Multi Grain Breads

My first attempt on making some wholesome and healthy breads. The inspiration came from the Breadtalk, one of the best seller bread name Sunflower sprinkle with some sunflower nuts, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. What so special about the bread, I like it because firstly is a healthier choice and secondly the more you chew the bread the more fragrant it is.

It will be great if they would be more generous on the ingredients as they only sprinkle those nuts and seeds on the outer layer and inside the breads is empty. The breads cost S$2 which is not really cheap.

So I replica and make some similar breads. I bought some healthy nuts, seeds and dried fruits from Fave. They have many different kinds of nuts, seeds and dried fruits and is pretty affordable.

I placed with melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and a mix of raisin and cranberry dried fruits in the bread. Lastly I coat some white and black sesame seeds on the outer layer.

The bread taste so good on its own without any spread to go along. ;)

Recipe source from: I love tasty & healthy treats book

Ingredients A:

• 250gm high protein flour (I used bread flour)
• 100gm rye flour (I use wholemeal flour)
• 3gm yeast
• 30gm sugar
• 3gm salt
• 200 water
• 30gm butter

Ingredients B:

• 20gm pumpkin seeds
• 20gm melon seeds (can replace with sunflower seeds)
• 20gm walnuts
• 30gm raisins with cranberry
• Some white and black sesame seeds (can replace with oats)

 Methods:

1. I using bread machine. Place the water, salt and sugar into the machine, follow by the flour and yeast. Choose the dough function and let it knead until it become a dough (about 15 to 20 minute) and it is not so sticky.
2. Put the piece of butter into the machine and let it continue to knead for another 10 min. After 10 min, the dough should be smooth and can stretch into a thin sheet without breaking into holes.
3. Transfer the dough onto a work surface, add the ingredients B and knead the dough until well mixed. 
4. Brush a layer of butter or oil in a bowl, place the dough into the bowl and cover with a cling wrap or damp cloth and leave to proof for 2 hrs.
5. Divide the dough into 10 equal small balls or you can either make into a loaf or any other shape you prefer and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Press lightly on the dough to release out the air and roll the dough into rounds again. Spray the top with some water and coat with some sesame or oats.
7. Place all the dough into the baking tray, and cover the dough with cling wrap until double in bulk (about 60 min).
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20-25 mins. 
9. Remove the bread on wire rack to cool. 

Milky Sponge White Buns - 海蒂的白面包

Finally I got myself a bread machine! I bought it online from Groupon and it cost about $65, which is the most cheapest I found BUT I not sure how long it can last. Groupon did not state the brand of the machine and I can't google the information. I just bought it since is pretty affordable.

After I got the machine on hand, I went google the brand and I can't find any review about this bread machine brand at all. So I guess this must be a unheard of brand which seldom people will buy. So far I had used it about 5 times, most of the time I used it to knead the dough.

After all I'm happy with the bread machine, I can just throw all the raw ingredients into the machine and let it do the job while I can leave away for a short while to do something else. Plus the noise level is pretty low when the machine was kneading the dough compare to hand mixer (loud speaker).

Here is the batch of milky, white sponge buns I made with the help of bread machine. The bread surface should be look like the title name "white" (白) colour and should not be brown colour. The instruction given was to bake for 15 min but I baked for 20 min as I afraid that the bread might uncooked in the inner / centre and that's why my batch of breads is slightly tanned.

Luckily the breads did not burned or turn hard and the texture is so springy and chewy. I divided the dough into 8 balls instead of following the book which is 6 balls. If you prefer a bigger buns than divide into 6 but I prefer a smaller one. ;)

Recipes source: 媽媽的味道：63種吃了會微笑的手作麵包＆多拿滋
*Note, I using the bread machine and choose the dough function to knead the dough.

Ingredients:
- 250gm bread flour
- 200gm milk
- 10gm sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp yeast
- 10gm butter

Method:

1. Reserve 2 tsp of milk (from the 200gm milk) into a small bowl / cup, add in the yeast and mix together.
2. Pour the remaining milk into the bread machine with the sugar and salt. Follow by the bread flour and step 1 (yeast with 2 tsp milk).
3. Choose the dough function and press the start bottom to let it knead for 20 min.  
4. After 20 min, put the piece of butter into the machine and let it continue to knead for another 10 min. After 10 min, the dough should be smooth and can stretch into a thin sheet without breaking into holes.   
5. Brush a layer of butter or oil in a bowl, place the dough into the bowl and cover with a cling wrap or damp cloth and leave to proof for 60 min or until double in bulk under warm place (28 to 30 degree).
6. After dough become double, dip some flour on one of the finger and press it down on the center of the dough. If the dough remain still without flat out which mean dough are ready.
7. Dust some flour on the counter top, remove the dough from the bowl and place on the counter top, give a few light knead to release out the gas in the dough.
8. Weight the dough and divide into 6 or 8 balls (up to your preference on the size of the buns you want). Press lightly on the individual dough to release out the air.
9. Roll and round each dough into a small balls shape. Cover with a cling wrap or damp cloth for 15 min.
10. After 15 min, dust some flour on the counter top and press lightly on the individual dough to release out the air again. Roll and round each dough into a small ball shape again.
11. Coat flour (I using plain flour) on the surface of the dough.
12. Use a rolling pin and press it down on the center of the dough to form a shape (as shown above).
13. Place all the dough into the baking tray, and cover the dough with cling wrap until double in bulk (about 50 min)
14. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C and reduce the temperature to 140°C when is ready to send the dough into the oven. Bake for 15 min. 
15. Cool the buns on a wire rack when it is done.  

Char Siew Bun (叉烧餐包)

 

叉烧包，谁爱吃刚出笼的叉烧包，谁爱吃刚出笼的叉烧包。

好朋友　你到底爱吃那一样　你到底爱吃那一样　那一样？

我最爱吃的就是叉烧包！
Does this lyrics remind you of a song? *Sorry for those who can't understand the chinese word. This is a song name 叉烧包, singer 徐小鳳。I make this bun not because of the song, is just a coincidence that remind me of this song when I typing the blog post at this moment.

 

Do you like char siew bao? For me, I do. I love char siew rice (叉烧饭), char siew bao (叉烧包), char siew su (叉烧酥)。Seem like anything with char siew make me delight. I will always order char siew bao and char siew su when I having my dim sum with my family. Both of this is a must for me.

 

 

Lately I have been practice baking plain bread. So I thought of baking something with filling inside the bread.

 

My inspiration came on one of the weekday during lunch time, me and my colleagues went to a 烧腊 stall at a old coffeeshop enjoying the roast chicken, roast pork belly and char siew. So I decided to try and make char siu bun after enjoying a scrumptious meal.

 

 

 

I making some bun instead of chinese steam bao (包) because I have no confident on making bao since I still a beginner on making bread and I should continue to practice until I good at it before I proceed to bao stage. =p

This time for the dough, I'm using straight dough method and I yield a branch of soft and fluffy bread. Yes! I feel so happy because I have never achieve a soft and fluffy bread using straight dough method in my past experience. Not sure the reason behind, is it because of the ingredient that help me or kneading part. Anyway is a success. I'm more and more confident on making bread.

For the filling is a little too watery and gluey, after having the most 2 bun you will feel unctuous. I will reduce the amount of water the next time. I will still post out the filling ingredient for my recording purpose but please don't follow the filling recipes. The bun taste really good but the filling is rather disappointed.

 

*I feel like slapping myself, I can't remember where I got the dough recipe from. I keep searching thorough my bookmark list but I cannot confirm is this the web I got from. Hopefully it is.

Dough recipe source: http://www.adorasbox.net/2011/01/asado-buns.html

Ingredients for the filling:

• 200gm char siew (叉烧) *I bought from a hawker stall
• 200ml water
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1tbsp topioca flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• few drops of red colouring (Optional)

Method for the filling:

1. Cut the char siew into small bits.
2. Mix the water, corn and tapioca flour together in a bowl.
3. Cook the remaining ingredients in a pot under a stove with medium heat. Stir for 1 min until it bubbles. Stir in the (step 2) mixture together and cook for 1 min, keep stirring.
4. The sauce should be thicken, remove from the heat and add in the diced char siew.

Ingredients for the dough: (I halve the recipe portion)

• 150ml milk
• 35gm sugar
• 58gm melted butter
• 1 tsp yeast
• Half a egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 280gm of plain flour
• Sesame (Optional for garnish)

 
Method for the dough:

1. Heat the milk until lukewarm not boiling stage. Pour into a large mixing bowl and mix in the melted butter, sugar and yeast. Leave for 15 minutes.
2. Stir in the egg and salt to the yeast mixture. Gradually add the flour while mixing until a medium soft dough is obtained. Knead the dough till smooth or using a electric hand mixer to do the job. 
3. Place in a greased bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until double in bulk or about 1 & 1/2 hours).
4. After dough become double, divide the dough into 50 gm each. 
5. Shape it into balls and cover the dough with a cling wrap or damp cloth, leave to rest for 15 min.
6. Flatten each piece and fill with a tablespoon of filling. Gather the edges and seal well. Place the sealed side face down. Arrange on a baking tray and leave to proof until double in bulk.
7. Spread some sesame on the top of the dough and bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for 15 to 20 minutes until puffed up and browned.



Pandan Roll Bun with Coconut Filling (椰子面包)

I make some pandan roll bread with the left over pandan extract coconut milk which I have used for my previous post on the pandan chiffon cake. So I decided of making some 微波面包 and sweet coconut filling bun.

I'm a coconut lover. Anything cook with coconut or make into a dessert, I will not hesitant to try it. 椰子面包 (coconut bun) is one of my favour and most of the time I will buy from the bread shop. It usually come in 4 or 6 small bun in one packet.

My wrapping skill is really lousy and if I'm not wrong this is my first time make a wrapping filling bun. The correct way should be able to see the coconut filling in the centre but mine version somehow the filling is like been push to the top and the centre filled with bread. Is not easy to wrap and seal it with filling, because the dough is soft and you have to be fast and skillful to hold on the filling within the centre than wrap and seal it. I need more practice and I wanted to! There are a lot of thing to practice, improve and learn from the mistake. 

I made two different version with the same recipe, one with coconut filling and the other is plain. This time I added store buy pandan extract to make it more fragrant with the pandan taste. Finally the pandan taste is more obvious now with the pandan extract and the colour look pretty nice too.

The coconut filling quite disappointed as the sweetness and fragrant is not the taste I want it. I used brown sugar to cook with the shredded coconut. It will be taste nicer to cook with gula melaka but I do not have in hand so I replace it with brown sugar. None-the-less the bread taste soft, fluffy and  fragrant with pandan.

(A) Sponge dough Ingredients:

• 201gm bread flour
• 4gm yeast
• 16gm milk powder
• 50gm egg (one egg)
• 73ml pandan extract coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp pandan paste
• 1/2 tsp pandan essence

(B) Main dough ingredients

• 67gm bread flour
• 40gm brown sugar
• 4gm salt
• 27ml fresh milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 30gm butter

(C) Coconut Filling:

• 1 cups fresh grated coconut
• 1/4 cups brown sugar (Gula Melaka will be a better choice)
• 2 + 1/2 tbsp water
• Pinch of salt

Method:

Coconut Filling:

1. Place the sugar and water in a pan over low heat, cook until sugar dissolves, shimmer until the liquids start to thicken and become syrupy.
2. Add grated coconut and salt, keep stirring and cook until all well combine over low heat for 10 min or until coconut filling become thick and dry.

Bread/Bun:

1. Mix all ingredients (A) together and form into a dough (do not need to knead). Cover with a cling wrap or damp cloth and leave to proof for 90 min.
2. After 90 min, mix all the ingredients (A) and (B) except the butter together and knead the dough until it is not so sticky. Put the piece of butter into the dough and continue to knead until the dough is smooth, look shiny and can stretch into a thin sheet without breaking into hole.
3. Cover the dough with a cling wrap or damp cloth and leave to proof for another 50 min.
4. After 50 min, divide the dough into each 40gm. Shape it into balls and cover the dough with a cling wrap or damp cloth, leave to rest for 10 min.
5. After 10 min, roll out dough into long rectangle shape and roll it back like swiss roll shape for the plain bun. 
6. For the coconut filling, roll out each dough and wrap in the coconut filling, shape it into round shape and seal it.
7. Place the individual dough into baking tray.
8. Cover the dough with a cling wrap or damp cloth and leave to proof for 30 min.
9. Preheat oven at 170°C. Brush milk or egg wash on the bread surface and bake for 12-15 mins or till golden brown.

Plain Roll Bun

As i mention before I'm a yeast lover, so i go on and try home make bun. Making a bread/bun require a lot of time due to the proofing. I spend about 4 hour plus to finish my final bun.

I realise that after mixing all the ingredient together, the next step to do the kneading is the worst and fun part. Worst is because the dough is super sticky, it keep stick to my finger. Fun is because u get to play with the dough and make different kind of shape up to your desire. While i was kneading the dough, my mum came and take a look and after that i let her take over to knead the dough while i prepare other ingredient.

After kneading, proofing and baking finally i get to try my first make bun. The bun is crispy when it is hot out from the oven but after a few hour of cooling the bread turn tough. The book stated that bake it at 180C for 20 minute. For the first batch i follow the book and some how the bun turn overly brown on the surface. So for the second batch i bake it at 180C for 15 minute and this time round the bread is not overly brown.  

Ingredient:

• 160 gm bread flour
• 40 gm plain flour
• 1/2+1/4 tsp yeast
• 25gm caster sugar
• 1 tbsp milk power (I omitted as i don't have)
• 100ml fresh milk
• 30gm egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 32gm butter

Method:

• Mix bread flour and plain flour together, divided the flour into half.
• Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl except for the butter, salt and the other half of the flour. Mix for about 3 minute or until you will see some small bubble. 
• Add in the salt and the other half of the flour and mix.
• Place the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough is elastic, smooth and no longer sticks to your hands. (To check whether the dough is elastic, use your finger and stretch the dough into a thin layer where the dough does not tear easily)
• Transfer the dough back into the bowl and add in the butter, keep pressing the dough with the butter together until butter is totally absorb.
• Continue knead the dough until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Turn the dough back into the bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to proof into doubled in volume. Place at a warm spot (30C) for 1 hour.
• After the dough become doubled, use a finger press on the centre of the dough. The dough should be springy and bound back when u press slightly on the side of the dough.
• Punch down the dough to release out the gas of the dough.
• Divided the dough into 6 pieces and cover it with the kitchen towel and let it rest for 10 minute.
• Shape the dough into the shape that you desired, place it on a baking tray with baking parchment and cover it with the kitchen towel until doubled in size.
• Brush the top with egg wash and bake for about 15~20 minute in a preheated oven at 180C.
• Remove from the tray and let it cool on a wire rack.