Decadently luscious superlicious cinnamon rolls!!! ^^

Decadent. Luscious. Superlicious. NO-KNEAD! Yes, what are you waiting for???!!! ^^

Run straight into the kitchen or the baking supplies store, people!!! These are so so so so so soooooooo gooooooood! Of course, that's after reducing ALL the sugars by HALF! These cinnamon rolls by ree@thepioneerwoman are soooooooo delicious!!! Thanks so much, janine@unpastiche, for the recommendation! They are amazing!!! ^^

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls (recipe from thepioneerwoman)

~ makes 27 rolls in 3 7-inch square trays

Dough

2 cups / 500 ml milk
1/2 cup / 125 ml vegetable oil
* 1/4 scant cup sugar
1 packet active dry yeast / 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
4 cups all purpose flour (bread + all purpose is good ^^)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 scant tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Filling
1 cup (227g) melted butter
2 tbsp cinnamon powder
* 1/4 cup sugar (brown+white ^^)

1. Bring milk, oil and sugar to just short of a boil. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

2. Add active dry yeast to lukewarm milk mixture and leave it to sit and bubble. Omit this step if using instant yeast.

3. If using instant yeast, blend in with the 4 cups of flour. Add flour into the milk mixture and mix till well combined. Cover and leave to double in size for about 1 hour.

4. Mix the extra 1/2 cup flour with baking powder and baking soda till well blended. Add the flours into the dough till well combined.

5. Refrigerate dough for later use or use immediately. Refrigerating overnight would be a good choice ^^

6. Generously flour working surface, and roll out dough thinly into a rectangle. Tip: Wrap rolling pin with plastic cling wrap.. you'll see! ^^

7. Spread melted butter all over dough. Sprinkle cinnamon powder and sugar all over evenly.

8. Roll dough from the long end towards you. Roll tightly and pinch the seams to seal.

9. Slice rolls into 3/4 or 1 inch thick and place them in greased baking tins. Leave to rise for 20-30 minutes.

10. Bake in preheated oven of 400F/200C till light golden brown for 15-20 minutes.

11. Remove and drizzle generously with sauce/topping of your choice! ^^

Easy caramel sauce (recipe from leitesculinaria)
~ make 1 1/2 cups
* 1/2 scant cup brown sugar
1 stick / 115g butter
1/4 cup heavy/whipping cream
1/4 cup honey
** add 2-3 pinches of sea salt ~ you won't regret this!

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Lower heat  and continue to stir and cook for 2 minutes. Drizzle over anything you fancy! ^^

I've sort of gotten the feel for rolling the dough after that one practise on italian cheese and herb pinwheels ^^ And these cinnamon rolls definitely benefitted from that maiden attempt, haha! ^^ 

Well, I must confess that I was a wee sceptical about the no-knead part, but these rolls turned out amazingly soft and fluffy inside. And the crust is nicely crisp and browned. So you can imagine how good it tastes with ooey-gooey sticky caramel sauce! ^^

Oh yes, because I reduce the sugars by half in the dough and filling, the rolls were just nicely sweet, not tooth achingly-sweet. As such it's totally perfect with caramel sauce or any frosting for that matter! ^^

I believe, like ree, I must be the most popular aunt and neighbour today! ^^

Finally.. italian cheese and herb pinwheels!

I've had active dried yeast die on me. But instant yeast???????!!!!!

Yup, that happened too! ^^|| Well, I'll not go into specifics, but this is my 3rd/4th attempt for the 2nd weekend running on these little rolls! All to make my little piggies, especially big pig, happy! ^^ So there.

Italian cheese and herbs pinwheels (recipe inspired by foodiebaker, adapted from cookstr.com)
~ makes 9 rolls
1 3/4 cups flour, + more if necessary
1 tsp yeast
a pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
2 small eggs
1/2 cup lukewarm water or milk
60g softened butter
1 tsp dried italian herbs
150 - 200g grated cheese (use a mix of tasty cheeses!)
1 egg, beaten

1. Mix all dry ingredients together till well blended. Add eggs and water/milk till well combined. Then add softened butter to the dough. Expect dough to be soft and sticky.

3. Knead dough till smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

4. Punch dough down, and roll out into a 8x11" rectangle.

5. Spread some beaten egg all over the dough, leaving some space to the edges. Sprinkle herbs and grated cheese evenly on the dough. Roll dough up from the shorter end and cut them into 9 discs.

6. Place rolls into a greased 8-inch square tin and bake in a preheated oven of 180C for 35-40 minutes, or till golden.

I've always, always wanted to make cinnamon rolls, but somehow just never plucked up the courage to ^^||. Yes, I've always had a mental road-block towards making cinnamon rolls! So I'm not quite sure why I didn't feel the same fear for these little savory rolls!

Well, ok, now that I've gotten them out of the way, I can say these rolls aren't that difficult after all ^^. I know I didn't quite do a good job this time.. the rolls were sliced rather unevenly, I didn't bake them immediately and had them stuffed in the fridge overnight (bad idea!), etc.. And boy, they sure turned out ugly! But I now know I can do better the next time! Isn't that a wonderful thing to look forward to.. no more fear of making cinnamon rolls, or any other rolls for that matter! ^^

Anyway, as ugly as the pinwheels were, there wasn't an oink (of complain) from my piggies.. they ate them up just fine ^^! Sometimes it pays to have nephews who are aesthetically blind!

Hello September! ^^

There's nothing like waking up on a lazy Sunday to a friend's well wishes for a good day, and crusty bread and coffee for brunch! Definitely one of life's greatest pleasures, in my opinion! ^^

Crusty rye bread with cream cheese, raisins and apricots (recipe adapted from latartinegourmande)

~ makes 3 loaves
2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
2 tbsp butter, diced, room temperature
1 cup water (or milk ^^)
2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1.8 tsp instant yeast ^^)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
50g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (I forgot to add ^^||)
50g raisins
50g dried apricots, roughly chopped
125 g cream cheese, diced

1. If using active dry yeast, sprinkle them on top of 4 tbsp of lukewarm water and leave to froth for 5 mins. Slowly add to flour, sugar and salt mixture.

2. If using instant yeast, just add to flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix together till well blended.

3. Add diced softened butter and water (or milk) to the dry ingredients, and mix together.

4. Knead with hands/electric mixer till dough is elastic (window pane stage) and forms a ball.

5. Cover and let it rise till it doubles in size.

6. Punch down and add dried fruits and nuts. Knead the dough till all the dried fruits and nuts are well combined.

7. Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll them out. Put cream cheese in the center and fold and pinch the dough edges together. Roll dough over so that the folds are at the bottom. Place them on the baguette tin and leave to rise for a bit (20-30mins).

8. Preheat oven to 410F or 210C, and place an empty tray on the lowest rack.

9. Make a few slashes on the surface and spray some water on the rolls before putting them into a well-heated oven. To get crusty rolls, spray some water into the oven and throw in some ice cubes into the empty tray to get the "steam-effect" right after putting the rolls into the oven. Remove the tray (of water) about 20 minutes into baking. 

10. Bake for 30-35 minutes (or longer) till the loaves are nicely golden and sound hollow when tapped. Remove and leave to cool.

I'm really happy to find success with this recipe again! ^^ I've not dared to attempt this bread again since the first (and only!) time I made it last year ~ which I thought was a fluke (!!!) ~ and left it at that so that I can retain sweet, happy memories of my "success", haha! ^^

But recently, I found the baguette tin of my dreams at a "decent" price! And it is SOOOOO worth it! ^^ Just look at the cornmeal effect at the bottom of the loaf in the pix above! Worth eating "roti" for a while after the splurge, haha! ^^

OMG, gougeres!

These gorgeous.. I mean gougeres are OMG good!!! ^^

Gougeres (recipe from my favorite guy, david lebovitz ^^)
makes about 30-55 bite sized  puffs

1/2 cup/ 125ml water

3 tbsps/ 40g butter

1/4 tsp salt

big pinch of chili powder ^^, or ground black pepper

1/2 cup/ 70g flour

2 eggs

3/4 cup/ 90g grated cheese (I used 100g cheddar and more ^^ for topping ^^) 

2 tbsps grated parmesan cheese (I added this too.. keep a bit more for topping ^^)

12 chives, finely minced (or thyme) (I used a tsp of dried parsley and a tsp of oregano) 

1. Preheat oven to 425F/220C and line baking tin. Make sure all ingredients are measured and ready beforehand ^^

2. Heat water, butter, salt and chili powder in a saucepan till butter is melted.

3. Dump flour into saucepan and stir vigorously till mixture pulls away from the sides into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and rest for 2 minutes.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly so that eggs doesn't get "cook"-ed. Batter may appear lumpy at first, but will become smooth after a bit.

5. Add 3/4 grated cheese (I added everything, 100g of cheddar ^^ and 2 tbsps parmesan) and chives (or thyme or parsley/oregano ^^), and stir into batter till well-combined.

6. Place batter into pastry bag using a wide plain tip, and pipe dough into mounds the size of cherry tomato (The cherry tomato in my head is much smaller than david's.. as I managed to make 55 puffs instead of 30 ^^). Otherwise use a small ice cream scoop or 2 spoons to shape. Top with some grated cheese and parmesan ^^

7. Bake at 425F/220C for 10 minutes, then reduce to 375F/190C for another 20 minutes, or till golden brown. For extra-crispy puffs, david recommends poking the side of each puff with a sharp knife to release steam, 5 mins before they are done.. and return them to the oven to finish baking. ^^

8. Serve immediately from the oven! Yums!

When I brought it up to share with piggies, baby pig asked what these were.. I answered him, "OMG good!" ^^ Seriously, these french cheese puffs are AWESOME FABULOUS!!! ^^ Just trust me on this! ^^

I can't thank you enough, david! ^^ WE SOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT! ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

p.s. this is a super-duper easy and delicious recipe I-don't-know-why-I-didn't-make-sooner???!! and why-didn't-I-double-the-recipe-today???!! aaargh..

p.p.s. this is perhaps my last bake for a while.. till I get rid of thunder thighs from too much merrymaking the last few weeks! ^^|| i seriously need to go on diet!!! wish me luck.. ^^ did i hear a snicker? no, wait.. that was me ^^

Easy popovers ^^

I love easy, straightforward recipes ^^.. especially when it involves dairy! And popovers seems just it! No baking powder, no long resting period! Aaaah.. my kind of baking ^^!

Popovers (recipe from thekitchn)
1 cup/ 8oz milk
2 eggs
3 tbsps unsalted butter, melted (less is fine ^^)
1 cup/ 5oz flour
a pinch of salt
grated cheddar cheese (optional)
grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In a food processor/blender or with a whisk+bowl, blend milk, eggs and 1 tbsp of melted butter till combined.

2. Add flour and beat till frothy and bubbly. Leave batter to rest while oven heats.

3. Preheat oven to 450F/230C. Put popover tin or muffin pan in the oven for 2 minutes. Remove tin and grease with remaining melted butter.

4. Beat batter till frothy again just before pouring into greased tins. Pour into tins till 3/4 full. Top with cheeses if preferred (top generously ^^!)

5. Bake at 450F/230C for 15 minutes. DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR FOR 15 mins! Then reduce heat to 350F/180C and bake for another 15 minutes or till popovers turn golden brown, feel dry to the touch and sound hollow when tapped. I forgot to check and left the popovers baking for 30 minutes instead! But no harm done.. we love the very browned crusty popovers! ^^

* I managed to make 10 popovers.. 5 cheese and 5 plain ^^ Best served straight from the oven! ^^

These are YUUUMMMY!!! My piggies LOOOOOVVVE it!!! Especially the ones with cheese ^^! I love mine plain with butter and jam ^^ mmm, I think I like these more than I do scones with butter/clotted cream and jam! ^^

p.s. i've never heard of popovers till i read it in justonecookbook blog. thank you for sharing, nami ^^ 

Honey beer bread.. not!|

I saw this on pinterest and immediately set out to buy some beer! 

I was sold! No kneading, no rolling and more importantly, no waiting!

Alas! this easy, boozy bread was not meant for us!

It's not the bread's fault, of course!

very nice crunchy golden buttery crust.. nice chewy, dense doughnut texture.. but not-so-nice bitter after-taste of beer! 

We never did like beer! ^^||  

p.s beer lovers rejoice! non-beer/alcoholic fans.. avoid!  

Pain aux noix.. with cream cheese and dried fruits..finally!

After another disaster at pain aux noix a few days ago.. my 2nd attempt at daily delicious's recipe (my fault, of course).. I was ready to call it quits with rye breads! 

In fact, I have been psycho-ing myself over the week that rye bread or pain de campagne with cream cheese, dried fruits and nuts will forever be one of those "not-meant-to-be" things in my life, and I should just stick to store bought ones, and move on! Of course, while the mind was working on that, the heart was saying otherwise.. one more try.. one more recipe.. don't give up.. yet.

The heart knows best.. I'm no quitter.. I'm competitive.. I like to see things through to the end..and for the record, I'm a tiger aunt! Quitting is not my style (^^).

So I dug deeper on the web.. pain aux noix.. pain de campagne.. rye bread.. rye loaf.. walnut loaf.. walnut bread.. till I hit pay dirt.. with bea of la tartine gourmande's cranberry walnut bread rolls! I didn't care that the recipe uses whole wheat flour, not rye! I had such a good feeling about it.. that the "INVINCIBLE" me (^^||) just took over.. and daringly switched to rye flour instead! I had nothing to lose! (^^)

I'm so glad I did! It's SUCCESS at last! la-la-la-la-la! A few minor tweaks in bea's recipe and I have an almost-store-like rye loaf with cream cheese, dried fruits and nuts! (^^) So head on over to her blog to get her fantastic recipe!

Anyways, here's what I changed from bea's recipe.

1. Replaced same amount of whole wheat flour with rye flour.

2. Added about 50g (would have used more, but that's all I had ^^||) cream cheese, a handful of dried apricots (diced finely) and raisins, omitted cranberries. Anyways, I suggest adding more.. lots more of everything^^.  

3. Dusted dough with flour instead of brushing with water before putting into oven.

4. Placed a pan of hot water (or pre-heat water bath in oven) to create steam in the oven for a crusty bread. I also threw in a few ice cubes into the oven right after putting the dough in. Remove water bath after 10-15 minutes. 

5. Baked longer than 20 minutes.. the bottom was not quite done even at 30 minutes.. so bake about 50-60 minutes for a crusty top. Oh, I made a mistake and baked at 200C instead of 210C (410F) as suggested ^^||.. maybe that's the reason why it took so long.

This bread is SO-OOO GOOD!!! So very-very close to PERFECT! Or as what I hoped it to be! In fact, for a first attempt, this is as PERFECT as it gets! Crusty, chewy and oh-so flavorful! I'm the happiest person on earth, right now! Can you hear the birds singing? (^^) la-la-la-la-la..

Fresh out of the oven, it tasted exactly like the store bought ones! Beautiful wonderful scent, texture and taste! However, the crust didn't stay crusty for very long.. maybe due to the use of butter.. And covering the breads with tea cloth didn't help at all. I have wondered before how those store bought crusty breads stay hard in the shops, but once brought home it turns flat and soft too.. hmmm.. Well, something to work on. (^^)  

Oh, I'm also not sure why the rolls taste different after warming or toasting. It was so GOOD on its own fresh out of the oven ~ you can smell and taste a myriad of flavors! But there's barely any, once warmed, even on the same day it was baked (?). Maybe this bread should just be very lightly warmed instead of warming/baking to crusty levels again.   

Anyways, I still have a problem handling the sticky dough. And I also can't tell when the dough is too wet or just right. Though this recipe was not as sticky or wet as daily delicious's recipe, I still had difficulty rolling the dough. As you can see, my "rolls" are kinda flat when they should be round (^^||)! Maybe practice makes perfect? (^^)

Anyways, this is the best recipe ever! Thank you, bea! Happiness is.. days like this.. (^^)

    

Pain aux noix.. not!

This is probably my 2nd attempt at making bread involving rye flour. Another disaster!

Today I tried a pain aux noix recipe posted by daily delicious. Her walnut loaf turned out so beautifully.

Alas! Mine just fell flat! (><). I'm sure there's absolutely nothing wrong with her recipe.. it's just me.. again. Err.. did I mention I added apricots and cream cheese cubes to the recipe, and reduced the walnuts?

I'm not sure why I can't form the dough at all.. well, what's new? This seems to be my achilles heel! So I just threw a blob of dough onto the baking paper. Nothing like daily delicious's nicely shaped loaf.. (><||)

Anyways, as flat as my pain aux noix with cream cheese and apricots was, the crust was perfect! The texture however was a goner, taste so-so, everything else so-so.. also so, so far from perfect!

Sadly, the quest for the perfect pain de campagne continues.. (><)

My first.. and unsuccessful baguette!

You can call a baguette by any other name.. french loaf.. anything.. it would still smell as sweet (^^)!

I really really like crusty bread.. ok, I love bread. Period.

Anyways, I tried King Arthur Flour Classic Baguette recipe last weekend. The kind that uses a starter. I wasn't sure I should post this, but after thinking about it.. well, I am an amateur after all.. I have my "disaster" moments.. many many, in fact (^^). Still, this could work for you, as it did others. You can check out the recipe through its website king arthur flour and blog here. I think the step by step with lots of pictures is very helpful.

However, this is a very very time consuming bake. And not a successful attempt for me. I didn't get the dough right.. it was too wet (on hindsight, I now know ^^, don't we always learn from mistakes). And the bread turned out quite flat, not puffed up as it should. However, the exterior was beautifully crusty and the holes were quite baguette like.. taste-wise, a tad doughy and  a little under-cooked (><).

Anyways, this is a way way too time consuming bake! So I won't be attempting this recipe ever again. Guess if you have the time and is a very very patient person, you can do this. Well, on to another recipe! (^^)

Easy pain de campagne ~ japanese recipe

I love bread.. especially the kind that are crusty hard outside, but chewy soft inside.

Breads that give your mouth a good workout.. and the more you chew, the more robust the flavours gets.. finally filling your palate with a myriad of wonderful textures and flavors! That's why I like rustic breads like baguettes or french loaf, pain de campagne or french country bread, sourdough breads and other hard breads.

I've not made bread for some time now. Then I just made simple breads and bagels. But I'm currently in love with pain de campagne with cheese and apricots. And I want to make that!

But the pain de campagne looks quite quite difficult for amateurs and home baking.. Till I found sandier pastures's easy japanese recipe which she found in cookpad.com. This is an easier method of making pain de campagne, where no starter is used. I was sceptical about how the bread could turn out crusty as it looked just like any ordinary bread recipe. And I'm sure since there is no starter, the bread would not have a sourish aroma or flavor, as all pain de campagne should have. Anyways, since it's so easy, I gave it a shot (^^)

Pain de campagne (posted by sandierpastures) 

350g bread flour
50g all purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar (consider using 1-2 tbsp, 3 tbsp is too sweet really!)
2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/3 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter, room temperature
80ml milk
200ml water

1. Microwave milk and water for 1 minute. Add lukewarm milk and water together. Mix gently with spatula.

2. Combine all dry ingredients together. Add to milk+water mixture. Hand mix with spatula till combined for at least 2 minutes or when dough has come together.

3. Remove from bowl and knead in floured surface by 'smash and knead' method ~ pick up dough, drop on board and knead. Repeat 200 - 300 times. (I can't do that. ^^||.. so I cheated.. and used the mixer with a dough hook and kneaded for 30 minutes).

4. Place dough in oiled bowl and cover with damp cloth and let it rise for 45 minutes.

5. When dough has doubled, punch the center to release air. (Doing this, felt really good ^^). Then cover with plastic wrap and rest for 15 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and oil baking tray. Prepare/put water bath or a mugful of water in the oven. Baking stone too if using.

7. Shape the dough. Put on baking tray/stone. Dust dough surface with flour. Place dough in the oven.


*** After 1-2 minutes, remove dough to cut a cross or a few slashes using a sharp knife. The result will be better that cutting across the dough before putting in the oven. IT REALLY WORKS!!!

8. Bake for 45 minutes. You might want to check if the sides and bottom of the dough has turned crusty at 25 or 30 minutes.. If not, take out water bath and continue baking. If top is turning very brown, cover with foil. It's ok to bake for an extra 15-20 minutes. Remove and cool. 

This really is an easy recipe. Guaranteed success. It really looks gorgeous, exactly like a rustic country bread should.. crusty outside, soft inside. But taste wise, something is missing - not quite the wee sourish, hardy, robust pain de campagne I like. Though the inside's quite soft, a little chewy and has a slightly more dense texture than normal bread, it sadly lacks the flavors of a real rustic country bread. Nevertheless, this is still very good version of a crusty top bread.. with a slight reduction in sugar! And it's so easy to make.. can't complain. (^^) Thanks for sharing the recipe, sandier pastures.

A note though.. the bottom and lower sides of my bread did not turn out as crusty hard as the top. So if you have a baking stone, please use it.. If not, then I suggest you cover the top with foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes, WITHOUT the water bath. That's what I did, but the bottom was still not as crusty as I wanted it to be. Maybe I should do this step earlier, maybe after 25 or 30 minutes of baking (?). Or maybe get a baking stone??

Anyways, this is good practice. Maybe I should be more adventurous next time, and do the "real" thing, starter and all (^^).

A surprisingly good crusty bread after all (^^)! Just reduce the sugar..