Fresh From the Oven January Challenge – Khrushchev dough

This month has been quite a busy month in my kitchen since it was Ashleigh’s birthday and it will be Chinese New Year on the 3rd of February, so I’m planning to cook loads of food for that. And I did think about skipping this month’s Fresh from the Oven Challenge because it’s bread, it involves leaving the dough to raise overnight… it just sounds a bit scary and I was feeling lazy.

It’s called Khrushchev dough because yes, you guessed it, Khrushchev loved it! Thanks to Silvia and Ivan from Bulgaria, sharing their traditional recipe. It is so nice to know a bit about of the culture behind a recipe. Looking at the recipe, it becomes very obvious that it is no ordinary bread. It involves mixing the yeast with salt and using all COLD ingredients, which defies all basics of breading making. But encouraged by the kind words of Silvia and Ivan, more so of their delicious looking pictures… I decided to fit it in inbetween Ash’s birthday and CNY.

So this is the recipe:
* 40 gr fresh yeast (or 10 gr powdered dry yeast + 30 gr water);
* 10 gr salt;
* 250 ml cold milk(directly from the fridge);
* 150 gr unsalted butter, cut in small cubes, room temperature(NOT melted);
* 1 Tbsp sugar;
* 500 gr all purpose flour + additional for the counter;

I mixed the dry yeast and salt, then added in water. Then add in milk, butter and sugar, and sifted flour on top. I did all this in my bread pan so it goes http://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/sleeping-aids/ straight in my bread machine for the dough cycle. My dough cycle last for half and hour, but I suppose if you have a dough hook for your food processor, it’ll probably take less time.

When it forms a soft dough, take it out and put it in a bowl, it doesn’t need greasing as there are enough butter in it already. I’ve put cling film on top of the dough and then another layer of cling film over the bowl. Put it in the fridge to chill overnight. (This part is sooooo easy!)

Then in the morning, take the dough out, divide it into 2 doughs and put one back in the fridge while you work on the other one. This is to prevent it melting. So flour your worktop, roll the dough out, and don’t be too faffy as the longer you work on it the more likely it’s gonna get really soft since the butter will soften. I’ve cut out some rectangles and sprinkled cheese on, rolled it up like Silvia and Ivan suggested. But I also made some Hong Kong Cocktail Buns filling for it…

Cocktail Bun filling:

• 60g butter softened
• 30g milk powder
• 3 tablespoon caster sugar
• 20g desiccated coconut

Cream butter and sugar together, then add milk powder and coconut.

The ones with cocktail bun filling are covered in sesame seeds, and I think they look lovely!

I ran out of cheese and cocktail bun filling so I made one with raspberry jam! Ashleigh had that to himself… I think I’ll definitely be making these again and a batch with jam!

Verdict: James liked the coconut ones, Ashleigh likes the jame one and I loved all of them!!! 😀