Just opened a whole new section under Other Girly-ness to share about one of my favorite topics.... FOOD. You can share pictures and recipes of food you ate or food you made. Lets turn this fake cafe into a more real-ish one! Seriously... lol I'm kind of feeling bad that this fake cafe is topping Google search over real Kokoro cafes....
I'll get the party started! Asian Sweet Bread (Hong Kong Pai Bao aka Hokaiddo Milk Bread) and Taro Baked BunsPart of the reason I love visiting Asia is because I love the cakes and bread there.
The cakes are so light and the bread is so fluffy and moist. I've been craving the bread so I decided to try making it this winter mainly because I didn't want to get people to bring me Asian bread from Cali all the time.
It was a big success. I had to attend a bunch of holiday parties this year and a bunch of people kept asking me for the recipe so I'm sharing it with you guys too! If you eat it soon after it comes out of the oven it's like cotton candy soft.
The taro buns are an extra step to the bread recipe, if you can make the bread then you can make all sorts of stuff like... BBQ Pork buns etc. I filled it with taro this time because I love taro everything. Taro ice cream is the best.
I won't post how I made the filling and the buns right now but if you guys are interested you can ask post here and when I have the time I can add to the post.
Bread RecipeI adapted the recipe from
here. I made some adjustments but it's still mostly the same recipe. The page also has step-by-step images if you are more of a visual person. Also keep in mind if you make this it will take up a good portion of your day so plan for it.
Ingredients5 cups bread flour (Less than 5 cups is better -makes it fluffier- I eyeball it but I would say around 4 and 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp and 1 teaspoons of instant yeast
6 tbsp butter (cut the butter into small pieces - I generally stick it in the microwave for 30 sec if it came out of the fridge)
Tangzhong
Tangzhong:
1/3 cup of bread flour
1 cup of water
InstructionsWhisk 1/3 cup of flour and water together, dissolve until there are no lumps.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and turn the heat to medium. Stir the mixture constantly while it heats up. Cook until the mixture thickens to the point you can a draw "line" in the mixture and the indentation can remain as is for a bit (it will be noticeable).
Once the mixture is just right, take it off the stove.
In a bowl combine flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast. Make a well in the center and add in milk, eggs and tangzhong.
Use the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer (I use a bread machine and set it to the dough function, just take it out once it stops mixing). Begin mixing on medium speed until the dough comes together. Then add in the butter and let it continue mixing until the dough is smooth. It shouldn't be too sticky and have some elasticity. It takes around 30 minutes to mix the dough.
Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into the greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes (The colder it is where you are the longer you need for it to proof).
After proofing, move the dough to a clean surface and split up the dough into four equal portions. If the dough seems too sticky you can add a little flour to your surface. Knead and form this dough into balls. Cover it with the wet towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.
To help create the fluffiness of the layers, taking a rolling pin and roll each portion of the dough into an oval shape. Then take one end of the oval dough and fold it to the middle of the oval. The other end should then be folded to meet top of the other end of the dough.
To create more fluffiness, flip dough over with the folds facing down. Flatten the dough with rolling pin and flip it over again. Now roll up the dough (you can refer to the link I provided above to see what I mean)
---If you are making taro buns, stop here and follow the instructions below--- and place into a greased pan. I generally like to place the rolls side by side in a loaf pan. Makes the shape you see in the picture. If you make the rolls too small they get dry and not as good.
Put a wet towel over the rolls and let them rise until they are double the size (about 50 minutes).
Before baking the final proofed dough, beat an egg until thoroughly combined. Brush the egg mixture on top of the bread in order to create the beautiful brown finish after baking (I generally use up the entire egg mixture on the batch of bread - have at least 2 or 3 coats of it).
Finally, bake the bread at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes. While waiting you can make a honey and water mixture (I generally use about 2 tsps of honey and 2 tbsps of water). Make sure the honey is completely dissolved and 10 min before the bread is finished baking take it out and coat it with the honey mixture (about 2 coats) then stick it back into the oven for whatever the remaining time is. This will give it a shiny coat and add a little more of that sweetness that was lacking from the original recipe.
Taro Paste RecipeI adapted the recipe from
here. Had to change the recipe again as I found it a little too runny for taro filling in buns. I also put the filling in the fridge overnight so it would solidify more.
Ingredients:2 lb. Taro
1/3 cup of Sugar
2 1/2 tbsp Honey
1 cup of Hot water (You can probably replace this with milk or coconut milk)
6 tbsp Butter (If you used milk you can probably just use 2 tbsp, I used water and it was lacking that dairy taste)
2 Pandan leaves or 1 tsp of Pandan extract (**optional** can be substituted with vanilla extract or beans <-- I used vanilla because I have no idea what Pandan is <!-- s:shock: -->
<!-- s:shock: --> )
InstructionsUsing latex or rubber gloves to protect your hands (super important!), peel with a vegetable peeler and cut the taro into 2.5 cm (1 inch) cubes (I bought pre-peeled ones because I didn't want to deal with my hands itching <!-- s:wry: -->
<!-- s:wry: --> ). Boil and drain them in water until they are soft and mashable.
While the taro is cooking, make the syrup. Combine the sugar, honey, hot water/milk and pandan/vanilla in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves completely. If you use milk make sure to heat it slowly and constantly stir.
Mash the steamed taro while it is still hot until it resembles a dry powder. Add in the butter and combine. Add the syrup to the mashed taro mixture in 3-4 additions, stir with either a wooden spoon or spatula until the syrup is absorbed. The final texture should be like soft mashed potatoes. I would adjust the taste as needed, I think I ended up dumping in more sugar because it wasn't sweet enough for the buns.
Taro Bun RecipeInstructionsOnce you get to the point this point:
"To help create the fluffiness of the layers, taking a rolling pin and roll each portion of the dough into an oval shape. Then take one end of the oval dough and fold it to the middle of the oval. The other end should then be folded to meet top of the other end of the dough.
To create more fluffiness, flip dough over with the folds facing down. Flatten the dough with rolling pin and flip it over again. Now roll up the dough (you can refer to the link I provided above to see what I mean)"
Instead of putting it in a pan, press the dough flat and use the rolling pin to roll it back into a circle shape. Put some taro filling in (it's important not to fill it too full because it will leak out when you bake it) and scrunch up the rim of the circle until it all comes together and you can't see the filling anymore. Make sure there's no holes left where that filling can leak out. Flatten a disposable cupcake liner and put the scrunched up part face down onto the flatten cupcake liner and place onto a cookie sheet pan.
Put a wet towel over the buns and let them rise until they are double the size (about 50 minutes).
Before baking the final proofed dough, beat an egg until thoroughly combined. Brush the egg mixture on top of the bread in order to create the beautiful brown finish after baking (I generally use up the entire egg mixture on the batch of bread - have at least 2 or 3 coats of it).
Finally, bake the bread at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes. While waiting you can make a honey and water mixture (I generally use about 2 tsps of honey and 2 tbsps of water). Make sure the honey is completely dissolved and 10 min before the bread is finished baking take it out and coat it with the honey mixture (about 2 coats) then stick it back into the oven for whatever the remaining time is. This will give it a shiny coat and add a little more of that sweetness that was lacking from the original recipe.
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