Bagel

Last year I found out to be pregnant and so happy! But during my pregnancy I had no problem with any food but sweets!!! So I did not feel to cook any and either write this blog. Naturally the body changes and only accepts what baby needs?

Anyway my baby was born without any problem and I started to feel to eat sweets again. It makes me happy but I read an article about "Glycation", which is one of biggest cause of aging(>_<). So for me and for my baby, I try to cook sweets with less calorie and sugar.

Today I made Bagel I hooked on recently.

<Recipe>

Flour                  150g
Whole wheat　　100g
Dry yeast            　5g
Salt  　　　　　　　　5g
Beet sugar　　　　12g
Water　　　　　　140g

1.　Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix them.
2.　Once mixed, put the dough on the board and knead it until it becomes smooth (around 15min).
3.　Roll the dough into a ball, put it back in the bowl with the film, and leave it to be fermented (around 1hour to be double).
4.　Punch the dough down, cut it into 4 pieces and roll them into a ball.
5.　Leave them for 10 min.
6.　Press the dough to flatten, fold 1/3 of top and down to the centre, close the seam using the fingers  and roll the dough into a shape of a rod.
7.　Joint the both ends to make a circle (wrap one end with another end).
8.　Prepare 4 of 10cmX10cm cooking sheet and place each dough on it.
9.　Boil water in a pan with 20g of sugar and boil the dough with cooking sheet (1min per side).
10.　Drain off the water and bake them in the oven with 200℃ for 15 minutes.

If you cannot find beet sugar, you can use sugar but I recommend to try maple syrup.
You can replace 10g of flour with 1 table spoon of cocoa, matcha, hojicha powder etc. to enjoy different taste.

Try lots of variations of filling as well♪

Bon profit!!!

Macrobiotic Strawberry Cupcake full of Strawberries

As I made big quantity of strawberry pure the other day, I have decided to bake Macrobiotic Strawberry Cupcake full of Strawberries.

This oil-free sponge is low in calories, and doughy like steamed cake due to rice flour.

＜Recipe＞

－Cake－
Rice flour 　　　            100g
Strong flour 　　　　　　　20g
Baking powder 　　           2 tea spoons
Salt　　　　　　　　　　　　   a pinch

Soy milk　　　　　           30g
Strawberry pure 　　　　120g
Maple syrup 　　        　　70g
1.　Mix all sifted flours in a bowl.
2.　Mix all liquid ingredients in another bowl.
3.　Add 2 to 1 and mix them.
4.　Pour the mixture in 6 molds for muffins and bake them in a oven with 170℃ for around 30 minutes.

－Soy milk cream－
Soy milk 　　　              150g
Strawberry pure            150g
Kanten 　　　　　　　           3 tea spoons
Maple syrup 　　             45g
Rice syrup                      45g
kudzu　　　　　　　           15g
Salt                                a pinch

1.　Put all ingredients in a pan and heat it while stirring with a spatula for 3 minutes.
2.　Pour 1 in a plate and leave it to be cooled.
3.　Once cooled, stir with mixer or beater to make the smooth cream.
Squeeze the cream out on the cooled cupcakes.

It is just me who think this pink colour cake is so cute??? (At least my husband doesn't)

Bon profit!!!

Macrobiotic Cupcakes

I had been trying several Macrobiotic cake recipes, and this time I decided to make Cupcakes, which were also very popular in Spain.
Cupcakes are sooooooooooo cute! With so many colour! (Mine didn't come out like that though...)
So, if I pass by some shops with Cupcakes, my eyes are fixed upon those colourful, lovely cakes, and I am drawn to them. But normally those cute & colourful cream are butter one, which are not my favorite, so I am disappointed once I bite it. I should love butter cream!
But, if it is macrobiotic one, the cream is not butter one but soy milk! I didn't have any food colouring, so I made 2 colours with Matcha and Cocoa.
Obviously I need to practice the decoration, but soy milk cream was quite nice, and it was my first time, so I should be fine with them.

＜Recipe＞

－Cake－
Whole wheat flour 　　　30g
Wheat flour 　　　　　　　60g
Almond powder    　　　30g
Baking powder      　　    2 tea spoons
Salt　　　　　　　　　　　　  a pinch

Olive oil            　　　　　25g
Soy milk  　　　　　　　　125g
Maple syrup         　　　　60g
Vanilla essence　　　         2 tea spoons

1.　Mix all sifted flours in a bowl.
2.　Mix all liquid ingredients in another bowl.
3.　Add 2 to 1 and mix them.
4.　Pour the mixture in 6 molds for muffins and bake them in a oven with 170℃ for around 20 minutes.

－Soy milk cream－
Soy milk     　　　 300g
kudzu　　　　　　　  12g
Kanten  　　　　　　　3g
Maple syrup     　　70g
Vanilla essence　　  2 tea spoons

1.　Put all ingredients in a pan and heat it while stirring with a spatula for 3 minutes.
2.　Pour 1 in a plate and leave it to be cooled.
3.　Once cooled, stir with mixer or beater to make the smooth cream.

* If you want to have different colour or taste, you can add Matcha, Cocoa etc. when you stir the cream with mixer or beater.
I added 1 tea spoon of Matcha, and 2 tea spoons of Cocoa.

And squeeze the cream out on the cupcakes once cooled.

Bon profit!!!

My first Macrobiotic Cake

One morning, I heard the doorbell, so I answered. It was Post office staff and she informed me of the arrival of a packet from Japan.
It was a gift from my friend and I was asked to pay around 30 euros to recieve it! What??? It was a GIFT! But she explained that the regulation had changed some years ago and now we had to pay the tax even it was a gift. Moreover, I had to pay the exact amount, fortunately my neighbors could change money and I could. (If we do not have the exact amount, we have to go back to the post office!)

As I was so unhappy, I started checking on the internet and then I found the info with NEW!!! mark in Correos(Post office) HP. According this, even gifts are subjected to a custom duty, if they are from outside EU and have value of more than 45 euros. Shock...
Is there any other countries where we should pay to receive a gift???
Spain is suffering from budget deficit and the goverment want to exploit our small salary, but maybe they don't need to do something small like a gift???
If your family or your friends are planning to send something to you in Spain, please be carefull in order to avoid any surprise!

Well, sorry for lengthy preamble, today I tried to make Macrobiotic Cake, which I had been interested in. As you may know, we can use only vegetable material for Macrobiotic food, and I was wondering if cakes without eggs would be nice or not and some materials were difficult to get. But finally I got a recipe book and all ingredients, including TOFU from Tofu-ya in Barcelona, so now only what I should do was to move into action!

As Spring had arrived, thinking about detox, I decided to make Matcha Strawberry Cake, filled with lots of Vitamin C ♪

Sponge.

Decorated with TOFU cream and strawberries.

Finish!

Inside.

I felt that TOFU cream had quite TOFU taste, but the cake was recieved well by my friends who agreed to be guinea pig (conejillo de Indias in Spanish).

This time I made them accorging to the recipe book, so I just explaine the ingredients I used.

Sponge： Wheat flour, whole-wheat, baking powder, salt, sesami oil, maple syrop, soy milk, vanilla essence, matcha
TOFU cream： Momen tofu, soy milk, apple juice, rice syrop, maple syrop, kanten, kuzu powder, vanilla essence

In the future, I will create my own recipe and introduce.

Bon profit!!!

Matcha Daifuku with Strawberry

WAGASHI(Japanese Sweets) is also something we want but cannot find easily in Spain.

If we get intense cravings for ANKO(red/white bean paste), we can go to a convenience store, grab KUSHIDANGO or DORAYAKI and satisfy it even in the middle of the night if we are in Japan, but not in Spain.
（Speaking which, one day it happened to me, so I called my brother who was on his way home and asked to buy something with ANKO, then what I received was... A CAN of TSUBUAN! TSUBUAN is ANKO itself, then if I say I want to eat ANKO, TSUBUAN can be the one but couldn't he find anything else, like, as I said, KUSHIDANGO or DORAYAKI??? Anyway I ate it...)

Last year a take out Japanese food shop opened in my neighborhood and I was informed that they were selling DAIFUKU, so I ran into the shop and bought one! But the one I got was something cheapie and flozen like those we would get at souvenir shop at country side.

So if we want, we have to make it!

Using SHIRATAMAKO(rice flour) I bought in JAPAN, I made Matcha Daifuku with Strawberry.

As I had SHIROAN(white bean paste), I added Matcha and made Matcha AN, which had beautiful colour and good smell.
I prepared Japanese tea and enjoyed a happy Tea Time♪

Photo provided by The Matcha House

＜Recipe＞

SHIRATAMAKO　  150ｇ
Water           　　　  　 180ｇ
Sugar                　　  　  70ｇ

SHIROAN     　　 　   200ｇ
Matcha 　　　                   2 tea spoons（mix with 1 tea spoon of water）
Strawberry    　　　           8
Potato starch

1.　Mix SHIROAN and Matcha dissolved with water and cover each strawberry by this Matcha AN.
2.　Mix SHIRATAMAKO, sugar and water in the bowl.
3.　Cover the bowl with film and microwave 600W for 2 minutes and mix it well with wooden spatula. (Repeat 3 times)
4.　Once Mochi(rice cake) is transparent and done, take it out in the tray in which you place potato starch.
5.　Extend Mochi pushing with hand, cut it into 8 pieces, place a strawberry with AN and cover it with Mochi.

Bon profit!!!