Melon-Pan

I discovered melon-pan (literally melon bread) when I was in university after the Hubby introduced me to an anime called Yakitate! Japan.  It's all about bread and I loved it.  I'm a bit of an obsessive when it comes to Japanese culture and food is something that fascinates me.  (I really want to try some more Japanese sweet baking at some point).  Melon-pan is something that has popped up a number of times but until Yakitate! I didn't really understand what it was.  Put simply, it is a bread roll encased in a layer of sweet cookie dough.  The 'melon' part actually comes from the way it looks rather than tasting like melons.  That said, it is possible to get melon flavoured melon-pan.

Going back to this made me marvel at how much the Internet has changed in just a few years.  Once I finally knew what melon-pan was, I was determined to try it!  I scoured the Internet for a recipe that was in English (or could be translated reasonably well) and eventually found one.  The result was interesting.  Quite complicated and I distinctly remember the cookie dough being runny.  You dipped the bread in it.  It was weird (and also made it hard to get the melon pattern).  I don't think the bread cooked brilliantly but they were okay and the combination of the bread and the cookie dough is quite delicious.  Fast forward to now, when I was struck with nostalgia for melon-pan.  I no longer had my original recipe so had to find a new one.  My goodness there were loads!  No trawling like the first time.  The one I ended up going for is from Mari Nameshida's blog.  I have her cookbook and I like her stuff.  This recipe was really simple, though I made a couple of changes since I don't have dried milk powder.

The final result was lovely.  Not too sweet and the two parts went together nicely.  The bread was actually properly cooked, as was the cookie dough.  I wish I had been able to slice the top properly.  My pattern isn't very noticeable.  I also probably could have done with keeping them in the oven a little longer so the colour was a bit darker on top.  Ah well.  Will be making these again as the Hubby ate most of them before I had a chance.

Recipe - adapted from Mari's Tokyo Kitchen
Makes 4



Bread: 

• 70ml/fl.oz scalded milk, allowed to cool so it is just warm
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 150g/oz strong white flour
• 1/2 large egg
• 30g/1oz butter
• Pinch of salt

Cookie dough:

• 100g/3.5oz plain flour
• 30g/1oz butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/2 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Start with the bread dough.  Combine the scalded milk, instant yeast and sugar together in a cup and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, egg and yeasted milk until combined.  (Make sure you get all the sugar out the milk cup).
3. Add the butter and salt and mix until it forms a sticky dough.
4. Turn the dough out onto a plate.  Stretch the dough away from yourself and then fold over on itself.  Give the plate a quarter turn and repeat.  Keep doing this for about 10 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and less sticky.
5. Shape into a smooth ball, cover with with clingfilm and allow to rise until doubled in size (about 30 minutes in a warm place).
6. Meanwhile make the cookie dough.  Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until it is smooth and pale.
7. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
8. Fold in the flour until the mixture comes together to form a dough.
9. Shape the dough into a cylinder and wrap in clingfilm.  Place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
10. Once the bread dough has risen, take it out and give another knead in the same manner as before to knock the air out.  
11. Divide the dough into four pieces and roll each into a ball.  Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise for about 20 minutes (until noticeably bigger).
12. Cover a tray with greaseproof paper.
13. When dough has risen once more, remove the cookie dough from the fridge and divide into four.
14. Place a piece between two pieces of clingfilm and roll out into a thin round.  Place one of the bread rolls in the middle of the cookie dough, upside down, and then wrap the cookie dough around the bread.  Place right side up on the prepared tray.  Repeat for the other 3 rolls.
15. Use a sharp knife or dough slicer to draw a cross-hatch slit pattern in the top of the cookie dough and sprinkle each roll with sugar.
16. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180ĔC/375°F/Gas Mark 4.
17. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes then turn the oven temperature down to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 2 and bake for another 15 minutes or so.
18. Allow to cool on a wire rack before eating.

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

 
 

So it seems that a truly miserable spring has indeed resulted in a bright and sunny summer.  Unlike last year where spring was gorgeous and then it rained in the summer.  I remember being stuck on a bus trying to leave Edinburgh airport in early July because the roundabout had been completely submerged in water and was thus causing the traffic to slow down to a snail's pace.  Not this year.  This year we've had beautiful blue skies and sunshine and a bit of a breeze, which I have been taking advantage of and washing every single thing I can get my hands on.  I've had to buy more hangers, since apparently we didn't have enough for when all the clothes have been washed!

Anyway, it's summer and it's hot.  Too hot.  I am not the biggest fan of hot weather.  It makes me itchy; it makes me feel ill; my hayfever starts up so my eyes sting like mad; there are bugs everywhere; my chocolate cakes melt; I burn no matter how much sun cream I put on; and it makes me drowsy.  As much as I can dislike the cold, I much prefer it over being too hot.  I do love the sunshine though, so as long as I stay indoors I'm generally happy.  And what else makes me happy?  Ice cream!

Feels like ages since I've made ice cream but this was one I've been wanting to do for a while.  In fact, the main reason I've not really done so until now is due to lack of space in my freezer.  The bowl for my ice cream maker is quite chunky and has to be kept in the freezer for at least 12 hours before it can be used.  Not having much in the way of space means I don't get the luxury of having it in there very often.  But last week, after the shopping arrived, I did have space so in it went.  And then stayed for most of the week because I was busy until Friday.

It was a pretty easy recipe.  The only mistake I made was I initially put in the wrong sugar.  Despite the fact that I had bought brown sugar, I automatically grabbed the caster and tipped it in with my egg yolks.  Oops.  I was able to salvage the yolks though by tipping it into a sieve.  Sugar went through, eggs, mostly, stayed in the sieve.  A little yolk did escape but it was fine.  I also decided to use my sugar thermometer to check when my custard was ready, rather than relying on the spoon trick, namely because the mixture already seemed thick enough to leave a coating.  I'm thinking it's because the custard was made with cream, rather than milk like I'm used to.

It is so yummy!  It's kind of hard to describe.  My experience with raw cookie dough is that it always has a bit of a taste of flour, which I'm not keen on.  This recipe obviously doesn't contain flour so doesn't have that taste.  Initially I thought it tasted more like vanilla but there's a slightly more caramel taste to it. The chocolate chips are also a nice addition.  It is quite delicious so I'll be eating all of it up myself.  Cookie dough doesn't appeal to the fiancé.  Good thing I've got something different planned for him. 

Recipe - adapted from Take A Megabite
Makes 1 Litre
 

• 45g/1.5oz butter
• 500ml/17.5fl.oz double cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 100g/3.5oz dark brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 375ml/13fl.oz whole milk

1. Put the egg yolks and brown sugar in a medium bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan until it is golden brown in colour.
3. Add the cream to the butter and heat until it is almost boiling.
4. Add half the heated cream to the egg mixture a little at a time, stirring it the whole time.
5. Add the salt and mix.
6. Put the mixture back in the saucepan and add the vanilla.
7. Gently heat the mixture, stirring all the time to prevent burning, until it reaches 75°C/170°F, or the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
8. Transfer the custard to a clean bowl and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
9. Add the milk to the custard and whisk in.
10. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions until the ice cream is churned but still soft.
11. Remove ice cream to a bowl and mix in the chocolate chips, trying to spread them fairly evenly through it.
12. Put the ice cream in a lidded freezer safe container and allow to chill in the freezer overnight before serving.

Milk and Cookies Cupcakes

I've been trying to remember what inspired these and I honestly cannot remember.  For all I know it was a random idea which has steadily developed as I worked out all the component parts.  I am aware it is not an original idea.  'Milk and cookies' or 'cookies and cream' has been done before, but I try to avoid looking at recipes for things that I have ideas for because it's more fun to figure it all out myself.  Then I can be extra pleased when the final result is a success.  Obviously I look at recipes for individual parts but the combined thing is never from one place.

So, anyway, somewhere along the way I decided I wanted to do a cupcake inspired by the idea of 'milk and cookies'.  Now originally, I was going to base the cake part on the recipe I used for the hot-chocolate and strawberry milkshake cupcakes, where a lot of milk went into the actual batter before it was baked.  I would just obviously leave out the hot-chocolate/strawberry milkshake powder.  But then I was looking about for other milk cupcakes, to see if there was any other ways of doing it, and re-discovered the Tres Leches cake.  This is something I've seen before, usually accompanied by Dulce de Leche buttercream (which I've made before to go with toffee cupcakes).  I've never made it though but after reading several recipes I knew this would be a much better cake for the milk part of my 'milk and cookies' cupcakes.  I settled on a recipe I found on Allrecipes which was really well rated, but did something you're really not meant to do unless you're a really good baker and altered the recipe a little bit.

The changes I made were based on some of the reviewer comments which made sense to me.  The biggest was that I separated the eggs and whisked the egg whites before adding them in.  This was to get a better rise and a lighter cake.  Since this has often been the result when I've used it in my standard vanilla sponge cake, I thought this was a good idea.  I also added bicarbonate of soda alongside the baking powder, to get a little extra rise.  Well I certainly did end up with a much lighter cake.  These things were practically weightless when they came out the oven, prior to drowning in the milk.  It was rather amazing.  Another change I made was that I reduced the number of eggs from 5 to 4.  This is because the sizing of eggs is different in America compared to here in the UK.  Again, there were reviews mentioning poor results with so many eggs, so I thought I would use fewer eggs, because the UK sizes are bigger than the US.  And it worked out brilliant so hoorah!  Finally, I didn't use anywhere near the amount of milk recommended.  I originally made half a batch of the milk mixture but only ended up using half of that because I did not want my cakes to turn to mush.  Also turned out to be a good decision.  The cakes were still milk sodden all the way through, but were not mushy or goopy and everyone that ate them thought the balance of milk to cake was perfect.  So in the write up, it'll be a quarter batch of the original recipe.

The decoration for the cake ended up being a no-brainer, since the cake was the 'milk' the topping had to be the 'cookie'.  I knew from the get-go that I was going to decorate with a chocolate chip cookie and so obviously it made sense to make the buttercream cookie dough flavoured.  I've made it before and it was so delicious!

The final result was a complete success.  As I said, everyone thought the balance of cake to milk was perfect.  Lovely and wet and sweet but not goopy.  The cake stayed completely intact.  The buttercream was deliciously sweet too, and went splendidly with the cake and the biscuit was a nice little bonus.  My testers removed the cookie, scooped up some of the buttercream from the cake and ate it that way.  They said it was amazing. 

Recipe - makes about 14 cakes
 

Cookies

• 50g/1.7oz butter
• 65g/2.3oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g/2.5oz plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 50g/1.7oz chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix until you get a nice dough.  You may have to form the dough with your hands after the initial mixing.
3. Shape into small half tablespoon size balls and flatten slightly, placing onto the trays, spaced well apart as they spread.  Make sure you've got at least 14 but you should end up with spares, just in case.
4. Bake until the edges are nice and golden, about 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove and leave to cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Cake - adapted from Allrecipes.com

• 190g/6.5oz plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 115g/4oz butter
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 115ml/4fl.oz whole milk
• 100g/3.5oz condensed milk
• 85g/3oz evaporated milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole and a 6 hole muffin tin with 14 muffin cases. 
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
4. Separate the eggs and add the yolks one at a time to the sugar butter, beating in after each addition.
5. Add the flour mixture to the batter two tablespoons at a time, and mix.
6. Whisk the eggs into soft peaks.  Add a spoonful to the cake batter and fold in.
7. Add the rest of the egg whites and fold in until you have no white streaks visible in your mixture.
8. Divide the mixture between the cases, filling them about two thirds full.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they are well risen and the tops are springy. 
10. Remove to a wire rack and use a skewer to poke about 10 holes into each cake.  Leave to cool.
11. Once cool, combine the whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk in a bowl.
12. Dip the top of the cakes into the milk one at a time, repeating several times until all the milk is used up. (This is less messy than pouring it over each cake and still soaks the cake through.)
13. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes before icing.

Buttercream - adapted from What's Cooking on Planet Byn (as sited when used previously)

• 170g/6oz butter
• 90g/3oz brown sugar
• 225g/8oz icing sugar
• 65g/2.2oz plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tbsp milk
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 40g/1.5oz chocolate chips

1. Mix together the butter and the brown sugar until creamy.
2. Beat in the icing sugar until it is smooth.
3. Add flour and salt and beat in.
4. Finally add milk and vanilla and keep mixing until everything is combined and you have a reasonable smooth mixture.
5. Put in a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe a swirl of buttercream on top of each cake.
6. Decorate with chocolate chips then put in the fridge to set for about an hour.
7. Push a cookie into each buttercream swirl, keeping the weight leaning towards the centre of the cake so it does not fall over.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Buttercream

Okay, that title is a bit of a lie.  These are actually chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  Each of them has a ball of cookie dough in the centre (it's something I've noticed on a few blogs whilst I was browsing around and wanted to try out yesterday after a bit on a downer of a day).  Unfortunately, the cookie dough is far too floury and not that nice to eat.  But the rest of it is soooo good I can't bring myself to call it a failed experiment.  Hence I'm not.  I'm just missing out the cookie dough middles.  I will attempt the cookie dough centre again at some point but for now I am going to post the recipe for the cakes and the icing.  

Recipe:

 

The cakes were made in a mini muffin tray because it was a trial recipe and I thought tiny cakes would make a nice addition to my lunch.  They use a halved batch of my standard fairy cake recipe, with the addition of 75g of chocolate chips.

Cookie Dough Buttercream - adapted from What's Cooking on Planet Byn 
This is a halved recipe.

• 85g/3oz butter
• 45g/1.5oz brown sugar
• 110g/4oz icing sugar
• 32g/1.1oz plain flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tbsp milk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 25g chocolate chips/chunks

1. Mix together the butter and the brown sugar until creamy.
2. Beat in the icing sugar until it is smooth.
3. Add flour and salt and beat in.
4. Finally add milk and vanilla and keep mixing until everything is combined and you have a reasonable smooth mixture.
5. Put in a piping bag with a small star nozzle (mine was a 30) and pipe swirls ontop of cakes.
6. Finish with some chocolate chips/chunks on top.