bread Archives - Page 2 of 5 - The Wifey's Corner

October 23, 2016August 25, 2023

Patricia Coffee Brewers & Mr Burger

I think during our stay in Melbourne, we probably had too much coffee per day. But then again, how can you resist those little coffee shops with long queue? Another coffee shop we found from online review is Patricia Coffee Brewers and as it turned out also located nearby to City Tempo, we decided to go.

A short walk from the hotel and thanks to the trusted Google Map we reached this little coffee shop. There were already many people lining up in front of that tiny door for their morning dose of caffeine. And so were we joining in the queue, which didn’t take too long at all. By the looks of it, a lot of the customers are regulars that all the staffs seemed to know their names. Love such places, don’t you? The cafe is small and only standing room (no seating area inside as far as I can tell) and only few chairs outside. The staff will serve sparkling water to waiting patrons, which we think was a great service.

A friendly lady at the cashier took our orders efficiently and since we couldn’t decide which coffee blend we wanted, we just ordered one of each. And both single origin and house blend were very nice, one is smooth while more fruity taste on the other. Service was really quick, coffee were at good temperature, everything was just spot on.

patricia — Look at people lining up in front of that tiny door!

patricia2 — Glimpse of coffee counter from outside, it was too crowded inside to take pictures 😛

From here we walked around to Queen Victoria Market then took a tram back to city centre and walk through shopping arcades and lane ways. It was a fun walk, so much to see and got excited about! Suddenly we came out on Flinders Stations and decided to take the tourist tram and complete a full city circle ride 🙂 The ride went up to Docklands and then made a way back to LaTrobe St, which then we took off near Swanston St.

queen-victoria-market2 — Our most favorite place of the market – the deli section! Super clean, no any funky smell or whatsoever. And seriously look at those cheeses and antipasto, bread, pasta, and the list goes on – beautiful!

queen-victoria-market4 — Even wines and tea and coffee…

melbourne-alleys — The arcades and alleyways

We headed to Mr Burger, a place we spotted on our first day arriving at Melbourne. This one is located on corner Swanston St and LaTrobe St. There are about five or six tables in front of the “truck”with couple of high tools surround each table. Hubby chose a Mr Hot; whereas I got the Mr Chicken, still not sure why I made that choice. We also shared a large Trucker Chips, which was sooooo yummy…..

The buns are soft with a very slight hint of sweetness that balances the sauces and meat really well. They are generous with the sauces and yes it always messy when you eat a good burger. The chicken was actually very succulent with crispy on the outside, but we felt it was just ok, nothing to rave about. Hubby’s Mr Hot was really good, with crispy bacon and although it says Mr Hot, it was not very spicy at all. The chips are great, lots of spicy mayo and cheese with tiny bits of bacon, we were over the moon ~(˘▾˘~) (~˘▾˘)~

Patricia Coffee Brewers

493-495 Little Bourke Street (Corner Little Burke and Little Williams St), Melbourne VIC

Phone: (03) 9642 2237

Mr Burger

Melbourne Central

Corner Swanston St and LaTrobe St, Melbourne VIC

mrburger.com.au

September 24, 2016

Manchester Press

Once we finished with check-in at City Tempo, we decided to have a walk around the CBD area. Short walk down the Queen St and we found ourselves looking at tram stops, how easy! But since we just missed the tram, we walked along La Trobe St towards Melbourne Central which then from there we boarded the City Circle Tram 35. Love the tram ride with commentaries, seeing the hustle and bustle of crowds, parks and historical buildings.

We then got off at Federation Square and walked up north through the famous Degraves St. Not really having any concrete destination, we just walked with Google Map as our guide. As we walked close to Little Burke St I saw Manchester Press on my Google Map and decided that’s where we are going for our first meal in Melbourne.

Okay finding the place itself turned out a little challenging even with Google Map on hand. I guess it just was not something we expected, the name is not very obvious from a distance 🙂 Wrong turns in couple lanes and we finally got there!

Manchester Press serves breakfast, salad and mainly bagels, also coffee course. We are not a big fan of bagels, I mean it’s nice but it’s not something we can’t live without. But since we are here, let be more adventurous and try something new. Also I’ve seen plenty of good reviews of this place before, meaning it must be doing it right.

manchester-press6 — Do you notice the little birdie on the top window sill?

There were plenty of people when we got there, probably about 3/4 full. We sat in the bench overlooking the street and a friendly waitress came over with menus. We asked what would her recommendations and she pointed that the BBQ pulled pork bagels are very popular as do the grilled chorizo or eggplant for vegetarian option. Following her recommendations, we ordered the top two and flat white. And soon enough our food came:

14 Hour BBQ Pulled Pork Closed Bagel $16

manchester-press3 — Grilled Chorizo Open Bagel $14.50

Both bagels are served with crispy little pretzels and a piece of pickled gherkin. We thinks the bagels are nice without being too chewy, the topping are certainly flavorsome. Hubby said his BBQ pulled pork is very tasty; as for mine I really love that sweet and spicy sauce. It was a decent size meal for me, but I imagine it will not enough for big eaters 😛 Coffee was great and very smooth as you’d expect from any good cafe in Melbourne, right?

Overall, we were happy with their meal but the highlight here is the coffee. In fact we came back on our last day just for the coffee \ (•◡•) /

Manchester Press

8 Rankins Lane, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

03 9600 4054

https://www.facebook.com/manchesterpress

August 9, 2016August 9, 2016

[Review] Kingston & Co @ Eastgarden Westfield, Sydney

We went to Eastgarden Westfield last weekend to hunt for few bits and bobs for our new place. We left home quite early that day for church in the city first, so hadn’t had breakfast. And by the time we got to Eastgarden, we were totally starving! We walked around and decided to settle for brunch at this cute eatery.

Kingston & Co offers modern Australian cuisine, the decor is interesting, reminds me of older style of little cafes around Paddington. The service was friendly and very prompt. When we got there, there was only 1 table occupied, so we were told to sit anywhere we liked. Our order came within 30 minutes after ordering and are huge portions!

Hubby ordered a Kings Breakfast and I got myself a 2 Eggs & Toast. A King’s Breakfast includes 2 eggs, chorizo, mushroom, tomato, bacon, avocado, hash brown, spinach and toast. Meanwhile mine just like what the name suggests is basically 2 eggs with toasts and I also added mushroom as side. The eggs are cooked however way we requests, either poached, scrambled, or fried.

kingston&co1 — 2 Eggs & Toast with Mushroom

The highlight for us was the mushroom, super tasty with strong earthy flavour. I prefer their scrambled eggs over poached ones, as they are more fluffy. Hubby thinks the chorizo is nice as it is not as salty as the ones you usually get elsewhere.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to taste their coffee as those meals have left us filled up well. When we left, there was a bit of queue for the coffee so I assume they are not bad either. So next time we went to Eastgarden again, we might want to try their coffee as well 🙂

Kingston & Co

Level G, Westfield Eastgardens, 152 Bunnerong Road, Eastgardens, Sydney, NSW

Phone: (02) 9314 2578

————–or—————

Level 3, Westfield Chatswood, 1 Anderson Street, Chatswood, Sydney, NSW

Phone: (02) 9419 5341

https://www.facebook.com/KingstonandCo

April 17, 2016October 31, 2023

Sweet Potato Bread

I have been so busy lately and felt terrible that this blog has been abandoned. Adjusting with new job at the busiest time of the month is just taking up a lot of my time, so when I get home late at night, I really do not have the energy to do any blogging. For the same reason, I had not been experimenting with many exciting new recipes, be it baking or cooking. There is still a long list of things I want to attempt, but finding the time and energy is a real challenge at the moment.

Last weekend, I ticked one of the recipe from my list which is another bread recipe. This time we added mashed sweet potato to the bread. The original recipe calls for purple sweet potato, but since I only have the usual sweet potato, so that was what I used. I am surprisingly impressed with the result! Very soft bread, although it is not as fluffy as the milky bread with tangzhong, but it remains really soft until the next day. I guess the addition of mashed potato makes the bread somewhat solid in texture, a little heavier than the tangzhong method. But overall, we think it is a winner and that’s why this recipe is a keeper and I shall make an effort to share it with my readers 🙂

The original recipe is from Femina, one of those popular Indonesian women magazines, not sure when it was published, but here are the ingredients:

300 grams bread flour
100 grams sugar (I used 75 grams)
3 tablespoons milk powder
100 grams mashed sweet potato
50 grams butter at room temperature
150 ml warm milk
2 egg yolks
1.5 teaspoons instant dry yeast (I used 1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the dry yeast with warm milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar (from the total sugar listed above). Set aside until it is frothy.

Combine flour, sugar, milk powder and egg yolks in a separate mixing bowl. Keep mixing while adding in the warm milk mixture a little at a time.

Mix until it forms a ball then add in butter, salt and mashed sweet potato.

Knead until the dough is smooth and flexible.

Leave it in a warm place for proofing about 1 hour or more when it is double in size. Since I used less yeast, I find it takes longer to reach that state, mine took about 1.5 hours.

Once it is double in size, punch the dough to release trapped gas. Divide it into 9 portions and fill with your favorite topping. I used Nutella and small pieces of cheddar cheese to balance out the sweetness of Nutella.

Let it rest for another 15 minutes and meanwhile, preheat the oven at 200C.

By the time the oven is ready, brush the surface of each dough portion with egg wash (I used 1 tablespoon of the egg yolk from above ingredient mix with 1 tablespoon of milk).

Bake for about 20 minutes and brush the surface of bread with butter once it is finished baking.

Happy eating, and I hope you like the recipe as much as we like it 🙂

April 2, 2016September 18, 2023

Roti Boy Wannabe with Tangzhong Method

During the Easter long weekend, I have been testing a few Roti Boy “Wannabe” recipes I found on the web and whilst all of them resulted fluffy bread, I am still not very happy with the topping. I reckon there must be a secret ingredient to the original roti boy recipe (¬_¬) Note that I usually just make half of the recipe when trying out new ones, also for roti boy, it is best to have them fresh. So by making half the recipe, usually they are gone within the same day or latest the day after baking.

I have posted a recipe of roti boy copycat before in here and I was pretty happy with the recipe. But since then I have experimenting with few more recipes and in my opinion, nothing really beats the tangzhong method to result in super soft bread and actually stay soft for longer. No magic in here, it is just the fact that the dough contain much more liquid than the usual recipe and you will have to knead it longer to achieve the flexible stage – hence the super soft bread texture.

On my third attempt, I realized why not I use my favorite tangzhong method to make the bread. Whilst I really can not do much about the topping, at least make the bread super soft and fluffy would be nicer (っ˘ڡ˘ς), so here we go the recipe below:

Bread, the source is here:

300 grams bread flour
30 grams sugar
8 grams instant dry yeast (I used 1 teaspoon)
25 grams milk powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly whisked
50 grams whipping cream/thickened cream
For the roux: 20 g Bread flour and 1/2 cup water

Filling:

10 small cubes of cold butter (if using unsalted butter, sprinkle tiny pinch of salt to each cube of butter)

Topping:

50 grams butter at room temperature
50 grams icing sugar
egg white from 1 egg
60 grams all-purpose flour
10 grams milk powder
1 teaspoon ground coffee
1 teaspoon coffee mocha paste, for darker colour

Prepare the water roux at least few hours before you start the bread dough, so that the water roux is at least at room temperature.

I prefer to combine my yeast in the slightly warmed milk and 1 teaspoon of sugar (from the 30 grams as recipe calls for) and let it becomes frothy before adding in to the flour.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and let the mixer does the hard work until it form a ball.

It will still be quite sticky at this stage, so you’ll need to knead the dough a bit on floured surface until it is smooth.

Then, let the dough to rise in warm place for about 1 hours until it becomes double in size.

Release any trapped gas from the dough then divide to 10 equal smaller balls.

Flatten each dough ball and add in the filling, close them up then roll again to a smooth ball. Repeat for all dough balls.

Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let the rest for 30 – 45 minutes, meanwhile we prepare the topping.

Topping: combine all ingredients together, whisk until everything is incorporated well. If it is too thick, add water a little at a time (started with 1 tablespoon, then mix well, and add again if needed). The consistency should not be too runny either that you will not able to pipe it onto the top of the bread. Place in a plastic bag or piping bag and snip off the end a little bit.

Pipe the topping in swirl motion starting from the middle all the way down the side of each bread. Repeat for the rest of the bread.

Bake in preheated oven at 170C for about 20 minutes.