An Pan

This recipe is meant for an pans, Japanese buns with red bean (azuki bean) paste fillings. I used cheese instead of red bean paste as fillings. I prepared the bread dough the night before and left it in the refrigerator to rise and baked it in the morning for breakfast. It tasted warm and soft because of the melted cheese fillings, mmm... Here's the recipe :

Ingredients :

Flour 300g
Yeast 7g
Sugar 2 tablespoons
Butter 7g
Salt 3g
Milk 50ml
Water 150ml

Method :
1. Mix all ingredients for dough together, except salt and butter.
2. Mix till all liquid is absorbed into dough and add salt.
3. Knead (or mix dough around) for 10 mins and add butter.
4. Knead for 10 mins and cover dough for 10 mins. Continue kneading for another 10 mins.
5. Put dough in a large bowl and cover with clingwrap or wet towel. Leave it to rise for 40-50 mins or until double in size. Dough rises faster in warmer temperatures so check more often if the weather is hot.
6. Flatten dough and break into 10 pieces.
7. Flatten each piece of dough and put in red bean paste or any filling you like. I have used cheese, chocolate chips and green beans before. Use your imagination and have fun!
8. Close over filling and flatten. Leave in a baking pan about 1-2cm apart and leave to rise for 30 min or until double in size.
9. Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees and bake for 10-15 mins.

Red Bean Paste

Ingredients:
Red Beans (Azuki beans) 3/4 cup
Water 2 cups
Sugar 50g

Method:
1. Soak beans in water the night before use. Ensure that the level of water is double the level of beans in the bowl. This is because the beans will absorb water and expand.
2. The next morning, drain water from the bowl.
3. Put beans in a pan and cover with water. Put on high flame until it boils. Lower flame.
4. Cook the beans till the water dries up - about 2 hours. Stir occasionally. Ensure that the beans are soft.

Healthy Bread

The main reason I bake my own bread is not just to bake a better loaf of bread but also to bake a healthier one. My friend and neighbour, Iris says I should call my blog "Organic Maniac"! For those who are allergic to health food like Iris is, you may skip this post and go to the next one where I have posted another recipe. For the rest of you who are still curious, read on :

There are many delicious bread recipes so how do we make healthier bread? Is it possible to modify these delicious recipes so that we get tasty AND healthy bread? Here are some things I do to make healthier bread.

1. Add wholemeal flour. Start by making half the amount of flour wholemeal. If a recipe calls for 300g of bread flour, use 150g of fine stoneground wholemeal flour and 150g of bread flour. This will not affect the recipe at all. You may gradually increase the proportion of wholemeal flour to get a healthier loaf. As the proportion of wholemeal flour increases, the bread will rise less and become more dense.

2. Reduce sugar. I use a type of molass sugar called sugacant. You may use any other form of molass sugar. They are high in nutrients and are less sweet. I also reduce the quantity of sugar in a recipe. If a recipe calls for 60g of sugar, I will use 40g of sugacant. You may reduce the amount of sugar according to your taste. This will not affect the recipe.

3. Reduce salt. I use half the amount of salt stated in a recipe.

4. Use butter instead of shortening. Shortening is a form of hydrogenated oil and is harmful to our health. Substitute butter or certain oils. Grapeseed oil and coconut oil are also good alternatives.

5. Use distilled or spring water. There are some contaminants in our water so use as clean a type of water as you can find. I have a water distiller and use them for drinking and cooking.

6. Use healthy ingredients. Examples are organic seeds and nuts. Avoid or reduce ingredients such as bread improvers, instant yeast, baking powder, sausages, non-organic meat, hydrogenated oil and cheese.

Tomoko's Bread - more

In my previous blog, I said to make balls of dough of 20g. This should be 50g.

For those whose mixer does not have a dough hook, you can mix with a normal mixer then remove the dough when it becomes too dry. Put the dough in a large bowl and continue to mix by hand for 10 mins. Rest the dough for 10 mins. Continue mixing and resting until you have mixed for 30 mins. This start-stop way of mixing helps the dough relax and easier to mix.

For those who don't have a mixer at all, you can start your mixing with a large spoon. Add water to flour a little at a time. Mix a little water to the flour, then mix it in thoroughly. Continue this way till you have mixed in all the water. Then use the start-stop method of mixing as stated above.

For warm days, you can let the dough rise in a refrigerator. This takes longer but improves the softness of the dough.

I am baking cheese buns using another recipe this afternoon. I plan to let it rise in the refrigerator tonight and bake it early in the morning for breakfast. I will post pictures and recipe tomorrow when I am done.

Please let me know if more information about bread or Tomoko's recipe is required.

Tomoko's Bread

This bread recipe is from my Japanese friend, Tomoko. She uses it to make sugar buns or wrap the dough around cheese or sausages to make cheese and sausage buns. Her kids love it and she bakes this twice a week. Each batch lasts her 2 to 3 days.

Tomoko's Bread :

Bread Flour 500g
Butter 75g
Egg 1
Fresh milk 300g ( reduce by 10-20g if egg is big)
Sugar 30g
Salt 9g
Yeast 15g or 2 teaspoon

Egg glaze:
1 egg mix with half egg shelf of water.

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together except salt and butter.
2. After 5 mins of mixing, add salt.
3. Mix another 10 mins and add butter.
4. Mix another 10-20 mins.
5. Put dough in a big bowl and cover with cling wrap or wet cloth.
6. Let it rest for 40-50 mins until dough doubles in size.
7. Make balls of 20g with the dough and put them in a baking pan; about 1-2cm apart.
8. Let it rest for another 30-40 mins. Heat oven to 220 degrees about 15 mins before bake.
9. Make egg glaze and brush over dough.
10. Sprinkle sugar generously over the dough.
11. bake for 10-15 mins.

Instead of sprinkling sugar to make sugar buns, you can use this recipe to make sausage rolls. Just wrap the little balls of dough round a sausage and put it in cookie sheet about 2 cm apart.

Banana and Walnut Cinnamon Roll

I baked banana and walnut rolls this afternoon. I put too much banana in it and it looks a little ugly but tastes great! Take a look! I added a little cinnamon too so it smells good as well.

Baking Bread

Why bake bread? With Breadtalk, Gardenia, Sunshine so readily available, buying bread is so convenient and they taste great!

4 years ago, I bought a loaf of bread but forgot about it for a week. When I checked it, it looked as good as new; or rather, it looked the same as the day it was bought. I began to wonder what was in the bread to make it last so long. Would I eat bread that even fungus and bacteria won't touch?

I also read a book "Super Baby Food" and it described a very nutritious bread. Good for kids and adults too. I then bought a bread machine and started baking.

For those who want freshly baked bread daily but do not have time to bake, buying a bread machine is a good idea. All you need to do is put the ingredients into the machine the night before and you get fresh bread in the morning. One of my Muslim friends use it as an alarm clock during fasting month. The smell of freshly baked bread wakes her up early in the morning feeling happy and alert. Another friend bakes a loaf in her machine whenever there is a party in her daughter's school. I hear her fresh sandwiches are a hit! I have another friend whose mom is diabetic. She bakes wholemeal bread with honey to reduce her mom's sugar intake. I hear her mom likes to dip them into her coffee in the morning. My friend also eats them with curry! Yum!

It's been years since my first loaf of bread and I have progressed from sandwich breads to cinnamon rolls. I bake twice a week. On Sundays, I bake something fun like cinnamon rolls, cream cheese rolls, an pans or cheese buns. I bring half to my son's swim class. The parents and kids love them! The kids like to peek into my bag to see what I have baked for them. The other half serve as breadfast the next day. My son brings the remainder to school for recess. On Tuesdays, I bake a sandwich loaf. This serves as lunch. The remainder is also for breakfast and my son's snack in school. I intend to share my bread recipes and pictures of my bread. I will be baking banana and walnut rolls tomorrow and will post the pictures.