Busy Mom Kitchen Gadget #1: Panasonic Bread Maker BMS105-T

Panasonic BMS105-T, dimension 30.4cm(W)x24.1cm(L)x34.5cm(H)

 

At first, I was very skeptical about using bread maker to make bread. When I was searching for bread recipes early last year, I bumped into a few Taiwanese bloggers who have invested in Panasonic bread maker and able to make good bread out of it. Having visited Taiwan for a few times, I knew that Taiwan is very popular for their breads and buns, so I trusted their reviews. On the other hand, I am tempted by the bread maker preset timer where I can get fresh loaf every morning. In the end, I got myself the latest model, BMS105-T.

 

Highlights of BMS105-T:

1. separated compartments for yeast and nuts/dried fruit

This is very important as the yeast and nuts/dried fruit should be added at correct timing. Many bread makers in the market do not have these compartments or either they have only one compartment.

2. Controlled temperature for yeast proving/bread rising

After the kneading is done, the bread maker will provide a optimum temperature for the yeast. Therefore everytime the bread will turn out the same size regardless of the weather/temperature.

3. up to 12 hours preset timer

I use this function very often. I just need to place all the ingredients, preset the completion time and I will have a fresh loaf for breakfast.

4. thickness of the crust

There are 3 selection for the crust, which are light, medium or dark. I found that many bread makers produce a slightly thicker crust. So it is good to be able to select the crust thickness I like.

5. 30 programmes

Honestly I have not experienced all the programmes. But this bread maker really can make a lot of things besides bread, which I will explain later in this post.

 

 

Here is a summary of the bread functions:
1. Bread loaf(fully auto)
2. Steamed bread(semi auto, will need to move the dough to steam bowl)
3. Breads and Buns(semi auto, will need to shape the dough, put in filling or toppings and bake in oven)
4. Cake(fully auto, do note that the texture is more like muffins as there is not beating involved) 
5. Dough kneading(it can do all kind of dough kneading, example pizza, noodles, udon, mantou, chinese pao etc)
6. Fruit jam(fully auto)
7. Chocolate truffle(semi auto, need to shape it with mold)
8. Muaci(semi auto, need to shape and coat with peanut powder)
9. Read bean paste(fully auto)
10. Home made yeast(fully auto)
11. Home made yogurt(fully auto, using the yeast function)
12. Fish Ball(semi auto, using the bread dough function, still need to shape and cook)
13. Meat floss(semi auto, using bread dough function) Yes! Meat floss for Chinese New Year! :)

Function #1 to #10 are provided in the user manual. From #11 onwards, these functions are tested by either me or other bloggers. I hope to see more wild ideas that this wonderful machine can do. :)

Taiwanese green onion savoury bun

Life is busy with a toddler around. But whenever I can squeeze out an hour or two, I like to try out new recipe. Today I tried to make taiwanese green onion savoury bun. I used the dinner roll recipe, form ball doughs and add green onion topping to it. I have made the bun recipe many times, so I know it will be soft and fluffy. But the green onion topping gave the plain bun a new and attractive look, wonderful smell and taste. Each of us took 2 buns and Phin Zhe took one for tea break. Daddy said he will finish the remaining two at night. :)


Green onion topping:
green onion
butter
half egg
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper

Hot Cross Bun(Healthy version)

Hot cross bun, hot cross bun. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross bun.

This is one of Phin Zhe's favourite nursery rhyme. When I made him the dinner rolls, he told me,"not hot cross bun." Then he requested me to make hot cross bun. I modified the original recipe so that it is more simple and healthy. My recipe does not use the normal custard batter for cross decoration.

Ingredients:
280g flour
2.5tbsp sugar
0.5tsp salt
0.5tsp yeast
130ml water
1 medium egg
30g unsalted butter
0.5tsp cinnamon powder
raisins

Steps:
1. Knead all ingredients except cinnamon and raisins into dough.
2. Add in cinnamon powder and raisins.
3. Let the dough sit for 20minutes.(I used bread maker for above steps, bread dough mode).
4. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions, roll into ball shapes and place on parcement paper, slightly apart from each others.
5. Let the balls sit for 10minutes.
6. Brush a layer of egg(not in ingredient listed above) on top.
7. Mix some flour with water until thick batter is formed. Use this batter to draw the cross.(You can use a piping bag, but I just used a chopstick).
8. Bake 15minutes in preheated oven at 180c to 200c.

Rosemary Focaccia

After Phin Zhe had the first bite, he pointed at the focaccia and commented,"This bread is nice!" :D

When I baked, the whole house was filled with olive oil and rosemary smells, it made me felt like I was in a bakery. :)

Ingredients:
280g high protein flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
150ml water
0.5tsp active dried yeast

Steps:
1. Knead all the ingredients into dough.(I used bread maker, pizza mode).
2. Let the dough sit and rest for 20 minutes.
3. Divide into 3 equal portions and sit for 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough on parchment paper and roll out to 7 inches diameter flat dough.
5. Let it sit and rest for 40 minutes.
6. Use finger to poke on the dough to create wells.
7. Brush a layer of olive oil on the surface.
8. Sprinkle generous amount of chopped fresh rosemary, sea salt(I skipped) and cheese(I skipped) on top of the dough
9. Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven at 180c to 200c.

Best serve with a cup of espresso or cappucino. Of course my boy had it without coffee. :-)

Dinner Rolls

There is a lot of recipes that I have bookmarked and wanted to try. But I am still waiting, waiting for Phin Zhe to grow bigger. So at 22mo, I finally tried making bun with the help of bread maker. Main reason is I am lazy. Second reason is it uses slightly more butter and sugar as compare to loaf. Well, it is still relatively low compare to store bought bun. And since Phin Zhe likes it, maybe I can make it more often. But I still can not decide if I should make new buns or make this dinner rolls again this weekend. ;)

Ingredients:
1. 280g high protein flour
2. 1/2tsp active dried yeast
3. 50g unsalted butter
4. 150ml water
5. 3tbsp sugar(of course I didn't put 3, I put 2.5tbsp)
6. 1tsp salt

Steps:
1. Knead to unsticky dough, cover and let it sit for 30 to 40mins.(i used bread maker to do the job).
2. Divide equally to 12 portion, roll to ball shapes, cover and sit for 10mins.
3. Shape to oval shapes, cover and sit for another 10mins.
4. Use a roller to form a thin and long sheet. Roll the dough sheet from one end to another.
5. Place on parchment paper, sit for an hour and bake in preheated 170c oven for 15 to 20 mins

The bread texture is very fluffy. I think it is due to the second, third and fourth rising time given to the bun. My son loves it very much. He had one bun fresh from the oven right after his dinner. When the father wanted to take a bite, he pushed his father's hand and turned his head away. The next day, he ate one for breakfast. Then brought two to school, finished one during morning break and finished another during tea break. So he had 3 buns in a day! I am a happy mama. But the next day I told nanny to give him more fruits during tea break. Haha.

Homemade fish balls

We were supposed to go to Hard Rock Penang with family friends today. The mummy is my ex colleague, the daddy is working in our ex company and their son Darren is Phin Zhe's classmate. But unfortunately Darren is down with fever and Phin Zhe is having runny nose too. So, no Hard Rock for everyone and I made fish balls for lunch.

I used threadfin, cantonese called ma-yao(马友), hokkien called ngo-wa. Scrape off as much meat as possible from the fish. I used a knife and a fork to do the job. Then, use a food processor or even BREAD MAKER to beat the meat with 1/2 tsp salt, 1tsp sesame oil, 2tbsp iced water and some pepper.I used a bread maker today and it did a pretty good job.

While waiting for the fish paste, pan fry the fish head and bone with a little bit of oil. Then, add water and boil for at least one hour. Filter the soup, season with sea salt and pepper. Now you have your fish broth ready.

So, this is how the fish paste looks like. This is the very basic fish ball recipe, you can add mushroom, green onion, carrot etc if you want. Today I just made plain fish balls.

Use yr thumb to squeeze into ball size. You don't have to place into a plate, just squeeze into the broth directly. Save a plate. ;)

Fish balls in fish broth.

I added some blanched brocolli to make it a balance meal.

So, home made fish balls and brocolli in fish broth, serve with dry version organic thin noodles. Isn't it simple? :)

Chocolate bread loaf

230g organic unbleached high protein flour
30g organic cocoa powder
10g organic grass fed ghee
2 tbsp organic brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
180ml cold water
1/2 tsp active dried yeast

bms105-t programme 3

Finally made a dark cocoa loaf for adults. It tasted a bit bitter. If you do not like dark chocolate, please increase the amount of sugar and replace the water with milk. Well, I love dark chocolate. But I think I have missed out walnuts or pine nuts. Will remember next time. :-)

Black Sesame Flaxseed Soft Loaf

I make this loaf quite frequent, simply because it is healthy and nice.

230g organic unbleached high protein flour
30g organic black sesame powder
10g organic flaxseed powder
10g organic grass fed ghee
2 tbsp organic brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
180ml cold water
1/2 tsp active dried yeast


bms105-t programme 3

Super soft bread - plain white loaf, cranberries white loaf and raisin wholemeal loaf

My new toy, Panasonic Bread Maker BMS105-T. I will have another post on this Panasonic latest model, hopefully. And in this post, I will share my bread maker recipes experiments.

The first recipe that I picked was super soft white loaf, programme 2, without milk and egg.

Ingredients:
250g unbleached high protein flour
1 tbsp ghee
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
180ml cold water
1/2 tsp yeast

And you can see that it turned out to be a very nice loaf! The smell of freshly baked bread filled the entire house.

We waited for 30 minutes(for it to cool down) and cut it into 6 thick slices. Sorry for the lighting. If you see yellow lighting, the bread was done at night. :p It was very soft and fluffy, with the fragrant of ghee. It was even good just on its own. I passed one to the friend who helped me to purchase this bread maker. She likes it and she said she is going to get one bread maker too. :)

Next, I tried white loaf with cranberries, using the same super soft white loaf programme. The ingredients are the same, except I placed 30g of dried cranberries in the dried fruits/nuts dispenser. I was not too generous with the dried cranberries(the dispenser can hold up to 100g, but I only put 30g). But it was not too little too, as you can see from the picture. I passed 1 piece to my colleague and she said it was nice. I hope she was not trying to be polite. :)

Then I tried wholemeal raisin loaf. Same recipe same programme, just substitute 50g unbleached high protein flour to unbleached wholemeal flour. I put more raisin this time, 50g. As expected, wholemeal loaf turned out to be smaller.

The texture was more dense. If you do not like soft fluffy white loaf, then this might suit you. With the raisin, again it can be eaten on its own. I passed 1 piece to my colleague too, but did not receive any feedback from him. Will try to make this wholemeal loaf again as I still have big pack of wholemeal flour.


Next, I will try black sesame loaf and pandan loaf. Wish me luck!