This is a simple recipe which by just adding a bit of miso you will find yourself indulging a simple roasted delicata squash with a hint of umami flavor.  

Have you ever tried Delicata squash? If you have not, please check this post to see how this squash looks like.

Anyway, this is a twist on the roasted Delicata squash recipe, miso is added almost at the end to give the squash an umami touch. I grew up with miso, therefore I never thought much about it, until recently I realized that I like the taste of miso and could not explain why…here is why, it is the now well accepted UMAMI taste which is known as the fifth primary taste.

This is such a simple and easy recipe that can be easily added to your Thanksgiving table as one of the side dishes…you will be surprise what a little touch of miso can do to your squash. I choose the Delicata squash due to its delicate texture and the pretty shape, please feel free to adapt this recipe to any kind of squash of your preference.

Ingredients:

• 2 Delicata squashes, sliced and seeds removed
• 1 ½ teaspoons white miso
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil plus extra

Method:

Preheat oven to 425F

In a bowl add the sliced Delicata squash and toss a little sesame oil. Spread the squash on an oven safe tray in a single layer and roast for 30 minutes or until the squash are soft.

In the meantime in a small bowl mix the miso, sugar, sake, sesame oil until a thin paste.

Brush the roasted squash with the miso mixture and place it back to the oven.

Broil for 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve warm or cold.

If you enjoy this miso, you my want to check on this exotic Miso Caramel Sauce recipe.

Did you know that miso is made from fermented soybeans? Miso is part of Japanese cuisine and presently has been getting very popular worldwide. There are many type of miso which can vary depending on the region that it is produced.

Oh…before I go…

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This is a great chiffon cake made with pumpkin puree…it is simple to put together…it is light and it sure makes a great dessert or even snack.

I must admit that there is only a hint of pumpkin puree, therefore the cake is not overwhelmed with pumpkin and if you do not mention, your guests will never imagine that there is pumpkin in the cake in spite of the yellowish color.

In this recipe I used the 3 ounce cylinder shape silicone bakeware…it was somewhat difficult to remove the chiffon cake from the mold due to its delicate texture, I had to be very careful… next time baking this cake it would be better to use a regular size cake pan to avoid the cake “falling” apart.

Nevertheless, this recipe is a keeper, and it would be wonderful served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream…which I did not have it handy.

This recipe was adapted from here.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, separated whites
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tart
• 70 g sugar
• 60 g pumpkin puree
• 45 ml milk
• 50 ml vegetable oil, such as corn or canola
• 80 g cake flour, sifted

Method:

Preheat oven to 325F.

Beat the egg whites until frosty, add cream of tart whisk until soft peaks forms.  Add sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.

In another bowl, combine pumpkin puree with milk. Add the egg yolks and oil. Mix till well blended and add the flour. Mix gently until no lumps.

Fold in approximately ⅓ of egg whites into pumpkin mixture. Add another ⅓ of the egg whites by gently folding into the batter. Add the remaining ⅓ egg whites and again fold into the cake batter.

Scoop the batter into prepared muffin pan or into an approximately 10 inch pan, level the batter.

Gently tap the pan or muffin pan against the counter to remove air bubbles trapped in the batter.

Bake the muffin for approximately 15 minute or the 10 inch pan for 25 minutes. Once turned the oven off, keep the cake inside the oven and leave the door ajar for 10 minutes.

Remove the cake from oven and gently remove the cake from the pan.

Let it cool completely before serving.

If you enjoy this simple recipe for a light pumpkin cake you might want to check on Tangerine Chiffon Cake recipe.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

This is an Asian inspired recipe for soft, light and cottony savory pumpkin bread with cheese in between. It is fun to just pull-apart and savor it.

Pumpkin and cheese? Why not? As always I love baking bread, and most of the time (not always) I feel guilty using regular wheat flour…somehow I not a big fan of whole wheat, and I am always trying to find a healthier” version for bread…now I found a solution for it…pumpkin pure…

Pumpkin pure can be easily added to the bread dough without any fuss…and if I do not emphasize it, you might not even notice the presence of the pumpkin…well, that might not be true…because of the vibrant yellow…which gives a nice and healthy look to the loaf.

Now going back to pumpkin and cheese…who said that pumpkin yeasted bread has to be always “sweet”? Well, I can guarantee you that once you try this bread you will definitely change your mind…

Please note that in this recipe I used the Kitchen Aid mixer and the USA loaf pan, which is my favorite, no need to oil and the bread always come out so easily.

Ingredients:

Water Roux or Tangzhong

• 35 g bread flour
• 175 g water

Main dough

• 600 g bread flour
• 180 g pumpkin puree
• 80 g sugar
• 45 g dry milk
• 8 g sea salt
• 10 g dry yeast
• 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 60 g butter

Cheese Filling

• 250 g grated cheddar cheese
• 2 green onions finely chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoon butter, melted

Method:

Bread Dough

Water roux
Whisk together the water and the flour in a small pan until the mixture is well blended and free of lumps.

Stir the mixture while it cooks over the medium heat to reach 65C/150F. It takes about 2-3 minutes. Continue whisking until the mixture starts to thicken. The mixture of flour will have “lines”.

Remove from the heat.

Transfer to a bowl, cover with a plastic film to avoid “skin” from forming.

Ready to add to the bread dough once is cool.

Water roux or Tangzhong can bend kept in the fridge for up to 48hours.

Dough
Place all the cooled water roux and all the ingredients listed under main dough into a mixer except for the butter. Mix until all the ingredients are together, it will be sticky.

Increase the speed to number 2 and continue to mix for another 2 minutes until the dough is smooth.

Add the butter and continue the mixing until the dough is smooth, elastic and comes out of the mixing bowl, this will take approximately another 10 to 15 minutes. You will notice that the dough will no longer stick to the wall of the mixing bowl and pass the window pane test.

Place the dough into a medium to large bowl. Cover and let it proof until the size double from the original size.

Knock back the dough and split into 2 portions (approximately 600 g each) and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.

Roll one piece of the dough out to form a square of approximately 27 x 27 cm (11 x 11 in).

Brush the dough with the melted butter for the filling and sprinkle it with the green onion and cheese.

Cut into three equal trips. Stack onto of each other and cut across six equal strips. Layer the squares into the loaf pan like a book. Do the same with the remaining dough.

Cover pan with the towel and let rest in a warm place for another 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Layer the squares into the loaf pan like a book. Cover pan with the towel and let rest in a warm place for another 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350F and place pan onto the middle rack in your oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top of your loaf is dark brown.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen the edges around the loaf and invert it onto a wire rack.

Serve warm.

So…was I able to change your mind and make you accept pumpkin and cheese?

If you enjoy this recipe with pumpkin pure, you might want to try Pumpkin Dinner Rolls or Pumpkin Soft Cookies.

Did you know that pumpkin is loaded with antioxidants such as carotenoids? This explains its bright orange color. Pumpkin is also a great source of dietary fibers.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is a recipe for a healthy Asian inspired salad of zucchini noddles toss in San-J Peanut Thai sauce topped with chicken and toasted sliced almond. Great as a meal!

Have you ever heard of San-J Asian cooking sauces? Well, I had not until I was approached by the company to try…they gave me an opportunity to choose 3 sauces…I went for the Thai peanut, Szechuan and Mongolian.   Before I go on to the post I would like to state that once I accepted the invitation, these sauces were sent to me without charge, I did not receive any compensation for this post and all the content and opinion in this post are solely mine.

Okay, now I can move on…these sauces are gluten free and use tamari soy sauce which is free of wheat, you can read more about their product here (http://san-j.com/).

I have tried two of their sauces and I loved it…they are tasty, nice balance between the sweet and salty and a touch of heat.

I first used the Mongolian sauce and added to my vegetable stir fry…it gave a simple and plain stir fry a nice touch. The label says Mongolian beef, but feel free to skip the beef and use in any stir fry… then I used San-J  Thai peanut sauce as a salad dressing…it was so good…again a nice balance of sweet and a hint of heat.

In this recipe I used a spiralizer, but don’t worry if you do not own one…you can just cut julienne or use a mandolin.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 zucchini or yellow squash, julienne or noodle (spiralized)
• 1 carrot, grated
• Chicken breast boiled or in can
• Fresh ground pepper
• Fresh cilantro
• Toasted sliced almond for garnish

Method:

In a medium pan boil water.  Add the squash noodles for about 1 to 1 ½ minutes. Remove from the water and placed the squash noodles in an ice water.

Drain well all the water from the squash noodles.  Place in a bowl and add the grated carrot, chicken, freshly ground pepper and cilantro.

Toss in San-J Thai peanut sauce to taste, mix gently.

Garnish with toasted sliced almond and serve.

If  you enjoy this healthy salad using San-J Sauce you might want to try Celery Salad with San-J Sauce.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Today I am sharing you a recipe for an Asian inspired bun recipe. These buns are filled with tangy soft apple. Because tangzhong or water roux method was used in this recipe, the little buns stay fresh and soft for days.

Yes, here I am with another simple recipe for bread…this time I decided to make a lighter version of bread dough as compared to the sweet dough. In spite of no heavy cream and less fat, this bread still turned out to be very light and fluffy…

With this one recipe I made two kind of bread, my usual Pullman sandwich loaf and buns filled with freshly cooked apple filling…yes, the buns turned out so good…light bread dough with sweet and a touch of tangy apple…fall is here, and this means lots of variety of apples to choose from…

I have a feeling that this bread recipe will be here to stay, especially that contain less fat and still has the same fluffiness of the other ones that I baked in the past.

In this recipe I added the butter after the gluten developed, therefore the butter did not interfere with the gluten formation, therefore the texture came out very light, fluffy and yet springy

During mixing stage, before the butter hit the bowl I was to tempted to add more flour, but was able to control myself and waited for a while…sure enough the dough eventually did not stick to the bottom of the bowl (due to gluten formation).

When adding the butter, because the gluten network has been formed already, please be aware that it will take a while until the butter incorporate into the dough…please be patience…all well worth it!

By the way, you will need a mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer) for this recipe, as the dough is very sticky and hard to handle. Here is the recipe, and indeed it is a very simple one, just make sure that you weight all the ingredients…I hope you get to try this one…oh! Both the sandwich loaf and the apple buns stay fresh for many many days…

Ingredients:

Water Roux or Tangzhong

• 35 g bread flour
• 175 g water

Main dough

• 2 eggs slightly beaten minus 1 ½ tablespoons (use as egg wash)
• 600 g bread flour
• 90 g sugar
• 50 g dry milk
• 8 g sea salt
• 8 g dry yeast
• 120 ml water
• 60 g butter

Apple Filling

• 450 g Jazz apples, peeled and cut
• 100 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100ml water

Method:

Apple Filling

Soak the cut apple in a bowl of water with some lemon or lime juice

Drain and place the apple in a medium pan. Add the sugar, lemon or lime juice and water. Cook under high heat until boiling. Turn the heat to low and cook until most of the water is evaporated.

Add the vanilla extract and remove from the heat.

Let it cool completely before using on the dough.

Bread Dough

Water roux

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.

Dough

Place all the cooled water roux and all the ingredients listed under main dough into a mixer except for the butter. Mix until all the ingredients are together, it will be very sticky.

Increase the speed to number 2 and continue to mix for 5 to 10 minutes, until all dough comes out from the bottom of the mixing bowl.

Add the butter and continue the mixing until the dough is smooth and comes out of the mixing bowl, this will take approximately another 10 to 15 minutes. You will notice that the dough will no longer stick to the wall of the mixing bowl and pass the window pane test.

Place the dough into a medium to large bowl. Cover and let it proof until the size double from the original size.

Divide the dough into approximately 550g and 640g. Use the 550g for the Pullman loaf.

With the 640g dough, using a rolling pin shape the dough into a rectangle of approximately 28 x 38cm. Spread the apple filling evenly on the dough. Roll it like when making cinnamon rolls.

Cut into approximately 16 pieces. Place the rolls into a muffin pan.

Cover and let the buns proof until double its original size.

When ready to bake, use the leftover egg as an egg wash (add 1 teaspoon water) and brush gently on the buns.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for approximately 15 to 20 minute, until slightly golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you enjoy this Asian inspired recipe of bread, you might want to take a look at Sweet Milk Bread with Raisin or Matcha Swirl Sandwich Bread recipes.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is an Asian inspired recipe for a soft, cottony and fluffy bread.  The dough is very rich because of the heavy whipping cream in it.  It is great as a loaf or as a base for all kind of rolls and bread.

First of all, I want to apologize for the long time away from blogging…I hope you are all well and did not give up on me…I was literally very busy in the past months and after things got under control we went for a short vacation…now I am back and hope to pick up where I left…as you might know I love bread and since I started blogging, baking bread has been one of my many passions…

After playing with many recipes and baking tons of bread, one after another one, I started to feel very critical, and was not content with one particular recipe until I came up with this one, which I now use it quite often and make all kind of bread from simple sandwich loaf bread to braided ones. Please note that this dough is very rich, lots of cream and butter, almost a lighter version of brioche. So if you are looking into a everyday bread recipe you should not use this one, as it is sure super rich.

Initially this dough is very sticky, therefore hard to handle without the help of a mixer or bread machine. As the dough mix, gluten forms, turning the dough from sticky to elastic…it is awesome watching the transformation…it is all chemistry! I sure hope you give this recipe a try.

Okay, enough of description…let’s get to the recipe!

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 35 g bread flour
• 175 ml water

Sweet Dough

• 600 g bread flour
• 100 g sugar
• 8 g salt
• 20 g dry milk powder
• 8 g yeast
• 2 eggs minus 1 tablespoon for egg wash, slightly beaten
• 50 g milk
• 120 ml whipping cream (approximately 100g)
• 55 g butter (room temperature)

Method:

Water roux or Tangzhong

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film. Please see here (http://jzq.0e7.mywebsitetransfer.com/chocolate-marble-asian-bread-recipe/ ).

Sweet dough

Place all the cooled water roux and all the ingredients listed under sweet dough into a mixer except for the butter. Mix until all the ingredients are together, it will be very sticky.

Increase the speed to number 2 and continue to mix for 5 minutes.

Add the butter and continue the mixing until the dough is smooth and comes out of the mixing bowl, this will take approximately 15 minutes. You will notice that the dough will no longer stick to the wall of the mixing bowl.

Place the dough into a medium to large bowl. Cover and let it proof until the size double from the original size.

Now it is up to up to shape the dough as you desire…
I usually divide the dough into 2 portions and make two different bread, such as plain rolls, buns, pull-apart, cinnamon rolls, chocolate rolls, sandwich bread…make it sweet or savory, let you imagination free…

After shaping the dough, cover the dough and let it proof until double to almost triple its original size. Just before baking in a preheated oven of 350F, brush gently the top of the buns or rolls with the egg wash.

Bake for approximately 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size and shape of the bread or until the top turn golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack.

Now it is your turn to use your imagination and come up with all kind of bread using this recipe…

If you enjoy this recipe you might want to explore my other BREAD RECIPES.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is a super fun recipe for Asian inspired chocolate layered buns. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps. The buns are soft and fluffy with many layers of chocolate in between the dough…

These buns are fun to make…it seems more complicated than actually it is…I mainly used basic bread recipe with tangzhong and layered with a chocolate paste. You can roll, twist, layer…in another words play with the dough. I made two kinds of buns/rolls with the same “materials”.

The bread dough was done by the help of a mixer, and the chocolate paste was inspired from the recipe at Cookpad.

I better stop “talking” here, because this post is pretty long and is loaded with pictures…I hope they can help you to visualize the rolling, twisting and layering…

Ingredients:

Basic Bread

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 225 ml of water
• 45 g of bread flour

Dough

• 650 g bread flour
• 150 ml heavy cream
• 80 ml milk
• 7 g salt
• 50 g sugar
• 20 g dry milk
• 10 g yeast
• 40 g butter

Chocolate Layer

• 15 g bread flour
• 10 g corn starch
• 10 g cocoa powder
• 50 g sugar
• 70 ml water
• 10 g butter

Method:

Basic Bread

Water roux
Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 65C/149F. The mix will turn to a paste and you can see the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, cover with a saran wrap film over the paste and leave until lukewarm.

Dough

In the mixer, add all the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.

Turn the machine and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until a ball forms.

Increase the speed to “2” and let it mix for 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, and less sticky as the gluten forms.

Add the butter and mix for 20 minutes more. Take a small portion of the dough (like a golf ball) and stretch gently until a very thin and transparent membrane (windowpane).
If the dough tears mix for another 5 minutes until you achieve the windowpane test. The windowpane test, demonstrated that the gluten is very well developed and it will create a very light crumb. The dough should be very elastic.

Remove the dough from the mixer and place in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.

Let dough proof until the dough tripled to its original size. While the dough is proofing, make the chocolate layer.

Knock back the dough and split into 2 portions (approximately 600 g each) and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.

Chocolate Layer

In a small pot, mix all the ingredients together, except for the butter.

Bring the cocoa mix in a medium heat by continuously mixing. A thick paste will form.

Remove from the heat and add the butter. Mix until all the butter is incorporated.

Spread the chocolate paste on a plastic film of about 23 x 30 cm (9 x 12 in).

Place the chocolate spread in the freezer until time to assemble the bread.

Assembly

In this post I am showing two types of buns, the first one is layered and twisted. The second one the dough is rolled and presses with chopstick. Feel free to come up with your favorite way to layer.

Example One

Roll one piece of the dough out to form a rectangle of approximately 24 x 32 cm (9 ½ x 12 ½ in).

Place the ½ of the chocolate layer in one side of the rectangle. Fold in to cover the chocolate layer.
Roll it again into its original size.

Cut into the rectangle into half and place one half on top of the second one. Roll it until the initial size. Repeat the procedure again.

Roll onto a final size of approximately 18 x 35 cm (7 x 14 in). Cut into 32 strips.

Twist 2 strips together and roll it, forming a coil. Tuck the end of the coil at the bottom.

Arrange the buns in a 20 or 23 cm (8 or 9 in) round pan.

Cover the pan with a plastic film. Leave to rise in a warm place until the buns have double in size.

Brush the buns with egg wash just before baking.

Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 25 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Example two

Roll the remaining piece of the dough out to form a rectangle of approximately 24 x 32 cm (9 ½ x 12 ½ in).

Place the ½ chocolate layer in the middle and fold into third. Roll the dough long side and fold into thirds.

Roll the dough onto a rectangle of approximately 24 x 32 cm (9 ½ x 12 ½ in). Roll the dough up, start at the wider side (Swiss roll fashion). Press the edge together to seal.

Cut the roll into 16 pieces.

Use a chopstick, press the chopstick in the middle with the open ends on both side of the chopstick. Remove the chopstick and bring the two edges together.

Arrange the buns in a 20 or 23 cm (8 or 9 in) round pan.

Cover the pan with a plastic film. Leave to rise in a warm place until the buns have double in size.

Brush the buns with egg wash just before baking.

Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 25 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you enjoy this Asian Inspired recipe for Chocolate Layered Buns, you might want to check on Matcha Swirl Sandwich Bread recipe.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is an Asian inspired recipe for a cottony, soft and fluffy sandwich bread. The bread has lots of “freckles”…chia seeds! This bread is great for sandwich or just as a toast.

As I promised last week, here is the recipe for the chia milk sandwich bread. This bread is truly light, cottony and stays fresh for a few days mainly because of the water roux technique and is widely used in Asian bakery. Apparently this “cooked” dough is able to retain more moist…I am not sure about the scientific explanation for it, but when comes to baking buns/sandwich bread I sure add the water roux (tangzhong) in my dough.

This recipe is pretty similar to your usual sandwich bread, only one extra step…and for me it is well worth it since the texture of the bread is much softer and lighter…

In this recipe I was able to bake 2 Pullman loaves, therefore all the stirring, mixing and kneading was done with the help of the Kitchen Aid mixer…please feel free to adapt according to your needs.

Oh! Since the texture of this bread is so soft and tender, it is great with peanut butter and jelly, egg salad…light stuff…if you know what I mean…

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 40 g bread flour
• 200 ml water

Dough

• 4 tsp chia seed in 250 ml water
• 650 g bread flour
• 10 g yeast
• 7 g salt
• 45 g sugar
• 100 ml cream
• 20 g dry milk
• 40 g butter

Method:

Water roux

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.

Dough

Soak the chia seed in the water for at least 30 minutes.

In the mixer, add all the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.

Turn the machine and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until a ball forms.

Increase the speed to “2” and let it mix for 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, and less sticky as the gluten forms.
Add the butter and mix for 20 minutes more. Take a small portion of the dough (like a golf ball) and stretch gently until a very thin and transparent membrane (windowpane).

If the dough tears mix for another 5 minutes until you achieve the windowpane test. The windowpane test, demonstrated that the gluten is very well developed and it will create a very light crumb. The dough should be very elastic.

Remove the dough from the mixer and place in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.

Let dough proof until the dough tripled to its original size.

Knock back the dough and split into 2 portions (600 g each) and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter. I end up with 1272 g of dough, and made 2 small buns with the 72 g of dough.

Divide each ball into 4 little balls. Flatten the ball and shape like a Swiss roll, flat again and roll it again like a Swiss roll. Repeat the same procedure with the remaining dough.

Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman pan (23 x 10 x 10 cm or 9 x 4 x 4 in) and let it rise until almost 90% to reach the rim of the pan.
Cover the pan and bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and flip the bread into a wire rack to cool.

Slice the bread after is cool.

Store the bread in an airtight container.

If you enjoy this Asian inspired bread recipe, you might want to try Pumpkin Dinner Roll or Chinese Steamed Bun.

Did you know that chia seeds are from the mint family? And yes, they are the same seed used in the terracotta figurines. Chia seeds are a great source of omega-3 fat and fibers. This seeds are native of Mexico and Guatemala.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!