Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake & Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon

There are quite a number of backlogs that I have not got a chance to post up for the past few months. And it seems to be stacking up steadily as the days goes on. I can say I'm usually a fast baker, but now due to time constraint, I've become such a slow blogger. *sigh* So today I'm going to "kill 2 bids with one stone", 2 recipes in one post. :) Don't be surprise if eventually I'm posting up 3 in 1 in the future, lol! So please bare with my long post today. :P

First up is Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake. Made it because I was craving for a cake, not just a simple sponge or butter cake, I want with layers and icing and of course with chocolate!

It's be ages since I last made myself a luscious yummy cake...just for myself not for someone's birthday, heehee. I got the primary idea from Hearty Bake's Orange Sponge Cake post a while back. I was totally captivated by the sponge cake and swore to try it out myself. The outcome was great of course(thanks for the recipe Jessie!) but I did made some minor changes to it to suit my taste. :) Here is my version:

Ingredients for Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake: (makes a 6"X3" round)

4 egg yolks

30g sugar

1/2 tsp orange essence

75ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of 1 naval orange

40g cake flour

40g plain flour

50g melted butter

4 egg whites

90g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

• Sieve the flours twice and set aside. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 6"X3" round pan with removable base.
• Place the egg yolks and sugar over a heat proof bowl over a double boiler on a gentle simmer. Using a hand beater, whisk the mixture till foamy. Then add the juice and zest and continue to whisk till ribbon stage. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for later use.
• In another bowl, beat the egg white and cream of tartar together till foamy. Gradually add in the caster sugar while the beater whisk at high speed. When it reaches stiff peaks, stop the mixer.
• In 3 separate portions, fold the whites into the yolk mixture till all is combined.
• Also in 3 separate portions, sieve the flour mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold in till all the flours are not visible.
• Lastly add in the cooled melted butter and fold in gently and careful not to deflate the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and give it a light tap on the table to remove some bubbles.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Toppings and filling:

200ml of non-dairy whipping cream,
15ml freshly squeezed orange juice
Nutella for spreading between cake layers
200ml semisweet chocolate, chopped small (I used Valrohna)
100ml dairy heavy cream
20g of butter


Assembly:

• In a mixer, whip the non dairy cream with orange juice till stiff peaks. Note that if your whipping cream is unsweetened, you can add some confectioner's sugar to your liking.
• Slice the cooled cake horizontally into 3 layers. Then spread a layer of nutella on one of the disc. Top it off with some orange whipped cream and cap it with the next cake disc. Repeat till you place the last disc on top. Ice the whole cake with the remaining orange whipped cream and let it chill for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, heat the dairy heavy cream till almost bubbly, then add in the chopped chocolate and butter in. Let it stand for 5 minutes. After 5mins, stir the mixture till soon.
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the cake and let it naturally flow down on the sides. Chill the cake for an hour before serving.

I was very pleased with the end result. The sponge cake was soft with an evident orange scent. Plus the orange and chocolate flavor comes together perfectly. With the hazelnut spread, it gives another hint of nutty flavor at the back, pretty nice I must say. :)

This cake was pretty easy to whip up. Definitely can be made into a nice birthday cake for your love ones. Perhaps I will do that the next time. :) Feel free to substitute the hazelnut spread to just plain chocolate if nuts is not an option. :)

Next recipe is an all original HoneyBeeSweets creation, Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake! Heehee, it's very nice I can tell you that, so no worries if you decided to give my recipe a try. ;)

This chiffon is soft and creamy with a nice banana and chocolate flavor. I actually made this twice already since my kids loved it so much. ;) So here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake: (makes a 22cm to 24cm chiffon)

Egg Yolk mixture:

4 egg yolks

70g caster sugar

80g ripe bananas

80g cream cheese (room temperature)

60ml fresh milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

70g vegetable oil

75g cake flour

75g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Egg white mixture:

5 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

80g caster sugar

100g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 55% cocoa Valrohna)

(Note: Try not to use chocolate chips as it might just sink all the way to the bottom)

Method:

• In a blender, add in cream cheese, banana, fresh lemon juice and milk. Blend the mixture till smooth. Then pour the mixture into a large bowl, add egg yolks and vegetable oil and mix well.
• Sieve the 2 flours and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and stir well till smooth.
• Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy, then gradually add in the caster sugar with the beater on at high speed. Beat till stiff peaks.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• In 3 separate portions, fold in the whites to the yolk mixture but not over mixing and deflating the batter.
• Lastly stir in the finely chopped chocolate chunks into the cake batter. Then pour the batter into the tube pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the tester comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and invert the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I was glad this experiment turned out well. Perhaps next time I will try out with more interesting flavors, heehee. :D Maybe substitute the cream cheese with sour cream or yoghurt perhaps? We'll see. :)

BTW, I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from Noms I Must.

Okay folks, hope you all have a nice long weekend and Happy Labor Day!

Pandan Kaya Twist Loaf & Belated Easter Party!

Yes, another bread post. I bake bread faithfully at least once a week. But if time permits, twice or more times would be great! Some how it is quite therapeutic for me, not that I still do the kneading by hand anymore. But the whole process of baking bread takes me to a peaceful zone. And of course the best part is to enjoy the delicious end product! So I am always, seriously always looking for good bread recipes. The "addiction" never seems to go away, heehee! I guess it's not a bad one, so no harm in that right? So you can imagine, if I haven't thought about how boring it would be to my readers, I probably be posting bread recipes almost every post, lol! No worries, I still love cakes and cookies....

Today's bread post is sort of a "reborn" of the Pandan Kaya Loaf that I baked awhile back. This time round, I have used the 17hr pre-fermented dough recipe. This method has got me hooked and swear by it. The end product speaks for itself, so I am still very much baking bread using this method every time now...well until I find a even better recipe of course, lol!

If you have tried the previous Pandan Kaya Loaf recipe from me and liked it, then you should definitely try this new version. No regrets guaranteed, because you are gonna love it!

Ingredients for Pandan Kaya Twist Loaf (makes 2 of 8"X4.5"X5" loaves)

Pre-fermented Dough:

459g bread flour
262ml water
13g fresh yeast (I used 11g instant active dry yeast)
13g skim milk powder

Mix everything together and knead till forms a soft dough. Cover dough in cling wrap or large sip lock bag and chill in fridge to let it prove for 17 hrs.

Main Dough:

197g bread flour

20g skim milk powder

7g sea salt

98g sugar

26g beaten egg

105ml pandan juice (3 pine screw leaves blended with 120ml water and sieved)

56ml coconut milk (I used boxed version)

7g fresh yeast (I used 6g instant active dry yeast)

52g unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling:

Kaya spread

Method:

• Cut the pre-fermented dough into small pieces.
• Knead all the ingredients of main dough together except for the butter. Add pre-fermented dough one by one piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Finally add in the butter and continue to knead until it reaches window stage.
• Put the dough into a big bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof for about 30 to 45 minutes,
• Once proved, punch out the air in the dough. divide the dough into 6 equal portions. (in my case, I divided it into 9 portions and made into 3 smaller size loaves.) Roll each portion round and cover to rest for another 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive out the air. Roll each portion of dough into a rectangular with a rolling pin . After rolling out 3 portions into 3 almost equal sized rectangular, spread a layer of kaya on two of the rectangular. Then spread a layer of salted butter on the remaining rectangular surface. Place the buttered side facing down to one of the kaya spread rectangular. On the back side of the rectangular, spread some more butter and top if off with the last rectangular with the kaya spread. Seal the edges and cut it into 3 strips. Sealing one end of the 3 strips together, pleat the 3 strips and then sealing the other end.
• Gently place this pleated dough into a greased loaf tin to have its 2nd proofing. Repeat with the other dough portions till all is used.
• Let proof for a good 30 minutes or till the tin is 90% filled. Brush with egg wash.
• Bake in a preheated oven of 170 to 180C for about 25 to 30 minutes till golden brown.

I cannot say enough how yummy this loaf is, you probably need to bake one yourself to be fully convinced this is a truly delicious bread method. Even for the following day, the loaf stays soft and fluffy, definitely a plus over other recipes.

I would usually store my bread in the fridge on the 3rd day if there's still any left over. But trust me, it is still very good on the 3rd day, perhaps just needs to heat it up a little but I usually don't do it. :) Try it folks...its yum!

Before I end this post, I got an invitation for an Easter Party from Edith of Precious Moments. Really appreciate her inviting me. :) However I think Easter is already over and thus its probably a belated one? Anyways, just to join in the fun, here is the 5 food contributions from me for the party:

Pandan Chicken Wings

Chendol Agar Agar

Mung Bean, Yam & Peanut Ang Gu Kuehs

All American Chocolate Cake

Puen Kueh

Have a good week ahead all!

Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream tarts & Happy Easter!

I am so glad that this is a short week. For this, it means longer weekend and more rest and quality time with family. Yippee! Although we didn't have much planned up for this Easter holiday weekend, but my little ones are sure looking forward to it...pronto! Why? That's because my hubby and I had promised them an Easter Egg hunt at home! Sounds like fun isn't it...well, at least for the kids. :) But before I show you folks what I have install for my kids, lets first get on to today's recipe: Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream Tarts. Sorry if you were expecting some Easter bake from me. :P Maybe next year?

I got this wonderful recipe from none other then Carol 自在生活. This is such a wonderful sweet treat! Refreshing strawberries, nice creamy perfectly sweeten vanilla custard cream and a light flaky pastry crust that didn't turned soft the following day. That's important right? It's a big deal for me!

The pastry not turning soft means I can make a day ahead and it still taste heavenly when served. Sweet! The trick? Read on for the recipe, roughly translated:

Recipe for Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Custard Cream Tarts: (makes about 16)

Vanilla Custard Cream:
a: 300ml fresh milk, 1/2 vanilla pod

b: 3 egg yolks, 60g caster sugar, 30g cake flour

Method:

• In a small mixing bowl, add the egg yolks and caster sugar and mix well. Add in the cake flour and mix till everything comes together into a thick creamy consistency.
• Pour the milk into a heat proof sauce pan and add in the vanilla seeds that has been scraped out from the pod.
• Place sauce pan over medium low heat and stir constantly and keep watch not to over boil. Once there's tiny bubbles appearing on the edges, remove from heat.
• Slowly and carefully add the heated milk into the egg yolk mixture and stirring constantly at the same time. When all the milk has been added in, whisk well and strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the sauce pan.
• Place the sauce pan over medium low heat again and stirring constantly and be watchful not to over cook it. Once the mixture thickens and reaches ribbon stage, remove from heat. If over heated, the mixture will turn clumpy and not smooth...not good eats. :P



Vanilla Custard Cream

• Pour the mixture into a clean bowl and cover it (in contact with the surface) with plastic wrap to prevent the "skin" from forming. Set aside or chill until when needed.

Sweet pastry dough:
130g cake flour, 60g cold unsalted butter, cut small, 50g confectioner's sugar, 2 egg yolks, 1/8 tsp salt

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in the cake flour, powder sugar and salt. then using only your finger tips, work the cold butter into the flour mixture. Alternatively, use a mixer to combine the ingredients till it resembles bread crumbs.

• Next add in the egg yolks and gently work the dough but not over kneading it. Over kneading the dough will make it hard and not flaky.
• Chill the dough in plastic wrap for at least 30 mins till ready to be used.
• Grease the mini tart tins. After chilled, take out the dough and divide the dough into 10 equal portions, about 25g each.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Roll out each dough portion into a circular disc about the size of the tart tins. Then use your fingers to gently press in the pastry dough to shape it nicely to the tin shape.
• Prick each of the dough base with tooth-pick or fork to prevent the dough from puffing up while baking. Repeat till all the pastry doughs has been shaped into the tins.
• Bake the pastry tarts in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 3-5minutes.
• Remove the pastry from oven and let cool completely. In the meantime, melt the semisweet chocolate and let cool for 10 minutes before using.
• Brush the cooled chocolate to the base of the pastry tarts so as to prevent the tarts from turning soft when it is topped with the custard later. (That's the trick folks!)
• Chill the chocolate base coated tarts in the fridge till the chocolate set. Then take them out to assemble the topping. Note that all the above steps can be done days ahead and chill in the an airtight container up to a day or 2.
• Scoop or pipe about 1.5 to 2 tbsp of the vanilla custard cream into the cavity of the tarts. Then top with sliced fresh strawberries. Glaze the strawberries with warm jam to finish it off.

The final product. Chill it for another 2 hrs before serving.

These tarts were very well received. In fact I will be making it again next week for the family, I'm very sure my kiddos will favor that idea. :) Thanks again to Carol for this great recipe. :) Please head over to her website for more step by step detail recipe.

This recipe is quite versatile, you can top it with any fruits you like. Meaning you can substitute strawberries with seedless grapes, kiwi, mango and even blueberries and raspberries! Yum! Try it, you'll love it. :)

Back to Easter Day fun. Check out the little eggs I've prep for my kids!

I've stuffed them with chocolates, candies, toy rings, dollar coins and even coupons for game time and hugs, heehee! I bet my kids are gonna have so much fun scavenging for them in the house tomorrow. Nothing grand but pure kids fun...hope it'll give them fond memories in the future. :) So what have you planned up for this holiday? Easter dinner feast or a mini get away?

So before I sign off, I hope everyone has a nice relaxing long weekend and Happy Easter to All!

A little get away & Almond Marble Bundt Cake

A week back, my hubby and I had to make an urgent trip back to California. As urgent as the matter was, it however only took us a morning to settle and the rest of the trip was free and easy. We caught up with a couple of good friends, renewed stuff, dine at our favorite restaurants and settle more stuff. It was a nice get away but I just wish that it wasn't so short. But I can't leave my kiddies with the family too long, had to get back to them ASAP. It all seems like getting back to reality. :P

If you ask me, it ain't easy leading two lives...one in States and one in Singapore. But the truth is, it is even harder to give it all up. So I guess you can say we are taking all possible chances to keep things going the way it is now....so eventually if we do have to make a move again, it won't be so tough.

Anyway, I would like to share with you folks my little journey back to California ...again. It also serve as a "record" for me, so I can reminiscence about it when I see this post next time, lol! I will post mostly photos and write less. Please be warn of a super long post ahead. :P

Is it just me, or the sky overseas is just a wee bit more beautiful to look at? Call me dreamy if you want, but I love staring at the skies, the mountains and the plain fields there...kind of relaxing if you ask me.

I have to say Spring is my favorite season. You literally get to stop and smell the flowers...because it is everywhere. This flower bed is from our friend's front porch. Lovingly taken care by his parents, heehee. :)

A simple yet delicious breakfast at our favorite bagel joint, Noah's. Nicely toasted with a generous spread of our favorite cream cheese spread. ;)

Although this year's temperature seems a little lower then normal, it was still nice to enjoy the cooler weather there. And would I miss checking out the local farmer's market while I'm there, of course not! :D

Seems a little quiet for a market isn't it? Well, we were there pretty early so the crowd has yet arrived. I actually enjoyed it. :)

Besides the colorful array of Spring vegetables, it was still a little early in the season for fruits there this time. But there was one stall that caught my attention the whole time when I was there...even when I walked away...I wanted to go back to the stall again, lol! What's so captivating? See for yourself!

I wish...just wish I can try every single one of these breads! Lol! Every loaf, baguette and buns were nicely baked to perfection and the smell...oh how do I tell you about the heavenly smell, hahaha!

This particular bread stall is call Bay Bread. So if you ever see the stall itself, don't miss it, try out their delicious bread, you definitely won't regret. My hubby and I tried their cheese baguette and hazelnut chocolate croissant....it was super delicious!

I even bought 4 different varieties of bread back to Singapore and it was still very good (flaky, crunchy and soft inside) after toasting it in the oven. Super yum! Okay okay, moving on....shopping!

Ahhh....Los Gatos downtown. Gotta be one of my favorite places in California, hahaha! Although a quiet little town, it still has it's charms in it. Not only it has my favorite burger joint there (Read about it in my previous trip back), it also has 2 major kitchenware stores and several great boutiques there (yes, Banana Republic). :) Which kitchenware stores? Sur La Table and William Sonoma of course! I think I spent a good 4 hours shopping there. ;)

Showing some of the stuff I manage to scuffle back this time. If you haven't notice, I'm a real sucker for cookware / bakeware and cookbooks...don't we all? Lol! I especially love the Nordic Ware® Quartet Bundt Cake Pan. I bought it mostly because I couldn't decide on the shape I want, so getting this 4-in-1 is perfect. I tried it out immediately with a simple pound cake recipe from one of the cookbook I got.

I baked a simple Almond Marble cake. Unfortunately I didn't do a good job and not doing justice to the cake pan. *sigh* Out of the four small cakes, I think only this shaped turned out most decent. BTW, notice the honeybee plate? It's a set of 4 desert plates. Heehee, that is also one of them "presents" I brought back for myself, hahaha! Oh come on...it's HoneyBee!

The marble cake still turned out very fine and delicious, my family liked it. :) I will attempt it again, but perhaps with some simple changes to it. For those that are still interested, here is the recipe which I got it from my new cookbook 点心烘焙白科。　

Ingredients for Almond Marble Cake: (makes 4.5 cups)
Plain batter:
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
175g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 large eggs
250g cake flour (I used 100g plain + 150g cake flour)
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp fresh milk

Chocolate almond batter:
50g semisweet (65% cocoa) chocolate melted
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
30g almond meal /powder

Method:

• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together till it's creamy. Add one egg at a time till well combined before adding another. Then add milk and combine.
  
• Add in flour and baking powder to the mixture and mix well.
  
• Divide the batter equally into 2 portions. Set one aside while the for other portion, add in all of the ingredients for the chocolate batter. Stir well till just combined.
• Using a bundt pan of your choice, alternating the plain and chocolate batter, scoop into the pan till it is 3/4 filled. Then use a chop stick, swirl it around a couple times to create the marble effect.
• Bake in the oven for 25 mins for mini pan or 35 for bigger ones or till the tester comes out clean.
• Remove from oven, cool in pan for five minutes before unmoulding. Slice and serve when cooled completely.

Hey all, thank you for dropping by to read my post today. Oh yes, before I forget, just wanna show you all that 10 chiffon I baked up last week...well in case you wonder did I pulled it off. Yes I did! *phew*

10 chiffons in less then 11 hours, sounds a little crazy but it's doable. :) The trick was to bake 2 chiffons at one time. I just double up the recipe for a 20cm tube pan and repeat it 5 times. 3 different flavors, Orange, Strawberry and Oreo. Kindly refer to my past posts for recipes. ;)

Okay all, hope you all have a good week ahead! Cheerio!

Banana Oreo Muffins & Oreo Cream Chiffon Cake

Hi all! I'm back. :) I was away for a few good days and it seems like a few weeks to me! :P Perhaps it's the super long flights I had to take to and fro or maybe it's the 15 hours time difference between the countries made me a little out of my system now. Nevertheless, I am glad this short trip back to California got all the urgent matters settled. :) I have much to tell you folks about my trip but I guess it'll be in another post since I have yet got my photos & stuff organized. So don't go too far my friends!

Today I wanted to blog about a couple of bakes I did awhile back. Nothing fancy but its something I would recommend to you all out there. :) First up is Banana Oreo Muffins which I first saw at Jess's blog (A.K.A. Bakericious). She got this recipe from Cuisine Pardise. Since my kids are Oreo junkies, I guess this recipe will definitely be a hit.

So here it is my version:I did a slight modification to the recipe, so here is my version:

Recipe for Banana Oreo Muffins:
220g butter, room temperature
180 caster sugar
4 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla essence / extract
3 medium bananas, mashed with fork
110g plain flour
110g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
50ml buttermilk (~50ml fresh milk + 1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice)
100g Oreo Cookies blended till fine crumbs
12 - 16 pieces of Oreo mini cookies for garnishing (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 175C. Prepare a baking tray with about 16 muffin cups.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar together till light and fluffy. Crack an egg in the mixture one at a time, making sure it is well blended before adding the next.
• Add in mashed bananas, vanilla extract and mix well again.
• Now add in the plain flour and mix well. Follow by adding the buttermilk and mix again. Then add in the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and mix till just combined.
• Lastly, stir in the blended Oreo crumbs and mix till uniform.
  
• Pour the cake batter into the muffin paper liners all the way to 3/4 full. Top it off with a small Oreo cookie and repeat till all the batter has been used up.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes still the tester comes out clean. Remove muffins from oven and let cool on rack before serving.

I have omitted the condensed milk in the original recipe and replace it with buttermilk. The outcome was still really good. :) *phew* This is truly a nice and versatile recipe, do try it out! ;P The muffins were soft and very flavorful, banana and Oreo scent that is. :) My kids loved it and so did I. :) The only down side to this is the cookie on top tends to soften on the next day. :P But I guess it can't be helped. :P

The remaining batter was made into a mini loaf cake which was great too. :) I will make this again next time when I have the same ingredients sitting in my kitchen. :) Thanks to Ellena and Jess. :)

The other Oreo bake is actually a birthday cake I made for my niece. She is also a BIG fan of Oreo cookies, so choosing this flavor was obvious. :)

The Oreo chiffon cake used here is the same recipe I used in my Oreo Yule Log Cake. Main difference is I made it in a tube pan and ice it up with Valrohna chocolate cream, topped it off with a generous layer of Oreo crumbs and stick mini Oreos all around it.

Sorry folks, no sliced up photo for this one. I made and gave the whole cake to my niece, so I didn't even see how it is inside....not to mention how it taste, lol! But since my niece had raved about this Oreo chiffon the previous time, I was sure she'll love it. :)

Talking about chiffon cakes....I have this big order of 10 (20cm) chiffon cakes of 3 different flavors this week. Scary right? 10 chiffon in one day! Lol! With proper time planning, I'm sure I can do it, but it's the washing up part that I'm dreading. *sigh* :P Anyway, wish me plenty of luck.... multiply by 10. :)) Will let you folks know the outcome in my next post.

Got to go now, you all have a good day!

Matcha Buns with Cream Cheese & Red Bean Paste

I have been much too engrossed with other stuff around my life and kind of neglecting my blog for the past week. Although I am still actively baking every other day (if not everyday), I just can't find time to just seat down and post it up. I didn't even go blog hopping lately. Worst would be not answering the valuable comments you folks left for me! *sorry* So my dear fellow blogger and readers, if you don't see me responding or dropping by with comments, hope you'll understand. :P Life's a rat race! Maybe I'm slowly loosing it? Interest I mean. Seriously hope not, lol! Anyway, I tell myself I have better post up something today before I get diverted again. Furthermore, I still have like 8 to 10 backlogs yet to be posted up...arrggghh!:P

Today's bake to share is Matcha Buns with Cream Cheese & Red Bean Paste. :) I know, so unusual isn't it, lol! The bread dough is actually using the 17hr pre-fermented dough method. But as for the filling, it is so impromptu, lol! But guess what, it actually works and taste pretty good. :))

I have originally wanted to use just plain red bean paste as the filling. But I wanted something to offset the sweetness of the red bean paste. And I didn't want to use the same recipe as my Matcha Buns with Mochi & Red Bean Paste post. Suddenly the word "Cheese" from this month's Aspiring Baker's theme pop in my mind! Of course, cream cheese! The slightly salty, tangy taste of the cheese will offset the sweetness from the red bean nicely, right?

I know, some of you folks must be going like "Ai ye, red bean is so Chinese and cream cheese is so western...how to mix together? Something wrong!" Well, you won't really know until you tried it yourself isn't it? *tee tee hee* Okay, even if you are not too keen on the filling, the bread is still a good recipe to try out. It's from "Natural Breads Made Easy" (Chinese is "天然麵面包"). Here it is with slight adjustment from the book:

Ingredients for Matcha Buns with Cream Cheese & Red bean Paste
Pre-ferment Dough:
243g bread flour
139ml water
7g instant active yeast
3.5g sea salt
7g skim milk powder

• Mix everything together until it comes together to form a pliable dough. Place in zip log and let it chill in the fridge up to 17hrs before use.

Main Dough:
104g bread flour
32ml fresh heavy cream
10g matcha powder
3.5g sea salt
52g soft brown sugar
40ml water
36g beaten whole egg
3.5g active instant yeast
18g unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling:
Red Bean Paste
Cream Cheese (beaten till smooth)

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable consistency.
  
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30 to 45 minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out a portion of the dough flat (thinner on the side) and place 1 tbsp of red bean paste in the center. Then cut about 1/2 tbsp of cream cheese and place it on top of the sweet paste. Seal the dough up nicely and place it on a greased baking tray or small round mould like what I used. Repeat till all the dough are filled and sealed nicely. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds on top of those buns. Cover and let proof for another 15 to 20 minutes before baking.
• Preheat the oven to 180C .
  
• Brush the mini buns with egg wash and bake in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes till golden brown on the surface.

Personally I loved the outcome of this buns. *thick skin* It was very satisfying and delicious. The bread was still soft the next couple days, like any other 17hr pre-fermented dough method recipe. :)

A look at the fluffy soft inside with the creamy sweet filling....yum yum! :D Since I still have a portion of the pre-fermented dough in the fridge, I think I'll be making another set of buns again later...maybe with black sesame paste this time. :) Hope you all will be tempted too.
I will submit this post to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from Noms I Must. Thanks for hosting Jean!

Will be away for a week. Hopefully when I get back I will post up all my backlogs! *unlikely, lol!* Have a good one all!