Lately, I’ve been looking for a decadent drink to melt stress away. I bought a canister of Starbucks – Hot Cocoa, which really seemed to work! This rich and delicious drink is simple to prepare and a pleasure to enjoy!
I heated some milk to try this classic hot cocoa mix, which I did in a cup for a few minutes in the microwave. I really wanted to try this, so I didn’t feel like spending the time boiling it in a pot. Once the milk was hot enough, I put about 1 1/2 tablespoon of the hot cooca mix into the hot milk.
It was rich, and creamy with decadent dark chocolate notes, and it coated my tongue perfectly with some cocoa! All I need is to purchase some marshmallows and this would be heavenly!
First, you make the yeast solution for the yeast to activate by mixing the yeast with a pinch of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup warm water
Once the solution has become frothy and has doubled in size, you’re ready to start making the dough. Melt butter, then add milk to the butter.
In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs to the flour and then incorporate the milk mixture and yeast mixture. Knead for a few minutes until a ball of dough forms. You may need to add more water or flour depending on the consistancy.
Once the ball of dough is formed, take another mixing bowl and grease the sides. Put some plastic wrap on the top – or a wet tea towel and wait for 2 hours for the dough to rise. In the mean time, you can make the topping as it needs some time to set in the fridge. To make the topping, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Then, add in the egg yolk with milk and mix again. Next comes the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Once this comes in, be sure to mix to combine only. Do not over work this mixture. Form into disks and refrigerate.
After you proof the dough, cut it up into the portion size you’d like your pineapple buns to be. Keep in mind they will rise again, so they’ll be bigger than you make them!
Once you got them portioned out, place the topping and place it on the bun with egg wash. Then, let them rise for a second time. You can score diamond markings on the top of the topping or just leave it – as the diamond texture simulates the look of a pineapple.
When you’re ready, bake in a 375F oven for 10-12 minutes when a toothpick can come out clean – then you’re ready to enjoy!
To get the shiny topping which I didn’t do, you can brush the top with some egg wash (beaten egg with some water mixture).
I was thinking about a refreshing dessert that is simple to make and refreshing would be the Chinese Mung Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1/2 cup dried green bean
1/4 cup rock sugar
4 cup of water
First thing you have to do is clean and soak the green beans. Keep in mind that the green beans swells up and doubles in size after soaking.
Once you finished soaking the beans – I did mine overnight, but a good rule is to soak at least 4 hours.
Boil the soaked green beans with rock sugar in water. Once the water boils, turn down the heat to a simmer. The green beans will become soft and swell up.
Once the beans started swelling up, basically you’re boiling out the water to the consistency that you like the dessert to be.
We like our dessert to be more on the thicker side, but I must admit – I’ve over done it on mine! I didn’t feel like adding more water to it since the sweetness was perfect, and it wasn’t bad having it thicker either!
This is a dessert where you can enjoy it hot or cold, and it tastes great both ways as well! I found once chilled, it becomes a little bit thicker as well, and less sweet. It’s a refreshing dessert!
I really love snacks – as you can tell from this wonderful blog! Nong Shim is one of my favourite manufactures of snacks which is Korean! This time, I found a bag of Tako Chips which are octopus flavoured.
No, these snacks don’t actually taste like octopus, but they do have a very interesting taste to them! Instead of a cute octopus shaped chip, these are more “fish shaped” chips that is quite light and crunchy! I found this bag at the Asian grocery store in Toronto, as I haven’t seen it here in Calgary yet!
Overall, I like it as a snack/chip but not for the octopus flavor as there wasn’t much of it. The texture was great and the snack is very flavourful too! It’s not fishy in any way and it just a great munchable munchie!
Home Made Dau Fu Fa with Gelatin – Soybean Pudding
This chilled dessert isn’t the traditional style, but this recipe is simple and is great for serving it cold with a simple ginger syrup.
Ingredients:
3 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
1 package (1 tbsp) Gelatin
1/4 cup water
This simple recipe takes no time to make, but takes a lot of time to set. First, you boil the soy milk slowly as soy milk boils over really quickly. You do not need it at a full boil either to prevent the soy film.
Once the soy milk boils, prepare the gelatin mixture by dissolving the gelatin with the water. Mix thoroughly and then pour it into the soy milk.
I like to have my dou fu hua in little individual bowl, so I pour the solution into little bowls and place into the fridge for it to set for at least a few hours.
In the mean time while the bowls are setting up in the fridge, I like to make the ginger syrup so I can refrigerate the solution as well.
If you want, you can make this dessert the “traditional” way which can be served hot or cold! Here’s the Dau Fu Fa recipe!
