Why home baked bread? Choices and varieties bountiful in the Bakery. You are free to pick and mix to everyone's delight. Why sweat and pit your muscle against the unyielding dough? (And you know... you know! I haven't done a single manicure in years! Coz nail polishes and paints are just NOT friendly to food. Ohhhhh how often have I gazed longingly at my tai-tai girlfriends' perfectly manicured hands... sigh...)
Even as I diligently knead the dough with all my might and strength, questions of other I-should-have's floated by. One of which is, I should have AIR CONDITIONED my kitchen! *pant*
Hours of labour yielded 12 unevenly sized buns. I didn't measure each bun's weight and didn't pay much attention to uniformity. That's the beauty of h a n d i c r a f t, I justified (to myself).
I sorta lost it at the tail-end. Patience and time running out! It is 5pm!!! It's been 4 hours since I started at 1pm, and I'm still at bread making. Ought to dump them into oven and start preparing dinner before my brood comes 'vulturing' over my dining table.
Yet again, I did it!! Yeah!! I promptly served 3-dish-1-soup dinner at 6 with a tray of aromatic coffee buns. I made it!!!
Verdict:
Area of improvement (singular: area):
* Time management. Gathered if I intend to serve this for tea, I really should start the dough right at mid morning (before lunch). ... Which incidentally means I would have burnt my entire day.
It's this start-pause-start process that is stumbling.
Maybe I should just use my no-knead formula. If only I have a KA at my beck and call. If only...
Here's what you'd need:
Bread Dough:
Part A
40gm warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1tsp bread flour
1tsp instant yeast (I used 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast)
Part B
250gm bread flour
45g sugar
1/4tsp salt
95gm chocolate milk
20gm egg yolk (about 2 yolks)
25gm butter
Topping:
40gm butter
40gm icing sugar
45gm plain flour
30g egg (about 2 eggs)
1/2tbsp instant coffee powder (dissolved in 1tsp hot water; I used 3-in-1)
1/2tsp coffee emulco
This is what I did:
Bread Dough:
1. Prepare Part A. Mix water, sugar and flour together to form a watery paste. Sprinkle active dry yeast into it and let it stand for a minute or two till frothy.
2. Start on Part B. Combine bread flour, sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in yeast mixture. Stir to combine.
3. Add in chocolate milk, and egg into mixing bowl. Knead to combine everything.
4. Transfer dough into a lightly floured top. Slowly in add butter in batches, knead till a smooth & elastic dough is formed. Knead till you pass the window pane test.
5. Transfer dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it proof in a warm place for about an hour.
6. Lightly punch back the proofed dough. Remove from bowl onto a lightly floured top and divide dough into 12 portions, shape each dough into a round ball.
7. Arrange onto baking tray lined with baking paper.
8. Cover and let it proof for another 45min - 1 hr till doubled in size.
9. Preheat oven to 190degC.
10. Pipe topping onto proofed dough.
11. Bake in preheated over for 10mins till bun is brown and topping has set.
12. Remove and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Topping:1. Somewhere after step 5 above, prepare the topping.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg until well combined.
4. Fold in flour, coffee mixture and emulco until well combined.
5. Spoon batter into piping bag and store in fridge for later use. (I use a normal plastic bag and slit a small opening at the base when ready to pipe)
NB:
* Carol is my online tutor on how to knead by hand. Most impressive. Look at her flawless hands!
* For the record, take a look at her video on her How-To-Knead-with-a-KA. *Drool*
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