Soft Apple Roll: Soft bread for easy afternoon

While all the weather still as bad as possible >*< , making bread on a boring day can be a stress relieve session. Imaging the cup of tea in the lazy afternoon with a soft bread that is soft and perfumed.
I always love the baked or boiled apple, I love the sweetness of the fruit and the softness of the texture (well, I always love the soft food, haha, someone told me that I love baby food and yes, I do, ^ ^). If your apple is sweet you might reduce the sugar when boiling it, but do not omit the sugar, because the bread flavor depends on the flavor of the filling.

This bread is very soft due to the portion of the cake flour, which is low in the protein, if you love bread with soft texture you might like this kind of bread.
So, I hope most of you have all the ingredients in the pantry, why not go into the kitchen and start making this fragrance bread. This afternoon can be one of the best, hot tea and sweet bread, well, have a good day!

Soft Apple Roll
Makes 18 cm roll

Bread
160g	Bread flour
40g	Cake flour
6g	Instant yeast
40g	Sugar
2g	Salt
10g	Dried milk
10g	Unsalted butter
1	Egg
80g	Water
Egg wash
	1egg + 1 tbsp water
Filling
230g	Apple (peeled and cut)
50g	Sugar
1tsp	Lemon juice
100ml	Water
½ tsp	Vanilla extract
Icing glaze
	Icing sugar
	water

Make the filling:

Put all the ingredients into a small pan, bring to boil and reduce the heat.
Boil until most of the water almost evaporate, remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Make the dough:
Put all the dry ingredient into the bowl, whisk to combine. Pour the water and egg into the bowl.
Use large spoon (or pastry scraper) to mix everything together, and knead briefly to bring all the ingredients together.
Take the dough out of the bowl and knead, you will see the dough will be elastic after about 2 minutes.
Add the butter and knead by using the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself. Give the dough a little turn and repeat. Put the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm. Keep folding over and compressing the dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is soft, pliable, smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny.

Put the dough into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise in a warm place until double in size (can be 1 hour or 1 hour and a half check often depend on the temperature).

Brush 18 cm round pan with butter.
Roll the dough into 20x30 cm square.


Spread the apple over the dough, then roll into the cylinder.
Cut into 6 pieces and place into the prepared pan.
Let the dough rise until almost double in size.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
When the dough is ready, brush with egg wash, then put the dough into the oven.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.
Let the bread cool on the wire rack.

Mix the icing sugar with water and drizzle over the roll.

Soft Apple Roll: Soft bread for easy afternoon

Double chocolate and Pecan Cookies: For the Lover of Chocolate and Nuts

A glass of milk and a piece of cookie, well, it's a best time of the day, ^ ^. I got a cold lately (and still >*<, the weather in Thailand is very annoying, rainy and hot, ahh!). So, when you don't feel well, the best thing is the comfort food, and for me is a piece of chocolate cookies, haha.
I really love the pecan nut, but if you're in love with other kinds of nut feel free to change. For me, the lightly bitter taste of the pecan nut is the best thing when eating with something sweet.

These cookies will be very soft when just coming out of the oven, so don't try to move the cookies, or they will break and fall apart. Let the cookies cool in the sheet pan for a bit of time, it will be harden when cool.
Well, a bittersweet of the chocolate and a touch of pecan, serve with glass of milk, I think I will get well very, very soon.

Double chocolate and Pecan Cookies
Makes 16 pieces

200g	Dark chocolate (chopped)
100g	Unsalted butter
50g	Dark brown sugar
80g	Light brown sugar
1tsp	Vanilla extract
1	Egg
120g	Pecan
110g	All purpose flour
1tsp	Baking soda
¼ tsp	Salt

Preheat oven to 180°C
Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
Sift the flour with baking soda and salt, set aside.
Keep 32 whole pecan nut for decorating the cookies, and lightly chop the rest.

Melt 85g of the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from the heat.

Either by hand or with an electric mixer beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in the sugars until combined. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the egg, melted chocolate and vanilla extract until incorporated.

With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a 1½ -inch ice cream scoop, spacing the mounds of dough about 1½ inches apart. Top the cookies with the whole pecan.

Bake until the edges of the cookies have just begun to set but the centers are still very soft, about 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets about 10 minutes, slide the parchment with cookies onto wire racks, and cool to room temperature. Remove cooled cookies from the parchment with a wide metal spatula.

Double chocolate and Pecan Cookies: For the Lover of Chocolate and Nuts

Cookies and Cream Gelato: Childhood favorite with a style!

Do you like the ice cream? Well, most of us will answer "Yes". But as we're getting older (I really don't want to say this word >*<, it's a kind of feeling hurt ahh!) having a lot of ice cream is not good for our health! Anyway, a good ice cream from time to time won't hurt right? There are many recipes for cookies and cream ice cream (I already have one in my blog), but I find this recipe is very good too. The down side of this recipe is you need thermometer to get the base right (even you can use your eyes, I still like the feeling that my base doesn't get curdle).

This ice cream is not too sweet, (I reduce the sugar about 30% from the original recipe), so, we will be happier to be able to eat more, haha.
Because my ice cream machine is so small, I can make only small recipe, but you can double the recipe very easily.

Cookies and Cream Gelato
Yield: approximately ½ quart (500 g)

270ml	whole milk
50g	granulated sugar
2	large egg yolks
120ml	heavy cream
	A dash of salt
1tsp	Pure vanilla extract
3	chocolate sandwich cookies, chopped medium-fine

Pour the milk into a medium-size, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add 25g of the sugar. Stir to combine. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until it registers 170°F (77°C) on an instant-read thermometer.

In a nonreactive, medium-size bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the remaining 25 g of the sugar until foamy and slightly thickened.

Carefully temper the egg yolks with the hot milk mixture by slowly adding about half of the hot liquid to the eggs, whisking continuously. Pour the heated egg mixture into the saucepan with the hot milk and return to the stove top.

Stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula, cook the mixture over medium heat until it registers 185°F (85°C) on an instant-read thermometer or is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon or spatula, taking care to make sure the mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat. Emulsify the mix, if not completely smooth, before incorporating it into the cold cream.

Pour the heavy cream and salt into a clean, large stainless-steel or glass mixing bowl set over an ice bath

Pour the heated custard into the cold cream, add the vanilla extract, and stir until fully incorporated.

Stir occasionally (about every 5 minutes or so) until the mixture has fully cooled. This should take about ½ hour.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve or strainer into a container,and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Three to 4 hours before processing the chilled mixture in the ice-cream maker, place the chopped cookie pieces on a parchment paper lined baking sheet in the freezer until fully frozen and ready to use.

When ready, pour the chilled mixture into the ice-cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s specifications. When finishing the process stir in chopped frozen cookies, and place in a plastic container. Cover with plastic wrap by pressing the wrap gently against the top of the gelato, affix lid to container, and place in the freezer to fully harden before serving.

Cookies and Cream Gelato: Childhood favorite with a style!