Banana Quick Bread

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts
1 3/4 cup (230g) all purpose flour
3/4 cup (150g) white sugar - I reduced to 80g
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
abt 450g mashed bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract - I omitted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease baking tin and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and nuts.
3. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, butter, eggs and vanilla.
4. Lightly fold in the wet ingredients in (3) into dry ingredients in (2) and just combined.
5. Scrape into prepared tin and bake for 45-50min till skewer inserted comes out clean.

Makes 1 - 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.

Almond Raisin Bread

Adapted from Alex Goh "Bread Magic"

Ingredients

Water Roux Started

80g bread flour

55g boiling water

Dough

240g bread flour

80g plain flour

65g sugar (I reduced to 50g)

5g salt

20g milk powder

6g instant yeast

130g cold water 

1 egg

60g butter

Almond Filings

50g butter

50g sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

100g ground almonds

100g raisins

Method

1. Prepare water roux starter by mixing flour with boiling water and stir into a rough dough. Keep refrigerated for at least 12 hrs.
2. Mix dough ingredients (except butter) and add in starter. Add in butter when the dough is smooth. Knead the dough till it is elastic and non sticky. Proof dough till it doubled in size.
3. Prepare filing. Mix sugar and butter until well blended. Add in sugar and mix till well-combined. Add in ground almonds and cinnamon powder and mix till well combined. Set aside for later use.
   
4. Punch out the air in the dough after the first rise. Mould the dough round and let it rest for 10min. Roll it thin into rectangular shape.
5. Spread on almond filings and sprinkle raisins over the top. Roll it up swissroll style and let it proof for 45min.
6. Egg wash and sprinkle some almond flakes on top. (I omitted and just made a slit on top of the bread dough before baking)
7. Bake at 175C for 25-30min.

Pumpkin Pau - Failed

First attempt at pau making. Tried out this healthy pumpkin pau recipe but am not very happy with the results. The filing is great, but my bun didn't taste as soft and fluffy as I would like, and it looked so flat! Gotta improve on my pau kneading and shaping skills.

Will definitely try this again as I believe this will be a very delicious pau, if only I could get it right.....

Ingredients

Pau
60gm sugar
90gm pumpkin puree
1 tsp instant dry yeast
150gm pau flour
1 tsp double acting baking powder
10gm butter

Pumpkin Filling
300gm pumpkin puree
30gm sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Method

1. Prepare pau dough. Combine sugar, pumpkin puree and yeast.
2. Combine pau flour, baking powder and butter. Mix to form crumbs.
3. Pour (1) into (2) and mix to form a dough.
4. Knead dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky.
5. Let dough proof in a warm place until double in size.  
6. Cook pumpkin filings ingredients until thickens and use 2 teaspoons to form into little balls and place on a lined tray. Chill until time of use.
7. Punch down dough after it has doubled. Knead it for 2 minutes and divide dough into 12 pieces.
8. With lightly floured hands, take one piece of dough and flatten it, making it thinner at the sides.
9. Place one piece of filling, round side down onto flattened dough.
10. Wrap and seal bun.
11. Let buns proof (covered) for 45 minutes and steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

Tuna Bun with Love

The heart shaped buns with tuna on top.

Normal bun with tuna filings.

See the fluffy insides!

Adapted from Alex Goh "Magic Bread"

Ingredients

Water Roux Started

80g bread flour

55g boiling water

Dough

240g bread flour

80g plain flour

65g sugar (I reduced to 50g)

5g salt

20g milk powder

6g instant yeast

130g cold water 

1 egg

60g butter

Tuna Filings

1 can of tuna

1 onion, diced

1/2 cup corns

1tbsp mayonnaise

Salt & Pepper to taste

Parsley flakes

Method

1. Prepare water roux starter by mixing flour with boiling water and stir into a rough dough. Keep refrigerated for at least 12 hrs.
2. Mix dough ingredients (except butter) and add in starter. Add in butter when the dough is smooth. Knead the dough till it is elastic and non sticky. Proof dough till it doubled in size.
3. Prepare filing by mixing the tuna filings together.
   
4. Punch out the air in the dough after the first rise. Divide dough into 10 equal portions and leave to rest for 10-15min.
5. Shape the doughs into desired shape. For the normal bun, add in filings and leave to proof till doughs double in size. For heart shaped bun, add filings after doughs have double in size.
   
6. Apply egg wash and sprinkle parsley flakes on bread.
7. Bake at 200C for 10-15min till breads are ready.

* I would divide the dough into smaller portions and increase the filings to 1.5x next time as I find that there is too little filing per bread.

Wholemeal Loaf Bread with Raisins and Sunflower Seeds

Recipe adapted from Alex Goh "Magic Bread"

Ingredients

Water Roux Starter

80g Bread flour

55g Boiling Water

Dough

180g Bread flour

140g Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp Molasses

20g sugar

8g salt

5g yeast

190g cold water

25g butter

Sunflower seeds

Black raisins

Method

1. Prepare water roux starter by mixing flour with boiling water and stir into a rough dough. Keep refrigerated for at least 12 hrs.
2. Mix dough ingredients (except butter) and add in starter. Add in butter when the dough is smooth. Knead the dough till it is elastic and non sticky. Proof dough till it doubled in size.
3. Punch out the air in the dough after the first rise. Leave it to rest for 10-15min.
4. Roll the dough into desired shape, add in sunflower seeds and raisins and leave to proof in container for 1hr.
5. Bake at 200C for 20-25min till bread is ready.

Wholemeal Red Bean and White Lotus Bun

I have leftover red bean and white lotus paste from this year's mooncake making and since I'm pretty sure that I'll not be making mooncake again anytime soon, I decided to use them for buns.

Different toppings represent different fillings, black sesame for red bean and melon seeds for white lotus paste, and one with cheese on top as I did not prepare enough filings.

I know, the buns looks ugly, all in different shapes and sizes but thats my best attempt so far haha. I can never seem to get a nice golden brown bun top despite diligently egg washing my bun this time, can anyone please teach me how to achieve a nice golden top?

Insides of the white lotus bun - greedy me uses more fillings than bread dough haha

Insides of the red bean bun, the colour looks different as this photo was taken on the second day under natural lighting.


I've got balanced red bean and white lotus paste, what can I do with them? Hmmmm.....

Tuna & Assorted Veg Bun

Ingredients

Bread Dough

200g bread flour

20g plain flour

15g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp yeast
20g potato, mashed
20g egg white
100g water
15g unsalted butter

Fillings

1 can of tuna (I used tuna chunks in mineral water), flaked
1 yellow onion, diced
100g fresh shiitake nushroom, diced
1 small yellow capsicum, diced
1 small red capsicum, diced
1/2 cup corn kernels
1tbsp dried parsley flakes
1tbsp dried chili flakes
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
oil for stir-frying

Decoration
Mayonaise
Parsley flakes

Method

1. Combine all dough ingredients except butter and mix till dough is smooth. Add butter and mix till dough is smooth and elastic. Leave the dough to proof till double in size.
2. Heat oil in pan. Add in onions and stir-fry till onion turns translucent. Add in the rest of the vegetables and tuna and fry till cooked. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Leave to cool.
3. When dough is ready, punch out air and divide dough into 5 -6 equal portions. Leave to rest for 15min.
4. Roll dough into oval shape, put filings on rolled dough and fold dough into half. Pinch ends to seal it. Leave the shaped dough to rest for 30-45min.
5. Combine mayonnaise and parsley flakes and pipe onto bread before baking.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven of 180C for 15-20min till bread is ready.   

Wholemeal Carrot Bread

This was suppose to be a white bread recipe but I wanted it to be more healthy and replaced some bread flour with wholemeal flour instead. Not sure if this had affected the "equilibrium" of the bread but I encountered problem while mixing the dough. The dough was very sticky and flat (abit like cake batter) and I was convinced that this bread is gonna be a total failure.

Nevertheless, I went ahead to proof the bread and luckily, the bread turns out ok. Not the fluffiest we've tasted but it was not too bad. This bread stayed soft for 2 days. Well, gotta try harder again next time.

Adapted from book "新创意养生健康面包 - I halved the recipe as below

Ingredients

450g bread flour (I used 300g bread flour and 150g wholemeal flour)
50g plain flour
5g salt
75g sugar (I reduced to 50g)
6g dry yeast
100g carrot residue (after straining out the carrot juice)
200g carrot juice
50g milk
50g olive oil

Method

1. Combine bread flour, plain flour, dry yeast, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add in carrot juice and carrot residue. Mix using a dough hook, slowly adds in milk and olive oil. Mix till dough is smooth and elastic.
2. Leave to raise in bowl for 60min or till the dough doubles in size. Punch out the air in the dough and divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and let it rest for 15-20min. Shape dough and let it proof again for 45-60min.
3. Bake at 180C for 25-30min till the bread is ready.

Duo Colour Wholemeal Bread

.

Sausage Wholemeal Bread

.

Garlic Bread

Very simple, just mix butter, garlic and mixed herbs, toast in oven and you will have tasty garlic bread!

Nice and Soft Wholemeal Bread

Ingredient:

(A)
120g wholemeal flour
85g bread flour
4g (1 tsp) instant yeast
130g water

(B)
85g bread flour
15g caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
10g milk powder
50g water

(C)
15g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in (A) in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in the water. Mix by hand to form a soft dough. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise for 90mins.
2. Place the ingredients in (B) in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Add in the soft dough in Step 1.
3. Select the Dough function of the bread machine and press start. After about 8mins of kneading, add in the 15g of butter (Ingredient C). Let the machine continue to knead the dough. After the kneading cycle has stopped (20mins), Stop and Restart the machine. Continue to let the machine knead for another 10mins.
4. Stop the machine and place dough in mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise till double in volume for about 60mins.
5. Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Press out the trapped air as your knead. Divide into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.
6. Flatten and roll out each dough into an oval shape (20cm by 10cm). Roll up swiss roll style and pinch the seams in place. Place in a pullman tin (size, 7.5"x4"x4", well greased), seams side down. Cover the lid and let dough proof for 60mins or until the dough rise up to 90% of the height of the tin.
7. Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 30mins.
8. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.

Recipe adapted from 孟老师的100道面包

Pork Floss Loaf

Ingredients

400g high protein flour, sifted

100g low protein flour, sifted

10g milk powder

1tsp salt

1tbsp instant yeast

80g castor sugar

1 egg

220ml water

75g butter

Method

1. Put all ingredients except butter into bowl and mix into a smooth dough
2. Add butter and continue to knead till gluten has development and it can be stretched into a very thin layer
3. Cover with a piece of damp cloth / cling wrap and leave to rise till it doubles in volumn
4. Divide into desired portions and shape into balls
5. Cover with damp cloth / cling wrap and rest for 10-15min before foaming into shape.
6. Flatten the dough into rectangular shape and sprinkle pork floss onto dough. Roll dough and place inside greased tins.
7. Bake in pre0heated oven at 170C for 25-30min till golden brown.