Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

It's finally November! A few months have passed and exam is just around the corner, my final semester exam before sitting for the IB exam in May 2013. The third semester has almost come to an end. Time sure flies. Anyways, school was hectic. With lots of IAs, ToK, tests and placement stuffs, life just could not get any busier. Sometimes I feel very motivated, sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I know that I can do this, sometimes I doubt myself. Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm at the bottom of the wheel. I guess what keeps me going is my family.. and not to forget, my friends.

I sure miss taking photos of the food I baked, blogging about recipes and life in general. So here goes another recipe that I think I should have shared it much earlier, considering that this is my family's favourite. However, I believe that it is better late than never. I first tried making this bread in 2009. And from that on, I have been making these rolls whenever we needed some. I can assure you that this recipe is worth trying and it will leave you craving for more!

These buns are very versatile, you can have it with just about anything, at anytime of the day. We've had it with sausages, sauteed mushrooms, soups, sardines etc. Since I've ran out of buttermilk, I just substituted it with a cup of milk mixed with a tablespoon of vinegar. And at times, when I'm in the mood of making it,  I'll put in a couple tablespoons of water roux. But then again, it is not really necessary. This dough can be made ahead of time and be refrigerated, so that you can have fresh bread anytime you want. But I only make a third of the recipe, since that is more than enough to serve my family.

Amazing Buttermilk Rolls (makes about 3 dozens):

• 3 cups of buttermilk, at room temperature
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 tbsp of instant yeast

Combine the three ingredients in a bowl, cover and let it sit for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 5 cups of flour (add more if the dough is too sticky)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Mix all the ingredients above into the same bowl as the previous one. Knead for about 7 to 10 minutes (more if using hands) until the dough becomes soft and elastic. Shape into buns and place them onto baking trays. Let them sit for an hour, until they double in size. Then, brush with some egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 10 - 12 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil, halfway through, if they brown too much.

Source: The Sisters Cafe

Herbed Focaccia with Sauteed Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions

Focaccia is a very versatile Italian flat-bread. I think it is quite similar to pizza but somehow they are not considered as one. This bread is very easy to make and can be made at any time of the day as it takes less than an hour to get it ready on the table.

Since Umi is feeling like eating bread and I seriously have no idea what bread to bake her, so I thought why not make her this. It's easy, fast and delicious too. :D

Any kind of toppings would be good on focaccia, if you're not planning to turn them into sandwich bread. Sometimes I would put some meat on with carrots and tomatoes. But today I decided to do something simple. Caramelized the onions, sauteed some mushrooms, grated some mozzarella cheese and Voila! A bread is made under an hour! Life just couldn't get any simpler than this. :)

Recipe (Herbed Focaccia) :

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• a pinch of black pepper
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup warm water
• sauteed mushrooms
• caramelized onions
• mozzarella cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230C.

2. Put everything into a bowl except for caramelized onions, cheese and mushrooms. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic.

3. Leave to proof for 20 minutes. Then knock the air out of the dough and pat it into a triangle. 

4. Brush with olive oil and put the toppings of your choice. Bake for 15 minutes. 

Sweet Buns

In these past few days, I've been cruising through some food blogs that I stumble upon on foodgawker and tastespotting. They have tons of amazing photos of their food on the blog. How I wish one day I could take equally good photos. I guess I need to learn from the experts and just practice more. For now, I'm just going to share this recipe I got from jintanmanis.com.

Half of the dough, I put some chocolate bits in the buns when I shape them and then put some granulated sugar and grated cheddar cheese on the other half of the dough. I like the cheese buns even more but overall, the sweet buns are great, with fluffy and soft texture. Am submitting this to Yeastspotting.

Ingredients :

• 350g bread flour
• 3 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg (leave 1/3 + some milk to make eggwash)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 180ml warm milk
• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 tbsp water roux

Method :

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and knead until a soft and elastic dough is formed. 

2. Leave it to proof for about an hour.

3. After it has doubled in size, punch down the dough. And shape into 16 buns. You can put the chocolate chips/ bits when shaping.

4. Leave the dough to rest again for about an hour until it has double in size.

5. Brush the buns with the egg and milk mixture. Put the toppings now if needed. 

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 18-20 minutes.

Quick Crusty, 'Holey' Bread

I've been baking bread for almost two years now. I've never been to any baking classes actually but I learned from the internet and books. I believe that it isn't really necessary to take up the classes but if you want to understand further on what you should do (if you don't like to read), then perhaps you might want to attend those classes. However, I prefer to learn from the books and internet but maybe someday, if I decide to open up a bakery, maybe I will go on a short course or something like that.

Today, I finally decided to make a no-knead bread. I've always thought that a good bread needs a good, long kneading process. All these while, I was intimidated by the thoughts of my bread being stone hard if I didn't knead it. But I was wrong. Kneading is not essential to a good bread. You can still get the perfect texture with a no-kneading bread recipe. However, I must say that the texture is different from the kneaded bread. This bread has a very nice crust with a chewy texture on the inside.

Recipe (3 small loaves) :
Source : ShareMyKitchen

• 500g bread flour
• 370ml lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 1/4 tsp of yeast
• 1 tsp of salt

Method : 

1. Dissolve honey in the lukewarm water. 

2. Put the bread flour into a big bowl and add yeast. 

3. Pour in the lukewarm water with honey.

3. Mix them together with a fork while adding the salt. The dough will be soft and sticky and not smooth.

4. Let it rise for an hour or so.

5. Line the baking tray with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 220C.

6.  When the dough has doubled, transfer the dough onto a generously floured surface. Shape them into 3 small loaves. 

7. Try to transfer the dough with the flour facing up or you can just sprinkle some flour onto it after it has been transferred to the baking tray.

8. Bake for about 15-20 minutes before lowering down the temperature of the oven to 160C and bake it for additional 10-15 minutes.

Whole Wheat Pizza

1st May was Labour Day and we just got back from Sabah two days ago. It was fun indeed. We stayed at Hyatt Regency Hotel and the breakfast buffet was great - it was definitely up to my liking. However, I must say that the croissants weren't as great as the ones in Hilton. The room was very spacious but there was no bathtub so Hani was quite frustrated I think. :P

This is like only half of the room.

We went to three islands which I could recall their names, to snorkel. It was fun. The fish were beautiful. :) 

The same fish that I saw when I went snorkeling. We call it the rainbow fish. :D

We also bought lots of dried fish, shrimps and oysters - Sabah is actually famous for the seafood, apart from the Mount Kinabalu and Rafflesia. However, we did not buy any lobsters as they were expensive. Pretty much like the ones in Peninsular. 

Well, yesterday I made some pizzas for lunch. I found an amazing recipe for the crust but still could not find a great recipe for the sauce. Maybe someone can recommend me any recipes?  

Ingredients (Whole Wheat Pizza Crust) :

• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 

 Method :
1. Proof the yeast by dissolving the yeast with warm water and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Combine all the other ingredients together and pour in the yeast mixture into the same bowl. Using a dough hook, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth.
3. Let the dough double in a lightly greased bowl for about one hour.
4. When the dough is doubled, tip it out into a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 balls for 2 thin pizza crusts. Let it rise for 45 minutes, until doubled.
5. Preheat the oven to 220C. Roll a ball of dough using a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists and gently pull the edges outwards, while rotating the dough. When the circle has reached the desired size, place it on a well oiled pizza pan. Top your pizza with your favourite toppings.
6. Bake for 16-20 minutes (depending on the thickness), until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges.

Homemade Burgers

Why bother going to McD, Burger King and such if you can make better ones at home? I've bookmarked this amazing recipe for quite some time already but I haven't had the time to make them until today.

Recipe (Burger/Sandwich buns) :

Ingredients :

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 1/4 cup bread flour
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Method : 

1. Put milk, water, honey and butter in a pot and warm them up. Let it cool slightly and beat in the egg.

2. Mix 2 cups of flour with the yeast and salt. Add in the milk mixture and mix well.

3. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until it forms a quite stiff dough.

4. Transfer the dough to the working top and knead for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

5. Shape into 12 buns and flatten the top slightly by gently patting them. 

6. Leave it to rise until doubled. 

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Recipe (Beef patties) :

Ingredients :

• 1 kg lean meat
• 2 eggs
• 2 medium red onions, finely chopped
• 1-2 handful of fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 small pinch of cumin seeds, crushed
• 1 headed tsp of Dijon mustard
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method : 

1. Preheat the oven to 230C. 

2. Chop the meat in a food processor until you get the desired texture. 

3. Combine all the other ingredients and mix well. 

4. Divide into 4 (I made them into 10) and use your hands to shape them.

5. Roast for 25 minutes if it is very thick or less if it is not so thick. 

6. Build a burger with what you have.

Recipe (Caramelized Onions) :

Ingredients :

• 6 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 4-5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I didn't put this)
• 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 knobs of butter
• salt to taste

Method :

1. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan or pot.

2. Once hot, throw in the onions and make sure that every slice is lightly coated with the oil. 

3. Stir once in a while to ensure even browning. This may take a while. 

4. When the onions turn pale gold, pour in balsamic vinegar, sugar, butter and a good pinch of salt.

5. When the onions turn dark golden brown, they are ready.

6. Store in a sterilized jar in the refrigerator.

Recipe (Curry Mayonnaise) :

• A slap of bottled mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp mustard

Method :

1. Mix them well and slap on burger.

p.s : The caramelized onions make the burger tastes even better and I'll definitely be making this burger again and again. :) I'm submitting the burger buns recipe to yeastspotting.

1 hour dinner rolls

It's Sunday again. That means I have to go back to college and prepare for the classes tomorrow. :( I'm finally done with my assignment on nationalism. But I have a few other assignments to be finished within this week. And tomorrow I have my first Malaysian Studies test which carries only 5% of the final mark. I hope I can answer the questions.

Since yesterday was Hani's birthday, we (me and Hani) had a sleepover at Hilton Hotel KL. It was fun. During breakfast, we just ate everything until we could not eat anymore.

Umi has been asking me to bake some bread since morning but I was pretty busy finishing my assignment that I didn't have the mood to bake. However, a few hours before going back to Subang Jaya, I suddenly felt like eating homemade bread. And so I made some easy ones. :)

The recipe is from this site. I've made some slight changes to satisfy my own taste buds. I just love the rolls. Look how soft it is.

Recipe (water-roux) :

Ingredients :

• 25g bread flour
• 125ml water

Method :

Cook over medium heat and stir until it forms a thick paste. Leave it to cool slightly.

Recipe (1 hour dinner rolls) :

Ingredients :

• 1 1/4 cup warm milk
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups of bread flour (high protein flour)
• water-roux

Method:

1. Put everything in a mixing bowl including the water roux and knead using a dough hook for about 7-10 minutes. If kneading by hand, it will take a longer time. (The dough is quite sticky so there is no need to add too much flour)

2. Let the dough rise for 20-30 minutes. Then, punch down the dough and divide into 15-16 equal parts.

3. Shape into dinner rolls and let it rise again for 20 minutes.

4. Brush the buns with some milk and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 13-15 minutes.

Honey And Vanilla Buns

I am feeling very nervous as SPM results will be announced on this coming Wednesday (23rd March). Yes! There's only a few days left. It's hard for me not to think or care about it. I really need to get straight A+'s in order for me to be given a scholarship by the government.

I want to go to UK or Ireland to do medicine. One thing that I am not very sure about is whether I should do my A-level first or wait for the scholarship. If I wait for the scholarship and end up not getting one, I have to go through matriculation which makes it even harder for me to go to oversea. I'm in a dilemma! Help me! :(

Moving on to our main topic, I made some bread again today. I actually wanted to bake muffins for Hani today so that she can bring some to school tomorrow. But I'm not sure what muffins to bake. So I ended up baking bread instead. The recipe is from JMC. The buns are cottony soft, maybe because it uses water roux or tangzhong method. I'm submitting this to Yeastspotting.

Honey and vanilla buns : (I halved the recipe and got 12 buns)

Source : Kak Rosmarlina

• 500 g high protein flour
• 3 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoon milk powder
• 3 tablespoon vegetable shortening
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 220 ml warm water
• 6 g instant yeast
• 4 tablespoon water roux
• 1 teaspoon salt
• few drops of vanilla

1. Put everything in the mixing bowl and knead using a dough hook for about 7-10 minutes. If kneading by hand, it will take a longer time. (The dough is a bit sticky)

2. Let the dough rise until doubled (about one hour). Punch down the dough and divide into 24-26 equal parts.  Use whatever filling you like - I used nutella. Plain ones are equally good. Shape into dinner rolls and leave to rise again until doubled.

3. Brush the buns with some milk and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-18 minutes.

My first yummy story :D

Hello there. Since this is going to be my first post ever in this new blog I created, I was thinking of posting my favourite recipes. However, considering that I don't have any pictures to post along with, I decided to post a recipe which I just tried today.

Well, at first I wanted to bake some dinner rolls but thinking that I had baked some yesterday, I finally decided to make some sweet buns. I randomly read a few blogs just to get some ideas - more like a recipe, actually. And I've came across this recipe from here and the original recipe is from here. The buns I made are slightly green but I guessed the colour didn't show up on camera. These buns are soft and fluffy - just how I like it. :)

Instead of using pandan paste as called for in the recipe, I blended some pandan leaves with a little bit of water - 100 ml to be exact, to get the juice out of it. We used to have a lot of pandan trees before we decided to remove some of them because we seldom use them. And now, we only have one fairly big pandan tree.

Pandan Buns :

• 350 g high protein flour 
• 200 ml cold water (I used 150 ml cold water + 50 ml coconut milk)
• 50 g sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon bread improver (optional)
• 1 tablespoon powdered milk
• 20 g coconut milk powder (I omitted this)
• 1 small egg 
• 30 g butter
• 1 teaspoon of pandan paste (I used two pandan leaves)

1. If you're not using pandan paste, blend pandan leaves with 100 ml of cold water. Then pour the pandan juice through a sieve. Add the coconut milk and enough cold water to the pandan juice, so that they total up to 200 ml. If you're using pandan paste, just skip this step and continue with the rest.

2. Put all the ingredients except for butter into the mixing bowl and by using a dough hook, mix it on a medium speed until it starts to resemble a dough. Add the butter and knead it again until the dough become smooth and elastic. It will take about ten minutes (or more if you're kneading by hand).

3. Let the dough rise until doubled (45 minutes - 1 hour). Punch the dough down and divide the dough into 16 equal parts. You can use whatever filling you like (kaya, coconut, read bean paste) - I used coconut filling. Shape into dinner rolls and leave it to rise again until doubled.

4. Brush with some milk before baking it in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 minutes.

Well, for the coconut filling, I just put some freshly grated coconut with enough palm sugar, salt and some water on medium heat and cook until water has dried up a little bit. (The filling should not be too wet nor too dry). If anyone is looking for homemade kaya recipe (coconut egg jam), you can find it here or here.