What I Have Cooked & More...

These are the dishes that I have cooked. Some pictures I have not included. Do stay tune for the recipes...

Ingredients

To get a successful bake, you need a good recipe with good quality ingredients. My friends have been been asking me what ingredients do I buy/use. Sharing my personal preferences below. There are still some good brands I have not tried and would love to do so soon. Don't forget to add in the most important ingredient - Love💖
And Practice makes Perfect!😊

Basic Ingredients:
1) Flour
All Purpose Flour (Plain Flour)
- Bake King, Origins

Cake Flour (Low Protein Flour)
- Japanese Premium Low Protein Flour, Blue Jacket, Bake King Top Flour

Bread Flour (High Protein Flour)
- King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, Japanese Premium High Protein Flour, Origins High Protein Flour

Wholemeal Flour
- Origins Wholemeal Flour

2) Sugar
Billington's Organic Golden Caster Sugar (I use this to replace white sugar)
SIS Raw Sugar
SIS Icing Sugar
Okinawa Brown Sugar

3) Butter
President Unsalted Butter
President Salted Butter

4) Oil
Borges Grapeseed Oil

5) Milk
Magnolia Fresh Milk
Milk Powder (any brand)

6) Eggs (60g)
As long as they are fresh.

7) Yoghurt
Plain or Greek Yoghurt (any brand is fine)

8) Sea Salt (any good quality brand is fine)

9) Yeast
SAF-Instant Yeast

Bento'ing with Bread

In the past, my girl used to be not able to "swallow" even half a slice of bread. She would claim to have stomachache or want to vomit if I forced her to eat her breakfast. No point giving her cereals, milk or such as she doesn't like any of these. Thank God that gone are those days ever since I started making my own bread. She likes homemade bread. And I usually add in fresh milk and/or yoghurt, cheese (as she does not drink milk) and nutritious ingredients like sesame, chia seeds, flax seeds and even fresh pumpkin or sweet potato puree. She happily eat them up without knowing.
When I first started giving her homemade bread, I made the extra effort to make the bread look pretty and hopefully increase her appetite. Now that she takes to homemade bread well, I only do nice bento during the school holidays.

White & Wholemeal Timer Loaf

Rise & Shine! It's really nice to wake up to the aroma of a freshly baked loaf of bread. The kids get to eat fresh & soft bread before they leave for school. I will put the ingredients into the breadmaker and set the timer before I sleep. The breadmaker will do the rest of the job. No egg or fresh milk is used for this timer recipe. I added some wholemeal flour to enhance the nutrition value, without the kids' knowledge (they do not like wholemeal bread).
On days when there is no school, Mummy & lil girl would use our homemade bread to make Bread Bento. Unknowingly, lil girl can eat almost 3 slices of bread with fillings. Mummy will eat up the extras so there is no wastage.

White & Wholemeal Timer Loaf

Ingredients:

230g Unbleached bread flour

20g Wholemeal flour

155g Water

20g Raw sugar

1 tsp Honey

15g Salted butter

5g Milk powder (optional)

3g Yeast

Method:

Using the timer function, basic/white/soft bread mode, light crust

My DonLim Breadmaker

This post is specially dedicated to my DonLim 姐妹们. You, ladies rock always! Without you all, especially Lynn, I would probably still be thinking, "Should I get a breadmaker?". I am blessed, my 小小无名 DonLim has been serving me well till now. I can't live without a breadmaker.
One day I read about the amount of preservatives used in some "commercial" bread. Since then, I started goggling  for a breadmaker, hoping to get one to make my own bread. And I remembered when my boy was young, he could not eat some "commercial" brands bread, he would react badly to it with vomitting and stomach discomfort. We brought him for a detailed wheat allergy test and the result was negative. It could be due to the ingredients/preservatives used.
I goggled, read up and was so happy to find a DonLim group in Facebook. I bought my first DonLim breadmaker at $69! My first bread (following the recipe from the manual) didn't turn out that soft and nice. But thanks to my DonLim friends who tried, tested and shared their recipes. After few experiments, the bread just got better and better. I have come up with my recipe (I will share in later post) of a loaf bread which I use the timer function to bake it. My kids get to eat freshly baked bread in the morning before they go to school. We hardly buy outside bread these days. Also through this DonLim group, I made many good friends who simply love to bake & cook!
I have been contemplating to get a new breadmaker, either a Panasonic or a pink Zojirushi. I can't make up my mind, till my DonLim decided to say bye bye one day..

How It All Started...

Finally I started my own baking & cooking blog. I believe Homemade with Love is the best! With so many kitchen gadgets to help us these days, life is made much easier. I must said a Big thankful to bloggers, home bakers who so generously shared their recipes and pictures online. They are the ones who got me started. And of course to my awesome friends who encouraged me to bake/cook, sent me recipes and even accompanied me to the markets. I think all bakers need the sense of inspiration & motivation after spending hours in the kitchen. Therefore I am grateful to my family, my friends & my neighbours who gladly eat & love what I baked/cooked. My son, the biggest eater of my homemade food, never failed to say, "Yummy, Delicious, Best Food!....", but he is not fussy lah. To my most picky lil girl, I am the happiest to see her enjoying Mummy's homemade food and eating a decent portion. And to a friend who seems to love all my bakes (non diary for her), she said, "I like it/them just the way it is..."
Lastly, my hb, the healthy one who would buy me the best ingredients & also he bought for me, my dream pastel pink KitchenAid.