Playing with Dough

Ever since I got my bread machine/maker, I had been using it to either bake a loaf of bread, or to help me knead a dough. I have to agree that breads made by the bread maker are usually not that soft and fluffy. They are more inclined towards 'western' bread where it is denser and coarser, that goes very well with soups or as toast. Heh that's not a problem for me as I'm open to try ALL kinds of bread! Unfortunately not so for my parents.. :(

Investing in baking equipment / machines is always well worth my money cos' i fully utilise it! Haha. I made these ham buns on a sunday and was well received by those who tried it. The bread maker helped me in kneading of the dough. I adopted Happy Homebaker's method of kneading it for 30 minutes, and the dough was well kneaded, soft and elastic. :)

This sweet bun recipe was from a chinese cookbook I had. Somehow this recipe was very sticky to the hands even though it had already pulled away from the sides of the bowl. I had to flour my hands and work surface generously.

The shaping method was adopted from Cafe of the East - Hotdog buns. It is a rather straight forward method and I believe picture speaks a thousand words. ;)

Here's the sweet bun recipe (By the way, this recipe was initially for polo buns, but I used it for my ham buns instead).

Ingredients:

300 g bread flour

24 g milk powder

3 g bread improver (may be omitted)

150 g water

3 g instant yeast

20 g caster sugar

3 g salt

30 g egg + extra for egg wash

30 g butter

Handful of spring onions, chopped

1 tsp canola/olive oil

dash of pepper

10 slices of picnic ham (square shape)

Method:

1. Sift flour, milk powder and bread improver (if adding).
2. Combine sifted ingredients with the rest of the ingredients (except butter) and mix to form a dough (Do not allow salt to come into direct contact with the yeast).
3. Add in softened butter and continue mixing with your dough hook (knead if you do not have a stand mixer) until the dough becomes smooth, shiny, elastic and pass the windowpane test.
4. Place dough in a bowl, let it proof for about 60 minutes, or until double in size.
5. Punch out the gas, and divide the dough into 10 equal potions, each about 60 g. Let it rest for 20 minutes.
6. Roll each dough into a square the size of the picnic ham.
7. Place the ham on the dough, and roll it (swiss roll style).
8. Cut the rolled dough with ham wrapped inside into 5 equal portions (do not cut through entirely).
9. Twist and turn the dough to form a shape of a flower (it looks prettier with the ham facing upwards).
10. Let shaped dough proof for another 50 minutes or until double in size.
11. Mixed chopped spring onions with oil and pepper.
12. Brush pproofed dough with beaten egg, sprinkle spring onions on top.
13. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes.

Note: I used my bread maker to help me with the kneading. I added the ingredients according to the sequence: water, egg, milk powder, sugar, salt, flour, yeast. After 10 minutes of kneading, then i added in the butter.

Recipe Source: 面包，吐司，饼干 by 杜丽娟，李湘庭

The bread was quite soft and fluffy. But my friend said that it tasted more saltish instead of sweet than the usual buns sold outside. Probably I need to reduce the amount of salt in future!

I had fun with the shaping of dough and it's really satisfying to have homemade ham buns for my mum. I'm definitely gonna try out more bread varieties! :D