Breakfast bread..again

Same recipe as the earlier post, but changed the yogurt to coconut milk, simply because I had a pack in the fridge which need is expiring soon! :P Even added 2tbsps of Milo in it to add more flavour. But I can't really taste the coconut or Milo when I ate them. The bread smelled of coconut though... W liked it alot..oh well, his tatebuds are never fussy but that also mean he don't even know I added coconut milk! Oh yes, my mum liked it too, as the texture is pretty soft, unlike some breadmachine breads which may harden after sitting out in the open for a while.

Breakfast...Fast

Making breakfast can be a chore, or a superb way to start the day! I am out of breakfast this morning and was planning to do something if I can find a quick and easy way to make something, you know, those mix and bake sort of stuff. Found one yesterday at http://www.ytower.com/. This is the link to the article and recipe. I modified a little but the bread turns out to be pretty good. So if you happen to wake up an hour earlier, try your hands on this, not a bad way to start the day! I intend to attempt this recipe again with other combinations, wholemeal flour, oats, choc chips, or even shredded carrot and peas!.

Ingredients:
200g all purpose flour ( I used 100g of bread and cake flour each)
13g of sugar (I used eye power to estimate)
8g of baking powder (again...eye power, no way am I going to use my manual scale and see the needle tip and stop at 8g at 630am in the morning...keke)
pinch of salt
150g of Paul's low fat yogurt
1 egg
dried cranberries, almond flakes, walnuts, whatever you have in your pantry and need to be used up.
Sift the flour and the baking powder into a mixng bowl. Add the salt, sugar, egg and yogurt and mix well with a whisk. If the batter seems dry, which mine was, add another tablespoon of yogurt. The yogurt was a 200g bottle, so I ended up adding all of it. Add in the cranberries at this point, mixing just enough to get the fruits through the batter.
If you are using a non-stick muffin tin, there's no need to flour or butter it. Good news right? no need to get your hands oily and messy in the morning. Clean and easy..:P or maybe...just lazy. Spoon the batter into the 6 hole muffin tin. Without the tin, just spoon it onto a lined baking tray and spread it roughly with the back of the spoon. The size of the pastry is up to you to decide then, which of couse affects the baking time.
Sprinkle the almond flakes over the batter. The original recipe had the nuts mixed in sugar syrup before placing them onto the batter. I have no time for this in the morning..hee, so it's just almond flakes. You can easily replace this with any corsely chopped nuts, no need to be roasted, since it's going into the oven anyway.
Preheat the oven to 220 degress C. Bake it for about 25 minutes and test with a wooden skewer. It's done when the skewer comes out clean.
Verdict: Well, my husband liked it, nice combi with almonds and dried cranberries. Not really bread like texture, as there is no yeast and no kneading. Easy to make, and not too heavy for breakfast or even afternoon snack.

Banana and Walnut bread

Date and Walnut Loaf

Prune and Walnut bread

It's been a while since my last blog... so much happened that blogging was not the first thing on my mind... I am on a month's medical leave now, have used up 2 weeks since. Now I am feeling better, able to move about to clean the house and do the occasional baking and cooking....thank God!!!

This recipe was obtained from Nov 2006 issue of Delicious. The original recipe is a 'Apple, Dried Cherry and Almond Loaf':

- 1/2 cup (45g) rolled oats

- 300 ml milk

- 225g plain flour (I used organic wholemeal)

- 3 tsp baking powder

- 100g dried cherries

- 50g dried apple, diced

- 75g brown sugar

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 4 tbsp honey

- 1 egg, lightly beaten

- 1/4 cup roughly chopped almonds, plus 2tbsp extra to sprinkle on top

How to:

Put the rolled oats in a small bowl and pour the milk over them ans soak for 10-15mins.

Preheat oven to 180 C. Gease and line a 1 litre loaf tin with baking paper.

Sift the flour & baking powder into a bowl and stir in all the ingredients and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for about 45 mins or till the top is golden brown and cooked through. I use a skewer to test and made sure it come out clean.

Cool for 5 mins in pan, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Modifications... as always...:)

Well, I don't have rolled oats, dried cherries or dried apples on hand.... so I omitted the oats, replace the cherries with dried prunes, and wolfberries for the dried apples. I soaked the wolfberries in the milk instead of the oats. Also replaced walnuts for almonds as I did not have sufficient almonds on hand. Make sure you toast the nuts before use to get rid of the raw smell.

The whole house was filled with the honey and cinammon aroma during the baking process... so shiok! It took my oven an hour to complete as my oven has a lower temp, but the result was worth waiting for...though the oats could have added an extra crunch to the bread, i did not really miss them. It was a good lunch substitute if you want something light, esp for me now, when I just want minimal cooking and something light and healthy to fill me up. :)