Anpan

April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 | San

Anpan // Mono+Co

Pillowy soft dough with sweet red bean paste filling. Anpan used to be a must-buy for me before the varieties of buns increased along with the number of bakeries islandwide. Bought this packet of red bean paste from Daiso and used my favorite dough recipe with mashed taro to bake 6 buns in a rectangular pan.

Anpan // Mono+Co

Anpan

290g plain flour
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
150g steamed taro
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 egg
50g water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
20g cold butter, cubed
35g x 6 red bead paste **
white sesame seeds

** I use ready-made Azuki red bean paste from Daiso.

In a mixer bowl, place plain flour, instant yeast, mashed and cooled steamed taro, raw honey, beaten egg and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the water with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the water stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15-30 minutes.

After resting the dough, sprinkle the sea salt on the dough. Start the mixer running on its lowest speed again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter, one by one. Knead until the dough reaches window pane stage, this is when the dough becomes very smooth and elastic, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from mixer, cover and bulk rise for 1 hour.

After an hour, the dough will rise and increase its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flour hands and worktop with flour to help with shaping if the dough is sticky. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Flatten a piece of dough on the work top and place 1 x 35g red bean paste in the middle. Wrap the azuki bean paste inside the dough and shape it into a ball. Place it in a greased tin or pan, seam side facing downwards. Repeat for the remaining 5 pieces of dough. Let them sit in a draft-free place to rise for another 50 minutes.

Just before baking, sprinkle some white sesame seeds on top of each bun. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 23 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely before serving.

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Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns V.2 海蒂白面包

February 3, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns V.2 // Mono + Co

OK, so these buns are still not as white as I thought they should be after tweaking the oven setting to bake at 150C, which is the lowest temperature that my oven can go. But at least it took a shorter time to heat up compared to these baked yesterday which required a preheated oven at 190C. That’s some electrical charges saved.

Another great improvement is the shaping part, the bun finally looks like 2 buns fused in the middle with that signature groove of a Haiji bun. I used my rolling pin to make a deep and much wider dent on each dough ball. I had to dust the top of the dough with flour to prevent the pin from sticking. That’s 2 more tips I have picked up.

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns

200g unbleached plain flour
20g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
100g mashed taro
2 tablespoons raw honey
 85g fresh milk
30g cold butter, cubed
optional : rice flour for dusting

In a mixer bowl, place the dry ingredients: white flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, and sea salt, mix these dry ingredients well with a hand whisk. Next, add cooled mashed taro, raw honey, and half of the fresh milk to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the remaining of the fresh milk with the mixer running, you may need more or less of the milk stated in the recipe. Watch the dough, when the ingredients come into a ball, stop adding milk and turn off the mixer. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Start the mixer running on its lowest speed again to knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter, one by one. Knead until the dough reaches window pane stage, this is when the dough becomes very smooth and elastic, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from mixer, cover with tea towel, and bulk rise for 1 hour.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough. Divide dough into 9 equal portions, I weigh out each dough at about 55g each. Shape each portion into a ball and place it on a greased tray, seam side facing downwards. Using a rolling pin, make a straight deep dent in the middle of the bun, without cutting the bun into halves. Dust flour on the top the dough ball to make it less sticky for the rolling pin to be removed.

Let the buns sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. Optional: I topped my bread dough with rice flour before baking for decorative purpose.

Bake the buns in a preheated oven at 150C and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely serving.

Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the buns soft and the crumbs from drying out.

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Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns 海蒂白面包

February 2, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns // Mono + Co

{Update: after some changes to the oven temperature, these buns have turned ultra soft.}

It’s amazing how baking these buns using almost similar honey milk rolls recipe at 20C lower turned them even softer, though not as white as I wanted them to be. I preheated the oven at 190C, then baked at 150C for 15 minutes. Some bakers bake these in preheated oven at 150C, not 190C, and produced beautiful white buns. I am going to use this oven setting for my next bake.

In fact going by how soft these have turned out, I am going to be baking all my bun recipes at 150C from now on.

Once again, I dust the buns with rice flour before sending them into the oven for baking, totally optional.

Ultra Soft Haiji White Buns // Mono + Co

Ultra Soft Haiji Buns

190g unbleached plain flour
30g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
100g mashed taro
2 tablespoons raw honey
 80g fresh milk
25g cold butter, cubed
optional : rice flour for dusting

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. My dough was still sticky, so I sprinkle plain flour on the work top and dough to make shaping more manageable. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough. Divide dough into 9 equal portions, I weigh out each dough at about 55g each. Shape each portion into a ball and place it in a greased tray, seam side facing downwards. Using a chopstick (I used this for this bake) or rolling pin (I am going to use this for next bake, as I noticed that the fine line between the dough disappear after the final proof) and make a straight line dent in the middle of the bun, dent should bedeep enough without cutting the bun into half.

Let the buns sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. I topped my bread dough with rice flour before baking, purely for decorative purpose, totally optional.

Preheated oven at 190C, place the buns in and set the oven at 150C and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely serving.

Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the buns soft and the crumbs from drying out.

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Soft Taro Milk Honey Rolls

February 1, 2017February 23, 2017 | San

Soft Taro Milk Honey Rolls // Mono + Co

{Update: after some changes to the oven temperature, these buns have turned ultra soft.}

After an entire week of not baking bread, I bought my taro from the market today to make these fluffy soft buns.

These sweet buns with fresh milk and raw honey are good enough to be eaten on their own. Warm them up slightly in a toaster before serving. These already fluffy buns will turn even softer.

I have decided to bake this recipe into Haiji white rolls tomorrow with the remaining taro.

Soft Taro Milk Honey Rolls

200g unbleached plain flour
20g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
100g mashed taro
2 tablespoon raw honey
 80g fresh milk
35g cold butter, cubed

In a mixer bowl, place the dry ingredients: white flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, and sea salt, mix these dry ingredients well with a hand whisk. Next, add cooled mashed taro, raw honey, and half of the fresh milk to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1). Slowly add the remaining of the fresh milk, with the mixer running, until the ingredients come into a ball. Stop the mixer and let the dough stand aside for 15 minutes.

Start the mixer running on its lowest speed again, and knead the dough for 1 minute, before adding cubed butter, one by one. Knead until the dough reaches window pane stage, this is when the dough becomes very smooth and elastic, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from mixer, cover with tea towel, and bulk rise for 1 hour.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough. Divide dough into 10 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball and place it in a greased tray, seam side facing downwards. Let this sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. I topped my bread dough with rice flour before baking, purely for decorative purpose, totally optional.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely serving.

Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the buns soft and the crumbs from drying out.

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A Dough for 1 Wholemeal Taro Loaf + 4 Buns

December 30, 2016February 23, 2017 | San

Wholemeal Taro Loaf // Mono + Co

Yes! Another taro loaf recipe. But I added 100 gram more flour to have some excess dough for 4 buns, 50g of dough for each bun to be exact. I also filled the buns with cream cheese, with this soft sweet bun recipe, any filling will go with it, just add your favorite.

Wholemeal Taro Loaf // Mono + Co

I can make three loaves of bread with half a taro bought from the market. Even after adding an egg, and a generous slab of butter, the bread appears white, not yellowish. This is what I like about adding taro to Asian style bread recipes.

If you like to bake a loaf for next day’s breakfast and extra four buns for afternoon tea, here’s the recipe:

1 loaf + 4 buns recipe

250g bread flour
50g wholemeal flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
100g steamed taro, mashed
1 egg, 70g with shell
30g water
35g cold butter, cubed

In a mixer bowl, mix well the dry ingredients: bread flour, wholemeal flour, yeast, sea salt, and raw sugar with a hand whisk. Add cooled mashed taro, egg, and water to the dry ingredients, and knead with a dough hook attachment on the lowest speed (KA 1) until the ingredients come into a ball. Let the dough stand for 15 minutes, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel if it’s windy in your kitchen.

After an hour, the dough should rise to double its volume, punch it down to release the gas, and transfer to a clean work top. Flatten the dough to push out gas trapped inside the dough, either by hand or a rolling pin. Shape the dough and place it in a greased bread tin, seam side facing downwards. Let this sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes.

Take out 4 x 50g of dough, and shape them into balls on a baking tray.

Shape the remaining dough into a loaf and place it in a greased bread tin, seam side facing downwards. Let this sit in a draft free place to rise for another 50-60 minutes. I divided the remaining dough into 3 equal parts and shape them swiss rolls style.

Let bun dough proof for 45 minutes, bake for 25min at 170C.

For Pullman loaf, proof for 50-60 minutes, bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan immediately after baking, and let it cool on a rack completely before slicing or serving.

Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately, to keep the loaf soft and the crumbs from drying out.

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Anpan

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