Shamrock Spinach Cheese Bread. Happy St. Patrick's day!!

Here is the vivid green bread for St. Patrick's Day!
I used a fridge for the second rise so that I can make the dough at night and just bake it in the morning to enjoy the fresh baked breads to start a day!


Spinach has a lot of health benefit.
Found a great article about spinach! Here is the link:
http://www.well-beingsecrets.com/spinach-health-benefits/




*I just created my facebook page! Please like it:)
https://www.facebook.com/SpiceUpYourLifeWithATasteOfJapan

★Shamrock Spinach Cheese Bread★

Bread flour 250g
Spinach 1bag(about 80g)
water 70g
Soy milk 40g
Sugar 20g
salt 3g
Dry yeast 3g
butter 5g
Shredded cheese

Place spinach in a large pot of boiling water. Cook about 3mins.
Drain well, placing it on paper towels and squeeze.
Mix the spinach and soymilk together in a blender.
Place the spinach mix and all the ingredients but cheese in a bread machine and mix, knead and let it rise on DOUGH mode.
When it's done, divide the dough into 4 and roll each portion into a ball.
Cover with wet paper towels and rest for 15mins.
Make each into a oval shape. (about 15cm)
Put the cheese on the middle.
Fold left and right sides toward the center.
Fold the bottom and top together(folded side inside) and make a rounded triangle shape
Cut the middle, making the top 1/3 part left.
Open from the middle and make a heart shape.
Place shaped dough in a plastic container and rest it in a fridge over night.(make sure to use a lid)
(Should be doubled in the next morning. If not, leave it in a room temperature until nearly doubled)




Bake in the oven at 400F for about 15 mins.

HOT "DOGS"

★How to make the dog bread★

Make the dough from your favorite bread recipe, using a bread maker.
Select DOUGH mode.
When it's done, push all the air out of the dough with your hands.
Divide it into 10(if you make the dough with about 250g flour) and roll each into a ball. Cover with wet paper towels and rest for 15mins.
Make each into a oval shape.
Cut with a knife to make the ears of the dogs, and let the dough rise until about double in size.
After the rise, make eyes and noses with black beans.
Bake for about 10 mins at 400F.



adapted from http://cookpad.com/recipe/1196284

Xmas tree cupcakes

Looking for some cute holiday cupcakes?
Put green tea cream leaves on your favorite cupcakes and make sweet xmas tree!

Maccha (green tea) cream
200ml Heavy whipping cream
3tsp Maccha(green tea powder)
3tbs powdered sugar


Beat all the ingredients in a chilled ball.
When it gets thick enough to pipe, put it into a pipping bag with tip of star shape.
Pipe on each cake.


Decorate with dried fruit.
To make the stars, cut out fruit sheet using a star shape cookie cutter.

Football Meat Pies

My boyfriend loves Oregon ducks and meat pies..so I combined both!

Quail eggs ducks wearing corns and broccoli stems hats and football meat pies.

Pies

Ingredients
2 puff pastry sheets
Meat fillings
Cheese

Direction
Cut out shapes with football shaped cookie cutters, using two different sizes.
First cut out 8 larger football pies, then cut 4 of them again using a smaller cutter.(I made the cutters by myself with a thick paper)
Place the second cut pies on the first ones.
Brush edges of pastry with beaten egg.
Bake in a very hot oven, 400F for 15-20 minutes.
When it's done, put the meat filling in the middle of the pies.
Cut cheese and put on the pies to make it look like footballs.



Meat pie filling
Recipe adapted from food.com

Ingredients
500 g minced beef
1 onions, chopped
1 cup water, divided
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/4 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 pinch nutmeg
3 tablespoons plain flour


Directions
Pre-heat oven at 220 degrees Celsius.
Brown meat and onion.
Add 3/4 cup of the water, bouillon cubes, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, pepper, oregano, and nutmeg.
Boil and cover for 15 minutes.
Blend flour with the remaining 1/4 cup water until it becomes a smooth paste; add to the meat mix.
Let cool.

Toaster Pastry ~ Easy Mille-feullie (Napoleon)~

One of my favorite kinds of cakes is mille-feullie<3 data-blogger-escaped-br="">Sheets of puff pastry sandwiched with pastry creme.

This recipe is very easy. You can bake a pie in a toaster oven:)

★Pie crust
-1 frozen pie sheet

Move the frozen pie crust to the fridge a day before you plan to use it.
Cut into desired sizes.
With a fork poke small holes in the crust.
Line toaster oven tray with aluminum foil.
Bake until pastry is golden brown.
Cover the pastry with another sheet of aluminum foil to prevent it from burning and bake until it swells. ( about 10-15mins)


To make mille-feullie, You can just spread pastry creme between the layers of pies. I made the creme from soy milk this time! It tastes like custard creme.


~soy creme~

almond flour 90g (1cup)
soy milk 300g (1&1/2cup)
grated *yamaimo 90g
agar 1/2tsp
Maple Syrup 75g (1/4cup)
*(nigari 1/2tsp) - if you have.
corn or potato starch or arrowroot 2tbs dissolved in 3 tbs water
almond oil 60g (1/3cup) (5tbs)
vanilla extract 1/2tsp

*Yamaimo is called Japanese Yam. It is a root vegetable that is viscous in texture like okra.

*nigari is the most common tofu coagulants used. It is composed mainly of magnesium chloride and other minerals found in seawater.

You can find both nigari and yamaimo at Japanese grocery stores.

Direction:
place the top 6 ingredients in blender and mix well.
move the mixture to a large skillet and brig it to a boil.
Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well.
Reduce heat and simmer about 10 mins.

Let it cool and put in fridge over night.
Place the mixture into the blender and mix well.
Heat oil in a microwave for about 1min and add it to the mixture. Mix well.
Add vanilla extract and blend well.

Avocado Sesame Cookies

Got a bag of 10 organic avocados for only $3 at a farmers market!
I was searching for avocado recipes and found this one...Avocado Cookies!
Avocado is known as butter fruit... so I thought why not try this...I know it sounds bad, but it turned out good:) My co-workers loved it!

I basically followed the recipe from Chewy & Gooey Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I skipped chocolate chips and replaced Earth Balance with Sesame paste(Tahini) to add a Japanese twist to it;)

Avocado Sesame Cookies

1 3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp tahini
1/4 - 1/3 c mashed avocado (no chunks)
3/4 c brown sugar
3 tbsp agave
2 tsp vanilla

-Combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl
-In a separate bowl combine the tahini and avocado to make a smooth buttery mixture, then add the sugars and vanilla to combine until the ingredients are well incorporated
-Add the dry ingredients and mix well, then refrigerate the cookie dough overnight

Preheat the oven to 350º F

-Scoop the cookie dough and place evenly on a baking sheet, flattening them slightly with your hand
-Bake for 10-15 minutes (more or less) depending on your desired consistency - if you bake them too long, they only stay chewy for a bit before becoming crunchy

Sake Peach Jam

Peaches are in season. Yay!
Found a nice bourbon peach jam recipe online, but I didn't have bourbon at home...
So I replaced bourbon with sake. It turned out yummy:)

Sake Peach Jam
inspired by The Sweets Life

Ingredients:
-1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
-2 shallots, finely diced
-1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
-3 large firm peaches, blanched, skinned, and diced (or 1 small package of frozen peaches)
-1/4 cup beet sugar
-1/4 cup sake
-1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
-salt & white pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, shallots, and jalapeno. Season with salt and cook for 2-3 minutes, until tender. Add peaches and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
2. Stir in sugar before deglazing the pan with sake.
3. Reduce heat to low, add vinegar, and allow liquids to reduce (5-10 minutes).
4. After thickened, adjust seasonings (salt & pepper) as needed before removing from heat

Yuzu Pepper Veggie Pizza

Spice up your pizza with a Japanese unique spice, YUZU PEPPER!
Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit known for its characteristic aroma.
Yuzu pepper is the hot rage in Japan right now and more and more food companies have started making it.
It's spicy paste made from Yuzu zest, green chili peppers and salt.
Look for it in Japanese grocery stores.

I mixed Yuzu pepper with tomato sauce to add a spice for the pizzza.
About 1/4tsp yuzu pepper for 3TBS tomato sauce.
Yummy!!