Brown sugar banana agar-agar : 黒糖バナナ寒天

 I love reading Manga, it's both fun and interesting. People may think that Manga is for children but if you take a close look, you will change your view.
My favourite is the one that has food or sweet as a theme of the story (there are a lot of them), because beside from interesting story some of them have recipe too ^^. Today the one that I want to introduce is "あさめしまえ" (Asameshimae) by 北 駒生 , the restaurant that serves Breakfast. Each chapter Kenchan (the main character) faces different customers and helps them solve their and his own problem with his food ^^ (most of them about relationship, friend, lover, family). I really love this kinds of the story, imagine that you can make other people feel happier with your food, is it great?, Well, I fall in love with Kenchan by now, haha, wish he cooks breakfast for me everyday ^_-. Because this manga includes the recipes, I had a chance to try them and yes, they are good! 
So, today I want to share my love for time Manga with you, by sharing this recipe. It's very easy to make, and easy to eat (esp. in a warm day). My family love it and I have to make it so many times by now. The sweetness from the brown sugar Agar-agar is not too heavy, when eating it with the banana, the lovely banana fragrance make this dessert special. If you like drizzle with a condensed milk make adds sweetness and creamy feeling.
*Note: if you never use Agar-agar before, remember that it becomes firm a lot quicker than gelatine, pour the mixture into a mold right after remove from the heat.

 Brown sugar banana agar-agar: 黒糖バナナ寒天

(I use medium size Japanese jelly molds you can use 10x10cm cake pan)

200ml ............................. Water
1tsp (2g) .......................... Agar-agar
2 ...................................... Banana, sliced into 0.5cm pieces
30g .................................. Brown sugar
......................................... Sweetened condensed milk for serving

Place the banana in the mold.
Put water in small saucepan with agar-agar, stir to combine, and place the the pan over medium heat.
When the mixture becomes boil, pour the brown sugar, stir until melt.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture into the prepared mold.
Let it cool to room temperature before refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.
Serving:
Cut the Agar-agar into a piece, place in a plate and drizzle with sweetened condensed milk.

-日本語のレシピ-

黒糖バナナ寒天

200ml ............................. 水
1tsp (2g) .......................... 粉寒天
2 ...................................... バナナ, ５ミリくらいの薄切り
30g .................................. 黒糖
......................................... コンデンスミルク

１。バナナを流し缶に敷きつめる。
２。鍋に水と粉寒天をよく混ぜ合わせ、火にかける。
３。沸いたら 黒糖を混ぜて火をとめる。
４。流し缶に流し入れる。
５。粗熱がとれたら、冷蔵庫で３０分以上固めて、ひと口大に切って完成。
６。お好みでコンデンスミルクを添えて。

Brown sugar banana agar-agar : 黒糖バナナ寒天

Baking powder Pizza: Easy to make comfort food

Pizza is comfort food for many people ^^ included me. Flour and cheese, you don't need anything much to make it delicious.
But making pizza yourself is not, kneading it and wait for it is not fun esp when you don't have enough time or if you're not making bread regularly it will be a pain too. 
So I think making it with baking powder is a better choice (and great for people who're allergic to yeast too). It's so easy to make, you can make, bake and yes eat them it in less than 1 hour. The time line will be: 1st mix and knead the dough, 2nd divide the dough cover, let it rest and preheat the oven, 3rd prepare the topping 4th roll, top the dough with topping and bake, finally the 5th take the pizza out of the oven and eat, hehe. You can see that it's so easy.
I give you here 2 kinds of dough, wholewheat flour dough and plain flour dough, both of them are easy to make, go for wholewheat type if you want chewier pizza ^^. 
*I use Shortening (rice bran non-hydrogenated shortening) for this recipe as it's 100% fat so it can be used in place of oil and have no flavour too.
You can use your hand to shape pizza too, press it lightly to make fluffy one as the rolling pin make thiner crust ^^. 

Baking powder Pizza

Make 2 -20cm thin pizza (from each type of dough)

Baking powder pizza dough
Wholewheat type:
80g ............................ Wholewheat flour
80g ............................ Cake flour
1tsp ............................ Baking powder
85g ............................ Water
................................... Pinch of salt
15g ............................ Shortening (I use non-hydrogenated shortening)

Plain flour type:
80g ............................ Bread flour
80g ............................ Cake flour
1tsp ............................ Baking powder
90-95g ....................... Water
................................... Pinch of salt
15g ............................ Shortening (I use non-hydrogenated shortening)

Topping
You can use anything that you like, I use Salami and Tomato for mine ^^.
Mozzarella cheese
Tomato sauce

I use this Shortening  (non-hydrogenated shortening).

Put both kinds of flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt and baking powder, whisk to combine.

Pour the water into the bowl.

Mix with spatula until moisten.

Use your hand to knead until fully combine.

Put the shortening into the bowl, and knead.

Because of the wholewheat flour the dough won't be very smooth.

Divide into 2 balls, cover with plastic wrap, let the dough rest for 30 minutes. They will be easier to roll but the size will be the same ^^.

Preheat the oven to 230C.
Roll each ball into a sheet (about 20cm).
You can use your hand to shape pizza too, press it lightly to make fluffy one as the rolling pin make thiner crust ^^. 

Top with our choice of topping.
I spread tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, place both Salami and tomato on top then sprinkle with cheese again.
Bake for 12 minutes or until brown.
Serve immediately and enjoy.

For plain flour dough, you need to knead it longer than the wholewheat one.

Follow the same method as the wholewheat flour.

Baking powder Pizza: Easy to make comfort food 

Brown butter pecan blondie

 I have a cold for almost a week, well the weather is not normal, haha. It's very hot or raining all the time.

I try to stay still, but it's not easy for me. I have so many things I want to do ^^. Anyway I have to admit that the cold makes me feel dizzy and my head can't become clear (I know that I didn't answer any e-mails, if you write to me please wait for my answer, I couldn't reply last week). Half of me is still in hibernate mode, haha. 
But I long for sweet treat, I can't live without it, eating or making, either ways make me feel happy and want to live for tomorrow (^^, well I'm the person who live to eat). At this moment I want something sweet with nuttiness and chocolate. Blondie is the best choice for me, as I don't want to eat all of the cookie alone I have to make something that my sister will agree to share with me. She doesn't like bitterness from chocolate so brownie is not the right answer. 
Blondie is easy to make, stir and mix is all you have to do, but this time it has something special "the brown butter". Brown butter or Beurre noisette make by melting the butter and let the milk segment turn brown. The smell of the Beurre noisette is close to roasted nut and it make the bake good smell great too. It's not hard to make but you have to keep your eyes on the butter all the time, you want brown colour and nutty aroma not burnt butter. 
I think brown butter goes well with pecan nut, but you can use other kinds of nut if you have on hand, walnut is a great choice too. 
Serve this sweet and delicious bar cookie with a cup of black coffee is the best companion for me, but for children a cup of milk will bring smile to their faces.

Brown butter pecan blondie

Make 18x18cm 

125g ..................................... Unsalted butter
87g ....................................... Brown sugar
100g ..................................... Granulated sugar
1 ........................................... Egg
175g ..................................... All purpose flour
1/2tsp ................................... Baking powder
1/8tsp ................................... Baking soda
.............................................. Pinch of salt
15g ....................................... Malted milk powder
120g ..................................... Pecan, lightly roasted and roughly chopped
100g ..................................... Dark chocolate, chopped if large 

Preheat an oven to 160C
Line 18cm pan with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and malted milk powder together, set aside.

Put the butter into a saucepan, place over low heat and heat until melt and turn into golden brown.

 Pour into a bowl, put both kinds of sugar and salt into the bowl.
Stir until combine, let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.

 Put the egg into the bowl.

 Beat to combine.

 Pour the sifted flour mixture into the bowl with chopped pecan nut and dark chocolate. (save some pecan and dark chocolate for decorating the top of the blondie).

 Fold to combine.

Pour into the prepared pan, smooth the top and decorate with the remaining dark chocolate and pecan.
Bake for 35 minutes.

Brown butter pecan blondie

Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

 I just have peaceful time today, haha. Well I always put myself in the hectic state because I think there are many thing that I want, and have to do.

Sitting still is not my style, but running around too much take a lot of my energy -*-. When looking back at my schedule I did a lot of things in just 4 month. Feeling tired but still want it to keep going on, because when I wake up each day and know that I have something to do, it keeps me alive.
But everybody needs peaceful time, to look back at what we did, are they good enough? Revise and recall each moment and all the memory. I know that we can't change the past, only remember that next time we won't make the same mistake again is enough.
I'm still spending my slow time in the kitchen, haha, reading recipe, and baking something easy as always. Today, it's "Strawberry and yogurt muffin", simple, sweet and delicious muffin. I think it's great to have on hand while reading or day dreaming ^^.
Note: you can use frozen strawberries too if you have them on hand. 

 Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

Make 5-6 muffins 

180g ......................................... Cake flour
4g ............................................. Baking powder
.................................................. Pinch of baking soda
.................................................. Pinch of salt
60g ........................................... Unsalted butter
160g ......................................... Granulated sugar
2 ............................................... Eggs
1/2tsp ....................................... Vanilla extract
180g ......................................... Plain yogurt
2tbsp ........................................ Strawberry jam
5-6 ........................................... Fresh strawberry (cut into pieces)

Preheat an oven to 160C.
Line muffin pans with baking cup (I use paper cups).
Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together, set aside.

 Beat the butter with sugar and salt until fully combine.
Pour the eggs and vanilla extract into the bowl, beat to combine.

 Pour half of the flour mixture into the bowl, fold to combine.

 Pour the yogurt into the bowl, fold to combine.

Pour the rest of the flour mixture into the bowl, fold to combine.

 Put the jam into the bowl.

 Fold lightly, you don't have to fully mix the jam into the mixture.

Spoon the batter only half way into the prepared cup, put the strawberry pieces onto the batter, then top with the batter (about 2/3-3/4 of the cup).
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Serve warm.

Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

Strawberry and cream macarons

 I didn't bake macarons much lately, ^^ and yes I miss it.

 Making a macaron is fun, as I have to think about the color and the taste, this cute little cookie needed a lot of attention. Even I baked it many times before I still get exciting when I put them into the oven, will they rise beautifully or will the color change after baking.
Because I'm not the professional baker, I don't have to bake a lot of the same something (like 1000 pairs of macarons or 100 pieces of cake ^^), and that's why baking is still gives me a real buzz. I can bake everything I like the way I want, hehe. 
So, this macaron is purely what I want to bake. I want red macaron, and the color has to relate to the flavour (it will be hard to understand if I make passionfruit macaron and color it in red -*-). With red color, it will be berry and I choose strawberry. When I color the macaron shell in red, I need the filling to be white. So I choose white chocolate ganache, but I don't want it too be too sweet, with cocoa butter, I can use less white chocolate but still got ganache that firm enough to stay in place. 
Freeze dried strawberry adds lovely strawberry taste to the ganache and the macaron and yes the color is cute too.
Right now it's easier to get good quality bakery supplies than when I started baking (a long time ago, hehe, again please don't ask me when). You can get cocoa butter from online shop but if you can't, use white chocolate instead of the cocoa butter is not a bad choice but the taste will be sweeter.  

Strawberry and cream macarons

Makes about 25-30 pairs

Macaron
63g .................................. Almond powder
98g .................................. Icing sugar
3g ..................................... Strawberry powder
50g ................................... Egg whites
15g .................................... Sugar
........................................... A pinch of cream of tartar
1g ...................................... Powder egg whites
........................................... Red food coloring

White chocolate and Strawberry ganache
1g ..................................... Freeze dried strawberry
90g .................................. White chocolate
80g .................................. Whipping cream
30g .................................. Cocoa butter 

 Combine the icing sugar, Strawberry powder and almond flour in a bowl of a food processor. 

Grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

 Beat the egg whites, egg white powder, and cream of tartar in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks, add the color and whisk to combine.

Sift 1/3 of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold to combine. 
Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches.

  Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
 Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806).

 Pipe 3.5 cm rounds onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

When you’ve pipe out all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter).

Set aside for 1 hour. After 1 hour the top of the macarons will be dry, and ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 150°C. Bake for 16 minutes (baking time can be varied, from 12-15 up to your oven) or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaroon to release from paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or until ready to assemble. 

Make White chocolate and Strawberry ganache
Put all the ingredients except the strawberry into a bowl, and place it over a bowl of hot water, stir until melt. Remove from the hot water, stir until fully combine, then add the strawberry and mix until combine.
Let it cool until firm enough to pipe 
Sandwich the macaron shells with the buttercream. Refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up the buttercream and serve.

Strawberry and cream macarons