Last 21 March, my sister-in-law SI in Calgary posted a photo of their afternoon merienda (snack) in Facebook. They were having hot chocolate and freshly baked ensaymada. Impressive yet not surprising as SI comes up with such delectable baked goodies and desserts.
(Ensaymada is a Filipino-style brioche available in most bakeries. The dough is shaped in a spiral form and the final product is usually topped with butter, sugar and cheese.)
I still owed RD an ensaymada from July 2019. We had bought some ensaymada from the nearby Goldilock's and RD was planning to bring his to have as a snack while waiting for our plane back to Sydney. We were already on the way to the airport when we realized that we had forgotten to pack his ensaymada. I promised I would try to make some ensaymada for him to make up for it.
When I saw the FB post the other week, I figured it was as good a time as any to try making soft and fluffy ensaymada. I sent a message to SI and asked her for her recipe. She promptly replied and I discovered the secret to fluffy ensaymada -- mashed potatoes!
Fortunately, MacGyver had gotten a big bag of potatoes the other day so I had that ingredient covered. However, the recipe also called for seven egg yolks. Seven egg yolks meant seven eggs. Seven eggs was equivalent to two breakfast. Given the situation, I could not in good conscience use seven eggs to make dessert if we only had a dozen eggs at home. This ensaymada had to wait.
On Thursday, we decided to use up some of the potatoes MacGyver had purchased and had mashed potatoes with our chicken. I asked MyGirl to choose one potato that would comply with the needed 75 grams of boiled potatoes for my ensaymada experiment and set it aside. On Friday, I was fortunate enough to be able to get a big tray of 30 eggs. I had to get eggs or else I could not make the ensaymada. I still had some flour in the pantry and yeast in the freezer. We don't usually have evaporated milk but I figured either regular milk or powdered milk would do. I felt we were getting close to getting the ensaymada on the table. I figured the only other things I needed would be sugar, salt, water, time, patience and determination.
I certainly had the determination. I was not sure if I had the patience. Thank goodness for the weekend, because prior to Saturday I didn't have the time to make ensaymada. (I had been working from home the whole week because we were now on split operations. Half the team works from home on week 1, the other half works from home on week 2. Who knew WFH was so tiring? I found myself working longer hours this week. In fact, RD was our chef for most of the week because I was working through dinner and beyond.)
Anyway, come Saturday, I see a message from SI asking if I was able to make the ensaymada yet. (Pressure!) I replied that I hadn't but her message strengthened my resolve to make a batch pronto.
In her email she indicated that I was free to ask her questions. Well as soon as I started, I took her up on her offer and pinged her several questions. As I was going along, I had to ask her what time it was in Canada because I had a feeling this would not be "as easy as pie." She said it was 6:15 PM Friday. That translated to 11:15 AM Saturday in Sydney.
By noon, I was in the mixing part but the dough looked like mush. I sent her a photo and she said it looked fine. I had NEVER worked with dough this sticky EVER! (Maybe that is why my previous ensaymada experiments have never come up as soft and fluffy as the store-bought ones.)
I kept asking her more questions throughout the day. Will the dough be easy to handled after the first rise? What was the best place to knead the dough? But more importantly, what time would she be sleeping? (It was almost 8PM there by this time.) When she said she'd be sleeping at midnight, I told her she was the best Help Desk ever!
As with other breads, the recipe required two sets of rising times. One in the bowl after mixing all the ingredients and a second one in the baking molds after the dough had been formed. It was almost 4PM when I managed to get the all the dough formed. We were getting closer to the end but these still needed to rise.
At 4:50 PM, SI sent me a message that she was signing off. She had reached her end of day and it was almost midnight in Calgary.
So close and yet so far ... my dough had risen but I still needed to pre-heat the oven and start baking.
I kept sending SI updates even if I knew she was already asleep. I took pictures to send to her as soon as they came out of the oven. It was after 6PM by this time.
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