Wholemeal Pizza

Suddenly got the urge to make pizza and thought that it would be fun to get the kids involved in assembling it.  So, I plough through my stack of recipes and found this one that I used to make when SMALL FAN was a baby.  I top the pizza with ham and cheese for the kids, as well as pork floss and mayo.  I think the kids really enjoy putting the pork floss onto the pizza while eating it at the same time.  However, was really disappointed with how the pizza turn out.  The crust was ok, but the Regu pizza sauce doesn't have much taste and the mozzarella cheese I used was totally wrong.  I used the slice version and thought it would be easier, but the cheese doesn't melt like the normal mozzarella cheese ;(  My boy keep telling me he don't like the cheese....sigh....  I will probably make it again but this time round, going to just go for the traditional mozzarella cheese instead.

Here's how the pizza look inside

Kids enjoying themselves putting the toppings for the pizza.

Final product before baking.

Here's the recipe:

Wholemeal Pizza

Pizza Crust

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Pizza Toppings

• Japanese Mayonnaise
• Pork Floss
• Pizza Sauce
• Ham Mozzarella Cheese

1.  In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the wholemeal flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 8 pieces for 8 thin one-person size crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Spread pizza with mayonnaise, then sprinkle with pork floss or ham, and cheese.
5. Bake for 15 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Ice Cream Birthday Cake

It's Big FAN's big day, so decided to bake a special cake for him.  Big FAN is not a cake person, he don't like sweet stuff, so decided that instead of making a cake for him, maybe I make something that he would like to eat like ice cream?  So search the net for an ice cream cake recipe and stumble upon this Black Forest Ice Cream Cake from BIY.com.  Decided to do a similar cake like this and here's my own version.

 

Ice Cream Chocolate Cake

 

For the Cake (this make a small 8" cake)

• 3/4 cups self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, mix on high speed of an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  
4. Cut cake into half horizontally.

For the Chocolate Ganache

1. Heat 1/2 cup cream, then add 100gm baking chocolate. Be sure not to burn the chocolate.
2. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3. Cool mixture. To check if it's ready, a dropof ganache onto the mixture should disappear quickly.

Assembling the Cake

1. Soften ice cream by allowing it to thaw in room temperature for a while
2. Lay 1st layer of cake on the bottom of the 8" pan and spread with 1/4 tub of ice cream
3. Lay 2nd cake layer on top of the ice cream, and spread with another 1/4 tub of the ice cream. The cover entire pan with aluminium foil and freeze for at least 1 day
4. Glaze the cake - pour 1/2 lukewarm ganache onto the cake surface, quickly swirl it around until entire surface is covered.  Ganache will harden almost immediately due to the cold surface.  Cover with foil again to freeze.
5. For piping with ganache, whip it quickly in mixer until color lightens and ganache achieves a consistency of buttercream.
6. To remove the cake from the pan, dip a towel into hot boiling water, squeeze out excess.  Lay cake pan onto the hot towel and wipe sides with it thus loosening the cake from the cake pan.  Then life the cake out of the pan and onto a serving plate.  You may want to put the cake back into the freezer to chill before decorating 
7. 1 hour before serving, take the cake out of the freezer.  Pipe large swirls of whipped chocolate ganache around the edges of the cake. After the cake is prepared, leave the decorated cake in the refrigerator to thaw a little before cutting.

Celebrate Teacher's Day with some Cranberries & Raisins Oatmeal Cookies

Teacher's Day is just round the corner, so I decided to get the kids involved in making some cookies for their teachers.  Search the net and found this very nice blog Mennonite Girls Can cook and the outrageous oatmeal cookies and I thought I just have to give it a try.  However, she uses a lot of oats and so little flour in her cookies, I was worried that the cookies will taste too oaty, so I went back to my favourite allrecipes.com and found this Cowboy cookies recipe and decided that I will combine these 2 recipes and make my own.  Here's the final recipes:

Cranberries & Raisins Oatmeal Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I cut down the sugar as I prefer cookies that are less sweet. The original recipe called for 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar) 
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup of raisin

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream margarine, oil, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until well blended. Mix in oats, cranberries and raisins (note: I reserved  some of the raisins & cranberries for decoration later). Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Put the remaining raisins and cranberries on top of the batter. 
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let set up on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.