Apple Strudel Buns

My lovely Apple Strudel Bun.

 

I know... I.. know... it's appalling to note that my last post was in April but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking or whipping up some nice dishes for my lunch or dinner. Some new recipes were tried out but didn't get to post it while most of the time, I will repeat the recipes which I've already posted here.

Look!! Dough has doubled its size ! Yippie

Tuna filling buns for hubby

Last Sat, I finally went back to Tomoko for another baking lessons and this time, I've selected a bread class. Again, I was happy with the outcome of what I made there and of course, cum the things that I've learnt from her. Her Apple Strudel Buns tasted so good that I had to bake it soon and it was so super soon that it was yesterday I found myself baking it.  Came home straight from work and started working on the bread making. I doubled the recipe and all in all, it took 3 hours to complete (plus the washing, cleaning, proofing of dough, making a simple dinner for myself etc).Since I doubled the recipe, I decided to use half of it for my tuna corn mayo filling because hubby only likes savory food.

Rolled it out and arranged the the apples, raisin, butter and sugar.

I used my cinnamon sparingly because I didn't want to overdo with it, didn't over mix the butter with brown sugar because I want the heat to caramelize the sugar ,  arranged the finished dough in a round tin for the apple strudel filling and after the egg wash, sprinkled them with some chopped walnuts instead of almond flakes. Bread came out beautifully and oh..oohh.. it tasted so soooo heavenly! It was so soft, precisely the way I like it.

These are filled with tuna mayo corn

Just before egg wash

 

As for the tuna mayo filling, it was great as well. The only setback was, it could do with more of tuna filling and more of mayonnaise.

See the texture of the bread when I tear it off?:D

A tad too dark because I was busy frying my vege and forgot to check the heat

The bread remained soft until I ate it for tea break just now. I simply love this bread, thus didn't share much with my colleague but for those who got to eat it, they said it's one of the best so far.

 

I would love to share this recipe in this blog of mine like the other recipes. However, I cannot share recipes that I paid for here because these people are making a living with the classes. It wouldn't be right to share them here for free. However, if you are ever interested in one of Tomoko's class, please click here. Her cute dainty little baking outlet is called Caramel Factory. (Btw, I don't have a share in this place and I don't earn a cent, ok!)

 

I am gonna bake this again next week. Just you wait and see! :)

Red Bean Buns

 

 

It was a nice breezy cooling Friday morning but my mood was anything but that. I worked through all morning, diligently clearing my emails and paperwork , my fingers working furiously on the keyboard. By almost lunch time, I felt that I could breathe a little and decided to get the bread machine to work for me instead.

 

Using the same recipe as Walnut Cocoa Raisins buns,  I omitted the cocoa powder and the walnuts & raisins. I made the dough as plain as possible so that I could have red bean filling in the centre later on. The machine knead the dough for 30 mins and thereafter, I removed it from the pan, knock the air out from the dough, divide into 16 - 18 pieces to be rolled into a ball. Of course, I added in my read bean in the centre of the bun.

 

 

 

By 1.15pm, it was done and I let it proof for another hour or so to let it double its size. By 3pm, the buns were freshly baked in the oven and we all had a little mini party in office. Afterall, it was a quiet day for us as there were only 5 of us in the office + 1 student intern. They happily gobbled my buns and all of them packed some back too. Well...if only I have more people at home, I wouldn't be giving away things I baked and made all the time.

 

 

 

What have I achieve at the end of Friday? Well, my spirits lifted up by noon, I successfully baked the buns while I was  working at my desk and all of us were eating happily and chatted over coffee (for a while only!!) during the tea break. As we savoured the deliciously soft hot buns, I can't help wondering when exactly is the company gonna VSS me so that I can grab the compensation and then......stay at home to bake and read (oh..and fb) :D

 

 

 

 

Focaccia bread

 

 

Kuali from The Star has collaborated with MIB (Malaysian Institute of Baking) for the past 2 years in which various baking classes has been held. Due to overwhelming responses, participants can only register for the baking class on a specific day at a specific given time. I wasn't very lucky in getting myself registered but I got lucky last week. I managed to get a place for the Saturday morning class which also happens to be the last baking class for year 2013. The remaining classes for year 2013 will be cooking class instead.

 

 

 

I'm not a great fan of focaccia bread as I'm more towards a sweet bread person. However this class will be teaching 2 other recipes and I thought to myself, why the hell not! I enjoyed the class tremendously. Don Yong himself, the founder of MIB, conducted the class. We spent first an hour or so on introduction and theory. The theoretical knowledge in baking is what I currently lack but of course, the next thing I lack is patience.

 

 

 

I find that bread baking is a splendid way to nurture one's patience. I still have a long road ahead to learn on this. This is the 1st time I made bread using a mixer instead of a bread machine or kneading  with my own hands. He taught us using the 'sponge' method, which is something pretty new to me. Bread came out looking great and tasted great as well. But like I said, I'm not much of a fan for savory bread so... I guess I won't be making this bread very often in the later days.

 

 

 

A friend of mine knew I was going for the class and asked the share the recipe. Well.. here it is..

Ingredients for sponge :

Bread flour  420g

Instant Yeast  4g

Cold Water  244g

Ingredients for dough :

Bread flour  180g

Instant dry yeast  6g

Malt Flour  24g

Oregano  4g

Rosemary  2g

Black pepper  2g

Salt  9g

Bread Improver (optional)  9g

Cold water  132g

Oven dried tomatoes  60g

Olive oil  48g

 

 

Method:

1. Prepare the sponge and ferment for 3 hours at room temperature, which is about 27C.
2. In an electric mixer, using a dough hook at slow speed, blend all the dry ingredients together for 1 minute.
3. Add water, dried tomatoes and sponge on slow speed for 2 minutes. Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes and add olive oil. Mix for another 10- minutes on medium speed until dough is fully developed.
4. Place dough on floured bench and cover with a plastic sheet for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 6 pieces, each 190g.
5. Roll out the dough to 6mm thick and place in a tray.
6. Proof dough for 30 minutes and make shallo9w indentations all over dough with your fingertips, then brush with olive oil, letting it pool in indentations.
7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 220C. Once baked, brush with olive oil.

 

 

 

Bamboo Charcoal Rotiboy

 

I popped over to Ailing's house last Sunday to learn this Rotiboy recipe. The only difference is instead of plain white bun, we made bamboo charcoal buns. My hands got itchy and I wanna try this recipe out on my own so early this morning, I started to make the dough proof since 8am. My faithful Kenwood machine helped to knead the dough for 30 mins. While it was kneading and later proofing, I was doing my work.

 

I let it proof for a long long time because somehow, the dough isn't rising as fast as I had hope. So I just left it there till almost lunch hour before I started to pipe the coffee topping on top. The topping tasted marvelous. The smell of freshly baked bread with coffee aroma wafted through the entire lab but the smell was always most intense  for those who walk pass by our office door.

 

 

LW helped me to piped some buns and since neither of us has patience, we just anyhow piped the topping out without caring much of how it looks like. We just wanna get on and get done with this so that we can have our lunch together at the pantry. That explains the hideous looks of the coffee topping :D



Here's a pix of a better looking finished product.
Good things are meant to be shared and so... here's the recipe :

Ingredients for dough:
Water 300ml
Butter 50g
Sugar 2tbsp
Milk Powder 2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Bread Flour 350g
Normal Flour 150g
Yeast 2 tsp
Bamboo Charcoal Powder 3 tsp

Ingredients for topping :
Butter (softened) 100g
Egg 1 no.
Icing sugar 50g
Low Protein Flour 100g
2 in 1 Instant Coffee 1 pkt
Coffee Essence 1 tsp
Preparation : mix all into bowl and start to beat till a creamy paste is form. Chill it in fridge for 15 mins before piping onto the buns

Filling : cut butter cube (frozen) - optional

Method :

1. Put all ingredients of dough into the bread machine pan. Always pout the liquid in before adding the dry ingredients UNLESS stated by your machine manual otherwise.
2. Once dough is ready, remove from pan and knock the air out. Divide dough into half. Shape them into 20 round balls.
3. Stuff in one cube of butter into the centre of dough, close it and shape into round balls again. Repeat the same process for others. Let dough proof for another 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven at 180C. Once the dough have doubled its size, start to pipe out the cream on top of the bun in circular motion. To achieve a nicer look, leave no gap in between each circles.
5. Bake the buns at 180C for 20 mins.

I was standing there sealing the Rotiboy in the bag to be kept for tomorrow's breakfast. It really comes in handy when you work in an environment where they have all sorts of equipments :D

Loaf and buns

 

Cranberry and Raisin Loaf

 

I brought my bread machine to office a couple of weeks back and since then, have been having a bread making marathon. The above is a basic white bread recipe using the bread machine but I've added generous amount of raisins and cranberries in it. With bread machine, you can hardly fail but I'm just wondering how to achieve the light and less dense bread like Gardenia bread loaf. Homemade bread is always heavy and dense which is not to my liking.

 

 

 

The bread is good to eat on its own but since I have the jam in fridge supplied by cousin Soo, I just slathered the jam on it and ate it as my lunch.

 

The above picture is a simple bun recipe in which I've added cocoa powder and raisins to make the plain rolls taste slightly ......not-so-plain. I was supposed to use the cocoa walnut raisin recipe but had erroneously pulled out the tuna bun recipe. It was too late by the time I realized my mistake because I've already poured the flour and other ingredients into the bread machine pan. For the recipe of cocoa walnut raisin buns, please click here.

 

 

 



My 1st scones : looks more like a cookie ...

 

I'm not really into scones but my cousins are and so is my colleague CYSL. She has been asking me to make scones and it so happen that last Sunday, I came across this recipe in my SIL's recipe book. Of course I can't read it since it's all in Chinese but SIL read it out for me and it seems kinda easy and quick recipe. Thanks to Ailing too who last minute translated some for me via watsapp. I said I'm gonna make it for the family next Sunday but before I make a laughing stock of myself, I tried out the recipe during lunch hour yesterday. It was really a fast and easy recipe. Now... I say fast and easy. I didn't say it would be nice and successful :P

 



 It's fun making this during lunch hour instead of early in the morning when I'm usually alone. Those who like baking/cooking will automatically comes into the lab to help/watch me doing it. Those who has zero interest in baking/cooking....well... will just wait for the food to be ready :D

 

Scones tasted okay to others while I'll rate it as absolute failure in terms of presentation. As for taste wise, well... it's still edible. At least I don't have the impulse to send them straight to the garbage bin which I usually do when the food fail in the QC I've set. Scones turned out looking more like a cookie instead. Even the kakak cleaner in office was asking me whether I'm making a 'biskut' ...hahaha... 

 

Scones didn't rise up high and puffy as it should be. One of the contributors could be that the dough I rolled out was not thick enough. Recipe says it should be 2.5cm but I rolled it thinner. I should've follow the recipe rather than do it on my own judgement. I've thrown in raisins and cranberry in the recipe. I've substituted unflavored yoghurt with strawberry flavored yoghurt and opted for salted butter instead.

 

Not sure if you wanna try it out this recipe but in case you wish to and prove the recipe is right while the failure is solely due to my skills, well... here it is :

 

 

Ingredients :

Low protein flour 200g

Baking powder 2tsp

Castor sugar 30g

Salt 2g

Unsalted butter 50g

Egg 1 nos.

Unflavored yoghurt 80g

 

Method :

 

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and let it processed for 30 seconds until a ball is formed.
2. Remove dough , floured the working surface and start to roll dough out in a rectangular shape. Shrink wrap it and chill it in fridge for 30 mins.
3. On the floured surface, roll the dough out again. Fold half from top to centre and fold the bottom half to the centre. Flip the dough to the smooth side and start to roll the dough out again and repeat the folding pattern. (I forgot how many times I need to repeat this. Pls refer to the Chinese recipe attached)
4. Preheatat oven at 180C for 15 mins. Brush some milk on top of scones before sending them to oven to bake for 12 - 15 mins.

 

Some leftover scones which my colleagues eagerly wanna packed home. Umm..it really taste okay or.. are they just giving me 'face'? :P

 

Cocoa Walnut Raisin Buns

It was my 1st attempt on this recipe which was graciously shared to me by Ailing. My reliable Kenwood bread machine helped me to knead the dough, thus saving me lots of time, energy and sweat. All I needed to do was to weigh the ingredients, pour them into the machine, let it knead for 30 mins, remove the dough out to shape into rounds and let if proof for another 40 mins or so. The dough will double its size and that's when it's time for them to be shoved into the oven for baking. Yes, as simple as that but to make a nice  good loaf of bread with high volume is never an easy feat. I shaped the buns a tad too gigantic though.

 

Salt is an essential ingredient that is not only used for flavor but also controls the growth of yeast and strengthens gluten structure. Do not adjust the amount of salt in the recipe. As for sugar, it speeds up the action of the yeast as well as affecting the quality of the bread by helping to retain the moisture.

 

The texture of the buns were so soft while the little sweetness from the raisins and the nutty flavor from walnut made the buns as good as even eat it on its own (yup... Gardenia's slogan) without butter or jam. I brought 10 buns to office today and poofed... they were all gone in a jiffy. Nobody says no to walnut, ok! Hubby didn't get to eat a single bun and so I came back home from work today and baked another fresh batch for him. Boy, they tasted as good. It's gonna be our breakfast for tomorrow but I know he's never a bread person.

 

 

Here's the recipe to it :

 

Ingredients :

250g water

60g butter

50g sugar

30g milk powder

100g raisins

150 chopped walnuts

400g bread flour

50g plain flour

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

 

Method :

1. Pour liquid ingredients into the bread machine pan follow with the dry ingredients. If your bread machine recommends that you add the dry ingredients first, simply reverse the order.
2. Fit bread pan in the machine and set the programme to the dough setting (1.30 hours) and press start.
3. After about 30 mins of kneading, the machine will stop to let dough to proof. At this stage, remove the dough out from the pan and switch off the machine eventhough the programme has yet to complete.
4. Divide dough into 14 or 16 equal pieces and shape into round balls. Place on a greased baking sheet, allowing enough space for the rolls to rise and expand. Cover dough with a damp cloth to proof for 40 mins.
5. Brush the dough with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven for 20 mins at 180C. Transfer to wire rack to cool

Mayo Tuna Bun

 

Re-baking the same recipe today to compensate for last week's not-so-satisfied tuna buns because last week, I was literally distracted by many unexpected excitement : my Hello Kitty goodies, arrangment to pick up Tony and Uncle Meng at Sentral, the nice cutie pictures of HK display which Tony took in Taiwan etc. So in the end, I didn't put my heart into baking and normally how much effort you put in, that's how much you'll get.

 

I learnt this recipe from Ai Ling when I went over to her place one night straight after work. It was also the day before I started my dreaded detox program. Since that night, I've been dying to try out baking it myself, not so much of eating it but .. well.. just to bake it for the sake of baking. I'm not sure how my colleagues will react when they see the buns tomorrow because obviously they erm.. didn't have a 'pleasant' experience with last week's buns :)

 



 

Buns turned out not as soft as I would have like it to be but definitely better than last week, thank God for that. It's a joy to see the dough risen up to a soft round airy shiny ball. My reliable Kenwood bread machine helped to knead the dough and that certainly saved me plenty of time and labour. Afterall, the machine has been idling and under used for quite some time.

Yes, I remember to roll and fold the dough this time. I remember to brush the egg wash over the buns and finally, I remember to transfer the buns to the rack for cooling.

 The tuna was barely enough to make 13 buns and I wasn't going to open another can of chili tuna. Since tuna was scarce, I decided to replace the tuna with my jumbo size organic raisins. Made a long roll and a round shape for the raisins bun , just for the heck of it.

I wonder if cousin Soo has embark on her so called 'crash' diet? I do so wish she and the kids will eat my buns.... Whadya say, couz?

I need to get permission from Ai Ling before I can share the recipe out here..

Braised Pork Belly / Kou Rou Bao(扣肉包)

My lovely mom made some really awesome braised Pork Belly( Kou Rou Bao - 扣肉包)  in which we sandwiched it between the pau, added a little piece of lettuce and drip some drops of the superb sauce in it. Mom made it for dinner tonight. You'd be surprise that at one point, mom actually vowed not to ever attempt any bao related recipes after so many failures (that's according to her standard). Finally one fine day, she got it right after consulting several recipes and from there on, came up with her own recipe.

I cannot tell you how tasty and yummy it is. The pork belly was just at the right tender texture while the bao was super soft. At this rate, I don't think my diet plan is going to materialize at any time sooner but anyway, it's a blessing to come home with yummy dinner waiting for me.

Look at the wobbly combination of fat and lean meat. The top skin was fried on a pan of scarce oil to make it crispy (of course when soaked with gravy, it becomes soft), the mixtures of major spices like cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick, chinese wine and fermented beancurd created the aromatic and tasty gravy as well.

As we munched with satisfaction on bao with the gravy oozing out from the side, the other hand of ours reached for another piece of lettuce to crunch together.

The above has been packed for a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in decades. Tomorrow ...yes ....tomorrow... we will meet for the 1st time in decades and exchange food for the first time as well.

Chicken BBQ Pau & Red Bean Pau (Steam Buns)

This was done at home, using the same recipe from the class. Smooth filling was not self made.

As I was saying in my previous post, I took a day off to attend a baking class in Damansara Heights. There were numerous class for me to choose from but in the end, I settled on pau making class instead of pastry pro class. I reckon I will never venture to make a puff pastry since frozen ones are easily accessible. As for sweet pastry, I've done that countless times. I made the right decision because I got to learn how to make pau and the filling from scratch. Yes, from deboning the chicken meat to cooking the red bean filling from the red beans. It was very unfortunate that I couldn't eat the very own chicken BBQ pau I made because I'm still on a vegan marathon. Errr.... I tasted the gravy though coz I know I'll never sleep that night without knowing how the BBQ filling taste like. It sure smell wonderful to my nostrils.

Wholemeal Chicken BBQ Pau made in the class.

Okay, I know the pau looked kinda hideous but it was my very 1st time making pleats to the pau instead of just a boring round shape. I gotta perfect this skill and that means more practice. My next pau will be a vegetarian pau. When? Well... soon. Sooner than you thought.

The wholemeal pau. The one behind was yam pau (flour with yam) with red bean filling

Yes, unsightly pleated but hey this is just the beginning. It's my 2nd attempt anyway

As per request from a friend, here's the recipe.

Ingredients for pau :

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 plain flour

3/4 wholemeal flour

1 tsp cooking oil

1 tsp double action baking powder (I omitted this entirely)

Ingredients for filling :

300g chicken pieces, skinless, boneless, cut cubes, marinated in 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper

3/4 cup green peas

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornflour

Method : Pau

1. Mix instant yeast, sugar and warm water and let it stand for 5 mins.
2. Mix all the ingredients together and knead the dough for about 15 mins until it forms an elastic ball.
3. Cover with damp cloth and let it rest for about 30 mins

Method : Filling

1. Heat up oil and fry the garlic and onion.
2. Add in chopped onions, peas and chicken cubes.
3. Add in the hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil.
4. Mix cornflour with a little water and thicken the filling.

Method : Wrapping filling in pau

1. Divide dough to about 8 portions. If you prefer pau to be smaller, divide to 10 or 12 portions. Roll them into balls.
2. Flatten each dough and make the edges thinner.
3. Scoop a spoon full of filling into the centre and pleat to seal.
4. Place pau on a piece of greaseproof paper. Repeat for remaining dough.
5. Cover the pau with damp cloth and leave it to rest for 45 mins.
6. Steam over high heat for 15 mins. Serve hot.

My cooking tips : The double action baking powder serves to proof the dough faster. To ensure dough is well knead for proofing, pull the dough. If it's quite elastic and doesn't break so easily, then dough is well knead.

My team mates in the class. Starting to make the pau shape.

 

Kneading the dough for proofing later on.