For the Love of Baking is the Root of all Yummy Treats

By Jewel Castillon

Like many Kiwis, I also love to bake—anything from cakes to bread, to muffins, and pizzas. 

Who wouldn’t fall in love with baking? New Zealand produces top-quality flour and dairy products, two indispensable baking ingredients. And don’t forget New Zealand is a source of a wide variety of delicious honey too.

In my previous post I shared how I learned to make sourdough bread.

Please continue scrolling down to see the products of my love of baking.

Clockwise from the top: sourdough bread, cinnamon buns, and pizza with vegetable toppings from my garden.

Although bakery goods of all kinds are readily available in bakeshops and supermarkets, nothing beats the taste and aroma of a freshly baked bread or muffin.

But I am missing the taste of our bread back home. Philippine bread, like most Asian bread, tastes sweet.

We grew up eating a sweet bun or bread called pandesal or ensaymada either for breakfast, afternoon tea or as a snack.

I am missing the taste and the texture of the bread that I grew up eating.

The closest bread I could find in New Zealand, especially here in Timaru would either be doughnuts, hot cross buns, Chelsea buns with icing on top, and the buns from KFC.

Since I couldn’t buy it here, I might as well make it.

I find the Summit Premium flour from Farmer’s Mill a suitable flour for our ethnic bread but any strong flour will do as well.

We call this pan de mongha or pan de leche in the Philippines. It is also known as milk bread or penny rolls. See the photos above and below.

I used this Milk Bread recipe to make pan de leche.

Below are more of my baked goodies.

Ube roll with cheese (left) and buko (young coconut) pie (right).

Beignet (/ˈbɛnjeɪ/ BEN-yay, also US: /beɪnˈjeɪ, bɛnˈjeɪ/ bayn-YAY, ben-YAY) is a fried dough and below is my version of the pillow-like fried treat that is famous in New Orleans.

And lastly, the all-time favorite, Brownies!

Do you love to bake? Share your baking experience or story and photos here at Love Timaru. Please contact us.

About the Author

Jewel is a passionate cook and baker. She has the penchant for developing her techniques and recipes.

After finishing her NZ Diploma in Advance Cookery with Patisserie at the former Aoraki Polytechnic (now, Ara Institute of Canterbury), she put up her cafe, Food Haven in 2015. She and her husband operated it for four years.

In between her job as a researcher for the Climate Adaptation Platform, Jewel continues to pursue her passion for cooking and gardening, learning and discovering more.

She will be blogging about food and gardening in LOVE Timaru. Watch out for her articles. 🙂