Easy bread for beginners! (dinner roll / mini bread bun / Bread Loaf)

When everyone is asked to stay home as much as possible now, the resurgence of cooking and baking as two of the most tried-and-true activities happens to all of us. Keeping the kitchen activities fun and productive is the main focus for this series  - Thank you all! Stay safe!

Greek Yogurt Bread Bun

Greek yogurt bread is easy to make and only needs one fermentation process - about 2 hours preparation, which I start during dinner preparation. The dough is ready for baking after dinner, then bake during cleansing. Leave the bread outside all night. Ready to serve in the morning!

Ingredients:

1. bread flour: 400g

2. greek yogurt: 100g

3. egg + heavy cream: 90g (measure egg first, then add heavy cream)

4. milk: 75g

5. salt: 4g

6. sugar: 50g

7. yeast: 5g

8. unsalted butter: 30g (room temperature)

9. extra egg for egg wash, and sliced almond / sesame for decoration

* You can substitute heavy cream with half and half or milk. Make sure the liquid total amount is consistent! 

Steps:

1. Add ingredients 1-6 in the container (recommend bread machine here).

2. Add yeast into the yeast dispenser (if your machine doesn't have one, make sure yeast doesn't touch sugar and salt directly! Let machine knead for 3 minutes then add in yeast. In addition, try to store yeast in freezer).

3. Let the machine knead for 10 minutes (if I have time, I like to take the dough out, and manually knead for couple minutes. The dough comes out from the machine should be already smooth).

4. Add butter in, and knead for another 10 minutes. 

5. Shape the dough, line the baking pan with parchment paper, space the dough and put in the oven. Turn on the oven light, and put a bowl of hot water next to the baking pan. Let the dough rise about 1.5 hour, or until 80% of the pan is filled as shown in the below picture.

6. Preheat the oven to 350F (don't leave the dough in the oven during preheating).

7. Brush egg wash, and bake for 22min. Cover the pan with foil paper when the bread reaches the darkness you prefer. 

8. Cool bread on a rack. You always can microwave the break for 5-10 seconds to have a warm / soft / fresh taste. 

* tip: Here I use a rectangle cake pan (9" by 13") lined with parchment paper. 

Milk Bread Loaf

Taste very similar as Japanese milk bread, but it is much easier to make! The ingredients listing below is for TWO 9"by5" loaves.

Ingredients:

1. bread flour: 540g

2. one egg + water: 330g (measure egg first, then add water to 330g total weight)

4. milk powder: 25g (if you don't have, substitute water with milk in #2)

5. salt: 3g

6. sugar: 80g

7. yeast: 1tbsp

8. unsalted butter: 50g (room temperature)

9. extra egg for egg wash, and sliced almond / sesame for decoration

Steps:

1. Add ingredients 1-6 in the container (recommend bread machine here).

2. Add yeast into the yeast dispenser (if your machine doesn't have one, make sure yeast doesn't touch sugar and salt directly! Let machine knead for 3 minutes then add in yeast. In addition, try to store yeast in freezer).

3. Let the machine knead for 20 minutes (only kneading! if your machine doesn't have a separate kneading function, you can stop 'dough' process and restart it after the initial kneading; alternatively, use mixer to knead).

4. Add butter in, and restart 'dough' preparation. It takes ~45minutes. This is the the first fermentation. Dough should double its size at the end of this step.

5. Take the dough out of the bread machine. Shape the dough, line the loaf pans (here, or the one I use here) with parchment paper, space the dough and put in the oven. Turn on the oven light, and put a bowl of hot water next to the loaf pans. Let the dough rise about 1.5 hour, or until 75% of the pan is filled as shown in the below picture.

6. Preheat the oven to 330F (don't leave the dough in the oven during preheating).

7. Brush egg wash, and bake for 40min at the lower 1/3 rack. Cover the pan with foil paper when the bread reaches the darkness you prefer. 

8. Cool bread on a rack. 

I also stock up my favorite coffee beans ...

Jura Z6 Coffee Machine (here)

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Beans (here)