Pretzels

This is my third or maybe fourth time making pretzels. First was a total failure, I can't shape the dough, it is too sticky and the yeast didn't rise too. Second time around, I think I soak it in the wrong solution... hehehe... and finally the third is a success. At this last round, I had used bread flour instead of plain flour and the texture is more chewy and the dough is much easier to work with. So if you prefer it softer, plain flour and if you prefer it chewy, the bread flour.

Ingredients:

• 500g flour or bread flour
• 8g yeast
• 28g sugar
• 1.5 cups of warm water
• 5g salt
• 1 cup water for the soda bath
• 2 tablespoon of baking soda for the soda bath
• 3 tablespoon of melted butter for coating
• seasalt for sprinkling

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients except the last 4 items into the mixer and knead them till smooth and form a nice dough. Leave it to rise for about 30mins (make sure you oil the container before putting in the dough and cover the container).
2. Just 2 mins before  you are ready to shape the dough, prepare the soda bath by mixing the water and baking soda in a shallow bowl. Also leave the salt on a plate to make it easier to dip the top of the pretzel with it.
3. Also oil two baking trays or using the non stick mat.
4. Divide the dough to 12 pieces and roll them to long pieces. Then twist it, dip it in the soda bath (the entire dough) and tip the top with sea salt.
5. Preheat the oven at 220C while leaving the pretzels to rise again for about 10mins.
6. Bake the pretzels for 12-15mins. 
7. Once brown, remove from the oven immediately and coat it with the melted butter.

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.

Variation to 40mins Bun

Yesterday and today, I tried something different with the 40mins bun and obtain quite a different type of textures.

They are modifications to the recipe of 40mins bun with the following differences:

Ingredients to the dough:

• 270g warm water
• 70g oil (I used peanut oil) I used olive oil here instead
• 10g instant dry yeast
• 48g sugar I ran out of sugar, so I used honey
• 1/5 teaspoon salt (7g)
• 1 egg
• 300g self raising flour I used bread flour as per requested by the original recipe
• 245g plain flour
• lots of oil to work on the dough
• egg wash n sesame seed no sesame seed for deco, but added 2 tablespoon of chia seed to the dough before kneading
• fillings are bacon

Conclusion, the buns are super soft and fluffy compared to my initial recipe but it is less soft compared to the initial recipe.

Then the next variation becomes this instead:

Ingredients to the dough:

• 270g warm water I used water and milk mixture (my daughter can taste the milk)
• 70g oil (I used peanut oil) I used butter here instead
• 10g instant dry yeast
• 48g sugar 
• 1/5 teaspoon salt (7g)
• 1 egg
• 300g self raising flour I used bread flour as per requested by the original recipe
• 245g plain flour I used self raising flour
• lots of oil to work on the dough
• egg wash n sesame seed no sesame seed for deco, but added 2 tablespoon of chia seed to the dough before kneading
• filling for this is char siew sauce chicken with chives

Conclusion, I still prefer the first variation as it gives that fluffy cottony texture to the bread.

Gula Melaka Pak Tong Gou

Have a bag of rice flour lying around and not sure what to do. Google up for idea and got tempted to try this.

Ingredients:
Syrup:

• 100g gula melaka
• 100g white sugar
• 375ml water
• 1 pandan leaf

(A)

• 125ml lukewarm water
• 1tsp instant yeast

(B)

• 300g rice flour
• 250ml water

Steps

1. In a saucepan, heat up the 375ml water with the sugar and panda leaf till the sugar is well dissolved and the mixture is a little boiling. Remove from heat and let it cool.
2. Mix the ingredients in group A in a bowl. Let the yeast bubble up.
3. Mix ingredients B in a mixing bowl till it is well mixed. Then slowly stir in the hot syrup mixture to slightly cook the rice flour.
4. Once the mixture get to luke warm temperature, mix in ingredients A and stir till even. Leave it to proof for about 1.5hrs.
5. Pour the mixture onto a greased pan.
6. Boil a pot of water. Once boiled, lower the temperature to just let the water slightly bubbly. Steam the mixture for 15-20mins till the cake cracks at the top. 
7. Leave it to cool before cutting to avoid it from being sticky.

40mins Bun

Just realised that I forgot to post this easy quick yet yummy bun. But please remember to store in the fridge as I forgot and it spoil after 2 days though the bun is still soft and nice.

Ingredients:
Filling:

• 3 potatoes
• 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
• salt to season
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• a tbsp oil

Dough:

• 270g warm water
• 70g oil (I used peanut oil)
• 10g instant dry yeast
• 48g sugar
• 1/5 teaspoon salt (7g)
• 1 egg
• 300g self raising flour
• 245g plain flour
• lots of oil to work on the dough
• egg wash n sesame seed

Steps:

1. Peeled and cut the potatoes to small cube. Boiled in the boiling water for 5mins.
2. Heat up the oil and saute the garlic. Once it smells nice, add in the curry powder and turmeric powder and fry till it smells nice. Add in the potatoes. Cook for about 2mins and then season with the cumin powder and salt. 
3. Leave it aside to cool.
4. Add in warm water, yeast and sugar in the mixing bowl. Leave it to proof for about 5-10mins.
5. Once the yeast has bubbled, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix it with the mixer using the dough hook. Otherwise use hand to knead the mixture till it forms a nice soft and smooth dough.
6. Divide it to 12 pieces and form a ball. Flatten and filled up with the fillings.
7. Preheat the oven at 220c.
8. Leave the bun to rest for 10mins. Finally, brush the bun with egg wash and sprinkle the top with some sesame seeds.
9. Bake for 12-15mins.

Profiteroles

A friend in FB had just recently posted her profiteroles and always seeing it in the cooking competition tempted me into trying this out. So, I had cooked some cream custard earlier to pipe into the pastry and now the choux pastry itself.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup (80ml) water
• 40g cubed butter, room temperature
• 50 (1/3 cup) plain flour
• 2 eggs room temperature (I used 600g, L size)
• some oil to grease (I used silicone mat and the oiled paper, no need to grease)
• custard cream to fill the puff

Steps:

1. Put the water and butter in the saucepan and heat it up. Constantly stirring it till the butter melts and the mixture is about to boil.
2. Remove from heat and add in the flour and stir till well combined. Place it back to the heat (low) and continuously stir for another min or two till the mixture forms a ball and does not stick to the side of the saucepan.
3. Set it aside to cool. Meantime, whisk both the eggs separately (two different bowl). Add one of the eggs into the mixture and stir till well combined and gradually add a bit more from the other bowl. The mixture has to be a little liquid like, but still able to hold its shape. So if it is still quite stiff, add a little more of the egg.
4. Preheat the oven at 200C and lined the baking tray.
5. Filled up the pipping bag with the mixture.
6. If you like it bigger (it does not grow a lot bigger) pipe roughly the amount of 1.5 tablespoon amount of the mixture and give a gap of roughly 3cm apart.
7. Brush the top with remaining egg and bake for 15mins or until it is puffed and golden.
8. Once puffed and golden, turn off the oven, remove the tray. Using a skewer, poke a hole at the top (the recipe asked for bottom, but I find that poking it at the top makes it easier to pipe the custard cream in later).
9. Return the profiteroles into the oven (turned off) to dry for roughly 15mins.
10. Take the out and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once done, you can pipe in the cream.
11. I kept mine in the fridge so that it won't get soggy.

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.