New Year BBQ

Happy New Year!

"Shrimp on the barbie" is too old fashion.... modern Australians call BBQ satays! Just look at the prawns and sausages on skewers.

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Chocolate Brownie

Delicious and simple. A rich chocolate brownie made by the kids for Christmas. Crunchy on the surface, spongy on the inside. The "secret" recipe comes from Best Recipes.

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Post Christmas Cleanup Army

What to do with Christmas leftovers? You need the lean, mean eating machines from the Army!

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Christmas 2010

Christmas Day 2010 was memorable....

.... it was the first Christmas that was completely stuffed from the beginning to end.




Well, it started with the stuffing preparation on Christmas Eve. It took 2 hours to wash, chop and mince. The 2-minute Noodle Cook doesn't stuff around when it comes to meals as important as Christmas lunch: nothing instant here, it's fresh or it's in the bin. When the turkey was pulled out from the fridge, it was already stuffed by the butcher!

Villain John the executive chef wasn't going to miss the chance of putting his name down as the cook who roasted the turkey. So he peeled back the turkey skin and rubbed herb butter (that he didn't slave 2 hrs to make), and in 2 minutes flat, he did it! Just let the oven do the rest of the work.

..... the guests were going to come early to help with the cooking and help themselves to nibbles until the turkey was ready, so as not to be stuffed before then.



... the first arrivals were 2 hours late and that was early by Zambian time. The friends they were bringing didn't show up. All that foooood sat on the table looking pretty. It looked like a case of dialing "000" to call the "ARMY" in to demolish the food.

While John celebrated his first roast turkey in over 10 years with the boys, Noodle Cook drove 2 hours to arrive late to the family lunch, just after all the turkey was gone. Just a bit of leftover pork roast with apple sauce for a Christmas lunch that wasn't meant to be. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, John called to complain that he couldn't stand up from eating ALL the turkey, which he cooked to perfection.



... after all the heavy going, next came the dessert. It was a breeze since the kids did all the work the week before after learning everything off TV Junior Masterchef, from how to zest a lemon to folding batter.



... unfortunately everyone was too stuffed after the mains to do a Matt Preston critique on the kids effort. While everyone enjoyed their Christmas lunches, Noodle Cook remained hungry....



... so there you have it, Christmas 2010.

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Carrot Surprise Cake

From Jamie's Kitchen came this delicious moist carrot and polenta cake, delicately spiced with ginger, nutmeg, caraway, cinnamon and clove. The original recipe uses cooked mash beetroot.

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Scroll Bread

Moist, delicious oriental style bread made using tangzhong (starch gel). Follow the bread technique in this blog. Sprinkle sultanas or chopped date with some brown sugar before rolling up.

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High Rise Yukone Bread

After many attempts in the quest to find a bread that has the same keeping quality as supermarket bread without additives, the answer is getting closer. Shown here is a lofty loaf made with 20% flour weight yukone (hot water dough, 1:1 flour to water, 90 deg Celsius) and 2% flour weight starch gel (tangzhong, 1:5 flour to water, 65 deg Celsius). The hot water dough and starch gel enable the reduction of commercial amylase based improver to one quarter. Without the starch gel, the Yukone bread takes much longer to proof, and rises less than a standard loaf.




The high rise effect can be seen in this picture of a bread made with 5% flour weight starch gel, without the yukone. It is clear that the yeast activity is boosted by the starch gel giving rise to increased volume and a much faster rising time, in addition to the increased hydration of the soft, fluffy bread texture.

The use of Chinglish (language of a native Chinese with English as a second foreign language) translation of "tangzhong" as water roux in many Asian baking blogs, seems a misnomer as a roux is French for fat and flour. In the context of how tangzhong works, perhaps these are better translations:

• growth activator
• yeast booster
• starch gel improver
• loaf enhancer
• rise accelerator
  

To make high rise yukone bread using sponge-dough technique :

Sponge
175 g flour (12% protein)
115 mL milk + 3 x 5 mL as needed
4 g yeast
1 g (1/4 t) yeast food (Lecimax)
0.5 g (1/4 t) emulsifier (lecithin)
5 g nonfat milk powder, omitted in this trial

Mix to stiff dough. Ferment in the fridge overnight.

Yukone (hot water dough)
50 g flour
50 mL boiling water

Mix to a soft sticky dough. Maturate in the fridge overnight

Starch Gel (tangzhong)
5 g flour
25 mL boiling water

Mix to a watery grainy custard-like gel. Maturate in the fridge overnight.

Bread Dough
20 g flour
10 g sugar
2 g (1/2 t) salt
10 g (2 t) shortening

To make bread, mix fermented sponge, maturated yukone and starch gel with the rest of the dough ingredients, except the shortening, to form a soft dough. Rest for 10 minutes. Knead to a smooth dough. Add shortening. Knead until the dough is stretchy. Kneading takes around 20 minutes by hand. Proof at room temperature until double. Knock down. Knead well. Scale and shape. Proof at room temperature or in the fridge until triple. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes for a loaf, or 220 deg C for 15 minutes for rolls.

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Yukone Bread

The Japanese bread which utilizes a hot water processed dough, known as "yukone", lends itself to a fine, soft, fluffy texture with good keeping quality. The yukone dough is also known as hot water dough, gelatinized dough or occasionally interchanged with water roux (known in Chinese as tangzhong). The latter is a starch gel made using 1:5 flour to water.

Unlike many water roux or "65 degrees Celsius tangzhong" bread recipes favoured by Asian baking bloggers, the yukone bread contains around 60% less saturated fat and is thus less reliant on fat to prevent staling. The yukone dough is made by adding boiling water to flour so as to gelatinize the contained starch. Typically, the yukone dough is 1:1 flour to water. Some recipes suggest 10:7 flour to water.



The texture of the yukone bread results from hydration of the the starch, and proper development of gluten. Gelatinization swells the starch and allows formation of gas cells. Insufficient gluten development gives rise to softness that promotes large pores and loss of elasticity. Overworked gluten on the other hand gives dense textures as gas cells cannot expand.

Loaf volume decreases with increased yukone. At 20% flour weight yukone, the loaf height is reduced around 15% compared to a loaf without yukone. It appears 20% flour weight yukone gives the best volume for moisture.

Formula by Naito et al 2005:

Sponge
70 flour (12% protein)
44.8 water
2.2 yeast
0.1 yeast food
0.25 emulsifier
2 nonfat dry milk

Mix to stiff dough. Ferment in the fridge overnight.

Yukone (hot water dough)
20 flour
20 boiling water

Mix to a soft sticky dough. Maturate dough in the fridge overnight

Bread Dough
10 flour
10.2 water
6 sugar
2 salt
5 shortening

To make bread, mix fermented sponge and maturated yukone with the rest of the dough ingredients, except the shortening, to form a soft dough. Rest for 10 minutes. Knead to a smooth dough. Add shortening. Knead until the dough is stretchy. Kneading takes around 20 minutes by hand. Proof until double. Knock down. Knead well. Scale and shape. Proof until triple. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes for a loaf, or 220 deg C for 15 minutes for rolls.

A recipe in table format can be found in Naito et al 2005.

Reference:
The Effect of Gelatinized Starch on Baking Bread
Shigehiro Naito, Shinji Fukami, Yasuyuki Mizokami, Rieko Hirose, Koji Kawashima, Hiroyuki Takano, Nobuaki Ishida, Mika Koizumi And Hiromi Kano
Food Sci. Technol. Res., 11 (2), 194-201, 2005

Study on Starch in White Bread Prepared by Yukone Processing
Tetsuya Yamada, Wakana Hasegawa, Tomomi Ito, Akihiro Ohara and Takuo Adachi
Faculty of Agriculture, Meijo Uni. Scientific Rept., 4, 9-20, 2004

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Milk Bread

The soft and silky oriental style milk bread that stays fresh for days results from cooking (gelatinizing), with water, the starch from a small portion of the total flour before adding to the bread dough. Here are two test recipes. In method A, the par-cooked flour resembles mash potato while in method B, the par-cooked flour behaves like a thick custard sauce.




Method A





Adapted from recipe at "All Recipes" for Asian bread
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/asian-water-roux-white-bread/Detail.aspx

Bread Dough
190 g flour (12% protein)
120 g hot water dough (1:1), see below
10 g sugar (2 t)
4 g salt (1 t)
4 g instant dried yeast (1 t)
1 g (1/2 t) lecithin granules
4 g (1 t) Lecimax improver
115 mL warm milk
10 g butter

Hot water dough (1:1)
(aka Japanese "Yukone" starter dough, or gelatinized dough)
60 g flour
60 mL boiling water

Method B





Adapted from recipe at "Cafe Corner" for Japanese bread
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/japanese-style-white-bread-loaf/

Bread Dough
235 g flour (12% protein)
90 g starch gel (1:5), see below
10 g sugar (2 t)
4 g salt (1 t)
4 g instant dried yeast (1 t)
1 g (1/2 t) lecithin granules
4 g (1 t) Lecimax improver
100 mL warm milk
10 g butter

Starch Gel (1:5)
(aka "65 degrees water roux starter", known in Chinese as "tangzhong")
15 g flour
75 mL boiling water

To make the bread using either method:

While stirring, par-cook the flour with boiling water. For home production, do not worry about lumps. It is also not necessary for precision 65 degrees Celsius cooking. Cool and rest for 2 hours or overnight.

Combine the par-cooked flour starter with everything else to form a soft dough. Rest 10 minutes.

Knead until very smooth and stretchy. By hand, it takes about 20 minutes to develop a translucent stretch. In comparison, it takes 8-10 minutes using electric dough hooks. A pasta machine can help develop this stretch after 20 runs.

Proof until double. Punch down. Knead well. Divide into 4 portions.

Roll each portion into a 5 cm wide strip using a rolling pin or a pasta machine at the widest setting. Roll each strip into a cylinder while pushing the sides in to avoid spindle shape.



Place the 4 rolled cylinders in a greased and floured bread tin (20cm x 10 cm x10 cm). Let rise until a finger leaves an imprint. Method A took 4 hours compared to 1 hour for method B. The finished loaf measures about 12 cm high.

Bake 30 minutes at 185 degrees Celsius. The test loaves were baked in a bench top convection oven for 10 minutes on the top, and then turned on the sides and baked 10 minutes on each side.



Conclusion:
The starch gel method (1:5 flour to water), shown on the right, produces a faster rising and loftier bread with a soft, moist, fluffy, silky texture. The hot water dough method (1:1 flour to water), shown on the left, also gives a soft, but somewhat coarser, texture.

Notes:

• The lecithin in these recipes reduces the butter, as well as replaces egg in the original recipe. One tablespoon of egg (half of one) may be added in place of the lecithin and 15 mL of the milk.
• The original recipes use milk powder and water instead of milk. Scald fresh milk first or use UHT for a better rise.
  
• The flour used here is unbleached Wallaby Bakers Flour by Laucke. Plain flour can also be used.
• Lecimax improver is amylase (enzyme) with emulsifiers, and can be omitted. The use here is twofold: to ensure the bread is edible should the tests fail, and to show that texture improves through the use of gelatinized starch when compared to standard loaf.
  
• Instant yeast is used without activating. If using other yeast, activate in warm water/milk and sugar for 10 minutes before adding to dry ingredients. Use quantity of yeast to suit your yeast type and/or application according to manufacturer's recommendation.

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Croissant

Nothing beats a homemade croissant, a scrumptious flaky buttery threat, made on a cold spring day.



2 t (4 g) yeast
1 T (15 g) sugar
1 T (20 mL) warm milk
1 t salt
250 g flour
2 t (2 g) lecithin
1 t (4 g) Lecimax improver
1 T (20 g) melted butter
150 mL cold water
120 g cold butter

Mix salt, flour, lecithin, and improver in a bowl.

To activate the yeast, make a well. Add sugar, yeast and milk. Let stand 10 minutes until bubbly.

Add cold water and melted butter. Mix to a soft dough. Let rise in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Punch down, and knead. Roll to 20 cm x 40 cm.

Place half cold butter in the middle third. Fold top third of dough over the butter. Add remaining butter and fold the bottom third over the butter.

Roll out to 20 cm x 40 cm and fold into thirds. Rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Repeat 3 more times.

Roll out to 20 cm x 4o cm to about 5 mm thick. Cut 8 triangles with 10 cm bases. Slit each base. Stretch the base and roll up the dough to form a crescent.

Place on baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Let rise at room temperature, preferably under 20 degrees Celsius until puffy and triple in size.

Bake 8 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius, and another 4 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

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