Baking Time - Potato Bread

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a picture of my end products. It looks fairly good, NOT UGLY at all. Hehehe

Let me recall the ingredient & Procedure

Ingredient :-
For the Dough
1. 300gram Flour
2. 40gram Sugar
3. 180ml Cold Milk
4. 25grams of Butter
5. 1/2 tsp Salt
6. 4gram Yeast
7. 60grams Raisin
8. 100gram Mash Potatoes

For the Custard
1. 100gram of INSTANT Custard Powder
2. 250ml Water
3. 1 egg to brush on the dough

Procedure :-
1. Mix the Yeast, Flour, Sugar, Salt & Mashed Pototoes
2. Pour in the cold milk slow and mix until it forms a Dough
3. Mix the Butter until the Dought become smooth, then add in the Raisin
4. Proof the Dough for 50mins until it doubles its size
5. Split the dough into a bun weight around 50gram each.
6. Proof these little buns for another 50mins until they double their size.
7. Brush the bun with eggs
8. Mix 250ml water with INSTANT Custard Powder until it is thicken
9. Squeeze the Custard Mixture on top of the Bun
10. Place the buns into the Preheat Oven @ 180deg C
11. Bake for 25 mins
12. Cool them at the wire rack
13. EAT!

Lesson :
(1) I was greedy, i used more than 100gram of Mashed potato, perhaps it was the reason which hardened the bun a little.
(2) I failed the Custard Part. I am not sure whether the recipe is wrong or my Custard Power is not INSTANT (yet to find out the difference).
(3) Overall Yummy, easy to make but not soft enough.
WILL TRY AGAIN.

A little Respects & Understandings make a HAPPY FAMILY.

Scenario 1:

Baby Chloe has the tendency of Night Terror every now and then. We have consulted our pediatrician, and he said there is nothing much that we can do about it but try not to make her excited after 6pm (which is quite difficult because Baby Chloe is a person who needs 100% entertainment & attention, otherwise she will starts to do all funny things to make sure your attention is with her.)

So, usually in the night, whenever Baby Chloe cries, Mama will be in-charged, because Baby Chloe doesn’t want anyone else. I can’t be energetic every night! There are times that I need Papa to help and try to handle Baby Chloe on his own. When I was not around, he managed to do it because he had not choice. But, whenever I around, he tried a while but Baby Chloe still cried aloud, and he couldn’t take it any longer and passed her back to me and said : “She doesn’t want me, You have to take care of her. Sorry, I can’t help!” At times, Mama complained because I WAS TIRED (& grouchy). Well, everyone does once in a while when lack of sleep occurs. My respond from Papa was :” YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG, THAT’S WHY BABY CHLOE PUNISH YOU!” Try to work your brain a little and a little sensitivity, WE ALL KNOW this is not a solution to calm a Baby and a TIRED MOTHER. So, I have to end up crying, while Papa sits on the bed looking at me cry with Baby Chloe.

Scenario 2 :

Mama really wants to make a trip to Singapore to pay a visit to my God-sister & friends. Plus, I would like to have a very first Holiday Trip with Baby Chloe (& I thought Singapore is just nice as we can stay at my brother’s place). Papa was nice enough to approve Baby Chloe’s Passport, but he didn’t approve the trip to Singapore this weekend. 

His reasons:

1. My brother’s place a little dusty, not suitable for Baby Chloe’s nose.
2. Where can Baby Chloe sleeps?
3. How can a baby handle a 4-hour drive?
4. Baby Chloe doesn’t know anything even if we bring her there.
5. There is nothing interesting there.

In fact, his excuses will be endless if he doesn’t feel like it.

I respect him as my husband & Baby Chloe’s father, that’s why I ASK PERMISSION from him. But I feel I am not getting to same respect from him.

I AM SO SAD! WHAT TO DO? !!!

Baby Chloe is my “Cloud Nine”

Mama was home late last night because of work. Mama didn’t go home straight but asked Papa to join Mama for a Hokkien Fried Noodle behind Tawakal Hospital. Had a very stressful & emotional day at work; so I thought I should eat out to release myself.

Went for a shower immediately I arrived home; so that I can take over Baby Chloe from my maid. The moment I came from shower, I saw Baby Chloe cheerful walking towards my maid (*yeah, not me!). They were playing “Walking”. Baby Chloe walked to Novi and clapped her hands praising herself for completing the distance of approx 1M. Hahaha… so cute.

Then Novi pointed & read out loud the word “ICE-CREAM” from the Alphabet Book, and surprisingly Baby Chloe repeated after Novi by saying out loud “I-Ji”. Well, the pronunciation was out but everyone knew very well she was trying to repeat “ICE-CREAM”. God Job!! Everyone at home had a great laugh.

Last night, Baby Chloe was particularly cheery; making Mama totally forgot the hectic day at work. Same as the usual “sleeping rituals”, light turned off, soft music on, bean bags on her chest while Baby Chloe was drinking milk. After she finished her milk, she normally “threw” the bottle to me and flipped herself left and right. Last night, she was exceptionally cheery that she gave me a big smile when she passed me the bottle. Then, she got herself up from her sleeping position and crawled towards me. She positioned herself on top of my body with her legs opened squeezing my waistline while I was lying down on my bed. Suddenly, she placed her both hands grabbing my arms while her head laid on my chest. THEN, a big smile towards me with her pacifier on her mouth. So sweet, my heart was totally melted, the state of cloud nine is not something that I can describe here in words.

Love you, Baby Chloe. (** Even though, you refuse to call me “ MAMA “ ** ) :P

Baking Time – Banana Cake

Mama wants to learn how to bake after seeing her friends baking many different PRETTY & YUMMY cakes & cookies.

This is not my first attempt of baking. I have been baking for a while but mostly turned out ugly (** but edible). I have decided to blog my Baking Learning Process too. So that I can look back and learn from mistake. At the same time, Professional Bakers (** You know who you are) can advise me where I did go wrong too.

Ingredient :-

• 250gram – Unsalted Butter
• 200gram – Castor Sugar
• 225gram – All Purpose Flour
• 200gram – Mashed Banana (Pisang Emas)
• 2tsp – Vanilla Essence
• 5 eggs
• 1tsp – Baking Powder

Procedure :

1. Preheat the Oven @ 150 deg C
2. Grease 10” Round Baking Pan with butter
3. Beat the Unsalted Butter and Castor Sugar until fluffy
4. Add in eggs one by one, then add the Vanilla Essence
5. Fold in the sifted flour, baking powder.
6. Fold in the Mashed Banana.
7. Pour the batter into the greased Baking Pan
8. Bake for 45 Minutes @ 150 Deg C

What have I learned :-

1. My cake was always fall in the middle part. I realized that they were mostly underbaked. So, I make sure my cake is completely baked evenly by inserting a toothpick into the cake and pull it out. If the toothpick is clean means it’s READY.
2. My cake were always underbaked because the top of my cake were mostly burnt! So, this time round, I put a piece a foil after 20mins of baking on top of the cake to prevent from burning.
3. This is recipe from a cookbook. I personally feel it is too much butter for me. I might want to reduce the butter to 200grams, reduce the sugar to 150grams, increase the Mashed Banana to 250gram or more and add in Banana Essence instead of Vanilla Essence.

Will try again and blog the outcome later.

Playtime @ HOME

We have missed out many Playclasses @ Gymboree because Mama was sick at the 1st week, Baby Chloe’s Birthday Party at the 2nd week, and Baby Chloe was sick at the 3rd Week (Not exactly sick but has not recovered from flu, in order to make sure she can recover faster, we have decided to skip class and rest at home).

So, Papa suggested to have a PLAYCLASS @ home instead. We didn’t actually go through the Gymboree’s routine, but we picked up the fun part of it which is the “Bubbles Times”!!!

Papa made bubbles, Mama carried Baby Chloe kicked those Bubbles in the air; while AH GU (Uncle Andrew) took down a few of the fun time shots. (Thank you, Ah Gu!)