Chocolate for breakfast

Chocolate for breakfast is my idea of a great way to start a Monday morning. The French certainly have this right in spades, as there chocolate gets stuffed into croissants or spread on slices of bread. How nice it would have been to grow up in Paris…

But that’s not to say that they’ve cornered the market on the perfect combination of bread and chocolate. My personal take on a wonderful Hong Kong-style recipe shows that breakfast can be both beautiful and delicious. Making a luscious loaf like this it will certainly put you in the running for Favorite Adult of the Year if you happen to serve it to kids. And if you are having adults over for brunch, this and a pot of coffee will all but guarantee serious adulation.

Next week I’m going to talk more about this inspired use of a simple roux known locally as “hot dough,” or tāngzhŏng 湯種, to make the bread especially moist and light. I’ll also talk more about making Pullman loaves—something you’ve probably never heard of if you are under a *certain* age—but which means the loaf is baked with a flat cover that turns it into the classic Wonder bread loaf shape. Squarish breads like this are usually called tusi in Chinese, which just means “toast,” since they are designed to be sliced and browned. When you have chocolate and other soft fillings meandering around in the dough, as in here, be sure to toast the slices for only a short time to prevent the fillings from making a getaway.

Klee, Child and Aunt, 1937

By the way, I think this bread looks like something one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee, would have adored.

Hot dough chocolate swirl pullman loaf

Tāngzhŏng qiăokèlì dàlĭshí tùsī  湯種巧克力大理石吐司

Hong Kong-ish

Makes 1 (9 x 4 inch | 22 x 10 cm) loaf

  

Roux:

½ cup | 120 ml cool water

3 tablespoons | 25 g Chinese flour

Dough:

1 teaspoon active yeast

6 tablespoons | 90 ml warm water

3 tablespoons | 35 g sugar

¼ cup | 30 g powdered milk

Jimmies!

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 cups | 300 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g for kneading

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

½ cup | 100 g chocolate sprinkles (aka jimmies)

Spray oil

Water for sprinkling

1. Start the roux at least 1 hour before you prepare the rest of the dough, as it will need time to cool off a bit. Add the water to a heatproof measuring cup and stir in the flour. Smash any major lumps that rise to the surface, and then microwave this liquid on high for 1 minute until you have a thick roux that is very elastic. Sample the roux, and if you can detect the taste of flour, microwave it for another 30 seconds or so. Stir the roux then let it come to room temperature before you proceed to the next step.

A fat, chocolate-filled snake

2. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Theoretically, you can make this bread by hand, but the dough ends up being so soft and sticky that it’s definitely easier to have the mixer do all the work.) Let the yeast bloom for about 20 minutes, and then add the cool roux, powdered milk, egg, flour, and salt. Mix these together and then knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and silky. Add the butter and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes or so to really build up the gluten. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm area until the dough is at least double in size, around 1 to 2 hours. Dump the puffy dough out on to a board covered with flour and knead it by hand until it is not very sticky. Cover it again and let the dough rise until it is again at least double in size.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead it for a minute or so to wake it up. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, shaped these into balls, cover with the plastic wrap, and let them rest for about 20 minutes to fully relax the dough and make it easier to shape.

4. Working on one piece at a time, roll a ball of dough out into a 30 x 6 inch | 75 x 15 cm rectangle. Dust the chocolate sprinkles down the middle of the strip. Fold each of the long edges toward the center, pinch the open edge into the roll to close it, and then roll the rope gently to smooth it out a bit. Repeat with the other ball of dough.

And the snake coiled

5. Spray your Pullman loaf pan and lid with oil. Coil the ropes into the pan so that they are more or less evenly filling the bottom, and so that the top of the dough is more or less even—you don’t have to be terribly accurate, but this step will help the loaf rise more evenly. Sprinkle the dough with water and then cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it almost reaches the top of the pan. (Remember that you must be able to slide the lid on top, so don’t let the dough overproof.)

6. Set a rack just below the middle of your oven and set it for 350°F | 175°C. When the oven is ready, sprinkle water over the dough to create steam inside the pan. Slide the lid onto the pan, set the pan in the oven, and bake for around 30 minutes. When you open the pan, the loaf should be a lovely golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it in the center. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the loaf out onto a cake rack, and let it cool before cutting it into slices.

Breakfast tortillas & eggs

Whenever we visit Taipei, I have three main food beelines on my list: the local farmers markets for fresh vegetables and fruits, the myriad night markets that begin at sundown and snake down city streets and alleys for my after-hours intake of snacks and munchies, and the breakfast stands that open up just before dawn and offer freshly-made soybean milk along with a host of generally northern style treats.

After a long night of eating and catching up with friends, a hot breakfast really hits the spot. We usually head for a place that serves soybean milk alongside things like today's breakfast flour tortillas and other goodies from China's far north, like steamed breads (mantou) and filled steamed breads (mantou). 

These were transplanted to Taiwan's shores by the soldiers who came with Chiang Kai-shek at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and these delicious foods took root -- as so many other cuisines from all over China did -- in Taiwan's fertile soil.

Chinese flour tortilla

Back in the late seventies and early eighties, one district to the south of Taipei, just over the river, called Yonghe gradually became synonymous with rich soybean milk and good breakfast fare. And, like intrepid businesspeople everywhere, the name was expanded upon as a name for breakfast spots, and very soon we had the Yonghe brand plastered up all over Taipei and then pretty much all over Taiwan. 

What I hadn't realized was that in a few years this had even traveled to Beijing. When we went there in 2001 and asked around for a good doujiang dian (soybean milk shop), we were invariably shoved in the direction of a Yonghe franchise! The food had come full circle, and had acquired a certain trendiness through its stay in Taipei. 

One dish that I seem to order without fail is this simple flour tortilla that is rolled around a scrambled egg and chopped green onions. Simple and apparently foolproof, this is how I usually start my vacation day in Taipei, along with a hot bowl of sweet soybean milk. 

Boiling water added to flour

Once in a while I might mix it up a bit with a fried cruller (youtiao) rolled up in the middle for some crunch and an extra dose of holiday extravagance, but all in all this is a pretty levelheaded way to head out into Taiwan's busy streets, on the lookout for more food and fun, two things that are never in short supply around there.

These tortillas are a snap to make, and I implore you to try them. You can, of course, use store-bought Mexican flour tortillas, and the results will be passable, but don't blame me if you are not transported by the results.

No, you really have to make them fresh. And once you master them, you will find that making a stack of tortillas and freezing them before you cook them is a great way to prepare a shortcut to many a great Chinese and, dare I say it, Mexican meal.

Smooth ball of dough

These are what you want to use as wrappers for Mu Shu Pork and things of that ilk. They are strong enough to withstand all sorts of abuse, yet their freshness assures you that they will melt in your mouth. (You can also use the thinner Spring Wraps that we looked at a few months ago.)

What makes these tortillas so perfect? Two things that we've discussed before: Korean bread flour and boiling water.

The Korean bread flour has less gluten than American bread flour, but more than our all-purpose. Plus, it is better quality than Mainland Chinese, so it's something that I continue to recommend.

Boiling water added to flour makes what the Chinese call tangmian, or hot dough. This cooks the flour and makes the resulting pastry lighter. You never end up with a powdery texture when boiling water is used; rather, it will be silky and soft. And when you shape it into the initial ball before letting it rest, the dough will feel smooth and supple in a way that the Chinese compare to an earlobe.

Divide the rested dough

Once the dough has rested for an hour or so, cut it into six equal pieces and roll them into balls. Coat the balls in oil and then roll the balls out into very thin rounds that are about 9 inches wide; the oil will make this easy. All that is left is to quickly toast them on an ungreased pan; they will bubble up on top while their undersides become a speckled brown. Flip them over for another quick go in the pan and they are done.

Turning them into breakfast is simply a matter of beating some eggs and patting a cooked tortilla on top of the eggs as they quickly cook. I like adding some chopped greenery in there -- green onions and/or cilantro are always welcome -- plus sesame oil adds another grace note of flavor.

Cheap, easy, and delicious. Hard to improve on that.

Flour tortillas 
Danbing 單餅 
Northern China

Roll out the dough

Makes 6 tortillas

2 cups Korean bread flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup (or so) boiling filtered water
Fresh peanut or vegetable oil, as needed

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a medium work bowl, and then stir in enough boiling water to form a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth. Coat the dough lightly with some oil and place it back in the (clean) bowl; cover and let it rest for an hour.

2. If you are going to freeze some or all of the tortillas, prepare a baking sheet and some parchment paper or plastic wrap. Then, place the uncooked tortillas on the paper or wrap and freeze them separately; when solid, seal them in a freezer bag. If you are going to immediately cook all or some of the tortillas, have a 9-inch smooth, seasoned, ungreased skillet on the stove; heat it on medium for about 3 minutes before you cook the tortillas. 

3. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and coat with more oil. Use a small rolling pin to roll each piece out into a 9-inch circle. As you finish each tortilla, either lay it on the paper or plastic, or cook it on the skillet.

4. Cook the unfrozen tortillas over medium heat until the tops bubble and the bottoms are covered with brown spots. Lift one edge with your fingers (or use a spatula) and flip it over. Lightly brown the other side as well. Remove to a plate and cover with a clean cloth so that it can steam and stay warm. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.

5. To cook the frozen tortillas, cover the pan to create steam and cook the tortillas more evenly, but otherwise cook the same as unfrozen; there is no need to defrost them first.


Breakfast tortillas 
Danbing 蛋餅 
Northern China

Bubbles on the top of the tortilla

Makes 6 and serves 3 to 4

1 recipe Flour Tortillas
4 large free-range eggs
1 tablespoon filtered water
4 green onions, optional
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Small handful cilantro, optional
Roasted sesame oil

1. Cook the Flour Tortillas as directed above and keep warm by covering them with a clean tea towel.

2. Lightly beat the eggs with the water. Trim the onions and/or cilantro, if you are using them, and chop them finely. Add salt and pepper to taste to the eggs.

3. Make the breakfast tortillas one at a time: Heat a tablespoon or so of the sesame oil in a 9-inch smooth, seasoned skillet over medium and roll the oil around the pan. Add a sixth of the eggs to the pan, quickly swirl the pan and add a sixth of the greens. Immediately press a tortilla on top of the eggs and press down lightly on the tortilla with the palm of your hand to squish the eggs out toward the edge of the pan, which will allow the eggs to cook evenly. Shake the pan, and as soon as the eggs are lightly brown, flip the breakfast tortilla over. Lightly cook the other side for a few seconds to ensure that the center of the eggs is cooked, and then remove to a plate. Keep the breakfast tortilla warm while you prepare the rest of the breakfast tortillas.

Let the eggs squish out the edges

4. Roll each breakfast tortilla up and cut crosswise into six pieces. Serve hot.


Tips

You can serve these as is, or eliminate the salt and pepper and serve with either a sweet chili sauce or thick sweetened soy (jiangyougao) or ground roasted Sichuan pepper and salt.

Instead of soybean milk, these also are terrific with a bowl of millet porridge or congee.

Shanghainese fried icicle radish pastries

Shanghai's pastries and street foods are downright incredible. Rarely seen this side of the Pacific, they are marvels of balance: sweet with savory, crispy with juicy, hot with cold, spice with blandness.

One of the most delectable of these is a thin wrapper filled with shredded icicle radish (luobo, which has a similar, more commonly seen cousin sometimes known by its Japanese name, daikon). This vegetable is crisp, delicious, and only subtly spicy if fresh, the heat amplified by mostly age and the number of days it has been out of the ground.

So, selecting a good icicle radish is the first priority here. And now is the perfect time to buy them, as they are at their peak during the beginning of winter when cold weather makes its first appearance. Icicle radishes should be firm all over with no discoloration or wrinkling. Hold one in your hand and run your fingers all over it; the tiny rootlets should be wiry and springy, telling you that this radish is very much alive. Look at the leaves; although some of the outer leaves may be yellow or even removed, the center leaves ought to have a good green color and sprightliness.

A fresh icicle radish

Use a potato peeler to remove the skin of a radish, and trim off both the top and bottom of the root. If it is an older radish, it will have a fibrous layer under the skin. Be sure and peel off all of this white netting. The radish is now ready for cooking. 

This pastry uses a technique called "hot dough," where boiling water is mixed into the flour, thus cooking it. Hot dough (tangmian) is what you make for steamed dumplings (zhengjiao), braised filled breads (jianbao), and fried pastries such as this; if only cold water is used, the wrappers will be pasty and powdery. 

There is a secret to frying pastries, one that no one ever mentions for some strange reason: you must cover the pan as the pastries fry in order to create steam. It is the steam that cooks both the sides of the pastries and the filling, and it will allow you to end up with perfectly fried icicle radish pastries. Keep this tip in mind whenever you fry any type of Chinese pastry, as it is something that I discovered through trial and error and a virulent dislike for uncooked dough.

One thing that I've done here that is slightly unusual is adding butter to the filling. You can, of course, omit this if you wish. But the butter makes the icicle radish filling so much richer and delicious that I urge you to try it. As the great Julia Child once said, "Fat gives things flavor"!

A batch of these pastries can be made ahead of time and frozen, but they are never as good as fresh, since the radish filling will get slightly soggy. So, if you can, make this when friends are coming over. It will make your reputation as a great cook with Shanghai smarts!

Shanghainese fried icicle radish pastries 
Lúobosī jiānbǐng  蘿蔔絲煎餅 
Shanghai

Makes eight 3½-inch pastries

Wrappers:

2 cups Korean or Chinese flour (or 1½ cups all-purpose plus ½ cup pastry flour)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
⅔ cup boiling water

¼ cup cool water

Make flakes of dough

Filling:

1 icicle radish (about 1½ pounds)
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
3 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped Chinese ham, prociutto, fresh black mushrooms, or dried shrimp
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 or more teaspoons freshly-ground black pepper
2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional

Extra flour for shaping the pastries
Peanut or vegetable oil for frying

Grate the radish into long strips

1. Place the flour and salt in a large work bowl. Use chopsticks or a wooden spoon to mix the boiling water into the flour until it forms large flakes. Stir in the cook water to form a soft dough and turn it out onto a flat surface. Use a pastry knife at the beginning to work the dough and keep it from sticking to the board, as you do not want to add any more flour at this point. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is silky and no longer sticky. When you roll it up into a ball, it should feel like a soft baby’s bottom. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let the dough rest for about 30 to 40 minutes. It is ready when you can pinch a piece and it keeps its shape. 

2. While the dough is resting, make the filling. Peel the radish, removing any hard white fibers under the skin, and trim off both the top and bottom, as well as any imperfect places. Grate the radish into long strips (not too finely, as it will turn to mush) and place it in a colander set in the sink; you should have just under 4 cups. Use your hands to squeeze out the juice from the radish shreds.

Pleat the wrapper

3. Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat until it starts to shimmer, and then add both the green onions and ham. Quickly stir-fry them to release their fragrance and then add the radish shreds. Stir-fry these together over high heat, season them with the salt and as much black pepper as you like. If you see liquid gathering at the bottom of the wok, scoot the radish shreds up the sides of the wok so that the liquid can be rapidly reduce. Toss and cook the radish shreds until they are barely done; that is, still crispy but with no raw radish taste. Remove the filling to a large plate so that it can cool down to room temperature. Divide the filling into 8 pieces.

4. To form the wrappers, lightly flour a flat surface, turn out the dough onto the flour, roll it gently into an 8-inch long log, and use your pastry scraper to cut it into even 1-inch pieces. Roll the pieces lightly in flour to form balls and while you form each piece, cover the rest with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.

5. Flatten a ball with your palm and then lightly roll it out into a circle about 6½ inches in diameter, dusting the dough and rolling pin as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. When you roll out the dough, use light, gentle movements, as this will allow you to control the shape of the dough and keep the gluten from becoming too active.

Fry-steam the pastries

6. If you are using the butter (optional but very delicious), put about 1½ teaspoons in the center of the circle, and then place an eighth of the filling on top. Bring up an edge of the dough over the filling, and then enclose the filling by pleating the dough around the center as shown in the photo above. Close the dough well so that it does not leak while you fry it later on. Turn the pastry over, shape the edges with your palms so that it forms a perfect circle, and place the finished pastry on a clean tea towel; cover it with another clean towel to keep it soft and supple. Repeat with the rest of the pastries.

7. Heat a film of oil (about 2 tablespoons) in a frying pan over medium heat until the edges of the pan are hot and a sprinkle of flour in the hot oil immediately froths; if it burns or browns, lower the heat. Add 2 of the pastries (or as many of the pastries as will fit comfortably without touching) to the pan; the pastries will puff up as they cook, so leave plenty of room between them. Immediately cover the pan closely; this will allow the pastries to steam while they fry and ensure that the dough cooks evenly. Shake the pan gently now and then to keep them from sticking to the pan. After about 3 to 5 minutes (depending upon the size of your pan and the heat of the stove), check the pastries. Turn them over if the bottoms are a nut brown. Cover the pan again and cook them until the other side is brown, as well. Serve while very hot.