Ever since I bought my very cheap Tesco bread maker, my interest has shifted to making bread more than cakes. Bread is a staple food for my son (he is nicknamed the Bread King), whilst cake can only be savored once a while. Each time I bake a bread, it can only last that 24 hours, or just slightly stretched over the next day (but not enough for everyone).

The easiest way to bake a bread using breadmaker is to let it complete the whole cycle inside the machine, from adding all ingredients to getting it baked inside. Total cycle takes slightly below 3 hours for a 1.5 pounds bread.

After experimented a few loaf breads, I declare that this Rosemary Bread adapted from All Recipe is my favorite. It is very moist with very nice fragrant. It smells and tastes premium, like eating in an Italian cafe. Best served with olive oil with balsamic vinegar!

From My Bakery

However, my kids don’t like it – kids being kids, they prefer sweet buns!! I will post more about sweet bread later.

Here is the adapted recipe on Rosemary Bread.

ROSEMARY BREAD RECIPE
Ingredients
1 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary (you may double the portion if use fresh ones)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Method
1. Insert all the ingredients into your bread maker according to the methods in the manual.
2. Mine require all the wet ingredients to go in first (water and oil), the followed by all dry ingredients.
3. Remember to keep yeast away from salt and liquid, so it would work effectively. To do that, I usually put salt directly to the liquid, and then sugar, then the herbs and then flour. Last step – yeast.
4. Switch on breadmaker, and it will be ready after 3 hours.
5. Let cool completely before slicing, this way the moisture will be locked within.

I actually have reduced the rosemary by half, to accommodate the kids. The original recipe calls for 1 TBSP dry rosemary. Try that if you can stand the strong fragrant.

A couple of months ago, it was my nephew’s birthday, and my sister decided to hold a mini party at my house. Since the guests are mainly adults, I’ve decided to make this Tiramisu Cheesecake for them, using a lot of coffee liquor. :p

This cake can easily impress others, yet not very difficult to make. The biggest challenge for me was not in baking it, but to find that ribbon. LOL!

TIRAMISU CHEESECAKE
Ingredients
1 package ladyfingers (340g)
4 tablespoons butter, melted (60g)
6-12 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur (I used Bailey)
3 (250g) packages cream cheese
1 (250g) container of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup white sugar (reduced from 1 cup)
2 eggs
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
30g semisweet chocolate

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Crush ladyfingers into fine crust.
3. Mix melted butter into the crumb, add 4 TBSP coffee liquor to moisture and add flavor.
4. Press onto base of 8″ or 9″ cake springform pan.
5. (Optional) If you want something looks like mine, you may arrange ladyfingers along the inner ring of the pan, but trim one end of the tip first so it is flat and able to ‘stand’.
6. Mix cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar until very smooth.
7. Add 4-8 tablespoons coffee liquor (based on your personal preference), and mix well.
8. Add the eggs and the flour; mix SLOWLY until just smooth.
9. Pour batter onto crust base.
10. Steam bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until just set. Leave cake to cool in oven that has been turned off for about an hour. Remove from oven, cool completely before refrigerating for at least 4 hours before serving.
11. For deco, grate the semi-sweet chocolate overtop.

I bought this bread maker after Christmas, and it has proven very useful! Well, actually after having this baking session with my kids, I started to love making bread. My son is a bread lover, he loves all sandwiches, even plain bread can satisfy him. After researching and read through many sites on Google, I’ve decided to try this Tesco house brand of bread maker. Seen exactly the same design from Elba on one of the blogs, with only difference in the button’s color. The shapes of the buttons are exactly the same. Elba costs more than RM300, whilst Tesco is only RM249 (original price).

Kenwood is 500+ and a smaller model is RM470. The most exciting thing that I discovered is that, Tesco had this promotion, and bread maker was selling at RM199 only!

From My Bakery

I have made plain white bread on the first day, a very delicious Rosemary bread on the second day (will share recipe later), a Hokkaido milk bread, a whole meal bread which didn’t turn out well, and then I made pizza with the dough mode. I made it twice. This is definitely the most worthy purchase in the late few months. Hahahaha!

I will definitely make more!! Will share recipes later. Cheers!!