Been meaning to make this bread for a while now. I love my Kenwood BM450 breadmaker, and I’ve been trying to push it further and seeing how much versatility I can get from it. I’ve made loaves, pau, and dough for breadrolls, so now I’m going to try making bread loaves with swirly fillings.
First up is this cheese bread, based on the recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Read MoreBeen meaning to make this for a while. I used homemade pandan extract using the leaves growing in Mummy’s garden, which wasn’t as strong or aromatic as I’d hoped. I’ll make this again using store-bought extract, and perhaps another time using the water from making the pandan extract in the yukone.
The rolls were very soft and fluffy, and absolutely yummy when enjoyed with kaya. A good idea is to also dip the rolls in kaya and grated coconut, for an extra-indulgent treat.
Read MoreOne day I was inspired to make brioche. So many articles and recipes, and many look super complicated or time consuming. Tempting, but not very suitable when I don’t have much time on my hands.
After a few rounds of experimenting with other recipes and modifying them for my Kenwood BM450, I went back to basics and looked at the recipe book that came with my machine. There’s a brioche recipe in there, maybe I should just try this one out? But, would this recipe be inferior to the traditional method?
Then Kak Nia got her own BM450 from the recent Lazada 11.11 sale, and one of her first loaves was the brioche which received raving reviews from her family. That really settled it for me lol.
Read MoreI love bagels. Especially the ones freshly toasted and slathered with a ton of cream cheese. Top it with some yummy smoked salmon and you’ll have a complete breakfast.
I tried making my own bagels before which turned out pretty yummy, however it wasn’t very long before they became a bit stale. So I found another recipe by Serious Eats which applies the Japanese method of using yukone, a water-based roux which is supposed to improve the browning and shelf-life of bread.
Read MoreOver the long weekend I wanted to take my breadmaker for another spin, when Kak’mbang suggested this recipe she found on Youtube. These dinner rolls looked fairly easy to make, and uses basic ingredients most people readily have in their larder.
Read MoreMore breadmaking fun! This recipe came in the recipe books of both the BM250 and BM450, and I’ve been wanting to make it for a long time. The problem was finding one ingredient – malt extract.
Read MoreI had leftover natural yoghurt in the fridge I’d like to clear out before it goes bad. Looking through the recipe book that came with my Kenwood BM450 machine I saw this recipe, and I had all the ingredients (or their substitutes) on hand, so here we are.
Read MoreAfter years of using my trusty Kenwood BM250 breadmaker, I did the stupidest thing. I let the breadpan sit in a sink filled with just a couple of inches of water. It wasn’t that much water, but it was enough for rust to build around the paddle rotator, and it became stuck. No amount of WD-40 could un-stick it, so I had a few options: 1) Keep up the WD-40 treatment and pray; 2) buy a new breadpan; or 3) buy a new breadmaker.
I chose option 1 at first. Then I had itchy fingers and checked out the Kenwood BM450 on Lazada. Payday Sale was on, and it was on sale at a 20% discount. Needless to say, I caved. I’ll still do Option 1 and figure out what to do with the old breadmaker if I did manage to fix the breadpan.
I love the Kenwood BM450. It is supposed to be better than the basic BM250, and best of all, it is gorgeous. Finally a winning combination of form and function.
I looked at the recipe book which came with the machine, and there were quite a few I’d like to try. This here though is something I found online on Genius Kitchen, which uses ingredients readily available in my pantry. My first loaf using my new machine!
I activated the yeast first because I wasn’t sure if it was still usable. You can skip this step if you like, as it is completely unnecessary for breadmaker recipes and when using instant yeast.
Read MoreIt’s so hard to find good bagels in KL. I can name a couple of bakeries selling it, but can’t say they are particularly spectacular. One day I had a major craving for bagels, so I looked up a few recipes and picked up the one by Sophisticated Gourmet, which didn’t seem too complicated compared to others.
My first try making this, I completely messed up the water-to-flour ratio and the dough resembled alien goo. The second time around, I went back to my learnings in the science of breadmaking, and got the ratios spot on. However I also had some problems with my breadmaker during the second try, and had to knead the dough by hand. Such a good workout, lol.
Verdict: absolutely loved it. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for bagels – simple, no frills, and absolutely delicious straight out of the oven.
Read MoreTo me, cooking is a way to destress after a long week slogging at the office. Making bread, however, is what I find most enjoyable. When a bread recipe appeared in Saudi Food Eman’s Facebook feed, I knew I had to try it ASAP. I mean, bread stuffed with cream cheese and drizzled with syrup? Sign me up!
Because I was adamant about using my breadmaker for this, I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe. I didn’t notice that the recipe uses a lot more yeast relative to the flour (which was really silly in retrospect, but ah well that’s how we learn), so after letting the Dough cycle run its full course, my dough literally looked like foam. While I managed to save the dough by adding more flour, the bread turned out heavy and had a strong yeasty taste. At this point, I still didn’t realize that the cause was my overproofing the dough. I instead blamed it on the plain flour I used, and switched to bread flour for my second attempt.
While the dough was a lot less wet this time around, and the bread was a lot fluffier, the yeasty flavor remained. Finally it dawned on me that I was using the same amount of yeast but a little more than half of the flour compared to my roti paung recipe. Since the whole point of using a ton of yeast is to cut down prep time, I must have been letting the dough sit for far too long. I then realized waiting for my normal breadmaker Dough cycle to fully finish isn’t suitable for this recipe, so I simply let the machine do just the kneading and took it out right after, without resting the dough. True enough, this dough rises so fast, the earlier rolls doubled in size by the time I finished working on the last few.
The results? Lovely rolls which were bite sized and fluffy, with no unpleasant yeasty taste. I also loved the amazing combination of exotic flavors and textures. Creamy cheese inside fluffy bread, topped with crunchy, herby black seeds (habbatus sauda) then drizzled with sweet syrup infused with the distinct flavor of saffron. I just couldn’t stop eating this.
Try it out!
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