Pumpkin Donut

This is originally not my recipe, I made amendment to the recipe to fit whatever is in my pantry and here it is with the modification. Original recipe from Mandy in FB group.

Ingredients

• 100g Plain flour 
• 150g Bread flour (original asked for 200g bread flour, without plain flour)
• 20g milk powder
• 4g yeast
• 80g pumpkin (microwaved with a tablespoon of water for 5mins high, then mashed. original recipe called for sweet potato without information on how to prep it)
• 30g raw cane sugar 
• 3g salt 
• 95g of egg + water (1 egg + with water till it is 95g)
• 20g butter (add in after mixture is well mix, the recipe indicate 15mins)
• Oil to fry (I used peanut oil)

Steps:

1. I'm using my Kenwood mixer, with the bread attachment. Place in the wet then dry ingredients, set it to medium low speed and mix for about 3-5mins till all ingredients are well mix together
2. Then add in the butter and mix for another roughly 20-25mins on high speed. I did not wait till it reaches window pane stage coz i was running out of time.
3. Leave it to proof for bout 30mins (it was rather cold last night since winter started, so I proof it over a medium low heat water bath).
4. After 1st prove, deflate air, roll flat and divide into 23 pcs (or up to ur preference), shape into round balls. The dough is rather fluffy and soft to handle. So by the time I'm done with the last, the first is sort of proof again.
5. Pour oil in the pot that you using to fry the donuts and heat it up while working on the donuts.
6. Make a hole in the centre of the ball with your finger, then give it a hoola hoop round in your finger so that the hole in the middle is even, big enough and the entire donut looks even. Make sure the table is well floured.  
7. Proof another 15 mins. (U may prove longer to 30 mins)
8. Be carefully when handling doughnuts. I used my long silicon chopstick that's wonderful for this.
9. Drop in the donut one by one on the oil and fry on low heat till you see golden brown colour. If your oil is hot enough, the donut should float up within 5 seconds you put it in.
10. When done, rest & cool the doughnuts, decorate it the way you like once done.

Sourdough Soft Bun

I love those cotton like texture from bread and buns and had hope to be able to make it without the use of commercial yeast. After some thought.. I tried substituting the yeast with the sourdough starter and see if it works. I had used the recipe that required poolish starter for the bread. And indeed, it works marvellously.

Ingredients:

• 310g sourdough starter that has been fed and is bubbly and ready to use
• 100g plain flour
• 15g milk powder
• 45g raw sugar (you can substitute with caster sugar)
• 5g salt
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 70g water
• 50g butter

Steps:

1. Place all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir it. 
2. Then add in the rest of the ingredients except the butter.
3. Use the dough hook and knead the ingredients with medium low speed till it forms a dough shape.
4. Increase the speed and slowly add in the butter little by little in small cubes size.
5. Knead till the dough reach window pane stage (it took bout 10mins with the Kenwoood at high speed).
6. Set aside to rest for about 1hr to 1.5hr (it is ready when u poke a finger on it and the dough does not bounce back up).
7. Punch and shape the dough according to your preference, you may even fill it with your favourite filling.
8. Let it rest for another 20-40mins (it won't rise as much as those using commercial yeast) till almost double in size.
9. Brush some egg wash on the surface of the bread.
10. Bake at preheated oven at 180c for 28mins (for my oven, you may need to test and trial with your oven setting).

Mocha Cream Cheese Bun

Ingredients:

Dough

• 300g bread.high protein flour
• 15g coffee powder
• 15g chocolate powder
• 5g instant yeast
• 50g sugar
• 3g salt
• 7g milk powder
• 190g water
• 40g butter

Filling

• 140g cream cheese
• 50g sugar
• 50g cheddar cheese

• 3tbsp milk to brush the bun

Steps:

1. Put in all the ingredients for the dough in the mixing bowl in order. Knead on the mixer for about 20-35mins (I used speed 4/5 for about 35mins on my Kenwood). The dough needs to reached window pane stage to be ready. This will mean being able to stretch out as thin layer as possible without breaking.
2. Set aside to proof till double (should take bout 40mins if weather is warm or could be up to almost 2hours if it is quite cold)
3. Mix the filling ingredients till evenly distributed. I used the creaming hook on my Kenwood, very easy, it only took me bout 15seconds to get this down. Divide them into 10 blobs on the baking paper and store in the fridge. This will make it easier to wrap later.
4. Once the dough has double, punch down the air and divide to 10pieces. Wrap the filling into the dough and let it rest for another 40-50mins.
5. Preheat oven at 160c (180c if non forced fan and 140c if using air fryer)
6. Brush some milk at the top of the bun and then bake for 15mins or till done.

Soft Fluffy Cheese Bun

Recently in the Facebook Breadmaker Group, people are going crazy on Sunny Bread recipe by Mandy and I used the recipe with a little tweak to meet my preference to make this Cheese Bun.

Ingredients:

• 80g milk
• 50g cream
• 20g butter
• 1 XL egg (roughly 60-70g)
• 250g high protein or bread flour
• 3g yeast
• 20g milk powder
• 30g sugar
• 3g salt

Steps:

1. Put all ingredients in order above in the mixer. Knead on low speed for bout 1-2mins till the ingredients combined.
2. Increase the speed of the mixer to high and knead the dough till it reaches window pane stage. Based on Mandy's recipe, it takes about 45mins to reach that stage, but I just checked on the dough after bout that time too. In order to know if the dough is right, pull out a small piece and stretch it out to very thin layer. If you are able to do so, means it is ready, otherwise continue kneading. The dough should not be sticky
3. Oil the mixing boil and let the dough rest. Since it is rather cold now here as it is still winter, I preheat the oven for 1min on 50c and let the dough rest in there and after bout 15mins, repeat the heating again. It should take bout 40-60mins for the dough to get to double the size.
4. After resting, punch the dough down and divide to the size you want and mine is to four pieces. Roll it out to straight one direction, then fold it the same direction. Leave it to rest another 10mins covered.
5. After second rest, roll out the dough on the other direction (if just now portrait, now landscape) and roll it out and let it rest another 10mins.
6. Finally, pull the side of the dough to form a round dough and leave it on the baking pan to rest for another 40-50mins.
7. Preheat oven at 170c.
8. After the last rest, brush some milk on the dough and sprinkle with lots of shredded cheddar.
9. Bake the bun for 15min or till golden.

Sweet Potato Bread

Not sure bout the consumer, but the maker is a bit bored with plain white or chia seed or milo bun, so for a change, we are having sweet potato bread this time round.

Slight change to the original recipe that I had found from To Food with Love (she uses purple yam and butter, I used sweet potato and oil and too heavy handed on the overnight sponge).

Ingredients:

Part 1

• 300g bread flour
• 35g sugar
• 1/2tsp or 3g salt 
• 1.5tsp or 5g yeast

Part 2

• 100g Overnight 5c batter, recipe from here

Part 3

• 145ml cold milk
• 30g egg (roughly 2/3 of a L size egg)

Part 4

• 120g sweet potato
• 30g olive oil

Method:

1. Mix the ingredients from part one till well mixed then add in part 2 and part 3. Knead all the ingredients to form a dough either manually or using Bread Machine or your mixer using the dough hook.
2. Next add in ingredients from part 4 and continue to knead till it form a smooth and elastic dough. My dough is rather soft and a little sticky.
3. Leave the dough to rise/proof in a warm place for roughly bout 45mins to an hour till it is almost double in size. I covered the mixing bowl with a wet towel to keep it moist.
4. Punch the dough down and knead it briefly. If your dough is like mine kinda sticky, oil your work surface and your hand to ease the handling of the dough. 
5. Cut the dough to shape according to your preference. If you planning to make bread slices, roll the dough out flat and rolled it up. Place it in the baking tin (lightly oiled) to proof for another 1hour to 1hr15mins. Make sure you leave some space for the dough to rise or get bigger.. :D
6. Preheat oven at 180c for roughly 10mins.
7. After proofing, brush the dough with the balance of the egg.
8. Bake at 180c for 20-25mins depending on your oven's heat.
9. Remove and cool the loaves before trying to slice it.

Roti Boy aka Coffee Bun

Something on my to do list for a long time but just didn't get the chance to do it. Finally, took up the courage to try it out yesterday, yum! Worth the effort. Just need to double up the volume if you want more. The ingredients here just enough for 10pcs.

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 250g bread flour
• 38g sugar
• 3g salt
• 4g yeast
• 24g egg
• 135g warm milk
• 30g butter
• some oil to rub on the hand to shape the dough and to rub on the utensils to avoid it from sticking

For filling:

• 100g softened butter
• 35g sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

For crusty top:

• 50g softened butter
• 40g icing sugar
• 42g egg
• 1 teaspoon of granulated coffee dissolve with 1 tsp water
• 50g plain flour

Methods:

*Note, I multi task a few steps by using hand mixer and stand mixer at the same time.

1. Put all the ingredients for the dough in the mixing bowl except the butter. I leave this to mix with the stand mixer at low speed. Initially it is quite dry but after a while, it will get a bit elastic and sticky (I use low on my kenwood and this takes about 4-5mins). Finally add in the butter to mix (I use speed 2 on my kenwood) till it is even and the dough is sticky but elastic.
2. While the stand mixer is working, I beat the filling (all ingredients) with the hand mixer till it is all well mix and leave it in the fridge to cool and harden so that it is easier to wrap. If you want it even and easier, after 2mins, take it and divide to 10 portions before putting it back to the fridge.
3. After the dough is done, take it out and divide to 10 portions and leave it to rest while I prepare the crusty topping.
4. For the topping, beat the butter and sugar till well incorporated. Add in the egg and coffee after that. Give it another mix before adding in the flour. Scoop all the mixture into a piping bag and leave it in the fridge.
5. Now, flatten the dough and wrapped the filling inside. Please make sure u seal the dough properly to avoid it from breaking and the butter leaking out. Some of mine leaked.
6. Arrange them on the baking sheet and please make sure you have at least 3-4cm space apart from each bun. Cover them up with cling firm and rest for an hour.
7. Do note that the bun will not rise or get bigger, it will looks small like just before resting (I was worried as why it does not get bigger like any other bread).
8. Preheat the oven at 200C.
9. Pipe the topping on the bun in round swirl, cover as much as you can.
10. Bake for 12mins at 200C.

Hot Cross Bun

Easter round the corner and the supermarkets are all selling hot cross bun. But the one we bought last year tasted super terrible and since I have some custard cream in the fridge, (leftover from the profiteroles), so I decided to churned some out today.

And recently a friend just posted her hot cross bun that looks so good, I got even more tempted. She told me she used the 5c method and there after some online "research" (the marvel of computer), it is also known as the cold batter or overnight poolish. Ok, here is the recipe for the hot cross bun using home made custard cream.

Ingredients:
For the cold batter or overnight poolish:

• 150g bread flour
• 150g luke warm water
• 0.5g (1/8 teaspoon) instant yeast

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. According to the recipe, leave it to proof for an hour before sending it to sleep in the fridge. However the itchy me, just prepare that at 10.30pm and got no time to wait, so I  leave the bowl in a big pot of water, heat up the pot for 2 mins (if you are using gas and not electric cook top, should be just 1min or less. Please remember NOT double boil method, put a rack to create steam effect instead. The direct heat may affect the batter.

Next take out the bowl of batter and leave it to cool (should just take less than a min). Cover up the bowl and send it to camp in the fridge over night (or at least 5hr).

Main dough:

• 250g bread flour
• 100g plain flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 egg lightly beaten (I used 600g type)
• 30g cold milk
• 50g hot water
• 50g room temperature butter, cut to small pieces/cube
• some milk to brush
• custard cream to pipe on top

Steps:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl (or the bowl u going to use to knead with your hand or the bread maker mixing bowl). Give it a stir to mix the ingredients evenly.
2. Next add in all the wet ingredients (excluding butter) including the cold batter. Knead till the mixture forms a nice springy dough. It took me bout 2mins with my machine on high speed.
3. Next knead in the butter (if using machine half by half and if using hand little by little). If you are using hand, it may takes up to 20mins of good hand exercise before the butter is well incorporated into the dough. My machine got it done in bout 40seconds (speed 6).
4. Cover up the dough and let it rest for at least an hour or till when u give it a push with your thumb and the dough does not bounced back.
5. Cut it up to size equal pieces (mine is 99g each, very precise), formed round dough and placed on the baking pan that is greased with a little oil slightly apart.
6. While resting the dough, preheat the oven at 190C. 
7. After resting for 10mins, brush some milk on top of the bread, and use a butter knife to cut the cross on the bread. Pipe the custard cream on top.
8. Finally, bake for 13-15mins at 190C.