Sweet Bread Loaf (5°C 冰种法)

Oh wow, I'm amazed at my own diligence, heehee. :D Three posts in a week! Where do I find the time? I guess just squeeze it out here and there and voilà！ This recipe was made 1 months back and I nearly forgotten about it, well until I was looking through my photo folders. So why not post it up now?! I got this recipe from a new bread cook book I bought at Taiwan airport awhile back, call "面包教室 : 5°C 冰种的美味". Actually got recommended by my good friend Reese. Since it is a new technique, I chose one of the easier recipes in the book. a simple sweet bread loaf.

Ingredients for Sweet Bread loaf (5°C 冰种法): (makes two 9"X5"X5")

Starter Dough:

250g bread flour

162ml water
1g instant active yeast

Knead everything together till form a soft dough. Let dough proof in room temperature for an hour. Punch out the air and place in a large Ziploc bag and chill in the fridge (supposing 5°C) for 20~24hrs.

Main Dough:

350g bread flour

100g caster sugar

5g salt

8g instant active yeast (original calls for 15g fresh yeast)

1 whole large egg beaten

300g of starter dough

75ml fresh milk

50g unsalted butter

Filling:

Chocolate chips

Cranberries

Method:

1. Knead everything together except the butter till it is not sticky. Add in the butter and continue to knead till it passes the window panel stage. Whole process takes about 20 minutes.
2. Let dough proof, covered for 45 minutes. Then punch out the air and divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Or if you prefer to bake the dough in a different pan rather then a pullman tin, weigh and divide as desired. Roll round the dough and let rest for 10 minutes before shaping.
3. Meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the required baking pans.
4. If you want to use fillings like chocolate chips or cranberries, add them in during the shaping step. After shaping your dough, place them in the greased pan and let proof for another 30 minutes till it fills 80% of the pan.
5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or till the top is golden brown. If the top brown too soon, cover it with aluminum foil and continue to bake till the time is complete.
6. Once removed from the oven, remove from the pans and let cool on rack completely before slicing.

As you can see I used the dough portion to make it into 2 different shapes. The round loaf is with chocolate chips which is my kids' fave and the big loaf is with cranberries. :) The bread did turn out nice and soft and was well liked by my family. :)

This book actually has 2 starter dough method; one is like Tangzhong (汤种法) method while the other is like the refrigerated pre-fermented dough method. So far this recipe gave a pretty good result, but I will have to explore more recipes inside the book to better advice everyone. Hopefully will post up more recipes from the book in the near future.

Hope this photo of the fluffy soft center is enough to tempt you folks to try it out, hehehe. :D

I hope I can make it in time for Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction (June 2011) hosted by Jasmine from Sweetylicious. Thanks again Jasmine! Yes....it's my last submission for sure. ;)

Cheers all!

Belated Father's Day Cake; Passion Fruit Cream Cheese Cake

When you have a big family, you will know what I mean when I say it's really hard to gather everyone together just to have a meal together. Especially when everyone is so busy with their own schedule, travel plans and family matters. But nevertheless, my siblings and I try to make an effort to gather, even if its a belated one. And so happen that this year's Father's Day celebration, we had a belated celebration. But I'm glad, since last weekend I was busy making my daughter's birthday cake! *Sorry Dad* :P And so I made a simple yet delicious cake for my dad, a Passion Fruit Sponge Cake with Passion fruit cream, swiss roll style... again!. :D

Ohh I love passion fruit! The fragrance is superb! :) I think I shouldn't have procrastinated so long to use it again in my cakes. In fact I baked with it only twice before, a chiffon and a pound cake. This time round, a sponge cake recipe，百香果乳格蛋糕卷 (passion fruit cream cheese swiss roll) from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 cookbook, but I did several modifications to it so as to fit a bigger baking tray.

Ingredients for Passion fruit Cake Batter (13" by 15"):

Set A:

50g unsalted butter

50ml fresh passion fruit juice (~ 3 passion fruits)

Set B:

266g whole egg

20g egg yolk

110g caster sugar

Set C:

112g cake flour

2 tsp cornflour

Ingredients for Passion Fruit Cream Cheese Filling:

120g unsalted butter

120g cream cheese, room temperature

42g confectioner's sugar

40ml passion fruit pulp

100ml non dairy whipping cream

Method: (全蛋式海棉蛋糕)

• In a heat proof bowl, microwave the butter and passion fruit juice together till butter melts. Stir mixture and let it cool completely before using it.
• Line baking tray with parchment paper and greased it again. Preheat oven to 170C.
• Using electric mixer, beat the whole eggs, egg yolk and sugar together till it triple in volume and ribbon stage.
• Take about 1/5 of the egg batter and mix well into the melted butter and passion fruit mixture. Then add this mixture to the rest of the egg batter and stir gently till the batter is uniformly combined.
• Sift the cake and add about 1/3 of it to the egg batter. Using the lowest speed, beat the batter till no flour is visible. Repeat with the rest of the 2/3 flour, in 2 portions and mix well till everything incorporated.
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tray and bake for 13 to 15 minutes till golden on the surface and the cake bounces back when pressed. Let cake cool completely before use.
• In the meantime, prepare the cream cheese filling: Cream the butter, cream cheese, sifted powder sugar and passion fruit juice together till smooth.
• Pour in the whipping cream and continue to whip at high speed till mixture fluff up and increase in volume more. Chill the mixture if not using immediately. Else use cream on cake and decorate at will. Have fun!

Okay, I should clarify why I said "swiss roll style...again" earlier. I have used the same method to "set up" this cake which I used in my husband's birthday cake a couple years back. Check out the link and you will see what I mean. :)) That is why my cake is close to 5" tall, heehee.

My family loved this cake and keep raving about it even the day after when I talked to my sister, heehee! They said it's really something that can't be bought anywhere else in Singapore and best of all it is delicious. *touched* :))

Sorry for my poor photo shots, this picture can't really show the vertical layers of of sponge cake and cream in it. :P As for the tast? Trust me, it's good...not too sweet, very fragrant, soft and you can't stop until you have a big slice! Try it out will you?

Had the initial intention to do a double recipe post today but decided not to, since it's getting late. :P Will post again soon. Hope you all have a good week ahead! Cheers!