Bo Luo Bao (Pineapple buns)

This bread is one of my favorites. The best ones are fresh and hot out of the oven, with a slab of butter sandwiched in the bread, called bo luo yau. Mmmmmm...so tasty, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I used the recipe found here: http://www.morethanbread.net/2010/11/bo-lo-bao-pineapple-bun.html

If you don't have shortening, you can use butter instead, which is what I did.

Remember that the buns double in size when you let the dough rise so shape the buns accordingly, unless you want to make huge buns like I did...

Artisan Bread

I really love fresh bread, especially the artisan breads available in markets like Whole Foods or Central Market. My family bought an Italian White loaf bread from Central Market one day and we devoured it in one meal. Delicious.

It seems difficult to recreate at home but in reality, it's very simple!

The recipe can be found here: http://www.simplysogood.com/2013/03/artisan-no-knead-bread.html

The only change I made was that I used 1 tsp of yeast instead of the 1/2 teaspoon stated in the recipe.

Here's the result:

I actually let this loaf rise three times and kneaded it a little so that the bread was chewier.

Here's another variation:

I didn't flour the surface of this loaf and added orange zest and toasted walnuts to the bread.

Pumpkin Bread

Okay, last post of the day: I made pumpkin bread and pumpkin cake today. Somehow, my family amassed 5 small/medium-sized pumpkins randomly. We were supposedly going to make pumpkin soup with them but that plan never worked out and in the end, I was given the task of using them before they began to rot. I just cut the pumpkins into small pieces/wedges and roasted them without any seasoning in a 350°F oven for around 45 minutes. When I could use a fork to mash the pumpkin, I took them out and puréed all of it in a food processor. The result: pure pumpkin purée. I used about 2 cups of the purée to slather on top of cooked pizza dough to make a pumpkin "pizza" and that was dinner for one night. Today, I used the rest of the purée and the recipe for the pumpkin bread can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/pumpkin-bread-recipe/index.html

I cut the original recipe in half to make one loaf and used about 1 cup of sugar instead of the original 1 1/2 cups. In addition, I used 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp ginger powder in place of the spices used in the recipe. The resulting pumpkin bread had a flavor similar to pumpkin pie so I was quite satisfied.

More on the pumpkin cake will be posted tomorrow or later! 

Coconut and Peanut Tapioca/Mochi Bread

So here's another variation of the tapioca bread I talked about in my last post. The version with just coconut will be posted soon when I stop making these variations and go back to the "basics". Anyways, did you know that peanuts and coconut go really well together? Well, if not, you do now. I just used the same recipe for sesame tapioca bread and filled each tin/cup of the cupcake tin a quarter full, so not even halfway full. Then added a tablespoon of a peanut, coconut, and sugar mixture and poured the rest of the batter to cover the filling. The end result is a bread that's not only delicious but incredibly fragrant. You can omit the sesame seeds and just add in the filling but I liked the extra fragrance the sesame seeds provided. I kind of eyed the amount of mixture to use but here are my estimates for the filling (keep in mind that these measurements are not in any way exact):

8 Tbsps ground roasted peanut*
6 Tbsps sweetened shredded coconut
3 Tbsps sugar (add more or less to your taste)

*I just used a food processor to grind them until they resembled course breadcrumbs. And you can buy peanuts that are already roasted or you can roast them yourself: just put them in a 350°F oven for a few minutes. Be careful not to let them burn!)

Sesame Tapioca Bread (Sesame Mochi Bread)

A few weeks ago, I went to a Brazilian steakhouse for the first time. The food was delicious and I had great company so it was a wonderful experience. We were served mini-cheese puffs/bread and after tasting one, I knew I had to find the recipe and make them . They're called pão de queijo and as I searched online through different recipes, I found a Korean sesame tapioca bread that was similar except instead of cheese, the bread contained, well, sesame. (This type of bread uses tapioca flour/starch and thus, can be called tapioca bread. Its texture is similar to mochi, but baked, so it's also known as mochi bread.) However, I couldn't find a recipe for the Korean sesame bread since all the recipes I found included using the bake mix for the bread... In the end, I just browsed through more recipes for pão de queijo, made some adjustments, and constructed my own recipe:

Sesame Tapioca Bread

1 egg
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 whole milk
1 1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt (use 1 tsp if you prefer a more salty bread)2 tsps black sesame seeds and more for decoration (see note)

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F and lightly grease 8 cups of a cupcake pan. (You can use a mini-muffin pan to make smaller breads but since I don't have one, I just used a cupcake pan.)
2. Blend all the ingredients in a blender until everything is combined.*
3. Pour the batter into the greased pan until each cup is 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, until they're puffed up and the tops are golden brown.

*You don't have to blend for a long time. If you do, more air will be incorporated into the batter, making the resulting bread have more/larger air pockets and less of the mochi bread.

Note: This is optional, but I like to sprinkle the tops of each bread with some black sesame seeds as garnish before placing them in the oven.

**These breads are best eaten hot/warm when they're just out of the oven. They start to deflate as they cool and if you keep them overnight, make sure to microwave them for about 15 seconds before eating to get the nice mochi texture again.**

You can make this bread sweet or salty depending on your preferences. I have substituted coconut in place of the sesame seeds to make a sweet tapioca bread, which was delicious as well. That recipe will most likely be posted sometime this week since I'll probably make the coconut version of this soon... It feels like I can't get tired of these, they're just so tasty. The texture has a lot to do with it though. If you love mochi like me, you'll love these too!

Panettone Bread Pudding

Recently, there was a 50% off sale on holiday items at World Market. Holiday bake mixes, chocolates, cookies, candies, etc. were all included in the sale. My family bought a loaf of panettone for only a few dollars and we've eaten it by itself, as french toast, and now bread pudding. One loaf is about 1 pound and even now, I still have some left... Anyways, the bread is sweet and fragrant with the dried fruits baked within it so no extra flavors really need to be added when making break pudding. I looked at Giada De Laurentiis' recipe, which can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/panettone-bread-pudding-with-cinnamon-syrup-recipe/index.html but adapted it to my tastes. Her recipe calls for a large amount of sugar and makes a pretty large serving size so if you want a smaller and less sweet recipe, try out my adaptation:

Panettone Bread Pudding

*I made 3 small individual bowls of bread pudding but you can use a larger baking dish to make one whole pudding*

1/4 of a loaf of panettone bread
3 eggs
15 Tbsps of whole milk
10 Tbsps of half-and-half
6 tsps of granulated sugar
butter

1. Grease three small baking dishes with butter.
2. Cut the panettone into roughly 1-inch cubes and place the cubes into the dishes.
3. Whisk the eggs, milk, half-and-half, and sugar in a separate bowl to make the custard.*
4. Pour the custard over the bread cubes and lightly press the cubes into the liquid to help the bread soak up the mixture.
5. Let the bread continue to soak up the custard for around 15 minutes** and preheat the oven to 350°F.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes (the bread pudding will rise/puff up and when the center is set, it's done)

*I whisked the ingredients together in a measuring cup so that pouring the mixture would be easier.
**Giada's recipe sets aside 30 minutes for the bread to soak up the custard but I couldn't wait that long and the bread pudding still tasted delicious after 15 minutes of absorption time. However, I would recommend letting the bread sit in the mixture for a longer period of time if you're using drier/stale bread.

Note: I didn't make any type of syrup to pour over the bread pudding since I thought the pudding was sweet enough by itself. But if you prefer a much sweeter dessert, add more sugar and syrup!