Hot Cross Bun Spiced Pretzels

It's almost Easter and I've been admiring all the pretty egg, coconut and bunny pictures on Instagram! I don't really do too much during Easter other than follow my mum to church, but what I can't miss is eating hot cross buns! I was given this Silpat pretzel mat and since I was going to make bread anyway, I thought why not put the same stuff in pretzels?! So I've added all the nice things, like sugar, cinnamon, ginger, orange zest and cranberries into these pretzels.

Also how awesome is this mat? It totally helps a pretzel shape challenged person like me to roll out pretty pretzels!

I love the spicy and fruity flavor of the dough, and it's all shiny and sticky with melted butter and honey. You can eat these plain or they actually go pretty well with this Maille Acacia honey and Orange blossom mustard. The taste is pretty floral and fruity with a very good amount of sharpness and tang. It pairs quite well and is a nice play of sweet and salty.

I'm currently on a one-week bootcamp at med school (last week ever!), which is pretty much learning how to adult. Like buying a house, paying off loans etc... I just can't adult yet! Ah! 

Hot Cross Bun Spiced Pretzels

makes 14-16 pretzels

4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 1/4 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup dried cranberries or currants

1/4 cup baking soda
2 cups hot water
2 tbsp butter, melted
1.5 tbsp honey

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp of white sugar in the warm water until bubbly, about 10 minutes
2. In a stand mixer with the dough attachment, mix flour, brown sugar, salt and spices. Add oil, yeast and vanilla extract and mix to form a dough. Adjust flour and water if mixture is too sticky or dry. Add orange zest and currants and knead until smooth. Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in it and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours.
3. Punch dough down, cover bowl with plastic wrap and another damp cloth and let rise overnight in the fridge. This makes the dough more elastic!
4. Allow the chilled dough to come to room temperature, about an hour in a warm place. Prepare baking sheets with silpat mat or wax paper
5. In a medium bowl, dissolve baking soda in 2 cups of hot water and set aside
6. Divide dough into 15 equal pieces. Dip your fingers in the baking soda solution and rub in your hands. Roll each piece between your hands into a rope. Start in the middle and roll using medium pressure with both hands as you work out to the ends. You're done when the dough thickness is about the size of your finger (it will puff!). Grab each end and slap on your surface like a jump rope a few times. Be careful not to use too much force or the dough will tear. Twist into a pretzel shape and place on prepared sheets. Cover with plastic wrap while working on the rest of the dough
7. Once all shaped, brush baking soda water solution over the pretzels. Let rest for another 10-15 mins. You can sprinkle with raw sugar (optional). Preheat oven to 425 F, place rack above middle 
8. Bake in preheated oven in top rack until browned, about 10-12 mins
9. Brush mix of melted butter and honey together and brush over pretzel when they come out of the oven

This post was sponsored by Silpat and Maille. I'm teaming up with them via CoactionPR to create awesome recipes. I was compensated for this post, but all opinions are completely my own and not endorsed. Thank you for supporting products that keep this blog running!

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Lotus Seed and Salted egg yolk cookie sandwich

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! This is the time to light up lanterns and stuff your face with mooncakes. When I was young, my dad used to buy me all kinds of pretty lanterns that we would light up and hike up a hill to see the full moon. He also bought me ones that sang, but I bet he regretted that because I would play it all night until the song started to get out of tune and was really painful to the ears :D

My sister and I were also pyromaniacs back in the days and would line up waxy red candles on a mooncake tin lid and make a bonfire. Things were so simple back then haha. What I really miss the most is eating mooncakes though. Friends and relatives would gift traditional mooncakes and I loved opening them up to see the intricate design on top and then to cut it open to reveal the golden yolk in the center. I could eat a whole one and it would sit like a brick in my stomach all day (you should weigh one of these, they are so heavy!)

Anyway, I decided to create something mooncake-like and made some mooncake cookie sandwiches. It took me a month to make these, because I made my own salted eggs which took about a month of endless waiting (recipe below). The cookies are studded with salted yolks throughout and are so buttery and crumbly. They are sooo good on their own, that my bf kept eating them and I didn't have many left to sandwich >:( . I'm excited to eat these and watch the full moon today!

Lotus Seed and Salted Egg Yolk Cookie Sandwich
makes 15-20 cookie sandwiches

2 cups flour
4 tsps cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp dried milk powder
3/4 cup salted butter, room temp
1/3 cup white sugar
2-3 tbsps maple syrup
3 salted egg yolks, cooked* (how I made the salted eggs below)

egg wash
black and white sesame seeds (optional)
sweetened lotus seed paste

1. Place salted eggs in pot and cover with water and put on high heat. When it starts boiling, start the timer to let it boil for 4.5 minutes. Once time is up, take it off the heat and dunk in ice cold water.
2. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda and milk powder in a large bowl and set aside. Beat softened butter with sugar until light, stir in maple syrup. Stir dry mix to wet ingredients gently, until it comes together into one lump of dough. (if the dough doesn't come together, add a little bit of vegetable oil)
3. Spoon out cooked egg yolks (some white is fine), and crumble coarsely with a fork. Fold into cookie dough. Make sure you have some chunks scattered throughout, because it is absolutely divine to taste the salted yolk here and there in the buttery cookie.
4. I used mooncake molds to get the cool flower pattern on top. But if you don't have one, then roll out dough to 1/4" thick. Cut out to any shape you want. Place on lined baking trays and chill them for 30minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350F. Beat 1 egg to make the egg wash. Brush liberally on top of cookie cut outs. Sprinkle on black and white sesame seeds if desired.
6. Bake for 18-22mins or until nicely golden on top. Let it cool at least 10 minutes on the tray before moving because they are pretty fragile out of the oven.
7. You can definitely make your own lotus seed paste or buy a can of it in your local Chinese supermarket. Pipe some onto the cooled cookies and sandwich them. 

*I actually made my own salted eggs using extra-large chicken eggs, instead of the traditional duck egg. You just need a ratio of 1:4 salt to water ratio (so 1 cup salt for 4 cups of water), and place your eggs into the mix. I also placed a ziploc filled with water on the top, so the eggs wouldn't float in the salty water. I then put a lid on it and stored it in on top of my fridge for a month. The yolks when cooked came out really nicely bright orange/red and salty :D

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