Kumara Soy Milk Loaf

Kumara aka orange sweet potato and soy milk bread


Adapted from Carol's Original Flavour

150g sweet potato, cooked, mashed and cooled


250g bread flour


30g Wholemeal flour


3/4 tsp dry instant yeast


15g sugar
1/4 tsp salt


15g oil
150ml warm soy milk


1 egg, beaten for glazing

12 oz (20 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm) loaf tin.

Place the soy milk into a mixing bowl, add in the yeast and give it a stir.
Sift the flour into the yeast solution and add the rest of the ingredients.
Mix it into a dough and turn the mixture onto the working table top and knead till smooth and elastic or window pane stage. 
Shape dough into a ball and lightly oil the dough. Place in a lightly oiled mixing bowl and spray some water onto the dough, cover and leave to proof for 60 minutes or till double it bulk.
Knead dough back to original size, cover and rest dough for 15 minutes.
Divide dough into two and shape into balls, then roll dough out into an oblong shape and roll it up like a Swiss roll. Make sure to pinch the end securely, do the same to the other ball, cover and rest dough for 15 minutes.
Roll the dough out again into an oblong shape and roll it up like a Swiss roll again, do the same to the other one too, place dough into a greased loaf tin, spray some water onto the dough and cover with a lightly oiled plastic wrap. 
Prove for 60-90 minutes or till dough almost reaches the top of the tin.
Preheat oven to 170 deg. C, 10 minutes before end of proving time.
Glaze the top with beaten egg and bake for 35-40 minutes or till golden brown.

65ºC Wholemeal Square Loaf/湯種方包

Baked a loaf of 65ºC aka roux or porridge wholemeal square loaf just then, it's been a while since I last bake a square loaf bread. Will show how the inside of the bread looks like later 'cos it's still very hot to cut it at the moment. Right now, my house house is filled with the aroma of bread. It's such a wonderful and homely smell, mmmhhhh.........

Bialys The Cousin of Bagels/比亚韦斯托克的表亲戚

According to the bread book, it said if you're a bagel's person (that is you like or love bagels very much,)  then you're not a bialy's person. I think the book is wrong, all of us in my family love both, ie. we love bagels and bialys too. They are both originated from Poland, the actual name for bialy is bialystoker. If you're interested in food like our family, you can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bialy. It's an interesting bun just like it's cousin the bagels, bialys also has poppy seeds in them but it's fry with diced onions and was spoon onto the centre of the dough before they go into a hot oven.

The Making of Bagels/貝哥

My first meeting with a bagel was also about 24 years ago in Victoria Market, Melbourne, when we came over to Australia for holiday and to check Melbourne out. We were having a family outing, walking along the stores and we came to a stop at the sandwich outlet. The word bagel caught my attention and I pointed at a stack of big and round doughnut like bread rolls  out to my husband and my children nodded and I bought and was filled with the pick of the owner of the store 'cos at that time we all didn't know what was the right choice of filling for a bagel. We thought it was something very special but we were all very disappointed. I googled about bagel and was surprise that they looked so different from the one I bought at the Victoria Market.
A year later we came back but this time we stayed in Sydney. Again while walking back home from a shopping trip, I saw a similarly filled  bagel sitting  on a plate and the owner of the bagel was reading his newspaper beside a table set on the side walk of a cafe. I took a look at his bagels and immediately he lowered his paper and asked me, "How can I help you?" I smiled and pointed at the bagel and he answered, "That's a bagel." I said, "No, not. That's a bread roll that looked and shaped like a doughnut, I can bet you I can make bagels that this and they'll be the best in town." I just walked away and I think he must be shocked and couldn't figure out, why I said this to him and walked off.
So, I really did make the best bagels in town according to my friend's husband who grew up eating bagels and also my sons' fellow head chefs after eating the bagels that I've made. Bagels should be fill with smoked salmon, capers, thinly slice onion, cream cheese, freshly cracked pepper and dill, for savoury tasting one. Either strawberry jam and cream cheese or honey and cream cheese for sweet tasting one. I've been making bagels for about 22 years now and am still making it from time to time.

                    Bagel with smoked salmon, sliced onion, capers, cream cheese and dill.
                                            

                                                    Bagel with cream cheese and honey.

Pumpkin Brioche From My Kitchen/南瓜布利歐。

Pumpkin Brioche with Cream Cheese 'n Honey

Pumpkin Pie Brioche:

3 cups white whole wheat, or traditional whole wheat

4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons  gluten flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

4 large eggs

1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup cooking oil or unsalted butter, melted

1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree (freshly roasted or canned)

Egg wash for brushing on top

Raw sugar for sprinkling on top

Mixing and storing the dough: whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a 5-quart container, fitted with a non-airtight lid. Combine the liquid ingredients and add them to the dry with a wooden spoon. Mix thoroughly, until there are no more dry bits of flour. The dough will be quite loose when you are done.

Cover the container and allow the dough to rest on the counter for 2 hours. Once it has risen refrigerate for at least 2 hours before baking or it is too difficult to handle. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

On baking day: Grease and flour a brioche mould. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 2-pound (cantaloupe size) piece of dough. Dust with more flour and quickly shape  into a ball.
Place the ball of dough into the prepared pan with the smooth side up.  Allow the dough to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap for 1 hour 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 with the oven rack in the middle of the oven.

As you can see it didn’t rises that much during the rest. That is normal for our dough. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash using a pastry brush and sprinkle it with the raw sugar.
Bake for about 50 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then turn it out and form a thick ring with a clean kitchen towel…

and invert the brioche onto the towel so that the dome of the brioche is supported by the towel. This will prevent the top or bottom of the loaf from getting crushed as it cools. Let the dough come to room temperature before cutting and serving.

 

Homemade Sesame Buns/芝麻麵包。