review of maroyaka kale extract by yakult health foods

The Japanese are known for their longevity.

It is a fact that in Japan, there are more people over 100 years old per 100,000 population than anywhere else in the world. Japan also has the lowest death rates from cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Thus it was with great interest that I attended the launch of the Maroyaka Kale extract late last month.
Maroyaka Kale is a rich and tasty Aojiru (green juice) made from premium kale. This makes Maroyaka Kale an aojiru in its genuine form. Kale, considered to be an original species of cabbage and broccoli, contains beta-carotene and is high in calcium. It is especially good for people who have, or feel that they have a low intake of vegetables. In other words, you can now drink your vegetables without having to take your blender out of the cupboard!

Maroyaka Kale is grown by contract farmers in special soil without chemical or pesticides in the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita Prefecture. The farmers put time and effort into the cultivation of the kale, including the removal of pests by hand. The kale leaves are harvested in the morning, and transported to the nearby Yakult Health Foods factory to be processed with as little heat as possible on the same day. You really can't get anything fresher than that!

Maroyaka Kale powder comes in sachets of 9g and dissolves easily in cold water or milk. That was how I initially consumed the kale. In the beginning, I was unused to it and thought it tasted mildly of grass (not that I really know what grass tasted like) but after a day or two, I found that I quite like the taste - it was more like a pure vegetable.

Then I started eating Overnight Oats for breakfast because I liked the idea of consuming more calcium (from milk and yoghurt), fibre (from the oats) and vitamins and minerals (from the fruit). I then thought, why not add the kale extract into my morning oats?

This was what I did.

In a bowl, I combined the oats, milk and yogurt.

Into this, I added the fruits, in this case, strawberries and grapes. You can add any fruit you like, really.

I mixed everything together, added honey and placed the oats in the fridge overnight.

Finally, just before eating, I sprinkled one sachet of Maroyaka Kale extract powder onto the oats and mixed. It was simply delicious!

In addition, I also started adding the kale extract into my very picky 4-year-old's yogurt. Aden is going through the I-would-not-eat-any-vegetable stage, and the LAM and I were despairing. Since green is his favourite colour, and he is also mad about yogurt, I told him I was adding green sprinkles onto his yogurt, and lo-and-behold, he happily ate everything, including the kale extract! Needless to say, the LAM and I are both thrilled!

So, having tried this product for more than 3 weeks, would I recommend it to anyone else? The answer is a definite YES!

It is a great product for those who want to "eat" more vegetables, and it is definitely a great product to help parents add vegetables to the diets of kids (over 3 years of age) who refuse to eat their vegetables.

Maroyaka Kale is available at Guardian Pharmacy outlets retailing at the introductory price of $79.90 from now till 30th September 2014, after which the usual price of $87.90 applies.

RECIPE
Overnight Oats with Maroyaka Kale (Serves 1)
Adapted from CulinaryKitchenette 

Ingredients:
40 g old-fashioned rolled oats
100 ml milk - I used low-fat milk
100 ml Greek yogurt (or fruit yogurt)
1 teaspoon honey (or maple syrup, or any other preferred sweeteners)
Fruit, as desired
1 sachet Maroyaka Kale extract powder

Method:
1. Combine rolled oats, milk and yogurt.
2. Add fruit and honey.
3. Place in fridge over-night.
4. Add Maroyaka Kale extract powder, and additional fruit, if desired.
5. Serve cold.

Disclaimer: I was invited to the product launch of Yakult Health Foods by AT Marketing Consultancy. I received a box of Maroyaka Kale for the purpose of this review. While this post is also sponsored by Abeille d’Or (Singapore). all opinions expressed here are my own.

40 minute sausage rolls

This is another post that is related to the 40 minute bread rolls post I did a couple of weeks ago.

Many people have tried making the bread successfully (yay!) and I have received many emails requesting posts with photographs on how I made different types of bread rolls.

So today, I am sharing how I made sausage rolls in 40 minutes. :)

For step-by-step instructions on how to make the bread dough, please see here.

Once the dough had been made, I divided the dough into smaller portions, each weighing about 60 grams.

Once I had divided all the dough into portions, I took one in my hand, and on a lightly oiled work surface, I gripped pretty firmly on the dough, and rolled, pressing gently downwards at the same time.

You should end up with little round balls like the one in the picture above.

I usually do this with a ball of dough in each hand, one going clockwise and one anti-clockwise. It's pretty quick once you get the hang of it.

Taking one ball of dough, I flattened it and rolled it into a log. (I used both hands to roll.)

I took one end of the dough and pressed it onto one end of a sausage.

Then I rolled the dough around the sausage.

And repeated until the dough was used up.

I pulled gently on the end of the dough and pinched it to seal.

All that was left to do was to let the rolls rest for 10 minutes (covered with a damp cloth).

Be sure to leave some space between each roll so it has space to expand.

Before baking, I glazed the rolls with egg wash (egg + milk).

Once baked, I left the rolls to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before I glazed them with melted butter and transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

There you have it! Easy peasy sausage rolls!

Make them, and you will not buy sausage rolls from the shops again, I promise!

RECIPE
40 Minute Sausage Rolls (Makes 15-17)
Adapted from YourHomeBasedMom

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (280ml) warm water
1/3 cup (83ml) oil
2 tablespoons (about 16g) active dry yeast (or instant yeast)
1/4 cups (56.25g) sugar
1 1/2 (9g) teaspoons salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cup (or about 476g) bread flour (seems to work better but all purpose flour will also work)
15-17 sausages
1 egg + 3 tablespoons milk, beaten
50g butter, melted (optional)

Method:
1. Heat oven to 220C.
2. In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour.
3. Knead with hook until well incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes.) The dough will be a little sticky. I oiled my hands, kneaded it one to two times, and it became really easy to shape. If your dough is too wet, add a little more flour and knead a few times.
4. Form dough into 15-17 balls (60g each). Roll one ball out into a log. Roll dough around a sausage. Pinch to seal.
5. Glaze with egg wash. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Glaze with melted butter when baked

NOTE: 
To keep rolls soft, wrap with cling film and keep in an air-tight container (I keep the rolls in cling film in my oven.)
If you keep the rolls in the fridge, warm in the microwave oven for about 20 - 30 seconds to soften.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
1. Dough is too wet or sticky? Add a little oil and hand knead a couple of times. The dough should become easy to work with. Still too wet? Add a little less water.
2. You can use any oil. Maybe not peanut oil. Unless you want a peanut-y bread. Olive oil, Canola oil, Sunflower oil, Grape seed oil... all can be used.
3. Personally, I have not had any problems with the bread being too yeasty. If you find it so, change the yeast and try different ones till you find one that you like.
4. Conversion of flour from cups to grams: This is a conversion I got online. You may still need to adjust.
5. Oven temperature: Every oven is different. You need to understand your oven, so if you have one that tends to be hot, lower the baking temperature, and vice versa.
6. I do not recommend that you reduce the yeast quantities because this is a quick bread. You need the yeast to make it work. Similarly, you need the sugar to feed the yeast so it works.
7. You can put any filling you like in this bread. It is very versatile.
8. You can also glaze with milk (full-fat, low-fat, skim, etc), sprinkle any toppings you like.
9. I don't recommend that you rest the dough for more than 10 minutes. From feedback I received, the bread may be less soft.
10. You can use 1/2 bread flour, and 1/2 wholemeal flour, or 100% plain flour. The results are the same. You can't use top flour. There isn't enough protein to form gluten. 
13. The yeast MUST foam. NO FOAM = DEAD YEAST. Throw it out.
12. Every environment differs. You may live somewhere humid, or dry, or hot, or cold. If in doubt, check what other bakers recommend that you do for the weather conditions you live in, and experiment! You may need to tweak timings/ baking temperature, etc. Don't give up!

cream cheese muffins with crumble topping

I am a work-at-home-mom and I plan all the meals for my family. As such, I always go to the supermarket with a list, for fear that I would end up buying all sorts of nonsense in the event that I get distracted.

Having said that, I am pretty flexible and if I were to see something on sale at a good price, I would buy it to store for later use. I was a Girl Guide for many years and I guess the motto of being prepared was pretty much ingrained in me.

Hence, when I realised remembered that I had about 10 bars of cream cheese sitting in my fridge, I decided I had better do something with them pretty soon.

One of the things on top of my to-bake-soon list is this cream cheese muffin. Compared to some of the muffin recipes I have shared before, this is slightly more complicated. This is because there are more steps involved. Having said that though, this is not a difficult recipe. All that is required is for the baker to be a little more organised and to allow a little more time to put the ingredients together.

I can't promise you muffins in half an hour, but what I can promise is that you would end up with a tray of very, very delicious muffin - tender and full of flavour - that is not only beautiful to look at, but is interesting to eat too, largely because of the contrast between the tender muffin and the crunchy toppings.

To make this muffin, I started by mixing together oil, milk and eggs in a mixing bowl.

While that happened, I sifted together flour, baking powder and salt. To this mixture, I also added caster sugar.

I added the flour mixture to the oil/egg/milk mixture in 3 stages so that everything got incorporated.

This was set aside.

In another bowl, I beat the cream cheese with sugar.

I added half of the cream cheese mixture to the original batter, making sure to mix thoroughly.

This was also set aside.

Into a bowl, I added softened butter, sugar and flour. Using the tips of my fingers, I rubbed them together quickly until I got what resembled breadcrumbs.

Finally, to assemble the muffins, I began by spooning the original batter into a lined muffin tray.

On each muffin, I added a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.

Using the tip of the spoon, I smoothed the cream cheese as best as I could.

Then I topped the muffins with the butter/sugar/flour mixture.

The muffins were baked.

And what came out of the oven were simply stunning.

I wish I had time to cut into one to show you.

But they were gone too fast!

RECIPE
Cream Cheese Muffins with Crumble Topping (Makes 20-24)
Adapted from YourHomeBasedMom

Ingredients:
For the muffins:
3 cups plain flour
1 cup caster sugar - I used 1/2 cup
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk - I used low-fat milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil - I used canola oil
2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup

For the topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup
1/4 cup butter, softened

Method:

For the muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.

3. Mix together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

4. In another bowl stir together milk, oil, and eggs.

5. Combine with the dry ingredients.

6. Stir until just moistened.

7. Combine cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.

8. Gently mix half of this mixture into the muffin batter.

8. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.

9. Spoon the remaining cream cheese mixture onto the muffins, with the back of a spoon push the mixture into each muffin.

For the toppings:

Combine ingredients and rub using tips of fingers until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle generously over muffins.

10. Bake 24 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

ham and gruyere cheese muffins

Today I am going for super simple. Is it possible? For sure!

I baked a lot this week. And that's saying a lot since I normally bake quite a lot anyway!

But I had a few birthday cakes to bake this week, so all my other bakes were kept very simple.

This is a quick and easy ham and Gruyere cheese muffin. And as with all muffin recipes, it is a matter of mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones, and adding whatever filling you like.

So, in a bowl, I combined the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and dried thyme.

In another bowl, I mixed the wet ingredients: milk, egg and melted butter.

I also chopped the ham and grated the cheese.

The wet ingredients were added to the dry ones.

And mixed.

Then I added the ham and the cheese.

And mixed again.

Finally I spooned this mixture into the cavities of a greased muffin tray.

And baked them.

Aren't they cute?

These muffins taste a little like the American biscuits, which of course, aren't biscuits at all.

But no matter. Because they are still delicious!

RECIPE
Ham and Gruyere Cheese Muffins (Makes 18)
Adapted from Clockwork Lemon

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese, or Cheddar, or any eating cheese (not Parmesan)
1 1/2 cups of ham cut into 2cm cubes

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line muffin tins with papers

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and thyme in a medium bowl.

2. In a separate bowl combine the milk, egg, and melted butter.

3. Stir milk mixture into the flour mixture until barely combined. Fold in the ham and cheese. Divide the batter among muffin cups.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes. 

5. Allow to cool on a wire rack and enjoy warm! If you plan on freezing some, allow to cool completely and then freeze in a ziplock freezer bag as soon as possible. 

40 minute ham and cheese pinwheel bread rolls

Recently I posted a recipe for a 40 minute bread roll. The recipe was a huge hit because apart from being super, super easy, it produces really soft bread rolls that stay soft for up to 4 days (a friend kept a roll for that number of days as a test) and well, being able to make bread from start to finish in 40 minutes is something that is quite amazing, really.

I then received many emails asking for step-by-step instructions, accompanied by photos, on how to make different types of rolls using this recipe.

So today, I am sharing a post on how I made pinwheel rolls.

To start, I added warm water, oil, yeast and sugar into a mixing bowl. This was left to stand for 15 minutes for the yeast to do its work.

At the end of 15 minutes, you should see quite a bit of foam. Under the foam, there was still liquid.

Into this, I added flour, egg and salt.

Then using a dough hook, I mixed this for 2-3 minutes, until the dough came together.

I rubbed some oil on my hands so I could transfer the dough onto my already lightly oiled work surface.

Then I used my hands to knead the dough.

Step 1: I pushed the dough outwards away from me.
Step 2: I folded about 1/3 of the dough towards me.
Step 3: I folded again.
Step 4: I turned the dough 90° anti-clockwise.

I repeated this 2 more times.

I formed the dough into a ball. I cut the ball (roughly) into 2 equal parts with a lightly oiled pastry scraper.

I took one of the balls of dough, and rolled it out with a lightly oiled rolling pin until it was about 1 cm thick.

I laid out the ham and sprinkled the shredded cheese evenly on the ham.

Then I rolled the dough as tightly as I could, and pinched the seams to seal.

I trimmed the ends and cut the roll into slices of about 2.5 cm thick. You can cut them into thicker slices if you wish.

The rolls were placed in an oiled baking tray, covered with a piece of damp tea towel, and left to rest for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes, the rolls would have expanded a little.

I gently brushed the rolls with an egg wash (egg + milk).

And baked the rolls for 12 minutes.

I brushed the rolls with a little melted butter. This step is purely optional.

I transferred the bread rolls onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This is such a fantastic recipe.

I actually make all sorts of bread rolls about 4-5 times a week now.

Try it.

You'll most likely fall in love with this recipe as I had done!

RECIPE
40 Minute Ham and Cheese Pinwheel Bread Rolls (Makes 16)
Adapted from YourHomeBasedMom

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1/3 cup oil - I used canola oil
2 tablespoons (about 16g) active dry yeast (or instant yeast)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
3 cup (about 476 g)bread flour - I used 2 cup bread flour + 1 1/2 cup plain flour
9 slices ham
1 cup shredded cheese - I used UK Leister
1 egg + 3 tablespoons milk, beaten
50g butter, melted (optional)

Method:
1. Heat oven to 220C.
2. In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour.
3. Knead with hook until well incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes.) The dough will be a little sticky. I oiled my hands, kneaded it one to two times, and it became really easy to shape. If your dough is too wet, add a little more flour and knead a few times.
4. Form dough into 2 balls. Roll one ball out into a rectangle, about 1cm thick. Lay ham on dough, the sprinkle cheese evenly over the ham. Roll the dough tightly into a log.
5. Cut into slices (about 2.5cm thick) and place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Glaze with egg wash. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

NOTE: 
To keep rolls soft, wrap with cling film and keep in an air-tight container (I keep the rolls in cling film in my oven.)
If you keep the rolls in the fridge, warm in the microwave oven for about 20 - 30 seconds to soften.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
1. Dough is too wet or sticky? Add a little oil and hand knead a couple of times. The dough should become easy to work with. Still too wet? Add a little less water.
2. You can use any oil. Maybe not peanut oil. Unless you want a peanut-y bread. Olive oil, Canola oil, Sunflower oil, Grape seed oil... all can be used.
3. Personally, I have not had any problems with the bread being too yeasty. If you find it so, change the yeast and try different ones till you find one that you like.
4. Conversion of flour from cups to grams: This is a conversion I got online. You may still need to adjust.
5. Oven temperature: Every oven is different. You need to understand your oven, so if you have one that tends to be hot, lower the baking temperature, and vice versa.
6. I do not recommend that you reduce the yeast quantities because this is a quick bread. You need the yeast to make it work. Similarly, you need the sugar to feed the yeast so it works.
7. You can put any filling you like in this bread. It is very versatile.
8. You can also glaze with milk (full-fat, low-fat, skim, etc), sprinkle any toppings you like.
9. I don't recommend that you rest the dough for more than 10 minutes. From feedback I received, the bread may be less soft.
10. You can use 1/2 bread flour, and 1/2 wholemeal flour, or 100% plain flour. The results are the same. You can't use top flour. There isn't enough protein to form gluten. 
13. The yeast MUST foam. NO FOAM = DEAD YEAST. Throw it out.
12. Every environment differs. You may live somewhere humid, or dry, or hot, or cold. If in doubt, check what other bakers recommend that you do for the weather conditions you live in, and experiment! You may need to tweak timings/ baking temperature, etc. Don't give up!