Tried Baking Calamansi Muffins

Managed to buy a lot of calamansi from a neighbor. They were big and juicy! We certainly enjoyed drinking calamansi juice everyday. We still had a lot so I thought I'd finally try baking some calamansi muffins. I have two recipes I've been wanting to try, so that's what Miggy and I did last weekend. 

The process was fairly easy, but we struggled with our oven. We haven't used it a lot yet, so we're still getting to know it. We ended up with a pale yellow set. The other one turned out a bit burnt, haha. It tasted like calamansi muffin and it was moist. Sweetie though said it tasted better the next day! 

Well, my neighbor is selling calamansi again, so maybe next time I'll try the other recipe, haha. Here's how we made this batch -

Ingredients at https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2023/08/recipes-for-my-son-calamansi-muffins.html

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Home Panaderia is Open!

In 2020 I embarked on a quest to learn how to bake Filipino bread. I was motivated because the cost of pandesal in Singapore is very expensive. I once bought SG$2 pandesal (per piece!) at Lucky Plaza. That's almost 80 pesos (depending on the exchange rate)! Baking Filipino bread never crossed my mind before because it's readily available when you're home. 

Oh boy, baking bread is hard. It requires a lot of patience since you have to wait for the dough to rise. For the dough to rise you have to prepare the yeast correctly. I failed a couple of times, but eventually got it. I tried baking Spanish bread and ensaymada and I didn't get it right. It tasted like it, but it looked hideous hahaha. Maybe I'll try again, but there's a bakery just a few meters away from our new home so we'll see. 

I finally baked again yesterday! I've been wanting to for a few months now, but I had to wait for my body to be ready. My daily activities are limited, so when it rained I knew it was the perfect time to bake. It meant I didn't have to water the plants, so I used the energy to do something else. I just baked some cheese cupcakes (recipe here). It was the best way also for me to get to know my new oven. We had been using it more to heat food since we got it. Baking cupcakes was a good way to break it in since we could easily monitor the progress. 

I sent half of what I baked to friends and just kept a few for us. Sweetie said we always had a hard time finishing the cupcakes when we were in Singapore. Told him it won't be a problem here since we have a lot of friends we can send baked goods to. I'll probably make peanut butter cookies next. For bread, I'll dig up the list I made of what else I want to learn. Maybe I'll focus on non-Filipino bread for now since I can just easily buy them now. What would you suggest I try to learn?

Oh, today is my Kuya's birthday! Happy birthday Kuya! Here's a cute photo of you and me when I was a baby.

#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely

Jaybucks' Sunflower

I thought today I'd showcase Sweetie's successful gardening project -- his sunflowers have started to bloom! Woohoo!

Nine weeks ago we re-started our balcony garden. I haven't been successful at planting flowers, so I focused on veggies. Sweetie though has been trying to grow flowers since last year. We don't know if the seeds we got were not good or it's the soil, but the only flowers that so far bloomed in our "balcony farm" are tomato flowers haha. 

Sweetie got a packet of sunflower seeds from the supermarket. He planted it nine weeks ago. Three out of the five that sprouted survived getting transplanted. They're all blooming now! Woohoo! It's been really exciting to watch the sunflower grow taller and form the base of the flower. In the past few days yellow petals have started to bloom. We hope to see it in full bloom by end of the week! 

Updates about our other plants are on our gardening blog :)

Meanwhile while Sweetie's been busy with the plants, I finally had some energy today to bake peanut butter cookies. I used Toastbox peanut butter again (recipe here). I can't wait to bake it with Lily's peanut butter again. Will be giving some to our neighbors. Hope they'll like it!

Day 24 Gratitude Challenge, A book, magazine or podcast. I've been listening to some podcasts now that I have time. I haven't listened to a lot, but have so far enjoyed "Superhuman", the podcast of Wil Dasovich. He went through a lot when he had cancer and was able to overcome it. I'm fascinated with his energy and I'm grateful for the example he shows on how to live a healthier life. I'm hoping that I'll be able to bike again in time. 

CB///*Yr2/107 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/130 #NewG339 #Home97 #StayHome #BeKind 

I Love Homemade Pandesal

I took a break from baking so I could work on my Christmas project. I missed eating pandesal though so I got to work today to bake. It just takes 12 to 15 minutes to bake pandesal but it takes a few hours to prepare it. I've made a few adjustments to a base recipe to fit my taste. It's not the same as Pan de Manila's pandesal though haha. 

The smell of freshly baked bread filled our home this afternoon. Ahhh, that's what I like best about baking. I wish one could have freshly baked bread as a scent. Haha. Same as new books, fresh roses and a newly opened balikbayan box from the US. 

I haven't tried the pandesal I baked today. I'm still thinking about what I'm going to eat it with. Normally I eat pandesal without any filling, but sometimes I eat it with cheese and mayonnaise, spam or luncheon meat, peanut butter, Cheez Whiz and tuna mayo. Pandesal is so versatile, you can eat it with anything. 

What about you? What's your favorite bread? What's your favorite palaman? 

My Ninang Jane asked me if it's hard to bake pandesal. It's not hard, you just need to be patient because it takes time. The only thing to watch out for is the milk temperature when you bloom yeast. It should be around 32'C. I made that mistake once and put the yeast on very hot milk, it did not bloom. I actually like waiting for the dough to proof because it gives me time to rest while baking (it's like a workout for me). 

I haven't made an updated video of baking pandesal, but I think I have improved after baking it five times now. It also helps to have a stand mixer since it kneads the dough more evenly. Here was my first attempt at baking pandesal --

CB//200 #StuckAtHomeDay/230 #StayHome #BeKind