Basic Bread Recipe / Resipi doh roti asas

I have a number of go-to recipes for basic bread dough. Most of them are practically similar. However, one valuable thing I learn about making dough is the addition of water roux. I learn about water roux from Kak Ros's blog: Bukan Sekadar Masakan.  

According to MamaFami from her blog 'MamaFami's Spice and Splendour' (cut and paste):

"Water roux is something used in bread making to make bread/buns springy. The springiness is fairly noticeable when you have let the bread/buns cool. To make the Water Roux Starter, you need 1 part flour, 5 parts water".
Ingredients :

50g flour
250g water

1. Whisk the flour and water that you have decided to use in a bowl until it is whisked well and is free of lumps.
2. Put it on the stove and warm it up for 2-3 minutes at 65C or until thickened. Be careful not to burn it!
3. Cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.

When using it, make sure it is at room temperature. The Water Roux Starter lasts for 3 days before it goes off.

 

Water roux. Image taken from Bukan Sekadar Masakan.

My well-risen dough, just before baking.

Now that I know the magic of water roux in bread making, I have always been adding it in almost every bread recipe. The following basic bread dough recipe which I have been using is taken from My Resipi website and I tweak the recipe a little by adding water roux. The original recipe calls for 250ml of water and I had to reduce it to 100ml since I added water roux yielded from the mixture 50g flour and 250ml water.   

Basic Bread Dough
Adapted from My Resipi

Ingredients:
To activate yeast:

5 tsp instant yeast
100ml warm water or milk

1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon flour

To make water roux:

50g flour

250ml water

For the dough:

600 g (5 cups, leveled) all-purpose or bread flour
120g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk powder (optional)
1 egg, beaten
60 g softened butter/ margarine
Water roux  

1 egg, beaten + 2 tbsp milk (for egg wash)
Melted butter/ margarine (for brushing on cooked bread)

 

Method:

To activate yeast: In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, flour and warm water/milk. Set aside and let the yeast do its thing.

To make water roux: Mix the flour and water in a saucepan and stir on medium heat for about a minute until thicken. Set aside to cool. 

To make the dough (by hand):

1. In a large bowl, combine and whisk the flour, milk powder (if using), sugar and salt together. 

2. Then, add in the activated yeast (should be frothy by now), cooled water roux and and an egg. Mix well. 

3. Using your hand, knead the mixture for about 5 minutes until a rough dough is formed. The dough might be rather dry and not elastic at this stage and there might still be bits and pieces of flour in the bowl.

4. Next, add in the butter or margarine into the dough. The dough might become greasy at first. Continue kneading using the heel of your palm until all the butter is incorporated in and the dough is no longer greasy and becomes smooth and elastic. 

5. Set the dough to proof for about an hour until it doubles in size.

6. After that, punch the the dough to release the air out. Now, you may shape the dough in any shape you like. Then, rest the shaped dough for at least 30 minutes to an hour to allow them to rise again.  

7. Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C. Brush the bread with the egg wash and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes (depending on the size of your bread) or until cooked. 

8. Lightly brush the tops of bread with the margarine or melted butter when done to prevent crust from getting hard.

Resipi Doh Roti Asas
Diolah daripada: My Resipi (Kak Fida)

Bahan-bahan:
Untuk aktifkan yis:

5 sudu kecil yis *saya guna Mauripan
100ml air/susu suam

1 sudu besar gula
1 sudu besar tepung gandum

Untuk membuat water roux:

50g tepung

250ml air

Untuk doh:

600 g (5 cawan rata) tepung roti atau tepung gandum
120g gula kaster
1 sudu kecil garam
2 sudu besar susu tepung (optional)
1 biji telur, dikocok
60 g marjerin
Water roux  

1 biji telur dikocok + 2 sudu besar  (untuk glaze)
Marjerin (untuk sapu roti selepas masak)

 

Cara-cara:

Untuk aktifkan yis: Dalam bekas kecil, satukan yis, gula, tepung dan susu/air suam. Ketepikan.

Untuk water roux: Kacau tepung dan air di atas api sederhana hingga memekat (dalam 1 minit). Sejukkan.  

Untuk membuat doh:

1. Dalam mangkuk yang besar, satukan tepung, susu tepung (jika guna), gula dan garam.

2. Selepas itu, masukkan yis yang telah diaktifkan tadi (yis akan berbuih), water roux dan telur yang dikocok. Gaul sebati. 

3. Dengan menggunakan tangan, uli bahan-bahan tadi sehingga menjadi doh yang kasar, dalam 5 minit. 

4. Selepas itu, masukkan marjerin/butter dan uli lagi doh sehingga menjadi licin dan elastik. 

5. Rehatkan doh selama 1 jam atau sehingga naik dua kali ganda.

6. Selepas itu, tumbuk doh untuk membuang angin dan bentukkan doh mengikut citarasa anda. Selepas itu, doh perlu direhatkan semula selama 45 minit atau sehingga berganda saiznya.  

7. Panaskan oven pada suhu 350F/180C. Sapu permukaan roti dengan campuran telur dan susu dan bakar selama 15 minit (bergantung kepada saiz roti) atau sehingga masak. 

8. Selepas dikeluarkan dari oven, sapu permukaan roti dengan sedikit marjerin/butter supaya roti kekal lembut. 

Simple Banana Bread / Kek Pisang Mudah

My sis baked this seriously simple and moist (more so the next day of baking it) banana bread. Toast a slice and add a knob of butter on the warm slice - heaven! This recipe is taken from one of my cooking mentors, the inspirational Mr Mat Gebu (as we all fondly refer him as) from his blog Dapur Tanpa Sempadan. TQ Abg Mat!

Simple Banana bread by Mat Gebu  

Source: Dapur Tanpa Sempadan

Ingredients:

200 gram all-purpose flour*

1 tsp soda bicarbonate*

1 tsp baking powder*(*sift together)

150 gram bananas (whole bananas before mashed)

170 gram castor sugar (Mat used 150g brown sugar) *My sis followed Mat, but she used dark brown sugar, hence the colour. the amount of sugar depends on the sweetnees of your bananas).

A pinch of salt (optional)

3 grade A (large) eggs

120 gram corn oil (or any vegetable oil) *My sis used melted butter

1 tbsp ovalette (cake stabilizer/ emulsifier). *if you don't have any, no sweat!

A few drops of banana essence (optional)

Chocolate rice to sprinkle on top. *My sis used almond nibs

Method:

1. Preheat your oven at 170C, grease a regular size loaf pan with butter and line the bottom with baking paper (you may also use a round or rectangle 8-inch pan). Set aside.
2. Mash banana, sugar, salt and ovalette until well blended. Add in eggs, mix well. add in the the sifted flour, vegetable oil and banana essence (if used). Mix well. Sprinkle almond nibs on top. 
3. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 min or until thoroughly cooked, depending on your own oven. 

Kek Pisang Cepat Siap 

Sumber: Dapur Tanpa Sempadan

Bahan-bahan:

200 gram tepung gandum*

1 camca teh soda bicarbonate*

1 camca teh baking powder*(*satukan dan ayak)

150 gram pisang

170 gram gula kastor (mat guna 150 gram gula perang)

Secubit garam (mat tambah)

3 biji telur gred A

120 gram minyak sayur (mat guna minyak jagung)

1 camca besar ovallate

Beberapa titik esen pisang (optional)

Chocolate rice sebagai hiasan

Cara-cara:

1. Panaskan oven pada suhu 170C, sediakan loaf pan berukuran 7 inci x 3 inci (2 biji), sapu dengan mentega dan alas dasarnya dengan kertas minyak (anda boleh juga guna tin bulat 8 inci atau tin 4 segi 8 inci). Ketepikan.
2. Lecek pisang, gula, garam dan ovallate hingga semua bergaul dan sebati. Masukkan telur, kacau hingga rata. Tambah tepung yang telah diayak, minyak jagung dan esen pisang (jika guna). Gaul hingga sebati. Kalau anda nak masukkan sedikit coklat rice juga boleh, tapi mat cuma tabur atas kek saja.
3. Tuang dalam tin kek dan bakar 40 minit atau hingga masak bergantung pada oven masing2. Keluarkan kek dari tin, biar sejuk atas jaringan dan boleh hidangkan..

Flaky Crust Egg Tarts

This recipe is taken from Kak Rima's blog bisousatoi (seriously folk, do check out her blog!) who took the recipe from Wendy's Table for 2. As the already suggests, these tarts are definitely flaky and crumbly; I guarantee you. This pastry is rather difficult to be removed from the regular tart moulds because of its flakiness. Wendy used disposable foil tart cases for her tarts. I suggest you do the same. It was quite a struggle for me to remove the tarts (I use muffin pans), but it was worth the effort for I like my pastry crumbly and flaky! :) The filling is smooth and creamy, just like what an egg tart should be. Try this and you wont be disappointed.

Egg Tart Recipe  
(from bisousatoi ; originally from Table for 2.)

Pastry
250g plain flour

2 tbsp castor sugar

1 egg yolk

150g butter,

Filling

150g castor sugar

150ml hot water

250ml milk(1 small pack of milk) * I used low fat milk

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 large eggs

1 egg white (From the same egg where the yolk was used in the crust)

Method

1. Cream the butter with the egg yolk and sugar. 
2. Add in flour. Mix well. (If the dough is sticky for you , well maybe your yolks are larger than mine, add in extra flour by the teaspoon until it no longer feels sticky, but got a slight flour feel to it, but not too much though, as it will toughen the crust. the borderline of stickiness and dry feel is very thin.. so, add extra flour with caution)
3. Roll out pastry in between two sheets of plastic into thickness of about 4mm. Stamp out 9–10cm circles of pastry with a pastry cutter.
4. Lightly press the pastry circles into foil tart cases(I’m lazy to wash up the tart tins).
5. Refrigerate the lined foil cases for 2 hours (I left them overnight)
6. Melt the sugar in hot water, add milk, salt, vanilla essence. Beat all the eggs lightly and mix in all together.
7. Sieve egg mixture and pour into the cold tart crust.
8. Bake at 180C (fan)/200C for 25 minutes.

Orange Lemon Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake

This recipe is born after I tweaked the ever famous Tish Boyle Plainly Perfect Pound Cake. The cake is seriously moist and unmistakably lemony/orange-y, to say the least. if you enjoy pound cake as much as I do, you have got to try this recipe. :)

Orange Lemon Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake 

(Adapted from Shirley@Køkken)

Ingredients:

• 200g/2 cups plain flour
• 50g of almond meal (I added. I grounded almond nibs in food processor).
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 227g/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened) *I used salted butter 
• 1/4 tsp salt   *I omitted this
• 250g/ 1 1/4 cups caster sugar (I reduced this to 200g). *I follow Shirley. If you are into sweet, then stick to the recipe :)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 80ml heavy cream *I replace this with "homemade buttermilk" - I added 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice to 80ml of low fat milk (that's what I had) and left it for 15 minutes
• 1 tablespoon 'Sunquick' brand orange fruit drink base *I added
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice. *I added

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour and almond meal with baking powder and salt (if used) and set aside.
3. Cream butter in a mixer at medium high speed until creamy (about 2 mins). Add sugar gradually and continue beating for 4 mins until light and fluffy.
4. Reduce the mixing speed of the mixer to low and add eggs one at a time mixing until well mixed.
5. Add the citrus zest, vanilla extract and Sunquick fruit drink base.
6. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating it with cream/ or buttermilk  and also freshly squeezed orange juice (added in 2 additions). 
7. Pour into 2 lined 3″x 7″ pound cake mold and bake for 60-70 mins or until the cake turns brown and a testing skewer comes out clean. (Trish Boyle had baked this at 162C but I had to use a slightly higher oven temperature to ensure that the cake is cooked through without dense uncooked spots) *I used a 9-inch IKEA's silicone pan and baked for exactly 60 mins at 160C.