Kawaii Panda Bread

This is a Japanese bread. It's called Kawaii Panda Bread... It looked so cute. I kept thinking about it ever since I saw the photo. Finally, I made it on last Thursday. It was quite a challenge, a lot of hard work and time consumed since it was my first time.

I found the recipe from Makansutra Blog Street!. Originally the recipe is from Taro Taro at www(.)cookpad(.)com. Thank you to Ms Lorriane Koh for the translation. Since I did not have green tea powder in hand, I substituted it with pandan essence. After all that hard work, I was very pleased with how my panda bread turned out. The bread taste really good but I feel I need to make it a little more lighter. Hubby said I did a great job and even suggested to create other animals' face... haha..

Spread butter over a slice of a warm fresh bread... ...Oooo... yummy! ;)

Ingredients:

For the dough

3 cups of all purpose flour

3 tbsp of sugar

1 cup of milk together with 1 egg yolk

¾ tbsp of salt

1 ½ tablespoon of butter

2 ½ tsp dry yeast

For the coloring of the Panda face

1 tbsp green tea powder mixed with 2 tsp hot water (I used pandan essence)

3 ½ tsp of Cocoa powder mixed with 1 ½ tsp of hot water

Method:

Warm the milk and egg mixture by placing it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Set aside.

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, butter and yeast together in a bowl.

 

Then add the milk and egg mixture. Mix together for about ten minutes. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into three portions – two about equal in size to each other, while the third should be sized about 1/3 of the other two. (Refer to image.)

Place one of the larger pieces in a bowl and add in the green tea. Mix together till the green is evenly spread out. Cover the green dough with cling wrap and set aside.

Take the smallest piece of dough and mix in the cocoa powder. Cover the brown dough with cling wrap and set aside. Do this for the white dough as well. Leave the dough pieces for about an hour (in a warm, covered surrounding) till they double in size.

Now it’s time to craft the panda face. Take the white dough and separate into three pieces – two about equal in size to each other, while the third should be sized about 1/3 of the other two (as you did earlier).

Take the brown dough piece and separate into four equal pieces.

Use one of the larger white pieces to form the face. Use two quarters of brown dough to form the eyes. Place the smallest white dough piece in the middle of the two brown “eyes”, to keep them in place. Flatten the other big white dough piece and wrap it around tightly. 

As for the other two brown dough pieces, roll them into “ears” and place them on top. Divide the green dough into two – the bigger piece is about 4 times the size of the smaller piece.Place the smaller green part in the middle of the ears. Flatten the bigger green part and wrap it tightly around your creation.

Place the whole piece into a lightly greased loaf pan, cover and let rise until doubled, for around 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven for half an hour at 400° F (200° C) in the meantime. Once the dough is doubled, place it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Bread

I'm thinking of those individual buns with cream cheese filling, tuna filling, mushroom filling, curry potato filling, hmm.. yum-yum.. I wish there's at least a bakery shop here like the ones in Singapore, so I can go in and grab(purchase) the ones I want and leave happily.. hehe... Since there is none here, I used my tool; Google for recipes and make it myself. ;) Then I found Cream Cheese Bread recipe from The Merlin Menu. Although this is not exactly what I was thinking in my head, but I did it anyway. They actually turned out great. Perhaps next time, I'll try to make those types that I have been craving for.. hehe ;) Well thanks Ron for sharing the recipe. :))

Cream Cheese Bread

Yield: 2 braids

Ingredients:

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature

1-1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

Dough

In a small bowl, combine sugar, milk, water and yeast and let rest until it becomes bubbly. In a large bowl, add the balance of the ingredients and the yeast mix. Knead them together until you've made a soft, smooth dough. Place dough in a greased bowl, turn over, and cover with a moist towel. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk).

Filling

While the dough is rising, prepare the filling by mixing all of the ingredients together until smooth. Chill untill ready to use.

Assembly

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board, punch down and let it rest for 5 minutes. Divide it in half. Roll each half into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle. Transfer rolled dough to baking pan spread with parchment paper. Spread half of the filling lengthwise down the center third of each rectangle. Cut 1-inch-wide strips from each side of the filling out to the edges of the dough. Fold about an inch of dough at each end over the filling to contain it, then fold the strips, at an angle, across the filling, alternating from side to side. (*i know, I didnt follow the correct measurements.. opss! hehe). Secure with toothpicks.

Baking

Allow the braids to rise, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, till almost doubled in size. Brush with a glaze made from 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water, and sprinkle with sparkling white sugar, if desired; then bake the braids in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack. 

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

My first home-made honey whole wheat bread. I really like this bread and even after a few days, it is still delicious. You'll get two loaves with this recipe. I wrapped the second one with aluminium foil and put in a ziplock bag. Place it in the freezer until I'm ready to use. This is an easy and good recipe. As they said whole wheat bread is a healthy choice for your family! :)

Honey Whole Wheat Bread, by Betty Crocker recipes.

Ingredients:

2 packages regular active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup unsalted butter

3 tsp salt

2-1/2 cups very warm water (120 to 130 degrees F)

4-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2-1/4 to 3-3/4 all-purpose flour ( you might not have to use all)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside. In a large bowl, mix honey, butter, salt and very warm water cool 5 minutes.

After the honey mixture is cooled, beat in 3 cups of whole wheat flour with electric mixer on low speed, scraping bowl frequently until moistened. Beat on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Beat in remaining 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour and dissolved yeast. With a spoon, stir in 2-1/4 to 2-3/4 cups of the all-purpose flour until dough pulls cleanly away from side of bowl.

Place dough on floured work surface, Knead in remaining 1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour; continue kneading 5 to 10 minutes until dough is smooth and springy. Grease large bowl with cooking spray, place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place, 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Generously grease 2 (8x4 or 9x5 inch) loaf pans with cooking spray. Gently push fist into dough to deflate; divide in half. Shape and place each dough in the loaf pans. Cover, let rise in warm place another 30-45 minutes to until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 355 degrees F. Uncover dough, bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake 10 minutes longer or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove from pans to cooling racks. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with melted butter to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely.

Easy Homemade Bread

I love the smell of fresh bread from the oven. It just made me impatient for a fresh slice of buttered bread.. Yum! YuM!! But today, something is not right with my sense of smell.. I cannot smell it. I was waiting for it but it never come.. My hubby came back home from work just a few minutes after I took the bread out of the oven. He was standing by the front door and asked "you baked?" I replied, "yes, I did." He said fresh bread without even going to the kitchen and I was like how did you know, I cant smell it. All I smell was from the silicone loaf pan.. haha..

I do not have a mixer stand to help me so I had to use a large bowl and a wooden spoon. How about bread machine?? I am not sure about bread machine, right now, I'm happy to bake the bread from the oven. Well, maybe in the future but all these appliances are in my wish-list.. *wink-wink* hehe... 

After much research on making homemade fresh bread, I found the recipe and the method below is the best. The thing I like this recipe, is that its easy, you do not have to spend a lot of time. Even my hubby prefers  homemade fresh bread than the ones we get from the store. Next time, I'll be able to add a variety of interesting ingredients to create a unique and flavorful breads. Thanks to Oliviaskitchen for this easy recipe.

Ingredients:

600g strong white bread flour 

1 pkg (7g) dry yeast

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp salt

400ml lukewarm water

3 tbsp melted butter

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add the lukewarm water about 300ml (you might not need all 400ml) and melted butter. (you'll know when you added the right amount of water, all the flour will come together). Stir until there is no loose flour and not too wet. Then on a floured surface, knead the dough by forming a fist and push the dough away and bring it back for about 5 minutes. Put the dough in a loaf tin or divide into small rolls. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for approx 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled the size. Bake in the preheated oven 400 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Notes: 

• If the dough is too wet, add a little bit more of flour and  if the dough is too dry, add a little bit more of water.
• For crusty bread, store it in a brown paper bag or let it just sit on the counter. Don't use a plastic wrap because it will soften the crust and preserve the moist interior.
• If the bread goes stale, moisten the outside with water, use a spray bottle or sprinkling it with your hands. Heat it in a 400 degrees F preheated oven for about 15 minutes.

Roti Prata

Roti Prata is a pancake bread. This is a Singaporean and Malaysian (In Malaysia is it known as Roti Canai) Indian dish, an all time favorite suitable for breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. Roti means bread in  Malay and Indian languages, while Prata means flat. Many Indian food outlets, serve not only plain prata or egg prata but many flavorings such as banana, chocolate, cheese, ice-cream, onion and a lot more. Roti prata is commonly served with curry or you can just have it with sugar, if you do not like curries.

After many unsuccessful attempts making roti prata, today, yess.. today, I managed to almost get it right. I need more practice to get that right texture and taste. It takes a lot of practice to be like a skilled prata man to transform the small, elastic dough ball into a paper-thin sheet prata. I don't think I can easily master the flipping and throwing part.. haha.. I found this roti prata recipe online. It was simple and easy to follow. Thanks Mama FaMi for posting the recipe. :)

Roti Prata/Roti Canai ( Mr. Niceghost33 from forum cari. com. my)

3 cups flour

1-1/2 cups water

1 tbsp margarine (I used butter)

salt to taste

2 tbsp condensed milk

1 tbsp cooking oil

extra margarine

1. Mix water, salt and condensed milk.
2. Sift the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the liquid mixture bit by bit if kneading manually or pour the whole amount into the flour if using machine.
3. Then add the cooking oil and margarine.
4. Knead to form a soft dough. Leave it covered with a damp cloth for 30 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 10 portions and mold into balls.
6. Coat the balls all over with margarine so that the dough won't stick to each other. Leave to rest for 2 hours (minimum).
7. Spread one ball at a time on a smooth greased surface to form a very thin layer. Fold the four sides into the middle, flatten and fry on a hot pan with a little bit of oil. ( The picture above is not a flatten roti prata with folded sides. What I did was.... flatten the dough, pull the sides to get a thinner sheet, then rolled or bring the sides to the center to form a long dough, hold upwards and swirl the dough and flatten it again.) 

You can also check out Mama FaMi website for this recipe and step by step pics for Roti Prata. Since, I have to wait a few hours for the dough to rest, I should make more roti prata, save it in the freezer for future bites.. hehe.. I had this roti prata with fish curry. I will post on the fish curry tomorrow. :-)

Enjoy!!! ♥♥♥


here some kuih I made last Sunday. Made them in the morning to have them for lunch......

Another surprise..... Sweet giveaways......

I won something again from Dessert Magazine... It was truly indeed a surprise.. YAY!!!

The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads,Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies by Nick Malgieri. Nick Malgieri has the magic touch when it comes to baking. This celebrated pastry chef is a teacher’s teacher who knows how to make novice and expert bakers alike cheer at the delicious results of their efforts.

Thanks Dessert Magazine for picking me... :)