tangzhong sweet cinnamon rolls

tangzhong sweet cinnamon rolls

25 May 2020

I love making bread but I don't like how quickly it goes stale. I try to freeze any excess as soon as I can but my freezer is quite small. When I heard about the Japanese method of bread making called tangzhong which claims to make fluffy longer lasting bread I was intrigued. As I hadn't made cinnamon rolls for a while I thought I'd tangzhong a recipe I found in Gourmet Traveller.



You make a roux from a portion of the flour in the recipe, about 5%, with 5 times the liquid. The cooled roux or tangzhong is then added to the bread dough ingredients to make a rough dough which you rest for 20 minutes before kneading.



The dough rose like crazy and when cooked had a lovely texture. I haven't had the chance to test how long the rolls stay fresh because I froze them to avoid too much temptation. I'm keen to tangzhong some other recipes now like a babka or hot cross buns.




Here's the recipe for you, adapted from here. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. I have a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20ºC.



Sweet cinnamon rolls makes 12
Tangzhong
150 mls milk
30g plain flour

Dough
100 ml lukewarm milk 
7 gm dried yeast (1 sachet)
520 gm plain flour
50 gm caster sugar
40 gm cornflour 
1 tsp vanilla
80 gm butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
25g melted butter
Pearl sugar or coarsely crushed sugar cubes, for sprinkling

Cinnamon filling
60 gm softened butter
30 gm caster sugar
30 gm brown sugar
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp cornflour

Method
To make the tangzhong, combine the milk and flour in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan. This will probably take only a minute or so. Remove from the heat, and set it aside for several minutes.

Whisk half the milk and yeast in a bowl to combine and set aside until foamy (4-5 minutes). Mix the tangzhong, flour, sugar, cornflour, vanilla and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook to combine. Add yeast mixture, butter, egg and a little of the milk and mix until everything comes together. Let the dough rest, covered, for 20 minutes; this will give the flour a chance to absorb the liquid, making it easier to knead. Knead on medium speed until smooth and elastic (4-5 minutes).Transfer to a lightly oiled or buttered bowl, cover and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1½-2 hours).

Meanwhile, for cinnamon filling, beat ingredients in a bowl to combine and set aside.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knock down, and then roll out to a 35cm square. Spread evenly with cinnamon filling, then fold the top third of the dough down, then the bottom third up to cover. 

Roll into a 20cm x 36cm rectangle and then cut into 3cm-wide, 20cm-long strips. Working with a strip at a time, hold each end and stretch and twist until the whole length is twisted. Take one end of the dough strip and coil the dough once around your hand, then fold the end over the top of the coil and tuck it underneath. 

Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper and repeat with remaining dough strips, leaving about 5cm between each for buns to spread. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and stand until doubled in size (25-30 minutes).

Preheat oven to 220°C. Brush the knots lightly with the melted butter, sprinkle with the sugar and bake, swapping trays partway through cooking, until dark golden brown (15-20 minutes). Serve warm or at room temperature on the day of baking.



Now that flour is back on the shelves in the supermarket, I made another loaf of bread this weekend, this time a no knead rye loaf which was delicious. See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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apricot coconut cake

apricot coconut cake

10 Feb 2020

The apricot season is way too short in Sydney so when apricots appear in the fruit shop I buy a few to make apricot cake. This year I ventured out of my comfort zone and tried something new, a recipe I found in an old issue of Gourmet Traveller.



When I looked through the cupboard I had everything I needed except for rapadura sugar so I used brown sugar instead and went to work. I found the finished cake not quite sweet enough, maybe rapadura sugar is sweeter than brown sugar, so I've increased the quantity a little in the recipe.



Here's the recipe for you which makes an 8 inch round or square cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.



Apricot and coconut crumble cake adapted from a Gourmet Traveller recipe
Coconut crumble
60 gm chilled butter, cubed
2 tbsp brown sugar
75 gm plain flour
a pinch of salt 
2 tbsp shredded coconut

Method
For coconut crumble, rub ingredients in a bowl until coarse crumbs form. Place in the fridge until needed.

Cake
160 gm softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup caster sugar
Finely grated rind of 1 lime
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
160 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
90 gm shredded coconut
125 ml well-shaken coconut milk
40 gm dried apricots, diced
8 small apricots, seeds removed and quartered
1 tbsp coconut flakes

Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Butter a 20cm round or square cake tin and line it with baking paper. 

In an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar, rind and vanilla until pale and fluffy (4-5 minutes). Scrape down sides of bowl and add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down sides of bowl between additions. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in the coconut then add to the batter in thirds, alternating with the coconut milk. Stir in dried apricot, spoon batter into prepared tin and smooth top. Scatter the crumble over the cake batter then tuck in the apricot slices. Scatter half the coconut flakes over the apricots. 



Bake in the preheated 180ºC oven until golden brown and centre springs back when lightly pressed (45-50 minutes). Cool in tin for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Sprinkle the rest of the coconut flakes over the cake before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. Cake will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Old habits die hard and even though this was a nice cake I felt the coconut in the cake batter over powered the apricots. The very next day, I went back into the kitchen and  whipped up an apricot cake using my old recipe so I could do a taste test. Hands down my old cake was nicer. Maybe next time I could just top my apricot and almond cake with some of the coconut crumble instead of flaked almonds? Now there is a thought.

No photography this weekend as my studio aka the sunroom was flooded by torrential rain in Sydney, so see you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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afghan biscuits

afghan biscuits

20 Jan 2020

Today is my first working day for 2020. To sweeten my return to work I decided to make some biscuits. I used to make Afghan biscuits when I was still in primary school, in fact I think I won third prize at my school fete with a batch.  I don't have that recipe any more so I turned to the internet for help. 



Most recipes for this biscuit, which is a kiwi classic, seem adapted from the one in the Edmonds Cookery Book. The afghan is a simple chocolate biscuit studded with cornflakes. I played around with the sugars and added a touch of vanilla but otherwise it's much the same as the Edmonds cookery book recipe. The icing came from a Gourmet Traveller recipe whilst the walnut praline came from the Cook and Baker.



Here's the recipe for you which makes 18 biscuits. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. I use unsalted butter; all eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.



Afghan biscuits – inspired by a Gourmet Traveller recipe
Ingredients
200 gm unsalted butter, softened
50g brown sugar
50g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
185 gm plain flour (1¼ cup)
25 gm Dutch-process cocoa (¼ cup)
Pinch salt
60 gm corn flakes

Walnut praline
1 cup (140g) walnut pieces
1 cup caster sugar
40mls water

Chocolate icing
240 gm icing sugar, sifted (1½ cup)
1½ tbsp Dutch-process cocoa
25 gm butter, melted
½ tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbs boiling water

Biscuits
Preheat oven to 180ºC and line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Beat together butter, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Sieve flour, cocoa and salt over butter mixture and beat to combine. Add corn flakes and stir to combine. Place heaped tablespoonfuls of dough on prepared trays, press lightly to flatten and bake, swapping trays halfway, until edges are just firm (10-12 minutes). Cool completely on trays.

Walnut praline
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Evenly spread the walnut pieces over the tray. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring. Cook until the mixture turns a golden brown then working quickly pour the toffee over the walnut pieces, shaking the tray a little to distribute the toffee. Remember the toffee is hot. Allow the toffee to completely cool before breaking into smaller pieces. Store in a baking paper lined airtight container for up to 2 weeks. This will make more praline than you need.

Chocolate Icing
Combine icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl. Add the melted butter, vanilla and water and stir until smooth, adding a little extra water until mixture is thick but just spreadable. Spread thickly over biscuits and top with some of the walnut praline. 

Afghans are best eaten the day they’re made, but will keep for 2 days in an airtight container.



I hope you had a great weekend. If I survive the first working week of the year, then I'll be back again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon drizzle cake

lemon drizzle cake

5 Nov 2018

Last month my signed copy of Flour and Stone arrived, the new book by Nadine Ingram. A few years ago some of Nadine's recipes featured in an issue of Gourmet Traveller. I made the lemon dream cake, the chocolate manjari cake and a version of her famous pannacotta lamingtons which I found online. All the cakes were delicious and I was keen to try some more.



I've read the book from cover to cover and have bookmarked quite a few recipes but I decided to go with a classic, the lemon drizzle cake. One of my work colleagues is gluten intolerant and as the lemon drizzle cake recipe contains only a small amount of flour, I felt fairly confident I'd be able to make the cake gluten free. I decided to use some of the polenta flour I had on hand and used that instead of the flour.

The original recipe has quantities for 22 cm and 28 cm cakes but I scaled the recipe back to fit my handy dandy 17cm tin. Normally if I halve a 22cm cake recipe it works perfectly but the cake was too moist and only just held together. I remade the cake using regular flour and increased the quantity a little and it worked perfectly. The book's temperatures are for a fan forced oven so I increased my oven temperature by 10-20°C. It changed the bake time though. My cake was ready in 55 minutes unlike the 1 hour 15 minutes suggested in the book.

The cake came out a lovely golden brown and as soon as it was cool I iced the cake and topped it with some home made candied lemon rind. The cake is lovely and moist and equal parts buttery and lemony and it was a definite winner at work.


Here's the recipe for you adapted from the lemon drizzle cake recipe from Flour and Stone. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
90g ground almonds
40g polenta or plain flour
1½ tsp grated lemon rind
25mls lemon juice

Icing

125g icing sugar

25mls lemon juice (about half a lemon)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17cm cake tin with baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually, scraping the butter mix down the sides to ensure all is incorporated. Add the almonds, the lemon zest and the juice. Add the flour to the butter and eggs and mix a few times until the batter is combined.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes to one hour until the cake springs back when touched. When cooked, take out of the oven and allow the cake to cool completely on a rack.

If the cake isn’t level you might have to trim the top. When cold, turn the cake upside down and remove the lining paper. The bottom of the cake is now the top. 

Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice gradually until a thin stream of icing can pour off your spoon to drizzle. Spoon 3 spoonful’s of icing over the top of the cake and use the spoon to drag the icing to the edge of the cake. The icing will cover the cake and drizzle naturally. Allow the cake to set for at least 4 hours before serving.





The second time I made the cake I was time poor so instead of carefully mixing the ingredients in a stand mixer I put everything in the food processor and it worked like a charm! 



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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zucchini and mint soup

zucchini and mint soup

14 Mar 2012

My kitchen is very light on gadgets and when I was home in Brisbane my parents gave me a stick blender. I wanted to try it out so I was really pleased when I found this recipe for zucchini and mint soup in last month's Australian Gourmet Traveller.



I had to pick up some mint and zucchini but I already had the other ingredients in the cupboard or the fridge.



It's a very simple but tasty recipe that I whipped up after work one night and served with my favourite toasted turkish bread.



I've always liked soup especially when the weather is cold, so now that I have a stick blender I'm almost looking forward to winter.

Here's the recipe for you -
Zucchini and Mint Soup
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 small red chilli, finely chopped, plus extra thinly sliced to serve
1 kg small zucchini (about 10), diced
700 ml hot chicken stock
½ cup (loosely packed) mint

To serve
Greek-style yoghurt, lemon wedges and grilled flatbread

Extra-virgin olive oil

Method

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chilli and stir occasionally until tender (5-6 minutes). Add zucchini and stir occasionally until bright green (4-5 minutes), add hot stock, increase heat to high and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to medium, simmer until zucchini is just tender (4-5 minutes), process with a hand-held blender until smooth and season to taste.

Divide soup among bowls, top with mint, yoghurt and chilli, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and serve hot with lemon wedges and grilled flatbread.

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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