Sweet Milk Buns 牛奶甜餐包

A lightly sweetened, milk-rich soft buns baked in low temperature to keep it light in color. 

Yield : 9 buns in 18cm square pan

Ingredients 

150g whole milk 全脂牛奶 
20g condensed milk 炼乳
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast 即发干酵母

225g bread flour 高筋面粉
25g top/cake flour 低筋面粉
40g fine sugar 细糖
25g beaten egg 蛋液
1/4 tsp salt 盐

30g unsalted butter 无盐奶油

Some flour for sprinkling on bread top

些许面粉撒做表面装饰

Direction

For using bread maker, please refer to the steps at the end of this recipe ^^

1. If you are using cold milk, keep warm the fresh milk, and condensed milk in a rice cooker for 10 minutes.

Or, you can let them stand in room temperature for about 25 minutes.

The temperature should not exceed 38 degree Celsius in order not to affect the yeast.

2. When the milk mixture temperature has reached between 28 to 38 degree Celsius, sprinkle dry yeast over the surface without stirring it. Cover with a lid and let it stands for about 15 minutes to activate the yeast.

3. Pour all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, except the butter. Mix well.

4. Pour in the yeast-milk mixture from (2), and beaten egg. Stir in one direction to mix the ingredients into a lump which pulls away from the wall.

5. Cover the dough with a lid and let the dough rest for 15 to 20 minutes. This allows the flour to absorb the liquid which would make kneading easier later.

6. Wear a pair of CPE gloves to handle the sticky dough. Start kneading the dough by slamming, pulling and folding, for about 10 minutes, or till the dough become smooth and elastic.

The stickiness would reduce after about 1 to 2 minutes into kneading.

Slam and pull;

fold;

turn 90 degree and grab the other end;

repeat the process.

till you get a smooth texture.

7. Spread out the dough and apply softened butter to the dough. 

8. After incorporating the butter to the dough, grab one end of the dough and slam it against the work top. Fold in, grab the adjacent end and repeat the process.  Knead well for another 10 to 15 minutes till the dough can be stretched into a membrane.

9. Pull down the side of the dough and tuck in at the bottom. Store the dough in a clean mixing bowl lightly oiled. Spray some water and cover with a lid. Allow the dough to proof for about 1 hour, or till it doubles in size.

10. While waiting for the dough to proof, apply a thin coat of butter and line a 18cm square tin with parchment paper. The parchment paper serves to help to lift the bread out of the tin after baking.

11. After the dough has double in size, sprinkle some flour over, and transfer it to the work top. Press down to release the trapped air.

12. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions. You 

13. Roll up the individual doughs and shape into balls by pulling down the side of the dough, and seal at the bottom.

14. Coat the dough ball with some flour and roll it within your hand into a round ball. Place into the lined baking tin.

15. Spray some water and let the dough proof in a closed oven for about 40 minutes, or when the dough almost reached the brim.

16. Remove the dough from the oven. Start to preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

17. Use a sieve to sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough.

18. When the dough is in the oven, lower the temperature to 160 degree and bake for 10 minutes; further reduce the temperature to 150 degree Celsius and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or till the top slightly brown.

19. Transfer the bread out of the oven and lift out from the tin onto a cooling rack Immediately.

Give the bun a deep slit and spread butter to enjoy :)

23 Jan 2017 bake 
I scribbled a few auspicious chinese characters <福> to the crusts of the buns just to add some lunar new year mood to the buns. However, these characters were like rainbow - they gradually diminished after a few hours out of the oven :(

In case you are interested to know how I did it, I just share the simple steps here.
i) sprinkle bread flour over the buns just before baking.
ii) use a metal chopstick to scribble the Chinese character, and at the same time, "sweep away" the flour lying on the path of the Chinese characters.
iii) dip the tip of the chopstick to a little golden syrup or honey, slowly "paint" out the chinese characters using the syrup.
iv) bake as above instructed ;)

For using Mayer bread maker MMBM12

There are slight differences in the sequence of the ingredients being added as compared to hand-kneading.

Ingredients 
150g cold whole milk 冷全脂牛奶 
20g cold condensed milk 冷炼乳
40g fine sugar 细糖
25g beaten egg 蛋液
1/4 tsp salt 盐

225g bread flour 高筋面粉
25g top/cake flour 低筋面粉

3/4 tsp instant dry yeast 即发干酵母

30g cold unsalted butter 冷无盐奶油

Some flour for sprinkling on bread top

些许面粉撒做表面装饰

Direction

1. Add ingredients, starting from cold whole milk to instant dry yeast, into the bread pan first.

2. Select "C-11 Ferment Dough" function, and start the program.

The program, which consists of mixing, kneading and 1st proofing, will take 1 hour 30 minutes to complete.

3. When the bread maker countdown timer reads "1:20", dispense cold unsalted butter into the pan.

4. When the program ends, let the dough sits in the bread maker for another 30 minutes.

At the end of the "Ferment Dough" program.

At the end of the additional 30-minute rest.

Follow the shaping steps starting from Step 10.