Panda Buns (Cheddar and Cream Bread Recipe)

So recently I have been seeing quite a number of Japanese bakers coming up with really cute bread bun designs. The bread buns are really so cute that you wonder if they will ever be eaten at all. (Might end up playing with them instead!) Being the practical me, I often question myself when it comes to whether I should spend such time to make these all too cute bread buns. If I ever do it, it'll be considered a luxury! But again, I have been into bento sushi art lately as well, which also consume quite a fair bit of my time....~haiz. Anyway, the Panda Buns I baked are considered easy, plus it is monochrome! Only 2 colours, how hard is that haha! I wanted to use my trusty White Bread Loaf recipe to make this so as to reduce the stress level. But opted to try a new recipe in the end because I'm always keen to new ones! So here is my Cheddar and Cream Panda Buns. 

Okay I admit...I got lazy and didn't read up more about the temperature control part. But it was 10pm and I was ~yawn~, you get the idea. :P And hence the suntanned pandas were borned. :P Or should I say oven-tanned pandas. A friend then alerted me that I should have reduce the temperature to a low 150C, even though it did came across my mind before baking. But the thought of undercooked gooey bread is just too overwhelming that I went ahead with the oven tan anyways....Haiz again~. However, other then that golden hue on these bears, I have to say it did turn out quite well! Agree? (Self-nodding.... -_-")

So if you do want to attempt this out, feel free to use my White Loaf recipe and bake at a low 150C for 30-35 Minutes and see how it turns out. But bear in mind I did not use this White bread loaf recipe to attempt this at 150C, so I cannot advice you on anything. :) OOOooooorrrrr....you can hold that thought, come try out this Panda buns using the same Cheddar and Cream recipe like here at 170C. It's straight dough too,....read on!

Ingredients For Cheddar & Cream Bread recipe (makes 8" x 8" square loaf buns)

350 g bread flour

1 large egg (48-50 g)

100 ml fresh milk

3 slices of Kraft cheese (~60 g)

85 ml heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt

40 g caster sugar

5 g instant active yeast

25 g unsalted butter room temp

1 tsp charcoal powder (I bought mine from Kitchen capers)

1 tsp egg wash (for the eyes and nose to adhere to the dough)

• In a sauce pot, add in the milk, cheddar cheese and cream cheese in. Heat it at medium low heat, and stir well till mixture melts. Set aside to cool before use.
• In a mixer bowl, add in bread flour, egg, salt, caster sugar and yeast. Pour in the cooled cheese mixture.  

• Beat the mixture till the dough comes together. Continue to mix, it will be sticky at first but just continue to mix with time durations of 5 minutes mix, 5 minutes break and repeat. The dough will eventually become less sticky to the touch.

• You can add in the room temperature butter and continue to beat the dough. It will then finally pull away from the sides and become very elastic.

• Remove the dough and grease the bowl. Place the dough back in and let it proof for 1.5hrs or till it doubled up in size. Like seen below:

• Punch out the air and knead the dough a little. Divide out 16 dough portions of 40 g. The remaining dough is set aside for use later.
• Roll the 40 g dough portions round and place them in a 8" by 8" greased square pan.

• Continue till all the dough portions are rolled and placed in the pan. 
• Next you add the charcoal powder to the remaining dough that was reserved earlier. It should weigh about 60 g if I remember it correctly. Knead well till the dough is uniformly black.
• Pinch pinch out about 1.5g to 2 g worth of dough and roll it round. Then place 2 of these small round black balls on the top of each dough portion in the pan. These will be the ears of the pandas.

• Repeat till all the ears are made and placed on top of the buns. 
• Using your finger tip, carefully rub the place where you will be placing the eyes and nose on the buns.

• Preheat the oven to 175C right before you are going to work on the eyes and nose portion of the Pandas.
• Next, pinch about 1 g of the black dough and press it flat till it is oval shaped. Carefully place the oval on the dough top to make the eyes. Pinch a small bit of the dough to make the nose. Note that all these are rough estimate of the dough, I feel it is too much of a hassle to weigh out such a tiny portion of the dough. So just try your best to make a rough gauge on the eyes and nose bread portions. Repeat till all the eyes and nose is made.

• If the buns has already been fully proofed like showed above, bake it in the oven for 26-28 minutes covered with aluminium foil (yes I covered but till browned  :P). 
• Once baked, remove from the oven. Also carefully remove the buns out of it's pan so it can cool over the rack completely before eaten.

I am glad the eyes and ears and noses (except one) were still in tact when I removed the buns out from the pan. :) So the egg wash does help to adhere the dough nicely. I shall make sure I use a lower temperature next time at 150 C and see if it really stays white and pale!

The texture? Let's see....

What do you think? Nice right?! I am pretty please with it myself too! Soft and with a slight bite to it, just like the way I enjoyed my breads. Although it might not be as soft as my White loaf bread recipe, this bread still radiates a nice creamy, cheesy aroma. If you like a stronger cheese, please by all means, use that. And do let me know how it turns out for you. ;) Last but not least, hope you have fun baking these pandas, I know I sure did. 

I can't wait to try out another fun shape...what do you suggest?? 

Okay, I gotta go guys, thanks for reading!

Remember, do what you love and stay happy!

Seafood Pizza On Wholewheat Sweet Potato Crust

I have been meaning to post up a pizza recipe for the longest time. A good one that I always fall back to whenever I bake one for my kids. Well, today's THE day! I am sharing this easy, delicious and wholesome pizza recipe that I am sure even your family is gonna love it too. :9 Seafood Pizza On Wholewheat Sweet Potato Crust:

This right here is plain old family comfort food. I guess every mother has their own special recipe that they can cheer their own kids up whenever she whip it up in the kitchen. And this, I say is probably one of my kids' top favortites. :) Com-on ... which kid doesn't like pizza? 

Bare in mind, this recipe serves as a basic guide which I am sure you can use the bread crust recipe and top it with another another ingredients you or your family fancy. :)

Let's have a look at the ingredients for my seafood pizza shall we?


Ingredients for Seafood Pizza (makes a 30-35cm diameter, serves 4 pax)
Pizza Dough:
215g bread flour
60g wholewheat flour
50g egg
50g sweet potato, peeled, steamed then blended till smooth
60-100ml water
1/2 tsp salt
20g caster sugar
5g instant active yeast
20g olive oil

*Note the sweet potato is excellent in enhancing the bread texture. 

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients and knead together. I used my KitchenAid to do all the kneading, knead about 10 minutes.
• Once the dough is pulling away from the side of the bowl and it is very elastic, stop kneading.
•  
• Let the dough proof in a greased bowl till it doubled in size. Takes about an hour.

Ingredients for the toppings

200g salmon steak
5 large prawns, peeled and devined 
salt, pepper and dash of sesame oil
5-6 crab-sticks, shredded
1 ripe avocado
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice 

Bechamel  Sauce
50g unsalted butter
2 tbsp plain flour
180-200ml fresh milk
salt and pepper to taste

300g shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

• In the meantime, prepare the topping while the pizza dough is proofing. 
• Marinate the salmon steak and prawns with salt, pepper and a dash of sesame oil, set aside for 10 minutes.

• In a saute pan, add 1 tsp of olive oil and add the salmon steak in. Cook till golden and opaque.
• Next saute the prawns till pink and cooked through. Shred the crab sticks if you have not done so.

• In a small sauce pan over medium low fire, add in the butter. Once the butter melted and starts to bubble on the sides, add in the flour. Give it a good stir to mix in the flour and cook it.

• Once it is slightly thicken, slowly add in the milk and whisk well. The mixture will slowly thicken up in a few seconds, so DO NOT walk away. Add more milk if you find the mixture is too thick.
  
• Next you add in the seasoning, salt, pepper and stir well. So this is basically the Béchamel sauce that will be going on top of your pizza to go with the seafood. :) Set aside covered to be used later.

• At this point, the pizza dough should be ready. Check by poking the dough. If the hole stays and doesn't "bounce back", it is good to go.
• Press out the air and flatten the dough on a prepared baking tray lined with parchment paper. Press it to the thickness you desire, it will poof up a little after baked. Remember to leave a slightly thicker dough edge.

• Let the dough proof for 15 minutes before baking it. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200C.
• After 15 minutes, bake the dough for 8 minutes till it is slightly golden brown on the outside. Remove from oven.

 

• At this point, you can add the toppings. First you spread the Béchamel sauce over the surface of the pizza leaving an inch on the sides not covered.
• Next you flake the salmon steak and sprinkle the meat all over the pizza top, followed by the prawns and crab sticks.

• Now you can cut the avocado, remove pit and scoop out the flesh. Slice the avocado into thin wedges. Then remember to give it a good squeeze of lemon juice to prevent it from browning.

• Place the avocado wedges on the pizza, follow by the two cheeses.

• Bake the pizza in the preheated oven at 200C for 10-12 minutes till the cheeses is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.

This is seriously delicious, I promise. :9 That crusty wholewheat bread topped with creamy béchamel sauce, and that sweet chunky seafood and cheesy mozaralle....no wonder my kids loved it so much. :D

Check out the sliced section. The fluffy pizza dough....yes it is wholewheat too. You won't want to miss out trying this out. :) If you do, let me know how it worked out for you! ;)


Alrighty, need to call it a night! Thanks for tuning in again. ;) Happy cooking or baking guys!




 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

I think Cheesecake is always a love hate thing for me. Love? What's not to love? It's creamy, luscious and such a comfort food on lousy days, or any other day, haha! Hate? It's highly packed with fats and calories! Eating it is just simply diet ruining, haha! So that is why you do not see me baking cheesecake that often. But...this pumpkin flavor cheesecake has been on my mind like...forever! I ever heard a DJ on the radio commenting that the best cheesecake has gotta be pumpkin cheesecake. Really? Gosh? Why in the world have I not baked it yet or even taste it before! But that diet thing came in and I just put it aside. :P Procrastination took over....only after 3 months did I finally baked it! Boy oh boy was I regretful...Pumpkin cheesecake is the BOMB! 

Don't you just love that golden "sun"! I was surprise how creamy and delicious this cheesecake turned out to be! Even if you are not a fan of pumpkin itself, you will fall in love with this, really! Very faint pumpkin taste but you know it is there. One thing to note though is to choose good pumpkins namely from Japan or the least from Australia. I particularly love pumpkins from Japan...their much smoother, creamier and sweeter too! I even eat the skin when it is washed properly and soft enough, haha! :D 

Ingredients for Pumpkin Cheese Cake (makes a 6" by  ~2.5" round)

Cookie Base:
137g Oreo cookies (1 tube pack), finely crushed/blend
40g unsalted butter, melted

•  Finely blend or crushed the oreo cookies together with the cream into fine crumbs.
• Add the melted butter in and mix well. 
• Press the cookie  mixture into a greased 6" (removal base) round cake pan, making sure it is evenly spread out and leveled. 
• Wrap the whole cake pan with heavy duty aluminum foil for water bath baking later. Chill in fridge till needed.

Cream Cheese filling:
200g pumpkin, peeled, cut into smaller chunks

• Roast the pumpkin chunks in the oven at 200C for 20minutes or more till it is fork tender. Alternatively, you can steam your pumpkin at medium fire for 15 minutes. Personally I like roasting it because I think it brings out the taste of pumpkin more.

250g cream cheese at room temperature
70g caster sugar
2 large eggs
70g sour cream 
100ml heavy cream
25g cornflour or Hong Kong flour

• Preheat the oven to 180C and prep a water bath for baking.
• In a mixer, beat the cream cheese, roasted puréed pumpkin and caster sugar till light and creamy. 
• Add in the eggs one at a time till everything is nicely incorporated. 
• Next add in the sour cream and heavy cream to the mixture and mix at low speed till all is well combined and no lumps.
• Lastly sieve in the flour and mix well till no visible flour.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture into the prepared cake pan with the chilled cookie base.
• Using a tooth pick to swirl around the batter making sure there are no trapped air bubbles. 
• Bake in the preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 155C and continue to bake for another 50 minutes (or till the surface is not wobbly any more) 
• Remove from oven and let cool completely.
• Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or better yet overnight in the fridge. Serve cold and enjoy!

It is so so important that you wrap the base of the cake pan properly with double duty aluminum foil! I cannot stress this enough because once the water from the water bath sips in...the cookie base will become soggy! What a waste! So remember, do not assume..double check and make sure you have wrap it properly. :)

Doesn't that look just awesome! Hahaha! I am so stoke when I slice the first piece out and saw this perfectly baked interior! *happiness* :)

Sorry, can't resist not posting another picture, haha! Hope this picture itself will be able to motivate you more. :) 


Okay folks, gotta run and cut this short...have a great week everyone!
Cheers!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Ever wonder if you can have gourmet breakfast, served right at the comfort of your own cosy home? Plus it is much more economic and you can eat at your own comfort, i.e. in your bed, in front of the TV, haha! Well, I love to serve up a nice breakfast every weekend. It's a time where there's no rushing involve, my family and I can have the delicious meal together. We enjoy some quality family bonding as well. So no boring slice bread with same old spreads please Mommy! I seriously don't mind waking up a wee bit earlier too...because it's all worth it when you see their happy faces when they eat the awesome breakfast, hah!

 

Who doesn't love french toast? It's one of those comfort food that makes you all warm inside! And I decided to make it even more awesome by stuffing them with delicious Strawberry cream cheese, yum! No worries if you don't have brioche (rich egg bread), just get any loaf from the bakery but unsliced. You will need to slice the loaf to the thickness you want in order to make the stuffed french toast. Yes, white loaf or wheat loaf is absolutely fine. :) Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling (This can be made the day before)
1 tbsp strawberry compote / jam
120g cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp powdered sugar

• In a small mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together until everything is well combined. 

Ingredients for Stuffed French Toast: (Serves 4) 
1 loaf of bread, will have left over (mine was pumpkin oat loaf)
200ml fresh whole milk

2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon powder 

• In a large bowl or wide plate, add milk, eggs and mix well with a whisk. Add in cinnamon powder and whisk well again.
• Slice the loaf so that each slice is about 2 slices in thickness.
•   
• Then use a small knife to cut a cavity in each slice but not all the way through.
•  
• At this point, stuff about 1/4 of the cream cheese stuffing into the bread cavity. Making sure not to push too hard to break the bread. Repeat for the remaining slices.
•    
• Get ready a non stick pan (I used my happycall) and heat at medium low fire. Take a stuffed bread and dipped one side facing down into the egg milk mixture. Bare in mind not to push the whole bread in. Gently turn lift up and turn over the other side and dip again.
•  
• Now carefully place the dipped bread on to the pan. Repeat with the other stuffed bread.
•    
• I fried each side about 8 minutes, or when it has become golden brown and crisp up. Flip and cook for another 8 minutes.
• Repeat with the rest of the stuffed bread until all is cooked.
• You can either serve as is or slice diagonally like what I did and show off that stuffed cream cheese. Dust some powdered sugar over the surface and with some fresh strawberries or fruits. Bon Appetit!

My family loved this very much! I was very thrilled that it turned out well on my first attempt. :) When biting into the crunch bread and creamy sweet cream cheese, it was heavenly! Love it!

Looks good eh? Lol! You can even make it even more yummy by drizzling hot chocolate sauce over it! Hope my post is enough to motivate you to make this delicious breakfast for your love ones. :) 

Have a good week everyone! Cheers! ;)

 

Red Velvet Christmas Yule log Cake

It's so fast! Christmas is finally over...gosh I am already feeling to the "blues" coming on. :P I guess that has A LOT to do with the school reopening soon. ~Dread!!~ 6 weeks seems to fly pass so fast...it almost seems like it was only yesterday that we just started our holidays, no? Lol! Anyways, we all have to face the inevitable ...come what may, we deal with it one day at a time with an open heart! ;) 

Although Christmas has already past, but I reckon that I best post up this fabulous red velvet Swiss roll log cake recipe for future reference. I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas celebration...and got their desired Christmas present! I know I did! Will elaborate on that on my coming pot. ;) For now...the Red Velvet Yule Log Cake.

It almost always that I made 2 yule log cakes for Christmas every year. And I always prefer to try a new recipe. And since I love red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, I thought it will be really nice to bake it into a log cake! Plus that red coloring just adds on the festive mood!  And of course I referred to none other then Martha Stewart's recipe since her red velvet is the best I've tasted. :)

This recipe is the "bomb", I can eat it everyday, haha! I actually made these cuppies for my kid's form teacher awhile back and she loved it too. ;) And remember I actually used it in my mum's birthday cake: Red Velvet & Light Cheese Cake with Pink Ombré Roses.

However for this log cake, I need to change the recipe so that the cake can be soft and "flexible" enough to roll up nicely. So here is the version I have come up with, without compromising the wonderful velvety taste of the cake:

Ingredients for Red velvet Swiss roll cake: (makes a 13" by 14" tray) (serves 10 -12 ppl)

3tbsp quality cocoa powder (I used Valrohna)

20ml hot water

- Mix cocoa powder and hot water together to form a thick paste. Let cool for use later.

80g egg yolk

40g caster sugar

100ml buttermilk

50ml vegetable oil

130g cake flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp red food coloring (I used Wilton no-taste red)

1/2 tsp white vinegar

120g egg white

80g caster sugar

• Using the double boiler, place a mixing bowl over it. Add in the egg yolks and sugar. Beat the mixture till it thickens and double the volume. 
• Remove from the boiler and stir in the cocoa mixture. Also add in buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and stir gently till well combined.
• Then add in the red food coloring and white vinegar and combine well.
• Lastly add in the sifted cake flour and gently mix in till well combined.
• Preheat the oven to 170C and lined and grease the baking tray with parchment paper.
• In another clean mixing bowl, beat the egg white till foamy and gradually add in the caster sugar and beat till stiff peaks.
• Gently fold in the whites to the egg yolk batter in 3 separate portions. Remember to fold in gently and not deflate the batter.
• Pour the batter on the prepared tray and spread evenly. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes till done.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Cream Cheese frosting

340g cream cheese, soften 

227g unsalted butter, room temperature

200gg confectioner's sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla; mix until smooth.

 Assemble:

• Once the cake has cooled completely, spread about 1/3 of the cream cheese frosting on the surafce, evenly, leaving about 1" at the edge so as to have a cleaner edge when rolled up.
• Roll the cake from the longer side inwards. Trim the sides and slice portions of the cake as desired to make different log segments.
• Frost the cake till all is covered and use a fork to run through the frosting to create the log texture. Decorate at will! Chill as per needed so that the cream cheese frosting is more stable.

 I actually made the same recipe twice....and both occasion was a success! My friends raved about it and even her 5 year old daughter (picky eater) had seconds!

A look at the interior of the cake. :P Yummy! I definitely will be baking it over and over again. I was really glad the cake still turned out great after the modifications. :D

I am going to submit this to Aspiring Bakers #26 - Creative Christmas Motif Bakes! hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

And also linking this post to Cook Like A Star organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats
Cook like a Star - December 2012
Martha Stewart

Red Velvet & Light Cheese Cake with Pink Ombré Roses

It was my mother's birthday last weekend, just one day after National Day. As usual, the whole family got together to celebrate this joyous occasion with her. We usually dine out at a nice Chinese restaurant of her choice and spent the night, dining and chatting away. I love family gatherings! And it goes without saying that I will bake a birthday cake for the birthday girl. No matter how many times I ask her what kind of cake she likes, she will always answer me the same thing, "Do whatever is convenient, don't need to be too elaborate. Or no need cake also can." That's my mum, forever worrying about troubling other people. Anyway,I figured that its not a bad thing too as I get to choose what I like to try out, hahaha! So I decided on something that I have been wanting to try like forever....Red Velvet & Light Cheese Cake with Pink Ombré Roses.

Baking the layers of the cake was easy, but I was pretty stressed out piping out the roses on this cake! It might look simple, but little did I know piping the roses on the side of the cake can be so difficult, especially when if one didnt get the right piping tip or the consistency of the cream is not right. It cannot be too cold or too warm. I had to redo a few times until I got it right and even so I felt it wasn't nice enough. :P And it was so rush in the end that I didn't have time to get nicer shots of the cake. *haiz!*

Despite of it all, I was still very happy how the cake turned out. It was one of those cakes that I actually won't mind having 2nds or 3rds....if I haven't already had a big dinner. ;P As you all know, old folks just can't stand sweet...so I have to reduce the sugar to considerable amount in the cake recipe and the cream cheese frosting as well. And adding a light cheddar cheese cake layer in the middle was one the best idea for making this, hahaha! Why? Because the light soft and slightly salty cheddar cake makes the taste so well balanced. ;) Perfect balance of sweetness and also making the cake lighter overall. Love it!

The red velvet cake recipe is none other then Martha Stewart's recipe. I have actually made this twice and it was very well received, so I knew I will use this recipe again soon. Was gonna post up the recipe earlier but my poor laptop gave in and I have no access to the photos as yet. Anyway, I will post the red velvet recipe (with slight modifications) here plus the frosting. Kindly refer to the light cheddar cheesecake here.

Ingredients for Red Velvet Cake (Makes 2 X 8" round)
285g cake flour, sifted

1 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

180g sugar

365ml vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line and greased two 8" round cake pan. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
• With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
• Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
• Divide batter equally between the 2 cake pans. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Note that I doubled the recipe since it was a 3 layer cake plus roses to pipe. But I will only post one portion of the recipe for easier reference:

Ingredients for Cream cheese frosting:

340g cream cheese, soften227g unsalted butter, room temperature200g-225g confectioner's sugar ( I can't really recall the exact amount)1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla; mix until smooth.

To assemble, place one red velvet cake as the base and spread some cream cheese frosting over. The top it with the Cheddar cheese cake. Then spread some cream cheese frosting on top and lastly top it off with the 2nd layer of red velvet.

Ice the whole cake with a thin coat of the frosting and chill. Once chilled, decorate as you desire. If you wish to pipe roses, try using the Wilton's 1M or 2D piping tips. Also use Wilton's food coloring gel to tint the frosting. Remeber lightest to strongest. I actually used a very light shade of pink for the cake coat as shown above. I worry the pink roses against the white background might be too big a contrast.

The cake was moist, creamy and incredibly delicious. I really love it to bits! Everyone, even my brother in law whom doesn't fancy cakes, said it's very good and keep sneaking a few mouthfuls from his daughter's share, hahaha! My mum loved it too and polished off her slice pretty fast, heehee. Happy Birthday Mum!! :) As for this cake, I am very sure I will be baking this again.

Okay, gonna end this post here. Have a great week ahead everyone!