Mia Bakes: Red Tea Chia Seed Yudane Bread (Mayer BM12 Recipe)

This is my 2nd time trying the Yudane (Utane) method and I've previously tried the famous Tang Zhong (TZ) method for a fruit loaf and I would say it yields pretty similar results, just that the yudane method does not require 'cooking' over the stove and hence I stuck to it. Both methods help to gelatinise the starch in the flour, giving it a higher moisture content which yields a softer and more elastic bread loaf. 

While the TZ method calls for a 5 - 10% of the total flour content in the recipe with 5 parts of water and then cooking the mixture over small flame to hit 65 degree Celsius, the yudane method I've used calls for about 20% of the total flour content with equal ratio of boiling water. 

Before I elaborate on how to execute the yudane method, let's first get started on the original bread recipe given in the Mayer recipe book.

250g bread flour

180ml boiling water 

(to brew a flavoured tea of your choice)

20g salted butter

3g sea salt

30g sugar

3g active dry yeast

5 tablespoons chia seeds

To "yudanish" the bread recipe, simply use about 20% of the flour content to make the yudane dough with equal parts of boiling water. 

So for an original recipe with 250g of flour, my yudane dough will make up of 50g of bread flour with 50ml of boiling water. Just add the boiling water to the flour and stir until it comes together to form a wet, sticky dough and cool it down before proceeding with the rest of the baking procedure. 

So with the yudane dough done, the flour and water content of my remaining recipe will be reduced to 200g bread flour to 130ml of brewed tea. However, being not very trusting of the Mayer's recipe book, I've decided to give the recipe and its listed procedure a little tweak to get this particular recipe I've done for this Red Tea Chia Seed Loaf.

Yudane Dough: 50g Bread Flour + 50g Water (chilled in fridge)

180g bread flour

20g top flour

130ml red tea (chilled in fridge)

20g unsalted butter

2.5g table salt 

30g sugar

3g instant yeast

5 tablespoons chia seeds (grounded)

Add in cold tea, yudane dough, sugar, salt, and flour mixture into the bread pan, followed by instant yeast. Fit the bread pan into the bread machine and start the Mix Dough function, which will mix and knead the dough for 25 minutes straight. After 25 minutes, start the Soft Bread function (500g) and add in the grounded chia seeds and butter to mix. 

At the pattern sounding beep (1:30), remove the kneading paddle and let the BM finish its job.

TADAA~ 

Fragrant and soft Red Tea Chia Seed Bread! There's hardly any tea flavour in the bread but somehow there's a nice fragrance from the bread loaf that's a lot more distinct as compared to my past bakes. It might be because the semi-grounded chia seeds got roasted and gave our the fragrance, or it might really be the red tea that contributed to the nice smell. So try it and let me know how it went for you!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Dr. Bronner's Whole Kernel Organic Virgin Coconut Oil [Sponsored]

It is becoming more common these days to hear people sharing their concerns on chronic skin conditions such as sensitive skin, acne, allergies, eczema and etc. These can happen to anyone from a tender age to his/her mature years, and causes can be topical irritants or internal such as environmental, food allergies and emotional elements like, stress. 

Dr. Bronner’s Whole Kernel Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

14oz $21.90 • 30oz $38.90 

Nature’s Glory is proud and happy to present Dr. Bronner’s Whole Kernel Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, made using the ancient wisdom of Mother Nature’s wondrous resources, while marrying the cutting-edge technology to augment their ingredients’ efficacy so you reap the full and best benefits. 

It is 100% expeller-pressed from fresh, carefully dried coconut kernels whose brown inner skins have been left on, resulting in a more aromatic, nuttier-tasting oil.

Nature’s Glory was formed in 1991 with the vision and mission to discover the best of Nature, for the betterment of health and lives of Mankind. Its philosophy is that Man should be in harmony with Nature. Nature’s Glory offers a range of products that are truly unique and distinguished. Its organic and macrobiotic foods, health supplements, ionic water systems, beauty and car health products are among the very best in the world, brought about by painstaking research, and with regional and international representations. Prices are very moderate as part of its health mission. The team at Nature’s Glory is committed to the excellence of health and the environment. Nature’s Glory believes 80% of health problems come from nutrition, prevention is better than cure, and selecting the right food and water helps to restore, maintain and build health, beauty and vigour. 

Coconut oil consists of more than 90% saturated fats, along with traces of few unsaturated fatty acids, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Due to its high content of saturated fats, coconut oil was once demonised due to the misconception of clogged arteries, which may lead to heart diseases. 

In fact, recent studies has shown that coconut oil has various health benefits that includes:

1. Weight loss

Increasing our energy expenditure, hence helping us burn more fat

2. Immunity

Contains Lauric acid and other components with antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties

3. Lower risks of heart diseases 

Loaded with saturated fats, which raises HDL and changes LDL to a benign subtype (17, 18)

4. Alzheimer's disease

Fatty acids help increase our blood levels of ketone bodies, supplying energy for the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients and relieving symptoms.

5. Strengthens bones and teeth

Improves the ability of our body to absorb important minerals, including calcium and magnesium which are necessary for development of strong bones. It also helps with developing strong teeth and preventing tooth decay. 

Other than using the coconut oil as a food source for health purposes, there's also many other beauty uses for coconut oil, such as:

1. Hair mask

2. Body oil

3. Lip balm

4. Cuticle softener

5. Under-eye cream 

6, Make up remover

7. Body scrub (with sea salt or sugar)

8. Shaving gel

And, guess how did I use my coconut oil?

 With my newly acquired breadmaker, of course!

To make a 500g loaf of Coconut Sweet Bread, you'll need:

Water - 180ml

Egg - 1 no. (30 - 50g)

Salt - 1/3 tsp

Sugar - 3 tbsp

Bread Flour - 330g

Instant Yeast - 3/4 tsp

Coconut Oil - 4 tsp

*you may increase or decrease the amount of sugar, oil and yeast according to your preference.

Although most breadmaker will recommend that we first add water, egg, salt, sugar, oil, and then the flour and lastly the yeast, I found that doing it the opposite works much better and gives me softer, fluffier bread. 

First, I add in my liquid (water or milk in other recipes) and sugar, then my instant yeast. Adding yeast first can also allow us to make sure that we're not trying to bake bread using 'dead' yeast. 

Only after confirming that my yeast is 'alive', I'll add in the flour and then the salt, making sure never to let the salt get into direct contact with the yeast, for that will kill the yeast. 

Keeping the oil aside, I'll start my machine and let mixing commence. Only when the mixture is starting to come together, I'll add in my oil (or butter in other recipes) to give the bread a better overall texture. 

Slightly sweet with just a hint of coconut flavour, this coconut sweet bread goes well with a light spread of butter or even peanut butter or nutella. 

Dr. Bronner’s products are available at Nature’s Glory retail store or e-shop at www.naturesglory.com  with FREE DELIVERY for purchases S$150 & above. 

You can find Natures Glory retail store at 

315 Outram Road #01-09  Tan Boon Liat Building  Singapore 169074 

Tel: 6227 1318 

For more information, visit their facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Dr.BronnerAsia and https://www.facebook.com/NaturesGlorySg 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Panasonic Cooking Demo: Homebaked Goodies for Christmas

I was so excited when I received an invite from omy recently, on a cooking demo by Panasonic to make some homebaked goodies for Christmas. And so, on a Saturday afternoon, I made my way over to the cooking studio at the Panasonic Customer Service Centre, along with a small group of other omy bloggers, to learn how easy it'll be to make some yummy breads with the Panasonic SD-P104 Bread Maker!

This is actually my first time seeing a bread maker and I was a little surprise to find that it actually resembles an elongated rice cooker. SD-P104 also comes with a handle, which added on to its handy-dandy convenience of being able to bring it around easily. 

And what's the plus point of being early for an event, other than being able to snatch the 'circus seats'? You can take as much photographs as you like, without snapping the weird backviews/sideviews/frontviews of any unknowing photobombers. 

And yes, that's 3 whole shelves of ovens and microwaves at the back of the cooking studio. 

Our cooking mama, Theresa, prepping up the place before the rest of the bloggers arrive. And yes, that's a freshly baked bread loaf you spot back there. 

A sneak peak of the ingredients needed for the cooking demo today....

And upon arrival of all bloggers, Theresa got the demo going by introducing to us how the Panasonic SD-P104 bread maker works. It not only mixes, kneads, rises and bakes the bread at one touch of the button, but also help to dispense raisins & nuts (left grey squarish contraption) and instant yeast (right black round contraption) automatically at the proper time. 

Not only that, it also allows us to choose the crust colour we prefer (light or standard) and has 13 baking menus (including rice flour bread and dumpling skin) to allow us to bake an array of goodies like bread, dough and cake. And according to Theresa, you can also make your own fruit jam using this bread maker as well! 

And other than the control panel and dispensers, the other remaining section of this amazing machine will be this bread pan.

And inside the bread pan comes with a detachable kneading blade. It's pretty surprising to know that such a small blade is enough to knead through the entire bread dough.

And while Theresa started off the class with showing us how she baked this perfect loaf of Fragrant Mixed Wheat Bread, Clarice, another friendly staff of Panasonic, helped to slice the freshly baked loaf for us to have a taste.

This bread is a little crispy on the outer crust, and totally soft and fluffy on the inside! And with a good dose of sunflower seeds, melon seeds, raisins and black sesame seeds, it totally added on to the sweetness and fragrance.... YUMS!

This is basically what happens after you dump all your ingredients into the bread pan and switch on the bread maker.
And in 2 hours under "Rapid" baking mode...

Viola~

And of course, we had a 2nd serving of this yummy bread loaf! Erm, okay I had a 3rd serving actually. xp

And if you think you can only make bread loaves with the bread maker, no that's not all! As mentioned, you can also make dough using the bread maker.

 and working on the ready made dough and allowed to rise further in a oven set at 40 degree C...

You can get some yummy flavoured bun rolls!

Theresa made cuts on top of the neatly shaped bun and stuffed in a good amount of canned tuna (minced), onions, cheese and a dash of paprika to make some yummy tuna bun rolls.

And even for a non canned tuna lover, this bun rolls were still yums! 

And next up... Guess what?

Yes, you can also easily make Muah Chee using the bread maker too! And the hardest part of it will definitely be cutting the ready made lump of muah chee and coating them with crushed peanuts. 

However, I felt that the muah chee was a little too soft and not chewy enough for my liking as a huge mochi/daifuku fan. 

And our last treat of the day...

Hmm, pizza?

No, it's focaccia bread! 

Covered fully with cherry tomatoes, olives and mozzarella cheese, the dough was left to rise at 40 degree C for another 50 minutes before baking.

And viola~

Fresh from the oven, fragrant and fluffy, it's so yummy that even those scalding hot cherry tomatoes couldn't stop our gluttony! 

For more information on SD-P104 Bread Maker and other Panasonic products, visit Panasonic's website HERE or their facebook HERE.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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