我的生活雜錄 Steven's Miscellanea: 2016

來了快四個月了，第一次在加拿大烘焙，這也是我第一次嘗試烤muffin。話說一直沒烤muffin的原因是它長得太像杯子蛋糕了(嗯，我不喜歡杯子蛋糕XD)，但在加拿大第一次吃了muffin之後覺得，嗯，蠻好吃的啊，於是就決定要試烤。直到找配方時才知道，原來muffin是入門級。因為沒牛奶(這裡的牛奶好大一包，不捨得買 XD)，好不容易才在楊桃網找到一個沒牛奶的配方。
題外話，烤的當天是Canada Day~~~

材料： (稍微改了點，主要是減了糖和按例調成我想要的成品數目)

奶油 113g
砂糖 80g
蛋 3個
低筋麵粉 188g
泡打粉 6g
橙汁 20g
橙皮 1個

註：我用的是杯和量匙，所以只能「盡量」按照配方做，我沒加橙皮，所以成品完全沒橙味，奶油味也有點重。

做法：

把烤箱預熱，380 攝氏度；
奶油稍打至鬆散，加入糖，打到糖完全融合，整體稍微泛白；
分次加入蛋，拌至均勻；
加入過篩了的麵粉和泡打粉、橙汁和橙皮，拌合均勻即可，不要過份攪拌，否則會不鬆；
舀入模裡(如果是非不黏模，最好用溶化了的牛油擦擦內部或用紙杯)，約八分滿就好，因為還會膨脹；
放入烤箱，二十分鐘。

註：還沒多餘錢購置機器，我用的是一般打蛋器，不會很難；有說油蛋有點分離不要緊；有說中筋麵粉亦可；建議十七分鐘就可檢查成品是否已熟(插入竹籤，拔出來沒沾黏就是熟了)，我用二十分鐘，有點乾。
　

Almost four months after landing in Canada, I finally baked something, and it's Canada Day (I mean the holiday, not what I baked...).　

This is also my first muffin, too. I never liked muffins for a somewhat silly reason: they look like cupcakes, and I DO NOT like cupcakes, lol. But after I ate my first muffin(from Walmart or something), it did not taste as bad as I had thought, so I decided to bake some later on.

Milk sold here is absurdly too much for me. I did not want to buy 4 litre of milk just to use 200 ml, so I tried so many website for a non-milk version of muffin, and I eventually found it on ytower, a Taiwanese website.

Ingredients: (I made some changes to make the yields I wanted, and I also used less sugar)

Butter 113g
Granulated sugar 80g
Eggs 3
Cake Flour 188g
Baking powder 6g
Orange juice 20g
Orange zest 1

Note：What I measured with was cups and spoons, but I tried to follow the recipe by doing the math; I did not add orange zest (no tool...), so it did not taste orange whatsoever; also, after baking, it seemed to me that the recipe calls for too much butter.

Steps:

Preheat oven to 380 Fahrenheit;
Break the butter with the sugar till it turns pale;
Add eggs one at a time, and beat till incorporated;
Sift the flour and baking powder in, then add juice and zest, just mix until everything incorporates, do not over-mix, or the muffin will be tough;
Put the batter in pan (butter the pan or line with paper cups if it's not non-stick), 80% is enough is good enough, seeing the batter will rise;
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Note: due to lack of tool (money again...), I just used a whisk, it was not difficult, no machine needed, actually; some people say it does not matter the egg and butter separate, you will add the dry ingredients anyway; All-purpose flour is acceptable; I suggest checking the muffins after putting in the oven for 17 minutes (to check, insert a wooden skewer into a muffin and it is done if comes out clean), mine were 20 minutes and they were a little tough.

好久沒這樣抄食譜 XD
When was the last time I had a recipe written down like this?

一拿出來一直自言自語 "Aren't they gorgeous?" XD
I kept saying "aren't they gorgeous?" when taking them out of the oven lol

有個小不點
A little guy towered over by eight muffins lol

可愛的小屁屁
Cute little "bottom" ^^"

外面脆脆的，裡面有點扎實，不夠鬆，奶油味有點重，橙味也不明顯
A crisp crust and a not-so-soft (not tough enough to play hockey with, FYI) interior, cannot really smell the orange, and TOO MUCH butter

第一次到訪Allan Gardens是LINC的老師帶去的，因為老師安排了功課要做而不是純粹遊玩，我根本沒有好好看看那裡的花和植物，於是當天便下決定再來一次。

Allan Gardens 一週七天從上午十點到下午五點開放，位於多倫多南邊，最近的捷運站是College Station，回到地面後在 Carlton Street向東走約十分鐘就會看到它，如果懶得走的話，可以搭往東的street car，約兩站後在Jarvis Street下車，過個馬路就會看到它(What I did XD)。

據維基百科所說，Allan Gardens是一前市長George William Allan在1857年捐獻給多倫多市的，有過不同的名字，直到1901年，Mr. Allan過世後，才更名為Allan Gardens，距今已經一個半世紀了。

Allan Gardens就像一般的公園，四周都是草坪、長椅，中間是一個大溫室，還有一個圍起來，可以讓狗狗(為何沒有貓 XD)自由亂跑的區域，有一些狗狗一來到就很心急，主人還沒解開繩子就一個勁往前衝。

今天拍的照片大都是溫室裡的植物，種類跟之前有點不同，聽說每季都會有不同的植物。