Mexican Coffee Buns (Roti Boy/ Paparoti Bun)

The buns from Roti boy or Paparoti used to be my favourite. Does anyone remember when the chains in Singapore closed? Are there any outlets remaining? I do know that they are still available in Johore Bahru and other states in Malaysia.

I went to search for similar recipes on Google. I finally selected a recipe from Bake Cook and Create. I like that the bread texture is soft and fluffy and the topping is fragrant. However, I made very minor changes from the original recipe. My family gave the buns thumbs up.


Recipe:
makes 9 buns

Ingredients for the dough:
190 g bread flour
45 g fine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 g instant dry yeast
12 g milk powder
1/2 teaspoon  bread improver (I did not use)
165 ml warm water ( do not pour all the water at a time it has to depend on the size of the egg)
35 g softened butter (room temperature)
1 small egg- lightly beaten

Ingredients for the topping:
100 g softened butter
90 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( i did not use)
2 small eggs
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder (I used Nescafe Gold Blend)
2 tablespoon warm water
100 g cake flour (I used plain flour)- sifted
(A little milk to adjust consistency if required)

Ingredients for the filling:
100 g good quality salted butter cut into 9 cube pieces
After cutting freeze the cubes

Method:

Dough making:
1) Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. With the dough hook attachment, whisk slowly to mix the ingredients together, add in egg and water (remember to reserve 30 ml), continue to mix and beat all the ingredients  to form a rough ball (at this stage if the dough is dry, add water to beat). Then add in softened butter, continue to beat dough till smooth and elastic. Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place at a warm place and let it rest till it doubles in size (about 50-60 minutes).

2)  When the dough has doubled in size, punch down dough to release gas. Divide dough into 10 equal portions. Roll them into balls, Take one of the dough divide into 9 even small balls. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 5 - 10 minutes.

3) Lightly flatten the small ball of dough and wrap the frozen cubed butter. Then flatten the big dough.  Place the wrapped butter on the main dough. Pleat and seal the edges and roll into balls. Cover  with plastic wrap and to rest in a warm place to proof to about 1,1/2 times in size (about 50-60 minutes.

4) Pipe topping on buns in spiral motion. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 15 minutes or till golden brown.

Method for the topping:
1) Dissolve instant coffee powder with 2 tbsp warm water.
2) Beat butter for a minute or so, add in sugar continue to beat till pale and creamy, then add in egg  one at a time. Pour in the coffee mixture, beat for a while.  Then add in the flour in 2 batches. Beat the mixture till smooth and lumps free.
3) Fill piping bag with topping and set in the fridge for later use.

Whole Wheat Butter Bread Loaf 奶油全麦面包

Like this bread very much. The texture is soft and a bit chewy.  And it is nutritious also when compared to white plain bread.

Recipe: Adapted from Carol's "Original Flavour" Book

Ingredients:

200 g bread flour
100 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast
15 g fine sugar
100 c.c. water (room temperature)

30 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Beat till form a dough.  Add in butter continue to beat till you get a smooth and elastic dough. Place the dough on a lightly greased container or big bowl.  Cover with a damp cloth or cling-wrap. Leave to ferment for  60 minutes or double in size.
2) Sprinkle bread flour on working counter, take out the fermented dough and punch out gas.
divide dough into 2 equal portions. Roll them round, and leave to rest for 10 minutes (cover).
3) Roll each dough flat into rectangular shape. Roll from the width. Rest and cover for 10 minutes again.
4) Roll flat till the length is about 40 cm and the width is the same size as that of your baking mould so that it fits.
5) If your mould is not non-stick, grease the mould and dust with flour. Place the dough into the mould with the end of the folded dough facing downwards. Place the 2 doughs at each side of the mould with some space in between them. Ferment for 60 - 70 minutes till the dough reaches 90% of the rim of the mould.
5) Preheat oven 10 - 15 minutes at 210 deg before the baking time.
6) Cover lid (the lid needs to grease with oil too) . Put into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes.
7) Take out from the oven and immediately remove the bread loaf from the mould. Allow to cool on the wire rack before slicing them.

Christmas Tree Nutella Bread

Hi! Dear bloggers and friends. Today is Christmas Eve ,here I would like to wish everyone of you a very Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
320 g bread flour
50 egg (whole egg without shell)
3/4 teaspoon instant dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 g fine sugar
160 c.c fresh milk
50 g unsalted butter ( at room temperature)

some nutella

Method:
1) Combine all ingredients ( except butter) in a mixing bowl . Mix and knead to form a dough.
2)  Add butter and knead till the dough becomes elastic and smooth dough.  Put the dough in a lightly greased  big bowl, cover with damp cloth or cling-wrap.  Leave to ferment for 50 - 60 minutes in a warm place.
3) Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll into balls. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
4)  Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the working surface table, flatten the dough with rolling pin. The shape is slightly square bottom and a sort of tear drop, triangle like  a Christmas tree.   Roll equal size for each piece of dough (long triangle shape).  Got a piece of baking paper lift the shaped dough onto the paper. Spread nutella across the area.  Please watch the video for clear instruction.
4)  Leave to ferment for 40 - 50 minutes. Brush with egg wash and bake in preheated over at 180 deg for 15 minutes.

Happy baking.

Cheese Cake Bread (ver. 2)

This is a revised post. This bread is so good and tasty that I must once again share it with you. I like the fine texture of the bread, its cheesy taste and the sweetness and sourness of the blueberry jam. They are a perfect match.

The recipe is here.

X'mas tree look-alike-bread

Hello again!

I do not know if you dear readers have noticed that my blog posts have not been as frequent as before? 

That is because my latest addiction is in beads making! 

I picked up beads making from a friend who pulled me along to her lesson. The moment my fingers laid on the cute tiny beads, I loved them to bits. The same night, I found myself searching for beads making on google, youtube etc. The next few days and weeks saw me doing the same and even starting to try out to model a few myself - cute rabbit, chicken, squirrels. Whenever there was time on my hands such as after dinner and after shower, I would be fiddling with them and watching youtube videos. Haha you can say the interest and addiction for beads making are comparable to Candy Crush (guilty)!

Since X'mas is around the corner, I decided to make Christmas themed buns and at the same time make use of the opportunity to showcase two of my beads making products - Mr. Santa Claus along with a Xmas tree. Can you spot them in the photos above? :)

Recipe:

I would recommend you to use my Potato Bread or  Sweet milk bread   recipe to be the basic dough for this X'mas tree bread.  The texture of the bread is soft and puffy. And it can be eaten just by itself.

Sweet Milk Buns

Got this link from my niece. Heard about the buns which are so soft and puffy. Even until the next day the texture still supposedly remained intact. This is enough to convince me so I didn't wait another second more to give this a try. I hurriedly gathered all the ingredients and started the process.

The buns turned out to be soft, puffy and tall.  I am happy and like the end product.  I will definitely make these buns again and again. Thanks again to 'My Mind Patch' for sharing this wonderful recipe.

RECIPE:
Ingredients:
150 g whole milk
20 g condensed milk
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
225 g bread flour
25 g cake flour
40 g fine sugar
25 g beaten egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
30 g unsalted butter

For method pls click here
http://mymindpatch.blogspot.sg/2014/11/sweet-milk-buns

EZ Char Siew Buns

Kimmy's EZ Char Siew Buns surprised me because I have never come across this type of bun before. Today I picked up all the ingredients and gave it a go.

The buns turned out soft and moist. However, I thought it could have been better if the serving of char siew is more generous, will try to improve on that during my next attempt.

Recipe – Adapted from Kimmy’s EZ Char Siew Buns

Ingredients: (makes 12 buns)

-         350 gm bread flour (I used 300gm bread flour + 50gm wholemeal flour)

-         50 gm sugar

-         3/4 tsp salt

-         1 3/4 tsp instant yeast

-         210-220 ml ice cold water

-         30 gm butter

-         100 gm char siew - chopped 

-         1 stalk spring onions - washed and chopped

Steps:

- In a mixing bowl, mix and knead all the ingredients except butter, char siew  and spring onions into a soft dough.

- Add in the butter and knead until the dough is smooth, soft and pliable.

- Add in char siew and spring onions and mix well.

- Shape into a dough and cover to rest for 1 hour.

- Divide dough into 2 equal parts.  Round up and divide each portion into 6 equal portions.

- Round up the dough into ball, lightly spray the top with water, then coat with sesame seeds.  Place onto prepared baking tray.

- Rest for 50 minutes or until double in size.

- Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 12-15 minutes or until cooked.

- Remove and cool on wire rack. 

5 Thousand Dollars Breads 2

Top with poppy seeds

The bread is dense and fluffy.  The picture already convinced you.

hehehehe! This is my second attempt in making 5 thousand dollars bread.  I am really delighted to see my end products turning up well and meeting my expectation.   Today, I reduced my baking time from 30 minutes to 20 minutes and temperature from 180 deg C to 170 deg C.   I modified my baking time and temperature because I noticed that bread from my 1st attempt was over baked.  So you have to adjust  your own oven because every oven temperature may vary.

Hehehe.... I have to say agian. This bread is so goooooood! 面包又香又松软，好吃。赞！

Recipe is here.

5 Thousand Dollars Bread -五千元的老式面包

               

After browsing through Victoria  Bakes  and  here, they really made me want to try making this bread so much. I sincerely thank Lee Shifu for sharing her expensive recipe with us. Lee Shifu had spent four years tracking this recipe and spent more than 4 thousand dollars to buy it. I am very thankful because I don't have to spend a single cent nor energy to get this recipe. I also want to thank Victoria for translating and sharing this awesome recipe with us.

These are the sweet buns. They are soft and so good to eat.

Recipe:

Ingredients: (Below is half of the original recipe)
Starter dough:
105 g bread flour
45 g plain flour
12 g castor sugar
3 g instant yeast (1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp)
120 g water

Main Dough:
105 g bread flour
45 g  plain  flour
48 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
12 g milk powder
45 g egg
27 g water
36 g unsalted butter, softened

Method:
1)  Mix and combine all the stater dough ingredients together. Allow to sit in a warm place to rise till it looks like "honeycomb". (It took me 2 hours).

2) In a mixer with a dough hook, combine the above with main dough ingredients except butter,  knead till it is shinny and non-sticky.  Add in butter, knead till it is shinny and pliable.

3)  Rest the dough till it doubles in size. ( for my own reference only: about 60 minutes).

4)  After dough has risen, punch down gas and without resting dough ,divide it into 6 equal portions and roll each into round shape. Place them on a lightly greased baking pan (18 cm x 28 cm).

5) Allow to rise till doubles in size (for my own reference only: about 45 minutes - 60 minutes)

6)  Brush with egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 25 - 30 minutes.

Christmas Tree Bread 2013

Merry Christmas!

When I saw Veronica's ( Minty's Kitchen) beautiful Christmas tree bread, that inspired me I must give it a
try.  I adapted the Carrot Bread recipe from Carol (胡涓涓老师).

Here, I would like to wish all the food bloggers and my friends a Merry X'mas and a Happy New year

Nutty Pumpkin Bread

Is this too yellow?  It is  the natural pumpkin colour, no artificial colouring is added.

The bread is not well  done this time, The texture is quite rough.  Nevertheless,  its still tastes good and soft.

I am excited  to know that Popular Bookshop has invited Carol on 14th December 2013 at 3 pm - 4 pm to give a demonstration in making cream puff and a talk at Suntec City.   On that day I will bring  her books and ask for her signatures  if the organizer allows to do so.

Recipe: adapted from Carol 胡涓涓老师

Ingredients:

200 g pumpkin puree  

280 g High  protein flour

3/4 teaspoon instant dry yeast

15 g fine sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

30 g olive oil

60 g mixed nuts ( walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds), bake in a preheated oven at 150 deg C for 7 - 8 minutes.

Method:

1) Steam pumpkin till cooked and soft. Mashed and get 200 g puree.

2)  Making bread process please click  here

Agar-Agar strips Bread - 寒天吐司

When I first browsed through this recipe, it caught my attention and my curiosity. What?? Agar- agar strips bread? It sparked off my momentum so without wasting much time, I gathered all the ingredients and decided to give it a go.

The bread turned out to be look like normal bread.  The interesting part is,  it gives a chewy bite because of the small bits of the agar-agar strips within the dough.

Recipe: Adapted from Carol- ( "322 Original Flavour")

Ingredients: (20 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm baking mould)

6 g agar-agar strips
250 g high protein flour
30 g wholemeal flour
15 g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon  instant dry yeast
15 g olive oil
190 c.c cold water  (keep 30 c.c. aside, gradually add in when the rough dough is formed.  If the dough is too wet, do not need to add all).

Method:

1)  Soak agar-agar strips in cold  water for 1 hour.
2)  Drain and cut into 0.5 cm in length.
3)  Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, beat until (or knead) a non sticky dough is formed. (please keep 30 c.c water when  the dough is formed then  gradually add in ).
4)  Continue beating till a elastic and smooth dough has achieved. Roll round and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and  ferment for 60 minutes till double in size.
5)  Punch out air and scale dough into 2 equal portions.  Roll round and cover with damp cloth or clingwrap for 15 minutes.
6) With the help of rolling pin, flatten the dough into a 20 cm x 30 cm rectangle.
7) . Fold both left and right sides of the dough inwards, so that they meet at the middle. Flatten again.
8) Roll up the dough from the bottom like a Swiss roll. Place dough in a lightly grease baking mould,, seam face down,   spray water on the surface of the dough.  Leave to proof  for 60 - 70 minutes.
9)  When the dough has risen to 90% of the height of the baking mould.  Cover the lid. Turn on oven to 210 deg C for 15 minutes.
10)  Bake in the preheated oven for 38 to 40 minutes.
11)  Take out from the oven and immediately remove the bread from the mould, and leave it to cool on the wire rack.

Milk Toast Bread

This is my favourite toast bread.  The bread is fragrant,  it tastes so good and even can eat it by itself without spreading any jam or butter on it.

Recipe: Adapted from Carol's "The Second Book of Baking for Beginners"

You will need a 20cm x 10cm x 10cm baking mould.

Ingredients:

320g high protein flour
1 egg ( about 50 g)
3/4  teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
20g fine sugar
100c.c. milk
50 g unsalted butter

Method:

1)  Knead the ingredients  except butter to a smooth dough. Add in butter knead till an elastic and smooth dough is formed.  Put in a lightly greased bowl, cover and rest for 60 minutes and double in size.

2)  After the resting time, punch out the air, divide dough into 2 equal portions (about 300g each). Shape to round. Rest for 15 minutes.

3)  Flatten and and roll like Swiss Roll. Rest again for 15 minutes.

4)  After resting, flatten the dough and roll again. Shape the loaves and place them in the greased loaf mould. Proof for 60 minutes.

5) Once the dough rises up to 80% of the height of the baking mould, preheat oven to 210 deg C.

6)  Once the fermented dough has reached 90% of the height of the baking mould, cover the lid (need to grease the lid also), bake in the oven for 38 - 40 minutes.

7)  Remove from oven, demould the loaf on the rack immediately.

Tangzhong Milk Buns -牛奶汤种面包

Recipe：Adapted from " The second Book of  Baking for Beginners by Carol"

Ingredients: Water-roux Starter (tangzhong in Chinese)
250 g milk
50 g high protein flour

Method:
1)  Combine milk and high protein flour together, mix well.
2)  Cook and stir over low heat  till mixture has thickened , remove from heat.
3)  Cover with cling wrap . Make sure it is cool prior to use.  The balance can keep in the fridge  for 3 - 4 days.

Dough:
1) 100 g water-roux starter
2)  250 g high protein flour
3)  50 g low protein flour
4)  1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
5)  50 g egg (about 1 egg)
6)  30 g fine sugar
7)  1/8 teaspoon salt
8)  80 c.c.milk or fresh cream
9)  30 g unsalted butter

Topping:
white sesame seed and sun flower seeds

glaze:
1 beaten egg,  for brushing

Method:
1) Combine dough ingredients, except butter in a mixing bowl.  Beat  or knead it to soft, smooth dough  until texture doesn't stick to hands.  Add butter, beat or knead dough to glossy, smooth,  non-sticky dough again.  Now it is ready for fermentation if you are able to stretch it out to a thin "membrane".

2) Shape round and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and ferment for 60 minutes and double in size.

3) After the resting time, take out dough, punch out  the air, divide dough into 8 equal portions (about 70 g each), roll into balls. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.

4)  Shape to your desired  patterns.  Arrange them in a greased baking tray.   Proof  for 50 - 60 minutes and double in size.

5)  Gently brush the top with egg glaze, sprinkle with a little of toppings.  Bake in a preheated 170 degree C oven for 15 - 18 minutes till golden brown.  Remove from the oven.

Purple Sweet Potato Buns- 紫色番薯小面包

These are sweet potato buns coated with cocoa  powder.  Don't they look like unwashed potatoes?!

I also made a few different patterns.

Can you spot which is the real sweet potato?

Saw this Hong Kong series 生活甜丝丝。And they named this bun as“番薯王子面包” which means Prince Sweet Potato buns. Nice name isn't it? But I do not understand why they regard sweet potato as the prince...

Recipe: Sponge and  Dough Method

Ingredients A: 20 g whole egg
                      40 g fresh milk (do not pour all, I found it is too wet).
                      2 g instant yeast (1/2 tsp)
                      5 g milk powder
                      70 g bread flour

Method:
Combine ingredients A and place into a mixer.  Beat till becomes a dough.  Leave dough in a big and lightly greased bowl, covered and rest for 60 minutes.

Ingredients B:  2 g instant yeast (1/2 tsp)
                       20 g sugar
                       1 g salt
                       50 g mashed sweet potato (steam and then mash)
                       60 g bread flour
                       12 g unsalted  butter (softened)

Filling: Mix mashed sweet potato and icing sugar together.

Method:
1) Combine fermented dough and Ingredients B (except butter), beat for few minutes till a dough is formed.  If the dough  appears too dry, drizzle  in a bit of water.  Add in butter continue to beat until an elastic and smooth dough is formed. Covered and leave to prove for 25 minutes.

2) Punch out air. Divide dough  into 20 g each portion.  Roll to round. Rest for 10 minutes.

3) Flatten the small dough into  round dish and wrap with sweet potato filling and seal up the opening. Shape them into sweet potato shape. Coat with cocoa powder and bread flour. Arrange them onto a greased baking tray. Leave to prove for 35- 40 minutes or double in size.

4) Bake in preheated oven  at 180 degree C for 12 - 15 minutes.
                   

Roti Jala

Had leftover potatoes cooked in curry from yesterday and as my family has been bugging me to make roti

jala for some time, I went to dig up "Singapore Cooking Book 2-  By Mrs Leong" recipe.  And went to buy a roti jala mould for 60 cents from a neighbourhood sundry shop.

I found the mixture too thick to go through the strainer, so had to trial and error to keep adding water before the consistency allowed it to flow rather smoothly. I do not know whether it is the holes that are too small, or the mixture is too thick.

Finally the roti jala turned out to be thinner than I wanted, however its texture was fine and does not stick to one's teeth when you bite into it.

Here's my roti jala, goes superb with the potato curry. Yum yum.

Recipe:

Ingredients: (makes 12, diameter 8")
225 ml (8 fl. oz)  milk
2 eggs
salt ( I used 1/2 tsp )
225 g  (8 oz ) all purpose flour - sieved
1 tablespoon oil

Method:
1) Mix all ingredients together (except oil), and strain the batter. If the batter is too thick, add water until desired consistency is reached.  Add 1 tablespoon of oil and set aside for 15 minutes.

2)  Heat up a non-stick pan with  medium low heat and grease it with some oil.

3)  Pour some batter into the mould and quickly transfer to the pan, make circular movement from outer part of the pan to inside of the pan, then make a zigzag movement from left to right and zigzag up and down.

4)  Leave the crepe to cook for 10-15 seconds (or the tops is set and done, the bottom turns light brown).
     Fold the crepe into half, then in half again to form a triangle shape.  Remove from the pan and set aside.        Repeat until all batter is used.

5)  Serve with your  favourite curry.  Enjoy.