Instead of the usual loaf, i decided to turn the red bean bun bread into something more fun looking.. a flower-like bun!
Because i make bread and buns so often, i believe this needs no introduction anymore. It’s our weekly staple but in different shape. I love how fragrant this milk bread is, good to eat even if it’s good ol’ plain!
One thing though, if you’re looking for super soft bread texture after keeping it for a day, this bread won’t do. However, if you were to eat it on the day it is baked, then no problemo!
BUT!
Nothing a microwave cannot do. If the buns are not as soft as you like them to be, all you need to do is zap them in the mircowave for 10 seconds and voila! – Super soft + warm bun again! ;)
After eating bread on a almost daily basis, my personal preference now leans towards breads that are not-overly-soft. In fact, i like my breads a little chewy. Super soft bread that stays soft after dayssss gives me goosebumps! :P Having said that, let me just try water roux the next time round and i’ll see if it stays super soft even after a day. If it does, well.. that might change my perception again on super soft bread.
Milk Loaf
from Happy Home Baking
143g fresh milk (I used HL low-fat fresh milk)
35g egg
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g Instant yeast
38g butter (unsalted)
Method
- Place milk, egg, followed by caster sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast into the pan of the bread machine. Set to Dough function. Add in the butter after 8 ~ 10 mins into the kneading cycle. Continue to let the bread machine do the kneading. Stop the machine after the kneading cycle. Re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another 10mins before stopping the machine.
- Remove dough from the bread pan, let it proof in room temperature in a mixing bowl, covered with cling wrap. Let proof for 60mins.
- Remove dough and punch out the gas. Divide dough into 3 equal portion. Roll and shape into balls. Let the doughs rest and relax for 15 mins. (this ‘relaxing’ time is needed so that the dough will be easier to roll out and shaped).
- On a lightly floured surface, flatten one dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough swiss-roll style. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
- Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Roll up tightly, and make as many rolls you can, swiss-roll style for the second time. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
- Place doughs in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Let the doughs proof for the second time, until it fills up 80% of the tin/pan. Cover with cling wrap.
- Bake at pre-heated oven at 180 ~ 190 deg C for 30 to 35mins.
- Unmould the bread immediately when removed from the oven. Let cool completely before slicing.
If you are gonna shape the bread into individual buns, skip step 4 and 5.
Instead, divide the dough to roughly 60g each and roll them into a ball. Flatten it, put in the red bean filling and conceal nicely. Again, flatten the ball down and using a very sharp knife, make deep cuts all the way down around the dough. This will give the bread the flower shape. Resume method 6-8 but if you don’t cover up using cling wrap, it’s fine too :)
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Can’t resist putting this up!
Look who was around when i was photographing? ^_^
Beep, who simply can’t help it but loveeeees being in my photos! He kinda know i am rather taken by the silly stuff he pulls off just to get into the pictures :)
= lethal combination!
Imagine, freshly baked raisin bread (sliced and still warm of course!) + generous spread of cold cream cheese….
I really don’t mind busting my calories intake for many slices of this :P
The whole family love mushroom soup.. especially the Western version with cream!
Campbell mushroom soup is more for like standby these days. I hardly use them anymore unless i’m desperately out of fresh food or time. Whenever possible, i rather cook this full-of-goodness-soup (not the cream though :P) from scratch. It’s not difficult at all, really!
Of course, if possible (again).. i’ll bake bread rolls to go with it too!
A lot of times, we (especially us with young children) might think soup and bread roll for dinner aren’t quite enough… but if we were to have at least 5 proper dinners in a week and just one discounted dinner once a week, it won’t hurt, will it?
To be frank, i’m more laxed these days.
I don’t get that upset if the boys can’t finish their meal anymore.
I don’t worry all the much when we have simpler meals.
So personally, as an old school Chinese, i’m throwing out this “1 vegetable + 1 fish/meat + 1 soup = a proper meal” thinking out of my window. So long the boys are healthy, not fall sick often and happy, i think what i’m doing now is really quite okay.
After all, life is too short to proper all the time.
Very stressful, you know??
Topped with shaved parmesan and a wee bit of parsley flakes, the soup is more than ready!
BUT.
An additional dash of truffle oil will be even better!
Unfortunately, i have none in my pantry :(
Naan with Prawn Masala
My heart raced quite a bit when i saw this…
It meant i was on the right track!
Seriously, i’ve never thought of making naan at home. When one mentions naan, it somehow means tandoor (the clay oven)… because that’s how naan is baked. No tandoor, no naan?
Wrong.
It’s possible!
Just wait and you’ll see why ;)
.
.
.
.
Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
My homemade naan, topped with cheese and a little parsley flakes :D
(ignore the cheese part.. a little pathetic to be honest.. i used the wrong cheese! grr.. i was hoping .. well, you know.. it’d turn it like those in restaurants!)
It was exactly like the ones we had at Anjappar!
Of course, not comparing with their cheese naan lah, (their cheese naan, i’m afraid.. it’s not replicable! i’ve no idea what cheese they use. simply outta this world — Jurong Point branch, not Little India’s though–) but with the usual plain naan, i must say, mine BOLEH lah! :P
The secret is… to bake in a very hot wok with lid! *wink*
We, who had it (our dinner) in the kitchen while waiting…
It was a tad too time consuming though. Baking 9 naan in wok took us 20 minutes or so. But what almost killed us was the heat. Hovering around the wok doing the flipping and adding the toppings, rolling out the flat bread…. waaahh, we were perspiring like crazy!
Like at Anjappar, we had our naan with Prawn Masala… psstt: my first time cooking Prawn Masala too! Not too bad, Darcy and helper enjoyed it very much but in my opinion, errr… not as good as the restaurant’s! Fine tuning needed ;)
Naan
*makes 9 huuugeeee naan*
By Rachel Yau
500g Plain flour
175ml hot milk
100g plain yogurt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar (i’ll up it to 3)
1 tsp salt (i’ll up it to 2)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1. Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, yeast into a clean mixing bowl.
2. Mix in egg, sugar, salt, oil, yogurt and hot milk and set the bread machine to “DOUGH” setting.
(at Dough, bread machine will be doing the kneading. First proofing is included. Estimated time : 1 hr 30 mins)
3. When the machine beeps, press excessive air out from dough. Divide into 9 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball with your hands. Cover them in a dry towel and rest them for 15 mins. Roll dough into tear shape about 3mm thick.
4. Heat wok on high heat. Once it’s smoking, place the flatbread into the wok and switch to medium heat for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden (i like mine with charred parts a bit here and there :P). Serve them HOT, as dip.
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