TBB: Kouigns Amann

I avoided making this recipe during the beta testing cos I was simply afraid of making laminated pastry..esp. in our hot weather here in Singapore.  But this had to be the first recipe scheduled for our new baking group, Rose's Alpha Bakers. So I guess this is the push factor for me try making it at least once right? 

When I finally had the courage to make it, I found out my hi-protein bread flour had expired..and the entire bag compressed..so had to throw it away. But I had a package of Japanese bread flour (which makes the softest bread ever)..and I figured no harm using it since on the packaging it has a drawing of a croissant...lol!

- I followed instructions to the tee. Everything seemed ok until the step where I poured the superfine sugar onto countertop and rolled my dough and after place in the freezer/fridge

- to my dismay, after an hour later, my dough turned into a syrupy mess..the sugar melted and there was syrupy liquid leaking from the dough...probably due to the moisture it absorbed from condensation...

Even so, I carried on with final step, rolled the dough on the countertop with sugar..and baked as instructed.  During the last step, as I was rolling the dough, it was clear that my butter wasn't rolled properly..and must have had breakage or something I didn't do right cos there was uneven bits and pieces of butter all over the dough. You can see the butter pieces on the photo above..quite obvious. 

 Nonetheless, I proceeded with cutting, shaping and baking.

While the Kouigns Amanns were baking, there were lots of oil seepage...A LOT.. so much so my tray had a puddle of oil/butter (I forgot to take picture!).  The baked Amanns looked ok and tasted extremely sweet and oily, and I really didn't like it at all. But everyone else in my family thought it tasted great.

I wasn't happy with earlier result..because it didn't look or taste like the usual Kouigns Amanns should look like..but wasn't sure I would try making again. It didn't look dark and caramelised totally, neither had very flaky top that you would expect in laminated pastry. Interior was super soft..maybe too soft..? I think the Japanese bread flour probably better for making Asian breads...(cos we prefer our bread loaves/buns very very soft and fluffy....lol..)

TRY AGAIN! :) 

(If you fail, try again, you won't die from it! ..that's what my hubby always say...!)

Yup, that's what I did.  2-days later, I happened to be in another supermarket and saw King Arthur's bread flour and I thought, maybe I should give it a go again. I bought the recommended Kerry Gold Irish butter (I wanted to use Lurpark actually..about same price..)..and this time I bought salted butter instead!  

Also, I made the following changes:-

1)   put the dough in the fridge after proofing for 1 hour.  Cold dough is easier to roll with butter (that's what I think..may not be true..!)

2)   pound the salted butter with about 1/4 cup of flour

3)  added the fine (not superfine) sugar in the dough while turning, thus I made an extra turn. (So much easier to handle and no syrupy mess!)  only towards the last step, I had some sugar on the counter top when I rolled my dough...so was less messy also.. 

4)  rolled the dough into 24" x 8" long and cut the dough into 12 x 4" pcs.  I baked them in 3.2" pastry rings.  I like them smaller..cos more crunchy surface area imho.  Perhaps next time (if my backside itchy and want to make again...hahaha), I'll try 24" x 6" / 12" x 12" and cut them into 3" square each, yielding 16pcs.  

My hands look quite nice here isn't it? hahaha..

Above photos: All finished shaping and left to proof for an hour.  

I like how I can see so many layers of dough.. 

This time, the dough baked and caramelised beautifully.  I liked how the pastry puffed up really tall during baking.  There wasn't much butter leakage either. Not as oily as my earlier batch and somehow also tasted less sweet even though I used same amount of sugar or maybe more since I sprinkled extra for the counter top...(still very sweet for our Asian tastebuds, but just not as sweet as before).

Above photos: I couldn't wait for it to cool down and cut them into 2.

The top was so flakey and crispy..and bottom hardened with caramelised sugar.  Inside was full of layers, soft, butter and sugary.   This time my family could tell the difference and everyone gave the thumbs up.  And I'm happy cos now they looked like those sold at the bakeries..:)  

P/S: I turned on the air-conditioner to 20c for entire day! I had to work quickly too cos it was too cold to be in the kitchen. LOL! Now I realised why the pastry kitchen where I work is always super cold..the air-condition in our office is cold but no where compared to the pastry kitchen!    

I still have 2 more in the freezer for the souffle version, but I have not made it yet. Will update later when I do...  The reason why I'm delaying here is because I think these alone are very fattening..and to make it with heavy cream and all, I need to take a break first and exercise off the calories before I proceed to the souffle variation. LOL!   :)

The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

I'm back!! I know I have kind of disappeared from blogging world because I was too lazy to blog.   But now I'm back!

I just received my copy of The Baking Bible! So exciting!! So many wonderful recipes and the book is so thick.  Look, isn't the cover gorgeous already?  

And thank you Rose for acknowledging us Beta Bakers!  See my name highlighted in yellow? hahaha.. Opps.. now everyone knows my real name. LOL! 

Now that the book has been released, we Beta Bakers have been promoted to Alpha Bakers! :))  We will be baking through the book weekly from December, for about 2 years.  I can't wait to start!

Only thing that worries me now is my waist line though..  esp. now that I am nearing 50s soon, I find my metabolic rate has slowed down considerably! I don't lose the pounds so easily as before.. :(

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Magic Cake

I've been seeing magic cakes everywhere on the internet and the recipe intrigued me that I just had to try it!  It's so quick & simple to make and I adore how the batter magically separates into top sponge cake layer and custard cake layer below.  And best of all it tastes YUMMY!  I've also found that using icing sugar gives me a better rise in the sponge cake and also a firmer custard. :)  And remember to grease your pan with butter! 

The recipe i've used is this:-

http://decoraciondemabel.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/tarta-magica.html?m=1

Watch her video will give you an idea how to fold in the eggwhites. :)

Her blog is in spanish but there is nothing that Google Translate can't translate right? :D

HAPPY BAKING! :)

MIA.. and now posting for documentation..

Been too lazy to blog but I did bake lots..although some are not documented.  Lately I would just post the photos onto my own FB account so that I have an idea what I have baked.  However,  recently I had to refer back to this blog to check my older postings because I can't recall.

Milk Tea Loaves (using TWG's The Grand Wedding Tea Blend)

Hokkaido Milk Tea Loaves

Hot Cross Buns 

this recipe is a failure - not enough spice & raisins. recipe also didn't specify orange peel or mixed fruits. Added but still not enough imo.  

Cinnamon Buns 

(burnt top..but still tasted good!)

Coffee Buns 

Custard Buns

Cinnamon Buns

Baguette using pre-ferment

(not sure how to shape the dough yet)

Tina's White Crusted Bread

(simple, easy and taste so good!)

Donuts

(not as soft as i expected)

Brazilian Cheese Bread

Water Chestnut Cake

Chocolate Loaf Cake & Cinnamon Bread

Tiramisu Cake

(Really very good!..must remember this..)

Blueberry & Raspberry Crumb Cake

Portugese Rice Cake

Pineapple Tarts

Egg Waffles

(got to find a better recipe that is more crispy!)

Macarons (French)

Testing different variations

 Pandan Butter Cake

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Fresh Pandan Juice

 Fresh Strawberry Cake

CakePops (or more like BakePops)!

Not a great fan of cakepops unless they are made binded with rum and not buttercream. :) Rum cake balls are certainly not kids friendly but my children are now young adults, so that's not something that I worry about. 

However recently, when I saw this cakepop pan,  I knew I just had to buy and try it out. Looks promising because I can bake small individual small round cakes instead of smashing and squashing cake into balls. I've seen BabyCakes cake pop maker sold on websites and it certainly looks interesting but this pan is the closest I can get here!  I figured even if it doesn't work, I can use it for something else..(which I still have not figured that out yet..LOL!)

Nice red pan - matches my kitchen cabinet...

(any excuse just to buy something!)

Here are how the cake balls look like after they are baked.  I used the chocolate recipe that came with the pan.  Since the recipe didn't have a leavening agent, it doesn't rise as well and didn't turned up as round as i would like.  I was hoping for them to be really round.  I have to find another recipe that would be able to bake into rounder cake balls, probably one with some leavening agent. 

BakePops after coated with chocolate.  

See how the left Bakepop is flatter and oval shaped? I think I didn't put enough batter for that one.  But even that supposedly rounder one isn't exactly that round either. 

The dark chocolate coating originally was real shiny.. but i dropped them on the table a couple of times after trying to balance them in an empty cup. Didnt work, so i had to hold them with one hand and took photos using my iPhone with the other hand.  

BakePops after I took a bite! :)  

Verdict:  It's delicious!  Yes, it's sweet (all cakes, macarons, cookies etc are supposed to be sweet..if they are not sweet, they are either called bread or crackers!!).. but not as sweet as cakepops smashed up with buttercream.   The cake is moist and chocolatety and goes every well with the hard chocolate covering it.   Most importantly, my son who's such a picky eater, ate them..not just 1 but 2 bakepops! I'm esctatic because this is the first time he tried something new without even flinching or first saying "NO"!  My son doesn't eat lollipop candy, so there is no way he would want to eat this just because it looks like lollipop.  He took a few weeks to even want to try cupcakes and only after much coaxing!  So to me this is already a great pan! LOL! 

Pros:  

1) Recipe is easy to put together - just hand mix

2) Sweet but not as sweet as the truffle-type of cakepops

3) Firmer cake (like mud cake texture) so the stick doesn't slide out or the cake balls 'loosen' from melting buttercream when our weather gets too hot. So i can take my time to coat with chocolate.

Cons:

1) Only limited to round shapes..(or perhaps oval most of the time..lol!). 

2) Limited to that particular size 

3) Not exactly round (but i have yet to try other recipes..maybe it might turn out round)

Can't think of anymore now...