Homemade Almond Croissants

 

How to turn a Costco croissant into an almond croissant?  It was fairly easy actually and can save a almond croissant lover a ton of money by doing it at home.  All you need is almond flour and almond extract, and the rest of the ingredients you would probably have it at home. 

All you need to do is to make a simple frangipane and air-fry the croissant in the air fryer at 350'F for 5 minutes. 

Frangipane

1 large egg

1/2 cup almond flour 

1/4 cup cane sugar

1/2 stick or 4 Tbsp. Unsalted butter, soften

1/2 tsp. Almond extract 

1/4 tsp. Himalayan rock salt

Methods 

1.  Whisk egg, butter, sugar, almond extract, and salt together.   Then, add almond flour and whisk together into a paste.

2.  Cut the Costco's croissant into half and spread the paste inside.  Top the croissant with some more paste and sprinkle sliced almond on top.

3.  Air-fry in the air fryer at 350'F for 5 minutes.   Serve!

Homemade No Knead Baguette

Here is my no knead baguette.  If you want the recipe, just google no knead baguette and the recipe will show up.  I think this only used 4 ingredients and let it proof overnight, then shape, proof again and bake.  Very easy and delicious especially when you air-fry it in an air fryer 350"F for 3 minutes.  Then, spread with your desired spread and enjoy!

Chinese Fried Donuts

I am sharing the secret recipe of the Chinese donuts dessert that you order at the Chinese restaurants.  This is so simple to make, so delicious to eat and loved by many.  It is hard to stop at just one!

Homemade version is so much healthier and cheaper.  You get to use your own trans fat free oil and 100% pure cane sugar instead of the GMO granulated beet sugar.  Furthermore, you can save this clean oil to reuse for your next batch of fried donuts as well.

Wait no further, continue to the next page for the recipe!  Enjoy!

Chocolate Bread Machine Bread

This is my experiment with chocolate bread made in a bread machine.  It is a soft sandwich bread but lack of chocolate flavor.  I should have added some chocolate chips perhaps?  Or use Specially Dark cocoa powder?  The color looks like whole wheat bread to me instead of chocolate bread. :-P  But it does has a hint of chocolate smell.  Just a hint!

I will probably play with this recipe some more.  Not sure whether we can buy natural chocolate essence here?  Oh well, needs to figure it up more as how to bring up the chocolate flavor without compromising the texture of this bread.  If you know of any idea, let me know.  It has to be made in the bread machine though!

Dairy Free Whole Wheat Buns

Just like the name implied, with the success of dairy-free buns, I was experimenting it with whole wheat flour.  It turned out well, still soft but not as soft as the dairy-free buns.  If you shape it big, it will be a hamburger bun, if you shape it small, it will be the dinner bun, just however way you like it.

This bun will turn soggy if you sandwich it with condiment sauces for too long.  So, not suitable for lunchbox.  It is good if you just make it and eat it right away.

Dairy-Free Buns

I am going milk free, instead of buying organic whole milk, I am switching to unsweetened almond milk (but planning to make my own almond milk).  I am still buying organic yogurt (occasionally, but thinking of stopping it), butter and natural cheese though, just not the milk.  And then I realized that lots of my baking recipes used milk in the recipe.  So, again I had to experiment with my old recipe again.  This is a soft bun recipe that I loved and luckily it worked out well with almond milk.  Hence, my first dairy-free bun uses almond milk was created.  I am not sure but it might work with just plain water, who wants to experiment?

This dairy-free bun is soft and fluffy and goes so well with my matcha kaya!  Next experiment will be to play with the whole wheat version of this bun.  These days, I mostly make my own bread/bun or buy organic bread or all natural bread from Sprouts or Whole Food.  Please read the ingredient list, not all the breads are created equal!  

Three Seed Bread

I always make our bread from scratch via the bread maker at home.  I am also happy to try out any healthy bread recipe for my family.  Recently, I am into flaxseed and chia seed, so I bought a packet of Bob's Red Mill flaxseed and at the back packet of the flaxseed, it included two recipes and one of it is this Three Seed Bread.  I decided to try this recipe because I have all the ingredients and it sounded great.  This bread indeed turned out delicious and soft and we loved it.  Hence, I decided to share it here with all of you. 

Cream Cheese Milk Loaf

Making the bun that uses the Dough function can be quite time consuming as it usually took more than 3 hours to get it done.  Sometimes it was hard for me to allocate the time as I have to fetch my little one at noon and another one three and half hours later.  I did over proving the buns once.  So, I need to find a loaf recipe that creates softer bread without using the Dough function.  This bread machine loaf is soft with light crust.  I added walnuts, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and black sesame seeds for the extra nutrients.  You can add any nuts and seeds that you have in your house, it is not limited to what I listed here.  After day two, you can warm it up in the microwave to soften it again.  Enjoy it as it, or with peanut butter or jam.

Carrot Pulp Raisin Buns

This recipe came about because I was trying to save the carrot pulp left behind from juicing.  I used organic carrots in my house and we all knew that the skin on the carrot has lots of nutrients too.  I don't peel my carrot when juicing and the pulp left behind is just too wasteful to throw it away.  So, I had to think of a healthy way to reuse the carrot pulp.  Then, a light bulb went up, I can make it into bread!!  As I am making bread/buns for our breakfast every morning, I can try to incorporate the carrot pulp into my bread.  And hence, this recipe was created.  I used 75% whole wheat flour here and also added raisins for sweetness.  This bun can be eaten as it without any jam or butter.

This bun makes a healthy and balance breakfast as it has milk (calcium), egg (protein), whole wheat flour (carbohydrate), carrot (fiber) and raisin (fruit) in it.  This bun is dense and soft.

For the above picture, I measured the carrot pulp into 1 cup each and store in an air-tight container and freeze it for later.  Just thaw in the refrigerator a night before using, either to make bread or muffin (recipe coming soon).

Green Tea Buns

My previous green tea buns recipe has bread improver in it and I know that a lot of people have no access to bread improver.  I stopped using bread improver few years back as I have no idea what was in it.  So, sharing with you here another recipe that has straight forward ingredients list with no bread improver or bread softener.  It is basically a Haiji white buns recipe with added green tea powder.  I like to use this recipe as a base and create other variation of bread recipes.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Buns/ Bread

I have two cans of organic pumpkin puree waiting for me to use.  I always store some when it went on sales during Christmas holidays because I simply adore pumpkin cake.  However, since I have to make buns for our breakfast, I figure pumpkin buns would be a nice change from pumpkin cake since it's contained less fat and healthier.

I knew I bookmarked Lily's sandwich bread recipe a while ago but have yet to try it.  So, this was the best time to give it a try.  I actually over baked the buns because I was multitasking.  Nevertheless, the resulted buns were still soft.  A little harder crust on the outside but soft inside.  One can of pumpkin puree can make this twice.

I got the recipe from Lily's Wai Sek Hong:  Sandwich Bread.  Slightly changed it and made it into buns because it was easier for us to eat. 

My second batch of pumpkin buns with added black sesame seeds.

5 Spice Powder Ham Chim Peng (Asian Fried Bread)

I tried the sweet one with the red bean filling earlier but I had the soft spot for the savory 5-spice powder ham chim peng.  While looking through my recipes for the pumpkin cake recipe, I came across the red bean paste ham chim peng recipe and I immediately craved for the savory ham chim peng.   Reading through the recipe, I thought I could make it work with the savory ham chim peng.  My mind was set and I set to work the next day.

Glad to say that it was not bad at all considering the steps were very straight forward and easy.  Crispy on the outside and soft inside with hint of saltiness and 5-spice powder.  We had enough for lunch, snack and breakfast the next day.

Crispy on the outside and soft inside

Healthy Buns (Whole Wheat, Oats, Millet, Black Sesame Seeds Buns)

I started making my own bread again knowing that it would not have any artificial stuffs added to it.  I called this "Healthy Bun" because it is pretty healthy as I used whole wheat flour, a little bread flour, old fashioned rolled oats, millet, black sesame seeds, milk, butter, brown sugar, salt and yeast.  The ingredients that I am familiar with without any scientific name.

This bun is soft and remain soft.  Since this is homemade, it is best eaten within 2 days at room temperature (you have to check for spoilage after 3rd days) .  Otherwise, freeze it and just take out the amount you want to defroze it on the counter top.  Mostly 30 minutes should be sufficient to defroze it, or for faster speed, use a microwave.  I eat mine with organic jam and my daughters prefer theirs with Nutella.

This recipe makes about 21-22 buns, depending on the size you shape it.  I put out the amount we eat for breakfast at room temperature in an air-tight container and freeze the rest.  Just take out what I want the night before and have it the next morning.

Chocolate Whole Wheat Oats Buns

Sharing a picture of my chocolate whole wheat oats buns that I made for our breakfast.  I added cocoa powder just for fun and stuff a few chocolate chips as filling.  The above picture is the unbaked buns but ready for oven.

This is the baked buns.  Guess I shouldn't decorated the buns with chocolate chips on top as it soften and sort of melted a little when baked in the oven.  Kinda messy for my girls to eat too.  But they loved the chocolate chips as filling!

Dried Bread Snack

Before picture

I had a thing for dried bread.  I remembered when I was little, my mom used to buy the dried bread that was hanging at the back of a motorcycle from our Indian bread delivery man.  I remembered liking it and like my mom, I loved to dunk it in coffee.  I published my recipe before in 2005, in which I spread it with butter, top it with sugar and even Milo before baking.  This time, I made it healthier without any added butter nor sugar.  It really made a healthy and crunchy snack.

Custard Raisin Buns

The inspiration from creating this custard buns came from chatting with a Chinese chef whose friend owns a baking store up in Denver.  He told me his friend used custard powder in making his bread and said I should try it.  I have used custard powder in cookies and Malaysian kuih (dessert) before but never in bread/buns so I was up to the challenge.  I added raisins for the extra sweetness so that this bun could be enjoyed as it without extra jam or preserves.

The custard powder gave it a light yellow hue and smelled fragrant.  This bun turned out soft and fluffy with extra sweetness from the raisins.  Oh, if you are wondering why my middle bun look like that, I actually wanted to try something new but failed.  I cut the four sides of the bun with a scissor when proofed just for experiment and realized that I should cut it before it was proofed.  Since cutting the bun sort of deflated the bun slightly.  Well learned a lesson here.

Banana Oat Walnut Buns

I created this recipe because I needed to use up my over ripe banana.  Before I would make a banana cake with it but these days I make my own bread for breakfast and just so that on that day I needed to make a new batch.  I didn't use whole wheat flour for this because I thought it would be better with bread flour alone.  However, I also wanted to make it healthier so I added oats and walnuts.

I loved the result, it's soft and fluffy with a tint of banana fragrant.  I could also taste bits of chopped walnuts in each buns.  The buns can be eaten as it or spread with your favorite jam.  As you can see from the above picture, this recipe yields one square pan, one round pan and one loaf pan of buns for me.

I am also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers # 8 and this month theme is "Bread Seduction" hosted by Sweetylicious.

Erythritol Whole Wheat Buns

I was contacted by Emerald Forest Xylitol to sample Erythritol and create a baking recipe for their Website.  For those who doesn't know, Erythritol is a natural sugarless sweetener that comes from corn.  It is 70% as sweet as sugar, but has 0 calories.  Erythritol is well known within the diabetic community as the Glycemic index is a 0, whereas sugar is 100 and anything below 55 is considered "low glycemic" and is therefore safe for diabetics.  I think this natural sweetener is ideal for the borderline diabetics as well.  Please avoid all the artificial sweeteners and consider this natural sugar free sweetener instead.  Please go to their Website as I believe there is a special going on right now (if you are interested).

I used Erythritol to replace sugar in this recipe and the outcome was identical to the original recipe I created.  I didn't bother to increase the sugar amount and we didn't miss it.  Couldn't tell the difference actually and the bread turned out soft and yummy as well.

I am also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers # 8 and this month theme is "Bread Seduction" hosted by Sweetylicious.

Whole Wheat Milk Buns

I played with the Haiji white bun recipe and came out with my own version of whole wheat milk buns.   Even though the Haiji white bun was really soft and fluffy but it didn't make of whole wheat.  Since we are a 100% whole wheat bread consumer most of the times, I just have a love for it.  Even though this whole wheat milk bun is not 100% whole wheat, but at least it has more than 50% whole wheat in it.  See, I am pretty crazy about whole wheat isn't it?  I am as crazy about whole wheat as brown rice these days.  :-P  Start your kids young with whole wheat bread and brown rice so that these would be their staple choice in the future.

This whole wheat milk buns turned out soft and delicious as well.  It stays soft for days and now it is our breakfast and snack for the girls.  I would use this recipe to try on my pullman tin and a loaf pan next and show you my result.

Haiji White Bread Using a Breadmaker

Since I really loved the Haiji white bread recipe that I tried earlier, I decided to finish it in the bread maker.  It was easier than using a dough function.  I double the recipe for this 2 lb. loaf and it came out all right.

The bread was still soft and with light crust.  With the crust, it was not as soft as using the dough function and finished it in a pullman tin.  As the crust held the bread together.  But if I am seriously lazy, this would certainly do.  I want to play with this recipe some more... :-)