Wednesday, 18 November 2015

No Knead Sandwich Buns



Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp fine sugar
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup plain flour

Glazing :
1 egg beaten
Some white sesame

Method :
In a big bowl , add flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Use a spoon to simply mix them together.  Pour in the water and use a pair of chopstick or a rubber spatula to mix all wet and dry ingredients well. This whole process take about 5min.
The dough should be wet and loose.

Use cling wrap to cover the bowl. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it is double in size( or at least flattens on top and dough has  many small holes),  take about two hours. Longer rising times will not hurt the dough.
Allow the dough proof for minimum 3hours. I proof it for 6hours. You may allow dough to proof overnight in the refrigerator and then shape it in the morning.





Shape the buns
After 6 hours proof in room temperature, shape the dough into desire shape.
Prepare a piece of baking parchment paper on a aluminum baking tray. Sprinkle  about 2 spoons of flour on a working surface. Pour out the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface using a rubber spatula. Using a pastry cutter divide dough into 6 portions. DO NOT KNEAD. Dust hands with flour and shape dough into oval shape with the help of the pastry cutter. Then place them on the tray lay with parchment paper.
Cover the shaped dough with a dry towel or clingwrap. Let the dough proof for another 1 - 1.5hours.


Preheat oven at 210°C and the rack placed in the middle.

After 1.5 hours proofing, eggwash the uncook bun with brush. Sprinkle some sesame on top of the dough.  Use a kitchen scissor to cut the top of the uncook bun. Put into preheated oven to bake to 20 minutes.

For this same recipe without the sugar, you may use it to make No Knead Artisan Bread and for pizza base

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

No Knead Artisan Bread



Recently saw a few post Artisan bread. Google and found a recipe from The Italian Dish that looks easy without kneading require and done within 5 minutes.  Decided to give it a try. It is really easy and no hassle and save time.
Needed only 4 ingredients and it taste very good. What we need is just a big plastic container with a lid to allow the dough proof inside the container. According to this blogger dough can be kept in refrigerator for 14days.
Today, mix the flour that is plain flour with bread flour. Original recipe called for 100% plain/all purpose flour.
I will try the next round using just plain flour. Today I believe because of the bread flour, the dough was very sticky and make shaping the dough become very difficult. After few attempts trying to shape the dough as I used to shape, the dough stuck on my fingers. In the end I can only shape it into something round  and placed it on the parchment paper. The surface was not smooth. But the result after further proofing and after baking it was satisfying.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp sea salt
3 1/4 cups unsifted, all purpose flour( i used 60% bread flour & 40% plain)

Method :
Prepare a big plastic container with lid. Pour in the water. Add instant yeast and salt. Use a spoon stir a few strokes to get the yeast well mixed.



Add all of the flour at once, measuring the flour by scooping it and leveling it off with a knife. Mix with a spoon - do not knead.  Mix until everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches.  This step is done in a matter of a few minutes.  The dough should be wet and loose. Do not over mixed. Less stiring the dough the softer the bread will be

Put on the lid but not airtight. You want the gases to be able to escape a little. I used a lock and lock container but did not tighten. Just leave the lid on top to cover the opening. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on top), about two hours. Longer rising times will not hurt your dough. This dough can be kept in fridge for 14days According to the blogger, the longer it leave to proof the easier to handle the dough. Recommended first time making this should allow the dough proof overnight in the refrigerator so that it will be easier to shape. However, i let it proof in room temperature for 3hours and then shape.

Shape your loaf.  Place a piece of baking parchment paper on a aluminum baking sheet.    Sprinkle the surface of your dough in the container with flour.  Pull up the dough. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball as you go.  Dust your hands with flour if you need to.  This is just to prevent sticking - you don't want to incorporate the flour into the dough.  The top of the dough should be smooth - the object here is to create a "gluten cloak" or "surface tension".  It doesn't matter what the bottom looks like, but you need to have a smooth, tight top.  This whole step should take about 30 seconds!  Place the dough onto your parchment paper.

Let the loaf rise for about 30 - 40 minutes (it does not need to be covered).  If it doesn't look like it has risen much, don't worry - it will in the oven.  This is called "oven spring".

Preheat a baking tray on the middle rack in the oven for at least 20 minutes at 225°C. If you have a cast iron pot, use a cast iron pot. However, as i do not have it, so this is the part that I have modified.

Dust the loaf with a little flour and slash the top with a knife.  This slashing is necessary to release some of the trapped gas, which can deform your bread.  It also makes the top of your bread look pretty - you can slash the bread in a tic tac toe pattern, a cross, or just parallel slashes.  You need a very sharp knife or a razor blade - you don't want the blade to drag across the dough and pull it.  As the bread bakes, this area opens and is known as "the bloom". Remember to score(make a cut/slash the surface)the loaves right before baking.

Bring out the preheat baking tray and place the dough including the parchment paper onto the preheat tray. And return the tray into the oven and bake for 30-35minutes depend on the size of your dough. The blogger place a cup of water in the oven during the baking process to get a crispy crust. I omitted this process.

You may also want to try using no knead dough for buns. See my post No Knead Sandwich Buns