Fan Tan Dinner Roll (Buttercrust Flake-Aparts)

These buttery, light, tender “fan tan” dinner rolls are pull-apart perfection and originated from New England. Small enough to accompany a meal, but tasty enough to eat on their own.

This is courtesy of Ting Liu in preparation for her bread workshop.

Ingredients

Dry yeast - 2 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp 

Buttermilk - 7/8 cup
Bread flour - 2 and 3/4 cups
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 4 tbsp , melted (2 tbsp for the dough, 2 tbsp for brushing)

Yield 8 rolls

Steps

1. In a measuring cup, sprinkle yeast and sugar into lukewarm buttermilk, stir and leave it for 5 minutes until the surface is foamy.

2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in dissolved yest and 2 tbsp of melted butter.

3. Mix in the flour to form a soft, moist dough. turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (The kneading and rising of the dough can be done with a bread machine. Set it to "dough only setting", add wet ingredients first, then add dry ingredients).

4. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover with a dish towel. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1-1.5 hours. 

6. To ensure the rising is complete, test the dough by gently pressing with a fingertip. The dent should spring back gradually, not at once. Punch down the dough with your fist, shape it into a long piece, wrap it in food wrap, let it stand for 10 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 375F.
8. Roll out the dough into a rectangle (50cmx30cmx2.5mm). Brush with remaining melted butter.

9. Cut the dough lengthwise into 7 strips, each about 4 cm wide. Stack up the strips, then cut the stack into 8 pieces (about 6cm each).

11. Turn each piece cut side up and pinch the underside together to seal. Place the rolls in a well-buttered muffin mold. Cover with a dish towel. Proof until doubled in size (about 1 hour).

12. Bake in preheated oven (375F) for 15 -17 minutes, until golden, then cool on rack, serve warm.

Danish Raisin Bread

This is courtesy of Ting Liu in preparation for her bread workshop. This recipe is adapted from Emily Liu's post.

Ingredients

Active dry yeast - 2 tsp
Milk - 1 and 1/2 cup

Bread flour - 4 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Unsalted butter - 6 TBSP (4 TBSP melted for the dough, 2 TBSP for topping)

Raisin - 1/3 cup for filling
Egg - 1 for egg glaze - beat 1 egg with a pinch of salt(Optional)
Sliced almond - 2 TBSP for sprinkle on top

Yield: 1 Loaf

Steps

1. In a measuring cup, sprinkle yeast into 1 cup of  lukewarm water, add 1 tsp of sugar, stir and leave it for 5 minutes until the surface is foamy.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt together, make a well in the center and pour in the yeast solution and 1/2 cup milk.

3. Add melted butter, use a wooden spoon to mix all ingredients together.

4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface to knead. With the heel of your hands, knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is firm to the touch, elastic, and has a smooth surface. Add a little flour at a time if dough is too sticky after kneading. (The kneading and rising of the dough can be done with a bread machine. Set it to "dough only setting", add wet ingredients first, then add dry ingredients).

5. Place the kneaded dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Do not use metal bowl. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it rise until doubled in size. (in warm weather, it takes about 1 1/2 hours. In order to make the dough rise faster, you can turn on the oven to 170F for a few minutes or so then turn if off, place the dough container in the warm oven)

6. To ensure the rising is complete, test the dough by gently pressing with a fingertip. The dent should spring back gradually, not at once. Punch down the dough with your fist, shape it into a long piece, wrap it in food wrap, let it stand for 10 minutes.

7. Unwrap it, roll it thin with a rolling pin, spread raisin on top of the dough.

7. Fold half of the dough over the raisins to cover the other half, press down along the edge to seal. Cut slots on the top layer of the dough. Transfer the dough into a greased baking pan.

8. Proof the shaped dough in a warmed-up oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the dough is 1.5 of the original size (Turn on the oven for a few minutes, then turn off.). Leave the dough uncovered, and place a pan of hot water on the bottom of the oven. (Do not let it rise for too long, otherwise the risen dough will collapse as soon as it is taken out of the oven)

9. Brush the egg glaze over the surface of the dough (it works as adhesive for other toppings). If you want egg free, just brush a layer of butter.
10. Cut 2 tbsp of butter into small cubes, roll them in flour to coat, sprinkle butter cubes and sliced almond over the surface of the dough. Finally, sprinkle small amount of granulated sugar on top.

11. Preheat oven to 325°F.

12. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from baking pan and cool on rack.

Braided Cinnamon Bread (Cinnamon Challah)

Challah is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Most traditional challah recipes use 2 eggs, fine white flour, water,sugar, yeast, and salt. They could also have more complicated braids. This recipe is for a simple "water challah", which are made without eggs. If you use 2 beaten eggs, reduce the total amount of water/milk by 1/2 cup.

If you like Semi Freddie's cinnamon twist bread, you might want to try this recipe.

This is courtesy of Ting Liu in preparation for her bread workshop.

Ingredients

Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup
Bread flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 2 TBSP, softened/melted

Ground cinnamon - 1/4 cup (~20g)

Cast sugar - 1/4 cup(~20g) (can use spice grinder to grind granulated sugar)

Yield: 1 Loaf

Steps

1. In a measuring cup, sprinkle yeast into lukewarm water, add 1 tsp of sugar, stir and leave it for 5 minutes until the surface is foamy.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt together, make a well in the center and pour in the yeast solution.

3. Add melted butter, use a wooden spoon to mix all ingredients together.

4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface to knead. With the heel of your hands, knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is firm to the touch, elastic, and has a smooth surface. Add a little flour at a time if dough is too sticky after kneading. (The kneading and rising of the dough can be done with a bread machine. Set it to "dough only setting", add wet ingredients first, then add dry ingredients).

5. Place the kneaded dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Do not use metal bowl. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it rise until doubled in size. (in warm weather, it takes about 1 1/2 hours. In order to make the dough rise faster, you can turn on the oven to 170°F for a few minutes or so then turn if off, place the dough container in the warm oven)

6. To ensure the rising is complete, test the dough by gently pressing with a fingertip. The dent should spring back gradually, not at once. Punch down the dough with your fist.

7. Preheat oven to 350F

8. Divide dough into 3 equal parts, roll each part into a rope.

9. In a small bowl, mix ground cinnamon, cast sugar with 1 TBSP of water to make a paste. Paste has to be thick,otherwise it won't stay on the dough.

10. With a pastry brush/basting brush, coat the 3 ropes with cinnamon sugar paste.

11. Pinch 1 ends of the ropes together, start braiding, the pinch the other ends together.

12. Place the braided dough into a greased loaf pan, cover and let it rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

13. Glaze(optional) with egg glaze: beat an egg with a pinch of salt, brush it on the surface of the dough.

14. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until golden. Remove from the loaf pan and cool on a wire rack.

Workshop: Green Tea Chiffon Cake

I hosted a cake workshop for 12 students past weekend. We made Green Tea Chiffon Cake and decorated them for Father's day. Here are some final products.

Equipment 

For beginners in baking, it is necessary to talk about the basic equipment and materials before we can follow recipes properly.

1. Electrical Mixer: This is a must have tool if you are serious about baking. I cannot image how to beat egg white for 10 minutes by hand. I have an KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer which I highly recommend. You want to have a mixer that has stainless steel bowl so that you can put it in freezer when you make whipped cream frosting.

2. Mixing Bowls: I have a set of Cuisinart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls. I would recommend to get mixing bowls with lid so that you can cover your bread dough during bulk fermentation and proofing.

3. Hand tools: you should have a balloon whisk, a silicon spatula, an icing spatula

4. Baking Pans: The most common one I use is the Wilton Aluminum Performance Pans Set of 2 9-Inch Round Cake Set. To make chiffon cake, you need the aluminum pans, not the non-stick type, so that the cake can rise properly.

5. Cake turn table is used during decoration. The one I have is Wilton Trim-N-Turn Ultra Rotating Cake Stand.

6. Cake decorating set: This is a good starter kit - WILTON 2104-2532 Cake Decorating Set 25-Pieces, which include everything you need to decorate a cake - piping bags, couplers, decoration tips, and icing colors.

7. Cooling rack is used to allow air flow on both sides of cake to let it cool properly.

8. Kitchen scale: you need to have a kitchen scale that support tare function.

9. Egg Separator: you do not need an egg separator. I prefer to use hands only.
10. Cake lever: you do not really need it, a bread knife and steady hand works well enough.
11. Flour sifter: any kind would do. It is used to sift the flour to make sure it does not cake up.

12. Parchment paper sometimes is available at Costco. Otherwise, any grocery store will have it.

13. Measurement cup and spoons

Material

1. Cake flour: you can get this from any grocery store.  If you run out of it at last minute, you can use all purpose flour. For each cup of all purpose flour, replace 2 TBSP of it with cornstarch or corn flour.

2. Granulated Sugar: this is just the regular sugar
3. Large Egg: in all my recipes, I use the extra large egg from Costco.
4. Heavy whipping cream: this is used to make whipped cream frosting. You should prepare more than you need just in case you waste a batch. An 8" double layer cake needs about 4 cup of heavy whipping cream.

5. Powered sugar: some recipes call it confectioner's sugar or icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar with anti-cake agent. It is used for frosting.

 5. Green tea powder: I bought this from Ranch 99 - a local Chinese grocery store.

Chiffon cakes

Here is the ingredient comparison for different chiffon cake variations.

Ingredients	White	Green Tea	Chocalate
Egg Large	5	5	5
Cake flour	85g	75g	60g
Green tea powder	0	12g	0
Cocoa powder	0	0	30g
Oil	40g	40g	30g
Milk	40g	40g	40g
Sugar for egg white	60g	60g	60g
Sugar for egg yolk	30g	30g	30g
Lemon juice	0	0	1tsp

Here are some recipes
Chiffon Cake(戚風蛋糕)
Chiffon Cake - Chocolate
Chiffon Cake - Green Tea
Chiffon Cake with Buttercream Rose Swirl
Chiffon Cake with Strawberries and Cream
Chiffon Cake with Whipped Cream and Christmas poinsettia

Sugar Water (optional)

1. Boiling 75g water and 38g sugar until the sugar is fully melt. Set aside to let is cool.
2. Mix in 1 TBSP Brandy or Rum

Whipped Cream

1. 4 cup of heavy cream + 1 cup powdered sugar + 1 bag Gelatin. (optional add vanilla extract or green tea powder for flavor)
2. Beat with stand mixer to desired consistency.