NZL Travelogue: Whakarewarewa Maori Village, Huka Falls, Craters of the Moon & All Seasons Kiwi Holiday Park

Day 7 of our trip started off with a pretty chill start as we're booked for a guided tour at Whakarewarewa Maori Village at 9am and it wasn't a very long drive away from the hidden "overnight-parking" spot by Lake Rotorua, where we battled millions of sandflies last night. But oh well, looking at this amazing scenery filled with seagulls and swans, I guess the horror of last night was still worth it?

Surrounded by seagulls, geese and swans! 

There's a black mama swan with her cute and fluffy cygnet too! 

And did you know the cygnets ride on the back of the mother swans? 

So after a quick, simple breakfast, we set off for Whakarewarewa Maori Village to make sure that we will reach the place by 845am for proper checking in (we learnt our extremely pricey lesson at Waitomo Cave) for our 9am guided tour.

In case you didn't know, the Whakarewarewa Maori Village is a REAL community of Maori people living around a geothermal area, and your guide probably also stays in the village itself. But for us, our friendly and engaging guide, although does own a house in the village, has moved out to the more urban areas instead. Our guide also mentioned that the 9am tour is always the smallest group, hence feeling more personal and private. True enough, the BF and I were the only participants of the guided tour.

The village tour will begin just beyond the Wahiao meeting house, at the intersection of Hinganoa Drive and Huarere Street, and will only take you 45 minutes to 1 hour, after which you can easily wander around the village on your own, with a few other self-guided walking trail for you to check out.

One good thing about staying in a geothermal village means you can cook your food without needing to use electricity or any man-made fire source.

This is one of their in-ground steam boxes (it's communal and they have two!), which the village residents use to steam-cook their meals. And yes, these two box of food really do belong to one (or two) of the residents. 

 Another good thing about staying in a geothermal village means you have your hot water bath right outside your house.

This is their "public" bathhouse, but it was still under construction during our visit. According to our guide, one of her neighbours (or ex-neighbour, since she has moved out) refuses to install a electrical water heater in the house all these years and resort to taking the hot water from one of the hot spring source manually using a pail to make their own hot water bath. 

Why pay when you have a free source right at your doorstep, right? 

Staying here means you can get extremely cool #ootd shots all day err day with the IG-worthy misty background. HAHA! 

Was hoping that we could get to see one of the geysers "erupting", but nope. We're not that lucky. 

And here's some free walking trails you can follow after completing the 45 minutes guided tour. 

Whakanuia Track
This short 15-20 minute stroll traverses through Manuka scrub, past boiling mud pools and steaming bores. Our newly renovated boardwalk crosses over the colourful Te Roto A Tamaheke (Lake of Tamaheke), whose hot spring-filled waters honour a chief who lived in the area long ago.

Whakanuia Track Church Loop
Extend your walk by following Huarere Street before turning onto the Whakanuia Track and you will be rewarded by a look out point over Te Roto A Tamaheke.
Return to the trail and continue on to loop back around and view a large mud pool and the Whakarewarewa Anglican Church. From there, this scenic loop rejoins the original Whakanuia trail and carries on along toward the lake boardwalk.

Hot Lakes Scenic Track
For a longer journey and exceptional views, our extended scenic track past Roto Kanapanapa (Green Lake). Infused with a mixture of geothermal minerals, this lake is green in colour and has a warm temperature. This pool was formerly used by the Tohunga (priest) in ceremonial funeral processes. Continue to along the track past several hill top lookout points for views of Rotorua city, steaming lakes and two Pa (fortified village) sites of the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao people.

But unfortunately, it was raining during our visit and very cold (and windy), so we didn't explore the place much on our own, instead we went to the souvenir shop and picked out some gifts for our friend back home and then went next door to the cafe for some hot coffee and warm date scone to pass the time with some much needed warmth while waiting for the cultural performance at 11:15am.

But before that we ran into a cat and decided to follow it...

And ended up intruding on their lunch! HAHA!

But they were all so adorable, lined up side by side and eating together!

Anyway, sorry for sidetracking, let's get back to what's planned on the itinerary.

Due to poor weather, the performance was relocated indoor, at their mini-theatre, and the BF and I managed to snag the "VIP seats" right in front. HAHA! If you do appreciate traditional dances and singing, then this performance show will be right up your alley. I truly enjoyed the dances and singing of the performers, and one of the ladies has such a beautiful, captivating voice.

After the performance, we left the theatre and headed straight for the cafe for our Hangi Pie meal! The meal was actually pretty good & hearty, though I can't say the same for the dessert (it tasted so bizarre I didn't even want to snap a photo of it). I have NO idea what was that supposed to be, but I decided it's not worth the calories just after 1 tiny bite and got nearly drowned in sweeten condensed milk. Nevertheless, just judging on the Hangi pie (& corn on cobs) alone, this meal was still worth topping up for.

Whakarewarewa Maori Village is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 8:30am - 5:00pm.
For more information on guided tour booking, visit their website HERE

After leaving the Maori Village, it was a quick 15 minutes drive over to the Whakarewarewa Redwood Forest (which we didn't manage to visit for the nightwalk last night due to poor weather).

But before that we somehow missed a turn and ended up at a random.... lake? 

The scenery here isn't all that stunning, but at least I've learnt something, that catfishes here are considered more like a pest. Probably because they create dirty and murky waters. 

Anyway, back to the Redwood Treewalk.

There's quite a handful of free walking trails (on the ground level) that ranges from as short as 30 minutes (short walks) to as long as 8 hours (tramping route), and a trip up to the lookout will give you views of Rotorua. Other than walking trails, there's also trails for mountain biking and even horse-riding! But since I've planned for the nightlights walk last night, the BF suggest to just go for the treewalk instead of checking out the free walking trails.

The Redwood Treewalk (daytime) and Redwood Nightlights (night time) is an award winning attraction at 700m longs, consisting of a series of 28 suspension bridges, which traverse between 27 majestic 117-year-old Redwood trees. This treewalk sits at 20m above the ground, at the peak of the forest and the walkway has been specially designed and constructed to preserve the trees, plants and the surround natural environment by using a uniquely constructed New Zealand-first technologically designed sling, which is suspended from the Redwood trees.

The Whakarewarewa Redwood Forest is open daily, with main gates for vehicles access open at 5:30am till late. However, if you're planning to visit for the free walking/biking trails, do visit in the daytime. For more information, visit their website HERE. 

The Redwood Treewalk is open daily from 9am - 1030pm (last entry at 10pm) and the Nightlights are turned on at dusk. For more information and tickets booking, visit their website HERE

After the treewalk, we bid Rotorua goodbye and hit the road again to Huka Falls at Taupo, which is roughly 1.5 hours' drive away. But before getting to Huka Falls, we decided to do a small re-route and went to Huka Honey Hives first, as we're worried that we might not make it in time before they closes at 5pm. According to some travel websites, Huka Honey Hives is actually reachable on foot from Huka Falls with only a 23 minutes walk, whereby you can get to the Huka Falls Lookout and a cafe enroute, but our drive over from the carpark of Huka Falls is alarmingly long for the distance to be comfortably manageable on foot, so I'll leave this (to walk or not to walk) to your discretion.

At Huka Honey Hives, expect to be offered free tasting of honeys and mead (honey wine), along with some other food products like lemon curd and fruit spreads, wine jellies, cookies, chocolates and etc. There's also a selection of skincare products and a gelato ice-cream bar located at a corner of the store.

YUMMY!

It was also mentioned in various travel websites that visitors can get to see their bees at work in glass hives, but we saw no bees, nor any glass hives anywhere during our visit but there's a signboard put up just outside the store for it, so I guess you can only get to see the bees if you book their tour for it, which is priced at NZD $25 per person.
Not sure if I would want to be paying $25 to see bees though. 

Huka Honey Hives is open daily, 9am (summer) or 10am (winter) - 5pm. 
For more information, visit their website HERE

After having a milk-honey gelato cone added to our tummies and our bag full of meads, lemon curds and wine jellies, we headed off to Huka Falls to "walk off the gelato calories".

But the "falls" ended up being rather anti-climatic.
I'm not saying that The Huka Falls looks bad, but after reading that The Huka Falls are a set of waterfalls on the Waikato River that drains Lake Taupo (which is almost the size of Singapore before we did land reclamation) , I was expecting it to look something like...

THIS

-credits to www.rd.com-

But it ended up looking like....

THIS

Which, resembles more of a set of rapids to me.

Do not get me wrong here, I'm not saying that The Huka Falls is not worth a visit, but do manage your own expectations before visiting. The surprisingly "vertically-challenged" waterfall aside, the speed and volume at which the water is falling flowing down, complemented by the surrounding lush greenery still makes a rather scenic and picturesque view for one to enjoy.

Can you spot me? >.<

And of course, not forgetting to do another advertisement-worthy shot of my favourite drink while in NZ. 

And that's the river cruise boat at the far end of the waterfalls....

If you wish to spend a little more time around here, do consider taking up a 1 hour and 20 minutes long river cruise, that's supposedly an excellent cruise for photography that operates all year round and in all weather.

-credits to mustdonewzealand.co.nz-

For more information for The Huka Falls, visit their website HERE

Seeing that we still have some time left, we decided to drop by Craters of the Moon, a park that is supposedly bubbling with volcanic activity, mud pools and steaming craters, and is accessible from The Huka Falls walking trail with around an hour's walking time from the base.
But, we decided to take a 6 minutes' drive over instead.

The park is MASSIVE, and consist of two walking tracks, a 45 minutes loop (stated on paper only) Main Track and a 20 minutes Top Track that takes you to the upper lookout for a better view of the park.

As mentioned, the walking time of 45 minutesfor the main track is probably a very optimistic estimation for someone walking quickly throughout the park without doing any pit-stops along the way at all. We took 1 hour to clear just the main track, starting the 1st half at a leisure pace and taking photographs here and there, and then rushing through the 2nd half of the park by brisk-walking all the way to make it out of the park in time. And we didn't even have any time left to go anywhere near the Top Track, and looking at the gradient of the slope leading up to the upper lookout for this track, a 20 minutes walk is probably only for a pretty fit individual. So while the stated last entry is at 5pm, I suggest that you do not attempt to make a rushed visit at 5pm because you won't get to fully experience the entire park.

Craters of the Moon is open daily from 830am - 600pm (time when main gate closes, which is a 5 minutes' drive from the actual park entrance)
For ticketing and more information, visit their website HERE

And here's the amazing view at one of our random pit-stop area after making our way out of the park before they closes the gate on us, while on our way to our last destination of the day, All Seasons Kiwi Holiday Park.

But before that and while in Taupo, we ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO STOP BY THIS PLACE.

This is a McDonald's restaurant, people. HOW COOL IS THAT?! 

We didn't step inside to check out the interior though, not that keen on having more McDonald's after having them consecutively for 2 days upon touching down in NZ. 

At All Seasons Kiwi Holiday Park, you can get an overnight stay at their powered sites for only NZD $44 - $50 per 2 pax, and I like that they grow bush hedges to separate out the CV parking slots so that we can get more privacy. Fresh water tap is also located together with the main power hook up point at each parking slot so you need not queue in line to top up your fresh water tank.
There's also an outdoor pool, labelled as thermal, that's pretty tiny and doesn't really seem that inviting. I mean, the park was pretty crowded but there's absolutely NOBODY near the pool.
Other than powered sites, the holiday park also provides tons of other accomodation types ranging from the basic tent site, to caravan site, cabins, cottages and motels.

Their bathroom is spacious and clean, with decently hot water at good water pressure for a nice shower. And I exceptionally enjoyed their big and very well equipped kitchen.
In fact, their kitchen looked so inviting that we decided to cook our dinner there and also ate at their communal dining area.

And so, some cream of chicken, french toasts, fish fingers, chicken franks, and a pot of cheesy mashed potatoes (the BF cooked some steak too).... dinner is served!

Day 8 recount is now up!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Nestum Date Bars

With that last bit of Nestum cereal leftover in my cupboard, I started looking for new baking recipes to use up that final bit of the yummy cereal and so, Nestum Date Bars it shall be!
So let's get over with the ingredients to get started!

To get 16 servings:

150g deglet noor dates (pitted and chopped)

120ml water 

160g wholemeal flour

70g Nestum Multigrain Cereal

100g unsalted butter, soften

50g plain greek yogurt

100g soft brown sugar

(I used a mixture of brown sugar with baking stevia)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg
recipe adapted from nestum.com.my

First up, to prepare the date filling, pop the chopped dates and 120ml of water into a pot and cook over low fire, stirring consistently so that the bottom do not burn, until all the water has evaporated and you're left with a mushy, sticky date jam.
Set aside for the jam to cool down completely.

In a large bowl, whisk the soften butter together with brown sugar until the mixture turns fluffy and creamy before whisking in the greek yogurt, egg and vanilla extract until the mixture is well combined. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature so that your butter-sugar mixture will not seize up into lumps.
Then, add in all your dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
You will be left with a little sticky, malleable dough.

Then, line your 8 x 8 inch pan with some cling wrap before plopping half of the dough in. Using either your wet (to prevent sticking) hands or a spatula, spread it out into a uniform layer and wrap it up with the cling wrap before popping the entire sheet of dough into the fridge for it to firm up.
Then, spray down the pan with some cooking spray and line it with some parchment paper, making sure that you've sufficient overhang for easy removal of the baked date bars, before pressing in the remaining half of the dough to form the base.
By now, if the date jam is still too hot to handle, pop the entire pan into the fridge and wait for the date jam to cool down further.
Once the jam has cool, spread it over the dough base before topping the date jam layer with the other sheet of dough pastry that was left to chill in the cling wrap previously. By now it should be pretty firm and easy to work with.
Then, using a fork, prick holes all over the top pastry dough before baking it in an oven that's pre-heated to 170 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, or until the surface turns into a beautiful golden brown.

Remove the pan from the oven and lift the date bars out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang. Set it on a wire rack for it to cool down until it's just slightly warm to touch before cutting it into 16 squares/slices. Do note that if you try to cut it up when it's still too hot, the pastry will just crumble off, so do allow sufficient time for proper cooling.

Then, popped the cut bars back into the oven to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius until the bars crisp up.

Buttery, crisp pastry biscuits with a layer of sweet and gooey date jam sandwiched in the middle. YUMS!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Shepherd's Pie Delivery: shepherdspie.sg [Sponsored]

shepherdspie.sg journey started back in 2011 when they're looking to find some good old Shepherd's Pies for a Christmas Party. Back then, Shepherd's pies weren't that popular; and being unable to find anybody to bake the pies for them, they decided to do some recipes researching and bake their own! 

And over the years, they've since refined and perfected their recipe to what they believe to be the tastiest and freshest Shepherd's Pies in Singapore. 

shepherdspie.sg offers 3 different sizes of their Shepherd's Pies in two different meat flavours, beef or chicken. And since my household do not take beef for religious reason, we got to try out their delicious chicken shepherd's pies for my Sunday cheatday!

Medium Chicken Shepherd's Pie (left) 

9 x 5 inch loaf pan, good for 2 - 4 pax

Mini Chicken Shepherd's Pie (right) 

Cupcake size, single serving

Massive Chicken Shepherd's Pie (not in picture)

9 x 9 inch square pan, good for at least 4 pax

Did you know that traditionally, Shepherd's pies are to be made with ground lamb while their cousin, Cottage pies are made with minced beef. But I'm pretty sure these two terms are commonly used interchangeably by everyone now, with, perhaps, the exception of Gordon Ramsay. 

I mean, what about pies using neither lamb or beef, but pork? Piglet pies? Pigsty pies? 

And how about those with chicken? 

Anyway, be it Chicken Shepherd's Pie or Chicken Cottage Pie, it doesn't matter. What matters is that they're delicious!

The minced chicken filling at the bottom is well seasoned with a flavour that rather similar to a sweet and slightly savoury Japanese curry, along with diced vegetables like carrots, peas and corn. The filling is neither too moist nor too dry, and the minced chicken is cooked just well enough to retain a nice bite to it while not being overly dry and tough. 

The yummy minced chicken filling is then covered with a thick layer of smooth and creamy mashed potatoes and then baked until the top surface turns golden brown. 

With the sweet & savoury chicken filling and the smooth & creamy mashed potatoes, this Shepherd's pie will definitely be thoroughly enjoyed by both children and adults alike. 

All the pies at shepherdspie.sg are baked fresh with ingredients prepared freshly, hence a minimum one-day advance order (cut off by 5pm) is required, and delivery will be made at 3 different time slots to your preference.
And do be rest assured that the pie(s) will be delivered PIPING HOT!
For more information and ordering, do visit their website HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Bing Liang Bakery Mooncakes [Sponsored]

Earlier this year, I was very lucky to be able to sample a truckload of yummy CNY goodies from Bing Liang Bakery, courtesy of cnygoodies.sg (now known as bingliang.com.sg).

And now that the Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner, I'm elated to find out that Bing Liang Bakery has their own line of delicious traditional baked-skin mooncakes too!

And each 4 piece-set of their mooncakes are packed in this PINK (and jade green) two-tiered drawer box that is oh-so-pretty! <3

With current pricing ranging from as low as $32 to $50 for a set of four, Bing Liang Bakery manages to bring to us good quality and delicious mooncakes that's well-packaged for gifting at an extremely competitive pricing. 

The current 6 flavours available are:

Durian (Mao Shan Wang) - $46 / 4pcs

Green Tea - $42 / 4 pcs

Pure Lotus (Plain/Single Yolk/Double Yolk) - $40 - 46 / 4pcs

White Lotus (Plain/Single Yolk/Double Yolk) - $42 - $50 / 4 pcs

(Low Sugar Option Available)

Red Bean - $32 / 4 pcs

Pandan (Plain/Single Yolk)- $40 - 42 / 4 pcs

Out of all the fancy flavours, I really have to give a special mention to the low sugar white lotus seed paste series (plain, single or double yolk) as a loyal team #eatclean member.
Well, I know a truly healthy mooncake is probably never going exist, and having a low sugar alternative is probably the best you can get. What's more, it's a healthier option that does not compromise in its taste factor.
The lotus seed paste is not overly, cloyingly sweet (because low sugar, DUH!). The texture of the paste is also very smooth and easy to eat, while the baked skin is neither too thick nor thin and gives a lovely oven-baked fragrance to cut into the sweetness of the lotus seed paste.
And as you can see in the cut-section above, it also comes packed with a generous amount of pumpkin seeds to give a nice crunchy bite to the soft paste.
YUMS!

And for those who NEED to taste-test your mooncakes before you can buy them, Bing Liang Bakery does provide free tasting session at their HQ located at 39A Jalan Pemimpin, daily from 2pm - 7pm!
Bing Liang Bakery also provides SAME DAY DELIVERY for their mooncake purchases and offers free delivery for purchases above SGD $88!
However, if you are not in a hurry to receive your mooncakes, simply opt for next day delivery and use code "YUMMY" at checkout to enjoy a 10% discount off your purchase!

For more information, visit Bing Liang Bakery website HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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GreenE Pain Relief Tape [Sponsored]

So one fine day, you realised that your usual barbell weights is starting to feel somewhat, lighter; so you (very confidently) added on that two more plates.

And here's the brand new you walking confidently into the brand new day the very next morning.

"Shouldn't have added those weights yesterday, but too late..."

Does this situation rings a bell? Well, that has happened to me all the time. Not because I'll never learn, but pushing our body to the limit is how we grow stronger, right?
The only issue is that all those muscle ache relief gel are always so oily/sticky and the patches always comes in fixed and rigid rectangular pieces that almost never seem to fit well on our sore spots. And let's not even get to their strong, distinctive medicinal-minty smell that's simply announcing to everyone within a 10-metre radius around you that you're experiencing severe muscle aches right now.
So much for trying so desperately to walk normally.

Now, I'm absolutely excited to know that Samplestore has brought in my life-saviour product from GreenE!

Using patent technology, the GreenE Pain Relief Tape (otherwise also known as Soft Acupuncture Patch) is a medicine-free (hence no pesky medicinal-minty smell, yay!), 4-way stretching medical-level tape that can be worn for up to 36 hours. It can be stretched up to a whopping 192~230%, which is 3 times ahead its competitors in the market.

Made of F-IR generating fibre, which is drawn from energy ball implanted nanoscale Ge/Ti/π solution, which generates the purified far-infrared. 93% of F-IR emission occurs at wavelength of 2-22 um, which helps cell-resonance thermal effect and liquidity effect by de-bonding water micelle and boosting blood circulation for pain relief, which is proven in clinical test reports that the tape increases blood flow speed at near 22%, which benefits the removal of lactic acid and hematic acid in our body.  

On top of its muscle & joints pain relief benefits, GreenE Pain Relief Tape also helps with easing muscle fatigue during exercises. A bicycling electromyography test on the tape has revealed less muscular-strength regression, muscle stretching and torque, which indicates less fatigue and better injury prevention during exercise.

Tell you what, this tape is officially my new Spinning buddy. 
140 rpm, let's go!

Last but not least, the GreenE Pain Relief Tape has an internationally certified Invention Patent registration in the US, China and Taiwan, with medical device certificates issued by the FDA and CE, ISO13485 and GMP certifications, et. cetera.



It's aptly named as an acupuncture tape because just a small patch directly over your soreness point will do the trick, as the Bio-FIR/Bio-Energetics emitting is able to reach 6 cm under the skin, including blood capillary system as well as lymphatic system.
Due to its super elasticity of 190 - 230% stretch by using 10% expensive Lycra and special knitting, having the tape directly over our joints (elbow, knee, ankle etc) will also not hinder our movement at all, hence we can still continue with our usual workouts without any limitation.

Usage of the tape can't be any simpler:

- Make sure to clean your skin and trim away body hair on the area of application

- Cut tape to the desired length and paste on affected area

- Best to apply 30 minutes before activity

- Water resistant & last up to 36 hours

- For removal, simply remove tape from skin gently

- Take note not to apply on wounded skin

Check out Sample Store's page HERE to redeem a free sample of the GreenE Pain Relief Tape and purchase the product. 

This September, Sample Store is once again bringing to us many new and interesting products from Taiwan! The last Best of Taiwan campaign in 2018 was well received and this time round there are many more exciting products other than this GreenE Pain Relief Tape for you to try out!
Subscribe to Sample Store's eDM to keep yourself notified on their weekly launches!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: No-Knead Wholemeal Ovolmatine Stuffed Buns

Hey lovely readers, I'm back with yet another wholemeal bread recipe, this time it's no-knead!
However, it's not going to be 100% wholemeal though, but only around 70% as I still have a couple tablespoons of all purpose flour leftover and wanted to finish them up ASAP.
Anyway, let's get over with the ingredients to get started!



To get 4 stuffed buns, you'll need:

Bread dough:

50g minus 1 tsp all purpose flour

100g superfine wholemeal flour

20g granulated sugar
(may reduce to 10g if you prefer your bread less sweet)
1 tsp vital wheal gluten
(may skip and replace back with flour, but bread may turn out more dense)
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast

1/8 tsp (or a pinch of) salt

10ml corn oil / vegetable oil

1 egg 

(mine was about 50g out of the shell)

50 - 70ml lukewarm water
(depending on hydration level of your flours and egg size)

Fillings:

Ovolmatine spread

chocolate chips
(I used 60% cacao)

recipe adapted from the super talented Chinese youtube-baker 茄子美食
She used bread flour and a lot more oil (both in the bread dough, during shaping before 2nd proofing, and after 2nd proofing before baking) so hers turned out a lot softer and fluffier on the inside and crisp-looking on the outside. 

First up, in a clean bowl add in 50g of all purpose flour and remove 1 tsp of it, replacing it with a tsp of vital wheat gluten. Then add in the rest of your dry ingredients, making sure that your yeast and salt are not in direct contact with each other.
Then, crack in your egg and and first add in 50ml of lukewarm (make sure it's not too hot if not it'll kill your yeast) water over the spot where you've pour in your yeast and mix well by stirring with a pair of chopsticks (highly recommend using chopsticks because the dough will be super, super sticky).
Continue adding water and stirring until you get a pastey, sticky yet smooth dough like so.

-credits to 茄子美食-

Then, add in the oil and give the dough another quick stir with the chopsticks until the oil gets fully absorbed by the wet dough. Then oil your hand slightly and pat down the wet dough roughly into a ball (MUST oil your hands because the dough sticks like a b*tch!) and cover with a clingwrap and leave it for 1st proofing overnight in the fridge until it roughly doubles (or at least 1.5x) in size. I left mine for about 11 hours in the fridge plus an additional 1.25 hours at room temperature after taking it out.

After the dough has risen back to room temperature, oil your work surface and hands generously, as the dough will still be extremely sticky, and dump your dough onto the oiled surface. Pat down on the dough to release the air pockets (no need to knead, as it's not exactly kneadable anyway) before shaping it into a log and cutting it into 4 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball and set the rest aside under a piece of clingwrap while you work on the 1st dough ball.

The dough will be extremely soft and rather stretchy (and sticks to anything not oily enough) so there's no need to roll it out with a rolling pin. Instead you can just use your hands to pat it down and stretch it out into (roughly) a oval-ish rectangular shape. Then, add around 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of ovolmatine spread on the end of the dough nearer to you, or you can also spread it out in dollops all over the dough, before sprinkling a handful of chocolate chips all over the dough, careful to avoid the last inch of the dough piece that's further away from you as you need that seam area to close up the buns.

Then, starting from the end of the dough that's nearer to you, roll up the dough into a small log and press it tightly at the seams to close it up before folding it in half again and pressing the two (opened) end of the log together to seal the seams tightly. Then, shape it slightly into ball or squarish/rectangular bun, however you fancy, and set it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Repeat for the other 3 dough balls and you can play around with other fillings too!

I've also tried one with grated parmesan and shredded mozzarella and red cheddar, which unfortunately kind of split open during baking because the dough was stretched rather thin. 

Some of the chocolate/ovolmatine oozed out from the "weakest link" too. 

So if your choice of fillings are the dry type such as sultanans, pumpkin seeds, red beans and etc (I've also made a sultana with pumpkin seeds one that turned out super round and pretty), you can really stretch your dough out as thin as possible, because even if there are micro-tears in the dough your filling won't be oozing out. 

However, if you're filling your buns with chocolate chips, cheeses or any kind of spreads that get melted and viscous during baking, be sure to make sure that there's no hole on the surface of your dough, or you will just have to make do with a less perfect looking stuffed bun. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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