Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns - More Experiments

This is a very quick post to report back on my experiment on the Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns.

The last time I made these, I did not succeed in getting sufficient cream cheese filling into the buns. I repeated the last recipe and went for a simpler cream cheese filling formula. Chilled to get a firmer texture, I was able to portion a generous amount of cream cheese filling with an ice cream scoop. However, after baking, what started out to be a silky smooth cream cheese, took on a split and curdled appearance.

The buns were tasty though, especially when it is still warm from the oven. However, in terms of replicating Barcook's creamy cheese filling, this is not a success. It is baffling how Barcook's filling remains so smooth and silky even after baking... it is almost as if they injected the filling after the bread was baked. Most dairy products, may it be cream cheese or butter tend to curdle a little after baking. I tried a few different combinations of cream cheese / cream cheese spread/ mascarpone - all did not retain the silky creamy texture. After the last trial , I simply decided that the bakery must have used some form of processed cheese which is not available to us.

If you choose to use my last recipe for the sweet buns, the result of the buns will be similar to the bakery's - very soft, very easily squashed to yield a wrinkly appearance. (above photos)
If you prefer a bread with more structure, you can try the following sweet buns recipe and it will give you more structure. (See photo below)



Anyway, I think I've had enough of cream cheese buns for now and am satisfied enough as far as a home baked cream cheese bun is concerned.
For those who love this enough to experiment further, please keep me posted... :)


Recipe : (adapted from 65C Tangzhong Bread)

A. Water Roux
Bread flour           100g
Water                    500g

B.
Bread flour            228g
Plain flour             60g
Dried Yeast          6g
Castor sugar         30g
Salt                       3g

C.
Milk                     120g
Egg                      30g
A (Water Roux)   72g

D.
Unsalted butter     30g

E.
Dried Cranberry   50g ( I ran out of this so I omitted the berries for this exercise)

Method :
A. Water Roux
1. Mix flour and water in a saucepan and stir well with a whisk. Heat up the mixture in the saucepan gradually until temperature reaches 65 C , stirring all the time.
2. Remove the mixture from heat and continue stirring until water roux thicken. Stirring lines should be visible in the water roux.

Bread :
1. In a mixing bowl, mix B (except for salt) and C (except for water roux) and mix with a dough hook until the dough gathers to form a ball.

2. Add Water Roux from C. Continue mixing until dough gathers together. Add the salt from B.

3. Add butter and continue kneading for 15-20 mins on medium speed. The dough should no longer stick onto the wall of the mixing bowl. It should not be tacky when you tap on it with your fingers. Window pane test can be performed now by stretching the dough to form a thin pane. The stretched pane should not break. Add in cranberries at this stage.

4. Gather the dough and roll it into a ball and let it proof in a lightly oiled bowl for 40mins at room temperature.

5. Knead the dough slightly on a lightly floured board. Portion the dough into 40g portions. Roll each portion into a small ball and let it proof for 10mins.

6. Flatten each dough and scoop about 20-25g of cream cheese filling and seal the dough to form a round bun.

7. Place (6) on a lined baking pan and place another baking sheet over it. Proof the dough for 30mins.

8. Bake (6) together with baking sheet on top at 170C for 20mins. Cool down.

Cream Cheese Filling :

1. Cream 200g  of cream cheese with 50g of powdered sugar, 18g whipped cream and 1 tsp of vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Chill until firm before use.

Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake - Strawberry Jelly Heart

As much as I enjoy eating these Jelly Cheesecake, photographing them proved to be an extremely frustrating and uninspiring experience - quite possibly because all the imperfection rendered during cutting and slicing them (e.g. jagged edges) were magnified in ghastly detail through the camera's lens.

A very popular non-bake cheese cake in Singapore, this recipe has been blogged over and over again by food bloggers in Singapore. More well known as Strawberry Jelly Heart, this was possibly the brain child of a local home bakery who had first encapsulated a heart-shaped strawberry in jelly over cheese cake.


The pleasing combination of digestive biscuit base, cheese cake and jello is extremely easy to make-if there was ever a Cheesecake for Dummies, this would easily qualify as one. The only thing that one needs to focus on is to make it look pretty... which wasn't difficult until I started slicing it.

This is an overall crowd pleaser, everyone loved it when I served them - the cheesecake is not overpowering while the digestive biscuit base is fragrant and buttery. The Jello?... brings back childhood memories...

For those who are interested, Valerie Kong conducts a very good and meticulous class for this and other cheesecake recipes. However, the recipe has become well tested in many blogs, an example is Happy Home Baker's blog.



Recipe ( from HHB)

base:110g digestive biscuits(about 8 pieces), chopped into fine crumbs
40g melted butter

filling:
250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
50g icing sugar
1 tablespoon gelatin powder
40ml boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 box Jelly crystal (strawberry flavour)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water

Some strawberries, cut into heart shapes

Method:
1. Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of a 18cm cake tin. Chill for 30 minutes.

2. Place gelatin powder and boiling water in a bowl. Heat a pot filled with some water until just simmering and place the bowl inside the pot. Dissolve gelatin and boiling water in the bowl. Keep warm.

3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese , icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth & creamy. Blend in gelatin solution and mix well.

4. Pour the cheese mixture into the cake tin. Layer the strawberries on the cheese mixture. Chill for at least 3 to 4 hours.

5. Dissolve the jelly crystal in the cup of boiling water, followed by the cold water. Pour the jelly on the cheese mixture. Let it set before removing from the cake tin.

Oreo Lemon Cheese Cake - LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow

October 2nd has been announced as LiveSTRONG Day 2010. On this day, 514 events will be held in the 416 cities of 52 countries to raise awareness and show support for the fight against cancer. LiveSTRONG Organisation, founded by Multiple Tour de France Champion, Lance Armstrong is a body that inspires and empowers people affected by cancer. To better understand what they do, please visit here.

I first learnt about this organisation last year at Barbara's blog, WinosandFoodies. I was still new to blogging then and had been inspired by her story to participate in her own Livestrong event, LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow.

LiveSTRONG Day has now gone massively global. Unfortunately, there is almost zero awareness in Singapore. How I wish some organisation would organise a cycling event in Singapore on LiveSTRONG Day to raise awareness.

Last year, my entry for LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow was Pumpkin Ang Ku Kueh. It was my first pariticipation in a blog event and I felt really happy doing it...  For this year, the usual criteria of cooking with a yellow food applies. In addition, Barbara has also implemented the Heart element into this year's event. I have been really looking forward to join in the fun again and have been toying with many options. Eventually, I settled for this Oreo Lemon Cheese Cake which I have found in popular Hong Kong pastry chef, Tony Wong's cookbook. Tony Wong was the executive pastry chef at The Royal Garden hotel in Hong Kong and now has his own patisserie. When I was working out of  Guangzhou, a few years back, I would sometimes hop over to Hong Kong for the weekend and one of my favourite haunts would be City Super. Tony Wong used to conduct classes as a guest chef at City Super in Hong Kong and they were always fully booked before I could even get my hands on the class schedule. His creations are always lovely and I suspect his handsome good looks was also another reason why his classes were so popular... :-P...

How can one go wrong with Oreo, Lemon and Cheese Cake? Simple to put together, this is one cheese cake that does not even ask for a base.

A cake ring is wrapped with baking paper before it is lined with a ring of Oreo Cookies. (Held in position with a dot of softened butter) The cream cheese can be prepared quickly and this is baked without a water bath. Easy breezy and once baked, this can be dressed up easily with fruit toppings and ribbons... and you have a lovely creation that makes you feel like a proffessional patissier  :).


My last note to support LiveSTRONG Day - Life is fragile, live strong, live without regrets...

Recipe :
Cream Cheese (softend at room temperature)    280g
Sour Cream                                                      75g
Sugar                                                                110g
Corn Flour                                                        20g
Egg                                                                   150g
Lemon Juice                                                      55g
Lemon zest                                                       1 lemon
Vanilla extract                                                   1/4 tsp
Oreo Biscuit                                                     10 pieces

Utensil :
16 cm diamter round cake mold (I scaled down and used a mini springform ring for mine)

Method :
1. Beat cream cheese, sugar and corn flour to mix well. Add sour cream and beat until smooth. Add egg gradually, one by one.

2. Add vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest. Scrape the ingredients from the sides of the mixing bowl to the sides of the mixing bowl to the center and mix well. Pour into the cake mould. Bake at 140C in preheated oven for about 45-50mins.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

When I got my own place 6 years ago, I started to pick up baking again. At that point, I started working with muffins - simple fare which did not require too many fancy gadgets and props. Then came the cupcake fever that seemed to grip everyone. All the mothers I know seem to be besotted by the cupcake and were baking up a myriads of colourful frosted cupcakes for their kids' school function. Yes, cupcakes are relatively simple things to make. Armed with the few basic cake mix. commonly divided into the  Vanilla cake base,Yellow cake base, Chocolate cake base, these can be frosted with simple variations of butter cream. cream cheese and fondant to achieve spectacular wow factor.

I was there but got bored soon. Most cupcake recipe books were run of the mill and it was almost like if you've seen one cupcake cook book, you've seen them all...  That was until I came across Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I like it because her cupcakes felt more 'adult'. Even the frosted versions were more classy. Of course, at the end of the day, the baker will need to make sure that he/she would be able to reproduce them to do justice to the creator.

The Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes are single bite sized portions of creamy oreo cheesecake. Cleverly simple, the cheese cake crust is actually a whole Oreo sandwich biscuit. If you like creamy cheese cake, this is a gem.  My frustration over this is that, somehow, my cheesecake takes on a yellowish hue instead of the milky white colour as shown in the cookbook. If any one of you had tried this before, please let me know if you have the same problem.

And I am having the worst day at photographing this. I thought I've finally managed to get a reasonable grip on my photos but these dark gothic morsels had me going back to my photo board 3 times. My heart plunged when I uploaded them onto my computer and had to start photographing them from scratch... It is a good thing that these don't melt and that I can still store them in the fridge. Anyway, I am absolutely discouraged by this whole assignment and have little energy left to write intelligibly. So here's sharing the extremely simple and delicious recipe with all of you.



Recipe

8          cream- filled Oreo Sandwich (whole)
3          Oreo Sandwich , coarsely chopped
227g    Cream cheese
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp  Vanilla extract
1          Egg beaten
1/4cup       Sour cream
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 135C
2. Line muffin pan with cup cake liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup
3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla extract.
4. Drizzle in egg and mix until well coporated. Mix in Sour cream and salt. Fold in chopped Oreo.
5. Scoop cream cheese mixture into each cookie filled cup. Bake at 135C for 22mins.
6. Cool down on wire rack in the muffin tray. Refrigerate for at least 4hours before removing from cup cake liner.