Crispy Cheese and Spinach Wontons

Hubby and I decided to restart Meatless Monday. Where we would not eat any meat once a week. Times like these I really take my hat off for those vegetarians. It's so hard to make a filling dinner without any meat! How do they do this everyday!?!?

My initial idea for a spinach wonton came from Ding Tai Fung's fried spinach wonton. We love it, but I think there's some pork in it. So I was surfing YouTube for fried spinach wonton recipe when one suggested video showed Cheese and Spinach Wontons. I was intrigued. My kids love cheese and anything crispy. Spinach and Cheese? Sounds like a good idea! I don't know who's recipe this belongs too, but it seems like many people are making them and loving it. So I gave it a try.

The result was... Delicious!

Packed with nutritious spinach and cheese for strong bones, sinfully crispy, and best of all, it's so easy to make! Wah.. No wonder it's so popular.. Don't take my word for it, my 2 kids were fighting each other for the last piece while the 2 adults barely have enough to eat. T_T So I would say this is a successful recipe. One for the books!

Cheese and Spinach Wontons
Makes about 25 wontons

250g Chinese spinach
2 cloves garlic 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
160g cream cheese
1 packet wonton skin
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon water

1. Wash and cut the spinach. Cut and discard the roots, cut into smaller sections and wash thoroughly. 
2. Heat up a deep frying pan with some oil and add in crushed garlic. If you don’t have a garlic crusher, mince it as fine as you can. 
3. Add in the Spinach before the garlic turns brown, (which only takes less than a minute) salt and sugar, and stir fry vegetables until it is tender. 
4. Put cooked spinach in a strainer and strain out as much liquid as you can.
5. Chop up the spinach finely. Set aside in a big bowl. 
6. Add room temperature cream cheese into the bowl with the spinach and mix well. 
7. Mix flour with water to make the “glue”. 
8. Place spinach and cheese fillings in the wonton skin and seal up the wonton with the “glue” mixture. See video on different ways to wrap a wonton. 
9. Fry in medium-high heat oil until the wonton is light golden brown.
10. Serve.

Note: 
You can freeze the raw wontons. Place them in a ziplock bag but make sure they don’t stick onto each other. Carefully place them into the freezer. When it’s frozen, you can bunch them up together. When you want to serve them, directly deep fry them as per normal until light golden brown.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread With Cheese

I was recently in Hong Kong and I came across this big bookstore in Hysan Shopping Centre. As usual, I headed straight to the cookbooks section and a book caught my eye. It says 麵包機新手的第一本書 (The first book for bread making machine amateurs). Hmm sounds like me. Haha.. But I do like it that the author has alot of interesting ideas for different flavours. I also like it that it has alot of step-by-step photos.

This is the 1st recipe I'm trying from the book and so far I like it. Well, I did make slight adjustments to the original recipe, but it still works.

1. Original recipe uses 40g of cream cheese instead of butter. I don't have any, so I opt for butter. Will try cream cheese next time.
2. Original recipe is actually a sandwich loaf. I divide into 12 pieces and wrapped cheddar cheese cubes in them. YUMS.

They say sweet potatoes are super food, so I guess this must be one nutritious bun! Because it's supposed to be a sandwich loaf, it's not sweet. So if you like it sweeter, you can add some more sugar. I like it as it is. Soft, fluffy and goes well with the salty cheese in the middle. Thumbs up!

110g milk
120g sweet potato mash
15g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Whole wheat flour 30g
Bread flour 220g
Butter 40g
3/4 tsp Instant yeast

Cheddar cheese cubes (about 2cm cubes)
Extra milk for brushing

1. Cut sweet potatoes into small cubes and steam them under high heat for about 10mins, or cooked through. Mash them up and set aside 120g to cool. 
2. Place all ingredients except for the cheddar cheese cubes into the bread making machine pan and select "DOUGH" function. 
3. When the dough is ready flatten it out and roll it up again into a log. Cut out 12 equal portions. (I weighed the whole dough and divided the weight by 12. Which is about 45g each.)
4. Flatten each dough, place a piece of cheese in, pinch it together to close and gently roll the dough to smoothen it. Place it seam side down into a muffin tray. 
5. Proof for 30-45mins. 
6. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-15mins. 
7. Gently brush milk on top of buns before baking in a preheated oven for 20mins. 
8. Remove buns from muffin tray to cool on wire rack. Best eaten warm!

Double Cheese Bread (Tangzhong method)

I've heard alot about the Tangzhong method but I've never had the chance to try it. Having 2 kids has been taking a toll on my baking time! Today I finally found the time and energy to try it out and I was not disappointed! The bread turned out just like they claim. Fluffy, chewy and yet still soft. The original dough recipe is from DessertzHouse. I just changed the filling.

HOW TO MAKE TANGZHONG
1 : 5 (bread flour : water)
example 100g flour : 500g water
- Mix flour and water together and keep stirring over low heat with a whisk until mixture turns thick and swirl lines appear.
- Let the tangzhong cool down to room temperature before using.

Double Cheese Bread
(makes 8 in a 8" pan)

240g bread flour
5g yeast
5g salt
20g sugar
1 egg
50g water
60g flour paste (tangzhong)
30g butter (softened)

1 egg yolk with a splash of milk for eggwash
Block cheddar cheese cut into small cubes for filling
Shredded cheddar for sprinkling ontop

1. Put all of the bread ingredients, except butter into a mixing bowl. 
2. Add butter after everything is nearly incorporated. 
3. Knead the dough until it becomes very elastic and smooth. I use the mixer. 
4. Grease a bowl with some oil, put the bread dough inside. Cover with some cling wrap and proof the dough until double in size. To check that the dough is ready or not, insert your floured finger into the middle of the bread dough, if the hole stays there then it is ready. 
5. Push the air out of the bread dough. Allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes. 
6. Cut the dough into 8 equal portions. 
7. Flatten each piece of dough, put a piece of cheese in the middle and close it up. Roll the dough into a ball and place into a greased 8" pan. 
8. Proof for the dough for the second time at a warm place until double in size. 
9. Brush dough with eggwash and sprinkle with cheese. 
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 15 minutes. Transfer onto a wire rack to let cool.

I am no expert in making bread. I learn as I go along. But here are some things I learned through experience so I'm sharing it with you here today.

The thing about bread is that there is no hard and fast rule. Instead of flour, try oiling your hands before handling the dough. It prevents sticking and keeps the bread nice and moist without the extra flour.

There is no exact timing for proofing. It depends on everything from the flour, the yeast to the weather and temperature of your kitchen. USE YOUR EYES to judge!

Overall I was quite pleased with the result of the bread. Best thing is that I have leftover tangzhong, so I can continue exploring this method tomorrow. Practice makes perfect!

Cheese Cupcakes

My father used to own a neighbourhood bakery when I was a teenager and one of the items that I really liked (I love everything in a bakery!) was these little fluffy cakes flavoured with cheese. It's sweet yet savoury and does not have any frosting. Yummy! Fast forward 18 years, I came across this website of Filipino cuisines and lo and behold, cheese cupcakes! Apparently this is a popular local delight, interesting! Just so happened to have all the ingredients needed in my fridge(it's fate!) so let's bake!

Makes 12-14 cupcakes
Ingredients

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated + more for topping
1 3/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 can condensed milk
120g butter, cut into small cubes and softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. 
2. Beat together butter, sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs. 
3. Add the flour mixture and condensed milk alternatively to the creamed butter and egg mixture while beating in low speed, combine until smooth in texture.
4. Fold the grated cheese into the batter.
5. Scoop batter into paper-lined muffin cups to 3/4 full. Top with cheddar cheese and bake in a 180C pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Top should be golden and crispy.

It's not as light and cheesecake-like like my dad's cakes, but it's still super delicious! I love munching the crispy and cheesy top before sinking my teeth into the fluffy cake. So good..