Mia Bakes: Nutella / Lemon Curd Stuffed Milk Bread

As you know, I used to own a Mayer Breadmaker. Yes, USED to. It has served me decently well for almost 2 years and then decided it's time to go halfway kneading the dough for my 1st try at a chocolate babka  a while back and I've stopped baking my own bread ever since.... 

And then one fine day, I decided just to test my own endurance and see if I can manage hand-kneading my bread dough from scratch, so here it is!

The recipe is simple, just very basic milk bread with about 1 tbsp filling of your choice. I decided to make a variety of fillings with nutella, lemon curd and raisins!

So to get 8 small buns, you'll need:

250g all purpose flour + 1.5 tsp vital wheat gluten

(or 250g bread flour)

30g castor sugar

160 - 170ml milk 

1 tsp (~3g) instant yeast

1/2 tsp salt

20g soften unsalted butter

 fillings of your choice

In a large bowl, add in your flour, sugar, salt and yeast, making sure that the yeast and salt are not in direct contact with each other. Then, add in 160ml of milk and stir with a pair of chopsticks or wooden spoon until the wet and dry ingredients starts to come together to form crumbly dough bits before going in with your hands to start kneading the dough in the bowl. At this point, you may either add more milk or flour depending on the hydration level of your flour and continue kneading until the dough pulls away from the bowl, coming together into a ball and your hands are relatively clean of sticky dough bits. 

Then, take your dough ball out and flatten it onto a clean work surface. Add in the soften butter and first fold the dough over the butter for a few times before started to knead it with your hands again. This time, be prepared to really work the dough out and knead for at least 30 minutes in order to reach the windowpane stage. I kneaded my dough for 45 minutes. 

And if you have no idea what windowpane stage means, it means you have to pull off a small piece of the dough and stretch it out with your hands. It should be able to be stretched till extremely thin, losing its opacity, and should you puncture a hold in the dough, the edges of the hole should be smooth, free of jagged edges. 

Fold the edges of the dough ball down its centre to form the dough into a round ball with smooth outer surface and leave it in a clean, oiled bowl and cover with some cling wrap. Leave the dough overnight in the fridge for 1st proofing, for at least 6 to 8 hours. 

The next morning, take your dough out of the fridge and leave it standing on the counter for at least 30 to 45 minutes for it to rise back up to room temperature. Check if the 1st proofing is done by poking a finger right down the middle of the dough ball, the hole should stay as it is (with slight rebounding at most) and the dough ball shouldn't collapse. 

Then, turn the dough ball out onto a lightly floured surface and give it a few kneads to knock out all the air bubbles within. Using a bench scraper or just twisting with your bare hands, divide the dough ball into 8 equal pieces, rolling each piece into a small ball shape and setting them aside, covered with a layer of cling wrap to prevent drying. 

Then, take out a piece of the dough ball and roll it out slightly with a small rolling pin. You should roll it in a way such that it's thinner at the outer rim and slightly thicker in the centre. Then, add a dollop (about 1 tbsp or slightly less) of nutella, lemon curd or any type of filling you fancy (I will not suggest watery jam though, they will cause the buns to burst open) onto the centre and wrap it up into a ball by first folding the outer edges in and pinching the seam close. Flip the bun over, seam side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and move on to the rest of the dough balls. 

If your oven has a proofing function, set the stuffed buns to rise in your oven at about 38 to 40 degree celsius for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the buns has expanded to 1.5x the original size. You can check for completion of the 2nd proofing by coating the tip of your finger with some flour and tapping it lightly on the bun. The depression should just bounce back very slightly, and still remains visible. 

If your oven do not have a proofing function, you can either leave the buns to proof at room temperature for about 1 hour, or create your own "proofing function" in your oven by placing your buns on the top rack and a dish of hot water on the lower rack. 

When the buns are proofed, take them out from the oven and set your oven temperature to 175 degree Celsius. Once pre-heated, let your buns bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Check for doneness of the buns by tapping on the bun surface, if it sounds hollow, it's done baking. 

These buns are crusty on the outside, but super soft and fluffy on the inside! 

The only problem is that they are best eaten on day 1, for the lose the freshness very quickly. 

Or perhaps, I just need a better method of keeping them. 

And if you're also filling your bread with lemon curd, please double, triple check that your seams are well pinched. Lemon curd is quite "jam-ish" and they do explode out from the buns much easier compared to nutella. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Green Tea Wholemeal Stuffed Buns

Oh well, this is my 2nd attempt at trying to make a jam-filled bun (by stuffing it with jam BEFORE baking) and they still burst open. T.T

So I guess, you just cannot stuff your bread with jam before baking them. 

Anyway, this is 100% wholemeal, can you believe it? I've been baking bread loaves with 100% wholemeal flour for quite a while (using bread machine) and they're always significantly denser and tougher compared to refined loaves. But now, I guess I found the trick!

So let's get over with the ingredients so we can get started!

To get 6 buns, you'll need:

300g wholemeal flour

(I used Prima's superfine wholemeal)

2 tsp vital wheat gluten

2 tsp green tea powder

1.5 tsp instant yeast

30g caster sugar

15g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature

80ml cooking cream

(I guess you can use whipping cream too)

120ml milk

1/2 an egg, beaten

(keep the half and add a dash of cream/milk to make egg wash)

1/2 tsp salt

6 tsp of fillings of your choice, frozen)

(speculoos worked, jam obviously didn't. you can try nutella if you fancy too!)

adapted from Hokkaido Milk Bread recipe on ricenflour.com

Making the bread dough is easy if you have a bread machine. Just add all the ingredients (except for soften butter) in, start your kneading function and wait until the mixture forms a dough. Add in your butter, and let the dough knead until the function is completed. 

If you're doing this by hand, proceed in similar method. Add your liquid (cream, milk and egg) to your dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix until a dough ball is formed. Then, knead in your soften butter until you're left with a clean bowl (no more stray bits of dough sticking on the sides). There's no need to check for windowpane stage because you won't get it, as this is a 100% wholemeal dough. 

Then, oil your bowl and place your well kneaded dough in. Cover with cling wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight (for at least 6 to 8 hours) for 1st proofing.

The next morning, take out your dough from the fridge (it should be around twice the size) and set it on the counter for around 45 minutes to an hour for its temperature to rise up to room temperature. Then, check that proofing is completed by poking a hole right down the middle of the dough with floured finger, making sure that the hole doesn't close back up on its own.

The dough should be pretty smooth (and dry), so you probably need not require any dusting of flour on your work surface. However, if your dough feels a little sticky (differenr brands/batches of flour will have differing hydration levels), just very lightly dust your work surface with the minimal flour. 

Give the dough a few kneads and cut it into 6 equal pieces. Roll the dough pieces into round balls, and set aside (covered with cling wrap) for them to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. 

After the dough has rested, take out a piece of the dough from under the cling wrap and press it down onto your work surface to flatten it, you can use a small rolling pin to roll it out slightly, but just using my palms to press it out worked for me. Then, place a piece of your filling (frozen cookie butter, frozen nutella, or a piece of chocolate, anything!) wrap it into your dough. Pinch the seams a few times and make sure it's sealed properly. Then, placing the dough ball seam side down, cup your hand over the dough ball and give it a couple of rolling on the work surface to even out the seams and round up the dough ball. 

Place the dough aside, cover with a cling wrap to prevent drying, and continue the same with the other 5 dough balls. 

When all buns are done, place them about 2 inches apart on your parchment lined baking sheet, cover with cling wrap or a clean tea towel and set them aside at a warm place until they grows to 1.5x - 2x the original size, which should take you about 45 minutes or so. I used my oven's proofing function and so it only took me 25 minutes. 

Then, brush the top of your buns with some egg wash (the remaining half of your beaten egg with a dash of milk or cream) and send them to bake in your oven pre-heated to 190 degree Celsius for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until the bun has browned and tapping on the surface with your fingertip gives you a hollow "kok kok" sound. 

Tadaa~

Even though these are 100% wholemeal (and not those fake "wholemeal buns" recipe with only 10% wholemeal flour, like WHUTT? Who are you trying to kid?), they are as soft as, if not even softer than my 100% refined flour loaves! They just so soft and fluffy when still warm from the oven, but do get considerably harder the next day. But it might also be because I just left them sitting on the counter overnight. Heh! With proper airtight storage, they should remain soft and fluffy for some time longer, I believe!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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