Air Fryer Traditional Sponge Cake

I was attracted to a smooth top traditional sponge cake baked in an air fryer in a 下厨房 app . I told myself I have to try this recipe. The main difference of this recipe was that it froze the egg whites for a short period of time before working on the meringue. Perhaps this was the secret behind preventing the cake from cracking under the  powerful hot wind of the air fryer 😎

I am still fine turning the baking temperature setting of this recipe as every air fryer works differently😉

Original recipe quantities are in brackets ( ) I reduce the original quantity by 1/3.

Ingredients

Using 54 ~ 56g cold eggs

26g (40g) rice bran oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

35g (50g) top flour

25g (40g) low-fat milk

2g (0g) vanilla essence

3g (0g) honey

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites, freeze for 10 minutes

pinch of low-sodium salt

20g fine sugar

20g raw cane sugar

Directions

1. Keep the egg whites in the freezer for about 10 minutes while you working on the yolk-oil batter. Ensure the mixing bowl which holds the egg whites is dry, clean and oil-free.

2. Heat rice bran oil till reaching about 80 to 85 ℃.

Picture for demonstration

3. Fold the top flour to the hot oil.

4. Blend in the mixture of low-fat milk, vanilla essence and honey till no liquid can be seen.

5. Blend in the yolks.

till reaching a smooth paste. Set it aside.

6. Take out the bowl of egg whites from the freezer. Its alright if the egg whites start to freeze at the edge.

Beat egg whites till frothy before adding a pinch of salt to it.

Gradually add in the sugars,

and beat the meringue till reaching soft peak stage.

7. Add about 200g of very hot water to the basket of the air fryer.

Put the rack in and start to preheat the air fryer to 135℃ for about 10 minutes.

8. Transfer about 1/5 of the meringue to mix with the yolk-oil batter into a smooth mixture.

Transfer back the yolk-oil batter to the meringue and blend well.

9. Pour the smooth batter to a cake pan (145x145x60 mm) lined with parchment paper.

Use a chopstick to stir through the batter to remove any trapped air bubbles.

10. Bake in the preheated air fryer at 135℃ for about 30 to 35 minutes or till an inserted cake tester drawn out clean.

The original recipe suggested baking at 140℃ for 50 minutes for a 3-egg recipe.

Drop the hot cake with the pan onto a kitchen towel thrice to minimize cake shrinkage.

11. Cut the cake after cooling down over a wire rack.

Enjoy 😋😋

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In one of my baking, I forgot to freeze the egg whites, and the cake cracked badly during baking 😕

Savoury Milk Bread (1L Pan)

A soft and springy bread with rich milk flavour and tasted both sweet and savoury. To me, the slightly more savoury taste helped to enhance the milk flavour of the bread. My favourite white milk bread recipe for the time being.

Video of the bread 📹

Yield: 1 small loaves

Pan size: 17.5x10x9 cm 1 L

Raw dough weight: 426g

1st proofing: overnight, about 14~16 hours

2nd proofing: 60~70 minutes

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.  Bake at 190℃ for 8 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180℃, and bake for about 10 minutes, turn off the oven and let the breads bake for another 2 minutes, or till the crust is golden brown.

Ingredients

160g bread flour

25g spelt flour

25g raw sugar

5g milk powder

2g instant dry yeast

Pinch of vanillin powder, optional

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

20g yudane dough^

100g low-fat milk, cold 

10g whipping cream, cold

25g  cold water, to be added depending on dough condition

4g low sodium salt

10g unsalted butter, softened

* 40g natural yeast can be replaced by 20g of bread flour and 20g of water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast. Let the mixture stand for about 1 hour or more till it doubles in volume, before use. You can also keep the mixture in the fridge overnight and thaw it for 1 hour before use.

^ 20g yudane dough is prepared by combining 10g of bread flour with 10g of very hot or boiling water into a sticky dough. Wrap the yudane dough in cling wrap, cool down and refrigerate before use. Use a silicone spatula to scrape out the sticky yudane dough from the cling wrap.

 

Directions:

1. Knead the dough following your preferred method. 

For my method, you can refer to my recipe Yudane Milk Bread. 

2. After kneading the dough to window pane, shape the dough into a ball, and keep in a plastic bag coated with a little cooking oil. Keep in a second plastic bag before keeping the dough in the fridge overnight.

3. In the next day, remove the outer plastic bag, invert the dough, and let the dough thaw at room temperature for about 60 minutes.

4. Flatten the dough to remove most of the trapped air.

Fold in the two wings into a long dough.

Flip over and rest for 15 minutes, Cover the dough while resting.

5. After the 15 minutes rest, roll flat the dough to remove the trapped air.

Flip over and roll flat again.

6. Roll up the dough, from the shorter end, into a Swiss-roll-like.

7. Transfer the dough to a loaf pan brushed with homemade non-stick spread, or butter.

Spray some water over the top, and proof the dough in a cold oven for about 60 to 70 minutes, or till the dough double in size.

60 ~ 70 minutes later 👇

8. Start to preheat the oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes. 

Dust the top of the bread dough with a thin layer of bread flour. You may create patterns by using parchment paper or a wire rack.

9. Bake at 190℃ for 8 minutes, reduce to 180℃ for 10 minutes, turn off the oven and let the bread bake for another 2 minutes, or till the top is golden brown.

10. Remove the bread from the hot pan soon after leaving the oven.

Cool over a wire rack.

Another pattern by using wire rack 😉

Cut the bread after it has cooled down 😋