Sweet Milk Buns

When you have real supporters at home to try your bakes, you can liberally try out as many recipes as you can for you know that the finished goods will not be gone to waste 😛.

As someone who likes to bake, naturally I'm drawn to bread making. In my opinion, bread making is a level up from cake making. Kneading and proofing are acquired skills that cannot be learnt overnight.

I had tried kneading by hands before and boy! It was really very tiring. I felt like I was kneading forever and yet still couldn't get to the window pane stage. Needless to say, the end product turned out to be as hard as rock. 

Ever since then, I gave up on bread. The only time I braved myself to try again was when there was an online hype about the 40 mins recipe. It was easy and in my opinion, fail-proof!

That was before the hubs decided to grant my wish and bought me a Panasonic Breadmaker! 

Panasonic Breadmaker SD-P104

Since then, I've tried out many several recipes. I must say that the breadmaker really helped in the kneading and proofing, which made my most of my bakes successful. I was really thankful. 

Imagine waking up to a loaf of freshly baked bread in the morning. The smell of the bread was heavenly! Bliss! 

The recipe that I'm sharing in this post is a milk bun that tastes good on its own or you can pair it with kaya and butter.

Sweet Milk Buns Recipe 

(adapted from My Mind Patch)

**makes 6 large buns

Ingredients

• 160g cold milk
• 50g fine sugar
• 25g beaten egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 225g bread flour
• 25g cake flour
• 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast
• 30g cold unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients (except butter and instant dry yeast) into the bread pan
2. Add instant dry yeast into yeast compartment 
3. Select Menu 9 - Dough menu, press Start 
4. Add in butter after yeast is dispensed (timer showing 45mins left)
5. When the program ended, let the dough sit in the breadmaker for another 30mins
6. Remove dough from bread pan. Shape dough into 6 buns of 92g each (adjust according to your preference)
7. Sprinkle some water on the dough, cover with a damp cloth and proof for 40mins
8. Preheat oven to 180 deg
9. Bake at 160 deg for 10mins 
10. Lower to 150 deg and continue to bake for another 10-12 mins
11. Transfer to wire rack to cool

Lemon Chiffon

My younger boy has a very sweet tooth (that explains the many tooth decays he had when he was younger 😜).

He is my No. 1 fan for everything I bake. And since he requested for a cake, any cake, I decided to pull out this recipe from my shelf and bake this Lemon Chiffon. It was a hit, again! Although I felt that the taste of lemon could be stronger.

Recipe adapted from
The Domestic Goddess Wanababe

Ingredients

•  7 egg yolks
•  50 sugar
•  60ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
•  1/2 tsp salt
•  60ml cooking oil - I used canola oil
•  2 tbsp grated lemon zest
•  110g cake flour

•  7 egg whites
•  130g sugar
•  1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar till light and pale.
2. Add the oil and continue to beat till combined.
3. Add the lemon juice, followed by lemon zest.
4. Add the sifted flour and mix till just combined.
5. In a separate clean mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites till foamy, add cream of tartar.
6. Gradually add the sugar and whisk till stiff peak.
7. Mix 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the lemon mixture to "loosen" the batter.
8.  Fold in remaining 2/3 of the egg white (gently) in 2 separate additions until no white streaks. 
9.  Pour the batter into an UNGREASED chiffon tin.
10. Drop the chiffon tin on the table top few times to release air bubbles
11. Bake at 180°C for 65mins to 70mins. 
12. Cover the cake with a piece of aluminium foil if the cake top is too brown. 
13. Cool the cake upside down until it is completely cool before unmolding.

Banana cupcakes

What do you do when you have a bunch of bananas turning black? I used to throw over-riped bananas away, what a waste! I have since learnt to bookmark banana cake recipes for times when I need to "save the over-ripe bananas"!

This was one of my bookmarked recipes from Sonia a.k.a. Nasi Lemak Lover. Her blog is one my go-to sites for recipes. I love her blog! 

I baked these cute little spongy banana cupcakes for my helper's birthday. She had been with us for 3 years and was returning home to "fulfil her duties" to get married. The boys were real sad to see her go for they had forged a great friendship, even my in laws were sad. We treat her very much like our own family.

Since her birthday was round the corner and I had some over-ripe bananas, so let' pull this recipe out from the shelf and put the over-ripe bananas into good use!

spongy banana cupcakes

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients 
- 3 large eggs
- 180g ripe bananas
- 150g cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 120g caster sugar (I used brown sugar)
- 100g canola oil

Method

1. Sift cake flour with baking powder and baking soda, set aside (for finer texture, sift 2 times)
2. Mash bananas, set aside
3. Beat eggs and sugar on high speed till thick and pale 
4. Add in mashed bananas and mix well to combine
5. Fold in sifted flour and mix well
6. Add in corn oil and mix till well combined and batter is shiny and smooth
7. Pour into cupcake liners till 90% full
8. Bake at preheated oven 160 deg for 25 mins until golden brown or till a cake tester comes out clean