Panda Bread

I promised that I will be back soon...  :P


Sharing with you a bread recipe that I had bookmarked for years! I had even printed this recipe out and filed nicely waiting for the right time to work on. But since it got filed, it was just left there... until recently, a group of FaceBook friends started trying this recipe. I decided to join in the fun.


Here's my panda. :)

You can't help but like this bread's appearance. it's just so cute. And I'm happy to say that in terms of taste, it was pretty good too!

What you need
part A

• 70gm cake flour
• 230gm bread flour
• 4gm salt
• 4gm dry active yeast
• 30gm sugar
• 1 egg with milk to make up 210gm
• 18gm unsalted butter

part B

• 8gm green tea powder
• 8gm bamboo charcoal powder

What to do

• Heat up milk and egg in MW for 20seconds on high.
• Dump everything in part A together into the KA/breadmaker. knead till smooth and pass pane test.
• Divide dough into 3 parts. 75gm for the bamboo charcoal,  210gm plain and remaining for the green tea portion.
• Add bamboo charocal powder to the 75gm dough and knead till colour is even.
• Add green tea powder to the remaining portion and knead till colour is even.
• Proof 3 portions separately till double in size (about 40mins)
• Punch out dough and assemble the dough accordingly (see  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM7M5pQBa5Y  for assembling the dough)
• Proof another 40mins till double in size.
• Bake at 200 degrees for 15mins, then lower to 180 degrees for another 15mins

Cinnamon Buns

Looking through my collection of baking books, I came across the book written by Peter Reinhart. I remember buying this book on an impulse online, because there was another book on offer, and I thought that since I'm ordering one book, might as well make it 2. :)

A quick flip through the book, I noticed that most of the bread recipes are for rustic/sourdough breads, which I do not have the patience for. So I looked more closely and finally found a straight-forward recipe for cinnamon buns. So cinnamon buns it shall be!

The method is quite different from the norm. The butter, sugar, eggs were whipped together first and then flour and milk added. Interesting....

The baked buns were really good too! However, i did not add any white fondant (icing) onto the tops after the buns were baked as I found the bread sweet enough.

Original recipe by Peter Reinhart, and here's my adaptation:

Makes 8-to 12 large buns

What you need

• 6.5 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt (i omitted this coz i used salted butter)
• 2.75oz salted butter at room temp (you can use shortening or unsalted butter or margarine)
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp lemon extract or grated lemon zest of 1 lemon ( I omitted this coz I do not have lemons at home)
• 16 oz bread flour (you can use all purpose flour too)
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 9oz whole milk (or buttermilk) at room temp
• 4oz cinnamon sugar (mix 6.5 tbsp sugar plus 1tbsp ground cinnamon) (orginal recipe asked for 1/2 tbsp of ground cinnamon, i upped it to 1 tbsp)

What to do

• Cream tog the sugar and butter on med-high speed on an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Whip in the egg and lemon extract/zest (if using) till smooth.
• Add in the flour, yeast and milk. Mix on low speed till dough forms into a ball. Switch to dough hook and mix till dough passed pane test.
• Oil a large bowl and transfer the dough into it. Cover bowl with plastic over and let it poof till double in size.
• Transfer dough onto an oiled counter top and punch it down.
• Roll out dough about 3/4 in in thickness and 14 inches wide by 12 inches long. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar onto dough and roll it up, swiss-roll style.
• With the seam side down, cut into 8-12 even pieces each abt 13/4 inches thick.
• Line 1 or more pans with baking parchment. Place the buns approx. 1/2 inch apart.
• Poof at room temp for 75-90 mins, or until size had doubled.
• Bake in preheated oven at 180C on the middle rack, for 20mins.

Lazy bread - focaccia

Was lazing ard on Sunday afternoon and then realised that I had to prepare dinner. :P

Decided to go easy and peeped into my freezer for any emergency supplies that I could use. Took out the pre-cooked and frozen Hungarian Goulash Soup and then baked focaccia to go with it. My last attempt with focaccia was sometime back, which means it's high-time to make them again!

Sharing with you the recipe here:

What you need

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp mixed herbs
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup water (add 1 tbsp water if the dough feels dry)

For topping

• Olive oil
• More mixed herbs

What to do

• Add yeast into the cup of water and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl with the hook, stir together the flour, salt, sugar and mixed herbs. Mix in the vegetable oil and water (with yeast).
• Using the mixer, let it run till the dough is smooth (about 5mins).
• Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 230 degrees C. Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. make little indents with your fingertips and drizzle top with olive oil.
• Sprinkle with more mixed herbs and cheese as topping. Leave aside to proof another 10mins.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

The brown bits were cheese. That's what you will get for forgetting abt the bake in the oven and busy FB-ing! LOL

Assorted buns

Chocolate wassants

It's been a long while since I last made breads. It's not that I don't like breads. In fact, the whole family loves it, but it's just the long process of making that turns me off sometimes. I do not get to stay at home for the whole day in the weekends. Weekdays is totally out of the question as I do not wish to stay up all nite waiting for the bread to proof, then bake, THEN cool down.

It certainly did not help when the weather's been so cranky lately. Just when I decided to make some buns, it started pouring. The day before was perfectly bright and sunny!

Used my KA to knead the dough and the poor machine was *coughing and whining* so much that I thought it could break down anytime. The entire process of kneading till the dough passed the pane test took a good 45mins! However, even tho' the weather was cooling, the dough did proof beautifully.

I did a chocolate filling for one half of the dough and made chocolate wassants and the other half, I filled it with canned tuna and slices of luncheon meat.

Tuna buns

So tt's good b'fast for my kiddos for the next few days!

Luncheon meat buns

Pork Floss Buns

I craved for some sweet buns, so I bought a pack of pork floss and set to work on it. :P

I used the water-roux method for the dough and it turned out really great. Proofing was a breeze but I was lazy... did not glaze the top of the buns before baking them. Anyway, I'm pleased with the outcome. The bread is nice and fluffy. Thanks SD for sharing his recipe.

Another quickie b'fast

I'm a sucker for quickie b'fast, if you still do not know it. I'm always on a look-out for simple and ez to prepare b'fast for my 2 kiddos. Doesn't help that they need to be reminded at least a dozen times every morning to finish their cup of milk asap so that we can leave the house on time (in between washing up!).

Anyway, I spotted this egg-in-toast method in a local mommy's forum and was sold on how fast and ez a b'fast can be ready. I'm definitely game to try! One more plus is that it's so pretty to look at too! LOL...

Here's how to make one of these...

First, you use yr cookie cutter to cut out the shape on 1 slice of bread. Do not discard that piece of cut-out. It can be toasted and eaten too. Next, place a 2nd piece of sliced bread onto yr baking tray. Then, divide a slice of processed cheese into 4 equal pieces and line them at the 4 sides of the bread, as close to the edges as possible, this acts as a "seal" for the 2 slices of bread. When the cheese are laid, place the slice of bread (with the cut-out hole) on the top. Align it nicely with the bottom piece. Finally, break an egg onto the cut-out area and send it to the oven! It's that simple. The original recipe called for a tiny piece of butter onto the uncooked egg but I left that out. Besides the butter, you can also sprinkle some pepper onto the egg. Bake it in the oven for ard 15-20mins... when you can see that the bread turns brown and the egg cooks..... b'fast is served!

Ham Bread

I'm been seriously lagging in my baking... and blogging lately. Somehow I feel that age is catching up with me...

Anyway, I decided that I really have to do some baking for the weekends, so early Sunday morning, I got up and made some bread.

I bought some ham shavings when I was doing some groceries shopping in the weekdays... I tot it's a good buy. If I din make any breads, I can fry it tog with rice.

So here's the bread after it's baked... yums!

Bread and more bread!

I try to make it a habit to bake bread every weekends nowadays, so that we can have bread as b'fast during the weekdays, since we're always in a rush in the morning to get to work/school.

These breads are simple sweet buns with fillings. I cubed some luncheon meat with mushroom, cheese sausage, carrot and corn and then added some condensed cambell soup into it and did a quick stirfry. Sprinkled some white pepper and also a dash of wine into the mixture and let it cool down before wrapping into the buns. This filling is a combo of the stuff my kiddos love, so i figured they shd love eating this too! LOL There was leftover filling after I've wrapped 13 buns, so I did up another round of dough! crazy decision as I was so afraid for my mixer, having to do all the kneading, that the motor may overheat. Thank goodness the mixer survived and I'm rewarded with another beautiful dough!
This time, I rolled up some ham and cheese as filling and also used some of the lotus paste leftover from the mooncake making. :P it sure sounds like i'm trying to clear my fridge of all kinds of leftovers! The ham and cheese buns looked really messy after baked. the cheese was all over the place but it tasted so good

Kinda distracted...

When Elyn asked me what I intended to bake this weekends, I was not sure how to answer her. As usual, I'll have a very ambitious list of stuff to do but then I am really distracted lately. There will be 2 weddings happening in the family by the end of this year and it has created alot of buzz right now. Tho' it's not my wedding, but I am really happy and excited abt it. To be exact, I had to do my share in the preparations for the wedding, ie, shopping! LOL... Besides the wedding, the upcoming event is my company's annual dinner and dance this year. So it again justifies my need to do some shopping!

Anyway, I had to bake something... although shopping does give certain satisfaction, it also burns a big hole in my pocket! So there I was at the supermarket on a friday nite, looking at the baking section, trying to decide on something to bake. I finally settled on bread-making and went ahead to grab 2 can of tuna mayo on the shelves.
Woke up on Sunday morning and the first thing I did was to get the bread dough done. ( I was out shopping on Saturday!) Finally shaped the buns in triangular shape (trying to be different?) and went to get some lunch. By the time I reached home, I realised that the buns had over-proofed! Nothing I can do except to get the buns baked asap.The buns turned out very soft, airy and yummy. However, I found the tuna filling too wet. I think maybe next time I'll try other kinds of tuna filling... probably one wif only brine, supposedly healthier this way? :P

French Walnut Bread

This is a super duper yummy loaf. 'Coz I added some stir-fried onions to the dough, resulting in a very fragrant bread. The crust you see is actually chopped oats. After baking, it became really crunchy. It's a crusty kind of bread, which is good to eat just on it's own, or with some cheese... and some say, with good wine too! :P

For those who wants to give it a try, just use a wholemeal bread recipe, add in some walnuts and stir-fried onion, shape it into rounds, and then before the 2nd proofing, dip the top in water, and then coat it with chopped oats. Let it rise the 2nd time and then bake. I assure u of a very nice bread! LOL...

Calzone

With leftover cheese from the pizza making, I baked some calzones. Calzones are what they referred to as "reversed pizza". basically it's also using the same bread dough but wrapping the ingredients inside. Appearance wise, it's like curry puffs. But there's no pleating to be done at the edges. Just "glueing" the edges together using egg wash. And then egg wash the surface after wrapping the ingredients inside and leave it for 2nd proofing. And when it is ready, apply egg wash again and send to the oven... simple enough?I sauteed some onions, ham and spinach together till fragrant and then when the mixture cooled down, I mixed in the cheese. And used it as the filling.

Foccacia too!

Over the weekends, I blog-hopped and came upon Ching's site. Her new post was about a foccacia she made... what a coincidence since i also made foccacia (but too lazy to post abt it. :P)

Actually her foccacia looked so similar to mine, just that I shaped mine in little discs, unlike her oblong-shaped one. I omitted oregano ('coz i dun really stock this) and added chopped olives to the dough instead. Mixed the rosemary, italian herbs with olive oil and some mashed canned tomatoes and then brushed generously on the tops before sending them to the oven. After the foccacia were baked, I brushed on another layer of olive oil.

Also, I did not pair the foccacia with curry, but ate it a little toasted. No complaints... it tasted heavenly. :)

Limpa Bread

J was so kind to share this recipe with me she learnt at a breadmaking class.(sorrie folks, I won't be able to share this recipe...) Initially when I got the recipe, I was apprehensive as it's main ingredient was rye flour. It was a flour that I had never touched in my years of baking. Furthermore, it looked really rustic and that to me meant dense and hard bread, although flavoursome, was not a texture that is preferred/accepted by the family. But after taking a bite, I casted all the "what ifs" aside.... I was SOLD.

This bread is swedish in origin. And the many different herbs added to it created a really nice flavour. Furthermore, it used the sponge and dough method. However, I was cautioned that it'll be a very sticky dough... but I still went ahead and tried after getting a pack of rye flour. (now that I've to figure out what to do with the remaining rye flour! LOL) True enough, the dough was really sticky and it took me a while to be able to be able to shape it decently.

After baking, I really felt a sense of accomplishment. The appearance of the bread is really fantastic... but I got all kinds of questions like "why did u put icing sugar on the bread?" "What's that white flour that's coating the bread?" " Eeeeee.... it looked really hard and dense... are u sure it's nice?"... I had to ask everyone who had any doubts to touch the loaf... it's soft! Not as hard as it looked like.

So I cut the loaf and then toasted it lightly before spreading butter, jams and marmalade on it... HEAVENLY.... and I got the thumbs up from the kids too!

Piiiiizzzzzaaaa

Tried out pizza making y'day. Wanted to have a super thin and crispy base, so what I did was used a usual bread recipe and rolled it out REALLLLLLLY thin after the 1st poof. Then, proof it for only 10mins and in the oven it went. Worked well!

I used a tomato paste base, added mozarella cheese, mushroom and sausages and finally topped with more cheese. Did not use pineapples as I'm not a fan. :P

Feeling corny

It all started when I was trying to pass time whilst waiting for my DD to finish her class. So I found myself wondering abt the aisles at a hypermart. Even tho' my initial intention is just to get some apples to munch on, but well, I ended up checking out many other things! LOL...

I picked up a can of corn kernels and then started to dream abt corn muffins! It's been some time since I last made some "Kenny Rogers" corn muffins and I've always wanted to try it with the canned corn instead of frozen ones. I found the frozen ones turned out very dry after baking. So in the shopping basket it went. :P

The muffins were good as expected... what can go wrong with honey, cornmeal and lovely corn kernels... and of course, a good recipe.

1 can of corn kernels measured 2 cups after draining out the brine. So I'm left with 1 cup of corn after baking the muffins. I decided to make a loaf of bread and incorporate the corn into it. So I looked thru' some blogs and settled on the milk loaf. Happy Homebaker has a translated version of the milk loaf, and good reviews too, so I took that recipe and ran! LOL....

I made some minor modifications to it...

What you need

• 1 egg
• 145gm milk
• 25gm sugar
• 5gsm salt
• 38gm butter
• 250gm bread flour
• 4gm dried active yeast
• 1/2 cup corn kernels

What to do

• Add the ingredients in the order as listed above into the breadmaker, except for the corn.
• Set the breadmaker to the sweet function, crust to light and selected 700gms as the dough weight and let it run.
• After 20mins of churning, the breadmaker beeped and I added the corn kernels in.
• After 2hrs 50mins, the bread is done!

The bread turned out really good... soft and airy. Everyone loves it... and so, it's a definate keeper! It looks like a very versatile recipe too... can imagine experimenting with chocolate, wholemeal or some other variations.

Peanut Butter Bread Loaf

I baked this loaf on Monday nite as DS had an outing the next day to Sentosa and needed to pack some sandwiches to bring along. I had planned to try this recipe for some time, but it's the lazy bug which stopped me everytime! LOL...

I started the whole process using the breadmaker at 7.30pm and it was done at 10.15pm. Not too bad as I still got my beauty sleep on time. I left the loaf to cool in the oven as I did not want to stay up just to wait for it to cool.

The loaf turned out pretty well. The recipe's definately a keeper. The bread's soft, tho' it's abit dense at the bottom... but it's still acceptable. The peanut butter taste is not apparent but there's a subtle nutty taste to it and it's slightly salty. The kids and DH love it... I guess that's all that matters. :P

Thanks to Happy Homebaker for sharing the recipe...
This is ham and cheese sandwich for DS.

By the way, I tried a new product in the market... ayam brand fish luncheon meat..... well, the piece of luncheon is very dry, maybe 'coz it's made of fish, and there's not much oil. When I was deciding if i shd get it, the sales person told me that it was good. I asked her how it tasted like, if it's somefin like otah. She said it's harder than otah....more like fish cake... I was really curious, so i bought it. Well, now i can say that I won't be buying another can of fish luncheon meat! Altho' it's definately a healthier choice, compared to the pork ones available, and being much kinder to the pocket. The fishy taste is very evident... and on the whole it's rather dry. it does taste abit like otah, minus the coconut milk.... and harder, of course! Not well-received by the family... too bad.

The Great Redemption

When Elyn told me to try baking the hokkaido milk loaf using the breadmaker, I ended up using my arm-power 'coz I needed to de-stress. When the week past and I decided to try another recipe, I shortlisted the yogurt bread. Looking at the recipe here, I decided to up the amt and baked 1.5 times of the recipe. I used meiji mixed berries yogurt as I saw in Happyhomebaker's blog that her attempt of the yogurt bread yielded a pink loaf! It's really cool. :)

I just placed all the ingredients into the breadmaker and let it do it's thing. I did not subject the dough to 2 rounds of kneading, as alot of the other bloggers did. I wanted to see how good/bad the bread will turn out if left on it's own.

Well, the resulting bread was surprisingly good! It was soft and aromatic. The texture is springy and airy. However, I did not get a pink loaf. The yogurt was a bright purple when I added it into the breadmaker, the bread turned out a dull and light brown when done. Judging from the rate the kids are munching on the bread, color is definately not an issue here! I'm happy to say that the breadmaker had redeemed itself... but i hope it can churn out equally good breads using other recipes... i can't be just using this recipe all the time rite? LOL

DH commented I added wine to the bread... hmm... i wonder why he tasted wine in the bread? Others commented that the bread tasted sour... i guess it's the yogurt. I thot it's a nice change from the usual sweet bread we eat.

Here's the recipe:

What you need

• 150gm yogurt (I used meiji mixed berries)
• 1 egg
• 90gm milk
• 22gm sugar
• 5gm salt
• 5gm yeast
• 375gm bread flour
• 45gm butter (soft, at room temp)

What to do

• Mix tog yogurt, milk, egg and sugar into a cup using a fork. Pour into breadmaker.
• Add in yeast and butter.
• Place the bread flour on top.
• Finally, add in the salt.
• Set the breadmaker to the sweet dough function. In 2hrs 55mins, the loaf will be ready.