Eight Treasures Pumpkin Loaf 八宝南瓜包

I got this recipe from MeishiChina again. The original recipe is shaped into a wreath and the treasures all strewn on top. I put my treasures inside instead and rolled them up like a swiss roll.

You can use any 8 types nuts or seeds or dried fruit. I find that the fruits are a bit dry after baking, and maybe you can brush some water on the dough before you sprinkle the fruits on, this way, it'll hydrate the fruits better, rather than to have it drawing moisture from the bread.

The plain one that you see in the picture about is filled with only chopped raisins because my kids don't like nuts and seeds.

350gm bread flour
80gm sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1/3 tsp salt
1 large egg
180gm pumpkin puree
50gm butter
1 ½ cup mixed fruits and nuts (6 types: golden raisins, black raisins, bing cherries, cranberries, almonds, pistachios), coarsely chopped
½ cup mix seeds (2 types: pumpkin and sunflower), placed in a tray big enough for the loaves

1. Mix bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt together. Make a well in the center.

2. Combine pumpkin puree with egg. Pour pumpkin mitxure into the well. Combine and form a dough.

3. Knead until smooth, add in butter and knead until stretchy. (the whole kneading process by hand will take about 30 minutes or more)
4. Put dough covered (with a small opening) in a warm place (I just put the whole basin I knead my bread with into my cool oven) and let it proof for 1 hour until double in size.
5. Punch down and give it a good knead for another 2 minutes.
6. Divide dough into 2 loaves.
7. Take one piece of dough and roll it into a rectangle. Spread half the mixed fruit and nuts onto rolled out dough. Roll dough up (from the shorter side), and pinch the ends to seal.
8. Brush loaf with water and roll it in the seed mix.
9. Repeat with the other piece of dough.
10. Proof loaves for another 45 minutes.
11. Bake in a preheated oven at 170/180C for 20 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom of tray (Put a small tray of boiling water at the lower rack of oven while you bake the bread)

Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake

** Cheeky grin**

Why such a title?

This is a cake…

No....

this is a bread….

No…

This is a cake….

No….

I don’t know!!!!!

** Serious look**

Okok. Seriously I am confused too. The actual name of this is Danish Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake.
I am very confused, there’s no Danish pastry in there, doesn’t look like a cake at all here, not a bit. So let’s take it as a bread. Or is there anyone that can answer me why is this thing called a cake. I think same goes for all the questions regarding why is banana cake usually called banana bread. Oh, this one I can answer, cos banana cake is considered a quick bread, leavened by baking powders/sodas instead of yeast. But why is this Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake called a cake and not a bread???? Anyone out there???

But who cares what the name is… important is it’s YUMMY!!!!
The texture is so soft, the choc streusel’s heavenly. And the best is I only knead it by hand for 10 minutes!!!! The last time I baked bread was more than a year ago, in my collection of Sweet Buns. I was so into the sweet bun thingy, that I wanted to really learn how to make soft sweet buns, and I made it every few days until I really got the hang of the kneading process. 30 minutes by hand, my friends.. 30 minutes. When I finally got it, I said, no more sweet buns… for an indefinite period of time. My arms were very tired.

And now, my bread kneading has come out of it’s hibernation because of this site and was taken to the original recipe. I changed the recipe a bit, both ingredients and method (slightly only). My husband is no fan of cinnamon, so I used vanilla in both the cake?? and streusel.

 

Cake dough … not bread dough …LOL 
125ml milk
1 empty vanilla pod (seeds scraped for streusel filling)
1 and ½ tsp dry yeast
30ml water
Pinch of sugar
80gm butter (salted), slightly softened
40gm sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
Small pinch of salt
350gm all purpose flour


1. Bring milk and vanilla pod to a boil. Leave to cool down to warm.
2. While milk is cooling down, proof yeast with water and pinch of sugar until very frothy.
3. Beat butter and sugar until pale and light.
4. Beat in egg yolk, then the whole egg until well incorporated.
5. Beat in ¼ of the flour. Then 1/3 of the milk. Beat until smooth
6. Repeat step 5 twice. Give it a good beating for 2 minutes.
7. Beat in the yeast mixture and the final ¼ of flour.
8. Transfer to your kneading table or basin and give it a good knead for 10 minutes by hand until smooth and elastic. (you can use your machine, of course, but it won’t 10 minutes, 5 or 6 will do)
9. Place in a buttered bowl, turn to coat, and cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel, leave to proof until double in size for about 1 hour (I just dumped the whole basin into my cool oven to proof)
10. Meanwhile do the streusel.

Streusel Filling
70gm sugar
Vanilla seeds from 1 vanilla pod
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
25gm melted butter

Pulse everything in a food processor except butter. (Or if you don’t have a food processor but only a blender like me, mix cocoa powder and flour together with a spoon until well combined. Pulse sugar and vanilla seeds in the mill for a few seconds. Combine sugar and flour mixture.) Drizzle melted butter over prepared dry ingredients and mix until well combined like fine chocolate crumbs. Leave aside until use.

Assembly:
1 egg white beaten until frothy
Almond slices

1. When dough, has risen to double in size, punch down and give it a good knead for 1-2 minutes. Leave it to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Roll out dough into a rectangle about 10X14 inch. Spread streusel mixture on top evenly,. Roll up dough and put dough seam side down on your lined baking tray.
3. With clean sharp scissors, snip ¾ inch intervals along the roll, cutting through ¾ of the dough only.
4. Start with one end, pull one piece of cut slice and twist it to the right. Take another cut slice and twist it to the left of the roll. Cut surfaces facing up. Repeat with all the the cut slices.
5. Leave to proof in a warm place for another 45 minutes or until doubled up again.
6. Preheat oven at 180C
7. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with almond flakes.
8. Put in preheated oven , close the door and immediately turn down the temperature to 160C. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

After reading through, do you have the answer why this is called a cake?
I guess it’s due to the creaming method used in the earlier part of the recipe. Still… it’s very much a bread in my eyes. So, it'll be categorised at bread in my blog.

If you do not have access to vanilla beans, you can either follow the original recipe that uses cinnamon or just substitute with some vanilla extract. Please note that the cake/bread dough is soft and tacky, but not very sticky.

Nutty Fruit Loaf 果仁面包

This is one very easy bread... no kneading!!! Just mix. (Discovered by accident)

Actually, I got this recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, and I found that the amount of stuff in the recipe will not produce the same results as the accidental bread she made (Well, hers was a well formed long loaf, mine was a batter type dough and she said she guesstimated the amounts, cos she was cleaning up the pantry, and she used up the ingredients in the pantry to make this loaf.) HeHe... sometimes, we do guesstimate our recipes too, right??? Same goes for my stir fry dishes, it is not accurate to the T... but a guesstimate. I didn't change her amount of liquids to flour, but just added up the amount of fruits and added in nuts... Very nutty and fruity in the end.

I baked this bread few times oredi before I posted this most recent bake.

1st stage ingredients:
1 sachet yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup melted butter (80 gm)

1. Dissolve yeast in water. Add in milk and eggs. Mix well.
2. Put flour and sugar into a big bowl and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour in yeast solution. Give it a good stir, vigourously for about 2 minutes.
4. Pour in melted butter and mix. Leave to proof for 1 hour or until double in size.

It looks like a batter now, rather than a dough.

Next 2nd stage ingredients.......

2 cups dried fruit, soaked in 1 cup hot water for 1 hour(any type, I used golden raisins, currants, cranberries, apricots, apples, dark raisins) I soaked them while waiting for the batter to proof
1 cup nut & seeds (any, I used, pumpkin seed, walnut, almonds)
2 cups all purpose flour
Some butter and egg yolk.

1. When batter has doubled, add in soaked fruits, discarding extra liquid.
2. Mix nuts with flour.
3. Spoon (2) into the batter by the spoonsful and mix. Put in more (2) and mix until all is used up.
4. Grease baking pans with butter and spoon in dough until 40% full. Slightly less than half.
5. Leave to proof for another 1 hour or until double.
6. Brush top with butter, then with egg yolk.
7. Bake in preheated oven of 170C for 30-40 minutes

Split Top Butter Loaf

Split Top Butter Loaf Recipe

Bread loaf
320 gm Bread flour
66 gmWhipping cream
162 gm milk
33 gm honey
16 gm butter
3 gm yeast
4 gm salt
30gm egg

Topping:
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp coarse sugar
Egg

Method:
Knead everything together, except butter for 15 minutes. Add in butter and knead until a thin membrane can be formed when stretched.

Cover and let proof for an hour or until doubled.

When dough has doubled, punch down and knead. Divide into six balls.
Stretch each ball long and flat, roll up. Place rolled up dough into a buttered loaf pan.
Let proof until double again.

Preheat oven to 180C. When dough has doubled, make a long 1 inch deep slit all the way through the centre. Mix butter and sugar for topping and spoon into the slit, trying to push them down a bit. Brush egg onto dough top.

Bake at 180C for 10minutes and 160C for 25 minutes.