Strawberry Raisins Loaf

Almost everyday my daughter has been asking me to bake some bread for her. Yeah....she loves bread. Actually all members of my family love bread. Instead of buns now, i've been trying to bake a bread loaf for her this time. I can't remember when was the last time i baked bread loaf, cause everytime was a failure...:(
Well, i've came across an easy recipe from my favourite bread book, "Bake with Yen".
Its original recipe was just a plain raisins bread but my daughter wants some strawberry bread...hmm....really cracking my head. See, i'm a little nervous whenever i make bread..;p
So worry that i'll fail...haha!



Anyway to satisfy her, I'll try out something i never done before. I think all mothers out there will do whatever they can to please their love ones...;)
Then...here it goes...

Ingredients:
400g Bread flour
16g Milk powder
10g Instant yeast
55g Sugar
6g Salt
25g Egg
220g Cold water
60g Unsalted butter
300g Raisins
*Few drops of Strawberry Flavour

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together except butter, raisins and strawberry flavour.
~ Knead the dough about 15 minutes until its smooth, then add butter
~ Continue to knead until gets a smooth and elastic dough. (about 15-20 minutes)
~ Add in raisins and knead gently making sure not to crush the raisins.
~ Transfer the dough into an airtight container and proof for 90 minutes.
~ Divide the dough into 2 portions, add a little of the strawberry flavour in one of the dough and knead gently.
~ Round up the dough and then press down and roll the dough with a rolling pin.
~ Put the strawberry dough on top of the plain raisins dough.
~ Roll it up like a swiss roll, and mould it firmly with your fingertips into a cylindrical shape the length of the baking tin.
~ Proff the dough again for another 90 minutes with the tin cover.
~ Remove the tin cover and brush with egg wash before baking
~ Bake at 200'C for 25-30 minutes until the top turns golden brown.

** The dough must be moulded tightly with an even pressure without damaging the gluten matrix.
** It should be placed in tins with the seam at the bottom to allow the dough to expand fully.

Note here my bread size is rather flat, heehee! This was because i just make half portion of the recipe. As i said i'm so worry that i'll fail...so just half portion for a try.

And the result...yummy! Another success!!

Chicken Curry Bread Pot 咖喱面包窝

What a BIG bun huh?!! It is really BIG..haha! (see the 2nd pic) Too big that my hands can't manage to grab the whole bun! Wonder what's inside? Scroll down and you'll see...(^o^)

See how big it is here....Opps! the cracked top..:(( The bread was too soft that I've accidentally cracked it while removing it from the baking pan.

Yeah!! Chicken Curry was hidden inside this BIG bun! (sorry for the bad images here, the light was too dim when I took these pictures)
This is how they served the Chicken Curry with bread back in my hometown.

I'm sorry too that I've forgotten to take some pictures on how I wrapped the Curry Chicken with the bread dough. But it was rather easy, just need to be careful and gently not to tear the bread dough apart.

Recipe and method for the bread,... please refer to honeybeesweets blog.

* Cook the curry chicken with some thick gravy and wrap with an aluminium foil (seal tight)
* Rub some butter on a 10" round cake pan or lined it with a parchment paper.
* Roll out the ready bread dough into a round shape (enough to wrap up the foiled Curry Chicken) with a rolling pin, thickness about 2". Slightly roll a little thinly the sides of the bread dough.
* Place the rolled dough on top of the wrapped Curry and seal at the bottom.
* Place into an 10" round cake pan
* Brush some egg wash on top of the bread (do not skip this because we want the bread top to be a little shinny and crispy)
* Bake at 170'C for 45 minutes
* Once done, cool slightly and remove from the pan and serve.

Recipe for Chicken Curry....please refer to my older post on Steamed Spare-ribs Curry.
Replace the spare ribs with chicken or any other meat. Then reduce the amount of water so that you'll have a thicker gravy for easy wrapping.
* Wrap up the curry with some gravy with aluminium foil, seal tightly to avoid any leaking when baking.

Ta-da...it's time to serve. We had this for dinner last few days, and I'm going to make this again for our coming party end of this month. ^^
This was my first attempt though, and I got it right! Yay!!! And I'm glad everyone loves it..:))

Here are some braided buns with the same bread recipe which I've done earlier. Love the texture, and they were still soft the next day!

Happy Baking!

Tuna Bread Pudding

Have been a busy and boring day for me today. Busy as the non-stop paper works in office, boring as the hot weather that made me so moody. To refresh myself, I went shopping!! Sounds good right? ...heehee! Well, I didn't get anything anyway but felt better. Alright, then its time to think about dinner. Wondering in the fresh market, staring at those vegetables and meat....but nothing came into my mind. But when I passed by the dry ingredients and canned food, suddenly I thought of this bread pudding. And yes!...that's our dinner tonight!

Remember my mother did this once but can't really recall what's the ingredients in this pudding. All I know is there were tuna in it. Well, as you know that bread pudding is a dessert popular in British, Mexico and others. It used to be sweet as it is a dessert. The bread is soaked (often overnight), squeezed dry, and mixed with the other ingredients. The mixture is transferred into a dish and baked. But I changed it into something different today, and it was fantastic!!! Something that I never cooked before and most of all my daughter loves it so much..:)

I made it in a very simple way and these are the only ingredients you need.
Ingredients:
4 slices of bread (cubes)
3 cups of milk
2 eggs (beaten)
2 tsps salt
Some shredded cheddar cheese
A can of tuna in oil (drained & mashed)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
a little butter cubes


Method:
~ Beat eggs and salt together and mix with milk. Set aside.
~ Greased a 8x4" rectangle tin and fill a layer of bread cubes at the bottom.
~ Sprinkle some butter cubes and follow by the mashed tuna.
~ Then sprinkle some green peppers, tomato and onions and covered with shredded cheddar cheese.
~ Lastly cover the top with some bread cubes and pour the milk mixture all over to cover the bread.
~ Bake at 200'C for 25-30 mins and serve hot.


The top was so crispy and the inside is so creamy and soft. SUPER YUMMY!!!

It taste like pizza but it was much lighter. It was so good that my daughter and I finished the whole loaf of it. Yup!! Only 2 of us!! Asked why I didn't cook this for her before since it is so delicious..;p

Trust me, it was so good that you'll eat that all up by yourself..;) It was definetely a good bread pudding for dinner. Or should I say bread pizza?...haha!

I definetely had a great day after all...Cheers!!

Bread Fever

Hi, are you in a good mood? I am!! And I'm counting down for this weekend's meet up with my dear friend..:) You know who you are...lol! Well well...when you are counting down and waiting for the day to come, it seems to come so slow, but when the days come...it'll be over very fast..;p
That's what they say..happy moments don't last..;p
While counting down my days, I'm trying to make myself busy. That I feel the days past faster..haha! And so I did bake alot this week..lol!
Last weekend I got myself some new books and one of them is 麵包教室 (5'C冰穜的美味). I didn't know that this book is written in mandarine, and I took quite along time reading and understanding it...haha! It's a good book anyway.
Without any hesitation, I try it out as soon as I finish reading. Here's all the bread from the book!

Since I've made quite alot of the starter dough, so here comes all kinds of bread I baked in 1 night! We had a bread feast the next morning...lol!

1st, the chicken floss buns, then red beans buns and lastly a coconut loaf!! All with the same starter dough I prepared...:)

Here's th recipe translated for easy reference...

Recipe for the starter dough:

500g bread flour

325g water

2g instant dry yeast

~ Mix everything in a mixer until a dough form.
~ Then place in an airtight container and let rise for 1 hour. Then transfer the dough into the fridge and chill at 5'C for 20-24 hours.

Recipe for Red Beans & Chicken Floss Buns:

315g bread flour

120g sugar

6g salt

75g eggs (without shells)

18g yeast

105g water

25g honey ( I used golden syrup)

60g butter

400g starter dough

Fillings:

Red bean paste

Chicken floss

Method:

~ Mix all ingredients together until an elastic dough form. Let proof for 80 minutes.

~ Separate dough into 90g each and round up. Let proof for another 20 minutes.

~ Wrap in red bean paste and chicken floss into each and let proof double in size (about 30 minutes)

~ Egg wash each buns and bake at 180'C for 12-15 minutes.

~ For the chicken floss buns, rub some butter on the buns while they were still hot and sprinkle some chicken floss on top.

Texture was super duper soft!! They were still soft the next day...:) Well since I still have some starter dough left, I baked another recipe from the book, a coconut loaf. The loaf was great, soft with milky coconut fillings..YUM!!

Opps..the top alittle burn..haha! That have to do with my uneven heat oven...;p

Now, the recipe....

206g bread flour

100g fine sugar

5g salt

15g instant yeast

1 egg

75g fresh milk

50g butter

390g starter dough

**Coconut paste

Method for the bread dough:

~ Mix everything together until an elastic dough form. Let proof for 80 minutes.

~ Cut dough into 225g each (altogether 4), round up and rest for 20 minutes.

~ Flatten each dough and roll up like a swiss roll. and rest for another 20 minutes.

~ Flatten each dough again and spread the coconut fillings. Roll up like a swiss roll and place in a prepared loaf tin (I used 2 tins - 9"x4.5"x4.5"). (2 rolls in a tin)

~ Let rise till almost 90% full of the tin then spread some remaining coconut fillings on top of each loaf.

~ Bake at 160-180'C for 35-40 minutes.

~ Remove bread from tin once ready.

Recipe for the coconut fillings:

4 eggs

180g sugar

40g milk powder

100g butter (melted)

400g grated fresh coconut

~ Mix well all ingredients before adding the grated fresh coconut. (Make sure the milk powder are totally well mix.

~ Then add in grated fresh coconut and mix well, and its ready to use.

Super soft inside with crispy top...super delicious! I'll try to bake all the recipes from this book and that means we'll have lots of bread from now on..haha! It's abit time comsuming but it worth the wait..:) Maybe you can try to have alook at this book at your nearest book store, you may like it too.

Cheers!

Simple Sardine Rolls

Don't know what to do with left over bread? I mean if there are too much bread that you can't finish...not those expired ones..haha! Roll it up with any fillings you like and deep fry them......
Mmm....sounds yummy right! Of course its nice especially fried food...;)
Okay this is what i did....a very simple snacks that i actually did once during my teenage time..:)
Wow! Sounds like decades ago...hee hee..;p ...This is how its done...

Ingredients
Few sliced bread

Fillings:
1 medium size canned Sardine ( need about 2-3 tbsps of the sauce only)
1 onion (chopped)
1/2 tsp Salt
a dash of black pepper
1-2 tsps Light soy sauce
1 tbsps Fish Curry powder (optional)

Method:
~ Removed the bones from the sardines and smashed. Add 2-3 tbsps of the sauce and mix well.
~ Add in chopped onions and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
~ Rolled the bread until really flat with a rolling pin. (this is to avoid too much oil into the bread during frying)
~ Spread the fillings on the rolled bread and roll up like a swiss roll.(as shown in the picture below)
~ Use a tooth picks to seal the bread.
~ Cut the rolls into half before frying ( can just avoid this step if prefer a longer roll)
~ Deep fry in hot oil until gloden brown. Serve warm.

Its just simple as that. Add this into your parties and gatherings's list....i'm sure its a grab!

Actually it can be done with any other fillings you desire, but just remember to roll the bread FLAT! .....^-^Happy reading..:)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Buns

Lately I've been trying to bake more breads and buns instead of cakes. Got bored on cakes..haha! And so bread becomes our daily food....for breakfast and tea. All kinds of buns but using the same recipe of sweet dough then I discovered a new method from my collection of bread recipe book. I don't remember when I bought this book (Magic Bread from Alex Goh) but it was well kept in my shelf with the wrapper..haha!

Okay today's bake is buns....Strawberry Cream Cheese Buns. The title itself already makes my saliva dripping..haha!

Don't they look lovely?!!

This time I've tried with different technic of the sweet dough. "Gelatinized dough"...it was first introduced by Japanese chefs and the result was soft and springy. This recipe was adapted from Magic Bread by Alex Goh.

Ingredients for the sweet dough:

(A)
100g Bread flour

70g Boiling water

(B)

300g Bread flour

100g Plain flour

80g Sugar

6g Salt

20g Milk powder

9g Instant yeast

(C)

175g Cold water

60g Cold eggs

(D)

60g butter

Method:

~ Mix well (A) to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

~ Mix (B) until wel blended, add in (C) and knead to form rough dough. Add in (A) adn knead until well blended.

~ Add in (D) and knead to form elastic dough. Let proof for 40 minutes.

~ Divide dough into required weight and mould into round balls and let to rest for 10 minutes adn ready to use.

Prepare the cream cheese shown above......

125g Cream cheese

50g sugar

50g whipping cream

10g Instant custard powder

2 tbsps Strawberry fillings

~ Cream cream cheese with sugar till light. Add in whipping cream and cream until smooth.

~ Add in instant custard powder and mix until well blended.

~ Add in strawberry fillings and mix well.

Prepare the Streusel topping......

60g sugar

50g butter

100g bread flour

~ Mix sugar and butter until crumbles by using finger tips.

~ Add in flour and mix until crumbles. Keep in refrigerator before use.

Method for Strawberry Cream Cheese Buns...

~ Divide sweet bread dough into 70g each and mould it round. Roll out each small balls into long stripe and twirl around to form a circle and place on a parchment paper on a tray.

~ Egg wash the surface and pipe the strawberry cheese fillings following the twirled lines and sprinkle some streusel over it.

~ Bake at 180'C for 15 minutes.

My cute babies are ready to go in the oven....:)

Here they are......crispy on top and soft at the bottom...beautiful!! Super nice to go with a cup of tea which I'm having now...;p

I'm so happy for myself for trying a new recipe which I don't have the courage to do all the time.

Bravo...to myself..haha! Hope you like this too....^^

Happy weekend!!

Chocolate Bread with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips

Finally I got my bread done! When was my last post of bread? Hmm, it must be quite some time ago. With a last minute go and a last minute request, here's a last minute simple loaf...;p
Alright, it is a simple one but it's a super delicious one I ever had. I wonder why I didn't try this out since I have this recipe with me all the while.

Simple Chocolate loaf with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips!!

Oooo sounds interesting yea...haha! I've done it with a super simple bread loaf recipe and mixed in the wonderful peanut butter chocolate chips and cocoa powder....the result was excellence!!

Want to know how simple it is? Here it goes......

Ingredients:
20g castor sugar (already been reduced)
1/2 tsp salt
15g beaten egg
165g cold water
5g instant yeast
40g condensed milk (already been reduced)
5g Cocoa powder / Chocolate powder
250g Bread flour
50g Cake flour
5g milk powder
30g butter

Method:
~ Mix everything in a mixing bowl except butter into a dough.
~ Add in butter and knead till smooth and elastic dough.
~ Cover and leave to prove for 30 minutes.

~ Divide dough into 2 and shape into balls, let rest for another 10 minutes.

~ Then roll out each dough and sprinkled with some peanut butter chocolate chips.

~ Roll up like a swiss roll and arranged into 2 greased mould (3X3X7)".
~ Leave to prove double in size (30 minutes)

**After 30 minutes, it was already doubled in size.

~ Egg wash the top of each loaf, then bake in preheated oven at 180'C for 30 minutes.

Ta-da....the loaf is done!! All you need to wait was about 2 hours then you can taste this yummilicious bread...:) It's super soft and the peanut butter chips was the perfect combination with the chocolate bread.....YUM YUM!!

Cheers!

Another Red-bean Buns...

Have been looking for more breads and buns recipe lately. Yup, bread and buns.....my family love breads and so do buns! Especially my daughter, she can take bread for all her meals.

I've come across this recipe from a baker in Seremban, my hometown. He has been serving in a cake house and also sets up a college in Seremban too....Yeah is a HE! I was wondering why all bakers or cook are normally guys...hmm... Are they smarter???? Or are their work neater....whatever...heehee..;-P

Okay, i did alittle changes here...avoid his bread improver and minus the water used and also skip some steps, then it turned out just nice! See...i'm also smart! haha!...:) So here is it......

INGREDIENTS:

(A)

232g Bread flour

5g Instant yeast

165g Water

(B)

20g Egg

60g Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

20g Cold Water

2.5g Instant yeast

100g Bread Flour

(C)

30g Unsalted butter

METHOD:

~ Mix (A) till even...about 5 minutes and place the dough in an air-tight container, proof for 90 minutes.

~ Add in (B) to (A), Mix well till form a dough, then knead for 10-15 minutes

~ Add in (C) and continue to knead to form a smooth elastic dough. (Need another 10 minutes)

~ Rest the dough for 15 minutes then divide into 60g each and wrap in the red-bean fillings, shape into balls and let rest for another 5-10 minutes.

~ Shape up the balls...

a) Flower buns: ~ Flatten the small balls, then roll up like a swiss roll, then cut into 4 parts without cutting off totally. Fold the 2 ends side-way, then pull the middle 2 apart across.

b) Cylinder shape: ~ Flatten into sheet, cut slightly in the middle (long stripes) then roll up like a swiss roll.

~ Placed the shaped buns on the greased tray. Prove until it double in size, about 20-25 minutes.

~ Egg wash before bake.

~ Bake at 180'C for 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Done!...hee hee!

Bread fewer........

Last week, i got a very good book recommended by a dear friend. "Meng lao shi"...a book from Taiwan. My mandarin is terrible larr, don't know how to write..;p
Well, this is one of the recipe in this book...."Super Soft Loaf".
Its really super super soft....nice! If you've been following my work here, you'll know that this is the 2nd time baking a bread loaf. Very nervous again!! haha!
Nervous throughout the whole process....heehee! Luckily it's successful..."phew"!


Kind of like the 'skin' here, crispy....and yet super soft inside...yummy! I'll just post the ingredients here for those who like it, and don't know which book i'm talking about..haha! Especially my 'gang' (all my old buddies), who hardly cook but did baking lately....bravo!!



For those ingredients for sausages and red bean buns are from my previous post.
Here's the ingredients for the Super Soft Loaf...

(A)
1 Egg yolk
10g Castor sugar
15g Bread flour
65g Fresh milk

(B)
250g Bread flour
30g Castor sugar
15g Milk powder
4g Instant yeast
1/2 tsp Salt
100g Water

(C)
25g Unsalted butter

Method:
~ Whisk all ingredients (A) together until well mix, then cook under low fire (continue stirring) until mixture become thick and sticky. (like custard).
~ Pour mixture into a bowl, cool slightly and wrap with cling foil and chill for an hour.
~ Mix all ingredients (B) with the (chilled)-(A) in the mixer bowl, and knead till a dough form
~ Add in (C) and continue to knead on high speed till form an elastic dough. (about 10 minutes)
~ Let proof in an airtight container for 90 minutes.
~ Take out dough and divide into 3 portions (or 2 portions, as your wish). Roll into balls and let rest for 15 minutes.
~ Roll flat each dough with a rolling pin, and slightly roll up each like a swiss roll.
~ Place each rolled dough in a greased loaf tin. (i used 9"x4.5"x4.5" loaf tin)
~ Let proof for another 60 minutes
~ Egg wash the top then bake at 180'C for 30 minutes.
~ Take out loaf and cool on wire rack.


Yummy yummy! All the breads already half gone! hee hee!.........:)
So glad that everybody loves it! My daughter already packed some herself to bring to school tomorrow...haha! She has been asking for more breads for the next few days...really loves bread.....and she's my NO.1 fan!!!...hee hee...:)

Butter Potatoes Bun

Do you feel super excited when you've got your bakes done sucessfully and unexpectedly? Oh I did and I just did!! I was baking a new bread recipe today and the process of waiting to see the result was kind of worry. You know what I mean? Well when I was baking a bread or buns or swiss roll, I always have the feeling of "please don't fail"!! That counts I had lots of failure before..:(
I've been baking lots of breads and buns lately but today I did a good job!! I never expect my buns were that soft...I mean they were "super" soft!! Yippie!!!! I was over joy....^^
Somehow, my daughter said can she has some cakes instead...:( Okay, I've promised her a swissroll tomorrow but she has to finish the buns first....lol!


Everyone knows that potatoes did a good job in bread making but it's kind of difficult to handle the soft dough. Here's the recipe adapted from 面包DIY.

(A)
260g Bread flour
5g milk powder

(B)
70g castor sugar
1/8tsp salt
60g egg
40g potato flour
150g cold water
6g instant yeast

(C)
60g butter

Method:
~ Combine (B) till even then add in (A) to form almost a dough.
~ Add in (C) and knead until a elastic dough. Cover and prove for 30 minutes.
~ Divide dough into small balls (sizes as desire), flatten and roll up to long oval shape.
~ Place rolled dough on a parchment paper and let prove double in size. (About 30 minutes)
~ Egg wash the buns and with a sharp knife cut a straight line in the middle of the buns and spread some butter and sugar.
~ Bake at 180'C for 10-12 minutes.



It was totally exciting when my buns were done cause this is the very "first" time I got such a soft soft bread...:)

See...I did pressed all the buns ....haha! Opps! Please mind my manners....;p

Cheers!!