Bakericious: Christmas Tree One Proofing Killer Bread 一次发酵软圣诞树面包

Monday, December 7, 2015

Christmas Tree One Proofing Killer Bread 一次发酵软圣诞树面包

I cannot believe that Christmas is coming in 2 weeks time, there are so much to do for this festive and yet I am far behind schedule. I had done some Christmas theme baking, I wanted to share all of them in this blog soon, I hope I won't be neglected my blog again :p.

When a bread baker saw the description from Victoria that this bread is killing ultra super-duper soft, convenience of only one single proofing, how to resist of not trying it? I actually had tried a few version of one / single proofing bread and this is one of them. Since the Christmas mode is on, I definitely wanted to make it into Christmas theme.

Bread Dough Recipe adapted from Victoria Bakes and 下厨房

Bread Ingredients : (yield about 480g dough)

260g bread flour
2g salt

30g sugar

160-180g egg + full cream milk (use extra large egg if possible)

3g or 1/2 + 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast

30g butter

1 portion of chilled butter milk filling (refer to below for how to make)

Method :

1. Combine all ingredients, 160-180g of the liquid except butter in the mixer until the dough is formed. Slowly add in the balance liquid bit by bit until get the desire dough texture which is sticky but able to form a soft dough.

2. When the dough looks smooth and slightly elastic, add butter. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth, glossy and elastic, until reach windowpane stage which is when you pull out a small piece of dough, it will form a thin, transparent layer like bubble gum. (this is crucial)

3. Place the dough on a floured surface, divide equally to 12 portions. Roll each small dough into balls..

4. Take out the butter milk filling from the fridge.

5. Flour your hand and rolling pin. Take 1 small dough and roll out into disc shape, wrap with 1 tbsp of butter milk fillings and pinch to seal well with seam facing down, place it on greased baking pan. Repeat for the remaining dough balls.

6. Spray with some water and let to proof until double in size, about 45 to 60 mins.

7. Brush some egg wash on top and bake in 170C preheated oven until golden, about 15-20 minutes. Tenting bread with foil if it browns too quickly.

8. Remove from oven and place on the wire rack to cool down.

9. Dust with snow or icing sugar and decorate before serve.

To form the Christmas tree :
Place one dough ball at the top center of the greased baking tray. Place 2 dough balls at the center of 2^nd row, 3 dough balls at the center of 3^rd row, 4 dough balls at the center of 4^th row. The balance 2 dough balls to place at the center of 5^th and 6^th row to form the tree trunk.

Notes :

· I used 178g liquid ~ 60g egg + 118g milk. I mixed 100g of milk with egg initially and added into the dry ingredients to form a dough, the balance 18g of the milk I added in bit by bit until I felt that the dough is at the right consistency. The total liquid needed for this bread varies between 160-180g and it depends on the flour you use and also the climate.

· You can use whipping cream for the liquid portion as well, it can be a mixture of milk or whipping cream or either one. If you use entirely whipping cream, and say your egg is only 60g in net weight, then it is 60g + 120g whipping cream = 180g. in this case, since whipping cream is more than 80g, please omit butter in the recipe. But if you are using (for example) 60g egg + 100g milk +20g whipping cream, then please include the butter.

· You MUST achieve the window pane stage when kneading. if you don’t, you may not get this texture

· I used Kitchenaid KSM150 to beat the dough, as the dough is very soft, I used speed 4 most of the times, and interchange with speed 2, occasionally adjust to speed 6 to beat for a few sec. Total time of beating was about 20-30 mins.

Butter Milk Filling
Ingredients :

70g butter

30g super fine caster sugar or icing sugar

1/8 tsp salt

30g beaten egg

1 tsp corn flour

80g milk powder

Method :

1. Beat the butter with sugar until light and pale. Gradually add in the beaten eggs.

2. Mix in the corn flour and milk powder with a spatula until everything well combine. Do not over mix.

3. Chill it in the fridge until needed.

Notes :

· If you are using 1 tbsp filling for each bun, the amount of fillings are just nice for 9 buns

I actually double the recipe and made the 1/2 portion into loaf size too, the dough for loaf size is about 450g.

Method :
1. Roll into 3 balls each weigh about 150g.
2. Roll each ball out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin.
3. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be about the same or slight smaller size than the tin) and put them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the 2 portions to make the other loaf.
4. Spray water on it and let proof until double in size, about 45 to 60 mins.
5. Brush some egg wash on top, use a sharp scissor or knife or blade to slice the top of the loaf into half and insert in the thick hard butter.
6. Bake in 170C preheated oven about 45-50 mins .
7. Tenting bread with foil if it browns too quickly.
8. Remove from oven and place on the wire rack to cool down.

Notes :

the butter will over flow out of the baking tin. So if you are using the loaf tin with hole at the bottom or with removable base, you will need to line the L shape grease paper at the bottom of the baking tin so that the melted butter will not sip out from the sides. This will also let the loaf base absorb the melted butter, this is heavenly delicious yum yum!
the top was a bit hard after baked, but it turned soft next day.