Pretzel bread recipe

Pretzels

Makes 6 large pretzels

1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
240-360g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
245g warm low-fat milk

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until it forms a ball. I start with 240g of the flour and mix it together until it forms something like a thick batter, then add more flour a handful at a time until it'll form a nice ball that I can knead by hand.

2. Either use an electric mixer to mix the dough for 5 minutes or remove it from the bowl and knead it by hand for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough begins to get smooth and satiny.

3. ** If you are going to ferment the dough (more information on whether this set is necessary below), return the ball of dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately an hour.

4. ** If you fermented it, degas the dough gently before moving on to the next step.

Before shaping, start preheating the oven to 210 deg C.

5. Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll (on a slightly floured surface) each one into a short log, cover with a towel, and let the dough relax for 5 to 10 minutes. After it has relaxed you should be able to roll it out and stretch again fairly easily. Let rest for another 10-15mins.

6. To eggwash them: Simply place them on a baking sheet, brush them gently with an egg that has been whisked, then sprinkle with coarse salt or other toppings. *eggwash all around the pretzel, else can see the white flour.

7. Place the baking sheets into the oven. It took around 15 minutes for my pretzels to get golden and brown. Remove from the oven and eat immediately.

For pretzel bread, bake at 210C for 15mins then lower to 170C for another 10mins (too long, bread was overbaked).

** Truthfully, I couldn't tell the difference between the batch that I let ferment for an hour and the batch I baked immediately. If I were tasting them side by side with no toppings I probably could detect a slight difference. But at least when I eat soft pretzels they are a medium for other flavors (salt and mustard), either method produces an adequate pretzel.

Adapted from: thefreshloaf

Magic bread recipe

Ingredients A
100gm plain flour (modified)
70gm boiling water

Ingredients B
400gm plain flour (modified)
80gm sugar
6gm salt
20gm milk powder
9gm instant yeast

Ingredients C
175gm cold water
60gm cold eggs
60gm butter

Filling: 
slices of ham
grated cheddar cheese

Method:
1.Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours.

2.Mix B until well blended. Add in the cold water and eggs and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well blended

3.Add in butter and knead (use hook attachement on mixer, high speed) till form elastic dough (window pane test).

4. Let it proof 1.5hrs (until double in size, place it a oil-greased bowl, cover with wet towel, hide it in the microwave).

5.Divide the dough into 60gm each (on a flour covered surface) and mould it round. Let it rest for 10mins (cover with wet towel again) and flatten it.

6. Place a slice of ham on top. Roll it up and fold into half .Cut the centre and open up. ( or any shape you want )

7. Place onto a greased (with oil) pan and proof for 45mins.

8. Place some grated cheese, mayonnaise (or egg wash it) and bake at 190C for 12-15mins.

Adapted from: herfrozenwings

Hokkaido milk bread / Asian sweet bread recipe

Hokkaido milk bread

Tangzhong:
20g of bread flour (all purpose will work as well)
½ cup of water

1.     Mix the flour and water together. Whisk until the flour is completely dissolved there are no lumps. 

2.     Pour the mixture into a saucepan and turn on the heat to medium. Stir the mixture constantly as the mixture heats up. Cook the tangzhong until the mixture thickens. You should be able to draw "lines" in the mixture and the indent should remain for a little bit (it will be noticeable). It is the best to use a thermometer. The mixture should be perfect at 65°C.

3.     Once the mixture is just right, take it off the stove and set aside (cover with cling wrap and allow to cool).

Bread:

300g bread flour (all purpose flour will also work: the kneading time will need to be increased though)

100g sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 large egg

½ cup of milk

2 teaspoons instant yeast

40g butter (cut the butter into small pieces and make sure it is softened at room temperature)

1 serving of tangzhong (use all the tangzhong made with the separate recipe)

1.     Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add in all wet ingredients (milk, eggs and the tangzhong).

2.     Use the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer. Begin mixing on medium speed until the dough comes together. Then add in the butter and continue mixing/kneading. 

3.     Keep kneading until it becomes a smooth dough. It shouldn't be too sticky and have some elasticity (around 30 minutes). Add (a lot) more flour to keep the dough from being too sticky. 

4.     Knead the dough on a flour-covered surface into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil.  Place dough into the greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

5.     After proofing, move the dough to a clean surface and split up the dough into equal portions. Knead and form this dough into balls. Cover the balls with the wet towel again and let it rest for 15 minutes. 

6.     To help create the fluffiness of the layers: take a rolling pin and roll each portion of the dough into an oval shape. Then take one end of the oval dough and fold it to the middle of the oval. The other end should then be folded to meet top of the other end of the dough. Flip dough over with the folds facing down. Flatten the dough with rolling pin and flip it over again.  Finally, it's time to roll the dough into shapes. 

7.     Place the dough into a greased pan. Put a wet towel over the rolls and let them rise until they are double the size, for about 50 minutes. 

8.     Before baking the final proofed bread, beat an egg until thoroughly combined. Brush the egg mixture on top of the bread in order to create the beautiful brown shiny finish after baking.

9.     Bake the bread at 160°C for approximately 30 minutes (may want to bake less ≈ 25mins).

Adapted from: instructables