Product Review Panasonic Bread Maker SD-257 & Chocolate Milk Bread

I've been dreaming to own Bread Maker for such a long time. I just hate the idea of kneading, maybe it's because I'm terrible at them. Isn't that great to have the machine work its magic for you?.

I decided to buy the Panasonic Bread Maker SD-257 as I heard many good reviews about them. My friend from Kyoto was also encouraged me to buy this type of Panasonic Bread Maker when I was on holiday in Japan couple months ago. Imagine how many kg's would be added to our luggage capacity if I have bought this bread maker back home?. So, my friend has done some research and told me this type of bread maker is also available in Australia. How amazing! Another great thing is I bought this appliance on sale at Harvey Norman, I couldn't be any happier. So I started using them as often as I could. Yay, I can play around and bake some fancy bread now.

The Panasonic Bread maker SD-257 gives 10 bread different options: Basic, whole wheat, rye, french, italian, brioche, sandwich, gluten free, pizza and also bake only option for tea bread and cakes. I love the bread maker that gives lots of range options such as three different loaf size, three crust colour, the bake rapid options which means the bread will be ready in 2 hours and last but not least, lots of choices for dough options e.g rolls, croissant, french dough for crusty french sticks and buns. The machine is very easy to use, I thought it may give me a headache at first but I was wrong..  They are actually pretty straight forward machine. I must say that this added to my great kitchen investment.

This time I decided to use the machine for kneading the dough only and I baked the "chocolate milk bread" in the oven, just for my own experiment. Next time I'll do everything for this recipe in the machine, less hustle for me, yay.. Ok, let's put the product into the test..

Chocolate Milk Bread

Ingredients

520g Bread Flour

60g Plain flour

250ml Milk

1.5 teaspoon Dry Yeast

2 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoon Milk Powder

190ml Whipping Cream

80g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

200g Chocolate Chip

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients into bread machine. Set into dough function. Let it rest and rise in the machine until double its size.

2. Remove from the tin and divide the dough for 5 equal portion and shape into a ball.

3. Lightly dust the flour onto the surface, flatten the ball, roll out and add the chocolate chip. Roll it up tightly. Repeat the same process for the rest of the dough.



4.  Place them in the greased bread tin. Set aside and let it rise for approximately 1 hour.



5. Bake at 180º Celcius for about 35-40 minutes. Serve.

Fried Meringue with Pandan Creme Patisserie

(Adapted from "Poh's Kitchen"- Poh Ling Yeow)

I am such a big fan of  Poh Ling Yeow, Runner Up from Masterchef Australia Season 1.  I felt so honoured to meet her during Good Food and Wine show in Melbourne couple weeks ago, believe me I had a star struck moment. That day just encouraged me to go back to Poh's Kitchen Cookbook and tried more of her recipe. I baked one of her recipe of Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce and turned into a success.

My Star Struck Moment with Poh Ling Yeow

Since I bought Poh's cookbook, I always wanted to try this fried meringue recipe as they just look very appealing especially she created the recipe with Pandan Creme Pattisiere, which you may be aware I always have a thing for Pandan leaf. Honestly, my first thought of deep frying the meringue made me wonder if the meringue will turn soggy or undercook. Guess what? My fear of cooking the meringue turned into something beautiful. One thing that I have to admit though, I am not a big fan of cooking Sugar spun, not only they are time consuming, they are also one of the mixture that need to work very quickly as the sugar are set before you know it (I may need to have a few lesson to work on my sugar spun). Overall, I love the result of fried meringue with lovely Pandan filling, they are one of mouth watering dish and will give you a 'wow' result on the dining table.

Fried Meringue with Pandan Creme Patissiere

Ingredients for Pandan Creme Patisserie

• 2 Pandan leaves shredded into strips and knotted or 1tsp Pandan Aroma Pasta
• 400 ml full cream milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 40g unsalted butter dice
• 
  
• Method to make the Pandan Crème Patisserie
• In a medium saucepan bring pandan knots and milk to the boil. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till mixture is a thick, pale and fluffy. Whisk in flour until well incorporated and add the pandan aroma pasta (if using). Whisk in the hot milk till combined. Remove pandan knots and strain the mixture to avoid any lumps. Cook over a medium to high heat, whisking continuously till mixture becomes quite thick. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and gradually whisk in cubes of butter till all the butter is incorporated into the mixture. Cover the surface with cling wrap to cool till required.

For Meringue Mixture

8 egg whites

• 1/2 cup plain flour sifted
• 1/2 cup cornflour sifted
• 1L vegetable oil
• caster sugar

Method to make the Meringue Mixture

1. Beat egg whites till stiff peaks. Gently whisk in flours till incorporated. Heat oil so that a small dollop of meringue mix cooks until golden in about 15 seconds.

1. 2. Put 1 tablespoon of meringue into a ladle, make a well in the middle, then drop a teaspoonful of the pandan crème patisserie into it and then spoon some more meringue over the top to seal the crème. Lower the ladle over the oil and quickly slide the meringue ball into the oil. If there is hole on the surface quickly try to seal it over with some meringue mix. Cook till golden. Roll in caster sugar immediately.
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. Ingredients for Sugar Spun
5. 225g Caster Sugar
6. 250 g Water
7. 
   
8. Method for Sugar Spun
9. 1. Bring Water and Sugar to simmer in a saucepan.
10. 2. Use Pastry brush dipped in cold water to brush the inner side of the pan to prevent the sugar crystals forming while simmering. 
11. 3. Using Sugar/ Jam Thermometer, cook the syrup until reaches 155º. Immediately remove from the heat and plunge the pan into cold water to halt the cooking process.
12. 4. To spin the sugar, take two forks back to back and hold tightly. Dip these into the mixture, pull them out so that sugar comes out as thin threads. Shake the forks over the top of fried meringue. 
13. 
    

Mie Ayam Jamur (Indonesian Chicken Mushroom Noodle)

If you follow me from the beginning, you may realise that I didn't post much of savoury food, that's because I'm a hopeless sweet tooth. 

This chicken mushroom noodle is hubby's favourite dish and he never missed any kind of noodle dish every time we go back to our hometown in Indonesia.

There are many version of noodle dish in Indonesia. Some of them have the chinese influence in it, just like my version of this noodle dish.  Here's one of the idea for indonesian noodle dish when I visited my hometown early this year.

Mie Ayam Jamur (Indonesian Chicken Mushroom Noodle)

Ingredients

Dried Egg Noodle

1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

4 Cloves Garlic, Minced

2 cm Ginger, sliced

200g Chicken Thighs Fillett, diced

100g Button Mushroom, sliced

2 tablespoon Soy Sauce (Kecap Asin)

2 tablespoon Sweet Soy Sauce (Kecap Manis)

1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce

100ml Water

Salt and Pepper

2 Tablespoon Chilli Powder (Optional)

Wonton Skin, for deep frying

Chilli Sauce

Pork or  Chicken Oil, from 300g Pork Skin or 500g Chicken Skin

Spring Onion, cut finely

Tongcai (Chinese Preserved Vegetables)

Blanched Chinese Broccoli

Chicken Broth Ingredients

Chicken Bones/ Chicken Frame

3 cm Ginger, Sliced

4 Cloves Garlic, bruised

3 Litre Water

2 Spring Onions, Cut finely

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. For Chicken Broth: Boil water in a large pan. Add all ingredients and reduce the heat, continue simmering for another 30 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. For Chicken Mushroom Stir fry: Combine Soy Sauce (Kecap Asin), Sweet Soy Sauce (Kecap Manis), Oyster Sauce, 100ml Water, Salt an pepper altogether in a bowl, set aside. Heat the oil and sesame oil, stir fry the garlic, ginger until fragrant. Add chicken and mix well until chicken change colour. Add the mushroom and the sauce mixture into the pan and mix all up until chicken is cooked. Set aside.

3. For Noodle: Boil water on the pot, cook the noodle until cooked and drain. Mix the noodle with light soy sauce and Pork or Chicken Oil. 

4. Assemble: In a bowl, place the noodle, the chicken mixture on the top and blanched chinese broccoli.  Serve with deep fried wonton skin, tongcai (chinese preserved vegetables), chicken broth and chilli sauce on the side. 

Coconut Slice

One fine Afternoon, I was browsing my pantry and the fridge looking for something I can bake out of it. I had the stock of sour cream and a bag of desiccated coconut, which I know I would be able to make something sweet and simple.

Coconut Slice is just a perfect simple thing to satisfy my sweet craving at that moment. As you may notice from the image, I made a thick coconut ice frosting and they just gave a perfect balance between the sweetness of the frosting and the cake.

So, indulge yourself with some Coconut Slices for afternoon tea treats.

Coconut Slice

Ingredients
125g Butter, Softened
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
220g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
40g Desiccated Coconut
225g Self Raising Flour
300g Sour Cream
80ml Milk


Method
1. Preheat Oven to 160°. Grease deep 23 cm square cake pan, line base with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, essence and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in coconut, sifted flour, sour cream and milk, in two batches.

3. Spread mixture into pan, bake about 40 minutes. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

4. Meanwhile, make coconut ice frosting.

Coconut Ice Frosting

Ingredients

320g Icing Sugar

100g Desiccated Coconut

2 Egg Whites, Beaten lightly

Method

Sift the icing sugar into medium bowl, stir in coconut and egg white. Place half the mixture in small bowl.

Drop spoonfuls of frosting over top of cake.