Japanese Melon Pan

My love for 'Melon Pan' started when my japanese friend, Mio, brought the melon pan to a farewell party. I can tell you, it was such a good first impression. Several days ago, we had a babyshower party and this time, Wakana-san brought the Melon Pan.

I believe it was fate. So I asked the recipe from Wakana-san, and she kindly invited me to make the Melon Pan together at her house. It was so nice of her!

So then we baked together, and produced 16 buns. I brought 6 of them home, and they were all gone in one day (it was my husband to blame). Wrapped by the cookie dough, the bread is sweet and crisp on the outside, and fluffy on the inside.

The next day, I put my guilty feeling aside, and started baking one batch. That's how much I love it! ;)

For those of you who want to give it a try, here is the recipe from my friend, Wakana. I felt the dough was too sticky, so I added about 1/2 cup flour from the original recipe. And since I use kitchenaid mixer instead of bread machine, I adjusted the recipe.

Japanese Melon Pan (Japanese Style Sweet Bread)
makes 16 buns

Ingredients:
For the bread
300 gr bread flour
40 gr sugar
150 gr water+1 egg
24 gr unsalted butter
6 gr active dry yeast
50 gr warm water for yeast mixture

For the cookie
60 gr unsalted butter
85 gr sugar
40 gr egg
180 gr all-purpose flour (I add 1/2 cup more)
1/2 tsp baking powder
granulated sugar (for sprinkles)

Directions:
For the cookie:
- For the cookie: Whip butter until it becomes white. Add beaten egg
- Combine all purpose flour, baking powder, and sugar. Add to the butter and egg mixture
- Wrap cookie dough like a stick. Put it into the refrigerator or the freezer

For the bread:
- Prepare the warm mater and add yeast into it. Wait until it's foamy for about 15 minutes.
- Combine all the dry ingredients in the bowl of stand mixer: bread flour and sugar.
- Run the mixer for 1 minute to mix the dry ingredients.
- Add the egg mixture, unsalted butter, and yeast mixture.
- Use the kneading attachment and run the mixer for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth
- Shape the dough into a bowl and let it sit in the bowl (covered with plastic wrap) for 1 hour until it doubles in size
- Divide the dough into 16 pieces of equal size.
- Round each dough and cover them with a wet towel. Wait 15 minutes.
- Take the cookie dough out of the fridge, then divide the cookie dough into 16 pieces of equal size.
- Reround each bread dough.
- Sandwich the cookie dough with two plastic wraps, and spread it to make it like a round disk.
- Remove the upper wrap from the cookie dough and put the bread dough on it.
- Take upside down and remove the other wrap. Stick the cookie dough on the bread dough.
- Mark the cookie dough with a knife.
- Dip the wrapped bread into the granulated sugar.
- Spray water on the dough. Wait 20 min.
- Spray water again. Preheat oven to 210C (410F). Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream for a Special Day

There's this saying, 'Funny how time flies (when you're having fun)'.

I can still remember the very first time I met my husband, October 2007, just feels like yesterday. The fact is, it has been 5 years since that, and exactly 2 years since our wedding day.

So I guess I've been having fun! I thank God for this and thank you to my dearest husband ^_^

So for this special day, I made a chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream (Don't you love it when you have a reason to make pretty cakes?? ). The plan was to make a fondant cake. But then I had a change of heart, right after the raspberry buttercream was done. The color, ah, too beautiful a color to pass up! A bucket of roses with that purple color seemed just right.

The double chocolate cake is adapted from the famous Miette's Tomboy Cake recipe from Bakerella, which my friend, Bicil, told me. It's a double chocolate cake, so of course, very rich, chocolaty, and moist. I'm not complaining at all.. :)

Ah.. and I'm glad my husband likes it. That way I can officially call it our anniversary cake. Happy anniversary to us! 

Double Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
11/4 cups natural unsweetened cocoa powder
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces 70 percent (or 60 percent) cacao chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup boiling water
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 tbsp lemon juice and add milk until the liquid reaches 1 cup volume)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
21/4 cups sugar

Directions
1. Liberally butter two 6-by-3-inch regular or contour cake pans and dust with sifted cocoa powder. Tap out the excess cocoa.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

4. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Whisk until the chocolate is melted. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

6. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs on high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour in the oil, whisking until combined, about 30 seconds. Raise the speed to medium and whisk until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds longer.

7. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly pour in the buttermilk and vanilla mixture. Add the sugar and whisk until the batter is smooth and liquid, about 2 minutes.

8. Stop the mixer. Remove the bowl and add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated, preferably by hand, lifting and folding in from the bottom center. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again just briefly by hand. The batter may still look a little lumpy, but stop mixing.

9. Pour the batter through a medium-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup or bowl to remove any lumps. Press against the solids in the sieve with a rubber spatula to push through as much batter as possible, then discard the lumps. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

10. Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. When the cakes are cooled enough to handle the pans but still a tad warm to the touch, carefully run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans to loosen them, then invert the cakes onto the racks and remove the pans. (Note: If you are making the Old-Fashioned Cake and therefore using a contour pan, just invert the pans and drop them sharply onto the racks; they should fall out cleanly. Using an offset spatula in a contour pan will mar the edges of the cake.) Let cool for about 20 minutes longer. Wrap the cakes tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate to ensure that the interiors are completely cooled before decorating, at least 1 hour or for up to 3 days. To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer up to 2 months.

Note:
We use natural cocoa powder not Dutch-processed, as the Dutch-processed cocoa has been treated with an alkalizing agent that heightens the color but gives it a milder flavor. For this recipe, it is important to use natural product such as Scharffen Berger to attain a deep, dark chocolate flavor.


Raspberry Buttercream

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup raspberry jam
2 pounds powdered sugar

Directions:
- Mix butter, vegetable shortening, and raspberry jam until incorporated.
- Add powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency (and sweetness!)