My choux doesn't shine....my past (random) failure

I have been successfully making choux a few times as of late. Then it struck me one day when my my batter just flopped in the oven. Well, they weren't really flopped, or deflated or anything. They just didn't rise at all.

The 10-cm fully-baked choux came out pretty much the same size as when they went into the oven, no puff, no air pocket for the filling or anything. Imagine bread sticks that waiters bring to your table when you visit Italian restaurant, that what they looked like. Despite disappointing result, they tasted great, tasty and buttery, a bit better than salty crackers. I was thinking whether they could perhaps become one of the most popular finger snacks ever made. However, the whole tray went directly to the trash.


There are a few things I want to share, not sure though if my theories are correct. I have been trying to google the instructions, to see if anyone talked about things that have been clogging my mind, none mentioned in details how the batter should be cooked in the pot , which I think IS the key to success. None even mentioned how batter consistency should be like before baking.

Here are un-confirmed theories of mine based on lecture in class and 7-8 repetitions at school and home.

- Choux batter needs to absorb as much as liquid as possible since it needs moist/steam to push up its structure in the oven (there are no other structure-builders such as yeast or baking powder here). This is achieved through gelatinization process where starch swells hot liquid while cooked in the pot. It starts at 60-65c and continues. The target temperature of the batter is around 80-85 C.

- The swelling process begins when you dump all the flour, all at once, into boiling water (this is done off heat) Why "all at once"? I presume adding flour little by little would quickly over-cook the flour into dumplings. Also, the all-at-once thingy brings down water's boiling point to target gelatinized temperature ? Perhaps?

- The purpose of precooking/drying dough in the pot until it dries out/or so called "forms a ball and leave thin film at the bottom" is to;

1) complete the gelatinazation process , to let the mass of clumped starch evenly heated. Also keep in mind that you need the dough to be as hot while stirring (optimum temp is 60-70 c, which is why most instructions advice medium heat***) . 2) to dry out the dough as much as possible so it can absorb liquid from eggs at its best capacity in later steps.

*** I have seen my classmate did the precooking at very high heat (we had exam, and she was in a hurry) I presumed she must have stirred it crazily quick, or the dough could have burnt. For me I used the medium heat and stir at my snails pace until the dough's consistency was similar to that of almond paste (or clay).

- Cool down the dough before adding eggs? eh...may be...but I find out... whisking the "beaten" eggs on to the hot batter vigorously is a practical way to mix. (so you don't have to cool down, just mix in , quickly. It's fast, it's okay to do. So, let's do it.

And here comes last part (but not least) before piping, it's when we add eggs. Yes, sounds simple but read this carefully, I believe this tip is the secret in making 1) well-puffed 2) well-shaped choux.

- When you add eggs half way through, notice whether the batter becomes too runny to pipe (see batter texture we want to achieve below). If it is, bad news, the dough is not sufficiently cooked/dried out in the pot, thus low-absorption ability. If this happens in class, chef would advice throwing this away and start over. If this happens at home, you may continue to add more eggs as called for and bake that runny batter anyway. It still puffs up nicely but keep in mind the batter is too runny, it won't hold any shapes as you wish it would. Alternately, you can fry Churros/Funnel cake using this batter.

- The goal we want to achieve - batter must be pipable, not too stiff/too dry to pipe that it rips off the piping bag, not too soft that it cannot hold the shape or flats out right away when piped on baking sheet. Below is a sample of the batter. To test, with the spatula, scoop up the batter, if it drops down and leave hanging V-shape , it's good to go. Or, when you drag finger to cut through the dough, it slowly pulls back on , covering the gaps.



Now, I found quite a few websites left out these critical parts of how the dough consistency should be like. Of course baking choux is easy, but making it nice and "consistent" is not as easy as it seems. Most amateur bakers don't cook the batter properly in the pot.


Even worse,  they continue adding eggs as the recipe calls for, no matter how runny the batter is and end up having flat choux (although they have satisfying big air pockets). Some instructions advice us to stop adding eggs whenever we achieve piping consistency/texture, regardless of (too) little eggs we've added. Result? too little eggs, not enough liquid, not enough steam in the oven thus no push-up for the choux. Final products are weird looking buttery bread sticks with no air pockets just like what I experienced.

- Oven temperature - If you have fan forced oven, 170-180c would be appropriate. For bakers oven , it's 190-200 c for the first half and 180 c for the rest. Baking time depends largely on the shape of the choux and how crowded you lay them on the tray. So you may check for the doneness 1) surface is evenly golden brown, no white streaks appear on the cracks 2) it springs back when gently push and 3) the bottom is evenly brown out. Be careful not to open the oven door too early, before they fully rise otherwise the steam will escape and they will collapse. Nothing can be done to fix that.

Do not crowd the tray, for some reason, it would take a lot longer to bake them through. And then, if you happen to open the oven before they puff, you know you would regret.

I won't mention the process after baking such as poking /cooling down and filling. There are some other tips which I haven't tried such as spraying water into the oven before baking to increase steam. I personally do not think it would help largely because the steam that help pushes the choux is trapped inside starch molecules. Well, if anyone can back this spraying tip with your experiment, please do let me know.

And here is a very informative website I found, with lots of beautiful illustrations. He mentioned a good trick to prevent cracks on surface. I haven't tried the mix of bread+pastry flour, which is interesting. If anyone tried, again, please let me know the result.

Hope your choux shines !

What I love most - It's the croissant day!!!

Last week was what I'd been looking forward to, making croissants. Wow...wasn't that g-r-e-a-t to finally make this goodie. My past experience is dated back 10 years (or more perhaps?) that I tried to make croissant out of a 20-lined recipe. Well...it was a total flop considering hot/humid weather in Bangkok that made the butter ran out in every possible ways starting from rolling and proofing. Now that I know a how-to, all I can say is that it's all about the little tips and techniques. Those who want to get start, I suggest you get a recipe here and see useful discussion here

Some observations.

- If you cannot source fresh yeast, use instant dry yeast, just weight up 33% of what required for fresh yeast.

- Coldness is your very best friend. If you live in the tropical, prep this in air-conditioning room. Or if not, use margarine instead of dry butter. I myself don't compromise for margarine as the after taste is not so pleasant. so, margarine is a no-no for me.

- Proofing the dough is tricky. Comfy temperature for yeast to grow is around 25-30 C. I would say 27 C to be precise. Also, at 27 C, butter stays nice and cold and is trapped in croissant layers. If you don't' want a soggy croissant dough, 25-27C is safe zone as butter melts nastily at around 32C.

- Rolling it a little tight. Press down gently as you roll would be a big help in making handsome croissants. I found out stretching the the tail while rolling is not necessary. But may be you can try both ways to see the difference.

I brought these goodies home. My sister and my mom just loved them, they raved about it for days. The crust was crispy and the crumb was soft and chewy. They said these are even better than the ones bought at the Oriental Hotel (one of our favorite bakery shops) and requested me to make this at home. Hey..hey, my arms are still aching from the class. Spare me, please! :-D Actually, I'm flattered, and of course , the school and the my pastry instructor should get the full creditability for this. Salute to them all.

Here are some variation you can make with croissant dough, decorating with pastry creme and fruits (in syrup). Nice, aren't they?

Sticky bun

After watching a clip on YouTube, Throw down with Bobby Flay- Sticky bun, I marked down my calendar on the upcoming weekend, "occupied all day". I needed to make this.

The recipe comes from a successful Flour Bakery-Boston. Joanne Chang, who runs the place and if you watched the clip, she won the challenge, of course. Since then, I started to google the famous Flour's sticky bun. People raved about it. The reviews/comments on Flour's pastries are something like this: to die for, extraordinary, worth all the time and effort, sticky buns on steroids, and much much more. The only complaint is about the place being too crowded that people described it as a madhouse, which, I find this rather be a compliment than a disappointment. No one can blame the place of its popularity. (!?)

Joanne uses Brioche dough. I had my first brioche years back. It was not impressive, a greasy type that left some kind of waxy feelings in my mouth. I doubt if this this recipe would throwdown my past brioche disappointment. Before I started , I read the recipe and I sighed. Butter butter butter, this was it. Brioche is born rich (of butter and egg) compare to other kinds of breads. Flour to butter ratio ranges between 50:100 and 100:100. Joanne's falls in the first category known as poor-man brioche. I am glad to start with the leaner version. The result was very satisfying and I do not think I would alter for richer dough. In other words, I do not want to spend my week end on the thread mill, if not necessary.

Brioche Dough:

2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-ounce cake yeast = 0.4 oz of active dry yeast, = 0.30 oz of instant dry yeast
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt (or half the portion if table salt is used)
1/2 cup ice water
5 eggs
11 ounces butter, softened

Filling:
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Goo:
1/2 pound butter
15 ounces brown sugar
5 ounces honey
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup water

First thing first. It's summer time. The weather is hot and humid. Kitchen temp is around 31 C and humidity is above 60% as it had been raining all week long. I was thinking that I might not need all the wet ingredients so I cut back half of the water in recipe.

Also, since I was skeptical of the result, I halved the recipe and used only 2 eggs (supposed to be 2.5 eggs as called for in the recipe) which weighed 95 g. So, in order to replace missing half egg, I added 25 g of water instead (well, egg white contains water, right), apologies for my love of convenience. I use the combination of bread and all-purpose flour as instructed. The cake yeast seems to be the problem for home baker like me. I used SAF instant yeast, reduced it to one-third of cake yeast which was around 0.15 oz. Be reminded that I halved the recipe. The tiny amount of yeast was almost beyond my scale capability to measure. I guess the scale accuracy is 0.05 oz so it blinked back and forth between 0.10 and 0.15.

As mentioned before, I cut back the water by half knowing that adding butter would make the dough soggy later on, especially in a warm/humid kitchen. The dough was really dry at first. But when added butter (it was half liquid-solid state and I think it was over melted. The instruction calls for soft stage), it became very wet and sticky.

I attached the hook to my stand mixer but finally changed to paddle. I continued to beat at medium speed for 15 minutes. The dough, or should I call it batter (?) was wet and it did not pass window pane test. And yes, even that I reduced the water by half the dough was wet. So I added 2 tablespoons of flour, beat further for 5 minutes. Well, ya I know....I was mumbling to myself that this was a disaster. I should have figured it out sooner that more flour was needed. Professional bakers who are reading this are so ready to whip me to death. zzchez...z..

The dough finally came off the bowl , which was a good sign. It almost passed the window pane test. I decided to stop the machine, feared that beating it further would mess up the leavening. The dough looked oily, soft and pliable. I rested the dough over night in the fridge. Note that the recipe requires to rest the dough for 5 hours.

Goo – Put butter and sugar in a non stick pan, medium heat. Reduce until very thick. Let warm. In a separate bowl, stir together honey, cream and water. Stir cream mixture into butter+sugar mixture, stir until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for next day, it will become more solid after resting in the fridge.

Baking day – Turn on the oven to 350 F. spread goo on roasting pan, at least 2.5 inch tall, set aside. I have an 8" x8"x2” pan which was not tall enough. I later found out the goo boiled and overflew, a bit messy there .

On a flour surface, roll out the dough into approximately 1/4-inch thick. I would recommend 8"x8” rectangular perhaps? Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and sprinkle evenly on the brioche. Or alternately, I sprinkled cinnamon generously until it covered up the dough then sprinkled brown sugar. I think I used around half cup. Keep in mind that the bun will be topped with Goo, so make it skimpy on sugar at this point, just enough to make nice brownish layer. Roll the dough up as tightly as possible as it will unwind during rest period. I wonder if it is possible to seal the edge? Some suggested to brush edges lightly with egg to seal. Well, I did not try that.

Warnings for those who work in warm kitchen. The dough tends to be sticky as you roll. So you'd better work quickly. I did so, tried my best to roll the dough into a nice rectangle but ended up rolling the dough unevenly into Oklahoma-state shape, approximately 8"x12", yielded 8 large rolls, 1 mid-size roll and 3 tiny rolls. Yes, I know I'm such a novice.

Each roll was around 1-1.5 inch thick. I placed 9 buns, evenly 1/2-inch spaced in the pan. For the 3 small rolls, I put them into individual muffin cups which are 1.5 time as large in volume. Cover with well-greased plastic wrap and allow rising until they expanded 1.5-2 times of original size. It took around 1.5 hr in my kitchen.

See, the bun hugged each other nicely in roasting pan. Zzch ! one photo shot for nicely proofed buns.

Place the pan in the oven and bake until light golden brown, about 30-40 minutes. I smelled the burnt caramel (as well as trouble) when the goo was sizzling and dripping out of my 2 inch tall pan. Oh no, I was hoping that my neighbor who are pensioners would not knock my door with walking stick and ask what was burning. If you have taller pan, do use it.

I rotated the pan at 25 minutes to get it cooked evenly. After 40 minutes, the top turned light golden brown. I took them off the oven, let cool for 20 minutes and then invert onto a large plates.

For the 3 tiny pieces that I placed in muffin cups. I baked with the rest of proper-sized buns. They turn out to be nicely shaped, wrapped up tightly in muffin cup. When inverted, the goo did not make them soggy. This was because I poured goo just enough to coat, around them. The ugly ducks finally turned out to be swans.!

The buns that I baked in 8'x8' pan, top bits were a bit soggy. The dough texture however was very impressive. I would say ‘extraordinary’ soft , light and fluffy. It is worth all the effort and the messy (goo) that I need to clean up . I took a bite and I thought it made my day. So I took the second one....(on and on). Before I munched them all up, I decided to put it down and finally finish some photo shoots.

Then, I was thinking about the last 2 tablespoon of flour that I added in later stage of kneading. Um...may be it was just small amount and didn't ruin the rest of the texture. Maybe?

The goo is just lovely, it gives milky aroma. I added a pinch of salt by the way. My Chinese colleagues said it’s totally too sweet. They had it cold the next morning i.e. took right out of the fridge, and told me the texture was good. It is so wrong that they had it cold, don't you think?

Some notes on the goo :
- It makes the bun soggy. Not sure what have gone wrong. Next time I will spread just enough to brown the bun. Think we can always put some more on top of finished product.
- It is too sweet for Asian taste, perhaps. But I think I am totally fine with it as is.
- I may experiment replacing butter with cream. But probably need to reduce further until it becomes very thick.

The sticky bun is addictive especially when it was warm. I could not put it down after the photo shoot. Best is to walk away. Well, there is nothing wrong with occasionally enjoying some indulgence as long as you don't go overboard. Moderation is what you need to repeatedly whisper to yourself.

To do after munching the second bun, sign up for half marathon in December. Yes! run baby run, baby run...n.

Sesame Walnut Bread

I am huge fan of nuts and I am a chewing-monster. I have been planning this for a big while but never had a chance. Making bread is somehow time-consuming (3-hr prep time). I am agree .... but the result worths it.

Walnuts go so well with bread. No reason, they just good with bread texture. Imagine if I put almonds (?) ehhh...na ! peanuts...ehh...ne! My favorite walnut bread is store-bought which is very very and very buttery. Since I intend to make a loaf of hearty bread, I put just enough butter as you can see in the ingredients below

Dough

500 g of wheat flour

140 g of cold water

5 g of instant active yeast

3 g of bread improver ( you can skip this)

1 egg

80 g of brown sugar.

1/2 cup of ground black sesame

1/2 cup of lightly roasted walnut (broken into pieces by hand)

a pinch of salt

Filling - Mix everything together to form paste and set aside.

3 tablespoon of melted butter

1 cup of ground black sesame.
1/2 cup of lightly roasted walnut (broken into piece by hand)
1/2 - 1 cup brown sugar - depend on your preference

Put together dry ingredients in the bowl, except salt and ground black sesame and walnuts, stir briefly. Add salt, this is to ensure yeast and salt are not put next to each other. Stir in 135-140 g cold water and 1 egg. Knead roughly until the dough comes together in one lump, 2-3 minutes. Don’t worry if the dough seems dry and tough. It will be pliable once add butter. Add soften butter. Continue kneading until the dough is flexible enough to stretch into window pane. I used small hand mixer with dough hooks, it took me around 20 minutes. Once I kneaded with hands, it took pretty much the same time, but my shoulders were worn out. That was a great work out but I would prefer that off-the kitchen.

Sprinkle ground sesame on the dough and knead by hand until well blended. The dough now turns to grayish/ spotted dough. Be careful though, the more you add dry ingredients like ground sesame, the dryer the dough becomes. So, be sure to stop if the dough is not workable with your hands or it will become a brick. My experiment, next time, I will make it a pitch dark bun, I wonder how far I can go.

Form a ball and put the dough in a well-greased bowl, wrap with plastic. Let it rise in a warm place for 30 min. My kitchen was 12 C , way to cold for the yeast to leaven. So I warmed up the oven to 160 c for 3 min then turned off , splash some water to make fog. I doubt if one-day my mini-oven would go short-circuit as water leaks into the place where it is not supposed to be!. Anyway, I get used to stick my hand in the middle of oven, to feel it's not too hot. This is just to mimic a cozy home for my lovely dough. Kids...don't follow my instruction on this and you should not do this at home. This applies strictly on my oven , it is difficult to advise how long you should turn you oven on though. If you have thermometer, the ideal temperature for the unbaked bread to rise is around 80F or 27 C , preheat the oven accordingly.

I put the bowl in the middle rack. Be sure to put some cloth under the bowl as it tends to be overheated by direct contact to the hot iron grid that supports the bowl.

Before I go further, you can follow instruction from baking911 on how to let the dough rise in the warm oven. Be careful, I have made many disasters before. Okay, I see your curious eyes...what I did was turning on the oven a few minutes, splash water in. The oven was then foggy and temperature in the oven was rising...great! I put the dough inside. Then someone called, I thought it was a just 4 minutes, I came back, and dough surface was cooked. I was C-R-U-S-H-E-D. I wish I had an undo button, but too bad this was at no point of return. What did I do? First, screamed. Second, put myself together and third,.....everything went to the trash. And believe it or not, I did that twice ! Raise your hand if youhave made the same silly mistake. (dang it! no one?)

Once the dough has rest for 30 min, it should be 1.5 or 2 times of original size. Lightly sprinkle flour on table. Deflate the dough. Knead the dough briefly. Why? As we rest the dough, yeast is digesting sugar. Kneading the dough will re-distribute yeast's food evenly after the its big meal. Remember we have another rest , once we shape up the dough.

Break or chop 1/2 cup of walnuts, knead into the dough briefly. Roll out dough to a rectangle shape, 1/2 inch thick. Rotate the dough every other few strokes. This helps the dough rise evenly in the oven and also helps ensure it is not stick to table. Sprinkle some flour under the dough as you go.

Spread the filling , leave out 1/2 inch edges on all four sides so that you can seal. Roll up as tight as possible , push it forward with the lower part of you palm. Imagine now you are making strawberry roll. Seal up the edge to nicely.

If the rolled dough is kinked, you can straight it up. For final touch, cover it up with rolled oats or other grains of your choice such as sesame. Just lightly brush the dough with water, roll it over the oats.

Let the dough rise in warm place, cover with greased plastic wrap or damp cloth for 1 hour. The dough will double in size or maybe 2.5 times if your kitchen is hot and damp.

Put on the lower rack, 180 C for 20-25 minutes. If you have needle thermometer, you can check the doneness if the center of the bread reaches 88-99 C (or 190-210 F).

Let cool on the rack. Sesame smells so nice. It really is nice. I mean it. Ah ah! don't cut it while hot, it will ruin the textture and I call it disaster number two.

I myself like it a lot. My colleages love it....and no I didn't pay them to say so.....no no...never.!

Miniature Cream Scones (Gourmet Magazine, March 1990)

Before I gave up, I had to finish this business, baking scones. The first time after two scones-disasters, I finally got nice, light, buttery, flaky scones. Thanks Epicurious for publishing this recipe (it was first published in Gourmet magazine , March 1990).

Ingredients

1/2 C of heavy cream plus additional for brushing the scones (I use egg+1tbsp of milk for brushing)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp of sugar plus additional for sprinkling the scone

2 1/4 C of cake flour

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tbsp (or 3 tsp) of double acting baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda.

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 90 g) of cold unsalted butter, chopped into tiny bits.

1/2 C of dried currants (I used dark raisins)

In a bowl, whisk together 1/2 C of cream, egg , vanilla and 3 tablespoon of sugar until they combine well. I warmed up cream in microwave so that sugar dissolved easier. In another bowl sift all dry ingredients. I sifted twice so that wet ingredients can soak in quicker.

Now the key procedure, working with butter. I don't have food processor. And I cannot work with my bare hands as they are too warm to smash the butter directly into flour. The bottom line we want is coarse crumbs of flour+butter with the size of small tiny peas. My method is to chop up butter into little pieces, as if you are chopping onion for stir fry (some people use cheese grater, but butter must be freezing cold enough to grate) . No surprise, butter will stick to blade and chopping board, so sprinkle sifted flour, set aside in the bowl, would be a good idea. Once chopped, my butter cubes are just as small as 2 x 2 millimetres (oh yeah, they were that small). Feel free to sprinkle more flour while chopping as these will be all scooped back to the bowl. Once done , in the bowl, use pastry blade to cut in butter and flour mixture to coarse crumbs. This process should be quick as the butter cubes are very very tiny and they incorporate into the flour in shorter time. Be careful not to let butter metl, especially if your kitchen temperature is warmer than 25 C . Luckily, my kitchen was freezing cold, 12 C (imagine next week is Christmas !).

Warm up the oven to 200 C. Put the tray in the middle of the rack, no need to grease the tray.

With the fork, stir wet ingredients into the dry, slowly mix in. Don't over stir. How ? pause every 3-4 strokes and let the wets soak in. You'll see that once you pause, flour absorbs humidity around them and becomes lumbs. Continue stiromg, just until combine. Add raisins or other dried fruits of you choice. Some part of the dough will look a bit sandy or dry, that is okay.

On a lightly flour surface , knead the flour for 30 second , approximately 20 strokes, not more than that. I am a gluten nerd, I would do anything to prevent gluten formation as I don't think anyone likes chewy scones. (right ? right?)

Pat down the dough, roll into ½ inch thick. Make sure you roll it evenly; otherwise, the scone will be tilted when baked in the oven. Cut with cookie cutter, set aside. I used the 1.5 inch diameter cutter, yielded 9 scones.

On pre-heated tray, put scones next to each other, don’t leave spaces. Putting them shoulder-to shoulder will help them rise better (crowd them so they have no choice but to sit straight!) Some website suggests to thumb-press on top of scones to prevent domed structure. I didn’t do that, I forgot.

You can brush with cream as advises in the recipe. I brushed with egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp of milk. Be careful not to brush on the side as it prevents the edge to rise. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until brown.

Got Tea?

Mochi (modified)

This is a modified Japanese Mochi. The ingredients is nowhere near the original. I guess small bite-size that resembles mochi that make people call it this way.

You can consider this as a healthy snack, I do. I love to have a few bites and drain down with a cup of tea. If you want to make this, get prepare well ahead of time to soak the beans overnight though.

Here is recipe.

Mix together these dry ingredients
All purpose flour 250 g
Baking powder 3 g
Baking soda 2 g

Mix together these wet ingredients
Egg yolks 1
Melted butter 40 g
Water 100 g
Sweetened condensed milk 125 g





Mix the wets to the dries to form dough. It should be soft but not gooey. The texture should be similar to that of clay. Add little flour if needed. Rest for 15 minuntes.

Black-bean filling
Black beans 250 g (soaked over night)
Sugar 150 g
Melted butter 40 g
Baking soda ½ tsp
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
A pinch of salt

Bring black beans and baking soda to a boil for 20 minutes. We will put these in the mixer and dry it out again in the pan. So you have to drain out excess water. I cannot tell exactly how much liquid each machine needs in order to mix it finely. Different makes handles dryness differently though. I drained out too much water and that my cheap mixer got stuck so I poured little water back in.

In the mixer/blender , add sugar, butter and oil. Mix until form fine paste. Return ingredient to the pan under low heat. Dry it out a bit. You can test it by scoop out a portion and spat down back to the pan. If it disappears of blend with the rest of the paste….dry it out a bit more. Remember don’t over dry coz when it’s completely cooled down, it forms harder, more manageable texture. Oh you know what, you can taste the paste if it’s just as sweet as you like. I stick with the recipe as I don’t like it too sweet. Once finished, let it cool down.

Now the fun part begins. Cut the dough in to a golf ball size. Use the thumbs and yr finger tips to spread it out in circular motion. Ensure the trim is thinner than center coz you will finally put the trim together to form the ball. Add fillings, ah-ah, not too much, I know you love fillings, everybody does !. But believe me you don’t want to end up in a mess where black bean paste splats around your hands. Try your best to wrap it up. You may use water to ensure the dough is firmly sealed.

Bake 170 C for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Soft Pretzel

I wish Kim&Scott is here, in Shanghai. I miss them so much. No, they are neither my relatives nor my friends. They are co-owners of famous Kim & Scott’s® pretzel based in Chicago. Their stuffed soft pretzels are so amazingly delicious that I was addicted to when I was in a small town in Oklahoma (where finest food in town was Subway sandwich and Sonic drive-in). My favorites are apple cinnamon and ham cheese pretzel. They are huge in size and can be filling.

Recently, I’m so into bread making. This is one of my favorite recipe from allrecipe.com I adapt it to my own version with less flour and more sugar. The dough can be made as dinner roll or garlic stick as it tastes great itself. For garlic stick, you can just brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic powder before put them in the oven. The recipe can make up to 12-14 normal-sized pretzels. You can half the recipe, but believe me, you’ll regret that you should have made the full batch once you taste them.

Last time I made stuffed pretzel with apple and raisin. Just like what usually stuffed in apple pie. OMG, It was so good. I love this recipe so much. The bread is good even though you keep them in the fridge for 2 days. It’s best when heated in oven or in medium heat in microwave.

In the make of pretzel, I took some photos. Unbaked mini pretzels are cute. They are like babies lining up for (baking soda) bath. They look naked this way. Don’t you think? Don't worry, we'll dress them up with sugar and nuts. Yumm.

Dough

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Baking soda Bath – mix these together
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
Topping Adhesive
1 eggwhite + 1 tablespoon of water

Cinnamon Sugar topping – mix all of these together. Squeeze big chuck of butter and mix well with all other ingredients. Final product will be coarse crumb with some peanut-sized bits.

½ cup of finely chopped walnuts (or other nuts of your choice)
½ cup of all purposed flour
½ cup of sugar
4 table spoon of cold butter – cut into small cubes
1 table spoon of cinnamon
A pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 425-450 F.

For the dough - Mix everything together. Make sure you don't put yin-and-yang next to each other, which is salt and yeast. Knead to form dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 15 minutes. I used electric hand mixer. Those who have a professional kneading machine like Kitchen Aid stand mixer may turn on medium speed for 10 min and check if the dough passes window pane test. That is you can stretch out the dough into paper-thin without tearing it off.

Place the dough in a grased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 hr.
After the dough doubles in volume, punch it down. On working space cut out a piece, a tennis ball-sized. Squeeze into stick, and then start to roll to make a rope on table. The texture of the dough should be now like clay. I was tempted to sculp it to a small buffalo...oh no, I was shaping pretzel here.

Well, you can shape it differently, big or small ones. I opt to do mini pretzels as it easy to dip-and-dress in further steps.

for mini pretzels --> 0.5 cm. diameter, 1.5 feet in length .
for normal size, sold-in-mall pretzels--> 1 cm diameter, 3 feet in length.

Twist into a pretzel shape, put ugly side down. Rest the dough for 20 minutes. If you like dense pretzel, skip resting process.

Here is how to twist pretzel.

Now, prepare assemble line. You‘ll need large-enough containers that allows you to dip pretzels and make coatings. So it depends on how big you pretzels are. Line one plate/tray next to one another so that you don’t dirty kitchen space.

Baking soda bath
Eggwhites bath
Strusel topping

Dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution. Make sure they are well coated. Note that unbathed parts will not be browned and you don’t want that, do you?

Dip into egg white bath. This will act as adhesive and make streusel stick on pretzel skin.
Place in streusel tray; coat pretzel on both sides and press gently.

Place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle more with strusel or other nuts of your choice.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, until browned. You are allowed to take a bite just for tasting.

My tasting costed me 2 pretzel, before I was aware....opps.

Coconut flakes buns

As far as I recall, I never ever ever liked dried coconut flakes on any of my desserts (not to be confused with coconut creme and coconut meat frequently used in Thai savory and desserts that I love so much). To me, I felt its texture is like chopped cardboard (apologies for my extreme words here).

Not until last year, I realized my favorite piece of cake is the Australian's national signature, The Lamington. Of course, with coconut flakes coating. And last month, coconut bun I bought from next door bakery shop was soul-fulfilling that inspired me to make one of my own. What an overly #$%&* I'm putting here. Let's look at what I made (or baked).

While baking the last batch, I was trying not to grab one into my mouth. I believe it's very tempting to bakers when they smell freshly baked buns from the oven. Crispy crust and warm/soft bread, who would not love to have a bite.

And oh, I made red bean bun out of the same batch. So I would call the day of asian bread.

Okay, it was a raining day and I got stuck in my apartment, of course, smell so good with buttery buns all around. I finally finished one of them and managed to spared the rest for my freinds whom I would hornor them as my taster (or 'tester' as anyone would presume). While wraping up with tears, I really really wanted to have some more but I heard a voice shouting in my ears "aren't you trying to lose a pound?". And I called it an evil voice.

Ham&Cheese bun

I had a big piece as breakfast + a cup of yoguht shake. The bun is fluffy and chewy. This batch is a keeper. For those who love carbs, here might as well be your favorite.

Dough resting period is not long but it calls for 3 rests. I brushed the buns with egg, ham, mushroom and cheese. Topped with mayo+sugar. Final garnish with thymes and pepper would also adds flavors.

The bun is from Chinese bread book.

White Loaf

I was in the mood of craving ..... craving for carb. Nothing is better than a slice of soft bread and marmalade (or perhaps nutella? or peanut butter?). Here we go. A big white loaf that can last for 2 weeks. I ensure I have large-enough freezer to enjoy it.

I brushed with egg. It brown faster before the crumb was done. Next time try brushing with milk.

Smoked ham pizza

This is the latest stuff from my oven. It tastes as nice as it looks.

The bread was made ahead of time. So, prep time was just a mere 10 min slicing whatever I like. I call this a handsome pizza.

Verdict: Toppings are great (Olives, Smoked ham, Mozzarella, Onion, Roasted bell peppers). I didn't have pizza sauce. And I don't bother to cook one of my own, so I bought spaghetti sauce.....taste good. As I said, put whatever I like. :-) Crust ..... chewy. It didn't turn golden brown at bottom. Since pizza stone was missing from the parameter, I won't be able to tell if the recipe is a keeper. Will try next time.

Date: Saturday March 8, 2008.

Cinnamon bun

The original recipe suggests individual buns fitted in muffin pan. That looks lovely and is a twist from what we see in stores. But this should as well be cut and served as a cake. The bread is butter-rich and soft so I can cut it with serrated knife easily. So, here comes the round shape that I fitted in a 9-inch pan.


I have plenty of nuts to choose from but I love walnuts, cashews and almonds. A handful of each....no mercy.

A scoop of vanilla icecreme would be a complement . And no, I was not counting calories while digging my fork in it.

Oh...for those who wanna make this at home, here's the link for recipe with photos. Thank you Elise for a great recipe.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001734cinnamon_sticky_buns.php