This is an Asian inspired recipe for a very rich and yet soft and fluffy bread  similar to egg bread. The recipe uses egg yolk as a tangzhong, therefore the bread stays fresh and cottony for many days.

After I baked the pavlova, I saw myself with 4 egg yolks…and question were raised…what to do with all these egg yolks before they go bad? I just felt so bad discarding them…and voila…baking bread! After searching for the internet I found this site and decided to adapt the recipe. The recipe is pretty simple and straight forward.

I baked and baked, I made two loaves and many buns. I even took to work and share it in the lab, luckily all my friends enjoyed it and kept asking for more…

The texture of this bread is super soft and cotton like. Pretty addictive once you start to nibble on it, I personally could eat a whole loaf myself, okay, maybe half of the loaf. The texture of the bread does not change for a few days, and if it last you can place in the microwave for 10 seconds and the bread/bun will taste like out of the oven…yum!

After baking this bread using egg yolk now I am looking for recipes that uses only egg white so I have more excuse to bake this bread again.

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Custard (tangzhong or water roux)

• 2 egg yolks
• 20 g sugar
• 30 g bread flour
• 130 ml nonfat milk

Dough

• 500 g bread flour
• 50 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 g heavy cream
• 40 g unsalted butter

Method:

Egg Yolk Custard

Put all the ingredients listed under egg yolk custard into a small pan and whisk it well. Cook under low heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens and a paste form. Transfer the paste into a small bowl and cover it with a plastic wrap avoiding a skin to form. Let it chill in the refrigerator.

Dough

In a mixer, mix all the egg yolk custard and the ingredients listed under dough except for the butter. Mix until a ball forms. On the Kitchen Aid mixer I started with the stir mode and increased to speed 2.

Add in butter and continue to mix the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic and no longer sticks. I used speed 2 for approximately 20 minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixer and place it in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down to remove the air.

Shaping

Pullman Loaves

Divide the dough into 8 small portions make them into balls. Cover the balls with plastic wraps and rest for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Roll into oval shape and roll it like a Swiss roll and place them into a Pullman pan, four rolls in each pan.

Cover with plastic wrap and proof for another 60 minutes or so until the dough doubled in size.

Gently brush the bread with egg wash

Bake at preheated oven at 350F for 25 minutes.

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

Buns and pull-apart bread

Divide the dough into half. With the first half divide into small balls and cover with plastic wrap for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Roll into oval shape and roll it like a Swiss roll and place them into a round pan. Cover with plastic film until doubled in size.

With the other half open the dough into a rectangle of about ¼ in. Brush with butter and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon to taste. Cut into 4 strips, layer the strips onto each other and cut again into small squares. Place them into a loaf pan. Cover with plastic film until doubled in size.

Gently brush the buns and pull-apart bread with egg wash.

Bake at preheated oven at 350F for 25 minutes.

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

Now look at the texture of these babies…

And it can be packed as a gift!

I hope you enjoy this simple bread recipe. You might want to try Almond or Cheese Bread or Chocolate Marble Bread.

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

This is a basic recipe for no-knead flatbread. It is very versatile as you can fill the dough with cheese, roll it will green onion, or just plain.

This recipe is based on the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, which I got a while ago and have been using its recipes here and there. I made bread, rolls and even flatbreads…the basic recipe is very simple and easy to follow.

Of course being “me” I am never content in just following recipes, I always have to come up with something new…so I decided to make flatbreads with the dough…the variation are limitless, with garlic and parsley, ground pepper and parmesan, ham and cheese and the list goes on and on…

Today I am sharing with you two versions of the dough, white and whole wheat, although I personally like the white better somehow…

I halved the recipe since it is only for 2 people, in spite of being able to keep the dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Before I continue I want to apologize for the massive number of pictures…I just felt that pictures would reflect better than words…

I have for you a couple of simple versions besides the plain one, which still delicious, if you are not in mood for extra work…a flatbread filled with melting mozzarella cheese and a twist on the Chinese inspired scallion pancake.

Basic Dough Ingredients:

White dough

• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 1/3 cups unbleached flour, and extra for dusting when ready to bake
• 2 cups lukewarm water

Or if you prefer

Whole wheat dough

• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting when ready to bake
• 2 ¼ cups lukewarm water

Other ingredients that you might want to use

• Mozzarella cheese, sliced
• Oregano
• Scallion or green onion, finely chopped
• Salt
• Olive oil or any vegetable oil

Method:

Basic dough

In a mixer bowl, mix yeast and salt into the water (about 100 F) water. Stir in the flour using a low setting. Mix until the mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Please be advised that the dough will be wet. Pour the dough into a plastic container. Cover, leaving the lid loose.

Let dough sit and rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, for 2 to 5 hours. You can now start to use the dough, although it will be easy to maneuver the dough when refrigerated. The dough is good in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Every time when ready to bake, just remove the amount of dough that you need and place the remaining dough back into the fridge.

Shaping the Flatbread

Remove like a large lemon size dough and place on a slightly flourly surface, let the dough sit for 10 minutes. Using a rolling pin, gently roll until flat (about ¼ in). At this point you can brush the surface of the flatbread with a little olive oil and sprinkle garlic, parsley, oregano, fresh ground black pepper or whatever you palate with for…

Cooking the Flatbread

Place a frying pan in a medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil or any vegetable oil, gently lay the flatbread in the pan and sprinkle ½ tablespoon of water. Cover the pan by trapping the steam in the pan, which will help the cooking process. After a couple of minutes, flip the bread and cook the other side for another 2 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Flatbread filled with mozzarella cheese

Follow the same method as for the plain flatbread. Roll 2 pieces of dough to about ⅛ in for each flatbread. Place the cheese in the middle of one disk and gently cover the cheese with the second disk. Seal the sides by squeezing the dough together like a hand pie. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle oregano. Continue the cooking by following the instruction above.

Scallion flatbread (Asian inspired)

Before I go into the details of how to shape the scallion flatbread…here is the picture of both white and whole wheat dough…

pen the dough in the same manner as for the basic flatbread. Brush the open dough lightly with vegetable oil and sprinkle a little salt and then sprinkle the green onion evenly. Roll like a Swiss roll with the onion in between. Take the roll and coil it into a round bundle.
Roll out the round bundle again and it is ready for the pan.

or just make it plain…

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for making flatbread! Please check the Recipe Box for more bread recipes.

Did you know that flatbread is simply a bread that is shaped flat? Flatbread can be made of unleavened or leavened dough. Most of the cultures have their version. Examples of flatbread are pizza, pita, tortilla, lavash, naan, matzo, arepas between many others.

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

This is an Asian inspired recipe using tangzhong method for baking bread. The recipe calls for mashed kabocha. The bread is super soft, cottony and stays this way for many days.

Have you heard of kabocha? Kabocha is an Asian variety of squash and known as Japanese pumpkin. It is sweeter than other varieties of squash. So by reading the title you can imagine what I used to make this bread…kabocha!

I used the water roux or tangzhong method, which is very simple. This bread is so soft and cottony…delicious for any kind of sandwich, and because I did not add any spices to the kabocha puree the color of this bread is so vivid…absolutely gorgeous!

I had some leftover dough, since I did not want to place all the dough into the Pullman loaf pan…I quickly made a small pull-apart just by rolling the dough, brushing with a little butter, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar. Cut into strips and layer them together into a mini loaf pan. No need to mention that the little loaf of pull-apart bread disappeared so fast…as if never existed…

Because I used the water roux method, the sandwich bread stayed fresh, soft and cottony for a few days…yum!

One more thing…I use my little Zojirushi bread maker to knead the dough, but feel free to do it manually as well.

Ingredients:

Water Roux or Tangzhong

• 15 g bread flour
• 75 g water

Main dough

• 150 g kabocha mashed after steamed for 10 to 15 minutes
• 2½ cup bread flour
• 1 ½ tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry milk
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon dry yeast
• 75 ml water
• 2 tablespoons 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

In the bread machine bucket, add the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.
Turn the machine to knead mode until it forms soft dough, slightly sticky. Add more water of flour as needed since the content of water will vary between different pumpkin puree. Add the butter and let it knead until the butter incorporates to the dough.

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

Let both dough proof until the dough double to its original size.

Knock back the dough and split into 4 balls and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.

Flatten the ball and shape like a Swiss roll, flat again and roll it again like a Swiss roll.

Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman pan 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 25 minutes. For the pull-apart bread, bake for 15 minutes.

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

Store the bread in an airtight container.

If you enjoy this simple recipe for Asian inspired bread, you might want to check on Chia Milk Sandwich Bread or Pumpkin Dinner roll recipes.

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day…

to all the mothers out there!

Did you know that kabocha is a great source beta-carotene? Beta-carotene is converted in vitamin A in our body which is important for our health. Vitamin A is important for many body functions, such as vision, immune system, bone metabolism, skin health, formation of blood components, bone metabolism, and is an antioxidant.

Have a colorful week and thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes!

Easter is just around the corner, so what is more traditional than hot cross buns? This recipe uses tangzhong method, therefore the buns stay fresh, soft for many days.

This is my first time making hot cross buns…I used the same method that I have been using for a while…water roux…and added some orange zest to give a citrus kick…therefore these simple hot cross buns recipe has an Asian twist…it is glazed with simple sugar to give a shiny look.

This is a very simple recipe if you are planning to make hot cross buns…and it is great for anytime of the year as well. In spite to the superstition, hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would never go moldy, and could be kept as charms from one year to the next…I would not keep them for this long…but for a few days, I can assure you that the buns will stay fresh, soft and cotton like as out of the oven.

Again, this recipe is very flexible…you can color, I mean flavor the buns according to your palate…by adding dry fruits, spices… anything you desire…make it simple or majestic…

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 75 ml of water
• 15 g of bread flour

Dough

• 1 ½ cups bread flour
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1½ teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 large egg and complete to 100 ml with water

Crosses

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup water

Sugar Glaze

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon water

Method:

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

Add the water roux and all the dough ingredients, except the butter to the bread machine bucket according to the manufacture’s guideline. Let the dough cycle run to the end.

Add the butter and run the dough cycle again, make sure that the dough reaches a thin membrane. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Remove from the dough from the bread machine bucket and let the dough rise for approximately 2 hours in a cover container or until it double its initial volume.

Punch down the dough and split into two, then each half into 2 until 16 little balls. Place the little rolls into a bread pan and let is rise until the size has double.

For the cross, mix the all-purpose flour with the water and pipe onto each bun. First horizontally across the buns and then vertically.

Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes at 350F. In the meantime prepare the sugar glaze by adding the sugar to the boiling water, mix until all the sugar is dissolved.

Brush the sugar glaze on the bun as soon you take the buns out of the oven.

Serve warm or cold. The buns will be still very soft up to 3 days.

If you enjoy this simple recipe of Asian inspired hot cross buns, you might want to check on Asian Pumpkin Chia Sandwich Bread or Chocolate Layered Buns.

Did you know that originally hot cross buns were traditionally eaten on Good Friday? The yeast dough were made with lots of spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. According to superstition

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

This is an Asian inspired recipe bread using tangzhong method. I made two kind of bread with the same dough…one loaf is filled with almond paste and the other has layers of cheese in it.

Okay, here is where my first log of almond paste went…into a bread!

This is a very simple way to have two very different bread using one dough. The dough that I used in this recipe is pretty much what I have been using for cinnamon rolls, sweet rolls, even sandwich loaf. I did use my little Zojirushi bread machine, which was perfect for this recipe.

This bread is very light, soft, cottony, and stays fresh for many many days. The almond bread was delicious, with the gooey almond paste in it…although it came up sweeter than I expected (too greedy when adding almond paste), but was good with a cup of tea or coffee. Now, the cheese bread was something more expected, and my husband kept slicing it every time when going to the kitchen…no need to tell you that the bread did not last long.

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

75 ml of water
15 g of bread flour

Dough

2 cups bread flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry milk
1½ tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 large egg and complete to 100 ml with water

Almond Paste

1 egg yolk lightly beaten with ½ tablespoon water

Sliced almond for garnish

Grated Gruyère Cheese for filling

Method:

Water roux

Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 65oC/149oF. 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

Add the water roux and all the dough ingredients to the bread machine bucket according to the manufacture’s guideline.

I let the dough cycle run for 2 times, making sure that the dough reaches a thin membrane. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Let is rise for approximately 2 hours in a cover container or until it double its initial volume.

Punch down the dough and divide into 2 parts.

Cut the almond paste into 6 equal portions, reserve.

While working with the first part cover the second half with a cloth. Divide the ball into 6 little balls, and shape into a carrot like. Do the same with the almond paste. Flat both the dough and the almond paste with a roller and place the almond past on the dough, rolling from the wider side to the narrow side. Repeat the same procedure with the other 5 portions of dough.

Make small cuts, cover and let it rise until double its original size.

With the other half portion of the dough, divide into 3 balls. Flat with a roller and filled with grated cheese, roll it like a Swiss roll, flat again and spread more grated cheese. Do the same with the remaining 2 portions of dough.

Cover and let it double in size.

Preheat oven at 350F

When ready to bake…

Almond Paste Bread: Brush with the egg yolk washand top with almond. Bake for about 6 to 7 minutes.
Cheese Bread: Brush with egg yolk wash and sprinkle cheese. Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.

If you enjoy this recipe, you might want to check on Sweet Milk Bread with Raisin or Matcha Swirl Sandwich Bread recipes.

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

This is a easy recipe for making ciabatta in the bread machine. The dough for ciabatta is very wet therefore very difficult to handle, that is when the bread machine comes very handy.

I love baking bread…not only the smell of the bread baking in the oven as well as watching the dough changing its form and texture as it rises. This is a very simple recipe for ciabatta. The only difference from the ones that I had baked before is the addition of semolina flour. Semolina flour as you might know is commonly used for making pasta. The addition of semolina flour gives the ciabatta a slightly chewier texture and intense color.

The dough might be harder to manage since it is pretty wet, but all well worth it! The ciabatta turned out great, the crumb was loaded with different sizes of air pockets, and the texture was chewy…delicious.

Ingredients:

Biga Starter

• ½ cup bread flour
• Pinch of yeast
• ¼ cup water at room temperature

Dough

• ¾ cup bread flour
• ¼ cup semolina
• ¼ teaspoon yeast
• 2/3 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup water at room temperature
• All the biga prepared above

Method:

Biga

Mix all the ingredients for the biga in medium bowl. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature up to 24 hours or overnight

Dough

Place all the ingredients of the dough in the bread machine and the biga. Turn on the bread machine to the kneading setting and let it mix/knead by occasionally scrapping the side of the mixing bucket.

The dough will be moist, after kneading for a while the gluten will form and the dough will not stick so much at the walls of the bucket.

If the dough does not pull away from the wall of the mixing bucket add ½ tablespoon of bread flour.

Once the cycle ends, place the stretchy dough in a very well oiled bowl. Make sure that the bowl is big enough because the dough will triple in size.

Cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel. Let rise until triple.
Dust flour onto a surface and gently scrape the dough. Dust more flour on top, form a rectangle by pushing the sides of the dough.

Flip the dough on a cookie sheet with a parchment paper lightly dusted with flour. Top the dough with some more flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until double of its initial size.

An hour or so before baking, put the baking stone into the oven on the lowest rack and preheat to 475 degrees. Place a pan or tray underneath it on the floor of the oven to preheat with the stone.

Slide the parchment paper to the stone and add ice cubes to the empty tray. Close the oven door and let if bake for 5 minutes, then turn the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for another 20 minute, rotating the stone once in between the baking time.

Once done with the baking time, turn off the oven and at the end of cooking turn off the oven and leave the loaf for 5 minutes with the door slightly open.

Let the loaf cool on the rack and serve warm.

If you enjoy this recipe for ciabatta you might want to take a look at No-Knead French Baguette recipe.

Did you know that semolina flour is high in gluten? Pasta made with semolina have a firm texture and hold its shape well. Since semolina is made from durum wheat, people that are sensitive or allergic to gluten should avoid eating semolina

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for visiting Color Your Recipes!

This is an Asian inspired recipe for sandwich bread using pumpkin puree. The bread is soft, pillowy and stays moist for many days because of the tangzhong method.

Thank you all for the nice words of support on my first post as “Color Your Recipes”, you all have been very kind and encouraging…thank you!

Before I share this post, as you might know Philippines was hit by a big typhoon Haiyan, and Tina from Pinay Cooking Corner is having a online bake sale to support the victims, please hop to her site for the details.

Now to the post…I could not let this month flyaway without posting something with pumpkin…so here I am…

This sandwich bread is so soft and cottony…delicious for any kind of sandwich, and because I did not add any spices the pumpkin puree just gives color to the bread which believe me it is very attractive…I don’t know if it is proper English to call a bread “attractive”… it is so good that I already baked 4 loaves of this bread.

I use the water roux method to accomplish the Asian bread texture, because the pumpkin puree contains water I just added less water to the dough. You want the dough to be slightly sticky, so the “cottony” texture can be achieved. When baking sandwich bread, In this recipe I used my 1 lb Zojirushi bread machine and Pullman loaf pan.

Before I go on with the recipe, the new issue to Desserts Magazine is out…and again it is free for a while…so if you are interested, check on the link, you might find something for your sweet tooth before membership is required in order to browse the magazine.

Ingredients:

Water Roux or Tangzhong

• 15 g bread flour
• 75 g water

Main dough

• 150 g pumpkin puree
• 2½ cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon dry milk
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon dry yeast
• ¼ cup water
• 1½ tablespoon 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

In the bread machine bucket, add the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.

Turn the machine to knead mode until it forms soft dough, slightly sticky. Add more water of flour as needed since the content of water will vary between different pumpkin puree. Add the butter and let it knead until the butter incorporates to the dough.

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

Let both dough proof until the dough double to its original size.

Knock back the dough and split into 4 balls and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter.

Flatten the ball and shape like a Swiss roll, flat again and roll it again like a Swiss roll.

Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman pan 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 25 minutes.

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

Store the bread in an airtight container.

I hope you enjoy this pumpkin sandwich bread. For more Asian inspired bread recipes like this check on Chia Milk Sandwich Bread or Matcha Swirl Sandwich Bread.

Did you know that pumpkin is recommended by dieticians for patients in need to control cholesterol? Pumpkin contains high levels of dietary fiber, anti-oxidants, minerals and vitamins. Moreover, pumpkin contains high levels of vitamin A, a very powerful anti-oxidant.

Have a great week and thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes!

Don’t you always have bananas on your counter that are screaming to be used? Well, somehow I always find them looking at me and begging to be used…as a matter of fact we are not buying them at Costco anymore because it is too many for us, so we just buy by units at Trader Joe’s. Once in a while I find myself stuck with a couple of them…

This time I decided to make banana jam, sort of, with some cinnamon and fill the crescent rolls with it…and if you have left over, these are delicious over vanilla ice cream, on a toast, pancake…almost like banana foster.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tube of crescent rolls

Method:

Cut the banana into approximately ½ inch size.

In a small pan place all the ingredients except for the crescent and turn the stove to medium low heat. Stir occasionally until the banana mix is slightly thick, cook for about 6 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let it cool.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 350F.

Remove the crescent dough from the tube and gently separate the triangles.

Place about 2 to 3 tablespoon of the banana jam on the crescent roll, spreading evenly.

Roll from the wider side of the triangle tip.

Place the rolls on a silicon mat and bake for approximately 14 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Serve warm or cold.

I hope you give a try to this simple and delicious recipe for banana jam. If you have lots of ripe banana, you might want to try Light Banana Loaf or Banana Muffins with Walnuts.

Did you know that banana contains dietary fibers? And it is a good source of vitamin C, potassium and manganese, but the majority of the calories are derived from sugars.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes [dot] Me and have a great week!