French Baguette

It's been a long time since I last did a bread post !

These loaves were baked about 3 months ago. I used them as base for my crostini with prawn.

Recipe adapted from Don Yong's Bread Winners :

Ingredients :

500g Bread flour
7g Bread Improver *
7g Instand dry yeast
10g Salt
330g Cold water

With an electric mixet and dough hook at low speed, blend the dry imgredients together for about 1 min. Add water & mix on low speed for another min. Increase to medium speed & mix for 12 mins until dough is fully developed.

Transfer the dough onto a flour-dusted work surface & round up dough with both hands. Place the dough into an airtight container & let it rise in a warm place for 1 - 1 1/2 hrs until the dough is double in bulk.

Divide the dough into 4pcs, each weighing 200g. Round up the dough & leave for 15mins. Mould each dough pc into a cylindrical shape 30cm long. Do this by flattening the dough with a rolling pin & then rolling the dough tightly from one end downwards, making certain that the seam is properly sealed.

Transfer the dough pcs onto a lightly greased, perforated tray & prove in awarm place for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. When the dough is ready, make 3 diagonal cuts on the surface of each dough pc, using a sharp knife. Space the cuts 10cm apart.

Preheat oven to 230C. Bake with a tray of water to generate steam for the first 10 mins of the baking time. Open the door of the oven & remove any wtaer remaining. Continue to bake for about 10 mins or until the bread is golden brown.

* I omitted the bread improver, as usual.

Pandan Kaya Bread

This is one lovely loaf of bread that I baked for breakfast last week.
The aroma of the bread filled the kitchen while it was baking in the oven.

Original recipe was adapted from Alex Goh's The World Of Bread. I did some changes to the recipe though.

Recipe :
Those highlighted in red are what I've made changes to.

(A)
300g Bread flour
2 Tsp Instant yeast
45g Sugar (50g Gula Melaka)
1/2 Tsp salt (Omitted)
1/2 Tbsp Milk powder

(B)
30g Egg
60ml Coconut milk (60ml Whipping cream)
1/2 Tbsp Pandan juice
Few drops green colouring (1/2 Tbsp + 105ml Pandan juice, colour omitted)
105ml Water

(C)
20g Shortening (20g Butter)

(D)
130g Raisins (Omitted)

Topping :

30g Butter
30g Sugar (30g Gula Melaka)
60g Plain flour

Mix (A) till well blended. Add (B), mix to form a dough. Add (C), mix well till well blended. Let it ferment for 50-60 mins.

Mix butter & sugar of the topping ingredients till well combined, then add the plain flour & mix to form a crumb. Keep refrigerated.

Divide dough into 15g pieces & mould into balls. Place half the dough balls in a greased loaf tin (L20cm X W10cm X H8.5cm), then put with the remaining dough balls on top of them.

Leave to rise for 45mins, brush with egg wash & sprinkle with topping.

Bake at preheated oven of 175C for 25-30 mins.

* The loaf turned out to be darker as I've used Gula Melaka in place of the sugar. I've replaced the coconut milk with cream as I didn't have any. I thought raisins don't go with pandan so I omitted them. The loaf was not sweet but the aroma was fantastic, we loved the topping part, very crusty while still warm !

Swiss Brown

This is our favourite bread for now.

It's chewy, doughy & I just love the aroma, so floury.

As home-made bread don't keep well in our extremely hot & humid climate, I usually baked 2 loaves & freeze the other for next meal. The only complain I have is that the crust goes soft after it has cooled. So sometimes I pop it into the oven of 120C to heat up for 5 - 7 mins before serving.

Recipe :
Yields 2 loaves

500g Bread flour
8g Instant dry yeast
15g Sugar
10g Salt
310g Cold water
15g Shortening

With an electric mixer & dough hook at low speed, blend the ingredients together for 1 min. Increase speed to medium & mix for another 12 - 15 mins until dough if fully developed.

Transfer the dough onto a flour-dusted work surface & round up the dough with both hands. Place the dough into a large bowl & let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour until the dough doubles in size.

Punch the dough down & divide it into 2 pcs, each about 425g. Round up the dough & roll it into a baton shape. Place dough on a baking tray that's been lined with baking paper.

Prove the dough in a warm place for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 230C. After dough has risen, bake with a tray of water to generate steam for 10 mins. Remove the water & continue to bake for 10 mins or until the bread is golden brown.


* I replaced the shortening with butter. This is a very sticky bread dough. It helps to oil your hands when handling the dough.

Maple Bread

I've always like pure maple syrup, for it's pure flavour & aroma. The syrup we get in KK is usually artificially flavoured & too sweet. Even if there's pure maple syrup, it'll be over-priced.

My brother-in-law was holidaying in Canada two months ago, so finally I got hold of my supply of maple syrup.

I've got this recipe of maple bread from a Taiwanese website quite some time ago. I've tried it before with my limited supply of maple syrup in the past. Now that I've got more, I baked it again last week.

It's sugar free, so flavourful ........

Ingredients :

325g High protein flour
12g Milk powder (I've used Fernleaf)
149g Milk
32g Egg
71g Maple syrup
39g Unsalted butter
3g Instant yeast
5g Salt

In a mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook & on low speed, blend all ingredients, except butter, till well combined. Add butter, turn speed to medium, continue mixing till the dough is smooth & elastic. Round up dough, let rise in a warm place for an hour or until it doubles in size.

After it has risen, punch the dough down. Roll it into rectangle with a rollling pin, roll up tightly & place it into a greased loaf pan. Let rise again for about 45 mins.

Bake in a preheated oven of 190C for 35-40 mins or until top is brown & cooked.

Milk & Cheese Loaf

Easter break is over & school's starting. No more lazing around, time to get back to the usual routine. Bread making is one of them, for the most important meal of the day, our breakfast !

Tried a new bread recipe today, a milk & cheese loaf. This is supposed to be a plait but I couldn't cope with the braiding so I gave up & make it into a loaf instead.

The recipe is from Don Yong's Bread Winners :

Ingredients :

500g Bread flour
75g Milk powder
8g Bread improver *
4g Instant yeast
70g Sugar
9g Salt
310g Water
40g Butter

Topping :

Cheddar cheese (grated)

With an electric mixer & dough hook, mix the dry ingredients for 1 min on low speed. Add water & mix on low speed for another min. Increase to medium speed to develop the dough for 3 mins & add the butter. Continue mixing for 10 mins until the dough is fully developed.

Round up dough & place into an airtight container to rise in a warm place for 1 hr until the dough is double in bulk. Divide dough into 50g pcs. Round up the dough & leave for 10 mins.

To braid a loaf, roll out 4 pcs of dough into 20-cm long strips. The strips should be thinner on the ends & thicker in the middle. Place the 4 strips with the tips at one end touching. Weave the strips together to form a braid. This is done by weaving strip 2 over strip 3, strip 4 over strip 2 & strip 1 over strip 3. This is repeated until the braid is completed.

Prove the braid in a warm palce for about 1 hr. brush beaten egg over the surface & sprinkle cheddar cheese over it. Bake in a preheated oven of 190C for 20-25 mins.


* As usual I left out the bread improver. This bread is so aromatic, so milky tasting due to the high content of milk powder in it. The texture of the bread is very chewy too. Besides the cheddar cheese, I also sprinkled some sugar on the top before baking. Verdict from the girls : so yummy ! They've always like bread with cheese so this is a sure winner, packed with milk & cheese, perfect for their breakfast tomorrow morning.
Oh, I've shaped the dough into 2 logs, baked them for 21 mins.

Ciabatta

We had dinner last week at TATU & hubby commented that he loved the bread there & I should make my blommers into little buns & freeze them.

The bread he had looked like ciabatta (pronounced cha-BAHT-ta) to me. This is one bread that I've always wanted to make but have been putting it off because I know this bread dough is not easy to handle, sticky & soft !
So I'm always in a 'to-do or not-to-do' situation. Yesterday, since I was wondering what bread to make, I decided to give ciabatta a try !

The recipe was adpated from Don Yong's Bread Winners :

Ingredients :

500g Bread flour
10g Malt flour *
8g Bread improver *
10g Salt
360g Cold water
10g Olive oil

With an electric mixer & dough hook on low speed, blend the dry ingredients for 1 min. Add water & continue mixing on low speed for 2 mins. Add olive oil & mix on medium speed for 12-15 mins until the dough is fully developed.

Transfer the dough onto alour-dusted work syrface & round up dough with both hands. Place the dough into an oiled plastic container. leave it to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours until dough is double in bulk.

Remove & place the dough on a flour-dusted work surface. Divide into 3 pcs at 300g each. Dust the dough pcs with flour & gently stretch them lengthwise before placing on a paper-lined tray. prove in a warm, humid place for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 230C. Bake with a try of water to generate steam for the first 10 mins of baking time. Open the door of the oven & remove any water remaining. reduce the temperature to 210C & bake for another 15 mins.

* As usual I've omitted the bread improver & malt flour (I don't have it ). This bread dough is indeed very sticky. I even had to oil my hands to make handling easier as I do not want to keep on adding flour to the dough. It's tough for me to shape & stretch the dough gently as the dough keeps getting stuck to my fingers. I still ended up with 3 lengthy pcs of dough but the shape were ugly ! The pc that you see in this post is the most presentable of all (haha !!)
I find my ciabatta on a denser side & not really the porous texture. It was chewy & I liked the flavour of yeast & flour. Wonder when my ciabatta will turn out to be with nice big open crumb ??

Easy Blueberry & Apple Bread

I couldn't get enough of apples these few days.

Yesterday, I was trying out a new recipe for an apple cake which looks so light & yummy in the book. However, it was a huge flop, I don't know if it was the recipe or my fault ! I'll give it a try again in a few day's time.
By the time I finished with the experiment, it was 4pm & I started to panic. Why ? Because there's no breakfast for the next day. Apples came to my mind again, so I thought of my Irish soda bread.

This is a very easy food processor recipe which I use quite often when I don't have time to make anything for breakfast.

Ingredients :

2 Cups flour
4 Tbsp Sugar
1/8 Tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Baking soda
1 1/2 Tsp Baking powder
45g Butter
1 Cup Milk
125g Blueberries*
1 Apple, thinly sliced

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder & process till well combined. Add butter & process till the mixture resemble breadcrumbs. Add milk to the mixture, process again until the smooth batter forms. Lastly, fold the blueberries & the sliced apples into the batter, leaving some apple slices for arranging on the top. Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the top of the apples. Bake at preheated oven of 170C, on the lower rack, for about 50 - 55 mins. I've used a 8x3" loaf pan.

*Bluberries can be replaced with sultanas or dried cranberries.

Bloomers Again !

A friend, Y, has expressed her interest in bread making today. I'm glad to have found a 'kaki' in bread making. I'm really into bread making, it's so fun watching those bread dough rise. Once you're into it, you can make the same dough into other flavour with different filling, it's so versatile ! I've baked 2 loaves of bloomers again, studded them with dried cranberries (over-studded in fact !) I love making bread with all kinds of dried fruits, they are so yummy, be it cranberries, apricots, figs, sultanas, the list just goes on........ The bloomers today is definitely better than the last time, practise does shape better loaves !



This is a piece of pandan swissroll we had for breakfast today. Pandan spomge made from pure pandan juice & the filling is made with pandan juice too, it's called pandan kaya, no eggs though but it does contain coconut milk, the texture is quite similar to lemon curd. It's actually my Pandan Layer Cake made into a swissroll.

Pumpkin Bread

This pumpkin bread is so tender & moist, full of all the goodness that pumpkin has to offer. I like baking with pumpkin, the natural colour of the pumpkin is so pretty & bright.
This recipe is adapted from Celebrity Chefs' Cookbooks, Don Yong's Bread Winners. I remembered buying this book few years ago as a Christmas present for myself because it was then that I discovered that I can bake !!

Ingredients :

500g Bread flour
20g Milk powder
8g Bread improver *
14g Instant dry yeast
110g Sugar
8g Salt
2g Mixed spice
450g Pumpkin paste
100g Eggs (without shell)
70g Cold water
100g Shortening *

With an electric mixer on dough hook & low speed, blend the dry ingredients together for 1 min. Add 150g of pumpkin paste, eggs & water, mix on low speed for another min. Add shortening & mix on medium speed until dough is fully developed. Let rise for 1 hour until the dough doubles in bulk.

Punch dough down, divide the dough into 3 pcs, each 350g & mould round, leave for 10 mins. With a rolling pin, flatten each dough into a sheet 30-cm wide, spread remaining pumpkin paste onto each dough equally, roll the dough up like a swiss roll. Stretch the roll slightly & fold in half, give the roll 2 or 3 twists & place into a tin.

Prove the dough in a warm place for 1 hr or until doubles in bulk. Bake in preheated oven on 200C for 25 mins.

* As usual, I left out the bread improver & changed the shortening to butter. I halved the recipe to make only one loaf. The pumpkin paste can be easily prepared by steaming pumkin & mashed with some sugar until it forms a paste that is easy to spread (add sugar according to your taste).
I find the temperature of 200C too high, I've reduced it to 190C & the bread is done in 20 mins.

Hokkaido Milk Loaf (北海道牛奶土司）

These loaves are baked today, at 3pm

The texture of the bread, so soft I was pulling it like shreds of cotton wool !

These loaves were baked yesterday afternoon


We had Hokkaido milk loaf (北海道牛奶土司）for breakfast this morning & as we couldn't get enough of these wonderful loaves, I baked some again this afternoon for tomorrow's breakfast ! I found this wonderful bread recipe in a Taiwanese blog quite some time ago & fell in love with this tang zhong (汤种） bread. The characteristic of this method of making bread yields soft & cottony bread, no softener is used. The original recipe is in Mandarin, such a long recipe to type in hanyu pinyin so here's the link to the recipe !

I'm seriously not good in shaping my loaves, I made double recipe yesterday, we had 2 loaves, the other loaf I gave it to a friend. Today it's only 1.5x recipe but I made them into smaller loaves in 1 pan, still not very happy with the shapes !

Hubby & the girls like to have the bread with butter & preserves but I prefer it plain, with a cup of coffee for my breakfast...........

Brioche

While the chicken soup is cooking, I started browsing through my recipes for tomorrow's breakfast. The cool weather gave me a good excuse to want to indulge in something fattening, haha....... BRIOCHE
The French make their bread either so crusty without fat or so rich & buttery, I'm into both cos" I'm a great carbo fan, hubby will freak out if he knows about the butter content in this bun !

Ingredients :
400g High protein flour
11g Instant dry yeast
60g Sugar
6g Salt
8g Milk powder
200g Eggs (without shell)
70g Cold water
140g Butter, softened

With an electric mixer on dough hook at low speed, blend the dry ingredients for 1 min. Add eggs & water, continue mixing on low speed for another min. Continue mixing on medium speed for 5 mins. Add softened butter & mix for another 10 mins until dough is fully developed.
Let rise in a warm place for 1hr or until dough doubles in bulk.
Divide the dough into 14 pcs at 60g each & another 14 pcs at 10g each. Mould the pcs into smooth round balls, transfer the large balls into brioche moulds. Use your forefingers to make an indentation in the centre of the large balls & immediately place the small balls on top, press the small ball down into the larger ball to secure the pcs together. Prove in a warm place for 30mins.
Brush the tops with beaten egg. Place the moulds on abaking tray & bake in a preheated oven of 190 degrees for 15-20 mins until glossy & golden.

* The original recipe calls for 1 hr of second proving but in our hot weather, 30 mins is enough. I don't have brioche moulds so I've used the normal tart moulds. I turned the oven temperature down to 180 degrees after 7 mins of baking cos' the colour has already started to turn a golden brown & it took 15 mins to bake the buns. The kitchen was filled with the fantastic buttery aroma, can't help it I ate one just 5 mins out of the oven even though I'm supposed to wait for the buns to cool down first ! Ummmm, so soft & fluffy..........

German Muesli Bread

This picture is updated on Aug 12.


This is another of our favourite bread, grainy & wholesome. JF is not a great fan though, because there's a lot of grains & seeds in it but I make sure she finish the whole slice on her plate each time I make this bread. The recipe is adapted from Celebrity Chefs' Cookbooks, Don Yong's Bread Winners.

Ingredients

280g High protein flour
80g Multigrain (leave some for coating the top)
40g Wheat bran *
12g Dry wheat gluten *
6g Bread improver *
8g Instant dry yeast
30g Sugar
8g Salt
260g Cold water
30g Butter
120g Raisins
100g Chopped walnuts *

With an electric mixer & dough hook at low speed, mix the dry ingredients for 1 min, add water & mix on low speed for another 2 mins. Add butter & mix on medium speed for 12-15 mins until dough is fully developed. Add raisins & walnuts on low speed.
Place the dough into a large greased bowl & let it rise in a warm place for 1hr until dough doubles up in size. Divide the dough into 3 pcs, each 350g, roll the dough pcs out with a rolling pin. Mould each pc firmly into a cylindrical shape, the length of a appropriate baking tin. Wet the surface & coat with multigrain.
Prove the dough pcs for 1hr until double in size. Bake at 200 degress for 25mins.

* I change the wheat bran to wholemeal flour & omitted the dry wheat gluten cos' it's not available in KK. The bread improver is also left out as I make my bread without any bread softener. I've used dried fig & cranberries instead of raisins & left the walnuts out too, my girls don't like walnuts ! I've double the recipe to 1.5x & made two bigger loaves, the other loaf is too camera shy cos' it was deformed by me, haha ! In our weather the second proving only took about 40 mins.

Cheese & Sultana Bread

We had cheese & sultana bread for breakfast today. I made them look like bread sticks, at least something different cos I always make our bread into individual bun, guess my girls are sick of the look, ha ha ! JF was so fast with her breakfast today, well thanks to the cheese & sugar topping !

I was busy baking today so didn't have time to make any bread, guess breakfast will be at McDonald's again tomorrow morning ! We go there for breakfast about once a week, still in the mood for their Big Breakfast, on a lazy morning !

Bloomers

This bread is a regular on our breakfast bread list. It's wonderful when freshly baked, crispy outside, warm & soft inside. I've always wondered why our crusty always turn soft the next day ? Is it the type of flour we have here or is there a special type of oven ? I'm using a Electrolux oven. I made the loaves with cranberries & sultanas today. This is the recipe :

Plain flour : 125g
High protein flour : 375g
Malt flour : 10g *
Milk powder : 5g *
Instant yeast : 8g
Salt : 10g *
Cold water : 330g
Shortening : 10g *

With an electric mixer & dough hook at low speed, blend the dry ingredients for 1 min. Add cold water & continue mixing for another min, add the shortening & mix on medium speed for 12 mins until dough is fully developed.
Transfer the dough onto a flour-dusted surface & round up the dough with both hands. Place dough into an airtight container & let it rise for 1 hr until dough is double in bulk.
Divide dough into 2 pcs and mould round, leave for 10mins. Remould dough pcs & form each pc into a long baton shape. Place dough onto a large baking try lined with greaseproof paper. Prove in a warm place for 1 - 1 1/2 hrs. Make several cuts across the top of each dough pc.
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees, bake with a tray of water to generate steam for the 1st 10mins of the baking time, open the oven door & remove the tray. Continue to bake for 10-15 mins.

* I did not use any malt flour but increased the milk powder to 15g instead & I changed the shortening to butter. I also reduced the salt to 5g, don't like my bread to be very salty. After the dough is fully developed, I kneaded in the cranberries & sultanas.
The loaves were done in total time of 20mins. *