Bagels

I had great success with the Parisian Bagels but Peter Reinhart is very respected in the baking community so when The Kitchn posted a recipe from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads by Peter Reinhart, I had to try it out.

The bagels were delicious! Peter Reinhart's bagels have a softer dough which is much more difficult to shape compared to the Parisian Bagels but the taste and flavour of the bagels more than made up for their appearance.

This recipe is adapted and makes 6 to 8 bagels.

Ingredients:
Dough
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon (0.11 oz / 3 g) instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons (0.37 oz / 10.5 g) salt, or 21/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (9 oz / 255 g) lukewarm water (about 95°F or 35°C)
3 1/2 cups (16 oz / 454 g) unbleached bread flour

Poaching Liquid
2 to 3 quarts (64 to 96 oz / 181 to 272 g) water
1 1/2 tablespoons (1 oz / 28.5 g) honey (optional)
1 tablespoon (0.5 oz / 14 g) baking soda
1 teaspoon (0.25 oz / 7 g) salt, or 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

Do Ahead
To make the dough, stir the malt syrup, yeast, and salt into the lukewarm water. Place the flour into a mixing bowl and pour in the malt syrup mixture. If using a mixer, use the dough hook and mix on the lowest speed for 3 minutes. If mixing by hand, use a large, sturdy spoon and stir for about 3 minutes, until well blended. The dough should form a stiff, coarse ball, and the flour should be fully hydrated; if it isn’t, stir in a little more water. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
Resume mixing with the dough hook on the lowest speed for another 3 minutes or transfer to a very lightly floured work surface and knead by hand for about 3 minutes to smooth out the dough and develop the gluten. The dough should be stiff yet supple, with a satiny, barely tacky feel. If the dough seems too soft or overly tacky, mix or knead in a little more flour.

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

When you’re ready to shape the bagels, prepare a sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone mat, then misting it with spray oil or lightly coating it with oil. Divide the dough into 6 to 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a loose ball by rolling it on a clean, dry work surface with a cupped hand. (Don’t use any flour on the work surface. If the dough slides around and won’t ball up, wipe the surface with a damp paper towel and try again; the slight bit of moisture will provide enough traction for the dough to form into a ball.)

Place each shaped bagel on the prepared sheet pan, then mist with spray oil or brush with a light coating of oil. Cover the entire pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days. (You can also proof the full piece of dough in the oiled bowl overnight and then shape the bagels on baking day, 60 to 90 minutes before boiling and baking them, or as soon as they pass the float test.)

On Baking Day
Remove the bagels from the refrigerator 60 to 90 minutes before you plan to bake them, and if you plan to top them with dried onion or garlic, rehydrate those ingredients (see the variations on page 78). Immediately check whether the bagels are ready for baking using the “float test”: Place one of the bagels in a small bowl of cold water. If it sinks and doesn’t float back to the surface, shake it off, return it to the pan, and wait for another 15 to 20 minutes, then test it again. When one bagel passes the float test, they’re all ready to be boiled. If they pass the float test before you are ready to boil and bake them, return them to the refrigerator so they don’t overproof. About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C) and gather and prepare your garnishes (seeds, onions, garlic, and so on).

To make the poaching liquid, fill a pot with 2 to 3 quarts (64 to 96 oz / 181 to 272 g) of water, making sure the water is at least 4 inches deep. Cover, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to maintain at a simmer. Stir in the honey, baking soda, and salt.

Gently lower each bagel into the simmering poaching liquid, adding as many as will comfortably fit in the pot. They should all float to the surface within 15 seconds. After 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to turn each bagel over. Poach for another 30 to 60 seconds, then use the slotted spoon to transfer it back to the pan, domed side up. (It’s important that the parchment paper be lightly oiled, or the paper will glue itself to the dough as the bagels bake.) Sprinkle on a generous amount of whatever toppings you like as soon as the bagels come out of the water (except cinnamon sugar; see the variation on page 78 for details). Transfer the pan of bagels to the oven, then lower the oven heat to 450°F (232°C).

Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pan and check the underside of the bagels. If they’re getting too dark, place another pan under the baking sheet. (Doubling the pan will insulate the first baking sheet.) Bake for another 8 to 12 minutes, until the bagels are a golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving.

Low-Fat Banana Bread

I love oats. I put it in my morning coffee, make it for breakfast or lunch with bananas, put it in my yogurt; most of all, I love adding it to anything I'm baking, especially bread.

This recipe is pretty good. It was quite dry which I liked. Most banana breads taste too much like banana cakes to me.

This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Brown sugar ; packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons Canola Oil ; or walnut oil
1 large egg ; beaten
2 medium Egg white ; beaten
3 large bananas ; ripe
1 cup Oats ; uncooked

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick.

In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions.

Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. Slice loaf into 10 equally sized slices.

Oatmeal Bread

The first time I attempted to make this bread, it turned out tough with a really thick crust. When I recently made it again, it baked beautifully. Thin crackly crust with the softest texture inside. The difference was the dough. When I started making bread, I liked my dough to be not sticky at all. So I smothered it with flour until it no longer sticks to my fingers. However, I recently discovered the stickier the dough, the lighter the bread.

I was extremely pleased with how this bread turned out. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the source of the recipe and am unable to link it back to that website (Apologies to the author of this excellent recipe).

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Quick oats ; or coarsely chopped rolled oats
10 grams Butter
2 teaspoon Instant yeast ; scant
1/4 cup Warm water ; 38C to 43C
2 1/2 tablespoon Brown sugar ; firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups All purpose flour

Instructions:
1) Cook oats in 1 cup water according to package directions. Remove from heat and stir in butter, brown sugar and salt. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

2) Mix yeast, oats and flour in a bowl. Add in water slowly until the dough starts to come away from the side of the bowl (try kneading without water first). Dough is very shaggy and sticky. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Place in a well greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3) Turn dough out and gently shape into a round loaf. Place dough on a baking sheet and let rise for 30 - 45 minutes. Slash top of the loaf as desired.

4) Preheat oven to 191°C.

5) Bake at 191°C for 40 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool almost completely before serving.

Daring Cooks' Challenge: Mezze

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I was terribly excited about this month's challenge. I love bread and I've been wanting to make hummus for some time. Unfortunately I couldn't find tahini in my local supermarket. So I substituted peanut butter for it. As a result, although the hummus was delicious, it did taste very strongly of peanut butter (I may have been a bit heavy handed while adding it).

I will make my own tahini the next time I need it for hummus; just to taste how authentic hummus should be.

Pita Bread – Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Prep time: 20 minutes to make, 90 minutes to rise and about 45 minutes to cook

2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (may use a combination of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose, or a combination of alternative flours for gluten free pita) (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)

Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1 minute, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
4. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
5. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn't puff up, don't worry it should still taste delicious. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.

Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

Cucumber Raita – Recipe adapted from The Indian Grocery Store Demystified by Linda Bladholm
Prep time: Approximately 15 minutes

1 medium cucumber, peeled and most of the seeds removed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (.1 ounce/3 grams) OR use a small pinch of dried cumin—to taste
2 cups plain whole milk or Greek yogurt (17 ounces/473ml)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
fresh coriander or mint, chopped, a couple pinches or more to taste
cayenne pepper or paprika, just a pinch to use as a garnish (optional)

Directions:
1. Peel cucumber, de-seed, and dice. Blot off moisture with paper towels.
2. Toast cumin seeds for a few seconds in a small, heavy frying pan over high heat.
3. In a bowl, stir yogurt until it is smooth.
4. Mix it with the cumin, garlic and coriander or mint leaves (I used some grated radish instead).
5. Stir in the cucumber and sprinkle with cayenne or paprika, and chill before serving.

Simple Garlic Bread

The first garlic bread I tried was the one we got from a local pizza place. It was alright but often cold and the garlic butter was only lightly smeared on. So it was mostly through smell than taste that I deduced that what I'm eating IS in fact actually garlic bread.

Garlic bread is so simple to make and by making your own, you can control how much butter and garlic you would like on the bread.

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 baguette or loaf of French bread
43 grams butter
2 cloves Garlic ; chopped finely
Salt ; to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper ; to taste

Instructions:
Cut the bread diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Don''t slice all the way through the loaf.

Mix the butter and the garlic, add a pinch of salt and pepper and blend into a smooth paste. Spread the mixture onto each slice as if you were buttering a piece of bread.

Put the loaf back together, wrap it in foil and put it in a hot oven for ten minutes. Unwrap the foil for the last minute of heating to get a crisp crust to the loaf.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love bread and butter pudding. Served warm with custard, it's like a little slice of heaven... and it uses up your stale bread!

Ingredients:
Pudding:
2/9 cup Raisins
1/12 cup Rum ; optional
4 ounces Day-old white bread ; cut 1/2" cubes
14 grams Unsalted butter ; softened
1 cups Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/6 cup Granulated sugar
1 large Eggs
1 large Egg yolks
Custard for serving:
1 large egg yolks
1 tablespoons sugar ; scant
1/3 cups whole milk
1/5 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Instructions:
In a small bowl, macerate raisins in rum 30 minutes. Butter bread.

Drain the raisins. Lightly butter a 2-quart baking dish. Spread the bread evenly in the baking dish and sprinkle the raisins on top.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

In a heavy saucepan bring milk to a bare simmer over moderate heat with vanilla bean and granulated sugar and remove pan from heat. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean with a knife into milk, reserving pod for another use, and whisk to break up seeds.

In a large heatproof bowl whisk together whole eggs and yolks and add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking. Stir in vanilla.

Ladle custard evenly over bread (make sure the custard covers the bread) and set dish in a larger baking pan. Add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up side of dish and bake pudding in middle of oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until puffed and set.

Remove dish from water bath and cool pudding to warm or room temperature.

Custard for serving:
Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium bowl until well blended, about 2 minutes. Bring milk to boil in heavy medium saucepan (or double boiler); gradually whisk into yolk mixture.

Return custard to saucepan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens and reaches 160°F and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 4-15 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat immediately.

Cool quickly. Set pan in larger pan of ice water; stir occasionally and gently for a few minutes to hasten cooling. Stir in vanilla. Serve warm, or transfer to bowl and press piece of plastic wrap onto surface of sauce to prevent a "skin" from forming and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Vegetable Pizza

I recently bought a 10-inch pizza pan. I was really excited to try it but when I got home, I realised that it doesn't fit into my abysmally tiny oven. It does, however, fit into the convection oven. Now, going in, I already know pizzas are not meant to be baked in convection ovens. Convection ovens are not able to bake the bottom of the pizza to a crisp, which is terribly important. Having pizzas on my mind though, I thought I'd just give it a try.

Well, the pizza turned out alright. The bottom was, as expected, slightly under-baked. Next time, I'll put aside the pizza pan and just bake directly on my baking sheet in the conventional oven.

This recipe makes 1 15-inch pizza.

Ingredients:
-- Pizza dough --
3/4 teaspoon Instant yeast ; scant
1/2 cup Cold water
3/4 tablespoons Corn oil
1/2 tablespoon Sugar
1/12 teaspoon Garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/8 teaspoon Dry oregano leaves
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
-- Topping --
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1 tablespoons parmesan ; grated
1/2 cups mozzarella ; grated
1 1/2 canned pineapple slices ; washed of their syrup and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 Canned mushrooms stems and pieces ; coarsely chopped
1/4 small Green pepper
1/2 Yellow onion

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients with about half of the flour, beating to a smooth batter. With a sturdy spoon work in remaining flour until you can toss it lightly on a floured surface and knead it until it feels elastic in texture.

Place it in an oiled bowl and roll around. Cover and leave until it rise to double in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 230°C. When dough has doubled, punch it down and shape it to fit pizza pan that have been greased and dusted in cornmeal.

Spoon the marinara sauce over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around each pizza. Sprinkle the cheeses over the sauce. Arrange the pineapple pieces in a single layer over the cheeses. Sprinkle with the mushroom, pepper and onion. Bake the pizza until the crusts are crisp and brown on the bottom and the cheese is melted on top, about 12 minutes. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve immediately.

White Bread

I haven't been making bread in a while. I have a really good recipe for white bread which I've made a few times but I love trying out new recipes. This recipe is pretty good. I used the wrong technique to form the loaf though, so the crumb was a bit too loose for a proper sandwich bread. Other than that, the texture and flavour was good.

This recipe is adapted from Taste and Tell.

Ingredients:
2 1/8 cups unbleached bread flour
a large pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 large egg ; slightly beaten (at room temperature)
29 grams butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup whole milk or buttermilk (at room temperature)

Instructions:
Mix together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Pour in the egg, butter, and milk and mix until all of the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems very stiff and dry, add more milk until the dough is soft and supple.

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading, adding more flour, if necessary, to create a dough that is soft, supple, and tacky but not sticky. Continue kneading for 6 to 8 minutes. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 80F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temperature for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Remove the fermented dough from the bowl. Shape into a loaf. Lightly oil a 8½ by 4½ inch loaf pan and place the loaf in the pan. Use the roll method for tighter crumb.

Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it nearly doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush with egg wash (if desired).

Bake loaf for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating 180 degrees halfway through for even baking. The top should be golden brown and the sides, when removed from the pan, should be golden. The internal temperature should be close to 190F and the loaf should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

When the loaf has finished baking, remove it from the pan and cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving.

Yogurt Buns

Yogurt's great isn't it? It can be eaten on its own, with fruits, cooked into curries, baked into bread, even made into cheese. I recently made a batch of yogurt which I wanted to experiment with. I tried making cheese, but my yogurt was too thin. However, I made some curries successfully. This post is about the buns I made. They were really yummy. Very soft and fluffy. They turned drier and harder the next day, though you can steam them back to how they were.

I adapted the recipe from Pure Enjoyment!.

Ingredients
250g bread flour
15g sugar
3g salt
3g yeast
100g plain low-fat yogurt
60g fresh milk
25g egg (about half an egg)
30g butter
1/2 egg for glazing
Sesame seeds

Method
1. Whisk bread flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Add in yogurt, milk, egg and butter and mix to form a dough.
3. Knead dough for about 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough in a slightly greased large bowl. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling-wrap and leave it to proof in a warm place till double its size (about 1 hour).
5. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
6. Divide the dough into small portions of about 48g. Shape each portion into a smooth ball and placed them into a loaf pan.
7. Cover the loaf pan with a cling wrap and allow the dough to go for second proofing until double its size again.
8. Egg wash the top of the buns and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of each small bun.
9. Bake in preheated oven at 170-180C for 20 minutes until the top turns golden brown.
10. Remove bread from loaf pan to cool completely.

The Best Homemade Garlic Naan

I've been obsessed with finding a good recipe for naan ever since my first attempt. I've scoured the internet for tips and videos on how other people make theirs at home. I was adamant that my naan should include yeast and yogurt, so any recipe without those were excluded. Finally, using Aayi's Recipes as a base, I came up with a recipe which seems right to me theoretically.

Besides the different ingredients called for in different recipes, there were a few methods for baking naans at home. The aim is to bake naans in very very high temperature like the professionals do in tandoors. A few cooks use baking or pizza stones in their ovens to bake naans on whilst others use the grill. Having neither a baking stone nor a grill, I was very interested in the method used by one Indian chef who cooks naans by holding the dough over an open flame. Curious, I decided to try out the Indian chef's method and also to use a conventional oven using the same recipe so I can compare how the naans cooked in these two methods would differ.

This recipe yields 5 naans

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon + 1/3 teaspoon instant yeast
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoon yogurt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
Butter, softened

Method:
1) In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
2) Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour in milk, yogurt and oil. Slowly draw the flour from the edges of the well into the liquid mixture to make a soft dough. Knead for 3-4 minutes. Dough should be very soft and a little bit sticky. Do not overknead here.
3) Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a cloth or plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until the dough doubles in volume.
4) Preheat oven to 250C with cookie sheet placed on lowest shelf.
5) Punch down dough. Divide dough into 5 balls. Coat balls with a bit of flour and roll them out to about 1/4 inch thick. Gently pull down one side to make a teardrop shape. Press garlic into the surface of the dough.
6) Bake in oven on lowest shelf for 3 minutes or until bubbles start to form. Take out, prick bubbles, turn over dough and bake on middle shelf for 2 minutes or until slightly browned.
7) Glaze naan with butter.

Serve immediately with your favourite curry.


For stovetop method:
1) Place dough on wire mesh.
2) Fire up your stove. Hold the wire mesh over the naked flame and move it around constantly to make sure every part of the dough gets the flame. Do not stop at one spot for too long. Make sure to check the bottom of the dough occasionally to avoid massive charring. Once browned, turn the dough over and do the same thing to the other side.
3) Glaze naan with butter.


Conclusion:
I preferred the stovetop method. It resulted in softer naans and I could control how brown I would like my naans to be. The oven-baked naans were good as well. I was afraid to bake them too long as I wanted them to be soft and pliable.

Chicken Burgers

Remember the buns I made the other day? Well, I filled them up with some pieces of rotisserie chicken, lightly fried onions, tomato, lettuce with lashings of mayonnaise and dijon mustard. Don't forget to put in a fried egg as well. It adds an interesting depth to the burgers.

Burger Buns

I like making things from scratch and seriously, who in their right minds would make buns from scratch? The commercial buns are light and fluffy. Great toasted with meat patties or frankfurters. But the idea kept taunting me and finally I gave in and decided to plunge right in. This recipe from the King Arthur Flour site was really good. The buns are more crunchy than fluffy and denser than the bites of air you'd get from commercial buns.

This yields 3 buns.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoons granulated sugar
0.8 teaspoons instant yeast
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon water
5 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon warm milk (41°C to 46°C)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
sesame, poppy or caraway seeds or coarse salt (optional)

Instructions:

1) In a large bowl, add the sugar, yeast, water, milk, oil, salt and 1/4 cup of flour. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Gradually add flour, 3 tablespoons at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
2) Knead until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Because this dough is so slack, you may find that a bowl scraper or bench knife can be helpful in scooping up the dough and folding it over on itself.
3) Put the dough into an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a tightly-woven dampened towel and let rise until doubled, about one hour.
4) Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide into 3 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Flatten the balls into 3 1/2-inch disks. For soft-sided buns, place them on a well-seasoned baking sheet a half inch apart so they'll grow together when they rise. For crisper buns, place them three inches apart.
5) Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
6) Fifteen minutes before you want to bake your buns, preheat your oven to 204°C. Just before baking, lightly brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash and sprinkle with whatever seeds strike your fancy.
7) Bake for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 87.7°C. (A dough thermometer takes the guesswork out of this.)
8) When the buns are done, remove them from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack. This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy.

Garlic Butter Buns

I've made a few types of bread at this point but I was focusing on harder types of bread like french bread. When I saw this recipe, I decided to try making it as it would be different. It was great! Very soft with a slighty harder crust and terrific flavour in the garlic butter. The recipe as adapted by me is as follows:

The Dough
500 g bread flour
1 1/2 t dry active yeast
45 g castor sugar
1 t salt
1 medium‐sized egg
50 g cold butter
260 ml cold water

1. Put all the ingredients into your mixer bowl and knead for about 20 minutes. Put dough in a covered bowl for 1 hour until doubled up.
2. Punch dough down, lift out of the bowl and put it on a lightly floured counter. Cut into 50 g pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball, then into a cone, then flatten the cone‐shaped dough into a longish triangle and roll up from the wider end.
3. Place each rolled piece of dough onto a greased and/or well‐floured tray. Cover and leave to proof for 1 hour or until more than doubled.
4. Brush the top of the buns with beaten egg yolk, snip down the middle with a sharp pair of scissors, spoon some garlic butter onto the slitted area and place in a preheated oven at 200 C, for 20 minutes.

Garlic Butter
100 g salted butter
1 bulb garlic, chopped very finely
1 T fresh or 1 t dried parsley

Whisk it all together with a small hand whisk.

Alton Brown's Pretzels

I'm a fan of soft pretzels. Warm, chewy, sweetish pretzels. I tried to make some and they turned out very well. The recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's.

This recipe makes 4 pretzels.

Ingredients:
1 oz unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cups water, 46C
1/2 tbs sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp instant yeast
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
10 cups boiling water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk+1 tbs water

Method:

1) Add sugar, salt and yeast to water.
2) Add yeast water and melted butter to flour and mix on low speed until dough comes together. Knead.
3) Put in greased bowl and cover for 1 hour till double up.
4) Preheat oven to 450F/232C and grease baking sheet.
5) Divide dough to 4 portions or 4.5 oz each.
6) Roll out or squish dough and roll up again and lengthen to rope of 24 inches.
7) Shape it and place on baking sheet. Cover with damp tea towel.(Let rise for 5 min)
8) Prepare 10 cups of water with baking soda and boil. Bath pretzels in mixture for 30 seconds. Then place on baking sheet.


9) Brush with egg yolk.
10) Bake for 14 minutes, spinning tray around 7 minutes in.

Pita Bread

This is my second attempt at making pita bread. The first time, for some reason, my pita breads refused to puff up. This time, they rose quite well, though still not well enough. I followed the recipe in The Fresh Loaf. Here is the recipe with some adjustments.

Pita Bread
This recipe makes 4 pitas

1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 cup water, roughly at room temperature
1 tablespoon olive oil, vegetable oil, vegan butter, or shortening

1) Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar.
2) Add the olive oil and 1/2 cup water and stir together with a spoon.

3) All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water. Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes. (The purpose of kneading is to thoroughly combine the ingredients and to break down the flour so that the dough will become stretchy and elastic and rise well in the oven. A simple hand kneading technique is to firmly press down on the dough with the palm of your hand, fold the dough in half toward you like you are closing an envelope, rotate the dough 90 degrees and then repeat these steps, but whatever technique you are comfortable using should work.) When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately an hour.
4) When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.
5) While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.
6) After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again. After rolling out, rest the dough for 30 minutes.

7) Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. It should start forming bubbles after about a minute of baking.

Serve by cutting the pita breads in half to make a pocket for your filling.

French Bread

French bread (the authentic kind) is one of the toughest bread to bake at home. There are a lot of tips that can be found online. The following recipe is pretty easy to follow and does not require poolish or a slow rising time. Although this is supposed to result in less tasty bread, I felt it turned out pretty good. However, the crust is not as crispy and thin as it should be.

This recipe yields 1 loaf or 2 baguettes.

2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons salt
About 4 cups unbleached white flour
Corn meal to put under dough on pan
1/2 egg white mixed with 1/2 tablespoons water to brush dough before cooking.

Mix yeast, salt, water and 2 cups of flour. Beat by hand or mixer for two minutes. Add 1 more cup flour. Beat 2 more minutes. Add 1 more cup flour and mix with hand, adding more flour until stiff enough to knead and handle. Knead for 8-10 minutes.

Put dough in greased bowl, turn over and cover. Let rise in warm place until doubled. Punch down, cut into 2 parts depending on the size of loaf you want. Make long loaf. Sprinkle cooking sheet with cornmeal, put on dough, let rise 30 minutes. Make several slashes diagonally across the top of the loaves, brush with egg white. Put loaves into a cold oven and set a pan of very hot water in the bottom. Turn on oven to 205C. Bake 35-40 minutes (slightly less if making smaller loaf). Towards end, crack oven door with spoon to dry out oven for a crispier loaf.

Please be aware that some people experienced oven malfunction after steaming.

Parisian Bagels

I love bread. Any and all kinds. I've never had bagels before so I thought I'd make one. As I've never had any professionally made ones, I have nothing to compare mine to. However, I'd go so far as to say that they were terrific! Flavourful, chewy and crunchy, warm.. great eaten with butter and jam, and also poached eggs.

This recipe yields 10 bagels, adapted from Jo Goldenberg's Parisian Bagel

3 1/2 cups bread flour [I ran out of bread flour and used half all­-purpose flour]
1 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons, sugar
1/2 tablespoon, salt
1 1/2 cups, hot water (about 50 degrees)
3 litres water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white – beaten with 1 teaspoon, water
cornmeal for sprinkling on the baking sheet

Instructions:
1) In a mixing bowl measure 3 cups of the flour and stir in all the remaining dry ingredients. Pour in the hot water, and stir vigorously with a plastic spoon for about 2 minutes.
2) Add the remaining half­ cup of flour, a little at a time, stirring by hand. When the batter becomes thick and heavy, lift the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured work surface for kneading by hand.
3) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Add flour as needed if the dough is sticky in your hands.
4) First Rising: When dough is kneaded enough, place it in an oiled mixing bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature until it has doubled in volume – about 1 hour.
5) Near the end of this rising time, bring the 3 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the sugar; then, reduce the heat and leave the water just barely moving – at a slow simmer.
6) When the dough has doubled in volume, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and punch it down with extended fingers to remove excess gas.
7) Divide the dough into 10 pieces (each will weigh about 3­4 ounces). Shape each piece into a ball. Allow the balls to stand and relax for a few minutes – then flatten each one with the palm of your hand.
8) With your thumb, press deep into the center of the bagel and tear the depression open with your fingers. Pull the hole open, pull it down over a finger and smooth the rough edges. It should look like a bagel! Form all of the bagels and place them on your work surface.
9) Cover the shaped bagels with wax paper or parchment paper. Leave them
at room temperature just until the dough has risen slightly – about 10 minutes (this is called a “half proof”).
10) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
11) Grease a baking sheet with shortening (or use a non­stick baking sheet, or line a baking sheet with “Silpat” or similar material) and sprinkle the baking sheet with cornmeal.
12) Into the gently simmering water prepared earlier, slip one bagel at a time (use a large skimmer, and gently lower them into the water). Simmer only 2 or 3 bagels at a time – do not crowd the pan. The bagels will sink and then rise again after a few seconds. Simmer gently for one minute, turning each bagel over once during that time. Lift each bagel out of the water with the skimmer, drain briefly on a towel, then place each bagel on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all bagels are simmered, drained and on the baking sheet.
13) Brush each bagel lightly with the egg­ white­-water mixture.
14) Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 25­30 minutes. When brown and shiny, remove the finished bagels from the oven. Place the bagels on a metal rack to cool.

Garlic Naan

I recently had garlic naan with tandoori chicken at a very famous mamak shop in Penang. It inspired me to try to make my own naan just for experiment. I came across this recipe from Aayi's Recipes and decided to give it a go.

It was really good. Not as soft as the mamak shop's but the flavour was very close. I would put in less salt though.

Flour Tortillas

Whenever we have leftover roasted whole chicken, I will make flour tortilla for wraps. This is better than the store-bought white flour tortilla we once had and MUCH healthier as I use atta flour as well as white flour.

This yields 3 servings.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons and 1­3/4 teaspoons all­-purpose flour
3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon atta flour
1 tablespoon and 2­1/4 teaspoons shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
a large pinch of baking powder
1/3 cup boiling water
all­-purpose flour for rolling

1. In a large bowl, stir together all­-purpose flour, the atta flour, baking powder and salt. Rub in the shortening by hand until the mixture is the texture of oatmeal. Make a well in the center, and pour in the boiling water. Mix with a fork until all of the water is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2. Cover dough with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours. Then divide the dough to make 3 balls.
3. Heat a griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. Fry one at a time.
Place on the griddle for 10 seconds, as soon as you see a bubble on
the top, flip the tortilla over. Let it cook for about 30 seconds, then flip
and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next
tortilla while you wait for that one to cook. Repeat until all of the balls
have been cooked.

Tortillas can be refrigerated or frozen.

Whole Wheat Bread

I recently took up bread making. I started with simple white bread and through trial and error, learnt to develop a feel of how a dough should look and feel like for it to turn out correctly.

After mastering the technique, I moved on to whole wheat bread. I must say I do not quite like whole wheat bread. It is slightly too dry. I baked a light wheat bread which uses half whole wheat flour and half white flour and I much preferred that one. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of that bread. However, I will be making it again so will post the recipe in the coming months.

This particular bread recipe is from Beginning with Bread.