[ENG] Japanese Curry Bread - Kare Pan カレーパン Madness Part 3 [end] : All the details

The effect of temperature...?

Before i finally tried making my 1st ever bread, i got a little bit "paranoid" that i might fail. miserably. even though it's fine to fail when it's your first time doing something. 

So i read lots of article online about baking bread, and found out that the temperature of the dough & the place that you rise them will affect the end product. If it's too hot, the dough may not rise correctly, or you may "overproof" it. And the weather is quite hot in here, because i'm living in a tropical country. and since i don't have air conditioner in my kitchen,the easiest way is to control the water temperature.

Some articles worth reading:
Weekend Bakery - Baking Tips: Dough Mixing
Weekend Bakery - Tips on Dough Temperature
Wildyeastblog - Why Worry About Water

The site even provide this water temperature calculator that can be downloaded. So i tried calculate it,  rough estimating the temperature in my kitchen without a thermometer.

okay, so that's about 12 degree celcius for the water. But how do i measure it? i don't have cooking thermometer & i'm just lazy to buy one, so what i did was just very roughly estimate the temperature  by combining some ice & water lol.

i assumed that the ice temperature was 0 degree, but now that i think again, i think i was wrong

so, did the temperature really affect the dough? i don't know ^^ i have to try make it once again without changing the temperature & compare the result.

How to store the dough

So, this recipe made 12 buns, which of course i me & my family can't eat them all within the day. So, i wrapped half of them up with plastic wrap & put them in the fridge before the 2nd rise. I also placed a baking paper underneath just to be sure it won't be sticking to the pan (i don't know if it really necessary though ^^).

The next day....

I took the buns out, unwrapped & let them sit for about 2 hour or until rise to 1 1/2 of its size. I covered them with tisu paper. After 2 hours, four buns on the right didn't rise quite well, so i let them rise for another 1 hour, and fried the other two first. 

The amount of oil for frying...?

Yes, i understand. We don't want to waste half a litre of oil just for frying. But it's important here to use lots of oil, so the bread is not touching the bottom of the pan. I did use not enough oil for the first day frying and here was the result...

the middle part was a little bit too brown & the breads them selves were a little flat.

The next day i used  more oil & smaller pan...

side view

the breads were more puffed & cooked evenly. 


The recipe...
This is the original recipe from Foodwishes 

1 package (2 1/2 tsp) dry active yeast (I used Fleischmann's “RapidRise” Yeast)

1 cup very warm water

1 large egg

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 pound all-purpose flour (about 3 1/2 cups)

Foodwishes used dry active yeast in the recipe, but since i couldn't find it here, so i subtituted it with instant yeast. From what i read online, they're a little bit different, and i need to reduce the amount by 20% if i use instant yeast rather than dry active yeast which the recipe called for. So for this recipe i used 2 tsp instant yeast to subtitute 2 1/2 tsp dry active yeast.

The bread it self was pretty salty for this kare pan, since the filling it self was salty enough. So, next time i probably gonna reduce the amount to 1 tsp and add a little bit more sugar to balance the filling.

So, the final recipe probably be like this:
438 g all purpose flour
1 cup/250 ml water
2 tsp instant yeast 
1 egg
42 g butter  --> melted in the microwave
4-5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
a little bit vegetable oil/olive oil
2 eggs & panko bread crumb for coating
oil for frying


Tips for rookie...

1. Make the curry right!  yes, this is the most important thing of all the process. You don't want to waste hours making the bread if the curry isn't good, the final product won't be good. add more spices than you think it needs coz when it's been fried, the spices will lose half or more of their taste.

2. Make the filling the day before. It takes quite a while to make the curry (yes maybe even longer than the bread) and if you do both things at the same time (like i did), you'll be super busy, and you just can't relax. I actually made this with my sister, and even that still feel quite hectic.

3. When you coat the bread with egg & bread crumb, it's easier to brush (w/ pastry brush or hand) the egg to the bread rather than dip whole the bread to the beaten egg. Then, you can dip into the bread crumb.

4. When frying the bread, It's easier to place the bread on a baking paper,so you just have to hold the end of the baking paper and slide the bread carefully to the frier. The bread is pretty soft that if you lift it with your hand, it will leave a "finger" mark on it. Use lots of oil so the bread isn't touching the bottom of the pan.

you can see my "finger" mark lol

5. Don't overfill the bread, about 1 tbsp of the filling is enough. 

curry overload *_*

6. Relax & Enjoy!! :DD


Reference:
Weekend Bakery - Baking Tips: Dough Mixing
Weekend Bakery - Tips on Dough Temperature
Wildyeastblog - Why Worry About Water
The Fresh Loaf - Yeast FAQ
Foodwishes - Homemade Burger Buns