Hotteok (Korean pancake)

Autumn is here and it is freeing! So to warm me up this cold morning I decided to make something hot, sweet and delicious. Hotteok is a Korean pancake that is jam packed with either a sweet filling of brown sugar and nuts or a savoury filling of stir fried veggie noodles. It's a popular street food in Korea and is only made during the winter.

 

Hotteok with a sweet brown sugar filling

Makes 8

1 cup warm water

2 tbsp CSR white sugar

2 tsp dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp Vegetable oil

2 cups White Wings plain flour

1/2 cup CSR brown sugar

2 tbsp chopped walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

Place warm water into a bowl and stir in the white sugar, dry yeast, salt and vegetable oil. Stir well.

Add the plain flour and mix it by hand. Let the dough rise for about 1hr at room temperature.

After an hour the dough will rise to double it size. Knead the dough to rid it of gas bubbles. Let it rise for another 10-20 mins.

To make the filling combine the brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon.

Knead the dough again to rid it of gas bubbles. Place about 1/2 cup plain flour on to your bench top and knead the dough and divide into 8 balls.

Take 1 ball, flatten it, put some filling in the centre, seal it and then roll back in to a ball. Repeat with the rest.

Heat up some vegetable oil in a pan and place a ball on the pan and let it cook for 30 seconds.

When the bottom of the ball is lightly golden, flip the ball over and flatten it down.

Let it cook for about 1 min or until the bottom is lightly golden.

Flip it over once more and cook it on low heat with the pans lid on for 1 min.

Repeat with the rest of the balls.

Serve immediately! Enjoy!

Coffee Swirled Walnut Cake

A coffee swirled walnut cake is probably the most easiest thing you can make. Its perfect for when you want a quick sweet fix or you need to quickly whip something up for unexpected guests. This is a cake that my mum used to make. She basically threw a few ingredients together and voila, with each bite came a deliciously soft mouthful of goodness. It's now something that she gets me to make and it brings back lots of memories. She would whip this up back when I was in primary school (minus the coffee) with chunks of chocolate mixed through and together with my sister, we would heat it up and devour it with a glass of cold milk. It was so good, especially during the colder months.

Coffee Swirled Walnut Cake

Serves about 9

3 eggs

1 cup CSR caster sugar

1 cup oil

1 cup Pura milk

White Wings Self Raising Flour

1 tbsp Nescafe Coffee

1 tbsp boiling water

Crushed Walnuts

Mix all the ingredients together. Add the flour until you reach a thick cake-like consistency. Pour into prepared pan.

Combine the coffee and water. Spoon the coffee over the cake and swirl it around with a spoon. Sprinkle over the crushed walnuts. 

Bake in a 180C fan forced oven for 30 mins or until cooked through.

Serve warm with a cold glass of milk.

Tteokbokki (Spicy rice cakes)

Tteokbokki is a combination of rice cake and fish cake cooked in a hot and spicy sauce. Its a very popular street food in Korea, during winter. I have always been meaning to try making this but could never find the tteok (rice cakes) to make it. By luck I found a Korean grocer who had heaps of them, frozen and fresh. 

So I made it then nearly ate all of it. I had to restrain myself because it was that good! It might not suit everyones palate as it is cooked in an anchovy stock and is super spicy but it was soooo yummy that I kept going back for more!

 These are the rice cakes. They're super soft and chewy. They're quite plain tasting, that's why its cooked in a delicious sauce.

Gochujang (fermented red pepper paste), gochugaru (red pepper flakes) and tteok (rice cakes)

 The fish cakes are chopped up to make reasonable bite sizes.

 To make the anchovy stock, you put together some water and anchovy and boil it off until you reach your desired strength.

While the anchovy stock was being made, I combined some gochujang (fermented hot pepper paste), hot pepper flakes, sugar and garlic to create the hot and spicy sauce.

Tteokbokki

Serves 3

4 cups water (more if you need)

handful of dried anchovies (more or less as desired)

650g tteok (rice cake) 

3 fish cake sheets

1/3 cup gochujang (fermented red chilli paste)

1 tbsp gochugaru (red pepper flakes)

1 tbsp sugar

3 garlic cloves

If your rice cakes and fish cakes are frozen, defrost them.

In a pot, boil the water and anchovies for about 10-15 mins or until an aromatic stock is formed.

In a small bowl, combine the gochujang, gochugaru, sugar and garlic cloves.

Once the stock is ready, remove the anchovies and dissolve in the hot pepper paste mixture.

Once dissolved, add the rice cakes and fish cakes. Let it cook for about 5-10 mins or until the sauce thickens and the rice and fish cakes are soft. Add extra water if it thickens to quickly or if you want it a little watery.

Serve immediately. Enjoy.

Sticky Chocolate Buns

Uhhh! I'm salivating just at the thought of eating one of this delicious buns. They're soft and fluffy and filled with chocolatey goodness. You have to try them for yourself because words don't do it any justice!

I have also made these using sultanas and its been equally delicious. There are so many flavours you can experiment with, so mix and match until you get the one that tingles your taste buds.

Sticky Chocolate Buns

Makes about 12 buns

For the dough:

1x7g dried sachet yeast

275 ml warm milk

1 egg

450g White Wings plain flour

25g CSR caster sugar

1 tsp salt

50g unsalted butter, melted

1 cup Nestle milk/dark chocolate buttons 

For the filling:

50g butter

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup CSR brown sugar

For the sugar syrup:

1/4 cup CSR sugar dissolved in 2tbsp boiling water

For the coffee icing:

2 cups CSR icing sugar

20 ml espresso coffee

Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Whisk in the egg. Fold in the flour, sugar, salt. Add the butter and mix well. Leave for 10 mins. Add the chocolate buttons.

Lightly oil an area and lightly knead the dough. Return to the bowl and leave it for another 10 mins. Knead it twice more at 10 min intervals, then cover it and let it rise double its size, about an hour.

Flour an area and roll out the dough into a large rectangle.

Melt the butter and stir in the cinnamon and brown sugar. Spread the filling evenly around the dough until all areas are covered.

Roll up the dough tightly and cut into thick pieces, about 3cm thick. Place tightly into a rectangular pan, cover and let it rise for about 30 mins.

Bake at 220C for about 15 mins or until golden.

Mix the icing sugar and espresso until its at a thick consistency.

Freshly out of the oven, glaze the buns with the sugar syrup and serve with the coffee icing or by itself. Either way its super delicious!

Bruschetta

Bruschetta is so easy to make and is a perfect snack when you're feeling peckish. You can add a variety of different toppings to create a delicious mouthful of goodness.

I put together three toppings to suit the Italian theme I was going for. I opted for Wild Mushroom and Thyme, Garlic Capsicum and Tomato and Basil.

The wild mushroom and thyme was warm and soft with a delicious buttery and thyme flavour that was perfect for the cold weathers.

The Garlic Capsicum had a slight smokey flavour with a hint of garlic. It was delicious! It was crunchy and soft at the same time and had a punch at the end.

The tomato and basil was much needed to freshen up the palette. The combination of tomato and basil worked so well. It was my favourite out of the three. I could not stop eating them!

I can't decide if the bruschetta's were good or evil. They were so easy and fun to eat that you could not stop at one, you just kept going. I can not express in words on how yummy they were. You're just going to have to try them yourselves.

Bruschetta

Feeds about 10 people

4 Mini Ciabatta rolls, thickly sliced

4 tbsp Olive Oil

4 cloves of garlic

Preheat your grill or oven to 200 C (about 450 F).

Slice the ciabatta rolls into thick slices and place them in the oven to slightly brown. You don't want them to get to dark because then it's harder to bite into and resembles more of a crostini then a bruschetta.

Once the ciabatta is cooked, pull them out of the oven and while they are still hot brush each one with olive oil. Rub each one with the garlic.

Serve with desired toppings.

Wild Mushroom & Thyme

1 packet of assorted mushrooms (or any mushrooms you desire)

4 sprigs of thyme

30g of good quality salted butter

Melt butter in a pan and add the mushrooms.

Add the thyme. Cook the mushrooms until they are soft but still have a bite to them.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately while they are still hot.

Garlic Capsicum

1 large red capsicum

1 large green capsicum

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp of good quality olive oil

Preheat oven to 200 C. Place the capsicum on the top rack of the oven.

Once they have cooked, place the capsicums in a plastic bag to make skin removal easier. Once cooled, peel the skin and slice into thin slices.

Place the capsicum, olive oil and garlic in a bowl and mix.

Add salt to taste and serve.

Notes:

You can also smoke the capsicum on an oven top to give a delicious smokey flavour to the bruschetta.

Tomato and Basil (Picture shown above)

4 large ripe tomatoes

A small handful of basil leaves

2 tbsp good quality olive oil

Dice the tomato at a reasonable size. I like to chop them small so they fit on the small bruschetta.

Slice the basil leaves finely. Combine tomatoes, basil and olive oil in a bowl.

Add salt to taste. Ready to serve.

Notes:

You can add balsamic vinegar to the tomato and basil topping as it will enhance the flavour of the tomatoes. However if the tomatoes are ripe and taste delicious there is no need for it.

Hope you enjoy!