Hotcross buns

Just because Easter is round the corner, so I am rebaking and posting this recipe again since I have found it in my stash of recipes…

Hotcross Buns

330g Bread Flour
30g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp instant yeast
120g full cream milk
30g lukewarm water
1 tablespoon honey
30g softened butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
70g raisins

1 egg for eggwash

Paste for the cross: mix 2-3 table spoon of flour with water, add bit by bit until a paste forms.
Instructions:

1. In the stand mixer bowl, place all dry ingredients and mix with a whisk until combined.
2. Add in the milk, water, egg, vanilla extract and honey and stir to mix before adding to the flour mixture.
3. Knead until a smooth dough forms then add in the softened butter and continue to knead to window pane. Add raisins or other inclusions at this stage and knead until just incorporated. You can hand knead in too if you wish.
4. Allow to proof, covered, until doubled in size. Transfer to lightly floured table top and knead gently to de-gas. Divide into 9 or 16 portions. Rest for 10 minutes.
5. Shape each portion into balls and place into prepared 8” square pan (greased or lined).
6. Proof until doubled again, brush egg wash on and pipe a cross over each bun.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 190C for 18 minutes or until golden. Tent if the top gets too dark.
8. Remove from pan and allow to cool on a rack. You can brush the top with some diluted jam before serving if you wish.

Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet cake is one of the most romantic cake around…it’s the cake to bake for weddings, birthdays and valentine’s day! whenever I came across a red velvet cake recipe, I shuddered when I read the amount of red colouring going into the cake and always refrained from baking it. Only indulge once in a blue moon upon request. Here’s my version with less coloring; add more if you like a brighter red version 😛

Red Velvet Cake (sponge cake version)

Ingredients in bracket for 6” round pan

80g plain flour (40g)
10g Cocoa powder (5g)
12g corn flour (6g)
1/4 tsp baking soda (1/8)
1/4 tsp salt (1/8)
6 egg yolks (3 yolks)
1 tsp vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)
1 tsp vinegar (1/2 tsp)
2 tsp bright red food color (1 tsp)
70g Corn oil (35g)
100g full cream milk (50g)

6 egg whites (3 whites)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (1/8 tsp)
100g caster sugar (50g)

Method:-

Grease and line the base of an 8″ round pan. Pre-heat oven 160C.

1. Sift the first 5 dry ingredients. Set aside.

2. Beat egg whites until foamy before adding cream of tartar. Continue to beat while gradually adding sugar until firm peak and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, oil, milk, vanilla, vinegar and red colouring until well combined. Finally add in sifted flour mixture and mix with a hand whisk until smooth.

4. Fold in prepared meringue in 3 portions, first 2 portions with hand whisk until all combined before switching to a spatula and fold gently until no streaks of batter can be seen.

5. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 160C in a water bath for about 90 mins or until cake is done.

6. Remove the cake from oven, wait until cake pulls away from the side of the pan before unmoulding. Cool completely before proceeding to frost the cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

226g (8 oz) cream cheese softened (113g)
80g icing sugar (40g)
1.5 cup Bettercreme topping cream – whip up until stiff (1/2 + 1/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar in the stand mixer bowl and beat until creamy. Add the whipped cream and whisk to combine.

Use it to decorate the cake.

Munira’s version if you are not into so much cream cheese in your frosting:-

Ingredients:
240ml Rich Bettercreme
70g Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Icing Sugar
A few drops of Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Combine cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar together until smooth.
2. Whip the cream in another bowl until thick, add the cream cheese mixture and continue to whip until stiff.

Quantity for 11″ Square pan:

192g flour
24 gms cocoa powder
29 g corn flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
14 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cider vinegar
4.5 red food colouring
170 g corn oil
240g milk

15 egg white
1/2 tsp tartar
240g caster sugar

For Cream cheese frosting, need to increase to double the quantity

Baked this for a birthday request, it’s a huge cake!

Rotiboy Buns (mexican buns)

I can’t remember the last time I had these! It must be years ago when it was the craze of the town…suddenly got a craving for it today so decided to do a small portion. The problem with these buns is you have to eat it fresh out of the oven when the crust are crispy and inside warm. Not so nice when cooled and the top became sticky so you do need to reheat in the oven to make it crispy again before eating.

Dough:

• 200g Bread Flour
• 4g Instant dry yeast
• 40g Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 egg medium (60g with shell)
• 90g full cream milk (hold back 10-20g to be added if needed)
• 30g Butter
• Butter, cold and cut into cubes for filling

Method:

1. Place all ingredients except butter into the mixer bowl and mix until a rough window pane is achieved. Add butter and continue kneading until you get a smooth window pane dough.
2. Round up the dough and rest for 10-15 minutes. Then divide into 6 equal portions.
3. Take a piece of dough and flatten it with your palm and wrap a piece of butter cube inside. Seal it well (this is important or the butter will leak) and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
4. Proof until dough is almost doubled in size. Then pipe the topping in a continous tight circle over the top of the buns until surface is fully covered (do not be too greedy and pipe too much!). Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 18-20 minutes or until buns are nicely brown at the bottom (Flip one over to check as the topping makes it hard to see!). Please note temperature defers for different ovens so adjust accordingly.

Topping:-

Ingredients:

80g Butter
80g Castor Sugar
1 large Egg
70g Plain flour
10g Cocoa Powder
2g coffee powder or mix 1 tsp nescafe with 1 tablespoon warm water (add a bit of coffee oil if you have it)

Method:

In a bowl, blend butter and sugar with a whisk until smooth. Add egg and beat until creamy. Fold in sifted flour/cocoa/coffee powder at low speed until well combined.
Fill up a piping bag for use when the buns are ready to bake. I do have some balance after piping over the buns. Do not be tempted to pipe too much or you will have a messy tray to wash up!

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Carrot/Yogurt Sandwich Loaf

I find that adding tubers or yogurt into bread dough will yield softer bread, don’t you agree? Of course, if you increase the dough hydration will also give the same result but it will be a bit more difficult to handle the dough. Added some carrot juice and vanilla flavored yogurt to this loaf. Love the bright color from the carrot juice!

Ingredients:

• 300g of bread flour
• 100g full cream milk
• 50g yogurt
• 60g fresh carrot juice
• 4g yeast
• 4g salt
• 30g sugar
• 30g unsalted butter

Method:-

Place all ingredients except butter into the mixing bowl and start kneading until a relatively smooth dough is achieved.

Add softened butter and continue to knead to window pane. Round up into a ball and leave it covered for 20 minutes to relax the gluten.

Shape as desired and place into a 450g loaf pan. Keep it well covered and place in a warm area to ferment until it rose about 1 inch above the rim.

Bake in preheated oven at 190C for 35-40 minutes. Tent the top once it’s browned enough to prevent burnt top.

Once cooked, remove from pan immediately and allow bread to cool completely before slicing.

Bluepea Sponge Cake

This is a spin-off of the pandan chiffon cake. I used this recipe as a standard to bake either in a tube pan or a round 8″ pan. If I bake in in a tube pan, I called it a chiffon cake and if in a round pan, it’s a sponge cake. Whatever you want to call it, it’s still delicious and light. If baking in a round pan, you need to grease and line the bottom unless it’s a removable base one. For this cake, I halved the ingredients (in brackets) and bake in a 6″ round with removable base. Use an 8″ tube or 8″ round pan if following the full recipe.

Bluepea Sponge Cake

By Jeannie Tay

Ingredients:

110g cake flour/superfine flour. (55)

10g corn flour. (5)

20g caster sugar (10)

1/4 tsp salt. (1/8)

5 egg yolks. (3 large)

70g Corn oil (30g)

40g coconut milk (20)

60g (30g) water mixed with about 1 tsp bluepea powder

6 egg whites (3)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar (you may omit or replace with 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar)

60g caster sugar (30)

Method:-

1. Sift flour and salt together. Set aside.

2. Mix together oil, coconut milk, sugar and bluepea juice until well blended. Add the yolks and mix well with a hand whisk before sifting in flour mixture and mix again until combined. Set aside.

3. Beat egg whites until frothy, add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add in sugar and beat to firm peaks.

4. Lighten the batter with 1/3 portion of the meringue using a hand whisk. Then add another 1/3 portion of the meringue and gently fold. Repeat with the remaining portion until fully incorporated.

5. Pour batter into pan and run a skewer around the batter to help remove big bubbles.

6. Place the cake pan into a seamless pan and place these into a bigger pan. Pour room temperature water into the largest pan to about 1 cm in height.

7. Bake the cake on the lowest rack at 160C for 80-90 minutes or until cake is done. Tent the cake if it gets too brown. After removing cake from the oven, unmould and cool on rack. However if you’re baking in a tube pan, immediately invert to cool completely before unmoulding.

Wholemeal bread

This is a very wholesome kind of bread with some whole meal flour added into it. Even though it is not as fluffy as bread made with white bread flour, it is still good and am quite happy with it.

• 200 gm bread flour
• 30 gm wholemeal flour
• 160 gm full cream milk (cold) (reserve 10-20g back, only add in if dough is too dry)
• 30 gm butter
• 25g egg
• 3 gm sea salt
• 3 gm yeast
• 20g sugar

Method:

In the stand mixer bowl, mix together with all the ingredients including the except butter.

Using the hook attachment, knead at speed 2/3, until the dough comes together and reaches near window pane then add in the butter and continue to knead until window pane.

Remove from bowl to lightly floured table top and knead by hand for a couple of minutes.
Shape into a ball and rest the dough for 10-15 minutes to relax the gluten.

Shape as desired and place into bread pan. Here, I have divided the dough into 2 and place into 2 cube pans (4″ x 4″ x 4″). One I cover with lid and the other one I left it open. Once the dough has reached about 1 cm below the rim, bake in preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes or until cooked. Remove from bread pan immediately and allow to cool on cooling rack before slicing.

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Chicken floss bread rolls

• 250g super high protein flour (I used Japanese flour 12% protein)
• 10g milk powder
• 3g yeast
• 3g salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 160g milk (note: reserve about 20g to be added only if needed)
• 30g sugar
• 20g butter
• some scallion and celery leaves for garnish or other toppings like kurikake or sesame seeds

Method:

Knead together all ingredients except butter until smooth. Remember to hold back about 20g of milk. Only add in if dough is still dry. Add butter and knead until you achieve window pane.
Let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes before you shape.

Here I have removed 60g for a bun and roll the balance dough to fit them into a 11″ x 11″ square pan and use a fork to poke holes on the surface. Proof to doubled it’s original size (I proof in the oven fermentation mode for 30 mins). Apply egg wash once proofed and arrange the scallion and celery leaves on the top. Bake on center rack in preheated oven at 170C for 10 mins then rotate the pan inside out and increase temperature to 180C and continue to bake another 5 mins until the top is golden. Remove from pan immediately and cool on rack. Assemble the roll when bread is still warm to the touch.

While bread is cooling, bliss about 100g of chicken floss in the blender until fine. Mix 3 tablespoons of condensed milk with 100g of mayonaise. To assemble, cut several shallow slits along the bread before applying the mayonaise generously all over the surface. (You will have some balance chicken floss and mayonaise for use later when you slice the bread roll.) Add heapfuls of chicken floss on end of the bread then roll it up. I place the bread on a piece of clean kitchen towel to help with the rolling. Tighten up and wait 5-10 mins before removing the towel and slice the bread roll into 1.5 inches thickness. Apply some of the mayonaise on the cut sides and press more chicken floss over it. Repeat with the rest of the pieces until complete.

Notes: Do not overbake the bread to avoid it getting too crusty. You will have problem with rolling with crusty bread! Bake on center rack so the top browned and bottom still pale. Bake on higher temperature with shorter time. Make sure that you bread is cooled enough and crust has softened before assembling.