Wholesome Blacky Bread

What is in your mind when you look at this bread? Yes, healthy and...... must be a solid or hard texture bread, right? At first, I thought it is but I don't care as I was thinking to get all the goodness for my body. 

Somehow the outcome surprising me with a very soft texture like those milky bread and it stay soft until the third day. I deeply falling in love with this recipe because its wholesomeness and softness had encouraged me  to bake this more often. 

The bread consists of whole wheat flour,  黑八珍 and some walnuts. I use to drink this 黑八珍 for breakfast that contains eight kind of goodness in it. There are 黑芝麻, 黑木耳, 黑米,黑豆,黑枣,黑麦,黑糖,灵芝. all blended into powder which can be easily melted in hot water for breakfast. All these are good for ladies if you know all the ingredients. The bread taste really good, not only the softness but the crunchiness of walnut and the taste of 黑八珍, fantastic!I think the dough can be baked in a loaf tin or make it into little buns, either use it for sandwich or any favorite spread or just eat as it is. I will add some dry fruits, sunflower and pumpkin seeds for my next baked. Anyone like healthy and soft texture bread, give this a try!

Recipe for a loaf of bread:  142g bread flour / 50g 黑八珍 / 40g whole wheat flour / 5g milk powder / 10g caster sugar / 3g salt / 5g yeast / 120g fresh milk / 48g water roux / 13g unsalted butter / 75g chopped walnut / some wheat bran for coating

Recipe for the water dough "water roux": Cook 125g water with 25g bread flour at medium low heat, keep stirring until it become thicken and no lumps left. If you've a candy thermometer, measure it until the temperature turn to 65C then turn of the heat. I didn't measure it with thermometer, so I cook it until like a baby porridge. Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with a cling wrap to avoid skin forming. The amount of water dough here would be more than a recipe required, you could store it in a the fridge for 2 days, if the color turn to dark grey.


Knead all the ingredients with a dough hook mixer except butter until the ingredients combine into  a dough. Add in butter and continue the kneading process until the dough no more sticking at the side of the mixing bowl. It should be smooth and elastic. Let it proof for 40 minutes in a clean bowl cover with cling wrap. Punch out the gas and shape into a ball shape to let it rest for 10 minutes. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin. Place the chopped walnuts around then roll up into a loaf shape.

Prepare some water on a clean plate and place a kitchen towel on the top. Damp the surface on the dough and run the damp surface with the wheat bran. Place on a baking tray and let the dough proof for 40 minutes.

Bake at 180C for  25 minutes.

Orange Roll

It seems like a "rolled" month for me. You will notice there are crepe roll, peach roll and followed by this orange roll from my list. The last attempt of peach roll was using 指形蛋糕 from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 with a method of whisking egg whites until peak stiff then add in the egg yolk. For this orange roll, again... with the recipe of 孟老师 - 分蛋式海绵蛋糕 which I found even better although it's slightly more steps but worth it! The sponge cake is very soft and easy to roll up. The orange taste is excellent as the orange strips are everywhere on the sponge surface. The fillings suppose to be can orange but I use fresh one instead. Perhaps can orange would be much tastier as my fresh orange is a bit sour :(

On my last attempt, I forgot to describe on the ingredient calculation for different sizes of baking tray. It's really important for this calculation because we all have different sizes of baking tray compare with different recipe books. You don't want to have too thick or too thin sponge but rather have the same picture from the recipe book so that it's much easier to roll up and the result come out as good as the pictures shown. Good thing about 孟老师的 recipe that she gave very detail information. Please refer to the calculation if you like to try out this recipe or from any recipe books. Hope you find it useful.

Ingredients Calculation for different baking tray

孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 (36cm x 26cm = 936)

Kitchen Corner (36cm x 36cm = 1296)

1296 ÷ 936 = 1.38 ( make it 1.4)

All ingredients from the recipes should x 1.4 to match my baking tray

My calculation of 36cm x 36cm from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷

1 Orange strips (2 or more)  

20g Unsalted butter (28g) 

20g Orange juice (28g)

100g egg yolks (140g)

25g caster sugar (35g)

160g egg whites (224g)

75g caster sugar (105g)

55g plain flour (77g)

1. Prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper. Remove the orange strips from its skin and place on the tray. Melt the butter than set a side to cool then add in the orange juice. 
2. Whisk the egg yolks with sugar in a double boiler until thicken and pale in color. In another bowl whisk the egg whites with caster sugar until peak foam.
3. Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites then gently fold in the shifted flour. 
4. Pour some mixture (3) into a clean bowl then mix in the melted butter and orange juice. Pour back into the mixture of (3) and mix gently until everything well combine. 
5. Pour into prepared baking tray and spread evenly. Bake at 190C for 10 - 12 minutes. Be careful  not to over bake it. 
6. Remove the cake from the baking tray immediate when it out from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Tear out the side of the baking paper and let it completely cool down. 
7. Gently tear out the baking paper and spread your favorite cream on the surface with fresh or can oranges and roll it up. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour before serve.

Peach Roll

There are so many different type of swiss rolls. Either made with chiffon base, whole egg sponge mix or separation of egg white and yolk mixing. I like the whole egg sponge base as I find it much easier to make and the texture is quite fluffy and soft. This time, I try a new method from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷。She has five different methods of making swiss roll. Here is one that to whisk the egg whites until peak stiff then add in egg yolks. I find it quite interesting and the result was not bad. The texture is a bit different from the three methods that I've mentioned above. Not the fluffy type but soft and smooth. The good things is that the sponge can be easily roll up. 

As this is my first attempt, I hardly catch the right temperature to bake it although the recipe mentioned 190C from the top and 160C from the bottom heat but every oven had different temper. I've slightly over bake the sponge so I find it a bit dry, otherwise it would be perfect. If you dare to try out this recipe, you will know what I mean. Happy Baking!

Recipe for 36cm x 36cm

170g egg whites

110g caster sugar

80g egg yolks

105g plain flour

180g whipping cream

20g caster sugar

2 to 3 pieces can peach

Beat the egg whites until bubbles appear, gradually add in caster sugar and beat at high heat until peak stiff.
Add in all the egg yolks then continue to beat until thick batter.

Gently fold in plain flour until well combine.
Pour into a baking tray and spread evenly. Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes. Keep on eye so that it will not over baked.
Place the sponge on a cooling rack together with the baking paper once it come out from the oven. Gently tear out the baking paper.
Whisk the whipping cream with caster sugar then spread evenly on the sponge. Place some sliced peach on the sponge then roll it up. Roll up a layer of cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour before serve. 

Crepe Rolls

I've been quite slow in updating my blog recently. I wonder where is my baking and blogging spirit has gone. I wish I got back my passion after the gathering with my buddy but somehow I fine myself still like floating somewhere else. This fruit crepe was made last week and till now I've nothing to post up here. Well, at least I've got few of this pictures taken so to make you remember me :) 

I normally have crepes spread with my homemade peanut butter for breakfast rather than serve as dessert. I know it suppose to be dessert not breakfast. So this time, I try to make it as a fruit dessert since I've got some banana and strawberries. I've seen many food bloggers and recipe books showing how to make this crepe rolls till now only I got a little mood to do it. It's not perfectly roll up but I find this crepe recipe I've been using for many years really a good one and simple to make.

Roll in the lemony cream cheese cream with the strawberries and banana is quite a refreshing dessert. I very much like the light texture of cream which contains little cream cheese with little sugar. Melt some dark chocolate that given by my buddy that make extra flavor to it. I think I must not only make this fruit crepes for my breakfast next time. It taste very yummy indeed but just need more practice to roll it up nicer. 

For the crepes 西点学习大百科 - 法式可丽饼:

In a mixing bowl, beat two eggs with one tablespoon of caster sugar and pinch of salt until the sugar dissolve and combine. Add in 80 gram shifted flour until a thick batter. Mix in 50ml cream and 200ml fresh milk then add one teaspoon vanilla extract until everything combine and become a smooth batter. Cook a scoop of batter in a non stick pan. When the crepe edges browning and lift up, flip another side to cook. Makes about 15 pieces approximately 18cm)

For the cream cheese cream 西点学习大百科 -  

Beat 100g cream cheese and 40 gram caster sugar until smooth batter then add in four tablespoon of lemon juice. Keep in the fridge while you whisk the whipping cream. In another bowl, whisk 400ml whipping cream until thicken. Add in the cream cheese batter continue to beat until well combine and the cream become harden. Transfer to a piping bag and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

To make the crepe rolls, place a piece of crepe on a plate. Squeeze some cream cheese cream at the center then place a piece of strawberry or banana on the cream. Squeeze some more cream cheese cream until it cover the fruits. Fold up from the bottom and the side then roll up the entire crepe. Keep in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. I'm not sure this is the best roll up method. Please feel free to give your opinion and ideas. Thanks!