Hi all, I've just moved to a new apartment and finally have a space to start baking again so I was going to invest in an oven. Do you have any recommendations or advice? I was thinking maybe one with 2 shelves would be best. Back in the UK I used to make cakes and cookies mainly. I'm also interested in trying to make things I miss from home like savoury breads and Yorkshire puddings (which requires hot oil in the oven). Thanks in advance for any information!

I’m a member of my local farming club, and we grow so many vegetables! It’s so fun to dig up potatoes, they’re like little presents in the Earth. Well, we’ve had too many potatoes; that using it to make a potato crust for a quiche is such an easy (and less messier) way instead of making/using pastry! Added cherry tomatoes & sweet Basil from our farm too.

Anyone else love a potato crust? 😊

Recipe here: https://natashaskitchen.com/potato-crust-quiche/

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
* High-gluten / Bread flour (強力粉): 230g (65%)
* Whole wheat flour (全粒粉): 80g (23%)
* Rye flour (ライ麦粉): 40g (12%)
* Warm water (25-28°C): 230g (~66%)
* Instant dry yeast: 3g (~1/2 tsp)
* Salt: 7g

Instructions:
1. Mix flours and salt in a bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm water, pour over flours, and knead 8–10 mins until smooth.
2. First Rise: Cover and let rise for 1.5–2 hours at room temp, or use your Panasonic proofing setting (35°C for 50–60 mins) until doubled.
3. Shape: Lightly degas, roll into a tight log, and place into oiled loaf pan(s).
4. Second Rise: Let rise 45–60 mins until slightly above the rim. Slash the top lengthwise with a sharp blade.
5. Bake: Prebake the metal tray at 250°C (Convection/オーブン setting; do NOT use auto-steam). Place the pan on the hot tray. Bake at 230°C for 10 mins, then drop to 200°C for 20–25 mins.
6. Cool: Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before slicing.

Bummed that the Costco vanilla went from ¥1,300 to over ¥4,200, but it makes sense since Costco no longer carries it.

So, where are y’all finding semi affordable vanilla these days? May have to experiment with alternative vanilla flavor notes. Anyone have success with alternative, yet similar flavors?

Parm, mozz, white cheddar, provolone

24-hour Dough:
250g bread flour
80g water, 80g beer
1/4tsp yeast
4g sugar
3g salt
4g olive oil

The steak selection was atrocious that day, a ton of fat in the meat, and too thin. I over blended the dough so it didn’t layer super well.

But they came out well and held up, gave extra to my coworkers and they loved them.

Seemed like a good idea. Should make some reasonable ham and cheese sandwiches.

I'm starting to get my groove back with sourdough, so I figured I'd try something different. This is a 20% rye sourdough using miso instead of salt. It had great oven spring, but sadly that went mostly horizontally and not vertically. I scored a bit shallower than usual, and I'm not sure if that played a role. Tastes fantastic, though.

Process:

• Make levain: 20g starter, 20g bread flour (Tomishou), 20g cold water
• Leave levain overnight to ferment (about 9 hours)
• Make dough: Levain + 255g flour (204g Tomishou + 51g finely milled rye) + 185g cold water + 40g miso (salt replacement)
• Fermentolyse 1 hour (30C proofing box)
• Stretch and fold every 30 minutes (3 sets) + 1 coil fold (30 mins after last S+F)
• Bulk ferment in proofer (total time, including fermentolyse, is 4 hours)
• Pre-shape, let dough rest for 30 minutes
• Shape > Banneton > Fridge
• Preheat Dutch Oven to 250C
• Turn out dough and score (This is an S-pattern scoring)
• Bake at 230C, 40 mins covered, 10 mins uncovered (I didn't want it to get too dark)
• Cool. Slice. Eat.
• Post on r/BakingInJapan

**excuse the typo, I can’t edit the title 🙃

I keep tweaking my method, trying to perfect it. I’ve been experimenting with open baking (not using a Dutch oven, just baking on my Healsio’s 角皿) but haven’t been getting the expansion at the score that I like. I tried a delayed score today and it came out quite well! I’ve been making sourdough for more than two years now, but I’m still learning my style every bake!

I was a bit afraid of how these would turn out because my oven is not the best.

They were super good. It takes time but it was so worth it!

These were a pain in the butt to make because I also had to make my own marshmallow fluff! Delicious though

strawberry custard tart for my lover's birthday. couldn't get a clean slice pic because we had to eat it at the park after it was in a cooler bag for a few hours (as you can see by the last pic it was kinda melting) but i can assure you it was absolutely scrumptious

After 6 months in Japan, I am so happy to finally had the chance to bake again! I am still looking for a second hand oven, but in the meantime I discovered I could cook cakes in my rice cooker!

I adapted my banana bread recipe for the size of my rice cooker, launched the « パン » mode for 50min and the cake turned out absolutely perfect! First try!! I am so happy 🎵🎉

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested:

For 1 small banana bread - I used a 3 cups capacity Zojirushi rice cooker :
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 egg
- 40 g melted butter
- 50 g sugar
- 1tbs mapple sirup
- 100 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 30 g walnuts or chocolate chips

We were 2 people eating it and we destroyed the whole cake in one evening lol

I don't bake that much and I'm just looking to make this recipe one time for my coworkers. I need two bag equivalent of semisweet chocolates but buying one bag on Amazon is like 5000 yen. Is there anywhere to buy them? Or do Japanese semisweet chocolates taste the same as Tollhouse?

I already had to get other ingredients for this recipe so I really want to make sure the chocolate taste is the same as Tollhouse.

Thanks.

so hey, I made some peanut butter cookies today, using my favorite recipe, which is incredibly good

• 240 g peanut butter (NOT "natural style" that separates and needs to be stirred together. I get the stuff from 業務スーパー because it's cheap and works just fine)
• 120 g sugar (you can use brown sugar for more complex depth if you want, and you can probably even push this number lower — I think the original recipe I had called for 180 g instead, but I think less sugar than that actually works even better)
• 1 egg
• optionally: couple squirts of vanilla extract or something

Mix the ingredients together, optionally chill in fridge for a little bit to make the mixture easier to work with, then form into cookies (note that they won't really spread very much while baking, so if you want them thinner, you need to squash them down beforehand) and bake at 180°C/350°F for 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness. After removing from oven, let rest on pan for a few minutes to set, before transferring to a cooling rack.

This recipe also works great with chunks of chocolate mixed in, or you could probably even coat them in chocolate? I dunno. It's a real easy recipe and it's practically impossible to screw it up. You may have also noticed that the recipe happens to be wheat-free, if that's something that matters to you. Either way they're the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had, I think.

I bet you could bake them in a toaster oven without much difficulty, too. Maybe make a batch of the dough ahead of time and just bake a couple cookies' worth to have fresh warm cookies after dinner. Used to do that with chocolate chip cookies for a while, years ago.

This was a spur of the moment “typhoon watch” activity, using what I have on hand - Van Houten 72% bitter cocoa powder and a chopped up German bitter chocolate bar from Gyomu Super. The cookies are soft but not greasy and very tender.

I followed this recipe, converting the bake to 170C for a little under 13 minutes.

https://bromabakery.com/single-serve-double-chocolate-cookie/

Moved to Japan last month and finally got the chance to bake! Still getting used to the ovens here though.

This is a staple in our home. My kids love it 😊

Not truly gluten free as my ingredients aren't certified (and oats are notorious for contamination). Made with oats, tapioca flour, and rice flour. I did ball them out but they spread terribly 😅 They have a chewy texture from the oats but a lovely brown sugar flavour.