Followed the initial part of this recipe last night and finished it off this morning (made two kinds, with the wiener as suggested and also with bacon and cheese). Perfect for my kid’s packed lunch and for a lazy brunch for the rest of us. Extremely easy, very little effort and the bread had a “mochi mochi” quality - gloriously chewy but light too, reminded me of the texture of some pão de queijo I’ve had. Has been a hit particularly with MrLapLap who was craving more as soon as we finished that initial batch.

It is in Japanese but everything important to know has an English label, it is extremely simple to follow.

Obviously done to defeat the international plot involving hot dog / roll imbalance. My wiener of choice comes in a 7 pack and apparently in Japan it’s a 5 pack. Either way, the hot dog roll makers sell only in 8 packs, forcing you to buy an excess of a product that has no other use. Bravo!

I skipped around a bit, but they look simple enough. I love the texture of those buns, or at least the apparent texture.

except that now we all have the power to make our own hot dog buns!!! I’m so thrilled.

Favorite chocolate croissant recipes? And regular croissant recipes.

i’m trying to self-wean away from Trader Joe’s frozen chocolate croissants and Costco’s plain croissants while still being able to enjoy warm croissants.

I was getting to the last bits of sourdough which were getting dry. I didn't think to freeze half the loaf but ended up making a grilled cheese sandwich for adults. Dijon mustard, double cream brie and some shredded Tex Mex cheese added the right amount of flavour.
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Yay on the sourdough. I still must investigate and today I made the roll-ppang because it’s fun and easy and yummy. I’m close to having it all memorized including the amounts.

I still beg for the croissant recipes :-)

Croissants are laborious and a pain to make, and you need to be somewhere cool - particularly as a beginner.

If it’s something you really want to tackle, try making a “Danish Pastry” first. You essentially make a brioche type dough first and then introduce a few layers - a “Danish” requires less layers than with a croissant. My current lockdown hobby is going through the recipes and techniques shown by this baker, haven’t had any failures, everything has been delicious, coincidentally he has included directions for a Costco type pastry, which seems to be the exact kind of compromise on making a true croissant that you were looking for but didn’t know it:

omg this looks like the Trader Joe’s chocolate croissant! Super fun. Thank you!! I’ll watch it and screenshot the ingredients to figure out the quantities. I’m so excited.

Here is the information on that YouTube page fed through a translation tool. You’ll need quite a lot of room in your refrigerator to do this.

12 hours before preparation make the starter:
All purpose flour 150g
Yeast 3g
150g water

Main kneading dough:
All purpose flour 150g
9g sugar
6g salt
Egg 45g

Folding:
butter 150g
chocolate - enough for 16 thin sticks
Beaten egg for glazing

Fermented starter making
4°C, 12 hours

Primary fermentation
4°C for 30 minutes

Bench time
4°C for 30 minutes

Secondary fermentation
25°C for 90 minutes

Baking
210°C - 16 minutes approx

I’d eaten Pão do Queijo before (love it!) but hadn’t realised it was (or can be) gluten free. When I started studying this recipe in order to make my own I found out it’s GF. Will make some once I get hold of tapioca flour.

EDIT to add:
got the tapioca flour, and putting these together was remarkably quick and easy (I used 140ml of milk not 200ml and 50ml of canola/rapeseed oil). Highly recommended!

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thank you! You are always so good to me!! I’m going to copy / paste this, translate to F and cups/tbsp, and see what’s next.

glad you got the tapioca. We have it from Bob’s red mill brand. I’ve not yet opened it!

If you decide to open it up for the pão do queijo (which my 10 year old loved - reminded her so much of mochi that she ate some with nori seaweed - they go beautifully together) the part in the video that doesn’t get translated is to heat the 140ml of milk and 50g salad oil together until just before it reaches the boil, then pour the hot liquid straight into the tapioca starch and mix immediately. Have the beaten egg and the cheese ready as it will be difficult to work once it’s cooled. I personally greased my hands with a little of the oil to shape the dough into the balls.

Have you considered just getting some measuring scales?
Am never going to understand the reluctance to weigh things to instead pick out and then wash up a whole drawer of nested spoons and measures - which will never be accurate. It is SO much easier to just pour and spoon things onto a scale. Kitchen scales cost about 12-15 dollars in the US, don’t they? And the electronic ones can be easily changed from ounces to grams (here’s a cheat, you can measure millilitres/ml and cubic centimetres/cc as grams, no need to keep flipping the display).

Thank you - we do have a weight watchers food scale so I Will try it. It’s an excellent point about using the scale. I really appreciate the guidance.
today I made fresh pico de Gallo instead of buying it. I’ve not really compared costs but it was super fun and I hope it’ll be very delicious. I’m making turkey tacos for supper and am excited to see how it comes out!

Are you making your own tortilla “breads”? Both the wheat and the corn masa harina kinds are really simple - certainly compared to croissants or Danish pastries!

although the other moms in my book club all speak passionately about making tortillas, I still buy taco shells and tortillas at stores. And despite buying 00 flour to make pizza dough with my flour and yeast (with the Roberta’s recipe which specifies 143gm), I bought 3 more frozen doughs this morning. Maybe soon...

I am very happy with the corn cherry scones despite wanting them a bit more stiff; I should remove the extra dough from the freezer so that it’ll be ready to bake. They’re so good.

Today I tried making Kanzen Kankaku Baker’s Premium Ham (and cheese) Buns. I’m very glad I did!

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