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It is the first term school break this week. My children are home for the whole week with no school activities. Whenever they are home, they will be searching for some snacks to fill their stomach. I made some Mexican Coffee Buns to satisfy their snack hunting should they want to eat them in the afternoon, though it is more for breakfast. My son wanted to eat this for breakfast, after lunch, afternoon tea and after dinner, which I have to stop him! He happens to be a super big fan of this coffee bun.
The bread dough was adapted from my previous preferment coffee buns. Instead of baking them in loaves, I weigh out 50g and baked them as buns. I also added a capsule of Nespresso coffee seeds into the dough. The dough has very fragrant coffee aroma.
As for the coffee fillings, I adapted the recipe from Everybody Eats Well in Flanders. Prepare this topping while the dough is at its final proofing stage.
Coffee Topping
(Makes for approximate 26 50g buns, though I had 24 buns)
Ingredients:
125g Liv unsalted butter, room temperature
125g Icing sugar [I used 100g only, and not sweet]
2 eggs
240g Plain flour [I used 230g]
15g Instant coffee powder [dissolved in Kahlua]
1 tbsp Kahlua or other coffee liquer
Method:
1. Cream butter and icing sugar till smooth, using a K beater.
2. Add in eggs, and mix well.
3. Then add in flour and instant coffee and mix until well-combined.
4. Put the coffee topping into a piping bag and pipe a spiral pattern on each bun after the final proof.
5. Bake the coffee buns in the preheated oven of 180C for 15 mins.
6. Remove them from the pan immediately and let them cool completely on a wire rack before storing.
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Nutella seems to be everyone's favourite. Besides those who are really conscious of the ingredients present, most people have at least a bottle of Nutella in their kitchen. I'm no exception. Recently, there was some promotion in our supermarket, my sister got me two large tubs. So I decided to use it to bake Nutella Cupcakes as shared by Rumbling Tummy.
As it turned out, it was really a easy to make, and tasty to eat cupcakes. My children loved it and even my helper who brought it to share during her weekly gathering said her friends loved them too!
Recipe for Nutella Cupcakes, adapted from Rumbling Tummy.
(Makes approx. 19 regular cupcakes)
Ingredients:
280g Liv unsalted butter, softened
160g Caster sugar
6 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
200g Plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp Salt
4 tsp Baking powder
Nutella
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare cupcake paper cups.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. (as you add the eggs, it might curdle, use high speed to mix it)
4. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
5. Fill each paper cups with batter. They should be ¾ full. (this cake rises quite a lot.)
6. Top each cake with 1½ tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a skewer, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or till the top is browned.
8. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Earlier last month, I had a sudden urge to want to eat ogura cake. So I decided to bake this. It turned out really nice and light with a hint of tang and crunchy from the poppy seeds.
Recipe for Lemon Poppy Seeds Ogura Cake, adapted from Victoria Bakes.
Makes a 9" round cake or 8" square cake
Ingredients:
75g Cake flour, sift twice
1/4 tsp salt
5 Egg yolks
1 whole Egg
60g Vegetable oil
30 ml Lemon juice
50 ml Milk (I used 5g lemon juice + 75g milk)
1 tsp Lemon zest
2 tsp Poppy seeds
A few drops of lemon oil
5 Egg whites
1/2 tsp Corn flour
60g Castor sugar
Method:
1. Place the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add in egg yolk + 1 whole egg, corn oil, lemon juice, zest and milk. Using a paddle hook, beat ingredients until creamy and well combined. Set aside.
2. Place 2 cups at the bottom of the oven and preheat oven at 160C.
3. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites until slightly foamy.
4. Add in sugar with corn flour in 3 batches. Whisk until soft to stiff peaks formed
5. Using a spatula, fold in 1/2 of the meringue into egg yolk mixture. Lift and fold until well combined, then add to rest of meringue. Add in the poppy seeds. Fold again until well mix
6. Pour batter into a 9″ round pan [line base with baking paper]
7. Smooth the surface with a spatula or shake a little and the batter will spread out evenly
8. Bake in oven at 160 degrees C for 40 minutes, lower heat to 140 degrees C and bake for a further 20 minutes.
9. Remove cake and invert it after baking on a wire rack and let it cool slightly [about 5 minutes] before removing the pan and baking paper.
10. Cool cake completely before slicing to serve or refrigerate before slicing to serve later.
After trying the original recipe from 吴宝春金牌土司, I decided to modify it into wholemeal bread. I can't believe his recipe is so simple and nice. Here is my modification of his original recipe to wholemeal bread and some changes to the liquid content. This is recipe for my reference.
Recipe for Wholemeal Loaves, modified from 吴宝春金牌土司, which orginated from ccm.
Makes two loaves - a flower mould (dough weight about 550g) & mini rectangular mould (dough weight about 360g)
Ingredients:
70g Wholemeal flour
130g Plain flour
300g Bread flour
40g Castor sugar
9g Salt
25g LIV unsalted butter
340g Fresh milk
5g Instant yeast
Method :
1. Mix all ingredients (except butter) into a dough using low speed for 3mins.
2. Add in the butter and continue to knead until the dough is pliable (smooth, soft and elastic), about 5-6mins on medium speed.
3. Shape into a ball, cover to rest dough for about 1 hour or double in size.
4. Flatten the dough into a rectangular shape. Divide into 5, with each dough approximately 184g.
5. Pre-shape it and let it rest for 10mins.
6. Roll up swiss-roll style and tighten the dough.
7. For a 550g loaf pan, place three doughs into it. For the smaller pan, place two doughs side by side. (550g is for my flower mould, while the other has the 360g dough)
8. Cover and leave to proof for about 50-60 minutes.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for 30-35 minutes. (I baked them on a baking stone.)
10. Remove from the mould and let it cool completely before slicing.
This recipe has been used by many FB bakers for quite sometime. It just "shook" the home-bakers where everyone was baking this bread. It took me a while to realise (late adopter) and decided to have try. This bread was pretty easy to bake, and good thing is, it really produce a very soft and light bread. It's a true keeper.
Recipe for 吴宝春金牌土司Champion Toast (baked mine in flower mould), adapted from Aunty Young, originated from ccm.
Makes a flower mould (dough weight about 550g)
Ingredients:
300g Bread flour
24g Castor sugar
4g Salt
15g LIV unsalted butter
198g Fresh milk
3g Instant yeast
Method :
1. Mix all ingredients (except butter) into a dough using low speed, then use medium speed to knead it into a shiny and smooth texture.
2. Add in the butter and continue to knead until the dough is pliable (smooth, soft and elastic).
3. Shape into a ball, cover to rest dough for about 1 hour or double in size.
4. Flatten the dough into a rectangular shape. Roll up swiss-roll style.
5. Place the dough into your prepared tin. Cover and leave to proof for about 50-60 minutes.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for 30 minutes.
7. Remove from the mould and let it cool completely before slicing.
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After Christmas weekend, we brought our twins to Orchard Road for a walk. It has been a long time since we brought our children to Orchard Road. The street is known for being crowded, especially during weekends and for it's exquisite and expensive buys. While we were at Wisma, we saw this stall - Ben's Cookies, with its nice aroma cookies. Where did the "Famous Amos" gone to? As we past by a few times, my son finally said he wanted to eat the cookies. He said he couldn't stand the aroma anymore.
I'll have to admit, the cookies were really nice. I had a piece of the Dark Chocolate and Nuts and it was really soft, chewy and chocky. I like it very much. I personally preferred chewy cookies to crunchy ones. So, after that one piece of cookie, it triggered my craving. I preferred to make themselves, therefore, starts my quest for a recipe. So on New Year's Day, I attempted this Chewy Chocolate Chips and Walnut Cookies. It was really simple to put them together. The cookies turned out to be pretty good. But there was still some missing element I felt. My hunt continues...
Recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chips & Walnut Cookies, adapted from Making Food with Love
(Makes approximately 20 3" cookies)
Ingredients:
192g Plain flour
113g LIV unsalted butter,softened
100g Soft brown sugar
75g castor sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Baking soda
75g Chocolate chips
60g Walnut, coarsely chopped
Method:
1. Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar till lighter in colour.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.
4. Add in flour till well combined. Do not over mix.
5. Add in chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto lined baking tray.
7. Freeze the tray for approx 5 minutes to reduce spreading.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 190°C for 13-15 mins until surface is slightly brown.
9. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before serving.
