I think I have been quite lucky escaping the heatwave by being in Edinburgh from the start of the month (since I don’t take heat very well 🥵😂.) We had it all this week with sunshine, clouds, rains and even a thunderstorm in the middle of the night! ⚡️ However, it is still summer after all, and I am sure to make full use of my mum’s freezer while staying here. (The freezer I have in my London apartment is nowhere near cold enough to freeze things properly.)
When one thinks of summer, ice cream is a must, so making homemade ice creams have become a bit of a habit of mine lately. But today, I also made my first attempt at making tuiles – which I was surprised how super easy they were to make! (This is the recipe I followed: https://chefiso.com/p/tuiles-recipe/) Not enough only were they perfect for my homemade rocky road ice cream, but they were also beautiful to look at! 😍😋
Just a short post today – the first since I have been back at my family’s home in Scotland. In the past week, I have raided my mum’s kitchen a few times 😂 but I am more grateful that I can avoid doing dishwashing for a bit! 🤣
The weather is much cooler here in Edinburgh than in London. (That last week there before I hopped onto the train was getting unbearable! 🥵🔥🔥) As a result, I have been really enjoying my mum’s hearty home cooking. It was my turn to cook tonight, and I decided to make a filo quiche using the scraps left in my mum’s fridge (we had some already sliced carrots and onions from the previous nights, plus some unused bacons and courgettes). 😉
Homemade filo pastry – though my arms were tired after all the rolling I did 😪 A lovely golden brown colour 🥰Time to eat! 😋
So yesterday officially marked the beginning of my summer holiday!☀️ Without a doubt, the past few months in the pandemic have been tough for many of us in the country and at work, so I got to say I am very grateful to be able to take a break from it all for the moment.
It was an odd week for me especially to be finally reunited with all my colleagues at work. It does make me realise technology can never replace the valuable times one may have in the company of the people we love.❤️ A handshake and a hug can never be replaced easily. (And I was certainly happy that my colleagues didn’t say no to me bringing a cake in!😬 All rest assured that hygiene was maintained!) Farewells may be difficult to begin with, but one must journey on and remember all the good times.
Meanwhile, I am now packing to get ready for my 4-day road trip tomorrow. Obviously it’s been quite a while since I last travelled. While I am telling myself to be extra cautious in the journeys ahead, I am very excited to be out of the city again! Stay tune for the updates! 😉
Despite some heavy rains/clouds in the past week, the warm, summery weather really makes it an ideal time for some bread making. I realise it has been a while since I last posted a recipe, so I thought I would pick up some recipe works again today before going back to work full time next week.
I love making filled buns. Whether savoury or sweet, you are only limited by your own imagination. Perhaps I went for a less adventurous (or less controversial) route today when I chose to make these potato curry buns. 😅 (Though I always love a bit of spices! 😂🌶) You can see the recipe below, but I really would like to hear about the different kind of fillings you may enjoy or do at home! 😋😉
Potato Curry Buns
Quantity: 4 buns
Ingredients:
For the bread:
250g strong white/bread flour
1 tsp salt
100ml cold milk
60ml hot water
10g sugar
7g sachet of fast-action, dried yeast
15g melted unsalted butter or oil
For the filling:
250g potatoes, diced
1 shallot, diced
Curry powder
Turmeric
Fresh herbs (optional)
Method:
Mix the flour with the salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Mix the cold milk and hot water together to form a lukewarm mixture. Add the yeast and sugar into the milk mixture, and stir until they have dissolved.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour, along with the melted butter or oil. Mix until you form a smooth dough.
Knead the dough for about 10 minutes inside the bowl, or until you have achieved the ‘window-pane effect.’
Leave the dough inside the mixing bowl. Cover and let it rise for 25-35 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
While the dough is rising, boil and cook the potatoes in a pot. Drain the water afterwards.
Fry the shallots in a hot pan, and then add in the potatoes. Season with the spices and salt. Let the filling cool down before folding it into the dough.
Once the dough has finished rising, knock the air out and divide it into four equal portions.
Roll the dough into balls. Flatten and stretch the dough into flat discs (see picture above.)
Add about a tablespoon of the filling onto the dough. (Be careful not to overfill.) Fold and pinch the dough to seal the filling inside.
Cover and let the filled buns rise for another 25-35 minutes, or until they have doubled in size.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Bake the buns for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and the buns make a hollow sound when tap at the bottom.
Once the buns are ready, set them on a wire rack to cool.
Sorry to not have posted in a while. Work has started to pick back up again, so I have been doing various things over the past weeks. 😅 My first week back to work just happened to coincide with also the hottest week in the UK. ☀️🔥🔥 (Literally right now can’t survive without a constant supply of ice cream haha!🍦🍦) Not sure if it was the weather or the lack of moving around in the past months, but the walk to work had been strangely exhausting. 😶 Having said that though, it was nice to be back in a familiar setting in some form and enjoying a change of scenery for the first time in months! 😁
The heatwave has obviously made more people going out to parks and beaches to enjoy the sunshine. Perhaps I am just a bit more wary, so meanwhile I am still trying to avoid crowded places and keep to social distancing. Doesn’t necessary help though that my apartment can get very steamed up during midday from the heat (even with all the windows wide open!) 🥵🔥🔥 So I took some time to make sure that there is something cool and chilled to enjoy at home. 😉
This Oreo and strawberry chilled, no-bake cheesecake is very easy to make. It is done by simply whipping up cream cheese and double cream using an electric whisk. Cookies and cream. 🍪 Strawberry and cream. 🍓 You have them all in one package! ❤️
Sometimes, it’s a bit odd finding yourself somehow doing the same thing again without meaning to, right? 😂
In the past months of lockdown, a lot of people have been baking/ cooking up a storm on social media! 👨🍳👩🍳 And one thing that frequently keeps popping up was focaccia. (Yum!😋) Honestly, the focaccia I’ve been seeing all look so amazing, I was so inspired to make my own! One of my fellow bakers on Instagram has decided to have a bake-along with focaccia this week, and I took the opportunity to also make my own! 💪 Coincidentally, I also happened to be making focaccia this time last year! 😂 (I used the same dough recipe too so you can check it out here 👉 https://tangosbaking.home.blog/2019/05/31/red-orange-yellow-green-and/)
I went with a garden-theme, having really been inspired by the sunny weather these past days. ☀️💐🌺🌸🌼🌿 Such a shame I will be avoiding parks and beaches for the time being though, but I am really looking forward to things being back to normal soon again. Beside life in pandemic, it seems the world is very much the same, so let’s look after it. 😊🌎❤️
A year ago exactly today, I started my first blog post here. It feels much longer than that though, given how so much have happened in between these times. I am certain that no-one a year ago would have predicted the circumstances we are currently in right now. I started this blog as a mean of an ‘escape’ from life (as I was feeling extremely demotivated at work). I wasn’t sure where this was going, but it gave me a sense of hope in the future, something that I feel we need ever more now. As easing of the lockdown starts to begin, I feel a mixture of uncertainty and anxiety (and also annoyance at the events over the past few days), but I remain ever so hopeful about the unknown. Goods are definitely on the horizon. ♥️
My first post on the blog was on an angel food cake that I made long ago, and I thought it would be so fitting to do that cake once again after all these times. 😊 An angel food cake is a light, fatless sponge made from primarily whisked egg whites. The lightness of this cake goes perfectly well with whipped cream and fruits (I chose mango in this case🥭)- which makes this one of my favourite cakes of all time. 😋 (As fate would have it, I also overwhipped my first batch of cream like last time, so had to start over. Funny how things are sometimes! 😂) Happy anniversary! 🥳🤣🎉
Happy Sunday! ❤️ Certainly nowadays I almost could not tell the differences between workdays and weekend anymore… but the days sure do fly by fast. I know many are missing their old family gatherings, but stay strong for now and certainly “we will meet again” just as Her Majesty said many weeks ago! ☺️
Speaking of family gatherings, a Sunday roast certainly spring to my mind! 😋 And one of my favourite things about it is the Yorkshire pudding. Now, I have always been intrigued to make my own Yorkshire puddings ever since I’ve seen them being done on Bake off. And finally, this week, I have made my first ever attempt! 😂
The recipe I used for my Yorkshire puddings is Mary Berry’s foolproof recipe on BBC Food (Link here👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/yorkshire_pudding_69240) It’s much more straightforward than I thought it will be. I think one of the keys is to make sure the oil must be hot enough before pouring in the batter, so I was really pleased with how well-risen they turned out to be! 😍 Going off true Bake Off style (and I know it’s a controversial move 😂), I stuffed my Yorkshire puddings with mushy peas and a mushroom gravy, topped with a seared ribeye steak. 🥩 (I love steak! 🤤😚) It’s literally a roast dinner all in one bite! 😋
These times in quarantine had really allowed me to sit down and reflect on a lot of things in my life. I do believe sometimes we do take things too easily for granted. I am even thankful just being able to sit on my bed now and watch TV most days. 😂 Lately, I have been in touch with my inner child self again and started picking up things I enjoyed doing when I was a kid, whether games or animations. I do miss those times back then. Sometimes, it’s just easier to be young and worry-free, don’t you think? ❤️
When I was younger, one of the things I was absolutely obsessed with was dinosaurs. 🦖🦕🦖🦕 (I am sure many of you here might feel the same as me! 😂) Literally any TV/movies/documentaries/books about dinosaurs I will be on it! (Disney’s Dinosaur back in 2000 was one of my favourite movies back then! 🎥 Don’t know how many of you remember that film? 🤔) And for any dinosaur fans out there, here is my Jurassic volcano chocolate cake surrounded with shortbread biscuit dinosaurs! 🌋🌴 Also gave me a chance to do my favourite caramel sugar work. 😉
And now I am enjoying sugar like every other child! 🤣🤣
It’s VE Day today, and certainly given the current circumstances, I think everyone deserves to have a good, lazy, relaxing day. I did honestly feel a bit weird in the past week. Maybe I am being wore down or feeling uncertainty about the future? Sometimes, my mind can still racing and get a bit too ahead of itself, and I do tell myself to take it one day at a time when it happens. Ultimately, life still has a long way to go.
The weather has been increasingly hot, and certainly my small apartment has been feeling the heat lately! 😂🔥🔥 The warm weather does make me crave for some cool, fresh summer dessert. Last week for Lockdown Bake Club, I made this rainbow fruit meringue served with my homemade rainbow ice cream. Perfect for eating under the sun! ☀️☀️ A rainbow is a symbol of hope 🌈🌈 and there is no doubt in my mind that there is still so much to look forward to in the future! ❤️
Stay strong and safe! I wish everyone a happy long weekend! ☺️
Tango's Baking 