Teddy Chocolate Swiss Roll & Curry Chicken Pie

The one week school break is finally here. But even though there's no school, life seems a little more hectic for me. I tend to get less things done when my kids are at home....no surprise there. But at least there's less stress during this period of time which I always welcome. (^_^) I made a simple treat for my kids yesterday, a Teddy Bear Swiss Roll with Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

My kids love Swiss roll cakes and it never fail to amuse them when I "dress it up" with some cute designs on the sponge cake. Although the teddies are not as nicely done as I hoped, it was still decent enough for me to blog about it, lol! My young one even asked me if the design are brown cats....o well. (-_-)"

This is the usual vanilla sponge recipe which I used previously using the egg separation method (分蛋式海绵蛋). Since I have already posted it several time, please just refer to here for details.

Instead of using brown food coloring, I used melted chocolate to color the bears. As for the eyes and cheeks I used edible maker pens to draw it. Personally, I feel the rosy cheeks on the teddies makes them a little more cheerful, hee. :D

The cake is as usual, soft and spongy which was still tender when straight out of the fridge. Excellent recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 cookbook. Hope you enjoy this post as much as I had fun baking it up plus posting it to share. ;)

Another recipe that I'm posting today is kinda of an experimental one since I only saw it once on a Chinese recipe book and roughly copied it down months ago. It ain't chicken pie nor curry puff but Curry Chicken pie, lol! The moment I read about it, I knew it was gonna be delicious! Especially if you like both the earlier mentioned dishes, this is a sure win for you. ;)

Just imagine: flaky, buttery pie crust encasing creamy curry chicken filling with soft potatoes and tender carrots....how good does that sound to you?! I was really happy it turned out great as my family loved it very much, even my kids whom are not too fond of spicy food, both had 2 servings each! Interested? Check out my recipe:

Ingredients for Curry chicken pie: (makes an 10" pie)

Pie Crust:

250g plain flour
80g wholewheat flour

115g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 tbsp Ghee

4g salt

30-40ml ice water

• In a mixing bowl, sift the salt and flour in. Add the cubed butter and knead in using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add in water and knead till it just comes together into a soft pliable dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Egg Cream Mixture:

100ml evaporated milk

100ml fresh milk

2 whole eggs

30g curry paste (adjust as per personal preference, some curry paste tends to be more spicy)
Alternatively you can use Japanese curry cubes (I added 2 cubes)

Curry filling:

150g cooked roast chicken

80g green peas

100g boiled, peeled and cubed carrots

100g boiled, peeled and cubed potatoes

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and slice into wedges

• Remove the pie dough from fridge and roll out to about the circumference of your greased pie dish. Then gently place the rolled out dough into the pie dish and press in to even out the layer.
• In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients for the egg cream mixture. Make sure the curry paste is mixed in properly with no lumps.
• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Place all the curry filling ingredients evenly distributed at the base of the pie dish over the pie dough.
• Then pour the cream mixture over the curry filling, making sure the filling doesn't over flow.
• Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the filling is set and golden brown. Let pie cool for15 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Note that the curry paste used is up to personal preference, if you like it more spicy, adjust as needed. I used a Japanese curry paste which my kids love. This "east meets west" recipe surely can be easily accepted and enjoy by many, so why not give it a try? Have fun baking and eating it!

Okay all, have a great week ahead!

Black Sesame Bread Loaf (营养黑芝麻土司)

Using black sesame (paste / powder) to bake a loaf of bread has been a much awaited item on my bake list. I can already imagine how fragrant the nutty sesame aroma the bread will be. However, I just didn't get to it for the longest time. Its either I forgotten to prepare the pre-fermented dough or I have some root vegetables to use up first. But being the bread craze me, I knew I just can't put off any longer...and finally yesterday I got to bake it. Behold, my Black Sesame Bread loaf! And its vegetarian too since no eggs needed, nice!

Baking bread is such a therapeutic thing for me. I totally love the whole process of preparing the dough, shaping and baking it. And after baking so many different loaves of bread, some how I learn to detect whether the dough will yield a good texture....wonder if you have experience that. Some dough can be so elastic and yet it doesn't stick to your hand...you know this is gonna be an excellent texture. And this Black Sesame Loaf is exactly that. It was able to reach a very elastic stage reaching a very thin window panel without tearing.

The bread emit a nice nutty scent after its out from the oven. I opted to use black sesame paste as to black sesame powder but it still turn out great. Best of all, the texture is really good...one of the best that I have come across apart from the 17hr pre-ferment technique. It is so soft and literally melt in the mouth...really.

It's probably quite hard to convince you all with just shades of gray. (-_-)" But hope you can see the nice texture it formed. I am actually looking forward to baking this bread again even though I just did yesterday, lol! I have modified the recipe to suit just my family, a loaf plus a few buns. Feel free to change it proportionally to your own needs.

Pre-fermented dough

250g bread flour

160ml water

3g instant dry yeast

1g salt

• Knead everything together till it forms a soft pliable dough. No need to be smooth. Divde dough into 50g or100g portions depending on your needs and let chill in fridge up to 12 hours. Alternatively store in freezer up to 3 months.

Ingredients for Black Sesame Bread Loaf (makes one 9x4x5" plus 3 to 4 buns)

100g pre-fermented dough

365g bread flour

35g black sesame paste

210ml water

65ml milk

6g instant active dry yeast

4g salt

12g milk powder

50g caster sugar

32g unsalted butter, room temperature

• 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.

Be sure to find a day which allows you to have ample time to work on this bread. Also try to prepare the pre-fermented dough at least a day before. If you choose to use black sesame powder instead, remember to reduce the bread flour to about 330g (see as per needed). Also note that this dough is quite wet and sticky, it does require a slightly longer time to knead. Be patient, knead well and you will be rewarded.

I made some dried cranberry & cream cheese filled buns and my kids loved them. Much like those sold at you know where...

Hope this healthy and delicious bread will be on your bake list. Let me know how yours turn out. (^o^) Okay, that's all I have for you all today. Thanks again for staying with me. Have a great day! Cheers!