Folded Steamed Bao Recipe

Now you too can be a fancy schmancy gourmet chef at home with these homemade folded steamed buns (or baos). Made with more or less the same dough as traditional baos, the folded style allows for cramming in a lot more pulled pork or, as is popular right now, crispy pork belly. Enjoy!

Folded Steamed Bao Recipe

Yield: 16 medium buns
Ingredients

• 3 cups (12.5 oz) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Cooking Directions

1. Put the yeast in a small bowl, add the lukewarm water and set aside for 1 minute to soften. Whisk in the oil to blend and dissolve the yeast. Set aside.
2. Combine the sugar, baking powder, and flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon, moving from the center toward the rim, to work in all the flour. Add lukewarm water by the teaspoon if this doesn't happen with relative ease.
3. Keep stirring as a ragged, soft mass forms. Then use your fingers to gather and pat the dough together into a ball.
4. Transfer to a work surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth, fingertip-soft and slightly elastic.
5. Lightly oil a clean bowl and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place to rise until nearly doubled, 30 to 45 minutes. The dough is now ready to use.
6. Roll into two logs, and cut into 16 pieces.
7. Flatten each piece with a rolling pin into a slightly oval shape.
8. Lightly oil one side and fold in on itself. Place on a cut piece of parchment or wax paper.
9. Steam the buns for 10 minutes.

(B)Elated Irish Soda Bread (3 Variations)

Belated Elated Irish Soda Bread. Long overdue but finally making its way to your very eyes is the much-anticipated, often-imitated-but-never-duplicated Irish soda bread.

There are three variations we have here:
- The first is Irish-Irish soda bread - like they invented in Ireland.
- The second is American-Irish soda bread - like the kind found in America with the raisins.
- The third is a mix between the two - no raisins but with a bit of egg enough to change the flavor.

Maybe (at this late juncture) you're craving a wee bit o' Irish, going through the withdrawls of St. Patty's Day. If you're like me, you most certainly are (except this feeling lasts all year), and hopefully, these wee treats will brighten your day. Enjoy!

Burger Buns

There's something truly satisfying about making things from scratch. Things just seem to taste better and you're happier with the results. Such is the case for these burger buns.

They may feel heavy and dense in your hand, but cut them open and splay your burger upon it, and you will realize these are the perfect burger buns. They do exactly what you would want a bun to do, AND they taste amazing. Enjoy!

Disneyland's Cornbread with Honey Butter

Disneyland's Cornbread with Honey Butter

Yield: Serves 12
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup pastry flour
• 1/2 cup powdered milk
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 9x13 baking pan. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl blend together oil, sugar, and eggs for two minutes.
3. Add 2 cups of the water and mix until blended with sugar mixture.
4. Add flours, powdered milk, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Mix ten minutes at low speed.
5. Add remaining 1/2 cup water and cornmeal. Mix five minutes more.
6. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean. Serve with Honey Butter.

Honey Butter

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups (1/2 pound) butter, softened

Cooking Directions

1. Beat honey into softened butter until blended. Refrigerate in small molds or serve in bowls.

Disneyland's Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing

Disneyland Holiday Muffin, Blue Ribbon Bakery

Yields approximately 2 dozen

Ingredients

2 c. pumpkin purée (canned)
1½ c. granulated sugar
3 large eggs
¾ c. canola oil
1½ t. vanilla extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
¾ t. salt
1½ t. baking powder
¾ t. baking soda
¾ t. cinnamon
¾ t. ground cloves
¼ t. ground nutmeg
½ c. raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla until well blended.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until just blended. Over mixing may result in less tender muffins.

Fold in the raisins until evenly distributed.

Portion mixture into muffin pans and bake at 325ºF for 25 minutes.

Insert a toothpick into center of muffin and remove. If toothpick is clean, the muffins are ready. If not, allow muffins to cook an additional 1-2 minutes or until toothpick is clean.

Allow muffins to cool for 30-60 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 c. unsalted butter
1½ c. cream cheese
1 t. vanilla extract
2 c. powdered sugar
½ t. cinnamon

Allow cream cheese and butter to soften at room temperature for about an hour.
Mix cream cheese and butter together until smooth.

Add vanilla extract, powdered sugar and cinnamon, and mix until well blended.

Remove from mixer, and cover and refrigerate until needed.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with icing. Poke a hole into the center of each cooled muffin and squeeze icing directly into the middle of the muffin, finishing with a rosette on the top.

Disneyland's Blue Bayou Bananas Foster Shortcake

Bananas Foster Shortcake

Blue Bayou

Serves 4

Ingredients

For biscuits:
2 oz (about 1/3 C) Brie cheese, diced
2 1/2 C. Bisquick
1/3 C. sugar
3/4 C. water

For sauce:
1 T. butter
4 large bananas, cut into 1/2" slices
1 T. sugar
1 C. + 3 T brown sugar
2 C. heavy cream
2 T. dark rum
2 T. banana liqueur

For garnish:
Whipped cream
Fresh mint sprigs

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. To make the biscuits, add together the diced cheese, Bisquick and sugar, mix well. Add the water and mix thoroughly to make a wet batter. Drop the batter in 4 mounds onto a greased cookie sheet and bake on the top rack for 20 minutes or until cooked through (when toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean). Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the bananas for about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and stir until melted. Add the cream and, stirring constantly, cook over high heat until it reaches a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Add the rum and banana liqueur.

To serve, cut the cooled biscuits from the top two thirds of the way down, open it up and pour the sauce into the center of the biscuit. Serve with whipped cream and mint sprig.

Spent Grain Chocolate Breadless Bread Pudding (Muffins)

It's a confusing title, I know. But it's so very accurate! They might be called muffins in another life, yet the way they turn out with their soft, moist inside and their firm outside is more reminiscent of a bread pudding cup.

Except they're breadless bread pudding cups.

Oh, and to make it even more absolutely, flabbergastingly, astonishingly delicious, these puppies (cuppies?) are made with a heaping healthy helping of spent grain left over from brewing a wonderful batch of an oatmeal stout. If you're out of spent grain, try oats and/or any other hearty grain you have.

Enjoy!

Spent Grain Chocolate Breadless Bread Pudding (Muffins)

Yield: 12
Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup spent grain, wet
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cooking Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the butter, eggs, milk, and then spent grain.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all remaining ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until just combined, and pour into a lined muffin or loaf pan.
5. Bake 30 minutes for muffins, 50 for a loaf.

Burger a la King

What's that? You want a burger Elvis would enjoy? Well then you've come to the right place! Peanut butter, bananas, and most importantly bacon make a surprising appearance on top of this monster of a burger.

This was prepared as part of Denny's and Foodbuzz BACONALIA challenge and is an entry for a chance to win.

A burger fit only for a King. It's good to be The King.

Popovers

This has got to be just about the easiest thing in the world to make. Well, in terms of a breakfast or dinner roll.

And that's the great thing about popovers. They can be part of breakfast or part of dinner. Oh, and if you can't eat them all at once, don't worry. They're great warmed up in a toaster oven too.

And be sure to watch them pop over because it's really cool! Enjoy!

Golden Fluffy Cornbread

Happy Thanksgiving! It's that time of year again. Time when holidays start overlapping with each and people seem to get hungrier and hungrier as Turkey Day approaches. So to ease some of that hunger, my girlfriend made a wonderfully golden and fluffy cornbread for you all.

It's the perfect amount of fluff and grit, moist and light, and sweet enough that it doesn't need anything but those who like honey with their cornbread can still add a bit. I highly recommend featuring this dish along with your Black Turkey, green bean casserole, garlic smashed potatoes, and roasted butternut squash. Top it off with some Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies too. Enjoy!

Golden Fluffy Cornbread

Yield: Serves 14-20
Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a scone pan or muffin pan. A 9 inch round cake pan can also be used.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Gyoza

Have you ever made gyoza before? Or any other kind of dumpling/potsticker/bun? I made some BBQ Pork Buns a long time ago, and the cooking of them is quite similar (though these are nothing like them in the end).

So simple, so tasty. Why bother buying them frozen at the store again? Never again, I say!

The beauty is that the filling can be done with just about anything. Go vegetarian instead of pork. Use the same hoisin chicken that we used here. All you need is a little imagination, and sky's the limit.

I even included the recipe for the gyoza dipping sauce. Aww, how nice of me. Enjoy!

Ebelskivers!

We got a gift recently - an ebelskiver pan. You probably know what an ebelskiver is already, but just in case you don't....think of an ebelskiver as a puffy filled pancake. Pretty awesome, huh?

Sure, you can go around using fancy and homemade ebelskiver/pancake batter, but not I. Why do that when all the fun is in the filling? That's where creativity reigns supreme!

For instance, you could do banana in one, chocolate tahini in another, honey and nut butter in another, strawberry jam in another, banana and peanut butter and bacon in another, and bacon and cheese in the last one. Ohhh yeah.


So let your heart and your imagination be your guide. Enjoy!

Popover Schmopover

What's the best way to make popovers?

As a featured publisher for Foodbuzz I check out the Daily Specials from time to time. Today, the daily special is a Popover Pan. I guess it makes popovers better than your average muffin pan.

Need it? No way!

Just use a muffin pan. You'll never ever go wrong. Cross my heart.

Better yet - make one of these Bread or Bun treats!

Cajun Chicken Drumsticks and Biscuits

Is there anything more comforting than some good ole down home chicken and biscuits? Mmm cajun chicken drumsticks!

The biscuits are same ones as the Savory Buttermilk Thyme Drop Biscuits. Delicious. You MUST try these biscuits. I could rant and rave all day about them - honestly.

As you can see, everything was paired with some scrumptious veggies. There was baked mushrooms and baked tomato alongside a helping of homemade coleslaw and steamed yellow squash. It all was the perfect accompaniment to help lighten up the chicken and biscuits - I will definitely be making this again. Enjoy!

Savory Buttermilk Thyme Drop Biscuits

More buttermilk recipes! Just what everyone wanted, I know. Though I suppose these biscuits could be made with regular milk as well. Ask Martha Stewart - that's where I got them.

No, my biscuits do not look as pretty as hers, but damned if they don't taste completely awesome!

I really cannot stress enough how much I loved these. I think we combined them with chicken or something delicious, and I ate one a day until they disappeared. Hmm, I think I'll go make some more right now...Enjoy!

BBQ Pork Buns

I love pork buns. If you've never had them, you're in luck! You can easily (so easily) make them yourself at home. It just might be the easiest bread you'll ever make. There's no need to follow the directions on the filling either. Just toss in whatever you feel like. I suggest savory goodness, but sweet (e.g. red beans, cream, etc.) will work too if that's your thing. A little goes a long way. Enjoy!