she wanted to say hi and check the kids. After a nice lunch, she hesitantly asked me if I could make some of the CARROT RAISIN BREAD like the ones I bake during her golden birthday. After having her saying that, I immediately browsed my picture files and checked blog if I already featured and posted this recipe. And oh yeah, I almost missed sharing this one. CARROT RAISIN BREAD has been hiding in my file for almost a year now. Everybody is always amazed with my CARROT RAISIN BREAD. And I want to give credit to my food blogger friend who I already mentioned in my previous CARROT WALNUT BREAD post. I just recreated the recipe by removing the crushed pineapples and walnuts. At first taste, I got worried for I might not have the same texture and taste but it was still at its best for a simpler and inexpensive dessert feast.

I said big yes, yes, yes to my Mom to her request. You all know I love to cook and bake. I feel I am short change myself if I don’t take the opportunities to cook. So now, I have to pick things from the store and have to start with my kitchen work.

If you can’t have enough of CARROT RAISIN BREAD, then bake CARROT BAR, PINEAPPLE CARROT MUFFINS and CARROT WALNUT BREAD.

CARROT RAISIN BREAD

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins soaked in pineapple juice for 10 minutes and drain
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, cream together oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Then, add flour mixture until well mixed. Add in grated carrots and raisins.

Pour on a greased or paper lined pan for about 1 inch thick. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of bread comes out clean.

Remove from oven. Let your CARROT RAISIN BREAD cook on a wire rack and slice the bread according to your desired sizes.

Now you can serve your CARROT RAISIN BREAD in your dessert table!

Chocolate Cupcake with Melted Marshmallows

Nez — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:35:54 +0000

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE is one of my favorite cupcake variants. I got this perfect CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE recipe from one of my loved baking site, joyofbaking.com. Almost all of its recipe are kitchen-tested which gave me an assurance that I will get the same exact result, as long as I followed the measurements of the ingredients and the procedure. But instead of putting a chocolate butter frosting, I wondered if baking it with marshmallow would do good. And it was not good, CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE WITH MELTED MARSHMALLOW is even great, it is the best pair of chocolatey cupcake and a sweet, soft and chewy melted marshmallow on top.

Baking cupcake is so easy and can be a wonderful kitchen activity with kids. You can just bake the cupcake even without the marshmallow or frosting if you want to make it simple, the chocolate is equally tasty even without anything on top. You can bake it for a party and you will surely please all your guest. They are very cake-like and soft chocolatey cupcake.

You can also bake HEAVENLY MUFFINS, PINEAPPLE CARROT CUPCAKES, and CHOCO BANANA MUFFINS.

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE WITH MELTED MARSHMALLOW

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, I used Bensorp brand
1 cup boiling hot water
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
marshmallows

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter or line 16 muffin cups with paper cups.

Mix the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder with fork in a small bowl until smooth. Let it cool to room temperature.

In separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16 – 20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove the pan from the oven and top with marshmallow then put back into the oven for 3-5 minutes until marshmallow is melted. Remove from the oven and press down the marshmallow gently with a spatula.

Cool in a wire rack and serve you CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE WITH MELTED MARSHMALLOW!

Lemon Bread

Nez — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:37:15 +0000

LEMONY ZESTY BREAD DAY! I’ve been busy the past few days but I don’t want to leave the week without posting here! Well, this is really quick for I have to meet my professor in a little while. Yup, I’m enrolled and back to school again. It’s a lot of fun spending my weekends with teachers and squeezing juice in my brains. Ugh, that’s gross!

Anyway, I have this recipe for those who wanted to spend some time in the kitchen, baking some quick breads. This is a best recipe if you are just a newbie in the kitchen. I am sure you won’t have a kitchen disaster with this LEMON BREAD recipe unless you forgot to turn on the oven or turn it off. I added a bit of grated carrots to add color on the bread and a handful of raisin to make it healthier.

LEMON BREAD

1 1/2 cup cake flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large grated lemon zest
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins
powdered sugar

In a bowl, mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat egg, milk, oil and lemon zest. Then, add flour mixture. Add raisins and grated carrots. Mix until well combined.

Pour into greased pan.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (350 F degrees) for about 20-25 minutes, or until inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy your zesty LEMON BREAD! with sifted powdered sugar on top!

Carrot Walnut Bread

Nez — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:40:29 +0000

I love baking quick breads. Well, because I haven’t tried baking breads using yeasts, I am not so prepared with the hand-work of kneading doughs. But it is already in line if time allows me to. Baking CARROT WALNUT BREAD is the quickest bread you can prepare and bake in your oven. I got this recipe from a friend who is very diligent in tutoring me in baking and even so thoughtful of sending me these walnuts from US. I didn’t notice that I ran out of crushed pineapple but my carrot walnut bread minus the crushed pineapples tastes even great.

I grew up just knowing two kinds of nuts, peanuts and cashew nuts. I just got acquainted with nuts like walnuts, pistachios, almond and hazelnuts when I started baking, cooking and blogging. Walnuts are edible seeds from a tree of genus Juglans. I don’t know those are, hihi. But you can search in google for that. They are rich in anti-oxidants and is best to improve body fat in overweight adults. Walnuts are quite pricy in our country but they can be bought in small packages in some stores. Walnuts are best in carrot bread but if don’t have extra money to buy walnuts, you can use cashew nuts instead, or just top the Carrot Bread batter with chopped peanuts.

You may also try baking my other carrot bread recipes like CARROT BAR and PINEAPPLE CARROT MUFFINS.

CARROT WALNUT BREAD

1 cup chopped walnuts
2 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins
1 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, soak raisins in orange juice for about 10 minutes then drain with paper towels. Set aside

Cream oil and sugar together until light and fluffy in a mixing bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well blended. Set aside.

Sift all dry ingredients together. Then mix into the wet mixture until well incorporated. Add grated carrots, raisins and walnuts. Pour batter in greased pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove from oven. Let cool and serve you CARROT WALNUT BREAD during snack time!

Banana Pineapple Bread Loaf

Nez — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:29:20 +0000

Banana is one of the favorite fruits of most Pinoys. It is available all year round and is affordable. Banana is very rich in fiber and has natural sugars like fructose, sucrose and glucose. Eating 2 bananas will give you enough energy in doing a very active one and a half work-out. You can also fight depression by just eating banana. It doesn’t mean your turning to a monkey being happy having a banana, but with its trytophan protein content and being converted to serotonin, making you more relax and helping you to have a better feeling and improves you to a happier mood. Banana is high in iron which fights anemia. It is also a great method in punching blood pressure. It helps reduce the risk of stroke and blood pressure. And with banana’s high in potassium content, it helps to boost your brain power.

My aunt sent me an email regarding bananas with dark patches on its yellow skin. Most of us prefer those perfect yellow skin, but a Japanese research says that yellow skin bananas with dark spots on it are 8 times effective in enhancing property of white blood cells and enhancing the immunity of the body. Their recommendation is to eat 1 to 2 banana a day to improve our body’s immunity to diseases like colds and flu.

No wonder we all love bananas for they give us a reason to be loved. Even the overriped bananas shouldn’t be thrown in the garbage. They are best to be used in you banana breads like this BANANA PINEAPPLE BREAD LOAF, CHOCO BANANA MUFFINS and BANANA LEMON BREAD.

BANANA PINEAPPLE BREAD LOAF

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. baking powder
3 cups mashed bananas
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line pans with wax paper.

In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking soda and baking poder together. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs. Add the remaining ingredients. Pour in the flour mixture. Mix gently. Do not overmix.

Pour over pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Serve your BANANA PINEAPPLE BREAD LOAF.

Marble Bread Bar

Nez — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:17:57 +0000

MARBLE BREAD, for me, has a unique charm and elegance of all the breads in the world. Rightaway, eyes are catched with the beautiful swirl of white and brown combination of vanilla and chocolate bread in one loaf. Making a Marble Bread may seem to be difficult to make but it is just simply a blend of basic vanilla cake batter.

Anyway, I am overcoming my frustration of not accomplishing my goal of writing at least thrice a week. It really demands a lot of determination,self-disciple, fatigue and time to sit and write. It may sound as an excuse, but let me. It’s just hard to manage being a wife, mom, entrepreneur, student (yeah, I’m back to school, taking up masters). But my soul really loves to write, though I am not even a good writer. So now, I’m jumping back slowly to what I really want to do, cooking and writing.

MARBLE BREAD

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch round pan.

Place flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter or margarine, eggs, vanilla, and milk into mixing bowl. Beat slowly to moisten, then beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth. Reserve 3/4 cup batter; pour the remainder into pan.

Stir cocoa into the 3/4 cup reserved batter. Drop by spoonfuls over top of white batter. Using a knife, swirl the cocoa batter into the white batter to incorporate it in a marble effect.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Nez — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:54 +0000

I am really glad I am back to do the things I love most, BAKING! A new househelp arrived couple of few weeks ago and took a big part of household chores from me. Days are good because I no longer catching up on laundry, housework and overlooking my children and Royce. I had more time to spend with the kids after work and extra time for cooking and writing. Len has shown her interest with baking when I made Choco Oatmeal with Peanut Butter Squares a week ago. So, I taught her with the basics of baking, and pretending I am a pro. Hahaha. As a beginner in baking, cookies are easy to prepare and to bake. CHOCOLATE OATMEAL COOKIE is one of the recipes my mom taught me since I waskid. It is very simple yet may be considered an extraordinary accomplishment for a starter like Len.

CHOCOLATE OATMEAL COOKIE

for chocolate syrup:
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp. vanilla

Place all ingredient in a small saucepan. Cook on a low heat, stirring
constantly, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

for oatmeal cookie:
1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1 tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, oatmeal and salt. Mix well. Set aside

Beat margarine and sugar until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Add the flour and oatmeal mixture.

Drop a dough using round tablespoonfuls onto greased baking pan. Spread a teaspoon of chocolate syrup onto each cookie dough.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven. Cool slightly and remove from sheet. Transfer to wire rack.

Serve with a glass of cold drink!

Choco Oatmeal with Peanut Butter Squares

Nez — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:10:44 +0000

I love oatmeal for the its countless benefits that is why I am addicted to it. I always make sure that we don’t run out of oatmeal in our jar. Royce once found me putting a homemade oatmeal mixture on my face, I was embarrassed with my creepy look but then I was relieved when he asked me to put some on his face too. Oatmeal is not only good for the skin but great for lowering blood cholesterol and a great help as I am striving to lose weight. I guess I deserve a round of applause for slashing 10 pounds since I gave birth. It has been 5 months and it is a slow improvement but 10 pounds is still a reason for me to hail oatmeal, exercise and good diet.

CHOCO OATMEAL with PEANUT BUTTER SQUARES is an improved recipe of my previous post of CHOCO OATMEAL BAR. I added some peanut butter which made it more moist and tastier. I baked these Choco Peanut Butter Oatmeal Squares as a welcome gift to our new neighbor from Laguna and I guess I delighted the family specially the kids who asked me the next day what was that I gave them and requested for more. So, I may say that the experiment is another hit.

CHOCO OATMEAL with PEANUT BUTTER SQUARES

3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt

for chocolate toppings:
1 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 can condensed milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp cocoa

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

Mix milk, vanilla, and peanut butter and cocoa in a bowl. Set aside.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Then add oatmeal in the mixture. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs well. Add peanut and butter. Fold in sugar. Now, add the flour mixture to egg mixture. The batter will be stiff. I suggest you cover your hands with a hand plastic so you can mix them well.

Place the mixture in a well greased pan or a pan covered with baking paper.

Reserve a cup of the mixture and set aside. Press down lightly the mixture, spread equally in the pan.

Drizzle the chocolate mixture on the peanut butter oatmeal layer.

Drop bits of remaining peanut butter oatmeal mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Place the pan on a wire rack and cool completely. Invert to a flat pan and re-invert to another flat pan. Then slice to desired sizes.

Zesty Hotcake

Nez — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:32:06 +0000

I am enjoying the long vacation we have for this lenten season – get-together with the family, overnight stay at Baguio, swimming at Leisure Coast Resort, a time of worship, and most especially great meal moments with my family. I had the box of Maya Pancake since December and thankfully, I finally had a time to do the work with HOTCAKES or PANCAKES. Though I made a bit variation to break the traditional hotcake recipe which I find a bit boring, so I added a tablespoon of fresh orange juice. Then I thought of labeling them as ZESTY HOTCAKE.
Hotcakes from scratch can be such a fun to make because kids can participate in preparation and cooking. But if there is a rush or if a bit sleepy in the morning and brain is not working well, measuring flour and the rest of ingredients will not work since a complete presence of mind is needed in this task.

On the other hand, a complete Hotcake Mix is a ready mix for a time, money and energy saving to a perfect flipping hotcake for a satisfying breakfast or for a wholesome snack.

ZESTY HOTCAKE

1 pack of Maya Hotcake mix
1 egg
3/4 cup water (less 1 tbsp. water)
2 tbsp. oil

1 tbsp. fresh orange juice

Beat egg in a bowl. Add oil, water and hotcake mix. Add in fresh orange juice. Stir until slightly lumpy. Do not overmix.

Heat pan or flat skillet over low fire. Grease pan with a bit of oil or butter.

Pour batter according to desired size. Cook until bubbly and turn to cook the other side.

Serve hot with butter, pancake/hotcake syrup or honey or jam.