Easy Bread Making

Soft and fluffy!

My sisters keen to make bread. However due to busy working life and family, they don’t feel like kneading the dough. Investing in bread maker or stand mixer is not ideal as only want to bake occasionally.

Therefore I like to share with them and friends on “Easy Bread Making” recipe. It is easy, less time consuming and no serious kneading involved! It is fast and doesn’t need to go through basic proving. Just rest the dough for 15 minutes, divide, mould it round then shape it. Leave it for final proving and bake!

This recipe is using plain flour, therefore skip the trouble of buying bread flour (high protein flour) from baking store. The ingredients and methods are stated as below.

Ingredients (yields for 8 pcs)

2 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp yeast

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg (slightly beaten)

100ml milk

10g margarine/ butter

Methods:

1. Put flour, baking powder, yeast, salt, sugar inside a pan.

2. Follow by egg and milk.

3. Using a pair of chopstick, mixing by stirring in circle motion.
4. Keep stirring till all flour coated with the liquid. 
5. As you stir the dry and wet ingredients will come together.

6. Put in the butter.
7. Stir again to incorporate butter into the dough.

8. Once the butter incorporated into the dough, start knead with hand . Kneading with lifting and folding motion.
9. Press down with the heel of your hand. The dough should be soft and easy to work with. Do add some flour if sticky.

10. Stop kneading once all the ingredients incorporated. The kneading process should be done within 5 mins.

11. Cover the dough and rest for 15 mins.

12. Place the rested dough on lightly floured surface.

13. Press down to form a flat circle.

14. Divide the circle into 8 portions.

15. Mould all the portions into balls.

 

16. Start shape the balls. I have made 3 types. The simplest one is baking with cheese topping. Just flatten the ball will rolling pin.
17. 2nd type, wrap with sausage. 


18. 3rd type, roll into flower rings.

19. Place onto the greased pan. Leave to prove for 45 mins in warm place.

20. After the proving, brush the top with water (for easy coating). Sprinkle some sesame seeds and topping with cheddar cheese. You can replace water with egg (slightly beated). This will give more brown colour once baked.  

21. Bake at 180C for 10-12mins.
22. Allow to cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

Notes:
1. Mixing dry and wet ingredients with chopstick is to prevent hands from sticking. It is a lot easier to form well incorporated dough without much kneading.
2. As I mentioned no serious kneading is needed. The dough is ready once all ingredients are well combined and the surface is about smooth. Let the yeast and baking powder do the work!
3. This bread goes stale faster. It is best to eat on the same day.

Saffron Chiffon Cake

I have a bottle of saffron sitting in my pantry for few months. It was bought by my husband during his business trip to US. I’m wondered what to do with it. He suggest why not use in chiffon cake? Hm… as I know saffron normally used in cooking dishes.

In order to find out more I surf Wikipedia for further information. Then I come to know saffron bun , saffron dessert and even ice-cream! Therefore it is possible to use saffron in chiffon cake.

Ingredients

(A)

4 egg yolks

1 tbsp (15g) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

40g vegetable oil

140ml of milk

Pinch of saffron

*add the saffron into warm milk. Sit for 10mins.

 

(B)

100g cake flour or low protein flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

(C)

5 egg whites

3 tbsp (45g) sugar

* I reduced the sugar to suite my taste. You can add 1 tbsp more if you like it sweeter.

Methods

1.      Pour egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Whisk till sugar dissolves.

2.     Add the remaining ingredients salt, oil, saffron milk into the bowl. Stir well.

3.     Fold in sifted flour and baking powder. Mix till smooth.

4.     In another bowl, whisk the egg whites till frothy. Add sugar gradually (1 tbsp  at a time) and beat till stiff.

5.     Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture till well incorporated.

6.     Pour in the remaining egg whites and fold gently till well combined.

7.     Pour into 20cm chiffon mould.

8.    Bake at 160C for 40-45 mins.

9. Immediately invert it after removal from oven. Leave to cool. When cake is cold, remove from mould.

This recipe is similar to my previous post Brown sugar,"gui hua" Chiffon Cake which I used All That Matters pandan chiffon cake as reference.





I‘m submitting this post to  Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cake (Nov2010).

Peanut, Chocolate Chiffon Cake

My younger son will not eat chiffon cake whenever I baked. Since he likes peanut and chocolate, why not peanut, chocolate chiffon cake ? This motivate me to bake another flavour of chiffon cake :D

 I use Walnut cake recipe from Laura Calder, French Food at Home as my reference. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

 (A)

3 egg yolks

15g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

 (B)

80ml milk

¾ cup roasted peanut

½ tbsp sesame seeds

45g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

 (C)

40ml vegetable oil

20g cocoa powder

 (D)

3 egg whites

45g sugar

Methods 

Slightly heat up the oil, remove from heat and add in the cocoa powder. This will help on easy mixing for the next step. Keep aside.

  

    Roughly grind the peanut in blender. Keep aside.

 Pour egg yolks and sugar in a bowl set over the saucepan of low simmering water (double boiler method). Whisk till tripled in volume and become thick and pale.

     Remove the yolk mixture off the heat.

Add in milk, blended peanut and sesame, sifted flour and baking powder. Mix till smooth.





  

    Add in the cocoa mixture. Mix well.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites till frothy. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture till well incorporated. Pour in the remaining egg whites and fold gently till well combined.

  

  

    Pour into 20cm chiffon mould. Bake at 160C for 40-45 mins.

  



   
 Immediately invert it after removal from oven. Leave to cool. When cake is cold, remove from mould.

 

 

Notes:

• This cake doesn’t rise as high as the normal chiffon cake. Maybe due to the content of ground peanut. However it still meet the criteria of chiffon cake, moist and soft. It even pass the Chiffon Cake Test .
• The ground peanut give nutty bites into the chiffon. The cake definitely taste like peanut! My sons like it!

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010) as my 2nd chiffon cake recipe.

Brown Sugar, "Gui Hua" Chiffon Cake

After the succeed of the pandan chiffon cake I keen to bake and play with different flavour. I get the idea from Taiwan cooking show which serve “tang yuan” in brown sugar , “Gui hua” and longan syrup. I like the flavour of the herbs therefore I incorporate in this chiffon cake.

I read about monthly baking event hosting by Small Small Baker . Therefore I use the pandan chiffon cake recipe from All That Matters as guide for my brown sugar, “gui hua” chiffon. I don’t know how to write Chinese word for “gui hua”. Therefore I attached the picture. Hope this can help.

I’m submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010)      

 

Ingredients

(A)

50g brown sugar

2 tbsp gui hua

Few pieces of dried longan

150ml water

(B)

4 egg yolks

1/4 tsp salt

40g vegetable oil

(C)

100g cake flour or low protein flour

1 tsp baking powder

(D)

5 egg whites

30g sugar

Method

1. Put all ingredients (A) into a pot. Bring to boil, off heat and let it sit for 10mins. This is to bring out more aroma from the herbs. Strain and set aside to cool.

2. Pour egg yolks, salt and oil in a bowl. Stir well.

3. Add in the cool syrup from (A). Stir well.

4. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder. Mix till smooth.

5. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites till frothy. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff.

6. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture till well incorporated.

7. Pour in the remaining egg whites and fold gently till well combined.

8. Pour into chiffon mould. This portion is ideal for 21cm chiffon mould. Since I don’t have I used 22cm mould.

9. Bake at 160C for 45-50 mins.

10. Immediately invert it after removal from oven. Leave to cool. When cake is cold, remove from mould. Served.

Gnocchi (sweet potato dumpling)

According to Wikipedia gnocchi are various thick, soft dumplings. They may be made from semolina, ordinary wheat flour, potato, bread crumbs, or similar ingredients. Classic accompaniments of gnocchi include tomato sauces, pesto, and melted butter (sometimes fried butter) with cheese.

Gnocchi is very simple to make at home. They are healthy and delicious when serve with your favourite sauces. I used to make my gnocchi with sweet potatoes. It is cheaper and sweeter compare to potatoes. Of course you can replace with potatoes.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I have try many times to get a nice fluffy chiffon cake. After all the failures and experiments I success! Pandan chiffon cake is my 1st best chiffon cake. I like to share my joys with all my friends.

Stuffed Crust Pizza

This is one my my family favourite meal. My kids used to ask me to bake for them. It is simple to make at home. Here, I like to share with you my stuffed crust pizza! Hope you able to enjoy your own pizza too.