Nutella Swirl Rolls

Inspired from cinnamon roll I made these Nutella Swirl Rolls. I'm not a fan of cinnamon. Hah..
I've actually attempted the Hokkaido Milk loaf recipe countless times but I've only succeeded once! *sad*
This time round I was very very careful with the ingredients measurement and steps. Followed them to the T!
I'm glad I had the courage to try again because the bread went very well.



First time able to shape into nice balls. ^_^



I think I've overloaded my pan. After 20mins it's too tight for the bread. Oops..
Nutella Swirl Roll (dough adapted from Christine Ho - *I halved the recipe because we can't finish such big loaf)
540g bread flour
86 g caster sugar
8 g salt
9 g full cream milk power
11 g instant dried yeast
86 g whisked egg (about 2 eggs)
59 g whipping cream (*I omitted this and replace it with milk instead)
54 g milk
184 g tangzhong (50g of bread flour + 250g of water/milk and cook over low fire)
49 g unsalted butter, melted (* I used salted butter and reduce the amount of salt above. Agaration method)
How?
- Put all wet ingredients (milk, cream and tangzhong) into bread maker follow by dry ingredients (salt, sugar, bread flour and yeast).
- Set bread maker to Dough function (I am using Kenwood so it is Function 8).
- At 1:23 minutes, add in melted butter.
- At the end of the dough function (dough should rise to double or even triple in size), remove and place on cleaned floured surface.
- Deflate the dough by giving it a few kneads or punch. Do not over-knead or the bread will turn out hard.
- Divide into 3 equal portion, cover with clingwrap and rest for 15 minutes.
- Then shape the bread - at this juncture, you may add any ingredients you want. I rolled them up into rectangular shape and spread nutella on them and roll it.
- Let the dough rise for 1 hour. During the last 10 minutes, pre-heat oven to 170degree.
- Before putting it into oven, brush with whisked egg yolk.



I must say this is a very aromatic bread..the smell of Nutella with
freshly baked bread makes me hungry! I can't wait for it to cool down before chomping 4 pieces..haha
Note:
When placing dry ingredients, be sure that the salt and yeast is placed far apart from each other and yeast not to touch the wet ingredients.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Lately I have been reading a lot of blogs about making pandan chiffon cake. Almost all of them bake them using home-made pandan essence.
I googled and saw Wendy's blog on how to make pandan essence in step by step. I went to the provision shop immediately and bought 3 packet of pandan leaves. As I do not have a food processor at home, I depended on the Braun handheld blender to blend the pandan leaves. Haha.. wrong move! My wall tiles and floor tiles were covered with splatters of pandan juices..haha. I have a helluva time cleaning up after that.



I made the above pandan essence 2 days in advance so that the extract may settle down nicely. Look at how thick and nice the color of the pandan juice are.

Pandan Extract
30 leaves of pandan / screwpine leaves
1/2 cup of water

How?
- Wash and cut the pandan leaves into small pieces
- Add 1/2 cup of water.
- Using a food processor, blend the pandan leaves till fine.
- Using a food strainer or muslin cloth, squeeze out the pandan juice till dry.
- I place them in a clear glass and covered with clingwrap and place them in the fridge to settle.
- The dark green section at the bottom of the glass is the essence. To get that, pour away the top part (I kept the middle section of the juice for my pandan cake).
- The above will yield 2 tbsp of pandan essence.

Pandan Chiffon Cake
(recipe adapted from Kevin Chai basic chiffon recipe)

Cake batter

4 egg yolk (egg without shell should weigh approximately 60g each)
45g castor sugar (I reduce to 40g)
70ml coconut milk
70ml oil
45ml pandan juice (including 2 tbsp pandan essence)
150g cake flour/plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Meringue

4 egg white
80g castor sugar (I reduce to 70g)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

How?
- Preheat oven to 175 degree.
- Prepare a 20-cm tube pan
- Whisk egg yolk and sugar until it dissolves.
- Add in coconut milk, oil, pandan juice and pandan essence.
- Mix well
- Sift in flour and baking powder. Add salt
- Whisk the cake batter until well mixed.
- In a clean bowl, beat egg white until it is frothy (about 30s)
- Add cream of tartar and 1/3 of castor sugar. Continue to beat until soft peak.
- Add in remaining sugar gradually and beat until just before stiff peak.
- Taking 1/3 of the meringue, add into the cake batter and mix well.
- Pour the cake batter into the remaining egg white and fold gently (I fold for about 20 times until no more streak of egg whites can be seen).
- Pour the mixture into the tube pan. Knock the pan several times on your kitchen counter.
- Bake for 40 - 45 minutes.

Look at the natural hue of green on my finished cake. Taste awesome..as I am typing this I am contemplating should I bake one next week. :)


Topo Map Cake

Topo or topography is related to Geography - a subject I hated most in school. Haha.. Saw this cake a few times when I was surfing and it really interest me how a simple butter cake can be made into such nice formation.

I checked out Wendy's blog and some recipe found on Munch Ministry. Being the kiasu me, I of course went with an experienced food blogger's recipe..keke

Frankly this cake is fairly easy to do and it taste really good and moist.

Topo Map Cake
(source: Table for 2..or more)

250g butter
250g sugar *
5 eggs (the eggs I used weigh about 57g each)
300g cake flour
1tsp baking powder
125ml evaporated milk
1tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pandan extract
Some cocoa powder for the topo lines

How?
- Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Add in eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each additon
- Sift half of flour and baking powder. Beat on low speed until combined
- Pour in evaporated milk and beat on low speed until combined
- Add in remaining flour and beat on low speed until combined.
- The batter is now ready. Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in pandan extract in one part and another with vanilla extract.
- Spread 1/2 of the pandan batter into lined and greased pan. Level it.
- Carefully, sift a layer of cocoa powder on the batter.
- Gently, scoop a dollop of alternate batter (if pandan was used as base, put vanilla batter next or vice versa). Level the batter, becareful not to scrape off the cocoa powder.
- Repeat with a layer of sifted cocoa powder and pandan batter.
- Repeat layering until all batter has been used it.
- Bake for 45 minutes or when toothpick comes out clean. Oven temperature is 180C.