Challah Bread (Egg Bread)

Challah is a traditional special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays.  This bread was originally called hallah in Hebrew, since it was baked in the form of a round loaf.  It is usually braided, and has several eggs in it (hence it's nickname Egg Bread).  Challah can be in loaf form or braided, and may contain raisins and/or saffron.  Poppy seeds, sesame seeds and anise may be sprinkled on top of the bread.

You must try this bread as it is really soft and divine....

 

Challah Bread (Egg Bread)

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup      Water

1 tbsp     Instant Yeast

80g         Sugar    

3              Eggs

540g       Plain Flour

1 tsp        Salt

110g        Butter, softened

20g          Raisins (optional)

1 egg for glazing

 

Directions

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add all the remaining ingredients.
2. Knead with the dough hook for 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable and comes off the sides of the bowl.
3. Let the dough rise until doubled in size. About 1.5 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
4. Punch the dough down and divide into 4 equal parts.
5. Roll each part into a log the length of your sheet pan.
6. Squeeze the top ends together.  Start braiding by taking the log closest to you Under Over and Under the other logs.  Click here for tutorial.
7. When you are done braiding, squeeze the ends together, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until you see tiny pockets of air, about 1 hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
9. Crack 1 egg in a small bowl and whisk well.  Gently brush the challah with the egg glaze, careful not to deflate the bread.
10. Bake for around 30 mins until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack.

Bread Dough Shaping Technique - How to Do 4-Braiding

4 Braiding is as easy as 3 braiding.  However, the braided bread looks nicer (and seems more complicated!) than 3 braiding.  Don't be intimidated by the complicated look!

You may noticed that my dough does not seem smooth.  Reason being I avoid using too much flour when rolling the logs as it will cause the texture of the bread to be tougher.  I prefer soft textured breads... ;)

Step 1 : Roll out 4 same weight dough into a long rope with same length.

Step 2 : Line up the ropes and pinch the top of the dough together.

 

 Step 3 : Take the log from the left side and cross over the 2nd left log.

 

 Step 3 : Take the 2nd log from right, cross over the 1st left log.

Step 4 : Take the 1st left log, cross over the right log.

Repeat steps 1 to 4 till you finish braiding the dough.  Once done, tuck the remaining dough underneath the dough and form a nice finished 4 braid dough!
 

Cinnamon Bread

Recently, I am starting to have festive moods.  Shopping malls in Singapore have started to put up xmas tress.  Looking at these, how can I not be in festive mood??  Haha!

The 1st thing that came into my mind is cinnamon bread.  This is something that I had wanted to bake for many years but did not get a chance.  ok..ok...I am just giving excuses...I have been baking and why did I not have a chance to bake cinnamon bread??

You must try this cinnamon bread as it is soft and fluffy.  The aroma of cinnamon during baking is just awesome.  As I do not like things that are too sweet, I used cream cheese on the cinnamon breads instead of the usual sugar icing.  They were just divine....

Cinnamon Bread

Dough

1 cup       Whole Milk
135g        Sugar
14g          Active Dry Yeast
115g        Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
2              Eggs
½ tsp       Salt
550g       Plain Flour

Filling

90g         Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
100g       Sugar
1 tbsp     Ground Cinnamon

Cream Cheese Icing

56g        Cream Cheese, softened to room temperature
20g        Icing Sugar
3 tbsp    Milk
½ tsp     Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until lukewarm.   Pour the warm milk into the bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.  With a spoon, manually stir in the sugar and yeast. Cover with a towel and let sit until the yeast is foamy, about 5-10 minutes.   On low speed, beat in the softened butter until it is slightly broken up.   Next add the eggs, one at a time, and then the salt.  The butter won't really be mixing into the mixture, so don't be alarmed if it stays in pieces.  On low speed, gradually add the flour.  Once it is all added, beat on medium speed until a soft dough forms.  Increase speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is soft and supple, about 6 minutes longer.
2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it with your hands for 1 minute.   Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly greased bowl.   Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.
3. Butter/grease/spray with nonstick spray the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish, then line with parchment paper.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll into a 13x18 inch rectangle.
4. Spread the softened butter all over the dough.   In a small bowl, toss the cinnamon and sugar together until combined and then sprinkle evenly over the dough.  Tightly roll up the dough to form a log.  Cut into 18 even rolls. Arrange them in the prepared baking pan, cut sides up. Let the cut rolls proof for around 1 hour. 
5. Preheat the oven to 375°F (191°C). Bake for about 25 minutes, until they are golden brown.
6. Make The Icing : In a medium bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and creamy.  Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.  Using a knife, spread the icing over the warm rolls and serve immediately.

Butter Cake

This butter cake receipe will yield a very soft texture and it melts in your mouth.  Remember to beat the batter longer to incorporate enough air into it.  Butter cake is best eaten the next day as the flavour needs time to seep through the cake.

Butter Cake



Ingredients

250g           Butter
250g           Self-Raising Flour
220g           Sugar
4                  Eggs
5 tbsp         Milk
1 tsp            Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Prepare a lined 9" or 10" square pan.
3. Sift the flour, and add in salt.  Set aside.
4. In an mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
5. Scrape the mixing bowl, add in the 1st egg and beat till sugar has totally melted.
6. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating thoroughly and scraping the mixing bowl in between till all eggs have been added.
7. Mix in the flour in 3 portions.
8. Add in the milk, and finally the vanilla extract.
9. Bake in the oven for approximately 15-20 mins.

3D Clutch Cake

This is the 2nd 3D cake I have made - a clutch.  The 1st one was a 3D Barbie doll princess cake for my little princess.

 

I have been wanting to make this clutch cake since 9 months ago....ya...it was that long!  I had been thinking what I should use to make the ball clasp and silver frame as I don't like the taste of fondant.  Finally I decided to make my own marshmallow fondant to replace the normal fondant.

 

I used 2 cake batter to make 4 cakes using bread loaf tins in order to make this 3D clutch cake.  I used a bit of red colouring for the 2nd cake batter.  You can see from the below photo, I alternate the colours of the cake.  For the internal frosting, I alternate the layers with swiss meringue buttercream and homemade strawberry sauce.  For the external frosting, I used swiss meringue buttercream.

This is an extremely pretty and delicious cake!

 

 

  

Slice the 4 edges of the top of the cake at 45° angle
 

Top view of the cake

 

Side view of the cake

 

3D Clutch Cake

Ingredients
 

Vanilla Cake

(A)

4         Egg Yolks

75g     Melted Butter

60g     Milk

30g     Sugar

¼ tsp  Salt

½ tsp  Vanilla Extract

(B)

120g    Cake Flour

¼ tsp  Baking Powder

(C)

4          Egg Whites

70g      Sugar

¼ tsp  Cream of Tartar

Frosting

Homemade strawberry sauce / strawberry jam
Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Red colouring

Decoration

Fondant / Homemade marshmallow fondant (tinted in grey)

Wilton Silver Pearl Dust

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Line 2 bread loaf tins with parchment paper.
3. Use a whisk to mix ingredients (A).
4. Sieve ingredients (B) and mix into (A).  Set aside.
5. Use a stand mixer to whisk the egg whites till stiff peak.
6. Fold in ¼ of the meringue into the egg yolk batter.
7. Then fold in the rest of the meringue.
8. Pour the batter into the bread loaf tins and bake for 25mins.
9. Allow the cakes to cool and remove from pan.
10. Slice each loaf into 2 horizontally.
11. Bake another cake as above and add in a bit of red colouring.  Slice each loaf into 2 horizontally.
12. You should have 8 slices of cakes in total.
13. Put a layer of uncoloured cake on the bottom.  Cover it with buttercream.
14. Put a layer of red colour cake on top and cover with strawberry sauce.
15. Alternate the uncoloured and coloured cakes on top of each other with frostings till you have 6 layers.  You may keep or eat up the other 2 slices of cakes.
16. Cover the entire cake with buttercream and put in the fridge for 15 mins.
17. Slice the top 4 edges of the cakes at 45° angle.
18. Cover the sliced edges with buttercream.
19. Tint ¾ of the remaining buttercream with a bit of red colouring.
20. Pipe rosettes around the cake.  Leave the top unpiped.
21. Use the remaining ¼ buttercream and pipe the rosettes on top.
22. Put the cake in the fridge for 30 mins.
23. Roll out the marshmallow fondant and cut 2 long rectangles for the silver frame.  Stick both the rectangles together.
24. Make 2 balls for the clasps.
25. Brush the silver pearl dust on the balls and silver frame to give the shiny look.
26. Line the silver frame on top of the cake, and stick the 2 balls on top of it.





Rainbow Butter Cupcake

This cupcake uses the basic butter cake receipe from Agnes Chang's Baking Made Easy, but as usual, I tweaked the receipe slightly.  It is important to beat the batter for a longer period of time in order to yield an extremely soft butter cake.

Consistency of the final batter - very light and fluffy

 

I uses 3 colours for this rainbow butter cupcake

 

Can you see how soft this cupcake is?

 

My batch of rainbow butter cupcake on cooling rack

  

Rainbow Butter Cupcake 



Ingredients
250g           Butter
250g           Self-Raising Flour
220g           Sugar
4                  Eggs
5 tbsp         Milk
1 tsp           Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
2. Sift the flour, set aside.
3. In an mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
4. Scrape the mixing bowl, add in the 1st egg and beat till sugar has totally melted.
5. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating thoroughly and scraping the mixing bowl in between till all eggs have been added.
6. Mix in the flour in 3 portions.
7. Add in the milk, and finally the vanilla extract.
8. Separate the batter into 3 bowls and add different colours in each bowl.
9. Use a teaspoon, scoop a heaping teaspoon of each colour into the cupcake liner.
10. Continue till all batter are finished - makes around 24 cupcakes.
11. Bake in the oven for approximately 10-15 mins.