Maple Syrup Loaf and Red Wine Yeast Bao (枫糖土司 & 红鞠包子)

Here I am again with another bread loaf recipe. Since I bake bread every week without fail, so inevitably I will post up a new recipe...I just hope I don't bore you guys out, lol! In fact I still have 3 more backlogs on breads which hopefully I will get the chance to post up soon. (^_^) Boring perhaps to some...but never to me! I'm always excited and haven't found an ounce of boredom in baking bread till now! (^o^) Anyway, uh-hum(clearing my throat)....today's bread, Maple Syrup Bread Loaf(枫糖土司) is again using pre-fermented dough technique, which to me is one of the more trusted method to yielding a good loaf.

That bottle of maple syrup was purchased while I was in States last year. It is really thick and has a fine woody scent which I think is the real stuff! The bread it has mild maple scent to it. ;) But no worries if you can't get really good maple syrup from where you stay, the bread loaf will still be equally good. :) And who says maple syrup is only good for topping over pancakes/waffles?

Ingredients for Maple Syrup Bread Loaf (Makes one 9x5x4 loaf)

270g bread flour

30g cake flour

70g pre-fermented dough (refer to here for recipe)

3g salt

12g milk powder

15g brown sugar

40g maple syrup

6g active dry yeast

80g beaten whole egg

8-ml fresh milk

35g unsalted butter

• 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 and pass the window panel consistency.
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 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.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top. I omitted the egg wash to make it pure vegetarian version. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

The texture of the loaf did turn out pretty good...soft and bouncy and even stays so the next day. :) Day after? Probably, but the bread was all gone by then. (^o^)

Just to show you the nice texture of the bread...to convince you a little bit more, heehee. (^_^) If you have maple syrup sitting at the furthest corner of your fridge....you know what you should do with it now. :)

Another recipe I want to share today is 红鞠包子. I have actually come to know about this 红鞠(red wine yeast) pretty long ago through a Taiwanese cooking show. The chef was using it to stew a piece of roast pork and it looked so goooood! Since I didn't know how to get my hands on the red wine yeast..it just got forgotten. Until recently......I saw Sonia using it for her chiffon! I was so excited and found out it was Lena whom got it for her. And guess what? Sweet Lena sent me a bottle! Thanks Lena! I wanted to try it on something simple and found a decent recipe from Carol's cookbook: 红鞠馒头. But since I'm not too fond of plain buns, I went ahead and modified the recipe to baos with fillings, heehee. :D

The baos turned out with a light salmon color, quite pretty and festive in color. ;) Although I did worry that the strong wine aroma might be evident in the bao....so I reduce the amount of red wine yeast used...but in the end I can't smell or even taste it in the baos. :P

Here is the recipe I came up with:

Ingredients for Red Wine Yeast Baos(红鞠包子) (makes about 8)

20g brown sugar

110ml warm water

3/4 tsp active dry yeast

50g starter dough (see here for recipe)

370g plain flour

50g cake flour

80ml red wine yeast (I used 60g only and added 1 tbsp more water to compensate)

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp shortening

1. Place everything in a large mixing bowl except the butter and knead till it comes together. Once it forms into a dough, add in the shortening and continue to knead for a good 5 to 7 minutes on the mixer or 10 minutes by hand till it is elastic and smooth.
2. Place the dough in a greased bowl and let proof till double in size. Punch out the air and divide the dough into 40g each.
3. Take a dough portion and flatten it into a disc, making sure the center is thicker then the edges. place about 2 tbsp's worth of red bean / black sesame paste filling in the center. Seal up and roll round. Place on a greased proof paper and put the bun into the steamer (already prep with water) to further proof for about 40 minutes. Repeat.
4. Once proved, start the steamer and steam at medium high for 10 to 15 minutes. Note that do open the lid completely after steamed, open partially with a small gap for 15 minutes to let the buns cool slowly to prevent them to deflate.

I am actually quite excited about trying more recipes, even savory dishes with the red wine yeast. Hopefully will post them up soon. Thanks again dear Lena for taking the trouble to send it to me!

Showing off the fluffy texture of the bao, heehee! :D If you are lucky enough to access to red wine yeast, do try this recipe out...you'll not only be eating healthy, you'll enjoy it very much too! ;) If you are interested to read more about the medicinal values of 红鞠, please visit this link....but it's in Mandarin. :P

Hope this post had inspired you to bake some bread and steam some healthy buns! The weekend is just around the corner...make use of it and make something yummy! Hope you all have a great one!