Recipe: Rilakkuma Pull-apart Buns!

Have you ever had that moment where you go " Gosh I'm so lazy to do anything but hey lemme go bake some bread!"? No? Just me? I have a pile of things to do but when in doubt, bread comes first haha! Today I am going to share with you my go-to pull apart bread recipe, and some useful tips to get the best yummy buns ever, even on your first try!

Believe me when I say that making bread is no easy business, especially when you have to do everything from scratch, with no bread baking machines. Its always a vicious cycle with me, when I am not making the bread I would go "oh nah I don't need a bread machine I have my hands", but when I am actually making them I would go "omigosh why don't I have a bread machine?!" As I make more and more bread, I have already come to terms that kneading dough will be one of my exercise routine for stronger biceps (burn the calories before eating more haha).

Here are some tips to get the perfect buns:

1. If you are using instant dry yeast, make sure the temperature of your liquid stays between 105-120 F. Use an electric thermometer.
2. Do not let the yeast come in contact with sugar or salt as it will kill the yeast. Dig small holes in the flour, put each ingredient in and cover them before pouring the liquid.
3. Let the dough rise in a warm place, yeast works best at between 70-80 F.
4. Knead your dough until gluten is form. Gluten is when you take a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers, and there's a transparent layer of dough that does not break off when you poke it. It's like a membrane, almost.
5. If you are planning to add colour into the dough, knead it in when you are half way kneading the dough, not after gluten is form. It takes quite some kneading to incorporate the colour evenly on to the dough, so if you do it after gluten is form, there's a high chance that you'll over knead the dough.
6. Brush some milk on top of the dough before baking will make it brown faster.  
7. Throw the dough on your counter top a couple of times, fold and throw and repeat. This will help the dough in forming stronger gluten.

So there you go! Some tips to help you going. I have been using the same recipe for most of my pull-apart buns since I am always using the same bread pan or something with the same size. Also, notice how I make the buns into Rilakkuma (because why not?) but if you are pressed for time, just have it as it is! Find recipe after photos, and I hope you enjoy making them as much as I do!

Rilakkuma Buns! How adorable are these??

Love this grumpy looking bear!

Recorded in my diary!

Simple directions to make yummy buns!

Adorable Rilakkuma pull-apart buns

Recipe by Ashley Ooi

Yummy fool-proof recipe for the most adorable Rilakkuma pull apart buns!

Prep time: 3 hours

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 3 1/2 hours

Yield: 9 buns

Ingredients:

• 200g Bread Flour
• 120ml Milk
• 70g Condensed milk
• 40g Soften Butter
• 5g Instant dry yeast
• 3g Salt
• some White chocolate
• some Dark chocolate
• 9 balls Anko paste (red bean)

Directions:

1. Mix milk and condensed milk- heat in microwave 30s (liquid should be around 100°F)

2. Mix flour, salt, yeast in a bowl.

3. Pour in milk mixture & knead.

4. Add in butter and knead for 20 mins or until gluten is formed.

5.Cover the dough and rest for 1 hour.

6. Test with finger test, punch air out of the dough. Divide into 9 pieces. Cut 2 ears out of each piece.

7. Cover and rest for 15 mins.

8. Flatten the dough and wrap filling in (if any)

10. Cover and rest for 40 mins. Preheat oven to 180°c.

9. Form dough into balls and put into a slightly greased pan. Add ears.

11.Turn oven to 150°c and bake for 20 mins.

12. Let bread cool completely, decorate with chocolate pens. 

Enjoy!

Love,

Ashley

Recipe: Watermelon Bread

Hello hello! It's been quite awhile since I've posted something, thanks to the ever dreadful dissertation and me being a lazy bum, but hey I am back! Having been on hiatus from baking for a couple of weeks, I have finally decided to get back on the baking train by making the ever so adorable Watermelon bread! 

So, story time, a few weeks ago I was trying to make a tiramisu since I have a pack of mascarpone cheese sitting in the fridge for quite awhile now, and lets just say that it was so horrible that I had to stop my sister from compassionately eating the soggy pile of lady fingers before something goes wrong (sigh). I do not know what went wrong but I swear french desserts and I have a very complicated relationship (my first time making macaroons was terrifying, but more on that later). I guess I should just stick to the uncomplicated stuff for now until I get my confidence back.

Well back to the happy stuff! This time I have made a watermelon bread, and I am quite happy with how it turned out, though it could look a little prettier than this (there's first time for everything right?) Watermelon bread has been quite a phenomenon in Taiwan, made from the usual ingredient that you would find in a bread BUT only uses milk as the liquid for the dough. " But watermelon bread? what eww" Now before you go all turn off by this, no this does not literally tastes like watermelon, it just looks like one! The bread could taste like...well your normal bread but if you would like to spice it up a little, use green tea powder instead of edible colouring and viola! you have yourself a macha bread. Some people like to use some strawberry emulsion in the red colour portion to make the watermelon bread to taste like strawberry, sounds bizarre but its yummy, I promise. 

For my version of watermelon bread, I have chosen to take the healthier path and used all natural colouring to colour the bread. For the green part, I used green tea powder, the red part with beetroot powder and the black part with charcoal powder. Do not worry if you do not have any of these, just use the appropriate amount of edible colouring gel and you will get the same (prettier, even) result.

Well that's it from me, let me know how it turned out for you, and happy baking!

See recipe below!

Macha flavoured watermelon bread! 

So adorable!

Watermelon Bread

Recipe by Ashley Ooi (recipe adapted from Mic mic cooking)

Feeling hot this summer? Cool down with this macha flavored watermelon bread!

Prep time: 4 hours (including rising, assembling and cooling time)

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 4 hours 30 minutes (including cooling time)

Ingredients

• 400g Bread flour (High protein flour)
• 250ml Milk
• 15g Granulated sugar
• 4g Salt
• 15g Unsalted butter
• 4g Instant yeast
• 2 Tbsps (add more if necessary) Beetroot powder
• 2 Tbsps (add more if necessary) Green tea powder
• 1 Tbsp Charcoal powder
• A few tsps Water (for mixing the colour powder)

Cooking Directions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast together.
2. Pour milk into the mixture, mix well until a dough is formed.
3. Knead butter into the dough until the surface of the dough is smooth and no longer sticking to your hands.
4. Put the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 15 minutes.
5. After the first rise, separate the dough into 4 portions : 50g, 220g, 110g, and the remaining dough (approximately 280g).
6. Add a few drops of water to dissolve the food powder in a separate container.
7. Mix the 50g dough with charcoal powder, put in a bowl and cover with plastic cover.
8. Mix the 220g with beetroot powder (or food colouring), put into a bowl and cover with plastic cover.
9. Slightly knead the 110g dough to punch the air out and cover with plastic wrap in a bowl. (This do not have colour)
10. Mix the rest of the dough (280g) with green tea powder. Take out 60g from the green dough and add charcoal powder to get a dark green dough. Set both aside cover with plastic wrap.
11. Let the dough rise for the second time for 45 minutes.
12. Cut the black dough into small pieces and roll into small cylinder shape.
13. Roll the red dough into the size slightly shorter than your bread tin. Place the black dough on top and roll the red dough into a cylinder shape.
14. Roll the white dough flat and wrap it around the red dough.
15. Cut the dark green dough into small pieces and slightly flatten it.
16. Roll the light green dough flat, place the dark green pieces on top and flatten it together.
17. Flip the green dough over and wrap the white dough, make sure to seal all holes until the whole thing is covered with the green dough.
18. Put into the bread tin and let it rise for 1 hour with the cover closed.
19. Bake in a 180 Celsius oven for 30 minutes or until the outside is slightly golden brown. 
20. Once the bread is done, remove it from the baking tin and let it cool on a wire rack.           

Here's some photo to help with the assembling instruction:

The dough after rising for the 2nd time

Roll the black dough into small cylinder 

Roll the red dough flat and place the black dough on top

Roll it together like so 

Roll the white dough flat and wrap the red dough

Roll the dark green dough and light green dough flat

Wrap the white dough and seal all holes, place into the buttered bread tin

                           

Love, 

Ashley

                           

Recipe: Totoro Black Sesame Cookies!

After a much-dragged laziness, I am back! Now don't get me wrong, I have not been lazy in making the delicious treats, just writing it down takes a little more motivation than I have anticipated (guilty as charged).

Now on with the Totoro cookies! Just the other day when I was deciding what should my next project be, I came across Bento Monsters adorable Totoro Black Sesame German Cookies ( thank you Melody for tagging me on instagram), and BAM! Inspiration struck-ed. It just so happened that I had everything I needed to make the cookie, and hey everyday is a cookie day, am I right?

So adorable!

Instead of following Bento Monsters' recipe for the cookie dough, I have decided to use my own recipe, purely because I am more familiar with it and it has worked perfectly for cookies that needed shaping. Feel free to follow whichever you are more comfortable with, I am sure both will taste wonderful.

Overall, this was a really fun and easy cookie to make, my family loved it and I'll be more than happy to make more in the future. As usual, check out the recipe after photos, and happy baking!!

Fresh out from the oven!

Lining up to the plate!

Which is your favorite?

More shots of it!

Totoro Black Sesame Cookies

Recipe adapted from Bento Monsters, modified by Ashley Ooi

Super adorable Totoro Cookies!

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 2 hours (including cooling and sculpting time)

Ingredients

• 120g Butter (softened)
• 100g Icing sugar
• 1 Egg
• 270g Soft Flour/ Cake flour
• 3 Tbsp Toasted and grounded black sesame powder
• 1 tsp Charcoal Powder

Cooking Directions

1. Whisk the butter in a bowl until soft.
2. Add in the sifted icing sugar, whisk until creamy
3. Add in the egg and whisk again.
4. Add in sifted flour, use a spatula to fold the flour into the mixture. Keep folding until the mixture turns doughy.
5. Divide dough into 3 portions, around 300g, 50g and 20g. Colour 300g of it using black sesame. Colour 20g of it using charcoal powder. Leave the 50g plain.
6. Wrap the dough with a plastic wrap, let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. After 30 minutes, take out the dough and start sculpting your Totoro. (Follow Bento Monsters' detailed step-by step instruction, it works wonders)
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
9. Place the sculpted dough on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
10. Once done, set the cookies aside and let it cool completely.

Enjoy!

Love, 

Ashley

Kumamon Charcoal Cream Cheese Bread

Ladies and gentleman, introducing....Kumamon Bread! I have made this awhile back (got a little slow in writing about it), and this was my very first time making a bread from scratch. Not too shabby, huh? Although there were parts that I was not entirely happy with (which I will list down below), I have decided to cut myself some slack and just enjoy these adorable buns.

The recipe that I am using was adapted from the ever amazing Cho's daily cook 초의 데일리쿡 , with some personal twist to the ingredient, as usual. The moment I saw her instruction video on making these adorable bread, I knew that I have to make them ASAP (Though her's look so much better than mine, but hey she's the expert).

Konichiwa! 

The original recipe calls for squid ink as the colouring of the bread, but since I could not get my hands on those, I have replaced them with black Charcoal powder instead (I got mine from BMS Organics). Just mix 2 tablespoons of charcoal powder with the milk, and you will have a very efficient, not to mention, healthy black colouring.

After getting out from the oven and before decoration.

As I've said before, there were some parts that I was not entirely happy with, I shall list them down as a "note to self" for future reference.

1. The dough could have risen more before going into the oven. I have rushed the process and put it in the oven too soon, which leads to a flatter bun as compared to the ones in the original recipe.
2. The cream cheese filling could be a little more liquidy by adding a teaspoon of milk.
3. I have put the bread in the oven for a tad bit too long, causing them to harden a little too much for my liking. (The insides were still soft, so yay) Stick to maximum 25 mins.

Despite the minor mistakes, the bread was nonetheless yummy, and hey, let's not forget that they are just oh so adorable! Without further ado, see recipe after photos, or watch cho's daily cook's detailed video for even clearer instructions!

Too adorable!

Just having some fun with it (lol)

Kumamon Charcoal Cream Cheese Bread

Recipe adapted from Cho's daily cook, modified by Ashley Ooi

Adorable and healthy Kumamon Charcoal Cream Cheese Bread!

Ingredients:

• 220g Bread Flour
• 145ml Milk
• 2 tbsp Charcoal Powder
• 25g Butter
• 5g Instant dry yeast
• 20g Sugar
• 3g Salt
• 100g Cream Cheese
• 12g Powdered sugar
• a few drops Red food colouring
• 30g White chocolate
• 20g dark chocolate

Cooking Directions:

1. Mix milk and charcoal powder.
2. Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar as the filling. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, mix strong flour, salt , yeast, butter, and the milk+charcoal mixture until it becomes a dough. Knead dough for 15~20 minutes until the surface is smooth.
4. Place the kneaded dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it ferment for 1 hour in a warm place (First fermentation).
5. Punch the dough to let air out and divide the dough into 4 equal parts, and a small dough enough to make the ears. Cover and ferment for another 15 minutes (middle fermentation).
6. Flatten the dough and add cream cheese filling.
7. Place the bun in a square pan, cover and ferment for 30 minutes (Second fermentation).
8. Preheat oven to 150℃
9. Bake for 20~22 minutes in 150℃/302℉ oven.
10. Decorate the bun with white chocolate and dark chocolate (see video for more detailed instruction).

 Love, 

Ashley

Recipe: Japanese Strawberry shortcake

Over the past few weeks, I have been on a hunt for strawberries. Back when I was living in the UK, it used to be so easy to get my hands on some good strawberries, with reasonable price too (and I do mean easy, I could get them right across the street!). Anyhow, now that I am back home, my cravings for those lovely jewel-like berries are getting harder to satisfy. Now don't get me wrong, we do have fairly good strawberries here, mostly imported, thus sky-high price and me emptying my wallet while damping the cashier counter with my blood and tears (lol I kid).

Thankfully, with much endurance, I was able to find some fairly priced and beautiful Korean Strawberries. They were not the biggest nor the most eye-catching ones, but hey, they were good enough for me. 

Finally!

Look, so pretty.

Oh, did I mention the reason for my strawberries hunting (?) was because I wanted to make a strawberry shortcake? Yeap, strawberry shortcake! I had tons of fun making the cake and even more fun eating it. I could say that I was making it to celebrate Valentines day with my family, but I'd be lyin' if I do. We do not need a reason to bake, we just bake it. Period. Anyways, enjoy the recipe and let me know what you think!

ps: The tin that I used for the three-tiered cake is a fairly small 12cm tin. I have poured the rest of the cake batter into another square tin but do note that this recipe is suitable for one 18cm cake tin.

Find recipe after the photos.

A basic Genoise cake

Fancy for a piece?

Strawberry Shortcake

A square-shaped strawberry shortcake with some chocolate shavings, equally delicious!

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

Recipe by Ashley Ooi

Easy to bake and delicious Japanese Strawberry Shortcake.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 1/2 hours (including decorating time)

Ingredients

The Genoise cake:

• 115g Cake Flour
• 3 Eggs
• 120g Granulated sugar
• 30g Unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 45ml Milk

Syrup:

• 30g Granulated sugar
• 15g Water

Fresh Cream:

• 500ml Whipping Cream
• 50g Granulated sugar

Decorations:

• 20 Medium-sized Strawberries
• 1 tbsp Apricot jam
• 1 tsp Water

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 175°c. Line the cake tin’s base with parchment paper. 
2. Sift the cake flour and set aside.
3. In the mixing bowl, add eggs and sugar and beat with an electric hand mixer over a boiling pot of water until they are melted.
4. Remove bowl from the water and continue whisking until the admixture turns creamy-white color and has a silky texture.
5. Add sifted flour and fold into the mixture. Add butter, warm milk and vanilla extract and mix them well. 
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes until cooked. To test if the cake is well cooked, stab a toothpick or chopstick into the cake. The cake is done if it comes up dry.
7. Remove cake from the tin without peeling the baking paper off. Set aside to cool.
8. To make fresh cream, whisk whipping cream and sugar using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
9. Slice top of the cake off. Divide it into two layers. Place the first layer on a cake stand. Brush syrup on top of the cake.
10. Spread whipped cream on top of the cake and fill the cream layer by placing the strawberry (cut into 1cm) on  top. Spread whipped cream over the strawberries again.
11. Repeat the steps for the second layer of cake.
12. Frost the whole cake with whipped cream. Decorate the cake with whole strawberries. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set the cream.
13. Serve in pieces and enjoy! 

Love, 

Ashley

Recipes: Gudetama (ぐでたま) Lemon Cookies

Good news! I am now officially a person with an oven! All the bakers say "heiyo" *heiyo*. Woots woots.

In case you can't tell, I am already up in the air thinking about all of the cakes and cookies I am going to be baking in the future. There are tons, and I do mean TONS of recipes that I have been dying to try, and words can't even describe how exciting I am right now. 

So, as a 'grand opening' of my lovely oven (ps: thanks mommy and daddy who probably got me the oven purely because I was getting too annoying with my whining *wink*), I have decided to make these adorable Gudetama lemon cookies!

Before we move on to the recipe itself, here's a brief introduction on this adorable egg. Gudetama (ぐでたま) , literally translated as Lazy Egg, is a Sanrio character introduced in 2013. It is lazy, has no energy, non motivated, and thinks that there is no point of having a positive attitude as he believes that someday he is going to be eaten. I find it ultra adorable, and super snugly (we are still talking about an egg, believe me). Here's a short clip of it in action. 

Isn't he the cutest?!

Okay, without further ado, check out the recipe after the photos!

Egg yolk in the making.

Hot in the oven.

"We just want to sleep" ah ~~~

Cutest cookies ever

"Just eat us already, why bother?" ~~

Here is a short clip of us cutting the poor thing in half:

Gudetama Lemon Cookies

Recipe adapted from the ever so talented 스윗더미 . Sweet The MI (with a few personal twist)

Learn how to make the cutest and laziest cookies alive!

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 3 hours (plus cooling and decorating time)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Cookies

• 120g Butter (softened)
• 100g Icing sugar
• Zest of 1 whole lemon
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1 Egg
• 1 drop Almond extract
• 300g Cake flour (soft flour)
• A few drops Yellow colouring (optional)

Egg whites and decoration

• 3 squares Dark/milk chocolate
• 1 cup White chocolate

Cooking Directions:

1. Whisk the butter in a bowl until soft.
2. Add in the sifted icing sugar, whisk until creamy
3. Add in the egg and whisk again. (save egg shell if want to make a white chocolate egg shell)
4. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice, and almond extract, mix until all well combined.
5. Add in sifted flour, use a spatula to fold the flour into the mixture. Keep folding until the mixture turns doughy.
6. Add in the yellow colouring (you can opt this step out but I used it to make the egg yolk looking extra yellow). Fold again until the colouring is well incorporated to the dough.
7. Wrap the dough with a plastic wrap, let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
9. After 30 minutes, take out the dough and start sculpting your Gudetama.
10. Place the sculpted dough on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
11. Once done, set the cookies aside and let it cool completely.
12. Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate with a double boiler and pour the melted chocolate into a small piping bag.
13. Once the cookies are cooled, draw the face feature with the melted dark chocolate. Set aside for 10 minutes to dry.
14. Melt the white chocolate with a double boiler, and use a spoon to spread the white chocolate on a non-stick baking sheet to form the egg whites. (one egg white would need approximately 1 1/2 tablespoon of chocolate).
15. Place the egg yolk cookie on top of the white chocolate before it dries.
16. Once done, keep the cookies in the freezer for half an hour until the white chocolate hardens.
17. Take tons of photos and enjoy!

Extra:

If you would like to take things up a notch by making a hollow white chocolate egg shell, simply crack the top of the egg carefully, pour its content out and clean its inside, pour in melted white chocolate and swirl the chocolate around until it completely covers the surface and let it cool in the freezer for half an hour, if you want thicker shells, coat the inside again and let it cool. Once cooled, peel the egg shell carefully, and voila! you have a white chocolate egg shell!

Love, 

Ashley