Light brioche burger buns

Makes 6 medium size burger buns or about 5 large buns (Recipe adapted from here)

Bread flour- 1 1/4 cups + 3 1/2 tbsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Oil- 1 1/2 tbsp

Warm water- 1/2 cup

Whole milk- 1 1/2 tbsp
Active dry yeast- 1 tsp
Sugar- 1 1/4 tbsp
Egg- 1 large
Bread flour- 1 1/4 cups + 3 1/2 tbsp
Oil- 1 1/2 tbsp
Egg white- of one small egg for egg wash, lightly beated
Sesame seeds- around 1 tsp or so

Into the bowl of a free standing mixer add the flour and salt and rub in the oil with your finger tips so the flour resembles coarse bread crumbs. 

In a separate bowl whisk together the warm water, milk, yeast and sugar.
Beat at egg into it and pour this mix into the flour mix.
Using the dough hook of the mixer, start kneading the dough on medium speed for about 5 to 6 minutes, or till the dough comes together. If you are kneading by hand, lightly flour a work surface and knead for about 10 minutes till the dough is no longer sticky.

The dough should not be really sticky, but pliable without the use of more flour.

Oil the same mixing bowl and place the dough into it, spreading some oil on it to prevent drying.

Cover with a kitchen cloth and leave to rise for a minimum of 1.30hrs or till doubled in size.

I preheated my oven to about 40C, turned it off but with the light on and left the dough in there to proof. If proofing in the oven make sure its not more than 50C as forcing the rising will result in a dense, dry bread.

After the dough has risen to double its size, punch it down and scoop out of the bowl (on to a lightly floured surface if needed. I didnt need to use any) on to your kitchen counter.

Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. (I am a bit mental when it comes to sizes in baking so i actually measured out the portions each weighting approx 78 to 80gms)

Roughly roll each portion, flatten to a thick pancake size and bring the sides together to join in the middle and make a parcel of sorts. Then turn it over and using your palm, cup the ball and roll lightly to form a perfectly round bun.
Place all the buns on a tray lined with baking paper and keep aside to proof for another hour or till the buns have risen.
I placed them back into a warm oven with just the light on.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 200C
Brush the tops of the buns with egg white and sprinkle the sesame seeds.
Pour boiling water into a baking dish or any oven proof dish and place on the oven floor. The steam created will ensure soft buns.
Place the tray with the buns on the middle shelf and bake for about 13 to 15 minutes (if they are medium size and for about 20 minutes if large).
Remove from oven once they are done, and transfer on to cooling racks.
Store in a bread bin or wrap in cling film and use as required.

Notes: The recipe can easily be doubled.
The same recipe makes about 8 mini brioche buns
I overdid the egg white a bit too much and i suspect that why the tops browned waay too much. Use sparingly. Even milk would do instead of egg white

Chilli, ginger and coriander focaccia

Its unbelievable that we are having awesome weather and apparently it continues on to next week. We have been enjoying it thoroughly and as we do every year we also went for the open air movies at the London Scoop. We have one more coming up on Wednesday and that should officially end our summer sojourns :)

I am also super thrilled, I've managed to post another recipe without much of a gap, thanks to a 'no working on weekends' rule Ro has come up with. So while he's spread out on the sofa reading Asterix and watching the F1 highlights, here I am typing out a recipe. Its been ages since we've spent a weekend at home and today also would have been no different if it wasn't for the Greenwich marathon that passes through our place and they've shut down all transport and even the tube station.

So all day we lazed around, got drunk and the initial plan was to just not do any cooking, but the past few days we've been eating out and so I got down to it and cooked. This focaccia was the outcome and we dunked it in olive oil and munched away with a chicken roast. Discovered this fab website with a lot of baking tips and recipe ideas and I have already bookmarked a few. Do head over and check it out when time permits.

I must admit that the first time I tried out a focaccia recipe, it flopped on me, big time. This time however, I was determined to follow instructions properly and although a couple of ingredient substitutions did leave me confused, I managed to pull it back together. The coriander leaves add a great flavour to the bread and you know the chillies are present, but not in an over powering sort of way.

Recipe has been adapted from here
Plain flour- 200 gms
Sea salt- 1/2 tsp + enough to sprinkle
Chillies- 3, finely chopped
Coriander leaves- a small bunch, finely chopped
Ginger- 1/2 tbsp, grated
Active dry yeast- 3.5 gms
Water- 112ml (roughly 4oz), warm
Olive oil- 1/2 tbsp

Slightly warm the water and add the yeast. Whisk to dissolve and leave aside for 6 to 7 minutes to reactivate.
In the meantime whisk together the flour, salt, half of the chillies and coriander leaves and ginger in a mixing bowl.
Once the yeast has frothed, add it to the flour mix and knead using a dough hook attachment for about 5 to 6 minutes or if using your hands, flour the work top and knead well for 10 minutes, till the dough is no longer sticky, but smooth and pliable.
Lightly grease a bowl, place the dough in it, cover with a wet cloth and set aside in a warm place to rise.
After about 2 hours, the dough would have doubled in size, so punch it down, knead for about 2 to 3 minutes and make it into a presentable round shape. Roll it out if you cant really stretch it, but don't thin it a lot.
Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and dimple it at intervals with your finger.
Top with the remaining coriander leaves and chillies and keep aside for an hour or so to proof again.
Once the dough has risen again, brush with olive oil generously, sprinkle some sea salt and place in an oven preheated at 190C.
Bake for 17 to 20 minutes or till golden brown.
Take it out, cool on a rack for about 5 minutes and then slice and serve.

Notes: The ginger was a wee bit over powering for my liking, so id go easy on it or maybe even avoid it altogether next time.
The original recipe called for a mix of very strong and strong bread flour. Didn't have any, so used plain flour instead. I'm sure the outcome would have been much better if I'd used bread flour.
If using instant yeast, then add everything together to the mixing bowl and knead. You can also go directly to the second proofing stage if using instant yeast.
Replace the toppings with garlic, sun dried tomatoes, olives etc. if you want variety.

Cinnamon rolls (buns)

I was never that big a fan of Cinnabon when we were in the US. In fact I used to hate anything with cinnamon till we came to the UK. The apple pies served in the pubs here all had a generous amount of cinnamon and I began to absolutely love it. Sadly, my husband doesn't share the same excitement when it comes to cinnamon, making me stay away from desserts with cinnamon as the hero (heroine???).

That was until I picked up a couple of Cinnabons from the only outlet here in Piccadilly Circus (after paying a bomb for it that too) and brought it home. Since it was one of those lovey dovey days, I kept one aside for Ro, 100 percent sure he would say, 'so bloody overrated Cinnabon is' and let me have it. I guess it was one of those lovey dovey days for Ro as well, cos he said he would eat it since his wife lovingly kept aside one for him (bummer!!! is what I actually thought, but lets just let it pass shall we?)

So anyways, he loved the cinnamon roll to the extent he asked me why I don't make it at home. And so that's what I did, make cinnamon rolls. The first time I didn't take pics nor did I bookmark the recipe and so had to search around a bit this time. No luck still and so I had to make do with a new one. It wasn't as perfect as the first time, but we loved it nonetheless. I have bookmarked another recipe as well, and if it turns out better than this one, it shall be replaced. For now here are the details:

Recipe adapted from here

Dough:

Milk- 1/4 cup

Water- 1/4 cup

Butter- 1 tbsp

Active dry yeast- 1 1/8 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Plain flour- 1 1/2 cups

Granulated sugar- 1/4 cup

Egg- 1 small

Filling:

Butter- 1 1/2 tbsp, melted

Brown sugar- 4 tbsp

Cinnamon powder- 1 tbsp

Glaze:

Powdered sugar- 1/2 cup

Butter- 3/4 tbsp, melted

Milk- 3/4 tbsp

Vanilla essence- 1/4 tsp

Heat together the milk, butter and water in a saucepan until just about warm.

Stir in the yeast till it is diluted. Keep aside for 5 to 6 minutes.

Into a large mixing bowl add the flour, salt, sugar and egg. Mix well.

Pour the yeasted mixture into the flour mix and using the dough hook attachment on your mixer, knead till the entire thing comes together. 

Alternatively, dust your work top with enough flour and knead till the dough becomes pliable and is not sticky any more.

Place in a lightly greased bowl and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours.

Once the dough has risen well, punch it down and place on a floured surface.

Roll it out into a rectangle shape, about half an inch in thickness, using as little flour as possible.

Brush the melted butter generously on to the rolled out dough. 

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle this mix on top of the butter, as evenly as possible.

Then carefully start rolling the dough from the longer side. Pinch the edges once you reach the end to seal it in.

Using a serrated knife, cut the log into 8 to 10 slices.

Place the dough, cut side down on to a greased baking pan and leave aside to rise for another hour or so.

Once it has doubled in size place in the middle shelf of an oven pre heated at 190C and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Once done, remove and let it cool for 10 minutes

In the mean time make the glaze by mixing together all the ingredients under that section till you get a thick frosting. 

Pour over the warm cinnamon rolls and enjoy with a cuppa.

Notes: The dough ended up being pretty loose and sticky and I kinda struggled with it. So had to use quite a bit of extra flour for kneading.

I preheated the oven at 100C for about 5 minutes and placed the dough inside for it to rise the first time.

I knew it would be a problem while rolling it out so I placed a baking paper under and started rolling. Although it wasn't easy, I was sill able to manage without the dough sticking too much to the paper.

The second rising time exceeded quite a bit because we suddenly decided to catch a movie and so it stayed that way for about 3 hours. I don't know if it made any difference though.

Replace the brown sugar with granulated sugar if you don't have the latter.

Sending this to the Monthly Mingle event hosted over at Kulsum's Journey Kitchen where this month the theme is Yeasted Doughs. The event is the brainchild of the ever talented Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey.