Bread and Batter – The Occasional Cook

Sticky Buns

February 19, 2022 7shasha7

It’s been some time since I’ve posted. Too much work, and last week I was down with covid. Sigh. Luckily the symptoms I had were very mild but I didn’t want to spread it to the rest of the household so I was stuck in my room for six whole days straight.

So this weekend I decided to make full use of the kitchen. After watching The British Bake-off on BBC Lifestyle, I got inspired again to bake. So I took out my British Bake Off cookbook and decided on an easy recipe.

And oh, what a marvellous recipe it was! The dough came out perfect! Move over Pioneer Woman. I have found my go to sweet bun recipe and this is a complete winner.

This is the recipe book I bought years ago and I’ve only made two recipes from it. One was a Victorian Sponge sandwich (which I’ve posted here before) and then now this sticky buns.

This is the book. It’s pretty good and if I’ve more free time, I’ll make more recipes from it. Baking is on the whole time consuming.

I’m just going to share the recipe for the dough. It worked brilliantly for me and maybe for our humid weather here.

In a saucepan I melted 75g of butter with 200ml whole milk. And then let that cool.

In my trusty Kitchen Aid glass bowl, I measured 500g bread flour and to that added 2 tbsp of sugar, 7g of instant yeast and 1tsp of table salt. I stirred that and then attached the dough hook. With the cooled butter and milk mixture, I beat in one egg. And then added this liquid mixture to the fry ingredients.

I let the dough hook do it’s magic and when it’s formed into w rough dough, let it run till it’s kneaded smooth. From that, I took the nice dough, formed it into w smooth ball and then let it rest for an hour back in the bowl.

While the dough is proofing, I added Demerara sugar (I didn’t have light brown sugar) to 100g of softened butter. Because I was using Demerara, I measured 85g instead of the 75g of light brown sugar. So in that bowl is softened butter mixed with the sugar and 2tbsp of maple syrup. This will serve as the topping.

For the filling of the sticky bun, melt 70g of butter. And then in another bowl, 85g of Demerara sugar with 1tsp of cinnamon powder.

When the dough has doubled in size (about an hour or so), punch it down and roll to a rectangle. Brush the melted butter all over. Sprinkle the sugar cinnamon all over. Then roll and cut.

In a roasting pan, spread the butter sugar mixture all over and then crush about 100g pecans. Place the cut pieces of rolls on it.

Let that proof a second time (about 20 to 30min) before going into a 180 degree Celsius oven till brown.

This is after the second rise. I’m not good at cutting equal pieces, hence that weird little runt stuck in the first row.

After it’s baked, let it rest for about 20 minutes. And then turn over onto a wooden board.

Delicious when eaten warm!

I know I’ll be using this dough recipe for all future rolls from now on!

Bread and Batter

Sourdough Madness

November 1, 2021 7shasha7

Oh my goodness! I haven’t realised it’s been three whole months since my last post!

The reason is quite simple. Besides being very busy with work, I’ve also been crazy mad about sourdough!

Many failures, many attempts and it is only now that I am quite confident in making my own bread. Not so good that I can sell them but definitely good enough for the family to keep asking for more.

I failed twice making my own starter. Singapore is just way too humid and after failing, I did the next logical thing – to ask for some. A friend gifted me hers (it was a gift from her friend) and thereafter my sourdough experiments began.

Again, I couldn’t seem to get them right because Singapore is definitely extremely humid. The cookbook which I got and am still using calls for 8-10 hours of bulk proofing. It was only later when I joined a local sourdough group that I learnt never to go beyond 4 hours in our hot weather.

I still haven’t perfected it yet but I miss blogging and updating this blog so here are some of my bread pictures. The first few. I’ll share which recipes I’ve used later when my holidays begin and I cook regularly again. 🙂

This was when I tried using inclusions. Chocolate.

This was when I finally managed to get an ear, albeit a tiny one! Lol

The journey is satisfying though full of trials and error. In fact, I’ve a pepper Jack loaf proofing in the fridge right now, ready for the oven by 8pm. I’ll share that in a proper post next.

Bread and Batter, Cakes and Cookies, Desserts

Anna Olson’s Anything Muffin

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021 7shasha7

This has got to be the healthiest recipe for muffins I’ve ever used. However, when she said ‘anything’ she meant dried fruits, as in ANY dried fruits. My kids wanted chocolate chips instead so the healthy level just went down a few notches.

But really, this recipe is good but I couldn’t follow it completely. 1. She said not to use Greek yogurt but that’s all I had so I did. Turned out fine. Her recipe called for 124g of yogurt but my tub is 140 and you know, waste not! She said she only semi milk with 1 to 2 per cent fat. I couldn’t open a new packet just for this so I used what I had in the fridge, full fat. There’s no sugar except maple syrup, calling for half a cup. But my bottle could only give out to 1/4 cup so I added another 1/4 cup of honey. I used chopped walnuts and chocolate chips for the ‘anything’ filling.

Wait. Did I just make unhealthy muffins using her healthy recipe? 😱

No matter. The kids loved it and now there’s only 5 left of it for today.

I saw these cute sticks at Daiso and bought a pack

Bread and Batter, Middle Eastern/Turkish

Yemeni Honeycomb Bread

February 17, 2021March 3, 2021 7shasha7

A friend of mine who’s living in Jeddah told me about the existence of this bread. It is soooo delicious that I’ve made it twice.

It’s called honeycomb bread because it looks like one. And basically, it’s a cheese bun loaf but with a sweet sugary syrup over it.

The recipe is simple. For the dough, it’s just 2 cups plain flour, two teaspoons yeast, two teaspoons baking powder, about 30ml melted butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, 150g Greek yogurt. This yogurt is my addition the second time baking and boy, did the dough turn out perfect! So soft and delicious!

For the sugar syrup, melt 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup of water. Boil for ten minutes then stir in 1/4 tsp of rise water and 2 tablespoons of runny syrup.

I used my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer and when all is incorporated and kneaded (the more you let the machine do its thing, the softer the buns going to be), let the dough rise till double in size. Then gently punch it down, and form about 19-20 small balls. Fill each ball of dough with cream cheese and place it in a circular pattern inside a well greased 9 inch pan. Any round pan will do, but don’t use Pyrex glass!

I really am such a lazy photographer. But as you can see here, the dough is so soft! Space them slightly apart but close enough because after this, leave it to rest and rise a second time.

Look how fat they’ve become! Lovely! After the second rise, brush the tops with a mixture of egg and milk. Sprinkle nigella seeds. If nigella seeds prove to be too strong and earthy, just use sesame seeds. But I love the intense flavour from the nigella seeds. Then bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius fill the buns are browned. For my oven, this took about 25 min.

Fresh out of the oven. While it’s still hot, brush generously all over with the sugar syrup. I’ve seen in YouTube videos some people poured the syrup all over and there’s even a version where they poured condensed milk all over. I cannot. I don’t particularly have a sweet tooth, so the brushing generously method works fine for me and the family.

I used a loose bottom springform pan so it was easy to remove

I brought this over to my sister’s for teatime treat.

As you can see from the caption there, I should have added more cheese for some of the individual buns, some had a lot, some had just a bit too little. 😁

This is a keeper and I would definitely be making this for guests during teatime treats!

Bread and Batter, Middle Eastern/Turkish, Snack

Turkish Braided Loaf

October 11, 2020March 3, 2021 7shasha7

I was watching on YouTube the Turkish Food Travel video and she was making this beautiful braided bread. And I was thinking, why not? I could use some of the dough to make hotdog buns. But first I’ll try making this potato filling bread.

The dough was easy to assemble with a mixer. I bloomed one packet of yeast into 1/2 cup warm milk and 2tbsp sugar. And once bloomed, added the other ingredients: egg, olive oil, bread flour, salt. Leave the dough to double in size and then you’re ready to fill it with the filling.

For the filling, I boiled potatoes and then over a stove, stirred them with olive oil and garlic, smoked sweet paprika and since I had some kale, added that in too. Oh, and some leftover hotdog ends.

Take some dough out and then roll thin. I wished I had rolled the dough thinner but this turned out ok too. Then place the filling in the center.