Yet another bread and yes this was our We Knead to Bake No. 9. Loved this bread and its like whats not to like about home baked bread. There are 2 versions of this one is the savory one and the other is a sweet one where in the buns are drenched in sugar syrup..since we like more of savory breads, this was my attempt. Here’s the recipe.
Savory Honeycomb Buns
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 cup lukewarm milk
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp Salt
40gm butter, melted
2 tbsp milk for brushing the dough
For Filling:
2 Onions Chopped
1 Small capsicum chopped
Cheddar Cheese – 2 small cubes chopped into smaller cubes
Oil 1 tsp
Pinch Sugar
Salt to taste
Herbs and chilli flakes
Method:
For Stuffing:
Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, add little sugar and cook them on a low flame till they are browned nicely.
Add capsicum, salt, herbs and chilli flakes and cook for a min.
Once cooled add the chopped cheddar cubes and mix.
For the Dough:
Mix flour, yeast and salt and mix it. Add Melted butter and mix it
nicely. Add the warm milk and knead to a soft dough.
Transfer to a smooth surface ( I do it on the Kitchen Platform) and knead the dough nicely for atleast for 10 mins. (kneading is very important..)
Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning it to coat completely with the oil. Cover and let it rise till double in volume, for about an hour.
Turn the dough out onto your work surface. You won’t really need to flour it as the dough is quite manageable as it is.
Make small lime sized ball .
Take each piece and flatten it out a little and place teaspoon of filling in the centre.
Pull up the sides and wrap the dough around the filling, pinching it closed at the top.
Smoothen it into a round ball. Place this in a well-greased baking pan and repeat the same for the remaining balls.
Cover with clingfilm and let rest for half hour.
Brush the Buns lightly with milk and bake them at 200c for 20 mins.
U can also lightly brush them with melted butter once they are out of the oven.
These buns were great and loved the texture. These had a nice crumb and were very soft as well.
I made plain pav as well with the same dough and used half of wholewheat flour. Will share the recipe in the next post.
Back with a bread again and really i so love baking breads..I am partial to breads as you can guess with so many bread post. These was again a part of We Knead to Bake group of Facebook and loved making these. I have prepared Bagels earlier and found these to be very similar in texture. I have topped the bread with caremalised onions and love the sweet flavor it gives.
Put the yeast, sugar, salt and flour in a bowl. Add warm water and Knead until the dough comes together and then let the dough rest for 10 minutes. This will help the dough absorb water. Knead again, adding a little more water or flour (not too much) if you need it, until your dough is smooth and elastic but not sticky.
Shape it into a ball and place it in a oiled bowl.
Cover and let it rise till about double till about an hour or so.
Make the filling. Heat the oil in a pan,add the onions, and saute over low to medium heat. Sprinkle a little salt and continue sauteing until they become soft and turn golden brown in color. Add the garam masala and pizza seasoning stir well. Keep aside.
Sprinkle your work surface lightly with flour and place the dough on it. Divide it into 8 equal pieces and shape each one into a roll by flattening it and then pinching the ends together to form a smooth ball.
Place the rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet and cover them with a towel. Let them rise for about one hour .
Work on one piece at a time, while you keep the others covered so they don’t dry out. When the rolls are ready, pick them up one at a time and using your fingers, form the depression in the middle.
Hold the roll like a steering wheel with your thumbs in the middle and your fingers around the edges. Pinch the dough between your thumb and fingers, rotating as you go and gradually making the depression wider without actually poking a hole through.
Place the shaped dough on greased baking tray .Place the caramelized onion filling in the depressions of each Bialy. Brush the outer dough circle with milk.
Bake the Bialys at 200C for about 15 minutes till they’re golden brown in color.
Cool them on a rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Baking bread can be addictive and i am loving learning new breads. As you all know We Knead to Bake is a group In Facebook, where in we all bake a new bread each month. This Months bread was Hokkaido Milk bread and i have heard it for the first time. It is known for its soft cottony/ pillowy texture. Apparently it’s very popular bread in South Asian bakeries across the world.
This is how Aparna describes this bread in her blog….i have not made any changes to the recipe and have followed it completely. So the recipe and description that follows is completely her writing i am just writing it her for my reference.
The Hokkaido Mild Bread owes its texture and height to the use of an interesting ingredient called Tangzhong. Basically, the Tangzhong method involves cooking 1 part of bread flour with 5 parts of water (by weight) at 65°C (149 °F) to form a roux.
At 65°C, the gluten in the bread flour and water mixture would absorb the moisture and create a “leavening” action. When the Tangzhong is added into other ingredients of a bread dough, it produces light, tender and fluffier bread.
So lets jump to the recipe now…Do try this bread as i am sure you will love it. The texture of the bread is very nice and we have them as soon as it out of the oven with some butter and cheese. I shaped them into a loaf and some more into pav rolls. The texture was very soft crumb in the bread and i am sure this will be a regular at my place. 🙂
1/3 cup tangzhong (use HALF of the tangzhong from above)
1/4 tsp salt
25gm unsalted butter
Method :
The Tangzhong (Flour-Water Roux):
Whisk together lightly the flour, water and milk in a saucepan until smooth and there are no lumps. Place the saucepan on the stove, and over medium heat, let the roux cook till it starts thickening. Keep stirring/ whisking constantly so no lumps form and the roux is smooth.
If you have a thermometer, cook the roux/ tangzhong till it reaches 65C (150F) and take it off the heat. If like me, you don’t have a thermometer, then watch the roux/ tangzhong until you start seeing “lines” forming in the roux/ tangzhong as you whisk/ stir s point.
Let the roux/ tangzhong cool completely and rest for about 2 to 3 hours at least. It will have the consistency of a soft and creamy crème patisserie. If not using immediately, transfer the roux to a bowl and cover using plastic wrap. It can be stored in the fridge for about a day.
The Bread Dough:
I made this dough by hand, you can use a food processor which will make things easier for you.
In a bowl mix flour, salt, sugar, powdered milk and instant yeast.
In another bowl mix milk, cream and Tangzhong till smooth.
Add this to the flour mixture and mix nicely and knead it into a dough.
The dough is quiet sticky and transfer this onto a smooth surface and knead the dough nicely for 10-15 mins. (I usually love this part and find it quiet relaxing as well)
When the dough is done, you should be able to stretch the dough without it breaking right away.When it does break, the break should be form a circle.
Form the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl turning it so it is well coated. Cover with a towel, and let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or till almost double in volume.
Place the dough on your working surface. You don’t need flour to work or shape this dough.
I made this into 1 small loaf and 6 small rolls.
I made one small loaf and 6 small rolls. So I first divided my dough into two equal pieces first. Then I divided the first half into three equal pieces to make the loaf. The other half was divided into six equal pieces for six rolls.
The shaping of the portions, whether for the loaf or the rolls, is the same.
Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling-pin into an oval shape, about 1/8” thick. Take one end of the dough from the shorter side of the ova land fold it to the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold so it slightly overlaps the other fold. (See the collage)
Roll this folded dough with the rolling-pin so the unfolded edges are stretched out to form a rectangle. Roll the rectangle from one short edge to the other, pinching the edges to seal well. Do this with each of the three larger pieces and place them, sealed edges down, in a well-oiled loaf tin. Cover with a towel and leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes.
For rolls i just rolled them into a ball and shaped them into small rounds.
Brush the tops of the rolls and the loaf with cream and bake them at 180C (325F) for about 20 to 30 minutes till they are done (if you tap them they’ll sound hollow) and beautifully browned on top.
Let them cool in the tins for about 5 minutes and then unmould and transfer to a rack till slightly warm or cool.
Enjoy this Bread as it is or you can also prepare mini cheese sandwiches as i did with the leftovers.
Pinks Notes.
If you want a savory version you can cut the amount of sugar to 1 tbsp and add more salt.
I did a second batch of this bread and made them into garlic rolls and they turned out great.
We Knead To Bake is a group in Facebook started by the Master baker Aparna, and oh boy i am so happy to be a part of it. I love baking breads and the aroma of a freshly baked bread is so good that you can’t stop yourself from baking more and more. Cant wait to see what new breads we make in the coming months 🙂
This months bread is a Pull Apart bread, which is an easy bread for beginner baker like me and the end result is wow, i bet you wont be able to stop yourself from baking more and more of the same. I baked this bread twice already and Sakshi loved the bread and she wants me to bake it again :). Now let’s get to the recipe, I have followed the recipe to The T, which Aparna had shared and have made some changes in the filling only.
Pull Apart Bread With A Garlicky Butter Filling
Ingredients
For the Dough:
11/4 cup warm milk
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp chilli flakes
For the Filling:
tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp garlic powder
red chilli flakes to taste
1 tbsp italian herbs
1/2 cup grated cheese
Method.
Method:
In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.
Put 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, softened butter, garlic powder and chilli flakes.
Add the Yeast Mixture and the remaining milk and form a dough and knead it nicely.
Transfer the dough to a work platform and knead the dough nicely, if sticky add little more dough and knead for at least 8-10 mins.
Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil.
Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until almost double in volume.
Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough.
Roll the dough out into a large square.
In a bowl Mix all the ingredients for the filling apart from cheese and mix nicely.
Spread the filling all over the dough nicely and then sprinkle the cheese all over.
Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips.
You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater.
Cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces.
Grease and lightly flour a loaf tin.
Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin
Cover the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour.
Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf .
Bake the dough at 180C for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is golden brown.
Serve warm with a soup for a complete Dinner.
Pinks Notes :
I would love to try new fillings and diff. herbs.
You can also shape them into rolls as well or prepare them as a monkey.
If you love baking do not forget to check out what other bakers have baked.
Pinks Recipe Diary 