Carrot Cupcake

Hydrangea

Heart Cake

 Heart sugar cake

Triangle Cake

Triangle Chocolate Forest Cake

On the way!

Blueberry Bun with Blueberry Cream Cheese

Blueberry buns

  I was passing a local fruit stall, there were punnets and punnets of blueberry, strawberry and blackberry. All berry family are beloved by everyone though, I remembered an article saying, especially, blueberry is one of super foods which is a lot more health-giving benefits that are rich in vitamin, against ageing process, lower cholesterol and so on. Yay, today would be the day of blueberry!

Beautiful inside

  Gathering some ideas, came across to make simply blueberry buns rather than using a lot butter and sugar which sounds against the benefits of blueberry. Surprisingly, it turned out splendidly tasty. Soft beautiful violet-coloured flesh with creamy appropriate sweetened cream cheese filling will make you irresistible to bite and bite.
  Slightly warm up before you eat, and smear more cream cheese if you are feeling creamy today! Then enjoy your buns and be healthy everyday.


 You will need :

(for 6 buns)

For dough
Strong flour 250g
Dry yeast 4g
Salt 3g
Sugar 25g
Water 100g
Blueberries 60g
Butter 40g

For filling
Full fat cream cheese 80g
Sugar 20g
Blueberries 40g
Wild blueberry jam 20g

(1) Knead all 

(1) Ready to add butter

   (1) Knead all ingredients except butter for 7 mins. (It's very sticky first time, but becomes a ball when gluten produces.

(2) Start with a knob of butter

(2) 1st proving

  (2) Start to add butter gradually so as to help all fat incorporates into dough well. Knead for 5 mins more. Then transfer to a clean bowl, and 1st prove for an hour or until double in volume.

(3) Filling done

(3) My favourite jam

   (3) In the meanwhile, make filling. Mix softened cream cheese (use full fat cream cheese. I used light cream cheese, but it was too liquid for this filling.) and sugar together. Add crushed blueberries, and mix well. (crush blueberries with a fork) I added a bit of wild blueberry jam to give more sweetness and colour.

(4) Divide

(4) A long log

  (4) Divide the doubled dough into 6 (approx. 80g each). Roll up each and flat it up to remove gas. Then fold to make a long log, and roll out with a rolling pin.

(5) Pipe enough filling

(5) Close carefully

  (5) Pipe the filling, and close it completely by using your finger tips.

(6) Looks like a bagel

(6) Ready for 2nd proving

  (6) Roll up to a ring, and pinch the end not to be unrolled. (If you need, use a bit water to attach together.) Make sure, the joint should be inside. And 2nd prove for an hour or until double in volume. (The good way for proving is to place the tray in the oven with a hot water pan underneath. It will provide appropriate temperature (30'C ish) as well as moisture. Bake it at 180'C for 17 mins.

Coffee Bun (Mocha Bread)

  When you push the skin gently, it's cracked, and reveal the soft brownish skin with the scent of coffee. There is another joy that you just take off the crispy skins itself as if you are eating coffee biscuits. It's Coffee bun.
  There are different versions of coffee buns which are from Mexico or somewhere South Asia (Think it's Malaysia?) though, firstly I want to introduce my version of Mocha Bread which is slightly different from them in terms of the way of putting skin. It results in cracked top rather than smooth top like their coffee buns, which I found the pleasure to eat the piece of cracks first before discovering the soft fleshy.
   I made 2 versions of topping, one was Mexican style(Conchas), another was my coffee style. Mexican one was more beautiful, but as far as a lasting time concerned, my style lasted longer as Mexican one became very soggy.
  A filling is not necessarily required, but you can add butter or almond cream as a filling. Otherwise, just toast them, and spread butter on it or as you prefer. Also, next time, I will make a thicker topping for coffee one when I roll out them since mine was too thin to make the wild cracks during baking, and became a bit soggy after while though taste was still good. One more thing is cover the topping only on top of the dough for Mexican one rather than tucking in like coffee topping as it tend to spread up more during baking,  so roll out the topping smaller than coffee topping.




 You will need :

(for 8 buns)

For dough
Strong flour 340g
Dry yeast 5g
Sugar 50g
Salt 4g
Butter 40g
Egg 1ea
Instant coffee 4g
Water 140g

For my coffee topping - for 8 buns
Plain flour 170g
Baking powder 3g
Sugar 70g
Butter 35g
Egg 30g
Instant coffee 2g
Hot water 10g (to dissolve coffee)

For Mexican style topping(Conchas) - for 8 buns
Icing sugar 60g
Plain flour 60g
Butter, softened 47g
Raspberry powder 4ts

(1) Ready to prove

 (1) Mix all ingredients for dough except butter for 7 mins, then add butter. Knead for 5 mins more. Transfer to a clean bowl, and prove for an hour.

(2) My coffee topping

  (2) In the meanwhile, make the topping. Cream butter and sugar, add egg, and sieved flour, baking powder in. Dissolve instant coffee in the hot water, add into batter, and mix well till no discrimination of colour. Wrap and flat it up, and rest in the fridge.

   For Mexican style topping, mix flour, icing sugar together, and rub in butter pieces. Wrap and flat it up, rest in the fridge.

(3) Rest for 15 mins

(4) Roll out the topping

  (3) Once the dough becomes double, divide in 80g, and rest for 15 mins. Then flat it up to remove gas inside, and roll up again.

(4) Cover completely

(4) Tuck in the excess

  (4) Divide the topping in 40g, roll out between cling film. Cover the rolled dough, and tuck the excess in the bottom by using a scraper.

   Mexican topping is more fragile, and spread up after baking. So cover the topping only on top of dough rather than making excess.

(5) Ready for 2nd proving

(5) Make patterns

  (5) For the mexican topping, make pattern with a knife as you like. Then 2nd proving for an hour.

(6) After 2nd proving

(6) Too thin..

   (6) When it become 1.5-2 times in volume, bake at 180'C for 20 mins for 20 mins. (Turn around the tray in the middle of baking for even baking.)

   Enjoy the scent of coffee from the oven!

Brownish soft fleshy

Sourdough Butter Bun (using the unfed levain)

Sourdough Butter Bun

   We have 'the levain (starter)' in the fridge. My mission is feeding it once a week regularly so that it can be refreshed without going too sour.
   After I feed it, always concerned about the excess which doesn't need to be fed. (Once I fed all the levain, and ended up having too much!) But it wasn't only my concern as I found this recipe from 'King Arthur Flour' where share with people great solutions about it.

Look at the soft flesh like foccacia

   This butter bun was one of them. It's like between sourdough bread (slightly tangy taste), foccacia (texture) and sweet scone (buttery), which I found out perfect as breakfast accompanied by jam with a cup of coffee! (Warm it up a bit in the oven or toaster, even better!) I'm so glad to discover a new world of 'the usage of the unfed starter', also to have a new breakfast item!!
   You can make it if you are the levain keeper, it's very easy and fun to see how sourdough turns out differently. Of course, there is nothing to mention about taste, outstanding!! :)

You will need :

(for 2 round tins x 21cm)

Unfed levain 120g
Plain flour 360g
Dry yeast 7g
Sugar 14g
Salt 5g
Egg 1ea
Lukewarm water 152g
Unsalted butter, softened 70g

(1)

(1) Ready for 1st proving

    (1) Knead all ingredients together for 5 mins with a hook of a stand mixer. (It's rather soft dough.) Transfer the dough in the greasy container, and cover to prove for an hour or till double in volume.  (Use the container like ours, it will be easy to track.)

(2) After 1st proving

(2) Roll out to 25 x 35 cm

   (2) When it becomes double, roll it out to approx. 25x35cm on the surface. (I used a oven tray covered with cling film, and oiled to prevent from being stuck.)

(3) Roll out

(3) Cut in 2.5cm

   (3) Brush generously melted butter. Start to roll into a log gently. (Start from left side slowly.) And cut in 2.5cm, you will get 12-16 of each.

(4) Place in the buttered tin

(4) After 2nd proving

   (4) Place in the butter pan. Make sure each of them should be separate in order to give room to prove. (I did 7 of them in 21cm tin) And prove for an hour again.

(4) Ready to be baked

   (5) Brush melted butter before baking. Bake at 180'C for 25 mins or until slightly golden brown colour on top. When it's hot, brush another melted butter, and sprinkle sea salt.

With a square tin

   ** Next time, I will use some filling such as chopped olives, sun dried tomatoes inside, it will go well with its foccaciaish texture.

6-Braided Brioche

5-Braided Brioche

Brioche à tête by Sue

   Is it cake or bread? It can be a controversial issue once you try brioche in addition to Marie Antoinette's famous phrase 'Let Them Eat Cake (Qu'ils mangent de la brioche). Then why? You will notice the richness from high butter and egg content, and the difference from the one you call bread when you eat, even make it.
   Brioche can be made of several shapes. For me, for instance, the shape that a small ball on top of large body, which is called 'Brioche à tête (brioche with a head)' was familiar, but this shape just started to be made since 19th century in Paris.  Comparing its longer history, it was ridiculous to generalise and insist on making only this shape although it's good shape for individual serve.
 

La Brioche by Chardin

   Like you see this painting by Chardin (18th century), you can see the brioche looking like not moulded but rustic country bread. Since I found this painting, I became into shaping it freely without using the fluted brioche mould! Eventually, I tried 6-braided, and now we can see my lovely brioche loaf. This's just perfect for your breakfast or tea time in the afternoon. Then let's make it, but allow 2 days to make it because you will need 3 times of proving, which will make your brioche deeper in flavour and softer in texture!


You will need :

(for 1 loaf)

Strong bread flour 300g
Salt 5g
Sugar, caster 25g
Milk 25ml
Fresh yeast 17g (If you don't have fresh one, use half quantity of dry yeast (8g))
Eggs, beaten 3ea (approx. 150-160g), plus for egg wash
Butter, unsalted 170g (Try to choose good quality, butter decides the flavour of brioche!)
Poppyseed for garnish if you want.

(1) To begin with

(1) After 10 mins, a bit sticky

   (1) Place flour, salt and sugar in the bowl, and mix lukewarm milk, egg and fresh yeast in the separate bowl. Mix together, and knead with a machine hook for 10 mins at speed 1.

(2) Crush with a hand to soften

(2) Elastic dough

    (2) Firstly, add small knobs of butter, softened into the dough bowl, and knead at speed 2 until butter is completely incorporated. Then Add more small knobs for 5 mins while working at speed 2 until you see nice and elastic dough, but still a bit sticky.

(3) Write the starting time

(3) After 1st proving

   (3)Then place on the tray and cover with cling film. Prove for 2.5 hours at room temperature.
    Now flat up the dough evenly, and chill it up in the fridge for 12 hours for 2nd slow-proving. (It will prove slowly at the temperature below 5'C)

(4) 

   (4) Divide the dough in 6 lumps. and roll up to strands. (Make sure, DO NOT work too much with hands, just fold the dough or combine gently.) Each ends put together, and spread each strands like photo. And brush off the excess of flour as you go.

(5)

(5)

   (5) Send the very right side one all over left, and send the very left side one over right end side.

(6)

(6)

   (6) Send the very left side strand that you sent first time to middle. And send the second from right side all over left side.

(7)

(7)

(7) Then repeat. Send the right side one to middle. And send the second from left side all over right side. Then repeat until the end. and Tuck the ends in the bottom.

(8) Before 3rd proving

(8) After 3rd proving.

   (8) Place it on the tray, baking parchment underneath. Prove for 90 mins at around 30'C. (You can leave the tray in the switched-off oven with a hot water bowl. It will give the dough right temperature as well as moisture for appropriate proving.)

    After 3rd proving, leave it outside for 10 mins to make the skin a bit firm, and brush egg wash generously. Bake at 180'C for 30 mins or until cooked.