One of the most exciting class project for my Ikebana class is to hold the cherry blossom festival at the city hall. Every April, City of Monterey Park will hold a cherry blossom festival at Barnes Park and our teacher is always being invited to hold the Ikebana Expo and workshop. It’s labor intensive as it takes a lot of effort to setup the exhibition hall and carry all the heavy materials in-and-out; it’s tiring because it is a 2 days event with a lot of action in the workshop. However, when you see the big smile on the customers’ face, you know it is rewarding. Hope the teacher will change her mind of retiring and will hold the cherry blossom festival again next year~ ^^
Sometime it is hard to decide what to bring for a potluck. Fancy Macarons? Labor-intensive palmiers? Or something basic like apple pie? After a long debate between my evil left brain and my divine right head, I’ve chose the basic --- because, it's simple, it’s classic, it reminds you the good old time.
Thin-crusted apple tart. (Simplified, adapted from Michele Anna Jordan LA times recipe)
Ingredient:
1) Juice of 1 lemon 2) 3-5 apples depends on the size, peeled ( I used the apple with the size like a soft ball, 4 of them) 3) 3 Tbsp melted butter 4) 3 Tbsp granulated sugar 5) 1 tsp ground cinnamon 6) ⅛ ground clove 7) ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg 8) ½ cup of canned pear 9) A handful of dried cranberry
In order to honor a “BASIC and SIMPLE” apple tart, I chose to use Pillsbury pie dough instead of making it myself. =P
How to...
a) Pre-heat the oven @ 3750F
b) Halve the apple and remove the core & the stalk. Sliced the apple lengthwise into very thin slices. Put the apple into a bowl of water added with lemon juice.
c) Unroll the pie dough and place it on a greased baking pan. Turn up the outer edge of the circle of the dough and form a rim. Use a fork to press the rim into place and prick the tart, bottom and the side, in several place.
d) Drain and dry the apples thoroughly (I lay apple in between paper towel and press on them generously)
e) Arrange a circle of overlapping apple slices staring at the far edge of the dough. Repeat for 2 layers.
f) After 2 layer of apple, put the pear slices and dried cranberry in the middle of the tart. Layer apple at the outer edge to make the filling at even level.
g) Layer a circle of overlapping apple slices again and finish with a small circle of apples in the center.
h) Brush the apple and outer rim of the dough with the melted butter.
i) In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and sugar together. Sprinkle the mixture over the apple (I sprinkle a small amount of the mixture over each layer of the apples)
j)Bake the tart for 40-45 mins until the crust is golden brown.
Crochet~~ a word that will remind me about baby blanket, socks, dollies, etc, has never crossed my mind (as I thought that is a granny’s hobby =P) until I saw my friend’s post in facebook. “Oh man~ that’s consider crochet too??? That is too cute to be true!! ” That is the first thing pop up in my mind.
Monkey monkey monkey~ why monkey bread is called monkey bread? Why it’s also called African coffee cake. Is it because Africa has more wildlife, thus proportionally more monkey? Or because the act of pulling the bread by different people at different angle will reminiscent the behavior of a monkey? It’s still a myth ~ and the originality is questionable. If you like the from-the-scratch, double rise version (instead of using biscuits or pizza dough), here is the recipe:
Nutella Monkey bread
Ingredient:
Dry ingredient: 1) 6 cups all purpose flour 2) ½ tsp baking soda 3) ½ tsp baking powder 4) 1 ½ tsp salt 5) ⅓ cup sugar
Wet ingredient 1) 2 cups milk 2) ½ cup butter (1 stick)
Yeast for bread a) 1 pack active dry yeast (I use Hodgson Mill ® Active dry yeast) b) ¼ cup warm water (100-110oF degree) c) ¼ tsp granulated sugar
Sugar-coating a) ⅔ cup of granulated sugar or brown sugar if you prefer caramel taste b) 1 tbsp ground cinnamon c) 5-6 tbsp butter, melted.
Filling a) Banana, ripped, four b) Nutella spread, 3 tbsp
Action: 1) Proofing yeast-- per package instruction, dissolve yeast in ¼ cup of warm water and ¼ tsp sugar. If the mixture starts bubbling within 5 mins, that means the yeast is alive. I let it sits for 5-10 mins.
2) While waiting for the yeast to rise, scald the milk by heating up the milk over the stove. Once it starts to bubble, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove. Scalding milk helps denatured the milk protein and helps bread to rise better.
3) Add ½ cup of the butter into the hot milk, stir~stir~stir. Let the temperature cool down to 100-110oF before adding the yeast.
4) Mix all the dry ingredients together. In a large bowl, add ½ of the dry and ½ of the wet ingredients at a time and mix well. Repeat until all wet and dry ingredients are all mixed in.
5) Kneading: either knead the dough on a floured surface or like me: knead the dough with Kitchenaid ® electric mixer- speed 2 with the dough hook for 8-10 mins .
6) Cover the dough with a wet towel. For the best result, the dough should be placed in a warm and even temperature (draft-free) place to rise. I let it sit for a day and before I go to bed, I punch the dough down to the bottom and covered with a wet towel for overnight .
7) In the next day morning, check the dough-- it should rise again~ Divide the dough into small bite size ball. I use a pastry brush to brush the melted butter onto the dough.
8) Mix the ground cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon onto the buttered dough.
9) Place 1 layer of sugar-coated dough into a bundt cake pan (which is greased with Pam ® non sticking spray). Mash the bananas with a fork; lay the bananas on top of the dough and drizzle nutella over the banana. (For easy spreading, put the nutella into a food storage bag and heat it up in a microwave for 20-30 second until warm and soft. Cut a small hole from one angle of the bag and squeeze the nutella out gradually.)
10) Put another layer of sugar-coated dough and sprinkle sugar-cinnamon on the top.
11) Put into a preheated oven @ 350o F and bake for 50 minutes. Check with a long skewer. If the skewer is clean after poking into the thickest part of the cake, that mean it’s done.
12) Rest in the pan until cool and then turn it over onto a plate. You can put more nutella on the top and finished off with some chopped walnut.
