Rice Cooker Cream Cheese Corn Bun 电饭锅乳酪馅玉米面包

The air quality here has been fluctuating since the haze from our neighboring country started to set in. The high PSI pollutant index forced us to shut our windows and doors tight almost 24 hours on the bad days. 

I love to bake bread but was hindered by the amount of heat generated by the oven which will cause a rise in the indoor temperature. So I turned to rice cooker to bake my bread. Although the bread baked by a rice cooker, tends to have pale and crinkled top crust, it produces a soft and moist bread crumb as minimum moisture was lose during the baking process in the rice cooker.

I love sweet corn bread but the colour intensity of the corn was not strong enough to produce a nice yellow bread. So..., a small amount of pumpkin was being introduced. To bring out the dairy flavour of the bread, cream cheese with some steamed corns were added to the dough. 

This is a yummy soft bread with nice combination of cream cheese and sweet corn :)

Yield: 8 mini buns in a 21cm diameter rice cooker pot

Appliances: 

A powerful blender 强力搅拌器

Whirlpool BM1000 breadmaker 面包机

Philips Avance rice cooker 电饭锅

(10 rice cups volume)

Bread weight: 572g

Raw dough weight: 431 g

Cream Cheese Filling 奶酪馅

100g cream cheese, 奶油乳酪

40g steamed corn kernels 熟玉米粒

20g condensed milk 炼乳

Direction

1. Cut steamed corn kernels into fine bits.

2. Cream the softened cream cheese, and add in condensed milk and sweet corn bits.

3. After the ingredients have well combined, cover with a lid and store in the fridge till needed.

Bread dough

Ingredients

75g cold whole milk 冷全脂牛奶

40g steamed corn kernels 蒸玉米粒

20g steamed pumpkin 熟南瓜

5cm pandan leaf (optional) 香兰叶，可免

15g condensed milk 炼乳

20g cold unsalted butter 冷无盐奶油

35g fine sugar 细糖

20g beaten egg 蛋液

1/4 tsp salt 盐

200g bread flour 高筋面粉

1/2 tsp instant dry yeast 即发酵母粉

Directions:

1. Line the inner pot of the rice cooker with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. Steamed corn kernels and pumpkin chunks at high heat for 12 to 15 minutes.

You may want to add a pandan leaf to the corn and pumpkin while steaming to give them a sweet scent.

3. Wait for the corn and pumpkin to cool to room temperature. Blend 40g of corn kernels, 20g of pumpkin and pandan leaf with 75g of cold milk in a food processor till creamy.

4. Pour corn milk mixture from (3) and condensed milk into the bread pan.

5. Add in beaten egg.

6. Add in sugar, salt and cold butter.

7. Pour in bread flour.

8. Dig a hole and pour in the instant dry yeast.

9. Place the bread pan into the bread machine.

10. Select "8" Dough Kneading function; and press "Start".

11. When the program stops, let the dough continue to sit in the pan for another 15 minutes.

The dough is ready.

12. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Flatten it with your palm to release the trapped air.

13. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, about 53~54g each.

14. Roll up the small dough, pull down the sides several times to stretch out the dough surface, and seal at the bottom. Lightly coat with some flour and place on a plate, cover with a lid, and rest for 15 minutes.

15. After the rest, roll out the dough.

Spoon about 18g of cream cheese paste onto the centre of the dough, wrap it up and seal tightly.

Wrap your palm around the dough and let it roll within your palm, to shape it. Coat the dough with a thin layer of flour.

16. Place the dough into the lined rice cooker pot. Close the lid and turn on the "keep warm" mode for 30 seconds. Only need to raise the pot temperature slightly. Let the doughs proof for about 30 minutes.

Keep warm for 30 seconds.

17. After the final proofing is done, close the lid and turn on the "Cake" function. Although the cake function will take 45 minutes to complete, you can stop the process at around 30 minutes after the baking starts.

To check whether the bread is cooked, just lightly depress the top crust, if the crust returns to its original form, then the bread is cooked. Otherwise, you need to continue the baking.

After stopping the "cake" baking program, let the bread stays in the warm rice cooker for 15 minutes.

The bread is ready :)

18. Lift out the hot buns and cool down on a wire rack.

The base of the bread was just nicely browned :)

19. Enjoy ^^

Oven baked

You can bake this bread in an oven set at 170 degree Celsius for about 18 to 20 minutes at lower rack :)

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One of the ways to deal with leftover excess corns is to blend them into milkshake :P

Just add low-fat milk and condensed milk to the corns. Blend for about 15 seconds - enjoy the healthier shake with lots of dietary fibre :)