Buff Bear Bread

Sun’s out, guns out.

I saw this post by konel_bread on Instagram and knew I had to recreate it.

In concept, this is pretty similar to the sausage bread you’d get at Chinese bakeries, just shaped really cute. So for the bread base itself I used a highly enriched sweet bread that you’d expect from sausage bread.

After shaping you just pipe on the face with a bit of chocolate and you’re done!

Ingredients (makes about 8 large bread)

• 880g all-purpose flour
• 120g sugar
• 16g instant yeast
• 16g salt
• 120g beaten egg (from about 2.5 eggs, keep any leftover egg for the egg wash)
• 120g milk, any percentage
• 240g water
• 160g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 8 sausages
• Some chocolate to decorate

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together in a bowl.
2. Add the egg, milk, and water, and mix until just combined.
3. Knead in the butter until dough is smooth and elastic, then add the corn. Continue kneading until the dough reaches windowpane stage.
4. Cover the dough and let rise until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.
5. When the bread dough has doubled in size, knock down the dough, and then divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (for me this was about 200g of dough per piece). Shape them into balls, and then cover and let rise again until doubled in size, about 45 mins.
6. When each dough ball has doubled in size, lightly knead the dough ball and then start shaping the bear. I did this by just rolling out various sized balls for the muscles, and long bits of dough for the muscle next to the abs (obliques?? idk I don’t exercise) and arms. I would try to keep the dough balls that will be the head and the pectorals especially smooth. I do something similar to this in order to shape round bits of dough.
7. Cut a sausage in half and tuck each half under one of the arms.
8. Cover and let rise until the bread is about 1.5 times its original size, about 30 mins. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
9. When the bread has risen, make a quick egg wash using any leftover egg you had (so about 1/2 an egg) and add about 1 tbsp of water. Lightly brush the egg wash over the bread.
10. Bake the bread for about 15 minutes, or until the bread is golden-brown and sounds hollow when you tap it.
11. Let the bread cool on a cooling rack.
12. When the bread has completely cooled to room temperature, melt some chocolate and use the chocolate to decorate the bears’ faces.
13. Store in an airtight container at room temperature and eat within a day. Alternatively, freeze the bread down and reheat in an oven.

Notes

• All timings listed are a general guide. It’s better to follow the description (eg doubled in size) rather than the timings, as the timing depends on many factors like the activity of your yeast, or the surrounding temperature.
• If you’re using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, you might have to activate the yeast first. Warm up the milk that was supposed to go into the bread till it’s about body temperature, and then add the yeast into the milk. When the mixture is foamy (about 5-10 mins later), add the yeast-milk back into the bread at the step where the milk is supposed to be added.

Oreo Cookie Cookies

Yo I heard you liked cookies so I put cookies in your cookies.

I was getting a little sick of chocolate chip cookies (if that was even possible), so when I came across this cookies ‘n’ cream cookie recipe by Stella Parks I had to try it.

The base of this recipe is a basic, but really good, vanilla cookie – perfectly soft and chewy but crispy on the edges. Think snickerdoodles without the cinnamon. Add that with the crunchy oreos bits and you have a nice cookie to shake up your cookie game.

If you’re wondering why there are bits of red and blue in the cookie, I made these cookies for 4th July (very timely post, I know), so I used the 4th July oreos instead of regular oreos to get the red and blue creme in there as well.

I got the recipe from here.

Ingredients (makes about 26 [3 1/2 inch] cookies)

• 115g unsalted butter, softened but not too soft (about 60°F/16°C)
• 100g refined or virgin coconut oil (about 70°F/21°C, I personally used refined)
• 295g sugar
• 5g salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 15g vanilla
• 1 large egg, straight from the fridge
• 295g all-purpose flour
• 225g oreos, or about 20 cookies, chopped and frozen (it was easier for me to chop already refrigerated oreos so the cream remained intact, especially in the current heat), plus extra chopped oreos to garnish

Method

1. Adjust your oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 350°F/180°C.
2. Beat together the butter, coconut oil, sugar, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, pausing to scrape down the bowl halfway through.
3. When the mixture has been creamed, add the egg and continue beating until smooth.
4. Fold in the flour and mix to form a stiff dough.
5. Fold in the frozen oreo pieces until well combined.
6. Divide the dough into 2 tbsp portions, and roll each piece smooth and round with your hands.
7. Arrange the dough on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, leaving 2 inches between cookies to allow for spread.
8. Flatten each cookie dough ball into a 1/2 inch disk with the palm of your hand. Garnish with extra oreo crumbs if you want.
9. Bake in the preheated oven until puffed and firm around the edges, around 12 mins. It will still be pale, but with a hint of browning around the edges.
10. Cool directly on baking sheet until crumb is set, about 5 mins.
11. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Notes

• Using refined coconut oil in this recipe gives you a more neutral cookie profile, to make it more “cookies and cream” flavoured. Using virgin coconut oil gives the cookies more of an aroma, although it’s not an overtly coconutty aroma.
• The mixture of butter with coconut oil means the cookies will not brown like a regular all-butter cookie.
• Using frozen oreos helps retain the texture and shape of the oreos, especially the creme bits.
• Make sure your butter and coconut oil aren’t too warm or they will not cream with the sugar properly.
• If you want to freeze the portioned cookie dough down, when baking let the portioned frozen cookie dough stand at room temperature until quite soft, about 70°F/21°C, before baking as normal.

Tiramisu Cake

Or tiramisu-inspired anyway.

For the cake layers themselves, I used a really solid vanilla cake recipe by Stella Parks. It uses brown butter and toasted sugar so it adds a complex depth to what is otherwise a pretty neutral flavour profile.

This is of course to complement the “tiramisu” part of this cake – a mocha-flavoured mascarpone-based cream. It’s not too sweet, holds up well, and has a rich chocolate flavour.

To amp up the coffee flavour of the cake I soaked the cake layers with some espresso.

And added some shaved chocolate and cocoa powder on top to make it a bit more reminiscent of tiramisu.

The recipe for the cake is from here (I just adjusted the recipe amounts for a 3-layer 6-inch cake), and the recipe for the frosting was from here.

Ingredients (for a 3-layered 6-inch cake)

Brown butter and toasted sugar white cake

• 298g sugar
• 170g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 17g vanilla
• 10g water
• 6g salt
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs, brought to room temperature
• 282g bleached cake flour
• 317g milk, any percentage, brought to room temperature

Mocha mascarpone cream

• 455g mascarpone
• 455g heavy cream
• 85g brown sugar
• 55g bittersweet liqueur (like kahlua, or whatever alcohol you like, or if you’re going alcohol-free just replace with more cream)
• 30g high-fat Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted (I used Droste, which is 3% fat)
• 1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder, plus more to taste
• 7g vanilla
• 1g salt

Assembly

• About 1 cup espresso
• Some sifted cocoa powder
• Some shaved chocolate

Method

Brown butter and toasted sugar white cake

1. To toast the sugar, adjust the oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Place the sugar in a oven-proof container, and toast in the oven until fragrant and pale gold (like white sand), stirring thoroughly every 20 mins or so. The sugar should be toasted after approximately an hour, but this depends on the shape of your container. Let the sugar cool to room temperature.
2. To brown the butter, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When the butter has melted, increase the heat to medium and simmer the butter, stirring with a spatula. Continue cooking and stirring, scraping up any brown fats that form along the bottom of the pan, until butter is golden yellow and silent (indicating the water has entirely boiled away). This should take about 15 minutes.
3. Pour all the butter into a large heatproof bowl, including all the toasty brown bits, and cool until thick, creamy, and opaque (about 70°F/21°C).
4. When the sugar has toasted, adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat to 350°F/180°C.
5. Lightly grease and line three 6-inch anodized aluminum cake pans (if you don’t have three pans, hold the batter at room temperature while the first batch is being baked).
6. Beat the cooled brown butter, the cooled toasted sugar, baking powder, vanilla, water, salt, and baking soda. Beat until soft, fluffy and pale, about 8 minutes. Halfway through, pause to scrape the bowl and beater with a flexible spatula.
7. Beat in the eggs one at a time, letting each fully incorporate before adding the next.
8. Fold in 1/3 of the cake flour and 1/3 of the milk.
9. Repeat with half of the remaining flour and milk.
10. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk.
11. Divide the cake batter between your cake pans, and bake in a preheated oven until puffed and firm, about 30-35 minutes.
12. Let the cakes cool in their pans until there is no trace of warmth left before running a butter knife around the edges to loosen. Invert onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment, and return the cakes right side up.
13. While waiting for the cakes to cool, prepare the mocha mascarpone cream.

Mocha mascarpone cream

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whip until soft peaks.
2. Taste and adjust with additional espresso powder to taste.
3. Resume whipping until cream is thick and stiff, like a frosting.
4. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use.

Assembly

1. Level the cakes with a serrated knife.
2. Using a pastry brush, soak each layer with some espresso.
3. Add a bit of mocha cream onto your cake board, to secure the first layer of cake to the cake board.
4. Add some mocha cream onto the first layer of cake, then repeat with the second and third layers. If your mocha cream is too stiff you might have to rewhip the cream.
5. Cover the sides of the cake with more mocha cream, spreading it as smoothly as you can. Refrigerate the cake until the mocha cream firms up a bit, about 30 minutes. (This is the crumb coat step to help your cake look smooth at the end)
6. Use the remaining buttercream to add another layer of cream to the outside of the cake, and decorate as desired. I piped big dollops of cream on top of the cake.
7. Finish with some sifted cocoa powder and shaved chocolate over the top of the cake.

Notes

• It’s important to use bleached cake flour for the right cake texture.
• Tall, straight-edged aluminum pans helps with a level rise.
• If serving the cake after chilling, let the cake sit out for like 5-10 minutes before serving, as the cake might taste a little greasy if it’s too cold.
• Using a high-fat cocoa powder in the mascarpone cream helps with adding stability and flavour.

Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)

I feel my arteries clogging.

This bread is basically a vehicle to stuff as much cheese and carbs into your mouth as possible.

There’s cheese on the bread AND stuffed in the crust.

To top if all off there’s a soft-set egg baked right in the middle of it, so you can break the ends off the bread to dip it into the yolk and molten cheese.

Look at it jiggle.

A whole meal. I mostly followed the recipe from Chef John, just that I used whatever cheese I had in the house. I wrote down the cheese suggestions used in the original recipe because you probably get a more complex flavour if you actually use different cheeses.

Ingredients (makes 2, but each khachapuri is quite filling)

Dough

• 1/2 cup warm milk (about body temperature)
• 1/3 cup warm water (about body temperature)
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 package instant yeast (7g)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g), plus extra to dust any working surfaces
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Cheese blend

• 4 oz (113g) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 4 oz (113g) shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese
• 8 oz (226g) feta cheese, crumbled

Assembly

• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp butter, cut into 4 pats

Method

Dough

1. Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together and mix.
2. Add the milk, water, and olive oil and knead until the dough is smooth. Add more flour if needed, but the dough should remain soft.
3. Form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl.
4. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, 1-1.5 hours.

Assembly

1. Prepare the cheese blend – combine the 3 cheeses in a bowl and refrigerate until needed.
2. Punch down the dough and turn out to a lightly floured surface. Flatten slightly and cut in half.
3. Preheat the oven to 475°F/245°C.
4. Roll one half out into a square about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick on a piece of baking paper, and arrange 1/4 of the cheese in two rows horizontally across the top and bottom edge, about 1-2 inches from the edge.
5. Cover the rows of cheese with bread from the edge. Pinch and twist the ends of the bread to seal (see pictures for a better idea).
6. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then fill the cavity in the middle of the bread with the remaining cheese mixture.
7. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 mins, placing a tent of aluminium foil over the bread if it starts browning too quickly (mine did and I wished I had tented it earlier).
8. Take the bread out of the oven, and form a well in the center with a back of a spoon. Crack an egg into each well.
9. Return to oven and bake until the eggs are mostly set, about 3-4 mins.
10. Take the bread out of the oven, and serve each bread with 2 pats of butter (about 1/2 tbsp in total) and a sprinkle of salt over the eggs.

Notes

• If you’re using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, you might have to activate the yeast first. Warm up the milk that was supposed to go into the bread till it’s about body temperature, and then add the yeast into the milk. When the mixture is foamy (about 5-10 mins later), add the yeast-milk back into the bread at the step where the milk is supposed to be added.
• All timings listed are a general guide. It’s better to follow the description (eg doubled in size) rather than the timings, as the timing depends on many factors like the activity of your yeast, or the surrounding temperature.

Croissant Cereal

Using croissant in the loosest sense of the word.

So there’s been a quarantine TikTok trend of mini pancake cereal, which then led to the offshoot of mini croissant cereal.

I set about to try to recreate the mini croissant cereal since there was no recipe linked. But I wanted to take the easy way out and make a “croissant” out of rough-puff pastry instead, so I don’t have to go through the stress of laminating butter in bread dough like in a normal croissant. And to cut down on the preparation time from days to minutes. Especially since this is more of a joke recipe – why should I waste perfectly good croissants in milk?

This also means that the croissants here are not technically bread – they taste more like a pie crust.

But you still get the flaky layers you’d associate with a croissant.

Would I make this again? Probably not. Rough-puff pastry tastes best fresh from the oven for maximum flaky buttery layers – and then you ruin that by eating them with cold milk.

Eaten on their own without milk though, it’s great as a breakfast food. You can freeze down any leftover “croissants” not soaked in milk and reheat them in the oven (or my preferred way – in a frying pan with a lid on. Just reheat them over medium heat for about 10 mins) easily since they’re so mini. My preferred way to eat them is with some scrambled eggs.

The recipe for the rough-puff pastry is from here.

Ingredients

• 250g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 250g unsalted butter, room temperature, but not too soft. Basically just soft enough that you can easily squeeze then between your fingers but still have some texture to the butter.
• About 150ml cold water
• 1 beaten egg (for the egg wash)

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together the bread flour and the salt.
2. Break the butter into small chunks, add them to the bowl, and rub the flour into the butter until you get large-ish pea-sized chunks. You still want to be able to see bits of butter.
3. Add in 2/3 of the cold water (about 100ml), and mix until you have a firm rough dough. Add extra water if needed, but I didn’t need to.
4. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 20 mins.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and form into a smooth rectangle.
6. Roll the dough out to form a rectangle about 20cm x 50cm, trying to keep the edges as straight and even as possible. Try as much as possible not to overwork the butter streaks – you should have a marbled effect in your dough.
7. Fold the dough letter style (fold 1/3 of the dough over, and then 1/3 from the other end over – see the above gifs for a better idea).
8. Turn the dough 90° so the open end is towards you and the smooth edges are at the sides. Roll out the dough again to three times the length.
9. Repeat the folding step in step 7, before covering with cling film and chilling for at least 20 mins.
10. Roll the dough out to at least three times the length again. Cut the rectangle in the middle so you get 2 long rectangles. Then cut isosceles triangles out of each long rectangle (see the above gifs for a better idea).
11. For each triangle, roll it out lengthwise to elongate the triangle. Then starting from the wide end, roll the triangle up. Arrange each rolled triangle tip down onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper so they don’t unravel in the oven.
12. Preheat the oven to 220°C/430°F. Meanwhile, in a small bowl make an egg wash by beating an egg with a tbsp of water. Brush the croissants with a thin layer of egg wash and set aside in a cool part of the room.
13. When the oven has pre-heated, brush the croissants with a second thin layer of egg wash and then put the croissants in the oven.
14. Immediately lower the temperature of the oven to 200°C/400°F and bake for 8 mins, then lower the temperature further to 170°C/340°F and bake for about 4-8 minutes, or until the croissants are well-browned.
15. Let the croissants cool on a cooling rack.
16. If you’re eating this with milk…add milk. But preferably eat while fresh. Otherwise, when the croissants have cooled completely to room temperature, store them in an airtight container at room temperature, or transfer to a ziplock bag to freeze.

Notes

• The double egg wash helps give the croissant a nice colour.
• If you want to try making actual croissants, try these two recipes I’ve made before – Doritos croissant, plain croissant.