Herman - Pandan Milk Bread Roll

Every Friday, I would bake a bread using Herman Starter. I plan a 7-day cultivation cycle for my Herman Starter. I start a fresh cultivation on Friday, harvest it 6 days later, or on Thursday. Prepare the dough on Thursday afternoon, and let the dough undergo cold fermentation till the next day. Bake the dough on Friday and start another round of cultivation.

My first intention was to bake a loaf of pandan milk bread. However, misplanning had left me with no choice but to bake the dough in a square pan. Rolling 9 small doughs into spiral shape was very time consuming, but it gave the buns a good springy texture 😋

Baked 9 buns in a 20cm square pan
Bread maker: Mayer MMBM12
Raw dough weight: 535g
Baking temperature: In a preheated oven at 180°C for 5 minutes, reduced to 170°C for 20 to 25 minutes

Ingredients

10~12g pandan leaves

105g water

15g beaten egg

35g fine sugar

3g fine salt

20g coconut/vegetable oil

200g Prima bread flour

50g Japanese/Prima bread flour

5g milk powder

100g Herman Starter (7th day)

1g instant dry yeast

Sweet Butter Sauce
5g salted butter
2g golden syrup

Some salted butter for glazing after baking

Directions

1. Stir a 7th day Herman Starter, and use it after about 5 hours.

Blend 10~12g of fresh pandan leaves with 105g  of water in a food processor into a smooth mixture. Collect 110g of the pandan leaf puree for use later.

2. Pour all the dough ingredients into the bread pan following the sequence listed. Select C-11 Ferment Dough function, and start the program.

When the countdown timer reads 0:45, stop the program manually.

Take an empty plastic bag, lightly coated with oil, and transfer the dough into it.

Let the dough sit in room temperature for about 60 minutes.

Double seal the dough with another plastic bag, cover with a lid, and place in a fridge to undergo overnight cold fermentation. My dough took about 15 hours to undergo cold fermentation.

3. Take out the dough and thaw in room temperature for about 2 hours.

Two hours later.

Turn out the dough onto a floured work top, flatten and divide into 9 portions. Shape into balls and let them rest for 15 minutes.

4. While waiting, line a 20cm square pan with parchment paper.

Melt 5g of salted butter with 2g of golden syrup in a rice cooker. Set aside.

5. Take a dough and roll out into a rectangular shape.

Fold in the two longer edges towards the centre. Roll flat with a rolling pin.

Brush a thin coat of sweet butter sauce over the dough, but avoiding the two shorter ends.

Roll up the dough starting from the shorter end. 

Seal the end by pinching.

Stand the rolled dough on its , spirals end, lightly press down from the top to make it shorter so it would not topple easily.

Rest the dough, evenly spread out, in the prepared square pan.

Cover with a kitchen towel, and let the dough proof in room temperature, about 29°C, for about 90 minutes or till double in size.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C for about 10 minutes.

Brush the balance sweet butter sauce over the top of the dough.

7. Baked at 180°C, at lower rack of the oven, for about 5 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C and bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, or till the top becomes golden.

End of baking.

8. Rest the hot buns over a wire rack.

,

Apply salted butter over the hot buns immediately.

Remove the pan and let the buns cool down further. Enjoy 😋💖

Steam-baked Cod Steak

I'm a lazy cook, so I used the simplest method to prepare my cod steak by steam-baking it in parchment paper envelope placed in an oven toaster. No need to boil a steamer and minimum washing to be done. For the pour-over sauce, it is supposed to heat over a stove, I just used hot water to speed up the process. I have no demanding eater, so this method is applicable to me 😀

Ingredients

1 cod steak, thaw to room temperature

Marinades
2 tsp rice wine
1/8 tsp fine salt

1 tsp ginger, julienned
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp red chilli, cut into bit size

Sauce
2 tsp light soya sauce, low salt
2 tsp rice wine
2 drops fish sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
50 ml  hot water

2~3 tsp hot oil

Garnishing

Spring onion

coriander leaves

Directions

1. Rinse cod steak and remove the fish scales.

Dissolve salt in rice wine, and apply evenly over the whole cod steak. Let the cod steak marinate for about 30 minutes.

2. Drop julienned ginger, garlic slices and red chilli bits over the top of the steak. Rest the cod steak over a wide sheet of parchment paper.

Fold the parchment paper over the cod steak. Fold the edge to form an envelope to seal up the steak.

Make a twist at the end to fasten the folds.

3. Rest the envelope over a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven toaster at 180°C for 10 minutes. Let the steak stays in the oven for another 5 minutes without heating.

4. While waiting, prepare the pour-over sauce by mixing the light soya sauce, fish sauce, rice wine, and sugar in a heat resistant bowl.

Pour hot water over to mix. Adjust the taste according to your preference.

5. Open the envelope to check whether the steak is cooked.

Pour the sauce over the warm steak.

6. Heat up about 2 to 3 tsp of oil in a mini pan.

Pour the hot oil over the steak. You'll hear a sizzling noise.

If you want a more fragrant sauce, add the spring onion before pouring the hot oil. The hot oil will bring out the fragrance of the spring onion.

Garnish with spring onion and coriander leaves .

Serve warm with rice 😋

Mini Rice Cooker - Steamed Hard-boiled Egg

An easy and energy-saving way of preparing a small numbers of hard-boiled eggs is to steam them in a mini rice cooker. Instead of heating up at least 400 to 500ml of water to boil two eggs, I only need 100ml of water to steam them in a mini rice cooker.

Directions

1. All you need are: 
2 to 3 eggs ( room temperature)
100ml water 
1 heat resistant bowl with foot/steamer stand
1 sheet of paper tissue
1 countdown timer

2. Pour water into the rice cooker pot.

3. Form a ring using the paper tissue and place it at the base of the bowl. This is to act like an egg holder.

4. Stand the eggs in the bowl with the sharper ends facing down.

5. Lower the whole set-up into the rice cooker.

Start the Rice Cooking mode and 15-minute countdown timer.

Turn off the Rice Cooking mode when the timer rings.

Without opening the rice cooker, start a 10-minute countdown timer, and let the eggs stay in the rice cooker.

6. When the timer rings, remove the eggs from the rice cooker, and

cool down the eggs by adding water to the bowl.

7.  Remove the shells when the hot eggs become warm.

Enjoy :)