A little late for World Bread Day

World Bread Day was yesterday, 16 October.  I was planning to bake this potato bread for that purpose.  Despite being a day late, I am glad I did it.

Recipe is adapted from a blog post from 厨房找快乐。

250g   Bread Flour
50g     Potato, mashed
50g     Egg
50g     Sugar
80 ml  Milk
1 tbsp  Milk powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp    Instant Yeast
20g     Butter

I have added 20g water after feeling the dough.

Bulk ferment for 60 mins, cut and pre shape, each about 52g.
Final shape and proof for 45 mins.
Bake @180 25 mins

spicy tuna buns

Tried a spicy tuna ciabatta sandwich from Sun Moulin and really liked it.  I am sure if I were to make Ciabatta, the boys will surely grumble.  Combining the filling with their favourite sweet buns, they make good afternoon tea break.

A not so satisfactory Ogura

Ogura cake a.k.a 相思蛋糕 was ragingly popular once in the Facebook community.  I didn't attempt, I was not confident.  My Cotton Cheese cake had cracks and such I concluded that I just could not do it well.  All of a sudden, Japanese Cheese Cake is in the rage again and I caught on too.  Though the cheese cakes were not very well baked,  I am glad that the tops are intact, thanks very much to the postings from ieatishootipost.  It is simply the idea that since the surfaces of the cheese cakes were good, I should have a trial bake on the Ogura cake.

The recipe says:

100g egg yolk ( 5 yolks)
1 whole egg (56 g)
50g corn oil
60 ml pandan juice + pandan paste

Whisk the above till visible small bubbles, then sift in 70g Cake Flour, mix well and leave aside.

200g egg whites ( 5 eggs)
80g castor sugar
cream of tartar ( I had omitted)

Whisk till soft peak and fold into yolk batter.
Pour into a lined 8 inches square tin and bake till done.

Actually, it was rather baffling.  I just cannot obtained 100 grams of yolk from 5 eggs, given that I was using a tray of 650g eggs.  However, I did get around 200g of egg whites from the same eggs which I separated the yolks.  So, I was torn between adding one more yolk or just ignored and followed the ' 5 yolks' from other bloggers.   Which is correct?????

Being the first attempt, I think this is passable but not quite up to satisfaction.  There shall be more bakes on this for perfection, in addition to my Japanese Cheese cake.

Naturally

Keeping natural yeast needs regular refreshing in the initial stage.  Discarding half of the culture and refreshing with the same amount always seems so wasteful.  Nevertheless, this is a procedure needed to ensure the strength of the yeast.

After receiving some starter from Chef William, I refreshed the portion which supposed to be discarded and use it to make Blueberry Muffins from the recipe by Sanjin Ko.

To test if the refreshed yeast, which turned bubbly, is ready for use, simply scoop some from the lot and drop it onto a container of water.  If it floats, means it is ripe for using. Mine is ready and the container which has the culture felt so light.

I wasn't sure about the texture of the baked muffins so I brought some for Chef William to determine.
Chef confirmed on the texture and added that crumbs made with natural yeast culture would never be similar to commercial yeast.  Whilst the latter will be more crumbly, those that are made with natural yeast will be moist and bread-like.  I prefer those made with natural yeast.

Pain de mie in variation - orange

The advantage of going through the Artisan Bread Baking Class is the ability to design bread recipes.  With the usage of preferment, I am now confident of recalculating hydration as well as to handle a wetter dough.  This is a very versatile recipe, one which I can change the ingredient/s to suit my taste.  The leftover of the mashed pumpkin was added to make this loaf and the colour turned out well.  

Definitely easier to get the boys to eat this!  They did not even know that it was made from pumpkin.

Tiger in Hiding

Since father's recovery, I had been busy baking and perfecting French Breads.  So much time and effort had been directed towards this new challenge that I have neglected my cakes.  Of course, the pleas from the boys to spare them from more 'hard breads' also made me veered from my course temporarily.

A recipe from Chef Aki, this has been on my mind and the first on my to-do list.  She was sitting next to me in one of Shermay's class and asked if I had tried baking her chiffon cakes.  There were feedbacks that those who attempted were not successful.  She was perplexed but I was so motivated.

I am happy to have completed in my task and shall be moving to the next in line.

Tora, which means Tiger in Japanese, is depicted by the design of the cake batter.

葡萄甜土司

I am still indulging in this method of bread making.  It is so easy to churn out soft breads in the house as long as the levain is available.  With so many interesting recipes to try out from the book, I'm thankful for the bread lovers in the family!