Chocolate bread loaf & Chocolate Ganache Buns

I realise it has been awhile since I posted something on chocolate. That is so unlike me! I guess I have been re-baking the old chocolate recipes and thus not looking out for new ones. Well, don't fret chocoholics (including yours truly), today I've just another yummy chocolate bread post, sure to quench your love for it. :) The main reason why I did this recipe was because of my younger kid whom love this particular chocolate bun which was sold in a bakery store in Malaysia. She would ALWAYS ask me to buy that chocolate bun for her. ;P So why not bake some myself?

Besides these yummy chocolate buns, I made a chocolate bread loaf as well. Both delicious!

This recipe was actually done a month back but only got to post up now. But I am already thinking of baking this again next week, heehee. :D I saw this recipe from here, but I made some changes to it. I added a pre fermented dough to the recipe to introduce better elasticity texture to the bread. I like the extra Q Q taste. :) Note that I doubled the below recipe which allowed me to bake a loaf (9x5x4) and 4 buns.

Ingredients for Chocolate bread

200g bread flour

50g cake flour

25g cocoa powder

50g pre fermented dough (refer here for recipe)

8g milk powder

5g instant active yeast

30g caster sugar

4g salt

1 large egg

130ml water

20g unsalted butter

25g dark chocolate, melted

some chocolate buttercream for the filling

• 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 and pass the window panel test.
• 
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• If making a loaf: Divide the dough into 3 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.
• If making buns: Divide the dough into 50g per portions. Roll round and seal any edges. Let proof for 25 to 30 minutes till double in size.
• 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 like mine. If open top, brush with egg wash.
• Bake in 175C oven for 12-13 minutes for buns and loaf for 30 to 35minutes.

• At this point, you can pipe the chocolate buttercream into the buns once it has been cooled down completely. (Note that you can poke a hole on one side of the bun before piping in)
• 
• Then dip the filled buns into the melted chocolate and let cool. ( Oops I did the dip before the piping, haha)

Both the loaf and the buns were very soft. ;) And I was glad that I added the pre-fermented dough into this recipe. ;)

It goes with out saying that the happiest fellow in the house was my kid. She took one straight after I finished making the buns and say it's better then the bakery store....eh, OK my dear. ;)

Okay folks, gonna sign off now. Have a good day all!

Fluffy Pancake with Carmalized Apples

It's the weekend again, something I look forward to for the past 5 days, haha! For these 2 days I get to relax a little and spend more time with my family. Best of all, I don't have to wake up so early. :P But once in awhile, I'll still try to make a special breakfast for my kids and husband on weekend mornings. So this post, I would like to recommend you this simple but yet fabulous breakfast which will take you no time to prepare. A wonderful apple pancake that is sure to drag them out of bed and to the dinning table. ;)

This pancake uses the usual egg yolk and egg white separation method. Although this method is slightly more tedious compared to the usual whole egg method, but it yields a much fluffy and soft texture. So get whipping!

This recipe is extracted from "西點學習大百科"，a book that my friend Grace recommended to me awhile back. It's in Mandarin book, but I'll just post up the English translation here:

Ingredients for Apple Pancake: (Serves 3-4 adults)

Caramelized Apple wedges

2 medium apples (any kind is fine, but preferably Granny smiths)

40g caster sugar

20g butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Peel and core the two apples. Slice the apples into 8-10 wedges each.
• In a saucepan, add in sugar and a tbsp of water and on the fire at medium. Once sugar solution starts to turn amber, quickly add in the apple wedges and stir in well to coat.
• At this point, lower the heat to medium low, add in the butter and stir well to thicken the whole mixture.
• 
• Lastly add in the vanilla extract and cook for another minute.
• Let it cool slightly before use. In the meantime, prepare your pancake batter.

Pancake batter:

2 egg yolks

80g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

100ml fresh milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 large eggs

30g caster sugar

• In a large mixing bowl, add in the egg yolks, vanilla extract, fresh milk and vegetable oil, stir well.
• Now sift in the cake flour and baking powder to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well and no visible lumps.
• In another mixing bowl, beat the 2 egg whites till foamy, then add in the caster sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
• Fold in the whites to the yolk mixture in 3 separate portions and careful not to deflate the white.
• Place your pancake pan on the stove and add a little butter to grease the surface. On the heat at medium low. (I used my Happycall pan this time for easy flipping. :D)
• Pour the batter into the preheated pan. Then start adding in the caramelized apples wedges, making sure the wedges are well distributed over the pancake. Drizzle in the caramel over the batter as well, you don't want to waste that golden nectar.
• 
• Flip the pancake after 5-7 minutes at medium low heat. If you are not using Happycall, just use a big plate to help yo. Simply slide the pancake out onto the place the cup it down with the toasted side up this time.
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• Cook for another 5 -7 minutes then check if the pancake is golden brown. Once done, remove pancake and serve while still warm.

Cookbook suggested dusting the pancake with cinnamon powder and powder sugar, I omitted that since my kids aren't fans of cinnamon and I find the sweetness of the caramelized apples were just nice pairing with the pancake. Delish!

Hope this recipe will motivate you to make it for your family tomorrow...it's Sunday! It's delicious and much healthier then those hawker food or big breakfast at fast food chains. Best of all, it's made with TLC.

Have a fabulous weekend all! \(^o^)/