Sausage broiche rolls

Since making this quick sausage rolls a year back, I've been reading up. Although the recipe is great in a pinch, it's for eating on the day itself. The bread uses a lot of yeast which may taste too yeasty (I didn't think so) but my main bug bear was that it tasted really dry and sand-papery the next day. On doing some reading up, I found out from this improved 50 minute version that that's a known 'side effect' of the bread, that it hardens. Also, the bread must strictly be proofed only for 10 minutes or it looses its softness, and I'm never a stickler for sticking strictly to recipes. On my last try, I exceeded that 10 minute mark.

I couldn't use the 50 minute recipe because it includes pumpkin, so had to find alternatives. This recipe is adapted from mini sausage rolls (http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/mini-sausage-bread-rolls.html) for the technique, and standard sausage rolls (http://rasamalaysia.com/sausage-rolls/2/) for the ingredients (I converted some of the measurements). Most recipes I came across used Christine's tangzong method for true soft HK buns but I might try that another time.

Ingredients (makes 8 rolls)
300g bread flour (2 cups)
5g (2 tsp dried yeast)
10g (1 tbsp) sugar
6g (1 tsp) salt
30g butter, cubed at room temperature
1 egg
200ml milk
8 sausages
1 egg + dash of milk for egg wash
Sesame seeds to top (optional)

Method
1) Put 1/2 of flour and yeast in the bowl of the food processor with the dough hook attachment. Add the sugar and salt. Combine.
2) Trickle in the egg and milk. Scrape down the sides.
3) Add in the remaining flour mixture and knead until the dough becomes elastic and leaves the side of the bowl. This took about 5 minutes.
4) Add the cubed butter a bit at a time and knead. Continue kneading till the dough becomes stretchy, glossy and soft. Try the window pane test. This took about 10 minutes. I also removed it form the food processor and continued to knead by hand for another 10 minutes. The mixture is sticky but scape it off the surface with a scraper. No additional flour to dust the surface was needed.
5) Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to proof for 1 to 1.5 hours depending on ambient temperature until it doubles in size.
6) Deflate and cut the dough into 8 pieces. Gently knead by folding it like a book and bring the sides down to form a ball. Return to the bowl to rest for 10 minutes. Prepare the baking trays by lining with parchment.
7) Take out each piece but keep the unused ones covered in the bowl. Roll it out into a long cylinder (about the diagonal of my 40 cm board) and coil it loosely around the sausage. Tuck in each of the ends. Place on the tray.
8) Leave to proof for 30 to 45 minutes until doubled in size. Coat with egg wash and sesame seeds.
9) Bake at 200 deg C (no grill) for 8 minutes, then rotate try and bake for a further 4 to 5 minutes with the grill function on until it has turned golden brown.


Recipe feedback: I really hate the brioche method of making bread because the dough is so sticky. Thankfully however, two things saved my bacon this time. First, I used bread flour, which seemed to find some structure much more easily. Second, thank God for my food processor! I've never used machinery before but when there is this much stickiness involved, it was a life saver. I still had to manually pound it for about 10 minutes to get it to window pane stage but having it help me with the first 30 minutes made a huge difference to my arm muscles and motivation to complete!

Slow cooked Chu hou beef briskit and daikon

Adapted from here. http://themeatmen.sg/braised-beef-brisket-with-daikon/ Really good.

Ingredients
500g beef briskit, cubed
3 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
3 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper corns
2 tbsp chu hou paste
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp five spice powder
3 cloves
1 star anise
1 sweet potato cubed
1 daikon cubed
2 cups water

Method
1) Coat the beef in the corn starch. In a pot, brown the beef. Remove.
2) Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger. Return the beef to the pot.
3) Add everything else other than the sweet potato and daikon.
4) Bring to a boil and skim off any scum. Cover and simmer for 3 to 5 hours on low. (My pot retains heat, so I only need to bring it to a boil every ½ hr to 45 mins and switch off the flame to conserve gas). Give it a stir and add more water if required. Continue to skim the scum and oil.
5) In the 5th hour, add the sweet potato. In the 6th hour, add the daikon.

Haemul pajeon

I have repeatedly tried making pajeon and kimchi pajeon with normal flour but it always came out doughey. I read somewhere that the addition of cold water makes all the difference. I came across this recipe and thought it'd be worth a try and not to mention, the use of cake flour should reduce the doughey-ness.

From http://www.justonecookbook.com/korean-pancake/

Ingredients
10 scallions, cut in half
1 large egg, beaten
12 medium shrimps
1-2 tbsp oil for frying
1/2 C cake flour
1/2 C cold water (120ml)

Method
1) In a non stick pan, heat up the oil. Arrange the spring onions in a square. Intersperse with the prawns and fry for 3 minutes.
2) Using a zig zag motion, pour on the batter. Try to cover the prawns and as much spring onion as possible to 'stick' everything together. Pour the egg in between any 'holes'.
3) Fry for about 3 minutes until the sides crisp up, then flip.
4) Flatten down with the spatula. When the bottom is golden, flip again.
5) Serve with dipping sauce. (JOC uses gochugaru I prefer the recipe from Maangchi which I used previously that uses fresh cut chilli).

Recipe feedback: success! The dough was fluffy and crispy. But there was too much flour and insufficient water. *I've update the recipe. It was consumed so that I forgot to take photos. Next time then.

Tangzong and milk cream breads

I have read a lot about this method as a way of baking really soft yet elastic Japanese bread. It's often used in HK bread, with the most famous being Christine whose posts and methods are cited by many bloggers.

Original tangzong from Christine (uses 1/3 cup of bread flour to yield 240g of tangzong roux): http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/03/japanese-style-bacon-and-cheese-bread.html
: This amount of tangzong makes 4 loaves of bread, or 3 loaves and 5 sausage rolls

Best picture of what the tangzong should look like when it's ready at 65 C without a need for a thermometer: http://www.nisahomey.com/2011/08/bread-tangzhong-methodstep-by-step.html

Christine (and bloggers) usually advocate making more roux and then keeping the remainder in the fridge. It can last a few days if clingfilm is placed directly on top so that a skin doesn't form. Once it turns grey, it must be thrown away.

My reluctance to use this method is that it is really messy, and worse if it's combined with brioche method ie adding the butter afterwards. I don't have a breadmaker or KitchenAid, so the thought of kneading everything by hand just fills me with dread. But maybe one day I'll attempt this with my food processor.

Update
Here is a side by side comparison of recipes that use tangzong and new improvement of heavy cream or whipped cream which apparently is easier and produces a softer bun!

1) Christine's sausage rolls: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/03/hong-kong-style-sausage-rolls.html
- makes 4 to 6 rolls using 350g bread flour
- main ingredients of tangzong, bread flour, milk, milk powder, butter

2) Christine's Hokkaido milk toast: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/10/hokkaido-milk-toast-japanese-style.html
- makes 2 loafs from 540g bread flour
- main ingredient of tangzong, bread flour, whipping cream, milk, milk powder, butter

3) Curious Nut's Hokkaido milk bread: http://www.curiousnut.com/hokkaido-milk-bread/
- makes 1 loaf using 12.1 oz (343g or slightly more than 1½ C flour)
- main ingredients of tangzong, bread flour, milk (can include heavy cream), butter
- states proportions of tangzong: tangzong makes up is 5-12% of total flour in the recipe. More tangzong means sticker but softer bun. Liquid for tangzong must be 5X the flour for tangzong.

4) China Sichuan baked cha siu bun: http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/char-siu-bao-baked-buns-recipe/
- makes 8 to 12 buns using total nearly 300g flours
- main ingredients of tangzong, bread flour, cake flour, milk, butter

5) Wok of Life cha siu bun: http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/02/chinese-bbq-pork-buns-cha-siu-bao/
- makes 16 buns using 5C bread flour
- main ingredients of tangzong, bread flour, milk, butter

6) Wok of Life hot dog bun: http://thewoksoflife.com/2015/03/chinese-hot-dog-buns/
- improvement on cha siu bao recipe. Supposed to be easier and produces a soften bun.
- makes 12 buns using total 4C flour
- main ingredients of heavy cream, bread flour, cake flour, milk. No butter.

7) Rice n Flour's Hokkaido milk bread
- makes 2 loafs using total 600g or 4½C of flours
- main ingredients of bread flour, cake flour, milk, milk powder, whipping cream. No tangzong.

General converter for dry ingredients: 1 C = 16 tbsp = 8 oz = 227g = 3 big or 4 small buns/rolls

[FAIL] Cotton cheesecake

First time I've ever declared a FAIL on this blog. I've had recipes that weren't 100% successful but still looked ok and tasted alright. This time, it just didn't work. I don't think the ingredients are at fault nor the techniques, but my execution of them. This is the hardest baking recipe I've ever attempted and the Internet is littered with pictures of multiple failed attempts. So in the spirit of 失败是成功之母, I'm posting pictures here.

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Based on this earlier post that compared various recipes, I chose the recipe that best suited my situation: to use up my 250g block of cream cheese without leftover and my 8" pan.

Base on the ingredient choice, I choose the following recipes for this reason by Christine and BakingTaiTai w(hich look suspiciously similar in terms of wording), and ieatshootpost. However in terms of method, I did not want to use cream of tartar so KitchenTigress, JOC, and Cooking with Dog were instructive. They also taught me to pour slowly from 2" to 3" height to minimise bubbles then gently 'drop' the cake with its batter to burst big bubbles. KT is especially important because she bakes the cake in the middle of the oven. However, everyone else other than Nasi Lemak Lover and KT advocate keeping the cake in the oven with door ajar to cool slowly to avoid shrinkage and cracks. However, all agree that you should only unmould it when it is cooler.

Ingredients
250ml milk
250g cream cheese at room temp, cubed
60g butter, room temp
6 eggs (21 deg C is ideal), separated
55g cake flour
20g corn flour
130g sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Method
#1) Prepare the 8" round tin by lining with parchment and using oil to 'stick' it to the base and sides of the tin. Remember to leave a 2 to 3" allowance at the top of the tin so the mixture won't overflow. (NLL and runawayrice only uses 5 eggs for this reason). Cover the outside of the tin with several layers of foil to prevent water seepage later on. Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
2) Sift the corn flour and cake flour mixture twice. Boil the water. Heat milk hot to the touch.
3) In a medium bowl, beat butter and egg yolks using a whisk. Beat the cream cheese in. Add vanilla, milk and lemon juice and mix smooth.
*4) Using the whisk, whisk in the flour in 3 batches till no lumps of flour remain. Strain mixture and set aside.
5) In a very clean bowl (no oil, soap, or water), beat egg whites on low speed until foamy and opaque. Add sugar in 3 batches. Once all the sugar has been added, increase to max speed and beat till stiff peaks (double in volume and glossy) which takes about 4 mins. It is best to underbeat and stop to check then repeat at 30s intervals because once the meringue are over-beaten, they cannot be used. Beat to just before stiff peaks.
@6) Using the whisk, fold in 1/3 of the meringue to the yolk/flour batter and break up the egg white. You can whisk and not worry about breaking the foam. Use the whisk and add another third of the meringue to the yolk/flour batter but carefully break up the foam. Finally, return the entire batter to the bowl with the remaining 1/3 meringue and fold in carefully using a spatula. Alternatively, you can continue to use the whisk to fold in by scooping then lifting action from the bottom. Turn the bowl as you do this.
7) Pouring slowly from a height of 2 to 3 inches above, pour in so that you don't get big bubbles. Gently 'drop' from the tin about 2 inches from the air to the countertop to knock out the bigger bubbles. Alternatively, making slashes in the batter with the spatula.
8) In a baking tray, place the cake tin and pour in about 1 cup of water to bake in a water bath. It should come up to about 2 cm up the sides. In the lowest rack of the oven, turn down to and bake at 160 deg C for 60 minutes and then increase to 170 deg C for 10 to 15 minutes to brown. Skewer inserted comes out clean.
9) Leave cake in the oven with door ajar for 10 to 15 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
**10) Once the the cake has slightly shrunk away from the pan, unmould and leave to cool completely on the wire rack. Best left to cool completely (at least 3 hours in the fridge or overnight) before cutting. Dampen the knife and press down to slice, do not saw.
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Recipe feedback:
Several things went wrong because the cake didn't have enough structure.
1) After pouring all the batter into the tin, I spied from the corner of my eye that I'd left out some flour. Oooopppps. It won't be structurally solid enough.

2) In attempting NOT to overmix, I undermixed and left pockets of meringue. The top was meringue (visible from the top picture where you can see the lumpy texture on the surface) and the bottom was cheese. Hence in attempting to turn the cake tin over onto a wire rack, the bottom over-balanced and 'crushed' the top (visible from the picture below)

However, when peeling off the paper from the bottom, I noticed that indeed, condensation had started to form. I followed all the directions i.e. left it in the oven with door ajar for 10 minutes to cool slightly to avoid shrinkage and cracked too, so that didn't happen. After removal from the oven, that's when I removed the side of the springform and then attempted to remove the bottom and ... you know the rest. However, if I had left the bottom of the tin on any further, there would have been a soggy cake bottom.

3) While the texture was beautiful once cooled down to room temp, the next day (ie more than 12 hours of chilling), it became too hard in the fridge.

Next time

*1) Check to ensure all the flour has been incorporated. And get a digital scale, I may also have under or over-measured and since this recipe has so little flour in it to give it much needed structure, every little gram counts!

@2) Don't over mix but don't undermix either! Following Cooking with Dog's tricks, use the whisk to stir in 1/3 of the meringue without worrying too much about deflating the air, stir the 2nd third of meringue but using the whisk to break up all the meringue pockets. TRANSFER the mixture BACK into the bowl with the leftover meringue and using the whisk, fold in the meringue by scooping from the bottom then lifting upwards and through. This way, the denser cheese mixture ends up on top of the meringue and it's easier to fold in than adding the remaining meringue on top of the denser mixture. I will not be using a spatula to fold in.

#3) The parchment lining the side may not be a good idea. It leaves creases on the side of the cake. My 8" was also tall enough so that the cake rose just to the top but did not overflow, so I might just butter and flour the sides of the pan the next time. The bottom may still need the parchment although I've now noticed that my springform as a 'lip' which makes removal difficult. Hmm.

**4) Don't remove the springform pan till fully cooled in the fridge. I will just remove the side but not the bottom.

UPDATE: Second attempt posted here.

Tahini cookies

But I have a bottle of tahini in the fridge that I didn't know what to do with. I found this recipe and presto, thought I'd try it out. The texture is denser than almond cookies but still crumbly, melt in your mouth delicious.

Adapted from http://prettysimplesweet.com/tahini-cookies/

Ingredients (24 cookies)
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
⅓ cup + 1 tbsp tahini
⅓ cup + 1 tbsp sugar
75g butter (⅓ cup)

Method
1) In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar, butter and tahini until creamy. Scrape down the bowl periodicallty.
2) Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in two batches. Using low speed, beat in the dry additions.
3) I got a sandy dough. Chill for ½ hour to make it easier to roll into balls. Use a tbsp to portion out each ball of dough and place it on a lined cookie tray. Leave some space between each ball as it will grow.
4) Bake at 180 deg C for 12 to 14 minutes (no grill).
5) Leave to cool on the cookie tray for at least 10 minutes. Since it was so crumbly, I left it on the tray to cool completely before transferring into an air tight container to store for up to 5 days (not in the fridge).

Recipe feedback: The sandy dough was very difficult to work with. The original recipe calls for pressing the ball flat and embedding an almond. The whole ball just crumbled on me so I gave up. This was despite chilling the dough. Taste is great but am not sure I will make this again.

Chocolate chip and almond muffins

Since making this recipe over a year ago, I found the technique worked quite well. Came across a similar recipe which I adapted below by adding almonds and mixing dark with milk chocolate chips. Sally's recipe uses 3 cups instead of 2.5 cups but interestingly, makes only 10 muffins instead of 11 in the old recipe. However, perhaps last year I used muffin papers and only filled them 3/4 full. The results don't 'feel' heavier. The problem with the old recipe was the the taste of baking soda was quite obvious but Sally's recipe replaces it with baking powder and the result is that you can't taste the alkaline taste.

From http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/01/17/bakery-style-chocolate-chip-muffins/ which I adp

Ingredients (makes 10)
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp and beaten
1 cup milk (240 ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter (115g)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (roughly chopped if they aren't mini chips)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (roughly chopped if they aren't mini chips)
1/2 cup almonds (roughly chopped)

Method

1) In a big bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till pale yellow and fluffy. Add in the melted butter, salt, vanilla. (After my butter seized up the last time, I realised that it was important not to add it to cold eggs and 

2) In another bowl, sift in the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking powder.

3) Combine by whisking the dry ingredients into the wet but do not over-mix. I used the whisk to gentle fold in. Divide the dry ingredients into 3 batches and only fold in two times during each batch. The batter will be very thick and may have dry flour spots. That's ok.

4) Fold in the almonds and 2/3 of the combined milk and dark chocolate chips.

5) Prepare the muffin tins e.g. oil the sides (in case they over flow), you want to be able to remove them easily. Also, preheat the oven to 220 deg C.

6) Using a half cup measure, fill each of the muffin cases to the top. Add water to the empty tins. 

7) Sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 cup of dark and milk chocolate chips on top. Gently press them into the mixture.

8) Bake at 220 deg C for 5 minutes (with the grill function off). Turn down to 190 deg C and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the tins to ensure even baking and bake for another 10 minutes.

9) Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before consuming and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool complete.

10) They can store in an airtight container but outside the fridge for up to 5 days, or in a freezer.

American waffles

From this earlier post, there is not perfect recipe but here is my adaptation from all four sources based on my needs ie 2 cups of flour and keeping the milk and egg proportionate.

Ingredients (makes 7 *2 leafs + 1 leaf)
2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter melted
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Method
1) Melt the butter in the micorwave, about 30 seconds with 10 second increments. Warm up the milk in the microwave, about a minute. Add in the beaten egg and vanilla. The milk and butter cannot be too hot otherwise you'll get scrambled egg. (My melted butter went into the cold milk and coagulated. Not good)
2) Mix the dry. This time, I decided to sift in the flour and use a balloon whisk.
3) Whisk till smooth to combine but do not over mix.
4) Ladle onto the waffle griddle. (¾ scoop per side with ¼ to ½ scoop top up in the middle)

Recipe notes

Compared to the yeasted waffles,

1) batter was much thicker and more like what I have come to associate with waffle batter.

2) tasted like crispy pancakes but compared to yeasted waffles, it got soggy much quicker.

3) color is not as uniform compared to yeasted

4) Yeasted waffles were crispy outside but pillowy inside. These were just crispy throughout.

Strewed pork and cabbage bee hoon

Felt really tired after the annual (or biannual) weed spraying but still needed to prepare dinner. Have a sad half a head of cabbage sutting in the fridge and a can of stewed pork specially bought some time back just for such an occasion. 

Adapted from this recipe: http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2013/06/fried-bee-hoon-with-cabbage-and-stewed-pork/

I didn't stir fry the noodles but tossed it like a salad. Used the microwave to heat up the stewed pork and cook the cabbage.

Ingredients

1 can of stewed pork

½ head of cabbage, chopped

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced

3 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp Chinese rice cooking wine

Method

1) Boil a kettle of water and pour into a big bowl. Soak the bee hoon for 10 minutes, not too long or it will fall apart when u toss it. 

2) Pour the can of stewed pork into a deep microwavable bowl. I used a pyrex. Remove as much oil as possible. It would have coagulated on the top.

3) Add the minced garlic and ginger to the stewed pork, along with the cabbage. Toss through and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir and microwave for another 5 minutes on medium high. Stir to incorporate.

4) Drain the bee hoon but reserve 1 cup of the soaking water.

5) In the big bowl, toss through stewed pork mixture with the bee hoon till well incorporated but be careful not to break up the bee hoon.

6) Serve immediately. 

Overnight Belgium Yeast Waffle

First trial of yeasted belgium-style waffles discussed in a previous post. I choose this recipe instead of the non-overnight versions because if I'm going to use yeast and let it rise, I won't be skimping on the time element so I might as well be go all the way. I also chose the recipe because it is portioned for 2 people, sufficient oil content, and avoiding baking soda because I find it gives it an alkaline taste which I'm not too fond of.

This adaption is based on two recipes because the proportions are easy to remember: equal parts milk, eggs, and flour. My only adaptations are conversion to cup or metric

:http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/overnight-yeast-waffles

However, I had instant not active yeast and adapted the method from this 

: http://crispywaffle.com/?p=110. This recipe doesn't activate the yeast so does not use water but has 1 tbsp sugar (instead of 1 tsp) to help the proving.

Ingredients (makes 7 waffles *2 leafs + 1 leaf)
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
2 cup warm milk (37 to 40 deg C)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Method
1) Mix the dry: flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
2) Mix the wet: Warm milk, butter, beaten egg.
3) Combine but don't over mix but ensure that there are no lumps. I used a spatula to smooth out the lumps rather than stirring or whisking.
4) Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to prove overnight. (10 to 24 hours)

5) Next day, heat up the waffle iron and pour on 3/4 scoop per side (I only used ¾ scoop per side, and scant 1/2 scoop in the centre) but resist the urge to flatten out. Pour in the centre or it will overflow, as it did on me.

5) After it stops steaming, remove carefully with a spatula to aid u but avoid using a knife or fork which can scratch the nonstick surface. I did not have my oil the surface so I intend to keep it that way.

Recipe feedback
1) The batter was really very watery. I thought I'd done something wrong. But as it turns out, it made the same number of waffles as the American pancake-adapted batter.