Butterscotch Bread Buns & Cheese and Garlic Bread Buns *BBD 28*

Bread Buns! Now who could not ever like bread buns. They are so versatile when it comes to fillings and toppings. This post has been due for almost a week now and it is just that I have been so busy with my art that the post had to wait. I often make yeasty breads and buns make it often. I follow a basic recipe and tweak it according to the required taste my family's palate desires. I prefer doing bread buns because my daughter loves them because she loves pulling them apart but only if they are sweet. Savoury ones aren't her favourite.

The basic recipe I follow is: (Makes 10 bread buns)

AP Flour-4 C

Sugar-2T

Salt-1 t

Yeast-1 T

Butter-4T

Egg-1

Milk-1/2C

Warm Water-1/2 C

Stir yeast and sugar in lukewarm water and set aside until it froths. Add this mixture to flour and add the remaining ingredients and knead to a smooth dough. Cover and let it rise until it doubles in volume. Punch the dough and separate into rolls and arrange ina greased tray and let rise again. Bake ina 200 degree C for 15 minutes. Brush the surface with egg white before baking.

I made butterscotch buns and cheese and garlic buns.

For the butterscotch buns

Use the above recipe and add 1 C of butterscotch chips after the first rise. When you roll them into balls the chips merge with the dough. Before baking sprinkle some brown sugar and opt out the egg wash.

The resultant buns were tender sweet butterscotch rolls. Most of the chips had melted but it was great to bite into the sweet thick crust and then into the bits of butterscotch melted crumb. They tend to get soggy so not ideally do not store them.. But it does not last much before you think of storing it..It gets over by the time they are still resting on the rack to cool.

 A few days later after I made the sweet version, this time around I made savoury ones and what could be better than a cheese and garlic flavour. I love garlic bread and so the choice of the flavour.
I followed the basic recipe.

The resultant was a tender crumb. I would add more cheese and more garlic because both were faint on the crumb although the cheesy crust was great. Perhaps herbs in the dough would have added more flavour too but personally I loved the cheesy garlic ones to the butterscotch ones.

Both the above are off to grace the BBA #28 held right here at this very space and are yeast spotted too!

The response to BBA#28 has been very very good and the round up is sure going to be an interesting one. Have you sent in your entries as yet? If not, please do because there are a few days to go until the deadline.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake * Cake Slice Bakers*

An upside cake using apples, pears, peach or pineapples win me over always. A pineapple upside cake more for the beauty of the pineapple slices with maraschino cherries. I am not fond of these sweetened cherries but for the looking good factor, they are surely in. And yes, the Pineapple Upside Down Cake was the choice of the Cake Slice Bakers this month.

The web says that pineapple upsidedown cakes were originally made in skillets and cooked on a stove rather than baked in an oven. The Hawaian Pineapple Company held a pineapple recipe contest in 1925 and the best 100 recipes would be published. It is said among the over 50, 000 recipes received, more than 2000 were pineapple upside down cake recipes.Probably it is since then that they became popular.  

I love this dessert but preferably with fresh pineapple slices rather than the canned ones. The recipe calls for canned ones , which I thought were rather tasteless.

What you need for this cake are ((Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)

Pineapple Topping

1  can pineapple rings, in juice

50g butter

140g dark brown sugar

10 maraschino or glace cherries

Cake

180g plain flour

155g caster sugar

1½ tsp baking powder

½ salt

110ml milk

50g butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp pineapple juice from can

Method – Pineapple Topping

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Drain the pineapple well, reserving 2 tablespoons of the juice for the cake batter. Melt the butter in a 10inch/25cm cast iron skillet over medium heat. Or, melt the butter and pour it over the base of a 9inch/23cm round cake tin.

Remove the pan from the stove and sprinkle the brown sugar over the buttery surface. Place the pineapple rings carefully on top of the scattered brown sugar and melted butter, arranging them so they fit in 1 layer. (You may have a few left over). Place a cherry in the centre of each ring, and set the pan aside.

Method - Cake

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and gently mix. Add the milk and butter and beat well with a mixer, scraping down the bowl once or twice until you have a thick, fairly smooth batter, about 1 minute.

Add the egg, reserved pineapple juice and the vanilla and beat until well incorporated, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides.

Carefully pour the batter over the pineapple and use a spoon to spread it evenly to the edges of the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched lightly in the centre. Cool in the skillet or pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack.

When the pan is still hot, run a knife around the edge of the pan to release any cooling caramel and use oven gloves to carefully invert the warm cake onto a serving plate.

A very easy recipe and you know the end result is going to be yummy considering the brownsugar caramelized pineapple slices and yes it turns out as good as you hoped it to be. I baked mine in a springform pan.The crumb was tender and moist and the caramely crsuted edges were nice to bite into. Overall I would either reduce the amount of brown sugar or the sugar that went into making the cake batter because it was a tad bit too sweet. I would use this recipe but would replace canned pineapple slices with fresh pineapple slices seeped in sugar syrup. Overall it is a very moist and a lovely dessert to end a meal!

A creamy berry refresher!

A trip to the supermarket and I am always back with a box of strawberries. Although they aren't sweet, I pick them up with the myriad things I can make out of them. I remember the sweet strawberries that grew in my mother's kitchen garden at our hometown ina hill station. For resons unknown, they were pretty tiny berries but were very sweet. The recent ones that are bought off the shelves are very pretty and luscious owing to their ruby red colour. who could ever not pick them up. I crave for this flavour among all the fruts in my dessert but only next to lemon. What I have for you is a perfect recipe to refresh you in the scorching heat providing you immediate respite.

 

What you need are:

• 
  
  
  1 C of hulled straberries
• 
  
  
  1/2 C of low fat cream
• 
  
  
  1/2 C of Sugar (This again varies depending upon how sweet the strawberries are!)
• 
  
  
  1/2 C of Ice Cubes

Blend all of the above and pour into a galss and serve chilled. You could also seep strawberries in sugar syrup and then blend them . Either way works and the result is fabulous as you can see!

BBD # 28 is being hosted here. Hope you are baking for the event too!

Pappa Al Pomodoro

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes was what we at the Book Club read this February. In my case, I found the book only last week and finished reading it only a couple of days back. So I am really really late in posting this.

The book got me hooked to Tuscany.  Her writing gave me a feeling of being in person in most instances cited. The beauty of the land is beautifully described in the book making the place seem very enchanting. This book is about Mayes buying a villa in Tuscany and spending a lot on refurnishing it. Her recipes and her delicious decriptions of food are somethign I loved in the book. A friend of mine who read this following mine says it is the only book she didn't regret for reading it entirely...

As for me, just like the author I think Italian food is lovely. I know Italian food as in pasta, pizza et al.. but I have never made a soup or a Zuppa. This place has a lot of recipes to offer and I have made several of them. The Tuscan bread, rolled bell peppers, calamari salad and their rosemary buns to name  few. This time I chose the Pappa Al Pomodoro Di Francesca all courtesy a bunch of tomatoes that had lost their firmness.
The recipe was followed as is on the site minus the use of bread.

The soup was creamy and thick.Since I didn't have fresh basil, i had to make do with dried ones. It was not spicy for my palate but I found my comfort in this soup. Croutons would have lent a better flavour but I don't like soggy bread in my soup!!!

Check here to see what the other book clubbers were inspired to cook inspired by the book...

Announcing Bread Baking Day #28: Bread Buns

Bread Baking Day (BBD) #28  is hosted right here at Tangerine's Kitchen for the month of March. BBD #20 was hosted here with the theme, multigrain bread which had an overwhelming response. BBD is an event created by Zorra and each month has seen some great themes. For BBD #28  , the theme is Bread Buns.

A bun is a bread sized small. It can be sweet or savory. Usually domed with a flat bottomed surface, it can be plain, filled or topped . It can also be steamed as in Chinese cuisines. Since easter is approaching and most homes would be making hot cross buns, this theme is apt for the month. So all that is required is to make buns. They could be sweet or savory, plain or filled. Fillings can be veg or non-veg. Or rather still you could just top the buns with candied fruits or just sugar. The possibilities are endless.

So just bake a bun (s) from today until April 1. If you have a non-English blog, do send me a translation of your post and I will include it in the roundup. If you are a non-blogger, do mail me with the necessary details and your entries will be included.

Once you are done with the post, do send me an email at tangerineskitchen(at)gmail(dot)com with the following details:

Subject line should read BBD#28


Your Name

Your location

The name of the bread and the post url

The name of your blog and the url

A picture of the bread 250px wide

The deadline is April 1. Feel free to promote this on your blog.
Do use the logo if you wish to and let the entries come in as soon as possible. Happy Baking!

BBD #27 hosted at Canela and Comino has a wonderful roundup of interesting Pan Latino breads.