A little while back, I guest posted on 'Andrew in the Kitchen' as part of Andrew's #fdbloggerfriends series. You can find the post here: Chocolate Banana Caramel Cupcakes
As part of the series, Andrew is now guest posting here! Read on to find out more about Andrew and his blog, and to get the recipe for his Strawberry Cheesecake Buns.
Background
As you can probably tell from my blog name, my name is
Andrew and I blog about lots of food topics that grind my gears as well as post
recipes at least once a week. I have very recently just turned 18 so while most
18 year olds spend the summer partying and drinking, I’m spending it posting on
my food blog. But obviously university beckons next year and if all goes to
plan, I will be starting a maths degree at Nottingham.
In the future, I would
love a career in food but while the book deals and the Bake Off appearance
aren’t looking promising, teaching is what I would love to do. I specialise in
baking rather than cooking; I love the precision and idea that you can take
very basic and cheap ingredients of flour, sugar, eggs and fat and combine them
to make biscuits or a cake. But I am a very frugal cook; I believe you can make
great meals on a budget. And I am one of those who eats food a month past its
best before date because I can’t stand to see it thrown away in the packet!
Why did you start a blog?
I don’t particularly know why I started my blog; I thought
it would be a fun thing to do when I started it over 3 years ago. There was a
period of time where I left it for a while but it was when I did my GCSE
coursework on The Great British Bake Off that I really started getting into it.
I have always wanted a career in food – a cookbook in my own name, a slot on
This Morning or Sunday Brunch cooking one of my recipes – so I guess this was
my way of trying to get that job!
How has food shaped my life?
I’ve been around food all of my life; my parents have a
Chinese takeaway and I have been working there solidly since the age of 15 out
of necessity. But the one thing I have never wanted to do is work in a
restaurant; seeing the amount of hours and stress that goes into running a
smooth ship is enough to put you off! I myself have had to lead the kitchen
while everyone else is cooking frantically and it’s not fun. But being
passionate about food from a young age – and coming from a culture where food
is everything – it’s not hard to see why I am so into food now!
Last meal
If there was one thing I had to eat for my last meal, it
would have to be chicken nuggets. I know that sounds awfully strange for a food
blogger but it’s the fact that it's so bad for me that it’s just why I love them so much. The only
caveat is that I need McDonalds curry sauce. Apologies for the dirtiness!
Item I always order in restaurants
Coleslaw. Homemade coleslaw is so different to the
shopbought version and although I don’t make it often, it really is so much
better homemade. My recipe for coleslaw is coated in mayonnaise still but it is
not as creamy as shopbought versions and it has a lot of wholegrain mustard
which adds a lot of punch and bite so if I see something comes with coleslaw,
I’m ordering it!
5 facts about me
1 *
When I was 2 years old, I apparently shaved off
my right eyebrow
2 * I have been taking Zumba classes for around 4
years now – I haven’t done it for a while due to exams but I hope to get back
to it soon
3 * I applied for Bake Off this year – but didn’t
get any further than the application form
4 * I have baked 2 dessert buffets for 120 people as
part of our school’s Charity Week in the past 2 years
5 * At AS-Level, I did better in further maths than
I did in maths...
Favourite Posts
I am definitely a baker, so writing about baking is what I do
often on my blog. But actually my favourite posts are the posts where I just
write pretty freely about what I think about a food related issue – whether
that’s ‘Should cooking be compulsory for secondary school students under 18’ or
whether healthy eating is a food trend, I just love to write freely and openly
about what I truly think with no inhibitions. I do passionately believe that
all students in the education system should have compulsory cooking lessons; I
left school knowing how to cook simply because I have been brought up in a
food-driven environment but I also have many friends that struggle to cook and
I know they wouldn’t be able to make healthy meals for themselves.
Another post which I am really proud of is my Dark Chocolate
Chunk Cookies. I made around 300 of these for my school’s open evening – even
though I left, I couldn’t resist another opportunity to promote my blog as well
as bake literally the day after my last exam – and they went down a storm! I
had many parents say they would make them over the weekend but whether they did
is another story! Anyways these are crunchy around the edges and soft and chewy
in the middle, as the perfect cookie should be!
One of my other favourite posts is my Chocolate Macarons
with Chocolate Ganache. Macarons are notoriously difficult to make and using
this recipe, I made my best ever batch of macarons with the signature foot and
hardly any cracking. The recipe was from John Whaite and is a good base to
practice your macaron making with because I reduced the quantities down to just
1 egg white so you don’t have to worry about wastage!
Find me here:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AITKitchen_Blog
Pinterest - https://uk.pinterest.com/aitkichen_blog/
Strawberry Cheesecake Buns Recipe
I’ve already told you about my Chinese background and
combining my heritage with my love of baking, I found this recipe for
Strawberry Cheesecake Buns in a Chinese bread book I bought from Hong Kong. The
dough for Chinese breads is enriched and sweet and for these Cheesecake buns,
it is wrapped around a sharp cheese filling and topped with coconut and jam.
For
the bread dough
500g
plain flour
100g
sugar
1
tsp salt
180ml
whole milk
60g
margarine
2
x 7g sachets of fast-action dried yeast
1
egg
½
tsp natural strawberry extract
For
the cheesecake filling
200g
cream cheese
4
tbsp icing sugar
1
tsp lemon juice
80g
desiccated coconut, placed into a deep bowl
200g
strawberry jam, mixed up to loosen
- Heat up the milk and margarine in the microwave until the fat has melted. Allow to cool to body temperature and add the 2 sachets of yeast. Stir and allow the yeast to bubble up for about 10 minutes.
- For the bread dough, pour the flour into a large bowl and add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl. Use your finger to stir through and make a well in the centre. Add in the egg with all of the liquid and use your hands to bring the mix into a ball of dough – it shouldn’t be too sticky or too dry.
- Once the dough has combined nicely, transfer to a floured work surface and knead by hand for 10 minutes. The dough should not be sticking to the surface neither should it be crumbly. Test whether the dough is kneaded enough by pressing a finger into the dough and it should spring back fully.
- Place into the bowl and cover with clingfilm and prove until doubled in size.
- Meanwhile make the cheesecake filling. Mix together the cream cheese with the icing sugar and lemon juice until it is combined. Cover with clingfilm and chill until needed.
- When the dough has proved, knock back the air and divide the dough into 50g portions (you should get 18).
- Roll out each of the dough balls into a circle about 8cm wide.
- Spoon 2 teaspoons of the cheesecake filling into the centre and wrap the dough around the filling, squeezing the dough together to prevent any leaking out.
- Roll in your hand to shape slightly into a ball shape , and coat the bun in desiccated coconut and place onto a parchment lined baking tray.
- Repeat with all the buns and then use a rolling pin to push the centre of the buns down to create a hollow.
- Fill with 1 ½ teaspoons of strawberry jam and finish with more desiccated coconut. Cover with clingfilm and prove for a further hour or so until doubled in size.
- When you are ready to bake, place the buns in the oven as it is heating to 170 degrees. Bake for 18 minutes until the bottoms are browned well.
- Cool on a wire rack for an hour before eating.
https://andrewinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/strawberry-cheesecake-buns/
Absolutely love this blog. Andrew I wish you well for the future. Keep writing and baking.
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