Pesto Bread

Pesto, which originated in Genoa, Italy, comes from the Italian word "pestare" that means to pound. The traditional pesto is composed of basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil pounded into a paste.

Pesto can be made at home with a mortar or blender, esp. if you have an allotment garden (Schrebergarten is very popular in Germany) full of various herbs, like basil, coriander, parsley, mint, chive, or spinach etc. etc. There is pasta with pesto, pesto on pizza, pesto sauce for seafood, pesto vinaigrette for salads, pesto marinade for the grill, red bean pesto, cilantro pesto, and I used Sun-dried tomato pesto for this bread.

• 240 ml Lukewarm water
  
  
• 1 tbsp Sugar
  
  
• 15 g Fresh yeastangiesrecipes
  
  
• 250 g All-purpose flour
  
  
• 250 g Whole wheat flourangiesrecipes
  
  
• 1 tsp Salt
  
  
• 80 g Pesto rossoangiesrecipes (I used red pesto made of sun-dried tomato)
  
  
• 1 tsp Olive oil

1. Place the yeast in a bowl and pour the warm water over. Stir in the sugar to dissolve. Let stand for 15 minutes. The mixture should look bubbly. Combine and sift the flours and salt in your mixer bowl and turn mixer on to lowest speed. Add in pesto and the yeast mixture. Keep stirring until you have a dough that holds together and doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. Adjust the amount of water, adding more or less as is needed.
   
   
2. Turn out the dough and shape into a ball. Grease the bowl with a teaspoon of olive oil and return the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Set the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to double in volume, about 45 minutes.
   
   
3. Grease a large loaf pan and lightly dust with a bit of flour. Punch down the risen dough and knead for 5 minutes. Shape into an oblong loaf and place it in the prepared pan. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Once the dough has doubled in size, make a deep incision on the top of the loaf with a sharp razor blade.
   
   
4. Bake at 200C/400F in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 180C/350F and bake for another 50 minutes until golden and crusty. Cool the loaf in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes and remove from the pan to cool completely.

Tiger Stripe Swiss Roll / 虎纹瑞士卷

A chiffon roulade with the tiger-stripe patten on the skin....you can, of course, leave the skin away, as this light chiffon roll tastes good of its own.

#Swiss Roll:	#Tiger Stripe:
70 g German #405 flour 30 g Cornstarch 2 g Baking powder 60 ml 100% Orange juice 60 ml Corn oil 20 g Sweetened condensed milk angiesrecipes 5 Eggs 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract angiesrecipes 1/3 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Lime juice angiesrecipes 90 g Caster sugar	7 Egg yolks 40 g Caster sugar 1 tsp Vanilla powder angiesrecipes 30 g Cornstarch

1. 
   Preheat the oven to 190C/375F. Line a 34cmx25cm rectangular baking tray with paper. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder into a bowl. Separate the eggs. Stir orange juice and sweetened condensed milk in another bowl, gradually beat in the corn oil until fully combined and emulsified.
   
2. Sift in the flour mixture, mix roughly and then add in egg yolks and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. Beat the egg whites on medium speed, sprinkle in the salt once once combined. Continue to beat the egg whites until foamy. Add in lime juice and whip the mixture until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar in 2 additions until the stiff peaks appear.
   
3. 
   Fold the meringue in 3 additions with the yolk batter until incorporated and smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tray and smooth the surface. Bake the cake on the upper rack in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake and sift some powdered sugar on the surface. Place a parchment paper on the top and then a baking sheet. Turn the tray upside down to unmold the cake. Remove the baking tray and peel away the lining paper. If you prefer to have golden side rolled in, then flip the cake or you can leave this step away. Trim the edges off and set aside, covered with a towel, to cool for about 10 minutes. Fill the cake with butter cream or jam and roll up. Store the cake in the fridge while preparing the tiger stripe.
   
4. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Place all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and beat at medium-high speed until the volume of mixture has doubled and the colour turned lighter. Pour the batter into a baking tray lined with the paper. Bake in the upper rack of the hot oven for 6-8 minutes until the surface has turned into the golden browned tiger stripes. Remove and turn it on another baking paper. Tear the lining paper off and trim the sides. Spread a layer of the whipped cream or jam over, and then put on the chiffon Swiss roll. Gently roll it up and cool it covered in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.

Angel Cake Roll

A light, moist, and tender angel cake roll is a wonderful treat at any time! The blueberry jam filling, which was supposed to provide a contrast to the white cake, makes the cake a bit messy. It tastes great by itself and definitely worth trying!

• 35 g All-purpose flour
  
  
• 45 g Cornstarchangiesrecipes
  
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla powderangiesrecipes
  
  
• 6-7 / 200 g Egg whites
  
  
• ½ tsp White vinegar
  
  
• 1/ 4 tsp Salt
  
  
• 100 g White sugar
  
  
• 2 tbsp Raisins
  
  
• 1-2 tbsp Blueberry Jam

1. Whisk together flour, starch and vanilla powder and sift. Prepare a 11x13-inch or two 9x7-inch baking trays lined with parchment paper. Evenly sprinkle raisins over. Preheat the oven to 175C/350F.
   
2. Beat egg whites, salt and vinegar in the mixing bowl of a table mixer until foamy. Add in sugar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually sift the flour mixture into the whipped egg whites and fold until the batter is well-combined. Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes or so.
   
3. Immediately invert the cake to cool for about 5 minutes on a rack and peel off the baking paper. Place the cake on a parchment paper, with the baked side up and raisin side down, and spread cake with jam to within 1 inch of edges. From the narrow side roll the cake up tightly. Chill the cake roll for 1 hour and slice to serve.

Fast-fried Asparagus With XO Sauce

Asparagus is one of the most nutritionally well-balanced vegetables, which is high in "folic acid/叶酸" and is a good source of "potassium/钾, fiber/纤维, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin硫胺素维生素/B1". Moreover, asparagus has no fat, no cholesterol and is quite low in calories and sodium. It is very popular in Europe, especially Germany where promotions, creative events, and festivals are held to honour the arrival of what's crowned as "Königliches Gemüse" - royal vegetable. There's even an asparagus peeling competition/Spargelschäl-Wettbewerb during the celebrated asparagus season, and the crowning of an asparagus king or queen. Along with the asparagus-based delicacies, a range of German white wines, such as Riesling, Müller-Thurgau or Grauburgunder, together with some interesting reds, will be launched. White asparagus are sunlight-deprived stalks and they are milder and more delicate than the green one.

5 stalk Asparagus, whiteangiesrecipes 1 tbsp XO sauce 1 tsp Garlic, minced 2 tbsp Water

2 tbsp Dry white wine 1/2 Tomato 1/2 stalk Spring onion 1/4 tsp Salt

1. Before start cooking white asparagus, they must be peeled, as the outside is fibrous and even woody at times. Use a common but sharp vegetable peeler, starting just below asparagus spears, peel toward the cut end. Once all the asparagus has been peeled, cut off the cut ends about one inch up. Slice the tomato into wedges and the spring onions into smaller chunks.
   
   
2. Heat up a skillet over medium-high fire. Stir in XO sauce and minced garlic until aromatic. Add in the prepared white asparagus, stir briefly, drizzle water and white wine over. Cook until soft to your liking. Add in tomato wedges and spring onions. Mix everything together. Flavour with salt and serve.

Fast-fried Sliced Lotus Roots With Bean Sauce

Easy, healthy, and delicious lotus root ! Lotus root is the root of the lotus plant. It can be used as a salad, or stuffed with glutinous rice and steamed as dessert, or squeezed into a drink, or stir-fries, or double-boiled with pork spare-ribs as a popular summer time soup, which, according to my mum, helps to clear the heat and improve the appetite.

250 g Lotus roots 50 g Ground pork 1 tbsp Corn oil 1 tsp Jiafan rice wineangiesrecipes 3-5 Dried chilliesangiesrecipes

1 stalk Spring onionangiesrecipes 3 tbsp Sweet fermented bean pasteangiesrecipes 1 tbsp Hot bean sauceangiesrecipes 30 ml Chicken stock Drops of sesame oil

1. Fill a pot of cold tap water with a tablespoon of vinegar. Peel and clean lotus root. Slice the lotus root and put them into the vinegar water to prevent lotus roots from browning.
   
   
2. Heat up a pan with oil and add chillies. Stir-fry a bit before adding spring onions and ground pork. Stir for 30 seconds, then add bean sauces, rice wine and lotus root slices. Splash the chicken stock and cover, reduce heat to medium and cook for 30 seconds. Dribble in the sesame oil Serve hot.

Scrap Cake

I bake foam cakes very often, as I prefer the fluffy, light chiffon cake to other baked goods. Whenever I baked a chiffon cake, I would reserve one or two layers well-wrapped in the freezer just in case I don't feel like to bake, but happen to have an itch to eat something light and sweet.

• 1-2 disc 9-inch Matcha chiffon cake
  
  
• 1 disc 9-inch Hazelnut chiffon cake
  
  
• 1 disc 9-inch Chocolate chiffon cake
  
  
• 1 bottle Nutellaangiesrecipes
  
  
• 3 Bananasangiesrecipes
  
  
• 2 Figsangiesrecipes
  
  
• 1 Chocolate praline
  
  
• 2 strip Chiffon cake for the sides

1. 
   Remove the cake layers from the freezer and defrost them at room temperature, about 1 hour. Slice the peeled bananas and figs and have a round cake board ready.
   
   
2. 
   Place the matcha chiffon cake layer on the prepared cake board, spread a thin layer nutella on the cake, and then top with babana slices. Arrange another two layers of cake in the same way. (There’s still some nutella left after placing the 3rd layer of cake, so I decided to top the cake with last layer of matcha chiffon cake, which resulted in a mismatched colour appearance to the cut.)
   
   
3. Arrange the fourth layer of cake on the top and spread the nutella. Arrange the sliced figs and bananas in a decorative pattern on top and the chocolate praline in the center. Spread the strips with whipped cream and surround the sides of the cake. Use a mousse ring or a ribbon to stabilize the strips.