Sweet Buns

Last week I was feeling sick and didn't feel like eating anything heavy for my dinner. So decided to eat something light like bread or bun and go to sleep. But when it was too late by the time I took my decision. It was like half past 10 and all the shops were closed L! Damn!! The next morning I decided to bake a few for myself so that I could eat it any time I wanted.

Ingredients:

Flour/maida – 480 gms

Caster sugar – 4 tbsp (add more if you like it sweeter)

Milk powder – 3 tbsp

Dry yeast – 2 tsp

Butter – 40 gms

Egg – 1 (lightly beaten)

Salt – ½ tsp

Water – 150 ml (lukewarm)

Egg yolk – for glazing

Choc chips – for decorating (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

Sift flour, milk powder and salt. Add sugar and yeast. Mix well until they are combined. Make a well in the centre and add egg & butter. Again mix well.

Now gradually add water to form soft dough. Add more lukewarm water if required. Knead for 20mins until soft and elastic.

Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover with cling wrap and allow it to double in volume.

Once risen punch the dough down and knead it again for another 10mins.

Beat egg yolk in a bowl and keep separate.

Roll and shape the buns and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle choc chips (if adding) and bake the buns for 20-30 mins. Glaze the top with egg yolk mixture.

Tips:

• You can dissolve the yeast in some lukewarm water than adding it directly into the flour.
• Make sure you add lukewarm water and not hot water. Hot water kills the yeast and won’t allow the dough to rise.
• Adding a lilttle bit of milk to your egg yolk mixture will give the buns a nice golden color.
• If you have a oven that has separate temperature settings for top and bottom rack, first turn on the bottom heat on and halfway turn on the top heat as well. This makes even cooking.
• You can even add some tutty fruity into the flour to make tutty fruity buns!

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Cupcakes Without A Muffin Tray

I love eating cupcakes. I remember as a child my grandfather used to always get me a box of goodies when he returned home from work and in that box cupcake was a constant goodie!

Yesterday when I went to bake some cupcakes I couldn’t find my muffin tray anywhere and I was craving for them so badly and I had to make them at any cost. You know how they say ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’, well I found out that you could actually bake cupcakes without using a muffin tray!!

This recipe is the simplest way of making classic cupcakes.

Ingredients:

Butter – 125gms (melted & cooled at room temp)

Egg – 1 (beaten)

Milk – ¾ cup

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Self raising flour – 2 cups

Tea cups – 12 to 13

Note: you can make self raising flour at home. For every 1 cup of all purpose flour add 1 ½ tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp of salt.

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C

Sift the self raising flour couple of times. Add the flour to a bowl. Make a well in the center. 

Add the butter, milk, egg and vanilla essence to the flour and mix well with a spoon until well combined without any lumps.

Place the cupcake liners on top of the tea cups. Add dollops of the batter into each liner. (Every time you pour the batter be careful as the liner will sink into the tea cup coz of the weight. So pour it carefully.)

Arrange the tea cups with cupcake batter onto a tray and bake it for 15mins or until when a skewer inserted comes out clean. When done top it up with frosting.

Well they might not be pretty but tastes good!

Simple Frosting:

In a bowl mix 1 cup of icing sugar with 1 to 1 ½ tbsp. of water and a drop of color of your choice (if you want). Spoon it over the cupcakes.

This is a great technique for those of you who bake cupcakes only occasionally don’t want to spend money on buying a muffin tray.

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Doughnuts

Doughnuts come in 2 varieties; the glaced ring doughnuts and the filled versions. These yummy doughnuts are super soft and you can use the dough to make either of the 2 mentioned above. However, here I am showing the glaced ring version.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 2 ½ cups

Milk – ¾ cup

Yeast – 2 ½ tsp

Butter – 2 ½ tbsp

Warm water – 2 tbsp

Salt – ½  tsp

Sugar – ¼ cup

Vanilla essence – ½ tsp

Egg – 1 (beaten)

Method:

Add yeast to warm water and set aside for 10-15 mins for fermentation.

Sift flour & salt. Add sugar, yeast solution, melted butter, beaten egg & milk to it. Knead to form sticky dough for 4-5mins. The dough should me sticky but still manageable. (Don’t worry about the stickiness; you can adjust it later once the dough has risen)

Cover with a cling wrap and keep in a warm place until it rises in double. I usually keep it in the microwave to rise.

You can now see how the dough has risen! Now knead it again. Here you can add some more flour to remove the stickiness. Now roll them and cut into doughnut shapes. Leave them on a floured surface to rest for an hour.

After an hour fry on medium heat.  You can have them as it is or with toppings of your choice. I had it with choc topping. Simply melt some dark choc and dip the doughnuts and enjoy!

For sugar glaze:

Mix 1 cup icing sugar with a few drops of vanilla essence and some warm milk or water until smooth. Make sure you make this topping once you have finished making the doughnuts coz the glaze sets very fast.

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GARLIC BREAD

Who doesn't enjoy toasted garlic bread with bbqs and pizzas?? I love eating them when I bake pizzas, pastas, basically with anything! Here's a quick and simple recipe to make garlic bread without any fuss at all.

Ingredients: 

Bakery Bread - a loaf

Celery or coriander leaves - 1 tbsp (chopped finely)

Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp

Butter - 3 tbsp

Method:

Cut the loaf of bread into slices. Make sure you dont cut it all the way through. In a bowl mix celery/coriander, garlic paste and butter. Apply this mixture all over the inside of the loaves. 

To make it more buttery, apply some butter on top of the loaf as well. Cover this loaf with an aluminium foil and bake it in a preheated oven on 180C for 10-15mins. 

If you want it more crispier then remove the foil and bake it for an extra 2-4 mins.

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