Heating Up Pan Dulce

As we tried to google up the other recognized term for Pan Dulce, we found out that these sweet baked goods were generally originated from Mexico. Easily defined as a sweet bun which have been topped off with sweetened streusel topping, best yet, traditional ones were pretty colorful. The Mexicans christened these sweet buns as Mexican Sweet Bun. And obviously, Mexican Buns does not only refer to the very famous Roti Boy. Roti Boy, buns filled with melted butter and coffee flavored streusel topping were surprisingly part of these Mexican Sweet Bun. There were hundreds when one speak of the colored toppings and shapes. More samples of Mexican Sweet Buns from this link; Rico Pan Dulce. As for the recipes, click here; Pan Dulce's recipe.


As the bread dough were proofing, we got ourselves into topping-making. Two toppings and one portion of bread dough. No fillings were incurred as we were out of time - Fatass Michelle needs to prepare for her college's stuffs.


This is down to the sweet vanilla streusel topping with white icing and the other was the coffee flavored streusel sprinkled with colorful chocolate rice. Coffee topping were spread onto the proofed bun, followed by the colorful chocolate rice.


Within an hour and the half, the Pan Dulce With Coffee Topping were done.


Next up, the Pan Dulce With Vanilla Topping.


The vanilla streusels were rubbed with fingertips, onto the surface of the unbaked bun in order to looked as crumbly as possible.


Once baked, it was cooled on a wire rack.


Icing were made and spooned into a piping bag. By using a small round shaped nozzle, the piping begins. Patterns varies.


Some were perfect; with beautiful swirls which is good enough to catch some unwanted attention.


While some others looked sperminated. (*Devilish Grin*). Hmm, this calls for more food porn. x)

Speaking Of Homer...

When Homer Simpsons go D'OH!,


we'll go nuts.


Well, we've been buying dozens, every visit taken to Big Apple Donuts And Coffee. We enjoyed dining in the place since we can actually get a sneak peek of their way of making and frying these freshly cooked doughnuts. Serving the crowds a big ol piece of glazed doughnut for samples, we must say that; that's very generous of them. We have been a group of avid Dunkin Donut's craver since we knew the way to venture our taste bud. But then, nothing's perfect. We'll be standing on both sides though.


We favor Dunkin's and the other; Big Apple's. By comparing, it's obvious that prices does not really differ much though the sizes of each individuals isn't the same. Dunkin's had bigger and more bread-like texture doughnuts. On the other hand, Big Apple's had a fluffier, airy and crispier doughnuts.


As for the creative mind award, it'll definitely be Big Apple's, as they had loads of variations. For instance, Duran Duran, the one with Durian cream and artificial spikes and some others like the one; with oreo cookie crumbs, cheese, kiwi flavored jam and etcetera. Speaking of glazings and creams, we'll definitely be rooting on Dunkin's. Dunkin's creams and glazes are thicker in terms of liquidity, and slightly sweeter.


A great doughnut should be airy, fluffy, crispy on the outside, filled with thick and lucious sweetened cream with a hint of a detectable flavoring; our food for thoughts. We want meaty fillings for doughnuts, that's what we usually called for. On once occasion, we tried playing with play dough aka bread dough, trying out our newly learned bread-twisting skills.


Since we wanted meaty doughnuts, we opt for the mini sausages and curry chicken as its fillings. For the former idea, we wrapped the frozen and boneless curry chicken with an appropriate amount of bread dough. Then, after proofing for some time, it was time to coat the breadcrumbs onto the enlarged filled dough.


This is cheeky, because there's a need to handle these proofed dough with care. We dipped them into a bowl of lukewarm water and roll them onto the breadcrumbs to coat their surface.


By then, it can be cooked on a deep pan, on a low heat. While frying, turn these meaty doughnuts over and over to prevent excess browning.


The outcome of the Curry Chicken Doughnut; hmm, best served warm. (*Chuckles*)


Next, the leftover dough were used up to wrap the mini sausages for some Mini Sausage Rolls.


The same process repeats. Proofing.


Coating.


And none the less, frying. The kids loves the crunchy breadcrumbs, but not the sausages. They even commented that we should get a better tasting sausages.


Oh D'oh!

Lavender Or Cocoa?

As appetizers, feast this!


This baby here do really reminds us of Colby, the red Miniature Pinscher.


Before my arrival here, Colby had been the prince and a baby to Fatass Michelle.


The perky ears of Colby stands out from the rest of his body parts, and that is how that mini attracted Fatass. Perky ears equals handsome.


One might wonder where on earth is he now. Happy to bark that he's been sent away due to his yappy and horny attitude, for that; he have been molesting Missy each and every day, and I've been taking over his role as Fatass's baby ever since then. (*Devilish Lame Signature Grin*)


We've been slacking off every now and then. And great to know that while we're typing this, we've totally forgotten that Pan Dulce is still heating up in the oven. Not for long, we'll be sinking our teeth into those C-grade Pan Dulce in a grosteque manner. As for today's long winded paw printed post, we'll get back to the basics; which is most likely making easy breezy pretty cookies. It might not be as pretty as the IT thing for now; cupcakes. Fatass Michelle and I got ourselves into mixing the lavender cookies dough and the chocolate infused truffles cookie dough.


As for the Lavender Cookies, the aroma was fairly too strong though only half a tablespoon of dried lavenders were added into the dough.


That is the actual starting point that we realized that Fatass had her own doggy sense too. From that cookie onwards, lavender is a no-no for the two of us. We choked whenever the baked cookie were placed under our nostrils.


After surfing throughout the net, we learn that the sugar needed for the cookie dough can be stored with half tablespoon of dried lavenders for a couple of days. By then, the sugar will be used as part of the lavender cookie's ingredient while the dried lavenders will be omitted and could be used again. Then, the aroma of the cookie wouldn't be real strong.


To make these dainty looking cookies looked a edible and pwetty, we topped them off with colored sugar. Any type of sugar will make them looked good - from coarse to super fine sugars. As lavenders are purple, there's no doubt that we, smart asses would be mixing the color purple with the sugars. A cup of sugar were mixed with 2-3 drops of one's favorable choice of coloring.


On the unbaked cookie dough, one can sprinkle the colored sugar on the cookie's surface. If time allows, you might want to try to sprinkle only one part of it. To create a contrast heart-shaped pattern, we used a smaller heart-shaped cookie cutter to assist the entire decorating process. The baked cookies turned out great. The cookie itself was buttery and tasted like traditional shortbread. But... There's always a BUT... My bad; as we've not planned to substitute the dried lavenders with the so called lavender-sugar.


Moving on, we tried our hands on Truffle Cookies, which came out wonderfully like rocky roads. Thumbs up for its texture and the cocoa aroma. A good quality of cocoa powder were used so that it tasted like the actual truffle. The dough was rolled into a bowl of icing sugar and was covered thickly with it.


The cookie deforms during the baking session begins, which is a pretty daunting sight. It should be like asteroids or shall we say it should be in the form of rounded rocky shape. It should be... (*Frowns*)


Thanks to Fatass lame instinct, we've gotten ourselves a flatter edible dirty looking asteroid. The truffle cookies should be taken out from the oven earlier. Baking it for a lesser time will help in retaining its rocky cum round shape though. (*Frowns Again*)


Like the old adage goes; do not judge a book by its cover. And it do relates for this C-grade baby truffle here; do not judge a cookie by its appearances. It tasted very much like a truffle. Since it's a truffle cookie, it is less sweeter than the real truffle is. The kids love them, simply because the chocolatey and chewy texture. (*Smiles*)

August Is Definitely Gay

We've been counting and marking the calendars with red markers from time to time. Nothing to do with the excruciating PMS. In fact, there were so many August babes; that sometimes we lost count! Starting from Reneh (4th of August) to Molly and Amy (31st of August). There were plenty in the mid of that particular happy month. Best yet, the day of our very re-owned Independence Day which falls on the 31st.


Hence, we came up with a small batch of vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla cream and buttercream whereby its designs resembles Malaysia; Merdeka Cupcakes.


As time and schedule becomes more hectic than the usual, we've jumped into the bandwagon.


And that is clearly understood why we would only choose the one and only vanilla buttercream rather than the other flavorings. Red buttercream were piped onto the fluffy whipped cream as to resembles the red horizontal lines of Malaysia's flag. Next, we laid our paws into kneading sugarpaste.


Blue sugarpaste resembles a part of the flag. While on the other hand, the magenta dough of sugarpaste were used for the the crescent moon and star symbols. The star were cut out of a star nozzle as the cupcakes were real mini.


After drying the sugarpaste for some time, the hardened sugarpaste were placed on the top of the cupcakes.


And there goes our afternoon naps; happily brainstorming these Merdeka babies. On the same day, we've sketch out Molly's and Malar's cake-to-be and gather info about the few cakes that she'll love. After some quick doggy naps, we recalled that she told us that she's a velvet cheesecake fanatic. Henceforth, we combined the idea of cheesecake and her favorite fruit of all; mangoes!



And here goes the Mango Mirror Cheesecake for Molly and Malar!

Crust;
250g digestive biscuit; crushed into fine crumbs
125g butter; melted

Fillings;
500g cream cheese; let sit in room temperature to softened
120g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
3 tablespoons corn flour
200ml milk
100g mango puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. For the crust, combine and mix the crushed biscuit with melted butter. Press this crust-mixture into the bottom of the 9 inch of a springform pan. Set aside.
2. For the filling, beat cream cheese and sugar till soft and creamy with an electric mixer. Add in eggs; one at a time and beat till incorporated; to avoid curdles. Beat in the milk, corn flour, mango puree and vanilla extract till well combined. Pour mixture into the prepared springform pan (which refers to the pan in instruction no.1).
3. Bake in preheated oven of 160''C for about 40 to 50 minutes. When the cheesecake is baked, the top of it is firm when touched lightly.



Topping;
400ml water
30g instant jelly powder
50g mango puree
50g caster sugar

1. For the topping, combine water, instant jelly powder, mango puree and caster sugar on a saucepan. On a low heat, stir constantly till sugar had dissolved. Bring to boil for 5 minutes.
2. Set aside and cool slightly. Pour onto the baked mango cheesecake although the liquid is still warm.
3. Store the cheesecake with its springform pan in the refrigerator for about 4 hours before taking off the springform pan.


As for the decorations; it's up to each individual's creativity. Decorations were made once after the 4 hours cooling sessions; once the pan has taken out. By then, it is time to transfer the whole cake onto the cake cardboard.


As for Molly's Mango Mirror Cheesecake, we used the mango flesh to garnish the cheesecake. Only one mango is needed. Mango's flesh were sliced vertically with a fruit peeler to obtain the longest layer from the mango. After slicing, fold the mango slices with fingers whereby each hollowed holes is approximately the size of a thumb. Then, freeze the mango slices in the freezer for about 10 minutes for easy handling.


Next, we topped the cake with whipped whipping cream. Then, the extra whipping cream were piped into the hollowed holes of the mango slices.


This came down to arranging the mango slices filled with cream onto the whipping cream.


For perfection, brush the apricot glaze onto the mango slices.


Voila! The entire cheesecake.


Next, the message-piping session; which reads out; Happy Birthday To Molly And Malar.


The cheesecake is best eaten cold. Yet, it is advisable that the cheesecake had to be chilled before serving as the crust will crumbles easily. Once the cake were done, we refrigerate it overnight, with the box of course; for hygiene purpose. Off to work then!


On the very next day which is the 30th, after our working hours, we managed to grab some heavy Thai-supper at a small lot in Taman Teratai. Opposite Klinik Saraya & Surgeri. Although it's a small stall with no air conditioner, there were much customers willingly waiting for their food. Not surprising as their Thai food were great and suits our liking. Ratings; 8 out of 10. Besides, it's affordable and best of all, it stimulates our appetite.


The best dishes that we've tried were none the other than their super thick and tasty Tom Yam Soup which costs us only about RM10 for a pot (which is for 3-4 person), Thai style beancurd, Sotong Ball aka Calamari Ball and their varieties of fried rice. Shots can be hardly taken as Fatass and her colleagues which included Molly, Malar and Moon, were sweating out for more Thai-food. Here's some;


Molly's favorite; Thai-style beancurd.


Mango Chicken; which most of us prefer its crunchy skin rather than the white meats.


Thai-style clams.


The usually-ordered-dish; Chili with water spinach or best known as; belacan with kangkung.


Best calamari ball aka sotong ball we've ever eaten! There are real big calamaris in it.


Their dish which consists of big ol fishes were sold at the range of RM18-RM30. Their Thai-style fried fish were not too bad though. After the heavy supper, the girls headed back to the big ol van for some unofficial cake cutting ceremony for both Molly and Malar.


Everyone was full, hence, only the fattest ass had a piece out of it. Fatass. =)


Whenever there's 'unofficial', there must be the existence of the other which is 'official'. Her official cake cut-out were held in Neway; with the help of the main organizer; Reneh and her hubby. The celebration of the Merdeka eve were celebrated in the same place too. Fun-filled day though it's a bit hectic to us. Lastly, a BIG buttday shoutout to Molly and Malar; Happy Buttday girls!!!