Sesame Tapioca Bread (Sesame Mochi Bread)

A few weeks ago, I went to a Brazilian steakhouse for the first time. The food was delicious and I had great company so it was a wonderful experience. We were served mini-cheese puffs/bread and after tasting one, I knew I had to find the recipe and make them . They're called pão de queijo and as I searched online through different recipes, I found a Korean sesame tapioca bread that was similar except instead of cheese, the bread contained, well, sesame. (This type of bread uses tapioca flour/starch and thus, can be called tapioca bread. Its texture is similar to mochi, but baked, so it's also known as mochi bread.) However, I couldn't find a recipe for the Korean sesame bread since all the recipes I found included using the bake mix for the bread... In the end, I just browsed through more recipes for pão de queijo, made some adjustments, and constructed my own recipe:

Sesame Tapioca Bread

1 egg
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 whole milk
1 1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt (use 1 tsp if you prefer a more salty bread)2 tsps black sesame seeds and more for decoration (see note)

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F and lightly grease 8 cups of a cupcake pan. (You can use a mini-muffin pan to make smaller breads but since I don't have one, I just used a cupcake pan.)
2. Blend all the ingredients in a blender until everything is combined.*
3. Pour the batter into the greased pan until each cup is 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, until they're puffed up and the tops are golden brown.

*You don't have to blend for a long time. If you do, more air will be incorporated into the batter, making the resulting bread have more/larger air pockets and less of the mochi bread.

Note: This is optional, but I like to sprinkle the tops of each bread with some black sesame seeds as garnish before placing them in the oven.

**These breads are best eaten hot/warm when they're just out of the oven. They start to deflate as they cool and if you keep them overnight, make sure to microwave them for about 15 seconds before eating to get the nice mochi texture again.**

You can make this bread sweet or salty depending on your preferences. I have substituted coconut in place of the sesame seeds to make a sweet tapioca bread, which was delicious as well. That recipe will most likely be posted sometime this week since I'll probably make the coconut version of this soon... It feels like I can't get tired of these, they're just so tasty. The texture has a lot to do with it though. If you love mochi like me, you'll love these too!

Panettone Bread Pudding

Recently, there was a 50% off sale on holiday items at World Market. Holiday bake mixes, chocolates, cookies, candies, etc. were all included in the sale. My family bought a loaf of panettone for only a few dollars and we've eaten it by itself, as french toast, and now bread pudding. One loaf is about 1 pound and even now, I still have some left... Anyways, the bread is sweet and fragrant with the dried fruits baked within it so no extra flavors really need to be added when making break pudding. I looked at Giada De Laurentiis' recipe, which can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/panettone-bread-pudding-with-cinnamon-syrup-recipe/index.html but adapted it to my tastes. Her recipe calls for a large amount of sugar and makes a pretty large serving size so if you want a smaller and less sweet recipe, try out my adaptation:

Panettone Bread Pudding

*I made 3 small individual bowls of bread pudding but you can use a larger baking dish to make one whole pudding*

1/4 of a loaf of panettone bread
3 eggs
15 Tbsps of whole milk
10 Tbsps of half-and-half
6 tsps of granulated sugar
butter

1. Grease three small baking dishes with butter.
2. Cut the panettone into roughly 1-inch cubes and place the cubes into the dishes.
3. Whisk the eggs, milk, half-and-half, and sugar in a separate bowl to make the custard.*
4. Pour the custard over the bread cubes and lightly press the cubes into the liquid to help the bread soak up the mixture.
5. Let the bread continue to soak up the custard for around 15 minutes** and preheat the oven to 350°F.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes (the bread pudding will rise/puff up and when the center is set, it's done)

*I whisked the ingredients together in a measuring cup so that pouring the mixture would be easier.
**Giada's recipe sets aside 30 minutes for the bread to soak up the custard but I couldn't wait that long and the bread pudding still tasted delicious after 15 minutes of absorption time. However, I would recommend letting the bread sit in the mixture for a longer period of time if you're using drier/stale bread.

Note: I didn't make any type of syrup to pour over the bread pudding since I thought the pudding was sweet enough by itself. But if you prefer a much sweeter dessert, add more sugar and syrup!

Eggnog

Since it's the holiday season, eggnog has been sold in many supermarkets. I've heard so much about the drink but I've never actually tasted it so I did some research. There are two types of eggnog: an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic version. Likewise, there are recipes that yield a drink with raw eggs and one with cooked eggs. I compared many recipes and made some adaptations to form this recipe:

Non-alcoholic Eggnog (cooked eggs) 

4 eggs

1/4 cup sugar*

4 cups whole milk

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup half-and-half

1. Beat the eggs and sugar in a heat-proof bowl while heating milk in a pan on medium/high heat. 

2. Stir the milk as it heats until it begins to boil (milk will be foamy when it's close to boiling)

3. When the milk begins to boil, slowly whisk about 1/4 of the milk into the egg and sugar mixture. (the process is similar to making custard) 

4. Pour the egg/sugar/milk mixture into the pan with the remaining milk and heat on medium/low heat until the mixture thickens. (this will take only a few minutes)

5. Take the liquid off the heat and let it cool to room temperature. 

6. Stir the half-and-half and nutmeg into the mixture. 

7. Store in the refrigerator for around 4 hours or overnight before serving. 

*You can use more sugar if you want a sweeter eggnog but 1/4 cup was sweet enough for me.

Note: Some alcoholic versions of eggnog contain rum and if you like the fragrance it gives to the drink but don't want to add alcohol, you can add 1 to 2 tsp of rum extract into the mixture. 

As it was my first time tasting eggnog, the drink reminds me of custard but in liquid form. I wonder how different store-brought eggnog tastes from this though...

This morning, I had a glass of eggnog with two slices of toast topped with bananas and chopped toasted pecans.

A simple and easy breakfast, definitely try it out. The soft banana slices with the crisp toast and crunchy pecans are a great combination. 

Chewy Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

First blog post!

I've been thinking about blogging for a while now but today was the day I actually put that thought into action. For a very short introduction, this will be a blog filled with food and my personal thoughts so I hope you will enjoy reading! 

Now moving on to the main point: chewy coconut oatmeal cookies. I was craving some cookies this afternoon and thus searched the internet for a recipe. I needed a recipe that used coconut oil instead of butter and consisted of ingredients which I had available to me. After going through numerous recipes for chocolate chip cookies, I came across this recipe for chewy coconut oatmeal cookies. It didn't take long for me to decide I wanted to make these cookies and after whipping up a batch, I had no regrets. They're crunchy around the edges, chewy in the centers, and smell heavenly because of the brown sugar and coconut. The oats in the cookies are a plus too. Simply put, they're delicious. 

You can find the recipe here: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chewy-coconut-oatmeal-cookies/

I definitely encourage you to try making these if you're not already scrambling to do so. (Note: I halved the recipe and ended up with 15 medium-sized cookies.)

On another note, I made eggnog today but I haven't tasted it yet. More on this tomorrow!