Since the pandemic began two years ago (yes, it feels like it only began yesterday!), some people have spent their time at home learning or baking a fresh loaf of bread and other pastries, filling their kitchens with delicious aromas.
One of the popular favourites is sourdough bread. The golden-brown hard and crusty topped loaf with soft and chewy inside turns everyone into an obsessed sourdough lover. Besides, all you need to make it are simple ingredients like flour, water and salt.
If you are planning to jump on the baking bandwagon and are in need of creative and simple recipes to start your journey, look no further. We have found six talented and amazing home bakers right here in Malaysia, who have been baking their own homemade breads, especially the great sourdough.
They have been sharing recipes through Instagram posts and we recommend you to follow them, right away. Here they are, based on the number of followers:
1. @autumn.kitchen
Chuah Chiew See, 47, is a former engineer and part-time baker and author of the cookbook Autumn Baking. She is an inspiring individual, and probably one of the more famous sourdough bakers in Malaysia, as she has appeared in many magazines, digital and print media.
An inspiration to many Malaysians to pick up bread-making, Chuah will get you ‘hooked’ on making sourdough because she handcrafts aesthetically-beautiful and healthy bakes. She experiments and explores every aspect of making bread: from the recipe, flavours, ingredients, shapes, scoring pattern and methods.
“I love creating natural (especially sourdough) bakes with a new style, design and flavour. It makes my bakes livelier, more appealing and attractive,” said Chuah.
From simple bread and sourdough to something you have never discovered before, Chuah will have a recipe for it! She has even come up with the ‘best discard recipe’. When comes to bread, it seems like there is nothing that she can’t do. The creative baker can bake just about anything on the planet and more!
Chuah describes her baking style as: “Creative and innovative.”
“[I like] making every day bakes slightly different and appetising, especially for my children,” added Chuah. She is motivated to make fresh and healthy bakes for her family, and to “ensure wholesome nutrition with no additives and preservatives.”
She has 144,000 followers on Instagram and it’s easy to see why, with her minimalist photos and easy-to-do videos of her creations that tempt you to make them yourself! She has a huge list of recipes and if you are a bread lover, she is a ‘must-follow’ on Instagram.
2. @bakewithpaws
Self-taught baker Oh Yean Ley, 52, was once a personal assistant at an international hotel chain. Today she is the author of Low Sugar Cakes and Bakes, and has a mission to create a healthier bread with less fat and less sugar, and prefers to use as many natural ingredients as possible.
“Making healthier bakes with low sugar using local ingredients to create innovative flavours and textures, catering to the Malaysian taste palate,” said Oh.
She shares over 200 recipes and bread-making tips on sourdough, yeast-based bread, cakes, cookies and pastries. Her favourites are sourdough shokupan (Japanese soft white bread), sourdough focaccia or olive, sundried tomato sourdough loaf and sourdough bagels.
The Instagrammer, who was motivated to become a baker as she wanted to bake healthy bread and cakes for the family, currently has 46,900 followers and she has ventured into baking vegan-friendly and dairy-free bread.
3. @sharonkuan
Describing herself as a “sourdough addict”, Sharon Kuan Choi Fun, 56, who is based in a small town in Tawau, Sabah, first started baking five years ago. Now, she is happy to bake healthy bread for her community. She bakes a variety of sourdoughs such as sourdough demi baguettes, sourdough cinnamon rolls and many others.
“I saw my first sourdough when I was holidaying in Vancouver, Canada and I was motivated to do my first sourdough through the help from so many sourdough bakers on Instagram,” said Kuan, who recreates or experiment making bread that she ate, during her oversea trips.
“I am so addicted to sourdough that I am taking small orders to satisfy my craving, and I love to make artisan sourdough bread, sourdough panettone and sourdough croissants. I am happy that I am able to bake healthy bread for the community here,” said the former personal assistant in a listed company.
What makes her baking style different from other bakers is that she uses 100% sourdough products (or ingredients) while most bakers use commercial yeast.
Aside from sourdough, she also explores making macaron, french butter croissants, panettone, doughnuts, bagels, madeleines and many more.
She also shares recipes for her all-time favourites – candied orange peel and black sesame sourdough, sourdough cinnamon rolls – with her 45,000 followers on her Instagram.
4. @thebakeanista
Michelle Ng, 32, does not just bake fluffy bread, she also cooks mouthwatering dishes.
Ng, a full-time home baker declared that she has a “soft spot for soft bread”. The bread she bakes would make you want to grab one, immediately.
“Most of my bakes incorporate higher hydration, which may be more time consuming and complex but the result is well worth the extra effort,“ revealed Ng.
The bakeanista (a portmanteau of baker and fashionista) comes up with several creative ideas for bread, for instance, transforming ordinary bread into checkered matcha milk bread or tiger-striped orange and chocolate bread, and the soft and sweet orange cranberry loaf inspired by Christmas panettone. Yummy!
Apart from sharing recipes for pillowy-soft yoghurt buns, soft pumpkin buns, Tangzhong Ube milk bread, gluten-free sour cream blueberry muffins, Ng also shares recipes for cakes like the Matcha Basque Burnt Cheesecake and delicious Asian dishes buttermilk chicken and others.
“I was living abroad for many years, and there were some childhood favourites that I couldn’t get my hands on overseas which pushed me to make my own,“ said Ng, who was working at a Korean language school in Seoul before she returned to Malaysia for good.
“I bake with my family in mind. So, I use only the best ingredients and cut down on the calories whenever I can. Essentially baking with love, to feed the tummies of those I love,” added Ng.
Her posts perfectly show off her creations beautifully and it’s no wonder that she now has about 19,300 followers on Instagram.
And soon, her followers will be able to taste her fresh bakes, as she revealed that she is in the midst of setting up her own cafe. (We can’t wait!)
5. @poiwanc_baking
A former quality and reliability engineer turned home baker, Chong Poi Wan, 44, bakes a range of gorgeous sourdough bread; sourdough country loaf, sourdough choc brownies, sourdough yudane soft wholemeal loaf, pumpkin sourdough and many more.
Chong shares bread her creative recipe and a step-by-step guide to 12,000 followers on how to make bread, using Thermomix.
“Baked with passion and love, in my home kitchen (though not for commercial purposes), I inject my strength in the subtlety of flavour and aesthetic appearances, which makes my sourdough loaves the healthy choice for my family,” said Chong, who also takes good quality close-up photos of her bakes.
One of her stunning breafs is the Blackpink Sourdough Shokupan Accordion Loaf, which looks like an accordion with eye-catching beautiful swirls made with Valrhona cocoa powder and purple Sweet potato, producing amazing chocolate and red layers. She also makes the Accordion Loaf with a light blue colour using Butterfly Blue Pea flowers.
Chong, who managed to attract 10,000 followers within five months, has great scoring skills and has created gorgeous clean blooms on her country loaves and accordion breads.
Chong described her baking as full of “adventures, classic or rustic-inspired with a twist, playing with natural ingredients to layer the flavour and colours.”
Another bread to try is her Pumpkin Sourdough Loaf, which is shaped like a cute pumpkin!
6. @pastries_by_sandy
Home baker Sandy Lai, 46, has been a bread lover since she was young and her favourites are European breads.
Her speciality is that she can bake a variety of artisan bread cakes, cupcakes, pastries like Pain au Chocolat, baguet Maison, panettone, pizza and many more.
“I am a quiet worker and I prefer working the backstage, so baking is definitely is something that suits me well. I don’t follow trends or take shortcuts, so my bakers are the authentic ones but I am also not one that doesn’t catch up with time. Sometimes, I inject some fun elements, whenever I like,” she said.
If you are looking to try different types of pastries, bread or sourdough, then Lai has the answer. She posts photos, videos and reels on how to shape bread and recently reached a milestone of 10,000 followers on Instagram.
“I try to inject my own creativity whenever possible,” said Sandy, who creates niche, bespoke, authentic bakes and describes herself as not a trend follower. Among her creative bakes is watermelon bread, which looks just like a cut piece of real fruit.
“One day, I got tired with low-quality supermarket bread, and decided to take matters into my own hands,” said Lai, who uses high-quality ingredients for homemade pastries, including using quality food grade colouring for cupcake frosting.
Lai also conducts private online sourdough classes, where she takes you behind the recipes of all the pastries and sourdough breads, including teaching people how to do ‘shaping’ and ‘scoring’ on bread using bread lame.
Check out her beautifully crafted pieces of bread like the Four Leaf Clover Loaf.
