January ABC challenge: ensaymada (Filipino sweet rolls)

 
This month's challenge was cheese.  I dug around in my recipe collection to see if I could find something interesting and came up with these Filipino sweet rolls.  This is a very common snack bread that I'm pretty sure holds a fond place in the hearts of all Filipinos -- a snack of their youth that carries over into adulthood.  (Like peanut butter and jelly.) They're quite satisfying -- very comforting with the soft bread, the rich cheese, and the light sweetness.  Pair that with the childhood memories of  mom's kitchen and the comforts of home, I can see someone who grew up eating these being passionately attached.  

Most versions are just a round bun topped with a thin spread of buttercream and sprinkled with cheese, usually cheddar or Parmesan.  How much buttercream and cheese, and even what sort of cheese, is a matter of personal taste.  The real star here is the bun, which should be rich, fluffy, and lightly sweet, usually baked in a fluted tin.  The twist here (no pun intended), was rolling up the dough into a rope with a cheese filling, then coiling it into a bun.  While not unusual, it's more time-consuming, so understandably less common.

I made one third of the original recipe (which states it makes 8 servings), but tried to stick with the quantity proportions as closely as possible.  I had to futz with the butter and sugar quantities slightly for easier measuring, and I increased the salt slight for personal taste (and ease of measuring.)  I also revised the preparation slightly.  For 4 rolls, here's what I used:

Dough
1/3 cup warm milk
3/4 teaspoon rapid rise yeast (plus 3/16 teaspoon for active dry)
1 ²/₃ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons white sugar
1/3 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 ½ tablespoons soft butter

Filling
1 ½ tablespoons melted butter
1 ½ tablespoons white sugar
1/3 cup finely grated mild cheddar cheese, plus more for topping

Proof the yeast in the milk with a little sugar.  In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, 2½ tablespoons sugar, and the salt.  Add the egg and activated yeast mixture and mix to form a soft, sticky dough.  Knead the dough to a smooth consistency, then add the butter and knead to fully incorporate and the dough is silky.  Shape into a tight ball, place in buttered bowl, and allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

To make the filling, combine the 1½ tablespoons melted butter with 1½ tablespoons sugar and set aside. Punch down the dough and knead on the counter a few times to distribute the gas.  Cut into 4 pieces.  Working with one piece at a time, roll out thinly into a rough rectangle.  Brush the dough lightly with the butter mixture, leaving a border, and sprinkle with cheese down the middle.  Roll up tightly lengthwise, then into a rope about 14 inches long; pinch the seam and the ends to seal.  Coil the rope tightly and tuck the end underneath and into the center.  Place on a greased baking tray and continue with the remaining pieces.  Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for 45 minutes, then bake at 350F for 15 minutes.  While still warm, spread the remaining melted butter and sugar mixture on the tops of the rolls and sprinkle with additional cheese.  Serve immediately.  Otherwise, allow buns to cool completely, then keep tightly wrapped; apply the toppings just before serving.

I was very happy with my results, but I'm not sure I achieved a bun consistency that would be lauded by the native eaters.  (Some recipes employ the tangzhong technique, which would produce a softer bread.  Also, another video used a lower temperature oven in order to keep the buns only lightly colored.)  The bread was very tasty, very moist and buttery, and certainly within acceptable standards for European or U.S. enriched dough, but I wouldn't describe it as fluffy.  The videos I saw showed buns with a consistency like a soft dinner roll.  Perhaps I should have let the dough rise longer, as I went by the times in the recipe, which were for rapid rise yeast; active dry takes longer.  And rather than letting the dough double, it's possible it should actually triple, as in one video.  Many also were much richer, moistened primarily with egg yolks.  Nonetheless, I might have to save this as my go-to enriched bread recipe.

Conclusion:  These were delicious and the perfect not-too-sweet bun for breakfast or a snack.  If I make them again, I'd stick with a simple bun shape, as I don't think the filled coil added anything and it would cut a lot of time and hassle off preparation.  However, even one sent my glucose levels crashing like the space shuttle Challenger, and, despite the ample calories, I was hungry 15 minutes later.  Soft white bread is my nemesis.

 Recipe:  Ensaymadas via Panlasang Pinoy

International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ya-hoy! Buttered Rum Cupcakes on rough seas

 

Things have been a tad rough lately, right?  Nothing like a little pandemic to make life more difficult.  Fun cupcakes to the rescue!  

I've been wanting to make these for Speak Like a Pirate Day for years.  I guess I thought they'd be complicated and time consuming, but they really weren't. In fact, since the recipe uses a packaged biscuit, they're easier than most baked items.  The only tricky part was making sure you didn't over cook the syrup.

The original recipe said it made 18; I cut the original down to one third.  Here's what I used:

Butter-Rum Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
5⅓ teaspoons heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Lyle's golden corn syrup
1 tablespoon spiced rum
1/6 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rum Ball Cupcakes
1 16.3-ounce can ready-made buttermilk biscuits (non-flaky)
1/6 cup butter-rum sauce
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/6 teaspoon nutmeg
1/6 cup spiced rum

Butter-Rum Ocean Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter-rum sauce
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2/3 drops black food coloring
5 drops blue food coloring plus 1⅔ more drops

For the butter-rum sauce, heat the butter, cream, brown sugar, and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat so that the mixture retains a slow but constant boil. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every minute. The mixture should be thicker at the end. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the rum and the vanilla extract until completely blended, but be careful as the mixture will likely spatter a bit. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature.

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium-sized bowl, mix 1/6 cup of the butter-rum sauce with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum in a large bowl until well blended.  Cut the biscuits into eighths and place them in the rum marinade, gently tossing them in the mixture with your hands to ensure that they are evenly coated.  Allow them to soak in the mixture for 5 minutes, tossing with your hands every minute or so to prevent them from getting too stuck to one another.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Fill each of the cupcake liners about 3/4 full with the rum balls.  Spoon any sauce left at the bottom of the bowl over each of the cupcakes before placing the pan in the oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden brown.

For the frosting, mix together the butter, butter-rum sauce, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until a smooth frosting forms.  Remove 1/3 of the frosting and set it aside.  Add the black food coloring, and the 5 drops of blue food coloring to the larger amount of frosting and mix until combined.  Add the remaining 1/3 frosting back in and stir until partially blended, so that there are still a few lighter streaks in the frosting. Add the remaining blue food coloring, placing each drop over a different area of the frosting, and stir with a large spoon or spatula a few times until there are bright blue streaks throughout.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.  Drizzle a little of the remaining butter-rum sauce over each one.  Then, using a spatula, smear the frosting on top of the cupcake to create an ocean wave.  For decoration, cut out sail and boat shapes from brown and white paper and attach them to the cupcakes using a toothpick.

 

I used Pillsbury Grands Southern Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits, "fluffy".  Cutting into them was a sensual joy, all soft and springy.  It was a 16.3-ounce package, and I thought I was making 6 cupcakes (one-third of 18 for the original recipe) but ended up with 10.  I probably could have done 9, but that would have been it.  They were a little browner than I would have liked at 30 minutes; I wish I'd checked a few minutes sooner.

The biscuit part was rather tough.  That might have been from being overbaked, or it might be the constraint of the muffin cup, or it might just be the product.  The butter-rum sauce is delicious-- that could be used in soooo many ways. (Some more adult than others.  Hint hint nudge nudge.)

Conclusion:  These were tasty, but they tasted pretty much like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, which are so much easier!  (But not as cute.)  The prepared biscuits have such a distinctive taste that I couldn't get past it.  I ate them for breakfast with coffee.  I found dribbling them with the syrup before frosting made them too sweet, so I left that off.  Otherwise, the quantities were just about perfect.

Recipe:  Buttered Rum Cupcakes via Adventures in Cooking