Cinnamon rolls recipe by Sally

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

My journey with yeast has been good so far. It didn't start quite well though, as I ALWAYS kill the yeast. I failed miserably. That is until I came here. I started to learn more from youtube, other people's blog and started experimenting on few things.

This one has been on my mind for quite some time. So last night I tried making it and it was a success! :)

Sharing the recipe. Link here.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls (from scratch) by Sally

Easiest cinnamon rolls I've ever made, only 1 rise. Perfect for yeast beginners!

Ingredients:

ROLLS
2 and 3/4 cups (345g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package Red Star Platinum Yeast or any instant yeast (1 packet = 2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup (120ml) water
1/4 cup (60ml) milk (I usually use skim)
2 and 1/2 Tablespoons (40g) unsalted butter
1 large egg

FILLING
3 Tablespoons (45g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar

COFFEE GLAZE
1 cup (120g) confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 Tablespoons (30-45ml) strong coffee (or use milk/cream instead)

Directions:

1. Make the dough: Set aside 1/2 cup of flour. In a large bowl, toss the 2 and 1/4 cups flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast together until evenly dispersed. Set aside.
2. Heat the water, milk, and butter together in the microwave until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot to touch. About 115°F (46°C). Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture. Add the egg and only enough of the reserved flour to make a soft dough. I only needed 1/3 cup, but you may need the full 1/2 cup. Dough will be ready when it gently pulls away from the side of the bowl and has an elastic consistency.
3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl (I used non-stick spray) and let rest for about 10 minutes.
4. Make the filling: After 10 minutes, roll the dough out in a 14x8 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter on top. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it all over the dough. Add more cinnamon/sugar if desired. Roll up the dough tightly. Cut into 11-12 even pieces and place in a lightly greased 9-inch round pan. I used a pie dish, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.
5. Loosely cover the rolls with aluminum foil and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 60-90 minutes. Here is what I do: heat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Turn oven off. Place rolls inside oven and allow to rise.
6. After the rolls have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned. I covered the rolls with aluminum foil after 15 minutes to avoid heavy browning.
7. Make the glaze: Right before serving, top your cinnamon rolls with glaze. Mix the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and 2 Tablespoons coffee together until smooth and drizzle over rolls. If it seems too thick, add 1 more Tablespoon coffee. You can replace the coffee with milk or cream instead, if you do not want a coffee flavored glaze. If you prefer a thicker glaze, add more confectioners' sugar and then add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness, if desired.
8. Rolls are best enjoyed the same day, but stay fresh and soft in a covered container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 5 days. Glaze the rolls immediately before serving. Rolls (with or without glaze) freeze well, up to about 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and heat up however you prefer.
9. Make ahead/overnight: This dough can be made the night before through step 4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, remove from the refrigerator and allow to rise at room temperature, about 1 hour.

Additional Notes:

*Overnight: The dough may be made the night before through step 4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, remove from the refrigerator and let rise, about 1 hour.

I made my rolls smaller, so I managed to get around 16 pcs. It was heavenly as this is the first time ever that I manage to knead the dough until it is elastic. I let the stand mixer do its job for maybe close to 10 mins and when I pull it out to knead by hand, it was still pretty much very sticky.
I keep on kneading (with both hands!!) until I noticed some of the dough has started to detach easily from my work surface, so that's how it feels like. I know now :)

Next time, I will repeat this recipe, and take really good food pictures with my SLR, insyaAllah. Pinky promise :)

Till next time, wassalam. 

Its been a while..

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

Last weekend I spent a full 2 days finishing up a piece of doily. It was so big that it can be a tablecloth.

I will be losing few friends within these two months. In fact, one family has left and I did not managed to make anything for them. I started this project about one month back and only managed to complete it yesterday.

The whole piece. In comparison to iPad2.

 

I referred to patterns downloaded from the internet. There are loads of patterns to be chosen from. Its just a matter of picking it and starting a project. This maybe my biggest piece that I have worked on. The biggest challenge is making mistakes, and you only realized when the next round could not be completed because some chain and stitches are not there. I spent nearly 3 hours to undo and re-do some of the mistakes that I made. 

Mistakes happen when I was too engrossed and at time when I was sleepy. This one has definitely pushed my limit for crotchet. For knitting, don't even ask. I am stuck. I'll do something about it later.  I still have 3 doilies to start and finish though. So wish me luck! :)

p/s: The picture quality is very bad, I know, its from my phone. Haha. For now I am slowly getting back my mojo to write, one step at a time. Photography will be next,as we improve on writing and updating the blog ok. :D

Wassalam.  

Bucketlist Item

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

My mind is wandering all over the world. Due to work schedule that is pretty unpredictable, unlike when I was in PD, I have not been able to fully maximize my travel plan. And slowly I am forgetting my travel bucketlist. Before I forgot everything, let me share it here.

1. Watch Northern Lights 
2. Provence in Summer (Lush Lavender field)
3. New Year in New York
4. Go to Interlaken - summer/autumn
5. Morrocon summer - Marrakech, the dessert
6. Sakura/ Cherry Blossom in Japan
7. Round Turkey - Istanbul, Cappadocia
8. Alhambra, Granada, Spain,
9. Christmas market in German

These are the new list as I surf through the web, gosh.. banyak ni.. 

1. Ride the Trans-Siberian railway
2. Bamboo Forest, Kyoto? (Japan)
3. Canopy Tour Costa Rica
4. Grand Canyon - US
5. Visit Manchu Pichu - Iguazu Falls - South American nature wonders
6. See the Salmon swimming upwards
7. Truffle Hunting in Croatia
8. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

Definitely I wont be able to cross all these in the next 2 years, but I think I can make it in this lifetime, insyaAllah :)

Her part 1

He opened his eyes, the spot next to him was empty. He reached across the bed, his phone says its 2.36 AM. He peeked around, no lights coming from the bathroom. Where is she? He made his way to the kitchen, partly thirsty and partly curious to find out her whereabouts. He passed by the living room, not a sign that anybody was there. He gets to the kitchen, it was so quiet, everything was so still, you can even hear if a pin drops. The dishes are neatly arranged, as how they left it after supper. Now he became more curious, where could she be?

With a glass of water in his hand, he wandered around the house, skimming through every inches, to find any sign of her. Still, nothing. He is now at the last room. He can't remember the last time he went into the room. The door was ajar, but there were no lights. He recalled that she asked for that room to be her private room, not that everybody is not allowed to enter, but she wants the whole room to herself. He agreed, thinking that maybe she wanted the room to be her project space. Since then, he forgot about it.

He pushed the door slowly. The room is partly furnished. Its hot in here, the air condition unit was not turned on. There is a few shelf at the end of the room, with few baskets with balls of yarns. There is a working table with a small sewing machine set up on it. His gaze fell in the middle of the room. A figure curled into a 'C' shape. Her knees was up to her chest, hands in between her stomach. She was lying on an Afghan carpet. As soon as he stepped on it, he can feel his feet sunk. Well, this is comfortable, he thought to himself. She was on her side, facing towards the window. There is a bottle of traditional ointment, with the cap on the side. He can smell the ointment when he gets closer to here. Also, there is a bottle of water, half full, with a pack of pills that is unfamiliar to him. Mefenamic acid 500mg, that's what was said on the label.

She looks as if she is in deep sleep, few drops of sweats trickle down her forehead. He is on his knees now, looking over to her. Why is she sleeping here? What's wrong with her? She moans slowly, she changes side, facing him now. Her eyes are still closed, but she looks as if she's battling with some thing. She cringed and slowly she opened her eyes. 'What are you doing here?' She asked, her voice sounds week.

'I was looking for you. Why are you here?' He whispered softly, not wanting to appear disturbing to her.

'I'm having my menstrual, stomach cramps.' She didn't really answer his question. He seems puzzled. It was all boys camp in his house, he has never seen this, neither did he sees his mom in similar situation.

'What can I do?' Clueless. Yes he is.

She grabs something from the sofa bed nearby and passed it to him. 'Please fill this with boiled water. I didn't managed to get to the kitchen.'

He takes the water bag. Without much question, he made his way to the kitchen, fill the kettle halfway with water and put it on the electric stove. While waiting for the water to boil, he turned to his phone. Few taps away, he has some general idea what to do. The kettle whistles. He lifted it, fill up the bag and screw the top tightly. He made a detour to the main bedroom before he gets back to her. He grabs a spare comforter and two pillows from the cupboard.

TBC...

      

Itik Kegilaan Ramai

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

Lama betul tak menulis (speak my mind), and today I did just that but via IG..hahaha. It all started when I saw a post by duckscarves. Looked on further to see what was it all about, and I was not really comfortable with what I saw.

On one of the post I read most of the comments and it just hits me, people are getting out of control. They were talking about grabbing a certain design/colour and how some of the duckies struggle to get what they want. Duck scarves has became a household name, their fans are all over the world and since their marketing strategy really hits all the right note, their business is booming, even with the current economic state. Imagine a satin scarf can cost minimum RM 100 and people still queue both online and offline to get it. I understand about liking certain things despite the price, like my obsession with World Cup, the game tickets are expensive and majority would not even spend that money. Its ok, I get it, people loves the products.

But my main issue is that some of the duckies are obsessed, majorly obsessed. Some even said that they sacrifice their sleep to wait for the online release, some complain when they can't buy the limited edition ducks, some even go as far as buying a LE duck from seller that jack up the price double! Can you imagine? I mean, is it all really worth it? Not to mentioned, from what I read, there are some battle online to get the latest/rarest (or whatever it is) ducks.    

Come on! We have become so obsessed with the worldly things. Sangat obsessed ok, and it's not good.. .Benda yang patut jadi a means for us to fulfill syariat (tutup aurat) has caused more rift than anything else, kenapa materialistic sangat? What's with style and fashion? Why are we so hard up on spending our effort on this dunia?. .This brings back the issue of Malaysian complaining of ringgit value drop, and yet you still have money to buy RM 100+ scarf? . Samalah macam peminat Fareeda semua tu, sama ja, beratur panjang2 semata-mata nak dapat yang latest, doesn't matter how much it cost.

Of course when I re-posted the pictures with my comments, some came to defence. Suit yourself, but just reflect within outselves, why do we buy the scarf in the first place? Nak tutup aurat kan? Tapi kalau beli tudung pon sampai gaduh2, then what's the point?

And oh, there is one comment on the original post about the online release timing yang clash dengan waktu Subuh, the buyer may miss Subuh sebab nak catch that online sale. I mean, what the ?? Mana lagi penting, solat ka beli duck?

Our society is dying, materials seems to matter more, on the surface there is nothing wrong with the product, its scarf for god sake, but how people reacted to it that defines our society. I thought only Americans are crazy enough to camp 2 days ahead of any Apple product release, apparently Malaysians are catching up as well.

The image I re-posted from duckscarves IG

That's all I've got to say. Till next time. Wassalam.

Emirates vs Qatar vs Etihad

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

I am now at Abu Dhabi airport. Killing time till my next flight to KL. Another 3.5 hours to go. This is my first time taking Etihad. I've always been a loyal customer of Qatar Airways. But due to some constraint that I will describe later, I am trying Etihad for the very first time, on this trip.

When I started travelling more than one flight, I started with Emirates, as they were among the first airlines that has superb network connection. In 2010, my experience with Emirates was good, or maybe because it was my first time, everything looks fine. :)

Somehow when I started working in Nigeria, I started using Qatar instead. When I travelled with Emirates again, I began to compare, and now Emirates irks me on many front. So after almost 2 years of jetsetting, I am going to lay down my comparison of these 3.

1. Ticket price: Hands down, Qatar wins. Even the business class ticket is 30% cheaper than Emirates. Etihad loose on prices, they are higher than Emirates.
Qatar < Emirates < Etihad.

2. Flight schedule: This one is a bit tricky. I stayed in Port Harcourt, and therefore, in order to fly all these middle eastern airlines, I need to travel to Lagos. We are entitled to it and by right it's not a big deal, its written, once you have a flight from Lagos, the company will bore the cost of flight from PHC to Lagos, with one night hotel stay before and after the trip. However... I have a GM and supervisor that has very deep pocket. Emirates and Qatar depart on 2pm daily from Lagos. Therefore I can take the morning flight from PHC and reached Lagos just in time to check in for my international flight. Etihad on the other hand, now departs at 8.55 am every other day, which then makes me have go travel to Lagos a day earlier and incur the hotel stay cost (Which company pays for it).
For the leg travelling back to Nigeria, Emirates reached Lagos around 12.30 pm, and I will have to rush for the last flight of the day back to PHC. While Qatar only reached at 1.30, which leaves no room for me to travel and get back to PHC on the same day, hence I will incur the one night hotel stay. (Which is still paid by the company anyway). Etihad on the other hand, arrived at 8am, therefore I can comfortably travel back on the same day.
With the current situation of budget crunch, my supervisor keeps on imposing on me to take the cheapest option for the company. Forget the fact that I am entitled to it, that is not the case anymore.
On this part, Emirates win. In terms of flight time, transit time, I prefer Qatar compared to Etihad. Too long transit time (Etihad 6 hours) bores me. I want to get to my destination ASAP.

3. The airport: On this part, I have to breakdown based on my preferred criteria:
a. Internet access: WiFi. For this I'm considering Etihad as the winner. Smooth wifi access and unlimited time. (like now..hehehe). Qatar falls second due to the 3 hours limit, but I got connected instantly when I arrived at the transfer area. Emirates does not get my vote at all, twice, I was there, and I could not even connect to the WiFi. It keep on saying my subscription has expired, whereas I just got there, what the..?
b. Toilet and musolla (surau). Qatar wins, hands down. The toilet is clean, musolla is huge and very comfortable. I barely remember Emirates's toilet and musolla, must be average, as I can't recall anything special. As for Etihad, the toilet is average, the floor is wet, and musolla is nice.
c. Distance between gates. It's a tie for all of the airport. As usual, all the transit hub has huge airport, and somehow just my luck, my terminals are all towards end of the world.

4. In flight service. For this one, I am biased. Just because I am a gold member for Qatar, they will greet me by name every time I went on board. The cabin crew all mostly friendly, and the food is OK. For Emirates, the service is not bad, I remembered the food being superb! Etihad's food is average, but the cabin crew not friendly. The took the headset 30 minutes before landing! Qatar allow me to hang on to it till touch down :)

5. In flight entertainment and others: All are good compared to Europe airlines..(Air France, Lufthansa)  hehehe... Emirates and Etihad fly Airbus, all seats comes with USB port, therefore I get to charge my phone in flight, Qatar fly Boeing, sometimes I get Airbus, but it's not often..

There it is my comparison of all these 3 airlines and airport. My preference would still be Qatar Airways. If Mr Boss insist on tightening the budget, I'll see how I can manage... :)

Till next time,  Wassalam.

KBB followed me on IG!

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh... (part ni ja sopan..hehehe)

I've been using IG as a means to update my daily life happenings. Kat situ la share gambaq resepi, pokok, quotes repost from sapa-sapa entah, and also repost mostly Real Madrid's picture. Selfie maybe ada 1-2 dalam seribu lebih gambaq kat situ..

Since I moved here, my posting in IG has increased exponentially. Ye la, dah tak da kawan nak sembang, blog pon dah suam2 kuku, post sendiri, baca sendiri...hahaha.. no two ways interaction with other homo sapiens :P. Bbbuuuutttttt.......... That may change, may or may  not, we'll see how. Here's why. On Sunday, I saw a notification, I had a new follower, its not unusual, since my profile is public, and normally entah sapa2 yang follow. Some I follow back some I don't.

The new follower has a very small profile picture, so I checked out the profile. Its KBB!!! Aduh, pahal pulak dia follow aku ni. And the odd part is dia makin rajin share la plak.. minggu ni ja dah more than 2 posts, kalau tengok rekod dia yang dulu-dulu, 3 bulan sekali kot baru nak letak satu gambaq. Macam tak best la plak kan..dia follow kita, dah tentu dia tgk kita aktif dok update gambaq, tapi kita tak follow dia, padahal tiap2 hari bertembung (almost!). So nak tak nak...kena la follow gak, nak stalk memang tak logik. Orang jauh boleh la stalk, orang dekat apa kes? Dah la dia jumpa profile kita dulu....huhuhu...

So now the question is, should I continue gila-gila kat IG, or should I start to behave? Macam tak best pulak nak behave kan...hipokrit la plak. Minggu ni lepas dia follow, belum lagi letak post yang mengarut. Tapi rasanya nga kuat deh! But hold on, yang nak behave sangat pasai apa? Hehehehe.. Jaga saham maaa..... You know what...? I don't think I want to behave.  My saham should be based on my true colours. So kalau sikit, sikitlah, kalau tinggi, tinggilah...

Caiyok! Till next update, wassalam.... :)