Friday, November 6, 2015

Asian Hot Dog Soft Buns & Walnut Bread

This past week have been a little bit more relaxing so I had some extra time to bake! I love baking because it releases stress for me and I love to eat. So when I was in Malaysia, I used to love eating the different baked goods there and now that I'm in the states it is ridiculously hard to find a place that makes it just as good (at least in Michigan that is). Here's my own rendition on it , it took me several tries but I think I got it!



I actually use a breadmaker to help me with the dough process because I'm far too lazy to knead it on my own then let it rise and keep on repeating this process. So for those that do not own a breadmaker it just essentially follows this simple rule:

Knead the dough, Let it rise for 30 minutes, beat it down, let it rise again for 1 hour, beat it down, let it rise again for 30 minutes.

I love pictured recipes because it seriously helps me quite a bit so for those who likes this, please proceed!

Ingredients A
40g of bread flour
200g of milk (I like coconut milk because it smells better)

Ingredient B
400g of bread flour
140g of milk
70g sugar
6g salt
50g sweetcream butter (if there's no sweetcream, any other version works)
10g yeast

Toppings
1 tablespoon of condensed milk
1.5 tablespoon of mayo
a pinch of salt
(optional) chilli sauce
mixed vegetables
Hot Dogs (10-12)

Instructions:
1) There's this special method called the "Tang Zhong" so this is what I did. If you want to find out more, you can google it. So essentially you will be cooking the dough (Ingredient A) to approximately 65°C (150F).

Add all your ingredients in and have your fire at low 


I'm just using my laser thermometer to guide the temperature


Almost there!! 


Finally i'm there at 65°C, turn off the heat and you will see that the dough is sticky. 


Wrap it up and let it chill. 

2) We are now ready to just put everything in the breadmaker. So I have the Zojirushi breadmaker. I have done quite intensive research on which breadmakers to buy, I had a Panasonic, it didn't work the way I like it to be so I opted for this instead. 


3) First I put in my liquids from Ingredient B. So all the milk. 


5) Add in all the Ingredient A that was chilled. You can see that it is approximately 200g of TangZhong. 


6) Add in the bread flour. 


7) Add in the sugar, salt and butter. I did not melt the butter or soften it because my breadmaker actually preheats first so the butter will just be soft by the time it starts to knead. 


8) I set it to Basic Dough function, and for my machine it takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes, at this point you can go watch a movie, do homework, or whatever you like. 


9) When it is almost done I start prepping for what I need: Large GREASED pan, clean cloth with some wet papertowels. 


10) This is how it looks like after the 2 hours in the BM, very nice and poofy. 



11) I just put the dough out onto a board. I also usually have a little pile of breadflour on the side so I can use it while i'm kneading it and such.


12) Beat the dough down, LOOK AT THE SIZE DIFFERENCE!! 


13) I roll it into an elongated shape so I can cut little pieces. I always use a dry towel and a wet papertowel on top to cover. This is done to keep the dough moist and not dried out. Michigan is quite cold so this happens quick. If you live in malaysia and on the equator, it is so humid that this won't even happen. 


14) Cut a small piece, if you like to weigh every piece equally, sure. I just didn't care and judge it myself. 


15) Roll it out into a flat shape, honestly any shape that can cover this hotdog. 


 16) I just rolled the hotdog inside of my dough.



17) Cut the dough as such!



18) Make sure that the bottom dough is still intact and the hotdog is cut all the way through.


19) I just start pulling each section to opposite sides. 



20) It looks like this when you are done pulling them apart.



21) I let it sit on a pan with the wet papertowels covering it. For humid countries, by the time you are done with all the dough, your initial hotdog buns will start to rise a little more again. Michigan is so cold that it doesn't even change unless I let it rise in an oven.




22) I set my oven to 170F for 2 minutes just to let it heat up. I put my tray in there and let it rise for 60 minutes. Like I said before, if you live in a hot country, you can just leave it on your counter top to rise for 60 minutes.


23) Prepping the Toppings.  Mix the condense milk, mayo and salt together. 




24) I put 3/4 of it in a bag so I can pipe it out later.



25) The other quarter I add some hot sauce to it, you can add ketchup if you like instead of chilli.



26) Add your mix vegetables. I just bough frozen ones.



27) Mix well. Now prep just some melted butter and sugar for glazing.



28) This is what it looks like after rising for 60minutes, a lot fatter.



29) This is an optional step, if you like cheese on it, add it.



30) First I grease all my hot dog buns with the butter mixture. Then I add some cheese.



31) Add the vegetable topping.



32) I piped the mayo mixture on top of it now. It's ready to go into the oven.



33) Bake the bread at 180°C (355F) for 30minutes. Have an extra pan of water in the oven while you are making your bread, this keeps the oven environment moist and your bread as well! 
34) When it is done, it looks like this!





I always keep mine in ziploc bags so they stay fresh! 




Here's a little extra. I made half my batch with the hotdog and the other half with walnuts ! 

Here is just a mixture of raisins, crushed toasted walnuts, butter and sugar. 


I just added the mixture on top of the dough and baked it.


I hope that this has been helpful for some of you guys. If you have any questions, feel free to post them below I will try to answer them asap.