Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Fact, I always look forward to going back to my parents place. There is always good food, good company and lots of laughter and love involved. My parents are excellent cooks and their theory is to cook more then enough to feed an army. Wasteful? Try telling it to them, but they that feel if everyone has eaten to their heart's content, one will be happy. And happy we are every single time. ;) Left overs? Always taken home to savor the next day by us siblings of course, lol! Their generous move always made me motivated to bake something nice for them. This time is no exception. I made an Italian Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee cake. My parents love fruits and I always make a point to incorporate fruits into my bakes for them to enjoy.

Very rustic looking right? Not as pretty as I hoped it will be, lol! Simple butter bake at the bottom, stone fruits and topped with dollops of cream cheese mixture...how homey and simple can you get with this?

This was made a few weeks back when plums were still in season. But you can definitely replace the plums with any fruits that you fancy. So slow on blogging nowadays, made me feel really out of fashion sometimes, lol! :)

Ingredients for Plum-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake: (Makes an 8" round)
Cake:
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
5 tbsp caster sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1.25 cup (150g) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
100ml fresh milk

Filling
8 to 10 plums, cut half and pitted
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 package of the standard Philadelphia cheese )
1/2 cup (112g) caster sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease an 8" spring-form pan or a fluted, deep tart pan. Place parchment paper.

• For the cake, cream together to butter and sugar will creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and blend until smooth.
• Fold in flour and salt to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Gently pressed in the halved plums with cut sides down into the cake batter.
• Cream cheese layer: Mix cream cheese and remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk till well blended. Spread the mixture over the plums in the cake pan.

• Bake in the preheated oven until the top is golden brown and appears set, about 45 mins. Cool completely before slicing to serve.

A shot of a sliced piece, looks much better then the whole cake I think. :) At least we get to see the juicy bright purple plums in the cake. :) Perhaps I have pressed the plums way too deep into the cake batter, so cannot really see the fruits from the outside. :P I love the tangy & juicy taste from the plums, a very nice combo with the creamy cream cheese top. And the soft butter cake layer at the bottom makes an excellent compliment to it. ;)

This cake is a really simple and delicious cake to whip up. Try it yourself and you will taste this delicious cake just like me and my family. ;) Happy Baking!!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Soft Buns (65℃汤种 method)

Yes, I baked bread again. It is indeed a never ending quest for me, because eating bread is a daily affair for me, whether its breakfast or just dough craving. And to be able to have fresh baked bread (made by myself) is really a true satisfaction. ;) But it's not all "sweet endings" if you know what I mean. There are always occasional mishaps, especially when trying out new recipes. But surprisingly, trying new recipes is actually the fun of it all for me, lol! :P It's funny how Happy Home Baker was telling us her "obsession" with bread baking and I see myself sharing the same sentiments. :D Whatever chemistry bread making has me hooked is really hard to explain. :) Regardless, I'm loving it and not stopping anytime soon, heehee. ;)

Although this is not my first time making bread using 65℃汤种 method, but I can safely say this Chocolate Chocolate Chip soft bread buns are one of the best ones I've made so far. :) It is really soft and fluffy and the strong chocolate aroma was very inviting!

This recipe is actually adapted from Cafe Corner's Japanese-Style Sweet Bun Dough . Had bookmarked this recipe for awhile now and I saw Gert made it the other day, it just made me want to bake it even more. Today I finally got to it and I modified it to what I like best....Chocolate buns! How did I do it, check it out:

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Chocolate Buns (65℃汤种 method)
340g bread flour
100g plain flour
30g Valrohna Cocoa powder (use any kind you prefer)
30g milk powder
80g caster sugar
3/4 tsp salt
7g instant dry yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
150ml lukewarm water
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Water Roux:
25g bread flour
125ml water
*Please refer to Cafe Corner's site to see the detail explanation and steps on making water roux.

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients (including all of the water roux mixture) except the butter and chocolate chips. Mix everything well and knead it till it comes together to form a soft dough.

• Continue to knead the dough till it is not sticky and it's pulling away from the sides of the working area of bowl.
  
• Add in the room temperature butter and continue to knead till it is very elastic and pass the window test. For this case, the dark brown color of the dough is harder to see through. So, as long as it doesn't tear, it should be good to go. But knead time would be around 20 to 25 minutes with hand and 10 to 15 minutes with mixer.
• Place well knead dough into a oiled bowl and let proof in the switched off oven alongside a bowl of hot water for at least 1hr to 1.5hrs till it double in size.
• Remove from oven and punch out the air. Weigh out the dough and divide it equally into 12 portions. If you prefer smaller buns, go for 16 portions. Roll round the portions and let rest for 10 mins, covered, before shaping.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out one of the portions into a flat oval shape, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top and roll it up like a swiss roll. Seal and roll it out again into a flat oval. This timeroll it up into a swiss roll once again and seal nicely into a round dough ball. Place into a well greased baking square pan (I used 22cmx22cm) Repeat with the rest of the dough portions till all has been rolled and placed in pan.
• Let the shaped dough rest covered for 10 minutes before baking. Meantime, preheat the oven to 180C.
• Bake the buns in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes till the top is dark brown and when you pat on it, it sounds hollow. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with aluminum foil and let it continue to finish baking.
• Once it is done, remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing it from the pan. Let the freshly baked bread cool completely on rack before storing it in airtight containers. This delicious bread should stay good and soft for at least 3 days.

Proved to baked. When these fluffy buns baked up in the oven, the whole house smells like chocolate heaven! When it came out from the oven, me and my kids can't wait to tear one out to eat! And we did just that, lol!

To think that my last bread post was also a chocolate bread recipe, you can imagine how much I love chocolate, lol! And I definitely didn't see anyone complaining about that in my family. :)
Actually, how do you know if your bread is baked to perfection? This is a method I want to show you...check out the video:

A well knead and nicely baked loaf will usually spring back even after you give it a good squeeze. :) Don't worry, I don't usually "torture" my bread this way, lol! Just wanted to show you guys that's all. :)

Overall I am really satisfied with this chocolate bread recipe. I know I will be making this again and again for my family and myself of course. ;) You guys should give this delicious bread recipe a try too. Got to run now....have a good week guys!