温暖我心~ 苹果肉桂卷 Apple Cinnamon Roll

肉桂是我的comfort food， 它给我一种很温暖安详的感觉。从前我不喜欢它的味道，爱上它始自于三年前欧洲自助行。因为睡过头错过了从巴黎到瑞士的火车，等待下一班车的时间我拖着行李买了一个酥皮肉桂卷，叫了一杯咖啡，悠闲的看人来人往，咬下一口肉桂卷，惊为天人，怎么这么好吃的东西我以前都错过了？那是我吃过最香最好吃的肉桂卷，也许是心境的问题，从此以后我再也没有吃过这么好吃的肉桂卷了。

这个肉桂卷是昨天空出来一点时间做的。上回做的蔓越莓鲜奶土司感觉还不错，所以又翻回同一本书，许翠芳老师的《面包蜜码》。这本书里头的面包全都是直接法，适合临时决定做面包的我。

这个肉桂卷里头除了一贯的葡萄干还加入了苹果丁，苹果和肉桂也是好朋友。面包吃起来没有明显苹果的味道（可能和我用的苹果种类有关，我用gala apple）却有脆脆的口感，让软软的面包多了一个层次感，我很喜欢。

这个面团是我用新买的搅拌机揉的，第一次用搅拌机揉面团反而有点不习惯，以前用面包机揉面团甚少观察面团的伸展性，通常只跟着面包机的程序，最多也只是让面包机多揉个10分钟。用搅拌机揉面团我很像比较忙，每隔一下就检查一次。

搅拌机工作了约莫20分钟后，纵使外表已经非常光滑的面团还是不能被拉成薄膜，是因为高油高糖低筋度配方（配方里有加入20%的低粉）的关系？还是因为我的搅拌机不够力道？我没有再继续揉下去就让面团进行第一次发酵。发酵好的面团好柔软，而且一点也不粘手，操作起来非常容易，完全不需要用到手粉。这样的配方我喜欢。

配方分成3份，每份卷起后可以切成6卷。我只做了两份肉桂卷，另外一份做成牛油卷，因为妈妈不喜欢肉桂的味道。如果注意看，我的心形面包一半是“黑心”，一半是“白心”，那浅色的就是没有加入肉桂粉，黄糖和苹果的牛油卷。做成牛油卷只需在擀开的面团上放上切成条状的冷牛油卷起就行了，我另外也加了兰姆酒浸泡的葡萄干和核桃碎。

单看配方就知道这个面包会很好吃，结果不负我所望。以直接发来说我觉得这个食谱值得收藏（除了味道外，好操作是其中一个考量因素），有机会我还会再做，在减肥的你最好不要尝试，不要说我没有警告你。。。呵呵 :P

Apple Cinnamon Roll
(recipe adapted from Wendy Kor’s Bread Code)

Ingredients: (make 18 rolls)
Dough
(A)
400g high protein flour (bread flour)
100g superfine flour (cake flour)
10g instant yeast
(B)
5g salt (I used 1 tsp)
100g sugar
20g milk powder
120g eggs (2 large egg, I used 100g only)
200g water (I didn’t use all, left about 1 tbsp)
(C)
80g butter (I used salted butter)
(D)
Extra whole egg for egg wash

Fillings
10g cinnamon powder (I used 2 tsp)
60g brown sugar (I used 40g)
50g raisins (presoak in water, drain and pat dry)
1 apple (diced)
30g almond slices (I used chopped walnut)

Method:
1) Mix (A) evenly. Add in (B) (can reserve 2 tbsp of water, only add in if the dough is too dry). Blend for 5 mins then add (C). Continue blending until the bread dough is smooth and springy.
2) Place bread dough in container cover with cling wrap and leave to proof for 40 mins till the dough becomes double in size. Divide dough into 3 portions, roll into balls and proof for 10 mins.
3) Roll out each portion to 10”x12”. Sprinkle fillings on top. Roll into long shape (like swiss roll) and cut into 6 portions. Place in a 7” greased round cake pan, leave to proof for 40-50 mins.
4) Brush whole egg on surface and bake in preheated oven at 190C for 23-30 mins.

Note:
1) I made 2 portions of dough into apple cinnamon rolls (total 12 rolls) and 1 portion of dough into butter roll. To make butter roll, I omitted cinnamon sugar and apple, replaced with cold butter stripes.
2) Suggest preparing more raisins, 50g of raisins merely enough for 2 portions of dough.
3) I used one small gala apple, just nice for 2 portions of dough. So if you were to fill all dough with apple, suggest using one big apple or 2 small apples.
4) For second proofing, my habit is to leave the dough in oven with door closed beside a cup of hot water.
5) I used one 8” round pan and one large heart-shaped pan for all the 18 rolls. I placed 11 rolls in the heart-shaped pan, it was a bit crammed, 10 rolls should be just nice.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

Pizza Dough #2 ~ Soft & Fluffy Pizza Dough Using 100% Plain Flour 松软皮萨饼皮(100%普通面粉)

This is a quick and “bread like” pizza crust using 100% plain flour and total proofing time needed is only 10 minutes. Plain flour is more common and can be found in most households, so anyone can just make this pizza crust at home anytime.

The crust is indeed soft and fluffy. Though it looks thick you won’t feel very filling after eating. I used canned tuna for the topping this time (hot mayonnaise flavour) together with onion and green chili.

Canned tuna is my favourite topping, I always like to keep one or two cans of canned tuna at home. They are great for sandwich too. The only brand I buy is Ayam brand. There are many flavours to choose from, hot chili, mayonnaise, tomato….and even with water chestnut, you won’t get bored if you ever use it for pizza toppings.

Soft & Fluffy Pizza Dough (100% Plain Flour)
(recipe adapted from Yum Yum magazine April 2011)

Ingredients: (served 3-4)
300g plain flour
6g (2 tsp) instant dry yeast
1 tbsp Italian mixed herbs (I omitted)
190-220ml water
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar

Method:
1) Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well (add 190ml of water first and slowly add up to 220ml if the dough is dry). Continue to knead into smooth dough. Cover the dough with a piece of wet towel or cling wrap, rest for 10 mins. Roll out the dough into a square.
2) Prick holes all over the dough and bake in preheated oven at 200C for 12 mins or until lightly brown. Remove from oven.
3) Pile on your favourite toppings and bake at 200C until crust is brown and cheese is bubbly.

Note:
I kneaded the dough by hand. The dough was very sticky at the beginning, I just roughly kneaded for about 5-10 mins and left it to proof. The dough became soft and smooth after 10 mins and it was quite easy to handle.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

Pizza Dough #1 ~ Thin & Crispy Pizza Dough by Jamie Oliver 脆薄皮萨饼皮

The last time I made pizza is years ago and the only pizza dough recipe that I ever tried is the recipe I learnt in my home econ class back to secondary school days. Till now, I still find it very good.

I had family members visit on a lovely Sunday so I thought to make my guests pizza for lunch. Instead of going back to the old recipe, I tried Jamie Oliver’s pizza dough recipe seen from The Batter Baker blog.

This pizza crust is slightly chewy type and the edge is crispy. I find it more “authentic” than my usual recipe which is more “bread” like. I made 1.5 times of the recipe below, served 6. I didn’t roll it into very thin as I preferred thicker crust.

The topping included a layer of store bought pasta sauce, hotdogs, onions, fresh pineapples and yellow capsicums.

I was quite disappointed with the topping, mainly due to the cheese. I usually use mozzarella and cheddar cheese for pizza topping but when I went to shop for the cheese I saw packages of “Pizza Topping” , I thought this was more convenient to use so I grabbed one pack. However, the “Pizza Topping” didn’t turn out good, it was lack of flavour and though I saw the word mozzarella on the ingredient list I couldn’t really taste or see any mozzarella after baking. I only used half pack of it, that’s why there will be Pizza Dough # 2 in my upcoming post. Next post I will be sharing pizza dough using plain flour and shorter proofing time.

Pizza Dough, by Jamie Oliver

Ingredients: (scaled to make a thin 12" base)
130ml lukewarm water
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (I used normal olive oil)
200g bread flour
½ tsp sea salt

Method:
1) Sprinkle sugar and yeast over water (can reserve 1-2 tbsp water, only add the reserved water if the dough is too dry). Set aside for about 10 min till frothy.
2) Pour yeast mixture and oil into flour and salt.
3) Knead dough till smooth and springy.
4) Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl. Proof for about 30 min till double in size (I proof for about 50 mins).
5) Knock back dough and roll out to a 12" circle.
6) Place on a greased and floured baking pan or pizza stone.
7) Pile on your favourite toppings, and bake at 220*C for 15-20 min till the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly.

Note:
I roughly kneaded the ingredients by hand and used my bread machine to continue kneading and proofing.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

照片身材走样？Help

Angel越来越懒得拿相机拍照，所以近期上载的照片大多是用iPhone拍的，但是问题来了，我发现有些照片的比例出现了问题，我的面包蛋糕变矮变胖了，但是在preview时是没有这个问题的。

想请问和Angel一样用手机拍摄的朋友，你们也有同样的问题吗？我也发现那些不成比例的照片大多是我有crop过的，但是在crop时我已经选择了保留current ratio，意即和原本照片的比例一样。

希望这个问题可以改善，在这里先谢谢大家的帮忙。

Happy Father’s Day 2011 ~ Sri Melaka Mousse Cake 马六甲椰糖慕斯蛋糕

I have bookmarked this cake and decided to make it for Father’s Day ever since I chanced upon it in Happy Flour blog because I know my two VIM (very importance men) will like it. Basically the two men like almost anything made of coconut, that’s the reason why last year I chose to make this Pandan Kaya Cake.

This is considered my very first mousse cake but the method involved of making the mousse is not totally new to me. The method is very similar to this non-baked cheesecake and shortcut ice cream (fold in whipped whipping cream to the other mixture) except this time an egg yolk is added.

I made this cake yesterday (actual day of Father’s Day) and everything went quite smoothly. Thanks to Lucius’s unusual 3-hour long nap, I managed to complete the cake without disruption.

While waiting for the sponge cake to cool down, I tried to brainstorm how to decorate the cake. Since it was a mousse cake I did not want to cover the cake with cream, without much hesitation I took out the leftover fondant I had from my first fondant cake (shall blog about this in upcoming post), made three little roses and leaves free hand, a really simple one. I admitted that I didn’t do a good job, dad and D took a while to realize they were roses.

For the cake base, I adapted the recipe of traditional sponge cake using whole egg method from Alex Goh’s book, Fruity World. It was a breeze to beat the whole egg till ribbon stage with my new mixer (not KA, not KE, no it didn’t cost me a bomb, shall blog about it later. I have so many backlogs that I’d love to blog but I have not enough time! In the past, I always got to struggle with my small 180W mixer when came to beating of whole egg, it took me forever to reach the desired stage).

The sponge cake didn’t turn out as high as desired but it was really soft, moist and flavourful (because of the melted butter? Usually I use oil instead of melted butter in sponge cake). It was a little bit crumbly as compared to my other sponge cakes, not sure if it is due to overbeating of egg or replacing of plain flour with top flour or any other reason.

To decorate the cake, I placed the fondant roses at the centre of the mousse cake and piped shell around the edge with extra whipping cream (I whipped extra 20g of whipping cream when making the mousse). The cream turned soft by the time I started to decorate the cake at night, thus the pattern was not clear.

The cake was very well received by the two fathers as well as my mum. Dad mentioned he had never tasted such a cake before. Yes, this was also my first time having gula Melaka (palm sugar) mousse, I couldn’t recall I seen it selling in the market. Taste wise, I agree with Happy Flour that this cake tasted like “chendol”. Thanks to Happy Flour for sharing this unique recipe.

Sri Melaka Mousse Cake

Ingredients:

Pandan Sponge Cake (recipe adapted from Alex Goh’s Fruity World)
4 large eggs (A size)
120g castor sugar (I reduced to 90g)
½ tsp pandan paste
110g plain flour (I used top flour) (sifted twice)
70g melted butter

Mousse (recipe adapted from Happy Flour)
80g palm sugar/gula Melaka + 75g water
200g coconut milk (I used Kara brand UHT coconut cream)
1 egg yolk
2½ tbsp (18g) gelatine powder + 75g water
250g whipping cream (whipped)

Method:

Pandan Sponge Cake
1) Using an electronic mixer, whip egg, sugar, pandan paste until light and fluffy (ribbon stage).
2) Fold in flour with a hand whisk till well blended (no trace of flour).
3) Add melted butter and mix well.
4) Pour batter into a greased and lined 8” round pan (I only line the bottom and never grease the pan). Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 25 mins. Remove it from mould immediately when done (I cool the cake upside down and only remove the cake when it has cooled down slightly, run a small knife around the side of the cake and turn it out).

Mousse
1) Mix egg yolk and coconut milk together and set aside.
2) Boil palm sugar and water until sugar dissolved.
3) Pour the syrup into the coconut mixture and mix till combined. Cook over medium heat until slightly thicken.
4) Dissolve gelatine and water together over double boiler (keep stirring).
5) Mix gelatine into the coconut palm sugar mixture till combined and set aside to cool.
6) Use a hand whisk and slowly stir in whipped cream into coconut palm sugar mixture.

Assembly
1) Slice the sponge cake into 2 pieces horizontally (see note). Place a sponge cake at the bottom of an 8" springform round tin.
2) Pour ½ of the mousse mixture over the sponge slowly.
3) Place another sponge over the mousse and pour in the rest of the mousse.
4) Smooth the surface and chill until set.
5) To release the cake, run a small knife around the side of the mousse before open the ring.

Note:
1) Personally I feel that the cake tasted slightly sweet when eating alone but surprisingly the sweetness is just nice when eating with the mousse. So if I were to eat the cake alone I will further reduce the sugar (probably will only use 80g).
2) I trimmed the cake into about 7” before slicing. This is optional, alternatively you can make a 7’ sponge cake, 3 eggs recipe shall be just nice for 7” round cake.

3) You can use any sponge cake recipe of your choice for the cake base.

升Cup了～蔓越莓鲜奶土司 Cranberry Fresh Milk Toast

小波的第3个baby。这回看起来有升cup，从某些角度看还挺宏伟的，挤出了一道深深的事业线，可惜表面烤到有点焦。

土司盒比一般loft pan高，我家烤箱又不高，所以表皮烤一下就上色，奈何我每次做面包都是匆匆忙忙，把面团送进烤箱后就得去看孩子，等到再次进厨房查看时表皮的颜色已经太深了，赶紧盖上锡箔纸，还好吃起来还ok。

这个土司是突然有时间做的，所以选用了直接法。纵使形形色色的“种”大行其道，直接法还是有其拥护者不无道理，够“直接”，完全不需事前准备功夫，有时间的话想做就做。

这土司的口感是属于比较有弹性和chewy的，是我喜欢的口感。和之前做的甜三文治土司相比这土司保有传统白土司的单纯，没那么甜腻。我自己加了些蔓越莓，红白配煞是好看，吃起来酸酸甜甜的很好吃。土司第二天还是保持一样松软，到了第三天开始变得比较干，但是还是可以接受的程度，毕竟是直接法，没得嫌。还有要特别一提，这面团超级好操作，一点也不粘手，初学者可以尝试这个食谱。

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Sweetylicious.

Recipe adapted from Wendy Kor’s “Bread Code”. Make 2 loaves, I halved the recipe and added some dried cranberries. Below is my adapted recipe.

Ingredients:
300g high protein flour/bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
15g sugar
60g water
125g fresh milk
25g butter, soften
40g dried cranberries (presoak in water for 10 mins, drain and pat dry)

Method:
1) Mix flour and yeast evenly. Put in salt, sugar, water and milk. Mix till a dough is formed. Add butter and continue to knead till dough is elastic. Place dough in container (I put in greased big bowl) and cover with cling wrap, leave to proof for 40-50 mins till double in size.
2) Divide the dough into 2 portions equally. Roll into balls and proof for 15 mins.
3) Roll out each portion into long strips, add cranberries on top then roll into cylindrical shape (like making swiss roll) and proof for another 15 mins. Roll out again and roll into cylindrical shape. Place the dough in bread tin, proof for 40-50 mins until dough rises to the same height of the bread tin.
4) Bake in preheated oven at 200C for 30-35 mins. Remove bread from bread tin and cool on wire rack before slicing.

Note:
1) I placed the bread tin in a closed oven with a glass of hot water during second proofing (my usual practice), not sure why the dough took 2 hours+ to rise up till 90%, I baked it when it was 90% of the bread tin height. I suspect it could be due to the yeast I used. When I used it to make bread machine bread the bread turned out to be shorter than the usual height.
2) I replaced fresh milk with Lucius’s milk formula as I ran out of fresh milk.