#bread

Cornbread is not a common food here in this part of Southeast Asia, but we love a good, warm buttery slice of cornbread when it’s served as a side dish in American-style restaurants. If you're thinking to emulate the ever famous Gardenia's popular cornbread, you're on the right page! Today, we have a great homemade cornbread recipe that guarantees moist and buttery bites, with slightly crisp and burnt edges and tops. If we’re being honest, the edges are our favourite! Our number one way to eat cornbread is drizzled with a little warm honey or dipped in honeyed butter. Just delicious!

Craving for more bread recipes? This ought to hit the spot: Homemade Foccacia recipe, Spinach Bread, Cloud Bread and more!

We’ve all been there: it’s a quiet Sunday and the idea of filling your homely walls with the smells of fresh bakes wafts (pun-intended) through your mind. How about a basic chocolate cake? Can’t go wrong with that right? You pore over every detail in the recipe, and head to the supermarket to get your ingredients. Brimming with excitement, you whip out your trusty Kenwood stand mixer that has always been there for you - and you follow all the recipe instructions to a T. Yet, your creations somehow just look like they popped out of an “expectations VS reality” compilation. It’s just not what you expected! Well, baking requires almost scientific precision, and with some trial and error, common baking issues are easy to rectify. Get enough practice and improve your technique, and you might find that your chocolate cake disaster was nothing more than a fun lesson in baking. Here are some common baking issues you may face in your baking journey, and some tips and tricks to resolve them.

Cracks on the cake

A cake splitting on top is due to the crust forming too early, while the insides of the cake continue to cook and rise. An oven that is too hot is the likely culprit. Using the right-sized baking pan plays a part, too. Too large and the cake batter spread too thinly and heats up too quickly. Too small and the cake is baked unevenly. The trick lies in placing the cake on the middle rack of the oven to prevent cracks from forming. Or if you have a small oven, put some foil over the tin before putting the cake in the oven.

Cake sinks in the middle

There are four possibilities to this problem of cake sinking

Raise your hand if you feel intimidated by the thought of baking your own bread — even with easy bread recipes on hand! It’s no secret that bread making is a bit of a science, and requires lots of love and patience too. Fortunately, today we’re exploring a type of bread that you might say is a bit of a ‘hack’. Flatbread! Flatbread is obviously, bread that is flat. But it only requires only an hour of rising action, before you can top this bread dough off with all the ingredients you love. Think of it a little like pizza dough – just more bread-like and chewy! Today’s bread recipe is a favourite with families because you can literally add anything you love. Sausage slices, chunks of gooey cheese, mixed herbs, sliced asparagus, sea salt, luncheon meat, the list goes on. We’re feeling hungry already. Enjoy this recipe, friends!

Perfectly crusty, soft, and just a little bit tangy on the inside – sourdough bread is great for sandwiches, dipping into creamy soups, or just good enough with a slab of salted butter. This recipe is a continuation of our first recipe on making your own sourdough starter. If you’ve managed to make your own – congratulations! Just before you rush to use your starter, do a quick check:

Is my starter ready to be used?

It is best to use the starter when it is at its peak height (look for when it’s doubled in size) during the rising and falling stages of growth. Do this test to ensure it’s ready for use: Mix your starter to distribute bubbles evenly then drop a spoonful of starter into a bowl of water. If it floats, it’s ready to go. But if it drops to the bottom, allow it to rest for a few hours longer. And if you’re still feeling antsy, do a quick smell check: Your starter should smell sweet and slightly sour, and be light in colour. If the starter begins to turn pink, green, or dark brown that goes beyond the surface of the starter then that’s a sign of bad bacteria growth so the starter should be discarded. This recipe makes 2 hefty loaves of sourdough bread.

It’s 2021, and while we can’t wait to bid 2020 goodbye with a little too much enthusiasm, it has been the year where you, your oven and your kitchen grew that little bit closer. While you stayed home and missed the opportunity to travel the world, visit friends and families, and savour delicious baked goods from around the world, it sure didn’t dampen your make the best of the situation and become that skilful home baker you were always destined to be. So don’t go thinking: just how much flour did I go through this year? (The answer is: a lot) Instead, with the upcoming year full of quality time to spend with your kitchen again, think of what you loved to bake, what you want to make this year, and whether you have a community of people celebrating just the same recipes as you. Here are the top 5 recipes our readers just loved in 2020.

Sourdough Loaf

Ah, the good old classic. Sourdough is the ultimate form of bread making. It takes a lot of patience, planning in advance, and many attempts for the perfect loaf. But that also makes the result that much more satisfying for novice home bakers. What are you waiting for? Get started on a starter now!

Puteri Ayu Pandan

Working from home during those warm tropical afternoons definitely gets you restless and craving a yummy snack now and then. It’s no wonder this fragrant pandan-infused mini sponge cakes made the list! Easy to make, perfect for snacking, and a nostalgic favourite of Ramadan bazaar lovers.

Kuih Tapak Kuda

Chocolate-y, fluffy, and delicious. This all-time favourite Raya treat was a hit with our home bakers in 2020. It’s no wonder, when you can switch up the chocolate filling for hazelnut cream, coco

First question: What is Stollen? Some people think it's fruitcake, but it's not. Neither is it a fruit and nut loaf. The best way to describe it is like a light, buttery scone packed with bits of dried fruit and powdered with icing sugar on top. It also has a strong, scented almond flavour thanks to loads of almonds and marzipan going into the dough. This wonderful recipe is made using a Kenwood Chef, which is perfect to chop your almonds, combine your ingredients and give you a smooth, elastic dough to work with. Second question: What is marzipan and where do I get it? Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar or honey and almond meal, sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is sometimes known as almond paste. You can get marzipan in more international supermarkets or e-grocers.

The tastes of olives and artichokes are the heroes of this homemade Focaccia bread that can be served as a hearty appetiser or a satisfying breakfast treat. If you don't have artichokes, sundried tomatoes, rosemary, red onion, cucumber and even spinach greens would do perfect! Your imagination and tastebuds are the limit here. This recipe creates a soft, chewy Focaccia and is complemented by a generous topping of herbs and garlic.

For the fresher, healthier, and more colourful alternative to your white bread. It is beneficial to those having high cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure or issues with obesity. This recipe also uses a pullman pan/tin to help with creating a flat-sided loaf. You'll be making about 3 loaves.

Best enjoyed with some cream cheese or butter! Everyone's making banana bread these days, so we've aggregated the best recipes here. You can make some moist banana bread with overripe bananas in a simple recipe with just 6 ingredients. You don’t even need a stand mixer. The sweetness of the bananas gives it pretty much all its flavour, so make sure they are overripe and good to go. If it's a family affair, get your kids to mash the banana and whisk the eggs. Do not skip any steps or you’ll end up with a sub-par result! The eggs must be room temperature and the butter must be softened but not melted into a liquid. You can refrigerate these cakes for later consumption. Some say they taste even better cold. We went a step further and added sliced bananas on top. Here's how you do it - slice a ripe banana lengthwise and place it face down in some brown sugar. Before your mixture goes in the oven, gently place the cut banana, brown sugar side facing UP, and pop it in the over. The brown sugar will caramelize and look just lovely!

Craving for more bread recipes? This ought to hit the spot: Homemade Foccacia recipe, Spinach Bread, Cloud Bread and more!

Coffee, coffee, coffee. One thing that we all probably have in common is the love for the fragrant, nutty and flavourful drink. Apart from loving a good old caffeine boost, coffee lovers take their love for the bean one step further by knowing exactly what type of coffee they love, their preferred cafe beverage and even find themselves drawn to foods for a perfect pairing with their drink. We can all agree that coffee bears a strong distinct scent that is immediately recognisable, and can easily overpower anything it's accompanied with - this makes it important to choose the perfect dessert, dish, or treat to match your drink with! For all you coffee lovers, we’ve got in store a slew of recipes just for you (and your nutty, fragrant cup of joe)! A fluffy morning coffee cake, a coffee jelly to add to your mid-day beverages, kopi roti and more!

Morning Coffee Cake

Contrary to its name, a coffee cake doesn’t actually have coffee in it, but instead, is named for how it accompanies your cup of coffee perfectly in the morning. This morning coffee cake comes with a crunchy walnut and sugar crumb at the top, and is perfect for families with young children. Ingredients:

• 115g butter, softened
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 150g plain yogurt