Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Purple Sweet Potato Bread(絷心番薯面包)



Ingredients A

380 gm bread flour
120 gm water
8 gm instant yeast
5 gm sea salt
65 gm sugar

Ingredients B

140 gm milk
120 gm Tang Zhong

Ingredients C

40 gm unsalted butter

Ingredients D

269 gm Purple Sweet Potato (steam and mashed)



Method

  1. Calculating and measuring the ingredients
  2. Mixing
  3. Proving (or fermentation), Basic proving - about 40 mins (28° temperature)
  4. Driving the air out
  5. Dividing - 12 pieces
  6. Rounding
  7. Extended proving - 10 mins (room temp)
  8. Styling - place dough on counter top with opening placing down. Turn over and ready for filling. Put 1 tbsp of Purple Sweet Potato into bun dough. Close up the seam and place on tray for final proving.
  9. Final proving - about 30 mins (38° temperature).
  10. Baking temperature - 160° c to lower rack (25 mins).
  11. Cooling - remove from oven to let it cool down







Sunday, September 20, 2009

Japanese Hot Cake (パンケーキ)








Pass by Shop N Save where they are having promotions on Japanese foodstuff.

I caught sight of this Morinaga Hot Cake Mix and bought a packet back. It comes with 4 individual pack of 150 gm each.

Ingredients (6 pcs)

Morinaga Hot Cake Mix (1 pack)
1 egg
100 ml of water or milk












Method
  1. On a mixing bowl, break the egg and use a whisk to blend.
  2. Pour in the water / milk and mix well.
  3. Pour in the Hot Cake Flour and use the whisk to stir in up down direction til well blend. Do not go in circular direction.
  4. Heat the pan at medium heat, pour in one ladle of batter at 30 cm height into the pan.
  5. Change the heat to low and let it cook until you see bubble appear.
  6. Turn over the hot cake and cover with a lid for about 2 minutes.
  7. Repeat step 3 to 5 until batter is fully used up.
  8. Pour maple syrup, piece of butter / jam and serve.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncake (潮州芋蓉月饼)










I remember eating this Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncake that I buy from one of my ex-colleague who makes to sell. The yam fillings covered by the crispy spiral skin is so fragrant on your every bite. Unlike those that sell in the shop, the filling is not too sweet and sticky. You can still feel the yam crumb blend with pinch of savory taste.

I decide to attempt baking this myself since I have lost her contact and no longer able to place the order with her.











Ingredients (12 pieces)

Water Dough :

200 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp white rice vinegar
50 gm shortening
30 gm sugar
80 gm water

Oil Dough :

180 gm plain flour
100 gm shortening

Fillings

500 gm yam
140 gm sugar
4 tbsp shallots oil (4 nos of shallots, slice and fry till golden brown. Use the oil for the fillings)
1/4 tsp salt
40 gm melon seeds (roast / microwave the melon seeds for about 5 mins)
8 salted egg yolks (optional)

Method

- Fillings


  1. Peel, wash and cut the yam into wedge or quarter size.
  2. Steam yam in a cooker or wok until soft.
  3. In a mixing bowl, mashed the yam.
  4. Add in sugar, shallots oil, salt and melon seeds.
  5. Mix well and put aside to cool down.
  6. Soak the salted egg yolks in white rice wine for 5 mins. Discard the white rice wine (to remove the strong smell). Steam salted egg yolks over medium heat about 5 mins. Put aside to cool down.
- Water Dough


  1. Rub shortening with flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
  2. Add in water, sugar and mix together to form a small dough.
  3. Rest for 30 mins.
  4. Divide into 4 portions.

- Oil Dough

  1. Mix all the ingredients together into a smooth dough.
  2. Divide into 4 portions.

Assemble

  1. Take water dough and wrap up the oil dough.
  2. Roll into a long rectangle and roll up into a swiss roll shape.
  3. Turned 90° and repeat step 2
  4. Repeat step 3
  5. Cut the roll into 3 pcs each. Roll out the cut dough, spiral side facing up and wrap up with yam + salted egg yolk (optional) filling.
  6. Repeat step 1 to 5 until you finish with all the dough.
  7. Deep fry in medium hot oil till golden brown.

Grab, 4 pcs to FIL house for bunch gathering. Very glad that FIL likes the Teochew mooncake. Seeing him finished up one whole piece by himself warmth my heart.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Hello Kitty Piglet (猪仔饼)







Look impressive !



Unfortunately , it smudge after the bake. I think must be the egg wash.






Ingredients (12 pcs)


200 gm HK flour
130 gm sugar syrup (Golden Syrup)
5 tbsp corn oil or peanut oil
1/2 tsp alkaline water

Method:
  1. Sieve the flour, and make a well in the centre.
  2. Pour in syrup, oil and alkaline water, knead gently into a dough or use a blender to mix the dough. Leave aside (10 mins with cling wrap or plastic sheet).
  3. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape into round shape.
  4. Dust the mould with some flour and press the dough into the mould to form the shape.
  5. Remove dough by knocking the two sides against a table top (put layers of table cloth under the mould to support before the knocking).
  6. Place shaped dough on baking tray.
  7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 until you have finish working on the 12 pcs of shaped dough.
    Bake in a preheated oven at 180° C for about 25 mins (high rack or more to upper heat).
  8. Remove from oven and placed on tray to cool down.
  9. Brush with super glaze (furnishing effect-optional).

Basic Bread Ingredients

Yeast

Fresh Yeast - Contains about 70% water, tend to prove quickly and should be kept at a low temperature. They last in the fridge for 1 month at 0°C to 5°C. Although they last much longer in the freezer, the freezing step tends make them less active and you have to use a larger quantity to make up for that. They can be added straight into the flour before mixing and kneading.

Dried Yeast - It has a much longer shelf life. Before using dried yeasts in dough, you should soak them in warm water with sugar added for 10 to 15 minutes, to wake them up. Dried yeasts have a lasting leavening power but not commonly used due to the additional "waking" step. Use only half the amounts if the recipe states fresh yeast.

Instant yeasts - You may put them directly into the dry ingredients before mixing. If you're making a small quantity of bread, it's advisable to get instant yeasts in individual small packets from supermarket. Once a packet of yeasts is open, they slowly lose their leavening power, and it's hardly noticeable until you've spent all the time kneading the dough. Thus, try your best to use up the whole packet and chute any leftover. Use only 1/3 the amounts if recipe call for fresh yeast.

No matter which yeasts you use, always keep the leftover in the fridge.

Eggs

Eggs make the bread more fragrant and nutritious. Eggs also make the bread fluffy and glossy. The lecithin in egg fat is a medium for both water and oil. It is also a natural emulsifier that keeps the baked goods moist.

Water

An indispensable ingredient in bread making apart from flour and yeasts, water gives flour elasticity after kneading. Water is also the essential medium for yeast fermentation. In case you use vegetable juice or other ingredients with high water content, you should further reduce the amount of water. Otherwise, your dough will be too wet.

Milk Products

Milk gives bread a special taste; enhances its nutritional value and colour; while making it more chewy and spongy. Milk products like evaporated milk, condensed milk, regular milk or milk powder are commonly used in bread making. As fresh milk has limited shelf life, milk powder is considered the best substitute.

Grease

Grease enhances the texture of bread and lubricates the dough in the proving process. Grease also helps raise the dough; makes the bread fluffy; extends the shelf life of baked goods; and enhances their fragrance and nutritional values. Most bread has a fat content around 6% to 12%. Adding too much fat would make the bread tough and retard the proving activity.

Salt

Salt is another essential ingredient in bread. Not only does it enhance the fragrance of the bread, it also strengthens the gluten structure in the proving process to give the dough softness, resilience and leavening power. Salt suppresses the action of yeasts and is used to control the leavening ratio. Dough without salt tends to be less stable and may be over-proved. Most bread has a salt content from 0.8% to 2.5%. Adding too much salt would make the bread too salty and insufficiently raised.

Sea salt has an unique taste.

Sugar

Sugar provides the nutrients for yeast fermentation. Besides adding taste, sugar also makes the bread soft and gives a nice colour. Sugar also keeps the bread moist and acts as a natural preservative.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Lotus Paste Mooncake






Before Bake



Hm, Mid-Autumn (Mooncake) Festival is around the corner. I begin to crave for Lotus Paste Mooncake with melon seeds. A lot of well knows Restaurants or Hotel starts to have early bird promotion on Mooncake. It comes in a wide varieties, from savory, sweet, spicy or cold flavor.

In the recent years, most bakers’ stop including melon seeds as part of the filling. I don’t know the reason behind it for not adding in this ingredient. But I did miss it very much.

Actually I don’t have the intention to make any Mooncake. I was at Phoon Huat and saw all the Mooncake ingredients displaying on the shelf. I bought 1 kg of White Lotus Paste, a packet of Melon seeds, a bottle of Golden Syrup and Super Glaze.



I’m very pleased with the new packaging of Golden Syrup. It comes in plastic non-drip bottle as compared to the previous tin pack. I always worry the tin will turn rusty and contaminate the syrup. I can now well be assured it is safe and no rush in utilizing the whole bottle of syrup.




Ingredients (8 pcs of Mooncakes)
  • 200 gm HK flour
  • 130 gm sugar syrup (Golden Syrup)
  • 5 tbsp corn oil
  • 1/4 tsp alkaline water
Fillings :
  • 900 gm Lotus paste (you can use Lotus or White Lotus Paste)
  • 20 gm melon seeds(wash & dry)
    Cook in microwave or lightly roast in oven for 2 mins
    (stir in between)
  • 8 salted egg yolk (optional)
(to reduce the strong smell of duck egg yolks, add 1-2 tsp of rice wine to the yolks. Set aside for a while. Remove the yolks and steam for 5 mins. Observe the yolk color, do not over steam. Should remains bright oranges color. Remove immediately from the stove and put aside to cool before using.
  • 1 egg yolk + 1/2 egg white (for brushing)
Method:
  1. Sieve the flour, and make a well in the centre.
  2. Pour in syrup, oil and alkaline water, knead gently into a dough or use a blender to mix the dough. Leave aside (10 mins with cling wrap or plastic sheet).
  3. Mix lotus paste with melon seeds and divide into 8 rounds.
  4. Wrap round with egg yolk.
  5. Divide dough into 8 pieces and shape into round shape.
  6. Flatten the dough and wrap the round (Lotus paste + melon seeds).
  7. Dust the mould with some flour and press the wrap dough into the mould.
  8. Remove dough by knocking the two sides against a table top (put layers of table cloth under the mould to support before the knocking).
  9. Place Mooncake on baking tray.
  10. Repeat steps 6 to 9 until you have finish working on the 8 pcs of Mooncake.
  11. Brush with egg wash on each pieces of Mooncake.
  12. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree c for about 25 mins (high rack or more to upper heat).
  13. Remove from oven and placed on tray to cool down.
  14. Brush with super glaze (furnishing effect-optional).



Tips:-
  • Leave mooncake at room temperature for 3 - 5 days before consumption.
  • Thickness of Mooncake skin - three variation (30gm - thin, 40gm - thick, 50gm - thickest)
  • You need to do some math before dividing the ingredient and dough to fix into the Mooncake mould.
  • If you are using a wooden mould and for the first use, you need to treat the mould. Pour cooking oil to fully fill the Mooncake mould and soak overnight. Discard the cooking oil in the mould (there's two tiny little hole beside the mould, use a toothpick to insert thru the hole to avoid the oil from flowing out). Wash and let dry the mould for later use. Is worth the effort to perform this step as the mould will last a life time even after extensive use.
Mould Metrics Calculation

- Use a plastic bag and scoop enough lotus seed paste to fill the mould together with the plastic bag. Press into the mould and release out the lotus seed paste (with the plastic bag). Put the lotus seed paste with the plastic bag on to the weighting scale to determine the weight of the Mooncake per the Mooncake mould.

- Next, breakdown the respective weight contributes by the various ingredients.

- Eg.
My Mooncake mould can make a 175 gm of Mooncake.

- Weight the yolk and the pastry

- If my total weight for the pastry is 372 gm divide by 8 nos of ooncake that I'm going to make = 46.5 gm. I portion it to 4 x 46gm and 4 x 47gm.

- Yolk is about 15 gm

To fill 175 gm
  • Pastry = 46 gm
  • Yolk = 15 gm
  • Lotus paste = 114 gm
This will be the metrics of my Mooncake (per piece). Is alright to have weight varies of 1 - 2 gm per ingredient. So long the overall weight adds close to it.

Cheese Chicken Floss Bun




Ingredients A

  • 210 gm Bread Flour
  • 56 gm Cake Flour
  • 20 gm Milk Powder
  • 42 gm Fine Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • 6 gm Instant Dry Yeast

Ingredients B

  • 30 gm Eggs
  • 85 gm Water
  • 84 gm Tang Zhong

Ingredients C

  • 22 gm Unsalted Butter

Fillings

  • 100 gm Chicken Floss

Garnishing

  • 9 pcs Cheddar Cheese
  • 1/2 tsp Black Sesame Seed

Method

  1. Calculating and measuring the ingredients
  2. Mixing
  3. Proving (or fermentation), Basic proving - about 40 mins (28° temperature)
  4. Driving the air out
  5. Dividing - 9 (60gm each)
  6. Rounding
  7. Extended proving - 10 mins (room temp)
  8. Styling - place dough on counter top with opening placing down. Turn over and ready for filling. Put 1 tbsp of chicken floss bun dough. Close up the seam and place on tray for final proving.
  9. Final proving - about 30 mins (38° temperature). Spray water on dough after final proving. Brush with egg wash on cheddar Cheese. Placed cheddar cheese over the bun. Sprinkle some black sesame seed on top of the Cheddar cheese.
  10. Baking temperature - 165° c to lower rack (15 mins).
  11. Cooling - remove from oven to let it cool down.














Memo : I used the single slice cheese and cheddar cheese for the top layer. Find that the one using single slice turned hard as compared to the cheddar cheese. My own preference is cheddar cheese but 大宝贝 and her friend both said they like the single slice cheese, puzzle me a lot ?? I also roll one mini size and conclude that the size does matter. The filling blend with the mini bread tend to be salty due to the chicken floss and cheese.
Mistake that I made for this bake, over prove the bread. The gluten texture seem to be on a rough side. I missed out a few of the ingredients and keep running to the supermarket to buy it during the proving time. So the pre-preparation is important too.