My Little Girl's Name

With the whole name list on hands, we had finalise and pleased to announce that we had decided to name our baby girl as Enya Tan! Her Chinese name will be 陈恩雅!

Japanese Style Sweet Bun Dough

Here is my Japanese Style Sweet Bun Dough for the day!



The texture of the bun is soft and fluffy as well. Love it so much when it is freshly baked!

Only problem that I encounter was my bun surface was not as smooth as those shown on their blog. I have no idea what went wrong but definitely I will figure out one day. Just practice and bake more!

Ingredients
375g bread flour
100g plain flour
35g milk powder
75g caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sachet (7g or 2 1/2 tsp) instant dry yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
150ml (approx.) lukewarm water, adjust as necessary
40g butter, cubed
Water-Roux Paste (湯種) *

Method

1. Sift bread flour, plain flour, milk powder, caster sugar and salt onto the working surface. Add instant dry yeast and mix well.
2. Form the flour mixture into a well. Add lightly beaten egg and lukewarm water roux. Fold gently into flour mixture.
3. Gradually add just enough lukewarm water to form into a slightly sticky, soft dough.
4. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. During hand kneading, the dough also needs to be thrown onto the working surface once every few minutes between kneading to improve the dough structure.
5. Knead in butter until incorporated. (Knead by hand: stop kneading when the dough sticks to the work surface and stretches like chewing gum when pulled.)
6. Form the dough into a round ball and let it rest for about 50-60 minutes or rise double in size in a large greased bowl, cover with cling film.
7. Punch down, knead briefly and form into a ball shape. Then divide into 16 equal portions and rest for 10 minutes.
8. Shape and fill the buns according to recipe. Place all finished buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let it rest for about 50-60 minutes or rise double in size.
9. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

How To Prepared Water-Roux Paste

Water-Roux Paste (湯種) *:
25g (just under 2 tbsp) bread flour
125ml (1/2 cup) water
* Water-Roux is basically 1 part bread flour to 5 parts water.

Preparation

1. Mix flour and water in a small saucepan.
2. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring continuously until it reaches 65ºC. It should have thickened to a paste at this stage, that is when you stir you can see the bottom of the pan.
3. Remove from heat, place a cling film over the paste and leave until lukewarm, or room temperature, before using.

**Alternatively**
If you don’t have a thermometer, cook as before until it starts to thicken, then continue to cook for about 1 more minute before removing from heat.

**NOTE**
This water roux can be kept in an airtight container after cooling in the refrigerator for 1 day if not used immediately. However DO NOT USE if it turns grey in colour, that means it has gone bad.

Adopted this recipe from SeaDragon.

Butter Cake From Aunty Yochana

Today I managed to buy flour and whipping cream from the shop to bake my milky bread. All my ingredients are ready on the table but realize that I have bought cake flour instead of bread flour. Oh gosh! I have to change my plan, can’t bake bread today.

So with other ingredients ready, plus cake flour and evaporated milk, here I am ready to bake butter cake again. Hopefully hubby doesn’t complain butter cake again!

This is my 3rd attempt baking butter cake using different recipe, the ingredient slightly different. Here are the ingredient listed below and adopted from Aunty Yochana.

Ingredients:

125 gm. Butter
125 gm. Cake Margarine
100 gm. Sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence

90 gm. Egg Yolk
1 Tbsp. Evaporated milk

200 gm. Cake flour
5 gm. Baking powder

160 gm. Egg White
100 gm. Sugar

Note: For a more buttery taste, use 250 gm. Butter instead of 1/2 butter 1/2 margarine

Method:

(1) Beat butter, margarine, sugar, salt and vanilla essence until light and creamy.
(2) Add in the egg yolk one at a time and beat until creamy. Add in evaporated milk.
(3) Fold in sieved cake flour and baking powder.
(4) Whisk egg white and sugar to a soft peak and fold gently into the creamed butter mixture.
(5) Pour into a 20 cm. round tin and bake at 175C for about 45 mins. or until cooked.

I am Sick!

I am down with flu and cough badly more than 2 weeks, not yet recover! I get this virus from Wayne.

Most frustrated is I have to wake up every hour in the night due to the irritated tissues of the throat and didn't have a good night sleep. During the day, I hardly sleep for more than 2 hours, just makes me so weak!

Visited the doctor twice, and the same advice was rest more and drink more water. Medication given was Lozenges to soothe the throat, Phenexpect CD for cough, Paracetamol for fever, Vasican for phlegm and Chlorpheniramine for running nose. Taken all the medicine and I can't see any improvement, maybe due to my pregnancy that cause slow recovery!

Hopefully I can recover before I deliver my baby! Pray hard!

I Have Make Up My Mind

Done! I have make up my mind and decided to starts blogging using Blogger! I am quite happy with the features and flexibility given, is just so powerful!

Once I have the time, I will try to move all my past blog from http://audrey90199.spaces.live.com to my new blog in Blogger.

Went For A Movie

Today MindChamps Preschool is celebrating their Staff Appreciation Day, open half a day only. Therefore we have to fetch Wayne back after his lunch.

Since hubby on leave today, we plan to bring him out for a movie - The Tale of Despereaux, at GV Plaza Singapura, after his afternoon nap. Yeah! We are there 10 minutes early and managed to enter the cinema with a set of popcorn combo.

This is not the first time bringing him out for a movie, but is my first time seeing him sits and watched the entire movie without moving around. Is so amazing! I think the cute little character attracted his attention. Maybe he is mature enough to understand what's happening in the story. Most important he enjoyed it!