Greenzonelife

I know I’ve been lazy lately writing on the blog but I got preoccupied with knitting, reading and many other DIY projects. But today I have to tell you about my very first bread machine sourdough bread.

I have a sourdough starter that I keep in the fridge and feed and use it once in a while. I played around several times to bake different things so now I thought is the right time to try and bake a sourdough bread in my bread machine.

So I took out my starter and start feeding it every 12 hours for 3 days (it has not been used for a longer period of time and needed to be strong enough to make a decent bread)

When I got the right quantity of starter, I took about 2 cups from it – my starter has the consistency of a soft dough, the one that you can mix with a spoon – added a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar and some olive oil, than put about 2 cups of flour and some water just to get a dough that is not too hard, I never measure the things exactingly, but the dough should be a bit softer than the usual bread dough.

After a light mix I put the dough in the bread machine and program it on the white bread setting (about 3.5 hours – with 3 rising cycles)

In the end I got a perfect bread, just like the one made with yeast but a bit more delicious 🙂

Next time I will play more, adding different type of flours, nuts, seeds… 🙂

Happy bread baking!

When I first saw this recipe I knew I had to do it. They looked to me like energy bars – considering the filling, but in a very pretty presentation. You can read more about them here.

There are many types of Mooncakes, depending on the filling you choose to put in them. I choose the five-nuts version. The original recipe is here, but as you already know me I modified a bit the recipe to suit the ingredients I had.

The most important part of these cookies is the mold, you can make them without it but they wouldn’t be as pretty 🙂

I found mine on amazon

Now for the cookies, there are two parts: the crust and the filling. I made my crust using: 75 g honey, 35 g oil, 10 g water and 150 g flour.

For the filling I used: 45 g walnuts, 45 g almonds, 160 g seeds mix (sunflower, sesames, pumpkin), 75 g glutinous rice flour, 30 g honey, 30 g oil, 25 g sugar, 30 g water.

The filling must be sticky and easy to form into balls

that will be then covered with the crust

This recipe is for 10 cookies, so I formed 10 balls and 10 pieces of crust. Covering the filling balls with the crust require a bit of attention because the crust is a very thin layer.

Then I put the ball into the mold, gently press to form the cakes and then push it out

They already look pretty 🙂

After finishing all 10 cookies I made a eggwash from one egg yolk and a tablespoon of water

I baked the cakes in a hot oven for 5 min, take them out and bush them with the eggwash, put them back for another 5 min but at lower heat and take them out again for a second eggwash, than put them back for another 10 min or until they become golden

Take them out on a rack to cool down

and serve only one ! they are calorie bombs 🙂

but they are so yummmmy

Who need energy bars when you can have Mooncakes made at home 🙂

They are perfect for a sweet treat or to be taken with you on trips.

Happy cooking !