Bun bun buns..

Yes, i'm still obsessed with the whole bread/bun thing. It is an obsession that has got no ending. I love bread, buns of any kind. But if i can only pick one, it's European bread for me.

For the rest of the family, they like the normal asian bread/buns. I guess a wife , a mother gotta to do what she got to do..

Sacrifice *ahem*.

Till today, the only attempt i did on bread and buns are all Asian ones. Because that's what the boys eat, the big boy and the small boys.

Last week was a good week for me. When i went visiting to a new friend's house, i got myself a very good bread recipe.

I didn't ask of course, knowing the friend uses the recipe to sell her very famous black pepper chicken buns daily. But the very nice friend gave them to me voluntarily. She was so enthusiastic about the whole thing. Honestly, i have n.e.v.e.r met anyone who can be this excited when it comes to giving an almost stranger a recipe she uses for her own business.

I am very touched and grateful.

Equipped with the friend's recipe, i tried making some buns that i anyhow create using whatever i can find at home.

This is what i came up with :P



Ham and cheese with cheddar cheese filling. Yes, i really anyhow hor...

But at that time, i wanted to finish off the cheddar cheese, so i went ahead to use it as filling too, which i must say, wasn't too bad after all.



I know the cheese on top looks really funny. That was because i couldn't grate the cheese at all. The helper actually froze the cheese after i used it the last time which she shouldn't. So when i tried grating it after that, the cheese broke into many many lumps, big big lumps and small small lumps.

That was the main reason why i wanted to use up the cheese actually. Because i know if i didn't, i won't wanna keep it anymore :)



This bread by far, has the best texture i ever did.

I love it. So did the very fussy hb.

For once, the husband never said that the bun is too heavy. And all of us felt the same way too. We fancied the buns so much so that all of us, including the little boys, finished the whole tray of buns in 1 morning!

I made 9 buns that day.

Each adult had 2, and the children had 1 each + 1 test bun which we tried straight from the oven.

Thank you very much Kak Siti :) [if you are reading this ]

p.s : i know i still haven't mastered the art of bread/bun making yet.. so, please don't laugh yeah!

Ham and cheese

I think by far, this is probably the best looking bun i've ever done. Grin.

It's ham and cheese, something which hb loves :)



Something different than cakes, cakes and more cakes!

Er, still need lotsa practise and improvement :P

Washing sponge?

When i saw this photo on the PC, guess what was the first thing did i do?


Cheeky me asked boy1 to guess what this is and he gave me an answer which i have expected to hear.

A washing sponge!

The one that auntie (my helper) uses to wash the dishes.

Heh..

A good try i must say but it's not.

It's my bread!

Finally....


A very successful loaf of bread using the bread machine.

All along, i was always telling others how lousy my $300 bread machine is. We bought it nearly 6 years ago when the first bread machine was sold in the departmental store. The bread the machine makes always turns out dense and too wet. The recipe i used comes with the bread machine. I've never thought of trying other recipes merely because i thought the recipes that came with it should be the best for the machine. How stooopeeed of me! Lol.



Last month when i received my monthly newsletter from Kenwood which was having bread making class using bread machine, i signed up for it almost immediately. The main intention was to check out the bread made using the bread machine and also to obtain the recipe if it's nice. And boy, it was NICE!

Better than the ones in the bakery! Maybe because i ate them fresh from the oven.. er, bread machine i mean.

Conclusion : It's not my bread machine that is lousy. It's the owner!!! :P

Sharing my yummilicious white bread loaf recipe using the bread machine, from Kenwood Bread making class ->

(Because i want you to have freshly baked bread in the morning too. The smell when it's baking away while you are sleeping is like a dream and a very good wake up call! :P)

300ml water
50g butter
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
225g bread flour
225g plain flour
2 tbsp milk powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1. Pour ingredients into the bread pan according to sequence.
2. Select programme. Press start. (i use basic and sometimes dark crust)
3. Do not open the lid when the dough is rising.
4. When the bread is done, it should be taken out from the bread pan immediately to prevent shrinking and sweating of bread.

Last but not least, hope you'll enjoy the bread as much as i do! :)

Yes, i did it!

Finally...

Bread that is really edible! A yummy one too :P

Coffee Milk Bun, Angie's yummy recipe

But of course, my bread is nothing compares to Angie's. Somehow, i couldn't shape my dough at all. Too sticky. I wonder if it's due to the substituted bread flour with cake flour? Didn't have enough bread flour then and i didn't even realise, as usual :P

So instead of making them into buns, a loaf it was.

Funny colour right? Hb snapped this using his new hp, N95 which he loves, especially the camera and kindly offered to exchange his hp with mine! (if only u know what hp i'm using, u'll faint! Too outdated! :P)

But i did tweak the recipe slightly besides the 'unavoidable' bread flour substitution, which was to mix 3 tsp of coffee granules with hot water instead of 2 tsp since Angie mentioned on that coffee aroma/taste bit.

The bread texture

Nevertheless, improvement is very much needed when it comes to bread baking. I wish i have enough guinea pigs to help me eat it but unfortunately, i don't. Er, anyone stays in Choa Chu Kang? Heh.

Don't laugh!

My improved, edible buns but still not-that-fantastic-yet-buns.


Yes yes, i bet none of you have seen anything this bad! Lol.

But but... give me a break will ya? Ttrrrrrrryy not to laugh okay? But if you really can't help it, sure.. go ahead! *evil stare* :P

I've got no books to guide me okay? Hehe. Everything was done based solely on my photographic memory which i have from the bakeries.. Grin.

Clockwise : Red bean buns, cheese plaited buns and last but not least, hot dog buns.

p.s: i've just bought Bread Magic recipe book today, thanks to Happy Home Baking recommendation. So yupyup, you will definitely see more breads and buns posts in the coming days! Do bear with me! :P

Breadventure

I've been inspired by Angie to bake bread lately, after seeing her yummilicious buns [no pun intended!hee].

However, my first loaf of Hokkaido Milk Loaf was a failure *sobs*. Reason being is that i didn't knead enough. And also, i have no idea why the loaf split.. others didn't *boo hoo*

My hokkaido milk loaf

Can u see how heavy they are? Not soft and fluffy like what others have been raving.. Nevertheless, they still taste good despite not being soft and fluffy. But i want soft and fluffy bread!

The next day, i was determined to get my texture right but not with Hokkaido Milk Loaf though. This time, i tried sweet bun recipe instead because Hokkaido loaf is pretty expensive for experimenting due to the whipping cream (i use President's) used. I made sure i knead till the dough was non stick and elastic.

During the first proofing, i saw this!



Imagine my excitement!

I was absolutely delighted and pleased because the original dough size was barely 1/3 of the size in the above picture! I was squealing, laughing and even did a little Macarena dance! My first time seeing such huge dough during proofing.. so, do pardon me!

The sweet buns rose and baked beautifully.. I was grinning from ear to ear :P



Beautiful aren't they?

BUT!

My mistake no. 1 : i didn't line my pan. Didn't know that i should. So when i tried taking the buns out, they tore into half. The buns above was a fixed temporarily just for the photoshoot.

I thought i was gonna melt in delight when i took my first bite but sadly, i didn't :(

The buns tasted funny. Abit too yeasty tasting. And not as soft and fluffy as i'd anticipated.. Sigh. What did i do wrong, i wonder...

Then, i re-read the recipe.

Lo and behold!

I added 2tbsp of the dry active yeast instead of 2tsp!!!

It wrote tsps. Not tsp. No wonder i thought it was tbsp..

I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. Grin. And i refused to tell the husband my mistake, not before he eats it for breakfast the next day *evil grin* because if i did, he wouldn't have eaten them! :P

But right after hb did and commented that the buns still tasted like a failed buns, i divulged the truth which was known only to me and my helper. What did i get after that? A thunderous laughter that was meant for me, me the klutz! *kabish*kapow*

Anyway, guess what i'm doing now?

I'm now in the midst of baking another bunch of sweet buns! Hohohoho... Boy, do i know how to torture or what? *hiak*hiak*

Dear guinea pig, you better pray for my success this time round! Sending me an email full of baking bread tips wont help. Praying might help, because i didn't read the tips. Hahaha..

Angie dear, if you are reading this, do send your bread angel to me ok? For a temporary loan. I think mine is sleeping away, not watching after me :(

Note to imp : yay!! I can't wait till July. Smelly no more! *wink*