PIES

I make a lot of pies! Blueberry, apple, pumpkin, peach are my family's favourites! The pie crust that I always make is:




PIE CRUST RECIPE


2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Crisco shortening
1/8 tsp salt
7-8 tbsp. cool water


1) In a bowl put in flour and salt. Whisk up to blend nicely.
2) Add in measured Crisco and I use to butter knives to cut in opposite directions. Do this until crumbly and well incorporated with flour.
3) Add in the water and then use fork (creaming motion) to incorporate and just enough to press together in ball.
4) Divide dough ball in half. One half for top and other for bottom (for apple pie, blueberry, peach pies). If making pumpking pie you can make two out of pie crust recipe as you only need for bottom crust!


5) Put in your filling and bake 350F for 50-60 mins (or until golden brown). Make sure to put pie pan in a flat tray pan as sometimes there are spills.

coconut flour

So, I've been recently introduced to coconut flour by my friend Tina Sinclair. She is such a nice person and she's very much into health and healthy lifestyle. She gave me some of her coconut flour to try and I've been experimenting with it. She gave me a generic recipe for coconut cocoa cake. It turned out well and everyone at home likes it. I think I will experiment and search on pinterest for more recipes to try out.

Let me know if you have any no fail recipes using coconut flour!

goat cheese

I make fresh goat cheese from our dairy la mancha goats. Here's the recipe:



4 litres goat milk
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tbsp salt (use less or more to taste, i use pink himalayan salt from solay)
food thermometer
cheese cloth


1. put milk in pot and have heat on medium with thermometer.
2. Watch every so often to see if temp is at 180
3. When it is at 180, add vinegar and you will see immediate clumping and slight temp drop.
4. Make sure to keep the clumping mixture at 180 for 10mins.
5. Get cheese cloth ready and strainer and dump curdling mixture (keep whey if you want for other cooking)
6. quickly add salt and mix and then hand up cheese to slowly drip out whey for couple of hours.
7. enjoy your cheese now or wrap in plastic and keep in fridge. Can also be frozen for later use for spaghetti or lasagna dishes.

japanese anpan (sweet red bean buns)

I have been making Anpanman  anpan buns lately. The kids love them and love them even more because they are in the face of the popular japanese anpanman character! I saw a pic and recipe off of cookpad (japanese website) and made it that way for a while, but wasn't quite satisfied. I wanted it to be more soft and airy and not get dry or flaky. So, I used a different bread and bun recipe instead and they are great! Everyone loves them and I made three dozen last week at get together and everyone at them all!! If you are interested i'll post it for you!!

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Here's a new recipe for me. A nice lady Carol gave me her recipe. She kept coming to our house buying lots of fresh farm eggs (from our chickens on our farm). She does baking for their church and other groups so she would buy 5 or 6 dozens at a time. She later told me that they were for zucchini bread and other baked goods. I asked her for the recipe since I've never tried making it or eating it before. She gave it to me and it's so great! Thanks Carol!

Zucchini Bread (Carol's recipe)

3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar    (I use 3/4 cup sugar)
3/4 cup vegetable oil   (canola or olive oil is good)
2 cups grated zucchini (grate with peel and all)
2 cups flour (all purpose)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp  salt ( I use sea salt)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, optional (I don't use nuts)
**3/4 cup to 1 cup raisins (Not in Carol's recipe, but I LOVE the taste!)**
**1-2 pinches of ground cinnamon (Not in Carol's recipe, but adds wonderful flavour)**

Steps:

1) Beat eggs, sugar , vanilla extract, and veg. oil together in one bowl.
2) In another bowl add flour and other dry ingredients.
3) Add dry to wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Lastly, add the grated zucchini and raisins (optional).

Bake at 325F for 40-50 mins or toothpick inserted comes out clean


Enjoy!! I bake many loaves and pack them up and freeze them to eat for a later time:)

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe

This is very delicious and very popular at our house! It is my sister Mari's recipe as well. She makes a ton of cookies in Hiroshima Japan for all the festival events, baking classes, parties, etc.,...This is another favourite as is the vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe.


Chocolate Sugar Cookies Recipe:

 2  3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

***Bake at 350F for approx. 10-12 mins***

Steps:

1) In one bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder,salt and baking powder.

2) In another bowl, mix butter and sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla extract.

3) Roll into a ball and divide in two balls. Wrap with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for 1-2 hours to chill. 

4) Roll out dough and use desired cookie cutters. Lay shapes on tray.

5) Bake at 350F for 10-12 mins. Make sure that there is not too much flour on your dough before baking. You can also decorate your uncooked cookie shapes with sugar sprinkles before baking for cute cookies!

enjoy!!

Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe (vanilla)

This is my sister Mari's (nickname Maich) recipe. I use this all the time and the kids love it so much! We don't like sweet sweets/desserts. All my recipes are yummy and yet not overly sweet so it's perfect for the healthy family.


Maich's Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup butter/margarine

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

***Bake at 350F for 8-10 mins, or until just golden***

Steps:

1) In one bowl, cream butter and sugar together until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla.

2) In another bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder.

3) Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Roll into a ball. Divide that ball in half and wrap both up in plastic wrap. Put in refrigerator and cool for 2 hrs.

4) Roll dough and use cookie cutters to make cookie shapes.

5) Put on tray and bake 8-10 mins or until golden. Let cool on racks and decorate with icing or desired decorations.

**You can add sugar sprinkles to the unbaked dough cookie shapes before baking and they will stay on cookie and look pretty!**

Enjoy!!

Lemon Pound Cake

My favourite pound cake recipe! Simple and yet so delicious! I triple this recipe everytime. That's how much my family loves it!

I got the recipe from www.joyofbaking.com. It's actually the "blueberry lemon cake" recipe. I did not add the 2 cup frozen blueberries as the recipe says.I've only changed a little and added some things to it. Hope you like it:


Lemon Pound Cake (WWW.JOYOFBAKING.COM)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter/margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla ( I use a little less)
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp grated lemon zest ( I use zest from 1 small lemon, 1 tbsp is too lemony for me)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I use little less than 3/4 cup)
**added ingredient is: lemon juice from 1/2 small lemon that you took zest from)**

Bake at 350F for about 40 mins or until top is golden brown.

1) In one bowl add flour, salt, baking powder and lemon zest. Use hand whisk and mix up.

2) In another bowl add butter and sugar. Cream together ingredients until smooth. Now add in    vanilla  extract and eggs. Use hand whisk until smooth and not lumpy.

3) Add wet mixture to dry flour mixture. Use spoon/spatula to combine until smooth. Add milk. Mix again. Add fresh lemon juice last to the cake mixture. Use your hand whisk to make sure it's smooth and creamy texture.

4) Put in your lightly greased pan (loaf pan).

****Use toothpick in centre to see if it is baked fully. If it comes out clean it is done, if still runny or mixture is stuck on toothpick, you need to bake it longer****

enjoy! I made mine today. If it's for just my family I use a big pan and triple the recipe. But, for gifts it's great in a single loaf pan!

Yummy Banana Bread Recipe

I got this really yummy banana bread recipe from our friends (Margaret and Dan). Dan actually baked some banana bread and brought it to my husband Manny. We ate it and it was devoured in like 15 minutes! Our family likes to eat. So, I knew I had to ask for the recipe! I adjusted the sugar and butter to use a little less to be health conscious:) I doubled the recipe and made this yesterday. I should have taken pictures because there's no more now! That's how I know this banana bread is delicious, because there's no more left!!

Banana Bread Recipe:

3 overripe bananas (peeled and mashed up in a bowl)
1/2 cup butter (softened, I actually use a little less than 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar (I used about 1/2cup, or you can use 3/4 cup if you like)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F, grease the pan a little

1) Combine sugar and softened butter until smooth.

2) In another bowl add the flour, b. soda, b. powder, salt and use a whisk and stir the ingredients to combine them well.

3) Add eggs and vanilla extract to sugar-butter mixture.

4) Add flour mixture (dry ingredients) to wet ingredients.

5) Add mashed bananas and mix well with a spoon/spatula. Then use whisk and slowly mix until there's no more clumps.**

6)Pour batter in lightly greased pan. Bake for 50 mins or until baked fully in middle (insert toothpick and if it comes out clean, it's done!)

Take out of oven and let cool in pan. Enjoy!!

**Optional: can add nuts, or raisins after you add the mashed bananas***

Thank you Margaret and Dan!!

gyouza recipe

Make some gyouza (pot stickers) tonight for dinner. The family loves it so much! Emi loves it too so it's nice to make a meal that everyone loves with no complaints at all!

I make two batches because we have 7 in our family, but you can always half it as well.
(Sorry everything will be approximate as I really don't measure when I cook).

Ingredients:

2 won ton wrapper packages (small squares)
1 whole garlic bulb (set aside 3 garlic cloves for dipping sauce), remove peel and finely mince
2 lb ground pork
3 cups finely chopped summer cabbage (or chinese cabbage-hakusai)
1 handful of chopped chives (or green onion, chopped)
1 pinch of ground black pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 eggs
oil oil/vegetable oil
some water in bowl (to seal won ton wrappers)

Dipping sauce:

2-3 tbsp sugar
about 1 cup soysauce
about 1/4 cup vinegar
1 pinch of ground black pepper
3 cloves finely minced
1/2 tsp sesame oil
 ***Add ingredients to taste. If you would like sweeter; add more sugar. If you want more tangier add little more vinegar. If you like more saltier; add little more soy sauce.***


1) Take ground pork, cabbage, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, eggs, chives and put in a large bowl. Add minced garlic and mix with hands until very well combine (meat will become smooth). This is the meat filling.

2) Open won ton wrapper packages and remove won ton wrappers.

3) Put some water in a bowl. Take a square won ton wrapper and place it on a plate (turn for diamond shape).Dip your finger in the water and apply water to top of wonton wrapper. Then spoon some meat filling in centre of wrapper. Fold up the bottom corner to top and you will have a triangle shape (this is easiest shape to make).Continue until you have used up all the wrappers and make little triangle gyouza.

4)Boil a kettle full of water. Once it has boiled, set aside.

5)Get a nonstick frying pan and put on high heat. Add your uncooked gyouza to the pan in a circular pattern in the pan. Then add some boiling hot water to your pan until gyouza are just covered by the water. Cover with pan lid. Let boil for few minutes until top of wrappers become translucent and soft.

6) Once they are soft (few minutes), get the pan lid and gently drain the water out in the sink. Bring pan with soft gyouza back on stove and put a few drops of oil in pan. Leave on high until gyouza bottoms are a nice brown colour and crisp up.

7)Once they are nice and brown, get a plate upside down on pan and flip them in your plate. You should have nicely browned circular pattern of gyouza!! enjoy!!

Hope you understood my recipe! ENJOY!!

Japanese Food

I am Japanese Canadian and married to a Filipino. I do know how to make some Filipino dishes as well, but it's mostly Japanese and some Canadian food. My favourites are: korokke (croquettes), gyouza (pot stickers), udon (noodles with soup), mochi (from mochiko powder), marinated soy sauce chicken, stew, egg rolls, tempura (shrimp or potato with veggies), miso soup, stir frys (any veggies on hand), sinigang soup, pansit (noodles with vegetables), etc..

Let me know if you'd like any recipes.