Black Pepper Bread

This bread is a MURDERER.

It killed my dough hooker while I was kneading the dough! Captain Hook snapped into half. Rest in peace left hooker. Right hooker shall proceed to continue its mission to make bellies happy.

For sweet revenge, I'll tear them apart and swallow them alive.

Pepper-ish and tasty! You can swap the pork fillings for spicy tuna or any of your preference. Pulling out the bun from its conjoint siblings is pretty fun as well. Need more fillings though.

Black Pepper Bread (adapted from孟老师的 100道面包)

Ingredients:
250g bread flour
25g fine sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10g milk powder
3g (1/2 tsp +1/4 tsp) instant dry yeast
15 g whole egg
140 g plain water

20 g unsalted butter
1 tsp black pepper

Filling:
minced pork, 40 g
chopped onion 30 g (sub with 1 clove of garlic due to malfunction grocery shopping list -_-)
salt, black pepper 1/8 teaspoon each (1/4 tsp for me, also added 1 tsp of soya sauce & a dash of sesame oil)

Egg for egg wash
1 tbsp black sesame seed (skipped this)

Method:

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, milk powder, instant dry yeast, egg and water and beat at low speed with a dough hooker mixer, then turn to medium and knead until you have a smooth dough.
2. Add butter and knead with low speed until well combined, then increase to medium speed and knead till dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Add in black pepper and beat at low speed.
4. Place the dough into a big bowl, cover with clingwrap and let it proof for 80mins.
5. Filling: Using low heat, stir fry minced pork, then add onion and stir fry until cooked. Remove from heat, add in salt and pepper. Leave aside to cool.
6. Divide dough into 6 equal portions. Roll into balls, and leave to rest for 5 mins, then wrap the filling in, and place them into a greased 8" round cake tin. Cover with clingwrap and let it prove for 50 mins.
7. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 28 mins.

Bread Pudding

Would like to say a big thank you to Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake. for presenting this award to me. Is a pleasant surprise! Love how our cosy baking community has been sharing the appreciation between one another. It's encouragement like these which keep us motivated in coming up with more creative ideas for our bakes.

Sister has been bugging me to make bread pudding for ages. Never had time to research for a good recipe, so I randomly came up with this. Not the best in my opinion. I thought it tasted a little too "eggy" for my liking. But bread-pudding loving Sister was thrilled about it though. One man's meat is another's poison I guess.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
3 slices of stale white bread, cut into squares
Sprinkle of raisins
240ml whole milk
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 large whole egg, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Arrange the bread and raisins in 3 ramekins. Be sure to tuck the raisins underneath the bread unless you like charred raisins.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla until it is well mixed.
4. Pour the milk mixture into the prepared ramekins, ensuring that the bread is well soaked. Leave the bread to soak in the milk bath for 20 mins.
5. Bake the ramekins for 40mins until the custard is set. Leave bread pudding to cool on a cooling rack. Serve warm.

German Bread Roll

I told ya you'll be seeing more bread bakes from me. Kneading this bread really manhandled my hand mixer, the latter was roaring hot air from the motor and the dough hooker was so warm that it sort of heated up the dough as well.

But before that, let me share with you my first paintball experience hehe.

I think we look like terrorists -_-

Visited Johor Bahru with my friends the past weekend for paintball, and of course for food and shopping. The girls were freaking out when we hear the impactful popping from the air gun and contemplated opting out. Been scared by multiple dimension-ed bruises we see on our friends' Facebook photos as well. Turns out that the pellets don't hurt as much, that means the bruises look much more painful than it really seems. It's not really that painful...more of like a mosquito bite. So do try it if you have the chance to. It's an experience! Pain is temporary, Glory is forever. HAHAHHAHA

Battle scar

Happy bellies...burp!

Back to the bread which almost killed my hand mixer. There's nothing German-ish looking about it. In fact my boyfriend thinks it looks more like a pineapple bun. Honestly I don't know what this bread is, until I made it. It has a hard crust and soft chewy insides, reminds me of the warm bread I'll eat with butter in fine dining restaurants. And from the looks of it, looks like I need to practise more on rolling my bread dough.

German Bread Roll (adapted from孟老师的 100道面包)

Ingredients:
250g bread flour
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3g instant dry yeast
150g water
10g unsalted butter, room temperature

750g water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp Parmesan cheese powder for sprinkling

Method:
1. Combine flours, sugar, salt, yeast and water and beat at low speed with a dough hooker mixer, then turn to medium and knead until you have a smooth dough

2. Add butter and knead with low speed until well combined, then increase to medium speed and knead till dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Cover dough with shrink wrap and let it proof for 80mins.
4. Divide proof-ed dough into 5 portions and roll them into balls. Place each ball on top of a square of parchment paper. Let them rest for 20mins.
5. Boil 750g water with salt and baking soda.
6. Add the dough balls along with its attached parchment paper into the boiling water. Ensure that the water level covers the entire ball and let each ball boil for 5 secs before placing it on a baking tray.
7. Sprinkle cheese powder over each ball. Bake bread in a 180°C preheated oven for 18mins.

Parsley Milk Bread

Got addicted to this bread baking business. Kinda excited to home-bake what I usually buy from the local bakery. Baking bread is not hard, but it is very time consuming waiting for the bread to proof.

It was fun letting people guess what the green bits on the bread are. Seaweed was a popular guess, but nope, it's parsley! Bread was light and fluffy, but I would think my previous bread was softer for some unknown reason, maybe it's my kneading time? The parsley filling was really tasty - smooth fragrant sweet butter backed with a hint of saltiness. I had some leftover parsley butter which I used them to make scrambled eggs and it tastes really delicious!

Parsley Milk Bread (adapted from 孟老师的 100 道面包)

Ingredients:

Bread:
150g bread flour
50g low protein flour (I use top flour)
15g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2g instant dry yeast
130g milk
15g unsalted butter, room temperature

Parsley filling:
30 unsalted butter, room temperature
10g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp milk
1 tsp dried parsley

Beaten egg for egg wash

Method:

1. Combine flours, sugar, salt, yeast, and milk at low speed with a dough hooker mixer, then turn to medium and knead until you have a smooth dough
2. Add butter and knead with low speed until well combined, then increase to medium speed and knead till dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Cover dough with shrink wrap and let it proof for 80mins.
4. Divide proof-ed dough into 6 portions then roll them into balls. Cover with shrink wrap and let them rest for 10mins.
5. Shape into 15cm oval shaped dough and place them on the baking tray. Cover baking tray and let them proof for another 30mins.
6. For parsley filling, combine butter, sugar, salt and milk and beat until smooth, then add in dried parsley and stir till well combined.
7. Cut a slit in the middle of the dough, then let it proof for the last 10mins.
8. Brush dough with egg wash and pipe the prepared parsley filling into the slits on the bread.
9. Bake bread in a 175°C preheated oven for 18mins.

Crispy Sugar Topped Buns

This is my very first time baking bread and it is a success! Hooray! Bought a pack of bread flour last year when it was on sale, thinking I'll have good use for it some day. And the day never really quite came until I did a stock check to find that the flour will be expiring in a few months to come.

Found this really good book where the author is highly raved by many bloggers. My only qualm is the book is in Mandarin, so I have to guess what some of the words mean. It can be pretty frightening for a baker to translate the name of an ingredient wrongly too. So much for being a Chinese. Even the name of the bread is loosely translated by me, but never mind you get the idea. Am going to translate the recipe into English, apologies if the directions sound weird.

The bread is soft and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside with the sugar coated top. The texture dampened down the next morning but it taste as good as freshly baked once you warm it up.

Crispy Sugar Topped Buns (adapted from孟老师的 100道面包)

Ingredients:

Bread:
200g bread flour
20g low protein flour (I use top flour)
30g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3g instant dry yeast
5g cheese powder
15g egg
120g water
20g unsalted butter, room temperature

Sugar Topping Paste:
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
25g sugar
20g low protein flour (I use top flour)

Beaten egg for egg wash

Method:

1. Combine flours, sugar, salt, yeast, cheese powder, egg and water and beat at low speed with a dough hooker mixer, then turn to medium and knead until you have a smooth dough
2. Add butter and knead with low speed until well combined, then increase to medium speed and knead till dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Cover dough with shrink wrap and let it proof for 60mins.
4. Divide proof-ed dough into 8 portions then roll them into balls. Cover with shrink wrap and let them rest for 10mins.
5. Shape into 15cm oval shaped dough and place them on the baking tray. Cover baking tray with shrink wrap, let them proof for another 30mins.
6. For sugar topping paste, combine butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add in flour and stir until you get a paste consistency.

7. Brush egg wash over the bread dough and pipe the sugar topping paste over them.

8. Bake bread in a 175°C preheated oven for 18mins.