Wednesday, April 22, 2009

#114_Reduced Eggs Ensaymada


This is a Reduced-Eggs Ensaymada recipe
using only 4 whole eggs and takes 3 risings
(If this recipe is a little complicated for you, you can use the
Basic Sweet dough recipe #178, click here.)


For the Sponge:

1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp quick rising yeast or instant
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup bread flour

1) Warm the milk in a bowl in microwave.
2) Stir sugar in the milk and sprinkle yeast over the mixture. Use a whisk to dissolve the yeast.
3) Let this mixture sit for a few minutes until it becomes foamy about 10 to 15 minutes.
4) Mix in the flour and stir with a sturdy wooden spoon.
5) Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for about 20 minutes or until bubbly. This will be a sticky, wet dough but should not be runny.
This mixture is called sponge and will be mixed in with the dough.


The Dough
3/4 cup milk, very warm
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
the sponge
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large large eggs, slightly beaten (1 cup)
4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dough enhancer (my secret ingredient)
1 tsp vital wheat gluten (another secret ingredient)

1) Put everything in the bread machine pan or bucket starting with the warm milk making sure the paddles are in place.
2) Use the dough cycle and let the machine do the stirring and kneading.
3) When the cycle is finished, take the dough out and place it in a well-greased bowl and cover with a plastic wrap to rise until doubled in bulk.
This is the SECOND RISING.

Option: Instead of transferring the dough into a bowl, you can leave the dough in the bread machine bucket or pan, put the lid down and let the dough rise until doubled in bulk.


The Traditional Coiled Ensaymada

How to coil the dough:
1) Lightly punch the dough down and take it out onto a floured surface.
2) Divide the dough into half then cut the half into 12 pieces.
3) Do the same thing with the other half of dough, cutting it into 12 pieces, so you have 24 pieces all together.
4) Roll dough into ropes about 8 inches long, fat on one end and tapered on the other end. Take the fat end with your forefinger and thumb and coil dough around tucking the tapered end under.


Braided Ensaymada

5) For braided ensaymada, divide dough into 48 pieces. Twist together 2 ropes. Hold the twisted dough with your forefinger and thumb, and coil the rest of dough around, tucking the tapered end under.

6) Place coiled dough in greased molds.

(Sorry, I did not get to take pictures while braiding the doughs. Burnt Lumpia, a blog, gives a very good illustrations on how to braid the doughs. Click here for the link).


This recipe makes 24 braided pieces using the ensaymada moulds with base measuring
2 1/4 inches in diameter.

If you're using ensaymada molds, grease each mold with shortening, then place the molds on a cookie sheet.

If using cookie sheets without the molds, line the sheets with parchment papers.


The 3rd Rising

This is an important process in order
to achieve a flavorful pillow-soft, but not airy rolls

The picture above is recycled from ensaymada recipe #113.

1) Place the molds with coiled doughs in cookie sheets.
2) Turn the oven on for just 1 minute or until the temperature reaches 8o degrees and then turn it off. (Make sure the temperature is not hotter than 80 degrees).
3) Place the cookie sheet with the ensaymadas below the middle rack, then shut the oven door. Let the dough rise until they are soft and springy to the touch, about 20-30 minutes.

4) Or boil some water in a pot and place this pot right on the oven floor.
5) With the oven door shut, let the dough rise for about 30 minutes or longer.
6) When dough has doubled in size, soft and spongy or springy to the touch, take the pan and pot out and turn the oven on to 350 degrees to pre-heat.
7) Bake the ensaymadas for 18-20 minutes.

You can leave them plain or slather them with butter
then sprinkle sugar and grated cheese on top.
They are good for meriendas or for breakfast.

Notes from MaMely
1) You can use this recipe for almost any kind or shape you want such as for dinner rolls, croissant rolls, Parker house rolls, etc.

2) If you want to let the dough rise overnight in the fridge, here's some tips:
a) use regular yeast, not instant as the dough might rise too fast if you use the instant kind.
b) after the dough cycle if finished, take the dough out and place it in a well greased bowl, turning it upside down to coat the other side of dough with grease or oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight,(about 8 hours). The next day take out dough and let it stand for about 1 hour then proceed to the rest of the procedure, i.e. punch dough down, shape, etc.

3) Store this kind of breads in plastic bread bags or in air tight containers to keep them soft for days. Microwave old rolls for 10-15 seconds to make them oven-fresh.
Do not store them in paper bags as they will get hard. French breads and baguettes kind of breads are stored in paper sacks to keep their nice crusts.

Important bread-making tips from KAF bakers
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-sandwich-bread-recipe
  • Don't bother heating the orange juice to lukewarm; you can use it straight out of the fridge. The orange juice won't add its own flavor to the bread, but will mellow any potential bitterness in the whole wheat.
  • If you're kneading bread by hand, it's tempting to keep adding flour till the dough is no longer sticky. Resist the temptation! The more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be.
  • The amount of liquid you use to make the "perfect" dough will vary with the seasons. Flour is like a sponge; it absorbs water during the humid days of summer, and dries out during the winter. Your goal should be making the dough as it's described (e.g., cohesive, soft but not sticky), rather than sticking religiously to the amount of liquid.
  • When making yeast bread, let the dough rise to the point the recipe says it should, e.g., "Let the dough rise till it's doubled in bulk." Rising times are only a guide; there are so many variables in yeast baking (how you kneaded the dough; what kind of yeast you used) that it's impossible to say that bread dough will ALWAYS double in bulk in a specific amount of time.

24 comments:

  1. I finally tried this recipe and it turned out to be really nice and soft. This is my first time to make ensaymada. I brought it to a Filipino gathering and it went fast.Not bad for a first timer huh!!!
    Thank you MaMely

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  2. Oh yeah..not bad at all! Glad you're happy with the result.second time is a charm.

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  3. I just took out my newly baked Ensaymada and the result made me look for a better recipe...mine just turned out heavier than the average Ensaymada. Though it tastes OK, it doesn't have the same lightness (in look and feel) as the ones on your blog. I'll try your recipe next time.
    Thanks,
    Grace Landenberger

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  4. Anonymous, I think you'll be happy with this one. Please let me know how this recipe will turn out for you. If you have any question regarding this recipe please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.
    Take care!

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  5. hi MamMely, I would love to try your recipe, it's just that i don't have a dough hook with my mixer .. will doing it manually make a big difference?

    thanks!

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  6. Anonymous, Thank you for your interest in this recipe, unfortunately, I have never made bread manually, but I'm sure this recipe can be made it that way, except maybe you need to make adjustments on the liquid ingredient. Good luck and take care!!

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  7. Hi! I tried the recipe but it didn't turn out right! :( I don't havea bread machine...so I'm not sure if it was to sticky or to dry? I was reading a brioche recipe, and it says it's so uposed to be very sticky on the fingers and to not be tempted to add flour - which I did? So I don't if that's the mistake I made. Mine rose...but it didn't feel like it was nice and fluffy. Any thoughts on?

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  8. K, I'm so sorry your bread didn't turn out right. Was the dough stiff? if that's the case, then it needed more liquid (milk or water). I've always used bread machine in making bread, so I'm not so sure, but I heard that when you make dough manually or with a stand mixer, it requires a little more liquid then called for in a bread machine dough recipe.
    This dough is not supposed to be too sticky that you can't handle it easily with hands, but it is soft, pliable, spongy and elastic and will stick to fingers a little bit.
    If dough is dry and stiff try adding some water to the dough even after it has been kneaded. To do this, here's what I learned from a bread-making book: (for manual method)
    Poke your fingers into the dough. Fill the little holes with warm water, then knead it all over again until it is all mixed.
    i hope this solution will fix the problem. And hope you won't give up on trying this recipe again because it is really a good one.
    Take care!!

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  9. What is the size of your ensaymada molds?

    Cathy

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  10. Hello Cathy,
    The base of the molds measure 2-1/4 inches.
    Across top measures 4"

    In the Philippines, they come in small, Medium and large. Basically these molds are medium.
    Thank you for inquiring. If you have any other question please feel free to ask me.
    Take care!

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  11. hi,

    I have a recipe that I tried from a London cookbook, but it didn't tasted like the ones from home. I am keen on trying this one, and I only have a stand mixer with dough hooks. I live in NZ and your measurement for cups are not quite the same cups we use here. I have an electronic scale and my cups are standard 250 ml -1 cup. so I hope I get the right amounts of ingredients required. I use online conversion tools for this.

    with the 80 degree you mentioned above for the water pot, you meant Fahrenheit?

    thank you~!

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  12. Hossana, thank you for visiting this site. Yes, its Fahrenheit...oven temperature should not be hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The final products of a yeast bread recipe varies from kitchen to kitchen, so everybody needs to make some adjustments in the liquid ingredient or the flour. Even when using the same recipe, sometimes it will give you different result depending on the weather. When the weather is dry you need to add more liquid or less flour, when the humidity is high, you need to use less liquid or more flour called for in the recipe.

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  13. Hello MaMely,

    thanks for the response! I will try this for my mother's 47th birthday. As for those who need help with conversion (because you live in a commonwealth country, like me)I found a useful website for converting US cups to grams/mls including butter sticks (cause NZ sells butter 250gm/500gm sizes)

    http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm

    thank you for posting this wonderful recipe! I will let you know how it turns out!

    Hossana

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  14. Thank you Hossana for the link to the conversion table. I'm sure this will come handy when we need to covert measurements.Take care and good luck on the recipe.

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  15. Hello MaMely,
    Thank you very much for sharing with us your recipes. I am especially interested with the ensaimada. I am in the process of buying a food processor to help me with my baking activities (hobby). Can I use the food processor for the ensaymada recipe? If no, what bread machine do you use, which brand/ model?Thank you very much,

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  16. Anonymous, I love having my Food Processor, it is very useful for me when prepping veggies or making pudding, pie crust, etc, unfortunately one of the things it can NOT do is make bread dough, at least I haven't tried using it for that purpose. I always use bread machine to make my bread. The one I use now is a Zogiroshi and I'm happy with it.
    Take care and good luck shopping for one.

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  17. Anonymous, sorry, I misspelled it. It should be Zojirushi.

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  18. Hi, I'd like to try your recipe right now but I only have AP in my pantry. Can I use unbleached all purpose flour instead of bread flour?

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  19. Anonymous, yes, you can as long as you use some Vital Wheat Gluten, you'll be happy with the result. On the 6 cup flour recipe, I use 2 heaping Tbp of Vital wheat gluten.

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  20. Thanks for the recipe! The buns came out wonderfully. Followed your ingredients list and tried to use the bread maker. I think there was too much flour, and the machine could not handle kneading the dough--discovered this after the dough process in the bread machine had finished. Switched to mixer, had to add 1/2 cup flour (5 cups total) then the mess started to feel right. Used the braid method. During baking, I turned the tray around at about 15 minutes, then continued baking. Maraming, maraming salamat!

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  21. Gale, thank you for giving this recipe a try. glad it turned out okay after a little trouble with the bread machine. Good thing you are a quick thinker. Take care!

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  22. Gale thank you for giving this recipe a try and I'm glad that it turned out okay after you had a little trouble with the bread machine....good thing you are a quick thinker. Take care!!

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  23. I have baked the Ensaymada using your recipe, the outside is a little crusty but the inside was so soft and tasty. Thank you for sharing this recipe I will also try it with red bean paste next time...

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous, so good to hear that you've tried this recipe and was a success. Take care!

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