Sunday, April 27, 2014

Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Hi Everyone,
I first heard this bread from our neighbor who gave me a bowl this past Easter Sunday. I thought I'd give this a try and make it from scratch, I was pretty amazed how quick and delicious the bread turned out! No waiting for any dough to rise! As you will see, I have alternate the recipe a little bit as my pantry at the time did not have one of the ingredients listed to make this bread, however, it turned out just fine.

This is best eaten fresh from the oven. If you need to reheat it, I'd say putting it into a toaster oven for a bit to heat thru or if you are really in a hurry, then I suggest to reheat  in microwave, but be very careful as the result could be rubbery! If you are to reheat in the microwave then I recommend about 10-15 seconds depending on how strong your microwave is.

Here we go (adapted from simplyrecipes.com)

Prep: 5 minutes  Cook: 15 minutes
Yield: enough batter for 16 MINI muffin sized cheese bread

**The recipe is very basic, you can and I recommend to dress it up and add ingredients to it like minced jalapeƱos since it's a "cheese" bread and add according to heat you desire.

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/3 cup olive oil (if no olive oil is present, canola oil/vegetable oil will do)
2/3 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups of Tapioca Flour (in the Asian Grocery store where I live, I did not find Tapioca Flour, however I found Tapioca Starch - which is the same, so don't worry)

1/2 cup of grated cheese (your preference), I used a mixed of shredded cheeses. Although according to this recipe, they used Mexican Farmer's cheese which is Queso Fresco.

1 teaspoon of salt

Preheat Oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit. Grease a mini-muffin tin (I sprayed Pam).

Put all the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth.


You can store this batter up to a week in the Refrigerator if you like.
Pour the batter (batter should be runny) into your MINI muffin pans just right before the rim. As yyou can see I over poured some!

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, my oven lightly browned the bread in 15 minutes, so I pulled it out. Bake until all is puffy and just lightly browned.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for a few minutes.

Enjoy!!


***Please note that this bread is very chewy, and the consistency is alot like a Japanese Mochi***

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Easter DumDum Lollipop Craft


Well hello everyone! I can't believe that I'm posting this before the Easter holiday rolls in! I usually have the tendency to post things after the fact rather than before. I have this easter craft a try and they turned out so cute I might have to say!
These took a little bit of time to make as I had to wait for the paint to dry, then you have your trusty glue gun in hand to put everything together!
These bunnies were for my son's Easter Class party this week, and these were an addition to a pre-made treat bag for them to take home. The kids can either keep it as is or they may end up just tearing everything out and enjoy the candy, which is totally cool.

Let's get to it, here is what you'll need:

(Adapted from SpanglerCandy.com)

• Assorted Dum Dum Pops in springtime colors
• 1" flat wooden hearts
• Wooden beads (Make sure the hole in the bead is big enough to accommodate a Dum Dum stick.) I used beads just slightly smaller than the Dum Dum Pop and I did have a hard time sticking the pipe cleaners into the hole, so make sure you follow the size it needs
• White acrylic pant
• Foam brush
• White pipe cleaners
• Small pink pom poms
• White pom poms (in two sizes)
• Self-adhesive googly eyes ( I did not find these at the Michael's craft store, I ended up hot gluing them, it's fine)
• Hot Glue


How to make them:


1. Paint the wooden hearts and balls with white acrylic paint. These will be the bunny feet and the bunny heads.


2. Once dry, take a spring colored Dum Dum Pop and glue the top of it to a wooden heart. Make sure the top of the heart is showing - these are the "bunny feet."


3. Thread a bead onto Dum Dum Pop - this is the "head."

4. Affix eyes to the head. It's easiest if you use stick-on eyes, but you can also glue them on if you prefer. Also glue on a pink pom pom for the nose and two smaller white pom poms for the teeth.


5. Then glue on two larger white pom poms to either side of the Dum Dum Pop to make bunny arms. (This part I was not able to add as let's just say, I forgot and I did not have time to run to the store!) - but by all means, I think adding the "paws" will complete the look :)

6. Finally, take two 3" lengths of white pipe cleaner. Make a loop with each. These are the ears. We were able to stick the ends inside hole of the bead and secure with a small dab of glue. Then Glue the other pompom's as the bunny Tail.




Well... look at that! And in just a few easy steps (or should we say hops?) you have adorable Easter bunny lollipop creations!


 
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