DIY Facial Toner

February 21, 2017June 5, 2020 | San

DIY Facial Toner // Mono + Co

I occasionally turn to my kitchen pantry for a DIY no-frills face cleansing regime since my journey started to educate myself on healthier alternatives for the little things we eat and use every day. Skincare is definitely on the list. The task of looking for effective skincare products with the least chemicals and even lesser packaging materials is more daunting nowadays as the number of brands and product range increased with more advanced research and development.

What used to be a simple clean + moisturize procedure has since morphed into a multiple-step skincare routine that requires ever more products. There is no way I can fit so many fancy products in my tiny bathroom, so I zoomed in on some of the edible key active ingredients and made them on my own. I am lucky that I do not have sensitive/ acne-prone skin or allergy reaction to these food ingredients. But I will always test new ingredients on a small patch first (behind the ear or back of the arm) before applying on the entire face and neck.

DIY Facial Toner // Mono + Co

So what can be made from my kitchen pantry? Many skincare products sitting on the shelves have drawn their inspirations from natural food like fruit, honey, oat, seaweed, olive oil, etc. I simply bump up their concentration level in my homemade version in place of chemicals with names that I can’t pronounce, like 100% raw honey facial cleanser, or a 50% oatmeal + 50% banana mask.

I like to make them in really small batches, sometimes enough for only one application for items such as facial masks, to ensure freshness and to avoid contamination and the inconvenience of storage. I use various recipes in rotation, depending on what ingredients I have in stock.

DIY Facial Toner // Mono + Co

One of the first few items that I DIY-ed and still using now is a toner made with only apple cider vinegar and filtered water. I tried making my own after reading how apple cider vinegar benefits skin beyond the kitchen.

I have been using the one from Bragg, the raw, unfiltered and organic version with the “mother”- the beneficial enzyme, visible floating around when the bottle is shaken. This is more expensive than the filtered ones, but a little goes a long way, after dilution, it costs less to make than buying the commercial toner.

I dilute 1 part vinegar with 8 parts filtered water, making 100ml or less each batch and store it in a clean glass bottle. There are recipes out there that use more vinegar than mine but I thought it would sting my skin and choose the safer, more diluted recipe.

DIY Facial Toner // Mono + Co

Here’s another variation of the toner : some afternoons, I would save a few tablespoons of strong green tea from my teapot to mix with the vinegar instead of filtered water for extra anti-oxidant properties. I usually make just enough for one application as this mixture needs to be store in the fridge.

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Chocolate Raisin Bread

February 18, 2017April 18, 2017 | San

Chocolate Raisin Potato Bread Loaf // Mono + Co

Chocolate bread for breakfast is so indulging. The plump and juicy sweet raisins in every bite made it even better, the trick is to soak them in warm water for at least 15 minutes. With hydration, it also prevents the raisins from drawing moisture from the dough during proofing and baking, drying out the bread.

I didn’t add a lot of honey in case the bread becomes more of a guilty dessert than a healthy breakfast.

Chocolate Raisin Potato Bread Loaf // Mono + Co

Chocolate Potato Raisin Bread

300g plain flour
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
30g cocoa powder **
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons raw honey
1 small egg ***
50g water
150g mashed potatoes
35g cold butter, cubed
60g raisins ****

** I use Van Houten cocoa powder.

*** mine weighs 55g with shells.

**** soak raisins in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes. Drain and gently squeeze dry to remove excess liquid before use.

In a mixer bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together ( flour, yeast, cocoa powder, sea salt) with a hand whisk. Then add honey, egg and water and mashed potatoes and knead into a ball with a dough hook. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Start the mixer again to knead for 1 minute before adding cubed butter one by one, and knead till the dough reach window pane stage. Add raisins while mixer is running and knead for about 1 minute. Stop mixer and leave dough to bulk rise for 60 minutes.

After the dough has risen to double its volume, punch down the dough to deflate and transfer to a clean work top. Sprinkle worktop and palms with flour if the dough is too sticky to handle.

Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Flatten and shape each portion, rolling them up swiss roll style. Arrange them in a Pullman tin, seam side downwards. Leave this aside to proof for 60-75 minutes, covered with a towel.

Preheat oven to 160C, and bake the bread for 30 minutes.

When done, remove bread from tin immediately and place on a rack to cool completely.

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Potato Raisin Bread

February 15, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Potato Raisin Bread // Mono + Co

I love slightly sticky dough when I want to make soft bread loaves like this sugar topped raisin bread. With eggs, honey and more than the usual amount of water added, the final dough will be much more wobbly than usual, but after 30 minutes in the oven set at 160C, it transforms itself into an almost sponge cake like texture bread.

I made 3 slashes to the bread before baking and topped with butter strips a sprinkle of sugar. This is to mimic the sugar-topped bread rolls that are a common item in the neighborhood bakeries. But I get to control the amount of sugar this time.

Potato Raisin Bread

300g plain flour
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon raw honey
140g mashed potatoes
1 egg **
85g water
20g cold butter, cubed
60g raisins

For toppings : 
butter cut into strips 
1 -2 tablespoons sugar

** I used a small egg weighing 60g with shell.

*** Soak the raisins in warm water for 30 minutes. Drain and squeeze slightly to remove excess liquid before use.

In a mixer bowl, add dry ingredients : plain flour, instant yeast, sea salt and stir well with a hand whisk. Next add raw honey, cooled mashed potatoes, egg and start the mixer running to knead with a dough attachment. Slowly drizzle water while the mixer is running. Once all ingredients come into a ball, stop adding the water and turn off the mixer. Leave this aside to stand for 15 minutes undisturbed.

After 15 minutes, turn on the mixer again for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter one by one. Knead this until it reaches the window pane stage. Then add raisins into the dough, let the mixer run for another 1 minute to let the raisin be incorporated into the dough. It is ok if the raisins are not mixed uniformly, this can be done during the shaping stage when the dough is repeatedly stretch and fold. Remove bowl from mixer and cover to bulk rise for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes, the dough would have expanded to double its volume. Punch to deflate it and transfer to a clean worktop. The dough will be sticky, dust worktop and hands with flour to make the dough easier to handle. A bench scraper will be extremely useful for handling such sticky dough too. Using the stretch and fold method, shape the dough into a slight oblong bread. Leave it aside covered for its final 60 minutes proof.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Slash the bread and place butter strips where the slash marks are. Mist the top of the dough with water, then sprinkle sugar on top. Bake for 30 minutes.

When the baking is done, transfer the bread to a rack to cook completely before slicing to serve or store in an airtight container.

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Simple Pleasures

February 15, 2017June 5, 2020 | San

Simple Pleasures // Mono + Co

// something’s brewing. more on this 3 months later 😉

Simple Pleasures // Mono + Co

// patching with a few simple (though ghastly unhidden) stitches.

Simple Pleasures // Mono + Co

// a practical reusable souvenir.

Simple Pleasures // Mono + Co

// an updated valentine’s day gift from 15 years ago, wool felted balls replace disintegrated worn out plasticky alphabets that spell out my name.

Simple Pleasures // Mono + Co

// luggage with a broken handle turned storage box.

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Condensed Milk Wholemeal Taro Sandwich Loaf

February 13, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Condensed Milk Wholemeal Taro Sandwich Loaf // Mono + Co

It’s always more exciting to bake Pullman loaf in a covered tin. The bread dough is left to rise without a view during the last 15 minutes of proofing time, leaving this baker hoping hard that it will fill up to the brim without a hitch, preferably reaching all corners, producing a perfect squarish sandwich bread which sliced.

So it’s natural for my heart skipped a beat when I uncovered the lid after baking and saw this browned top crust, perfect.

Condensed Milk Wholemeal Taro Sandwich Loaf // Mono + Co

I adapted a recipe from Zoe, a cheerful mom who bakes for her happy kids in Melbourne. The latest bread recipe she lauded to be soft and chewy is one with condensed milk added. I simply love the sight of the tight crumbs in her photos, so I halved the recipe, added mashed taro (my secret to fluffy bread) on top of condensed milk (Zoe’s magic ingredient), switched 1/3 of the flour to wholemeal, and started kneading away.

Glad to have another reliable and versatile sweet loaf recipe in my (almost) daily bread baking repertoire.

Condensed Milk Wholemeal Taro Sandwich Loaf // Mono + Co

Condensed Milk Taro Pullman Loaf

adapted from here

200g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 heap tablespoon milk powder
100g condensed milk 
68g steamed taro, mashed 
120g water 
20g cold butter, cubed

In a mixer bowl, place plain flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, sea salt, and milk powder and mix with a hand whisk to mix these dry ingredients well.

Add condensed milk, cooled mashed taro, and half of the required water, then turn on the mixer to start kneading with a hook attachment while pouring the remaining water slowly, stop the mixer when the ingredients have come into a ball. Let this dough rest aside for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, turn on the mixer again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding the cubed butter one by one. Continue to knead when all traces of butter are gone, until the dough reaches window pane stage, it will be very elastic and smooth and pull away from the side of a very clean bowl.

Stop the mixer and remove the bowl, let the dough bulk rise for 60 minutes covered with a pot lid or clean towel.

After an hour, the dough would have risen to double its volume. Punch it down to release gas, transfer to a clean worktop. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions (mine weighs about 212g each.) Flatten each dough to push out gas trapped during the bulk rise stage, then roll out into a long oval strip. Roll it up like a swiss roll from the shorter end, and placed it in a well greased Pullman loaf tin, seam side downwards. Repeat with the other 2 portions of dough.

Cover the tin and leave it aside to proof for 60 minutes. Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 160C. Remove bread from tin immediately after baking and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing to serve or storing in an airtight container.

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Homemade Honey + Apricot Oil Body Wash

February 10, 2017February 10, 2017 | San

Homemade Honey + Apricot Oil Body Wash // Mono + Co

Nowadays, I have recipes for so many homemade products, sometimes it’s really funny to look back on my old self: how I used to buy item after item for each and every possible purpose and ended up jamming the drawers and cabinets with too many bottles. Some didn’t live up to their claims, so I tried out other brands, and ended up with multiple bottles of the similar thing, mostly half used. Can you imagine the mess?

Since then, I have learned to make most of the household cleaning products and bathroom essentials with just a few basic items and find that they can be just as effective, but less harsh on our skin, like this homemade body wash with just 3 ingredients: pure castile soap, honey, and apricot oil.

I had bought the liquid castile soap for my children as their skin itch and flare up for subsequent hours after bathing with body shampoos and soap bars. I tried countless body wash, the gentle ones, the soapless ones, the SLS-free ones, the PH5.5 ones, none worked. In fact, I almost gave up on the first bottle of castile soap with citrus oil blend, which still gave my children rashes. It was only when the shop owner recommended the unscented version that I hit the jackpot. Since then, I have discovered that the same castile soap can be diluted in different ways to clean almost anything.

We are doing fine with the easiest and a highly diluted recipe of 1 parts unscented castile soap and 9 parts water, partly to save some moolah (this comes up to about $30 for more than 9 liters of body wash after dilution, though I am still sticking to the cheaper soap bars most of the time), and partly because I have learned that the amount of bubble doesn’t equate to the effectiveness of the soap. But occasionally, this mummy likes to get creative by adding pantry items for some much-needed nourishment of the epidermis. Truth is, I derived a lot of affordable body care with luxurious sounding ingredients from the kitchen to pamper myself with, think ‘Himalayan Pink Salt’, ‘Coconut Milk’, ‘Oats’, ‘Molasses’, etc. Come to think of it, many large brands also list these products on their ingredient list, but I am sure my homemade versions are more generous with these natural ingredients by proportion, just read on!

Finally, the best part about homemade body wash is that I don’t have to commit myself to a huge bottle of body wash for months. I can make as little as a 30ml bottle that is akin to sampling, just in case of allergy, or a slightly larger 100ml if I really like it.

Homemade Honey + Apricot Oil Body Wash

3 parts unscented liquid castile soap
1 part honey **
1 part apricot oil***

** I used normal honey, but raw honey that has additional anti-bacterial properties, for an even more luxurious touch.

*** can be replaced with other scented or unscented oil, e.g. jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil.

Pour everything into a clean container and shake to mix them up. Don’t fill up the container to the brim as you need some air space to shake and mix the ingredients. The ingredients will separate again when left sitting on the counter after a while, simply shake before each use.

Optional 4th ingredient: as the liquid castile soap I used is unscented, I sometimes like to add a few drops of essential oil to the final mix as natural fragrance.

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Taro Milk Loaf

February 9, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Taro Milk Loaf // Mono + Co

Years back, one of the first few loaves I attempted to bake at home was a Hokkaido milk bread recipe, they were all over the internet then. It’s not hard to fall in love with these milk loaves when they are so fluffy, soft and sweet. That’s how I learned that the rich milky aroma actually comes from a combination of milk PLUS milk powder, whipping cream, egg, and sweetener. Over time, I slowly removed or reduced the latter four ingredients from my loaf recipe in pursuit of a healthier bread for breakfast.

Taro Milk Loaf // Mono + Co

Another signature feature of the Japanese bread is this ubiquitous “pull apart web” effect, which I have managed to achieved with various root vegetable loaf recipes. As long as the dough has been kneaded to reach the window pane stage, this outcome will somehow be a given. And I have also skipped the tangzhong or sponge method, the go-to method for fluffy Japanese style bread, opting for the easier straight dough method instead. The sponge method is said to be good for keeping the crumbs soft for the next 1 or 2 days, in a case of leftover. Since we usually finish up the bread in 2 days or less, plus I have noticed my 2 days old buns baked with root vegetables seem to do well in retaining their soft texture, the straight dough method will suffice.

Taro Milk Loaf // Mono + Co

I just bought a packet of milk powder to modify some of my root vegetables bread recipes, I miss that whiff of creamy dairy aroma that appears when you stick your nose close to your bread. There is only so much fresh milk I can add to my recipes without turning it into a shaggy mess. So I am turning to milk powder for help for today’s bake.

Taro Milk Loaf // Mono + Co

Taro Milk Loaf

225g plain flour
3 tablespoons instant milk powder
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
105g mashed taro
95g fresh milk
20g cold butter, cubed

In a mixer bowl, place the dry ingredients: plain flour, instant milk powder, raw sugar, instant yeast, and sea salt, mix these dry ingredients well with a hand whisk. Next, add cooled mashed taro and half of the milk to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the remaining of the milk with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the milk stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Start the mixer running on its lowest speed again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter, one by one. Knead until the dough reaches window pane stage, this is when the dough becomes very smooth and elastic, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from mixer, cover and bulk rise for 1 hour.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions (mine is about 166-168g each.) Flatten the dough and roll out with a pin. Then roll up the dough like a swiss roll from the shorter end. Place it in a well-greased Pullman tin, seam side downwards. Repeat with the remaining 2 portions.

Let the bread rise for 60 minutes then bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 170C. Remove bread from tin immediately after baking and leave it to cool completely on a rack.

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Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf

February 8, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf / Mono + Co

After baking these buns at a lower oven temperature that produced really soft texture, I wanted to see if this can be replicated on covered loaf recipes to turn them softer.

End result: softer, thinner crust with crumbs that stay soft and fluffy.

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf / Mono + Co

I also added an extra tablespoon of raw honey to this recipe, as I usually can taste some sweetness in my bread, but never the aroma of honey. This time, with 3 tablespoons in total, I finally can taste the honey in my end bake. But this also means that I need to add slightly lesser liquid (water in this case) to my dough to make it easier to handle/shape. Like I mentioned in my other recipes, I like to add just half the liquid stated in the recipe first, then top up slowly till the dough finally come together into a firm ball. I do this to prevent the dough from getting too wet when I tweak the recipes/ ingredients. I noticed that even an alteration in the brand/type of flour, sometimes the liquid amount required might also deviate slightly.

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf / Mono + Co

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf

225g plain flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons raw honey
105g mashed taro
80g water
30g cold butter, cubed

In a mixer bowl, place the dry ingredients: plain flour, instant yeast, and sea salt, mix these dry ingredients well with a hand whisk. Next, add cooled mashed taro, raw honey, and half of the water to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the remaining of the water with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the water stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding water and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Shape the dough and place in a well-greased Pullman tin, seam side downwards, and cover the tin. Remember to grease the cover as well.

Let the bread rise for 60 minutes then bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 180C. Remove bread from tin immediately after baking and leave it to cool completely on a rack.

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Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns V.2 海蒂白面包

February 3, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns V.2 // Mono + Co

OK, so these buns are still not as white as I thought they should be after tweaking the oven setting to bake at 150C, which is the lowest temperature that my oven can go. But at least it took a shorter time to heat up compared to these baked yesterday which required a preheated oven at 190C. That’s some electrical charges saved.

Another great improvement is the shaping part, the bun finally looks like 2 buns fused in the middle with that signature groove of a Haiji bun. I used my rolling pin to make a deep and much wider dent on each dough ball. I had to dust the top of the dough with flour to prevent the pin from sticking. That’s 2 more tips I have picked up.

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns

200g unbleached plain flour
20g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
100g mashed taro
2 tablespoons raw honey
 85g fresh milk
30g cold butter, cubed
optional : rice flour for dusting

In a mixer bowl, place the dry ingredients: white flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, and sea salt, mix these dry ingredients well with a hand whisk. Next, add cooled mashed taro, raw honey, and half of the fresh milk to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the remaining of the fresh milk with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the milk stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding milk and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough. Divide dough into 9 equal portions, I weigh out each dough at about 55g each. Shape each portion into a ball and place it on a greased tray, seam side facing downwards. Using a rolling pin, make a straight deep dent in the middle of the bun, without cutting the bun into halves. Dust flour on the top the dough ball to make it less sticky for the rolling pin to be removed.

Let the buns sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. Optional: I topped my bread dough with rice flour before baking for decorative purpose.

Bake the buns in a preheated oven at 150C and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely serving.

Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the buns soft and the crumbs from drying out.

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MONO and CO

Simple Things I Make And Do

DIY Facial Toner

Chocolate Raisin Bread

Chocolate Potato Raisin Bread

Potato Raisin Bread

Potato Raisin Bread

Simple Pleasures

Condensed Milk Wholemeal Taro Sandwich Loaf

Condensed Milk Taro Pullman Loaf

Homemade Honey + Apricot Oil Body Wash

Homemade Honey + Apricot Oil Body Wash

Taro Milk Loaf

Taro Milk Loaf

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf

Honey Taro Sandwich Loaf

Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns V.2 海蒂白面包

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns