Homemade Hamburger Buns & Breakfast Sandwich

The problem with shopping at Costco is that one ends up with a quantity of foodstuffs (e.g. cheddar cheese slices) that one is then compelled to create as many dishes as possible utilizing said items. This is how I found myself making burger buns. The buns did not come out as soft as I was hoping for, but that may be to my own baker error.

Easiest buttermilk biscuits

I had a craving for biscuits, ones that would be rich but also light, that would be a perfect foil to melted butter or also sweetened strawberries. This recipe, recommended by Lainey Gossip, does indeed live up to its name. The only problem is, I cannot find buttermilk in Taiwan, and instead must use soured milk. I'm sure this must affect the flavor of the final product.

King Arthur's Butter-enriched Bread Recipe

Master Nomad Foodie complained that the bread I bake is too hearty in flavor and texture, and that he prefers sweet, milky breads. So I decided to give this recipe a try.

My shaping needs work.

It was a good recipe, and was certainly delicious. However, I felt it was a lot of work to make just 16 rolls that disappeared rather quickly.

Definitely buttery.

Red Dragon Fruit Bread

Master Nomad Foodie mentioned a classmate had brought bread made with dragon fruit. Dragon fruit is in season in the fall in Taiwan, and I love eating it because it's refreshingly, not cloyingly, sweet, and great for digestion (ahem). Anyways, at his request, I experimented with making dragon fruit bread following this recipe. (I looked to King Arthur Flour for guidance on the specifics of making baguette).

Lovely magenta color prior to baking.

The bread was fine - there wasn't a particular dragon fruit taste, which is unsurprising given that it's such a subtly flavored fruit, but there was the most lovely pink color. Unfortunately, the color dulled over time in the oven - I might have slightly overbooked the bread.

Duller pink color after baking.

Coconut Quinoa Banana Muffins

I tried this recipe from Coffee & Quinoa as I've been looking for ways to use up quinoa in baked goods, and I had some overripe bananas. While the flavor was good, unfortunately the muffins (I baked muffins instead of a loaf to save time) were very dense. I think this is so because the recipe calls for baking soda, and I don't see an acid amongst the ingredients to activate the baking soda. I think I'll work on modifying Smitten Kitchen's Crackly Banana Bread instead, which I've baked before and is quite good.

Honey Oat Pain de Mie, batches 3-5

Each subsequent batch of honey oat pain de mie is more successful than the last. I have experimented with: 1) raising the percentage of whole wheat flour up to 45%, substituted maple syrup for honey (I prefer honey); adding spices (cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg), and adding raisins. I am getting better with timing the rises with my schedule. I am currently using 140-150g of water for each loaf, adding boiling water to the butter and honey. This melts the butter and lowers the temperature of the water.

The shorter loaf is batch #3 , next to batch #4.

Batch #5 is slightly higher than batch #4.

Honey-Oat Pain de Mie (Pullman bread)

I've made this King Arthur's Honey-Pat Pain de Mie twice now, using my brand-new pain de mie pan. The bread on the left is from my first attempt, while the bread on the right is from my second attempt.



The first time I followed the recipe exactly as written. The bread didn't fully rise to the top of the pan, but I think that was due more to my elementary shaping skills and that I could've let the dough have a longer second rise.

The second time I made the bread, I substituted 160g (about 44%) of the APF with whole wheat flour, some of the honey with maple syrup (as I'd run out of honey), 10g (about 15%) of the butter with vegetable oil, and added a few dashes of cinnamon. I also used 230g of water. The bread rose in the refrigerator, because I didn't have enough continuous time at home for it to rise at room temperature.

For next time, I would increase the water - the dough seemed like it could've used more water, and I might have killed off some of the yeast by using boiling water. I thought the oats would protect the yeast in the bowl, but perhaps not, given the lower rise. The second batch still had a fine crumb, and is still quite soft and very tasty. The kids love it.

I might have to buy another pan, because it's so yummy, the loaf disappears quickly!

Easy 100% Whole Wheat Bread

My favorite store-bought bread is Great Harvest Bread Company's Honey Whole Wheat. I love a soft, dense loaf with wholesome texture. In college, I used to go to the Great Harvest store in Lexington, Massachusetts almost every weekend. How unfortunate to go from that fabulous bread to the breads in Taiwan, which generally are soft, spongy, and white - every time I have a bite, I can feel it coagulating into glue, clogging up my gut.

I love Great Harvest bread so much, I have been known to plan trips around a store - one time when I was back in the U.S., I visited my brother in Berkeley. Of course, I went straight from the airport to the Great Harvest store in Oakland, filled my then-empty carry-on with 6 loaves of bread, and walked 45 minutes to meet my brother. My precious bread lasted me for close to a year stored in my freezer in Taipei.

However, there are no Great Harvest bakeries within reasonable driving distance from my parents' home in L.A., and it's just not practical to lug loaves of bread across the ocean. When I saw this recipe from the fabulous folks at King Arthur Flour, I just had to try it.

I should mention that I am a lazy, impatient baker. I haven't baked much bread, mostly because the idea of waiting through multiple rises and kneading has just never sounded that appealing. Nor can I justify getting a bread machine - I guard my precious counter space jealously. So the whole no-knead bread concept is very appealing.

I've tried the No-Knead Bread recipe popularized by Mark Bittman. That produced a good loaf of bread, except that it was a pain in the !@#$% to get plop the dough into a hot heavy stoneware crock perched precariously on the oven rack with oven heat blazing out at me, and a huge pain to turn the bread out at the end of baking.



So King Arthur's No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread is the perfect recipe. No need to struggle with a hot oven, and it makes a great loaf of bread that's just perfect for PB&J sandwiches. Here's how I made it:

Easy No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

8 ounces lukewarm soy milk
2 ounces orange juice
2 ounces butter, melted; or 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil
2 1/4 ounces maple syrup
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
12 3/4 ounces whole wheat flour (I used a 50-50 mix of King Arthur white whole wheat flour and Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour)

1. Heavily grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan (I used butter). This loaf tends to stick, so be sure to grease the pan thoroughly. I lined the pan with a parchment sling, and greased the parchment as well.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the mixture vigorously for about 3 minutes (I used an electric hand mixer set on high speed - the dough worked it's way all the way up the beaters and into notches that I had the clean out later, but it worked fine). You should have a very sticky dough. It won't be pourable, but neither will it be kneadable. Scoop it into the prepared pan.
3. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap (or a shower cap), and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes; it should just about rise to the rim of the pan, perhaps just barely cresting over the rim (mine rose in a little over 40 minutes). While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
4. Uncover the bread, and bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes. The bread is done when it's golden brown on top, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers between 190°F and 195°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft (I didn't bother). Cool the bread completely before cutting it.

How did it turn out? In texture and moistness, this loaf was exactly like my favorite. It was less sweet, so next time I think I'll try using honey, and perhaps using more honey. To develop the flavor more, I'm also going to try proofing it, or, plopping the whole thing in the refrigerator for a slower rise, since my dough rose so quickly compared to the recipe (the warmth and humidity of Taipei?). There are also many great comments and suggestions in a related King Arthur blog post that is highly informative.