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Mocha Bread - bread making at home during covid

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. Well life’s been busy, when one has to be an adult... Last time I was here (June 2015?!), I just gave notice for my old job, and went back to school to complete my master’s degree in communications. A year later, I took on an events and engagement position at the largest charity foundation in Hong Kong. Another four years, despite the terrible hours and amount of (really meaningful) work, I am still with the company (with 2 promotions!), and I am glad to still be offered a new contract in times like these. 

Yes, the coronavirus... In Hong Kong, I’ve been working from home right after the Chinese New Year holiday. Luckily for us, after a short period of madness where people were hoarding TP and rice, things have *kinda* gone back to ‘normal’. It’s been a rather surreal two months (and ongoing) of work-from-home experience, but that also means I actually have the time to start playing with recipes again! 

Bread is not something I am very confident with, mainly because Hong Kong is rather hot and wet climate-wise. I always had trouble getting doughs to properly rise in “room” temperature. Three years ago, I actually purchased a mini oven with a dough fermentation mode, so that should solve the problem? Since I have plenty of time, I could even make bread in a leisurely manner. (Funny though, after all these years, I still have not caved in to get myself an electric mixer, because I really have no space for that. Someday my friends, someday...) 

Well, the bread recipe today in fact is not my first stay-at-home experiment. I started off with a yeastless recipe, Irish Soda Bread, just in time for St Patrick’s Day, then I went on to do an overnight pizza dough from the Smitten Kitchen (because I’ve actually never tried fermenting dough in the fridge). So officially, this is my third bake, the Mocha Bread. Again, I did part of the fermentation in the fridge overnight to see what will happen (hey, I did say I am experimenting!)

Mocha Bread (Makes 2 large-ish loaves)

Ingredients:

375 g strong white flour

2 1/2 tsps instant dried yeast (I use Saf-instant Gold - it’s so much easier, no need to proof or dissolve, just throw it straight into the flour mixture)

55 g superfine caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

20 g unsweetened cocoa powder

10 g instant coffee powder

70 g roughly chopped dark chocolate

50 g unsalted butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract

90 g dark chocolate chips

185 mL warm water (around 40ºC)

Steps:

Chocolate mixture - melt chopped dark chocolate and butter in a bowl, either over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water!) or if you are lazy like me, you can do it in the microwave in short bursts of 30 seconds, stirring in between). When fully melted, add egg and vanilla into the mixture 

The dough - combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, cocoa powder, coffee powder, then add in the chocolate mixture. Use a large wooden spoon/spatula to combine the wet and dry ingredients, and mix until the coarse and sticky dough comes together. You can then start using your hands to knead the dough for another 5-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic - add extra flour if necessary (If using a mixer, use a dough hook, and set to lowest speed to mix for 1-2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and knead for another 5-10 min until a smooth dough is formed).

Proofing - grease a large bowl and transfer the dough into it and ensure the oil lightly coats the whole dough. Cover in cling film and leave the dough in a draught-free place for 1-2 hours, or until the dough is doubled. 

[Here I placed my dough into the oven and tried the fermentation mode, which kept the temperature at around 30-ish ºC - half an hour later, the dough rose quite a bit already, but to experiment, I left dough in the fridge and went to bed. The next morning I took the dough out and left it in room temperature until the afternoon to continue the rest of the proofing and it turned out quite ok! Generally speaking, if proofing in the fridge, remove the dough from the fridge about 3 hours before you plan to bake it, to give the dough enough time to reach back to room temperature,]

Shaping the dough - knock back the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface, and divide it in half. Flatten each half to around 1 cm thick and scatter chocolate chips onto it. Roll up the dough into logs and transfer them onto a greased baking tray. Use a knife to make three diagonal slashes across the top of each dough. 

Second proofing - cover the doughs with a damp cloth and leave them for an hour in room temperature, or until they double in size.

Baking - preheat the over to 180ºC (350ºF). Bake the bread for 45-50 minutes. When done, it will sound a bit hollow when tapped. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

The bread turned out pretty well. Taste-wise it’s bittersweet though I wouldn’t mind a stronger coffee flavour, and it goes really well with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning or as a snack in the afternoon. Since I live with my mum, with two people, the bread could last quite some time. It freezes pretty well too, so I suggest slicing them after cooling, wrap it up and leave one of them in the freezer until you are done with the first :)  

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Ah, the thing my prof talked about during my first year English class... Always do your research before donating...

So proud of my mother for doing her own research after I sent her that meme. A sign she hung in her car window.

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Congrats to the Fred Levy and his Black Dogs Project blog. It’s an effort to correct the fact that black dogs are sadly, routinely passed over for adoption. It’s nothing but photos of black dogs against black backgrounds, it’s beautiful, and it’s about to become a book. It’ll be out in fall of 2015, and its pages will be heavy with ink.

If you yourself have a black dog, by the way, Fred still needs models… 

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pumpkin and caramelised onion galette

Well, I suppose this is more of a autumn/winter recipe, but who cares? I love pumpkin and caramelised onion too much… Just the other day, I find myself craving for pumpkin soup, thankfully the cafe right below my office is selling some. Yum!

Anyway, I should really be packing up my room and desk for the week-long renovation at my home next week, but I just don’t feel like doing it. I found myself flipping through recipe books instead, and came across this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It’s been a while since I cooked dinner, or made any savoury dishes, or baked a pie of any sort. And it happens, today’s a holiday (Canada Day or the Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day, take your pick), so I decided to make this.

The recipe’s originally posted on the Smitten Kitchen site, but Deb also had it in her book, so it’s definitely a must try for me! I did make some variations though, so feel free to compare and share your own as well!

Recipe makes one 12-inch galette

Ingredients:

For pastry:

2 cups of all-purpose flour (more for work surface when rolling pastry out)

1/2 cup of whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

225 g of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1/3 cup of ice water

For filling:

1.2 kg of pumpkin/butternut squash (I probably added more :P)

3 tablespons of grapeseed oil

1 1/2 teaspoon of table salt

ground pepper

1 tablespoon of butter

2 large onions, cut into thin half-moon slices

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 cup of grated cheese (I used a mixture of parmesan and emmental 

5 cloves of black garlic (optional, I had some lying around..)

40 g of goat cheese (also optional)

1 teaspoon of thyme

1 egg yolk plus 1 teaspoon of water for glaze

Steps:

Pastry - combine salt and flours in bowl, add in butter and use a pastry blender or knife to cut the butter. The butter should be mixed into the flour like pebbles. (Deb says texture should be cornmeal like). Whisk sour cream, vinegar and water, pour into flour/butter mixture. stir with your hands until a smooth large dough forms (don’t knead the dough too much though!) Wrap dough in cling wrap and chill in fridge for at least an hour (and up to 2 days -  yes, make the pastry dough ahead to save time!)

Pumpkin/squash - peel the skin off, scrap out the seeds and cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes. place in a large bowl and toss them with 2 tablespoons of oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Spread the pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet, and roast in oven at 205 C (or 400 F) for 30 minutes, turning them occasionally. When tender and slightly browned, set aside to cool.

Onions - melt butter and 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet in medium low heat, and cook the onions. Add sugar and 1 tablespoon of salt and keep stirring the onion as they cook.Cook until soft and tender for about 25 minutes. (Keep an eye on it though, the 25 minutes is a suggested time by Deb. I use flame stoves here in Hong Kong, and the heat is spread evenly and quicker than North American electric stoves, so cooking time was on 15 minutes. It get’s very tricky to caramelise onions, so becareful, don’t over brown them!) 

Assemble! -Combine the roasted pumpkin, onion, grated cheese, black garlic (optional),  and thyme in a large bowl while veggies are still hot.

Remove pastry dough from fridge, and let it soften a bit (chilled but soft enough for rolling). Roll out the dough on a floured surface/in between baking paper/cling wrap into a 16-17 inch circle. Transfer pastry onto a lined baking sheet (or a pie dish like I did). Spread filling over the dough, making sure there’s still a 4-5 cm border. Fold and pleat the pastry over the filling. Brush the crust with the egg/water mixture.

Bake the galette in oven at 205 C (or 400 F) for 30-40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Done!

Serve it hot, warm or at room temperature.

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Um what?

Meanwhile, IKBLC turns into a prep school for Disney's new film, 'Descendants'

In a present day idyllic kingdom, the descendants of Disney’s villains (Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Jafar) are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes (The Disney Wiki).

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Does that mean UBC is a kingdom?

-Campus Squirrel

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Cheesecake brownies! My colleagues are getting a treat! I've been spending my whole Easter break doing some major spring cleaning. Surprisingly, it's very easy to throw things away this time round, and it's in fact quite therapeutic. Some of the stuff are hopefully going to a good place, especially some books that will be sent to my nieces! But seeing it's a super long weekend, I told myself I need to do my favourite thing, to bake. That's what I see as even more therapeutic. It's been a while since I baked, but it was great! Recipe to follow. It was basically the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen.

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Ah, Rosenmunnar - Swedish Thumbprint Cookies!

I probably broke my record for baking. I baked two items in 2.5 hours!

It was the day before Chinese New Year, and my boss treated us with a meal (we Chinese call it tuen-lin-faan) to celebrate the end of the lunar year. Finishing our work day early, I still only managed to get home around 3:30pm to prepare for the family tuen-lin-faan which as usual I had to bring dessert. I definitely had enough time to bake Deb’s (and now my) oh-so-famous red wine chocolate cake, but then I heard Father Marci will be joining the dinner, so definitely a change in my game plan.

So who’s Father Marci (not his full name)? He’s a family friend of ours, and probably the funniest catholic priest one would ever meet. There are some really amusing stories involving him that one would not imagine from a priest, something about playing cards at my grandma’s home and snooker at some sketchy place with his students? I love having meals with him, and I love baking things for him. I haven’t seen him in quite some time, so I decided to bake something extra for him to take home that evening.

I only decided on baking these cookies after I popped my cake into the oven. Thinking hard for something easy to make with the limited supplies I had, this recipe came up. It’s quick and simple. Yes, four ingredients, and half an hour, it’s all done. Somehow it seemed harder when I last baked them when I was a Uni fresher… Haha, my baking skills must have improved a lot! :)

For some reason the original recipe said it will yield 6 dozens, but don’t trust it. I halved the recipe and got 16 cookies only!

You will need:

1/2 cup butter (I used unsalted)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

Jam of your favourite choice (I got a jar of blueberry jam)

Steps:

Prepare a cookie sheet with baking paper, and preheat oven to 190C (or 375F) 

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy

Add in sifted flour and mix until it forms a smooth ball of dough which is firm and not sticky or crumbly.

Shape dough into one inch balls and place them onto cookie sheet with sufficient space for each cookie for sideway expansion (otherwise they will stick together when you pull them out from the oven)

Use your finger to indent the top of the dough ball (that’s the thumbprint!) add a small drop of jam onto the indentation (stress on the small and don’t be greedy, otherwise the jam will flow out when the cookies flatten in the oven. You can always add more jam when you take the cookies out from the oven) 

Pop cookies into the oven and bake until golden (around 15-20 minutes depending on the strength of the oven)

Remove from oven. Let them cool and harden in a cooling rack. Done!

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The first thing I said when I moved into Marine Drive 5 last year.. #IMissUBC

Things that make UBC so special (part 2): kids who live on a high floor in Marine Drive/Walter Gage/Ponderosa res

literally.

LIKE HOW APPLICABLE IS THIS GIF SET. (pats self on the back)

extra points to photoshop :) thank you A for the photo

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I never realised how much I miss this city that I called home for a year.. Why do I get so much reminders of the food, people and buildings in the past couple of weeks?

Edinburgh

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The softest bread you will ever bake (and they can stay soft for quite a while!)

When I was in Canada and Scotland, one thing I really missed was the soft bread that Hong Kong bakeries sell.. The yummy sausage buns, pai-bao (排包, the sweet buns) and the pineapple buns (that really has nothing to do with pineapples).. hmmmm, freshly baked, they are the best when served warm. I can only find them in those Chinese groceries, but god knows how long ago they were removed from the oven. In Canada, it's probably easier to find good ones with supermarkets like T&T. Even so, I still think something's missing from these made-in-Canada Hong Kong style bread... I am never a big fan of really dry western style breads unless they are for sandwiches, so I am really glad Hong Kong people know how to make good bread.

Of course, I am back in Hong Kong now, so I get easy access to these tasty buns, but as a baker, I'd love to try baking some of these nice soft breads.... One of my favourite recipe blog has the answer. Thanks to Christine Ho's blog, she explained the method in creating the soft, fluffy Hong Kong style breads.

The method that she used is called the Tangzhong method (湯種), which involves adding an extra mixture of water and bread flour (5:1 ratio) into your regular bread dough mix. This magical mixture involves an extra cooking process that will only take maybe 10 minutes, but it results in a complete difference in the texture for your average bread.

I've tried two recipes recently, the first being a regular white bread loaf and then I tried a herb and cheese loaf (as seen above). Below is the recipe from Christine's bacon and cheese loaf:

Ingredients of tangzhong (湯種 The amount is enough to make two loafs):

50gm/ 1/3 cup bread flour

250ml/ 1cup water (could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)

Ingredients of bread:

350gm/ 2½ cups bread flour

55gm/3tbsp+2tsp caster sugar

5gm/1tsp salt

56gm egg (equals to 1 large egg)

7gm/1tbsp+1tsp milk powder (to increase fragrance, optional)

125ml/ ½cup milk

120gm tangzhong (use half of the tangzhong you make from above)

5 to 6gm/2 tsp instant yeast

30gm/3tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Fillings:

bacon, to taste you favourite herb mixture, preferably freshly chopped (I only had my mum's dried thyme, but it turns out ok. the amount is up to your own preference)

cheese, to taste (like above, choose your favourite cheese, I used some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese from my local bake shop which they claim is good for bread making because of the heat resistance, well, I am no expert! again, amount is up to your personal taste)

Method of making tangzhong:

Mix flour in water well without any lumps. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring consistently with a wooden spoon, whisk or spatula to prevent burning and sticking while you cook along the way.

The mixture becomes thicker and thicker. Once you notice some “lines” appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the spoon. It’s done. You get the tangzhong. (Some people might like to use a thermometer to check the temperature. After a few trials, I found this simple method works every time.) Remove from heat.

Transfer into a clean bowl. Cover with a cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent from drying up. Let cool. The tangzhong can be used straight away once it cools down to room temperature.  Just measure out the amount you need. The leftover tangzhong can be stored in fridge up to a few days as long as it doesn't turn grey. If so, you need to discard and cook some more. (Note: The chilled tangzhong should return to room temperature before adding into other ingredients. )

Method of making bread:

Combine all dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. Knead until you get a dough shape and gluten has developed, then knead in the butter. Mind you, it’d be quite messy at this stage (That's why I used a bread maker). Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not sticky and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, you might stretch the dough. If it forms a thin “membrane”, it’s done. The time of kneading all depends on how hard and fast you knead. (Note: I use bread maker to do this hardest part and messy job for me. I added the wet ingredients into my bread maker first, then followed by the dry ingredients. The yeast is the last to add.) 

Knead the dough into a ball shape. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel or cling wrap. Let it proof till it's doubled in size, about 40 minutes (Note: the time will vary and depends on the weather. The best temperature for proofing is 28C. I still used my bread maker in this stage. And my bread maker has a heater.)

Transfer to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into ball shapes. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Sprinkle bacon herb and cheese evenly as much as you like. Roll from the upper, shorter end down to the bottom (as picture shown). Flatten the dough with your rolling pin. Then roll once again. Then seals face down.

Arrange the rolled-up dough in a greased or non-stick loaf tin (as picture shown). Leave it for the 2nd round of proofing, about 40 minutes, or until the dough rises up to 3/4 of the height of the tin inside.

Brush whisked egg on surface. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (356F) oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and tin. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Slice to serve or place in an airtight plastic bag or container once it's thoroughly cooled.

Read more + detailed photo guide: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/03/japanese-style-bacon-and-cheese-bread.html#ixzz2bdsQ7Pp3

While I say the bread can be kept soft and fluffy for a couple of days, that would not happen with my bread, they are generally gone in a day or two anyway. Half of the herb and cheese loaf was eaten the day it was made when my mum requested me to bring it up as afternoon tea for her mahjong-playing friends.

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Meanwhile, in UBC linguistics

extra points if you know why there is a “G” in night :) 

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This is like, my dream home!

450 square feet, WOW! - specht harpman

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The Red Wedding is based on a couple real events from Scottish history. One was a case called The Black Dinner. The king of Scotland was fighting the Black Douglas clan. He reached out to make peace. He offered the young Earl of Douglas safe passage. He came to Edinburgh Castle and had a great feast. Then at the end of the feast, [the king’s men] started pounding on a single drum. They brought out a covered plate and put it in front of the Earl and revealed it was the head of a black boar — the symbol of death. And as soon as he saw it, he knew what it meant. They dragged them out and put them to death in the courtyard. The larger instance was the Glencoe Massacre. Clan MacDonald stayed with the Campbell clan overnight and the laws of hospitality supposedly applied. But the Campbells arose and started butchering every MacDonald they could get their hands on. No matter how much I make up, there’s stuff in history that’s just as bad, or worse.

George R.R. Martin on the Red Wedding (via existentialcrisisfactory)

OMG! Now it makes complete sense, and I have actually heard of those stories before when I was in Scotland!

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A (stereo)typical UBC Graduation Ceremony

the grads finally back on campus after finals

hopelessly trying to pin on your regalia #nope

how you look to your fam

how you look to your friends

how you walk across the Chan Centre

getting your diploma

You’ve worked for this moment for 4+ years and suddenly it’s all over in 2 hours. 

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MUAHAHAHAH! Go Anth!

Meanwhile, regarding UBC's Department of Anthropology

most people

ANTH 

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When people narrowly miss the C20 and actually wait for the next one...

#walk

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Waiting for your last mark on SSC

#eternity