Baking bread

sweet dinner rolls




raisin buns (on the left) and sausage rolls


Have been neglecting this blog lately. Reason being that last week the children did not have to go to school, so were glued to the computer all the time, which meant that I did not have access to the computer. Besides, have also been busy with my knitting. Yes, after 1 1/2 months, I finally completed the pullover, and it is now on its way to North America to FM. Now that FM is living in colder climes, I have got a reason to pursue my knitting hobby, though if this carry on, she will be overloaded with knits.
Anyway, I did find time to bake, and last week, I baked cake bread (it did not turn out successfully) and pizza on Tuesday, bread on Thursday and on Sunday I baked an orange raisin cake (more on that another day).
For the bread :
Ingredients :
500 g high protein flour
1 tsp instant yeast
60 g sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp milk powder
1 egg (50 g)
250 g water (but i used fresh milk and water)
50 g butter

Method ;
1) Mix flour and instant yeast together at slow speed using dough hook. Add in sugar, salt and milk powder. Add in egg and water. Use medium speed, and blend until like dough (5 mins). Add in butter, and continue kneading for about 15 mins, until dough is springy.
2) Cover dough with cling wrap (I normally placed the dough in a Tupperware), and leave to rise until double in bulk (45 - 60 mins)
3) Punch down dough, and set aside for 10 mins.
4) Scale dough and shape into 40 g balls.

I made 3 types of bread from the dough :
a) Mini hot dog buns : Roll dough lengthwise, add in half a hot dog and roll up like a Swiss roll.

b) Raisin buns : Wash and dry about 2 tbsp of raisins, and add into the dough. Shape into balls

c) Dinner rolls : Roll into oval shapes, then roll up like a Swiss roll.

Brush buns with egg wash, and bake at 200 deg C for about 10 minutes.

Found the above bread dough recipe in "Bread Code" by Wendy Kor, and I think this sweet dough recipe works out better than my earlier dough recipe for the pizza.