Homemade Senbei Rice Crackers #BreadBakers

Light and crispy, these homemade senbei rice crackers with sesame seeds are so crunchy and tasty that it’s hard to eat just one! Fortunately this recipe makes two dozen.

When we lived in Southeast Asia, one of my favorite snacks was senbei or rice crackers. There was one particular brand that came in various flavors like barbecue, seaweed, plain, and spicy. You know, if you’ve been reading here a while, that I always bought the spicy ones.

But honestly, I loved them all. Okay, the plain ones weren’t that exciting but I loved the rest of them.

When I decided to try making them myself for this month’s Bread Bakers event, I was tempted to make spicy senbei but it occurred to me that rice crackers would go perfectly with a dish I was making for Fish Friday Foodies, ginger sesame tuna tartare. So I give you senbei with black sesame seeds! (Check back next Friday to see the other recipe.)

Homemade Senbei Rice Crackers

As I made the crumbly dough for this recipe, the texture reminded me of shortbread I have made, both sweet and savory, even though it has very little oil or fat. The best way forward seemed to be to slice it like I did with the shortbread. Worked a treat! This recipe is adapted from one on the Japan Centre website.

Ingredients
For the senbei:
3/4 cup or 120g glutinous rice flour aka mochiko
1/3 cup, loosely packed, or 40g cooked white rice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5-6 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons black sesame seeds

For the glaze:
1 tablespoons soy sauce (I use low sodium Kikkoman)
2 teaspoons mirin

Method
Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

In a small bowl combine the soy sauce and mirin for the glaze and set aside.

To make the dough, place the rice flour, cooked rice, salt, and oil in a food processor. Run until finely ground.

Next, slowly add the water through the feed tube a tablespoon at a time. After four tablespoons, scrape the sides and bottom of the food processor with a rubber spatula and pulse again. The mixture will look pretty dry still, but put a little the palm of your hand and see if you can form a small ball that hangs together tightly.

If it hangs together but is still really crumbly like mine, add the last tablespoon of water and process again. Scrape the sides and bottom of the processor down again and retest to see if a ball hangs together better. You should be good to go now. Depending on the humidity in your location and how much moisture was in your cooked rice, you might not need the last tablespoon of water.

Place mixture into a bowl and add the sesame seeds. Knead to combine everything into dough.

Roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 24  1/4 in or 1/2cm slices.

Put the slices on your prepared baking pans and use your fingers to press them out into thin circles. The thinner, the better. If you leave them too thick, they'll still be crispy but they won't be light.

Bake the rice crackers, one baking pan at a time, for about 8-10 minutes. Flip the crackers with a spatula.

Bake again for another 10-12 minutes, or until the crackers start to brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a minute or two. Brush the tops with the soy sauce/mirin glaze.

Return to the oven and bake until lightly browned (about 3 to 4 minutes.) Keep a close eye on the crackers to make sure they do not burn.

Cool completely on a wire rack before serving. As they cool, they will get crispy.

Store in a dry, cool place.

Enjoy!

This month my Bread Baker friends are all sharing cracker recipes. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe. Check out them out below:

• Baked Nacho Chips from Anybody Can Bake
• Cheesy Crunchy Mini Crackers from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Homemade Senbei Rice Crackers from Food Lust People Love
• Lavash from Sneha's Recipe
• Olive Oil Crackers from A Messy Kitchen
• Rosemary Crackers from Passion Kneaded
• Sourdough Cheddar Cheese and Rosemary Crackers from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Sprouted Wheat Crackers with Sea Salt from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Wholegrain Sesame and Flaxseed Crackers from Ambrosia
• Wholemeal and Oats Carrot Crackers from Cook with Renu

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Savory Mediterranean Scones #BakingBloggers

These savory Mediterranean scones are tender and fluffy, full of flavor with feta cheese, soft sun-dried tomatoes and a mixture of salty olives. They are a great breakfast or snack. I highly recommend using one for a fried egg sandwich!

As I prepped my ingredients to make these scones, my husband wandered by. It was a Sunday morning and no one at our house moves very fast on one of those. “Whatcha making?” he asked. “Mediterranean scones,” I replied. “No such thing!” was his response. And I suppose that he has a point. Scones are a particularly British thing, not unlike his good self, and they don’t usually contain feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and olives.

But as soon as Sue, the host of Baking Bloggers, announced the theme for this month’s event - biscuits and scones - I knew I wanted to bake something savory. I’ve already shared my freeze-and-bake buttermilk biscuits, my slightly sweet bacon honey mustard biscuits and, of course, the ubiquitous fall favorite, sweet pumpkin scones so it was time to jump over to the savory side.

“When in doubt, add cheese” is one of my mottos so a Mediterranean-inspired scone with feta cheese seemed ideal.

Savory Mediterranean Scones

This recipe is adapted from one on BBC Good Food from way back in 2004, with just a few little tweaks. The original created such a wet dough that I decided to make drop biscuits/scones instead of rolling and cutting. My way is easier and the results are lovely and fluffy.

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups or 345g all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 56g butter, cut in pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 halves soft Italian sundried tomatoes
3 1/2 oz or 100g feta cheese
10 or 55g mixed Greek olives, plus extra for decoration, if desired
1 1/4 cups or 295ml full fat milk

Optional to serve: butter

Method
Heat the oven to 375°F or 190°C. Line a large baking pan with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Pit your olives by mashing them with the side of a big knife on a cutting board. Remove the pits and chop the olives roughly.

Stack your sun-dried tomatoes and use a sharp knife to cut them into small pieces. Alternatively, if you have sharp kitchen scissors, I find they are very effective at cutting through a small stack of dried tomatoes.

Use a fork or knife to crumble the feta cheese, keeping some pieces bigger than others. This insures that you still have some chunks of cheese left visible after you fold the milk into the dry ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a pastry blender to blend in the butter and the oil, until the mixture resembles rough sand.

Add in the sun-dried tomatoes, feta and olives and stir well so they are coated with the flour.

Make a well in the center and pour in the milk. Use a rubber spatula (so you can scrape the sides of the bowl effectively) to gently fold the milk into the flour, rotating the bowl as you fold, until all of the milk is incorporated. Do not over mix. This is going to be an extremely thick batter.

Use an ice cream scoop or two serving spoons to drop the dough onto your prepared baking pan. My ice cream scoop holds about 1/4 cup by volume, which translated to 12 drop scones.

This is the time to take the stones out of a three extra olives and quarter them if you want to decorate the scones with a spare piece of olive.

Bake for 30-35 minutes in your preheated oven until the scones are risen and lightly browned.

Check out the lovely bottoms! Golden, crunchy and divine!

Transfer to a wire rack. These are wonderful warm and, if you like, well-embuttered. That said, we ate them plain as well and they were great!

An aside: Blogger seems to think that embuttered is a misspelling, which surprised me. So I looked it up. It is indeed a real word (OF COURSE, IT IS!) but embuttered is rarely used. We should totally change that. Who's with me? EMBUTTER all the things.

Enjoy!

This month my Baking Blogger friends are all sharing biscuit and scone recipes, both sweet and savory. Many thanks to our founder and host Sue of Palatable Pastime. Check out the recipes on the list below:

• Baileys Irish Cream Almond Scones from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Basic Tea Time Scones from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Coconut Mango Scones from Caroline's Cooking
• Cran-Cherry Orange Scones from Making Miracles
• Irish Cream Scones from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Lemonade Scones from Sneha's Recipe
• Oatmeal Currant Scones from Palatable Pastime
• Orange and Cranberry Scones from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Savory Cheesy Chive Scones from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Savory Mediterranean Scones from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Mango Scones from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

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Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery #FoodieExtravaganza

Bacon ranch stuffed celery is an easy appetizer that satisfies our need for crunch! And who doesn’t love cream cheese seasoned with loads of bacon, chives, parsley and plenty of black pepper? It makes the perfect filling for celery, not to mention baked potatoes.

As a child, my favorite dressing was always thousand island because I loved its creaminess with just a bit of bite. As I got older, I taught myself to love blue cheese dressing. Not sure exactly where I got the idea, but I decided it was more sophisticated than thousand island and that I should like it.

Every week in my high school cafeteria the menu seldom varied. Thursday was rigatoni day. It was our favorite meal of the week. Big rigatoni pasta with Bolognese sauce and a side salad. Despite not liking blue cheese, that’s the dressing I chose week after week, until sometime in the middle of possibly sophomore year, I actually really liked it. Yeah, I know, I’m weird. Blue cheese became my favorite.

Until 🎵dum dum da dum 🎶 RANCH DRESSING entered my consciousness. I first tried it at a Texas buffet restaurant I adored called Souper Salad, where one could fill one’s plate with salad ingredients too numerous to count, along with myriad toppings, like crumbled bacon and cheeses, sliced boiled eggs and sunflower seeds. The vats of dressing were enormous, like the ice cream tubs in the cooler at Baskin Robbins. They also served soup and some of the best cornbread on the planet.

After that, I wanted ranch on All The Things. And possibly some crumbled blue cheese.

Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery

Sure, you could just dip your celery sticks in ranch dressing but my way is much more delicious. Mix the ranch flavors into cream cheese and stuff the celery full. It doesn’t drip off on your shirt like dip does and it’s more delicious to boot.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 thick slices bacon, fried till crispy, crumbled
8 oz or 226g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup or 60ml mayonnaise
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives/green onion tops
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt, to taste
8 ribs celery (mine were about 8 in or 20cm long)

Method
Put the minced garlic in a large bowl and add in the lemon juice. Set aside for 10 minutes. This mellows the garlic so it isn’t as sharp but it’s still got plenty enough garlicky flavor.

Use a fork to mash the room temperature cream cheese into the lemon juice and garlic.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Taste and add salt if needed. With the cream cheese, bacon and mayonnaise, all of which are salty, you probably won’t need much, if any at all. I don't usually add any.

Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow the flavors to meld.

Use a plastic bag with the corner cut off or a pastry bag to pipe a healthy amount of the filling into your cleaned celery ribs. Run the tines of a fork over the top to score the filling and gently push it into the celery so it won’t fall out.

Cut your celery into 2 inch or 5cm lengths and arrange them on a serving plate.

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are celebrating National Celery Month by sharing our favorite recipes with celery. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the great recipes:

• Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery from Food Lust People Love
• Braised Celery Over Cheesy Polenta from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Celery Leaf Pesto from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Homemade Celery Salt from Sneha's Recipe
• Italian Celery and Mushroom Salad from Making Miracles
• Shaved Celery and Apple Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Shaved Celery Salad with Sauteed Scallops from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

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Apple Brown Sugar Muffins #MuffinMonday

These apple brown sugar muffins are tender and fluffy on the inside. The warm cinnamon elevates these beauties to pure comfort food. Brew up a pot of tea and bake up a batch.

Our kitchen is in a bit of a shambles as we rip out the old narrow cupboards and add new more spacious ones but we feel very strongly that anyone who owns a home built one hundred years ago has a responsibility to keep the original feel and as many of the vintage elements as one can. I know my readers in the UK will laugh at a 100-year-old home being considered old but, hey, the US is still a new republic, history-wise. And goodness knows we have a lot to learn.

The William Wilson Realty Company created our neighborhood in Houston, the Woodland Heights, back in 1907 but we believe our house dates from the early 1920s. The word wasn’t used back then but we would have been in the suburbs! Now with the spread of Houston to actual suburbs, we are considered almost downtown. Isn’t it funny how times change? The original houses sold for about $4,000, which I am guessing was a lot of money in those days.

One thing a person can still bake in a distraught kitchen is muffins. Two bowls: Wet ingredients. Dry ingredients. Mix them together and bake, even if you don’t have a countertop. That arrives on Thursday. One day we will have a more functional kitchen and I have to tell you, I’m still going to bake muffins. And use the Instant Pot. It’s been a godsend.

Apple Brown Sugar Muffins

If there is any combination that smells as delightful as it bakes as apples, brown sugar and cinnamon, I don’t know what it is. While these were in the oven, my house smelled absolutely fabulous. Plus the muffins are delicious. Bake them. You won’t regret it.

Ingredients
1 large apple (about 9 oz or 254g whole)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup, tightly packed, or 150g dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil, plus a little extra for the pan
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your muffin pan by brushing it with oil or line it with paper muffin liners.

Peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces and toss them immediately with the lemon juice to stop them from discoloring.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla.

Add the apple pieces into the dry ingredient bowl and stir to coat.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and fold until they are just combined. Do not over mix.

 Divide your batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven or until muffins are golden. Remove them from oven and let them cool for a few minutes before removing the muffins from the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday of the month and that means it's Muffin Monday! Check out all the wonderful muffins my friends are sharing:

• Apple Brown Sugar Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Blueberry Kumquat Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cheesy Corn and Bacon Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Curried Chicken Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Maple Cinnamon Nut Butter Muffins from Making Miracles
• Mini Nutella Swirled Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Apple Brown Sugar Muffins! 

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin Bundt #BundtBakers

It looks like cake and tastes like cake but this is actually a big peanut butter chocolate chip muffin baked in a Bundt pan! Made with the muffin method of mixing wet and dry ingredients in one bowl, it’s fast, easy and delicious.

Happy National Muffin Day! As head cheerleader for Muffin Monday, I might normally have celebrated such an auspicious holiday by baking muffins but this year National Muffin Day happens to coincide with Bundt Baker Thursday, which falls on the third Thursday of every month. For a fun twist, our host Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm proposed that we take our favorite muffin recipe and turn it into a Bundt cake.

Best of all, since this is really one big muffin, you can enjoy a slice for breakfast. Don’t mind if I do! Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to see what other great muffin recipe Bundts my fellow Bundt Bakers are sharing.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffin Bundt

Because this is a celebratory muffin Bundt, I topped it with some melted crunchy peanut butter (and butter) and a generous sprinkling of semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can leave those off but I think you’ll be sorry you did!

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1 cup, packed, or 200g dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup or 165g crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup or 61g Greek-style yogurt
2/3 cup or 156ml milk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
6oz or 170g semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus extra for decoration, if desired

For the peanut butter glaze:
1/3 cup or 83g crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon butter

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your large Bundt pan by buttering it generously then dusting the butter with flour.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another mixing bowl, whisk the butter, peanut butter, milk, yogurt and eggs.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold until almost completely combined. You should still see dry flour. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the thick batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about five minutes then transfer the Bundt to the wire rack to cool completely before moving it to a serving plate.

To make the peanut butter glaze, melt the peanut butter and butter together in the microwave 10 seconds at a time, stirring well in between, or over a low heat in a small pot, similarly stirring often if not continuously, until the peanut butter is of pouring consistency. Spoon it over the cooled muffin Bundt and sprinkle with extra chocolate chips, if desired.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Bundt Baker host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for this fun theme and all of her behind-the-scenes work. Check out all the lovely muffin recipe Bundts:

• Berry Lemon Bundt from Sweet Sensations
• Blueberry Muffin Supreme from Patyco Candybar
• Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake from Cookaholic Wife
• Jambul/Java Plums Giant Bundt Muffins from Sneha's Recipe
• Morning Glory Muffin Bundt from Passion Kneaded
• Orange Poppyseed Mini Muffin Bundts from A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin Bundt from Food Lust People Love
• Pecan Sticky Bundtlette Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffin Bundt Cake from Making Miracles

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our ;Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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