Sausage Bun

Lately I find that I had been going in and out of the bakery for breakfast for my son and it seem that I had been spending quite a long of money there for a few bread.. SO decided to go for a try of making my own bread.

I had came through a lots of blogs that had topic on the different dough they made and all look quite delicious.. But had never made the effort to try it myself..

SO decided to go for it.. and here is the result. The texture was not so great this morning and it's a bit dry and hard.. And my hubby say that the bread does not smell as nice.. I am already using the goldern churn block butter.. what else can i use to made it taste nicer?? Any Comments?? Thanks

Milky Mantou

Had not logged into all my baking recently.. had been lazy ha ha.. My Father in law had suddenly requested me to made Mantou yesterday. Was Surpised and excited as well. Previously I had tried it but it was a failure - the mantou was hard and the yeast smell was so strong.

So had been searching for the recipe last night and I found this sharing from 周老師的美食教室 . Her mantou was especially simple to made and only took a total of two hour and 40 min to get the dough double in size.

The result: Good to me. But it's still not the type my father in law was looking for so I'll still need to look for more mantou recipe. ha ha.. But here is the recipe from this teacher. Thanks to her I got the chance to try this milky mantou recipe. Happy trying

Milky Mantou - Makes 14 pieces

材料：
牛奶……………………………300克
快發乾酵母……………………1大匙
中筋麵粉………………………600克
細白砂糖………………………6大匙
沙拉油…………………………2大匙
手粉………………………………適量

做法：
1) 材料（除手粉外）攪拌成麵團，基本發酵1小時（可省略）。
2) 麵糰撲手粉，以壓麵機反覆壓到光滑平整，再捲起（要捲緊），切成14段。
3) 排在鋪了烤盤紙的蒸籠裡（每個之間要有足夠間隔，以免蒸好後黏在一起）。
4) 放溫暖處最後發酵30至40分鐘，至手指輕壓，痕跡較慢回復即可。
5) 從冷水開始蒸，用中火，籠蓋打開些。水沸後計時15分鐘即熟。熄火後放置片刻再開籠蓋，把饅頭取出放在乾布上，以免潮溼。

Polo Bun

Had been thinking of trying the made Polo Bun one day after having seem the recipe at the Famous Cuisine Magazine. It seem quite simple and Brunei dun have nice Polo Bun. So since am not working yesterday so decide to made it as will need some time for the dough to double in size.

However, when i mix the dough it was not as smooth looking as what had been shown in the book so start to feel a bit uneasy as hubby was putting a lot of expectation on the Polo Bun. After adding in the butter, it look more unlike the picture shown as it was very oily. Since it was quite difficult to mix with the philip hand held mixer I decided that maybe I better put my hand to work and start to mix the dough with my hand.

After it double in size have to divide it into small dough and wait for another 10 min. Then the next challenge came on how to put the butter filling on top. Maybe it was my first time to made bread, I was also finding it hard to made the small dough into nice round ball. But after a while it was ok. But hubby say since we are trying it out no need to bake all first so I just baked 9 pieces of the dough.

As was busy with my two sons, so when i put in the 1st batch of the dough I forgot to put glaze it with egg. And when it was done, it didn't look like the Polo Bun as there was no crack on the top and it look quite hard. Was already disappointed with the look already. But when hubby try it he say it was nice.. then only i also try it and find that eventhough it look hard but was soft inside and the topping was nice.

So start to put the 2nd batch to bake, but since I just left the dough to double in size and did not put the topping, it was harder to put the topping. So i put quite a thick layer of the topping and this time i remember to glaze it with an egg.. And wa..la.. it look and taste nicer.. coz the first batch i didn't put enough of the topping therefore there was not much of the topping to crack and with no egg glaze it didn't shine nicely.

It was a really good learning for me. ha ha.. So next time will put a thicker layer of the topping and remember to glaze it with an egg.

English Scone for breakfast

Recently had start to enjoy the so called "English Scone" for tea and it seem tat my son like it too. But the price for a good scone here is around B$1.60 which is quite expensive (equivalent to a loaf of bread) ha ha.. so when i saw the recipe from Happy Home Baker, I decide to give it a try.

It was quite simple to made and you just need few ingredient to made such a delicious scone. The scone look hard on the outside but was very soft in the inside. And it taste just like the scone that I always have in Fleur dyn lys. Hubby who was not a fan of scone also think that it was nice when we have it the next day for breakfast. So a very thank you to Happy Home Baker for the kind contribution of her scone recipe. I have attached the ingredients as below if you would like to try. It is a definite keeper for me and will made more of this lovely scones for breakfast or even tea again.

Ingredients:
(makes 7)

250g cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
one pinch of salt
50g cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
30g caster sugar
1 egg plus enough fresh milk to make up 140ml

Method:


1. Lightly beat the egg and add enough fresh milk to make up 140ml of liquid.

2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add in salt and sugar and whisk the dry ingredients together. With finger tips rub the COLD butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (It is important that the butter be cold so when it is cut into the flour mixture it becomes small, flour-coated crumbs. Due to our hot weather and my warm hands, I use a fork to work the butter into the dry ingredients. If the butter starts to melt away during this process, stop and place the mixture in the freezer for 10-15mins to prevent the butter from melting further. Continue the process when the mixture is well chilled.)

3. Keep the mixing bowl (with the flour-butter mixture) in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

4. Remove bowl from fridge. Add the egg & milk mixture and stir until just combined. The mixture will be sticky, moist and lumpy. Gather up the mixture and place it on a lightly floured surface and give it a few light kneading (not more than 10 seconds) so that it comes together to form a dough. Do Not over work the dough. (Only mix the dough until it comes together. Too much kneading will cause gluten to develop, and the resulting biscuits will turn hard and chewy. Mix only until the ingredients come together into a combined mass.)

5. Place dough in a plastic bag or cover it with cling wrap. Keep dough in fridge for about 30mins. (The objective here is to keep the dough cold to prevent the butter from melting so that there will be little bits of dispersed butter in the dough. During baking, the heat will cause these tiny bits of butter to melt into the dough and leaves pockets and layers in the biscuits for them to rise nicely. If the butter melts or softens before baking, the resulting biscuits will be hard and flat.)

6. On a lightly floured surface, dust your hands and the dough with some flour and pat out into 1 inch thickness (avoid using too much flour). Cut out the dough with a lightly floured 2.5-inch biscuit cutter (I use a drinking glass instead). In order for the biscuits to rise evenly, press the cutter directly down and lift it straight up without twisting. Dip the cutter into some flour after each cut. Gather scraps together and repeat until all the dough is used.

7. Place cut biscuits on baking sheet (lined with parchment paper). For soft-sided biscuits, place them close together on the baking sheet so that the sides are touching. For crisp-sided ones, place them 1 inch apart, these will not rise as high as biscuits that are baked close together. Brush the tops with some milk.

8. Bake at preheated oven at 200degC for about 13 - 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the biscuit comes out clean. The texture of the interior should be light and soft. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Serve warm.