Ayam Goreng Crispy

 

Maybe you will think that crispy fried chicken is not kind of health food that we can include as our family menu everyday. But in my home, this crispy fried chicken is one of menu that is usually served at home. My son love to eat fried chicken and about twice a week he will ask me to cook this. I try to cook it by myself and not buy in fast food restaurant (that is very unhealthy with high MSG, bad oil, trans fat and something like that). For the first time, I don't have any idea how to make delicious crispy fried chicken like fast food restaurant sell. Trial and error each recipe that I find and here is my favorites recipe ever. I feel so comfort when I can cook it by myself, I can control the ingredient, not using seasoning powder who contain high MSG or sometimes if I have to use it I only use in very little amount. Because the one who eat this is my son, I try to use good quality cooking oil for him. 

I got the recipe from book "60 Resep Masakan Favorit Anti Gagal" by Fatmah Bahalwan from NCC. Very easy to make. You can choose which one suit you the most, pan-fry it or deep-fry it. I prefer the deep-fry method because it makes the fried chicken crispier. But of course, deep-fry will need excessive oil consumption. The exact amount may vary depending on cook time and temperature, ingredient density, and the specific type of oil used. Hope one day I can buy my own air-fryer Phillips, can fry something in healthy way, LOL.

When cooking fried chicken, flavor is important, that’s true. But a flavorful fried chicken is a mere shadow of its full potential if it lacks a crackling kick. It’s an unwritten rule: fried chicken needs to have a crispy crust—always! To enhance the flavor of fried chicken just make sure you get enough time to marinade the chicken. If I have free time I will marinade the chicken a night before. But sometimes, if I am in hurry, I just cook the chicken with the spices and some herbs (you can use any herb, I usually use Basil and some thyme). Let them cool for a while then dip in the crispy flour and the batter then fry it ;)

 

Ayam Goreng Crispy (Crispy Fried Chicken)

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken (about 1,5 kg), cut into you desired 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbs chicken powder
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp seasoning powder (optional)
• cooking oil

Crispy Flour:

• 1 kg flour
• 2 tbs tapioca flour
• 6 tbs baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 1 tsp ground pepper

For batter:

• 1 egg white
• 1 tbs chicken powder
• 500 ml water

Direction:

• Place all the chicken in large bowl and toss with salt, chicken powder, ground pepper, and seasoning powder. Allow chicken to marinade for at least 15 minutes, up to overnight would be better.
• For batter : Whick egg white, add chicken powder and water. Set aside.
• Prepare the seasoned and crispy flour. Iin large bowl, simply mix all the ingredients. Set aside.
• Heat the cooking oil, you can use pan-fry or deep-fry but I would suggest it would be better using deep-fry. If you choose use pan-fry make sure the cooking oil is one inch deep. If you want to deep-fry it, just pour as much oil as is needed to completely cover the chicken parts. Let the cooking oil hot before putting the chicken into the fryer.
• One by one, roll the chicken pieces in seasoned-crispy flour. Then dip them into the batter, then in the flour again for one last time. Just make sure all their parts are covered. Let the chicken rest for a while to allot the coating stick to the chicken and the season come inside the chicken.
• Fry the chicken pieces in batches until they turn in golden brown. Place aside in cooling rack and allow them to drain. Ready to eat! 

Blueberry Cheese Streusel Cake

One thing that I can't refuse to do is when my son asking me to cook or bake something for him. He usually accompany me when I read recipe book or searching new recipe to try in my little kitchen. He doesn't just accompany me, but he also randomly pointed cake or bread that looks interest and yummy in his opinion then said "Bunda, please make this cake/bread". So here it is one of the cake that he pointed when we saw cooking magazine together.

This cake is so yummy, truly i love it. I always tempted to any cake with cheese inside. The streusel gives the cake that extra crunch and sweetness while on its own, it tastes nice and light. This cake suitable to eat in the morning with your tea or coffee. I can't say no to eat this cake, for temporary just forget your diet program, LOL. The recipe is so quick and easy to make, everyone who is still in beginner level of baking like me will love this recipe.

It was so difficult to find frozen blueberry in my city. Sometimes i can find frozen blueberry in famous Asian market in here, Lai-lai but if i am not mistaken it has been 6 months later since the last I see frozen blueberry pack in frozen food section. Poor me.. It would be so nice if I can make my own blueberry jam but it's okay. I still can use any kind of blueberry jam that I can find in local market. Then I use St. Dalfour from France, my favourite fruit jam's brand.

Happy weekend!!

Blueberry Cheese Streusel Cake

from: Sedap Magazine

Ingredients:

• 100 g white cooking chocolate, melted
• 200 g unsalted butter
• 125 g castor sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 180 g all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 50 ml fresh milk
• 50 g cheddar cheese, grated
• 100 g blueberry jam

Streusel topping:

• 60 g cold unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp sugar powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100 g all purpose flour

Directions:

• Streusel topping, in a medium bowl, mix together sugar powder, flour, and salt. Cut in butter using fork until well combined and mixture resembles course crumbs.
• Preheat the oven 180 degree Celcius and grease a 22x22x4 cm baking pan with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, mix using mixer in medium speed unsalted butter, castor sugar, and salt together. Add melted white coking chocolate. Mix well.
• Add egg one by one alternates with some of flour and mix well. Add the rest of the flour, baking powder and fresh milk, mix until combined. Add grated cheddar cheese. Mix well.
• Add blueberry jam in some part of dough, whisk the jam in dough only for a while, until you can see the tinge of the jam in the dough. Pour into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the streusel topping on top.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into centre of the cakes come out clean. 
• Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before cutting it into desired size.

Roti Kasur (Sweet Bread Rolls)

Making bread for me is like a nightmare. I never succeed make it without history of failure, except when I made it with my mother. Don't know why every time I tried to knead the dough it was not go well. I am not expert in kneading the dough. I am hopeless in bread making. 

But you know, my son really love bread so much, and always ask me to buy bread for him. Whenever we pass by our favorite bakery shop, he always said that "Mom, bread....". Then, I try to force myself to boost my spirit to learn how to make bread well. I bought baking book, read many resource in internet about that and of course learning by doing. However how hard I tried it ended nothing. Hence, I choose shortcut way, I bought a bread-maker machine, LOL. That machine will be my savior in making bread.

And here it is finally I CAN MAKE BREAD by myself and assisted by my Kenwood bread-maker machine, LOL. 

I made this bread using Komachi, a wheat premium flour brand from Japan. Actually you can use any kind of high-protein wheat flour that is available in your city. I am using dark cooking chocolate and cheese for the filling. But you can use anything that you like such as jam, melted chocolate, and so on. Above the bread roll I only spread chocolate jimmies and grated cheese. I got the recipe from Natural Cooking Club. It turned out really god, I love the tenderness of this bread. This bread is a good choice if you want to make bread as your family breakfast menu.

 

Sweet Bread Rolls

Source : Natural Cooking Club

Ingredients:

• 500 g bread flour
• 3 eggs yolk
• 100 g sugar
• 30 g milk powder
• 11 g instant yeast
• 5 g salt
• 250 ml cooking water
• 100 g butter
• 1/2 tsp bread improver (optional)

For filling : 

• Dark cooking chocolate
• Grated cheese

For the topping:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cooking water

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine bread flour, sugar, milk powder, and instant yeast. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine well all egg yolk and water, then add into the well of dry ingredients. Mix and knead it until half elastic, add butter and salt. Continue to knead until the dough is no longer sticky but elastic enough. You want the dough to be elastic. So if you were to take a part of it and stretch it out, you can stretch it to a very thin membrane without it breaking. When you poke a hole in the thin membrane, it should form a close to perfect circle.
2. Divide the dough into small pieces of dough about 40 g, make ball shape. Cover with cling wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Deflate the dough, fill with the filling, make ball shape again and place the balls into baking pan that has been spread by butter or lined with parchment paper. Leave it for second round of proofing about 30 minutes until double in size.
3. Whisk the topping ingredient: egg, salt and water in a small bowl. Brush egg wash on the surface of the bun and spread chocolate jimmies or grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven 180 degree Celsius for 15 minutes or until the surface golden brown. Transfer into wire rack and let cool completely.

Directions if using bread machine:

• Put in the order listed below:
• Eggs yolk, whisked with cooking water
• Bread flour, milk powder, bread improver. Combine well and put inside the machine.
• Sugar (on top of the flour in one corner)
• Salt (on top of the flour in another corner)
• Butter (on top of the flour in corner, at other side corner where you put salt)
• Instant yeast (on top of the flour in center, make well and put into the well)

• Set the setting to "Dough"
• Wait until the dough process done and continue with manual directions as you can read above.

[KBB#33] Something Artisan: BAGELS

 

This is my second probation test/challenge from Klub Berani Baking. If I did all my probation test well, officially I will be one of KBB's member and be a part of big family of a community who love to bake so much. Before the theme of this month challenge out, Arfi Binsted give us time to guess what we will make this month. She only said that this month we will work with some yeast. Oops.. at that time i just feel worried so much because i guess it would be some kind of bread or something like that. And finally, at the right time Arfi send email to all of us and sure enough, nothing else but, we must make bread o bread. It is Bagels!!

 

And when I read the recipe, i understand nothing, LOL. Bagels is sooo difficult..

Actually I never have had success make any bread, although it was the easy one, moreover make this kind of difficult and complicated one if I can say like that. Due to my lack of understanding the recipe I tried to search by Google all the way that I can about Bagels itself. I try to watch the tutorial video in YouTube how to make Bagels. Then one by one I read every part of the recipe (need to read it several times) to make me understand what the recipe want me to do. I tried to give mark on the important step that I have to do.

This month my new semester of postgraduate study has been started. The schedule is so tight, on weekday I live in Malang and on weekend I must go to Solo. It happened every week. This limitation make me can't work this challenge as early as I can. I postpone to do it until I have enough time to bake in my own home. So, it went bad because until the end of the month I still do nothing. Really bad... 

Feel so anxious, I pluck up my courage to do this challenge. Hopefully the result will go well, I am not hoping so high, at least my Bagels can be bake, LOL. I copied directly from the recipe here, and if you need the original Mr Peter Reinhart recipe can be found here.

First step, while mixing the flour and malt syrup/honey water I was helped by mixer. I used dough hook for it. The one thing that you must remember that when you mix malt syrup/honey, yeast, and salt, the water must be lukewarm and not too hot. Because if the water too hot, it can make the yeast not work optimally anymore. Well, after I let the dough rest for the first time, I continue the process by using my hand. I knead the dough not using mixer anymore, but using my own hand. Slowly but sure, I knead the dough like the video tutorial that I saw before in YouTube.

I only make half of recipe, so after it has been well enough I divide the dough to make 5 mini bagels, the weight of each bagels about 60 grams. I formed the shape then let it rest in the refrigerator about one and half day. Well, the next process so excited to me, the float test. From 5 bagels that I made, there is no one that pass the float test in first period. Then I tried to proofing the bagels in room temperature for about 20 minutes. Do the float test again, and I got 2 bagels passed the float test, but it was not happened with the others. So I decide to proofing again one more time for 20 minutes, and happily finally the rest of bagels pass the test.

After the bagels passed the float test, you should immediately poached and baking it. But because I must go to work then I postpone to bake it. I put the bagels again in fridge, and baked it in afternoon after went back to home. I used cinnamon sugar as topping, and the fragrant was so nice when it was come out from oven. Actually, I am not too satisfied with the result. I thought my bagels can't be said as the truly Bagels because the size of the Bagels was small :p

Bagels

by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

Dough

• 1 tablespoon (0.75 oz / 21 g) barley malt syrup, honey, or rice syrup, or 1 teaspoon (0.25 oz / 7 g) diastatic malt powder
• 1 teaspoon (0.11 oz / 3 g) instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (0.37 oz / 10.5 g) salt, or 2 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (9 oz / 255 g) lukewarm water (about 95°F or 35°C)
• 3 1/2 cups (16 oz / 454 g) unbleached bread flour

Poaching liquid

• 2 to 3 quarts (64 to 96 oz / 181 to 272 g) water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (1 oz / 28.5 g) barley malt syrup or honey (optional)
• 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz / 14 g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (0.25 oz / 7 g) salt, or 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

Directions:

Do ahead

• To make the dough, stir the malt syrup, yeast, and salt into the lukewarm water. 
• Place the flour into a mixing bowl and pour in the malt syrup mixture. 
• If using a mixer, use the dough hook and mix on the lowest speed for 3 minutes. If mixing by hand, use a large, sturdy spoon and stir for about 3 minutes, until well blended. The dough should form a stiff, coarse ball, and the flour should be fully hydrated; if it isn’t, stir in a little more water. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. 
• Resume mixing with the dough hook on the lowest speed for another 3 minutes or transfer to a very lightly floured work surface and knead by hand for about 3 minutes to smooth out the dough and develop the gluten. The dough should be stiff yet supple, with a satiny, barely tacky feel. If the dough seems too soft or overly tacky, mix or knead in a little more flour.
• Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
• When you’re ready to shape the bagels, prepare a sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone mat, then misting it with spray oil or lightly coating it with oil. Divide the dough into 6 to 8 equal pieces. (A typical bagel is about 4 ounces or 113 grams before baking, but you can make them smaller. If you make more than 6 bagels, you may need to prepare 2 sheet pans).
• Form each piece into a loose ball by rolling it on a clean, dry work surface with a cupped hand. (Don’t use any flour on the work surface. If the dough slides around and won’t ball up, wipe the surface with a damp paper towel and try again; the slight bit of moisture will provide enough traction for the dough to form into a ball).
• There are two methods to shape the balls into bagels.
  

1. The first method is to poke a hole through the center of the ball to create a donut shape. Holding the dough with both thumbs in the hole, rotate the dough with your hands, gradually stretching it to create a hole about 2 inches in diameter.
2. The second method, preferred by professional bagel makers, is to use both hands (and a fair amount of pressure) to roll the ball into a rope about 8 inches long on a clean, dry work surface. (Again, wipe the surface with a damp towel, if necessary, to create sufficient friction on the work surface). Taper the rope slightly at each end and moisten the last inch or so of the ends. Place one end of the dough in the palm of your hand and wrap the rope around your hand to complete the circle, going between your thumb and forefinger and then all the way around. The ends should overlap by about 2 inches. Squeeze the overlapping ends together by closing your hand, then press the seam into the work surface, rolling it back and forth a few times to seal. Remove the dough from your hand, squeezing it to even out the thickness if need be and creating a hole of about 2 inches in diameter.

• Place each shaped bagel on the prepared sheet pan, then mist with spray oil or brush with a light coating of oil. Cover the entire pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days. (You can also proof the full piece of dough in the oiled bowl overnight and then shape the bagels on baking day, 60 to 90 minutes before boiling and baking them, or as soon as they pass the float test).

On baking day

• Remove the bagels from the refrigerator 60 to 90 minutes before you plan to bake them, and if you plan to top them with dried onion or garlic, rehydrate those ingredients (see the variations).
• Immediately check whether the bagels are ready for baking using the “float test”: Place one of the bagels in a small bowl of cold water. If it sinks and doesn’t float back to the surface, shake it off, return it to the pan, and wait for another 15 to 20 minutes, then test it again. When one bagel passes the float test, they’re all ready to be boiled. If they pass the float test before you are ready to boil and bake them, return them to the refrigerator so they don’t over-proof. About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C) and gather and prepare your garnishes (seeds, onions, garlic, and so on).
• To make the poaching liquid, fill a pot with 2 to 3 quarts (64 to 96 oz / 181 to 272 g) of water, making sure the water is at least 4 inches deep. Cover, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to maintain at a simmer. Stir in the malt syrup, baking soda, and salt.
• Gently lower each bagel into the simmering poaching liquid, adding as many as will comfortably fit in the pot. They should all float to the surface within 15 seconds. After 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to turn each bagel over. Poach for another 30 to 60 seconds, then use the slotted spoon to transfer it back to the pan, domed side up. (It’s important that the parchment paper be lightly oiled, or the paper will glue itself to the dough as the bagels bake).
• Sprinkle on a generous amount of whatever toppings you like as soon as the bagels come out of the water (except cinnamon sugar; see the variation for details).
• Transfer the pan of bagels to the oven, then lower the oven heat to 450°F (232°C). Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pan and check the underside of the bagels. If they’re getting too dark, place another pan under the baking sheet. (Doubling the pan will insulate the first baking sheet.) Bake for another 8 to 12 minutes, until the bagels are a golden brown.
• Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving.

Variations

• You can replace any amount of the bread flour with an equal amount of whole grain flour (by weight), such as wheat or rye. If you do so, increase the water in the dough by 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz / 14 g) for every 2 ounces (56.5 g) of whole grain flour you substitute.

• Top your bagels with any combination of the following garnishes: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt, or rehydrated dried onions or garlic. (Soak dried onions or garlic in water to cover for at least 1 hour before applying.) The toppings will stick even better if you first brush the top of each bagel with an egg white wash made by whisking 1 egg white with 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz / 14 g) of water. If using coarse salt as a garnish, remember that a little goes a long way.

• For raisin bagels, mix in 1 1/3 cups (8 oz / 227 g) of raisins during the final 2 minutes of mixing and, if you like cinnamon, stir 1/2 teaspoon (0.14 oz / 4 g) of ground cinnamon into the flour before you start mixing. When the bagels come out of the oven, brush the tops with melted butter and dip the top into a bed of cinnamon sugar to give it a very tasty cinnamon crust. You can make cinnamon sugar by whisking 2 tablespoons (1.6 oz / 44 g) of ground cinnamon into 1/2 cup (4 oz / 113 g) of granulated sugar.  

Poffertjes (Dutch Mini Pancakes)

Poffertjes are traditional Dutch cakes, a bit similar in texture to American pancakes, but Poffertjes have more spongy and light texture. Poffertjes is also well known in Indonesia that is has historical ties as the former Dutch colony. In Indonesia, this cake named Kue Cubit. Poffertjes are cooked in a special cat-iron pan with several small shallow indentations in the bottom. I used the pan that can be used also to make Takoyaki (traditional snack from Japan).

If you search in Google, many original recipe of Poffertjes said that this mini pancakes made from buckwheat flour, but other variation of flour allowed. In Dutch Delight, history told that long time ago when French Revolution happened, due to low shortage of wheat flour led to this pancake was being made by buckwheat flour, that is resulting thicker and tastier taste. 

Poffertjes often served with icing sugar. But it would be nice if we use ice cream or cream and fruit as the topping. In this recipe i fill it with some chocolate sprinkle (jimmies), cheddar cheese, and raisin. So yummy....

I got the recipe from Pinodita. Original source of the recipe from the Primarasa Femina recipe book "Hidangan Peranakan Belanda & Cina".

Poffertjes

Dutch Mini Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 250 g high protein flour
• 75 g castor sugar
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml evaporated milk
• 300 ml fresh milk
• 50 g butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Cheddar cheese, grated > for filling
• Chocolate sprinkles (jimmies) > for filling
• Raisin > for filling
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

• Mix flour, sugar, and instant yeast in a medium bowl. Stir well. Set aside.
• Heat the milk until lukewarm. Beat the eggs, pour milk and mix well.
• Pour the egg-milk mixture into the flour bowl. Mix it well and make sure there are no lumps in the batter (I use hand mixer with bread beater)
• Add melted butter and salt to the batter. Mix well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the poffertjes pan and grease with the batter.
• Fill the pan only about halfway or less. Wait for a while. Filled or sprinkle the cheese/jimmies/raisin. Pour more batter in the other part of pan. Let it cook until the bottom has started to harden or look more brown. Use bamboo skewer to turn them around. Pierce the poffertjes with the skewer and use a circular motion to roughly flip the half-ball over the poffertjes that has been sprinkled by cheese/jimmies/raisin before. So that half-cooked batter flows out into the mold to form a ball. Turn them around for several time until well cooked.
• Put them in serving plate and dust with powdered sugar. Ready to eat.

Recipe in Bahasa Indonesia