Bread Winner (Part 2 – For The Win!)

Picking up from Part 1, I have solved the problem of stone hard buns by increasing the water content in my dough. The challenge now is to make it taste more like bread than muffins. How do you make it soft, springy and chewy like the buns they sell at the bakeries? I knew it wasn’t the kneading or the yeast or the type of flour. But what else?

I looked somemore and found this recipe for butter buns. The picture looked very promising so I decided to give it a shot, with some modifications. I added a few tablespoons of sugar and used self-raising flour instead. My logic tells me – more raising agents leads to more raising of the dough and hopefully a lighter bun.

Butter Buns from roxannagreengirl.com

This time, the dough was soft but not as wet as the no-knead recipe I tried in Part 1. So I was able to make more decent looking buns. It was slightly sticky initially but as I carefully push, roll and folded it with my fingertips around the mixing bowl, it became easier to handle with time. The buns were very tasty and buttery. However, it only remained soft when its hot. Though it departed from the muffin texture, it is still not springy or chewy. I suspected that using self-raising flour (baking powder) had a role to play in this as well. So probably all-purpose flour was better.

Sighs, I was ready to give up bread-making by then.

After a short discussion with a friend who also is an avid baker, he pointed out that I have been using basic white bread loaf or dinner rolls recipes. While what I really wanted was sweet buns. He suggested that I look at Asian sweet buns recipes instead. Which didn’t really convince me because the ingredients and steps are very similar. But it gave me a new perspective.

Then finally I landed on this blog which talked about a special water-roux method to make soft buns. Apparently, ever since a Chinese cookbook published this method, it became wildly popular among the Chinese and Asian baking community. The blogger explained that a water roux is basically one part flour and 5 parts water, cooked at 65 degrees Celcius. The gelatinisation of the starch when cooked with water gives the springy soft texture to buns, the blogger claimed.

Finally!

I was convinced! So I decided to incorporate this water roux into the butter bun recipe I used above since I am confident the recipe yields good flavour. And I used all-purpose flour this time.

I was relieved to read further in forums that the water roux doesn’t need to be cooked exactly at 65 degrees Celcius. See, I don’t have a kitchen thermometer. One member of the forum pointed that as long as it cooks in low heat without boiling until a thick paste is formed, all is good. Because this is my first attempt, I incorporated only a minimal amount of the water roux paste to see if it really works. Please note I used proper measuring spoons for this recipe. This makes 16 fist-sized buns.

So, here we go again:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 egg
• 4-5 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Water Roux paste – 1 tablespoon flour and 5 tablespoons water

Method:

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup water and set aside.
2. Make Water Roux paste – dissolve flour in water in a small saucepan, heat it on low and stir until it thickens into a paste, like a thick, creamy soup. Do not boil! Set aside to cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the middle.
4. In the well, crack in the egg, pour in butter, yeast solution and water roux paste. Stir everything with a spoon to incorporate. Never mind lumps.
5. Pour in milk slowly, until a soft dough is formed. You do not necessarily need a whole cup of milk for this.
6. Using fingers, gently push, fold and roll the dough around the bowl to incorporate the ingredients. It feels a little sticky.
7. Continue to lightly knead by rolling and folding in the bowl (I was lazy to clean up a flat working surface) for 15-20 minutes. Very good exercise!
8. The dough is ready when a dent made by a finger on the dough springs back slowly.
9. Cover with cling wrap and let rise for an hour in a warm and humid place. I usually rise my dough in the oven (not switched on), with a baking tray filled with hot boiling water in the bottom rack.
10. After an hour, the dough would’ve doubled in size. Roll and fold to push out the gas.
11. Roll into 2-inch diameter balls and arrange in a greased baking tray, about an inch apart.
12. Cover and let rise another 30 minutes, the balls would have conjoined at the edges.
13. Brush bun tops generously with melted butter and bake at 200 degree Celcius for 20 minutes or until tops are browned.
14. Brush bun tops again with melted butter for a soft crust right after baking.

The verdict….

The buns were soft and springy….YES!!!

After cooling down, I poked the buns and was extremely happy that they were still soft and fluffy….YES, YES!!!

I bit into one of them and they are chewy and tasty….YES, YES, YES!!!

For the win!

The water roux paste is a miracle! The next day, the buns are still soft to the touch but not McDonald’s burger buns soft. Microwaved them for 20 seconds, and they turned fluffy again. Although still not as light and fluffy as the buns in bakeries but definitely a huge improvement. Maybe next time, I will increase the portion of the water roux paste and cut down or readjust the amount of milk and/or flour to accommodate. Hopefully this will increase the lightness and fluffiness.

Practise makes perfect! 

Try it…!!!

Stinky Garlic Bread

As much as I hate garlic for giving me bad breath and leaving behind offensive odour on my fingers for days, I don’t think I can live without it either.

Cooking without garlic is a disaster. It’s distinctive flavour enhances pretty much most dishes, be it French, Italian, Chinese, Indian….every cook must have garlic. Though always a flavour enhancer and often used as only a sidekick in dishes, the garlic bread is one that makes it the hero instead.

I love mine loaded with lots of garlic-buttery goodness. Hence the stinky garlic bread. Make sure you have good supply of mints. Plus, this is certainly not a smooch-friendly recipe

The ingredients – a few slices of regular sandwich bread, butter (softened), salt and of course garlic! You will need some aluminium foil too. I used 2 whole garlic and it yielded about 10 slices of garlic bread. Half each slice and you get 20. Awesome for parties

First roast the garlic whole. Cut off the top to expose the bulbs, place a dollop of butter on top and wrap individually with aluminium foil into mini parcels. Chuck into preheated oven (middle rack) and let it bake at 160 degrees Celcius for an hour or until soft and caramelised.

Once done, open the parcels and let it cool until you can handle with your hands. You will see that it’s all soft and juicy and buttery and yum! Squeeze the bulbs out of the cloves, they should be pretty much falling off and slide out easily. Season with some salt. Mash, mash, mash until you get a consistent garlicky paste.

Spread butter generously on slices of bread. I halved all slices beforehand. Spread garlic paste thinly on each slice. Be careful not to spread too much on one slice, it will end up too strong and a little bitter. I say about half a teaspoon of paste or less on each full slice of sandwich bread.

Grill in the oven on the topmost rack at 200 degrees Celcius until slightly browned and crisp. About 5-10 minutes or so. And there you have it – stinky, buttery and crispy garlic bread!

If you like, sprinkle some Italian herbs and mix into the roasted garlic paste and you will have garlic-herb stinky bread. Or sprinkle some cheese right before grilling then you have cheesy, stinky garlic bread. Either way, its stinky-ly good! Happy trying

Classic Butter Cake

Back in the day when the electric mixer was yet to be invented, I wonder how people discovered that you have to beat your butter and sugar really hard to make a successful butter cake. Then when it was established that you do have to beat it real hard, I can’t imagine doing it by hand every time you feel like homemade butter cake.

My granny is a self-taught cook and she usually succeed in whatever she attempts to cook after watching someone else do it. She remembers every detail of every recipe by memory, until today! Plus, she never depended on any kind of measurements for her recipes or the “stir in one direction” or “eggs and flour alternately”. She goes by the “look and feel” method and it works everytime. She is such a talented cook like that.

This is the butter cake recipe in which she used to make birthday cakes for my mom, aunties and uncles every year  without fail when they were kids. Armed only with her bare hands and a large stove top um….”steamer”. As a result, my mom, aunties and uncles are all big fans of butter cakes ’til today. Real rich homemade butter cakes that is.

Luckily for me, I have an electric mixer to make things much simpler and my granny passed me her recipe for a very basic but delicious and fluffy butter cake. “It stays soft even overnight!” she used to tell me. And it does! This is what I usually make when I am craving for some good ‘ol butter cake. This post features the time I made it with chocolate marble, a little bit fancy

Ingredients

• 250 grams butter (1 block) - soft at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups self-raising flour – sifted
• 4 medium eggs
• Approximately half a cup of milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celcius.
2. Put butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, beat on high-speed until pale and fluffy.
3. Crack in eggs, one at a time, beating in with the mixer after each addition.
4. Add in vanilla essence and mix through.
5. Using a spatula, fold in flour in 4-5 batches until fully incorporated.
6. Fold in milk, a little at a time until batter slides off the spatula easily when scooped up and tilted.
7. For plain butter cake, pour batter into cake pan and bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted at the center comes out dry.
8. For chocolate marble butter cake, mix 2-3 tablespoon batter with cocoa powder and swirl it into the rest of the batter in the cake pan before baking it.

Butter Prawns

When eating out, this is one of the favourite dishes to order at Malaysian Chinese restaurants. Juicy prawns with flavoursome and spiced butter-egg “threads”. I have wanted to try this for a long time but never bothered to look up the proper recipe. Finally, last week, I decided to give it a shot. I looked up a few recipes online and came up with one that was simplest and suited the ingredients that I already have at home. A surprisingly short recipe for something that looks and sounds sophisticated.

Ingredients:

• ~200g prawns, dried with paper towels
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons evaporated milk
• 2 big tablespoons butter
• 10-15 pieces of curry leaves
• 1-2 bird’s eye chili (cili padi), sliced – optional
• Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1. Mix egg yolks and milk in a bowl, set aside.
2. Melt butter in a hot pan.
3. Using medium heat, pour yolk and milk mixture onto pan slowly, stirring continuously like you do scramble eggs.
4. Continue stirring until small firm grains form, continue stirring non stop with the back of your spoon or spatula.
5. Add in curry leaves and chili, continue stirring and tossing (about 10 minutes).
6. Add salt and sugar to taste, continue to stir-fry until golden brown (about 10 minutes).
7. Add in the prawns, turn on high heat and toss everything together.
8. Remove from heat and serve hot.

*Note: I used shelled medium prawns which were pre-cooked. However, I think raw prawns with shells intact would work better. If you are using these, deep fry them in hot oil until pink beforehand.

Butter prawns in restaurants are served with butter fine threads instead of grains like mine. Haven’t figured out how to do that, but this recipe works fine for me. I have also tried this with crumbed squid rings which were deep fried beforehand. It works just as well. Happy cooking!