MACARONS!!!! Bread and mini hot pockets?!

Another shameless photo dump of baked goods that I spent my weekend on making. LOL. I haven't touched MGS all weekend but instead spent my entire weekend (starting Friday night) baking loool. Whut. Yeah, I'm not sure but I've been on a DIY kick lately. I figured its a new year, time to try new challenge right? And well, I've been working on perfecting each little recipe I run into lol and well, its just fun making them. Plus its fun eating fun flavors too haha.

This weekends adventure was making matcha sakura milk loaf. The recipe I used was this one and I customized it just a bit by adding Vanilla Extract and Milk Powder to the mix.

If you add a helping of condensed milk into the batter, its gonna make it more runny, so you need to add more flour to balance it out so it forms more of a solid mass.  And honestly, this recipe turns out a pretty  bland, I would honesty adjust this and add more sugar to if you want something with a sweeter flavor. But I ended up toasting it up the next day and drizzling condensed milk over it which made a huge difference!  

The sakura extract actually comes clear so I just added pink food coloring to make it more cherry blossom like. Maybe next week I'll make them into mini breads and fill it with sweet cream inside. LOL!

Wow, you'd think for someone who claims to be a photographer and actually takes decent photos that I would actually take the time to take better photos. Even if it is just on my cellphone LOL

its kinda funny/envious that I see people on instagram /really/ take the TIME to do very well presentations. Blegh, thats always the one thing I suck at when it comes to baking - presentation. The way I see it, if I'm gonna be the one eating it or no one else special.Then Why bother lol...but no really, presentation does play a keyrole on making things much more appetizing x__X now that I figured I can *make* these babies, its time to perfect making them look *nicer* le sigh....

next project was MACARONS the elusive finicky little fuckers that cost a good arm and a leg at most bakery stores. And for good reason too!

For anyone who hasn't tried these, omg you are MISSING OUT. Their basically meringue type cookies - crunchy on the outside but once you get past their shell like exterior the interior is nice moist and chewy then you get the fillings in between! Which is usually cream or jam.

 I've been pretty much intimidated on making these by my self and without the use of almond flour, I used ALMOND MEAL. Which is essentially the same - but less refined? You can always make your own ALMOND FLOUR and there are a lot of videos and how to's to make your own. I wanted to ahead and try using almond meal first which you can get at your local Trader Joes for about $3.99 a bag versus buying a small bag of almond flour from whole foods which runs at about almost $10 for a small bag. Yikes!

I did my research before embarking on this challenging quest on making macarons. I've probably watched  a shit load of videos and read a bunch of blogs on how to make these babies. I also noticed a lot of the recipes call for Cream of Tartar, I didn't have that nor did I want to spend anymore in case this was a total fail. So I finally found a video and recipe that didn't require for cream of tartar and one that was simple enough to follow!  Recipe and instructions added below as well as my own foot notes to add

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup almond flour
2 large egg whites, room temperature


Directions:

Sift confectioners' sugar and almond flour until combined. Whisk whites with a mixer on low speed until foamy. Add sugar while Increasing speed to medium and whisk until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high, and whisk until stiff peaks form. Slowly add the egg whites into the flour and powdered sugar mixture and fold until mixture is incorporated.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, and pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, dragging pastry tip to the side of rounds rather than forming peaks. Tap bottom of each sheet on work surface to release trapped air. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating halfway through, until macarons are crisp and firm, about 15 minutes. Let macarons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Sandwich 2 same-size macarons with 1 teaspoon filling of your choice (buttercream, jam, etc). Serve immediately, or stack between layers of parchment, wrap in plastic, and freeze for up to 3 months.

*makes 30 (approx.) cookies

My own personal notations that I took into account when making these and I know a lot of people also suggested the following when embarking on the quest to make these:

Make sure the eggs are all room temperature! I'm not sure if it really makes a huge difference but I wasn't about to go and waste a bunch of ingredients so I followed these notes to a T!
To make your eggs room temp. just dip them in a cup of warm water. You can keep the yolks aside to make custard filling actually :D so nothing is wasted!

Sift everything!!! You want to avoid as many chunks on there as possible.
Pipping - now this is definitely where I need some practice on. Haha. The bigger the hole the better. Don't try to be a smart as sand use a tiny hole and swirl it around like a snails butt. It doesn't work that way. Your cookies will come out looking pretty flat and sad looking lol! So be sure to use a good half inch cut to get a nice even drop! If your not sure how uniformed your circles will be - do what I did. I drew on the parchment paper.

Next and I think  this is pretty important. DONT USE WAX PAPER. Use parchment paper. I used wax paper on one batch and it just wouldn't come off cleanly ;A; such a waste~ And double up the parchment paper to prevent the bottoms from burning especially if your oven doesn't have even heating - like mine )': 

lastly I made mini hot pockets lawl

3 Cups Flour
6 Tablespoon of ice cold water
5 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

You just get marinara sauce or tomoato sauce, roll out your dough into the little molds. Brush on your tomatoe sauce, stuff in your fillings - cheese and pepperoni. FOLD and bake~ hurhurhur

I cant wait to try spinach and cheese in them next *w*  or you can be really bad and use custard filling LMAO. But if your a college student living in a dorm and have a toaster oven, an easy way to do this as well is to get those pillsbury crescent rolls, and stuffing the shit out of it with cheese and pepperoni and throwing it into your toaster oven.

Bread & Photo Dumps

Another weekly photo dump lawl~ A little more productive this time? Maybe? lol.

I went to the park across the street from my Condo since they were holding some kind of New Year Festival. I went with the intent to find food. And that I did. I found brick toast! Yes I was definitely definitely happy! Since I didn't think any place in SD was serving this )': so I was excited to find it at a festival of all place~ They even had some displays at the park

But I couldn’t help but feel some overwhelming sense that annoying hipster younger kids from the high school were there secretly judging everyone there who looked remotely within their age range. And it just reminded me how much I hated high school and how much I never wanted to look back at it.

So many kids were sporting their hipster glasses, tight jeans and hipster attire from Urban Outfitters. Their mid drift cut off shirts and loose cardigans, long loose braids and headbands. Got nothing against the style tbh, but I think the overwhelming amount of numbers and pretenciousness stenched up the air, not to mention I’m sure a few were judging my choise of wardrobe (as I chose today of all days to sport my Boy London leggings with a long top mind you)

SMH. I’m getting old. You know I’m getting old when you start to think if hipsters were worse than scene kids /: Or was everyone trying too hard to be Korean brought on by the Ulzzang wave. Nonetheless, I got my damn bread box toast thingie.

Also, rumor says there were some kids who went to the festival earlier in /cosplay/. My mom said she spotted a girl with a green wigh and pigtails. My money is on a Vocaloid cosplay lol.

I think I’m just getting old and bitter LOL I also made my first attempt at making bread last night and this morning I decided to take the leap and try to make another batch of bread, this time going big or going home and clearly this time we went big! I attempted to make Custard bread! Photos below~

 After the festival (we had dessert before dinner lmao) we went to my favorite bar food Asian fusion place~ my friend never tried Bulgogi Fries before so it was definitely a must to order~ And got some Ghalbi tacos with it. Happy hour had 50% Soju. Hell yeah!

So far the best sparkling sake I've tried~ was tempted to get some but I decided against since we already went drinking earlier that evening but happy to know Hmart now carries this ohohoho and Cosmo World just opened up inside the Hmart and I got alittle too excited over the $1 face masks sheets ;A;

I picked up strawberry, honey, green tea, citrus collagen, lavender and MILK masks. Milk being my favorite gaaaah milk anything <3 font="">

I should now be set for a good week and a half lmao! Assuming I don't get too lazy to not do this...

Last night I attempted to make BREAD for the first time! I probably watched  how many Youtube videos before plunging in to try! My mom keeps telling me that making bread is hard but to try and mimic the bread from Asian bakeries is even more harder! Definitely a lot to learn and some trial and errors a long the way! My first attempt last night was to make Milk Bread, I basically followed the same recipe online if you type in Hokkaido Milk Pan and did some alterations to the recipe. For starters I used a combination between white wheat and All Purpose flour I did a 2:1 ratio of all purpose flour to white wheat. And wheat is still a pretty overwhelming flavor and I noticed it does tend to dry out the bread just a little more. So make sure to make adjustments if you're going to try using wheat! I also added a good helping of powdered milk into the mixture (I actually used Carnation Breakfast Essential in French Vanilla, I highly doubt its real milk powder lol but Carnation does make a /real/ dry milk powder (non-fat) which can be found at the baking isle in most grocery stores. I just used what I had in my pantry.

But tonight's adventure was making CUSTARD PAN! I didn't want to keep going to the store to buy my custard pan which at Nijiya pretty much goes for about $4-5 for a pack of 6 mini breads. But they've got their recipe down to an art - and this is something I'm still working on perfecting! The recipe I followed to make this was the one I found on youtube:

And this is how mine turned out:

Using the same recipe and with the excess dough I had left over, I stuffed the rest with pulled-pork lol and made pork buns! The outide is hard almost crunchy but when you get down to the middle its super soft~

I made some changes on the recipe she posted, I added (again) milk powder / carnation shit lol in the mixture, I also did a Whole White Wheat x All Purpose Flour mixture but this time I used less of the wheat and more of the All Purpose Flour since not everyone in my family likes wheat and I figured I should perfect or get a better handle on making bread before using exclusively wheat bread. I'm thinking its probably the wheat that could be drying out the batter. I should add a bit more liquids maybe that would make a difference...
I also added a good helping of condensed milk into the batter while I was mixing the yeast to milk mixture. (I also used skim milk, I'm assuming if you went with a whole milk option the custard would have come out thicker and your batter would be more plump too) 

On the custard too, I found that mine didn't thicken as much as hers did, I ended up having to add more corn starch to get it to a thicker consistency but still not super thick as hers looked and my mom mentioned that it wasn't as sweet - which I guess depending on your preference you can adjust the sweetness by adding more sugar. I have a cold so it was hard for me to really taste how sweet or bland I was making the custard. But so far no one at home is complaining!  I'm still going to keep browsing to find the perfect soft bun recipe and will continue to try until I get the perfect Hokkaido Milk bun!

D-Plus Natural Yeast bread is my favorite ;A; their green tea, hokkaido cream and coffee are the besssssttt and the chocolate isn't bad! Super soft~ I shove it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds before eating and its just super soft ;A; my mom said they probably use preservatives to keep it super soft qAq depressing orz I guess it makes sense considering their commercial )':

Theres alot of videos on youtube that talk about making chinese buns, so I'll probably look more into them and experiment some more 

White Wheat Milk Cookies

A very very accurate depiction of how I feel this morning LMAO! I woke up at 5-5:30am and crawled out of bed and went to work for dispatching this morning. Did I mention I caught another cold? Maybe this is what I get for commenting that people are weak for catching colds so easily and bitching about it when in reality I'm probably just as bad about it. This is also what we get for not having functioning windows at work LOL their just there to mock us that the outside world is just past a 6" glass window lololol and everyone in the office who have small children is always sick and obviously it effects everyone else in the office. GDI. I dont know how many vitamins I take but its still not enough.  I am terrible congested right now, miserable but at least no sore throat? ;A; I still want to go out after work...but I would like to go home first and clean myself up lol. Or at least change!

Valentines treat to myself lol beauty day?!

 

Mostly because I want to clean up and try on my new babies lmao Yes lashes lashes lashes. I love lashes. I love Park Bom because shes always wearing lashes. I realized I'm not all too fond of the Daiso lashes tbh, the ones with the spikes on them like the gyaru brand Diamond Lashes. The spikes are ok I guess but I always prefer the more full dolly effect of fuller lashes versus the spiked ones. But of course these always look a lot better with circle lenses but I am too sick right now to even really be bothered to stab my eyes with lenses. Not to mention I need to get new ones orz I only have green ones left and an unopened purple ones I'm saving for Melty cosplay....

$6 with free shipping for 10 pairs of lashes. Not bad...and I only waited 2-3 days for them to arrive... I still have a drawer full of diamond lash and daiso ones too lol...I know some people who have a way worse lash addiction because I rarely wear mine (wish I wore them more often but lazyness) BUT IM CLEARLY DIGRESSING FROM THE POINT OF THIS POST.

This week's experiment is making white wheat milk cookies...now why do I call them milk cookies? Well, I added milk powder to them lol...I made some cookies for Valentines and sent them out but I didn't take photos of them. They were just Marshmallow and Sakura flavored cookies. I didn't make enough ): so I was only able to send them to 2 parties. I need to make more so I can some some super belated ones to other friends....maybe they can consider theirs White Day cookies instead lol....

When I make cookies normally I use All Purpose White Flour but I was in the mood to try and experiment since I know cookies are laden with fat, fat and more fatty carbs (which is what makes them oh so yummy! So bad for us!) and also because I always sit here and regret my choices after I devour a white chocolate chip macadamia cookie so in an effort to lessen my guilt by a tiny bit I wanted to try using Wheat flour to add some more goodness. But before I went and doved into making white wheat white chocolate chip macadamia cookies I figured I'd try something else first. 

Now lets assemble the players!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Margarine or Butter

1 Cup White Sugar (I prefer powder sugar since its more fine)

2 Eggs

2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3 Cups Flour (see notes at the bottom regarding white wheat)

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Salt

375 Degrees and bake for 8 Mins. Or till edges brown up

Yields about a good 24 

but if you're cutting them up into shapes, then expect more

Honestly, this is a loose recipe I follow, I always adjust the amount of sugar and flavoring I add on there and sometimes add a little something extra - like almonds or milk powder...etc etc...

This was the first time working with white wheat flour, I thought about using Whole Wheat flour but when I looked more into it, a lot of people suggested using white wheat instead, theres still some experimentation I need to do to find the right ratio between white wheat to all purpose. You DONT want to use ALL white wheat flour for cakes or cookie recipes, their going to turn bread-y and chewy ish and not exactly cookie-ish in texture and would be hard to cut out into shapes even after sitting in the fridge to chill because theres too much gluten in the wheat creating it to be more sticky and bread like. Truth be told these cookies turned out  like short bread style cookies, almost chewy.  A lot of bakers suggest doing 25% White Wheat, 75% All purpose. When I initially measured it all out, I thought of going big or going home. So I did 50-50. Bad idea. Like I mentioned, the batter turned out like dough. I ended up having to add more flour as I tried to roll out the dough so I can even cut them out into shapes. I probably ended up with something a long the lines of 1/2 cup of White Wheat and maybe 3/4 of All purpose flour just to get it to roll out and hold its shape.

You can definitely taste the wheat in these cookies too, so if you're not a fan of wheaty stuff, I suggest using even less wheat in there. I'm going to continue mixing up the recipe to find the perfect ratio oAo but this is my sad attempt at something 'healthier' per se >___>lll   And this recipe also makes the cookies kinda bland, I always end up adding more powder sugar like 1/2 cup more to make it taste a little sweeter and throwing powder sugar over the cookies when their done. So far, none of my friends have complained lol :D which I like to think is a good thing?! lol

Whats with the carnation breakfast powder? oh that, I just threw 2 packets of it into the batter in an attempt to substitute it for milk....and well, you get some good essential vitamins and nutrients in there too right?! lol /gets shot/ I also considered throwing in royal milk tea powder in the mix or any type of powder you want in there for shits and giggles.

I'm going to try baking a cupcake with the white wheat blend in next and see how it turns out :D I normally prefer cookies since they last a little longer versus cupcakes and they ship easier too....

also, note that using wheat on your cookies/cupcakes makes their shelf life shorter too. After the rest of these cookies gets devoured by other people (because Godknwos I wont eat it lol because I shouldn't eat everything I bake lol) I'll try and experimenting White Wheat White Chocolate Chip (macadamia) cookies then moving onto experimenting the white wheat into cupcakes which to be honest I'd imagine would be better as cakes versus cookies? WE SHALL SEE!

Also, I got the White Wheat Flour from Trader Joes. They run at about $2.99 here for a decent sized bag and it will last you for a long time since you won't really be needing to use the entire thing. Maybe I'll make Matcha bread or strawberry bread to try my hand at making those illusive milk bread you usually get at the Asian market using the Tangzhong method...hmm...

200. Matcha Latte!

Photo by: Sifu Renka

For my 200th post on this blog I'll be sharing a Matcha Latte recipe~

now there is  A LOT of variations on making Matcha Latte. And this recipe is something 

I discovered last night and is probably the closest thing you're going to get

to the Starbucks kind...

What you will need:

Matcha Powder! (You can get these from your local Asian markets or online)

Ice Cubes

Agave Sweetener (can get at Target in the sugar isle or Trader Joes) 

or you can use splenda or sugar /:

Vanilla Ice Cream or French Vanilla Creamer
Milk 

Whipped Cream (optional)

Tapioca Balls (optional)

BLENDER! DUH! LOL

*****

Throw all your ingredients together in a blender - I do mine in no specific order
or measurements since I just adjust things to taste.
I personally like a stronger matcha taste to mine so I use about a good teaspoon full

You can use Agave Sweetener, Vanilla Creamer or ICE CREAM as your form of sweetener
or, if you dare, just throw all 3 in. I did it last night and it wasn't too sweet and the ice cream
definitely made it taste / feel smoother and creamier...
but that method is very close to how Starbucks makes their Fraps. Instead of ice cream I was told
 they use WHIP CREAM into their mixes.

but normally, I just throw in a tiny spash of vanilla creamer to get a vanilla ish taste to it
and a bit of agave for a sweetener.

Blend blend blend till its all smooth and transfer it to a glass with tapioca balls at the bottom
and finish it off with Whip Cream! (again, all is optional. I usually skip all that lol)

***

Photo by: jKatYo

Want a hot version of this drink?

Heat up a cup of milk over the stove in medium heat
Add matcha powder
whisk till powder is dissolved
Add Agave Sweetener or Honey
Optional: French Vanilla Creamer

Then enjoy!

But if you REALLY wanna be bad...

In a stove over medium heat, throw in some WHITE CHOCOLATE with cream
mix till the chocolate is completely dissolved and mixed in.
In another bowl, a small cup of milk and matcha mix together till it is dissolved.
If you want a vanilla infused flavor with it, throw in a stick of vanilla pod or mix with a bit of vanilla creamer
Again whisk till everything is mixed  together.
Combined both ingredients.
Garnish with whip cream and matcha powder ontop :D
 for this, you can skip the sweetener  if its too sweet (considering your already using cream AND chocolate)

***

Pair these with some Matcha Cookies~ Click here for the simple - easy and lazy recipe LOL

CHERRY VANILLA COOKIES! and instagram diary

Havent updated in a while, life has been crazy ): not necessarily in a good way! April 7th's Sakura photoshoot is coming up and agh! I had to cancel the Basara shoot due to problems ):

but hopefully we make it to the Howl's Moving Castle photoshoot this weekend and I also need to finish Kenshin and Matoba for the Sakura shoot next weekend! Argh! no breaks! Time to work work work work!

My friends are coming over tomorrow to sell our souls to the sewing Gods once more and do some crazy insane work lol....(and some monopoly just for lols) I need to finish some Hakama's, Howl's shirt and Matoba's entire costume! Ahh! I wonder if I even have time to go to the Swap Meet or am I going to be forced to use what I have lol?! eeek!!! we'll see! ahh! lol. Good bye sleep ;A;ll

Sorry, no NICE DSLR photo dump for now but hola~ instagram diary LMAO

but for starters, new recipe! Lol, a new flavor experiment! For this weeks experiment, I wanted to try making CHERRY VANILLA COOKIES, which I might later convert to a cupcake recipe as well...but I wanted to try something new in spirit of the Sakura Shoot~ lol. Since my SAKURA Extract isnt here yet that I ordered from Japan ):

I went on a quest to try and find CHERRY FLAVOR EXTRACT. But I couldntt find any at my lunch break and was not in the mood to drive all the way to the place where I normally get my flavor oils...and While perusing the isle of Albertsons I ran into these Dunken Hines flavor starters?...Where you mix it with their frostings to get new flavors and they just so happen to have Cherry Vanilla. These are powdered flavorings - I read the ingredients in the back. So I figured, I could probably use this. And it worked! :D Lets move on~

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (You can add more if you want. I personally add a few more drops than what it asks for since i want the vanilla to be very pronounced)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

1 Packet of Dunken Hines flavoring

• Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 8 minutes.

Tips:

I Like to sift all my dry ingredients together and mix all the dry ingredients together. I made the mistake of mixing the flavoring last and it did not blend the color and flavor as well as I wanted and I ended up having to drop a few drops of pink coloring to attain a more cherry vanilla color.

ALSO. As you can tell, they look like pieces of meat LAWL. Coz I did NOT roll them out thin enough and used a tiny 'star' shaped cookie cutter /: so they did not come out as nicely as I wanted and the coloring looked pretty off.

Went shopping with my mom and sister last weekend, my sister came down from Berkeley for her spring break and we went to Mac and Sephora. I got a free sephora gift - the Rose lip tint balm thingie. But ah, I forgot to photograph. I gave my mom the none colored one as well.

Got new mascara to try out- apparently its suppose to help make your lashes grow thicker and etc. LOL! Speaking of lashes~ I want to order some lashes from ebay!

I got a new MAC concealer since the other one I have is a shade or 2 too light and are only really good on my under eye circles. This one is a shade meant for my discoloration and acne scars ):

seriously, a TINY drop is MORE than enough, its insane!

my moisturizer from the BODY SHOP just wasnt cutting it out for me anymore and I felt my skin was dry and I keep getting dry patches everywhere and thats a NONO! Ironic since most of the time my skin is OILY! ): d'oh. I was eyeing the Philosophy moisturizer and I had a sample packet from it before, I didnt like that it felt like it was stinging >__> my face so I decided to go with Clinique instead. I got the travel size version (for $13?....) to try out versus getting the bigger bottle version ;A;ll!! I normally dont wear moisturizer so I dont want to invest in something super expensive and not really use it as much orz.

So far so good!

Printed these 'business cards' to use at Anime Conji but I ended up leaving the con early orz and didnt really get to network or even take pictures since it was just RAINING. no. it was a STORM. and I was SOAKED =A= when I attempted to be a warrior and shoot with my friend outside. Orz. but hey, atleast I got 'cards' now LOL!

My new raburabu guilty pleasure from Tapioca Express <3 MATCHA MILK TEA. HNNGG too bad the boba shops near my house doesnt exactly have matcha milk tea. You also have the option to get this sweetened or not. I might attempt to make my own LOL. Just coz.

Maybe I'll use half x half or condensed milk?...hmm...I should have asked what they used to sweeten it orz but zomfg. Amazing. LOL.

New powder since my NYX one broke and I couldnt wait to go to Mac to get a new powder. nor did I want to spend $25 on a new powder LOL....

I've heard good things from Physicians Formula and opted to try this, its a 3-in-1 powder. Primer, Color Corrector and foundation/shine control :o hmm sold! and I like that it feels SUPER light on the skin- if anything it probably makes my skin feel softer LMAO!

They dont have alot of shades but thankfully enough I can work with this lol. Not complaining! it was less than my NYX powder and does not leave my skin cakey!

My default lip wear. I envy girls who can wear light pink shades. I always stick to the nudes and rosey pinks and nudy pinks....and tbh. I dont really wear them half the time =A=ll

A selca from a while ago /: grow hair grow....