Food Time: Hokkaido Milk Bread

Ok, so I've been obsessed with bread since God knows when. And of course, being Asian, I love and grew up eating Asian bread. So when I moved here, it was a rare thing to find Asian bread, unless you go to Asian markets (even that, I wasn't too happy about it)... Until 85C Bakery in Irvine & Rowland Heights popped up. Irvine was the first one. The line for the bakery can take about 30 - 40 minutes, especially on the weekends. Usually when I'm there, I would purchase $30 worth of bread. Yes, bread. They get consume within 2 days. 

After researching, I finally found out the name of the bread that I've been craving: Hokkaido Milk Bread. Apparently it originates from Japan, specifically Hokkaido, where they use Milk in the bread. Apparently, their quality of milk is very superb too! Yum.

Anyways, I grew up eating bread with fillings... My favorite will always be Chocolate and Banana... so of course I made some. 

So I tried out 3 different recipes. The first 2 I made while watching the election. And all, with the power of my bread machine. Yes. I love that thing to pieces. NO tired arms here.

Apparently the key to yummy Asian bread is this: TANGZHONG. It's a paste that you can make yourself that keeps the bread so soft and fluffy. It's so easy to make. 

Another key ingredients that I paid attention was Heavy Cream. Yes. Heavy Cream. In your bread? Yes. And also Powdered Milk. Gosh, the smell of the bread out of the oven = heaven.

This is the first batch. Recipe is this one. This turned out so dense. You get full just eating one. It was too heavy for me. I don't know if it was the recipe or I made a mistake somewhere during the process. I wasn't happy with the results, even though it tasted so yummy, I started to make another batch from another recipe.

Now, this was the Victory Bread. Why? It turned out so good and at the same time, Obama was announced President again. I used this recipe, with the addition of the Tangzhong. It didn't called for it in the this recipe, so I had to adjust the amount of flour. I was like, "WTH" when I saw how liquidy and soft the dough was in the machine. So I believe I added another 1/4 cup of bread flour to the dough.

For my 3rd attempt, I made this out of sadness and boredom after dropping Robert off to the airport. Yes. Depression and sadness leads me to the kitchen. True story, hahaha... Now this one turned out awesome. Also, I added fillings, like I said, to half of the dough (I doubled up THIS recipe). One thing was that I should've baked it a couple of minutes longer, but I was impatient and was getting worried that my bread was gonna browned too soon (A Tip I read was that, on the 20 minute mark, I should've create a Foil Tent to the pan so the bread won't browned too much and let it baked for another 10 minutes.)

This one I filled with a 1/4 slice of a banana and Ghiradelli's Chocolate Chip. Yes. It was great. 

As happy I was with the results, I'm still not satisfied. I want to learn to make it again. I have to do more research. I'm still curious on how to make the outside/crust as soft as the inside... You know, like the King's Hawaiian Rolls. Soft all around. Now if I reached to that point, bombizzle. 

Anyways, here's my way of rolling the bread.

Option for filling: You can insert your filling of choice in the middle of the dough before you roll it up like a swiss roll :)

Seriously, if ANYONE has ANY TIPS on how to make mah bunz soft, please share!!! I'm desperate. If it wasn't for my Mother's continuing rant on how Carbs can make you fat, I would probably be in the kitchen again trying to make more bread!

Who loves bread?

Bread Kisses,

Rima

Things I Love Monday, week 43 - 45

Good grief, I haven't done TiLM for a long ass time... I guess you have one of those times where you're just not inspired to write. Good thing I still write on my journal/planner to keep track of my life. Woo.

Just to sum things up:

• Rob's in Shanghai, China, right now and will be traveling back to homeland, Indonesia, by the end of the week. I dropped him off on Saturday morning. Who knew saying a temporary goodbye was hard? I was doing okay until he had to go thru his gate. I was just giving him the sad face and he said, "Aw, Centil, don't cry..." Haha I couldn't help it. The waterworks were just poppin', I started laughing. He even looked sad. After saying our i-love-yous and kisses, I walked away and still cried in the car. Super weak sauce. I spent the day obsessing over the flight status on united.com. I was very happy when he texted me that he landed. We facetime'd the following morning (it's a 16 hour difference). Poo. Gawd I miss him.

• You may recall that I wrote about going thru some rough times. All is well at the time. If it wasn't for God, my sisters and Rob, my days would be miserable. 
• Rob & I did the Color Run!! It was bomb! I made a video... and finally, here are the pictures!

template: puglypixel

• Right after the run, we went to the San Diego Animal Wild Park. That was pretty fun riding the tram. But I was sooooooooo tired. My legs were like jello. Not cool. 
• Election Day was cool. It was intense watching CNN and their projections. It was crazy. Neither to say, my family are happy with the results. Nuff said.
• I made bread. Yes, with my bread machine. Post will follow soon! Woo.
• Rob had his 28th birthday this past Nov 8! Yay. Now we're the same age. Finally.

Then of course. My love for food never ends.

Home made Iron Skillet Pizza :)

Korean Food!!!!

Sushi!!! 

Arroz con Pollo and Paella...

Fish Tacos! This was really good! San Diego is legit!

Peterson's Donuts @ Escondido. OMG. NOM fest. Huge donuts!

Huge Ass Maple Bar 

Nasi Lemak, a Malaysian Cuisine.

Chicken Pot Pie from Lazy Dog Cafe. So good. 

Mother made me Korean Ramen with Kimchi & Beef Balls. YUM.

hopefully you all have a great monday/week :)

moonbeams and bunny kisses,

Rima

Links I Love Sunday

Holly Schmolly it's Sunday already... Time flies so fast.

I have a confession: I'm addicted to Stumble Upon. Man, you get great great sites recommended for you. It's a great tool to browse around, especially when you're bored.

• You know me... I love food. Now, making your favorite food more awesome, I found this article. Not sure if I want to put peanut butter in my ramen, but it won't hurt to try, eh?
• I love my dog. If I had a house, I would totally go here to as a reference for some doggy places around the home.
• Like seriously... if dogs can help another dog out, how come we can't? Sometimes I think humanity needs to learn from animals sometimes.
• I love Cinnamon Rolls. One of my weakness. Now Cinnamon Roll Pancakes? Let's party.
• Again, I love my dog. Now if only workplaces would allow you to bring your pet, that would be awesome. Well, it depends on what type of workforce you do. But seriously, if you have your own office, wouldn't be so cool to bring your dog/cat with you? It can relief some stress out of a stressful day at work!

Well, I hope you all have a great Sunday. I'm still struggling about the distance between me & Rob while he's gone. More on that soon.

MOONBEAMS!

Rima

Experiment Time: Hokkaido Milk Bread

I've been obsessed with this bread for some quite time. Well, I'm Asian... So I was raised with Asian bread: soft, milky with a hint of sweetness.

So after googling around and going crazy, this is my third attempt on making these special bread.

Stay tune. My second attempt turned out great.

xo, Rima.