Strawberry Marble Muffins

Niieeeehhhh. forget the last post, i still went back to the kitchen afterall. But i will keep this short and hopefully go back to study soon.

I used to make muffins like... every other day until i got sick of baking the same flavors all the time (Coffee Chocolate Coco, Blueberry, and Apple Cinnamon). They're good, but you just dont get any satisfaction making the same things over and over again. I had plans to study last night, i really did, but 手太閒 and............ out came my first strawberry marble muffins! It was worth giving up my precious study time. XD

Strawberry Marble Muffins

• Make 2 batters of normal muffin mix.


• Add strawberry gelatin to one of them and mix well.


• Spoon the white batter and the pink batter into your muffin wells side-by-side.


• Use a knife and cut through the batter to mix the colors.


• Bake for 20 minutes.


• For other variations, use different flavored jello.

Kitchen break

Due to the fact that physio NBME is coming up, and the fact that i've been stressing out whether or not to study for biochemistry re-take............ i will not be stepping into the kitchen any time soon. i want summerrr............ so i wont have to worry about what to eat everyday and just go downstairs to get nio ro mien and bah wan..................ai. 4 more weeks.........

蔥油餅 (Geen Onion Pancake)

I was supposed to START studying for my Physiology NBME today... but i woke up too late (1:00pm), 混 too much with Mr.Lo, made 蔥油餅, ate my strawberry pie, and... slept from 8 to 11pm. AHHHHHHHH. aiiiiii... im so lazy.

This is the 2nd time i made it. The first time was when i had extra dough left from our Curry Dumplings.. we just added some spring onions on and tah-dahh! out came a 蔥油餅. This time i went to Taiwan Yahoo knowledge and just mixed everything around. pretty easy, i didnt even use a measuring cup. I also found a 蔥油餅 recipe on wikipedia. Hahahaha. Almost everything i learn, it really comes from wikipedia.

蔥油餅
INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup water (hot water for chewy pancakes, cold water for crispy pancakes)
• Green Onions/Spring onions/Scallions, chopped
• Peanut oil, Corn oil, or Lard
• Salt
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix two parts flour (2 cups) with one part water (1 cup).
2. Knead until dough is smooth.Let it rest for 10 minutes
3. Seperate dough into individual balls. Take one piece and flatten it out into a round pancake.
4. Smear the preferred form of grease onto the flattened dough. This could be corn oil, peanut oil, or lard. (Olive oil and butter are not typically used).
5. Sprinkle chopped scallions and salt onto the flattened dough.
6. Roll up the flattened dough into the shape of a snake.
7. Reshape the "snake" into a coil. The dough should now resemble an unbaked cinnamon roll.
8. Flatten up the coil into a pancake wil a rolling pin.
9. Pan-fry the pancake with oil. Both sides of the pancake should be golden brown.
10. Place the fried pancake on a plate covered with a paper towel to cool the pancake and to drain the grease.
    
    

REMEMBER to 打個蛋!!我們打了3個.... :D

3 個蛋 => cholesterol => Low density Lipoproteins LDL => to the blood => build up in artery walls => atherosclerosis => thrombosis => hypertension => myocardial infarction.

*clap clap clap* not bad, not bad.
I did not 混 as much as i thought i did. heeeeeeeeeeee. XD

New and Improved Flaky Pie Crust

So yes, i made strawberry pie again after my pie crust failure a few days ago. This time i did some extensive research on pie crusts intead of trusting some overly easy recipes that makes everything sound too simple.
Thanks to: http://beyondsalmon.blogspot.com/2006/03/technique-of-week-pie-and-tart-dough.html , I was able to make a perfect pie crust.

So what did i do differently this time?

• Chill EVERYTHING beforehand (flour, butter, water...etc)
• Use ICE cold water.
  [ The reason why everything has to be kept cold is to keep the butter from melting. The small butter chunks will create layers with the flour which is what makes the pie flaky. ]
• Do not overwork the dough.
• Refridgerate the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out.
• After you roll out the dough and placed it in your pan, refridgerate it for another 30 minutes.
• Bake pie crust for 20 minutes until golden brown.
• Poke holes onto the crust with a fork if it starts to puff up.

Here's the new and improved Pie Crust Recipe:

Flaky Pie Crust
makes one 8 inch pie crust

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 - 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening, butter, or margrine. CHILLED
• 3 tablespoons ICE COLD water (preferably with ICE)

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk the flour, salt. and sugar together in a medium size bowl.
• With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening/butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.
• Gently gather dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
• Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. Fill with desired filling and bake.

This time i give my pie a 9 out of 10... just cuz there's always room for improvement :) .

Ahh, i wish strawberry season'll last forever.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

PP, which stands for Piotr i Paweł (Peter and Paul), is a mini-supermarket behind our dorm. Every year around this time, they start selling strawberries by kilos. I remember buying a 2 kg box of strawberries last year and ended up throwing half of it away because it rotted before I could finish it all. This year, PP 變聰明了 and they're selling it by 500g or 1kgs. 500gs for 3.49zl (41NT) and 1kg for 6.49 (about 76NT) SOOOOOOO便宜!!! How could I resist not buying another box?? So yea, I decided to make a strawberry pie and bought the 1kg box. I've had different kinds of strawberry pies before (the mousse-y kind), but the 1st time I had one like this was in high school...junior year I think? Jinny bought an entire pie from the bake sale and we ate it during lunch. It was so good that I tried to make it at home with a different recipe that used only cornstarch (no gelatin because my health-freak parents won't let me buy jello...too much artificial coloring/flavoring they said). It turned out alright... not as good as the one Jinny bought though. It was too sweet and the color was ugly. Looked kind of like this but 10 times uglier. Hahaha. I gave up on trying again because strawberries in Taiwan are expensive. So just imagine how happy I was when I saw dirt cheap strawberries at PP :D! Hao bah, here's the recipe:

Basic Flaky Pie Crust (SEE NEXT POST FOR THE NEW AND IMPROVED RECIPE)
from www.allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening, chilled
• 3 tablespoons ice water

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl.
• With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.
• Gently gather dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
• Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. Fill with desired filling and bake.

Comments:
This recipe makes one 9 inch pie. I have a 12'' pie pan so i just added the ingredients as needed and poured in a little bit of vanilla extract. I think I added a little bit too much of the vanilla because the crust tasted kind of... soapy to me. So if you're gonna add vanilla, remember to add a bit of sugar in it too.

Fresh Strawberry Pie
from www.allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (8 inch) pie shells, baked
• 2 1/2 quarts fresh strawberries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 (3 ounces) package strawberry flavored gelatin

DIRECTIONS

• In a saucepan, mix together the sugar and corn starch; make sure to blend corn starch in completely.
• Add boiling water, and cook over medium heat until mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
• Add gelatin mix, and stir until smooth. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
• Place strawberries in baked pie shells; position berries with points facing up.
• Pour cooled gel mixture over strawberries.
• Refrigerate until set. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Comments:
This recipe makes 2 pies so i halved it.
I used about 1/3 cups of sugar instead of 1/2 C since the gelatin is already sweet.
It is better to add warm water (instead of boiling) to the sugar+cornstarch mixture and let it heat up until it thickens. This way the cornstarch will dissolve evenly without the lumps. Remember to keep on stirring the mixture until it thickens.
After adding the gelatin, the mixture will look like Jam. If it looks too thick to pour, add a some water (but not too much!).
Pour the mixture evenly over the strawberries. Make sure you cover all the 洞洞.

This recipe is fairly easy and good. I give my pie a 7 out of 10. The filling was a 9 but the crust was 5. So overall, it's a 7. Mr. Lo liked it but i think he's just saying so 因為他怕說錯話以後就沒東西吃了... hohoho. I'm gonna make this pie again and i'll remember to update on how it turned out.

Oh, by they way, Mr. Lo and I made Pizza again.
SOOO GOOD I TELL YOU.