Hokkaido Milk Bread

The original recipe is here: http://www.christinesrecipes.com/2010/10/hokkaido-milk-toast.html?m=1

This recipe is for a bread machine. Usually people use less liquid when they make the bread dough by hand.

Ingredients for 2 loaves:

"seeds" 184g

Milk 60g

Whipping cream 60g

Eggs(whites and yolks blended) 86g ( less than 2 large eggs. Rest will be used as egg wash)

Salt 8g

Sugar 86g

Bread flour 540g

Milk powder 9-11g

Instant dry yeast 11g

Unsalted butter 49g

Firstly make the seeds. It is the secret to a soft spongy yet chewy bread. Use the bread flour and water in a 1:5 ratio. For 210g "seeds", you'll need 35g bread flour and 175g water ( it was said that milk or half water half milk was fine, too. But I've never tried milk since the bread has quite strong milk taste for me). Mix it well using a whisker until no flour granules left. Heat up using a microwave oven for 30 seconds and stir well. Microwave for another 30seconds and store again. The dough turns into semisolid and translucent at this time. Cover it up and let it sit in fridge to cool down. You could also do this on the oven top and sir it constantly. I usually do this the night before.

After the "seed" is totally cooled down, add all the ingredients except for unsalted butter into the bread maker. Liquid first, powder later. Make a little hole in the middle of the flour to place instant yeast for read machine. Pay attention to the limit of your bread maker. The listed ingredients is for a 2lb machine. Choose the "dough" function and let bread maker work till it stops for the first time. This takes my bred maker 20 minutes.

 Stop the program, add 49g unsalted butter and restart the program of "dough". In my case it will take 90 minutes. 

Smooth dough after adding butter: 

The dough almost doubled its size after rising ( I made a hole there just to show you how elastic it could be).

Make it into whatever shapes you like and let it rise to double the size. I have a toddler at home so I make the bread to fit his size. A simple braid is easy and pretty. You can also make it round and put stuffings you like. This dough is also suitable to make into a toast. But I like the small individual bread better because they are faster to make and never give you thick crust.

Let them rise for the second time till size almost doubled. Keep it in mind that they will keep rising when baking so leave some room in between. 

Set up the oven to 355F and brush a layer of egg wash right before baking. I just use the leftover eggs from ingredients. Sprinkle what you like on top to increase flavor: chopped green onions with cheese, cheese, sesame seeds, or pre-soaked raisins. Whatever you like. Bake it at 355F for 15-20 minutes till the surface is golden. I usually put a bowl of water on the lower rack and place the bread on the middle rack to prevent the bread from drying out. This will make your bowl stained and ugly, so don't use those you like!

 Done! 

 

Update: recently made milk bread with custard stuffing. 355F for 23 minutes. Always place your bread on the middle rack and place a bowl of water on the lower rack to provide humidity. 

Yogurt cheesecake

I found another recipe for light cheesecake lately. It used yogurt instead of lemon for the sour taste. And it's even simpler than the one I shared before. Unlike the traditional New York cheesecake, it has no crust, no butter, less cream cheese and less sugar. It's by far my favorite recipe for light cheesecake. 

Here is the original recipe in Chinese: http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_4a5089ff0100dgs5.html

Ingredients (for a 8' cake. Use half the amount for a 6' cake)

Egg yolk batter:

Cream cheese   250g

Geek yogurt   150g

Whipping cream   100g

Egg yolks   4

Cake flour   66g

Meringue:

Egg white   4

Sugar   80g

1. Warm the cream cheese in a mixing bowl. You may use microwave oven in appropriate continers. I usually use hot water.

2. Separate egg white and egg yolks. Put the egg white into fridge to chill. This will make the meringue finer.

3. Beat 250g softened cream cheese until fluffy. 

4. Mix in 150g plain yogurt. I used this Greek yogurt.

5. Add 100g whipping cream. Mix well. I used heavy cream this time because my husband bought the wrong type... But it worked.

6. Mix in the egg yolks. 

7. Sift in 66g cake flour and mix well. 

8. Grease the bakeware using unsalted butter.

9. Make meringue. Chilled egg white will take longer time to become fluffy. But the foams will be finer. So it definitely pays off. Get your mp3 ready. :)

This is how the meringue should look like. When you pull out the mixer, the peak is firm but will bend. It will be harder to mix with the egg yolk batter later if the peaks are too stiff. If the peaks are soft, the cake will collapse after baking. So be careful for this step.

10. Preheat the oven to 320F. Put a plate of 3 cm water on the lower rack. 

11. Scoop 1/3 of the meringue into egg yolk batter. Mix well with a spatula. Do not make full circles because it will defoam the meringue. Scoop the batter from the bottom and make a quarter circle each time. 

12. Dump the mixed batter into the other meringue. Mix well in the same way. 

13. Pour the batter into the bakeware. Put a towel under the bakeware. Let it fall from a small distance above the counter to remove big bubbles. You may skip it if you don't feel comfortable to do so.

14. Bake the cake using water bath for 70 minutes on the lower rack of the oven. You might need to wrap your bakeware with aluminum foil if the bottom is removable. Mine does not leak so I can put it directly in water. 

The surface cracked this time. Last time I baked a 6' cake for 65 minutes and it turned out perfect. But Its ok since it's not terribly cracked.

15. Put the cake in fridge to cool down for at least 4 hours before serving. 

It's very delicate and moist and delicious. Good luck! 

Japanese style light cheesecake

I'm always a big fan of the spongy light cheesecake. When I was still an undergrad, I would finish one in a Sunday afternoon after a long week's heavy work of study and research. Although it is almost everywhere in Asia, it is very difficult to find in US. I finally found a recipe that is easy to follow. If you can read Chinese, please go to the original recipe here: http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_553549120100iggq.html

My 1 year old loves it, too. I gave him a piece sometimes for the afternoon snack. You may put even less sugar to make it healthier for the tiny ones.

Ingredient:

Egg yolk batter:

Cream cheese    100g

Egg yolks   4

Milk   100g

Lemon juice   1 tsp

Cake flour   60g

Corn starch   30g

Unsalted butter   50g

Egg white batter:

Egg white   4

Granulated sugar   60g

1. Soften 100g cream cheese in water bath.

2. Seperate the egg yolks and egg whites. Leave the yolks in a cup for later use. Put egg white in fridge to cool down a little bit.

3. Grease your bakeware. I usually use an 8" round cake pan or sometimes a 9"*5" square one. 

4.   Beat the half melted cream cheese using a hand mixer till no granules left.

5. Put 50g unsalted butter in a cup in the water bath to melt. 

6. Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well. 

7. Mix in 100g milk and 1 tsp lemon juice. Mix well. I sometimes use whole milk, sometimes use 2% fat reduced milk 50g with 50g heavy cream... They both worked fine.

8. Sift in 60g cake flour and 30g corn starch. Mix well. 

9. Cool down the melted butter a little bit and then mix into the egg batter.

Here is the egg batter. Put it into fridge while you are making egg white part.  

10. To make egg white batter, take the bowl of egg white out and add 1/2 tsp lemon juice.

11. Beat the mixture till big bubbles form.

12. Add 1/3 of the sugar. Keep beating till foams form.

13. Add another 1/3 sugar and Beat the egg white till soft peaks form. 

14. Add all the left over sugar and beat the egg white till firm peaks form. Try not to over beat it because it will be hard to mix up with the egg yolk batter later. The peaks should drop a little bit when you pull the mixer out. 

15. Take 1/3 of the egg white batter and mix it up with the egg yolk batter. Do not use the mixer. Use a spatula instead. Every time scoop up the egg yolk batter from the bottom and push it to the center top. Do not make circles.

16. Transfer all the mixed batter into the 2/3 egg white batter. Mix well with the spatula. If you over stir the batter, the tiny bubbles made by egg white will break. You will get very soft batter and the make would not be successful. So be careful and not to over-stir.

17. Heat up the oven to 455 F. 

18. Pour the batter into the greased baking pan and then put it into water bath. Bake for 5 minutes. 

19. Change the temperature to 300 F and bake for another 60 minutes. Add cold water half way to prevent the surface from cracking. 

20. When the baking is over, Cool the cheesecake down in fridge overnight before serving. 

I made one for my LO's 1 year birthday. I ate most of the part of course. :)