Japanese Condensed Milk Bread

Soft, fluffy and sweet. I adapted this recipe to use volume measurements. It is one of the family favorites now.

Ingredients

Bread flour - 1.5 cup

Sugar -1.5 TBSP
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Condensed milk - 1.5 TBSP
Warm milk (110F) - 1/2 cup
Unsalted butter - 1.5 TBSP, softened
[CONDENSED MILK FILLING]
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 TBSP
Unsalted butter - 1/5 TBSP, softened

Steps

1. Combine warm milk, a bit of the sugar, and yeast in a mixing bowl and allow the yeast to activate. Once foamy, add in the rest of the bread ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook and start kneading on low speed. Mix until the dough is smooth and the dough holds together when you try to shape it into a ball. Add a bit extra flour if too much dough sticking to the bottom of the mixer as it’s kneading. 

2. Coat the dough ball in some vegetable oil to prevent the dough ball from drying out. Then, cover the bowl and allow it to rise (30-50 mins depends on your proofing temperature).

3. Prepare the condensed milk filling by mixing the butter and condensed milk until it turns into a relatively smooth paste.

4. Once the dough is done rising, roll it out into a rectangle and evenly spread the filling all over the dough.

5. Cut the sheet of dough into 4 even pieces. Then, stack them on top of each other. Divide into 8 even pieces.

6. Arrange each piece in a loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise for another 30-50 minutes or until double in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 300F.
8. Bake for around 35 minutes or until it turns light golden brown.

9. When done, lightly dust with icing sugar.

Eggless Lemon Pound Cake

This eggless recipe is moist and buttery. Great for lemon lovers.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - ¼ tsp
Salt - ¼ tsp
Fresh lemon juice - ¼ cup
Milk - ¾ cup
Pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Unsalted butter - ½ cup, softened
Sugar - 1 cup

Lemon zest - 1 TBSP
[Lemon Sugar Glaze]
Confectioners’ sugar - 1 cup, sifted
Lemon juice - 1 TBSP
Heavy cream or milk - 1 TBSP

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a bread loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix together lemon juice, milk, and vanilla extract.
4. With stand mixer, beat butter at medium speed until creamy and pale. Add the granulated sugar and beat on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed. Add lemon zest and beat for 1 minute. Then add lemon juice mixture; continue beating to combine about 1 minute.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour. Beat just until combine. Do not overmix this batter.

6. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan. The lemon cake batter is thick so use a spatula to spread it into the pan, if necessary.

7. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center. Allow the pound cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack. 

8. Whisk all of the glaze ingredients together and pour over the pound cake. The cake must be completely cool before glazing, otherwise, it will be a bit running like what I had.

Gai-Lan with Oyster Sauce(蠔油芥兰）

This is a common dish in Chinese Dim Sum, also at home. 

Ingredients

Fresh Gai-Lan - 1 bunch, trimmed and washed
Vegetable oil - 1 TBSP
Oyster sauce - 2 TBSP

Steps

1. Boil a pot of water, add oil.
2. Place the stalks in the boiling water and cook for a couple minutes, until tender but still a bit crunchy. 

3. Use a pair of chopsticks to take the veggies out of the water. Carefully shake off excess liquid and arrange the them on a plate. Once they are all on the plate, you can drain any excess water that may have pooled on the plate.

4. Drizzle oyster sauce evenly over the veggies and serve!

Fried Egg Tofu with Enoki Mushroom (家常日本豆腐)

An easy and common home dish. 

Ingredients

Egg tofu - 2 pack
Enoki Mushroom - 2 pack
Green onion - 2 stalks
Garlic - 2-4, diced
Salt - 1 tsp
Oyster sauce - 2 tsp
Soy sauce - 2 tsp
Corn starch - enough for coating and thickening

Steps

1. Slice egg tofu into 1 inch thick discs, and roll in corn starch to be fully coated.

2. In a sauce pan with oil, fry each piece until golden.

3. Boiling water, add a few drop of oil and salt, cook mushroom.

4. In a frying pan, add oil, fragrant garlic and green onion. Then add tofu, mushroom, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cover to cook for 1 minute.

5. Mix 1 TBSP corn starch with 2 TBSP of water, pour in the frying pan. Cook for a minute to make sure the sauce is thicken and well mixed. Plate and serve.