65C Rainbow Rye Bread

65C Fig Walnut Rye Bread

Guang Su Bing

"Guang Su Bing" in Mandarin or "Kong So Phaeng" in Cantonese or "光酥餅" in Chinese characters is a simple traditional snack in Hong Kong.

Don't we all crave for some of these classic snacks sometimes!

In fact the origin of this can be traced back to 300 years of history in the Chinese culture as this "Bing" is a mutation of the famous GuangDong Xi Qiao Da Bing (西樵大餅).

The main ingredients in this "Bing" - according to the wrapper information of a traditional confectionery store in HK is flour, corn starch, sugar, egg, leavening, condensed milk, lard and stabiliser. I have used all but lard and stabiliser. This must be a mutated recipe, guess you wouldn't find condensed milk 300 years ago. Well, maybe I'm wrong. There could be something in the replica of condensed milk then! Anyway! Instead of lard, I used corn oil and stabiliser is totally omitted.

What baking a 300 years old history "Bing" in your home kitchen? Yes, do try it and see if you are baking part of the history at home.






Ingredients: (8 pieces @ 6cm diameter)
(A)
2g yeast
30 ml warm water

(B)
90g plain flour
10g corn starch
4g baking powder

(C)
4g skim milk powder
35g - 40g sugar
10g condensed milk
20g lightly beaten egg
5 drops vanilla essence
1 tsp corn oil

Method:
1. Mix (A) well and stand aside for 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Sieve (B) into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, add in (A) and (C). Stir with a pair of chopsticks (or use your hands) till a sticky dough is formed.
3. Cover the mixing bowl with a piece of glad wrap and rest dough for one hour.
4. Flour working surface and hands. Divide dough into 25g pieces each (or any size you desired) and shape it into a flat round disc.
5. Place shaped dough on to a floured baking paper and dust some flour on the surface of the dough. Cover it with a damp towel without touching the surface. Rest shaped dough for 30 minutes.
6. Cover the Guang Su Bing with a piece of foil (make some holes in the foil with a toothpick) loosely and bake in the middle rack at 180C for 13 minutes.

Korean QQ Mochi Bread

In March, there was a discussion in KC regarding Sun Moulin Mochi Bread started by Edith and several forumers had hands-on trying to work out a recipe that will closely replicate the product of Sun Moulin.

The closest my friends came to was a pre-mix for this bread. I haven't got much luck baking this from scratch either!

Surf the Taiwanese sites and in fact something in the nature of this mochi bread (麻糬麵包) was a rave back in 2006. There are also reviews about mochi bread using Korean QQ Bread Premix (韓國麵包). I didn't feel that it has hit HK, anyway the review for this premix by many bloggers was tremendously excellent, so I had to try it.

Now my turn to hunt for this premix. Found it in CakeDIY , ordered it on Tuesday and collected it today and baked it today. Instruction for this premix is on the label of the product. This bag of 250g premix costs HK$18.00

My...goshhhhhhh! This mochi bread is so delicious. Crispy on the outside, soft and QQ on the inside. When you tapped on the surface of the bread you can hear hollow rebounds, sounds like a loaf of freshly baked baguette. On your first bite into it, you can hear the crispness, then you feel the soft QQ texture of the interior, finally you will chew on to the aromatic roasted crunchy black sesame seeds which gives an added dimension to your palatal sensation. Absolutely yummilicious! No wonder it was such a rave in Taiwan.

28 May - For Singapore readers, Chris has posted a comment in my blog regarding this premix which she/he found similiar:

Hi Florence,
Hope you wouldn't mind me posting this on your blog. I couldn't find this QQ bread premix in Singapore after reading your blog but i found this other similar kind of bread premix in Singapore. It's called "Bakery Homemade Sesame Glutinous Bread Mix". Got it at this shop called Seoul Mart at Parkway Parade. Comes in box of 2 packs (250g x 2 packets)So i decided to give it a try baking it and it's like what you have said. Gosh, crispy on the outside n soft inside. Best eaten when hot! So for those in Singapore who would like to try Florence's recipe, they can consider this substitute. Need to get the staff in the shop to give you baking translation, it's all in korean though. Thks for the recipe, Florence.
Regards

Chris, thank you very much for sharing this find.



Take a look at the mochi bread - not the Sun Moulin type though.


Crispy on the outside.


QQ on the inside.


Ingredients: (12 pieces of 40g each)
250g Korean QQ Mochi Bread Premix
33g bread flour
6g skim milk powder
75g egg (lightly beaten)
20g black sesame seeds
6g light soy sauce
90g water/milk (I used water)
50g melted butter (I used butter at room temperature)

Method:
1. Mix everything together in the mixer or bread maker except black sesame seeds and butter. Let it mix/knead for 2 minutes. Add in the black sesame seeds and mix/knead for another 2 minutes. Add in the melted butter and mix/knead for a further 3 minutes. ** (I made a mistake here, I did not use melted butter. I used butter at room temperature).
2. Rest the dough for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 40g each and shape them into round balls. Place the shaped dough on a lined tray.
3. Bake at 180C for 5 minutes, then spray with some water. Bake for another 5 minutes and spray with water again. Turn off the upper heat, with only the lower heat bake for 10 - 15 minutes (beware of getting the bottoms burnt). Turn the baking tray around. Switch on the upper heat and off the lower heat, bake for another 10 - 15 minutes.
4. Best eaten when hot and crispy.

Custard Sauce Bread Loaf

Borrowed this book 「孟老師的一百道麵包」from a friend and found this recipe to be interesting. It is somewhat similar to the TangZhong but it uses a homemade custard sauce. This custard sauce is made from egg yolk, bread flour and milk (I added some real vanilla to it - smells heavenly). The ratio of custard sauce to flour in this loaf is about 36%. Besides the use of this custard sauce the rest of the ingredients basically remained unchanged except it uses less yeast about 1.6% instead of 2%.

This is how my loaf looked like.


Texture of bread.

LM Loaf Bread

At las! A loaf that is flat and reaches the four corners of the loaf pan.

This loaf is made using the Lao Mian method or old dough method.

65°C Taro Bread

Citron Wholemeal Loaf

Baked citron wholemeal loaf via Lao Mian (老麵) or old dough method.

65°C Sausage Roll

65°C Chocolate Wassant

Making use of the last lot of my TangZhong which is 100g, I tried to replicate the famous Chocolate Wassant which was talked about in KC.

Though I have not tasted the Chocolate Wassant but what I do know is that it is a rather tasty and soft bread. Hence I use 65C TangZhong to make this bread so that I can achieve the softness of this bread.

You must try this if you have time because this is so delicious.





Wrapping of chocolate sheet.


Making a four-fold.


Shaping the Chocolate Wassant.


Ingredients for Chocolate Sheet:
40g cake flour
100g sugar
2 egg white
160ml milk
40g cocoa powder
20g butter

Method:
1. Mix cake flour, sugar and egg white till smooth.
2. Heat the milk in a saucepan and stir in the cocoa powder.
3. Add in the egg white mixture stirring till thicken and dry.
4. Stir in the butter and mix till all butter is incorporated.
5. Leave to cool and measure out 300g of the chocolate paste. Put this chocolate paste into a freezer bag and roll it into a rectangular shape of size 22cm x 14cm.
6. Keep refrigerated for at least 2 hours before using.

Credits: My Kitchen

Ingredients for dough:
250 - 270g bread flour
70g cake flour
20g skim milk powder
100g TangZhong
5g salt
40g sugar
25g egg yolk + 115g warm water
8g dry yeast
26g butter

Method:
1. Put all ingredients into the bread maker, select the Dough cycle and let the bread maker knead and prove the dough- which is about 100mins.
2. When the dough cycle is completed, remove the dough and punch out the air. Roll out the dough into a rectangle of size 31cm x 22cm.
3. Put the chocolate sheet on the middle of the dough. Fold in both ends of the dough to cover the chocolate sheet completely. Seal all the edges tightly..
4. Turn the dough 90°. Roll dough till it is about 60cm x 22cm.
5. Fold the dough into 4 folds. Turn dough 90C. Roll dough into a 54cm x 22cm rectangular sheet.
6. Cut into triangular pieces of base 9cm and height 22cm. Roll triangular pieces from the widest part.
7. Prove for 50 minutes at 35°C.
8. Apply egg wash and bake at 175C -180C for 18 - 20 minutes.

Notes:
For those who are not following the series of 65°C TangZhong bread, please read this for details about TangZhong.

14th March, 2008
This morning I reheat the last of my Chocolate Wassant in the oven at 150C for 7 minutes and the Wassant is still very soft and with a crispy crust too! Imagine this bread stayed soft for 3 days!!! TangZhong is here to stay!

65°C Black Sesame Loaf

I'm mad about 65°C TangZhong bread. They really are so soft and fluffy. The bread loaf that I made yesterday is still very soft today. Making use of the left-over TangZhong from yesterday I made this black sesame loaf.
Will think about what to do with the last lot of the left-over TangZhong.



I'm so proud, see the membranous stage of my bread dough after the second knead from my bread machine. The transparent part is the light travelling through the thin bread membrane and so elastic too.


Ingredients:
255g bread flour
85g TangZhong
35g black sesame powder
1 tbsp skim milk powder
105ml warm water
4g salt
30g sugar
5g dry yeast
25g butter

Method:
Please refer to 65°C Bread Loaf.

Notes:
For those with no bread machine to help with the kneading, you have to do it manually then.

65°C Bread Loaf

There are many ways to bake or make bread. One of the rave in the recent years is the 65°C TangZhong (湯種) method which is said to produce soft and bouncy bread which keeps well too.

What is TangZhong (湯種)?
Apparently TangZhong dates back to ages ago where the Chinese uses hot water to cook their flour for dough which is used in the making of all sorts of noodles and dumpling skins. In recent years, this has extended to the use in the baking of bread and buns.

What is so different about this 65°C TangZhong then?
The difference lies in the temperature of the water used. In 65°C TangZhong the flour and water mixture is cooked to 65°C. At 65°C, the gluten in the flour absorbs the moisture and become leavened. This moisture absorbed at 65°C is then mixed to the main ingredients of the bread and hence the moisture in the bread dough will be heightened. The end result will be a softer and bouncier bread.

How to make 65°C TangZhong?
I used 250ml water and 50g bread flour.
Mix flour and water till it is smooth in a small saucepan.
Cook over medium heat and stirring constantly with a hand whisk to prevent burning. You will see lots of small bubbles forming on the top. Keep stirring and when the bubbles disappear, you will see streaks in the mixture for every stir you make with your whisk. Stop at this stage and you will have the 65°C TangZhong.



Pour the hot TangZhong into a bowl and cover it with a piece of glad wrap with the wrap touching the surface of the mixture. This is to prevent a film from forming on the TangZhong.


Leave the 65°C TangZhong to cool till room temperature before using it. Leftover TangZhong can be kept refrigerated and should be used within 3 days. All chilled TangZhong must return to room temperature before using. If your chilled TangZhong has turned greyish in colour, you should discard it.

This is the bread loaf that I made using 65°C TangZhong.


Texture of bread.


I used my bread machine to do the dough kneading twice in the dough cycle and achieve the membrane stage of the dough. If you achieve the membrane stage, it means that your bread is kneaded to the best stage.


Ingredients:
250g bread flour
1 tbsp skim milk powder
80g TangZhong
105ml warm water
4g salt
25g sugar
5g dry yeast
25g butter

Method:
1. Dump all ingredients into the bread machine and start the dough cycle.
2. Once the dough cycle is completed which is 80 minutes for my bread machine, remove dough and punch out the air from it. Rest the dough for 15 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 2 pieces, shape into a long rectangular shape and roll it up swiss-roll style.
4. Place dough pieces into loaf pan and let it prove till about 85% full. I had to prove for about 75 minutes as the room temperature was about 19°C.
5. Cover the loaf pan with its lid and bake at 175 - 180°C for about 25 - 30 minutes.

Buttermilk Sesame Buns

DD is sick today and she had to stay home, so does mum. Knowing that I had to stay home all day today to accompany DD just in case she needs attention, I set out to bake this bread first thing in the morning. Well, that's because I had done some search on the net for buttermilk recipes the last weekend.

I chose sesame seeds to go with this bun because I had a big bag of toasted sesame seeds in the pantry, the aftermath of CNY Taro Cake and Radish Cake.

The texture of this bun is firm but chewy and soft. I cannot taste the tangy buttermilk in this bun but there is a nice subtle floral aroma from the honey that I used. Both DD and I like it.



Ingredients:
500g bread flour
1.5 tsp salt
3 tbsp honey (I used Langnese Natural Bee Honey)
0.5 cup warm water
1 cup warm buttermilk
20g melted butter
2 tsp instant dry yeast
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Recipe reference: southernfood.about.com

Method:
1. Put everything into the breadmaker according to manufacturer's instruction and start the dough function.
2. When the dough function is completed, remove dough and with oiled hands punch out air from the dough and rest the dough for 15 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 16 portions of 60g each and roll it into a round shape. Coat with toasted sesame seeds. Prove for 45 - 60 minutes.
4. Bake at 180C for 18 - 20 minutes.

Breadmaker Loaf

I usually don't bake my loaf bread entirely using the breadmaker, but I always use the dough cycle function to help me in bread making.

This morning when I came across Sweet Country's bread recipe I decided to give it a try. Sweet Country has many breadmaker loaf recipes in her site, do take a look.

All along I bake my bread/loaf using a mixture of bread flour and cake flour but this recipe from Sweet Country uses 100% cake flour. Curious about the kind of texture that cake flour will produce, I tried baking this entirely in my breadmaker as did Sweet Country.

I used the basic white function of my breadmaker, selected 500g for the weight of loaf and set the crust to light. The photo below is the result of this recipe. Do try it out and have fun.





Ingredients:
350g cake flour
10g skim milk powder
35g butter
40g sugar
6g sea salt
5g instant dry yeast
220ml warm water

Method:
Dump everything in as per instructions of your breadmaker, sit back, relax and wait for the loaf to be baked.

Black Sesame Crowns

If you have been wondering what's going on at my end as I have been MIA for about a week from my blog.

I have been studying hard...I'm into books about bread making.
Borrowed two Japanese and two Taiwanese books about bread making. I chose books from these 2 countries as recipes from these will be more palately comparable to ours.

In my strive for soft and fluffy bread without any of those flour/bread improver, here's my first experiment - Black Sesame Crowns.





I will try a few more recipes before I blog about those that are worth a try. In the meantime, just enjoy the photos.

Milk Rolls

Maple Syrup Loaf

Riding on the World Bread Day fuzz and had nothing on at all today I started fiddling in my kitchen. Cakes...cookies...no, no, no being lazy, the easiest thing to tackle will be a loaf bread. Killing two birds with one stone - an easy bake and yet a good way to idle off the hours in the morning.

Thanks to the wonder of bread machine, baking bread can never be easier but it is sort of time consuming because I only use the dough cycle and the rest will be manual. It's really funny, machine-baked bread is always not soft...especially the recipes from the bread machine manual. I don't know about you but my family and I are all spoilt palately...we only like soft bread.

This bread is rather soft and has a nice aroma from the maple syrup used. My dd ate 2 slices for her tea-break and kept commenting about the nice aroma from the maple syrup. Do try it out if you need to idle off the morning hours like me!



Ingredients:
220g bread flour
100g cake flour
6g salt
15g sugar
1 egg + water = 170g
60g maple syrup
4g yeast
15g butter

Method:
1. Put all the liquid ingredients into the bread machine followed by sugar, flours, salt and yeast.
2. Start the dough cycle, after 10 minutes add in the butter and let it mix and knead for another 10 minutes.
3. Turn off the bread machine and restart the dough cycle. Let the cycle complete itself which is 1 hr 20 minutes for my machine.
4. Remove dough from machine, punch out the air and prove for another 30 - 45 minutes.
5. Divide dough into 2 portion and roll it Swiss roll-style into a long dough.
6. Place the dough pieces into a well-greased loaf pan and prove for 60 minutes.
7. Bake at 175C for 10 minutes and 160C for 20 minutes.

Notes:
If the dough is sticky just use more hand flour when handling dough.

Panda Bread

World Bread Day - Orchidea visited my blog and I paid her a visit that was how I come across this event.

Check out the World Bread Day details here.

What you need to do, is either bake your own bread or buy it and post it in your blog.

For this event, I made this panda bread. I thought it would well represent where this post was from - Hong Kong, China because Panda is such a majestic creature and also it is one of the treasures of China as it is an endangered species found only in China.

Isn't it a cute looking loaf! Quick go take a look at the recipe and detailed guide from TARO-TARO.




This is the translated version of TARO's Panda Bread recipe:

Ingredients: ＜600g loaf (206 x 108 x100h)
230g bread flour
70g cake flour
30g sugar
milk + 1 yolk = 210g (I used skim milk)
4.5g salt
18g unsalted butter (I used 20g)
4g yeast
8g green tea powder dissolved in 10g boiling hot water
8g cocoa powder dissolved in 8g boiling water

Method:
1. Heat up milk and yolk to temperature of 38℃. (I beat the yolk lightly with milk and send it to the microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds).
2. Put everything in bread machine and set to dough cycle. Let it knead for 20 minutes. Stop the cycle and restart the dough cycle and let it knead for another 15 minutes.
3. Divide dough (about 560g) into 3 parts: 75g for the chocolate, 210g plain and the rest of the dough which is less than 280g for the green tea.
4. Add chocolate to the 75g dough and knead till the colour is even. Add green tea mixture to the 280g dough and knead till colour is even. (I did this step manually).
5. Prove all 3 pieces of doughs on separate greased plates covered loosely with oiled cling wrap for 30 - 40 minutes.
6. Punch air out of dough and prove for another 20 - 30 minutes.
7. Use 90g plain dough for the face and 2 pieces of 27g chocolate dough for the eyes. (Refer to photo guide in Step (7) in TARO's site).
8. Fill the hollow of the eyes with 30g plain dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (8) in TARO's site).
9. Roll remaining plain dough over the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (9) in TARO's site).
10. Divide the remaining chocolate dough into 2 pieces (17.5g each) for the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (10) in TARO's site).
11. Use 70g of the green tea dough to fill up the hollow between the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (11) in TARO's site).
12. Wrap the rest of the green tea dough all around the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (12) in TARO's site)
13. Place dough into a well-greased loaf pan and cover it with a lid and prove for 50 - 60 minutes in an enclosed area eg. microwave oven.
14. Bake at 200℃ for 25 – 30 minutes.

Notes:
1. This is not an exact translation of TARO's recipe because I used the bread machine to help me so the first few steps might be different from TARO's.
2. For Step (12), I did not wrap the green tea dough all around the patterned dough. Compare my finished product to that of TARO's, you can see the difference.
3. My first prove is 60 minutes, 2nd prove is 30 minutes and final prove is 60 minutes.
4. I bake at 185℃ for 25 - 30 minutes.

Hokkaido Milk Loaf

Hokkaido milk loaf is a very popular bread baked by many of my net friends . If you do a search on the internet, you will be swarmed with tons of recipes.

Which is the real HOKKAIDO recipe then? I guess no one really knows!

Read the many recipes posted, they are just the same as any other bread recipes that I have seen before, nothing Hokkaido.

To make it real Hokkaido, I bought a litre of expensive Hokkaido milk to make it more authentic. Maybe, I should use Hokkaido bread flour as I heard it produces fluffier loaf but next time...

Anyway, this recipe is worth a try because the loaf is rather soft and fluffy even when it is left out in the open for half a day.

16th June: Bread remained soft the next day, do not need to MW.
17th June: Bread is no longer soft, you need to toast it.





Del bought this Scalloped Bread Tube for me from The Pampered Chef ages ago. The problem with this tube is that the surface of the bread is pale in color.


Texture of bread is soft and fluffy.


CY, thank you for buying this for me!


Ingredients: (1 loaf about 500g)
220g bread flour
30g cake flour
3g salt
3g dry yeast
35g sugar
40g egg white
100ml Hokkaido milk
45ml whipping cream
15g melted butter

Method:
1. Put all ingredients into the bread machine as per instructions for your machine in the dough cycle.
2. When the dough cycle is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air and let it rest for 10 minutes.
3. Divide dough into two pieces, each about 250g and roll it up swiss roll style.
4. Put the 2 pieces of dough into the loaf tin and cover it. Prove for 50 minutes.
5. Brush some milk on the surface of the bread dough.
6. Bake at 175C - 180C for 35 minutes if using a covered loaf tin. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes if using uncovered loaf tin.

Chinese Steamed Mantou

Chinese steamed mantou/bun (饅頭) is a kind of steamed bread bun originating from China. They are somewhat similar in nutritional values and eating qualities to the white bread of the West. Mantou is a staple carbohydrates of the Northern Chinese diet.

Instead of just plain bun, you can wrap in sweet fillings like red bean paste, lotus seed paste (lin yoong) or sesame paste and for the savoury fillings like pork or beef can be used. Steamed buns with fillings are normally know as baozi (包子).

Nowadays, these kind of buns or mantous are easily available frozen from supermarkets or served deep-fried/steamed in Chinese Dim Sum restaurants.

I liked those deep-fried ones served in Peking restaurants. They go really well dipped in some of those spicy sauce in the "Kung Po Prawns" dish but my kids loved them dipped in condensed milk.

I am lazy, so I used my bread maker to do all the mixing and kneading. Making full use of my bread machine.

Steamed plain mantou and black sesame paste baozi.


Texture of mantou - soft and fluffy inside even when cold.


Final proving - 45 minutes.


Ingredients:
Dough Starter
150g cake flour
50g plain flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp yeast
110g water

Method:
I put all these into my bread maker on the dough cycle. When the dough cycle is completed, remove 70g for use and keep the rest in a freeze bag and chill in the vegetable compartment for use thereafter. The whole process is about 1 hour 20 minutes.

*** If you don't have a bread maker, you have to knead the dough manually till it is smooth then prove the dough in a covered bowl for at least 45 minutes.

Main Dough
175ml skim milk
70g sugar
200g plain flour
100g cake flour
5g yeast
70g dough starter
1 tbsp corn oil

Method:
1. Put in all the ingredients except the oil into the bread maker, use the dough cycle. When the dough gathers into a ball, add in the oil and let the machine do its kneading till smooth. The whole process should be about 15 - 20 minutes depending on your bread maker.
2. Remove dough from bread maker, roll into a flat sheet then roll it up swiss roll style.
3. Cut into pieces of about 50g each and put it on a piece of square greaseproof paper. Place them in a steamer, make sure you leave enough room between each mantou for expansion during its final prove.
4. Prove for 45 minutes before steaming on medium heat for 12 minutes.

*** If you don't have a bread maker, knead the dough manually till smooth before dividing and shaping.

Notes:
I have added black sesame paste to some part of my dough to create the black/grey and white spiral swirl.
Some of the mantous you see there are wrapped with black sesame paste filling.

References:
CL & TPC